i'm cursed.

the other night when we were at the café, waiting for the power to come back, marie told me another story about this village she works with. there was this guy who had a lot of bad stuff happen to him, car accident, malaria, and then the big ticket: he got struck by lightning. of the three people that were with him at the time, 2 ran for the hills, and the third had the guts to fight through the evil spirits and bring him to a clinic.
so it's obvious someone put a curse on him. before he paid for a goat and a ritual, he invited every single person he knew to his house and had a big conferenceto ask "which one of you has something against me?" and well, i guess it came to light that he slept with some guy's wife or something, and they sorted it out so in the end, problem solved. he hasn't been struck by lightning since.
as for me, it seems nearly every day something goes wrong. every place i have stayed in has had unusually long power and water outages, even for congo. i constantly forget one essential item for my workday, like computer power cable, there are the angry ministers who kick me out of their offices, having to go to the bathroom at the most inopportune times, my non-stop sweating, itchy eyes, and my tennis game. ok, i haven't played in over a year but still, i'm absolutely awful. i'm amazed these italians and afghan UN guys still let me play with them. we've actually started mixed doubles and i am paired with this tall congolese woman tanya who hangs around the courts. she's my venus williams. she has long nails and wears the super short nike dress things, tons of jewelry, even a fake diamond tiara. she curses in lingala when she messes up, which is not often. most of the time she is saying, come on aurelgrooves! let's do this! she seems to barely move, it's almost like she's in slow motion, but she's somehow all over the court, she even covers my side, and half the points i don't even play (my net game is pretty good though). she doesn't even sweat. i, meanwhile, am a human puddle. anyway, tanya and i, "les dames" have been winning and moving up the ladder tournament at this shabby hotel. before i commit to reserving more court time though and sacrifice a goat, i need to know, who out there has something against me?