burn baby burn

I am currently taking doxycycline to ward off the dreaded malaria. Unforunately for me, one of the side effects is severe sun sensitivity -- not a good thing when you're in West Africa. Today we went on an unexpected walk and my nose now feels as though it is on fire (and it looks like it too). I fear for my skin in 10 years when all of this awful sun damage catches up with me.

My cockroach problems are coming to an end, one way or another. Either my house will be fumigated and the roaches will die, or I'm moving out. I reached a breaking point last night when 7 of the enormous roaches (the palm-sized ones, not the pinkie finger sized ones) were standing guard in front of the bathroom when I was trying to get ready for bed. I know I'm in Africa, but I also know my limits.

Today we took a walk along the beach as a class, to see first-hand the awful state the ocean is in. Because Yoff is a fishing village, people have long believed that the ocean is the solution to all of their problems. Consequently, they dump all of their garbage in the ocean: plastic, food waste, tin cans, old clothes, waste water. They've also built up mounds of garbage to act as dams. Clearly the ocean is not faring well, but people don't know what else to do with their garbage and so continue to throw it in the water. It's really awful and depressing to see just how dirty the beach is. I don't know that I've ever seen that much garbage before in my life.

This is a kind of negative posting, but today has been a kind of negative day.