Stories from the Past; Peace Corps Lessons Learned

1) I GOT ATTACKED BY A MONKEY. I was at the Waterfall Bar with fellow volunteers. At this place they had a little monkey. We would save a little of the end of our beers and give it to the said monkey. The monkey enjoyed the cervezas. It would spill the dregs of the beer on the ground and then lap it up. Me being the lover of animals and a capacity-builder by trade, I decided to have a one-on-one workshop with the monkey. How to drink from a bottle with optimum efficiency. But when I tried to grab the bottle to show it how it attacked me. Monkeys are cute little creatures but tend to look like a whirlwind of teeth and claws when provoked. I know now, not to ever take a beer from a monkey.

2) MY PIT LATRINE COLLAPSED. I was in my pit latrine near my hut. I needed to go. After dropping my trousers my floor decided to disintegrate into a much larger whole. The whole got much wider and I struggled to not land in a whole filled with my excrement. What saved me from a fate worse than death was the hours of quality time I had spent watching kung fu films with my roomate, Greg. Using my extensive knowledge of archaic martial art technique I shot my hands out at a lightning speed and grabbed the walls. It was fast. The floor continued to dissolved but I managed to grab the necessary anchors to prevent me from falling. I made it. I now know that something as simple as watching TV can save your life.

Running Scared.

I love certain types of punctuation. Maybe not spelling but definitely, I love semicolons and periods. Maybe the occasional comma. And this might eventually lead me to my next subject: Life. I'm supposed to know what I'm doing. I feel like I'm faking it. I think I'm doing a good job because I'm starting to believe it. I want to go to Graduate School. I want to work in International Development. I want to teach History in a university setting. I want to learn Spanish. The only thing I really want is to fall in love and stay in the Peace Corps until I'm sick and tired of helping people overseas. That's not too much to ask is it? Well, yeah, actually. Because half of it relies on other people. Darn it. I am some what of a fatalist, but I also believe in making one's on choices. I just wish you could choose which choices you could give to other people (or powers) to make for you. This is getting metaphysically difficult now. What a concept. I want to choose to have people to choose for me but only at the time I choose. Is that too much to ask for? I want my future to be planned for me. Maybe not planned but at least have a general outline. You will marry this girl, you will work this job at this place. Leave the "how you got there" to me. I could work better that way. I don't like all these choices sometimes. Also this love thing. Could someone else choose for me? I guess in a way my heart does all that but then couldn't I just bypass the whole dating process and go straight to, I don't know, having a girlfriend that I want to spend all my time with. That would be effortless and great. But I guess nothing comes for free. I guess if I want to respect love I have to work for it. Like working before breakfast. It makes the meal taste better. That's the ticket. I guess. Well, that was my stream of conscious rant. Enjoy Internet, enjoy.

Where I am at.

I have been back in the States for a short bit of time now. It's exciting. All these tasty beverages. I had an IBC cream soda in the detroit airport. I had a few good micro brews in Tennessee. I plan to have a root beer float pretty soon. I look foward to it. I also had a bagel with cream cheese. The bagel was slightly burnt but darn tasty.
My father's wedding was nice. It was short and quite entertaining. There were a bunch of old friends I had not seen in a long time. Dad bought a suit for me so my brother and I looked really sharp. There will be pictures. They will be priceless. More later.

Tshirts too much

I seem to collect random stuff. I have tshirts from middle school. Not cool ones with unicorns but ones that say I was an honor student. Is that lame? I have all my old Zoobooks. I still have the Fear Streets that I read. I have buttons from when I worked at a movie theatre in college. I have bathing suits from when I was a lifeguard. . . I was 15! I have every ticket stub from every movie I watched in the cinema from the year 1996 till 2005. That's a lot of tickets. I have a plastic braclet that was given to me at a hot spring in Washington State so that I could get a towel from the staff. I have so much stuff. After living in poverty in a third world country (that global south again) I now feel embarrassed to have so much stuff. Sometimes a kid only has a tuna can and a condom for toys. I am affluent. I gave him the used tuna can. Sometimes I wonder about myself.
I am cleaning everything out now. Everything must go. I should nothing that cannot fit into a compact car and be driven away. Time to clean my house, my stuff, and my conscience.

Adjustment

I have arrived in beautiful Tennessee. Whoa. This place is humid. The water just kind of pools on the hairs of my chest. I don't have many chest hairs but I still get the little darker spot on my shirts from the sweat. I am just not used to the constant swimming I have to perform in the air. Just walking seems like I'm working out in a sauna.
Yesterday I drove. This is a big fear for me. I wasn't sure if I could handle it. Anyone who has driven on my road (maples branch) not what I mean. It is very thin and very curvy. Plus Americans drive like maniacs. I was a little intimidated. Yikes. But I grew some testicles and got in my little gold saturn and drove around. Of course I was making a big deal out of nothing. My body knew what to do. I drove on the correct side, I didn't freak out when a car came by and I didn't get lost on the new crazy amount of roads that are in the area. So today I will drive to Glades Road to meet Ben Myers for a beer at the Fox and Parrot Tavern. I will listen to new music and love the drive.
I bought some CDs yesterday. I bought Feist's the Reminder. I love it. It's great. I more poppier Broken Social Scene. Just fantastic. I really like it a lot. I also bought Easy Tiger by Ryan Adams. Sky Blue Sky by Wilco. Wincing the Night Away by the Shins. They all sound great. Today I will listen mostly to Ryan Adams. I need some roots/americana/rock/alt-country today.
My first meal in the states was interesting. I arrive in Detroit, which is a nice looking airport, no Amsterdam but still pleasant. Their take on the United Terminal at Ohare was interesting. This was a panic inducing version with bright flashing lights. I then found a Fuddrucker's. So I bought an IBC Cream Soda. I haven't had one of those in years! So I just sat there giggling. I must have looked crazy just drinking a creamsoda with a shit eating grin plastered on my face. I then could not help but stare at the this enormous fat guy just stuffing his face in. Yeah, I don't chew when I eat but I hope I don't look like the fat guy from Monty Python's Meaning of Life when I eat. It was disgusting. Just a really fat guy shoveling food into his trap. I need to make sure I don't look like that. It was a sure fire welcome to the states. The land of affluence and fat fucks. Scary.