Greeeeedy volunteer

"Danga ngay" is what i hear as I haggle the price of a cute leather purse down to 3 mill, or 6 bucks. Yes, I am being called greedy in wolof, because I am white and I should therefore have oodles and oodles of money. But if I spent anymore than 6 bucks on that purse, I might have had a problem at the end of my three month payment period, which was coming soon. How to explain that? They will never believe (:

Money money money money. It is a true obsession in this culture. I know a little bit now what it's like to not have enough money to do the things you want, to eat what you want, wear what you want, go where you want. But I still don't really know what it is like to not have enough money for lunch for the family next week. Or not enough to buy prescribed medicines. Or notebooks for school.

So I am making more of an effort now to not be greedy. While before, my 40 $ per month contribution to the family seemed like a lot of money, now I realize that it is only 10 percent of my salary for those three months and that they are 16 people while I am 1 person. It is too hard to watch people have so little and keep money locked in a cupboard. And thank goodness for their integrity, because what they show you of their problems is only what they have no power to conceal--- if people knew the serious extent of their neighbours problems Senegal wouldn't be the light and gay place it is.

We're going to have major problems facing waste in America when we return.