Weekly Blog Update

Did that title fool you? It sure fooled me. Also, I almost just spelled sure "shure."

So, sticking with my style I’m posting less than a week before I go home for the first time in many months. I am one of the worst bloggers there is. I post less frequently even than Mark Olivieri.

Anyways, I’ve been having America dreams pretty much every night now. That happened to me before I went home for Christmas as well, but this time I don’t get the weird meflyquin effect where I can taste the food even when I wake up (I switched to doxycyclin because mef was making me feel weird). Does anybody know if you can get bacon on a Wendy’s double cheeseburger? The friendly staff at the Wendy’s in my dream (that somehow was placed near the new video game section in Lowes?) didn’t know.

So Ramadan starts tomorrow. That should be exciting. Or rather not exciting in the least bit. Last year during Ramadan we were all still in training so I didn’t fast or participate in the least. Also, we spent most of it in the training center, where we were fed. This time, I will be mostly in America. America is the opposite of Ramadan. I will be allowed to eat to excess, dance, look at women, etc. I certainly plan to eat to excess. I haven’t decided the degree to which I plan to participate at site. I’ll only be there for three days, and I could easily fast for that amount of time. At the same time, fasting just for the sake of fasting doesn’t really sit well with me. I don’t do all of the other (more important) parts of Islam, so why fast? I guess it’s cultural, so it might make sense to do. The one thing that I’m going to really miss, however, is my host mom’s breakfast sandwiches in the morning. She shuts her stand down for the month of Ramadan, so even if I wanted something I couldn’t get it. There is another breakfast lady near our health post, though, and she says that she will be around. We will see.

I’m preparing at site for going home by letting everyone know that the reason that I am not doing any new work is because I will be on vacation. This seems to be working. Nobody thinks that going to America for three weeks is unreasonable, and my Christmas trip seems to have slipped pretty well under the radar. Only one person has asked me for something. I haven’t decided what gifts to bring back home. I brought “traditional” Senegalese things like fabric and fans when I came back for Christmas, so this time I’m thinking about things that more accurately demonstrate modern Senegalese culture: gaudy misspelled t-shirts in English, belts with holographic Barack Obama buckles, and hand-woven plastic bath scrubby things.

This girl’s camp meeting that I’m in Kaolack for is about to start so I will leave now. Any thoughts on food items that I may have forgotten about in my dreams and you would like me to include can be left in the comments area.

Oh, and Mom I got the book you sent me, but I didn’t bring my kindle, so I won’t be able to download it until Sunday.

Some quotes:

“Oh, I’m next, maam.” Lawrence (credited as Larry) Fishburne in Apocalypse Now

“What is the girl in the back even doing?” 21 Jump Street (the new one)

“              “ The Artist (get it)

Weekly Blog Update

Did that title fool you? It sure fooled me. Also, I almost just spelled sure "shure."

So, sticking with my style I’m posting less than a week before I go home for the first time in many months. I am one of the worst bloggers there is. I post less frequently even than Mark Olivieri.

Anyways, I’ve been having America dreams pretty much every night now. That happened to me before I went home for Christmas as well, but this time I don’t get the weird meflyquin effect where I can taste the food even when I wake up (I switched to doxycyclin because mef was making me feel weird). Does anybody know if you can get bacon on a Wendy’s double cheeseburger? The friendly staff at the Wendy’s in my dream (that somehow was placed near the new video game section in Lowes?) didn’t know.

So Ramadan starts tomorrow. That should be exciting. Or rather not exciting in the least bit. Last year during Ramadan we were all still in training so I didn’t fast or participate in the least. Also, we spent most of it in the training center, where we were fed. This time, I will be mostly in America. America is the opposite of Ramadan. I will be allowed to eat to excess, dance, look at women, etc. I certainly plan to eat to excess. I haven’t decided the degree to which I plan to participate at site. I’ll only be there for three days, and I could easily fast for that amount of time. At the same time, fasting just for the sake of fasting doesn’t really sit well with me. I don’t do all of the other (more important) parts of Islam, so why fast? I guess it’s cultural, so it might make sense to do. The one thing that I’m going to really miss, however, is my host mom’s breakfast sandwiches in the morning. She shuts her stand down for the month of Ramadan, so even if I wanted something I couldn’t get it. There is another breakfast lady near our health post, though, and she says that she will be around. We will see.

I’m preparing at site for going home by letting everyone know that the reason that I am not doing any new work is because I will be on vacation. This seems to be working. Nobody thinks that going to America for three weeks is unreasonable, and my Christmas trip seems to have slipped pretty well under the radar. Only one person has asked me for something. I haven’t decided what gifts to bring back home. I brought “traditional” Senegalese things like fabric and fans when I came back for Christmas, so this time I’m thinking about things that more accurately demonstrate modern Senegalese culture: gaudy misspelled t-shirts in English, belts with holographic Barack Obama buckles, and hand-woven plastic bath scrubby things.

This girl’s camp meeting that I’m in Kaolack for is about to start so I will leave now. Any thoughts on food items that I may have forgotten about in my dreams and you would like me to include can be left in the comments area.

Oh, and Mom I got the book you sent me, but I didn’t bring my kindle, so I won’t be able to download it until Sunday.

Some quotes:

“Oh, I’m next, maam.” Lawrence (credited as Larry) Fishburne in Apocalypse Now

“What is the girl in the back even doing?” 21 Jump Street (the new one)

“              “ The Artist (get it)

Weekly Blog Update

Did that title fool you? It sure fooled me. Also, I almost just spelled sure "shure."

So, sticking with my style I’m posting less than a week before I go home for the first time in many months. I am one of the worst bloggers there is. I post less frequently even than Mark Olivieri.

Anyways, I’ve been having America dreams pretty much every night now. That happened to me before I went home for Christmas as well, but this time I don’t get the weird meflyquin effect where I can taste the food even when I wake up (I switched to doxycyclin because mef was making me feel weird). Does anybody know if you can get bacon on a Wendy’s double cheeseburger? The friendly staff at the Wendy’s in my dream (that somehow was placed near the new video game section in Lowes?) didn’t know.

So Ramadan starts tomorrow. That should be exciting. Or rather not exciting in the least bit. Last year during Ramadan we were all still in training so I didn’t fast or participate in the least. Also, we spent most of it in the training center, where we were fed. This time, I will be mostly in America. America is the opposite of Ramadan. I will be allowed to eat to excess, dance, look at women, etc. I certainly plan to eat to excess. I haven’t decided the degree to which I plan to participate at site. I’ll only be there for three days, and I could easily fast for that amount of time. At the same time, fasting just for the sake of fasting doesn’t really sit well with me. I don’t do all of the other (more important) parts of Islam, so why fast? I guess it’s cultural, so it might make sense to do. The one thing that I’m going to really miss, however, is my host mom’s breakfast sandwiches in the morning. She shuts her stand down for the month of Ramadan, so even if I wanted something I couldn’t get it. There is another breakfast lady near our health post, though, and she says that she will be around. We will see.

I’m preparing at site for going home by letting everyone know that the reason that I am not doing any new work is because I will be on vacation. This seems to be working. Nobody thinks that going to America for three weeks is unreasonable, and my Christmas trip seems to have slipped pretty well under the radar. Only one person has asked me for something. I haven’t decided what gifts to bring back home. I brought “traditional” Senegalese things like fabric and fans when I came back for Christmas, so this time I’m thinking about things that more accurately demonstrate modern Senegalese culture: gaudy misspelled t-shirts in English, belts with holographic Barack Obama buckles, and hand-woven plastic bath scrubby things.

This girl’s camp meeting that I’m in Kaolack for is about to start so I will leave now. Any thoughts on food items that I may have forgotten about in my dreams and you would like me to include can be left in the comments area.

Oh, and Mom I got the book you sent me, but I didn’t bring my kindle, so I won’t be able to download it until Sunday.

Some quotes:

“Oh, I’m next, maam.” Lawrence (credited as Larry) Fishburne in Apocalypse Now

“What is the girl in the back even doing?” 21 Jump Street (the new one)

“              “ The Artist (get it)

Weekly Blog Update

Did that title fool you? It sure fooled me. Also, I almost just spelled sure "shure."

So, sticking with my style I’m posting less than a week before I go home for the first time in many months. I am one of the worst bloggers there is. I post less frequently even than Mark Olivieri.

Anyways, I’ve been having America dreams pretty much every night now. That happened to me before I went home for Christmas as well, but this time I don’t get the weird meflyquin effect where I can taste the food even when I wake up (I switched to doxycyclin because mef was making me feel weird). Does anybody know if you can get bacon on a Wendy’s double cheeseburger? The friendly staff at the Wendy’s in my dream (that somehow was placed near the new video game section in Lowes?) didn’t know.

So Ramadan starts tomorrow. That should be exciting. Or rather not exciting in the least bit. Last year during Ramadan we were all still in training so I didn’t fast or participate in the least. Also, we spent most of it in the training center, where we were fed. This time, I will be mostly in America. America is the opposite of Ramadan. I will be allowed to eat to excess, dance, look at women, etc. I certainly plan to eat to excess. I haven’t decided the degree to which I plan to participate at site. I’ll only be there for three days, and I could easily fast for that amount of time. At the same time, fasting just for the sake of fasting doesn’t really sit well with me. I don’t do all of the other (more important) parts of Islam, so why fast? I guess it’s cultural, so it might make sense to do. The one thing that I’m going to really miss, however, is my host mom’s breakfast sandwiches in the morning. She shuts her stand down for the month of Ramadan, so even if I wanted something I couldn’t get it. There is another breakfast lady near our health post, though, and she says that she will be around. We will see.

I’m preparing at site for going home by letting everyone know that the reason that I am not doing any new work is because I will be on vacation. This seems to be working. Nobody thinks that going to America for three weeks is unreasonable, and my Christmas trip seems to have slipped pretty well under the radar. Only one person has asked me for something. I haven’t decided what gifts to bring back home. I brought “traditional” Senegalese things like fabric and fans when I came back for Christmas, so this time I’m thinking about things that more accurately demonstrate modern Senegalese culture: gaudy misspelled t-shirts in English, belts with holographic Barack Obama buckles, and hand-woven plastic bath scrubby things.

This girl’s camp meeting that I’m in Kaolack for is about to start so I will leave now. Any thoughts on food items that I may have forgotten about in my dreams and you would like me to include can be left in the comments area.

Oh, and Mom I got the book you sent me, but I didn’t bring my kindle, so I won’t be able to download it until Sunday.

Some quotes:

“Oh, I’m next, maam.” Lawrence (credited as Larry) Fishburne in Apocalypse Now

“What is the girl in the back even doing?” 21 Jump Street (the new one)

“              “ The Artist (get it)

Weekly Blog Update

Did that title fool you? It sure fooled me. Also, I almost just spelled sure "shure."

So, sticking with my style I’m posting less than a week before I go home for the first time in many months. I am one of the worst bloggers there is. I post less frequently even than Mark Olivieri.

Anyways, I’ve been having America dreams pretty much every night now. That happened to me before I went home for Christmas as well, but this time I don’t get the weird meflyquin effect where I can taste the food even when I wake up (I switched to doxycyclin because mef was making me feel weird). Does anybody know if you can get bacon on a Wendy’s double cheeseburger? The friendly staff at the Wendy’s in my dream (that somehow was placed near the new video game section in Lowes?) didn’t know.

So Ramadan starts tomorrow. That should be exciting. Or rather not exciting in the least bit. Last year during Ramadan we were all still in training so I didn’t fast or participate in the least. Also, we spent most of it in the training center, where we were fed. This time, I will be mostly in America. America is the opposite of Ramadan. I will be allowed to eat to excess, dance, look at women, etc. I certainly plan to eat to excess. I haven’t decided the degree to which I plan to participate at site. I’ll only be there for three days, and I could easily fast for that amount of time. At the same time, fasting just for the sake of fasting doesn’t really sit well with me. I don’t do all of the other (more important) parts of Islam, so why fast? I guess it’s cultural, so it might make sense to do. The one thing that I’m going to really miss, however, is my host mom’s breakfast sandwiches in the morning. She shuts her stand down for the month of Ramadan, so even if I wanted something I couldn’t get it. There is another breakfast lady near our health post, though, and she says that she will be around. We will see.

I’m preparing at site for going home by letting everyone know that the reason that I am not doing any new work is because I will be on vacation. This seems to be working. Nobody thinks that going to America for three weeks is unreasonable, and my Christmas trip seems to have slipped pretty well under the radar. Only one person has asked me for something. I haven’t decided what gifts to bring back home. I brought “traditional” Senegalese things like fabric and fans when I came back for Christmas, so this time I’m thinking about things that more accurately demonstrate modern Senegalese culture: gaudy misspelled t-shirts in English, belts with holographic Barack Obama buckles, and hand-woven plastic bath scrubby things.

This girl’s camp meeting that I’m in Kaolack for is about to start so I will leave now. Any thoughts on food items that I may have forgotten about in my dreams and you would like me to include can be left in the comments area.

Oh, and Mom I got the book you sent me, but I didn’t bring my kindle, so I won’t be able to download it until Sunday.

Some quotes:

“Oh, I’m next, maam.” Lawrence (credited as Larry) Fishburne in Apocalypse Now

“What is the girl in the back even doing?” 21 Jump Street (the new one)

“              “ The Artist (get it)

Weekly Blog Update

Did that title fool you? It sure fooled me. Also, I almost just spelled sure "shure."

So, sticking with my style I’m posting less than a week before I go home for the first time in many months. I am one of the worst bloggers there is. I post less frequently even than Mark Olivieri.

Anyways, I’ve been having America dreams pretty much every night now. That happened to me before I went home for Christmas as well, but this time I don’t get the weird meflyquin effect where I can taste the food even when I wake up (I switched to doxycyclin because mef was making me feel weird). Does anybody know if you can get bacon on a Wendy’s double cheeseburger? The friendly staff at the Wendy’s in my dream (that somehow was placed near the new video game section in Lowes?) didn’t know.

So Ramadan starts tomorrow. That should be exciting. Or rather not exciting in the least bit. Last year during Ramadan we were all still in training so I didn’t fast or participate in the least. Also, we spent most of it in the training center, where we were fed. This time, I will be mostly in America. America is the opposite of Ramadan. I will be allowed to eat to excess, dance, look at women, etc. I certainly plan to eat to excess. I haven’t decided the degree to which I plan to participate at site. I’ll only be there for three days, and I could easily fast for that amount of time. At the same time, fasting just for the sake of fasting doesn’t really sit well with me. I don’t do all of the other (more important) parts of Islam, so why fast? I guess it’s cultural, so it might make sense to do. The one thing that I’m going to really miss, however, is my host mom’s breakfast sandwiches in the morning. She shuts her stand down for the month of Ramadan, so even if I wanted something I couldn’t get it. There is another breakfast lady near our health post, though, and she says that she will be around. We will see.

I’m preparing at site for going home by letting everyone know that the reason that I am not doing any new work is because I will be on vacation. This seems to be working. Nobody thinks that going to America for three weeks is unreasonable, and my Christmas trip seems to have slipped pretty well under the radar. Only one person has asked me for something. I haven’t decided what gifts to bring back home. I brought “traditional” Senegalese things like fabric and fans when I came back for Christmas, so this time I’m thinking about things that more accurately demonstrate modern Senegalese culture: gaudy misspelled t-shirts in English, belts with holographic Barack Obama buckles, and hand-woven plastic bath scrubby things.

This girl’s camp meeting that I’m in Kaolack for is about to start so I will leave now. Any thoughts on food items that I may have forgotten about in my dreams and you would like me to include can be left in the comments area.

Oh, and Mom I got the book you sent me, but I didn’t bring my kindle, so I won’t be able to download it until Sunday.

Some quotes:

“Oh, I’m next, maam.” Lawrence (credited as Larry) Fishburne in Apocalypse Now

“What is the girl in the back even doing?” 21 Jump Street (the new one)

“              “ The Artist (get it)

Weekly Blog Update

Did that title fool you? It sure fooled me. Also, I almost just spelled sure "shure."

So, sticking with my style I’m posting less than a week before I go home for the first time in many months. I am one of the worst bloggers there is. I post less frequently even than Mark Olivieri.

Anyways, I’ve been having America dreams pretty much every night now. That happened to me before I went home for Christmas as well, but this time I don’t get the weird meflyquin effect where I can taste the food even when I wake up (I switched to doxycyclin because mef was making me feel weird). Does anybody know if you can get bacon on a Wendy’s double cheeseburger? The friendly staff at the Wendy’s in my dream (that somehow was placed near the new video game section in Lowes?) didn’t know.

So Ramadan starts tomorrow. That should be exciting. Or rather not exciting in the least bit. Last year during Ramadan we were all still in training so I didn’t fast or participate in the least. Also, we spent most of it in the training center, where we were fed. This time, I will be mostly in America. America is the opposite of Ramadan. I will be allowed to eat to excess, dance, look at women, etc. I certainly plan to eat to excess. I haven’t decided the degree to which I plan to participate at site. I’ll only be there for three days, and I could easily fast for that amount of time. At the same time, fasting just for the sake of fasting doesn’t really sit well with me. I don’t do all of the other (more important) parts of Islam, so why fast? I guess it’s cultural, so it might make sense to do. The one thing that I’m going to really miss, however, is my host mom’s breakfast sandwiches in the morning. She shuts her stand down for the month of Ramadan, so even if I wanted something I couldn’t get it. There is another breakfast lady near our health post, though, and she says that she will be around. We will see.

I’m preparing at site for going home by letting everyone know that the reason that I am not doing any new work is because I will be on vacation. This seems to be working. Nobody thinks that going to America for three weeks is unreasonable, and my Christmas trip seems to have slipped pretty well under the radar. Only one person has asked me for something. I haven’t decided what gifts to bring back home. I brought “traditional” Senegalese things like fabric and fans when I came back for Christmas, so this time I’m thinking about things that more accurately demonstrate modern Senegalese culture: gaudy misspelled t-shirts in English, belts with holographic Barack Obama buckles, and hand-woven plastic bath scrubby things.

This girl’s camp meeting that I’m in Kaolack for is about to start so I will leave now. Any thoughts on food items that I may have forgotten about in my dreams and you would like me to include can be left in the comments area.

Oh, and Mom I got the book you sent me, but I didn’t bring my kindle, so I won’t be able to download it until Sunday.

Some quotes:

“Oh, I’m next, maam.” Lawrence (credited as Larry) Fishburne in Apocalypse Now

“What is the girl in the back even doing?” 21 Jump Street (the new one)

“              “ The Artist (get it)

Picture Post

So I accidentally looked at the score of the Super Bowl before we watched the game, but it looks like we won't be able to download it in time so I guess it doesn't matter. Certainly looks exciting. As promised, here are some pictures I took recently.

This one is from the meeting that I wrote about in my last post. The guy that I am working with on waste management is sitting at the table facing everyone else.

This one is of my sitemate, Justin, who you may remember from that picture where he was biting that lamb. Like a live lamb.

This is a picture of the field next to the big one that I work with. They are doing a really good job with using Peace Corps techniques and you can see that stuff is growing really well.

This is my room post-reflooring and other renovations. It's nice now. 

This is the flooring I got. It's pretty serious.

So some quotes: 

"Excuse me, do you know how to get to the base in Alameda? It's where they keep the Nuclear wessels."

Back to Site Post/Pledge Drive

So, I apologize for the extended absence. I really do mean to post more often than once per month, but with my trip home (which the Senegalese family does now know about and seems to be cool with) and the following month spent almost exclusively around Americans, I haven't had the opportunity or motivation to post anything. In fact, I'm actually writing this post in my notebook while I wait for a meeting with some of my work partners to start. It's 5:30pm, and I have been here waiting since 4:00. I've already filled out all the birthdays I could remember in the 2012 agenda book that I bought for $3 at our local superette just before arriving at the meeting. People are finally starting to arrive. This is weird, as SEnegal is playing in the Africa Cup as we speak (or rather as I write this days before it will be up online). I figured everyone would be watching it. We're meeting in one fo the rooms at the elementary school, so the chairs and desks are really little. I just broke one. It was embarrassing. I am attending this meeting, which based on my experience will start 2 hours late and take another 3 hours, because I want to convey one small piece of information about a training I plan on organizing, and gauge interest. This might sound like a wasteful use of my time, but if I'm successful it will completely open all the doors that need to be opened for this really useful and important training to happen. Look I finally managed to talk about work on my blog! I didn't like it and I probably won't ever again. I'm thinking now that I should probably photograph this meeting so that you all have some sort of meaningful connection to what I'm doing here. 

Cut to studio and overenthusiastic radio host


Wasn't that wonderful! I really do enjoy Noah's blog. It's one of those blogs that I can actually sit down and read with the kids, and I don't have to worry about them seeing a bunch of harmful advertisements that will make them want things I don't feel like buying them. That being said, there comes a time when we all have to come together and realize that Noah's website traffic isn't high enough to make him any money through Google analytics. Rather than trying to visit his site far more often than we do now, because trust me when I say that staring at the same post several times a day week in and week out just hoping he has posted can really wear on the psyche, Noah has promised to continue posting, post more often, and even upload pictures if you manage to convince your friends to support (financially of course emotional support is great and all but won't really help) one of his projects. The Third (really should fact check before I write these) Annual Kaolack Regional Girls Leadership Camp will be held this coming June-ish. At this camp, 40 girls from the Kaolack, Kaffrine, and Fatick regions of Senegal come together in Badoudou (yes, pronounced BAH-doo-doo), a small town outside of Sokone on the Sine Saloum Delta. There they will spend...well more than 3 days, but less than a week...doing activities and hearing guest speakers. Each day has a different theme, like personal health, careers, the environment, etc. These are largely topics that aren't covered in Senegalese schools. This is even more important because of the girls that attend the camp. They re all middle-school aged, very high achieving, and from relatively low socio-economic backgrounds. These are girls that have the ability and motivation to succeed, but come from backgrounds that might not otherwise permit them to do everything they want to do in life. The guest speakers are particularly helpful, as they are usually women with similar backgrounds who have become nurses, teachers, or have other successful careers, and most of whom ARE married (most of these girls still do want to have husbands). In any case, this is a fantastic program to support, and we are a mere roughly $6,500 away from being able to have the camp (we need to achieve the total amount of funds requested in the grant or we get none, like in all seriousness that is actually the situation). So please, don't actually donate huge amounts of money to this because I'll feel bad, but by all means feel free to donate a little, and absolutely feel free to encourage your wealthy, well meaning friends to donate cast sums to the camp. And it's all tax-deductible (not actually sure on that one, you should probably check on that before donating)! The first 50 donors will receive a tote bag created by a blind, legless, rescued Senegalese seeing-eye donkey, but due to the Senegalese postal system, it will probably get lost on the way. Looks like we've just had a donation. Kly-yanni Mad-who of Brockport, NY has renewed her membership in the name of the immortal fish blub blub (fishy goes is the one that died, right?). Keep those phones ringing! Oh, and here is a nice link to the website where you can donate. There is also a link on my (I mean on Noah's) facebook page. We now take you back to your regularly scheduled program, As Time Goes By.

And we're back. Hope that wasn't too painful. Boy the point of view in that last paragraph was all over the place. When I was talking about mom renewing her membership, it took me literally 15 minutes to remember the word "renew." The closest I could get was re-establish. What is that? Ugh. Curveball just got thrown in this meeting. The president of the group that is meeting is the guy I was going to work with on trash management, but this young guy just threw down a really well-written, flashy, high budget trash project on the table. Mad drama in the room now.
SO anyways, Super Bowl is coming up. Can't say I'm that excited about another Patriots-Giants game. We should all keep in mind that if the Pats win, the Bills did beat them this season. It doesn't look like we will be able to watch the game live here (it starts at like 1am), but Casey (Patriots fan) should be able to download it so that we can watch it as a group the next day. (UPDATE: that is currently the plan, we are all going to go to a really nice resort hotel in Toubakouta on Monday to watch the game over Coronas and guacamole. Our only real issue is finding a downloadable copy that includes the commercials and the half time show. NOT THAT WE WOULD EVER ILLEGALLY DOWNLOAD THE GAME BY ANY MEANS). So nobody tell me who wins. I'm going to try and get up so I can photograph this meeting. Total success, as you can probably tell from this photo. (UPDATE: so the internet is too slow to upload a photo, but I promise that on Monday when I am near fast internet I will make another post with not 1, but 5 photos!) That's probably enough for now. I will be getting a new post-office box in Kaolack soon (UPDATE: did not succeed in doing that because of the holiday here, so I'll try again soon), so hold off on the care packages for a bit. I'll post some ideas soon, but legit I have enough beef jerkey to last like a year. More Reese's Pieces, Frank's Red Hot, salami, and flower seeds (yeah weird, I know) would be great.

Usually I peruse my movie selection in order to find a good quote from something I have watched recently, but as I'm away from my computer I'll try out my knowledge of he Star Wars films.

"Many Bothans died to bring you this information."

What a terrible quote. Seriously, I'm sorry. Let's try again.

"...good for nothing...Nerf-Herder!"

Getting there, one more.

"Ho ho ho...lutax nga krispa Greedo?"
Meaning "why did you fry poor Greedo?" but my Huttese is a little off so some of that was Wolof.
Okay good enough.

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.”