Back to reality

I am heading back to the village in just a few minutes. I am at the regional house now. I have been here for the last two days..putting off going back. I think i am finally ready though. I have been out of the village for three full weeks now. I had two weeks of training and then a full week in Dakar for WAIST. The softball tournament was fun but no really what i expected. There were games for four full days and then parties after the games at night The parties were fun but i definately felt like i was a freshman in college again going to the frats. I had a good time but the parties weren't really my thing. I did take advantage of Dakar though. I ate a lot of good food and spent a lot of time at the American Club hanging out by the pool. Also, each volunteer gets assigned an American family to stay with during Waist. If the family likes the volunteer, they can invite the volunteer back. I stayed with a woman that works in the American Embassy. She was great. Her house was awesome and she washed all my laundry in the washing machine!! I havent had that for about 6 months now. She invited me back too. Her house has a great location in Dakar. She lives downtown so i didnt need to take many cabs. I really had a great time there. It was refreshing.
My nearest neighbor, Laura, and I decided we want to team up and start doing projects together. We really have a lot of great ideas for work and I think we will work great together. We both feed off each other well and it will be motivating to have a teammate. We sat down yesterday and created a schdule for the next few weeks concerning projects and how/when we wanted to get things started. I have a busy schedule for the near future and feel really motivated to get back. In general, volunteers dont live as close together as Laura and i do. We are really lucky to be able to work together and i think a lot of things will benefit from it.
I have also mentioned before that i have had trouble dealing with the intensity of my village family. I have spent the last few weeks trying to find strategies to cope with this. I have come up with a plan to eat meals with a new amily every week in the village. It will be a great way for me to get to know the vilagers and vice versa. I dont think it will be a proble to get invitied because it is sort of an honor for them to have me there. I think I am going to ask my tutor friend if i can start the first week at his house. During hat week i wil tell others about what i want to do and wait for them to invite me. I also plan to help each family build a mud stove (instead of giving money) as a thank you gift for letting me eat there for a week. A mud stove is an easy little thing to build that is cheap and saves wood. It will help he women with cooking and help the environment. Hopefully this project will go over well... i think it will :)
I am teaching Sereer to another volunteer that did not have to opportunity to take Sereer class. We are going to trade language lessons. He is going to help me with my French. Our first class is next weekend. I also have another meeting in Kaolack so i will be back at the internet then. Hope everyone is doing ok in the states... miss you all!