I had a surprise visitor yesterday that was a real pleasure. He didn’t have anything to do, so he came up for the day and we kind of just hung out and walked around, making sure to enjoy all the luxuries like cold coke and ice cream. We also did a little shopping. Mostly we just talked a lot, and it was great to get his perspective and his stories and how they contrast with my own. He seems to be much better than I am about being assertive, and it was good for me to hear how he handled different situations. Its a little different because its his job to teach health practices, and his information is a concrete thing. SED is a little more abstract, but I can still draw lessons from his lack of fear of people not liking him because he contradicts them.
Also, I’d known I had been in a kind of funk for a few days, but I didn’t realize how much until after he had left and I was in a great mood. Just that little bit of time being able to speak easily and talk about more complicated things made a big difference.

I’ve been told that people want to see what it looks like outside my door, so I finally broke out the camera and we took some pictures. Unfortunately you’ll have to wait till June because I don’t have a way to shrink them down sufficiently here, and I won’t be heading to Conakry till then. It just so happened that when we came out with the camera there was a monkey in my yard, so I got a picture of it. They don’t treat monkeys with the same anthropomorphism that we do, so I don’t have much hope for it. It was injured and the kids were chasing it with rocks. Every monkey I’ve seen here has been on a leash.

My old Hampshire College hat was so worn out that no one would let me wear it, so finally I cut off the logo, and after buying my new hat I sewed the Hampshire logo on it. There’s a picture of that to that I will upload when I can. Its not the greatest hat in the world, its just a tribute (Queue Tenacious D).

So that’s about it. I’ve hit the home stretch before my regional capital visit. Also I found out the party that was planned isn’t until a few days later, so I’ll probably miss it. I’m kind of glad that there won’t be thirty people there while I’m there. But also I hope I’m not the only one the whole time. Mail run arrives on Sunday, and I’m expecting a couple of packages and some letters. Exciting!

Today I am not going to do too much. Work gets out at 13:00 on Fridays anyway. But I am going to walk down to the marche and sit down with some carpenters. There are a few groups of people that I walk by every day and we say hi to each other, but that I never talk to much because I am on my way somewhere, so I want to stop in for a while with each group. There are the carpenters and the barbers, and that might be it for right now.