Back in the Game

Now that the holidays are over, I can get back to work.

I have set up my computer classes in Thiès with GIPS and Astou on Mondays and Wednesdays until further notice and just finished my first lesson on Microsoft Word. I now have 5 students and we have planned out classes until the new year working on Microsoft Word, Excel and using the internet for business purposes. So far so good.

I am spending the day here at GIPS office waiting for the new group of business volunteers to show up for a presentation. My students will introduce their business and how they work with women's groups in the community and also talk about our computer lessons and (hopefully) how much they have helped over these last few months. I get to sit back and pretend to be important.

I have also been spending a fair amount of time at the mayor's office working with Ousmane on a grant application to receive funding for two weeks of business trainings with ASC, a youth organization in my community, in an attempt to encourge entrepreneurship. My supervisor has given us the go ahead and all looks promising, so my hopes are up really high. This is very dangerous, but I cant help but be excited about this potential project!!! More news on that to come.

I still need to meet with the principals of the local middle and high schools to discuss how I will be working with them over the course of the school year but, I will admit, I have been procrastinting.

In other non-work news: Ellie is in heat. Not fun. She has lost her outside privileges until she stops begging to be humped by anything. No kittens, please. I can't wait for this to end so that I can get a decent night's sleep again.