Grab a snack, its a long one...

I think 9 days is the perfect amount of time to stay in village. I was super productive, got to know my family, set up my hut (decked it out, really), had a mini-meltdown, recovered from said melt-down and learned a little Pulaar. Now I’m back at the regional house with good people, awaiting the arrival of more good people so that we can have a relaxing, American-inspired weekend.

So my family is HUGE! I would say there are about 12-15 adults and maybe 20 children that live in the compound. From what I gather, my Dad has 2 wives. The first wife is who has been designated as my Mom, but the second wife “Neene Galle” (literally “House Mom”) is more of my caretaker. She makes sure I’m fed and she’s my go-to person when I need to know how, where or when to do things. I think my Mom is a retired “house mom” so as far as I can tell, she doesn’t do all that much these days. The house mom, who I’ll refer to as Neene from here on out, does most of the work… pulling water, cooking meals, cracking peanuts, etc.  There’s so much to explain, I don’t even know where to start and I anticipate that it won’t be as descriptive as it needs to be to make you understand. This may as well be an alternate universe. 

I won’t tell too much about my hut because I fully intend to post pictures, although today’s internet strength has failed miserably. Hopefully tomorrow will be better for uploading purposes. My family is great. My Dad is the chief of the village and a man of few words. I think he likes me, and I’m pretty sure he respects me as an equal, which is a huge deal here. That’s how I feel anyway. He may not feel the same way, but I believe that people act as you condition them; therefore he respects me as an equal. I really want him to be overprotective of me but I’m having difficulty conveying that to him, as I’m not used to playing the damsel in distress role. Last names are a status symbol and since I share his last name, I hope people associate me as the chief’s daughter. Oh yeah, they changed my name from my training village name, Salimatou. I knew my last name would change but was trying to convince my counterparts to go back and convince my family to let me keep Salimatou, for no other reason than I dig the name. My new name is Aminata Kanté. Everyone calls me Ami, pronounce “ommy.” I’m so used to responding to Salimatou that it took me a few days to start answering to Ami. I don’t mind the name in itself though. There are definitely worse options.

All of this will sound funny because I don’t really know all the facts, not being able to speak enough of the language and all. I’m pretty sure my family is mostly peanut farmers. If I had to guess, I would say most of the village men are. So a lot of the day is spent shelling raw peanuts. In no way am I expected to do this, but if I want to spend time with the other women without just staring at them while they work, then it means shelling peanuts. This doesn’t sound all that bad but once you hit the 1000^th peanut your fingertips start to crack and peel. They take the peanuts in between their knuckles and crack them on the ground and open them one handed. I tried this knuckle method and it equates to bloody knuckles. So I just hold them in between my thumb and index and hit them on the ground, but still have to use two hands to open them. I think its odd that they don’t make a separate pile for shells and nuts. They just sift the nuts out later. Such is life, I guess. We open SO MANY peanuts everyday. The upside is that it’s an all-you-can-eat peanut buffet. Lunch is usually white rice with an oily peanut sauce. Dinner is usually what they call couscous, I call sawdust, with a watery peanut or leaf sauce. I don’t eat much at dinner. I try to fill up on peanuts beforehand. I make my own breakfast which is instant coffee that takes like nuclear wastes should taste, and oatmeal or protein bars until I ran of both. Send protein bars!!! 

I try to hang with Neene during her work throughout the day, but I can’t. I don’t even come close. I can pull 4 or 5 times from the well before my arms fail. She can pull, well, she could just keep pulling water all day. Its amazing how many buckets she’ll pull. The pulley system fell into the well the other day and she was still pulling water by just pulling the rope up and over the well! I couldn’t believe it.

Since I don’t spend any money while I’m in village, I don’t ever think about money. That’s one of the best things about being in village. However, water is my new currency. I have two buckets for water storage and my water filter and a clay pot that I store filtered water in to keep it cooler. When all 4 of these water storage devices are full, I feel rich! When they are running low, I know I have to work soon. The entire day is spent obtaining and maintaining the 3 basic human needs: food, water and shelter. I can’t explain how nice it is to live so simplistically. I should also explain that even though pictures depict this place to look like a “save the children” commercial, it is in fact NOT a “save the children” commercial. The people I live with are content and laugh more than any group of people I have ever spent time with. Pulaar people are especially charismatic and have a sarcastic, insulting sense of humor. I fit in well!

Oh, the meltdown. We were told that being here will make you feel bi-polar. I think I’ve explained this in previous posts. I didn’t get it, having never been bi-polar and usually having a pretty good grip of my emotions. Being sarcastic and insulting, they always make fun of everything I say in my butchered Pulaar. I always laugh with them and make them explain how to fix what I said. Then one morning we had a misunderstanding on trying to go to the market (which is a one shot deal as there is one bus that goes to the weekly market) and we missed the bus. No one was upset, I just didn’t understand what had happened… still don’t. It was 6am so I went back to bed. When I woke up and came back out to hang with the family, all of a sudden their laughing at me was really annoying. I tried to brush it off but was getting more and more frustrated. Having never tried to learn another language, they don’t understand how frustrating it can be. I took a sip of water and choked on it. They kept saying I was sick so finally I said, “Yep I’m sick. I’m going to rest.” I laid in my backyard the rest of the day, questioning what the hell I had gotten myself into, why the sky is blue and how will my grandchildren pay for college. Those kinds of things. I actually read two books in their entirety. That was the day I decided to come to Tamba for the weekend. I rallied the troops and here we are. The days in village after the meltdown were fine. Its nice to get away though.

I brought a bunch of photos of my family and friends with me. The first time I showed them to my training host family I thought that I was in too many of the photos. I wished I had more of just other people without me in the photo. Now that I’ve made a “picture hanging contraption” and have to look at photos of myself everyday, its reassuring to see that at one time in my life I was clean and looked decent. It gives me hope that one day I can return to that and feel some resemblance of attractive. I don’t necessarily mind being dirty and unattractive here because we all are and it helps us bond. In village I don’t look in the mirror for days on end. I don’t wear makeup or my contacts. When I come back to regional house I put my contacts in, slap on some mascara and get dressed up by wearing earrings. These are the little things that make me happy.

Well, I’ve been procrastinating on finishing this and now its an hour before I have to catch the ride to village. I’m going to try kind of, sort of hard to stay there this time until June 20^th. This may be unrealistic, I’m not sure yet. I’m going to attempt to bike the 30k to Hilary’s village at some point so maybe getting out for a day will help me to stay there longer. I’ve been at the regional house for 5 days and I think it’s a little too long to hang out here. But it was SO much fun. A bunch of us came in and cooked up a storm, watched movies and played lots of games. I had some skirts made while I was here too and love them! I didn’t think I would want to wear skirts here because I don’t in the States hardly ever but they are so much cooler than pants. Shorts aren’t an option here. Those knees will get you starred at, for sure. Women will sit around topless, but you bust out a knee and you’re a tramp! Oh, I never succeeded at posting pictures on here. I don’t know why its so much harder than posting them on Facebook. So the pictures of my hut are on Facebook. This might be a reoccurring problem so if you don’t have the Facebook and care that much about seeing the pics, you should get an account. Ok, I’m going to go sweat my life out in a mini bus for 3 hours. You sit back and have a glass of something over ice. xoxo 

And now I sweat...

I've been in Tamba-meme (the capital of the region of Tamba) for 3 days now. For lack of a better vocabulary, its hot. Sticky, nasty hot. The other volunteers from the region have been staying at the regional house with us to help us buy everything we need to take to village with us. (I don't know why but we say "to village" instead of "to the village.") Its nice to spend time with people who have already been through this process. They have been so helpful, offering support for our near-future breakdowns. Their stories are funny about their own breakdowns. A lot of little things will happen throughout the day and you'll suck it up being a strong PCV and all, but then your pen runs out of ink, literally not figuratively, and you can't stop crying for an hour. I anticipate these moments and look forward to laughing about them later.
Yesterday I bought a big metal trunk that will act as my closet, one pan, two spoons, one fork, a tupperware container, two plastic cups, one metal cup, an obnoxious plastic mat with a picture of a lion that will be a barrier between me and the concrete, a metal tea kettle, a plastic kettle (aka toilet paper), two plastic buckets with lids for water storage, a big yellow baignoire for washing clothes, a bucket of white primer, red, blue and yellow concentrated paint to add to the primer to make pretty colors, rope, thin metal wire, two foam mattresses because I'll have an indoor and an outdoor bed, and a small gas burner. Today I need to buy gardening tools, a plate, a solar charger, a short wave radio, soap, sponges, salt and pepper. I'll also have a trunk kept at the regional house where I can store stuff like the clothes that I won't need in village, like the cashmere sweater and peacoat that I wore to staging in DC (its too funny to me that I actually have those things here with me) and my laptop.
All in all, I'm really excited to move into my village. Its just going to be a lot of work today and tomorrow involving lots of sweat. I can't wait to unpack my suitcases for good. I've been living out of them this whole time because I've been back and forth between the training center and my host family. I'm excited to establish my own routine and to cook my own breakfast. I'm ready to learn enough of the language that I can get the basic idea of what locals are saying and can convey my basic thoughts. I feel as though that's the first hurdle and then learning more technicalities will come easier afterwards. Once my Pulaar is at the level my French is now, I think I'll be comfortable. Quite a few volunteers are really advanced in their languages and I hope to achieve this. Its those volunteers that seem the most integrated and have a good time with even the little, monotonous interactions. I have high hopes of establishing relationships like I had with my host Mom and sister during training. I think the sooner I can do that, the sooner my time in village will be much more enjoyable. Just people to have comfortable, relaxed conversation with when I'm bored, that are receptive of my random thoughts and feelings. I'm looking forward to getting my biking ability back up to par. I miss riding in France everyday. I hope I don't let the heat deter me from riding as much as I want to right now.
Like I said, its hot here. After the hot season is the rainy season and apparently it floods. Even with it being hot and dry right now there are plenty of places you must walk that are so littered and dirty, I can't even imagine how gross it will be once its flooded and/or muddy. Wish I would have brought my goulashes! C'est la vie.
Ok that's all I have for now. Maybe I'll update this again before I leave tomorrow. If you're reading this and you love me, call me during the next 5 weeks to check on my mental stability. 221 7767 20361.
Hope everyone is doing well. Make your A/C a little cooler in my honor. xoxo

Last day of cool weather...

I passed my final language test! Yay! And haven't thought about the language since. After Wednesday I'll have no choice but to learn it, so I'll worry about it then. Swear-in in Dakar at the Ambassador's house was great. The place is HUGE and so American... its refreshing to come across things like this. We had a ceremony where our country director, training director, the Ambassador and some other uber important people talk to us. We're the first stage to swear-in in Senegal this year and its the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps, so that's pretty cool. I've obviously never been to another swearing-in so I don't know if they did anything special for us or not, but it was a good time regardless. They made a compilation of footage from the ceremony and put it on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTL-u1UM4oI
After the ceremony, we had hors d'oeuvres in the Ambassador's posh back yard. Good thing I was wearing my fancy clothes because it may have been a little too classy for me. I mean, she has green grass in her backyard. Whoa, haven't seen that stuff in a while. The food was so good! Little toasts smothered with guacamole topped with shrimp! Meat on a stick! Quiche... multiple types of quiche! Fataya! Frozen creme puffs drizzled with fudge! AND ice in bottomless glasses of soda! America overload, for sure! Afterwards, we went to the Atlantic club (which yesterday I found out used to be the American club until 9/11 when they changed the name so it wouldn't be targeted. Interesting) for cocktails and swimming. We came back to Thies and went to dinner, where I enjoyed the most delicious goat cheese and beef pizza! A bunch of people went out dancing afterwards but I was so beat, I couldn't go to sleep fast enough. BUT now I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer instead of PC Trainee. Pretty exciting! But now I have to take care of myself, like finding transportation and stuff. The security blanket is definitely being ripped off. I'm ready.... I hope!
A little more than half of our group left today to go to their regions. Its pretty sad. I won't see them again until the 4th of July party. Its kind of a sad tone around here, like the end of summer camp or something. I've never actually been to summer camp, but I would imagine this is what it feels like. I'm one of the lucky ones who get to leave tomorrow, the only downside being that its at 6am instead of 2pm like today's group. Not too bad though. The Tamba peeps have chosen the theme of "black tie affair" for our install party. We have to buy everything from a "fuky jye" (definitely butchered that spelling, but its phonetic). A fuky jye is basically like Goodwill in the States. I don't know where they get these clothes from but sometimes they still have Goodwill tags on them. Its just huge piles of clothes in the market that you can sift through and buy what you want. You know I love thrift stores hence I love fuky jye. Have to find out how to spell that.
Ok, have to run. I'll try to update this again before I leave Tamba-meme. Oh, CNN followed one of the chicks here around while we were in DC for staging and they aired the footage the other day. If you pay attention you can see me. And I posted more pictures on Picasa. Love to all... xoxo
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2011/05/14/baldwin.peace.corps.at.50.cnn?iref=allsearch

Final days of kushy Africa...

I had to say bye to my host family yesterday. I only lived with them for 6 weeks and I was so incredibly sad to leave them. I can't even imagine how hard its going to be to leave after living with a family for 2 years. There's stories of people that don't like their host families so its easy to leave them, but I'd prefer to really love my family even if it means its super hard to leave them. I just hope I have women in my new family like my host Mom and sister in my last family. They quickly became my friend and I genuinely looked forward to spending time with them. One of my last nights there the three of us laid in my Mom's bed and had "girl talk" for a couple of hours while the men sat in the foyer and made tea. It was one of those moments where you're reminded that when it comes down to it, everyone on this planet really is the same. Those moments are great... and a large part of the reason I'm here. Oh, and men make tea here. Its small shot-type glasses and tastes as though it could be equal parts sugar and water. They drink tea at least twice a day.

We swear-in this Friday! I can't believe training is almost over. It flew by, slash I feel like I've been here forever. We all get dressed up in our new fancy Senegalese clothes and go to the ambassador's house in Dakar for the ceremony. We take an oath to not kill anyone here, then they feed us (yay for food made by Americans!) and then we come back to the training center for a party. We picked out fabric and had our outfits made. I had them make me an extra huge head wrap. Don't worry, there will be pictures! The traditional Senegalese outfits are so pretty and elaborately decorated with embroidery, but no matter what you do, you still can't pull it off like the Senegalese do. We just look awkward in them. Its fun times though to get dressed up. On Sunday we travel to our regions. It takes 8 hours to get to Tamba from here. I think there are 7 of us that are moving there from this training group. We stay at the regional house (with a big "install" party one of the nights) for a couple of days and go to buy all the stuff we'll need for our huts, like beds, buckets aka "showers," floor mats, paint, etc. Wednesday we go around and meet all the officials like chief of police and then we "install" into our villages. After that we're on our own. My closest PC neighbor is 30k from me. Yikes! Our country director has given us a "5 week challenge" to stay in our villages for the first five weeks. Basically means not going to the regional house where there's wifi, electricity and a refrigerator. Those who succeed are invited to an "American" dinner at his house. I'm going to attempt this five week challenge but I don't think I'll attend the dinner regardless because he lives in Dakar and its far. Who knows, maybe after 5 weeks in village I'll be willing to travel 9 hours for a cheeseburger. You just never know. Oh, speaking of food... Hilary introduced me to website "This is why you're fat." Google it. Its so amazing! We drooled over it for an hour today. Jackie, there's tons of great ideas on there for the Porkatorium!

I've spent the better part of the day online trying to upload photos. Only twice did I envision throwing my computer through the wall. I also switched email addresses, in case you didn't get the mass email I sent out. Uploading pictures to the blog still takes the longest so I dumped them on Picasa. I think I've posted a link on the right side of the blog now so you can see the pictures through Picasa. Let me know if you can't. I really hope that works because I'm running out of options. I'm the antithesis of computer savvy. Its pathetic. The new email is marieschuster361@gmail.com. Oh yeah, also on the right hand side is where you can put your email address and then it will email you when I write on here. If you want... no pressure. =P

Ok, I have to go study for my final language test. Ahhhh, if I don't test into the appropriate level then I have to stay here an extra week to work one-on-one with my language facilitator. The only downside to that is missing the install party. You know I can't pass up a good party. Its a themed party, too.

Hope everyone is doing great and happy! xoxo