WAWA Day??

It has been a WAWA (West Africa Wins Again) type of day. Though I am not entirely sure if it officially qualifes as WAWA, but in that my plans of the day were disrupted, Africa won something. After today, I reflected again on the sermon of a few weeks ago (mentioned a few posts ago) regarding well-laid plans. I've decided a few things:

• the spiritual reasoning behind what we plan for and what we prepare and then ofttimes receives still rings true . . . but:
• I am not sure the analogy of this working in every day life always rings true. . . at least not in Africa - for often whan we plan and prepare for does not come to pass.

Now, I am fully admitting that life at home sometimes sends curveballs to well-laid plans too; but they seem to happen a slight bit more frequently here AND the curveballs here seem to hold more of a story to them!! One could say that life's curveballs - disruptions to plans - are interesting.

Today started off as a normal day:

• Language class at the office - 8:30 am . . . √
• quick run to the grocery store, forgot a few items this weekend . . . √
• eat lunch . . . √
• go to Rec Centre and study Fulfulde in a/c

Notice where the checkmarks stopped?? It actually all started to unravel at bullet point #1!! As I walked in the room at the office, I noticed a wet spot on the ceiling. Disconcerting and worthy of scheduling an unscheduled call to someone to figure out what to do. From there, my day unfolded as such:

1. finish language class
2. tour the building . . . discover such (and much LARGER) wet spots in almost every room of the building.
3. quick call to Lisa to confirm that as I suspected, the landlord would need to be notified. Not a problem. He lives in the house across the street from me - though he works in Dosso, his wife can get a hold of him.
4. quick run to the grocery store (also fell in love with a funky skirt from the second hand table beside the veggie stand, so that was a nice add-on to my day!)
5. return home with groceries
6. initiate plan to go speak with the landlord's wife . . . discover that 1 week ago, the entire family moved out to Dosso, so I now need to call him
7. make and eat lunch
8. return to office for the landlord's phone number
9. discover that office keys are in language study bag . . . at home!
10. return home to get keys
11. return to office - no longer need keys, Lisa is there
12. chat with Lisa (another nice add-on to my day!)
13. phone the landlord - he says that he will come into Niamey on Thursday or Friday to fix the problem
14. sweet!! back to the planned program. it is now 3pm! I hop back in my car and make it about 1/2 kilometre down the road, and . . .
15. The landlord calls back - he has now decided to send a representative to check out the problem. The truck makes a u-turn and I head back to the office.
16. arrive at the office. talk with a co-worker on the phone. bemoan not having my Fulfulde books with me (okay, here is where good preparation could have come in handy . . . I should have put the study bag in my truck to go to the rec centre after calling the landlord, thus also averting the whole key tragedy! At least, I would have then had my study books with me.)
17. I start writing my testimony in Fulfulde instead.
18. The representative arrives. I do a walk-through with the representative. he requests that I go through the building and mark all the water stains with red or black crayon so that when the landlord arrives he can see where the water leaked.
19. double check with the guard what he discussed with the representative in Tamasheq.
20. ask the guard to kill the wasp in my office (I'm allergic)
21. ask the guard to see if someone in the neighbourhood has a ladder that will reach the high ceilings so I can make the required marks. He comes back from the construction site 3 houses over with a ladder about 1 to 1-1/2 metres tall. (How on earth are they constructing a 2-storey house with that small ladder??)
22. drive home to borrow the neighbourhood ladder. strap it onto my truck. drive back to the office.
23. guard offers to climb the ladder and make the pencil marks (phew - I'm scared of heights!) I pass off the pencil crayon and hold the ladder. we finish two rooms and as he moves the ladder off to the dining room I tell him to wait - I need to sharpen the pencil crayon. I arrive back in the dining room to find him hard at work. 'Madame, I found this here, it works'. He is marking our ceiling in black permanent marker!!! ack. arrête!
24. we finish the house.
25. I strap the ladder back onto my truck. I make it 2.5 kilometres back to my house (am sooo close) when the landlord calls again. He is perturbed that his representative did not ask to look on the roof. He has decided he will call and send someone else, so I need to return again to the office. It is now between 5:00 and 5:30.
26. I unload the ladder and drive back to the office where I continue writing my testimony in Fulfulde.
27. At 6:30, I call the second representative to see if he is coming today or tomorrow. He is enroute.
28. At 6:45 I decide that I've had enough 'work' for the day and find a book on the bookself to read.
29. The second representative arrives at 7:00 and leaves at 7:30.
30. I confirm what he said in Djarma with the night guard, which was little more than the representative had also said to me in French.
31. I drive to a colleague's house to chat with their night guard . . . Does he have the phone number of Mohammed who can come tomorrow and do work at the office?? He does. I call Mohammed and arrange to meet him around 12:00 at the office. (another nice add-on to the day: Ismaguil - this night guard - speaks Fulfulde, so I get a bit of practice in)
32. I arrive home at about 8:15 to find two guards wanting their mid-month salary advance a day early. I prepare the funds, pay and speak with the guards.
33. At 8:45 I prepare a wonderful supper of crèpes.
34. I write this blog . . . also not the blog I planned to write today. That topic will now come later (maybe never, because this tired brain cannot at the moment remember what I planned to write about).
35. And now, this tired body is heading to bed at 10:00!

Good night!

And happy planning for your tomorrow!!