After Swear-In it became immediately clear that as far as Peace Corps is concerned, we’re big kids now. What does this mean? Basically they got us back to Thies that night and gave us each enough money to get to our regional capitals, and that was it. We spent the next two nights at the center in Thies, but the party was over. No more meals cooked for us, no one coming in to restock the toilet paper, etc. Time to start taking care of ourselves again.
Over the course of the weekend, everyone except the new volunteers in the Dakar/Thies regions headed out to their regional houses. From the regional house (or the training center in the case of the Dakar/Thies people), PC personnel would pick everyone up one by one, and take them to their site. So Sunday morning, myself and the 20 other new volunteers in the Kaolack/Fatick/Kaffrine regions packed all of our stuff onto a bunch of sept places (the station wagon type transportation) and headed off to Kaolack. Getting to Kaolack was, as always, a bit of an adventure. I swear, sometimes I truly forget that I live in the developing world, but traveling always serves as a reminder. For one, we must’ve been pulled over by the gendarmes at least 3 or 4 times. Nothing too exciting, but they always seem to feel the need to stop you and have a look when they see a bunch of Toubabs zooming by. Plus, there are so many potholes on the road from Thies to Kaolack that the drive there can best be likened to a real-life game of Mario Kart. Cars swerving all over the road, some choosing to abandon it entirely and drive through the grass, even one slightly-too-close-for-comfort near collision with oncoming traffic. Always an adventure!
But we all made it to the regional house in one piece. My install date was Wednesday, October 21st, so I spent the next several days wandering around the city, slowly buying all the things I’d need to take to site with me. So what exactly does a PCV moving to site for the first time need? Voila, my shopping list:
- 2 large washing basins for laundry – I may have a flushing toilet and a shower now, but I definitely won’t be seeing a washing machine again until I get back to America. Sigh.
- Side note: in case you were wondering, laundry and mysterious bleach stains do continue to be the BANE OF MY EXISTENCE. I avoid bleach near my clothes like it’s the plague and yet these stains continue to appear. I believe at last count, I am down 7 shirts and one of my favorite skirts. EIGHT articles of clothing! I swear, laundry is a constant test to my resolve to stay here. I’m going to have to have a tie-dye party to mask the stains because I really don’t have enough clothes without all those shirts. Which means I’ll be spending the next two years wearing more tie-dye than people in the 60s. But I digress…
- Laundry clips for hanging things out to dry – no washing machine means there are definitely no dryers. But really, the sun dries things faster anyway
- 2 buckets with lids for storing food and other things that I don’t want mice getting into
- 1 plastic cup for taking bucket baths – when the electricity goes out for an extended period of time (which it often does) so does the running water. Thus, sometimes showering is not an option. Wah wah.
- Gas tank with a burner – stoves/ovens are also not something you see frequently
- Bowls/plates/silverware for those occasions when I feel ambitious enough to use said gas tank to cook for myself
- Broom/dustpan
- FAN!!!! – I have been dreaming about having one of these for the past two months. SO AMAZING!
- Hand washing station – sinks aren’t a common bathroom feature here, so they have these things instead. It’s basically a teapot that sits on top of a large covered bowl. The cover has holes in it, so you pour the water from the teapot over the bowl to wash your hands and then empty the bowl periodically.
- Power strip – its incredibly rare to find a room that has more than one electrical outlet
- 2 trunks – 1 for locking stuff up at site, 1 for locking stuff up at the regional house
- Toilet paper – some of my fellow PCVs claim that I’m not “integrating enough” by continuing to use toilet paper. I however am a firm believer that just because the Senegalese don’t use TP doesn’t mean I can’t. If that limits my integration…so be it. I’m far too much of a germ-a-phobe to do without.
- Side note 2: this tendency not to use TP is one of the reasons why no one uses their left hand to interact with others in Senegal. Think about it for a minute, and I’m sure you’ll figure out why…
- Voltage regulator – pricey, but I’d very much like to avoid my computer getting fried by one of the many, many power surges around here
- Thin foam mattress – because I was too cheap to spring for the fancy thick one
- Gifts for my new family
So in case you were wondering, there you have it…everything (or at least I hope since that took up most of my settling-in allowance) one could need for setting up a home in Senegal. All of this stuff was bought at the market in Kaolack (which, fun fact, is the largest covered market in Africa!). And with the help of some PCVs who’ve been in country for a while and my own bargaining skills, I think I managed not to get ripped off too much on anything. Hurrah!
Next time: moving to Nioro!
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