Hot Weather and, Uh, Reading Material

Currently sitting in my room, drinking a Fanta, listening to Wham!, and sitting about as close to the fan as comfort allows. To say that Velingara is getting hot is a bit of an understatement. Now I am not going to say that things are unbearable because obviously people have seemed

to survive here just fine but if I were in America with my American schedule it would have been a bit more of a task to just survive the day. Here I have the flexibility for the most part to get up at whichever time I please, even though I can’t sleep past nine because it is either too hot in the sweat box they call my room or there are children screaming outside my door, take a much needed nap after lunch, spend my early evening in the shade talking to friends and my night laying on a matt outside as my Nene fans anyone that is in reach of her. I don’t think I can really complain about my lifestyle here but if I do get one thing to complain about it is the heat. Now I know why people drink tea under a tree all day or take two hours for a lunch break, it is simply too hot to be productive. I am not saying that I have not been productive because I have actually been knocking things off the ol’ to do list left and right but it has taken much more effort than if I were to be living somewhere, oh I don’t know, averaging less than 105° on any given day (it is currently 110° and 5pm if you were wondering). So what are these things that I have been up to you may ask?

Things with the waste management project are at a sort of a stand still. The city budget is finally done but it is sitting at the office of another government official waiting to be approved. This office has 15 days, which was 19 days ago, to approve the budget so the city can officially start working on and funding projects for 2013. So I am just waiting, as it seems that I am always doing.

My youth project is coming along nicely and, with fingers crossed, our grant will get approved and we can actually get some funding. I finished the budget, the Peace Corps grant application as well as the World Connect grant application and submitted them and other paperwork on the deadline of April 10^th.  I took a class in college called Grant Writing but I must say that it was nothing, that which I can remember, like applying for this grant and for anyone who does this for a living I have a new found respect for you. I feel like I was answering the same question about 50 times just paraphrased and reworded. I then had to answer questions that were obvious and written in other sections of the grants but, according to my boss, needed to be repeated. Oh well, it is over and I applied and if all goes well we will get funding mid May and be able to actually fund the project that myself and Abdoul worked so hard in planning- I don’t even want to think about what would happen if we don’t get the funding. Oh and did I mention that Abdoul, my main counterpart and financial chairman in the project, went to prison for six months for embezzlement. Yea! Just found that out, that would have been a nice detail to know when he approached me about a project and I talked to countless people about him and his idea. People talk and gossip all day but when it comes time to actually informing me about something important, zero, zilch, nada. So besides the huge headache and the wrinkles and acne that have developed because of the stress from this new found info I am just going to have to pretend like I don’t know and develop a committee to deal with the finances and hope that Abdoul has learned from his mistakes.

I have been reading a lot lately, well I forced myself for a good month there to finish a book called A Super Sad True Love Story but fortunately enough after that I got to read the second book of the Fifty Shades trilogy, Fifty Shades Darker. I am not sure if it because my life is not that exciting here, I am a sucker for romance novels, the fact that I secretly wish I met a hot rich billionaire (let’s be honest, that is no secret) or that maybe I want to find love (that is a little deep) but I love this series! I read a little bit in the states but not nearly as much as I do here; I have a bit more free time volunteering in Senegal than I did working two jobs in the states. I am still in search of the third book Fifty Shades Freed but it should be laying at a regional house somewhere; I am not as fancy as other people with e-readers and can’t download a book and, poof, like magic it appears. I just started the biography of Steve Jobs, I figured that I could put in some effort to learn something a little more practical and a little less erotica. I am keeping a list of all of the books that I am reading while serving that I will eventually post once I have completed my two years. Oprah’s Book Club watch out!

Well friends, I am going to get going for now. I have been listening to music from the 80’s while typing this blog and I must say that I was born in a pretty sweet decade. REO Speedwagon, Culture Club, Fleetwood Mac, Boz Scaggs (one hit wonder?), Foreigner- great stuff. Until next time readers, but I leave you with this trivia (please leave your answer in the comment box below) to test your 80’s knowledge.

Name the singer/band who sang this lyric-

As your leaving please would you close the door, and don’t forget what I told ya…

Cheers.