Back early

Hello all. I am back early from Cape Verde. It was beautiful there, but got to be quite expensive on a poor west-african-peace-corps budget. I got to see a lot and it was quite a contrast from Senegal.

On vacation, I made a big decision that I've been thinking about for a while. I've decided to cut my two years short and return home. So this week I will be in Dakar doing paperwork and getting ready to leave. I have already moved out of my site and said my good-byes. "What happened?" you ask... Well, nothing happened, per se. There are many reasons, but they all boil down to I just wasn't happy. I did everything to change the circumstances, but there are too many things out of my control that I just cannot live with here any more. One can sacrifice to do good and noble things in the world, but when the people (for the most part, not all) are ungrateful, disrespectful, and don't want to help themselves, the costs suddenly outweigh the benefits. So the only option was to terminate my service with the Peace Corps.

Here are the pictures both from my time down in Kedougou and also the vacation to Cape Verde.

Also, an update on my tree nursery (which I have given the responsibility to my "brother" Pape Sangone to finish and plant around town). There 190 sacks of local varities(moringa olifera [which the locals call nev-a-die or sap sap], leucaena, baobab, acacia, ziziphus mauratanie, and neem) along with a few well knows like mango and cashew. Turns out it is possible to grow things in the Sahel region of africa.

Kedougou (south-eastern Senegal)

Kedougou Trip

Cape Verde (Island-nation directly west of senegal in the atlantic)

Cape Verde

I'm back, ready to go again

I'm back from Kedougou. The south part of this country is actually nice. There are trees and mountains and green. The people are actually tolerable (a different ethnic group). I'll have plenty of pictures up soon.

I went for a week-ish. We first biked/climbed a mountain and stayed there in a village on the top. Then came back down and biked to another small town (Segou). From there we hiked back to see a waterfall. Then we hiked up another mountain. On this small, impromptu trip I saw from afar Mali and Guinea. The only cool wildlife I saw were a few monkeys. Nonetheless, still beautiful and I'm glad I went.

We also celebrated the 4th in true style. Most of the volunteers came down to Kedougou for a party, which I why I wanted to go a week early and see everything. We had some fireworks and cooked 2 pigs. I wish these people ate pork here, I've missed it!

Getting ready to leave on actual vacation, out of Senegal. Going to Cape Verde. That should be amazing.

As so, please do not send anymore care packages right now. If they arrive when I'm away, it's quite possible I won't get them, at least get them complete. The postal system here sure isn't American, they take what they want.

i now have my very own laptop

I now have my laptop here. So hopefully, I'll be able to stay more in touch, upload pictures more often, and blog more often as well.
It's already happening! ha.

And here are some pictures.
First is Toubab Dialow. A nice resort town down on the Petite Cote.

Toubab Dialow

Second is Foundioune. A quiet town down on the petite cote as well.

Foundioune

Third is more pictures of my *lovely* town, Guinguineo.

Guinguineo part deux

And last, some pictures of my tree nursery. Life can exist in the sand.

trees!

What's New? Same ole same ole...

What has been going on here? Not exactly a whole lot. It's been getting hotter by the day and night. Hottest so far about 115 during the day. I tried to go to sleep at 105 one night. That was an impossible feat. On windy days there is another reason I cannot walk around, other than the incredible heat and direct, searing sun: the sand storms. So all in all it's pretty miserable to be here.
There's been no new work related developments. Though they celebrated bob marley's death, so I went to the english club's meeting at the high school. Gag me, right? Quite ridiculous.
I've also planted about 200 tree sacks to do a tree nursery. If you looked through my pictures of my town (Guinguineo) you'll notice a lack of green. I'm hoping to put a splash of color into this desert sand. That's really time intensive, so what I'll probably be doing most of my time. That is most of the time when it's cool and I want to do more than sit in my room. Ha.
This next month looks better though. I'm going to Dakar soon, relax, and to buy tickets to go to Cape Verde. Yep, vacation time the end of July. Jessica and I are going to three of the islands off the coast of Senegal. Have you ever heard of Cape Verde? Probably not. Look them up, they are quite beautiful. Flying into Santiago, then hiking around the amazing mountains of St. Antao, and up the volcano of Fogo. Hopefully I'll be able to put us some amazing photos.
As far as Senegal, I'm hoping to travel down to the National Park in the Southeast, as well as to St. Louis and over to Podor.
After that, who knows what I'll do. It'll be about a year in.

Pictures

Here are some pictures!
Not doing a lot here. It's entering the hot season. There was a sand storm the other day.
I took a trip down south close to The Gambia.

Karang and Massarinko

Some of my wonderful town of Guinguineo.

Guinguineo

Here are some shots of some Baobab trees.

Baobabs!

W.A.I.S.T., Dakar, IST...

So I should probably actually update. I've heard requests.
First. Like I put in the little post right before, my e-mail account got hacked. The results of using internet cafes in a third-world country. I hope and pray everything works out ok. I'm just hoping that no sensitive material was on any e-mails. But the response time from friends asking if I was ok was pretty sweet. About the time I happened to be logging online, my dad called and confirmed why I couldn't log-in using my password. Until I figure something out, send e-mail to kennysenegal at gmail dot com.

2010 Waist and Dakar

So back a month or so ago was W.A.I.S.T. The west african invitational softball tournament. It is held in Dakar (the capital of Senegal, and largest city in west africa) for the various ex-patriots and PCVs in all of west africa. Pretty much we come in from our tiny poor villages and witness amazing big city life on the ocean while playing softball and eating at great restaurants. great time. Also had the All-Volunteer conference from all the PCVs in west africa to talk business for a while.
You may notice in the pictures a very beautiful girl with me in a few pictures. I'm such a lucky guy, huh? =)
Along with the softball, Jessica and I went to a small sampling of some of the best restaurants in Dakar. Yum! We went to Isle N'Gor one day, and that was just amazing! But the few days in dakar went fast, and it was time to go back to Thies for training. Boo! It was about 2 1/2 weeks of so... much... fun.
Back in guinguineo for now. It's hotter, and drier, and worse than ever. ah, home sweet home? We had st. patty's day in kaolack. pretty nice. We found some guiness and it made for a good day. Also, i'm now officially our regional librarian and co-treasurer. something to fill my time! :)
I'm in Dakar now, actually. Having the doctor look at my foot. I must have stepped on something a while back, and it hasn't come out. So i'm going to get it removed. Not a big deal, but affords some "vaca" time back in Dakar for a few days.
Hopefully I can get a new e-mail address. No more using internet cafes here.

e-mail hack

Hello, everyone!

I would first like to say, I'm ok! My e-mail was hacked into and an e-mail was sent out to everyone in my address book. I'm not in London (though I might rather be) and I haven't been mugged. Please let anyone else know that I'm ok and to delete the e-mail.

Love
Kenny