Tuesday

Today was somewhat similar to yesterday, although I got a lot more accomplished in the morning. We are putting together a series of documents and photos to send to this American organization describing our program and potential volunteer opportunities and I made really good headway this morning.

I went into town in the early afternoon and bumped into Dave (from Ottawa) who is back from a trip to Burkina Faso and Mali. His CIDA internship is over and he’s heading back to Canada (Whistler!) on Friday. So we sat and had a beer and then the other Dave, who I met 10 days ago walked by and he joined us.

I came back and did a bit more work then went to get some food from a little stand near our house. There were several small children playing soccer beside it, which was pretty funny to watch. They were taking penalty shots and each one was pretending to be some superstar. Not too different from me being Stephane Richer in road hockey I guess. But I’m sure you’re all imagining kids playing on a grass field, shooting at a net. Instead, try to picture a fairly dark spot of dirt beside a road and a bunch of little kids diving around without shoes on and loving every second.

One of them had a great line as I was leaving. “Next time you come, buy me a nice car!” Usually if the kids ask for anything, it’s a pen or 500 or 1000 cedis. A car? Obviously he has higher standards.

The kids here (apart from the asking for stuff) are such a great tonic to any bad mood. They have got so little in terms of things to play with, but they are always ridiculously happy. I think my tolerance for some snotty kid at a mall demanding toys from his parents back home will be even lower when I get back.