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.