The Baby Circus - My Thoughts and Goings On of September 3rd

So I got 8 months left out here – a blink of an eye, really.  I might extend it another 2 months though if my building project requires me to (I hear back from the Peace Corps Headquarters this month about the approval of my Health Center building, the government sent me a letter of commitment for their portion of the funds!).  Plus about 2 month of traveling around Southeast Asia afterwards.  So about 10 to 12 months till I’m stateside!

I know I’m being effective out here because the baby that lives next door who I used to be able to make cry just by looking at her now wakes me up with gleeful cries of “Stacia!” outside my window.  She might just be showing off that she can talk now, but I like to see it as a sign of my acceptance by the community.

Today was the first day of school.  Naturally, only half the students showed up and the headmaster changed everyone’s schedules around so I went from teaching 2 biology courses to who-the-fuck-knows.  This place is just SO silly sometimes.  We DID, however, successfully rearrange the teachers’ office.

Talking about that baby that doesn’t cry at the sight of me anymore – her mom is trying to bathe her in the tap at the health center across from my house and she let go of her for a second to reach for the soap and her naked little child took off running around the neighborhood.  She’s squealing and flailing her little arms and giggling uncontrollably.  Mom’s still trying to catch her.  My village is more a circus of children than anything.  An adorable, hilarious, naked, squealing baby circus.

Said baby and her family.

I’m not proud of this.  I just watched a lizard drown in one of my buckets and I didn’t think to help it out until it was too late.  I watched it give up and die after one last desperate fight.  I feel really terrible!  Like, really bad.  What would the Dalai Lama say?  I coulda done so much to help it!  But it freaked me out and I didn’t want to get too close because I don’t like reptiles.  I coulda put a stick in there so it could pull itself out, or filled the bucket up more so it could reach the edge.  But I didn’t!  I just watched like a moron.  An f’ing moron.  I feel so guilty.  Well, I hope it’s little lizard soul can appreciate that it warranted enough of my attention to be eulogized in this blog post and read by people an ocean away.  Sorry, little friend.  A moment of silence.

Let’s go back to the naked baby girl who lives next door.  Now she is fully clothed and standing in the road outside my house staring at me with a huge smile on her face and an orange m’freezi (frozen flavored ice in a baggie) sticking out of her mouth.  Her mother is standing five feet away yelling at her to come home for dinner.  She’s still smiling, shaking her head so that the m’freezi whacks her on either side of her face.  I love the baby circus!