I miss carpet

The other day I went down to visit my closest neighbors Dwight and Mari. I realized that it was the first time that I’d seen another white person in three weeks. Definitely a first. It was a really great visit and interesting to realize that compared to their village I live in the middle of nowhere with absolutely nothing (at least I’ll be easily able to save a lot of money to travel with during the summer). As I biked through town, I was in awe at the large number of restaurants, bars and little stores that lined the seemingly never-ending main road. My town has one bar, maybe two hole-in-the-wall-I’m-not-prepared-to-eat-there-yet-restaurants and one tiny store and I can bike the length of town in less then 8 minutes. It also happened to be market day and once again I was shocked by the huge numbers of people, the stands, the spices and the veggies! Oh, the glorious veggies! I got spinach and cucumbers and green peppers that are larger then a quarter. Mari made delicious shrimp fired rice, I had cold water a plenty, dried mangoes, frozen delicious yogurt, an apple and pineapple, and more veggies and then they gave me some to take home! Oh it was a glorious day, so wonderful to eat so well and speak English and talk about crazy things that have or haven’t happened in the three weeks since we’d all been together.

I also got a good amount of exercise and slept very well that night despite the heat. And I may have forgotten to put on sunscreen and may have gotten a sizeable sunburn. But what does that matter when for dinner I can eat a salad! A salad I tell you! Not spaghetti with only onions and tomatoes, but a salad with different, delicious veggies. And what’s that? Tomorrow for breakfast I could have an omelet with all those veggies and spinach? Too good to be true! I am going to eat very well this weekend and enjoy apples instead of just bananas as a fruit source. Yes, next week it will back to the same old same old, but this weekend I will live it up and enjoy all the vitamins I’m getting from fresh veggies instead of eating tomatoes and onions that have been boiling in oil for hours and have lost almost all nutritional value.

I will also look forward to the approaching weekend (which as you read this has already come and gone, because how else would you be reading this?), when I can see more friends, speak more English, tell/hear more ridiculous stories, use the internet and eat oh so well for a day or two before coming back down to real life again.