Thursday, September 20
Well…here goes nothing! I am now an official United States
Peace Corps Volunteer! It’s been a long and crazy process, but I made it. Now
it’s finally time to do what I came to do. I move to my village tomorrow!
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Saturday, September 22
I’m here! I arrived to a pretty quite homestead last
evening. My host mom is away in town, and Lauren (the volunteer I’m replacing)
is running a marathon this weekend. So there’s not very much going on at the
moment. Which is a nice change from the past couple of weeks. The new school
cleaner, Maxima, has been keeping me company, along with her 1-month old son.
He’s adorable! Pictures coming soon!
I also got to talk to some of my wonderful family today!
It’s crazy how moving 6 hours north made them feel further away. In actuality I
think I moved closer to home…but communication is a bit more difficult from the
bush. We’ll get through it though. :)
While I was on the phone with my mom a baby goat came onto
my homestead and got lost… he was very unhappy to be separated from his mother,
who was stuck on the other side of the fence (she wasn’t too happy about it
either). I helped him out the front door and received a disgruntled bleat for
my efforts. Oh goats…
I also christened my cooking hut with some chili and
cornbread! It turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. And I have plenty
of leftovers for the rest of the week!
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Monday, September 24
It’s been a hot, hot day. I was laying in my bed this
afternoon trying to take a nap, just sweating. Ick. It was definitely one of
those “I’m really in Africa” moments.
But, then people got back and it made my day 100 times
better! My host mom came back from town this morning. I also got to meet my
host grandmother and great aunt this afternoon. The two of them are just
precious! They don’t speak English, so it was a chance to truly put my Ruk
skills to the test. They said I was doing well, which was quite encouraging.
So, I now have two more reasons to strive for fluency. :)
I also got adventurous this afternoon and decided to try
carrying water on my head… It was quite an event. I went to the well with my
host mother and observed. Then I was like: “Okay, I got this.” Turns out, I
didn’t. The lid wasn’t all the way on my container so I basically just splashed
a lot of water in my face. But…like I said – it was a super hot day! So I just
pretended I did that on purpose and tightened the lid. Take two…water up – all
good. Except… in the process I loosened my shitenge and as I stood up it fell
off. Oh dear…thankfully I was wearing some shorts underneath. Anyway, I then
took a slightly embarrassed but simultaneously victorious trip back to my
homestead. All together, I consider it a success. I definitely have room for
improvement!
Afterwards I took a trip to Maxima’s homestead to visit her
and Junior. The view of the sunset along the way was glorious, and I spent most
of it kicking myself for not bringing my camera along. I definitely will next
time! I had a nice visit with them and came back to find that Lauren had
arrived! Hooray! Then I embraced a cooling down evening bucket bath, returned
my feet to their normal shade of white, and brushed my teeth while examining my
star chart, :)
It’s been a great day!
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