My Health

Hello again all, it has been a while and a lot has happened. Yet, at the same time, not much has happened. That’s how life goes. As always I wish I could share the realities of my experiences, but unfortunately the best I can do is describe a few of them…

I’ll start with a note for those of you who are generously concerned for my health: it has been fine. I have not been sick since training and I have gained back the weight that I lost. The family that I eat with most the time cooks VERY well. (I eat meals that would be acceptable in the U.S.) I had some volunteer friends visit and one of them said the following: “I can’t believe it, this meal is ­actually healthy.” In the words of Bill Murray: so I’ve got that going for me. My mental health has been a little rockier but I am still doing well in this respect also. Loneliness, irrational frustration, anger towards kids/goats, depression, home sickness, boredom, and culture shock are some of the negative emotions that I have experienced. As far as I can tell these are all normal for the situation that I am in and I seem to be handling them well. From what I’ve been told, these sorts of troubles should taper off over the next two months, and then reappear close to the middle and the end of my service. I wouldn’t say that my emotions have been like a roller coaster, perhaps that I have just been operating at a lower level than normal. The good news is that through all of this I have kept a generally positive attitude and have not wished that I wasn’t here once. I consider that a pretty good achievement. Its sort of like this: while I am not always enjoying it, I am glad I am here.

So far the gain for all of this pain is that I am beginning to settle in. I established a routine and then broke it for one that is better. I know where to buy peanut butter (the literal translation for peanut butter, “tigi dege” in Pulaar, is “very peanut”). I established a budget, went way over it, and I am now back on track. Also I have already learned some important lessons that I imagine will stay with me throughout my life:

- All people are more alike than they are different.

- Most of the world eats a lot of rice

- How exciting it can be when ANYTHING happens

- How quickly you can find genuine friends (when you speak the same language)

- It is possible to sit and do absolutely nothing for hours and not be bored

- Nice people will rip you off

- When buying peanut butter, honey, and dates felt like a shopping spree

- Treats are meant to be consumed immediately and not saved. Saving them only turns them into a source of frustration.

- How much you are in control of your emotional state, what you experience, and how much you enjoy it