It’s Been A While

Around Thanksgiving I made a decision to go home for Christmas and New Years. Originally I thought this would be awkwardly close to the end of my service, but I followed the example of another volunteer and did it. Besides, my original plans to go home in September fell through and there was something I just couldn’t pass up.

Heading Out

One night a bunch of the family (a couple aunts, a few cousins, their kids, my parents, and me) decided to go for a ride in the old Winnebago to see the Christmas lights, coincidentally located at a park on Lake Winnebago. The highlight here was the Reindeer. On a bit of a whim, after that we decided to drive about a half hour to see the light show in a nearby city (almost wrote village there) to see their light show. Word on the street was that it was pretty awesome. Well it was, so many lights timed to music. Music that was broadcast using a little radio transmitter so that we just had to turn our car to a certain station. I know there’s nothing new about this technology (drive-in movies), but it’s still really cool especially with all those lights.

For me, coming from Senegal, it quickly turned overwhelming. So much power going to those lights, we have easy enough access to all that power that we can just put on a show with it and not worry. Everyone’s houses were still fully powered all day long. Even the major cities in Senegal can’t do that. To get the timing just right so many people and machines had to be working together to make that come out. It wasn’t just the effort and coordination to put on the show – but us, watching it… there. Frankly, we could have easily fit ten more people into that Winnebago and still be comfortable… heck, that’s not even including the bedroom area. Gas is cheap here, but the thought of buying that much to head that far without a packed car is almost unthinkable

The kids, one of whom I’d just met days before because she was just a swollen tummy when I left, were definitely enjoying the show, but somehow seemed under impressed. Risking sounding like an old curmudgeon, that Nintendo DS seemed to hold their attention a lot better. In my family compound you’ll have 30 kids crammed around one 13 inch TV just to watch the news. Somewhere between that; Alvin, Simon, and Theodore’s hosting; and the Carol of the Bells (My personal favorite non-religious Christmas song) I had to basically turn myself off in order to avoid a complete overload/breakdown. I had gone to this place where I realized that almost every aspect of my day to day life in America is unthinkable to most of the people I’ve spent the last 21 months with. Do I feel guilty? Should we all? No. I wish I could show people from my village, that it would be easy to have someone come visit – but it’s not, and people here are happy anyway.

All-in-all America was worth it. I got to see the family, which is a big deal… and a big ordeal, but so much fun. I managed to fit in a couple good Goodbyes - both unfortunately too soon, one long overdue. I comeback refreshed and with a renewed perspective about what it is that I’m doing here. It was a good choice.

Baseball, by the Gou Crew

To hit fast-forward a little bit here now- I came back to the West African All-Volunteer conference. Thanks to budget cuts across the board it was just another something that all of PC Senegal felt required to attend while a handful of volunteers from nearby countries got lost in the mix. It’s a great idea, don’t get me wrong, I’d just like to see more of what’s happening in other placed instead of continuing to hash over what’s happening in Senegal.

After All-Vol was the West African Invitational Softball Tournament (WAIST), earlier than usual thanks to the upcoming presidential elections. Basically a weekend of theme parties and Peace Corps teams playing dress up even for the games themselves. This year my team’s theme was Baseball – easily underrated but awesome (thanks Bonnie and Mike). And finally after that there was COS Conference (Close of Service). That was just a lot of me thinking, “Really? Already?”

After COS Conference it was time to finally head back down to Kédougou where I spent a couple days getting my life in some semblance of order. When I was all set to head back to site I found myself stuck in the middle of a transport strike and therefore unable to take a car in order to bring all my gifts back to village. Luckily someone was headed my way in a Peace Corps car (which NEVER happens) to check out possible sites in my neck of the woods. That’s right, I’m finally getting neighbors as I leave. Now I can finally spend a god chunk of time back at site… Nin Allah Sonnta.

My host dad was happy to see me come back