Does anyone want to hear me complain?
Trying to get the internet. Ask a million people what they did. Most people had a phone line that was $6 an hour, but they were usually overcharged and the line worked only sometimes. Someone knows someone who has another system that costs $80 a month, and they are streaming radio. an admiral is visiting so we can’t ask the one person who might know. Ask again. Get a phone number. Amina, the saintly nurse in the med unit, calls the number for me and tells me where to go. I wanted to go yesterday, but they are closed from noon to 3:30 or maybe it’s 4 and I didn’t make it.
Called the driver by 11:00 so I made it to Sahelcom today. With difficulty and an unsmiling clerk, I signed up for something. Paid my 25,000 cfa at a different window. Then discovered that it was the system that is $6 an hour on a telephone line. It’s all they have he says. God. Amina says a friend of hers works for another company and tomorrow she will call and get the information from him. Arrgg. Meanwhile, here I am at Peter’s computer, waiting for our sandwiches, kids are stapling together packing peanuts to make necklaces, crowns, boats and fish.
I really need to go the store today. For some reason, we are having a hard time having enough food. I need dinner ideas, beyond pasta. Kids won’t eat chicken. Beyond pasta and chicken, I don’t know what to cook. Okay, quiche. Potatoes. I’ll try those things.
I ordered the newspaper to come by mail, but we haven’t gotten it yet. It’s one of the things that Peter and I agree we miss the most.
In other news: I am on a committee to produce a short film for the ambassdor about life in Niamey. Having been on the film committe at PFS and since I have imovie on my computer I am the most qualified person here. l’ve been here a week, so I’m an expert on Niamey. A portion of the movie will be titled Sahelcom and it will be me, there, Michael Moore-style, unsuccessfully trying to get the internet.
twenty-something years of "what have you been up to?" 
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