Shaken, not stirred.

29 january 2010

I woke up last night feeling quite shaken, but I couldn't quite explain why. The roof sounded like it was being pounded by wind, I thought maybe a storm was upon us and knowing that my clothes were hanging on the line to dry, i figured I ought to try and salvage what of the dryness I could. Reaching for my headlamp and keys, I made my way to the front door. I always pull back the curtain, reaching for the handle, nervous that I might find a pair of eyes starring back at me. Creeps me out. Alas, there was no louche standing at my front door, I unlocked it and opened it to a night sky as clear and star-full as I'd ever seen it. "That's weird" I dreamed to myself, because at the time I was still half asleep. My clothes were in their proper place on the line and without any clouds in sight, I didn't much think it necessary to bring them in just to have to hang them up again in the morning. I was suddenly hit by the urge to pee so in the light of the moon, which is so bright these days as it nears full roundness, I tiptoed to the toilet, trying to distinguish between rocks and the giant toads that inhabit my yard during the night. For one reason or another, I felt as though my balance was very off and thought for sure I'd end up with one leg down the hole of my toilet. Fortunately I proved myself wrong, returned to the house, locked up. Finding my room uncomfortably warm, I decided to open my bedroom window for the night, hoping that those 8+ legged monsters wouldn't come crawling in and attack me in the night, but as I climbed under my mosquito net back into bed, I found the cool breeze refreshing and decided it was worth the risk. Besides, I thought, this mosquito net makes me invincible. All of the sudden, there it was again! As I was drifting back into sleep, I once again thought the roof was going to fly off my house. Knowing there was not a cloud in sight, I wrote it off as one of those unexplainable phenomenon that sometimes happen just to wake up frightened young American women in Rwanda..

Maybe taking my Mephaquin right before bed last night wasn't the best idea because the life like resemblance of the golf ball sized spiders in my dreams throughout the early hours of the morning made me wonder if they were in fact dreams -nightmares- or real spiders clinging to my mosquito net, quilting me in a blanket of one of my biggest fears. Yikes!

I awoke to Richard's voice through the walls this morning,

"Nicole.. Nicole...?"

"huh?" I mumble.

"My father is going to Musanze, do you want him to bring you anything?"

Not quite sure why I'm so incredibly tired, I make my way to the living-room, grab my shopping list and a 2,000 RWF bill and slide it under the door that separates their part of the house and my own (this is also the escape route the rats like to take when I catch them crawling around my kitchen table).

"I am so tired, Richard"

"Why?"

"I don't know"

"There was... there was a problem of geography" he tells me.

"A problem of geography?"

A few minutes later, his father, Shrek, the old man whom i adore, arrives at my gate to translate a few of the items on my list.

"Est-ce que vous avez senti les tremblement de terre hier soir? Il y en avait 3 ou 4"

"un tremblement de terre?!" - An earthquake!

There were 3 or 4?!

Well shoot, that would explain a whole lot, wouldn't it?

With this knowledge, I returned home.. skeptical.

My books are all in place, the dishes didn't spill all over the floor (granted the good majority of them are currently sitting in my washing tub on the floor already anyway)... Things seem to me to be in their proper spots, so I count my blessings recalling recent events in Haiti.. put on some tunes and go on to eat my porridge for breakfast.

Just one of those unexplainable phenomenon that sometimes happen just to wake up frightened young American women in Rwanda.

I don't feel scared, but feel free to say a prayer, if you're into that kinda thing.