See ya later America (07.08.10)
Okie dokie well I am now on my bus out of Philly to Newark. Shit just got real as they say. Anywho Philly was fantastic, saw Ben Franklin’s grave, which for some reason has pennies thrown on to it. I guess if you give Ben a penny he will grant your wish as long as it has something to do with hookers, cause god did that man love those things. I also saw the Liberty Bell and a whole crap ton of halls, which filled me with enough America to hopefully last me two years. Orientation was very similar to high school syllabus day, but it was definitely nice to get to know everyone and hear that we are all going through the same overwhelming emotions.
I find that each step of the way I am getting more and more anxious/ terrified/ excited/ pants pissy/ pants poopy/ sad/ glad and all other emotions. I am a real bouquet of emotion to say the least. When saying goodbye to my parents it actually finally started to sink in “o holy shit, I wont be seeing these people for 2 years!” Saying goodbye to my brothers and parents was by far the hardest thing I have done in a very long time. The thought that contact is going to be limited and I will be gone for such a long time really makes me want to fill my pants with “shepherds pie.” I would have to say the thing that makes me the most upset, more so than the saying goodbye to loved ones, and such commodities as air conditioning, is the fact that I will not be seeing Predators starring the world’s most deadliest killers and Adrien Brody. I am sad I will not be seeing what I am certain will become an instant American classic (move over Citizen Cane!) in theaters in all its glory, as it is meant to be seen, but alas just another sacrifice I make to join the Peace Corps.
That being said these 14 other people I am with are all highly rad and I am excited to start forming a network of friends that is not possible without doing something as crazy as this. For the next two years these people will become my family.
NEW FLASH: I am in Delaware! At last a lifelong dream is fulfilled. O and I saw New York City from the Jersey airport, but I mean that pales in light of being in Delaware.
Monvrovia (07.09.10)
We have successfully landed in the beautiful country of Liberia. We were greeted by Peace corps volunteers from the country of Guinea, who do to political turmoil, had to be removed from their country of service and placed in Liberia for the past 6 months. These volunteers have been super awesome in giving us info on everything from local cuisine and drink to what a work week will be like. I was also fortunate enough to use the internet to send a quick email, however did not have the time to get my blogs posted, so as I am sure you have seen my blogs will be coming in big old chunks! It seems internet will be more accessible than originally thought, and phone calls home are a mere 10 cents a minute, so that is pretty right on. The one downside is the internet is crazy slow, if I were to make a comparison I would say the internet in America is like Karl Malone in his early seasons with the Utah Jazz, and the internet in Liberia is more like Karl Malone when he was playing for the Lakers, slow and unreliable.
This first 2 nights we are in a nun convent that has electricity and toilets! Totally rad. We will soon be moving to Kakata and living in a dorm for a week. After that we will move in with a host family for 7 weeks before going out to our actual work sites.
I have yet to see a hippo, or enough vipers to train into a moving carpet of transporation, but I suppose I have only been in country for 6 hours. Anywho pre service training starts in the morning so time for some shut eye.
TIA mother ‘ucker (7.11.10)
We moved to Kakata today, and it is starting to feel like Africa. Monrovia was cool, big city which has a shocking amount of stuff for sale. All the large stores are owned by the Lebanese one of which is a large grocery store. As it so happens this grocery store recently changed names/hands; a rumor circulating about the reason for that is the original owners lost in a game of poker, which I think is awesome thus I choose to believe it. Monrovia also has a large amount of trash blowing around similar to any other large city; the only difference is a large majority of the trash is plastic bags that people drink water from. The beach in Monrovia is used as a giant litter box for people, but I mean other than that it is positively beautiful.
Anywho like I said we arrived in Kakata today, a smaller city up country. This is where we will do 7 weeks of training, six of these weeks I will be staying with a host family which should be rad. I also had my first contact with real African wild life in the form of a FUCKING huge spider. This spider would not so much bite you as rip your entire face off. Essentially this spider found the same ooze the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles did in the film “Secret of the Ooze” and drank about twice as much as the Mikey, Donny, Leo, and Raph. Other than that spider everything has been pretty rad, sleeping in a mosquito net makes me like royalty because of the canopy feel it provides, and the mefloquin (my malary meds) gives me crazy dreams. Last night I dreamt I was driving a giant truck with a friend of mine, we stopped at a gas station got some snacks and a soda, then drove to the University of Missouri, where I drove up the stairs in my hoss of a truck and straight into a gym. In the gym I dropped my friend off at a volleyball game, and then rode back down the stairs in a wheelchair. It was weird. The food is pretty tasty, and always consists of large amounts of spice, is full of palm oil, and every meal has rice. Anywho the spice and the palm oil will take a bit of getting used to and are currently tearing up my tummy.
Bedtime which means two things: time to listen to the calming sounds of nature and have some super vivid dreams.
I also apologize for how poorly written and sporadic these are, my mind is in a million places right now.
Two weeks of Africa (7.23.10)
I am have now spent two weeks on the ground here in lovely Liberia. I moved in with my host family one week ago, which has been very pleasant. Though I would have to say the thing I miss the most about America is the variety of food. I made the mistake of telling my awesome host mother that I really liked her gravy (as a side note this “gravy” is not so much gravy as it is a red sauce with onions in it) since telling her this every meal has been this gravy. Every meal also contains fish, and the fish here is blech, at least it gets to be that way after eating three times a day e’eryday. Hot dogs are also huge here and are served for almost every meal that people can afford them. The topping of choice for all previously mentioned foods is mayonnaise, they have some kind of super mayo here that does not need to be refridgerated and it goes on every damn thing.
The city of Kakata is pretty awesome and has anywhere from 20,000 to 60,000 nobody really knows. I have hit the markay (market) a few times and done some serious haggling. As a white man they try to overcharge you on everything because it is assumed that all americans are NGO’s and rich as shit, which in the PCV’s case is not true. However, you bargain and haggle pretty awesome prices, for example I am wearing a totally sweet Messi soccer jersey that I scored for about $3 american. The catch phrase for when someone is trying to overcharge you is to ask them “wha ya wan ee my i-ba” or in American English “what do you want to eat my eyeball?” It gives me great joy shouting this a markey people.
Living conditions are pretty TIA, I take business calls in a shack with a hole in the ground (business calls=pooping) I shower from a bucket, I sweat myself to sleep every night, and do everything by lantern light in the night time. Yean I am pretty fucking bad ass, and yes I already did know that. Our training is Doe palace which has an awesome back porch on which I am currently setting. I wish all of you could see it because it is amazingly gorgeous totally rad rainforest for as far as the eye can see. Since being here I have also seen a monkey and an iguana kicking it in my backyard, which is way fucking cooler than that fucking house cat you so loving call Tinkers in your backyard. But seriously it is fucking hot as shit and humid, and if it is not hot as shit it raining like crazy and humid as shit. But all of this said I love it here and hoping the next 6 weeks of training hurry up so I can get to site! which has an awesome back porch on which I am currently setting. I wish all of you could see it because it is amazingly gorgeous totally rad rainforest for as far as the eye can see. Since being here I have also seen a monkey and an iguana kicking it in my backyard, which is way fucking cooler than that fucking house cat you so loving call Tinkers in your backyard. But seriously it is fucking hot as shit and humid, and if it is not hot as shit it raining like crazy and humid as shit. But all of this said I love it here and hoping the next 6 weeks of training hurry up so I can get to site!
Also the latest mef dream is that me and some friend were in a subway tunnel just climbing, I mean typical Sunday afternoon, anywho as we were climbing there were huge tidal waves outside. Some fucktard went out to take a picture and swept away. Than the tidal waves started causing the subway tunnel to collapse and I decided to get the fuck out of there by waking the hell up.
I apologize for the acronyms, Peace Corps pretty much only speaks in acronyms so get used to it.
Please go eat a Home Town Buffet for me. Again I apologize for the sporadic paragraphing and overall poor grammar, it is gonna be like this.
