Daily Musings

These next blurbs are things that I think about or encounter on a nearly daily basis that I take note of or giggle about in my head but due to a lack of any American companions they don’t really come up in conversation. I thought I’d share them through this venue!

Showers

I realize that I’m incredibly blessed to have running water here in Jalingo and I really appreciate the fact that I can shower everyday! I feel like I have even adjusted to cold showers. In fact, on the mornings that I run, the cold shower actually feels good! It is a prime motivating factor that drags me out of bed in the mornings 3 days a week.

This past week there has been a marked change in weather. The nights have been refreshingly cool! So cold, in fact, that I have been sleeping in long pants and a sweatshirt, which is absolutely delightful! However, the colder nights, which produce much improved sleeping conditions, also make my shower water colder! It’s a quandary. This morning, I decided that some morning calisthenics were in order. That’s right, I was definitely doing sit-ups and jumping jacks first thing this morning for the sole purpose of getting warmer so that the shower would feel better…you may be laughing, but it worked! Next time you feel like laughing, take a shower with the temperature setting all the way on cold! :)

Moon

One thing that’s been interesting to observe is the changing phases of the moon. I can’t say that I’d ever really taken notice what phase the moon was in except on the rare occasions that the full moon looks extra pretty. Here, there is a significant difference in the amount of light at night depending on whether it is a full moon or a new moon. The extra light is welcomed when I’m walking at night because it makes the flash light, or torch light as they’re called here, nearly unnecessary. However, when it’s a new moon, the sky is so dark and the stars here are beautiful! Sometimes I just sit outside with my generator turned off and gaze up at the sparkling stars and the blur of the Milky Way…pretty amazing really!

Washing Clothes and Cooking

This past weekend I did my laundry for the second time by hand. It ended up being 3 weeks again since the last time I had done laundry. It wasn’t a good decision the first time I waited 3 weeks and it was an equally poor choice this time! Doing laundry the first time by hand was novel, this second time the novelty was wearing off. While it is a physically more demanding process to wring out every item of clothing once after washing and once after rinsing overall, it does takes less time! I was able to do all of my laundry in about 2 hours and have it all drying on the line for the day. At home, one must be around every 45 minutes or so to switch out the loads!

With cooking, I have developed a system and come to a few conclusions. I have figured out how to cook enough “soup” to last for 3-4 days and then I can fix either rice or tuwo of some sort to go with it each night. I much prefer cooking twice a week to nightly. I’ve also determined that my joy of cooking is inversely proportional to my level of hunger. That is, I detest cooking when I am super hungry! However, if I actually begin preparing food before being hungry, it’s not that bad. I grew up in a household where the household workload was shared. My dad cooked the meals and my mom cleaned up. My roommate and I had employed a similar system when I was living in San Antonio. When a person cooks, they shouldn’t have to be the person to clean up the dishes after the meal! Living alone means that one takes 45 minutes or more preparing the food, 15 minutes eating and then has to spend 20 minutes cleaning up. That’s not a favorable effort-reward ratio to me. However, here there aren’t a lot of alternatives. If I want to eat, I will cook. If I want to avoid a bug infestation, I will clean up! J

Band-aids and Neosporin

Since arriving in Jalingo, I have received and inflicted significantly more scrapes and cuts than I’ve ever had! Partly because I’m cooking more, partly because I haven’t purchased a can open yet, partly because everything is done with rudimentary tools and partly because mosquitoes love me and I lack self-control when it comes to itching their bites. These contributing factors equate to me having all sorts of skin impalements. Since I am avoiding infection at all cost, I am striving to keep these cuts covered with a band-aid and Neosporin! However, one day I cut myself at school and when I went to the clinic I was amused that they didn’t have any band-aids. Now, they were fabulous and able to disinfect me and put a piece of cotton over it covered by tape (essentially a band-aid)! But it made me giggle on the inside that something I take as common here is uncommon. I brought quite a few band-aids with me and now carry a couple in my purse. Live and learn! :)

Is it Tuesday?

Now, Tuesday was a special day for me in Boerne because it meant dollar mochas at Bear Moon Bakery, so I found myself asking “Is it Tuesday?” on a regular basis. Now that I’m in Jalingo, the question has been altered. Presently, I habitually ask myself “Is it malaria Tuesday?” Yeah, it doesn’t really have the same ring as “Is it malaria Monday?” a phrase that a friend of mine suggested, but the very first week that I was supposed to take my pill, I forgot on Monday and so I took the first one on a Tuesday. Thankfully, I haven’t forgotten since then! Sleeping beneath a mosquito net nightly is a pretty good reminder!