Ko mi suka! Ko mi nayeejo!

Hello strangers. I am going to use my first blog in about 3 months to explain a little about my day to day life. In this explanation there will be very little description of my daily activities. So what, you may ask, am I to say. Every day (maybe this is exaggerating a little) I am asked why I am not married when in villages near me girls marry at age 15. Therefore I have passed the date by 7 years. My response is always "Ko mi suka" which translates to I am still a kid. I figure if I play soccer with the kids enough, join in the kids dance parties, and act anything but my age it will help. But no! These days, as a worn out Peace Corps volunteer my tune hasNchanged a little. My new excuse to getting out of things is "Ko mi nayeejo" or I am old. Why the change in opinion you may ask? I was pondering this very question as I walked the 2km walk to my 3rd garden for the 4th time in a week. Sorry if this comes out as a complaint but it seems to me to be more of a normality of life for those of us overseas deal with daily. Picture the human body. Start from the head and move down.

*Head- headache daily from trying and failing to effectively communicate a single point you were trying to make in the local language as well as the stresses of every day life.

*Nose- Allergies off and on due to the dust and sand everywhere!!!

*Neck-Lets just say carrying 30-40 10lbs buckets of water on your head in order to help water the womens garden twice a day is not a great friend to your spine.

*Elbows and wrists- If you are denied the joyful opportunity of carrying water on your head, you will be wielding a watering can for approximately 1 and 1/2 hours twice a day. A watering can doesn't seem that heavy but you might change your mind after watering for that long.

*Back-In addition to the water carrying, the bed you sleep on at night is a 5 inch foam mattress laid on a cement floor or a cot. Not very accomodating to a tired and weary body.

*Stomach-Lets just say us PCV's are known to have giardia here and amoebas there. I don't think my digestive system has been right for a solid two weeks since I've been here. This leads to the fun symptoms of bloating, stomach cramps, and oh so lovely diarrhea.

*Thighs-Well in the case of a giardia episode you may be squatting over a latrine hole many times a day. Lets just say for those of you unexperienced in squatting over a latrine hole, it only takes so long before your legs ache.

*Feet-Lets just say my feet happen to look like they went through a meat grinder most of the time. We all know my family is accident prone and now all of my village knows it as well. They report to me daily about new cuts or scrapes I have managed to acquire. I have more sores on my feet, ankles, and calves than I do toes on my feet. I do wear shoes but flip flops are not very accomodating to keeping out thorns, corn stalks, and every vicious article laying in my path. Oh and if they healed it would be a different story, but the tend to become infected and hold on for dear life. Maybe I will become the worlds leading doctor in foot infections when I finish my service. Added to this is the fact that I have a tendency to take a lengthy walk nearly every day. If I'm not seed collecting far out in the middle of nowhere, I am walking to the other village to work on the garden.

I don't know about you, but I think this might have a little to do with my newfounded opinion that I am no longer a kid, but that my age is nearer 80 now than 8. For those of you who do have more years than me and suffer from aches and pains, I apologize. It just amazes me that the things that would make many people call into school or work sick tend to be a fact of daily life. I am not asking you to feel sorry for me, it really isn't that bad. But if you send a package, bandaids, bandaids, and more bandaids would be a lifesend.