America, sweet America!

So i made it through the bike ride in one piece! Hooray for that! This past week has been looong and tiring and i am glad that it is over but i will say that i had a great time. Ill just start from the beginning and fill you in on the bike ride. We started out saturday morning in a Sept Place heading to Tambacounda. We were meeting other volunteers there and starting the ride sunday morning. The car ride down was not bad and we met up with the others and spent the afternoon being lazy and loading up on carbs. Sunday morning started off ok but we left hours later than we originally planned because of minor bike problems. There were 7 of us total. We headed out and got caught in rain showers almost immediately... but actually the rain was a blessing because it cooled things off quite a bit. Within the first 30 Km one girl decided she conveniently didnt want to do the ride anymore and caught a car back to Kaolack. This was really annoying but in the end it was for the best because she was dragging us down and complaining. If she was ready to give up that easily then she needed to go anyway...then there were 6. We did over 80 miles that first day. We stayed at another volunteers house for the night and tried to get some rest. The next day, approximately the same amount of biking. Day three- Riding through the game park. Daniel and i were super tired after the first two days and decided we didnt want to ride through the park 1. because we were tired 2. it is illegal and you have to bride the guard to let you through with a bike and i felt this was kind of dangerous seeing as lions live there and 3. It is a stretch of approximately 100 miles with no water. There are no villages through the park and no where to get clean water. A few other volunteers have tried to ride through unsuccessfully because of the heat and water issue. Daniel and I were soo lucky. We hitch hiked through the park and caught a ride with the nicest guy ever. We ended up on the other end of the park relaxing for the day and swimming. Throughout the day, others from the bike ride showed up because they ended up quitting in the middle of the park and catching a random car also. Two people actually made it through the park without quitting..props to them but im not ashamed of cutting out early. The next day, we decided we wanted to go to a nearby waterfall. We were told the ride was easy and we could get there in under two hours.... YEAH RIGHT! A few other volunteers tagged along and there were 9 of us total. We started out just fine and then things got rocky... i got deathly sick and was projectile vomiting off my bike. It was too late to turn backand i reallllly wanted to see the waterfalls...so i kept going. About the same time, another volunteer got a flat tire. And by the way, this ride was into the mountains so there were no cars or people to help out. We all stopped to help the girl with the flat but she seemed to know what she was doing and worked hard at repairing the tire. I decided to bike ahead of the group because i was so sick i was going much slower than anyone else and didnt want to fall behind. I biked for about an hour and no one caught up so i decided to sit along the trail and wait for the others. I didnt want to get too far ahead. Finally, after sitting for another 45 minutes, one girl caught up (Erin) and said the flat was still not fixed and the others were walking to a nearby village to see if they could find someone to help them. She and I decided to go ahead and keep biking because at this point it was about 6 30 PM and we were nowhere near our final destination. Around 7 PM, the worlds biggest storm blew in. We could see it coming. The sky blackened. Winds were howling and then a huge cloud of black stuff started heading our way. I had never seen something like this. Erin and I were pedalling at full force trying to get the heck out of there before it all hit. We ended up getting split up and i was caught alone in what i finally figured out was a huge sandstorm. I certainly was not able to bike through it so i jumped off and my bike was blown out of my hands and kind of just skidded on the path around me. I squatted down and covered my face. Sandstorms are outrageous but only last a short time. It was incredible. I have never seen winds like that in my life. After i got out of the sand and was able to see again, i ran to get my bike and jumped back on. At this point adrenaline kicked in and i was no longer feeling any pain.... i was completely terrified. I started pedalling and about 3 minutes later rain started pouring down in sheets. I couldnt see anything but i just kept pedalling. Finally i caught up to Erin. She had found some sort of shack and was screaming my name so i would come hang out in there until the storm passed. We stayed there for about 30 minutes. Dont forget about all of the others...they were still out in the storm as well. They managed to stay together and took a really cool video of the sandstorm action. I wish i would have been smart enough to bust out my camera but at that point i was only thinking of ways to get out of there. We waited in the shack and the others caught up with us and the storm subsided to just a sprinkle. We headed back out and still had about 10 miles to go and it was 8 pm. Only 4 of the 9 people had flashlights. It took us two and a half more hours to get to the campement where we were headed. We arrived around 1030 unannounced and starving. Luckily someone was still awake and let us in and gave us rooms. The man running the place went to wake up all of the women and they cooked us a big spaghetti dinner. The day turned out to be something we had never expected but we totally should have. Next time we will know to come moer prepared. While we were stuck in the storm, it was pretty scary but looking back, it was actually really cool and probably something i will never experience again.
The next day, we woke up and hit the trails to do some hiking to find these waterfalls. Senegal has had a problem with rainfall this year and one waterfall was dried up. We found another one and spent the day there swimming. It was gorgeous. I got some really great photos that i will send out later in the week. At the moment i dont have my computer and dont like uploading from pulic comps because of viruses. I will upload sometime this week so be on the look out. I got some great photos of people that acutally live in the mountains. They were doing laundry in a spring. We spent the next few days hiking around and biking to some nearby sights. We swam in The Gambia river, saw monkeys everywere, saw hippos, hiked, camped, played in the waterfalls, and even had a big party for the 4th that included roasting a pig and firworks! Many Senegalese people were watching our party and fireworks peeking through a broken fence. We all thought about what it would be like to be on the other side of that fence and were all thankful that we have what we do. I always think watching fireworks on the 4th is a good time for reflection but this year it was extra special because we just had to look anywhere around to be able to fully appreciate the life that we have been given. A life that most others in the world will never know.

Lets just say today i am more than tired. We didnt sleep last night and caught a bus out of town at 4 am. It was a great week but i was worn out and ready to go. There were about 60 volunteers in Kedegou and the regional house accomodates about 10. I dont think i got moer than 5 hours of sleep any night during the week. Camping is great but after about two nights, i really just needed a Holiday Inn!
Its about 730 PM here and i am deliriously typing so im gonna cut it off here. I need some serious sleep. I hope everyone at home had a happy 4th!!! :):)