Gas shortage

written Friday, 20 April 2007


Today after "school" (that's how I think of Peace Corps training) I went into my room at home to do homework. When I came out there was no one around. Strange. My house is always chock full of people. Then a little later my brothers showed up, with a big piece of scrap wood. "There's your dinner," they said. It was a joke, but only sort of. My host dad explained to me that there is a natural gas shortage all over Senegal right now - the ship that brings the gas here was late or something. It's in the port in Dakar now, but the gas hasn't been unloaded yet. So the gas canisters they use for cooking aren't available anywhere in Thies right now, and according to my host dad, they're not available anywhere in Senegal. So my family had gone out scavenging for scrap wood to make a fire with to cook dinner. My brothers chopped up the piece of wood they brought home with a machete (not the most effective tool for splitting wood), and now dinner is cooking.

I'm hungry.