Vacation

Well as you know I have been all over the place, here and there... up and down.... I have had my cousin come and visit me here in The Gambia and then right after her leaving, I jumped on a plane and headed for Eastern Europe. Overall, I am still alive and I am still doing well. :)

Backing up a bit, because I know it has been a while since I have last blogged, things my way are going well. Projects in my village are shaping up; I am starting to do a bunch of individual projects on a smaller scale with people all round me rather than in the large groups that I was doing earlier in my service. Now I am planting trees and teaching children and young adults the importants of nursing and caring for the small seedling. I am also venturing into bee keeping independently and hoping that people will watch and learn from me. As far as my emotions, I have been up and down all over with ideas and feelings towards projects in my village. So far the overall feeling is still good. I have realized that I still have over 8 months left in The Gambia and I need to open my eyes to different oppertunities instead of focusing them on certain organizations and certain people. Now I am a free bird and I am trying new things.

Having my cousin Candi in The Gambia with me was another experience all together. In the end I believe she had a great trip which I am thankful for... but during the trip there were many times I wanted to strangle her. To Candi's credit, she had never been outside of the US, she had never visited a third world country, let alone imagined what peoples lives were like in one... so I have to say she was pretty brave to step out and get on the plane to come over here. During her stay we encountered a lot of challenges-- me mostly, always trying to figure out how she could be comfortable and enjoy her time. She had a lot of problems with the food, the weather, my pit latrine, speaking the tribal language, how money worked here, transportation and such. It made me realize how well over the past 19 months that I have adapted here. I will give her that... the food here is an acquired taste, its definitely something you have to get used to. The weather.. well, that is something you just have to deal with, it is always hot. My pit latrine, well, I cant help that i have coakroaches living inside of my hole in the ground. As far as speaking the language, she tried... but was easily overwhelmed when things did work with body languages. Transportation-- she was killing me with this one--- hated walking everywhere (which is just what I do) and she hated ridding bikes, boo! Overall, like I said, I think she had a great time... during one of the days in my village I took her out so she could visit some of my gambian friends, at the end of the day once we reached my house she started crying. I asked her what was wrong and she proceeded to tell me that she couldn't believe the living conditions of my friends houses... with their children running around with no shoes or clothes on. I simply had to remind her that it was just the way of life here.

Once Candi skipped back to America, I jumped on the next plane to Budapest, Hungary with my friend Kasey (another PCV in The Gambia). This trip to Budapest was something her and I had planned a while back so it was nice to finally leave Africa and GO! Instead of boring you will all of the overwhelming feelings and homesicknesses I felt in Europe, I have made a bullet point show for you all to read instead. During our trip we covered 3 different countries in 10 days. We started in Budapest, Hungary---made our way to Bratislavia, Slovakia---- then to Vienna, Austria--- and back to Budapest before heading home. (in fact, I am still in Budapest..we leave tomorrow morning to head back). When we first arrived, man did I feel overwhelmed. Bright lights, fast cars, clean paved streets, overwhelming amounts of white people...ect. I didnt like it. But as the trip progressed further, I started to get back into the swing of things, shopping, eating out, ect. So, here are the highlights for each country:

Budapest, Hungary-

*There are a lot of neo-gothic buildings and they are very interesting.

*People are NOT friendly

*The roof tops of the buildings are beautiful.

*There are BIG extremes between the rich and the poor people here.

*There is a lot of rich history here.

*Wash baths in the city-nice but expensive.

*Easy to move around the city.

*They have beautiful hills that over look the city and are easy to climb.

*At night time the city is extremely beautiful.

*Besides the sites and historical monuments, there isn't much to see.

Bratislava, Slovakia-

*Reminded me a lot of Seattle.

*The night life is very fun.

*Very good looking men.

*Easy to get around.

*Our hostel was amazing there.

*Things were very cheap there.

* The buildings there were cool, but nothing exceptional.

*People there were EXTREMELY friendly.

*Ciggerette smoke everywhere! sick

*Not very touristy at all, which was nice.

* We got a lot of free rides on the tram.

*I got food poision there, the food tasted wonderful going down, but coming back up was awful.

Vienna, Austria-

*People very friendly.

*Very touristic--signs and streets were very well labeled.

*Lots of rich music history there.

*Lots of shopping centers.

*Beautiful churches.

*Everything cost a lot of money!

*McDonalds, KFC and Starbucks was there!

*The roads were a bit crowded and confusing to understand.

*People spoke German!!! I was reliving 7th,8th,9th and 10th grade all over again

*Bums all over the place... reminded me a lot of Seattle too.

*The streets were very clean.

So, there you have it. My overview of the different countries. I would say that Kasey and I got really lucky a lot of times... we met great people, her mom paid for a lot of our trip (thank you again Erin!) by booking our hotels, hostels and giving us great ideas on things to see in the different countries... it is hard to do that on your own when you have limited access in Africa. I ate all those bad things for me again at Starbucks, McDonalds and KFC... but after this time I realized-- it wasn't for me anymore. I don't want to ever eat or drink that stuff again. ? why? After every time that I ate it... I felt sick, like there were rocks in my tummy. I am going green now, only putting good stuff in this body of mine.

Life is good, I am here but I feel like I am there... I am ready to go back and start plugging away at saving the world. :)

I hope you have enjoyed this blog. Later gators