April 3 2011
on thing that I cannot describe as well as one would experience are dirt roads. Not your average going to a farm dirt road but your African, main road made of dirt road. On these dirt roads you will find A.) burning trash B.) more plastic bags than you can buy in a Costco and 3.) pot holes large enough to play hide and go seek in. these physical traits are only something you notice in the beginning. It isn’t until you get home, after walking, moppeding, driving with the window open that you con to discover later the side effects of a dirt road. There are three side effect the first is the least of your worries, and it is a strange couch deep in your lungs where your body is trying to remove the particles of plastic bag you’ve inhaled while flying past someone burning their trash. The second one and my particular favorite is the collected about of dirt on your face that seems to find its way to your eyes and collects just inside of your tear duct. It is there that’s a days worth of dirt will become such a collection that when you go to wash it/ wipe it away it has collected enough to look like you kept last nights mascara on. You then worry how much is also from your hands as you’ve tried to wipe dust off your face all day. The third and most horrible of all the things are the buggers. These buggers are unlike any burgers you’ve ever had in a western country. Your nose is on over drive to keep all that shit from getting inside of your body. These buggers are hard, crusty and black. They are painful to remove and make such a collection it is painful to pinch your nose. Everyday when you come home to take your hour shower, usually ending up being two hours you spend a great deal of time taking the dirt roads of afrika off of your body. Especially your feet who seem to carry everything on them as well.
One different between Burkina and Kenya is that on the roads of Kenya and Tanzania there are a lot of stray dogs and animals wandering around eating things. I have yet to see a stray dog, and or goat. I’ve seen a few donkeys but no real animals. Maybe they have already been eaten….kidding.
Extreme heat is an interesting thing. It makes you very tired, and very slow and not very hungry. I’ve drunken like 3 liters of water in two days but eaten very little. No one is hungry, just tired.
I have plenty of time to read im reading a book from the same author as the Poisonwood Bible which everyone raved but I couldn’t get my hands on it so im reading The Lacuna by Kingsolver. I only brought two books because I didn’t want to have to carry much so I have to take it very slowly. One book a month which during my normal w=life would seem fast, but I think I could finish a thick book here in maybe 3 days…this is what happens when a 20 century girl has no internet. It feels like im fasting.
I also noticed today that the fan I used next to my bed had loose wires. It looks like someone pulled it out of the wall too hard and pulled the wire off the socket. I only noticed when I moved the fan from one room to another and it turned off. While I’m not very knowledgeable about electricity, and I’m sure bjorn is going to freak out when I say this, I really need the fan to work so I took it apart to fix it. Currently there was only plastic tape around the base, which I’m pretty sure is a fire hazard so I will not be sleeping with the fan on tonight. And obviously it was doing a terrible job because the fan was now off. This is what I know about electricity 1.) metals can conduct it so don’t get it near metal, or water ( it was sparking…) 2.) do this stupidly and I could be electrocuted and 3.) do this stupidly and in the middle of the night the house can set on fire and the amount of locks I put on the door there is no way ids make it out. I’m sorry if there is more I should have known, but this is what I know right at this moment, and I don’t think I’m doing too badly…. I hope. So first I know I’m going to have to buy a new fan, but since I cant get one right now I fixed it instead. I couldn’t find anymore tape, but I did find a whole bunch of weird object in her closet which I was nervous about what they were so I skipped that and while I was thinking I was watching a woman hang clothes when I realized that a cloths pin would be perfect in fixing my little fan. And indeed it did the job better than expected. I’ll up load a photo. I’ve also re-wrapped the tape just because I didn’t feel like throwing it out but it serves no real purpose. I’m feeling very handy.
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