After an excruciatingly long stay in Dakar, I am back in Ngaye, but most likely not for long. At some point in the near future, I will have to take a day trip to the big city in order to ship out 450 pairs of shoes my artisans have made. Furthermore, there is a little expo being set up on the 24th to showcase the work of many artisans in Senegal when the company Cost Plus comes here to scout for potential products. For the first time in my service, I have grown tired of Dakar. Our regional house, known to volunteers as Liberty 6 (named after the neighborhood it is in) has served as a second home for me over the past year and a half. But staying there for a full 2 weeks is maddening, and I was extremely content to come back to Ngaye yesterday.
Before the extended stay in Dakar, we were able to go on a great fishing trip in Popenguine (possibly the nicest site for any volunteer in Africa). While our numbers were less than stellar (9 small fish caught by 11 people), it was a ton of a fun and pleasant to get away from the craziness of Senegal for a bit. The ability to go deep sea fishing, have a BBQ, a bonfire, tons of food and drinks and a place to sleep all for $25 is one of the perks of living in the Third World. For those who remember the great trek of 2009 (see entries from May 2009), I am happy to say that the event will occur again in just about 2 weeks. This year the trip will consist of only 3 of us: Myself, Thomas Wheat (from Khombole, see bike trip to Kaolack), and Ankit Patel (from Popenguine). The three of us will leave Ngaye at 5 a.m on the morning of the 1st and proceed to walk the 35 kilometers (around 21 miles) all the way to the ocean, where we will be met by other volunteers. We will have a house rented in M'boro for the night, so we'll be able to rest up and enjoy the party to celebrate both my birtday and the completion of the walk. I've created a Google Map of the trip that can be seen here:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=104393776320816648931.000483d012afe4b95fb3b&ll=15.166584,-16.87603&spn=0.081019,0.110035&t=h&z=13
Along with a bike trip to Kedougou for the 4th of July, this walk has been on my calendar for a long time. Ever since we completed (mostly) the trek last year, I have been talking it up and wanting to go again. Interest was very high this year, with over 10 people wanting to go. Yet, in the end it will only be 3 of us, which makes things easier on me, since I have to host everyone at my house the night before! I'll try to have an uopdate right before the walk and post some other pictures, but until then, ba ci kanaam!
We have a great beach house rented out in M'Boro and should have about 20-25 people for our party there. All in all, I'm very excited. It's going to be hot, really hot (last few days have gotten to about 110 towards midday...), but with 5 good friends, I'm sure the time will pass pretty quickly. 
First picture is what counting thousands of baskets looks like, and the second is my nearest neighbor Christine posing in front of the container as it gets filled up. Hope all is well back home, and I will make a post about our walk sometime next week when I get back! Ba ci kanaam!
