I'm Home!

I've finally made it back to the land of the free and the home of the brave. From Senegal, we traveled through Mauritania, hung out with cool RPCV Jacque, Then a lot of long bus rides through the mine field, into Western Sahara and to Morocco. Marrakesh was cool and eventually I caught the ferry from Tangier to Spain and visited Ana in Granada. Jack went his own way, Barcelona and then Portugal. I flew from Madrid to Dublin and spent a week visiting Sarah and her family, and this morning i flew back Dublin to O'Hare. I'll stay with Drew here in Chicago and see some friends before going up to Madison for Halloween weekend. Ultra brief summary, but it does the trick. ask me for the details, there are plenty.

I'm oh so happy to be back, jet-lagged and overwhelmed, confused and anxious to see what i've missed and who still remembers me here. I'll get home to my parents house in Point next week and then properly relax for a time before looking for the next step in my life. I'm still putting off decisions on that front for now.

I hope to see lots of friends in Madison this weekend and beyond. I don't have a phone yet, so fb or email me so we can get together. If you want me to come visit you where you are, let me know and i'll see what i can do. I still have some money and my freedom. Eventually i'll have to get a job, apartment, school, life, all that.... but not yet. not yet.

love,
-Toby

PS. eventually, maybe soon, I'll get around to putting up some pics from my last days in ghana and my travels afterwards. promise.

Back to the beach in Dakar

After a long dusty train ride and and an even longer bus ride we entered Senegal. We had trouble with the Mali immigration check point, who insisted that we buy the mali visa again because we didn't have our reciept from the first time. We had to walk a half hour in the hot hot sun and then back again to the police station to argue with them. During that time, our bus driver got tired of waiting for us and threw our luggage off the bus. We yelled and pleaded but there was nothing we could do and the bus left. Feeling dejected, i had to hitch back into town to the police and pay for the visas again. On the way back i stopped at the bus station and explained my sad plight to the friendly station master. I assumed that there was nothing they could do, but he sent a young guy out on a moto and he came back a few minutes later saying that there was a bus in the next town and that we should hurry up and go now. We rushed over and found that it was the same bus! Apparently, after leaving us behind, some of our nigerian friends on the bus convinced the driver to wait 2 and a half hours more until we made it. We thanked everyone profusely, borded the bus and proceeded with our 20 plus hour journey.

We finally arrived in Dakar at 5 am and slept in the bus station on our prayer mats. In the morning we began to explore Dakar, and it is really something. Dakar is like a bigger, nicer, frencher version of Accra. There are fancy hotels, highways along the beach, fancy restaurants, aggressive street venders, and a giant statue of some africans boldly pointing westward (built by the North Koreans, of course.) Jack and i hooked up with a big group of senegal pcvs who were all in Dakar for a sector summit and we stayed in their very nice regional house. Free lodging meant we had more CFA to spend on food and drinks. I also went to the beach, a fancy club with a swimming pool, and a cool Kewl Garul dance party. I also drank too much tequila. Overall, a great time in Dakar.

Now we are on the move again, going north now and heading for Europe. We are prepared and being cautious but we won't stay too long in Mauritania or Western Sahara; but push on for Morocco. I'm looking forward to some cooler weather, but i suppose i'll have to wait until after we cross the desert.

Take care all,
-Toby