14 Days and I'm walking on the other side of the line.

There is a line you know, in life, and being only one person, you have to stand on either one side of it or the other. Here in Africa you can be on one side, watching Africa pass you by, as I have been doing these past two months in training, or you can be one of those that stand on the side of the road; watching the other world pass you by. I finally felt like i crossed that line a couple of days ago in my village. I was standing amongst about 20 kids by the water pump, waiting my turn to get water, and turned to watch 6 motorcycles pass us by. They werent the scraggly motos that the locals ride. These were expensive dirt bikes and the riders were pimped up in expensive, colorful gear. I think they were European. Rich, according to my sister, who was standing beside me. All the kids screamed with excitment and waved as the cyclists passed by. The riders waved back. The last one had a video camera and was taking a video of africa going by at 50 miles per hour. I did not wave. Instead i saw a mirror image of myself in these riders. I looked back and remembered my countless rides in Peace Corps cars, riding "in style" from place to place, watching thousands of kids go by, all waving and shouting at us. Is that really Africa, seeing kids wave while flying by? Now that I stand amongst them i realize the answer is no. I now live in a village that any western traveler would just pass by. Actually, I am in a village that westerners probably would never really pass by. I realize how lucky I am to be here and to be a Peace Corps volunteer. I get to experience what most people in my culture could only dream of.

Hehe, how is that for a sappy intro? Its true though, I do feel very lucky to be here and very excited to become a part of my community here in Thiabedji. It still seems, sometimes, that everything i see comes straight from a postcard. In my first two weeks in my village I have had far too mant wonderful experiences to share. Everything is new and everything is a process of adjusting. Overall, it is all going well. I wish I had pics to give but i still dont have a camera. I have one on the way thuogh, thanks Mom and Caitlin!

I'll start with my chair experience. It happened the day after i wrote the last blog, so a while ago, but it is still worth writing about! Anyway, i really wanted a chair for my hut and i heard that there are no furniture makers in my village. Well on my way back to my village i stopped at Bandafasi, a village about 20 kilometers from mine, where another volunteer lives. I inquired there about a chair. I was picturing in my head one of those small stools because i thought it would fit nicely on my bike. Low and behold I was brought to a full sized, hand woven bamboo chair. It was big. I mean huge! i will take a picture eventually. I kinda laughed when i saw it and told them where i lived. He said that it was no problem, that he could put it on my bike without problem. I laughed again. There was no way! I asked, out of curiosity, how much the chair costed. He said it costed 3,000cfa. In case you didnt know, that is the equivalent of 6 american dollars. In a city you can get a banana split for that price, or a cheap shirt made in china. I could not say no to this chair. I told Boubacar, the man who said he could tie it on, that if he could get that chair on my bike, i would buy it. Low and behold, 10 minutes later i was on the road with my bike and a massive chair strapped on the back. I couldnt stop laughing. Really. It was hillarious to me. I guess im still getting used to the culture here, because no one else gave any sort of reaction.

So, 10 days in my village.... what did I do. People say that the pace of life really slows down when you get to your village. I can see this as being true, but also, i think that you can chose how to spend your days. I have had a few slow days but usually i keep myself pretty busy. Maybe its because everything i do is new and exciting still. I have spent a lot of time with my sister learning to cook the local dishes. There are about 4 meals here... and we just switch them off. The main ingredients of everything at my village is corn and peanuts. Man you can do a lot with corn and peanuts! The food is actually very good. I used to think it was rather bland but after seeing what goes into making it, i appreciate the taste a LOT more. We also eat a lot of leaves, crushed to a powder for flavor of boiled in a sauce. Bantara leaves, Nebadie, Baobab leaves, and squash leaves. There is salt, jumbo (a local spice thing.. like bullion), and the only veggies ive seen are tomatoes and ocra and squash and a local eggplant. Yay for food!
There is bread in the village. My familt doesnt eat it, i think its too expensive. I buy it for breakfast sometimes.
I have been getting to know quite a few people. I went to the school and introduced myself to all the students and teachers. I talk to the teachers quite a bit because they speak French. I greet all the kids in the village when I see them, and they greet me as well. They often stop by my house just to sit and stare at me. I try to talk to them and usually fail, but sometimes they understand me. ha! Ive also circled the village several times greeting people, introducing myself and telling them why I am here. I dont know if I have said to you guys what Im here to do. I am an agroforestry volunteer. I will be working with villagers and farmers to plant lots and lots of trees to help with deforestation issues. For farms, also, there is a technique in which you plant fruit yielding trees in your crops so you can get several different types of food out of one field. Yes, anyway, its great that everyone I talk to seems very interested about getting trees. I will be working with people, helping them make and maintain tree nurseries, and also help with the most proper way of planting. I dont know all of the details yet though because the training i went through was more intensive language and less Agroforestry. In my first few months in the village I am simply supposed to work my butt of on the language and meet as many people as I can, basically, set some grassroots here :)

I have made some friends! Yes they are all men so far, except for my sister. And i have established with them that i am not going to marry them nor take them to America. So we just like to sit around after lunch, drink tea and discuss things. They teach me a lot of Pular. One of them is called Saidu and he even took me to some neighboring villages and i introduced myself there. There is one village; Kolon, that is 7 kilometers from my town and has a population of 65. I love this village! there is a teacher there that speaks French and was super excited about getting trees planted.
I have talked to several teachers and they are starting to give me an idea of all the villages that surround mine. There seem to be quite a few in every direction. This is good, hopefully i will have lots and lots of work to do! I hope to be traveling to the, sometime soon.
Hmmmmm what else. I guess I am getting used to no electricity. I am also going through batteries like crazy. AAA and AA... send me some! Oh and im going through lots of candles as well but they arent too expensive here.
I have a little brother named Haruna. He is three and every time i walk by him he runs up to me and hugs me. It melts my heart, really. He likes to come visit me when im sitting by my hutt and just hang out. He doesnt talk a whole lot, but his quietness intrigues me and i am always trying to make him smile by brining something 'American' out to show him. There is a huge medical center in my village and it has solar power. Sometimes i go there with Dallanda and we watch tv in a room crowded with some 30 people. Its fun. last time we watched the last 15 minutes of The Mummy 3.
I had a mouse living in my room. He was huge and leaving poops everywhere. He was noisy and living under my suitcase by my bed. He eats the toads that get into my room under my door to eat the crickets. I dont mind the toads in my room as much as the mouse. I really didnt like it when i found a half eaten toad carcus by my bed covered in ants. Omar, my bro, Dallanda and i had a mouse hut once. He tried to kill it with a stick but it got away. We have chased him out several times but he always comes back. A couple of nights ago at 430 in the morning i heard russtling and got my headlamp and shined it by my suitcase. I saw the tail of th mouse go under it and i lifted my suitcase and slammed it down hard, BOOM! i lifted it an there he was, neck broken, with a huge toad in his mouth; by the head! it was a nasty scene, let me tell ya. But I was so excited, no more mouse poop everywhere! anyway, i wanted to wake dallanda and omar because i knew they would love it but i decided not too. I chucked them both. The toad was still alive and hopped away, ha! So yeah... i killed a mouse with my suitcase.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow! Yay! we here at the Kedougou house have huge plans! I woke up at 630 this morning to the sound of happy men laughing. I walked over to where our pet turkey, named TASTEY, was taking his last breaths. Yes, my fellow volunteers bought a turkey. He has been with us for quite some time and will now be helping to feed 30 something volunteers for our thanksgiving get together. Here in Kedougou there are 16 volunteers. There are 11 men and only 5 girls. Not so even steven. It turns out that the men in our house are amazing cooks. Ill let you know how it was. Anyway, I think there are several people from another area, Tambacounda, who are coming down. Yay!

Oh, yesterday 12 of us were looking for something fun to do so we floated down the Gambia river for a mile or two and got out of the water by a nice hotel where we ate warthog sandwiches. Africa fun.

I got a letter from a friend of my mom asking a couple of questions (hi Mary, thanks for the letter!) One was about fabric here and cotton. Cotton is gown here, ive seen it. Im not sure what they do with it. All of the fabric i have seen here is foreign made. there are also a lot of western style clothes here. If you want to get some local clothes you just buy some fabric and take it to a tailor. The fabric usually costs more than the tailor, and all together it is not very expensive.
I dont get to work with horses here, unfortunately. If i were in a region with a lot of horses, i would have considered getting one. Unfortunately, where I live thee is a problem with the ti tsi fly; which gives 'sleeping sickness' to the horses, killing them. it doesnt affect donkeys though, there are lots here.

Well thats all for now. Questions and comments welcome!
Ill probably post again in the next few days :)

I`ve been installed!

Hey everyone! I have many amazing things to say today! Im in a cyber cafe so please excuse the typos. Im in a rush, and having issues with the keyboard.

Ok, down to the good stuff. i have started my life as a volunteer! I was sworn in at the ambassadors house on Nov 7th and we were on national news, so i heard. I said goodbye to my host family in Pout and set off qcross the country to start my 2 years of service. Yes, this includes 2 years being the only white person in my village, working on making the lives of the locals better. I am oficially a newbie in the area. there are 16 voluteers in my region and we all consollidate in Kedougou, where there is a peace corps center, just for this purpose. I will be going there every week or two to do this and that.

I was installed nito my village, Thiabedji, on November 11th in the evening. It was a humbling experience being dropped off in a village in which u know nobody, and watching the car drive away knowing that you are about to be on your own for two full years. Well, i realized that i am gratefull for the training i received, and the time i spent with my family in pout because in my new village i made myself right at home! i whipped out the crappiest Pula Futa, all that i know and they loved it. I got some 'me time' to unpack all of my belongings. I have a lot of stuff. Almost too much for my tiny hut. oh yes, my hut! It is so cute! it is small and round. the roundness gives me a bit of a fung shuei feeling. i have my own hole in the ground to potty in, and i have a mostlu private fence, kinda falling apart, tiny back yard. its all mine! I wanted to get a puppy and raise it, but (mom will be happy to hear this), they alredy have a dog, named Aggie, who is very friendly and just like an american dog. She was the dog of a former volunteer that left over 2 years ago. the family loves this dog and take great care of her. and the dog likes me, yay! She is just darling.

Ok, a bit about my family. Right away my favorite members are my sister and her husband who live in the hut right next to me. They both speak French which instantly closes a huge communication gap. I have only spent 1 full day in my village and my sister took me in right away, and we spent the whole day together. She taught me loads of Pula Futa. I got to cqrry water on my head. She taught me to cook and let me help a bit. We talk a lot and if Im quiet she asks me what i'm thinking. I was told that she is 20 years old. She has three kids, ages 6, 3, and 1. Her husbqnd is nice too, and very helpful. My sister's name is Dallanda and my brother is Omar. Last name.... Ba

There are a lot more people in the house. Dallanda and i sat for over an hour going over who everyone is. my host mom is named Adema. She is pretty old and her husband has passed away. She has 7 kids. The older daughters are married and living in other places. I think 2 are in Thiabedji. Some of her younger kids qre in other cities going to school. two of her kids are living in my household, Omar and Kadietou, who is 14 years old. there are two other couples living in the household. I think they are the brother of the diseased dad and the other is rzelated so,ehow but i dont remember. anyway. between those couples there are 5 kids. That makes 9 kids all together. There is one 14 yearold. The next oldest is 9. The rest are 6 and below. Several are 3 or under. In other zords I have rugrats coming out my ears! They are great though. I need more time to get to know them. Usuman, Dienabou and Fatu are my favs so far, they are Dallanda's kids.

My village is breathtaking. The car ride to it was breathtaking. There are mountains everywhere and lush forests. The whole aera just has a great vibe. The bike ride is very hilly! this is the only area in all of senegal that isnt flat! in other words, i am going to get in great shape biking back and forth. i biked to town this morning for a meeting. Its 17 miles away. i got up and left at 6am, before the sun rose. Other than almost biffing it when riding rediculously fast down a hill in the dark and running into a trench, the ride was great. I got to watch the sun rise. It was beautiful and exhausting.

So, i am starting a new life. i have tons of people to get to know. I have a new lanuage to learn. Engligh? It will have to beco,e my third language because it will not be in my village! I love that part a lot. Its quite a test of character being the black sheep. i know there will be hard times. I already got teased by some local lazy guys. They were teasing me for being tired because i dont work like the women. I told them to try to spend 8 hours in a classroom learning english and not being able to speak anything else and see how they felt. ha.

There are two baobab trees in my compound.

well im running out of time. ill be back in town for thanksgiving, so ill prolly write more then!
en ontuma!

my new name is Dienabou Diallo. Named after a village elder.

My last week in Pout

Hello.

Sorry I haven't written in a while, my schedule hasn't permitted me to be online much these past couple of weeks! Well, not long enough to write a blog.

So, just a quick note to let you all know what I've been up to recently.

I just spent about 9 days in Pout, my language town. It was my last time there and I am now back at the training center for the last couple of days before swear-in. My week in Pout was very interesting. I actually made a list of interesting things that happened in Pout while they were happening, but unfortunately I didn't bring it with me. Oops. I guess I'll just have to wing it.

This week in my host family I lost a member as well as gained one. Miriam Ba, my 16 year old Sister went back to the Kolda area, where she lives with her family. My mom and dad in Pout are her aunt and uncle. The new member is my Pati, and I love her! Pati is grandma in Pula Futa. We bonded pretty quickly as after I got home from school every day she was often the only one home and we just sat together for hours. The first time we sat together it was pretty quiet, we literally just chewed on sticks together and picked our noses. It was quite interesting, actually. My Pati is a really good stick chewer. Her teeth are honestly like a hundred times cleaner than mine. After watching her chew her mango tree stick for a while I went to my room and got mine out and started chewing away. I was struggling. It's not so easy. My Pati laughed at me, took my stick, cu the tip off with a knife and gave it back. It was good after that.
After all the stick chewing and nose picking, we started talking. It turns out my Pati is really good at teaching me Pula Futa. She helped me with my homework every day, letting me ask her questions and answering me slow enough to allow me to learn the new words and write them down. My little sisters often got impatient with me in these situations.
Usually my room is private and I don't really allow people inside. That all changed when I decided I wanted to have my lantern in my room so I could study in it after dark. With the lamp came my twin sisters with their books and school supplies. We all laid on the floor hovering around the lamp and studied. After a few minutes my little brother, Issa came in and started causing a ruckus. He was jumping up and down and dancing and doing everything he could to get us to entertain him. Shortly after, my Pati came into my room and sat there watching us study while keeping Issa from messing us up.
After a while studying all my sisters asked me to play the Numa Numa song on my ipod. They love this song... a LOT. They ask me to play it like 100 times a day and they sing along to it and dance along to it perfectly. Too bad I don't have a camera... what a great video it would make! If you guys don't know what the Numa Numa song is, look it up on youtube!
There was an incident with a kitten this week. it included two more than innocent 4 week old kittens who decided to imprint themselves on us Americans. They ended up in a garbage dump almost being stepped on by a 600lb pig. They tried to follow me home and I was already being followed home by about 20 african kids who thought I was crazy for touching kittens. Don't ask me to explain this, it's complicated. I really wanted the best for the kittens in a world that hates them. I really wanted to adopt one of them but it is not the right time. I don't know if they survived or not the the outcome didn't seem good.
On our last day in Pout I went to a soccer game with my fellow Pula Futa students. It was the biggest game of the season for the people of Pout, and it was very crowded. One scene that was great, were the kids in the baobabs. For kids who couldn't afford to get into the stadium, they found other ways to watch the game. There were two baobabs by the fence and there were probably about 50 kids in each tree watching the game. It was a great site! If you don't know what baobab trees are, look them up! They are amazing trees. The game was fun too. We ate lots of yogurt packs and cheered for our teams. Well, kinda. I was more into watching the vendors than the game. People buying things from the venders literally threw money at them from above (it was too crowded on the stands for venders to climb up to the top). If the money was lost in the crowd someone always found it and gave it to the vender. They were all very honest about it. Then the vendor just tossed the food item to the person. it was great!
Now that I am back at the center we are all very excited about the elections. As I am writing this blog we are all in a rented hotel room watching the election coverage on CNN.
Oh, funny fact. I found out the my Pati is 46 years old, which is fricking hilarious considering that my mom is in her upper 50s. Yes, my granny in Africa is younger than my mom. Here is the real kicker. My mom .. which I found out a couple days later when they asked me to read her birth certificate to her, is only 27 years old! Yes, the mom that feeds me and takes care of me is only two years older than me. How much of a kicker is that!
So, I'm really excited about being installed into my village. I'll tell you about it when the time comes. eh..