Some Days Require a Little Silliness and Other Things #1

Over the past couple years, I have learned how important it can be to let myself be silly at times and even be a little mischievous.  Being silly can take many different forms and when I talk about being mischievous, this usually takes the form harmless pranks.  One of the fist actual pranks that I helped with was covering the floor of a professors office with cups filled with water and having a few containing real fish.  With pranks themselves, I have learned that sometimes it is best to prank someone who you know will appreciate it.  This professor in particular definitely enjoys a good prank.  At times of high stress such as during finals week at the end of your last semester of university, it can be really fun and a good stress reliever to be a little silly and a little bit mischievous and play a harmless prank.

I have found that over the past year living in Ethiopia, sometimes the absolute best thing for me to do is be silly.  Being a Peace Corps volunteer (PCV) can be very stressful and tedious at times, and having something to take my mind off things and lessen the stress is sometimes needed.  Also, there are some times in which that does include being a bit mischievous and might take the form of a prank.  But in a place like Ethiopia, the only times I can be silly are either in my house by myself or when around other PCVs (particularly with those whom I am closest with).

Recently, a good friend of mine and I have made a couple videos in which we have been fairly silly and have messed with each other just a little bit.  I guess these videos could loosely fall under the category of being pranks.  With things like this, you have to have a certain relationship with each other where you can be silly like this, yet knowing your limits.  But I've found how important it is to have relationships with people where you can mess with each other and be a little silly without taking each other too seriously.

I am extremely lucky to have friends in Ethiopia that I am close with and can at like a complete idiot sometimes and know that it's okay.  With this experience in Ethiopia, I have realized how important it is to have friends like this.  Friends who I can rely on, be silly around, and even pull pranks on sometimes.  People like this help make the experience much easier and will ultimately help me in completing the full twenty seven months of service.

And here are the two videos I mentioned above (who knows, there may be more videos in the future)...

Video #1: My original video

Video #2: Payback