Stir Crazy

Bambey is getting really good at exhausting me. I am constantly thinking about my return home and all the food I'll get to eat, fun things I'll get to do and the people I will get to see. Here, the power is out more than it isn't, my fan is broken (getting fixed, hopefully today) making my room very hot and sleep hard to come by, and there isn't a whole lot of work to do. I'm at the point in my service when I have to close up everything rather than find new projects to initiate.

What have I done here lately? I planted a few trees from my tree nursery last weekend. At the middle school, the environmental club filled about 500 tree sacs and seeded them all. We out-planted 5 thorny trees and 1 neem tree. I will go back in a few weeks and out plant 30-50 more of 2 different varieties. It's not 500 but it's something, right? And my rooftop garden is sprouting! Yippee!

I have been working for Ndem quite a bit lately. I created a Winter in Africa collection and sent out documents to all the clients I have in the States promoting the new line. I also have a summer line and will hand off that to my replacement. Let's hope we have a group that chooses to purchase product from Ndem. I have tried my whole service to find them an American lead but have fallen short. I hear the economy isn't doing so well? I did all this work here in Bambey since there is no real reason to go to Ndem, but went just yesterday to greet everyone. I was rather disappointed with how it went. I walked there (2 hour hike - really enjoyable!) since my bike was there with a flat tire. I got there and hung out with the guys in the office for a bit, who were definately on a mental vacation. Not a lot of work to be done lately. Then I went to go and see the religious leader and his wife. I wanted to tell them what I have done with the Winter Collection and thank them for everything. I doubt I will be going back to the village. But they were very stand off-ish, and were in some secret meeting with 2 other white people that obviously they didn't want me present for. Maybe I shouldn't take offence to this, but I did. I waited 3 hours for a car to come and by noon, the religious leader didn't show up at the office so I took the car with my bike in the trunk and headed back to Bambey. I was also going to tell Ndem that I was gifting them my computer for the artisan office but I guess that will have to wait for some other time. Oh well.

A fun thing that I did earlier this week was shopping in Thies! I went to the artisanal village and bought souvenirs. I have been here a long time and see this stuff all the time, everywhere. But at the same time, it would be really wierd to go home without some wooden masks and artwork. So Mandi came along with me, and we ended up getting to a restaurant just in time to avoid getting soaked by the next 3 hours of downpour.

So today I went and and hung out with Matar for a while, but this afternoon I'm outta here! I know I haven't been in Bambey for very long, and there was a time when I could stay at site 3 weeks, but that time isn't now. I need to enjoy my last few weeks (8!) in Senegal and cooped up in my 100 degree room all day isn't making me happy. I have some big stuff planned in the next few weeks: next Wednesday I am co-teaching a session with Mandi to a different sector about SED work and how to collaborate between sectors; the week following I am teaching at an English camp and the week after that I am going up north to visit Erin's site. My time left (did I mention it's only 8 weeks?) will fly by, but I gotta DO something to keep me from going crazy!