The Final Thienaba Days

Baobab Tree in the fields near my house in Thienaba... I get to see this everyday!

French Class with Regina (la Prof), Lindsay, Michelle and Ankith

Yes Mums! I'm alive and have the pic to prove it!

So I'm in the midst of my final days in Thienaba and I ,ust say that I will miss my family here very much. I feel a little bad that I haven't really been learning to speak there native tongue (Wolof) and have instead been concentrating on my French (at my site le gens parlent francais et Pulaar, pas Wolof et francais), but it makes for some good jokes with my one Pulaar sister as I always say I'm going to visit and speak Pulaar with her so that no one else can understand (a bit of a role reversal as I'm usually the clueless one).

Some local Sai-Sais returning from the fields wanted their picture taken

Believe it or not I've actually been getting up at sunrise to run recently (I know, I'm surprised too) and the millet fields interspersed with baobab trees and ant highways are beautiful (and pleasantly cool) with the rising sun and layer of mist... not to mentioned the surprised faces of the local farmers when a toabab comes running through the fields at 7am. I've really been enjoying this last week of training; I'm finally fairly comfortable with my French and the days are generally relaxed. I also bought a boubou today for swear in, so get ready for a few pictures of the Senegalese Mike (as my brother claims me to be). Peace out, Happy Halloween, and talk to you all soon!

Language class... I'm pretending to speak French and Wolof

PS: I finally have some pics with me in them for you Mums! You can thank Ankith (Ibrahima) and Lindsay (Yacine)

More Training!

Hey All!

Needless to say training is starting to drag on a bit, but at least it's nice to have a small grasp on French at this point so I can communicate with my training family; whom I already know I am going to miss. This past week has been great... full of new experiences. First I want to apologize for last weeks post, I didn't mean to scare anyone. Everyone who went to Dakar for the match was fine, they just came home with some interesting new stories. We really are all well cared for here, and the Senegalese people as a whole are extremely kind and caring towards strangers.

Someone trying to sell a Djemba to Aaron in Dakar

So as I said we all visited Dakar just to get a lay of the land. It is certainly a world apart from the rest of Senegal. Although you can see the inadequete housing on the ride in to the city, the traffic and scenery downtown practically makes you feel like you're back at home. We saw all the sites of downtown, no-one got pickpocketed (as far as I know) and we all got to see the PC offices and the all important Med Hut where we will all likely be forced to spend some time. We got some great views of the entire city from the roof of a hotel (see above!) Also, a fifteen year old boy, who was one of the hundreds of people trying to sell stuff to people in cars stuck in traffic, attempted to sell us pirated porn videos (a little funny yet a sad tell-tale sign of the state of Senegal at the same time... example below), as well as all the vendors in the city trying to sell us random items (the same guy will be selling a wallet, polo shirt, peanuts, and a pirated version of "The President's Daughter," supposedly starring Beyonce). Overall it was a heck of an experience... there's lots of action in Dakar, and it really is safe, I promise!

Dakar from the rooftop

Later in the week we also had a trainee-trainer soccer match: basically that means a bunch of 30yr old Senegalese men who are in good shape and have played soccer their entire lives against a mix matched team of volunteers. Surprisingly the game ended in a 3-3 tie! Lucky for us a few of the volunteers are great football players and I think the trainers were trying to be a little too fancy with their ball handling. One thing I definately learned from the match is that I realllllyyyy need to start running...

Who needs a 7-11 when you can by munchies on the highway?

We also had counterpart workshops this week. I got to meet my counterpart, Abdurahman Sane, and my supervisor, Fatou Niene (forgive the spelling, I'm sure it's as bad as my pronunciation!) Fatou is a very intelligent and influential woman in the community and will be a great person to work with. Abdurahman will be my daily contact and is a laid back guy who will be living just down the street. After the meetings I am very excited to swear in and get started. The workshop as a whole was quite hilarious... seeing 40 or so Senegalese engaged in "business meetings" a certainly an experience; I'm just glad it was done in French so I could atleast understand the better part of it. All the counterparts even recieved diplomas at the end... apparently that's a motivational tool commonly used by Peace Corps. I can't wait to give out my first!

Well as always internet time is limited and I must go. Getting ready for the last 9 day stint in our training villages to finish language training, then its only a few days before swear in! Inshallah, I'll be down in Velingara soon!

Sry... pics not working now, will try again later.

Hello from Thies! I am currently sitting in an air conditioned restaurant that has free internet access, eating ice cream and hanging out with some friends... heaven! I spent the last week in Thienaba with my host family. It was a fairly tough at times due to a recent loss in the family, but in the end the family has been strong and together pushed through it. The entire family has been praying together many times a day (before they often prayed the five daily prayers separately), which is powerful to say the least. Otherwise the time in the village has become fairly routine, consisting of language classes, Thebu Jen (the meal of rice, a little fish, and some veggies that I eat twice a day, most every day) and taking naps under the tree. I'm really adapting to Senegalese culture well, I can take a nap with the best of them!

Last night, back in Thies, a bunch of us went out to some live music. The band was great but at first no-one there was dancing. So it ended up being a bunch of toababs dancing in front while everyone else watched... we were probably more entertaining at first than the band. Eventually, however, we managed to get a lot of the Senegalese up dancing as well and in the end everyone had a great time. Monday I'll be making my first trip to Dakar since we arrived there by plane from the US. I will be bringing the least amount of money possible as the likelihood of being pick pocketed is really high. Also, there have been a lot of riots in Dakar recently as the government has been charging people double for electricity and often times completely cutting the power even to people who pay. Another huge riot occured after the Senegal-Gambia football match, which ended in a tie, eliminating Senegal from the World Cup. Unfortunately a few volunteers and trainees who were at the game got caught in the middle of it and were beaten and robbed. Needless to say I'm glad I wasn't there. Overall, however, Dakar is perfectly safe in the day, so no worries! I'm really excited to see the big city.

Next week is also counterpart workshops, where I will be meeting my supposed future work partner for the first time. Fingers crossed she speaks French! Swear-In is in just a couple weeks and I can't Wait! Training has been a good time and its nice to be around other Americans, but I can't wait to be totally set free in this new country. There is hilarious stuff that happens pretty much every day here but unfortunately I can never seem to remember them when it comes time to write this blog. Needless to say every day is interesting here in Senegal. Well gotta go, talk to you all soon. Have a good Halloween and GO SOX!!!

Greetings from Thies! Just got back from a day and night on the beach... International service definately has its perks! All the trainees pitched in and we rented a house on the beach for the night; enjoying the water, a few Gazelles (cheap Senegalese beer), and the good company.

Beach House!

Trip down to Kolda

Megan sleeping on the looong ride down to Kolda

Random village on the road

The Peace Corps as a whole has a very youthful attitude surrounding it, which makes for some good times. As a whole our stage (training group) has been getting along very well, I really lucked out and got placed in Senegal with some great people.

So I should be spending the next week back in Thienaba with my host family, getting in some much needed French practice. Less than a month untill swear in! Its already flying by!

Volunteer Site Visit Numbre Une

Greetings from Kolda House in the southern region of Senegal! As I said before, the other day I found out where my site is for the next two years. Its a decent sized city of about 24,000 but don't let that fool you, it's still going to be a bit out in the boonies. The Kolda region is south of the Gambia, so when travelling between here and the training center in Thies or Dakar we need to cross international borders; which is interesting to say the least.
We were woken up at 6am to get on the Peace Corps Bus (not a big school bus or Greyhound) and head to our site visits. We started off with 22 people and a lot of gear, including a refrigirator, on the roof. As we moved southward, however, people got off to meet up with current volunteers for a week and get an idea of what our lives are going to be like for the next two years. We had to bride our way through the Gambia, which is pretty cool. Not many people can say they had that experience.
Overall the ride took 14 hours on EXTREMELY bumby roads but the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. Overall Senegal is really flat, with the southern regions being more green than the northern. The other volunteers in my region are great; they threw a little party for us when we arrived last night, which was great fun. The house has elecricity, TV, and internet (that I'm using to write this) and seems to be a great spot to meet up with other volunteers and get a little taste of home for a while.
Well I'm going to keep this one short as I'm coming down with my first Senegalese ailments: diarhea, headache, chills, and some funky rash. But ohhh well, it all comes with the territory. Atleast I'm somewhere with a nice bed. A bientot!

Thieneba Trip Numbre Deux

Hello All

I'm back in Thies after a ten day stint at my training site in Thieneba. There has been so much that has happened and I'm afraid I will forget some of it, but here it goes...

All the SED and EcoT volunteers went out to the village of Popenguine to visit an EcoT site (pics below) on the beach. It was great to talk with the Park Officials and the Womens Group that created the reserve and to see an actual site where my friend Ankith will be working for the next two years. It was also nice to go for a little hike; I've basically been spending most of my time sitting and you get a little antsy after a while. After the trip to Popenguine and some more info sessions (yeah - malaria, blister beetles, and a million other bugs, parasites, and amoebas that I can't even name), I went back to my training site in Thienaba.

Popenguine
Popenguine
Popenguine

Life in the village can run at a pretty slow pace compared to what we are used to back in the states, especially during Ramadan as nobody has much energy due to the fasting. I have kept myself pretty busy though, as we have language classes all day. My French is getting better every day, and I can't wait to start learning a local language. This past visit I have really started to get closer to the family, the culminating moment coming a week in when I was unanimously considered a real member of the family. It's amazing how far a little patience and a few jokes can go.

My sister, Khyadi Ba
My Sisters Rokhya and Fatau trying to hide from the camera because their hair isn't ready yet... seem familiar to the US?
My Brother, Balla, who helps me out with my French A LOT!

The last day before I left Thienaba was Koritay, the feast at the end of Ramadan. If you'd like to celebrate your own Koritay its quite simple: just eat any animal that had eaten the crumbs from breakfast just four hours before until you can't move, sleep under a tree, drink lots of tea and repeat. It's a great day... Also, the kids run around asking for pocket change or candy, its kinda like Thanksgiving and Halloween all in one glorious day. I really was bummed to be leaving my family for the next 14 days as I go to visit a current volunteer and have a few days at the training center; I was really starting to feel really comfortable there. I love my family very much and I wish I could live with them the entire time I'm here... so it goes.

My Niece, Binta, and my nephew, Cheick
My Sisters partaking in the Korita feast... mmmmmm freshly killed mutton (he was my alarm clock the day before, what a tasty shame) After a couple of weeks with no red meat it is undescribable how good it tastes.

So I found out where my permanent site is going to be today: Velingara, a city of 24,000 in the Kolda region. (In other words I'm south of the Gambia in the more rainforestesque region... Alhumdolilah!) I can't wait to check out my site, training is flying by and the time is quickly approaching. I will miss my family in Thienabe but I'm excited to get to my real site. Once again running out of time, but that's a decent post for now. I still can't believe this is my life right now, it's unbelievable and certainly a heck of a lot more exciting than some cubicle job would have been! Love and miss you all!

My room in Thieneba... more pics coming, its tough to take photos as everyone in the world wants 500 pictures taken of them as soon as they see the camera.

PS: Keep my father in your prayers as he's suffering from liver problems and malaria. He's a strong man and I'm sure he will pull through, but the good thoughts never hurt... ohhh and my brother is doing well.

PPS: Mums, if you want to neaten this up for me a bit that'd be great! Love you, talk to you soon!