Bust and Boom

Yesterday, I woke up with a terrible head cold. Every person has been sick at some point in the past week and since we all eat out of one bowl it was fairly inevitable that I too would fall prey to a cold in the desert. Sore throat, congested nose, and general grumpiness were all symptoms that led me to hide in my room all day and be anti-social in an attempt to make a 24 hour recovery. No suck luck, but I did trudge through an amazing amount of PC paper work I have to finish before IST so I still felt productive.

Unfortunately, today I woke up and still felt like crap, but I forced myself out of bed and walked all the way to Dioss' gallery to learn that he totally forgot about our already rescheduled start to accounting fun! Do you think he's avoiding accounting? I really can't blame him, but I was still annoyed because his gallery is all the way across town next to nothing. Keur Yaay, my typing ladies, my tutor, and Diof's office are all in two adjacent quartiers so when someone stands me up I can usually find something else productive to do, but no so for Dioss' atelier so I came back to my house and felt miserable until Ahmed forced me to draw with him for 2 hours until two of his little friends came over.

It is interesting to interact with other young children because they are terrified of me. Ahmed now takes the liberty to barge into my room, snatch a book out of my hand, and demand that I play with him. His friends look at with wide eyes like I'm some sort of alien. The three little boys came into my room, Ahmed in the lead with the other two trying to hide behind him, to ask to play with the prokadima set. Ahmed obviously thinks he's super cool since he besties with the toubab and it was a funny little episode.

The morning was not only a bust with Dioss, but I learned I couldn't meet with the Mayor either. Long story...

All I wanted to do during the afternoon was lay on the couch and watch Marina (Brazilian soap opera)with my mom and sister, but Emily said she would go to Jumba's, our tutor, with me if we met at the gate. We met at the gate, looked at each other, and quickly ran away before he could see us. Once there, neither of us could handle a Wolof session. Instead we went to her office, which was inexplicitly closed during office hours. In an attempt not to feel like dead beats we went over to the organic market's office.

Emily really wants to work with them on the gardening and I would love to work on the business side. I was shocked by the office and how together it was. I glanced over some financial statements on the desk and they looked great. They really have it together. The problem on the business side is obviously exposure and marketing. They've already tried a radio commercial and having music at the market to little success. I'm going to have to come up with something very effective yet cheap and easy if I want to make a difference over there.

At this point my throat is killing me so we went into town and I paid an exorbitant amount for a milk shake. It was amazing, worth every single penny, and it really soothed my throat. Plus Emily is absolutely hilarious and it's always fun to hang out with her. We may have also made AMAZING birthday plans, but you will have to wait for all the details!

And I just ate dinner while burnt weave smell hung in the air. Mami has apparently turned our house into a salon...