Yesterday was pretty cool. I wasn’t terribly stable, but I pushed through all of my desires to hide, and I always feel better when I can do that. I also got up early enough that I could exercise a little bit and study some French and still be able to go to the bureau in the morning, which was great, cause then the rest of the day was flexible. At the office I talked to the secretary treasurer of my organization, and next Friday we are going to meet and talk about the books and how he does the accounting. I’m kind of excited cause I feel like it will be my first bit of real, easily definable work, and I might be able to give some accounting help. I’m trying to go about it as courteously as possible, because he not only obviously knows what he is doing, but I don’t want to come off thinking that he is doing something wrong and if he shows me the books I will change it all. I actually don’t know that I’ll be able to help with the accounting at all, but at least I’ll get a chance to talk to him about where he thinks the problems are and how he thinks I can help, which will give me an idea of what to look for in the future.
I ate some pretty fantastic beef meatballs for lunch (seriously, only meatballs, nothing else but oil and a little onion). It was delicious, even as filled with little pieces of bone as it was. Perhaps despite my efforts to eat protein I am not getting enough, because I felt pretty good for the rest of the day.
I came back and took a short nap, but it was super hot in my house so I went out and sat under the mango tree and chatted with my family as they prepared gingam, a ginger and sugar drink that is quite tasty. I also went to the marche and bought a baseball hat, because my Hampshire College one was so worn out it had holes in it and both my family here and in Forecariah seem very against wearing clothes with holes in them. Worn out is definitely not in fashion here. Anyway, I cut the Hampshire logo off my old hat and I’m going to sew it on my new Real Madrid hat (I’m betting the makers of the hat in China did not get permission to use their name). I bought it for $2.80, talked down from $3.60. When I put it in dollar terms it seems like such a tiny amount, but for me the difference is worth two rice and soup sauce dinners, not to mention trying to salvage at least in some part the idea that I am only a white person, not a super rich white person.
But the highlight of the day was that I asked if I could watch some dancing, and ended up being invited to a pre-wedding celebration that was awesome. If I understand correctly (a big supposition), the women here do a dance for the three days before the wedding as the “souvenir” for the bride. Its a sort of gift they give the bride before her wedding. So I was led through town walking and semi-dancing next to the grandmother of my family, who is I think a pretty well respected person in the community. When we got to the dance we walked into a big circle of people and around the interior, salueing everyone, and then they brought in special chairs and seated us in the front row. I was feeling way out of place because I was one of only maybe ten men there, and six of those men were drummers (not to mention the other obvious differences). The women danced in pairs or threesomes, decided haphazardly by whoever wanted to go up and dance. Their dancing was amazing! It was a kind of very fast hopping with arms and elbows flapping like wings. It kind of reminded me of chickens or something, but what was really cool was how much energy and heart went into their dancing. Fanta, the fiance of my homologue here, was a big help throughout. She gave me a big thumbs up when she saw me with what was probably a look of “what the heck am I doing here?” And we danced together to the drums. The dance is rather much harder than it looks, I might have to practice some in the comfort of the dirt outside my house.
All in all it was a good day, and a day much needed, since this week has been mostly a struggle in obstinant stubborness to get through the day. I had kind of plateaud out and felt like I was on another down swing, just waiting for the mailrun and the trip to Kankan, which I’m actually not that excited about, but I feel like its a good idea to go and see the other volunteers and get a little break from my site. But yesterday picked my spirits up some, and I actually got almost seven hours of sleep last night, which is much better than I’ve been getting.
Speaking of sleep, the last several days I haven’t been able to do much of it, though I don’t really know why. My dreams have also been increasingly surreal and weird, though they haven’t returned to the nightmares that I was having for a while in Forecariah. I don’t know if its more mefloquine effects or if its just a result of all the changes going on, but hopefully the good sleep that I got last night is the beginning of a trend.
Finally, it is the dry season and we get our current from a hydroelectric dam, so I think we’re on a reduced schedule for the next couple of months, which may reduce my posting frequency. Not to mention that the internet has been down this whole week because the generator is broken, and I don’t know when it will be fixed. I guess you will know its fixed when you read this, but just keep in mind that my timing is probably going to be pretty variable here.
Also, I just wanted to thanks for everyone’s support and words of encouragement. I’ve past the one month mark, and things are defintely much better than they were that first week or two.
