A Rainy Saturday

Sometimes it takes a boring, slow, rainy weekend to get me to the blog. Ben has stolen the car for the weekend, leaving me feeling unexpectedly (or expectedly) bored and isolated. But not one to sit around and do nothing (at least until later), I went on my routine to dance class and then, took a few hours at the Community Garden where Ben and I have just gotten a plot (for a mere $100, plus supplies, plus tons of hard work, plus mandatory 16 hours work volunteering). Actually though we are quite excited about the opportunity.

I took advantage of my free time to get over there for one of their "hands on" Saturdays--also known as work days. I guess it was called off, or had ended by the time I got there after class. I had run over there (a bit over a mile I think) in the rain, and not sure what I was expecting. A Kind Soul found me wandering around looking for a warm body to tell me what to do, and connected me via cell phone to the director. Thankfully, she promptly put me to weeding work. It started out enjoyable enough--just me, the weeds, and the rain. But after about an hour my hands were so cold they were getting numb (the rain was cold and so was the dirt!). An hour after that I ran home, scared my digits may never thaw.

Well obviously they thawed.

I got to eat some tasty leftovers and dream big about baking I want to do this weekend (after my pink grapefruit cake turned out pretty good!)

Then I started working, because I didn't have too much else to do. I'm going to Niger for work in a few weeks, so I decided to do some reading about Niger. I am quite excited, having never been to Africa and always wanting to go to West Africa. All I've heard about it until this point is about it being affected by meningitis, is around 110 degrees right now, and obviously being one of the most disaster prone countries in the world, which is why I'm going!

So here's a bit about Niger.

"Niger with a population of 12.5 million is one of the ten poorest countries in the world. Drought is a common natural calamity. It often undergoes a phase of severe food crisis. 63% of its total population lives on below $1 a day. Adult literacy rate is as low as 15%. Life expectancy spans up to 46 years. A number of people die of hepatitis A, diarrhea, malaria, meningococcal meningitis and typhoid fever."

So if anyone knows anything about travel in Niger (because of infrequent planes, I ended up with a weekend there), any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated...! Never fear, I am so excited in spite of the lack of guidebooks about Niger. I've found an interesting blog or two, but where can I get some good info about Niger? Esp Niamey (capital city).

Later on I walked like 2 blocks to the wonderful party Frank threw for his wife Jen at Tesoro. He had beautifully decorated the space with flowers and a pinata lovingly stuffed with chocolates and tequila. It was lots of fun! And then a visit to the Brickstore to make the night complete.

Sunday I am spending watching Six Feet Under and later will get out to Shaun's for the $12 pasta night. Oh, and taking my Typhoid pill.

Happy rain!