about STRESS in this mission life

I think that my stress level hit a peak this week.  Not that it wasn't already high enough.  Apparently, being a foreign worker is one of the most stressful things you can do.

Here are links to 2 really interesting blog posts that you should check out:
"m stress and 95 degree living rooms"        "just how stressed are m"
The first one is a guy's personal story and it helps to get a little idea of what we sometimes face here, the second has shocking numbers from a stress study using the Holmes-Rahe stress scale.

I think most foreign workers would agree that the first year is the most stressful.  In addition to the stresses anyone would feel anywhere in just dealing with daily life and work, a first year foreign worker is trying to learn to live and work in a different culture using a foreign language.  There are so many things that come up that there are no way to prepare for.  And here in Mali, we must also learn to survive in a climate that takes some getting used to.
Minnesota folks, you know those couple of horrible summer days that might happen in August where it is swelteringly hot and so humid that you are dripping with sweat and uncomfortable all day?  Those couple of extreme days where all you want to do is get into an air-conditioned place or jump into a lake?  That is what it is like here every day for about 4 months of the year, but with no lake or air-conditioning.  You can get an idea of what the other 8 months feel like if you stick your head in the oven the next time you are baking.  I like heat, but having temps of 105-110 every day for weeks on end is a bit extreme.

During my first year, in addition to all the things other workers would deal with, I decided to get engaged and married.  Oh, and if that that wasn't enough, I decided to get engaged and married..... to someone from a different culture!  Talk about compounding the stress!!
Also in my first year I got very sick twice: once with malaria, once with typhoid.  Both times I was so sick and weak that I had to have help staying upright and walking to get in and out of the hospital to get blood tests.

Now that I've been here for nearly 5 years, things have leveled off.  But the past week has thrown some special bonus factors my way, and all added up, it has accumulated to be enough (no, too much!) to the point that I had a moment of thinking about pulling my suitcase down from the top of the armoire and hightailing it to the airport.  But then I remembered that my suitcase is surely coated with a thick layer of disgusting dust, and I don't want to deal with that.  The dust here really can not be understood unless you've experienced it.
I know running away from problems won't solve them. (And that was written to be funny, but with some grain of truth!)

So here are some of the special things/annoyances/concerns that I've been trying to deal with:

-I have a horrible head cold that left me exhausted for the first few days and now just stuffed up and dizzy.
-Jean-Patrick left on Sunday to be gone for 3 weeks in another town for an internship, leaving me home alone.
-While home alone in the next 3 weeks, I need to completely pack everything up so we will be ready to move at the end of the month.
-I needed to get my Malian visa renewed.  I had to go to the office across town 3 times because when I went to pick it up on the date and time that they told me to come, they said it wasn't ready yet.
-The garbage removal service that we pre-paid through the end of July stopped coming to collect our garbage in mid-June.  The trash has piled up and up and I've had to try to make new arrangements, which hasn't been as easy as it seems like it should be.
-A plumber finally came to fix our leaking pipe, so our water was cut for several hours for the repair, and he asked me to pay a price that I don't know whether it is a good price or not.
-I had some last minute out of town guests come to spend 2 nights here.
-My cat seems to have kitty pinkeye or some other eye problem and I can't just take him to the cat vet, because there isn't one.
-I've been to the grocery store 5 times to check if they have any chicken, but they still don't.
-We need to figure out a truck to hire for our move at the end of the month, but it is going to cost more money than we have available.
-We still have occasional power cuts, like at 4am when the power goes off and you wake up and can't sleep because it is too hot and sweaty to be able to sleep inside without a fan on.

All of those things add up.  But here is the BIG one that finished me off:
-After a lot of effort was put into filling out a tedious application and collecting supporting paperwork, JP went to his USA visa interview last week.  They told him the could come back and get his passport with visa on Tuesday.  JP was already out of town on Tuesday, so I took a taxi across town to pick it up for him.  I saw that the visa they issued will expire before we need to enter the states. The embassy's response is that he needs to re-apply,  start all over again and repay the $160 fee.  This happened because they did not provide the information that his visa will be issued with only a 90 day entry period, their website in fact urges people to "apply early" and says that processing could take "several weeks or months."
After all of the energy and hope I had put into applying for this visa, I took it personally.  It felt so unfair and disappointing.  So I was at the embassy on Tuesday to get his visa, I pointed out that the dates wouldn't work for us, and they said they'd hold on to his passport and discuss it in the embassy.  Wednesday they called JP and told him to come back to get his passport because there is nothing to do but reapply.  So Wednesday I had to go again, take a taxi across town to the embassy.  I arrived feeling cheated, discouraged, and frustrated.  I got there a little early, and they directed me to sit on a bench outside.  The bench was near some sprinklers, so I thought I'd move it a little.  As I bent to pick up the bench, a sprinkler suddenly shot water in my direction and thoroughly drenched my entire backside.  Not kidding.  That was it!!  The final straw!!  I can't take anymore!!  I actually started crying like a big baby.

I'm not sure how to end this post.  I won't lie and say that I feel magically all better today.  I still have this miserable stuffed up head and ears that are making me dizzy.  JP's visa application has to be filled out again. I have a lot of packing to do.  And I have an English class to teach this afternoon.
But I think I might do something special tomorrow because I think I need some kind of break.  I could go visit the family in the village out of town.  I could go shopping at the big store on the other side of town.  I could make a visit to a swimming pool at one of the fancy hotels in the city.  Any other ideas?