Ah, Veggie Curry!

…......Not! Good thought though! After being totally cooped up most of the week in the most boring, annoying, sub-basic, 2 week school ministry workshop, I come home for the weekend with thoughts of making veggie curry. You see, no matter what function you're at in Botswana, whether it's a wedding, conference, funeral, etc.....you eat the exact same thing for every single meal. This country only seems to have a few things they know how to make, so they mix and match to make you think otherwise.  It's by far the worst, most boring culinary country in the entire world!  So now, because of the intense heat, my high hopes of gettting my taste buds replenished are shot to hell---I get home to no electricity, no water, and no complaining, because many of my fellow PCV's live like this every day, so it's carrots, apples, and delicious almond butter from home. Next morning, still with no electricity, it's a 5am wake up call due to promising my teen club I would go on this “Say no to unwanted sex” 2K march.  Mind you, I don't really have to go since I'm supposed to be at this conference, but the kids begged me, and how do you say no to 30 brown eyes staring you down. We take a 20 minute drive at this god foresaken hour, and in the middle of nowhere, the kids are laughing at me. This is not an unusual thing, but this time it's because they notice that my shorts are on backwards, my shirt is inside out, and I have 2 different sneakers on. Ok, it was 5am afterall and pitch black inside---at least my teeth were brushed! All of us are hungry, but we march on with our signs and other teen clubs, when all of a sudden loud clapping thunder starts, and then it starts pouring like you can't even imagine. I've seen hard rain before, but this is God's rain, on the continent that started it all, and God makes a statement here to remind us all of something---maybe at least he could have reminded me to bring an umbrella or a rain coat---that would've been a nice thing to do! Drenched to the bone, I finally get home several hours later, the electricity is on, and I'm still thinking about that veggie curry, when I see that my entire kitchen, and the room next to it, is flooded from the bottom up, and my bedroom is flooded from the top down. FUN! Still no chance of that curry yet! I'm shoveling water into a bucket with my dust pan because here in Botswana, they don't have the good mops, good food, nothing but water coming up from nowhere, and all I have is a dust pan! Excellent! Thunder, lightning, and rain, are ferociously happening, Keoki is even a little rattled, but he's the only dog in Africa inside for the time being—lucky him! There's no plummer this side of the Atlantic ocean---not that it would matter if there was, they wouldn't come if called, for about another year. This guy, Wiseman, thought he fixed part of my roof, but all he did was tar it over, leaving me to deal with a dead, tarred pigeon in the process. Are you guys getting the picture here? Just think, all I wanted was some veggie curry and I get this!

It's now 3pm, things are as in control as there gonna be for the time being. I'm starved, so I get out all the ingredients, and whatta ya know—no electricity again because of the storm. It could be days before it comes back on, so it's more apples and almond butter for me, and fighting off the ugliest bugs I've ever seen in my life---they must be God's African bugs too! This is hard stuff here, having to deal with the elements, eating apples and whatever, feeling like a coal miner with my headlight on all night, and having a dog who's eating better than me. My only refuge is that my computer had been charged before the storm, so I'm watching Anthony Bourdain eating delicious veggie curries throughout Northern India. He's eating yummy street food, curries in palaces, Indian food that keeps coming for less than a dollar. Oh God, I'm going bonkers! I feel like jumping through the damn computer, right to India so I can have that curry! I want that curry so badly that I watch the episode 3 times! Then I watch his episode in Southern India two times! I must be crazy! Indian crazy! Seriously, if the electricity doesn't come on soon, I'm buying a plane ticket tomorrow to get some delicious spice in my life.

Sometimes you get a thought, a craving, or a song in your head that you just can't shed---but when your a PCV these things can get a little magnified! I love Anthony Bourdain, I would love to travel the world eating great food, walking through unique villages, and making money for it, but I'm in the Peace Corps, doing good deeds at 5am in the rain, dreaming of curry, and eating scraps of whatever is available. My veggie curry will have to wait for the time being, and in the scheme of things, at least 30 dripping wet kids, now know the meaning and spread the word of saying NO to UNWANTED SEX!