In an earlier post I bragged about not being phased by power cuts or water cuts in Dakar...any other day than today I would probably still say that, however, I felt as though Dante's Virgil sidled up beside me and brought me down to Hell today (I know, Dante's Hell was cold). I went to bed last night with no running water and almost all of my back-up water bottles empty. I had watered my plants two days ago and never refilled my plastic bottles, leaving it for the weekend. Unfortunately I missed the memo that they would be doing pipe work today and I had just enough water to keep by my toilet...for those of you unfamiliar with "How Julia lives in Senegal," I will let you in on a secret, toilet paper is not on my list of priorities. In the US, I am a huge fan of Cottonelle, but in West Africa it is impolite to use your left hand, I bet you can guess why! I am chuckling just imaging the reactions some of you are probably having right now...
Senegalese Taxi
Car Rapide
So anyway, I had to ask my neighbors for water in my sweaty, stinky state around noon when I could no longer stand my own stench and the fact that I was, indeed, getting a shower sitting in my bedroom, I was literally bathing sweat. GROSS! But alas, it was 91˚ yet again today, and my power cut out around 9 AM so I did not even have my fan to keep me cool. My morning was filled with letter writing and reading short stories, during which I fell in love with Gabriel García Márquez's, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, yet again. If you do not know the story, it is a beautiful study of human nature, http://salvoblue.homestead.com/wings.html. When I finally did get my shower I still did not want to leave my apartment due to the awful heat and the traffic around my apartment. The pipe work has a traffic detour passing by my apartment, which I also blame for the heat today...there were buses, car rapides and taxis going past all day spurting their diesel fumes through my windows, how rude! Oh well, by Monday traffic should be back to normal and I have the day off, so I am a happy camper :)
I am someone that can easily get carried away, but I have learned to laugh at myself during and after these wild moments of flailing arms and trying to do fifty things at once. Today was one of those days. When my water turned back on at 7 PM I was ecstatic, I just could not control myself. I sprinted around my apartment dancing to James Brown for about five minutes, remembered how hot I was, stopped and then just stared at my spigots...when the water cuts out it is recommended that you wait about 30 minutes before using it. I did not want to risk another weird skin fungus so I grumpily sat in the heat as Rafiki jumped all over me. After about 20 more minutes I started to greedily fill up all of my empty water bottles. In a moment of madness I somehow knocked over my 5 gallon water jug and spilled water all over my bathroom, so typical. Fortunately, I laughed at myself and played with Rafiki in the water for a minute until he realized himself and the fact that cats are not supposed to like water. He promptly left the bathroom. Cats are so fickle, but we had fun while it lasted...
Tomorrow I start tutoring my 6th grader, I hope that she is nice, but we all know how moody middle school girls can be...my mom is definitely laughing at that sentence and would add "high school and college girls too," HA!
Jasmeen & I Making Our Pots at Sobobade Last Weekend
I am still on the hunt for a good bottle of wine in Dakar, and I am coming to the conclusion that I will never find it...a very sad realization. SO if you want to be bad ass and do something illegal, MAIL ME WINE! I would love you forever, although I would also love you if you did not mail me illegal things and just became my pen pal :) That being said, if you want to mail me things, below is my address:
Julia Hoyle
s/c ISD
BP 5136
Dakar, Senegal
(There are no zip codes in Senegal, so this is, in fact, my entire address)
Mail me things! Wine, Parmesan cheese, and Reese's peanut butter cups being some favorites :D
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