Having a good night playing guitar for/with the kids. They only know “happy birthday” I think. The oldest girl was so excited when she saw the guitar. She was like shaking as if she had just received exactly what she wanted for Christmas or something. The youngest boy kept plucking randomly and strumming the guitar. When the boys left for prayer, she had it to herself and ran to it. Strumming she started singing “Happy Birthday” over and over in her own melody. I quite prefer her version.
I want to go back to some thoughts about the first day here, but right now there are so many bugs about. I just killed some creepy spider thing next to my bed and a human sized cockroach that scattered through the towel draped across my chair. So now I’m all-paranoid where I wasn’t a few days ago. A few days ago I had much bigger things to worry about, like what the fuck was I doing here? When we got dropped off there was just us five in the village at a small village, only 7 compounds. Maybe 100 people, over half are under 15 years old. They all stared at us. Some were willing to jump in and help with our bags. I gave a ten year old a 50lb bag to carry and see how long before he gets his friends to help.
I tried to get settled, spending most of my time fixing up my water filter and the mosquito netting. And then I had too much sweat drenching my body to concentrate. After talking with a few of the kids and other Peace Corps Trainees, I walked out, feeling very overwhelmed, looking for something. The sun was setting and turning red. Two thin African clouds cut through it from top left and bottom right, this was enhanced by the cooling wind and a silhouette of a baobab tree, high green grass and iron-rich red soil. This was Africa. It was a postcard image but at least it was mine. It settled me a bit.
My host brothers met me with their David and Goliath slingshots and we walked home together. That was my first night in the Dark Continent.
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