Month: February 2008

Going to Zambia tomorrow

2008-02-21

Going to Zambia tomorrow, probably won’t have internet access for a while…. The momentous occasion looms close! The last two days have been similar to most “training” programs and haven’t really been the meat of leaning about Zambia. That should begin when I get off the plain very early Saturday having spent close to a day (15.5 hours or so to South Africa, 3 hour layover and then 2 hours to Lusaka) traveling. Got my Yellow Fever shot and took my first malaria medication, fortunately I’m taking the daily medication that doesn’t cause sleepiness, nightmares (and daymares) and other even more serous side affects. Only thing I need to do is always put on sunscreen and I’ll be fine. I think I’ll get some sleep…

I worked on a compilation of US family photos to give to my host family in Zambia

2008-02-16

The day started off late but getting some exercise before I did anything else that day was a good thing. I worked on a compilation of US family photos to give to my host family in Zambia until my going away party started at about 4:00pm with the first installation of guests. All in all it was a good time, some friends from high school came and we caught up on what all of us had been doing for the past four+ years. When I bid them farewell and went to bed I had awesome dream. I was back at college at one of the semesterly D&D type gaming events and was talking to another student. A young woman appeared and it was apparent that she was the student I had been talking to’s girl friend. The first student left for some reason and I talked to the newcomer for a little bit, then she vanished and was replaced by something resembling an ipod shuffle. I must have picked it up and then walked out because the next thing I knew, I was walking into another building and the woman appeared again (and the ipod-like device vanished). She seemed to be intent on something and quickly walked off. I followed her, distraught that I might lose her but very soon it seemed I had. Then I woke up. Writing about it doesn’t do it justice, but then you can never put dreams into words accurately. I then spent a long time expanding upon the dream until I decided I should probably try to get some more sleep. I guest a big reason I liked the dream is because I can actually remember it. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a dream I could remember.

Think in Color I Didn’t Used To

From your being comes great lust,
But little color.
Once I try it,
Love flies away from me,
Accidents happen but good things grow,
From you, being disadvantaged brings strength,
Courage triumphs over what I hate,
Nothing can stop me now.
-A poem I found all crumpled up in the depths of my backpack which I believe was created in one of my acting classes in a free flow exercise in which each person went around saying a word that popped into their head. Kind of cool what individuals acting for a common goal can product.

Fighting with a banking service– no wait, one should never fight

2008-02-10

Fighting – no wait, one should never fight – getting annoyed at then the fact that to sign up for a banking service takes weeks to process even though I don’t have weeks, you’d think they would want your money…; doing my taxes; writing a review of some battery website so that I can maybe get $30 towards a new battery charger because the one I got doesn’t have a way of converting the plug directly to DC input (erg); dealing with my website hosting company if I have enough time, either that or adding programs to my new palm so that I can read the thousands of pages on info relevant to my PC Zambia service in the CD I got….

Doesn’t seem like the ratio of paperwork…

Doesn’t it seem like the ratio of paperwork to importance of thing you are doing it for goes up exponentially the more important it is? To apply for college I needed to do a ton of paperwork, but I knew that it was crucial in getting anywhere in life. Now, in applying for the Peace Corps, I’ve probably done even more paper work, but I know that I will get even more away from it than I did in college. I think I’ll call it Aaron E-J’s law of paperwork…. unless someone already beat me to naming the phenomenon.

I Voted Today… Did you?

Today I got up at 4:08AM to work the polls. The turn out when I was there was less then I suspected, actually normal for things like town elections, however, I bet that there were a lot more people there tonight after I left when everyone got out of work/school. Didn’t achieve much once I got done with work on account of my caffeine running low (having gotten up about four hours earlier then I normally do. It looks like Obama will win CT, although the votes are only about 13% counted the last time I checked. I think I’ll go to bed soon…

Third to last pancake breakfast for 2+ years

2008-02-03

Third to last pancake breakfast for 2+ years; working on my website; just making sure that I’m going to be able to charge my laptop using the solar panel I got and the DC to AC inverter (I’m pretty sure it works, at least when I have the laptop turned off); more web stuff; something either reading about the Zambian Economy or something on my list of things to do….

Working on turning otherrealm.org into a photo album

2008-02-02
Working on turning otherrealm.org into a photo album of the roughly 1500 photos I’ve taken until now and the thousands of photos I hope to take while I’m in Zambia. Only potential problem is that I might run out of my allotted space on the server I have my site on, but I’ll address that issue when/if it arises. Cleaning the bathroom (boy I’ll be glad when I don’t have to do that… [Although I’ll probably have to clean the hole in the ground {eew?}]); A short hike with my pack on; something either consisting of learning how to use my new phone, reading about how to improve the Zambian economy, or more website stuff…<