Disclaimer this, Disclaimer that
***ONCE AGAIN i MUST TELL YOU ALL THAT I AM NOT IN ANY WAY EXPRESSING PEACE CORPS VIEWS ETC. THIS IS ONLY THE OPINIONS OF MYSELF***
Well, here I am updating my journal! I overslept today, and I'm paying for it now. I am really kinda pissed at a certain unnamed organisation right now for giving Katie some BS security blurb about a certain vacation spot. Do I sound like I work for the CIA? It seems that too much sleep really does change your mood. Anyway, I am going to have to change all sorts of things in my travel itenerary to India thanks to a lack of confidence from a security person who doesn't do his homework. It was tourists from another part of India who were casualties of that particular incident, and there are currently no embassy warnings about the area posted online. Sometimes I wish I were in charge of these things, then I think about being the person to hear complaints from people like myself everytime you screw up. I'll stick to being a not-quite-government employee, thanks.
Anyway, there are lots of other places to visit in India, so maybe someday in the future I can go to Varanasi. I need to just let off some steam, suck it up, and get back to the real goal: seeing Katie. This may be the single most exciting travel proposal for that reason alone. Hell, it coulda been on a cargo boat in a storm in the Indian Ocean for all I care, just to see her again. I sound like a desperate romantic: interesting combo, a fed-up, desperate, romantic, almost-government-employed, CIA-sounding-conspiracy-theorist. I guess you all remember Antho. :D
I know I've changed a lot since coming to Africa, but I think maybe most of those changes are on the outside. I felt certain ways inside, and have managed to adapt them to my personality here. That and adaptation to a new environment/living situation have probably temporarily sculpted a new me. Not to worry though, change is one of my strong suits. I'll always be the same, and I'll always be different. And really, I'll always say cheesy things to get a snicker out of you ;)
I would recommend to anyone who is even considering Peace Corps that the experience is priceless and well worth the bureaucratic crap you have to put up with. For me, living in an isolated village that even Peace Corps would prefer to avoid, makes the bureaucracy seem so far away. And village life is where it's at: no electricity, no running water, cheap-bad-quality beer, people who know you, and love to talk about any old thing. It's really wonderful, and there are so many great moments that I have had that would never have occured in America. "Like What?" you ask? Here are a few stories you all might like.
One night, myself, Marissa (the other volunteer in my village), and a bunch of our teacher friends, took the bus from my camptown to our village (the only way to get there). The bus left over an hour late, and we had to get out several times just so the bus could go up a few hills (the engine was apparently not strong enough with all of us in it, packed like sardines). We arrived about 7 villages and two unbridged rivers away from my village at around 8:30 pm, well after dark, and freezing cold, then had to walk through the mountains, across those two rivers (supposedly the most dangerous in the district) for a little over an hour, with all of our groceries for the day. Doesn't sound so bad, right? Well for me it wasn't bad, but there were people with TONS of groceries, and old women who probably shouldn't be walking, let alone at night, as well as mothers with babies or small children. You want a bonding experience? Try strapping a hundred pounds of other peoples' groceries to your camping pack, and wading through a river to help the elderly people stay balanced on the poorly placed rock-path. I love the people in my village and the surrounding ones, and I think they really like me too.
Another fun bonding experience is getting drunk with a bunch of police officers on the worst beer in the world (so far): Carling Black Label. I've learned a new appreciation for shitty beer in this country (since there are no alternatives), and I never thought police-men would turn out to be such great friends and drinking buddies!!! The police here are not like the police in the states, except in one respect: they still beat people suspected of crimes before bringing them in. It's a little different than beating someone because they're black (seeing as how both police and non-police citizens in this country are in fact of the darker brown varieties), but still just as violating in terms of rights. The closest thing to a crime in my area though is cattle theft, which usually doesn't result in any arrests, so much as recovery of said cattle to their owners. I've never witnessed a police beating here, but apparently they happen any time a person is accused of rape, murder, or assault. For some reason, I can't bring myself to argue this with too many people here, because unlike in America, they make pretty damn sure that the person they are after is guilty, meaning it may take forever to make an arrest, but the arrest is usually close to a hundred percent justified.
I guess that's all I have to share for now, and I am hungry for lunch, so I'll chat at you all again later. Hope I haven't given a poor outlook on my conditions, because I feel quite the opposite: surrounded by home. Oklahoma has only a few of my places to call home; Africa may hold many many more. Maybe India too!!! :D So, until I write again, love and peace to you all, and I'll try to write anyone who posts their address here.
Love, Antho
Well, here I am updating my journal! I overslept today, and I'm paying for it now. I am really kinda pissed at a certain unnamed organisation right now for giving Katie some BS security blurb about a certain vacation spot. Do I sound like I work for the CIA? It seems that too much sleep really does change your mood. Anyway, I am going to have to change all sorts of things in my travel itenerary to India thanks to a lack of confidence from a security person who doesn't do his homework. It was tourists from another part of India who were casualties of that particular incident, and there are currently no embassy warnings about the area posted online. Sometimes I wish I were in charge of these things, then I think about being the person to hear complaints from people like myself everytime you screw up. I'll stick to being a not-quite-government employee, thanks.
Anyway, there are lots of other places to visit in India, so maybe someday in the future I can go to Varanasi. I need to just let off some steam, suck it up, and get back to the real goal: seeing Katie. This may be the single most exciting travel proposal for that reason alone. Hell, it coulda been on a cargo boat in a storm in the Indian Ocean for all I care, just to see her again. I sound like a desperate romantic: interesting combo, a fed-up, desperate, romantic, almost-government-employed, CIA-sounding-conspiracy-theorist. I guess you all remember Antho. :D
I know I've changed a lot since coming to Africa, but I think maybe most of those changes are on the outside. I felt certain ways inside, and have managed to adapt them to my personality here. That and adaptation to a new environment/living situation have probably temporarily sculpted a new me. Not to worry though, change is one of my strong suits. I'll always be the same, and I'll always be different. And really, I'll always say cheesy things to get a snicker out of you ;)
I would recommend to anyone who is even considering Peace Corps that the experience is priceless and well worth the bureaucratic crap you have to put up with. For me, living in an isolated village that even Peace Corps would prefer to avoid, makes the bureaucracy seem so far away. And village life is where it's at: no electricity, no running water, cheap-bad-quality beer, people who know you, and love to talk about any old thing. It's really wonderful, and there are so many great moments that I have had that would never have occured in America. "Like What?" you ask? Here are a few stories you all might like.
One night, myself, Marissa (the other volunteer in my village), and a bunch of our teacher friends, took the bus from my camptown to our village (the only way to get there). The bus left over an hour late, and we had to get out several times just so the bus could go up a few hills (the engine was apparently not strong enough with all of us in it, packed like sardines). We arrived about 7 villages and two unbridged rivers away from my village at around 8:30 pm, well after dark, and freezing cold, then had to walk through the mountains, across those two rivers (supposedly the most dangerous in the district) for a little over an hour, with all of our groceries for the day. Doesn't sound so bad, right? Well for me it wasn't bad, but there were people with TONS of groceries, and old women who probably shouldn't be walking, let alone at night, as well as mothers with babies or small children. You want a bonding experience? Try strapping a hundred pounds of other peoples' groceries to your camping pack, and wading through a river to help the elderly people stay balanced on the poorly placed rock-path. I love the people in my village and the surrounding ones, and I think they really like me too.
Another fun bonding experience is getting drunk with a bunch of police officers on the worst beer in the world (so far): Carling Black Label. I've learned a new appreciation for shitty beer in this country (since there are no alternatives), and I never thought police-men would turn out to be such great friends and drinking buddies!!! The police here are not like the police in the states, except in one respect: they still beat people suspected of crimes before bringing them in. It's a little different than beating someone because they're black (seeing as how both police and non-police citizens in this country are in fact of the darker brown varieties), but still just as violating in terms of rights. The closest thing to a crime in my area though is cattle theft, which usually doesn't result in any arrests, so much as recovery of said cattle to their owners. I've never witnessed a police beating here, but apparently they happen any time a person is accused of rape, murder, or assault. For some reason, I can't bring myself to argue this with too many people here, because unlike in America, they make pretty damn sure that the person they are after is guilty, meaning it may take forever to make an arrest, but the arrest is usually close to a hundred percent justified.
I guess that's all I have to share for now, and I am hungry for lunch, so I'll chat at you all again later. Hope I haven't given a poor outlook on my conditions, because I feel quite the opposite: surrounded by home. Oklahoma has only a few of my places to call home; Africa may hold many many more. Maybe India too!!! :D So, until I write again, love and peace to you all, and I'll try to write anyone who posts their address here.
Love, Antho