07/03/12-A Blog Edit & The Glass Half-Full

I decided to delete a blog entry from yesterday. I was feeling sick and I was being super bitchy and went on an "everything-that-was-irritating-me" tirade.

When I'm sick, I get all grumpy, I need time to myself to heal and decompress and it's hard to do that in this situation. So it just put me in a shittier mood. Yesterday, I fought off my symptoms with an overdose of Emergen-C packets, tons of fluids, a break from rice & plasas, I even took a 10min nap in the A/C medical unit, and slept the rest of the day after school.

Today, I feel better. I felt a little guilty of everything I was bitching about. This is just part of the emotional cycle that Gayle, our co-director, went over with us. I have a really good support system here in Salone. The PC Resources from Salone 1&2 have been awesome about telling us the real deal and we have become close with our Salone staff members. The PC Trainees have been great as well, it's comforting to know that we are all dealing with similar issues of physical & mental health. I think that this is the reason why we've all become very close in such a short amount of time.......we understand.

I felt bad for snapping at Jr and saying "Yu lef me!". I mean, he's just a kid. I know kids are just curious and I got all snappy when he kept touching the solar charger I specifically told him not to touch. Duh, he's a kid, he's gonna touch it. Everyday, he always sings songs for me saying how "sista Kenyah na fayn" or "sista Kenyah na bomba uman" or "a luv mi sista Kenyah" or how he grabs my face and jumps up for a kiss and tells me he loves me. So yes, I was being a total grinch. He really is a sweet kid. Whenever I eat and Mama Kenyah leaves the room, he always sneaks up and whispers in my ear "sista Kenyah, yu gi mi smol" and he gives me what we now call "bobo ay dem" where he bats his eyelashes to coerce me into giving him my food, lol.

The people of Sierra Leone are some of the nicest people I've ever met. I hadn't seen Alaka, the Security Lead, since Freetown and he just cheered me up with his smile and this ridiculously loud shirt he was wearing and I told him "Yu get fayn klos fo bluff tide". Or like when Frederick makes his rounds to all the language classes and I always compliment him whenever he wears his Kangol paperboy hat. He always laughs whenever I say "Usay de yu at? A lek am!". Or Abubakar, he's just a very animated guy whenever he talks, so our new daily joke is talking about the Limba Man.

For some reason, every culture has that one ethnic group that always gets made fun of. For the Sierra Leoneans it's the Limba Tribe. I guess the Limbas are generalized as large brutes that lack grace or something to that degree. So we "trangga lek da Limba man dans". Sierra Leoneans don't give firm handshakes and I explained to the Salone staff how in America it's good to give a hearty handshake. When I first met Lansana, our resident Limba man, I was surprised to receive a firm handshake so it kinda made sense that Lansana is Limba. Whenever I see Lansana now, he gives me these pathetic weak handed handshakes, lol.

Contrary to the stereotype, Lansana can dance, so he doesn't stomp around like some heavy-footed brute. Actually, I haven't met a Sierra Leonean that doesn't know how to dance, in fact, all of them dance well and they love to dance whenever an opportunity presents itself. This was proven to be true when we had that dinner party thrown for us by the Ministry of Education back when we first arrived. All of our LCFs (Language Instructors) were all gettin down. Dance, rhythm, and music is in their blood.

Last Saturday, we had a field trip to Tiwai Island, this wildlife reserve. I had a great time trekking through the jungle, shin deep in mud, spotting red & black monkeys, and making my way through the jungle overgrowth. But for me, the most memorable part of the trip was the poda-poda ride. Poda-Podas are the common mode of transportation in this country aside from the okada (motorbike). The poda-poda is a large van where the seats are ripped out and replaced with these ghetto metal benches. Kinda like if an old school bus made a bastard child with a 60s VW van. They managed to fit 18 of us in our poda-poda which was actually roomy for Salone standards b/c 2 of the 5 rows only had 3 people instead of 4. We got the VIP treatment, there wasn't even any livestock in the potas. My group had the best poda-poda, we had 4 LCFs with us. They were freestyling poda-poda roadtrip songs during the 3hr ride which were freaking hilarious. It made me forget that I was shifting my ass cheeks from left to right to minimize the numbness from the metal square bench extension they pulled out and called a "seat" as I interlocked legs with the 6'5" guy next to me and was spooning with the other guy in front of me.........."Let's all ride the Poda-Poda Connection" lol!

There's definitely ups & downs in this experience and I'm sure there will be more to come. I'm only human so it's ok to feel shitty sometimes. But today, I feel better aside from the fact that my right armpit stunk to high hell b/c I forgot to wear deodorant and it had been 2 days since I took a bucket shower. I have excuses: 1) I smelled bad b/c on Sunday I hiked it to town in the hot blistering sun and got back home too late to take a shower & 2)I slept too long after school yesterday and by the time I woke up it was too late to shower. So today, I was physically and mentally better and I ended my day with a refreshing shower and cleaned myself as clean as anyone can get in a dark dingy latrine and to cheer my mama up I even ate a tiny bit of rice with plasas so she won't stress out about me not eating.

I have to focus on the small wins and take things one day at a time.