At 7PM we (me, Todd, Jason and his family, plus some of their kids' friends) went to the chawarma place, yep again, (we can only get chawarmas here in the capitol) and then went to pick up Derek from the airport, the other guy who's coming to coach with Todd and I. We got there about 8, and he came out about 9:30, but during that time I got to have some really good conversations with Todd, and Jason about the soccer club, and what our roles could be and everything which was really cool. At 9:30 Derek came out and he was really excited and hyper. I remember thinking, "Oh, boy if he's always like this I'm gonna be in trouble!" just because he was very uptempo, happy, talkative, and just pumped to be here. His family had lived here for several Generations before him, so he was really excited to be back where the past couple generations of his family grew up.
As we were unpacking Derek's bags from the the truck, all of a sudden Todd comes out and asks where the machete is, cause there's a snake right outside the back door. So Jason gives him the machete and we both follow Todd out to the back to see what this thing is. Well Todd is able to pin the snakes neck under the machete while Jason drops a brick on its head. after we were pretty sure it was dead, Todd ran in and grabbed a knife and we then chopped off the head. Well of course we have to inspect it and figure out what kind it is. One of the guys here and the Guest House knows alot about snakes, apparently little ones come through every once and a while, so he took a look at it and apparently it was a spitting cobra, if you don't know what a spitting cobra is, then just look at the name. It's a cobra that spits venom and is deadly accurate up to 15 feet (from what they told me). It aims for the eyes, blinding its victim, then allowing it to either attack or get away. They're pretty deadly, but I don't know how long you can live after getting hit by a spitting cobra. It was pretty sweet though.
So after that whole awesomness I started playing a game with some friends. I can't remember the name of the game but it was a pretty fun one. After the game I hopped online and chatted with Mom and Krista on skype for a while and updated them on what's been going on, told them about the cobra and got to hear what's going on the US, sounds like snow just passed through PA. It was really good to talk to them again. I wished dad was there too, but sadly he was out of town. So I went to bed around 1 AM, (looks like I won't get to bed till 2 tonight)
Today was a really fun day too. It's our last day here in the capitol before we go up to the mountains. This morning there was a garage sale of a couple foreigners who were leaving the country, so I went and looked around to see what I could pick up. I ended up getting a nice amount of stuff, mostly little things. The biggest thing I bought was a floor fan. Everything else was just kitchen stuff for our house in the mountains, like a cutting board, some tupperwear, a bread knife, a ton of little stuff like that.
On our way out a guy that works with the guest house we were at brought up an american made bike. I checked it out and it wasn't awful but the back gear needed fixed and the shocks needed oil, which is expensive and he wanted 2 Million ($300). So we told him to bring it by the guest house later in the afternoon so I could look at it more closely and maybe see if I could fix it with my tools. He came by about 2PM, with a different bike, and said the other one had a bad gear and shocks were pretty shot (which is what I had said in the AM) so he brought another one and was only asking for 1.5 million (just over $200). Since we were at the guest house, Jason and I ran inside and did some online research about the bike and Jason found the maker, a Belgian company called Thompson. We looked at their website and the cheapest bike they sold was 1,200 Euros (about $1,500). So Jason told me that he thought I should go for it and that it was a steal as long as there wasn't anything majorly wrong with it, which there isn't. So I went out and talked with the guy a little more and we agreed on 1.5 million francs so I went to my room, grabbed the money and brought it back out to him and I am now the owner of a really nice, Thompson Acid mountain bike.
That's the snake, it was probably 4 feet long!! :)
And here's my new bike, 21 speed! Can't wait to ride it in the mountains!
The rest of the day was pretty low key, except for dinner where they had a welcome party for me and Derek, and so I had to get up and answer some questions and tell everyone my story. At the end Jason's wife gave each of us really nice West African National Soccer Team jerseys which I will wear on tuesday for their African Cup opener against Mali. I will also hopefully be watching Monday's Morocco-Tunisia game... GO MOROCCO!!
Anyways, tomorrow we're taking the 9 hour drive up to the mountains where I'll be until beginning of March. I will try to get these out as often as possible but our internet there is just fast enough for email, and skype chat so I don't know if how often I will be able post, but I will as often as I can. Pictures probably won't pop up until I'm back in the Capitol in March, unless I can find a way to shrink the files a little. So we'll see. Anyways it's 1:30 AM here, and we have a long drive ahead so I need to get to bed.
Blessings,
Mark
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