Wow. It's July already. That's pretty crazy.
My legs are so sore from Sunday's hike. I'm fine as long as I keep
moving, but after 2 hours of sitting still during a lecture or language
class, when I get up I limp a bit.
I guess 8 hours of climbing up and down a mountain will do that.
Funnily enough, it's just my quads and my calves that feel the burn ...
ha! the power just went out. I am now typing by kerosene lamp, how
oddly macintosh-quaint, (to skew the phrase microsoft-rustic coined by
my favorite fanfic author Melissa Good).
I thought it might be a good blog idea to describe my daily routine
here during training:
5am - the roosters began crowing, which coincides nicely with my
bladder starting to talk to me
5.20 – my first alarm goes off, I groan, roll over and shut it off
5.25 – my second alarm goes off, I groan, roll over and shut it off and
then try to keep my eyes open
5.30 – my third alarm goes off. This alarm is my cell phone, and it's
on the table across the room. I fumble around with my mosquito net,
trying desperately to go under and not through it, and stumble across
the room to turn it off. Today's stumble was particularly stumbly due
to the relaxed state of my overused quads and calves. Ouch.
This is the time when I get to make a decision about whether to get up
and get on with it or hit the snoozer. I have three alarms because I
like being able to check the time if I wake up in the night, so I keep
my watch in my bed with me. The watch alarm does not have a snooze
button. The mobile phone snooze is 9 minutes long.
Anyone else ever tried to live with a 9 minute snooze?
It doesn't work very well for me. It's just long enough for me to
really fall back asleep. Normally I rely on snoozes to gradually wake
me up with every 5 or 6 minute interval between alarms. 9 minutes?
Sheesh. By that time, I'm back on the beaches of Thailand eating soya
ice cream while watching tropical fish swim by in the air. (Mefloquine
dreams have been pretty good to me). I'm in no mood to drag myself out
of bed to brave the latrine.
Right, so if I choose to snooze, then I snooze and get up around 6. If
I choose to go for it, I hit up the latrine (have t.p. will travel) and
then come back to my room for a little bit of yoga. I sweep my floor
first – it's amazing how much dirt accumulates in one day! – and then
set up my 'yoga mix' to play on random and get on with the first 15
minutes or so of the primary series.
6.00am If I'm yoga-ing, I'll be finishing up with some calisthenics and
then savasana just about now.
6.15am I wrap myself in a pagne and throw on a t-shirt to go have some
petit dejeuner (breakfast). This generally consists of freeze-dried
coffee with powdered milk and sometimes powdered chocolate, 5 pieces of
bread with peanut butter, and a banana. It's yummy, but it's not great
at getting me through the 6 hours before my next meal.
6.30am This is a good time for my first bucket shower of the day. I
head out to the lovely shower stall, clean myself, my face, my teeth,
and my underwear.
This is the time to clean my sous-vetements (underwear). Because
underwear is seen as so private and embarrassing, it can't be washed or
hung to dry with other clothing. Most Togolese women will wash their
underwear when they take their shower. I've been trying to do it too.
It seems to make sense. Except that I've gotten behind because I
haven't been able to wash undies every shower due to time constraints
or because I've got a full line in my room already, etc. I'm sure I'll
catch up at some point.
ooh...
my sister just carried my bucket out to the shower... I'm off to get
clean. I'll have to finish my daily routine another day!
Music: Vas – At Siva's Feet
Book: Staying Healthy In Togo (the SHIT book) Peace Corps Togo Health
Handbook.
Picture: A and I hoofing it up Pic d'Agou (L in back right)
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