Dear America,

I’M COMING BACK!

Only temporarily yes, but I will set foot on your precious soil in less than a month!  I come to eat your food, drink your beer, and see how many women swoon when I say “Name’s Dale.  I work at a health clinic in Africa.  Helping kids and stuff.  Look!  Here are some pictures of me with them that I had printed immediately upon landing.”  Prepare yourself!

I fly into DC, our beloved capital on the 13^th.  I already feel giddy as a school girl.  Spend the weekend there and then head down to North Carolina afterwards.  Likely with a raging hangover.  In fact, there is a good chance I spend three weeks in either a food coma or drunken haze.  Hopefully both.  I just… I just can’t wait.  Tears of happiness are forming.

Until then, I’m doing some silly formation that Caitlin dragged me into.  Training people to be peer educators and spread knowledge about HIV/AIDS.  Work, pfft.  I’ll probably tell you about how it goes and stuff when it’s over.  First impression: very tiring.  And it’s hot.  Go away dry season…

Wait, I should buy a coat; it’s winter there, right?

Please stand by while we resolve some technical difficulties...

Right, so it has been a bad month for keeping you informed. Part of that I can happily blame on being ever so slightly busy including a weeklong conference in Yaounde with some lovely people that will be helping guide a new program called SMS for Life to Cameroon.  It could potentially greatly reduce supply chain problems of malaria meds and Peace Corps Cameroon will be helping to roll it out.  The other part of this lack of communication is simply that all technology I touch this week withers and dies in my hands (this laptop, graciously lent to me by Caitlin, is falling apart as I type).

It started with Caitlin’s camera (she’s clearly overly trusting and a bit of a gambler).  I smashed that thing up good and have little idea how.  I’m rough on cameras though.  Before going to Italy in ’07, my father bought me one that is water-proof, dust-proof, and shock-proof (the German section of the warranty literally says “dale-proof”).  Then my phone broke, another type of item which I have a history of destroying.  But it just powered off never to turn on again. As if I sucked the life out of it…  Finally, as you’ve likely guessed, my lovely laptop is no more.  It turns on still, but without a screen seems of little use.  Sigh.

On the bright side my old school use of pen and paper for journaling is validated!  Know what I do when a link in that system breaks?  Walk to a corner store and buy a new pen.  Or a notebook with Messi or some hot American singer on the front.

My God, I just resolved my other problem!  Thanks, Messi!

Not all moments are glamorous.

Check the farmer's tan.  Thanks, Africa!

Television Confessions

Welp, I've been here for over a year and people keep asking me "what have you done with your time?"  A lot really.  Here, let's go through a little list.

Community - 4  I'm known in Peace Corps houses around the country for my laugh because of this show.

New Girl - 2  This one reminds me of my life in DC.  Also, I may be in love with Zooey Deschanel.  Sorry, Pete.

Happy Endings - 3  Another one that reminds me of life left behind.  Damn, I miss inexplicable shenanigans.  Also my friends.

The League - 2  As close as I can get to football.  And I crave a fantasy trophy I can never even see.

The Walking Dead - 1  Because I love zombies.

The Big Bang Theory- 5  American geek comedy.  I'm a geek, pure and simple. 

IT Crowd - 4  British geek comedy.  Continuing with the theme.

Elementary - 1  I have a relatively well known obsession with anything Sherlock Holmes.  And fell in love with Lucy Lu in Lucky Number Sleven.  Thus the perfect series.

Game of Thrones - 1  Fantastic books, fantastic show.  Tyrion is a personal idol of mine.

House of Cards - 1  Speaking with idols (and taking a dark turn).  I might kill a man if Kevin Spacy asked me to.

Deadwood - 3  Pretty sure given the time period and a shitty upbringing, I would be Al Swearengen.

Justified - 4  Timothy Olyphant's character Raylan Givens is everything that I want to be as a man.

True Blood - 1  And finally, everyone needs their guilty pleasures.

The numbers beside each show is how many season I've watched since I've gotten here.  Totaling… 32 seasons.  Yea, that's a lot of TV.  It appears I will NOT be totaling up the number of films I've seen.  Excuse me while I go introduce myself to my neighbors.  Knew I was neglecting something...