Bismillah ci Senegal!

Bismillah ci Senegal!

Those were the words that greeted me when we arrived to Dakar 10 days ago. And these have been some wild ten days! So much has happened I can’t believe only two weeks ago I was in Philadelphia. So much has in fact happened, that I decided to write in chapters. It also prevents me from randomly rambling!

40 Down: Country where French and Wolof are spoken

On September 10th we crowded into a bus in Philadelphia and headed for JFK after 2 days of very intense preparation, which have really paid off. Just being prepared for the shock that is Peace Corps was huge. The shock however was still strong. After arriving in JFK I bough the NYTimes and immediately pulled out the crossword, totally worth the 1.25. As I was working on it I hit upon 40 down, which was “Country where French and Wolof are spoken”, the answer, of course, being Senegal! I think Will Shortz was sending me a sign. Boarding the South African Airlines was an extremely emotional experience, saying I didn’t feel scared and panicked would be a total lie. Watching the plane head to sea and off made me very emotional, but those feelings were quickly dissipated when seven hours later at 5 am we arrived in Dakar!

After getting our luggage, which made it unharmed (Thank goodness!), we got on the Peace Corps bus and we were off to Thies. Arriving at Thies was a wild experience, everything was new, hot, dusty, and exciting! After a quick nap we proceeded to get the first of many vaccines, from Rabies to Typhoid and our language tests. I was so exhausted, my conversation was a mix of French, Spanish and Portuguese. I must have sounded like a total crazy person.

The next day in the compound we got our security briefing and were finally granted permission to leave. Unfortunately we were very busy and had no time to leave. The extent of Senegal I knew was the airport and the compound.

Thies, Senegal: Day One

A week ago, Sunday, were finally allowed to leave the compound on our own and explore the city around use. WHOA! That is all I have to say! It was a blast in the face, not being abel to communicate in Wolof is hard enough, but being yelled at in it, was even harder. We all quickly learned the word “Toubab”, or stranger. It is the general call for all white people. Sticking out is incredibly easy, but its hard coming to terms with all the attention, it seemed like kids were always running up to ask for money, and we were always being asked to purchase something for twice the price.

After seeing the city, the market, and the two air conditioned locales, we all rushed back to the compound, to relax and enjoy the shade. Although I am sure we were all so overwhelmed we needed to enjoy the safety of the PC compound. Since then we had explored more, and become more accustomed to the city, from bargaining with the cab drivers, to finding the Toubab market (with ice cream!).

Another quick comment on Thies, everything is incredibly cheap. The exchange rate is 1 USD=450 CFA, and although I do carry 5 thousand dollars bills in my wallet, a cold diet coke is 200 CFA and a pizza is 1500 CFA. I’m becoming a very cheap person, spending 1000 CFA feels like a fortune. This is a good thing, since being a PC volunteer is not the best way to make money.

Teranga, Ramadan, and Eating with my hands

After 5 days in the center, it was time to go out to our Training villages, which like training wheels are meant to give us a hint of what the two years are like without the stress of knowing it is actually our site. We live in the village where we learn our language and host culture. I am learning Wolof, which means I also placed out of French! I guess it wasn’t as terrible as I thought.

My village, Tassette is about 30 minutes from Thies, and it is everything I expected: A huge sand box, with a few stores, houses and a market. I am very very lucky and my town has running water and electricity! It has been a great luxury, there is nothing like a shower instead of a bucket bath. My room has its own bathroom with a western toilet! AMAZING! I feel so spoiled, but it makes the transition that much easier. Life in the village is very calm, people just sit outside and enjoy the shade or go inside and listen to the radio. Loitering is a way of life here. My family has also welcomed me in true Senegalese fashion. Teranga is Wolof for hospitality, and Senegal is famous for it. Being one of 5 white people (other PCVs) makes us celebrities, everyone in the town wasnts to talk to us, hear us try Wolof, shake their hands, etc. The welcome was amazing. Exhausting, but amazing.

It also happens to be Ramadan, which people have no energy from fasting all day and are all up all night after eating a hug meal at 10 PM. It makes for a weird schedule. They are also very respectful that I don’t fast and they make me lunch every day, which I have to eat in my hut because it is rude to eat while others fast. I have not been able to really enjoy family life, but hopefully when Ramadan ends it will be more exciting. We also have a huge party coming called Korite to celebrate the end of Ramadan, and I am really looking forward to that.

Another big adjustment to village life is eating with hands. They are very insistent that I eat with a spoon, but they eat with their hands and the women sit at the bowl without eating but just removing the bones from the fish and chopping the vegetables with their hands. After they chop it all off, they toss it to different sides of the bowl, because we all eat out of the same communal bowl. It’s a shoking experience, but with time I’ve gotten used to it.

I have also been taking Wolof in the village (for one day so far!). Wolof is very hard simply because it is different, but I hope that as I get used to the strange sentence structure, it will start sounding more like Wolof and less like Ewok language.

This is a rough sketch of life so far, I hope all is well, and send me a letter if you get the chance.

Ba beneen yoo (until later!),

-Daniel (Senegalese name: Biran Diaw)