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