Last weeks of training

Right now I am finishing up my last couple of weeks as a trainee. I have my final language test next Tuesday and the results of that will determine whether or not I will swear-in at the same time as my fellow stagieres. I'm not too worried about this. I reached the required level of intermediate mid at my last test, so as long as I don't do any worse than that, I will be fine. Yesterday I had my very first phone conversation completely in Wolof! I felt really proud of myself when I got off the phone and realized what I had done. Granted, it was with my LCF, so maybe it isn't quite as cool, but she is a native Wolof speaker so I'm counting it.

So to catch you up on what I have been up to the past few weeks: I have taken to wandering around the streets of Thies when I can rather than take a taxi to the market or to the restaurants. The training center is about a 30 minute walk from the main street in Thies where we do most of our shopping. It really isn't bad, but when I first tried to venture out on my own I had only a vague idea of which direction I was heading. It all turned out well in the end and I have since taken a different path to and from town each time. It keeps things exciting and helps me become more accustomed to the feel of the city. When I first arrived I was terrified of going anywhere by myself, especially if it meant wandering into the heart of the city. I think with time and language acquisition this has become less of an issue. It seems a little strange to me that my comfort zone has changed so much in such little time. But I am glad that I has. It means that I am able to take on more challenging situations. Such as presenting my garden on Saturday to the community in an open field day, completely in Wolof. That one will be interesting...

We had a counterpart workshop last week where a work partner or two from each person's site came to Thies for a 2 day seminar to learn about Peace Corps and what kind of work we will be doing as well as giving us time to get to know them and figure out how we can help each other over the next two years. It was a very enlightening experience. I met people from every region and heard so many different languages. I am fortunate though that I am learning Wolof because many of the sessions were given only in Wolof. I felt kinda bad for the people learning Pulaar, Serere, Mandinka or Jahanki because they didn't get things translated as often. Granted, a lot of the discussions used technical vocabulary that was well above my head, so I still didn't understand very much. But I recognized that the workshop was more for the counterparts and less for the trainees. So I did what I could and spoke the language as much as I was able. It was a bit chaotic in the beginning when I was on a Welcoming committee that was supposed to introduce new arrivals to the center and show them where they would be staying. There were different shifts of people doing this and I ended up helping out the late night crew, which meant that we didn't have anyone who was fluent there to help us when we couldn't find someone on the list or their room had been given to someone with the exact same name. (Btw, names in Senegal are reused a lot. Often you find the same name repeated even in a single family. So imagine a list of people from around Senegal and you apparently have 3 Fatamatou Ndiayes with only one listed on the sheet. That was fun.)

The day after we finished the counterpart workshop, we all loaded into the buses and headed to Dakar for the day. This was my first time in Dakar since we arrived bleary-eyed at 5am my first day here and loaded onto those same buses headed for Thies. It was really interesting to see Dakar in the daylight and to be able to wander around for a little bit. We didn't get to see all that much beyond the Peace Corps headquarters and some of the shops downtown, but it was still an interesting trip. And I finally saw the infamous African Renaissance statue that towers over Dakar. If you don't know about it, I suggest a quick google search.

The real highlight of last week was going to Popenguine. It is this lovely beach town near Mbour where we rented a beachhouse right on the ocean. Some people call it the MTV house because it is this gorgeous place right on beach that we then crammed 50+ people into for the night. It may have been a bit crazy at times... I ended up spending the majority of my time in the water hanging out with people. Some of you may be surprised by this because of my lack of desire to swim in the states. I'm not a good swimmer by any stretch of the imagination and I only recently learned how to tread water. But I still have a fantastic time splashing in the cool waves. It was certainly much warmer than the water in LA. To me, it more closely paralleled Tampa, Florida. This was also the first time I have done any night swimming in the ocean so that was exhilarating. When I first went out after dark there was some fog on the water and I was only with one other girl. It was terrifying but exhilarating. The longer I was out there, the less concern I felt. Also, more people came in and that always helps me feel safer. Granted, you can't always expect that because you are in a group, bad things won't happen. Actually, right between dinner and my evening dip in the water, somebody broke into one of the upstairs bedrooms and stole somebody's bag. The person climbed up the cement wall using a meter box as a foot hold, then put a board over the pointed barbs to hop onto the balcony and then came in through the open door. I know we were not as conscientious as we should have been, but to make matters worse, the one bag that the guy took before hearing someone come up the stairs and bolting back over the wall was the bag that held all of our transportation money totaling to 50 mille or approximately $120. While this may not seem like a lot to some, when you are given 1 mille each day to survive on, and you have already spent your entire week's allowance for this trip, it struck hard for many people. I felt really bad for the guy who had all of his stuff stolen, including his Ipod, camera, and glasses. But this is life and we will hopefully be more cautious about things like that in the future. And in my opinion, it didn't ruin my trip. I still had a fantastic time and immensely enjoyed falling asleep to and waking up to the sound of the waves crashing on the sand. (I also discovered some old military bunkers on the side of the cliff near the house that had been used to defend the coastline from attack by sea!)

I am now back at my site for a final week before the last language test and our swearing in ceremony on the 4^th, which will apparently be broadcast over national television! It is coming up so quickly! I am getting a traditional Senegalese outfit made for the ceremony and it should be ready by the end of the week! After the ceremony I will go back to my CBT site in order to celebrate Tabaski (the biggest holiday in Senegal) with my host family before going to my regional house and getting everything ready for my installation to my new home in Kaffrine on the 10^th.

In other news, for those who have asked about my struggles to use my right hand, it is coming along pretty well. Some days I surprise myself with how well I can manage a spoon during meals. I almost thought I was becoming competent until I tried to learn how to make Attaaya. You wouldn't think that making tea would be so difficult, but when you are pouring hot liquid from cup to cup in order to create foam in the glasses, this difficulty can be heightened when they tell you to switch hands and do it only using the right hand. Needless to say, I spilled tea everywhere and the guy teaching me took over to finish the round. Sigh. Can't get everything right the first time. :P

The next two years....

I now know where I am going to live for the next 2 years!!! I found out that the town of Kaffrine will be my new home starting in November! Last week I went there to visit the area and meet my new family. I have a wonderful site mate named Susan who is an Urban Ag volunteer as well. She is extending for a third year so I feel like I am getting an extra boost for getting started in the area. She is super knowledgeable and a lot of fun. I also have another site mate who is a SED (Small Enterprise development) volunteer named Emily. She has been there for about 1 year. Basically those people really make my site awesome and I'm looking forward to working and hanging out with them.

So a little about Kaffrine. It is known as the heart of the peanut basin. The streets are lined with peanut shells during a lot of the year. To find it on a map, locate Gambia and find where the border changes from a straight line to a bumpy curve. Kaffrine is almost directly north of that intersection. It is very hot there and can get upwards of 130 degrees Fahrenheit during the hot season. I'm a tad nervous about that, but I think I will probably try to visit cooler areas of Senegal during that time of year. The rainy season is just ending now, so it is slowly getting cooler as it moves into the “cool dry season” which should last until April or May I think. One of the trainers commented that they thought I could handle Kaffrine because I am from a desert. Hopefully they are right. There isn't a lot of topography there. It is basically flat with a few neem trees lining the streets for shade. There are about 30-40,000 people in the city but it feels more like a sprawling town. (Kinda similar to Cedar City in size and population actually.)

I will be living on the other side of town from my demo garden and the other volunteers so I will get some good exercise biking a few km to and from work everyday. I met my new family and received my new name, which I am stoked about! As of November I will be known as Arame Siila. My host dad is a school teacher at the local primary school and I will be working a lot with his classes on a school garden there and I think we are working on expanding that program to some of the other schools in the area. I will also be working with some women's groups as we help them establish some gardens in the city and teach them farming techniques. In my host family I have 3 little sisters and a little brother. I will be living in a small compound that holds my father's family as well as the families of his 2 brothers and their mother. I'm not quite sure how many people that entails, but I will let you know when I have a better idea of the dynamics. They all seemed really nice when I met them and I am really eager to start to get to know everyone.

Also during my visit we made quiche for dinner one night in Susan's room! She has this awesome little camping oven so we baked! I didn't think I would really get a chance to bake while I was here so I was extatic about this little treasure! The next morning I taught them how to make biscuits which made me incredibly happy. I hope to be able to occasionally go over and make delicious treats in it. This may seem silly, but those little things are what really make things manageable. I miss everyone at home a lot so it is nice when I can get a little taste of home as I eat a homemade biscuit or sip my favorite tea.

On the note of tea, I finally made my own tea at my CBT site!!! This morning when I got up I was able to tell my aunt that I only wanted hot water and then I steeped a bag of pomegranite green tea. It was delicious!! And it made my day that much better. I have a small stash of tea bags here so hopefully it can last through training. I actually have less than a month left in training, where only 12 days or so will be at my CBT site. I will be back at the training center on Saturday to take my second language exam and prepare for the counterpart workshop. More on that to come.