guess what I had for lunch...

I didn't realize exactly how much of a "foodie" I really am until I got here. Its definitely a reoccurring theme in these blog posts. I think its a phase and eventually I won't be missing my previously taken-for-granted access to food. I'd still give up a smaller toe to walk through a Trader Joe's or Whole Foods right now.

So once again I feel like I don't have much to tell you. I'll try, but excuse the lameness. Last week we were in our training "towns" and it went by pretty quickly. We had a lot of language classes. A bird tried to take my head off. That kind of fun stuff. We had 2 days off, one of which was Easter. 90% of the country is Muslim and the other 10% is Christian, which means Catholic to them. If you're Christian, you're Catholic. No other denomination here. But its nice because the Muslims help celebrate Christian holidays and vice versa. There's complete respect for the other's religion. *Take note, rest-of-world* I can't hang with the Senegalese when it comes to celebrating holidays. Saturday night they partied until 4 am for Easter! Then they went to church in the morning and partied all day and night until 4 am again. I attended a neighborhood Easter party for about an hour which basically consisted of the men sitting around, drinking glasses of straight whiskey, waiting for the women to cook them huge meals. Its times like this that it is nice to have the status of a male here. What am I saying, its always nice to have male status here. As Americans, we all have that. I mean, I not going to de-feather and gut chickens, you know.

The last day I was with my training family, they installed an "American" shower. They told me they were going to do this the first week I arrived but since its been 5 weeks I assumed they were just dreaming of doing nice things for me. They followed through, but unfortunately I only have 6 more days with them. But it will be 6 more days that I don't have to bathe out of a bucket.... not that I mind it at this point. I'm glad they'll be able to enjoy the shower though. Man, do I love this family! I'm going to miss them so much. I dread saying goodbye to them next week. I'm going to cry, for sure. I've promised to come back and visit. I want to bring Dad there when he comes, mainly because it will be a nice transition for him between Dakar and my actual village. Also, because they are just amazing and it would mean a lot to them and to me to have them meet Dad. I think Peace Corps has the right idea on having us stay in training villages first to let us gradually get use to Senegalese culture. It would have been intense to go straight from the training center in Thies to my permanent village.

Ok its late here so I'm done racking my brain for stuff right now. I'm here, with internet, for another 2 days so I'll try to write more. Hope everyone is fabulous. xo

Its official, I'm extremely racist towards mosquitos.

So remember how I was hardcore complaining about eating rice all the time??? And how I was referring to my training site of 16k people as a “village?” Yes, well in hindsight those statements are ridiculous!

This past week we did our “volunteer visits” where we briefly saw our future sites and met our host families. The rest of the time we stayed with host volunteers. My village is 25k off the paved road meaning I can claim the hardcore status of living out in the bush. My hut is bigger than I expected and the well is right outside my door, which is such a relief. I would have bought a donkey to carry my water had my well been outside the compound. I might still use one to pull my water because the water table is 30m down!!! Maybe I’ll just have man arms when its all said and done. My family seems really cool. My dad is the village chief; he has two wives and doesn’t know how many kids. Can you imagine??? Its part of my job to find this out so this should be an interesting survey. Most villages of similar size to mine only have a health hut or health post but the French NGO, Kinkilibe, just built a really nice hospital in my village! And by hospital I mean a 2000 sqft building, but it has solar panels for electricity and an actual doctor. There’s also a Kinkilibe school in my village. I’m excited to swear-in and move to the village, but now that I realize how far it is from everything and how little Pulaar I speak at this point, I’m no longer counting down the days til swear-in. I’m enjoying every moment of time with these other 44 Americanos and the delicious food the training center is providing.

Oh, so about the food. I now see the progression and I’m glad they let us down slowly. When we first arrived here and were eating the training center food, we all thought it was pretty good but we would kill for pizza, salads and hamburgers. Then we moved to our training sites and started eating the real-deal Senegalese food with gluttonous amounts of rice and we couldn’t wait to come back to the center to eat their swanky food. Now that I just spent 4 days in a real village, eating nothing but pounded corn and millet with watery leaf sauce I’m so appreciative of everything else I just mentioned. Pounded corn literally tastes like saw dust. No lie. And there is rarely any meat or vegetables involved. Just saw dust and watery sauce. Mmmmm….

My host volunteer, Amanda, warned me that it would be hot in Tamba so I was aware but… actually I don’t have the vocab to explain it. Weird things start happening when its that hot. The first day that I was there during the heat of the day, I seriously spent the entire 4 hours laying on a mat in her back yard area, under a shade structure, carefully making sure that no part of my body was touching any other part of my body. I took a shower 3 times that day. Ha, shower; I still use that term so loosely. Bucket bath, I took a bucket bath three times that day. The second day wasn’t as bad. The sad thing is that it was only 105ish those days and eventually it will reach 120. I heard after a certain temperature it doesn’t much matter if it gets hotter because you can’t even tell.

What else? I forgot to make a list this time. One of the days I was with Amanda we rode 7k to the nearest health post so she could show me what it was like there. While we were there she sees a lady from her village that had a baby two days prior. We talk to the lady, blah, blah, blah. On our 7k bike trek back, 1k of it being off-road, the same lady who popped out a baby two days ago, passes us sitting on the back of her husband’s bicycle! She was straddling a 3-inch wide, metal luggage rack while holding the baby! I couldn’t get over it! Most women in the States don’t leave the hospital for 2 days after having a baby and this lady is off-roading it on a 3-inch saddle. Unbelievable! Being here is definitely desensitizing me. I feel like anything is possible here. If a man walked through the door wearing an actual horse’s head as a hat, you wouldn’t get a rise out of anyone here. Anything is possible. Earlier we passed a bus with no front to it. Just the driver sitting behind nothing, driving down the road, working his route. That being said, its difficult to tell people back home what’s going on because I no longer realize what’s interesting to others. Does that make sense??? I’d probably tell you about the man wearing the horse’s head if that were to happen but less crazy things don’t seem note worthy anymore when 6 months ago I’d be excited to blab all kinds of stuff. Hopefully that makes sense.

I have to give a quick shout out to the bestest friend a gal could ask for, my main man, Donnie Vann! He sent me the coolest care package ever!!! I'm telling you it included a 3lb bag of Haribos, people! Among many other great items! Love you to pieces, DV!

Ok well, I can’t think of anything else right now. I’ll start keeping the list again. Tomorrow we go back to our training towns for 5 days. We come back to the center for a counterpart workshop for a few days and then we go to the beach for the weekend. Each stage rents a beach house at the end of their PST and throws a “rager.” Should be interesting with all 45 of us in one gigantic house. At least we all get along…

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying all kinds of American pleasures. xoxo

Pictures

Ok so I just spent entirely too much time trying to upload pictures to this blog, unsuccessfully, obviously. I can however post pictures easily on Facebook. Coincidence? Perhaps. So here's a link to my Facebook album. Hopefully it works. Let me know.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097819&id=1039699944&l=91b8c5f30a

Heat is setting in...

I found out my assignment this past Thursday. I'll be moving to the region of Tambacounda. My village is 55k southeast of the city of Tambacounda. I have yet to memorize the name of my village, too many vowels, but its not googleable anyway.  I'm the first volunteer to be placed in this village. The population is 1117. The Peace Corps is building me a mud hut with a thatched roof. I won't have electricity or running water. Someone told me that he has lived with and without electricity and that he prefers no electricity because when you do have it, it goes out all the time anyway so its easier to just acclimate to no electricity. I'll try to keep that mentality. Someone told me that there's monkeys in my village. That's pretty cool. I'll be in the jungle and they say it gets hot there. Hmmm...

Once again, I forget if I told you how they told us our site placements. The basketball court at the training center has a big map of Senegal painted on it. They blindfold everyone and lead us to our site on the map. Then everyone takes off their blindfold and sees where they're going and who will be closest to them. A film crew from the news came and recorded it. I think they're using the footage for some Peace Corps media too. I'll have to look into it. Everyone in my stage is pretty cool so I'm near people I like, but my two closest friends are pretty far from me. They're in the desert though, in a region that has the slogan, "Where things go to die." They can come visit me. =) But it has put a sadden tone to training because there isn't much time left and I spend all my time with these guys. We've become so close in only a month. Training forces you to get to know people. Its an interesting process.

So the weather has be great here up until yesterday. Everyday before then has been 85 during the day, maybe high 60's at night. Yesterday and today have been hot. It puts a twist on things. The only thing I've been dreading is the heat. Its nasty. Of course I'll acclimate to it, but I'm not looking forward to the process. Its not even close to how hot its going to be, either. Gotta suck it up!

I just got back to the training center today from a whopping 2 day stint in the village. A little pointless, but whatever. Went to the beach, so that was nice. I'm here until Tuesday and then we leave for "volunteer visits" where we will go to our region and stay for five days with the volunteer who is closest to our site. I talked to my host volunteer the other day and she said its hot there. Good to know. She also said that they are throwing a party at the regional house the night we arrive so that we can meet all the volunteers in my region. I think there are 6 or 7 other people from my stage that are going to Tamba.

Ok, that's all I have for now. I literally just got back but since my village peeps arrived first I want to hoard the internet before the rest get back, creating a wifi traffic jam. Now I must do laundry and shower. I hope all is well. Heard the government got their act back together (well... you know what I mean). Yay, America! Love you guys! xoxo

If you send me mexican food, I'll name my first born after you.

Longest stint in the village is over! 13 days. It wasn’t all that bad, but it’s a long time to be there with only two other Americans to talk to. Luckily my site mates are pretty cool. We aren’t allowed to leave site until after the 4^th week which will be the end of next week. Four other trainees live 3k from my village in a bigger town. I’ll go hang out there when I’m allowed to leave on mine own. There’s a bigger market and more restaurant options. What am I saying… the other town has restaurants, period.

I actually kept notes of random things that I consider blog worthy this time, so I have substantial things to write. Here goes…

There’s a coconut tree in my compound and the kids love trying to get them out of the tree and cracking them open. It was the first time I’d had fresh coconut. Tastes nothing like the fake crap in the States. It doesn’t have much flavor. I pretend its yogurt. Its pretty good.

My site mates, Larocha and Hilary, and I planted our garden. I think I may have mentioned this before. Well, this time when we went back to site some of our plants were missing. Goats are a problem when it comes to gardens but this was obviously not goats. The first day a few plants were missing. The next day half of them were gone. We were so let down. Mostly because our garden is only visible to people, mostly the kids at the school, who know its there. So it must have been the kids but they helped us plant it. Its frustrating because we’re only at this site for another 5 weeks so its THEIR garden, not ours. So why are you stealing from yourself? I have a feeling that I’ll come across this problem again.

Ok, so comic relief. I like to look at situations here and think of how it would look if it were happening in America. Like the other day when I was sitting out in front of Hilary’s compound and a 90 year old grandma came hobbling around the corner carrying a large pick axe. It was hilarious to us. Or when hug steer being followed by a random dog cut across your path on the main road. Its totally normal here. Even better, I was trying to explain to my host sister that people in the States have dogs and cats for pets. My host family has a dog but its only because they are well off. No one has pets here, just farm animals. So I’m converting the currency to explain to her how much it would cost to buy a rare poodle and she can’t get over it! I explained that people let their dogs sleep with them in the bed, that some dogs have shoes and outfits. I’m still not sure she believes me. She refused to believe that a dog can cost more than a chicken. And why on earth would you want to buy a dog when you could buy a chicken, or 40??? It was a great conversation. I heard her telling people about it all week and loved seeing their reactions.

Oh, so I don’t remember if I told you about my room the first time I got back from the village. Its huge by African standards but very much feels like a prison cell. Just a bed and a window. Well, this time when I got back they had put a “tapestry” down for me and hung up a sheet as a curtain. Very exciting! I hung a map of Dakar on the wall and now its much more comfortable. I would love to have a table in there but if I buy one I’ll have to leave it there so I’ll wait until I move to my permanent site.

I don’t know if you remember the Snake game that used to be on cell phones but my score is so high that my phone tells me I’m the “Snake Master!” I like the title. I’m a snake-addict.

The stars here are freaking ridiculous. They remind me what they looked like in the middle-of-nowhere Australia, or the middle of the Sahara. They are so bright and beautiful. If only my camera were quality enough to take a decent picture of them.

So Hilary is from Georgia and Larocha is from Berkley. That being said, Hilary and I talk about Chick-fil-a on a daily basis. Everyday we vividly describe our ideal meal. Mine usually consist of a Chick-fil-a sandwich and/or enchiladas, my grandma’s mac and cheese, and some random vegetable. Oh, and a bowl of queso, of which I would proudly submerge my hand and lick clean. Hopefully my Dad will have a direct flight to Dakar when he comes and can bring me a Chick-fil-a sandwich. Even if its not a direct flight, I’ll take my chances with the salmonella. Have I told you about the food here? I think I have. If not, an example: my host mom makes me scrambled eggs sometimes in the morning. This includes half a stick of butter in the pan, a quarter cup of oil whisked into the eggs and then a little more oil on top while they’re cooking. Its insane. I don’t quite feel like a whale yet, but I’m well on my way.

We’re supposed to filter the water here and then add a few drops of bleach before we drink it. I tried this once. Ever had bleach in your mouth? I didn’t do it again. Luckily I haven’t gotten sick. I mean, its run through a pretty thorough filtration system so I’m not worried about it. Man, it was so sick drinking that bottle of bleach water. I had that bleach film on my tongue forever. Gross!

Oh this is great! So women’s breasts here don’t mean anything! I love it! I’m reading a book written by a former PC volunteer and she makes the analogy that in West Africa boobs have the sexual appeal of elbows. I think its especially nice for me having lived in Florida where at least half the women try to get their shirts’ collar to end just barely above the nipple. I wonder if they lived in a country where men didn’t gravel at cleavage if they would still wear shirts like that? BUT you can’t show your knees. Ohhhhh no, knees are off limits. Cover your knees, you little hussy.

The power goes out daily here. I’ve come to enjoy it when there’s not power at my host’s house. It means no tv and we sit around joking, talking and the kids dance. We’ve had some hilarious moments.  My family is great. I’m really going to miss them when I move out for good. I taught the kids to do cartwheels. They think I’m amazing because I can do a handstand. They also think I’m really smart because I can thumb through the dictionary instead of turning page by page. I translate American songs for them, that they know every word to but have no idea what they mean. I translated an entire Rhianna song the other day, earning mega cool points with the older kids. I’m kind of a big deal! =)

Something else that’s strange and will take some getting used to…. When you really like something you say that its disgusting and you hate it. If you see someone with a new baby, you tell them that their baby is hideous. This is a compliment. I haven’t tried this yet, but I imagine it will be difficult. I think I’ll always be waiting for a horrible reaction. I mean you are literally supposed to say, “Oh your new baby, it’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen!” Maybe I’ll bring this back to the States as a new trend. Try it with your friends who have babies. Let me know.

The book I mentioned earlier is pretty good and anyone interested in more insight into the PC should check it out. Its called ‘Nine Hills to Nambokana.’ The author is Sarah Erdman. She served in Cote d’Ivoire which is pretty close by so a lot of the cultural explanations and traditions are the same. She’s also a health volunteer and explains a lot about her job. You should check it out. Parents, that means you.

Ok, well I’m beat and have a day full of meetings tomorrow. Its always exciting to come back to the Center until day 2 of nothing but meetings. Its not all that bad, but definitely redundant. Hope everyone is doing well. I’m going to try to get some pics on here while I’m at the center this time. We’ll see. Xo Oh, I find out on Thursday where I’ll be moving! Super, super exciting! I’ll let you know the outcome.