A Village Visit (6/7/10)

Well, I've made it to the village and back. I spent about 4 days in my old Peace Corps village. Much of the time was spent greeting people and telling them how America is (I told them Senegal is way better, but they just laughed :) ). The rest of the time was spent much the same as my days as a Peace Corps volunteer went- sitting under the trees, taking a nap after lunch and just waiting for the sun to start to set and for things to start cooling off. Much is the same back in Ndiago. The kids have grown up a bit, a couple people have died, and many babies have been born, but, other than that, everything is much the same.

The kids in my family are still as cute as ever (in my humble opinion, anyhow :) ). I have uploaded some new pictures onto my facebook page if you want to check them out. They have opened a koranic school in the village and now the littlest kids (the ones who are still too young for normal school) have started "studying" there. They can now recite several passages from the Koran (and are pretty proud to do so). And Thian, the baby of the family is not so much a baby anymore. She's not really talking much yet, but she can walk now and runs around and plays with the other kids.

My host dad recently had surgery. He had a tumor on his face that was pressing up against his optic nerve (he'd had vision problems before I'd left, but, at the time, they didn't know what was causing it). According to Jessie, my replacement, by the time of the surgery, you could physically see the tumor jutting out near his temple). I don't think they know yet whether or not it was malignant (such tests here take a long time), but he is recovering well and is back to most of his normal activities.

After spending those 4 days in Ndiago, I came back to Kaolack and spent a day visiting my friend M'Bissin in her village of Thiakalar. Since I left last year, she had another baby (she'd been very pregnant when I left). The little girl (Fatima) is doing well and looks to be a very happy baby. And her little boy is doing well too (for those of you who followed my blog during Peace Corps, M'Bissin was my friend who'd had twins, a boy and a girl who were significantly underweight at birth. The little girl didn't make it 24 hours, but the little boy, Ahmed, survived). Ahmed is now 2 years old and is running around with the other kids and is even talking just a little bit. And Adam, the oldest girl, is still pretty cute. She can talk in complete sentences now, which is cool to see- she even greeted me on the phone when I called before coming.

The rains started last night. I'm pretty happy about having been here for the first rain of the season. I woke up last night to the sound of the rain pattering on the roof. In a dry, dusty landscape, rain is a welcome sight.

Today, I'm off to Dakar. I'll be there for several days before leaving for Mali. I start work there this next Sunday.

Wish me luck!