Quick Update:

Yesterday I swore in as a Peace Corps voluteer with the rest of my training group at the Embassador's house in Dakar. I can't believe I'm finally free to make my own decisions, go places when I want to go, and finally settle into my own schedule! It's the same feeling as graduating from college-I'm a real person now. Right now we are all still at the training center for the day and then tomorrow we will go to our training villages to celebrate Tabaski until Monday night. At 7am sharp on Tuesday morning, Bonnie and I will pile onto a sept-place (public transportation car) with all of our stuff and head off for the Linguere regional office. We'll both spend the week buying all of the things we need to live for the next 2 years: buckets, mattresses, fans, chairs, food :).... By the way, if anyone has an old sports bra, running/basketball shorts, socks or leggings lying around, let me know! I can't wait to start exercising everyday but I only have 1.5 work-out outfits!

Hopefully I'll be able to get my internet up and running as soon as possible but until then enjoy the autumn and early snow!

Ready to be a real person (volunteer)

Hi everyone! I can’t believe it’s finally here but under the watchful gaze of every Senegalese TV crew, I swear in as a volunteer tomorrow in Dakar. While it seems like I’ve been in Senegal much longer than 2 months, training flew by and next Saturday I’ll be installed at my final site in Thiamene. Before talking about swearing in and what’s to come I’ll write a bit about my last week that I spent at my training village.

Accident ci Sarriotu Bamm

The first day back (a Sunday), Amanda and I walked all around the village saying hi to everyone since we had missed them after being away for a week. We arrived in the village during normal soccer practice time (around 5) and I didn’t see my brothers anywhere-so we assumed they were all at the soccer field. Amanda and I set out walking along the road towards the field when we ran into three of the older players on the team riding a donkey cart back to town. (One of the guys-Mbaye-is always hassling me about being his girlfriend and saying he loves me even though he has a wife and kid. It’s a running joke in town because he lies and says he’s single and half of the town plays along and the other half tells me he’s married and that he’s a saye-saye[joker].) So the guys ask us where we are heading and we tell them to the field to say hi to the team. They quickly inform us that there’s no practice and that we should hop on for a ride back to vill. Of course we agree…who would ever deny a donkey cart ride? And Amanda was particularly excited since she considers every donkey in the village her husband…her way of warding off men and convincing the entire town that she is slightly off kilter. So first off, the carts never completely stop so it’s quite a challenge climbing on and of course with my skill, I nearly fall off on my first try. I got half of my body on and then the cart jerked, I started falling back and had to wildly cling on to Vieux-the 21 year old coach of the soccer team who informed me the other day that I was toy nga (gorgeous) and he wanted to be my husband. Typical. Somehow I make my way up and onto the back of the cart, with the three guys sitting on the bench in front. Now it’s Amanda’s turn. She may look like a stick but she is deceptively fat, apparent by what happens next. Amanda starts to climb on and with just one step she manages to tip the entire cart. There I am sitting on the back and all of a sudden the three guys in front of me are suspended in the air above me-clinging on so that they can avoid falling on me and simultaneously crushing me. I stupidly watched this all happen before my eyes, all of my reflexes frozen…I don’t even think I attempted to stop myself from falling out of the cart. The next thing I knew I was splayed on my back, in the dirt, laughing hysterically as Mbaye runs over to help me up. (Thank the Lord I was wearing pants and not my typical skirt). So with a rare opportunity presenting itself, Mbaye decides to scoop me up in his arms off of the ground, brushing the dirt off of my back…while I am still laughing hysterically, trying to speak coherently enough to tell him that I don’t need his help. Our donkey cart accident was probably the best thing that’s happened to me since we’ve been in Senegal and it was a fantastic welcome back to village…a good laugh is always necessary.

A Fire Full of Love and Peanuts

Our last day in the village, Amanda and I walked over to the field to have tea with our favorite farmer-Moda Camera. He is perhaps the cutest man in the entire world-a true gem and one of the people I’ll miss the most when I leave for Thiamene. He invited us into his one room house and we sat against his wall on his foam mattress with another farmhand, joking about our fiancés-Amanda’s donkey and my supposed 2 men (new news to me) as well as our best friend-a packet of Biskrem (delicious chocolate cookies) which we meanly consume at the end of each day. We were making fun of the other farm hand (Abdul) about his 100 girlfriends when he informed me that I had a fiancé in Tawa Fall and that I had to have another one somewhere whether he was in Thies, America or somewhere else in the world. So after some questioning and guessing, Amanda and I figured out which “fiancé” Abdul was referring to….the other day we were sitting outside Moda’s hut, predictably drinking tea, while I was struggling to follow the conversation in Wolof. As we’re sitting on our rusted barrels enjoying our tea out of shot glasses, up the path walks Vieux (the guy from the donkey cart story). As he stops to talk to all of us, Moda’s younger brother turns to me and asks me a question in Wolof. Now sometimes conversing in another language gets incredibly exhausting and you find yourself nodding or answering with Waaw (mhmm/yes) just so that the other person thinks you are listening and understanding. So I stupidly say waaw to the question which sends all of the Senegalese into a fit of laughter-me and Amanda sitting there having no idea what I just inadvertently said. Retroactively trying to decipher our friend’s question, we decide that I said I had missed Vieux-something that means a bit more in Senegal but not completely unsalvageable. Back to the present situation of discussing my Tawa Fall fiancé-we come to find that I did not say that I had missed Vieux, but rather that I loved him (Noppo la mu? Instead of nammu la mu?). Perfect. So for future reference, I recommend never saying yes to a comment or question unless you completely understand what was said!

While we were sipping on Moda’s incredible tea-spiced with citrus leaves and freshly picked mint, flames leape up outside of the window and we heard the crackling of a large fire directly outside the hut. Ok, nothing new here. We finished our tea and walked outside only to be invited over to the blackened pile of ash that had been a leaping fire moments before. An empty gas can was dragged over and the farmers instructed me and Amanda to sit down. Amanda and I realized that the fire had been a flash roasting of the peanuts which the farmers had picked from their fields that morning. 5 or 6 of us sat or squatted around the pile, eating the most delicious peanuts I have ever had from the ground. I wish you all could have experienced this because it was amazing and although completely normal to me-I’m sure very foreign to you. With soot hands, we ate peanuts that far surpassed the quality of nuts we eat from bags back home-and who wants to sit on their couch, eating from a bag when instead you could sit under the sun, around a freshly burned pile of freshly picked nuts?

Fat, Greedy Americans

With my family in village and at the center in Thies, I eat very well. I feast on bowls of rice with beans, fish and veggies, bread and butter or the occasional sorghum or cere with yaasa sauce (onion sauce). While everything is incredibly delicious and I have no complaints, my diet is about 80% carbs. Unless you have the foresight to buy enough snack food to keep in your room for a two week period at a time, you find your stomach growling within an hour of each meal as the carbs go straight through you. As it is considered extremely rude not to share everything you eat with everyone around you (and you’re usually surrounded by more people than you can feed with one banana) and as I’m constantly trying to convince my village that Americans aren’t all rolling in the dough-so buying cookies from the boutique everyday is out of the question-you run into a precarious situation. With this in mind, we find Amanda and I huddled in my room dining on any random, hoarded food we could find. Nothing makes you feel fatter than hiding in your room, sitting on the floor, eating food as quietly as possible so that your family doesn’t think you’re greedily hoarding food. Driven to intense hunger thanks to a constant diet of bread and rice, Amanda and I passed a jar of nutella between the two of us, alternately scooping fingerfulls of chocolately goodness into our mouths. We washed down the chocolate with cherry flavored Gas-Ex tablets-found in our medkits-but don’t worry, I promise we didn’t exceed the recommended daily intake! Haha when you’re hungry it would surprise you what you’ll find yourself eating!

Success!

So as I said at the beginning, tomorrow I swear in as a volunteer at the US embassy in Dakar with the rest of my training group. Yesterday I found out that I passed my last language test with flying colors-I achieved advanced low with five other trainees-which my language teacher said was very rare and impressive to achieve. Congrats to my sitemate Amanda who also achieved advanced low J After Swear in tomorrow, we will all return to our training villages on Sunday to spend the day Sunday and Monday for Tabaski. Tabaski is the most important religious event in Senegal and I’ll be spending the day dressed in my newly made Senegalese outfit, dancing, eating sheep and drinking lots of ataya. I can’t wait but I’m also completely dreading saying goodbye to my Tawa Fall family and village! The good thing is that I’ll always be able to visit when I come back to the training center in Thies.

I’ll be sure to update as soon as I can to write about swearing in and Tabaski and I’ll be sure to put up some pictures soon! Love and miss you all!

-Erin

**Ps: If you are thinking about sending me a package with food in it, please line the food and box with aluminum foil to ward off mice. Thanks!

New Address!!

Hi everyone,

here is my new address if you want to send me a letter or package:


PCV Erin Donnellan
BP 79
Linguere, Senegal
West Africa

Most important things I need right now:

Hand sanitizer!!
Teepee
Food (so I don't have to eat fingerfulls of nutella ;)

I have a bigger list in a previous post and I'll update as I need things. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

I'll try to update soon with pictures. Quickly: finished my training and Im swearing in as a volunteer on Thursday! The big festival of Tabaski is coming up next week-I get to eat lamb! For Halloween we carved watermelon jack o'lanters...almost as good as the real thing. I had an accident on a donkey cart-no worries, I was perfectly fine! And lastly, I apparently have a waxale (fiance) (don't worry, not really)...long story that I'll be sure to write soon!

Love you and miss you all! Talk to you soon,
Amy Faye D.