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.
