"The horror! The horror!"

...or rather, "The shame! The shame!"

Y'all. I'm so ashamed to admit it. But in the interest of honesty...a Burkinabe beat me in an impromptu bike race this afternoon.

Why is this so shameful, you might ask? After all, the Burkinabe practically LIVE on bikes!

Well, first and foremost, he was on a Burkinabe bike. i.e., single speed.

If emojis worked here, I would insert the monkey hiding his eyes/face.

x5, because y'all know I'm not one for single emojis.

IN MY DEFENSE!!!!! :

(Yes, these are all just excuses that will help me recover from the enormity of my shame)

- He started ahead of me!! (said every loser of every race ever. but in this case, also true)

- My bike needs a new chain. When I tried to kick it into high gear, my bike protested with a lovely "crkkk" sound...or two or five. I tried oiling it up the other day, but Cambari, the Peace Corps bike magician, told me that if it keeps making that sound, he can get me a new chain and that should fix it.

SILVER LINING:

I was on my way home from Tenkodogo when I was challenged, and -- likely as a result of the race -- I set a new record!!! 19 minutes from juice stand to courtyard!

NB: Previous 19min achievement was from the end of the paved road to my courtyard; the juice stand is about a minute down the paved road, so this is an improvement!

I need to map this distance, now that I've decided on the official start/end points. I know courtyard to middle of Tenkodogo is 9-10 km, so I'm thinking from the juice stand it's 8-9. In the unlikely event that you were wondering. ;)

That was really it, so until next time!! :)

Happy holidays, all!

xo, chlo