Today was a very “this is Africa” day. I woke up at 3:15, and 4:20. And 5:20. But then I got to take the dogs for a walk before work with Greg and saw the sun cresting Nkhoma mountain. I faceplanted (well, leg, hip, torso, forearm, basically everything-planted) on gravel as dog sprinted after a stray that got inside our fence. Turns out grass fences don’t keep dogs out or in very well. Next we discovered that our dogs could open our front door if it isn’t dead-bolted. So they bolted as Greg walked me to work, and he had to track them down asking locals and finally found them half a mile away. Our dogs are obsessed with goats at the moment, though they still love sprinting after chickens. I thought I would drop in to the hospital and meet a few people, show my face, then retreat home to settle, because it was only my second full day in town. Ten hours later, I learned a lot about our team and where I might be useful in the future. I am trying to be intentional about not taking on too much, which is good, because it’s only my second day here. Greg went into the city, that is, after finding out that our battery was dead and jumping it himself. He bought a new battery but ran into some cash flow issues since our international ATM expired while we were in the States and he had no idea about his domestic debit card pin, and didn’t have my debit card with him. All things worked out and he got home before dark, with bags of groceries which are nice because you can only eat peanut butter sandwiches 3 meals a day for so long. Like until you run out of bread or peanut butter. After I got home I had a brief crisis thinking that some friends from town were planning to come up, visit, and spend the night with us. Turns out that is happening night after next, which is good, because our rooms are filled with boxes and suitcases in various stages of unpack. Greg is being wonderful cooking dinner now (using our single-burner gas back-up stove, because even though we have power, we haven’t figured out how to hook up our multi-burner electric stove, rendering it rather useless.) Meanwhile, I am icing and elevating my ankle (turns out, walking 10,000 steps on a twisted ankle was not my brightest idea, and the compression bandage I rigged out of the elastic from my previously-favorite, now-irreparably-torn pair of capris just wasn’t cutting it. Well, all’s well that ends well, and I’m on my third cup of tea for the day, with all the promises of getting to bed early tonight. The stars are beautiful in this rural, mountain home, and I think the relaxed pace of life will suit us really well. Once we get around to actually settling into that pace.
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