Catching Up: Thanksgiving to Christmas

So Peter left off at the start of our Popenguine adventure.  In short, it was a glorious and much-needed reward for 9 weeks of rigorous, weekend-less training.  It really was paradise- beautiful cliffs, lush vegetation, soft sand, over-the-ocean sunsets, and a more liberal alcohol culture (meaning drinking wasn't expressly forbidden).

We swam, played Frisbee and football and soccer on the beach, walked, hiked, drank, spoke in English, ate, had some bonfires (we even cooked beach crabs on a bonfire late one night- delish!), napped, read, and ate some more. It was a long overdue break from the grind of training. Peter and I even got our own room, with a view I might add! The only slight glitch was that the big house/party house, where 40+ of us had to stay, had no running water. Yeah, that part was gross. But it was no match for our resilient crew. Everyone worked together, under the brave leadership of one of our fabulous stage-mates, Katherine, to create gourmet Western meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 2 days, for 60+ people. That included a proper Thanksgiving feast, with 20-something bbq’d chickens, vegetarian and sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin, apple, and chocolate meringue pies! 

That is no small feat, especially considering the water and general kitchen situation! All of the dishes, and showers for that matter, had to be done either in the ocean or at the “quiet house,” as did much of the prep work. It was all an exercise in improvisation.  Anyone reading this would be shocked with what was accomplished culinarily, considering we had one mini stove and range, 2 small fridges, and a very small double sink to work with.  Not surprisingly, the septic tank at the quiet house began to overflow during the second night. Thankfully, nobody had set up a tent on top of it…

We arrived back at the Thies Training Center mid-morning on Friday, and had around 30 hours to recover and get organized before our big swearing-in ceremony in Dakar. 2013 marks 50 years for the Peace Corps Senegal program, so the swearing-in ceremony was planned to be a big to-do, with speeches from the American Ambassador, and the Senegalese Prime Minister, followed by a concert featuring Alibeta and the Nomads, Ngari Law, and the well-known Baaba Maal. On Saturday morning, it became clear that symptoms thought to be hangovers were instead signs of a gastrointestinal illness beginning to sweep through the group.  What happens when you have 60+ people who are totally exhausted and run down after 9 weeks of intense training, new germs, new food, poor sleep, and limited water (and thus hand washing) for a few days? They get sick!

Despite the oncoming bug, everyone who was able showered and donned their finest Senegalese party wear. It was by far the nicest any of us have looked since arriving here, despite the absurdity of the ruffles and embellishments. It was fun to see everyone dressed up. There were also some hilarious unintended matching male/female outfits, of which we had to take prom-esque photos. Oh, and yes, our matching was semi-intentional. The green that our CBT Yaay bought for Peter’s outfit was a very light mint green that would’ve been stained before he got out the door, so he went with my fabric to be safer.

Unfortunately, well over half of us ended up sick in the coming 24 hours; a group of 8 were too sick to make it to Dakar to swear-in, and another 10-15 had to leave swearing-in after the ceremony, before the concert even began, because of intestinal distress. Peter was unfortunately in that bunch, but I stayed on and carried the torch for us (he insisted…).

The swearing in ceremony was relatively quick, especially for a government event. The American and Senegalese national anthems were played, short speeches on the history and future of PC in Senegal were given (in French and Wolof, so most of us were pretty lost), and then we took an oath to serve as Federal Service Agents of the United States, the same oath that the President swears to. In swearing in as Peace Corps Volunteers, we committed to uphold the U.S. Constitution, and to serve both America and Senegal. It was pretty powerful!

Following the ceremony was a fabulous concert, and many of us are grateful our symptoms held off until after we returned to Thies.  A bunch of us were delayed in leaving Thies for our permanent sites because of the bug, including Peter and me. It was pretty surreal, and pretty gross, as there was no soap or toilet paper in any of the bathrooms for days, and the bathrooms (that 60+ people were regularly using) weren’t cleaned for over a week. We never got an answer as to why- budget cuts, maybe?  Where the bug came from remains a mystery- food origins were ruled out, as a group of PC Volunteer Leaders who came to the beach with us didn’t share our meals and still got sick. How it spread is less of a mystery given the circumstances… It was a memorable, and in hindsight, funny, way to wrap up such an intense experience.  We sure went out with a bang…

While the 9-week training was harrowing and intense, and sometimes felt excessive, we feel very grateful for the fabulous training we received.  We had heard so many great things about the Peace Corps/Senegal program before arriving- many say it is the best Peace Corps program worldwide- and now we understand why. The training staff were competent and engaging, and made sure we had the information we needed to transition to life at our permanent sites.  Thank you to all those who contributed to the experience!

After being delayed by a day, Peter and I eventually made it to Kaolack, our regional capital, where there is a PC apartment. Despite the lack of soap or clean bathrooms, PC was very accommodating and rented a car to bring us there so we didn’t have to brave public transportation with all of our stuff as a result of the delay. We were very grateful.

In Kaolack, we had a few days to shop for the essentials- big benoirs for carrying water and doing laundry and dishes, a [nice] mattress, pots, pans, dishes, bowls, cups, cutlery, and metal trunks to keep mice out of our stored items. There were three volunteers who came into Kaolack to help us find what we needed and bargain for a fair price. They were saints!  In addition to the essentials, we also managed to pick up some fun stuff, like fabric for our screen doors and windows and a small woven Ikea rug that I found at a second-hand linens stall amongst a stack of terry cloth toilet covers.  We actually have the same one at home (the rug, I mean), in a different color. Small world! Kaolack has a massive covered market that spans many acres. A former volunteer told me during training that he thinks literally anything you could ever want exists in the Kaolack market, it’s just a matter of finding it. After spending a few days wandering through its myriad alleyways, I believe it!  It’s a really cool shopping experience, although Peter is only slightly less miserable there than he is shopping in America. Ho-hum.

After a few days in Kaolack, we finally got to move to our permanent site: Guinguinéo!  Our regional Volunteer Support Assistant (VSA) picked us up at the apartment, drove us to our new home, helped us unload our stuff, and drove us, our father and my counterpart to the police station and Prefect’s office, as well as the Agricultural Office and Eaux et Foret (where Peter and I will be spending a fair chunk of our respective time) to formally introduce us.  It was a much-anticipated day and we were so excited to finally be here. We had the whole day to hang out with our family (except during Peter’s power nap below), as the water was out and we couldn’t start cleaning the place without it.  It came back on shortly after dark and we ended up staying up and cleaning our new apartment until 2 AM! The ceiling had been replaced and cement patched had been applied to the floor, which meant a lot of dust, and some dead mice! 

Our bed wasn’t yet ready and we didn’t have anything to hang our mosquito net from, so we slept in our tent, in our room, for the first 2 nights in Geo (unfortunately, we didn’t think to take a photo).  We jumped right in and cooked lunch for our family during our fourth day in Geo, because our Yaay, our Mom, was sick and we wanted to do something nice for her.  We had gotten a bunch of eggplant from my counterpart’s field the day before, so we made an improvised ratatouille.  Once the meal was in motion, our father diplomatically informed us that the family doesn’t actually like eggplant, so we kept the sauce on the side. We made spaghetti with caramelized onion sauce (standard fare in Senegal), with “salat American” (chopped up carrots, cukes, and okra in a mustard lime dressing) around the outside.  We were also diplomatically informed after the fact that bread should always be served with spaghetti meals, to scoop up the spaghetti and sauce. In Senegal there’s no such thing as too many carbs.  Spaghetti sandwiches are a pretty common breakfast item.  We’re pretty sure our family hated it (except for our high-school aged cousin, who ate a lot), but they couldn’t have been more sweet or complimentary about it all.  They are still bragging to friends and neighbors about our cooking.  We are so lucky to have such a demonstratively loving family!

Since those first few days, we have pieced together a cozy new home, and a solid kitchen corner setup. Friday marked the 2-week anniversary of our arrival in Guinguinéo!  We have been slowly settling in, resting, getting to know our family and the people and places of Guinguinéo, cooking whatever we want every night (this is incredibly exciting after having no control over our diets for almost 3 months!), and studying Wolof. We’ve also both been a bit under the weather for the past en days or so, both of us with a suspected bout of giardia, me with a head cold, and Peter with allergies (we think largely due to our mouse neighbors, who live in our ceiling). But, we finally have the time and the space to take care of ourselves in the way we need, which feels good. Our primary responsibility for our first 2 months here at site is to improve our language skills, and integrate into our family and our community. I’m feeling like my language progress is suffering due to my foggy sick brain and lack of energy, but I’m trying to take a cue from the Senegalese and be patient and take it slow.

In terms of the layout of our new home, our apartment shares a wall with our family’s home, but we have a separate entrance.  We have a spacious porch/bike storage area, which opens into our “big” room that serves as utility closet/kitchen/pantry/study/library/living room/guest bedroom. Our bedroom is beyond this room, and off of our bedroom is our EN SUITE BATHROOM, with a shower (with a water spigot AND shower head!) and a turkish toilet.  Our bathroom also serves as our kitchen sink/bathroom sink/laundry room.  It’s all multi-functional space! Oh, and it’s cushy! We commissioned a big metal kitchen table and a bench/couch/guest bed to complement the armoire, desk and side table that were here when we arrived.

Many of our fellow volunteers don’t have the luxury of running water, let alone a water spigot and shower head inside their house! And of course on the other end of the spectrum, there are certainly stage-mates of ours with more glamorous homes than us, but we can’t imagine feeling more comfortable.  We feel that our home accurately reflects a middle class home in Guinguinéo, which means we really are living at a level comparable to the people we will be working with.  It’s all good!

And on to the new addition to our family that Peter mentioned in his previous post…we brought home a kitten from the market! His name is Happy Cat, a tongue-in-cheek nod to Fritsche family jargon (for handicapped).  His front legs curl in at the wrist, in what appears to be a birth defect, so he walks on his wrists. He seems to be happy and healthy, but we’re trying not to get our hopes up too much this early on. He had horrible mango flies when we got him. Check out how swollen his toe was, and how big the hole from the fly was on his pinky toe in the photos below. What are mango flies, and how do they work, you ask? When the fur is wet, the mango fly lays eggs. The larvae that hatch burrow into the skin and feast on the flesh of the host until they grow and metamorphose into a fly and fly away, or until they are extracted by a human. Humans can and do get them too, especially from wearing wet clothing. Feel free to google for more info, but don’t do it while eating. Extracting the larvae was really unpleasant for all involved, but I’m sure our little guy feels a lot better now that he has fewer larvae feasting on his flesh.  Hopefully he’ll have a long and healthy life. Our Senegalese family doesn’t really touch him, but they love to talk about him and watch his silly antics.  They think he’s hilarious. He really likes to sleep in our shoes, which makes for great photo ops.

We’ve shared some about the Diop family before, but as a reminder, we live here with our Baay (our Dad), our Yaay (our Mom), 4 siblings (Oulimata, 9 f, Soda, 8 f, Falou, 5 m, and Papa Gorré, 3 m), our high school-aged male cousin Ndiaye, our 23 year old female cousin named Maimouna, and our paternal grandmother, Maam Yazin, lives with us part time.  It’s a small family for Senegalese standards, and very tight knit. Our family has hosted 3 Peace Corps volunteers before us, and they are extremely open and loving. Every day our Yaay says “Sama xol dafa sed!” It means literally, my heart is cold, and figuratively, I’m really happy. Everyone in our family cycles through our apartment throughout the day to chat and see what we’re up to, and our Yaay and Baay are always up for sitting and chatting with us.  Baay speaks fluent Wolof, French and English (to the detriment of our Wolof learning, but to the benefit of our immediate knowledge of him and the family) and while Yaay didn’t benefit from the same educational background (she speaks only Wolof), she is hilarious and witty, and a very strong woman. Our siblings provide constant entertainment (and noise). It’s a joy to be living amongst such an awesome family, and to be able to shut our door when we need some down time. We have the best of both worlds here.

We’re missing all of our family and friends today, on Christmas Eve, and wishing we could teleport to be with you for some holiday cheer! The Hammersley Christmas tradition includes opening all presents (except those from Santa, and stockings, of course) on Christmas Eve, while eating from a delicious spread of shrimp cocktail, filet, fresh-baked butter rolls, and an array of delicious cheeses and crackers.  It’s making me drool (and cry a little) to think about it now.

Today, Peter and I improvised, as we are wont to do these days, and opened our presents (sent, with love, from my parents) this morning, while eating homemade egg sandwiches with real mayonnaise and la vache qui rit cheese. A delicious treat!  This was all after sleeping in late, waking up slow, and chatting with our family while our father roasted coffee beans and I snuggled with my little sister Soda. It was a good alternative to Christmas in the U.S., although I would kill for some shrimp and filet… The most exciting part of our Christmas, though, is that we’re lucky enough to be able to see and speak with our families over Skype tonight. Having internet access (that is albeit expensive, and a bit unreliable) is a mixed blessing, but today we’re thrilled to have it.

Jamm rekk  and Merry Christmas,

Kait

p.s. Speaking of holidays, we went on a religious pilgrimage to Senegal’s most holy city with our father this past weekend. More on that in our next post!

We are ready to serve!

Well, again it has been too long since our last post, and I find myself cramming 10 kilos of events into a 5 kilo bag.  Our departure from CBT was drowning in tears, at least for our yaay, aunts, and sisters… and a little bit for Kait.  The stoic men remained unmoved.  I was unmoved largely because we were staring down a series of tests back in Thies that would determine if we were ready to head to our sites as scheduled.  Also because we would get another final goodbye with our baay and yaay at a party back in Thies that PC throws to thank the CBT families.  Only one family member gets to attend, but since we are two volunteers, both of our parents got to come. (add that to the ever-growing list of advantages of serving with one’s spouse)

The first, and most stressful, test was our final language proficiency interview (LPI).  We needed to achieve intermediate-mid in order to not get held back for a week of language intensive training.  For anyone interested in more details about how language levels are calculated/measured, check out this PDF (you can find INT/MID on page seven)

We had both exceeded the mark on a practice LPI, so we knew we could do it, but pre-test jitters (especially with our pride, and on-time installation at site hanging in the balance) were still very much present.  In our final LPI we faced a bit of a curveball when, after describing what we studied in college and did after college, we were asked a series of questions on that subject.  The LCF didn’t seem to have many questions to ask about my mathematical education, so she asked me about Americorps.  I was able to say things like, “It’s like Peace Corps, but in America, and only for one year,” and “I worked in a school for bad students to help them learn and find work.”  Unfortunately for Kait, the LCF chose to delve deeply into her art background, a subject which she has (understandably) no vocabulary for in Wolof.  One can only spend so much time saying, “I like art,” “I used to paint frequently,” and “I want to make art in Senegal.”  However, we got through them, and to save you from all of the suspense/stress that we had to deal with as we waited a couple days for any sort of feedback… we passed!  Huzzah!

Everyone had been cycled through their LPIs by lunch, and that was when all the CBT families arrived to partaaaaaay!  It was really good to see yaay and baay, as well as our littlest brother, Muhammed.  For the duration of the party, I knew him better as “my adorable little excuse not to get up and dance.” 

Ma ne, “Jox ma Muhammed ak feccal!” 

I said, “Give me Muhammed and dance!”

Presentation of Certificates, Baay making attaya, lunch time, and Muhammed and me not dancing

Our dance-happy mother was only too happy to go along with my plan.  At one point she basically threw him onto my lap to take last-second advantage of an opportunity to go to the front and dance.  I’m pretty sure for a split second he was neither in her hands nor mine, but actually in the air between us.  Luckily my hand-eye is pretty good.  Despite the numerous hand-offs, there was not a fumble to be had.  It was a great time, and certainly served its purpose, as a fun forum in which to thank the families for hosting us, and the LCFs for teaching us.  Everyone was presented with a certificate, which people here love!  I imagine when we go back to Tassette, we’ll find the certificate we gave them on the wall in the living room. 

Our CBT Group: Carlisle, Kait, Aly Dabo (the best LCF of them all), Me, and Denise

If the first farewell (mentioned above) was sodden, the final farewell, after the family party, was absolutely torrential.  I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen a grown woman cry as frantically as our yaay when they were made to get on the bus back to Tassette.  It’s indicative of how welcoming Senegalese (especially Senegalese mothers) are that within less than two months of caring for us, she was acting like her child was dying, not leaving for a bit.  

Snazzy new Senegalese clothes, the whole party, and the Thiaw Family Christmas card photo

They missed us so much that they called us the day after the family party, just to talk.  For those of you who have learned a language in the recent past, you will likely understand how this was a bit of a challenge.  It is much easier to understand someone in a new language, in-person.  It enables one to see body language, see facial expressions, look at their mouths as they speak, etc.  Over the phone, especially over a static-ridden cell network, it’s significantly harder.  For that reason, our conversation with them was pretty elementary.  Following you’ll find a translated excerpt from our conversation, translated into English (word-for-word) for your edification.  It might seem silly, but these types of greetings are what take up a huge portion of our days.  It seemed silly at first to us as well, but now it’s habit, and a great way of cultivating connectedness within the community, and expressing that every person has value…

Xadi (Yaay): Peace be upon you.

Us: Peace be upon you too.

Xadi: How is there?

Us: Here is good, but I miss Tassette.

Xadi: How are the people of Thies?

Us: They are here.  How are the people of Tassette?

Xadi: They are here.  You are in peace?

Us: We are in Peace.

Xadi: I miss you.

Us: We miss you more.  How is the family doing?

Xadi: They are here.

Us: How are the kids doing?

Xadi: They are here.  I miss you.

Us: We miss you more.

Xadi: How are you doing?

Us: We are here only.

Xadi: I miss you.

Us: We miss you more.  We will visit in February.

Xadi: I am giving the phone to Pape Fall.

Us: Until February!

This continued until the phone had been passed to at least six family members (including our six-year-old sister, Yasin) and then back to our yaay for a bit.  It was honestly a delight to hear from them, and even better to hear that they are all in peace, despite the trauma of losing two children. 

With the testing behind us, and the majority of us relieved to have successfully leapt through all of the hoops they threw at us and deemed "ready to serve," we set off for the beach at Popenguine, where we had rented three houses at which we would spend two nights, including Thanksgiving.  I must admit, what I’m most thankful for is an understanding readership that totally gets we’re trying to keep up with events as they happen, but are forgiving of the fact that we’ve blogged up to about November 27, and today is December 16.  I thank you in advance for your understanding.  More to come.

Jamm Rekk,

Peter and Kait

P.S.  SPOILER ALERT!!!  For those concerned with our up-to-date well-being, and super-curious for a current update, read on!  For those who want to delay gratification until our update is presented in the exciting full format, whatever you do… STOP SCROLLING NOW!

Current Brief Update:  Things are great.  We’ve installed in Guinguineo and are pretty well moved-in and feng shui-ed.  Our family is unquantifiably excellent in all ways.  Our Wolof is improving, slowly.  There has been a non-human addition to our family in Guinguineo, and another one is anticipated within a couple of weeks. (foooorshadowiiiiiiing!)  Hoping the cliffhangers get you to tune in next time!

The Home Stretch

It’s hard to believe, but we’re wrapping up our time in Tassette, our CBT site.  Right now, we're back in Thies for a 3-day workshop with our Senegalese Counterparts from our permanent sites.  Our counterparts will be the major part of our technical and project support system at our permanent sites, so this is an important opportunity for everyone to get on the same page in terms of project goals and execution, roles and responsibilities, cultural differences, and opportunities for collaboration. Our counterparts traveled to Thies from our future/their current respective home communities. For the folks coming from the far north and south, it can take 2 full days of travel just to get here. That’s dedication!

After the counterpart workshop, all of us PCTs get to spend a day in Dakar, getting familiar with the PC offices, policies, and procedures there, before coming back to our CBT sites for 3 days of language study before our final language assessment, on the 25^th.  Following our final language assessment, we’ll be rewarded with a 2-day stay at the beach! These will literally be our first days off since arriving in Senegal in September. Phew! We’re all feeling quite ready for a break. We’ll swear in as Peace Corps Volunteers on November 30^th, inshallah, and then move to our permanent sites shortly thereafter. There is light at the end of the tunnel!

Given that we are beginning to wrap up our CBT stay, I wanted to share a few reflections on our CBT experience with the Thiaw family in Tassette.

The Chameleon

Last weekend, I was studying under our family’s large shade tree inside our compound. It was a windy and pleasant afternoon, and I was enjoying the relative quiet as everyone rested after lunch. All of the sudden, my “Aunt” (she’s 23), who was sitting next to me started screaming. I don’t mean speaking loudly or yelling; I mean screaming out of pure terror. I expected to see a black mamba materializing out of the sand (those don’t exist here, to be clear) or a giant scorpion creeping toward me. Instead, I saw this…

By the time I spotted him, my Aunt and the rest of the family were clear across the compound screaming bloody murder and huddling together in fear. I laughed and scooped the chameleon onto a leaf. This elicited more screaming. I laughed some more. I tried to explain to my family that chameleons are our friends, and that they only eat bugs. “No, it will bite you!” my family said. I explained that they don’t have teeth; only a giant bug-catching tongue. Despite my attempts at quelling the hysteria, my Mom refused to let the chameleon go back into the tree.  “Take it away!” She demanded.

Our family was so terrified that it took me a few minutes to convince someone to get close enough to take my camera from me to photograph me with my new friend. Keep in mind my camera is pretty much the most exciting part of my being here to many in my family… We had been told that reptiles are reviled and feared in Senegal, but I was pretty shocked at how much terror and chaos a 4-inch chameleon could create.

Like a good daughter, I took the chameleon away, largely out of fear that someone would kill him as soon as I left the compound if I put him back in our tree. At this point, neighbors had begun to gather after hearing commotion, and it was their turn to scream. Chameleon in hand, and large group of child taunters (of both me and the reptile) in tow, we set out for the bush to find a new home for the little guy. I found what I deemed to be a perfect stand of trees and watched him get situated before heading home. By that point, the kids were more interested than scared, so it made for a fun conversation/activity together.

The kakatar (chameleon in Wolof) incident has been discussed daily since it occurred. Several times a day, a family member demands that I show a visitor the photos, and we go through the whole story again. My sisters’ boyfriend visited this past week and to give her a hard time, I showed him the photo and told him she ate it. Everyone was hysterical with laughter. I’m happy that the kakatar incident is now a source of laughter for us all, and that the terror has passed. I am hoping that maybe someone in my family believes my case that chameleons are not only harmless to humans, but also beneficial to have around, especially during the fly season!

Spring Has Sprung

Well, not really, but there are a lot of baby animals around!  Season-wise, we’re in/entering the harvest season/cool weather season, so there is food available for Mamas and babies, both domestic and wild. 

When we first arrived at our compound in Tassette, I admit I perceived it to be quite barren (it is all sand, after all).  However, after being here and observing for the past few weeks, I now recognize that there’s a lot going on. In our compound alone, we have four 3-week old ducklings, two 2-day old chicks, a chicken nest hidden away by the horse/bathroom area, a duck/chicken shared nest in the kitchen building, a weaver bird nest in the Neem tree above where we eat lunch, and a finch nest in a hole in the concrete wall surrounding our compound. We have a handful of baby goats, with one who is only 2 weeks old!  As mentioned above, we also have a healthy reptile presence. We have lots of lizards and geckos, in addition to the now-famous chameleon, and this morning I saw a baby skink running across the sand. Sadly, a chicken consumed him shortly thereafter, but he was there!  There are amphibian friends too; toads and frogs come out at night. Two nights ago, a frog jumped out of the shower drain (just an exposed plastic drain in a cement room) and nailed me in the leg while I was all lathered up and couldn’t see. I screamed, thinking it might be a rat, but once I rinsed out my eyes, I saw it was just a frog seeking out a wet place to hang out. After that, he stayed in the corner and watched me finish rinsing, like a good little frog.

At night, when the power is actually working, the light above our front door is the center of both the animal and human realm. We study and chat and eat by the light, and the bugs are likewise drawn to it. The bugs provide a buffet for the ducks and ducklings, toads, lizards and geckos, and bigger bugs. It’s quite the scene, and Peter and I often sit and narrate the lively goings on, chucking beetles to favored larger animals for a treat. Our family seems oblivious, and surely thinks we’re crazy for paying attention to such strange things. However, it’s great mindless entertainment after a long day of language learning, cultural immersion, and gardening work.

Lessons Learned/An Appropriate Simulation

A large part of our Pre-Service Training (PST) and Community Based Training (CBT) has been dedicated to technical training in our specific sectors (Agro Forestry for me and Urban Agriculture for Peter). Each CBT group (3-5 people) was responsible for creating and maintaining a large garden space for practicing these skills. We were given a clear outline of what we needed to accomplish/plant/maintain in the garden and when, and the Peace Corps technical team periodically visits to make sure we are on track.

This component of training has been particularly challenging, but in hindsight, it was probably a very realistic simulation of what we can expect in future projects. The original site selected for our garden was supposed to be weeded completely and enclosed by a fence when we arrived here in Tassette. It wasn’t, so we spent a couple of hours weeding it only to find a large trash heap and several old latrine tanks in the middle of the plot. Needless to say, a garden was not in the cards there. We searched within the school for another site, spent another hour weeding another area, only to find a building foundation and concrete rubble pile. At this point, we were supposed to have double-dug 3 1x3 m beds and 2 1x1 m beds and started a compost pile, and we hadn’t even found an appropriate site. The tech team was coming to evaluate our progress in 2 days…

The next morning, we came back to the school and weeded another section that had only a small rubble pile and a well cover in it. This was it; we had our garden site! We spent the morning weeding, consolidating the concrete rubble, and erecting our fence. Side note: at some point during our second day in the garden, a man arrived and sprayed herbicide all over the remaining plants in the school, in preparation for the start of classes.  We asked him what he had sprayed, and he said he didn’t know; a Spanish NGO had given it to him and told him it would get rid of the weeds…  

We managed to get the beds prepped and a giant compost pile made before the tech team came. The good news was they were impressed with our work. The bad news was that the space was too small; we’d have to expand the garden to include the giant rubble pile and building foundation and somehow incorporate a field crop demonstration into that area. Oh, and the crew of “youths” who were supposed to weed the garden space for us before our arrival at the school showed up with weeding tools in hand 1 week after we weeded, fenced, etc. It was hilarious, and frustrating.

We expanded the area the next week, dug the extra beds and made another compost pile. Since then, we have seeded, transplanted, mulched, chased children out of the garden routinely, watered religiously, weeded, thinned, and observed. We left CBT for 10 days for technical training in Thies, and our Volunteer Visits (VV) at our permanent sites. We were overjoyed when we returned to Tassette to find that our garden had actually been watered and the plants were alive despite the herbicide application. However, this was quickly overshadowed by the realization that our garden was FULL of pests- spider mites, white flies, leaf borers, mealy bugs, flea beetles, grasshoppers, aphids, caterpillars, rats, and even cats pooping in the beds!  One of the tech trainers pointed out that we planted our garden literally just as all of the other vegetation in the school was sprayed with herbicide, so all of the critters whose plant homes were dying moved into the garden. Bummer.

I feel a strong sense of accomplishment when I think about the evolution of our garden, and I’ll keep the lessons we have learned in mind as we begin projects at our permanent sites. It isn’t going to be easy! We should expect ambiguity and misinformation in many forms, communication challenges, physical limitations- especially in urban spaces, pest plagues, less than ideal soil, trash surprises galore- without a central waste management system, it’s everywhere! These challenges will all hopefully be balanced by enthusiastic and knowledgeable work partners at our permanent site.  Peter and I are looking forward to getting our hands dirty in Guinguineo, and I am hopeful that we are armed with realistic expectations.

In addition to our family, language learning, and technical training time, we have planned and executed parts of a simulation Participatory Analysis for Community Action (PACA) workshop and a [sparsely attended] malaria net care and repair workshop. A real PACA would span several days and would be focused on identifying current strengths and potential projects or areas for improvement within a community. Our PACA was a very abbreviated simulation, but it still took a lot of planning. Our days in Tassette have been packed! We’re grateful for the thoughtful planning of the PC training staff, as they have crammed in as much learning and practice as humanly possible during this time.  However, as our final language test approaches, we worry that these innumerable non-Wolof lessons, exercises, and assignments have taken a hefty bite out of our language learning time and energy. I trust in hindsight I’ll appreciate all the work and learning we’re putting in up front, but on a day-to-day basis, I often feel like I’m walking through (and thinking through) sand… metaphorically… and sometimes literally.  Except when I’m only metaphorically walking through sand, I don’t have to watch out for animal poop.

Tassette, Neex Na (Tassette, it is delicious)

Peter and I are both big fans of Tassette, our CBT site, and even bigger fans of our hosts, the Thiaw family.  The day we were dropped off in Tassette for the first time, we could not have guessed how much we’d come to love and appreciate it in such a short time. Yes, maybe I am romanticizing the whole thing a bit as it comes to a close, but this has been a wonderful place for us to practice with our training wheels, so to speak. It’s a small town of about 3,000 people, with a thriving weekly market, which I was told today serves 51 surrounding villages. I have no idea if this is accurate, but I can vouch for the fact that the market day is super busy here.

There’s a “garage” (a central place where cars congregate to attract passengers), several boutiques/general stores, 2 tiny hardware stores, several fabric shops (one of them being our Mom’s shop), a few “restaurants” (small rooms with a counter, serving 2 to 3 signature meals; we have not partaken, though), and we even have a fax/printing shop (my 23 year old aunt runs it).  Our family, who pretty relentlessly badgered us and criticized us for the first few days and was far from patient or helpful with our complete lack of language skills (we were later told this is their first time hosting foreigners, and they missed the “sensitizing” session where PC prepared them for what to expect and how to handle us…how convenient…), with some help from both positive and negative reinforcement from us, is, on the whole, very loving and patient with us and all of our known and unknown language and culture gaffs. We, too, try to be patient with them, especially regarding our major cultural differences surrounding time (what “now,” “right now,” and “later” mean, for example).

Our family is a hilarious mix of personalities, who all revolve around and generally gravitate toward our yaay, our mother, who is the largest and loudest family member. She is a magnetic and fun-loving person, with a great sense of humor and wit, a penchant for eating and drinking the finer things Senegal has to offer, and a knack for non-stop social and logistical choreography, all while running a household of 12, managing and running a fabric shop, and nursing a 2-month-old. No big deal! Our baay, our father, is equally as impressive, although he does not demand so much attention. He is good natured and funny, in a more subdued sense (he is not constantly yelling, and he speaks and laughs at what Americans would consider to be a “normal” level). He is obviously intelligent and is a hard worker. He helps the kids study every night and he loves to coddle Mohammed, their 2-month-old baby boy. We have come to love our siblings; even the 2 teenage girls, who pretty much laugh at us non-stop. I guess it’s a universal teenager thing. Our 6-year-old sister, Yazin, is our constant shadow when we are home, weaseling her way into/onto our laps whenever we are sitting. She wouldn’t look at us or talk to us for the first 5 days we were here, so we’ve come a long way!

We are very much looking forward to getting started on our projects and living with the Diop family in Géo, but we will really miss the Thiaws and Tassette!  We’re already looking forward to coming back to visit.

Finally, we got our new address in Guinguineo. I'm posting it below, but it's also on our "Contact Info and Visiting Senegal" page, with instructions for sending letters and packages.

        PCV Ndeye Penda and Idrissa Diop/Kaitlin Hammersley and Peter Fritsche

        B.P. 33

       Guinguinéo, Senegal

       West Africa

Jamm rekk (Peace only),

Kait

On Géo, Hammer Pants, and Yummy Pee

Hello All,

I’m writing this blog post from our bedroom in Tasette.  We’re back at our CBT site for our longest continuous stay yet, 17 days.  Pending my ability to figure out how to make our Orange internet key actually get us online, this post will likely be getting posted after we return to Thies, so please forgive us the delays.  

As Kait referenced in the previous post, the major update is that we’ve found out where we’ll be serving for our two years!  The way we were told is worth mentioning.  On the basketball court at the Thies Training Center (TTC), there is a large painted map of Senegal.  They assembled us all at the court for what was called “The Unveiling.”  We were all blindfolded and then, in-turn, taken by the hand and physically placed on the approximate location in which we would be serving, on the big map of Senegal.  After a painfully long countdown (filled with pregnant pauses and decreasing by half steps instead of integers to milk even more drama from the situation) we all removed our blindfolds simultaneously.  We opened our eyes to see both where we would be serving and who would be geographically near to us… and then who would be geographically far from us.  It was a really fun way to find out.  Everyone was so happy to finally find out where their next two years would be spent.  What a relief to us all.  Nobody seemed disappointed either.  Multiple long-time staffers told us that there are usually at least a few in each stage that are sobbing with disappointment.  One sign, among many, indicating how superb our stage is.  Fun fact: When referring to our “stage,” as in the group of people we are currently going through PST with, it is pronounced like the French (think staaaahj).  I assume it’s due to the immense French influence in Senegal.  It felt snooty and weird saying it that way at first, but now it’s the only way I say it.  Immersion can be a powerful behavior-modifier. 

Unveiling:  Please pardon the picture in the lower right, it was taken while blindfolded.

Anyway, when we removed our blindfolds, what we found is that we’ll be serving in Guinguineo, just northeast of Kaolack, one of the biggest cities in Senegal.  Feel free to Google/Wikipedia Guinguineo to supplement the very limited information you’ll receive on it until we install.  Just remember you can’t trust everything you read on the internet… except what you read on this blog, which is obviously beyond reproach.  

(See if you can find Guinguineo on the above map!)

I admit that one of the first things I thought was, “Great!  We’re relatively close to Dakar.  All those people who said they were going to visit are going to have a hard time coming up with excuses now!”  From the Dakar garage to Kaolack, it’s no more than a four-hour ride, and from Kaolack back north to Guinguineo only another hour.  That’s small potatoes compared to some of our friends down in Kolda who have a 14-hour drive to get from their garage to Dakar (or a bit less if they go through the Gambia).  So come on over!  If you care to read on, you may find further reasons to come visit, other than the obviously delightful company you would enjoy here.

Between the unveiling and now, we actually went to Géo (which is what hip young Senegalese call it) for a four day stay with our ancien (which is PCS speak for “the volunteer one will be replacing”) the virtues and successes of whom, Kait briefly extolled at the end of the last post.  It was a really fun, and really exciting visit.  It was pretty wild to finally start meeting the people we’ll be working/living with/alongside  for the next two years.  With only a couple limited exceptions, everyone seemed very nice and welcoming.  I believe we owe this largely to Caitlin’s efforts at integration.  The community truly loves her.  We’ll gladly take the “intimidatingly large shoes to fill” problem because it comes with a community that respects PCVs and the work that they do.  Technically I’m her replacement, but Kait will occasionally cram her metaphorically ample feet into the metaphorically large shoes alongside mine, so I think we’ll be okay.  We’re both really looking forward to picking up some of her projects where she left off, and putting our nose to the grindstone on some new ones as well.

Guinguineo is a small-medium town (less than 20,000 people including the surrounding tiny villages) with a lot going on.  There is a great daily market, where we’ll be spending a chunk of each day buying veggies (and the occasional beignet… these little fried dough balls are a breakfast staple)  and socializing with both merchants and other local shoppers.  There is a really big luuma, or weekly market, but we weren’t in Géo for it, so I can’t really address it, but I imagine it will be quite a scene, judging from how much of a scene the relatively smaller daily market is.  

Géo also has a lot of small businesses: tailors, carpenters, metal workers, cloth sellers, boutiques, food vendors, etc.  Kait and Caitlin were happy as pigs in poo going to all the cloth shops looking for the most beautiful wax (the incredibly colorful, richly patterned cotton fabric one almost certainly already associates with this part of the world).  I am a less enthusiastic shopper, but still had a good time, as I was chomping at the bit to get some snazzy pants made.  After the aesthetic decisions had been made by those equipped to make them (i.e. everyone but me) we took the fabric to one of Caitlin’s favorite tailors.  In addition to some smaller pieces of other fabrics, we got 12 meters of one particularly beautiful fabric.  From that 12 meters, Caitlin had a demi-bubu made, Kaitlin a wrap skirt, and me, a killer pair of chayas.  A wrap skirt is self-explanatory.  A demi-bubu is basically a billowy shirt with short sleeves and kind of open sides.  Chayas are herdsman pants.  The closest equivalent I can think of from American culture has to be Hammer Pants.  They’re like that, except waaaaaay cooler, both in terms of temperature and appearance.  We were planning to go to a photo shop to have the three of us matching immortalized for all time, but Caitlin’s bubu wasn’t ready before we had to head back to Thies.  There may yet be another chance to capture the beauty.  We shall see.

My chayas, our porch, taking a charet out to the master farm, and the master farm.

Another major life change that will take place when we move to Géo is that we’ll be living with a new family, who have already given us new names.  At CBT, I have been Pape Fall Thiaw, and Kait has been Xadi Ka.  At our permanent site Kait will be Ndeye Penda Diop and I will be Idrissa Diop.  I like my new name, as it makes me think of Idris Elba (aka the hottest man in the world, Kait and I agree).  Unfortunately, it also makes me think of Idi Amin, who I want to emulate significantly less than the former.  We are the turundo, or namesake, of a Senegalese power couple, the male part of which was a recent candidate for president.  I believe they are somewhat related to our future family, the Diops.  However, there are sooooo many Diops in this country, it’s hard to know for sure, especially with our language skills where they are.

Anyway, our new family is actually smaller than our relatively small, by Senegalese standards, CBT family.  It consists of our baay (dad), yaay (mom), maam (grandma), four kids Oulimata (girl, age 9), Soda (girl, age 8), Fallou (boy age 6) and Papa Gorré (boy age 3) and a couple of older cousins.  They seem like such a nice/welcoming/loving family, and Caitlin could not have given them higher praise.  They’ve been hosting PCVs for almost 10 years now, off and on, so they are fully aware of the drill.  One of the things I’m most excited about, is what our father, Pape Diop, does for work.  He runs a dibiterie, which is basically a Senegalese BBQ joint.  He is well known as having the best dibi around.  Everyday he slaughters and processes a ram (and now he’s getting into chicken dibi) to grill and sell.  He sits and grills in front of the house, which makes it a very social place to sit and pass the time.  I have yet to eat any, but I believe this spells disaster for any aspirations I had towards getting fit and trim during my service.  I’m excited that this means I might get to add Senegalese grilling/smoking skills to my burgeoning arsenal of American meat cooking skills.  I’m also tempted to have one of the metal workers in town weld up a rudimentary smoker so our baay and I can do some cultural exchange via meat.

The Diop Family (minus our Yaay and Maam)

This brings us to the much-anticipated topic of what our physical living situation will be…  We will be living is the Diop house, but our space is completely cut-off from theirs, and only accessible by separate outdoor door.  We have a screened-in porch (the only photo of our place I’m including on this post) which is super-great!  The screen will protect us from bugs, but it will not protect us from very energetic younger siblings, which only latched doors can dissuade.  The structure itself is cinderblock with cement floors.  We have two rooms: one for sitting, studying, cooking, (and having guests sleep over!... from America!) etc, and the other for sleeping.  Arguably most exciting of all is our en suite bathroom!  In it we have a Turkish toilet (a porcelain dish inlaid in the cement floor, with a hole in the middle; one squats over it and “goes”), shower (with elevated shower head, so no more bucket showers!) and robine (spigot).  Not having to go outside in the night to go pee or get water will do so very much to increase morale, I can’t even tell you.  We’re both very excited about our living situation.  We were prepared for a one-room hut with an outhouse and well.  Now we’ll be living in the lap of luxury compared to some of our peers.  Also, we will have [intermittent] electricity.  That’s pretty big too.  The one downside is that now our blog title is a bit misleading, as we’re living in a house and not a hut.  I hope that you, the reader, can see past our slight deception and continue to enjoy our posts.

In short, we’re enjoying CBT, and will really miss our Tassette family, but we’re really excited to get to Géo.

Since our last post, a couple of holidays have come and gone.  Thank you all for your birthday wishes!  It was great to get so many cards and internet messages.  We were in Thies for my birthday, and all the other trainees were super-nice to me as well.  They sang to me at dinner and bought me beverages to celebrate at the local watering hole at night.  Also behind us now is Halloween, which is a pretty fun holiday, so I sacrificed a couple hours sleep the night before in order to make a joint costume for Kait and me as Kait slept.  Probably around 12 people total dressed up, but it was still a blast.  Kait and I went as world-renowned fictional paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant and the T-Rex.  I made a cardboard velociraptor claw fossil for me as well as a cardboard box T-Rex-head hat and stuffed-sock tail for Kait.  We looked awesome!  There were no pictures taken on our camera (it doesn’t have a flash and thia all happened at night), so you’ll have to wait, with bated breath, for us the get the pics from a friend’s camera before we post them.  It was really funny trying to explain to the LCFs, in broken wolof what we were dressed as.  Most of them, from their having worked with Americans extensively before, were at least acquainted with Halloween, but they still laughed a lot at our costumes.

For Halloween, a bunch of people slaughtered and grilled chickens on spits.  It was really delicious!  We also all went (some of us in costume) to the favored watering hole, near to the training center to celebrate the holiday.  I wonder what the locals who didn’t know of Halloween thought of my lumbering, roaring dino-wife.  I imagine it will haunt their dreams for a while.  Almost as much as their dreams will be haunted by my explanation of how velociraptors hunt in packs, attack from the sides, and begin to eat their prey before it’s dead.  The little kids shouldn’t have told me the skeleton looked like a turkey. (Apologies to those who don’t like JP as much as I and may not understand the last few sentences.)  We also had a big bonfire at the center upon our return from the bar.  All in all, it was a festive and fun night!

I would like to conclude with what I hope will be a recurring segment in our blog… 

Misadventures in Language Learning!

When we came back to our CBT site from Thies, after VV, we were really excited to see our family.  We had missed them a lot.  We were telling them about how we were going to live in Géo for two years and talking about what we had done in the ten days we had been absent from Tassette.  One of the things we did in Kaolack, the regional capital that Géo is outside of, is eat some really delicious yoghurt, called soow.  To grossly oversimplify, it’s basically milk that is left unrefrigerated overnight, and then sweetened a bit, and sold in bags, that you just suck the yummy goodness out of.  What Kait wanted to say was… Ci Kaolack ak Guinguineo, am na soow bu neex! Which translates to “in Kaolack and Géo, there is delicious yoghurt.”  What Kait said, or at least what our family heard (due in part to us having nasally pronunciation, which we are reminded of daily by our loving family) was… Ci Kaolack ak Guinguineo, am na saw bu neex!  Which translates to “in Kaolack and Géo, there is delicious urine.”  Much hilarity ensued.  Luckily, we’re pretty good at getting laughed at at this point.  Eventually we figured out what the miscommunication had been, and corrected it.  We’re constantly learning.

Fun Phrases for Daily Needs!

Maangiy bëgg a tuur ndox.

Literally: I want to pour water.

Figuratively:  I have to go pee.

Maangiy bëgg a tuur dugub.

Literally: I want to pour millet.

Figuratively: I have to go poop.

Danga saaf loxo.

Literally: Your hand is spicy.

Figuratively: You are a good cook.

Love you all!  Miss you all!