Off to Install! Back in Five Weeks.

Tomorrow morning I install at site. I am the only one left from the Kédougou, so in the morning I will get up, load the mid-sized mountain of stuff I've accumulated into a Peace Corps car, and drive out to Salémata to be shown around, introduced to the local authorities, and to officially meet my host family. I'll move in, start unpacking, and get back to working on my Pullo Fuuta language, which feels like it's been getting rusty over the last week or so.

I'm planning on being out at site for about five weeks, but since Salémata is more of a small town than a village in many ways I'll have electricity for a couple hours in the evening on most days, good cell phone coverage and possibly some e-mail access.  I'll also be doing my best to check (and send!) mail. My address again:                      PCV LaRocha LaRiviere
                       Corps de la Paix
                       B.P. 37    Kédougou
                       Senegal - West Africa 
and I'm still looking for postcards and pictures for hut decorating!

I'll be back in Kédougou in July, and will make sure to have some photo albums ready to post as soon as I get back to reliable wifi.

Also! I talked with Emma, my roommate at the Training center during PST, and was happy to hear that she had a good install and has great cell phone coverage, or reseau ("network" in French) as they say here.

Nostalgia for the Relatively Recent Past

Another fun thing for those of you not on Facebook: Last Christmas I made gingerbread houses, one for my family in Berkeley and one for the kids I babysat while I was in California. I got pretty into it, melting LifeSavers into little windows and everything. I haven't baked anything as ambitious since I was living the Swiss Life...

When we were little we would decorate gingerbread houses during the holidays, and then my brother and I and our cousins would use a toy tool set to break them into gnaw-able chunks. It turns out that smashing a gingerbread house is fun for grown-ups, too, and I finally uploaded the pictures into a Picasa album. I think it's fun to watch as a slideshow set to the fastest setting, like a virtual flip-book.

Pleasant Things

Sandwiches. People here really seem to love sandwiches, and so do I.

Photo courtesy of Google Image Search

Bean sandwiches are standard fare at breakfast and snack time, but sandwiches made of peas, hard-boiled eggs, mayonnaise (as either a condiment or a stand-alone ingredient), scrambled eggs with onions, macaroni with chili sauce, and/or potatoes are also easy to find. Also, Kédougou is close to Guinea, and Guinea has lot so avocados, so you can get avocado sandwiches here. They are delicious, and they cost about 250 CFA, or 50 American cents.

Photo courtesy of SPORE Magazine

Less Pleasant Things

Life as a PCV in Senegal is not all beach parties and fancy outfits. For example, I've had a mild-to-moderate stomachache all day, there's some sort of heat rash cropping up on my sides (lovely, huh?) and I'm pretty sure everything about me permanently smells like sunblock, sweat, or some combination of the two. I install in Salémata tomorrow (!!!) and am eager to settle in, set up a routine, and adjust to the new climate.

In less gross news, my left pinkie toenail is growing back nicely! I will try to be more careful with it this time around.

Swearing In Video

For anyone who missed it on Facebook, here's a little video of our swearing in ceremony ~

Install Prep & How Hot It Is Today

Today I'm going to go into the market to finish buying things for installation at my site. Peace Corps gives us an installation allowance, and yesterday I bought a foam mattress, a couple trunks, some odds and ends, and a variety of buckets, tubs, cups, spoons, and kettles.

These are the type of kettles we bought for our latrines. I'm pretty sure toilet paper will not be available for purchase in our villages, so most people are going to be switching over to "the water method," which is what Senegalese people do. (People use water and their left hand to clean themselves off in the toilet, which is why it's really, really not okay to eat, greet, or do pretty much anything with your left hand here.) Most people also have a few of these kettle floating around for handwashing, teeth brushing, ablutions before prayers, and so on. Handy!

So. I could go one and write all about cultural insights and all the ways my life will change while living in Salémata, but really I just want to talk about how hot it is right now.

 

It's 8:30 in the morning at and it's already getting pretty warm. When there's a little wind it's much better, but yesterday afternoon the breeze died and the humidity went up to 112% (I checked on Wunderground) and coming back from the market was kind of like swimming through hot pudding.

The silver lining is that because it is so hot during the afternoon no one does anything except dozing in the shade, drinking water by the liter and eating mangoes. Could be worse.

Arrival in Kédougou!

Now that PST is over the six of us who are moving to to Kédougou had to drive down in sept-places ("seven-seats") station wagons, which are creepily hearse-like. There were three of us in each car, and aside from the dust and the heat it was about as pleasant as a 12-hour drive through sub-Saharan Africa can be.

That is me in the back seat, Patrick in the front seat, Marielle taking the picture, and all of our bags and boxes and water filters and mosquito nets and med kits and bikes and helmets and everything piled on top. Here's the map of the trip - I'm in the city of Kédougou now, and on Thursday I'll be installing in Salémata.

The current volunteers (PCVs) made a fantastic dinner, and the next day we got up and went to see part of one of the Bassari initiation ceremonies. I have photos, of that and of our swearing-in ceremony in Dakar, and I will post those soon too. 

Volunteer Status

Yesterday we went to the Ambassador's Residence (which is a very fancy place) Dakar and officially swore in as Peace Corps Volunteers!

Now I am going to hop in a car and go down to Kédougou. I'll have a few days to get everything I need to move in, so I will post some more photos soon.

PHOTOS: The Kédougou Regional House and Salémata (with some edits and captions!)

Photos: Beach Weekend!

Here are the photos from the beach weekend, loosely organized, mostly captioned, and all very scenic.

BEACH WEEKEND! 

Photos: Last Days in Darou

A photo album of my last couple days in Darou -- with captions, even!

Last Days in Darou

Camera Obscura

The afternoon before I left my homestay in Darou I was lying on my bed, avoiding the heat of the day and gazing up at the wall. The window next to my bed looks out on a narrow little walkway between the house and the kitchen hut, and the light shines in on the wall over my bed. Anyway, I was lying there and saw the bright pink silhouette of an upside-down person go by -- when my room is dark and I leave my little window open I guess the light reflects down the corridor and it turns my room into a sort of camera obscura, so I could see my host grandmother walking back and forth in her fuchsia complet outfit. So that was what I did for pretty much the rest of the afternoon.

Teeth.

So today I am in Dakar because I had a dentist appointment, and it went really well. Last week I bit down hard on a little rock that was mixed in with the rice and fish and veggie bits, and my tooth has been slightly sore ever since. It seemed like a good idea to have someone take a look at it before I install in Salémata, since from there it's a two-day trek to get back up to Dakar and the Peace Corps dentist.

Luckily, the dentist took a look, tapped around a bit and told me that my tooth had taken a big shock (with the enormous power of the jaws) and that the ligament had a little inflammation, but as long as I leave it to rest for awhile it should be fine. He put some cinnamon-tasting stuff on it, told me to have a bonne installation, and sent me on my way, much reassured. 

Last stay in the training village!

The beach was amazing, and we're here at the center to pick up our bags and go out to the villages. I'll be back in a week, talk to you then!