C'mon meeting, let's get started!!!

From Saturday 16/8/08

I haven't written any blog entries in a long time, so I decided to write one while I wait for a meeting to start. Right now it's 8p, and I'm super tired! I really just want to go to bed! This was a long, emotional week. For a good part of the week I felt unmotivated and depressed. I just felt like I wasn't getting anything done. I talked to other people, and I realized that we all feel the same way, so I guess that is just apart of the PC lifestyle. Today was a great day! All week long I've really had no cell phone because we haven't had very much sun. No sun=not being able to charge my solio=no cell phone. I couldn't believe it, but there is no where to charge cell phones in this whole village! Today I decided to ride my bike down to Steven's village to charge my phone. I couldn't call him to let him know that I was coming, so I just sorta showed up. It started raining around lunch time (aka 2:30p), so I waited for it to let up a little, and then I road home. I don't think that I have ever ridden my bike so fast before!!! I just kept turning around to look at the big wall of water that was slowly coming toward me. I made it back to my village, greeted everyone, ran to the bitik for food, and back into my house just as a huge storm hit. It was really nice because no one bothered me for almost three hours.
During the storm I actually got to talk to my mom for the first time in about one month. That was really nice. I ended up talking to her for almost one hour, and pretty much emptying my battery in the process. So much for having a cell phone. Oh well, it was really nice to talk to my mom.
For dinner I made a chicken salad sandwich. My mom sent me some canned chicken, so I made one amazing sandwich. It was the chicken, mayo, onion, paprika, tomato, black pepper, AND ranch dressing mix. I put all of this onto bread and it was amazing! MY propane tank ran out of gas a couple of weeks ago, so I've pretty much just been living off bread and butter or bread and mayo. I still get a cooked lunch from my host family, so I have plenty to eat during the day. When we get paid again next month I'll be able to get another tank and cook all of the yummy looking food that I have waiting in my house.
Right now everyone is walking to the mosque (well the men) to pray. Women are not allowed in the mosque, and must pray under a covered porch. Most women don't go. Actually to be honest with you I think some of the women just skip certain prayers. There are some women that I know that I have never seen pray once, and I spend a lot of time with them. I think that they just make up the prayers that they missed at the end of the day or something. The women that do pray all five times a day just pray at home. The men never seem to miss going to the mosque though. Even the old blind men go because they are escorted there all five times by one of the younger people. Even on days like today when it is pouring outside, everyone always goes.
Ramada starts September 2nd, and I've decided to fast with everyone else in the village. If everyone else isn't going to eat during the day, I might as well join in. Everyone in the village knows that I have decided to fast, and they are all really excited. Really it will not be that bad because we are only not allowed to eat from sunrise to sundown. Once the sun goes away it'll be chow down time! I've been told that we will rise around 5am, pig out, and then have our dinner late in the evening. The part that will be the hardest is the fact that we are not even supposed to drink any water. I usually drink a ton of water during the day. I'm going to try, but I may end up cheating a little bit on the water. Does it count if you just put the water in your mouth, and then spit it out? I asked someone about this, and they just sort of laughed. I'm serious though, so I will have to find out.
I'm getting really tired, and it's pitch black, so I'm going to stop writing. All week we had the moon getting larger as it moved across the sky slowly becoming a full moon. This is my favorite part of the month because you do not need a flashlight to see outside at night because everything is illuminated. Tonight when I take my "shower" aka dumping cup fulls of water on my body, I won't have to worry about bringing a flashlight out with me too.
Thanks for reading my blog. I'm super tired, so hopefully this meeting will not happen, or at least it will be quick and we won't fight about the same thing as last week. HA HA, it's a meeting run by men so that is exactly what will happen.