Yesterday marks five months in Africa. Five out of seven. I now have 60 days remaining until I land back in Portland. Anyways, yesterday was similar to the previous day except a special call from my buddies back home.
If there’s one thing I’m missing most, it’s my friends (and family of course!). I don’t want to hurt any feelings, but there’s a different type of joy I get from talking with my closest pals. We’re all in the same boat of career anxiety and I love having someone to share all the silly stress with. On top of that, I’m starting to get FOMO (fear of missing out) as all the graduations, celebrations, and summer excitements commence.
Anyways, given my recent state of stagnation, I welcome any calls from my friends and family to keep me updated on happenings back home. In return I can offer a much coveted feature on my blog!
Work went like usual, and afterwards I decided to take my run on a new route to take in some more of the beautiful environment.
The main road that runs through the “downtown” of Shinyanga is, not surprising, pretty active. From my hotel it takes me about 5 minutes to reach it and I have only ever turned left upon doing so. Yesterday I decided to switch it up. I’d already gone that way on trips out to the field for work, it being one of only two routes out of the city, so it wasn’t completely new. Being on foot and slowly taking it in was very different than speeding past in a car though.
I reached the outskirts of the city pretty quickly. There were a lot of tradespeople out and about. I’m curious if it’s always like this or if I just got lucky on a market day; maybe the area has been deemed a daily marketplace, unlike my normal running route.
It wasn’t long until I totally escaped the city. Rather than running on the busy street where speeding cars frequently get too close for comfort, I decided to follow an old and rusty railroad line.
I got pretty deep into the rural farm lands and whatnot. It was a very beautiful run and I’m happy I switched it up. It got to a point where I could miles and miles down the track, but at some point I just had to turn back. I’m hoping this weekend I can maybe go for a long walk/run to just explore this wonderful landscape.
When I decided I had gone far enough I turned back towards Shinyanga. I was surprised to see a few tall buildings peeking over the tree line.
When I got near to home I decided I wanted a little snack. I went to my regular mishkaki place. I was in total disappointment and disbelief though when the little meat skewers didn’t please me. I don’t know what the cause could be, but the mishkaki was very bad yesterday. I hope this was just a fluke, but it reinforced that maybe I need to go explore different restaurants and not only frequent the one or two spots I enjoy the most.
The rest of my evening was mellow. I was very excited to find some time on my hands for reading my book. I know today will be a good day because I slept very well last night and woke up with a lot of energy. At work I also have planned for my day a task which I really enjoy. I’m starting to realize that even though I call my days at work boring or routine, I really look forward to them. I’m getting closer with some of my coworkers, the work is starting to become more real and impactful, and I’m learning a lot of skills which will be transferable to almost any career.