My tongue is swollen and sore. It was all those mangoes I ate last night. It hurts but I don’t intend to stop. Sometimes I am not too bright.
In a discussion with M this morning I said that while my sore tongue was unfortunate it was a reasonable price to pay for overindulging in something I enjoy and may not have much more time to indulge in as freely. Thank goddess for Mangoes, even if I seem to be developing an allergy to them.
I got to a yoga class last night. It felt so good.
I always walk out of those classes feeling all blissed out and good.
I need to make sure make regular yoga a part of my daily life for the next year or so.
I think I may try and sneak a yoga class in at silly college while I take care of my pre-reqs.
I spent most of the morning looking up GPS units online. Fun stuff. I don’t really get to play with fun technology anymore these days so it was a good time. Asi and I sat around my computer and oohhhed and awed at the monitor. My next step is to pick one, and write a proposal to buy it. Tho we had a visitor from PUMA today who wants our Electric layer information. Information we can’t give them. And they already have GPS equipment. Maybe we can strike a deal to go out with them and get it. It would be nice to have some inner office cooperation. They have the equipment and software, and we could help them get the information in exchange for… well in exchange for helping us get it. Does that sound funny to you? Yeah it does to me to. Anyway fun times here at EPC. I hope everyone else is doing something as interesting.
I got a new chair.
No wait.. it isn’t new, it is just different. I am hoping it alleviates my back pain.
Once again I find myself missing Fall.
It has been raining a lot here lately. It makes the days dark and gloomy. Which the recovering goth in me loves but it doesn’t do a lot for my homesickness for fall.
I can just see myself jonesing for sun in a few months.
What can I say… I am fickle.
There is a lot of work for me to finish up and help out with before I leave. I am really excited about the prospect of many of my projects. I am working on some systems that if/when they get implemented will really be a huge benefit to the Engineering department in providing more accurate pictures of energy usage in Samoa. And these accurate pictures are the first step towards better fuel efficiency and energy production.
Max told me not to let go of the idea of a future in Engineering… and it is times like these when I get excited about these projects that I think maybe… there is still something to that. Who knows… maybe I will end up being a fireman, or a ballerina or a cowgirl or one of the other village people when I grow up.
Everyone who joins the PC does so for their own reasons. None of us can really speculate on the reasons of others. Just our own.
And with all of the COS stuff I have been attempting to take care of lately, I have been reflecting a lot upon why I did it.
I know it was a long time dream of mine (And fulfilling your own dreams feels great BTW: I highly recommend it.) I know I needed a change from the world I lived in. But I also think… a little bit of me feels like it is my way of finding redemption for sins of the past. I’m not sure what those sins are exactly. Who knows if they are real or simply perceived. Or maybe I thought if I saved the world I would finally be worthy of… of what? Something I feel unworthy of I guess.
I know this, I set out to save the world and I ended up saving myself.
I guess it all worked out as it should have eh?
I woke to a roaring rain storm this morning.
The rain always makes it more difficult for me to get out of bed.
Not to mention I was a bit confused as we are supposed to be in the midst of the “dry season”. Water rationing began “officially” earlier this week but with all of the rain we have been getting it may not have to last. Especially since the “wet season” is supposed to begin again in a few weeks. Maybe we will get lucky and mostly dodge the bullet (or the rationing) this year.
Once again I am missing Fall. It is my favorite time of year at home, and we don’t get anything like it here. I went through this same thing last year. It was worse in fact.
I think the rain helps, and the fact that I am busy doing fun and interesting things.
I have been listening to TNBC soundtrack all morning. It makes me happy! Maybe it is because we don’t really have much in the way of seasons here… so thinking about Halloween and Fall is fun for me.
Also I am very much looking forward to the following things.
Being able (or required) to wear hats, scarves, sweaters. (Tho I’m sure that won’t last long)
Having my Sewing machine all the time.
Not having to deal with Water rationing. (It began Monday night.)
Remembering what Autumn looks and feels like.
I think I am going to go buy a pumpkin.
Vegetables tend to be sold here in large quantities and I more often than not, I cook for one person. So whenever I buy something I am usually committing to a week or so of eating it. For instance Eggplant are cheep here but often sold in bags large enough to feed 10 people at a time. I don’t buy eggplant very often.
Finding the motivation to eat a whole pumpkin (even a small pumpkin here tends to be on the medium to large side) has in the past been a problem for me. I can make some kind of pumpkin soup, and usually some sort of pumpkin mash that is good for breakfast. But by then I run out of ideas and the rest of the pumpkin sits in fridge until it has thoroughly rotted and I have to throw it out.
Soooo this time around I am thinking I will add some sort of pumpkin custard and maybe pumpkin bread in the mix and see if I can stand to eat the whole thing.
(Suggestions welcome)
In other news… It looks like I am going to get to see some of autumn this year. WOW that is exciting.
Mo and I met for lunch today. We may have had a bit to much coffee….
I say this because after lunch we went to CCK (a local second hand shop that receives a lot of second hand clothing from overseas) and invented our new favorite game.
I like to call it… “Who’s dress is uglier”.
We went to the section of second hand dresses and she took one end of the isle and I took the other end. We each searched our part of the isle for the ugliest most outrageous and offensive dress we can find. At which point we turn and face away from each other and when we are both ready we turn around at the same time and see who’s is worse….
I laughed so hard I almost fell down.
My friend Skye and I are kindred girl geek souls. We had a whole conversation the other night about a literary super hero, who’s super power was the ability to create new language. At which point she mentioned that Shakespeare invented a ton of new words. Maybe he was a literary super hero, or maybe the English language was just due for a few more words at the time. Who knows!
A centipede ran over my foot the other night.
I responded by throwing one of my heavy yoga blocks on it and jumping up and down a few times. After which I took a couple of Bennadryl and passed out. My foot stung a bit, but didn’t swell much.
I guess this means that centipede season has begun. For most of the year they stay out of my house. However in the dry season I think they come out of there hidey holes and go in search of water. I know Mia got stung a few times last year… I wonder how she will react to them this year.
Speaking of Mia. It looks like I have found a good home for her after I leave in November. My friend Skye has fallen in love with her and offered to love and adore her in the manner that she has become accustomed to. I think they are a good girl-dog match. And I am relieved that, that is taken care of.
I am sore and tired. It is that pre-flu kind of sore. Flu-shots suck.
Tho I did find out something interesting about why DC is so adamant that all volunteers be inoculated. I guess they have had a few cases of volunteers in Asia that may have contracted bird flu. So in order to rule out a normal case of influenza when trying to diagnose bird flu, we all need to be inoculated. It makes sense I guess. But I still wish it wasn’t necessary.
My body has been strong enough to live through some pretty evil things here. Bad bad cases of food poisoning, Epic long bouts of strep throat, Giardia and the giardia medication (which is just as bad, if not worse) plenty of cuts and scrapes that get infected or nasty and even a few hangovers that made me pray for death.
I am so looking forward to living someplace where I am not sick most of the time.
Teulia, our PCMO is very very sneeky.
And… I’ll tell you why I think so.
Several months ago in a series of incidents that can only be described as “wacky” BOTH pairs of glass I brought with me were broken within a matter of days of each other. Leaving me without a proper pair. (or really any pair at all.)
So I marched down to Teuila’s office and had her order me a new pair from the med office in DC. They said the new glasses should be in, in six to eight weeks. This was sometime around the end of June.
Mid July came and mo and I left for NZ. I couldn’t really see and I needed to drive. Which was an issue, so I bit the bullet and got an extra pair made in Wellington. (I picked out just about the cheapest frame I could but still.. it wasn’t cheep.)
But I was still hoping the extra pair from PCOMS would come in. Two months passed and there was no sign of them. Then Teulia puts out the call that all volunteers should come into the office at their earliest convenience and have a Flu shot.
I hate flu shots… I inevitably always get the flu from them.
But this one is compulsory (read: mandatory) and we all need to take care of it, preferably right away. So I did the only thing imaginable that I could do… I hid.
I avoided the office and Teulia like the plague (which is exactly what she wanted to gave me.)
Yesterday I sent her a “where are my glasses?” e-mail…
To which she responded… “come get your flu shot.”
GAH!
This afternoon I went in to pick up my glasses.
I even took brownies to bribe her with.
No love, she gave me my shot, and then my glasses.
I can see, but I don’t feel so good.
I’m going home.
Slowly, but steadily a mountain of paperwork and other crap is building on my desk.
When I returned from my NZ holiday a month ago (ok a little more than that) I could see the surface of my desk in many many places. Most of it infact. Now… I think there may be a little space between my keyboard and monitor…. Wait here, I will check.
Yup there it is… for the record… my desk is… Gray.
This mountain of crap consists of
One large folder of transformer files.
Several random (and indecipherable) transformer files scattered throughout the pile.
Most of the contents of my COS packet
A calendar I printed out from Word and taped together
An EPC phone list
A few memo’s from the project I am working on.
Two coffee cups, one empty and one half full of water.
A DVD my Uncle sent me of his vacation in Germany.
Several old newspapers
Another folder with … well I have no idea what is in it and I’m not about to look now.
A large pad of paper I scribble notes on.
A roll of tape
A phone bill.
What is on your desk?
I have made a crack at my resume. I found the old version, updated it, and then sent it to someone to look at. It feels… good...pro-active.
Andy (a fellow volunteer from Group 71) stopped in to take me to breakfast this morning. He teaches at the national University and has this week off. So he just though it would be nice to spend some time hanging out. We talked about post PC stuff. Getting a job, going back to school, getting married and having kids or not. We agreed that those were all very grown up things, and therefore scary. It helped a lot to talk to someone in the same boat. I adore Andy. I adore all the people in my group. I am thrilled it worked out this way.
I was feeling a bit down this morning. So at lunch I walked over to the market to see if a little retail therapy would lift my spirits. I had heard that Mangoes were dropping off trees in Motootua so I figured I might find some in the market. I did manage to find one, but I seriously over paid for it (I paid 2 tala, and in a month I should be able to get 4 for that much money.) and it won’t be ripe yet for another few days. No worries I’m sure it will be worth it.
Other big news is that I found a really nice Avacado (which I also over paid for) that is ready now. And that Fala (pinnapple) is heading back into reasonablely affordable prices again. (Last week I saw a small fala for 28 tala… I nearly choked… the same size today was about 15. In another month it will be 3 to 5 tala.)
This is all very exciting because I am really tired of the year round fruits like fai (banana) and esi (papaya, which I don’t much like anyway). I am looking forward to eating myself sick (or at least sore) on Mago and Fala in a few weeks :D I know it is decadent but I don’t care.
In a package I got from Max long ago (I think the birthday package) was the DVD Together. I finally finished watching it last night. WOW. It was a beautiful movie. If you can sit through foreign films and like artsy flicks I highly recommend it.
In other news I just had a great meeting about my project. It was small and very productive and I am really excited about seeing how the project pans out in the end. I wish I was in this spot with the project three months ago, but these things take time. I briefly thought about seeing if I could get a 3 to 4 month extension to give me extra time to see it through. But that idea passed just about as soon as it entered my mind. Just because I had more time doesn’t mean that things would get done in that time.
The Teuila Festival began today. I wish I had my camera. The parade begins at 4:30 and Pisa and I are going to get a seat at the Harbor side inn and watch it.
Speaking of Pisa… She lent me her girls on Saturday morning. Peta is 16 and we ride to school/work with her every morning. Little Pisa is 6. The idea was for Peta to help me with my house. Which she did, marginally anyway. And Little Pisa drew me pictures for my Fridge. Then we watched “50 first dates” together and had a good laugh. I think I may have a better idea of what it may have been like for my Aunt when I hung out with her as a kid. I think they were both pretty mesmerized seeing what a Palagie woman who lived by herself, looked like. I hope we do it again next week.
Getting to know the new kids is always a very interesting process.
They are so green (and by that I mean, new to this place), and I am… well I am not. I am “short” (as in short timer).
There are charts and graphs and all kinds of statistics that predict how we volunteers will be doing or feeling at any given point in our service. And they tend to be generally accurate even. (Which is saying something for a prediction from a government agency!)
At this point there eyes are so full of stars and optimism. Everything is new and beautiful and amazing. I will admit I envy that perspective sometimes.
I guess the “shiny” of this place has worn off a bit for me. Don’t get me wrong, I still think it is amazing and gorgeous here. But I am no longer blissfully ignorant of the drawbacks of a developing nation. I guess it would be accurate to say that my ideal paradise has been destroyed by my ability to see and understand the whole picture.
Unfortunately I still prefer seeing the whole picture, even if it is not nearly as pretty as the idealized version in my head. I think I especially clung to the idealized picture of life here and what a PCV experience is like. So you may think that this would make it easier for me to be gentle, patient and kind when it comes to interacting with other more green volunteers. However the catch 22 of this is… It doesn’t. By the time I got to be short I also got to be a little older, more set in my ways and just generally crankier.
WOW I do ramble on don’t I. Well then move along now…ignore the rambling old woman.