Alot has happened since I got here on the 27th of September. We started training right away, learning survival skills in the most dominant language of the country, Wolof, so that we could travel across the country to visit another Peace Corps Volunteer at his/her village. Another trainee Sarah and I were sent to a village near the southeastern city tambacounda, one of the hottest places in Senegal. We stayed with a couple, a female ag volunteer and a male agroforestry volunteer. It was pretty rad, in retrospect. I saw a lot of cool things...the PCVs (peace corps volunteers) we were staying with spoke the language of the village really well and knew so many people. They had planted a corn field and had been successful. I pulled water from a well and carried it on my head, woo hoo!

There is a high possibility in fact, that I will never have to do that again, because it sounds like my future site will have tap water.Yeah, about that, the trainers here, which is almost an entirely Senegalese staff, are keeping our future village sites a mystery. I'm not sure at all where I will be going. But I know I will be living with the Seereer ethnicity, because I am learning Seereer. It is one of the harder languages, and I think they assigned me to it because I am younger than everyone (not by much), and they think younger people have an easier time learning new languages. I hear the Seereers like to have a good time. My teacher is seereer and she is really loud and always joking around. They love to sing and dance, many of the senegalese in the "musician" caste have last names that are Seereer names. The verb for "to believe" in seereer is also the same verb for "to sing"! They love it when I sing here. It is so much fun! There is a pct next door to me, our homestays are right next to eachother, and he brings his guitar over sometimes to sing and play together. I can't wait to learn Seereer songs! But no joke, seereer is kind of a tough language. Well, there aren't that many verbs or words, there isn't even a dictionary, and i've heard from some that it is a dying language. But the sounds are hard to make. They have 3 different ways to sound the consonant n. And numbers are a trip, to say 28 I have to say xarbentik fo betufitadik! And the numbers change depending on what you're counting! I'm having a good time with my homestay. The homestay will last 7 more weeks and then we get dropped off in a village.I have a host mom, four older brothers, two older sisters and one younger sister. And 4 bedrooms. They are incredibly nice and welcoming. They talk to me so much! I'm not practicing my seereer really because it's such a pleasure to talk to them in french, to actually get to know them and their ideas about life, marriage, religion, president wade, everything. It would be harder if I could only speak seereer. It's going to be hard at first in the village. My family here in Thies is well educated. One older brother teaches french, the other teaches Math and science. My older brother Moussa is my favorite. He is studying english and loves beyonce and alicia keys. He pirates their music videos from online. That and a lot of 50 cent and BET videos. I taught him the words to "Soldier" by Destiny's Child and he was happy. He and my younger sister, Oumi, make me dance all the time so they can make fun of me. Senegalese dance is hard! You have to move your feet really fast, wave your arm around, shake your but a lot and lift up your shirt just above your belly button, all at the same time! I must look like a frog receiving shock therapy when I do it, because they really crack up. The family is so cool here, because my mom is really laid back and sort of kooky, she is always cracking jokes in Seereer that I don't understand. She is the daughter of a man who had 17 wives. MMM hmm. It's like that....it is still a strong tradition here for men to have more than one wife. The family next door shares the same father I do. It is common for moms in the village to have roughly 6 or 7 children. In the village, it's much more! around 11-15! I wonder what my host bros are thinking when they tell me these things! I know they don't expect I would want to have seven children or share my husband. they do think it is the norm for senegalese women, but they don't tell me that they think it should be the norm. So I don't know what their opinion is. I don't cook or clean around the house, and I talk politics etc with them, so I'm not sure how they see me. I actually get the impression that it is hard to marry into this society, if you are white. I dunno!
The family next door shares the same father I do. It is common for moms in the village to have roughly 6 or 7 children. In the village, it's much more! around 11-15! I wonder what my host bros are thinking when they tell me these things! I know they don't expect I would want to have seven children or share my husband. they do think it is the norm for senegalese women, but they don't tell me that they think it should be the norm. So I don't know what their opinion is. I don't cook or clean around the house, and I talk politics etc with them, so I'm not sure how they see me. I actually get the impression that it is hard to marry into this society, if you are white. I dunno!