Homestay week 1

I just completed my first week at my homestay!  It was a crazy awesome experience.  My host mom Atta Njaay is amazing and she really takes care of me.  I have 2 little brothers named Falu and Bappa.  And my aunt Fatu Jopp and her friend Jaal help clean and take care of the house.  I think of them as my sisters because they are both in their teens.  I actually have a really nice house with running water and electricity as well as a nice room with a big bed and a fan.  Those may seem like simple things, but I definitely have some friends here who are pretty jealous...

            During my first stay I received a lot of preferential treatment.  I'm trying to change that so they view me more as part of the family.  At the moment they serve me breakfast by myself and then for lunch and dinner we all eat around a communal bowl, usually of rice and fish with vegetables and a sauce.  It is called ceebu jen.  Often they will throw me a lot of the good bits of food, but I have been trying to either give it to others near me or put it back in the middle for someone else to have.  I want to be treated the same as anyone else.  I am really grateful for the family I have.  In certain homes in Senegal there are struggles with hygiene and lack of clean water.  My family is good about washing their hands and they clean everything very well.  As of yet, I haven't been sick yet and I feel totally comfortable eating whatever they serve (even the stuff that looks pretty unusual).

            I have an awesome group of trainees here in my village as well as an amazing language and culture teacher, Aysatu.  The other 3 trainees in my village are really cool and we all work well together in class and at our garden.  One of our main projects here is to put together a demo garden using the skills that the tech trainers have been teaching.  At the end of our PST (pre-service training) we have to  present our demo garden to the community, only speaking Wolof.  I'm nervous about this but I hope that it will be ok.  This is a really cool experience because I feel like it gives me a chance to practice the language as well as prepare me for my future agriculture projects here.