Reunited

Reunited and it feels so good.

Time is a funny, funny thing in Peace Corps. The days can pass slowly and then the months (and day I say it, years) blow by. Since returning from Cape Verde, the days have crept by and that's partially because 66% of my main texting/ calling/ general communication circle has been gone. I just saw Katherine for the first time in three weeks and that's just unacceptable.

Yesterday I headed off to Dakar to clear my mind of Thies (even though nothing annoying/ particularly bad has happened) and to get a gossip rundown of my friends' recent adventures. The food brought from America as well as my newly fixed computer might have also sweetened the deal. It was great to be in the same room as Tamar, Jackie, and Katherine again and we had a great time catching up on each other's lives for the past couple of weeks which was a little weird since my friends usually know what I've eaten and the last time I've peed during the usual day.

We also had to plan our next trip! Nope this isn't a joke. We are determined to use all of our vacation days before we aren't allowed to travel because the end of our service is so near! So, we're going to The Gambia next week. Yes, we're crazy. No, we haven't done any planning.

The trip wasn't all fun and games though. I did have to go into the office to work on future artisan happenings. In Peace Corps everything seems to come at once! We might be attending an Expo May 5th hosted by the Embassy in honor of Mother's Day... if it can be organized in that short of notice. The details for the St. Louis Jazz fest are also coming together. Each year St. Louis, a city north of Thies on the coast, hosts a giant Jazz Fest which draws an international crowd and also boasts an artisan exposition. This year Peace Corps is working with the West African Trade Hub, an NGO devoted to helping artisans become export ready, to expose some of the artisans' work in a gallery. It's very exciting. We are also going to buy some booths at the general event (hopefully). A lot more planning has to be done, but hopefully everything will work out.