I Have Cornrows

Yes, you read that correctly, it was only a matter of time. All of my friends have had their hair done and I finally caved and spent two hours with my head in a womans lap and at the end, I have cornrows. I look like an idiot, but the Senegalese freaking love it and I cant go anywhere in Pout without someone yelling "Aby Diallo, rafeet na!!" which is "Aby Diallo (my name here), youre so pretty!!!"Its not true but bless them. Moments like this make me thankful my camera is broken. On the positive side, its incredibally easy to take care of, so perhaps I will do this more often.

In regards to my painting situation, naive American Mandi picked out paint colors for her house not realizing that in Senegal there are no shades. When you say you want a red kitchen, they buy the red paint, mix it in the big bucket of base and whatever color that turns out is what goes on the walls. Oh Jesus. This would explain my now yellow and beige halls, electric blue guest room and seafoam green (if you can in fact call it green) bedroom. Oh Jesus. The worst part is, as much of a mess as it is, it still looks better than when I found the place. So thats good. So much for bringing interior design to Senegal, huh? My place is bright, lets leave it at that.

In other news, site is going well although it is an uphill battle. Yesterday I went to an english class at the high school. It was on Englishes: the difference between American and British English. Super cute to listen in on. One person explained that the difference was that in America people say yeah, where in England people say yes. Also, apparantly the reason that Americans spell things differently is that in America time is money and we dont have enough time to spell things out so weve shortened our words. So cute.

After school however, my walk home sucked. The high schoolers were making fun of my Wolof, two women offered me their children, an old woman asked me to buy her medecine and I got really irritated so when two teenagers started laughing at my attempted Wolof I totally lost it and snapped at them. When I saw the looks on their faces I felt so horrible for being the big, scary toubab and ran back to my house and hid out in my room with a pack of biskrem and crunchy peanut butter. Rough day. My host mom eventually got me to come out, but it took persuasion.

So my life continues. Kiras coming over tonight for a slumber party and it will be nice to have an escape!!! God bless Peace Corps Volunteers.

So today painting started on my maison, not really sure how it is just yet but will see when I head back to site tonight. In theory, my kitchen will be red, my room will be green, the guest room will be blue and my hallway and bathroom will be beige so we will see how this works. It blows the Senegalese mind that I want to paint each room a different color as they paint all of the rooms in their houses.

So everything is really good here, Im really happy. Its hard but this week I am going to start taking tours of Pout and meeting with people so I can start making contacts to work with. I will let you know how it goes. In other devastating news: my nars blush dropped on the floor today and broke. If you know me, you can imagine the sense of loss I am going through. Kali, I know you know. Man it was rough.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

So the title really says it all. This is my first thanksgiving abroad and its kinda weird, but im really lucky to be able to celebrate with other Americans. Took a sept place (french for a beat up renaut station wagon that is still moving in spite of all odds) to Kaolack to have a nice dinner with other volunteers. There should be about 40 of us in town for the night and then tomorrow Im headed back to site to meet with the painters about painting my house. It will cost much more than I anticipated but it should be worth it as my place looks like hell. So should be painted by Tuesday and my furniture gets in Wednesday and then my house will be a home. And it only took two weeks. Next step: Mastering Wolof so I can communicate with people when and if I decide to leave my lovely home....

The Only White Person In Town

So the word on the street is that I am the only white person in Pout. Thats right, 29,999 Senegalese and me. Its fun to say but really kind of weird and scary to think of. That would definately explain the staring. I have never been stared at like this in my life. Every time I leave my house its just all eyes on me. I tell myself its because Im just really pretty that day. Every day. I havent bought a mirror for my house yet because Im afraid that if I do I will look in it and realize that is not in fact why they are staring.

So yeah, Im moved in. My ancien definately lived in a bachelor pad and there is loads of work to be done before my place is not a complete hellhole, but its slowly coming along. I have big plans. Im in Dakar at the moment. I arrived Monday and left again on Friday for a weekend away, but its already so needed!!! Ive only been at site four days and I left to come into Dakar this weekend to play on a softball league that I am now in. It was really fun and we play on this field that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and the concession stand sells hot dogs and diet coke and m&ms (which you can hardly find anywhere here) so its a really big deal. This weekend we played two games, both against high school teams. We won the first game, which was a hollow victory, and then lsot the second, which was a blow to the self esteem. But in the meantime we ate loads of hot dogs!

Today I head back to site to culturally integrate myself. That and clean. I used an entire can of insecticide on my house before I left to so it could air out during the weekend, so I should have lots of sweeping to do, if you know what I mean. Ill let you know how it goes. I plan on actually leaving my house this week as I hid out in my room most of my first four days at site, but it is hard. It is freaking hard to leave my building and the safety of my bed. Ive promised myself to get out and explore Pout more this week, at least until I leave for Thanksgiving in Kaolack....

Im A Peace Corps Volunteer!!!

Its official, as of last Friday when I swore in, I am no longer a trainee, but a fullblown PCV, which is quite possibly the best feeling in the world. I have wanted this for so long as most of you reading this blog know. Swear in was freaking awesome. It was on national television and I got to narrate the skit so I got to get up on the podium and greet the whole country and feel important. I looked a bit like a goober, but no biggy. After the ceremony we had a lunch party with amazing food including caviar. Who thought that my first taste of caviar would be in Africa? Not I.

Have spent all weekend celebrating with my fellow volunteers who I love so much and am really sad to leave. Last night I went to a soirée in the catholic neighborhood, which is just a big dance party and had soooooo much fun!! I even got to do the twist, which would never happen in the states. Most of my stage has already left, but a few of us leave tomorrow. Yes, thats right. I move to Pout tomorrow, which is terrifying. What am I going to do with myself. Im dealing with a lot of anxiety at the moment. I havent even started packing as Im kinda scared to. I feel like having my belongings spread all over my room is comforting. Perhaps I am going insane? My next entry will be from my site, so you can hear all about it. Eek!

My Last Entry As A Trainee

So to answer Katies question, Muus is pronounced moose, but it doesnt matter anymore as Muus died today. He was too young to be away from his mother and he just died. Yes it was sad but this is Africa and no one cries over cats here. So, when I get a second muus you will know.

In other super exciting news, I swear in tomorrow. Supposedly I passed my Wolof test, which Im pretty sure is not true as I told them my mother and father were both fifty and then proceeded to tell them Marti, my older sister was 57 as well and is living in Seattle with her wife. I really need to study my vocabulary, but they are letting me move to site anyways. Hurrah!!!

I leave tomorrow at 7:00 am to go to Dakar for the ceremony, which should be fun. Its very formal, so I will be wearing my Korite outfit, which is the only Senegalese outfit I have. Also, it will be televised, and every city and village that is getting a volunteer will be watching, which means that my town will be watching. I am the narrarator in our skit, so wish me luck!!! Im really very happy with everything right now. The trainees have all been hanging out together a lot since we wont see each other for three months and everything has been lovely and life is good.

I was thinking today that tomorrow I will become what I have wanted to be for three years. What an excellent feeling!!!

I Have A Muus

Muus is Wolof for cat. Someone found this poor little kitten on the side of the road and brought it to the center. It cant be more than a few weeks old and it looked awful so we started giving it milk and its doing better and its mine. I had thought about getting a cat at site, but wasnt sure since I am leaving in two years anyway and dont really want to abandon it, but all logic went to the wind as Muus is the cutest thing ever and I love him. My camera is broken and so no photos just yet, but hopefully someone else can send me photos of my kitty.

Lots of volunteers get animals, but in Senegal cats are seen as really dirty. Theyre like squirrels. Theyre everywhere and people hate them. In a village setting, I think it could seriously affect a volunteers status, but since I have my own building and my cat wont ever have to be near the family and I live in a bigger site, Im hoping it wont be a problem. Plus Im in love. The things I do for love, I tell you....

Today Was A Good Day

There arent enough of them in my life these days so I have to write about it!! Today was the first of two days in our CounterPart Workshop. All Peace Corps Volunteers in Senegal are given counterparts to work with who are essentially responsible for looking after us our first three months at site while we work on our language skills and attempt to integrate into the communities. Mine are freaking awesome and I had such a good time talking to them. My female counterpart works with most of Pouts many womens groups, so she will introduce me to them and I can hopefully help them out and she also works with adult literacy!!!! For those of you who dont know, I have spent the last three years volunteering for the Arkansas Literacy Councils, and could not be more excited about working to help Senegalese women learn to read and write!!!! I cannot wait to meet these people and see if I can be of some help!!!

After work went out with some other trainees to chill before heading home. I suppose that was really the highlight of my day but Im just in a really good mood right now. I am glowing actually.

In other news, I got felt up by a child on my way into the cybercafe. I stopped to chat to the owners and the little kids ran over to touch me, which Im getting used to, they are fascinated by me, and one little boy stood on his tiptoes and just grabbed lefty. Awkward.