It's raining lizards (followed by a tribute to washing machines)

Date: 9 Dec 2007

There are lizards everywhere. Seriously, EVERYWHERE. Whenever I walk around the courtyard, there's a scuffling of small reptilian feet, and often they'll just cross my path very quickly. So up until last night, I thought, yeah, I'm basically pretty cool with lizards, not freaked out at all. The fact that they're loitering just outside the door of my room doesn't bother me at all - in fact, I'd probably be able to touch one if someone dared me to. This was the general attitude I had towards these creatures up until last night.

Okay, so I met this girl, Leanne, from the UK, who's also here via AIESEC (the university organisation that liases with companies/organisations around the world to raise these internships), and we arranged to go to this restaurant, Greenfields, for dinner last night. It's a more expensive restaurant which all the Yovos go to (even if it's still really cheap compared to prices at home). The idea of pizza and pasta and crepes nearly brought me to tears because I'd just about filled my dried sardine quota for a lifetime and couldn't handle the idea of more of that shard-of-glass texture in the sauce in which I dipped my boiled yams. I've really shut out food pickiness for the past couple of weeks, but it's just starting to get to me. I needed an escape. Oh, Greenfields, how very green your fields are. The pizza we had was unbelievable (probably very average but juxtaposed next to sardine-alicious yams, I mean come on) and the crepes? I felt like I'd been transported to heaven. The taste of ice cream and chocolate was almost new to me - a truly emotional experience I think.

Right, lizards. Leanne and I were sitting, talking, having a good time, and suddenly out of NOWHERE, 2 lizards who I assume were in the middle of a wrestling match in the tree above us decided that it was an opportune moment to fall onto our table and freak the heck out of us. We both yelped slightly, looked at the table, back at each other, then back at the table, then got a severe case of nervous giggles. One lizard made a run for it, but the other one just chilled out in the ashtray. Allow me to demonstrate:

The funny thing is, he played dead the entire time. Literally stayed in that position despite our poking and prodding of the ashtray to make him go away (okay, confession, I didn't actually go near the ashtray - I tried but again, couldn't do it, RASHA YOU WIMP). We weren't even sure that it was a lizard at first, so I used my phone to shine a light on it. "Um, yeah, Leanne, so I'm seeing feet and eyes, I'm thinking it's probably not a cigarette butt."

We kept trying to give each other pep talks - the plan was that I push the ashtray over to her, and then she'd quickly just transfer it to the next table. We tried many times. We also failed many times, and were in a hysterical fit of laughter (largely because of the terror we were feeling). We eventually asked the waiter to come and take it because we're pathetic. He clearly thought we were both mentally unsound.

This place was very cool though - colourful lanterns everywhere, outdoor seating, it was nice to be in a social atmosphere with good food. I came to the conclusion that it now feels very strange seeing European people. Especially white children. Very weird. I tried taking pictures but my camera is from the Middle Ages so the flash is really bad, you can't actually see anything.

Yeah so I basically also handwashed all my clothes this morning. In a bucket. With my hands. And I'm talking, 2 weeks' worth of laundry folks. I'm actually extremely pleased with myself. I have blisters on my knuckles to prove it - apparently my technique is all wrong, which is why I have these battle scars. They're basically like carpet burn, but the skin's actually peeling. Patience & Clara just stood there watching me, chuckling at my attempt to pretend I knew what I was doing. It made me a little self conscious but when I finished I felt this enormous sense of accomplishment. All this week I've been asking people how to do it, but everytime I asked, they'd laugh at me and say "oh no no, you can't do it - give it to me and I'll organise it". Drove me INSANE. Just show me! I'm not a complete idiot. Apparently you can give a huge bag of laundry to someone and they'll do it for 1000 Francs (about NZD$3.33), but I hate the idea of someone else doing my laundry. But I did it. I'm so proud.


(I found it a little ironic that I was listening to my iPod while I handwashed my clothing in a bucket)

I also did a very quick round of part of the Grand Marché (Market) with Patience today. I didn't get to do it properly since I was on a mission for some essential items and had limited time, but WOW I need to go back one time with just my camera and devote a post entirely to it. I've been in busy markets before, but this one? Wow. Completely jam-packed and it's gigantic - it just sprawls all over the place and doesn't seem to end. When we got home, Clara started telling me that the pickpockets there will not only cut the straps of your bag but if you make a scene they'll stab you, or, more specifically, in her words, "They will KILL YOU". Hmm... maybe I'm slightly apprehensive about going back? No, I have to. So much to buy, so little time.

Also, some pictures from the villages we went to on Thursday!

Some more goats:

Schoolchildren in their classrooms (this was HILARIOUS - these kids actually went insane whenever a picture was taken - it was like a stampede at one point, kids were falling over, it was chaos.)
The school

Spot the Yovo

Kids watching the skits

More kids

A lady selling pawpaws by the side of the roa