Bonjour Tout Le Monde,
I�m sitting in a restaurant here in Senegal called Massa Massa. It�s what they call a �Toubab� restaurant. Toubab is what they call white people here. And I�m drinking warm beer. ICK!
So this will be a fairly long update as I�m going to try to encompass 3 weeks in one letter. First off, it�s Thursday right now. Life here is pretty good. I had a rough first week and seriously thought of coming home, but didn�t really feel like explaining to everyone why. They say that if you want to ET (go home early) wait 3 days and see if you feel the same way. It�s so true. It was just so shocking and really brought home what I�m doing. Now I�m fine, I�m having fun and enjoying the world around because I really have no other choice. Of course things are only getting better from here. Okay we�re going to tackle this by weeks, in order of occurrence: here we go�
WEEK ONE: Obviously I made it here safely, with very little drama. The biggest issue getting here was a bunch of us tried to check in at the wrong airline line. [But they made it and...] Incredibly jetlagged we hop on a bus and take a 2 hour ride to the training center in Thies [see map]. The ride there was interesting. It was very very dirty. They don�t have an organized trash removal system, so there is lots of trash. (Just a warning to anyone who wants to visit) It really hit home at the moment that I was in an impoverished country. Eep!
The weirdest things I saw were all these unfinished buildings. It looked like this huge beautification project stuck in a Stephen King novel. They just stood there and did nothing. I later found out that there is a tax you must pay once you finish a building. Apparently this tax can sometimes be more then it actually cost to build the building. Bizarre.
We arrive at the center and it is beautiful (pictures coming on the website soon�). The trainers are amazing and completely compassionate. We didn�t do much the first day. I tried not to nap so I could kick jet lag faster, but by the end of the day I felt like I was walking on a bouncy floor.
We go through three days of Survival Wolof [language of local people] and then they throw us to the talibay (a little person who learns the Koran and asks for money). We had what they call Demystification. This is when they send two trainees to stay with a current volunteer for three days. This truly scared the shit out of me. I went to Louga, which is a two hour sept-place (7 seater car) north of Thies. It�s designed to show us early on what it�s going to be like. This way the fears don�t pile up till we die. It was very informative, but again scary. I do NOT want to go to Louga. It�s very bland and very dirty there. Our volunteer was at the end of her service and was very annoyed at everything. [normal feelings toward the end of service]
The one thing that floored me was at one point her �sister� asked me, �So, how�s your vagina?� Um�what do you say to that???!!! The other phrase that�s popular here is, �So, how�s your sex life?� And to that question there is only one answer: �It�s bouncing�.
And then, AND THEN (and no, and then...) our last day there I got a gastrointestinal virus. Yippie. So that was fun. And then we came back to the center to debriefed. Peace Corps is very big on debriefing. And now�on to�