I was up before the birds this morning—literally. I had arranged last night to accompany an SIL couple to church this morning, and their plan was to leave at 7:30am. So I set my alarm for 6:00, and when I got up, I heard no birds chirping in the darkness. But after shaving by the light of my flashlight reflecting in the mirror over my sink and then showered in cold water by the light of that same flashlight, I heard a bulbul give his first tentative chirps. Then they became stronger and more frequent as he and his friends woke up and got their day started.
I accompanied a couple of other SIL members to All Saints Cathedral (Lutheran, I think), where the service was very short in comparison to most of my experiences in Africa. We were filing out a bit more than an hour after we had arrived. From there we went to another location where about a dozen people (representing at least five different nationalities) gathered to share tea and conversation.
The last stop before returning home was the produce market. Many of the fruits and vegetables available here are imported from Uganda, so they are a bit expensive, but I stocked up on carrots, zucchini, onions, peppers, tomatoes, green beans, and bananas. We also stopped in a shop, where I bought bleach and margarine—the former to ensure that I wouldn’t end up hosting any unwelcome intestinal guests after eating these things, the latter for stir frying some of them. I also bought a few eggs and some rice to eat with the vegetables.
Upon our return to the SIL compound, I spent the next hour and a half soaking in bleach water anything that I might possibly eat raw. Amoebic dysentery is not fun—I know from experience. So I consider it well worth my time to spend an hour or two rendering any amoebas and other parasites incapable of wreaking havoc in my digestive tract.
After a 30-minute nap, I spent some time reading and working on Sudoku puzzles I had brought along. Today the electricity was on when I returned home just before noon until 1:00pm, then off until about 3:00, I think. We had power from 3 to 5, and again from 7 to 10:30, if I understand the pattern correctly. I was asleep before 10:30, but my ceiling fan was on when I went to bed and off when I awoke (briefly) at 11.
My body seems to have adjusted to this time zone relatively easily. I’ve slept well each night and have been able to function well during waking hours. So it seems that I have achieved one of my objectives in coming here several days in advance of the actual workshop: I have adjusted to the local schedule and will be able to be awake when I’m supposed to be and sleep when that is the appropriate thing to do.
My lunch today was on the slim side, consisting primarily of a baguette of French bread. But for supper, I prepared rice (1 cup) and stir-fried vegetables (2 carrots, 2 onions, 2 green peppers, 1 zucchini). That made quite a pan full of vegetables, so I had to stir them carefully so as not to lose any on the floor while cooking them. In the end, I recognized that the rice at least was more than I could eat by myself and the pile of vegetables might itself be a challenge, so I invited Eileen, who had so graciously shown me around and introduced me to one of the local restaurants my first night here, to join me.
The meal was pretty bland, as there was no liquid with the vegetables to help the rice go down, nor was any of it seasoned in any way, but we did get a good dose of vitamins, which was my primary objective in buying all of those veggies in the first place.
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