1st of the month...

The first of the month and the 15th of the month is when everyone gets paid around here. So last Saturday was a mad house in town! Basically, the lines at the banks and ATM are hours long and then once everyone is done there.. it is straight to the grocery store to stock up on food for the month. ( many of the wives like to spend as much of the money as possible, so then their husbands dont waste it on other things, like alcohol... this is what a local told me) I had forgotten that it was pay day and just made for an entertaining saturday...

I started off with a nice run in the morning on my usual route... out to a very distinctive tree and back. The usual. And then came home to get ready to go to town. So i went out to grab a taxi... as it stopped... i saw how paked... i mean overflowing with people the taxi was... i suddenly remembered... oh no...
Fortunatly i am not a big person... the guy in front open the door and there are already two guys and the driver up front... so they move on over and i hop in! the all four grown adults in the front, basically sitting on each other. As we are crusin along... a farmiliar song comes on the radio so of course naturally i begin to sing along. The 3 next to me all look at me in suprise then smile /laugh and join in! These are the things i love about africa!

Then i decided to go to the grocery store basically just to entertain me... it was a real zoo. so i got my usual 3-4 items and got in que with the rest of the town! it is so funny. Lines dont really exsit here. And if you are not on top of the person in front of you / being aggresive. Someone will come right on it front. But it dont really mind, b/c my personal space was destroyed weeks ago!

It is funny the things we find rude, like cutting in line, that are just a part of their life. Also the language is a very demanding language. Please and thank you arent used. So often when peopel translate , it is done directly so their english comes across as , in our minds, rude. But i have begun to realize it is not the intention.

One of the things this whole experiance has brought to light for me, is what being a minority is really like. And until you actually experiance it, you will never really know what it is like. And no offence to the white peopel in the US but you have no idea what it is like. And it is a feeling that you cant describe. But that is something all of the volunteers and i have discussed and i know i will remember that in my future experiances and being sympathetic towards others.