I have no overarching theme for this blog post, so I have decided to make use of the timeless writers tool, utilized by all the great authors: the bullet-point. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the bullet-point. Now You may view this as a weakness in my writing skill--my inability to seamlessly thread these thoughts together--but really it's a sign of my capabilities (and many years as a student). Without further ado, the long awaited for points, by bullet:
-A quick note on comfort, and how perspectives change: Last Thursday I was traveling home from Makeni when about 2 minutes into the ride I thought to myself, 'this is pretty comfortable.' Two more minutes into the ride and I start to ponder how my standards for comfort have changed, because I realize that I'm sitting in the front seat of this car with 3 other people!! (That's 4 people, total, for the mathematically impaired.) Mind you this is not some big spacious SUV. Imagine a small (...well I'm not very god with cars, so insert any make and model of a small 4 door sedan) car not some big (...again the dearth of car knowledge-thanks dad-so pick your favorite style) house on wheels, piled high with 9 full grown humans. Yet I find the amazing thing, in all this, is that I genuinely felt comfortable in that car. Welcome to Africa.
-Overall village life is treating me well. For those of you who wonder what I do with my days, the answer is: not a whole lot. This morning I woke up, read for a while, went for a jog (still a huge source of entertainment for the town), boiled some water to make oatmeal and tea (which I promptly expelled via copious amounts of sweat-hot drinks and tropical climates don't mix), and read some more. I would estimate that 90% of my days are spent either sleeping or reading. The other 10% is eating, thinking about foods I wish I were eating, and talking to my neighbors. I assume once school starts these figures will change, but for now my days are mostly sleeping and reading-my two favorite activities.
-Sleep: I can't believe I ever poked fun at Robin and Whitney for going to bed at 9pm. Here I'm in bed by 7:30 and lucky to still be awake by 8:30. I have adopted new ideals on an acceptable bed time.
-School: school is technically supposed to start in a week, but the government hasn't paid the teachers in months, so rumors are flying a out a teachers strike. I have decided to adopt an African frame of mind and not worry a out it. School will start when it starts. If that means I have to crunch all of biology down into 3 weeks, then so be it.
-A shout out to the Visalia French's: I've identified my first bird! Well, I've tried at least. I've seen some pretty cool birds so far, but I picked 3 of my favorites to look up in my bird book. The first is either a Bar-Breasted Firefinch, a Red-Billed Firefinch, or a Blue-Billed Firefinch. When I first saw it I thought, 'small red bird, the female is grayish, shouldn't be hard to identify.' Wrong! There are apparently a lot more small red birds in Sierra Leone than I had anticipated. There's a similar story for my next identification, which is either a Yellow-Mantled Widowbird or a Red-Shouldered Cuckoo-Shrike, but the variety with a yellow shoulder, not red (or if I'm really honest with myself there's a good chance my birding skills are so poor that it was neither of those birds). When I saw the bird I was pretty confident in what I saw, but by the time I got out my bird book I couldn't quite remember how long the tail actually was nor could I recall if there was a slight fleck of yellow on the bill. My first lesson in attentiveness to detail in bird watching. The third bird I decided to look up I'm pretty sure is a Pin-Tailed Whydah--at least it's black and white and has a really long tail.
-Spiders: I promised my mom no snake or spider stories, so all I'll say is: eeeek!
I'm happy here and enjoying African life, but I still miss ya'll back home. Hope everyone is happy and healthy!
-A quick note on comfort, and how perspectives change: Last Thursday I was traveling home from Makeni when about 2 minutes into the ride I thought to myself, 'this is pretty comfortable.' Two more minutes into the ride and I start to ponder how my standards for comfort have changed, because I realize that I'm sitting in the front seat of this car with 3 other people!! (That's 4 people, total, for the mathematically impaired.) Mind you this is not some big spacious SUV. Imagine a small (...well I'm not very god with cars, so insert any make and model of a small 4 door sedan) car not some big (...again the dearth of car knowledge-thanks dad-so pick your favorite style) house on wheels, piled high with 9 full grown humans. Yet I find the amazing thing, in all this, is that I genuinely felt comfortable in that car. Welcome to Africa.
-Overall village life is treating me well. For those of you who wonder what I do with my days, the answer is: not a whole lot. This morning I woke up, read for a while, went for a jog (still a huge source of entertainment for the town), boiled some water to make oatmeal and tea (which I promptly expelled via copious amounts of sweat-hot drinks and tropical climates don't mix), and read some more. I would estimate that 90% of my days are spent either sleeping or reading. The other 10% is eating, thinking about foods I wish I were eating, and talking to my neighbors. I assume once school starts these figures will change, but for now my days are mostly sleeping and reading-my two favorite activities.
-Sleep: I can't believe I ever poked fun at Robin and Whitney for going to bed at 9pm. Here I'm in bed by 7:30 and lucky to still be awake by 8:30. I have adopted new ideals on an acceptable bed time.
-School: school is technically supposed to start in a week, but the government hasn't paid the teachers in months, so rumors are flying a out a teachers strike. I have decided to adopt an African frame of mind and not worry a out it. School will start when it starts. If that means I have to crunch all of biology down into 3 weeks, then so be it.
-A shout out to the Visalia French's: I've identified my first bird! Well, I've tried at least. I've seen some pretty cool birds so far, but I picked 3 of my favorites to look up in my bird book. The first is either a Bar-Breasted Firefinch, a Red-Billed Firefinch, or a Blue-Billed Firefinch. When I first saw it I thought, 'small red bird, the female is grayish, shouldn't be hard to identify.' Wrong! There are apparently a lot more small red birds in Sierra Leone than I had anticipated. There's a similar story for my next identification, which is either a Yellow-Mantled Widowbird or a Red-Shouldered Cuckoo-Shrike, but the variety with a yellow shoulder, not red (or if I'm really honest with myself there's a good chance my birding skills are so poor that it was neither of those birds). When I saw the bird I was pretty confident in what I saw, but by the time I got out my bird book I couldn't quite remember how long the tail actually was nor could I recall if there was a slight fleck of yellow on the bill. My first lesson in attentiveness to detail in bird watching. The third bird I decided to look up I'm pretty sure is a Pin-Tailed Whydah--at least it's black and white and has a really long tail.
-Spiders: I promised my mom no snake or spider stories, so all I'll say is: eeeek!
I'm happy here and enjoying African life, but I still miss ya'll back home. Hope everyone is happy and healthy!
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