Back to Basics

Made it back to Joal Tuesday night. I returned to a relatively bugless room, 1 spider, 1 waterbug and lots of dust. The power was on so I quickly terminated the insects and proceeded to eat dinner (a mango) before it went out or I saw any more insects. I would have been a lot more comfortable eating outside but it was raining so that was a no go. On a normal day it usually takes me anywhere from 2.5-3 hrs to go from Dakar to Joal (68 miles), but yesterday it was raining and I left during the equivalent of rush hour traffic so it took 5hrs…oh how I love public transportation. I really didn’t wanna leave Dakar but I have to keep myself from getting too comfortable there cause life in Dakar and Joal is very different. Plus im low on funds till the end of the month and Dakar is expensive. I was in Dakar because my mom came to visit for 2 weeks. Im so glad she was able to come out and see how I live and do things on this end of the world and that she was able to come to Africa. It was great having her here but also a bit stressful. But then again, when is traveling with a parent not stressful? She left Monday and I’ll be heading home on the 15th December, I’ll start the countdown Sep 15. I think I recuperated very well at Meme’s house with her WIFI, Wii and “real” kitchen. So this week is going to be a short one since I’m only available 2 days out of the work week. I’ll probably pass by the community center, and the compost facility to check in. And maybe Friday I’ll go to the Finio…ugh. The politics there really pisses me off and makes it hard to do my job. My region is throwing a party on Saturday and even though it’s only a 700cfa ride down the road I’m probably not going. I’ve just spend 2 weeks away from site and there’s things I need to do here.

[gnilan]