Romeo oh Romeo wherefor art thou Romeo?

It was just another day in the village until I received a call from my one of my peace corps volunteer friends. They had found four one/two week old puppies at the local Tambacounda bar. She knew from previously that I had lost my first pup and decided to see if I would want to resurrect the experience again. I had a chance to think about it on my bike ride back into town and well when I got to the bar and saw the pups, I immediately couldn't say no. I knew that I fell in love. There were four of them and well I had to just pick one. So, out of the four there were three that looked like my previous puppy and then one that was different. This puppy had a color of dark brown and white fur. His face is black with a dark brown tint, he almost looks like a little bear. I feel in love with him and the name Romeo seemed appropriate. So, so far I have had him for a week now and the first few nights were rough with lack of sleep but now, slowly, slowly am I finally getting some sleep. If you would see the dogs here they are nothing like what you would see in the States. There are few people who own them and if they own them it is likely that they beat the dogs. My host family has a family dog already and if I train Romeo I hope that he can be a good addition to the family when I leave, if he makes it to that age. It is sad to say but it is hard for a dog here let alone a human being. I have yet to experience a funeral but I have experienced a death in the village. 2 months later.... So, I found out that the puppy I got ended up being a girl. I had to do a quick name change and decided that Lola was appropriate. The reason being because "Lola" in Tagalog means grandmother. My puppy was pretty much like an old person, she couldn't see well, could walk very well and didn't have any teeth. Now i'm not saying that all older people have this but it was like the movie "Benjamin Button". Lola is slowly integrating to my village and so are my villagers.

What's on the work front?

If I were back in California I know that summer would be ending, school would be starting soon and well LA drivers would probably be freaking out because of possible rain (well maybe not). But here I am entering into the cold season of Tambacounda, I was able to survive the rainy season, but have some left over scares and fights still going on. See the thing that you have to be careful with in the rainy season is the endless amounts of sicknesses that you can come into contact with. Let me tell you, I have never known myself to be skin sensitive but I soon found out here I am. I have had a number of staff infections, fungus and rashes. On top of that random fevers, colds and diarrhea. On the work side of things there has also been a good amount of experimentation with the farmers in my village. I was able to extend different variety seed to about 16 farmers in my village. The different seeds consisted of corn, cowpeas, millet, sorghum and rice. This rainy season was a good one yet, depending on the situation some farmers had problems with their seed. I am hoping for a more planned year for me in the area of the seed extension. I really do feel the first year for a peace corps volunteer is a experimentation year and that the projects that were thought of before or haven't been thought of yet will come in the next year.So, there is no need to worry because work will be done. I have found myself to be busy even with other secondary projects such as, latrine training, gardening, international hand washing day, mangrove restoration, English club and future project planning. I am currently waiting on a grant that I wrote for the women's garden so that I can continue to work more in the garden because I feel that the main focus right now should be water resource. It is difficult to garden here if you don't have an easier source of water than trying to pull from a 35 to 45 meter deep well. I know, I have to pull all the time. So, looking forward to the work to come and the people that I will meet during that time.