Junie's Online Thoughts
Friday, May 23, 2003
The ants will be the death of us, I swear. Yesterday, I had washed some underwear and hung it up in the clothesline in the bathroom. (Both because Antoinette doesnt iron my undies and I fear for the fly eggs to get into my skin, and because of any stray ants outside.) I pulled them off the line and brought them into the bedroom...and discovered that they were covered in ants. ARgh!!! My precious shopko underwear!!! I killed about a 100 of them, with the grey undies being the most tasty, I suppose, since most ants were on that one. I found a few more in the kitchen...death to all of them. Then later that night, I felt a little sick last night, so stayed home while Jeremy went out with some friends. While I was cleaning and putzing around the house, I found, guess what? More ants. This time there were streams of them up the bathroom walls by the sink, and tons of them in the shower. Lord knows why...what is there to eat in there??? I poured some borox powder on the ones on the floor, made a paste and put it by the clothesline, and poured bleach on the rest of the ants.
This morning there were still ants in the bathroom, although less of them. When we got done with the shower, I was in the hallway, brushing my teeth when I heard Jeremy yell. Ow! Theres an ant on me! Argh, help! Apparently, there were ants all over our bathtowels, which were hanging on the bathroom clothesline, and they were all over Jeremy, including some very sensitive spots. He jumped back in the shower, and I fetched him an antihistamine. I shook out his towel, and there were tons more...falling to the floor....to their death beneath my thumb. ARgh. I remember the early days when we just had about 20 big ants....who knew that those would be the good old days before the onslaught of thousands of biting, underwear eating tiny ants.....
We are headed out of town today for the Volta. We're going up to the dam, and then to meet Heather on Saturday to either visit a beach city with a castle and lots of birds...or one of the waterfalls. Back on Monday...sorry for folks who wrote me emails...my hotmail is acting weird, so I probably wont respond until Monday....I didnt forget about you....
Thursday, May 22, 2003
Last night we all went to Alliance Francais to see Nirgendwo in Afrika (nowhere in Africa), a German movie made a few years back. At first I was iffy about going, but Im glad we did. The story followed a wealthy Jewish family living in Germany in 1937. As the Nazis became more hostile, they fled to a remote village in Kenya. The man, already there, worked on a farm. The wife hated Africa and at first resisted all adjustments to the culture and language. Their young daughter loved it, and learned the language, culture and people around her. They struggled with culture shock, challenges against their marriage, internment camps near Nairobi, and the conflicts of always being an outsider...both in Germany and in Africa. It was really good and gave me some food for thought. Like Jeremy, I dont usually like the white person in Africa movies, but this one was well done.
Steph and Sean came back from their trip, so we had the car again. Erin drove us to Alliance, then we all went to Chesters/Savannah to dance. Currently there is a drumming ban until a big festival in June, but Chester's is one of the few places that play music. We danced for a bit, then Erin, Jeremy and I went home.
Today we're off to Makola to look for gifts...gotta start packing the bags with those since Jeremy can dump a bunch of them in MN. Im out for now...
Last night we all went to Alliance Francais to see Nirgendwo in Afrika (nowhere in Africa), a German movie made a few years back. At first I was iffy about going, but Im glad we did. The story followed a wealthy Jewish family living in Germany in 1937. As the Nazis became more hostile, they fled to a remote village in Kenya. The man, already there, worked on a farm. The wife hated Africa and at first resisted all adjustments to the culture and language. Their young daughter loved it, and learned the language, culture and people around her. They struggled with culture shock, challenges against their marriage, internment camps near Nairobi, and the conflicts of always being an outsider...both in Germany and in Africa. It was really good and gave me some food for thought. Like Jeremy, I dont usually like the white person in Africa movies, but this one was well done.
Steph and Sean came back from their trip, so we had the car again. Erin drove us to Alliance, then we all went to Chesters/Savannah to dance. Currently there is a drumming ban until a big festival in June, but Chester's is one of the few places that play music. We danced for a bit, then Erin, Jeremy and I went home.
Today we're off to Makola to look for gifts...gotta start packing the bags with those since Jeremy can dump a bunch of them in MN. Im out for now...
Tuesday, May 20, 2003
I forgot to mention that Jeremy is going home in June. Not Atlanta home, but U.S. home. He has a Fulbright conference in D.C. and wants to go, as well as spend some time with his family in MN. He will be gone nearly three weeks, and leaves the day before our 5 year anniversary. I think I will go visit Heather in the Volta region, and then go to Togo with Erin. Theres been a bit of trouble there lately with the elections, and several times they have closed the border to Ghana. It wont be bad...I dont think its unsafe or I wouldnt go. Its just an inconvenience to reach the border only to hear, oh, it will be closed for two weeks so you cant return home. I think the trip home will be really good for Jeremy...the only other time he will be home is in October for my sister's wedding...otherwise, he will be in Ghana until next late spring. He also will have a shopping list for me and us and him...things that we could really use and wish we'd packed....and so its good that he can pick them up during his stay.
Saw two movies today that are part of the film festival with the Goethe Institute and Alliance Francais. I forgot I'd seen the first one already...a really confusing, racist movie about a corrupt policeman during the colonial period on French West Africa. Even worse, no one realized they had to switch on the subtitles until there was only ten minutes left of the movie. Everyone was very confused. The second movie was better...a documentary about the great son of the main opposition guy fighting against the German colonialists in Tanzania. He eventually killed himself, and the Germans cut off his head and brought it, with many other heads and artifacts, to Germany. Sixty years later, the head of Mkwawa was returned to Tanzania, but theres no guarantee that its actually his head. So he goes to museums, talks to elders, visits the hospital basement where they still have 500 skulls stacked in cupboards. The film is told from the perspective of the great grandson, instead of the German filmmaker and that makes for a better film. The director was there and answered a bunch of good questions, too. I left before the third movie, when I learned that there were no subtitles. Cant do that again...I couldnt even catch more than three phrases in French during the first movie.
Im off for the bank...thanks Daver for making me laugh.....congrats Marta and Dan on their pregnancy.....thanks Mom for the mail.
Monday, May 19, 2003
Argh. I am soooo very frustrated. So a week ago, my friend, Vicki, long lost schoolteacher, calls me out of the blue and apologizes for not calling me sooner. She said she had more problems with her leg and then her fiancee had a heart attack and died. She'd taken some time off of work but she was back now. I said I was sorry and that I had enrolled in French classes and I should have called sooner as well. We agreed to meet on Monday (today) to get a mineral and some food. I hauled a heavy ass bag full of school supplies to give her, and looked forward to picking up the dishes I'd left there last time to do the bead class. I paid 8,000 cedis for a taxi..and found the entire side of the school boarded up and EMPTY. Ok, great. I asked some adults where the hell everyone was and they said the school was closed and the teachers werent there. You dont say.....
I paid another 8,000 cedis with my hefty bag and went home. I called Vicki...um, how are you? Im fine, she said. Well, I went to the school to meet you at 3 and no one was there. Did you forget that you told me to meet you there? Oh, no, she said. I didnt forget. Well, obviously you did if your butt is sitting at home and my butt spent 16,000 cedis and a half an hour meeting you at the place YOU told me to meet you. We tenatively rescheduled for next week..this time she can come to my house instead of me trekking halfway across the city to find that she didnt show up. ARGH!!!!!!!!
Grumble...grumble.....Im still so sad that Heidi left. She had given me a pair of earrings before she left and when I went into the house to cry after she left, I realized one was gone. I spent the afternoon retracing my steps and asking the fairies to help me find my earring and to put it in a place where I would find it later. Before supper I was straightening and guess what I found WAY under the desk in the bedroom? The earring! I was happy....Thanks jewelry fairies!
Had lunch today (before the Vicki fiasco) with Sheila and Heather and Jeremy. Sheila is leaving in 11 days, Heather in five weeks. Time is accelerating so fast....I can barely get my head on straight.
Going home to work out. Must let out this steam......and give myself a time out where I wont yell at anyone.
Sunday, May 18, 2003
I hate goodbyes. Oof. That was sad.
