Our last day in the
Capitol!
Yesterday we began
the day with orientation at the main office.
Most of the discussed materials were to be expected. Some of the emphasized items included the
importance of taking time to greet all of your coworkers; being loving in all
interactions as the community is so small, everyone takes note of all of your
behaviors and outbursts; the importance of setting healthy boundaries,
especially as single people; the importance of how one is corrected in the
shame culture that we are in - and how questioning someone's authority should
be done with the utmost respect, and these interactions should not be done
publicly; a reminder to have grace despite poor sleep and abundant heat; to be
aware of the extreme poverty that surrounds us; and to take time to be healthy,
in all senses of the word including spiritually - to take time to rest, read
and pray.
There were also
culturally related reminders or lessons - such as prolonged maintaining of eye
contact between a female and a male may be an unknown "invitation",
wearing jeans is often indicative of being a prostitute, and a young, single
male and female should never be alone together, and if they are, the rumor mill
will turn!
The final event of
our orientation was somewhat of a right of passage. Each of us had to copy, in our own
handwriting, and in French, without mistake, correction or misspelling (I know
some of that is redundant, but emphasis was on perfection!) a will. There was a model of which we filled in the
blanks, including 5 locations where an extra "e" had to be added to
denote that the writer was a female. I
messed up the first time just writing the title. Without knowing what the will said, I had no
idea which letters to capitalize, and ended up starting over after only a few strokes
of my pen. The next attempt went well,
and two-thirds of a page of writing and completing about 2/3 of the statement,
I wrote the letter "a" instead of the letter "o." I knew immediately that the little tail
sticking out would immediately be noted and I gave up, knowing that I would
have to start again.
On my final attempt
I was doing well, and after finishing the first page, I made a loud sigh as I
reached for a new piece of paper. To my
pleasure, my friends responded with, "Oh, Sad!" and seemed to understand
my frustration at being so close to the end.
I wrote the last few sentences on the new piece of paper, signed my
name, and turned my sheet in for evaluation!
To everyone's surprise I was reaching for the final sheet to finish,
instead of having to start all over again as they had assumed. I was proud of the success of my intentional
misconception! Lisa, our French expert
finished on the first try, and Josh on his second attempt. I, despite my five attempts, still finished
second. As Ms. Rogers, my first grade
teacher used to say, "I need to pay more attention to details."
Our reward for this
almost excruciating French exercise was the chance to go downtown to an
internet café, and write emails, post our blogs, etc. From the time I posted the address to my
blog, and before we left, I was thrilled that I had 53 views, and even more
thrilled that not all of those could have been done by me or my parents! Thanks so much for reading!!!
Josh and I went to
the grocery store - my return and his inaugural endeavor. I was looking for ramen noodles - knowing we
have the bigger plane, and sometimes how nice it is to have something easy, and
able to replace lots of lost salt quickly was exciting, but alas, none could be
found. I was also looking for a cream of
mushroom package sauce mix, but there was only cream of asparagus. At checkout I had bought a package of
noodles, ketchup, a few more nectarines as they are so amazing and our stay in
the capitol was delayed! I also had a container of tahini. I've never made hummus, but it sounds like it
is the thing to do. I refused to bring
any from the states as the containers were heavy - at least 1 lb each, and I
wasn't willing to give it that fraction of my allotted luggage weight. Now, Lisa and I will try!
Josh will be mostly
in the operating room, and didn't seem to be sure about cooking 100% of his
meals! He bought some cookies, granola bars, spaghetti and sauce
and pseudo-nutella. He really wanted
some peanut butter but without our French expert, the only thing the cashier
could come up with as what we wanted was real butter!
The French fries,
"frites" in Niger, are as
amazing in Kenya, only actually available!
I can't put my finger on the difference, but they are unlike anything
America has to offer - fast food or otherwise!
After our shopping
and internet excursions, we returned home and soon after met a friend from
Lisa's past. We all chatted until it was
time for dinner, and the three of us walked across the street to a Lebanese
restaurant. We were joined by many other
ex-pats working short or long term in the country, most of whom were teachers;
our group was 1- in total and we were seated under a thatched roof with fans
overhead, and ultimately multiple mosquito coils under the tables and a few
blitzes of repellent to the legs and arms.
After two hours of conversation, our meal was served! Lisa and I shared the two best meats
surrounded by a light pastry (as recommended by the waiter) and a plate of
salty and garlic-y hummus with baguette bread.
It was a nice meal.
And, in contrast to
the past several nights, we both slept well!
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