So I missed my car yesterday and as a result couldn't get back to my village until today, but lucky for you all that leaves me a little time to get a post up. Life has been good, the rains have been coming on a semi-regular basis and things around here are turing pretty lush. The beauty is only augmented by spectacular sunsets behind massive thunderheads or crystal clear stars in a freshly washed sky.
As for the village I have been doing my best to speak and keep myself busy. I have started an informal english club with my sisters and some of their friends resulting in many "gooood morning"s and "how are yooou"s throughout the day. It's pretty funny, but has also turned out to be a big challenge as their French is still minimal not to mention their literacy. The motivation and desire is defintely there but I may have to rethink my strategy on exactly how to facilitate learning that will be beneficial for them.
Otherwise I have been working a lot on my community assesment projects. I have a pretty decent map of the village at this point, and have been working on compiling information about everything from its economic relationshîps with the surrounding villages and the different income sources of the villagers, to identifying the different plant and tree species in the area (thats gonna take a little time...). I've also been doing my fair share of reading and hanging out with my family. The kids continually crack me up and are generally a pretty good antidote whenever I get into a funk. Juggling has become the prefered mode of entertainment for them these days and frequntly as I am sitting outside reading or writing one will come up with either three rocks or three dead batteries (hmmm....?), and slowly hand them to me. They have begun to learn but the lack of instant gratification is frustrating and, I suppose like language or anything else, we have a long road to hoe.
There are two large mining operations near the village, one Australian and one Canadian (I'm getting a ride out with the Canadians today), and recently one has shut down one of the operations as it was not productive enough for them. Apparently this has happened before because as soon as the news came in everyone and their mother was heading for the hills. I went out there with my friend Bakary and the scene was wild. There were litteraly hundereds of people covering this hillside digging up rocks and busting them open with hammers looking for gold flecks. The rewards are rare and pretty minimal but a couple of times during the day someone found enough to get roughly a hundred bucks or so US and thats some real money. The most interesting part of it all was the regulation of the trench the miners had left behinf. A group of men were put in charge (how I don't know) of all the digging in the trench and what was found. Because the trench is obviously where the most gold was found many were interested in getting a proverbial piece of the action. As a result the men began what I can only describe asa kind of co-op where one could work in the trench, or donate tools, food, or tea for the day and then they split whatever was found. I thought this was a pretty impressive system honestly. They all thought I was crazy for not joining up, but not only was it all kind of weird and surreal, I didn't feel it was really my place (making money off their gold that is.....). Anyway, wild times.
Had a cool little excursion for the 4th this year and visited what was by far the most beautiful part of my region yet. My friend lives in a village south of Kedougou-meme and nearby is Dindafelo, a village at the bottom the biggest waterfall in senegal, not to mention Dande a village at the top with ridiculous cliffs for climbing and viewing. We took a couple days to tour the area on our bikes and I've never been happier to be where I am. I can't say that the pictures truly do it justice, but with troops of baboons and chimps howling in the canyons and some unbelievable hospitality from the locals it was a truly breathtaking experience. It was also nice to get some climbing in, something I hadn't done in a number of months, and something that reminded me so much of great times back home.
I think I've rambled on long enough here, and while there are more stories to tell I think we all need to get on with whatever we're doing. It's been so great to get mail from all you, it really picks me up when things get slow out here. I'll be in my village through the end of the month and then head back to Thies for 3 more weeks of in-service training. I'll be in touch on the other side. Much love to you all,
willie