...about those curtain rods...

There are things in this world that are just unexplainable. Why is it impossible to sneeze with your eyes open? Or why is there a k in knife? Or why is a hamburger called a hamburger when there is no ham in it? Which brings me to my curtainless curtain rods of five posts back.

Installing curtain rods in our apartment was the first thing we did when we arrived here on July 21st. That first morning, we noticed there were curtain rods alongside the wall of our living room. When the building manager came up to welcome us, he asked us if we wanted him to find someone to anchor those up on our wall. At that point in time, with the mind numbing (as well as other parts of the body) jet lag caused by 36 hours of travel, plus a sleepless night, compounded by the stifling heat (we still hadn’t figured out how to work the AC), our brains had basically shut down and incapacitated us in making any decision, let alone an important one like whether or not we wanted our curtain rods screwed into our wall. So, continuing to live on the wild side, we embraced destiny and let the universe unfold the way it was intended to unfold, gallantly replying to to our building manager, Sure, why not, let’s do it.

Next thing we knew, within a few minutes, we had Mamadou and Bangoura drilling holes in our walls. These two fine gentlemen, the african rendition of Abbot and Costello, spent the major part of the afternoon collaboratively engaged in the intricate yet labor intensive installation of our curtain rods...which basically entailed screwing 4 screws into our wall. Haven’t seen Mamadou or Bangoura since then, but, with all the money we gave them for that afternoon of screwing, (weren’t too sure then how much we were dealing with when it came to Guinean francs...), I wouldn’t be surprised if they were sipping on margueritas right about now, in southern France, enjoying early retirement.

That night, I remember us sitting on our cheap faux leather regulation american embassy couch with that bewildered deer in headlight look still very apparent on both our faces, gazing at the bare walls of our apartment, except for those two well secured curtain rods, sans curtains.

That was just over 22 weeks ago, and we are still looking at our curtain rods sans curtains which, for the past few weeks, have been very rich fodder for some more of that existentialistic questioning that I seem to have been getting much into since my arrival in Africa. Blame it on the andropausal stage of my life journey, where, just for the fun of it, mature self actualizating (I think the word here should be actualizing, but heck, I’ve decided that making up words is symptomatically related to andropause) guys my age typically and frequently question our human existence in the hostile and indifferent universe in which we find ourselves; or better still, blame my frequent loitering in the vast expanse of ponderability (whoah, really outdid myself there!, that andropausal testosterone must really be working overtime...) and the fact that I am presently in the land where people, mostly guys, have mastered pondering to an art form. When I was first introduced to this form of male african meditation a few years ago on my first visit to Senegal, I used to think that it was just a bunch of guys hanging around doing nothing, because they had nothing to do since the women did all the work. Not so. I’ve now come to realize and appreciate that all of my African bros who I used to think did nothing, are in fact deep thinking spiritual gurus who work hard all day contemplating life, and, correct me if I’m wrong here, all this male pondering will undoubtedly and eventually result in something monumentally earth changing, like perhaps, attainment of world peace, or the eradication of world hunger, or the cure for cancer, or, even finding the answer to the century old question of why hamburgers don’t have ham.

Back to my curtain rods. In essence, these curtain rods are symbolic of the first chapter of our lives here in Africa. When we first arrived, we were bewildered and lost, yet excited about being here, and above all, determined that we were going to make it work. Although we weren’t really that impressed with our living accommodations, we were determined to make this our home, at least for awhile, and thus, the curtains. Is there anything more ‘domesticated’ than hanging curtains in your home? So the intent was there and within the first 24 hours of our arrival on the continent, we got our rods securely fastened to the wall. But then, 22 weeks later, still no curtains on our rods. Could the sans curtains status of our rods symbolize wavering on our part as in questioning whether or not we had made the right decision to come here? Could be, but not likely. Admittedly, there really hasn’t been a day that has passed over the last 5 months when I haven’t given some thought to Christmas in Vancouver, to taking a walk around Buntzen Lake, to having dinner with friends, and to being closer to our god’s-gift-to-mankind-how-on-earth-did-we-ever-deserve-to-have-such-great-kids progeny.

Although longing to be back in the comfort zones of our normal lives came frequently and intensely over the course of these past 5 months, and even though sometimes the many challenges that have presented themselves to us appeared to be unsurmountable (like, just recently, John, the cable guy told us that our TV isn’t working because all the wiring in our building is fried and that my life will be void of Frasier reruns until they fix it!..), both Madeleine and I always came back to the comforting and reassuring realization that this is the right place for us to be, at this time in our lives.

As this first chapter of our African saga comes to an end, we are both happy to have experienced and proud of what we have accomplished during the past 5 months. We have settled into our community and our school; we are securely anchored into our new community. We have worked hard, we love our work, we have had an impact on the people whom we serve, and we are appreciated for the work we do. Does it get any better than this? True, we are not getting paid a ton of money for what we are doing, but the awesome gift of fulfillment greatly compensates for the lack of dollars (so what if I have to wait till I’m 98 before retiring). Living here continues to be a challenge and a treat at the same time. There is plenty of work that still needs to be done, and now that we are securely fastened here, we will get that work done.

Maybe we’ll get curtains after Christmas.