WiFi! and A/C! and Toilets! Oh my

Blog 5.31.10

Yahoo- this is my second blog in one month, which hasn’t happened since December. I’m currently on the bus from Portland, ME headed toward Boston and it’s exciting that they have WiFi on board (“Concord Coach 923 Left Side”—seriously? Does it matter if I’m on the left or right side of the bus?!). It’s a far cry from the buses I’ve been on in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda… for one thing it has A/C, a video playing, and a toilet. Other differences include the absence of any livestock, people standing in the aisles, or peoples’ babies on laps other than their parent/guardian. I will say I appreciate my leg-room and the availability of the loo, but there is some charm in the long-distance bus traveling in Africa. I’m looking forward to going back to Zanzibar for a few weeks, then to Kenya until early August. The move from Zanzibar to Mombasa, Kenya will be a long trip, not in a public bus, but in an avocado-hued safari vehicle that will have 7 people and the year’s worth of stuff.

Before I left Zanzibar, I felt hesitant to come back to the US and was slightly mad at myself for taking 2 weeks for the visit, given that I’ll only have about 3 weeks there once I get back before moving to Kenya. I was also nervous that I would feel uncomfortable and guilty about being back in the US due to some of the discrepancies between the two places, and the general level of excess that is the norm in the US. I felt neither mad nor personally guilty when I landed in the US, however. There were some ways in which I felt uncomfortable and out of place, such as the grocery store, but ultimately it felt so nice to be back in the place where I grew up and have spent the majority of my life.

So, why the discomfort at the grocery store? There are so many choices for everything from bread to crackers to types of yogurt. It is impeccably sterile compared to the open-air and refrigeration-free market where I get my food in Zanzibar, cleaving my food from most traces of its source. Also, you can go through the store without having to have a conversation with anyone (unless you’re buying fresh fish or something from behind the deli counter) due to self-checkout aisles. [by the way, my little sister pressed the “Español” option before I started scanning my items and everything was fine until it was time to scan my wasabi-coated peas from the bulk foods section, which required punching in the PLU number and putting them on the scale. I didn’t know the PLU and didn’t know the Spanish word for wasabi-coated peas (no, it wasn’t listed under “W” for wasabi). So, Annie walked/hopped with her broken ankle boot back to the bulk foods section to find the PLU number and then call me on my cell phone. In the meantime, I had even tried to enter the peas as plain pistachios but it didn’t work. How the machine knew the difference I don’t know]. Another thing is that you don’t have to bargain for anything, the price is dictated by the barcode. Overall, there is just so much stuff there that I haven’t seen, tasted, or thought about in a year that it makes me slightly uneasy.

It was incredibly pleasant to see my family, friends, neighbors, and both the Yale campus and Belfast, ME as a whole. I went to Yale during the class of 2010’s graduation weekend and had a lovely time. I ran up East Rock and quickly realized how I’m not in as good physical shape for running hills as I was at this time last year due to the lack of hills around where I live in Zbar. But, the experience of running on trails in the woods instead of on pavement was refreshing and much welcomed by my knees. I saw some dear friends and admired the castle-like gothic architecture that characterizes the campus. I also went on a boat tour of the Thimble Islands with a mentor and friend of mine that was really nice. It was such a different coastline than what I’ve been seeing for the past year with the classically New England-style houses/mansions.

The day before I arrived at Yale I was in Boston with Nora and went for a run in the morning. While it wasn’t cold by normal standards, my lungs felt as they did when I did the polar bear dip in Maine (jump into the ocean on January 1^st): like they were the size of marbles. It was so hard to breathe! I was winded very quickly, and instead of switching sides of the road to run in the shade as I do in Zanzibar, I opted for the sunny side of the streets to help warm me up a bit and reduce the goosebumps my skin was showing. It was funny to me to see dogs on leashes and people with all sorts of different hair colors and styles, and of course, the short shorts and tank tops. Dogs are only used for security purposes in Zanzibar, they are most certainly not loved pets as they are in the US. Because almost all women cover their hair, it was striking to me to see all the variations when I first got back, and with the short shorts I must say I just find myself thinking “really? why?” I know I wore them at some point in my middle or high school years, but they just seem extreme to me now. It’s all a matter of what you’re accustomed to.

I’m almost out of battery power so need to wrap this up. I’m glad that I came home and had a visit with my family and friends, whether it was a motorcycle ride with my dad, an impromptu walk on the beach with a good friend from high school, a drink at Rollie’s in downtown Belfast, or spending the weekend with my sisters, niece, brother in law and close friends from both Yale and Belfast. I ate some great food, went on some nice bike rides and runs (including running the hill by the Belfast harbor that I used to run for soccer training… preseason memories!), had engaging conversations, and felt lucky to have spent the past year in Eastern Africa but to be able to call the US “home.” If I’ve ever had a tangible amount of pride in being American, I’ve felt it these past few weeks. Sounds cheesy, but it’s true (except for the situation with the gulf oil spill). Off I go back to Zanzibar and then Kenya until early August. I’ll try to keep updating the blog with any happenings in my part of the world.

Hope you’re all doing well :-)