Thoughts on Nguithe revisited

Well, to be honest with you all, I really wasn't planning on posting tonight. I was intending on leaving the office by 6 pm today and now it's 8 pm, I'm on Gmail chat with Micah, waiting for him to get off the phone at his house in Hamilton, and I'm waiting for 6 photo attachments to load on an email I'm hoping to send to my sister (provided it works - otherwise, sorry, no photos)

So, an update on me before I go home, take a long, cold shower, buy some bread, eat it with chocolate spread, drink wine, and watch a movie. Probably James Bond, Casino Royale.

I was supposed to be going to Dakar this weekend. But the guys from the other village didn't call me back this week, and I wasn't going to call them and invite myself. And plus, I want a break, a time to be by myself.

Certainly, though, I will either go to Mbour or Kaolack tomorrow, because I can, because I want to, and because I really need some more money, and there is no bank here in Fatick . . .

The week in a wrap:

Was a mix. I went back to a village I had been to before. Thus starts the re-visits.
You could say I'm getting a bit tired. Odd, perhaps, because I only spend about 4 days total time per week in a village. You could say I'm comfortable in my 'developed' life, that for those who have, it's hard to let go. And for those who have, it's hard not to look non-judgmentally at those that do not. Honestly, I can't even begin to imagine really. If I'm tired, on whatever level, of villages after only 4 days in, 3 days out for the past 5 weeks, what is life like inside the village for all of one's life? Am I really one to stand and make judgments?

People ask me for a lot of things. When I get all serious about it, they say they're joking. I'm not really apt to believe them, that they are genuinely only joking. More, they're 'jokingly hopeful' that I might actually do what they ask.

But, what frustrates me is that I'd actually like to give them things but when they ask me for them all the time, then I no longer want to . . . It's an odd equation.

Besides some of these frustrations, I'm learning that my work will always be about learning. It will be about learning about how to do my work. It will be about how to learn about people. So, the learning won't ever stop, and what I learn has a lot to do with the effort that I put into figuring it out.

What went on in the villages:

Well, lots of personal observation and discovery. Personal evaluation of resources that are at people's disposal. There wasn't, however, too, too much in the way of discussion on the environment, and perhaps I'm slowly learning that there are a lot of other subjects I should be thinking about looking at because they'll shed light on the environment from an indirect viewpoint. Talking with WV Canada staff has been pretty helpful for this, and really, at the end of the day, I'm looking for simple, tangible exercises to do with people that will help them learn, help them evaluate what they do have instead of what they don't.

I'm trying to learn to wait before judging whether my work is going well or not. I need to see it as a learning process, but that, in that, I need to be continually looking for ways to learn and grow, and working to make that happen.

Not a lot of new stuff was discussed in the village. We spent time together, I almost fell ill, I started getting sick of couscous.

But, mostly, I'm just trying to focus on where to go next, how to engage people in interesting discussions on what resources they have at their disposal that will empower them.

Don't be bothered by this post. I'm not dying of frustration. . . yet. Rather, I'm trying to see through it and figure out where to go next.

I already have a few ideas.

But, I'm tired, it's 8:30 pm, I've been here in the office since 12, and it's Friday, and man, I need to go home and chill out!