Popenguinea and Serere Land, almost

The beach...yes, the Atlantic Ocean
32 of us crammed into this bus...yea...5 across
Because people will be upset if I don't include one of myself on the beach
The sun SETTING over the ATLANTIC OCEAN!!!!
The view from our house, right next to the beach!

More details later about the trip and more about Site Revelation and where I will be spending the next two years of my life in a few days (Wednesday, j'espere). Thursday I go on a site visit to the Delta (my future home) for 10 days away from technology and stuff. Love ya!

Khaadi or Khady...fam keeps chnging it!

Ndigil Ndigil?

Really? Really?

My host brother loves when I say "Ndigil ndigil," which means "really?" or "Is that true?" or "Yes, it's true!" Apparently it sounds funny the way I say it...just try it out...deegal deegal...haha

Well that was my reaction today when I found out from a Volunteer who has now completed his two year service (whom my fellow Serere speaking trainee, now known as my "Serere brother," will replace), that when I swear in (Inshallah!) I will become the first EVER Serere-speaking Health Volunteer in Senegal! Whoa! I confirmed with my awesome language teacher and APCD that this is a fact. That's a lot of pressure, huh? Now what does it mean, exactly? Well, I will receive my official site placement on Friday (woot!), but I think it means I will probably be at a new site that has never had a Volunteer before (or if they did, it was agriculture or environental ed). Health volunteers are grouped in regions, so it's possible my site will be a small Serere village in a mostly Wolof region or on the edge of one of the Serere regions or something like that, meaning I will not be the only Health Volunteer around my neck of the woods, but I may be a ways away from them, but I'm totally just speculating right now. It also means that I will have to work with my Language Trainer to create a list of health vocab in Serere, since the other languages already have them. There's going to be some groundbreaking and it will be tough as the only Serere Health Volunteer in Senegal, but I'm also freakin' excited about it. I really love the sound of the Serere language, so this will definitely encourage me to kick up my language skills as fast as possible, which isn't yet happening to the degree I want.

Along those lines, this week is our first week of evaluations. PCTs are evaluated during weeks 4, 6, and 8 (right before Swear-In), to check our overall progress in training, to make sure our language skills are at the basic level required, to check our cultural integration with our host families, to check our understanding and competancies with the culture and our fields (health, for me), and check our medical and safety/security understanding. We are always in a constant state of observance and practice, but things are kicked up with tests and such this week. This morning was my language evaluation and while I don't know exactly what level I tested into, talking with my trainer, I didn't do as badly as I had worried about (esp after an off-language day yesterday) and actually did pretty well, but it was good knowing that both she and I recognized the same problems I am having and can work on targeting them. Not surprisingly, I have the same issues with certainsentence structures and not paying enough attention to certan verbs, that I have with French, lol. Things to work on. Language will come, but it's definitely the main focus of PST and I actually find myself sad and annoyed days that we only have one language class. I definitely wouldn't have predicted that at the start of PST! I'm such a nerd, haha.

We've also started to getmore into our subject/technical fields, which is exciting. I will try and post soon about my daily life and more on the health tech classes, but that may be another few days.

Thanks for the mail, prayers, emails, good thoughts, etc. I miss and love you all!

So I've been spelling my name incorrectly for about a week now..

apparently it's actually "Khaadi" but who knew? It took creating the Diouf Family Tree to discover that my name has a silent K. I don't blame myself though, esp since I didn't actually know it was my name until the day after it was bestowed on me. It is pronounced "Haadi" though. I guess there are a lot of different letters in Serere that can create the "H" sound.

Heres some pics from around the house since Picasa still won't work...


The kitchen (pots and gas burner) in the forground, water spout in the back, toilet door is the blue one (pic of that will come with picasa...), open door is where the sheep sleep, and I think that the green door is the pantry, but I've never seen it open.
Two of my host sisters, Oumy (21) and Codou (26), and myself. It was the night of Easterd though I dressed up and put on make up in the morning, an afternoon in Africa made me kind of gross looking...
With Moussa, one of my 4 host brothers, though the only one who actually lives in the house.
My room...taken standing a foot and a half out the door. It's small, but mine. Notice the mosquito net...it's the same one frm my room duringtraining.
The courtyard. The kitchen and stuff are around the corner to the left. Babacar, another host bro lives in the room behind the blue door.

My water filter...this gets out the worms and then I bleach it to kill any parasites. I'm pretty sure I overbleach my water though...oh well.
The little box is my window. The screen grating is from the porch/common room where we eat and stuff. I'll try and take a pic of that soon. The sheep are around the corner, past my room.

To explain my frequent posting right now...I just happen to live right by a cyber cafe...ie it's in a building off my courtyard, so I'm taking advantage of frequent internet access while I have it. After mid May, that's another story... I'm trying notto get use to it, but my host fam wasn't around when I got home and I didn't feel like studying Serere right then.

This has been a week of ups and downs, that's for sure. It's comforting to know that most of my fellow trainees are in the same boat with this Peace Corps rollercoaster. Tuesday was rough for most of us after long weekends in our towns/villages with the hostfams, but the Center treated us to a meal of pasta and chicken for lunch on Wednesday. It was likethey knew that was the most welcomed meal ever...who thought when I complained about only being able to cook pasta and chicken a few months ago that I would celebrate having it here. Since Wes was asking, the food here is basically rice, rice, rice, carbs, bread, fish, fish, fish, fish, rice, fish, carrots, sauce, onions (mmm), potatoes, rice, cassava, rice, fish, and sauce, basically. There's also a lot of salt in everything and they load the coffee and tea withtons ofsugar. Milk is a treat that I make with my tea at the center for some calcium or it's given to me in powdered form by the fam with m Nescafe coffee on the weekends (and the barista in me cries...). Buying a small thing ofpasturizd milkand cheese from a supermarche this week made mylife, haha.

Well time is almst up, so I love you all! Esp thanks to Suz, Mom and Dad, Katie,and Kurt and Jodifor all of the mail! M fellow trainees hate that I've recived so much :)

pictures...

The Disco Hut where we lounge when given the opportunity...or meet to discuss scary things like safety and snakes...

The last good cup of coffee before leaving th States...super cute coffee shop that roasts its own beans and bakes its own biscotti. Worth a stop though it took me two days to find...
We waited at JFK for like 8 hours
Africa!
The cats at the Centre after our first lunch. This is the only time I've seen them like this.
My side of the roo at training and my beloved mosquito net.

Since Picasa isn't working for me and my parents want to see some pictures, here some are... I hope

Haadi neem

Diouf simeem.

Thats right friends, my new name is Haadi Diouf, though I was not fully aware when it was bestowed upon me...ie I dont know when it happened, just that my first morning at my homestay my host brother kept saying Haadi and telling me to bring in the towel hanging outside overnight, after flooding my room with my PC waterfilter...haha. While waiting for the bus to the Centre that morning, the girl living in the homestay nextme (the moms were former cowives before the husband died, I believe) asked my Senegalese name and I said I didnt have one. My host bro, waiting with me thought I was silly and kindly re,inded me it was Haadi. It took another day or so while in Serere class to realize that the last name Diouf, that of my fam, was also something I had to take up. I thought it was Boo yaa or something like that, which actually meant "see you tonight." haha Oh learning a new language...

This weekend I will be going with my host sister to buya cell phone; she is going to "marchander" for me so I dont get the prix blanche, ie double a normal cost of a phone, which I appreciate. I'll let ya know my number if ya ask.

More on the great host fam later, probably§.

For Sunday, Happy Easter (since its tech Good Friday right now).

Im stealing words...from an email sent to Suz, I thought others might be interested in, from Monday:

here goes some general info about Thies, Senegal, and life in general…
We are staying at the Centre de la Formation for the Corps de la Paix/Senegal on the outskirts of Thies (pronounced Chiess). My blog mentions some info about it, but it’s a beautiful place with lots of buildings for offices, classrooms, bunks, etc. We’ve really only seen a small portion of Thies, including many places we aren’t allowed to go nearby, like the prison, an area with lots of abandoned buildings, and the train tracks after 7:30pm. Our safety and security guy took us around to show us these things in order to make us more aware of where we are and just to be safe and avoid areas where people are just hanging out and up to no good. Senegal is dusty dusty dusty…lots and lots of sand everywhere: sidewalks, streets, grass, everywhere…hence that whole “Sahel” region I guess. A lot of buildings are either abandoned or under construction and it’s sometimes difficult to tell the difference between the two, as we noticed from our ride through Dakar to Thies. The Centre is very green and lush, which definitely fools us when we step into the hot sun in the afternoon/evening to go into town. It’s hot here, that’s for sure. We are at the start of the dry season, still enjoying the warm Marmottan (sp?) winds blowing in from the Sahara (yesterday was super super windy, today was much hotter with the occasional wind). It’s very strange to feel hot wind. Usually wind is a refreshing thing or blows you cold to the bone and it’s not really the case here, though I think we’re all trying to enjoy wind while we can, before the dry season also reaches peak heat and humidity, starting sometime in April, I believe. I have no idea what the daily temperature is, so feel free to check for me. Someone today had a hand-held thermometer registering around 98 or so, but we weren’t sure how accurate that actually is…
From our cultural intro, the Senegalese are very friendly people who enjoy laughter and teasing each other while also valuing hospitality a lot. In the many languages, there’s a word to mean “please,” but no one uses it because it is expected that you will help out your fellow man, whether by sharing food, inviting them in, etc. Many people from my program have already shared tea with random Senegalese people they meet and start talking to on the street. A lot of value is placed in greeting each other and you are expected (though it doesn’t always happen) to greet anyone you meet on the street with an Arabic peace greeting (Asaala Malekem and Malekem Salaam in response) and sometimes more. Today they briefed us on stuff for our homestays in addition to language info and people kept reminding us to laugh at ourselves and not to worry if people laugh at you for messing up the language, it happens and they understand and it’s all in good fun. For now that sounds reassuring, though I’m sure it will get old at some point. I also look forward to being able to respond to those harassing me about not having a husband, etc, by making fun of them in return (a story shared by a current female Volunteer). It will probably take ages for my Serere to be of that level.
I’m excited and nervous about the homestay, but our meeting today definitely helped. I’ve also realized how incredibly unprepared I was for Senegal, ie my horrible not packing until the night before. I don’t regret staying in DC as long as I did or working, but I wish I had been more focused on thinking about things I would need for 27 months here and yea… I really didn’t worry about much more than shoes and bags and forgot some key things that either my mom will send or I will learn to live without.


As of right now (Good Friday) I am at my homestay in Thies, typing from the cybber right in front of my house, ie the back door connects to my courtyard and i didnt know until now. However its the slowest comp you may ever meet...

Serere ou Seereer

Yep, Im going to be learning one of the more obscure languages spoken in Senegal...Serere. We just ofund that out today so based on estimations of current volunteers and country language breakdoan. I will probably be in the coastal/central/delta regions, which is awesome. Im really hoping for the coast, but we shall see...just have to wait a few weeks or so.

Its hot here, thats for sure. Today it hit us...and its only somewhere in the 90s and its only going up. At least we have the winds, but without airconditioning, its going to be rough in the coming months, but thats all part of adapting to life over here.

Tomorroaw I may move in with my host family, if I wind up living in Thies for the rest of training. If Im one of the two Sereres going to an outside village, it wont be until Thursday due to a big Muslim holiday in the nearest Serere town. We are divided around Thies and nearby villages based on language, whether Wolof, Pulaar du Sud, Pulaar du Nord, Plaar Futa, or Serere. Since my language is so rare, there are only 4 of us and they could only find 2 rural homes for us to stay, 2 are in Thies. Im hoping for the village, though its far away since that will be calmer and more like my final placement.

All for now, B