Demystified

Lots of things have been happening...

With much fanfare, including blindfolds and being led around on a giant map of Senegal, I got my permanent site assignment. In about a month, I'll be moving to a little village called Doundodji near Linguere in the Louga region. It's the desert and its gosh darn hot, but I'm from New Mexico so it's all gonna be ok.

I took a short trip to my training village, got a strange virus that made my head feel like it was going to explode, then took another little trip to the cushy med hut in Dakar. After 2 nights there with lots of sleeping and pain killers, I was back to normal in time to visit my future home.

For what is referred to here as volunteer visit or demystification, I took a 6-hour car ride up to Doundodji with the 5 other trainees going to nearby villages. I had a 4-day visit with my ancienne Brian (the volunteer I'm replacing) and got oriented with all the latest and greatest of Doundodji. We toured around the 6 quartiers, did some meeting and greeting, visited 7 local gardens, held events to teach women's groups how to make mosquito repellent and plant trees, did a village cleanup, went running at sunrise, and slept under the stars. Also included in our activities were: hours and hours of sitting in any available shade which was still 90 or 100 degrees in the afternoons, Brian killing a mouse and a scorpion in his hut and carrying rocks to fend off wild dogs on our runs, waiting 2 hours after meetings were supposed to start for people to show up, making a toddler burst into a terrified crying fit at the mere sight of me, and best of all listening to the calls to prayer. While my site is lovely, it has one little problem - a mosque right outside my compound:

This is a view across my family's compound from my little yard. Allow me to direct your attention to the loudspeakers pointed directly at me and to note that the first of five daily calls to prayer is at 5:30 AM followed by no less than 45 minutes of singing, also over the speakers. I will be using earplugs.

I have a brand new hut with a little yard and my very own shower/toilet (a hole with walls around it). I really love my little hut and have grand plans for interior decoration and establishing homeyness. If you block out the sounds of children tormenting chickens, donkeys braying, dogs barking, and mosque-related noises, it really is lovely to sleep out under the stars. The sunrises are also beautiful and have a very "National Geographic" quality to them. All in all, I'm happy with my site and it was a real gift to be able to spend a week with Brian getting oriented.

 The short-lived scorpion visitor

 My brand new hutsky.

I had to add this picture too - one of the neighbors' little girls strolled into the compound while everyone was sitting around shelling and sorting peanuts one afternoon in this little getup. She was completely adorable, utterly absurd, oblivious to the humor, and blankly stared at everyone as they rolled laughing. I told her she looked beautiful, which was also received with a blank stare.

We got back to the training center yesterday, spent a lovely day in Dakar today touring all the important sites- PC offices, downtown, an ice cream shop (!!?!??!?!!!), and the America club for lunch and lounging by the pool. It was beautiful. 

Tomorrow it's back to training villages for a week.

Hot cabbage and a funeral

Village life has evolved over the last two weeks – we took two trips to the beach and discovered where to buy fresh fruit, ice cream, and most importantly… cold beer. It’s no easy task to learn a new language and culture and lots of tech stuff, but things are coming along. 

I returned to Mboro, had a peaceful dinner, a night filled with chanting broadcast from the nearby mosque, animal noises, and some sleep. In the morning upon my arrival at language class, I discovered that the director of the school where we built our garden had died that morning. So, instead of a productive day of planting and learning, we went shopping at the market for skirts and scarves and drove on over to the funeral. The men and women were in separate groups under a tent in the front yard, prayers were being done in the side yard, the widow was in the house having her braids taken out, the body had been taken to Touba for burial, and food was being carted in every direction. Having never met the guy, it was awkward… we called it an opportunity for cultural exchange and went on our merry way. While I tried to have sympathy for the people who were affected, I also became increasingly concerned about the smell growing in my room. The school being closed, we couldn’t plant the vegetables we’d brought… most were fine, the hot cabbage was not. We finally got the saggy plants in the ground after about a week when we’d tracked down the guard and the key.

Gardening was a refreshing break from all the language sessions. With the help of some neighborhood kids, we planted 2 kinds of eggplant, lettuce, bissap, okra, cucumber, peppers, carrots, turnips, moringa, lucaena, cashew, and of course cabbage. 

 Decked out for the funeral

Our garden after planting.

During the second week, we ate exclusively intestines for dinner. On the first night of said week, the power was out and I began merrily eating until the light caught something that looked like a saggy sheet of rubber being stretched up out of the depths of the rice. I good-naturedly ate a bite when it was thrown in my section of the bowl, but upon swallowing, immediately lost my appetite, told my family I was full, and retired for the night. On the subsequent nights, we had power and I ate around all the suspicious wrinkly chunks. 

Some family dynamics were clarified, I discovered 4 new siblings, one of whom I thought was my niece. The ages of my host siblings range from 17 to 40-something. I’m learning more every day. 

Back at the center, we’ve had lots of tech sessions, and our permanent sites will be announced tomorrow! With a camera crew present…