Hello!
It's been too long! My relationship with this blog has been infinitely better than my relationship with my journal (she'll be calling it off any day now) and yet I've still neglected it. My apologies. A lot has happened in the past month!
June passed very quickly. I spent most of it wrestling with the mason at my Master Farmer site. We hired a mason to build a stone tool shed, what should be a four day project, but one month and three masons later, we're still not done. Building projects in Senegal are troublesome, to say the least. In my case, I learned the person who builds the shed is not the same person who installs the roof...but then you need an additional mason to put bricks on top of the roof after it's in place, because the roof worker can't possibly do that. How do you get a mason out to your field? Not by offering money and work, apparently! How do you get two masons and a roof worker? You don't, you just don't. Sigh.
Now it's nearly finished but the window's been cemented in upside down, a problem I can't even deign to address right now. The roof is on! Hooray! We'll focus on that.
After struggling to comprehend the intricacies of Senegalese work patterns, I left for a much needed vacation in London with my parents. It was a week of blissful tourism in which I was paid absolutely no attention by the casual passerby...hence the bliss! Don't underestimate the power of anonymity. After seven months of constant heckling, it was wonderful not to be noticed. We ducked in and out of famous pubs, stormed the Tower, stood in two time zones in Greenwich, visited Hell during Dr. Faustus at the Globe and in general, enjoyed ourselves very much. It was a much appreciated and restful break.
Now I'm home, back in Tamba and gearing myself up for a summer of working in the fields. So far I've battled land title rights with my garden partners, extended rice and bean seed to a local farmer and witnessed the capping of our tool shed at the MF site. I'll be doing more research than I ever have, conducting studies on why one type of seed is better than another or why this practice is more beneficial than that one, and hopefully writing a comprehensive report to submit to Peace Corps in Washington. It all sounds very official! I've said this before, but the illusion of Peace Corps volunteers sitting around in the shade fanning flies off themselves has been shattered into many pieces - although the advent of rainy season has introduced more flies than I can possibly cope with. I just ignore them. It's worked so far.
I have to run to Wolof class, but I'll try to write more regularly - I'm excited to say some of my fellow Niger refugees have recently found success in Peace Corps Ghana, Moldova, and Kenya so I'm very proud of them and can't wait to hear more!
As for things stateside, I miss everyone very much and letters are on their way. I promise. I bought stamps after three hours of general confusion at the post office, so count on it!
<3 Phoebe
P.S For a look into another side of the volunteer experience, read my friend's latest entry on her blog. It's a good insight into more frustrating part of Peace Corps and I relate to much of what she says. Just in case you're interested!
http://shelbyrajk.wordpress.com/
