So today I just had a few random thoughts on going to Guinea...my physical is now in, so it should just be a matter of days before I am officially approved!
Is my 're-entry' shock going to be harder than after living in Honduras for 2 months since I'll be there almost twice as long, or will it be easier since I'll be working on a boat where the usual language is English and I'll be surrounded by lots of non-Guineans?
I should really take a self defense class at some point... Conakry will be the biggest city I've ever "lived" in at >1.5 million people. (I know, I know, that's not that big...3x the size of Tucson, 1/4 the size of Phoenix)
How many times am I going to start randomly speaking in Spanish expecting French to come out? (I did this in Kenya...someone spoke Swahili to me and I answered in Spanish...silly brain)
I hope I can find some friends that would like to explore the more mountainous regions inland...there are supposedly some nice waterfalls! I'm hoping I'll be able to see the mountains from the boat - I think they might start about 30 miles inland, but since I'll be going during the dry (and MANGO) season, it's more dusty so visibility might be low.
However, before I get to Guinea, I will be near Covington, VA (known for its lovely smelling paper mill) working for a home health company starting in about 1.5 weeks until Christmas. I have not done home health before, so that will be interesting in and of itself, as well as the fact that I'll be driving all over these tiny towns and rural countryside to get to my patients, which I will have 30 a week to see.
I tried to go today to see if I could find a place to live (because it would be 1.5 hour drive each way to get to my office from home...plus all the driving between patients...that would put me on the road for probably 7 hours a day, and I tend to get sleepy with lots of driving. Not a good combination.). I've struck out so far...part of me just wants to take my tent and camp and come home on weekends.
However...that would probably equal a very stinky PT, with even less sleep and therefore even more likely to fall asleep while driving... and I would like a refrigerator... I could get by with a camping stove, but a fridge is a little harder to come by camping. Unless I dehydrated all my food beforehand ;) And by the time December comes around, it might be a little cold (although I do have a 0 deg sleeping bag...sometimes it still is hard to sleep when it's in the teens...thinking back to Cold Mountain...brrrr) Yeah, my patients might not like me sleeping in a tent. (good, I just justified my way out of that one...shew.) ;)
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