Gej naa la bind!

So I have officially been in country for 7 months today! Mom, that means just 19 to go! And just 4 months from yesterday, I will be on my way to Rome. The Peace Corps gives us 2 days for every month in country as official vacation days. I will be using all of my days out of Senegal, and the first 35 are going to be in Europe! Hope to see four or five countries in that time and my plan is to go alone; on my own schedule (where for once I don’t have to tell anyone where I am going and when I will be back and deal with how they miss me and when they will see me next… oh the Senegalese). Can’t wait! If you know of anyone abroad in Italy, Greece, England, or France (or any boarding country for that matter) let me know if they are cool with me staying on their couch for a few days!

Gej naa la bind: It’s been a while since I’ve written… my apologies! I have nearly stopped writing in my journal too. Maybe I have been busy? Nothing to complain about. I was in Dakar for a few days following a business conference and had a university student who stayed with me for 5 nights. She is studying abroad here in Dakar and was assigned a week-long rural visit. I made sure she lived up the rural life since we went to Ndem for 2 of those nights, which she actually really enjoyed. She even got to experience how trying it is to get out there with public transport: took over 2 hours to get into a bus that ended up breaking down twice and needed to be pushed by like 10 men! We made it though! It was nice to show someone around my home, a bit too hot for her liking. Dakar gets an ocean breeze; I don’t.

So I have been introduced to 2 women’s groups’ presidents this week. I wrote up a “Demande de Travail” telling them what Peace Corps is and what I can do, requesting to only work with serious people. I gave it to my supervisor who found these women for me. My counterpart went with me to introduce me to Astou earlier this week. He did an excellent job of explaining what I can do and she responded with how she doesn’t want my money, but rather wants to know what she can do with what she has. I could hardly believe my ears. Hopefully she will be good to do actual development work with! The other president runs a restaurant with her group, so that will be interesting to learn about as well.

Still haven’t met with the middle school principals and am getting mad at myself. Lots to do there and I just keep putting it off since I have no one to introduce me to them. Honestly, I wish it wasn’t who you knew... And I haven’t been back into the bush with my fish salesman and it may be put off another week since he called me telling me his aunt passed away. I can’t wait to go again and take pictures and figure out the best way to find him some funding.

I went and made some good progress in Ndem earlier this week. I was quickly disappointed since they didn’t respond to my email asking questions to fill in the application for IFAT, but rather, I sat down with Abdou and he went to town answering questions. I will be going back to continue work on it. I would love to get to Ndem every week but I’ve made a few new contacts here in Bambey and need to figure out how to make it all work. I have always been the kind of person that wants to do everything all the time and its just not possible here. I am good at managing one appointment per day and making lists.

I will be going to the Thies training center this week. We have a new stage of volunteers that came in March and since the World Peace Corps Director is visiting Senegal for a few days, our country director thinks it is important to talk to him about Ndem and the work we are doing with artisans. Very cool, in my opinion.