Eight months in

Blog aug 27

Back at site, I actually kinda missed it. It was so good to come home and see my cat and see my neighbors and my host family. Then after those first questions as to where have I been and what I have brought back have sufficed its back to the village life.
So the big highlight was the soccer final in my village that my host brother helped organize. This was a very good venue to do a sensibilization on HIV/AIDS. But anyway this was pretty impressive, there were many people there, there were officials and everything. It was actually pretty cool. And I was made the “godmother’ of the tournament. I’m not sure exactly still what that means however I got to have a seat at the match. There were only a handful of chairs there. And also I got to start the match by being first to kick the ball. Yay! Well the match went well except for that it was raining half the time. Our team lost, it was 0-2. Man, I was a little upset but maybe next year. Then they gave out the trophy and then people got a little too rowdy so I went home. There was a soiree at the boite but I’m such an old woman now I was too tired to go at ten oclock.
Next month is Ramadan and I’m kinda anxious and nervous at the same time. I’m actually gonna try to fast but not force myself to do a whole month. I’m pretty sure I could do it but I’ve also started working out and I’d like to keep up with that next month and in order to do that I need to eat and more importantly drink lots of water.
So I finally took out my braids the other day, and found my hair has grown a bit. I have decided against dreads and decided to braid my own hair next time and leave the weave alone for now. We’ll see how that goes.
I wish I had travel plans however I do, because I feel kinda guilty leaving the village all the time. I like being there, I enjoy it but sometimes I just get really annoyed and need Kim time. Which is pretty normal however I don’t like being away for weeks, then coming back for two or three days and being away for another couple of weeks. So I’m gonna wait till next month. I wanted to visit another volunteer in Boke which is over 8hours and I wanted to go to the beach and visit my friend’s family so I’d definitely will stay a week and no one to feed my cat.
My cat has been very crazy lately. She is not a stupid kitty. Ok so when I moved in my house, my regional coorindator helped me install my screens in the windows but they did it backwards so I was unable to open my windows the way it was so he ended up cutting a hole at the bottom of the screen so I can lock and unlock my windows to open them. My cat has now established this hole as (for lack of a better word) “kitty door” and once open she likes to climb out as well as climb in through this hole in my screen. So I’ll be home lying in bed reading and she’ll start crying about something and then I’ll open the screen and she’ll jump out and then come back later with a half dead lizard in her mouth. Oh how wonderful. She really likes to find insects outside and then bring them inside to play with. She’s done this with lizards, mice, grasshoppers, and cockroaches. Probably others but these are all I’ve seen. The other day it was a tiny tiny mouse and it was squeaking as she playing with it with her teeth. LOL. I didn’t find the dead mouse I think she might of ate it.
How’s work? Its going pretty well. Coming back from a training I feel refreshed cause I’ve been with other volunteers and they are going through the same hardships and difficulties so I feel less terrible about failed projects. The next project I am working on which is going to be absolutely amazing is a HIV/AIDS themed soiree at the night club in my village. I don’t have much worked out yet I’m still trying to figure out how to do this and what I need and such but I hope to have it after the month of Ramadan when the night club reopens in October so that’s plenty of time to plan this craziness. I’m pretty excited because I think it will go over well if there’s games and such. And who doesn’t love games???
Other than that I cant think of anymore to say except that I miss home and always wonder what everyone is up to. Its weird to think its almost been a year since I left. Ha its crazy how time flies. Anyway with September around the corner; Happy Birthday mom, time generally speeds up around the upcoming holidays as well as birthdays. Happy birthday Brian. I still don’t know what Im gonna do for the big 23. Or whether I should tell people in my village, because they don’t really celebrate birthdays here like we do. I might get looked at like Im crazy but that’s nothing new.