the sun gets up too early
Sunrise is currently happening in the neighborhood of 4:30. That's too dang early. Thankfully with the passage of the solstice it means we'll finally be heading in the opposite direction and I can slowly regain my sanity. Actually it's not so bad. The weather is sufficiently cool still that I can close my storm shutters and just let the tiniest sliver of light pierce my room. With that I don't get woken up quite so quickly. I'm afraid it won't last though, and when it really starts heating up I'd like to start sleeping outside. Whoa that no one can weave me a traditional bed overnight for $20 as in Benin. Even so, with the sunrise so early I wouldn't want to sleep outside yet.I'm still running. My current plan is quite a bit less ambitious than marathon training mode, but it's enough to keep me fit enough that training again won't be difficult. I'm running 3 times a week; 2 hour-longs and a 30 minute on Wednesdays. I hope I can convince one or more of the new people to run with me come closer to fall, as there is a glut of marathons taking advantage of the beauty of turning leaves.
It's hard to believe that last year at this time I was cruising around on my rented motorcycle enjoying my last few days in Parakou. It's even more hard to believe that I've been here that long. It really doesn't seem like it's been that long at all. Crazy, crazy days.
Nothing all too exciting has happened in the past couple of weeks. We had our recontracting conference, where we talked all about... well recontracting. I'd say it was nice to miss a day of school, but it wasn't really. My conference tolerance is pretty low, although for all my complaints this was actually a rather nice one. The speakers in general were quite good, and the subjects relatively pertinent.
Beyond that I've really just been spending quality time with the friends who are leaving oh-too-soon. Hard to believe that some are leaving in a tad more than 4 weeks. Yikes.