marathon training

So today (Nov. 14) was the hottest yet! And while i sweated my way through numerous crowded cab rides and errand-running downtown to get my resident permit and re-entry visa paperwork started I began to wonder if the banana, room-temp leftover rice and spoonful of peanut butter that I ate this morning would be enough to sustain me on such a day as this one! I know that sweating is a good sign and I’m trying to keep tabs on my own perspiration so I can figure out if I’m getting enough water. And I realized that being a Westerner who moved to Liberia is like training for a marathon!

I’ve come to decide that it’s all about redefining what my body needs to sustain itself and conditioning myself to function in ways that I haven’t had to before now. I mean if all these people are eating rice every day and still walking around carrying things on their head then I should be able to perform normal day-to-day functions on a diet of fruit and rice plus a bit of protein (minus the head-carrying part cause that would make my neighbors think I’m a crazy white lady – not just ‘white lady’ as the children shout from their homes). So I’m weaning myself off my Clif Bars and am trying to use them only in emergency situations – i.e. if I’m trapped in the bank again for hours and hours of processing. But I’m starting to think that I might be able to survive on 2 meals a day: breakfast of fruit, bit of PB and some starch/carb and then dinner of rice/potato/pasta plus some protein (most likely fish, chicken or sausage from the road stands). But we will have to wait and see!

p.s. I ‘flushed’ my toilet successfully for the first time this morning!!! I’ve learned that it’s all about the amount of water that you put in the bucket, the angle that you pour it from and the height of the bucket above the toilet. You see, if you miscalculate these things you end up splashing water from the toilet (eww!) onto the floor or worse onto your own feet...and I’m still not sure how to really CLEAN things here so I do not want that to happen!