Suckers

When I came back from tournee Jumba (my tutor) was giving me a hard time about not brining him a gift as is customary here. I decided that I would bring him and his family some Tootsie Roll Pops because my family LOVES them. They are always surprised when there's chocolate inside. Jumba's kids are exstatic when I whip the suckers out and tell them they can pick their favorite color, his wife thinks they are just delectable, and another female friend sings Tootsie Roll Pops praises. I definitely enjoyed one while sitting down for our lesson and was surprised that Jumba didn't unwrap one right away too. I found out why last night...

Kether (USAID intern) told me that he was really embarrassed that I brought suckers since they are so un-masculine and that he really wanted some candy, but refused to eat it in public and saved it until he could eat it at night, by himself, in his room. Hilarious. Jumba and I have a really good joking relationship so I absolutely had to call him out on it today when we met again. He laughed since he had been caught and conceded that the suckers were delicious, but they are thoroughly unmanly... especially for a big, strong, security guard. Jumba is maybe 5'8" and 150 pounds. Intimidating.

We had a good tutoring session and I brought Emily along this time because she doesn't like her tutor. Jumba could really use the money so hopefully Emily thought it was good too and she will start lessons with him. This lesson didn't revolve around the usual two subjects, but did involve Emily and I being completely clueless about Thies and the more than 40 quartiers the city encompasses. It seems like Emily has been telling people the wrong quartier for her house for the past 2.5 months. Oh well.

I was supposed to go to the typing class I don't really like this afternoon, but they cancelled on me so I had an afternoon of hanging out with my family, which turned into me reading in the common space of the house because everyone else disappeared. Typical. I finished My Life in France and I'm pretty sure I've been unusually hungry since I started it. I picked up "Dark Star Safari" again after putting it down for a week and started to get really into it. That is my problem with reading. I pick up a book and the world slips away and I have to finish it before I can do anything else!

Today's Amazing Moment:

Little Ahmed opens my door without asking to come in, hands me a box, takes his pants off and sits down on my floor. The box contains a white board with some magnetic plastic letters. I spend the next hour going over letters with a three year old as he is more interested with attempting to throw the letters at the board and hoping they stick.