Wheew!

Well, on this past Friday evening I came back to the happy chant of our compound little ones saying, "Borry nata, Borry nata, Borry nata..." (translated means "Borry came", like, I came back) I was sooo happy to be back home!
short rundown of the observation trek...
Sunday, they told me between like...9 am and 12 they would pick me up... (big window), so we were kinda waiting around the house, and at about 12 the truck came to my compound. I ran last minute to the back to make the last pit stop for a good while.
After going around and collecting one more teacher from the college, we were off, and then I realized... oh no! We were headed out on the south bank road. Which is notoriously ridiculous for being more pot holes than actual road surface. So, it was a long hot bumpy road for about 5 hours (no air cond, sandwiched in the extended cab of a truck between two Gambian teachers). When we got to Brikamaba (a village in the central river region) we immediately went into a school compound, and sat for a little bit, while the guys prayed and drank attaya, before they led us to a place that we were staying. It was a guys house that was not there at the moment. I quickly realized the goal while on trek for the other lecturers was to find any means of not spending the per diem you get from the college to go on trek and pay for food and places to stay, so they can bring it home to their family instead) It was an ok place, it was just that the room I was staying in had absolutely no air flow, and I lay there are night trying to barely move, and at the same time move my hand fan a little bit, alllllll night long! I pretty much went the entire week without sleeping. The central river region is a lot hotter than down near the coast.
The next day we got up, and started doing our job, of observing teaching students. A lot of the times the observation was extremely painful to watch, but there were a few good ones in there too. Sometimes, it felt like the state of the schools, were so awful that I wanted to cry, but then of course you can't do that, so, you just have to laugh!
All five of the days went fairly the same, we would get breakfast from a school, or find it along the way, go bouncing off road to a remote village school, do the write ups on observations, end up back at our home base in Brikamaba in the evening, where I would usually go off by myself and find something to drink and some oranges to buy, before walking back to hang out with the people in the compound we were staying in.
I feel somewhat accomplished now that I have gone, and will go again later. Though I've been in many schools here before, it is still very insightful into the problems that the school system has here.
But after all the work, the flat tire, the bumpity, bump road, the sleeping in smoldering rooms, I made it, I can do it again!
Well, That's enough of that for now,
Thanks to all that commented on the new hair do... hehe, We plan to periodically (maybe monthly) take pictures to document the strange growth patterns I will surely encounter, and struggle with. I feel like I will need a lot of hair wraps, maybe I need to start wearing mascara to draw more attention to my eyes, though I don't' know where I would get that, hehe. I need to make more of an effort to be feminine somehow...must find more cheap earrings, because (like my track record has shown, ) I have successfully lost, or broken all the earrings I brought with me! ... But, Like I said, when else was I ever going to get a chance to have this haircut and start from scratch!?, and this way, by the time I get back, I will have a good length to get a nicely styled short haircut from a salon.
Work has been very busy, I don't really feel like lately I have the free time during the week especially, to sit and relax and read like I used to, because I'm always thinking of new things to do, and more things to do. This week at the college, I am giving the final exam, and then will have the daunting task of compiling lots and lots of grades. But afterwards, I like to treat myself to something in the city, so I will do that after I finish my grades, (ways to self-motivate!) At the nursery school we had a successful training on lesson planning preschool style the Friday before I went on trek, and they seemed pleased with it. We will have to plan another one soon.
Well, with no shortage of work, I may be in the position of co-writing the education sector's newsletter soon, so we'll see if that turns out!
Thanks for all the support from all you guys back home,
Later,
Lydia