Milanos

I'm walking to the Cultural Center this morning, which is way out of town practically in the middle of nowhere, when I see Emily crossing the street. She too is going to the cultural center and she's meeting Kether there. What a coincidence. I was freaking out because I had underestimated how much time it was going to take to walk there and was going to be a few minutes late, obviously this shouldn't have been a concern. At 10:05 when I got there, there were three other people waiting for the meeting.

The US Consul was actually there and after my momentary panic attack that the meeting was going to be conducted in English, Dioss doesn't speak English, I settled in for an interesting morning and gave myself a pat on the back for pulling myself together this morning and wearing a Polo shirt. Before the meeting started, the people from the Embassy never even planned on starting until 11, I walked through the cultural center and found a super nice library with books in French, English, and Arabic along with two computers with internet access and... air conditioning! It's a really nice space for people to go. Unfortunately, it's in the middle of nowhere.

A little luck came my way this morning as I was just about to call Mme. Cisse and tell her I couldn't do a typing class she called me and cancelled! I had already called the Keur Yaay crew to say I couldn't come, no one picked up, but then they all rolled into the same meeting. It created a kind of West Side Story showdown between the Keur Yaay women and Dioss for my love and affection, but I tried to split my time evenly.

The meeting was actually fairly interesting. The first part was about Visas and how incredibly difficult it is to get them and all the differences between. The second half was pretty much how to make your business look good to the US government for emigrating or for getting a visitor visa.

After a few morning of meetings, I met some friends for lunch and a quick drink. And then I went to the post office!

SHOUT OUT TO ALENA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alena sent me an absolutely amazing package that had mini Milano packets! DELICIOUS. All the stuff you sent me was great. I really needed extra storage so the storage box is great, the magazine always a good read, and Ahmed LOVED the pipe cleaners. Also he thought that the Scrabble card game was toy for him to practice his letters aka he thinks everything that's mine is his.
THANKS AGAIN and thanks Matt for the letter too!

Also, and I can't believe I forgot this, VAIDEHI IS HERE!!!!!!! The actress from the soap opera that my family loves is now here in Senegal. My sisters watched her while she drove through a huge crowd in Dakar for over an hour. It was ridiculous.

Chicken for dinner. Great day.