Ramblings from Tassete

(written Saturday September 5, 2009)

Let’s see, what’s new…We’re nearing the end of our longest stretch at our training village. Not gonna lie, the first week in village was more than a little rough at times. So when I came back here for the start of this two week stretch I was pretty apprehensive about being able to tough it out without a major breakdown or two. On the contrary though, the last two weeks have been pretty great. I caught a bad cold, which was frustrating; especially since being tired and sick meant that at times trying to form coherent sentences in French felt like trying to do calculus in my head or something. The cold is almost gone though so hurrah for that! (And I’ll definitely take a cold over some of the nasty stuff that the other PCTs have been catching.) Plus, tomorrow we have our first day off since we got here! I plan on spending it doing exciting things like hand washing my clothes and practicing my grammar, but still…after 24 straight days of classes it is definitely something to celebrate. Then, next Tuesday we have our second language proficiency interview. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it goes better than the first one. I won’t be jet lagged and sleep deprived this time, so I figure it couldn’t possibly be worse. (Let’s face it…sleep deprivation + jet lag = I can’t even form proper sentences in English, let alone in French, lol.)

On Wednesday, we are headed back to the PC Training Center in Thies for a couple of days. This trip to center is when they finally tell us where our permanent sites will be! Obviously this is exciting, but it’s also a little bit terrifying. Everytime I start to think about the fact that in a few weeks I am going to be sent off to site ON MY OWN that feeling of, “Oh my god, what have I gotten myself into?!” starts rushing back, haha. But at least soon I will know where I’m headed and I’ll be able to start preparing myself by talking to volunteers in the area, learning more about my region, etc. For a country the size of South Dakota, the different regions are surprisingly diverse, which has made it pretty impossible to make any guesses about my site without knowing its exact location. Also, after three nights at the center, we’re all going on volunteer visits. Hopefully, if my ancien (the volunteer I’ll be replacing) is still in country I’ll be able to visit my actual site, which would be awesome. But if they have already left, I’ll at least be able to go to a different PC site in my region. Either way, I’m looking forward to the volunteer visit because it will be my first taste of what life is really going to be like for the next two years.

Speaking of which…the concept that this is my life for the next TWO YEARS is still impossible for me to grasp. Right now it feels a little bit like summer camp. Like one morning I’m just going to pack up my things because it is time to head back home to my family and friends. Which will be happening…in TWO YEARS. Hopefully it will sink in soon, but three and a half weeks in, it still feels totally surreal.

So that’s the gist of the next couple of days. Now, here are some random observations/events that I feel like sharing:

• I have always been kind of bad about complaining too much, but I’ve decided to make a concerted effort to be more positive. As I said, the first week in village was a little rough, so by the time I got back to the Training Center in Thies last time I was ready to do some major complaining. Well we all know that misery loves company, so I went out for pizza (yeah, American food!) with some other PCTs and we spent the whole meal talking about all the things that sucked the first week that we were here. Usually, I think that stuff like that is good because you get it off your chest and then you feel better, but nope, not this time. I left that dinner feeling even worse because in addition to all the little stuff that was irritating me, I had everyone else’s concerns weighing on me too. That’s when I decided that from now on I’m going to really focus on the positive. (See look…three weeks in and I’m growing as a person already, haha) I know its an obvious thing, but having that little ephiany, man let me tell you…it makes a WORLD of a difference. Even when I was sick and felt like crap this week, I still never felt as down as I did the last time I was here.

• So in keeping with the above statement, here’s a brief list of all the little things that make me happy in Senegal:
• RAIN! No joke, I seriously get giddy when it starts to rain these days. Why? Because it means that it’s going to be cool enough to sleep comfortably at night! One night this week I even had to crawl out from under my mosquito net to grab a blanket and it was pretty much the best thing ever. (In case you didn’t already know this…I love blankets.)
• Mosquito nets! When I first got here mine had some pretty huge holes in it, so the last time I went back to center I got a new one and it is AMAZING. My bed is now my own little bug free haven and it is great.
• The moon! The electricity goes out a lot here. A LOT. But I’ve never appreciated the moon so much in my life. It is so wonderfully clear and bright. I don’t even need a flashlight to see when walking around my compound at night if the electricity is out.
• Berry Mix flavored Mentos! Why? Because they are the only kind of candy that I’ve been able to find in Thies that is American AND that won’t melt in the heat, haha.
• Phone calls/texts from people back home! So thank you to all the people who have called or texted me since I got my cell phone. Seriously, it makes my day!
• Omelets! Pretty much everything else we eat around our compound is some type of Senegalese dish involving fish and white rice. So while the omelets I occasionally get for lunch are super oily and probably really unhealthy, they still make me happy because it’s the only familiar thing I eat in village.

• Last week we took a day off from afternoon classes and headed into Thies to eat some American food for lunch and run a few errands. This meant that we had our first experience with another form of Senegalese public transportation: the sept-place. Basically this means that at one point on the 25 km ride to Thies from Tassete, we had 11 people crammed into a car that reminded me very strongly of the Grand Caravan my Mom used to chauffeur us around in back circa 1992, haha. There are of course no seat belts in these vehicles, but thankfully we made it to and from Thies without incident.

While in Thies, we picked out some fabric and went to the tailor to get outfits made for Korite. For those who might not know, Korite is the big celebration that Muslims have to celebrate the end of Ramadan. So I bought some fancy violet colored tie-dye (which is cheesy in America, but actually super fancy in West Africa) and I’m having a traditional shirt and pagne (wrap skirt) made for the holiday. It should be pretty snazzy so as long as I don’t look like a total clown in it, I promise to post some pictures of the festivities.

• Yesterday, some other PCTs who are in surrounding villages came to Tassete so we could have a discussion about gender roles in Senegal. Naturally, the discussion rolled around to polygamy before too long. Here’s how one of our LCF’s (Language and Culture Facilitator) explained the reasoning behind polygamy in Islam: It is a universal truth that all men cheat, and that is why god said that men can have more than one wife. Think what you will of the practice (and I won’t air my views here), but when I heard him say that I couldn’t help but laugh. Man, people could have a serious field day arguing over the justifiability of that statement, haha.

OK, I think that’s enough boring information for one post. Hopefully you found some of that interesting/entertaining. A la prochaine!