It was cloudy and almost cool when I got up on Monday so I went running before work. It may seem like I go running a lot and you would think that I’m getting into super good shape here, but I don’t think that’s the case. Running is pretty much the only exercise that’s available to me (except for the yoga class). It’s so flat here that I don’t think I burn that many calories running. Certainly I stop running because of sweat and dehydration far before actually feeling tired.
Jaclyn bought a bicycle on Sunday so we were all able to ride into the office this morning to plan our week. We had a very long meeting with the three of us, Makame, and Madja, the ZMCP staff who are helping us with the mapping project. Madja is very quiet but I think she understands a lot more than she lets on. When you ask her to do something, she does exactly what you say, but no more and no less. As long as you are extremely specific, Madja is great. Makame, however, is a different story. It gives me a headache just thinking about how much harder he makes things. He has awful ideas which he thinks are good but you can’t convince him that his plans don’t make sense or won’t work. I had to tune him out during parts of our meeting because I was getting so fed up with him. It gave me time to upload all of my photos from the weekend though. Our meeting lasted for three hours and we didn’t even get through everything we wanted to talk about.
We asked Madja and Makame to call some health facilities that we wanted to visit this week and Madja was ready while Makame just sat there saying he was calling them. Tanya and I both wanted to strangle him. We spent the afternoon constantly checking up on their progress and arranging for the vehicles and such. Everyone else in the office went home well before we left at 4:30. I started getting a headache late in the afternoon and I think it was from dehydration, but I’m sure dealing with Makame didn’t help.
On the way home we stopped at the Diplomatic supermarket and our typical veggie stand and got some supplies to make vegetarian chili and biscuits for dinner. We got home at 5:30 and started making dinner right away because we were so hungry. Luckily the power stayed on all evening and we are able to enjoy our dinner. I think I’ve figured out the lucky charm to the power: as long as I remember to have my headlamp with me in the evenings the power stays on, but if I leave it in my room the power goes off and I have to find my way down the dark hallway to get my light. Always be prepared!
I was really exhausted after dinner. Since it gets dark at 6:30 I thought it was really late when I started feeling tired, but really it was 8:30 pm. I was falling asleep reading my book so I decided to just go to bed at 9:30.