Khady

Almost every afternoon Khady comes up to my room to play with paperdolls that my friend Katie brought when she visited. Once Khady got bored of the paperdolls' clothing (they're Disney Princess dolls, by the way) I started tracing the dresses on white paper and letting her color her own designs.

She usually gets through about 3 dresses before she gets bored and starts wandering around my room. Now it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's seen any room I've lived in but there's quite a lot of crap here. Add into that the fact it took me a year to figure out how to get rid of trash and you have a treasure trove for a 5 year old. After she colors, she usually finds something interesting and plays with that:

Yesterday she and her sister (the 12 year old) were up here coloring when Khady found a drink packet on my desk. I have a million Crystal Lite like packets and she found a bright pink raspberry lemonade packet. I told her it was to put in your water and she started ripping it open... she then ate the sugary drink mix like a pixie stick. I was disgusted and I let her keep the rest of the packet.

Later that night she was running around like a crazy person... crawling, yelling, wrestling, climbing, shrieking.... I wondering why.... oops.

KO

Back in Bambey

When I've been gone from site for more than a few days it feels like years. Yesterday I came home to a mostly empty house - all of the girls are gone on vacation and Miss was sick. There was one new addition... a new host brother who just finished his first year of university in Algeria. He's home for the "summer" and we chatted briefly (I'm guessing it's weird for him that in the year he's been gone a toubab moved in).

I was supposed to teach an accounting class this morning at the Mayor's office but it was closed and the guard's phone was turned off so I had no room to teach in... no students showed up anyway so the class was cancelled. I decided to not let the whole day be a waste so I sat outside of my house to work on my personal statement a little. About 10 minutes into outlining a group of neighborhood boys saw me and started sprinting towards me. "Tata Fatou! Tata Fatou! Menanunu dessiner???" My coloring group hadn't seen me for a week and they were eager to color. I brought down my crayons and some paper and made them all say "please" before they got paper. I finished my work while approving of all of their drawings. Eventually Youssou came out and made them all go home so they wouldn't miss lunch.

This afternoon I organized things for the camp and read a little - not much to do during the hot part of the day. This evening Youssou and I watched lutte (Senegalese wrestling). He explained the two wrestlers, who was mean, who was smart, and who he supported. Just as the pre-match fanfare ended my host mom came out and we all cheered on the smart one (who ended up winning). Youssou and I also talked about how he might want to go into the army (which I encouraged because it's a stable, good income and the Senegalese army does mostly peace keeping missions in other countries) or go to Italy to work (which I discouraged).

The rest of this week I am doing more camp work - we're almost a month away! Also Ramadan starts Wednesday or Thursday (depending on when we see the moon).

Ba suba,
KO

The magic of poultry

I like to take advantage of everyone being in school or doing housework in the morning by studying for the LSAT. Today I decided to study outside because it's starting to heat up and we don't get wind in our courtyard. About 10 minutes after sitting down a little boy approached me and greeted me. He then proceeded to sit next to me and watch me take my practice test. Two other little kids joined him so I asked them if they wanted to color. A family friend had sent me crayons so I brought down some paper and the crayons and told them to color. Eventually we attracted 3 more kids and I had about 6 kids coloring houses and people (their choosing). I gave paper to the youngest one (maybe 3? 4?) the other kids said to me, "he can't color, he can't do anything," but this was American-color time so everyone got to color. Eventually, I needed to go upstairs and get some real work done so coloring time was done, but I plan on continuing it.

I didn't do much this afternoon but Thomas came to visit and I went for a run after he left. I'm so glad I have a neighbor who likes riding his bike 50km a few times every week. It's nice to chat with another volunteer even if only for 30 minutes. After Thomas left I went for a run. There's a group of women I pass a lot and today I invited them to join on the run, one of them even pretended to get up... we settled on they would join me tomorrow. It's always nice to joke with Senegalese people (which is so different than the usual being laughed at).

Apparently the stars are aligned tonight because after a month of rice, beans, and dried fish for dinner we had salad, fries, and poultry. I say poultry because my hfdad's been hunting and returning with small birds (having never seen them Jackie's decided they're grouse) so it might have been that... or a chicken - who knows ... it was amazing.

KO