Peacock

A monkey staring at a tree wondering how he can get the fruit; that’s what I feel like when I hang out outside trying it vain to get oranges from my tree (oranges here aren’t really orange btw). I’ve shaken sticks and thrown rocks but the good ones at the top are always so hard to get down. How do monkeys get the fruit? They climb. So climb I did only to realize that a very sticky sap with a pleasant fragrance was oozing from every branch. I quickly became a sticky-dirty mess and I cut myself several times but needless to say I managed to retrieve a pocketfull of fruit. I made my way down and began tearing into my prize like an animal. Enter Izumi, my new roommate. Izumi arrived from Japan about a month ago and for the next two years we will be living together with Ryuta. Granted I didn’t give the best first impression by looking like a savage beast, I kindly offered her an orange with a smile and said that they are very sour. I should have explained this better because I don’t think she knew what sour meant and she just about screamed when she bit into it. “Not good! Not good!” she shouted and I really felt like an ass. Anyway, the girl is really cool and besides an unnatural distaste for things that are sour she is a great personality. I saw the room that she was going to move into and it was super tiny so I offered her my big room and we traded; I don’t really own much and since then I’ve turned that little room into a fairly groovy pad. Izumi, Ryuta and I drank pleanty of shochu last night. I don’t really know what it is but it got me fired up. We made our way over to the temporary home of Sosefina, another teacher, and played guitar on into the night. Living here is turning out to be quite grand. My house is quickly turning into a Japanese house and I don’t mind this one bit. Ryuta and I have become good friends and I really enjoy Izumi’s energy. It’s incredible how important body language is in conversation because even though they both speak English decently much information is conveyed in gestures and tone of voice; somehow we seem to understand each other virtually all of the time. Today is a gloomy day and the mountain behind my house looks like it is wearing a scarf of thin clouds. I’ve successfully begun infiltrating the village via my students. This has opened up access to the ocean and many traditional dinners with various families. I’m sad to say that Peace Corps has lost a wonderful person earlier this week. On Monday those of us who could make it into town gathered to say goodbye to Uesile as he departed back to the United States. We sang Samoan songs loudly as he was taken away in a Peace Corps SUV. I wish him the best for wherever his life takes him. Because it was Monday night there weren’t any buses that run to my village so Sally, who is another volunteer, and I split the cab fare. The driver was a dick and I had to muster all of the Samoan I could to get him to stop trying to pawn his daughters off on me. I didn’t like the way he talked about Sally and I eventually just ignored him until he dropped us off. It made me uncomfortable and it was very late so I walked Sally back to her village. In some villages it is considered sa (sacred/forbidden) to walk around after dark and I realized quickly that Sally’s village was under a strict curfew. Careful not to have any part of a cultural faux pas I maneuvered myself through the back of the village and into a beautiful oceanside view of the stars. I took my time to get back home, it was a very beautiful night. During the week I follow a simple routine. Besides work, which only lasts until 2, I find that I spend a lot of time grazing around my yard like a farm animal. The property that I live on is huge and I am always stumbling upon a delicious new fruit that probably doesn’t have an English name. From the outside I probably look kind of silly walking from tree to tree and staring, but these challenges are the highlight of my afternoon. A monkey wonders ‘how in the hell am I going to get that fruit all the way up at the top?’ The answer is simple: climb. Climbing is what I, as a somewhat evolved ape, do and I have begun a tally of which things I have climbed on. I do so barefoot and my feet are becoming tough and callused. Sometimes I devour my fruit while I’m still in the tree and when Ryuta comes by I make monkey sounds and throw things. Now, I can’t understand much Japanese but sometimes I can decipher what Ryuta and Izumi are talking about based on their tones and actions. When they say ‘Chris’ in Japanese it sounds ‘Krieshe’ and I’m almost positive I heard Ryuta say, ‘yeah that’s Chris, he climbs on things and never wears a shirt.’ No worries. So that’s my life these days, I am very blessed with two wonderful new roommates/friends and I think we are going to jive very well together. From now on when people ask me how I’m feeling these days I simply say, “like a monkey staring at a tree wondering how he’s going to get the fruit at the top.”

Ryuta took this.. it seemed appropriate for this entry.