Congratulations are in order!

I want to publicly congratualte my little brother, Morgan, on his recent engagement to Holly, his wonderful girlfriend (now fiance)! I am soooo excited for them both because they are great people. I am super thankful that I am getting a really cool, sweet sister-in-law too!

A note to Morgan and Holly: please, please try to give the dates of the wedding soon! I am definitely coming home but have school and a mandatory Peace Corps conference that I must attend in March.

awwww....

This link http://ontheway.blogproject.org/images/hi-casey will take you to an amazing photo album created by my friends at Penn State. The national communication association conference was recently held in Boston. I was very sad that I couldn't be there to see all of my friends, colleagues, former professors, etc. BUT, you'll see that my friends didn't forget me!!!! I was completely taken aback by this kind gesture.

Thank you (Jessica and others) for the wonderful surprise. It made me smile, cry, laugh, and miss everyone.

A little festa

Click on the image and it gets bigger.... it's even better when it's full size!

Yesterday I invited my class to my house for a little party. We didn't have school because it was "ISE day". I thought it would be fun to visit with my students outside of class. Also, they have been so wonderful to me throughout the semester and I thought it would be nice to entertain them at my house. About 16 of my 25 students were able to make it. Some of them live far away and some of them have to work, but the turn-out was great!

For the occasion I made pizzas, banana bread, cookies, and brownies. My students each brought something to eat as well. We had tons of food! I had students bring bean dishes, couscous, cakes, rice, and much more. I was great.

My students showed up at 11am. Cape Verdeans have specific things that they do at parties, so I just sat back and enjoyed the events as they took over. First we played several games including charades. Then after about 2 hours of game playing and waiting for everyone to show up, it was time to eat. Everyone ate and drank lots. After eating everyone sat in a big circle and they took turns telling jokes and funny antecdotes. This was great because they were telling stories in Crioulu which helped me learn more words. After about an hour of story telling they began to clean up. Now this was an impressive production. First, they put on some really good dance music, then the boys grabbed brooms and dustpans and started sweeping and dancing all at the same time. The girls took to doing the dishes and divying up the food. Within about 20 minutes everything was sparkling clean and before everyone left, they had to DANCE. The boys and girls all danced for a bit and even got me in on the fun. It was a blast. I love hanging out with my students and getting to know them. It was great to speak to them in Creole rather than English for a change.

Well, in two weeks, they are throwing a "jamaica" party/dinner, and I am invited! I'm extremely excited about this! It should be a blast! I'll be sure to let you know how this all goes!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, so I hope you are all spending Turkey day with those you love. I wish I were in America now to see everyone. It's hard to be soooo far away on the holidays. Miss you.... txau, ti logo.

I just couldn't help it!

I've recently inhereted 4 cats! That's right, four cats (1 momma and 3 babies). I wrote not too long ago about the cat, "happy cow" who lives at the Peace Corps transit house. I wrote about her having her babies while I was sitting next to her. Well, the Peace Corps found out about the babies and decided they had to go! Well, their brilliant solution was to kill the cats. I found out the day after I returned from Dakar and decided to save them from their impending doom. Can you believe someone would kill 3 babies?? I have no real desire to keep these kittens nor their mother, so I am just keeping them until the babies can be separated from the mom. I am in the process of finding good homes for them. I hope some fellow volunteers decide to take them in because I can't keep 4 cats; my roommate is already getting a little wigged out about them. She has taken to keeping her door shut at all times to keep the momma out!!!!

As for their adoption, I have taken individual photographs of each kitten in his/her most favorable light. I am planning on sending these images out to the volunteers to garner sympathy and find good homes for the cats. I sure hope this works!! YIKES. My roommate is patiently handling my compassion for pets, but she is really just humoring me for a while.

Okay, so wish me luck with the pet adoption! Oh, I forgot to mention that the kittens are primarily black, which my students tell me is very bad in Cape Verde. They say that people believe black cats are "brusha," witches. Children will try to kill black cats if they catch them!!! I don't have a lot working in my favor with these little guys.....

I'm Back...

HI Everyone! I'm back in Cape Verde after a grueling trip. After feeling as if my foot problems where not being resolved, my flight back home was delayed about 3 hours. We were scheduled to leave at 11p.m., but ended up leaving at about 2:30 a.m. That put me back in Cape Verde at 4 a.m. and I had to teach at 9. Needless to say, I'm exhausted. To top it all off, I had to share a room in Dakar with a woman who had the flu, so, of course, I am sick! GREAT! To say that my trip was pointless would be an understatement.

At any rate, I am happy to be home. I missed my students terribly. When I walked into my classroom on Friday morning, my students gave me a round of applause, and I got lots of hugs. They told me that they really, really missed me! It was nice to feel welcomed back.

So now that I'm here, I have been noticing all of the things I am missing. I began to compile a list so that family and friends could send me Christmas packages full of things I need. Here goes (this is particularly for Morgan and Holly who asked me to be specific):

- Spices (any and all spices, particularly tumeric and chili powder)
- Binder clips (you know the bigger clippy things)
- Index cards (lots of them for studying new languages)
- A day planner
- A wall calendar
- A good can opener
- A good garlic press
- A pepper mill (the only black pepper you can get in this country is in the form of peppercorns)
- NEW MUSIC - CD's of any kind that are out in the states now
- Hair clips
- Hair bands (ponytail holders)
- For JA - more Goldwell conditioner, shampoo, hair gel
- A new ipod (just kidding, but mine is done and I'm sending it West to have it repaired ... hopefully)
- Fruit Leathers (you know the 100% fruit snacks you can get in health food stores)
- trail mix
- Pecans, Almonds, pumpkin seeds, soy nuts, etc.
- visits from any friends or family members that would like to come.
- As always, money for traveling (can be deposited in my account at home or sent here, just let me know)
- Crossword puzzle books
- books, magazines, any reading material

I'll be updating this list as I think of things. I'm just soooo happy to be back here after time away. I'll try to post pictures from my Dakar trip soon. Txau... ti logo.

Dakar photos

Though I didn't get to spend a lot of time exploring Dakar, I did get to see some of the statues and mosques. This is the millenium monument on the beach near downtown Dakar.
As always, if you click on the photo, it gets bigger.

water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink

The other night, while eating dinner in the medical "hut" alone, I was putting together a puzzle that was left by another kind volunteer. All of the sudden, as if out of nowhere, water began spraying across the room. At frist I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. It was spraying like a firehose, really, really hard. I thought it was coming in through a hole in the wall from outside. Or maybe it was being sprayed in through a window. All I knew was that I was getting soaked and the floor was filling up quickly. I finally looked around and noticed a that had hose broken loose from the hot water heater and was causing the problem. Of course, I jumped into action. I grabbed the hose, only to have it spray in my face, and then I tried to redirect the water into the nearby sink. Just imagine it... me, drenched, holding an out of control water main in my hand, feeling pretty helpless. What to do? I finally rig a way for the hose to stay pointed at the sink and run out to the guard (oh, did I mention it was late and NO ONE else was around except two non-english speaking guards). The guards speak French, so I just yelled, "come with me" and made some wild hand motion as I pointed to my wet clothes. The guard, rather than immediately hopping to, just laughed at me for a minute, then followed when I stormed off (I didn't think this was nearly as funny as he apparently did). He came in, assessed the situation, went back outside, turned off the water main and the water finally STOPPED.

There I was, looking like a drowned rat, sopping up water from the lake that had become my kitchen. The guard left, got the other guard, and then they both returned to laugh at me some more. At this point I was on hands and knees with towels, working on getting the water up and out! Needless to say, it was a crazy night. I was worn out and headed for bed immediately after that incident! What a week. It's not bad enough that I broke my foot, had to leave Cape Verde, but now I have to deal with faulty water hoses! GEEZ. What's next?

Catching Up

I've decided, since I'm in Dakar and bored to tears, that I will try to spend some time "catching up" on some of the things that I have been meaning to write about.

1.) The boy in the yellow shirt:
I have a student named Esmael. He is a nice kid, about 20 years old. His English is pretty good and his writing is even better (which tends to be true for non-native English learners). I had my students write an essay introducing themselves. This was their first official assignment so that I could get a sense of where they were as writers and where I needed to begin the class. Esmael's essay was amazing. He told of his childhood and the extreme poverty into which he was born. He told of walking 3 hours each way to school every day, of not eating breakfast or lunch because his parents couldn't affort it, and of the struggle he went through to pay for his high school education (in Cape Verde, only primary school is free). What's funny, is that after I read his essay, I noticed that he wears the exact same yellow shirt every single day. The shirt is apparently from some basketball camp in the States that he must have inhereted from a relative or friend. I would have never noticed that my student wears the same t-shirt everyday if not for his essay about his impoverished life. It's amazing how much you can learn from reading about people's lives.

2.) Pregnancy:
I have a student named Fatima who wrote the most amazing essay last week. Her essay told the story of her youth. She was young, 15 or so, when she realized she was pregnant. She lived with her Aunt at the time and did not want to tell her secret. She told the story with such amazing detail and candor that I was enthralled. She never once said that she was "pregnant" but the dialogue communicated this "secret" that she was keeping. It was one of the most beautiful stories I have ever read.

Say what?

I'm in Dakar now where everyone speaks a different African tribal language and a little bit of French. This is terribly unfortunate for me seeing as I speak none of these languages. Just as I was getting a hold of Creole, I am sent to a land where no Creole is spoken!

Well, I saw three doctors yesterday. The Peace Corps doctor (who was of no help), a podiatrist, who while cute and French, was not all that interested in talking to me or helping me, and an orthopedic surgeon who did try to speak to me a bit but ended up telling me not to worry about my foot because "it's really not that bad." Now, this last doctor's comment made me cry because he told me this just after telling me that I would need to wear an insert in my shoe for 3 to 6 months and that I wouldn't be able to run for at least 6 months. But, really, it's not that bad. RIGHT! It sucks! The doctors all spoke to each other in French and the PC doctor didn't ever tell me what the specialists were saying to him, even after I asked. What a pretentious ass.

Now I'm waiting to get my shoe insert to turn my running shoes into my special shoes. I will have to wear my tennis shoes all day everyday. This means while I'm teaching, relaxing, everything. I'm sure it will be really, really cute seeing me in a dress, blouse, and asics! Lovely!

Well, aside from my terrible foot pain and impending fashion crisis, things are boring. I can't get out and do much because of the foot thing. I don't speak the language, which is a problem. Apparently it's Veteran's day, so the PC office in Dakar is closed, meaning the people who actually speak my language in this country are not around!

This has all turned out to be a pointless trip. I was sent here to have an MRI and CT scan, but have had and will have NEITHER. The PC is cheap and the doctor doesn't actually care about the long-term effects of all of this, so I'll just be hobbling around for a while longer. I sure hope the shoe insert works. If not, I'm headed to the states. I refuse to live in a place where I am miserable. I have to walk everywhere and with a broken foot, that's not very easy. Sorry to be such a downer, but this is all hitting me very hard. I feel like no one really cares if I get better in the near future or at all for that matter. I just hope something good comes from all of this bad! I'm trying to stay positive... and you know what might help??? Packages from the states filled with fun things to do while sitting on the couch and good things to eat while sitting on the couch! Okay, so send on those packages.

Dakar on crutches

Alo! First, let me say that I am on crutches and have been for about 5 days! Crutches are the pits and if you've never had the joy of supporting your weight on two sticks, then feel blessed. My armpits are sore, my back hurts, and I am now taking pain pills that make me drowsy all of the time. The doctor has put me on "bed rest" at this point. This means I can only go teach and then I must return home to sit on the couch and read books and magazines. I am pretty miserable, so send emails and words of encouragement my way, PLEASE!

I've just learned that tomorrow night I'll be on a plane to Dakar. Last time I was there, I hadn't made it to Cape Verde. And this time, I may not be returning to Cape Verde for quite some time.

I'll be in Dakar for an MRI and CT scan on my foot. Hopefully the doctors there will have some further insight on my foot and what to do about it. I'm not sure if I'll be returning to Cape Verde in a cast or if I'll be headed to DC for surgery. Everything is up in the air at this point, so I have been instructed to take as much as I can with me, as I may be gone for a while.

I will try to keep my blog up to date while I'm away (if I can access the internet) to keep everyone updated. Wish me luck! Txau, ti logo.

Happy Cow!

Well, It must be nearing Christmas time (even though it doesn't feel like it in Cape Verde) because the "peace corps" cat, Happy Cow (named after the cheese brand), just gave birth. Now, she didn't have a virgin birth (or at least I don't think so), but she was only about 8 months old when she had her first litter. She has a special place in my heart because she is a teenage mother and currently no one is residing at the Peace Corps transit house where she lives. I've been checking on her frequently to ensure she is being fed and that her pregnancy was coming along fine. Well, she must have known how much I worried about her because the other night I went to check on her and she came to sit next to me on one of the couches. I looked down and saw that she was beginning to deliver her first of three adorable kittens! That's right, she was lying right next to me, just pushing them out..... a miracle. She is the sweetest cat and her kittens are black. They haven't yet opened their eyes but they are beinging to cry and walk some! I am trying to find them good homes with Peace Corps volunteers, so we'll see how that works out. I don't really want to have a cat here for may reasons, but I may end up at least paying to feed them while they reside at the transit house. Well, the holiday season is upon us, maybe I'll name one of the babies Jesus! :) Txau, ti logo.

Happy Halloween

I know this post is a few days late, but with my foot problems, I've been busy!

I was really bummed that I was missing Halloween in the states. Several of my friends from the US have sent pictures of their Halloween parties and costumes, which made a bit homesick! To remedy this homesickness, I decided to bake my students some cookies and decorate them with orange and black icing. I also baked a brownie cake and decorated it with a big jack o' lantern face. I thought this would be a nice gesture and we had been studying Halloween in my British Culture and Civilization course!

Well, much to my surprise, my students had planned on surprising me on Monday morning. When I got to my classroom, they had decorated everything with ghosts, grave stones, balck cats, bats, pumpkins, etc. They went all out for this! I was so touched and surprised and amazed by this. They had all dressed either in all black with witches hats or all white with ghost faces. It was a beautiful site.

Of course, I didn't have my camera with me, but a student had hers! I hope to get those pictures and post them soon. I just can't believe how much trouble my entire class went to for me. They are absolutely amazing. They are hard working, thoughtful, and beautiful people. They were able to absolutely make my day even though I later found out about my foot and the upcoming trip to Dakar!

I have more things to say about my students here at ISE, so I'll write more about them very soon. Txau, ti logo.

Ami n kebra nha pe (revised)

Well, the title basically says it all ! Oh wait, you can't read Crioulu. The title says "I BROKE MY FOOT."

After several months of having a foot pain, several inconclusive Xrays, and some blood work, I found out today that I broke my foot. The Peace Corps doctor decided to try one more angle on the Xray to see if there was a hidden fracture. SURE ENOUGH, there was. I broke my foot and now I am at the Peace Corps office waiting for the nurse to take me to the hospital to talk to the orthepedic doctor.

I'm back from the doctor! Great news, I get to go to the continent. Apparently the fracture I have is in a small bone underneath the pad of my foot, which means that casting it will not work because I'll break it again. ALSO, this fracture is also apparently OLD, so I've just been continuously hurting it for quite some time. It now hurts really, really bad.

The doctor says that I must have an MRI, which cannot be done in Cape Verde. I will be headed to Dakar next week to have this done. Then from there, the doctor said I'll have to have surgery. He said this bone isn't "needed" and it'll need to be removed. The Peace Corps medical officer assured me this surgery is fast and easy! My fear is that this surgery will have to be done in AFRICA! YIKES. Hopefully they'll send me to Portugal or the States. That would be sweet. Either way, I'm off to Dakar soon.... I'll keep you posted on the status of my foot.

As always (now more than ever), any care packages would be greatly appreciated at this point! I am pretty bummed about my foot and the whole surgery thing! Alright, I expect lots of sympathy from all of my friends and family! Txau! Ti logo.

christmas

I know that everyone is wondering just what to get me for Christmas! It may seem early, but my mom spoke with the post office and they said that in order for a package to get to me for Christmas, it should be sent at the latest, by Thanksgiving. So, send on any Christmas presents you'd like to.

AND, if you are wondering what to get me, then you should know from the previous post that my computer is dead, so a new computer would be great! Okay, maybe that's asking too much, but seriously money for a computer is ideal! I'll leave you all to decide what other things I might want (books, CD's, clothes)....

Now get to sending those wonderful Christmas packages before it gets too late!

Take the good with the bad

Friends, family, faithful readers!

Hello! I am sorry that I have been neglecting my blog in recent weeks, but (and here is where the BAD begins) a few things have happened in the past two weeks that have limited my internet usage. First, my computer is dead. By dead I mean, dead in the way that computers are after you accidently dump water in them. My laptop was on when this happened, it immediately shorted out, and I haven't seen any glimmers of hope from it since (it's been a week and a half). Secondly, I found out last week (my first week of classes) that I would be teaching another class, British Culture and Civilization. Now, I know nearly nothing about the British, their culture, or anything to do with civilization. So, I have been furiously reading, researching, etc. to try to come up with a reasonable syllabus for my students.

Here comes the GOOD.... Other than the dead computer and the new class, things are quite delightful. As I said, my classes began last week. I am teaching Compostion I and the British Culture course to the second year students. At ISE, the students all stay in the same classroom for every class, so I am teaching the same students for a total of 8 hours a week. I begin teaching Monday morning from 7:30 am until 9:30, then I teach Wednesdays 7:30 to 9:30 and again from 11:30 until 1:30, then on Fridays I teach from 9:30 until 11:30. All-in-all, not a bad schedule. I really like teaching early in the mornings here. It's a nice schedule.

Now to the students (the really, really good part). My students are absolutely wonderful. I know, I know, you're thinking that I've only met them for a few classes, how could I possibly know if they are wonderful. Well, I do and they are. These students still are struggling with English a bit because they are only in their second year of the program. Now, the first day of my Composition class, I had the students write a couple of paragraphs about why they wanted to learn English and in particular composition. Afterward, I had them stand in front of the class and read their first writing assignment (they were a little shocked, I think). Those students with poor English skills were very timid and really reluctant to get in front of the class (I can't help it, I'm a public speaking teacher). They did an excellent job and were not to bad. I assigned a short essay for the next class and we were through. Now, on the second day of class, I decided to talk about passion. This is something I like to talk about with students because I want them to begin to realize that passion is essential to expressing oneself. Understanding and developing your passions makes for good writing (or speaking).

I began the class on passion by asking them to define the word. Students volunteered: desire, want, love, interest, etc. One quiet guy in the class half-whispered "SEX." I immediately asked him to repeat himself and he did. I then said, "yes, sex"! My students thought that was hilarious, so we kept on this and came up with some other funny things to say. Then I had them write a short paragraph about why passion is important for writing. When they finished, I asked them to write down a list of things about which they had passion. A few students volunteered to read these aloud and we talked about music, nature, friends, family, language, colleagues, etc. I then asked them to pick one specific thing from their list of passions. I asked them to intimately desribe this person, thing, or idea. Afterward, I asked for volunteers to read what they wrote. Nearly all of my students raised their hands immediately. Everyone wanted to share what they had wrote. I was in awe, taken aback because even my poorest speakers and shyest students had their hands raised to read. These students, every single one of them, read what they wrote. These short essays were beautiful. One student wrote about her mother, another about an unnamed lover, one about his love of reading, one about his passion for writing, one about life, one about her husband, another about traveling, and many, many more.

Today, in my British Culture and Civilization class, they students were equally great. They are soo interested in everything we have to teach them. They know how important their education is and NONE of them have their parents paying for their studies. These students work, come to school, and study hard everyday. I'm really, really happy to be here working with students who appreciate me as a teacher and why I'm here. I couldn't be happier with my life in Cape Verde; it's pretty wonderful.

And you know, it's even starting to get a little cooler here...... it's almost like fall (well, not really, but I can pretend). I'm off to read more about the British! Cheers!

waiting for school to begin

Several people have asked me in personal emails to tell them about school. Well, I would tell you about school if it were to begin. You see, school was scheduled to start on Monday, Oct. 10th, however, about two weeks ago we “heard” from one of the faculty members that school had been “officially” delayed. School is now supposed to begin on the 17th, next Monday. So, we’re a week late and in Cape Verde no one (not even elementary school or high school kids) attends school on the first week, so we won’t actually start school until the 24th or so. This is fine with me, but the problem is that the longer we delay school, the hard it is on the teachers. We MUST hold a certain number of classes regardless of the day school begins and ends and holidays. This means that if we don’t have at least 30 class sessions in a semester for a given class, we are obligated to hold class at another time that works for the students. We are apparently given the task of figuring this out ourselves! We wouldn’t actually have to adhere to this policy except for the fact that we have to turn in a “lesson plan” of each class that the students sign each class period. Then we turn a binder with these sheets, all tests given, and papers written to Academic services and they check up on us (I think). People in the English department seem to do whatever they want, so this may not be as big a deal as it seems like. Because hardly anyone in our department speaks Portuguese, and most of us are Americans, we kind of get away with a lot because the school figures either its too much trouble to get us to understand all of the rules OR they just figure since we speak English and it’s an English department, we must know what we’re doing! Fair enough. Either way, I just hope I do things right considering how little I actually understand.

Picture Albums on Ofoto

Here are the links to 5 photo albums I've created. I'll be updating them regularly and adding more of them to this post, so check back here regularly!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=951000068205&page=1&sort_order=0

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=489799958205&page=1&sort_order=0

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=834889958205&page=1&sort_order=0

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=747089958205&page=1&sort_order=0

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=747089958205&page=1&sort_order=0

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=764913528205&page=1&sort_order=0

Breast Cancer

I have not heard of many women with breast cancer in this country. In fact, it's pretty rare in countries were over-processed food (like fast food) has not yet spread. There has been some interesting research linking cancer (particularly breast cancer) to the "fast food" countries. But this entry isn't about research or statistics or the lack of breast cancer in Cape Verde. This is about a woman, my neighbor in Sao Domingos, who lost her battle with the disease last week.

Francesca, has three children (ages 10, 12, 17). These kids have been taking care of their mother for the past year and a half. She has been bedridden for that long, after returning from a masectomy in Portugal. She is a very good friend of my family, so I spent time at her bedside speaking with her and spending time with her. Her children were my friends. I spent time practicing English with them and they helped me with my Creole. Her children are incredibly wonderful and strong. I attended the visitation (with the family, which is different than in the states) where I got to see the children and talk with them a bit. I'm not sure what will happen to them now, but I do know that Cape Verde is a wonderfully community-oriented place. The children will be well taken care of here by my family and others.

This blog entry is a tribute to this woman, who, by the time I knew her had gone from a vivacious mother to a skeleton of a woman. She is survived by some wonderful kids that I am glad I know. The picture: Junior, the 10 year old son of Francesca.

The market

I have discovered that shopping at the open-air market on the Plateau is far better than shopping at the local mini-markets or larger grocery stores, at least for veggies and fish and the herbs. The open-air market has about 200 vendors, all women. The main part of the market is veggies, these are in the center. On the sides of the market are the fish and meat vendors (these areas are a little scary, but they sell excellent fresh TUNA for a very, very good price). The very center of the market is where you can get fresh herbs.

I have visited the market on several occasions and have found lots of exciting things. Just this morning, I bought beautiful green leafy lettuce (they don't have iceberg lettuce, thank goodness), 6 georgeous/homegrown tomatoes, 2 onions, 2 huge green onions (they are very different here than our small bunches of scallions in the states), 1 head of garlic, and 1 cucumber. I got all of this for a mere 340 escudos (about $3.10, US). And from another woman, I purchased 4 carrots and she threw in a zuchini because I am from Sao Domingos and so is she!!! Sweet. I love the perks of knowing people in this town. I have two women that I buy from on a regular basis because they give me a good deal and I know they aren't trying to hike up the prices because I'm an American. AND, if they don't have what I'm looking for, they will walk me over to one of their friends and ask her to help me with what I need. Now that's helpful. I also have a woman in the fresh herbs section that helps me out! It's really nice to get everything I need to cook dinner at the market and it's fun to see the ladies. They always ask me how I am and give me kissed on the cheeks. It makes my day to head up to the market because I get to practice my Crioulu and I am meeting lots of nice women there.

Okay, that's all for now. Just thought I'd fill you in on my latest, greatest pleasure in life. Txau, ti logo.

Just kidding... (REVISED)

I spoke toooo soon. My ipod is acting CRAZY, so I am trying to get Ipod to be sympathetic to a poor/sad Peace Corps volunteer and fix my Ipod for me. It is freezing, stopping, skipping, and doing all sorts of other odd things at this moment, so I SPOKE TOO SOON. Feel sorry for me again, please!!!!!!!!!!!

Ignore the below post:

A miracle has occurred. After 5 days of no music, I walked into the Peace Corps office Saturday afternoon to file a formal complaint online with Ipod. My friend and fellow volunteer Sarin was here and he asked to look at the device. After approximately 30 seconds he said, "what exactly is the problem?" All of my music was there just as it had been.

Okay, before you all get angry and upset because I didn't really lose my music and you sent or are sending things to me, just think, you can enhance my music collection, just as I requested some time back.

I am relieved to say the very least and excited to get my music back. Please send on anything you were planning to send. I'd love to hear new stuff.

Sorry for the panic! It's been 5 really long days without my tunes! Thanks for all of the support and kindness during this time of need!