Wow I haven't updated in almost two months...I'm sorry everyone for the lack of updates. I will try and describe life as concretely and concisely as I can.
The week of hell ended, in a not hellish way. The nets got out and all five villages were finished with in two days of the last distribution.
Since then I have been trying to figure out what to do with my life after I get back because, the cost analysis for my PACA will be right after I get back from America and so basically I get off the plane and start grant writing. Its exciting to know that I am going to be baller busy my last year but also I am afraid I am not going to get all of it finished.
The community garden is something that the community can benefit from and as been on the to-do list for a few years now.
Ooh but cool story that follows the same line of thought.
I have also been hounding Eaux Foret (natural resources dept) for trees because in the month of August they give out trees for free. Unfortunately they make this as difficult as possible for citizens and volunteers by a) not showing up to work b) claiming to be to busy to STAMP a demand c) deciding to hoard trees until an NGO comes along as pays for them at the hefty price of 500CFA per tree (thats one dollar a tree!) This is even worse because they have these great live fencing species that we want to use in village and they won't give them to us. However because I am a woman and in the city, officials love to talk to foreign women and give them what they want I managed to get some trees for my village. I seriously feel very bad for male volunteers who do amazing work and then get nothing but harassment from officials. The city is where my gender works to my advantage. Not so in village (if one more person asks me to go to the rice field I will chase someone with a machete.) Anyways I talked/flirted my way into some trees and then came to a conundrum. My site is 40K out from Kolda and I can't really charet (horse drawn cart) or alhum them out. I needed a car. Eaux Foret obviously can't spare a nice car, the inspectors office can't until the director comes back and the secretary of the NGO that said they would loan me a car doesn't like to show up to work so I can find the car. This left me calling various friends and biking all over Kolda basically truck stalking.
Things were looking bleak when I started noticing the World Vision truck was appearing on every corner (I heard they were all on vacation for the month of August). After the fourth or fifth time I decided, well heck if they are just trying the car around for kicks and giggles then they can surely spare a the car to take trees out to a village. So I followed the car back to its office (can I put I gained exceptional stalking skills while in the Peace Corps?) and I got out and asked them and they were like "sure, and you don't have to pay for gas'
ALHUMDILAH!
Then it got better. I went back in the afternoon to get the car and was prepared to sit and wait when this nice man introduced himself to me. He said his name and nearly fell down. He was the project manager for all of Kolda, the man I have been told I need to speak to about getting the school in my village fixed.
It was one of those days where everything falls into place because then after listening to me talk he was like "well lets pack up I will take you right now."
We even grabbed the sponsorship coordinator and went to Eaux Foret. I was a little mortified that I needed them to help load up all 600 trees but they took in all in stride when a more patron person would have sat in the car.
Got out to site, kids unloaded the car while then WV people talked with the villagers and then I decided it was now or never.
"Ano faala larde lekkol amen? Mi haalni maa lekkol o ko yakkiima e si a hebori enen mbaawi yahde toon jooni e yiide dum." You want to see our school. I told you it was destroyed and if you have time we can go there now and see it.
Got him out there saw where the roof was caved in, the cement was broken, doors wouldn't lock, and water damage. It was quick but he has SEEN it which means its not just me talking when I go and talk to him again about fixing the school.
Anyways It was an amazing day. I felt like there was hope in my service accomplishing some of the goals I set for myself.
Also I have been outplanting trees like nuts. And a strange thing shas happened to me. People have started giving me chickens. Now chickens are expensive and I try to be clear that all my services are free but as of now I am the proud (?) owner of three chickens named Pizza, Nuggets, and Sushi.
Oh I am out planting because the rains have come. We were and still are concerned there won't be enough rain for a bountiful harvest but they have become more consistent. As long as the season goes longer I think we will be in luck.
But dude when it storms, it friggin storms.
My head lamp broke and so now it doesn't stay on the head band and it only turns on occasionally. When I woke up last week and the wind was so loud I was sure a tornado was about to land on me my flashlight was the one thing I wanted to work. It didn't for like five minutes.
When the wind blows it sounds like a train that is about to run you over. The first few storms we had I would wake up and think I was dreaming of home and wonder why the train was so loud and then realize crap gotta close the doors.
But last week was the worst. I barely got the doors shut in time and then it just howled. I thought my doors were going to blow off (if not at least my roof-thatch hut not so reassuring when the hand of God closes upon you) and papers and clothes fell all around my room.
At one point I tried calling home just to have someone to talk to (site mate is gone in america) but reseau obviously doesn't work in a storm. Thought about crawling under the bed, just in case, but I didn't want to tempt the scorpions underneath it all.
Finally I passed in to restless sleep but it was without a doubt one of those moments where you just think, 'Do i really need to experience this? The weather channel was fine and I got to eat popcorn when the house blew away."

Damage was minimal but I believe the rains only increased the stress on my duche (the toilet) which I have put my foot through not once, not twice but now three times. The day it caves in while I am squatting (and it is coming) I am ETing. I think that is a legitimate excuse-landing in a pit of your own poop can be pretty devestating.

Lastly and most important to announce is that my life is abruptly changing in 13 days. You want to know why?
America. The magic word that is music to every volunteer's ear. I love Senegal (80% of the time) and I am deeply involved in my service and greatly indebted to this experience and that changes it has made to me, but that doesn't mean I don't miss home.
Sometimes it isn't even the amenities that get to me. Sure ice cream, coffee, and laundry machine are great but then a cool, wet wind blows and all I can think of is fall in Michigan. Or how the way the grasses sound in the morning and the birds chirping and buzzing everywhere is so similar to a summer morning at home. Especially with the rainy season I am reminded of fall and spring more and more in scents and textures.
And now that I am going home and also reaching the year mark for my service I am also considering my future after Peace Corps which is not that far away. This experience has changed me, for the most part, for better but I am also afraid that it has further developed a condition I just realize I have. Not physically but mentally.
I am afraid this will only encourage the rootless feelings I have, to go to places I have only read about or seen postcards on, and that the feeling will never abate. I recognize that this actually really normal but some of the things I want (or think I want) require a less mobile way of life. I have loads of time to think about but then I also have none-the decisions I make today, tomorrow, in a year effect how I live my life and I shouldn't waste a single minute not doing something I love and want to do. The problem comes with that conflicts with other desires as well. Oh well. Sorry
Love to all! I will see you all in America soon!