“Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.”
No getting around it, today is an ugly winter’s day. It is rainy and windy and colder than the forecast. The dump was on my to do list today, but I’ve decided the dump can wait one more day. Cozy and comfy and warm are far more inviting.
The last few days, since Christmas, have been quiet. Yesterday I went through my presents again. I put away a couple of gifts and ate chocolate covered Devil Dogs, but the rest of my presents are still under the tree. Putting them all away is the beginning of the end.
I am watching a bad science fiction movie, bad being generous. The actors are totally unknown to me. The plots are repetitive, and the few special effects are silly. It is an almost perfect movie for me. It just needs to be in black and white.
During my first holiday season in Ghana, I went north after Christmas. With two of my friends I traveled to Ouagadougou in what is now Burkina Faso. Back then it was Upper Volta. We stayed a couple of days then took a Trans African bus to Niamey, Niger. The bus broke down. The driver, in Hausa, told me, “Ya ƙãre.” It is finished. We had to wait for another bus. By the time
we were back on the road, it was so late we ended up parked outside a post office all night as we had its mail. It was cold, desert at night during the harmattan cold. We had no blankets and no food as we had expected to be in Niamey. The driver was amazed I spoke some Hausa and had become a
bit of a friend. He shared his food and hot coffee with me and gave me a blanket. I shared it all with my friends. This second bus also broke down so, instead of waiting, we hitched to the border where we sat hoping for a ride. The border between Upper Volta and Niger was a long pole balanced on two barrels, one on each side of the road. Borders were casual back then. I got a ride and traveled on to Niamey and the Sahara. I traveled the whole of that first Christmas vacation. The last night before home, New Year’s Eve, was spent in Ouaga. I went to a party at the US ambassador’s house. It was amazing with white gloved servers and food I hadn’t seen I’d been in Africa. I drank champagne and toasted the new year. It was an unexpected and wonderful ending to the old year and to that first Christmas away from home.
keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
December 28, 2018 at 2:05 pm
Hi Kat,
Your experiences in the Peace Corps amazes me and I’m surprised that you did these things alone and weren’t kidnapped and held for ransom or boiled in a caldron and eaten for dinner. 🙂
Winter is sort of back again today with a low temperature just above freezing with sunny skies. Regardless, if you believe in global warming or not we have only had one morning well below freezing this month. Last winter our first freezing morning was January seventh. Of course global warming is on the back burner since the government is on shutdown over funding for the border wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for. 🙂
I can’t decide if 2018 was the worst year since 1968. That was one of the worst years since the Civil War. 😦 Who knows what the moron living in the Whitehouse will do next.
I read an article by some of the producers of the TV show “The Apprentice”. Trump would go off script and fire the wrong celebrity. The producers then had to cut the footage in such a way as to make the wrongly fired celebrity appear to fail the task and make Trump’s off script firing look reasonable to the viewers. 😦
December 28, 2018 at 2:52 pm
Hi Bob,
I felt perfectly safe the whole time I was in Ghana. I often traveled alone in country. To get from where I lived in the Upper Region to Accra took at least 12 hours. Most times I was by myself though I’d meet up with other volunteers in Accra.
The rain is quite heavy now. I can hear it on the roof. My decision to stay home was the best decision. Our days have been in the high 40s, but the nights have been below freezing. I’m glad I don’t go anywhere or I’d be scraping my windshield.
Trump couldn’t handle a script just as he can’t handle written briefings. He needs pictures.
Just believe it has to get better.
December 28, 2018 at 3:09 pm
According to Trump’s ghost writer for his book “The Art of the Deal”, Trump had no books in his office and conducted all of his business over the phone. He told the author that he hasn’t read a book since leaving college. He told his White House staff not to bother him with briefing books and only outlines with less that 15 bullet points. Trump’s late friend and lawyer, Roy Cohn, told him to be a counter puncher. If someone hits you, then you hit back twice as hard. He acts more like a Mafia Don rather than a president.
December 28, 2018 at 5:48 pm
Bob,
After the articulate presidency of Obama, we are being punished. We have a president who can’t spell, doesn’t read, can’t write more than a tweet and has no understanding of how the government and each branch works independent of one another.
December 29, 2018 at 4:00 pm
Obama was a good speaker. They were all “watershed” or “landmark” speeches according to the media
December 29, 2018 at 4:57 pm
Spaceman,
Being a good speaker isn’t easy especially in the beginning. A way with words gets better with practice, especially with the extemporaneous.
December 29, 2018 at 10:07 pm
Well you can talk or act
December 29, 2018 at 10:15 pm
Spaceman,
You can also do both.
December 28, 2018 at 3:25 pm
Quite the opposite weather here today, started cold, frosty and foggy and changed to warmish because of the sun shining. It was well below 32F in the shadows but the sun melted away all the frost it reached with its rays.
Busy morning for me because I had to go to Falköping after the first walk, then to Gudhem and as soon as I came home we took another long walk. One never knows when weather like this comes again 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
December 28, 2018 at 5:42 pm
Christer,
It stayed ugly all day. It even rained quite heavily all afternoon. I went nowhere.
You’re right about taking advantage of the weather. I’m glad the pooches had such lovely walks.
Have a great day!
December 29, 2018 at 4:23 am
“It is finished.” I think a little piece of me died when read that.
December 29, 2018 at 12:16 pm
Rowen,
I hope you’ll look at it in a different way. In Ghana, it is finished is for things like dead buses, the last of the toast and no more peanut butter. It is all encompassing for things that don’t work and for food already eaten.
December 29, 2018 at 5:04 pm
Yeah, the bus will move no more. Ugh. Others may wish to risk the non-moving bus. I would not be such a person.
December 29, 2018 at 5:42 pm
Rowen,
The bus ride I got scared me as I had to ride on the top of an oversized cargo and reach over the side for a handhold.