unicorns wearing leotards?

Have you ever seen ‘Human Planet’?!?! Oh my goodness, its changing my life! It’s an anthropological documentary made by the BBC. Dad and Mac, I think that you would especially enjoy the series. One of the best ones I’ve seen so far is the one about rivers. At the very end it shows how in Meghayala, India they build a bridge by manipulating roots from Strangler Fig trees to grow across the river. If that doesn’t blow your mind, I don’t know what will. Here’s a picture of a double-decker version: http://www.globaldesignvillage.com/comp_vote.php?id=128 You should check out the documentaries. I’ve definitely added these bridges to my “things to see before I croak” list.

My trip back to village last week was an interesting one. I biked back, leaving Tamba around 9am. Like a moron, I only took about 2.5 liters of water with me. Gouloumbou is about half way, and where I have to turn off the paved road. I stopped for lunch and they gave me some water. I thought it would be enough but about half way from Gouloumbou to my village I was visibly dehydrated and getting pretty dizzy. By this time I knew the Alham would be coming through soon that stops in my village so I decided to stop and wait for it. It was taking a while and I started to think perhaps it had passed before I left Gouloumbou. A boy passed with containers on his bike that are used to transport water. Brief description: Here, there’s well water, which you do not drink unless its filter with our Peace Corps issued filters; there’s robinet water which is leaps and bounds safer than well water but is not recommended by Peace Corps to drink. Hypothetically speaking, I drink it all the time. So I asked this kid if he has water and if its robinet. Both responses are affirmative. Great! Water! Evading death! All good things! He kindly fills my water bottle with green water that smells like fish. Not even well water looks and smells this bad. At the time I felt it was a life or death decision and so I added ORS (oral re-hydration salts) to it and drank it. Surprisingly it didn’t wage war on my stomach.

I don’t know if I’ve told you about the few annoyances I’ve had with my family. Summary: there are too many women in my compound and they love to pick on me. If I could stick up for myself properly in their language, we would be best friends. But I can’t. Most of the time its really funny, but sometimes really annoying. Having never had to learn another language, they don’t understand what its like and are less than helpful sometimes. That’s the skinny. So this time I had been gone for the better part of 3 weeks, having gone to Kedougou for language seminar and the 4^th. I think me being gone so long made them realize that they miss me not being around and perhaps should be a little easier on me. Also, there were 3 girls there that I didn’t even know existed. They are probably around 15 years old. They live in Tamba to go to high school. That’s the closest high school. Sad, right? They are home until school starts again in October. Anyway, these girls study French and English so they must have explained to my Neene Toubab and sister the difficulties in learning a language because now they are so much more helpful! Its great! I was only there for a week because I had to come back to Tamba for a house meeting and tomorrow I’m leaving to go to IST (In-Service Training) in Thies for 2 weeks. But I told my family and some key community members why I’m going to Thies and what I want to do when I get back concerning work. I’m not sure that one my counterparts is going to be the best as far as implementing work, I’m actually not sure why they chose him but I’m confident the other one will be helpful and I can rally others to get projects going.

I’m pleased to announce that I switched my malaria medication and all is now right in the world! It wasn’t actually that bad, but this Methaquin stuff I was on was freaking me out. I didn’t feel like myself all the time. I mean, I already have a hard time filtering the things that come out of my mouth, but on this drug it was next to impossible. I didn’t like how it made me feel about life and other important topics. The other option is Doxycycline. Methaquin is taken once a week and Doxy is taken daily. I was trying to avoid taking an antibiotic everyday for the next 2 years, but I had finally had enough with the Methquin.  I find Doxy to be the lesser of the two evils. Actually three evils, mosquitoes taking the cake. My hatred for them is growing at an alarming rate. Hate, I tell you. Pure and utter hatred! And the flies. Oh geez! The second the rainy season started the flies and mosquitoes came out of the woodwork. They bring nothing to the table and I despise them whole-heartedly. Ok, sorry, quite the rant but I’m pretty passionate about these creatures I’m being forced to cohabitate with!

I think that’s all I have right now. I’m headed to Thies tomorrow morning for IST with the other lovelies from my stage. This means lots of training for the work I will start afterwards, the excellent food that the center makes… for FREE!, and getting to see all the people that I didn’t get to spend enough time with at the 4^th. Oh, and FINALLY getting Donnie’s package, and internet that is a tad more reliable. Speaking of which, still no luck uploading pictures on the blog. I put some more on Facebook. It, of course, looks like I just party all the time, but who takes pictures of work, right? Actually, I will take pictures of work once I start work worth taking pictures. Hope all is well on that side. xoxo

Happy Birthday, America!!!!

First things first. Mom and Mac sent me a box of pure joy! It’s the second package I’ve received since I’ve been here. Well, the second one that I’ve actually been able to open. I’ve had a package from Donnie waiting for me in Thies for well over a month now. Its too sad to know that I have a box full of America just sitting there, waiting. Anyway, this package so was nice! Three quarters of the box consisted of individual serving sized packs of Cheez-its!!! There’s also dried apples, blueberries and strawberries; pepperoni; precooked bacon; Spam!; tuna; protein bars; green tea; and pizza sauce. Bliss, bliss and more bliss! Thanks M & M, you never cease to amaze me and certainly know the way to my heart. 

The Kedougou trip was a success. Being in an air-conditioned Peace Corps car for the trip down, I of course fell asleep. I woke up to us coming over a hill with the most amazing view of the jungle and mountains framing the horizon. It was most beautiful. They have grass there, for crying out loud! Their rainy season is in full effect, so there’s still hope that we’ll get grass up here once ours is in full swing. I don’t want to ask anyone who has been here for rainy season if we’ll get it in these parts.  I want a full-fledged grass revelation! Anyway, Kedougou feels like a different country all together. I loved it! We stayed in a volunteer’s village at the foot of some mountains. I'm sure they have a name, I'm just unaware of it. We hiked to the top one morning. I only had flip-flops with me and felt pretty hard-core for hiking a mountain in them. I’m still sporting blisters from that. There is a village on top of the mountain and the women had all these crazy beads on their heads. It was quite a sight. I have pictures of all these things I’m trying to explain but hell has yet to freeze over therefore I can’t upload them. We climbed out on a pile of rocks and sat staring over the south of Senegal and into Guinea. The view is one of the best I’ve seen. Hilary and I sat there for a long time, talking about how we can’t believe how lucky we are to lead this life. It’s moments like this when I think it may be impossible for me to top this time in my life. I’ve felt that way a few other times, like sitting on the beach of Pornic, France with Roxi or sunset picnicking on the bank of the Seine with Graham. It’s nice to continue to have these moments, reminding me that I am continuing to do things that amaze me. I hope that everyone has moments like this. If not, I recommend seeking them. But then again, what do I know?

Language seminar ended up being better than I expected although what we did over 4 days could have easily fit into a day or two. It was nice to spend time with a few people I haven’t seen since I left Thies. We had a good time, lots of laughs. Ben bought a massive amount of veggies that Patrick’s family cooked for us, so that was an unexpected bonus. Two nights in a row we had what we now call “the Trifecta.” Oily pasta with fried potatoes and bread.  Don’t get me wrong, it was delicious, but let’s be honest…. Enough is enough. Oh, I learned some Pulaar too while there.

We went back to the city of Kedougou on the 1^st. (All but one region here has a capital with the same name as the region. So Tamba is my region and Tamba-meme is the capital city of Tamba. Get it?) The Kedougou Peace Corps house is quite different from the one in Tamba. Its not actually a house, but a series of huts in a compound. They have internet but no running water. It’s a pretty cool place but definitely made me appreciate what I have here in Tamba. I think that makes me high maintenance and I’m completely comfortable with that. Hilary and I had booked a hotel (also a series of huts in a compound, but with running water) because there would be so many volunteers coming down for the 4^th that it wasn’t possible for all of us to stay at the regional house. Usually when you travel to a region, you stay at the regional house but this isn’t possible for all-volunteer events. So anyway, Hilary called and booked our hotel a week before we went to Kedougou and then called to confirm the day before we left Patrick’s village. Everything was set, “Yes we have your reservation, see you tomorrow.” Then we show up and they tell us that not only do they not have a system for keeping track of reservations, they don’t have any extra rooms. So what exactly is the point of taking reservations?!?! “Well, there was this man staying in a room and we thought he might leave, but now he’s not.” We were flabbergasted! How do you operate a business like that and still stay open??? Astonishing! They were super nice people though and walked us across the street to another hotel, which wasn’t nearly as nice. We slept one night there and the next morning we were able to move into our original room. Since there aren’t that many hotels in Kedougou- meme, every other volunteer who had booked rooms at this hotel ran into the same issue. Actually every other hotel in town did the same thing to most everyone who booked hotel rooms. Luckily Hilary and I are easy going and didn’t let it get us down. Others weren’t as lucky. Most stayed at another hotel with a pool so we went there everyday and hung out until the 4^th.  The 2^nd involved a lot of back flips and chicken fighting in the pool of which I’m still sore from. I met most of the volunteers that I hadn’t had a chance to meet yet. There are some awesome people doing this Peace Corps thing!

On the 4^th we went to the Kedougou house where they have a buffet of dips and endless adult beverages. Most people were decked out in red, white and blue apparel. Would love to show you pictures of that too. And my America shorts! They surprisingly held up through the day and night. I was fully prepared for them to fall apart at the seams. I’m definitely no seamstress. They were sweet though. They cooked 3 full pigs to make pulled pork sandwiches. I’m not exactly sure how they cooked them but it involved wrapping them in what looked like palm leaves and chicken wire and burying them in the dirt. The pigs with coleslaw and baked beans… quite the feast!!! It was, of course, a million degrees, but then it rained for about 30 minutes. We danced in the rain and then we were freezing. I think I danced for a solid 8 hours. The next day I could barely walk between the sore legs and flip-flop blisters. Adding that to the soreness from the pool parties, I was a hot mess on the 5^th. I was going to stay in Kedougou until the 6^th but at the last minute decided to go back to Tamba. To travel, you go to what’s called a garage and buy a seat in what’s called a 7-place. Unless you show up with 6 others, then you have to wait for the car to fill up. I was with 3 others and we ended up having to wait 4 hours for the car to fill up. Its not all that bad when traveling with others, but by yourself can be excruciatingly boring. Its about a 4 hour trip to Tamba, give or take 6 hours for the components of Murphy’s Law (which by the way is what I have renamed this country). About half way through the trip…. (Mom and Dad, you don’t need to read this next part) it starts pouring rain and gets dark. We’re in the equivalent of a very beat up 1987 Chrysler station wagon with a spider web for a windshield and a driver that refuses to go under 60 mph. The windshield wipers were moving about an inch every 20 seconds and the headlights were dismal, if there at all. I wish I had a profile shot of me and the other 2 volunteers in the backseat. We were lurched forward, staring out the front windshield as though we were watching an intense horror flick, just waiting to collide with a steer crossing the road. We eventually hounded the driver until he slowed down some. It was extreme. The strange thing was that I was never actually scared; I just kept trying to position myself so that my launch through the windshield would be as painless as possible. Needless to say I never got to find out if my limb placement was good or not. The silver lining is that the entire next day I was really appreciative of the air I was breathing. This is Africa.

So now I’ve been at the Tamba house for 2 days. There have been way too many people here as they stop here overnight on the way back from Kedougou. Upside is that Costa’s been here, cooking up such delights as vegetable curry and slow cooked beef with naan. That kid needs a television show. I’m going back to village tomorrow. Biking it, yeah! I’ll only be there until the 15^th though because I have to go back up to the training center in Thies for IST (In-Service Training). This is when they will elaborate on all the stuff they touched on during Pre-Service training. Then I can start doing real work and feel useful again. I’ll be in Thies  for 2 weeks. I’m going to go up a day early to visit my family from my training village. I’m so excited to see them! Don’t get me wrong, I like my new family but my training family was SO amazing! I miss them so much! My Dad’s second wife had a baby a couple of weeks ago, so I’m excited to meet the little nugget! I’m super stoked to live at the training center for 2 weeks. They spoil us! Hopefully I can upload some pictures while I'm up there. Ok, hope everything is going well over yonder. Miss you guys! xoxo