Shit out of luck

A mere twenty-four hours and I find myself back at the regional house, and not by choice. I returned to my house yesterday to a not so pleasant stench coming from my bathroom. Now mind you this is the same bathroom upon moving in that I would find newborn baby mice on the floor and spiders that are bigger than my hand...but now those seem like the lesser of the evils. Upon my return I open the bathroom door only to find that in my absence the toilet, if you would even call it that, had overflowed, clogged or something And the stench, well it was awful. I called home hoping that my dad would have some answers, if only Guinea had liquid Drain-O.

I decided that I would take care of it the following day, I slept with all the windows open to get some air flow and it wasn't terrible sleeping. But I'll tell you what was... waking up with a giant cockroach on my face and I wish I were exaggerating but he managed to find his way into my mosquito net and took up residence on the area surrounding my chin. It was a nice wake up call at 4:30 am. It was about time for me to get up anyway seeing as prayer call is around 5 and the mosque wakes me up every morning... who ever decided that installing a P.A. system in a mosque was a good idea... Now back to the toilet, with hunger pangs and the urge to pee I slowly opened the door only to find that the situation was just as bad, if not worse than before. I quickly closed the door and told my bladder it would have to wait until I left for work at 8:30. I tried to go back to sleep but the fear of waking up with another cockroach on my face kept me awake, and as if that weren't enough I spotted a HUGE spider lurking on my mosquito net and obviously 5 in the morning is a perfect time for damage control/insect killing. Once the bugs were taken care of I hopped back into bed only to catch the second round of prayer call and my alarm going off, so much for sleep. I quickly got dressed, brushed my teeth outside with the neighbors and the hauled my butt off to work. Friday happens to be prayer day. Therefore I only work a half day, so I ventured into the market to see my market ladies and pick up some rations, hell I even bought a cute pink market basket. I walked my sweaty butt for what seemed like a million miles finally got home only to discover that the situation in the bathroom was worse. Now me being the stubborn ass that I am decided that I could remedy this situation myself and dove in head first to mounds of shit. Disgusting, and fighting with all that I had in me to keep from vomiting I scooped on. Though I was totally mortified I eventually gave in, after my entire house smelled like a Port-o-John after a football weekend at Penn State, and called my Regional Coordinator. I quickly pulled the house together, made the bed, and tried to abate to smell obviously, to no avail before he got there. Bless his soul for walking into the mess, literally and figuratively. He also tried to fix the problem only to later hop on the horn and phone the only plumber in town. Who even knew there were plumbers in a town where people poop in holes? But then again who knew that holes could clog up?

The plumber makes his way over and assesses the situation, turns out the entire latrine (for lack of a better word) needs to be replaced. Fantastic. Add this to my list of problems, not only do I have a bathroom full of Poo, but my door won't lock, my roof leaks when it rains and I broke my bed earlier in the week... needless to say I packed up my things and headed for the Regional House with Daffe (pronounced daf-fay) because there was no way I was staying in that smelly mess of a house. Now don't get me wrong, I love my house, I love my neighbors and my Quartier (or town), I really do...but I can't exactly sleep there when its poo-infested. So here I sit. Looking back I should've taken pictures but the plumber won't be back until Sunday so before its fixed maybe I'll take some pictures in case you're wondering... then again maybe I'll spare you.


But for now heres some pics!


Old picture. This is me wearing what they call a Grande Boubou. This happens to be a mens outfit, which they wear for special occasions.

View from the back fo the PC Car...one day I'll learn to carry things on my head.

Mmmm, rice and sauce.

The Grand Market in Kankan, I visit here daily.