Buns of Steel

Oh the taxi-brousse. Makes me think of how far we've come since we got here. I remember it very clearly: we had arrived in country only a week or two, and it was time to go to church with our host family. Our host mother, Nanee, lit up when we told her we would come. We had been warned to expect a long service, but we were actually interested at the time, curious to learn how people in our new home worshipped, and hoping to witness some exotic blend of animism and Christianity. Instead, we learned our first, painful lesson in what is one of the hallmarks of adjusting to life in the developing world. I’m talking of course about ass endurance, and our unfortunate lack of it only a week into training. Since that marathon 4 hour church affair (possibly longer actually, as our family mercifully pulled us away before the conclusion), our ability to sit on hard, uncomfortable surfaces for seemingly interminable amounts of time has increased remarkably. Between taxi brousses, official speeches, local entertainment, even waiting for web pages to load, I’d say our ass endurance has increased tenfold. Of course, it still has quite a ways to go before it approaches that of a native sitter. Right now, we’re probably at the “Advanced-Low” stage of ass endurance, where we can navigate a wide range of uncomfortable seating, but still are thrown off by a particularly nasty situation, like getting the crack between seats on a 6+ hour brousse ride. Not to worry though, I’m sure that by year two we’ll be easily sitting in even the most unforgiving places with relative ease. Someone told me that Marshall has been having people break boards over his ass to more quickly reach the “Advanced-High” or even the “Superior” levels of ass endurance, which involve sharing a bicycle seat over rocky terrain. Stick with it Marshall…you’ll get there.