Ok so I have officially moved into my own mud hut. I moved in on Monday and have successfully lived in the village for four whole days. I know to some of you that may seem like absolutely nothing. However, I'm pretty excited about it. Every day counts when you are taking it one day at a time. Overall I feel really really overwhelmed but generally good about the whole situation.
I feel llike I've got so much to do and everything takes so much time (sometimes unexpectedly). Like yesterday, I had aimed to go for a quick exploratory bike ride around my village just like 20k or something to get a feel for the place, when I got two flat tires in the matter for 25 minutes. No, I didnt have my repair kit with me. Yes, I was at the very farthest point that my ride would take me from my village. So three hours later I arrived back at my village with a broken bike, and ready to completely fix my bike, despite the fact that I have never changed or patched a bike tire before. Ok so Peace Corps. does give three bike maintenance sessions during our training but due to my social nature and general inability to focus when I'm with a large group (especially my PST group!) I may or may not have goofed off during allll three...whoops. Oh and rats attacked my food the night before (at least they were in my separate hut where I DONT sleep). So my general disposition was a bit off its usual sunny self... oh and the medicine I'm on for malaria prevention is causing third degree burns on my nose and hands (yes, even with sunscreen, and even with hats and gloves). So before I could do anything I had to take a bit of time to cool off (my hands mostly), and take a deep breathe...but the moral of the story is that I fixed it- on my own and that just when I was getting super frustruated the ambuya (grandmother) who lives behind my house brought me a bowl of bananas and groundnuts-just because and once again I had renewed faith in the world.
So one of the things I really like about my village is that its super sports oriented. Almost everyday at then end of the day the men father for soccer practice (they're really really good) and the women play netball (think water polo meets basketball- no dribbling). Ive been playing netball the last couple of days and I really like it I feel like its one of the things I can do to bond with my community knowing very little of the language.
Hmm other than playing netball I've been trying to get my daily schedule down, and get a routine started. I sleep an incredible amount here. Its wonderful. I go to bed around 8 and sleep till 6- the best part is that I am no longer a slave to an alarm clock! I'll probably start waking up earlier once I get going with projects but until then sleep sleep it is.
I've hung up some pictures on my walls to remind me of home and they make me so happy whenever I see them. So...SEND ME MORE PICTURES of everything thats going on while I'm gone. I'd seriously seriously love it. And letters these first three months of community entry (when I'm not techincally working but just getting to know my community) are supposed to be pretty difficult so any letters between now and then will be extremely appreciated
Right now I'm in Chipata, I was supposed to go to a meeting today but surprise surprise it got postponed till next week...surprise surprise.
