This evening, I was watching a DVD by RC Sproule (my usual Wednesday evening with my neighbours), and I learned from dear old RC the word "torpid". Once looking it up, I realized that it exactly describes my blogging habit... and a lot of my other habits around here lately! Between the lack of electricity, weird weather, weird politics, shortage of bread, flour and other bits and pieces, there have been a few extra things to think about lately. Hence, my torpidity about normal habits such as blogging.
As I was thinking about rectifying my torpid ways, I was composing a blog in my head. But somehow, it has fallen out of my head again! Sorry. There's really not been many adventures lately - as I said, we have limited power each day. I've been really busy at work. And in the evenings, I've been busy with things like, well, cooking, eating, and washing up. My garden is growing a bit, except that some of my baby plants didn't survive the last downpour :( My pumpkins, cucumbers and kale are growing well, though. I'm hoping that I can start eating my bean leaves (called "korofo") next week!
I also haven't been blogging much because I've been busy reading stuff on my little gadget. I love my little gadget. It's been especially wonderful these past weeks as we only have electricity during working hours and for a few hours in the evening. Having books and magazines on the gadget means that I can read in the dark. Just me, my cat and my gadget, and we're happy together.
I've also tapped into my neighbour's back up battery system. He has an inverter and a battery, and I have just "boosted" the system with a second battery (which, wow, do not come cheap!). Already, I can plug in a little fan and even my computer (or my gadget!) into a wire that goes from his place to my place. What a difference it has made, to have a little moving air in the house when it's been so terribly hot! But we are going to work on wiring up a few lights in my house, to be powered by the battery (which gets charged up when the generator is on), so I can at least see what I'm cooking in the evening and find my way to the loo at night.
Another project that I've been working on is breakfast alternatives. My normal breakfast of champions here in this place is a piece of bread (which looks like a little dinner roll) with peanut butter and jam. However, there's a serious shortage of bread at the moment in town. I also just ran out of jam yesterday. I also haven't been able to find any oats in town. And I have already blogged about the fact that the closest Cheerio is thousands of miles away. Eggs have also almost doubled in price over the past few months. And, obviously, I'm not going to get out of bed early so that I can actually COOK anything in the morning! So. This all leaves me with not too many options for breakfast! I have baked some muffins, which turned out quite yummily. Tonight, I cooked up some "potato pancakes" which should last a few days - will just have to heat them up in a skillet in the morning! Any good breakfast ideas are welcome :)
At least I'm getting healed from my trauma from all these things during the day. I'm working with one of the language teams here to check a book that they have translated about healing from trauma. This book is full of stories about people who have suffered through horrible things, including wars and famine and abuse and all sorts of things. It's a really much needed book in these parts, and I really do hope that people will be able to make good use of this book and find some peace after all the awful things they have experienced here. It's also just been an interesting experience to check a translation. I haven't done very much of this sort of work, but it's really interesting. Today we checked two chapters of the book, translated by two different people. It's amazing to see the different styles of translation that the two translators have used. Both of them have the right meaning and have translated it relatively naturally into the language... but one of them has stayed quite close to the English structure, while the one has definitely paraphrased! Anyway, the group that I'm working with are being very patient with me, too, as I find my way in this new sort of work. too.
It's nearly time for the power to go off once again, so better get this posted, jump in the shower, and put away my leftover potato pancakes!
And I will try not to be quite as torpid about this blog over the coming weeks... though in a few weeks, I am travelling to a country where this website is actually blocked! But hopefully you will hear from me before then :)
As I was thinking about rectifying my torpid ways, I was composing a blog in my head. But somehow, it has fallen out of my head again! Sorry. There's really not been many adventures lately - as I said, we have limited power each day. I've been really busy at work. And in the evenings, I've been busy with things like, well, cooking, eating, and washing up. My garden is growing a bit, except that some of my baby plants didn't survive the last downpour :( My pumpkins, cucumbers and kale are growing well, though. I'm hoping that I can start eating my bean leaves (called "korofo") next week!
I also haven't been blogging much because I've been busy reading stuff on my little gadget. I love my little gadget. It's been especially wonderful these past weeks as we only have electricity during working hours and for a few hours in the evening. Having books and magazines on the gadget means that I can read in the dark. Just me, my cat and my gadget, and we're happy together.
I've also tapped into my neighbour's back up battery system. He has an inverter and a battery, and I have just "boosted" the system with a second battery (which, wow, do not come cheap!). Already, I can plug in a little fan and even my computer (or my gadget!) into a wire that goes from his place to my place. What a difference it has made, to have a little moving air in the house when it's been so terribly hot! But we are going to work on wiring up a few lights in my house, to be powered by the battery (which gets charged up when the generator is on), so I can at least see what I'm cooking in the evening and find my way to the loo at night.
Another project that I've been working on is breakfast alternatives. My normal breakfast of champions here in this place is a piece of bread (which looks like a little dinner roll) with peanut butter and jam. However, there's a serious shortage of bread at the moment in town. I also just ran out of jam yesterday. I also haven't been able to find any oats in town. And I have already blogged about the fact that the closest Cheerio is thousands of miles away. Eggs have also almost doubled in price over the past few months. And, obviously, I'm not going to get out of bed early so that I can actually COOK anything in the morning! So. This all leaves me with not too many options for breakfast! I have baked some muffins, which turned out quite yummily. Tonight, I cooked up some "potato pancakes" which should last a few days - will just have to heat them up in a skillet in the morning! Any good breakfast ideas are welcome :)
At least I'm getting healed from my trauma from all these things during the day. I'm working with one of the language teams here to check a book that they have translated about healing from trauma. This book is full of stories about people who have suffered through horrible things, including wars and famine and abuse and all sorts of things. It's a really much needed book in these parts, and I really do hope that people will be able to make good use of this book and find some peace after all the awful things they have experienced here. It's also just been an interesting experience to check a translation. I haven't done very much of this sort of work, but it's really interesting. Today we checked two chapters of the book, translated by two different people. It's amazing to see the different styles of translation that the two translators have used. Both of them have the right meaning and have translated it relatively naturally into the language... but one of them has stayed quite close to the English structure, while the one has definitely paraphrased! Anyway, the group that I'm working with are being very patient with me, too, as I find my way in this new sort of work. too.
It's nearly time for the power to go off once again, so better get this posted, jump in the shower, and put away my leftover potato pancakes!
And I will try not to be quite as torpid about this blog over the coming weeks... though in a few weeks, I am travelling to a country where this website is actually blocked! But hopefully you will hear from me before then :)
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