Sylvia's Journal

In the morning the handful of us non-fasters collect at the side of the pool for our breakfast.  At least that is what we did the first day but the next morning there was no action by the pool – breakfast was served someplace else. One more surprise. This trip is just too full of surprises.

I noticed that the wading pool was blue again thanks to a bucket full of chemicals that changed the color. I have decided I will forego swimming here. I simply don’t trust the chemicals or the filtering system. I also suspect a return of the ducks.

Breakfast on day one consisted of a piece of bread with (well) fried eggs and Lipton or Nescafe. On day two it was a piece of bread with a slice of fried spam. I asked whether there was an alternative, like jam, but no. And so I had my spam and ate it too.

The dinner arrangement last night was also a surprise. Participants had asked to be given their money to make up for the meals they are not taking or would not take at the conference center. I asked my two non-fasting colleagues about their dinner plans but they were a bit vague. Maybe they assume that the place they get their food from (outside the confines of the conference center) is not fit for a foreigner.  Or maybe their dinner consisted of the snacks provided in the afternoon. Later I discovered that they sent a driver to fetch a meal someplace.  I saw no restaurants on our way out here.

It was clear that I was on my own for dinner unless I wanted to join the fast breaking crowd but I was too hungry for that. I discovered there were leftovers from lunch (a vague resemblance to the famous Senegalese dish ‘Cieboudiene’) and when asked I about dinner I was instantly served a plate full in the refectory. The small room hadn’t been cleaned from our lunch, and was thus full of flies. I retired early to my fly-free hut and tinkered a bit with our plans for tomorrow while watching Grey’s Anatomy in French.