What is work, really?

So I have plans to break a record this week. I have yet to stay in Bambey for over a week without leaving the city limits… and I will be here for a total of 9 nights, inshallah. Do I say that now just like they do, as to not jinx myself? Like our expression, knock on wood? I guess so... I just haven’t planned to go to Ndem or go fishing or visit anyone else’s sites. I think it is a very good thing that I can stay here, comfortably for 10 days. Maybe I am making progress!

I have been taking a few baby steps to boost my confidence, friend circles and work partners. I am trying a whole new point of view and am getting good at saying how I feel. For example, one of my friends, Souliman (who admitted to me that God put him on this earth to love me) introduced me to a nice group of women my age working at a small organization. Ever since I met them all, they have supposedly been asking about me and gave Souliman their numbers so that he could then give them to me. Well, I went to CDEPS, where they all work, and ran into him and my soon-to-be best girl friends! So excited they won’t hit on me… anyways! I was sitting chatting with everyone and they asked why I hadn’t called. Well! I got on my friends case after he had asked me for a gift since I went to Gamou, the religious pilgrimage site. (By the way, its completely normal for people to demand gifts when ever I leave, so I usually buy a bag of oranges and whomever I see first gets them…) So when Souliman was asking for his gift, I simply laughed and him and said that he wasn’t nice, since I saw him in town just the other day and he didn’t give me my friends numbers. HA! It felt good to knock him down a bit. His ego will only suffer for a little while, but I was very happy with myself!

What else? I drank tea with both a tailor and an artist this week. I got them talking about the possibility of working together to sell products in more touristy areas. Hopefully Matar can get nice clothes designed and Dijibi can paint on them to make them unique. As volunteers, we are going to try to get a website to network artisans with eco-tourism sites. It is in such the early stages now, that it is hard to get artisans to really work since there are no immediate results. But it was a nice tea session!

I still haven’t started the girls’ scholarships for the middle schools yet, and when I think about it, I get stressed out. The MS scholarship is available for girls with good grades and motivation and also with limited financial resources to keep them in schools. I have three middle schools here in Bambey, and at each school, we interview 12 girls and their teachers, have them write an essay about their future and also, I will visit all of their homes. Do the math: I have to visit 36 families, read 36 essays and 36 recommendation letters. All of this needs to be done by June 1 so I can send my top 4 girls from each school! I have my work cut out for me whenever the schools quit striking and celebrating holidays… I sure hope that one girl from each school will get the scholarship. That is, if we have the funds! Want to help out? Send a check to:

Friends of Senegal and The Gambia
ATTN.: Daniel Theisen, SeneGAD
428 Bowleys Quarters Road
Baltimore, MD 21220

Volunteers all over Senegal do these scholarships and every year it is getting bigger. I know I will be throwing in 30,000cfa ($50) to support a girl; you should do the same!

My fish salesman came to visit me this morning. He says that all the women in the villages ask about me so I will be planning another day out soon enough. I also met with my supervisor and counterpart about finding women’s groups that actually want to work with me. I have started translating the IFAT application form for Ndem. They may think that I am going to do the whole thing for them since it’s all in English but that’s not the case. I will email them and tell them my change of opinion and see if they are serious enough to answer the questions I translated. I have had trouble wondering if they really want my help so that’s why I haven’t gone to visit in 3 weeks. If they want me to come, they will ask for me. It’s tough since they have such a huge opportunity in the world market and I love going there, but I feel used and useless, depending. We’ll see what happens. Life in Bambey is chill… not temperature wise, but it’s growing on me.