Tonight was such an exciting night. We went to the college in Shashameni. They told us we were staying in this courtyard that was surrounded by 3 dorm halls, a bath and washroom and the house of mamie and her family. Greeting us in the courtyard were clotheslines strewn with brightly colored tattered clothes, flies, bees the size of half dollars, small cobblestone paths being engulfed by grass and weeds. We then headed to our dorm room which all of the girls shared and there we found metal hammock bunk beds with a flower patterned mattresses.
After meeting the wash ladies, mamie and the president of the college we began moving into our rooms. We dressed the beds and then started the ordeal of getting our bug nets hung while trying not to get covered in the cockroaches as we lifted each of the ceiling tiles. After about a half an hour we all finally had our mosquito and roach free fortresses. We then made the decision to escape for a bit and head into town for some dinner. We had lovely pasta dishes and lots and lots of coca-cola. I ordered a water and little did I know I was getting a foot and a half tall bottle and with a hole in the ground for a toilet- my nice cold bottle of water was a challenge in the making.
We then for three hours tracked down some sugar and flower (which is near impossible to find). While shopping we bought some sugar cane toothbrushes which you gnaw on till the fibers fray and then you proceed to brush each tooth with the frayed end. This as you can imagine was quite the commodity.
We then traversed the bumpy dirt roads back to our courtyard sanctuary, which even though not physically the most comfortable, was quite the escape from the heartbreaking scenes in the city. The overwhelming scenes of animals that were bones with skin, children who were only 40lbs wearing xxxl shirts that were so dirty and full of holes they might as well be naked, flies swarming the eyes of the babies who had become so accustom they bore the discomfort, the laborers breaking their backs under the sun just trying to earn enough for a mean and the horse and donkey buggies bulling 15 times their weight in grain and straw being beaten with whips as they tried tirelessly to pull the loads they could barely move.
Needless to say, it was great to feel safe again. It gave our hearts a break. We then tried to head to bed and as we were settling down the whole team hung our heads in exhaust and started laughing as we realized it was only 7:30. The boys headed to their dorm which was as far as you could go across campus and the girls began the experience of their lives.
As we headed into our bug net forts, we realized there were cockroaches spotting our walls. They don’t harm you so this would not have been so bad except that Summer is deadly afraid of them and started fogging our walls with roach spray. This in turn caused hundreds of them to flood out from behind the door frames. Kim and Melissa started grabbing shoes and killing the roaches left and right as the roaches started darting around the room trying to scatter to save their lives. After one hour we could not breath because of the spray. After enough migraines to go around, we finally were sleeping and Summer spent the night in the van.
Goodnight to a great start to the trip….Goodnight Day 2