06/16/12-Small Wins & A Revelation

I guess if you really need to take a crap.....you're gonna take a crap......and so I did the very next morning. A personal victory for myself. Funny how Peace Corps makes TMI so non-existent, I told all my friends when I got to school and they all high-fived me, yes.....they understand. "Mi belli de run" or a case of diarrhea is a subject often brought up even during lunch hour, lol. Luckily for me, that hasn't been the case.......yet. It's bound to happen, I know, but I'm knocking on wood for now.

My Krio is getting better.....or so I think. My host mama and host siblings have been good about helping me with bits and pieces. As much as we've been warned to lay off the Mende, we ARE in a Mende village so in the end I caved and at least know how to greet in Mende and say my name. I know that my host family has been so eager to teach me Mende but, they have been really good about just speaking to me in Krio.

Alot of the awkward staring has settled down, the town is already aware of our arrival so it's almost "business as usual".......almost. My host family doesn't make me feel like an alien from outer space anymore, we just talk and hang out, and I play with the kids. Mi ol 3 ia baby broda Viktor, Jr is funny bc he constantly switches between calling me "Auntie" and "Sista".

The neighborhood kids still stare only bc they want you to say hello and give them high-fives.....no biggie.....done. And we pretty much walk the same path everyday so all the adults know us and greet us and say things like "Kushe Kenyah Simbo, tell your mama I say hello"

I have come to terms with the loss of my vanity. While sitting and observing a math class at Kakua Secondary School, I was fanning myself and smelled this musty odor, I wondered if it was the air or me. I smelled my armpits, smells great, fresh scent of Degree deodorant. So it can't be me, but it's still there. I smell my shirt and my hair.....oh ya, it's me. With exception to my armpits, I accept that I will smell musty for the next 2 years. Along with that, I have yet to shave, I was warned that boils is a common occurrence with PCVs, I even saw it with my very own eyes from one of the girls from Salone2. Her legs were the poster child for: "Make sure to clean and change your blades regularly" or "Never scratch your mosquito bites". I don't even remember the last time I saw myself in a mirror. I always tie my hair up and slap on whatever is on the top of my pack and hope that it all works out in the end. I've already accidentally worn my shirts inside-out, two days in a row, lol.

Friday night was great, since we've arrived we have constantly been under lock & key, and they finally let the kids run loose for the weekend, we still had to adhere to our 10pm curfew, lol. We all meet up at Vicani, the one of only 2 bar/clubs around town. It was a goodbye celebration for the PC Resource Trainers from Salone2. They have been great in regards to giving us insight of what is to come along with great tips of DOs & DONTs. We drank warm mediocre Star Beer and danced to Nigerian dance music (dope stuff forreals!) and celebrated our first official night out and to see the real Sierra Leone.

The next day was good. My host mama was teaching me how to cook. We made potato leaf with fish, onions, and peppers. I can't believe that I have to go all the way to Africa to learn how to cook, lol. I have no choice, when I'm by myself, I have to know how to start a fire and how to use the local ingredients or I'll starve to death.....there won't be a plethora of restaurants to choose from.....I done gone grown up now, haha.

So a bunch of small wins for me and that makes me happy :)

My one and only revelation is that I used to think that Filpino movies were so damn terrible. Well, I have had a change of heart. I would take a Pinoy flick anyday over a Nigerian film......oh god they're horrid!!!