My Destiny and A Baptism.

Oh and here are some pictures I stole from my friend Jenn! At the top is a map we painted of Senegal at a school. Yay! And above is our garden, before things started growing in it. I'm on the left, by the intense door that my language teacher built with his bare hands to ward off the goats.

Anyway!

In the words of my host mother, it’s time for all of you to adjust your vision of me in Africa. Last week, with great fanfare and a Senegalese television station documenting us (particularly me, at least if what my language teacher says is true), our sites were announced! The Peace Corps blindfolds us and then arranges us on a giant map of Senegal. We rip off our blindfolds and discover our destinies! When I was blindly led to my spot, I stood there for awhile and didn’t really hear anyone near me. I was like, what is going on. Where am I. Am I in the middle of the ocean? Am I in The Gambia? Am I being sent back to America? I could hear lots of people whispering to people around them, touching them. I stuck both of my arms straight out and spun around in a circle trying to see if anyone was within some sort of radius. I TOUCHED NO ONE. When we finally ripped off our blindfolds… I was in the city I am currently in. The Senegalese Paradise city of Thies! And I was all alone. Needless to say, I was confused and shocked… I had prepared myself for all sorts of scenarios and corners of the country, but hadn’t really considered the possibility that I wouldn’t be leaving where I was.

But this is my destiny! Thies! And after a healthy session mourning the visions I had for rural village life, I actually got really excited about my site. The Peace Corps guidebook describes my area as a place where people appreciate the finer things of life… so I can get used to that. I mean, this is the place where I’ve been indulging in margaritas and cheese. And it’s pretty awesome that I’m going to be working with an NGO. I’m going to be visiting my job site this week to learn more about it, but from what I can gather, I’m working with a life skills/health/economic empowerment program aimed at teenagers and young adults at Plan International. I’m about an hour and a half from Dakar, a hop skip and a jump from the ocean, and my area is the most temperate and full of vegetables in the whole country. So yeah, I started by feeling spoiled with my ritzy homestay family, and it looks like I may continue to be spoiled for the next few years. I wish my fellow volunteers the best of luck as they go on their 5-12 hour bus rides to their sites tomorrow… I’ll be here J

In other news, I went to a baptism this weekend! It was bizarre because no one really seemed to pay attention or talk to me, and yet they made me hold the baby for TWO HOURS. I’m not even kidding. I was just sitting in a corner, everyone was pretending not to look at me, and then they brought the guest of honor over and had me hold her. Baby Fatou, 2 weeks old. Then they all just went and chatted some more. At one point, I tried to pass the baby along… they just brought it back to me and said, “NO. Hold the baby.” And then walked away. No pictures of me with the baby. No fuss over how funny it was for me to hold the baby. No asking what my name even was. Just… baby. Here. Here’s the baby. There were like a good 300 people at this party. On our way home from the party, my host mom drove the car into a giant sand dune and we got stuck for awhile. It was kind of like when we get cars stuck in the snow – she was mildly annoyed, but luckily an entire village emerged to help us get the car out. But not before five more kids had smacked me upside the head through the open car window and then escaped into the darkness. I’m telling you, one day I will get my revenge on these little rascals. ONE DAY.

Alright well I’m going to get back to laying around for a few more hours until the heat dies down. This past Saturday, the heat started. It was like someone opened a door at noon: a huge, hot gust of wind ripped through the whole country, and everyone I’ve talked to felt it. HOT SEASON BEGINS! I’m a lover, not a fighter, so I’m not going to fight it. I’m just going to evade it. Ciao!