These past weeks have been pretty busy going back and forth to the training center in Thies and my home stay visit ин Bayakh. There has been so much going on, including the unveiling of our permanent sites! We all went out to the basketball court in the training center where there is a map of Senegal and were blindfolded. Current volunteers and staff put us on a spot on the map, then we all took off our blindfolds and saw where we will be for the next two years. I am going to a village called Toune. It is in the region of Kafrine and about 4k north of the city of Kafrine. Kafrine (the region) is actually a sub-region of Kaolack that also includes Fatick, making the greater-region of Kaolack (Kaolack, Fatick, and Kafrine) the biggest region in terms of Peace Corps volunteers. There will now be over fifty in the region, which is great for collaboration. The regional house is in the city of Kaolack and Kafrine is about an hour and a half away by car, so not too bad. Last week we went on volunteer visits to stay with a current volunteer that we will either be replacing or that is near our site. I am not replacing a volunteer currently, however my site has had two past volunteers a while ago.
I stayed with a nearby volunteer for five days and saw where she lived, what she does on a day to day basis, and what kind of projects she is doing. It was a bit overwhelming at first to just be thrown in, but at the same time very helpful to get an idea of where will be going, how we will live, and transportation. There were definitely some crazy moments getting acclimated to everything and traveling in Senegal. Let me tell you, getting around is not the easiest thing to do. On one of the days my host volunteer and I took a charette (horse-drawn cart) to my village and met my new host family. I have a father who has two wives (very common in Senegal) and various animals around. I am not sure yet who else lives in the compound as we were only there for a short period of time and people are constantly coming and going. I did get to see my hut! It's a mud hut with a thatched roof. Pretty big actually (all relative of course). It has a cement floor, front door, back door, window, and that's about it! I have a decent sized private backyard where my douche (hole in the ground) is. There is no electricity or running water in my compound, which will be interesting!
My family seems nice, yet I did little to no communicating after realizing that my Wolof is terrible, plus they speak salam salam Wolof, meaning a southern dialect that is much different from other regions. Hopefully in the next month I will get better. I definitely plan to get a language tutor once I install in village. I am excited to set up my hut and paint to make it pretty! I think my family and community are happy to have a PC volunteer in their village. One of my host moms even gave me a hug! It was crazy to see the place where I will be living and working for the rest of my service. I am lucky that I am so close to a city that has internet, shops, a bar, and other amenities. While I am the only trainee from my stage going to the region of Kafrine there are a lot of current volunteers in and around the city of Kafrine. I am looking forward to working with them on various projects across all sectors.
Our regional house is in the city of Kaolack and is pretty big and nice. There are a total of 9 trainees going to the greater-Kaolack region, so we all got to spend the night and hang out at the house with the current volunteers. The house has a kitchen with refrigerator and freezer, there are showers and toilets, internet, and even a TV! It's a pretty sweet house and will be a great place to escape to when village life gets tough! The city of Kaolack, on the other hand, is intense. A lot of people, really crowded market, and a ridiculous garage. It was so overwhelming to go anywhere in that place! There are, however, two Toubab (foreigner) shops which is awesome. My volunteer and I were able to get the ingredients to make burritos! They were amazing! I am also happy that my region is so centrally located. Kaolack is only about 2 hours from Thies and about 4-5 hours from Dakar, which is really nice considering some people had to travel up to 12 hours to get to their sites!
Today we got to go to Dakar for the first time! It was crazy, so different than any other place I have seen since being here. A mix between poverty and luxury. We got to go to the beautiful PC office and had a tour and meet a lot of the staff. We briefly went out into the city with third-year volunteers working in Dakar and got ice cream (yum)! We then went to the "American Club", and exclusive country club for Westerners that serves American food and has a nice swimming pool. It was sweet! I plan to make frequent trips to lounge by the pool and have club sandwiches. We had a couple different sessions there and then headed to the police station to get work permits. It was cool to finally see Dakar, but we were there for a short period of time. I will be happy to go back and really explore the city. Tomorrow we are headed back to our home stay sites and will be there for 5 days. We only have a little less than a month left! Swear-in is May 13th. So much, yet so little time!
I stayed with a nearby volunteer for five days and saw where she lived, what she does on a day to day basis, and what kind of projects she is doing. It was a bit overwhelming at first to just be thrown in, but at the same time very helpful to get an idea of where will be going, how we will live, and transportation. There were definitely some crazy moments getting acclimated to everything and traveling in Senegal. Let me tell you, getting around is not the easiest thing to do. On one of the days my host volunteer and I took a charette (horse-drawn cart) to my village and met my new host family. I have a father who has two wives (very common in Senegal) and various animals around. I am not sure yet who else lives in the compound as we were only there for a short period of time and people are constantly coming and going. I did get to see my hut! It's a mud hut with a thatched roof. Pretty big actually (all relative of course). It has a cement floor, front door, back door, window, and that's about it! I have a decent sized private backyard where my douche (hole in the ground) is. There is no electricity or running water in my compound, which will be interesting!
My family seems nice, yet I did little to no communicating after realizing that my Wolof is terrible, plus they speak salam salam Wolof, meaning a southern dialect that is much different from other regions. Hopefully in the next month I will get better. I definitely plan to get a language tutor once I install in village. I am excited to set up my hut and paint to make it pretty! I think my family and community are happy to have a PC volunteer in their village. One of my host moms even gave me a hug! It was crazy to see the place where I will be living and working for the rest of my service. I am lucky that I am so close to a city that has internet, shops, a bar, and other amenities. While I am the only trainee from my stage going to the region of Kafrine there are a lot of current volunteers in and around the city of Kafrine. I am looking forward to working with them on various projects across all sectors.
Our regional house is in the city of Kaolack and is pretty big and nice. There are a total of 9 trainees going to the greater-Kaolack region, so we all got to spend the night and hang out at the house with the current volunteers. The house has a kitchen with refrigerator and freezer, there are showers and toilets, internet, and even a TV! It's a pretty sweet house and will be a great place to escape to when village life gets tough! The city of Kaolack, on the other hand, is intense. A lot of people, really crowded market, and a ridiculous garage. It was so overwhelming to go anywhere in that place! There are, however, two Toubab (foreigner) shops which is awesome. My volunteer and I were able to get the ingredients to make burritos! They were amazing! I am also happy that my region is so centrally located. Kaolack is only about 2 hours from Thies and about 4-5 hours from Dakar, which is really nice considering some people had to travel up to 12 hours to get to their sites!
Today we got to go to Dakar for the first time! It was crazy, so different than any other place I have seen since being here. A mix between poverty and luxury. We got to go to the beautiful PC office and had a tour and meet a lot of the staff. We briefly went out into the city with third-year volunteers working in Dakar and got ice cream (yum)! We then went to the "American Club", and exclusive country club for Westerners that serves American food and has a nice swimming pool. It was sweet! I plan to make frequent trips to lounge by the pool and have club sandwiches. We had a couple different sessions there and then headed to the police station to get work permits. It was cool to finally see Dakar, but we were there for a short period of time. I will be happy to go back and really explore the city. Tomorrow we are headed back to our home stay sites and will be there for 5 days. We only have a little less than a month left! Swear-in is May 13th. So much, yet so little time!
