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