Traveling

I am not always a very graceful person. One of my adjustments to life here is getting used to having a toilet and shower outside of my house. Most of the time this isn’t a big deal, but sometimes at night, the thought of walking across the yard to go to the bathroom is a little unsettling.

Recently, I went to the latrine at night, and all of a sudden, I watched my flashlight begin to fall from its precarious perch on top of the toilet paper holder. And then, everything went dark.

Now, it is not my ideal scenario to be feeling around on the latrine floor in the pitch black. Especially when there are rumors of a red snake living in our latrine. Thankfully, I quickly located my flashlight, but unfortunately, it was not as heavy when I picked it up because two of the three batteries had slipped out of the flashlight and rolled to a place of no return. This left me fumbling in the dark and stumbling back to my tukul, where I was able to use my mobile phone as a light until I could get new batteries the next day.

I just have to laugh at the whole situation, and hope to become a little more adept at using a light in the darkened latrine. And, I’m thinking I should have brought a couple of back-up flashlights in case next time the flashlight goes the way of the batteries. I’m thankful for laughter as I drop things, stumble in the dark (and sometimes in full daylight), and learn my way around.