Pictures! This time with fast internet :-)

Me after digging my well

Aforementioned well

My garden space

Awesome terraces

Onions!

My host nephew?

My Malaria test.  It was negative!

There have been a few new developments since my last post. Primarily that I have to change garden plots because my village failed to mention that my plot has salty soil so nothing will grow.  I tasted the salt its there.  I really wish they would have told me this before assigning me that plot.  Such is life.  Two weeks of hard work for some pretty pictures I suppose. 

Weekend Update

Hello all.  Not the most interesting post I'm afraid, but I can't pass up the chance to take advantage of free internet to inform friends and family of all the thrilling details of my life!  I know I know you've been holding your breath for the next post so here it is :-P 

In my last post I boasted about how I really hit the ground running in 2011... now what is the next logical thing that can come from that sort of hubris? ROADBLOCKS!  Yes things have slowed down considerably.  My nursery bed was eaten by termites, my carrots didn't sprout, my mint cuttings died, and double digging all those terraces is slow and HARD.  These things are minor hiccups though compared to my current roadblock. I've been at the Kaolack regional house for 4 days trying to get over what I have now come to believe is both a cold and an intestinal bug.  PCV life is so so glamorous.  There are times when you want to get out of village for a few days, but this is far from the restful vacation I was looking for.  I'm being good though and am actually allowing myself to stay here instead of forcing myself back to village and work.  Village guilt is a powerful powerful thing, especially when your host mother is watering your garden while your gone.  Those who know me well know that I'm not good at taking time for myself.  I'm much better at working.  Perhaps it's my Catholic roots creeping in to give me this absurd guilt but it's hard to shake.  In reality my sudden jump into massive amounts of work is probably why I’m sick right now.  Work out in the village is a little hard on the body when you’re eating primarily carbohydrates.  It’s going to be fun going to Dakar in February and hopping on a scale for the first time in country… I’m pretty sure I’ve lost a considerable amount of weight.  Anyways I’m rambling.  Also its not my intention to guilt family into more care packages, not that I don’t want them, the juries just still out on whether the 6 in the mail will ever get here.  I would keep writing but the only things I have to talk about aren’t really easy to stomach, unless you’re a PCV that is.  Poop talk is dinner conversation here.  Also I have to get back to watching 30 Rock and then Godfather II :-) Things aren’t so bad I guess.  Here’s some pictures of my exploits from New Years through now.  Enjoy!

The Last Sunset of 2010

And apparently that's all the internet will let me upload at the moment.  Such is life in Africa.  

Cheers,
Garrison

Accomplishmets for 2011

1. I am still a PCV.  Anyone who is in the Peace Corps will know that this is indeed an accomplishment.
2. I ate my final Cliff Bar.  I’m still amazed that it lasted until 2011.
3. I finished making my diversion swail in my garden. (Basically a ditch that follows the contour of the land to help prevent erosion during the rainy season and direct water to my hypothetical, but soon to be real, banana tree. 
4. I made a pepiniere of bell peppers, three kinds of tomatoes, and cabbage.
5. I planted lettuce and carrots in my double dug bed.
6. I dug a well all by myself :-) (ok ok it’s not that impressive since the water table is only about 6 feet down.  But when was the last time you dug a 7 foot deep hole about a meter in diameter in a day and a half?)

That is all.  Just wanted to let you know that I hit the ground running in 2011… and brag about digging a well.  I’m pretty pleased with myself.  As are the other villagers who seem flabbergasted that I can actually work. I feel like a real PCV now :-P.  Happy New Year!

Cheers,

Garrison