Computer Shopping

Today is one of those rare occasions when I get to spent some time on a decemt internet connection and so I'm actually writing this online.

I'm in Dakar today, having come in to buy a new computer for the school computer classroom.

Jonno, the headteacher, has been saying to me for a while that there was enough money in the ICT budget to buy another one and that we should consider it. Now that it's getting towards the end of the year and we're thinking about the next, in particular with knowledge of expected class sizes, we've decided to go ahead and buy one.

I came in with Jens and Heiko who have gone on into town to do more school shopping while I'm here at the guesthouse.

The computer shop is just round the corner and so at 10 o'clock, after some internet surfing, I meandered round to the shop to see what I could find.

I was a little nervous as I hadn't had a French conversation in a while and didn't know how to ask for half the stuff I needed. Upon announcing my purpose of buying a computer I was shown two grubby looking relics on the counter, not what I'd expected. After clarifying that I'd like a new machine I was ushered over to a pretty looking out-of-the-box Compaq machine which I knew was out of our league. At this point I worried a little, not really understanding the sales assistant who was nevertheless very good to me.

He seemed to be saying that I could specify a custom machine which they would then build, or at least that's what I assumed he was saying, the obvious thing for him to say at that point. I was relieved that there was a third option but simultaneously worried as we'd intended to take something home today. I tried to explain to the man that if I could buy the parts then I could build it myself later, getting stuck on the verb for building, if only I'd chosen assemble, the translation is much more obvious.

The stock was rather limited, one case choice, one processor (twice as fast as I needed), pretty much everything was better than I needed which worried me about the eventual total bill.

The sales assisitant had a little English and we enjoyed the farcical pointing and describing trying to establish which components we were talking about. I learnt some new vocabulary and so did he.

When we'd finally got together all the items on my never ending shopping list he said he had to go somewhere to get the hard disk and would be back in ten minutes. While I paid at the kiosk he donned his moped helmet and dissappeared ou the door. I sat by the counter listening to bizarre and apparently humourous Senegalese radio and watching customers come and go.

When he came back about twenty minutes later we took the pile of stuff outside and he hailed a taxi. Upon realising I had no change I asked one of the guys in the shop to change my 10,000 cfa note, he shortly came back saying that they couldn't change it and so the first sales assistant and I persauded the second that where I was staying was close enough to walk. As I picked up some bits I watched in not total surprise as the first guy got the moped and tried to get himself and a 17" CRT monitor on it. I was a little wary but Africans behave like this all the time so I decided to trust him. As we set off walking the monitor fell off the moped to the floor producing shouts from the neighbouring shop owner which I didn't understand. Seemingly unperturbed the guy got back on the bike with the box and started off again, this time with more caution.

In a minutes time we were back at the guesthouse, the men surprised that it actually was as close as I had said (things like time and distance are often exaggerated in Senegal). The moped riding sales assistant was anxious to check that the screen was in tact and so we brought it inside and plugged it in. It was fine much to all of our relief I'm sure.

I'm now waiting for Jens and Heiko to return so we can go home. I've since taken advantage of the small supermarket and the ice-cream parlour round the corner but I'm now getting rather peckish not having had any lunch.

A Week of 3 Themes

I don't think I've been on-line since Monday las week, that feels like a long time. Rather silly really considering I sent an urgent e-mail regarding return flights on that occasion.

It's been a long week.

On Monday afternoon I went to the beach in Saly with Fran & Jacqui. It was great to get away from the school for a while and the sea was lovely where we went; very calm and almost warm but still refreshing. Having missed tea in the dining room I cooked for myself when I got back which I enjoyed very much having not done it for while now.

There have been several ongoing themes this week. First there's Neil Young. Chris got 'Heart of Gold' the DVD from Amazon last week and I borrowed it on Monday. I watched the main disc that day and the special features disc today and have had the songs in my head a lot throughout the week (he's in my headphones right now). It's made me miss my guitar a lot.

I have a mental list of things to bring with me should I return next year, the first three are my acoustic guitar, my bass guitar and my 2.1 speaker system. Clothes are a luxury I can do without if need be.

The second theme has been DIRT. DIRT stands for Dance International Revival Troop, it's a fictional group formed by myself and other staff members for 'skit night' later in the term. We'll be performing an internationally flavoured medley of dances including morris dancing, line dancing, ballet, riverdance and of course YMCA and 'Superman' by Black Lace.
Reherasals are going well but we've a lot to do in a short time.

Thirdly, I've been teaching myself braille. Tomorrow night's weekend activity is called 'You Guess!', it's a kind of version of the TV gameshow 'You Bet' which is apparently very big in Germany (Betten Das). I entered a bet that I could teach myself braille and correctly read a collection of six letter words chosen by the organisers. It all started one evening when myself and two others were bored and had a braille labelled pill box to hand and decided to try and learn the letters on it. I was able to do it much more easily than the others so I thought I'd try the whole alphabet. I spent all siesta today thumbing flashcards I'd made and I now know the whole alphabet by heart. I just need something in braille to read now.

It's Friday today and it's nice to have a free evening at the end of the teaching week although I would have liked to have been out tonight as a group have gone to a restaurant in Thies to celebrate Lesley's birthday but I had to work in the dorm. That's just a fact of life here. That kind of socialising is difficult between dorm staff and teaching staff as dorm staff are working during all the teachers' time off.

I made four swords today after school. David and Chan-Hwi asked me to help them make some and tomorrow I'll make shields. I'm a little worried that someone'll get hurt by my craftsmanship though (if you can call it that). One's already broken...

Guitar Repairs

I'm just about to go online so I thought I might as well write something first to update my blog whilst I'm there.

It's my day off and I've just spent an hour in the workshop making a new bridge for my acoustic guitar. I'm amazed at how well it's turned out; due in no part to any skill of mine but solely to God's grace and the wisdom of others. It should look really nice when I finish (although the rest of the guitar will still look ugly), it's made from red-wood, not the giant american trees but a reddish brown very dense wood common in these parts.

I need to go online to get some tips about placement (what I've made is actually the saddle, I think, into which the bridge will be seated and the exact position of the bridge is very important for tuning).

The weekend was a good one. On Saturday morning I was able to use the time when the kids do chores to get a few jobs done myself. Usually I supervise one of the kids teams working outdoors but this weekend I didn't have to so I used the time to finish off some telephone system maintenance and fix one of the night-guards' rechargable torches.

After lunch I had a long but very strange siesta. I was in a dream which I couldn't wake up from. My mind was quite awake but I couldn't open my eyes or move my body, when I tried to open them I would see my room but it wasn't actually my room, it was a dream room. It was actually quite scary and I hope it's a one-off.

In the afternoon I played football for a while in the sports hall and got very sweaty, so much so that I was very glad to be ambushed by a group of water fighters on the way back to my house.

The evening activity was a 'choice movie', where kids can choose from three movies shown in different dorms simultaneously. I watched 'Facing The Giants', a quite unique film made by a church in America. It's about a high-school football team (of the odd shaped ball variety) and their coach who, in the midst of multiple personal crises, turns to God for help. In many ways the plot is quite incredible but, with the theme of the film being 'nothing is impossible for God' it's allowed to be to some extent. I enjoyed it far more than I expected although that may be partly due to a misconception that it was based on a true story which greatly affeted my attitudes to the parts others found a little hard to swallow.

On Sunday it was my turn to make the evening meal which made my afternoon very busy. I made bread rolls which, combined with a malfunctioning mixing machine and a mistake on my part, meant that I was slaving away for three hours on what was in fact a relatively simple meal. The rolls were really tasty though and I had a lot of very happy eaters at the end of the night.Again God was very gracious to me dispite my follhardiness and independence.

I should go get online now before I run out of time as lunch is fast approaching.