I love talking to people, finding out what’s important to them.  I love being out and about, wandering around, wondering about what I see.

However …

Right now I’m alone.  I’m in my room.  It’s 2:00 pm.  Just me and the air conditioning.

This morning around 1:00, the air conditioner stopped.  No electricity.  A minute later it restarted.  This process repeated five times, with different timings, over the next hour.

I was scared … relieved … scared …  However irrational the fear was, it was there.  If the rest of my night was attempting to sleep in a 28 degrees Celsius room, I would survive.  I’d drink lots of water.

One time when the air conditioner said goodbye, I gave it the finger.  How nasty of me.  Another time, a minute after the “21” light went out, I pointed to the unit near the ceiling.  Ten seconds later I had aircool again!  I decided that I’ll try this with human beings.  I’ll just point at them and they’ll do what I want them to do.  Easy peasy.

During the day yesterday, I decided to leave the air conditioning on when I was out … at 27.  “I’ll be kind to the Auberge owners, cut down on their electricity bill.”  I was forgetting about one part of the human equation – me!  I’d guess, even without the wee hours interruption, it takes 4-6 hours to bring the temperature down from 27 to 21.  That’s a chunk of time offering sporadic sleep. 

I hereby declare to take better care of myself.

***

I imagine this is of marginal interest to you but mild diarrhea is my current companion.  Another good reason to be in my room.  This is far better than the pain of constipation, my usual bedfellow when I travel to Africa.  How strange this roaming life is.

***

The electricity just went out again, along with the coolness.  What’s there to be done?  Niet.  On I go into the mysteries.

An hour ago, I looked up The Weather Network, to see if the predicted storm was really coming.  The radar map precipitation function wasn’t working but what I saw on my phone was this:

Sometimes the obvious escapes me

I’m in Africa!  I’m a long ways from what I know.  And I am fine

***

And then, just when I thought the whole world was hot and dry, this happens:

Life sends us miracles