Written August 13, 2012.

Posted. . . who knows – as steve miller band would sing “time keeps on slipping into the future”

So first full day at site. . . things went surprisingly really well. Well maybe surprisingly isn’t a good word to use – I need to stop thinking that things will be negative. It was a great day.

I spent the morning walking around the town with my one counterpart from the organization that I’m basically living with. I have my own house/room thing – it’s a giant circle with an indoor bathroom (not a fan of the indoor bathroom thing) but its on the property of the one organization. But that’s ok with me, its an added safety bonus, and it is a constant presence of people. So yeah, we walked all over the town today, I saw some things I had remembered from my visit, and saw some new things too. Talked with a lot of people on the trip around, which is good the more people that recognize me the better- that’s the point of immersion and integration.

We returned to the organization where I talked with some people in the org, and discussed with the one man about fixing my window, that broke in the middle of the night. . it was SUPER windy yesterday. Not fun when you live in a place covered in sand lol. After that I went back into town to buy some food and other things I need for the house. . . sadly I still need more things, so tomorrow I will be making a return trip. Today I bought an electric hot water kettle, some spices, bread, tomato, onion, couve, egg, bananas, olive oil and instant coffee. On the list for tomorrow is bleach, peanut butter, onion, and some other stuff that I cant think of at the moment.

I came back, did a nice yoga workout, talked a lot with my neighbors – one of them has a huge garden kinda out of town, so I’m going to go with her some day to check it out! Really excited about that, then talked with some other people in the organization, I sat in with this one class that was being held in the yard of the organization. Older women who are learning to read, and do simple math – they were all really receptive of me, and we talked a while, many offered to help me cook or to have me over for dinner, which I willingly accepted. Thumbs up for cultural integration. In addition to the fact that these women were super wonderful.

I walked a lot back and forth from the town and back to my house today, and talked with some people on the street too. That’s what these next two years are going to be. . . lots of walking, and lots of talking. Gotta walk the walk and talk the talk – if you will. I cooked dinner with Angela tonight, we made this really good lentil soup with couve and some other veggies. I am going to be a huge fan of the ‘toss everything in and add heat” soups. They are really easy, with the right spices super tasty, healthy, and cheap.

That’s really all for now. I’m hitting the hay early. . another long day tomorrow. Xoxo -t