The Days of Yore

When I was younger I remember hearing stories about great conflicts between mysical men called "Statesmen". Older folk would tell of these meetings, where two opponents would meet, questions asked, and answers (real ones!) given! These men would discuss something called policy, attack each others ideas based on evidence and something known as the "greater good". These debates, I'm told, were listened to by Americans the nation over and oftentimes, these Americans, would listen to the policies, discuss the policies, and then vote based on policies! These "Statesmen" didn't dodge questions just to talk about how great they are and how the opponent was terrible. They had something akin to "respect" for one another. What that was doing in politics I couldn't tell you.

I often wondered what this would look like, a debate where candidates focused on the issues and answered the questions using facts and logic. Thankfully, this myth was nearly attained the other night when Obama and McCain held their first presidential debate. Dont misunderstand me, they still stooped from time to time back into the traditional slandering, talking points, "I love children and my opponent hates children" format of the past. But largely the two answered questions, rebutted points with facts and logic, and really made the debate a class act.

Thank you candidates!

On Bugs and Bread, An E-mail from Sept 15th 2008

Hey Folks!

Its been a while since I last wrote you, my apologizes. I could give you some excuse, like I've been very busy with work, or had no time while trying to get the old homestead in order, or even the all encompassing "I'm in Africa" excuse, but none of those really capture the true reasons. Namely, I've been lazy. Work has been less involving that I would hope. Still no "real" projects to report. Tomorrow I will be teaching someone about book keeping for his small business. That's about the extent of my work so far. I am trying to get myself established in the community still and define my role here. All easier said than done. The two foreign owners of the lodge, Chris and Nick, came in for the big grand opening on Thursday the 11^th. There here until tomorrow and we'll be sitting down to discuss development plans for the surrounding communities. Both are Australian, Chris still lives in Australia and Nick lives in Durban South Africa.

The old homestead is coming together nicely, though I have yet to begin any of the outdoor work. No garden, no pond (which I'm beginning to wonder if it will happen, the water level is just too low) no natural paradise. Yet. The inside is very nice, I now have an area rug and curtains. The rug took a hit the other day. I found a recipe for Honey Oat Bread, and had a day to myself at home, so I thought I'd make it. The bread itself turned out just great. It has both honey and oats in it. I didn't even burn the bread. The baking part of the bread baking didn't turn out so great. As you are no doubt aware, bread rises. The recipe called to let the bread rise for about 20 minutes or until it had doubled in size. Well apparently the doubling didn't take 20 minutes. By the time I came back inside (I was reading outside, as I often do) the bread was overflowing its pan, slightly spilling over the sides. In itself, not a problem. So I proceeded to the baking step, 50-60 minutes on low-med heat in my Dutch oven. For those of you who are unaware of what a Dutch oven is, it's a giant metal pot (I think 20 liters) with a lid, a pot you might make soup for 20 people in, and you place whatever you hope to bake inside on top of a tin can (I use a tuna can). This was all well and good until the overflowing bits of bread began to fall off the bread onto the bottom of the oven and burn. This puts us at 15 minutes into the baking process. I notice the smoke a split second before the smoke detector does (peace corps gives us all smoke detectors, though I'm not sure it would be much use in my one room, dung wall, thatch roof hut). The goal now is to remove the burning from the heat. I can't reach in and pull the pieces out by hand without burning my arm all the way up (curse these massive guns I have for arms) so my brain tells me "Kevin, remove the entire oven". Good idea at the time. I get my pot holders, remove the entire 20 liter pot, and place it on the floor. Lets recap. We have a giant pot with burning bread inside that has had fire applied directly to the bottom for at least 15 minutes (more like 20 now). It's hot. We have a brand new rug on the floor, purchased for 400R and made of what I would soon discover is Nylon (or some other plastic based thread). The end result is I now have a perfect hole in my rug the size of my dutch oven. On top of it, the local kids who like to watch me (I feel like a zoo animal some times) may have learned a few words of English they shouldn't have. The good news, after I removed the burnt chucks of bread, scraped the nylon/plastic of the rug off the bottom of the dutch oven, and swore a few times, I did end up with delicious Honey Oat Bread. Such is life.

In all things are going well here. The weather is warming up, things are turning green, life is gaining some feeling of normalcy. In a place where 1/3 of the population has HIV/AIDS, half of the young adults (age 18-35) are infected with HIV/AIDS, unemployment is well over 50%, and ranked one of the poorest countries in the world, you would think it would be hard for a "normal life" to emerge. It's not. Just like everywhere else in the world, people wake up in the morning, go about their chores, eat meals, laugh, sing, play. People are happy, or at least not sad, a lot of the time. People adapt I guess, I feel myself adapting as well. Several days ago I saw a spider the size of a half dollar on my wall. It was large enough that its eyes reflected the blue of my head lamp (just as dog eyes appear blue at night from the head lamp). Something you should know (and I probably shouldn't admit) is that I am terrified of spiders. At some early age I saw the movie Arachnophobia. Ever since then the things have creeped me out. In the States, seeing one the size of a half-dollar would have sent me into a bug killing frenzy! Poison filling the air, newspapers falling on the poor creature from every direction like a savage, deadly hair storm. And that's more or less what happened this time around. I went at it with my broom, trying to impale it on the bristles. After my strike, I didn't see a smear on the wall so I assumed I missed. Hunting, I find it again, behind the head of my bed, this time the deadly stomp of my shoe leaves a satisfying smear on the ground. Pleased with myself I turn to continue dinner preperations when I see the glitter of blue that I recognized the first time I saw my foe. There was a second one. This one I dispatched more quickly, as he (or she more likely) was unaware of the danger lurking behind that stupid human face. I was still clutching the broom at this point, a little disturbed by the abundance of giant spiders near the head of my bed, when I look at the bristles of the broom. There is that first spider, twitching, impaled, clinging to life. Suddenly the count of half dollar sized spiders rose from 2, to 3. That is an increase of 50%. This is where I noticed the change in me. I had adapted. I simply put down the broom, and went about my business. No more panic, no more worry. My inner self, the one filled with hate and distain for spiders (though I appreciate their presence I cant tolerate their sight), was still there of course, but a new Kevin peeked his head out. One who resolved to be crawled on as he slept, one who would no longer commit all his energy to something so small and trivial. Lying awake that night, contemplating the thatch of the roof, I realized this was endemic of a larger change. Despite giant death spiders, in the face of HIV/AIDS, living with terrible poverty, life must be lived.

A friend of mine a few days back sent me a Facebook message (for my older readers, it's a website where people can talk and have profiles and stay connected, a life saver for someone over seas) asking something along the lines of "what advice would you give someone who wanted to quit their career and join the Peace Corps?" I wrote back "do it". The advice part was a little harder. They tell you over and over again to leave all expectations in the states. Peace Corps will be nothing you expect. And that turned out to be true in more ways that I can tell you. It turned out to be true in ways I didn't expect (mistake, I know). Its not a giant eye opening moment where you realize your in another country, no one place or one thing that drives it home. Its all the little moments that add up. Burning a hole in your carpet, killing spiders, waiting for a taxi to fill up. The small things. The advice I wanted to give him was "you will change, grow, be different, and not even know its happened." But just hearing that, you wont really "get it" (sorry, but its true). So I struggle with the advise, and the change.

Wow, that was deep. Lets lighten the mood a bit. Rumor here is that Football season has started! No one tells me nothin', so please, fill me in! How are the Huskies doing? Will we finally clench that MAC championship (for what its worth)? The Bears I hear won their first game, good start. How are the cubbies doing? I was flipping the channels here at the lodge (once in a blue moon I get to watch some TV around this joint) and on the menu (its digital satellite TV) it said ESPN – MLB Baseball. You cant imagine how excited I got. But alas, they don't subscribe to ESPN here, so I must go without.

I also heard wind that McCain is 4 points up in the polls?! Whats going on over there!? Do people really like McCain? I'm not too worried yet, I've always said you can give Obama a 5 point bump from any poll you take. The way polls work, for those who don't know and care, is that the pollsters look the voting history and make a list. Everyone who has voted in (usually) the last two presidential elections, and (sometimes) one off year election are generally the polling group. So they call them up, ask them "who are you going to vote for?" (though I'm sure they use fancy statistical words) and then add up the votes. So only people who vote and vote a lot are considered. Well, Obama is likely to pull in a significant number of new voters. Young kids who have never registered or voted before, older folks who have missed, or didn't care, or have been disenchanted, and these crazy new young professionals who suddenly feel represented by this young, hip guy. I generalize that into 5 points. But you cant run a campaign on speculation. The Obama folks need to start working like their losing. Hit the mattresses (as fans of the Godfather like to say way too often). Strike home! This guy wants to stay in Iraq for 100 years! This guy sold out in 2000 to the far right! If anyone is a slimy politian John McCain is. Look at his presidential platform of 2000 and look at it now. Opportunist! Sell out! Pandering! Spineless? Ok, a little too far. You get my point.

Thanks for reading my ramblings and keep me informed! I need letters (e-mail and other wise), I need news, I need connection to the outside world. Help me out.

Thanks,

Kevin

A blog!

It's about time I updated my means of communications. The Mass E-mails have been nice (and they will continue, as it forces many of you to reply and talk to me!) but this way I can reach a global audience! With that strange arrogance that comes from writing and having no one to talk to but the spiders and myself (who else do I need to talk to really?) I suddenly feel my musings may be interesting to more than just my friends and family.

I'm going to begin small, post my previous mass e-mail up here and maybe a few comments about what's happen since. I'm not sure what form this blog will take, but if nothing else it will be a fun experiment.

I hope you enjoy!