This past week had more than enough “hurdles” mentally and physically and all I can think is to compare it to the series The Hunger Games. Though I was not thrown into an arena to fight for my life, I still find it comparable. Try to follow me with Ukraine being my arena, The gamemakers being just everything around me, and everything that happened to me in the past week as pods. Now if you have not read The Hunger Games—read that instead of this blog post.
This past weekend was a long 4 day weekend in celebration of International Woman’s Day.For being internet-less, waterless, and powerless (just for a little while on the power)—I had more than enough time to read all 3 of the Hunger Games. Now, being internet-less was/is my choice. It costs me 10 percent of my monthly allowance to have slow ball-sucking internet, so I have made the month of March my trial month of confirming that it is not worth paying for it. There is a computer room at my school with internet, so it isn’t like I will be deprived for the next year, but the convenience of using it whenever I need or want is gone.
The waterless part of my weekend was not by choice, and was rather inconvenient. I was given a bucket of water once the water shut off for the toilet, so I knew that it would be out for the whole weekend (joy joy). If only I was warned a little ahead of time so that I could have showered (it was already overdue). But I didn’t let that from stopping me! I decided to go running because I thought—I am already stinky and I have a full kettle of water I can use to bathe after! (I was wrong….) After my run (which is another story in itself), I was ready to wash up with a full kettle of water. PSYCH! Pod #3 went off (Pod #1 was not having water to begin with and #2 was my run which I will get to in a sec). I had about 1/3 of a kettle full of water which is what I used to wash my hair and whole body (approximately 4 jam jars of water). Who would have thought that was possible! I am almost positive that I wasn’t completely clean, but it did the job for me. I never feel completely clean after I bathe anyways because the water generally smells funny. Like in a previous post, I always smell a booger-meets-mildew smell not only on my freshly laundered clothing but also my freshly scrubbed body. (Hopefully it isn’t the secret disease I have that no one knows what it is that is causing this smell!! -- **GULP*) That last statement was just to get under my mamma’s skin which probably isn’t very nice, but I am keeping it in here.
I should rewind back to pod #2. This again was not by choice, but by my stupidity. I thought it would be a great idea to go running outside. I thought- ohh it is raining, so all the snow must be melted up in the hills and it will be nice and muddy (my fav)! Well, Wrong again! I stepped outside and slid about 15 feet until I decided to turn around to grab my yaktrax to give me some grip on this wet ice that is SOOO slippery. So once I headed back outside with the yaktrax on for the first time EVER, I felt invincible. Ahoy! And there I was, running up the steep hills of my forest-hilled “backyard”. I kept going even though it was icy because today was supposed to be my easy long run. Well easy—no; which means long was also a no go. Running up the sleek hills covered in wet slippery ice, made it seem I was running for dear life to not slip off the trail to the right that was a nice little drop filled with trees, snow, and sticks. So I kept going. There was also no turning around because I could barely keep control of myself going up the hill—I knew downhill would be a disaster. After several slips and only a sore wrist, I finally made it to the top where fresh powdered snow laid perfectly still waiting for my graceful body to go stomping through it almost knee high just trying to get back home. Of course the rain turned into hail which made my run that much more awesome. I couldn’t help but laugh the whole way back. This 30 minute just shy of 3 miles super short and hard run obviously didn’t last very long, but at least I made it back home with no broken bones.
On to Pod #4. The second I heard the water running again (3 days later), I was so ecstatic I couldn’t wait to hop in some hot water and enjoy running water for a minute! The timing couldn’t have been any more perfect because 2 minutes into my shower the power shut off. Awesome! It isn’t like I really needed power except for making FOOD!! For those of you who don’t know, I have a fridge and an electric stove top which sum up the kitchen appliances I have. So without electricity, I can’t even boil water… Luckily it came back on after 3 hours.
Though these exciting things happened to me on my long weekend, overall, it was still very relaxing, nice, and QUIET! Once all the kids came back to school on Monday, it was back to the normal groove of everything. Until, today.
The past several weeks I have had a hard time sleeping the whole night (another thing that my mysterious disease is causing). Well this morning I thought it was nothing different until I lay in bed and hear the water running in a different way than usual (Yes, my water runs constantly, yes, people have “fixed” it, no it is not fixed). The thing about the water in the bathroom is that when I turn it off, sometimes it turns off, but at random times water decides it wants to come out whether it be a drip or a flow. So last night it decided to become a flow. And VOILA! ½ of my place flooded (This is Pod #5). I quickly went to Maria, the night dorm guard lady person, and told her what has happened. I think she was just in shock with the little white dots that were on my face. Because the Gamemakers wanted me to have battle wounds, they decided to give me 4 huge zits on my face. I fell asleep last night with a face mask on them. She asked if I knew that I had white stuff on my face and I quickly remembered—but I simply thought that it was not important- HELLOOOO—my place is flooded!
She comes in and then goes back out and when she returns she has a bucket and a dust pan in hand. The amazing thing about this country is how handy they are with the little stuff they got! Who would have thought dust pan! So there I was going to work filling up buckets of water with a dust pan. About 45 minutes later, Maria started using a t-shirt to soak up water and then rang it out in the buckets which, at this time, seemed to be picking up more water than the dust pan—so I followed her lead, grabbed a towel and went to work. Once we cleaned up more of the water, the handy man came in to fix my faucet (which still drips), and he also checked to see why my sink is clogged. Well, it turns out, the mineral composite that has been building up at the base of my sink has been building up in the pipes, too, and had formed its own inner-tube which eventually closed up.
Now I would like to add Pod #6 because it did get to me a little bit… a lot. With the new Invisible Children video that was just released, there were a lot of mixed responses. I was in shock and slightly aggravated with how people were saying not to support the Kony 2012 movement. It is one thing to say that you are not a supporter of Invisible Children, or very well be informed that the LRA is no longer in Uganda, or that the movie took money to make, blah blah blah—I don’t care what your reasoning is—it is beside the point. What I was in shock of was that people would take these silly reasons to twist and turn the want and need of having justice be served. Being personally connected to Uganda as a country and to some of the people who were personally affected by Joseph Kony and his horrible doings makes this issue personal to me. I am always respectful to people about their perspectives and opinions even when they are different from my own, but to create a perspective and opinion on something that is completely beside the main point that is trying to be sent just drove me crazy! It is a good thing my internet turned off that day. I am assuming the Gamemakers decided to throw a mental frustration hurdle in my face and laugh.
There is also Pod #7 that happened but that I cannot explain as to what it is for my own safety and for others. But all I can say is I really hope people start looking beyond the greed of money and start looking at living life in a honorable, ethical, and respectable way.
Even though this past week, overall, was fairly normal—I have been Ukrained more than usual and couldn’t help myself comparing everything to The Hunger Games. All the pods blew up—but I still survive. And though the Gamemakers from Ukraine, Mother Earth, and Everyone all combined forces this week to try to take me out—I am a fighter. As this is starting to get really corny, lame, and not ½ as exciting as the actual book, I am going to stop right there.
Until Next Time,
“May the odds be ever in your favor.”
A couple weeks ago, the
girls and I had a baking party over the weekend. Now that I have a slightly new toaster oven
(4 months old now), it was a great way to spend the weekend when we had nothing
else to do. I taught them how to make
some good ol’ American chocolate chip cookies and butter-cream yellow-butter cupcakes (lots of butter). They had a blast doing it and I had a blast
watching. I sat back, told them step by
step instructions, and voila! Out came
magic. The cupcakes were delicious and
the cookies were superb! 
