Wo, refiro okor es. Jegiim okor. Bugafuliim okor ndiiki.

You, you are not my husband. I don't have a husband. I do not want a husband right now.

I have this conversation multiple times a day with one of the old men at my compound. He calls me Fatou Mae and insists I am his wife. He's probably about 80 and when he calls me Fatou Mae, I call him George and remind him he's not my husband. Two days ago he insisted that my parents wrote him a letter saying "Khady Diouf is married to Momadou Ning." Yea, right...

It's hard to really tell how much my language is improving when I feel like I always have the same stagnant convos with people, about my husband, the fact I didn't eat enough (by Senegalese crazy standards), the names of animals, my husband, names of random objects, my husband, money money money, and my husband. I can understand a lot more, like if people are talking about me to each other (like saying what I said or whatever) or just generally talking, I can follow it a lot better. However, I feel like my own speaking abilities aren't necessarily improving as fast, such as vocab, grammar, or ability to ask questions. Odang odang...

Anyway, the past almost two weeks at site have been the longest I've been without having to go to Kaolack or otherwise stay away from my village overnight and it almost drove me crazy, for the good and bad. The past two weeks have seen many important events, such as:
1. My first village weddings (right after each other): ie creating even more of a reputation in my area for my dancing abilities. "Khady Diouf a wagaa o mbec!" aka Khady Diouf can dance
2. First trip to the Post Office, which also convinced me that I need to open a new PC post box in a different town that is just slightly easier to get to, though without good lunches and internet. That will probably come in September or October.
3. My first flat tire...haven't yet fixed it, but it happened 2km from my village and I wheeled it all of the way home
4. The possible start to the rainy season, in the form of a dust storm followed by rain. Oh yea, right after I hung my laundry up to dry....needless to say, I redid my laundry the next day
5. The discovery that the teachers are really cool and I think I'm going to try and work with them a lot. That, and they make really good lunches, though another Volunteer and I actually cooked for them an American-inspired meal which was awesome as well
6.The kids at my compound now call my "faap otew Khady," which litterally means "dad's woman/wife" but in actuality is the word "Aunt" one would use for his/her dad's sister. Now I'm crazy Aunt Khady it appears. They have also been bolder about coming into my room to see the few pictures that I've successfully hung from the roof beams of my hut, which I'm going to have to keep a tight reign on.
7. Finally having Village Bread and Peanut Butter, something that I've been craving as an alternate to millet and milk for breakfast. I'm soooo glad that I brought that jar of Skippy PB!
8. Being on the verge of losing my mind over crickets in my hut and it still not being totally complete...it was a rough week, I was annoyed, and made sure my counterpart knew I wasn't happy. Hopefully things will be done by my return on Saturday, and done well...b/c the fence pieces hastily installed last week nearly toppled over with the storm this past week. Fab...
9. Seeing people from my Stage again! The Dakar region had a retreat this weekend and so many from my Stage were at the Dakar regional house after so I was reunited with lots of friends, which was SOOO amazing.
10. I slept under a sheet and blanket for the first time since Philly...PC Med Hut has A/C! I slept soooo well!

Okay, that's about it for now. Maybe if the power is working tomorrow night (I'm planning on still being here then, let's be honest...), I'll remember other things that I wanted to blog about.