So I just got back from my "village" after a week of being there. I wouldn't consider it a village, I'd say town. Let me preface this post by saying that in my town there is no alcohol; all 50 of the Peace Corps' trainees' towns or villages didn't have alcohol. So the second we all got back here, to the kushy Peace Corps compound, we dropped our bags and ran to the bar for a celebratory beer.... or 4. Anyway, my host family in Darou, my town, is AMAZING! With my host family experience in France and now in Africa, I seem to luck out with the host families. My family here gave me the African name, "Salimatou Barry." They are supposed to give us African names so that we can integrate into the community easier. My family consist of my host mother, whom at first I would compare to Whitney Houston because of her diva ways, but is actually very down to earth and hospitable. I have a host father, and his second wife (super common here, not even thought twice about it). Between the 3 of them, there are 14 children in my compound. It is a well oiled machine in that place. They are so hospitable and won't let me do anything to help out. Its pretty nice, I won't lie.
So there it's me and 2 other PCT (Peace Corps Trainees) in this town of Darou and we're the first trainees that the PC has placed in Darou. All the adults are super cool and greet us, ask questions, welcome us, etc. The children however, treat us like celebrities because we're probably the first white people they've seen live and in person. Of course for the first few days its comical to be yelled, "Bonjour" and "Toubab" at all the time. (Toubab means Westerner) After a while its a bit much but I figure its better than them running away from white people, screaming in fear.
There's too many details to give so I'll try give the highlights. Ummm.... I've been using a turkish toilet the whole time and still don't like it. I hate bucket baths. When the roosters wake me up at 4am I have visions of slaughtering them, even though I've never had a desire to kill even a bug in my life. And every hour after 4 am that they wake me up I want to kill them. These Malaria drugs give me the craziest dreams about people I haven't thought about in years. On two different occasions I found mice in my suitcase. My room at my host's family's house is kind of like a prison cell with just a bed. I plan to buy a bedside table while in Thies these few days. I'm trying to devise a plan to convince my host family that I can't eat anymore white rice, white bread or tea with a full cup of sugar in it. Holy cow, I don't know how everyone in this country doesn't have diabetes.
Ok so I just typed a super long blog and lost all of it except for the parts before this, which I was able to recover. Since its almost 1am I'm going to go, but I'll write more during my stint of internet at the compound.
Hope everyone is doing well on that side of the pond. Don't worry, I absolutely love it here! Its still so much better than I ever could have imagined!
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