Disaster

Friday was just one of those days...

I had a rather rough morning, then:

I had a few frustrations at school that I cannot put into a blog.

I also have a laptop with me in South Africa that helps me immensely not only with keeping track of the two schools I work with (all the info in one place, that I can use at home, plus internet), but also stores my pictures, music, videos, life plans, etc. Granted I do back things up from time to time, but haven't recently. On friday, after I had been working on my laptop because another teacher was typing on the school's computer, I realized my laptop adapter wasn't working. It has a little green light that usually stays lit when there is electricity running to it. Now, I plug it in, the light flickers, and is gone.

This means I can't charge my battery, which also means that now that the battery has run low, I can't access any of the files on that computer...

This isn't the first time this has happened, but the last time I was able to get a replacement part in two days, which was still irksome.

So I spent a few hours making sure it was the adapter and not anything else... and then began work again on the school's computer.

I hadn't finished when school let out, so I came back after school to work and also to plan for a vacation that was coming up soon.

While this was on going, a windstorm blew through, so I stayed at the school to wait it out. This was then followed by a thunderstorm. Now, I was a little annoyed, because the power flickered before the storm, making me lose whatever I hadn't saved (fortunately not a lot). I hadn't eaten yet, so I was really hungry as well.

I waited the storm out, chatting with friends on mxit (via my cellphone).
Then there was a break in the storm, so I decided to run home.

It was rather dark, lit up at times by brilliant flashes of cloud to cloud lightning. I was concentrating on not twisting my ankle (fortunately I had worn my boots, thanks Anita!) and staying as far away from the electricity poles as possible. Then...
WHAM!!!
I ran into a barbed-wire fence.

And bounced off... Unfortunately the barbs were sharp and it looks like a cat attacked my chest and leg. (Peace Corps does give us a whole host of shots, so I'm good in case the fence had rabies, Hepatitis, Tetanus, etc.)

Then, I steered clear of the remaining fence and made it home. I doctored myself up, chatted with friends from home on mxit (Thanks for your concern guys!) and had some food.

I think in the future I'll try to avoid barbed wire.
I should be able to get a replacement adapter in about two weeks.... arg.

And that's life here for right now. Not all days are like that.