Well, I’ve been back on planet Pemba for just over a week now and let me tell you, the transition hasn’t been an easy one. No big shock there. BUT!!! I have good news… Mr. & Mrs. Almighty are planning their final voyage as they really truly will be moving off the island to a new house on the mainland by month’s end. They’ve been talking about it for as long as I’ve been here and apparently for eons before such that so none of us actually believed it would happen BUT, they are leaving on holiday (AGAIN!) and not returning, except for small visits, as of… NOW! He left yesterday, she leaves tomorrow and they don’t resurface on our plot until mid June. Mid… JUNE!!! Mac has been in their house and said yep, cabinets, cupboards, rooms all packed up… they are really, really going. I thought he was going to cry out of sheer joy when he told me. They will continue to be the directors, but from afar, leaving Mac in charge of the day to days, as it should be, as GM. Well, that’s the plan, anyway. So with the chaos of them packing and planning, I’ve been able to duck and roll in skillful avoidance and may never have to see them again. Oh how sweet that sounds.
The transition has been tough for more than just having to face “them” again. It’s never easy being the one left behind and it wasn’t until I got back here did I realize how much of my day to day involved Brendan. When there are only a few of us here, one person being gone leaves a pretty big hole. So I’ve had to readjust how I spend some of my time and of course, I’ve been missing someone who was extremely good company for me on this loco lonely island.
There were two good days when I got back (“good” being a relative term as in sweating salty rivers through your clothes while your deodorant doesn’t even have a whiff of a fighting chance) where we saw the sun. Now, the rains have arrived. Before I left, we’d have a sheet of water thunder down for a half an hour or so from time to time, day to day, but the sun would burst through and everything would be dry then sweaty in an instant. As of a few days ago, the skies clouded over solid and grey and the only reprieve we’ve had from the sheet rain is when it stops just long enough to gather up more water from the sea, more anger from the witchcraft, and call in the nasty back up bully, Sideways Wind. It has not stopped and it will not stop, for at least another month. Holy crap.
How do you describe “rainy season” unless you’ve been through one? We’re not talking the flash floods that stop traffic and back up sewers provoking stir crazy moms everywhere to plop bathing suits and rubber boots on their house bound munchkins encouraging them to stomp through puddles while she waits on the phone for the unavailable plumber for a couple of days. We’re not talking heavy rain for a day or two due to a storm system blowing in that secretly we kinda like because it’s a good excuse to snuggle up on the couch, watch a movie, and do absolutely nothing. We’re talking about that same, makes-the-front-page-news storm system parking its ass over head and not moving. Ever. EVER! Not after two days, not after four days, maybe, just maybe after 30 days. 30. Days. Shut. Up.
And it’s cold (again, a relative term) because everything is wet. Constantly wet. Climbing into bed when the bed, the sheets, the pillow is damp… EWWWW!!!! Putting on clothes that have been zipped in my suitcases but have had the wet air soak through the now damp suitcase making my nice, used-to-be-clean clothes kinda sticky and starting to smell like mold despite the sprigs of vanilla I’ve planted in between layers. Doing laundry in the brief 5 minutes when the rain is regaining strength and having it hang in my room for three or four days before it’s less wet enough to wear. And the worst… the absolute worst… is being cold and wet all day long and the only option for a shower is a cold one where you have to dry off with a damp towel. ***sniff.sniff.sniff*** Oh can you hear me whining???
Brendan had a cold the last couple of days that we were in Dar but I wasn’t too concerned as I rarely, rarely get sick. My slight sniffles have turned full on into an ear/chest/head cold and I only managed to drag my ass out of bed yesterday for about two hours. I’ve gone through two full rolls of toilet paper blowing my nose, and I’m now walking around like a snot zombie, mouth hanging open, unable to hear much of anything, random bits of tissue stuck here and there, grunting, groaning, coughing, and spitting. Oh so sexy! Lastly, there’s one more problem with the rain, one that I am blaming plainly, squarely, and fully for actually getting this sick…
Every night since my return, there has been a party of raging, screaming, screeching frogs who begin their agonizing, ear-splitting calls around 10 or 11pm and go NON-STOP til the sun comes up around 6am. Not the deep *Croak**Croak* sound that gently lulls you to sleep but the shrill “WEEEEEEET!WEEEEEET!WEEEEEET!” that drills deep into my brain. They are parked directly outside of my window. Directly. They are so loud that if you’re in my room when they are screaming their ridiculous stories to one another, you can’t actually have a conversation. We think they’re in the boat that is rammed up under my window (and by the way, none of the windows here have glass, they are all just open screened windows). So loud and unrelenting are these tiny, multiplying by the moment, hopping horrors that Mac, who lives next door and sleeps like the dead, has been kept awake by them. When we go out to try to find them, they of course all fall instantly silent with our approaching footsteps. My earplugs minimize the noise the tiniest bit, we have drained the boat, poured bleach in the remaining water, cut all the grass in and around it… nothing. There is no way to stop them. Add the rats that continue to use my room as their own personal gymnasium (did I tell you I watched them bounce and bound across my mosquito net directly over my head as they made their way to my belongings to eat my soap and/or any other unattended to hygiene product?!) AND a bush baby who has moved in (he runs along the tops of my walls and pokes his head in to look or shout at me) scratching, pulling at the thatching, and howling at the moon – I have not slept. In days and days and days. I’ve been able to find some relief around 6:30am and will be so exhausted by this point that I can crash until about 9am, but I’ve then had to face the sneer and rolling eyes of our happy leaders as I arrive down quite late in the morning. I’ve tried to sleep in the day time but I’m so over-tired I can’t fall asleep. I’m a complete mess. No big surprise that here, in the middle of Africa, drenched in the now never-ending rain, I have a nasty cold and am slightly, ever so slightly miserable. Ahhhhh… life is good.
The days here are very slow since I’ve returned because there are no guests. I lied. We have two, they will be leaving this weekend, and as it stands as of now we will have zero for the entire month of May. This being the case, we have cut back on staff which leaves me with very few people to teach. Drag, drag, drag. Can’t go diving, there are no guests, can’t go exploring, we are mudded and flooded in, can’t go for a kayak, the water is too rough… I’m going to have to start drinking heavily as really, there’s absolutely nothing left to do. And this will be the routine for the next month. Anyone up for some rest and relaxation? Seriously, if you want to do NOTHING … maybe read? maybe eat occasionally?? definitely shut down?? boy I can hook you up! Give me a call.
Now for the good news… (yes, I’m a whiner but I’m working hard to try to balance it out just a little bit.) My resignation letter is complete. I’ll email it to the boob ,, er,, boss, I mean BOSS! on May 1st giving him a month’s notice. He’ll be angry and he’ll sputter and spout, but being that he’ll be in Europe, I think I’ll be able to handle his tirade via internet. I do have to tread lightly however because my visa for Tanzania runs out May 21st and I need him to get me one more which would finish off my time here and allow me to travel a bit. Fingers crossed that I can sweet talk him enough with all of the “wonderful experiences” I’ve had at his lovely abode that he won’t give it a second thought and maybe even give me a reference letter. Why on earth I’d want a letter from this place, I really don’t know, but this is the only African experience I have to go on.
So resignation almost complete but no job in sight yet. It’s going to be more difficult than I had originally thought, definitely not easy Asia, but that doesn’t mean that I’m waving the white flag of surrender yet. Brendan has just made it across the Mozambique border so hopefully he’ll have better luck, and once he finds a job, I can then push hard for finding connections, making connections, or selling my soul to the devil. It’s Africa, something will work out. (the power of positive thought!)
Oh, special mention here, by the way, Ms. Ashley D.L.! A friend from high school, reconnected via Facebook who has surprisingly been following my histrionic drama. Ashley actually went through the trouble of searching and sending me info on jobs in Mozambique! One of the most thoughtful and kind things EVER. Thank you, Ashley! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I was absolutely blown away by your email. I have people watching out for me everywhere – I can’t tell you how amazing that feels. I continue to be very well taken care of. Fabulous.
AHHHHHHHH!!!! It’s 6pm and the sun has peeked out just below the clouds that it is setting under! The rain has stopped for the last 20 minutes and I can hear myself think again! Oh happy day! Happy day! I went up to my room earlier to deal with the puddles on the floor from the rain that blew straight in through the windows soaking anything within 5 feet and pretty much walked straight out. Now that I have a breath of Mr. Sun, I will find the energy to deal with my moldy room. SEE! Things are working out just fine! I’ll try to get this posted soon and since really, there’s not a whole lot going on here, I’ll be boring you all with my blah blah blah rantings probably a little more often. Until then, my friends…
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