Back in Action

With the house computer down for a couple of months I have been in the dark on what is happening in the world  but now with full internet capabilities regular post shall begin. I finished up in Dakar and went back to village were I ended the rainy season  with two weeks of never being dry (Yuk). Now that cold season is upon us I am wondering around in wonderful dry heat and 75 degree temperatures at night. Most of my work has been in the schools so far and a little bit in with the women's garden. Although most days you will find me sitting under a tree in my compound reading a book or going out to the fields to help my brothers with the peanut harvest. The harvest in it's self is quite odd it involves pulling the peanuts out of the ground and the putting them in piles, letting them dry and then putting them in a bigger pile, letting that dry, and finally putting them back into little piles and shaking out the peanuts. Why? I don't know but I do find it interesting that that each one of these steps has a different verb describing it. I also now have a good grasp on the language and have answered one of my main questions since I first got to this country, What is everyone talking about in everyday life? Answer the price of rice/peanuts, girls, and who is lazy in the village/si si. Completely mundane stuff that dose not really matter, who knew. Tabaski came and went the exact same way Koritie did only this time we killed a sheep and I stopped eating the meat after two days. It seems to me that all the holidays are celebrated the same way get dressed up eat and greet people that's it. and as soon as I win my battle with thorns attacking my bike tires I will be able to venture out in to the wonderful sand and explore the villages around me with in biking distance.

wet hot Senegalese rainy season

I am sorry I have not written in a month, but the computer at the regional house blue-screened and has been MIA for a while. So, while I am in Dakar, I am going to fully enjoy the massive amount of internets. This month has been very busy for me work wise. First, I had a second round of moringa causeries where we taught the women of the village to make and cook with moringa powder. Basically you dry the leaves and pound them up, but you can barely tast the moringa and it is incredibly healthy for you. Anyway, no one came so I had to strong arm seven women in the village to come to the meeting. The women that did come were engaged and it looked like they were learning something, now if they actually implimented what they learned I don't know. You can't make anyone change unless they want to, but I can present the information again, or three times. The next weekend I went down to touba couda to help with the reforestation of Mangroves. That involved 30 peace corps volunteers and about 50 senegalese, mostly children, walking up and down a beach in the middle of the mangrove forest during the hot part of the day. In the end we planted 5 hectares of mangroves and had one massive water fight. Then we spent the rest of the day lounging around the delta. I also can not believe it, but there is such a drastic difference in the landscape, I am a the top of the mangrove forest and just and about 10k west of my site it is huge, like actually being in a forest. Then this week I went up to Dakar to help with the Us embassies summer englsh camps. Basically we are running a camp for middle school kids that have advanced english speaking abilities. So the first part is to get the kids to speak engish and the second part is to indroduce them to american culture. So we are having them do sack races, frisbee games (wich they are really good at) theater sketches, that kinda thing. Other than that I have been pigging out on food up here. Last night I went to a really good Ethiopian rooftop restaurant and tonight we are finding a really good italian restaurant. Also I have gotten some good translations on the sereer post I have decided to leave it open for one more month so after hallowen best translation gets a prize, just post in comments or mail me on facebook.  The post is because people asked for it.

what happens when you finnally have blood sugar

now that Ranadan is over with and everyone is setteled into there normal routiens, mainly of lunch, life is much the same has it has been. Humid, people going out the fields and me doging marrage proposals. The fun part was Korite, the day after Ramadan ended. People got all dressed up and whent to the moquse, after that poeple would ask forgivness for all the wrongs they did aginst people that year. So for a day I went around to every compound and talked to people, got pictures that kinda thing. Then about one hour before lunch every one put out goat parts with macceroni and oinon sauce. Then a roving gangs of kids came around and started chowing down then moved to the next house, and repeated the process. Then we had lunch and it was amazing goat with vegies and fried rice. During the hot part of the day we sat around and drank attya and then once it was cooled down every one started dancing and drumming. Wich this went on for long into the night and people would come by randomly and give me food presents. I litterally ate untill I exploded wich was awsome to because I learned the Seereer word for explode jefe. Then the next morning we had spicy goat hart water with millit for breakfast wich was amazing.
I am slightly sad that no one else has tried there hand at translating my Seereer post. I will deffenitly send  a present to who comes up with the best one.

Ramadon

So this month is Ramadan the Muslim holy month were the Koran was relieved to Muhammad. People celebrate this by fasting for one month, witch means no eating or drinking from sun up to sun down. Also the small mosque that I have in my town now gives out the call to pray five times a day, I never have seen it used until now. When I asked my older brother about he said "God wants to hear the mosque during Ramadan". So Islam over here is Sufism but they have different brotherhoods like we have protestant religions. My family is of the Tiegion branch witch I don't know a lot about their beliefs and if they differ all that much from Islam but there holy mosque is in Dakar. I do know that all the brotherhoods over here are very liberal. Most Muslim countries women can not show the curves of their body. Over here it is very a prorate to show off your butt, in fact you wealth is directly related to how big your butt is, the fatter you are the healthier you are. The only rule is you can not show knees if you are a female, typically men wear only pants but know cares if you wear shorts in my village. I did decide to try fasting witch I lasted 13 days of not eating, I was always drinking water because I don't like dehydration. After that I broke down and started eating, now I have been stuffing my face full of food in Kaolack for the last week. Although my brothers fast and then go and work in the fields and I do not know how they can do that in the heat of the day. I have also found that my village has a bakery were they make delicious bread to sell during Ramadan. That and I have been making friends with the baker and getting free bread. That and it is really interesting to see how they bake it. He built a giant mud oven and they cover the bottom with sand. They then proceeded to light a giant fire inside the oven and make the bread all day. After the bread is rolled out they push the burning logs to the side of the oven and bake the bread in the hot sand. It is so delicious and the baker has started playing around and putting chocolate in the bread as well.
The other interesting thing that happened was I went to by new nieces baptism. Over here baptism are for new born babies. The baby is born then they wait one week and have the baptism. What happens is people go over to the house and the mother sits with the baby on a mat in the middle of the compound. The father then shaves the baby's head and then whispers the name of the baby in it's ear. Then the father passes out kola nuts, the only drugs that Islam allows (basically highly caffeinated nuts), then every one eats really good porridge, socialize, and then eat really good rice and sheep or goat. It was fun plus it was the daughter of my uncle who I like. Other than that I will leave you with the word for fasting because people ask me this everyday. In Seereer the word for fasting is hor (pronounced whore) so so this month people keep asking me if I am horing today.

because people asked for it

Because everyone has been asking about it I will compose a post in Seereer.

Kaam yok'u a betick fo dix hurs nal nu refna. Naktu'u fo buro fo bure fo tea, leke leke naktu'u oatmeal. A cing kaga kaam simina fop es. No nges ne kaam jelle'u no nding a cing ndooke es fo moofum fo lirum no bind es. No nal ne kaam sutu'u saate es fo simina winwe, par example: nam fi'o, ta mbind na, jam some jeggo. Kaam moof fo liy'u fo win we no mbind  din. No yong ne kaam moof balaa mbind es fo magg o kor es, bobacar. Kaam naam'u achuta no huit hurs. Ju'u malo fo lip yong nu refna. A cing kaga kaam moof fo basil es boo par kaam wondum.
Indiki liyum naak ndaxar
Balaa ret'u Kaolack, kaam ret'u baptina cougin. Kaam detum a fap um bulaat no bebe. A cing kaga kaam siminum win we fo  a nayaa ndoox no tookor es. Ndoox a jega rew o way, a cing simina rew o way kaam moof'u.
Da lamita "tomar of a jega rat"
kaam liyum "andiim, Tomar es a xooxan indiki"
da liya "magg o kor a jega rat um myu"
"Nam ando magg o kor rat um fo Garra a anda, ando o kor rat um?"
a cing liy'um o tew a deta a fess a geta mi.
a liya "bugo o tess"
"ha'ha bugiim o tewo"
"yam xar? A jega rat um fo a jega kumba um mban a jikukaa sucrose fo buro a garkaa ndoox of no reef o lang."
"ha'ha a faagna" (said as I am slapping my elbows to my side)

So because I am board I am not going to translate this, instead please write what you think the translation is for my amusement and leave it in the comment box or mail it to me on facebook. The best one might get a surprise.

Picture Dump

                                                            My little brothers and sisters

                       Part of the Seereer ritual for the rainy season and good crops. the elders are pouring a soup made out of grain and milk? These two men will make a mad dash 2K to the nearest road towns across the fields as soon as they are cut.

 The elders mixing the soup

 and for the finally everyone runs around a baobob tree 

 Region of Kedigue from the road

 Random small road side village

 The major roads in the Kedigue Region 

and mountain, ok so really hills but it's not flat yah

one long month

sorry I have not updated in a long time but so much has happened in the last month, mainly alot of travile. During the begining of the month I had the rare oppertunity to wittness the Seereer cerimony for the rainy season. What the cerimony consisted of was all the surronding villages went out to the fields behind pechie were there was giant baobob trees. then several of the village elders made a porage out of millet and milk and then poured it on an old stump. Then they took two younger men, tied them togeather with rope by the wrists, made them lie face down on the ground, and dumped the rest of the porage on them. Then they cut the rope and the two men ran off at full speed to one of the nearest road towns (3k and 5k run) then the rest of the people ran around a giant baobob tree. The coolest thing was that there was a rain storm that rolled through just five mineuts after the cerimony ended. Hands down that was the coolest thing that I have seen in this country so far, although there was one person who was verbally attacking me saying I should not be there because I was white. The cool part was he ameadiatly had 10 people from my village ripping him apart saying that I was a native and had every right to be there, and that is one of the reasons I love my village. Of course this did not stop him from being a jackass and convently standing in front of me the whole time trying to block my sight. The next day after I traviled to Kaolack and meet up with other volenteers and we traviled down to the region of Kedigue were the volenteers hold a giant fourth of july party. The region of Kedigue is down south and is a teperate rainforest, so I spen a couple of days lounging around capomonts and talking with people from my stage that I had not seen in a while. Although next year I am bringing my bike because I heard that there was some really cool place with in biking distance from the regional capital. On the fourth we spent the day lounging around the regional house eating good food (including two pigs that were roasted and BBQed) and dancing the night away. Then when it was dark we brought out the fireworks and shot them off most likely scaring the locals. Amazing time although for the next three days I was gargoyling (I'll let you guess on the meaning) but three days of antibiotics and it was all cleared up. After that I spent five days in village and had my Seereer teacher come down and do a langue session on advanced Seereer witch was nice because it cleared up a lot of what I was wondering how to say. Then I left for a two week trianing back at the Thies center were I have been going from meeting to meeting about different tecnical stuff. Witch has been really helpful and has given me lots of ideas for work although ramadon starts next month so not very many people will want to work but on the plus side I will get a an awsome dinner.

PS. I will post pictures in another post because the band with at the center will not upload pics.

humor

Since I have some time and Internets I will take advantage of the time. So the person that I was named after apparently was a huge joker and every one keeps saying that although I have not been able to get a clear answer. Anyway people in my village laugh a lot, at the most random things. Humor consists of telling some one that they eat a lot or really love millet (the staple grain of Senegalese diet) Then you get the people who state the obvious, like check out Nina she has a giant butt, or that is one ugly baby. People will say these things right to that persons face to, I have had people in my village ask if I think my mother is ugly and of course I'll say no but then they will, hah'aa (no) your mothers ugly and your dads old. The older boys around my age just call people random animals or or say you are married to random animal. That is really easy to play along with because you can just call them random animals back. Although I did get called goat milk once and I really did not know how to reply to that. Then every once in a while you get really good gems like my uncle Mousa. This guy laughs more than anyone I know and also uses the word si-si a lot (witch can mean anything from joker to slut, some times I can't tell witch way people are using it). So I was sitting over at my uncles house drinking tea and he was saying that my tomar (the guy I am named after) was a huge joker and if I was like him in that respect he would tie me to his cherette (horse drawn carriage) and drag me out of town. To that I replied give me your rope, witch made every one crack up laughing that was there. Of course the more sass I through peoples way the more they say I know Seeree so it works out.

The cake is not a lie

So with a new village comes a new name I am now called Somba Djiouf. I have a much smaller family but still a high number of little kids running around all over the place. I have three older brothers two married, and one older sister that lives behind us and is married to a pular husband. I also have three younger brothers two of witch attend the lycee in djlior.
My dad is very interesting I don't know how old he is exactly but he is at least in his 80's. he just sits of sleeps all day, or random people in the village come by and talk with him. Although he keeps telling me theses interesting stories although in Seereer he sounds like yoda. Example: hunt boar in forest I did, my younger brother greets you says he. that and he usuallt squats or sits with his knees up so it looks like he is a small person.
My mother just sits around occasionally cooks but herds the little children most of the day.
My oldest brother is in the Gambia working as a taxi driver.
My second oldest brother and one of my closest friends Mbaye dose a lot of work with the peace corps, building deuces and wells that sort of thing. Plus he is a Rastafarian and totally obsessed with bob marley, who knew he was over in Senegal, but he is laid back and a hard worker. That and he is patient with me messing up the language.
My second older brother Mordu is a fisherman but also a wrestler so when the wrestling tour comes around we go and watch him.
My younger brothers are really nice but they study all the time or are out playing football witch they keep asking me to join but perhaps later.

Right I stayed in the village for little over five weeks, when I fist came they lead me to a little party where we all sat down and drank cola (African Fun Cola literally the name) and the grade school kids started singing a song to me in broken English most of witch I can not remember except where ever we go we are the seereer, and I want to be your person friend. After that my father basically told the entire village that I was his son and I had free rain to go anywhere I wanted, then we were dismissed back to my hut where we ate an amazing lunch of chicken and vegetables and rice (yassa). Later in the day I went swimming in the delta and threw mud at the crabs that came by. After that I just sat around the village and listened to people speak and baby sat a furry four legged step child. Sometimes I would wonder over to my counterpart's house and sit around or my uncle who is hilarious but more of that later. my langue has gotten a lot better but still your head dose hurt after awhile, then it gets better and I know more Seereer. Funny story on language so I would be walking around the village and people would ask me Bogo cake, yes I want cake where is it, or Waga fi'a cake, yes I am able to make cake where is it, Jawa cake, yes I can cook cake where is this cake and why can't I eat it right now. Also keep in mind that all I have been having for lunch and dinner is rice and fish, eventually I found  out that cake means this or that but that launched me into dreaming about food for a week especially lasagna. Other than that I have developed another addiction to bean sandwiches. There is a shack that a nice wolof lady runs that has the best sandwiches in the country that I have eaten so far, so when ever I go up to chat with the people at the lycee or check to see if I got mail I always eat breakfast there. I must say though it is nice to be in a place where you can speak the langue you are learning unlike big cities where every one speaks wolof or French. As for my work I have been going around to the different cities by me and we have been teaching people how to make neem lotion.
Neem is a tree is widely found here and it is a natural pesticide. So we have been showing people how to make natural mosquito repellent. you take
one bar soap
half a liter of oil
half a liter of water
and a handful of neem leaves
cook the neem leaves, drain add soap and oil, froth and let cool.
We have been going around to the different market days. The way we are attracting people is who ever is running it gets a DJ and we play anti-malaria skits and songs then talk about the neem lotion. well we were at the luma (market) in Fatick and we had been making neem lotion all day with Daisy (the volunteer there) and her mom who is awsome. Any way we ran out of anti-malaria music so DJ lix started plying his own music witch lyrics included the N-word, female dogs, and it raining dollar sings. It's all there you can make a song out of it. We all just looked at each other and were like no, so we high jacked the music and started playing lady gaga, witch oddly enough Senegalese people love. So we are in the luma having a dance party to Lady gaga while showing little kids how to put on neem lotion. Other than that I just always on the constant look out for chicken.

sewering in

Last Friday we swore in  officially at the ambassador house in Dakar. It was really nice we all got dressed up in traditional Senegalese dress and took the same oath of office that the president takes. Then we had a representative from each langue group give a speech in the local langue. It was really nice but all in all it was like every other graduation I sat through a lot of talking and went and shook hands. After that we descended upon the food like ravenous dogs. The funny part was that it was in the ambassadors garden and we walk out and the food is on tables on the grass. Which confused us because we have been walking around in sand for a long time so we were like can we walk on this I don't want to kill it. Lucky for us food is more powerful and we charged on. After gorging ourselves with food we went to the american club to fill out paper work and spend the rest of the after noon lounging by the pool. afterwards we headed back to the training center and had dinner in Thies. Then next morning we packed up our stuff and said good bye to each other as we slowly trickled out of the training center. We then headed to the regional house were we will spend the next few days buying every thing we need to install in our sites. I have spent the last couple of days meeting my new work partners. Last night we went out to this chicken restaurant that was the worst dive I have ever been in but I got a quarter of a chiken salad and fries for 1500, plus it was amazing food. After theses couple of days I am headed off to my new village for a five week stent so I will be out of contact for a while but I am spending theses five weeks learning the language. Of course it dose not hurt that our country director said if we did this he would cook any thing we wanted at his house. So heres hoping for bratwurst and potatoes.

beaches, good byes, deaths, and random cow intestines.

out side my host families house

street out side my house

right out side my house

beach at popengine

my host brothers

two of my host sisters

the family car outside my window

my host parents house

my room

me and my host mom (the one in the pink)

me and my adoptive mom (pink) and my aunt

So first things first we are perfectly fine over here. I know bin ladin is dead and every one I have talked to over here is perfectly fine with it to they just can't understand why we would party in the streets over killing some one. Quite frankly niether can I.  Any way now for the second most important news DO NOT SEND ME ANY MORE MAIL AT THE TRAINING CENTER. MY NEW ADDRESS IS:
 BP 06 Djilor-Saloum
Senegal West Africa
any mail sent to the training center I will not get until mid summer.

I am happy that I have gotten to the point where I speak seereer and people know what I am saying. Walking down the streets of ngoundian I feel like a native and people have been treating me as one. Wich brings me to a funny story last weekend when took a weekend off and went to popenguine witch is a beach side town gourgious. I spent the week end swimming in the Alantic and lounging around. Any way when me and my friend Jessica (who is also from misssouri, the other side) went up to get supplies and nurious our bodies we were walking down the streets and seeing french tourists looking like we did two months ago. mean while we are walking down the streets greating everyone and talking. Half way through our journey we look at eachother and said "they are treating us different than the french tourists" to wich I replyed wait we are not white any more?" Proof that either I am delusional or the immerson program really works. I am going with the latter.

This last week was bitter sweet in the village for two raesons first is that I had to say good bye to my host fammily, sad times expecally saying good bye to my mothers and host sisters. I had to say good bye in the middle of a funeral, for those of you who know me this should not supprise you since I never do anything normal. My host grandmother died and the whole family came in from out of town and by whole family I mean over 100 people. I went home and people were confused at why a white tubaub is walking around in the middle of ngoundian. Then I totally blew their brains when I awnsered bonjour back in seereer. I made friends, some enimies, had to fight off random relitives trying to marry me to my sisters, but I got plenty of Bissap juice all day. Seriously this stuff is amazing and I have devloped a bad addiction to the stuff. I don't know what I will do when I go back to the states and start having withdraws. On a side note I should say thins about Senaglies Culture. People over here do not travil alot so when the occasion arrives for the family to get to geather they stuff their faces with good food. This useusally means the slaughtering of an animal, wich I did not get to see (sad face). Which leads me to the list of

WIERD ANIMAL PARTS I HAVE EATIN IN AFRICA
1: Cow kidneys
2. Cow stomic (or as my family said the eating part of the cow stomic)
3. Cow heart (delicious)
4. Cow small intestines

The first three where at the funeral (which was has been going on for two days) My family slaughtered a cow and we ate the meat for lunch then the other goodies for dinner. The kidneys were not bad although I am pretty sure I found a kidney stone, or rock I don't know wich. The heart was amazing tender and flakey, witch you would not think about since it is the strongest mussle in your body. Who knew that in biolab I could have suplimented my lunch with tastey heart, that is if it was not pumped full of fermaldihide. The stomic was ok just really chewy and hard to cut with a spoon. The small intestines I ate at one of our fellow trainie's houses and hermom cooked us macceronni and potatoes and cow. Excited we started chowing down on the delcious and seemingly american meal. Then I got a giant bite of atipose tissue (fat for non bio people) and was like hells yes. Mainly because I have not eatin anything with fat for the last two months. Then we started to look at it more closely and saw that there were small little finger like folds sticking out of the piece of meat. Then we all looked at each other and were like ewwwwwww and took another piece. Of course the next day my friend Kirstin who lived in my compound got sick and threw out. Other than that I am looking foward to swearing in but am very sad I will most likly never see my host family agian.

what easter just happened?

This was my second to last stay in my training village which means that the training period is coming to a close and I will be heading to my site soon. The down fall to this is I have a million and on things to do before may 13th. That's right I officially get sworn in to the Peace Corps on Friday the 13th. ironic isn't it? this week has been especially busy because in two we are hosting our Senegalese counterparts for two days at the center. during this time we are presenting the Peace Corps and the Senegalese Government came up with to further environmental education and health in the country. The trouble lies with the fact we have it in English and we are presenting it in the native language so that means a lot of translations. They say we only use 10% of our brains but this last week 100% of my brain has been hurting. Either I found a way to be the smartest person on the planet or my brain cells are slowly revolting against me. Time will only tell. Although I have gotten to the point were I can speak Seereer and people can understand me. Where as this is a small victory for me the problem comes because now they start asking questions I have no clue how to answer. On another funny story I spent a good half hour trying to translate the sentence "When I speak in Seereer people can understand me" with one of my host sisters.
Some clarification on the wrestling the men are not naked but think man thongs and manties (man panties). Also they strap talismans around their bodies ex;animal teeth, feathers, leather pouches, then dunk them selves in a very bad smelling liquid. For those of you who will get this think Osceola Cola, either way you don't want to sit down wind. It is actually an interesting sport they strut around the area for a while and then they start going at it and the ref calls who gets to keep on going to the next bracket. All the while you have a group of drummers who play out a beat the entire time with out stopping. Pretty impressive in my opinion.
Also before we went to the village last week they took us to Dakar to see the main office and tour the city. It really was not anything too interesting just safety sessions and how to get to the embassy but we got to go out and get ice cream at this futuristic looking shop called nice cream. Hands down my new favorit store in Senegal.  Other than that everything is fine No parasites or malaria yet but I have had a round of Diarrhea for three days.

delta ahoy

This last week I went and visited the volunteer at my site pechie. It is a small town of three hundred no electricity, and about a twenty minuet walk from the river delta. So for the next two years I will be sitting cozy with a nice ocean breeze every night. Another plus is I have a volunteer living with in a thirty minuet walk. For the week I was there we went around and talked to the entire village so they know who I am. Then we went and lounged on the beech  for the afternoon. On friday me and the other trainees went with our volunteers to a local wresting match, think Greek wresting. So for the evening we watched men tackle each other. It was fun although the camera crew that was there was in our faces all the time but then again we were the only five white kids there. Other than that I have spent the day hanging out in the regional house. really nothing all to exciting has happened.

This last stint was the longest we had in the village. During this time we spent setting up a garden in the school as well as painting murals on the school walls. The mural we painted was of the food pyramid although the colors we chose made the painting look like it was out of the 80's. The garden was the difficult of the two projects first because we had to clear and area behind a classroom then make the beds, chase away goats, plant the garden, chase away sheep, build a fence, laugh at said goats and sheep trying to get in. we currently have some healthy eggplants, hot peppers, and onions. Plus some very unhealthy looking lettuce. The tree garden has yet to sprout.

The langue is coming slowly and we had our first test yesterday. Other than that I have been able to walk down the street and conversations with random people. Of course our town has wolof people as well so there has been some times I greet them and they come up and start talking to me. Of course I can't speak it so I try to communicate in my broken French. Although a really cool thing that happened. I have a "two year" I can never get a clear answer on his age , his first words where my name Dauda. Sure he could have been talking about my younger brother but I am going to think it was me. The other funny thing that happened to me involves noise. Senegal is never quiet there is aways noise going on animals, people, music, cars. All times of the night to. So during my stay I had to go to the restroom. So I walk out of my house and it is quiet, like you could hear a pin drop quiet. It was incredibly odd and awsome. As I am walking back to my room the thing that breaks the sience was my nieghbors donkeys doing it. The other random story I have is I have a two year old in the compound I live in his first words was my name. I thought it was cool. Last on the stories We had a religious ceremony last night in our town which meant good eating, as in beef. The down side of that is we got to see the cow slaughtered of course this really did not bother me and I thought it was kinda cool. The down side to this is that they spent the whole night singing from one until seven in the morning, so no sleep for me.
To answer your questions Senegal is a polygamous society so a man can have multiple wives as long as he can pay the dowery. I have seen and talked to my dad and second official mother. My dad is a businessman dealing with export and import of locally grown agriculture. He also dose a lot of community refurbishment, example he help build the school we are working in.
second I did teach them the mocerana and they love it although they keep saying macaroni instead.
lastly sorry but no worms yet.
Feel free to post questions here or e-mail them to me like the ones above were.
Take care and have fun with the wet season because I am in a blow dryer.

Oxe meen

The first week of the family stay was probably the most challenging thing I have ever done in my entire life. My host family is amazing though. I am the third volunteer that this family has hosted so they are used to strange people staying with them. To give you an over view I currently have two moms six younger sisters (age 17-15) and two younger brothers age (13 and 12). Although there are a lot of people going in the compound so I might have other siblings I don't know about. My primary mom (Ya no goy) is incredibly super sweet although she only speaks seereer so I have only been able to communicate a little with her. Her day consist selling peanuts and then she spends the day cooking, witch also means she is consistently trying to fatting me up, witch should please you teddy. My oldest sister Cora has been the most helpful because she speaks a lot of French and a little English. So I have been getting her to help me in learning Seereer. My other mom sells frozen bisop juice outside of the school everyday, wich is freaking awesome but more on that later. My first day they took me around the compound and introduced me to every one and I now have a billion names in my head and can't keep track of all of them. Lucky or not I do have another volunteer living in my compound. It is nice and I usually say hi to her every time I go to the restroom.

I also have been named Dauda. Apparently they find american names odd and confusing just as much as I am confused by Senegalese names.  The first night they taught us a traditional dance, which they all laughed at me trying to dance. Then for the next couple of days they always tried to get me to dance, then we went over to the school gardeners house and they wanted me to dance. So I taught them the thriller dance. Now people in the village I meet ask me to dance, apparently when I am the only white boy in a five hundred mile radius I get   mad dancing skills. 

The food has been repetitive but good. Basically bread, rice, millet, and over cooked vegetables. Although I am supplementing my diet with vitamins and protein bars. so if you want ideas of care packages, protein bars. Unfortunitly our village is out in the sticks and we only have one store and no internet cafes witch is sad  and also means I'll be out of contact for the next week and a half. Either way every thing is going fine.

PST

I have been in county for about four days now and our days have been filled with meetings on safety and security, cross cultural, and touring around Thies. Everyone I have  meet here has been super nice. In the four days we have been here everyone has grown into a supportive family unit. Another good thing about this is out of our training group of fifty only eight of us our male. Surprising yes, in my favor most definitely. If we are not in sessions we have been working on technical skills which include gardening and tree planting. Translated to lay-mens terms mixing manurer and sand to create better soil, using tools readily available, shovels, hoes, your hands, ect.

Meals here in the afternoon consist of a community bowl that you can sit around and chat with the langue teachers. The food is mainly rice or another grain with local vegetables, Carrots, Sweet Potatoes, Morgana root (which is awesome), and some sort of meat, usually fish. Everything that has been served is wonderful. After lunch the LCF's (langue teachers) sit around and drink mint tea. Great stuff but sugar over load. Either way it is a good way to practice langue and get to know the LCF's better. Dinner has been disappointing to me only in the fact that the cooks have been Americanizing Senegalese food. Spicy bean pizza, good but not impressed.

The most exciting thing we learned to day was what langue we will be learning. I got Seereer a small rural  langue with three other volunteers. So I am ahead in the game of where your future job site is because it is only spoke in three regions above The Gambia. This also means that I lugged the Wolof dictionary around for nothing, oh well. Tomorrow is an exciting day for us because we start our host stay, which will be awesome.
I have taken pictures and will post them at a later date as soon as I find figure out how. have fun with the rest of your winter and I'll be enjoying my sixty degree weather.

Jim

three days left

I am sitting here in my room in Independence and am experiencing the special mix of excitement and double checking my self twice a day to make sure I have everything ready too go. In four days I will step off a plane and in to 60 degree weather, that's right spring I don't need you this year.  The last couple of weeks has been a whirl wind of seeing friends and family before I go. Going through the process of backing and getting ready never felt strange to me I am ready to go meet intriguing people, see life through a completely different set of eyes. I will miss all of you guys in the states but letters are always welcome and my address for pre-serves training will be:

PCT “Jim Bick”
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 299
Thiès, Senegal
West Africa