Hello everyone,

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the start of spring or the never-ending winter depending on where you are. The seasons have changed here too - from comfortably hot(the low 90s) to unbearably hot (pushing 110 degrees). During the obligatory mid-day siesta (the wolof word is noppalu (pronounced nope-a-loo) which i think is a good case of onomatopoeia), i'm either seated inches away from my fan (which feels like a blow dryer because the air is so hot) or hiding under the shade of one of the mango trees in my family's compound. It has also been very windy as we get the tail-end of the wind and dust storms that blow across the Sahara. These storms form occasional dust clouds that fill the sky. Fortunately, the temperature still cools down at night so it isn't difficult to sleep although i hear that will stop sometime soon.

I realize that I haven't given you a very detailed description of my town and living conditions so here it goes. The population is about 20,000 people, although it feels significantly smaller than this. I can walk from one end to the other in about 20 minutes and the main commercial area is limited to two streets. It is a departmental capital (the equivalent of a US county) which means that a lot of the government agencies have offices here and there is also a large high school and well-equipped hospital. The government is by far the largest and most stable employer and most of the town's middle and upper class citizens work for the government in some capacity.

The rest of the economy is largely comprised of agriculture and agriculture-related products. All of the surrounding land is arable and produces peanuts, millet, sorghum and corn. There is no large-scale industry/manufacturing in the town, there is only a handful of small metal and wood working shops that produce furniture and other household products. There is also the ubiquitous boutique on every street corner selling a little bit of everything ranging from perfume to potatoes to propane gas tanks.

For perishable foods, there is a small daily market as well as a large weekly market where you can find fish, meat, vegetables and whatever fruit is in season.

I live in the northern part of town, about a ten minute walk to most of the government offices and the town center. My family's compound consists of 4 different buildings - my family's house (3 bedrooms and a living room) the kitchen, the bathroom/shower and my house - a single room about 150 square feet with an attached bathroom. All the buildings are made out of cement bricks and have metal roofs - i've begun to realize that they are simply giant ovens. My house is fairly visible on GoogleEarth or GoogleMaps. Go to GoogleEarth and enter these coordinates: 13.749609,-15.77736. If you don't have GoogleEarth (or don't know what it is) go to googlemaps (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl) and enter those coordinates in the "search map" box. After entering it click on "search maps." Next, click on the satellite tab on the top lefthand corner of the map. The green arrow should be pointing to my house. If this doesn't work for you, let me know and I can send you the link via email.

I hope you are all well.

Miss you
Christopher