Michelle Explains It All: August 2009

I have started to workout. A while ago I downloaded the Couch-to-5k podcast…it’s a 9 week program to get people started in running. Anywho, I have started it several times and have never managed to get past week 5 or 6 for some reason or another. But tomorrow I start week 2! I have been running at the parc public…they fixed it up real nice for the fete and now the outside circle is like running around a track. And if I get out there early enough, there are no people there to watch the yovo run. In addition, I have just run out of both of my gas can thingys, so I am left to eat only fresh fruit: apples, pineapple, mango and salads. I hope that I can get ahold of a new gas tank, but if not, it can only help me in my quest to lose a little weight.

I went to Porto-Novo earlier this week to do the bake sale. I might have mentioned this in another blog, or to someone, I dunno… I ended up making a profit of 15500 CFA, which is about $34…doesn’t sound like a lot, but I doubled our current budget. It was really fun doing the bake sale—maybe not so much the actual baking because I was up until 3:45 in the morning. And I had only had 3ish hours of sleep the night before (more on that in a minute). But I hitched a ride on the Peace Corps shuttle and arrived at Songhai where Nathaniel made the announcement and soon I had a huge line of people wanting to buy brownies, cookies, key lime pie, and empanadas. In the end, I sold everything but a couple packs of cookies I was happy to eat so that they wouldn’t go to waste! And it was also nice going to Porto-Novo because I hadn’t really had an opportunity to meet the stagaires (thank you Maria for not choosing me) and we hung out a bit during the down time.

While I was in the bureau Monday, I had a chance to speak with Dr. Rufin. I haven’t been sleeping very well these past few months and turned into somewhat of an insomniac. Insomnia = no fun! So I ended up switching to Doxycycline.

So then I returned home Wednesday afternoon, around 2ish. And once I got home I reached into my bag and then I remembered, well I guess I remember not remembering to take my keys out of my locker at the bureau before I left for Porto-Novo! So yup, I came all the way home without my keys! But it ended up working out. I called my PCVL, Kaili and she got a hold of Kyle who was at the bureau and had my keys. Kyle then went over to the taxi station and sent my keys to with a chauffeur. In the meanwhile, I wasn’t sure what I was gonna do. I was sitting outside my gate brainstorming and trying to get a hold of Ellen, when a neighbor rolled by and offered to let me stay at his house. But I don’t really know the Papa, so I felt a little uncomfortable doing that. So I rang Thierry’s doorbell and he was home. Thierry is my neighbor who is kinda like an apt. manager. He hands out the water and electric bills, etc. Anyways, we’re buds and he let me stay with him. We chatted, watched TV, fed me…until I called the chauffeur and zemmed down to get my keys from the gare (taxi station). Ahhh…what a process! But at least I didn’t have to go all the way back to Cotonou. I really hope that this won’t happen again, but it kinda already has happened before. Except last time, I remembered that I forgot my keys before I hopped into the taxi!

I was gonna post this when I was at the cyber Friday evening, but I was having some issues with the computer and my account and the flashdrive…bottomline it just didn’t work out.

I was gonna zem home cause I am semi lazy and figure I would just run in the morning, but I decided that I would walk until I found some street food for the dog. But it turns out there wasn’t much out there except bouille (bwee). It’s like porridge and there a gazillion kinds of it and it’s delicious with a side fried doughballs. So I am walking at a fairly brisk pace so that people on the street don’t really have the opportunity to stop me and engage me in conversation. Then I am about halfway home when a bicycle pulls up next to me. I try to ignore it (it’s amazing the guard I have built myself). And then I hear a familiar “bon soir, Madame!” It’s Desiré, one of my favorite kids. (he’s the one who found me dog #3, carried my helmet home for me a bazillion times, helped me get my front gate key copied on a Sunday…this kid is awesome!) I often see him riding his bike around.

Anywho, we end up walking back together and along the way he tells me that one of his classmates died earlier this week! It was Eddy. I can’t exactly picture his face, but he was friends with Desiré and those boys. RIP Eddy. I guess he got sick or something. And he was throwing up, and that’s all I know. I don’t know how much more death I can take.