On the Upswing

Yesterday, since I didn't really get out and do any "work," I was feeling badly about myself so I wrote the monthly report, in French, that I'm supposed to give my Senegalese supervisor, Diof. My train of thought was: this week can't really get any worse so I might as well go see Diof. This philosophy turned out to be completely true. I don't know if it was because I haven't had a great week or because Diof was just really busy and wanted me out of his office and gone, but our interactions were completely pleasant and he didn't ask me to do anything ridiculous, tedious, or just plain obnoxious. It was a win win on my side. I went to see Diof, which I needed to do AND it made me feel good about myself and that I had a big accomplishment. Excellent. It's all about the little things here. Keeping myself happy/ semi-sane.

I rushed home because even though it was a pleasant experience with Diof, it was a long one because people kept coming in and out of his office. There was no need to hurry because Khady was cooking lunch. When Khady or Mami make lunch it's going to be at least 3pm before we eat. While this is annoying, it's also very exciting because, from what I can deduce, they are allowed to buy much better food goods since they are biological children and not just maids. Today we had chicken with salad and eggs; it was unbelievable and well worth the wait. My family has been busting out the awesome food this week and not only did we have chicken for lunch, but we are having chicken for dinner! Yum!

This afternoon, after a disappointing run to the post office, I met up with Emily and a new volunteer who just transferred from Benin. This girl, Hannah, is currently all by herself because everyone else from the new stage is visiting their site for the week. Emily discovered Hannah at the center all alone and we took her out for a drink. Tomorrow we are really going to show her the town... aka chicken dibi.

As I'm waiting for dinner to be ready, I'm going to go draw some trees. Ahmed and I have been drawing a lot today, but the only thing I'm allowed to draw, according to Ahmed, are trees. I have no idea why. And I have no idea who I've become. Where did all this patience for small children come from?