So I am back in Lomé. Surprise! Upon returning from Kara, I was greeted by the entire community who was working in the dark with flashlights trying to replace the group water pump. I giggled at the thought of having 12 hours of daylight yet seeing everyone fumbling around with pipes and tubes in the dark. But they got it fixed and the prior celebrated by cracking a bottle of decent wine and passing it around to everyone who worked on the darn thing. He also called for me to come in from the small crowd of bystanders to give me a glass of it. I responded with a “but I didn’t do anything!” and passed the bottle instantaneously. One of the other monks who doesn’t have the acquired taste gave his cup to me after it was all said and done. Talk about a win-win, take the high road and get the reward!
Just before supper started I was also approached by Ezekiel who to my surprise was asking me if I was ready for the trip. Apparently I was included in plans to go to Lomé for 4 days, but wasn’t told about it. I told him that I wasn’t aware of it, but that I needed to work in the garden and ream out my students for underperforming on their exams. He said “ok,” walked straight to the prior, said a few words, and then came back to me to say goodbye (he was going back to Kara for the night). Not a minute later was I approached by the prior asking if I liked going for car rides. I felt like I damn dog that was thinking about going to the park, but instead getting a visit to the vet instead. I said yes hoping to get another word in. That didn’t happen. It was immediately followed with “Good, we are leaving at 5 in the morning.” End of discussion
And so here I am after another nice, long day of traveling. Nothing of note really happened on the road with the exception of an argument about heat that I could have had with a 5th grader. Briefly, there is a button in the van labeled “rear heat.” Apparently I am the only one who doesn’t find the humor of English directions in a Francophone/Africana country. They kept turning it on thinking it was just a fan to move air around the van, but I kept turning it off as soon as it came on. That led to a conversation on the differences between an AC unit and a fan followed by the is the more efficient between opening windows and the AC unit. Thanks to Mythbusters and countless other wacky resources like that, not to mention 10+ years of remembering taking road trips/driving, I was well versed in that answer (if there even is a right answer). That led to talking about heat in general and the green house effect (in cars and then globally). Only after we reached Lomé and I could draw diagrams to show exactly what happens did I convince some of the monks that for all practical purposes, that the closer you get to the sun the hotter it becomes theory doesn’t work. I am just glad that I didn’t have go back and disprove the theory of the solar system revolving around the earth.
After thinking about it for a little bit, I am actually pretty happy about coming down. I have a break from the routine that in all reality I have never stuck to, I have cybercafés less than a block from my room, and it will be a break from the monotony of teaching my now official count of 4 students and gardening.
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