At least I tried...

The meeting at the middle school went really well but I'll save that for another day because it's all talk currently (we'll see Monday). Afterwards I went to the Pre-School armed with spirit, crayons, and stickers. There was the general TATA FATOUUUUUU rush when I got there and we played "touch the white person's hand" for about 5 minutes. Then break was over and we went to our own classes. They'd put up a fabric barrier between the 3 year olds and 4 year olds so I only had about 25 kids to wrangle. Of course someone else came in and got them rilled up by having them dance around then left me with no instructions. I sat them down at tables, gave them a piece of paper and a crayon each. There were about 5 beautiful minutes of calm... before the storm. I started giving stickers to kids who had finished and then I'm pretty sure a riot broke out. Kids wanted different crayons, wanted to break the crayons, wanted stickers, wanted to hit other kids, etc... It devolved into kids screaming GIVE ME GIVE ME GIVE ME GIVE ME and laughing at me when I said "what do you want?" or "why?" or "wait a minute." Then the started hitting me and that's when I gave up. I took the crayons away, everyone got one sticker (which they put on their foreheads), I gave them their backpacks, and I peaced out about 10 minutes early. There are pictures up that show a nice progress of this class from calm and coloring into chaos. I hate to admit it but I think I hit my breaking point with those kids today. I wish there was something I could do but the "bad" (hitting, etc) behavior is already ingrained in them at 4 years old (and I mean "bad" as in a cultural standard I'm not willing to work within). I'll probably keep going back because I hate the thought that I'm giving up on something but it just puts me in a bad mood the rest of the day and isn't worth it.

After preschool I went to the post and got a package from my parents full of food to make for my hfam... pictures will come when I make it, as well as one from Amy and Colleen who seem to know everything a girl needs in Africa (beef jerky, swedish fish, and plastic dinosaurs which are now creating a little diorama in my room). I also got a card from Rita that joined the wall of adorable dog cards she's sent me and a letter from my Grandma. Thanks for the love from America everyone!

I also got my new table delivered today (aka the carpenter two houses down carried it over) and it does make my room a lot cleaner.. so.. thanks parents (real ones, not Senegalese) for that suggestion.. as stubborn as I am, I'll admit.. you were right.

Two last things from today: 1. My host mom was prepping dinner (lekk which is the porridge and yogurt awfulness) and two people walked in and she muttered under her breath "right before dinner..." You have to understand hospitality is a HUGE thing in Senegalese culture to the point where it is ridiculous. If someone walks in, unannounced, surprisingly, right before dinner, you have to feed them even if it means someone in your house isn't going to eat that night. I hate to preach about what's "good" or "right" but with meals that take hours to prepare (because you're working over a fire or, at best, one burner) that's really hard and annoying. It was so awesome to actually hear my host mom say something about it, even if it was just to me.
2. I was chilling in the kitchen right before dinner and Youssou said, "hey Fatou, you know what's under the gas (burner that I was standing next to)?" "No, what?" Then he walked over, moved it, and a mouse ran out which scared me and he found hilarious. Turns out 12 year old boys are 12 year old boys no matter where you are in the world. Also, it's nice to know that he feels like he can joke with me, even though it wasn't really nice, it was a familiar thing to do.

Tomorrow might be an adventure as I try to get my residency card renewed (Tamar already had problems with this).

KO