Running on Empty through Senegal

In about an hour I'll be going to Kaolack to celebrate Thanksgiving with my fellow volunteers in that area. I'm getting a ride to Thies with the local missionary here in Ngaye who is lucky enough to have a car. I'll be coming back on Friday, so it's somewhat of a short trip. I do feel a bit bad for moving around so much right after my installation (I came back from Dakar on Monday afternoon), but after Thanksgiving I'll be staying put for awhile. Dakar was a great experience. Along with the artisanal exposition (which went extremely well from what I saw), we all had a great time and got to play volleyball, softball, and go swimming. The weekend was almost ruined when I got into a 7 place station wagons that are literally on the verge of falling apart) on Monday. Forced to put my bag in the "trunk" (open to the public), I decided to sit in the absolute back row, despite the fact that I was essentially sitting on a metal bar. This turned out to be a very wise decision as I ended up warding off several theft attempts on my bag. Street vendors and random bystanders would simply stand by the car waiting for me to look the other way for even half a second. It really frustrated me that every time an attempts on my bag failed, the would be thief would run off laughing histerically. Oh well, life goes on.

I'm a bit of a rush, but I wanted to upload pictures of my room up here. The first is of the view from my window and the other two are of my actual room (it's a bit of a mess at the moment...). I'm off to have a quick breakfast along with Cheikh, Mariba, Nadya, Kineye, Aisha, Mari, Ami, Mami, Ndeeaw, Khadim, Cheikh, Kineye, Gallas, and Amadou (those are the names in my family...and the repeats are not a mistake...). A plus tard!

P.S BIG thank you to Maman and Papa for sending me those boxes of stuff! All of it will either be delicious, or come in handy throughout my time here. Merci encore!