Feb 7th.
(Yes, it has taken four days for internet connection. ED.)
Last night we moved our bed
into the courtyard and slept under a starry sky. It is amazing how
much light a full moon gives (or reflects)! It certainly made it more
bearable at 26C. The moon disappeared behind the rocky hills behind
the house at around four and that made quite the difference. We’ll
continue sleeping outside under the stars since the bedroom is just
way too hot: 32 C-ish.
Twice Henk went outside
(with a flashlight) to look for the missing cat Hazel: she went
missing four days ago. She belongs to this home. A couple of times
after dark we have heard her meowing outside one of our high up
screened wall openings (“windows”) and Henk went hunting.
Never saw her.
Andrea was almost in tears
this morning: someone, somewhere supposedly had declared this a
‘national holiday to remember leprosy’. She had worked very hard
into the evening to have material ready to be recorded and the
Chadians were taking time off. It took some phoning and text
messaging to the capital to sort things out and have everybody back
at work!
This afternoon the water
tank’s steel frame is getting its final touches before the tank’s
move from the old platform to the new one can be completed. A welder
has been found with some equipment to enforce the whole installation
with rebar. Tomorrow Henk will work on disconnecting the old
pipes and rerouting them – easier said than done with the very
limited supply in tools and parts…As a matter of fact Henk had to
reduce the acid mixture in the generator’s battery, clean the
cables and instruct Said not to use a copper wire to create an arc at
the negative side of the battery (yup, the side that produces
Oxygen!): this was supposed to help with a sticky starter. Thankfully
no mishaps so far.
Coming home at lunchtime
Henk had to sidestep a large ram that had its throat slit! It will
make someone nice meat no doubt. It was a bit smelly in the afternoon
when they were burning off the hairs of the skin…
Being here makes us feel
very disconnected from the big world out there. Our internet access
is very limited so even checking news events is not an option.
What our computer does provide is a Scrabble game which we play many
times, especially since it gets dark shortly after 6 p.m. Once in a
while we are able to find a movie within the computer’s memory that
we enjoy - it was Bucket List the other nightJ
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