An Omen, Answered

Today was a very, very boring day. My head hurt like crazy, and all I wanted was to sleep. I was angry and depressed, hopeless and very restless. I was angry at the kids, and all I wanted was to stop existing. I was in a terrible mood. However, my mood as of writing this has changed. I am very cheerful, awake, and upbeat. I have three more days of work. This is my last Friday in Senegal. We went on my last field trip. I will never see two of my co-workers again. The end is coming ever nearer. 

Before I start talking about my main point, I would like to take a detour to a strange story. Today, as we were getting ready to go home, I was cleaning up, when out of the corner of my eye I saw something fall from the sky onto the pool-side. I heard a loud splat, and I went to look what had fallen. What do I see? A fish head. 

A blessing or a curse?

A fish head fell from the sky. Now, this made me ask so many questions, chief amongst them being is this some kind of a sign? In ancient times this would've been considered an omen. Am I going to die? Is this the apocalypse? 

After work, we had a very long, very boring meeting. I have three more days left, this was just a waste of my time. I suffered there, and after it was over, I said goodbye to Kareema and Soukeyna. It's funny to think that I will never see those two people again in my life. 

And now for the story of how I was almost robbed. I headed home, like every day, on my own. Listening to music and looking at memes, I trekked under the sun for fifteen minutes, heading towards the bridge. As I reached it, a man came and cheerfully told me that we lived in the same building. He asked me if I knew his name, and I meekly told him I did not. He laughed it off and asked me where I was headed. I told him I was going home, and he said I could go with him since we lived in the same house (this was his first mistake. My house is not an apartment. We don't live in the same house as anyone else). I understood something was off, and so I told him I had to stop by the Auchan. He said he wasn't in a hurry, and that he could wait. We headed towards the clando stop, and he told me he worked next to my house. He asked me if I knew which store, and I said the one on the corner. He then asked me if I knew the names of my family members. I told him the names of the children. Thinking now, I should have asked him if he knew the name of the father. This would have been a handy test since I have the father's name in his contact. He suggested we get into a bus, but I refused, knowing that these buses were infamous for cases of theft. We got into a clando and I called my parents. After I hung up, he praised my iPhone and told me he also had an iPhone. This well dressed, articulate, apparently wealthy man claimed to work at a small kiosque by my house. We arrived at the Auchan, and he asked me if I had a 10,000 CFA bill to exchange for two 5,000 CFA bills. I told him I did not, and that I did not have much money with me. He called someone on his phone (not an iPhone, by the way), and when I offered to wait up, he told me to go. I quickly got into the crowded, policed Auchan, and there I had Mustafa pick me up. Now, all evidence points to this man spotting me as a white kid in a strange place, him trying to steal from me, and him calling on his phone to have me followed. I may be wrong. I may be racist and paranoid. But that I doubt. This was a bizarre, interesting experience, one that went well, one that could easily have gone wrong. I am very proud of my quick wits and alertness.

This country is everything, but it sure as hell isn't boring.