My New Life

So.. I GUESSSS I should fill everyone in about my life here in Senegal. Here is some information about where I’ve been staying and such….

My family: I am living with the Ba family of Thies, Senegal. I have four brothers (a 30 yr old, a 19 yr old, a 14 yr old, and a 10 yr old) and four sisters (a 29 yr old that lives in Spain with her husband, a 25 yr old, a 22yr old [ we are two months apart… she’s older and doesn’t let me forget it.. I guess we are Irish twins!], and a 17 yr old). My mom is totally awesome and my dad is pretty cool as well. And my life here wouldn’t be the same without our 5 yr old cousin Haddie (only the cutest little girl ever)! She runs up to me and hugs me when I get home and always holds my hand and kisses it. Between she and my little bro Hasan (also known as mon petit ami) I am a happy lady here in Thies. Besides the fact that we lay out on mats on our patio each night I feel like my family here is like most American fams. I definitely lucked out. We have a pretty nice house/ patio setup and my dad only has one wife (here in Senegal men can have four which I have some SERIOUS issues with), so the Peace Corps. definitely found me a great match! And our house is conveniently located right across from all the popular restaurants and Peace Corps. hang out places.

Weather: It’s hot. Very very very hot. Always. Anytime you see anyone here they always make note of the fact that it’s freaking hot. There hasn’t been much rain but it’s been really hot (not sure if I emphasized the fact that is freaking hot!)! I basically live in the dessert… There aren’t really any trees, just tons of sand.. EVERYWHERE.

Food: Fish, rice, oil. Every meal. Just fish, rice, and oil. Thus far, everyone has been fasting for Ramadan and, therefore, only eating dinner. I can’t wait until I can enjoy the same fish, rice, and oil dish for lunch AND dinner EVERY DAY. Yay. And by yay I clearly mean I may die of starvation. I’m not kidding either, they eat the same dish, prepared/presented the same exact way every day. And if you are “lucky” enough to get breakfast here you will enjoy some Nescafe and a baguette with what my fellow volunteers and I refer to as “mystery meat” (which I don’t eat because I made sure to tell my family I don’t eat meat. Ever. And by ever I mean, just while I’m in Senegal. Clearly.)

Peace Corps. Training: Shockingly, I TESTED OUT OF FRENCH. I genuinely don’t know how this happened but I’m quite impressed with myself, which I clearly don’t mind saying. This means, all of my language classes will focus entirely on Wolof, a language spoken by many people throughout Senegal. I’m just finishing up my second week and will be taking an exam next Monday that I hope to pass!! InchAllah.. Wolof is hard! And yes, I can speak decent French now, but the class is in French or Wolof, NO ENGLISH.. So a typical day in my life consists of waking up at 6am, getting to the training center by 7am for a shower and some breakfast (maybe), 8-12:30 not quite being awake (due to lack of coffee) and having to translate what my language teacher is saying from French into English and then trying to answer in Wolof by mentally going over each word in English-French-ughhh how the hell do you say it in Wolof. Plus, I’m about 99% sure I’ve had A.D.D. or developed it since starting classes at the training center. At 12:30 we break for lunch, and I’d be lying if I said every day I didn’t pray that we’d get to our bowls and it would be something delicious like eggplant parmigiana or something like that, so I get two hours to not really eat anything and then rest after the huge lunch I didn’t eat. At least when our two hour break is over I get to go back to class until 6pm (either a tech training class or more language depending on the day)!! On Saturdays we only have class 8-12:30, so I have the rest of the day to socialize or sit around sweating… or both.



My comp battery is dying so I will finish this and probably spell check it tomorrow... I hope some of your burning questions have been answered.