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.