Ants in His Pants

Training is still going well. I’m enjoying learning about food security, and exporting, and Senegalese laws and everything, but it’s exhausting going to class every day and I still haven’t recovered from WAIST. All I want to do is sleep. I feel like I need a whole weekend alone in my room to recover. I do have a very special vacation coming up so I’m just looking forward to that.

Today we had presentations about food exportation. It would be near impossible for a single volunteer to make a Senegalese business ready to export to the US. Several generations of volunteers would probably be necessary. I am really interested in all of the regulations and hoops a business must jump through to get certification though so the presentations were interesting, but I’m feeling like food security is not what I really want my service to be about.

What I definitely am interested in is artisans and Dioss called me today all excited. Apparently he has opened a second bank account so he can keep his business and personal finances separate, painted several new canvasses that he assured me I will love, and claims that his accounting ledger I made him “is a work of art.” I’m going to try and get over there later this week to see what’s up at the gallery.

Things that made my day:

I took a cab home from the center today because I was lazy and tired and had a nice conversation with the cab driver. It blew his mind that cabs are yellow in the US just like they are in Senegal.

Deenba and I had a great conversation about how the soap opera Vaidehi is far superior to Marina. It was great.

While our power was out tonight Ahmed and I were coloring on the floor of the kitchen. He was just wearing boxers and all of a sudden he started screaming and dancing around. He quite literally had ants in his pants. He stripped down and I stopped/ killed all the three ants that were in his pants much to the delight and laughter of the rest of my family. Everyone was mocking Ahmed because he was scared of the ants so to prove his manliness and strength he continuously leapt over the dead ants with a stick in hand. Needless to say, it was amusing.