Passing time in village. #podcasts

So I have a lot of free time in village and I can get the BBC on my radio of course, which I love, but I have a slew of podcasts that I listen to most every day whether it’s in the morning while enjoying my breakfast in hut, or laying down for an afternoon nap. When I’m sitting in my hut, I’m listening to something.

Isn’t my lock screen great?

So I open the thing up and have to skip past those games – they drain too much battery too fast and it’s precious in village – and go right on to my music section.

There you will find the plethora of radio drama that keeps me entertained in village.

1. APM: A Prairie Home Companion – News from Lake Wobegon – Now this stuff is the best. You can’t get the full hour to listen to but this is Garrison Keillor’s monologue that he does at the beginning of every show. I downloaded a few years worth and listen to them first thing while I’m making breakfast. I’m soothed by his descriptions of the seasons in the states and every story is always charming. Perfect way to start my day.
2. Mars Hill Bible Church – Now this is one that keeps me close to home. I was going to Mars Hill throughout college and the few years after while I was living in Grand Rapids, it’s an amazing church with an amazing message and I try to keep up with things going on their by checking up on their website, reading my emails, and listening to the weekly teaching.
3. The Moth  – Absolutely incredible show and there’s never enough of these stories to satisfy my appetite. This is a 15 minute in-your-face story that’s perfect to play while I’m sweeping the hut or doing any other quick task. These stories are told live in front of an audience without note cards, just a mic. There are famous authors, actors, and everyday people who share their stories every week although I only get one. It drives me crazy that I just can’t hear them all.
4. NPR: Wait wait… Don’t tell me – Be still my heart I love this show. Every Saturday since college I’ve tried to listen to this and it became the cherry on top of the metaphorical NPR news cake that I was devouring each week to and from work. I loved it. A panel of hilarious guests to joke about the weeks news together as they play pointless games for points. Don’t even get me started on Paula Poundstone. She’s amazing. So amazing in fact, that I just got tickets to see this radio show recorded in downtown Chicago while I’m home. I’m obsessed. Perfect to start the 3 hour bike ride in and out of village. 
5. NPR: All Songs Considered – This one is hit or miss with me and I often don’t always love it, but when it’s on IT’S ON. Basically, it’s NPR telling you what type of music to check out and being NPR they have a lot of small labels and cover a lot of small festivals to get you the music that you won’t hear on the mainstream. So I check the titles of the recent ones, find one that I think that I’ll like and pop it on while I’m doing some sort of mindless task like weeding my backyard or washing my underwear. A great chance to hear some music that you might not get a chance to listen to otherwise.
6. NPR: Snap Judgement – So if you’ve listened to The Moth imagine that meets This American Life. It’s fantastic and as they say “Story telling with a beat.” There’s a DJ spinning to the stories and each episode has some sort of them. Half reporting and half story telling. You must check this one out and Glen Washington, the host, grew up in east Michigan and often shares stories of his Michigan childhood/adulthood as he graduated from U of M. This one often comes on right after I listen to a Wait Wait episode during my bike ride into the regional house.
7. Savage Lovecast – This one is definitely not suited for everyone as it is a blunt, in your face, sex and relationship advice from America’s favorite advice columnist, Dan Savage. His article is in papers all over North America and a few years back he started doing the podcast version of the advice. He takes calls and calls people out on all their crap. It’s sometimes heartwarming, sometimes tragic, always hilarious. It’s fantastic to listen to from biking around to sitting around
8. This American Life – Now if you don’t know the lovely stylings of Mr. Ira Glass at WBEZ Chicago, you need to remedy that real quickly. Like Snap Judgment, every week they choose a theme and do a radio show in 3 acts on that theme. Expert storytelling and expert journalism. Feels more like a documentary than a radio show. The man is a genius and this show’s been going since 1995. I can listen to This American Life anytime and anywhere. If I’m squeezed into the back of a cramped station wagon or riding my bike, as long as I have an hour of time, I will listen to an episode.
9. NPR: The Diane Rehm Show – How do I count the ways that I love Diane Rehm? Is it even possible? I think not. This woman is one of my heroes and she brings amazing journalism to NPR with a panel of experts to discuss topics in the week’s new she asks hard hitting questions from people on the left, right, and everywhere in between. It’s incredible and it’s on two hours every weekday. So what do I do? I listen to at least two hours everyday, of course. After listening to an episode of A Prairie Home Companion in the morning, I listen to this lovely lady and keep up on my news. I love her.
10. CBC Radio: WireTap – Both The Diane Rehm Show and this one are favorites of mine and my good friend at The Green Egg. She got me into WireTap and we never fail to discuss an episode of Miss Diane any chance we get. Wiretap is a half hour radio drama with Jonathan Goldstein, a contributor to This American Life. He does stories on a multitude of themes but has essays, poems, and short stories to share. There’s also a healthy dose of radio drama in which his friends, family, and coworkers act in an over-the-top conversation with Jonathan and it’s always spectacular. You should really give it a listen. This one is a brief 30 mins every week so I get it in around nap time or washing underwear or dishes.
    

Well those are my podcasts, I just downloaded NPR: Planet Money and I’m looking forward to listening to that again since it’s been a few years. Do you guys have any recommendations now that you see what I like? Perhaps you can just tell me while I’m home in the states!!!!!

SEE YOU NEXT WEEK, AMERICA!

A friendly visit.

Oh the joy that welled up inside of me when I found out that Matt and Casey (two of my best friends in the whole world) bought there tickets to Senegal for a 2 and 4 week visit respectively. The tickets were purchased just after Thanksgiving and my face was as such for a bout a week. I had to wait impatiently for the following month and a half to crawl by but the holidays were suddenly much easier knowing that I would be seeing my friends so very soon. I went back to village for a few weeks before and after the end of the year holidays then found myself anxiously awaiting their arrival in Dakar. On Wednesday, the 16th night of January 2013, I embraced those guys coming out of the airport. These are the first friends I’ve seen since I left in March of 2012 except my surprise visit for hand surgery in May 2012 – remember that? – and it had been a long 10 months. Overjoyed I took them out for a late dinner, laid out the plan for their trip and then we crashed at my friends place before our early car the following morning. It may have been rough on them as I made them get into a car at 8 am the next morning as they spent 24 hours between 2 flights and one layover to get here; but this is Senegal and you have to do what you have to do. To be honest, I felt bad but I knew they would appreciate it by the end. After the longer than anticipated drive of 15 hours we were finally in the region of Kedougou. The following day we stayed at the regional house to rest up before a grueling week of biking, or so I thought. Upon biking to the market, which might be a mile from the house, they were exhausted and I realized that the whole week had to be changed around a bit (if they couldn’t handle a mile of biking on a paved road there goes the 54 mile mountain biking trip to and from my site). To be perfectly honest, I was all like: But you got to do what you got to do. We got up the next morning and I went to the local garage to get us a car to my market town that got us half way to my site. That night, I hiked them to the top of a nearby mountainous area to see a remote waterfall and I thought that I almost killed Casey. The next morning we visited the nearby waterfall of Dindefello (only a 30 minute walk) and hit the market to buy things for my family. We made our way, on foot, for the 8-9 mile trek to my village. I was carrying a lot of our stuff in general and eventually we made it to my village,. MY feet were feeling a little rough. Matt and Casey’s feet were destroyed. We hung out with my family all evening on the border of Guinea Conakry and shared a package of Oreos with which my family was thrilled. My family loves anything loaded with sugar and I think Casey bonded with them over that. The next morning I got them up bright and early to hike them out to my waterfall. It was exciting that it was still running as the rains were decent enough this year. I’m told it stopped in late November last year. So a late January trip to the waterfall was much appreciated. Upon hiking back that evening, Matt and Casey collapsed from exhaustion. Traveler’s diarrhea had now come on full force, their feet were shredded from all the hiking and although I tried my best to get them to drink water as much as possible, they were incredibly dehydrated. Not to mention kind of grumpy as they don’t find it easy to sleep when all manner of barnyard animals are making noise at all hours of the day and night. I believe the consensus for worst was the donkey though. After making our way back to Kedougou, my vacation really began. Those guys were exhausted and couldn’t take much more travel, but I through them in a car the following day going through the national park and the next day we made it back to Dakar. Unfortunately for all three of us at this point, the trip traveling wasn’t over yet.

We made it back up to the Dakar area over the course of then next couple of days and then went north to the dessert of Lompoul for camping out in the dunes and riding camels. You can see some photos of us below.

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Finally we made our way back into the wonderful city of Dakar and explored over the course of a few days enjoying the crap out of every meal that came our way. Unfortunately, I do not have any photos of most of the trip.

Matt left me with Casey on the 29th of January and our adventures continued from there.

I’ll let you know what happened with Casey later and why I don’t have but a few pictures from this trip in a future post.

Until then, miss you all and I’ve got quite a few blog posts planned out, so get ready for some 2013 updates as it seems you’ve had very few thus far.