Another pretty sunset
John and I watched four movies this week. “Tim’s Vermeer” is a documentary about a quirky inventor who thinks he figured out how Vermeer painted his amazing pictures, produced by Penn & Teller – very interesting. We re-watched one of the sweetest movies ever, “A Man Called Ove,” which we highly recommend, and we re-watched “Gosford Park,” also highly recommended with a brilliant cast. And we watched the new Sachs Baron Cohen movie, which is very raunchy but funny – and breathtaking to see him “get” Rudy Gulliani in a compromising position with an actress posing as a reporter. Paraphrasing someone in the news: if he can’t recognize a fake reporter, how he could recognize a foreign operative?
We went to a small going-away dinner at Anglers for a neighbor/co-worker. I learned that the Atkins/keto diet here is called “Banting” so I’ll have to look that up. It’s a West African thing and supposedly incorporates more local ingredients. Hm. Eating here is my biggest challenge due to lack of fruits and vegetables. I am happy to report that some basil cuttings are thriving in my Mexican pots on the balcony!
We held a virtual awards ceremony this week. John and I were included on a couple of group awards for our work during COVID, which was nice. I was happy to see two of my former employees receive awards I had nominated them for.
Also at work, we invited three people from the civil registry for a socially distanced meeting at the embassy to discuss the issuance of birth and death certificates here to try to get a better understand of the process.
I ventured out yesterday to a West African chain called Orca. It was fun to browse around lots of kitchen and home decor things for a change. I didn’t realize it was here until a friend mentioned it – just a little retail therapy. While I was out, I drove around trying to find a new co-worker who got lost on his first outing alone, bless his heart! It was a bit harrowing because he ended up in a not-so-nice part of town. John came to our rescue by plotting his location in WhatsApp and talking him through the turns to get home – whew!