- Homesickness: I’m not sure if it’s because it’s holiday season or if Daagbe’s just still not home, but I’m a little bit of a mess this week. I tried to make Christmas cards and had to quit because it was making me too sad… sigh. In my head I know this is going to be easier (and actually is easier than it was at first), but I still find myself daydreaming about stepping off the plane in Ohio pretty frequently.
- Daagbe People Are So Nice: Tuesday, after having my Christmas-card-related breakdown, I decided I needed to go to the marche so that I could make banana bread. Somehow in the course of things I got invited to one of my students’ houses, went there, was served an entire plate of crackers (which they packed up for me when I left), and sat quietly while they ran around trying to find something else. They brought a big cooler of neon orange liquid to me, and when I asked what it was, they said “beer.” Oh god. Turns out “beer” in this case actually meant orange Kool-Aid, so that was a happy surprise. The point of this paragraph: even though it’s been a down week, every time I turn around there’s someone or something that will make me smile if I just let myself.
- Banana Muffins with Fake Nutella: Make life exponentially better.
- Got My Hair Tressed: It’s in tiny little twists (not cornrow-style), kind of like you’d get if you were Brandy and/or in the Bahamas. It took four hours, hurt like hell, itches a lot, makes Beninese people really happy, and is significantly less sweaty than my normal hairdo. I guess that’s a win?
- Malaria Medication Sucks: I’ve been on Mefloquin, a once-a-week malaria med, since I got here, and now I think I’m going to see if I can switch to a different one. Two main reasons: first, Mefloquin makes your hair fall out. Not all of it, by any means, but between that and the not-much-protein thing, I lose a lot of hair, and I’m pretty sure baldness isn’t going to be all that attractive on me. Second, Mefloquin gives you crazy dreams – for the past week, I’ve been having recurring nightmares about tarantulas living in my kitchen and Popsicle having rabies. Kind of funny, but less so when you haven’t slept for a week.
- Church Fete: There’s another church fete Sunday! I’ve been trying for a week to buy the tissu that the church bought for the occasion (so the entire congregation will match… in theory), but even though I gave the money a week ago, the lady still hasn’t showed up at my house with the fabric. I’m supposed to get it tomorrow afternoon, but I have strong doubts about whether or not the couteriere will be able to make it into an outfit quickly enough (even if she does actually show up on time). Ah, well, at least I’ll have a Virgin Mary outfit to wear to school (I can do that here!). Worth it, I think.
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