Counterpart Workshop

So here it is... patience is something i need to work on. I can not handle waiting for these computers all the time... i spend half of my hour on the internet waiting for the computer to load and catch up with my typing. AHhhh. But enough of that. Today and tomorrow is the counterpart workshop. So what is this counterpart workshop? well 2 people; one male and one female; from my village made the trip up to Thies to stay for a couple days. they are who i will be working with for the next couple years. effectively my first contqcts in the village although i will be living with neither of them. I will live with the chief of the village. but they will introduce me to the village and will be the only two people trained about the Peace Corps mission. Which is important because most people in the village will assume that I am there to give them money or build something and than leave. I can understand the misunderstanding. That is what many NGOs do. The anticipation leading up to this day was incredible. i was so nervous because i was really worried about making a good first impression. Someone tried reminding me that they are as scared of you as you are of them but i found no solitude in that knowledge. It made things worse. I dont want them to be uncomfortable because than i will sense it and everything would get worse. Granted I was on my¨¨home turf¨ but that didnt really reassure me either. I had a conversation with a friend today about anticipation... that it is always worse than the actual event. And it is true. I spend far too much time worrying about what might happen instead of just dealing with it as it happens. The opposite is often true as well. The anticipation of something wonderful can be better than the actual event. And we could get into a discussion about why we anticipate and the necessity of it; which we did of course because what else would we talk about? Certainly not development; but that isnt relevant at this moment. the point is that my counterparts are wonderful people. Truely i had an excellent day trying to talk to them with what little pulaar i can actually speak. I can say that i just took a shower and now i dont smell... which i did and they got a good laugh out of it. They wore big happy smiles all day and said things that made me blush. The females name is fawoura and the males name is ken. Im not kidding. he isnt an american transplant but an actual senegalese. apparently in woloof ken means nobody and his whole first name means nobody wants. There is a superstition here that if you compliment a baby that bad spirits will take it away. so you never say that a baby is beautiful or smart or cute. people also wear waist bracelets to keep evil spirits away. So his name is what it is. I found this amusing. My pulaar teacher told me this... there is no way i could have understood that if my CP tried explaining it.
And so tomorrow we continue with the workshop. And i only have a week left in Thies. This is moving at such a rapid rate i can barely understand what is going on. didnt i just arrive in senegal? what am i doing going to this village? Wait... yea Im not suppose to be anticipating; just dealing with it. Things always work out right? or else i just rationalize it until i believe things worked out. Its all the same.
Brad