“Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not
putting it in a fruit salad”
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| My co-workers and I eating chocolate pudding pie
|
Well it has happened.
Give a school child a rounding drill and you would see me lumped in with
the 30s. Of course, there is still a lot to do between now and my 30
th
birthday, but sometimes I wish I had a bit of an extension in my younger
20s.
Since this is my second birthday I
have celebrated here, I can make some comparisons.
My first birthday I called my “Merry Little
Birthday” because I was mostly new here and didn’t know that many people.
While I don’t like getting older, I like
celebrating birthdays so it was strange to just sit at home watching movies and
eating French Fries.
This year I can honestly say was one of the
best birthdays I have had in a while.
I made chocolate pudding pie and
Quesadillas at work and then went to Karaoke at night with some friends.
I was very sleep deprived Friday, but managed
to make sushi. Saturday I went to the beach and that night went out with a set
of women from a group I work with.
Everyone was incredibly sweet and I was impressed that so many people
remembered it was my birthday.
Many
people offered many words of kindness and even a few surprise gifts.
I am very fortunate to have met such nice,
kind people here.
One of my friends
commented on what we would do next year.
The crazy thing is that next year I am supposed to COS April 4
th,
right before my birthday.
I really can’t
say right now whether I will have already left Guyana or if I will still be
here.
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| Playing for Indian Arrival Day |
While the timing of my trip in 2014 is still uncertain, I am
getting closer to my first visit to the U.S. since I’ve moved to Guyana.
It will have been 15 months since I have been
home.
I have always gone to school far
away or have jumped at any chance to travel, but the longest I have been away
from home is about 3 months.
I am
charting unknown territory, which is nothing new but this time it is bit more
personal.
This time I am a visitor to my
home, to what I have missed for 15 months, to people I haven’t seen.
I have been pretty lucky in terms of
communicating with many people, but it is still not the same thing as being
there.
On one hand I am so so so excited
to be back home, to see my family and friends, and to eat all the foods I’ve
been missing.
On the other hand, I am
nervous.
Every time you are away for a
while, you don’t see things in the same way as before.
Your vision changes, some things become
uglier when under a different focus. Sometimes a different type of beauty can
appear.
Am I going to like what I see as
I did before?
I am also quite good at
convincing myself that I don’t miss things.
But as they did in Barbados, I am certain the things that I have buried
for so long will come back to the surface like those dang Cicadas that are
supposed to be out when I return home.
When you find comfort again in things you have missed, it can be a tough
process to give them up all over again.
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| Indian Arrival Day |
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| Last day of diabetes class |
So how do I find myself wiser?
Well, many Guyanese will tell you to nah tek
stress.
If you ever worry or stress over
all of the things that are supposed to take place or are planned here, you
would easily have a heart attack.
Most
of the time things change drastically from what they are supposed to be.
They start late, get cancelled at the last
minute, or are somehow interrupted.
I
was recently in a play for a very important Indian Arrival Day with another
volunteer.
There were supposed to be
thousands of audience members and it was supposed to start at a certain
time.
In the end we started about an
hour late, there were much less people than expected, oh and our play was cut
short so I didn’t even say all of my lines.
I kind of expected something strange to happen and I was barely nervous
even though I HATE public speaking.
When
it comes down to it, you never know what really will happen the only thing you
can do is try to be prepared.
In the
end, life is always right so why worry too much?
I also know I will be leaving Guyana with a whole set of
things to do once I get back. We have
NEWBIES!!! GUY25 is here (we welcomed
them bleary eyed at the airport) so I will get to do a training session with
them. Not to mention spending time
getting to know them. Also, Camp GLOW is
coming up again and there is a never ending to do list related to that. Of course I have a lot of other plans that
keep cropping up, such as milking a cow for the first time and other important
matters. Unfortunately, time is starting
to run out on my growing list of things to do.
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| Taking blood pressure at my last diabetes class |
So instead of signing off hoping you all are doing well, I
can hope that I will see you in the good ole U S of A, so you can tell me in
person….
jus now!
:-D
-KB
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