Does everyone remember the common kids game, Marco Polo? One kid is "it," closes their eyes, and blindly tries to find the other kids by following their voice as they respond to "Polo!" to his "Marco!" My brothers and I use to play in the swimming pools of the apartment complexes we lived in or in hotels.
Did you know that goats also play Marco Polo? In the past 9 months I've had ample time to observe goat behavior. The one thing I've noticed most often is that all goats at some point throughout their day of grazing and moving about also make time to play Marco Polo. This is usually accompanied by the participating goats running hither and thither in response to the answers they get from their bleating "Marco!" Mad dashes one way turn into sprints in another direction in a fraction of a second.
My favorite Marco Polo game to watch is when nanny's and kids play. It goes something like this:
Kid: "Mom..."
Nanny: "Maaa...."
Kid: "Mooooommmmm...."
Nanny: "Mmmaaaaaaaaaaa."
Kid: "MMMMOOOOOOOMMMMMM!"
Nanny: "Maaaa! Maaaa! Maaaaa!"
It continues until the game ends with the two happily reunited.
I think goats cheat though as they keep their eyes open while they play. They may be in a larger area than a pool but if I ever peeked during a game of Marco Polo, my brothers were quick to shout, "No cheating!" I guess I'll cut my four-legged forms of entertainment some slack though as it seems like acceptable behavior to all of the other goats and no one ever gets upset over this slight change of rules.
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Being Brave
I can't count how many Americans and Zambians have told me how brave I am for becoming a Peace Corps Volunteer, moving to a remote African village on an often misunderstood continent, dedicating 2 years of my life to a people in a place far from my home. In truth, I don't feel brave. Most of the time I lock myself inside my hut as soon as it gets dark because I'm afraid of meeting my cobra neighbors.
Maybe PCVs don't realize they possess an uncommon courage no present in others. What we do, while out of the ordinary, doesn't seem strange or selective. Perhaps we have gene DRD4-7R that is linked to restlessness and curiosity in 20% of the population (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/125-restless-genes/dobbs-text). We don't see ourselves as unique or brave, though I think every volunteer would admit that the experience certainly is.
Maybe there is something within us that provides a sense of longing for experiencing the unknown or something new and novel. Certainly my friends in the states never understood my desire to hop trains of free-dive with great white sharks. I'm sure they were even more confused when my reasons for deciding not to do these things had more to do with the fact that trains really are quite noisy and I get mini panic attacks when trying to breath through a snorkel and not with the dangers inherent in such acts as train hopping and diving with sharks.
So, when people tell me how brave I am, I am always at a loss for words, puzzled by what leads them to say such things. While PC is not for everyone, I'm a firm believer that anyone can be brave and achieve amazing feats. You don't have to live in a hidden corner of the earth to be courageous. Courage is within all of us and bravery is when we rise to meet the challenges that await us. So I say cheers to everyone because while you may think I'm brave, I think you are equally so.
Maybe PCVs don't realize they possess an uncommon courage no present in others. What we do, while out of the ordinary, doesn't seem strange or selective. Perhaps we have gene DRD4-7R that is linked to restlessness and curiosity in 20% of the population (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/125-restless-genes/dobbs-text). We don't see ourselves as unique or brave, though I think every volunteer would admit that the experience certainly is.
Maybe there is something within us that provides a sense of longing for experiencing the unknown or something new and novel. Certainly my friends in the states never understood my desire to hop trains of free-dive with great white sharks. I'm sure they were even more confused when my reasons for deciding not to do these things had more to do with the fact that trains really are quite noisy and I get mini panic attacks when trying to breath through a snorkel and not with the dangers inherent in such acts as train hopping and diving with sharks.
So, when people tell me how brave I am, I am always at a loss for words, puzzled by what leads them to say such things. While PC is not for everyone, I'm a firm believer that anyone can be brave and achieve amazing feats. You don't have to live in a hidden corner of the earth to be courageous. Courage is within all of us and bravery is when we rise to meet the challenges that await us. So I say cheers to everyone because while you may think I'm brave, I think you are equally so.
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