Motivation Monday: Meh.

Many weeks I write my Motivation Monday post over the weekend and schedule it to publish early on Monday morning. Not this week. I'm writing it early Monday morning before I get into the swing of the morning rush for school, followed by running, followed by working, followed by after-school activities. Assuming Kiddo doesn't wake up sick this morning. She's had some mild cold symptoms.

After the pep talk I gave myself in last week's post, I completely did not follow my own advice. Prioritizing running was hard last week. Work, weather, the school schedule. Sure, it's all excuses that I could have risen above but I didn't. Because I'm human.

This is a new week. I'm looking ahead to possible sick days and snows days. I did some meal prep over the weekend so that I can spend the time on running, working, and parenting without having to worry about decently healthy breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. One day soon I'll write a whole post on meal prepping. I do it in a rather slow and lazy way. You will not find a hundred matching single-serve containers in my freezer. So stay tuned for that!

As you can see I didn't come anywhere near last week's mileage goal. I'm going to try again this week. Look at the weather, Tuesday is the warmest day this week and I'd like to do a long run then, hopefully getting out there before the rain drops, and possibly snowflakes, start falling.

Motivation Monday: Shutdown

I figured out how to add my stats to a photo!

This week the shutdown really started to get to me. We are not as bad off as some other families but it is definitely affecting our moods and our spending habits. And we have our own sort of survival guilt over the things we have to be thankful for, because other people don't have some of those things.

I'm continuing with my training for my spring races. Every day I say to myself that I could be using the time for one more hour of work that could make us a little more money. But then I say to myself that the race registrations are already paid for, so not training and then not being able to run the races would be a waste of money. And, realistically, my brain needs that hour off from writing and emails and worry.

If you see someone running or working out, in real life or on social media, don't roll your eyes and wonder why they're doing that when they should be working / parenting / whatever else you think they should be doing. Twenty-three hours out of the day, they may be doing those other things, plus hopefully getting some sleep. A lot of us are hustling right now for a variety of reasons. Give people their hour to run and shower. And examine how much time you're spending on social media before you question someone else's use of time.

Winter is socked in here. I did get outside this week and I plan to whenever it's feasible. I also finally figured out the trick of getting your running stats printed on the bottom of your photo. This has eluded me for years and it may be a small thing, but I'm tickled by it.

I'm not a huge treadmill fan but I'm warming up to it and can do about an hour if I have a good podcast to listen to. I've said this before, but one thing I will never do is call it the "dreadmill." I will also never use the term "junk miles" to refer to any run. Using negative terms puts my mind into failure mode before I've even started the run. I'm reframing it as a mental challenge. This is what has to be done in order to get in the training I need or the workout I need. It should be no different than any other workout that I'm not in the mood for. Why should I put an additional layer of negativity on it?

Thanks to those treadmill miles I reached my goal for this week, and a little extra because I felt good.

Motivation Monday: Sick

Last week's meager mileage

Training program for the last week = rest while I get over what might have been strep throat. I did nothing last week. I did a little work, but I work from home so that was mostly done from the couch. I napped a lot. I drank lots of water and decaf tea. My doctor gave me prescription-strength ibuprofen to help with some of the aches and pains until a strep throat diagnosis could be confirmed or ruled out. The rapid test only tests for one strain, so I had to wait several days for results to come in to see if I had one of the other strains.

I didn't. I just had a weird cold that was acting more like strep throat. I'm starting to feel well enough for some easy running.

But now it's snowing. I had planned on January being a base-mileage month for me and I was prepared to get those miles outside, even if it was cold. I had wanted to get as many of them in as possible before the snow started because, yes, even with Yak Trax, I'm afraid to run on slippery roads, sidewalks, and paths. I've fallen too many times and as I'm getting older, those bumps and bruises hurt more and take longer to heal. I know everyone who gives me advice on running outside in bad weather means well, but there are times when I'm not going to take the chance.

I'm not the kind of person who can run through a cold, either. Not always, at least. When my body says "Sleep," I sleep. When my body says, "I'm a little uncomfortable but could handle an easy run," I go for that easy run. There's way too much "Just do it! Tough it out! Don't be a wimp!" and not enough "Listen to your body and rest when you need it," in running these days. It's a main reason I stay out of most online running groups and forums. I don't want to be made to feel bad about my decision to rest when I'm sick. I've been running since I was 15 and these kinds of comments can still get to me. I can only imagine how hurtful and damaging they might be to a newcomer to the sport. We should be encouraging new runners to listen to their bodies. Let them have their own series of trials and errors to figure out what's right for them. Encouragement to move combined with empathy for an injury or illness that prevents the workout from getting done.

So I rested for a week. And I will be getting treadmill miles done if I don't feel comfortable going outside in certain conditions. And I will be comfortable with my limitations and my goals, and when I'm no longer comfortable with them, I will change them. 

Motivation Monday: Day 99

Yesterday's run.

Today will be Day 99 of the run streak. Some of my friends are going for one hundred days. Some of my friends are aiming for a whole year. Today I’m aiming just to get one mile in. I’m tired. It’s cold. But I have access to a treadmill so I could turn on a podcast and easily zone out for a bit. As soon as I find the motivation to change my jeans for running shorts.

That’s about it for today. 

Motivation Monday: Avoiding the Plague

A run in Rhode Island, February 2014

Today is Day 78 of the run streak. Last week I took advantage of warm weather and ran outside several days, getting a few 5K days in there. But mostly the streak has been one mile at a time. This morning we met some friends for a hike. I started out ahead of everyone to run a mile then meet up with the group. Mike carried an overcoat and over-pants for me because even after the run I was going to need another layer to stay warm on a hike. Yesterday I ran a mile on the treadmill then drove to farmers’ market instead of running or walking the mile to the market like I usually do. I discovered a couple weeks ago that the running to the market part isn’t so bad in sub-freezing temperatures but walking around and shopping at the market in my sweaty running clothes when it's that cold is not amazing. (It really sucks, honestly.)

I haven’t felt great for a few days. I’ve had cold symptoms that never seem to fully materialize into an actual cold or flu. As long as I don’t have a fever, though, I’ll continue to run. When my body tells me to sleep, I’m sleeping. I’m trying to drink a lot of water and eat fruits and vegetables for vitamins. But there was a day I ate nothing but muffins and I’m okay with that. (That was probably my sickest day, when I slept from one in the afternoon until seven the next morning.)

It's that time of year when New Year's resolutions, or new healthy habits, or whatever you want to call them, become endangered so soon after trying to make them because of the winter weather and all that comes with it. It's so much easier to run through the winter in San Diego than in Rhode Island. I'm going to listen to my body and rest when I need it. I'm going to listen to my experience that tells me not to brave icy sidewalks because I've fallen twice in the past year (and not even on ice, just regular sidewalks) and each fall took me out of running for a couple weeks. I can't make those decisions for anyone else, though. It's a time to get creative with treadmills and home workouts. It's a time to invest in some good gear in order to stay warm if you choose to go outside. And, really, I can't over-emphasize the importance of some good rest.

Motivation Monday: Snow Days

Frozen Narragansett Bay at low tide back on Run Streak Day 60

Today will be day 71 of my run streak. Between the cold weather, school holiday break, and snow days, it’s been difficult to get outside and it’s been difficult to find the time for more than one mile but I’m keeping the streak alive so far. Today is another snow day and I’ll get down to the fitness room in our building for another mile on the treadmill. I’m reminding myself that the running makes me a happy, healthy person. That it’s okay for Kiddo to play with my phone for fifteen minutes so I can get it done. She sometimes hops on the treadmill next to me for a quarter mile or so, then plays with the giant exercise balls. (A current favorite activity of hers is to bellyflop onto one and roll it across the room.)

It’s only January 8th but it already feels like it's been a long, dark winter. I have no specific races in mind this year. I have nothing specific to train for. I don’t know why I’m doing this daily running, except I guess I want to have a decent base for when I do decide on a race.

On Friday’s snow day I took Kiddo to the climbing gym. It was nearly empty, which surprised me. Since it was a cold-weather day, not a bad-weather day, I expected more people to have gotten their kids out of the house for some indoor activity to wear them out. But Kiddo and I pretty much had the run of the place. After a few climbs where I belayed her, we decided to go to the bouldering side of the gym, where you climb without ropes. Kiddo attacked the wall. She was at the top before I could blink. And she wanted to keep trying over and over again. I managed to get her to sit still for a few minutes so I could get some climbs in. It was wonderful to hear her cheer for me when I got to the top. I realized that I need to see her boundless enthusiasm to continue encouraging me and she needs to see me continuing to try new things and tackle new challenges even if I’m tired or in a bad mood.

She and I spend so much time together, she watches everything I do and gets her cues from me.
And I guess that’s why I’m going on with the run streak even on these dull, dark days. I have no physical or mental reason not to. Kiddo sees me having my activities, my life, and making it a priority, even if it’s only for fifteen minutes out of the day.

Your Basic Motivation Monday Stuff. And Dancing Frappuccinos.

Last Monday, 6:47 a.m.: It's going to be hot today but I feel ready for my eight miles. I can't leave until 9:00, after Muffin gets on the bus, so plenty of time for breakfast and more water.

During the run I struggled with the heat. For most of it I imagined a huge Midnight Mint Mocha Frappuccino dancing on the path in front of me.

It never occurred to me to search for frappuccino gifs before.

Making healthy decisions when I'm well-rested and well-hydrated it easy. Making them when I'm tired and hot is not so I'm very pleased with myself for not pulling out my phone and ordering a frappuccino to be ready when I passed the Starbucks near my home. Instead I made a mint mocha protein shake at home. It wasn't the same, obviously, but it wasn't bad and I know it was better for me.

I didn't get my eight miles, though. I barely got seven and the last mile was mostly walking along shady, tree-lined streets. The temperature rose twelve degrees while I was running. I think losing some of my fitness means I've lost some of my heat acclimatization. Burundi, India, Mali. Summers in Rhode Island, Florida, Washington, D.C. I'm a lover of heat and humidity. It's a lot harder to face it now, though.

This morning I had six miles on my training plan. I had to do a little shuffling around of workouts. Muffin was home sick last Friday when I'd planned on this six-miler. We had a busy weekend but I did manage a short run/walk while she was in karate on Saturday and she and I walked together on Sunday morning. (A walk at her pace does help me get my steps in and encourages me to drink plenty of water but it's hardly a workout for me.) Looking at the week ahead, today and tomorrow are really the only days I have time for significant workouts so I have no choice but to make it work. Six miles today and the climbing gym tomorrow, then whatever else I can squeeze in all the other days.

Despite temperatures falling a bit it was still hot and sunny out there this morning. I did my six miles. I did pull out my phone a quarter mile from home and order an iced latte with soy milk to pick up when I ran by that Starbucks. I came home and drank it with leftover roasted garlic and broccoli quinoa salad.

This morning I tried on a pair of shorts from last summer and they almost fit. They are the gauge I'm using rather than the scale. Maybe all the quinoa and ab workouts are starting to pay off.

This is the last week of school for Muffin. After that my schedule will be all out of whack and I have no idea what I'm going to do.

You Don't Really Train for a Marathon Alone

I'm not going to lie. Running has been difficult the last few weeks. It's hot. It's humid. It's downright Bamako out. Friends in the Northeast, friends in Texas, friends in London -- we are all struggling to run right now. I guess that's how the summer is for everyone who's insane enough to train for a marathon through these months. We accept it because we got ourselves into this and we'll get ourselves out.

On Saturday morning I snapped this picture just before starting a thirteen-mile run. I wanted to remember appreciating the beautiful scenery when the miles go tough. Sunrise on the beach. Early morning surfers. Folks out for a stroll with their coffees.

The beautiful scenery barely pulled me through the first mile. My friends did, though. I met up with Running While Mommy and a few others. We were all running different distances but stayed together for a few miles. I would have given up much sooner if it hadn't been for my friends. I wanted to think of my goal. I wanted to think of all the people who have things so much harder than I do but perform amazing tasks every day anyway. I wanted to enjoy the beachfront. But I couldn't. I was too hot and too tired. My mind was a blank. But I had footsteps beside me and as long as I was accompanied by another runner I was going to keep going. Slowly but surely.

Since we all ran different distances we finished at different times. We caught up with each other by group text later in the day. Everyone was happy to have the motivation of meeting other people to get the run done. We were happy to have the run finished for the weekend. We probably all would have either skipped it or run shorter if we'd been on our own. It felt good to check in with my support system like that.

What made me feel great all over again was when the official Marine Corps Marathon account liked my image (to the right) on Instagram yesterday. It's a screenshot of the alarm on my phone going off at five in the morning with a caption of how I'm meeting my friends for the long run on what was the hottest day of the year so far. That little thing, that "like" from the organization that's putting on the marathon boosted my spirits immensely. It made me feel like I'm part of something big and they are recognizing every mile that the runners are putting into their training.

The marathon is less than a hundred days from now. My daily runs aren't as long as I'd like them to be, but I'm getting out there and doing something almost every day. And I'm confident that as long as I complete the long run each week I'll be able to complete the marathon.

Remember to check out my page for making a donation to Soldier On: Click here. Thank you to everyone who's donated so far to help me raise money to support homeless veterans.

"Sweaty, Gross, and Super Hungry"

That's what I said to Mike one morning when he leaned in for a hug and a kiss before he left for work. I was in the midst of my run streak and had just returned from the great outdoors. It was the peak of Malian summer, sometime in April or May. Every morning I was sweaty, gross, and super hungry. Mike laughed that morning and suggested it as the title of my memoir when I eventually wrote about the run streak.

I started on Thanksgiving last year and ran at least one mile every day for 199 days, ending in mid-June. I ran in Mali -- in Bamako and Segou. I ran in Paris. I ran in Salzburg. I ran on the pedestrian path between the hotels and the airport in Munich. (Or was it Frankfurt? I don't remember now where our twenty-four hour layover was.) I ran in West Palm Beach and South Beach. I ran along Ocean Road in Narragansett. I ran by myself most days but with sometimes with Mike or other friends.

I ran on treadmills sometimes. I'd brought one with us to Mali to get me through running during the worst weather here -- the dust storms of winter followed shortly by the intense heat of summer. The treadmill shorted out the electricity in the entire downstairs of the house every time I plugged it in, and by the time someone was able to fix that problem, I'd already run through the worst weather outdoors. The dust storm days when my lungs hurt after ten minutes outside. Long runs in the May heat that I broke up by running two miles to the gym, running on the treadmill under a full-blast air conditioner, and running two miles home.

I learned that I can run one mile under almost any conditions. Bad weather, minor injuries, mild fevers, after too much cider and chèvre-stuffed galette for lunch at a Breton café in Paris. I learned that eventually one mile wasn't enough unless I was extremely tired or pressed for time and most days I was going out for at least two.

I was always hungry. Even the low-mileage days left me ravenous and I ate like crazy. Yet, I started to fit into clothes that hadn't fit me in a few months (a few years, even, after my winter hibernation in Rhode Island).

Until one injury stopped me. We were back in the U.S. I was eating like crazy because so many foods were available that we don't have in Mali. I was running every day but pain was causing me to slow down and limit myself to less than two miles. I could have run slowly through the injury, limiting myself to one ten-minute mile each day. But I'd planned to run a half marathon with some friends, friends who I hadn't seen since we'd run a half marathon together the previous year. I ended the streak so I could get some real rest. A week later I ran with my friends and came within ten minutes of my half marathon PR, which I was thrilled with considering the horrible two-hour nonstop downpour we ran through combined with still nursing the injury.

I belonged to a handful of run streak groups online. Some people congratulated me on knowing when to end the streak and concentrate on having fun with my friends instead. Others sniffed at my decision, saying they would have chosen to keep the streak alive and forego the half marathon. Whatever. I made the right choice for me at the time. (And the people who supported my decision are people I'm still in touch with regularly even though I'm not streaking any more.)

Even though I kept running regularly, I did not go back to streaking. Yet I was still in the U.S. eating as if I were still streaking and training for a half marathon. By the end of our vacation, some of those favorite clothes no longer fit.

Several months later, some of those clothes still don't fit and I know that all I have to do is commit to running one mile every day again if I want them to. Without even really thinking about it I recently found myself running every day for several days in a row -- a week, maybe 8 or 9 days, I didn't really pay attention. I felt healthy and strong again. I also felt like there's not enough food in Mali to keep me fed through another streak and we don't have plans to get to Europe or the U.S. any time soon.

But aside from the health, strength, and fitting into of favorite clothes, I also found I was extremely productive when I started every morning with a run, regardless of it being ten minutes or ten miles. I wrote my novel during those run streak days along with a number of other projects. (I'm thinking I should try to write off Strava Premium on my taxes because of my productivity during the streak.)

I'm going to take it one day at a time. I ran yesterday. I ran today. I'll probably run tomorrow but I'll make that decision in the morning.

It Really Is That Simple -- Just Go Run

From Runner Girl.

I had a couple good runs last week but on Saturday morning I didn't get up and out early, like I'd thought about doing. I made coffee. I tried uploading some photos (after twenty-four hours, they finally loaded!). I watched Muffin watch cartoons. Then as I was scrolling through my Facebook feed I came across this image on Runner Girl. I put on my shoes and went for a run. Mike and Muffin were riding bikes. It was cloudy, so not too hot, but the kind of cloudy that doesn't reveal what's happening next. Within an hour it was either going to be clear and too sunny to be outside or there was going to be torrential downpour and thus too dangerous (street flooding) to be outside. It turned out to be torrential downpour. It's a good thing we all got our outdoor activities in when we did.

I ran. My road isn't quite as scenic.

I ran three miles, picking my away along the road. Even with the trail conditions and stopping for traffic at busy intersections, I'm averaging about ten-minute miles, so I'm happy with my overall pace. I'm still getting confused  -- wait a minute, didn't I approach that statue from the other direction last time I ran? -- but recognizing enough landmarks to get me around.

Last week we made one of the best food investments ever. We bought a tortilla press. We've made fresh corn tortillas three times in the last week and I don't think we'll ever go back to store-bought, even once we're back in the States and can buy them easily. We don't have it down quite perfectly yet and I'll probably never be as good as an abuella. They are darn tasty, though, and with a big pot of beans plus the last of the seasonal mangos and avocados, soft tacos have been a great treat.

Happy running and eating this week!

This Is Peanut Butter Country

Peanuts are a staple food in West Africa, where they are called groundnuts. Many regions have a groundnut stew to serve up with vegetables and a starch. Here in Bamako the local peanut butter, or pate d'arachide, is sold in buckets in the supermarkets. It's used for making a gravy for meats. In our house it's been made into banana bread and banana muffins, peanut butter cookies (which our housekeeper loved!), and peanut sauce for veggies and tofu.

Cashews are inexpensive here, unlike most of the rest of the world. They are a popular crop in West Africa because the climate is good for growing them and worldwide demand makes them profitable.  Their tasty availability has me anxiously awaiting the arrival of my food processor for cashew cream "cheese," cashew butter, and cashew milk.

I went for my first run in Bamako on Sunday, a short run to familiarize myself with our neighborhood. Right now is the perfect time of year for running outside -- relatively cool and cloudy. Early in the morning there were few cars on the road; on Sunday mornings traffic doesn't pick up until about 10:30. A few children said, "Bonjour!" and one man said, "Courage!" when I ran by, which is what Burundians sometimes yell to runners, also. I feel like I can get a lot of good miles in this town over the next couple years. I'm glad I brought trail runners, even for running on the road. Main roads are paved but the sidewalk, when there is one, is a dirt path that's often covered in rocks and debris. Looking at the photo, I can't remember now if that's a hard-packed dirt road or a paved road that has a layer of dirt on top of it. The red dirt coats everything.

Muffin goes back to school in one week which means I go back to regular running. (I am invoking all the patience and endurance I have learned through yoga and long-distance running to make it through this last week.) And that means we need a lot of food in the freezer for quick meals and snacks. We spent the weekend baking muffins and cookies. We tried our new tortilla press for the first time. We got Indian take-out for the third time in three weeks, just to test it one more time and make sure the leftovers are still delicious. This week will be a busy one for making tortillas, buckwheat crepes, Chebe bread, and more muffins, all for the freezer, and finding the best loaf of local bread for Muffin's peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to hold her over until my bread maker arrives. The shipment with my blender will hopefully arrive this week and I plan on sending my housekeeper out in search of the last mangoes of the season for the freezer, for mango smoothies. Our other food project this week is to seek out the good meat supplier and place an order. We haven't been thrilled with the meat we've been getting from butchers and super-marchés so far.

Happy running and eating this week!

The Dull Roar of a Million Peep Toads

Is what I’m listening to right now. We had a night of heavy rain and around five o’clock this morning when I got up to use the bathroom I could hear them as I passed by the window. By the time I got up later for breakfast, they were so loud we could hear them in the living room above the sound of the air conditioner. If there weren’t so many mosquitoes right now we’d be outside poking around mud puddles looking for toads and tadpoles.

But we have to be extra careful of mosquitoes right now. Africa has thrown a few challenges at us in our first week here.

First thing Monday morning Muffin and I took our anti-malaria pills. We call it Malaria Monday and take the pills with breakfast. Later that day I found out that the pills the travel clinic in Rhode Island gave us are no good here. The local malaria strain is resistant to chloroquine so we have to get on mefloquine ASAP. Unfortunately we can’t overlap the two, so we have to wait a couple more days before we can start the mefloquine, which means we are on high alert for avoiding mosquito bites. We have Deet and bed nets so we’re doing the best we can. As tempting as it is to go outside in the relative coolness after the rain, I think we need to stay away from the bugs.

I was hit with some kind of stomach thing on Tuesday. On Wednesday I felt bad enough to see the nurse at Mike’s office. I wasn’t quite sick enough for her to think I had an infection and she didn’t think I’d been here long enough for a parasite to gestate so the best she could do was treat me for dehydration, which was definitely one of my symptoms and certainly something that could lead to the other symptoms I was suffering from. For twenty-four hours I drank a horrible-tasting rehydration solution, but it seems to have done the trick. I’m not 100%, but I feel much better today than I have any other day this week. The five pounds I gained during my winter hibernation have vanished.

I’ve had some ups and downs with the housekeeper. Mostly, she’s very good and is trying hard to be helpful, but due to the language barrier and my not feeling well it’s been difficult to give her accurate instructions. I did some successful grocery shopping yesterday and tutored her in soaking dried beans and making a vegetable soup that I found appetizing, so the good meal has improved my spirits as much as anything could. To be fair, she probably knew how to make this soup already, but my French wasn’t good enough to instruct her in what I wanted, so I needed to show her exactly which vegetables, herbs, and spices to put in. I did not find the Chinese market yesterday, which is rumored to have tofu, but I think I pinpointed the neighborhood it’s in so I should be able to find it next time.

I don’t know how much coverage the airline crash in Mali is receiving in the rest of the world (because due to all the rain, the satellite isn’t working so we have no generic international or American news, only what I choose to read online). I’m glad we flew last week, though, instead of this week. The flight between Paris and Bamako was turbulent enough without landing during the thunderstorms we’re having now.

I’ll end with a few photos from the week. You can follow my photos on Instagram: http://instagram.com/stephaniesdiamond

The fire finches like to hang out in our windows.

Storm clouds on Thursday afternoon.

The view from our balcony.
There's no filter on this; it really does look like the 1970s here.

Feeding our eight parrots.

Ocean's Run and Running by the Ocean

Two days after my most recent half marathon -- the Ocean's Run from South Kingstown town beach -- I was still lurching around like Frankenstein's monster. But I knew Running While Mommy was planning to run today and while I couldn't join RWM in person I decided to join her in spirit. I hoped a short run would shake out my legs a bit and relieve some of the aching but it didn't really.


I ran fast (for me) in Sunday's half marathon and I'm proud of myself. My previous half was two hours and fifteen minutes; I was hoping to be faster than that and I was, in two hours and eight minutes. Mike and Muffin joined me early in the morning and my mom had joined them by the time I finished. After all the cold weather long runs RWM and I had done with some other friends, the weather on Sunday was almost shockingly warm once we got moving. It was still chilly, though, with the ocean breeze. While I ditched my mittens the first time I saw Mike and Muffin, I'm glad I kept my hat. Every time I warmed up a bit I'd turn a corner and the wind would hit me, freezing me again.

So, that's one more race behind me. I'm trying to decide which races to do next with my shrinking amount of time in the US. I'm shopping around for a treadmill to take with us to Mali. I signed up for the Spring Bootie Buster Challenge to keep me on track while the craziness of spring cleaning and summer packing gets under way.

We're Moving to Mali

The title about sums it up.

Our plans have changed from what we thought would be happening last year at this time. But we're happy with the change. I've been tired of the United States for a few months now. I'm certainly done with winter. Muffin asks every day if we're moving back to India. If we're going to Pakistan. If we're going to Chad. If we're going to Mali. She hasn't been in one place for so long without getting on a plane and traveling somewhere (although that changed las week when we went on vacation); she assumes every morning we are waking up early and going to the airport. My aunt told Muffin she has itchy feet and Muffin agreed, although in the sense that her feet are literally itchy because of her winter dry skin.

We haven't even unpacked all the boxes from India yet and my project for the next few months is to decide what goes to Mali and what doesn't. I've already got lists for consumables, for our suitcases, for the air shipment, and for the boat shipment, based on two overseas moves already and on the basic nonavailability of so much stuff in Africa (Mali may have slightly more to offer than Burundi, but I'm not taking any chances).

I've started speaking French to Muffin. We're hoping to enroll her in a preschool program that will prepare her for full-immersion French kindergarden. She doesn't seem to remember any Telegu or Hindi but she is taking to the French very well.

She is so certain that we still live in Hyderabad. I think there's a lot about Mali that will be familiar to her and make her feel at home.

Mike has been working in various African places the last few weeks. He said landing in Africa felt like being home again.

We all have itchy feet that are ready to be back in Africa.

Time to Clean Up

Last year was a year of change, transitioning from India to the United States. This is going to be my year of cleaning and purging while we stay put in one house for a while. I got a good start during the packing and unpacking last summer and fall but now that the holidays are over it's time to get back on that project.

I went through my stash fabrics and I used this tutorial for a tree skirt for the Christmas tree, this one for a scrap skirt for Muffin (photo to come once I've completed the whole outfit), and this one for a Lego bag. I have a couple winter clothes projects planned, for which I had to buy some new fabric, but once they're done it's back to the stash for spring and summer sewing.

I've put a number of books up on PaperBackSwap.com and have resisted the urge to use all my new credits to receive a bunch of replacement books.

I've been cleaning out my closet. On Friday I put a ton of clothes up on Freecycle.com and by the end of the day half of it had been picked up. Anything that's not picked up by the time Muffin goes back to school on Tuesday will go into one of the many donation bins that we pass on the drive between home and school.

I gave a little TLC to the vacuum cleaner that was put into storage in 2008 and not used since then. The filters are supposed to be washable, but they weren't washed before going into storage (whoops!) and they are beyond washing now. Black and Decker no longer makes them but still has some for sale on their site so in lieu of buying a new vacuum I bought new filters so I can delay a vacuum impulse purchase and research a good one.

I realized that now that I'm driving around in winter with a kid in the car, I really should get things checked out in a timely manner because I really, really don't want to break down in bad weather with my little companion. On that note the car is going into the mechanic shop again today.

I joined a gang... of other moms who are training for the same half marathon that I am in March. Once the kiddos are all back in school we hope to start running together again. I need that. My lungs are all dusty from the cleaning. I need fresh air on a regular basis but without motivation I won't go outside when it's cold.

Right now it feels like my full-time job is to get ready for the next move and whether I'm cleaning out my closet or getting the car fixed, everything contributes to that goal. We don't even know when the move will be or where it will be to but it is always looming. I'm still unpacking boxes from the last move. I'm making trips to the dumpster every day. I'm spending time in various stores trying to decipher the best storage solutions for things like all my stash fabrics and sewing supplies so it's more organized for the next move. I'm reducing clothing and toys and books. We put every single DVD and CD into sleeves in binders and threw out all the plastic cases, reducing our next move by several boxes and pounds.

It's going to be a long, cold winter and I resolve to put my indoor time to good use. 

Aloobari Monastery: Escaping Darjeeling to See Some Nature. And Losing a Shoe.

Day Three

Our host at Dekeling Resort finally understood that we wanted to take a nice walk rather than sit in the car. He suggested we take the Toy Train up the mountain to Ghum, then hike to Aloobari Monastery. We'd stopped by the train station the day before and the train was already sold out so we decided to take part in one of the Darjeeling travel traditions -- the taxi-share. We packed up Muffin, some snacks, and some dry clothes (because it was raining) in the backpacks and walked into town. We took a wrong turn, then ended up at the wrong taxi stand. A driver pointed us in the right direction. We passed another taxi stand and then another one. And a driver there pointed us back toward the last stand we'd passed. A driver there pointed across the street. It seemed like we'd been walking for nearly an hour and we'd finally found the right taxi. We decided to pay for four seats so we could have the large back seat to ourselves and have room for the backpack. We then had to wait for the taxi to fill up. Three more guys climbed into the front and a man and two women climbed into the wayback, and we were on our way up the mountain in a taxi-share!

The driver stopped a couple times to let off other passengers. No words were spoken; we were hoping we'd either see a sign or the driver would indicate to us when it was time to get out. We wanted to get out just after Ghum. We passed the Ghum train station and then saw a sign for the next town. And then we got stopped in pooja traffic again. More people celebrating the lunar holiday by parading through town with Buddhist texts on their heads. They were also tapping the heads of people on the sidelines so while we were stopped, Muffin stuck her head out the window and got herself blessed with a Buddhist text.

We inched along in traffic until a T-intersection came into view. The driver pointed to it and said "Aloobari," so we got out and walked from there.

Traffic

Taking a left at the intersection

The walk was great.

Every fifteen minutes or so we'd see someone and ask them if we were still going in the right direction. There had been a couple intersections; also, we had no idea how long the walk was going to be and if someone told us "short distance" or "long distance" it was completely irrelevant. We knew we were on the right path and we decided that if we were out there for six hours and still hadn't found the monastery or our way back to town, we'd flag down a car and pay any price they asked for a ride back to our hotel.

Luckily it didn't come to that. After maybe an hour of walking, some of it at Muffin's pace, we glimpsed this through the fog:

Aloobari was under renovation but the caretakers let us come in to take some photos.

From the monastery we could continue along the same road to return to Darjeeling. We were told "long distance," but we hoped that the man who told us that meant "long distance for tourists," which actually wouldn't be as long for us as it is for other people because we are hearty walkers. We were getting hungry and the weather was turning cool and rainy so we were ready for lunch.

Somewhere between this photo:

 and this photo:

Muffin fell asleep and when her foot relaxed one of her Crocs fell off and we never saw it. By the time I noticed it was gone, it was out of sight and none of the locals had seen it and picked it up for us (which often happens when one of her shoes fall off). We were too tired and hungry to back-track more than a couple meters so we wrote it off and figured we could find some fake Crocs in town.

The road brought us to Chowrasta, a pedestrian plaza in Darjeeling about two kilometers from our hotel. We stopped at a restaurant and ate some of the worst Indian food we've ever had. Muffin didn't even eat her dosa, and she loves dosa.

Chowrasta:

One of the roads off Chowrasta was a Cheap Chinese Plastic Mela so we browsed there for a new pair of shoes. Only one guy had fake Crocs and he didn't have a pair small enough for Muffin. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at every shop that looked promising but couldn't find anything appropriate. This meant a trip to the Western mall, as opposed to the Mall, a pedestrian walkway lined with shops and restaurants. So we went to the mall and not a single store sold children's shoes. We'd heard about a Thai restaurant and on the way we found a children's shoe store. The Crocs were all too big for Muffin and most of the sneakers were too but we finally found one pair that fit and, even though I thought they were ugly, Muffin thought they were cool so we bought them. (Two days later she announced they were too small and has refused to put them on since.)

We had an early dinner of terrible Thai food and took a taxi back to the hotel. We needed to get an early start the next day for our drive to Bhutan.

Day Four Coming Soon

Day One: 8 Days on the Road from Darjeeling to Bhutan. With a Preschooler
Day Two: Some Enforced Site-Seeing in Darjeeling

Some Enforced Site-Seeing in Darjeeling

Day Two
Since we had to go back to the hotel with Mike's passport for registration, we decided to eat at the breakfast buffet there. So another walk down the hill and back up it was needed. Breakfast started at 7:30 and we had arranged for a car to pick us up at the resort at 9:00 for site-seeing so we needed to get back-and-forth with a reasonable amount of speed, for India.

We didn't come to Darjeeling very prepared with touristy things in mind to do. We wanted to walk around, see some mountain peaks, and drink some tea. Tea was the easy part. The weather was too cloudy, and even rainy at times, to see the Himalayan peaks. There really wasn't much to walk to in town, especially if you wanted nature. So we decided we may as well start with the standard tourist package. We'd heard the zoo was worth the fifty-ruppee (one dollar) entrance fee and we wanted to tour a tea plantation so if that's all we could do that day, we'd be satisfied.

The driver was supposed to pick us up at 9:00 but everyone forgot it was a lunar holiday and traffic was completely stopped in town as celebrants paraded with Buddhist texts on their heads toward a temple. He showed up at 11:00. We had no idea where he was going to take us; we decided to go with the flow and see where we ended up.

Pooja traffic.

We ended up at the zoo, which is also where the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute founded by Tenzing Norgay Sherpa is. The zoo has red panda and snow leopard breeding centers. It's small, but seeing the pandas, a variety of leopards, and peeking in at the mountaineering museum was certainly worth the dollar we paid for admission. Muffin was fascinated by the mountaineering gear and the statue of Tenzing Norgay. She started talking about how she wanted to climb mountains. She even insisted on standing on the "little mountain" next to his statue rather than on the ground in front of him when she posed for a photo.

We unfortunately ruined the whole day for many zoo-goers who wanted to take Muffin's photo. We wouldn't let them. It slows us down and makes Muffin withdrawn. Plus, she's not an exhibit. We were watching the snow leopards. One was actually walking around very close to the front of the cage and I'd never seen one so close before, nor so active. They are always curled up as far away as possible. So I was pretty mesmerized and was enjoying myself. Until someone asked me if they could take Muffin's photo and they kept insisting after I said, "No." Eventually I said, "There's a snow leopard right there! Take a photo of that! My daughter is not part of the exhibit." I cannot get over the fact that so many people feel it's okay to intrude on our day to take a photo of Muffin and get insulted when we say it's not okay. It's never just a quick snapshot; even if it were, a quick snapshot for ten different people asking becomes a large amount of time for us. It's not as if she's a celebrity and she owes it to her fans. She's a regular little girl trying to enjoy the zoo with her parents.

Okay, that rant is over.

After the zoo we told the driver we wanted some lunch. I specified "Good Chinese food or good Indian food" so he'd have some idea of where to take us. He drove up to some kind of tourist attraction and we could smell the fried snacks. We were very annoyed. But then he pointed down a treacherous staircase along the side of the hill. "Go down there and cross the street." We did, and we saw a sign that said "Burmese Restaurant." We were hungry and didn't know what else to do so we went inside.

It was pretty dirty. But we got some fried rice and Mike had dumplings and they brought us a yummy cilantro soup. It made us warm and full and didn't make us sick later in the day, so that made it a good lunch.

When lunch was over we told the driver we wanted to tour a tea plantation. We didn't care about his enforced itinerary anymore. He seemed confused. He'd also seemed confused about our request for lunch. We were not sticking to the plan anymore. But Muffin could only last for so long and gosh darnit, we were in Darjeeling and wanted to see the tea.

The tea plantation was a pleasant surprise. We were at Happy Valley. The guide told us they are the only plantation that does tours. I have no idea if that's true or not. But it was free and I ended up buying some tea so everyone was happy. It was a tour of how the tea is dried and processed once it's picked and how the black tea, green tea, and white tea are handled differently. After the tour of the building we asked if we could walk around outside and the guide said it would be okay. Muffin took off down a path saying "Follow me, guys!" ("Guys" is a new thing for her. It's funny, but I still want to be "Mommy.") Then she saw some local children playing in the tea and the next thing I knew, she was climbing her mountain right into the middle of the tea bushes. She was running and laughing and having so much fun that we didn't stop her. We just let her go for a while. We could see her head and her red sweatshirt and we could hear her laughing and yelling. Eventually I followed so I could fish her out and help her back down the hill. She refused and kept climbing higher.

Just outside of Happy Valley, there was a little old lady with a snack shack who invited us in every time we walked past. Once we were done with our tour and our walk, we obliged her and went in for her tea. I'm a little confused about her operation but it has something to do with the tea that is given to the pickers each week as a supplement to their salary and she collects it and resells it so the pickers can get more money. She had several small bowls with different tea leaves in them. She taught us how to pick up a handful, blow on it, and then smell it to see if it's good tea. Muffin loved that:

Then she taught us the super-secret-special thirty-second brewing process. I found that it's just like brewing tea any other way, except the result is weak tea. Muffin loved the tea, though (with more milk than tea and a little sugar):

After our tea adventure we asked the driver to bring us back to the resort. We'd accomplished our goals for the day and Muffin was approaching melt-down time if we tried to squeeze in one more tourist attraction. Plus we needed to rest up for the walk back into town for dinner. We'd forgotten to put our order in at breakfast and we wanted to try a different restaurant anyway so we walked to the Mall and went to a Continental-style diner/bakery. We were hungry and it was edible.

We walked back up the hill to the resort for the night, remembering to put in a breakfast order before we went to bed.

Day Three Coming Soon.