Excuses Excuses

Ok...well I guess I haven't been so diligent about keeping the blog for the past couple of weeks; I really don't even know where the time has gone! I guess things have been pretty busy as of lately; work has finally picked up...well a couple of weeks ago now I guess. I have been busy writing reports, I don't know what the development world would be without all these reports which I am CONVINCED donors don't actually read! It doesn't actually take me that long to compile these reports (for a one day training, I completed the report in two days which apparently has never been done?!?!?) but of course life is never that easy because life in the office is all about democracy (interesting considering the country); everything has to be read by everyone in the office for them to make comments on and as I'm sure you can imagine, people forget about it, promise to take it home and read it and then leave it at the office or simply just let all the other papers pile on top of it and it takes weeks before you get it returned to you to make the adjustments. I find this particularly interesting because there was such stress that the report needed to be written by a certain date because it absolutely HAD to be sent to the donor...that was probably about two weeks ago now and I still haven't seen the necessary revisions. But that is life at CPA. This week I am at another training session in Brikama; this one is for final year students at the Teachers' College and they are being trained on Child Rights, Child Protection, Corporal Punishment and Alternative Methods of Discipline. It started on Monday and will go until Thursday; it has been an interesting session so far. As per all trainings here in The Gambia, we were late to arrive. I kept encouraging them along but all to no avail and we were an hour late; thank goodness one of the facilitators went there directly from her house and as a result was on time. Luckily we arrived only for the power to go out a short while later; it was out of about 3 hours and the room was boiling!!! Lunch was supposed to be from 1:30-2:30 but (Gambian style) it was not ready on time; it was finally ready at 3:45, just 45 minutes before the session was supposed to end for the day but of course, everything here starts late and runs late so we did not end up finishing until 5:30. By the time I got home it was nearly 7 and I was exhausted only to do it all again today. Today really wasn't much different; we were 2 hours late this morning but the power didn't go out today, lunch was on time and we finished a half hour early (only because of the looming thunderstorms I'm sure) so I guess all and all it was a pretty good day. Hopefully the rest of the week will continue just as nicely.

But of course, just because the end of the week comes does not mean that the work is done. On Saturday, the youth group, Voice of the Young, is having their monthly General Meeting. I was given (or rather forced) the task of giving this months presentation. So on the first Saturday of Ramadan I have to give a presentation on Effective Communication skills to a bunch of tired, hungry and thirsty teenagers...should be interesting...I guess I should start preparing at some point....maybe Friday.

Other than that things have been quite relaxed. I had my first Africa dress made last week in anticipation of wearing it on Friday but when I got it back from the tailor the skirt turned out to be about 6 inches too long! So I took it back today and told him he MUST have it ready for Thursday (the tailor is in the same town as the training this week which is quite far from where I live so if it is ready by Thursday the driver will take me to pick it up, otherwise I have to make my own way there and I am refusing to do that)! So fingers crossed that that works out!!

I'm sure there are other stories to tell but I am running out of time and I should probably get back before it starts to get dark and I trip over the sandy road. I have been trying to upload pictures but none of the internet cafes have the proper plug ins; one has told me that they will install them but I'm sure it'll take ages. I tried emailing but then the internet crashed and that didn't work either so I guess it might be a little while but I am working on it I promise!!!

I hope that this note finds you all well...I haven't heard from some of you in awhile...you know who you are but I hope that things are well regardless. Hope to hear from you all soon, it's always nice to get news from home. Anyway, take care and until next time...

From the Smiling Coast of Africa!