Saturday, September 27, 2008

40 km and Caterpillars, Oh My!

Dear World,

Warning: WHINING

My physical address has not changed. I usually receive your letters eventually (two weeks to a month). However, please don't send me anymore e-mails telling me that it is expensive to write me a letter. I am sorry if this sounds rude, but it is frustrating. To use the internet it costs me about an eigth of my daily salary for an hour. On top of that, the connection is so slow that I usually have to pay for at least two or three hours to get anything done and the keyboard is usually sticky. For example, this morning I have been trying to download a file that is 500 KB (a Word document). I have been connected for an hour and a half and the download has failed so many times that I have lost count! I am sure it does not cost you an eigth of your daily salary to send me a letter. I can never get as much done as I hoped.

Now, in addition to all that, I have to bike 40-45 km to get to the internet, and worse yet, 40-45 km to get back. The place 15 km from me is broken as usual. This bike ride takes somewhere between 1.5-2.5 hours depending on weather. AND, since I live on the edge of three provinces, there's no cars/trucks that actually go from my village towards the nearest source of internet. I biked for two hours this morning and didn't see any trucks try to run me over. Are there any alternatives? I can spend my entire day's salary to pay for transport to get to Yako, where there is a connection that is only slightly better. The other alternative is to go to Ouaga and stay the night. There I don't have to pay for internet, but I do have to pay to stay some place.

At all of these locations that are not anywhere close to my kitchen, I have to pay for food. The cost of which gets significantly higher the closer I get to a good internet connection. Fortunately, I need less of it as I get further away since I am not biking a ridiculous amount.

Please, no more e-mails telling me that it is expensive to write me a letter. I am sure it does not cost as much for you physically or financially as it does for me.

END OF WHINING

In other news, I meant to post stuff the last time I was in Ouaga, but I was working on my 42 page EPS (gym) document that rocks. Ex-Neighbor can attest to it since she saw a copy!

I am very sad that a lot of my favorite primary school teachers are leaving for bigger brighter villages. Some of them came by to pick stuff up, so I got to say good-bye to them. The school year starts this week, which means that classes really get going next week. I will try to get online next weekend, too, because I have been meaning to visit my second closest neighbor Marty. However, after that I plan on disappearing into the bush as usual, emerging occasionally only to get tests printed for my students.

By the way, I ate caterpillars (chenilles). I wanted to upload pictures but the internet hates me.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Cheesy Tastes Good

Hello world. So, I did not get much accomplished in the way of work while on vacation---as expected by everyone, especially ex-neighbor. It's okay, I have a little bit of time left to get some lesson and project planning done before the school year gets rolling. I've been working hard to finish up a guide to teaching gym, in French, with little resources, and possibly a lack of background in physical education. With dedication (i.e. not sleeping all day long due to jet lag and extreme rain), this should be finished around sometime mid-next week.

I got back to village on Sunday. My house of course was dusty (and still smells dusty), but not too dirty overall (by my standards, which means by most PCV standards it was practically spic and span). Amazingly enough, my courtyard is a jungle, again! There are cucumbers, green beans, squash, millet and all sorts of other crazy things growing. Will post pictures later (as usual). Thursday night/Friday morning it rained so hard that my roof started leaking and I thought I would go deaf. I can't find the hole though, so maybe the wind lifted the roof just enough to let the pouring rain inside. This year, though the rains started late, it has been raining almost every other day, which is wonderful! The crops are actually tall and fruit-laden. Funny because up until August, I swore that the clouds parted at my village and went around it before reforming to rain on the next village.

I haven't been doing a whole lot in village outside of reading and sleeping and working on lesson plans. The whole jet lag and not sleeping because of lights everywhere thing for a month has really taken a toll on my body, and it really just appreciated being able to do nothing for the past week. Unfortunately, most of my reading has been disappointingly disturbing, confusing, boring or all three at the same time. That's why I like to come back to this little passage on love by Katharine Hepburn in her autobiography ME:

...what "I love you" really means. It means I put you and your interests and your comfort ahead of my own interests and my own comfort because I love you.

What does this mean?

I love you. What does this mean?

Think.

We use this expression very carelessly.

LOVE has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get---only with what you are expecting to give---which is everything.

What you will receive in return varies. But it really has no connection with what you give. You give because you love and you cannot help giving. If you are very lucky, you may be loved back. That is delicious but it does not necessarily happen.

It really implies total devotion. And total is all-encompassing---the good of you, the bad of you. I am aware that I must include the bad.

---This gave me great pleasure, the thought that this was pleasing him.

...There is an enormous difference between love and like. Usually, we use the word "love" when we really mean like. I think that very few people ever mean love. I think that like is a much easier relationship. It is based on sense. A blind spot---love.

When I think about this, I realize that I'm very lucky. Most of my relationships (families, friendships, etc.) aren't based on sense. If sense prevailed, I probably would have given up completely on most of my relationships a long time ago. In fact, many of you probably would have given up on me, considering my less attractive qualities (being human and all). So, I just wanted you all to know that when I am feeling lonely and just want to hear from someone (because ex-neighbor ditched me and all!), I remember your love. We might not be able to hear or see each other often, but you're there with me, just like I'm there with you.

Cheesy feel good aside. No, I'm not posting to you live from village. I really wish that I could! I biked in 40 km to hang out with my neighbor PCVs, get groceries, and get some internet time. I plan on heading back home this afternoon, after getting rehydrated and fed. The sad thing is, this won't be the most I have biked in a day. Don't worry, I will try to be more contactable this year (ha! I've said that before), or at least in a week and a few days, I will be online again in Ouaga. Courtney is COS'ing, and as sad as I am to see him go, I will be glad to celebrate him going. Besides seeing him off... sort of, I have the usual paperwork stuff that I want to get done. Unfortunately this is paid internet on a sticky keyboard; I will try to respond to emails in a week or so.