We fired the maid. Already. Two weeks in and she's gone. But we have a new one, methinks, coming here tomorrow. Long story short, but the cleaning lady (aka maid) didn't actually clean. We don't know what she was doing, really. Well, she did wash our clothes. But everything else was for the dogs. And then she burned Denise's brand new dress with an iron, and that was that.
I have a thing about water. I think I might, in fact, be in the wrong continent for this partial phobia of mine, but....I required my roommates to finally get a water filter. The deed is done. Similarly, I might be on the wrong continent because I get car sick super easily. Super duper easily. My roommates were driving around on Saturday, running errands, and the way the roommate drove his car made me insist on leaving the car for fear of puking all over the dashboard. But I think this is the only way to get around in Africa, soo......yeah. But oddly enough, I have no problems on motorcycles or moto taxis. In fact, they can make my nausea go away after a bad car ride. What's up with that??
There's nothing like napping and watching cartoon on the weekends....wait a minute, what continent am I on again?! Sometimes it's hard to remember I'm in Africa because, well, I live like a Westerner. Nothing to be proud about, definitely, but the living circumstances for expats here, it seems, is that we are expected to have TVs and guards and maids in nice houses. I feel like after a long, stressful, busy week at work teaching 5 different classes, I almost deserve to coagulate on the sofa for an hour or four. And considering I do walk home up the hills from work, I think I deserve a little bit of pampering. Who knows - maybe I'm just not cut out to rough it that hard.
Saturday evening was disappointing. We went to a place called Common Wealth for some BBQ buffet and a movie (because that's what the ads said), and neither happened. The movie was pushed to Tuesday, without us knowing....and the BBQ required a reservation? Sometimes I don't understand how things here function. And oftentimes I feel like people here will lie just to please you, and also because they don't want to get in trouble. Well, thanks...but at least they apologized for the confusion, and they offered us a free meal next time. I think we'll take them up on that.
But at least Denise's friends came over and we went to have a mini dance party on the patio. It was lovely, and they were a lot of fun. They told me I had a black woman's body, and I responded with, "I know. My man is part black, so I shake my booty proudly." That was received very well in this crowd.
Saturday morning I went for a jog in the neighborhood. It's a pretty nice neighborhood with a lot of expats, so you'd think this is not abnormal...but trust me, it is. I guess I might have picked an uncommon area to run around, but it's open and public and safe, so I thought nothing of it. But good grief, do I get stared at! Now normally, when I'm walking around, it's more like a cock of the head and perplexed expression. But if I'm jogging, it seems like jaws literally drop and business comes to a screeching halt to see the super white girl huff by their living space. So while I was jogging down the hill, I went past a pack of children, thinking nothing of it. After a little bit, however, I felt followed. I turned to see the pack of children now running and laughing right behind me, as if I were the Pied Piper, with the mice, only without the death aspect. Laughing children keeping up with me saying, "Hello, teacher!" "How are you?!" and "Give me money!" is not what I'm used to for my jogs. I started looking around for the camera crew, honestly.
Yesterday I woke up and did some yoga while chatting with The Man. I really need to amp up my exercise - because now I'm sore! Unbelievable...
That's all of my thoughts of interest for now.
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