One of the greatest things about thepeace corps is that I get to live with and become a part of a family. No matter where I am on the roller coaster of emotions, I am alwaysthankful for this aspect of my service...even when it's, in fact, myfamily that is causing one of my moods. I have written here andthere about them, but I don't think this blog has really done justicein depicting what I love about my daily life. It's commonly thelittle oddities, misunderstandings or events that really make livingwith my family, and in senegal, such a wonderful experience. So hereis a list of the things that help to depict life here better...or atleast serve as amusing. Things I love about Senegal.... Samba, my 5 year old nephew, giggling and happily repeating everything I say in wolof to someone else. To hime it's still too funny that this goofey white girl is speaking wolof.My ability to make everyone laugh, and sometimes (emphasis on sometimes) gain street cred by dancing. My women's group calling my Chapan (vagina), however one of the recently decreed no one is allowed to call me that during my American mother’s impending visit. I'll admit this is an odd thing to love, but when I can rightfully call a sixty year old woman poop as much as I want I'll take it. People praying for you. Yes, this one sounds weird, but it's a touching gesture that i've come to appreciate, especially when they get creative. Read...lots of money, twins, a husband who keeps me happy at night (women's group)...I’ve even gotten some people praying for a man that does laundry!!The great sense of community. I'll miss this the most when I leave. I often feel as if i'm living in a african version of the Andy Griffith Show. A simplification I realized, but I bet in Mayberry you could also by things on credit at the local shop. Sending kids to do my errands. Yup I have easily adjusted to that one. The smile on my sister's face when she finally understands the math problems we've been working on...even better when her uncle tells everyone she's really good at math. Kids are unfortunately not praised enough here and I believe this is one of the biggest impacts i'm actually making. The birds I always hear right at sunrise and sunset. They have such a distinct call that I will already relate to senegal.While on the phone my 21 yr old brother came into my room with fake hair and a girl's phone number. Saying nothing, he handed it to me and walked out. Very confused I demanded why he thought I needed fake hair...was mine not pretty enough. After too many jokes and lots of confusion (on my part), I realized it was for my sister who I was going to see the next day. Tying in with 9...Life here is living in a constant comedy of errors. This is a sorce of frustration yes, but usually it's just hilarious. I'd like to say it's largely language and cultural based, but us PCVs have become so comfused living the bridge between 2 cultures, that we commonly misunderstand eachother, other toubabs, other americans...etc. Juice and snacks. For 10c I can buy frozen juice, or ice cream, for under a dollar big bags of peanuts, beignets, bookies, and other baggies of delicious local treats. The mix of ease, but unreliability makes getting snacks an instant mood booster. I could write a whole paragraph about this, but suffice it to say that nothing makes me happier than unexpectedly running across a crème or peanut lady. My 2 sisters...Sophie and Miriam. Growing up I'd always wanted an older sister, even if it was solely increase my wardrobe. Now I’m blessed with 2 sisters. While, yes sometimes they can be a source of frustration, I could not be more thankful for them.

And finally...it was a big annoyancein the begging but i've grown to enjoy the constant conversationabout my future husband. Now that I’m adept enough in wolof I caneasily navigate the conversations, and they usually end up beinghilarious. The best example is when my women's group recently toldme, once again, how I should marry a local man. This man has lots ofstrength, they tell me. Well knowing him, I decided, no he doesn't. He's fit yess, good looking, of course...but he's not huge. Lastyear I may not have felt comfortable to announce this, but feelinglike my usual ornery self, I declare he's not big enough. Theygiggle and start to argue. I explain... no no...I like my men huge(making a tall motion). After lots of arguing and laughter, becauseI'm knowingly only using adjectives like big and huge, never tall(what can I say I've sunken to their level), I explain i'm so smallI have to have a huge husband so we have normal children. YaayChiro, one of the older and quiter women, then declares, this istrue! I can't have pigmy children (her word not mine). Just likethat all the women agree...yess I'm making sense..I'm very smart..They will find my a very big, more likely huge husband.

So there you have it...a few of thereasons I love it here. I can think of more, but I don't want tomake you all jealous.

YAY....Environment,Protect the Reserve!!! That was the theme of our 4 day environmentcamp, that took place a few weeks ago. Despite a few bumps in theroad, like my counter part moving to Egypt, it all ended up goingvery well. I was very lucky to have 3 Senegalese colleagues thatsurpassed my wildest dreams in the ability to engage the students. Ialso had 5 PCVs that were great with the kids and even better withme, when I got a little stressed out. Don't worry, I didn't have anymajor freakouts, in fact I was told that it was impressive how calm Iwas “most” of the time.

Double digging in clay....not fun. So camp...it was a4 day event. The first 3 days were themed; plants, conservation andwaste management. For each day we had a mix of discussion basedlessons and corresponding activities. For plant day, we taught aboutplants' needs and their importance to us and the environment. Then wegot dirty and taught them how to plants beds and recycled containers. Through out the camp, the kids always loved the activities more thanthe lessons, especially the reserve hike, however lessons were anecessary evil. Through the lessons we were able to teach more andthen reinforce what the kids had just learned. Since their ed systemis very memorization based, the kids here always thrive when they aretaught through activities. I was so impressed by how quickly thekids learned new concepts, or remember facts we had stated. As wegot to the last few days of camp, you could see the kidsincorporating their new knowledge into other activities. While,camp was stressful, mainly for me since I was the point person forall concerns, it was such a rewarding experience to see how much thekids learned. There was one girl, in particular who was so quiet,especially in the beginning, but when she finally spoke up her ideaswere amazing. You saw this in a lot of the students. Whether theywere scared of us, nervous around the others, or just generallytimid, so many came out of their shells by the end and it just blewour minds. I've said this before and I'll say it again, I'm alwaysso impressed with the children here. If they are given just a littlebit of encouragement or responsibility, they really shine. Steve teaching how to plant moringa

Habitat gameOK, getting backon topic... camp. I could rave about the kids all day, but I thinkyou all get the point. Anyways, we had plant day, thenconservation/the reserve day...this was a favorite of the kidsbecause we hiked the reserve. Badji, my brother and Eco-guide, gave avery impressive presentation on the history, the terrain, flora andfauna. Then we explained the concept of a habitat, which wassurprisingly difficult. This was followed up with a fun game thatdemonstrates how habitats are linked to each other, and if one thinggoes missing they all suffer. The game was lots of fun, but it washard to tell if they understood the lesson. I'm definitely learning alot as I work here. I've always known teaching is hard, but didn'trealize just how difficult it can be if you don't really know theknowledge level of your group. This is something I need to keep inmind as a plan more activities. To end the night we did drawings ofreserve animals' habitats.

Explaining their animal's habitatsThe last full daywas trash day...YAY Trash!!! Yup that was their sediment, but itended up being the most successful in terms of what was learned. Westarted the morning of with a discussion on types of trash..iebiodegardable, recyclable etc... This is where Sara and I discoveredthey were not familiar with recycling. Reusing, yes, senegalese areway better than us at that, but recycling no. The kids were amazedto learn you could turn a bunch of water bottles into a plasticchair. After this fun discovery, and us volunteers really feelinglike we taught something valuable, we went over to the garbage dump. Yup...not excited at all, but they were sports about it and it was areally good teaching tool. In their groups we made them count allthe different types of trash. Back at the reserve, we figured out howlong it would take for the trash to be gone, ie completely decompose. Not glamorous stuff I know, but very important and exciting becausesome of the stats blow your mind. Kids making recycled beadsThe last day wasgetting everyone's stuff arranged and then the ending ceremony. Theceremony was a big source of stress, bc it is “important” to thesenegalese that they go a certain way. However, since I was incharge no one wanted to be tell me what I should do at the endingceremony. Oh but they had more than enough grippes and suggestionswhile we were in the middle of it. Despite my aggravation, it endedup being great, in most part because the kids did some awesome skitsthat showed how much they had learned. It was not only impressivebut made me proud to see how much they had learned.

The PCVsAll in all we hada smart group of kids, 3 great senegalese and 6 dedicated PCVs thatpulled of a pretty great camp. I'm excited to see what is to come.My host brother did a great job and is starting to realize how goodhe is at working with kids. The reserve was also very excited by thecamp and hopefully that excitement will carry into more environmentalactivities. I have to give a special shout out to all of those whodonated to my PCPP fund. Needless to say we wouldn't have been ableto put the camp on without you all. I wish all of you could haveactually seen their faces and met the kids, however we took lots ofpictures and hopefully a video to come. Really we couldn't havedone it without everyone back home.

The whole group

After passing a week with my fellowvolunteers and almost 50 Senegalese tweens I can happily say it was agreat camp and everyone had lots of fun. It was a week long campwith a different theme for each day, like our environment, ourhealth, or our money. During the day we did a mix of learning sessionand hands on activities, with lots of crafts sprinkled in. There werea few hiccups along the way, but like the pro are we roled with thepunches, changing up the schedule if we had too and adding newactivities when meals were running late. We were blessed with 3senegalese counselors that really kept the energy flowing, becauseafter our travels and the first day, even the perkiest of PVCswilted. Even though only one of them had previous camp experience,they all knew loads of camp songs and games to play. They were alsogreat at bridging the lanquage gap, super important when teachingbusiness, and we just indispensable. To make them even more amazing,the were all volunteers, which is quite rare to find. Since there was a lot that happened andit's impossible to recap it all, I will mention some of my favoriteparts.

the 7 girls I brought from my area. I was probably as scared of them as they were of me. Not surprisingly, my girls were awesome, I made 7 new friends and am excited to start a girl's club.The Q&A sessions, we had one with a nurse and another with a panel of working senegalese women (my mother was a proud participant). Both of these sessions went amazingly. It was so interesting to hear their questions and the womens' responses. It really gives you some more insight into their lives.Boy did we love collagesCrafts!!! we made all types and I forgot how fun kids craft were. I was in charge of the “My Future Collage” activity, which meant of course I needed to make an example. Making a collage was so much fun, that it caught on like wildfire amongst the PCVs. Not joking collage making was a good 2-3 night long wind down activity for us (the PCVs). Water balloon fight...this started as a toss, but we had way too many left so one mischievous PCV suggested we ambush the girls. Commence water balloon fight! It was so much fun...even when the girls over took us and got us sopping wet. La rouge...He was the male counselor who had helped the previous year. Besides his vast array of fun songs and games, he also delighted us with a nice speech about communism. He's the local communist leader of Tivauan, hence why he goes by la rouge. The speech was harmless and we figured if 30 mins of a communism speech, that is going over everyone's heads, is what we have to pay for his participation...it's worth it. Even though I was raised on anti-commie 80's movies, I still enjoyed La Rouge and listening to his ideas.

Those were some of the highlights.Definitely check out these pictures that my fellow PCV Andrew posted. We took loads more, but they give a good overview of the camp. As Imentioned before, it was a great camp. Not that I was expecting adisaster, but it went so much better than I expected. The girlslearned so much, and it was so gratifying to see them having so muchfun. It almost makes me want to work as a camp counselor when I getback...don't worry mom and dad I said almost.

Now it's on to my environmental camp. After the girls' camp I am feeling pretty good about all theactivities I have planned for the environmental camp. I also gotquite a few new ideas for additional activities. I just hope that mycounterparts will be as great counselors as La Rouge. It's nextweekend so I am in the middle bit of organizing. It's comingtogether, but i'll admit the slow senegalese fashion is starting tostress me out. However, that's how it goes here...slow, slow, thenit all comes together at once. Wish me bonnecourage and till next weekend.

He was so excited/interested in this crap.

It's kids like him that will really benefit from the program

This blog entry is not going to be somuch an entry about a funny story or my reflections on life insenegal, but a plea for donations. In my blog I've talked moreabout fun adventures, or silly stories, because at the end of the daythat is what seems interesting to me. Since I'm doing it everyday Ioften forget to talk about my work. Well today, I'll fill you guysin a bit on the program I'm starting this month, and will hopefullywork on the rest of my time here.

The Reserve expressed interest, lastyear, in starting a environmental educational program this schoolyear. I jumped at the chance to help with this program. The schoolsystem in Popenguine is relatively good for Senegal, but it lacks astrong lessons on secondary subjects, like health, environment, etc. I could work directly with the school to encourage teaching of moreenvironmental lessons, but really the teachers already have a lot ontheir plate. Therefore, it makes much more sense for the reserve tospear head this program and teach/run activities throughout theschool year. While the reserve doesn't have many resourcesmonetarily or materially, it does have quite a few of very welleducated and motivated individuals. Pretty much, we've got a greatteam here and I firmly believe we have all the basics to create aprogram.

Beach clean up...an example of activities RNP already does with studentsThis is where my grant, and plea fordonations, comes in. To start of the school year, we have planned anenvironmental camp for 24 local students. Planning this camp has beena great learning experience for me, but especially the reserveworkers. As I mentioned they are all very intelligent and motivated,but they have little experience with lesson planning, runningactivities, and especially organizing camps. However, they havedone amazing and it really gives me confidence in our ability to runa year long program of environmental activities. Then, incha'alla,they will have gained enough experience and confidence to continuethe program once I'm gone.

So please, if you have theability, donate to our environmental camp. At this link there is amore in depth explanation of my camp and where the grant money willbe going. Thank you all, whoever has continued to read myramblings, for your interest and support.

Snow on Mt Hood

Since getting back from vacation I'vebeen happily busy. I purposely started a few projects that wouldtake off with the new school year, so being busy was no surprise,however it has been going much better than I expected. I have twocamps coming up, one being a girl's camp that my region planned andthe second being the environmental camp I planned (please donate if you haven't already!!!) While the girl's camp is completely planned,mine still has a few things to address since it's not for another fewweeks. Needless to say I came back pretty worried about all the workI had, but have been amazingly efficient. This may sound silly. Imean of course I should be efficient, we all are when we need to getstuff done, well smarties efficient here doesn't mean just gettingoff my butt and doing. Here getting things done, unfortunately,depends on lots of other people, hence why so many of us feel sounproductive. When I came back my counterpart and camp co-director,had just left for school in Egypt, meaning no one to help run thecamp. Admittedly that and a few other things had me really freaked,however, I thankfully found a replacement in Emma and Babacar, whoare both new but excited (usually the best combo). So this week weset off to work and it has made me feel so much more confident in howeverything will turn out. I also managed to bike all over tarnationand meet with my scholarship winners. This shouldn't be hard, butwhen ½ give you a wrong number, ½ can't understand you on the phoneand all the houses in senegal look the same, it can be an adventure. Thankfully, after lots of wandering, asking random old people andgoing to a few wrong places, that task is also complete. So I'm setto take 7 girls with me to our girls' camp. I was originally reallynervous, but like most things here, now that it's here I'm lookingforward to it. I'm sure it won't be all fun, but predominately fun.Check for my blog in a weekish, where I'll tell about camp.

hanging with brutus, laura and some groomsmen at the Union My lovely welcoming committeeIn these past few weeks I'm discoveringI may finally have a hold on thing here. We all know the first yearis an adjustment, and really the second will be too. Most volunteerseven say their time is up just as they feel they've got the hang ofthis place. I like to think my recent success and happiness isbecause i've figured this place out and am finally becomingproductive. However, I'm pretty sure I just have a new appreciationfor Senegal. Going to and coming back from the US made me realize howquick this last year is going to go, and how quickly i'll have tostart thinking about my next steps in life. That's honestly reallystressful. I may even have had a few freakout in the states aboutthis future thing. Being back I am appreciating being here, beingable to enjoy the moment and enjoy the my nice slow life. Realizingit's all coming to an end has made me more forgiving about some of myshortcomings and some of Senegal's too. I'm prepared for this nextyear. For lack of better wording, I'm going to live the crap out ofit.

Commonly, in this country, I catch myself thinking “I never thought I would be doing this as a peace corps volunteer”. I came into my service having read as many blog, books and article as possible, so I was by no means naive. I knew gone are the “glory days”, where you live in a remote village and have little contact with the western world. That being said I am consistently surprised by how much of my service has been working in western constructs. This is partly due to my location and sector. I knew I would be living in the interesting middle ground where the western world and Senegal collide, yet I am still surprised by how infused the two world are here. PCs Hard at workI say all of this because I just spent the last week and a half living in Dakar and working at the office. The annual tourism convention, TICCA, for Senegal (and most of west Africa) took place this past weekend. As an Eco-T volunteer I was required to attend and manage the peace corps booth. We were also lucky enough to be included in a conference for American organizations interested in tourism in Africa, ATA. Another volunteer and I, were actually asked to give a presentation on community based tourism for the Young Professional group that came. This presentation was then repeated, IN FRENCH, at the convention. Before you get too impressed by me, I have to admit that Zach, the other volunteer, was a super star and did the whole presentation in french. He even did it without our powerpoint, since the projector broke just before we were supposed to present. What can I say it’s still Senegal. After working this past week at the office, attending the conference and then the convention, it really hit me how interesting my experience is here. No matter where you serve, or what you do, your service will have its own challenges, and be remarkable in its own way. Therefore I can only speak to my experience when I say I literally work with my hand in to different worlds. I go from hanging out with my women’s group speaking only wolof to a convention where I’m talking to western professionals in french. It’s such a contrast in work, yet it doesn’t seem so abnormal. When I was for given my site I was very excite, if you couldn’t tell, however I was also a little disappointed I would be somewhere that wasn’t as “sexy” as Kedougou, where I would have to bike to site, live without electricity and have a “real” pc experience. I’m not going to pretend I don’t sometimes wish that were the case, but I also am so lucky to be here and witness the merging of the western and Senegalese cultures. The western world is a constant presence in Popenguine, whether it be in the form of tourist or the many NGOs that my reserve/campement work with. I see on a constant basis how the western world is starting to influence the culture here. Even more interesting is the conversations locals have about these merging cultures. Everyone seems to realize that Africa is at the forefront of many global conversations. I realized a lot of this is due to my current surroundings, but it’s such an exciting time to be here, especially as a Eco-T volunteer. More and more organizations or focusing on Sustainable tourism, NGOs are restructuring the way they give aid, and the world as a whole seems to be making the move towards sustainable business practices. Of course these initiatives can be seen in the US too, but being here and working in the development realm makes this shift that much more apparent. Who knows what will come in the next 20 years but, I do know being here now, being apart of the conversation (even at the small level), has to be one of the most interesting parts of my service. I’ve already learned so much and met so many interesting people, I can only imagine how much more I’ll learn in the year I have left.

This past weekend I was lucky enough to not only see but partake in a senagalese wedding. As I mentioned before, my brother Assane was recently married. From what I understand the wedding (at least his part) took place mainly over the phone, since he was abroad with the military. His wife, maiam, has been staying with us, one and off, for the past month, however she was not officially moved into our house, since her bridal price was not settled. From what I understand the women of the family do these negotiations; really the groom has very little to do with this whole process. This past week, with sophie being home, the bridal price was finally settled and preperations were made to receive Maiam. Again, besides Assane preparing the room, these preparations are mainly done by the women. The whole process is really interesting, and I will not be able to do it justice in this blog. Like most things here, it is a story that will be better explained in person, however I’ll give a brief overview. Saturday, my sisters, cousins, aunts and I got ready, which as always is a process in itself. It really is no different than us getting ready for a wedding and I really enjoyed it. Even though their version of dressed up it much more elaborate than mine, it was still nice to get dressed up with a group of women. It was much like getting ready at the sorority house for Formal. Me, Tita, the bride (Maiam) and SophieOnce we were ready, we went to Maiam’s village, sat around a lot, ate lunch and sat around more. Finally, around 8, Maiam came escorted by my younger sister Tita and one of Assane’s friends. Interestingly, the groom hardly ever comes to the reception, instead he sends a friends to escort his bride, dance with her and everything. I’m not sure why this is, and unfortunately no one could really explain the reason to me. When I ask Assane why he wasn’t there he just said, he could have gone if he wanted, but preferred not to. You’ll notice through this whole process, the groom has a very little role. He is soely in charge of preparing the house for his bride, which can mean many things. Assane prepared his room, and is building a whole second level to our house, which obviously is not cheap at all.

After Maiam arrived, Sophie and I stuck around for an hour then went home, since we had to be there to receive her. Like many times in Senegal, I didn’t really know when this was going to happen or what to expect. Assuming, this wouldn’t be till the next day, I went to bed, just to be woken up at 4 am by car horns. I briefly contemplated sleeping through all of it, as I was exgauhsted, but thankfully thought better of it. I also assumed we would merely welcome her and then go back to bed. Oh was I wrong! This was a long process. She was covered in a large white sheet and escorted in by the older women in her family. There were many things they did, and as always lots of waiting around. The most interesting to me, was in the beginning my female relatives blocked assane’s door and weren’t going to let her enter. Then Assane, the big jokster, claimed he didn’t want her and she could wait outside all night. He also enjoyed in taking many photos of the whole process, like when they stuck cotton and wood in-between her toes and dumped couscous on her. I later asked why they did this and was told, by sophie and Maiam, that they didn’t really understand the traditions either. Looking back it dawned on me, that as the youth become more western, these traditions seem to be aged and bizarre. Which would help to explain why Assane loved taking pictures of the whole things and poking fun at Maiam. Assane and Maiam, they are a pretty cute coupleThe next day after very little sleep, there was a large lunch for everyone. Many relatives and villagers of Popenguine came. This day was much nicer, because it was at our house so I knew a lot more people, could wander around and was included even more in the bridal party. My sisters used my room to get ready and we commonly escaped to it when we were tired. Thankfully, Miarame (my younger sister) helped my clean it that morning. Mom and Dad, unfortunately things never change and I still don’t keep that clean of a room. I was happy my room could be a place of refuge and I loved helping Maiam get ready. In general the day was long, tiring but a lot of fun. I was very lucky the marriage was of a sister, so I could be a large part of it. My family did a great job making sure I was included in everything, which made the whole event that much better. They even gave my 6m of fabric, which is traditional for the sister-in-laws to receive. The whole event also made me that much more excited for the two American weddings I’ll be going to in August. It will be really interesting observe the similarities and difference. Also, as I mentioned above, I couldn’t possible do this whole event justice, so make sure to ask me about it when I’m back.

I realized a funny thing over these past few days. I finally feel as if I live here, in this country so far and different from my own. This revelation hit me yesterday as I watched a local soccer game with my sister, Ajda. I won’t be able to explain adequately what I mean. I just have that feeling, which I’ve experienced so many times in life, that I’m as familiar with my current home as my last. Admittedly, this feeling comes a little quicker to me than most, thanks to my semi-nomadic life in the states. However, I’m still surprised everything this feeling hits me. I no longer feel like a stranger in my village. In fact I always allot extra time for the walk to my computer class to account for all the people I talk with. My language isn’t as much an issue as it once was, in fact through a mixture of french and wolof, I can almost always get my point across. I also have friends to hangout with when I’m bored. While, I still miss America, my family and friends, it is amazing to realize I finally feel like this is home. I’m not going to pretend that I don’t still get homesick from time to time, yet it is a different type. It is more of a realization that I miss something but am not distraughtly sadden by this longing. My adjustment to this very different country, which strangely feels not so different now, is probably due in a great part to my family. I have talked about them many times before, but really I feel so lucky to have them. Originally, I was worried about living in such close quarters to my family. I’m sure I would have adjusted if I lived a little more separate, like most volunteers, however it really has proven to be a blessing. The normality of having a family, people who are I am totally comfortable with, has made my life much more enjoyable. My younger siblings are always cheer me up when I’m feeling down, my brothers are willing to help me with whatever I need and I’ve grown very attached to my older sister and mom. My sister, Sophie, is especially a source of comfort. I know I could go to here with any problems and frustrations. Having people who I can share my excitement with and frustrations, is probably what has been most importatnt. Right after the new year, I was feeling so removed from everyone I loved. I especially hated that when I had good news I wanted to share, I couldn’t just call someone in the states to share my joy. While I still hate this lack in availability, being able to share my excitement with family and friends is what makes Popenguine feel like home. I even worry about missing them when I’m back in august for vacation. These 9 months have been quick at times and dragged on at others, however I finally feel at home and can’t believe I have only a little more than a year left. Quick side note….I wrote the above post a few days ago and since then something happened that had me feel truly grateful for my village. I just leaving the lycee after teaching my weekly computer class, when I stopped to talk with a few teachers, who were getting ready to eat. Like most schools, the teachers are predominately male, that being said they are a wonderful group a men. I have never once had a problem with the normal proposals I get everyday. I’ve always been very thankful for how respectful they are to me. So I was bummed when a guy started hitting on me, but not fully surprised. To make matters worse he got quite vulgar, which is saying a lot since I deal with rude comments daily. I swiftly turned around and left the school, figuring it was best not to suffer his comments any longer. I wish I could say I was upset while walking home, but honestly I was not fully surprised. I had been working at the school for a few months now, with manly men, and it was bound to happen eventually. While this story shows the unfortunate lack of respect men (not all) have for women here , it does have a good ending. Today, upon returning to the school a teacher approached me to apologize for the man’s comments. I had honestly forgot all about the encounter, so his apology was that much more appreciated. This teacher wasn’t even involved, but had heard about the incident and wanted to ensure I knew that sort of conduct is not tolerated. His apology truly made me feel welcomed into this community. To make things better on my way home, I ran into another teacher who had just come from my house. He had walked there to find me and apologize for his friend. He felt truly bad that he had brought a person to the school, who would treat me with such disrespect. All of this may sound silly to an american, because an apology would be expected for such conduct. However, here these encounters are a common occurrence and are not a big deal. While it is unfortunate, it is just something girl volunteers learn to deal with. Also, Senegalese do not tend to give direct apologies; they tend to be more passive. So these teachers apologies were even more meaningful than the typical american apology. The whole incident really just reiterates how lucky I be in Popenguine, everyone is great and I makes me feel truly welcomed. As I’ve said before, I can imagine it will be hard to leave this place in a year.

My sisters Sophie and Tita. I may have mentioned it before, but April is apparently the month for integration. I am currently sporting Fuden, braids with mess (extensions) and am using coray. These three things combined make me super Senegalese, and now jokes about boyfriends/husbands have only increased. I didn’t really intend to be super Senegalese, at least not all at once, but it just kind of happened. It started with the fuden, then Sophie was back on vacation and had time to do my hair, Then I found a pretty coray burner, when I went to market for mess. Next thing you know I am a fuden toting, braid wearing, coray burner. It has obviously been of great amusement to my family, which is the main reason I did the hair. *** Word to the wise nothing about getting your hair braided is fun, it hurts, takes forever and then you can’t sleep. I’ve had it in for less than a week and am already trying to figure when I can take it out without offending sophie. It has also impeded my workout routine, it’s so heavy that running is really uncomfortable. I’ve taken to biking instead, which is a nice change of pace, but probably not as vigorous. But now I’m getting off topic and as always there are so many little things I want to share or explain that I can’t do them all justice. That, I’ve discovered, is the hardest part of blogging. I’m never completely satisfied with what I wrote because there just isn’t enough room to explain everything. I’ll try my best though to at least touch on the more amusing aspects of my past few weeks here. For starters I successfully navigated the Mbour market. This is a big deal because it is the closest market to me but horrible. The vendors are so used to seeing tourist that I get treated as one. This time it was not so bad. I even chitchatted with a few vendors and managed to sell the first coray burner I bought to another lady, who had prettier ones. A fun thing I’ve learn is if I ever want to do something here I just need to ask. Someone will usually help me or allow me to do what I want. I’ve seen this tactic used many times, usually with older volunteers, but am just now getting used to it. It can definitely be lots of fun and makes you realize how silly some of our rules and standards in the US can be. I’m not saying they all are but there are definitely some liberties I enjoy here that I wouldn’t be able to back home. As an example I went on a fun trip last weekend that would have been much more complicated/expensive in the US. (don’t worry I totally understand why we have these rules in the US. I just don't like how they complicate things for me. ) Anyways, we paid a pirogue (fishing boat) to take us out to an island in the delta and camped. We didn’t have to pay a camping few or any other charges. We just drove to the island, picked a good spot and unloaded. It was amazing. We hardly saw any other people, and could have even gone to other islands where there are no people at all. I really love the ease of camping here and want to take advantage of it. As an amusing side note, I did this whole trip after my hair was braided and as bald people know, you need to keep your scalp covered in the sun. This meant I constantly had a scarf wrapped around my head and bore an uncanny resemblance to a pirate. It suited the occasion well and the pictures, which I will post soon, should be very funny.

The study abroad students

Last week I had the pleasure of hosting 2 Americans studying abroad in Dakar. I’ll admit I was a little nervous that I wouldn’t have enough work to show them, so they’d think I did nothing, and that they would put my French to shame. As usual my fears were unfounded, all though they did speak much better French than me, and we had a wonderful week. I’m not going to claim I’m the busiest volunteer, but I tend to forget until I talk about my work, that I actually have quite a few projects underhand. Honestly, I’m a little worried that I’m taking on too many and won’t be able to manage them all but that is a long blog post for another day.

Fatou prepping my foot for fudenThe girls stayed for a little less than a week, which fulfilled their programs “village visit” requirement. I have to say Popenguine is not a true village for many reasons, but the idea is to get the students out of Dakar and see other parts of Senegal. Also by pairing them with a PCV they can hopefully spend the week learned from us and our experiences. Since I’m still pretty green I’m not sure how much they learned from me, except how one uses water instead of toilet paper in the douche, which was super fun to explain. Being around other PCVs I forget the teapot, water douche thing is so shocking. Anyway, these two girls were wonderful to have around and I’d have to say I learned a thing or two from them. Their level of French (both are French majors or minors) meant they could dig a little deeper when talking to my mom and I ended up learning a few things about her, the women’s group and reserve that I didn’t already know. It was also just great to have someone to go on adventures with. While I have gotten quite used and maybe even comfortable doing things by myself, having another person or two always makes me more apt to actually some of the things I’ve been meaning to. For example, having seen quite a bit of the village and what I do we decided to check out Saly. …..back knowledge…Saly is a very touristy town 20k south of me on the coast. I had heard stories about how it looks just like south beach Florida, is epitome of tourists who want to go to Africa but not really “see” Africa…. I had been wanting to see for a number of reasons, some work related but mainly to satisfy my curiosity. So the 3 of us spent a lovely day walking to Saly (well most of the way), lying on the beach, people watching (I have never seen so many old topless European women in my life) and finished it with a lovely dinner at my sister’s place, who lives between Saly and Popenquine. The next day, the group of us had Fuden done (henna) which was a whole other adventure. I hadn’t realized how long it would take, about 6 hours for all of us, and then we would have to have our feet and hand enclosed in plastic bags for even longer. However girls were troopers and now we all have Senegalese approved feet. Besides’ how long it takes and the awkwardness of walking around (which we really shouldn’t be doing) in plastic bag feet, I really enjoy having my feet fuden. It is pretty and gives me street cred (more important than you guys can realize.) I’m settled on keeping them in a constant state of fuden for my remaining time. I have many different designs to try out and colors. In other exciting news, April 4th is Independence Day. The students are on vacation for about two weeks, but are practicing for a parade of sorts. It sounds like there are a lot of festivities that day and I’m super excited to see it. I’m hoping to get my red dress back from the tailor before then, but is seems unlikely since he is soooooo slow. Either way I’m going to deck myself out in green yellow and red, watch the parade and eat loads of food.

It’s is an interesting thing when getting used to not having anything of your own, but being completely independent at the same time. I’ve gotten used to the fact that most of my stuff will get used if it is left in the open, sometimes even if it’s not, that I don’t really have my own place and am completely reliant on others to be feed. I’ve also gotten used to the fact that my times seems not to be my own. I can make my own decisions of course, but a lot of times I get dragged into one thing or another and my day ends up being completely different than I anticipated. This may sound horrible, but it is actually quite enjoyable (most of the time). For someone that always had a plan for her day, it took a little getting used to but, it is also a very freeing feeling. While I get dragged to lots of things, not always knowing why I’m there or when they will end, I also have complete freedom for my day. If I really wanted to spend all day sitting on top of Cap de Naz, I could. It also means I am lucky enough to have the freedom to do something, even if it comes up last minute. I can’t imagine when in my life i’ll ever have this freedom of time again. I’m sure after 2 years I’ll be happy to get back to a more structured life, mainly for eating reasons, but it’s an amazing thing to have this kind of freedom. For example of how my days never end up how I imagine, I’ll tell you about yesterday. I am now teaching excel to the local teachers every Tuesday and Thursday. It just started and is going quite well, as I have the perfect group of “student.” So yesterday, I had a fairly lazy morning with my only real plan being to teach excel at 12:30. I was pretty excited because the last few days I had been relatively busy and was looking forward to biking to sindia (my nearest town with ice cream bars). As 12 arrived I went to the school, but the electricity has still not come on for the day, so we wouldn’t be able to have the class. I hate to say I was kind of excited because that means I was even closer to ice cream, and still nervous about teaching these classes with my pitiful French. Upon arriving to the school and speaking with the teachers, I discovered a famous lutteur (wrestler), Tyson 2, was coming to talk to the students during the academic competition they were having that afternoon. I decided to stay because 1) I didn’t want to pass up the chance to meet a lutteur who my family talks about all the time and 2) I had yet to see a genie d’herbe (the academic competition) which happen every week and are also a big deal. Tyson 2 at a fightSo I proceeded to meet the famous lutteur and his entourage, I actually knew one of them because he is a lutteur from popenguine. I also may be going to see his fight this coming week if I can figure it out and get some other pcvs to come with. I also got to see the genie d’herbe, which was a lot of fun. I will probably be helping them with questions and we’ll have an American day. In all it was an unexpected I’m so happy the internet was out so I could participate. Now you are probably thinking, what a nice activity and it sounds like Kelsey can still bike to ice cream. Oh contraire! The secretary then asked me to meet her uncle who would like to take a computer class, since apparently that’s my new calling. Knowing I had the free time went and ended up staying all the way through lunch and I will be teaching computer classes Tuesday and Thursday night now. I’m excited to have another activity, and like most volunteers, I jump at the chance to meet a new person or agree to another engagement. It’s great because during these two years I am going to able to do a lot of different thing, most of them I’m sure I can’t even imagine.

As promised to my parents I am updating my blog. I realize I have been pretty bad about updating it, but at least that means life has picked up here and I’ve been busier than in the beginning. Now I will try, ever so briefly, to update you on the more fun aspects of the past month. As some of you may have heard PC Senegal host WAIST, the west African softball tournament, (I am still not sure if it is supposed to be spelled WAIST, WASTE or WAST). This delightful event happens every February and is a tournament between many PC team, from not only Senegal but other neighboring countries, and American expat groups living in Dakar. For some, ie the expat groups, it is a semi-serious tournament, but for us dirty weirdos that are driven to think spending 2 years pooping in a hole is a wise career choice, there is no semblance of seriousness in our part of the tournament. I can’t begin to adequately describe what it was like, so I’ll just give some highlight and you can let your imagination run wild…you probably wont be too far off the mark either. My lovely dakar region team So here is how it went…Each PC team has a theme and wore costumes fitting theses themes..(examples, Leiderhosen, Space, Jersey shore, cops and robbers) However, being a group of people who can’t just do what is expected these themes took many different directions. On of my favorite being the kid who dressed up as the hamburglar (cops and robbers), he was always perfectly in character and always sported that creep smile the hamburglar has. These themes not only added visual flair to the games but seeped their way into the games themselves. When I say we didn’t play seriously, it is probably better to say when two PC teams played each other, we didn’t really play softball at all. Our games were spent playing red rover and then leapfrog with runners, building human pyramids to bat, chasing after the hamburglar after he stole a base, and hardly ever having an actual mit in my hand. Most people played without mits and chose to catch the ball with their hands, hats, pillow cases or even better run away when the ball came towards them. Again it wasn’t really softball at all. A better description would be recess at the looney bin. None the less it was some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing Softball and will be counting down the day till this delightful tradition rolls around again. Pyramid batting The infamous Hamburglar (not the burger in his hand) After that little hiatus of fun, I am back in site working, however my ancien is leaving in about a week so we had a going away weekend in Popenguine for him, and then I going to his American goodbye party next week. In the mean time I’ve been trying to work hard at the reserve and at nights, especially when I am graced with having electricity, so this month is not a complete loss (work wise). And now I am woefully out of battery on my computer so I will leave my post with this….I will try my darndest to be better about updates, even little ones, but if I go absent for a bit again (lets hope not) just assume I’m busy and be happy that I’ve found some work to do and fun to have.

I've been without internet for about month so these are some entires i wrote and finally have a chance to post. 01/29/11I saw something truly horrific today. I was having a lazy Sunday with the family, watching the Maggel (pilgrimage) to Touba on TV and playing moral support Sophie, who was getting her hair done. This really meant I gave her fake hair every once in a while, and occasionally said, yup it looks good. It was generally pretty nice. I loved lazy Sundays in the US and it is good family time here, plus I’m convinced watching telemundo dubbed in French is going to help my language. Anyways, back to the horrific thing I saw. At the end of the hair process, which is always interesting to watch, my sister, Tita, lit a twisted napkin on fire and took the 2in flame to Sophie’s head. This is there way of making sure the hair stays. It looked horrible, especially when she had to do the front part and was basically burning the hair right around Sophie’s face. This whole fire thing was really unexpected and I obviously was horrified. Here I was thinking this looks nice. How nice of Titan to do Sophie’s hair, I think I’m going to have them do my hair with extensions sometime…that could be fun….then boom lets light hair on fire. My mom started cracking up because I was so shocked I even jumped. I mean I know women go thru a lot for their hair, but I had never seen the fire trick. Boy did that make me rethink getting my hair done. I also couldn’t help but think of “Good Hair” by Chris Rock, where was this part in his documentary? 2/8/10I’ve gotten into a nice little routine at site with my work, but also with the people I see. Recently, I have been going straight to the reserve and working with Babacar on the Library project. Normally, I have been waiting for breakfast at the house, but this usually doesn’t happen till 9:30 or 10:00, and Babacar wants me in earlier. I bought breakfast and ate it at the campement a few days ago, which was actually pretty nice. No waiting around to start my day. So I think this is what I’ll start to do for a while, however I am nervous to tell my mom. This may sound silly, but it is for two reasons, I already don’t eat lunch at the house, and I would want to pay less each month since I’m buying my own food. Eating with people is a big sign of solidarity and I don’t feeling as if I am only a tenant, also I’m nervous to discuss money. It really isn’t a big difference in money, but I find myself running out every month, so paying extra for little things hurt a little. Anyways, I show up work till about lunch, eat at the campement with the women and reserve workers, and then work for a few more hours. I know what you’re thinking…she sure is working a lot!!!! Who would have thought I’d have a sort of 9-5 job. We’ll see how long this goes on for. It all depends on the library project; I’m not quite sure how much work will need to be done day to day with it. I then come home, run a little, which my siblings (especially the 3 year old boy) are thoroughly amused by. Samba, the boy, likes to stretch with me, and then see me off at the gate, he also is really excited when he times it right and sees me coming back. He usually runs out to meet me and “faire esport” with me for the 10 yards back to the house. I think he is probably the highlight of my day…he’s always excited to see me, very sweet and gets bored easily, meaning he doesn’t bother me while I’m working. I’ve even gotten into a routine with him and the other people I see every day. With samba we stretch together and if he ever has food, I steal it and eat some. I have to thank my mom for this one, because growing up I remember her always taking a bite out of our PB&Js. He’s always amused and enjoys hurling some insults at me, which I yell right back. With Astou, the maid, I always ask to have something of hers, or she does that to me…it’s just a weird cultural thing. Also if there is ever maffe (a peanut sauce dish) for lunch she tells me, and I make sure I eat at the house. There are other little silly interactions, or preferences I claim everyday mainly because everyone enjoys it so much. It goes into the solidarity thing, Astou knows I like Maffee so I hold to that, even though sometimes I’d rather have Ceeb u Jen. Everyone knows I like vegetables, so I make a big deal about them, especially to my siblings in hopes that they will eat more. It’s simple and I guess could seem boring but I really enjoy having these routine interactions. It makes me feel more like I live here and am not just a guest. So for the next two years I will be coumba, the maffee loving vegetable eating sacckat (thief).

2/12/11I’ve officially been pegged as a sacckat (thief)! It started as a simple prank that Babacar played on me and now has become a running joke and a pretty amusing one at that. I’ll start from the beginning so you can fully appreciate how none of it is my fault. Babacar a few days ago took to stealing my breakfast and coffee. He’d wait till I left them unintended and then hide them somewhere. However, being an admitely absent minded person, which has only become worse here, I usually think I have just left my coffee or bread somewhere else. This obviously amusses him and everyone else in the bureau endlessly. After about a week of this, we ran into his friend, who is the chief of the Gendarmarie (police for villages), and he proceeds to tell him that I am a great sacckat and need to be locked up. He of course does this all in wolof so I could figure out he was relating the story and accusing me but couldn’t get much farther than that. Well, they then make loads of jokes about locking me up in jail, to which I protest (once I figure out that that is their plan) and try to explain in my broken wolof that Babacar is the true thief. Well obviously this story gets retold millions of times and everyone at the reserve enjoys calling me a sacckat. Things take a turn for the funnier when Babacar tell me he is going to tell my mother (American) about my bad deeds, and she will be so upset to hear about what I’ve become. Not wanting him to think he’s got the best of me, I explain to him and Lamine that stealing is not a new personality trait. I infact stole all the time in the states and my mom knew all about it, so it wouldn’t not come as a shock to her. I then proceeded to explain, in a very toned down way, the raiding my sorority did NOT do. They thought this was hilarious. I even made jokes about how I’d have to buy more bags to fit all my loot when I go home after these 2 years. To this they told me know fear, I could of course just steal those things too. So there we go, I am officially considered a thief and even managed to explain raiding to my Senegalese friends. That an example of cross-cultural exchange if I’ve ever heard of one. PS don’t worry I do talk about more intelligent things with them too. For example the conversation then switched into a discussion about what we thought should happen in Egypt and what is gonna happen with elections here. Which as you can imagine was really interesting.

I am officially integrated….or at least I like to think that based on today’s events. I was in the kitchen of the campement, drinking water, when Fatou, a reserve worker, walks by and boob slaps me. Yes…she did in fact boob slap me, well more of a boob lift but really it’s the same thing. This probably sounds weird, admittedly it is, getting groped usually is not what you would hope for as a sign of integration. However, the women do this to each other every once in a while, so it wasn’t just a funny “touch-the-toubab’s-boob thing.” I proceeded to jokingly tell her to leave me alone, to which the women wanted to know what happened. I then had to explain she touched my boob in wolof. Needless to say I never learned the word for boob, I don’t even know it in French. It is not really a priority word for me. After some gesturing and lots of laughter they figured it out. Also, once they discovered I didn’t know the word for boob, they took entirely too much pleasure in teaching me it along with the words vagina (which they have many of). Oh boy did they have a hoot with this. Senegalese women don’t really hold much back. In fact my first week at site they told me I had to protect my “girl parts” from the boys in town. This included gestures and all the things that would make you feel like you were back in 5th grade sex ed class. So this became a fun game for them. They found it particularly hilarious when my mom, a very distinguished lady, walked in and asked what was going on. After another up roar, with once women rolling on the ground in laughter, I told her what Fatou had done. They also insisted I told her the names I had just learned for the other region. To which she though was hilarious, kind look at me like “you poor girl” and then told me she would scold Fatou. Which really meant she walked in with me behind her, looking very mad, and called her a sey sey (joker), then laughed. I proceed to tell Fatou that “I you were soooo nice but now know your just Baxul (bad). Ankit (my ancienne) had warned me but I though he had to be wrong, because she was soooooo polite. “ This brought laughters from everyone, because nothing is funnier than a toubab cracking on you in wolof. To top things off a little later, Astou (the main culprit in the vagina lesson) yelled at me to “come here.” Normally it’s a good idea to do what older women tell you, but my mom told me not to listen, because she was just messing with me. So, I yell back “ I can’t I’m super busy, you come here”. She then proceeded to run after me and pretend to spank me with a stick, once she had caught up to me. Who’d a thought I would be getting spanked at the age of 23. SO there you have it. That is integration in Senegal..i mean if they feel comfortable enough to boob slap me it has to be right?

It’s been a good few days….which was much needed after my New Years funk. For starters, I had a wonderful conversation on Friday with my counterpart, Lamine, and a volunteer at the park, Babakar. It wasn’t expected, I just popped in to say hey and I ended up in a long, but great conversation. To give some back story to those who don’t know, or remember, there is an old “library” at the campement. I’m not going to bore you with the history, but it’s no longer used and the building just sits there. During my first month at site, Lamine mentioned wanting to reopen it as a resource center and cyber café. I was excited, but also knew ideas here sound way better then they tend to end up. Fast forward 2 months and we’re talking about it again. Not just ideas….well still lots of ideas…but with more concrete plans. If I’ve learned anything from the older volunteers it is don’t do a project if the community isn’t completely motivated and enthused about. Even with motivated partners a lot of things fail. However, chances are better if someone else comes to you with the idea and wants to do lots of the leg work. Anyways, I was really weary in the beginning, and still am….will we actually follow thru, will people use it, will it be sustainable, etc. Yet, it was almost as if the three of us were reading each other’s minds. We all had the same goals and ideas, and even more importantly understand the importance of doing the research, making a solid plan and not using NGO money bedsides’ the initial investments. To make things better Babakar arranged for us to go to Thies and see the cultural center there. He knew the woman the runs it, Abbey, so we were able to speak with her. She’s not only very nice, but was excited to help us. I’m also hoping I can help out with her center a few times a month, since it’s only an hour away. Afterwards, Babakar had me meet his sister, who lives near the center, so I’d have a place to stay when I had to come into town. It was more than I could have expected. They have a really patron house and she really wants me to come stay, she even said could show me all the great places to shop. I kinda just want to go and hangout. Babakar really made every effort to make sure I was understanding everything, getting to ask what I needed and felt comfortable about being able to work with Abbey on my own later. It was really more than I every expected, and I’m just so thankful he is around. Sometimes, and especially in my funk, it can feel like people just want you around to give out money or so they can know a toubab. This attitude was starting to make me feel as if no one really wanted to utilize me and my skills, which can be very depressing. Needless, to say it was great to have Babakar see my interest and immediately jump on the chance to get things rolling. Lamine is great, but Babacar is even more motivated, and on top of everything . With the two of them I really think this project may come together.I also found out that the reserve is really looking to integrate Ecotourism into what they are doing and is taking some of the first steps. This sounds like an obvious thing, but I really was expecting to have to push the idea, educated, and then preach, preach, preach…but here I am just kind of jumping on as they are starting. There are even more projects they want to implement, some big some small, but all great ones. I just feel so excited to be here and hopefully able to watch it all happen from the beginning. Even writing this, I just can’t get over how great it is that they have these ideas on their own. I’m not claiming they are unintelligent, not in the least, but a lot of times the Senegalese don’t even have the basis to give them ideas like these. It’s partly due to the lack in education and I also think the lack of creativity. Unfortunately, the old French school system seems to rob the children of and imagination or creativity. Then as grownups this can be seen in how they just replicate what their neighbor does. Anyways, we have a long ways to go, but the ideas are a start and a really important one. An older volunteer once said to me that one of the most important things she want her village to take away is the ability to question what they do now and come up with new ideas….This sounds simple, but in a very conformist society it is a lot. Just having an idea of what else is possible, or that if something is not working perfectly, you can find a way to change it, is a catylist to everything. So fingers crossed, let’s hope things continue and this is an actual project that I get to see happen. I am still thinking things are too good to be true, but here’s hoping I am horrible wrong. I really want to see these ideas take form; I know the resources are out there to make them happen. We just need motivated people and good planning (but mainly motivated people.)

My christmas familyChristmas has come and gone, and I can happily say I had the most Christmassy Christmas possible without family, snow, and 008 days of 007. Five wonderful stagemates came to town and rented the “MTV house” on the beach, which meant I could spend x-mas at site, see my family, but also do more American things. I met Garrison and Daisy in Mbour, the nearest city to me, so we could stock up on all the makings for a perfect holiday. They came on the heels of another PCV and friends staying, so the group of us made the wise decision to visit Liquors de Waring. This place is wonderful and anyone visiting me is definitely going to be brought here. The owner, who speaks fluent English and isn’t too harsh on the eyes, makes liquors out of local produce. They are to die for!! After a round of tasting and few bottles of booze for a festive holiday, we parted went on to the local Toubab market and ran around like kids. This place is great because you can get a lot of the weirder western things that you wouldn’t always think of till you need. Like brie…ok so not a necessities but oh so delicious. Garrison and I also took great pleasure in pursuing the toy section for the toys we’ve always wanted. I even found an oversized Barbie knock-off. It wasn’t quite a my size Barbie, but I decided that was the toy I would have wanted if I had remembered to write a letter to Santa. What can I say, postage is expensive.

Garrison and Daisy spent the night at my place as we waited anxiously for the others to arrive. It was really nice having actual friends meet my family, not just PCVs they already know. Having others meet my family, especially Sophie and my mom, gives me a sense of pride and thankfulness. I already knew I like my family a lot, but like always seeing them through another person’s eyes really solidified how grateful I feel for them. Sophie cooked us a wonderful meal, which they made us eat my room. This sounds weird, and makes me feel so, but is a sign of respect. Kind of like being given the most comfortable chair to sit on. Anyways, my family is great, especially Sophie and my mom.

However, I’m sure you’d rather hear about x-mas. We got into the house the morning of the 24th, and daisy started on a delicious Mexican meal right away. We had so much food that night we ate it as lunch for the next two day. Garrison and I decorated the tallest object in the room, a giraffe sculpture, with his silly singing lights and ornaments daisy had. Side note on the lights, they make this horrible high pitch noise that is supposed to be a song and an even more pathetic dying noise when you unplug them. After April, Clint and Amy arrived into town we broke open some bissap waring ate Mexican food, watched love actually and them missed midnight mass. This last part was funny because we got dressed, went to the church (I was even kind of excited) and arrived to find it completely closed. I though maybe it just looked dead because the power was out, but we came to discover midnight mass was actually at 10. How stupid.

Back at the house, Garrison, who I would say was my partner in super Christmassy things, demanded we put out food for Santa. Loving this idea, I wrote a letter and then we filled and hung up make shift stockings. The next morning I woke early to but my strata in the oven so we could eat before mass (we were determined to make it this time), only to discover Santa had in fact visited us. After a great breakfast and beautiful mass, we had cinnamon rolls and opened presents. It was as Christmassy as it would be with my family, specially my dad, but it was still great fun. We all managed to keep some silly traditions going, like cinnamon rolls. I was even lucky enough to skype my family. I also gave presents to my Senegalese family, i.e. lotion (for my mom and sister), jolly ranchers, and a puzzle for the kids. I haven’t seen the puzzle since, I explained it, but have a sneaking suspicion my family doesn’t quite know what to do with it. That is another bridge to cross.

PS read Garrison's Blog post...he gives a much more creative description of our christmas. http://garrisonharward.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-in-popenguine.html?spref=fb

I'm finally back home after 2 1/2 weeks in Thies. I may have already mentioned this, but I had the All volunteer conference and then IST (my 2nd round of technical training). The conference was 2 days of presentations from older volunteers in all of the west african countries on successful projects. It was formated really well, ie I could pick from many different sessions, and I learned a lot. I also met a lot of other volunteers, which was great for getting a better idea of what I want to do with my time here. Just like the involvement fair at OSU, I came away with way too many projects I want to tackle. I know i won't be able to do them all, but it feels so great to have a sliver of an idea. Here are a few of the projects that stuck out in my head, (these are also the more exciting ones)...Radio show, eco tourism classes, murals, nutrition training, girls camp, reforestation, and meranga meranga meranga. (this is a mirical tree that has super nutritious leaves, i plan on growing some and putting it in everything).

When all vol was over, just my stage was left at the center for IST. There is not much to say about it except we did more technical learning, like accounting for the illiterate, computer classess etc. It was great to be with my friends for 2 weeks, but the hightlight had to be the beans at everymeal. I probably ate more than my weight in beans, no joke i had a cup for breakfast, then one at pause cafe and more for lunch and dinner. It was wonderful, and solidified my conviction to cook dinners for myself so i can eat bean everyday. Now, i know you all are probably thinking, beans really?!?!?! that is all it takes to get kelsey excited, well it's true. They are healthy, delicious and best of all not rice!

Besides the bean situation, I was really happy to have an Eco-T day where we worked on the insiders Guides to Senegal, and made an action plan for the future of the Eco-T program. It has been apart of PC Senegal for about 5-6 years now (i think) but there has never been a clear direction. This has meant that there is also very little training, specific to this sector, and the volunteers are left to just make everything up. That's not always bad, I really enjoy the freedom I have, and the duel role i get to play as an Eco T/SED volunteer, however the lack of support/training means it is easy to flounder and fall back on basic SED work. We decided on some over arching goals, the most exciting of which is an Eco-T seminar for locals. This will take a lot of work and probably not be completed till the mid to end of my service, but I am really excited about the idea. After all i've learned about development work and being here for a bit, i really believe that education is the most important work we can do. So if we can put together a college esq seminar that teaches a combination of business and hospitality skills, then we will really be helping our communities. No matter how much marketing I help with the tourist won't continue to come, if the campements aren't professionally ready.

I’ve neglected my blog recently and have many things to share. However, I don’t have the energy to recount my past few weeks, as I’m sure no one would really read past the 5th or 6th paragraph, so I’ll try to recount just the big things. Here goes my best efforts and I’ll try to make sure it’s not too dull of a summary. Tabaski (Eid al-Adha) was on the 17th… this is arguably the largest holiday in Senegal and for most Muslims It is when most people make the pilgrimage to Mecca and celebrates the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son. In Senegal to celebrate it every able adult, usually men, buys a sheep, that will be slaughtered after the mid morning prayer. Then, like korite, the women cook, people eat A LOT through out the day, then at night everyone visits their family and friends to ask for forgiveness. Like holidays in every culture people talk about tabaski a good month or so before hand. It’s like Christmas except x-mas trees are replaced with sheep and movies with footage of Mecca. The sheep thing has to be the funnies because they are literally everywhere. There is something seriously wrong if a few sheep chilling in burlap sacks and tied to the roof of an alhum. People also love to talk about how many sheep they are going to have and how big they are…really it is sounding more like how we treat x-mas trees as I write this. Anyways, Tabaski came. Being a good family member I chipped in money for a sheep, Being a ever better volunteer, my ancien came for the festivities. Being a guy he was lucky enough be allowed into the Mosque for the big morning prayer. I watched my brother, Badji, slaughter and skin the sheep. This was surprisingly less disturbing than I thought it would be and don’t worry I have loads of photos up for you to see. After eating lots of sheep and fries we had a sheep salad. Having a salad is a little more western and a cause de my lovely sister Sophie. She cooks for an ex-pat school so westernizes her food a bit for Ankit and I. It’s great and I love her for it…The salad even had corn which I ate loads of. It’s just too bad sophie’s work keeps her out of the house soo much, be she is by far my favorite person in the family. (and not just because of the food, but that does help). At night the kids get all dressed up (this is a mix of traditional and western clothes) and go around asking for money…kinda like Halloween. I did not have enough wecit (small change) but was the lucky recipient of a package with candy corn. Love ya elise, you saved my butt. So I ran down to the corner store, bought tiny bags and gave all the kids candy corn. I figured it was fitting they receive some Halloween candy, too bad no one said trick or treat. After this Ankit and I got dressed in our Senegalese finest and set out to ask for forgivness. This was definitely a hoot. I thankfully could get most of what people were saying but also had Badji and Ankit to fill in the rest. We visited all the women in my women’s group and a few family members. It basically went like this at each houee. We showed up, asked for forgiveness, gave them ours. The women listed things they hope god gives us…the common theme was money, health, lots of wives, lots of work, money again….Then everyone complemented my complet and asked various question about it. I’m so glad Fatou had such great taste because my complet is a huge hit and makes me immediate friends. It’s like a super outfit!! Everything was going great until the sun went down and they brought out the pop. Oh goodness. We drank a full pop at every house…I have never felt more full in my life. I started to tell badji he was going to have to do tell them I’ll throw up if I drink anymore. His response was “well you’ll throw up then drink another” Thanks…bit help you are. Ankit and I finally got home, tired and extremely full. It was good day in all and it was great ot visit the women, because they were so excited and it made me that much more apart of their community.

Now on to Thanksgiving week in Daker..This will be warp speed bullet points b/c everyone knows what Thanksgiving is and Dakar is kinda like America so you won’t be missing cultural info. □ Left at 4am, arrived at 6am in Dakar, got on a packed mini bus and immediately regretted doing so with my huge hiking bag, didn’t think I would find the regional house in the pitch black and end up wandering Dakar but wound up there unscathed and very proud of my taveling skills□ Was Charlie brown for our first thanksgiving regional theme party..yes I am aware he was not at the 1st Turkey day but hey neither were the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria□ Played in a mini turkey bowl with some marines, embassy folk and PCs□ Baked a delicious carrot cake which some drunk person at some of, but not enough to ruin so it still made it to the embassy□ Tried my darndest to look nice (much harder than I thought it would be) for Thangiving dinner□ Talked with the embassador for quite a while…she even sat a my table. So did our country Director. I was really excited. ( side note she is from jersey and we bonded over people unjustly making fun of our states)□ Had a meeting at the pool for a carbon offset program we are trying to start, I hope it goes well for many reasons, but also for the fact that we had first meeting in our bathing suits. □ Had steak at the French cultural center□ Went to a bowling alley/poolhall/arcade…won some pool, lost some air hockey and blew up a few pirates□ Watched OSU dominate Michigan in my jersey, while drinking beer and eating pizza..only downside is that I was with mainly Michigan fans□ Got talked into stayin Sunday night□ Stayed with Mary at our embassy friends house. We enjoyed his air conditioning, watched 30 rock and ate chicken dumplings with jello□ Went bowling □ Watched Airheads and grownups (the first one is way better) and enjoyed a great night of sleep in a real bed with airconditioning. (Mary and I agreed that we owe mike a huge present for letting us crash in his extra room)Moral of the bullet points…Dakar is like Disneyland/America. I had a blast but am happy to be back in Popenguine (and to real life). Also, I will seriously have to consider getting an embassy job, by the way mike describes it, the have a pretty nice set up. Wow..i’m done. If you made it this far congrats and I will be better about my posts from now on. In’challah.

If i haven't mentioned it already I spend almost every morning (at site) with my women's group. The time I roll in always changes but none the less I always show up, greet everyone and then sit quietly and listen to then rapid fire wolof at eachother. This can be really tiring and awekward because I feel as if I should join in the discussion, but don't know what to say/wouldn't be able to get a word in anyways.

I decided I will know I am fluent when I can understand Astou...the loudest and quickest of them all. I also have a suspicion she is the funniest, so I would REALLY like to know what she is saying. Anyways, I do this everyday to listen to wolof and get to know the women. This is sorta a funny way to put it, because i really am not learning too much about them, but being around and talking, when i can get a word in, goes along way. In their own right, they are an impressive group of women and I really am hoping to gain their respect. So I go and I sit, listen and stare...it makes me feel a little creepy.

However, today I made a break through. I made them carrot cake. Sorry dad I know your feelings about carrot cake, but they were so amused when i mentioned we had such things in america, that I just had to make one. I spent last night translating a recipe into french for the women and this morning I successfully baked a carrot cake. It was great!! It gave me something to talk about with the women, I proved I could do things (women things at that) and taught them something. I will say it turned out so good (it tasted like autumn in my mouth). One of the older ladies even did the neex na dance. (Neex na means it's good)... They even talked of selling it at the restaurant.

My two freinds

I also went to the beach and was joined by some of my semi-usual friends. These two little girls that live near by, I think. I know i was asking them correctly where they lived, but the problem with little kids is they don't always like to respond to me, or don't seem to know how to answer my questions. Anyways, they tend to appear whenever I am there just before the sunset. They always play around me, demand for my books and then eventually make me help them disrobe so they can swim. This always make me slightly uncomfortable bc here I am helping them get naked on the beach (they have undies on) and then giving them permission to play in the water. I can only imagine what would happen if i did this in the states, but here the closest adult tend to be the "designated" parent. So after asking about thier mother the first few times, I quickly gave up and now help them disrobe and watch them as they run in and out of the ocean. I have to admit, I always look forward to seeing them.

This is going to be an entry entirely related to food...since that seems to be a common question/concern. Also anyone that knows me knows that I really like my food and in the states tended to spend a good amount of my day thinking about my upcoming meals.

That being said I think I am going to have to do something about my food situation here. I eat the same everyday Ceeb u jenn with some variation of startchy meal for dinner. This sounds really boring and miserable, especially to us americans who eat such an array of things, however the food is actually pretty good tasting. However, my beef lies with the time of day we eat and the lack of veggies at night. No matter how much rice I eat I am still hungry 20 mins later. Which is usually why i have various foods squirrel away in my room. I even made ramen a few nights without boiling water...which I now really enjoy and will probably continue to do.

Anyways, today I didn't eat till 3:30 after having breakfast at 7:30. (hence why I am probably all geared up about food right now). This is a little late even for my family but it doesn't help dinner doesn't happen till at least 8:30. I know it's an adjustment and I think I've done pretty well adjusting to things here, but my stomach just can't seem to get with the program.

I have made the grand decision that I will speak with my mother, once she returns from Mecca, and start making my own dinners. This way I get more protein and veggies in my belly. Also, I can eat the ripe old hour of 7PM!!!!! I also am going to heed my predecessor's advice and start eating lunch at the campement. The women usually eat much earlier, since they feed the reserve employees, and thier food is just as good. The only reason I haven't done this yet is that I pay the family a lump sum for being and eating here. I feel really uncomfortable changing what I give them but I also don't want to start paying for meals at the campement.

All this can't help but make me think of my freinds (PCVs) who are in actual remote places and food is scarce so they just do without. A lot of us take to the squirreling food away strategy, but honestly it makes you feel really guilty. However in a culture that is so open with sharing, it's impossible to have food last if it's not hidden.

So for those who asked...that's my food situation. Don't worry I AM getting enough food, and can always run to one of the local restaurant if i get really hungry. It just about me figuring out my schedule here and how I'm going to manage things.

So my last blog entry was admittedly a little bit of a downer and unfortunately I have been feeling kinda down for the most part of this past week. There has been good parts but in general I have been grouchy, frustrated and not a fun kelsey at all. And lets be honest if I can't speak the language well I need to at least be happy fun kelsey, because even I don't like grouchy kelsey. Here she slightly rivals grouchy first-thing-in-the-morning Mikayla, which is saying something because she is a teenager. Anyways, I discovered today that the remedy is to have a little fun....this sound simple and now that i've realized it I feel slightly stupid even verbalizing it. However, I have been so worried about mastering the languages, finding my place and what work I want to do that I have had very little fun.

It is hard to relate things to the US because I do have down time, and quite a bit of it, but studying wolof/french or trying to speak it with my family and women's group is a lot of work. I have been feeling like I am in a constant finals week. I need to prepare but just can't study or do enough to fully prepare. Well, after a getting reminded how pitiful my language skills are, and that the men here seem to always want to make me thier wife (this is not all but most the ones that I encounter when walking places.) I was feeling pretty beat up. So I went to the beach. I have not done this for about a week, except to work out occasionally.

That made a vast difference. I just lied there and sorta red my wolof book, and occasionally asked the senegalese women by me a question or two. Then tonight I went to a Belafont, a local restaurant owned by a lovely couple, to listen to some senegalese music. Doing this and speaking some simple french made me feel so much better. So moral of the story is I am going to have more fun. I might actually try to learn to play one of the instruments here. I am also going to get back into my painting. Maybe go for some bike rides.... who knows Popenguine is my Oyster.

****warning this is a long one since I had quite the eventful weekend****

It’s been a fun/weird past few days. I planned on going to Mbour for the night to hangout with a bumch of volunteers in my region, but of course this turned into me going to Dakar. Originally, I had planned on waiting another week to go, but when I found out everyone was going this weekend and there was going to be a BBQ, my hand was forced.

***I am going to give a disclaimer right now…everything I am going to say about our doings in Dakar sounds just like a weekend in America…this is true for the most part but as usual it has a Senegalese flair. I have lots of little stories from the weekend, that would probably give a better view of this, like dealing with taxi drivers, cooking makeshift American meals and many other sorta daily life occurrences. I don’t want to bore anyone though and lets be honest going to Dakar…to a PCV…is like going to Disneyland. If you want to do it, you can most likely find it there.***

Lauren and I went a head of the group hoping to beat traffic, this actually worked out quite well but I have a feeling that it was just a fluke. I was super excited that I managed the garage for us (Lauren only speaks serere which is not a widely spoken) and even got non-toubab prices. After some hassle with our taxi driver in Dakar; he didn’t know where the Atlantic club was, we made it. All of the third years were always a hour into happy hour and enjoying the pool so we wasted no time and jumped right on in. I even had a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Then we proceeded on our way to a local bar, where we played a fun game involving all the annoying street vendors that won’t leave us alone.

Saturday..is gameday and this time it was true. After scrounging around for food and trying to make hash browns and eggs, (honestly kinda disappointing since I didn’t have the right spices or cheese), we met with the 3rd years for softball. This was an absolute blast and total America land. I ate hotdogs and cheetohs (yes cheetohs!!!) and ran some bases. Then on to a BBQ at the 3rd years house. Us newbies really are lucky they let us hangout with them. This BBQ was so legit American it was scary. We had burgers, sausage, fruit salad, coleslaw and I even made a potato salad. With some help from Lauren and Maliek, who said I had to mix it with my hands or else it was not properly done, it was wonderful. I was told it would have made my momma proud.

Sunday we hung around, Claire made up silly games which is a secret talent of hers, and then went into downtown Dakar to explore. Ate some Chinese food in china town, yes they have on here too, and yes they only speak Chinese there. This is a funny side story, since they only spoke Chinese we fixed our ordering problem by calling a PCV who is Chinese and was nice enough to order all our food for us. I guess the 3rd years do this all the time. It was definitely a first for me, and I’m still sotra surprised they speak only Chinese. Then on to Halloween night…Mike used my sarong as a turban and read our tarot card. We also carved a melon…it was very halloweenie.

Obviously it was a great weekend, but that made it that much harder to go to site. My wolof and French seemed to have completely left me and getting back to Popenguine was dreadful. I totally understand now why they encouraged us to stay at site longer in the beginning. The next two days I literally felt like I was just getting beaten sideways at every turn. There were little miscommunications everywhere and I was in a funk of a mood. I was really having a dumpy time, as Diana can attest too, but I also new part of it was the funk I was in. My village and the people here really are great…right when I got back to the village some of the people started asking about where I’d been and said they missed me. I almost wanted to cry I was soo happy to be back home. However, the daily struggle with language and constantly feeling lost can get overwhelming. I basically let it get the best of me, feeling overwhelmed and left with entirely too much time to think.

However, I got some cheering up in the forms of Diana and Megan and then the electricity was cut so I hung out with my fam. We talked about music and I found out my sister really likes snoop doggy dog (that’s how she says it). This really made me laugh and voila I was no longer in a funk. I woke up today feeling great, had a productive day meeting with a teacher at the elementary school and the high school, worked out on the beach, talked to my ever-lovin’ mamma, learned a few new things in wolof and about to take a nap.

It still always amazes me, how things can change here on a dime. I am also starting to figure out that I feel so much happier, when I spend time with my Senegalese family and friends. I still need my alone time, but if I’m in a funk alone time with internet seems to just make it worse, because then I America stuff. (ie watch a movie, check facebook). Slowly but surely I’m getting a handle on things here.. I still feel lost a lot but that’s to be expected and everyday I do learn something new. Lets hope by the new year I’ve learned enough to have a good handle on the language.

Patas Monkey...I am pretty sure this is the offender I must have made one too many jokes about japp golo bi (trapping monkeys) in language class, because one tried to attack me today. I am not kidding I was walking with my sisters to the beach and one was by the restaurant we always cut through. At first I was super excited to see a monkey. I knew there were some in the reserve, but I was told they are hard to find, since they are "scared" of humans. Well that has bull crap!!!! My sister pointed out the golo and then it started to walk towards us. I yelled "At Cha" at it when it started to get too close and waved my nalgine at it. Maybe that was my mistake, because it immediately jumped on me. My sister (Miriam) and I proceeded to scream and flail. I guess that scared it, because it immediately left, but it also meant all the Senegalese at the restaurant came running. I swear I heard one of them yell something like about golo and toubab (ie oh no!!! A monkey is attacking the white person). This all happened very fast; well, once the golo actually jumped on me, so all Miriam and I could do was laugh and assure the onlookers that it did not bite me. I do not know how to day this in wolof or french so it came you it's good, golo did not eat (in wolof).

After this fun adventure we continued onto the beach, where we swam and I threw the football to them. This drew a huge group of kids and was pretty amusing until a fight broke out between some of them. It actually wasn't over the football. I had put it away by then. Instead, someone pushed someone and then their siblings got involved. It basically boiled down to a boy (around 10-12 years old) who wouldn't drop it and kept trying to go after one of the girls. Being the only adult now at the beach I felt like I should try to stop it, which is very hard in wolof and also because their way of childrearing is very different. It is more of let them figure it out, and if there is a decent offense you beat the bejeesus out of the offender. Needless to say I was not going to beat the boy, I just tried to get the other kids (mainly my sisters) out of the way so there wouldn't be an all out rumble. Thankfully, some guys working out came along and restrained him, and then another older guy found out what was going on and "kind of" beat him. Take note when i say beat, that's what it look like to us, but really it just a few hits while the kid is cowering away, however being Senegalese and, therefore, innately loud, it always sounds way worse. I will say I am not for beating my kids, whenever i have some, but there method does work pretty well. The kids figure things out for themselves much better and are generally pretty well behaved. They also respect all adults, which is probably because ANYONE has the right to beat a kid here, even if you don't know them.

To top things off, when we packed up and left the beach I ran into a man at the restaurant who insisted on speaking spanish to me. He didn't speak any french and I speak no spanish so I don't really know why he felt the need to try to talk to me for so long. However, I am so used to no knowing what people are saying that it was actually quite interesting to try and converse with him. We actually did pretty well at having a semi-conversation with him speaking spanish and me speaking french/english.

....well that is it...that way my weird afternoon. Now I need to figure out how to make post cards for Popenguine. I mentioned this in passing to Badji and now he really wants to do it. It is a great idea; we just have the problem of finding a place to get them made. He seems to think since I am going to Dakar this weekend I can just do it then, but knowing Senegal it will not be that easy. Either way I am pretty excited to have a mini project and a creative one at that.

(there new pictures on my Popenquine page and Picasa)

I am now going on my 2nd full day here in Popenguine and I have to say I love it. Install was a bit hectic and I was exhausted/nervous, but my new sisters helped me arrange my room and I went to bed all unpacked. This help was them basically folding the clothes I threw on my bed and putting all the stuff I took out of my bags on my selves in no particular order. Still I really enjoyed the company and they are 3 very sweet girls. I already have colorings taped to my wall that they gave me. There is also a little boy, around 3 or 4 running around. He is adorable, but needs to be watched….he already opened some of my food and just started eating it. In general though, my family is great. I may have described them a little bit, and will more once I get to know them better. For now I will just say they are very nice and patient with my poor Wolof and only slightly better French. My mom even explained to a friend today that my ancien speak great Wolof but he was like me in the beginning, so she knows I will learn. This may seem like common sense but it is really major here that she knows and explained that to someone else. The Senegalese are great, but don’t seem to understand how hard it is to learn another language. It this regard my site is great for this. I am not sure if it because there a quite a few ex-pats, and very few learn local languages, or just because they are used to volunteers. Most people I have come across have been very patient, friendly and helpful. Beach and the cliff of the Reserve

I’ll give a quick play-by-play of my last 2 day.Wed 8 am-woke up and ate breakfast with my mom9 am- walked to town to check my postal box and meet people. This sounds like no big deal but I literally greeted everyone I passed, asked their name, wrote it down, and talked a bit to them. This was mainly done in Wolof with some French to help, when I was stuck. It was tiring but great, and I am hoping it will do wonders for integrating, especially the writing of everyone’s names. They are really big on knowing each other’s names. You can’t know someone with out knowing AND remembering their names; this it the hard part for us toubabs. 10ish- Finally got to post office, explained (not in Wolof this time) who I am and that I will be taking the box over….but no packages to pick up.

---more walking around town, found a hardware shop of sorts to buy shelves and paint for my room. I also found a second hand shop that has some pretty sheets and pillow cases. I wanted to buy them but unfortunately they were out of the rougher Senegalese fabric. Once I paint my room I may go back and buy them for curtains….who knows. 11:30 Finally return home, but not before I met a great lady who sells dresses, pagnes, and jewelry around town. There are quite a few of these women, because they can make some good money off of the tourists. I’ve been wanting a dress for night time, since I sleep in mainly just my skimmies and have this fear of needing to run out of the house quick. Anyways, I originally greeted her like I did everyone else, but go to talking and I decided to look at her merchandise….needless to say I bought some things. However, she was so excited I spoke Wolof and would be living here that she gave me a bracelet and earrings for free. She said I was her new American friend would give me a great price; I also bought a dress, necklace and pagne all for 10,000 CFA….even in Senegal this is a great price. I am obviously happy with my new African accessories, but I was more excited about conversing with her. 12 pm- quick swim for some exercise

2 pm- ceebu jeen for lunch…my family cooks pretty well and there is a decent amount of fish, so hopefully I can get some of my muscle mass back. Quick nap 4 pm-went to Campement to meet the women….this was a bit much for me. I was tired from my already long day in hot African sun and my nap just made things worse. There were about 5 women there and they are all very lively, which is great but not if you are tired and they all speak in Wolof. They were very nice though and made sure I learned the phrases for I love you, do you have a husband and other Senegalese pick up lines. I also learned the appropriate responses. I really think marriage proposals may be my biggest problem here. After taking pictures and investigating the small nursery I made moves to leave….not before I was summoned to the kitchen and give a piece of delightful raisin bread…yes I think I will like these women. 6pm…ran into Badji (my brother, eco-guide and counterpart) He was showing 2 Swedish tourist around the park and they were about to go to Samone (a village down the beach). They spoke a little French but really good English so Badji asked me to come along for help. I hopefully won’t be doing this too much, since it is not really my job and not a sustainable business practice, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. They were really cool people and it was really interesting to discuss politics, government, development work etc with some sweeds…you can definitely tell they are from a stereotypically neutral country, which I think made the discussions so interesting. 10pm—finally home, skyped a little, then bed

Today8 am-woke up and ate. Reserve de Popenguine Office, it is in the Campement

9am-when to campement. Spoke with Lamine, my other counterpart, a little bit about what I will be doing. He is a great easy going guy. Badji is a little more abrasive and push, (but he does get things done) and Lamine is very quick to say I need to take time to learn and adjust. Have the two is a great balance and I think I will really enjoy having Lamine around. I just get a great impression of him and he seems like he will be very helpful/easy to work with. 3 of the 2 person huts

Spoke with the women, remembered a few of their names and responses to pick up lines thanks to my trusty notebook. It was much easier to deal with them this morning bc I was all there. They are still great and lively…I am really excited to improve my Wolof and get to know them better. There is just so much spunk in the group, it is great. One of the other conservator took me aside to work on Wolof, which made me nervous at first since he was the one saying all the pick up lines to me yesterday (for practice only though). However, he is really patient and I think he will be good to ask questions about the Wolof. He also demanded I learn Jola. I said no but ended up relenting and learning a few quick greetings. 11:30 home for lunch, met an uncle and aunt in law….they said I can visit them whenever I am in Dakar, which I may take them up on. 2:30 Lunch---this is a little late but still pretty normal.3:00 study Wolof, which turned into a 2 hour nap. I was initially unhappy when I woke up but I just get so tired here. 5pm- went to post, people, and discover I have 2 packages waiting for me but it is closed so that will be a fun activity tomorrow. Pascal's campement and Bar

Quick beer at Pascal’s, a really lovely French lady who agreed to help me with my French if I help her with Wolof. We are basically going to be study buddies. Spoke in French and Wolof to her, the bartender and a few of the workers. 7pm-returned home…dinner will be ready in an hour so I went to the beach for a quick work out and swim, which was absolutely delightful. I even did a little yoga. 8 pm …dinner, Massa (I think) milk sugar and millet couscous…really good but loads of sugar so probably not healthy. All in all I love it here so far, can’t wait to settle in and meet more people. I even have some work Badji wants me to start doing with the website, so that will be an easy individual project during these 8 week.

It has been a great weekend....for any of those that hasn't been able to talk to me or heard through the grape vine...I officially became a PCV (peace corps volunteer) on friday. We went to the embasador's house in dakar and swore in. Everyone wore thier complets and boubous; it felt very much like prom. One of the senegalese tv channels even filmed it and my 1st family saw us on tv. They were very excited about this, and it was so great they could see me because they are partly responsible i got there.

After swearing, a few hors d'ouvers (ie I at about 2-3 of each one) and some networking we went to the PC office to finish bank paperwork. This doesn't sound exciting but it mean i finally got some real money...woo hoo I am rich!!!! Then we had time to go to the american club and have some PCV fun. The american club is kinda of a country club of sorts for ex-pats. Most people have to pay but since we are poor, dirty PCVs we get in for free. It was a few fun hours for beers, ice cream, swimming, volleyball and cheese fries. Yup cheese fries....I just might make it here.

That night, since it was david's birthday, we went to a boit de nuit (night club). I was initially not too excited because I am not much of a dancer/night clubber. Plus we heard the Senegalese really like to dance while watchin themselves in mirrors that line the wall. Needless, to say I was not expecting much, but it was our last night together as a group and david's b-day so i went.....Good thing too because it was a BLAST. I walked in and it looked like a dark vegas club. There were strobe lights, disco balls and fog. Also, we got there early (midnight) so they played American music in ther begginning. Most of it was old rap (think high school and early college) and then a few random things like "the twist" and "Jail House Rock". We basically danced like silly high schoolers all night, sweated entierly too much and went to bed to late. The last part was very Senegalese since they love to stay up till god awful hours. This sorta things is definitely not going to be a common occurance but it was a blast. I even me a senegalese man how had lived in ohio and spoke wolof to some other senegalese...not too shabby.

The next two days I spent seeing everyone off. Everyone left the past few days to get installed into there permanent sites. Jen, my neighbor and an awesome girl from bend, OR, are leaving tomorrow morning which make us the very last to leave. I also have had some luck with my computer so I was able to skype Moreland, so great, conference skype elise, laura and denise, and then to top it off (read in an english accent) I had a quite lovely conversation with my good friend Diana Kichler. Also a suprise skype from the gralds....all of these were great and all but the conference was just good timing, so a nice suprise. As if that was already making me one happy girl, the small group of us left at the center made burritos for dinner and then popcorn. (soooo good) Also, I successfully haggeled in french and all by myself the price for a mattress ( a quite fancy one) and a oscelating fan. They were kind of expensive but I am lucky enough to have lots of stuff left over from my ancien, so I was able to splurge with my install money. The funny thing with buying a mattress here is I wanted a Toubab one, since the foam just soak up sweat and smell. This means i need to pay a lot more money, ie 80,000 CFA, this was basically all of my move in money. When I got serious about buying it the vender put it on the ground and started to jump on it....i guess that is how they test them out here. Admitedly it is very bouncy, but that means very little to my sleeping comfort, so I proceded to lie on it. This apparently is not how they do it bc they just laugh at me, but I am now the proud owner a lovely red rose print mattress.

All in all it has been a great weekend, I have some great friends here, and super cool PCV neighbors....and tomorrow I will be installing in Popenguine. I know it will be rough, not all roses, (like my bed) but I am really excited to get to know my family, the community, explore and be an adult again. With luck my computer will continue to work everyonce in a while and I fill you in on Popenguine as I discover it. Also I am currently trying to upload my pictures. They are on Facebook, but I also am putting them on Picasa, so I will leave a link on here for everyone to look at.

I'm going to start this post by saying I will probably be too busy and without easy access to a computer for the next week, so don't get used to posts to be so close together. That bein said, I have had a really good day today and since I can't just call everyone and tell them I had to race to the cyber and just share my general good mood. Admitedly nothing great or that exciting has happpened today, instead it has just be a day of little delights (if you can call them that). Also the other volunteers and I expected today to be intolurably boring since we had not language lessons, so maybe my good mood is a product of low-expectations. Who cares, now to wy it has been a good day.

1. Talked to my parents last night(ie past midnight), and besides being a generally good call, I found out my beloved Buckeyes should be number one in the polls....definitely a good start to anyday.

2. It is a beautiful sunny day. Probably around mid 80s and breezy...really it is georgous.

3. I went with my first mom to see her mom, who is very old and ill. This doesn't sound fun, and I fun is not the correct word, but it really touched me to meet her mom. You could tell how strong family is here and how much they really care for their elders. The cute little old lady brightened up when we walked in and became even more lively when I speak some wolof. I mainly sat there and listened to my mom and grandma converse, since my wolof is still very bad. However, I was super excited I could understand lore of thier conversation than I expected and could converse some on the walk home with my mom....she speaks very little french. The whole situation was very touching, made me super happy, but immensely homesick at the same time. It probably isn't to suprising giving my situation but emotions seem to be all over the board here, for everyone.

4. I got laundry done..meaning I did it, but it was in a quieter house without a peanut gallery. This made the experience actually pretty enjoyable..I know it soulds funny but sometimes it is to do laundry here. When it is hot, but not unbareable, it is a good activity. Kinda like washing your car during a nice summer day.

5. Maffe...this if i haven't already described it is a yummy peanut sauce they put over their normal meat, veggies and rice. It is oh so good. It is one of the few meals where i don't mind eating mainly rice.

6.tonight Fatou is braiding my hair. Who knows how it will turn out. I imagine I will look like monica off that episode of Friends, but I don't care. It will be cool and easier to manage. One my fellow stagiers claims she is just going to keep her hair braided her whole time here because it is so convienient.

SO that is it...that is all it takes for me to have a perfectly great day in Senegal.

Yesterday was the first day of school here in Senegal. Being a good volunteer and older sister I decided to walk my siblings to school. They thought this was really funny so I explained it is a tradition (of sorts) in the US. I was feeling really good about myself because I was doing something kinda special for the kids and also keeping up a mini American tradition. My excitement was slightly dashed when I got ready with them and realize Fatou was coming too. It is a normal custom here too...waah waah.. Looking back it was pretty silly for me to think that they didn't do the samething. My siblings were just amused by thier silly toubab walking with them. Everday I discover a new thing I misunderstood either because of language or culture....it's kinda like christmas, minus my mom's cinnamon rolls.

Despite this mini let down, I am really glad I thought to go even if my reasons were totally off base. I took pictures and will try to explain but just know there is absolutely no way I can do justice to how funny the kids here dressed for thier first day. So there is the normal complets and a few boubous, which makes sense since that is thier fancy clothing. But now that things are getting more westernized many of the kids, mainly boys had on western outfits. It was these that were so great; they were all over the board. My brothers were "normal" in thier polos and jeans. The jeans are sengalise knock-offs, which i know because they always have a few random and often mispelled logos placed haphazardly on them. Babakar's said Dolce and Gabbana on them, he also had an awsome Obama belt to hold him up bc he is just so darn skinny. Abdu had jean shorts with D&G on the front and Heiniken on the back pocket.

As I said though these were the normal standard, but then there were some fun boys that had fun 70s outfits, obviously bought at the second hand shops. The best is they are perfectly put together, matching, clean very sharply dressed just 40 years too late. My personal favorite, and I am not sure if he knew he was so awesome, was the boy who had a silver striped suit, with a black shirt and knockoff converse sneakers. He looked like a mini will smith. There were also girls in prom dresses, leather skirts and matching vests, or the winning I am Sexy t-shirt.

Thier style here gives me endless amusement because it is so crazy. They never all dress in the same fashion except for when going to the mosque. Otherwise almost anything seems to go. It is like being at a TG everyday, but no one is really sure of the theme. Nightclub dresses, cowboy vests and silver stripped suits are all welcome. If I can be sure of one thing in Senegal it is that i will never be able to guess what people will wear. I will say they are probably on to something here. It can be beautiful just walking into a busy market because you see such an array of colors and patterns. All in all I brightens my day, figuratively and a lot of times literally; they really like their glitter here too.

We have, thankfully, hit our final stretch in Tivaouane and PST. Everyone is just getting very run down and after this past week, with all the shuffleing back and forth between locations, I am all out of energy. I am in my language site till tuesday and then go back to Thies for swearing-in and then install, ie they move me to my permanent site. That is what I have ahead, now i guess I will give a quick recap of the past week or so. Time is a funny thing here in that i never really remember when or how long ago I have done things. Therefore, if I repeat myself just smile to yourself because that was a lovely habit of mine in the states too.

First off Partner workshop... it went pretty well. I had already met both of mine but I am pretty excited to work with Lamine, a conserateur because he seems pretty motivate. I also unfortunately learned how dismal my french really is, switching to wolof just gave me false confidience. I mean in comparison to wolof I am a scholar in french but I didn't realise how many simple things i still din't know till i had to use it at a higher lever for a few days. It was a good awakening because not I am just studying french in my freetime and wolof just in my classes. Mom, those notecards are being put to good use and hopefully when you come visit my french will be amazing from all my studying.

Now to more fun things, beach weekend....needless to say it was fun. I was, understandably, a little stressed since I organized it and it was at my final site. There are a lot of things that I can imagine going wrong when 61, mainly 20 somes, are allowed to have a little bit of freedom. I guess this just goes to show how great my stage really is, we all had lots of fun with out any big problems, injuries or illnesses. I do have the "problem" of everyone fully understanding how pretty my site is, so i had a little bit of razzing i had to deal with. I am just going to take my ancien's advice and fester about it on the beach. Speaking of I had a delightful swim right around sun up and decided that would take the place of running in my future workout plan. Also if anyone had any suggestions about natural stuff I can put in my hair to protect against the constant salt water it would be greatly appriciated. I want to keep my longer hair. Usually it is easier to put up but washing it is a pain so i am abuot two steps away frop chopping it off or getting dreads. Both of which will solve that problem but admitedly look very bad on me....so again any advice would be great.

well that is all for now, as usual more has happend but it is so hard to remember it all, and I really hate this french keyboard.

Also Shout out to my parents, who are awesome and sent me a lovely package, along with doing lots of other annoying errands for me. They really are the best parents ever and I feel so lucky they are back home to help me with things stateside. Love you guys.

I just wrote a whole big long post about my spaghetti making experience,but true to my tech life here in senegal then internet went out and none of it was saved. I am now too frustrated and tired to repeat myself, but it was a great expereince. My family loved my food, and my sisters had fun cooking with me. It was also great because they learned I could indeed cook, so no more jokes about that, and they really appriciated that I spent my own money to buy everything. It of course had more sugar than I would normally use and Jumbo spice cubes (boullion cubes). I will definitely cook with my new family.

Update on this week. I am communting to Thies each morning for our counterpart workshop. This is basically so we can get to know them, and plan our first 2 months at site. Since this is the time we can't really work and need to just meet people.

Then on saturaday, all 61 of us are renting a beach house in Popenguine. It will hopefully be a blast. Also we are all kind of getting frustrated and cabin fever so a day at the beach will be great.

Today, I finally decided to cook a meal for my family. I had been saying from the beginning that I would but nevver had the time or motivation. Well yesterday my family told me i was going to cook ceebu jen for lunch, ie they asked me to but in senegal that means just giving a command. I didn't really want to do this because a)i would have to start at 10 whe i had class in order for it to be ready by 2 b)it is really easy to make and c)if i cook it is going to be american food. In order to avoid this comand/question if said I would cook dinner. This is also good because now that Ramadan is over our dinners are usually pretty sparce with lots of grain. Also we usually eat really late so I am super unmotivated to eat the dinners. Therefore, by cooking dinner I can ensure I get something a little more substantial. If you can't tell I am a little over the food here, it is good tasting but I really miss making my own meals and eating when I want. I didn't realize how much that was apart of my life till i came here and have to wait on others to eat. Hopefully, i can change this a bit once I am in Popenguine. For now though i just need to eat snacks, that i have hidden away in my room, and cook fun american meals.

Which brings me to the cooking of this meal. I decided to make spaghetti, which yes i know is italian but it is easy and led to a very prductive discussion about how most americans are originally immigrants. It was a interesting discussion which ended with my jokster of a brother saying "so americans don't actually know how to cook anything"...yup that was my point. Gotta love younger siblings, they are the same everywhere.

So spaghetti, not to hard right? This is kinda true, and keep in mind i have yet to make the sauce, but so far it has been rough. There is not ground meat here to make meatballs. I could just put chunks of meat in the sauce but I already told them i was making meatball and don't want them thinking i can't do it. So Fatou and I bought sheep which we then cut up and had to pound, with a mortar and a pestal. Yes it was tiring and the meat still isn't really ground but it'll do. Then tonight i need to form the balls, I am going to mix in a few eggs and some breadcrumbs. These buy the way i am buying some baguettes and cutting the ends off to make. Then I will use tomato paste for the sauce with some sugar, hot peppers, garlic and basil. Basil by the way they keep claiming is parsley but I am pretty positive it is basil. So that in a nutshell is how i am going to do spaghetti and meatballs.

I think i will cook quite a bit here as long as my new family doesn't mind and i can afford it. It is kind of a fun activity for everyone and on slow days makes me feel a little more productive. And I am sure I will be having a lot of those during my first few month in Popenguine.

On another note, my group is learning wolof now. Or wolunteer yi ak man, Nungiy jange wolof. It is actually relatively simple gramatically there is just a lot of ways to say the samething, so hearing it is the hard part. Plus they speak it really fast, but it is a nice change of pace from the french. It is kinda like a funny kids puzzle. Also the verbs they have are really interesting because you can really tell what is important in this society. They don't have a word for frustrated but loads of verbs for eating. They also combine 10 things into one verb which makes everything really quick. It'll be an intersting rest of the year since my only real job is to work on my language. Lets hope by the new year that Ive got a good handle on wolof and french.

Leegi, Mangiy ndikki ak togg naay reer.

right now i am going home and cooking dinner

Ok round 2 on posts

This is a quick popenguine blurp, since i was just there for my volunteer visit. Eventually I am going to try and post a seperate page on it because there is loads to tell about the place. My ancien is pretty cool and we spent ,ost of the time meeting everyone he has gotten to know well. He made some pretty good friends so that will be a nice transition for me. I live with the president of a really impressive women's group so I will be able to learn a lot from her. Also I am littereally a 5 min walk from the beach and 5 mins from the reserve. There are 3 restaurants right around me too that are all run by french ex-pats, so that will be great for practicing my french. They also will hopefully be good women to just talk with when i want to be a little more western. I live in the ex-pat part of town but am really close to the regular village and my ancien has a lot of cool friends there. in particular he plays bocce ball with an artist, a tailor and a really good musician. They are an pretty cool group of guys and I am really looking forward to working with the artist. He also goes fishing quite a bit with a few of the people in town which will be fun.

As far as work I will update more later, but there seems to be a lot i can work with. I'll take over his projects with the campement, hopefully do some more artistic things with is. I can also work with the wonen's group, the local school, USAID in the area and there is a Microfinance org in town too. That is just a quick blurp but once i am in Popenguine with internet full time I promise to keep things update better. Also I will eventually be able to skype. In general I am super excited the only bummer is that i may have trouble cooking for myself. I only have my own room in the house and I was hoping to be a little more seperated but I'll adjust. I also, after hearing about everyone else's visits and slitghtly bummed I am not farther out in Senegal. Being on the coast is great but kinda easy, which may sound dumb, but i was looking forward to the idea of a hut out in a small town. I may just be thinking this now because one girl has a site in village that is completely animist and there are chimps in the area. I have serious site envy with that one, but I know things will be harder for her so i can't complain. It is just with the ex pats in my area I am a little worries I'll come away not feeling like I really know the country. I am sure I'll eventually regret saying this later, when I am having a tough time, so take this with a grain of salt. It is just hard to imagine I will have that rought of a time when I can think things out on a beach.......here's hoping I'm right.

Hold on to your hats this is going to be a long one. It may also be a little frantic since I havze a lot to do on the internet and racing time to finish it all. It may sound silly but it actually stresses me out quite a bit. It is like doing a really long times math test, which i was always awful at so i guess the stress is no suprise.

SO recap of the last week, at least i think that is how long it has been. after site announcements we were al rushed back to spend korite with our family. It is the day ramadan is over, so everyone can stop fasting. Holiday/celebrations in general seem very odd here in the fact that no one seems to do the same thing. yes i know we are like that in the states but, the events here are very community based so you would assume there would be a general concensious of what everyone does. Anyways, i helped my moms, sisters and other women cook. Everyone seems to make the same dish, grilled chicken and a spicy onion sauce. After all dazy cooking we at around 3 then sat around a lot more. During this whole time kids are going house to house asking for money, sometimes they get candy instead. They adults also go around after lunch and into the night asking for forgiveness from others. So it is a general mix of people wandering around everywhere, and people constantly filtering in and out of the house. Lots of family also returns home, so i met lots of siblings i didn't know existed. The most exciting was my namesake and older sister Coumba.

Like my other sister fatou I have really come to like and appriciate her. They are both very patient with me, try to engage me and just in general very spunky. I wish there was no language barrier bc I am pretty sure we would all really get along. (side note Coumba lives in Dakar and I hopefully will be able to visit her when I am up there)

Finally, around 9 or 10 we got all dressed up in our complets and walked around visiting. This was honestly really stressful and tireing so I don't know how much of it I understood. Unfortunately I was pretty tapped out at that point. It can be really tiring not knowing what you are doing or when it is going to end. On a funny note my sisters curled my hair, it made me think of all those times melston got stuck doing mine for date parties. The funny part was they curled it really small and then completely brushed it out, so i had a sexy clown-fro going on.

Last night I let them do my makeup, bc we had a wedding reception to go to and that was equaly if not more amusing. Apparently, i don't hqve eyebrows so naturally those had to be drawn on. Then I needed blue and gold make up, since that was the color of my complet. The makeup when all the way to my clown brows and then out a little bit. I lookes one of those women who is still stuck in the 80s. Thankfully, i did my own hair, otherwise i would have been downright scary looking.

All of this dressing up and doing up has been done by Coumba with Fatous imput. It is acutually quite fun. I sit there forever and try to guess how i'll look. Then when I finally look in a mirror I am shocked and horrified (in a funny way) and have to fake excitement. This part was not so hard last night since my eyebrows were always excited.

Oh Senegal... we've decided it is kinda like going to a mick between prom and halloween with lots of bling...alwayw loads of bling.

We all got our permanent site assignments yesterday. They blindfolded us and placed us all where we will be on a huge map of Senegal. Of course it was raining but we were all to ampted to care. And now for the big reveal....my site is Popenguine. Google it...it is the bombdiggity. There is no other way i feel i can describe my assignment. The only vocabulary that feels suiting is that of a frat boy. My site is the one that i heard about even before i got here on people's blogs, it is also where we have our big PST beach party every year. Yup that's right...beach. I am literally on the beach doing eco-t. I feel slightly ridiculous because i hit the jackpot of all sites...kinda like never-never land of Senegal. The only "special need" listed on my quick volunteer visit is a bathing suit. Yes....RIDICULOUS. However, this is all what we have heard from current volunteers. I have a feeling there is a big of exaggeration going on. Also since it's really popular for volunteers to visit for vaca, to it maybe like living in Aruba. Great for visiting but not always as greats for living...at least I slightly hope otherwise I am going to have some serious guilt. I was told I am basically going to get shit from everyone else for 2 years, but I guess I can just deal with that by going to beach....(i know i still can't believe it).

To further the ridiculousness that seems to be my future, I am only an hour from Dakar, where all the 3rd year PVCs live. Since, I am the new popenquine person I have now become someone all the PVCs feel they need to know. This is because i am the go to person for renting all the beach houses. Anyways, this is a conversation i had today that i think adequately shows my ridiculous....

Oliver (3rd year)- so Popenguine how do you feel about softball?

Me- ....yup. I read about the tournament and immediately packet my mit.

Oliver- Sweet... We have a weekly softball league. Every sunday, 500 CFA for beers and hot dogs. American hot dogs.

Me- (giggle because this is just too ridiculous) Uhhh...yeah I think you can count me in on that. I even brought cleats.

The conversation continued into more ridiculousness, but really. I am now on a beer league, IN SENEGAL. WHAT!! Now you can see why my vocabulary has turned to that of a excited frat boy.

I'll update you guys after my actual volunteer visit, so i can maybe demystify some of the legend that seems to be Popenguine.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Popenguine

So I have had a good weekend and today is shaping up to be spectacular aussi. Lets keep our fingers crossed because i know how quick my day/mood can change here. Here are the events of my weekend, a mini testimony to why it't been a good weekend.

Friday, my group got to stretch our legs and venture to Mboro for a tech training (ie business class) with the group living there. They are learning wolof, which does make me wish i had done a study abroad in college, so I could have started straight into a local language but c'est la vie. Mboro is on the coast and after class our LCF (language prof) got us a sept place (taxi for 7 people) to the beach. It was a dreary day, and rained on and off, whichwas perfect because that means it is not hot. The beach really reminded me of the oregon coast, probably just because it was dreary. It was wonderful, we all ate a sandwich with bananas and chocopan, which is silly since we always betch about the carbs and sugar we are fored to eat in mass proportions. HOwever, this lunch tasted wonderful in all it's sugary glory because we had chosen it. Oh how nice freedom is..

Then on sat, after an amusing class, i picked up my copmlet for korite. ****Side note*** my class is usually pretty funny because my group is fun and one voluneer,Phil, has a wonderful deadpan sense of humor. Honestly, he makes a gerat straight man...such a crack-up. Anyway...so my complet. I just figured it would be a good special occasin outfit because it is blue with load (and i mean loads) of gold decoration. It is definitely very gaudy, but it turned out prettier than i expected. I mean it is still really gaudy but i do like the skirt on it't own. Who knows though, I already had pretty poor style so maybe I'm just picking up the senegalise style and I will be a lost cause when i get back.

Now that i own a blue an gold complet my sister said i need shoes, bc i am obviously made of money. We did find a pair that was quite nice (again guady senegalise standards) but unfortunately they didn't have shoes small enough for me. I'm just a size too small for the normal size...it is nice to see somethings donn't change. However, at this point the vender is invested in getting my to buy some shoes, but all that is left in gold are ugly ones i wouldn't even want here. This turned very funny very quick because all the senegalise women got involved and thought my refusal of shoes because they were ugly was hilarious.. this one has a bow...nope too many diamonds.. that is not even gold.. They fully appriciated how seriouse i was about my shoes, because shoes are serious business to them too. I love how the silliest things transend culture.

On the topic of culture, i tries making tea last night. It is a big production here because you need lots of foam, so there is a proces to making is. Needless to say, I wa not so great and my family was very amused. However, I think a few ,ore times of practice and I've got it.

To follow with the doing Senegalise things, I woke up at 5:10 to have breakfast with my fam, which i usually don't do, and I am fasting all day like them. I am however, cheating and drinking water...that jut would have been too much. Also, since i don't have class today I am gnig to learn to make a meal. Lets hope it is one of dishes that is more exciting than fish and rice. After Ramadan, my family wants me to make an american meal. I'd love suggestions. keep in mind everyone eats our of the same big bowl, with a big spoon.

Ok i am off, I will leave you with this...last night at 11 R Kelly music videos stared playing, this must be thier late night tv. I was embarrassed to be american...he is just vulgar and a poor lyricist.

So the last post is a few days old...this one is fro, yesterday. Meaning I wrote it yesterday but was just now able to post it bc the cber cafe is actually working...yay. Also you'll have to bear with me on errors because i'm using a fun french keyboard..ohhh Senegal. Anywas this is what i wrote last night enjoy..it's a long one.

I was excited to write a nicez blog on my computer bc I finall got it working (or so i thought) and now i'm just grumpy. I had a great blog all thought out and now all i can rthink about is drop kicking my computer. Anywas i'll try to get on with my life and this post.

I've gotten into somùewhat of a routine here (at m homestay) and feel somewhat productive, finally. Here is my day..

7:30 Wake up and shower (ie bucket bath), have breakfast ie. coffee, 1 sugar cube and the occasional 5 inches of french baguette.

I am currently at the local cyber cafe and emailing this blog in. I have not really tried to figure out my computer, honestly it just makes me angry and I dont want to end up drop kicking it. Today I am wearing my complet...the traditinoal dress for senegalise women. Friday is the fancy day for muslims so my family was really exited I got it in time. It has been a good bonding point with my moms and execially my sister Fatou. We are going to get nicer ones made for Korité, so that should be fun. The women were also really excited to discover I had three holes in my ears. This with the complet definitely increased my cool factor. Now, it has been deicided that I must get some gems for Korité. I hope to eventually get pictures up, even if i have to hijack someone elses computer.

As much as i like my family, which i really do, they make things so easy for me....i lucked out. I am excited to have m own place so i can buy an armoire. I am tired of living out of my bags.

I am hoping this worked so I can email a blog every few days.

So do to my faulty computer (which won't turn on) I am borrowing a fellow volunteer's computer. Hopefully, I can eventually resolve this issue and be relatively connected to the outside world. Until then i can at least get on every once in a while from the local cyber cafe. I promise I'll give a better post later but I had my first week of homestay. It was actually pretty good. I have my own room but spend most of my time in language classes or with my family. My family speaks french to me and wolof the rest of the time. It's nice to be able to practice the french but I spend a lot of time trying to figure out if there are speaking french or wolof. I'm excited for when i graduate from french and start learning wolof, which will hopefully happen in a few weeks. Even if people know french they normally speak in the local language unless they have too. I'm definitely going to need to learn it before I get to my permanent site.

Quick info on my site now...

it's called Tivaouane and is a decent size city, since it's the holy city of one of the muslim brotherhoods. It is nice because we have access to a lot of things like internet and coke, but it's solidified my desire to be in more rural area. While Tivaouane is nice, something rural will most likely be prettier and there be less people to get to know. I'll know my site by the mid of september so we're all pretty excited about that. My house/compound is pretty nice...My dad is retired, I have 2 moms 2 older brothers, a sister my age, 1 teenage brother and 6 youngerkids. My new name is Kumba Dieye....which is pretty fun. I'm named after an aunt but there is also a big singer here names Kumba, so now everyone askes if I can sing....I haven't graced them with that yet, just my awful dancing.

ok i need to get off....alex needs her computer back...sorry if this was sloppy I haven't had a chance to proof read it.

Things are moving pretty fast and very slow all at the same time. Currently I’m in the Disco hut, (an circular pavilion that used to have a disco ball back in the 70s) and trying, unsuccessfully, to connect to the internet. Some people are having problems but no one seems to know what’s wrong with mine. Kyle, you may be getting a phone call from me if it doesn’t get better.

Since I finished both of my interviews yesterday I don’t have anything till after lunch which is nice. I stayed up till about 12 talking with the other PCVs; they are such a funny group. Here’s some fun things: one girl went to circus camp, another pilgrim camp (all when little), we have a few duel citizens. There are also a few dancers, so they may whip me into shape and I won’t be such a tragic dancer when I get back to the states.

Lots of musical talent too…guitar, drums, various band instruments and drum majors…the other OSU person knew Stew. Also, get ready for this….. one girl plays the saw. YES! the saw. This is not some weird instrument I mean use a bow on a legit saw. Trust me I asked loads of questions. She’s super cool girl, never played a string instrument but just saw it once (ha ha get the pun?) and decided to learn. She hasn’t found a saw yet to use, but I’ll definitely be writing about it once she does. Maybe even video….

Needless to say I feel very lacking in the cool category. I haven’t busted out the super awesome jumping through my leg yet though!!! SO IMPRESSIVE I’m sure everyone one will be so amazed. Anyways, loads of people here have done crazy traveling, things I would love to do, and also stuff I’ve never heard of. Here’s hoping I come back with some pretty cool new talents… I mean I’ve got loads of time.

Just for quick info after lunch we have into to Wolof then cross-cultural training.

( update now that I can get on the internet)

Not sure what went right…Kyle you may still get some tech related phone calls.

I think my language test could have been better but let’s hope it was good enough. We’ll find out on Sunday what language we’ll be learning. The other interview was job related so they can figure out where to put us. )

The traveling was all surprisingly easy. We made it to Thies ( pronounced chess, so sorry for misinforming everyone). No one ended up in Detroit so I guess that means I was a decent group leader. We checked in 5 hrs early so plenty of time to eat.

Medium rare burger, w/ pepper jack and bacon, fries and malt vinegar paired with a tasty stout…YUM….but don’t worry the food I’ve had here so far is good too. For dinner there was spaghetti with cheese (yes cheese!!!) and a sauce, that reminded me of skyline, just spicier.

So now that you are all assured I am eating well, I can tell you about the training site. It’s a little gated compound with about 10 small building. I’ll try to post pictures eventually. The staff of course seems great and I was very excited to hear that there will be many PC vs staff football games. There is also a volleyball net, so I’m bummed I didn’t pack the badminton rackets. :( Hopefully they will have some here. There were also some guys drumming before dinner, which turned into a goofy white people dance party. This has to be one of their favorite things about us arriving. The lead drummer was showing us dance moves; really silly ones that look like where showing off our huge muscles or sticking out our butts. And the Senegalese staff would erupt in laughter every time we did these “dance moves.” I’m betting these are not real moves and he’s teaching us their version of the sprinkler or something. I’m hoping the years of my horrendous dancing in college have prepared me for the embarrassment that will ensue every time I dance here. I guess something never change

In a little bit of bad news, I did get a little sick and threw up after dinner. I’m perfectly fine and feel great now, actually a lot better not that I threw up. I’m pretty sure it was just nerves mixed with being tired, taking my malaria medicine and eating more pasta then I should have. It was slightly funny though because a bunch of girls were in the bathroom and I could tell I was going to hurl, but no one was sure of the etiquette. Puke outside in the brush or over the toilet? Big decision. The toilet was the lucky winner…to be safe. I’ll have to ask that question for tomorrow.

On that lovely note, I’m off to bed. It’s cooled down a bit and I’m pleasantly tired. All the tests are tomorrow so I may get more insight into where I may be or what I’ll be doing.

Well, it's my last night in the US. I landed in DC bright and early, with not nearly enough sleep, for our quick Peace Corps tutorial. I was very excited to meet Rachel, a fellow Syracusian, at the airport. We were of course talking a mile a minute and it felt so good to know that there was at least one person feeling the same way as me. Even about funny little things, like stuff we'll miss or random thoughts we've had. In fact I'm excited about the group as a whole. I knew I'd be in good company... I mean are all crazy enough to do this...but it's been great so far meeting everyone. We even have two returned Peace Corps volunteers (RPCVs), which I think is awesome. The whole thing is slightly reminiscent of my IA scholars orientation. Everyone is excited, there's lots of info and silly ice breakers. It'll just be great getting to know everyone, because everyone seems to have done such cool things already.

As far as the actual event and logistics ting have been a bit different. Di got me checked and kept me from standing in the wrong line, I then promptly repaid her by giving her the wrong directions back to the house. However, being a great best friend she still loves me. Then I discovered my fears about over packing were confirmed. I definitely had more luggage than Rachel and Abbey, another volunteer from the area. In fact, Abbey only had one checked bag, which made me instantly jealous. I looked ridiculous and kept refusing help saying "no! I need to do this now because I have to do it later." To paint a picture, I have my huge hiking backpack strapped to my back, then I'm hugging my green army bag in the front and my bookbag is just slung somewhere. I look like a walking duffel bag. And of course me being 5'2" only makes the whole scene even funnier. I kinda just teeter as i walk because leaning too far in any direction will cause an immediate tumble to the ground. I'm definitely not looking forward to dealing with all of it tomorrow, but at least it'll be funny...later...when i look back on it..hopefully.

As if my baggage trouble weren't enough I volunteered to be a group leader. Yes that's right I'm trustworthy enough to help orchestrate our travels to Senegal. How I'll see around the bags to do all of this is entirely unsure to me. However, before you congratulate me on my super impressive promotion I must confess I'm just in charge of making sure everyone is checked out, and on the right bus. Let's hope the next blog post is not about how we all ended up in Detroit by mistake. That is definitely the worst of all possible outcomes, YUK!! M*CH*GAN!!

Well, It's now nearing midnight so I need to TRY and get some shut eye...who am I kidding, I'm too excited/nervous. I'll just lie very still in hopes that I eventually fall asleep.

Finally, as my last American made entry I want to say to all my friends and family. I love and miss you all already. Stay in touch. If you ever catch yourself thinking of me in a random moment or wanting to tell me something that seems very unexciting, PLEASE DO IT. Jump on that blackberry. I don't even need a full email, you can just put the thought in the subject line...my dad's been doing that one for years. I'll really appreciate and definitely respond to even the most mundane news or letters. So catch ya all later I'm on to Senegal....Watch out, they won't even know what hit them.

It's officially one week till I land in Senegal. Which means I'm trying to figure out how to condense my whole life into 80lbs of luggage. Right now everything is spread out all over the family room, I keep "reorganizing" everything and adding more to the piles...ie procrastinating the actual packing of the bags. I've also started trying on all my clothes again to make sure they were Senegal appropriate. My mom and I decided I'm going for the stylish-church-marm look, needless to say I'll be super cute. I've also bought the essential food items...Garlic powder, seasoning salt, cayenne pepper,blue raspberry kool-aid, ramen noodles, and velveeta shells and cheese (this was obviously the most important). I'm also really hoping that I have enough room to fit a badminton set that I've been eyeing. I may just have to mail it to myself along with a few other games.

It's hard to believe I'll actually be there in a week. It probably won't hit me till I'm actually living with my host family. I'm definitely nervous about my host family, but I'm sure I'll really like them. I'm secretly hoping that there is a little kid or two. They are just so cute and will probably be the only person on my level language wise. I'm also super excited to meet my fellow PCVs. Of course we're all already facebook friends, but I'm excited to meet everyone in person. These people will become like family over the next two years and just excited to see what everyone is like. I kinda feel like I'm going off to summer camp, which ties back in to it not hitting me till I'm there.

On another note Mikayla, my 13 year old sister, is pretty excited to be inheriting a bunch of the clothes, jewelry and makeup I'm leaving behind. Best hand-me-downs ever.

So as I've told people of my plans and said my goodbyes I've gotten some funny reactions, and of course great advice. Here they are:

My old boss at the Pub said he didn't know I was some tree loving hippie...he followed this up with "make sure you continue to shave your pits". Ummm good advice I guess

(I've discovered this seems to be a favorite joke among many people)

A guy at work cocked an eyebrow and say in disgust "oh...so your some sorta liberal then" (I actually consider myself more in the middle, but that's neither here nor there)

An old fraternity friend said, (mid corn hole game) "so Peace Corps...did you just not want to find a REAL job?" at first I was slightly offended but after repeating this to a friend, I was reminded that not having a REAL job yet was part of the Peace Corps's allure.

Needless to say there are a lot of people that think I'm crazy, however people are few and far between. I am lucky enough to have many people that are very excited for me and few decided to give me some departing advice....just to make sure I get home safe and sound. The advice goes as follows....

Don't drink the water or eat the food. Shower twice a day, but if you're going to shower with bottled water. It's safer.

Don't get married. (wasn't planning on it, but this seems to be a big concern as this advice was given by many different friends. However, a few girlfriends said it was more than acceptable if he's a really cute European....sure I'll work on that)

Don't get dead (Probably my favorite general life advice. Congrats you graduated..don't get dead. Or how about instead of see ya later...don't get dead!)

If you get a pet name it Mufasa, that's an African word if you didn't know. (I think this was more so I'd think of him when I saw my pet)

I was told I should get an African tramp stamp or neck tat. I should also learn to make cheese (this was in response to my fear of there being very little cheese in Senegal)

And my favorite: When the road gets weary and the journey seems wrong, a round of Irish Whiskey won't make it seem so long.

So obviously my friends are a bunch of jokesters and just heartbroken about my 2 and 1/4 year absence, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I'll miss them all dearly and am expecting at least a few amusing letters describing their shenanigans state-side.

So I managed to do the one thing in Columbus I was trying to avoid...well scratch that two things. I totally biffed it and have a huge bruise right in the middle of my shin. It's still festering so I can only imagine it's just going to be even more apparent by the wedding. I would just get a tan to cover it, but like an idiot I got really burnt at the pool and need to stay out of the sun. Otherwise I'll end up matching my fuchsia dress. I don't even know why I thought I could avoid having visible bruises it's never worked out for me before.

I'm currently in the beautiful new Ohio State Union. This may be completely biased, but I feel like we are one of the only schools that can build a huge structure that is literally decked out in Buckeye pride. I mean everywhere I turn is scarlet and grey, buckeye leaves, carmen ohio, and the list goes on. I think at another university it's would just be too much, but we really do love ourselves that much so it's some how fitting. Again I'm probably just biased, but I really will miss all of this when I'm gone. I did find out one of my counterparts is a fellow Clevelander so that'll be a nice comfort. Also I've been eyeing buckeye gear to bring with me. I can't completely decided on what is an appropriate game day outfit. My jersey will be too hot, but none of the dresses are really appropriate. Oh such dilemmas!! I'll probably make Melston help me out. She always manages to do a respectable Buckeye outfit.

Speaking of buying stuff I've started to make a dent in my packing list. Have my backpack and tevas, among other assorted things. However, no matter how much i get done I still can't shake the feeling that I'm not doing everything I need to get ready. I feel like I'm in a constant state of preparing for a final, I'll just never feel completely prepared. I guess that's the point though, you can't really completely prepared for this. As much as I'm enjoying being in columbus and looking forward to the wedding, I'm kinda ready to head home. I may just start to pack everything before Bonaire so I'm not feeling this way down there. I don't want to be scuba diving and thinking...hmmmm, should I get a solar charger..will my loans get deferred quick enough....nope I just want to look at the fish and enjoy the sun.

Well i'm off to enjoy the pool...I'll be the loser in the t-shirt because I can't manage to not get burnt.

Welcome to my blog! For anyone that hasn't heard yet, I receive my invitation about a week ago for the Peace Corps. I'll be an Sustainable Economic Development volunteer in Senegal. ie business development stuff. Lets hope that econ major finally pays off, or maybe at least the years and years of listening to my dad at the dinner table. Anyways, I'm off for staging, tentatively, August 10th then on to Thies, Senegal for 3 months of training. After that I'll be placed somewhere in country, assigned a host country partner and start my 2 years of service. Yup, you did the math right I'm gone 27 months. I'll be 25 when I make my way back home, but even scarier my sister will be 16, driving a car and, heaven forbid, have a boyfriend. Eek! So much will change, but I'm so excited for the adventure. Plus a little change is good...it lets you know your still alive.

So I'll explain a little bit about The Peace Corps... It takes forever to get through the application process. I applied about 1 1/2 years ago and I'm sure people were starting to think I made the whole thing up at this point. There were lots of interviews; making sure I'm sane, I'm not going to be to homesick and basically making sure I wouldn't come back early. The oddest part of the whole thing is questions about my love life. Thank GOD I'm sans boyfriend. There is a whole worksheet you have to fill out explaining the status of your relationship and other nonsense. I understand the point, but I can't imagine having to put that kinda thing to pen. Again thank god I'm single. So I jumped through some hurdles and now I'm here gearing up for a life unknown in Senegal.

Needless to say I have loads of stuff to do, and very little time. Well, I have time but it's all going to be sent saying my goodbyes and taking a scuba trip with mom and dad to Bonaire. I just got certified and I have a feeling it's going to be a blast. Who knows maybe I'll get myself to the Mediterranean and do some scuba. Anyways, my blog will probably be pretty sparse till I actually get to Senegal, because lets be honest I doubt I'll have much of interest to say before then.

So I guess I'm over and out for now, but I promise I'll try my best in this blog to keep things relatively short and sweet. And you better forgive any spelling mistakes now or stop reading, because anyone that knows me knows i can't spell... a scientist somewhere proved it's genetic so talk to my mother.