Anyone who know me well can attest to the fact that I am a fairly clumsy individual. This can cause my life to be even more dangerous here than in America. For instance: you know sometimes you are driving on a familiar road and you zone into your thoughts so much that you forget you are even driving. Well, I have been here long enough that it happens to me while biking sometimes. Although vehicles don’t frequent my road more than one per hour on average, I still have the dangers of livestock, ruts in the road detrimental to not only me, but my bike as well, and the ever looming prospect of snakes in the grasses.

In my household chores I have learned never to “swing” my brazier to heat up the charcoals, but rather its much better to let it blow in the wind, otherwise hot coals will inevitably end up all over myself and the compound, neither a good thing. I also average the use of about 20 liters of water a day, which I have to fetch and I use my bike to do so, but if I’m not paying attention it can be dangerous to the children that sometimes like to run alongside me the 300m back to my house.

My clumsiness also doesn’t work in my favor in terms of laundry, the following day manage to spill things all over myself: Cooking oil, bike grease, tomato relish, African dirt (a force to be reckoned with) Basically the most filthy possibilities. If I forget to put pegs on the line, my things may blow off into the sand and I end up having to wash them a second time, ugh. I have learned not to keep glass containers in my hut and to give them to my family when I empty something glass: a jar of jam, etc. They have a better chance of not breaking it.

WIth all of the above examples, though I have adopted the African way of carrying things on my head sometimes, I know my limits and do not push it for fear that I will drop whatever I am carrying and risk breaking or wrecking it.

All this being noted, I wonder if its a good idea for me to climb onto a door supported by two sideways desks everyday to work on my map at Mwala Basic School? (more on my map project next month when it wraps up)