Home Sweet Senegal

As you may know, if youve ever read this blog, I am just back from a perfect vacation in England. Seeing as how this blog is to talk about my experiences inAfrica, posting while I was on vacation was not high on the priorities list. Certainly outranked by Starbucks runs. The most important thing to say about my vacation is that it was absolutely necessary for my mental health. Living in Senegal can be fun. It can also be horribly stressful and frustrating and every once in awhile, you need a break. Being in England made me feel normal, which I almost never get to feel here. I am not normal here.

Moral of the story: All PCVs need a break every now and then. I took mine during Ramadan in England and it was everything that I had hoped for and more.

I returned yesterday in the early morning. I was not terribly excited to be back, but not upset either. Its nice to be back and after speaking to several people in Wolof it was very reassuring to see that I could still speak it after a month long break. I spent all day yesterday in Dakar and this afternoon will catch a car home. Going back to Pout is going to be an ordeal. Ive been gone for a month and so my return will draw a lot of attention. Of course all I want to do is sneak in the back door, clean my house (which is guaranteed to be filthy after 4 weeks of neglect) and relax. This is impossible. I also will have to go around and greet all the neighbors or risk offending people and then contact all of my work partners to set my classes back on schedule and hopefully schedule my girls group for the year.

In short, I will be busy.

While I was in England, a new group of volunteers arrived in Senegal for training. They will replace the volunteers that are gradually leaving the country after having arrived two years ago. Peace Corps is one big cycle really. I am really looking forward to meeting them. Several of them are actually living in Pout so I may get to meet them as soon as tomorrow. Who knows?

I don't know when I will have internet access again, probably the weekend, but I will give more information on what its like to be back after a month long vacation.