Slice of Life

Time for another slice of my African life, because I don't feel like anything too exciting has happened, but maybe you think an average week in Mora is more interesting than I do....

Sunday-Spent Saturday night at my friend Emily's village, Mokolo, for her birthday. Woke up late, 7:30 am and ate pancakes with guava jam for breakfast. Went to the bus stop to get a bus to Maroua. The place was a shit show because it was Sunday and they were filling up big buses not bush taxi vans so it took a while to fill them up. Waited about 2 hours or so. This involved one van backing in and out of the station for some reason. Got to Maroua just as the bus to Mora was filling up-got the last tickets so we left right away! Bought some beignets and hard boiled eggs from a child to eat on the way. Got to Mora and was exhausted from the weekend, so just layed around for the rest of the day. Made soup for dinner.

Monday- Washed a load of laundry (by hand of course) and did some dishes on my front porch. Went to lunch with some volunteers from here and some that were visiting to work with my postmate. Ate ignames and tomato sauce for lunch. igname is a big root vegetable, tastes like a potato. I was pissed off at lunch because on the way there I saw one of my students who told me the exams at school had been postponed AGAIN until Thursday. Usually I have 2 hours of class on Monday, but I didn't go because I thought they were taking exams. so annoying. They change just the time, don't tell anyone, postpone it 3 times, and now my students think I didn't come to class. To top of this day, I went to the market after lunch. It decided to rain while I was buying dried fish for my cat, so I was stuck at the horrendously smelling fish stall for an hour. It was a surprisingly strong storm for the end of rainy season. I was freezing, huddled with men, women and children. People tried to give me a dry place but the wind was too strong. I'm pretty sure they were laughing at me because I was freezing and they all had their head scarves which were coming in really handy. Finally the rain stopped and I caught a moto home. Relaxed the rest of the day. Had a meatball sandwich for dinner with meatballs and bread from the market, made in Mora. Delish. I also planned my lesson for the next day since we were teaching after all.

Tuesday- Class 9:30-11:45. Talked to the students in my clubs after about having a meeting before I leave for two weeks on Friday, but they were not motivated so I said I will see you for fete de mouton. Then I went to the tailor to drop off some fabric for a dress. I'm completely out of control with getting clothes made. Its where all my money goes. But I don't care-there are too many beautiful fabrics waiting to be made into custom fitted dresses. After that, my bestie postmate Louise came over and we made LOTS of tempura-fried green beans, eggplant and zuchinni (these are bought in Maroua-2 hours away. can't find these in Mora) and we made two sauces- ranch and mustard/mayo/soy sauce. It was fabulous. Then she left and my other postmate Jessice came over to talk about our security plan for when I travel and they announce the election results.

Wednesday-Woke up and washed some more laundry. Walked over with my neighbor to her mother's house because she just had a new baby. (My neighbor lives in the same concession as me, with her grandparents. Her name is Aie and she's 15) The baby was really cute of course. We also saw a tiny premature lamb which was really cute too. Then I went to the post office, where I got a wedding announcement from Emilie <3. I was on my way to girls club at a primary school, Group 1A. We played football oops I mean soccer and then talked about what the girls do everyday. They said they wake up at 5am, wash clothes, cook breakfast, sweep the house, and then come to school at 7:30am until 4:30 pm. Then they rest a little, then cook and study until bed around 10pm. One girl said she goes to bed at 11pm and wakes up at 3am everyday to help her mom make beignets. It's no wonder they don't stay in school or get good grades when they have all that work to do! I went to dinner at a place run by my friend Patricia and she made me delicious rice, tomato sauce and mackerel. I brought the head of the mackerel home for my cat ;) Then I went to my postmate Martin's house for a bonfire. I went home by moto around 9pm.

Thursday-Woke up and washed all my sheets and my mosquito net which took basically the whole morning. Then I dug a compost hole in my backyard, which I've been meaning to do for a while. After all that, I took a little nap, then hopped on a moto to go to another girls club at Mora Massif school. We played football with these girls too. Then I went to the market and home. I stopped at a neighbor's house to say hi then called it a night.