Last week marked 6 months in country. I feel there should be some fanfare and music blaring. A quarter into service! 4 months at site! Wahoooo!
The other day, I was talking complaining to my brother from another mother, Sèssie, about nothing and everything and he casually remarked, “You know since you’ve been in country for more than a year you’d think that you’d be used to some of these things.” My brain restarted when he said this. More than a year? In country for a year? The day I reach the one year mark I will…
I actually don’t know. It doesn’t seem possible 😂. But no I havent been here for a year… But. Time is relative so I very well could have. I wake up with aches and a sore back so it could be 5 years too. Who know? Google probably.
My goal for this blog was to post something every month or so. I have failed spectacularly with this plan and for that I apologize. I could blame my lack of follow through on not having reception at site but an excuse is an excuse which is still an excuse. (Can you tell that I can’t English anymore?)
To catch you nonexistent readers up to speed, here are some things that have happened post Pre Service Training:
Installing at site + 10 weeks of integration:
May 7th 2019
I arrived to my 3k village in the Kaolack region with my awesome site mate, Tara, and a buttload of stuff to make my room a ✨room✨. It was unknown at the time that Tara would be awesome. She was then: super-high-energy-Agriculture-volunteer-who-happened-to-live-pretty-close-and-spoke-amazing-Wolof. How did I know her Wolof was amazing? Maybe it was because I didn’t understand a darn thing she said to my fam or maybe it was because she responded to everything my family said or maybe it was being told by everyone and their mother that she spoke incredibly wolof. It was the latter. To this day, two months after the fact, when I introduce myself to people they immediately ask if I know of Tara and how my Wolof doesn’t compare to hers. Can you tell I’m salty?
The amount of budgeting and forethought that went into pre install shopping was substantial. Peace Corps provided us with a Suggested Install Purchase List which had a list of helpful items to think about including imagined prices of said items. I say that the prices were imagined because the prices were woefully under actual market price. Our limited install money didn’t cover half of the things we needed. Some volunteers were lucky and were replacing volunteers who left some furniture, but those of us that were first volunteers struggled. Take buying a bed for example. If you wanted a full instead of a single (for the love of God, don’t be “thifty” and get a single if you have space for a double) you needed to spend at least 50% of your install money. At it didn’t help that we were charged toubab (foreigner) prices.
I installed during Ramadan which was a funky time. High key awed by the sheer willpower it takes to fast from sunrise to sunset. I tried it for a day and that would be a “no” for me dawg. Everyone was very relaxed trying not to exert too much energy with chatter or overextended greetings.
My new family was much smaller than my CBT’s (thank Jesus). Downsizing from a 17 person family to a manageable 8 person household did wonders to my state of being. I immediately clicked with my sister, Adja, who is basically the glue that keeps this family together. This woman, guys. First class wisecrack right there. She raps, she dances, she laughs easily and she is formidable AF. Thanks to her I can confidently say my language has improved somewhat. She tries her damnest to make sure I understand whatever she says. Going as far as to mime words I’m confuzzled about.
My site is a decent size compared to others. It’s divided into 3 “neighbourhoods” where minority groups live. There’s the Seerer, Pulaar and Wolof neighborhoods. I live in the Seerer neighborhood where everyone speaks Seerer. I get greeted and occasionally talked to in Seerer which was initially confusing when I arrived because I couldn’t differentiate between Wolof and Seerer. My neighbours insist that I learn Seerer and joke that I can learn the language in 3 weeks if I really wanted to. Spoiler alert, I really can’t understand Seerer when the only common language we have is Wolof which I can barely speak :D. I’ve been advised that if I manage to learn the Seerer greetings I would get less slack so challenge accepted.
We have a weekly louma (market) where you can get pretty much everything. There’s a solid sandwich lady that sells chicken (!!!!) Which is a life saver after a weeks of very little fish or protein. There are amazing beignet (fried donut balls) sellers, a ton of running paths into the country side and solid families that make great lunches.
When I first installed, I said “I can grow to love it” and it’s actually happening? Idk. The love surges and wanes.
10 weeks of pure integration would have been mind numbingly excruciating (how something could be mind numbing and excruciating is very possible: come at me). Thankfully PC had a fun 😑 little 🤗 packet, full of questionnaires and interview questions pertaining to our future work. The goal of the interviews were to understand our sites better and get an idea of preexisting resources and work and ways we could strengthen those assets.
One questionnaire had me interviewing a leader in the village about the history and conflict resolution style of the town. Another questionnaire gave me better insight into my work partners about why they chose to be nurses and health promotors including what activities and work they did at the health post. Translating, understanding responses and asking additional questions were #strugglefest and required the help of numerous people. Bless up to the #wolofordie group chat and my former LCF.
In-Service Training:
In-Service Training was 3 weeks of hyper specific technical classes all curated to get projects started at site. To be completely honest, it was a blur with a lot of classes, not enough breaks and late nights catching up with volunteers I hadn’t seen in ages.
And that’s it! I’m sure I forgot to mention things here and there but that’s about the gist of the last couple months. It’s currently rainy season so all the men are in the fields. It’s super green and lush and the humidity unbearable.
Side story about the rain: I was on the phone with Jake (closest volunteer in my stage) about prepping for Tabaski (oh wow that needs to another post or at least another side story haha). I was watching the lightening over the horizon from my compound when the wind picked up out of no where. The intensity kept compounding from zero to 100 until there was a dust storm I the matter of seconds. I remember saying “Oh man, this might be it. The blessing of Toto. The begin- oh shit – my eyes!! – the wind!! -what the f” My family, who were amusing by the toubab (me) walking in circles on the phone, started freaking out, grabbing all the chairs and mats, yelling at me to get into my room. It was like taking cover for a bomb and soldiers yelling “Go! Go! Go!” It was hilarious and scary and exhilarating that first rain.
Side side note on Tabaski: August 12th was the biggest Muslim holiday in Senegal: Tabaski. It was the celebration of Allah’s mercy. As the story goes, Abraham was commanded by Allah to kill his son to prove his devotion. Just as Abe was about to slit his son’s throat Allah replaced the little boy with a ram. So in celebration, thousands of rams are slaughtered nation wide and eaten for 3 whole days. It’s a terrible time for vegans and vegetarians but a wonderful full day of so much meat — quickly followed by 2 days of “creepy meat” if you don’t have refrigeration at site.
The celebration is akin to Christmas where people spend a life’s savings on outfits and food. Relatives from all around the world come home. Huge shared meals everywhere.
Okay seriously that’s it. And I will now end this incredibly long post with random things I’m pretty sure have changed:
– my weight (back to where I was when I first arrived in the states)
– my tolorance for aggressive men (non existent)
– the number of existential crisis per week (immeasurable)
– replays of Toto’s Africa
– coffee intake (up by 200000%)
– fitness goals (I will be yoked in 4 months. Trust)
-flossing when bored
iPhones cannot do justice to the clouds here. 20 mins after each downpour is spent looking at the majestic sky.
Ope, almost forgot gratitude list:
– kwaaame
– Aida
– Sèssie (fight me ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ)
– Jake
– Ben
– ramen
– the tiny fan that tries it’s best
– beignet seller (I always forget your name but you have saved me too many times)
– Kindle (without you I would have Early Terminated)
– Katelynn
Yet another Senegal PCV blog 