Hi all !
Sorry for the delay in updates, feel free to check out: www.neverbe6again.typepad.com for more frequent postings from a girl in our stage (the group of us here starting in March 2007). Let’s see, the braids have finally come out. I had them in for about a week and a half, but the itching didn’t get much better with time and the skin around my hairline was freaking out from the stress of being pulled so tight. Don’t worry though, I did take pictures and am trying to upload them as I type this. Someone said I should cut my before I left; they were definitely right. I think I might wait until halfway through service, take a trip home and get my hair whacked off and donate it to locks of love. Amber, think you can work some of your magic on me?
The last week and a half has been sort of a drag, but as of yesterday things are back on the upslope. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been here for 5 full weeks already, but at the same time I feel like it’s been forever. Last week I hit a lot of the “walls” in terms of food, sensory-overload, language barriers, and cultural differences. Food/nutrition probably hit me the hardest. I started getting depressed waiting for lunch every day because I knew that 1- it wasn’t that exciting flavour-wise and 2- there is a lot of essential nutrition missing from it. Thankfully I got my first care package that included a variety of protein bars (thanks mom!) so I threw a few of those into my meal rotation and have been feeling better ever since.
In other exciting news, the beach house went well. Last weekend 24 of us rented a beach house in Popengheim (sp?) along with an Allhum (giant, rickety, and probably unsafe bus thing) to take us there after classes ended on Saturday and bring us back Sunday evening. The Atlantic was beautiful, albeit a bit colder than I expected; apparently the currents on the eastern side go from us toward the equator instead of away from it. Our beach house was amazing! There were 7 or so bedrooms on the bottom floor that each had 2 twin beds and a bathroom and then a rooftop terrace on the second floor. We weren’t close enough to “spit into the ocean” but we were less than a 5 minute walk away. Oh, and there was running water in the kitchen and in the bathrooms, a little bit of heaven if you ask me. I did end up getting a little sunburned, but it was nice to chill out on the beach and soack up some rays (YES I did wear sunscreen).
I think my mom sent out an email but in case you didn’t get it, my site for the next 2 years (starting after May 11) is Keur Ndongo. You won’t find it on a map (there’s less than 300 people in it) but it’s about 30km north of Koumpentoum. Koumpentoum is a relatively large city that you can find along the road that runs west east just above The Gambia. It’s kind of smack in the middle, but I’m technically in the Tamba (Tambacounda) region. I’m not sure exactly where my mailbox will be and I won’t know until after I get there, but if you want to use up some of those 84 cent stamps you have lying around the house or even fill up that old box you’ve been saving for no good reason (mom) and mail it off to me before I have the new address, you can send it to:
Rebekah Johnson
BP 309
Tambacounda, Senegal
WEST AFRICA
Don’t put my name in the “To” field because it seems to confuse the post office people, but you can put something like “Super rad friend of Sharon Suri” above your address in the “from” field so Rebekah will know it’s for me. Back to my hut in Keur Ndongo, which will be free from the pesky annoyances of running water and electricity; I’m definitely excited to get to know my village and start drinking tea with them. (Tea, or “attaya” as it’s called here, is VERY popular. People spend a lot of time both making and drinking the tea. I see it as the social equivalent of the coffee addiction I developed before I came here...) I’m going to be the first volunteer in the village, although there have been other volunteers in nearby villages before. I don’t know where the current PCV’s local to that area are in relation to me, but another person in our stage will be about 6 or 7km away. Unfortunately I won’t know much else about my site until I get there, but I’ll be sure to keep you updated as things go on.
Even though the last week and a half has been a bit wretched, things are definitely better now. As I mentioned earlier, integrating protein-rich bars into my diet is helping a lot and my Wolof is getting better. I found a really cool little fabric stall in the market with 4 hilarious Wolof women who would really like to marry me off to one of their brothers. Anyways, I somehow managed to hit it off with them the other day and I’ve been back for the last 4 or 5 days in a row (after telling other PCTs about it, a bunch of other people have wanted to go and get their fabric there). They’re super patient with my limited Wolof vocabulary and even helped me to bargain with them (telling me when it was my turn to name a price). It’s an odd sort of hangout-friendship, but I’m definitely improving my market-shopping skills while I’m there.
Well, I think that’s it for now. I’m sure I had more to say, but I can’t remember it if I did and it’s gettiong late anyways. Most of the pics are up, but my camera died in the middle of the upload so I’ll have to add to the album later. Hope all is well for everyone at home, feel free to drop a line whenever ;-)
Ba Chikanoom
(until next time)
Sharon
PS- I’m totally disconnected from news in the US here (especially since I rarely have time to hit up the cyber) so feel free to snail-mail or e-mail me articles about happenings there: I heard something about the Virginia Tech incident, but not much. Also (but not to worry you) a PCV in the Phillipines was just found buried in a shallow grave near her site. She was around 10 days away from COS’ing (Close of Servise, when you’re done with your 2 years) and they have no idea what happenned. We’re getting some info on that from the PC, but not a ton so tell me what you hear.
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