Two Lifelong Dreams, Successfully Lived

Before coming to peace corps, I had a wild fantasy that my experience would include: me sitting in front of a campfire playing my guitar, with potbellied, almost naked children dancing a traditional tribal dance in circles around me. Their long silhouettes cast by the soft orange firelight would move in perfect sync to the rhythm, and bright smiles would be permanently embedded on their faces.

Now here's the reality. While sitting in my tiny, milk-carton-cardboard-walled room on a Sunday afternoon, I decided to break out my guitar. A small boy must have heard the music, and he proceeded to enter the house, enter my room, and then sat politely on my bed to have a listen. After I had finished the song I was playing, he quickly left and returned with another boy. Since my tiny room can hardly fit me, my guitar, and my ego at all once (let alone two small children), I moved out to the living room and continued the performance. After 10 minutes, I had a host of children crowded into a small living room, listening to me play American songs they had never heard before. Even with ample mistakes and my sub-par singing voice, they sat attentive and wide-eyed. I even was asked to repeat the song "Down on the corner" by CCR when I finished it. This was by far the closest I have (and probably ever will) feel to being a rock-star.

Okay, the initial dream and the reality are slightly off, but I am checking that one off the list. Also, in the title I mention two life long dreams being fulfilled, and the other one is simply watching the world cup opening game with a large cohort of Kenyans (and the house-boy Abdala who is from Tanzania, and was the only one that cheered for America with me) huddled around a small television outside my host family's house, with the stars shining brilliantly above. It was simply surreal.


As a very honest side note, one thing I was expecting to have by now was diarrhea. Luckily, I have not yet experienced this. I promise to let everyone know when it happens though. =)

What do I miss the most from America? Real Tomato Sauce. Piano. Swimming.