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“I get by with a little help from my friends” Lennon & McCartney

I had originally planned to continue writing about the things I took for granted, but then yesterday happened and I decided that I wanted share the day with y’all.  A little context first—my PCV bestie Alexis is currently living with me as her house is infested with rats.  Luckily a teacher from her school works in my community so she has a ride to/from school every day.  But it was still quite a week—so we decided to try for a nice day out and about on Saturday.  
It turned out to be one of those rare days when everything aligned for us--honestly, it was the first time since I've been here that I've had a day like this!  As I was closing the gate to my house, I saw a bus coming up the road.  This never happens!  But what it meant was that we didn’t have to walk up the giant hill to go wait for the bus.  When we got to town and got on our next bus, we only had to sit on it for 5 minutes before we left!  That also never happens, LOL.  
We got to the beach and it was just us and two other people.  The water was lovely and you can’t beat the view! 
While at the beach, we spotted someone who we really did not want to engage with.  It’s a small beach, but shockingly they did not see us and so we dodged that one!  
We had a relaxing time on the beach and then enjoyed delicious (yet overpriced) chicken and fries. 


Emboldened by the day we were having, we decided to make a stop on the way back into town at the "good" grocery.  You may ask why this requires one to be bold--it's because it means another bus transfer and hoping that you'll be able to get back on a bus headed toward town when you're done.  But we had success there as well--got almost everything on our lists and got on a bus!  Once back in town, we had to wait a little while for the bus to fill, but we got amazing seats on the bus so we didn't care.  Our day of travel ended with the bus once again passing by my house so we didn't have to carry all our bags like usual!  
Back at home we (i.e. mostly Alexis) made an amazing dinner of butter chicken, naan, and mango lassi. 


Please don't judge the lassi in my tea-stained mug, cups are few and far between in this house, LOL.  We stayed with the Indian vibe and started watching The Darjeeling Limited, but were both too tired to finish it, LOL!  
As we were eating dinner, we were thinking about how the day actually felt like a "normal" day back home--one where it didn't just feel so hard.  Days like this are truly a rarity here and a powerful reminder to not take for granted any of the moments of success, joy, and ease that we get along the way.  My daily gratitude practice definitely helps keep me grounded and last night one of the things I was grateful for was to have shared the day with an amazing friend.  💓



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