A real blog post!

Ok, so I'm in Senegal, just got back from staying with a family for a few days. So here's a rundown of what's been going on here:

All 55 of us volunteers arrived a little over a week ago. (jeeze. seems like aeons.) We had (French) language completancy interviews, site placements interviews, and health interviews. 2 days after, we were assigned a language which we'll be studying. Senegal has about 6 major languages, as well as numerous minor ones, so although most volunteers learn Wolof, almost half learn other languages. I'm learning Pula Futa, a dialect of Pulaar, a Fulani language. Fulani languages are spoken in parts of everywhere between here and Sudan, a whoppin 27 nations. As I want to work in development, I specifically requested to learn a Fulani language! All trainees also get "survival" Wolof classes, as that's the major market/public transport language. After some rudimentary language classes and some agriculture training, we were divided up by language group and sent to towns that speak our language for homestays. Me and 3 other volunteers went to a town called Sangal Kam, a dusty little town about an hour from Thies, where the trainee compound is. I stayed with a huge family-- when I arrived there was a solid 14 people there (5 kids, 2 men, 7 women) and by the time I left there was almost 20. Each day of the homestay went something like this:

8am wake up, take a bucket bath, have a bean sandwich for breakfast, go to langauge class with my LCF (langauge and culture facilitator) and the 3 others for 3, 3.5 hours. These are intense classes, small, and each day is paradigm-shifting, due to how little Pula Futa we speak. My LCF is named Houssey, she speaks Pulaar and Wolof and like 5 other languages (most Senegalese people speak atleast a couple and know greetings in most) and is an amazing and amazingly patient teacher. The classes are under a big tree, and mostly involve us asking questions and learning grammar.

Around 1230, we go home to our families. The men I live with are tailors, and they have a little shop at the front of the house. The back has a field with corn, an outdoor kitchen, and all the action, meaning 7 or so women cooking, doing laundry, bathing the kids, etc etc. I usually sit under a mango tree in the back yard, practice my vocab with the kids (who also speak French) and try to make silly little sentences, each day a little more complicated than before. Needless to say, my Pulaar is still at child level. I greet everyone, each day learn a couple more greetings (How are you, howd you sleep, hows the family, hows the kids, hows the work, hows the mosquitos, etc) and make tiny sentences (I like the shade of the mango tree.) It's great, and totally different than any other language Ive learned-- it has a solid 15 sounds that don't really exist in English. I understand my family members at varying levels, so nene ang (my mom) is the hardest to understand. The matriarch of the house, she speaks loud, fast, and constantly. She usually yells at me, I look at her confusedly, then the kids tell me in French what she said and she laughs. We all eat lunch together around 3, all sharing from one gigantic bowl and eating with our hands. Lunch is usually some combination of rice, sauce, and fish. Pretty much always amazing. Then around 4, we go back to class, usually with a list of the random words we heard, so our LCF can help us figure out what the heck is going on. ("Oh, that means 'to roll food into a ball!'") Cause we are sustainable agriculture volunteers, we are making a community garden as well, so we often go work on that for a while when the sun is going down. We've got 3 beds, a pepinere, and a couple massive compost heaps.
Afterwards, I go home, study a little, have dinner, then sit around and drink hot sweet tea in tiny cups (ataya.) Right now I understand about 5% of what people say, which is a lot better than 0% 4 days ago. Each day, I understand more and more, and over the next 3 months, we'll be back and forth between the training compund and our homestay sites, learning Pula Futa, experimenting with our garden, and generally getting ready for our real site assignments.Based on my language assignment, I can tell I will prolly be on the Guinea-Senegal border, as the Pula Futa population in Senegal is largely Guinean immigrants.
All of which brings me to my last night. After 5 days at my homestay, I started to not feel great yesterday afternoon. When I started to not feel great, I saw a car pulling up to our house ( a rare site in Sangal Kam.) It ended up being the husbands of all the women at my house, all home from visiting family in Guinea! They had been gone for months, and came with lots of gifts (Coke, blown up family pictures, new prayer mats) and were ready for a big party. I, unfortunently, was in no mood for festivities. I laid down for a nap around 5, and by 6 or 7 I was throwing up. I called the PC doctor, he told me to take some medicine and some oral re-hydration salts. I ended up spending the whole night vomiting up salt water. My host mom, her husband, and her son all stayed up with my all night as a I spewed fluids all night. Baba ang (my dad) even gave me the benediction prayer, which involved a long recessitation and blowing on me. That and a can of Coke ended up helping enough for me to get to bed. Unfortunately, I ended up coming back to the training compound early this morning because although the vomiting stopped the... well, you know, didn't. I'm feeling better now, just weathering sickness, getting used to new microbes here. Everyone else gets back tomorrow morning, so I just slept all day, read Flanney O Connor short stories, passed a lot of fluids, and am trying to get back into good health.

Phew, that was exhausting just typing all that. Needless to say, I am still totally lost here in Senegal. First I was whelmed, then overwhelmed, but whatever. My language skills are eh, my stomach is unhappy, and it is very very hot. Luckily, I know I'll get used to it all, and am already falling in love with Pula Futa, my host family, Senegalese food, and lots of the other bright-eyes volunteers. And this is still just training. Lots more adventures, projects, sicknesses, bike rides (I'll be biking atleast 10k a day!) to come.

PS Yes, I already miss everyone and think about you all the time. Specials thanks to Lauren for being such an incredible inspiration. <3