I'm A Big Girl Now

Today I did a lot of leg work in the hopes that in the future I will have satisfyingly productive days. In an effort to stave off the boredom and to get out of my house I walked to the Lycee Technique, the site of my Junior Achievement classes. I'm guessing that it's close to four miles from how long it took me and how dehydrated I was once I arrived. I had to go back to the school because I was a few certificates short on diploma day and embarrassingly enough it's taken me several months to get the last certificates from Dakar. Taking the certificates to the Lycee and calling those students felt like a big accomplishment, or at least something concrete to check off my list. I then wound my way back toward home through town looking for supplies for the girls camp. There are a couple of items we're looking to buy in bulk and I need to find where I can purchase 250 bags of cookies and the like. I may have had success on a few items, but there were many hopefullys and maybes thrown around so I really have no idea. Most of the supplies I'm in charge of buying are easy to find so I'm not worried about getting the shopping done. Plus, it's shopping... always an enjoyable pursuit.

The major achievement of today was me taking charge of my diet. Food is such a huge part of culture here and it's so important to eat and be grateful for what you're eating. Today, since I have a lot of time on my hands, I made extremely elaborate and delicious meals for breakfast and lunch and then my family had a larger than usual break fast so I really wasn't hungry when I saw Jeenaba preparing dinner. I walked right up to her, told her that I wasn't hungry, and that I wouldn't be eating dinner this evening. She gave me a weird look and shrugged. I then ran to take a shower/ hide from my mom and now I'm cowering in my room in the hopes that my mom wont come looking for me with a huge bowl of rice. So far the plan seems to be working and I feel ridiculously empowered by this small act of rebellion.