no more gas =(

As of last week my tank of gas that I use to cook ran out. And luck would have it that there are no gas tanks at the moment in Lokossa!
For an entire week I happily ate yummy Beninese food. But it got old. It was also annoying to go out for every single meal.
So yesterday I decided to buy a clay cooker thing and some charcoal and gas/lighter fluid. If I thought that I cooked like I was camping before…I was wrong. Cooking over an open flame is even camp-ier. It took a good 20 minutes or so for me to get the coals all lit yesterday, and a lot more “petrol” than I thought was necessary.
A student stopped by yesterday evening and I watched carefully as he re-lit the coals so that I could have a cup of Milo, hot chocolate.
And then this afternoon, it probably only took 10 minutes to get a really good flame going. Today I prepared a full meal: Curried Rice with Lentils and Fried Onions. This took about 1.5 times longer than usual because I only have the one flame/clay cooker, whereas with the stove I have two flames. So it was annoying that it took so long to prepare, but I am glad once again to be able to cook. The meal was delicious. And I am satisfied.
Yesterday morning I woke up around 7:30ish just before it started to rain. I quickly ran outside to grab my clothes that had not fully finished drying from the day before. And I just set them into a big pile on one of my chairs. Then in the evening after dinner, I decided to clean up a little, and started by folding my clothes. Well, about half way through I get to my orange tank top and this little black thing comes flying at me! It was a little lizard. Eeewww. I of course squealed like I a little girl and threw both on the ground. And then had quite a good laugh. I don’t know how many times I must say that you’d think that I would be used to these kind of happenings, but I don’t!
Along those same lines, as I was getting ready this morning to go to a make-up class (on Monday, we had a 5 HOUR meeting at school!!!!!! And I missed one class.) So as I am getting ready, I look to the foot of my bed, where my phones were sitting and see a dead roach lying on its back! EEEEWWWWWW! Once again, I squeal like a little girl. And this time I noticed that Rosie, who was still asleep/laying on the couch, jumped up immediately and went to see where the little creepy crawly was. She likes to chase lizards, mice, roaches, insects, spiders, etc (although she usually can’t catch the lizards or mice). And it was funny to me that Rosie has associated my squealing with a little gross creature. She’s a perfect Pavlov’s dog.
I have been so tired lately! I’m not entirely sure why. But everyday I wake up around the same time, between 6 and 7:30. Take a nap around noon for about an hour-ish. And am in bed no later than 10pm. I am such an old lady! And really it hasn’t been all that hot lately—so I can’t blame the heat. It’s the opposite, it’s been quite rainy lately, actually. Weird, since last year, I feel like the rains didn’t come until April or even May.
Speaking of being tired, it’s past my nap time.