1. Depending on technology and/or trying to blog seriously from Africa não vale a pena.

I have been a really lucky Peace Corps Volunteer to have pretty consistent internet access, but after about three weeks without any (a fiber optic cable was cut underwater in the Indian Ocean… it happens, right?) I just have to accept that my blog cannot be what I wish it was, for now. I figured by this point I would have really expanded it and be posting regularly but, without internet, it just isn’t happening. And that is OK. Sure, I wanted to have a great blog FROM Africa, but I should be enjoying my last few months staring at the beach in my backyard instead of wishing I was more connected to the rest of the world. The rest of the world can wait—Africa can’t.

2. The moments when it is hardest to keep things in perspective are the moments when it is the most important to do so.

After said weeks of no internet, it finally started working on Monday. Which was cause for great celebration—until I realized my internet connection (the one in the wall that the cable connects to) had broken. This happened in my old office and here a year and a half later, it still hasn’t been fixed. Which means… no internet for me. I need to drift around to other offices and steal other people’s cables, which is annoying and inconvenient. And plus, this isn’t so I can play on Gmail or Facebook all day. At the moment I was trying to 1. Apply for graduate school 2. Contact professors 3. Try to change transoceanic airfare 4. Arrange a visa for Vietnam 5. Plan a safari and 6. I am sure there were more important things. I was sitting at my desk staring at my non-functioning internet about to cry. It felt so unfair! Why me? Why now? Then I snapped and realized how ridiculous it all was. Here I am, getting upset about my internet connection when hundreds of people, right outside my office, are hungry. They are sick. Some don’t have full roofs over their heads. Many more are uneducated. And those are just the milder issues that many people here face every single day. And yet still manage to find joy. I am beyond lucky, beyond privileged. I recognize this now, and yet I still get upset over something so stupid? It was a good wake up call. Even after two years of living in Africa, I get caught up in things that just aren’t important. I probably always will—but I hope I can recognize it and change my attitude.

3. Sometimes I get up to workout only so I can check the day off on my calendar.

Try this. It is extremely motivating. Even if I am tired, I don’t want a nasty X staring out at me the rest of the day. This might seem really stupid to some people. But it works for me.

4. My bakery sells brown bread.

This was a life changing discovery which led immediately to this life changing sandwich. Problem is that now I think the expat lodges in town have discovered this so apparently every single time I try to go buy some, já acabou (it is already gone). I guess I will count my blessings that maybe at some indeterminate point in the future I will get lucky and be in the right place at the right time.

5. If there is a drink on the menu at a hotel called “THE AFRICAN DRINK,” you should definitely order it.

Nothing else to say, really.

6. Christmas in July should be a regularly scheduled annual holiday.

Camille’s parents were in town visiting and she, ever the creative one, decided we should have a Christmas in July party with our compound and some visiting PCVs.

Together we concocted a verifiable feast!

Camille and her family made pumpkin soup, Alice made cranberry walnut bread, AJ made peach pies/empanadas from scratch, Sarah and I contributed Christmas cookies, fakel bites (as in bagel bites, but I used the beloved round fake bagel breads I buy in the market), salad, and green beans, and Eve made a DELICIOUS risotto (In Mozambique??), beet salad, and roasted our chickens. Which apparently Sarah and I were supposed to buy. Which led to the next lesson…

7. If you forgot to buy frozen chickens, go buy three live ones in the market for a few dollars and pay your gardener to kill them.

Followed by…

8. Preparing three chickens in Moz (which haven’t been artificially pumped up so big that they cannot even stand up like American farmed chickens) does not make very much food.

But we feasted.

9. I don’t have very many special talents but I can make bad ass paper snowflakes.

I am looking for any job opportunities in the field, let me know if you know anyone. I see a brilliant future for me and my scissors.

10. Packages from home are even more awesome in your second year when you don’t get any mail anymore.

A new stash of Clif bars (thank God!), flaxseed, some Kashi bars (which I have never tried) and crackers. Thank you mom and dad, for fueling my long runs and my hungry moments for the rest of my service.

11. African women can SING.

I got the opportunity to travel to Mabote (a rural village) to watch the recording of a song with some of our participants (these are women who participate in the making of traditional arts and crafts). The melodies were beautiful; I could listen to the same song over and over for an hour. Which we did. And it was just as beautiful the last time as the first.

12. I am really going to miss the view from the back of a pickup truck.

It sounds silly, but I came to that realization recently. The feeling of sitting in the back of a pickup, feeling the wind pummel you, looking out at the beautiful scenery around you, is indescribable. Sometimes it is beautiful, sometimes it is uncomfortable and cold, it is ALWAYS dirty, but yet it is a uniquely Peace Corps/African experience. And I am pretty sure I am not going to be spending much time hitchhiking in the back of trucks after this. So I need to savor those remaining moments no matter how thick the coat of dirt over me is becoming.

13. It all works out.

I feel like that is something that has been hammered home in my brain lately. It all works out. There are difficulties, problems, frustrations, everything. But more often than not, just breathe. Let it go. It works out.

What have you learned lately?

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