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!"