Monday, October 13, 2008
Journal Entry 7.17.08
I have never in my life seen lightning and heard thunder at the same time. I have been through only a handful of storms and seen some close calls but tonight takes the cake. The wind is calm but the rain is heavy and the lightning so frequent one doesn’t need a flashlight. The thunder roars and rolls and startles oneself. "A" said that when the lightning is so bright and the thunder makes that horrific or beautiful clap at the end, then indeed the lightning bolt has stuck the ground. As I sat to write just now, I was shaken. My heart actually shook in my body and a sharp light flashed in my house and the sound of a hundred Oregon storms made me exclaim out loud, though no one is here. “Holy Shit!”
Today was quite an odd day. I woke up tired and sore. "A" left yesterday morning and I rode to Burreng afterwards. It wasn’t hot, too hot, but hot enough. I didn’t eat and after 3 or so hours going to the lumo and back, I was quite tired. I woke up this morning, chilled a little, my shoulder hurt from sleeping weird and my pillow that I made out of local fabric and the cottonesque filling from the seedpod of a white silk cotton tree, stuck between my legs. I fiddled around in the morning, made tea and pulled some weeds out of my bitter tomato bed. Let me do some exposition.
Some weeks back as the “rains” began (it only rains a few times a week, if that, but when it does, tis chubasco galore). My big garden had begun to sprout grass and weeds and I spent countless hours weeding it until it was nothing but dirt and clay. I went to Kombo or Kiang for about 10 days. When I returned (with "A") my garden behind my house had shot up and was doing well--toppled over but doing well.
There must have been a great many rains when I was gone for everything was doing better than expected and my big garden out back, which I so painstakingly weeded, and dug only a few beds, but had to do American beds! And I transplanted some bitter tomatoes in them. Well, I couldn’t see any of it the grass covered it all. All that work, gone. So this morning was my first day back at “work” since "A"is now gone and I have little to keep me from pulling weeds and digging ditches which I have somehow grown to love. So I pulled a bunch of weeds that were choking the bitter tomatoes and lined the bed with some dirty clothes that I found in one of the many trash piles around town. The clothes are worn beyond repair, believe me or else they wouldn’t have thrown them out. When one has one pair of pants and no money for another, they tend to mend every hole, or not, so the clothes they toss, are not to be resurrected. Unless you’re Peace Corps, then you use it to mulch a garden, as if any one cares or is even interested, which it seems they are not.
But onwards and upwards. I went to the forestry station today in the afternoon to charge my cell phone and buy a scratch card for African credit. My host mother slipped me some cash and her phone and wanted the same. Is it strange for my host family to be without electricity and some times food, but to still have a cell phone that they can’t really operate because they can’t read? Yes, it is. But I’m used to it and so I went to the forestry station. It’s about 3k away and I have gotten to know the forest man posted there. They have solar power and make their money charging cell phones, not necessarily planting trees. It’s not like they don’t want to plant trees, they do. But supply and demand, demands that they should rather charge cell phones at 5 dalasi a pop. I should think they clean up. MC was watching a DVD (solar power means also that they have a TV, DVD and refrigerator). The DVD was pirated as all are here. They have these 20 movies in one! DVD’s from China. They are often of shitty quality or they skip or the sound is out of sync, or the movie you wanted doesn’t play at all. Sometimes they have 40 or 60 in one which only means they break 6-7 movies into 5-6 or more “parts”. The packaging is slick however. One I saw said “10,000 BC vs Rambo 4” meaning those were the two big hits on the DVD.
This one had nothing in particular. MC was watching “The Condemned” staring Stone Cold Steve Austin and Vinnie Jones. It’s a remake of Battle Royale about prisoners on an island who have to kill or be killed and the twist, it’s all filmed live for an internet reality show. I walk in and don’t really want to watch but there is nothing else to do but wait for my phone to recharge so I watch. It’s MC and me and some other guys and a bunch of little kids. The movie is full of violence and swearing, none of which the kids understand but still. Am I getting older? I used to love bad action films as a kid. I don’t want to be a prude, but when it comes to the beating and raping of a female prisoner and one of the little cute African children looked at me and smiled, boy did I feel uncomfortable. Hopefully they didn’t understand. It’s not like they filmed the rape, but they filmed the beating and that was weird to watch with kids. When I was a kid I saw movies of that sort with my mom or dad or grown up or whatever. I also felt weird about it, so maybe the same applies.
My phone finished charging but my host mother’s phone didn’t, so I waited until about sundown. That’s when the storm came in. I rode the 3k back home in the dark, hard rain and wind and hail. The sand soft beneath my tires, the lightning as my only light sometimes, and I loved every minute of it!!! I love storms, love ‘em, love ‘em, love ‘em. Hate having a leaky roof but love storms. I took a bucket bath in the rain, always fun. I bought some soap today called Aesepso Soap. (Say that 10 times fast) It’s for prickly heat rash which I have about 80% of my torso and neck and arms. Never did have heat rash to this extreme until a few weeks ago. Thanks, humidity!
So I got to bathe with the new soap. It’s black, the soap, which is also neat, and I got to rinse off in the rain, and then I had to number two so I squatted there as huge drops of rain poured onto my naked back as I hovered over my pit latrine. Nothing like it.
I didn’t think dinner would come because I didn’t see anyone cooking in the rain, but it did. Rice with that gross black sauce. Good thing I already started boiling water (yes, rain water I just fetched some from the sky) and made ramen and peppermint tea. The mint being from my garden and the honey being from Gambia, and the lemon concentrate, somewhere in Italy (I think). But how quaint this evening is. I shall crawl into bed and read. I am currently reading “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norelle” it’s a huge book. I don’t know who brought it into the country. It’s hardcover and some 700+ pages. I am using it to write this journal on. But that’s it. If I think of more, I’ll probably forget it later. Toodles for today!
Today was quite an odd day. I woke up tired and sore. "A" left yesterday morning and I rode to Burreng afterwards. It wasn’t hot, too hot, but hot enough. I didn’t eat and after 3 or so hours going to the lumo and back, I was quite tired. I woke up this morning, chilled a little, my shoulder hurt from sleeping weird and my pillow that I made out of local fabric and the cottonesque filling from the seedpod of a white silk cotton tree, stuck between my legs. I fiddled around in the morning, made tea and pulled some weeds out of my bitter tomato bed. Let me do some exposition.
Some weeks back as the “rains” began (it only rains a few times a week, if that, but when it does, tis chubasco galore). My big garden had begun to sprout grass and weeds and I spent countless hours weeding it until it was nothing but dirt and clay. I went to Kombo or Kiang for about 10 days. When I returned (with "A") my garden behind my house had shot up and was doing well--toppled over but doing well.
There must have been a great many rains when I was gone for everything was doing better than expected and my big garden out back, which I so painstakingly weeded, and dug only a few beds, but had to do American beds! And I transplanted some bitter tomatoes in them. Well, I couldn’t see any of it the grass covered it all. All that work, gone. So this morning was my first day back at “work” since "A"is now gone and I have little to keep me from pulling weeds and digging ditches which I have somehow grown to love. So I pulled a bunch of weeds that were choking the bitter tomatoes and lined the bed with some dirty clothes that I found in one of the many trash piles around town. The clothes are worn beyond repair, believe me or else they wouldn’t have thrown them out. When one has one pair of pants and no money for another, they tend to mend every hole, or not, so the clothes they toss, are not to be resurrected. Unless you’re Peace Corps, then you use it to mulch a garden, as if any one cares or is even interested, which it seems they are not.
But onwards and upwards. I went to the forestry station today in the afternoon to charge my cell phone and buy a scratch card for African credit. My host mother slipped me some cash and her phone and wanted the same. Is it strange for my host family to be without electricity and some times food, but to still have a cell phone that they can’t really operate because they can’t read? Yes, it is. But I’m used to it and so I went to the forestry station. It’s about 3k away and I have gotten to know the forest man posted there. They have solar power and make their money charging cell phones, not necessarily planting trees. It’s not like they don’t want to plant trees, they do. But supply and demand, demands that they should rather charge cell phones at 5 dalasi a pop. I should think they clean up. MC was watching a DVD (solar power means also that they have a TV, DVD and refrigerator). The DVD was pirated as all are here. They have these 20 movies in one! DVD’s from China. They are often of shitty quality or they skip or the sound is out of sync, or the movie you wanted doesn’t play at all. Sometimes they have 40 or 60 in one which only means they break 6-7 movies into 5-6 or more “parts”. The packaging is slick however. One I saw said “10,000 BC vs Rambo 4” meaning those were the two big hits on the DVD.
This one had nothing in particular. MC was watching “The Condemned” staring Stone Cold Steve Austin and Vinnie Jones. It’s a remake of Battle Royale about prisoners on an island who have to kill or be killed and the twist, it’s all filmed live for an internet reality show. I walk in and don’t really want to watch but there is nothing else to do but wait for my phone to recharge so I watch. It’s MC and me and some other guys and a bunch of little kids. The movie is full of violence and swearing, none of which the kids understand but still. Am I getting older? I used to love bad action films as a kid. I don’t want to be a prude, but when it comes to the beating and raping of a female prisoner and one of the little cute African children looked at me and smiled, boy did I feel uncomfortable. Hopefully they didn’t understand. It’s not like they filmed the rape, but they filmed the beating and that was weird to watch with kids. When I was a kid I saw movies of that sort with my mom or dad or grown up or whatever. I also felt weird about it, so maybe the same applies.
My phone finished charging but my host mother’s phone didn’t, so I waited until about sundown. That’s when the storm came in. I rode the 3k back home in the dark, hard rain and wind and hail. The sand soft beneath my tires, the lightning as my only light sometimes, and I loved every minute of it!!! I love storms, love ‘em, love ‘em, love ‘em. Hate having a leaky roof but love storms. I took a bucket bath in the rain, always fun. I bought some soap today called Aesepso Soap. (Say that 10 times fast) It’s for prickly heat rash which I have about 80% of my torso and neck and arms. Never did have heat rash to this extreme until a few weeks ago. Thanks, humidity!
So I got to bathe with the new soap. It’s black, the soap, which is also neat, and I got to rinse off in the rain, and then I had to number two so I squatted there as huge drops of rain poured onto my naked back as I hovered over my pit latrine. Nothing like it.
I didn’t think dinner would come because I didn’t see anyone cooking in the rain, but it did. Rice with that gross black sauce. Good thing I already started boiling water (yes, rain water I just fetched some from the sky) and made ramen and peppermint tea. The mint being from my garden and the honey being from Gambia, and the lemon concentrate, somewhere in Italy (I think). But how quaint this evening is. I shall crawl into bed and read. I am currently reading “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norelle” it’s a huge book. I don’t know who brought it into the country. It’s hardcover and some 700+ pages. I am using it to write this journal on. But that’s it. If I think of more, I’ll probably forget it later. Toodles for today!
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