Settling into Sambande

When the Peace Corps car turned down the dirt road to my village two weeks ago there were a lot of things that went through my mind. I would be lying if I said one of them wasn't a brief desire to turn the car around and speed away. It had been a long day...I spent 5 hours of the morning greeting various government officials in my area and installing another volunteer...and by the time we got to my village at 3 I was already exhausted. As excited as I was to finally be settled somewhere and stop living out of a suitcase, the reality that this tiny collection of grass huts and stick fences was going to be my life for the next two years was a heavy one. This is not summer camp, or some extended backpacking trip...this is my life.

As we drove around the last bend in the road the first thing that distracted me from my nervousness was the sound of drums. I had been hoping for a rather low key installation, but being the first volunteer meant my villagers were super excited to roll out the welcome wagon. There was drumming and dancing and speeches and someone even went to the road town and bought ice so we could have cold drinks! In the end I was grateful for all of the hubub. Its tough to be worried about the future when you're watching kids with their faces painted like little old men and women dance around with welcome signs.

Turns out life in my new village isn't all that bad. My new family is really nice, even if they are a bit overbearing (there's no word for 'personal space' in Seereer for a reason). My hut is 4m x4m with a grass roof and a little fenced in area in the back for my bathroom, and once I get a cabinet made to put all of my stuff in it will really start feeling like home. The language is different, but not as different as I initially thought, so communication is possible if not entirely effortless. I've already met a couple of great people in the community who are really excited to work with me. One guy, Bassirou, started inviting me to sit with him under the shade tree every day and has been helping me work on my language. He's been such a good teacher that I've decided to hire him as my official tutor.

After two weeks in the village I decided to bike in to Kaolack for a night to do some research for some projects, pick up a few extra things for my hut, and drink a cold beverage. I've decided to buy a rope and make a tire swing in one of the big trees in the center of the village, and this coming week I'm going to start on a mural at the school. I haven't been brave enough to bust out my camera in front of my family yet (I'll probably never be allowed to put it away) but I promise to post some pictures next time I'm in town. I don't have a new post office box yet, but in the meantime I would welcome email updates from everyone on what you've been up to. Its hard to remember that time marches on in the States while I'm away. Tell me all about your exciting lives!

Super Stage Swears In

I, Jennifer Wysong, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

Today we got all gussied up in our Senegalese best and took the oath to become real live Peace Corps Volunteers at the ambassadors house in Dakar. This marks the official end of our time as trainees, and the "super stage" (as we have been dubbed by our fellow volunteers) will scatter all across the country to our respective villages to start getting our hands dirty. We will reconvene in Kedougou for an Independence Day party, and at the end of July we will meet back up in Thies for In Service Training. Until then our country director has issued us a challenge...spend 5 consecutive weeks in your village without spending the night anywhere else. Now the real fun begins...

Family Fete

Today we had a big party to thank all of our host families for taking us in and teaching us how to survive in Senegal. Both my mom and my Aunt Badgi came and it was nice to have a little more time to spend with the two of them. The kitchen staff went all out and cooked chicken for lunch, and Assane made us attaya one last time. After lunch a group of Pulaar drummers entertained the crowd, a bunch of people made speeches (mostly in Wolof) and before we knew it we were saying goodbye all over again.

Alhumdulillah!

Studying verbs one last time

Just got the results of my final language test...Intermediate Mid! That means tomorrow I'm going to Dakar to officially swear in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Its amazing to think that before I came to Senegal I had no clue Seereer even existed, and just nine short weeks later I can not only communicate basic needs, I can haggle down a pair of shoes in the market from 12,000cfa to 4,000cfa and fend off three marriage proposals at the same time! I've still got a long way to go on the road to fluency, but I'm excited to "leave the nest" and start testing my wings. In honor of the occasion, here are a few of my favorite Seereer proverbs:

O kiin a tet a andu ndaa andee a kar.
A person knows when he will leave, but not when he will come back
A daat jam godee.
The road to peace is not far.

A caf a mofangee, xan a dak dung.
If a foot does not stop, it will step in shit.

O koy a anda metee foop o raq um.
A monkey knows where is own ass is. (mind your own business)
Muusomuus fo ne te xobid'taa xoox cooxum.
Each cat has its own method of removing a mouse's head.

O naagaa naagaa bo andatiiro me o jofaa, nomtooxi mam inoor oona.If you no longer konw where you are, go back to where you came from.

Bye Bye Mbind Sathioke

The hardest part about pre service training hasn't been learning a new language or navigating a new culture. It hasn't been dealing with 100+ degree temperatures or giant spiders or stinging ants. It wasn't living without running water or toilet paper or even a proper toilet for that matter. The hardest thing I've done in Senegal so far was saying goodbye to my family. Its amazing how close I've become with this group of people that I've only been living with for 9 weeks, when we didn't even speak the same language for most of that time. I'm excited to move to Sambande and get started on some projects, but it's bittersweet because I have to leave the people that took me in and treated me like one of their own when I couldn't speak Seereer and didn't even know how to eat rice with my hand. I know its more of a "see you later" than an actual goodbye, but if leaving people I've only lived with for two months is hard I don't know how I'll be able to leave Senegal after two years!

My aunt Badji, the only woman who can outshine
the hot African sun

Work Hard, Play Harder

We spent this last week preparing for and hosting a workshop for all of our village counterparts, the people that the Peace Corps has selected to work with us on projects and be our liaisons to the community. All of us have two counterparts, so for two days we worked to entertain and corral 80 Senegalese people from all over the country. Most of the workshop was spent in meetings about Peace Corps goals, and what they can do to help us help them, but we did get some time to sit down with our counterparts to get to know them and talk about some things we want to work on in the first three months before In Service Training.

My official counterpart is Abdoulaye Dia. He lives in my road town, Keur Sosse, and is the director of the school in my village. He doesn't speak much Seereer, but he speaks French, Pulaar, Wolof and even a little English. I'm going to be working with him on integrating more environmental education into the school curriculum as well as starting a garden and building a latrine so the kids don't poop behind the building anymore. He's also going to tutor me in French and teach me Wolof once my Seereer is up to par.

My community counterparts name is Ngor Mbodg and he lives in Sambande so he will be my go to guy for any projects I want to do in the community. He works as the director of the school in the next village over so I might do some work with him there as well. They both seemed really enthusiastic and excited to help me get settled in and meet everyone so here's hoping for a good working relationship for the next two years.

After working so hard hard preparing and facilitating the counterpart workshop we took the weekend off our whole stage piled into two Alhums and went to the beach in Popenguine. For 5,000cfa each we rented a gorgeous house right on the beach and spent the whole weekend swimming in the ocean, lounging in my hammock and napping on the beach. I even managed to get a little barefoot bouldering in! I was worried I would loose a lot of my language spending the whole weekend speaking English, but lucky for me the bartender at the restaurant next to our house spoke Seereer, so I got a lot of practice and a couple of free drinks too. Tomorrow we go back to our villages for our last week of language class...I'm already dreading having to say goodbye!