Sunday, January 10, 2010

half a million minutes

It is 2010. Which means that I spent all of last year - minus my 3 weeks vacation to the U.S. - in Africa. Senegal, specifically.
That’s 49 weeks. 343 days. 8232 hours. 493,920 minutes (or so). Not like I’m counting…

So in honor of my last half a million minutes (and lacking anything better to write about) here are a few highlights from my 2009.

2009 In (Approximate) Numbers, In No Particular Chronological or Otherwise Order.

Books read: 9
Books read by Amy Tan: 2
Books started but not finished: 3
Cravings had for tuna fish on white bread: 1
Dreams about iced cream-filled donuts: 1
Packets of orange Foster Clark’s instant drink mix consumed: 83
Bananas eaten: 302
Times called “Toubab”: 3,573
Requests for money or gifts: 1,897
Babies born to neighbors or friends: 11
Babies named after me: 1
Baptisms actually attended: 2
Times I had to type the words “education environnementale” : 157
Letters in “environnementale” : 16
Pounds lost (since January): 15
Pairs of jeans I own that still fit me well: 0
Pairs of cheap flip-flops bought from corner store: 4
Days fasted during Ramadan: 8
Earth Day celebrations organized: 1
Local radio interviews given in Wolof: 4
Neighborhood clean-ups participated in: 3
Community-wide environmental education committees created: 1
Peace Corps Volunteer Advisory Council meetings attended: 2
Presidential Inauguration speeches missed because of traffic jams: 1
U.S. Ambassadors to Senegal met: 1
Amateur championship soccer matches attended: 2
Bucket baths taken: 612
Anti-malarial Doxycycline pills swallowed: 365
Host family members who took pilgrimages to Mecca: 2
Francs CFA spent on phone credit: 250,000
Percent of year’s salary that equals: 10.2
Packages of underwear received in the mail: 1
All-night dance parties attended: 3
New Indian teledramas airing on national TV: 1
From 1-10 how much better this show is than current Brazilian teledrama: 10
To-Do lists written: 289
27th birthdays celebrated: 1
Apple pies baked: 2
Cavities filled: 3
Journals filled: 2
Christmas Eves spent cooking dinner in a pit fire on a beach: 1