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.