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.