Happy To Be Back

Someone laying on their horn right outside Nicole's house for several minutes this morning was a great early morning wake-up call since I wanted to leave Dakar early and get back to Thies in time to go to the post office, although I was annoyed at the time. I packed up my obscenely heavy bag, which contained twenty Junior Achievement books and every single pair of underwear I own since I did all of my dirty laundry in Dakar, and headed out to the garage.

I need to become more aggressive in the garage because since I didn't push through the myriad women selling everything under the sun I was forced to sit in the back seat pressed up against the side of the car. And when I say pressed up against the side of the car this is not an understatement by any means because two large women both of whom had children on their laps squeezed in next to me. It was an unpleasant to say the least. My leg still bears an indentation where it was held against the exposed metal hub of the car. Luckily we left early enough that it wasn't too hot in the car and the small children on the women's laps weren't terrified of me and therefore didn't cry the entire way back to Thies.

After extricating myself from the back of the sept-place, I made it to the post office with plenty of time to spare and was justly rewarded! SHOUT OUTS!!!!!!!

Aunt Diane, Uncle Wayne, Rachel, and Jenn - THANK YOU FOR THE PACKAGE!!! It was great. The Cliff Bar Block electrolyte things are some of my favorites and I can always use an influx of Cliff bars let alone trashy magazines! I also gave Ahmed the two little hot wheels cars, which he absolutely loves. I turned the box into a ramp so he's been sending the cars down my stairs all day. He'll get the rest of his presents in due time. A special shout out to Rachel for her mini Hungary package. I already ripped open the cookies which are absolutely delicious and I can't wait to break out the booze when one of my friends comes over. I'm slightly skeptical about the cherry soup, but I will definitely try it the next time I'm force fed a bad millet meal that I in turn feed to the sheep! Thanks again!

Ma - I got your package and it was great! I'm getting quite the reputation for bringing salsa to the bar so the salsa was much appreciated as were the Pringles (delicious) and fruit cups. I also have full faith in you that you'll be able to pick a great color of paint for your house!

Lynn - Thanks for the letter! Hope the boat is in the water soon!

Shirley - I got two letters from you today! I absolutely loved the card that you had everyone sign at Sarah's Bat Mitzvah. It was awesome and I already put it up in my room! Thank you, that was so thoughtful!

Back at home, my room was absolutely disgusting so I had to move everything out in order to sweep the layer of dirt off the floor and scrub everything down. The next order of business was my bike which has had a popped tube for approximately two months. I finally got a replacement in Dakar and was determined to fix the problem myself. I got the tire off, took out the bad tube, inflated the new tube slightly, and put the tube in the tire. I will say I was pretty proud of myself until I jumped because someone was right before me. It was big Ahmed who stated "that is not correct." In retrospect the mistake was stupid, I was trying to keep the lips of the tire on the outside of the rim instead of the inside of the rim, but I did do a lot of the work myself. After that Ahmed pretty much took over and completely the task in 2.5 seconds. I'm still proud of myself and now my bike actually functions which was the overarching goal.

I'm very happy to be back in Thies. Dakar stresses me out and makes me irrationally angry for some reason so I spent the rest of the day relaxing and organizing my room. I'm currently waiting for dinner and then I'm going to bed in my own bed. Yay!

Ps. Additional SHOUT OUT to my mom for finishing the 5/3 Riverbank run and beating her time from last year... I ate the entire pack of cookies Rachel sent me today!