9.27.2007

Q&A

So in response to a few questions I have been asked:

I cant eat with my left hand because when the Senegalese who dont use toilet paper wipe, thats the hand they use. Its generally seen as the unclean hand. Lame, right?

I am 5 hours ahead of CST, so 7 hours ahead of Seattle, and one hour behind Terry in England (for half of the year at least)

Care package ideas include, but are not limited too:
Magazines, gummy candies, life saver mints, cliff bars of any type, granola bars, any American snacks really

Feel free to ask any questions via e-mail. Part of this whole experience is the cultural exchange. I would write more, but I am off to break the fast with my host family and butcher the wolof language, possibly at the same time. More on Ramadan as I figure it out.

Congratulations to Terry, Mom & Savannah, all of whom have written me letters. I live for mail here. If your name was not mentioned, my address is posted on here somewhere. Note: Some cards have arrived open, so no money. I know you wont send me any, but just so you know.

Cultural lesson for the day: When I showed up at the internet café today, there was really loud chanting coming from the direction of the mosque, which isnt unusual for ramadan, but it was louder than normal. I asked the employee and he put a fist to his nose and turned it. I thought he was calling me drunk, which is what that sign means in France, but in Senegalese he was telling me that someone died. He explained it to me and the sign is literally turning the oxygen in ones nose off. So now you know. I just thought that was really interesting.

9.23.2007

I Hate Taxi-Men

They say that in the Peace Corps there will be ups and downs, and today was a downer. On the way back from lunch at Le Pamanda, Stephen and I caught a taxi. We live in two seperate quartiers, but theyre pretty close, so split the cost of a taxi. So when we get to Mbour 3, where Stephen lives, the taximan kicks me out of the car too because he doesnt feel like driving over to Mbour 1 as well and just leaves me on the side of the road. I am so pissed off, but Stephen just hails another taxi and sends me on my way.

So we get to Mbour 1 and the guy asks for 500 CFA, which is more than I pay to go all the way downtown so I offer 300 CFA. He just keeps demanding 500 and I explain that I only have 300 since other taxi drivers have also decided to rip me off today. After a few mintues, he wont even accept my money so I just get out of the car. He then proceeds to follow me all the way to my host familys house, gets out fo the car and is just following me which is creepy as well as scary. I get home and hes yelling and peering over my fence and my host mom has to go pay him the 200 CFA to get him to go away. Im pissed as hell and about to cry and she just laughs and goes "oh Taximen" and then walks away.

For awhile I was convinced that I hate all Senegalese, but Ive since narrowed it down to those two taximen. Assholes.

Other than that, everything is good.

9.21.2007

PS: I HAVE A CELL PHONE!!!

The number is 2525470. What you have to dial before that is beyond me but feel free to give me a call or text and when I figure that out I will post it.

For now I am out of time at the internet café.

Une Sandwiche Foie and More

To begin with the title of this, yesterday we arrived back in Thiès at around noon and went into town to buy lunch at a sandwich shop. The guy listed the options and one of them was a sandwiche foie, which I understand as a sandwiche froid. French speakers will already see where I went wrong. For the rest of you, apparantly liver sandwich and cold sandwich sound almost identical in French and I had never noticed. So I ordered a cold sandwich and then paid 500CFA for a liver one on accident. I am poor, so I ate it all. Everyone else had really good sandwiches too. I have shit luck with senegalese food, come to find out.

In other news, today we had training all day and then my host family picked me up and showed me to their house. I have a 30 minute bike ride to work everyday, which sucks in African heat but PC cars will take me the first couple days utnil I can find my own way. And it will be good exercise tocompliment my African diet, which is actually fattening mu up. I will have to give names and details of my family later as I am still confused on all of that. My 19 year old host brother, whose name I dont understand yet and feel rude asking for again is listening to Akon and 50 cent next to me. They seem nice so I am happy and i definately have a tv. Hurrah!! I am alive and for the most part well.

We had our first ET today, which basically is PC terms for someone quit. We kinda saw it coming because she complained all the time, but still sad because now we are only 43.

9.18.2007

Richard Toll

I am currently on demystification up in the north of Senegal visiting a current volunteer to figure out what she does and if were up to the challenge these next two years. Its such a great experience. Ive read so much about what I am supposed to be doing here but anyone who knows about the Peace Corps knows that our job descriptions are pretty vague and its frustrating trying to figure everything out at times. Watching this volunteer work in her community and interact with them makes me believe in the Peace Corps as an agent for change and I am so happy to be a part of this!

Not that I only think positive thoughts because in this heat its hard to remain optmistic. I hate life most of the day. Yesterday however it rained and at night we sat on the rooftop looking across the Senegal River into Mauritania and talking and it was so amazing and relaxing. I almost forgot about the allergic reaction that my face has had to something that I cant identify and how horribly ugly I look at the moment. Almost.

Amusing/horribly embarrassing story of the week: last night for dinner we ate with a local family who cooked us this awesome meal called cheb? I dont actually know how to spell it. I was eating out of the family bowl and picked something up and ate it and immediately regretted that decision. It tasted like feet. I told the volunteer that I just ate something horrible and didnt know what it was. The host father then told me I had eaten a snail. Yep, they had thrown one in. Not only had I eaten a snail, I had eaten the one snail they had put in for the whole family by myself which meant that no one else got any. I felt so horribly embarrassed. We had a good laugh but it was definately at my expense.

More tales to come as I further embarrass myself.

9.15.2007

Looy def Sénégal?

Looy def Sénégal is wolof for what are you doing in Senegal? And so I thought it would make good title and let me show off my wolof, which is completey unimpressive just yet. Oh well, all uphill from here right? I am in Africa right now and Im actually not sure that it has sunk in yet. Ive mostly stayed in the PC training center with the other trainees attempting to settle in. There will be no comfort anytime soon as it is hot as hell. The ice cold showers are what keep me going. And internet cafés where they play American music like Akon.

I havent gotten any mail so far except the letter i sent myself, so the rest of you have some work to do. See post below with my address. Everything is going well. Had a cultural fair today where we learned about Senegalese religion, food, dress and whatnot. It was very informative but I am overwhelmed with what I have left to learn. One thing that I have definately learned the hard way is that it is not allowed to eat with your left hand, which is pretty much the worst thing ever. I picked up my spoon with my left hand the first meal and before I had a chance to do anything, two women told me right. I am learning but I have been dropping a lot of food on the floor....

The food is awesome by the way. More on everything later, right now I am heading back to the training center for dinner. This is just to let everyone know that I am alive and well.

9.12.2007

Staging

So staging is awesome. There are around 45 people in my group, which is divided between Small Enterprise Development (what I'll be doing) and Agriculture volunteers. The staging part kinda sucks because we just sit in a hotel conference room going over policies and procedures, but after work has been so much fun because we all just go out to dinner and get to know one another. We are all recent college graduates so everyone gets along really well as we are all in the same place in life and obviously have something in common. We all want to work for the Peace Corps. I could not be more excited about this job. We leave tomorrow morning at 6:30am to go get shots (hurrah!!) and then off to the Atlanta airport where we leave for Dakar, the capital of Senegal. Looking forward to it and my next post should be from Senegal!!!

9.10.2007

9.5 hours and counting....

So it's crazy early in the morning and I have just finished packing. My luggage weighs 60 pounds, which is well under the 80 lb maximum that we are given and yet I can't think of anything else I would even want to pack and am positive that I will throw my back out tomorrow on the way to work. God have mercy on the poor souls who went for 80.

It has recently occured to me that tomorrow morning I report to my first full-time job. I tend to forget that the Peace Corps is a job (probably because I haven't started yet and I don't absolutely dread the thought of it). It will be so great to meet everyone else that has taken the plunge. It will be nice to meet some people going through the same things that I am at the moment (i.e. panic). While packing up my life I've realized just how great I have it and just how sad I am to leave. I love my family, I love my friends, I love my boyfriend, I love Target, I love Sephora, I love caramel frappucinos......there will be many sacrifices made. All for the greater good they say. I don't really want to cry anymore so I think I will go pass out from exhaustion.

Next you hear of me will be from Atlanta during staging.

9.01.2007

My Address

For those of you who want to send me things (hopefully anyone reading this) my address for my two months of training in Senegal is:

PCT Mandi Kimberly
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 299
Thiès, Senegal
West Africa

Please send me mail! I'm not too proud to beg.

Peace Corps Timeline

Greetings! This will be my blogging outlet for my twenty-seven months of working with the United States Peace Corps. First thing I'd like to post is an overview of my journey with the Peace Corps application process:

August 29, 2006: Submitted online application
September 4: Received packet asking for addtl information
September 5: Sent packet back to Peace Corps
September 8: Recruiter called to set up an interview
October 2: Interview. Nominated for Small Business Development in French Speaking Africa leaving September 2007
October 9: Medical packet arrives in mail
November 27: Mailed medical packet back to PC
December 6: PC gets medical packet/receive dental clearance
March 14, 2007: Medically cleared
June 7: Placement Officer calls for second interview
June 13: Receive invitation to serve in Senegal as a Small Enterprise Development Volunteer leaving September 10, 2007
June 14: Called to accept my invitation

So there it is. A long, grueling application process, but its over and I can wait to leave in 9 days (!!!). For those of you who know me, you know that this is the only thing I want to do/can see myself doing after graduating from university this summer. I am so excited I can barely stand it! Check here for more news as it happens.

Mandi