I'm Still Sick

Head cold hell still controlled my life this morning when I woke up, but I attempted to press on. That is after I woke up, talked to Matt, and then went back to sleep. The only reason that I finally got out of bed was that Jackie and Alys were in Thies for the morning and were getting breakfast together. I attempted to skip out of the house quietly, but Jeenaba caught me and we walked part of the way together. She was taking little Abdou to get some vaccinations. I was already late to meet up with Jackie and Alys because I couldn't get out of bed and Jeenaba and Abdou made me even later, but he's adorable so it was OK. Abdou still hates being carried around on Jeenaba's back so she commanded me to walk behind her and adjust Abdou every 30 seconds. Sometimes I moved his head to the left, sometimes to the right, and then I would move him up and down on her back while she tightened the wrap. People on the street looked at us with expressions of complete and utter confusion as well as bemused smiles. Fortunately our paths diverged and I continued on to my breakfast date.

My plan was to eat breakfast with the girls and then stay at the restaurant and get some computer work done. I can get absolutely nothing done in my room right now so I thought a change of pace might help, but after sitting and staring at Jackie and Alys in a complete daze I realized that work was futile. Instead of listening to my body and returning home I piled on the self guilt and decided to go to the office. My new boss, Mme. Aida, promised to call me yesterday to tell me about the formation that may or may not be taking place today. That obviously didn't happen, but in my attempt to be nice and for her to like me I decided to stop by. The last person was leaving my office and heading to the formation - he dragged me along. Terrible, terrible idea.

The formation was held at the Red Cross, but was sponsored by an NGO through the Department of Children and Family. Yeah, not my forte. I arrive on the scene with another man from my office at 11:30am. I sit down next to one of the women I really like from the office, Mme. Geuye, and ask her what's up. The formation was supposed to start at 9am and the NGO still hadn't shown up. Women were getting angry. I understand that patience is a virtue, one that I have been working on since arriving in Senegal over a year ago, but I truly think this type of patience is overrated. Amazingly the women only complained, not a single one of them left. I was foaming at the mouth after waiting for thirty minutes. It's ridiculous what people put up with her. I wanted to stand up and lead my own formation about demanding change, but that would take not only physical strength, but also mental faculties, neither of which I had at this point. An hour after I arrived the NGO finally showed up, over three hours late, a thirty minutes of introductions ensued before we broke for lunch and I escaped to my house.

Back at home I fell asleep on the couch waiting for lunch and then ate two spoonfuls of ceebu jenn before falling into my bed to sleep for the rest of the afternoon. Colds suck. Once I finally made an appearance around 7pm after Ahmed banged on my door, my mom asked me to go on a walk with her. Little did I know the walk was to the tailor's where she berated him for not having her clothes done. Definitely entertaining. Now, I'm going to go back to bed and hopefully wake up in the morning magically cured.