What the?! How Did This Get To Africa?

Last week, I had gone to the market to buy some food.  I went into one of the shops that I normally go to and was making my way around the small aisle way when I came upon the canned food shelf.  I took a quick glance and something caught my eye, I immediatly thought, "Nah, it can't be".  But indeed it was a can of Del Monte corn!!! Apparently straight out of San Francisco!  Of course I bought it, although I haven't eaten it yet...not real sure when that will happen, but the fact of the matter is I can eat corn...sweet corn at that! 

 

I do have a theory of how it got here, you wanna hear it?  Of course you do.  I think, that maybe, someone sent a volunteer a package with a bunch of goods in it and that package never made it to said volunteer.  Instead, the contents of the box were sold and the can of Del Monte Sweet Corn found its way here, ironically into the hands of another volunteer.  So, if this theory is correct, at least it found its way to another PCV.  lol. 

 

There is corn here, but I have only had one ear of corn that was sweet (sans butter).  I'm not sure how that actually happened, but it was good.  The rest of it seems like feed corn or something, it's not that good but on occasion when it has been grilled correctly. 

 

I don't really have much else to say at the moment...kinda sad when the highlight of the last two weeks has been the purchase of a can of corn, lol. 

Oh Ya, I Am Supposed to Fail Miserably

Teaching began about 4 weeks ago. That time has gone by very quickly; tests are scheduled for the week of October 6. It still feels like my first week teaching. And then I realized that what my professor in college told me was right, you come here with hopes and ideas of how this is going to work, and then you fail miserably. Lol. It actually made me feel better to remember what he said, "Oh ya, this is supposed to happen". So I emailed him to say that he was right (he has a doctorate for a reason). He quickly replied to me and reminded me of the second part of what he said, that after you fail, you change a few things and yourself, and start to make a difference. I'm not sure what part I'm at now, I know that I have failed thus far, but I have started to make some changes and I believe things will be getting better.

Part of me has fallen back into the stage where I am constantly thinking about American food, man that sounds good. A good beer would be nice too, although that will be strange too, because the beers here are a little bigger than half a liter. Someone's gonna hand me a 12oz beer and I'm going to be like, "What is that? Your sister's beer?" lol. I imagine that will soon pass again, most likely because there were some lovely people at home who have sent me some packages!!! Thank you, you have no idea how much I appreciate that. Another thing that keeps happening to me is that I temporarily forget how old I am and have to ask myself, "am I 25?" Then, I realize that I'll be 27 and I think, "Holy crap, when did that happen?” I've done this like 3 or 4 times.

Life is certainly slow here, but the days go quickly, especially the days I teach. I've taught some of the kids in my neighborhood to say my name instead of nassara. I asked them what their names where but I don't think they understood me. It's funny because they are actually pretty young kids that are just outside unsupervised, hanging out like it's no big deal, some sell food. I guess it isn't really a big deal here though, it's normal life.

I've also found that after a long day at school, it really makes me happy to "hey" the students. For those of you who do not understand what "heying" is, it is when someone is walking by or walking away, you simply yell, "hey" like you are talking to them and turn like you said nothing. I learned this trick from a previous job at a car dealer (thanks bill) and have found that it is universally funny. At least to me it is. It works because "hey" is still understood in French as an attention getter. But the main attention getter here is the "hiss" sound. It sounds the same as letting air out of a tire. That sound can call a taxi from at least a block away and/or street vendors selling anything. So that's fun to do too. It's the simple things that keep me entertained.

Days Are Long in an Empty House

As most of you know, I am finally on my own at post. I have been for the past few weeks. The weather here is much better than the training village, although I allergies have been killing me here, it's probably the dust or pollen or somehthing. Who nows? If it rains here it doesn't last long and then the sun comes out. It's less hilly then I remember it being at site visit, although certain parts of the town are higher up than the others which makes for a spectacular view.

My house is a decent size for one person to live in. The living room is pretty big (especially because there is nothing in it), there is a kitchen that is a decent sized rectangular room, however there is no countertops, sink, or running water. I did have a table/counter made for my range and it turned out nicely. There are two bedrooms, one of which has it's own door that is outside the main door of the house. I'd like to try to make that the hammock room (when I get one). I do have a modern bathroom with a toilet (sans seat), shower, and sink. So that makes life nice, but ya know what will make it nicer? A hot water heater, They are about 85,000 cfa, which is kind of a lot, but not bad. I bought this thing that I call a "magic wand", you fill a bucket with water and then put the wand in it and plug it in to the wall and in a few minutes your water is hot. It is a nice thing to have. It is a pretty private house once you get off the street, no one can see me in the back yard, well it's not really a yard as much as it is an area. there is another small house behind mine that someone else could live in, but I'm pretty sure that my landlord said that no one will be living there...which is good...I just hope I understood what the hell he said. There is a tomato plant growing in the one spot where there is dirt. There is a water faucet out back where I get water to cook, drink, and wash clothes. It's really a pretty convienant place. The only bad part is that I don't think we get enough money for move in allowance, mine is gone and I don't really have much to show for it. Others are lucky enough to get things left behind but I came into a new place so I have nothing. Bummer.

The thing that is kinda funny, and irritating at the same time, is that there are a ton of little kids around and I think they just wait for me to leave or come home to say, "Bonjour nassara" or "Bonsoir nassara". Nassara is a Fulfude word for le blanc, which is white or white man or white woman or white person if you want to be pc about it. It's been kind of funny really, if you knew the sound of their voice and could hear the repition of other children after one starts the bombardment of hellos. Sometimes I can't even see them but I can hear them and I try not to make it obvious that I am trying to figure out where in the hell they are, but it doesn't work. I think they are hiding in the trees. Depending on the time of day and how many are in their numbers I return the hello and they are happy. Sometimes I think I hear them say, "Papa nassara" but again, I'm not really sure.

There is a new album with more pictures, just click http://picasaweb.google.com/awm440.