WENESDAY

06|09|10


So should not have gone to sleep so early last night. I woke up at around one o’clock im guessing and never fell back asleep. I originally woke up because I had to go to the bathroom. I first didn’t want to get out of bed for fear of rats and lizards. Sunday night Mama Maria had left an avocado out on the kitchen counter and when we woke up in the morning it had been scratched and gnawed at by Mr. Rat. Now knowing that he can climb up counters I’m a bit nervous that he can crawl into bed with me. Nick saw Mr. Lizard in our room when we moved our stuff in and he has been incognito since. So last night I laid in bed going back and forth about leaving my netted comfort. It wasn’t until I freaked myself out even more about my blanket that I found motivation to get up. I have been sleeping with my batik fabric as a sheet for the past few days. I brought it to the beach with me and used it as a towel. So last night my toes started to feel tingly ; in reality it was probably just a mosquito bite but in my head I had contracted that parasite and it was laying eggs underneath my skin!! So very logical am I. Anways that motivated me to get out of bed and put hand sanitizer and bug spray on my feet.
After waking up I didn’t fall back asleep. I guess that’s what I get for going to bed so early last night. I also woke up early this morning with the down pouring rain. It hasn’t let up all morning. We’re supposed to go do sight visits and talk to the seamstresses and batikers but I guess we’ll just have to see if it stops raining.

Took a while to get to work since it was raining and we had to stop at the hotel to use their internet to send our presentation to the states. We chartered a taxi so it would drop us off at Global Mama’s so we didn’t have to walk far in the rain. Because we were at the hotel the man charged us an extra 2 Cedis. When we got to work we had some time to kill before a workshop meeting with all the Global Mama’s so I decided to hit up Barkley’s Bank. The bank took forever as usual and by the time I got back the workshop was already in session. It was nice to sit in on the workshop. It was about achieving financial stability. They fed us snacks and FanIce which was delicious!!!

Today our plan is now to go on sight visits to meet the women individually and find out what they can do the best and what needs improvement. Before we go were going to go to the market which will be my first time returning. Hopefully I won’t get goat guts splashed on my face like Kelly did! GOO!!!! I want to get some food to last me through the weekend. We’re going to Bushwa beach for Pepo’s first birthday. I think we’re going for the whole weekend since it’s an hour away. Tonight is the only night I’ll be going to Eli’s this week, she’s making Palava and its Katie C’s last night. We’re going to miss her… and we're going to get her very drunk!!! She's probably the person I''ve learnt the most from being here. She's very very softly spoken but if you take the time to sit down and listen to her she has so much to say. I guess you can say she's wise beyond her years.

I forgot to mention a few things. Our sight visit went so well! Nick Katie and I went to Mama Felicia's workshop. Its just up the road from Global Mama's. It is her one worker and two apprentices. We went and watched Katie because she has been doing this for the past few weeks and we need to pick up on how to conduct interviews without saying or doing anything offensive. Obviously being in Africa alone is quite the culture shock but listening to the stories Katie has been telling us about, going to the women's, i know I'm in for a big surprise. The home life is just so drastically different from ours.

But anyway it went smoothly up until my badluck struck again. If you can recall that other day i flung poo on my legs. Yesterday I forgot to mention that when I was walking to the bank in the rain, the open sewer had over flown into the street and as I attempted to jump over the puddle I missed and ended up jumping right into the middle of the puddle. I cant begin to describe to you all the lovely things that the sewers are filled with... use your imagination! So that's that and today I picked up Felicia's small boy and held him on my lap because he was stroppy and wanted to be held. We'll of course he took a piss on my leg!!! I honestly feel like Africa has blessed me with bad luck, I cant really do much but laugh about it!

I could totally go for some Little Ceasers Italian cheese bread!!! Ooh or some gazpacho from Kruse and Meure!!! Mmhm … killer