We have our second language test on Wednesday or maybe Tuesday. I got Novice High last time ahead of the curve. I have to excel again. My goal of course is Intermediate Mid, but Intermediate Low is more of a reality. I cannot get Novice High again. I must progress. My host father made me get a pen and paper and write down all the body parts he told me. I promised tomorrow that I would have a make up exam and know it all. I realize my worst fear when studying by myself. I procrastinate too much. I am way behind on my agfo reading. I don’t know coppicing from cutting or grafting. I’m working on my garden and in the process of making manure tea. ok clumps of cow and goat shit in a bidong and add water, shake and leave in the sun for a week until it gets ripe and then pour onto seedlings for extra fertilization or (jambunge). I have another bidong soaking up neem leaves and branches. Neem is a tree here that the locals use the branches for toothbrushes, the sap and leaves can be used as a pesticide that essentially is what I am making. Right now though, I am slacking. I need constant check ups and pop quizzes like tonight to keep me in line.
My main priority over the last two days has been lei making. A trainee here is from Hawaii and today she had a birthday. The other week I asked her if she had ever had a birthday where she didn’t get a lei and she said no, her African birthday would be her first. Well somewhere inside I heard my mother 6,000 miles away saying that I shouldn’t let that happen so I asked the trainees in my village and the neighboring one if anyone wanted to bike to “M”s village for her birthday. I had four takers so yesterday I got all my chores done and at sunset I set off into the fields to find wildflowers. I asked the locals what the small yellow ones were. They called them Senegal something, no worries, I picked a bunch and then took them back and outside under the stars by candlelight with my travel sewing kit, I strung a bunch of little yellow flowers into a long white string with the help of my little host brothers and sisters, cutting flowers off of the stems piercing the needle through stringing them up. I liked the one I made for “M” so much that I started making another one for my host mother. I wanted my host brother to give it to her but everyone went to bed, so I stayed up and finished it. I heard my host mother still kicking around so I called her and gave her the second lei and she didn’t understand that I was giving it to her. She thought I gave it to her so she could try it on, but I said: “no its for you. I made it for you” in my best Pulaar. Then I turned my flashlight on to show her what she looked like with it on and to my surprise she was topless, National Geographic style. I guess it wasn’t that much of a surprise, she’s always topless, she has a baby after all, and this is Africa no one wears shirts I’ve seen more shirts on men then I have on women. But it was the fact that I was giving her this lei, I was expecting this nice bonding moment and it was at the same time it was yet another reminder that hey, I’m in Africa! When I give my host mother a floral necklace and put it on her, and turn a light on so everyone can see, chances are she won’t be wearing a shirt. The lei will only further accentuate her motherly breasts and her absence to the thought that anything could be possibly wrong with going topless because after all there isn’t anything wrong with going topless. I encourage more American females to follow in my host mother’s footsteps. I hoped “M” would at least, this morning when I gave her her lei but I wasn’t so lucky.
She did love it even though it wilted pretty bad. I tried to “refrigerate” it by sticking it in a Ziploc bag and placed it in my reserve bucket of drinking water which stays a bit cooler than room temp but I wasn’t so lucky The African heat got to it pretty fast, it shrunk to about 2/3 its size by the end of the day.
Getting to “M”s village takes about an hour so we had to leave at 7ish this morning. The ride was gorgeous! The sun rising over the baobab trees and the dew lifting off the rice fields. Awe inspiring a nice cool breeze. We waited till about 4pm to head back so the afternoon sun would cool a bit and we got lucky the ride back was even better. I’m glad out of all the miscellaneous crap I brought that I included my biking spandex padded shorts and cycling jersey. Sure I looked like a fool, but it felt great, sweat wicking off of me, the wind grazing my ample aerodynamic frame. I’m not used to mountain bikes and that’s exactly what we have. The roads look like downtown Bagdad potholes the size of VW bugs. The Gelegeles and trucks cannot exceed 20mph for fear of breaking an axel. So biking and driving have relatively equal distance times. If it takes me an hour by car, expect the same by bike. I’ll try to get pictures but just image an impassable road on the states, that’s the best stretch here on the South bank highway. The North bank is much nicer, but that’s because they vote for the current president. South bank could give half a shit apparently. They just drive on the side of the road in the ditches. It’s often better than what’s “paved”. Used to road bikes, I thought mountain bikes would take some getting used to but it was a lot of fun actually. I figure the main road is like a giant obstacle course and the back roads are so sandy it’s like riding on ice sometimes, jack-knifing and tipping over. I figure people drive for miles and pay lots of dough to ride in trails like this. Here I get a free trek mountain bike and an adventure every time I ride down the street to get a bar of soap.
On somewhat of a sad note one of our original 24 trainees is considering terminating his service. It’s a guy here in my training village. He confided in me the other day even though everyone saw it coming, he saw it coming too. We talk a lot about that, how he’s been overwhelmed on this journey and maybe it’s not the right time for him. He pretty much made it public the other day so I think it’s going to happen, we’ll see. Whatever does happen, whatever choice he makes I just hope it’s for the right reasons. Leaving or staying whatever makes him fitter, happier and more productive. It’s gotten all of us to think about our time here and how we feel about early termination or not leaving and why would do either. Riding home today I had a burst of endorphins and the road kept its integrity for a stretch and a nice cool breeze came and I really felt great. I felt the same emotion that I felt when I would ride home at night from watching a movie at the Laurelhurst on a cool summer night, dry, going “no hands”. It was one of these moments when I felt like this was my new home. I AM GETTING ADJUSTED. It’s strange to move somewhere and not get those feelings. But it takes time. Slowly, slowly. As much as Portland was my home so can this be. I’m not forcing it. I’m just letting it happen. Plus, the other day my youngest host brother was in my backyard helping me and saw my toilet paper and asked “what’s this?” I cracked up. I have two years to either teach people about toilet paper or forget about it completely myself. We shall see.
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