Of all the times to forget my camera, I thought as I watched three men load a cow into the back of a bush taxi. The red Toyota Starlet, from whatever year Toyota was making Starlets, looked like it would buckle under the weight of the animal, or maybe the sacks of grain, bicycles, and people already loaded into the vehicle, but miraculously it did not. You could tell from the windshield (held together with tape) and the doors (held closed with rope) and the ignition (hot wired) that this car had seen worse than cattle in its long life, and was up to the challenge. This bush taxi is my favorite car on my route into Mango, which involves biking 32km on “dirt” (read: sand/mud/rocks/river, depending on the season) roads, and then 25km in the Starlet. The driver has spent time in Ghana, and always greets me with “Good morning, sister! Let’s go to Mango! You go take your tea, and I will wait. Go and come.”Awesome. I get coffee in a can to go from the egg sandwich guy at the corner (and a sandwich, of course) and off we go, cow mooing all the way, to Mango: the big city.

But the big city is quickly coming to Mogou—this past week, big news—we got electricity! They turned on the big generator! The streetlights are on every night, and I have a lightbulb and a socket in each room in my house, which work from 6:00 pm until 11:00 pm. Other (larger) villages have electricity periodically throughout the day, but we don’t have quite the office worker population to support daytime electricity. So for the time being, it’s five hours. But what a difference! The first night we had it on in our compound, I was so excited I started dancing and hollering around the house, once again confirming my neighbors’ theories that I’m crazy.  I then plugged in everything I own and watched ten episodes of “How I Met Your Mother” until it went off at 11. Wild times in the village.

Girls Club is going again this school year: we meet every Wednesday and talk about different Life Skills topics for about an hour, and then dance it out in the courtyard. We’ve also started Reading Club with all of the donated books. The students LOVE them, and have started checking them out to read at home. I’ve had lots of other people in village asking to borrow books as well, from the teachers to the bartenders. Go reading!

I’ve been pretty busy with my national project work: Our first Lève-Toi Jeune Fille (our girls magazine) issue came out (theme: Girls in Science), and we’re working on our second right now. I’ve also been spending time in Kara getting ready for the Women’s Conference, scoping out hotels, getting our team together, etc. And, of course, taking advantage of the pool at Hotel Kara : )

And now, a shout out to all my readers who remember the battle I had with cockroaches in my apartment: check out this bug, which was in my house. It was one of many, attracted by the electric lights. Enjoy : )