I decided to go ahead and combine Sunday (since I really didn't do anything) and today so that way I would actually have something to say!
Well, Saturday night was interesting. I got to Skype with my mom, sister, grandparents and niece and nephew for awhile which was nice. Then, somewhere around 11:00p I started hearing banging on drums. I was just hoping a praying a riot wasn't about to start outside my hotel. Then, after about ten minutes it turned into blasting Shakira "Hips Don't Lie." Yes, I was relieved. Unfortunately, the Ivoirian party goers proceeded to blast music until 3 am. I felt like I was in NYC all over again (only in that aspect...what I would do to be back in America!). Eventually I managed to fall asleep, but it was an interesting night nonetheless.
Sunday was a pretty boring day. I didn't leave my room at all. To be honest, I had an offer to join some people at the Abidjan Club which is a resort type place out on the water where you can rent kayaks, lay in the sand, hike trails...all kinds of outdoorsy stuff. I turned it down just because there is no way I was going to be ready to go by 8:00am. I really do want to go next time if my coworkers go again. It looked awesome. Instead, I sat in my room and studied french vocabulary. I know, it sounds boring. But I feel like I made some real progress and this is necessary stuff if I am going to survive here! I ended up covering roughly 400 words plus how to tell time and all my numbers again. A lot of it was a breeze and came back very quickly. Other words were brand new but I was happy to learn.
Today we started the long, long week. This is the final one week countdown to our budget proposal being provided to State Dept HQ in Washington so everyone is panicked. The document we submit is roughly 180-200 pages long and encompasses every aspect of the AIDS relief program. It was the final day for our partners to submit their information to us for their requests as well as narratives as to what they want to do with the money. Tomorrow I get to edit and transfer all of the data into properly formatted documents and upload them into the system. It doesn't sound so hard, but these are multimillion dollar projects and activities and the information has to be precise and detailed in order to get approved. It is going to be very intense. I was also told to expect to work potentially for eight hours this weekend to get everything finished up in time. All in all, this is already a great experience. I am learning quite a bit and getting to see a lot of things I never would have had the opportunity to see before. The only bad thing is, I was notified today that danger pay for Cote d'Ivoire is no more. The State Dept had authorized a 15% danger pay differential for Abidjan due to previous uprisings against the government that had taken place in 2011. They re-evaluated that special pay and decided it is no longer dangerous here. I am trying to understand since the streets are basically a prison with all the homes and buildings have walls and barbed wire and guards around them. I imagine it would not be that way if things were safe, mais, c'est la vie!
Sorry I don't have any pictures for you all today. I really should have done something more interesting this weekend (i.e., on Sunday). I just thought it was a good chance to get some studying in.
Until next time!
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