How a Lady freshens up for a Skype date with her beloved when she is in Africa

If you are wondering why I haven't written, it is because I for some reason can not copy and paste onto this site anymore. It is very frustrating because the site will sometimes not load and I just want to be able to take things that I have already written and put them on here, but I can't. Hopefully I will find a way.

It's sunny outside doesn't describet it. Sunny? What is the deal with that word? It sounds like it is impllying something and not really defining anything. In no way does it convey the power of the sun. Here, it is sun outside. And I'm sweating. All day. Always. Just like in the States.

So when I receive a skype invitation from the old boyfriend back home, I jump on it and then feel apprehensive later. I didn't wash my hair today and I have been sweating non-stop for two months. My face has decided that it did not go through puberty properly and it wants to give it another try. I would put on foundation but I would just sweat it right off. I am breaking out to the point that a teacher at my school was so fascinated that she touched my forehead as a means of cross-cultural exchange. "I can see that the insects are already getting to your face."

I need to "bathe" before this skype date. I mean, I have to get up in the middle of the night anyway, so even if I were not under these conditions, it is unlikely that I would be looking presentable. It is pitch black out and I go to fill my bucket up with water in order to bathe. Oh dang, there is none. So I go to use our drinking water reserves and fill my bucket to a level that is not adequate for a bucket bath. I take the lantern and go into the shower shed. I am thankful that at least he can not smell me across the internet. That is a plus, but I know that this is hardly enough water to rinse my hair. So I am washing my hair and retruning the same water into the bucket and re-rinsing with dirty water. As I scoop up some more dirty water with my eyese closed, I feel it. Something that was not water. It was some type of insect and my reflexes jump automatically, jolting my arms as to fling that thing anywhere else possible. Get ahold of yourself Jeannine. It was just an insect. You're in Africa during a bucket-bath. Of course there will be in insect in your water once in a while. As I regain my composure, I go to take another scoop of water and splash it on my head--which is where the cockroach had been flung.

My sheets are full of sand. Every night, it is like sleeping on the beach and I am too lazy to do anything about it because I know it is inevitable. Sand is everywhere, especially in my food and drink. The morning program song that we sing is slightly different in Africa. It is called, "Sand, you made my lunch." I eat sand knowingly and drink it daily, and I sleep in it, and it is in my snot right now. Looks like Will has a real surprise coming his way. I would write more, but I need my beauty rest haha.