Katie is lazy...

It seems I'm not a very good blog updater... It's been more than a week! Maybe in reality it's a good thing, though - it means I'm actually busy at work! And my sketchy internet at home doesn't work anymore (which is less good).

First of all, I put up a few more pictures. Here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2269121&l=e7a97&id=13602253

I guess I'll start with what went on last week... The weekend was lovely - Katharine had a bbq on her roof and we ate super tasty hamburgers. Monday was a holiday (Tabaski, where you celebrate sheep I think) which was great. Sarah, Yikee, and I went to the beach and then when we came home our downstairs neighbour was having a Tabaski party in the courtyard. She fed us some rice with mutton in it and gave us a bottle of wine!

Tuesday was back to work, which was a bit sad after such a lovely weekend. I went to Agame (one of the camps) with a colleague since they were supposed to be having a celebration for World AIDS Day and the 16 Days to Combat Gender-Based Violence. Unfortunately when we got there we found out there'd been a problem at the camp over the weekend. A non-refugee had come in and started cutting down palm trees on the site, saying that he had rights to them and they were old and were going to fall down anyway. This was true, but he didn't tell anyone he was doing this and camp structures ended up being damaged. Everyone was really angry. So angry, in fact, that they decided that they would boycott the event and demanded that the country rep come out and talk to them. So my colleage and I sat there for four hours waiting for the rep to come...

She finally made it out there around 4pm and had a meeting with camp residents. They essentially used the meeting to demand resettlement in Europe/North America/Australia, which was kind of frustrating. In the end both the country rep and the camp residents got pretty frustrated with the whole thing and things got a little 'chauffé'. So we left pretty quickly.

The rest of the week was much less eventful :) I did a lot of running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get little things done before this week - all of our funds for 2008 have to be used by this Wednesday! I think it'll all work out, which is good.

My other exciting news of last week is that I'm taking two weeks holiday in January to go to Mali and Burkina Faso! I'm really excited. I wasn't sure I could ask since things here always seem to be really busy, but I figured it was worth the awkward conversation - it's much easier/more pleasant to travel with someone else (in this case Sabine, who works for the German development service) as opposed to alone. I think we're going to plan it all out next week, which will be fun. Sarah (the new/temporary roommate) might come along for the first week too, which will be fun!

This past weekend was also pretty good! I practiced my moto driving (and drove myself to work today!), played softball and got a sunburn, went for dinner at my boss' house, and went to a full moon beach party at this reggae bar thingy (it was really fun and I met the other Canadian intern! she wasn't very exciting...). But now I have a cold :( Not cool. I'm hoping it goes away before I go to this wedding on Wednesday!

Anyway, I should get back to work. Things are a little more calm this week, which is nice, but it means I should do the things I keep putting off (like my budget that I STILL haven't started). Sigh.

love Katie