Hail to the Victors?

Today was my last bean sandwich breakfast and thankfully my last morning commute from my home stay village back to the center. It was an absolutely brutal couple of days and I'm completely exhausted. I really couldn't have continued on much longer so I'm really happy that I will be able to have a very relaxing weekend at the center.

Our first session this morning was a debriefing of the counterpart workshop with the head of the SED program. She is an American so it was really nice to voice our concerns, complaints, and constructive criticism to a person who could truly understand our perspective. A lot of people didn't have a lot to say, but I really wanted to voice my concerns and hopefully help improve the programing. The Peace Corps is something I've always wanted to do and until now it's been disappointing and I don't want that so I hope I can help improve the situation and I really think the new head of the SED program wants to make changes. I just think it's ridiculous to think that trainees can commute back and forth, staying less than 10 hours in the village, and then come back to the center and function at a high level in multiple foreign languages with work partners we've never met. I'm pretty awesome, but I'm no superwoman.

Unfortunately, we also had an insufferable language session after tech, which I was disillusionally tired during and pretty much rambled on in Wolof as Tamar and laughed at inside jokes and our teacher practically nodding off during class as well. Ceebu jenn for lunch, obviously, and then a glorious nap in my bed, in the center, under a luxurious ceiling fan! Oh ceiling fans, I can't wait until I get to mine at my permanent site!

Today was also the Michigan - Michigan State game. The boy from MSU has a subscription to the Big Ten Network site which allows us to stream the games live internationally. In case you didn't know I can't stream any network sites here because of licensing, therefore my request for DVDs and TV programs. Anyway, a handful of us, including the boy from OSU, went to a restaurant in town that supposedly has really good internet. The first half was terrible and we watched the play by play scroll on ESPN as the internet connection skipped, but the second half was pretty good and we got to watch half of it. WHAT AN AMAZING LAST TWO MINUTES OF REGULATION! GO BLUE! Only to throw an interception in the end zone. Really? So disappointing! The MSU boy and I commiserated with each other that neither team deserved to win as the OSU boy basked in the thought that OSU will probably be at the top of the Big Ten by the end of the night. Oh well. I got a delicious marguez sandwich and some fries and good company so it was a good night.

After the game is when things really got interesting... I thought Tamar and some other people were at a nearby bar so I called to see what was going on. A random Senegalese person answered her phone. Lines do get switched here sometimes so I called back, still random guy. Then I started demanding for Tamar and got in a big Wolof fight with this guy on the phone. By this point, I'm in a cab back to the center and I see Tamar walking down the road. From the cab I couldn't tell she was walking with one of the guards from the center so I tried jumping out and screaming at her but she didn't hear. It pretty much ended up that she left her phone in a cab, I harassed the nice people trying to get her phone back to her, and the guard finally helped her get her phone back. All good news.

I've been trying to save the beautiful, white sheets I brought from home that are still creased from when my mom ironed them and smell like Tide until I move into my new place, but duty called tonight. We found a projector and a random extension cord and everyone at the center decided to watch a movie so I broke down and offered my sheet. At least the fitted sheet is still pristine. Let's not kid ourselves, when was I ever going to use a top sheet anyway? Yeah.

I'm hoping to sleep until I'm either A) rested or B) wake up in a pool of my own sweat (preferably after 8am). I really need a good night's rest. Tomorrow is another day off! Yay! I'll be around to respond to emails and calls from Skype hint, hint...