Quick snapshots of my home

This is the front of my home in Mbour, a large beach town with sand EVERYWHERE. I have not yet been to the beach which is 3 kilometers away but I hope to go soon. I hear it is gorgeous. I live in a nice compound with a larger home where 4 brothers, an aunt, my mother, sister, my teacher Aziz and I reside in until the end of training. Then there is a separate structure that is occupied by renters. One of the rooms is the size of mine and is occupied by a family with 4 childern who I adore! A baby, Mohammed, the cutest two year old girl, Siree, a smart and hardworking 6 year old girl, Adou and a 13 year old girl who has never been to school but eagerly teaches me Mandinka (the language I am learning).
 

 The soccer field that is in front of my home, it is almost always occupied with kids or adults viciously playing soccer. On the left there is a school where we have made attempts to start a garden.

 Inside my compound. My 'bathroom'. One shower room and one squatty potty. Fun stuff.

This is Fatu, a cousin who lives with the other Mandinka learner, Venchelle.
Fatu has more energy and more talent braiding hair than I have ever seen from a 5 year old. I was at Venchelle's house for two hours as people were trying to fix the lock on her door as the key got jammed and Fatu entertained me. I have not yet brought out the camera at my home because I did not want people to know that I had one on my first visit but I couldnt resist from taking a picture of Fatu. She loves to jump up and down but as soon as my camera came out all she wanted was to lie on the floor and for me to take a picture of her sleeping. This is the only pic that I got of her with her eyes open. Still pretty cute.

Promise I will take out my camera next time so I can take more pictures of my amazing family. More stories to come.

I have arrived!

Yes- I am alive

No- I did not sleep a wink on the plane

Yes- It is hot

No- I have not eaten anything exotic yet

Yes- The food is delicious

No- I did not need my Yellow Fever Vaccination card in order to enter the country that I probably gave mom a panic attack over after realizing I forgot it!! Grrr.... 

Yes- I feel like I'm at summer camp

SO, now that I have gone through the quick, easy questions, I will state how wonderful all of my fellow trainees who will be working in Senegal and The Gambia are. It is extremely refreshing to be surrounded by so many young and old Americans who are experiencing emotions similar to mine: excited to be here, nervous about learning a new language, and nonchalant about living without running water or electricity. This is an amazingly friendly, caring and female dominated group of 65. 

So far, Peace Corps organization has amazed me. Other than 2 shots (6 more to come), a cell phone, a massive medical kit and a bag of emergency medication, I have also received a large water filter with a demonstration on how to use it, 1700 CFA (which is less money than it sounds, and a variety of large booklets. This is my second day in Senegal and aside from the bus from the airport to the Training Center in Thies (pronounced chess), I have yet to see outside the walls of this gorgeous, impressive compound. Every spare patch of ground has edible plants growing out of the composted soil. Even the old toilets have been used as plants for pots and make lovely decorations. 

Our intensive training is yet to come. Today the schedule is light containing only a medical, language and technical interview. I amazed myself with my language interview as I somehow managed to blurt out a few audible sentences in French but it is clear that I have my work cut out for me. In the next few days I will learn what tribal language I will be learning and then the real work begins!

Now off to go assemble my water filter! Pictures soon to come... Happy International Women's Day!

Assalaam maalekum!

As you all know, I am about to leave for Senegal where I will spend the next 2 years as a Peace Corps Volunteer working as a 'Preventative Health Educator'. Dont ask me what that means as I am not 100% sure yet, but don't worry you will get more than enough info soon. Over 3,000 Peace Corps Volunteers have served in Senegal since 1963. I will be leaving with a group of 45 other eager volunteers and we will be joining 250 volunteers already posted in Senegal. Cant wait!

Because most people: a) Know very little about Senegal and b) seem to be super interested in what I have packed I decided to devote my first blog to these two topics.

First off, Senegal is a country located on the coast of West Africa, slightly smaller than South Dakota. Approxiametly 12.5 million people live in Senegal, 42% of whom live in rural areas and rely on farming as their main source of income. Other industries include fishing, mining (gold was recently found in the South where mines are beginning to be constructed and will soon become a much larger sector), tourism and industry. Senegal is one of the most industrialized countries in the region and all of Africa. The people are very proud of its long standing history of democracy.

On June 20^th, 1960 Senegal declared independence from France. A few months later Leopold Senghor became Senegal's first President and held this position until 1981. Currently, Senegal is a republic with a president being elected every five years and a term limit of 2 years. As some of you may be aware, the most recent 26^th of February election were somewhat controversial as the current president, Wade re-ran for president under questionable justification. There were a series of protests in Dakar and a run off election will occur in the next month. All of these 'Occupy Oakland-esque' protests have been in Dakar, the capital. I have been informed that Senegal is very peaceful and any violent protests is uncharacteristic of the Senegalese and not to worry, I will not be in Dakar anyway.

Islam is practiced by 90% of the population, the other 10% are mostly Roman Catholics or Protestant. The Islam in Senegal is very different from the image of the Arab Muslims that we receive in the US. This exposure will surely be fascinating and anticipate I will learn a lot about these customs. Once I find where all the Jews are in Senegal, I will let you know!

Ok. Now for the fun part. 

So I will spare you from receiving my entire packing list but here are a few things:

Clothes:

Lots of appropriate, long skirts and short sleeve shirts

One sweatshirt

One pair of sneakers

2 pairs of sandals

An exorbitant amount of underwear

Useful Items:

Swiss Army Knife

Kitchen Knife

Emergency SOS kit (when I am stranded and quickly need some rope this will come in handy, thanks Todd!)

Non stick frying pan

Tent

Sleeping Bag (Merci mom!)

Duck tape

Pillow

Electronics:

Netbook

External Hardrive (with a zillion movies and tv shows on it, compliments of Tony)

Digital Camera and several memory cards

Kindle (yes, I gave in. Thanks Dad/Kate!)

Ipod

Random:

Several beautiful notebooks, I hope to fill them with doodles and notes from my journey (compliments of so many people!)

Colored pencils, drawing pens and drawing pencils (all thanks to the Erman Family!)

Knitting needles, crochet hooks, and a few bundles of yarn, keep your fingers crossed that I can buy some there!

Deck of cards

Portable Connect Four set

3 puzzles

Food:

1 pound of TJs Dark Chocolate (Yes Katie, it fit!! Thank you for fulfilling my chocolate needs for a few weeks! If it lasts that long...)

2 bags of Peanut M&Ms (good call Jess!)

2 Dark Chocolate Reese's

1 Jar of PB

(anyone noticing a trend here...)

Assortment of random spices

Seeds! (hopefully these will eventually turn into food)

All of this (and so much more) is packed neatly into ziplock plastic bags and shoved into a backpacking backpack and a duffel.

Honestly, the bulk of my bags are toiletries. I think I have enough vitamins and sunscreen and contact solution to single handedly heal all of Senegal, but 9 months down the road I think I will be glad I have it!

Well ba beneen yoon, the next time you hear from me I will be in Senegal!