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.
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