My life here lately has been sucking technology-wise. You'd think I lived under primitive conditions in darkest Africa or something.
Oh wait. I do.

My specific complaints:
1. On Easter Sunday, I couldn't phone any of my family in the USA. Couldn't get a line out.
2. After being off the internet a tiny bit that day- just long enough to post a short blog entry- I got kicked off and haven't been able to get back on since.
3. Yesterday, the electricity was off in the eastern part of Ouaga for much of the day. This, of course, included my house. And as temperatures yesterday reached over 107°F (42°), my house was not a good place to be, especially considering that it has a
4. metal roof. It's the most common kind of roof here, as it's the cheapest- unless you go for straw, which brings with it it's own issues of leakage, rot and dust, not to mention insects raining down into your food, onto your head, etc. Corrugated metal roofs are cheap and insect-free, but very, very hot. Take it from one who knows.
5. So, here I am at the internet café, trying to get my cyber-life back in order, but my e-mail seems to be blocked. No access...I guess it's issues with Liptinfor. They have many.

Well, that's my litany of complaints/excuses. So, no ending for the tax story as of yet. I am hoping life will be a little more normal soon and I'll be able to get back to writing the big, long, epic blog entries you've all come to know and possibly (hopefully!) like.

Late breaking news: This just gets better and better! I was just just clicking the "Publish Post" post button when the power here at the internet café went out! Luckily, Blogspot is good about saving automatically, so when I finally got back online (it's a looong story) , my post was saved and I didn't have to re-write it all. You guys wouldn't believe what I go through some days to get a post up on this blog! Crazy.