Joyeux Anniversaire

As my 23rd birthday comes up tomorrow (I know, Im young) the festivities have already begun. As I mentioned in my last post, my work has fallen into a nice comfortable routine (shaken up every once in a while by a student who doesn't show up and doesn't call to tell me, argh) and so I had nothing better to do but plan myself a birthday party. Friday night some friends came over and the next day we cooked mom's potatoe salad for lunch, which I had really been craving, and then we watched some new movies (new to me, at least) that Lisa had downloaded on her computer. We watched Whatever Happens in Vegas and Definately, Maybe. Then we cooked up some tortillas and some meat and vegetables and had fajitas for dinner while hanging out on my porch. I have no oven to bake a cake at my house in Pout, so we used some marshmallows and rice krispies from the foreign import store to make a rice krispy treat cake of sorts. Then we just hung out talking. It was a nice, relaxing evening with friends, which was exactly what I wanted so I am pleased.

I came to Dakar yesterday because I had a Drs appointment this morning, this came just in time and since I'm already here, I might as well stay until tomorrow so I can celebrate Scott and my 23rd anniversary in style. Since Dakar is the best place in West Africa and you can pretty much get anything, I plan on buying an ice cream cake and hanging out at the regional house with some other volunteers. That's really what I want for my birthday, just to have a good, relaxing time with my friends. And an ice cream cake. There are a lot of volunteers in Dakar at the moment working with an english camp which I am signed up to work with next week so more details on that soon. I am really looking forward to it. All of it. Turning 23, celebrating 11 months in country soon, working with high school students in Dakar to help their english skills and teach them about American culture.

I can only stay until Wednesday morning when I have to catch a car to Thies where I have computer classes all day (every Monday and Wednesday still), but this weekend has been, and will hopefully continue to be, a much needed break from what has become my mundane, Senegalese life. Ok, its not as mundane as it could be, I know, but it's difficult after the honeymoon is over and nothing is new and exciting anymore and you get to the 'well now what?' phase of your peace corps service, which is where I am now. The positive side is that with the dullness comes understanding and I now understand what these people are saying to me and why they do (some) of the things they do, and can react accordingly. I can succesfully fend of marriage proposals (politely and offensively) in Wolof, I can have conversations with my friends, I can handle public transportation here (which is a complete mess), quite frankly I think I can handle anything.

My Life is Becoming Boring

So the problem with having been here 10 1/2 months so far is that I've now settled into a nice routine, which I find very comforting but doesn't give me anything to post on my blog about. Since my last post nothing new, and certainly not exciting has happened. I continue to work, giving computer classes, and hang out with my Senegalese friends. It rains a lot more here now. My roof has a leak. A big one. V. Unfortunate. You see how little I have to comment on? If you there is anything you want to know, ask and I will gladly answer, but if not I'm afraid I will have to wait until something new and/or exciting happens to post again.

It may be awhile, folks...

The Joys of (Not) Working in Senegal

So now that I am back from vacation its time to get back into teaching my computer classes that I teach every Monday and Wednesday in Thies. I had to buy a new cell phone and so dont have the numbers of my students anymore, so I just showed up Monday morning hoping for the best. The office where I teach my first class was locked. Knocked at the gate a few times but no answer. I guess class was cancelled. My second student was there and we picked up where we left off two weeks ago. Exactly where we left off actually, because she hadnt done any of the homework I had asked while I was gone. This is normal, but I will admit that my hopes were high. So we went through the typing lesson, and then I went home.

Spent all day yesterday at the youth library where I FINALLY finished entering all the books. Thats right, all 4100 books are save in the database. What does this mean? First off it means I am the happiest girl in the world. Secondly, it means I get to start teaching Thierno how to maintain the database and hopefully get to the point where he is completely in charge of the project. Yay!!!

So today I show back up at the office where I am supposed to be teaching only to find myself locked out and the office empty. Again. First time it didnt really bother me since Ive been living iin Senegal long enough to know that its not a big deal. Today however, I was very frustrated. Knocked on the door long enough for someone to let me in and give me Julie, one of my students, phone number, and I called and we decided to start next monday. She didnt know I had gotten back and had tried to call me while my phone was awol and figured I was still out of touch. Slightly less frustrated (but still frustrated) I made my way over to Chris's house where I am killing time until my next computer lesson starts around noon (inshallah). I realize that in the states this sort of behavior is completely unacceptable, no matter what. But here in Senegal its just kinda the way things get done, or dont get done sometimes. Calling me to tell me they had work to do outside of the office when there was a computer class scheduled probably didnt occur to my students, although I will point this out next Monday assuming I have a class to teach. Its just another one of the joys of working in a different culture. There is nothing in Senegal that cant wait. Urgency as we know it in America doesnt exist here. They say that Americans have watches but the Senegalese have time.

Back at Site

So Im now back in Pout and it feels really good to be home!! My poor cat has come down with a serious case of cabin fever while I was gone and is bouncing off the walls now. Nice to be missed, I guessed. Two weeks isnt that long to go on vacation really, but here in Senegal it is. Since I got home I have attracted a lot of attention. Everytime I step out of the house I get bombarded with greetings and people saying "Aby! I havent seen you in a long time! Where have you been?" When I mention that I went to the other side of the country everyone's eyes get really big and then they ask how it was, telling me its so hot down there and far away and arent there loads of mosquitoes there? Good thing Im back home in lovely Pout where everything is perfect. After a few of these interviews, I realized that I have seen more of Senegal in these past two weeks of road tripping than most of my neighbors have in their entire lives. Most Senegalese don't like to travel as much as Americans (certainly not the kind of Americans that join the Peace Corps) do. My host mother and most of her friends are completely happy to just stay put and go with the flow. Some of the younger kids here are really interested in travelling, but most people that want to go abroad only want to do so to get a job and send money back here to Senegal. It makes sense really, if you dont have enough money to get by, travelling seems a bit frivolous. I wonder what they think of me? Their frivolous American who seems unable to stay in one place for more than a month.

Was supposed to start my computer classes again today but showed up and the office was locked and no one was there. I took that to mean that my morning class is cancelled, which gives me the rest of the morning to piss around in Thies until my afternoon class, which hopefully isnt cancelled. When my cell phone got stolen I lost all my work contacts and hence my ability to call ahead and check on the status of my classes. My students dont see the need to tell me theyre not going to show up, and this is how entire days of my life get wasted. Hopefully tomorrow's work will go a bit more smoothly...

4th of July Abroad

This was my first one. Weird, but as resourceful peace corps volunteers we made the best of what we had and had a good time celebrating kicking Terry's country out a few hundred years ago. The Kedougou region, which is the farthest inland and hence most isolated part of Senegal, threw the party, which they do every year. I figured as I was already going across the country I might as well make a vacation out of it and for the past two weeks have almost entirely circled Senegal. Granted American roadtrips are much more fun and comfortable, my expectations were pretty low and I had a good time. I started last week travelling from Pout to Kaolack for the night, where someone kindly stole me cell phone off the roof while I was sleeping, then to Tamabacounda for a night, spent 3 nights in Kedougou celebrating with other volunteers, then another night in Tamba, went up through the Futa (which is the northern part of the country) and stopped at a volunteers house in Galoya for a night, 2 nights in the regional house in Ndioum and then headed home today hopefully. A perfect vacation. I have seen so many new parts of the country on this trip and couldnt be happier really. Unless I hadnt had to buy a new cell phone, that sucked.

Most of the time spent in regional houses was dedicated to tv time, since I dont ever get to watch tv or movies at site. Watched a lot of Flight of the Conchords, Sex and the City, and, most importantly, the Ndioum house has the third season of Law & Order SVU, so watched almost the entire season over the last three days. Soooo good. It was my first Law & Order in almost ten months now!!! We also did a fair amount of cooking. Quiche, banana cream pie, banana bread (there are a lot of bananas this time of year), cookies, breadsticks, chili, etc. Gotta take advantage of actually having access to a kitchen, which almost none of us do normally.

The fourth of july itself, the purpose of this pilgrimage, was so great. Kegoudou threw an awesome party. They cooked up a storm making us all fresh bread, hummus, tasiki (sp?) sauce, pork bbq, potatoe salad, pasta salad and coleslaw, all in mass quantities. There was a lot of sitting around, followed by much dancing, a lot of trash talking other countries and yelling about America, and even a few fireworks which were really small and unimpressive by American standards, but they were magical here. Apparantly I was the most excited about them. I think I embarrassed Erin by cheering my head off for the little explosions we got to see. They were cool, alright?

Kedougou is where we all pictured ourselves going when we thought of Africa. Its probably what you the reader are picturing right now in your head. The rainy season has just started so everything is green and beautiful, loads of baobab and nime trees in bloom, the most picturesque villages you could ever imagine everywhere. I dont know quite how to describe it but its beautiful. I wouldnt want to live there (I enjoy being spoiled) but its amazing to see. There are some waterfalls about 30km from Kedougou that a lot of volunteers biked out to for a day and really enjoyed but I didnt bring my bike so Im hoping to go next year. Ill have to actually start using my bike in advance so that the trip doesnt kill me, but i think I can do it.

So happy (late) 4th of July to everyone, and more news to come.