what do you do when you having stopped sweating in two weeks? the hot season is back...and quite frankly it sucks. for a number of reasons. number one it's hot, like 120 degrees or more everyday. so everything that you normally do during the you still have to do but in the baking sun. number two, because it's so hot you only have about 4 or 5 hours of the day to actually do work (everyone rests between 12 and 5. and i mean rests. i tried getting up to go to work at 4 and my host mother sent me back to my room and wouldn't let me out until it got cooler. yea, i'm an eight year old.) it's hard to get any sort of work done because everyone is fitting in there work at that time. so if i want to do a causerie or a demonstration i have to compete with pounding rice, laundry, dishes, fieldwork, etc. number three, you have a constant battle of staying hydrated and cool. within three days of staying hydrated i upped my water intake from 3 liters to seven. and i'm swimming in the river or taking a bucket bath at least twice, usually three times a day.

there are a few tips i've gathered to help me cope and survive until the rainy season comes.
-dunking your clothes in water works as laundry and ac
-it's okay to have little siblings follow around you with a fan
-working yourself to the point of exhaustion helps you sleep at night
-perfect the ultimate 'hot season cleanse' so you can make a diet book deal when you get back.
-biking 10 k for ice is okay, you'll even become the village ice cream truck
-embrace the heat happies (uncontrollable giggles that occur between 2 and 8 pm)

despite the heat i have been pretty busy the last two months since being back. i've successfully completed building mud stoves in my village for each kitchen area. mud stoves are a more efficient way of cooking (faster, cleaner, safer) and uses less wood than the open camp fires that most people cook over. living in the sahel where there are less and less trees these are a great way to save firewood. i think the stoves were a good idea. as soon as i made them the women started cooking with them, despite the fact that they needed to dry out and sun bake for two weeks. however, i'm taking the fact that using them instead of just letting them sit there shows how much they wanted them. so, a success.

thanks to all who have donated money towards my mosquito nets. because of the overwhelming support of donors in the states peace corps and usaid are doing a massive net distribution throughout senegal. after this distribution children under five will be completely covered by nets with about 50,000 other nets going to peace corps villages. it's pretty exciting to think about how much this could possibly help fight malaria in senegal...it's by far one of the biggest distributions ever done...so thank you! with any luck we'll have the nets by august and distributed within the month. i'll be posting pictures and video of the distributions as soon as it happens. so be on the look out.

cheers!
jaime