Two Weeks to Go

Me with a new born goat. I named him Oreo.

The picture above is from my volunteer visit a few weeks ago. One goat gave birth in the compound at my host volunteer's site and I grabbed him up a few hours afterwards. They are so cute.

Only two weeks remain of PST and my nerves are starting to get the better of me. Today our community counterparts - respected, skilled, enthusiastic members of our villages - started to arrive for two days of sessions on what their job will be, getting to know what our training has been, get some of their own, and also getting to know each other. That last one is particularly important because we'll be working with them and relying on them for our projects, language learning, cultural interventions (ie - no, wearing pants does not mean she's easy), and friendship for the next two years. Mine showed up this morning around 10 or so. Did not expect that. They took the night bus apparently.

Nothing says, 'go study your Pulaar' like having your counterpart ask, 'you still don't know Pulaar?'

I'm doomed.

The last long stay in Mbour ended on a very tired note. The malaria medication I am on, called Mefloquine (no, I have no idea if that is really how it is spelled), does not agree with my system very well. At first I had dreams so vivid I didn't know if I was really asleep or awake, so when I would actually wake up (my alarm going and everything) I felt like I hadn't slept at all. I think I've finally moved passed that point, so now every Thursday night (as Thursday is the day I take the pill), I can't sleep until around 4 in the morning. So Friday's are extremely sluggish, and Friday is the day we left our site for Thies. I know my host sister in law, Asu, thought I was a little more sluggish than usual. Granted, I was up at 5:45 to pack nearly everything and the car picked me up at 7 - so it was earlier than usual anyway. We've only got a brief two and a half day stay left in the CBT site before we swear in, so I needed to get as much stuff as I could out.

The night before one of my other sister's in law, Nogoy, made me 'espaget' (their pronunciation of spaghetti), with just noodles, a hard boiled egg, carrots, onions and a greenbean-ish veggie. She only made it for me, so when her daughter came in with the plate and said 'Aan, goto' (you only/alone) I was both surprised and dissappointed. I never realized just how accustomed I had become to eating with other people until that moment. Every lunch and dinner I have shared a bowl with at least one other person. Breakfast is always eaten alone and I don't mind it at all. But dinner? NEVER. I felt lonely. I know she did this as a special dinner for me. I know she was trying to make something she believed I would actually eat (as I am fairly sure that they ALL know that I really can't stomach most of what they make - literally. I get the worst stomachaches and nausea after some meals), but the eating alone caught me off guard.

As did the sudden depressed feelings I had when I had to eat alone in my room.

Me, a girl who always prefers to eat by herself (as my parents can attest to), hated eating by myself.

I guess that is one of those personality changes the Peace Corps is famous for.

Another may now be my enjoyment of looking for, bargaining for and purchasing fabric. Never been a fabric person (I know my grandmother is probably laughing herself silly at the change in my reality), but to get clothes made and stuff that actually fits in with the culture it's what needs to be done. I do have my clothes made, but I have yet to get pictures of me in them. Will get those done and  post them.

Haggeling is how business is done in this part of the world and when you're white, the quoted price is always at the very least twice what it should be, though usually three to four times higher. Arguing over price is awesome. From taxis to fabric, food to jewelry, haggle, haggle, haggle. So much fun. Friday I found that I needed a new duffle bag to pack some food in (for when I move in, I'm going to the supermarket and loading up). So I went to the market, found a bag I liked and got the guy to bring down the price from 3700 CFA - about $7.50 - to 2000 CFA - about $4. My language teacher said I did a good job, so I felt happy about it.

Turned out to be fortuitous timing as the same day I received two much awaited care packages and I had no other place to store all the food other than that new bag. (A big thanks to my parents and cousin, Cory, for the awesome food load!) I'm contemplating buying a second.

I've been struggling to figure out what to put down in these blog posts. Once I am at site, I will have no electricity and the nearest internet access will be about a 30km bike ride. Perhaps that will give me more of an incentive to plan out these posts ahead of time and make them a little more meaty/substantive and less 'daily activity'-ish.

At the moment nerves over my language and how I'll integrate in my village are overrunning all other emotions. Heat, dust, bad food - don't seem to matter when I have a test coming up next week and the prospect of moving into a village with high expectations and little ability to communicate.

From left to right: Mama, Umu - who is holding Abbey and Mohammed , Asu's twins

My host sister in law, Asu, and Jobar (in yellow)

My 'birthday cake'

Getting ready to find out our new home.
The map of Senegal is painted on the basket ball court. They
blindfold us and take us to the spot on the map where we will be

Back yard that has yet to be walled. Tree in background in a Mango tree

Back of my nearly done hut

A bird I saw on the bike ride to my village

The bunny in my care package

Cheers,
Christine

Quick Update

Survived my village visit. It is a small village called Badion (pronounced badjon) in the region of Kolda about 75km from the regional capitol city of the same name. All of my mail and banking will have to be picked up there which really sucks because that means I either have to ride my bike the whole way and stay the night at our regional house or bike the 22km to the nearest road city to try and catch the insane public transportation, negotiate a price and ride for 2 hours on an extremely bad road (condition-wise) to the capitol, hope the bank/post office is open when I get there and then figure out how to get back before dark.

My new host family is very nice. My new dad is the chief, he has three wives and owns three horses that are not very well off. He wants me to try and help him with them, bu as he says he can't even afford to feed them I don't know how much I can really do. My hut is nearly done and the backyard will be big enough to have a small garden. Going to try to plant a banana tree and a peach tree just to see what happens. I know the banana tree will do well here, not sure about the peach tree though.

Cool thing was seeing how my host volunteer, Chelsea ( who was an awesome and amazing host), spoke the language and helped translate things when people were talking to me. Fell in love with the local bread, called Tapalapa. Perfect breakfast with scrambled eggs and a tea called kinkillibasse that is very yummy. No idea if it is in my village or not, but it is what I ate every morning in Chelsea's town, which is the road town 22km south of mine.

I am back in Mbour until next Friday morning and then it is a very busy week of counterpart workshop (people from our village who we will be working with for the next two years), signing papers in Dakar, spending a night at the beach (apparently it is a tradition in PC senegal to do that), another extremely short stay here in Mbour - as in 2.5 days - then we go back to Thies for the last language test and swearing in. It is absolutely surreal to think I have been here for 6 weeks. It seems like it has been so much longer and not nearly that long all at the same time.

Got my first care package from home. Goldfish crackers are the new cocaine here, or at least for me.

Accidently left my camera with Chelsea but she is going to bring it back to Thies this weekend.Will post a bunch when I get back to the center next week.

Cheers!
Christine

First Anniversaries

Yesterday marked one complete month that I have been in country and also the first birthday I will have during service. The first of three. It is strange sometimes to really think about just how long service is. I came here at the age of 24 and will leave at the age of 27 (inchalla - a phrase which means God willing). I won't kid myself or anyone else that I have not already had moments of doubt or thoughts of leaving. PST is not easy and our CBT site is very trying in terms of my patience, tolerance and emotional strength. I miss America a lot. I miss my family, the stability, ease of communication and certainty of what I will do every day.

Here we spend a set amount of days one place, pack a bag, go spend a set amount of days somewhere else, pack up, return, have classes, then pack again and go somewhere else. It is nothing like actual service. Here is there is no permanence. At least once we are at site we can unpack, make our huts/rooms as we wish and have power over when and where we we go from day to day. I know that is the main motivator for me at  the moment to get through PST. This is not what my real life is going to be like for the next two years.

On that topic, our volunteer visit starts Wednesday. Tuesday morning is when we find out exactly where we will be going. I know for sure I will be in the Kolda region, but I don't know the villiage/town I will be in. I am both excited and anxious as Kolda is in the very south of the country and it takes a very long time to get there. Even though Senegal is about the size of North Dakota the roads are so bad that it will take 15 hours by a working order,  proper Peace Corps vehicle that doesn't break down every ten minutes. Once I am an actual volunteer, it could take between 24-48 hours, if I  am lucky ,to get back here to Thies. Aside from the long distance , I'm excited to find out how I'll be living and if I am replacing someone, who my family will be.

I found out I got Novice High on my language test. Better than I thought. Just two levels below where I need to be by the time PST is over. I might be able to make it but the   language is extremely difficult.

Upcoming schedule looks a bit like this:
Tuesday - find out our permenant sites
Wednesday - Leave very early for Volunter Visits
Sunday 15th - return to Thies
Tuesday 17th - Return to CBT
Thursday 26th - Return to Thies

Busy busy, and won't get to post again until probably I am in Mbour (blah), but I will make sure to take lots of pictures and notes so I can make a well informed post. Though I may post  a quick note  on Tuesday when I find out my actual site.

Will post pictures up when I have a better connection.

Cheers!