Despite popular belief I am in fact still alive. I would like to debunk the following myths of my whereabouts:

  1. I was not eaten by a lion
  2. I was not attacked by a group of ravenous monkeys
  3. I was not bitten by a Black Mamba, although I do hope to get the chance to see one…from a distance
  4. I was not turned into a hyena…this, while seeming random, will become more clear in a future blog post
  5. I did not walk into the bush never to return…I now only have very few returns from the bush
  6. I was not taken as a sacrifice by the Nyau, which I don’t think they do anything of the sort…the Nyau is the local tribe, a secret society with fascinating culture, although I’m sure they find me as fascinating as I find them

As I had posted in one of my first blogs I was very much looking forward to the opportunity to disconnect from a society that is, in my opinion, overly consumed with technology. Don’t get me wrong, there are amazing benefits to technology and it can be great. At the same time I feel the awe-inspiring beauty and serenity of nature is often forgotten. To quote Lord Byron:

“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods;

There is rapture on the lonely shore;

There is society, where none intrudes,

By the deep sea, and music in its roar:

I love not man the less, but Nature more;

From these our interviews, in which I steal;

From all I may be, or have been before;

To mingle with the Universe, and feel

What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.”

I have also come to realized that my blog may be incorrectly named. Due to the difficulty of travel from my site and visa issues, there is a void of wandering. But I have spent more time with wondering; even though this activity consumed much of my time even in the States, it consumes me even more so here; I think a more applicable name for my blog would be Wondering and Wandering Buckeye. I do hope to engage in far more wandering in the future.

I am now attempting to update, somewhat, with what is going on. I will put up blog posts that finish up training, as it ended long ago. I will attempt to upload some pictures and try to update with more regular postings. This is all with trying to use my limited internet abilities as I live quasi-bush. While I have the modern conveniences of electricity and cell phone service, that’s where they stop. But more about that in later posts.

So I apologize as this may seem like quite a bit all at once. I will try to do better at spacing them out in the future to make them easier to read.

And of course Happy Independence Day America! I am missing the fireworks and cookouts!