Wednesday, January 23, 2013

nothing like a good castration . . .

I am sitting on Bry's couch right now listening to Koutchala and another guy cut up 2 of the mango trees that used to be in Kadar's front yard.  I helped them push one of the trees over earlier.  How does one cut up a tree in Togo without a chainsaw?  with a machete.

I woke up saturday morning to my neighbors digging latrines.  life never ceases to amaze me

So, I told Kadar last week that i wanted to get my Tadji castrated.  he is friends with the vet.  So, 650 friday morning the vet was on my doorstep, I may or may not have been awake.  Anyway, 3 of us pinned my cat to the courtyard while the vet did his thing.  he wore latex gloves, which initially impressed me.  but the gloves kept getting bunched up, so it took him like 5 tries to tie off each testicle.  Tadji was not impressed.  the razor blade did not seem to be overly sharp either.  tadji is more subdued now, but otherwise indefatigable.

just remembering that story enough to type it up caused me pain

Monday was another first.  I had to make an emergency run into Kara, so Kadar offered to take me on his moto.  we left nampoch at like 730, went to kara, and came back.  i got home around 1830.  later, i calculated that i did about 125 miles on a moto that day.  plus 2000 mg of ibeprofin.  

road work is serious now.  they built detours around all the bridges between here and manga.  when Kadar and I went to Kara, we had to pull off the road for a convoy of dump trucks.  Going through the dust cloud in the wake of one of those trucks is nearly suicidal, as another guy on a moto found out.  Im still not sure how he saw the next truck

Harmattan is ending.  again.  instead of a nice cold wind at night, its calm.  which means i wake up and my room is 90 degrees and outside is 75.  the heat feels closer, like its trying to crawl into my chest or cling to my skin

i have a new solar charger! my 3rd.  after my second one died, i was not really crazy about replacing it.  until i realized that i could use one to charge my nook.  now, i am very happy.  until it breaks
  
in the past 2 weeks, 3 kids in villages around me have gotten a bad headache, then died.  sometimes, i wonder if people here would mind paying higher taxes, or taxes in general, if they had access to a healthcare system that, despite its faults, is obligated to treat someone in an ER, and has the medicine/technology to treat most diseases, if it meant that their children wouldnt drop dead. a higher infant mortality rate is not inversely proportional to the grief a parent feels when a child dies. 

on the plus side,  2 of my neighbors just had babies.  i will have to name them. i hope they make it

 

1 comment:

  1. May I quote you in an essay? The line about the "higher infant mortality rate is not inversely proportional to the grief a parent feels when a child dies."

    It's an essay about the Seven Sorrows of Mary.

    Thank you!

    ReplyDelete