Saturday, November 14, 2009

Five Down, One to Go...

Well hello to all!

Yay for Public Transportation
When we were planning to go to the capital city, Lindsay and I volunteered to take the bush since there would not be enough room in Melissa’s truck and DF always is encouraging us to take as much public transportation as possible. The day before we left Linds wasn’t feeling well so Lacey ended up taking her spot. The next morning we woke up early and got to the bus station a little before 6:00am. Still extremely tired and a little disoriented Lacey and I found a wooden bench at started waiting for the bus. Then this really old man started staring at us and mumbling something in a language we didn’t understand and at this point we knew the trip was going to be an interesting one. The old man lurked around for a bit until we made eye contact with the bus station worker and he instantly asked the man to leave. About ten minutes later the bus pulled up and we hopped on. There were two seats saved side by side for us right by the door. The bus was completely full and off we went. Off on our great adventure to the capital city. About an hour into the trip, to our great surprise, the Rimbo man started passing out kossoms (drinkable yogurt in a pouch) and smashed cupcakeish things. They were really good. I’ve never ridden in a gray hound bus, but I think this was probably comparable. I almost I forgot I was in Africa until trash started flying from all directions as people attempted to throw their wrappers into the stairway that just happened to be directly in front of us. It really scared me for a second. In the early morning the bus was still really cool and was actually quite enjoyable. At one point the bus driver stopped the entire bus because there was a three year old little girl that had to go to the bathroom. She and her mother got off bus did their business on the side of the road and got back on. It was actually pretty cute. We stopped about half way through and got off for a few minutes and found some random man walking around selling really cute leather shoes, so Lacey and I both bought a pair. I was really excited about them until I wore them once or twice. As it turns out 100% leather means 100% so the bottoms are just one piece of leather and they are really slick to walk in. The second half of the trip was not nearly as enjoyable as the first part. The sun was fully up and baking us inside of the bus. We did have a window seat so I opened it up and it helped a lot, but it was still quite warm. When we got about an hour outside of the capital city the bus driver hit the brakes and I looked up just in time to see a giraffe running across the road. There were probably at least three giraffes on each side of the bus. As it turns out we are in the only country in the world that still has this type of giraffe living in the wild. Later on we went on a tour to see the giraffes and learned that there are only 153 of these giraffes and we saw six of them and one baby giraffe that was only a month old. We finally made it to the capital city and we taxied to the guest house and met the rest of the team. Now, tomorrow morning at 4:15am we will be out of the house and on our way back to the bush.

Marine Ball
Well the Marine Ball was a success. We did our nails, hair and makeup, put on our pretty dresses and went to dance the night way. As it turns out there are only six Marines in the country…opposed to the nine that we thought there were. The night started with a short ceremony and a reading of a speech Hillary Clinton sent. Then the Ambassador was announced and she cut the cake and dinner began. I was seated next to one of the marines who turned out to be quite the character. He was a lot of fun though. He left his phone and camera at the table while the ceremony was going on and it kept going off, so I turned it off. Instead of a house salad, he started out with rum and coke. Before long he was in an enthusiastic conversation with a retired army man at our table. Dinner was really good though, I had the steak and potatoes…I’m definitely a steak and potatoes kind of girl. The man that was supposed to sit on the other side of me didn’t show up, so we looked at his little name card and saw that he was getting the tiramisu (a personal favorite of mine) and that I had ordered the crème caramel, so we messed up his place setting and had the waiter give us his dessert and we all shared it. After dessert we got out on the dance floor. The marine that had sat at our table earlier was already quite drunk and kept trying to dance with us. We refused. We did do the electric slide a few times and danced in a circle with a few guys. The drunken marine turned out to be a majority of the evening’s entertainment. Linds and I did manage to make friends with a few of the marines. One of the marine’s named Matt was super sweet and it turned out we had met him when we had arrived back in June. He knows a lot of the people we work with and he invited us to go sand boarding with him and some of the guys the next day. We agreed. Most of the music that was played that evening left a lot to be desire…there was a lot of random salsa music and stuff we had never heard before. So, we called it a night around 11:30pm and headed home. Over all the night was quite a bit of fun, it felt good to dress up and go out again.

Sand boarding
So the next day we all went sand boarding on the dunes on the other side of the river. I attempted sand boarding once before, but it was on a much smaller dune. I knew we were in trouble when the first marine went tumbling down and came back up out of breath. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not exactly the most coordinated or athletic person in the world. A few more of the guys went, then Lacey when, then Lindsay, then Lauren….and then it was my turn. I tried to back out gracefully, but they wouldn’t have it. So I slipped my feet in the straps and off I went, screaming down the hill. I fell a few times on the way down, but nothing too bad. Then I started the daunting task of climbing back up a massive sand dune. It’s so much harder than it looks. For every big step you take you only move a few inches because the sand slides down each time. So it turns out to look something like 12 inches forward 10 inches back and for a big hill two inches at a time takes a lot of effort not to mention the fact that you still have to bring the board back up with you. Anyways, we all had a good time. It was fun to hang out with guys our age and just have fun for a while.

Recent Developments
Our supervisor, Melissa, has been having some back pains for a while and they have recently gotten a lot worse. She’s been trying to fix it with Tylenol, but now pain killers won’t cut it and her toes are going numb, so she’s staying in the capital city and we are going back out to the bush with Rachel. Things are still pretty up in the air for Melissa, as of right now it looks like she might be flying out of the country to seek medical care. Please keep it in your yarps. It will also affect our last few weeks here. Since we are living a very bush lifestyle there is no way we could spend the rest of our time without someone being fairly close and the next workers are over 3 hours away, so it means that for the rest of our time here either we will have someone else staying at Melissa’s house (which will take them away from their current work) or we will be staying with the other worker 3 hours away. Either way, things are going to be changing and our time left in the bush will be less than we expected. Time is flying.

Bush Activities
As for actually doing what we’re here do…we’ve been doing it. Were continuing to go from compound to compound telling stories and Hajia’s compound still loves it. Last week we were also able to have Apollos (our second language teacher) come out and do some translation work for us and we were able to interview the Chief, the new followers, and some of the women. We’ve gotten to know a lot more about the culture, but if you want that information you’ll have to read our ethnography at the end. We also had at least three more men say that they want to know more and that they want to follow as well. It’s super exciting. Also I’m not sure how much I told you last time I blogged, but it’s officially freezing cold here at nights. In the bush we have to wear sleeping bags or else we wake up at 3 or 4 am shivering.

Good Night Sweetheart It’s Time to Go
I’d love to write more, but I’m getting really sleepy and I have to be up and out by 4:15am…I’m not a morning person. So please keep everything in your yarps and I’ll see ya’ll in a little over a month.

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