So things have been kind of a whirlwind lately! Well, they haven't been too crazy actually, but my internet has been incredibly spotty. I have a few different places around town that I default to in internet emergencies... my office, this randomly fancy hotel by my house (which strangely smells like cinnamon rolls and I need to go back there to discover why), the training center, and the restaurants downtown. It shouldn't be hard for me to find internet. But so often in the past month, it's like the perfect storm has conspired to remove wifi from all of those places whenever I want it. Or maybe the perfect storm is just Senegalese telecommunication company politics happening right under my nose.
In any case, I have internet right now! Yeah!
So the last few weeks have included the aforementioned girls camp and killing a grasshopper in my room, but I've also done exciting things like train 30 Senegalese teachers for my Life Skills curriculum! Boom! I mean, I didn't do it, but I organized it, which is really all an American girl in a faraway country using her third language can hope to do. The trainings went really well. I got to see a whole bunch of Senegalese people become confident teachers in condom demonstrations, not to mention be treated to numerous pieces of theatre starring disorderly, drunk characters in an effort to curb teen drinking. Really, I live for this shit.
I also started branching out of my little corner of Thies. It is my home, and I love my family, and I love that the baby has literally become so obsessed with me that he screams until he is allowed to crawl across the floor and jump into my arms like a puppy. I love my little sister and her penchant for slurring the words "I Whip My Hair Back and Forth" into something that sounds like 'Iupma AIRRR bata forth i upma AIRRRR bata forth,' and I love my family's new inexplicable love for serving spaghetti with shrimp for dinner. But sometimes it is nice to get out and explore the rest of the country, or at least the region, a little bit. So over the past few weeks, I've visited other volunteers near me to observe and occasionally join in on some work projects.
I had the chance to see an open field day with our Master Farmer project, which trains local farmers in more sustainable agriculture methods and then encourages them to teach other farmers in their area. All of the local farmers seemed super into the project, and when I looked around at all of them, I couldn't help but feel the pride that I know John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson felt when they started Farm Aid. I'm serious. Feed the world.
I also went to Mbour to help with a gardening project at an orphanage. I didn't realize this at the time, but this place isn't just your average orphanage: it's also a place where French families send their delinquent kids. Like Outward Bound, except they send their kids out of the country, to orphanages in Senegal and are all like KIDS GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER. It was pretty interesting to see the French delinquents frolicking among the orphans, and I mean that in the best way, like it was beautiful. My job was to supervise children painting tires. I did an okay job, but I think I'm too domineering to be a proper art teacher. The project as a whole was great though, and as a group, we finished some composting and planting for the garden. Then we went to the ocean, where I had a transcendental experience using a floatie in the ocean. It was seriously fantastic. In the words of one of my friends when she was using the floatie, "I will never go back to normal swimming." Nor will I.
I've been trying to reach out to some places around Thies, specifically keep up my relationship with the local middle school and start one with the local cultural center. My love for the school only grew when the other day I stopped by to say hi, and THEY GAVE ME A SENEGALESE OUTFIT. And it is beautiful... pink tie-dye! Our time together has been brief but I feel like they already understand me as a person. I'm stoked to continue helping with English classes there, and wear my new outfit on the biggest Senegalese holiday of all, Tabaski, in a few weeks. I went to the Cultural Center the other day for a film screening. I was pretty impressed to walk into a packed room, not to mention impressed with the discussion that followed the movie. The movie was about the Joola, a ferry that sunk off the coast of Senegal a few years ago between Ziguinchor and Dakar. I couldn't understand a lot of it, but what I did understand is that the Senegalese are pissed at the government.
I've also joined a softball team in Dakar! There was a time in my life where I would play softball in the summer, and I have memories of myself hitting the occasional double. But that is not my reality. I don't know if I have repressed my actual softball skills, or maybe time has simply wasted away my body. Whatever the case, I am not a strong addition to the team, but I've really been enjoying the chance to go eat hot dogs and heckle 13 year old children (our ex-pat competition) every couple weeks.
In slightly sadder news, I recently found out that my Ugandan host mother, Hajati Sarah, passed away last weekend. Obviously, since I'm in Africa, she'd already been on my mind a lot... she and the rest of the people I met in Uganda were just so fantastic, and certainly a huge factor in making me want to do the Peace Corps. It sounds like a cliche, but she really was an amazing woman: she took in orphans and paid their school fees, she took in older homeless Ugandans and gave them a place to live, and she took in crazy American study abroad students like me. She ran a circus yo. We didn't really speak the same language, but we danced a lot, and we understood each other. So here's to Hajati!
But on the upside, one of my host sisters is pregnant! My amoebas are dead! This is the circle of life!
I will leave you all with a story:
In Senegal, people always assume I'm French. I get it. Most Westerners, and especially white people, that roll through here are French. What I don't get is the second guesses I'm given: I'll tell people I'm not French, and they will immediately launch into a barraging list of nationalities to deduce exactly WHAT I am.
This is how it usually goes:
Spanish? Greek? Chinese? English? Portuguese? Brazillian? Israeli? One time someone asked if I was from Mali. MALI.
But my favorite moment happened the other day when I told someone, straight up, that I was American. "American! Etats-Unis! Ahhh!" he cried. "Hola? Como estas? Gracias!"
Yes. Some people in Senegal think that the national language of the United States is Spanish. Somewhere, the mayor of a small town in Pennsylvania and a Tea Party member are sitting together and crying.
That's all. Hope all is well! Thinking of all of you, and much love! Beware of the wild animals loose in Ohio!
P.S. Big shout out to my dad for the glorious package I received yesterday! The face paint is just in time for me to do something weird on Halloween, and I've already started making beaded bracelets for my sisters. Also the cookies are already half gone. <3 !
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