WHERE TO START??

I keep meaning to write, but there is so much to tell and I have started working  loooongggg days. 

My arrival corresponded with the arrival of a one of the regional doctor’s medical site visit in preparation for an evaluation of the medical unit by someone important and critical from Washington DC.  It’s a good visit as the MD conducting it is the Peace Corps MD for Morocco, has been a  PC doc in Kazakhstan, Moldova, Madagascar . . . and before that was a Soviet (medical) army officer for over 20 years.  He expresses himself . . .  clearly.   I like him a lot and he has fabulous suggestions but you know how inspections go:  meetings, changes.  It actually works well for me as I won’t have to learn the old systems AND the new systems.  Just the new.

Official work hours are 8 am – 6 pm (with 1 hour break), Mon-Thursday, then  8-12 on Friday.  But we all seem to be working until the work is done – or, in my case (as my official first day of work hasn't arrived yet) until the rain stops long enough for me to get “home.”

Yes, this is the rainy season.  I do not recommend it.  It’s hot, prone to flash floods and, when not raining, overcast, humid and mosquito ridden. Imagine Portland at it's worst with a temp of 100 degrees.  The mosquitoes are stealthy and small and their bites barely itch so I wouldn't worry about them except for the whole malaria thing.  So maybe a conference on the beach next week won’t be the tropical idle I was imagining. . .

The other bad thing about the rain is the internet.  It rains and Wifi shuts down.  Don’t know why, but it’s a fact.   Haven’t had any outside contact for over 12 hours – hoping to get some soon so that I can post this.

The Senegalese whom I’ve met are great!  Their height and stature makes me feel somewhat louse-like and positively squat (a pretty awful feeling),  but apart from that,  I enjoy the emphasis on personal relationships, respectful greetings, professionalism, pride in a job well-done,  as well as the importance of witty repartee and easy laughter.

 I can see that to join the “in” crowd I will need to learn Wolof sooner rather than later.   Yesterday  one of the guards greeted me in Wolof and I didn’t know how to respond so he said with exacerbation (in French),  “You can’t even speak Wolof?!”  To which I responded (in French), “Dude,  I’ve only been here 4 days,  you are lucky I can speak at all!”   The other neighborhood guards took my side and laughed hardily.

Not a shy people.    In fact, when we landed in Dakar, most people on the plane jumped up and started retrieving their bags.  We had landed.  We had not stopped – not for a moment.  Flight attendants (in Arabic, French and English)  repeated over the loudspeakers,  “Please take your seats.  Fasten seat belts.”   Over and over.  People listened, stopped getting out overhead bags, but did not sit down.  So we taxied for 10 minutes with the aisle full of people standing – very much like on a city bus.  Flight attendants gave up.  Me,  I thought,  “Cool.”

Another entertaining moment was on the flight between Madrid and Casablanca.  (One flight there, then a second from Casablanca to Dakar.)  It is Ramadan so no one who is Muslim can eat or drink from 5:30 am until 7:45 pm.   Almost everyone on the plane was Muslim so when meals and drinks were served everyone took them but no one ate them .  People just sat looking at their trays.  Next, the attendants passed out vomit bags – to be used as doggie bags.   Everyone packed up their meals, stuffed their cans of soda in their carry-ons  and that was that.