At 6:30 AM, the temperature was 81 °F, and I suffered through a 4.76-mile run. I drank two full water bottles upon my return. You know you’re in the tropics when … . While I was rehydrating and the rest of the family was asleep, I had a lengthy and friendly conversation with Faith, an MPhil student studying Mathematics. I learned what to expect for power outages (they are sure to come), about government support for education (not enough), and living at the all-male Commonwealth residence (it can get rowdy).
On the whole, rain in Africa is more welcome and more meaningful than in Michigan, and we experienced our first rain this afternoon. It was unexpected for January. In total, about 50 drops.
Each day brings a bit more progress in our quest to sort out the flat. Catherine and I did more archaeology today. Seems like each “expedition” leads to at least one injury. This time, she sliced her finger on a blade from the food processor we unearthed. Fortunately, it was not a bad injury. One Band Aid and a little Neosporin later, and she was back at it.
We wanted to make (yet another) trip to the store, but almost everything was closed. Instead, we took an afternoon drive past the school that has an opening for Catherine, the clinic that we’ll use if we need some medical assistance, and a bookstore. (As expected, nothing was open.)
Sadly, we blew through our 6-GB data allowance on Surfline, meaning that we have only cell-phone-based internet at the moment. I’ll buy more data tomorrow. And, we’ll be more careful about watching YouTube videos online. (I’m looking at you, Mark!)
—Matt
