Mail Time

Sleeping in this morning turned me into a new person. It felt amazing and I have to thank Matt for waking up early this morning to talk to me instead of vice versa. After relishing laying in my bed and not having to go to work, I got up and took a run. I motivated myself by running back to the PC center to see if I had any mail. Nope. I knew that I had packages on the way so I resolved to make a trip to the Post Office to see if I could sweet talk my way into looking at their ledger, nothing is computerized here.

After my run and before my epic trip to the post office, I made my first breakfast. Oatmeal and raisins, delicious. It was a joint effort between my mom (oatmeal) and the McKeowns (raisins) and then I added too much water to the oatmeal and kind of ruined it, but I ate it anyway and it tasted delicious.

Next up a trip to the Post Office. I was imagining pleading with men behind the counter to look in the PC box for me and potentially paying a bride. Much to my surprise they simply opened the huge book and scanned for my name. I HAD FOUR PACKAGES! What a glorious day. Mad props go out to my mom (who may have a package addiction as I hear she sends cereal to my brother... who lives in Colorado...), Matt, and a joint venture from Leigh and Alex. My cabinet is now chock full of tasty delights, which I immediately began stuffing my face with since this morning I found a scale and discovered I weigh what I weighed in middle school. Realistically speaking it's not that much of a weight loss there is a boy who is down 40 pounds! Anyway, I have tons of dried fruit, magazines, and awesome letters! THANK YOU! Matt also sent some Mexican spice packets, which I had to refrain from tearing open and pouring into my mouth. For some reason every craves/ constantly talks about Mexican food here. We also had a really bad lunch here, my first not good meal with my new family, so I ate a can of corn which I put salt on while I talked to Matt on Skype. I'm pretty sure it grossed him out, but it was divine.

I can't thank everyone enough for the letters, the packages, the emails, and the comments on my blog. It really keeps me going to know that my loved ones back home are still there and haven't forgotten their crazy friend who moved to Africa!

After an amazing few hours looking at the various contents of my packages I had to go to work. Work was a joke. Chris and I show up and Diof isn't there, then when he comes back he has to pray, and asks the two of us to make a million copies. All Senegalese people think Americans are tech geniuses so when Chris and I couldn't even turn on this obsolete copier Diof about had a heart attack. Much time wasting later (aka 2 hours) Chris peaces out to meet up with a friend and leaves me to accompying Diof and Diof's boss to some AIDS groups meetings.

We arrive at the first house after 30 minutes of being lost, even Senegalese people can't find their way around, to find the house deserted and no one there. We wait for 30 minutes before deserting it as well. After driving to the next house I settle in to watch a meeting I can't really understand, which is always fun. It was interesting to watch Diof and some female colleagues look around for the required 25 people to sign the forms so the groups could continue to get funding. I can't tell how much impact these meetings actually have and if women actually learn anything about sexual health. It isn't really anything I have interest in doing since I don't know anything about health and I'm much more equipped to look at accounting ledgers, unfortunately.

Chris left to meet his friend to go to Mecca aka Chicken Dibi. Yup, I'm still talking about it. It's just that amazing. And it's impossible for me to turn down an invitation so as soon as I could extricate myself from the meeting, hey it was already 7pm, I called Emily and we met the boys for dinner. As usual it was delicious. I love chicken dibi. Enough said.

After that we went to bar near Emily's house where we sat outside an had a beer. It was really nice to sit around and talk and hear Chris and his friend tell PC stories, but at the same time I felt guilty for leaving my family and for being out. I know I live in a big city so this is a privilege and a distraction that I will have to deal with. It's weird having the option to have whatever I want, but I can't say that I don't like it. Chris and his friend both lived near The Gambia in mud huts and killed rats with sticks and by stepping on them. I don't think I could do that, but then again I didn't think I could do a lot of the things I do now. Regardless, I like the little oasis I've found myself in.