Friday? What’s That?

Friday, October 16.

I miss the good old American Fridays with the happy anticipation that goes along with them: the happy hour after work, the relaxing night with a Netflix movie on, the sleeping in the next day. Here there is nothing to look forward to but studying, working in the garden, and… heat. We have been working and studying for nearly 20 days straight now, with no break in sight. Today we went to the garden at 9:00 to water the transplants we put in last night. Then I went to Sidi’s at 11:00 for a two hour lesson, then lunch of ceebujen, then back to the garden at 3:00 to plan out the nursery bed, back to Sidi’s at 4:00 for another two hour lesson, then back to the garden from 6:00 'til 7:00 when it got too dark to work. That was one full day, and I am feeling it.

It will be one week until our first language exam and the pressure is beginning to mount. So I am trying to learn many new words and grammar rules every day.

Saturday 10/18

This is my new favorite time of the day. The highpoint of my day is when we finish in the garden around 6:00 or 7:00. (At 6:30 it will be full daylight and full dark by 7:00) I stop at the butik (boutique/deli/bodega) for a lukewarm soda from the “cooler”. I drink it down, go home and take a cold shower, put on clean clothes, turn on the fan in my room and stretch out on the bed. That’s as good as it gets here in Bayakh.

We’ve just about finished up the garden work. We had a visitor today, a farmer from the next village over. He was very curious about what we were up to. I managed to keep up a conversation in Wolof/English/French.

I hadn’t been feeling well for few days: dizzy and lightheaded in the garden. Dehydration? Maybe, so I mixed up a liter of dehydration salts and that seemed to help just a little. I had a slight fever last night and I realized what was going on… a sinus infection. I got a good night’s sleep last night and feel much better today.

The heat, I can deal with. The garden and language work too. They are both intense but manageable. 

Funny how I talked the talk about how I would be happy to be unplugged. Well, I’m not. I thought I would enjoy the radio silence and a dearth of email and facebook posts, etc. but I guess I’m lonely and homesick. I miss contact with my kids and my friends. I worry that they worry when they don’t hear from me.

The content of this blog do not reflect the thoughts, philosophy or beliefs of the U.S. Peace Corps. The opinions are those of the author alone.