curious what I am up to? What life is like here? I shall quickly try to let you in through your computer screen, give you a little snippet of my world.
I usually wake up around 4:30am-5
untangle myself from my mosquito net and say thanks be to God for life!! Drape something over my sticky body and walk out into the rising sun and shaking heat
next comes one of my most favorite parts of my day:
the bucket shower. So imagine a four concrete walls that stand only as tall as my shoulders... that is where i enter, undress and than look up at the rising sun and cool myself with gathered from our rain barrel.
If it did not rain the recently, Mary and I walk down the road and cross a highway, to the local tap and fill up buckets and carry them back to the home on our heads. I suck at this. Locals laugh at me, because Mary who is about 2/3rds of my size, can carry a huge bucket, while I struggle, spilling all over myself to balance a medium sized pail.... she gracefully walks tall across the highway, and I try not to get hit by the rapidly encroaching buses and just keep this bucket from tipping over and blinding me. Basically it is a war against me, that bucket and becoming roadkill.
It's all good :)
So now nice and clean after showering next to the birds and the trees, I dress and eat breakfast of plain white bread, which tastes better every day! My host family is very generous with me, and love to serve me gigantic portions. Despite their attempts to fatten me up, I have lost weight. Not too much, but I can feel it. Every once and a while I come into the capital city, hit up a grocery store (where lettuce costs about 10 Canadian dollars) and buy some chocolate for me and the kids at home. I keep some stored up and have it as my little indulgence!
Each morning I great the local Granny with an "I-e Ko!" and she says "I-aaayy!" and laughs as my precious attempts of making small talk in the local dialect. My memory fails me most of the time and I stand there trying to form sentences. Her warm smile and big laughs indicate to me that she appreciates my efforts :)
It is my goal to by the end of my stay to be able to have a real conversation with that lovely lady... and all the cool women here that I can never get past introductions with, because of the language barrier.
Some of the children around my home do not go to school, and have no english. One adorable girl named "Writa" has always been very shy around me, and would never respond to my "I-e Ko" greeting attempts. The other day we (me and my posy of six year olds) were playing hand clapping games, matched with songs. Than I decided to take it a step further and introduce some dance moves into the flux of snaps, slaps and song. The wee ones responded instantly and began to shake it with ease I envy! They began to sing songs they all knew. Next a few of them grabbed some sticks and began creating intricate rhythmns on everything and anything.... a few older kids came along and joined in the complex patterns of beat that were ever taking new turns...
and shy Writa started to dance, hard core, throwing everyone of her tiny muscles into it.... she had this huge smile on her face and confidence, and looked at me as if saying- come on girl, this is my territory! Writa who would never look me in the eye, never the less say hello to me, than grabbed my hand and slammed her hip against mine! She squeezed my hand tight and looked at me, telling me with her eyes to GET INTO IT! Loose it Woman and show me what yuo can do!
So I did, or I tried too. I tossed my hair, partied between the beats with little Writa showing me what it means to be present, give it! and not give a shit what anyone else is thinking.
