A day in the life

Everyone’s day begins in one way or another with waking up and of course my own is no different. But to really understand a day in the life of anyone, you need to understand their mood before they went to sleep. This is why my day begins in darkness and ends in darkness.

It’s around 8pm and I’ve just finished dinner. Everything is going well and I’ve just a few things to do before I lie down for the evening. Suddenly blackout. Of course this is not unexpected but I’d hoped it wouldn’t come for another half-hour or so. Because of this I’m unprepared; I don’t have my torch with me and probably don’t even know exactly where I’ve left my mobile. I curse myself as I struggle around in search of some kind of light. Eventually I get the phone and then the torch. Right, that’s it - there’s no chance I’m washing the dishes tonight, nor will I be washing clothes or sitting at my desk or in fact doing anything which isn't a necessity. You see, when all you have is a torch you will more than likely bump into something you didn’t want to see or get attacked by moths who have seen the light. So, I set about my chores with conviction. I brush my teeth while hoping the cockroaches beside the sink haven’t ventured out into the darkness yet. I pick up my cloth which was once an expensive jumper bought in Canada but which today serves to wipe clean the dust from my newly installed bamboo mat (no need for a sheet as the bamboo mat lets the air through allowing for a much more comfortable sleep). Then down with the mosquito net as quickly as possible, tucking it in pretty carefully to ensure there’ll be no unwanted guests joining me during the night. Next is the shower: bucket and jug, cold water (fantastic when stressed by mosquitoes, moths etc)….relief! Dried off and ready to face the music outside the door. After about 20minutes of darkness the cockroaches, usually no more than three of them, come out to inspect my kitchen. I usually meet one outside the bathroom or at the entrance to my bedroom which causes my heart to race and the sweat which I thought I had just washed off to pump again. The cockroaches actually don’t attack they just run around in circles making it especially difficult to guide them away from my room. Eventually with some nifty footwork, they are sent about as far away as a Martin McHugh kick-out back in 1994.

Now, I’m ready for bed…computer plugged in ready for the power to come back, sitting on my bamboo mat with mouse and internet cable. In with me, on with computer and ready for some reading, writing, emails, music, film or series…but then I remember, I haven’t turned off the fans or the lights which are still on since the power is gone…out again…then i’ve forgotten the phone…out again…

Eventually I get settled but spend the first 20minutes killing mosquitoes that are attracted to the computer screen handy enough. By now however, I’m sticky and anxious and by the time I’ve finished on the computer I’m not really comfortable…by 11.30 however, I’m drifting and soon I’m gone for the night….stressed and wrecked.

I normally wake up around 7am and my alarm clock will range from the kids outside, a noisy old van passing by or the cleaner banging on my steel door. I turn around to have a gawk out my window and spot my 8year old neighbour heading to our backyard with about 4empty water bottles. She’s fresh as a daisy as are the kid goats climbing on the stack of bricks across the road. Robby, a 5year warrior, is of course annoying the same goats and every day I ask myself the same thing: how the hell is it that these kids have so much energy, they are always up before me, always running around all day and are still to be heard when I’m hiding in my mosquito net at night.

Anyway I grudgingly pull myself out of bed, pour the water I boiled the night before into the filter and steep some clothes for washing. I open the door to let Nobilla, the cleaning lady, in to fly around the kitchen and my bedroom with a broom and a mop…fifteen minutes later, my bin has been emptied outside the front door of the building and Nobilla is gone. By this point I’ve had my banana, oats and natural yoghurt, my coffee and my toast. I’ve washed those damn dishes from the night before (maybe) and I’m now making a half-effort at washing my clothes. Shower finished and all cables gathered together, teeth brushed, three litres of bottled filtered water and off for work I go…It is now 9am and I walk the grand total of 13steps downstairs to the office. I settle down at my computer and away we go.

My working day is from 9-5 with lunch for an hour sometime and some tea thrown in there at some point too but I’m not gunna go into detail about what I do at work in this post. By 1.30 or so I head either upstairs to cook or to the nearby hospital for rice and spicy chicken curry. Yip, I regularly choose to eat in a hospital because there are no other restaurants suitable for someone who is not a huge chilli fan. If I cook at home it usually varies from Kitchuri (Rice, lentils and spuds with some spices) to pasta with a homemade and generally poorly made tomato based sauce. With tomatoes no longer available I’ll have to invent some other sauce (maybe lentils?) soon. I usually leave the office by 6 and head for a much deserved cigarette, a cup of tea and banter around the fact that Michael is soo tall, doesn’t know how to cook, isn’t married and really struggles with mosquitoes. Truth be told, this is as good as the craic gets and it definitely keeps me sane and good humoured even if it is a bit repetitive. By 7pm I’m back in my apartment and depending on the weather and any number of things, maybe I’ll have power maybe I won’t but I will have to start cooking again soon…

This may all seem a bit pedantic or daft but it is the way things are. It is not to say that there will be no surprises; on the contrary I experience something new at least once a day. Today for example I went to see my colleague’s pond which he rents to a fisherman for about 400euros a year. While there I picked a lime from a tree and then headed off to the local club to play karam (like pool but you play with little plastic pieces the size of a coin and with your finger…)I also returned to power, turned on my lights and fans and steeped some clothes BUT by the time I had the clothes steeped I returned to a kitchen literally full of moths…maybe a hundred or more….

You see, this is why I start in the evening…my day is not so tiring generally but it is by the time that I actually get to sleep that the stress of coping with the unexpected, the mosquitoes, the darkness, the moths, flies and cockroaches, that I’m absolutely wrecked.

But I’m not complaining, I live in a pretty decent place, with running water, shelter and electricity and there are hundreds of people living within one kilometre radius of me who don’t have those basics…and with the rain now bucketing down I’m sure as hell happy my day doesn’t sound anything like theirs.