Becoming a Yes Person

So this past week, I decided to become a “yes” person. I had been considering becoming a yes person, after noticing that plans are often worthless here and most people make their decisions on the drop of a dime. Here is a large-scale example: often, Senegalese people will start building houses.... but they won’t bother to see if they have enough money to finish the house, and they usually don't. And then, over the next few years, every time they get a little extra money, they add a little more to the house. This isn’t a metaphor. Senegal is full of unfinished buildings because of habits like this. But anyway, a lot of Senegalese just aren’t super into “calendars,” “planning,” or “the future,” which is fine! Cultural differences! So given that, if I ever wanted to do anything exciting, worthwhile, or fun, I decided I needed to stop imagining I would do anything in the future, and pretend that my only chances were RIGHT NOW! So when a random driver came into my office the other day and asked if I wanted to go to a random village that I had never heard of, I said YES!

I didn’t understand why they asked me to go, or where we were going, or why we were going anywhere, but I just got in the car. I ended up going out to a rural community and seeing a meeting between PLAN and their local “animateurs,” or community workers. We also went to a really rural village and met with a completely random local family. But it was great because over the course of the day, I slowly started learning exactly what PLAN does. And what PLAN does is many community projects, like water sanitation and health initiatives and projects like mine -- economic empowerment and youth capacity building. These are all good things.

As for the rest of the week, I experienced success and failure.

Successes:

- I made popcorn on my little stove! It may surprise many of you to learn that the 1998 Popcorn Princess had never made popcorn on a stove, but yes, I have truly only ever made popcorn in the microwave. UNTIL NOW! Thanks, Africa!

- I also made an amazing sandwich using butter, bread, an egg, onions, and for its first Senegalese appearance, VELVEETA! Special shout-out to my friend Will for inspiring that concoction. I also made no-bake cookies using hot chocolate, milk, oatmeal, butter, and sugar. I am becoming quite the connoisseur.

- I correctly identified a current hit by Senegalese singer Vivienne as a total rip-off of Whitney Houston’s song “I Have Nothing” from one of my favorite movies, “The Bodyguard.” Consequently, this lowered the respect my Senegalese family has for Vivienne, whom they have now labled a SACCKAAT (a thief). No one steals from Whitney Houston on my watch! No one!

- Taught my family UNO. This is a positive and a negative, because now they are kind of obsessed and it’s all they want to do.

- Had an intense day where I did all my laundry and cleaned my little house. At the end, my host mom was the happiest I’d ever seen her and called me “a real woman.” It was kind of weird and goes against a lot of what I believe about gender roles, but I think ultimately good.

-Got a new bed, a table, two chairs, and a tutor! Boom!

Failures:

- - Set up a tea time with the local English teacher. I was very excited to learn about the local middle school and see if I could work with one of their clubs next year… but teacher didn’t show! Boo. And I had even bought tea. So now I try to find a new friend/work partner.

- - Went on a bike ride and felt amazing for the first 10k! Then turned around and realized I had been riding with a 50mph wind at my back and it took me like an hour to get home.

- -Got mobbed by a 5^th grade boys soccer team as I tried to ride my bike past them. They literally were running alongside me and hanging off of various parts of my bike as I rode. When I yelled at adults for help, saying things like, “WHERE ARE THEIR PARENTS? THESE CHILDREN ARE RUDE! THIS IS NOT FUNNY!”, the people just laughed at me. It’s funny now. It wasn’t then.

- --- Accidentally ate a fish eye

- - Went to clean my water filter and discovered it was full of dirt, i.e. it was not filtering my water

- - Was attacked by a medium sized lizard as I watched 127 Hours alone in my room in the dark

- - Had very intense stomach issues one day. I won’t go into details except to say that when I told my host mom, she said, “Well, of course! Yesterday you ate rice, noodles, and bread! That’s what happens!” The issues I was having… I’m pretty sure rice, noodles, and bread are the best antidotes. But I will respect her strange Senegalese wisdom?

In the coming week, I’m also hoping to start my garden on Thursday and go to my little sister’s flute performance on Friday. Also, Thursday marks my 100^th day in Senegal… but I’m sure many of you have been counting the days and were already painfully aware. And then, as part of my YES PERSON project, I may or may not be joining a biking club with four middle-aged Senegalese men on Saturday.

Love love, and stay in touch!