July 22, 2010
So as much as people warned us, one of the hardest things to adjust to is time here. The time zone is West African International Time – WAIT. It’s still tough to get out of the time is money mindset.
Today, we did a sensibilisation at a primary school in a village outside of our training city. Students are out of school for the summer, but the director was able to get some of the class to come in. We were supposed to meet up at 7:30 so we could begin at 8. Since I had never biked out to village, my host sister accompanied me the 6 km there. At 7:00 am, I was ready to go, but breakfast wasn’t ready yet. I was getting anxious, but tried to not worry. By 7:20, I had eaten breakfast and informed my host mother that I needed to leave. Problem was it had rained the entire night. Actually, let me rephrase that, it monsooned. I now see why no one does anything when it rains here. We left the house for village, me on my bike, my sister on her moto. So when it rains, the streets flood completely. It was like biking in a river. My foot got stuck in the mud and there were times while peddling, my peddle and whole foot would emerge in the water. After a difficult ride, only 25 minutes late, I arrived to no students. Because of the rain, no one came. Ca va aller.
We were able to do our lesson later in the afternoon. Just another moment where you remember to go with the flow and not worry or stress out. Time does not exist here and rain stops everything. Learning patience and flexibility every day I’m here. Ca va aller.
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