Saturday, October 18, 2008

Ok then..

So lets have some encouragement here. i know people are reading this because they tell me when i get the rqre chqnce to talk to them. how about some comments? questions? words of encouragement? Adjusting to a new life can be stressful, yaknow. this week I spent in Pout and the honeymoon stage of "sleeping in a sauna is cool" "the lack of privacy makes me feel loved," and "who needs a desk to study, a table to eat off of, and a toilet to sit on," and "yay for cockroaches running out of my clean clothes pile and medicine box" is running out. Im feeling a bit of stress from my life here and the one at home. Sooooooo hit me up!
Ok i still like it here. i am super excited to actually get settled into my own place and my own village and start living. i would love nothing more right now than to unpack my suitcase. Oh, and i would LOVE a chocolate covered strawberry wafflebowl sundae from DQ. i think I mention it once a day. And breakfast at the Blue Sky Cafe... AAHH! i forgot what its like to have a kitchen table, a desk to study on, a toilet to sit on, and oh, clothes that go on a body that is clean; and not so sticky.
i am excited to have my own hole in the ground and my own hut! i have never really had my own place. That is still a few weeks away though.
Hey, anyone want my address in Kedougou? any sort of food thing the doesnt spoil or melt will be amazing. other things would be nice too. i dont have a list on me. hmmm. be creative. anyway my address is
Sheila McAtee PCV
BP 37
Kedougou, Senegal

easy, no?
thats all for now. nothing really new except for.... lots of language and agroforestry learning. Oh and I have an African cookie run here. hydriginated oils have not left my life; they have become my therapy. yay for Biscreme and Tutki! and nescafe and chocolate with powdered milk in the morning. mmmmmmm.

ok, bye bye

if you made it to the end of this that means maybe you want to see some pics. i have a few... they took forever to get here. here is the link
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040624&l=456bc&id=72202129
enjoy!

Friday, October 10, 2008

Kedougou is my new home and my new favorite place in the world!

hello out there! it's been several days since i'vr written and once again way too much has happened for me to explain it all! oh well, i guess i can stick to the good stuff. first of all, how about some accurate information? i am in the Kedougou area of Senegal. there are several volunteers in this area, either in Kedougou or in surrounding villages. The village that I will be living in is called Thiabedji, pronounced thai (like the food) -bed-jee. this week i spent a week shadowing a volunteer who lives in a village similar to the once i will be in. i got to see how he lives and what life is like as a volunteer, so i finally have a realistic image of how life will be for the next two years. I must say I am more than a bit excited! i absoutely love everything about my area, and the people seem great!
so a bit about what we did. well, it turns out that Kedougou is about 450 miles from the training center in thies, the farthest distqnce from any other sites in the country. we ended up driving 11 hours in an official PC range rover to get there. it was honestly one of the scariest things i have ever done in my life. the roads for the majority of the time were littered with potholes of all different shapes and sizes, not to mention that senegalese drivers have different ideas of speed limits, and no desire to stay in their own lanes. the speed on the horrid highway ranges from 6mph? which would be a trotting horse carraige, to 65mph by the brave drivers. everyone is always passing everyone, and the road is littered with people walking, biking, and seling things. livestock here also roams free and have no fences, so we experienced a lot of cows, horses, donkeys and goats in the road, crossing or just chillin. as we approached Kedougou, however, the animals in the road changed drom live stock to wildlife, like lqrge troops of red baboons and troops of small tqnish minkeys. Once we even saw a warthog crossing the road!
shadowing an actual volunteer was great. i got to learn about daily life. ill write more about that when i am settling in. what i want to talk about was our trip to the 'mst beautiful waterfall in the country,' designated by the current volunteers here. about 10 people took 10 bikes with camping gear about 10km to get to the waterfall. we crossed a huge river with help from locals with canoes. on the rides we rode on thin paths often overgrown with grass 8 ft tall (it is the rainy season right now). we crossed a lot of streams as well and often had to dismount to walk through deep mud. it was an amazng bikeride. i cant even explain how great it was. it would be even harder to explain the awesomeness of the waterfall. picture the most beautiful 80 ft waterfall you can picture in yur head. this one is better. haha... i will post pics eventually. the great thing about the waterfall is that nobody goes there... ever. the senegalese just arent really into nature adventures. so we had it all to ourselves. there were three pools below the falls that were perfect for swiming. the water was greenish blue and crystal clear. the water was the most refreshing thing i have felt since being here; it actually made me feel cleaner and fresher than any shower i have taken here. imagine how nice it was to jump in aftre a long, sweaty, muddy bikeride. it was amazing. several of us found our way to the top of the falls and enjoyed an amazing view. we ate, talked, sat around the fire, and just generally enjoyed our time in this amazing place. then the next day we biked back and i found myself largly exhausted... bleh. i kinda just layed around for the rest of the day.

the ride back the thies was just as scary; but we made it! and now here i am with occasional internet again, momentarily, at least.

still havent gotten sick, knock on wood.

thats all i got for now. ill write again soon

Thursday, October 2, 2008

still learning

So I just got back to the training center after spending 9 days with my host family, and day after day i learned more pula futa. i feel as if the learning process is going slow but if i look at where i was two weeks ago, i have learned a ton! im starting to hear the language better, which is good. yesterday was the fete of Kordite. that is the second biggest holiday in muslim culture. wikipedia it if u dont know what it is. i dont have time to explain. everyone dresses nice for it so now i have a fancy hand tailored african outfit. i would post pics but i kinda need a laptop for that and i am lacking. it sucks having hundreds of pics and not being ablt to do anything with them. sorry about my poor grammar and spelling. i feel rushed in this internet cafe and still dont know the keyboard that well. i got my hair braided for Kordite. you know, small braids all over. the situation in which was braided is funny. my host mom sells watermelons by the side of the main road in my village. there are rows of women with stands full of fruit that sell to passer byers. a car stops and the women run towards it and try to sell their fruit. it is interesting to see from afar; but because my host mom works there i get to be part of it. i went to visit her at lunch a couple days ago and was introduced to all the women. they are amazing and very funny. they adopted me and sat me down and started braiding. when not running up to cars they sit in a circle on buckets and broken chairs and barvard like enthusiastic housewives. they speak wolof so i had no idea what they said about me. a few spoke french. i sat for 2 hours under a tree watching the women run up to cars while getting braided. sometimes the woman braiding me left to chase cars as well. once all the women jumped up at once and someone threw a baby in my lap and ran towards a car. needless to say, i got to bond with a baby for a few mnutes and ive never held a baby before. i got a proper introducton later. i got pooped on by birds about 10 times while getting braided. the tree i was sitting under was inhabited by about 100 birds with nests. eew.

today i found out where i wil be living for two years. too bad i forgot the paper, cuz i forgot the name of the city. it is a small village about 15 miles from internet/electricity. i will have to bike to the city because there is no transportation. the population of my village is 1000. i will live in my own hut. i will be in the far south east of the country; the only place with mountains. i read that it also has the most wildlife. hippos, crocs, lions, panthers, chimps, baboons, birds, etc. cool, huh? im excited about the 15 mile bikeride, it sounds fun and the guy said it was pretty safe. tomorrow we are driving 400 miles to follow a volunteer for 5 days, to get a taste of the area. i will let you now how it is after that. wish me luck! Oh and the city i will be biking to is cqlled Koboudou or something similar if u want to look it up. Kodougol maybe? i am bad with names. ok bye bye