Harmaton hell

So I have been at post now for three days. After a 7 hour bush taxi ride here, it was nice to arrive at my house. My bed was finished and I bought a mattress in Lomé so I had a wonderful nights' rest in my house. On Tuesday I woke up to be very overwhelmed with how much unpacking I had to do. I don't have any other furniture other than my bed and a table my homologue is letting me use, so I didn't really have any place to put my stuff. I at least took all out all of my clothes and made my room have some semblance of a bed room. It is tiny but nice. I also cooked a nice breakfast for myself.

I met with my homologue and I biked around Niamtougou. After lunch I decided I was going to start decorating my house. The walls to that point were just this baby blue color with lots of bumps and holes in it. I brought an old day planner with me that had a bunch of nature pictures in it, so I cut all of them out and put them on the wall. I also put up the glow-in-the-dark stars my mom gave me before I left. Makes it look just like home!

Yesterday, I really had nothing to do. I was having some electrical work done on my house, so I just had to wait around until the electrician came. This was the first real day that I got the idea that other volunteers had been saying all along. That I really need to change my idea of what is work. If I do just one thing during the day, it should be concerned an accomplishing day. Just a lot of down time that I need to get used to having.

This morning I decided I was going to bike the 20 miles out to visit my neighbor Alex. So I got around mile 17 and I see Alex biking towards me. She had the same thought as I did. So we turned around and biked the 17 miles back to my town. We are spending the day in Niamtougou. We are going to try out our cooking skills.

So one thing I hadn't been missing since last winter was the dryness. The harmaton has made everything really dry and dusty. My nosebleeds hopefully won't get any worse. The air is this gray color and you can't really see that far in the distance. But I will take this dryness any day over the humidity in Lomé.

I hope everyone is getting in the Christmas spirit. The bar next to my hose has been playing traditional Christmas music and really loud levels so I can sit in my house and hear it. It is making it feel more like Christmas, considering there is no snow or anything that looks like Christmas. I think I might put up the Christmas decoration my mom sent me!

Well I hope everyone is doing well back home. Please keep writing!