Visiting Thies

September 15, 2009

I'm typing this on Daniel's computer not eating dinner because everything I'm eating is just going right through me. Therefore, I have discontinued eating for the present time. I'm sure you're all thankful for that visual.

On the plus side, Thies was pretty awesome today. My post for the next two years is the nicest house I've seen so far in Senegal. It is two stories and has a driveway! I have never seen a driveway here before. We also have satellite tv with CNN. The main house is all tiled and the kitchen has an oven and a refrigerator. The courtyard has several trees and the entire thing is tiled instead of the sand I'm used to. The bathroom is a squat toilet and bucket bath, but they are really clean, tiled, and ceramic. They actually smell a million times better than Daniel's western style bathroom here so I'm not upset. My room is a little bungalow off the main house. It has a ceiling fan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! God's gift to man. Its definitely enough room for everything I need. I would say its about 2/3 the size of my room at home. I also have a little porch. The porch is tiled, but the room itself is just cement, but it doesn't have any cracks so it's good. The house makes me feel a lot better. It's by far the nicest I've seen and my family seemed super nice. My mom is really friendly and there were girls my age as well as pretty young children around. I didn't get to meet my dad since he works in Dakar.

I also got to meet some potential work partners like a local painter family who do really cool Africa scenes of women working. Their atelier is awesome and I can see myself just hanging out there. We also went to the artisan village and I am going to try and hook some of them up with the women who imports Daniel's baskets to the US.

I've been thinking a lot about what will be fulfilling for me and something I thought I could start soon after I install is a bitch group. Literally, getting the oldest girls from the family together (the girls who do all the work) and bitch and do some little projects and read magazines. They can be my friends and I can teach them things about US gender roles, fashion, and they can help me in turn. Plus I love to gossip and bitch. Win win.

I'm still struggling with the work though. If it's going to be fulfilling or if I can even create anything that will be fulfilling for me. It's both helpful and disheartening to talk to volunteers. It's helpful to hear that they're happy, but hard to hear that they don't seem to do a lot of work. It's weird and definitely doesn't help me figure things out. boo.

Well, that's pretty much it from Africa. I'm back to the center tomorrow in time for dinner, but I have no idea when I'm leaving the village. Hopefully my stomach will be feeling better. It kind of sucks, but at least it's semi-controlable. lol. enough of that sorry.