Hello all! I apologize for the long absence in the blogging
world; we are indeed alive and happy.
The power in Thies has been so intermittent over the last month that the
internet has not worked when we’ve been back at the center, and we don’t have
internet at our CBT site. The below post was completed on Oct 21…
Since we last posted, we found out we will be learning Wolof
as our primary language, which is convenient given it is the lingua franca of
much of Senegal. It’s not as “cool” or “exciting” as some of the more unique
tonal languages some of the PCTs are learning, but it will be very practical
for traveling around Senegal and interacting with people across ethnic groups.
It’s been both fun and challenging, and we’re making big progress!
We have spent the past 2+ weeks in Tassette, our CBT site,
with our CBT host family. We did
an initial 5 days stint, returned to the Center in Thies for 3 days of tech,
culture, and language training, then went back to Tassette for 10 days. We
arrived back at the center this morning, and have been swapping stories in
between sessions all day, and enjoying the relative calm and predictability of
this space and the people it contains.
[Preparing for CBT departure]
As referenced in the title, we’ve had some big changes over
the past 4 weeks. Here’s a brief rundown…
Family: Our host family in Tassette is awesome! We get along well with our parents; our
Yaay/Mom is loud, large, and in charge and our Baay/Dad is more reserved, but
funny and warm. They have 6 children, ranging in age from 18 years to 2 months
old. Our Baay’s Mother (Maam), his younger brother and his wife, and our Yaay’s
little sister also live with us in our compound. It’s a pretty small and manageable family for Senegalese
standards.
[CBT family]
Language: Nobody in our family speaks English, so other than
very very minimal and occasional broken French, we really can only communicate
with our family in Wolof.
Names: My new Senegalese name is Xady (pronounced Haadiy)
and Peter’s is Pape (pronounced Pop).
We will get new Senegalese names at our permanent site, so we’re trying
not to get too attached to these ones…
Routine: During our first week at the Center, we heard a lot
about how much down time we’d have during CBT. Not true! We have been splitting
our time between Wolof learning with our fearless LCF, Aly Dabo, and creating a
garden at Tassette’s primary school to practice our technical skills. It’s been
a demanding and draining schedule, but we are starting to see the fruits of our
labors, both literally in our garden, and figuratively with our language
learning.
[CBT family]
Tabaski: We were lucky (or unlucky) enough to be with our
family for Tabaski, one of Senegal’s biggest religious holidays. I say lucky, because
it was fun and festive, and delicious, for the first 2 days. I say unlucky,
because after day 2, the unrefrigerated ram meat was not very delicious. Our
family continued to eat Tabaski meat for 5 days. It was a challenge, to say the
least… Getting sleep was also a challenge. There were community concerts
lasting until 2-4 AM each night, and our family didn’t really sleep, and that
got old. Overall, though, it was a cool experience. Below is the Peace Corps
Senegal safety and security Tabaski description, for more info on the holiday.
[Tabaski morning]
The public holiday is also known as Tabaski or Eid Al
Adha (Eid El kebir) when families throughout the Senegal slaughter
mostly sheep in ritual sacrifice. The occasion of Tabaski is in commemoration
of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his own son, Ismail, in the name of
Allah. It coincides with the end of the annual Hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca. On
the morning of Tabaski on October 15 or 16, 2013, worshipers will attend prayer
at their local mosque before returning home to begin festivities.
Every adult or head of household is expected to buy a sheep or other suitable animal such as a cow, goat or even chicken if they can. When sacrificing the animal a sharp knife should be used and Allah's name is spoken. After the animal is slaughtered large portions of the meat should be given to the needy so that nobody misses out on the celebrations to follow. The rest of the meat is given as gifts to friends and relatives and the rest is reserved for the family. Indeed, the idea of sharing (about 2/3 of the animal) is the essence of feast.
What follows is essentially one nationwide massive barbecue and celebrations throughout the day. Senegalese should wear their finest clothes and if possible brand new. You are also expected to do a thorough spring clean throughout your compound. You are expected sometime during the day to visit your parents, other family members, neighbors and friends.
On Tabaski day one will often see Senegalese kids asking for pocket money from family and neighbors. They use the money to buy ice cream and other goodies. At this time most Regional capitals and large towns are jam packed full of kids crowding streets, shops and boutiques or even knocking on your compound door. They are also allowed out late by many parents as long as they are accompanied by an older child.
Every adult or head of household is expected to buy a sheep or other suitable animal such as a cow, goat or even chicken if they can. When sacrificing the animal a sharp knife should be used and Allah's name is spoken. After the animal is slaughtered large portions of the meat should be given to the needy so that nobody misses out on the celebrations to follow. The rest of the meat is given as gifts to friends and relatives and the rest is reserved for the family. Indeed, the idea of sharing (about 2/3 of the animal) is the essence of feast.
What follows is essentially one nationwide massive barbecue and celebrations throughout the day. Senegalese should wear their finest clothes and if possible brand new. You are also expected to do a thorough spring clean throughout your compound. You are expected sometime during the day to visit your parents, other family members, neighbors and friends.
On Tabaski day one will often see Senegalese kids asking for pocket money from family and neighbors. They use the money to buy ice cream and other goodies. At this time most Regional capitals and large towns are jam packed full of kids crowding streets, shops and boutiques or even knocking on your compound door. They are also allowed out late by many parents as long as they are accompanied by an older child.
[Tabaski afternoon/night]
Greetings: Greeting people- friends, family, neighbors,
strangers- is at the heart of Senegalese culture. It is one of, if not the
most, important factor/practice for integration into a community. We have been
practicing our greetings with seemingly everyone we encounter. Here is an
example of a brief greeting
conversation:
A:
Asalaam malekum. (Peace be with you.)
B:
Malekum Salaam. (Peace be with you, too.)
A:
Nanga def? (How are you?)
B:
Maangiy fi rekk. (I am fine; I’m here.)
A:
Naka waa ker ga? (How is the family?)
B:
Nunga fa. (They are fine.)
A:
Nanga fanaane? (How did you spend the night?)
B:
Jamm rekk. (In peace only.)
A:
Ba ci kanam. (See you later.)
B:
Waaw, ba ci kanam. (Yes, I’ll see you later.)
Food: We are
eating on our family’s schedule at CBT, which has been challenging. We eat half
a machine-made baguette for breakfast, with spiced coffee, around 7:30 or 8 AM
(if our family has it together enough to have breakfast ready before we go to
the garden). For lunch, around 2 or 3 PM, we eat a large lunch usually
consisting of rice and fish, with some veggies (its called ceeb u jen and is
the national dish of Senegal). We eat a small dinner around 8 PM, usually
consisting of rice and beans, with fish bits throughout for flavoring.
Thankfully, we brought snacks from the States for the giant food-less chunk of
time between 8AM and 2PM! We will be able to create our own food schedule once
we get to our permanent site, so we are trying to be patient.
Hair: Peter and I both got our hair done for Tabaski! The consensus among the 2 of us is that
our foreheads never looked bigger… Our Uncle brought Peter to the barber
in the market; he got his hair shaved short and beard dry shaved. The barber
kindly shaped his hairline with his razor and left him with a slick pencil-thin
moustache. It was hilarious, and Peter decided he just couldn’t rock the
pencil-thin and shaved it right away. My neighbor (who loves to peek in our
window and greet us in our bedroom; slightly creepy) braided my hair in a sort
of swirled cornrow pattern, and left my ponytail unbraided so I had a beautiful
genie-poof thingy. It was SO painful, both during and after the braiding
endeavor, so I took the braids out after 24 hours, much to everyone’s chagrin.
Hands: Right hands are used for eating and greeting, and
left hands are used for wiping (with the aid of water) and nose picking. We have almost wholly abandoned spoons
and are eating most meals with our right hand. It’s a bit messy, but we’re
getting the hang of it. We have completely converted to the water wiping
method, for those of you waiting in suspense to hear about this aspect of our
lives. We’re embracing these new uses for our hands, and chuckling often.
[Class and gardening time]
Hygeine: We “shower” at least once or twice a day here in
Senegal! Hygeine and appearance are hugely important in this culture; I have
never showered so much! Granted, it’s hot and dusty so we get dirty really
quickly, but it’s a nice routine. To clarify, by shower, I mean using a bucket and a cup to dump water on oneself.
And the biggest change of all: we found out our permanent
sites today! We will be replacing an amazing volunteer named Caitlin, who happens
to also be from Florida, in a town called Guinguineo. "Geo," as it is referred to by many, is about 20-30 km northeast of a larger city named Kaolack. She is
the first volunteer we met when we got off the plane, and she served as a guest
trainer and general advisor for our stage for our first week at the training
center. We were very impressed by
her poise, knowledge, and all-around good vibe and are honored and a bit
nervous to be her replacements. At our permanent site, where we will “install”
in December after swearing in, inshallah, we will be living with the family she
has lived with for the past 2+ years. Peter will technically be taking over her
projects. I will be focusing on agroforestry work, but Peter and I will likely overlap a lot. We'll both also be working with a Master Farm about 6 km away, in the bush. We will visit Caitlin at our site to meet our host
family, work counterparts, and to get the feel of our permanent site this week.
Wish us luck!
In the mean time, you can watch this video for a glimpse of
how the master farmer program works here in Peace Corps Senegal:
