December 26, 2013 Christmas has come and gone. It passed quietly and quickly. There was more electricity for Christmas Eve and Christmas. Instead of the electricity turning off at 10:30, it was on until 11-11:15 pm. That was pretty exciting. It sparked the night owl in me, though, and I stayed up way too late, long after the electricity was finished. Christmas lunch/dinner consisted of some rice from my neighbors. Then I had cookies, popcorn, tea, and homemade peanut butter for my own little “fête” (party) in my house, alone. I watched some “How I Met Your Mother” and “New Girl” and laughed out loud until the early morning as I pushed the thoughts of the cabin and family out of my mind. Sadly Santa didn’t find me. I hung out in the Marché (market) most of yesterday afternoon since Wednesday is market day in Mayo-Darlé. Every Wednesday Mayo-Darlé fills up with people from neighboring villages and nearby Nigeria. After some rice and conversation with my neighbor, I went to watch the end of a soccer game. Overall, a normal day here in Mayo-Darlé, except when I got home I called my family in 10 minute intervals for 50 cents each time and ate a lot of sweets. Christmas was too quiet and I missed my family. I woke up this morning, happy the day passed, but still sad I didn’t get to be with my family up at the cabin. Life is surely different here. Sometimes I just stop and think to myself, “Yep, this is life.” Today I thought it quite a few times. I woke up kind of late (for here anyways, like 9:30 am) and made some Nescafe. Decided I needed to stop listening to A Hometown Country Christmas. I switched up the music for the first time in a long time, maybe since I’ve been here. I was comfortable in my pajamas but reluctantly decided it was too late to be seen in my pajamas. I wiped my face off, sprayed my hair with dry shampoo and called it good. Yep, I’m lookin’ good. After getting dressed and opening the door to the usual crowd of kids, they came inside to hang out, draw, and speak Fulfulde. Since there is a break from school for the next week or so, the crowd is bigger than usual. My guy friends came over, kicked the kids out (sometimes a welcome part of other grown-ups coming over) and looked at photos with me. They were hungry so I offered them some food and tea (everyone drinks “chai” tea here despite it being 100 degrees). I prepared some eggs and they were appalled I didn’t have Maggi (cube of salt and other unknown things), tomatoes, and onions. They looked like they were struggling to get the eggs down. I couldn’t help to laugh and think of Megs telling me how to make things, making me meals, and laughing with me when I mess up meals back home. After a lot of laughing, joking, looking at photos, and speaking bad English and bad French I needed a break. I shut my door to kids saying, “Maureen, ouvre la porte” (open the door), made myself some more chai and read for who knows how long. Time is irrelevant, unless I have some sort of meeting to go to; I rarely wear and look at my watch. When I was ready for more socializing, I opened my door. Within minutes there were kids coming in and asking me what I was doing. I grabbed my garbage and gathered my dirty dishes and headed to my neighbors compound, where the well is. The group of kids helped me carry everything over there and one took my trash to the garbage pit area. I washed my dishes as the kids tried to get every little crumb of chocolate out of a cup and the now empty chocolate powder container. I couldn’t help but laugh, but also be a little worried since they were drinking well water. Then, I realized they don’t have a weak American stomach like I do and they will probably be just fine. After a few minutes, I noticed they were rinsing some carrots off. There were some carrots in my garbage sack. I thought they had gone bad after being gone for a few days. As they were munching away on the carrots I had long forgotten about, I couldn’t help but feel guilty. I had thought those were done for and was being picky about the food in my kitchen. As I wash my dishes, I think about the carrots I threw away, all the food that goes to waste back home, and how fortunate I have been in my life. I feel grateful but also terribly guilty. The kiddos helped me finish my dishes. They grabbed some plastic sacks from the ground, balled them up in their hands, dipped it in the water, rubbed it against the soap and scrubbed my dishes with it. It was actually pretty resourceful but I was also thinking of all the germs on those sacks. When we finished washing dishes and carrying water to my house, I gave them each a sucker (thanks Mom – they love them) and sent them on their way as I warmed up the soup I made for Christmas Eve. There is no refrigeration here and there is no microwave here. I simply turned the gas stovetop on to heat up the leftover soup from Christmas Eve. I had covered it and left it for a day and a half. Usually this would mean the soup is meant for the trashcan but after that whole carrot session, I definitely wasn’t going to waste the soup. I also couldn’t help but think of my dad. I could hear him saying, “Ah, that’s fine. I’ll eat that” when my sisters, mom, or I go to throw expired/old food away back home. He has a good attitude about not wasting food that us girls always give him a hard time for. Now, I have nothing to say on that subject. As I’m sitting in my living room typing this, drinking tea, waiting for my bathwater to warm up, I notice a lot of activity in the corner where the spider lives (one of many). I get closer and see a very subdued wasp wriggling around in the web as the spider quickly wraps him up. I sit and watch for a while. Don’t worry; I took a video so I can show you the impressive work. Yep, I live with spiders working in all corners of my house, trying to pretend I don’t notice them. My neighbor comes and asks me for some of my hot water. My bath is now half the pot of water I started with. I decide I need to learn to conserve water anyway since we are entering the dry season. I take a bath with half a bucket of water and feel surprising clean after. I think by the end of this I will fully understand the joke my brother-in-law told me before I left. When a pessimist looks at a half glass of water, he says, “that glass is half empty.” When an optimist looks at the same glass of water, he says, “that glass is half full.” And when a Peace Corps Volunteer looks at the glass of water, she says, “I could take a bath in that!” Just give me a few more months and it probably won’t be a joke. Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading Catching Fire – the second book in the Hunger Games – but I feel like a rebel when I stay up past 10:30 pm when the electricity is cut off. Now that it is midnight and I just had a call from Megs, I think I better head to bed. Not to mention, the longer I stay up the more times I have to use the latrine in the dark. One of my least favorite things to do.