While yesterday I may have slept poorly, the same can not be said for today! Even though I woke up kind of late, around 9:00am, it was some of the best sleep I think I’ve gotten here so far (not getting woken up by music is the main reason). I got out of bed and hung out with Paul and Morrine for a bit who were sitting around a charcoal stove for warmth. There were some things that I needed to get ready in my room so I hung out there and waited for breakfast to be ready.
Today’s breakfast was nothing special, rice and beans, but filling nonetheless. Once I was finished eating, I went and groped the bucket of water that I thought was prepared for me. I saw Morrine pouring kettles of water into it and it looked like the same bucket as yesterday so I thought nothing different. I took the steaming bucket of water into the bathroom to have my bucket bath and began pouring cold water into it as I usually do. It’s always too hot for me to use and I thought about putting several cups of water into it before testing it. Thankfully, something inside of me told me to check the water after I poured one cup of cold water in. The water was lukewarm at best! It was already too late to go out and put some more warm water into it so I was stuck with the water I had. I proceeded to take the most efficient bucket bath as possible to avoid pouring the cool water on myself (it wasn’t that bad all things considered)!
The chilling experience led to me getting ready quickly. I had to wait for Paul for quite a bit before he was ready to go up! I find it funny that I always have to wait for Paul for seemingly no reason, but whenever he has to wait for me (typically a couple minutes at most), he is very impatient! I assume he sees the reverse! I went up to the office with Paul and Peter (he happened to be going up the hill at the same time as us) and Peter invited me to soccer this afternoon at 5:00pm. I told him I would be there!
I got to the office and began work with Eli! All of the science experiment materials he had asked for were purchased and were sitting in the main room. For some reason he got massive quantities of some things on his list that he did not need much of. For example, he got dozens upon dozens of super glue bottles when only two experiments needed them and thousands of matches when only one experiment needed them! On the other hand, many experiments need balloons and he got none! He was very thankful to receive the materials, but found it funny to receive them in such weird quantities. There were also a bunch of things he did not ask for which happened to be parts of the purchase meant for other people (Eli was very confused by the massive tarp and foam cleaner canisters that he did not ask for).
After going through the materials, Eli directed me to a paper bag that had banana bread in it that Miraclin had made at Hosea’s house! The bread was AMAZING! As Eli put it, you could taste the butter which is something that is not common out here. The bread was very doughy thanks to the power going out in the middle of baking, but I thought it made the bread taste even better.
While eating the banana bread, Eli talked to me about his night and how he’s truly a part of the family. Luka’s daughter, Comfort, is quite the sassy character and had Eli watch the neighbor’s baby get bathed (life in the village is different to say the least)! Apparently, Comfort thought it was hilarious that Eli was there and I thought so too!
We worked on Math Club materials for a while and Mr. Chesco did not ask me or Eli to teach today. He seemed to be upset or in a mood as he’s a very upbeat guy that always loves to ask us if we’d like to teach! Perhaps he knew what our answer was going to be because of the Math Club work we need to get done or that he’s feeling under the weather (I heard him mention it to Henry). Regardless, Mr. Chesco got all of the laptops set up and led the typing class! I’m very proud of his independence and it proves that it doesn’t take long for a teacher to understand a computer and feel comfortable teaching it.
Math Club reviewing continued until Henry, Miraclin, and Michael showed up. It turns out that Michael is feeling unwell now! The reason for his sickness was blamed on a bad banana or whatever sickness we all had a couple of weeks ago. Whatever it is, I hope that he gets to feeling better as feeling unwell out here is not fun to say the least. Eli is also having troubles as his right eye seems to have pink eye! He has a couple of ideas on how he got it, but obviously looking at a screen all day doesn’t make it feel any better.
During our work, Miraclin has been working on her Canva project while Henry, Eli, and I work on Math Club. We make good company and get a good chunk done. Michael would be helping out, but needed to rest in another room to feel better. We worked up until lunch time (around 1:00pm) and I knew that it would be unwise for me to head down to lunch at this time as it would never be ready at this time. I took the time to record the video part of my IT application and got it all sent in! I recorded them outside which was a fun change of scenery and only had to do a couple of takes to get it down (I was asked to answer questions about customer service, dealing with difficult situations, and how to deal with problems you don’t know the answer to).
When I was finished, both Eli and Henry were already back from lunch. We were productive until a little after 3:00pm where Henry and Eli convinced me to go down to the house to see if lunch was ready (they felt bad that I hadn’t eaten yet). I walked down there to find Paul nowhere to be found. I walked inside to find Morrine cooking, and not wanting my help, I went back outside to hang out with Peter, his wife, and son. Peter had been digging trenches all day to route a water hose to his house so he doesn’t have to walk up to our house to get water. The walk is less than 100ft, but carrying dozens of gallons of water that distance has to be tiring.
We talked about how school is starting soon (July 6th for the students) and other random things. Arusha was playing in the dirt his father had dug up and proceeded to eat a massive handful of it. Of course dirt does not taste good and he proceeded to wail until his mother consoled him and wiped the dirt out of his mouth! I also noticed that from the last time I saw Arusha, he had hurt his nose and upper lip by what looked to be a learning to stand incident (kind of a gnarly wound).
After a good chunk of time, I go back to the house to check if the food is around at around 3:45pm. To my delight it was! We had ugali, beans, cabbage, avocado (with salt), and scrambled eggs. It was fantastic and one of the best meals I’ve had so far! Paul did not show his face which made me sad, but I enjoyed eating with Morrine even though we could not communicate with one another.
With my belly full, I went back up the office to review some more with Henry. Eli showed up a little after me as he was recording videos of himself on how to run through one of his experiments in the science room at the school!
We worked until it was time to go play some soccer. I had packed my soccer clothes and went to change. Before leaving, I checked in on Michael and unfortunately he still felt the same as this morning. I encouraged him to walk around, drink something, eat something, or even try to just throw up to get better (it makes me feel better!).
I get to the field, warm up, and begin to play. The teams were small today; 4 on 3. It was Henry, Simba, a guy I did not know, and I vs. Luka, Peter and Eli. The game was extremely fun, and to my surprise, Eli ended up scoring FOUR goals. Most of them were very skilled and shot from quite far away on the goal (the goals are maybe a 2ft square so not much room for error). I was very impressed! The guy I didn’t know on our team that ended up being a very good player, had to bow out half way through the game as he hurt his foot. I suppose this finally made the teams fair again, but we were still losing. Henry ended up getting hurt as well twisting his ankle in a hidden hole in the field! The score ended up being 3-5 and I unfortunately didn’t play that well. It’s as if the more time I spend with the game, the worse I get as I overthink things. I had a blast nonetheless! To add, for some reason I felt extremely exhausted today compared to other days I’ve played. I’m thinking it’s from all of the food in my belly from a late lunch!
Michael came down towards the end to watch for a bit and get some fresh air. We all walked back to the office and Michael invited Eli, Henry, and I to his house to watch the World Cup game happening at 7:00pm (England vs. Democratic Republic of Congo). It was around 6:40ish at the time so I grabbed all of my stuff from the office (including the router) and quickly changed out of my sweaty soccer clothes. Henry left to go to Mr. Chesco’s house first and Eli walked Miraclin back to her house. With everything finished, I walked with Michael to his host’s house.
On the way I thought I could confidently navigate myself through to the house in the dim light and ended up stepping into two deep potholes! Clearly I still need a flashlight. We arrived and the TV channel we watched the World Cup was not working! We assumed the game was either pay-per-view or since it was the first of the month, the TV bill needed to be paid. Regardless, we didn’t have the game for the first 20 minutes. When Henry showed up, he spoiled the beginning of the game where Congo got a goal (a very big deal)!
Eli showed up shortly after and was quite excited to be there as he has yet to watch a World Cup game yet and he loves soccer. He was disappointed to see the channel not working, but we came up with a solution: pirating the game on the internet (we first tried to get it legitimately with Henry’s Spectrum account, but it would not work). I had the router with me for an internet connection and we tried to get a game up. While trying to get the game set up, Luka arrived (not Eli’s Luka) to watch the game. Instead of waiting for us to finish, he pulled out his phone and began to watch the game! We all couldn’t crowd around the phone so we continued on our pirating journey. The first website we used was extremely laggy and would hardly load the game, but the second one, which was in Spanish, worked perfectly! We watched for about 10 more minutes before the channel on the TV worked!
It was an exciting game as we wanted the underdog, Congo, to win against England! They were leading the entire first half and we all thought Congo had a chance, yet to our dismay, England turned their playing around and scored two goals at the back of the second half. At this point the game was essentially over and the power went out to top it all off. We all enjoyed watching the game and Henry talked about the only other time he has sprained his ankle; riding a dirt bike! It was a fun point of conversation and nice to get along for once! Luka, Eli’s host, came over for a bit to say hello and then leave as he does not watch soccer (something that Eli is sad about).
With the game over, I walked back to the house with Eli and Luka (not the host) with me for most of the way. It was a gorgeous night! The moon was almost full, and with no clouds, made for a very bright night. I’m certain I could read a book with how bright it is! I enjoyed walking with Luka as he doesn’t speak much English, but still tries to hold a conversation with me about soccer and the weather; a wholesome interaction. We go our separate ways when he makes it to the kitchen area and I head home.
I got back to the house and ate dinner in the dark for the first half of it! The power struck back on and I could see in better detail what I was eating. It was rice, beans, avocados, and chips that Morrine had prepared for me. During the meal, Paul and Morrine did their own separate things. All in all, it was a very filling dinner with lots of delicious salt. From all of the work, my tummy full, and playing soccer, I was exhausted and retired to my room to blog and go to bed!
Praying for healing and health over everyone. 🙏🏽.
ReplyDelete