The Big Move

I'll make this email brief but do something fun... like include a link to pictures! Hopefully it works. Not all of them are real artistic masterpieces, but there are a few good ones that provide a little scenery, visual aid, and me in interesting outfits.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lisa.floran/SenegalPreServiceTrainingInThiesAndBayakh#

As of about 10 days ago, I am officially sworn in as a Peace Corps volunteer! They gave me a new ID card that says "VOLUNTEER" instead of "TRAINEE" to commemorate the occasion. We all had a fabulous day of eating crazy things like guacamole on bread and sausage on sticks and BROWNIES, and it was especially fun because everyone was dressed up absolutely ridiculously.

The day before, we had a reception with our training host families, which was also super fun. One of the other volunteers basically had the man version of my Princess Jasmine outfit, which prompted everyone to take pictures of us all day yelling about how we looked like the wedding scene from Aladdin. We were treated to a performance by some Pulah Futa performers, which felt like going to the Senegalese circus... except, things that are mere illusions at the American circus actually just really happened. LET ME ILLUSTRATE: at one point, one of the men threaded a string through his cheek. And he actually... was just doing it... and it was bleeding everywhere. Just stuck a pin through his mouth and his cheek and pulled a string through for 3 minutes. In the audience, all of the Americans were just staring, shocked and kind of frightened and confused, and all of the Senegalese were cheering because it was a feat of human strength... But there was also a lot of tumbling and dancing and drumming, and at one point, some of the volunteers in my stage did a fiddle/guitar/harmonica version of "Wagon Wheel" and then all the Senegalese performers joined in -- it was a beautiful moment of Americana crossed with Senegal!

But yes, as of last Monday, I have been living in my new place! It is just really great. The space, the family, and most of all, the newfound free time! My house is basically a guest house next door to a family. I have a living room, a bedroom, and my very own bathroom -- quite the luxury! I even... GET READY FOR THIS... have my own Western-style toilet? I don't know, I'm skeptical of whether it is actually going to work for 2 years, but we'll see. So I've spent a lot of the past week settling in, buying stuff like cots and drapes and giant trunks that small animals and insects cannot destroy.

And my family! They seem awesome. First of all, I feel super safe because my father is a gendarme, one of my... I don't know, nephews or something? is in the military, and my host sister is a nurse. The three youngest kids in the house are legitimately ADORABLE, and we've already had a few dance parties. There is also a 2 month old baby boy, which will continue to feed my need for having a baby around to hold on bad days. Everyone also just seems really respectful of me having my own space, which I think will be invaluable for the two years I'll be there.

I've slowly started going to my job, but I'm really not going to be working "full-time" per se for about two more months... until that point, I'm supposed to be settling into living my Senegalese life, practicing Wolof, and getting to know the people I'll be working with. I'm also catching up on all sorts of literature about previous projects my organization has done -- many of which are written in French, so it's kind of slow going.

It has also been kind of a hard week because on my first night in my new house, I received news that my Uncle Larry in South Bend had passed away after a battle with cancer. It's very strange to be in a place so far away from my family when everyone is going through a rough time. So any thoughts or prayers that anyone can pass along to my family right now would be appreciated.

But on the whole, I'm slowly adjusting here and feeling better every day. I have a bike that sometimes works, I found a place that sells giant delicious cream-filled donuts for about $1, and today I went to a Catholic church that had music like the soundtrack from The Lion King (will The Lion King be the recurring theme of my time here? WE SHALL SEE!). Wish me luck as I try to find the balance of doing lots of integrating while still trying to feel productive for the next few weeks... much love!

Turning 24 dressed as Jasmine

Peace Corps summer camp is finally ending… yesterday I had my final Wolof class, and I just finished my last oral exam (despite having oral exams every single semester for PLS in college, they still terrify me and I still always do not reach my potential but I think I passed so it’s okay!). But yes! That means that this Friday, we all truck out to Dakar to swear in as official volunteers with the U.S. ambassador to Senegal! And more importantly, we all finally get to wear our fabulous Senegalese outfits. It will be a RAINBOW OF FUN and include many headwraps and funny hats. I’ve named my outfit “Senegalese Barbie outfit” because it is rose pink with fuschia embroidery and I LOVE IT. Also of note: this ceremony will broadcast on Senegalese television. FAMOUS!

All of this means that I have ended my off-and-on stint with my training host family. They really ended things with a bang for me though! About two weeks ago, my host aunt finally had her baby! Yes… after weeks of false alarms where I would hear random screaming in the house and bust out of my room expecting to see a baby born, it finally happened and I didn’t even notice! I came home from school one day and she wasn’t looking too good… then two hours later, I emerge from my room and notice she’s gone. Everyone casually told me “Oh, she left.” It took 15 minutes of prying for them to reveal that SHE WENT TO THE HOSPITAL TO HAVE A BABY. Then, I’m not even kidding, TWENTY MINUTES later, my host mom comes home and is like, “Oh, Mbaccho had her baby.”

I was like ARE YOU SERIOUS? She was at the hospital for like 30 minutes! She ALREADY has a baby? I guess she was in labor like all day and they just took her to the hospital for the home stretch. But yay! Baby girl! I got to go see her when she was an hour old! Oh, and the kicker: I think they are naming the baby Lisa. Which is ridiculous and awesome and really intimidating. As I was holding this baby that may or may not be named after me (I feel sorry for a child that has to grow up in Senegal with an American name…), I felt a strange sense of responsibility, like how fatherhood is portrayed in the movies. Like I thought, I need to figure out my life, stop partying, get my shit together. I have a baby now.

Later in the week, my family threw a birthday party for me! It was fantastic. They gave me a beautiful white outfit and my friends unanimously decided that when I wear it, I look like Princess Jasmine in pajamas. So yeah, I have two outfits: Senegalese Barbie and Princess Jasmine. But all of the other volunteers in my town came over for a delicious dinner of count them THREE chickens, fries, salad, and bottled juice drinks set out in a circle, much like the birthday parties I used to have in elementary school. There was also dancing. It was super cute and lovely though, especially because no one celebrates birthdays in Senegal. The gesture by my host family was really, really sweet.

Other random tidbits:

- So Osama bin Laden died. I probably wouldn’t have known if my mom (AMERICAN MOM) hadn’t called me in the middle of the night… it was funny because she called because she was scared as I “am an American not in America.” I didn’t really know what the reaction in Senegal would be either, to be frank. But I found out as soon as I woke up: yeah, no one really cared. Also, no one believed me when I said he died. Senegalese Islam is very different from the Islam of the terrorist regimes.

- Also one time I was talking to my mom on the phone and someone was playing a fiddle in the background and she thought it was the call to prayer. I love her.

- We played a soccer game against our teachers a few weeks ago and only lost by one! That’s not bad for a group of Americans versus 20-30 something Senegalese men! And I hit the ball with my head (is that a header? I’ve never played soccer.) I WAS PROUD OF MYSELF AND OUR TEAM.

- We also had a little beach weekend! It was beautiful and someday I will upload pictures. No but seriously. I don’t know if I’ve ever been to a beach with a view free of giant industries or smoke stacks or civilization. Gorgeous.

Yes, but I am excited to finally install as a volunteer here. Yesterday, I visited my possible home and new family… nothing is set in stone yet, but if I end up living there with them, I think I will have a pretty great set-up. And right now, the volunteer I’ll be working with for my first few months is doing a needs assessment with the youth groups I’ll be working with them. She’s interviewing them to see what information they’re lacking so we know what to build our curriculum around. I’ll probably spend my first few weeks buying stuff for my house, getting to know my neighbors, practicing my wolof, and attempting to work at this office in my third language. But I am ready!

Also, I just wanted to thank everyone that’s been dropping me notes and emails and letters and well-wishes, birthday ones or otherwise. I definitely have had some rough days, and it means a lot to hear from yall (even if you don’t hear back, because my internet time comes in weird waves and it’s hard to respond.)

Ana Lac Rose???

Ahh! So the last few weeks, and in particular, the last few days have been a little bit crazy, but mostly in good ways! We have about two weeks left in our training and everyone is feeling a lot more comfortable with the language, the people, and our life routines here in general, so things are going well.

I spent one week in Thies living with a current volunteer and visiting my future office every day. We had a few excursions out to the groups that I’ll be working with on health and life skills curriculums – in our fancy US AID landrovers… yes… I am going to be living a very fancy ex-pat life, at least while I’m at work. But everyone seems really great in my office. I also got to tour magnificent Thies, and do fun things like watch my host haggle with taxi drivers and buy second hand clothing on the streets… THIS WILL BE MY SENEGALESE PROBLEM I CAN ALREADY TELL. The thrifty shopper in me will not be dying here. I found a fantastic pink dress for a dollar – BOOM!

Speaking of that dress, I was so excited to wear it the other day when I went back to the village… UNTIL MY SIX YEAR OLD HOST SISTER PEED ON IT. So that was sad. But I washed it (by myself, in my bedroom, because I can do that!), and managed to wear it to yet another baptism a few days later. This was yet another party where I had the opportunity to drive with my host mother. She, as always, outdid herself with the car once again… we kept picking up more and more fancily dressed women from the side of the road until I was practically hanging out the passenger side window, then we went deep into the bush. Then the car started smoking so we had to pull over in the middle of nowhere, a bunch of fancy women stranded on the side of the road. You can’t call AAA in Senegal! Luckily my host mom is a modern woman. Very handy, that one.

I had one moment that made me really happy at that baptism – some people were asking my background, and when I answered that I was in the Peace Corps, one lady said, “I knew she was in the Peace Corps. She came in and started dancing and speaking Wolof! Peace Corps.”

But by far my favorite Senegalese adventure (THUS FAR) happened on Easter Sunday! The five other volunteers in my training village and I decided we were going to try our first solo excursion, braving the Senegalese transportation system without any Senegalese to help us. We chose to go Lac Rose, which, according to what we had heard, was a massively awesome tourist destination: hotels! Restuarants! Beaches! Camel rides! And a pink saltwater lac that you can float in like the Dead Sea! It’s like a toubab paradise!

So after befriending some gendarmerie/police officers and fending off a enterprising taxi driver trying to rip us off hardcore, we manage to get a good price for our first car: a gutted livestock car painted blue, yellow, and red. It was gorgeous! But it could only take us halfway. And apparently, the first enterprising taxi driver REALLY wanted to take us to the lake in his car, so he had followed us to the halfway point and we haggled him down and decided to reward his persistence. MISTAKE. We proceeded down some sketchy back roads, 7 people stuffed into a little Toyota, at 10mph, while the driver repeatedly looked out the window of his car, presumably to check and make sure his tire was still attached to the car. We were all trying to play it cool and roll with the situation – but it kept getting a little weirder and weirder. For instance, he would just stop at random points and get out of the car and not answer our questions and we were just NOT seeing the lake! So at his fourth unprompted exit, my friend Cady just kind of says, trying to exude authority and control except it actually came out kind of scared and desperate, “ANA LAC ROSE???” which translates to “WHERE IS LAKE ROSE?” The driver didn’t answer. He just walked away.

But I am still alive! And eventually another random van drove by and even though the doors didn’t work, the driver was super nice and agreed to take us the rest of the way to the lake for free, at like 60mph! So within 2 minutes, we finally saw the pinkish except it was actually more like brownish lake! Yay! Excitement! We did it!

But then the unmarked van just stopped at an unmarked shack and told us to get out. WHERE WERE THE RESTAURANTS? Where were the HOTELS? Where were the CAMELS? Where were ALL OF THE OTHER TOURISTS? The van said this was Lac Rose and drove away. WHAT? WHAT? EASTER WAS CRAZY.

We ended up finally finding the touristy part of the lake after walking for about a mile and a half, and the beach that we found was actually just really great. It ended up being a fun little girls’ day, complete with donuts and drinks for one girl’s birthday. And we all floated in the salt water lake because you can do that in heavy salt water! Also, there was a group of middle aged French men wearing camoflauged army fatigue hot pants, so that was just entertaining.

On our way home, we were talking about how great our day was, how we really did it – we spoke in Wolof and made it to our destination and had fun along the way – and how we wanted to call up our safety and security coordinator and brag. It was at this exact moment that our unmarked van hit a sandy pot hole and died.

And that was the moment that I assisted in pushing an unmarked van out of a sandy pothole in Senegal and saving a car full of intergrated Peace Corps volunteers and Senegalese from being stuck in the bush forever.

Anyway, it was great! Today we planted 2000 trees and last night we had a dance party in the disco hut and discovered the identity of a mysterious animal that chased one girl through our training center and caused her to break her ankle. Things are fun around here! T-minus 3 weeks until training ends! I hope everyone is having a lovely spring… I think about y’all all the time and miss a lot about America and the people I love a lot. Keep in touch!