Already?
Well it turns out that my training is almost over, and that I'm getting ready to become an official volunteer. I guess it's about time, since I'm ready to start living on my own and feeling like things are on my terms, instead of on my family's. They've been totally great along the way, and I've made some great friends in our training village, but it's time for the next step.
I figure I should give you a little description of what my life is like each day, just so that it's not so hard for you all to imagine what I'm really doing right now.
My alarm is set every morning for 6:15, but I'm usually woken up at 5:30 by the call to prayer at the Mosque near my house. It's time for the first prayer of the day for the Muslims, so we all start our day with them. I fill my bucket with some water, and head into my pit litrine to wash my face and go to the bathroom. I get the water from a big ceramic pot that is filled with well water every morning by my host mom. Then I head back to my room and get dressed, and eat breakfast of coffee and little fried-dough balls (that are DELICIOUS, unless you eat them every day for 8 weeks). I walk to class, usually saying hello to about 30 people along the way (it seems there are a lot more people that know me then I've been introduced to... it's because I'm the only white guy on my side of town. the rest of the trainees live on the other side of town).
We go to classes and sessions all day long, and I return home around 4:30pm. (Again, lots of hellos along the way.) People here also love the idea of the "present obvious", where they ask you a question or make a statement that is really obvious. So every afternoon EVERY PERSON along the way asks me "A waarti na?" Which means, "you've come back?". Yes, I've come back! That's why I'm standing in front of you! What kind of a question is that!? But it happens EVERY time. I've started doing the same thing to them, but of course they don't notice...
So then i take a full bucket bath, and head over to the soccer field next to the village high school to watch a pickup game that my friends play every day. Imagine that scene of African children playing soccer, barefoot, on a dusty field with the sun setting. Yup, that's exactly it.
Then I get back for dinner, which is usually rice and a sauce of sorts, and hang out with whoever comes by that lives in the neighborhood. But usually by 8:30 or 9 I'm exhausted and head to sleep. And the next day begins!
So I'm swearing in on Wednesday as an official volunteer, and will be heading to my village on Thursday, where a COMPLETELY empty house awaits me. It's gonna be a weird first night, sleeping on the floor, but I figure I'll make it work somehow. Keep in touch.
I figure I should give you a little description of what my life is like each day, just so that it's not so hard for you all to imagine what I'm really doing right now.
My alarm is set every morning for 6:15, but I'm usually woken up at 5:30 by the call to prayer at the Mosque near my house. It's time for the first prayer of the day for the Muslims, so we all start our day with them. I fill my bucket with some water, and head into my pit litrine to wash my face and go to the bathroom. I get the water from a big ceramic pot that is filled with well water every morning by my host mom. Then I head back to my room and get dressed, and eat breakfast of coffee and little fried-dough balls (that are DELICIOUS, unless you eat them every day for 8 weeks). I walk to class, usually saying hello to about 30 people along the way (it seems there are a lot more people that know me then I've been introduced to... it's because I'm the only white guy on my side of town. the rest of the trainees live on the other side of town).
We go to classes and sessions all day long, and I return home around 4:30pm. (Again, lots of hellos along the way.) People here also love the idea of the "present obvious", where they ask you a question or make a statement that is really obvious. So every afternoon EVERY PERSON along the way asks me "A waarti na?" Which means, "you've come back?". Yes, I've come back! That's why I'm standing in front of you! What kind of a question is that!? But it happens EVERY time. I've started doing the same thing to them, but of course they don't notice...
So then i take a full bucket bath, and head over to the soccer field next to the village high school to watch a pickup game that my friends play every day. Imagine that scene of African children playing soccer, barefoot, on a dusty field with the sun setting. Yup, that's exactly it.
Then I get back for dinner, which is usually rice and a sauce of sorts, and hang out with whoever comes by that lives in the neighborhood. But usually by 8:30 or 9 I'm exhausted and head to sleep. And the next day begins!
So I'm swearing in on Wednesday as an official volunteer, and will be heading to my village on Thursday, where a COMPLETELY empty house awaits me. It's gonna be a weird first night, sleeping on the floor, but I figure I'll make it work somehow. Keep in touch.
posted by Ryan @ 6:18 AM
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