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
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
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
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
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