Happy Birthday Mom!

While I knew that today is the momentous occasion of my mom's birth, what I did not know is that today is Assumption day and that everything is closed in Senegal on Assumption day. My Senegalese mom inquired why I was even going out today and told me that no one else was working, but she neglected to tell me that literally everything was going to be closed. So the post office and the other errands that I had planned to run today were a no go, but none of the kids were in school so I did get harassed all along the way which is always great.

One thing that was open today was the Peace Corps training center, although the main office was not. I got a phone call telling me that my "package" had arrived in Thies. While I was on the phone, I didn't ask about the singular nature of my package and just assumed that it was a miscommunication, but when I got to the center there was only one package. I should have known that the hardest part in getting the packages of art materials from Lowell, Michigan to Thies, Senegal would be the Dakar to Thies leg. I know that four packages arrived in the Peace Corps office in Dakar so I'm not that worried, but I am impressed that only one of the packages made it into the car after I had a long conversation about them all coming to Thies. I will call the office in Dakar tomorrow when it opens and hopefully the rest of the packages will be in Thies by the end of the weekend.

Even the one package completely overwhelmed Dioss when I took it to his house. He has seen me carrying around the flat rate packages that my friends and family have sent and even though I told him that HUGE boxes were coming, I don't think he believed me and he thought that the small boxes were coming. When I showed up at his house in a taxi with a box I couldn't wrap my arms around he was really surprised and really excited when I opened the box to show him all the paper, colored pencils, and markers that were in this box. He immediately started writing down all of his ideas for what he wants to do during the workshops and he was very adament that when the rest of the boxes arrive we sit down together and sort everything so that the schools get a good mix of supplies. I think this project is going to be great!

Dinner is currently nowhere in site and it's all I want because I'm hungry and want to go to bed. I have a really sore throat and want to try and beat it with sleep.

Happy Birthday again mom!