Well I have been in Senegal for over a month now. I have to say, my time here has been amazing, better than I could have ever expected. But I need to give a shout out to a couple of people who have made my life here even better…
Kimberlee, thanks for spending far more money than you should, just so that we can talk for 10 minutes every week. Your phone calls keep me sane.
Mom, you quite literally saved my life when you sent the Benadryl. I can now make it through the night without waking up scratching the dozens of mosquito bites on my feet.
Barbara, for the hand sanitizer and M&Ms I will be eternally grateful. Your package was amazing. I bet the Pioneer has never made it this far!
A big shout out! From Africa, with my love.
For the past couple of days I have been down in Kedougou on a Volunteer Visit (also known as demystification). The purpose of demystification is to give trainees an idea of what life as a volunteer will be like. They time the visit so that it comes almost exactly halfway through training, which was perfect timing. After visiting a volunteer and meeting volunteers in the region and hearing about their amazing work, I am really motivated to work hard and push through the rest of training.
So, after the 12 hour drive down to Kedougou, we were met by a huge mob of Kedougou volunteers. They were very welcoming and were excited to meet us and tell us about life in “the bush”. They made us an amazing American feast (hamburgers, coleslaw, potato salad, french fries, and fried okra) the food was delicious. Seriously yummy.
During the volunteer visit I was able to explore the city of Kedougou and it is a perfect site for me. It is small, so I feel like I will be able to integrate into the community. But since Kedougou is the capital of the region it has all the amenities I could really ever need, a post office, government offices, a large daily market, and TWO paved roads. My home is also just over a mile from the regional house (is actually more like a compound—just traditional Senegalese huts). And it has a shower. Really. I would have taken a photo, but my camera is broken. I will prove it as soon as a replacement arrives from America.
The volunteers in the region have worked hard to create a tight network, and it was great to spend a couple of days watching them work. The volunteer I shadowed was amazing (only been here a year and speaks amazing Pullar). He was able to introduce me to a couple of potential work partners and we went out to a garden and talked with a farmer who is growing alternate varieties in the off season and making a killing at the market.
All in all, the visit was amazing. I cannot wait to install and to make the city my home. I think that I am going to be really happy in Kedougou for the next two years. The landscape is beautiful. Rolling hills, waterfalls, trees, and monkeys. It also has a long rainy season (and we all know that I feel most at home with a little rain). I feel like I won the lottery twice. First getting to go to Senegal, and now being placed in Kedougou. Lucky me.
I have a phone! It costs nothing for me to receive calls, so if you feel like skipping your morning latte, please spend a couple of bucks and give me a call!
My number is: 011 221 773304850
011 is the exit code for the USA. If you are using skype you might not need it.
221 is the Senegal country code
773304850 is my cell number
Best time to call is after 12:00 noon Senegal time. (I'm 7 hours ahead).
My Love!
Today was the day that we have all been waiting for… site announcements!
The session began with everyone getting led to the basketball court. Painted on the ground was a huge map of Senegal. We are all blindfolded, then led to various locations on the map.
When I was led to my spot I called out and discovered that all the members of my language group (the Pullafunta group) were all close, plus a new voice, a Mandinka speaker. Then I started calling out to see how far away everyone else was… and no one responded. They were all really really far away. Then we took off our blindfolds, and looked down… My site is the city of Kedougou!
Kedougou (pronouced KAY-duh-goo) is the capital of the region of Kedougou. The region is supposed to be very beautiful with lots of trees, hills, and monkeys! It is also one of the hottest areas of Senegal and it gets significantly more rainfall than anywhere else in Senegal.
The region of Kedougou is also where our country director Chris Hedrick did hisservice way back when, and current volunteers say he is partial to the area.Peace Corps has initiated a pilot project in Kedougou region which has established a regional strategy and lots of collaboration between volunteers. Check out http://www.pckedougou.org for more info about what current volunteers are doing in the region and how you can support my soon-to-be region mates.
I have also been informed that the volunteers in Kedougou host the annual PC 4th of July party and we roast a pig! Someone must have told the staff about my love affair with pork products.
I am really excited about my placement and I cannot wait for next week when we leave for volunteer visits and I will get to see the region for myself. I will report back soon with details (but no photos, sorry my camera is dead).
Blindfolded and waiting for placement
1) It is hard to tell sometimes if I am tanning, or if am just really dirty.
2) I pee in a squat latrine and rinse afterwards with a cup of water. And I’ve actually become quite good at it. I also ration toilet paper for “special occasions” like when I have a bad day, or if I’m feeling a bit sick…
3) I’ve turned into an emotional manic. I laugh, I cry, I swear, I yell. All usually within the span of the same hour
4) I wash my clothes in a bucket, rise them in another bucket, then hang then to dry on a clothes line. And I’m not very good at it. I usually fail at getting all the soap out. This becomes painfully obvious when it rains and my shirt starts lathering and suding.
5) “Cold” has become a flavor. ie “So how does that Senegalese beer taste?” “It tastes cold.”
6) I actually look forward to power outages. No power means that the village is quiet. No blaring call to prayer. No Akon blasting from my neighbor’s room. No French dubbed soap operas playing on TV all day. Bliss.
7) I sleep under a mosquito net. And love it. It’s kinda like having a canopy bed.
8) I eat from a communal bowl that sits on the floor with my right hand only. Sometimes I get to sit on a stool, sometimes I crouch/squat near the bowl. Sometimes I get a spoon, sometimes I don’t. I always wash my hands, my family never washes theirs.
9) I take bucket baths. No I don’t bathe in a bucket. I fill a bucket with water and using a cup dump the water all over myself. I lather. Then rinse. Seriously. No showers. Ever.
10) I probably have malaria. Mefloquine doesn’t prevent me from getting malaria, it just suppresses the symptoms. Since malaria has a 21 day incubation period—and I have been here a month—and I average 4 to 8 mosquito bites per day—I figure, by now I probably have a little malaria.
A Day in the Life of Haddie Sow (AKA Melanie)
6AM Wake up. Stare at ceiling. Contemplate the necessity of using the latrine.
6:30 AM Get out of bed. Visit latrine. Mentally kick myself for being too cheap to buy toilet paper when I was in Thies.
6:32AM Lie back in bed. Listen to ipod. slowly get hotter and hotter as the sun rises and heats my room.
8AM Get dressed. Leave room. Walk around compound and greet the entire family.
8:30AM Boil water on the propane stove for my morning “latte” (water, Nescafe, powdered milk & sugar). Munch on some bread.
8:45AM Leave for Pular lessons. Greet 80% of the people I pass. Apologize for not speaking Wolof. Explain that I am a Peace Corps Volunteer and I am learning Pular because I am going to be living in another part of the country.
9AM Pular lesson begin. I tell my instructor, Lamine, about my previous day with the eloquence and precision of a toddler (ie. I cooked goat. I visited friend. I slept good). Afterwards, I try not to break down laughing or crying while I learn more Pular grammar. Sure they don’t conjugate verbs in this language, but there are 27 different ways to say “the” and “it”. Seriously.
1PM Return home. Greet family again. Explain why i was gone and what I was doing, even though I do the exact same thing every day.
2PM Naptime/Laundry time/help with dinner/study Pular. All listed in order of priority.
5PM Go to the community garden. Hang out with the other 5 Peace Corps Volunteers at my CBT site. Pretend we working when we are actually eating Biscrum (Algerian cookies ubiquitous in Senegal) and drinking Foster Clarks (like exotic flavored Tang).
7PM Go home. My family tells me I stink (their way of asking if I would like to bathe). I take a bucket bath.
8PM Visit other Peace Corps volunteer’s compounds. Greet their families. Practice Pular. Laugh at my own inadequacies.
10PM Return home. Eat dinner with my family. On the ground. Squatting around a communal bowl. Sometimes I get a spoon. Sometimes I eat with my hands.
11PM Apologize to my family for being so sleepy. Explain that i am tired. Go to my room. Listen to my ipod. Read. Write. Laugh. Cry. And finally fall asleep.
Look I did my laundry!
My laundry helper.
