So here i am in Kédougou regional house, my home for the time being. So i was installed on the 10th after arriving in Gou on the evening of the 8th. It was a very uneventful trip down thankfully as we were in Sept places the whole time. We thought that we were going to spend the night in Tamba and go down to Kédougou the morning of the 9th but the drivers had other ideas. Luckily we were able to stop in Tamba to pull our money for instal. Not that it really mattered to me in the long run. But ill get to that. So we get down to the regional house about 7/8ish and get warthog sandwiches with pretty much the entire 'Gou Crew' as they are all in town for our install and a few meetings. It was a fun evening and we get to meet everyone. While we made it to Gou the night of the 8th, the girls in of our stage who were coming down had finageled their way into the PC car with Chris Hendrick. They didnt have to get up at 530 for a 6am leave time but a 11am leave time. While i was a little bitter about this, i dont really feel so bad anymore as it sounded like they had a miserable time on the way down. The car was completely full with too many people, too much stuff and they got a flat on the way to Tamba. They didnt get into tamba till late. So whatever but we all got there in the end so its all good, they just got there the morning of the 9th.
The next day was when we were supposed to get there and thats when we were expected and the current volunteers had ordered a whole pig for the occasion. It showed up around midday on the back of matts bike. the carcass of a pig sans head. Very interesting. Lets just say ive eaten some strange parts of pig now, fear factor doesnt bother me as much as it used to. But it was a great time, beer and barbecued pig. We got to meet the adopted son of the country director which was cool, he grew up in the states and is a badass basketball player i hear and just recently has moved back to Kédougou, so he'll be around which is cool. The country director was a volunteer here in Gou 20 odd years ago in dindéfella and thats where chris hendrick adopted him from.
So that night was really fun but i was being installed the next day so i crashed a little early so as to be ready. Lets just say everyone didnt follow my lead and i missed a bonfire and more drinking. This was a good thing as the car ride around Gou the next day was a bit rough for about half our group. We got to meet the governor and a few other notables in the town. After this we went back to the regional house and i got ready to get 'installed'. I put quotations around this cause it really wasnt a instillation as i didnt have a hut. Like at all. So basically i went and hung out with the fam all day and then went back to the regional house which is literally right down the street to hang out and go to bed. So basically i eat and spend the day at the house trying to pick up the lang and sleep and shower at the regional house which is cool as its kinda like im getting gently eased into my sight. Im not saying i wouldnt like to have a hut and be able to unpack. Id love that as im still living out of suitcase which sucks, and i can escape to the Regional house if im feeling like i need a break. i do get to watch my hut get built though which is pretty badass though. The other thing about my fam here in Gou is that its the same family that the country director had in dindéfella 20 odd yrs ago. Well its part of the family anyway and they all knew him when he rolled up and he knew them! He didnt know that i was going to be living with them so it was a surprise for him as well. So it was pretty cool that thats my family here. They are really nice and i think we'll get along very well, il just have to bust my ass to learn the lang, cause i really suck at that.
Well im not the only one who doesnt have a hut. here in Gou, Thomas Whitaker doesnt have one either. His was a little further along then mine, his had half walls when he was installed i think whereas mine was a trench where the walls were going to be. I just found this out yesterday as well, that kevin wilkins didnt even have a hut started when he was installed in kafori which really sucks for him. I guess he was moved into another family or something, ill have to ask him about it when we all come back for thanksgiving. Minus kevin and Aaron, everyone was around or came back for a meeting with Wulla Naffa on Thursday. Wulla Naffa is a NGO here in senegal that is funded by US AID and is working rather closly with the gold mining that is going on in the region. Their goal is to sustainably utilize the regions resources. Cause i was here at the regional house on Wednesday, i got to go to the actual meeting the day before, as the meeting on thursday was really just between peace corps and wulla naffa, kinda a meet greet and compare goals. Thomas and I went with another volunteer named daniel. While we were there we got to meet the main guy from Dakar for wulla naffa, and while we were talking, he mentioned that they were going to be bringing in a GIS system to help get some reliable maps down here. Knowing what it was and understanding/showing interest in what he was talking about might have landed me a side project working with their team on that.
So thursday morning, Hayes and Shelia biked back into Gou from bandafassi and Thjibedji respectfully. The meeting was a little bit of a recap for me but was neat as it really laid out in english what had been said the day before in french. So that was interesting, but it was cool to hang out with everyone for another day. Im definitely now a lover of the bean sandwiches. They have them all over down here and they have this great french bead thats like baguettes but about half the size. Its really good. I think ive had that every morning since ive been here and i dont see it ending anytime soon. So after that meeting we go to the market and get bean sandwiches and do a little shopping. Ive still yet to buy anything as ive no hut, but since shelia had already moved in and unpacked se had a few things on her list to get so we basically just took care of that. After that i took a nap back at the regional house and then went back to the family compound for the rest of the day. I got to play soccer with the army of little kids who live in my compound and the surrounding ones. It was fun as right next to where we were playing i got to watch the bricks for my hut being made out of the dirt from a big hole. There had o have been some concrete in there or something, but who knows. It was still pretty cool to watch what is going to be my hut be built. After dinner, i head back to the regional house for a shower and sleep. Talking to shelia i decide to ride out to Thjibedji with her and Hayes.
So we head out the next morning, the 14th. It was a great ride. hayes lives in bandafassi and thats only about 15k away. We make it there in about an hour. This arent you regular american roads were talking about here, but like mining roads, is the best comparison i can think off. It reminded me alot of the bike ride i went on in California in the Bristlecone forest and the sequoia national forest only wider. In Bandafassi we stop and check out Hayes hut, its badass as the volunteer she replaced had cement counters put in and its just really cool. While there shelia sees a chair being made and remembers she needs one at her hut. After inquiring and finding out its only 3mil cfa and that it can be attached to her bike no problem she buys it and has hayes counterpart strap it onto the back of her bike. This isnt a small chair, its like small dinning room chair i guess. It was hilarious looking but it was sturdy and made it the entire way to her site. A picture would have been priceless, but i wont soon forget that.
In Thjibedji we spend the day sitting with her host sister learning pullar and watching her cook. It really was helpful, and i think that with that shelia will have no problem picking up pullar. we walk around her village after lunch and meet and greet a bunch of people. it was really cool and me really jealous of the smaller village life that doesn't exist in Kédougou. Around 4 i head out so as to make it back to Gou before dark. Im kinda drained at this point as ive spent all day in the sun and had a 35k ride out there. Not a lot by my american standards, but im about 2 months out of shape and the african suns a little different. but i take off anyway and make it to bandafassi by 5, a god 20k so not bad, and hang out with hayes for a little but there. The site in Bandaffasi is really beautiful. Hayes basically lives under the face of a small mountain. The ride there you just keep getting closer to the mountain until you roll up on her village sitting there underneath these big cliffs. After resting for a bit her counterpart gets up and says that were going into the bush to get something for hayes hut so i tag along thinking we cant be gone that long. We'll we are and they end up chopping down 1 and a half trees for two posts with V's in them. Very expertly done, but we hiked a ways into the bush to get them and it took a while so i dont hit the road till about 615 and its getting dark. Basically about half my ride is in the dark/pitch black without my headlamp. Didnt think to bring it as i thought id be back way before dark. It was fun though and i got to pass some bush fires that were pretty cool to see in the dark.
The ride was badass and now im ready to explore some more. I even had a conversation with a local while we were both pushing our bikes up a particularly steep hill that i totally understood every word of. Baby steps with the language, baby steps. Im thinking that ill run out to kafori and check out kevins site for another little adventure. Tomorrow im going to the fields with my family to observe a little and to maybe get ideas for projects, as well as to try and pick up some vocab.
for' those of you with google earth and feel like checking out my site, N 12 33.477', WO 12 11.568' there you go. Not really sure what the WO is for west something, but you get the point.
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