yes, i am in africa

every time i think i´m settling in here ... when the smell of dried fish doesn´t tickle my nose as i pass the market, the sounds of animated shouting in the streets doesn´t make my heart race, or cockroaches tittering over my feet in my favorite cafe doesn´t make my skin crawl ... something happens that reminds me i´m in an entirely different world over here.

the nursery project is stalled for the time being because there has been a ´problem´ - as ebrima called it - between makumbaya and a neighboring village. without going into too much detail, some land was taken from makumbaya villagers and unlawfully sold - and the villagers want their land back. the case has been in the courts for three years to no avail and on sunday, i guess the villagers decided enough was enough and took things into their own hands. so ... unfortunately there are no men in the village and no one is quite sure when they are coming back. which means, there are no masoners, no carpenters and no painters on hand to get back to the job. the men are now back to the court today - though unlikely on the best of terms or on terms that might help their case - but from what i can make out, they weren´t getting ANY attention on this case - and you know the old cliche about publicity.

anyhow, i could give more detail here to make it all sound much more dramatic, but the truth is - it might have been dramatic in a neighboring village, but we didn´t see anything in makumbaya. all was pretty tame yesterday, if quiet. and i slept a good part of the day because i´d been up the night before at the village dance ´programme´ - where the local youth club hired a band and the young people (mostly under 40) came out to dance and drink soda. it was brilliant to see the everyone out in their finest and for the first time, i felt properly welcomed by the women as they invited sandra and me up to dance with them. they are always friendly, but cautiously so, eying me curiously or so it feels sometimes. but on saturday, they were all about the dance!

so needless to say, there was no nursery work on sunday, and perhaps not this sunday either. i am working with ebrima - who thankfully was NOT involved in the kerfuffle - to see if we might be able to hire some workers from nearby villages to get the work done. in my grand plan, i could probably have afforded one sunday off, but not sure about two or three now.

i find myself somewhat frustrated with the men for choosing NOW to sort this out. but then i realize - rather selfishly - that while this nursery project is the primary focus of MY experience here, i am but a small speck of dust in their village life and while i would love to be able to show you a finished product, to send back a picture of me in front of this completed nursery, with uniformed school children surrounding the turquoise walls, and their happy parents behind them ... it may not turn out that way.

so i take a deep breath, relinquish the old expectations, and begin again. it will happen. there is another volunteer arriving on wednesday who can pick up where i leave off, and mondo will continue to send volunteers to makumbaya - so it WILL get finished, those children WILL get to school in september. and in the end, it´s about the children anyway. so that they will grow up to be responsible adults, so that they won´t have to fight, or if they do, they´ll know better ways to deal with disputes. and not with violence.

i´m in brikama today to haggle with the fabric sellers to see if i can get it down to 30 dalasi/meter for the gingham print. the tailor we want to use is from another village, so at least i can get on with the uniforms. i was tempted not to write this post so as not to disappoint anyone who donated to the cause ... but i´m not worried, it´ll happen! so thank you again for all the support! i am truly blessed, as will they be when we get the damn thing finished! and WE WILL!