the life of a teenage boy in Senegal

So on the flip side the life of an average teenage boy in Senegal. Senegal culture is male dominate and I am not going to lie there is spousal abuse, as well as a lot of harassment. Boys grow up thinking that they should have at least have two wives if not four and if they don’t it is an insult to your manhood. Men view themselves as the providers and in most village settings they are the ones who “go out to seek money” then give what they want to their wives.  In this society you can do anything you want as a male and nobody will care, minus the obvious religious laws that you should not break. Of course with great power comes great responsibility, one that most men in this country abuse. Growing up you look at you’re elders sitting under a tree drinking atttya and doing nothing all day you start to think that it is acceptable. Of course since you are higher on the food chain this means you can assert your dominance over anyone younger and all females.  I have known several instances were younger males will just sit around and in the hot part of the day, then go play soccer when it cools off.  Through in some catcalling and discussions about music and who has the biggest butt in the village and you got a day. Also another disturbing aspect of this culture that I have found out is the conceptions that if you have trouble with your wife you don’t work it out you get a new wife.  Add to this trying to study by flash light and if someone needs the light then they will take it from you leaving you to study in the dark.  All of this puts a lot of demands on the boys to fit into the society’s norm and to study really hard in school.  Like I said before humans are diverse. My brothers will sweep their room, do laundry, ect. As well as my village has a very equal guy and women’s work.  Men take care of the animals, make fences; make huts, do home repair, go fishing, prepare the fields, and plant the fields. Women do the rest of the work mention in the former post. There is not giant movement to facilitate change among the boys in Senegal because everyone is focused on girl’s education. For me my work in this area is very informal. Most of the time the boys in my village will ask me why I don’t have a wife this opens the door for discussions on how you could help your feature wife, for example collecting fire wood for the day. We talk about some traditions you should break and the others that don’t really matter. At the end of the day, just like with all my work, you cast your idea into the moment in time. All you can do is hope that the ripples will catch on something or be noticed when they wash up on the shore.

in the life of a teenage girl

I figure since I have been here a year I should start in on some cultural aspects of this culture. First up what it is like to be a teenage girl in this society. First off this is a male dominated society and some women are subjected to harassment on a daily basis. The women do all the house work from cooking to cleaning, doing laundry, taking care of the kids, pulling water, and other miscellaneous tasks. As you can imagine this is hard work. Cooking dinner alone is over a four hour process. With all this work it leaves no time to study for school and no free time to yourself. Add on top of that some men will be very insensitive, to making bad jokes, catcalling you, making you fetch them a glass of water when all they are doing is sitting under a tree drinking attya. Plus add the fact that once you are married then school is over and you are to work in the house and have babies while your husband works for money. It is no wonder that most of the girls in the villages over here never get passed a middle school education. Yet life is life so what are you going to do but put on a smile and keep trucking. As the human race is a diverse population this is not the case across the board. For example my village is very progressive. My brothers will do their laundry if they need it the next day or if their soccer gear is dirty they will wash it. They clean their room and are respectful by telling my younger brothers to get them stuff instead of my sisters. My village doses wait to marry their daughters off until they are 17-18 years unlike some more remote parts that practice 12 year old marriages. To offset this problem we do a lot of women’s education, for example we in the Kaolack region are putting together a girls camp. This is weeklong leadership camps were we teach the girls about gardening, the environment, women’s health, business, and have motivational speakers throughout the week. All in a camp like setting at a hotel in the delta outside of Sokone. As you can imagine we could always use donations use the link below to navigate to the web page. Yet that is not all that we do. In my village I do my own laundry, talk to the young men in my village on what they can do to help their future wife. In my opinion this is the only way you can change things you have to get people thinking about what it is like to be in someone else’s shoes only then can you slowly get things to change.

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=685-198 

Poop and dirt

So the work has been going slowly and the large dent in my hut wall has been growing steadily, as well as my head concussions, I also know I complained about this before but you will hear it again. The women in my village decided to ask me for my help so I did a couple of demonstrations on proper gardening techniques. Of course when the day came all the women were shelling peanuts and refuse to go. So I had to strong arm 7 women into coming and after words they decided that it was too hard and got an "expert" from my road town who knows nothing, yet of course all the women listen and do what he says because it is easy. Witch this is the hardest part of my work people don't want to do what I point out, for example why are you not taking your baby to the health post, oh you don't have the money because you just bought attya, well then maybe you should not buy it. Apparently that is just crazy talk but this is just the difficulties of the job. Of course over here you find the little things that are funny like watching your little brother running over to me with cow poop in his hands asking if it is good to put in your garden bed. Or feigning ignorance when my brothers are pantomiming the french word for kissing, turning down my grandmothers propositions for sex by saying she dose not have a big enough butt and she needs to eat more rice before she comes back, or learning my counterpart is an evil genus by giving me my own plot in the women's garden so I can rub the better gardening practices in their faces. Either way it is all about the little things in life, you could dwell on the negative or translate Sir Mixalot in to Seereer and let them enjoy.

all I want for the elections is peace

First I would like to state that I am fine. I know that things have appeared in the news paper but all the riots are in Dakar and nobody cares in the village. The only thing we have is occasionally giant buses will come through my village blaring music and campaign advertisements, which is annoying if I am trying to get to sleep. Other than that work is going slowly as normal. I have started working with the women's garden trying to teach them new gardening techniques that they find hard so they don't want to do it. Instead they went to my road town found someone who will tell them what they want to hear and then do that. Although on the plus side they did give me my own space in the garden, ironically or my counter part is way more sly than I thought she was, because when all the women make their area's the easy way I made mine with the techniques I know. They did not want to go to the demonstrations on gardening I am bring it to them. this way I will have a good garden bed and better vegetables. Other than that I have been sitting around talking with people and reading the more finer points of the toughest job I ever loved.

WAST

With a new year come new challenges. First I got sick of every one saying that I have a lot of money, slightly true but not really. I also got tired of them saying that people just give away new TV’s and cars in America to anyone who wants it. So I have been trying to get a savings program going. How you ask? I have been telling them to put change in a jar and save up to buy the TV or fencing that they want. Simple concept right? I have had problems of them actually doing it because if you have the money at this instant then go buy attya (tea) and borrow money from your friends when you need it. For example I am trying to get my school director to plant the garden to sell off the excess vegetables, or plant some fruit trees to make revenue for the school. Or even better plant the garden during the rainy season, so you don’t have to water it daily and sell of the vegetables that way. Dose not get that concept either but oh well that is half the reason we are here is to educate people on how to provide for themselves. The fun part is for the last three days we went to WAST in Dakar. WAST is the west Africa softball tournament. It is a tournament for all the aid workers in west Africa put on by the us embassy. Fun time all the peace corps teams dressed up in different themes ours being Boy scouts, of course if I had known this I would have brought my stuff from the states. Either way it was slightly unfair for two reasons. One is we all live in villages and are undernourished. Second all the other teams get together on a weekly base to practice. So needless to say all our games were 0-20. Although the last game we played was against another Peace Corps team from Cape Verd. So we both looked at each other and said we are done with softball. So we found a kickball and played that instead. In the evenings we all stuffed our bellies  with good food, mostly of the cheese biased variety, then we went out dancing every night. Currently I am completely sore, who knew dancing for 6hours a night would be a decent workout, but my belly is happy which means I am more willing to go back and eat rice for three weeks straight. 

helping the world dose not take smarts it takes talking like a six grader

I know it is a little late but happy holidays to my friends and family. It was a little weird spending Christmas over here because it was so warm and there was no snow. So me and my friends did the only thing that anyone would do in this situation when they miss snow...head to the beach. We rented out a house in popeguine and spent five days laying around on the beach in good company and forgetting that we were in Africa for the moment. Also Popenguine is a huge catholic town so we were able to go to mass on Christmas eve. Granted I did not understand any of it because it was in french and Wolof, two languages I don't speak, but the cool part was the there was no organ the music was entirely singing and drumming. It was amazing experience. The next morning we did a gift exchange and played in the sand. As for work it has been slow I have been going around to local baptisms and talking with people on daily basis trying to get them to think about nutrition, first aid, and sanitation like washing your hands. Although I have not got my family to wash their hands with soap but they are cleaning their dishes with soap and bleach. so slow steps but on the plus side I do consider myself fluent in Sereer, I speak like six grader but people can understand me so that is all that really maters. I found out some very interesting things for start my dad is a shaman. So him and my brother Mbye know traditional herbal medicine as well my dad can make talismans to ward of evil spirits. The interesting part about this is he became a shaman because he used hunt wild animals. In Sereer culture they believe you have to kill the animal in your dreams spiritually first then you kill it physically the next day. that incite is what people recognize as a spiritual blessing and means you have great incite in to life. So this means if I ever start having dreams about sick sticky children mobbing my village and they only way to stop them is to pelt them with soap, I know that God has giving a gift and my work will pick up. That or the meflquin is creeping back into my system. Either way Waagum fi a fax no safu (I am able to do good with soap).

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.