Response: Maalekum Salaam!
Friday and Saturday were full of introductions to the staff here, language and site placement interviews, Survival Wolof classes (Nanga def?), and some crash culture courses, to give us the most basic tools necessary for our homestays, which will start on Tuesday, rumor has it. Saturday we also stepped out of the compound for a bit to walk around and see more of the area of Thies that is directly around us, with Etienne, our master safety and security man. It was definitely toubabs on parade, let me tell you! Senegal has a beautiful and fascinating culture of greeting each other when you go by on the street (I’m sure this will get annoying while trying to actually get things done) and people were definitely surprised when we walked by (a huge group of 40 toubabs, mind you…), with greetings of “Asalaa Maalekum!” and “Nanga def?” It was cool to see little kids excited to see us but extremely weird to know that most of the eyes on the street were on us. There was one little child yesterday who called us toubabs and right away he got a stern lecture from his grandmother, which was kind of funny but also great to know she was trying to teach him respect, etc. Basically, the strategy for us is to greet people on a regular basis so they know us and our faces and can better help or protect us, should the need ever arise. It’s really a cool thing to know that the Senegalese culture is so friendly in general. I mean, it is the “pays de la teranga” (Country of Hospitality). I guess this is how it will be for awhile, though I think it will be better when I actually know more of the language. I’m sure anyone who has studied or traveled in Africa knows what I’m talking about. Today we went to the market and divided up much more, but there were definitely some cute old ladies (and many others, but they had the cutest faces) surprised to hear some Arabic and Wolof come out of ours mouths. During the Culture Fair, we learned things like “douche ettiquette” (bathrooms…), how to light a lantern, pulling water from a well, how to properly eat with one’s right hand and slurp tea, and the proper way to tie a pagne (apparently I’ve been tying my lapa backwards for the past year…)
Oooo, I also forgot that Friday we had a tam-tam celebration which meant DANCING!!!!!!!! Woot woot! It wasn’t quite the same as Mama Marcia’s class, but still rockin’ and hot (Temperature and music) nonetheless. There were just a few drummers and one kid teaching us some dances, though he didn’t teach very well so the main drummer and Aya, our homestay coordinator, and another staff member frequently would step up. It was a lot of fun, esp because most of the people in my stage (training class) danced along. It was also fun because I could definitely hold my own and recognized bits and pieces of other steps, though we weren’t doing any particular dance I had learned before. It definitely energized me and got me super excited for the bigger celebrations that will come our way over the next 2.25 years.
lundi 17 mars 2008
Bonjour de Senegal
Le 16 mars 2008
Greetings from “warm” Senegal. I say warm because it’s probably in the high 80s and mid 90s and we have about 30 degrees more to go before we hit the Dry Season. Yes, that’s right…we are currently at the very end of the wet and “cool” season, which is the windy season. The Marmottan (sp?) Winds are warm desert winds that sweep down from the Sahara (Mauritania, etc), bringing strong winds and kicking up dust but at least it’s not humid…not yet, that will come in April or May.
So after about 36 hours and five or six legs of our journey and tons of airport waiting (our flight from NY was 3.5 hours late leaving and we were forbidden from leaving the Brussels Airport), we arrived in Thies around 12:30 to many excited happy faces at our compound, le Centre de Formation de la Corps de la Paix/Senegal. To our surprise, the training compound is HUGE! There are lots of camp/dorm style rooms, bathrooms (yea squatty potty), classrooms (indoor and outdoor), and other facilities. It turns out that some of our staff members actually live on the premises, so there’s of course a lunch hut, a kitchen, a refectoir (where we eat breakfast and dinner), showers, laundry facilities (ie counter with buckets), and some gardens where the Ag trainees and volunteers practice growing things. The compound is beautiful and actually part of an old military base, so it’s surrounded by old abandoned barracks and such. To say it in another way, we all feel very blessed that the Peace Corps/Senegal program is so established and has some great facilities available to us.
In other news, I’m covered in mosquito bites because apparently if your hand is inside a net but touching it while you sleep, evil mosquitoes will attack your left hand, leaving 8 bites up and down it…boo! Don’t worry, we started our prophylaxis drugs last week and while I remember having had one dream since taking it that was pretty “vivid,” it wasn’t vivid or trippy enough for me to remember it. Give it a few weeks though… Also, soon we will start receiving more shots, such as rabis and a few Hepatitis shots (A and C? Don’t remember), plus more… Apparently we become pin cushions upon entering the country.
Today we received our Peace Corps-issued bikes, helmets, and toolkits for the bikes. My bike is probably one of the oldest, dirties, and rustiest (on the handle and bells, not really where it matters), so I need to clean it up. If anyone wants to send me things like cool bike stickers or those colored things for the spokes to make it look a little prettier (but it is red, so that’s awesome), that would be super fun.
I haven’t yet purchased a cell phone (a current Volunteer is trying to get us a deal though I dont think it will work out), but will hopefully have one in a few days, so I’ll make sure to post it so you can get in touch with me as needed. I will also eventually look into getting a Skype account (heard that you can download your account to a thumb drive), but that will probably depend on what things are like at either my homestay or my final placement (ie vicinity to an internet café with a decent connection) and I need to purchase a headset in that time too. As for general internet-ness, ca depend. The nearest internet café has a terrible connection and we haven’t yet seen the slightly better ones, so I’m hoping for something near my training homestay.
As for the homestay, I’m definitely more nervous than I was for my Belgian or French ones because I at least knew the language. Here I know French, but will most likely be placed in a village outside of Thies (since that’s more like what I will live in during my service, rather than living in Thies), so it will be either Wolof or Pulaar (another West African language) and will make communication VERY DIFFICULT for quite awhile, since it’s not very likely they will speak much/any French. I’ll just have to wait for Tuesday and see. It’s definitely a nervous excited, but I also am really looking forward to seeing what life in a village is like. This city is kind of crazy and overwhelming, that’s for sure.
Anyway, I’m borrowing a fellow trainee’s computer now, so I should probably go now. Ba ci kanom! A la plutard! Please send me letters and stuff, I would really love it and I think all of us are looking forward with eager anticipation for our first pieces of mail from the States.
Vous me manquez!
Greetings from “warm” Senegal. I say warm because it’s probably in the high 80s and mid 90s and we have about 30 degrees more to go before we hit the Dry Season. Yes, that’s right…we are currently at the very end of the wet and “cool” season, which is the windy season. The Marmottan (sp?) Winds are warm desert winds that sweep down from the Sahara (Mauritania, etc), bringing strong winds and kicking up dust but at least it’s not humid…not yet, that will come in April or May.
So after about 36 hours and five or six legs of our journey and tons of airport waiting (our flight from NY was 3.5 hours late leaving and we were forbidden from leaving the Brussels Airport), we arrived in Thies around 12:30 to many excited happy faces at our compound, le Centre de Formation de la Corps de la Paix/Senegal. To our surprise, the training compound is HUGE! There are lots of camp/dorm style rooms, bathrooms (yea squatty potty), classrooms (indoor and outdoor), and other facilities. It turns out that some of our staff members actually live on the premises, so there’s of course a lunch hut, a kitchen, a refectoir (where we eat breakfast and dinner), showers, laundry facilities (ie counter with buckets), and some gardens where the Ag trainees and volunteers practice growing things. The compound is beautiful and actually part of an old military base, so it’s surrounded by old abandoned barracks and such. To say it in another way, we all feel very blessed that the Peace Corps/Senegal program is so established and has some great facilities available to us.
In other news, I’m covered in mosquito bites because apparently if your hand is inside a net but touching it while you sleep, evil mosquitoes will attack your left hand, leaving 8 bites up and down it…boo! Don’t worry, we started our prophylaxis drugs last week and while I remember having had one dream since taking it that was pretty “vivid,” it wasn’t vivid or trippy enough for me to remember it. Give it a few weeks though… Also, soon we will start receiving more shots, such as rabis and a few Hepatitis shots (A and C? Don’t remember), plus more… Apparently we become pin cushions upon entering the country.
Today we received our Peace Corps-issued bikes, helmets, and toolkits for the bikes. My bike is probably one of the oldest, dirties, and rustiest (on the handle and bells, not really where it matters), so I need to clean it up. If anyone wants to send me things like cool bike stickers or those colored things for the spokes to make it look a little prettier (but it is red, so that’s awesome), that would be super fun.
I haven’t yet purchased a cell phone (a current Volunteer is trying to get us a deal though I dont think it will work out), but will hopefully have one in a few days, so I’ll make sure to post it so you can get in touch with me as needed. I will also eventually look into getting a Skype account (heard that you can download your account to a thumb drive), but that will probably depend on what things are like at either my homestay or my final placement (ie vicinity to an internet café with a decent connection) and I need to purchase a headset in that time too. As for general internet-ness, ca depend. The nearest internet café has a terrible connection and we haven’t yet seen the slightly better ones, so I’m hoping for something near my training homestay.
As for the homestay, I’m definitely more nervous than I was for my Belgian or French ones because I at least knew the language. Here I know French, but will most likely be placed in a village outside of Thies (since that’s more like what I will live in during my service, rather than living in Thies), so it will be either Wolof or Pulaar (another West African language) and will make communication VERY DIFFICULT for quite awhile, since it’s not very likely they will speak much/any French. I’ll just have to wait for Tuesday and see. It’s definitely a nervous excited, but I also am really looking forward to seeing what life in a village is like. This city is kind of crazy and overwhelming, that’s for sure.
Anyway, I’m borrowing a fellow trainee’s computer now, so I should probably go now. Ba ci kanom! A la plutard! Please send me letters and stuff, I would really love it and I think all of us are looking forward with eager anticipation for our first pieces of mail from the States.
Vous me manquez!
mercredi 12 mars 2008
Thies = Chess
French pronunciations have failed me and I have been mispronouncing "Thies" for a few months now, oops! Anyway, tomorrow I fly out for Thies and will be in the air/waiting at airports for about 2 days straight. We land in Dakar around 9:40 pm, then have customs and a 2 hour ride to the Thies Training Center where we will stay for a few days before being thrown into host families and diving into training.
Backing up...Staging is now over; it was good, quick, and relatively painless, minus the shots and malaria prophylaxis which made my head spin for several hours. It's been great meeting the 39 others headed with me and knowing that we are all basically at the same level of nervousness and excitement about the unknown adventures ahead of us. Everyone seems pretty cool and friendly and we all seem to be in agreement about that, which is even better. Most of us are Health Ed or Environmental Ed with about 5 or 6 doing Urban Agriculture (weird title, but it sounds like a really cool program doing community gardening, etc). Some have French, some don't, but we will all be in the same boat about Wolof and none of us have been to Senegal before.
This may be my last post for awhile, at least until I figure out what the heck is going on at PST in Thies...unless there's an internet cafe in the Brussels Airport that I can take advantage of duringWe land in Dakar around 9:40 pm, then have customs and a 2 hour ride to the Thies Training Center where we will stay for a few days before being thrown into host families and diving into training. our 7hour layover when we can't leave the airport...boo! We leave Philly at 10am, drive to NYC, fly out of JFK at 6:15pm, land in Brussels at 6:45am, fly out at 2pm, and arrive at 9:40pm...it will be an epic and life-changing journey, that's for sure! We land in Dakar around 9:40 pm, then have customs and a 2 hour ride to the Thies Training Center where we will stay for a few days before being thrown into host families and diving into training.
Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers, esp as I start this new crazy journey. I will be thinking of all of you!
Always,
B
Backing up...Staging is now over; it was good, quick, and relatively painless, minus the shots and malaria prophylaxis which made my head spin for several hours. It's been great meeting the 39 others headed with me and knowing that we are all basically at the same level of nervousness and excitement about the unknown adventures ahead of us. Everyone seems pretty cool and friendly and we all seem to be in agreement about that, which is even better. Most of us are Health Ed or Environmental Ed with about 5 or 6 doing Urban Agriculture (weird title, but it sounds like a really cool program doing community gardening, etc). Some have French, some don't, but we will all be in the same boat about Wolof and none of us have been to Senegal before.
This may be my last post for awhile, at least until I figure out what the heck is going on at PST in Thies...unless there's an internet cafe in the Brussels Airport that I can take advantage of duringWe land in Dakar around 9:40 pm, then have customs and a 2 hour ride to the Thies Training Center where we will stay for a few days before being thrown into host families and diving into training. our 7hour layover when we can't leave the airport...boo! We leave Philly at 10am, drive to NYC, fly out of JFK at 6:15pm, land in Brussels at 6:45am, fly out at 2pm, and arrive at 9:40pm...it will be an epic and life-changing journey, that's for sure! We land in Dakar around 9:40 pm, then have customs and a 2 hour ride to the Thies Training Center where we will stay for a few days before being thrown into host families and diving into training.
Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers, esp as I start this new crazy journey. I will be thinking of all of you!
Always,
B
dimanche 9 mars 2008
26 hours or so...
until I will be leaving my house for the airport to Staging! I have so much to do and while my room and DC belongings are mostly put away, there is now a line of PC things circling my room. I have a long to-do list for tomorrow, in addition to some family time, but will probably spend much of it running around and frantically shoving things into my hiking backpack and duffel. It's crunch time, folks!
And, of course, we lose an hour...
And, of course, we lose an hour...
vendredi 7 mars 2008
Dakar by way of my favorite city ever, Bruxelles!
Patience and flexibility, combined with a sense of humor, are probably some of the most important qualities necessary for the Peace Corps, or really anything involved with the government or any level of bureaucracy. This experience from the application process to now have definitely tested and developed mine. Yesterday, we (my Staging group, probably around 40 of us...) found out that our Staging (orientation) was moved from Atlanta (Suz and many others know how "fun" that dreaded airport is, right?) to Philly. No biggie, PC is paying for my ticket wherever, so ATL vs Philly makes no difference to me--the flights are roughly the same length and the Philly flight takes off not even 30 min later than my ATL one was supposed to be. Of course, now the ATL-Dakar direct flight won't be happening so I was very excited to discover that we would be making a stopover in Brussels before heading off to Senegal! On Wednesday, March 12, we will ride from Philly to NYC, fly out of JFK on American Airlines overnight to Brussels. We will have a roughly 7 hour layover in Brussels (my longest ever though probably not quite long enough to get to the Grande Place or anywhere outside of the airport, but it will be rockin' to be in a familiar place on my way to a not-so-familiar one). We will then have an afternoon-evening flight to Dakar, getting in around 10pm on Thursday (a week from now), probably insanely exhausted and excited for the unknown. This also doubles the time flying for us from an 8h 15min flight to over 16 hours from NYC to BRU and BRU to Dakar. I think I'm going to be doing a lot of reading the next few years :)
Today was also haircut day (7-8 inches, not quite enough to donate) so I will try and post a pic of the new cut soon (when it's curly rather than the blown-dry Clip Joint style) for inquiring minds (Suz). Also, I must admit, I actually bought boring earrings today in an attempt to be practical pre-PC. By boring, I mean they aren't 2 inches long and crazy colored, but I didn't even let myself look at the fun stuff! Discipline and a phone call with Jen helped, hehe.
1 business day (ie bank and "important" stuff) and the weekend before I head out! Katie is in town, so she'll help set up my iPod as I continue to use her room to pack while working on cleaning and organizing my own room for 2+ years. Crazy!
Today was also haircut day (7-8 inches, not quite enough to donate) so I will try and post a pic of the new cut soon (when it's curly rather than the blown-dry Clip Joint style) for inquiring minds (Suz). Also, I must admit, I actually bought boring earrings today in an attempt to be practical pre-PC. By boring, I mean they aren't 2 inches long and crazy colored, but I didn't even let myself look at the fun stuff! Discipline and a phone call with Jen helped, hehe.
1 business day (ie bank and "important" stuff) and the weekend before I head out! Katie is in town, so she'll help set up my iPod as I continue to use her room to pack while working on cleaning and organizing my own room for 2+ years. Crazy!
mercredi 5 mars 2008
When you think PC, think AU...it's the same
Thanks to Vicky for that lovely thought, oh bureaucracy!
Staging has apparently been moved to Philly from Atlanta...we are just 5 days out. Oh well, not like it really matters since it's still leaving on the same day, I just find it all funny. :)
Staging has apparently been moved to Philly from Atlanta...we are just 5 days out. Oh well, not like it really matters since it's still leaving on the same day, I just find it all funny. :)
mardi 4 mars 2008
The In-Between, one could say
I'm in between life right now, I guess I could say.
I left DC last Thursday early afternoon after filling the Taurus to the brim and Dad drove us straight through...13 hours and only 3 stops! It was much, much harder leaving DC than I had anticipated. Five or six months ago, when I was originally anticipating leaving DC for a November departure (oh, never hearing about my nomination...), I was SO ready to leave. I wanted to get away from my jobs, the city, and the people as well, and was crushed hearing that I wasn't actually leaving until March...it was SO far away. In that time, however, I came to be happy in both jobs, remembered why I liked the city, and developed new friendships with great people, making leaving all the more difficult. Driving away, from P&P, the GB, and then AU, knowing I won't be back, even to visit, for quite some time was just bizarre. And yes, there were tears though I know I'll be back.
Now that I'm back in IL, I'm at an in-between in life. I no longer have DC as my home and while Senegal soon will be home, it's not yet. The college and post-college DC chapter in my life has come to an end, but the PC chapter hasn't quite started either (unless you count submitting my application a year ago when it really started...). However, now that I'm back in CL, my life can be focused on PC prep and things without having the distraction of long work weeks, as much as I may miss my jobs. I guess I'm technically visiting CL because I'm only here for just over a week, but I'm unpacking many of my belongings to find places for them for a few years. Several different strangers asked me today if I live in the area or just visiting and while I went into the "live in DC, from here, joining PC and moving to Africa" with some of them, many others I just nodded my head and said "yep" or "something like that..." I told the dental hygienist today that I'm somewhat nomadic right now, though it's weird to think that by the end of PC 2.25 years down the road, I'll have lived in my house/hut/room at site for 2 years continuously (in theory), which is longer than anywhere I'll have lived since graduating hs several years ago (I guess I lived a somewhat though not really nomadic life in college). Does that make sense? Maybe not, but to me it does, so deal... :)
Anyway, though I'm still unpacking from DC, I've started the PC packing in the sense that I put the things I know I'm bringing that have been gathering in drawers and corners all in one spot (on my sister's bunk bed). That pile seems to be growing faster than things in my room are being put away... I also started the first few of many loads of laundry I need to do this week, which is a plus, but will take several days, probably. Tomorrow I'm hitting the mall and Target to by random travel things and toiletries that I know I need. The shopping list is quite long. I have a lot to do in order to prepare myself and the fact that my room is in such a state of disrepair is overwhelming me, but I trust things that need to get done will, or at least somewhat.
In less than a week I will be at Staging and my ticket for it arrived via email this morning. I can't believe how fast this is coming! It's so scary and exciting at the same time. Encouragement from friends and strangers alike though have definitely been amazing, so thank you. During this pre-departure chaos and anxiety, I need to frequently remind myself that I have amazing people in my life who support me and have confidence that I can do this job and also who remind me how much I want to do this, because it can be easy to forget and I know I will need to remind myself (or be reminded) when I'm actually over there.
Sorry this blog has a slightly depressing tone to it...I guess that's the mood of the night. As I said, most of these pre-departure blog entries are just me being nostalgic and nervous, but I know things will get both more difficult and more amazing the moment I step off that plane, so the blog entries will hopefully be a little more entertaining. :)
I left DC last Thursday early afternoon after filling the Taurus to the brim and Dad drove us straight through...13 hours and only 3 stops! It was much, much harder leaving DC than I had anticipated. Five or six months ago, when I was originally anticipating leaving DC for a November departure (oh, never hearing about my nomination...), I was SO ready to leave. I wanted to get away from my jobs, the city, and the people as well, and was crushed hearing that I wasn't actually leaving until March...it was SO far away. In that time, however, I came to be happy in both jobs, remembered why I liked the city, and developed new friendships with great people, making leaving all the more difficult. Driving away, from P&P, the GB, and then AU, knowing I won't be back, even to visit, for quite some time was just bizarre. And yes, there were tears though I know I'll be back.
Now that I'm back in IL, I'm at an in-between in life. I no longer have DC as my home and while Senegal soon will be home, it's not yet. The college and post-college DC chapter in my life has come to an end, but the PC chapter hasn't quite started either (unless you count submitting my application a year ago when it really started...). However, now that I'm back in CL, my life can be focused on PC prep and things without having the distraction of long work weeks, as much as I may miss my jobs. I guess I'm technically visiting CL because I'm only here for just over a week, but I'm unpacking many of my belongings to find places for them for a few years. Several different strangers asked me today if I live in the area or just visiting and while I went into the "live in DC, from here, joining PC and moving to Africa" with some of them, many others I just nodded my head and said "yep" or "something like that..." I told the dental hygienist today that I'm somewhat nomadic right now, though it's weird to think that by the end of PC 2.25 years down the road, I'll have lived in my house/hut/room at site for 2 years continuously (in theory), which is longer than anywhere I'll have lived since graduating hs several years ago (I guess I lived a somewhat though not really nomadic life in college). Does that make sense? Maybe not, but to me it does, so deal... :)
Anyway, though I'm still unpacking from DC, I've started the PC packing in the sense that I put the things I know I'm bringing that have been gathering in drawers and corners all in one spot (on my sister's bunk bed). That pile seems to be growing faster than things in my room are being put away... I also started the first few of many loads of laundry I need to do this week, which is a plus, but will take several days, probably. Tomorrow I'm hitting the mall and Target to by random travel things and toiletries that I know I need. The shopping list is quite long. I have a lot to do in order to prepare myself and the fact that my room is in such a state of disrepair is overwhelming me, but I trust things that need to get done will, or at least somewhat.
In less than a week I will be at Staging and my ticket for it arrived via email this morning. I can't believe how fast this is coming! It's so scary and exciting at the same time. Encouragement from friends and strangers alike though have definitely been amazing, so thank you. During this pre-departure chaos and anxiety, I need to frequently remind myself that I have amazing people in my life who support me and have confidence that I can do this job and also who remind me how much I want to do this, because it can be easy to forget and I know I will need to remind myself (or be reminded) when I'm actually over there.
Sorry this blog has a slightly depressing tone to it...I guess that's the mood of the night. As I said, most of these pre-departure blog entries are just me being nostalgic and nervous, but I know things will get both more difficult and more amazing the moment I step off that plane, so the blog entries will hopefully be a little more entertaining. :)
Inscription à :
Articles (Atom)