I got two more packages yesterday! Katie and Emma both rock for sending me goodies! Since they both sent the goods in bubbled envelopes, the chocolate bars were rather smashed. In the States, I would never eat a smashed, melted Reese’s Peanut Butter cup, but here; I opened that sucker and licked it clean. It was quite a sight to see 4 girls, eating the remnants of smashed chocolate bars and practically licking all the wrappers clean.
Also, copies of People, Marie Claire, The Economist, and GOOD (awesome magazine) never got read with such excitement in the US of A. Furthermore, you will never find three girls sniffing the Georgio Armani ad in Men’s Health and giggling like they are in the sixth grade. Yes, Siobhan, Kate and I are guilty of that. We can’t help it. Georgio Armani represents all the clean-shaving, good-smelling guys that are so difficult to come by here.
This morning, while walking into town to the omelet shack (spaghetti omelets are amazing!) for lunch, I had a moment while noticing the beautiful rolling hills mixing with red mud and trees sprawling through. I took in the 90’s music coming out of the bad quality speaker on the street, the smell of the market, and the sound of the village. I am exactly where I need to be (Africa, not training, I can’t wait for that to be over), and exciting things are and will be happening.
Despite the annoying bureaucratic stuff in training, I am excited to begin my service. Today, the country director visited and played a video made by the Peace Corp agency. I felt the level of excitement and fervor as I did when first deciding to take on this journey. Bureaucracy is annoying, but that’s the nature of working for a governmental agency.
Luckily, as a SED volunteer, I have a lot of freedom in the spectrum of my work. I can potentially work around all the bureaucracy and corruption if I choose to. If I feel like working only with women and children, I can. That’s the beauty of this. I paint my own canvas. If I want to chillax and make this next two years one grand vacation, I can also do that. But for my sanity’s sake, I will be doing more than that.
What an exciting time! Can’t wait to start doing something useful!
