KokoMo Betta

Arusha, Jamaica ooooh I wanna take ya // Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty mama! Wait a minute, she said Arusha, not Aruba. That's right beach boys. I am going to Arusha, Tanzania.

Trade show coming up June 8th, and guess who wiggled herself onto a flight in that direction? Me, that's who.  Stone-cold proof that it doesn't hurt to speak up. When I heard another coworker get invited to go to Tanzania for this show weeks ago, I cringed... why did my boss invite her!? She barely smiles. It took me 2.5 months to get her to warm up to me, and I only succeeded by the sparkling magic of lip gloss. Sure, she's worked for Volcanoes for six years, in comparison to my amazing performance of four months, but I can at least pretend to be charming! I have nice teeth! Good posture! I am great at faking elaborate knowledge of things which at best I possess a rudimentary understanding of! Like, forming passive sentences ending with exclamation points!! (Great sales points, right?)

Well against all odds, I made a point of requesting a special meeting with my boss and explaining that I really enjoyed many things about my job with Volcanoes, but I wanted to work more on marketing, more journalism: writing stories, interviewing participants in our non-profit sector, creating deliverables to share with the public, experiencing the product, LEAVETHEOFFICEBEFOREIPULLOUTALLOFMYHAIR-type stuff. That, and it's really hard to work a sales job as an underpaid peon, making no commission, having no sales incentives, while literally funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars into the company.

I thought she didn't hear me. She kind of faded away after that meeting, supposedly met with the big London boss about the many things the sales team had shared with her... but didn't bat an eyelash for over a week after he left, and I never got any feedback to the many things I had suggested and shared.

Then the logistics manager who was supposed to accompany the sales consultant couldn't go anymore. He is instead somewhere between Rwanda and Nairobi, I think. So V (boss lady) asked me if I would like to accompany the other girl. To which I waited .04 seconds to emphatically accept.

Granted, I will be in some sort of business center no doubt, shmoozing and yawning for most of the 4 day show. I will also hilariously be dressed in traditional Rwandan attire.  Hands will be shook. Smiles will be plastered into place. Pictures will be had. But it will be in Tanzania. And you gotta love an excuse to get one more stamp into that passport.

And for Kate—who hopefully still reads this from time-to-time—I envision saying, "Mooore pictures!" (In a cookie monster growl)

I present, Kilimanjaro:

Then, thanks to the wonders of the interwebs, I happened upon this bizarre story/site...which started so sweetly I though it was an African fable for children... then it literally headed south. 

I just lost 15 minutes that I will never get back... but it was kind of fun. 

What is true

I am delirious. I'll start by throwing that little waiver out there. I am trying to figure out how to start a blog, what should be interesting enough to go into a blog, and how I can lure my unsuspecting acquaintances, friends, family,  and pets into reading said blog.  The hardest part was trying to figure out a title to get this party started. "What is true" seems fitting, because, really, that's all I'm ever trying to elucidate. I can't guarantee that "what is true"will necessarily be true to you, but that's why it's my blog! If I'm ever wondering what to share, I can ask myself, "What is true?" and go from there.

I warn you, this may start out kind of rough. My prose is suffering from years of neglect. I tend to write like I talk, and me not always talk pretty.

So-- why am I delirious? I'll get to that eventually. But I am realizing more and more that it's a bit tricky to say goodbye, or 'farewell-for-a-while' to a lot of people I love. I am starting to see that a lot of people love me back. It makes me happy, and sad, and happy. And sad. I am looking forward to the next 6 months and/or year of adventures in Uganda, but wistfully glancing around at the life I am leaving behind. I think most of the loose ends have been tied, or at least knotted, and nothing's going to spontaneously combust in my absence.... but I still have to let go of all those threads.

For those of you who are still wondering what all this fuss is about, I am moving to Kampala for a sales consultant job with Volcanoes Safaris, a company specializing in great apes tours and safaris by way of luxury eco-lodges located within natural expanses along western Uganda and Rwanda, such as Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Even that park name sounds cool, like some fairy-tale forest that is impossible to enter.

I am going to try and post weekly... if not more.... I kind of need to see what life is like there, and if my electrical converter will allow me to literally get plugged in. Soon there will be concrete divulgences of my new Ugandan life. At some point thereafter there will probably be painful admittance of complete naiveté. Eventually there will be pictures. And there will most definitely be emoticons... sorry.
Stay tuned :.)