Back To Work

So Id been away from site for over a month and got back on Thursday night after three weeks of training and a week in Dakar for waist. I was sad to say goodbye to all the other volunteers, especially since I dont know the next time I will see some of them, and it very well may be at the end of our Peace Corps service, but also glad to get back to site where everybody knows my name. Literally. As I rode in my donkey cart back to my house, the children were running behind us yelling Aby Toubab!!! I just smiled and waved pretending I was in a parade. Whens the next time I will get to be in a parade, after all? Spent the weekend resting up and went to my first Catholic mass ever at the Keur Moussa monastery located 11 k from my house, which was really interesting. They dont use any organs, only drums and koras, traditional african instruments. The singing was beautiful and after service I bought some of the best grapefruit Ive ever had and some homemade goat cheese. The monks make so much money selling fruit and cheese that they dont need to take collection.

Monday morning I was up early and ready to work. A month of sitting around thinking up ideas and I was ready to be productive. Made a list of 13 things to do/people to see to look into doing some projects and went to my supervisors office 1st thing only to be told that he was headed to Touba for the Grand Magal de Touba 2008, which is a religious pilgrimage for the Mouride muslims, one of Senegals denominations or brotherhoods, and so were a lot of people. They get back Wednesday but will be tired, so its probably best if I wait until next week to get work done. So much for productivity. Argh. This is an excellent example of one of a Peace Corps Volunteers biggest challenges: Trying to do work in Senegal at an American pace. Things here go much more slowly and religious holidays (for both Christians and Muslims) are strictly observed. No questions asked. Im learning to slow myself down, but its frustrating as hell. Also, On the way home yesterday stopped by the market to pick up some food for dinner and they moved it. I leave Pout for one month and they move the whole freaking market on me. Finally found it, but still. Life is full of surprises these days.

Spent the rest of the day catching up on reading, which is apparantly what I will be doing all this week. Just finished Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and I would highly recommend it to all. Its a bit hoakily written, but such a good, uplifting story of excellent, sustainable development work. Check it out at www.threecupsoftea.com. Next book: King Leopolds Ghost about King Leopold IIs reign of terror in the Congo at the turn of the century. This ones going to be a bit depressing. Btw, if you know of any good books, send them to me. I read a lot and good books are always appreciated here in Peace Corps Senegal.

West African Invitational Softball Tournament

...has been awesome. We had four games, won 3 and lost 1 and didnt make it to playoffs but had so much fun. The team that won was actually a group of Senegalese. Yes thats right, the Americans have been beaten at our own game. There were Peace Corps teams from 6 west African countries (Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Guinea, Benin and the Gambia) and it was so good to meet volunteers from other countries. Were all living the dream, you know. :) Over the weekend we ate a ridiculous amount of hotdogs, m&ms, doritos and other amazing food that none of us ever get any other time of year. Ok, maybe the Dakar regions volunteers do (thats me), but some of these other kids (and countries) are seriously deprived.

During the tournament two other volunteers and I have been staying with a lovely host family that feeds us amazing food, lets us use their laundry machine, their internet and watch American tv so that we even got to watch an episode of this seasons American Idol. That was a hug deal, I am just sad its the only one I will have the opportunity to watch, so keep me posted!!!

All is well in Dakar and I head back to site tomorrow, which I am ready for after almost a month away. I have several projects to look into as I kill the next four weeks until my vacation so I am really looking forward to it. Life is good.

Killing Time Until WAIST

So this is the last week of training here in Thiès. Today we had Wolof all day and now my second round of language training is over, so I guess linguistically speaking, I am trained. Funny, it doesnt feel that way. I am very comfortable speaking basic Wolof with people in the market and whatnot, but it is definately my third language and I have so much left to learn. The rest of this week will be spent doing technical training such as learning how to write grants to apply for funds for our projects and work with AIDS.

The most important part of training for the volunteers is getting to hang out with each other and we went to Mbour, a tourist town on the coast, to hang out last weeked. 24 hours of beach bumming and a sunburn later, headed back to Thiès. Today after work we went to the local artisinal village to see what they had. Personally I wanted to see what my options were for souvenirs for my upco,ing vacation to England. BTW, if you have any requests, please make them.

In other exciting news, I have been asked to work with a local NGO after I finish training working with IT training in the region, which will give me a sense of purpose as I pursue other projects. I am very excited about the work. In still more exciting news, I received care packages from mom and the Bradfords today. Could not be happier with my goodies. The m and ms have been given to other volunteers, the godiva however is being hoarded. Care packages are ALWAYS appreicated, hint hint. Ideas for those of you who need them:

Any magazines
Flavors for drinking water
Hersheys anything
Mac and Cheese
Ramen Noodles
Spices or seasonings
Anything American and good (which is everything)

Hope that helps.

Le SuperBowl

So for those of you who were concerned, worry no more, I did watch the Superbowl. Live. There is a really nice hotel in Thies where the volunteers are having out traning that let us rent out a room and we showed up at 12:30am to watch the kickoff. There were of course no nachos, chicen wings, or even food. The whole thing was horribly dubbed in French, so each touchdown resulted in an ooh lala!! Cetait tellement magnifique!! There were also no commercials, but yet again I live in Africa and I was just happy to get to watch the super bowl. The hotel also set up mats for us so we could sleep until time to leave for work the next morning. You could tell at training who had watched the super bowl by who had fallen asleep in class. Good times.

Training continues. Its so awaesome to see everyone and weve organized several capture the flag games at the training center which has been fun. My new host family that I am staying with as the first one didnt really work out is really nice, I think, I never really see them as I am normally out with other volunteers or in my room asleep. Celebrate my five month anniversary in Senegal next week. Cant believe it. Life continues to be amazing.