The Home Stretch

During my Pre-Service Training (PST) time crawled by so slowly, each day seeming longer and more sweltering than the one before. Twenty-seven months seemed to stretch off into infinity, a boggling amount of time. Now, a year and a half later, my Close-of-Service (COS) conference is coming up on the horizon and it feels like the earth has sped up; the weeks are just flying by. It isn't really a surprise (pretty much everyone I talked to about Peace Corps mentioned this phenomenon) but it's still somehow slightly shocking, like when a good friend's baby is suddenly starting kindergarten.

It make sense that this happens; at first everything, even the most innocuous small-talk, was a struggle and daily life was both exhausting and filled with huge blocks of unoccupied hours. I'm busy now, with work projects and to-do lists and mundane chores and Peace Corps responsibilities and social calls and vacation ideas, and even though I have so many more things I want to do while I'm here it's starting to feel like COS-ing is just around the corner. It's not bad, it's mostly pleasant to be busy, it's just a little strange to be most of the way through a thing that once seemed like it was going to last such a long time. Now that I really feel at home here it's time to start thinking about going home there. Funny how that works. 

Vacation Leave

I'm currently on vacation and will be back in Senegal in April. In the meantime I'm enjoying all the fresh veggies, fancy cheese, and wonderful coffee that America has to offer. 

MERRY HAPPY!

Chrishaunakwanstice, Fancy Baking Day, Christmas Adam, White Elephant Night...  I love the holidays. And Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwaanza, and Tamharit, New Years' Eve, those are nice, too. 

This year I'll be spending Christmas in  Popenguine with some Peace Corps friends (including Emma and her family visiting from Amerik) and I'm sure that Christmas on the beach will be fantastic, but I know that part of me will be thinking of another West Coast. 

Family time, gingerbread houses and a Cheeseboard cheese platters... winter in California is generally pretty lovely, and last year was no exception. And now I'm feeling all nostalgic.

Merry Happy, Everyone! 

Home Away From Home

When I walk from my hut to get water (or go to the boutique, or buy a bean sandwich) I usually walk through this field, next to the Sofidetex shed where they store cotton-related stuff, and, especially with the palm tree, the view always strikes me as being very Northern California-esque, like the foothills around Mount Hamilton. 

Tabaski!

So it's Tabaski time in Senegal. that means that day before yesterday I gave my family a whole bunch of onions, Maggi bouillon, and vegetable oil, and spent the morning helping stir pots and chop things for yassa onion sauce.

The day started with my host brothers warming up the skin of the big drum that they used to call people to prayer at the mosque.

Everyone got dressed up in their newest, nicest, clothes, and much to everyone's great delight I wore a new complet, earrings, and a headband thing. I went to the mosque for the morning prayer, and even though I had to sit outside the mosque, with all the other women and children, it was really pleasant and nice to see people and greet everyone. People around here are observant but not particularly conservative, so it's a relaxed atmosphere and everyone was really warm and welcoming even though I was wearing nail polish, had no idea what was going on half the time, and am not Muslim.

Complets are neat-looking, but really hot and not super flattering. 

Mankaba and Sajou Ba and their shiny new clothes.

There aren't any horses in the southern part of Senegal (there are tse tse flies here and their bites are apparently lethal to horses) but there are cows, who stand in the middle of the road when there are cars coming, and donkeys, who usually hang out on the outskirts of the village, braying loudly and eating grass. Every once in awhile, though, they chase each other around and it's terrifying because they come tearing through the compound and everyone scatters to avoid being trampled. The donkeys were  out and about on Tabaski, so people kept an eye out, shooing them away so they wouldn't overturn all the cooking pots or run over anyone.

The most terrifying animal in Salémata.

Aside from the donkey excitement, it was a very mellow day. My family slaughtered a ram, which I thought would be messy but turned out to be shockingly quick, calm, and totally silent, and my host father, Sadat Souaré, portioned out piles of meat for the mosque, for elderly people in the neighborhood, and for lunch and dinner. It's impressive how every possible piece of the ram gets used.

Dividing up shares of meat.

I mostly hung out with my host sisters, watching them steam vermicelli ("cous cous Americain" as they call it) and slicing up onions and garlic, stirring pots, and keeping an eye out for marauding donkeys. There are usually between 20 and 30 people eating meals on my host family's compound, and almost everyone comes home for Tabaski so there are quite a few pots and bowls and fires and whatnot involved in holiday food prep.

After lunch we all put our fancy clothes back on, and I walked around the village, greeting people, being fed all sorts of little sandwiches and bon bons, and complimenting everyone on their lovely new complet outfits.

Bailo and Bineta chopping meat and peeling potatoes 

Host mom Mariama dishing up lunch.

Host sister Diabou smiling in her fancy new clothes.

Me (Adama) and host sister Mariama Gaulo

Host siblings Gaulo and Mamadou

Les Dakarois

After the  Health/EE Summit my friend Leah and I went up to Dakar and had a wonderful time visiting Rachel & Emily at their completely lovely home, which, coming from village, pretty much seemed like Hearst Castle to us.

(Rachel is going to make the best baby blankets.)

I took some photos out the window of our sept-place (the hearse-looking station wagons that have seven seats) to capture the stunning scenic beauty of the Dakar freeways. 

It was mostly partly finished houses and rubble piles and the occasional baobab, but also a surprising number of these bizarre billboards encouraging everyone to "Be clever like Leuk!" and get bank loans to buy Christmas/a fridge. Leuk is apparently the father of a family of rabbits with human bodies? 

"No marsude buy."

"It is going well."

I had a pretty good week in Darou, my training village, and am back at the Thiès Training Center for the next couple days. I'll post highlights sometime tomorrow, hope everyone is well!

Under African Skies...

Last night walking back to my room I looked up at the stars and saw Orion. It's always the first constellation I see, and it made me think of home and camping and Lake Tahoe. And Fievel going West.

Maybe I should have called this thing A Senegalese Tale: LaRocha Goes to West Africa...