March Is Hear

Book: “Confederacy for Dunces” By John Kennedy Toole (I was laughing so much that my host family was just starring at me. I am only 58 pages in)
Song: Want You by Bob Dylan
Quote: “The free exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world.” East of Eden John Steinbeck

5 Things that will happen to you if you have a beard in Senegal
1: People ask me if I am a Moore (Mauritanian) or a Naar (Arab)
2: I get asked if I am a member of a terrorist organization.
3: Every Senegalese Women tells me to shave it off.
4: At the end of the day I find food in my beard or pieces of string. Not knowing how long it has remained in my beard.
5: I have been told at least three times that if I were in America, George Bush’s father would shoot me dead. (My favorite)

Any who, life is going well. I am really starting to get some work done and reading some good books. I first want to congratulate my sister on being pregnant with her first child. If you even mention that someone is pregnant in Senegal they will freak out because it is considered bad luck to talk about pregnancy. Also don’t mention a kid is cute or that will turn them ugly. Just a quick suggestion for all of you who come to Senegal in the near future. My family loved the chicken calendar, they laughed for a long time. The books you sent me are great. I am really enjoying the “Confederacy of Dunces.”

The artist I am working with seems to be really motivated and making some good progress. He has opened up his new boutique and repainted, made a sign for the outside, and put up new shelves. He is probably my first work partner that really wants to listen to what I have to say so it is rewarding to see the progress we are making. Hopefully we will be up on the Internet in a few short months and selling to Europe and America. The kids I am tutoring are making some progress but it is hard to help them since they get sick a lot and have other duties in the house. It is really hard to get some people moving in general also just because I went to go pay my electric bill at 9 in the morning and I could barley go outside because it was so hot. C’est pas bon.
So now that I am back at site my English club has restarted. I had a little trouble getting restarted because the kids only come outside at sunset. So I don’t have as much time with my kids like I did before. Also the first time I saw them, they ran from me and hid because they didn’t recognize me with my beard. They hid behind a wall of cinderblocks and it took one of them a few seconds to come out and shake my hand. Although I must say I was walking around when I first got back and Papa one of the smaller children yelled “How are you?” I turned around responded, then he said “Thank You.” After that he went into “What time is it? Time to get Ill.” Then we went into the song I taught them, Starts high and ends low “Djiby’s English Club.” I was so proud of Papa I almost felt like he was my own son and I have been teaching him everything he will need to know when he learns English if he gets to go to school.

Any who I really have no good stories as of lately. Stuff has become so normal to me and routine I feel like the stories I had earlier are just now routine and it is harder for me to pick something out of the ordinary. I do shower four to five times a day because of the heat. Ohh I know, I started my tree nursery. Nothing has grown yet but I’m hopping. The dirt is a little to clay like. I rode out a few K down the riverbank and dug under some grass to get dirt. But I just think it won’t sustain the life I want to create. My next test is two parts manure, one part sand. I think I will pay kids to collect the manure for me. I already get strange stairs from people for collecting garbage to use pots for my garden. Actually I got a really nice pot brought it home and my second mom yelled at me. Dafa Salty, It’s dirty! Apparently I brought home a Childs toilet and the dry dirt in the bottom of it was poop. Opps. Any who Until next time.