Headlamps Are Awesome

I always forget how awesome my headlamp is until I put new batteries in it. It’s like watching your dog grow up: you don’t notice him getting bigger because the changes day by day are so small: you don’t notice your headlamp getting dimmer because day by day the change is so small. But then one day you realize you can barely see the print in the book you’re reading and you pop three brand-spanking-new AAA batteries from Costco in it and all of a sudden you can see your entire yard in the middle of the night as though it were daytime. Headlamps rock. For anyone wondering, I have a Petzl Tikka headlamp, but I am sure this is true of all headlamps.

So I have taken to letting Yogi in my bed in the mornings. Starting around 5am he starts putting his front paws up on the bed and whining and it’s not that he wants to go out or even that he doesn’t want to sleep anymore, he just wants to be in the bed, because once I let him in the bed he just sprawls out and goes back to sleep. This means I have to bathe him more because I do not want a stinky dog in my bed.

Which brings me to another point. He hates being bathed. I do it in the rain now, making him stand under the rain coming off the roof while I lather him up but it is a FIGHT from start to finish. And uses too much shampoo. I have to figure out another soap solution for this. I’m going to write home for doggie shampoo in my next package.

Also, he doesn’t want to stay in the bedroom at night. I don’t know why. But a few nights ago around 2am somebody came to my window (a woman) babbling and Yogi just barked his head off which alerted some dude on the path or next door who made her go away but it was frightening and now I’m all jumpy about noises and obsessively check my backyard before getting into my bed. So he has to stay in my room, end of story.

Today I walked the 45 minutes to the pepiniere because I wanted to take my dog and because my bike was kind of broken. And I haven’t ridden it in awhile (like since before I went to Dakar) and know that the ride back would once again be hell in a handbasket. So I walked and it took 45 minutes. I think it takes about 5 minutes to bike there, but it takes like 30 minutes to get back because I have to walk my bike part of the way because I am neither Ian nor Scott and can’t make it up the hill…sad but true.

Anyway I spent three hours filling sachets and when I left they still weren’t done but I had to be home by 2 to meet up with Ousmane. The walk back was tiring, even with my iPod (and hot) and when I got back I just wanted to take a bath and have a nap but Ousmane was here so I couldn’t. And then, predictably, people were here for the rest of the day.

There is this other Ousmane who wants me to teach him English so he comes by every day with his notebook and asks me how to say certain things in English and just generally practice. At first it always gets on my nerves but then eventually I calm down and it isn’t as annoying. Today I made him (and Crazy [that’s not really his name, they all go by sort of rapper nicknames, I think his real name is Ibrahima], Ousmane 1 and this other kid) help me prepare the Coyah (mineral water) sachets and then we filled 23 of them with the good soil from under my cottonwood tree. But it started to rain and unlike me, they don’t like to work in the rain so the deal is that we are going to finish filling the rest of them tomorrow. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before, putting the seeds in sachets instead of waiting for my beds to be ready (which has already been a SLOW process and I haven’t even put any fertilizer in them yet…I mean, half of them aren’t even dug yet!). So tomorrow when we finish filling all the Coyah sachets (I would say there are maybe 100 or so…I thought I had more), I am going to plant a bunch of seeds, some for the vegetable garden and some trees. Once I have some good tree seedlings I am going to give them each a couple of trees to plant around their house (probably a cashew and a moringa each, because they are food trees and are more likely to be valued).

I also got Crazy interested in the idea of doing the World Map Project somewhere around town by busting out my world map and talking about different countries and the languages they speak and explaining that just because the US and England both speak English, it’s not identical though one can understand the other without trouble. I also told him that the people in Australia speak English because long ago England sent all their “bandits” there and he thought that was very interesting. I don’t think I can do the World Map Project on an exterior wall during the rainy season so it might have to wait for the fall, but hey at least I have one person interested already!!

I also made Crazy get me some mangoes from the tree in my backyard. I am actually surprised at the lack of mango gifts I have received. I feel like mango season is starting to come to a close and I’ve barely eaten 10 of them in my village. So for the rest of this week I am going to make an effort to eat at least 1 mango a day even if I have to make Ousmane or Crazy get them out of the tree for me.

Ousmane told me that the last soccer game is tomorrow between Manchester and Barcelona. I might end up obliged to go to the video club with them to watch it. I much prefer live soccer, but we’ll see.

Also I went by the big generator building yesterday and the generator IS there. I don’t think I’ve really heard it running, and I don’t really know what they’re using it for, but there are a ton of lightbulbs hooked up all around the building and outlets outside of it and I think there was a rice winnow-er hooked up to the generator inside. So who knows.

I also took a walk down the road that goes by my house (embarrassed to say I had not gone down it before) and discovered that the mosque is under construction! Did not know that. Also there is a new-looking pump right next to the mosque (the concrete looks new, and the pipe is there coming out of the ground but all the exterior pump stuff is missing, or not there yet, or something). So if they get that pump working, that will be the closest water source (like 50 yards away!) and very easy to get water from, which would be a load off my back though Ousmane and Lamarana have been getting me a lot of water lately and I fill up buckets every time it rains so I have plenty of water for hand washing and dish washing and bathing and stuff like that.

I went down the road a pretty long ways and here’s what I discovered: EVERYONE is growing manioc. I keep telling my friends that manioc is “empty” and they should eat more vegetables but it’s hard to explain nutrition to someone who has never even had a basic health course and doesn’t even understand the concept of “vitamins” or “nutritional value”. It’s hard to tell them not to grow manioc, either, because it stores for so long and is relatively easy to grow, and what else would they be able to grow as a staple crop other than manioc that would last as long and have more nutritional value? If you know, comment please!! But there is manioc EVERYWHERE. In every field, around every house. Manioc, manioc, manioc. That must be why everyone thinks I’m weird for growing tomatoes and piment. Though I would still like to know where the piment THEY eat is grown.

Also banana and orange season has ended, which came as kind of a shock because I was in some sort of bubble where I just thought there were ALWAYS oranges and bananas around. Not the case.

Ok, need to wrap this up. Have I mentioned that I found a good rice and sauce lady?? I buy it for Yogi but then end up eating half of it myself because it is really good! It is one of the women who has a boutique at the Carrefour and she is pretty much always sold out by 9am so I have to make sure I get up and get out there around 8 so I am sure to get some. So far it has only been leaf sauce and peanut sauce (fine by me!) and I am sort of rue-ing the day when she has a soup sauce. Maybe that day will never come. Keep those leaves and peanuts coming!!