Senegal Je t'aime

As I sit on the eve (almost) of my one year anniversary with Senegal drinking a Gin and Bissap (aka g-sap) and listening to year-old American music since I have no idea what is popular there now, its hard to believe how different my life has become. One year ago today, I was sitting in a mess of clothes, giant bottles of hair supplies/make up and God knows whatever else I brought into country arguing with my mom about the best way to pack and telling my dad that there was no way in hell I was leaving out the Q-tips (I was right about that one by the way). The closest to roughing it I had ever come was sleeping in a hammock in Red River Gorge while eating Cheetos and drinking bourbon. My motto, to use my mom's words, was "camping is no room service." As the deadline drew closer, I of course, ate all my favorite foods and had my annual identity crisis about the meaning of life and why it is that I do what I do.

But, on the morning of September 8th, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I jumped on a plane to Philidelphia for staging. Showing up to my hotel room with my hair styled cute, heels on and make up applied perfectly, I succeeded in scaring the hell out of my now, best friend here Natalie. Haha! If it were not for this girl, I would never have survived training. Even as late as November, when I installed in Pakane, I trapped a huge cricket under tupperwear and made a neighbor come to get it out of my hut. I don't do bugs.

Now however, my life seems to play a different tune. With the rainy season upon us, creepy crawlies come out of the woodworks to terrorize me, the smell of mildew and black mold on my clothes, bed and probably even myself is unbelievably pungent, the roof on my hut leaks so badly that I might stay dryer standing in the torrential downpour and on more than one occasion I've woken up to a scorpion climbing up my mosquito net. On any given day, my whole body breaks out with heat rash or some sort or fungal infection, I discover some sort of parasite/worm living in my body or a naked man chases me through the Kaolack market (that happened today). For some reason, this was left out of the booklet they gave before we accepted our positions. With that said, this is my life, my love, my Africa. And God help me, I wouldn't change it for the world. At no other point in my life would I voluntarily give up food and water (in addition to the previous paragraph) for an entire month during 125 degree weather and still have a smile on my face.

All of this said, I can only look back on the past year with happiness. So many things have changed. For example, I drink most of my beverages out of plastic bags (my gin included), I haven't shown my knees in public since last year (me, the queen of mini skirts), things like hard boiled eggs and milk straight from the cow are, in my opinion, more valuable than gold and don't find it odd at all to see two grown men, wearing thug-life tshirts and baggy jeans, holding hands or sitting on each others laps. But, on the other hand, some things will always stay the same. I make Starbucks espresso every morning before leaving my hut and yesterday, I trapped a big creepy spider under a pot and had my host brother take care of it. Scorpions I can do, spiders I cannot.

This past year, I feel like i've found some of the beauty in Senegal, which is not the creepy crawlies, and plan to keep doing the same for my next and final year. It has all gone by so quickly that I can only hope to slow it down just a little. See you all in December for my first time back in the states in over a year. I AM TERRIFIED!