Hut Sweet Hut!

So I finally meet my permanent Senegalese family (the family I will live with for 2 years). They gave my a new name, so now my name is Jeneba Sabaly! To get to Thiewal Lao (my new home) I had to drive across Senegal in a Peace Corps car, which involved waiting in the 100 plus degree heat for 5 hours while we waited to cross the Gambia River. The fastest way to the Kolda Region (where Thiewal Lao is located) requires crossing the Gambia...a ridiculous nonsensical tiny country in the middle of Senegal. The current volunteers promised us the best chicken sandwiches ever when we were in the Ferry waiting line...they lied, which broke our hearts. Traveling across Senegal also requires traveling on the most ridiculously bumpy paved and unpaved roads...roads which are also seriously lacking in law enforcement. In a Peace Corps car the ride isn't terrible but for most of my trips from now on I will be in the back of an ancient station wagon known here as a sept-place (7 seats). Also, on the way back to the Peace Corps Training Center (a 10 hour drive in the fast Peace Corps car), there were 10 people plus a dog in our toyota SUV which confortably fits 5 people. And I don't mean a Schnitzel sized dog...I mean a thirty-forty pound dog...awesome! Also our air conditioner broke...apparently a situation like that still beats a sept place ride, I'll let you know once I have that experience.

Once I got to my site I met my nearest white person/peace corp vol neighbor (6k from me through the bush). She has a Senegalese dog named Nacho and I spent my 5 days in Kolda living in her village while visiting surrounding villages. Aside from literally reaching 120 degrees in the middle of the day, there is also a constant buzzing in your ears whenever you are in Kolda...due to the evil flies. There are also bugs everywhere and apprently it will only get way worse when rainy season starts. We saw a dead scorpion while strolling through the woods searching for cashew apples and mangoes to pick and eat off the trees...it was gross. Also saw some rather intimidating spiders and learned that having bats and lizards in your room is commonplace. One volunteer even had a snake in her room...but that is abnormal, so are scorpions...hopefully. On the other hand, there are much nicer animals all over the place...including the roosters that seem a little confused about when dawn actually occurs. Cows just wander around along with goats, sheep, etc. I even carried a little baby goat. everyone sleeps outside here and Amanda (my nearest neighbor) said she used to wake up with a cow ten inches from her face on a regular basis. Many other things impede your sleeping...like the goats which sound like yelling children all night and the sheep which sound like drunken freshmen all night long. Also the mosque seems to feel that chanting all night is a neccessity. Even the cows make awful noises after one of the cows is killed. Its crazy...luckily I sleep like a rock.

While in village I also ate bush rabbit, freshly killed by amanda's dog, Nacho. Bush rabbit is vile...I had to hold my hand over my mouth to avoid choking the meat back into the bowl...yum. Otherwise the food in village (peanut butter or leaf sauce over rice) was delicious! Even the village water is good. I am supposed to only drink filtered water but when you run out of filtered water and are traveling you kind of have to drink straight well water. I have now had unfiltered well water in 3 villages and I'm still alive!

To get food like bread or coffee I have to bike 18k along a bush path to my road town (Dabo). Luckily I have an amazing brand new bike! My road town has a weekly market where I can get any of the Senegalese things I may be craving...like bissap juice/ice bags...basically a sandwich big filled with frozen bissap juice or any of a variety of yummy Senegalese juices. I can get coffee and a bean or egg sandwich any day of the week in my road town. Also, another volunteer lives in the town and he has electricity!

While in village I also had to practice my Senegaleseness and greet EVERYONE...not only everyone in my village but also everyone in the next door village. In the space of 2 days I figure I shook hands with somewhere between 500-1000 people. I visited each families compound, sat down for about 2 minutes awkwardly then moved on. The sitting down is apparently a very important component of the greeting. I was allowed to hold a baby that was less than one day old! On that note...a week or two ago some people started speaking to me in Woloof (I didn't understand a word) but I somehow agreed to go visit their house. So I followed them around town (at this point i didn't even know where I was going) and into their house, at which point I had to sit down of course. The two women proceeded to hand me both of their children, I think 4 and 5 months old. We do not share a common language at all and I had no idea who these two women were. I sat there for about 10 minutes and finally just stood up handed the babies back and left...even now i don't know who they were or why that happened...hilarious.

Anyway back to the village visit...my new Senegalese mom (one of 3) reminds me of Lynne Hathaway...which is interesting. I have now reached such a state of horselessness that while biking the other day I heard I sound coming from behind be...I though one of the bikes had a flat tire...turns out it was a cantering horse...

Also, i decided that the well pump in my training village was placed their by coach Kish...for a pump it is distrubingly like rowing...and its also ridiculously hard to use. I get the pleasure of using this pump everyday.

Sorry for the long update...lots happened in the past few days, hope that all made sense!

peace out girl/boy scouts