Wednesday, October 29, 2008

still in dakar...

i was supposed to get my stitches out today.

i've been here in dakar -- land of plenty and luxury -- for way too long. it's super nice and there's a large part of me that wants to stay because the digs are nice, the company better, and frankly, now that tree season is over, there isn't much to do in the village right now other than pick peanuts and that gets old fast.

so i headed out to the dentist this morning and he took a look at me, snipped out two stitches and then told me that i need to stay here until saturday. everything's alright in mouthtown but i guess my gums aren't totally healed yet (as i can still taste blood every now and then, blegh). it wouldn't be so bad if i wasn't so overwhelmed by this feeling of anxiety and guilt for having been away from the village for as long as i have.

my hut is threatening to collapse and my cat is pregnant and i kind of want to be in the village in the event that the hut actually collapses or that my cat actually has kittens and instead i am stuck here in dakar having fun, sleeping in air conditioning, taking hot showers, watching tv, reading up-to-date magazines, and eating good food. and just in case people think i am doing nothing but having fun, it's not true -- the ice cream place was closed today AND i've been working very hard on creating a new logo for SeneGAD and editing SeneGAD's new edition of a cookbook.

then there is the whole election-on-tuesday thing and there are a bunch of election viewing parties going on in a few major venues and i don't know if i can stand getting updates about the election via text message out in the bush and therefore, am very tempted to attend. and then jc's parents are coming to visit and have invited me to a few nights in palmarin (a popular beach town) with them and then i'm flying out to the states for thanksgiving so in the next few weeks i feel as though i might only have a few days in the village.

the guilt is killing me!!!




on the plus side, i wandered around marche kermel today and found great cuts of beef AND spinach and made chinese beef noodle stew (niu ro mien) and it was really freakin' delicious.

oooh and i get to hand out halloween candy to expat kids on friday night (remember how awesome it was when halloween fell on a friday night?!). the embassy (or rather, a representative of it) stopped by my homestay today and dropped off a gigantic bag of candy. i'm pretty sure that there's more candy in the bag than kids who will be stopping by...

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