Return from Civilization

Words cannot express how much I enjoyed being back in civilization. The food, the wine, the wonderful people watching and most importantly, the good company. Seeing my family after a year was the ultimate Christmas present. I think I speak for them as well when I say that we enjoyed our time together-even on Christmas Eve when Daddy and I spent a few hours in the emergency room on Christmas Eve due to a case of staff infection on my right toe.

Going back to civilization was a lot easier than coming back. I bounced right back into the normal swing of things and enjoyed the little things like bundling up against the harsh winter weather, taking a warm bath every night and using a nice running toilet. Those were two weeks of magnificent bliss.

Coming back, I'm not going to lie has not been all that pleasurable. For starters, I left Dakar on Tuesday morning on a bus to Kedougou. I got on the bus at 9am and it didn't pull out of the garage until 4pm. It was a terrifying voyage. Two Senegalese men in the back of the bus starting fist fighting, so the driver had to stop a few times. Luckily, there was a nice French couple behind me who kept me distracted from most of my misery. We arrived in a city called Tambacounda around 3am in the morning (couldn't make it to Kedougou) and I waited on the side of the road for almost an hour ( with a Senegalese man) searching for a taxi to the Tamba Peace Corps house. His main concern was finding a meat sandwich while I was choking back tears for having to wait YET AGAIN for transportation. Luckily, a car came, and I reached the house at 4:30am. At 9am, Ian and I woke up and waited at the garage for an hour for a car to Kedougou. On our ride back,we almost hit a horse-sized gazelle and were hissed at by a herd of baboons (big poppa showed his teeth) We arrived yesterday in the afternoon. I've fallen sick with a small fever and a slight case of diarrhea, which leaves me no motivation to climb up that mountain. I expect to leave in the morning if all is well through the night. I have the vacation blues in the worst way, but know that once I get back, things will fall back into place (Inshallah).

I just have to get up there!

Until next time,