Its raining, Its pouring, The old man is snoring....

Monday night at about midnight the rains finally came! It was great.... The past week has been extremely hot and humid. During the next month, it will rain one or two times each day for an hour or maybe two. During August, the heavy rains will come and it will rain A LOT. A few other volunteers told me that last year it rained for 5 straight days without stopping. The rains in Africa are not comparable to rains in America. We get torrential downpours. It can be a super sunny day and within 5 minutes a giant storms blows over. I have already been caught out in the rain once and it was actually kind of scary. I am looking forward to a good rainy season though. I have plenty of work in the fields with the farmers and plenty of good books in my room. One huge down side to the rainy season is KAOLACK! Kaolack is the nearest small city from my village. Our regional house is there. Kaolack is the nastiest place in the entire world in my opinion. There is no form of waste management here whatsoever. One side of town is just a huge field of trash and sewage...throw a few feet of rain on top of that and im sure you can imagine what the result is. Lets just say its not pretty and does not smell good either. The gutters are always overflowing and the stagnant water is just a gian breeding ground for mosquitos (malaria!) I will do my best to stay out of Kaolack as much as possible for the next few months.

Another completely unrelated subject: Today i witnessed a horrible car accident. An ambulance with a person in the back actually flipped over and landed upside down. Let me just say this was the most disturbing thing i have seen in a long time, if not my whole life. Immediately people started flooding out of nearby cars and going to see what happened. As we pulled over, people started getting out. I didnt want to be just another bystanding getting in the way but i decided to get out and see if i could help. Police are basically non-existent in situations like these. Also i will say that i have only seen a handful of Ambulance vehicles in this country as well. Peace Corps basically tells us to stay out of situations like these. But i could hardly sit back and do nothing. Many other volunteers have found themselves in the same situation. One girl even delievered a baby on the side of the road last year! Im definately not a doctor but i have been trained in CPR and first aid several times and I thought i possibly could help more so than some others that were standing nearby. I walked up to see two men slaying on the ground. I basically just wanted to see if there were any open wounds and to see if they were breathing. They were both breathing and no rushing blood... a few broken bones were obvious though. I then noticed two men trying to pull one man off the ground and make him stand up. I finally figured out that this was the patient in the back of the Ambulance to begin with. I started telling them to stop and to leave him on the ground...or atleast just move him into another car and get him to the hospital. The man was so out of it...one second he was laughing and the next he was crying and then laughing again. I was so mad at what was going on and no one was listening to me. A man came over with a medical bag so i assumed he knew what he was doing and i got back into the vehicle was riding in. (By the way, i was riding in a very small bus..seats about 25). Anyway, the next thing i know, they throw the man in the back of our bus on the floor and people start piling in on top of him and around him. They were gettig back to their seats so we could go. I flipped out and caused a scene. At this point i was yelling in English and i dont know if anyone understood what i was saying but i know they knew i was MAD! I was trying to tell them to put the man in a nearby car and get him to the hospital ASAP... he didnt have time for all of the 2u46278623756 passengers trying to load back in the car. People continued to get in and then i started getting scared. At this point i was worried about my own life. I knew that if everyone piled in, then the driver would take off and try to get to Kaolack asap. I also knew that we would probably end up like the ambulance and be flipped over within 5 minutes. The buses are not made to have stuff piled on top but they always put baggage up there. The bus somehow always ends up being much taller than wide... i know this makes for a dangerous drive...and not to mention the roads here are dirt and there are pot holes everywhere. I grabbed my bags and started climbing over people to get out. If someone was going to die today, it certainly wasnt going to be me! At this point i was half in tears because i was terrified and also for the poor dying man on the floor of the bus. He was hysterical screaming and praying and saying he didnt want to die. As i got out, i convinced a man nearby to tell them to get that man off the bus floor and into a car. He realized what i was saying and grapped a nearby sept place (car for 7...station wagon). They threw the man in and off they went. We pulled out shortly behind them and i got a glimpse of him a few miles later. Part of me knows he didnt live to see the rest of the day. I hope i am wrong. Who even knows what happened to the other man that was on the ground hurt too.... Sometimes common sense just isnt that common here.
On a lighter note, tomorrow i am headed to Kaffrine. I will stay there for one night with some friends and Saturday morning the big trip begins. I am going on a cross country bike ride with several other volunteers. I am super excited about it and have been preparing for several weeks. I have been biking about 30 miles every morning to try and get in shape for the trip. We will be biking to Kedegou and then throughout the Southeastern part of the country. There are moutnains and waterfalls..and we will be going around a game reservation so hopefully we will see some cool animals along the way. This is the first real time that i have been able to travel for fun since coming here. I have done some travelling but it has all been for work reasons. I am glad to get out of the village for a few weeks and just forget about everything. All the volunteers head down to that side of the country for the 4th of July. We are having a big cookout that day. All you can eat and drink all day for 6 bucks! Cant beat that! As most of you know, i am prone to accidents and illnesses here so keep your fingers crossed for me that i make it back in one piece! I packed my camera so i will be sure to take some good photos. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!