the whole village came to watch the snake get killed. a man came with a shotgun came and blew several large holes in my bathroom's tin roof as well as blowing off the head of the snake. victory.

snake in my bathroom

another taxi i took the other day...and it broke down...so i hang out in the grass with some other passengers while i wait for it to get fixed

the minibus i took back from kankan on my last regional capital visit...of course, it broke down and we were stuck in the middle of nowhere for 5 hours in a flash storm

chimp at my friend alex's village, and a big rat in my bathroom

sunset and road in dakar

at the western most point in africa...there was this HUGE pelican there, scary!

game time

YAY!!! finally we made it to dakar. that is me with my friends julie and jess in our "uniforms" and on the right we are all hanging out in the american club in dakar, which was opened to all pc volunteers for the tournament

the picture in front of the sign is right before a river we had to cross by ferry at 11pm. see how the sign depicts a car falling off a cliff into the water? the one in front of the car is us after we slept for three hours at a police checkpoint before the border. when we crossed the border we had to wait for another 5 hours looking for a senegalese driver who would take us to dakar. we had some problems with the driver we found. he tried to run a woman over, then he got got in a fist fight with some police at a road block. then, he ran us off the road into a ditch and almost flipped the car over. finally we made it to dakar at 330 am the third day.

we were soooo bored in this town where we broke down that all we could do was eat oranges for 6 hours and watch the cows chase the goats

cows in the road...and zach trying to hold up the car during the first breakdown...notice the jack is balancing on a rock...typical guinea

the kissidougou airport...kim and jess playing cards waiting for our puddle jumper
and the next picture was taken in the car going from conakry to dakar- we cant go through guinea bissau so the trip to 43 hours...well the two times breaking down didnt help...

back in conakry

im sort of overwhelmed with all the things that have happened since i last wrote. first of all i had the time of my life in senegal participating in an event called WAIST- west african invitational softball tournament. it is open to all expats living in west africa, but about 80% of the participants are pc volunteers. the trip up there took FOREVER and was a NIGHTMARE. it took 45 hours, on sone of the worst roads i have ever been on. we broke down twice and only stopped for three hours in the middle of the night at a roadblock to sleep. it was impossible to sleep on the road with all the bumps- i had bruises for weeks from being flung around the car- too bad the car was so ghetto that there were no seatbelts. under the pictures im about to put up i will write a running commentary which will explain the trip. luckily, when we arrived in dakar it was all worth it. we won all four of our regular games, and our only loss was in thee playoffs against the team which eventually went on to win the tournament. yayay!!!

it is amazing how different dakar is from conakry, and how distinct it is from freetown as well. freetown was more developed than conakry, but had a laid back beach-y feel to it. dakar was much more cosmopolitan and developed. there were coffee shops and nice restaurants and lots of paved roads etc. other than that, i will have to tell the stories when i get back- and boy do i have stories!!!

since ive been back, ive been mostly hanging out at my site in my village, working on a major tree nursury project where many of the trees died, when no one watered when i was away even though my reforestation group was paying the family whose compound borders the nursury. i have also been clearing land for a moringa garden, which failed last year because it was trampled and eated by cows sheep and goats. this year i had a woven grass fence put up, so hopefully ill soon be able to give moringa leaf powder (exceptionally nutritious and high in protein and calcium) to pregnant mothers and malnurished children. other than that, i teach english regularly to adults, and build mud stoves for any interested party, and im working on extending my honey production with a man who is already involved in traditional bee hives. while im in conakry i will continue to write the proposal for a brick project i think ive mentioned in earlier posts.

the other day i had a scary snake incident. it was in my bathroom between my wall and the tin roof, but i didnt see it until i was about a foot away and it was spitting and hissing at me. it was about 6 ft long and black. the neighbors shot it with a shotgun, blasting several holes in the roof.

other than that, im just chugging along. i just recieved your manuscript Lisa, and look forward to reading it when i get back to my hut. dad, i adore you and thanks soooo much for remembering me and continuing to send me goldfish and chicken pouches!!! I LOVE YOU!!! ohhh, and to all my relatives who wrote to me in the email from cali, thank you soooo much!!! ok, enough talk, lets download some pix!