Since I last wrote, I first had a site visit from my new boss. Nicole is American and just replaced our last APCD (assistant peace corps director) who was here for 6 years. It is nice to have a change of pace! She came along with Bamba, my tech trainer and I wanted to introduce them to the counterpart I have chosen for my replacement. I was assigned a counterpart that didn't do his job for me, hurting me real early on since he didn't show me around. I think Fallou will be great for my replacement. When Fallou didn't show up right away for our meeting at the mayor's office, it was so interesting what happened. We were brought in to a small room in the mayor's office to meet with someone who I recognized but couldn't name. So akward since he knew me, but anyways, it turns out his daughter won the scholarship last year that I did in the middle schools. We decided after all the pleasentries to leave and continue with our other meetings, since why did I really need to introduce this guy to my bosses?! Turns out he has a room he would like to show us for the next volunteer. And it all comes together! I had been looking for a few weeks and didn't have any really good leads. But the second we saw his place, we were sold. I am officially jealous of my replacement: second floor room with private balcony, bathroom, ceiling fan and screens on the windows! And a great counterpart! How can they not succeed?!
Following a successful site visit, I took the free ride to Dakar. We stopped in Thies for lunch and 
hung out at the training center for a while. All the Mauritanian volunteers are in Senegal now, and it sounds to be for longer than planned. For security reasons they are closing down the program, temporarily at least. They were given the choice to go home but about 40 want to be reassigned in Senegal. We will see! Anyways, because they were interested in doing a bit of tourism in the region, we took the long way around (in the pc car) to a monestary that sells the most amazing goat cheese and to Lac Rose. Supposidly, the lake is pink because of the salt level. We took a picture but weren't that impressed, and just really wanted to get out of there because of the horrible harrassment to buy from the tourist stalkers!
hung out at the training center for a while. All the Mauritanian volunteers are in Senegal now, and it sounds to be for longer than planned. For security reasons they are closing down the program, temporarily at least. They were given the choice to go home but about 40 want to be reassigned in Senegal. We will see! Anyways, because they were interested in doing a bit of tourism in the region, we took the long way around (in the pc car) to a monestary that sells the most amazing goat cheese and to Lac Rose. Supposidly, the lake is pink because of the salt level. We took a picture but weren't that impressed, and just really wanted to get out of there because of the horrible harrassment to buy from the tourist stalkers!After I arrived in Dakar, I enjoyed an empty regional house and relaxation. Didn't do much besides the pool and movies but I think it was exactly what I needed. A few days later, I went to Joal for the Health/Enviro Education Summit. Mandi and I were asked to lead sessions on how to effectively do SED work with groups. It was really fun to hang out with the group that got here 6 months and 1yr and 6 months after we did, since up until now, I didn't know anyone outside the Dakar region.
The first week of Dakar I was teaching at a summer English Camp funded by the US Embassy. 
Since there were so many volunteers in Dakar the regional house was full, so Mandi, Erin and I stayed at our country director's house. I slept so well under blankets in air conditioning! The camp was a lot of fun. It was in a poor suburb of Dakar. We had 150 high school students and only 11 volunteers. More or less, mass chaos daily! Discussions went well in small groups and we made them do head, shoulders, knees and toes every time we heard Wolof. I helped organize Olympic Day and the kids had a bast with tug-of-war especially.
Since there were so many volunteers in Dakar the regional house was full, so Mandi, Erin and I stayed at our country director's house. I slept so well under blankets in air conditioning! The camp was a lot of fun. It was in a poor suburb of Dakar. We had 150 high school students and only 11 volunteers. More or less, mass chaos daily! Discussions went well in small groups and we made them do head, shoulders, knees and toes every time we heard Wolof. I helped organize Olympic Day and the kids had a bast with tug-of-war especially. Before leaving Dakar, I went to see my wood-working artisan, Mamadou. He is illiterate but wants a web site to find him more more clients. I will be working with Ellen, my closest neighbor to see what we can do for him. I hope to get him brochures at least and set up an easy website but obviously am running out of time in my service so I hope Ellen will continue working with him. He does great work, but deals with too much competition since every woodcarver makes the same stuff!
After we were done in Dakar, Erin and I went up to her site which borders Mauritania. It was a long car ride but so worth it! I wish I would have gone up sooner. We had a blast together and painted a mural at a school, and started a second one but got rained out before we could finish. Her site is so remote and tree-less but the people are great! This mural says "We respect our community, we discuss AIDS".And so now I am back at site and have plenty to do this week. Reports to write to PC being the most time consuming - most are due a month prior to my COS - which is next week! I have trees to outplant and people interested in starting up new tree nurseries. I also want to go around and see people once more before I have to say goodbye to them, so that is going to involve cooking some ceebu jen and drinking some attaya, but I am up for it! I should be around until next weekend when I will go back to Dakar to say some more dreaded goodbyes to friends leaving.
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