This year in pictures

As holidays are upon us and my departure nears (12 days), I would like to share some of my favorite photos from this year. The following encompasses my graduation, trip to england with my mom, my work at an outdoor education center, a visit to a the enormous Buddhist Stupa, a black light climbing competition (with fire dancer), some professional photos taken for my mom and friends, and my graduation and birthday parties.

These past few months have been the most joyful I have ever had. As  time has neared for my trip, I have come upon a "live like you were dying" mentality where I have tried more things and been more adventurous than my whole previous five year college experience combined.  I recommend leaving for a prolonged period just to experience what it is like to savor the things you never thought you would miss.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

On the Cliff

I received my flight information this week. Jan 4^th at 630 am I will be departing for Chicago. For two days I will be "oriented" for two years abroad, I will then be stuck with needles until I am just short of super soldier, and then I will be stuck on a plane and flown to Brussels, and then to Dakar (Senegal). From there the details get a little sketchy, I am guessing a camel convoy will take me to the capital of Banjul fording the Gambian river in Conestoga wagon. Provided that we do not get attacked by robbers at their equivalent at chimney rock (the pyramids? I am so bad at geography. Where's Sarah Palin when you need her?). Once in Banjul, we will be reoriented for a week and then train for nine more in a village with a host family and language teachers. Here we will learn the culture, language, survival techniques and which snakes to pet and which snakes will cause paralysis. Then I will be placed in a village, and told to create a project that helps the locals achieve goals of sustainability and welfare well promoting the cultural interactions that come with "hey there is a tall white man in our village".

Sanity is being achieved in the mean time by soaking up all the things that I will miss dearly well gone for two years, my mom, friends, my dogs, salsa dancing, climbing, and eating food that costs one month's wages in peanut crops. Things that I love that I can do even more of… African dance, yoga, meditation, running, riding hyena, photography, cultural immersion, learning another language, and helping others, things I hope I can do… learn an instrument or two, plant my own garden, travel often to visit peace corps friends, and camp in the bush under the stars and away from hungry hippos.

Packing is difficult, 80 pounds = my entire life for two years. Solution, send Xander care packages as I feel I will be cutting down many things to make my weight restrictions work out. I hope all is well and merry Christmas.

Lifelong Friends…

I can't believe we live in the digital age. If you are reading this, I will most likely know you my whole life. Many years from now, we may indeed still be facebooking each other, and where status updates used to read "Toughest midterm of my life, anyone for drinks?" will someday read "Toughest bowel movement of my life, anyone for some prune juice?" Therefore, I will never say goodbye. There will always be words scrawling across the page, and our fingers diligently picking our way into each other's lives. Certainly there is no way to have an intimate interaction in key strokes, but it is my hope that our typing keys will continue to connect across the bounds of oceans, continents, and time. I feel there is something valuable to be translated across the keyboard and through the lens. I will do everything I can to fight the barriers and constrictions that are about to enter into my relationship with you, and I hope we touch each other's lives in the coming years. I plan on this being my primary journal of experience and expression; as well as my attempt to connect you to a life you can only experience on a screen. So for as long as this lasts, I will live in your computer… and then on to prune juice!!!

The Gambia

The Gambia. It inspires certain awe, specifically because it has earned the title THE, entering it into some special class reserved for names like The Rock, The King, and The Clap. It is the smallest and one of the poorest countries in Africa, and upon reading my orientation material, I found that running water, electricity and a bath room were all things I would most likely not have. I now wonder if a blog is even possible under these conditions or if I should resign myself to old fashioned snail mail. This will be a developing story. As I feel I should have the ability to write letters and blog posts on my computer via a solar charging kit and then transfer them to a flash drive and send them out in batch when I journey into a larger town on perhaps a biweekly basis.

I have accepted this invitation without question. This is certainly the next step in my journey. I depart January 3^rd or 4^th

Waiting

"If everything was known, everything would be forgiven"

Live without resentment, it is a poison to the soul.  Inside the soul of another, I am sure all things done make perfect sense.  It is my perception that needs cleansing when things don't go as planned, I need to recognize the  signs and act accordingly.  Truly if we knew everything then all things would be forgiven.

Months earlier, it seemed like all the signs were pointing in different directions or where to go or what to do.  I am now sure that Peace Corps is the right thing for me at this time in my life.  I decided to join Peace Corps because I had no other plan, no future goal, and no certain job.  Applying was a way to pass the time as I waited for an uncertain future.  I think there is flow in life towards purpose because some how I randomly decided to do the right thing when I applied almost 8 months ago.    

Planting a Seed

My name is Alexander Kent.  I have created this blog first as a journal and a creative outlet that I can maintain as a way of metabolizing and documenting my two and a half year journey to Africa with Peace Corps.

I have many hopes for it though.  I hope it will keep me in contact with cherished friends and family.  I hope it will connect them to the culture that I find.  And finally, I hope you will share whatever interesting or intriguing post or picture you find with others that they may gain a closer connection to another world.

-Xander