index, month 4

Ratio of days in my village to days out of my village during month four: 1:1

German tourists who called me from Tamba after finding my cell number on the internet: 1

Average number of goats who come through the hole in my backyard fence at any given time: 3

New ETs from my stage: 1

PCVs from my stage still in Senegal, out of the original thirty: 25

ETs from Small Enterprise Development, AgroForestry, and Agriculture programs, respectively: 2, 3, 0

Ratio of neighboring villages to weddings in neighboring villages: 4:3

Ratio of married women in my galle who are either nursing a child or pregnant to those who aren’t: 1:1

Ratio for those under thirty years of age: 2:1

Minimum number of toddlers given or allowed to keep a dead D-cell battery as a toy/pacifier: 3

Successful village meetings I called and/or attended: 3

Meetings during which I understood less than 10% of the discussions: 3

And on the home front:
Shots of insulin administered daily by my mother to my cat, Squeak, who was recently diagnosed as diabetic: 2

In town for a regional meeting; talked into being the Tamba rep for the Volunteer Advisory Council; hosting a Dakar student this coming week; still sweating.

To make sure I’ve acknowledged my sources of inspiration, here’s what the index thing is based off of. Can’t remember if I’d mentioned that before.

And for those of you acquainted with my dear little tubby cat, she’s apparently going to be fine—might even lose some weight.

Though I’d rather not think too deeply at the moment about the gross absurdity of a world where a cat gets insulin twice a day (Thank you, Mama!) and yet millions upon millions of people, including my current neighbors, will never have access to even the most basic preventative medical care.

That’s what all those long empty village hours are for.