Week 4: Internet: YAY! Electricity: BOO!

Well, somehow a miracle has happened.  I now have access to the internet, finally, in my room!  Would you like to know what the hold up was?  A slow translation of paper bureaucracy into digital activity?  No.  A poor connection?  No.  A faulty modem?  No.  The problem, friends, was my inability to accurately read the curlycue numbers handwritten on my receipt telling me what my login phone number is.  That is to say, I could read all but one, and one's enough to screw everything up.  What seemed like a pretty clear 1 to me was actually a 5.  Now, I am not unfamiliar with European-stylized handwriting (this being a former French colony, their handwriting lessons growing up are, I assume, similar to those in France, and consequently I find the countries share a general commonality in handwriting style - as compared to the States, at least).  I know how 1's NORMALLY look here, AND how 5's normally look here, and this looked like a 1.  Of course, all of this could've gotten cleared up much earlier if anyone else before today's technician (who gets a GOLD STAR!  YAY!) had thought to ask for my client number as a backup.  He was the only one who thought it odd that the number I thought was correct drew up a Mr. Gueye.  A woman with a horrible American accent?  Probably not Mr. Gueye.  So, he clarified the number mistake, and - voila!  Now it works!  WOOHOO!

So, I was all giddy and excited to be able to check email from my room, blog from my room, etc., and I had just enough time to log into my email, see who had sent me new messages, delete my junk mail, and then - BAM!  Electricty OUT!  This is how things work here, so it's not like I was surprised, but I thought - come on, man - can't I at least relish my internet victory for a FEW minutes first, please?  I killed some time making some tea and just at the point that I was losing my patience and was going to go to the cafe (now that I saw I had messages from friends, I wanted to read them!), it came back on.  So I excitedly sat down to read the first message, and I was about halfway through it when - of course - power out again.  This time it stayed out and stayed out and stayed out, until finally I caved and came here, to the cafe.  (At the cafe, if the power goes out, it comes on again relatively quickly because they have a generator, which I have deduced is a prerequisite to any successful business establishment here).

So, to review:  Internet:  YAY!  Electricity:  BOO!

But, needn't you worry - I am aware of my good fortune to have this to complain about. 

Now, HERE's something I have the BAD fortune to complain about:

I have a bout of the flu.  Not just any flu, mind you, but the intestinal flu.  No need to tell any of you how fun THAT is.  It hit me like a ton of bricks Saturday night, and I only played one tune with Milim before I had to go home - what had started as an increasingly throbbing headache quickly progressed to, by the time I made it home (which normally would have taken 1-2 minutes, but probably took me 10), what felt like I had been beaten to near death with a crowbar.  Then, night sweats, fever, chills, shivering, etc.  The next day, I had a temperature of 38.4 (don't know what that is, but normal is 37).  Thomas, my neighbor, gave me a high-dose fever reducer.  I spent all of Sunday languishing and hoping to die or at least sleep.  My host family thought it was malaria.  Monday I went straight to the doctor, who gave me what I suppose in the grand scheme of things was good news:  NOT malaria!  But intestinal flu is no walk in the park, so needless to say I'm not starting the beginning of Week 4 on a good foot.  However, I can tell I'm slowly getting better.  The doc gave me good drugs to ease the flu pain and temper the intestinal civil war I've been hosting.  I've been drinking tea and Sprite and eating ramen noodles - I was told to avoid all of the regular Senegalese sauce dishes, and stick to easy-to-stomach things like white rice, plain pasta, and soup. 

So, today I can say I definitely feel much better - I feel human - I was able to drag myself out of the house to come here, at least.  I think by tomorrow I might actually be able to do a bit of work.  So, ONWARD!