I don’t know what it is exactly, but getting a good night’s sleep here is not possible. And it’s been that way for the past three and a half years. I can’t say why though. Even if I’m sleeping in a posh hotel, I can’t seem to sleep like a log. The possibilities are endless: muezzins raging into the night and morning, the foam mattress that has developed a concavity, the inability to sleep anywhere in my room without feeling the A/C drying me out. Those are a few that I feel lucky to deal with. This week, I’m dealing with water–the lack thereof. Water is pumped to the roof so that it feeds all apartments using gravity. I am quite near the water pump, so I get to hear when that starts up a couple times a day. I turn my faucet on and nothing comes out. I’m still waiting to get enough water to shower.
On the brighter side, I took the first ride on my new bicycle. In less than 15 minutes, I met the end of the asphalt and found the mud. This was not unwelcome. I saw some monkeys jumping around the trees; I saw a lot of rice paddies; I saw some guys breaking rocks (and they weren’t in leg irons); I saw the mesmerizing cylindrical rain clouds that seems to happen round here. The only spoiler was a guy on a motorcycle driving right at me, turning at the last minute and trying to kick me in the process. Jerk. I’ll be taking my camera out with me for a longer ride in the coming weeks. I’ll see what kind of beauty I can capture here with my refrigerator-sized digital camera.