October 5, 2007 : Friday - A day in the life…

At 6:00 am I went to the MC2 to check on the program I had left running all night on one of the computers. One of my precious computers has a software problem and I am about out of ideas on how to solve it. We had the good fortune to keep power all night so I wanted to check before we lost it. Well, long story short: power on, computer still flocked. So, at 7 am I headed towards the center of town – that is to say – the one street that runs thru Lolo. As I walked, a woman with a 30 pound (I kid you not) sack of peanuts on her head joined me. We greeted one another and she gave me some news about a woman I had helped about 10 days ago.

About 10 days ago, a woman stood outside the MC2 with a crying infant. The day was hot and still and humid, so I brought her a chair to sit in the shade of our veranda. She told me she was waiting for a moto to take her child to the hospital but she needed 1000 CFA to get there. (The hospital is a 15 minute walk from us and I know it costs about 100 cfa.) I said incredulously ‘A thousand, I don’t think so.’ ‘Well, 500 cfa.’ She said quickly. Still I maintained my innocence and said politely, ‘I don’t think so, its so close, I think it’s about 100 cfa. At this point, I went back inside to talk to my co workers. We all agreed the infant seemed quite ill – she appeared to be having convulsions – so I went back outside and gave her 200 cfa for the round trip. I also told her kindly that it would be better if she didn’t lie about these things and people would help her. She quickly corrected me and said that she did not ask for 1000 cfa, but that she has 1000 cfa and needed change…………Anyway……….she had the cash and I asked a friend with a moto to take her to the hospital. About an hour later, Jack tells me that she did not want to go to the hospital but went to a local healer instead….What can you do ?!?!

The news I received this morning is that the baby had died this past Monday. Having shared this news with me, the woman with the heavy sack on her head wanted to know if I could give her 200 cfa also (this is my life as the high rollin’ blanche in town) I said ‘No, if I start doing this I will need to carry a large sack of change with me for all those who will ask.’ She understood and we continued to walk and chat. She was a nice older lady with a heavy sack on her head and most people here figure there’s no harm in asking.

I spent the next 45 minutes visiting with the cool, kind hearted woman who makes breakfast for me a few days a week. My ‘usual’ is: a two-egg spaghetti omelette; a cup of Nescafe instant coffee sweetened with thick syrupy condensed milk, and a small section of baguette. It’s really good!!

As I waited for my breakfast, up the street two women were preparing to slaughter a pig. He was huge – easily over 300 pounds – and they were having trouble getting him off his feet and onto his back. Throughout their efforts, which took about five minutes, the pig just screamed. Having never experienced farm life I was not really aware of the sounds that animals make. I can now tell you that most animals scream before being slaughtered. The same is true of goats. It is the most heart wrenching sound because it sounds almost human. Suddenly the screaming ceased as did the pig’s efforts to wriggle out of their grasp.

After this, one of the local government employees saw me and came over to say hi. He’s Anglophone, so we spoke in English. He works in agriculture with the local farmers so when he told me he would like us to work on a project together, I enthusiastically agreed. We stepped out side the omelette shack to discuss it further. Turns out his ‘big project’ is helping him get a visa to go to the USA!!! Sh*t. Do I really need to elaborate? I patiently explained I was not available to help him with his personal plans. He was cool about – who knows we may actually find something legit to work on together…..or not. Soon after, my delicious omelette and hot steaming coffee were ready. Ah, this morning is already off to a rare start ;-) !!!!!

I finished my breakfast with out further incident and headed back to the MC2 at 8:30 am. My belly was full and we had power - this could possibly be a very productive day!! I fiddled with the computers in the lab next to the MC2 for the next two hours until we lost power. Lately, it seems that I find more problems with the computers than solutions. We had jammin’ ITunes on one computer, but I think someone was in here and fiddled around with it – cuz now we don’t !!!

At 10:30 am with no power and no confidence that I can get enough of these ‘boxes’ (computers or massive door stops – you decide) to work long enough to teach computer classes, I headed into the main room of the MC2. Everything is done manually, so one of my tasks is to audit the daily withdrawals and deposits that are recoded on each bank members’ cards. I did that until noon then headed home for the ‘pause’. The ‘pause’ is the 1.5 – 2 hour lunch break that the bank staff takes at noon. I also go home because there is no bathroom at the bank and I still refuse to squat and pee in public. A girl’s gotta maintain some kind of standards; n’est pas ?!?!

I went home; made a cheese sandwich with a half baguette and processed Vache Qui Rie cheese; then washed it down with a yummy grapefruit soda. I tried to do a bit of paperwork before heading back to the bank. Once again at the MC2, we had more computer problems at the cashier’s and accountant’s desks….. (enough said on that subject).

The rain started to really pour about 3:00 pm. We still had power, so I spent some time writing emails while waiting for the rain to stop. Around 6:00 pm, the rain finally slowed from a torrent to just really raining, so I finally headed to Yvette’s house to get some dinner. The walk in the rain to get dinner was well worth the effort - dinner was delicious - a tasty tomato broth with meat and rice. People here believe that fat and some skin is better than meat alone because it’s not good to eat too much lean meat…….What can you do – there’s times when I just nod and keep my mouth shut. I picked around the fat and skin and ate all the ‘unhealthy’ lean beef !! Later, I returned home and closed my evening with some chocolate cookies and more pamplemousse (grapefruit) soda. I spent some time contemplating what to do for the next 2 years, and by 9:00 it was time for bed.

Safe and sound under my mosquito net, with the rain still falling outside, I slept and dreamt……..

I swear on my spaghetti omelette all this is true and it really did happen ALL in one day!!!!!

much love - Christine ;-)