Small Accomplishments
on The Road Less Travelled (Cameroon), 03/Aug/2010 18:32, 34 days ago
The last few days have been full of small accomplishments. They haven’t been major events, but to me they are significant and make an immense difference to me and to the people interact with here in Cameroon.Bun in the oven: Many of my friends have had babies recently… I am not going to have a baby but now thanks to my large pot I can bake buns in an oven. I found a pot that was the perfect size to accommodate my muffin tin and can now enjoy fresh muffins and other baked delights. The pot has about an inch of sand on the bottom to help diffuse the heat evenly.Tailor-Made: I found a tailor who could take a hideous dress and turn it into a cute and trendy dress. He used a surge machine so the seams won’t fall apart quickly. He also took more than just general measurements so that it fit like a glove. His name is Titus and I will definitely be going back to him in the future.You’ve been served: My tennis serve has drastically improved thanks to all the guidance from Eric and Paul (my coaches). I now play games against men who get incredibly embarrassed when I beat them. It is uncommon for a woman to excel more than men at any sport here.Let there be light: I successfully installed an outside light which involved buying a lightbulb, finding out that the light still wasn’t working. Figuring out I needed a starter, getting than and installing it. Finding out that the light does work, but that currently the switch to turn it off…does not exist. Am meeting with an electrician this week to rectify the situation but at least for now there is light all the time in mydark outside hallway which is lovely if I come home and it is dark out.“Libraries are not made; they grow” Augustine Birrell: I grew a library over the last two weeks…well not exactly but as of today, IDF had a database of over 760 books, magazines, brochures, reports etc… which is electronically in MS Access. I even created an easy to use search function so that the staff at IDF can type in a keyword or title or some other criteria and pull up all the relevant resources. My boss was so happy with it she almost cried when I showed her. She said “you have created what I only dreamed of in my head”. Now I just need to catalogue all their electronic documents….hmmm baby steps.A pat on the back to me...actually I think I will celebrate by indulging in some of the treats (hot chocolate and caramel) my parents and friends sent me...which reminds me of another accomplishment– successfully receiving mail through the postal system and befriending the post office lady!