hello out there! it's been several days since i'vr written and once again way too much has happened for me to explain it all! oh well, i guess i can stick to the good stuff. first of all, how about some accurate information? i am in the Kedougou area of Senegal. there are several volunteers in this area, either in Kedougou or in surrounding villages. The village that I will be living in is called Thiabedji, pronounced thai (like the food) -bed-jee. this week i spent a week shadowing a volunteer who lives in a village similar to the once i will be in. i got to see how he lives and what life is like as a volunteer, so i finally have a realistic image of how life will be for the next two years. I must say I am more than a bit excited! i absoutely love everything about my area, and the people seem great!
so a bit about what we did. well, it turns out that Kedougou is about 450 miles from the training center in thies, the farthest distqnce from any other sites in the country. we ended up driving 11 hours in an official PC range rover to get there. it was honestly one of the scariest things i have ever done in my life. the roads for the majority of the time were littered with potholes of all different shapes and sizes, not to mention that senegalese drivers have different ideas of speed limits, and no desire to stay in their own lanes. the speed on the horrid highway ranges from 6mph? which would be a trotting horse carraige, to 65mph by the brave drivers. everyone is always passing everyone, and the road is littered with people walking, biking, and seling things. livestock here also roams free and have no fences, so we experienced a lot of cows, horses, donkeys and goats in the road, crossing or just chillin. as we approached Kedougou, however, the animals in the road changed drom live stock to wildlife, like lqrge troops of red baboons and troops of small tqnish minkeys. Once we even saw a warthog crossing the road!
shadowing an actual volunteer was great. i got to learn about daily life. ill write more about that when i am settling in. what i want to talk about was our trip to the 'mst beautiful waterfall in the country,' designated by the current volunteers here. about 10 people took 10 bikes with camping gear about 10km to get to the waterfall. we crossed a huge river with help from locals with canoes. on the rides we rode on thin paths often overgrown with grass 8 ft tall (it is the rainy season right now). we crossed a lot of streams as well and often had to dismount to walk through deep mud. it was an amazng bikeride. i cant even explain how great it was. it would be even harder to explain the awesomeness of the waterfall. picture the most beautiful 80 ft waterfall you can picture in yur head. this one is better. haha... i will post pics eventually. the great thing about the waterfall is that nobody goes there... ever. the senegalese just arent really into nature adventures. so we had it all to ourselves. there were three pools below the falls that were perfect for swiming. the water was greenish blue and crystal clear. the water was the most refreshing thing i have felt since being here; it actually made me feel cleaner and fresher than any shower i have taken here. imagine how nice it was to jump in aftre a long, sweaty, muddy bikeride. it was amazing. several of us found our way to the top of the falls and enjoyed an amazing view. we ate, talked, sat around the fire, and just generally enjoyed our time in this amazing place. then the next day we biked back and i found myself largly exhausted... bleh. i kinda just layed around for the rest of the day.
the ride back the thies was just as scary; but we made it! and now here i am with occasional internet again, momentarily, at least.
still havent gotten sick, knock on wood.
thats all i got for now. ill write again soon
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