Sylvia's Journal

A and I spent the morning going over the program of this week’s workshop in order to divide the work. Most of the exercises he is familiar with so we can lighten each other’s’ load. Some are new to him. Everything remains guesswork until we meet the 40 people who are taking a full week out of their schedule to learn new things. It is humbling.

Axel and I had hoped to hook up on Skype but all we ended up doing is the exchange of some emails. Internet access works through coupons with long strings of numbers that you have to put in every two hours, so I am not always ‘on’ the way I am in most other places. So I missed the chance to talk with Abuja.

While A was managing relationships I headed into the mountains with S and her baby on her back. At about 4 PM the rains and thunderclaps came – there were cells everywhere around us, you could see them but most of the time we were able to dodge them, sticking a wet finger in the air to guess their direction – although their movements seemed pretty random.

The rain and thunder cells are extremely local: 25 or 50 meters to one side of us everything got drenched while we stayed dry. Eventually, when we were near the top of a hill, a lookout post over the city, the rains reached us. When we saw some gigantic electrical charges in the dark grey sky we thought it better to return to the car.

We found a small restaurant where we could sit outside under a cover until the rains became so heavy that they found small holes in the awning pushing us inside. Although I went through great pains to request sauces on the side, the meal was once again heavy and mediocre. I have yet to eat a great meal here.

I watched baby A dribble this way, then that, never sitting still for a second, requiring mom to be on high alert all the time. A couple of years from now this will become a familiar experience for us, I thought. We can relieve Sita and Jim once in a while, or give the baby back to them. Either way seems like fun now.

I went to bed early and discovered the electricity gone in the morning, probably due to the long and heavy rains.