So its been a long little while. Lots has happened lots is happening. Brief run down of the events that have transpired... After the eye clinic we had a work day at the regional house and cleaned the whole place up real nice. Also had a meeting about what is going on and what will be going on in the coming months. We ended up talking about the 4th of July, we hold a big party down here for all the volunteers in country.
Also had a meeting about an AIDS garden that i might be working on here in the near future down by the river. Its for people who are living with AIDS and is supposed to help supplement some nutrients that they are not normally getting.
Also went out to Tjibedji to visit Sheila for a day and hike around the hills out there, very fun got some good pics and had a great time. Shes got a new puppy who is rather cute.
The day after we got back we had the ag/fo conference and i was kinda fighting some kinda weird bug or something. Upon further review, consensus says it was dehydration i was fighting as i was running/biking too much without drinking enough. So that was fun for the conference but it was nice to see the rest of the ag/fo folk for a day or two and short of a few awkward exchanges had a good time while actually learning some interesting information for my work. Too bad it was only 2 days, would have liked to spend more time with some folk.
The day after the conference was over, Kevin and I hoped on our bikes and headed out to dindefello for the day to check out the waterfall and all that it had to offer. Dindefello is a very cool place, very pretty and great for hiking and camping if youre into that type of thing. We stayed at a nice campement there for like 4$ and had a great time hanging out. The next day we shoot out to the waterfall and then hop on our bikes to get back to Kédougou for the instal/COS dinner. On the ride back to kédougou we actually run into the Folk who were COSing as they were coming back from a trip to Guinea.
So kevin beats me back to kédougou as he found a short cut and i thought hed blown a tire or something and went back looking for him. i only bring this up as it has endlessly been brought up to me since as me getting soft and slow as kevin beat me back. he loves reminding me of this just to bust my chops.
The dinner was really good we roasted a pig and had a great time. Great food, we really know how to put a good spread out when we put our minds to it down here. So like i said it was a two sided shindig, newbies arriving for the first time and les anciene leaving for the last time. the newbies seem cool, three jahanky speakers. All three of them are over 6ft and all dudes. That makes for a grand total of about 20 people down here and 4 girls, yea what are the odds right! Oh and in contrast to that, tamba our nearest neighbors have 2 guys and the rest girls. So polar opposites basically. these guys seem cool and one of them os a cyclist, well more so then me and im looking forward to seeing how much better he is then me! They dont instal down here till the 28th as this visit was more for checking out their sites and meeting and greeting people.
So basically while they were off up north at their sites i was working down here in kédougou with my counterpart in two places, Sintiou Roudji and Jalaya, both within like 7k of kédougou. My counterpart and I basically handed out some tree sacs to motivated farmers in jalaya and are kinda still assessing the situation in sintiou Roudji but it looks like we'll be doing some interesting work in and around kédougou. Also have started visiting the Kédougou Eaux et Forets pepiniere. Its a sweet location next to the river and just loads of potential for some interesting tree work.
Started up my pullar classes again which i think will be a big help with my language. Although my tutor did kinda bust my chops for forgetting most of the stuff we had learned before i went up to Thies for IST. Ill get it back, im feeling better with the classes now anyway. I feel like the language plays a large role in good days and bad days. My theory is that you have varying degrees of good and bad days here, and the language plays a large role in that process. Well that and how awkward im acting around people, just kidding of course.
So the 4th was Independence day here in Senegal, 49 years of independence and it was kinda neat to see everyone all worked up down here. They had a big parade and everyone watched it. I bailed as the sun is hot, very hot and all this nonsense was going on at like 11-12. Far too hot to be standing around in the sun for really no reason. The day after independence day there was a Omar Pene concert here in Kédougou. he is a big Senegalese singer and it was a big deal he was putting on this free concert here. Long and short of it was that it didn't start till 12:45 and he only did a few songs so i bailed. I guess i didn't miss much.
I had my pullar class on monday and that was productive, djiby is a great tutor, so glad he knows english so well! End up getting invited to tag along with Andy and Hassana to Dindefello to check out his field there. We end up doing that the next day, good times, hes got a great field, lots of potential for some good work there. We'll see how things go.
Also at the moment there are US Department of Defense folk down here checking out projects that they are funding and are thinking about funding. Got to sit down with them with Kevin the other night and have a few beers. Weird hanging out with the full spectrum of Americans after being rather sheltered with the peace corps folk we hang out with here. Nice folk though, bought us some dinner. Its just so interesting seeing folk who are in the military, the couple times weve run into them here they all seem to be cut from the same cloth. Not a bad thing but very different for sure. They sure arent the guys i went to school with ill just say that, although its always nice to meet new types of people.
That pretty much brings us up to today, short of my little run in with a beard trimmer and a pair of scissors making me rather a lot cooler. shockingly short, the first words out of my tutors mouth when he saw me was i didnt realize that you looked like david beckham, not sure how to take that really as most people here think all toubabs look the same. Good times all round though working on a run of good days with only a few marginal ones sprinkled in there to keep things interesting. Ill try to keep on top of this blog thing a little more now that im back in a regular schedule and am feeling like ill have some interesting work shit going on to tell you all about. Stay in touch and ill do my best as well.
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