Decadence

Today was a great end to my first of what will hopefully be many great weeks here in Senegal. I slept in a little bit and lounged in bed reading until it started to get hot and I felt I had been sufficiently lazy. My only goal of today was cleaning my room, which is quite a task because I have to move everything out, clean the floor with a squat broom and rags, wait for it to dry, and then move everything back in. It's quite a production especially when every single member of my family has to come by to ask me what I'm doing and then give me a few pointers of my technique.

Everyone was really chill today and just taking it easy, which was exactly what I needed after my eventful and exhausting day yesterday. All the boys had mysteriously disappeared and all the girls were watching Survivorman in the living room. This is the only television show I actually enjoying watching here. Survivorman dubbed in French is actually hilarious and then my mom's reactions are priceless. She is completely disgusted that he eats bugs and especially that he's an American who eats bugs. Then everyone has to ask me if I eat bugs, which I don't.

As we were all sitting together, I let my family know that Jackie was coming over for the afternoon and that we were going to make dinner together. My family was interested in why Jackie was here today since my friends usually come over on Saturdays and I explained that she is having some additional language training in a nearby village. My mom was appalled. She was extremely worried for Jackie and didn't want her to go back to the village. It is incredibly interesting listening to my family talk about people who live in villages and the social hierarchy that exists in Senegal. I assured her that Jackie and I were going to cook a really good dinner and that if she needed to Jackie could always come back to our house. An offer which my mom readily extended to Jackie several times before she left.

When I told my mom we were going to cook an excellent meal I wasn't kidding. My real mom, the infamous Sharyl (yes, all of my friends are intimately acquainted with her through blog posts and my packages!), truly packed some delicious treats into a few of my packages. Some treats were just so good that I had to save them to eat with a friend. Since Jackie is headed back to the vil, I decided there was no time like the present to indulge... even though I'm staying in Thies and living the life. We started off our afternoon with a ridiculous pepper encrusted sausage, and ended with some gnocchi, spicy arrabiata sauce, and wine juiceboxes. I kid you not, my mom seriously figured out how to send all of this stuff to Africa. It was amazing! Especially when combined with magazines and some good old fashioned girl talk.

Today capped off an entire calendar week of good days. It's pretty exciting. I'm ready to get back to reality tomorrow aka walking around Thies and attempting to conduct my life in Wolof. This weekend was an excellent re-energizer and I'm ready to tackle the last ten day stretch before Thanksgiving and some more fun!

Day Tripper

Today was an extremely long and amazing day. I got up really early in order to make a day trip into Dakar to play softball and see a lot of the other volunteers who live in the Dakar region.

My first challenge was going to the Thies garage and not only getting myself a place in a sept-place, but also purchasing a seat for Jackie and explaining that we were going to pick her up along the side of the road. This is not a strange thing to do here so I was pretty confident. The garage was surprisingly uncrowded this morning and I went straight to the Dakar cars as swarms of men come up to me asking where I'm going to and trying to get me to take taxis or buses instead of a sept-place and trying to sell me things. One sidebar worth mentioning: A man came up to me and said that he would take me straight to Dakar and get my friend in his taxi. I told him I didn't want a taxi. He then told me because I'm very beautiful he would offer me the great deal of 15k for the ride. I laughed at him, asked him if he was joking in Wolof, and walked away. The men surrounding us burst out laughing and mocked the guy who had approached me. It was funny and a small victory.

I found a car going to Dakar and explained I wanted to two spots. The driver said ok so I got in. Then everyone else in the car kept saying how expensive two places was even though I explained I was picking up a friend. They were very concerned. I also had to fight off other people trying to get in the car and take the empty spot that was for Jackie. After 30 minutes of explaining that I was going to pay for two seats and we needed to pick up a friend we finally left the Thies garage. I gave myself a little pat on the back and thought my work was done... haha.

We roll into Jackie's town and she's not there. I keep saying that she's right behind us and everyone in the car is getting angry. They force me to get out of the car and call for her. This is alongside the national highway of Senegal. They then ask me if I can't pick her out of the crowd because she's Senegalese. I meekly reply that she's a toubab and I thought I was going to have a mutiny on my hands! The rest of the car was not happy. I call Jackie who is literally running from her house to the car after her mom interrogated her for 20 minutes and tried to hitch a ride with us. Finally, I see Jackie bounding through the gas station at top speed toward the sept-place. I breath a sigh of relief since the car wanted to leave without her and a women in the car who had an infant gave Jackie a death stare. Jackie was literally maybe three minutes late, but I was really worried they were going to push me out and her out of the car! It all worked out and is just part of the adventure. I'm sure I will be stopping countless more times to pick Jackie up for a little fun in Dakar. (Jackie, I know you're reading this... no worries! It was fun!).

It took 2.5 hours from me walking into the Thies garage until we arrived at the garage in Dakar, which is a jumble of cars, taxis, buses, people, and other miscellaneous things. We had gotten ourselves to the garage, but had really no idea where we were going from there. I hailed a cab, negotiated a fair, and we were off in the general direction of the Atlantic Club to have lunch and take a swim before the softball game. The driver only had a vague idea, much like we did, of where the club was so I just kept telling him to drive straight until Jackie recognized some dilapidated apartment buildings.

Katherine, who is a champion and took a bus, was already at the club and Elizabeth who is a trooper and left the med hut to come see us, she has a suspect case of Dengue fever, rounded out our foursome. First order of business catching up, second: FOOD. I had a fatoush salad and a chicken wrap and I can't tell you how incredibly amazing and fresh it tasted after the especially oily week of food I had at home.

Next off to the softball field to meet up with everyone else and kick some butt. Victory Dakar region PC. I was impressed with how good both some of the other volunteers and especially the Senegalese team we played were. It was really fun. I have to give a special shout out to Katherine and Jackie who are both good! I will admit to saying "this is a left handed mitt." Yes, now I realize that you catch with your left hand and it makes sense and I knew that. I've never pretended to like baseball, but I did feel stupid. After the game everyone went back to the Atlantic Club for some swimming, volleyball, and ice cream. It was really fun hanging out with the older volunteers and making the trip to Dakar by myself for the first time. Quite exhilarating.

Jackie, Katherine, and I left in the mid-afternoon in order to make it back to our sites before dark. We were able to take a cab together, but once we got to the garage Katherine had to take a different car and the garage is a really chaotic place to say goodbye. Oh well. We all made it back.

I walked into my compound just as it was getting dark, sweating, covered in dirt, and just revolting to find 100 women in all of their finery having a baptism for Jeenaba's sister's baby. Awesome. A Senegalese baptism is quite an event. The women get all dressed up and the congregate to give gifts and have a party. When I say give gifts I mean they hold up fabric, money, soap, or any other number of things and read out the quantity and the quality and write it down. It's a very public display of money which is a little different from what would happen at home, but it's very interesting to see the politicking behind who gave what and I always love seeing everyone dressed up.

I ducked into my room to try and clean myself up before sitting down to watch. Luckily it got dark so I hope no one really noticed how terrible I looked, but oh well. I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been so tired from today, but it was still cool. The party at my house ended about an hour and a half after I got home and moved to someone else's house. I ducked out at this point to decompress from my day and take a shower!

Ps. There are some new pictures up!

Happy Birthday Shirley

Happy Birthday Shirley! I wish I was home and we could celebrate with Mexican dip, rice salad, oreo balls, and ice cream cake, but alas, I am in Africa. In honor of me please have grandma take you out to a nice dinner and order the most expensive item on the menu! And a salad!

I went back to Keur Yaay today to attend the bi-weekly English class. On my way there I actually ran into one of the women who participates in the group at a breakfast stand. Waiting for her to get her food and then having to walk/ push my bike instead of riding was going to make us late and I was already getting frustrated with this because I really want to make a good impression since I really like the head woman, Boya. We got there almost 15 minutes late and were the first people there so I tried to tell myself to take a chill pill and enjoy. Unfortunately I got up early since the class was supposed to start at 9 it started at 10:15.

The class was very interesting. Senegalese teaching style is so different from the US methodology. At home I am a fastidious note taker, it helps me pay attention, but here, at least with this teacher, the students aren't allowed to take notes during the lesson and copy everything after the fact. The entire class is conducted closed book and memorization is king. The teacher also really put the students on the spot, which I thought was a little embarrassing, but I think some of it might have to do with me. He's definitely intimidated to have a native English speaker in the room and although he asked for my correction and help he also resents it. We were going over "to be" and he kept saying I'm as "Ahm" Since I'm also attempting to learn a new language I'm very sensative to pronunciation issues especially with letter combinations that don't exist in one's native tongue. I know I sound like a fool when attempting to say a word that has a "nd" combination, but French and Wolof have a long "I" sound so I thought I should correct. He merely told the class that there are several different pronunciations. Not true.

I will have to test my boundaries more in the class. I don't think he realizes that I understand everything he says in French even though we converse in French with each other because he will give me slight put downs when I make corrections. Oh well. Boya is really into me giving suggestions and corrections so that's all that matters.

Going to Keur Yaay and running an errand afterwards were the only productive things I did today. I hung out with my family for a few hours after lunch and made tea, but I can only take so much sitting without talking or looking at each other so I hid in my room and read Pride and Prejudice. I fall in love with Mr. Darcy every single time. It doesn't matter how many times I read it. I forced myself away from my love affair after a few hours to hang out with the fam again. I was rewarded with watching anime dubbed in French.

Series of events to end the night:
1. Watching anime dubbed in French with my sisters who are in their late 20s and early 30s
2. Watching the 3 year old Ahmed "drink" water out of a bag he kept refilling only to have people become irate when they stepped/ slipped in big puddles
3. My dad having a pitcher of water instead of Fosters Clark/ Kool-Aid and having to wait 10min while my brother went to buy some as our dinner got cold
4. Ahmed trying to breastfeed with every woman in the family... including me... I told him I wouldn't give him anymore candy if he kept grabbing me
5. Watching a special 1 hour marathon of Whitney Houston videos... Ok, not going to lie it was actually a little entertaining. I love Whitney. Who doesn't love the Body Guard? Mamy, my sister, personally loves "Greatest Love of All" in case you were wondering.

This is my life. What will tomorrow possibly bring?

Space, Comma

November 12, 2009

I dragged myself out of bed this morning to take a run. As my skin explodes in a fit of acne and my body rebels against the liters of oil I eat every week, I thought I should do something nice for myself. The weather is actually getting cooler, which made my run almost pleasant except for the fact that I am not one of those people who can find the "zone" and actually enjoy myself. At least the track was empty when I got there and I was able to be at peace... and run through the sprinklers when I was done!

The track is right next to where I get tutored, but I ran home and then rode my bike back to tutoring. My bike and I are becoming better friends. Although I disengaged the back breaks because I have no idea how to stop them from touching the tire and I can't seem to shift gears (it's really hard to peddle!), we are starting to bond and it's nice not to have 45 minute walks when it's a million degrees outside. Even though I take the same routes day in and day out a toubab with a helmet is still just about the most ridiculous site in the entire world and the cat calls and children's' shrill "toubab" follow me everywhere. Luckily, the bike affords me speed and the ability to ignore most comments.

Tutoring is good. My tutor is funny and nice and intense. He wants me to come more often and for longer periods of time. This is very generous and I will take him up on his offer because I really do want to attempt to master Wolof, but at the same time he is so high energy that he exhausts me. Today he had several friends over who were interesting characters. It was fun to talk to other people, but we weren't quite as productive as usual.

Back at home for lunch, I waited and waited for lunch. Mamy, one of my sisters, not Jeenaba was cooking which is usually a bad sign and means it's not going to be as good. I should preface this by saying that there are two types of ceebu jenn: red and white. We usually have white and I used to prefer white ceebu jenn for some unknown reason, but Mamy's red ceebu jenn was worth the wait and there was only a thin film of oil on the bottom of the bowl which is a huge improvement over most meals. I was pumped and at the same time sad that I am now ranking how much I like (not tolerate) ceebu jenn. And I called myself a foodie this summer. Sigh. Mamy cooking today wasn't the end of shared household responsibilities. All of the girls scrubbed the courtyard today. It is impressive what these women can do with some soap and a squat broom made of sticks. I attempted to help until they begged me stop and said they could do it without me. I really did try to help. Hey, I can scrub with the best of them, but I relinquished my broom for another Senegalese girl who came over. I think they at least appreciated the effort.

I spent the afternoon at my typing class, which I'm still really excited about. The women have gotten to the point where they actually type words now instead of just letter combinations and they're psyched about it. They also practice on their own which is great. This is mainly fueled by competition and the desire to get "SUPERSTAR" status at the end of a lesson. Interestingly, the program reports which letters the student has the most problems with and all of my students struggle with the space bar. I don't really get it and we had a long discussion about spaces, but they're still struggling. We also added some punctuation today, exciting!, and commas completely befuddled them. I will admit I'm terrible at commas. I usually use them incorrectly or just leave them out completely, but no one knew what a comma was so I explained it as a pause within a sentence and showed them one in the book. Since commas don't pertain to emails and Google searches the women found them largely annoying and unnecessary in their exercises. Oh well. Mme Cissa continues to impress me with her dedication and quick uptake.

And we lost power tonight for several hours so even though I had this post mostly written I couldn't post it. Since it was dark I got into bed early with my iPod and when the power magically came back on as I was drifting to sleep I chose bed over blogging. My apologies.

Seersucker Boo Boo

Although I have been dreading going out to the villages lately, I was excited to go today because Jackie was going to meet us and because it's a Catholic village with a monastery that makes goat cheese! Goat cheese! Yeah, obviously it didn't happen. I got to the office and Diof was surprised to see me since he completely forgot that we were supposed to a village today and he was way too busy to go. Fortunately he told me this right when I got there so I didn't waste half of my day waiting around for him trying to pry information out of him.

Leaving the office I decided to be productive and go to a woman's organization that I've been too a few times for the rest of the morning and then the high school English club in the afternoon. Ambitious. I arrived at Keur Yaay, the women's organization, and walked in on an adult English class. Obviously, they were excited to see a native English speaker... or at least the students were. I made the teacher, the only man in the room, really nervous and he probably didn't enjoy the fact that I corrected him several times. I didn't really know what my place was, but when I saw blatant misspellings I thought I should correct him. It was interesting seeing an English as a foreign language class. The teacher kept giving varied pronunciations of words like Monday. Again, I wanted to correct him, but I didn't know if I should and I was confused about the multiple pronunciations of Monday.

After the class ended, Boya, the director of the center took me aside to talk about what type of projects we could do together. She definitely wanted me to come and help with the English classes, which isn't really what I want to do long term, but for now and to get to know these women I can sit around in an English class. Boya was very adament about empowering the women who come to the center and she thinks learning the global languages of English and Arabic are very helpful. I pounced on the Arabic and supposedly Boya has a friend who teaches Arabic at a high school so we're going to try and set up an Arabic class as well. At the very least I hope that I'll be able to meet the Arabic teacher and maybe just set up a time to talk or attend his classes.

I was having a really good time with the women and they invited me to stay for lunch and it was really hot today and I was feeling really lazy so I agreed. Bad, bad decision. They served supukagny aka the only dish in Senegal that I find completely unpalatable. They obviously could tell I didn't like it and they were totally cool with that. I said that I could just eat a granola bar I had with me and they made me some hardboiled eggs, which was incredibly sweet. They are really nice and really fun. I think I will enjoy hanging out there.

After lunch we went to another groupments meeting because I wanted to meet some women who do food transformation. Unfortunately, after two hours my mind had completely turned off and I told Boya I had to leave. It was fairly insufferable. I'll have to meet the food group the next time. The only aspect of the meeting that saved my sanity was one very stately older man wearing a seersucker booboo (a traditional male outfit here that is like a muu muu with pants under it). It was AMAZING and I now want a seersucker dress.

Today's Ridiculousnesses:
1. I listened to Chris Brown's "Forever" at least 7 times at Keur Yaay. I lost count after 7.
2. 3 year old Ahmed took a bag of chips threw them on the ground, stomped on them, opened the bag, and then poured it into his mouth... this was during the 45 minute blackout
3. My dad was furious at dinner because no one had prepared his Fosters Clark, which is the equivalent of Kool-Aid. My dad drinks a pitcher every night.

I am absolutely exhausted from speaking in Frolof all day with no breaks. Goodnight.

Progress

My computer class is really making progress. I walked in today and two women were already practicing the typing game! Granted one woman was playing solitaire, but even this was awesome because while the school has 5 computers they didn't have an extension cord so only two computers were plugged in, but they took the initiative to plug all the computers in because people are pumped about my class! The one woman who was playing solitaire has told me she's awesome at computers aka can turn them on and play solitaire, but when she heard the other women talk about the typing program I found she wanted to join the class too! Today I had four women and supposedly a fifth is going to come on Thursday.

The women are making real progress and their patience continues to impress me. I was originally worried that they would grow bored of the typing exercises quickly and want to revert to going online, which is definitely outside their skill range, but they are getting really into typing. The head secretary/ the woman who is obviously in charge, Mme Cissa, definitely practiced and is improving rapidly. She's already on the third level which is great. When she passed the second level today, she had a very high accuracy score and the program generated a little certificate that labeled her a "SUPERSTAR" she was so excited and all the other women were exceedingly jealous and the room got really quiet as they all concentrated. It's very rewarding seeing them make progress and have other women join the group because they see it as valuable training. Although I'm there mainly as a cheerleader and to press override key commands when the computers freeze, but I definitely still feel a sense of accomplishment and worth which is awesome.

Before my computer class I had tutoring which is still going well. Bossa, my tutor, is very nice and entertaining. It's definitely a change since the PC approach is very structured and the instructors are amazing, but Bossa is definitely helping and teaching me relevant vocab and the like. Today we talked about bargaining in the market, which is useful for me. He puts on these hilarious dialogues where he plays both parties and he gets really into it and I can't help but laugh. He wants me to come for 3 hours at a time so I'm awesome at Wolof, which is very generous, but my head would literally explode. I am going to go over there more and more since I'm planning on going to the villages less and less. He also wants me to help him in his garden... that will be interesting... I'm no green thumb.

Back at home no one is in a good mood at my casa. Jeenaba had two teeth pulled without any pain meds and was crying as she made dinner for everyone. I broke a cardinal rule of not giving out medicine, but I couldn't help myself. Her face is swollen and she was sitting over a gas crying. Some combination of a car, an airport, and someone being lost has my mom irate, one of my brothers is sick, and my dad can not stop talking about my work partner being late. My dad is now really into my work which is great and wants to make sure that everyone is on time for me... it's only polite. So a fairly interesting night and I'm trying to remain out of the fray.

Tomorrow I'm off to the village. Pray for my sanity.

Reconnaissance

Today the stars aligned and created a day that made me remember why I joined Peace Corps and why I am going to live here for the next two years instead of fleeing back to the US and all things luxurious.

I woke up and saw that we had water, which I deemed a blessing and a curse. A blessing because I obviously don't like to sleep caked in a mixture of my own sweet and dirt and I like to drink water, but a curse because now I had no excuse to not exercise. After several minutes of wrestling with myself I decided to suck it up and go for a run on a new path in an attempt to find an artist atelier I had met on site visits. I knew the general direction, which means nothing since I get lost trying to get back to my house (in the US I do have a good sense of direction), and I set off on my way. I thought it was pretty close so after running for a while I almost turned back until I thought that I saw a familiar intersection. The best part about this intersection was that it was actually familiar and I found the atelier! I was so excited and proud of myself. Since I was a hot, sweety mess I resolved to return in the afternoon.

After a shower aka bucket bath I headed out to the post office. I had bought a plethora of stamps through the Peace Corps so this was my first time making a purchase at the post office instead of just picking up packages and it was a little intimidating since people just mash up against the windows and it doesn't seem like there is a line. While it is a mob, not a line, everyone knows who is in front of who and no one cuts. It's actually pretty impressive. I successfully mailed a couple of post cards and got some stamps, no letters though... tear. Sorry this was really exciting to me, but now that I've read it, it's a little lame.

Next I was off to meet some other PCVs for lunch. I really like that everyone calls me when they come into Thies although I do feel a little guilty leaving my family and having so much America time, but I rationalized this by promising myself that I would push myself and go back to the atelier. Lunch was really fun and it's nice to get to know people in different stages since I really only know my group. Plus we went to a new restaurant and I had some spring rolls, which almost satisfied the Asian craving I've been having for the last 2.5 months. I might have also had a beignet stuffed with custard... hey, I went on a run today.

After lunch and getting a yogo glace, which we ate inside the Total gas station because it is air conditioned, I walked back in the direction of the Thies garage/ my house with one of the boys and contemplated not going to the atelier because it was going to be hard and I was having such a good day and I didn't want to ruin it, but I forced myself to go and I'm so happy I did.

Two guys were sitting outside the atelier drinking tea, eating peanuts, and playing amazing music on the guitar. We were off to a good start. They were super nice and really helped me with Wolof and told me that the owner/ artist was teaching a class but would soon be back. The owner, Dioss, returned and remembered my name (the Senegalese have great memories) from village visit and was super excited to see me. I knew from my previous visit that he really has his act together and he wants me to help him with a strategy for selling some holiday cards he made, which are fantastic. He also wants me to come to the school where he teaches art classes and talk about being an entrepreneur. He was just really excited and had concrete plans and it was great to feel needed and that I could make a difference. It's definitely a place I want to hang out. They helped me with my Wolof and they are just cool guys. Also, another friend who was there owns a boutique and a gas station and he wants my help with marketing and merchandising!

On my way home, I was just praying my family would be in a good mood because I wanted to keep the ball rolling. Deenaba is back and everyone is obviously happy. It means Jeenaba has less work and is happier, and everything runs more smoothly, which in turn makes every happy.

My dad also got home early and I took it as an opportunity to ask him about business in Senegal and timeliness. He works for an international corporation in Dakar and I wanted his opinion on the contentious matter. I explained the situation that my work partner is often late and it makes us late for our work and it frustrates me. My dad was very firm in admonishing my work partner as unprofessional. He stated that he leaves at 4:30 am for Dakar every day because he would be very embarrassed and it would negatively impact his career if he was late. He believes timeliness is a sign of respect and that it's impossible to effectively do your job if your always late. He dismissed the idea that the Senegalese system must run at its own pace and thinks that there are global best business practices. Not only did this help me sort out my feelings about business and time here in Senegal, but I also got to talk to my dad for 20 minutes which was cool.

What could possibly make this day better? CHICKEN. Yeah, we had roasted chicken for dinner and it was delectable. I'm hoping today will serve as a beacon of light in my darkest hours and that it will remind me to just go and see what's out here because I may be surprised about the work opportunities.

Market Day

Jeenaba and I had agreed to go to the market this morning earlier in the week and we had a great trip. I wanted to buy some fabric to have an outfit made for an upcoming holiday called Tabaski, which got everyone really excited because my family loves it when I wear Senegalese clothes. I assumed that we would go to the main market in Thies because that's the only one I knew about, but there is a smaller market much closer to our house, which still has all the food products of the bigger markets and several fabric stalls and tailors.

All of my sisters are fashionistas and Jeenaba took control of my outfit, which is fine since I don't know what the Senegalese think is nice and not. We settled on some violet eyelet fabric and embroidery, this is after I convinced Jeenaba that a large rhinestone encrusted ribbon down the front of the outfit wasn't necessary. She agreed that I already stick out enough as a toubab. The tailor also got a kick out of the fact that I wanted a skirt with a zipper instead of a wrap skirt because I think they're too hard to walk in. Overall, it was a smooth process and Jeenaba seemed really into it and I'm excited to see the finished product. I'm also excited to have some more Senegalese clothes because they really are the most comfortable things to wear here.

We did a bunch of grocery shopping and it was really interesting to see Jeenaba move around the market. She knew everyone there and would stop and say hi to all the vendors even if she wasn't buying. I met her brother who has a small booth and we talked for a while. The best part about this outing was going to see Jeenaba's mother after the shopping because I was able to put together more of the family tree. Jeenaba's mom is my mom's sister, which makes her a cousin. From seeing their house it's obvious that my family is better off and that's why I assume Jeenaba works at my house. It also makes sense why Jeenaba who calls the other girl who does a lot of the cleaning (her name is Deenaba, oops I thought there were two Jeenabas) a maid. She's not family. I also got to meet my grandma who is hilarious, really friendly, and had a lot of patience talking with me. We went back to Jeenaba's house this evening for a wedding, but we missed most of it and just sat around talking. I'm able to pick up more and more of conversations which is nice even if it's difficult for me to participate. On the way home I thanked Jeenaba for her help and she said no problem I'm her friend. It was really sweet and meant a lot. We are becoming friends and that's great.

This afternoon I watched a lot of television with my family. While we did start out with some CSI Miami dubbed in French, we eventually turned out to a Senegalese channel which was really interesting because it was showing a traditional wrestling match. A match lasts approximately a minute (the winner only has to push his opponent out of the ring), but there is an hour of awesome dancing and other festivities before hand. The dancing and music is really cool and was similar to the performances at the party for our host families.

All in all a good and relaxing day.

I would like to address some comments made on the blog. I did not use precise language in explaining my irritation with people being late. I do regret saying all Senegalese people are late since it does annoy me when they assume all Americans are rich, but I have yet to attend a meeting that started relatively on time. Also, my frustrations lie mainly with my work partner who I've had many discussions with about how I don't like waiting outside a bank for over an hour while he does his personal business. He could have very easily called me and told me to come an hour later. I have also admitted that I'm struggling with all the cultural differences and I hope that that translated into my willingness to try and understand and adapt as much as I can. I am keeping an open mind. Additionally, the Peace Corps is a cross cultural exchange. While I understand, respect, and admire many aspects of Senegalese cultural such as breaking for prayer time, forming personal relationships over afternoons at tea before starting a business relationship, and stopping to great everyone you know on the way to a meeting, I am here to improve business and teach business practices in a culturally sensitive way.

Water and Booze

I woke up with a grand plan to take a run before Jackie came into town, but this illustrious goal was dashed when I discovered that the water is still cut. This means I didn't take a shower last night, I didn't take a shower this morning, and I don't get to take a shower tonight. Luckily, someone sent me some baby wipes so I'm going to take a baby wipe bath in my room tonight in an effort not to disgust myself. Since I opted to not take a run because I couldn't shower, I read in my room until Jackie arrived.

Seeing another PCV is akin to a religious experience. We hugged when we saw each other and it was the most physical contact I've had since an exceedingly old man who is the Chief de Quartier held my hand for an uncomfortable period of time. It's also an opportunity to actually feel understood. Yes, I can talk to my parents, my boyfriend, and my friends on the phone and over email, but no one can possibly understand the constant heightened awareness that I live my everyday life at. Constantly being asked for money, being called derogatory names, and conducting my life in two foreign languages is exhausting and there is no one better to bitch with than another PCV. Needless to say my day with Jackie was amazing, full of food that wasn't ceebu jenn, frothy beverages, and understanding. It was great and much needed especially after yesterday.

Tonight after a dinner of exceedingly oily onions, meat, and fries (imagine coagulated oil on a plate after 30 minutes because my dad hadn't come downstairs yet... delicious), I was sitting with my mom and oldest sister when they asked me if I drank. I though they asked me if I had drank alcohol today so I lied and said no, but they were really asking me if I wanted a drink now. They told me that they would go with me across the street to buy some Whiskey and/ or Champagne. I told them it was ok. I didn't need/ want a drink tonight. They then told me I could buy alcohol any time and drink it in my room. Great. My family either thinks I'm super lame or wants me to become a reclusive alcoholic. Too funny.

Think clean, watery thoughts for me!

You Can Count On It

You can count on Senegalese people being late to everything except the mosque and a meal and it's absolutely infuriating. I've already had one discussion with Diof about how I think it's disrespectful when he makes me wait exorbitant periods of time, but I don't think how serious I am about this issue has really sunk it yet.

This morning I spent 1.5 hours waiting for Diof (1 hour of it sitting outside the office because he wasn't there yet and it was locked) before we did nothing. I waited for him to tell me that we weren't going to the village until the afternoon. Since it was 11 and we weren't leaving until 3 I stated my desire to go home, which he couldn't understand and then he made me promise that I would return by 3 because that's when the car was coming. I told him Americans honor appointments and left the office. He wanted me to go to the bank with him aka sit outside the bank for 2 hours as he does his personal business during business hours! Ah!!!! Damn you Ross School of Business and living in the US for teaching me business etiquette and common sense. I will never forgive you.

My family ate lunch late and I took a cab to get back to the office so I would be there by 3. I knew it was probably a waste, but I wanted to be punctual just in case. Obviously, I got there at 2:50 and Diof was no where in site. He wasn't there at 3 or 3:30 or at 4. Finally, at 4:15 he rolls up with a car and some stupid comments about how in Senegal the system is to have no system. I'm irate at this point and the only thing keeping my calm is the new People magazine my mom sent me. I don't know why I didn't leave. It's ridiculous that I spent 2.5 hours of my day just waiting. I have resolved to not let this happen anymore. My time can be better spent even sitting at home practicing Wolof with my 3 year old brother is more beneficial.

I only get angrier when Diof says we have to go two villages. I know that's impossible and I'm annoyed. All the people in the car with us are talking about how I need to let it go because getting frustrated isn't worth it since the Senegalese wont change. I try to explain that time is money and all Senegalese people ever talk about is money. They try to convince me that time isn't money... maybe that's why no one has any money!? Just a thought. I pass out in the back of the car so I don't have to participate in conversation anymore.

I'm angry and getting to the village is only making me angrier because we drive through Thies, which we didn't need to do, so Diof and a woman who works in the office can do personal errands. I almost got out of the car right then, but I stayed in so that we could stop several more times along the road to pick people up, to get drinks, and to just generally waste time and be inefficient. The village was no better. The women almost got in a physical altercation about who was going to sit on the executive board. I just sat back and shook hands with all the little kids coming to see the toubab.We didn't make it to the second village because it was night. I made no attempt to hide my discontent.

I'm done with villages. It was great at the beginning. It got me out of Thies and I had a purpose which was really important. Now, I want to stay in Thies and make real contacts that will become future partners. I'm done being the token toubab at meetings that Diof shows off and makes false promises about. I'm also done living by this insane lack of schedule. If people want to work with me they will be on time because otherwise I will not be there and I will leave. Period.

To give a little more context to my supremely bad mood throughout the day:

7 young people called me the extremely derogatory word for toubab
1 little boy threw a pop can at me because I didn't give him money
1 Chief de Quartier told me I would make a good first wife because I'm very beautiful, but also very lazy since I haven't learned to make ceebu jenn
3 members of my family asked me for things including: phone credit, tape, and cotton swabs
1 work partner asking me if I, because I am a woman, was too tired to walk home

The only thing that made this day better was when I finally returned home from the village and my mom asked me what was wrong and then went on this huge rant about how horrible village people are and how much better people who live in Thies are in every respect. It was very humorous and reminded me things could always be worse.

And there are some new pictures of Thies posted and a few of the village.

Bubbles!

I woke up this morning excited knowing that I had packages waiting for me and was immediately upset by the fact that my sister completely twisted one of the under wires to my bra. This is no small thing for me. It's very upsetting. I now plan on washing my bras although I'm still incredibly happy my sister is doing my clothes. But, I digress from package euphoria...

Emily agreed to meet me at the Post Office with my slips and help me get the parcels back to my bungalow. A slight glitch in the system revealed that my mom is indeed sane and didn't send me 6 packages like I was worried about! A HUGE shout out goes to Lynn who's package was beyond amazing. Not only did it contain sorely needed shaving supplies, one of my favorite movies of all time, my favorite granola bars, PC necessities called Ziplocks, and some delicious treats, but also bubbles. This afternoon was the first time I had ever seen the three year old boy at my house have a friend over so I decided to break out the bubbles. They were mesmerized. I don't think they had ever seen bubbles and they were so excited. Well, they were excited after I correctly positioned the blower since they at first attempted to drink the bubble liquid out of the the bubble pipe. They LOVED it. And now they think I'm awesome, so thank you again Lynn. Ahmed, my little brother, has even opened up to me a lot more today and really tries to communicate. His friend who originally cowered from me in a corner when the scary toubab entered the room now is in love with bubbles. I also gave them one caramel a piece, which really confused them. I had to eat one to prove it was candy because there aren't really gummy candies here since they melt and they were confused until they popped the deliciousness in their mouthes.

Upon returning home, victorious with packages, Emily and I camped out in my room eating some delicious treats and reading magazines. We also started talking about city livin' versus the vil. As I've mentioned before, the country director has challenged my stage to stay at our sites from install until Thanksgiving. Us city dwellers have been receiving some flack about how easy it us for us since we have so many more conveniences. I definitely agree that we have more comforts, but there are definitely cons to living in a big town. When many village volunteers get to site the entire village throws a party for them. People are in the streets and everyone wants to meet them. Not even my entire family was here to greet me. While I enjoy my anonymity as just another toubab in Thies most of the time, it also makes it harder for me to find work because people aren't seeking the new, weird, yet potentially toubab out like they do in the village. It's weird to think that I will never experience the solitude of being the only toubab for miles, but at the same time being near other toubabs creates its own sense of loneliness. Where's my toubab solidarity people? Anyway... moving on.

This afternoon I have to admit I was dreading tutoring. Jamba's (my tutor) first session was intimidating and it's a constant struggle to push myself into more and more intimidating situations, but I was pleasantly surprised. I think he had gaged my level accurately from our first session and he had some role playing activities for us to do which were great. I think it's going to be a good partnership. His wife is incredibly sweet as are the other people who work at the office, including the USAID intern, and it just feels like a really comfortable place. I'm happy with it.

I left tutoring to go back to the school where I teach a computer class. I had spent over 2 hours yesterday looking for an online typing program that I could use to teach these women to type. It was really hard finding one for a French keyboard and that wasn't geared towards kids, but I found one that's great and even has hands on the screen which shows you which fingers to use! The beginning wasn't great. Mme Cissa couldn't get past the first lesson: typing "f" and "g" in different combinations. 45 minutes later success and she really took off! Another woman joined us and it started a little competition which really helped their progress. They got so excited they reached a new level and were really happy. It made me feel great to accomplish something. I know that I just found a program and showed it to these women and cheered them on, but I haven't had a lot of accomplishments on my own so it was great. Mme Cissa is the head secretary for the school and she writes everything down because she can't use a computer. If she can really learn to use Word, Excel, the internet, and to type well, it will help her workload, create a better file system, and improve her efficiency. Computer classes are definitely not what I want my service to be about, but right now teaching two women to type is rewarding.

I do want to add that my day wasn't all roses because on my way home, I was riding my bike, a group of boys chased after calling me the extremely derogatory word for toubab. Even me responding in Wolof didn't deter their mean chant for a couple of blocks, but I have refused to let it ruin my day and I wish there was a way to exact revenge.

Well, it's time for "Marina" aka a ridiculous Brazilian soap opera dubbed in French and if I don't watch it I will be unable to participate in any discussion my family will have tomorrow. Wish me a good dinner!

Ps. A couple more pictures of my house are up!

I'm Boring

I can tell that attempting to blog every day might be a little more difficult than I originally thought because today I wasn't feeling feel so I really haven't done anything.

The main event of the morning was going to the post office. I got my first letter that was sent to my very own PO box! Shout out to Lynn for the letter. Letters are arriving quickly in about a week to 10 days so everyone should send me letters. Hers even included a picture so that's extra points. I also got a text from my site mate Emily that she has slips for a ridiculous number of packages that I will pick up tomorrow. I'm not going to disclose the number of packages, but I will tell you that I've devised a may to get them all home. Wish me luck. Update tomorrow.

The rest of the day was spent resting in my room since my mom told me I didn't look good and she didn't want to see me until dinner. I'm definitely feeling better after resting and I don't have a super busy day tomorrow so hopefully I'll be back to normal.

Keep sending me questions! Then I'll have something to write about!

Until next time!

Xaali$$

Xaalis is the word for money in Wolof.

Rent day is by far the absolute worst day of the month. I know it's going to be awkward and terrible and just really annoying and today was no exception. Mothers here grab their breasts and shake them at you to say that you are like a child to them, I call the female head of my house hold yaay or mom in Wolof, and walk around the house like a member of the family, but on rent day it is never so obvious that I am not nor will I ever be a real member of the family and I guess that's to be expected. I had a minor disagreement with my mom about the amount and it's resolved and fine, but it's so frustrating. Paying rent makes me feel like a transaction.

I wish it was black and white. At home paying rent is part of a business and there's a contract and it's easy, it's straightforward. Here, I am a part of the family, but that family is a money making entity. The grey area between business and family is a huge problem here because people will pay personal expenses with business funds and do not understand that that's a problem. It's very hard to walk the line of family and tenet and it's impossible on rent day. Part of the reason why it makes me so upset is that my family here is rich by Senegalese standards, as I've been invited into everyone's rooms they each have a TV and many people have their own refrigerator. My home stay had nothing and they shared everything with me and that's not how it works in the big city. I guess the same is true in the US. Everyone talks about small town values...

Ok, moving away from that rant. This morning I conducted my first solo lesson of any kind. I taught a computer class at a preschool for the teachers. It actually ended up just the head mistress who strong armed me into helping her create an email account even though she doesn't know how to turn on a computer or type. Obviously, this went well. Even the head mistress agreed that we should probably scale back the lessons and I'm going to try and find an online typing game to help her and two other teachers on Thursday. Although the lesson didn't go amazingly well, she understood my French and I'll definitely have a better plan of attack for round 2. I was proud that I rode my bike to the school without my bike breaking down or me getting lost. Baby steps people, baby steps.

After my rent debacle, crying in my room, and listening to Rihanna's Disturbia (oddly it makes me feel better/ think of Rick's for all of you UM readers!), I extricated myself from my room and went to meet a prospective Wolof tutor. I knew that it was probably a bad idea because I wasn't in a good mood and I'm getting a cold (no, it's not village water related, but I went anyway because a girl who is working for USAID set it up for me. I met my tutor and his wife as they were trying to fix USAID girl's fan. An hour into meeting everyone the fan was finally fixed and we began the lesson. The Peace Corps language training is great. It prepares you for being a volunteer in your field and daily activities, but my vocabulary beyond that is limited and he really pushed me. Usually, I would be ecstatic to find someone who was excited and willing to work with me, but I held back tears for our hour session as he continued to use words I didn't know, ask thought provoking questions, and just generally make me think. It was rough, but I think it will be a good partnership in the future.

Since I'm just trying to make it through the day and into bed, I will answer a reader question in stead of boring you with more mundane details of my day.

Q: Do people in Senegal deal with negative body issues?
A: I haven't really heard the type of complaining or general discussion of negative body images that exists in the US. A lot of people live hand to mouth so there is very little obesity that isn't linked to diabetes, which is a huge problem here. I really have no idea if boys have any body issues. For girls, hair is a HUGE beauty point. As I've mentioned weaves are a big thing here and my sisters spend hours braiding each other's hair and then putting cheap fake hair in. It's important to have a good weave and if not a good weave then they do use chemical straighteners. Jayfundays are also big, haha I made a joke in Wolof that no one else will understand! Ok, a jayfunday is a big ass. Yup, that's the beauty point here. Since breasts are no big thing aka women walk around topless all the time (at least in the house, but they don't cover up when company comes over) that butts reign supreme. A very nice complement is that you have a big ass.

Goes Down Cold

Village water that is. Yes, my mother is going to have a heart attack because today was the first day I took the plunge and drank water with ice out of a rusty tomato paste can. Hey, everyone's doing it! Today in the village I ran out of water and in some small villages you can't buy water, so I had no choice but to pucker up and drink up. The best part about this whole experience was that it took place in some random old man's room. Chris and I were walking around during a break from our meeting attempting to find some lunch because we didn't think we were going to get fed when an old man invites us to his house. We enter his room (check out the new pictures) and I'm completely terrified about what we're going to be fed and Chris is just happy that he gets to eat and have some amazingly good ceebu jenn. I was really surprised how good it was. We also had cold water out of a rusty tomato can, which is the cup of choice throughout Senegal. I kid you not.

My GI system is currently intact and I'm hoping I make it through the night. Throughout training I did drink bissap juice that my home stay family made from tap water so I'm hoping that I have built up a slight immunity and that there was no Giardia present in the water because then I would be screwed. This lovely event happened at about 1, but the morning started much, much, earlier...

We get to the office at 9:30 and wait the requisite hour before anything happens. I'm already worried about the day because I know we are attempting to go to two villages and then Diof tells us we're going to try and make it to a third. I know this is impossible. Anyway, at 10:30 we finally leave the office (thank you again for all the magazines!) and go to the bank because Diof needs to go to the bank. Chris and I wait outside... for another hour! I'm really angry at this point because I could have slept in and taken a run and just not waited around all morning. I resolve to tell Diof I'm not going to the village, but then Tamar calls, which was wonderful, and I got distracted and dragged to another office. Finally, I tell Diof I'm not coming and he tells me that I am even though I came up with a great excuse. I couldn't really fight it and resigned myself to being pissed off all day.

I did tell Diof that I would appreciate it if in the future he could do his personal errands without me. He proceeds to wax on about how he didn't know it was going to take so long blah blah blah and that's crap because everyone knows at the beginning of the month banks are out of control because everyone is paid at the end of the month. He just tells me I have to get used to Senegalese people always being late or having something better to do. I retort that Senegalese people are always on time to their prayers at the mosque and to meals so they can be on time to other things to. I am going to refuse to work with people who are late. Plain and Simple. If they want to work with me they will come and if not then they aren't motivated enough and I don't want to work with them anyway. So there. Sorry for the rant... Diof just laughed at me. We didn't leave Thies until 12:30 a bad omen for actually get back at a decent hour/ going to all the villages.

Back in the village, we are finishing lunch with the random guy when I get a phone call... it's Diof and the women's group prepared us lunch. We had to eat again, but it was good so it was Ok.

Luckily, the president of the women's group is well educated and is going to do the accounting formation with the women at a later date since they all waited for us throughout the morning and we didn't get there until the early afternoon. Therefore, we really didn't do anything except sit there as the token toubabs as Diof talked about the millet machine and how great it was going to be. Then we were off to the second village where pretty much the same sequence of events occurred.

Although I was really annoyed that I got dragged to the village today, I'm really happy that we have all of these formations. Not only does it give me something to do before I go back for more training in February, but I also get to see the village life I'm missing out on by living in Thies. Plus, the countryside is breathtaking, just spectacular. Without these little visits I really would have no idea since I lived in a pretty big town during home stays and now I'm in the second biggest city in Senegal. So, I'm complaining, but it's still good.

Getting home was quite the adventure. We took a cab to Toubatoul, the village we visited today, because we were late but couldn't get one back to Thies so we had to take a bus, which stopped every 12 feet. It took a really long time which sucked because I was absolutely covered in red dust/ dirt from driving around these villages and all I wanted to do was take a shower, which was made extremely difficult when I got home because we didn't have power. Story of my life. Obviously and luckily the power is back on, I'm clean, and we're having omelets for dinner.

I'm completely exhausted and need to call it a night after I write a lesson plan for my computer class tomorrow! I'm sure it's going to be a disaster since it's the first time I'm flying solo, but I'm excited none the less. Wish me luck! And check out the new village pictures!

Nipples, Goats, and Guts

Today has been a punishing day mostly because of me. I let myself sleep in and lounge in bed reading In Style before I got up to take my run. BAD CHOICE. Running an hour later than I usually do means it's an hour hotter and it was toasty this morning. This was made even more annoying when I got to the track and there were several soccer games going on. I was too embarrassed to run around in front of a bunch of Senegalese boys so I just turned around and ran back home grabbing a banana on my way so I could have my new speciality: banana, almond, oatmeal for breakfast.

After breakfast I cleaned my room. I moved everything out and swept and washed the floors. Even Jeenaba said she was impressed. Go me. I'm not completely worthless.

Flush with the room cleaning victory, I turned to the task of fixing my bike. I can sit looking at an LSAT logic game for an hour trying to figure out the nuance and trying to understand the problem without losing my cool. Three minutes into attempting to get the back wheel off my bike I was practically in tears. It was a two hour project to take the tire off and play with, but not fix the chain. At this point I'm really hating myself and thinking that this is exactly the reason why I'm dating an engineer. Side note: Jeenaba 1s boyfriend is a car mechanic so I may have told her my boyfriend is a plane mechanic in order to bond. Aerospace engineer is slightly outside the scope of my Wolof. Anyway, with the tire off I discover that the inner tube has a leak and that the valve is broken off.

I couldn't come up with the word valve, even in English, for some reason so I told my family, who were all sitting outside, that the nipple of the tube had broken off. My family went into a hysteric fit of laughter at the nipple comment and one of my brothers told me that the word in French was valve. I'm an idiot. It's the same in English.

Moving on from that my brother Ahmed, who is the most reserved and the one I have spoken least to, offered to take me to the bike shop to get it fixed. The bike guys get me a new valve and patch the leak even though I told them I wanted to do that. My brother told me I couldn't... he was probably right. My brother also insisted he carry the tire around. All of my brothers act like I'm some delicate, toubab flower that can't really do anything. Unfortunately, most of the time this is true. Back at home I tell my brother I'm going to put the tire back on and fix the chain. He laughs, but leaves me alone to my work. He comes back 45 minutes later and neither task has been accomplished. DAMN! He proceeds to fix my bike and oil the chain in approximately 2.5 seconds.

I'm proud of myself for attempting, at least, to fix my bike and I'm happy that I was doing it in my own courtyard because if I was out in the African bush I would have surely died of dehydration.

While I was attempting to fix my bike all the women in my family were excitedly telling me about the stew we were going to have for dinner. Then I saw them starting to scrape the hairy, gooey, thing pieces off of intestines! Yay! This was my thought process:

1. I want to throw up at the smell
2. I'm going to cook dinner for myself tonight!
3. Suck it up and try it... and then gorge yourself on peanut butter in your room.

This was happening while one of my brothers and his friend are taking all the goats out of their pen and giving them a bath. The goats are going crazy and bleating all over the place and scaring the crap out of me. These are BIG goats! The best part was Matt asked me last night how many goats we had. Being the great animal lover that I am I told him I had no idea because I've never had any desire to look in the pen. We have 5 goats.

Intestine stew isn't nearly as bad as you would think. It was more of a soup that was really fatty with some potatoes, meat chunks, and intestines. Intestines just have a weird consistency, but the flavor is fine. This meal took 10 hours to make. We just ate and it's 10:30pm! Jeenaba 1 doesn't like this meal and said so and I took that as my cue to tell everyone how much I don't like soupukany, but this was good!

This is getting ridiculously long, but one more thing. Right before we started eating my sisters finished a hair weave and then they took a burning piece of cloth and burned all the flyaways off each other's heads. Therefore, I just ate intestine stew while smelling burnt hair.

Oh Africa...