How much longer?

"How much longer will you be over there?" was a question I heard a lot while I was home. The answer is, as long as it takes to finish building (constructing, management training, and marketing) the tourist ecolodge I am helping the people in my village to create. On paper I have just signed a six month extension with an end date of February 17th 2011. In reality, I am not bound to that date, but I needed to set it so I could continue to defer my loans. Will I be home sooner? I hope so, but not likely. The work I am doing now is not my life's work, but it is something I have started and I can't leave the work unfinished just because my arbitrary two years of service are up. I made a commitment to my counterparts to see the job through. Additionally, PC Senegal is now working on developing an ecotourism label and certification scheme which is an idea I had proposed months ago. Developing that is something I am passionate about and would be really good experience. "So, how much longer?" longer than tomorrow, less than a year, ask me later.

AND COME VISIT!