Surfaces, surfaces, surfaces

Today I have been in Senegal for exactly a year and a half. That is if you don't count Christmas 2011 or the three weeks I was home over the summer. This doesn't have anything to do with me writing today, it's just a coincidence. I've decided that I blog so little that there really isn't any reason for me to do it on my blog. This is much more convenient.

So, what have I learned in my time here? The title says it all, surfaces. I never truly understood the value of surface space until I got here. Kitchen counters, desks, tables, armrests, cup holders (not technically a surface, nor do I really miss them), these are all wonderful and useful things that they don't have in Senegal. Cutting boards are a perfect example. Have you ever tried to dice an onion using only your hand and a dull knife? I haven't either because I'm a boy and we don't do cook here. But I can imagine it would be very difficult.

I end up using my bed as my kitchen counter, desk, dining room table, bed, chair, lounge chair, workout device, etc. This is great, as I don't waste a lot of space cluttering my room with large furniture, but it does make my sheets pretty gross. I have olive oil and barbecue sauce all over them. In any case, I can go without hot showers, internet, electricity, etc, but I will forever have a number of attractive and ergonomic surfaces in any place that I will choose to call home in the future. Except prison. I don't imagine that they have many surfaces. I'll have to avoid prison.


So everyone is arriving in a week-ish...less than a week? I'm not really sure, but it's soon! This should be a very exciting trip. We will be in Dakar for two nights, where the family will get to see me haggling mercilessly with cab drivers over a dollar or two. Then, on Christmas Day, we'll travel up to Lampoul. Apparently it's a desert there. I've never been. But they have camels, so we'll ride those. It will be like the arrival of the two wise men and four lady-wise men to the home of the newborn baby Jesus (pronounced Geeziz, like a British person). After Lampoul, we will head down to Sali. Sali is a beach-side town that is supposed to be crazy nice. Volunteers don't usually go there because it's too expensive for us. My friend Casey took her parents there, and they enjoyed it very thoroughly, so I'm hoping we will as well. After the beach, we will head to Toubakouta. This is a tourist destination about 20k from where I live. This will allow us to visit my site, enjoy the mangroves, and not have to sleep outside on mats in my compound. Here I'm hoping to knock out all of the "we travelled to Africa so we should see some drum circles Goddammit" type activities. These are the activities that volunteers hate, so we'll try to hit them all in as little time as possible. We will also go visit the animal park near where I live. They caught the escaped rhino, so we might be able to see him. He's already killed two other rhinos (stabbed them to death with his tusk, for real) so they cut off his tusk so he can't kill anymore. He is currently their only rhino, however, so this seems like it might be too little too late. We can also go on a lion walk there, which sounds like a recipe for a really disturbing youtube video. Once we are done in Toubakouta, we'll head up to Thies for a night. On the way, we'll have all of our stuff stolen as we tour the Kaolack market. It was the biggest covered market in West Africa (or maybe just Senegal, can't remember) for many many years, but then there was a huge fire during the election so it's not as big as it used to be. On the plus side, the part that was destroyed by the fire is totally open to the public, and it looks really cool. In Thies, we will hopefully (gotta call them today, can't forget) stay at the hotel Croissant Magique, which does not, as you may think, mean Magic Croissant. It means Magical Croissant. We can, if everyone really wants to, go see the Peace Corps training center, and we will have dinner at everyone's favorite restaurant, Massa Massa. Finally, we will head back to Dakar for one more night.

I'm really looking forward to the trip, as I could use a break. OH! I forgot. We will be having a journee de lancement, which I assume means big rollout and information day for my trash program on the 31st. The whole family will be there, wearing far too tight wolof clothing, so everyone will get to see what my average day is not like. It promises to be great fun.

That's all for now. Only 7 and some odd days months left till I'm allowed to leave without having to say that I quit. Very exciting. It doesn't feel like I've been here all that long.

I'll leave you with movie quotes like I used to do on my blog. I was going to put some fantastic archaic racial slurs from "Boardwalk Empire," but I guess kids read this so instead, in honor of a non-cam version pirated release of The Dark Knight Rises:

"Calm down, Doctor! Now's not the time for fear. That comes later."

"Yes. The fire rises."

"I'm Gotham's reckoning, here to end the borrowed time you've all been living on."


Those are all supposed to be done in the Bane voice. What a crappy movie. If you have seen it and get what I mean by the Bane voice, here is a fun link to how they made fun of it on South Park.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iKoy0Qwh-g

Enjoy!