And he's finally found something worth conquering those fears for! Pathetic? Obsessive? Adorable? Borderline mental? You bet! All the symptoms are there: he's got it bad for that chew toy. He probably doesn't even remember what life was like before tug-of-war.
Soooooo, January, huh? Anybody else kind of completely miss the fact that an entire month just went by? I just gotta say, I'm sorry, but whoa--that was crazy fast. Also probably time to take that soul-sucking "Since my last trip to St. Louis" clock down, for my mother's sake at least.
Having already been bumbling about back in Busia for a month now, my "to blog about" list is starting to look like something out of a Monty Python sketch. I mean, spoiler alert, but come on: "motorcycle procession", "in defense of chlorine", and "cross-dressing"? Tell me that doesn't scream of British humour (other acceptable responses were: "Awesome titles for a series of abstract expressionist paintings" and "Obama re-election campaign themes that didn't quite get past the brainstorming phase"). But before we get to that, let's take a look at what I missed while chugging hot chocolate back in the U.-S.-of-"Oh my Lord I forgot how cold this place gets"...
- ...no one had any fun. At all. In our first team meeting after everyone returned from holiday, Carson and I decided to start off with a light little icebreaker, ostensibly to put everyone in a good mood before we started on the boring stuff, but mostly to make them think that we are actually good-natured, caring bosses. Hey, we thought, let's go around the room and have everyone tell us about the funnest thing they did with their holiday! Then we'll all have happy memories and Christmas cheer fuzzy-ing up our brains as we talk about diarrhea and project issues and the fact that we're all actually back at work. Well, always nice to start the year off with a big swing-and-a-miss. Not only did 75% of the team report having no fun at all over break (mainly owing to the fact that many of them spent most of it working on their farms back home, and the fact that Kenyans prioritize and value the concept of "fun" in a much different way than I do), two said they spent most of the time at funerals (which have been known to last a full week), and one had to have three teeth removed. Score one for cultural insensitivity! Thankfully, there has been no lasting damage to team morale (though the emergency infusion of a round of samosas and soda didn't hurt.)
- ...no one really did much brushing up on geography either. One of my first days back in town, I was walking down a path with my friend Thomas when we were approached by an older man. Bizarre conversation ensued:
Old Kenyan Man (OKM): Hallo my friends! From which continent are you from?
Us: Hi! We're from North America.
OKM: From America! So you have then just come from the military!
Us: Uh, no. They don't make you join the military in America. We're here to work on some development research projects.
OKM: Aha, no military, so then your country is like Norway!
Us: Not sure about that, but we're going with 'No.'
OKM: Not like Norway. Then you are like Australia!
Us: ... ... ... ... ... Yes. G'day.
- ...and the Mormons came to town! I mean, it's always exciting to see another white person in Busia, but two on the same day? Wearing matching short-sleeved collar shirts and ties? With helpful nametags that say "Elder Dan" and "Deacon Tom"? Well by Moroni, that's just too cool.
Stay tuned for more soon, as by this point I have in fact realized what month it is.
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