Ironically, the big thing on my schedule today was going to Peace Corps to talk about Unwanted Attention with the new stage. Obviously I'm an expert on the subject. The Health/ Environmental Education stage has much different sites that my SED/ Ag stage so I don't really know how helpful I was during the discussion. I've never really lived in a village since my home stay during PST was actually a town of 50k people and the vast majority of the Health/ EE PCVs go to relatively small and rural sites. I think the biggest site in the new stage is 1/6 the size of Thies so most people will know everyone in their village and wont have some of the types of harassment that I face in Thies. That being said, I don't think I could have handled the vil for 2 years. The other PCV that led the discussion with me did live in a small village so she was probably more informative than me, but it's always interesting to hear how people think they're going to handle a situation before they are pushed out into the real world to fend for themselves.
In the afternoon Dioss called me to ask if I could go to the art museum to take some pictures for artists in the association who were holding an exposition. He couldn't attend because he's setting up an exposition in Dakar, but I went and met one of his friends that hangs out at the gallery a lot. After the museum curator told me I couldn't take pictures and my attempts to request if Dioss' friend was indeed there, I was butchering his name apparently, we finally got everything straightened out and I got the pictures we needed. The pictures are up, but Dioss' friend who was writing everything down accidentally kept the piece of paper so there are no names or titles.
Other than these two events I've been laying pretty low. I've definitely been in a funk and instead of making something happen I've been waiting for some type of catalyst that's obviously never going to come. I'm going to Dakar tomorrow to celebrate Jackie's birthday so I'm hoping getting out of Thies will clear my head and I can come back rejuvenated and ready to work and really get some projects up and running.
Happy early birthday to Cj, Ben, and Jackie!!!
Messy, but Warm
7 years ago
Alyssa,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up even though I would never miss a birthday. Enjoy Dakar.
Dad
It's so interesting to think about the various pros and cons of different sites...rural vs. urban but I would also love to hear about gender differences. I wonder if guys have an easier time socially and with hygiene issues. I mean do guys get all the marriage proposals for example.
ReplyDeleteHave a great time in Dakar! Here is to an easy visa process.