Senegal draws to a close

One more time, I'm back in Dakar and finally in front of a computer again. I thinkwhen I was planning this trip, I forgot how hard it actually is to deal with the internet in West Africa. Frustratingly slow internet, aged computers, keyboards and mice that don't work and then add on everything is in french... I feel like I'm using one of those first Apple IIEs from the 80s. It literally took me 15 minutes to get to this point in my writing, which is the only reason I am in front of a computer screen.

Anyway, as I said, the trip is winding down and we are coming full circle back in the capital. About 4 weeks ago, we touched down and dropped our bags in the Hotel Oceanic. Most of the kids have since told Laura and I they were nervous and thought the place was a dump. Today when we checked in, they couldn't wait to be in the A/C and have a real shower. On their first full day in Senegal, we took them down to the market where they were bombarded by vendors trying to sell them things they didn't want. Our students ended up with things in their hands and were pulled into shops without understanding what was going on. Today, walking around Dakar was a different story... We were a group of 16 westerners walking through the busy streets of Dakar. We are prime targets for people selling statues and mud cloth, but our students weren't harrassed and no vendors spent extra time trying to get them to buy anything. It was pretty neat to see. Whether or not these kids had fun (which I know they did), they have changed over the course of this month. It's interesting to have an experience like this, which is not unlike my experience in Mali, but watch someone else over that period of time. I'm fasinated to see them communicate in their own broken french (not unlike me!) but to communicate non-the-less. They aren't whining as much anymore... they know the deal and they will figure things out.

This is definitely me getting pre-nostalgia, so it is not a full picture of this trip, but it is something real and important.

As for me, I am starting to try and digest and make sense of my time here. I can say quickly and easily, I'm tired. I have been "on" for the last 4 weeks straight. Sometimes that meant I didn't get to sleep a full night for 4 days and had to be in the hospital, and most of the time that meant I was asked questions and had to make decisions at a moments notice. It was a blast, but being a parent for 14 kids is a handful.

Later folks,
TW