Day 17

It's official. I'm nuts. If my girlfriend still wants to be my girlfriend after this, then we have to get married. Otherwise, there is no hope for me. Oh yeah, 'cause did I mention? I'm nuts.

I'm in the fucking Peace Corps. I have decided to place my fate in a governmental do good agency that decided to place me in Uganda, Africa. The pearl of Africa and hence the epicenter of danger because no one is letting up on pearls that easy. Opposition from all sides-this is of course talking about the clam in which the pearl is housed. Needless to say, I'm off my rocker.

Today I witnessed the slaughtering of a chicken. What's the big deal you say, just a little blood you say. I say have you seen a chicken be slaughtered? Like cut the neck, remove the feathers, undo the tied legs because it has finally stopped moving even though it's head has been cut off slaughtered? And now I understand where that phrase comes from.

But it doesn't stop there. After the feathers were plucked, then dry banana leaves were lit to place a fire under this chickens ass. Literally. They smoked the chicken. Then they took the chicken for entrails removal. I thought I was going to be sick.

So including the chicken slaughter, I was quite productive today. Did laundry, washed dishes, peeled potatoes, learned to peel matoke, mopped cement floors with a tshirt, and I rode a bike which was seemingly quite impressive to everyone.

I didn't realize, but I don't ever see girls on bikes. This place is so crazy.

Being able to spend the day with my host mom today was lovely. She does so much work and I'm not quite sure how we manages. Makes me want to cry for her.

I was wiped today. Killer sunburn on my neck from washing and just everything drained me. So drained. The hell does she do it? She's a machine. Seriously.

Today when I was helping her peel matoke she was so sweet and said I was a good try-er. I couldn't stop laughing. It was so sweet. I felt happy that she acknowledged my yet because I was sucking at peeling those damn banana things. Sucking.

They asked me more questions today. The oldest girl thought I was 29. Ouch. I wanted to cry. No one ever thinks I'm old. Then she said it was because I don't look so young, just very old. I did a sad face.

Discovered the mom's name yesterday. Midress, which I now understand why I had know idea what it was. Glad I never called her Mildreth again. Midress is a much better name though anyways. Love Midress to be precise.

She's a machine. Thank God for tired as I was able to use it as an excuse to not go to church. Ooh... I don't know if I should be thanking God for my dip out justification. I'm not sure he's impressed.

Shared a bit more today. The grandma came over and was the cutest thing all over again. Took her picture. She loved it. I loved it. I got some really good pics today. I love it. Absolutely. And she asked about my family which then let my host mom inadvertently ask about my family. Showed pictures which was cool and turned the camera to the front at one point when we were taking pics. The grandma was in absolute disbelief. Absolute.

I need to study this language so I can start saying things. Seriously. I did it with Spanish. Now to do it with Ruyankore. And that is the proper spelling.

We talked about slaughtering animals today and I'm not excited to kill our chicken today or for them to try and feed me the gizzard. Oh yuck.

Ew, but the dad told me how he's going to take me to a place where they slaughter cows. The hell? The cow just seems too big to slaughter. Too big. I could barely do the chicken. How do you think I'm going to manage the big ass cow.

Needless to say, I didn't eat meat today. I didn't eat much. I'm over the food and sweating it out. It's an unpleasant smell to me. I just want my original scent back. I need to start being able to cook for myself. Find some Prego. I like Prego.

There are so many more days here.

I'm scared for that too. It's been two weeks and my partner is having a hard time. I'm pissing in pit latrines and bathing from a bucket, I just wish my girlfriend wasn't hurting. Everything seems just so present and so demanding. It's really hard balancing my personal adjustment and then trying to help her adjust.

At least she gets to go out and drink. Drive her car. Smoke freely as a choice. What I would give.

See? Fucking nuts.

On the plus side I shit for the first time in days. My pit latrine christening was successful!!! And I didn't miss!! Come with the boom. Boom. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.

So I've decided that at site all I need is electricity, running water, and good cell service. I can deal with a pit latrine, the only thing is the maintenance. Oh ew.

Maybe I'm having second thoughts...