Travelin' soul-o

I've recently decided to take a journey, a vacation for so many reasons other than relaxing. I'm going to Thailand, and the cheesyness of labeling it as a spiritual journey doesn't defer me from actually calling it that. I'm taking this trip solo because I feel like that's something I've always feared, traveling on my own, and also travelin' to a country that doesn't have english as it's official language. And no, Senegal doesn't count because I came here with a group of Americans. This is going to be a trip for incredibly selfish reasons, and it'll be amazing. I'll fly out May 14th, and return May 30th. Hopefully seein' the North and South of Thailand. I don't really have my "agenda" scheduled, but I know there are specific places and things I want to do including; trekking, elephant sanctuary, and beaches. Simple and sweet. If anyone has any tips, I'm all ears.

Other than this trip, I've been planning another trip with one of my best friends Steve, we're going to take a bike trip for about 3 weeks around the South of Senegal. We figured this is going to be a cheap trip, and we both love cheap. With these trips I believe I have about 15 vaca days left during my service, and I know barcelona and morrocco are cheap to travel to from Senegal so if nothing else comes up maybe that's where I'll head to. No one knows, and all of this is tentative, but life feels a little lighter knowing I'm going to have a change of scenery for a little while.

Site is going really well, my village is beautiful the people are awesome, and work is slow. I'm going to have an Ag seminar March 16th, I'm really excited for this I think it'll be a great seminar. Hopefully some projects will come from this as well, or more trainings. My brother and I have been buying the stuff for the health hut, so i will be painting the shit out of it March 17th :). Hopefully some pcvs will come and give me a hand, and hopefully my brother will help out! I figure if I purchase some candy and play my music helpers will follow. I had an awesome experience with monkeys right outside of my village, then followed by camels. Every time I see camels I tend to scream the pulaar word for it, which I don't actually know so I just kinda mumble/scream which people think is ridiculous, but they're so awesome to see. I swear they're dinosaurs, I have no evidence of this but I'm convinced!! Anyways I try to approach the camels and get scared for my life; they're really fierce animals.

I participated in an International Art Exchange with my primary school's CM1 class, the students drew pictures of what represents Senegal/Aram. Their pictures are really interesting, it was a fun activity! Really got the kids intune with their artistic talent. I'll try to scan the pictures and post them on my picasa album at some point.

I'll be returning to site tomorrow to prepare for everythin' and once again I don't know when I'll have internet next but I just want to add this one point....
Happy one year in Senegal Hadiel!
Welcome to Senegal new volunteers!