A Good Day

Today was good! We just got back from digging a practice garden in town. It was really hard work and also the only real exercise I have done since I arrived here, and after I got back to the training center and showered I was in such a good mood and my head was much clearer.  I am glad I have an assignment where I am going to be doing some physical labor, because it is difficult to exercise here due to cultural/heat reasons.  Because of the starchy diet and lack of exercise, female volunteers actually tend to get a "rice belly" by the time two years is up.  Fortunately large women are considered very beautiful here!

In two days we are leaving for our 3 week home-stays.  We find out tomorrow where we are going and what language we are going to learn (in addition to French).  This home-stay is apparently the first "make-or-break" part of training, meaning the first time where a few people decide to go home.  I am worried mostly about getting sick.  Some home-stays are here in Rosso, but since I requested a smaller village for my permanent site I think that my home-stay site will also be in a smaller community.  

Every time I post on this blog I feel like I am mentioning about 1/20th of the things that I want to, so if anyone has questions about things here just ask and I will answer them on the blog in hilarious Q&A format.  This is the last time I am going to update this before home-stay, so check back in 3 weeks to a month!

One Week

I left last Tuesday and now it is Tuesday here, although it feels like much longer since I left.  Lots of ups and downs today.  

The ups:

-I had my French oral placement exam today and it went well, although I was pretty fast and loose with the grammar

-I went into town and bought detergent (in French)

-Did my laundry

The downs:

-I felt really tired and fuzzy-headed all morning

-I have a bunch of mosquito bites

-We had a health lecture and heard a horror story about malaria, and then I realized that I hadn't taken my malaria pill the previous day

-I thought I had malaria

I felt a lot better after lunch though.  I think my problem here is that we eat such a light breakfast that by lunch I am having hunger hallucinations. So no malaria yet.  No one is sick yet either-I think that happens more when we go to our host families.  The heat hasn't been that bad.  We stay out of the sun during the hottest part of the day, and then in the evening it is cool and breezy.  

As far as adjusting, I think that it will get more difficult once we get to our host family sites.  Even though we are adjusting to the new culture and learning new things every day, our training center is still very American-friendly.  So far I think the hardest things to adjust to will be:

-The trash.  It is everywhere here.  In Rosso, where we are, it is on the side of every road-there are no sanitation or garbage services.  Before I came here I thought a trash pick-up program would be a possibility, but I don't know where it would go and just picking it up is not a sustainable solution.  The worst part is that once I get to my site I have to dispose of trash in the same way, since there is no other option.  It goes against my entire college major/assignment/environmental ethic, so we'll see....

-The long skirts.  I thought they were cool at first but I am slowly realizing that for two years I will not be able to show my legs above my ankles.

-The slower pace.  Even in training the meals and sessions always start late, and I am afraid that I won't get anything done while I am here.

-The culture. I'm not sure what to say about this yet, but it seems like the obvious one.

Overall things are going well though.  We are still in the planning phase of so many of the things that are going to happen during training, so I am excited for them to actually begin (home-stay, language, etc.).   

Salaam Aleykum!

Day two in Mauritania, and although we don't have toilet paper and can't drink the water we have wireless internet in our training center.  Although it is really slow... 

It has been such a whirlwind since we got here.  The flight to Senegal went all night and so we got to Dakar at around 4:30 am.  It was all black and then out of nowhere we could see the coast, and about a minute later we landed.  It was amazing!  It was also the first time I spoke French to someone who does not also speak English, when I frantically asked someone "Ou les toillettes??"

After that was taken care of, we took a 6 hour bus ride to Mauritania.  Senegal is beautiful.  I tried to watch everything out the window but once I started falling asleep I couldn't stop.  We arrived in Rosso early in the afternoon, and there was a huge line of people at the training center to greet us.  Previously the Peace Corps did training in a high school in Kaedi when it was out for the summer, but this is the first year that there is a permanent site.  

We have spent the past 24 hours mostly on cultural training and a little bit of language-now I can say "Hello, how are you" in Soninke, Pulaar, Wolof, and Hassaniya (and French).  I have realized that my French is not as bad as I thought, although to be fair I have only been talking to other Americans.  Another interesting thing is that we all eat with our hands out of a communal bowl, and only with our right hand, since our left hand is reserved for bathroom related activities.  In 5 days we leave to spend 3 weeks with our host families, which is when the real cross-training will begin, which is both exciting and terrifying! I have to go do some medical stuff now, but I will try to write again soon and include some of my more interesting personal thoughts in the next post.

Email me or post on the blog!!

Atlanta

I just finished staging in Atlanta, so tomorrow we fly out! I think there are 77 people in all who are going-I spent all of yesterday trying to learn names but took a break on that today. I also took my first malaria prophylaxis today, which is something I will continue to do every day for the next 27 months! I can't believe that I am going to be in Africa so soon. I don't think it will really set in until I get there! I only have 5 minutes of free internet left so that's all for now, but keep checking!

Test Post

My first post! It is Sunday night, and I leave for Atlanta on Tuesday morning.  After a two day staging event there, I fly to Senegal and then take a bus to Mauritania.  Not very much of interest to post on here yet...I have spent the last few days buying things on my packing list, which have included a mosquito net, vegetable seeds, duct tape, and four pounds of Gatorade mix.  I am not typically very good at keeping a journal (and so probably, by extension, a blog), but I will try to update this enough to make it worth reading during the next two years!