License to Crazy

One frustrating aspect of Peace Corps life can be that as foreigners, we will always be strange.  Everything we do is considered funny, odd or just plain ridiculous: the way we carry water, the way we speak, the way we dress, the way we teach, the way we do our hair, the way we organize our house, the way we eat, the way we cook, the way we walk, the way, the way, the way...  Usually, it doesn't bother me, but on a particularly hard day, I just want to scream "HEY, I'm a human too!" Not to mention, I'm trying so hard to just be accepted and well liked.

On the brighter side of things, it gives us complete license to be a little wild and crazy, since people are going to deem us so anyway.  Now, that doesn't mean to say that I think I can run around my village without pants or I should start screaming profanities.  Of course, I should still follow some of those common decency guidelines.  However, I do feel like I can push the envelope in the following areas:

1. Clothing: Who cares if black isn't supposed to go with brown!  Therefore, I've gone a little wild in the clothing department.  I feel like I rarely match.  I often go to the shops at night with a skirt over my sweatpants with a hoodie and wet hair.  I still get compliments.  In that same vein, my hair tends to be a complete disaster, thrown together as I run out the door.  The one time I've worn my hair nice, curly and down, people asked me why I would ever do that to my hair, and suggested that I went home to fix it...  My motivation to look put together can be low at times, although I still wear skirts and nice blouses to work with crazy hairbands, fun bracelets and colorful purses.

2. Teaching: When I teach to my pupils, I tend to jump around, dance awkwardly and run from side to side.  While reading a book in which a goat destroys a garden, I asked my pupils to yell at Gulu-Gulu (the name of the goat).  So yes, all 89 fourth graders and I were yelling "Bad Gulu-Gulu!!!" at the top of our lungs.  And I repeated this trick for the next three classes.  I often wonder what the Ugandan teachers think of my lessons when they sit in on my classes because my style of teaching is 180 degrees different from what their pupils are used to.  I'm enjoyed the freedom to do whatever I want, as long as I think the pupils will benefit.  It has also lead to me to conducting crazy energizers whenever I feel like they're zoning out.

3. Dancing: Ok, so anyone that's ever seen me dance in the states probably already knows I can be a little off the wall.  Just being in a foreign country for this long has really taken it to another level.  As in last night, I did a cartwheel and a round off in the club.  My friends and I tend to prance and run around because the club is so empty that we feel like we should take advantage of the space.  It's honestly quite refreshing- you should try it sometime.

4. Language: No, I don't swear at my site of course, but I do feel like I can just wing it when I try to speak Lunyole and even though, I know I am almost never saying the right thing, I don't care.  What foreigners have they ever met that have tried to learn their language?  Very few.  So I just string together words, verbs that aren't conjugated right and random English words.  It's kind of fun honestly, and I just laugh along with them.

So, yes, I've gone a little crazy during my first few months at site, but it's nothing to be worried about it.  I'm enjoying it and having fun with it.

In other news, my baby brother officially turned 21, which makes me old, right?  Well, happy birthday little bro.  I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to both my brothers and my mom, all at the same time, which of course lead to playful bickering and teasing.  Is it sad that hearing my family fight at home makes me miss home even more?  Love you all.