Round 2 at my homestay is going well thus far. We have a lot more to do in our garden this time so that keeps us pretty busy. Sometimes it is really nice to retreat to the garden as a sactuary. There are constantly local kids there ready to help or goof off, but it has been pretty well established that they stay on the outside of the fence so we don't have any more footprints going through the garden beds. We repared and extended the fence so that we could do more in it and keep the animals/kids out. I'm not sure yet if we made a mistake during our first week at site because we gave treats to the kids who helped us the day after a huge project cleaning up and gathering the material to make our first compost pile. Now we have twice as many kids hanging around but only a few of them actually help out. The others tend to get into fights over something and try to send them away unsuccessfully. My wolof isn't very good yet so I am stuck saying things like “do you want to help me,” “I need more (leaves/rocks/water)” and similar basic phrases.
My host family is still great and help me whenever I'm around. I still say “dëgguma” (I don't understand) a lot and I think some people who aren't as close to me like my grandmother who visits occasionally get a little frustrated at my lack of comprehension. But I'm trying and it is coming along slowly. My host mom is a really good cook and I found that when I went back to the training center for a couple of days, I missed her food. I'm a little spoiled here, I think. I definitely live a better life than a lot of trainees at the moment and I worry that I may be setting myself up for more hardship down the road when I get to my permanent site. But at the moment I'm enjoying my comfort level :)
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