Ten Months In

Hello all!

It has been just over ten months since I arrived in Senegal, and though at times it feels like it was only yesterday, in reality America feels like it's a world away. I'll fill you in on the events of the last month.

As I alluded to in my last posting, I spent a week with my family in southern Spain to begin the year, doing new years in Granada. While Spain was beautiful, we did not have especially good luck with the weather. When I'd visited in 2004, it had been sunny and pleasant. We got overcast skies and rain throughout. I also found it INCREDIBLY difficult to communicate in Spanish, though I'd studied it for years and had a reasonable command of it. The Wolof and French just kept getting in the way. But I did meet a few Senegalese in Spain, and got to speak Wolof with them. I was not ready to leave Spain to come back to Senegal- it seemed like an entirely different world and I started to enjoy and get used to the creature comforts there.

So I took my time getting back to my village after returning to Senegal. When I did get back, it was only for a couple of days before I had a meeting with other volunteers to discuss our projects for the future year and to continue the development of our regionally based strategy. To be honest, in my case, I don't know how I would fit into the regional strategy as I am the only volunteer in my department (kind of like a county), but it was still wonderful to brainstorm.

However, my isolation will soon come to end, as I spent the morning scoping out a site with my program director to place a volunteer in the next few months. My director also spoke with the village religious leader to fill him in on the scope of my work, which should make things a bit easier for me in the next few months.

I got a chance to listen to the inauguration a couple of days ago, and felt really jealous of my aunt, who got tickets to the event. It was a truly historical event.

Anyways, thats all from me for now.

Be safe.