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Really quickly, I added this to the side, so it'll be there for a while, but if you're having trouble leaving comments and want you, you can also email them to koinsenegal@gmail.com.

Thanks! Off to village for a few days!
KO

Beach!

The beach was amazing. That's pretty much there is to it... but I'll give you a little more. We were given a weekend off... well and by weekend I mean Monday 5pm-Tuesday 5pm, but it's the first time we've had off since we got here August 12th. Before you think "but Katherine, you say you sit around your compound staring a dirt most of the day," remember that EVERYTHING is in French... and just generally work, even if it's not real work, it's hard. But back to the beach!

Along with another girl, I organized 50 trainees to take 2 Alham's (basically an emptied out large van that's been re-cramped with seats.. they each sit 30 and are no bigger than a mini-bus, if not smaller) and go to the beach for a day. We rented two houses and piled in for a relaxing 24 hours. Once we got to the beach town, we stopped at a boutique to fill up on drinks (let your imagination wander) as well as on things for dinner. Later that night along with a VERY HELPFUL group of other trainees, I made dinner (pasta and red sauce) for everyone.

The rest of the trip was full of swimming, walking, hanging out, and generally letting loose. There were times it was almost possible to forget I was in Africa and not on Spring Break... until I saw the bugs, swatted a mosquito, got hissed at, or had to use the bathroom.

I'll add more pictures soon (hopefully tomorrow afternoon) but I've linked to another friend's blog and she has some pictures.

Our counterparts start to arrive today which means I sleep in the village tonight, Thursday, and Friday, and driven to Thies each day for sessions with my counterpart and supervisor... I'm nervous to meet them because this could really determine a lot over the next two years (aka if I'm able to work with them or if they're just in the position for credit).

I'll try to blog at night and post them during the day if anything exciting is happening.

KO

Village, Part 3

Sept 20 2009

Last night there was a huge battle in the ongoing 2 year war: me v. the bugs of Senegal. I feel, for the most part, I have kept my blogging about bugs to a minimum. They really aren’t that integral to my life in Senegal. Yes, there are bugs, yes some of them are bigger than birds, yes ALL bugs here fly (even bugs that look like they don’t, but I’ve gotten used to them. I don’t freak out when there’s a bug on my, I smash bugs between my fingers all the time, bugs and I have practically called a ceasefire… until last night.

The story actually starts with my return to village: I opened the door to find about 150 earwigs had moved into my room. After calmly altering my hfmom (umm il y a beaucoup d’insects.. dans ma chambre), she got a broom and swept them all away! I thought that was the end of it, but boy was I wrong. Later than night bugs of all sorts and sizes (all with the ability to fly) started coming out and the battle really began. More than disgusting, it was frustrating to be CONSTANTLY swatting bugs of and hoping not to be bitten/stung. Eventually, I called it an early night (I couldn’t take them anymore) and retired to my room to discover more bugs! After killing a giant grasshopper, I tried to sneak under my mosquito netting which does a decent job to protecting from mosquitoes but, as I learned, doesn’t really protect against little green flying bugs. Finally around 1am I was able to fall asleep (I kept being almost asleep then waking up to the feeling of bugs on me) and woke up this morning to even more dead bugs on the top of my mosquito net. I was told last night than the bugs mean it’s almost the end of the rainy season which means the cold season (yay!!!!) is coming soon. I think the harvest is next week, but everything is already starting to come in (I spent about an hour helping shuck beans today). No school tomorrow because it’s Korite (aka Eid al fitra (sorry about the spelling) aka the end of Ramadan) but because we’re in a Catholic village we won’t get to celebrate… oh well! There’s always next year (as well as Tabaski (sp) which is the other big Senegalese Muslim holiday). Also, my hf in this village invited me to come here for Christmas which I have no real interest in doing but I might spend Easter here! I’ve heard from many volunteers it’s a really good idea to spend holidays that are important to you (Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc) with other volunteers… especially if you think you’re going to be homesick. I’m not really one to be homesick but I can’t imagine not missing everyone terribly on Christmas and Thanksgiving. Looks like the lunch cheb is ready!

A prochain,

KO

September 22, 2009

Regarding Bucket Baths:

While it might seem a little ridiculous, there is a lot to say apropos bucket baths (a really quick, nerdy French note “apropos de” is how you say “about”). So, bucket baths! Briefly, for those of you not familiar with “bucket baths”, here in Senegal it basically involves a big-ish bucket (maybe a few gallons) and a smaller quart sized bucket for pouring. You pour water on yourself, add soup, and pour more water to rinse off. It’s not a difficult task to do but it’s difficult to do well (don’t believe me, try washing shampoo out of your hair this method).

I really see there being 2 purposes for a bucket bath: to clean you, to cool you off. Starting with the first, I find this type of bucket baths to be the less pleasant of the two. For me, I take this type of bucket bath around 7am when there isn’t much motivation to jump out of bed and dump cold water all over myself. These are the bucket baths that I hurry through and they’re the ones that I really notice the smell of the bathroom.

The second type of bucket bath… that’s a WHOLE different ball game. These usually come around 6pm, maybe a little later but right before the sun sets because then it’s starting to cool off and you know that if you take a shower you’ll stay relatively clean until bed. Unlike its morning friend, this bucket of icy cold water is welcomed and the smell of the bathroom seems to fade into the background. It’s a great feeling to leave the bathroom knowing you’re not immediately stepping into the hot sun and going to be sweaty in 5 minutes. I, clearly, prefer cooling-off bucket baths to cleaning up baths.

Enough on bucket baths! Overall village days are going fine (clearly nothing too exciting going on as I have enough time to really debate bucket baths) and they’re moving kind of quickly which is nice. Oh, and there are some chicks in my compound so I took the initiative to name them (I figure we’re not going to eat them while I’m here because there are much larger chickens if we were ever going to eat one… which I’m sure we’re not). There are 6 chickens, 3 yellow ones and 3 black ones. The yellow ones are: Boris (the largest, pushiest one of them all – even though the only Boris I know isn’t pushy), Chip (it has markings like a chipmunk) and Swarly (an inside joke). The black ones are Maddy (it has black and yellow fuzz and is quite a mess) and then there are two that look identical thus earning the names Orangejello and Lemonjello (another inside joke, this time aimed at my roommates from Soph. year).

I swear my days are filled with more than bucket baths and naming chickens, it just isn’t that exciting to write about sitting in French class or talking about the heat. I hope everyone’s having a great week!

A Prochain!
KO

September 23

Today I had a moment with my host mom, and I really don’t know any other way to describe it (though I wish I did). First, a little bit of needed background: my hfmom and I have never not gotten along, but we’ve never really gotten along either. I’m not sure if she speaks just a little French or just can’t understand me, but we don’t talk, ever (she also only speaks to the other people in the family in local languages). I also would totally understand if she doesn’t like me, she and my hfdad were married August 9^th of this year… 2 weeks before I came. The best I can gather about Senegalese marriages is that there are 2 parts, the legitimate part and the party (which can happen YEARS… YEARS later). What, I think, happened, is that my hfparents were married (legit part) about 6 years ago but they just had the party with the church ceremony 1.5 months ago. Anyway, my interaction with my hfmom is limited to me thanking her for breakfast or other meals when she cooks. Other than that, we mind our own business.

So back to today! I didn’t tell my hfmom what time class was starting (kind of assuming she would know it started at 8am) but that’s not the Senegalese way. So when I woke up this morning no one was up. I proceeded with my bucket bath and, as I left for class, still, the compound was empty. I wasn’t too worried about the lack of breakfast because I’d skipped breakfast and my hfmom came and got me(the idea of interruptions doesn’t not exist). I went to class knowing that I would, eventually, be gotten for breakfast. I explained this to my teacher and my classmates and we started class. Sure enough, about 45 minutes later, my hfmom comes into the compound that we have class. We made eye contact and both just started laughing. I have no idea what was funny but there was some understanding between the two of us. So there I was, sitting under a mango tree, in Africa, laughing with a Senegalese woman because we both seemed to understand each other in that moment. I’m sorry I this didn’t really translate well being retold, but that was my morning!

Other than that, I learned how to make sugar peanuts, which are exactly what they seem to be: peanuts with sugar cooked on them. They’re sold in little packets for 25 cfa (about $0.07US). Only 4 more days until the beach!

A bientot!
KO

September 25, 2009

So it rained this morning, which really makes me change my thoughts on rain. Rain in the afternoon/evening is great because it gives me time alone, but rain in the morning is not my friend. Getting out bed knowing you have to walk through the rain to take a cold bucket bath isn’t really encouraging for the day. Aside from the far from excellent start to the day, it actually continued quite well. Class went by pretty quickly and we were off for the rest of the day. Today’s Cheb was really good (I honestly think I’ve become adjusted to the taste and my family has learned I just don’t eat fish). During the afternoon I visited Murial (the girl who makes sugared peanuts). There was a semi-final game for the summer soccer league so I walked with her the 1km to the soccer field then returned home. I’ve started taking a real pleasure in doing things that I know make the Senegalese shake their heads in confusion such as walking somewhere by yourself (even though it was 3pm, everyone walks with someone else) or even walking somewhere for fun not because I have to. After that I hung around the compound and got an early evening shower because it was Friday night and we were hitting the town! Of course by hitting the town I mean going to the boutique and drinking Fanta and eating a packet of 4 cookies but Fridays are always good days! After a few hours of good conversation with my fellow trainees I got home just in time for Marina, the Brazilian (I think) that’s on Senegalese TV every night. I’m not really sure of the plot, but it’s still fun to watch a soap opera. After that we had a fiesta for dinner! At least the closest thing to a fiesta that I’ll get in 2 years. I was rice with beans and fish (as usual I avoided the fish). When I put lime on the rice (my hffamily really likes lime on their rice) and closed my eyes it was almost as if I was eating at a really bad Mexican restaurant, and it was amazing. I ate a ton and one of my cousins even noticed that I was eating the beans and gave me more.

Unfortunately there are a lot of bugs tonight (due to the rain) but I’m hoping my mosquito net is tucked in well enough. Language exam tomorrow then a game for the “younger” team (the “cadets” are in middle school so 13-17ish and the “seniors” are in high school so 18-26ish). My hfcousin is playing in the game so hopefully I’ll be able to go.

A prochain,

KO

September 27, 2009

In my attempts to be a good peace corps volunteer appropriately integrating, or at least trying my hardest, into Senegalese culture, I went to the soccer game yesterday. Keep in mind, what seems like an easy task, going to a soccer game, is far from it. The field is 1km away and it was HOT yesterday. Of course the game started at 3:15, because when better to play soccer in an un-covered field than at the hottest part of the day? It is impossible to describe the heat but I’ll work on it and get back to you. I found out that my hfcousin is actually the captain of the team so that was cool. For the most part the game was 1-0 (my hfcousin’s team leading) until the other team scored with less than one minute left! The game went into penalty kicks but the goalie for my hfcousin’s team had been red carded in the last minute and my hfcousin had to step in to play goalie for the penalty kicks. My hfcousin finally blocked the 7^th penalty kick and his team won. It was really exciting but I got out of there are soon as I could because there was a lot of running and screaming and I didn’t want to be caught up in the middle of it (I try to avoid large crowds as much as possible). I’m really glad I went and I was even invited to stand with the girls that were cheering the team on (yay for having kind of friends!).

A quick thing I’ve noticed about my life: I spend a lot of time talking to things/people that I know cannot respond to me. I spend probably a total of an hour or so a day talking to bugs and animals in English. Most of my one-sided conversations are along the lines of “no, that’s my room, you don’t live there” or “don’t think about getting in my mosquito net!” or the worst “how did you get in my mosquito net!” When not speaking to insects, I also spend a lot of time talking to the kids in English. I’m saving describing my interactions with the kids until I think I can do it without ranting angrily without a point. But I’ll leave it at usually when the kids are annoying to me I start speaking to them in English: “Yes, I am reading, no I don’t want to talk to you,” “yep… still ignoring you, maybe you should go away now,” “yeah, I still have no idea what you’re saying because I don’t speak that language and I never will.” You get the idea. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes the kids don’t drive me crazy but these kids would drive anyone crazy (yes S.Low… even you).

I go back to Thies tomorrow to go to straight to the beach and I’m so excited! Hopefully I’ll get this posted before we go to the beach because our next few days after that are all over the place. Our counterparts are coming in so they’re staying in the center and we’re commuting in from our villages for a few days. I’ll for sure be back to the center Saturday.

Man, this is going to be a looooong blog post! Sorry, but 9 days in the village… and I had a lot to say about bucket baths.

A toute a l’heure (my most used departure phrase – “another time”),

KO

PS, congrats on making it through this 4.5 page blog… sorry… only one more giant blog from village time left then training is over and I’ll hopefully have internet in my room!

PPS- Here are some things I forgot to mention. My hfdad’s soccer team lost in the semi-final today. It also went into penalty kicks but the other team won (I have some pictures from the game just added). Also, I should have mentioned this in the food post but couscous here is not similar to the couscous most people in the US come across at home or in their travels. It is not what they call here “Moroccan CousCous” which is the kind that’s sort of like rice in little balls. It’s pounded millet that’s been sifted, dried in the sun, and then rehydrated just before eating. It honestly has the same physical characteristics of wet sand.

Talent Show and Trees

Today was a full day! The morning started out, as usual, with some language class then a cross culture/med session. After lunch we had a little bit about the counter-part workshop which is coming up. Basically we all have counterparts in our sites (a Senegalese person somewhat related to our projects) who's in charge of helping us whenever we need it. Next time we're at the Center, they'll be coming in for a few days so we can go over expectations and project plans with them (the entire thing will be conducted in French). After the counterpart rundown, we had a tree planting session! Yes, that's correct, all PCVs in Senegal as supposed to be planting trees (to combat rapid de-forestation). So today the business school kids played in the dirt... literally. We were mixing dirt with our hands, packing black sacks, and planting seeds to create a pepeniere aka tree nursary. It was a really amazing time and it made me really excited to try and grow things. While I do not have a green thumb at all, it was nice to get out of the classroom for once. Also, I hear Basil grows REALLY easily, so I'll be making a mean pesto sauce in no-time.

The day kept moving quickly with the PST-TS (pre service training talent show). The night was filled with amazing talent such as tap dancing, rapping, new ways to eat bananas, juggling, basketball skills, magic, and much much more. My language group re-wrote the words to "Baby Got Back" to make it "Baby Got CousCous." Not to be too annoying, but I think it was well received.

Finally, in other very important news, about 24 hours after the fact I am NOT sick from the chicken place and thus will be there the next time I'm in Thies (in 10 nights). I'll be back in Thies the 29th so expect another long collection of blogs around the 29th!

Oh also, thank you SO MUCH to everyone who's sending letters! I LOVE getting them and I've been saving them all for this next time in village. Thank you so much again! I've decided not to post my new address but if you want it drop me a comment or an email and I'll get it to you right away.

A Prochain!
KO

PS

I forgot to say that I just posted 3 pictures of Bambey and 1 of my bathroom!

Food, glorious food!

I feel like this is a kind of long overdue post but I’m finally in the right place to write it. Food in Senegal… something I could talk about for days and days on end – I’ll try to keep it short for your sake. Let me start with why tonight’s an awesome night for writing this entry: dinner was epic. I’ve heard about this chicken place from a few volunteers and because dinner was supposed to be beef and peas, a few of us decided to skip out on Center dinner and try the chicken place. I wish I could give a better name but it really was just a chicken place. The room was dingy and dirty, as one of my friends described it “the type of place you think you’re going to get tetanus just from sitting there.” Nervous at first, we had been warned about the nature of the “restaurant” so we ordered (a half chicken and fries for each person) and waited. Food in Senegal, for some reason, takes SO LONG to cook (probably because they’re cooking over a fire, but it’s still hard to get used to) but about 45 minutes later we were presented with maybe the most glorious meal I’ve seen (at least that I’ve seen in a while). Just asking to be devoured was half a roasted chicken, a salad covered in tahini sauce, and a mound of French fries. The only thing untouched on my plate was the salad (I’m still very nervous about uncooked veggies) but I ate the sauce off of it so if the salad was going to make me sick, the sauce will probably take care of that. A short cab ride back to the Center and an apple left over from dinner, I’m here!

Now, on to the rest of Senegalese food (you’ll have to deal with some misspellings but I don’t really care about spelling dishes correctly). To start at the beginning, breakfast. If a Senegalese person eats breakfast, it is most likely a piece of French bread (very, very store made) and it possibly, but most likely not, has butter, chocolate, or processed cheese on it. If you were going to have an expensive breakfast (about 125 CFA so $0.30US) you can get beans (a kind of spicy, cooked beans) on your bread. If you’re REALLY going crazy and splurging they can add a sliced hardboiled egg for another 50-100CFA. For lunch you’re usually looking to get some cheb u jen or fish and rice in Wolof. It’s the national dish of Senegal and its cooked rice with fish in the center of the bowl. Aside from breakfast all meals are served in large communal bowls and, depending on the family, you eat with spoons or your right hand. With the fish in the center of the bowl is usually a carrot, cabbage, potato, manioc, and maybe some other vegetables that have been cooked down for HOURS. Cheb u jen can also be red (if it’s cooked with a tomato sauce). At the beginning of my time in Senegal I thought all cheb tasted like rotten fish, I’ve gotten used to it and only taste the fish if I’m eating it, not so much if I’m sticking to rice.

For dinner, usually, families can get more creative. I like to think of dinner as being broken down into 3 types: rice meals, couscous meals, and special meals. First, rice meals. In addition to cheb u jen there are a million other things you can do with rice to make a communal bowl. You can make a peanut sauce (maffe I think) or a vinegary onion sauce (yassa), you could cover it in okra and oil (something that starts with an S). As far as couscous goes, the most typical is with a sauce from the never-die tree. I used to HATE this meal because the couscous texture isn’t great and the sauce just tastes like salt… but I recently found out that this tree is AMAZINGLY FULL of vitamins and wonderful things (that my diet is otherwise lacking) so I’ve changed my perspective on it a little. You could also have couscous with bean sauce or tomato-y sauce (don’t think Italian food, think a can of condensed tomato sauce with a ton of water). Now for my favorite… special meals. These come, very, very, infrequently but they are amazing nights when they do happen. In the village it’s either a pasta night (we eat with forks not spoons) or peanut butter rice. The pasta is cooked with oil (not olive oil, think vegetable oil) and served possibly with onions. Peanut butter rice, however, is my favorite dish, and I’m still trying to figure out what it’s called and if ANYONE outside of my host family eats it. It’s basically rice mixed with Senegalese peanut butter (which isn’t as sweet as US peanut butter). It comes out looking like a risotto kind of and is AMAZING. Finally, in special meals, I’ll include whatever it is that PCVs make for themselves on their gas’ in their rooms. Scary, I know, but I’m sure I’ll have some good recipes by the end of two years.

In other, unrelated to food, news, I have only one more full day at the center then it’s back to the village for 10 days. I’m really not looking forward to this village time but will be happen when it’s over (because then I’ll have only 7 village days left ever). Other than that, tech sessions have been going well, we learned about feasibility studies today. I’m still not sure what I’m going to be doing in Bambey but the more I learn about composting the more it might be a possibility. My, brief, understanding of it now is that I wouldn’t be doing any composting, I would be working with the city to set up the business of composting in the town. Who knows… I have a while to figure it all out. Epic thanksgiving plans are already underway (I need a holiday to look forward to!) so I’m sure that will end well once I get to that point.

Expect one last blog tomorrow before I head to the village Saturday.

A prochain,
KO

Volunteer Visit

I'm back in Thies (and about halfway through training)! The volunteer visit started out a little rough but ended really well.

I was picked up at the center Saturday morning by my ancienne (the girl I'm replacing) as well as by my new host dad (who has a car)! My host dad Mor is really nice and speaks French so that'll be nice. The room my ancienne found me is AMAZING and I love her so much for it! It's the only thing up a flight of stairs (I've already decided there's going to be a no-coming up the stairs rule). There's a bathroom in the room with a shower head (no more bucket baths) and a sink! I'll be living like a queen! The room doesn't have internet, but I can get it installed (and I will get it installed the first week there). After getting internet I'm going to get furniture (desk, dressor, table) and start living the life (of a PCV)... Oh I'm even thinking about painting the walls!

Anyway, enough about my room. After seeing the room my ancienne toured me around Bambey. It's a small town but I'm excited about the work possibilities. My ancienne did a really great job of setting up contacts and starting projects for me to work on. So after the town tour we found out that my counter-part (who's uncle of my host family) had heart failure and had passed away. The Peace Corps car that was driving to another site (the site I was actually originally going to spend Sunday-Wednesday at) was close enough to swing through and pick me up so I wasn't in my family's way for funeral plans. It was an unfortunate beginning of my volunteer visit but I was glad to see Bambey. The rest of my weekend was in another town kind of the size of Bambey. While there I made banana pancakes and garlic bread with the other PCT and the PCV hosting us. We also broke the fast a number of times (we weren't fasting for Ramadan but we still broke it with people).

I'm very glad to be back at the training center to get on the internet as well as to see my friends and hear about their sites. I'm already trying to plan an epic bike trip between other sites... stay tuned!

KO