Sunday, July 2 - Day of (some) rest

The cold that I felt coming on yesterday left no doubt about its presence during the night and throughout the day today. Sleeping was difficult, even though I felt very tired. And when it was time to get up in the morning, I could sense that I had not slept well at all. My attempts to nap this afternoon were largely unsuccessful, as well. This is my “normal” experience with a cold. I’m expecting one more difficult night before it moves into the “faucet” phase and is more bothersome during the day than at night. The bright side? If I had any latent malaria in my circulatory system, it would be malaria instead of a cold virus that took advantage of my weakened state as a result of the tiring trip.

Apart from the cold, this was a restful Sunday here. Matthieu came by and picked me up with his motorcycle at 8:30 and I sat with him at the front of the church for the 3-hour service. (In the context of at least this part of Africa, that means that I was seated with the various church leaders, facing the audience.) At one point in the service, I was introduced, handed a microphone and given the opportunity to say a few words. My French is a little rusty, even though I’ve been using it to communicate in written form with various people in Africa; that fact was most obvious when I was asked to say the closing prayer. Praying in French has never been an easy thing for me, but this morning I stumbled over words much more frequently than I used to. Fortunately, God understands our prayers even when we have trouble finding the words to express our thoughts.

After the church service, I was ferried by motorcycle back to the Catholic guest house, where I remained for most of the rest of the day. Matthieu had pointed out the way to several places as we were riding to church this morning, including the pharmacy and the market, so around 3:00, I set off on foot to explore my surroundings and try to get my bearings a bit. I was surprised when I actually was able to find both the pharmacy and the market, and I came home with some bottled water, one of the things on my shopping list.

The last thing I tried to accomplish before suppertime at 7:30 was to activate an internet connection that I’d be able to use during my stay here in Dabakala. A colleague loaned me a USB dongle—I think that’s the correct term—that would allow me to connect to the internet through the cell phone network, once I paid for a subscription. Father Constant, my host here at the Catholic center, recommended a young man named Christian as the person to go to in order to have my connection activated. After he had done his thing and I had paid the requisite $20 fee, I was able to send and receive a few emails through Outlook, a program I use to handle my work email account, but the connection was so slow that I was unable to do anything via a web browser, so I wasn’t able to check my other email accounts or post anything to my blog. I’ll try again during non-peak hours (e.g., at 3:00 in the morning) to see what I’m able to do then. It may be difficult for me to send pictures out, though, so bear with me if my posts are nothing but prose.