bookSo happy belated Tabaski! The Muslim holiday that follows two months after Korite. Tabaski is as big as Christmas in America. Preparations are expensive and chic: everyone has to have their hair done and get brand new clothing made; markets are like shopping malls and the food is real good… but let me explain.
So when I moved in to my family’s compound, they mentioned there are like 3 or 4 spare rooms that relatives stay in for holidays. So when I saw that Fatou, my host mom purchased not just one sheep, she got three, I figured we were having quite a few guests. I guessed wrong! One guest was here for lunch, and two others made it in time for our second dinner. 2 others were here to… umm… prepare dinner.
The day started when I wanted to go and get breakfast but Fatou had already been up for a few hours and let me have some bread. Then we started cutting potatoes and onions, and pealing garlic. At this point, I still thought we were going to be feeding an army, no joke. I probably pealed 4 entire cloves of garlic! After the call to prayer in the morning, we grabbed the unluckiest sheep of the three and the men held it down as we all stood in a line holding each other. I could barely watch but the sound of the knife and breathing out of a slit rather than its mouth was mortifying. Use your imagination – they dug a hole in the sand to absorb the blood. My host sister took pictures on her camera so I hope to get them put on here!
The first piece of meat that was eaten was the liver. Next were the testicles. I didn’t ask if there is a reason for this but that’s just what we did! The liver was delicious, surprising, even though I was thinking the whole time that just a half hour ago, this liver was a perfectly functioning liver in the sheep that lived in our backyard for the past few days. I didn’t dare touch the testicles; there’s always next year.
The rest of the meat kept coming, and we had just about every part of it grilled on the open flame. It really was tasty (still trying to get the sound of it out of my head before it died). Since there were only about 7 of us eating and entire sheep, and our fridge is dorm-size, we ate a lot and I would get harassed every time I tried to say I was full.
After dinner, we sat around and people came to visit. One of our guests is from Guinea and only moved here two years ago and I loved it when I would get complimented that I speak better Wolof than him. (I really don’t but people are nice on the holidays) Kids do what seems like trick-or-treating and go house-to-house asking for change, but they were all dressed in pretty boubous rather than as monsters. After another meal, I went to meet neighbors and had them teach me how to dance Senegalese in my new outfit. Then I went with my sister around to see some more people and since she had on heals that hurt, we walked at a snail’s pace around Bambey. Came back after 11 and Fatou tried to offer more food but I successfully turned it down. Instead of tea, we had hot milk with a mint flavor and I was in bed by 1. The morning after I could smell meat cooking outside but took my time getting ready!
I have big plans to celebrate the Christian way starting the 23rd. I went to see my Thies host family because they were really bummed I couldn’t made it for Tabaski and because I miss little Oumar. Monday, Mandi and I are headed up to Richard Toll and see the northern country for a week and enjoy a mini vacation. I think we may even make some eggnog! I have friends spread all along the boarder of Mauritania so we all are going to get together. Then, and this is the best part, we are staying in a hotel (yes, a hotel) with a pool for 3 nights in Saint Louis to celebrate 2008!
Merry Christmas to all! Happy New Year!
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Friday, December 14, 2007
Accomplishments
Hoping that you are all planning for Christmas and 2008! Crazy how time is flying right? I just don’t have snow and Xmas lights to remind me what time of the year it is. It’s kind of sad, but I do have plans for Christmas up north and a fun celebration for New Years in St. Louis with lots of Americans.
So since it’s been a while since I’ve filled you in, I’ll try my best to summarize. Last week, Mark and Bamba (my bosses) came to visit me. I tried my best to show them around and it felt good to tell them what little I have done. From there, I took a free ride in a nice Peace Corps car to Diourbel to hit up the bank and hang out with Christyne. We then headed to Dakar for the weekend. Played a little softball and had fun meeting the Peace Corps family that all live in this region, many people I hadn’t met yet. Came back to site Sunday and started quite a productive week Monday!
I had my first tutor session and it went rather well. It will be a different learning environment for sure since it was my teacher, Awa, and her mom, sister, sister’s kids and my counterpart. Not exactly the easiest place to concentrate but I did alright. I think it may work out once Awa understands what Wolof I know already and how she can help me. She has taught literacy courses before, but only to fluent Wolof speakers. I’m a bit of an exception! Anyways, it should work.
Later in the week, I met with all the presidents of women’s groups in Bambey. They meet together once a month and pay dues and discuss different issues. It was a challenging 2½ hours since it was all in Wolof and they don’t really understand why I am here. But I hope to help them out in the future. I also met with my neighbor, Sophie, who works at a new microfinance mutual. She explained what she does and how all the loans work. A lot of work can be done there linking the women to microfinance since they are the people who take out loans, and not the men. That may be a lot of what I’ll do in Bambey and the rest of my work will be in Ndem.
Just got back today from a nice stay there. I went with the PC Country Director and 3 other volunteers. Pete and I are the closest to Ndem and will be working together often. They other two, Christopher and Daniel are closer to Thies and hope to help out as well. We were all there randomly when a woman representing USAID was there so we talked with her about how they can help fund Ndem. After everyone left, I stayed and worked in the office with Abdou, my older brother when it comes to my name in Ndem – Rokhaya. We hope to get funding for an Internet line out of Ndem from Bambey with the help of USAID. Keep your fingers crossed. Put together a proposal with Abdou and have hopes to get Ndem fair trade certified with www.IFAT.com.
I sometimes feel like I am pretending to know what I am doing. I am so new at all this. As if the language was enough, I am learning how a relatively new business in a third world country runs and what can be done to improve it! I am in good spirits and hope I can make a positive impact. If you have any hints or clues, let me know!
So since it’s been a while since I’ve filled you in, I’ll try my best to summarize. Last week, Mark and Bamba (my bosses) came to visit me. I tried my best to show them around and it felt good to tell them what little I have done. From there, I took a free ride in a nice Peace Corps car to Diourbel to hit up the bank and hang out with Christyne. We then headed to Dakar for the weekend. Played a little softball and had fun meeting the Peace Corps family that all live in this region, many people I hadn’t met yet. Came back to site Sunday and started quite a productive week Monday!
I had my first tutor session and it went rather well. It will be a different learning environment for sure since it was my teacher, Awa, and her mom, sister, sister’s kids and my counterpart. Not exactly the easiest place to concentrate but I did alright. I think it may work out once Awa understands what Wolof I know already and how she can help me. She has taught literacy courses before, but only to fluent Wolof speakers. I’m a bit of an exception! Anyways, it should work.
Later in the week, I met with all the presidents of women’s groups in Bambey. They meet together once a month and pay dues and discuss different issues. It was a challenging 2½ hours since it was all in Wolof and they don’t really understand why I am here. But I hope to help them out in the future. I also met with my neighbor, Sophie, who works at a new microfinance mutual. She explained what she does and how all the loans work. A lot of work can be done there linking the women to microfinance since they are the people who take out loans, and not the men. That may be a lot of what I’ll do in Bambey and the rest of my work will be in Ndem.
Just got back today from a nice stay there. I went with the PC Country Director and 3 other volunteers. Pete and I are the closest to Ndem and will be working together often. They other two, Christopher and Daniel are closer to Thies and hope to help out as well. We were all there randomly when a woman representing USAID was there so we talked with her about how they can help fund Ndem. After everyone left, I stayed and worked in the office with Abdou, my older brother when it comes to my name in Ndem – Rokhaya. We hope to get funding for an Internet line out of Ndem from Bambey with the help of USAID. Keep your fingers crossed. Put together a proposal with Abdou and have hopes to get Ndem fair trade certified with www.IFAT.com.
I sometimes feel like I am pretending to know what I am doing. I am so new at all this. As if the language was enough, I am learning how a relatively new business in a third world country runs and what can be done to improve it! I am in good spirits and hope I can make a positive impact. If you have any hints or clues, let me know!
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Noo tudd?
So life in Senegal is going. Man is it ever tough sometimes. Ive been here almost 3 months and the language is coming along slowly. Confusion is a constant state of being and I am really trying to learn to fit in here. Give me a few months!! Im glad the PC gives us the 3 months of integration cuz I need it!
About my names! I get one every where I go! It took me a while to get used to Diama Gueye pronounces Ja-ma Gay. But here in Bambey Im Yaay Ouria Mara, yaay rhymes with eye and the Rs are like spanish; but this causes a great deal of trouble. People in my town who know my host mom get it.. but the name is actually Guinean and not senegalese so people get real confused. And since I was named after my host moms late mother; i technically replace her so my host mom calls me yaay, aka mom and she is my daughter! funny right? completely normal though..
But today I jsut got back from Ndem! I do really love that village, just 11k down the road. They have beautiful stuff since its an artisanal village and they are already exporting abroad. They are the ultimate success story and i get to work with them!! Well anyways; they werent happy with my guinean name so I will be Rokhaya Dieye. Yea; I cant pronounce it either, you prolly do it better than me! Besides all of the work that we were doing; my work being struggling to understand normal conversation, my favorite parts were enjoying all the stars at night (it doesnt get better than that) and when we were eating lunch, someone went to go pick limes off the tree to squeeze on our rice. soo good!! youre missing out!
all and all; life is good but a constant struggle. im to the point where i can mostly understand if conversations are considerate of toubab ears. im just having trouble responding. i want to do a lot here.. ive just gotta figure out how. im lucky because there is lots of opportunity here, not every pcv is as lucky. i hope i can figure out how to pronounce my names and start to respond correctly to questions; and it will be an accomplishment!
thats all!! and anyone reading this needs to get on the phone and call my dad -- his number is 920 851 0641. he has yet to hang christmas lights.... scrudge! get on his case ;)
About my names! I get one every where I go! It took me a while to get used to Diama Gueye pronounces Ja-ma Gay. But here in Bambey Im Yaay Ouria Mara, yaay rhymes with eye and the Rs are like spanish; but this causes a great deal of trouble. People in my town who know my host mom get it.. but the name is actually Guinean and not senegalese so people get real confused. And since I was named after my host moms late mother; i technically replace her so my host mom calls me yaay, aka mom and she is my daughter! funny right? completely normal though..
But today I jsut got back from Ndem! I do really love that village, just 11k down the road. They have beautiful stuff since its an artisanal village and they are already exporting abroad. They are the ultimate success story and i get to work with them!! Well anyways; they werent happy with my guinean name so I will be Rokhaya Dieye. Yea; I cant pronounce it either, you prolly do it better than me! Besides all of the work that we were doing; my work being struggling to understand normal conversation, my favorite parts were enjoying all the stars at night (it doesnt get better than that) and when we were eating lunch, someone went to go pick limes off the tree to squeeze on our rice. soo good!! youre missing out!
all and all; life is good but a constant struggle. im to the point where i can mostly understand if conversations are considerate of toubab ears. im just having trouble responding. i want to do a lot here.. ive just gotta figure out how. im lucky because there is lots of opportunity here, not every pcv is as lucky. i hope i can figure out how to pronounce my names and start to respond correctly to questions; and it will be an accomplishment!
thats all!! and anyone reading this needs to get on the phone and call my dad -- his number is 920 851 0641. he has yet to hang christmas lights.... scrudge! get on his case ;)
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