Thursday, May 31, 2007

(31 May 2007) Officially A PCV, Well Almost...


So, I should give all of you a heads up that this is probably going to be a long one.
    Thankfully, the last week of PST went by quickly.  Normally swearing-in is on a Friday, but some guy in the government who has to be at our ceremony was on vacation until Friday night.  So, this left all of us with a little more free time to get ourselves ready to go to site.  However, not all of us actually swore in.  The day before the ceremony, one PCT was summoned to Dakar for meeting with the CD (Country Director) and then I received a text message later on saying that she had decided to ET (Early Terminate, or essentially leave and go home).  She'd had a few meetings the week prior in Thies with the training staff, but it's unclear (at least to me) if she was forced out by PC staff or if she just wasn't PC material.  Not having known her well, I can't really draw any conclusions, but she has a lot of friends in our stage frustrated at PC for the clandestine way they handled things.

    Swearing in.  The ceremony itself was about 2 hours long and we were accompanied by the Japanese (JICA) and Korean(KOICA) PC equivalents.  The man, who we moved the ceremony to Saturday to accommodate, was there and in his 15 min speech to all of us said that he needed to get the phone numbers of all the beautiful female volunteers.  Oh yeah, that's totally normal here.  Even during CPW (Counter Part workshop) when clarifying the relationship between PCVs and their CPs (Counter Parts) someone mentioned that dating had to wait until after the work of the day was done.  Thankfully for me, all the men I work with most are married, but I have had my share of marriage proposals... Back to the ceremony.  A lot of important people were there.  The US, Japanese and Korean ambassadors to Senegal all spoke along with some of the higher up PC Senegal staff.  We all stood up and received envelopes; however, our CD couldn't seem to put his hands on the paper copy of the oath that we have to sign before we're actually official volunteers (hence, the title of this email).  They've said they are going to mail us the forms once they find them, hopefully that will happen before our 2 years are up.

    More recently I've been at site (Keur Ndongo, sometimes also referred to as Lewe), which is about 30 clicks (or kilometers) north of Koumpentoum.  The PC car brought myself, my 2 closest neighbors and our stuff to site 2 Wednesdays ago.  I'm not sure how they actually knew where to go.  The 'road' north of Koumpentoum is sand and dirt, just like the rest of the land.  If ever there was a place where you'd need GPS it's here.  I'm sure that with time I'll figure out which trees to turn right at and for which sand pits you go to the left, but in the meantime I'll pay 800 CFA (approx 2US$) to ride a pickup truck between Koumpentoum and Koutia Ba (a neighboring village, approx 6km from me).

    Installation was intense.  You arrive in a big white PC land cruiser with all of your stuff and drive through a dusty village, somehow navigating so as not to run over any animals or children.  You arrive into a huge dusty crowd of people and your APCD (Assistant Program Country Director, basically my PC boss) speaks with the village about you in the local language.  Then they unload all your stuff and drive off, leaving you to begin the process of integrating and trying to communicate with your new family.

    So far things are going well.  It's pretty ridiculously hot and all we really eat is rice.  There's usually something mixed into the rice, but there's so little to go around the bowl that it adds a little bit of flavor more than anything else.  I have seen minuscule bits of onion, but no other vegetables than that.  Sometimes they have sauce on top or fish, but for a bowl for 6-7 people there are maybe 2 4-inch fish mixed in.  I'd like to supplement my diet, but there's not a ton of vegetables at the loomo/lumo (weekly market, mine is every Sunday in Koutia Ba).  So far I've seen onions, potatoes and moldy onions there.

    This brings me to work.  After a day or so in the village, some women approached me and said they want me to help them create a garden.  Excited that people already have ideas in mind (a lot of the new PCV's villages don't really know what they're there to do) and at the idea of having an actual project to work on, I've jumped on it.  We are a LONG way from starting anything or having and veggies, but I am working on some research here in Tamba as I type.  Additionally a garden with vegetables means people will have vegetables to put in their (and my) food.  Think happy garden and anti-termite thoughts for me.

    People have come up with other good ideas too.  Some women want me to help them organize a women's group that could run the garden.  They'd then like for the women's group to use all the money they make from selling vegetables in the market to improve the village.  So far they want: a machine to bring water (our wells are all 65meters or deeper), a machine to pound the millet and a health post stocked with medicines.  It's not bad to think big, but it is important to go slowly and not get too far ahead of ourselves. 

    Overall, I really like my village.  My CP, Bassirou, is really friendly and helpful, the village is welcoming and patient, and everyone gets along great with David Bowie.  I have a new name too, but I'm not entirely sure how to spell it yet.  It's something along the lines of Kordu Mbodji, but I'll have to correct the spelling of it once I find out for sure.  I haven't seen anyone use soap yet (except for when my sister did laundry) and things are pretty dirty, but ndank ndank ('step by step' in wolof) I will be able to work with them on different things.

Well, I think this is pretty lengthy, so I'll leave it at that for now, but next time I'm in Tamba you'll get another one of these. 
Ba Chikanom,
Kordu?
Sharon

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