January 2020 Pictures (Part 1)

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During the first two weeks of January, my dad and cousin Kristi came to Senegal to visit me. This post and the next January picture post are all pictures from their visit. We covered a lot of ground in three weeks! Part 1 of this post has pictures from Thies, Kedougou, and my village.

A tapestry-weaving center in Thies. This group of artisans creates beautiful hand-woven tapestries. One hangs in the UN building in New York

The yarn color samples used on every project created at the tapestry center since it opened in 1965

Another tapestry weaver at work

A paining on the outside of the tapestry center that represents one of the tapestries created here (no pictures were allowed of the completed works)

Me and Kristi at the tapestry center

An unusually multicolored van

Asleep in our luxurious car on the way to Kedougou

Bathroom stop at EDK, the best gas station chain in Senegal


Goats and sheep on the roof of a large public transit van (aka Alham)

Dad in the Peace Corps transit house library


Welcome to Kedougou!

Walking to the bank in Kedougou

The Kedougou post office

My friends Eric and Alyssa joined us on a day trip to the Dindifello waterfall. Our chauffers came with us, too. Our guide in the black shirt really looked like Michael Cera. Unfortunately I didn't get a better picture of him


Dindifello waterfall

Kristi, me, and my dad at Dindifello

With the sign for Le Bedik, our hotel in Kedougou

We stumbled across the finals of a government agency intramural soccer league in Kedougou

Kids helping my dad and Kristi carry their stuff from the road to my hut


My ceramic water filter candles after 13 months in site. I got new ones from Peace Corps

Kristi teaching the kids how to play Kubb, a lawn game that she brought

Kubb action shot


Kristi preparing my dad's birthday cake (she bought cookies in Kedougou and brought them to my village)

Birthday party!

Sharing the birthday cookies. Note the man in white holding the live chicken that he is about to kill in our yard for our dinner. We had a fancy meal of chicken and fonio that night because I had non-volunteer guests visiting

Dancing in my village. The village drummer offered to play his jimbe (a type of drum) when my guests came

Another dancing shot


Kristi helping Amadou's wife Ramatou pound something for her dinner

Visiting my host mom Sohona's garden

My dad and I in front of my hut

Lunch time

My host mom Nyuma (right) and her kids Koumba and Keeba

Balla and Keeba posing in front of a baobob tree

Nyuma and her daughter Koumba in their backyard. The mud stove I built for Nyuma has survived ten months to date because she protected it from rain with a wheelbarrow (left foreground) during the rainy season

We ran into my counterpart Amadou and his friend from the neighboring village while we were out on an evening walk

My host dad with a bamboo fence that he made

My host mom Nyuma spinning cotton

My host mom Sohona making kinkeliba tea for my family. Kinkeliba is a tree that grows in the bush whose leaves can be used to make tea

My toxoma making attaya for my family

My dad and the tailor in my village who made his shirt

My toxoma (Mamadou) and his son, Balla

Kids carrying my dad's stuff back to our car

Keeba carrying Kristi's suitcase

Taking a rest at the Peace Corps house after coming back from village



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