IST and WAIST

So it's been a while since I've written as well as a while since I have been at site. This past month I have been at my In Service Training in Thies followed by the WAIST softball tournament in Dakar; which means I have been speaking far too much english, having a lot of fun and spending the majority of my mandate.

After the 12 hour ride in the back of a sept-place it was a great relief to show up at the Training Center in Thies for IST. It is so dusty now that we're well into the dry season and the roads are so bad that you have to cover your mouth, nose and eyes for most of the ride due to the extremely fine sand that is everywhere. I was almost entirely orange/red upon showing up in Thies... fortunately there are real running showers there! At first I felt out of place using running showers, sleeping on a real mattress and other such comforts that I didn't previously realize how much I had become used to doing without. Being around so many other Americans and speaking english was also slightly uncomfortable at first, a problem that is now reversed after a month of being surrounded by toubabs!

IST mainly consisted of classes all day, focusing on the technical aspect of our work. We spent a lot of time discussing how to give business trainings and sharing experiences and ideas concerning work opportunities. We had class all day Mon - Fri and half-day Saturday, a very structured schedule that I was not used to at all. It is quite the opposite of the no-schedule, do what you want when you want style that defines the Peace Corps. Each afternoon we were bussed back out to our original training homestays only to return to the center each morning. Staying with my original host family again was interesting and relaxing. Unfortunately I still couldn't speak to most of them as they, for the most part, don't know French and I had learned some Pulaar while they speak Wolof. This schedule, however, left only about 2 hours of free time a day, and I think we were all quite exhausted at first. We got our chances to relax and go out and get some drinks on the weekends and share stories of our first three months at site, which is time highly relished by a group of recent college graduates.

We also managed to make a few site visits during training. One day we all went to an French Catholic Monestary where a group of Senegalese monks are able to be completely self-sustainable by making and selling goat cheese as well as fruit from their sizable orchard. It was quite an experience to see a Senegalese monestary, with painting of a black Jesus, where most of the country is Muslim. Also, the goat cheese and fruit was delicious! We also visited a town that makes these very interesting baskets out of reeds and old prayer rugs which are being sold abroad with the help of some PCVs. While IST was fun and a nice little taste of civilization, by the end of it I think we were all ready for it to be over so we could: 1) go to WAIST! and 2) return back to our sites and previous schedules which we had all grown to love.

So as soon as IST ended we all went into Dakar where we were given homestays in Ex-Pat houses for the week. I stayed with a National Guard Major with three other volunteers... and he had hot water! It was the first hot shower I had in 5 months and I think I stood under the water for about 30 minutes. All the volunteers from Senegal (about 150), most Gambia volunteers, as well as some Mauritania and Guinee volunteers all converge on Dakar for this tournament. It basically consists of everyone dressing up in absurd costumes, drinking copious amounts (having that many 20-somethings in one place who are all used to living in villages is a dangerous/fun combination), playing softball all day and going to parties at night. Needless to say it was an extremely fun time and a bit of a release for everyone. Now I just have to wait an entire year for the next WAIST!

I'm now back in Kolda trying to get myself organized to go back to site. It's been so long and I feel as though I have gotten so used to certain comforts that returning will require a bit of re-adjustment. Plus the fact that at this point I have practically forgotten how to speak French and Pulaar. Oh well, it's going to be nice to get back to site and resume my service. I just need to enjoy these last couple cool days... the hot season is rapidly approaching! A few more weeks and it should be topping 100 degrees daily, yay!!!

Celebrations, Loss and The New 'Patron du Monde'

So it's been a fairly exciting last week in Velingara prior to my leaving for a month to attend IST in Thies. I went to a celebration at friend's house who had just finished studying the Koran. Three kids (two boys and one girl, all about 18-20 years old) were celebrating together and there was a huge party. Basically their compound was just completely full of people sitting on mats like sardines packed in a can, leaving only a tiny path to walk through to get from the house to the edge of the compound. Finally the Imam came out and read some passages from the Koran, as well as the three new 'graduates'. It was after the scripture readings that things got really interesting and presented some interesting paradigms in the Senegalese culture (some that I believe also exist more generally in the African culture as a whole).

It is customary for the family to feed everyone who comes to the party. So out came the plates of Ceb and everyone gathered around for their bit. After this, however, some of the older men who seemed to be running the celebration were handing out Kola Nuts and little bags of biscuits (the kind of thing you'd see in an elementary schooler's lunchbox) to everyone at the party. Apparently some people felt as if others were getting served twice and worried they may not receive some themselves, so they started fighting with each other very loudly, pushing and shoving, and simply grabbing bags of biscuits from the men, tearing open the big sack. It was incredible, a group of grown men fighting like children over little bags of biscuits. I just decided to avoid any possible trouble and threw my bag into the middle of the fray.

This illustrated perfectly an interesting paradigm in the Senegalese culture that I have noticed quite a few times now: they are an extremely community-based and share almost everything (especially in the family) and yet expect, and fight over, handouts. Everything from the way they pray together, to the way they dish parts of the dinner into passing Talibes' cans even though they're not eating enough themselves, and the way they don't understand the concept of private time or property within the family structure. All of these things points to a society that thinks for the greater good rather than to personal gain (unfortunately a trait which doesn't help development). At the same time, upon seeing a white person they expect to be given a handout. When talking with many volunteers, the Senegalese (some, not all) have shown reluctance to actually work for their own benefit and simply expect the capital to be given regardless of their commitment (it's always the lack of money that's to blame, never the lack of work!) Half the reason they attend parties is for the free food, which they end up fighting over. It's clear that this dichotomy comes from their conflicting history, that combines the collective thinking of rural Africa and the communal praying of the Muslim faith with the past experiences of colonization followed by the modern times where the only buildings bigger than a shack are the NGOs. Ohhh Senegal... it makes one realize how complex, and oftentimes contradictory, constructing social and economic change really is.

Well back to my life here... the other day I visited another volunteer who lives nearby to me (I biked 45 miles in one day, great way to kill a lot of time without having to strain to think in another language and simultaneously feel like you accomplished something!) for no real reason other than to make a day trip and see how her work has been going. While we were hanging out in her hut we suddenly noticed everyone outside start panicking and a thick wave of smoke coming over her hut. When we walked outside we noticed her neighbor's hut was on fire, not 50 ft. from her hut. Since the roofs of these huts are made from dry straw and there is a lot of wind now, it is really easy for these huts to go up in flames. They're basically like the tinder for a camp-fire, even set up in a conical shape, and its not rare for entire villages to be burned down (just recently 50 huts were razed and two people died in a village not too far off).

Everyone around, myself included, started running back and forth from the wells with buckets trying to put out the fire. There was also a lot of wind blowing straight from the fire towards her hut, and so people started preemptively dowsing her roof with water to prevent it from spreading. Another hut within her compound did start up a bit and we all rushed water to it as quickly as possible while the family members were running in and out frantically trying to get all their belongings out of the room in case it was completely burned down, which was now evident was the fate of the first hut. Fortunately the hut in her compound was saved due to the literally 100-200 people that came running to help. The other hut, unfortunately, was a huge loss for its owner. He had two computers (with the intention of going up to Dakar to study at University), a peanut harvesting machine and lots and lots of sacks of rice and millet. All in all he lost over 3 million FCFA worth of items... an amount that is nearly impossible to save here.

So now this poor guy who has likely been spending his entire life working and saving above and beyond his peers, and finally was about to go to University in Dakar, lost everything. I mean everything... there's no insurance here, if your stuff burns down that's simply it. And the fire was started by a bunch of kids who were doing something stupid that involves breaking open a car battery and placing the acid in a fire to make some firecracker type effect! Genius, on so many levels, I know. But this is where the communal aspect of the Senegalese culture shined... everyone rushed to the help of this man. Partially because there are no official firefighters and they didn't want the fire spreading to other houses, but also because they realize that he is loosing his whole life. You could tell they really sympathized with his plight.

Finally, as you all know, Barack Obama became our next President this past week!!! And it was really interesting to be here in Senegal while it happened. Everyone here is so excited that a black man was elected head of the US (which they constantly refer to as 'Le Patron du Monde' (or Boss of the World). They genuinely seem to love the United States and everything it stands for (not just that fact that we have a lot of money, although they like that as well!) and believe that by electing Obama we are changing the entire world... giving everyone an equal voice. I was actually in the market when the inauguration started and wasn't going to be able to make it to my neighbor's house to watch it. So as I was passing a random tailor's shack I noticed they were watching it (as everyone with electricity and a tv was) and I stopped and poked my head in. When they noticed I was interested in watching so they invited me in, gave me the best seat as they always do here, and I watched the whole thing dubbed in French with a group of Senegalese people I've never met before.

It's another example of the strong sense of community and sharing in Senegal... they don't think twice about inviting complete strangers into their houses, giving them food, and then wishing them peace as the head out. At home we spend most time in public completely ignoring everyone around us. If you went up to some random person and said hello they'd think you were crazy. Here, on the other hand, people enjoy taking the time to simply share greetings with everyone as they walk by. This week my family has been pressed for money so their neighbors will send over extra bowls of rice at dinner time. Yet these are the same groups of people who will fight over a little pack of biscuits. Senegal makes so much sense some days and is completely incomprehensible other days. Well, it's certainly interesting. Until next time, when I'll be back up in Thies, Jamtun!

(Check webshots from time-to-time as well, trying to get more photos up)

Working, Relaxing and Recuperating in good old Senegal

So the days go by a little more quickly now that I actually have some work to do hear, although that presents it’s own unique African problems as well, keeping it interesting! I’ve been doing my computer lessons, but of course my last class had only one student showing up! The all tell me how much they want to learn computers but at the same time they don’t want to give up their free time after work (the classes are from 5-7pm). The one student who showed up is very genuinely interested, so as far as I’m concerned the others are missing out and he’s going to be rewarded for his interest with one-on-one instruction!

Also, in the weeks following my IST (which starts next week back in Thies… you can find ice cream, restaurants that offer more then rice and drinks there!!!) I will be working on a sex-ed project with some other volunteers in some schools in my area. We are going to give formations to select students and teachers who are then going to teach the schools themselves. The general view of Peace Corps is to have the local population do as much of the work as possible in hopes of it being sustainable and genuinely desired by the population, with the volunteers acting more as sparkplugs to get things rolling more smoothly. This project is a perfect example as it will be the students and teachers giving the lessons while us PCVs are just there for back-up. The schools are in Diobé, which is a major market town with the highest rates of AIDS in Senegal as well as a prostitution problem due to the huge amounts of people who simply pass through to conduct trade, and Kounkande where many girls as young as 13 are forced to quit school early due to pregnancy. In a country where girls already have enough odds against them to get an education becoming pregnant at the age of 13 certainly doesn’t help.

I’m excited to get to work a little out of my ‘field’ (Small Enterprise Development) as well as to work outside of Vélingara. Travelling is one of my favourite, although sometimes stressful, things to do in Senegal so it’s nice to have work that will involve me moving around a bit. Also, as much as I love it in Vélingara and I am in many ways fortunate not to be in one of the tiny villages I still occasionally get a little bored of being in the same place too much. So this work will give me the opportunity to spend many days outside of Vélingara, which in turn makes my time spent here more enjoyable as well.

These past couple of days I’ve unfortunately been sick again, possibly the same thing as before Christmas. But it’s made me realize some more differences between American and Senegalese culture. In general Senegalese NEVER have alone time: they are always hanging out together. I, as an American, on the other hand, like to have a little time to myself each day to read, listen to music, etc. This feeling is only exemplified in instances of illness or suffering. When there is a death, for example, hundreds of people descend on the house immediately to mourn with the family. I, on the other hand, would want at least a day without too many people to mourn and think personally instead of being surrounded by people I hardly know. When people are sick it’s the same thing. Here people hang out outside with everyone when they’re sick and only stay in bed in they are on their death-bed, in which case people are constantly visiting them. I, however, just want to sleep in bed and be left alone to rest while ill. So when I spent all this time in my bed due to my recent illness, my family kept insisting I should go to the hospital and thought I was really, really sick. I explained I just needed to rest and simply could do that better alone than with them (as I’ve mentioned before, even sitting around making tea, essentially doing nothing, is tiring here simply because I have to intently listen to every word and try to respond in a mix of Pulaar and French). Anyways, just another one of the many differences that I noticed and with time am noticing less and less as I become more adapted to Senegalese life, or, at this point… my life.

Well I’ll be in Thies in a week, so until then enjoy the winter and hit up those powder-covered mountains for me! Send news, take pictures, and I will try to do the same.

Jam-tun!

Tamkharit, Work (finally!) and Good Old Velingara

So after a nice long break it felt good to get back home to Velingara. I've really started to feel comfortable there to the point where I can safely call it home! (Don't worry, it will never be able to replace my real home in the States.) So upon returning I got right to work (finally) and have given my first computer lesson entirely in French. I am teaching at the Inspector's Office and the group I am teaching now is really at an elementary level... we worked on saving a Word Document, using capital letters, and other such challenging things. This is good for me because it gives me a chance to practice my French computer vocabulary prior to teaching more complex things. I also had a meeting with the leaders of a women's group, which went well and left me with one of those 'I'm actually where a year ago I daydreamed of being' moments, which is always nice; you is needed from time to time here.

The Muslim New Year, or Tamkharit, was also this past week and like all Senegalese holidays revolves solely around eating until you are going to explode. The concept of eating until you're full (especially when there's meat involved... I actually get excited when I see a piece of goat stomach in the bowl!) is enough for them to celebrate and talk about for a week. They also have this funny tradition where they boys dress in girls clothes and visa versa and all the kids run around town with homemade drums singing, dancing and asking for gifts. It's a little like Halloween at home but much crazier and as with all the kid's lives, there's little to no direct adult supervision.

Here every adult acts as a parent to every child and you'd never hear one parent complaining to another if their child was beaten (not sooo viciously, we're not talking about serious damage here and the kids here are tougher than in the US). Just the other day my little sister got hit with a horse whip for messing around with some guy's horse and her Mom basically just said that she deserved it (don't worry, it didn't even leave a mark, just gave her a little sting and a scare). And I'm sorry if it seems like I'm defending the beating of children, I don't and never will hit them even though people here have said I should from time to time. It's just that it's not like at home and I'm trying to put it in perspective. It's hard to explain but, at least from what I've seen, it's not so bad here and the kids are never seriously hurt; it's not wrong, not right, just different.

Well I'm kind of in a rush but I'll try to get on again soon. Have fun back in the States and as always: eat a nice juicy steak fillet for me. Jam tun.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

First off, thank you everyone who sent cards and or packages, it's greatly appreciated! I hope you all enjoyed the holidays and I must say that I am slightly envious of all the snow you've been getting. I can't complain though, I've been on vacation this week and instead of dealing with shovelling I've had to worry about sunburns! So I left my site on the 23rd and spent Christmas here in Kolda with the other volunteers. We had a pretty good celebration that including plenty of good food, Christmas music, and Christmas movies. We had everything to eat from two ducks to peanut butter fudge. The ducks were extra fresh as you buy them alive and get to kill and pluck them yourselves... it makes you realize how lucky we are to be able to eat them when you have to see them running around one minute and on your plate the next. We even got a little Christmas tree.

Two days after Christmas two other volunteers and I left for the beach to relax until New Years. We stayed in a small campemment in a two bed room where the beds were made out of concrete. We spent about five days there doing pretty much nothing but eating food that isn't rice and relaxing on the beach. There were big waves, very few people and even a herd of cows that apparently love the beach. After the first couple of days two more volunteers showed up to celebrate New Years with us. At the end of the day it was a great vacation, relaxing and leaving me ready to go back to site (I just hope I havn't been speaking English for so long now that I forget my French and Pulaar!)

So tomorrow I will head back to Velingara where I will likely stay untill my In Service Training at the end of January. I am going to be starting to give computer training classes to the people who work at the Inspectors Office (Superintendant of Schools) and then go around to the other schools to teach people there how to effectively use computers as well. I'm a little nervous for the first lesson, as it's for a room full of more educated Senegalese men and not for High School students or someone like that. I certainly know more about computers than they do, but the biggest problem will likely be my ability to add appropriate structure to my computer knowledge so I can teach with results. Also, I need to practice my French technical vocabulary a bit. But it will be nice once I've gotten the first lesson out of the way and have a better idea of the problems I will face in the future.

Well I hope everyone had a great holiday season! Peace and enjoy the new photos I put up on webshots!

Tabaski and then Some

Happy Tabaski! So It's been another week or two at site (the days tend to just blend together here) and my life as a Peace Corps Volunteer chugs along. I have basically been spending my days hanging out with my family, working on my language skills (that will never end!) and making more introductions and figuring out exactly where I will be working. I have a meeting coming up with the Inspector of schools of the Department of Velingara (similar to the Superintendent in the States) where we will be discussing the possibility of me giving computer training to students, and during the summer vacation, to all of the teachers (very few of whom know how to use a computer at all). This will be interesting as I will be teaching many people things as basic as how to use the mouse and what a cursor is... I should be returning from Senegal with a new found appreciation for the saying: 'Patience is a Virtue.' I'm still waiting on my Supervisor to return from Mecca, which should be in about a week, at which point I will be introduced to the women's groups with whom I will provide some business / management advice and training. I really need some more Pulaar for that, as most women here don't speak French.

As a whole things have been going well. As I said the days can kind of blend together, some days being better than others. There are definitely days where I am completely bored, feel as though I'm doing nothing and really realize how much of an outsider I am. But then there are also the days that are great, I get along well with everyone and make some new strides in my language. I had my first loss of patience with a Senegalese man who was more educated than most and was persistently asking me for money which he said he's spend on a party (this was immediately following a long and in depth conversation about the causes of poverty and the lack of funds and work in Senegal: such as the fact that all the most highly educated people leave for Europe or the US and having no capital with which to invest). I then lost my temper and yelled at him in French that spending money on things such as parties was exactly the problem and that nobody here saves for the future and that it was exactly the reason for the lack of funds and work. I did manage to add a few apologies in and walked away mid-sentence with my face clearly red and my fists clenched. It wasn't that what he said was any worse than other Senegalese, it was just kind of the boiling point. (Don't get the impression by this story and my last post that all my time with the Senegalese is spent deflecting demands for money... it's usually just once and then we can talk for hours and have great conversations.)

This past week was also Tabaski, the largest Muslim holiday of the year. It is to celebrate the Story of Abraham (same in the Koran as the Bible) where God told Abraham he must kill his only son as a sacrifice as he didn't have a goat. Right as Abraham was about to engorge his son, God replaced the boy with a goat... hence proving Abraham's faith in God and God's status as great and caring. The more I learn about it, the more I realize how similar the three major sects of religion (Christians, Muslims and Jews) are basically the same thing. They all preach doing good towards others, they all believe in one God, and they all draw on the stories and history of the same area and roughly the same time period. Religion aside, a Senegalese holiday basically consists of a lot of buildup with very little actual ‘party.’ Everyone who can (and many who can’t but do anyway) buy new clothing for the event. This is likely the only clothing they will buy that year, so it’s a pretty big deal for them. Also, the girls all do each other’s hair by adding fake hair extensions and braiding for a week straight. Finally, and most importantly, each family buys a goat for slaughter in celebration of the holiday and in recognition of God.

In the morning I got up early and joined the male members of my family at the large prayer session in the center of town. There were many, many people there and it was pretty powerful sitting in huge lines with the rest of them as we bowed and kissed the ground simultaneously in the Muslim style of prayer. I obviously didn’t know exactly what to do, but I’d seen others do it enough at this point that I could just mimic the people around me and get along fairly well. I must say, being at the prayer session earned me a little ‘Velingara street-cred!’ It was also quite powerful to kiss the ground and pray with so many people at the same time, it really invokes a sense of community and humility. After that I returned home where we did the ceremonial killing of the goat (that thing was stick and bones... hardly any meat at all!) after which the day of eating began and so I came to realize the reality of a Senegalese holiday. They basically just go around giving benedictions to all their neighbors and eating all day. I ate so much goat meat at every house that I visited that by mid-afternoon I passed out for a couple hours because I was just so stuffed. When no ‘party’ arrived as I had expected, I realized that eating meat and a new pair of clothing is definitely the most exciting thing that happens each year and is celebration enough in itself.

Also, at some point I took out my camera which made people go completely nuts. EVERYONE wanted a million photos taken of them and I was basically a photographer for the day while my family were the models; my sister’s especially loved it. I even was taken around to all my Dad’s friends’ houses to take photos for them as well (not as if I even have a way right now of making prints!) and by the end of the day I had taken over 100 photos and I wasn’t in a single one (got some of me in my bou-bou the next day). As a whole Tabaski was a good time... if nothing else I got my year’s worth of protein in one day, even though most of it came in the form of fat and cartilage (it’s amazing how good even that tastes now). And I will never forget my mental image of my brothers fighting over the cooked and picked clean skull of the goat (it looked like one of those skulls next to a tumble-weed in an old western) as they managed to find little pieces of brain and eye socket to eat. They picked it clean like a chicken wing. It’s too bad that with all the pictures I took that day I missed that one!

Two days later I left to go to Kolda for a few days as most all the other volunteers would be there, it was Jess’ birthday and we were having a house meeting. I had previously decided to ride my bike from Velingara to Kolda with two other volunteers who live close by, a distance of about 80 miles. All week my family was saying it was too far and I couldn’t do it, but I knew it was possible and was looking forward to the long ride... at least I could tell myself I accomplished something these first couple months! (Just kidding, my language has improved and I know my way around much better now. It’s just weird living for so long with no schedule or tangible accomplishments, so a little challenge like this is exactly what I needed!) So I got up to leave with the sunrise, beating the Mosque wake-up chants, and left by about 6:30 in the morning. I made it about 7km when I hit a pothole in the road and my back tire exploded! So after a week of being told I couldn’t make it to Kolda, I had to walk my broken bike back the 7km and prove them right. Needless to say I was a little disappointed but getting over stupid things like that is something I’ve gotten good at here: the land where pride can oftentimes be your biggest enemy. I ended going to Kolda via sept-place and the two girls rode their bikes without me... I passed them in the car on the way! But they made the whole distance in one day, so I will be doing that as soon as the next opportunity arises. Probably not for Christmas, as I will be carrying a fair amount of baggage, but my next visit to Kolda.

Ohhh, and for Christmas I’m going to spend it with the other volunteers in Kolda, baking cookies, watching Christmas movies and even eating duck! After which, for New Years, I think I will be going to the beach, but I’m not sure. I was originally going to go north to the beach with my stage-mates but unfortunately I think that might be a little too much for my Peace Corps budget right now. But that’s okay, this month as a whole is going to have a lot of time away from site and with other Americans, so it’s fairly relaxing. Meetings and class tomorrow, need to get some sleep. Goodnight and Merry Christmas!

Peace Always!

P.S. : Check out my Webshots albums, I’ve added some photos of Velingara... many more to go but it’s tough with the internet here to load too many. Got at least 100 up though!

Life as a Volunteer... I think

So I haven't written in a while, but I'll try to remember everything! First of all, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I celebrated at the Regional House in Kolda with other volunteers from the region. We each cooked something, and it turned out surprisingly well! We fortunately have some real chefs in the group. Going to Kolda was relaxing after my first two week stint with hardly any English and being the only American for miles (I do fortunately get at least 1 volunteer visitor a week as I live in the 'city' and they all live in the villages). Going to Kolda also means I successfully took 'public transportation' a distance of more than 100km by myself for the first time... a task that seemed impossible upon my arrival in Senegal but was actually done quite easily. I had to take a Sept-Place (REALLY old Peugots, none of which would ever come close to passing inspection in the States) and wait 4 hours at the garage just for it to leave because there were only 5 people (they wait for 7). There were two ladies trying to convince me to buy the last two seats, as being white I could clearly afford it. But fortunately I know enough Pulaar now to say only if they pitched in, which ended that conversation quite quickly!

People asking me for money solely because I am white is a daily occurrence here, and usually doesn't bother me as it is true that even as a volunteer I have more money than most everyone here. It's just unfortunate that begging for money is so ingrained in the culture that people expect me to give it to them, just to go out and spend it on some short term benefit. I'm not complaining, I can't blame them for wanting that 1 new article of clothing they get per year for Tabaski (the big holiday coming up this week), but they spend money without regard to investing or saving for the future. I suppose that's why I'm here as a SED volunteer... but it's hard to tell someone not to spend that money on food but save it instead . I have given food to the young boys begging, as all the money they collect only goes right to their teachers at the Koran schools who then feed them next to nothing. But I don't think I've ever given money to someone on the street. It's often tough to say no, especially when complete strangers who can't even speak hand you their unfilled prescriptions, but it's just one of those things you have to get used to here. From time to time it gets on my nerves, but fortunately I am able to keep my cool. Gotta just got shrug things off every once in awhile! Being able to laugh at yourself and shrug things off are certainly vital attributes a Peace Corps volunteer must have.

I have spent most of my time hanging around Velingara, getting a lay of the land and meeting the people here. My average day consists of waking up at 5am to the Mosque next door calling the morning prayers (they yell stuff really loud in Arabic out of crappy speakers that sound worse than scratching a chalkboard for about an hour!) and laying in bed half awake for a couple more hours. For breakfast I walk to the nearest boutique and buy some bread, say good morning to my family (introductions at all times are important here and usually take five minutes) and return to my room; all of which I can now do in Pulaar! I like to relax and eat in my room in the morning with my AMERICAN COFFEE... soooo much better than the sugar/milk drink they call coffee here, although it was hilarious to have them try my coffee and watch as they all grimaced! I also have been going for bike rides in the cotton, millet, rice and peanut fields at sunrise, which is absolutely beautiful. It's also fun to see the surprised look on peoples' faces when a toabab rides by on a bike in the middle of their fields. For the rest of the morning I spend a couple hours drinking tea and joking around with my cousins, two of which are my age and speak great french.

I've also been spending a lot of time getting my room set up (which it finally is!) and just getting situated here. Then I eat with my family around 2 (some meal that involves white rice... usually "mafe gerete", white rice with peanut sauce. Although on more than one occasion I have simply eaten white rice with a little palm oil on it). After lunch everyone naps for two hours, as even in the cold season the sun is unbearably hot in the middle of the day. I usually just go in my room and read a bit or study some Pulaar, because if I took a nap I would be out for hours! I'm pretty much always a little tired here, so I'm going to try and get more consistent exercise and augment my diet a bit now that I'm situated. I have a nice big bed, a table and chair, and a chalkboard I painted on the wall to practice Pulaar; as a whole I have one of the nicer Peace Corp rooms, but no electricity yet. Also, the wall of my bathroom just barely comes up to my belly button, so I'm fine while using the 'toilet' (hole in the ground) as I'm squatting. But the entire main road can watch my shower, which a religious parade of young girls in burkas did just the other day as they stopped right in front of my house for some reason. After nap time is some more tea and then dinner and bed. A lot of sitting around and chatting!

Just the other day I've started to go around and talk to micro finance banks just to introduce myself and get a handle on their terms for loans. I've also spoken with the Principal of the High School and the Inspector of all the schools here in Velingara, and I will likely be giving computer lessons to High Schoolers and all the teachers / administration in the public schools! Just Word, Excel, Internet, basic things like that, but in french. I've also been reading my GERME books, which are basic business books in French geared specifically for the informal West African market. Good source of new vocab for me! Also I have discovered that the life of a Peace Corps volunteer involves a lot of travelling, which I am excited about. No one goes much more than two weeks at site without a little trip to the regional house. There are also frequent excuses to go to further locations. In the near future, my whole Stage is going to the beach at Popenguine again for Christmas for 5 days. And you don't even have to use vacation time if it's less than a week away! I need to start saving up for the trip across West Africa I'd like to do... I just hope Peace Corps allows us to travel to some of the countries (Cote D'Ivoire, Liberia, etc... watch 'Blood Diamond,' that's why some of them are off limits).

I have already gotten to go to two celebrations where I was able to improve my Senegalese dancing, to the amusement of everyone around me! The first was an official declaration for TOSTAN, which is another American non-profit that works in West Africa for women's rights, mainly the ending of genital cutting and forced and under-aged marriages. The declaration was basically just a party with some music, a few skits, and an official statement that the people of the area will / have stopped such practices. The second was a project that one of the volunteers in the area, Laura, had been working on for some time. It was a contest of traditional story telling, as much of the local culture is being lost as the younger generations follow the American pop culture (or at least as they see it on TV and on the internet) development certainly has its positive and negative aspects!) There were also some skits about abusing anti-biotics and under aged marriages. As with all Senegalese events, this was followed by an entire night of dancing and some food (I swear they eat more at special occasions than the rest of the year combined). That night I hitched a ride in a bus full of teen aged Senegalese Red Cross employees who acted as security for the event. They were jumping all around and singing as we careened through the bush at 2am in a dilapidated bus with holes in the floor... alas they were singing in Wolof, so it was a little tough for me to sing along. Just another average day in Senegal... I always ending up with a bunch of people I've never met before in a place I've never been, speaking two languages I hardly know. It's worth not having AC!

So I've been at the Cyber for a long time now and should probably be heading back home. I need to keep working on that Pulaar and a bucket bath is sounding really good right now. I wonder what will be on the white rice tonight?...

Until next time! Peace and enjoy the holiday season! Celebrate properly for me!

Sorry... no time for the pics! There are a few good ones though! Hopefully in a couple days but probably not until the 12th or so when I'm in Kolda. (There will be Tabaski Pics then too!)