The 3/4 way mark...

Hello again! Time for another update (you’re probably saying it’s about time!). Sorry, I write novels, so finding the time to sit down and write them out is not as simple. Anyways, since I’ve last updated you, I headed to the Ivory Coast on vacation, moved out (twice), got my moto stolen, and have planned a return to the Coast. Just read on for the details…


Week 27 – Mon, March 14th-Fri, March 20th

Last week before I head off on vacation, woot! This week the weather was pretty hot. Monday night a fuse in our house burnt out, so our power gave out, which makes sleeping a tad difficult (bad enough without AC, but imagine without a fan!) Ayayay. My moto is also breaking down like crazy. I’ve seen 8 mechanics in the past 7 days!

Still on the hunt for houses, but it’s getting pretty frustrating. It’s no ‘check on the net, see pics, then set up times to check out the ones that seem cool’. Nope. Here, you can only hope that the house is semi-decent, and most of the times we set up meetings, the people don’t show, which makes it a huge waste of time. We saw one today that had the most cockroaches I have ever seen in one place. You couldn’t step anywhere on the floor without stepping on one, it was gross. And although most appeared dead, the fact that they’re there means there’s a way in :S

Went to the post and received a package from the matantes and grandma . Supposedly it had been there for a month, so I had to pay a late fee to pick it up, but the notice was just sent today, meh. In any case, the box was full of cool stuff. The first 2 books from the Twilight series, cookies, Peanut Butter, Kleenex, etc. but best of all was a card containing individual notes from all my family that they had written for me at Xmas. It was too sweet and really made my day.

Went to get my visa made for the Ivory Coast. It cost me $80 to get done, instead of the regular $50 from all other countries. The woman told me it was because ‘that’s how much it costs for an Ivorian to get a visa for Canada’. So what, it’s like pay back?

Found a house! Things are looking up. My moto finally seems to be fixed, we chose a house and I’m heading for the beach in a few days! Was in a happy mood and brought a skipping rope I brought from Canada to teach the kids how to hop. But that was easier said then done, all the kids just wanted to jump all over it, so that lesson didn’t last too long. I also brought SpongeBob Squarepants dvds that my brother and Karen had sent me and showed the kids a couple of episodes (in English, but the teachers said the images were captivating enough for the kids). The teachers seemed to be more into it then the kids haha.

Sandra is in Ouaga as we are heading out to the Coast tomorrow. Just one problem, she sent her passport to have her visa prolonged (as it is only a single entry), but it’s not ready, and won’t be until tomorrow afternoon. Thing is, we leave tomorrow morning! We were lucky though, we were able to go to the office and retrieve her passport, visa-less and head off without a problem. The night before though, we decided to get the vacation started early, so we met up with a friend and went out to play billiards and bowling (yes, I know, a bowling alley in Africa! Haha. It was even more high tech then the bowling alley in Welland!) When we went to play billiards, one of our friend’s friend joined us at the table and said he knew me. I had no idea who this guy was, but he insisted we had met and I gave him my number (which I’m sure I didn’t). He even read it out to me from his phone. How did this guy get my number? So the mystery number that was sending me weird messages in English was him! But how did he get my number, and why would he write those things when I never even met him? He tells me I gave it to him when I was out dancing and that I was probably drunk so don’t remember, but I assured him I’ve never been drunk here, so that wasn’t the true story. So although the source of the mystery number was solved, the mystery of how he got my number in the first place boggled my mind all night.

Trip to the Ivory Coast – Week 28:

Friday, March 20th
Woke up at 6:30 to head out and retrieve Sandra’s passport then head to the airport. Getting on the plane was a slow process though, but by 10 our plane was off to the beach! In Abidjan, we met Dosso, a driver for the organization in which Sandra’s aunt ‘tanti’ works for. We dropped off our stuff at her place, then headed to meet her at work. Ate lunch at the office, then they sent us to a shopping center to walk around. A real shopping mall! It was crazy. The Ivory Coast is really another world from Burkina. I’d describe it as a ‘tropical Toronto’. High rise buildings and pretty developed, amongst palm trees and greenery. We spent a couple hours browsing the shops when a guy stopped us to ask us where our accent was from. We took his contact and figured he’d be a really good contact for the week since we knew no one but Sandra’s aunt to show us around. We have my English accent to thank for that hihi, see when it’s not confusing people, it actually benefits us .

Headed back to the office then back home. Contacted Moise (the guy we met at the mall) and turned the phone over to tanti, who gave him the third degree, making sure he was a good guy and okay for us to go out with. I felt really bad for him, he was sweating when he came to pick us up from the pressure haha. He had even put on a blazer and took it off in the car in an attempt to assure tanti that he was a respectable man hihi. He took us to a pub where there was a live reggae band. It was fun, we sat talking and listening to the band play. He told me about his love for animals (he’s even had a pet ostrich, but had to get rid of it because his dog kept plucking it’s feathers). I went on to tell him all my experiences with animals (most of which were in Burkina, dad is to thank for that one haha). How we had a dog that kept bitting our chicken, had a sheep but killed it early because it was making too much noise, stitched a pig after having put stuffing in it lol. The poor guy probably thought I was an animal killer or something. Sandra and I were so tired too from the past couple nights that I was at the point of hysteria. Making up stupid jokes and laughing at everything. Im sure he thought we were drunk, but I assured him that he could ask me any question tomorrow and I’d remember, I was just overly tired.

Saturday, March 21st
Woke up at 10:30 in the most comfortable bed of life! We had the AC on and did not want to get out of bed, and we didn’t. Sandra and I pretty much stayed in bed the whole day, got up to eat and watch a movie, then layed back in bed. It was that comfortable! Tanti’s friend came over that night and they had planned to take us out (and an excuse for them to go out too, they are both 50ish). So we headed to a street full of nightlife, hung out and had a drink at an outdoor bar, then headed inside to a club where we danced. We were pretty much the only ones there, but the ladies were having so much fun that it was a good time. At one point, the dj calls up ‘the white, what’s your name?’ then sent someone over to get the info. Minutes later he shouts out ‘Tiana, Tiana….welcome girls from Burkina Ouagadougou’. Lol. All night he would randomly say my name through the songs haha.

Sunday, March 22nd
We were supposed to get up at 6:30 to accompany tanti to church, but we were so tired that we fell back asleep and she went without us. When she came back, she took us to the beach. It was so pretty. I felt like I was in Mexico, except you couldn’t really swim because the undercurrent is so strong. I went in only up to my ankles and the undertow pulled me down lol. The waves were super high too. I spent most of the time sitting on the sand and reading the Twilight book my family had sent me. Had an amazing lunch at the hotel by the beach before heading back home. Headed to the office to internet a bit, then at night went over to Moise’s house, ate take out and watched a movie.

Monday, March 23rd
Read thesis articles (yes trying to get some work done over my vacation, although the amount completed I’ll neglect to mention). I feel so tired here, the true feeling of being on vacation and wanting to sleep all day. My appetite has been a bit lower this week too which I’m sure is not helping. Tanti called up one of her friends who took us to the market to do some shopping.

Tuesday, March 24th
Today we headed to Yamousoukrou, the IC’s capital, about 3 hours from Abidjan. The driver of tanti’s organization had to run an errand there, so we tagged along. He made us visit a huge Basilic church, which reminded me of roman architecture. Ate there, saw a crocodile in the president’s pond (that sound’s weird haha) then headed back. Moise picked us up and took us out for ice cream at a restaurant where people are dressed up as clowns on stilts (but very scary weird ones). I’m assuming they are trying to attract people to come to the restaurant, but someone should tell them that it is scaring more customers then attracting! I wanted to take a picture, but opted to take a video instead because I was afraid that the clown would see the flash go off! They were that scary lol.

Wednesday, March 25th
Slept in today. Headed to check out a zoo, which was the saddest zoo I have ever seen. The animals seemed depressed and very malnourished. I have never seen such a skinny pig in my life :S. Went to a coffee shop in the afternoon and took it easy the rest of the night.

Thursday, March 26th
Sandra had gotten home at noon that day! She had went out with a friend and didn’t get home until noon! Lol. They were out all night, billiards, ate, dancing, eating, etc. haha. So her and her friend got home and went straight to bed to recuperate. When tanti got home from work, we took her out for dinner as a thank you for letting us stay over this week. She has 3 kids and her husband in Canada, so she liked having us around and said it was really nice, even though we kept her up late some nights from going out haha. Sandra and I were considering expanding our trip by a couple days, as tanti had called to confirm our flight reservations. She asked us at dinner how much we thought it would be to extend our flight and we answered $75. She could not stop laughing. She says ‘While I’m calling to confirm you girls seats on your flight, you’re on the other line talking to the travel agent to see if you can expand your stay’ haha. It was too funny, and we’ve got a great picture to capture the moment!

Friday, March 27th
Took it easy today. We wanted to go to the beach, but public transportation is not the greatest/safest around here, so we opted to chill with friends. Sandra went out with her friend and I hung out with Moise. Napped and packed that afternoon. Headed to the airport after picking up Sandra at her friends and we were pushing time a bit too far to the limit, we ended up missing our flight. Well not missing it, but we got there too late that they wouldn’t let us in. Can’t say I was too disappointed (heck, we were checking to extend our trip anyways). So tanti turned around and came back to pick us up, we headed out for a bite to eat, then went out to a pub with our friends. Then we went to a club dancing, which was a lot of fun. I’m glad we missed our flight, because our last night wasn’t that interesting if we had left today, but we are celebrating tonight, so we’ll have a good finale to our trip! The club was great. They played recent music from 2009! Haha. The most popular American songs that play in clubs in Burkina are Aqua’s Barbie Girl, Lou Begga’s Mombo #5 and Boom Boom Boom by the Venga Boys! On our way back home, we were stopped by one of the numerous police barriers, and Moise pulled out his Dioula (the local language) which was too funny to watch. As we were stopping he says ‘watch this, I’ll really confuse them’. Then turned the serious gun holding cops to ones that were laughing and didn’t even check our IDs before letting us drive off. It was pretty impressive.

Saturday, March 28th
Took it easy that afternoon. I wish I could have gone to the beach, but unless someone brought us, we were pretty much stuck at home because transportation here is not the greatest. Headed to the airport that night and flew past Burkina, to Niger, to stop drop off people, then fly back to Burkina 3 hours later :S. Tried to call our taxi friend to come pick us up at the airport as it was past midnight, but our friend had messaged us as soon as we landed saying he was outside waiting for us haha. He took us out for a bite to eat then drove us home.

Back to Reality
Spent all of Sunday in my pjs, packing my things as I am moving out tomorrow. Luckily we found a house because Benoit had messaged me while I was in Abidjan saying I had to move out by April 1st (2 days after my return) because the company he works for got mad at him for me being there, since now the company pays for the house, so having me there is like they are benefiting.

Week 29- Mon, March 30th-Fri, April 3rd
Moved all my stuff into the new house. We got a nice little house, recently built, 2 bedrooms, indoor toilet and shower, small kitchen (and by small I mean a sink and counter), and living room. It’s got a little terrace too which is nice, with a baby mango tree growing, which is the only non-concrete, sign of life in our yard haha. Got to the house and opened it up to a baby bird that one of my housemates got from a village and rescued it from a bunch of hungry kids, wanting to nurse it back to health. But she keeps it in the house since it cant fly and it pooped all over the living room. Yay!

It is so hot this week, and it is not helping that the power keeps going out. It is so hot this week, that in a final attempt to cool off and fall asleep one night, I put on my bathing suit (since I share a room with one of the girls), took a shower, went back to my room without drying off, spread my towel over my bed and layed down soak and wet under the fan, hoping that the fanning air would be a bit cool on my wet skin. It worked. So I wasn’t necessarily ‘cool’ but I was ‘cooler’ then before, so heck, I did reach some improvement!

Pretty motivated to work on my thesis because I am hoping to make another trip to the Ivory Coast and could justify going if I finally got my thesis proposal done! Went to a hotel with a friend, since I now live pretty far from the office. He goes to the gym there, so I was hoping to go to the pool where I could access the net and do some work. But they didn’t have the net by the pool, so we headed inside to the net café inside the hotel, and I got set up while he went to the gym. The price was ridiculous though. Get this, $12.50/hr for the internet!!!! We’re in Africa people. It doesn’t even cost that much in Canada! I didn’t pay, but I will never go back there again, even if I’m not the one paying, I refuse to contribute that kind of money for that kind of service. Pshh. Injustice!

So my hopes of having my moto fixed were crashed. My moto broke down everyday this week, one time 3x within one morning! So frustrating! But my problem was solved (but a bigger one introduced) when I was woken up to my housemate shaking me saying ‘we’ve got a problem…all our motos were stolen’. Ayayay, just what I needed! I went outside and was so shocked I was emotionless. I just sat there trying to understand how they managed to undo the deadbolt, and the key, and strole out with 2 motos and a bike while my housemate was sleeping outside just feet from where they were all parked (people sleep outside here because it’s cooler). And to top it off, the bird she was trying to nurse to health finally gave out in her hands while we were sitting there wondering what to do next. We headed to the police station, filed a report, then met with a detective, who our friend had called for us. He is in line with all the underground mafia happenings in Ouaga and works with the police, so brought us around to some alleys where stolen motos are sold to see if we could find ours. We didn’t. The whole morning though people including the police were telling us to move out of that house, that the neighbourhood wasn’t safe, that we’d get robbed again, etc.

I had reached a limit to my week and was so frustrated. I was just getting back from a great vacation and missed it, came back and moved out, tried to get reorganized with work, moved into a house where the power went out 50% of the time, our water would go out for 2 days at a time, we had no fridge, our toilet didn’t work, we went to the corner to buy bagged water (which was luke warm since the power was always out), I ate cereal for too many meals (since it was the easiest and with lack of fridge the most convenient), our motos were stolen, endless people telling us to move out that our neighbourhood was not safe! Ayayay! It was time to call mom! I ranted about my week for a good 20min and she calmed me down.

Matante Celine had sent me some cds and I brought them to school to play for the tantis. And surprisingly, a lot of the songs in the cds are songs they sing at the school, which they really liked.

I had waited to think about it overnight to figure out what I wanted to do with my living situation, and decided to message a Canadian family that is here to see if their offer still stood for me to go live with them. They have a 14 year old son (Jay) who is here now and their two kids are coming in May and June. Ill be sharing a room with the girl when she gets here, and the 2 sons will have the other room.

Sandra was down for the weekend, and it would be her last weekend in Ouaga before she heads back to Canada mid next week. So we had convinced Anne (who was also leaving this weekend) to go out with us as her last night out in Ouaga. So Sandra and I got together for dinner first at ‘Uncle Sam’s’, a restaurant we always drove by and said we’d have to try. It was cool. It looked like a cigar bar, with big leather sofas and very dim lighting. It was calm though, and we stayed there eating and talked a lot before heading home for a nap. At midnight, we got up from our nap and were picked up by our friend who took us out to 2 clubs. The second was great, they played 2009 music! Which is the first I have experienced in Ouaga up to now! I thought I was back in Abidjan for a minute haha.

Weekend 29
I waited 1.5hrs for a taxi today that was ‘on it’s way’ to come get me. Finally the guy admitted he got a flat tire and I should probably find another taxi because it would take a while. Urgh. Just be real with me when I call you at first, it would save me a lot of trouble!

Anne was having her ‘goodbye’ dinner that night and we were planning to check out a concert. So I headed into town to join them. The family was there too and said that of course I could live with them, which was a big relief. I had bought a ticket for the concert that night but was a bit down on moral and not in the mood, so I opted to head home instead. The neighbourhood is starting to creep me out, especially after all the warnings from everyone. I was so thirsty after getting home that night, but too scared to go out, that I treated tap water with chlorine solution before drinking it because I didn’t want to leave the house. It’s weird because I never get that feeling. I lived in Scarborough the last 3 years, the ‘ghetto’ of Ontario and could walk around at 1am by myself and not feel eerie, but here, I do, go figure. Spent the night re-packing my things as my friend would be coming over tomorrow to help me move out for a second time this week. My other friend was trying to convince me that I should of moved in with him (even though he lives way further away from work). He said he’d pay for me to have a chauffeur if I did haha. Not the kind of image I really want to give off as a volunteer here.

Week 30: Mon, April 6th-Fri, April 10th
Checking out another preschool this week to use it as a comparison to the way things are done at my school. It went really well. The school is a bit more advanced and known then mine, which served as a good reference to get some ideas and suggestions to bring back to my school.

Randomly, 3 of my friends in the past 2 weeks have commented on the state of my skin spots haha. So I have always assumed they were genetic, since my whole family has them, but 3 different friends all seem concerned about it haha and keep telling me to go to the doctors. It’s kind of funny and random (because neither of these friends knows the other). In the end, I got some cream, but it’s not disappearing, so now I have proof that a cream won’t make them go away haha. I tell them if they don’t like how it looks, that they should just not look at me haha. That would solve the problem wouldn’t it?!

Spoke to my Burkinabe-Canadian friend over the phone. He lives in Ottawa and had come to Burkina to see family and traveled with us to the Sahel over Xmas. He says that I have become Burkinabe and that I have picked up all the local sayings, which he finds too funny. I told him it’s a good thing I don’t speak French in my day to day life back home, otherwise I’d say all these things that would either confuse or insult people haha.

Sandra is heading back to Canada this week. So for her last night, we went out with friends. Finding a taxi from where I live now though is another story. Let me just paint a picture for you. I live in the newly developing ‘rich’ part of town. But where we are is not developed yet. So there’s our house, then all around us, walls of brick with nothing behind them, we are the only built house on the street, or in the couple surrounding blocks for that matter. So after calling 4 taxi friends to see if they could come and pick me up, I opted to take my chances and walk 25min to the nearest paved road where I’d have a bit more chances finding a cab. But a little luck struck me that day, and as I prepared with my iced bottle of water for the treck to find a taxi, I stepped out of the house, and what do I see under the mango tree across the street? A taxi, waiting to take me to my destination! Ok, well maybe he was there hiding from the police who were invading the roads checking for papers, but in any case, it worked out for me!

Sandra and I have also discovered our theme song hihi. ‘Goodbye my Lover’ by James Blunt. We have an inside joke that has lead us to call each other ‘my love’, so that song sums up our goodbye pretty well we think haha.

And to end off this week with another taxi story. I was at school and called a friend taximan to come pick me up. He said he was ‘on his way’. But after 15min after he was supposed to come get me, I called to make sure he wasn’t lost, and he said ‘um, im in the Ivory Coast’. What! You tell me you’re ‘on your way’ and you’re not even in the same country! Like common people!

Weekend 30
It is too hot to sleep! Even with the fan. Jay has AC in his room, and there’s another bed in his room, so they always say I’m welcome to sleep in there if I’m too hot. But that’s if he puts on the AC, and he hasn’t seem to have the urge yet haha. So all night I get up, drink cold water and keep checking if he turned it on lol.

Did lots of thesis reading this weekend and called Eric to thesis talk and sort out my thoughts to get onto the writing portion. We got a rain storm too this weekend! A good downpour which was nice because it cooled the air. We also got another visit, this one from Luc (the dad’s) brother who is visiting for a week.

Hung out with friends, and while we were out a man came up to my friend and said ‘if you need anything, you tell me and ill take care of it’. Later my friend told me the scoop on that man and that he was one of the leaders of the rebel forces in the Ivory Coast who often creates conflict and is on the hide out in Ouaga. Ayayay!

So it’s Easter this weekend. To celebrate, I called up the family and spoke to both sides, for a good while. Spent 45min on the phone on the one side, as all the family members passed the phone along to each other to say a word. It was good to hear everyone’s voice . On my end, hung out with friends at the pool then got together at their place for an Easter dinner, which was delicious! My friend who is also a Canadian volunteer was telling me her plans for my future, and how I’m going to marry one of their friends, move to Burkina, and work as a teacher in the Canadian school she’s planning on building. I told her not to hold her breath, because that was unlikely to happen.

Week 31: Mon, April 13th-Fri, April 17th
Did a lot of thesis proposal writing this week. Went over to visit the girls to hand over my key and discovered that they got robbed again! This time, a guy came to their door posing as a plumber (our toilet was broken, so it did make some sense). He went in and stole the girl’s camera and all the pieces inside the toilet. As I tell my coworkers, they tell me it’s very probable that it’s their friends who are helping them steal, like an inside job. How else would they know that the toilet was broken and stuff? One of the girls came over to sleep over since the other girl wasn’t coming home tonight and she was a bit freaked out to stay there by herself, no kidding. We keep trying to convince them to move out, and we’d help them find a house and move and everything, but they don’t want to.

Getting to and from work this week has been a bit troublesome moto-less. I’ve been lucky by getting rides half way with Luc, who works in the same area as I do, so it’s easy to get a taxi the rest of the way. But getting one to come back is another story. Most don’t even want to come in the direction of the house because there’s no customers, and if they do, they charge you a ridiculous amount, which I refuse to pay. So I have to pull over like 4 taxis before I can find a reasonable taxi fare. The one day there were tons of police checks, so all the taxis were avoiding the cops and heading in the other direction. The one cop was talking to me practicing his English and was trying to help me out. Most police checks pull over random cars to check for papers, so if a taxi doent have the paper work, they’ll avoid the checks and drive the other way. The cop who was talking to me was trying to help me out and was pulling over taxis (haha, they couldn’t just keep going and ignore me, it was the cop who was pulling them over after all).

The woman that the moto was sold to upon my departure (the girl who sold me the moto, had made sure that it was sold to her cook when I leave). So I either have to leave her with a fairly new, good conditioned moto, or the money she paid me to buy it. I was looking into a different kind of moto though. Right now I have a moped, but if you buy new, motorcycle-style bikes are cheaper, so I was considering that. But I asked her what she wanted, if she was really sold on a moped or if she’d take a motorcycle, and she only wants a moped, so that’s what it’ll be. She was super nice though. She came and visited me at work and brought her friend, who she had asked to pick me up and drive me to work then drop me off everyday as her way of helping me out. Although it would save me a lot of headaches and money, it’s so out of the way, it would be a huge inconvenience so I insisted that I would work things out.

On my way back, trying to call down a taxi, I was walking down the road and some guy yells out ‘Je t’aime…I love you!’. Lol. That has got to top the record for most sentiments expressed in the shortest amount of time seeing me. Keep in mind this was a complete stranger, who didn’t even say hi first lol. Too much! Got a visit from a friend late that night, who had brought over my old housemate, who had just been robbed, for a third time! Ayayay! This time, while she was riding her bike in her neighbourhood, some people on motos came up and pulled her purse off. Luckily she had nothing really important in it, but poor girl. This girl just got here a couple months ago. She is really not getting the right impression of Burkina with things like this always happening.

The next day, I headed over to the hotel to visit a family that was leaving for Canada in the next couple of days. This is the family who was part of the group I traveled here with. They decided to leave early. So many people are doing so. Out of the 20 or so volunteers I have known this year, more than half have left their mandates early, mostly due to financial reasons (spending out of their pockets to be here since the allocations aren’t sufficient). Thus the family was joining the crew.

After the hotel, I went out for a bite to eat with a friend to a cool, art gallery restaurant. After eating the owner (who knew my friend) brought us some home made afterdinner drinks. Ayayay, the things were so strong, you could get drunk just off the smell. I opted to pass on the offer haha.

Weekend 31
Sevrine’s family was heading back to Canada this weekend, so we all met up with them at the pool and hung out with them before wishing them off. That night the girls at the other house were having a house warming party, so I headed over there and hung out for a bit.

Sunday, I headed to Koubri, a town outside Ouaga to chill at a hotel pool for the afternoon. It was pretty relaxed. Jay finally opted to put the AC on in his room, so I’ll be sleeping there for the next little while in an attempt to stay cool and get some sleep.

Week 32: Mon, April 20th-Fri, April 24th
My friend found me a used moto for sale and sent his local friend to negotiate for me. So I headed over to where the moto market was with his friend and ended up buying it. It was still expensive, but I couldn’t of gotten a moto in that condition at that price (remember there’s a ‘white price’ for everything). And this would give me a method of transportation too, which will help me get around and be mobile. It’s pretty scraped up, and I’ll probably get it painted before leaving it to the woman who bought it, but for now I prefer it look like that. The crappier it looks, the least likely someone will want to steal it ;)

Been working a lot on thesis proposal stuff. Coming home from work at lunchtime, then working till I go to bed in order to try to finalize it by the weekend. The people at the office keep asking me when I’ll continue the computer program workshops. Since I’ve been back, I told them I’d be taking a break from giving them as I wanted to concentrate on doing stuff at the school (it is after all my mandate) and then when school is done, I’ll spend more time at the office finishing off the formations.

It is really hot these days (seems to be a reoccurring theme!) Today, we opted to take the temperature under the fan in the house (the house is much cooler then outside) and it was 37* (under the fan!) Opened the lemonade mix my parents sent me, and it really helped me to keep cool .

Called the doc to get final test results as I’ve been really tired and thought I may have an infection. Turns out I did, a rare blood bacterial infection. But the doc was cool, he liked my accent haha, but now text msgs me all the time lol. In any case, he gave me some meds. Let me just say that docs here often overperscribe meds or the meds that are available are pretty strong, because they don’t want to take any chances. Whereas back home, docs are weary to give us simple meds because they don’t want us to build up resistances to them. Just to say that the meds he prescribed me are also used to treat Anthrax! Ayayay! :S

Weekend 32
Jay had fallen asleep with the fan the other night, so I tried to tough it out with the fan in my room because I didn’t want to wake him up. But by 4am, I hadn’t managed to fall asleep yet, and I opted to move into his room and turn on the AC.

Went fabric shopping with Linda (the ‘mom’) this morning in downtown. It was quite an experience, as usual. Some vendor finds you walking down the street, then escorts you to all the stores in hopes that eventually he’ll lead you into his and you’ll do all your purchases there haha.

Spent 3 hours Skyping with friends back home, which was long overdue. Then headed to the pool and watched some episodes of Lost the rest of the weekend.

Week 33: Mon, April 27th-May 1st

I think that I bought a moto with bad tires. To be honest, I think when the vendor saw that I was white, maybe he was a bit pissed off that a local had went to negotiate the price for me (because he could of gotten more money if it had been me) and he changed the tires. Reason I’m suspicious is because when we went to go get it, it took him an awful long time to get the moto, so maybe a quick swap with some crappy used tires happened while he was in the back? I’ve gone to patch my tires 3 times this week from holes in them!

Got a couple rain storms this week, which has been a nice cool relief. The only bad thing is that since most roads are dirt roads, the rain creates huge mud puddles which often can’t be avoided. So you ride in a calculated speed in hopes you won’t get stuck and have to put your foot down in the mud to prevent yourself from falling over and getting completely covered in mud. Let’s just say that the couple times it has rained, I have gotten home and headed straight to the hose to rinse off my foot haha. There’s also been a gas company strike. The representative of the workers at one of the biggest gas station companies here was fired, so all the workers in all of the stations have gone on strike (well just blocked off the stations and not gone to work) in protest. And workers from other gas stations have decided to protest in solidarity with them, which is kind of cool to see that kind of collectiveness, but a tad inconvenient.

Visited my friend after nearly 2 months of not hanging out with him. We always talk about interesting topics, and I always make him think about unconventional things, or things like religion and politics, that most people aren’t really open about. Today, we left the conversation talking about homosexuality. Desensitizing the world, one person at a time!


Ok, that’s about it for now. Until next time.
Take care everyone.
Hugs sent your way!
Tiana