wassssssssadou

Right now we are staying near a little village called wassadou, near the big animal reserve and a city called tambcounda, on the western side of senegal. We are living at the medical center built by an ngo called le kinkeliba (see sidebar for link). Things are pretty relaxed here, as we are basically living without the frills of life in Dakar (no french tv, no americans, no chocolate croissants or beaches or nightclubs). It feels a little bit like camp in a strange way, eating all our meals with the staff and volunteers, seeing lots of animals (birds; bats, monkeys, hippos) and drinking well water: don't worry the water is safe (this is like living with a bunch of doctors).

Our biggest stress has been the heat (il fait chauuuuuuuuud!!!!). I think it was 40 celsius yesterday. This is hot, for all of us farenheiters. After heat, the biggest problem is figuring out what to do here, how we can be most useful to the medical house and get some research done at the same time. Yesterday we taught an english class to the staff, who are a mix of french, urban senegalese, and folks from the villages who already speak like 12 languages. It's interesting being here cause wolof is certainly not the major language anymore. A lot of people are Pull here, as well as a bunch of other ethnicities. Our friend, the surgeon, Laye, can't even communicate with most of his patients here without an interpreter. I think it has been a bit more difficult for him being here (he was told there would be air conditioning, and other such things, which there aren't), since he knows that he has to be here for at least 4 months and because he is separated from his wife and kids. He is taking it in stride though, and working very hard; there are at least
40 patients (probably more!) i'd say that come in for consultations each day. Medical care is given at a very low price and a lot of the villagers come in for prenatal care as well (we are housed with the midwife here, who has become a friend as well).

There is little to absolutely zero cellphone reception here, but we get to use the (extremely slow) internet from time to time, so we will try to keep in touch that way. I will try to get some pictures up of the baboons, bats, and hippos that we've been gawking later this week.