Friday, October 17, 2008

Something to break the silence.

So we’re in the 11th hour. Or month as it turns out. I’ve been in Africa just shy of a year thus far. Eleven and a half months. Now let me check on my “PCV Life Cycle,” to see where I should weigh in, emotionally. Let’s see….”Impatience with self, program” Check. “Blame on program.” Check. “Constant Complaining” Almost. “Lethargy” mwhahaha! Next question! “Haughtiness with new trainers via super identification” …nah. So we’re good. I’m not totally wanting to quit and come home yet, so we’re doing good.

I can’t believe how quickly the months have gone. Sure, community training and language training seemed like a damn eternity…but the last 9 months flew right by…Kind of hard to believe I had friends that graduated, some married, some to grad school…all in the time since I’ve been here. It’s unbelievable how quickly your lives move compared to mine. Maybe I’m having too much skin contact with the fertilizer and its causing temporal distortions in my brain.

Work proceeds as fast as grass growing. Today I was actually busy starting planters of oregano, basil, spinach, lettuce, leek, cucumber, and parsley. I have two trays of basil almost ready for transplanting too that have begun giving off their aroma – smells like mozzarella. Very excited about those. It is also good to note that the one currently operational garden has not died yet. 15 spinach plants, 10 lettuce still alive. So points for me on a working project I’m basically winging.

I’m finding the hardest part about this journal is finding stuff worth discussing and talking about. It’s just that life is so slow here. Weeks go by with nothing new to report or stories to tell. It’s bizarre that its really an absence of everything, good or bad. Nothing good to talk about, nothing bad to discuss. Although I am appreciating the lack of drama here…

I think I’m becoming emotionally constipated – the inability to play music I has been grating on my psyche for a while. My guitar skills haven’t been improving with more practice, I just suck at playing more songs. I get frustrated more often than getting relaxed. I need a piano. damn. I was never really a writer…maybe I’ll stick with yoga.

Summer’s here. Already we’re hitting 80 degree weather. Oh, and I sent in my absentee ballot last week! I’m not going to tell you who I voted for, I’d rather let you guess.

I’ll try harder to find things to write about. Promise.Happy October. Hope the pumpkins are coming in.

2 comments:

cromwell_the_3rd said...

Dude I love the updates your giving, even though life seems to be moving really slow. Hey so guess what? Andy and I went camping in the pine barrons in NJ near the shore, (where the jersey devil lives) We learned several important lessons;
1) The jersey devil haunts the woods (its all windy branches you get caught in... reminds me of Diablo levels how he uses his magic to just to be an asshole)
2) The full moon is ultra bright esp when you are camping in a forrest where the ground is white sand. we could make shaddow puppets and see our shaddows perfectly. Even went to look for firewood w/o flashlights
3) Firewood in the pinebarrons is very moldy and also full of lichen
4) Moldy firewood burns
5) Dont breathe in the moldy firewood smoke
6) The final and probably most important lesson: PPP (the pepperoni protection program) Ill elaborate: When you are camping in the wilderness and want to grill some sort of pita pizza in a pan you will need to grease the pan so it dosent charmander the pita. SO what we discovered is when you place 3-4 pepperoni under the pita and grill the pita pizza on top of the pepperoni, it forms a peperoni protection network, which thusly bakes/broils the pita in dellicious oily goodness as well as leaving it devoid of any burnings. BEST PITA i have ever eaten on a campout. Haha but actually it rivaled normal food too.

Miss ya man, and cant wait for a wild and crazy (but safe) african adventure.

Cheers mate,
Rob

Kristen! said...

Hey Nick--
I keep trying to call you, but to no avail. So it's not that I don't love you. My phone is just dumb.

K10