And today - what will it bring? There was a good omen this morning... At about 3:30 AM I awoke sweating and heard an unusual sound - i.e. not the Call to Prayer, not a rooster (that's at 4:30AM), not booming base, a mouse or mosquito. Water? A leak? Naaaah - nothin' in the pipes. Wait! I recognize that sound from long ago... It IS water! Up to find the source - a little trickle coming into the toilet tank. I turn on the tap - no - not enough pressure built of for that apparently. But I am hopeful and go back to bed. My jury-rigged fix to the inlet valve that pops off when the water comes back has held. God bless dental floss for all it's various uses.
Around 6:15 I awake for good to the staccato sounds of "who-who-who-who" sounding for all the world like monkeys, but there are no monkeys here. It would make life interesting, but I think it's just the doves. It was remarkably quiet last night - one of the blessings to no power, but on the weekends the clubs just ratchet up their generators. No so last night. Almost creepy in fact - especially since I was finishing a mystery where a woman is buried alive... so then I HAD to finish to see her rescued. Mary Higgins Clark always rescues the good guy at the end. Why do I read such things? Because it's better than the constant barrage of books about the 20 years of war atrocities in Northern Uganda that seem to proliferate around here. This a least is fiction.
Ah! And there IS water for real - in the pipes! Issuing forth in a beautiful clear stream from the faucet no less! Quick! Fill the jerricans! No make coffee first - then jerricans! Coffee - jerricans - coffee jerricans. Both are critical. Coffee wins. Wash something - clothes - yes - one never knows how long the water will last. My nightgown, which was clean a few days ago looks like I wrestled with a pig.
Well - not quite, but certainly looks like I slept in the back of a truck - this due just to the ambient dust cloud that floats around like fog, gradually permeating and settling into everything: sheets, mosquito nets, clothing, hair, computers. And that's why we like rainy season. At least we are not walking through a red cloud of dust. Onward...
Today - planning for the pilgrimage to Kampala for the tooth. I so wish there were alternatives. But next week is a weeklong budget meeting for my organization and we (Betty - the other PCV with LABE in Arua) are supposed to be there... I've been wanting to go to Arua (aka West Nile Region). I hear there are wonderful Congolese fabrics there in the market and there we will travel as a group thank goodness. So I suppose there is always a price to pay somewhere - this one may be a trip to Kampala alone. It's my trial by fire - solo travel on the Kampala bus. If I can manage a storm at sea, certainly I can manage a bus ride?
More later.
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