This morning I brushed my teeth next to two fighting ants. I find it funny that the ants are so big here that when they fight I take notice of it. They kind of reminded me of like two rhino’s in a head butting contest with each other, it was a pretty intense battle.
Yesterday it poured. Raining cats and dogs doesn’t even begin to describe it. It was perfectly sunny and nice and then all of a sudden there was a river flowing through our backyard, and then, when it stopped, I don’t know how, the ground must be like super absorbent, but after it stopped the ground was like fine to walk on, barely even muddy, only in a few spots. But Oh my goodness was it beautiful. The rain like washed away all the dust and made everything so crisp and beautiful. The dirt was this richer red color and the green form the plants was so bright. It was beautiful. And then my lovely little brother took his muddy red dirt stick across my white shirt…. I’m very glad I bought those stain remover pens now.
This past weekend was tough but it got better at the end. It didn’t help that I my stomach revolted against me all Saturday and I had the worst reflux of my entire life, but it still would have been awkward regardless. One bummer about it was that because this whole Kabaka conflict and riots and such, we couldn’t go into town or anything so we were basically just stuck around the house. Joy and I did a whole lot of homework, and on Sunday even studied a little with our mom which was nice.
But oh yes, Saturday was laundry day, and a good thing because we hadn’t really done laundry the whole time we’ve been here and so everything was dirty. It was a four person task. Maureen did the first washing, her son Ivan did the next washing and then Joy and I did the rinsing (we definitely got the easy not experienced part of the job). But yeah, it took forever. And the whole starting process was really awkward. We brought out all our clothes, two heaping piles in our wash buckets and laundry detergent. And kind of started to wash… but not really. Maureen started showing us how and then she just left and cleaned the house, and made matoke… and we just kind of sat on the porch waiting for her, and waiting, and waiting. She told us to wait, but we weren’t sure if she was ever going to come back. But she finally did, and our laundry was eventually done. Our whole backyard was full of Joy and mine’s colorful clothes. I should have taken a picture… next time. But I looked like a mess afterwards. My dress was soaked and my legs were muddy and grassy, Maureen made me bathe… I really did need it. Hopefully I get better at washing in the future. But for the moment, I’ll save my Saturday bathes for after the laundry.
But family life is so different here. Kinda weird. I’m not sure I’m a fan of it. Our father basically lay on the couch and watched TV all weekend and had everyone else bring him things and prepare everything. It was weird. Elijah does everything. We try to help him out, but sometimes he won’t let us. I rinse the dishes for him now. It’s fun. And Joy and I helped him peel potatoes. We need to Iron our clothes. And find some better system of hanging our clothes in our room. Our room looks hilarious. Clothes are everywhere. And the mosquito nets are quite obtrusive; they really chop off a whole lot of the room. The bed is basically just for sleeping in because it’s too much work to get in and out of it. Drew just gave me peanut butter on a shortbread cookie…. It was so beautiful. I miss peanut butter, it’s just amazing. Like heaven on a cookie stick. The cookie (or as they call here ‘biscuit’) was pretty good too, but the peanut butter made it so much better.
I also really miss salad. Veggetables are not a popular dish here, and when we do have them they have been like deep fried. It's pretty intense. Everyone talks about food they miss. I think we're having pizza tonight at the directors house.... that is one of the foods i don't miss. But it will be a nice change to I guess.
I have my first class presentation tomorrow. Wish me luck!