Djinns or "genies"

I am good here. I am used to travel, used to power cuts, used to bargaining and used to living on powdered milk and biscuits (: Just kidding, I eat deliciously unhealthy Senegalese food at least once a day. Now that my cucumbers and okra are fruiting, I can really add to my diet.

Some of you may be wondering, what is "Wa_Kayn?" Well, it means "right on!" and it is one of the many senegalese sounds I have adopted into my vocabulary. I also love to say " o put a lo" which means, "whoops!", "i la i la" which means "oh no he didn't!", I make a sucking noise with my lips to say "no way", I say "choom!" to mean "gross".
"Astafulay!" is what you say to tease someone for lying, "Woy, saman day!" is what you say when you are shocked. I say "shu tut tut tut" when someone says a faux pas or a telling comeback.

I also get a kick out of all the false name brands you find here, companies taking advantage of illiterate but fashion-conscious populations. There is "Nice" – for Nike – "adidos" – for adidas – and "bio" for bic. And there are a sure lot of people wearing "sean john" puffy colmbs fashion and "fubu" I think my explanation of "For Us By Us" generally goes over their heads.

I have witnessed some truly cultural things lately, one being a wedding and the other being a "lutte" or a wrestling match. The wedding was cool, the night before the bride "moves" to the room her husband has set up for them in his house, the wife goes to a counseling session held by the marabout and other respected men. They tell her and her spouse how to be good to each other, and then after that the men drape a white sheet over her head and the whole village escorts her; blinded, to her room singing "i la i la i la". It was fun, my host sister held my hand in one and the brides in the other as we walked and I felt really like part of it. It was pitch dark and when we got there there were women cooking chicken and the place was packed with women sitting down. All of the girls the brides age, her friends, were packed on the bed in the sweltering room. The bride was about 16.


I also witnessed a wrestling match. It was a dozen nearly naked young men with only underwear and lots of of goat- horn bracelets and medallions on, pouring water over their face and other parts and dancing about.They wrestle in pairs, for about a total of five minutes until one man gets thrown down. It is very loud with heavy drum beats and chants blaring from the speaker set. At first I was overwhelmed. They are young, fit, good looking men and it felt like we were in a "Chippendale's" atmosphere. And then I was entraced, seeing as its basically the same activity just done in little microcosms in the stadium for about four hours straight! They have a blast... the women hoot and holler in delight.

I have gotten used to much here. Im loving how happy strangers are that I speak Seereer. I have found a strange peace in being tired and busy.\n I am preparing for the rainy season by distributing seeds, but all of my heart is going into hopes for starting a girl's club and a joint Seereer literacy class. I did a project at the middle school in the town next door that awards scholarships to needy girls. Being in that school setting was so uplifting. You could feel these kids' promise, and see such a big difference between them and my village girls. So then I taught some songs to the English class and felt soooo good afterwards, and I really want to get some sort of school setting started in my village. So I really hope I can get these village girls interested in a literacy class.
I think a lot that the most productive way to be a peace corps volunteer might be working in a school, at least it makes the volunteer confident about their purpose here. Either way, I really think I might look into teaching when I get back in the states.It's such immediate satisfaction, its such an easy way to help people.

Oh Senegal. The people's friendly and stay-encouraged at all times demeanor. On the other hand, their support for Bin laden, and death wish for bush. Meetings with the village's young male avid muslim scholars have been frustrating. But I really think they are lovely people, so welcoming, if maybe ignorant of American values and the ability of half the country to be against bush while half the country is for. I'm once more amazed to be living in another country that almost uniformally dislikes my president.