Work is proceeding maddeningly slowly. A few weeks ago I had a meeting with my ONG to do a plan of action for the next three months, and left pretty excited about what we were going to do. Unfortunately none of what we planned actually happened because everyone is too busy, which has left me wondering whether they want or need my help at all. So finally last Wednesday I sat down with Roger, my homologue, and we scrapped the whole plan and said I was able to do what I want until they have time to actually work with me. Its not an optimal solution, but at least I will just be able to pursue my own thing instead of scheduling a lot of time and then having nothing work.

And on that note, I’m hoping to have my first business group meeting next Monday. I need to find a place to hold it still, but I am not anticipating that that will be a problem. Also, since I have free time again, I might try to do a world map project this week, if I can get permission to use the wall of the Maison de Jeune building. Otherwise I have a meeting Friday to discuss how a honey-producing groupement manages their money, and will meet with a few other people this week to try and get projects going. I might also start teaching an English class once a week. I was supposed to be doing this specially for APIC, but they flaked, so now I am just going to offer a weekly class, and I am going to make it hard enough that people have to actually put some time in, and if I get a few motivated students that will be great, and otherwise I will drop it.

Cece and I have agreed to start doing an exchange class in which I will teach a him and a few of his friends English and he will teach me Malinke. We start this week and hopefully it will work out. I am still searching for a French tutor to meet with once a week. Once the year is finished I want to switch to studying Arabic, so I need to get that set up soon.

I am excited about my own projects, but pretty frustrated with APIC and their lack of motivation. Why did they request a volunteer if they aren’t willing to make time to work with me? The president has been pretty supportive, which is great, but he does more meeting and fundraising than coordinating, and so it is Roger that is an issue now. We will see how it works out, but I am feeling the fear again of not having accomplished anything during my two years (On a personal level I have accomplished a lot, but I would like to leave feeling like I actually contributed something, its just that its so hard to get projects going here).