Well, I did it. I woke up, made breakfast, cleaned a little bit, then started to walk around. Within minutes, I ran into Justin, Kingston's brother. Kingston is a geography teacher at my school, from Zimbabwe.
We started talking and walking, and ended up at Kingston's place where I met his wife and 18-month old kid, Neil. Kingston's wife prepared a breakfast of potatoes in some sort of light meat sauce and bread and butter, with tea. The three of us (including Justin) sat and talked politics and culture for about 2 1/2 hours. It was great. I had nowhere to be, nothing to do other than just discuss Liberia and Sao Tome. We talked about teaching and the differences between education here and in our native countries. I learned "thank you" in Shona (which I quickly forgot), one of the big Zimbabwean dialects, made a promise to see the Great Zimbabwe and Victoria Falls once my service is over, and left wanting to take Neil back with me!
I also did a little housework with Jorgito, making the place more secure.
I think, little by little, I'm losing the bad American habits of rushing and stressing out. I think the key to it is to convince myself that I'm accomplishing something by managing to accomplish nothing. Which satisfies that desire to always be doing, doing, doing. And in reality, it's not nothing. By strengthening my relationships with the community, I'm making my two years here that much more important for the community.
It was a small step today, one that I need to repeat more often, but it felt great. And I'm having a harder time trying to imagine what life in the States was like.
Peace
John
