Scorpions, Thiya, Headaches, and Satisfying work

In response to a few blog posts: were my Thiya gold, they wouldn't be offered as a sacrifice to encourage a bloke to drop the habit when it's highly unlikely that will ever be a reality. Whatever. If I do happen to return with Golden Thiya, touch them not. Or thou shalt loseth thy handethness.
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I write some interesting words in my interesting title in the hopes that you might find it interesting.

Headaches: I suffered today. It's been a long time since. And I'm willing to believe that the heat is partly to blame. The thought crossed my mind that I've repeated told myself that I don't sweat here like back home. So, why would it be dehydration. I fail to remember, often, though, that dry heat doesn't cause you to notice the sweat as readily because it doesn't stay on you as much as with humid heat. So, my headaches are likely to have something to do with that.

All the same, there have been a few times that I have directly pushed on the shunt valve to see if it would pop up on its own. The doctor, when I was in the hospital last, did that to me once. I thought it was illegal, that doctor police would rush in and handcuff him. But, no. And apparently, that's still an appropriate action to do because if it doesn't pop back up, that's a bad sign. But, it should always pop back up.

So, finally, tonight, I did that. And it took awhile. So, I'm a little concerned. It's fine right now, but I was like, what?!? Jeez, let's get popping. But, whatever. I'm praying for 6 weeks of time so that I can do something that I feel I finally understand the direction and structure of. And all the learning in the villages has led me here, so I really don't plan on throwing in the towel just quite yet, not after all that time and effort, frustration and learning.

. . .

Scorpions. They do exist in West Africa. And thankfully they don't kill you, otherwise, well, I'd be dead . . . I thought I had put my stomach against something burning or against a fiercer version of some of the biting ants they have here in Senegal. But no, in between the door and the door frame was a scorpion. And it stung me. (bad word, towards the scorpion).
I looked at it, though, 'hey, that looks like a scorpion'. And then I looked at it, and wow, it was a scorpion. And then I thought, hmm, if I suddenly start feeling faint, oh man . . . so, off I went romping to find me a book that would tell me if I was about to die.

I'm grateful there are no deadly versions of scorpions in West Africa . . .

. . .

As I've already alluded to, my work, despite being really intense this past week, has been really satisfying. I tend, as everyone must know by now, to sometimes do things in long-winded form. I realized that a few of the documents I slaved away at during my planning days for the Workshop planning days (so, the planning for the planning), well, they weren't that useful. And should've been abbreviated. So, they are now. But, they weren't then. Oh well.

Yesterday and today were long planning sessions where I learned that the planning I had done wasn't enough (not a huge surprise), and that we would have to expand what I was doing in a few ways. Workshop dates have been re-arranged, a new 'Jour de Harmonization' (a day of planning to make sure certain invitees are thinking the way we want them to be) was planned for each ADP where I worked.

Despite all of this, and because of it, really, because it means there are tangible and exciting things to do, my work has been satisfying this past week. For this, I am extremely thankful.

I'm also grateful for available money for the workshops, even while I haven't seen any of it yet. I'll be reimbursed all the same, and I haven't spent much of my own for the workshops to date. I won't be able to spend more anyways because I really don't have that much money at present. Except the money for my vacation.

Yes, priorities.

. . .

Well, I want to be rested for my day of work tomorrow. So, off to bed I go. I want to wake up well, without a headache.





We'll see.