This Senegalese Life

I can hardly believe it's been over a month since I left for Peace Corps. Training is jam-packed, learning the language is difficult and overwhelming, and oh, by the way, I'm seriously enjoying myself. Pre-Service Training (PST) is predominately focused on language acquisition but we also have technical, cultural, and safety/security training. I've been back and forth between the Thies Training Center and my host family site in Samba Loube--about 30 minutes from the Center. While at the center we have sessions all day on various topics such as soil amendments, Volunteer expectations/responsibilities, language classes, field crops, compost, volunteer credibility, and more. While at the homestay it's language class in the morning, speaking the language with my family in the afternoon, planting/growing a garden in the early evening, and more language practice in the evening. My host family is great. It's a big family: my host dad has one wife who has nine kids; there's also an uncle, a grandma, and more relatives around. I'm their first volunteer so we're both learning. The evenings are a little cooler and I often sit in the dark with my host dad or over on the mat with the women and kids after eating an 8:30 pm dinner by flashlight. Dinner, by the way, is communal, served in a big bowl on the ground, and eaten with hands. I get a spoon though!

At my home site I pull water from the well for bucket showers and also for watering the garden in which we planted both garden and filed crops for practice. My name at site is Fatimata Jiamank but it's shortened to Fatu by my family and to Ol' crazy fatty Fatu by my language partners. I was named after the 12 year girl in my family who takes care of me, shows me the ropes, and otherwise does all the housework.

I know I'm going to miss a lot of details but I'll try to give everyone a glimpse into this Senegalese life:

-The food is fine. It doesn't have many vegetables and the vegetables are boiled to death--with meat. That is, if there are any vegetables in the first place. It's a lot of rice and fish at my homestay. But my family does cook me beans and eggs! Oh, and there's sand in everything.

-I sleep on an awful foam pad that has a permanent dent, on a regular wood bed frame, under a mosquito net, IN A FURNACE. It's a cement block room with a tin roof. I do have a window that helps... a little. I get up often in the night to open the door to feel some fresh air. I'm developing many techniques of fanning within the mosquito net.

-The other trainees are from diverse backgrounds from fine arts to meteorology; and, as expected, we've bonded quite well through our common experience. It's a great group of supportive, quirky, intelligent people. Lucky me :)

-I haven't taken any pictures yet but will start soon (I hope). It's hard to explain how different things are here. I'll save those reflections to accompany the pictures.

I found out my permanent site placement a week ago! My village is Salamata, a village of 1,200 people. It's in Kolda which is in the soouth of Senegal, under The Gambia. There are lots trees and weeds that are taller than tall people! It's nice and vegetated which is good for the mental health; but, it's really far away and separated from the rest of Senegal/other volunteers. I just got back from visiting my site. It's beautiful and I'll be in a round clay hut with a pointy thatch roof. And it will be easy to set up my hammock in my backyard! (My super awesome camping hammock that makes me feel very, very loved.)

Of course, I forgot to take pictures, so bear with me for a bit. Everything goes slower here. There have been two other volunteers at my site so the family is fairly used to Americans. Also, I have a Health Volunteer site mate 3k from me and she seems awesome. I'm glad to have someone so close and we're already talking about collaborating on a garden at the health center to better educate children on nutrition. There is also a Master Farm at my site which is going to be a lot of work but is a great opportunity to demonstrate sustainable agriculture techniques. A Master Farm is a site working with a Senegalese partner that follows Peace Corps agriculture techniques and helps to share with other farmers in the area. I'll tell you more about it once I know more about it.

Overall, it's exciting. Time passes so differently here. Sorry for not updating sooner--I most often don't have internet and when I do I barely have time. I obviously won't have internet at site but will hopefully be able to get to it every two weeks. I'm looking forward to finding a rhythm, getting to know my site and my permanent host family, and to stop living out of a bag.

I know there's more to share but I'm out of time for today. If you want to know something in particular, ask me in a comment and I'll try to respond (in the next month).

Peace (CORPS) and Love,

!