what is weird about this?

Lots of big news recently and still I can think to write about is work stuff-- maybe the biggest rollercoaster I've been on in my life. First things first. Jonathan arrives in less than one week, and I think pretty much everyone within 11 miles of me has been alerted. The women are all trying to get me ready for this mysterious male guest, telling me what kind of incense to burn in my room, the best kind of plastic beads to wear around my waist (the bine-bine is a classic Wolof trick-- every girl from 2 days to 52 years is wearing them), how I should do my makeup, my hair, etc. Anyway, the excitement when (and if) jonathan actually makes it to Louga should be worth the wait. My Louga host family has been debating for months whether they should kill a lamb, a camel or a goat for the occasion. can't wait

In other news I got a cat. a little kitten, a boy. and I named him Scout, pronounced "Scoot" in Senegalese fashion. At first he was great... we played, we cuddled, he scratched the hell out of my hands in a sweet loving way... but then i started to realize, scoot has a real mean streak which is primarily played out in his peeing on my bed several times a day and throughout the night. even when I finally get peace (although sleeping in a bed that stinks of kitten urine) I am awoken at 5:30 am. why? while I have learned to sleep through the call to prayer, Scoot has not, and Scoot is a morning cat, who likes to play, leap and pounce as soon as he wakes up, a pattern which often brings his path right across my face.

Work stuff too is amusing. I had a meeting the other day with a representative of the mayor of Louga, who also happens to somehow work with a branch of an NGO out of Dakar. he came to my office and we discussed his plan, which while constructive and ambitious, is also nebulous, undefined and unrealistic. When I began to inquire as to the detailed functioning of the project, or even of his knowledge of the different themes he was quite taken aback. Keep in mind that this is our third meeting... It was now that he chose to ask me who I was, where I was from, what kind of education I had, etc. Already he is seriously doubting my ability to assess his project validilty... but here is the real kicker,... his questions had been going on for a while and I knew something was weird and then there it was "when you were in the united states did you know anyone with black skin? did you ever work with anyone with black skin?" wow. the part that is even scarier.... is that he was not talking about racism-- that whole concept wasn't even part of his thinking. Instead, the point he was trying to get at was that in his opinion no person with black skin would worry about financial details or business plans. It was not the culture of planning that separated us, but just simply the color of our skin. Blown away, I didn't even know how to respond. Anyway, he was soon out of my office, blank business plan guide forms tucked under his arm, probably never to be seen again.