News from Fatick

Asalaa Malekum everybody!

I am writing this post from my site! Before you get too excited, I qm only here fir a few days visiting. I will be going back to Thies on Thursday and to the village next week. The big news is that Fatick will be my home for the nxt two years! Once again I have gone too long without an entry and so I need to catch all of you up on the last two, VERY EXCITING, weeks. So read on...

The Beach

In case I ever doubted that this was an awesome job, we got piled into an ACed bus (Alxumdulillah, thank god!) and went to the beach on a field trip with my small enterprise technical class. We went a town called Popenguine, which has a beautiful sea side view and some great scenery. We went back to Popenguine recently for an amazing beach weekend with all the volunteers. I self-appointed myself a member of the cooking committee. Making  spaghetti and pancakes for 40 people was fun and it made the time pass so much better. The ocean was perfect temperature, it was great. The only bad side was exposure to Senegal's booming sex trade, second only to Thailand. Prostitution is legal in Senegal and tourists (mostly French and mostly women) come to Senegal for a week and usually have an escort that accompanies them around. Seeing the old French men and women with young attractive Senegalese was anything but attractive. Its an unfortunate patr of life here in Senegal, especially at the beach. 

Village Frustrations

"It was about time" That is what my language trainer said to me when I mentioned my frustrations with Village life. Two Sundays ago, I had a terrible headache, I was sick to my stomach, and I was tired of a long week of language learning. After week in total Wolof immersion, I was tired! I was walking back from dinner to my room and I noticed something land on my arm and then a small sting. Since bugs are very common in Senegal, I brushed it off and assumed nothing was wrong. I noticed a small sore on my arm, and once again figured it couldn't be anything. The next morning I woke up with a huge blister on my arm! I had been stung by a blister beetle. As I was cleaning it off, I accidentally popped it, and the liquid then caused me to get another blister next to the original one. It was awful. I was already having a bad day, and now it got worse. I needed to get out of the village, and away from life there. Unfortunately that is not a choice. I got over it pretty quickly, with the help of a calm night of sleep, some antiseptic wash for the blister, and episodes of The Office on my ipod. 

Korite (and the long night after...)

So, after an exhausting week, came Korite. The official end of Ramadan, and although I was expecting a very long day of cultural experiences it turned out to be a lot like Thanksgiving. The entire extended family came home and we ate and slept under a tree all day. It was a great restful day where I was able to practice some Wolof and enjoy the company of others without class! 

That night however, was anything but calm, there was a huge dance party where young people go to release from a month of fasting. It was really fun but extremely surreal. Everyone was dancing to Senegalese music, Akon, and the real kicker, Celine Dion! They love her here! It was a fun, exhausting night! Senegalese dance by flailing their legs and hopping up and down, and they were so welcoming that I f course gave it a try and embarrassed myself, but they like it that we try.

Drumroll please...

After an exhausting Korite we were awoken by the Peace Corps van at 7 am, and it was back to the center!

When we got to the center we all found out we were getting our site placements.

We are all so nervous and then, after being blidfolded and placed on a map, I found out, I was going to......

Fatick, home sweet home for the next two years!!!!

The next day we packed up the van and i headed to Fatick to visit my site! It was INCREDIBLE! I have my own apartment, a bathroom (with a shower!!!!!!!!), and a huge living room, kitchen, and bedroom. It was so much better than I ever could have imagined. The town is 3 hours south of Dakar, it is technically a city, but feels like a town. There is a market and a cyber. There are lots of NGOs and motivated business people, tons of work opportunities. Its also 40 minutes from the regional house in Kaolack, and an hour from the beach. The city is in the peanut and cashew basin (yummy!). The only "down" side is that although the city has running water, the water cannot be used to drink even after being filtered and bleached because it is salinized, so I have to get all my water from a donkey! I hope you will all come visit!!!!!!!!!

That is all for now, we are going back to the village tomorrow and then to Dakar for a couple days, I can't wait!

 

Peace out, club scout.