im a kid again!!!!!

Thought being a kid was so easy didn’t you? Well I am here to tell you as an adult who essentially feels like a child again—kids seem pretty stupid.

I live with a family. The boys I would date do too. My “mother” gives me disappointed looks when I don’t go to religious functions, my language skills are of that of no more than a ten year old, people tell me what I “really should be doing” all of the time(like sitting at the millionth lame baptism rather than working), and like a spoiled only child I get all of this crazy attention. It is a ridiculous life I lead!

And the problem is I am not at all a child. I am living away from everything comfortable and familiar (or once familiar) out of choice. Because I am educated and because I want to work hard and for something I believe in. So that in itself is not childish. If only I could say all of this in French or (the great language of) Wolof.

Dating here is realllllly cool too. Tonight I went with my friend over to his friend’s house. We drank some tropical Fanta. And while it actually was fun because these were some of the only ‘cool’ Senegalese girls I have met, it sure wasn’t drinking beer with my peeps. And then I walk home to my house/compound , which has a bolt lock so I have to wake up dear brother to let me in.

………..Errrrrrrrrrrrshhh…(stop time)

Didn’t I totally just live alone in a cool apartment in a city with things to do at night?

Didn’t I use to sound somewhat intelligent?

But alas, this was my decision. And I adjust to it. I am pretty adjusted to it. I guess. I mean I certainly feel like if I were to return to America I would feel like a freak there, too. So it is indeed a predicament I am in. But this is what life is made of- sorting out the ridiculous stuff to find a deeper something or another. And I do indeed find joy and happiness in things I never have before.

Like rice for example. Now when dinner comes around I hope for rice with a few beans. It is freaking delicious dude. I might have a heart attack if someone gave me sushi and a taco. Which brings me to the fact that the anti malaria drugs we take give you ridiculously vivid dreams. As the Doc put it- some people pay for this kind of stuff illegally. And well, it has taken me through the taco bell drive through twice this week. And I still remember my order very clearly and remember talking with dude over speaker. Damn it. Taccooooos.


Oh man, the sheep just broke loose. They are now rummaging around the back area. Bahhhhh. The way they pen up these sheep really should be changed-they always get out if the whole group of em work together.

Africa is totally ghetto. Hahahahahaha. Glad to be here in L’Afrique.

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current work projects:
Developing a marketing campaign for free HIV testing at CDEPS. I am thinking flyers and radio spots for starters.
Which brings me to the next thing:
Monday myself and team Louga have a meeting with RTS Radio to pitch doing a radio show. Topics will include news, local and international, health information, local events, music, explanation of american lyrics that they listen to, business and agricultural info and just a lot of stuff. Sounds really fun and radio reaches a really wide audience in developing countries because almost everyone has a radio, whilst not all have tvs. or electricity to have a tv, etc. but radios people do have.
And I had my first girl scouts type of meeting last week. We talked about school and work after school. It was really cute. They are ages 11-16. And they want to meet every week.
Oh, and thinking of starting teaching english classes. Everyone wants them afterall.
And me and the guys are going to one of the english highschool classes to facilitate a gender discussion/game with them. They each take a card with like a word on it that we will pass out. One example will be "work" or "sports" or "cooking" and then each student puts it up on the board under the category of male or female or in the middle. Then they will tell why they put that there and it goes from there. Im looking forward to it. So many topics are just never introduced here.

Cheers!