Bombey and Back...Again

This was my last trip to Bombey before I go on Saturday and stay for the week of the camp. The camp officially starts on Sunday when all of the girls arrive. Jackie and I made the trip to Bombey today so we could go to the University with Katherine to iron out final details and to drop off a bunch of stuff we had bought. Jackie arrived early in Thies to pick up the t-shirts we're giving the girls at the center and I met her at the garage with my backpack full of mosquito spray, notebooks, and soccer balls and my satchel bag full of magazines for art projects! The people at the garage thought we were crazy and charged us a ridiculous fee for baggage, but a couple of hours later we arrived in Bombey to the lovely vision of Katherine on the side of the road sitting on a charette aka a horse cart.

Katherine had secured us a charette with an only slightly emaciated horse for our journey because we had a lot of baggage and needed to stop and buy 54 1.5 liter water bottles to give the girls. I have little faith in charettes and have a very rational fear of being maimed while riding on one so I was really happy when I finally stopped ignoring a Senegalese man screaming my name because it was Katherine's host dad who has a car! Yay! We took our stuff off the charette and then loaded all of the water into his car. We were back at Katherine's house in a matter of minutes and I wasn't scared for my life. Good day.

After quickly reviewing the food budget again we set off for the University (again with Katherine's dad in his car! He's awesome!). The woman in charge of the dorms was nice and seemed to have everything under control. We set up cleaning ladies and there will supposedly be sheets on all of the beds. Fingers crossed. Then we went to see my nemesis the food guy. He wasn't all too pleased with the changes I had made in the budget and was trying to pressure of into buying a ridiculous quantity of rice when I had had enough and had to put my foot down. Katherine, Jackie, and I were conducting the meeting in French and attempting to be patient and explain in detail the changes we made to the food stuffs list. When he started going on and on about the rice I lost it and launched into a Wolof tirade. It's funny how Wolof is now my go to language to express anger. I channeled my mom and Khady as I shook my finger and pulled a Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard neck move. I was over this guy and the rice and he needed to understand that we had the money and this is how much rice we were going to buy. He got the message and I felt good about taking a stand... and in Wolof no less.

That finished our business at the University and after walking around to inspect the classrooms we headed back to Katherine's house to discuss final plans and logistics and to watch Bristol Palin on Dancing With the Stars... the really important things in life. No sooner had we watched Bristol rip of her sparkly suit to reveal a slutty red dress and Jackie and I were back on a bus headed for home.

I jumped off the bus in Thies and headed straight to Massa Massa to meet Leslie, the woman importing Dioss' cards, for dinner. Christine, a PCV from my stage, who works with the baskets was also there. We had a really nice time together and I got to tell Leslie that Dioss is already making contact with some leather workers! Hopefully everything will work out!