and i even have work i'm meant to be doing. maybe that should be my excuse. plus i tend to give up on things at times.
anyways. i guess the most interesting would be my trip to khoungheul where the picture below comes from. i had about 10 hours notice that i had to leave and go cross country the next day! i got into a 7 place, which is a peugeot of some sort with 7 passenger seats, and sat in the damn thing for the next 7 hours smushed between the wall and this man who was feeling particularly expansive. my 7 place was headed to tambacounda, but i got out at khoungheul which is like twice as far as kaolack. middle of bloody nowhere, and worst road i've ever seen. the potholes were more like...well there were more potholes than road!! so that was quite a ride.
during my 2 days in khoungheul we visited a village and attended 2 inter village meetings. not the most stimulating things, but still interesting to see that so many people would turn out to talk about what they were going to do all summer to carry through the tostan teachings.
i got back to Dakar just in time for our beach day at Mbour. that goes down as probably one of my happiest days here so far--it was just so fun and i got to know people so much better, including Salim, who became my office partner, since that monday i moved myself upstairs to the second desk in his office. funnily enough i'm writing this from the big room downstairs coz we're all sitting in here for the airconditioning today, though i'm starting to freeze. its just so hot, and i guess if you're fasting... yes its ramadan! so everyone is fasting. i'm not and will have to keep "enjoying" lunch, but i can't really think about food right now.
my eating habits are certainly changing... i eat so much less here. the heat is definitely cutting my appetite, and it tends to make me feel bloated which makes me not want to eat. then i get really starving hungry at odd times. but i'm used to eating less... since in khoungheul, for example, the food made me want to cry slightly. breakfeast was great since i could have whatever i wanted, and got bread and vachequirit cheese!! yay! and then the first night i ate grilled meat. goat or sheep. i don't know. the kind of thing i'd never eat unless i absolutely had to. well i had to. at lunch we had cheb, as usual, with lamb or goat. literally like a leg of meat tossed in the middle of the dish, which a woman would break up with one hand and give everyone pieces of. i just chewed as little as possible so as to not think about what i was swallowing too much. the great part there was that they brought out sodas for everyone afterwards, so you could wash it down with something nice! and i was always hoarding vast amounts of water.
other notable trips... to la somone for 3-4 days with rowan and guillaume to molly's house to do some work on the education modules i'm still working on... i can't wait til these are done but i still need to talk to molly before that happens--i just need to do something more stimulating than this!! i can't imagine that this is going to keep me busy happy and occupied until next april!
otherwise, going to the beach a lot after work is great. best thing i've done here so far, even though i guess its starting to get a little old... i dunno. i think the whether is changing a bit, but then again here i am sitting in airconditioning, what do i know.
ok, well i hope i'll write again soon and have something more "interesting" to write about. because i'm not feeling supremely useful at the moment. and really, really, really thinking hard about whether i want to do design. in theatre. after this. and i think i do, i think i do...
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