one long month

sorry I have not updated in a long time but so much has happened in the last month, mainly alot of travile. During the begining of the month I had the rare oppertunity to wittness the Seereer cerimony for the rainy season. What the cerimony consisted of was all the surronding villages went out to the fields behind pechie were there was giant baobob trees. then several of the village elders made a porage out of millet and milk and then poured it on an old stump. Then they took two younger men, tied them togeather with rope by the wrists, made them lie face down on the ground, and dumped the rest of the porage on them. Then they cut the rope and the two men ran off at full speed to one of the nearest road towns (3k and 5k run) then the rest of the people ran around a giant baobob tree. The coolest thing was that there was a rain storm that rolled through just five mineuts after the cerimony ended. Hands down that was the coolest thing that I have seen in this country so far, although there was one person who was verbally attacking me saying I should not be there because I was white. The cool part was he ameadiatly had 10 people from my village ripping him apart saying that I was a native and had every right to be there, and that is one of the reasons I love my village. Of course this did not stop him from being a jackass and convently standing in front of me the whole time trying to block my sight. The next day after I traviled to Kaolack and meet up with other volenteers and we traviled down to the region of Kedigue were the volenteers hold a giant fourth of july party. The region of Kedigue is down south and is a teperate rainforest, so I spen a couple of days lounging around capomonts and talking with people from my stage that I had not seen in a while. Although next year I am bringing my bike because I heard that there was some really cool place with in biking distance from the regional capital. On the fourth we spent the day lounging around the regional house eating good food (including two pigs that were roasted and BBQed) and dancing the night away. Then when it was dark we brought out the fireworks and shot them off most likely scaring the locals. Amazing time although for the next three days I was gargoyling (I'll let you guess on the meaning) but three days of antibiotics and it was all cleared up. After that I spent five days in village and had my Seereer teacher come down and do a langue session on advanced Seereer witch was nice because it cleared up a lot of what I was wondering how to say. Then I left for a two week trianing back at the Thies center were I have been going from meeting to meeting about different tecnical stuff. Witch has been really helpful and has given me lots of ideas for work although ramadon starts next month so not very many people will want to work but on the plus side I will get a an awsome dinner.

PS. I will post pictures in another post because the band with at the center will not upload pics.