I Know I've Been Slacking on Writing

April 6th 2008
9:12 AM

It has been a little while since I've written in here. I have been spending alot of time in the garden.

I haven't felt the impulse to write lately. That being said- that lack of impulse to write meant that I needed to write.

At this point in my service, I'm settling in for the long haul. I am done with most of my trainings. It is the time that I settle in to truly be a villager- to live in the village, to accept the slow pace of life and to really acculturate. The hot season is truly coming into being.

It is slowly heating up- apparently you know it when the scorpions and all the big nasty bugs come out to play according to the villagers. I have only seen one scorpion so far. It was a small yellow-ish thing that ran by my foot while I was eating dinner the other night. A bunch of the peeps I was eating with screamed and ran off- one brave kid killed it with a stick.

That is what I have to look forward to- heat, humidity and tons of scary looking bugs- well until June when I'm planning a trip stateside.

Simply now, village life is very routine. Not boring yet. Lots of gardening in the cooler hours, sitting around chatting, drinking tea and dozing off during the hot hours. Plus lots of reading. Just finished "Master Harold and the boys" by Athol Fugard.

The setting is in a icecream shop in South Africa with three characters: young white boy and his two black employees/servants. This play is a critique of the apartheid regime in South Africa but ultimately speaks to sick desperation and superiority complex of racism.

On the other spectrum I am reading a book on International Trade and Agriculture: Theory and Practice published in 1974. A little outdated I know but I am able to glean understanding and theory out of it.

I'll keep writing in this....