Asalaam Maalekum from Kaolack, Senegal!
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| Ibrahima! |
I am publishing this, my first blog post, as an official Peace Corps Volunteer! I took an oath to serve my country last Friday, May 10th, and have been hard at work ever since. I am moving to my permanent site, Ngar Gueye, on Wednesday! Peace Corps Senegal is the best and I'm so excited to be here for the next two years.
Here are some highlights from my nine weeks of training:
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| my first Senegalese family (half of them) |
I lived with the most wonderful family that helped me immensely in my transition to life in Senegal. They taught me how to survive speaking Wolof, which I am learning ndank, ndank (slowly, slowly). But mostly they taught me the meaning of teranga, Senegalese hospitality. I have never experienced such warmth, welcome, and excitement from a host family before. And there were tons of cute babies!
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| mountain: conquered! |
I went with my fellow trainees to Popenguine for a night at the beach. As our sole time off during training, we looked forward to our "beach week" at Popenguine and it did not disappoint. The beaches were beautiful, the food was delicious, the people were friendly, and the sunset was spectacular. A few friends and I spent the morning hiking a seriously steep mountain and were rewarded with the most amazing view from the top. It was an equally adventurous and relaxing weekend at the beach!
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| only pink lake in the world! |
I went with my language classmates to visit Lac Rose, Senegal's premiere pink lake. From what I could understand from the men working there, the pinkness is due to the algae or the high salt content or something. I don't know - Google it. The lake was very interesting - the water was incredibly salty and had a thick quality to it. The water was, indeed, pink, and quite warm as well! I waded but did not submerge myself after hearing warnings from Senegalese and Americans alike. Quite a lovely and picturesque afternoon with my friends and, as always, an adventure taking public transportation!
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| my favorite way to carry a baby |
As I mentioned, I'm moving to my village this week. It's a wilaas bu tutti with a population of around 800 - no English speakers that I know of. I am very fortunate in that Ngar has a system of solar panels, which allows one of the huts in my compound to be electrified! We also are treated with water that flows from a robinet in the courtyard of my compound. My family has one father with three wives, children abound, and one horse, one donkey, and bunches of chickens.
I am a Health Education Volunteer - more to come on my work projects as they come together. My host mother is the matrone of the village - she helps women during pregnancy and birth - and I am so interested to learn from her. The Peace Corps approach to development encourages volunteers to listen to the needs of their communities and empower the communities to make those changes themselves. With this understanding, I believe that my work projects will develop slowly, slowly, and be focused more on education than anything else. So don't get too excited about hearing any tangible projects I've done in the immediate future.
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| my friend in her school uniform |
Do get excited to hear about my successes, my trials and tribulations, and most of all my mishaps and adventures trying to navigate this new world! And look up some videos of Wolof because it is a great language and I expect all y'all to greet me in the traditional Senegalese manner when I'm back stateside.
Ba beneen yoon!
