Not a Real Blog Post, part 3

Post by Lara

11 September- 10  October 2012

•  Our group voted on “Superlatives” for the end of training and we managed to make off with 3 superlatives between the two of us! Kevin received the “Eagle Scout Award” [especially funny since he was never a scout]; Lara received “Most Likely to Wear the Pants in Any Situation” [dear friends from home—here’s the best assurance I can give you that I haven’t changed too much here in Africa]; and finally, as a couple we were awarded “Iron Chef: Salone”.  We plan to continue to live up to our titles.
•   I have to walk 50 feet from my back door to go to the toilet. The weirdest thing about this is that it’s not that weird anymore.
•  It’s a really odd feeling knowing that the weather’s getting cooler back home, the leaves should be changing color and falling soon, and things like hayrides and football games are going on.  It’s about to enter the dry season here, which means even hotter weather.  We’re kind of sad that we’re missing Ohio autumn.
•  We still haven’t gotten used to being identified by our skin color everywhere we go. We’ve expanded our repertoire of retorts and tend to choose among them based on what kind of mood we’re in and/or how old the person is who is calling us “Pumoi” or “Oporto”.  Sometimes we respond “Mende moi/Mende man” or “ndupoilele/black child”; other times we tell them they should ask us our name. Sometimes we just ignore it, which never ever makes it stop. The only thing that helps is to remind ourselves that race relations are not even remotely the same here as they are in the states, and people who call us “white guy” &etc. have no idea that they’re going against an American cultural norm. 
• One big benefit to living in a tropical climate? Bread dough rises SO WELL! We’ve made monkey bread, dinner rolls, breadsticks, and pizza, and they all rose so nicely I told Kevin we may have to consider moving to Florida when we get back to the states. Back in Ohio, we had to carefully position our dough near a register or in a sunny window to get it to rise this nicely.
• We each have at least 3 names at the moment- this is incredibly hard to keep track of when we’re being asked our names everywhere we go. At school, we are Mr. and Mrs. Flaute. At home, we are Auntie Lara and Uncle Kevin. In the market, we are either Mr. and Mrs., or Gbessay and Abubakar. We are also frequently called other Americans’ names, such as “Dennis” (a friend here who works at a local NGO), or “Hindolo/Christo” (the previous Peace Corps volunteer’s name), or “Yema” (another previous Peace Corps volunteer from nearby), or “Nyanda” (Christo’s girlfriend’s Mende name).  We also are frequently called “Nyande,” which is a Mende word similar to “buddy” or “friend”.  We basically answer to just about everything.
• On the topic of things happening in 3’s, we also speak 3 languages on a daily basis here: English, Krio, and Mende.  On top of that, our American English is not understood here, so we’ve learned to slow down and enunciate all of our T’s and select our vocabulary carefully to be sure that we’re getting our message across. You could probably stretch it to 4 languages if you consider the English we speak at home and with our American friends to be different from the English we speak with Sierra Leoneans.
• We have taken it upon ourselves to name several of our neighbors’ chickens.  The two mother hens that are leading chicks around are Big Mama and Lady, and the squat little hen with tiny stubby legs that make her waddle everywhere she goes is Pesto, named for the fat pigeon from The Animaniacs “The Goodfeathers”.  There are probably 15 chickens, and so far we’ve only named 3, but we’ve got two years to name the rest of them.
• It’s been over a month at site and we are finally able to boast that we can start our coal fire on the first try! This is a big step. Our method involves a small pile of very strategically placed coal, one capful of kerosene, a match, and a fan. This is also the reason that our arm muscles are practically bulging now- fanning coals into a fire is hard work!
• To our friends Angie, Eric, Steve, and Alyssa as well as our families: thank you, thank you, thank you for the care packages you’ve sent us since we arrived here! The goodies from home as well as the school supplies and teaching materials are all highly appreciated and we are thrilled to have such wonderful friends to send us love all the way across the ocean (and/or the Bering Sea).

A friend of our friend, Dennis, came by with breadfruit, plums, and coconuts from his village