I gave three tests today. One for Advanced Math and the other two were for Algebra, so the day was fairly easy for me. Also, at about 10:30AM I was wrapping up my math lesson for the 6th graders and all of the sudden one of the teachers walked in and flipped my lights on. I guess the group that was here along with Roger and John had finished working on the generator and had it fixed! Hopefully, it will last until our new generator arrives. By the way, one individual found out about the issues we keep having with the generator and decided to give an anonymous $20,000 gift to be used toward the purchase of the new one. We are all very grateful for this. We may not know who it is but God does and I hope He blesses this individual greatly. I am very thankful that this person had compassion for the people here and was willing to be so generous. Because of this, it may be a while before you see any more pictures of me in the generator room with Roger and some of the missionaries. Here is one I took a few weeks ago.
Other than the tests and electricity, I don’t remember too much from this day since I am writing this a few days in arrears, but I do have a few things I want to write about that I forgot to write about before. There are some various stories, but they definitely add to the experience here.
For starters, there are always noises here. I am quite used to this from working in Chicago for many years, but the sounds here are quite different. For example, there are always animal noises at night. I don’t notice them when the power is on and we can run the air-conditioning, but I do notice them at night when the windows are open. The most common are dogs barking. Not too bad, but one night I woke up at 3:00AM to three dogs. One was obviously close to our house, but the other two were farther away. I heard one barking, then the second would bark, then the third. It was like they were barking as a way of constantly sending out a signal to let the other dogs know that they were still there. I was imagining a triangle. One dog would bark, then a second later, another would sound off, then the third. Then the pattern would change. Dog number one wouldn’t always go next. It was driving me nuts. Usually, this wouldn’t bother me, but the one dog was close and it was very loud. I thought, well, I could just get up and throw a rock against our metal gate which would make a loud bang and it would scare the dog enough to stop barking. So, I got up, grabbed my flashlight and headed outside. I was ticked, and this dog should be happy that I am humane enough not to want to hurt it. Well I did a little, but I knew enough to restrain myself. First, I looked over our gate to the right and shined my flashlight, then to the left. Nothing. I am thinking, “Where could this dog be?!?” He was too close and there is only one street. Yes, that’s where the dogs hang out. They aren’t tied up in the backyard like the States. For one, there aren’t backyards for the most part.
A minute later I hear that crazy barking again, and instinctively, following where the sound was coming from, I threw the light up in the air and across the street to find the dog standing on our neighbor’s roof. I have no idea how it got up there, especially since it has one blind eye. Then I just felt sorry for the dog, because here he is trying to chat it up and make some friends in the neighborhood. But, I didn’t want to go back into the house and listen to that barking either, so I made a little squeaking noise to call him over and he came running. Knowing that he cannot get in our gate, I just went back inside to the quietness of the night and fell asleep.
About an hour later I got woken up by a mess of pigs next door. We are next to an empty lot, and since it tends to have a few puddles of standing water, the pigs like to show up and slosh around while searching for food. I wouldn’t mind, but they drive me nuts with their squealing and snorting. I haven’t heard them for some time since, but every once in a while they show up and it always seems like it is about 4:00AM.
4:00AM is also about the time that the roosters think it is time to get up. Their internal clocks are messed up. I wouldn’t mind if they crowed at 5:00 when the sky actually starts to lighten up, but they think they need to sound their alarms a little early. They along with the dogs, pigs, and frogs (who sound like ducks) are all lucky I don’t have a BB gun. Seriously, the frogs sound like ducks. Many of us thought we were hearing ducks when we first got here, but it turns out that it is the frogs next door in the muddy water.
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Another difference here is that everything gets used to its end. No one sees a scratch on something and then tosses it. Everything gets used until there is no more possible use, then it gets used for something else. For example, the 5 gallon water jugs we use for drinking water look like someone grabbed a full jug, rolled it all the way down a rock quarry then drove over it with a dump truck. Don’t get me wrong, the water is clean inside and tastes great, but for those who are always affected by how things appear on the outside would probably not want to drink what it on the inside. I mean, these things are used and used so much that they sometimes are worn so much that they will have a small hole which lets air in. This prevents the jug from having suction causing them to leak on the floor. One night my roommate got up and found that half the jug had leaked over the kitchen floor. As I said, these jugs get used until the end. Once they are finished, I have seen people cut the top off and fill the bottom with dirt to be used as a flower pot. They then take the top (the funneled part), cap it and flip it upside down and fill it with dirt as well. I have seen these used for hanging flower pots. Below is a picture of our water cooler and one of the jugs on top.
Speaking of water coolers, one day we noticed something in the trap that catches spilled water. Something was wiggling. It turns out that we had so many mosquitoes in our place that they eventually found some standing water and laid eggs. There were mosquito larva swimming around in the trap. It was disgusting so I dumped it out, cleaned it, and now I have to keep a spoonful of salt in there to keep anything from wanting to hang around.
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