Back at Site

So Im now back in Pout and it feels really good to be home!! My poor cat has come down with a serious case of cabin fever while I was gone and is bouncing off the walls now. Nice to be missed, I guessed. Two weeks isnt that long to go on vacation really, but here in Senegal it is. Since I got home I have attracted a lot of attention. Everytime I step out of the house I get bombarded with greetings and people saying "Aby! I havent seen you in a long time! Where have you been?" When I mention that I went to the other side of the country everyone's eyes get really big and then they ask how it was, telling me its so hot down there and far away and arent there loads of mosquitoes there? Good thing Im back home in lovely Pout where everything is perfect. After a few of these interviews, I realized that I have seen more of Senegal in these past two weeks of road tripping than most of my neighbors have in their entire lives. Most Senegalese don't like to travel as much as Americans (certainly not the kind of Americans that join the Peace Corps) do. My host mother and most of her friends are completely happy to just stay put and go with the flow. Some of the younger kids here are really interested in travelling, but most people that want to go abroad only want to do so to get a job and send money back here to Senegal. It makes sense really, if you dont have enough money to get by, travelling seems a bit frivolous. I wonder what they think of me? Their frivolous American who seems unable to stay in one place for more than a month.

Was supposed to start my computer classes again today but showed up and the office was locked and no one was there. I took that to mean that my morning class is cancelled, which gives me the rest of the morning to piss around in Thies until my afternoon class, which hopefully isnt cancelled. When my cell phone got stolen I lost all my work contacts and hence my ability to call ahead and check on the status of my classes. My students dont see the need to tell me theyre not going to show up, and this is how entire days of my life get wasted. Hopefully tomorrow's work will go a bit more smoothly...