I am back from my first journey to my new home! The trek up to the Matam region is a bit long, but it was great to finally see where I’ll be living. The north of Senegal is notoriously hot, but luckily it’s dry heat- something my California blood can handle. It was around 90 F the past few days, and can get up to 130 in the hot season. It took us around 9 hours to drive all the way from Thies to Ouro Sogui, but that was in the Peace Corps car, and by public transport will take more along the lines of 12-15 hours... yes, it’s a bit far. Luckily we have a great PC apartment in Ouro Sogui, which is where we spent the first night of our volunteer visit. The current volunteers in the area made us an excellent mexican food feast and Ghirardelli brownies.
I headed to my village, Sedo Abas, the next day with the volunteer I am replacing. It’s an interesting situation because she is moving to Ouro Sogui after a year to take on a different positions, so she’ll be near by if/when I’ll need help at the village. Sedo Abas is around 30 km from Ouro Sogui and we got there by bus, which took about an hour. My room is really nice, they just finished it for the previous volunteer-- it’s a freestanding room with latrine/washing area inside. My compound has 5 buildings, 2 for my family, 2 for other families and my room. My father is the village chief, has 4 wives but only 2 live with us and an un-countable amount of children, but about 10 of them live with us. I managed to keep my training Senegalese name, Hawa, permanently and my new family’s last name is Sall. Yes, I am now loosely related to the new Senegalese president (though really, as my host-dad has explained many times, everyone is related. And it’s true. Many people marry their cousin). We have around 30 cows, and comparable flocks of chickens and sheep. However, these are all just for show/status symbols. One of the cows hangs out on the front porch all the time.. and he has horns that are about 2 feet long (each). It’s such a bizarre sight.
I met my counterparts on my visit- the president of the women’s groups and the school director. They’re all pretty excited to start some gardens, so I’m pretty set to have a project after the hot season.
After a full day at village, the next day I headed to the regional house in Ndioum with the other new and current volunteers. We hung out there that night and headed back to Thies the next morning.
Now we’re heading back to our training homestay, so I’ll be in Ngeexoox for the next 10 days.
Very cool! I like the idea of a guard cow! :)
ReplyDeleteGlad to see that you're doing well. The pictures you had sent are all very neat!
Buzki!
-m
!!!!!!!!!! SHow me some pictures ;) ;) Did you get anything stolen yet?
ReplyDeleteAs Mark said, "Buzki."
Interesting and surreal to think of you living in a compound with cows, chickens, and sheep from here... and in 130 degree heat, no less! Agreed on the show us more pictures front!! I am eager to see your "guard cow"... :)
ReplyDeleteBuzi (had to be a little different)!
Wow Alicia, just read all your posts. This definitely seems like a very interesting time. I'm glad to hear that so far time has been flying by and mostly positive things have been happening.
ReplyDeleteSo the first two months you get immersive Pulaar language training is that it? That will def serve you well for the next 2 years I imagine.
You haven't gotten sick from the water or anything? Are you using iron tablets on a regular basis or what? If you are able to drink the normal water straight, my hats off to you, I will now call you Iron Stomach.
Keep writing, eager to learn more Hawa.
-Pulkit
YAY!!! GArdens?! LOVE IT! omg he has 4 freakin wives? and 'countless children'. Can I just say, that I really want a cow for a status symbol. Sounds like my kind of people!!!!
ReplyDeleteYou're amazing and I love you.
Hmmmm Hawa in Polish does not translate well!:) ha! ha! Buzi! BTW, I will be introducing you on gmail to a buddy of mine who just joined the State Dept. and found out that his first assignment is the Congo.
ReplyDelete