Home Sweet Home

I never thought that I would crave coming back to site, but I did. The past week of tournee was amazing especially capped off with seeing a bunch of my friends in Dakar, but I really missed my personal space and the routine I've formed here in Thies. Luckily, we made the trip back to Thies in record time and I greeted my family who was genuinely excited to see me.

All the women were sitting around the kitchen getting the ceebu jenn ready for lunch. I will admit I also missed my sisters' cooking. They are really good. I told them all about my trip and showed them the pictures, which brought an onslaught of hilarious comments. My mom was appalled at some of the places I'd been. Most of the stops she considered very country bumpkin and not suitable for me. She was also very concerned that I had eaten bad food, which didn't meet her standards. My mom is absolutely hilarious. I love her (most of the time) and she is an elitist. I say this with all love and respect, but it is just too funny when we talk about any small town or village because she's generally horrified about life outside "the big city."

After meeting and greeting my family, it was time for my BIG task of the day and I do mean big. My mom had warmed me for this event and today it took place: my dad's side of the family bombarded me with wonderful packages. Luckily, I was warned and took my giant suitcase because when I arrived at the post office they immediately started laughing at me... I had six packages!

Shout Out Roll Call:

Aunt Diane, Uncle Wayne, Jenn, and Rachel (in spirit): I opened the first box and a Mexican fiesta hit me in the face! It was amazing as I uncovered nacho cheese covering more nacho cheese, salsa, taco shells, seasonings, and some pre-made meals I thought about gorging myself and dieing happily right in my room surrounded by the contents of my packages. Mexican is one of the things I miss the most and I can't wait to turn the Mexican fiesta box into a real Mexican feast over Christmas in Dakar. It's going to be amazing. You guys actually need to be thanked for two amazing packages. The second one had a ton of 100 Calorie packs and peanut butter crackers. Delicious. I ran through my supply on tournee so they are greatly appreciated as are the toys. I can't wait to break them out! I actually already used one of the Thanksgiving chocolates to bribe my little brother to go to the boutique and buy me a water bottle (making small children do things for you is one of the real perks of living in Senegal).

Aunt Cindy, Uncle Rich, Adam, Ben, and Sarah: Thank you for continent skipping and indulging me with some Italian delicacies. The gnocci was a huge hit last time and I can't wait to have it again... maybe with a side of pizza! I'm also really excited about the pesto sauce not only because I love pesto, but also because the color horrifies my family so when they see it they don't ask to try whatever I'm making! The pancake mix and Rose's caramel corn were also amazing. I've already stashed the presents under my bed and I'm hoping we can set up a Skype date with the family party so we can all open presents together!

Shirley and Sarah: The Chinese food looks amazing and has been one of my biggest cravings here. I can get Chinese in Dakar, but it's expensive so this will be a great treat! I'm also very excited to open both of your presents! Especially Sarah's! Shirley I also got a card from you today! You are the letter queen! And it only took 6 days! You sent it on December 1st. This should be a lesson to everyone that you should write letters... cheap and quick. Awesome.

Grandma: Thank you! Your box was a who's who of Alyssa's favorite Peace Corps treats! The Cliff bars are one of my new favorites, which I would have never requested if they hadn't been in the infamous Colorado goodies box and the dried veggie chips are usually the first thing I rip open and inhale when I get a package. The most unbelievable thing to emerge from my box was the balsamic vinegar. Unfortunately, I can't buy tomatoes around my house in the afternoon and was too lazy to walk to the market, but tomorrow I'm going to get some and have an amazing salad! I'm really excited.

Also, a shout out to Lynn. You sent me a letter on August 28th and I just got it today. It's quite a well traveled letter since it's been to South Africa and Spain!

The last package was obviously from my parents. Thank you and I'm glad everything got here safe!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all. I have to admit that I was quite overwhelmed opening all of the packages, not only because I couldn't walk through my room until I did a couple of hours of organizing, but also because of all the thought, effort, and long letters I received. It was great. Thank you.

The perfect way to end an exhausting week and a great day? You guessed it. Chicken.

I'm about to pass out and dream of all the good food and I'm going (hopefully slowly and with some semblance of pace) devour.

Tournee Day 5: Kolda and The Gambia

Homeward bound was supposed to be the theme of the day, but before we got started we payed a breakfast visit to two girls in my stage to see how they were doing and meet their counterparts. These two girls are just like me and Emily, SED and urban agriculture, site mates so it was interesting to see how they were working together or at least how they were hanging out together. We met at a pre-school where we saw the kids, looked at an early garden attempt, and had some delicious village bread with honey and butter. Delicious.

Then we were off the northbound road to The Gambia. While the scenery was beautiful and we passed many idyllic villages, one of which we stopped at because Talla had some friends there, I have to admit that I napped most of the way and really only regained consciousness once we started to slow down for all the boarder checks.

I was excited to cross into The Gambia so I can claim another African country! Hey, I ate and peed in the country... so I'm counting it! For my faithful U of M readers I would like you to image the wave field on North Campus. Take away the grass, so it's just massive dirt bumps and then you are close to accurately imagining the roads in The Gambia. It was a rough ride even in the nice Peace Corps car.

The highlight of the trip was while we were waiting for the ferry. I had heard rumors that The Gambia has the most delicious chicken sandwiches. This is true. The ferry port is literally a group of shacks next to the river selling various things. If I can invoke everyone's imaginations once more... Please imagine the African heat and glass cases, much like aquariums. Roasted chickens, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, and condiments are in these cases. When you order a sandwich a women slices open some bread, tears of a chicken breast, thigh, and leg and proceeds to squish the meet off the bones and into your sandwich. She then takes a handful of lettuce and tomatoes, a handful of lettuce which she slaps in the bread, then she dips her hand into a dish of mustard which she slathers on your sandwich. Finally she wraps it in a dirty newspaper and hands it to you. Absolutely delicious lunch and until I started writing this post it really didn't occur to me that that wasn't what I would usually call a normal sandwich preparation method.

The ferry arrived shortly after we all devoured our sandwiches and Talla and I walked on board while Adama drove the car aboard. The ferry was pretty cool. The river and the surrounding foliage was very beautiful and it was relaxing and nice to get out of the car. That is until we disembarked from the boat and I was reminded I was in a boarder town by vendors trying to sell me fabric and cigarettes.

The rest of the day passed in the car. We talked, passed through Koalack again, and finally made it into Dakar and the end of the tournee. I feel really lucky that I got to follow Talla around, observe the formations, and see such a large part of the country. It was really cool.

Pictures from the trip are now posted. Enjoy.

Tournee Day 4: Velingara and Kounkane

December 3, 2009

Today was the day of the tournee that I was really looking forward to. Everyone has told me that Kolda is beautiful and the scenery is very different from the rest of the country. I had to wait the entire day to make it into the city of Kolda itself and it was twilight, but I would agree that it’s very beautiful.

The morning started out with bean sandwiches, an excellent way to start a day, and we went to Velingara to do a school project management formation. The formation was supposed to be about use of a future school computer lab. The room currently doesn’t have any electricity, the computers have not been purchased, and none of the teachers know how to use them. Interesting. Planning the install and potential pricing for adults and students outside of this school district was the purpose of the formation, but it quickly devolved into a shouting match among the various participants in the formation about who the computers were MORE for. The principal of the school seemed to want to charge outsiders a fee to use the lab while school was out or even after hours to create another revenue stream for the school. This idea sent other people off the deep end who thought that the computers should just be for the children of this particular school. Every single one of the approximately 20 people in the room had to say their piece in a very long winded manner. I was really bored and I felt badly for the volunteer since the meeting didn’t achieve its purpose.

The trip was salvage when we got to visit the preschoolers at the school. They were adorable.

This afternoon we made our way to Kounkane to do a leadership formation for a women’s group who dyes fabric and makes completes (traditional Senegalese top/ skirt outfits) to sell at the market. Just like the juice formation before it, this formation was interesting because it was a single groupment and all the women had the same goals. It was also interesting to watch Talla explain the responsibilities of the president, treasurer, and secretary and see the face of the president fall as she realized that she has actual responsibilities instead of just having a cool title. I think she got the point by the end that she needs to step it up.

The drive from Kounkane to Kolda was very different. The trees became much denser and there were a lot more palm trees. We also saw monkeys, which got me really excited! The goats and sheep of Thies are just common roadblocks these days, but monkeys in the middle of the road is a new experience all together. It was pretty cool.

Adama and Talla dropped me off at the Kolda regional house which is very nice and I collapsed on the couch. There were a couple of girls in the house and we hung out a little bit, but they were busy so I read and made dinner... When I say I made dinner, I mean I boiled water and put it into a bag. In the States I'm completely against meals in bags, or boxes, or anything that doesn't involve something fresh and me taking the time to cook it, but this is Peace Corps Africa. When my grandma and dad were in Denver visiting my brother they picked up some freeze dried camping food, which I have to admit I have been dreading eating. I brought out the bag of freeze dried beef teriyaki, and made an excuse about how I got it in a package, but don't usually like things like this, but thought I would try it. It was obvious that the other girls had had these meals and liked them.

I boiled some water and 9 minutes later presto! I had beef teriyaki. It pains me to say this, but my meal in a bag tasted like a little bit of heaven, which I shared with the other girls and then went to bed.

Tournee Day 3: Tamba

December 2, 2009

We spent the day in Tamba today which was nice because I got to sleep in and we didn’t have any driving to do. In the morning Talla did an accounting formation, which was interesting. I thought that he made a huge mistake in the total costs column, but about 2/3 of the way through the formation I realized that he had actually started a new example which I hadn’t realized since the formation was in Wolof. I’m glad I didn’t bring that fact to his attention since I would have felt really stupid.

Talla has some family in Tamba so we went to their house after the formation for lunch. I am always skeptical of other family’s ceebu jeen since my family is patron and eats really well, but this was good. Or, it was really good up until the point when they asked me if I liked “geej.” I had no idea what it was and said I would try it much to their delight. I really need to learn to ask before putting things in mouth because it was rotten fish and my gag reflex kicked in and I was almost in real trouble. Luckily I was able to swallow a huge mouth of food without chewing and kept the rotten fish down. At least in the future I will know not to partake in that Senegalese delicacy. The hour proceeding lunch was really boring and I watched CSI Miami dubbed in French as Talla talked with his family.

After lunch I ventured out into the courtyard where I was mauled by adorable children. There was a little boy about 18 months old with no pants on that kept walking up to me, looked at me with his eyes almost popping out of his head, and then would start to cry uncontrollably. He did this at least three times. It was ridiculous. I also had my two favorite conversations.

#1 – Marriage – the marriage discussion is always the first topic. This discussion actually wasn’t annoying because I was with women, not men. They couldn’t believe I’m unmarried and in a foreign country by myself and advised me to lock down my man while I’m still young and beautiful and while my breasts are still perky… I didn’t have the heart to tell them that bras work miracles…

#2 – 52 States – there is a misprint in a widely distributed Senegalese text book so everyone thinks that the US has 52 states. The best part is that people are adamant about this fact and won’t believe me. I promised the women that there are only 50 states. They told me that since I was a guest that they would defer to my opinion, but they obviously didn’t believe me.

The piece de resistance for the afternoon was one of the young boys t-shirt’s. Second hand clothing is huge here and people will wear graphic t’s with slogans and phrases they don’t understand. For example we once saw a man in Dakar wearing a t-shirt that read “Gay? Fine by Me.” He obviously had no idea what that meant because it wouldn’t have been fine by him. This little boy was wearing a Jewish day school pre-school shirt. I was beside myself. It has the generic little kid picture of Noah’s Arc complete with Hebrew writing. It was priceless and pictures will be up shortly.

For the afternoon’s activities we went to an artisan village which sells pretty much the same, generic, merchandise that you can find in the Thies artisan village. Nothing too interesting. I spent the night back at the Tamba house hanging out with people and watching Knocked-Up. Good day.

Tournee Day 2: Kaffrine and Kounghel

December 1, 2009

While my initial description of Kaolack may not have been the nicest picture, this morning was great because I potentially had the best bean sandwich I’ve had in country and that’s saying a lot. The sandwich was on village bread, which sent it over the top. Village bread is really dense delicious bread that only villagers eat because it’s so filling. Townies eat processed French baguettes that are full of air and really, really flaky. Village bread is amazing and I only had it on Korite, supposedly it exists in Thies and I am now determined to find it and eat it in all of its delicious glory.

Our first stop was Kaffrine, which is pretty much just a stop along the national highway to Tambacounda. The formation was definitely the best one we’ve had so far. The volunteer in Kaffrine works with a women’s group who makes juices and jams and sells them at the market. They even had carts with logos and special plastic saks that the juice is put in. The reason why I liked this formation was because we worked on the same problem. The previous formations had women that sold a myriad of different items. Some women sold peanuts, some sold fabric, some sold vegetables and the list goes on. Working with one group with one goal really allowed us to focus attention, make concrete recommendations, and potentially achieve progress/ some form of consensus.

We worked with this group on some pricing and financial planning, but what the group really wants to do is print their business specific logo on the plastic bags to increase their visibility in the market. This request brought up the 4 Ps of marketing, which was the first business framework that Talla used during the formations. Since it was only this one group we were really able to discuss the 4 Ps and the portions of the framework that the groupment was missing. It was really interesting to see Talla teach the framework and I think the women of the group got it and saw that there were some gaps in their business that are potentially more important to fix than the logo on the bags idea. While in the long run imprinting logos on the juice bags could be a good idea, it’s also very expensive and not everyone in the group is currently putting in the same amount of time and effort so there are some salary disputes. We were able to work with them on creating a more concrete production schedule. People used to come in at drastically different times so we made a daily schedule and had everyone sign a big piece of paper, which was kind of cool. Even their volunteer signed it which was cute.

After Kaffrine, we made our way to Kounghel to see a volunteer from my stage. We actually did home stays together during PST together so I was interested to see him. Kounghel is pretty much a truck stop and is currently completely under construction. They are digging a huge trench for some water drainage infrastructure for the rainy season. It was cool to see another person’s site from my stage and the longer I’m on tournee the happier I am and the more grateful I am for Thies.

Next stop: Tamba for the night. The Tamba house had a couple of girls in it and a boy from my stage who lives in town stopped by and we watched a movie and cooked some food. Unfortunately, the Tamba house also has a lot of mice, which I didn’t like, but all in all a good day.

Tournee Day 1: Fatick and Keur Madiabel

I'm spoiled. Before today I had never left the Thies/ Dakar region and now my eyes have been opened to how most other people live. I complain about my sept-place rides from Thies to Dakar. There are no stops in between and it's always possible to get a car. Haha. That's the Thies/ Dakar region that doesn't exist in other places. While the road from Thies to Fatick is pretty much as good as the road from Thies to Dakar, the road from Fatick into Kaolack and the surrounding areas aren't roads. They are giant sink holes surrounded by thin strips of asphalt.

Fatick was our first stop and felt just a hop and a skip away from Thies since I passed out in the back of the car. In Fatick we met a volunteer and I watched, Talla (one of the SED teachers) give a formation on pricing. It was very interesting to watch him. He's actually quiet charismatic, this could also be because I found it almost impossible to look away from his awesome fedora, and really engaged the women in the lesson. I served as honorary paper taper-uper, which is an incredibly important job if I may say so myself. I also took pictures, which will be up at a later date. The portion of the formation that I actually enjoyed the most was Talla's description of Peace Corps. He really emphasized the fact that we are here for an exchange of knowledge, not cash. He talked about PC philosophy for a couple of minutes, which I thought was really good and cool. The formation in Fatick went well and the women had a lot of good questions. They were also all there when we arrived aka we were actually late as were they so it all cancelled out.

Next up, the drive to Kaolack, which was terrible. The scenery was pretty awesome since we drove over some salt flats and while there are less baobab trees than there are around Thies, there are a lot of Neem trees and other shrubbery. I just wish there was big game to look at too. Entering Kaolack was like entering a major city after the apocalypse. I remembered how overwhelmed I was the first time we walked around Thies. Thies now looks like paradise. I used to think that Thies had a ton of trash all over it. Haha. Kaolack is literally a dump. There is trash everywhere and while Thies has tree lines boulevards, Kaolack has trash... Granted I haven't really been able to explore the city. There are also huge salt plants and ships that export the salt to other countries. We ate a quick lunch in Kaolack (I had a chwarma with actual pita instead of a baguette!) and then made our way to Keur Madiabel, which is a small village outside of Kaolack.

We had to take a bush road to get there because the main road is being "paved." Supposedly this has been a multiple year process and about 5k of the 40 has been completed. Keur Madiabel looks like a lot of other small villages that I went to with Diof for formations, but dirtier. We arrived at 3pm, which was, unfortunately, the same time the volunteer had told the women the formation started at. 2 women arrived at 3:20 and women kept trickling in until 4:20, but we eventually had a full house and I think the formation went well, but not as good as the first one because the majority of these women were illiterate. One of the women could only write in Arabic, which I thought was pretty cool and we talked a little bit. Her husband is Arab, but she wouldn't tell me where he was from.

Riding back into Kaolack, the Peace Corps car dropped me off at the regional house where I could not open the door in another brilliant show of my burgeoning ineptitude so I left my bags with the guard and navigated my way in the darkening twilight (don't worry mom, I'm still alive) to meet a few volunteers for dinner and drinks. After being harassed in a clando (taxi where multiple people share) and paying a ridiculous fee to have the cab driver drop me off at the restaurant I arrived in one piece mildly terrified, but alive and ready for a beer. Hey, every day is an adventure here.

This is day 1 of my tournee and I'm already in awe of what other volunteers live with and I haven't been to a remote site. I could not do what they do. They are amazing. I'm definitely excited to see more, but that's knowing that I get to go back to the safety and comforts of Thies. My family is right when they say Thies is the best place in Senegal. I'm definitely starting to appreciate my site more and more after the initial disappointment of staying in the same place.

Tomorrow is going to be a long, long day. We are visiting a boy in my stage, doing a formation at a second year's site, and spending the night in a third town. Sleeping in the back of the Land Rover sounds like a good plan.

Remnants

Tamar and I walked around Thies today and were greeted by the smell of rotting sheep hides. Delightful. As I described my family digging a hole for the sheep to bleed into, everyone else did the same. It was necessary to pay a little extra attention to make sure you didn't step into a hole filled with sheep's blood and guts since most of the holes hadn't been covered yet. While navigating around holes, I also attempted to avert my eyes from hides draped over dirty buckets (aka garbage cans) and stretched out on the ground to dry. Other than goat remnants everywhere the streets of Thies were almost eerily quiet and empty. Actually, it was a welcome respite.

Tamar left this afternoon to visit Jackie because I'm going on a tournee tomorrow. I'm going to go with Talla (one of my business teachers) on a week long trip around Senegal to watch him do business lessons for women's groups and video tape the formations so other volunteers can watch them at our training in February. I'm pretty excited since I haven't been out of the Thies/ Dakar region and I'll get to see a bunch of other volunteers. It should also, hopefully, be interesting and informative. Regardless, Tamar left this afternoon which was definitely sad. It was fun having her for Tabaski.

My day was very quiet. The most ridiculous thing that happened was when I was taking down my laundry so I could fold it and pack for my trip my mom asked me if I knew how to fold clothes. I answered affirmatively, but this obviously didn't matter so she folded them for me. I'm worthless. Oh well.

Oh! I almost forgot. Shout out to Shirley and Leigh! I just got letters from both of you today when I went to the center! Shirley, your letters are always amazing and Leigh, the Cosmo collage was fantastic. I hung it up! And for future notice, I got these letters late because they were sent to the PC box and then had to find me. My new address is on my blog. No worries and keep the letters coming!

Since I'm going on this tournee, my posting may be sporadic so have a good week!

Tabaski/ Happy Birthday Dad

There's nothing like waking up after a good night's sleep to a sheep slaughter. Today is the day that my family has been talking about since I arrived here almost 6 weeks ago. After breakfast, Tamar and I were just leaving my bungalow when we saw a singular sheep tied outside the pen. He was panicking and bleating to the other sheep inside the pen. It was pretty obvious he knew what was about to happen...

I have been a little nervous about watching the sheep slaughter, but it wasn't as gory or gross as I thought it would be. I thought there would be a lot more pomp and circumstance surrounding the sheep, but all the men went about their business matter of factly and laughed as Tamar and I oohed and ahhed and took pictures from a distance. They dug a small hole in the sand and then my three brothers held the sheep on the ground with its head in the hole as my dad cut its throat. The blood didn't spurt out violently like in a horror movie as I imagined it, but there were death rattles and spasms which were a little hard to watch.

After letting the blood drain into the hole for a few minutes my brothers carried the goat into the tiled section of our compound, put it on a plastic tarp, and expertly butchered it. Tamar and I were really impressed at how quickly and knowledgeably my brothers were able to butcher the sheep. I've posted a bunch of pictures so take a look, some of them may be slightly graphic if you're squeamish.

As my brothers butchered the sheep, Tamar and I helped Khady cut onions. We are both terrible at cutting onions in our hands especially since we were using my sharp knives. Most of my family's knives are so dull you can barely chop anything. After nicking myself I told Khady I would peel the potatoes since I have a peeler and can do it much quicker than they can. Tamar kept cutting onions since she's much better at it then me. Unfortunately, as I threw a potato into the "finished" bucket my finger ran into Tamar's knife. I blame this completely on her by the way... My entire family freaked out, but it's just a little cut and I put a band-aid on it. Now my family thinks I'm fairly inept at almost every task known to man, except reading and they just think that's weird.

During a lull in the action, as a vat on onions mixed with a gallon of oil simmered away, Tamar and I made no-bake cookies to share with my family. They were very skeptical about how they would taste. Jeenaba, again, refused to try American food but my mom and my dad took two and other people seemed to like them so that was a success. At least we made a contribution and I think they appreciated that.

Lunch was the big meal of the day and while really good and out of the norm, it wasn't the feast I was expecting or the type of feast we had in my home stay town for Korite (another big Muslim holiday). I guess this is because we are going to be eating the sheep all week, but as usual I don't really know what's going on! There was a really good and spicy mustard sauce which I'm going to attempt to request for future meals...

By far the highlight of the day was getting our make-up done. My sister Mamy is a hair and make-up genius and she made Tamar and I up for the holiday. It was awesome. Mamy spends hours everyday doing her make-up, her hair, and everyone else's beauty routines as well. She's great. And she went all out for us. My eye shadow matching my outfit perfectly was excellent, but the pounds of eye liner and blush all over my face just really took it to the next level. I loved it. And she's awesome at doing head wraps! Apparently there are a ton of different styles and she gave Tamar and I different wraps. I would describe Tamar's as Senegalese badass/ Oragami, while mine was more Senegalese boho. Both were amazing. Check out the pictures. We also watched Khady get an extremely intricate hair weave, which was time consuming, but surprisingly tasteful.

After getting all dolled up, we went out with my brother Petit to see his friends. The first two houses we went to were nice and we chit chatted and exchanged pleasantries, but the third was a long stay and I kind of feel like a hostage when I go out, can't get back by myself, and then they just tell me I'm tired or hungry and that they'll take me home. Actually, I'm bored and a little annoyed usually, but it wasn't too bad and being with Tamar made it a lot better. It definitely didn't ruin the day and I'm happy that we went out so we could see everyone else's clothes, make-up, and sheep carcasses.

Tabaski was definitely interesting and fun. I really enjoyed hanging out with my family and Tamar and I hope that we helped at least a little bit with the food preparation. I'm pretty sure we were entertaining to watch as we watched the sheep being butchered. Tabaski continues tomorrow and Jeenaba has promised me that she is wearing the most amazing outfit ever... so that's definitely something to look forward to!

Check out all the pictures! And happy birthday dad! I hope that you had a delicious meal at the club. I had roasted lamb with fries, onion sauce, and LETTUCE, which was delectable, but I could totally go for a ceasar salad, burger, and pecan dream from the club!

Black Friday Blues

I haven't heard the 5am call to prayer in months because I'm so used to it, but this morning I woke up to my alarm clock at the same time as call to prayer. Not fun. In an attempt to get back to our sites for Tabaski, an important Muslim holiday starting tomorrow, we got up around 5:30 so in order to be at the garage early and make sure we could get cars back to Thies. Surprisingly, it only took three hours to get back and we made it so it was great.

Tamar and I spent the day in a daze because we were incredibly tired from the trip and waking up so early. We made an absolutely amazing dinner courtesy of my mom. We had some pasta pesto, tomatoes, onions, and some great cheese we got at the toubab store! It was great and we topped it off with some boxed wine and a movie in my room. It was really nice and relaxing. We need our rest to watch some goat slaughter tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the Muslim holiday that I've been talking about. It's called Tabaski and I am too lazy to describe it to everyone so you can check it out on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabaski

Also, I'm sad it's black Friday and I have done no shopping. It's terribly sad. I miss JCrew and all other sales happening today. Please purchase many beautiful and shiny things in my honor.

Ps. Shout out to Shirley for sending another letter! Thank you!

The Highlights

Tuesday November 24th: Day 1 Dakar

Getting to Dakar was an adventure. Jackie and I left Thies with ridiculously amazing chicken sandwiches, which we bought from a vendor at the garage, in hand and navigated to the correct garage in Dakar. Seemless, but from there it went to hell. The taxis were attempting to charge us 3 times the normal fare so a very nice woman told us a rickety bus was going in our direction which was only 100CFA while the cab was going to be 3000CFA. Needless to say, we were pretty pleased with ourselves until my life flashed before my eyes as our bus stalled on an on-ramp, then the driver proceeded to reverse through three lanes of traffic, and then drop 2 feet on to the shoulder which was precariously close to a sewage ravine. Jackie and I locked eyes as the bus jilted to one side and made peace with death, but the bus remained upright although broken and now in a trench. We exited the bus, ran behind a nice man through 4 lanes of highway traffic (with huge backpacks), and got in another bus and finally made it to the regional house in Dakar. Katherine and Tamar thought we died, but we eventually made it. A little adventure and near death experience never hurt anyone.

The regional house has real showers so that was pretty much priority number 1 for me after sweating on public transportation for several hours. I jumped in and noticed that there were two knobs on the shower. The two knobs registered in my mind, but their meaning did not... I therefore took a cold shower while all of my friends took warm showers because they're smarter than me and remembered that the red knob means hot water... Don't worry, the rest of my showers were warm. It was awesome.

Our first night we satisfied my main craving: Chinese food. We knew a popular restaurant to go to, we had the phone number, the directions, and a cab, but we couldn't get there. If our cab driver hadn't been amazing and spoken to the restaurant for several minutes on the phone I would have been deprived of the pan fried noodles, Szechuan tofu, and calamari I inhaled. It was an interesting experience since the waitress didn't speak French, Wolof, or English... only Chinese. It was point and hope for the best and it turned out delectable.

Wednesday November 25: Day 2
We went to the office in the morning. I'm now vaccinated against swine flu and the regular flu.

From the office we walked to Casino, which is a Western style grocery store where I was struck with how amazing a full service grocery store truly is. Instead of making me homesick for what I could have at home, the grocery store made me incredibly happy and I perused every single aisle with my mouth open in wonder and desire. We left the grocery store with dark chocolate, Brie, and WHOLE WHEAT BREAD. The cheese and the bread was delicious. After so much white bread the whole wheat was a real treat especially with the cheese. We devoured it at the American club with salads!

We also went out in Dakar for the first time, which was really fun. A few Gazells/ Flags (Senegalese beers) always put you in a good mood and it's the biggest bar night of the year in the States so it was a show of American solidarity.

Thursday November 26: Day 3

Happy Thanksgiving! And happy birthday Aunt Cindy!

I was surprised at how emotional I got especially since I hadn't allowed myself to think about missing my first major holiday. It turned out to be an amazing day.

The US Ambassador invited the PCVs to her house for dinner, but we were called upon to make the side dishes. I obviously signed up to make Shirley's famous mashed potatoes which turned out perfection and which every said were really good. We made them at the head of the SED program's house along with another treat...the funfetti cupcakes my mom sent me! All of my friends were pumped about the cupcakes even though the Halloween theme was a little late. It's not easy to find an oven here... We all agreed the making some food on Thanksgiving was cathartic and really fun. It made it feel more like Thanksgiving, having a lot of women in the kitchen, even though it was an incredibly hot day outside. It's easy to trick yourself into not believing it's the holiday season when the weather is so opposite to what I would expect at home.

The Ambassador's house was wonderful. I got to see a bunch of PCVs from all over the Dakar region and the Ambassador had festively decorated the house with fall colors and Thanksgiving paraphernalia, which actually made it feel like Thanksgiving at home. The turkey was good, the potatoes AMAZING (if I may say so myself), and I was incredibly impressed with all the other PCVs resourcefulness and cooking skills. It was no Thanksgiving at home, but it was wonderful and very fun. I heard that Sarah made Mexican dip and a delicious blueberry crisp so that's almost impossible to beat.

Dakar was very, very fun. It was great to see other volunteers and Tamar. Back to Thies for Tabaski!

Ps. New Pictures are up!

Runs in the Family

I haven't been sleep well so all I wanted to do was lay in bed all day and read, but I dragged myself out of bed and I'm glad I did. When I opened my door I was greeted by a beautiful site... all of my family's water containers were full! Yay! So I took a bucket bath, pounded a Cliff bar, grabbed my bike and headed off to Dioss' gallery. He wanted to take to a school to see if I could do any type of IT class or something. I can't say that I was super excited to go to another school about the possibility of teaching another IT class, but Dioss has been so nice and he really wanted to take me there so I didn't know how to say no.

Once we got to the school I was equally impressed with how excited the principal and the teachers were that I was there. The principal and the president of the PTA both told me how happy I had come and that they were really excited to work with me. They were pretty effusive, which is always a good feeling. It is an elementary school and I will start going next week after Thanksgiving and Tabaski. The best part of the morning was walking around with Dioss after visiting the school. This parents live close by so we went to visit.

Everyone in Dioss' family is an artist and his parents' house is some kind of tropical paradise where I almost forgot that I was in Senegal. The compound has not only buildings, but a beautiful thatch roof hut and banana trees and a palm tree and an absolutely amazing gallery. While Dioss either does abstract work or the scenes of African women, his dad does very abstract African scenes and some Arabic language religious artwork. The abstract African themed work is amazing. He uses really bright colors and it's very geometric, but at the same time very fluid. It's awesome. He paints with oil paints on canvas, tin, and wood. He also does Arabic calligraphy on wood and tin which is awesome. He works it into African scenes and it's really cool.

After visiting Dioss' parents we went to his brother's gallery down the street. While Dioss and his dad both use really bright colors and are painters, his brother does mixed media pieces. I was immediately drawn to a sculpture that was a bunch of teapots suspended on a pipe covered in a papermache type substance and then painted. His work is very cool, but slightly darker than the rest of his family's paintings. It was very interesting to see the different ateliers. Dioss has started to take me around to meet other artists because he was just elected president of an artists' association in Thies and he wants to start a website to showcase all of their work. We've been talking about how we can make one together. Today some of my fears about its future sustainability were laid to rest when he told me that he wanted to do it step by step so he could run everything by himself. His parents also have the newest computer I've seen in Senegal and an internet connection so I'm very hopefully that this could be an awesome project. At the very least I'll get to go around to all these different artists and take pictures which will be really fun.

This afternoon I went to Keur Yaay as planned but no one was there and I waited for about half and hour and called a couple people and no one answered so I don't know what's up with that. I came home and cleaned my room in preparation for Tamar coming! Yay!

Tamar coming means I am on my way to Dakar tomorrow to meet up with a bunch of volunteers in my region to celebrate Thanksgiving. Up until today I've been able to live in complete denial that I wont be at home for the holidays this year. I am excited to see everyone and I will be getting a real Thanksgiving meal which will definitely be nice, but it will be sad not to be at home. Dakar will be fun and then Tabaski right after with Tamar. All good things.

Happy early Thanksgiving to everyone at home. Until Friday...

Lazy Sunday

I took the liberty to stay in my room until almost noon today and lay in bed reading the entire Vanity Fair that the McKeown's sent me while eating a Cliff bar. It was pretty great. My family was pretty mellow as well so my morning and afternoon passed without much activity.

Lunch brought a return of ceebu jenn! Thank god! Although it was actually a slightly different dish that instead of a fresh fish has dried fish bits and beans, I was still very happy that we were back to Senegal's national dish. I used to be a foodie. This will get even sadder later in this post...

I don't believe that I have mentioned my family has been without water for the past 48 hours. We are rationing water which means no bathing, only drinking and cooking and it sucks. Since Jackie left her sunglasses at the center, I had an excuse to go and take a really good REAL SHOWER! It was amazing. I conditioned my hair for the first time since coming to site and felt really clean. I definitely need to start taking more showers at the center. It is a delicious treat.

Since I was already in the neighborhood and I promised my tutor that I would stop by today, I had about a two hour tutoring session, which went really well. We discussed the differences between boys and girls' interactions in Senegal and the US. I brought it up since a couple of days ago when I was riding my bike I had seen one of my tutors' friends and been really rude to him. I was riding along and this man on a bike came up to me and started asking me all these questions. It is my policy to just ignore men or ask them to leave me alone and that's what I did since I didn't recognize him until I thought about it later that day. My tutor told me not to worry since he had already told his friend not to bother me and we got into a really good discussion about the differences between our two cultures. It was interesting to hear his perspective especially since he was spot on about American women. I will devout a later blog post to how Senegalese men constantly hit on me when I've had a boring day sometime in the future.

Sundays mean my family is going to have some rice or millet with cream and sugar combination. While none of these dishes taste bad, they do give me a stomach ache because they are 90% sugar and I'm a savory girl. Give me a salt lick over a sugar cube any day. Plus with the amount of tea I drink and everything else I want to cut down on the sugar as much as possible. Therefore, I've told my family that I want to cook for myself every Sunday since I have the time. Today, I ripped open one of the Indian dinners my grandma sent me yesterday. It was AMAZING. I will admit that in the US I was a food snob. Throughout college I would take an hour or two to create, eat, and clean up dinner rather than succumb to the ease of Lean Cuisines and the like, much to the dislike of my roommates. Now, I can eat anything... and like it. The Indian food was a completely new flavor profile for me and it was so satisfying.

When I cook it's quite a spectacle so I usually wait until everyone has moved inside so I can do it in peace. Little Ahmed took the liberty of alerting all the women today who came to see and critique my technique. The package was just some curry which I was eating with some bread. I thought there was a chance that my family would actually like it... I was incredibly wrong. My mom actually tried it and told me she liked it, but was obviously lying. I then asked Jeenaba and Deenba if they would like to try it. Deenba lied and told me she was full even though I know she hadn't eaten dinner yet and Jeenaba told me to my face that American food is terrible and she doesn't know why I would ever want to make it now that I've had Senegalese food. So much for cross cultural exchange.

Regardless, I'm very happy that I had some Indian food and that I had a relaxing day. This coming week will be a short one with Thanksgiving and Tabaski and Tamar coming! Yay!

The First Hundred Days

I've been in Senegal for one hundred days. Wow. It doesn't feel like I've been gone that long, but at the same time I feel like I've been away an eternity. And if anyone posts how many days I have left I'll kill you. Looking back I can't believe I'm still here. It is a testament to how truly stubborn and masochistic I am that I didn't get on the plane the countless number of times I wanted to quit during PST. Now that the once omnipresent self doubt has dissipated, I'm really happy I stayed. Since getting to site, I've really hit my stride and I've been able to create some semblance of a life for myself here. I'm sure that there will be many more times when I think I'm a complete crazy person for coming and times when I want to go home and times when I will need to lock myself in my room and gorge on all the goodies people have sent me while watching a complete season of The Office, but I think I can handle the roller-coaster as long as I don't find myself in the two month long purgatory of PST.

That said, day 100 did not disappoint.

The main topic of conversation last night was actually bodily functions, not the greater subject of personal happiness. All PCVs have devolved into kindergarteners and lost all sense of personal boundaries when it comes to anything health related. Discussing bowel movements and all myriads of gross sickness and rashes is common table discussion and much like talking about the weather back at home. Well, sometimes in Africa you just have to go and that happened to me this morning so I ran out of bed and began filling a tea-pot of water so I could go to the bathroom. While I'm doing this, little Ahmed runs out pantsless, but with a shirt and gives me a mischievous grin. I can tell he has to pee too and he's thinking about cutting me in line. He runs toward the bathroom and then stops near the animal pens where the ground is dirt instead of tile, puts in hands on his hips, arcs his back, and laughs uproariously as he pees into the dirt. Three year old boys are all the same.

After that fiasco, I'm sitting in my room and get a text message from another PCV who's at the Post Office and sees that there's a package with my name on it. Yes! I grabbed my bag and took everything out of it in the hope that I could open the package at the post office and then stuff everything in the bag. Much to my delight I had 3 packages (and only one was from my mom!). So I get the slip and the guys, who all know me by now, wave me inside to wait for the customs guy. I waited and waited and waited and waited. I waited for almost 2 hours and the other employees tried to make me leave so they could close since they didn't think the customs guy was coming back and I absolutely refused to wait until Monday for my three packages. Obviously, the other employees couldn't do customs because that isn't their job even though they weren't doing anything other than talking to me! Ah!!!

While we were waiting, I actually had a fascinating conversation with the two men who were in the office. Obviously is centered around everyone's favorite topic: marriage. So, early on in my relationship with the post office men I made the error of telling them I'm not married. The conversation started off with them telling me I wasn't going to get any work done here because as a single, young woman I'm worthless and no one will listen to me. Great. Always good to hear. They then tell me that it's fairly dishonorable that I'm unmarried and living in a foreign country not in the house of a close relative. Excellent, now I'm a slut. This conversation continues until the illustrious customs' official finally arrives and then veers into the "will you by my second wife" conversation.

The oldest man, who is around 50-55, told me that having multiple wives makes for a moral society and he thinks the US is corrupt because men can only have one wife. His reasoning is that women will become huge tramps if they can't find a husband and if men can have multiple wives then all women can have a husband who will safeguard their morals and their purity. This is a lovely sentiment, but he goes on to say that because the Senegalese are allowed to have multiple wives they don't have prostitution problems like the US. Fortunately, at this point, the customs' official needs my attention because I wanted to tell this man that Senegal has a flourishing sex tourism business all along the coast, but instead I signed for my packages.

Since the customs' official was the person who brought up me being a second wife (although I would make a much better first wives because first wives don't cook and I can't make ceebu jenn, but I'm very beautiful), he asked if I had any interest in becoming his second wife at which I balked. Then he proceeded to give me a completely irrational price for my packages, which I laughed at. I then told him that I might reconsider becoming his second wife if we could negotiate a better price. He diminished the price to zero and I walked away with three packages! Victory! Next time at the Post Office I'll just remind him of our deal that I want an air conditioned room with internet before I agree to marry him...

Package Shout Outs!
1. Mom, always a pleasure doing packages with you. I have stowed my Channukah presents under my bed. Half of dad's present may not have been so lucky and may already be in stomach. Junior Mints...delight.
2. Ma! Thank you so much for the package. I plan on making some Indian food tomorrow night in order to avoid the traditional Sunday dinner of millet+milk+sugar! All the food looks AMAZING and I stored the Christmas presents under my bed to be saved until Xmas.
3. McKeowns, last but definitely not least! Thank you so much for all the reading material. I can't tell you how popular I am because of your New Yorkers. I think a New Yorker has made it to every corner of Senegal and many PCVs have been spared hours of boredom because of your thoughtfulness. I also may have seen the pistachios, ripped the bag open, and inhaled a third of the bag before I looked at the contents of the rest of the package. I took out the pro kadima paddles much to amazement, joy and wonder of little Ahmed. He doesn't have any toys and amuses himself by constantly running around or watching tv so the addition of a ball and a paddle to the bubbles I showed him truly blew his mind. We may not be able to hit the ball back and forth, and Ahmed may not being able to bounce the ball up and down on his own paddle, but throwing the ball and waving around the paddle brought him hours of enjoyment today. Thank you.

The food, which added to my already wondrous stash, was much appreciate because I have suffered through 4 not good lunches in a row. All I'm asking for is the return of ceebu jeen. I never thought I would say it, but I like and miss ceebu jenn. So, I've been subsidizing my diet a lot with yummy treats! Luckily we had chicken tonight for dinner! The most satisfying dinner I've had in days made better by the fact that I had my own piece of chicken so my brother and I didn't have to inhale the piece we shared while pretending to let the other person have more.

To cap it all off Khady went to a wedding tonight in a satin dress with a red and gold zebra print. I love her.

What a day.

Mattchew

Apart from President Obama, Matt just may be the most famous American within my Senegalese community here in Thies. The absolute first question I get when someone meets me is if I'm married. While I tell taxi drivers and myriads of other strangers that I am because it's easier, I tell people that I want to form an actual relationship with that I have a boyfriend because it's true and because I want to show people who can be a young independent women who does not need the financial support of a man.

This morning I went to Keur Yaay for the English class and I'm really starting to get to know and really enjoying seeing the women who come every time. One in particular named Fatou is awesome and I love her. I walk in and after the usual pleasantries she inquires about "Mattchew." She's already told me that she plans to steal my American boyfriend and move to the US because nothing is more desirable than an American boyfriend... especially one who has a job! Fatou is hilarious. She's 27 and trying to complete her high school degree on her own through tutors and through classes at Keur Yaay. She's a spitfire, she's smart, and we already have a good joking report. He also has the most ridiculous weave I've ever seen. 2 points for that.

Emily has also started to come to English class because it's fun and the women are approximately our age and super nice. Now all the women are trying to get Emily to give them Matt's phone number. It's completely out of control and really funny. I'm planning on taking pictures in on Monday so they can put a name to a face. They could really care less about my family and my friends only "Mattchew" sorry to everyone else.

Finally we settle down into the English class and the teacher sees what I had taught on Tuesday when he didn't show because no one erased it. Not good. He then picks apart what I wrote trying to find fault and confusing everyone in the room including Emily and I. He's obviously threatened by us being there, which I can completely understand, but he's also not open to advice. He still does the thing where he claims there are multiple pronunciations of words such as Monday when there are not. He also tells Emily and I he's teaching British English whenever we try to correct grammar, but he's really just making an error. It's a precarious line we're trying to walk and I still haven't figured out what to do. What is for sure is that the girls love when Emily and I teach and they can ask questions and we can go over phrases and pronunciations that they are having difficulty with as well as learn whatever they want. I stayed after the class for 1/2 an hour to work with them and it was really fun. Instead of doing computer stuff on Monday afternoons we're going to do English revision since most of them are trying to finish high school and pass the exam on their own in June.

Tonight was spent out with friends. All of the PCVs who had additional Wolof training are back in Thies for the night and I met up with them, not at chicken dibi (sad face), for a debrief of their week. It was really nice to see people as it always is and it was really interesting to hear peoples' perspectives of our experience thus far who are outside my inner circle. I came away being really happy. No one tonight was really struggling with their site, but people didn't seem as content as I was. I think a lot of people were expecting to be in a little village in the middle of no where and they're not. That's not what I ever wanted. I, unlike a lot of people here, signed up to be a business volunteer and wanted to be in a city that had amenities. Not only am I happy about my placement, but that during PST while I was so miserable and didn't think I would make that I was able to vocalize what I wanted and that Peace Corps really listened to what I had to say. Regardless, it was a good day filled with what I felt was progress at Keur Yaay and some fun out on the town.

I can't wait until Thanksgiving!

A Character Study: Khady

I'm starting to create a routine here in Senegal and for that reason, while today was a good day it is nothing special to blog about. Therefore, I will treat you to an in-depth look at one of my family members: my oldest sister Khady.

I really like Khady. She's no nonsense, she's got an enviable jayfunday (big butt), and she's got great style. She definitely has more clothes than me and that's saying something unless your Lindsay and you've saved every article you've ever owned...

Khady is in her late twenties or early thirties and is little Ahmed's mother. Yes, there was some confusion with my mom aka his grandma breastfeeding him, but I've since discovered that he just likes to "breastfeed" as a security blanket and that there's no actual milk and that it's not that unusual. Anyway, Khady is not married to Ahmed's father although he is really nice and really attractive. I just met him for the first time this weekend and he actually played with Ahmed and spent quality time with him that didn't involve watching television, which is more than I can say I've seen any other member of the family do.

The story I've been able to piece together is that Khady and Ahmed's father dated, but it wasn't seen as a good match and she unfortunately got pregnant. For some reason, Ahmed's father probably didn't have enough money, they couldn't get married and Khady hastily married some much older man. She's this man's second wife and he lives in Dakar while Khady lives here.

My favorite Khady moments:
1. Seeing her every morning washing her underwear topless
2. Anytime she puts on make-up because it literally takes hours and she looks like a doll when she's done, but the attention she puts into it is really sweet, and she is very beautiful (definitely the prettiest sister)
3. When I was going to through a caramel away because it was oozing out of the plastic casing and she threw it in her mouth and sucked all the caramel out
4. That she unfailing greats me and asks me about my day with actual concern
5. That she can not contain herself when I come in from riding my bike and I still have my helmet on. She laughs every time. I can't blame her: a toubab in a helmet is pretty ridiculous.

Khady is pretty awesome and a really good time. Most nights all the girls congregate in her room, which is full of hugely over sized red lacquered furniture and leopard sheets. How can you not love that?

An important holiday called Tabaski is two days after Thanksgiving and I'm hoping to take a TON of family pictures then, but until then imagine Khady in all her kick ass glory.

Ps. Shout out to Ma, T, my mom, and especially Aunt Alice. I know it was a rough day, but I'm so happy everything went well and everything is looking good.