On a related note, I am almost positive that by the end of my 2 years of Peace Corps service that I will be crazy, that is if I am not there already. Whether this be due to the fact that I am on Larium, which if you look up on Wikipedia you will see has an extensive list of side effects, or due to the fact that I have always been a little crazy and Africa is just pushing me over the edge. I often catch myself talking to myself and I dont even realize that I am doing it, but I cant stop. The other day, I went on a bike ride, and about halfway through I realized I was talking, but I couldnt stop. One possible explanation is that, foolishly, I did not bring enough water and I was becoming delirious from dehydration, or that I didnt put on sunscreen anywhere but my arms and neck and I was developing the sun sickness. Now that I think about it, maybe I am not going crazy, maybe I am just stupid. However, another point for the crazy side, I am becoming the person who keeps everything and has trouble throwing things away. It is difficult for me to throw away cans, toilet paper tubes, strips of cloth, strings, plastic bags, and the list goes on. I went for a walk and on the side of the path was part of an old t-shirt. I found myself wondering, "Hmm... what can I use that for?", the correct answer is nothing, you can accomplish nothing with it. It is trash. Some part of me wanted it for that rainy day when I have that part of old t-shirt and find some awesome use for it. But I left it there and against my better judgement kept walking. That is personal growth.
Whistles...... Why whistles? Somehow, by some act of evil, every small child, every child recieved whistles in my village. The would just walk around constantly blowing the whistle seeming never to stop to take a breath. It was as if the evil itself, and not the small child was blowing the whistle for them with its never ending putrid wind. At first I thought it was merely and isolated incident, and only a few children possessed these satanic whistles. I tried to figure out what I could trade these kids for their whistles so they would stop annoying me, but I feared the price would be my soul. As I was walking to the market to find some candy that would be approximately the same value as a soul, I realized that it was not just a few kids with whistles, they had multiplied as if overnight and now every kid had a whistle. It was like that movie that I always think is called "Children of the Corn", but really it is called something else. It is the movie where all of the children have white hair and are evil, if you know that movie, that is what it was like. Anyway, I dont know if it was some type of cruel joke played by an NGO, but it seems that over the past few days interest in the whistles has been lost, hopefully banished forever into some nether region.
The Larium, on top of that whole crazy thing, is turning me into an insomniac. I have had so really whacked out dreams either about violence or just about being back in highschool and talking to people I probably have said two words to my entire life. I woke up one night at 2am and found a huge african roach on my mosquito net. Roaches dont bother me, except for the fact that they live in my latrine and this is probably where this one came from, so I flicked it outside. Going back to bed, another one crawled across my foot, so again I flicked it outside and finally got back to sleep. I woke up again when my internal african alarm clock went off at 5am. I dont even think that 5am exists in the US, that is unless it is your birthday and you are trying to stay up as late as possible the next morning so that it will remain your birthday. If you are unaware of the rule, it states that it remains a persons birthday from the time they wake up on the day until the time they go to bed. Therefore, if I were to be able to stay awake from the morning of June 10 to the night of June 11, my birthday would last for 2 days. That defies all laws of space and time... well maybe just time... anyway, the point is that I woke up at 5am. I got out of my protective bug bubble that is my mosquito net to find my house riddled with dead roach bodies, 10 in all. What could have made tham all die? I quickly checked the gas to see if it was on, but no, I dont know what could have caused it. Roaches can survive a nuclear holocaust, but they can not survive one night in my bedroom. Do I really stink that bad? I guess I should be thankful that my super power is that all roaches die in my presence. I wonder if in order for my power to work, I must be asleep...hmm. I will test this theory and let everyone know.
I have tried to fill all of my free time with the study of french, but my brain can only take so much. The french verb demander, means to ask, but when you say it, it sounds like the english word demand. I have trouble realizing this and get annoyed when anyone says it. For example, in class when a studen wants to leave class to go to the bathroom, or something like that, they say Je demande...., which basically translates to can I do something, bit I hear I demand that you let me do this!, and I immediately say no. In my mind I think, "if they had just asked me, I would have said yes, but demanding like that, never". A little bit later, I remember what it really means but by then the moment is gone. I also hear this constantly as I am walking through village as little kids ask me for presents. I always respond with, "No, I have no present". Some kids in the familys courtyard that I live in came into my house the other day and asked my for a gift, so thinking quickly, I remember that I still had that big bag of pens I brought with me that because of the heat in Africa dont work. I gave them those and they got so excited. This makes me think that I could put to good use all of the random crap that I have been saving. What little kid would not be excited, and love a peice of string and a TP tube?
Lastly, it is a well known fact that I have an emense love and obsession with the union of honey mustard and chicken. Well, I attempted to duplicate this phenomenon african style with rice, chicken flavoring, honey, and dijon mustard. At first, the result was a tasty treat, but I believe this was simply bacause I was very hungry, because after that it became very gross. I am not going to give up on this though. I will find a way to have african honey mustard chicken delight and market it to the masses. This bring me to the list of
THINGS I CAN NEVER GET ENOUGH OF FROM THE USA
- Sauce mixes and seasonings (cheese, taco, etc.)
- Peanut butter that Zack sent, the chocolate and white chocolate, and also other types of PB
- Beef jerky
- Bars (cliff, protein, power, granola, nutragrain, etc.)
- Meat (tuna, chicken, etc.)
- Free sauce packets from restaurants (any and all, jelly, soy sauce, mustard, *honey mustard*)
NOTE: If an item does not appear on this list, this doesnt mean that it will not be happily recieved and put to good use.
Tomorrow I am going in to Ouaga and I will post some pictures
1 comment:
I believe that movie you are referring to is Village of the Damned... although Children of the Corn is much more classic in my opinion and still very creepy with children. The other day I had some popcorn chicken and laughed when I thought about you eating it everyday... I would send you some if I thought it would get there in some non slimy fashion that was still fit to eat. Although maybe getting diarrhea from American food would be a different adventure ha ha. Glad things are going well but we all miss you!
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