“Sick as a Dog” Sundays

I am beginning to not like Sundays very much. Not only do I have to wait another 6 days until I get the football score of the Nebraska games, I always seem to be sick for them or get sick on them. Granted its my own damn fault for eating meat that I was told was safe for me, but had the gut feeling not to. Needless to say I spent most of the day in bed staring at the dead bugs on my mosquito net contemplating turning vegetarian, which I think I am going to for the remainder of my stay. With the exception of fish, whatever crazy term they call vegetarians who eat fish and what little dairy I can stomach, I will be one of those for the next 6+ months. Didn’t see that one coming, not me, not a kid from Nebraska who was raised on beef. What’s going to suck even worse than not eating meat now, is that I am going to have to reacquaint myself with it when I go home. At least I will have an entire medical system at my disposal along with Dr. Mom.

And there is something that I want to make very clear. While it seems that my writing may imply that I want or need pity, that is simply not the case. My blogs, as they have always been, are as much for the outside reader as they are for me. I want something tangible to be able to look back upon when all is said and done to be able to remember the look on my students faces when I walk into their housing complex just to visit, or seeing the look of joy on their faces when I hand back their exam scores (or maybe it’s the piece of candy that accompanies it), how invincible I felt when I ate rat, or how awful I for the following week. These depictions are as much to show you what life here is like as they are for me to remember and currently think about everything that I have done and am doing. So please, I am sick…not dead.

In other news my brother Eric once said after asked “If it was dark in there?” when coming out of a porta-potty, “Well it was at first, but then I pulled down my pants and there was a full moon.” He was 5 and it was priceless. I thought of that today because the electricity keeps coming and going, and the mini quick dry towel (I didn’t want to fork out another 40 USD for something that was just slightly bigger than what I already had) that I am currently using to shower only covers ¾ of my hips and thighs, so naturally I chose the ¼ to be my left cheek. I started laughing randomly walking into the shower the other night thinking of that quotes. And no, seeing a 6 ft white kid with shaggy hair scurry to a bathroom half wrapped in a little green towel is not an awkward site. This is Africa. Kids run around here naked all the time. This one is just really big and white!