I Have FINALLY Started a Blog!!!!!

So I have finally started my blog..I know it has only taken me 4 months to do so. And now that I have I don’t even know where to begin…so much has happened these last few months. First just let me say that I am really loving my time here in Senegal..I have already had so many amazing experiences and have made so many new friends!

I left Washington D.C on March 8^th and boarded a plane with 47 other eager volunteers ready to embark on a rollercoaster adventure!! After a 7 ½ hour plane ride and a 2hour bus ride into the city of Thies we had finally arrived at the Training center to begin our 2 months of Pre-Service Training. The training center reminded me of when I use to go off to summer camp..it was like a little camp ground, the rooms had bunk beds (I shared a room with 4 other girls), it had a dining hall where we ate our dinners, an outside volleyball court, and an outdoor hangout are (a.k.a the Disco Hut) where we spent the majority our time at night skyping friends and family, using the internet, playing card games, having jam sessions with our own personal volunteer band (Patrick, Ian and Costa-they are amazing) and having Karaoke nights!

Our first couple of days was spent confined to the Training Center which became like our Little America. We spent most of our time in informational sessions about the logistics of Pre-Service Training and the rules and regulations of Peace Corps. The first day we arrived we had a technical interview so Peace Corps could see just how much knowledge we had as well as to get a feel of our personalities to help them decide what region of Senegal would be best suited for us (this would also determine what local language we would learn). Two days later they told us what language we would be learning and where our Pre-Service sites would be but they never told us what region we would be placed in after Pre-Service Training (they kept that very secretive). I was chosen to learn Wolof which is the majority local language here in Senegal (probably because my French is so terrible that if I learned a minority language I wouldn’t be able to fall back and rely on French to get me by but hopefully that will change here soon for once I have mastered Wolof I plan on mastering my French)! French is the official language here used by those who have been educated but Wolof is the dominant local language followed by variations of Pulaar and minority languages such as Jaxanke, Mandinka and Serere.  We also were introduced to our Language Cultural Facilitators who lived in our home stay villages and taught us the local language as well as Senegalese culture. My LCF was Aly Dabo...and he ROCKED!!! Thank you Aly for all your help!!!

For my Pre-Service Training I stayed in a small little road town about 20k outside of Thies called Bayakh along with 5 other volunteers and our amazing LCFS.  We each had our own Senegalese host family that we stayed with for the 2 months of Pre-Service Training to help us better integrate into Senegalese culture as well as force us to learn the local language. I had an interesting host family to say the least. My Mom named Mbatchio was only 25 years old and absolutely CRAZY! Her husband who she hasn’t seen in over 5 years lives in Italy where he works and just sends money home to help care for Mbatchio. Mbatchio also has no children of her own..It’s really kind of a sad story.  However in her home she does have her husband’s brother who lives with her named Mbackee Saar (my older brother). I had lots of fun playing soccer with him and I think he was blown away that I (a girl) could keep up with him! Also in my house was the most precious little girl named Fatou! Mbathcio was looking after Fatou while she attended school for her mom lived another village. She was the sweetest littles thing ever..I wantedsteal her and take her back to America

FATOU!!!!

We spent most of our days in Bayakh  going to class with our LCF'S learning the language and culture and then also going to the local school where we planted a garden and painted some informational murals on the school buildings Pre-Service Training was crazy busy..We were busy going back and forth between the training center and our home stays, there was just so much to learn and so little time!

Our beautiful mural telling kids to wash their hands!

And me watering our lovely little garden at the school!

Towards the end of PST we had at the training center the unveiling of our Permanent work sites (where we would be living for the next2 years of Service). It was quite the spectacle..They blindfolded all of us and led us out to the basketball court in the training center where they had the map of Senegal painted with all the different regions and placed each volunteer in the region where we would be working. The local T.V station even came to video tape the unveiling. I learned that I would be heading into the heart of the Djolof..The Linguere region of Senegal along with 5 other new volunteers. The only thing I knew about my region was that it was one of the hottest places in Senegal and it was where things go to die(pretty much I was going to be living in the middle of nowhere..aka the desert). Let’s just say  I wasn’t exactly  thrilled with the idea of living in the Linguere region mainly because I knew I wasn’t near any beach or any kind of water source for that matter, nor would I be in some kind of tropical rainforest where I could see monkeys, hippos, warthogs or lions (unlike the Kedagou region of Senegal).

Once we found out where we would be spending our service we set out on Volunteer Visits where we stayed with current volunteers who lived in the regions that we would soon be living in. Me and Fae; who is my closest neighbor ,went and stayed with a current volunteer named Justin who’s village of Yang Yang is 20k away from mine and only 10k away from Fae’s village. I’ll give you a little overview of our first experience in the heart of the Djolof:

• Our first day in Justin’s village, we met a Mauritanian with his herd of camels and somehow Justin was able to convince the Mauritanian to let me and Fae ride one of his camels..CRAZY (That’s when I realized “Yeah Im in Africa!)
  
  
  

  

• I also was able to somehow drop my phone down the Latrine when I was trying to go to the bathroom at night..Never use your Phone as a Flashlight when trying to go to the bathroom at night (This is one lesson I will always remember for the rest of my time here in Senegal). Luckily for me Justin is one hell of guy and was able to retrieve my phone from the latrine (Trust me you don’t want to know how)! Let’s Just say I hand sanitized, bleached and hibi cleansed the crap out of it!!
  
  

  

  
  

• On our visit Justin took us to visit each of our villages via bike. We visited my village Mboula which is a 20k bike ride from Yang Yang (Justin’s village) and it was one of the worst bike rides ever..the road is comprised of gravel, sand, lots of bumps and a ridiculous amount of little thorns (little pricky thorns)! While visiting my village I got to meet my new Family and also learned my new name for the next 2 years..I am now Fatou Ndao. I also met with my counterparts who would be helping me with my work..Doctor Diallo who works at the health post and Abdou Mbengue, the director of the local primary school. After spending the day in Mboula and eating the 2 lunches my new family prepared us (very hospitable) we set off again on our 20k bike trip back to Yang Yang where I then managed to get a flat tire (Thank you little pricky thorns). The next day we biked to Fae’s village called Mbeuleukhe which is a little closer..only 10k. So for our volunteer visit we biked a total of 60k in 2 days (I think Justin was trying to kill us).
  

  

  
  
• At the end of our Volunteer Visit..we traveled to our regional house located in Linguere which is about 80k away from my village. This is the day that I learned just how bad traveling here in Senegal is. First we had to catch a bush taxi out of Justin’s village at 6am. The bush taxi that morning just so happened to be filled with sacks of rice so we had to climb up on top of the sacks of rice to sit. Then we traveled throughout the bush to remote Pulaar villages picking up as many people as we could fit. I literally had about 3 Pulaar men sitting on top of me.. we had to have had  at least 40 people and a few goats here and there on the back of the bush taxi. We got dropped off in Dahra which is the closest road town and headed to the garage to try and get a car to Linguere. It was just not our day..Justin ended up getting into a huge fight with the garage people who were trying to charge us extra for a baggage’s so we then proceeded to try and hitch hike for an hour with no success when the same car we were going to take drove past us and decided to let us on without charging us for our luggage! After a long long morning we arrived at our little regional house in Linguere where we met up with the other volunteers from our group and finally met our new family of current volunteers serving in the region. Our regional house is a little apartment where volunteers can come and escape from village life whenever they feel they need a break and also get some work done since we have internet at the house. This is also where we hold our regional meetings. The best part about our regional house are our house dogs..Helen Keller and Sparky!!!

Our regional house in Linguere

 

Sparky



Helen Keller

After our volunteer visit, PST flew by!! We had our counterpart workshop where our counterparts from our villages came to Thies for a 2 day workshop about our roles in the villages. Then we had a weekend off that we spent in Popengiune on the coast and rented a house on the beach for the night. It was soo beautiful that we almost forgot  we were in Africa! After that we spent our last week in our homestays and held a beautiful reception for our home stay families at the training center and said our goodbyes.

At the host family reception

My first birthday in Senegal!

Then the very next day we were being driven to Dakar to the Ambassadors house to swear in as Peace Corps Volunteers. It was a beautiful ceremony..the Ambassadors house was like a mansion (not a bad career to pursue if they all live like that). It was so lovely, all us new trainees were dressed  up in traditional Senegalese clothing and Chris Headrick (our country director) , Etienne Senghor (our Training Manager) and the Ambassador all gave beautiful speeches. We also had one trainee from each language group give a speech in the local language. Then we took our oaths and officially became Peace Corps Volunteers!! Then we headed straight out back to indulge in som

e delicious cocktail foods including mini tea sandwiches, quiches, meat kabobs, fatatas and some amazing chocolate drizzled cream puffs!!

Fae and me at Swear In

The next day we had to pack up all of our stuff from the training center and say all our goodbyes to one another for we were off to start our incredible journey as a Peace Corps Volunteer!!

At swear in