Not a Real Blog Post, Part 9

Post by Kevin and Lara

28^th June –18th August 2013

More short thoughts and one-liners:

• We just jumped on the BBC Sherlock bandwagon and we are officially hooked.  If there’s more than the first 6 episodes available, then someone needs to send them to us ASAP.
• This one time, when we were Peace Corps volunteers in Africa, Lara had to pee into a test tube a little wider than a pencil.
• Right now, as I type, there is a live tarantula in an old peanut butter jar on my living room bookshelf.  (Update: the tarantula is decidedly dead now.)
• The other day, I (Lara) went to the pharmacy to buy some medicine for a friend.  The woman behind the counter was holding a baby and had one breast out of her bra.  She handed the baby to the woman next to her, took my order, took my money, and gave me my change all with the one breast out.  The funny thing?  It didn’t feel that weird.
• Q: How do you transport a kitten 52 miles without killing it or allowing it to escape into the great beyond?  A: Rice bag with holes punched in it! It may be embarrassing at first when the rice bag starts meowing, but just remember all the times you’ve traveled with a goat bleating on the roof or a chicken clucking in the front seat.



Poor Killer just wanted out of the bag! Sorry bud, but it's another couple of hours of transport before you get to roam free in your new home at Anne Marie's.

• Peace Corps Salone just added a new vehicle to the list of approved methods of transport: the tuk tuk, or rickshaw.  It’s awesome for several reasons: 1, it’s way faster than walking and protects from blinding sun and heavy rain; 2, the driver gave us his number and comes to pick us up anywhere in Bo, and 3, we feel like we’re in India every time we step into one.
• During Kevin’s family’s recent trip to Salone, we had several conversations that put into perspective how much different our life is now from theirs. Some topics of discussion included: why we just have to get a sleep number bed when we get home (we’re working on maybe getting a spring mattress before we leave here); how remote controls operate almost everything in their houses; and how one of the 8 TV channels at their gym always shows terrible shows (1^st world problems?).
• Mini Mende lesson: you can make a lot of English/Krio words into Mende words by adding “ee” to the end of the word or phrase.  During our most recent trip from Bo, some of our fellow passengers got very annoyed at the driver for his “waste-time-ee" attitude.  We found this quite funny, but also think it’s telling that there’s no pure Mende word for wasting time.
• Quote from our recent trip from Bo- “There is a man underneath you” “Yeah, could be worse.  Could be a goat.”
• Nimbus’s little Thor is such a good cat—he licks the blood up off the linoleum after he eats a mouse.
• It’s funny how some things stick with you—we both brought our Masterlocks that we received freshman year of high school at CHS and we use one to lock our lock box and one to lock our wash room.  11 years later and we’re still using them!