17th day

so wow! today went from total crap to really great! everyone is really on edge because of the budget thing which will all have to be finished by the 29th (the day i'm set to leave, of course) and you can practically palpate the tension. it's not fun. then add a bunch more of that annoying hammering and drilling and all that they're doing at the office and it's a recipe for misery. so i didn't do all that much today; mostly just updated my med list and briefly talked to dr singer about some of the medical and social issues surrounding prevention and treatment of aids. but more or less i was on my own so i just spen the rest of the afternoon reading that aids book that i recommended. it reads so incredibly well; amazing that she can take something so technical and tedious and make it fun and interesting to read while really providing a lot of information. but i found this thing online about a nearby pottery village and asked gayathri about it and she said it was about an hour away and definitely worth going if i'm into that sort of thing. so we asked darryll if we could use a car friday afternoon and it looks like at least a couple of us girls will take an short afternoon trip out there! i am SUPER excited!! so it sounds really awesome and interesting but i have no idea how much i can actually bring home with me but hopefully i'll find at least a few things small enough to be reasonably packable. so woo-hoo! pretty cool! and tomorrow night dr singer is having me over for dinner (i think he said tex-mex!) so we can talk about prev med and the military and other "work" things; the guy's all business all the time! crazy. but it should be nice. and today worked out so great! gayathri and i went to an art gallery after work that's right by her house and it was AWESOME!!!! i had such a blast! and the gallery owner was around and talked to us for a while and i asked tons of questions and he let me take pictures (after some pleading "poor, art-deprived medical student")! but his name is hussein akar and his gallery is called apart in wuse 2, abuja. he ships to the us but won't have a web site up til the end of the year. i asked about alot of the pieces that i really liked and it turns out they were ALL by the same sculptor, named iyke okenyi. apparently the modern art scene in nigeria has absolutly exploded in the past decade and it's really becoming popular (at least with all the diplomats here and in lagos!). hussein says that people will come in and want him to furnish their entire home with the work he carries (which also includes furniture). sounds pretty lucrative. and he also has another gallery in lagos and is planning on opening another in south africa in the next year or so. his shop has art from all over africa, not just nigeria but there's a lot of local art here. not crafts but ART. there's a serious difference. i mean, there are a few cheap, kitchey things but not many. and this guy is young! maybe in his 30's? and he's lebanese. the labanese are one group of people that have had a very long-standing presence in nigeria so he was probably born here. anyway, it was awesome and i was totally on cloud 9. and then dinner! we went to an indian place (with an indian owner!) called wakki's and it was great! we had wine and veg samosas and lamb curry with nan and tandoori chicken with rice and it was all fabulous! really, really nice to have a good sit-down dinner with wine and all. and gayathri also has a cab driver that she uses regularly so it's cool because you just call him and he comes. so i may get his number from her in case i want to go somewhere and then i won't get stranded (for long anyway). so that's helpful to know.

and i may go for a run at millenium park tomorrow morning. it may be like a mile or a little less to the park from the hilton and will only be annoying because i have to go past a bunch of hawkers and taxis on my way there. but i don't know if there are any trails or anything but i can at least run there and check it out and run back. i just don't know what to wear because i don't think i should wear my little running shorts so maybe i can dig up something more conservative. anyway, it's a possibility for tomorrow. but i am happy with today! and one other cool thing is planning our winter break. tom and i were thinking about doing some volunteering or something cool for our annivesary over xmas break and he had the clever idea of trying to get a 2 wk trip to do some medical work somewhere but get it funded by school! he's so smart! i hope it will work out; that'd be so awesome! anyway, it turned out to be a pretty full day, or evening, at least! and now i'm ready to relax with my book, half of a yellow sun...