Weekend Update: June 12, 2011

Highs:

Got my malaria medication refilled, got to see Uncle Gary at a Peace Corps 50th anniversary event, and got a 1,700 page book on biogas digesters that I think is usable for my sites purposes, and I finished the Harry Potter series after about 5 months of it dominating my reading life. (hopefully the most work I will ever put into a single movie date)

Can't forget. I ran for the first time in over a month today and my knee feels good. I've been having knee trouble since early March. Also ran an acceptable time.

Lows:

RIP Kindle. Destroyed by my own clumsy stupidity. I will have others throughout my life, but this first one will surely be missed. I've already said it before on this blog, but thank you Nichole for introducing me to e-readers.

I hit a pretty low low-point this weekend. Peace Corps is often described as a series of highs and lows, a description I have long believed to be extremely accurate. I'm not great with new people, and I'm not great in big crowds. Friday night I was caught in a huge crowd, of people I did not know, who all knew each other, hadn't seen each other in a while, were excited to be together, all in a small room. They were great people, perfectly nice, and at times when I got one on one with one of them I had a nice enjoyable conversation, but most of the night was miserable.

What I'm Up To:

Presented my monthly status report to my org and it looks like we will adopt, but everyone is off in every direction right now and after 3 weeks of failing to have our monthly meeting we have given up on May. Maybe it will happen in June.

Downloaded a 1,700 page book on biogas digesters while I was in the office and am looking forward to attacking it. From a few glances I made at it last week it looks like it has the info I need to design a model large enough for our compound. It's a long shot to make this work but if it does it will make my experience more than worth it.

What's On The Agenda:

Reading the 1,700 page biogas book, which will be difficult with the power being extremely sporadic lately.

Sanity Meter:

A Ugandan is looking over my shoulder watching me type right now, which isn't helping my sanity. She had been sitting a short distance from me and without a word decided to get up and see what was on my screen.

Sanity has been pretty crappy lately regardless of nosey Ugandans. Things are moving too fast in my head, my life, however, is at a standstill.

Uganglish Annoyance of the Week:

Even Me. Even This. Even That.

The word 'even,' in Uganglish is the equivalent of the English 'also.' If you say you are tired, and a Ugandan is also tired they respond, 'Even me.' If you are painting something and a Ugandan wants another part of the wall painted they say, 'Even here.'

This could be used the same way in English, but only when it is associated with some element of surprise, or expectation that the case should be different.

What I'm Reading:

Finished the Harry Potter Series!!!!

"I sometimes think we sort too soon"

With the Kindle dead I'm falling back on Without Remorse, a Tom Clancy novel. I'm also hoping to knock out some of the Bible. I'd hoped to read the Bible cover to cover for the second time in my life while here, but 10 months in I am still in Genesis.

PCV Quote of the Week:

"We're handing out certificates, we need to make this thing legit"

-Gary Goodman, commenting on the Boys Leadership Camp we are planing. Funny because Ugandans hand out certificates for everything and cherish them like they are degrees from Oxford.