Even Dumber Solar Story

  Grid2             A few months ago, a friend of mine came up to set up my solar power, spending days measuring and calculating and laying the groundwork.  We ran out of time, so he never got to see it wired and working.  Here are the pictures I promised to email him.  If you want to see more, see them bigger, or read my clueless witty commentary, they're in a photo album on Facebook, which anyone can see even if you're not a member by clicking here. (That means you, Dad.)

Don't bother trying to click on these photos to see them better, I don't know how to make one of these nifty grids on typepad, so it's just a screenshot from FB.

 

Cat Lady

scp I think it’s time for me to embark on a new career as a  quirky cat lady.

Unfortunately, I find myself without a cat at present.

Scruffy, or Madame la Chatte, has developed a habit of moistly expressing her displeasure any time I spent the night away from home on any cushions or upholstered furniture accessible to her.

So yesterday before I left, I locked her in the kitchen. 

She has a cat door in there, but I got tired of worrying about her being out all night (come on, I’m single no kids, I shouldn’t have to worry about anybody being out all night), so I duct taped it shut.  Should have tried Gorilla Tape.  I shoved her litter box in front of it blocking it, she is one strong kitty.  Yesterday we wired it shut, and then duct taped it for good measure. 

I come back today to find all the duct tape removed, paw prints on my counter, and no cat.

Tom Cat was seen walking on my wall last night.

Then I saw my screen.

I unwired the cat door, opened a $3 can of tuna and put it next to her food, and am hoping for the best. 

How can I be a cat lady without a cat?

Positive Polish

opipos Will this nail polish really fix a crack in my toilet?  That’s really good to know!  But, my creative use for it was to avoid sparks, short circuits, flames and explosions.

Ok, maybe I’m not risking all of those, but still.  If I reverse the positive and the negative on my 12 volt solar panel power system thingy deal, nothing good at all will happen.

And so, I sacrificed some of my precious polish.  Because I can’t find my red Sharpie.

Back to school with Barakisu

Bksu
Meet Barakisu.  Her name means “blessed.”  She’s one of the volunteers on the mmm-BELLY-may storycrafting team, pictured here getting her certificate after a training session.  Even though she’s a full-time student, she works hard with me to craft Biblically accurate stories into her heart language.  I haven’t asked her, but I’ll bet she tells them to her mother, who is blind.

Brk crafting
The Saturday last year when I took the second picture, we were the first to arrive for a storycrafting work day, so I got to chat with her. 

Being a teacher, I asked her about school.  Being a teacher, I was horrified to find out that out of the 7 or so subjects she was taking, she could only rent textbooks for 2 subjects that she would be tested on, and she had to share those with two other people.

Of course I bought her books and a dictionary.  Her pastor, who is shaking her hand in the top photo, told her that she needed to organize her class of 50 into study groups so that everyone could benefit from the textbooks.  She did.

After tests kind of like midterm exams, she came and told me that she passed, as well as 23 other people in her class.

The other classes only had 5 or 6 out of 50 pass.

I asked her pastor how it was that she was lucky enough to be in the most hardworking class that did the best on the tests.  Pastor Olivier looked at me like I was kind of dense and said, “It was the books.”

One set of textbooks shared among 50 kids more than quadrupled the pass rate.  Priceless.

 

Corded

Grn cord Living in another culture means always having to wonder if I really know what’s going on, no matter how well I speak the language.

We’re building a little shelter (read as, I am watching people build a little shelter) in my front yard.  On market day, I was sent to buy some cord.  Ok, cord.  I know what that is, brightly colored plastic stuff.

Except I never really entirely know what anything is.  So, since market day comes around only once a week, and I was in a hurry to get this thing at least placed before I had to leave for the States, I asked a friend to help me buy the cord we needed.  Not green plastic stuff at all.  Here’s a picture of what it was used for, pretty cool.Paillote small
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