Believe it or not, I am actually still alive!! The funny thing is....Ive been at internet more in the last couple months than I have the rest of my service. We finally got an internet cafe in my town! It's so great. Not only can I check my email and feel connected on a regular basis, it's a nice hang out spot. Before the internet cafe opened there wasn't really a place to sit and hang out and chat with people...but there is now! There's really only a handful of people who come in to use internet, but it is also a phone store so a lot of people are in and out dealing with their cell phones. It has fairly dramatically changed my daily life...and for the better! Alhamdoulilahi!

I just got back from vacation in Italy, which was awesome. My parents and my brother met me, and we had a great time. We spent some time in Cinaque Terre, about a week in Tuscany, and then Rome for a couple of days. May/June is the hottest time of the year in Senegal, so it was super nice to be in Italy and be able to wear jeans and long sleeves (not to mention the good food, wine, ice cream, beautiful scenery and great company!) It was a much needed break, and I'm definitely ready to handle my last five months (and it is really weird to say that I only have 5 months left!)

Ok now I have some moderately humorous...

Random Africa Moments:

One weekend I had another Peace Corps volunteer visit me at site, right after the internet cafe opened. It was a Sunday morning and we both decided to bring our laptops. However, after we set up and tried to connect we realized it wasn't working. I asked one of the workers what was going on and he just replied "I don't know. It's Sunday though, internet doesn't really work on Sunday." What?? Internet doesn't work on Sundays?! That's a new one. I never new that the internet needed a day of rest. I guess it has just been too overworked recently and finally put its foot down and demanded a day off a week.
Psssshhh. Not to sound incredibly cynical, but if that doesn't demonstrate people's work ethic I don't know what does. Yeah of course internet isn't working, it needs a day off too, just like the rest of us. And half days on Friday...


Last night I sat down with my family for dinner and my sister took the lid off the bowl to reveal mushy rice...but no fish or meat (we've never had a meal without at least some meat of fish). She caught me looking at it in a confused manner and she asked me if I knew where the fish was. I said nooo but I know you do and you're about to tell me. She started laughing and said that the cows had eaten the dinner fish!! Haha. I was all "really?!?" and she just nodded her head. I turned to my mom and she was shaking her head and started explaining that if you leave the kitchen door open the cows will come in and eat everything. I asked if they beat the cows to teach them a lesson (because that's what they do to children when children misbehave). My mom didn't really get the sarcasm and just said no. My sister got it and laughed. Anyway, I just sat there eating my mushy rice trying to imagine cows eating humans' dinner anywhere else but Africa...and I couldn't.

Baptisms…

….are a lot like other Senegalese holidays. However, my host sister (who is also one of my best friends at site) gave birth a few weeks ago, so the baptism for her baby girl will stand out in my mind more than others.
It all started when I was in Dakar for W.A.I.S.T., the West African Invitational Softball Tournament. I wrote about WAIST last year I think, but it’s an annual tournament in Dakar over President’s Day weekend and it’s pretty much the most fun weekend of the year. Anyway, I knew my sister was about to pop any day, so before I left for Dakar I told her not to give birth until I got back. She didn’t listen. One of the days at the tournament I looked at my phone and Ihad 5 missed calls from my host sister. At first I was kinda like good lord what could she possibly want, then I realized that she’d probably had her kid. I was right!
I got back to site the day before the baptisms. When I walked into my compound it was cute because before we even did the standard greetings my family said "go see the baby!" Everybody seemed a bit on the tired side, but happy to have a new addition to the family. I’m not really sure what newborns are supposed to look like, but she looked pretty normal to me! It turns out that the baby has the same name as me, Aissata. They call her "Azzie" though, which is a common nickname for Aissata. It also turns out that my sister was in labor from Wednesday to Saturday! Ugh! I can’t imagine.
The next day was the baptism, and the actual ceremonial part happened in the morning. In fact, I almost missed it. A bunch of older dudes came over around 8ish, sat in a circle for a while and then left. I’m not really sure what happened exactly, but I do know that it’s more of a naming ceremony than a christening type thing. One of the dudes was the marabout (religious leader) who leads the ceremony, and he’s also the one responsible for officially giving the name. They also shaved the baby’s head. I took one picture of the dudes sitting around in a circle, then before I knew it they were up and gone!
The rest of the day was just party time. My sister got all done up in fancy Senegalese clothes and sat in her room all day, and received guests. People (mostly women) would come in her room, greet, ask the baby’s name, give my sister some change or gift (usually soap), and then maybe give the baby a little blessing. Tons of people were in and out of her room all day. After people greeted my sister they would go and sit outside and hang out.
My other host sister and tons of neighbors came over and were busy preparing ridiculous amounts of rice for lunch. It was quite an operation. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a massive amount of cooked rice in one place. It was pretty amazing. It’s also what they were most proud of and most excited about. My friend took my camera at one point and took a bunch of pictures. When she was showing people later the pictures she’d taken, they were most interested in the pictures she took of the food!
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but names are really important here. When someone has the same name as you (which is a pretty frequent occurrence, considering there’s about 8 names in my whole town….I exaggerate, but really there’s not much variety), you are that person’s "tokorone," or namesake. Oftentimes if you see a friend who has your same name, you might not even say the name you would just call them "tokorone." It’s kinda funny. It’d be like a person named Sarah seeing another friend named Sarah and saying "heyyyy namesake, how’s things?" Anyway. Since the baby has the same name as me everybody kept asking me if I’d seen my namesake that day, or if I’d given my namesake any clothes yet. Even now when I’m out and about and I see a friend of the family, they will ask me how my namesake is doing. It’s kinda cool.
It’s also interesting seeing how they take care of their newborns differently. One day I was holding baby Aissata and I got up and started to leave (just to walk around with her a bit). I don’t know where my host sister was, but a neighbor was in the room with me, and she asked where I was going. I told her I was just going to go walk around a bit. She said, "uhhhh don’t do that." I asked her why, and she said that they don’t take the babies out at all. I was kinda confused, but I figured I should respect the way they do things…so I sat down again. When my sister came back in the room my neighbor told my sister that I wanted to take the baby out, and they both laughed like it was one of the crazier ideas they’d ever heard. Ha ha ha. Silly toubab wants to show the baby someplace other than this one little room. Is she ever gonna learn? Yep, I’m crazy allright! Can’t imagine why I wouldn’t want to sit in the same room day in and day out. And they pretty much do stay in the same room…the baby (and my sister for the most part) stays in my sister’s room all day, then my sister takes her to a bigger common room at night where they all sleep.
Going along with the baby not leaving the room thing…the other day my sister had her hair braided in a really traditional way. I’d never seen her (or anyone in my family) with her hair braided in this particular fashion. It’s very Pulaar. The only women I’ve seen with braids in this particular fashion are the super duper rural Pulaars. The name city folk give these rural people is "kaw kaw." It’s kindof an insult to be called a kaw kaw, but only in the way it would be insulting for a city person in America to be called a redneck. It’s kind of a joke. Anyway, I asked who braided her hair, and she laughed. She could tell I was confused/amused at her hair-do. She told me that when you give birth you get your hair braided in this traditional, kaw kaw way once a week for 3-4 weeks. After the third of fourth time that you get your hair braided, it’s time to take the baby out. I think it’s more complicated than that, though. I overheard my sister and her friend talking about it yesterday. I didn’t completely understand what they were saying, but I’m pretty sure they were talking about different ways to braid hair and which ways were good luck after you’ve had a baby and which ones were bad luck!
The superstitions might seem kind of dumb to Americans, but it’s the kind of thing I love about Pulaar culture and being a Peace Corps volunteer! Getting your hair braided in a traditional fashion after giving birth isn’t exactly a cultural aspect that jumps out at you when you walk off a plane, but it’s the kind of thing I get to see and learn by living here. Yay for cultural exchange.
It works both ways, too. Having the baby around prompts lots of questions about babies in America. For example, I was snapping my fingers in front of the baby’s face to see if she could focus on where the sound was coming from. My sister noticed me doing it and told me that babies in Senegal didn’t really see until about 2 weeks after they were born. Not having been around newborns much, I didn’t really know how true that statement was, so I just gave her a blank stare. She realized that her statement wasn’t really computing with me, so she asked "do babies in America see?" Ha. I didn’t really know how to respond, and I can’t even explain why that is such a funny question. But it is. I know that newborns still have a lot to develop, but when she asked me that question I kinda wanted to give her a smart response back, like "yeah, they poop too. Do Senegalese babies poop?" But I didn’t. Instead I confused myself about whether or not American babies can see. Sigh. Sometimes I think I’ve gotten way dumber since I’ve been here. Maybe it’s not so much of a cultural exchange as Senegalese culture entering one side of my brain and slowly pushing out all things I knew about America. A cultural slide. I’m slowly sliding…..
But then something else will happen that will bring me back to the western word, which bring me to my….

Random [western influence in] Africa Moment

Recently there were 20 French toubabs in my town, but that’s not my random western influence in Africa moment. It was kinda weird having them here…I’m not used to seeing other white people. Plus, it’s always weird seeing other toubabs here, because whatever you do it’s awkward. If you see another toubab you don’t know and you say hi, you both know that you’re both only saying hi because you’re white. That’s kinda weird. But then if you don’t say hi it’s weird because then you’re both avoiding the fact that it’s abnormal to have white people in this part of the world.
Anyway, I had no idea that this group of Frenchies were coming. The first day they got here all the kids were running up to me and saying "Aissata! Aissata! Did you see your "koreeji?" (koreeji means family). I eventually went to the house where they were all staying and introduced myself. Turns out they’re a group of nursing students, and they stayed here for 3 weeks to do health related work.
It got kind of annoying because literally everyday several people would come up to me and ask if I’d greeted my koreeji that day. Sometimes I’d just say yes, but if I was in an argumentative move I’d say "they’re not my koreeji!" Whenever I said that people would get really confused until I explained that I’m American and they’re French. Some people would say "ohhhh" and let it go. Some people, however, would persist that we were still family! That really bugged me. One night I got into a discussion about it with this one dude, Mamadou, who’s always trying to get into annoying discussions with me. I asked him if all black people were his family just because they were black. He kinda said yes, but was a little hesitant. Then I asked him, "if a group of Kenyans came to Senegal would you consider them your family?!?" There were a couple other people in the room at the time and when I asked that question they all got quiet. Then, Mamadou finally conceded that he in fact would NOT consider Kenyans his family just because they’re black. Everybody went "oooooo!!" Aissata got you! Ha! It was a good feeling. I’d won a discussion in Pulaar! Then after that if someone who present during my discussion with Mamadou was around when people asked me if I’d greeted my family that day, they would tell the story about how I’d told Mamadou whats’up!!
Anyway, towards the end of the Frenchies’ stay, the director of their program stayed at my house for a couple of nights. As a thank you gift, she gave my host mom a bag of goodies. Not being able to read, my sisters were going through the bag but didn’t know what anything was. They called me over and asked me what everything was. They were all sample size packets, so I picked up the first one and tried to read the small print. My sisters were crowded around excitedly asking: "Aissata Aissata what is it? Is it lotion?" I finally found the English on the packet. It said "Firming Body Concentrate." So I said yeah, that’s lotion. I picked up the next one. "Ultimate Hydrating Revitilizer."
My sisters: "What’s that one? Lotion?"
Me: ultimate hydrating revilitzer…hmmm..how do I say tat in Pulaar. Oh wait. Yeah that’s lotion.
My sisters: What’s this one?
Me: reading the next label, ‘hydrating gel mask’…translation to Pulaar…Lotion.
My sisters: Is this one lotion too?
Me: next label: Intense moisture boost. Yep, that’s lotion too.
My sisters: All the packages are different, how is it possible they’re all lotion?
Me: I wish my language teacher was here, then he could tell me how to say "Cream with Grape Polyphends and Nutrients" in Pulaar. He’s not here though, so I’m gonna go with…lotion. Yeah, they’re all lotion I think.
My sisters: Please tell me this one isn’t lotion, I’m getting bored.
Me: Good lord! "Body Balm – lipid restoring, anti-irritant body care severe skin dryness/cutaneous irritation???" Seriously? Why is this necessary? But riiiight, people in Europe/America probably wouldn’t buy this unless it sounded fancy and high tech. Still so ludicrous in this context!! But all I can say is: Yup, that one is lotion, too.

I wish I could say that for the past month or two I have been extremely busy and productive, and thats the reason I havn't updated my blog. But I can't. Such is life. I went to America for Christmas (which was fabulous), and since then I've pretty much been hanging out at site a whole bunch! Work is still slow. Meh. Let's see...what else has happened? Oh, I know, this is kinda funny...

A couple days ago my sisters were doing serious cleaning, and that usually means that my host uncle is coming to town. I asked if he was, and they said that he and a bunch of other people were coming to town for a meeting. That seemed pretty normal, so I didnt really give it another thought. Then the first day all these "patron" (word we use for rich, posh people...and they really are. They show up in fancy new suv's and expensive clothes and stuff. Thats all fine and dandy, but its just kinda crazy seeing them roll in when the rest of the village lives in crumbling houses and are just straight up poor.) Anyway, they show up and my sisters were all fussing about getting ready for them and cooking special food. That also isnt a huge deal, because we always eat better when my uncle comes to town. Then the second day they were here was even crazier...everybody was in full on party mode. Kids were dressed in their nice clothes, all the neighbors were over helping with the cooking, and the atmosphere was just festive! So then I started asking some people what was going on, because clearly it was more than just a meeting.

Turns out the President of Senegal had asked people to pray for him, and that's what this 'meeting' was!!! There's an Islamic conference in Senegal in March, where leaders or reps of all the Muslim countries are meeting to discuss...whatever it is they need to discuss. So the Pres asked people to gather and pray for him to do well at this conference! Ha! Can you imagine if our president asked people to pray for him? Oh man. Ok I have 1 min left gotta go!

HO HO HO!!! Happy Holidays!!! I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas again! I’ll be going to America for Christmas, and I’m super stoked. I’ve already put in a request for what I want my mom to bring me (food wise) to the airport when they pick me up. Woo!

Sooooo…..what have I been doing? Hmm. Good question. Well, the major thing that comes to mind is Emily’s visit! Emily is one of my best friends from college, and she made the trek from Boston to Senegal to see me. What a trooper. She was here for about two weeks and it was lots of fun. She got to experience a lot of Senegal. Highlights: We were on our way to a Halloween party on a car ride that’s supposed to be 8 hours. It took us 14. Not one complaint from Emily….thanks dude! It was a pretty miserable car ride, but it was nice having a happy friend there!
After the Halloween party we made our way to my site. We went to my tailor’s to hang out for a bit, and he winds up confessing his love for Emily. Keep in mind that he doesn’t really speak French, much less English, and obviously Emily doesn’t speak Pulaar or Wolof. He didn’t really understand how that would be a barrier in a relationship. Anyway, they compromised and decided that if my tailor ever made it to America he would call Emily and Emily would have to hang out with him. I hope that actually happens, it would be fun to witness :) After being at my site for a bit we went to St. Louis, which was amazing. We stayed in a nice hotel, ate lots of good food and hung out on the beach. It was a great way to end the trip. Thanks again for coming, Em!

I went to my regional house for Thanksgiving, which was pretty fun. Somehow people managed to cook really good American food even with our limited supply here! We even had pies. Mmmmm.

Other than that I've just been hanging out at site. Work with the Womens Group has been slow, but I started giving computer lessons to kids on my laptop. So far only a couple kids have come, but it has been really fun! These kids had never even seen a computer in person before, so needless to say they had no idea about anything. Im perfectly happy to start explaining the basics to them, but that was harder than expected in another language! I'm not sure they totally understood what i was trying to explain about things like the CPU and hard drive, but they keep coming! They ask some cute questions, too. For example, one kid wanted to know if it was possible to print the color green. At the school they only have black and white print-outs, so he didn't really understand that it was possible to print all colors from a computer if you have a color printer! He also wanted to know things like why the keys on the keyboard weren't in alphabetical order. I think that's a great question, and I don't know if I would have noticed that if I were him. Anyway, I started them on typing lessons, and they seem to be really into that. When they come they are super focused and try really hard. It's great! Hopefully when I get back from vacation I will be able to get more kids to come. We shall see!


Random Africa Moment

I have two today actually. They're related, and they also have to do with animals. Surprise surprise.

So Tabaski is just a few days away. Tabaski is the holiday when every family slaughters a sheep, which means during the weeks leading up to Tabaski tons of sheep are being transported. Well, a couple of weeks ago I was waiting in a minicar (which is pretty much like a minivan) for enough people to fill it up before we could leave. We were about full and a guy shows up with a bunch of sheep. Nothing abnormal about that, and they tied up the sheeps' legs and hoisted them up on to the roof. I had a window seat and had the window open with my elbow hanging out a bit. Not long after the sheep were hoisted up on to the roof I felt some wetness all over my arm. I looked over and realized that a freaking sheep had peed on me!!! Ahhh. I immediately slammed the window shut, which was kinda loud. The guy in front of me turned around kinda startled, but found me looking around trying to find something to wipe my arm off with. Comprehension spread across his face and he said to me in Pulaar, "Sheep pee?" I said "yeahhhh." Then he said, "Yeahh, we're in the Fouta!" Like yup, it happens, suck it up. Then he follows it up with "C'est bon!" Ha. I don't know how being peed on by a sheep could be classified as being "bon," but at that point after the inital shock I realized that it was pretty funny. I proceeded to text 2 other volunteers, and their responses were pretty funny, too. One said "Ha! gotta keep those windows shut during Tabaski season!" She didn't even have to ask how it happened. The other sais "Yeah you'll have that sometimes, bummer dude!" So I realized that being peed on by a sheep really isnt a bit deal, its just kind of an occupational hazard!

So then yesterday I was in an Alham (big, bus-like public trqnsport vehicle) and it happened again! Only this time it didn't come in through the window...it came in through a leak in the roof! I was kinda confused for about a half a second then realized No way!!! AGAIN? Grooooosssss it's on my head this time!! Eww. Luckily it wasnt crowded so I was able to move seats immediately.

And there you have it folks. I've been peed on by a sheep. Twice. Now I know that during Tabaski season I need to beware of open windows and leaks in the roof. Oh the things you learn while living in Africa...

So now I truly understand the meaning of the expression “til the cows come home”. It’s probably my favorite part of the day. The cows really do come home. I’ll try to explain.

Pulaars, the ethnic group in my area, are traditionally herders. They herd cows, goats and sheep. Animals are everywhere. They’re usually making noise. My family owns 20+ cows, and 6 or 7 goats. A lot of mornings I wake up to moo-ing. It can be really loud. Anyway, every morning my host mom and every other herder in the town take their animals out to the fields. It’s pretty hilarious to witness.

One day I told my host mom that I wanted to go with her when she took the cows out. She laughed and said ok, like yeah right you’re gonna take the cows out. Turns out the next day I didn’t, because I had some minor stomach issues. I felt kinda dumb that I hadn’t kept my word, but a few days later I woke up to moo-ing and felt great, so I decided I’d go out with my mom. The cows sleep in the ‘back yard’ tied up to posts in the ground, so I went back there and found my mom untying them. She smiled, and I didn’t have to explain what I was doing…she just pointed at her walking stick and told me to pick it up. At this point I’m beside myself with giddiness, but I’m not sure why the prospect of taking some cows out was so exciting. It was though, and I was singing to myself “I’m becoming a herd-er, doo da, doo da, I’m becoming a herd-er, I could herd all day long!” I followed my mom around while she was untying all the cows and pretty much just stood there. She opened up the back gate and shooed out the cows, and I told her that my stomach didn’t hurt anymore and that I felt better. She laughed and said she was glad.

Our house is kind of on the far end of town, so it’s not far to the where the houses stop and the field/nothingness starts. When we got out there, several other herders were there with their herds. We walk up to them and greet and they start chatting. Some of them were kind of amazed that "Aissatoubab" (what many people around town call me) had come out, and my mom told them that I came out just to see the cows. She also told them what I had said about my stomach not hurting and feeling healthy today. They laughed. Thanks mom, now they all know that I’ve had the poos the last few days, not that it’s anything to be ashamed of. Neat. I appreciate it.

But that’s beside the point. The whole scene was pretty hilarious. It was like a bunch of moms and dads taking their kids to the bus stop in the morning. The little kids (sheep and goats) were hanging out together in one area, and the big kids (cows) were hanging out together, while the parents (the herders) were grouped together chatting. Of course at one point two of the big kids started fighting, and my mom had to go break them up (this really happened…two cows were starting to ram each other and my mom ran over and broke them up!). Then there’s always a little kid who’s afraid of getting on the bus and the mom has to drag him to the bus stop. Only instead of a mom pulling on a kid’s hand, I turned around and saw a lady literally dragging a sheep by its horn. I don’t know what its problem was, but it wasn’t budging and the woman had to put forth a decent amount of effort to drag this dumb animal along to the bus stop.

Eventually somebody drove off the animals and they meandered into the distance. It was kind of anticlimactic…I thought we’d have to do more. But that’s just the when the cows are going. It’s way better they come back. Everyday around 6ish the cows come home. That might not sound too exciting, but it puts a smile on my face everyday.

The cows come home everyday through the front door. It’s hilarious. They usually announce their presence with a loud moooooo as they’re scrambling up the front steps. Sometimes the ones with really big horns have to turn their head sideways so they can fit through the door. Most of the time they walk straight through to the back, but a lot of times the more curious ones kinda wander around our courtyard area. They sniff and lick at dirty dishes until somebody shoes them off. Some days when I’m really bored I give them names and personalities. Here’s some pics:

Ok I'm about out of time...hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! Later!

I've been back from vacation about a month now and it seems like kind of a lot has hapened! I'll try to give you the highlights...

The new stage has arrived! One of the big things every new stage does is demystification, which is when the new Peace Corps trainees go out to second year volunteers' sites for a couple days. It's the first opporutnity trainees have to see what a volunteer's daily life is like, and it's a pretty memorable experience. I had a blast on my demyst, so I decided I wanted to host a new trainee. I wasn't sure if I would get one, since I live so far away, but Peace Corps sent one trainee all the way out to my town! We had a good time, and it made me realize how much I've learned in the past year, so I'm glad I got to host somebody.

The other big thing that's been going on is Ramadan. Ramadan kinda really sucks. It's a month of fasting. It affects everything! Nobody (no muslims) can drink anything or eat anything from the time the sun rises til the sun sets. Nothing! I could handle not eating, but it's crazy not to drink anything, especially when it's so freaking hot! It's so unhealthy and everybody is (understandably) miserable and tired all the time. And it's really great that everyday they complain about having headaches and ask me for meds all the time. Uhhh I can't imagine why! Maybe, just maybe, the reason your head hurts it has to do with the fact that you're not drinking any water and are starving yourself half to death. So ridiculous. What's more ridiculous is that some people actually think it's good for their health! A couple nights ago this guy told me that fasting was really good for you. He's all "during the other months of the year I can't sleep, but during Ramadan I sleep perfectly well!" You idiot, of course you can sleep, you don't have any energy to do anything else cuz you're not eating or drinking at all! Well, there you have my little rant on Ramadan. I could keep going but I'll spare you, and leave you with some Random Africa Moments.

Random Africa Moments:

So I don’t know if these will be particularly funny to you, but they were definitely moments that made me realize I’m not in Kansas anymore. They all happen to involve my host mom, too.

1) It took me a while to realize this, but people here don’t really use our calendar. I don’t know why I thought they would. Anyway, I think I’ve mentioned before that the Senegalese call white people ‘toubabs.’ A few nights ago, my host mom says to me “Hey Aissata, no foti balde lewru toubab?,” which literally translated means, “how many days toubab month?” I thought she was asking how many days were in a month, so I told her 30 or 31. She laughed and told me I didn’t understand, which is true, I didn’t really know what she was getting at. I thought she wanted to know how many days were in a month…turns out she wanted to know the date (Senegalese people get paid at the end of every ‘toubab’ month, so if they have a relative working out of town the relative will send money at the end of the month, which is pretty much the only reason people here care about the date). Either way, she calls our system of dates “toubab months,” which I thought was funny. I mean, when you hear somebody say “today is September 29,” you might think “OK. Cool. A couple more days until October. I wonder if there’s any good football games on this weekend. Halloween is soon!” That’s what my thought process used to be like. Now I’m just going to think “September 29^th. Hmm. Ninth month of the toubab. 29^th day of the ninth month of toubab. Close to the end of the toubab month. Tenth month of toubab starts soon. Money comes soon. Hooray for the end of toubab month. I can buy even MORE rice. AWESOME. ”

2) During demyst, I was sitting outside with my host family and my demyster (the new Peace Corps trainee who came to visit), whose name is Kasha McGuffis. My host mom comes up and asks my demyster what her last name was, so Kasha replies, “McGuffis.” My mom grunts, “huhh???” so Kasha repeats it again, and this time my mom goes “Huh? Nescafe?!?” Close lady, close. I think the best part was that everybody absolutely burst out laughing, because ‘Nescafe’ is obviously not even close to ‘McGuffis,’ but that’s just what came to my host mom’s mind. She laughed at herself, too, and it still makes me chuckle to think about her saying "Nescafe" in an attempt to say "McGuffis." That's probably how my Pulaar sounds to them...

3) I don’t think I’ve really talked about all the animals too much yet….but there’s a lot of them. Lots of goats and cows. They all go out to the fields in the morning, and come back in the late afternoon. Frequently the goats run around the front of my family’s compound, where they’re not supposed to be. It’s not a huge deal, somebody just has to shoe them away, but sometimes they’re kind of obnoxious. They climb up on everything and try to eat everything. One afternoon I was sitting in my room and I hear my mom making all kinds of noise trying to shoe off the goats. I could tell she was in the middle of doing her prayer beads, because she doesn’t talk when she’s doing them, she only makes grunt-like noises. It’s funny to hear her grunt her way through a conversation, but it’s even funnier when she’s mad and can only express herself through grunts.

So on this particular afternoon I could hear my host mom’s angry grunts and I hear the scurrying sound of multiple goat hooves. I got up and looked out the door just in time to see my mom pick up a goat that was on a stick bed (low table-like thing used to sleep/sit on) and just totally chuck it on the ground! There was a huge thud, and a reactionary ‘baaaa.’ Hilarious! It was one of those jaw-to-the-floor followed by a surge of insuppressible laughter moments. It kinda looked like a scene from a movie when some chick is mad at her boyfriend and she picks up a pile of his clothes and then chucks them on the floor in anger…only this was a fairly sizeable animal picked up by a praying, grunting, old Senegalese woman. And to complete the moment, the goat landed on its back and couldn’t get up, so my mom gives it a couple of good kicks to help it up. So funny. I wonder what the goat was thinking. He was probably just praying to make it to the end of the toubab month when my mom will be in a better mood.

Part I

Hey folks. Long time no talk. I think from now on you can just assume that I apologize for not having updated my blog in a while, instead of me apologizing and making excuses every time. Deal? Cool beans.

I will say one thing, though. One of the reasons I don’t get around to writing that often is that I try to put some thought into my entries, and sometimes I have to wait a bit to be inspired. Well, just a few minutes ago I received an inspirational text from Bryn, one of my best Peace Corps friends, and closest neighbor from my stage (she’s only about 200k away!). Anyway, her text mentioned that the new stage is gathering today in Atlanta, which is where they will have a few days orientation and then depart to the motherland of good ‘ol Ahhfreekah!! Obviously I’ve known that the one-year mark was approaching, but for some reason knowing that the next group of volunteers is officially on their way makes it seem real. So that, my friends, was my inspiration to opening up my computer and writing a blog entry.

And now this is the paragraph where I say something profound. And this is the part where you have to insert your own profound thoughts, cuz now that I’m here I don’t have any.

As I’ve been sitting here trying to decide what to write, I decided I would have a celebratory Fun Dip…you know, the candy that has a stick of pretty much pure sugar that you use to dip into more sugar? It didn’t have the desired affect. It didn’t elicit any profound or even remotely intelligent thoughts. My tongue is just a little more raw than it was before. Sigh.

I guess the reason I’m having a hard time putting words to my thoughts is that my thoughts are seemingly contradictory and probably don’t make much sense. Recently, I’ve been amazed at how comfortable I’ve gotten living here. I’ve also realized that at times I’ve almost resisted getting comfortable, for fear of….I don’t really know…getting too comfortable maybe? Preferring Senegal over America? Losing a sense of what’s “normal?” Losing western ways? Or just becoming straight up weird and crazy?

A few weeks ago I took a vacation and went back to the States (more details on the trip to follow). I think what made me realize my resistance to getting too comfortable in Senegal was my relief to still feel normal and at home in America. I was really afraid that I would be totally freaked out by...everything. Freaked out by America, the fast pace, white people everywhere, the cleanliness, speaking English, freezing in an air-conditioned house, grass, trees. I was afraid my stomach would be freaked out by not eating oily rice for nearly every meal, which I guess was a pretty legitimate concern! I’m sure you will all be relieved to know that neither my stomach nor I as a whole was freaked out by America. My stomach welcomed the balanced diet and I definitely appreciate everything America has to offer even more now. But being in America and talking about Senegal and trying to explain it to people made me appreciate Senegal, the culture and my experience here more, too. The culture in Senegal is just really cool! Really different, and sometimes really frustrating, but still really cool. It’s not the kind of culture that jumps out in your face, like ridiculously scary piercings and tribal war songs and dances and clicking languages that sometimes stereotypically define Africa. It’s the kind of culture that you can only learn by living and experiencing daily life here. Being in America made me realize how much I’ve learned in a year, and how much more comfortable I’ve grown to be here, how normal it is for me to go about my daily life here.

And then, the vacation was over. As always it was hard to say bye to family and friends, but the transition back to Senegal was pretty easy, too. I’ve come to the conclusion that America is what it is and Senegal is what it is. I don’t need to overanalyze my being in one place over the other. Instead of counting down days until I leave hoping that I’ll make it and still want to be here in a few months, I have more of the attitude that I only have a year left, and I want to enjoy it and make the most out of it. I think that’s good, right? I can do my thing and just be :)

Now the contradictory part. As I said I’m comfortable in Senegal, it’s been a great experience, and I feel at home and normal here. However, when I got the text about the new group of volunteers coming to Senegal, I thought, “WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAZY PEOPLE!! They’re voluntarily coming to Africa for two years! Why? They have no idea what they’re getting themselves into! I wonder if they’re feeling the same way I did this time last year?!?” And then all of the sudden I understood why so many people thought I was crazy for wanting to do this, and how they didn’t really understand why I did want to do it.

Maybe it does make sense. Now that I know what’s gone into this past year and I realize how different American culture is from Senegalese culture, I see that it might seem strange to intentionally take yourself out of your element and be plopped down in another, completely different world. It’s really great though most of the time! I promise!

So now you know the inner workings of my mind. Not quite sure why I’m putting this on a public website.

Next topic: America!! I went home in August for a short vacation, and it was fabulous. I was home for less than two weeks, and I was pretty busy most of the time! I got to have a couple dinners with family and friends, which were great, and week of it was spent at the beach on the Outer Banks, North Carolina. I had several friends from college and high school fly in from various locations to spend some time with me and my family at the beach….it was so great! Thank you to everybody who came, it meant so much to see you guys :) Everybody helped me celebrate my 23rd birthday while we were at the beach, too. The week at the beach went by pretty quickly, and after only one more day in Richmond I was back at the airport, heading back to Senegal.

So Im back now, and I feel like a lot is happening! Im planning on coming back to internet after lunch, so I will hopefully write Part II very soon and fill you in!