only have a few minutes left of internet but i thought i'd use it for this!!!
these past 12 days have been a bit slow. i got my house painted. wonderful bright colors. pink in the kitchen... it was supposed to be mustard but the painter had a bit of a probably figuring out what colors he needed to mix to get mustard... oh africa!!! and then my living room is light yellow and my bathroom and my bed room aqua. i really do love it.
this next week is Tabaski which is the muslim new year... i think. they change the names in senegal for the muslim holidays so i get confused!!! it involves slaughtering a goat. ours has been tied up in the compound for a couple weeks now. not sure if i'll watch them kill it... maybe i will... cultural experience.....
my ancienne... the girl i replaced, visited this past week and picked up her cat that i'd been taking care of. it was good to talk to her to find out about different things i'd had questions about. i'm sure i'll come up with dozens more over the next few weeks.
well i need to go!!! will write a long update over the next week and post on sunday.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Monday, December 3, 2007
three weeks in!!!
tomorrow will be three weeks at site. i'm definately settling in now. i have my hammock up so in the afternoons after lunch I sit and read and listen to the reggae that seems to always be in the air. life is slow here which is taking a lot of time to get used to. i'm so used the hustle and bustle of college life.
language is sorta of stagnent. I can get by with my little bit of french and wolof is hard to do by myself. i should start tutoring next week hopefully. but so far everything that i've scheduled happens several days or a week later then orginally planned.
one thing that i have been getting into is doing an hour of pilaties every morning. its really something i've always wanted the time to do regularly and now time is definately not hard to find. the bit of exercise is so good for me. i need to start going out and walking more but its really tough to walk in the sand. you really sink in pretty well. its too sandy to use my bike too. I haven't been sleeping too well and wake up easily which is something i've never really had problems with before. I think i need to get busier to become more tired so i have more incentive to sleep.
i've been feeling definate ups and downs. one thing that you don't really think about before you come is how absolutely alone you can feel at times. other times i'm just on top of the world. i had one of those moments this morning on the way to kaolack when i was squashed in a sept-place with 7 senegalese men bouncing along over the sandy roads. it was just such a unique experience and all i could think was "wow, i really am in africa, and this is so incredibly amazing".
language is sorta of stagnent. I can get by with my little bit of french and wolof is hard to do by myself. i should start tutoring next week hopefully. but so far everything that i've scheduled happens several days or a week later then orginally planned.
one thing that i have been getting into is doing an hour of pilaties every morning. its really something i've always wanted the time to do regularly and now time is definately not hard to find. the bit of exercise is so good for me. i need to start going out and walking more but its really tough to walk in the sand. you really sink in pretty well. its too sandy to use my bike too. I haven't been sleeping too well and wake up easily which is something i've never really had problems with before. I think i need to get busier to become more tired so i have more incentive to sleep.
i've been feeling definate ups and downs. one thing that you don't really think about before you come is how absolutely alone you can feel at times. other times i'm just on top of the world. i had one of those moments this morning on the way to kaolack when i was squashed in a sept-place with 7 senegalese men bouncing along over the sandy roads. it was just such a unique experience and all i could think was "wow, i really am in africa, and this is so incredibly amazing".
Thursday, November 22, 2007
First 9 days at Site
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Well I’ve completed 1 week at site and now I have 99 to go. Lol, that sounds very depressing and long when you put it that simply. In reality I have 99 weeks or so until I am completely done with my service in Senegal. Those 99 weeks will contain 7 weeks of vacation time, another 13 weeks at barest minimum away from site to go to the regional house, do admin stuff at the office in Dakar, etc. Plus I am convinced I live in paradise so the other 70 something weeks I spend in Sokone aren’t exactly going to be a hardship.
Yes, Sokone is amazing. I live a 3 minute walk from the delta and the mangroves. I could swim at the closest point but I would be gawked at by everyone because it’s right near the market. I’ve been told that there is a better place up a bit further that has deeper water so the Senegalese don’t go there because they can’t swim. The water is salt and very nice to stick your feet into. The streets are mainly all sand except for a couple that are paved but they too are being threatened to be covered by the sand. There are massive trees all over the place that dwarf all buildings and provide wonderful shade. Sokone spreads out on either side of the road from Kaolack to Banjul, The Gambia. The western side of the town curves around the inlets of the delta. Sokone used to be one of the loading places for the peanut harvests but the delta has silted up too much so the ships can’t come in but the old warehouses are still there, some which have been converted to homes and others which have been left to decay and have long since lost their roofs. They are quite picturesque. One little thing that I’ve noticed that thrills me about this town is that wherever you would find gravel or small stones used in the U.S. or any other part of the world, i.e. for driveways, in cement foundations etc., they use shells here. It looks really cool. Can you imagine the drive way of the police station in a town in the U.S. filled with white shells?
My house, yes I have my own house, has three nicely sized rooms and a bathroom. A kitchen, living room and a bedroom, I decided to measure the square footage of the house because I was curious so I got out my ruler and my calculator. It’s about 515 sq. ft. And there is my porch. It runs the length of my house. I think it’s about 40 by 6 ft long. And it has a hammock. Well I’ve had to replace the one that was here but it’s is going to be the most marvelous thing to have. I’ve had to spend a lot of time cleaning everything over the past week too. No one lived here for more than a month so everything accumulates so much dirt and dust. I’ve also scheduled to have the entire inside painted. That is supposed to happen Dec. 6th. After that I’ve plans to do all sorts of little things to make it homier. My home is sort of like a second regional house. There are 8 other volunteers who use my post office and Sokone is also just a nice place to come take a vacation in-country. Particularly because you can swim here and I do have the room. I figure if someone wants to sleep in the hammock, I can put up 6 people in total besides myself without too much trouble. I mainly need to get a hold of some more bedding.
It’s definitely hotter here in Sokone that it was up in Thiès but it is farther south and breezier. It’s been very cool in the mornings though and I’ve had to put a light blanket on my bed.
I will admit I’ve mainly taken these first days to recover from the intensity of training. I can get by with the little French I learnt in training so learning Wolof isn’t quite immediate necessity I thought it was going to be. My conversations at the moment tend to be about what my name is, that I don’t know Pulaar or Wolof and that I’m working for the Corps de la Paix. Pulaar is one of the other main languages of Senegal that is mainly spoken in the southern regions. My Senegalese name is Pulaar though so the Pulaar people in Sokone want me to know Pulaar too. There aren’t many of them even though I know my host mother is one. Pulaar is one of the most widely spoken languages in Africa.
Oh, a couple of the PCVs in my stage came by to visit on Monday and pick up mail and while we were hanging out at my house we heard a helicopter. All of a sudden it got really close and we looked outside and it was literally above my house, not by more then 40 meters. It wobbled around and then finally landed in a small empty lot about 100 meters from my house. It was very strange. All these Senegalese kids came running out. After a bit we went over and talked to the people standing by it and they said they worked for a helicopter charter company and they were flying around some politician around the country. It certainly isn’t a cheap way to travel but it only takes them 12 minutes to cover 40km/ 25 miles so it’s certainly more convenient!
I’ll be heading up to Kaolack for Thanksgiving with the other people from my region as well as a few from other regions who wanted to spend it our house. The day after is my 23rd birthday. I remember as a kid wondering where I was going to spend my golden birthday (23 on the 23rd) and I know I would never have guessed Senegal. I’ve had such great birthdays the past two years that this one isn’t going to rate very well comparatively. I’ll do something next year. Maybe have a party here in Sokone. This year’s is just so awkwardly timed being the day after Thanksgiving and only two weeks after leaving Thiès. I really don’t have the energy.
Well I’ll leave the rest until next time. There is so much to say and this will just be too long of a posting if I continue. I should be getting back to Kaolack around the first couple days of December. Ciao.
Well I’ve completed 1 week at site and now I have 99 to go. Lol, that sounds very depressing and long when you put it that simply. In reality I have 99 weeks or so until I am completely done with my service in Senegal. Those 99 weeks will contain 7 weeks of vacation time, another 13 weeks at barest minimum away from site to go to the regional house, do admin stuff at the office in Dakar, etc. Plus I am convinced I live in paradise so the other 70 something weeks I spend in Sokone aren’t exactly going to be a hardship.
Yes, Sokone is amazing. I live a 3 minute walk from the delta and the mangroves. I could swim at the closest point but I would be gawked at by everyone because it’s right near the market. I’ve been told that there is a better place up a bit further that has deeper water so the Senegalese don’t go there because they can’t swim. The water is salt and very nice to stick your feet into. The streets are mainly all sand except for a couple that are paved but they too are being threatened to be covered by the sand. There are massive trees all over the place that dwarf all buildings and provide wonderful shade. Sokone spreads out on either side of the road from Kaolack to Banjul, The Gambia. The western side of the town curves around the inlets of the delta. Sokone used to be one of the loading places for the peanut harvests but the delta has silted up too much so the ships can’t come in but the old warehouses are still there, some which have been converted to homes and others which have been left to decay and have long since lost their roofs. They are quite picturesque. One little thing that I’ve noticed that thrills me about this town is that wherever you would find gravel or small stones used in the U.S. or any other part of the world, i.e. for driveways, in cement foundations etc., they use shells here. It looks really cool. Can you imagine the drive way of the police station in a town in the U.S. filled with white shells?
My house, yes I have my own house, has three nicely sized rooms and a bathroom. A kitchen, living room and a bedroom, I decided to measure the square footage of the house because I was curious so I got out my ruler and my calculator. It’s about 515 sq. ft. And there is my porch. It runs the length of my house. I think it’s about 40 by 6 ft long. And it has a hammock. Well I’ve had to replace the one that was here but it’s is going to be the most marvelous thing to have. I’ve had to spend a lot of time cleaning everything over the past week too. No one lived here for more than a month so everything accumulates so much dirt and dust. I’ve also scheduled to have the entire inside painted. That is supposed to happen Dec. 6th. After that I’ve plans to do all sorts of little things to make it homier. My home is sort of like a second regional house. There are 8 other volunteers who use my post office and Sokone is also just a nice place to come take a vacation in-country. Particularly because you can swim here and I do have the room. I figure if someone wants to sleep in the hammock, I can put up 6 people in total besides myself without too much trouble. I mainly need to get a hold of some more bedding.
It’s definitely hotter here in Sokone that it was up in Thiès but it is farther south and breezier. It’s been very cool in the mornings though and I’ve had to put a light blanket on my bed.
I will admit I’ve mainly taken these first days to recover from the intensity of training. I can get by with the little French I learnt in training so learning Wolof isn’t quite immediate necessity I thought it was going to be. My conversations at the moment tend to be about what my name is, that I don’t know Pulaar or Wolof and that I’m working for the Corps de la Paix. Pulaar is one of the other main languages of Senegal that is mainly spoken in the southern regions. My Senegalese name is Pulaar though so the Pulaar people in Sokone want me to know Pulaar too. There aren’t many of them even though I know my host mother is one. Pulaar is one of the most widely spoken languages in Africa.
Oh, a couple of the PCVs in my stage came by to visit on Monday and pick up mail and while we were hanging out at my house we heard a helicopter. All of a sudden it got really close and we looked outside and it was literally above my house, not by more then 40 meters. It wobbled around and then finally landed in a small empty lot about 100 meters from my house. It was very strange. All these Senegalese kids came running out. After a bit we went over and talked to the people standing by it and they said they worked for a helicopter charter company and they were flying around some politician around the country. It certainly isn’t a cheap way to travel but it only takes them 12 minutes to cover 40km/ 25 miles so it’s certainly more convenient!
I’ll be heading up to Kaolack for Thanksgiving with the other people from my region as well as a few from other regions who wanted to spend it our house. The day after is my 23rd birthday. I remember as a kid wondering where I was going to spend my golden birthday (23 on the 23rd) and I know I would never have guessed Senegal. I’ve had such great birthdays the past two years that this one isn’t going to rate very well comparatively. I’ll do something next year. Maybe have a party here in Sokone. This year’s is just so awkwardly timed being the day after Thanksgiving and only two weeks after leaving Thiès. I really don’t have the energy.
Well I’ll leave the rest until next time. There is so much to say and this will just be too long of a posting if I continue. I should be getting back to Kaolack around the first couple days of December. Ciao.
Monday, November 12, 2007
On my way to Sokone
I am now officially a Peace Corps Volunteer!!! On Friday, November 9th, 39 trainees were sworn-in at the Ambassador’s residence in Dakar. All of our language and technical trainers as well as all the Peace Corps Staff were there. There were also some currently serving PCVs there including Laura, whom I demysted with back when I first arrived in September. It was really nice to see her because there was so much to say and so much to relate but of course there was too little time and we barely got to chat. After the ceremony, which was about 45 minutes long, there was a lovely reception afterwards with amazing food. We all got back in the SUVs and buses and headed back to Thiès for a big Fête after. A member of each of our Thiès host families came and we had a big meal, Senegalese music and dancing. By 11PM, all the Senegalese families had left and it was just us trainees and a couple trainers and we kept dancing until 1AM. It was so much fun to just be able to goof off and have fun after such an intense 8 weeks of training. We’ve gotten to know each other so well by now that we are very comfortable. If you can spend the amount of time that we have talking about the crazy health problems you get here in Senegal and how often you’ve been running to the bathroom because of your latest case of the runs, you have no problem dancing in front of these same people.
A bunch of us ended up staying at the center overnight which made it certainly easier to dance till 1AM but primarily because early the next morning about 8 people left for their sites down in the southern regions of Senegal that are south of The Gambia and we wanted to say goodbye. They had to leave on Saturday because it can take up to two days to get there because some of the roads they have to take basically have no right to be called roads. The most infamous is the road between Kaolack and Tambacounda (we just called it Tamba) which is so bad it takes 6-10 hours depending on if its dry or wet season and it is no more than 150 miles. My site is on the “right side” of that road. The rest of us left Sunday for our various regions of the country.
It was sad and surreal to say goodbye to them and then also to the others that I said goodbye to on Sunday who aren’t living in my region. If I think of it realistically, I had no idea of who most of these people were 9 weeks ago. Sure I knew who a couple of them were through the PC Senegal Facebook group but that was still just a web page with a picture and some random information that really in no way defines a person in any real terms of accuracy. But at the same time, I’ve been getting to know some of these people really well and feel like I’ve just barely been able to get to enjoy their company and off they go. Despite the fact that you usually get along with everyone else in your stage, there are always those who you’ve gotten to know better or seem to laugh a bit more with and it seems like most of those people have gone really far for me. I know that I’ll get to know the other volunteers well in my area too but I’ll still miss the others. I’ll see them all again in exactly 11 weeks when we come back for another three weeks of training in late January.
I left Thies early yesterday morning (Sunday) with two other new PCVs for Koalack. Koalack is the second/third largest city in Senegal. No one really seems to know if Thies or Koalack is really bigger. It is the cross-roads of Senegal as you have to go through it to get to Dakar or Saint Louis from any of the southern regions. It has the second largest covered market in Africa, and I can attest that it is very easy to get lost in!! We managed to get all our baggage as well as our three PC provided bikes as well as us and our driver into what is best described as something like a station-wagon. They are called sept-places (say it with a French accent… SET-PLAS) because it can usually fit 7 people because of additional row that has been added in the back. These vehicles are extremely rickety. The one I took to Dakar a couple weeks ago did not have any of the dashboard working so you didn’t actually know how fast you were going.
Koalack is where my regional house is located. The Peace Corps splits up the country into regions and each region, for the most part, has its own regional house that is basically a rest/guest house for that region’s PCVs. My region is actually called Fatick but our regional house is combined with Koalack because it easier for most of us to get to Koalack than the actual city of Fatick because of the delta. The house serves 40 PCVs so I hear it can get pretty crazy when everyone comes into town for Christmas or Thanksgiving. Koalack is also where I’ll access internet. I can hook up my laptop at the cyber cafés there which is much easier than trying to tackle the French keyboards. It also keeps me from getting to many viruses which can happen if you are using a flashdrive to transfer files from a personal computer to the café computers.
Well I am being installed in my site tomorrow, Tuesday. I am really excited. There are so many people in the Kaolack regional house at the moment. There are 18 people from my training group who are in this house. Plus all their baggage. It’s really a crazy mess and I am very exhausted and stressed right now because of all of it. There are people everywhere so alone time is not existent!!!
A bunch of us ended up staying at the center overnight which made it certainly easier to dance till 1AM but primarily because early the next morning about 8 people left for their sites down in the southern regions of Senegal that are south of The Gambia and we wanted to say goodbye. They had to leave on Saturday because it can take up to two days to get there because some of the roads they have to take basically have no right to be called roads. The most infamous is the road between Kaolack and Tambacounda (we just called it Tamba) which is so bad it takes 6-10 hours depending on if its dry or wet season and it is no more than 150 miles. My site is on the “right side” of that road. The rest of us left Sunday for our various regions of the country.
It was sad and surreal to say goodbye to them and then also to the others that I said goodbye to on Sunday who aren’t living in my region. If I think of it realistically, I had no idea of who most of these people were 9 weeks ago. Sure I knew who a couple of them were through the PC Senegal Facebook group but that was still just a web page with a picture and some random information that really in no way defines a person in any real terms of accuracy. But at the same time, I’ve been getting to know some of these people really well and feel like I’ve just barely been able to get to enjoy their company and off they go. Despite the fact that you usually get along with everyone else in your stage, there are always those who you’ve gotten to know better or seem to laugh a bit more with and it seems like most of those people have gone really far for me. I know that I’ll get to know the other volunteers well in my area too but I’ll still miss the others. I’ll see them all again in exactly 11 weeks when we come back for another three weeks of training in late January.
I left Thies early yesterday morning (Sunday) with two other new PCVs for Koalack. Koalack is the second/third largest city in Senegal. No one really seems to know if Thies or Koalack is really bigger. It is the cross-roads of Senegal as you have to go through it to get to Dakar or Saint Louis from any of the southern regions. It has the second largest covered market in Africa, and I can attest that it is very easy to get lost in!! We managed to get all our baggage as well as our three PC provided bikes as well as us and our driver into what is best described as something like a station-wagon. They are called sept-places (say it with a French accent… SET-PLAS) because it can usually fit 7 people because of additional row that has been added in the back. These vehicles are extremely rickety. The one I took to Dakar a couple weeks ago did not have any of the dashboard working so you didn’t actually know how fast you were going.
Koalack is where my regional house is located. The Peace Corps splits up the country into regions and each region, for the most part, has its own regional house that is basically a rest/guest house for that region’s PCVs. My region is actually called Fatick but our regional house is combined with Koalack because it easier for most of us to get to Koalack than the actual city of Fatick because of the delta. The house serves 40 PCVs so I hear it can get pretty crazy when everyone comes into town for Christmas or Thanksgiving. Koalack is also where I’ll access internet. I can hook up my laptop at the cyber cafés there which is much easier than trying to tackle the French keyboards. It also keeps me from getting to many viruses which can happen if you are using a flashdrive to transfer files from a personal computer to the café computers.
Well I am being installed in my site tomorrow, Tuesday. I am really excited. There are so many people in the Kaolack regional house at the moment. There are 18 people from my training group who are in this house. Plus all their baggage. It’s really a crazy mess and I am very exhausted and stressed right now because of all of it. There are people everywhere so alone time is not existent!!!
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Beach and Dakar
It has been almost two weeks since I last updated this blog, life has gotten itself into a routine so there weren’t too many different things happening. The weekends are what have changed because now we are allowed to leave Thiès. We weren’t allowed to leave for the first three weeks in Thiès because they wanted us to get to know the town and our host families instead of running off to have fun in other cities or at the beach.
That weekend after Korite, all of us trainees went to the beach together. It so beautiful there. The beach is called Popenguine and it is one of the less touristy beaches. It also helps that the tourist season hasn’t quite started. Tourist season in Senegal is usually Nov-Mar when the weather is cooler (still warm compared to most of the Northern Hemisphere… in the upper 70s or so) and dryer which is essential for making the roads in the southern regions passable. It is also when the birds migrate south from Europe. In Northern Senegal, near the coast, there is the Parc National des Oiseaux du Djoudj (Djoudj National Bird Park) which is the first major freshwater stop over for birds flying south for the winter. It gets visited by hundreds of species of birds. The most spectacular are probably the pelicans that come in huge numbers and all gather on this one little island. January is also when the Paris-Dakar Rally is… that’s the huge car, truck and motorcycle race from Paris, France to Dakar, Senegal. It goes through France, Spain, Morocco and all through the Sahara region and then final ends at the Lac Rose which is right outside of Senegal’s capital. My dad says he wants to come watch the last stage while I’m here.
Anyways, the beach was a great respite from Thiès, which is a great place but we had been in the town continually for over three weeks and in class almost everyday of those three weeks. We still were only at the beach for a day and a half but it was very refreshing. We rented a huge house on the beach and people ended up sleeping with mattresses all over the place. The water was nice and warm and the waves big enough for a bit of body surfing. Its also nice being on the west coast of the continent because then you actually get to see the sunset.
Last weekend I finally visited Dakar. It was so nice to be back in a huge city in a developing country. They have this certain feel that I am so comfortable with. I think it has something to do with the heat, the noise, the differences in wealth, and the energy you feel. After living in Manila and also visiting the family in Jakarta every winter break for my first three years of college, it is almost first nature to me. I went with about 14 other trainees and we stayed at place that is very much like a youth hostel in Europe except you get don’t have to share you room with strangers. It is not too expensive… With four people in a room you pay about $8 and with two people in a room you would pay about $10 per person. We had dinner at a little ramshackle seafood place on the western most point of Africa which is on the Dakar peninsual, its called Pointe des Almadies. While we were there, I was given a necklace for free from a souvenir vendor because I think he thought I was the wife of this other trainee who had been talking to him in Wolof and had the same Senegalese last name as him. They like giving little gifts in this culture too.
This past week was also the counterpart workshop. Our future work counterparts and our supervisors came to Thies for it. My supervisor is also going to be my host mother in Sokone. She is very sweet but doesn’t speak much French. Her children do so we should be able to cope during my first few weeks while my Wolof is very, very basic. My counterpart does speak French and very clearly too which is very important. Some people have very thick accents here and I have a very hard time understanding. I am really excited now about getting to site and getting to know people. It is such a wonderful thought to think I’m not going to have to move all my stuff for two years. In college you move so much and it’s really exhausting and unsettling. Moving three or more times a year is too much!!!
Oh I’ve forgotten to mention my Senegalese names. In Senegal, we are given a Senegalese name. During my demystification my name was Aïda Ndieye. In Thies my name was Ndoumbe Sall and in Sokone my name will be Adema Diallo. In Thies I was named after my host mother’s sister and in Sokone I am named after my host mother’s grandmother. It can all be quite confusing. You do get used to be called that name but the hard thing will be after I’m used to being called Adema to switch back to Ndoumbe during Inservice Training (IST) when we go back to Thies for three weeks in Jan/Feb. This custom also becomes confusing when you don’t know other volunteers’ Senegalese names so when you try to talk about them to a Senegalese national, they don’t always know who you are talking about even if you know they know them. For instance, when I was talking to my host mother from Sokone, I was trying to tell her which volunteers I’d already met whom she knew and I was having to describe what they looked like because she didn’t know their American names and I didn’t know their Senegalese names.
That weekend after Korite, all of us trainees went to the beach together. It so beautiful there. The beach is called Popenguine and it is one of the less touristy beaches. It also helps that the tourist season hasn’t quite started. Tourist season in Senegal is usually Nov-Mar when the weather is cooler (still warm compared to most of the Northern Hemisphere… in the upper 70s or so) and dryer which is essential for making the roads in the southern regions passable. It is also when the birds migrate south from Europe. In Northern Senegal, near the coast, there is the Parc National des Oiseaux du Djoudj (Djoudj National Bird Park) which is the first major freshwater stop over for birds flying south for the winter. It gets visited by hundreds of species of birds. The most spectacular are probably the pelicans that come in huge numbers and all gather on this one little island. January is also when the Paris-Dakar Rally is… that’s the huge car, truck and motorcycle race from Paris, France to Dakar, Senegal. It goes through France, Spain, Morocco and all through the Sahara region and then final ends at the Lac Rose which is right outside of Senegal’s capital. My dad says he wants to come watch the last stage while I’m here.
Anyways, the beach was a great respite from Thiès, which is a great place but we had been in the town continually for over three weeks and in class almost everyday of those three weeks. We still were only at the beach for a day and a half but it was very refreshing. We rented a huge house on the beach and people ended up sleeping with mattresses all over the place. The water was nice and warm and the waves big enough for a bit of body surfing. Its also nice being on the west coast of the continent because then you actually get to see the sunset.
Last weekend I finally visited Dakar. It was so nice to be back in a huge city in a developing country. They have this certain feel that I am so comfortable with. I think it has something to do with the heat, the noise, the differences in wealth, and the energy you feel. After living in Manila and also visiting the family in Jakarta every winter break for my first three years of college, it is almost first nature to me. I went with about 14 other trainees and we stayed at place that is very much like a youth hostel in Europe except you get don’t have to share you room with strangers. It is not too expensive… With four people in a room you pay about $8 and with two people in a room you would pay about $10 per person. We had dinner at a little ramshackle seafood place on the western most point of Africa which is on the Dakar peninsual, its called Pointe des Almadies. While we were there, I was given a necklace for free from a souvenir vendor because I think he thought I was the wife of this other trainee who had been talking to him in Wolof and had the same Senegalese last name as him. They like giving little gifts in this culture too.
This past week was also the counterpart workshop. Our future work counterparts and our supervisors came to Thies for it. My supervisor is also going to be my host mother in Sokone. She is very sweet but doesn’t speak much French. Her children do so we should be able to cope during my first few weeks while my Wolof is very, very basic. My counterpart does speak French and very clearly too which is very important. Some people have very thick accents here and I have a very hard time understanding. I am really excited now about getting to site and getting to know people. It is such a wonderful thought to think I’m not going to have to move all my stuff for two years. In college you move so much and it’s really exhausting and unsettling. Moving three or more times a year is too much!!!
Oh I’ve forgotten to mention my Senegalese names. In Senegal, we are given a Senegalese name. During my demystification my name was Aïda Ndieye. In Thies my name was Ndoumbe Sall and in Sokone my name will be Adema Diallo. In Thies I was named after my host mother’s sister and in Sokone I am named after my host mother’s grandmother. It can all be quite confusing. You do get used to be called that name but the hard thing will be after I’m used to being called Adema to switch back to Ndoumbe during Inservice Training (IST) when we go back to Thies for three weeks in Jan/Feb. This custom also becomes confusing when you don’t know other volunteers’ Senegalese names so when you try to talk about them to a Senegalese national, they don’t always know who you are talking about even if you know they know them. For instance, when I was talking to my host mother from Sokone, I was trying to tell her which volunteers I’d already met whom she knew and I was having to describe what they looked like because she didn’t know their American names and I didn’t know their Senegalese names.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Sokone and Korite
First news, I know where I’m going to live and work after training!! I’ll be moving to Sokone which is in the Delta area which is NE of The Gambia. It’s a town of about 15,000 people and there are tons of PC Volunteers (PCVs) in the area including a bunch of people in my training stage that will be very close to me. I am told I’ll get a lot of visitors, particularly from the village based volunteers because I have running water and electricity as well as a nice 3 room apartment on a compound of a very nice family.
The way they revealed our site was really fun. On the basketball court at the training center they have a map of Senegal painted. We all had to shut our eyes and then they led us to our spot on the map. They when we were all placed we were allowed to open our eyes and not only see where we were but also which of the other trainees we are near. It was so exciting!!!
It’s Korite (Core E Tay) Weekend here and Ramadan is finally over!! It will be interesting to see how my daily life will change now. I’ve been told that Senegal is very different and much more subdued during Ramadan.
Korite has been an interesting experience. A friend called Alex who works for the same NGO that my dad works for came up for it the night before. He got stung by a scorpion when he was leaning on the door frame of my room just after he arrived. The scorpion was about an inch and a half long and black. I’d been told before by one of the other trainees that her biologist father said there were no deadly scorpions in Senegal but I still rushed to pull out my PC health handbook. We followed the directions to ice it and take Tylenol. He said that the spot that was stung was sore as were his arm muscles after words.
Korite was nothing like I suspected and I am not sure if it was a normal Korite or was altered because we had a huge down pour in the afternoon. The day started off with all the males in the families who were old enough to talk going off to the Mosque. They were all dressed in their brand new clothes. All Senegalese Muslims like to get new clothes for holidays and they try to never re-wear an outfit to another holiday if they can help it. As for the women, they must have done their own prayers at home and then started preparing the meal that we had at 2PM. It was Senegalese couscous, chicken, olives, sausage, boiled egg and an onion sauce. My family is wealthy by Senegalese standards so this meal had ingredients in it that most families might not have such as sausage and chicken. They would usually have fish. After our lunch I was so tired that I took a nap and was told that at 4PM we would be going out to visit people. But when I woke up at 4PM it started to pour with rain.
And then my room flooded. I wasn’t in my room when it started raining hard and didn’t realize that there was a puddle accumulating on my floor right where a bunch of my stuff is. So there was a big scramble to move everything when I walked in and yelled. We managed to put everything on my bed, shut the window and then mop up the floor. That is one great thing about having tiled floors versus carpet is that they are so much easier to clean, particularly with liquids. Nothing was too badly affected, a couple books have some water wrinkling and a few other things were wet.
So after that I changed into my new Senegalese outfit and we sat around for a bit. I got the outfit made a week ago. It consists of a panga (Paan Ya) which is a wrap skirt and a top made out of the same material. I picked out what they call a Hollandais Wax fabric. It’s white with a blue print on it. They call the fabric wax because there is a layer of wax on it. It makes it stiff and shiny, two things that the Senegalese like in their clothing. Then we went out “visiting”. That consisted of visiting the two homes that other Trainees live in around me. The first house the men in the house were watching Pearl Harbor in French! It strange seeing Josh Hartnett and Ben Affleck speaking French….
After that we came back and had another meal. Then some family came by to visit and drink tea but that was it. It was all a bit anti-climatic. First off all eating on the floor somehow takes a bit of the fun of a big meal away. We usually eat on the floor anyways, in the same circle around the bowl on a big mat like we did yesterday. Then just walking around to chat with people just seems a bit strange too. You do it to show off your clothes mainly since these are the same people you see all the time. Because families live together already, it is not the same sense of family reunion like it is in the U.S. for our big holidays.
The way they revealed our site was really fun. On the basketball court at the training center they have a map of Senegal painted. We all had to shut our eyes and then they led us to our spot on the map. They when we were all placed we were allowed to open our eyes and not only see where we were but also which of the other trainees we are near. It was so exciting!!!
It’s Korite (Core E Tay) Weekend here and Ramadan is finally over!! It will be interesting to see how my daily life will change now. I’ve been told that Senegal is very different and much more subdued during Ramadan.
Korite has been an interesting experience. A friend called Alex who works for the same NGO that my dad works for came up for it the night before. He got stung by a scorpion when he was leaning on the door frame of my room just after he arrived. The scorpion was about an inch and a half long and black. I’d been told before by one of the other trainees that her biologist father said there were no deadly scorpions in Senegal but I still rushed to pull out my PC health handbook. We followed the directions to ice it and take Tylenol. He said that the spot that was stung was sore as were his arm muscles after words.
Korite was nothing like I suspected and I am not sure if it was a normal Korite or was altered because we had a huge down pour in the afternoon. The day started off with all the males in the families who were old enough to talk going off to the Mosque. They were all dressed in their brand new clothes. All Senegalese Muslims like to get new clothes for holidays and they try to never re-wear an outfit to another holiday if they can help it. As for the women, they must have done their own prayers at home and then started preparing the meal that we had at 2PM. It was Senegalese couscous, chicken, olives, sausage, boiled egg and an onion sauce. My family is wealthy by Senegalese standards so this meal had ingredients in it that most families might not have such as sausage and chicken. They would usually have fish. After our lunch I was so tired that I took a nap and was told that at 4PM we would be going out to visit people. But when I woke up at 4PM it started to pour with rain.
And then my room flooded. I wasn’t in my room when it started raining hard and didn’t realize that there was a puddle accumulating on my floor right where a bunch of my stuff is. So there was a big scramble to move everything when I walked in and yelled. We managed to put everything on my bed, shut the window and then mop up the floor. That is one great thing about having tiled floors versus carpet is that they are so much easier to clean, particularly with liquids. Nothing was too badly affected, a couple books have some water wrinkling and a few other things were wet.
So after that I changed into my new Senegalese outfit and we sat around for a bit. I got the outfit made a week ago. It consists of a panga (Paan Ya) which is a wrap skirt and a top made out of the same material. I picked out what they call a Hollandais Wax fabric. It’s white with a blue print on it. They call the fabric wax because there is a layer of wax on it. It makes it stiff and shiny, two things that the Senegalese like in their clothing. Then we went out “visiting”. That consisted of visiting the two homes that other Trainees live in around me. The first house the men in the house were watching Pearl Harbor in French! It strange seeing Josh Hartnett and Ben Affleck speaking French….
After that we came back and had another meal. Then some family came by to visit and drink tea but that was it. It was all a bit anti-climatic. First off all eating on the floor somehow takes a bit of the fun of a big meal away. We usually eat on the floor anyways, in the same circle around the bowl on a big mat like we did yesterday. Then just walking around to chat with people just seems a bit strange too. You do it to show off your clothes mainly since these are the same people you see all the time. Because families live together already, it is not the same sense of family reunion like it is in the U.S. for our big holidays.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Week 4
This has been a long week. First of all, on Sunday evening the man in charge of Security for PC Senegal died in a car accident. So Monday there were no classes and Tuesday after class we went to pay our respects to his family. He was young and had 5 children and was by far the most important male in his family in terms of leadership and financial earning power.
This week had also been assessment week so we had our first language oral. I feel like I did pretty well on my French one. Class is going pretty well. Some of my tech classes are boring simply because I got my degree in Business and what is being covered is very elementary. I am one of the few in the Small Enterprise Development who has taken a lot of business courses so these classes are essential. It still is hard for me to sit through when I’m tired and already know the material.
Daily life for me here is long. Every morning I rise at 6:15 AM to get ready to leave for the training center at 7. I walk or bike with another Trainee who lives in the compound across from mine. I have taken to showering twice a day in order to keep my skin clean and cooler. I shower in the morning when I wake up and before I go to bed. Keeping clean is the best way to prevent most of the infections that you can get here and particularly heat rashes. I douse on the baby powder in the morning like I did when I lived in the Philippines. It really does help keep one drier and cooler in this hot and humid weather.
At the center, which is a 10 minute walk, we have breakfast that consists of a piece of fruit and French bread and tea or coffee. Classes run from 8-10, 10:30-12:30, 2:30-4, 4:30-6. So the morning is usually language with medical, cross cultural and tech sessions in the afternoon. I have gotten a lot of vaccinations while I’ve been here and before I came. Every week we seem to have 2 more. I’ve gotten some of them before but am getting them again just to be safe.
This week had also been assessment week so we had our first language oral. I feel like I did pretty well on my French one. Class is going pretty well. Some of my tech classes are boring simply because I got my degree in Business and what is being covered is very elementary. I am one of the few in the Small Enterprise Development who has taken a lot of business courses so these classes are essential. It still is hard for me to sit through when I’m tired and already know the material.
Daily life for me here is long. Every morning I rise at 6:15 AM to get ready to leave for the training center at 7. I walk or bike with another Trainee who lives in the compound across from mine. I have taken to showering twice a day in order to keep my skin clean and cooler. I shower in the morning when I wake up and before I go to bed. Keeping clean is the best way to prevent most of the infections that you can get here and particularly heat rashes. I douse on the baby powder in the morning like I did when I lived in the Philippines. It really does help keep one drier and cooler in this hot and humid weather.
At the center, which is a 10 minute walk, we have breakfast that consists of a piece of fruit and French bread and tea or coffee. Classes run from 8-10, 10:30-12:30, 2:30-4, 4:30-6. So the morning is usually language with medical, cross cultural and tech sessions in the afternoon. I have gotten a lot of vaccinations while I’ve been here and before I came. Every week we seem to have 2 more. I’ve gotten some of them before but am getting them again just to be safe.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Thiès
I have arrived!!! I am in Thiès, Senegal until November 9th.
I am so excited to be here. This country is absolutely fascinating. Where shall I start?
Well my first few days were probably less overwhelming for me than for others. 15 years in Asia helps a lot when adjusting to a third-world country, no matter what continent. It’s been taking me a bit to figure out what all the things I’m experiencing remind me of. It really is as if someone has taken random portions of my past and thrown them together and added a wee bit more to create the Senegal I am experiencing.
People here live in what can best be described as compounds. I live in a large house with various generations of one family. Some of the compounds are built around a courtyard, depending on the tribal group. Senegal is also a polygamous society so families really are huge. Most wives have their own house so a man could be supporting two wives and two households that could each include 3-5 children plus other relationships including grandparents (12-15 people). This can be difficult in a county that has 45% or so in the informal/unemployed sector. Technically all Muslims are polygamous because the Koran says you can have more than one wife but it also says you must treat them equally. Some Muslims take this to mean to love them equally which they know is not possible so that is why they only have one wife. However in Senegal they take that to mean that you must treat them equally financially which is fully possible to do.
The family I live with has four kids, two parents and a grandmother. My father works in the North of Senegal so he is gone for a week or two at a time and comes down some weekends. My mother works in Dakar but is here at the moment because she is a teacher and it is still holidays because it is Ramadan. Ramadan is the month of fasting for Muslims. It started September 14th and will finish on either October 13th or 14th depending on the sighting of the moon. The dates for Ramadan are set by the lunar calendar and so it moves 11 days earlier every year. I remember when we lived in Pakistan from 93-96 it was sometime between January and March. It is also the hottest time of the year in Thiès so it can be difficult for people to fast from dawn until dusk… no water or food. The really observant Muslims won’t even swallow their saliva.
Back to my Family. Well I have a 18 year old sister, a 6 year old sister and two brothers ages 3 and 1. The one year old took a couple days to get used to me but now he thinks I am very funny and laughs almost continually when he’s around me. He loves to come into my room and move all my toiletries from one side of the room to the other and see what else he can manage to carry out of my room with out being caught.
I am so excited to be here. This country is absolutely fascinating. Where shall I start?
Well my first few days were probably less overwhelming for me than for others. 15 years in Asia helps a lot when adjusting to a third-world country, no matter what continent. It’s been taking me a bit to figure out what all the things I’m experiencing remind me of. It really is as if someone has taken random portions of my past and thrown them together and added a wee bit more to create the Senegal I am experiencing.
People here live in what can best be described as compounds. I live in a large house with various generations of one family. Some of the compounds are built around a courtyard, depending on the tribal group. Senegal is also a polygamous society so families really are huge. Most wives have their own house so a man could be supporting two wives and two households that could each include 3-5 children plus other relationships including grandparents (12-15 people). This can be difficult in a county that has 45% or so in the informal/unemployed sector. Technically all Muslims are polygamous because the Koran says you can have more than one wife but it also says you must treat them equally. Some Muslims take this to mean to love them equally which they know is not possible so that is why they only have one wife. However in Senegal they take that to mean that you must treat them equally financially which is fully possible to do.
The family I live with has four kids, two parents and a grandmother. My father works in the North of Senegal so he is gone for a week or two at a time and comes down some weekends. My mother works in Dakar but is here at the moment because she is a teacher and it is still holidays because it is Ramadan. Ramadan is the month of fasting for Muslims. It started September 14th and will finish on either October 13th or 14th depending on the sighting of the moon. The dates for Ramadan are set by the lunar calendar and so it moves 11 days earlier every year. I remember when we lived in Pakistan from 93-96 it was sometime between January and March. It is also the hottest time of the year in Thiès so it can be difficult for people to fast from dawn until dusk… no water or food. The really observant Muslims won’t even swallow their saliva.
Back to my Family. Well I have a 18 year old sister, a 6 year old sister and two brothers ages 3 and 1. The one year old took a couple days to get used to me but now he thinks I am very funny and laughs almost continually when he’s around me. He loves to come into my room and move all my toiletries from one side of the room to the other and see what else he can manage to carry out of my room with out being caught.
Friday, August 17, 2007
24 days
This summer has gone by so quickly. Tomorrow will be three months since graduation. It really has been a splendid last summer of doing not too much. I've been nannying for the past 8 weeks for a five year old boy named Joe. Its been lots of fun and its been nice to spend so much time outside. The past three summers I've had inside jobs for the most part. I am ready to live in summer all year round again like in high school in Manila. The African heat can't be much worse then D.C. in August with its 90% humidity levels and temperatures hitting the 100's. Manila is actually a similar latitude to Dakar but Senegal is on the western side of the continent which affects its rain-fall patterns so the weather will likely be quite different (my meteorology class kicking in).
Prepping to go is taking me a long time, mostly because I am trying to make sure I bring stuff I will really use. I've been making all sorts of lists. I only get 80 lbs. and 107 inches (h+w+l) under Peace Corps rules. I tend to pack heavy so I need to be careful. I've been spending hours pouring over LL Bean and REI websites. It all is feeling a bit expensive but then I remember that this is going to last me for at least a year and then it doesn't sound so bad.
I've now found out I'm leaving the 10th so two more days with my family and now I'm not leaving on my mother's birthday! Training is in Thies, Senegal. I'll be living with a host family there. I'll likely live with a family my whole time in Senegal, particularly because I am female.
On Tuesday I am driving out with Kelly, my sister, to Minnesota. We are driving out my car so she can take it over. I am going to miss it!!! Then I have to say goodbye to her! I likely won't see my family until next June or July!! 10 or 11 months.
Prepping to go is taking me a long time, mostly because I am trying to make sure I bring stuff I will really use. I've been making all sorts of lists. I only get 80 lbs. and 107 inches (h+w+l) under Peace Corps rules. I tend to pack heavy so I need to be careful. I've been spending hours pouring over LL Bean and REI websites. It all is feeling a bit expensive but then I remember that this is going to last me for at least a year and then it doesn't sound so bad.
I've now found out I'm leaving the 10th so two more days with my family and now I'm not leaving on my mother's birthday! Training is in Thies, Senegal. I'll be living with a host family there. I'll likely live with a family my whole time in Senegal, particularly because I am female.
On Tuesday I am driving out with Kelly, my sister, to Minnesota. We are driving out my car so she can take it over. I am going to miss it!!! Then I have to say goodbye to her! I likely won't see my family until next June or July!! 10 or 11 months.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Senegal!!!
Finally... after many many months I know where I'm heading...
Senegal!!!
I am soooo extremely and positively excited. You know how sometimes you get this feeling that you know the outcome of something but you try your hardest to not hope too much for it in case the instinct is wrong and then you'll be disappointed?? This was one of those instances. I really badly wanted to be placed in Senegal but all I could do was pray and hope. Then the past few weeks I had this feeling that I was going to go to Senegal and then yesterday I go the official Invite and there it was... Senegal!!! My official title is Small Business Counselor working in Small Enterprise Development.
I leave for pre-departure orientation on Sept. 8th which is my mother's birthday. Its in Atlanta. The group of 45 or so of us will meet up there before leaving for Africa on the 10th/11th.
Now I'm going to be busy with a flurry of pre-departure tasks such as passport and visa stuff, packing lists, resume stuff... deciding whether to bring a laptop. Supposedly most people working in the business sector have electricity... I'm guessing internet is a totally different cup of tea.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
TB saga
Well I've spent the last month since graduation on two trips, one to Minneapolis and the other to LA. I've also read a stack of books, watched way to many episodes of Law & Order, CSI and the wedding shows on the Style Network as well as developed a decent tan by my standards. I think I am quite well recovered from my last sleepless-prone semester of college.
I am still waiting to find out where exactly I'm going with the Peace Corps. It is such a long process. I applied over Thanksgiving break and then Interviewed (the hard part) right before Christmas. I was then nominated for the West Africa Program leaving in early September to work in Small Business Development Advising. I then took until mid-April to get all my medical and dental forms filled out which you can imagine was very difficult considering I don't have a family physician or dentist because I've grown up all over the place. Then 8 weeks later they let me know that they need another form filled out. So when I got back from LA last Thursday I found out that I need to get a form about TB filled out by a doctor. That has resulted in a Mantoux/TB skin test, having blood drawn for tests, a chest x-ray and now they say because I've lived in a country that has a high rate of TB (the Philippines) within 5 years and that my skin test was positive (likely due to the BCG) and even though the Xray was fine that I need to be on drugs for the next four months. Now I hope this doesn't delay me leaving for Africa. I should hear back hopefully by next week. The doctor said that these drugs can easily be taken there and I would have been on it for three months before I leave so side effects should have passed. He also said I will be the leastlikely person to get TB out of my entire group because I'll be on the meds. Worse comes to worse I leave late October or Early November but I really hope it doesn't. I won't get back till 2010 then.....
The drugs are supposed to make all liquids yellow so my tears and sweat are going to be yellow. That means with the heat and humidity of Washington D.C. in the summer I am likely just going to be tinged yellow for the next four months because you sweat a lot here (hopefully I won't be crying).
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Cum Laude!
I am officially Jessica Asha Flaten, BSBA Cum Laude. I think that's how you say it. But most importantly I am done!!! Thank you to every one who got me this far!!! As far as my life goes, the Babson portion has been very "normal". Girl goes off to college, joins a sorority, is an RA for two years, goes abroad, dates a guy somewhere in there for 1.5 years quite seriously but then breaks it off... If I ever wrote my memoirs, I wonder how long this chapter would be? I guess I've yet to see how it will define the rest of my life. It could have almost no factor in what I do or it could have a massive impact (which would of course make the chapter a lot longer).
And on another note... its funny the reactions I get when I tell people I'm planning to head to West Africa with the Peace Corps. Some people just give a mild "that's nice" but then others have tonnes of questions like what made me decide to go. People that know my background well usually say it fits perfectly. Which I feel it does... it brings everything I want for the next few years oh-so-nicely. My Babson degree with its unavoidable Entrepreneurship flavor, my dissatisfaction with the incredibly selfish values of the business world, my family heritage of international development and working to help the poor of the world, my itchy feet which are dying to get out of this country, the need to do something INTERESTING after Babson...and my desire to escape the humdrum of the norm. Suzy Welch's comment at the Women's Leadership Event was the spark that lit the fuse way back in November. She said she decided on which paths to take in life because she "didn't want a boring life". That phrase stuck with me and it made me realize, neither did I! And then I found the Peace Corps and... voila! Its funny. Ever since I got the idea into my head to apply, I've never wavered from it. I'm dead set on it particularly because it feels so right to be doing it!
And on another note... its funny the reactions I get when I tell people I'm planning to head to West Africa with the Peace Corps. Some people just give a mild "that's nice" but then others have tonnes of questions like what made me decide to go. People that know my background well usually say it fits perfectly. Which I feel it does... it brings everything I want for the next few years oh-so-nicely. My Babson degree with its unavoidable Entrepreneurship flavor, my dissatisfaction with the incredibly selfish values of the business world, my family heritage of international development and working to help the poor of the world, my itchy feet which are dying to get out of this country, the need to do something INTERESTING after Babson...and my desire to escape the humdrum of the norm. Suzy Welch's comment at the Women's Leadership Event was the spark that lit the fuse way back in November. She said she decided on which paths to take in life because she "didn't want a boring life". That phrase stuck with me and it made me realize, neither did I! And then I found the Peace Corps and... voila! Its funny. Ever since I got the idea into my head to apply, I've never wavered from it. I'm dead set on it particularly because it feels so right to be doing it!
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Done
Yesterday afternoon I officially finished all my course work for my bachelor of science in business administration (quite the mouthful). So now really I just need the diploma. And the grades to come in but I'm not worried about them. Now basically I sit and twiddle my thumbs for the next 9 days. Well, that's not totally true. Senior Week starts Monday.
I am getting quite antsy to get out of here. I am completely ready for a summer of sun and family and nannying. Though as it gets hotter I am realizing I am going to miss cool weather but not cold weather... I am not a snow fan. It could be possibly be 2.5 years of hot weather continually, depending on where I'm posted by the Peace Corps in Africa. If its in the Saharan countries like Mauritania or Mali it will get cold at night as I've learnt in my meteorology class.
Hmm I wonder where I'll end up... I'd like Senegal or Mali I think.
I am getting quite antsy to get out of here. I am completely ready for a summer of sun and family and nannying. Though as it gets hotter I am realizing I am going to miss cool weather but not cold weather... I am not a snow fan. It could be possibly be 2.5 years of hot weather continually, depending on where I'm posted by the Peace Corps in Africa. If its in the Saharan countries like Mauritania or Mali it will get cold at night as I've learnt in my meteorology class.
Hmm I wonder where I'll end up... I'd like Senegal or Mali I think.
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