Monday

4/27/09

Up at 6, sore from a rough night of sleep on the millet stalks (maybe sorghum?), but was eager to get on the road before it got too hot. Left Sia by 6:30 and was on the open road. Felt great, as always, to be biking. Makes me look forward to our end of service motorcycle trip through Europe.
Broke for a fruit and nut bar, water, and stretch break at what I thought to be about half-way, then back on to continue to Gaya. Reached here at around 8:30, so two hours, a little longer I’m guessing than the last time I made the trip, but last time I had been biking more and was in a little better shape. Good news though, is that sitting here writing this up tonight, I’m not the least sore or achy from the ride.
Once back, I did the morning routine, showered, had a quick breakfast, and then was off to the inspections. Neither inspector was around, nor was my counterpart for student government work, Saidou, whom I had been hoping to catch. Made him a call, set up a meeting for tomorrow morning, happy that my French and zarma skills are to the point where phone calls are generally easy affairs and that communication is now not really much of an issue.
Visited both inspections briefly and then came back home to do laundry, now an almost daily experience, having moved most of my stuff, including clothes to Niamey when I thought I was leaving. That leaves me with only a like five shirts, two pairs of pants, and four pairs of underwear. Now that everything is there, why go through the effort of bringing it all back again?
The zipper broke on one of my pants while I was washing though, so I had to dig through my clothes trunk, which is really just a collection of torn/non-wearable clothes since the move, and pulled out an old pair – torn on the leg, hole in one pocket (Remember Jeremy – money in the right pocket!), and, though I don’t feel like I’ve lost a any weight here, they’re a bit too big for me. Lacking a belt, I’m now using some string from my house to hold them up. Classy, I know.
Grilled cheese lunch. Trying to use up the Velvetta since no refrigerator.
Worked on memorizing stanzas 5/6 of ‘The Raven’ and then napped. Ok maybe I was a little tired from the bike ride since I slept (or half-slept) for two hours.
At one point, I woke up drenched in sweat, so went and showered, and then laid down again soaked, water is much better then sweat.
Slowly roused myself later. Shower again, since was once again sweating, then played harmonica for a while before writing up a script for my radio show tomorrow. Megan’s coming up from Malanville and we’re going to talk about malaria and meningitis.
Made macaroni and cheese and peanut butter (need a protein source) for dinner. Read some of Le Petit Prince, my new book, played with the kittens and am now ready for bed.

Kitten News-
Still no names, but I’m starting to see each one’s personality. I have two outgoing ones who aren’t really afraid of me anymore, and one scaredy-cat who hides under the bookshelf whenever I pass. The two are making their first playful foray into the garden tonight, Musu and myself both on alert for that damn tomcat who seems to be on the prowl around here, all too possibly for kittens.

No power since I’ve been back. Long time, even by Gaya standards.