Sincere apologies to all my devout readers out there! Life somehow caught up with me, and for the first time in so long, I was too busy to write. Last month, I talked about how time was slipping through my fingers, but at least I still had time to write about it. The month of December flew by without me even having time to complain about its quick passage. But now I am back and the stories continue!
Kirk, my predecessor, had generously left me lots of essential items for the house for a very discounted price and therefore allow me to spend most of my settling-in allowances on “luxury items” like a fridge, blender, coffee maker, etc. Volunteers around have often referred to my Peace Corps experience as the “posh corps” due to those purchases as well as my connection to the Chinese and French friends that gave me access to delicious meals, relatively fast Internet, road trips in SUV, posh apartments, cheese and wine, etc. But few weeks ago, I took “posh corps” to a whole new level when I got unlimited nighttime Internet at my house. I couldn’t handle the painfully slow Internet in 15 minute increment, connected via my mobile phone (no cyber café in Batié). I finally gave in when I spent an entire day at Chinese friend’s Internet working from 9-5pm and barely made a dent on the amount of work I wanted to get done on the net. Aside from helping me become more effective and productive in my work, the newly installed Internet also forever eliminated the lonely nights. This new addition not only took “posh corps” to a whole new level, it also gives me no reason to ever leave my service early. Life here is grand now.
Other evidence of my “posh corps” state was made obvious on Christmas Even when we were making an American feast and I had ingredients like, “sesame oil, almond sliver, dark chocolate, marshmallow, Tobasco sauce, etc” Kate also made note of my boxes of cereal in the cabinet, as if I am still in college. What can I say, I like my cereal. In college, I had something like 8 boxes, now I only have 4… 😛 My life is also posh due to the great weather in my village. Located in the mountains of the West province, my village is one of the coldest posts in country. I received a cashmere sweater from my sister and I thought it was crazy, but it came perfectly handy when I was freezing my butt off a few weeks ago! Yes, cashmere sweater en afrique! Who would’ve thought! Anyway, to be fair, I still live without running water, and that is and will always be, a gigantic pain in the rear end. Also, my village is so small that there are often times when I can’t even find stables such as eggs! These minor inconveniences reminds me that I am still living in a village in Africa, despite how “posh” my experience can be sometimes.
