So I'm riding my bike down a heavily trafficked road the other day in the city of Tamba when all of a sudden the man in front of me almost eats pavement. His bike was sliding all of the place but he caught himself without ever actually stopping. He was visibly shaken by this and looked around to see if anyone else saw what happened. Just as he turned back around to look forward, he slammed into a goat that was eating something off the road. This is Africa.
A bunch of us came to the house this week to celebrate Hailey's birthday on the way to our language seminars. Andy came down from the north, which is exciting because I haven't seen him since we installed. Costa made the best black bean burgers the other night! Oh my! They were better than any black bean burger I've ever had in the States. He also made some kind of spring rolls, that were delicious. Austin made basil potato salad, a five layer dip and coleslaw. We feasted and it was AMAZING!!! I've been introduced to a website, "foodporndaily.com" that I drool over quite often. You should check it out.
Its rained a couple of times this week. Its cool but the humidity is out of control. It floods here during the rainy season and just the amount of standing water after a couple of rains is alarming because I know its going to be so bad once it starts raining everyday. I'm not looking forward to wading through muddy-trash-water with God knows what diseases breeding in it. From what I'm told, any little cut you have on your feet will turn into some festering sore. Mmmmm... jealous, aren't ya?
Oh, we've also been making "mango Ardo." Ardo is vanilla yogurt that kind of tastes like cake batter. We cut up mangoes and mix them into the Ardo. Mangoes here are like no other mango you can find anywhere else in the world. Its worth the plane ticket to come try them.
That's all I have. Sorry, it wasn't even anything exciting. I'm headed out today (with a PC ride meaning A/C!!!) to Kedougou for a language seminar. Not really looking forward to it, but hopefully it won't be that bad. I'm staying in another volunteers village until the 1st. Then I go to the city of Kedougou and meet up with all the people I've been missing so terribly from my stage! I'm so excited to see everyone!! Then we party for the 4th! All you can eat pull pork. Yes, please! Hope all is well Stateside. xoxo
Monday, June 27, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Still here...
Yeah, see, what happened was...Monday morning I was supposed to bike back with Hilary but I woke up feeling like crap. There's no way I could have biked it. Hilary went anyway and I stayed here to rest. Slept A LOT, it was great! I felt so bad for not going with her. I was going to leave the next morning but woke up to it pouring rain, which is what we were waiting on in order to go back to Manda to work on the garden. SO I'm still here. Mike and I will leave in the morning, but since he doesn't have his bike with him, we have to take an Alham. I was really looking forward to biking back. I'm going to try to bike from Manda to my village tomorrow afternoon, but it depends on how much work we get done at the garden and if I'm beat. I'll probably just suck it up and bike it. I feel so guilty for staying at the house for this long. We get "village guilt" when we're gone for a while. Leaving this house is the hardest thing I have to do here. The littlest thing can convince us to stay. Great people that speak English to hang with, access to a variety of food, power, refrigerator, COLD WATER, and internet. There's showers too but the water is hot. Its still nice to have a shower though. Its the closest thing to America that I have readily available. I don't feel too guilty because I'll be doing work tomorrow so its not all gluttonous... but I have been shoving my face. The boys made tuna melts today for lunch! They were amazing! I'm a little ashamed to admit how much "chicken spam" I've been eating. Its so disgustingly delicious! There's no such thing as cold cuts, chicken breasts or ground beef here. Well, some form of that is here but its a pain in the butt to get plus all the meat you can find usually involves a lot of fat or bones. Whatever, I'm not going to defend my love for chicken spam. That stuff if gooooooood!
Because of the various ways we travel its impractical to bring a lot of stuff with you. Therefore, I left my towel and pillow in village. There's usually extras of both here. This time there's not. The maid hasn't washed towels in a while and the pillows that I can find are scary. So I've been using a pillow case as a towel and a pile of my clothes as a pillow. This is an example of situations where we say, "T.I.A." (This Is Africa). And yes, we have a maid at the house. The volunteers that live in Tamba pay house dues each month. They're 5,000 CFA = $10. Part of that goes to pay Aissatou, the maid. She's worked here for 9 years or something. She must think we're completely crazy. The house is always so dirty. There's stuff everywhere. All of our laptops lying around, empty beer bottles, piles of dishes, people's bags, magazines, mattresses, etc. She comes in and mops around our stuff and washes the sheets and towels. Well, sometimes.
Oh I forgot to tell you. I found out that my host Mom is not actually my Dad's wife. She's his brother's wife. Her husband lives in Paris because he works there. He called the other day and she had me talk to him. It was a pretty difficult conversation in my broken French and janky Pulaar. Someone else in my family lives and works in America, but my family doesn't know exactly where. Since Senegal is so small, they just assume that America is too. Its funny. Because they've heard that it snows in America, they assume everywhere there gets snow. I still don't think that they believe me that in the southern part of the country it can be almost as hot as Senegal. Anyway, I hope I'm around the next time the guy who lives in America calls. I bet he's either in NYC or somewhere really random, like Montana. Whenever I meet people who have been to America or know someone who has, its always somewhere random that they've been.
I think that's all I have for now. I'm going to try to stay in village til the 24th. I'm coming back that weekend for Hailey's birthday and then Hilary and I have to go to Kedegou (where there's waterfalls!) on the 26th for our language seminar. We'll spend 4 days with the other 3 volunteers that learned Pulaar Fuuta from our stage and our language teachers. That's over on the 1st and then on the 3rd and 4th is the 4th of July party at the Kedegou regional house. Its my first all-volunteer party. There's 240 of us "in country" now! Should be an interesting party, to say the least. Hope all is well in Amurka! xoxo
Because of the various ways we travel its impractical to bring a lot of stuff with you. Therefore, I left my towel and pillow in village. There's usually extras of both here. This time there's not. The maid hasn't washed towels in a while and the pillows that I can find are scary. So I've been using a pillow case as a towel and a pile of my clothes as a pillow. This is an example of situations where we say, "T.I.A." (This Is Africa). And yes, we have a maid at the house. The volunteers that live in Tamba pay house dues each month. They're 5,000 CFA = $10. Part of that goes to pay Aissatou, the maid. She's worked here for 9 years or something. She must think we're completely crazy. The house is always so dirty. There's stuff everywhere. All of our laptops lying around, empty beer bottles, piles of dishes, people's bags, magazines, mattresses, etc. She comes in and mops around our stuff and washes the sheets and towels. Well, sometimes.
Oh I forgot to tell you. I found out that my host Mom is not actually my Dad's wife. She's his brother's wife. Her husband lives in Paris because he works there. He called the other day and she had me talk to him. It was a pretty difficult conversation in my broken French and janky Pulaar. Someone else in my family lives and works in America, but my family doesn't know exactly where. Since Senegal is so small, they just assume that America is too. Its funny. Because they've heard that it snows in America, they assume everywhere there gets snow. I still don't think that they believe me that in the southern part of the country it can be almost as hot as Senegal. Anyway, I hope I'm around the next time the guy who lives in America calls. I bet he's either in NYC or somewhere really random, like Montana. Whenever I meet people who have been to America or know someone who has, its always somewhere random that they've been.
I think that's all I have for now. I'm going to try to stay in village til the 24th. I'm coming back that weekend for Hailey's birthday and then Hilary and I have to go to Kedegou (where there's waterfalls!) on the 26th for our language seminar. We'll spend 4 days with the other 3 volunteers that learned Pulaar Fuuta from our stage and our language teachers. That's over on the 1st and then on the 3rd and 4th is the 4th of July party at the Kedegou regional house. Its my first all-volunteer party. There's 240 of us "in country" now! Should be an interesting party, to say the least. Hope all is well in Amurka! xoxo
Sunday, June 12, 2011
The day I almost dug a hole...
I have work to do!!! I've never been so excited to have something to do! I feel like I have purpose now. Geez, I wish I would have found this weeks ago. I'll try to give you the short. An agriculture volunteer, Mike, has a Master Farmer site, which means you help a local start and maintain a hectare sized garden in order to teach them all you know in the hopes they will continue after you leave. Mike just started this site and had only measured out the beds when I heard about it and jumped on board. The garden is in a town called Manda, which is about 50k south of my village. Hilary is doing the Master Farmer project with me too, so we biked there Friday morning to meet up with Mike. Oh, Hilary and I don't know ANYTHING about this agriculture stuff so poor Mike will have to hold our hand for a bit. But we'll catch on quick, hopefully before he gets too annoyed with us. So the plan was to get there at 8:30, dig for an hour or so and then head to the regional house. In true Senegalese form, Mike had trouble catching a ride up from his town so Hilary and I sat around with the Master Farmer, Mamadian, until 11am when Mike finally got there. (*If you're reading this Mike, I know, it wasn't your fault. AGGH!) Mamadian is probably the coolest person I've met since I installed. And since he speaks French, Pulaar and a little English, he's super helpful in my quest to learn Pulaar. Once Mike got there we attempted to dig the first hole, realizing all too quickly that the ground is rock solid and we should wait for the first rain to come...any day now. It was also scorching by this time so it didn't take too much to convince us to pack up and head to Tamba. We then, of course, sat around waiting for the mini-bus to leave until 3pm. (I can't call them "mini-bus" anymore. That's a description of what they are, not what we call them. They're "Alhams" to us. Mentally jot that down.) So once it rains, we'll go back to Manda and actually dig holes. Eventually they will put a tool shed out there and a water source and then we can camp out there so we can start work super early in the mornings. I've just got to bite the bullet and bike a 50k so that I know I can do it. I did the 35k the Hil's village last week and it wasn't all that bad. I left at 7am so the weather was nice. I'm loving all the biking. I prefer it to any other mode of transportation. Well, except air-conditioned Peace Corps rides, but that never happens.
Random things: For lunch yesterday I had steamed carrots, sliced tomato and a hard boiled egg. No salt. No seasoning. Just plain vegetables. I think its the 3rd best thing I've had since I've been here.
I'm losing the battle of trying to keep sunscreen on me and that sucks! My arms are so tan and feel an undercooked pound cake. "Just put on more sunscreen and more often" is simply not possible, but I can hear you thinking that.
All my clothes are falling apart. I need clothes.
I've bought material to make my 4th of July outfit. I'm making "America shorts." You can expect pictures... if internet allows such an upload. And yes, I'll wear a shirt too.
I have a package from Donnie waiting on me at the training center in Thies and I won't be able to get it until the middle of July! I want to go get it SO bad! I know its full of goodies and I want them! Its too far and I have other travel/work stuff between now and then.
Ok I don't have anymore random thoughts right now. Need to start writing things down again. Tomorrow Hilary and I are biking back to our villages. Its 30k to Gouloumbou, where there's a hotel with a pool that we fully intend to swim in, with hopes that its impossibly cold. Afterwards I will decide if I have it in me to bike the 25k to my village or wait around for the Alham that comes through at 6. Hopefully I can bike it. I'm so excited to go swimming!!! And tomorrow is Gouloumbou's market day so I'm going to buy a giant bag of veggies for my family! Yeah!
Hope everyone is doing great. xoxo
Random things: For lunch yesterday I had steamed carrots, sliced tomato and a hard boiled egg. No salt. No seasoning. Just plain vegetables. I think its the 3rd best thing I've had since I've been here.
I'm losing the battle of trying to keep sunscreen on me and that sucks! My arms are so tan and feel an undercooked pound cake. "Just put on more sunscreen and more often" is simply not possible, but I can hear you thinking that.
All my clothes are falling apart. I need clothes.
I've bought material to make my 4th of July outfit. I'm making "America shorts." You can expect pictures... if internet allows such an upload. And yes, I'll wear a shirt too.
I have a package from Donnie waiting on me at the training center in Thies and I won't be able to get it until the middle of July! I want to go get it SO bad! I know its full of goodies and I want them! Its too far and I have other travel/work stuff between now and then.
Ok I don't have anymore random thoughts right now. Need to start writing things down again. Tomorrow Hilary and I are biking back to our villages. Its 30k to Gouloumbou, where there's a hotel with a pool that we fully intend to swim in, with hopes that its impossibly cold. Afterwards I will decide if I have it in me to bike the 25k to my village or wait around for the Alham that comes through at 6. Hopefully I can bike it. I'm so excited to go swimming!!! And tomorrow is Gouloumbou's market day so I'm going to buy a giant bag of veggies for my family! Yeah!
Hope everyone is doing great. xoxo
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