Over/Underwhelmed

I finally caught up with Dioss today and it wasn't the magical meeting I had imagined in my head. In all likelihood Dioss will be exporting some of his cards to the US and I was so excited to tell him. I've been unable to meet with him the past two days because he's been in Dakar with Pauline trying to secure funding for the catalog for Dioss' artist association. They were supposed to meet with some minister on Monday morning, but ended up meeting with him Tuesday afternoon. Pauline is only here for another 3-4 weeks and Dioss is definitely worried that the funding wont come through in a timely manner, which means that the printing and the "launch party" for the catalog might not happen while Pauline is here. I'm only slightly familiar with this project and really have no idea about the funding side of it and Dioss is definitely worried he's going to have to finish this project alone. Hopefully this week and next week they can catch me up to speed with what's going on and/ or the funding will magically appear.

While Pauline is calling Dioss every five seconds about ministers, funding, and meetings, I'm trying to talk to him about bank account routing numbers and the importance of meticulous record keeping for this export deal. Dioss is obviously overwhelmed. Everything he wanted is happening at once and he can't take it in. I can't blame him. He's very unsure of the business side of his business. He's an artist and doesn't pretend or to be good at the accounting and marketing aspects of it. I had a huge to-do list of things I wanted to do with Dioss today. We need to make a key for all of the different types of cards and I wanted to go over some other things so I had lugged my computer and camera across town, but that obviously wasn't happening today. Dioss was just looking at me with a dazed look on his face.

I scaled back the agenda to the most important item on the list. Currently Dioss only has a credit union and we needed to research some banks to see which one he should open an account at. I told him I would go and gather all of the information and we could talk about it later, but he wanted to come along. I can't tell you how incredibly difficult it is to open a personal bank account here. Necessary items: equivalent of our driver's license, a $50-$100 initial deposit, 3 passport photos, one's most recent electric or water bill, and proof of some sort of income. It's a freaking maze. After taking his passport picture we parted ways and are planning to meet up tomorrow to hopefully open the account.

This afternoon I hung out at the house and was constantly annoyed by one of the little girls who lives next door. She sometimes comes over to play with Ahmed although she's probably around 10 and I really don't like her. I don't know what it is about how she talks to me, but it just seems mean spirited and she bosses Ahmed around. We've had power for going on 2 hours now! But, I've got my flashlight ready to help Deenba with dinner!