Photos

Look at that - I'm posting twice in less than a month. I was inspired I guess by other volunteers blogs. Anyway, this won't be long because the counter is flashing at me that I have 3 minutes left till meltdown. All of my photos can be viewed at www.lespritdebecca.shutterfly.com

Enjoy....And HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Oh the stories I'd tell...if I could remember them

I am a lousy blogger. There are plenty of times where I’m like, “Oh this is a great idea of something to post on the blog!” But whenever I get in front of a keyboard, I promptly forget everything I was thinking of posting. I think they mostly had to do with funny observances here (now, Kaolack, Senegal, West Africa) – For example: Last week I was walking down one of the sandy paths they call roads here, along side one of the filthy, green, foamy cesspools that serve as drainage or sewers or something…Anyway I hear this sheep. Now there are a LOT of sheep and goats here. To the western eye the sheep and goats all look the same since the sheep don’t have fleece, but now, I am proudly able to tell the difference. Anyway, last week I saw these two sheep; a momma sheep and an adolescent sheep. They were bleating quite loudly and running faster than I’ve ever seen sheep run, from corner to corner of this (for lack of a better word) intersection. It was quite funny and in my mind I made up a story about how the little sister of the adolescent sheep was lost and these two were frantically searching for it. “Sally! Sally! Baaahhhh! Where are you?!?! Baaaaahhhhh!!”

Fin
Anyway, things are up and down here, and I feel overwhelmed and under whelmed at the same time. It’s just an overall strange feeling. With the holiday season approaching and me not with family, and no chance of snow x-mas eve, I get a little down sometimes. On the bright side, I am a 10 min bike ride from a regional house with lots of dvd’s and a Worldspace radio on which I can listen to NPR which makes me very, very happy. I have also found an African version of BBC news on my short-wave radio, which is good because it helps me feel a little less removed. I am also rarely at a shortage of Americans to talk to since the regional house is right down the street and there are always volunteers wanting to escape their villages for a day or so. Today I also found a place to swim – at a hotel here that is no doubt mainly for wealthy tubabs coming through Kaolack for one reason or another. In exchange for swim time I’ll just put the hotel’s name on my swim cap when I do the Goree Island swim next year. Finally, I think I’m going to start French and Wolof lessons this week at the Alliance Franco-Senegalese this week. The building looks like its made out of psychedelic Lincoln Logs – I’ll take a picture if I can ever figure out how to get my photos uploaded here.