I'm about to go back to America and the Bills are 5-9

Seriously, what is this? 7 straight losses or something like that? Pathetic. Nonetheless, GO BILLS. Or is the season over? I haven't really been paying that close attention, but that is going to change because I will be in America this time tomorrow (just knocked on wood, don't worry). I thought I would hash out all of the food that I want to eat when I'm there. I always planned to make the first thing that I ate when returning to America a Big Mac, even though that isn't really my meal of choice at McDonalds. It just feels right. I remember coming back from India when I was 6 years old and forcing someone to take me to Burger King in Logan airport so that I could get a kids meal (not a Big Mac, I know, and I think that story doesn't do much to further the point I was making. My bad). Unfortunately, as a consequence of flights out of Dakar leaving at 2am, I will be arriving in the U.S. in the early morning. McDonalds has a very strict no lunch in the morning policy that I plan on debating thoroughly with the motivated early morning shift employee at the first one I see in the Dulles airport. I am not confident, but that might have something to do with being used to Senegalese customer service, which more or less does not exist.

So no Big Mac most likely, but luckily another food that I have really been missing, bagels, are considered an appropriate breakfast food. I would like one cinnamon raison with plain cream cheese and one everything with some sort of garlic-chive cream cheese. After that, I plan on going to Wegmans so that I can cry a little. Also, I would like to buy salami there, and cheese. I miss cheese.

I also want to go to the following restaurants: Dinosaur BBQ (crucial), Country Sweet Chicken (crucial in the literal sense of the word), Chen Garden (doesn't have to be that restaurant necessarily, but Chinese is essential), the Johnson House (I would like to get their veal parm), Sinbads (more or less optional, there is a large Lebanese population in Senegal), Jimmy Z's (cheeseburger with hot sauce, ketchup, mustard, and onions with a side of fries), Java Junction (southwest panini sounds really good right now), Chester Cab Pizza (again, not essential, but because of the lack of good cheese here pizza isn't as good as in America), Wendy's (the used Cadillac of fast food restaurants), any Indian restaurant (I'm curious as to whether I'll like Indian food a lot now), any Senegalese restaurant (hahahahahahahahahahaha...kidding), and I'm sure I'm forgetting somewhere. That being said, I will be home for like a week, so I'm going to have to eat something like 8 meals each day in order to get all of this done. I also plan on bringing some McDonald's back to Senegal (because of the preservatives you can leave a burger out for a week and eat it without getting too ill).

Also, as it is Christmas time, I assume we will be eating lots of meals at home. I think Jo said something on facebook about wanting Grandma's beef stew. That would be good. I would love some apple brown betty as well. The word in wolof for "also" is "itam" and I almost just typed that instead of "as well." I worry that I will be saying waaw (yes), leggi (now), and wante (but), during English conversations.

This has not been a particularly informative post, but I'm bored in Dakar so I figured what the hell. I am excited to navigate the Dakar airport, though. That should be an adventure. Ooo I called HSBC and Bank of America to make sure that my cards work while I'm travelling. The friendly Indian man from HSBC understood exactly what I wanted, but the American at BOA had a little bit of trouble understanding why I would want to return to Africa after having returned to America. Okay this isn't interesting or informative anymore, so I'll try to find some movie quotes and call it a post.

How about Airplane! ?

"Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?"
"Joey, have you ever seen a grown man naked?"
"Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?"

"We have clearance Clarence. Roger, Roger. What's our Vector Victor?"

"I haven't felt this awful since we saw that Ronald Reagan film."

Okay, see you all soon. Except my Finnish readers. To them I say "Olen hukassa, Missa on vessa?" which means "I am lost, where is the bathroom/pharmacy.

The Fastest Blog Post Ever Written

I have only 9% of battery left, so I will try to cover things quickly. I am currently uploading pictures to flickr, but I don't know how far I will get. The set is pretty big. It automatically uploaded the video first. That is a video of us at Magic Land (yes, Magic Land), the amusement park in Dakar. It reminded me a lot of Coney Island, just with less character and far more dangerous. It was so fun. This is a video of us on the bump jump. We didn't understand the name until about halfway through that video. We also decided that pictures taken on the Pop Art setting on my camera just look better. Casey and Monica also feel that my camera takes off a few pounds, which they like. It tends to make some people look emaciated.



Thanksgiving in Dakar was very nice. There is a picture of my plate. It was the first plate that I had eaten food off of with a fork in some time. I am looking forward to more of that. The ambassador and his family were very nice, and a crowd of about 55 Peace Corps volunteers and 11 expats and embassy workers cleaned up a table with about 2 metric tons of imported turkey, mashed potatoes, canned cranberry sauce, gravy, pasta salad, garlic bread (which Casey and I made and brought at a cost of 20,000 cfa, or roughly $40 American), and maybe 90 pies. It was delicious. They also had real wine, which was nice.

7%. I'm going fast. I just realized I never took a picture of the Magic Land sign, which was dumb. So we also went to the mall (twice), and got gelato. It was nice, but being somewhere like that for too long can kind of make you crazy.

Whoa 2%. You should all check out Stuff Expat Aid Workers Like. It is a funny blog that also describes Peace Corps volunteers pretty well.

It looks like flickr has successfully uploaded the picture of my Thanksgiving dinner, which is what I care about most, so I'll leave this at that.

Movie Quotes:

Actually TV Quotes (I've been watching Arrested Development and Battlestar Galactica):

"I have the ball."
"I've made a huge mistake."

Welcome to the DANGER ZONE. (I also watched Top Gun).

Great News!

The package with a camera charger, card reader, battery charger, extra battery, blowpops, a ton of miscellaneous candy, beef jerkey, a photo album, and a collection of assorted, terrible comic strips arrived! Hence the picture on the left, which I just took of the view from the campement Keur Saloum in Toubakouta, about 20k from my site.  I haven't had an opportunity to take any pictures of my town, but when I do I will put them up. My friend Casey insisted that she be mentioned in this post, as Mom shipped the package to her post office box (we had some issues with the post office in my town). There isn't really a whole lot to report on at the moment, to the point where I just spent a good amount of time trying to think of something worthwhile to write (clearly not successful).

OH! So I experienced Tabaski for the first time. That was exciting. It's a holiday that I still am not totally clear on, but involved a lot of eating. We woke up in the morning, ate millet, dressed in our fanciest Senegalese clothing, and then went to the Mosque. At the Mosque, I sat in the sun for about 15 minutes and then left right before they were about to start praying. Then we went home, put on less nice clothes, and killed and butchered two rams. I helped. It was nice. I never want to eat mutton again, though, and the holiday definitely served to reinforce my belief that baby animals taste far better than adult ones. My Senegalese friend who is a photographer took some pictures of me in my outfit, and I will try to photograph them and upload them. They are tacky to a degree that I did not think was possible. He gave them to me for free, which is very nice of him.

I think they might be suggesting that the one coke I bought wasn't really sufficient to justify the amount of internet that I am using at this campement right now, so I should probably go. Here's a quote from 10 Things I Hate About You.

Bianca: "Theres a difference between like and love. Because, I like my Sketchers, but I love my Prada backpack."

Chastity: "But I love my Sketchers"

Bianca: "That's because you don't have a Prada backpack."

Chastity: "Ohhhhhhhh."

Jean-Ralphio, Dance Up on Me

You should all watch Parks and Recreation. Anyways, I spent a few nights in Dakar recently, which was nice but stressful. Dakar is a great city if you live there or are on vacation, but for me a lot of things reminded me of America, and I didn't like that. I was able to attend a SeneGAD meeting, the peace corps organization that does work involving gender and development. I didn't have as much success with the solid waste management; I had issues with transportation and rescheduled meetings.

I stayed one night at Daouda's house. It was very nice, and his family was pleasant and welcoming. He lives in Keur Massar, which is basically a banlieue suburb of Dakar. It rained the night we stayed there, which I was very happy about. The rainy season is coming to a close and it is unbelievably hot. I have discovered the drink vimto, which is a soda. The first time I had it, I had the purple one. It tastes like a blue snow cone. Lately, though, I've been drinking the red one, which tastes like a red snow cone. They are delicious. I'm also a big fan of hotdogs here. You can actually get pork hot dogs for a reasonable price in some of the stores that cater to foreigners, and they taste great if you pour enough ketchup on them. Its hard to find ketchup, but all of the boutiques around sell pretty good dijon-style mustard for very low prices. I think they could make a commercial where two donkey carts pull up next to each other and one asked the other if he could bother the other for some of their grey poupon.

I don't have much to write about in terms of insights on life here or anything. I'll try to think about that more as I go around my day, so I have something to say. I have recently been keeping in touch with Mr. Beyrle, one of the teachers in Brockport High School. He has been asking me pointed questions that I've had to reflect on a little, so maybe I will post my answers to those when I get a chance.

We watched xXx starring Vin Diesel the other day, possibly my favorite movie, so I will leave you with more quotes than usual and all from that movie:

"You have a bazooka! Dude, stop thinking Prague Police and start thinking Playstation."
"You're in the Xander Zone."
"I like anything fast enough to do something stupid in."
"I might throw in a few extra dollars and send you to charm school."
"The name's Gibbons. Augustus Gibbons." (Said my Samuel L. Jackson's character...seriously)
"Most people talk a lot, few are up for the moment. Welcome to Anarchy Ninety-nine."
"See that guy there? In the suit made out of motel drapes? That's a cop." 
"Welcome to the Xander Zone." (That one deserves two citations) 

As Soon as I Leave the Country the Bills are 4-1

Seriously, it's been so long since I had a reasonable expectation of watching the Bills win anything. Oh well. Not important, but I thought you all might enjoy this. Not from Senegal, most likely from somewhere in East Africa.

So I've gotten my internet key working. It's pretty slow (dialup speeds at best), so I won't be downloading any movies on it. I can pretty much just send emails, and look to see whats happened on my facebook page. I should be able to do blog posts. I am near fast internet right now, and thats why I was able to upload this picture.

I am hoping to be able to go to Dakar soon. I want to go with my friend from my training group, we call him Daouda (I forget his actual name), to the offices of Aprosen, the agency in charge of dealing with waste management in Senegal. One of the projects that I want to work on is working with trash collection businesses in my area to try and clean up my town. For a very reasonable cost, it should be possible to have someone with a donkey cart (my friend says he was speaking to someone who spoke some English and they said they learned that the word in English for donkey was "slave horse") come by once a week and collect your refuse. I am going to call my boss and see if it is okay for me to go.

I have to run, but I will leave you with this.

"Are these Amigos falling from the sky?" "Yes, El Guapo."

Thought you all might enjoy this

A man falls down a well and calls for help. A passing missionary hears his pleas and drops a Bible down the well. Next an aid worker stops and drops down some money. A Peace Corps Volunteer hears the man screaming, drops down a bag, then leaps into the well. “What are you doing?” asks the startled man at the bottom of the well. “I’ve come to live with you,” the PCV replies.


This is stolen from any number of people

New Blog Templates are Dangerous Time Wasters

Not kidding. All they had to do was add new design for my blog and I get sucked into an hours long formatting session that ended with very few real changes. That being said, I think this looks nice. As you may have noticed I added some more pictures to my flickr. These were actually taken by Courtney, my CBT sitemate. As I still have yet to find a cable that works with my camera, I cannot charge it. If I get a chance to go to Dakar, I will try and buy a cable. Or, if I can work out the minor difficulties I've had with the post office in my town, I will get one soon from home (thanks all for that).

I'm currently in Sokone, my friend Casey's site that I posted from before. I am here with her, Joe (my roomate in the Thies training center during PST), Rob (who lives in Toubakouta and is my closest neighbor from my stage), and a Peace Corps language trainer Regina. We are having out in service language seminar for Wolof. I was looking forward to this both because it meant I would get to spend time on the internet, and because it is be nice to ask a fluent English speaker (as in Regina speaks English better than me) about what my family has been saying. So far I've learned a good deal of useful vocab, and some slang greetings that I can use with my host brothers' friends. I have these issues because of differences in the various Wolof dialects throughout the country. The difference between the Thies dialect that I learned during my PST is much different from the Saloum-Saloum Wolof spoken in Karang. Now I speak a more kaw kaw (hillbilly) Wolof than I did during CBT.

As you can see above, I got a haircut. This was my first. When I have an opportunity, I will post a picture of the finished product, but it looks much like what my hair did when I left. Emily (actually my predecessor in my first host family) does a good job. Dad, if you could show this to Pat, he asked to see a picture of me getting my haircut for the first time. My guess is that he didn't picture another volunteer doing it, though.

I am so close to getting my USB internet key working, and when I do I'll be able to post much more regularly.

"In America it's bling-bling, but here it's bling-bang." -I'm starting to appreciate Blood Diamond as a movie full of silly Leonardo Dicaprio lines in addition to being entertaining and thought-provoking.

Twice in one day, my God

So more good news: my laptop battery came at the same time as the package. This means that I’ve been able to use my computer without any fear of the ever-frequent power outages. Of course, since I got the battery we’ve had power pretty consistently anyways.

Did end up getting a burger, and also a Pelforth. Pelforth is the best beer I’ve had thusfar in Senegal, and it’s like a Belgian white but fruitier. It’s also the heaviest beer I’ve found.

So learning Wolof has been fun and exciting. It’s interesting to play around with a language so structurally different from English. The way that we use English to create emphasis and subtlety is completely different in Wolof. Going around and talking to people works well, and I’m more than able to communicate basic needs, but I’m really looking forward to better comprehension.

In the off chance that Casey’s internet goes out because of a power outage, I’m going to post this now, but hopefully I’ll get a chance to write more when I get access to the internet this weekend.

Oh, and I do believe the cable I need for my camera is USB to mini-USB (not micro-USB which is different).

“Double dumbass on you, and so forth”

Oh, and if you ever get a chance, ask someone from Glasgow how to say "burglar alarm."

Great News!

That was my catchy hook to try to draw you all in. Did it work?

Anyways, I apologize for waiting almost a month to post something, but my internet access has been a little bit more limited than I anticipated. There is actually good news, in that the latest package arrived. I was very excited to find a douchebag (solar shower), hot tamales (eatien in their entirety within the first hour of opening by my friends and me), and ten packs of beef, turkey, and buffalo jerkey. I'm down to one packet of beef teriyaki, one packet of beef original, and one packet of the buffalo sweet & spicy, which is my favorite. That means in the last week I've eaten over 200 grams of protein. Impressive.

Anyways, I've installed in Karang. It's a town of somewhere between 8,000 and 12,000 right on the border with the Gambia. I have not been, but I arranged with my program director to be able to go to the market there because things are much, much cheaper than in Senegal. My family is very nice. There are many of them, and I am still sorting out exactly who belongs to whom. Peace Corps Senegal suggests that you not try to start any serious work in your first couple months, so I've spent most of my time just walking around, talking to people, and practicing Wolof. We're going to one of the more major cities today, so I can get a burger. I'm excited. I may post twice today if there is wifi at the hotel.

"We can sew!"

Nine Weeks Later back in the Bat Cave

So yesterday (as of when I’m writing this post into Microsoft word, not sure if the internet is going to cooperate and allow me to get this up today), August 19th, we officially swore in as Peace Corps volunteers. We took 4 PC vehicles and motorcaded (not a word, I know) from Thies to Dakar. In Dakar we went to the Ambassador’s house, which is pretty nice. If anybody was considering being an ambassador as a career, I would recommend it. I certainly am now. Our new ambassador to Senegal just got here last Tuesday, so he’s newer to the country than we are. Also he’s excellent, or something like that. We had a nice little ceremony where our Country Director, the Ambassador, our Training Manager, and our APCD (not sure what it stands for, but he runs our program) all spoke. Then we did the raising our right hand and swearing in thing. We did the same “Faithfully swear to uphold the constitution” thing that the president does when he gets sworn in, except instead of “execute the office of the President” we said “be a Peace Corps volunteer” or something. It was very exciting. Lots of people cried. I just smiled a lot. It’s exciting to be done with training, and though I will miss my CBT family it will be nice to be able to start work.

Today (or yesterday or two weeks ago depending on the internet) we’re spending our last day/rainy day in the Thies training center. I should be packing, considering I have more stuff and the last time it took like a week to pack. Tomorrow those of us in the Kaolack region will take a bus with all our stuff to the lovely city of Kaolack. From there we will install to our respective sites. I’ll be installing the 27th, so I’m one of the last two, along with Lisa who is going to Kolda, which is south of the Gambia.

All of this is much less exciting than mom getting her PHD, and I am sad to be missing the party. We will be having our becoming volunteers party today at Massa Massa, a nice and expensive restaurant in Thies. My meal will probably cost around $20 American, which is outlandishly expensive. The restaurant is called Massa Massa, meaning “I’m so sorry” in English, because they want to apologize for how shocked and sad you will be when you see your bill. That being said, they have rabbit. I’m pretty excited.

Today’s movie quote is from Matt Damon in the Departed when he’s eating at a fancy restaurant and gets a dessert shaped like a tower. It relates a lot to the food we get here:
“I don’t know whether to eat it or shoot it.”

Also, there should be some new photos up on flickr, if the internet is willing.

Perez Hilton (The only famous blogger I know) Would be so Disappointed

Actually, Arianna Huffington pays people to have a blog for her too, right? 

But I digest. 

I am a terrible blogger. From what I understand, you are supposed to post relatively often. There are a couple factors preventing me from doing so. First, I don’t have the best access to the internet. My community-based-training site, Mboro (which is very nice), has internet, but going to a cyber-café is both expensive and time-consuming. The other factor is that I am unbelievably lazy. That being said, I am writing now.

So we just got back from a two week stint at our training sites. It was a while for us, considering we’ve only been here for a month and a half. At the same time, our language skills are getting pretty good. I can communicate with my family, including my extended family that speaks Pulaar, rather than French or Wolof (which I am learning).

Ramadan is quickly approaching, we call it Korite, which is a little worrying. I do not plan to fast. A lot of volunteers do. It shows a lot of solidarity with your community. At the same time, I’m trying to learn a new language, and being hungry, dehydrated, and grumpy won’t make it easier. I decided, as many of my friends did (and my supervisors suggested), to give it a pass this year and try it again next year. I remember Muslim friends of mine in middle and high school fasting, and the idea of not eating and trying to learn something at the same time gives me a lot of respect for them. I have been to a couple religious family events, though. Two nights ago I went to a baptism, which was a lot of fun. A week before that, I went to another event. Both events can be classified as “Turs,” (can’t say that the spelling is event close to that but that’s how it sounds) which means a that the event was one held for our extended family here. It involved a lot of religious singing, which is very loud, but nonetheless entertaining. I do enjoy them. I was also able to wear my Senegalese clothing to the last one, which earns me some respect with my family, and means I can stay cool and comfortable during the event.

On another note, I do mean to post more pictures on both this blog and my flickr site than I actually post. My camera ran out of batteries, and I didn’t have any means to charge it at site. One of my fellow trainees in Mboro, Daba (her actual name is Courtney, and she is from San Francisco, but Daba is way easier and more fun to say), has a bunch of pictures that I will add as soon as I can, so at least you can all see something of what has been happening.

So, I plan to post more in the next few days. Our counterpart (Senegalese locals that we work with closely on all our projects) workshop starts soon. They will all be coming to the training center in Thies for a few days to talk about the way Peace Corps Senegal works, and to do some sessions on American culture and our way of thinking. I HIGHLY recommend that you all read “African Friends and Money Matters,” a book that we read a few chapters from for our cross-cultural training, as it really highlights the way that African and American mindsets differ when it comes to both commerce and gift-giving.

I’ll try to put up another post, especially those pictures, in the next few days. Let me know if you’re ever interested in Skype-ing, as I’m usually free around 2pm est.

“The first rule of sailing camp is DO NOT talk about sailing camp. The second rule of sailing camp is DO NOT talk about sailing camp.”

Power outages affect Blogging

So I had a very nicely written blog spot about my future site and the volunteer visit that I will be leaving for soon, but right when I was about to post it the power went out, my computer shut off, and I lost all of it. Because I don't have the patience to write it again when the power could go back out at any second, I'll give you the 10 peso version (Three Amigo's reference).

I'm going to the town of Karang here's a google map. It's right on the border with the Gambia, and it's supposed to be very nice.

For the next three days all of the trainees will be visiting our future sites. I will meet the volunteer who lives there now, and learn what his projects are. Those will likely be projects that I continue to work on.

I'll let you all know how it goes when I get back. We will be taking public transportation, so that should be fun.

"What is this, a center for ants?"

Happy Belated 4th of July

So Senegal's market for tacky Obama merchandise is giving the commemorative plate industry a run for its money. From flashlights with Obama's face on them to Obama brand cashews, everything exists. Because the 4th of July is a big holiday for Peace Corps, I wanted to try and find the tackiest, gaudiest Obama clothing I could. Somehow, as soon as I started looking for some, all of it disappeared. The closest thing I found (though it was an amazing find), was a child-sized American flag material t-shirt with the Obama visage on the front. I was disappointed, but luckily one of my fellow stagieres, Stanzi, was a fine arts and econ double major, and made me an even tackier Obama tshirt (artist and final product pictured above). It has Obama's face, or rather a caricature of his face, in front of an American flag with "Yes We Can" in Wolof underneath. On the back everyone signed it, and another stagiere, Casey, wrote "If you're from Africa, why are you white?" which has become one of the themes of our training. 

For our 4th celebrations, we all went back to the training center in Thies, cooked a pig (already dead by the time we got there, but not too late for us to have named it Babs), ate the pig, and also got burgers and ice cream for lunch. It was a pretty good time.

We do dmist, meaning demystification about where we will be serving (possibly my favorite useless acronym), in a few days. Many current volunteers know where we will be going, but are obligated not to tell us. We're all sort of excited to find out, though swearing in and going to our sites are still a long way out.

I'll leave you with another movie quote, because we sit around and quote Mean Girls and Clueless all day. "You guys talk like grown ups." "This is a very good school."

Hastily Written Blog Post

So when I'm at my CBT (community based training) site, I think about all sorts of things to write about on this blog. However, as we have no internet access in my house, and I don't have the free time to go to the cyber cafe, I don't. As soon as I get to the Thies training center, which is basically a paradise (we get served beef and chicken), the last thing on my mind is dealing with African internet speeds and Google refusing to offer any languages other than French. So now we're leaving for our CBT sites again very soon, and I have to write everything in great haste and at the last minute.

So in terms of my daily life at the CBT site: I wake up every day around 7:30, or rather my family wakes me up around 7:30, and I bucket bathe and am fed a breakfast of baguette with butter, chocolate spread (like nutella but instead of tasting good it doesn't), or this Senegalese onion sauce with fried egg (no complaints on that one), and a cup of nescafe. I don't drink coffee in the U.S. but Nescafe tastes like hot chocolate and I can't really refuse it. Needless to say I'm already physically addicted to caffeine.
After breakfast, I go to language class at 9. It lasts until about 12 or 12:30, and we spend it learning Wolof, the local language I have been assigned. Wolof isn't really that hard, but forming new and unusual sounds takes a little getting used to. Also, its very difficult to understand what anyone else is saying. Despite that it gets easier and better every day.
After class I go home and we eat lunch, always rice, sometime filled with oil, and usually with fish and a few vegetables. Vegetables are very expensive, and eating meat is more of a status symbol than vegetables, and so if it comes down to a financial decision the family will always go for meat. That being said, my host Dad is a chauffeur and my family seems to be doing well.
After lunch, we do more language training. This week we should be starting to do language training in the community, interviewing local businessmen, buying things at the market, etc.
Finally, I go home for dinner, which again is usually rice with fish. Then my family and I watch TV until its time for bed. Senegalese television is amazing, particularly this Indian soap opera "Cheri" or "Shiree" or something, which has been dubbed into French. If you can find and watch it, I suggest that you do. It takes the cake for the most unintentionally hilarious television program that I have ever seen. Mystery Science Theater 3000 would have a field day with it. Also, I like watching pro wrestling, as my brothers know more about it than even I do. The funny thing is, they have always assumed that it's fake.

Last Friday, we went to the beach. It was very nice, and the cab ride there cost only 200 CFA per person (roughly 47 cents). I plan to go often, if I have the opportunity. I had issues uploading pictures on flickr, but most of the beach ones should have made it.

The 4th of July is coming up soon (surprise!), and it is a big holiday for Peace Corps. Our stage (training group) has the plan of buying an adult pig, as you can't really get pork in a largely Muslim country, bringing it to the training center, slaughtering it, cleaning it, and roasting it. Having talked to other volunteers, you don't really make it out of your service without having killed at least one animal. I can't say that I'm looking forward to it, but it should be interesting. I'll be sure to post pictures.

That's all for now, but if anybody has any specific questions let me know.

Oh, and we watched mean girls. "If you're from Africa, why are you white?" "God, Karen, you can't just ask people why they're white!"

Senegal Summer Camp

I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that our training center is this beautiful compound in the city of Thies, and I have some great pictures that I want to put online. The bad news is that I think I may have left my camera charger and the cord that connects it to the computer in D.C. This complicates things somewhat, but I can probably either borrow one or find a new one here.

Back to the nice things, all the facilities here are very nice, including the showers, bathrooms, clean drinking water, food cooked to Peace Corps health specifications, and an overqualified language and cultural staff.

Yesterday we got to Dakar around 6am, drove the 2 hours to Thies, and met all the staff. They're very nice, and quite good. We were greeted with drumming, which was cool, and our usual daily breakfast of baguette and jam, peanut butter, faux nutella, or butter. There is also tea and coffee, and I followed the lead of Assane in pouring hot milk on a tea bag. It was delicious. They left us the morning to sleep, which some people did but the rest of us played cards or got settled in. We then had lunch, which was rice with beef. It was also good, and I do have a picture on an ipod so I should theoretically be able to upload it. It was delicious, and I'm told that rice with beef, chicken, fish, or some other meat is a pretty standard lunch here.

Afterwards we had our Senegal orientation, and our country director Chris Hendrick explained how everything works. To be honest, we were all pretty sleep deprived and I don't really remember that much. I have the impression that things are taken seriously here, but that their training is very good and prepares us well. After, we explored the compound and learned where everything is and how to send mail, use the internet, etc. You can get cold soda for 350 CFA, or a little less than a dollar.

The last thing that I did yesterday, because afterwards I fell asleep for 12 hours and missed dinner, was experience Senegalese dance. They brought in some guys with drums and a guy to show us dancing basics. It was more of an experience things as you go than actual instruction, and the only video or photo evidence is so embarrassing that I won't tell you where to find it online. In fact, I don't think any of us have actually spoken about it since. The drumming is very cool, though.

This morning we had our pre-service training orientation. We learned that the method for training here is community based training or CBT (we only speak in acronyms because its part of the government). We'll be living with a host family that is different from the one we live with during our actual training so that when we make horrible faux pas they don't haunt us for the rest of our two years. We will be near 3 or 4 other trainees, and all of us will receive language training from one of the people that works here pretty much 6 days per week. We will move out there in about 5 days, which is exciting and scary. We all already have cabin fever, we're not allowed to leave the training facility right now, but none of us really want to be dropped off with little to no Wolof in a community. We should be fine, though, and the training host families have all hosted trainees for a while.

Today we had rice with chicken. I also got a typhoid shot and a redundant meningitis shot. We were all given a huge packet of meds, which makes all of the stuff I brought kind of useless. We also got a MIFF (spelling?) kit for sending away diarrhea to Dakar for analysis. Also we got a fancy new water filter and bug net.

The weather is warm, but not too bad, especially in the shade. Many regions are hotter than Thies, and nowhere gets very cold at night. I'm getting used to it.

If you have any other questions, let me know. We don't have cell phones yet, but I'll post something when we do.

We're Here

7 hour flight, Senegal is closer than one would think. I'm almost out of power, but I'll post more as soon as I can figure out how to charge my computer.

Go Bruins.

"Here Are Your Government-Issued New Best Friends"

I'm sitting with the 16 other members of my Peace Corps training group in Dulles waiting for our 5:40 direct flight to Dakar. We're a small training group, which is nice because we all know each other by this point, and we won't get lost in a group of like 70. Also, we're all small enterprise development volunteers, so we aren't segregated that way.

The flight should take around 8 hours, and we'll get to Dakar around 6am.

Staging was pretty useful, but not country specific. They run a standardized training program for each group, and then you get country specific information once we land in country. We all went out for dinner last night, and then watched the Bruins handle the Canucks at the hotel bar. Today we got yellow fever shots, delivered by possibly the most competent immunization-izer I've ever experienced. We had some free time so we went to the Botanical Gardens and the Native American museum.

None of us are that nervous at this point, but that might change as soon as we have to speak almost exclusively french.

I'll post again once we get there and I have access to internet.

(Non-human) Things I Will Miss Part 1

I'm expecting Senegal to have a lot to offer, but there are a few things that I very much enjoy here in the U.S. that I won't be able to access to the same degree in Africa. This is going to be part 1 of a long-running series that will probably continue as long as I can find things that I no longer have.

1. New Top Gear-Twice a year this British car show releases 6 episodes and 1 special of some of the best television I think has ever been made. If you don't watch this now, you should. Though the show is very popular across the developing world, new Top Gear is available almost exclusively in Europe.

2. New South Park-Also a fantastic TV show. It is written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Some of you may recognize their names as the writers of the new hit Broadway musical The Book of Mormon. I strongly recommend you watch the All About the Mormons episode of South Park (season 7, episode 12) on netflix or at southparkstudios.com. Sadly, it seems like they have been trying to get kicked off the air for about 6 years, so I don't know how much longer it will be before they are cancelled or murdered.

3. The next Grand Theft Auto game-You haven't been able to beat prostitutes to death in the last few installments of the game, but that doesn't mean they have lost their touch. If you want to experience a tongue in cheek look at the criminal underworld, look no farther than these games. There has been a lot of speculation about a possible Grand Theft Auto V, and likely it will be released while I'm still abroad.

4. A possible new Rage Against the Machine Album-The band broke up when I was in middle school, but they got back together in 2008 after almost a decade. Unfortunately, because of scheduling issues I haven't been able to see a concert. They have said that they might release a new album soon, and though those rumors aren't confirmed, if they do I will miss it.

5. Stratford-Last but not least is are the annual family trips to Stratford. Though I will be sad that I don't get to see any shows for the next few years, I am more saddened by the lack of the Lord of the Flies-esque situation when poor Grandma is left alone at the lake with 23 children and 9 dogs.

Look for my "(Non-human) Things I will need to do when I get back" and "(Non-human) Things I will not miss when I'm abroad" lists coming soon.

Bienvenue a...however you say "blog" in french

I decided it would be best to start some sort of blog to talk about my time in Senegal with an organization that for copyright reasons I'm going to refer to as the "Piece Corps." At least, just until I figure out what I'm allowed to say about it. I'm pretty sure I just can't use their logo, and I have to indicate that any of my views posted on here do not reflect the views of the U.S. government, its employees, subsidiaries, affiliates, NBC Universal, or anyone other than myself.

I will post as often as I can from Senegal, and upload photos here and to my new flickr page. There should be a link with recent photos on the top, but just in case, the address is
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chhibbs

This should be easy, as this blog is chhibbs.blogspot.com

I'll post more about important things as they come up.