Carol Bontekoe

This blog has been keeping track of my adventures since 2004. The stories and the adventures have come from my college dorm room to Uganda, Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan, learning Dutch in the Netherlands to living in the wilds of Homer, Alaska. I went back to school in Amsterdam to study Theaterwetenschap (Theatre Science) at University of Amsterdam. And now my adventures as a Fruit Fly, a Sexy Unicorn, and creating a movement with Team Sparkle in Chicago.

Tuesday, August 3, 2004

Runaways

So at ACF there has been alot of Negative vibes going around. That in the past few days have all but disappeared and it has become a very pleasant atmosphere. Well let me start from the begining.......There have been two groups, well kind of three. There was this Group called Jonathyn's Group, then Kind of my group(We didn't have a leader to specify the name by), and then people who were left overs from former groups. Well, Jonathyn's group is completely crazy. And they think they are revolutionaries and they all live in a seperate place from most of the volunteers. Dave called it the Revolutionaries house and we ragged on Inigo forever cuz he tried to be in with that group for a weekend, because the leader was his roommate, then he realized they were completely crazy. Jonathyn's Group have many people come in and out of their group, but within the past week most everyone realized how comepletely crazy they are. And that they do absolutely no work what so ever. Not just that they do no work but they have made doing no work an art form. Well, on Saturday Grace and I came back from town, both of us are really sick so it was perhaps the longest walk ever. On our way up we saw the sole members of the Jonathyn following in a car because Jonathyn was leaving for Airport Grace and I didn't think anything of it and waved good-bye. A few hours later while sitting around hearing about Inigo going to see Gorrillas near the Congo Nikki came up and dropped the news on us. Alana and Sylvia the two followers of Jonathyn had not just been taking him to the airport, but were infact running away from ACF! Two Grown ass women ran away from a volunteer organization in Africa! Completely crazy. But it has actually been really good. The atomosphere is completely lifted. I mean there is one group that thinks they are above everyone but they still do some work and they aren't overall mean like the old Jonathyn Group! Weird how ahving two adults run away from an organization can actually strengthen it. Bust me up. Ahhhhh.... After all the craziness has blown over, I still had to take Inigo to the airport this morning. Really cool guy, for his last day yesterday went shopping for his family and friends at home and lunch. I didn't have to spend a shilling, and we got a private hire back. Such a good lunch he took me for, PORK CHOPS!!!! YUM!!!! Something different at least. I looked back in my journal from when I first met him and I said that, "The Mexican boy arrived today. He doesn't really talk much and of course I had to bombard him with questions. Poor kid doesn't know what he has gotten himself into." Yeah that no talking thing has defiantly made a 180. But Grace thought I was a really quite loner when she first met me, so first impression here are nothing. When Inigo and I got back last night Grace was even worse than when I had left that afternoon so we ended up taking her to "The Surgery" that night. She does not have Malaria, a Malaria test looks ALOT like a pregnancy test. And we are in Africa so she prolly has Malaria but is not pregnant. The doctor couldn't really figure out what was wrong, so he gave her cough medicine even though she said she didn't have a cough and sent her home. aaaaahhhh.... for we are in Africa. My toe is falling off Grace is dieing and the doctor sends me home with Honey and Grace with Cough Syrup. So when you read guide books on Africa and they say the rainy season starts in lets say SEPTEMBER and you figure, "oh, that's fine I leave in AUGUST...." still pack something for how incredaibly cold it can get and at least pack something for the rain. It is hard to explain how the set up is for dining at Rev. Jim's but basically we eat outside under this tin roof. three of the sides can be blocked in. But, Tin Roof's make ALOT of noise when it rains... but you can only imagine the noise if it is HAILING!!!! yes that is right. Today for about an hour we all got trapped in this dining area at lunch time because it wasn't only down pouring, but their was a significant amount of HAIL coming down. Fairly big pieces of Hail. And I had to sit there and watch my window blow open and all this hail go into my room, I finally got some nerve and rain to my room through the hail to shut my window. But I only had hail come in my room the people in the tents had to watch their living spaces collapse. After the storm was over A bunch of trees were knocked over and stuff. It really was like a hurricane for a while, or a typhoon. Oh man thank goodness we had 49 cards in a deck so at least we could get a game of Cards going. Yeah, yeah... which card game? I mean CARDS. They only have one card game in uganda, a bunch said it is like Crazy 8s, but to me it seems alot like Uno. Well I'm having fun other than having to figure out where I can buy rain gear and having to pay a bunch of docotrs bills. Ugh.... Oh but to be in Afirca!!!!

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