Mi booyi! (I've been a while....)

A week ago I had my Close of Service (COS) conference where myself and all the volunteers who arrived in Senegal with me came to Dakar and began our preparation to either return to the US or remain in Senegal.
It doesn't feel like it has been two years. There were hard times where I thought my service would never end (or mean anything) and I would look at my calender and count the months or days til my potential leave date. There was was a particular rough few weeks where I counted 286 days til my COS. However far more often and especially in these last 6 months my life has been one extraordinary event after another and my service more important to people as my projects were completed.
Sure I made the call home once where I seriously considered going home and I think almost every volunteer has had the moment. Mostly I think the calls have been "Guess what gastrointestinal parasite I have this week or this snake/chicken/cow/bat colony go into my room and man it just would not leave!"
Some fun experiences I've had:
-taking bucket baths during rain storms
-throwing frogs at my siblings (frogs terrify them) and they, in return, chasing me with dead spiders and scorpions.
-Operation Frog Annihilation with my brother Tidiane to remove the pests from my tree nursery
-while running in the forest scaring a pack of bush weasels, a giant pelican/penguin bird, various monkeys, and one giant golden furry bigfoot (which I am sure was just a very large golden baboon.)
-The first road kill I ever saw: monkey road kill
-Biking 40K into Kolda and not dying
-biking 60K to a new site and also not dying
-Being given chickens (5 total-all are dead now. 2 we ate, 1 died because I biked 20K with it hanging off my handlebars, 1 got sick and the other a snake got.)
-Playing with baby cows
-Camping at Segou Falls with Alan and Shelia where we got run out of our campsite in the middle of the night by hoards of ants, chased by barking chimpanzees, and then just when we thought we reached safety got caught in one of the firs flash thunderstorms of the rainy season.
-Biking past by a herd of over hundred monkeys on my way to a new site.
-Making my family chili for dinner (they were not fans.)
-Flagging down more free rides than I will ever get in America
-Out sassying the sassiest ladies in my village-"Girl you say my butt is big? Let me do a booty dance and show my butt is better than yours!" Never fails.
-Expressing my outrage in pulaar at the garage and putting some of the jerks in place.
-sharing my room with 13 bats who control my mosquito population.
-Having a rabies scare when a dog bit me
-comfortably talking about the frequency and type of bowel movements I have with other volunteers
-Pooping my pants. Yay brown badge.
-Getting Dengue fever
-Numerous stings and chemical burns by ear wigs and blister beetles.
-Being chased out of my room by a spider crab.
-eating organic fruits and veggies and free range meat all the time
- learning to recognize which animals are sick enough to point where we should eat them before they die.

But of course I have been in Senegal for more than just personal enjoyment. I've grown a lot and my perspective on the world has changed. When I leave my village the thing I will be most proud of is that I did everything I said I would do.
-Constructed a garden and well for increased food security
-Personally distributed over 500 nets in and around my village and then assisted in the 2010 Kolda Region net distribution which covered everyone person in the entire region.
-Increased the cashew orchards whose product ripens in March just in time to help the village buy food when all of our food that we harvested the previous fall has finished
-Planted more trees than I really know what to do with
-After a year and half of gentle prodding, submitted budgets, friendly greetings and finally one angry blow out got World Vision to agree to fix my school. The repairs haven't begun yet which means they could still back out on me but they have come with the school inspection (the Kolda equivalent of the school board) and entrepeunear to price everything out and guarentee the village an additional teacher so we won't have just one teacher for 48 students K-8.
-Met the 12 families of girls nominated for scholarships and explained to them the program and how their daughters are extremely gifted and should remain in school.
-Organized tree nursery trainings, gardening trainings, and one on one consults for farmers and specific tree projects.

And then there were times where I became more connected to my village.
-Saw one of my close friends give birth to her first daughter after she had seven sons. Beautiful baby Bana.
-Helped my village fight a forest fire that would have consumed our village.
-I helped my name sake pay for his medicine when he got malaria
-Carried other womens' babies on my back when they got tired and their children did not cry
-joined people under the meeting mango tree and was regarded as someone to talk TO not talk AT.
-Asking everyone man who came to village to find a wife how old he is and then all my village ladies (without me prompting them) tell him I think he is too old. They know me so well.
-Provided care for our local mason when he gouged his finger while working and it became extremely infected
-Cared for my little brother when his eyes became infected and filled with puss.
-Helped my mom get medicine when she got a bad case of parasites.
-Traveling to the bush villages by myself and meeting people who had never seen a white person before then they thought I was genie.
-chasing down other people's chickens/sheep/goats before the rain storms hit.
-Going on mango missions with my brothers and getting sick because we ate so many mangoes.

There so much I have enjoyed doing and while doing I have gained a lot of useful skills. I can write grants, price supplies, conduct interviews in foreign languages. I've collaborated with NGOs and local government bodies. I can do good work in the worst conditions.
I never thought I would be as confident in pulaar as I am now. One of best moments was where I was visiting another volunteer and a man came up to us as we were talking and said my pulaar sounded like Guinea Bissau pulaar. My family is from Guinea Bissau and the fact that I have an accent them which the rest of the village doesn't have was pretty awesome.

However this is not supposed to be post about me finishing my service and going home because I am extending my service another 6 months to be a Peace Corps Volunteer Leader (PCVL) in Kolda. I am really excited about this as it means I will gain even more professional skills since I will be reviewing grants, meeting with people, supervising site set up and developing volunteer resources. I am hoping my french will be fluent by the end since it is very rusty.
The hardest part though will be leaving my village and handing it over to my replacement. When I originally asked to be replaced I wasn't thinking about extending. Now I am and it will be hard leaving and being there while it is someone else's village. I am very excited to be replaced-I've heard great things about the new group that arrived about a week ago. I am sure Medina will have an amazing volunteer. It will just be a little lonely with my crew of 150 people who know where I am, what I am doing and usually why I am doing it.
So sorry I won't be home this year! 2011 folks! I promise to really come back then!

AND PS! I uploaded a ton of pictures to my shutterfly account for those who would like to see some of my projects, village, and my awesome wounds and scars! Take a look! The link is under my photo!