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!