A Mouse Ate My Soap

A mouse ate my soap.
I woke up this morning at the regional house in Boghe and two bars of soap are gone out of my soap dish and the only explanation is Jorge, the mouse that shares our living space in the regional house. Recently the house has been feeling a little cramped with our smallest roommate making many appearances throughout the afternoon, evening and night and giving many people a fright.
Ramadan officially ended Tuesday night the first of October, a day earlier than expected, and for that I am thankful. In celebration, Wednesday was a holiday from work during which people donned new clothes, new shoes and hair extensions galore for the women. Since women keep their hair covered at all times, it is ironic that they spent hours getting their hair braided and pleated with extensions in order to then hide it from view. I would like to say I had photos of my African style braided hair and new outfit but unfortunately the pictures taken by my host family captured an eye or an elbow but nothing more. Otherwise, the Juulde or Ramadan celebration was characterized by resuming the eating of lunch and eating a lot of goat meat. For bottari or lunch I ate pasta and meat, cous-cous and meat as well as Banafe, a meat and potato stew served with bread.
Since then I have enjoyed getting back into a routine and am glad some of the daily monotony is now broken up again with meals. Although I spend a lot of time sitting on the floor of my 8' square room reading books, coloring, listening to music and otherwise entertaining myself I continue to learn a lot about my new culture. However, if anyone has suggestions for passing large amounts of time without electricity please let me know.
I am hoping that construction on my mud house will begin soon now that the rainy soon is winding down or possibly over. I am in desperate need of some personal space that includes a door that locks from the inside especially since I awoke a few nights ago to three girls standing in my doorway watching me sleep. Needless to say, this was a little unnerving, especially since I sleep in culturally inappropriate clothing, but further reinforces my need for absolute privacy as well as space that I can mold into my own.
While in Boghe this week I am catching up on old television series - so far we have watched season 1 of One Tree Hill and Dawson's Creek, season 1 and 2 of Grey's Anatomy and the plan is to begin season 1 of Felicity of Friday Night Lights this afternoon. As you can imagine, the males of the group are enthusiastic to be outnumbered by girls when it comes to entertainment selection! Additionally while in the city I am enjoying some good food which was a much needed change after the daily rice and fish plus sand-like cous-cous and milk that I was eating in OloOlogo.
I should be returning to Boghe in a few weeks for a Halloween celebration so hopefully I will have some fun stories, good pictures or at least something interesting to post by then...