Successful and unsuccessful adventures in technology

So, here is my first non-email-derived blog post. Let’s see how this goes.

This weekend is essentially my first off in seven weeks. Monday is Dakar Day – a chance to go scope out the capital city. Hopefully, we’re a little more adapted to Senegal and are less likely to be intimidated by “the Port to West Africa.” There will be paperwork to fill out at the PC Senegal headquarters, maybe a scavenger hunt, and definitely some ice cream or Chinese food. After the Counterpart Workshop, we were given the opportunity to spend the weekend in Dakar or stay around the training center for a Peace Corps ride on Monday morning; I’ve chosen the latter. I am exhausted. Also, I am afraid that my heretofore impeccable health is starting to waiver and that I am on the verge of exploding into whatever cold-flu hybrid was afflicting my little homestay brother a week ago. Maybe these two days of relative calm and decent sleep will fend it off!

So, aside from me taking advantage of the sparsely-populated training center’s strong internet, there isn’t much going on here. However, that doesn’t keep me from idiocy. Yesterday, I went out to dinner with a few other volunteers at a toubab-style restaurant in town. We took a taxi back to the training center (since it was dark) and, back in my room, I realized that I was missing my cell phone. I prayed for good Samaritan-ism. While getting another phone wouldn’t be too expensive (although that’s all relative; our per diem is meager), it would be another unnecessary stress. It’s got all my phone numbers and I don’t think I could survive the last week at the homestay village without being able to text Alyssa every day. Flipping out, I used my friend Byron’s phone to call mine: no response. I used Skype to call my parents, flipped out, got upset, and hung up to go Skype-call my phone: no response. Back on Byron’s phone, I finally got through to whoever had picked up my phone, only to realize that my Wolof skills are nil under pressure and the person on the line had only limited French.

I didn't really know where he was or what to do. So...I asked one of the night-guards from the center to help. Ultimately, we took a cab into town and the night-guard explained the whole situation (benevolent American teen in the country to selflessly serve Senegal, learning local language, stupidly leaves cell phone in taxi). The three guys were in town from the Kaolack region for a wedding and would have brought the cell to the training center, but didn't know their way around Thies. They were very kind, didn't accept payment (saying they were being good Muslims), and just swapped phone numbers with me. [It seems like Senegalese people LOVE swapping numbers, even if you don't know the person at all. At the same time, they know I'll be sort of in their region once I'm installed. And…a day later, I’ve already been called twice by the do-gooders.]

I think the big thing here is that the night-guard saved my behind. Without him, I probably would not have gotten my phone back and would have had to pay to get a new phone and a new SIM card. Plus, that would just be one more stupid stress. I don't know who, but someone was looking out for me last night.

Well, that’s that. I’m finishing this up so that I can go watch a movie… I told my mom this over the phone. She got excited and asked in a perky voice, “Oh really? Where?!” Not in a movie theater, that’s for sure. We’re watching a movie off someone’s hard drive projected onto Alyssa’s clean white sheet which is pinned against a world map mural in the center. Ahhh, we are resourceful ones…