Steak and fries.

SO, I had thought earlier this week I would go south or north, either to Bohicon or to Natitingou, to visit some other volunteers, use decently fast internet, and get some other business taken care of. I’ve also not had any vegetables or fruits to speak of for the last three weeks I’ve stayed in village, so was hoping to pick up some of that, too. Well, my plans to go north were foiled when the taxi driver I always take is on vacation. He always saves me the front seat, which is really quite comfortable. The thought of sitting crammed in the back seat, or the front seat for that matter, of a standard bush taxi (8 people in a car made for 4 or 5) in this heat for five to six hours just made the trip SO not worth it! Going south was always an option because one of my work partners goes down there a lot, and had said he would be going this week so I could catch a ride with him. I can also catch a bus going south, which is infinitely more comfortable than a taxi and much faster! Well, the volunteer who lives there who I would stay with has had her water out for awhile and has no idea when she’ll get it back. So I decided that if I got the free ride there from my work partner I would go but wouldn’t pay for the trip there… and that never happened.

It all worked out well, anyway, because of my last post – I needed to do some crazy amount of running around to get those papers scanned and sent in, so it was good that I was here! However, I decided a few days ago that I was FOR SURE going to Savalou today. It’s their market day, and you can usually find vegetables there. There is a bank in Savalou, too, and I was running low on cash, and there is one REALLY good restaurant that makes European-style food. Expensive, but considering how little I’ve spent this month and how little I will spend again next month, it was worth it.

I’d been looking forward to that meal for days. I knew what I wanted – a steak and fries. Now, when you imagine a Beninese steak, imagine a very tough cut, hard to chew, dry… that’s what you get. Oh, how my standards have lowered – it was SO SO SO SO good. They drown it in a pepper sauce that is so so so so good.. I also indulged in a salad which was great and a glass of red wine. An expensive lunch, but oh, so worth it. I met up with a couple of other volunteers there and we had a great time catching up, chatting about projects and life and it was overall a great time!

I scored big, too, when it turns out the health center director was going to Savalou today for a training –so I got a ride both ways! No stinky crammed in taxi for me! I did my bank run and also found carrots, cucumbers, eggplant, and pineapple! I’m set for a few days of healthiness, anyways!

Now I’m back home and it is just too hot to go out on a bike ride. I think I probably ate a bit too much to be terribly active in this heat anyway. In other news, I’ve been here 19 months today! And today was the first time someone asked me my age (one of the volunteers I had lunch with) and I had to say ‘thirty’. It was a little weird. But cool. Haha.

Peace, Krissy

Other things that should be easy and aren’t: yesterday after posting it took me over an hour just to change my credit card information online for my antivirus software that was about to expire. Geesh. And now I’ve been trying to post THIS entry for over 40 minutes with no luck… yet.