Hey so it’s been awhile! And so
much fun has happened! CBT round 3 for almost 3 weeks has come and gone. My
language skills are really coming along. I can successfully discuss with my
little sisters about what they did today, what they want to do tomorrow, and
what they want to be when they grow up. I have had some interesting discussions
with my mom about Senegalese polygamy vs American monogamy, the idea of women
working and being independent in America, as well as the foreign idea of men
cooking and cleaning in America. In Senegal, men would never do any kind of
cleaning or cooking, so that blew her mind.
My days at CBT have been very
relaxing as I have gotten into a lovely routine. I have so much time to study,
garden, read, dance and sing with my family. It has been so lovely. Also, side
note, I had this misconception that I would not be able to bath very much in
Africa, but I actually shower twice or maybe 3 times a day. I love it! I feel
so healthy and clean and productive all the time. And I am learning so much, so
very quickly, it feels great!
Also the good times spent with the
other peace corps volunteers have been so much fun. We all met at the beach,
twice!! It was so beautiful and relaxing. We also had an amazing Halloween
party and I was very impressed by the craftiness of the costumes created with
minimal supplies by the volunteers. We had a talent show (so hilarious! And a
bonfire! And we went to church (which is the name of the only bar. It’s called
church because it is run by the Christians. Muslims aren’t allowed to drink or
sell alcohol) and had a grand old evening! Us volunteers know how to have a
good time. Today we all had our tech finals. Aced mine! Whoop! And we are
working on our final presentations on our work objectives at site and we have
to do presentations in our local languages. Should be interesting!
Also today all of our counterparts
at our local sites have been pouring into the training center. I am so excited
to see my lovely counterpart again (I met her while on VV). Her name is Rugy
Cham and she is a doll, she reminds me of my wonderful grandmama Ruby! Fyi: A
counterpart is a person in our permanent site who is not only a work partner,
but they help us with language acquisition and cultural integration. They are
the person who guides us in the community, who helps us find work projects,
gain credibility and they will facilitate meetings and trainings for us. I am
so glad my counterpart is such a sweet woman. The next couple of days we have
counterpart workshop where we work with the counterparts of communication
techniques and they are introduced to some of the common challenges the
volunteer faces when at site (communication and cultural challenges primarily).
It should be very helpful.
We swear-in in less than 2 weeks!!!
I am so excited! The ambassador should be there, which will be really cool. I
got a pretty dress made to wear for swear in. Then after swear in we will be
having Thanksgiving at the beach, before we finally go off to our sites! I am
sooo very excited! Ahh time sure does fly when you are working hard and having
fun!
So some crazy stories/ highlights from the past couple of
weeks.
·
I got super sick and was projectile vomiting. I
reminded myself of the girl from the exorcist. Fourteen times in one day. It
was insane. But I am much better now.
·
I sleep nearly naked, because it is so insanely
hot here. And one night a lovely little cockroach scuttled across my body. It
was terrifying! Then I got out of bed turned on the light and chased that giant
monster around my room for about a half hour trying to kill him. I did that
till I finally gave up, crawled back into bed and super tucked in my mosquito
net. Then I listened to him crawl all over my mosquito net and ruffle through
my stuff till I finally drifted off to sleep… He comes back every night… I have
come to terms with my cockroach friend(s).
·
When we were all at the beach, a crowd of
children formed around us and the kids distracted us with wrestling and of the
Peace corps trainees had her phone and some money stolen. And some disrespectful
little kid drank nearly half of my water!! Muyanni! (Not good!) I yelled at
him!
·
A goat jumped on my friend Justin when we were
studying pulaar one day. One minute we were listening to our teacher teach and
the next there is a goat on Justin’s tummy! Hilarious!
·
Our water was out for 5 days. So we went to the
well to get water. I carried the buckets of water on my head like a real
Senegalese woman! Proud moment for me!
·
I learned a new Baba Mall song and dance (Baba
Mall is the biggest singer in Senegal, look him up!!!)
·
When I was sick and in Dakar, I had pizza!!! And
DONUTS!!! It was amazing!! Also I got to cook for myself!!! It was soo amazing.
Cooking is probably the thing I miss doing the most.
Anyways I should go! But I hope all is well!! Ask me
questions and I will answer the call!!!
Love,
Heather!
I miss you, terribly. I am so glad you posted this today b/c I was worrying too much about you. I can't wait to hug you and laugh about silly things. My church is praying for you and I pray for you pretty much all the time. I am glad to hear all about Senegal, but I cannot wait to hear it from your face! I love you very much. -A- (PS- my package arrived in Senegal over a week ago. Have you gotten it?)
ReplyDeleteHeather..be careful if you change locations. Your little cockroach friend might just hide in your bags and travel with you...lol :)
ReplyDeleteAmanders! The package HAS arrived! But they couldn't go to pick it up until tomorrow(Wednesday). I am SOOOO EXCITED :)!!! I love you sooo very much! Also! Please send me the girls measurements! I want to get them some cute outfits made :) And Ms. Margaret, I really hope he doesn't come with me to the north!!
ReplyDeleteOHHHH yay!!!
ReplyDeleteGood morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because through them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Senegal? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Senegal in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely