Whew!

What a whirlwind the last few weeks have been. Here is the rundown:

- Hurrying up to finish thatching the roof of the restaurant before

- The American Ambassador came! and

- Installing a rope pump before

- The national Senegalese TV channel came to film! and

- Landscaping the ecolodge before

- The Peace Corps Senegal Director visited the ecolodge!

- All of this not mention finding a garden that legitimately qualifies as paradise just outside of Segou!

With all of that going on I’m not even sure where to start!

About a month ago I was chatting with our director and he mentioned that RTS, the national TV station, was going to be producing an hour long special on Peace Corps Senegal for the 50^th anniversary of the Peace Corps. Our director was a volunteer in Dindefello, the village just past mine, 20 years ago so they were already planning on filming there. They were also planning on filming the rope pump project that another volunteer is working on. So said, “Hey, we’re going to be installing a rope pump out in the ecolodge, why don’t you come out and film the two projects on your way out to Dindefello?” They agreed and scheduled us into the Ambassador’s visit.

In preparation for the Ambassador, RTS, and our director, my counterparts and I have been working like crazy to polish off the ecolodge the last few weeks: nailing together the bamboo frame for the roof, climbing up into trees to trim branches that were in the way of the view of the valley, clearing brush, arranging for over 300 rolls of thatching for the roof, and clearing the paths in the ecolodge. In the end we didn’t quite get the roof finished before the big wig circus arrived, but perhaps that was better because we were able to show the project as a work in progress. During the RTS visit on Wednesday I got a few photos, but during the Ambassador’s visit on Thursday and our director’s visit on Saturday I was so busy showing them around I didn’t get any photos. Fortunately the Ambassador’s press secretary has offered to share all of her photos. When I get them I’ll put them up.

It’s really great having the restaurant in place. One of the key ideas that we changed from the previous attempts at building an ecolodge was that we were going to build it in an area where the restaurant would have a great view. This is an idea that often lacking in tourist lodges in Senegal. One lodge in Dindefello actually went so far as to put the toilets right in between the restaurant and a beautiful view of the surrounding cliffs! Being able to sit under the nearly complete roof of the restaurant and look out over the valley and our work is a wonderful feeling. Also, once we get the floor poured, we can begin to advertise the ecolodge as being open. We were hoping to be at this point three months ago, but well, it just didn’t happen.

All three visits went well. The folks from RTS had never been to Segou before and were really impressed with the beauty of the area. They filmed the installation of the rope pump and a bit of the Ambassador’s visit, which was quite short. She was only in Segou for about 30 minutes and I struggled to share the history of the project, talk about the work we were currently doing, what was planned for the future and still have time to introduce her to people from our community. It seemed as if it was over just as quickly as it started. Still she was very impressed and appreciative of the work we were doing. Our director’s visit was also brief but equally great. Twenty years ago he started the first tourism lodge in Dindefello. The lodge still exists today but has suffered from many problems of mismanagement stemming from the fact that the whole community owns it and the management gets changed by political whim, not based on the long term interest of the lodge or the community. It was partly from the example of the lodge started by our director that we decided to make the ecolodge in Segou privately owned. When he was visiting, our director said in hindsight he wished he had done the same think in Dindefello. Granted we benefited from his experience, but its not too shabby when your boss says you did a better job than he did!

Now that the parade of big wigs is over, we are going to sit down and plan out the rest of the work that needs to be done to finish the ecolodge while we wait for the funding to arrive. Peace Corps has all of it, but it takes at least a month for them to get it to the volunteers. This delay is huge inconvenience and inexcusable, but there is nothing we can do except wait.