I have been in Kombo (the capital) for far longer than I originally intended. I came back from Dakar about a week ago and wanted to register my village's nursery school with the Community Development Office and go straight back to my site. The office ended up having meetings for at least two days and then there was a public holiday, and then the weekend. This means that I have to stay here till Monday to register the school then head back to village on Tuesday, if all goes as planned.
On the bright side this has given me time to enjoy some of the finer things about Kombo life.
The beach has been amazing. Matt and I took a walk along the coast by some cliffs. The red sand doesn't make for the most stable cliff material but it seemed safe enough. There were little washed out parts that we sat in and were able to just look out at the ocean in the early evening. There wasn't really any people back there since its just a path behind people's back yards. (Sorry there are no pictures of any of these things but soon this blog will be laden with them.) Later Mark and I went swimming at the beach closest to the PC house. It has a name but, you know, I don't really know it yet. Then, the coupe de ta (my French is "not sweet") was a visit out to Tanje, which was so nice, it deserves it own little paragraph.
I trucked out to Ian's site so I could go to the beach with him and the new training group. The drive out there was quick and easy. I took a 5 Dalasi taxi twice and then a bush taxi out to his village for another 5. I think the apprentice of the geli (bush taxi) recognized me, but maybe I am just vain. Shortly after getting to his site he biked off to the training villages to pick up the group. While he was gone I had an improve football game with me and some of the neighboring girls. I'm getting old, they were fast, and like, 15 years younger than me. Everyone arrived, I rode Ian's bike, and he ran us to the beach. It was amazing. I know I'm from Nevada and all but I thought it was one of the nicest beaches I have ever seen. We biked through a garden path that eventually led to a steep slope to a beach. Down there the water was nice, no rip tide, or any big waves, just calm. We went back up the cliff, through more gardens, and then to a lookout that had great views. There were some storm clouds in the sky and you could see the fishing boats far out in the water.
The real point of writing this specific journal entry is to talk about the brunch we had at our Medical Officers house. Once a month he has a get together for volunteers to come over, eat some great food, and socialize. The food was AMAZING! Mike's kids are the CUTEST kids ever! It was a blast. I drank 3 cups of coffee, pancakes, eggs, crepes, and ate a sausage (um....it fell on the floor, and, after pressure from Brian, I ate it, and he ate the other one I dropped. I'm a terrible health volunteer, but I just couldn't waste it. Can't wait to hear how my future medical apt with go when I explain to Mike that I'm sick because I ate a sausage off the floor of this kitchen. Try not to judge though, I never get sausage, or meat, so screw wasting. And, I'm not sick yet). I wish I could go to Mike's food get-together every month.
My goal was to make this a short post, but it didn't work out. Next time you eat breakfast, enjoy it, a lot.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
It's been a month since my last blog post? Well baby, its not that I didn't want to post to you....its just that I was busy, you know how hard it is to get to the computer these days, and I was out of the country and all. Forgive me? aw, you're the best.
I went to America and back. It was great. So very very very nice. Good food, great friends, nice weather. I like how 90 seems like a perfect temp now. Tahoe and Yosemite were beautiful as always and I got to spend lots of evenings looking at the stars in rural Nevada. It's nice that my friendships haven't changed, it's like I never left.
Getting to Dakar was easier than I thought. I was worried, well, more like a little pansy about it. I stayed with two volunteers right by the ferry and caught a car easily to the border. After customs I took a motorcycle to the car park. I thought, "motorcycle? I have a suitcase. How is that going to work?" but in classic West Africa fashion (maybe all Africa fashion for all I know) the presence of a large object didn't phase this driver the least bit. He just put it on the tank and steered with his arms around it.
The car park was easy and even the negotiations went fine. The ride was bumpy but not bad. Maybe I am just used to having to take a sete plus to get around but I liked looking at the country side. Once getting to Dakar I though "man, real highway? Fancy". My driver looked at me and said "Airport (in French)" and then dropped me off on the side of the highway by a taxi. Let me repeat that, dropped me off on the side of the highway, in Dakar. The price neg. didn't go as smoothly and ended with a straight out arguement in front of the airport over the price. I won, but I didn't want to have to do that. The driver thought he could intimidate me, but, having worked in a video store in which this happened all the time, I was prepared to give the stonewall face, but unlike then, I didn't feel bad yelling back.
The airport was uneventful. It's not really opened during the day. That part is weird.
Flights were good. AirFrance has great food and all the people I was next too were French and pleasant. I remember thinking "uh, I haven't worn deoderant in so long, those poor people, oh wait, they're French, no prob".
As written above, America was great.
The first flight back was a bit scary due to a ton of turbulence. I had a violin with me which made me feel classy and over burdened at the same time. I had my fair share of beers in the LA airport (not drunk, don't worry) and had my 10+ hour flight to Paris. Both flights when smoothly. The Dakar airport was crowded picking up luggage with people half taking each other out grabbing 60 pound bags. "Get you 7 year old grandson out of here lady! These falling bags weigh more than he does!".
I was picked up by a Brazilian diplomat that I found on the couch surfing web site. Him and his wife were great hosts and saved me so much hassel by getting me at the airport. They had a 3 bedroom apartment that looked to the ocean. It was amazing. We went to dinner with some of their friends then to a swanky party with some nice ex-pat 20 somethings. It was a great experience.
The next morning I quickly found the sete plus home, had a terrible time getting a fare price, and ended up having a car full of really pleasant people. I was so tired I basically half slept the whole way. The guy next to me ended up being half nature show host half bodily injury helper. He woke me up when my head was hitting the window because of the bumpy road, and when there were two amazing (and really rare) animals that I was thrilled to see.
Customs was more a problem this time but just because they all wanted my number. I got asked for my number 4 times in the first hour of being back. It was kinda lame. The rest of the trip went how it normally goes. Ferry, car, office.
I spent the night at Ian's site and slept like a champ. I slept so hard that when his host mom came in to give him back a pan, it didn't wake me up one bit. The best part is that she didn't see me and put the pan on the pillow of his air mattress. I had the pillow on my head and was sunken into the mattress so when Ian came back into the room he found me asleep with a frying pan on my head. I was tired.
Now I'm in the capital. Trying to find people who are never in their office and getting people into college when it's already started for the year. Who knows when I will be back at site.
I went to America and back. It was great. So very very very nice. Good food, great friends, nice weather. I like how 90 seems like a perfect temp now. Tahoe and Yosemite were beautiful as always and I got to spend lots of evenings looking at the stars in rural Nevada. It's nice that my friendships haven't changed, it's like I never left.
Getting to Dakar was easier than I thought. I was worried, well, more like a little pansy about it. I stayed with two volunteers right by the ferry and caught a car easily to the border. After customs I took a motorcycle to the car park. I thought, "motorcycle? I have a suitcase. How is that going to work?" but in classic West Africa fashion (maybe all Africa fashion for all I know) the presence of a large object didn't phase this driver the least bit. He just put it on the tank and steered with his arms around it.
The car park was easy and even the negotiations went fine. The ride was bumpy but not bad. Maybe I am just used to having to take a sete plus to get around but I liked looking at the country side. Once getting to Dakar I though "man, real highway? Fancy". My driver looked at me and said "Airport (in French)" and then dropped me off on the side of the highway by a taxi. Let me repeat that, dropped me off on the side of the highway, in Dakar. The price neg. didn't go as smoothly and ended with a straight out arguement in front of the airport over the price. I won, but I didn't want to have to do that. The driver thought he could intimidate me, but, having worked in a video store in which this happened all the time, I was prepared to give the stonewall face, but unlike then, I didn't feel bad yelling back.
The airport was uneventful. It's not really opened during the day. That part is weird.
Flights were good. AirFrance has great food and all the people I was next too were French and pleasant. I remember thinking "uh, I haven't worn deoderant in so long, those poor people, oh wait, they're French, no prob".
As written above, America was great.
The first flight back was a bit scary due to a ton of turbulence. I had a violin with me which made me feel classy and over burdened at the same time. I had my fair share of beers in the LA airport (not drunk, don't worry) and had my 10+ hour flight to Paris. Both flights when smoothly. The Dakar airport was crowded picking up luggage with people half taking each other out grabbing 60 pound bags. "Get you 7 year old grandson out of here lady! These falling bags weigh more than he does!".
I was picked up by a Brazilian diplomat that I found on the couch surfing web site. Him and his wife were great hosts and saved me so much hassel by getting me at the airport. They had a 3 bedroom apartment that looked to the ocean. It was amazing. We went to dinner with some of their friends then to a swanky party with some nice ex-pat 20 somethings. It was a great experience.
The next morning I quickly found the sete plus home, had a terrible time getting a fare price, and ended up having a car full of really pleasant people. I was so tired I basically half slept the whole way. The guy next to me ended up being half nature show host half bodily injury helper. He woke me up when my head was hitting the window because of the bumpy road, and when there were two amazing (and really rare) animals that I was thrilled to see.
Customs was more a problem this time but just because they all wanted my number. I got asked for my number 4 times in the first hour of being back. It was kinda lame. The rest of the trip went how it normally goes. Ferry, car, office.
I spent the night at Ian's site and slept like a champ. I slept so hard that when his host mom came in to give him back a pan, it didn't wake me up one bit. The best part is that she didn't see me and put the pan on the pillow of his air mattress. I had the pillow on my head and was sunken into the mattress so when Ian came back into the room he found me asleep with a frying pan on my head. I was tired.
Now I'm in the capital. Trying to find people who are never in their office and getting people into college when it's already started for the year. Who knows when I will be back at site.
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