The good, the bad and the ugly

OK, maybe ugly isn't the right word but I couldn't think of another that would work to make a referencable (it's a movie) title for this entry.
Just like all you loyal readers we volunteers have good days and bad days. Most, however, and again like you, are generally mixed (ugly?). In fact, I find that all days contain good and bad elements. It is just a matter of which ones outweigh the others. Sometimes that weighing is by number of events, sometimes by the last event. In my experience, however, most of the time there is one event that makes, or ruins, a day. Occasionally I find it is difficult to figure out whether I have had a good or a bad day. Maybe that would make it an ugly day. February 2nd was just such a day. (I told you things happen slowly here.)
First, a couple of words in the way of explanation (you knew I had to drag it out somehow). Zemidjan is a word, we are told, derived from one of the local languages meaning either "get there fast" or "get me there fast". I forget exactly, relatively unimportant for the story. Anyone driving a moto in this country, whether they are zemidjan drivers or not, seem to have adopted this as their driving philosophy. Motos go as fast as they can, often faster than they should, and seem to pay little heed to anything smaller than themselves. They often ignore cars and trucks. They always ignore pedestrians except for the cursory, and not universal, warning from the horn.
Then there's the yovo problem. Yovo is a word in one of the local languages of the South of Benin. There are others due to the diversity of languages here. Oyibo is another in and around Ketou. Yovo, and its cousins, means either foreigner or white man, nobody seems to know for sure. Nobody calls anybody by their name here. Everybody is addressed by their title or workplace. People refer to each other as proprietaire or l'electricienne or CLCAM and the like. Volunteers are universally called yovo or whatever word exists in their area. If it sounds annoying you should try living here. We all just have to learn to cope with it in our own way.
So, for the day. It started out with my neighbor playing his TV rather loudly until after 1am, obviously bad. When I got to the CLCAM I actually had some work to do, a rarity. One of the employees is trying to create some forms electronically and needed some help with Excel and Word, relatively good. At lunch I went to the marche to buy beniers (sort of a cross between a muffin and a donut), eggs and candy (all the staples). I have found a vendor I like in the marche who sells beniers, peanut oil and eggs but she has not been there for two weeks by this time. Unfortunately, she is missing again this day. As I am buying the beniers from a nearby vendor, the one I have been using for 2 weeks, the egg vendor I have been going to recently, also nearby, starts screaming "Yovo, les oeufs" (eggs). Since I buy a dozen eggs at a time I am a relatively large customer but she is still over reacting to my presence by a wide margin. I also have a general rule that I don't do business with anyone who calls me yovo if I can help it. So, I went off to find another egg vendor. Not a difficult chore, just a little extra time and walking (have I said it's hot here?), certainly bad.
Once my purchases are done and I'm walking toward home, almost out of the marche area, everybody in the area starts shouting. I don't understand what they are saying, but at the least the yovos stop for a time. It only took a moment to see why. There was a young girl, about 2 or 3 years old, barely able to walk, running away from a vendors stall and into the street. This happens all the time of course, but this time there was a moto driver coming. As someone who has taken advanced math courses as electives I could do the geometry, there was about to be cause for a funeral. Nobody else is doing anything but yelling and screaming so I grabbed the girl.
Before anybody goes nominating me for a Nobel prize there was no dramatic leap inches from the moving wheels of an onrushing tractor trailer. I was never in any danger (I have to put that in for my mother but it's true). Fortunately the girl ran directly in front of me. I just stooped down and put one hand on the girls chest and one on her back to stop her from walking for a moment as the moto drove by without the slightest swerve, very definitely good. As I continue walking home the yovos begin to emanate from the vendors and children again, but never a merci, somewhat bad.
The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. No work at the CLCAM in the afternoon, normally bad. Dinner came out well, reasonably good. Got to bed late because of a loud church service, slightly bad. Was able to sleep through the night (maybe just because I was tired form the night before), unexpectedly good.
So, I ask you, was February 2nd a good day or a bad day? The bads outnumber the goods 5 to 4. But, does the one big good tip the scales in that direction? Or, does it just add up to an ugly day? Just a little to think about until I write again.
I, with others, am off to Senegal for the annual West African Invitational Softball Tournament (WAIST), starting this weekend. We are expecting that a good time will be had by all. Who knows, maybe we'll even win a game or two. Wish us luck.