the pink lake

Yesterday I went to Dakar area with what the PC calls an intact group. The groups are kinda stupid but we had a fun time together. We went to the training directors house. We met both his wives and all his kids. We ate breakfast and lunch there. we ate a lot...it was really good. In Senegalese fashion we didnt do too much at the house. We watched so TV, CNN in english which was weird. We watched the rodeo too and wer had to explain it to the senegalese we were with. they didnt really get it. In all honesty I dont really see how getting bucked off a cow is really a good idea.

Any way, We talked a lot about American and Senegalese politics. I learned about the corruption and how certain parties here will get votes by paying people to switch parties. There is an election here in feburary, well maybe. It can be postponed by the current president for any number of reasons so we'll see what happens.

Later in the afternoon yesterday we all went to the pink lake. it wasnt too pink...more orangeish. i guess there has to be the right light for the pink to come out. It is really salty. they harvest the salt. It was also really touristy. that was the first toursty place i have seen here so it was interesting. I think it was really strange to see women with short shorts. definitely not acceptable around here.

Today in school we learned more about our villages. I have no time to tell you about that now but it will come later. check out the link to Bryn's blog. she has some photos up! ba beneen yoon! (until the next time)

random update

Well there isnt too much that is new since yesterday but I have all this random stuff that i have wanted to tell you and havent had the time.

1-in addition to the turkeys(well turkey now I think we ate one the other day) and pidgons, my family also owns a turtle. It hangs out in a bucket that collects water from our leaking sink in the bathroom. the first time i noticed him i was in there showering he started climbing out of the bucket. my little brother picks him up and scares all the girls with him. It is pretty funny. I have been sensitized against that thanks to my own little bros and cousins.

2- I want to tell you how much stuff costs. I make $30 (15000 central african francs or cfa)a week while I am in training. It will be more when I get to a village. I get breakfast and lunch at the center and dinner at home. right now I am at a cyber it is 250 cfa for an hour and a half.
500cfa = $1
550 cfa for one airmail stamp for a letter with no more than 3, 8*11 pages
300 cfa -can of coke at a boutique
600 cfa - bottle of coke at restaurant
250 cfa - 1/2 kilo sugar
1000 cfa - hamburger
500-1000 cfa - cold beer
100 cfa - 4 biscrem cookies
3500 cfa- 6 meters of fabric some nicer tissue goes for up to 12000 cfa

3- I learned this week that there really isnt an internet cafe in Kafrine. They are only in the larger town of Kolack which is at least 60 K away from my village. this means I will not be as good at electronically communicating with you as i have been now. you will have to go to good old snail mail.

4- I am going to eat pork tonight. One of my firends Bryn and I found a good little place close to where we live and it is run by christians so they have pig. yay

5- I am going to Dakar tomorrow to see the pink lak. it isnt really in dakar but it is west of here. a small group of us are going to hang out with the training coordinator. he has 2 wives so it will be interesting.

6- I found my first Senegalese boyfriend. (JK) just wanted to see if you were still paying attention. Still am finding lots of men who want to marry me. i find that fact really funny now. i am sure it will get old very soon

ok that is it for now. love you all lots! (yeen, begg naa bu bari!)

end of week 5

So my really exciting news for the day is that i met some women who are working with moms to help them breastfeed. I communicated with them in broken Wolof but basically i told them that my mom in does the same thing. They told me a bit about their program to increase awareness about the greatness of breastfeeding here in Senegal. They also are working on giving vaccinations to children so they wont be as prone to certain diseases. The say it is working because they have seen less and less of some disease. Hopefully, an exchange of knowledge will begin between these women and some lactation consultants in the states.

ok thats all for now. here is your first wolof lesson:

To say hi we say "nanga def?" its like "how are you" and you answer "maangi fii rekk" which literaly means i am here only.

jamm rekk!

saabar

Hey all! I love Thursdays for some reason I always have good days. more on that later.

yesterday we had a dance party at the center. We had a whole bunch of drummers come in and play for us. We invited our families and we all hung around for a couple hours in the afternoon and danced. It was super fun. I danced a bit. it was hot go figure. I got dressed up in a senegalese outfit that I borrowed from my sister. Photos to come later. After the Saabar(dance) We all went out to get some beers and food. I had a burger! not bad. I got to chat with one of my new neighbors an agfo volunteer who lives about 10k away from my village near Kaffrine. It was good to get his stories.

Today Was just good. Had language class and an extra tutoring session for practice. I think i am doing pretty well. Slow but i get the right words out in the right order most of the time. This afternoon we planted more mangos. Then there was a soccer game the trainees against the trainers. i didnt play but i cheered. the trainers won 2-0. oh well. alright it is getting to be time for dinner. now that ramadan is over we eat earlier and that means i go to bed earlier...yay! Talk to you all later!

Korité

Sorry I didnt get back you you all sooner. I was in the sick bay most of the afternoon Saturday and all day sunday. No weird bugs or anything just a sinus infection. My head was killing me and i needed a little peace and quiet. I am feeling better now.

Yesterday was korite which is the big festival after ramadan ends. You eat a lot and you eat well to make up for all you didnt eat during the past month. I drank alot of weird juices too. ok heres how the day went... I slept in a bit and got up for breakfast at 8. We hat this yougart stuff with millet and bananas and pinapple. it was ok. Then we prepared lunch which was the big meal of the day. I cut onions until i was crying my eyes out and i had a blister on my finger. Everyone was lauging at me because of the tears. I didnt tell them about the blister. I got a blister because you dont use a cutting board and your hand is kind of the cutting board. The knives stink and really it would take a lot for them to go through skin so dont worry. After my fam made me stop cutting onions bacause i was crying i just sat around in the kitchen and watched sometimes in disgust at what was being done around me. I wont get into details. It was all worth it because wa had a great meal in the afternoon.

After lunch we napped. Around 4 or so we got ready. I put on my senegalese outfit and i even wore make up. I went out to the neighboors houses. On Korite you as everyone for their forgevness an they grant it. So we did that most of the evening. It was interesting to be a white person (toubob) in local garb. Definitely got some stares and side comments. on the upside my Wolof is getting better so i can respond appropriately.

Dinner for korite was low key and i went to bed right afterwards. Now that I dont have to rush home after school i will have more time to write. there is a lot I want to tell you about. But this is enough for now. Talk to you all later. Keep the letters coming I love getting them:) Later gators!

site discovery

I found out today that I am going to the Kaolack region of Senegal near Kaffrine. Ok thats all i can say now i am in a hurry. I'll get back tomorrow!

yay one photo

I tried again to upload photos and you only get this one of some trainees in the foyer at the center. As far as I know every one has been having trouble with photos. I will probably send, snail mail, some home on a disk and have them uloaded from there.

This morning I sat in the kitchen with most of the women in my family as they prepared dinner. They start working on food for dinner right when they wake up. It was neat to see an kind of disgusting too. There was a lot of raw dead fish and their heads and their eyes just staring at me. The use everything so i guess when i sit around the bowl I really dont know what I am eating. I also saw these tiny dried shrimp that the crush up and i guess use it for seasoning or in a sauce. It smelled not so good. Other then that everything else was "normal". We are having ocra, fish and rice tonight to eat. I usually dont eat that much because we havent been eating until 930-10pm and i go to bed right after that. have to get up before everyone at 6am for school

Went out to lunch today and had a ham and chees sandwich it was great! My family, being muslim, doesnt eat pig so it was nice for a change. ok i am running out of time. talk to you all later!

week 3

I updated you about a little bit of my week but now I have a lot of time so I am going to try to tell you all about it. Last Sat. night we did go out. there is this great little bar that has a nice tree lined outside patio. There were a ton of trainees there so it was a bit crazy. PCTs arent allowed out after 12 so it was a fairly early night.

Sunday, I went to the Grand Market. I just learned that it is the second biggest one in Senegal. Well it was packed and so busy. people lined the streets and my favorite part was when cars tried to come through. I was there with my host mom and a guy that stays at our house. I think he must be related I just dont know how yet. He is 30 and his name is Abu. He is awesome and helps me with my Wolof a lot. Anyway the market... Abu and my mom had to take my hand to take me through the market. School started on Monday so thats why it was so busy. The cars would just drive straight through all these people, fortunately i still have all my toes. We went through the meat aisle and let me tell you I never want to do that again. let me just say stinky!!! Riding a couple hours in a fish truck was better smelling then this (yes i road in the back of a truck filled with fish). After the market i didnt do much.

School on monday and tuesday was pretty much same old. Lots of language. I think it is getting much better. We had an evaluation today and my teacher said that i am doing well. I have my first test on tuesday so we will see how that goes. on Wed and thurs I did get my first real dose of agroforestry. We learned about nuseries and started a mini one of our own. I finally got my hands dirty and it felt great. We also had a very interesting session about Islam. It is such a huge part of life here and I know so little about it so it was very informative. Yesterday and today I had language classes again...only five more weeks. I get sworn in Nov 18 or 17 what ever day is friday. Next friday we find out our villages! I cant wait for that! I will find out who I will be living close to. I have a guess that i am going to Kedegu(sp?) it is the SE corner of senegal near guinea bissau. Well see soon

The other exciting news is that i got my hair braided today. it too a couple of hours but i think it is going to be so much easier to take care of. It is comfortable. at first i worried that it would be way too tight but is is great. It think it looks cool too...I will take photos. ok thats all for now. I might be back tomorrow for some more. I miss you all a ton! jamm ak jamm!

I planted trees today

Today we started our test nursery. We sowed seeds like papya, cashew, and, mango. We will have little seedling trees in a few weeks. There is so much to tell you and so little time.

This week we had our health class on malaria. we had to prick our own fingers and make a slide with our blood. it was just a test run because if we ever suspect that we have malaria in the future we have to test gather our own blood sample ourselves. It was kinda cool i have never done that before and it was like science class.

I also picked up my outfit from the tailor yesterday. it is pretty nice but hot and in this heat i dont know how long i will be able to where it but it will be good for korite the party the day after ramadan ends. My host family says i am senegalese now. ok i have to run. i will have more time this weekend to update you. I got a cell phone too so email me if you want the number and you can call me! later gators!

I realize that i have started to get used to seeing certain thing and accepting certain cultural norms here yet you have no idea. without photos (i am working on it) it is hard for you to understand exactly where i am living and what it is like. I already tried to describe my house so now I will tell you about my neighboorhood.

I live in a neighboorhood with dirt roads that arent really ever driven on. most homes are single story made from cement and line the streets. There are little boutiques and telecentres(where i use the phone) on almost every corner. There are also a lot of animals walking around. On my walk to the school bus I see the same pig every morning rolling around in the mud and the trash. He makes me laugh. There is also a donkey that hangs out around there, makes me smile too. There are a lot of goats and some chickens. It is interesting because they always seem to know where their owners live. I guess they know because thats where they get some food. There are also some stray cats and dogs around but that doesnt seem to be a huge problem.

One thing that i dont think i am used to yet is the amound of standing water in the streets and the trash. It is really smelly, some places more so then others. I dont think there is a something like a landfill here. it all ends up in piles in town and in the outskirts of town. with that said I think the people here are very resourceful and dont produce the amount of trash that we do in america.

As for the people they are very nice and very generous. If they had nothing else they would give you the shirt off their back. You share everything here: meals, clothes, shoes, etc. Everyone is family even if you arent related. There is a single guy who comes over every night and eats with us. the hospitality is incredible. being social is also important. on my way over to the cyber i got called to by a couple of guys so i went over and used my little knowledge of wolof to introduce myself. now they are my friends and everytime i see them i have to say hi and stop and greet them. That makes walking anywhere slow going but now i have allies and that is important. Ok i have to admit that one of the guys did want to marry me but i laughed and joked with him. i told him the PC doesnt allow me to get married. He understood and that was that. by the way that was my second marriage proposal. Some of the girls here really dont like it when that happens to them but i think it is funny and i can let it roll off my sholders.

OK i guess that is all for now. I would love to tell you about senegalese dress but that is too hard without photos. I am going to the tailor tomorrow to get a traditional outfit made! I am also going out tonight for the first time with some other trainees. We are eating at a restaurant and getting some coold beers... yay! talk to you soon! jemm rekk! (peace only!)

Training

the intensive language training has begun. I have classes in Wolof 4 hours a day. There is so much to learn. My host mom has been really good abut helping me with the lang. We probably sat down and talked for an hour last night. We didnt talk about that much but I really learned new vocab.

Let me tell you a little about my house. It is cement with tile floor. We have a tv but we only get one channel. The young and the restless is on at 10pm but its about 3 years old. There is also some spanish soap on that EVERYONE here watches. It is a pretty sleezy one. Anyway... We have a couch. Windows with bars but no screens (i have a mosquito net) we have 2 turkeys. They asked me if i had turkeys at home and thought it was weird that i didnt. we also have pidgons...maybe 10 of them. One thing I can say is that it is hot hot hot. I wake up in a pool of sweat. I know it isnt a pretty thought but I am getting used to it. Well I am off to break the fast with my family. chat with you soon.

for right now I am good on stuff...i will definitely know when i want some packages :) I always appreciate mail though. I am also working on the photo thing. it is so slow here so i am looking into my options.