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!