Tough Day

I live in a city. I have power, running water, a cell phone and internet. I can communicate in the local language and have great friends and a decent family. I have good work partners, a few current projects and ideas for future ones. Yet, today, I’d still rather be anywhere but here.

Went to the cyber twice yesterday and once today and was unable to connect. For some reason, I could connect in Thies but can’t here. I have tried my home, both LAN and wifi, and 3 different cybers. Mystery unsolved.
Yesterday, I went door-to-door for 3 hours trying to collect money to get more garbage cans ordered to increase my project. Not a single payment.
I saw a baby pig get into my fence at my compost site. All I have to say to that – I want another BLT.
I have prepared a pretty interesting article on the Stimulus Act for the English class at the high school, but when I called to confirm with my English teacher, he told me he is in Thies, partying, rather than teaching. This, by the way, is just a week following a meeting we had when he told me that the kids need to learn 9 months of material in about 4 months because of holidays and strikes.
Showed up for another meeting with my work partner to go back around door-to-door, but my work partner didn’t show up. My women’s group president told me she knows nothing about compost and doesn’t know what to do with it. “Ouria, you need to find people who will buy it, I don’t know how to do that or how much to charge”. Great. Thanks for the help.
Since I’m crabby and obviously deserve something sweet, I went to the boutique to get flour, butter and sugar to make peanut butter cookie dough. (No oven, gotta improvise) But not only 1, but 2 boutiques are OUT OF FLOUR! Come on, give a girl a break!
And then tonight, I went to talk to my work partner, who tried to change everything on me. Long story short, we need a break from each other. He doesn’t want to listen to me, or meet me for our meetings, so its break time. I’m off to Dakar. Normally, I would go for a night or two. But Monday is another Muslim holiday. There is a pilgrimage to Tivaouane, north of Thies. So I will go to Dakar until Wednesday. I have friends COSing and I have to give blood to check liver function anyways. Damn, how good would a cold beer taste right about now? 7 months….