the apocalypse, babies, vampires, and nessie.

what do these things have in common? nothing really, but they've all never really happened to me in the village until two weeks ago. then diambo just starting getting jiggy with it.

the rainy season has supposed to have come by now but is actually late. so one day, about seven o'clock or so i am taking my third bucket bath of the day before dousing myself in baby powder. seriously, heat rash could be the worse thing in the world. especially traveling heat rash. so i'm taking my bucket bath and notice some storm clouds moving. hurrying along i look up again and come face to face with a orange cloud. i can see the cloud moving. think of planet earth time lapse, but in real life. it moved that fast. and that is no lie. suddenly i hear everyone start yelling and shutters closing up. aka, everyone was hiding but me. so what do i do? dive (literally) into my room and start to wimper. the sky turned a rust color and the only sound was goats screaming. now, i've experienced sandstorms before but that one was really weird, terrifying, and awful. took me an hour to sweep out my room.

fourth of july came and went, and i spent the day celebrating in kedougou where the pcvs there hosted a fantastic party. the next day we went to a waterfall not far from one of my friend's sites (a little jealous, but he doesn't have nessie. keep reading...) when i got back up to site i greeted everyone and then sat down under the shade structure to hang out before lunch. after a while my tocara said "you haven't greeted binta yet, she gave birth while you were gone." this came as a shock to me. indeed binta, my younger sister wasn't around. i had noticed that she was pregnant when i came back home from the states, but i figured she had a few more months to go. not that she wasn't ready to give birth (who would want to be pregnant in 130 degree weather?) so i jumped up and ran to her room and sure enough, binta was laying there with a little bundle of joy, her son sinthian. i was so happy for her, and so happy that everything went well. she had the baby at the local health post, and he weighed in at almost six pounds. (which may sounds small but he is actually one of the healthiest babies i've seen. she took great care of herself during the pregnancy, partly because i kept feeding her extra goodies. to which my little husband is still bitter about). it's great having a baby around the compound. (the first in many, many years). my tocara just beams whenever she holds her grandson (the fourth grandchild, all boys) and it's the cutest things watching my little brothers fuss over the baby. he even likes me, which will probably change once he realizes that all babies six to fifteen months are supossed to be afraid of me. a week later, the village chief's wife who was also pregnant had her baby, another boy. they live right by my hut as well so now there are plenty of babies around. it'll be fun watching them grow up while i'm there. even the kids who were one or two have changed so much and have gotten bigger.

there are a few things me and my fellow northern pcvs are mildly obsessed with. for example; curry onion rings, dance parties, flour fights, bean burgers, and among other things... vampires. so marisa, a fellow volunteer from the north near ourosogui, was visiting my village one day and we got to discussing vampires. of course all my younger brothers were around watching us and so we asked them if they've ever heard of vampires. they said yes, there are people who live in the ground and drink blood. they're very very bad because drinking blood is wona lawol (not the way). my cousins also told me that if i see one they would kill it for ten mille (about twenty bucks). van helsing would be so proud.

finally, nessie. as you all know i'm a big fan of the river that is right by my village. during the hot season i would go swimming once or twice a day. however, now that the river has started to get cloudy and the current has picked up, no one spends any extra time there. everyone stays close to the shore and the littlest kids are washed at home. when i asked about this last year some friends told me it was because of the crocodiles and things that live in the water. they only come out when the river gets cloudy. well, there hasn't been a croc by my village for decades so i never took them seriously. then, everything changed.

i'm sitting in my hut with marisa (she had an eventful visit) and little sileye comes to my door crying. i let him in and he immediately crawls into my arms. he tells me that he's scared of the river and doesn't want to go alone (his mom is doing laundry there)so i carry him down to the river. as we get closer i notice that there are a lot of people on the banks and they're making a lot of noise. i get to a woman and ask her what's up. she points upriver and says a word i have no clue what it means. i look where she pointed and don't see anything. then, after staring at the water for a few minutes i see it.

these are the facts:

-the creature was large, blue-grey in color
-it glided UPRIVER like a whale and would occasionally surface for air
-what broke water was at lease five feet
-following the iceberg theory, there has to be much more under the water that i didn't see
-after interviewing several people i have learned that; it's very big, bites but does not eat people, lives in the water, is red and has boobs.
-it has been confirmed by the french speaking people in my village that it is not a hippo or crocodile.

conclusion: nessie got lost and wound up in senegal.

further action: will try to get her on camera but as we already know, she is very elusive. but if there is anything i've gained in this country it's patience (just try getting villagers to wash their hands... one year of service right there) and i got another nine months.

but i'm staying out of the river for now.

cheers!
jaime