Senegal's Revenge?

The first day back making my rounds was pretty good... until it turned bad. First for the good. I went to see Dioss this morning and while we didn't actually start any accounting work he did prove to me that he read the booklets I gave him, which I was impressed with. He memorized an impressive amount of information and we are going to start Wednesday morning with a simple ledger and counting his inventory. I hate to say this, but I'm pretty excited about starting Dioss out with his finances I know it will really help his business and I think he genuinely agrees now that he's read the books. Awesome.

Everyone in my family is still recovering from the wedding so lunch was served incredibly late again and then I rushed off to see my tutor. Jumba pretended not to recognize me because he hasn't seen me in so long, but I was prepared with presents. Remember when I took him and his family lollipops and he thought they were completely emasculating? Well I pretended I brought him another one and he freaked out. You had to be there. But, I had another present stashed away and we got on with our lesson. He really enjoys it when I come. He's a very intelligent man who just hasn't had any opportunity and now he's probably going to be stuck guarding this building and living in a single room with his family for the rest of his life. His wife and kids are incredibly nice so I enjoy going to see them and I like knowing that my tutoring money and little presents are really helping someone. Plus, our conversations are interesting. Today he explained all of the pick up lines men shout at me as I walk around. It was pretty funny.

Since tutoring is right next to the Peace Corps center and I knew some other volunteers were in for language training I stopped by. They were all going out for a drink and I really wanted to go, but I had my bike and I don't like being out at night so I decided to ride my bike back to my house and then cab to the bar. This was a terrible decision. Taking a back road which somehow was covered in water (don't ask me where this water came from because I desperately don't want to know) when my bike chain completely fell of my bike and I crashed into a mucky puddle. Delightful.

I walked my bike the rest of the way (the majority of the way) home. Unfortunately, my entire family was sitting in the courtyard and laughed at the mucky bottom of my pants and my story. Ahmed had decided to draw all over himself with some of my highlighters so that distracted most of my family from dwelling on my appearance for too long, but which created a huge fight between Khady, my mom, and Ahmed about taking a bath. This obviously devolved into Ahmed throwing a fit and him receiving a pack of cookies just as I emerged from the shower. He gave me a cookie which was delicious until it hit my stomach and Senegal's Revenge struck again. Yeah, it wasn't pretty.

To make matters worse my sisters made the best dinner ever: Moroccan couscous and chicken! I was able to eat a little bit, but it's so good. I'm actually feeling better now that I have in a while so I'm hoping I've now expelled everything from my system.

Here's to hoping!