Time, fast and slow all at once

Thank goodness I've made peace with my bike seat since last year. I've had to bike somewhere almost every day this past week, bumping along the sandy bush paths, past the occasional nomadic Pulaar camp (they are so cool! With vast herds of cattle, sheep, and goats, they set up tents in the empty fields so their animals can graze on last year's crop residue. The women sometimes walk through the villages, selling curdled milk. And I love the way they drive their donkey charettes - no reins at all, three donkeys hitched abreast, and they steer by wacing a stick on one side or the other to indicate which way the donkeys should go. It's impressive!), and swatches of black ash, occasionally still smoking, from where farmers gathered stalks and weeds to burn. I've been biking so much because of the Michelle Sylvester Sholarship, which is done every year throughout Senegal. (You can go to the SENEGAD website to learn about it: http://senegad.org/ ) For me it means going to two neighboring towns and working with the middle schools there. Six girls are chosen from each school, and they all need to write an essay, have a teacher recommendation, and a personal interview. That gives me a chance to see what their home is like, too, because the scholarship is supposed to go to girls with excellent grades AND a striking financial need. Of course, this year I am reminded that good grades are often the result of a comfortable family situation. I visited quite a few beautiful compounds for the interviews this year. But in each town, there are always a couple girls who stand out, with their excellence in school in the face of financial difficulties. This year the process was easier, because I knew what I was doing, but also more difficult, since now I have been working in these towns and so gotten to know some of the families, and had to remind them that in this case I must be entirely impartial when choosing finalists for the scholarship. Luckily there is a committee in Dakar who will choose the eventual winners - a 30,000cfa scholarship, plus a certificate of achievement - to spare us Volunteers drama from the families of those who didn't win. Anyway, there are only a few more things to do for the scholarship on my end, which means another two or three bike trips to and from the towns. I can do it!
One might think that with actual activities going on, it would be a busy week, but time has a way of dragging here even when there is lots going on. I also finished two books, including "The Omnivores Dilemma", which was very good, thoug not quite applicable to my lifestyle here. It shows that Americans, assuling we "are what we eat", are primarily corn; whereas I feel mostly comprised of rice and millet nowadays. I am currently working on a novel called "Iceland's Bell", which is also extremely well-written and interesting. Thank God for the Kaolack library. I've read books I never might have heard of otherwise.
In less fortunate news, a cat killed my gray chicken, so now there are only two: Lucy and Studly Dudley the rooster. No chicks yet. But I can report that chickens are not at all traumatized by the death of a compatriot. On the contrary, they had no problem pecking at the bits of feather and gristle that the cat eshewed. Chickens, I believe, have absolutely no sense of their own mortality. Which is a good reason to eat them.
More cyber lessons this week! I asked the kids if I could distribute their e-mail addresses to perspective pen-pals, and they said yes. No guarantees of when or if you'll get a reponse, but they would love to hear from the "waa Amerique". Here are the e-mails I have:

Omar - diopomar14@yahoo.fr
Penda - avenir.gueye@gmail.com
Pape Souleymane - papesouleymanediop@yahoo.fr
El Hadji -elhadjisamba18@hotmail.fr
Masse - fansgambie99@live.fr
Malick - batman22@live.fr
Aissatou - fanselhadjidiop@gmail.com

There they are! More kids come to the lessons sometimes, but these are the ones whose e-mails I have at hand. Tomorrow we'll practice attaching a webpage link in an e-mail. Wish us bonne chance!