January 5. Day 5 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. A busy day of cooking. Made a big pot of chili this morning. Now doing a turkey. It is in the oven. Simmering stock for gravy on the stove. No time for a skii today, not that I have the energy. Trying to stay afloat and have fun in the challenge. Travel memories are always precious. Good thing I made some notes. Here’s part 2 to my post from Ghana in March of 2011.

The Slowness of Africa

I last left Rod at the optical shop getting his eyes checked.  In a very short time he came out with the technician.  How good could that test be when it couldn’t have been more than 5 minutes?  I thought that confirmed what I thought about things not working well in Africa.  As it turned out, the electricity went out and we would have to wait till it comes back or the generator kicks in.  We waited…not too long and power was restored.  And as I am typing away on my laptop now, I thought I might as well charged it up because by the time I’m done, my battery would be down to 5%.  So I flick the switch on the plug-in to turn the power on…..the lights went out!  I quickly switched the power to the plug in off and flick the light switch a few times before the lights came back.  Phew!  Good thing Rod is sleeping.

And so that is the way with life here.  You can not rush it along.  You have to accept its pace or it will eat you up.  Life can be very good here but it is not without struggles.  And I have asked some of the overseas people here why they love this place so much.  Freedom is often the answer.  I have a difficult time understanding that when there is so much bureaucracy to wade through so often. Sometimes getting a meal is a big production.  And if other people do your laundry, you’re not quite sure what shape your clothes will come back in.  But the more people I meet and talk to, the more understanding I developed. …of their dreams and what they hope to create.  I see in glimpses of what they mean by ‘freedom’.  It’s these glimpses that I see that motivates me to write…in the hopes that I will free myself to live my own dreams.