Photo Ops

My host aunt Hassanatou and her sons finally came back from summer vacation in Guinea (where she's from), my other host siblings came back from the various relatives they were visiting in other villages, and it's nice -- the compound felt very empty for awhile there. 

My mom in America sent some photos and a photo book and everyone really enjoyed looking through them. Sajou Ba (below) was totally over-the-top excited to have his very own photo of himself and his friend Mankaba from last Tabaski. He ran around the whole compound to show everyone and then ran around again, just to make sure than everyone saw that he had a photo. Of himself. And Mankaba. It was pretty adorable. 

Sajou Ba and his photo

Most of the older kids and grown-ups were more interested in looking through the photos of my family, especially my grandparents. After the initial rush of photo viewing Ablaye and Mamadou (above) went back through and looked very intently at all the pictures. Mamadou (int he blue striped shirt) took some of the photos (he's very responsible and I let him borrow my camera sometimes) and Ablaye just likes looking at pictures of himself. His parents are in Tamba (about 7 hours away) but he's lived with us for as long as I've been here. He's very shy most of the time but he really likes being included in anything that's happening.

Ibrahima is my host brother who lives in Dakar most of the time. He's one of the few students from village who make it all the way to University so he only comes back for holidays, like Tabaski and Tamkharit (the Muslim New Year). He's one of my older host siblings but he was just as happy as the little kids, when he saw that photos he was in from last Tabaski were included in the photo book.

And, of course, everyone in my host family here told me my American family and to say that they hope that everyone is healthy. I told them that my American family greets them back. Greetings all around!

Ibrahima and the photo book

Birthday Cake

It's my birthday today, and I've had a lovely time so far. I woke up and opened all the mail and packages that I picked up yesterday and was a little overwhelmed by how perfect and wonderful everything was; I am very, very lucky to have to many amazing people in my life. 

Amazing things from America

 One of the many lovely things that my friends & family in California sent was this cake, which (a little miraculously) survived the long journey, edible and intact. We assembled it, PCVs Chip, Ashleigh and Jackie lit the candles, and Katie took photos. It was all very adorable.

(Making an exaggerated making-a-wish face.)

Trick candle!

It was also only the beginning. It's my friend Marielle's birthday as well, and we've had a great time with everyone who came in to the Regional House today. We've been making spring rolls with dipping sauces, squash and sweet potato soup, baking Ghirardelli double-chocolate brownies and cakes with fancy frosting, and getting ready to finish watching Summer Heights High on the projector after it gets dark.

It really doesn't feel like I'm roughing it today. 

How The Peace Corps Works

So, a little while back I (along with a whole slew of other PCVs and RPCVs) e-mailed the Stuff You Should Know podcast and asked for an episode about the Peace Corps, and they listened!

You can find the Stuff You Should Know podcast on iTunes or stream the podcast here.

Also, if you just can't get enough of listening to things about the Peace Corps, NPR's Morning Edition did a Fifty Years Of Peace Corps episode awhile back and All Things Considered had a story about how texting and Skype and things are changing the Peace Corps experience.

Care Package Paradise

This weekend I'm going to write a post all about In-Service Training and work stuff and what I've been up to and all that, but right now I just want to talk about some of the wonderful things that have arrived in the mail recently.
First, from my mom, this pink mini-sewing-kit egg, which came in a box filled with protein bars and postcards and whatnot.

Miniature Things That I Own 

Then, from my brother, a pound of Peet's coffee (Major Dickason's Roast, my favorite) and cat postcard, which I loved and used to make a new nametag for my basket in the Regional House kitchen hut. 

AND THEN this arrived via Diplomatic Pouch:

(My brother is the best brother.)

Dried fruit, BBQ sauce, iPod cord, chocolate chip cookie mix, OREOS, Ritter Dark with Hazlenuts, Toblerone, Tom's of Maine toothpaste, Hawaiian Punch (Juicy Red Flavor), dental floss, facewash... OH, and A NETBOOK. And an external hard drive. It was a little overwhelming, like Christmas and Easter and my birthday all at once.

So, now I have a computer again (and a battery, which arrived separately) and I'm super thrilled about it (even though Windows is ridiculous) and will be doing my best to catch up on e-mail and Facebook and all that.

Trouble with the Interwebs

Bad news.

This isn't actually my laptop, but you get the idea. Thanks to Senegal's wildly unreliable power grid and all the recent lightning storms something went horribly wrong while I was charging my computer and now it doesn't so much turn on anymore. *sigh*

Luckily there is a somewhat-clunky-but-totally-functional house computer at the regional house, and other volunteers (especially Sully) have been unnecessarily gracious about letting me monopolize their laptops to upload photos and e-mail and everything.

This trip into town has had pretty sparse internet access for everyone, though. The wifi at the house has been sluggish and choppy (slower then cold molasses, one might say...) and frequently unplugged, due to the thunderstorms and lightning strikes that come with the onset of the rainy season.

So, until I can get a replacement laptop or netbook sent over (in a Diplomatic Pouch, doesn't that sound fancy and important?) I will not be able to Skype/e-mail/etc as much as I would like. O well, I suppose.

ADDRESS UPDATE and Volunteer Visits!

Tomorrow morning I will be waking up extremely early to pile into a Peace Corps Land Cruiser for the long drive down to Kédougou for Volunteer Visits, where we shadow current volunteers for five days. I'm excited about seeing Salémata (my village) and getting a better idea of where I'll be living and working for the next couple years, even though it'll be really, really, unreasonably hot.

ALSO! Because it takes so long for things to arrive, starting now it'll be best to use my Kédougou address rather than my Thiès address, even though I won't actually be moving to Kédougou until next month. (Things will still make it to me eventually, there'll just be a delay if it goes to the Training Center after I've already installed.) This will be my address at site:

PCV LaRocha LaRiviere
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 37    Kédougou
Senegal - West Africa 

Rabies and Rainbows

The day we left for our most recent trip to the villages was hot and fairly miserable. I'd gotten my obligatory rabies and hepatitis vaccinations, which left my arm feeling like hot lead and my stomach gurgling. Between trying to do laundry in buckets, adjusting to the malaria medication, sitting through technical trainings (on gardening, security, and common illnesses, etc) and the heat and the dust and the nausea, I was not exactly in a fantastic mood.

And then a package arrived from Switzerland, and it was filled with rainbows and flowers and adorableness (aka beautiful hand-painted stationary from the girls I used to nanny for in Lausanne) and suddenly everything seemed a lot less unpleasant.

It's always lovely to get mail, but this was definitely the sweetest thing I've received so far.