We are family

I've been in the process of writing this blog entry since I've hit the 6 month mark in village. I was going to start off with witty scenarios that are true examples from my village. However, that all changed two weeks ago and I felt the urgency to complete this particular blog entry. Family here is different than it is in America, but it's still family.

Two weeks ago, when I was returning to village from our All Volunteer conference, I discovered that my 20 year old host brother had died. I was returning to village on a Friday, two days after the fact. While riding on public transportation in Senegal, people LOVE the fact that we speak the local language and the inevitably ask where I live. This particular day, I said the name of my village and a stranger said that his wife was from that village (awesome!). He then proceeded to tell me that a young boy had died there two days ago. I was SHOCKED. I asked a couple more questions and he finally said it was the son of the chief aka my host brother. I was speechless, how could this happen.

I arrive at my dad's boutique on the road and he immediately pulls me aside to tell me the news. I asked how it happened, but he couldn't tell me what he died from. My brother had been sick since Tabaski and they took him to the hospital, but it didn't help. My dad and I proceeded to walk back to village together, where he decided to tell me about my brother's last moments. They had brought him home and that last night, he asked for his mom, dad, and siblings. I couldn't hold it together, I had silent tears running down my face. In this culture, not much emotion is shown publicly, so they think I'm weird when I cry.

I get back to village and after the standard greetings, no less that 7 people asked me if I knew that my brother had died. YES...I did know and thank you for reminding me. It was a really tough few days back in village; I wanted to turn around and head right back to Kolda. I stayed in village, but I had no one to talk to about it. My village was really open about stating the fact that my brother had died, but I had no one to talk to about it. So, I turned to my fellow PCVs for emotional support. Thank goodness for text messages, free calling, and neighbors. I don't know what I would've done without their support.

The most difficult part was seeing my mom cry. People usually aren't open with their emotions, so it was a million times worse. We were sitting around the fire one night and my mom just burst into tears. Luckily it was dark, so no one could see my own tears. It was heartbreaking. I just wanted to give her a hug (something they don't do here). I've been around three too many mothers who've lost their children, so the past came rushing back. At that point I just wanted to go home. For those of you who follow my blog, you know this time of year makes me really homesick and this turn of events didn't help alleviate the longing one bit. This was the first time that I seriously thought about ETing (early terminating PC service). I came home two days after my brother died...what if something happens back home, I wouldn't be able to get back until three or four days later.

Things have gotten better in village, but it's still hard. I don't deal well with death in general, but being in an entirely different culture made it exponentially more difficult. Sorry for the depressing post on Christmas eve, but this is the first time I've been able to sit down and write this blog. I will try to write a more uplifting entry by tomorrow, but there is no guarantee.

Much Love and Happy Holidays!

--Peace on Earth

Turkey Day!

Today is the American Holiday dedicated to eating, football, shopping (well, the day after), and of course being thankful. Thanksgiving has had an interesting history in my life. When I was growing up, Thanksgiving dinner was going to our favorite Chinese restaurant at the time. In college, I worked for the basketball team and season was just beginning when Thanksgiving rolled around, which meant that I didn't go home for Thanksgiving. As a result, freshman year, my roommates and I made Thanksgiving dinner in our apartment and the day of, I went over to my friend's house. Although my roommates changed, the tradition didn't. I would bake up a bunch of pumpkin pies and we would celebrate Thanksgiving. There was one year when the team had a tournament in the Bahamas over Thanksgiving, so we had dinner on a grass lawn overlooking the ocean.

I didn't have a "normal" Thanksgiving at home until last year. Junior year of college, my sisters decided that they wanted to start making Thanksgiving Dinner at home. I was working, so I didn't experience it until last Thanksgiving, in between graduating and leaving for Peace Corps. It was fantastic! It was mostly the experience of planning the dinner and then cooking with my sisters. With me going to LA for school, I didn't spend a lot of time with my sisters for four years. After graduation, when I returned home preparing to leave for Peace Corps, I had the opportunity to spend time with them again. My oldest sister makes a delicious crab dip that we started eating before the cooking got underway. As the day progressed, we opened a bottle of wine and started cooking. It was marvelous and in the end we had a delicious meal.

This year, I am having two Thanksgiving dinners. We had a pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner a couple nights ago and Thanksgiving Dinner tonight. Currently, we have a live Turkey tied up at the regional house. Our menu includes green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, and pies! I wish I could be at home with my family, but I'm happy that I'm celebrating Thanksgiving with a great group of people.

So, now I'm going to be corny and talk about what I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for my family and all their support. The text messages and care packages mean so much to me. I'm grateful that they allowed me to undergo this journey and are behind me every step of the way. Being in Peace Corps is difficult and I couldn't do it if I didn't have a strong support system back home. I'm thankful for my friends at home. The facebook messages, emails, and skype dates make me smile. I know that they are so busy in the states, but when they take a moment to say, I'm thinking of you, it makes me appreciate their friendship so much. The surprise packages that I don't expect make me giddy at the post office (which makes the post office man look at me like I have two heads). Being so far away makes staying in people's lives difficult, but I know that once I get back, we'll pick up right where we left off.

I'm thankful for all my new Peace Corps friends. As much as I LOVE my friends and family, I don't think they can fully grasp what my life is like here. My friends here are going through the exact same thing I am and they can understand the ups & downs. I've made many good friends in the 8 short months that I've been in country and I probably would've ETed (Early termination...of service) without their support. They let me rant and rave about work and about people I encounter. I believe that they will continue to be close friends after my Peace Corps experience.

I'm thankful that I am where I am now. Not that long ago, I was contemplating going to Medical school (I even took the MCATs) and I realize that I couldn't have gone straight to medical school after undergrad. I'm glad that I had a change of mind that brought me here to Senegal. Everything I'm learning is going to help me in my future course of work, be it medical school or something else. I am in an amazing village with people who are really excited that I'm here in this country. When I have a bad day or a miserable alhum (bus-kinda) ride out to village, I get there, look out into the farro dotted by palm trees and think about how lucky I am to be here.

I'm thankful for good food. I'm also thankful for a million other things. I will no longer take the little things for granted and I appreciate so much more. Being here in Senegal, I am more grateful about things in my life.

Thank You for reading my blog. I'm thankful that people take the time to read my random thoughts.

Happy Thanksgiving!

November Ramblings

I realize that I don't blog about the work I do. I promise that there will be a post dedicated to the work I'm doing in the near future (inshallah). It's just that I haven't worked on any large projects and I don't feel like I'm doing much. However, as I mentioned in a previous post, I am more invested in the small scale personal interactions. This was reinforced when Peace Corps met with my village to make sure that we were all on the same page work wise. The meeting plan flushed out my action plan for my remaining 18 months in village (OMG, I've been in village for 6 months). I will go into more detail at a later date.

It's been an eventful two weeks back in village. I had baptisms, guests, and Tabaski! Busy, busy, busy.

Babies!!!

There have been so many births since I've installed in village. In this culture, a child is not given a name until a week after it's born. You would think with all the births that I've encountered that I would be a veteran at baptisms, but alas, I've somehow managed to miss ALL of them, until now. Baptisms in this country are much like every other event here- the men sit around drinking tea and the women hang out and dance. The baptism is a two part event. In the morning, we went to the compound hosting the baptism and had second breakfast. Then, the women make a dessert like food called corbal (pronounced chore-ball). It's steamed millet and sugar (delicious!). At that point, we all went home and promised to come back later.

That day at lunch, we got a surprise bowl of cheeb- oily rice (well, I was surprised because I had never participated in a baptism). After showering and putting on my Chiquita banana outfit, we went back to the party. It was time for dancing (and more sitting around). The women in my village LOVE to call me out to dance. For the longest time (2 months), I was so shy about it because I couldn't do the Pulaar, fast-paced, butt shaking dance. Now, I know I look foolish either way, so I jump into the circle and entertain the women. The baptism was a good cultural experience, but was anti-climatic. I felt so guilty about missing so many of them, but not anymore. It's just another day in village, only with a reason to dance and eat cheeb. The next week was another baptism, which I happened to miss again because I was hosting study abroad students.

Me in my Chiquita Banana complete with the language group

The Other Americans in Senegal

At one point I had EIGHT (8!) Toubabs in village. Why? A bunch of PCVs hosted study abroad students for their "rural visits". At the end of October, I received a text asking if I was willing to host students for a couple days in village. I said yes and was told that I would be hosting two girls in a weeks time. Six students arrived in Kolda on a Monday afternoon and three volunteers whisked them off to experience village life. My family was so excited to have these visitors come and stay with us. Although the students didn't speak any Pulaar, my village still attempted to speak to them in Pulaar and then complimented me on how far my Pulaar has come.

I had the week planned out for my two student. I wanted them to see what life was like and to see the differences between Kolda and every other region. I took them around my village and then to the fields where they helped my little sister pick peanuts. I tell everyone that I live in one of the most beautiful villages in Senegal and I definitely showed it off to my students. The next day, all the volunteers hosting students in the region of Kolda converged on the market town of Diaobe. Diaobe is the largest outdoor weekly market in West Africa (so I am told). It was fun to show them around and to do some fabric shopping.

Talking to the other students, they wanted to see what a small village was like. Two students were in a village of 700 and the other two were in a town of 5,000. I told them my village of 150 would be more than happy to have them come over. Thus, we had eight Toubabs in my village. It was fantastic! We had a mini party essentially and my family made lecceri for lunch. There was dancing, which involved us teaching the macarena and the electric slide. Then we played limbo and hopscotch. My village officially rocks.

Dancing with my little sister!

My older brother limboing!!

That night we headed into Kolda because the students had to go home to Dakar the next day. It was nice to have them in village because they were so excited! I forget how great my village is sometimes and it was good to have a reminder.

Tabaski

The festival of sheep! Tabaski is celebrated by Muslims in remembrance of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son for Allah. Just as Abraham was about to perform the act, Allah intervened and provided a ram for him to kill instead. In my village, we prayed in the morning, then it was time to sacrifice the animals. Each compound killed either a sheep or a goat for Tabaski. My family killed a goat and wanted me to take pictures of it, I snuck off and hid in my room. Much like Korite, we went around and greeted each compound. The scene was the same in every household, the men were cutting up an animal. After they were done with that aspect, they sent pieces of meat to every other household in the village.

We had a snack of goat meat stew (kinda) and bread. Lunch was cheeb and meat. It was a fun day of visiting other compounds, soccer, and eating good food!

Sick in village

I have had a cold for the past TWO weeks. I got sick the day my study abroad students arrived. I tried to keep the cold from coming, much like finals week, where you force your body to not be sick until after exams. It didn't work. I rallied when the students were here, but I went back to village and was miserable! Tabaski was right around the corner, so I wanted to be in village, but it was bad. I hate being sick in general and thats with all the comforts of home. The worst of my cold was gone by Tabaski, but I've been stuck with an annoying cough since. Hopefully I don't get sick that often while i'm here.


Thats it for now! Let me know if you want to know anything about my life. I talked to my friend Kate for her birthday and I realized how routine my life is now and things don't strike me as anything special. I plan on doing a posting about food and transportation, but if there are any other topics, such as "how I take a shower", just ask!

--Peace Out!

Travel Bug!

After Summit in Joal, I headed back to Kolda, but my trip was far from problem free. It's difficult to get from Dakar to Kolda in a day, due to travel curfew in the region of Kolda, but I was hopeful because I had done it before. This trip, timing and luck weren't on my side. In Kolda, the checkpoints close at 6:30pm, so if you don't get past them, you are stuck on the side of the road....no bueno. As a result, all volunteers should leave Tamba by 3pm at the latest to make sure that we safely clear all the checkpoints. As Amanda and I arrive in Tamba at 2pm, we were hopeful about catching a car until we discovered that that last seat was JUST purchased. Just our luck. So, we waited around for a bit, then decided that the car wasn't going to fill up in time and that we should stay at the regional house in Tamba- Merde. First thing the next morning, it was home to Kolda.

Installs!

Installs came quicker than I expected. We took them shopping for items they would need to survive in their villages. We imparted our wisdom of what they should buy and even sat atop a charette stacked with six foam mattresses. We showed them the hot spots of Kolda-namely the Hotel Hobbe (it has a pool! p.s. it's become a PC secondary project to teach me how to swim). Then it was time to take them to village, drop them off, and have them watch the Peace Corps car drive off into the distance. I went to Jake's install, who is one of my closest neighbors, danced and sent him off into his service. Yay!

Jason on the charette!

Tambaland Adventures

I went to Tamba to celebrate Mika's birthday and to visit sites in Tamba. I had only visited sites in Kolda thus far (minus a detour to Sereer land) and wanted to see what other regions had to offer. I visited Amanda and Mika who are in Pulla Futa villages and Spence, who is in a Jaxanke village. It was a lot of fun in the Pulla Futa languages because I was able to understand and communicate with everyone. The Jaxanke village, on the other hand, was more of a challenge. I now know how it is for volunteers who speak minority languages when they leave their villages. The people were really accommodating and a lot of the did speak Pulaar, but I was in a constant state of confusing, asking Spence what they said. After going to their villages, I'm going to try harder to visit other volunteers.

GIANTS WIN THE WORLD SERIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ENOUGH SAID =) But so sad that I wasn't there to witness it first hand.

Birthday & Halloween

I celebrated my birthday with a group of my friends and ushered me into my 23rd year. The next day was Halloween!! So my Halloween costume was.....QUEEN FROSTINE from Candyland. I was supposed to be part of an ensemble, but only Kelly pulled through and was princess Lolly. All in all, it was a fun night filled with crazy costumes, glitter, and dancing. Happy!

That's it for now! Next post will be study abroad students, reverse volunteer visit, and Tabaski. Miss you...kisses!

--Peace Out

Falling Backwards

FALL! AUTUMN! My favorite season of the year. It certainly doesn't feel like October has come due to the 85 degree weather currently in Kolda. When it hit me that October was here, I was struck with an extreme case of homesickness. Obviously, since I've been here, I've missed my family and friends in America (and feeling clean & pretty), but this time it was different. Last week, I woke up with the sun and felt the crispness in the air. Thirty minutes later, I was sweating...Oh Senegal. spending a couple of days in my mini- America (aka the Kolda house), I've come up with a list of things I miss about fall in America at this point (not including people)...

1) Pumpkin items: You know fall has arrived in America when you can go to your local 'Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf' or 'Starbucks' and see the Pumpkin Spice Latte chalked onto the specials blackboard in addition to the appearance of Pumpkin scones in the pastry case. Then, you head to your favorite ice cream parlor and get a scoop (or two) of freshly churned pumpkin ice cream. As the season progresses you can bake pumpkin pie (or seven if you mistakenly quadruple a recipe- then fill the pie crusts to the brim) and then chill a pumpkin cheesecake in the fridge. After you wake up from a pumpkin induced coma, you can recover with pumpkin bread and pumpkin muffins (and another pumpkin spice latte...duh).

2) Birthday week (end): I love my birthday- it's my favorite holiday. For the past two years, I've celebrated my birthday in epic fashion aka triple threat birthday weekend. Two of my good friends' birthdays fall on the 29th and November 1, with Halloween completing the four day span, it was a great times. This year, I will be spending my birthday in Tambacounda with friends in preparation of the Halloween party, hoping that USC beats Oregon (so that I don't lose a bet and my pride).

3) Halloween: As a girl who loves theme parties and dressing up, Halloween is the holiday made for me. All the dressing up and free candy makes it the best follow up to my birthday. In the past, I've been creative with my costume making: pageant girl, firefighter (created with duct tape), and disco chic. This year, not being able to drive to the store for costume props and supplies, I planned ahead and worked with a tailor. I won't reveal my costume (hint: It's inspired by the Katy Perry "California Girls" music video), but pictures will be posted.

4) College Football: I'm still obsessed with my USC Trojans, even though we aren't bowl eligible this year. I think I may be driving everyone in my region crazy with my exclamations as I gamecast the games on Saturday nights. I have friendly wagers with fellow PAC-10 volunteers and continue to talk up my team. This year combines two great events: homecoming and my birthday- too bad I won't be there =(.

5) Baseball Playoffs: My Giants are in the playoffs and I'm not there to witness it. My really good friend in country is from Philadelphia, but doesn't really follow baseball. Thanks to my enthusiasm, she stands behind her home time and engages in smack talk. This is going to be a fun series...

6) College Basketball: October is when college basketball teams are able to begin practicing. I miss the days of 6am workouts, where I could walk across campus and not encounter anyone else. I miss the routine of practices and making Gatorade. Spending so much time with the staff and players makes you a family and it made my college experience. It was definitely a part of my identity and one of the best jobs ever!

7) Wine tastings: What is there to say....it's wine!

8) Fall Fashion: In addition to the creative new lines and trends that debut in the Fall, I miss the comfortable, bundled up feeling without freezing. Sweaters and boots with leggings and scarves are things I love. Even though going to school in Los Angeles prevented me from dressing in that fashion until well into Winter, it's a fashion trend I embrace.

9) Oktoberfest: Beer! mmmm....seasonal ales.

10) Puddles and crunchy leaves: Junior year of college, I purchased a pair of blue rainboots with white polka dots and was judged for it due to the fact that I was in LA (where it only rains for 20 days out of the year). But, when the first rains hit, I had my boots on and was jumping in and out of the puddles. Then, there are the crunchy leaves that you go out of your way to step on. It's such a disappointing feeling when you step on a leaf that you expect to be super crunchy, but there's no crunch. Oh! and the colors. When leaves change and the warm, rich, inviting colors of fall explode.

There are probably 15 other things that I miss about Fall, but I won't bore you with the details. If you are so inclined to send me a letter or a package, feel free to include a leaf or something that reminds me of fall.

Miss you!

--Peace Out

Sophomore Year

Sorry it's taken so long to update this...I was distracted by traveling and lack of internet. Knowing that you can't update is a great deterrent- that and I had writers block. I did manage to write an article for the Sabaar (PC Senegal's Newsletter) in the month I haven't posted. I wrote an entertaining article (in my opinion) that was deemed front page worthy! I haven't had a front page article since....ever (in my defense, I wrote for the sports section in high school, which meant back page). I have to admit, my quality of writing has probably regressed to that of my high school self (you be the judge). Now onto what I've been doing since Ramadan...

New volunteers

After Ramadan, I was in Kolda to meet the newbies. The 8 of them came down for demyst, which is surreal because it wasn't that long ago that I was in their position. Last post, I mentioned that I've been in country for seven months, so that means that I've been in Kolda for five. Throughout demyst, I hoped that the newbies wouldn't ask me any questions pertaining to anything regarding Kolda because I probably wouldn't be able to answer them. It was really cool to meet them and to chat with them. I was occupied with cooking for 30 people for most of the day, so I'll have to wait to really chat with them, but I'm excited to welcome them to Kolda. So...cooking for 30 people is a difficult task. I had a team of sous chefs helping me chop veggies and mince garlic, but I was exhausted by the end of the day (although I managed to rally for the dance party). I made spring rolls and fried rice again, which isn't difficult, but the combination of 30 people and cooking in Senegal is. Anyways, I can't wait for them to install in a month!

Neem lotion takes over Kolda

I was back in village for exactly two days before the Kolda neem lotion tourney began. Organized by Geoff, a volunteer in Kounkane, the tourney would travel from lummo to lummo singing the praises of neem lotion. What is neem lotion? It is one part water & neem leaves, one part soap, and a smidgen of oil. The chemicals found in neem leaves wards off mosquitoes, which means less people being bitten and lower incidence of malaria (theoretically). I personally don't do neem lotion causeries in my own village because the cost is too high for people- they don't even buy oil to cook with.
I went to three of the lummos and taught people about neem lotion. The sachets of lotion sold faster than we could make them. I think that people bought them because we were toubabs, selling something at lummo. Neem lotion is a great product in theory, but not sustainable. After making neem lotion at my lummo, people in my village and the surrounding villages wanted me to come teach them how to make it- Yay! I told them that they needed to buy the supplies and I would come. Alas, I haven't gone to anyone's village to teach them how to make neem lotion.

The Little Things

I admire PCVs who work on large scale projects and I have one planned for the future, but I realize that it's the little things that work in my village. I like the idea of neem lotion and bigger causeries, but in a village of 150, the personal connection gets the point across better. I've talked to numerous pregnant women about prenatal care, nursing women about proper weening techniques, and everyone about wound care. When I see people in my village practicing techniques that I've taught them, a part of me jumps up and down with joy. This is what will last in the long run- ideally, the information will be passed on from wife to wife, from mother to daughter, and maybe spread from village to village.

Story... Before I left for IST, my neighbor came to me with a swollen hand, clearly infected. When I asked him where the cut was, he claimed that there was none and that his hand happened to swell overnight. I told him that he should go to the health post to get it treated or he could loose his hand (knowing that he wasn't going to go). So, I taught him to soak his hand in warm water and to slowly remove the pus. Then to keep it clean with a makeshift band-aid made of moringa leaves and cloth. I did it for him the first time, just to show him how to do it, then the next day, he shows up to my hut asking for moringa leaves. I proceeded to leave for IST and left him to fend for his own hand. Upon returning to village, I asked him how his hand was and if he went to the heath post. He responded with "no, I didn't go to the health post, but I did what you taught me and look, my hand is all better!". Even though I would've preferred that he had gone to the health post, it was awesome to hear that he used what I taught him. In the end, he now knows how to handle swollen appendages and he will be able to teach his children how to care for such injuries. Small victories.

Girlfriend!

I mentioned before how I had difficultly making a girlfriend in village because they marry young and have two kids by the time they're 22 (my age). It's hard for me to relate to the women my age because I'm not married and not a mother. As a result, my girlfriend in village is 16 (and recently engaged). We chat and hang out and gossip about various people in our village and the surrounding villages. I know that she is a true friend when she noticed that I had trimmed my hair! It's so nice to have someone to hang out with and to be girly with. I forget the age difference because she has a similar mindset as me, despite the fact that she is now engaged.

Adventures in Joal

At the beginning of the month, we had our Health/Environmental Education (EE) summit in Joal. I went up early to Dakar to eat a variety of cuisines and to see my friends. We then took a mini vacation to Popengine to recharge by the beach. Then, it was off to summit. The day before summit began, I was dreading it because I was expecting a format similar to PST and IST. It turned out to be more discussion based and talking with the second year volunteers. I received a lot of information and am now prepared to tackle issues in ville. Yay!

Hopefully I will post again sooner rather than later, but as you know, internet isn't always reliable! Thanks for reading!!

--Peace Out!

Pictures, pictures, pictures!

Hey everyone,

I've been promising pictures for months now, and a little late, but here they are! Enjoy =) Real post coming soon!

My nephew, Amadou. I want to take him to America with me

Little dancing boy, AKA, my best friend

Samba: I taught him this face!

Palm trees en route to village

Isn't it gorgeous?

My Hut!!

My douche...it's that hole on the left

My bookshelf

Home Sweet Home!

Productivity happens here...

Boys will be boys. Posing after clearing excess weeds-
yay malaria control!

Fresh baked bread for Ramadan

Seriously....isn't he cute!? And he's wearing a Winnie the Pooh outfit!

Binta- Momma of the beautiful baby above

Gorgeous Day for a futbol game

My dad & nephew- Love!

25 Toubabs on an Alhum after Health/EE summit

7 months after stepping foot in country, I'm still loving it. There are ups & downs and bouts of homesickness, but time is flying by. Before you know it, I'll be home for my sister's wedding! Crazy.

Remember, I love letters, comments, and hearing from you! If you comment, maybe I'll post more often =D. That's it for now.

--Peace Out!

Confessions of a Hungry PCV

Ramadan has ended, ALHUMDULILLAIH! I can now eat and drink while the sun is out. My attempt to stay in village throughout Ramadan was fairly successful with only one night spent in Kolda. It was an interesting project to undertake and I'm glad that I did it. I had a conversation with my host Dad about it and he said that he really appreciated that I was open to embracing this part of their culture. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, I am horrible at keeping diaries and journals. My "Peace Corps Journal" had 10 entries in it before Ramadan started. As a Ramadan project, I decided that I would do my best to keep a journal and I did a pretty good job. So, here is a look into my thoughts and my Ramadan Diary, with commentary in parentheses...

Day 1: The beginning of Ramadan and the nerves of returning to village after a month was absolutely terrifying. But, I reached my dad's boutique and had kids yelling my name and my dad came over and gave me a hug (half handshake/ hug combo- Senegalese people don't really hug).... 19:30 roles around and its time to break fast with Tapilapa (village bread, delicious!) and "cafe"- a tea made with mango leave, powdered milk, and sugar. We then had candied dates!

Day 2: I am woken up at 5am by my mom for breakfast. I eat with my dad and uncle (I usually eat with my brother, but he's working in the Gambia and my other brother is in Dakar), but I don't have much of an appetite. My dad says to stop fasting, but I'm determined to try this. I attempt to go back to bed, but I lie there listening to the call to prayer. I get out of bed at 8:30 (much later than usual) and greet my family. I then week my forest of a backyard with help from Binta (my sister-in-law) and Mama (a neighbor).

Day 4: We broke fast in the usual manner, but my mom gave me extra bread- they don't think I'm eating enough. She has also started to call me bobo (baby in Pulaar) which is really sweet.

Day 5: I woke up this morning slightly panicked from a dream, darn Mefloquin (malaria prophylaxis). In my dream, I'm back at the Galen Center and am working for the basketball team again. It's the first game of the season and we're playing Oregon because I see Kai and welcome her back to the Galen Center. I'm apparently the only one working and am rushing to get everything done. I yell at the men's team to vacate the court (typical) and I go to fill water bottles, only to find that they haven't been made yet (aka numbers and names written on them). I go to Sandy (our athletic trainer) to get the water bottles and she's gives me a "I'm disappointed, you know better than this" look. I begin to make the bottles, only to realize I don't know who is on the team and what numbers to use. Then I wake up. Strange (According to a lot of volunteers, it isn't unusual to experience very vivid dreams- still, I'm not used to them).

I literally saw a storm roll into my village. It was so cool to see and hear the rain coming in from the distance.

Day 9: The kids were running around tonight, pumped full of sugar, when Jubiru (my uncle)organized a game that resembled "Steal the Bacon". It was great! Some of the boys came over to chat while we were watching the kids play. They thought it was hilarious when I told them that we played a version of that game in America. It was so nice to chat with them in the evening again. This hasn't happened since I got back from IST. The kids then played a version of Duck Duck Goose. So much fun!

Day 10: I walked Dave to the road this morning (he's a volunteer in Kolda and came to visit my village for 2 days) and then talked to Spence (a volunteer in Tamba)- I love free calling (Peace Corps has made it possible to call other volunteers without having to buy phone credit)! I'm hanging out with some of the kids outside my hut when I get a call from Dave- Kelly got her phone stolen at lummo (a market that occurs once a week) and wanted to know if she could spend the night in my village before heading to Kolda- Of Course!
It was so nice to have Kelly in my village. We had girl talk and updated each other on the last 9 days, even though it felt like it's been much longer. It's so nice to have girl talk; it's the one thing I really miss in village, having a close girlfriend.

Day 11: My brother started to bake bread today in village. I was coming home from a neighbors house when I passed the large brick oven and saw that he was baking bread. I sat there watching them bake bread and it looked so delicious coming out of the oven; too bad we can't eat it fresh.

There was a funeral in my village today. I was really uncomfortable because I don't know how to act. In America, there are certain rituals and mannerisms surrounding a funeral, and unfortunately we weren't taught the Senegalese way in our cross cultural sessions. I don't want to accidentally break a social norm and act inappropriately. Someone here for the funeral called me Toubab-in MY village, NOT OK! I kept walking and pretended not to hear him. The boys told him that it wasn't ok and to not call me Toubab. He then came to greet me and called me volontaire and asked my name, much better.

Day 14: I made a list of places I wanted to eat when I go home. UGH, I miss variety in my food.... I hung out with Adele today, she's currently the closest thing I have to a girlfriend in village (oh, and she's only 15). All the other young, unmarried girls are elsewhere: Swadu is in Dakar, Ustu is in Kolda, and Kadja is in Zig.

Mamadou came back from the Gambia today! It's good to have him back

Day 15: I had cucumbers today and was ecstatic! I miss veggies. I hung out for a bit and watched the full moon move across the sky. Veggies and a full moon, what a great night.

Day 16: Meg (a Kolda volunteer) came today!! It was fun, she chatted with everyone in Pulaar and everyone was saying how much Pulaar she knew. One day, I will be at that level. I'm determined!

Day 20: Today was an adventure. We [Meg and I] went to St. John Cortiba (a new site) and Fascahone (a potential new site). The 20K bike ride on bush trail and car path wasn't so bad despite patches on deep sand and a swamp. It was really cool to see a new site and to talk to a potential village about getting a volunteer. The meeting was in Pulaar and I understood the majority of what was being said-Yay! I didn't have much to contribute, but it was good to see the process of setting up a new site. We had lunch (first day of not fasting) and then it started to rain, so we set off for Meg's site. The bike ride back was so difficult! It rained the whole time and the road was ridiculously muddy. We basically biked through a river for 20K. I have scars and bruises from this ride. I then caught a ride with Peace Corps into Kolda, yay comfy transportation!

Day 22: I woke up sore from the bike ride to Fascahone and the bike ride back to village from Kolda. Boo. Despite just returning from Kolda, I had to fight the desire to go right back to get score updates from the USC- Hawaii game. Good thing people have access to internet and can send me the score tomorrow morning. This is going to be a long football season. I can't believe I can't watch my Trojans.

Day 23: I need to keep my back door closed at night. When I was sweeping my room today, I shooed about 10 frogs from my room-gross. I then finished my Ramadan project book- Atlas Shrugged! Sweet- gotta tell Kate.

There was drama at home today. My brother didn't leave any bread to break fast. I was kinda sad not having bread, but my dad came home from a prayer circle and apologized for the lack of bread. He asked if I wanted him to get bread and we could break fast over again, and obviously I told him no. Then Mamadou (not the bread baking brother) gives me bread with beans that he had gotten and made me vitalait (powdered milk with sugar). My mom then gives me rice from the prayer circle. Then they expected me to eat dinner too! Ugh- so full, too much food.

Day 24: Today I had a headache while hanging out with Adele, so I went home to lay down. On the way home, passing the oven, my brother decides to play the name game and they said something I didn't understand. When I said I didn't understand, they started laughing and didn't explain. I already had a headache and it's difficult enough speaking Pulaar when I'm feeling well that I became really upset and had tears in my eyes. I quickly said that I needed to go and went to my room to cry. I'm trying so hard, don't they get it? I just want someone in village to understand me.

Tonight after dinner, I found a chicken hiding out in my room. So that brings types of animals in the past month to a chicken, frogs, a bat, and the various insects.

Day 26: I am so bored of the rain. I can't believe its raining AGAIN. So, you know how two days ago, I was really upset and felt like no one understood me in village? Well, I think that Tidiane does. Tonight he came over to see how I was doing. We talked about why I was upset and I explained that I wasn't feeling well and that it takes a lot for me to understand and speak Pulaar. He told me that they were just kidding around and then said that if he were in my shoes in a foreign country, he would feel the same way. I don't know if he really gets it, but at least he's trying. Yay friends!

Apparently on the 26th night of Ramadan, they don't sleep and stay up all night for a prayer circle. So, Mamadou baked bread tonight. I attempt to go to bed, but the sound of singing keeps me up. Also, Sarah texted me tonight saying that the weather report for Kolda said it was 80 degrees. At the time, I was wearing pants and a long sleeve shirt because I was cold. I guess my body is adjusted to the temperature.

Day 27: Last night, I was woken up at 3:45am to eat. I guess when they don't sleep they eat when hungry. This time it was rice, follere, and chicken with pasta!!! Would you like some carbs with your carbs? Anyways, this is the first time I've had meat in village!! (I've had fish a couple of times, but never meat)

Day 28: All the females in the village are getting their hair braided in preparation of Korite! I love watching them get their hair braided, it's so much fun to watch. I told Binta that she can braid my hair too because I know she likes to play with my hair and it makes her happy.

I went over to see the newborn baby today! He is so small and light skinned. They said that his body and my body looked alike. I love babies!

Day 29: I dreamt that I was in Costco. Thank goodness Ramadan is almost over!
They saw the moon tonight!! Ramadan has officially ended! Let Korite begin.

Korite: We had breakfast when the sun was out! We had bread and coffee, then an hour later, a second breakfast of Cheeb (rice with oil) and macaroni. Off to pray! I have now prayed with three different religions: Buddhism, Christianity, and now Islam. After prayer time, it was off to greet people in every compound and the children go around asking for change. It reminds me of Chinese New Year. Then we had lunch with beef and off to the soccer pitch! It unfortunately started to pour, so we all went home. Korite is so much fun!

Village wide prayer time

Ramadan Stats:
Days:29
Days I fasted: 27
Nights in the regional house: 1
Books read: 3
Loaves of Tapilapa eaten: 13
Visitors: 3
Days it rained:22
Money spent: 4 mille (8 dollars)
Mefloquin Dreams: 14
Braids in my hair:12

That's it for Ramadan!

--Peace Out!

p.s. I've been in country for 6 months! Time flies...

Am I still in Africa?

Last time I left off with leaving my village for an extended amount of time. Well, I am headed back to village tomorrow, just in time for the start of Ramadan. I am attempting to stay in village for the entirety of Ramadan and not come to Kolda until the new stage's demyst (I'm going to be a sophomore!). So, here are my adventures after leaving village...

**Note: I'm really in Africa, I wasn't able to post this a month ago due to unreliable internet

**Note #2: HAPPY BIRTHDAY VIVI! I hope you have a splendid 27th B-day (haha!) Miss you big sis.

Kelly's Birthday
I came into Kolda the morning of the 14th to celebrate Kelly's 23rd birthday! How do you celebrate a birthday Africa style? Chinese food and Jello Shots....Obvi! I made fried rice and chicken spring rolls with what we could find in the Kolda market. It worked our surprisingly well and turned out fantastic! Amanda made two delicious peanut sauces (one sweet, one spicy) from scratch and it turned out really well, considering that we didn't have hoisin sauce.

It turned out to be only 5 of us in the house that night, so we ate until we were all stuffed. We were in mini food comas for the rest of the night. It was great to celebrate a birthday and have a mini girls night rolled into one.

Road to IST
After our Chinese food binge, Kelly and I headed out to Jenae's village for the night. It was so nice to see her and to see her village. It's funny how much things vary from village to village. Jenae's village is super patron compared to mine- they were watching TV when we arrived. As a pre- dinner snack, we made popcorn with Cinnamon and sugar- yum! Then we had a potato and fish dish with bread for dipping. Delicious! Then we had couscous with milk- It was strange, but good. Jenae told us about how her family has a bunch of cows and how she has milk every day (jealous!), while I'm convinced that I'm calcium deficient.

The next morning, it was off to Sarah's site, near Mbour. Six of us crammed into a sept place (actually, it was quite comfortable, since it usually seats 7), and off we went. We passed through Tamba and Kaolack and I was reminded how lucky I am to be in Kolda. Kolda is small and clean compared to the other regional capitals and everything is within walking distance. We arrived at Sarah's site around 5pm and proceeded to not be able to greet anyone. Sarah lives in a Serre village and all the Kolda residents speak Fulakunda. Getting to Sarah's awesomely painted hut, we found a trio of Tambaites lounging around- mini stage reunion! That night we had yassa poulet prepped by Sarah's family and followed it up with baked potatoes and banana boats around a camp fire. Seriously, am I still in Africa?

We woke up for beach weekend (at this point, I'm not sure if it was actually the weekend, but who cares...)!!! The 11 of us Toubabs went to Mbour, to campement Ndalli. Ndalli is owned by the counterpart of a eco-tourism volunteer and a campement that we frequented during PST. This was the first time we saw the huts and they were amazing! There was hot water in the shower- HOT WATER. I haven't taken a hot water shower since DC. The simple pleasures in life. It was a glorious two days of lounging at the beach, good food (pizza!), and great company.

IST
IST was a flurry of information ranging from permaculture to chicken raising to grant writing. Originally, everyone was staying with their PST host families except for the the two furthest sites, Mbour included. So, we were assigned new host families within Thies. It was strange having a new host family, with yet another new name (I'm at 5). My host family spoke no Pulaar and I had to communicate via French. It was very difficult for me (although, I remember more french than I gave myself credit for), and I wasn't the only one. We asked our Country Director if we could stay at the center for the duration of IST, and he agreed! It was nice to be able to stay at the center and I was able to explore Thies.

There was one night where it poured and the streets of Thies literally became rivers (I'm NOT exaggerating). Oh adventures of Senegal... I returned to the center and bathed in Hibiclense, convinced that if I didn't, I would get creeping eruption (google it). Speaking of diseases, the leprolis came back =(. The dermatologist said that it is microbial eczema and to prevent it, I should wear pants, long sleeve shirts, and shoes (HA! not going to happen). Anyways, it's gone now and hopefully it never comes back.

English Camp
After IST, we had English camps! The US Embassy sponsors a number of English camps in Dakar, Thies, and Fattick. I was assigned Thies and it was a blast! Mika and I had a group of 15 kids that are in the equivalent of 8th grade. Basically we played icebreakers all week and had Olympics. It was summer camp where the goal is to practice English. The most difficult part was getting the kids to not speak Wolof. They understood most of what we said, but they refused to speak. Frustrating! Other than that, we danced and sang, and had a good time.

Dakar
"Dakar is a magical land." - Meera. This is not an exaggeration when you've been living in village for two months. Friday night, we went to the American club for Trivia night! My team won the tequila round and continued to win that night (yay!). This means we get the honor of hosting next month. The next day, the girls went to breakfast in preparation of shopping day! I had a cappuccino and was reminded how much I miss real coffee (sigh). Shopping in Dakar was highly amusing. I bought Gucci Flora perfume from a street vendor for $3 USD (probably fake, but it smells like the real thing). The best part is bargaining with people. It's expected and fun to see what outrageous price they throw at you. At every vendor, I asked them if they spoke Pulaar. Dakar sees so many tourists that people really responded when you spoke to them in one of the local languages. Even if the vendor himself didn't speak Pulaar, he would summon one of his friends to talk to us. Thanks to this tactic, I was able to successfully talk down the price of a belt from 6 mille to 1 mille (victory!).

We then continued on to the Fukigai, an open air thrift market. If you are patient and willing to shift through mountains of clothes, you can find some real treasures. I found a French Connection Dress in my size, which I purchased for $2 USD (among other items). I love this city! That night, after a delicious dinner of pesto gnocchi and veggies, we (as in half of PC Senegal) went to Kreul Graoul, a dance party that occurs once a month. I miss going dancing and this was a perfect remedy.

The next day we lounged by the pool followed by dinner at a chinese restaurant! I miss Chinese food, and they had some of my favorites. It was hilarious- the owners were Chinese and spoke mainly Mandarin, so my friend Maddy and I ordered for the group. We forgot so much of our Chinese. We stumbled through and had difficulty remembering words for certain foods. It all worked out in the end and we went home happy.

I had my follow up dermatologist appointment (which is why I was in Dakar) and then I had to say goodbye to my site mate who is returning to America. It was sad, but I'm excited for her!

Phew...I really am in Africa, even though it didn't feel like it these past three weeks. I'm definitely ready to get back to village though, I miss them lots!

--Peace Out

P.S. Ramadan post coming soon

10,000 fireflies

Rainy season has officially begun. The rain storms provide me with a great excuse to retreat into my room for some personal time. In addition to all the bugs and mosquitoes that appear in rainy season, Fireflies have begun to come out of hiding. As a city girl for the past 22 years of my life, I never experienced so many fireflies on a consistent basis. I know I keep touching on the beauty of nature and lack of electricity, but it's a truly unique and refreshing experience. Speaking of nature and lack of electricity, I am currently back in Thies for IST (In-Service Training). I am going to back track and cover what I've been doing up til IST and inshallah post pictures.

Deliveries from Dakar
In my last entry, I posted about attending a Senegalese meeting regarding Universal Coverage of mosquito nets. This is the first time that the Senegalese government has decided to take control of mosquito net distributions. They are working with USAID, PMI, and other partnering NGOs to cover the regions of Kedougou, Kolda, and Tambacounda this year. Peace Corps volunteers have spearheaded mosquito net distributions before in select villages, but many of the Relais and other health workers haven't been directly involved in the process. However, the health officials know that PCVs have been involved in distributions and acknowledged that fact in the meetings (which gave me some legitimacy in the eyes of my ICP: Infermier Chef du Poste).Due to PCVs doing numerous distributions in the past, they (as a whole) have accumulated much knowledge and had written a training manual for Relais along with amazing visual aids. The training manuals were provided by Peace Corps to all the health posts in the Kolda region, but the path from Dakar to the Chef du Medecin regional was an adventure... It began one rainy morning in the region of Kolda and my family thought that it was ridiculous that I was going out in the pouring rain. I wasn't ecstatic about having to deal with Senegal transportation in the rain, but the package of training materials was already en route from Dakar. As I leave the edge of my village, I slip and fall and get gray mud all over my left leg, and I'm just far enough from my village that I don't want to turn back to change. So, I decided to continue into Kolda and change into clean clothes at the regional house. I successfully evaded (kinda) judgment of my mud covered leg and make it safely into Kolda. I then realize that I have no idea when or where I am to meet the bus driver to pick up the package. Great..... Thankfully I have his name and number, so I give him a call. WELL, he spoke only French and Woloof, which was definitely a problem. I was able to understand that he wasn't arriving in Kolda until 1 in the afternoon and at this point it was 10am. What to do for three hours? First step: go to regional house and get out of muddy pants. I then watched an episode of True Blood, made lunch, and worried about where I was to meet Mr. bus driver for the package. I finally met up with the bus driver at 2pm at some random side street off of the market and it was such a relief seeing this big bus parked in the middle of the road. Last step of Mission: Relais training material was to get it to the Chef du Medecin du region. After a successful drop off and explanation, it was back to village. Adventure Complete.

Relais Training
Now that all the training materials were in the region, it was just a matter of conducting the trainings. I dropped the materials off with my ICP and was told that the dates of the trainings were July 2nd and 3rd. She told me that she would love it if I would attend the trainings and I promised her that I would be there for the 2nd, but I was going to Kedougou the 3rd. I show up bright and early on the morning of the 2nd (even though I knew that the actual training session probably wouldn't start for a good hour after the designated time) and it felt like I was the new kid on the first day of school. It was awkward and fun at the same time because I was obviously the new Peace Corps volunteer in the area. The trainings allowed me to meet a lot of the relais and the ASCs (Agent sante communitaire) who work out of the Bagadagi Poste de Sante. It was a long day filled with high points (training manuals being used and free swag!) and low points( aka the big storm at the very end of training that trapped me in the room with 35 health care workers for an hour). Then it was off to Kedougou the next morning for America time...

Training materials!

Fourth of July
Every year, the volunteers in the region of Kedougou throw a big bash in honor of America's birthday. It was a nice break from village life (although horrible timing for my mosquito net distribution project) and it was a chance to see people from my stage. I had a great time talking to my fellow stage mates about life in village and integrating into Senegalese society. It was awesome to hear all the fun success stories and it was comforting to hear the difficulties people were facing because it's something we all experienced.

Happy Birthday America!

It's funny how the themes of high school continue to permeate life. Going to the 4th in Kedougou was so much fun, but I felt like a freshman entering high school for the first time. The older volunteers are great, but walking in and not knowing a lot of people was slightly intimidating. I have obviously grown into myself and the insecurities that I had in high school have all but disappeared, but the lingering feeling of being the newbie(s) still remains. Anyways, after i got over my initial nerves, we had a nice summertime cookout complete with roasted warthog and baked beans! The night concluded with fireworks (of course) and a dance party and then it was back to village!

Mosquito Net Distributions
Right after the 4th of July, the region of Kolda began the distribution phase of Universal Coverage. The planning meeting occurred on the 7th and distributions were to begin on the 9th and continue for 5 days. The Poste de Sante at Bagadadgi covers 35-40 villages within a 10K (ish) radius. This includes the villages of 5 PCVs. The day of the first distribution roles around and it's off to Bagadadgi. Ideally, the distributions would begin with opening all the mosquito nets and having an assembly line process. There are fiches des recessments where the family names are written with how many nets were needed. In a perfect distribution, one person with the list of names would partner up with an individual who would write the familial name on the net itself and the year (this is to prevent people from taking the nets over the border and selling them). Then, they would count out the correct number of nets and place them in a neat pile. Another person would then come along and write the same name on the pile of nets below. While all this is occurring, a team of Relais would be conducting a causerie about malaria and malaria prevention. Lastly, once the sensibilization is complete, we can just hand out the nets and everyone goes home happy.

Unfortunately this is Africa and nothing happens in the most efficient way. During the census period, families were given coupons to be redeemed for mosquito nets the day of their distribution. The day of the distributions, when we (the health care workers and I) showed up to the distribution site, the family representatives mobbed us with their coupons. We then had to go through each one and cross check it with the fiche de recessment. After that, we would write the names on the nets and explain how to use them to each family. This process took forever and it was frustrating for me because I could point out at least 5 more efficient steps.

My Sweet Shirt!

That first day, I went to two separate distributions. The first went went relatively smoothly because it was at the health post, so no major issues came up. The second distribution of the day sent me home in tears. The first problem was transportation...the ICP didn't plan accordingly to get all the nets to the distribution points. As a result, we ended up strapping 4 bales of 50 nets each to the back of 4 bikes and going 3K into the bush. This would've been a difficult task if we were biking on the paved national road, but we were on an unpaved road that was actually "under construction"(not fun). We finally arrive at the village (2 hours later than planned) and start the distribution. My job at this location was to cross check the coupons with the fiche de recessment (funnnn.....not). This particular location had numerous individuals with coupons, who weren't on the fiche, which meant that we weren't allowed to give them nets at that moment in time. This lead to angry people and a very stressful situation. The slow step of the operation is the writing of names on the nets. I was getting more and more agitated as the sun started to set, so I grabbed a marker and started to write names on the nets myself. I perplexed my Senegalese counterparts at first, but they soon realized that I was a really fast writer. Thankfully that distribution ended before sundown, however the drama didn't. My village is 1K away from the site of the second distribution, but no one informed my village of that fact. The need in my village was only 8 nets (not actually accurate), so my ICP decided that I could just deliver the nets to my village. WORST IDEA EVER! I show up to my village with 8 nets and suddenly everyone is asking for a net. I wasn't there when the relais came to my village for the recessment, so I couldn't make sure that it was done correctly. I knew that the need in my village would be low (I mean, I only have 150 people living there and my site mate did a distribution there the year before), but 8 was unusually low. At this point, it's past my shower time, I'm tired, and upset, so I tell everyone that I need to shower and run into my room. I sit in my backyard for a good 5 minutes crying and then call my site mate and cried to her for another 10 minutes. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't the worst day I had in village, but it was so overwhelming at that one point. Everything just hit me at once and it was too much to handle (cue crying). After crying and my bucket bath, I felt a million times better. Onto day 2 of distributions.

Day two of distributions occurred at 4 simultaneous sites. I was sent to Salimata, where we have an Ag(riculture) volunteer. I left home at 8am to bike the 10K to Salimata in order to get there by the 9am start time. The nets didn't arrive at the site until noon. Fortunately, I had three other PCVs come to the distributions. Having other PCVs made a frustrating situation entertaining. The distributions ended with slight nausea from constant contact with the insecticide impregnated nets.

Day three had 6 concurrent distributions and I was told that it was the last day (SURPRISE- something occurred ahead of schedule...woohoo). This was the most efficient distribution of the 4 that I participated in and the only one that started and ended on schedule. There were no problems with the coupons or the fiche de recessments and the team I was working with was efficient. After three long days of distributions and countless hours of sitting (in meetings and at distributions), mosquito net project in Bagadadgi complete (for the most part).

Farewell village

Right after net distributions, it was off to Kolda and then up to Thies for IST. In total, I'll be away from village for a total of three weeks (sad face).

Thank you to everyone for the emails/letters/packages. Loves you!!

--Peace Out

Shooting Stars and Thunderstorms

It's funny how quickly a place can become a home. I now refer to my village and my hut as home. There's something about a place that serves as your home base and where you have a family. When I'm in village, I'm Rouby and everyone knows my name. When I venture out of the safe confines of my village, I am hit with a barage of little children yelling "Tubako" (white person), not acceptable. When sitting under the stars one night, I explained to my group of friends in Pulaar why I get mad when people refer to me as a Tubako (not that they believed that I can get mad...much like some of my friends in the states). I told them that I am a member of a community- I have a Senegalese name, a village, and a family. I'm a resident of the region and am not just a white person. Surprisingly, I was able to communicate this in my limited Pulaar because one of them said, If someone called me "Baleejo" (Black in Pulaar), I wouldn't be happy either.


A Day in the Life of Rouby
Now that I've been in village for a little over a month, I have some semblance of a routine. A typical day in village goes like this...

6:30am- I wake up to the sounds of birds chirping, roosters crowing, and women pounding grain. I lie in bed reading for a bit before I actually get up.

7:30am- I leave my hut after my morning routine and greet everyone in my compound. I sit down with my family and have a simple breakfast of leftover Couscous and Jambo.

** These days, planting/farming season has started, so the men have left the compound to go to the fields and many women go to the rice paddys.

9:00am- I try to get out of my coupound for a few hours at this point. I've walked around my village and started my baseline survey questions. Or I bike to Bagadadgi to greet my counterpart at the health post. Or I bike to my site mate's village to say hi. If I don't do any of the above, I just follow the pack of little children around.

12:00pm- My family returns from the fields and I sit with them. Usually, a couple people from the village will pop over to hang out.

1:30pm- Lunch time!!

2:00pm- Post lunch lounge time. My brother will make tea and the family lies under the shade of our mango tree

3:30pm- I "afternoon" in one of the compounds or people come to mine. I hang out with the kids of my village and I tickle attack them. At this point, I sneak in questions from my Baseline survey.

6:30pm- I waddat esport at this time aka I go for a run (yes...the girl who hates to run has started doing it every day). My village thinks that this is hilarious, but if I go for a run, I don't get harassed about going to the rice paddys.

7:15pm- As the sun starts to set, I take my bucket bath. I also take this time to regroup and to spend some quality time with Wilma =)

8:00pm- I lay on the outside shade structure with my brother, his wife, and their son. A couple of people will come and we'll talk about a variety of things ranging from geography (continent vs. country), to sports (world cup!), to why I'm not married (because I don't want a husband right now....duh!), to whether the Euro or the Dollar is stronger (euro). Other times, it'll be teach Rouby Pulaar time, where they'll point at random things and ask me what it is.

10:30pm- Bedtime. I usually don't actually go to sleep til 11:30 or 12, but I try!


Shooting Stars and Thunderstorms
A year ago, a group of friends and I spent the night on a rock under the stars in Joshua Tree. That night, we saw over a dozen shooting stars and it was a gorgeous site. Here in Senegal, I lie under the stars on a nightly basis and see shooting stars every other night. As much as not having electricity is a slight inconvenience, I don't really miss it that much. I'm reminded on a nightly basis how gorgeous the world is and how electricity takes away from that.

Along those same lines, I'm reminded how scary mother nature can be. The rainstorms here come with a side of thunder and lightening. The flashes of lightening across the sky are like a free light show in a planetarium. However, the claps of thunder penetrate my cement walls and grass roof and terrify me. In the States, where thunderstorms aren't a common occurrence, I loved the flashes of light followed by the low rumbling of thunder. Here, it sounds like the thunderstorm is inside my hut and I'm forced to hide inside my mosquito net with my covers over my head and my ipod on loud. My village finds this absolutely hilarious. I say that the thunder scares me and they laugh at my silliness. This is only the beginning...hopefully I survive the rainy season!


Senegalese meeting
Last week, I was in Kolda for meetings regarding the Universal Coverage Project where the government of Senegal is attempting to provide every sleeping structure with a mosquito net. These three days of meetings were an adventure. First of all, the meetings were slated to begin at 9am all three days- they didn't begin til 11am. I can't say that I was entirely surprised seeing as nothing goes according to schedule in this country. Secondly, the meetings were conducted in French. I can confidently say at this point that my Pulaar is better than my French. Thank goodness that the presentations were in powerpoint format because I can read French better than I can hear/comprehend it. Thirdly, the meetings went on for 7 hours with an hour lunch break in the middle. Seriously!? It was so difficult to concentrate and I was exhausted by the end of it all. I had to focus and then translate the information into English so that I could understand it all.

Good thing though, I know my years of French didn't go to waste. Also, I now am well versed in the goals of the project and am excited to be involved in this endeavor. It's nice to know that I will be doing something more than just sitting around drinking tea. Yay!


Language Seminar
This past week, a language teacher from Peace Corps was assigned to give us a brush up lesson on Pulaar. Three of us newbies convened in Dabo for three days. It was validating to have a teacher here to tell me that my Pulaar has improved. Obviously I can communicated better than a month ago, however, without someone there to assess your language, it's difficult to tell how much improvement has been made. I know for me, confidence is a big hurdle in speaking a new language. When I was learning French, I was great at learning grammar and vocabulary, but so hesitant to speak it. I like to be grammatically correct when I speak, so I would take forever to get a sentence out. Now, I am forced to speak Pulaar if I want to get anything across. I am a lot less worried about being correct than getting my point across. It's amazing that people can understand me. The group I hang out with and children understand me perfectly. If needed, they translate my broken Pulaar into something understandable.


Gender/Age Gap
I find that my friends in village consist of children and boys between the ages of 20-25. Girls in this country often get married at 15 or 16 and have their first child soon after that. As a 22 year old who is a single woman (not even counting the fact that I look different), puts me in a totally different category. I can't relate to any of the women my age. I don't have children and I don't work like they do. I don't mind pounding millet for 10 minutes, but I can't do it for hours at a time. It's a strange dynamic for me because I have solid groups of female friends and have never had trouble making girlfriends.

I've always loved children and I love nothing more than sitting around playing with kids. Also, they don't expect me to know Pulaar instantly or ask me for anything. As for the group of boys that I hang out with, they are the same age group as me and they aren't married and don't have kids yet. They also have the patience to sit around and teach me Pulaar. We'll see whats going to happen in the next two years...hopefully I find my group of girls soon. As much as I like having guy friends, there's nothing like having girl talk.


My mini- America
While I'm in Kolda, I stay at the Peace Corps Regional House- my mini America. Here, I watched the second half of Season 1 of Glee, the US vs. England World Cup Match, and where I can speak English without looking like a crazy person. It's so nice to have a place where the volunteers can go and hang out with each other (the internet is pretty cool too). Village life (as awesome as it is), is really tiring at times, so it's really important that we have this oasis where we can relax and escape a little.


Home isn't frozen in time
As much as I hoped that nothing at home would change while I was gone, so much has happened in the lives of my friends in the three short months that I've been gone. There have been birthdays, graduations, trips, proposals, pregnancies, and life changing decisions. All this has happened in 1/9th of the time I'm away...what's going to happen in the remaining 8/9th of my service?? Only time will tell...

At the same time, I think back to where I was a year ago, at it seems like a lifetime ago. Those were the days when I would take road trips to Vegas with the girls, where my job was to watch a 5 year old, and where I took electricity for granted. Crazy!!

Miss you like crazy and thanks for everything!

--Peace Out

My Three Wives

Today marks the two week anniversary of my installation into my village. This is the village that I will be living in and working with for the 2 years of my service. There is so much to tell, I don't know where to begin. OK...lets start with where I left off in my last blog post.

Install Day

The day started off bright and early with meetings with the Prefet, Gendarme, Chef du Medecin of Kolda, and the Inspector d'education. What I've learned in this country of lacking watches is more patience. The good thing is that my group was being installed by Pape. Pape lived in the states for years and speaks English extraordinarily well. He runs an internet cafe in Tamba which was frequented by PCVs and was convinced to join the PC staff. While we were waiting for various "important" people to show up, we asked Pape questions about his life in the States and other topics that kept us relatively entertained (like him saying I have no excuse for not knowing Spanish because I'm from California).

After our meetings, we loaded up most of our stuff and it was off to village we go. It was entertaining to tetris the belongings of three people moving to villages for two years. I was the last of the three to be dropped off, so I went to two other installations. Prior to my install, I visited my official counterpart, the ICP, at the health post. Her living quarters are on the health post property and if I had to describe her in one word, it would have to be PATRON. For those of you back home, I am not describing her as my favorite tequila, but as someone who exudes money. It's one of my favorite adjectives in country (and i will probably use it a lot back in the States). Her living area is really nice and would be considered so in the U.S. After that visit, it was off to village! I had three PCVs come to my install, which was awesome! We pulled into my village and we were greeted by the sound of drums and it was immediately dance party time! I was forced (kinda) to dance a lot and it was great. We took a break and Pape talked to the village about my role in the community. Then, my Dad talked and welcomed me to the family. He was saying how they asked Emily (my closest neighbor, who's 1 K away) for a volunteer and it was Allah's will that sent me to them. He also called me his Rouby (Rouby Seydi is my new name) throughout his speech. It was so nice to be welcomed like that into the community and it was more exciting than overwhelming.

My hut

I have a new place of residence and it is a hut. My first post college place of my own is a round, straw roofed hut! So excited! My hut is actually really cute and it's all I need. I think I have one of the smaller huts within PC Senegal, but it's nothing careful arrangement of furniture can't fix. It was so nice to finally be able to unpack and call this place home. During training, we were moved so often between CBT site and Thies that I felt so unsettled and I wasn't able to find anything that I needed. In my hut in Mamadou Badjeifa, everything is starting to have a place and I can locate things relatively easily. The day of install, my dad asked if I wanted a shade structure in my backyard, I said yes and literally by 10am Day 2, I had a shade structure in my backyard. Apparently, things NEVER happen this fast in Senegal, so I lucked out with my family.

I am planning on decorating my hut and painting it. The current plan is to paint my walls yellow and to paint a sunset mural above my bed. We'll see what will actually happen (I'm hoping the yellow will open up my room and make it look bigger). This is the furthest that I have ever lived from the ocean and I think that a sunset over water will make me feel right at home. I plan on painting after rainy season and will post pictures of the hut soon.

My new family

My new family is much more of a typical Senegalese family than my family in Mbour was. I have a dad, two mothers, an older brother, 4 younger brothers, 3 younger sisters, a nephew, 2 nieces, and 3 wives. In the Senegalese family structure, the wives of my brothers are also called my wives. I'm in a very strange position here as a foreign female in a male dominated society. I feel like I have a sneak peak into the "old boys club", but it's not as cool because i don't understand half the things they say. At the same time, it's nice being able to move between the two gender groups without much trouble.

I'll provide a brief description of the members of my family....

Baaba- My dad is the chief of my village (which in my head means that I'm a princess...yay!). He is the sweetest man and probably bike faster than I do. He owns a boutique in my road town and is very protective. He gets things done, everyone respects him, and he is a fair person.

Neene- My mom, Kumbayel, thinks that I'm the funniest person ever. She laughs whenever I say something correct, wrong, or witty. She is a Jalijo, a singing storyteller, and she goes to weddings and other events to sing.

Inno (Namesake)- My Inno, is technically my second mom, but she refers to me as Inno. She is the sweetest and always forces me to eat.

Souleymane- He is my older brother, is married to Madja and is the father of 3 week old Issatu. He is super smart and has gone to school a lot. He speaks some french and a little bit of English.

Mamadou- Technically he is my older brother, but my dad says that he's my younger brother. He is married to Binta and has the most adorable 6 week old named Amadou. He is my go to in my family. He understands that I'm learning Fulakunda and is tres patient with me. He repeats things, does charades, and explains things in words I understand. I either eat with him or Binta.

Amadou- My other younger brother who just got married to Fatou and lives in Dakar.

Saju- My younger brother who goes to Arabic school in Dakar.

Aliou- Technically not my brother, but he lives with us and is part of the family. His father lives in Zigansour and used to work for my father. Aliou is in the 6th grade and he's the one that steers our donkey.

Faatumata- Aliou's sister who is sent to walk me places. She is a sweetheart who jabers away. She left for Dakar and won't be back til after rainy season.

Faatumata (2)- She has the sweetest smile and acts like she's 15. She's my buddy in village and although we have a language barrier, we connect. It's fascinating how that can happen. People can connect on a deep level regardless of culture, language, and age.

Kumbayel- She is a little trouble maker. She is clearly the Kala Bante of the family and has the innocent, but sly smile to prove it. She has the most infectious laugh and i just want to squeeze her!

I showed my family my pictures from America and they loved them! My sisters in law can identify everyone in my family by name. It's hilarious to hear them pronounce American names. The only one they can really say is Vivian because there's a Senegalese singer with the name Vivienne. My family is awesome. The only thing is that they claim that I don't eat.....

Food

The food here is different, but actually really good (although carb heavy). For lunch, we eat either rice or Kodee with leaf sauce. We sometimes have tentuloo (palm oil, which i actually don't like) or gile (pounded hot peppers with onion and salt- YUM!) with it. For dinner, we usually have lecheri (couscous) with Jambo (like veggie soup). I like the food and eat til I'm full, but my family often says that I don't eat. I make grand statements about how my stomach is filled to the brim and how if i ate more i would be sick.

We are currently at the tail end of mango season, but that meant that for the two weeks i've been in village, I've been snacking on a steady stream of mangoes. Delicious! My family steams green mangos and also make something like mango salsa where they pound mangoes, gile, and salt into a delicious paste.

The village

The village itself is so sweet. There are about 150 people living there in 11 compounds. There is probably a 50:50 ratio of people under 20 and people over 20. Good thing I LOVE kids! My village has less than half the people of my high school graduating class, so I am determined to learn everyone's names by month 2. It is so nice to have a village where people are enthusiastic about having a volunteer. I had a conversation with Mamadou about wanting to paint a mural at a school 2K away. He proceeded to ask me what I was going to do in the village because I was their volunteer. We then launched into a discussion about what he wanted my projects to be. We then talked about how the village should be involved in this discussion because it would effect everyone. Next thing I know, two days later, we had a village meeting about what they wanted me to do. The three ideas were health post (not possible), school (also not possible), and a garden (possible!). Thank goodness we had sensible people in the village who knew that the health post and school weren't logical projects. So, a garden it is!

The best part is, I haven't conducted my baseline survey yet or conducted a PACA. When I actually do those, I will have more ideas of what the village needs/wants. We have gotten the superficial, big, unrealistic ideas out of the way and can move forward to the true needs of the community. I'm excited to get down to work because I know they'll be as enthusiastic as I am about projects.

Oh the places you'll go

A Dr. Suess classic that continues to pop up in my life when it's the most appropriate. I read it as I was about to graduate from college and have read it multiple times in country. It's so fitting, especially the part about being alone. There are times in village where I'm having a tough language day and feel quite alone. But then I grab a small child and feel better!

The journey has just begun and I'm positive that I will have my ups and downs, but this is what I wanted to do. I'm excited and terrified of what's to come, but I know I have the support of my families. I know i'm forgetting some stories, but I will do my best to continue writing this blog. Hopefully you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it. Also, send me updates on your lives and email me news articles that I may find interesting.

Thanks for the Love!

--Peace Out

I'm now a Volunteer...What!?

I am currently sitting in my regional house hanging out with all the other Kolda volunteers.... yes, I said volunteers! My stage and I took our oath of service at the US Ambassador's house on May 14th. It was like graduation day all over again. Coincidentally enough, I graduated from USC exactly a year prior to swear in. The day after swear in at 6:00am, 5 other volunteers and I packed all our stuff into 2 sept places and were off to Kolda. The night before I left, I decided that I didn't want to sleep and to spend as much time with my fellow stagemates before we parted. The best way to describe training and our interactions with each other would have to be freshman year of college on steroids. I have gotten really close to a bunch of people and it's weird being so far from there. Since being in country, we haven't been apart for more than a few days. Tomorrow, we will be plucked from our fairy tale training stage and dropped off in our villages where we will be all ALONE.

I'm super excited to finally unpack and settle into one place. At the same time, I'm petrified of what I'm about to embark on. The next time that I have internet access will be who knows when. I will have a lot more to say next post.

My new address is:
PCV: Wilma Mui
B.P. 26
Kolda, Senegal
West Africa

Send me magazines (like the World Cup issue of Vanity Fair), snacks, letters, pens, water bottles, luna bars, stuff you think I'll like. Thanks!!

Miss you friends!

--Peace Out

Better Late Than Never

I have been slacking off and not posting pictures. Actually, I haven't taken that many photos since being here- I blame Kate, Lauren, and the LM for this fact because thanks to them, I never had to take my camera anywhere. Here are some I have taken....

Mural Painting at the Health Center

Baobab Trees in Kolda

Carrying a bucket of Water on my head
(a lot of it ended up on me)

Dr. Seuss Grass!

Cashew Apples- Fresh from the tree

Officially Demystified

Making Neem lotion with our Mamas

Hanging out at a Cippero tourney

My Brothers!!

Segoona and I

Girl From California can't stay away
from the beach =)

Mom with the little one

Boubacar wants to be like Papa

Ousmane and I

He looks so innocent....

He's the cutest!

That's just a few pics....more to come, I promise.

--Peace Out