Blogoholic???

When a blog starts to feel  a little "dear Diary" is that a bad thing?

I've caught myself explaining and writing about things that are in the same exact vein as the things I read in blogs I really disliked before I was a blogging person.  I ate this today, my living situation isn't ideal because of X,Y and Z.  BO-RING.

So let me tell you about the fantastic day I had even though I didn't sleep last night.  I had an outpouring of support from people around the compound after they all heard about my neighbor harassing me about Jack.  Which really bolstered my realization that I have a right to own a dog since I'm paying the same money he is and I got the landlord's permission.  I'm now trying out training techniques (like I put the kitchen keys...why i have keys for my kitchen door is beyond me... in an empty plastic water bottle and shake it at him and say QUIET when he barks).

He's been better today since we went on an adventure together.  It struck me how we both could really use a good walk so I explored the neighborhood and found the most fantastic route with paths that led us to a loooooooong beach in only about 15 minutes.  There were camels on the beach.  It was not crowded even though it's a Friday and I really felt like I was able to reconnect with my inner peace that I knew was buried under all the silly stress I've been facing lately.

It was his first time seeing the ocean.  And camels.  Not sure if he even saw the camels, really.  He was deathly afraid of the water slipping up the beach and I started dying laughing at him and let him stay out of it.

I found a couple of small houseplants that will have to serve as my temporary garden until I get the real thing up and running.  It feels even more like home now with the plants smiling at me from the living room.

Thinking of planting my pili pili (cayenne pepper) seeds in old water bottles tomorrow since I remembered today that they take ages to germinate.  I also want to plant some seeds that fell out of this natural sponge I got for using in the shower.  No idea what the tree looks like.  I'm also fermenting Neem tree seeds and melon seeds on my kitchen counter.  Can we say, "seed nerd"?

This weekend I think I'm going to the 3rd (!) shamba that belongs to the people I'm renting my apartment from.  I've been told that I can plant there and it's only supposedly 5 or 10 minutes away by car.  I am nervous that it will be awful or there won't be enough space for my 36 beds that I want to plant (am i delusional?).  I guess I can just start small and maybe my income garden will come later.

Hoping to see a couple of friends tomorrow in town.  Or at my place.  Which should be fun.  I am ridiculously looking forward to it.  I also spoke with a new friend who's a dear friend of someone I know from Kigali and she and I are planning to meet up in the next week sometime (I first met here when I was here looking for places to live).  If I'm not careful I'm going to have something like a social life here!

Early next week I am theoretically meeting with a man to talk about doing community work.  Not sure if it could turn into a job, but he sounds like a really down to earth, productive, passionate person after the couple of phone calls we've had.  It's also really generous of him to offer to travel across the country to meet with me.  Trying not to get my hopes up.  They're up anyway.

"One Love.  One heart.  Let's get together and feeeeeeeel al-right."