J’ai faim, quoi

    

Well, tomorrow afternoon I will be heading off to Dakar in order to start my vacation.  The past few weeks have been hectic, and things won’t really slow down until I step onto the plane.  This past weekend Peace Corps hosted an artisanal exposition in Dakar (at the American club, specifically).  This was my 3rd expo here in Senegal, and it went quite well all things considered.  Our basket association sold a solid amount of baskets, and the artisanal network as a whole sold right around $3,000 worth of products (some of which you all might be lucky to get in a few days…).

One big downer on the weekend was that one of my leather workers, Moussa Gueye got in a car accident on his way to the expo.  He fared better than the other passengers in the car, but he essentially has a broken hip.  I visited him today in Thies (any serious injuries in our area are usually treated in Thies, where they have proper medical care), and the doctor came in to tell him he should get a hip replacement, which is a very expensive solution in this part of the world.  I’m not sure how the situation will turn out, but I wish Moussa the best, and hope he’ll be able to get back to work soon.  On a side note, I never want to visit a communal emergency room in Africa ever again. 

That’s about it for now.  I’m scrambling to get things ready for vacation so I don’t have too much time to update people on everything, but I will do so once I get to Texas.  For now, here are some pictures of the artisanal expo and of the flyer I made for the expo.  The last picture is myself and several of my stage mates doing what we do best: party like rock stars.  Ba ci kanaam!