Dust Storms

I witnessed my first dust storm today. It was quite windy and therefore dusty all day today, but after lunch we saw the wall of dust coming in from the East and everyone started running to their houses to shut everything inside. We all huddled inside as the storm rolled through and the kids got loopy and excited like we used to when a big thunderstorm or snowstorm came in America. You could see through the cracks in the doors and windows the most intense orange light, it was otherworldly. After about 20 minutes the storm stopped and everyone emerged to sweep out their homes, scrubbed their faces of dirt and enjoyed the slightly cooler temperatures the storm had brought. 

Village Life

I love my new life in Katote. Im not sure how to describe it except to say that it is beautiful. 

Every morning I wake up at day break and run through the desert. 
I come back and pull water from a well surrounded by happily chatting women, dressed in brilliantly colorful clothes, babies strapped to their backs. 
I carry my water on my head back to my room and take a bucket shower outside under the mid morning sunshine. 
I enjoy my morning coffee and bread outside while I listen to music. 
The heat of the day is sometimes oppressive but I get to spend it rocking the happiest, sweetest four month old baby to sleep so that her mother can rest. 
Every day I get to meet new people and learn a million new things. 
There is even something beautiful about not knowing the language people are speaking around you. 
You learn a lot about a person by looking at their actions and not their words. 
You learn a lot about yourself when you have to depend on the kindness of others for every simple thing. 
Every night I take a shower while watching the sun set and I sleep under the brightest stars I have ever seen. 

Peace Only

There are so many things to adjust to when you live in a foreign country and I can say honestly that I have adjusted quite easily (maybe even gracefully) to the majority of them. Learning Pulaar? I love it. Polygamy? Never gave it a second thought. Getting all my water from a well and carrying it on my head back to my room? No problem. Cooking over a tank of gas? Done. Eating rice and fish with my hands? Hope no one minds if I bring this one back to the states. It did take me a couple of weeks to figure out how to tie a panne skirt (the trick is washing the fabric until it is soft and can hug your body. Having ruffles on the bottom so that your ankles are free to move helps too) but now I have fully embraced conservative Senegalese clothing. 

There is, however, one aspect of Senegalese culture that I continually struggle with. Greeting people is the very first thing you learn in the language and it is the most important cultural exchange you can master. The typical greeting goes like this:

(lets say its morning)

me: jam waali 

other person: mbaal e jam, jam waali

me: mbaal e jam, a fini?

op: mawdum, a fini?

me: jam tan, no mbad-daa?

op: jam tan, jam tan. no mbad-daa?

me: jam tan. Ada selli?

op: mawdum, ada selli?

me: mawdum. A daaniima?

op: mawdum, mi daaniiima no moyyi, no mbadu-daa e tempere?

me: mawdum, no mbadu-daa e tempere? no mbadu-daa e nguleeki?

op: jam tan, mawdum. No mbadu-daa e nguleeki?

me: mawdum, naange in a wooli! 

op: wooli de! No mbadu-daa e heendu?

me: mawdum. No galle ma waadi?

op: ebey e jam

me: alhamdulillah

which translates to:

me: Good morning! (literally, peace morning)

other person: Peace in the morning, peace morning

me: Peace in the morning

op: Good, did you wake up?

me: Peace only, how are you doing?

op: Peace only, peace only. How are you doing?

me: Peace only. Are you healthy?

op: Good. Are you healthy?

me: Good. Did you sleep?

op: Good, I slept very well. How are you doing with the tiredness?

me: Good, how are you doing with the tiredness? How are you doing with the heat?

op: Peace only, good. How are you doing with the heat?

me: Good, the sun is hot! 

op: So hot! How are you doing with the wind?

me: Good. How is your household?

op: They are in peace

me: Praise to God

Maybe I can blame it on being from Boston, but this kind of exchange does not come naturally to me. No matter how much Pulaar I can speak or how integrated I become I always have to make a conscious effort to greet people. Its not that I don't love the people here or I don't want to see them, I am just used to walking through streets without even making eye contact. I am also unsatisfied by the answers in the exchange. Even if the person you are talking to were having the worst day of their life and everyone in their family was sick, they would still say peace only or good to everything you ask. I also rationalize some of my difficulties based on the fact that as a new person and a white foreigner I am a sensation in town, so I have to greet every single person I see and enthusiasm is a must. It can be exhausting. Sometimes to help me be infinitely friendly I like to imagine I am Belle in Beauty and the Beast:

Except that I'm far dirtier. 

Leaving Again

As usual, I am terrified to leave for the next step in my Peace Corps journey. At this point, I am aware the the terror I am feeling is part of a pattern and that everything always works out even better than I could imagine. Trying to remember that as I pack my bags and say goodbye to my friends for who knows how long to live in a remote and foreign village. 

Tomorrow I leave in a sept place (post about transportation coming soon) with the other volunteers from my region and all of our belongings. I will stay for a day at the Peace Corps regional house in Ourossogui and buy all of the items I will need in my new home, and then the next day I will be dropped off in my village. I can't believe this is happening so fast, but I guess I'm ready. 

Once I am in village I can come and go as I please, though volunteers are encouraged to stay in our sites for five weeks ("the five week challenge") to work on acclimation. The regional house (an apartment for volunteers in the area to sleep, socialize, and work) has internet, so hopefully I will come into the city for the luxuries of electricity, running water and internet every now and then. (I will not be participating in the five week challenge because I will be visiting my volunteer friend Lindsay for her birthday in three weeks.) 

For the first three months in our permanent sites we are supposed to just work on getting to know the community and getting better at speaking our language. In August, we go back to Thies for a two week technical training, a more in-depth look at solutions for the problems we have now identified in our sites. 

After that, Im pretty much on my own. I will by then have a list of projects and I will go about doing those projects for the next year and nine months, punctuated only by various holidays and volunteer social events. Wish me luck!

Swearing In

Today I swore in as an official Peace Corps volunteer at the ambassador's house in Dakar, Senegal!

Radio Star

As I have mentioned, my sister Fatimata has a Pulaar radio show every Sunday, and this week we were invited on to speak! The segment is about learning and teaching Pulaar and talks a little about Peace Corps mission and my process as a volunteer. I am posting it so that you can hear what Pulaar sounds like. Listen for my voice and the voice of my volunteer friend Katie (we speak from minutes 6 to about 8)

A Day in the Life

When people ask me in emails how and what I am doing, its somewhat difficult for me to explain. My life here is so incredibly different and foreign that with every activity I talk about I have to also explain the somewhat bizarre context in which it occurs. For example, a highlight of my last week was doing a fantastic job on my laundry. When I say that I have to also give the background that I wash my clothes by hand and that trying to emulate the Senegalese way of washing clothes is near to impossible. It involves a series of at least four buckets, all of which usually contain soap, and you have to make this squeaking noise otherwise they will say your clothes aren't clean. The squeaking noise is something you have to be born here to make, I swear, and the rest of the washing process only slightly easier to duplicate. So when I was able to get stains out of my clothes and they smelled good and dried well it was a big victory. 

Anyways, to help provide a little more context to my life here I wanted to give a typical daily schedule from my life in my homestay in Nguekhokh. 

7:30am Wake up, get dressed in appropriate knee-covering clothes

Wash my face and brush my teeth, then say good morning to the family members who are around. In Senegalese culture, it is imperative that you greet everyone in the morning and ask questions like "did you wake up?" but you can't do it until you wash your face.

7:45 Go for a run out to the outskirts of town, sometimes with my fellow volunteer and neighbor Meredith

8:20 Come back, shower, get dressed and sit down on the mat while my sister Fatimata makes coffee

Time in Senegal means almost nothing. When I first got here this was really tough to adjust to- I would tell my sister that I had class at nine and she would only start breakfast at nine and insist that I stay and sit to eat it. Im pretty used to it now and chilling at breakfast with Fati and my neene is one of my favorite parts of my day

9:30/9:45 Head to class with Meredith to study Pulaar with my teacher Yoro and the two other Pulaar speaking girls in Nguekhokh

12:00/12:30 Finish class and head home with Mer

12:30 Greet my family as I come back and try to find a cool place to chill and talk with them. Sometimes I also help/watch the cooking, but most times its too hot to be near a fire and I study instead.

2:00 Lunch, followed by rest time when I take refuge from the flies under my bug net and either nap or read or study and listen to music

4:00/4:30 Head out for the second half of class

7:00 Come back home before it gets dark

Sometimes I use this time to just talk with my family, sometimes I go over to Meredith's house to talk with hers. There is a lot of sitting and talking and drinking of tea in Senegal. Sometimes I help cook too. We also watch tv in this time before dinner because my family has electricity. We usually watch music videos or soap opera type shows. My friends and I are now obsessed with and Indian soap opera that was originally in English and is now dubbed in French called "Swarg." We can't understand most of what happens and we miss episodes whenever we are back at the training center so a good portion of the bus ride from Nguekhokh to Thies is occupied by discussing the recent developments of Swarg. 

9:00/9:30 Dinner

Senegalese eat dinner quite late and go to bed late too. There have definitely been nights where I fall asleep on the mat in front of the tv before dinner is served. After dinner my family stays up for a while but I can't usually stay awake and I go right to bed. I will know Im truly adjusted and integrated when I adopt Senegalese sleeping styles but it hasn't happened yet.

Food

So, finally, I have gotten around to posting a bit about Senegalese food (sorry it took so long mom!)
These pictures are from a couple days at my homestay site in Nguekhokh. My sisters take turns cooking and they are amazing cooks. This is some of the best traditional food you will get in Senegal. 

First of all, my family is wonderful about hygiene and everyone washes their hands with soap before eating, as shown in the picture (remember there are no sinks here). 

Breakfast: 
Fati makes coffee with three times as much sugar as nescafe instant powder, then adds powered milk. We have bread delivered to the house in the most adorable vintage bread truck.

Lunch:

I am very very lucky to have a lot of variety in my lunches. The most typical Senegalese dish is fish and rice (marro e liddi) and most people have it every day. It is good, especially if the cook is good, but can get old if you have it every day. 

My family also cooks rice with a peanut butter-y sauce or a tomato-y sauce, with fish and potatoes, called maafe. This is one of my favorite dishes- 

onion sauce with fish balls (maafe soble e boulettes liddi)

Lunch is the biggest meal of the day and typically the only chance to get vegetables. 

Dinner:

Dinner in my house is different than other Senegalese households because as Pulaars, we are herders who drink many milk products. I love milk (another reason Senegal is perfect for me) and dinner is my favorite meal with my family. 

 This is an amazing soupy dinner food made from a sour type of yogurt-milk, sugar, and flour balls. Its my favorite food in Senegal.

There is also a dish called lacciri and cosum, not pictured, which is a sandy grain like tiny grape nuts served with milk and sugar (how could you have a meal without sugar, really)

This is actually one of the non-milk dinners we have. Its a sticky rice made with beans and it has a puddle of oil for dipping in the middle. This can also be a lunch dish.

I also had to good fortune to be present for some very special meals here:

My teacher Yoro's host mom made us this amazing couscous dish

 Fati made this beautiful dinner for friends visiting from the north

 This was my going away meal (rice with cow meat is a typical celebration dish, served at events like weddings and naming ceremonies)

Hope you enjoyed! I am learning to cook Senegalese-style soon, so if you cant try these dishes in Senegal I'll make some for you at home

Fly on the Wall

One of my favorite things about my Peace Corps service so far has been learning a new language. I have studied French (briefly), but the thrill you get when something that previously sounded like gibberish actually makes sense to you is pretty incredible. Sometimes when I am speaking Pulaar I just stop in disbelief that there are such odd sounds coming out of my mouth and that I actually understand them.

I have learned so much by speaking this new language, but I have learned even more from not being able to speak it. There is something incredibly unique and special about watching a culture and a family without knowing what they are saying or being able to say anything yourself. Every night my family congregates in the main (only) room of the house and I get to watch them interact like a fly on the wall. I see how stubborn and brave three year old Habi is, the only child I know who doesn't scream when her hair is braided. I love how she holds her own and plays so fearlessly with the other children. I love how Omar (5), Iy (8) and Alsan (9) always let her play with them but are secretly very careful and protective of her- no kid hits Habi, ever. When the bombs hit Boston a couple weeks ago and they could tell I was sad, Omar and Habi broke into hilarious antics- trying to pick each other up and falling over and giggling- until I was smiling again. I love how I can tell Yero is just coming into being the man of the house. He is kind and thoughtful and is going to be a wonderful head of household. You can almost see the wheels turning in his head as he is torn between being a reserved grown up and playing soccer with the little kids in the street. I get to see how Kadyeta lovingly takes care of everyone and how genuinely joyful she is when playing with the younger children. She knows she is beautiful, but she is determined to put school before anything else. I can already see Yari as a mother, the way she takes her cooking so seriously and how she has mastered a deep-voiced powerful yell to corral the children into behaving. I will always be in awe of her work ethic, constantly taking care of the family and studying in all her spare time by flashlight on the concrete floor. Fati is the oldest and is truly incredible. She never went to school, but she taught herself enough French to be conversational and she has embraced everything the Pulaar culture can offer. She hosts a successful Pulaar radio show in Mbour every Sunday and she sought out classes through local NGOs for herself on everything from reproduction to hand washing. She is the force in the family, the one who keeps everyone organized and moving along. She is stern at times, but truly enjoys her family and her life to the fullest.

I am a lucky volunteer to see the personalities of this great family unfold before my eyes. I know how Fati flips her hand when she asks a question or how carefully Yero takes care of the animals we have. It truly solidifies for me the notion that people the world over are pretty much the same, in the most wonderful way possible.

N-Gay-Hoe

I just wanted to take a moment to express my love for my homestay family and site.

Nguekhokh, pronounced n-gay-hoe, is a relatively large town and although there aren't too many distinguishing features I know I will really miss it when I leave. The most important thing about Nguekhokh as a town that you must know is that it has the best fatiyah in all of Senegal. I have tried many other fatiyahs in various cities and nothing even comes close. The fatiyah here has a fresh dough that is the perfect thickness and lightness- a beautiful balance between calzone crust and a croissant. It is stuffed with a fried egg, french fries*, some meat pieces, cheese, ketchup and mayo. It is devine. It also costs an American dollar. In case you ever find yourself in Senegal and wanting fatiyah, the esteemed chef is named Cherif. He speaks Pulaar and he is great, he told me that I could speak Pulaar well and he only asked me to marry him once.

On a more serious note, I really am so sad to leave Nguekhokh this week. I have been so happy and loved here by my family, extended family and neighbors. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by and I can't wait to go back to visit.





*in Senegal the fries come *in* the food, not next to it. I don't know if other countries do this or how this came to be but I heard from an older volunteer that you can not have your fries on the side. No matter how many times you ask or where, the fries will be inside whatever you have ordered.