Monday, May 28, 2012

Blah blah blah PEACE CORP Blah blah blah AFRICA

SOON! soon.......

In August I will be headed back home for twenty two days. This upcoming event has been on my mind since I bought my tickets last week. Merica, such a foreign place these days. The more I think about it the more I realize that there is very little that I miss there right now. Except for you that is, you my faithful reader from America.  I miss your company and when I get back you will hear all my stories in full detail, complete with hand gestures, goofy facial expressions, and hopefully a lot of laughter. With that being said I am looking forward to some good ole junk food.....anyone want to cook a Digiorno burger while I am home?

Life in The Gambia is comfortably normal. Work has been painfully slow the last couple weeks but such is the nature of this line of work. Things are about to pick up nicely with a couple cashew training coming up. In addition there are some big basketball camps and tournaments coming up which I am stoked for. That is when I am at my happiest in this country, when I get to share my love of basketball with others. Outside of work things have been fairly busy. Since Hotel Tila Kandita (my house) opened up back in February I have been experiencing a steady flow of guests. As of today I have not had my house to myself in three weeks. Volunteers need a place to stay when they are in the capital and I got plenty of room. As I constantly tell people who tell me they don't want to burden me; the only time in my life I have had my own room was my mud hut in Dobong Kunda (besides Larry the damned rat who always mooched off my food), I am well trained in sharing space.

In other news I have decided to enter the local dating scene and have been going on dates with some of the locals here in the capital. It has been a very enjoyable and interesting experience thus far. Its like going on a date with an American yet somehow different. For example one women became very upset once she learned that I drank beer, this was something for her, coming from a strong Islam background, that was really hard to come to grips with. Another girl had a man studying in Sweden that her family has promised her to. They are not 'dating' just supposed to get married someday. Fun stuff like that you would rarely come across in the states. At the moment I cant see any of these relationships going anywhere but its been an rewarding experience.

Slow, that has become the opposite of my life. Its nice and time tends to fly but if there is one thing I learned to value in village it was taking the days one at a time. I learned how to slow things down and I can't tell you how valuable that is. That is my goal for the next two months before I head back to the motherland, slow things down once again. I keep thinking about how I am running out of time here. I keep coming up with lists of things I want to do before I leave. However just like during my first three months when I kept thinking I had too much time here left, I need to stop focusing on time and just live. Take it easy peeps, hopefully I will be seeing all of you soon.