Progress..?

I suppose it may depend on your definition of progress but I do believe things are happening here in Salone :) I've been here just about two and half months now and it's taken that long to start getting things done. The major changes thus far have been the new paint job inside school. What a difference a fresh coat of paint can make! I've found a very good contractor, who is dependable and nice and who's office is right next to school! He also feeds me lunch sometimes so that's an added bonus. My painters are funny guys and though it's taken them some time to realize that I'm a perfectionist when it comes to things like this and they can't just slop on the paint all crazy-like, they're doing a good job now. Here's some before and afters:

Main corridor

Class 6

Class 4/5

If I had enough funding I would just build a whole 'nother school, but we are working with what we've got :) With just a few more rooms to go we should be done within a week. But don't forget, no hurry in Africa. Everyone keeps asking me if we are going to paint the outside too, to which I always have to say, "we'll see!" I'm keeping an eye on the money and if we have enough left after other things then perhaps we'll paint the outside. Though the rains have officially started here, which makes doing any outside work rather tough. I've been told that July and August are the worst for rainy season. As of now it pours buckets at night and very conveniently stops just before I need to go to school. I'm not looking forward to all the mud.

A note about being white: In Kenya the Kiswahili word for white person is "mzungu," and was screamed at me every day, multiple times a day, for two years. Here in Salone the language is Krio, which is a funny pigeon mix of English, French, other European languages, and a lot of African dialects. I'm not picking it up very well and I keep trying to speak Kiswahili to people, which obviously does not go over very well. Anywho, there is a Krio word for white person, but you really only hear it out in the provinces. Here in Freetown I just hear "WHITE GIRL! WHITE GIRL!" Or sometimes they just scream "WHITE!!" Needless to say it's hard to forget how white I am over here. Oh well!

In other news - I've moved houses! I made friends with a very nice American who has a HUGE place that is essentially nicer than anything I've ever lived in before, in any country. I walk in and instantly feel like I've stepped out of Africa, which is not always a good feeling. It's also a bit farther from school. BUT I can't complain; air conditioning and 24/7 power and the kitchen of my dreams. I miss the guys that I used to lived with but I'm going to keep going back to bother them as often as I can. 

Even more news! - I know that most of you probably don't want to hear this, but I crashed on a motorbike last week. Not my fault, or my bike driver's; a van merged into us on the highway and we both ended up on the sidewalk under the bike. My pride was hurt more than anything seeing as how I was wearing a skirt and flashed the crowd of people that were watching as I rolled off the street. I just ended up with some cuts and scrapes on my right leg, which was funny because I had just fallen on some rocks the night before and scraped the crap out of my left leg. It was definitely not a great start to the week. Anyhow, everything was fine until Friday when one of my cuts opened up and got infected. When it wouldn't stop swelling and oozing I decided to go to the hospital and have since been taking tons of gnarly pictures of it that I would love to post but will spare you from :) The hospital wanted to keep me overnight but I didn't want to pay for that so we just agreed on doubling my dosage of antibiotics and that I would come back if it didn't get better. Thankfully, it has, and though I was rather excited about the prospect of a prosthetic foot, I'm glad I get to keep mine. Let me know if you want to see the super-gross photos. They're awesome. 

Here'a  few more photos to round out this month's post:

Workshop at my contractor's place. So many old timey power tools!

Friday means pink and yellow shirts! The backs of 

their shirts say "Deafness cannot stop skills!"  :)

And as always, the obligatory kitten photo. 

When I'm not at school painting or enjoying sleeping kittens I've been house hunting for my new place in Boston! I've gotten connected with some of the other girls from my program at BU and will be living with them in hopefully a super awesome place. I can't wait to go to Target and Ikea and shop for home furnishings!!

Ok, gotta run back to school! Love and hugs and all that jazz <3 p="">

Xoxo ~ Shub :)