Hello, from sunny Thies, Senegal! Well it’s not that sunny since it’s 10:30 pm here but during the day it’s a pleasant 92 degrees (if you think about it in Celsius, it’s not that bad). The last two weeks have been quite the adventure; some kind of cross between summer camp, my first semester at college, and a really vivid dream.

Our training here is broken down into two parts: some time is spent at the Thies Training Center where there is electricity, wi-fi, three square meals a day, and class 8 hours a day but the majority of our training is called Community Based Training (CBT). The 60 trainees are broken down into seven language groups and placed with a host family. I am learning Fulakundah (a dialect of Pulaar, one of three spoken in Senegal) which is spoken primarily in the southern regions Tambacounda, Kolda, and Kedougou. So my final site will likely be in one of those three regions. But the family I am living with during training lives just outside Thies in a city called Mbour. I just finished a 5 day stay with my family and am back at the training center for just about 48 hours before I go back to Mbour for 10 days.

My family is giant! My father has three wives and two sisters that live with us so at any given time there are about 15 little kids running around my compound. I also have an older brother who is married with two kids of his own. Everyone is super nice and very generous. People take hospitality here very seriously so they give me a giant portion of food and I am not really allowed to do any of my own chores (although that also has a lot to do with gender roles). At CBT, I have language class for about three hours every day and then I pretty much just hang out with my family to study and try and pick up more phrases. Even though I didn’t have very busy days, I was really exhausted every day. Between trying to learn a new language and the heat, I was wiped! Luckily, nobody really does anything between 2 and 5 p.m. here because it is too hot so there is ample opportunity to nap :)

As a health volunteer, it is already obvious how much work there is to be done. The two biggest issues that I noticed so far with my family are hygiene and nutrition. For all five days, I didn’t see a single person wash their hands with soap; an extra big concern when you consider that most people eat from a communal bowl with their hands. On top of that, the meals are very repetitive and sugar heavy. When they served coffee on the first day, they made it with more sugar and powdered milk than actual coffee. My brother also makes little frozen treats called kedems to sell. They are essentially flavored sugar syrup that he freezes over night. But when he makes them, he gives his 3 year old son three small cups of the actual syrup! I learned to say “too much sugar!” in Fulakundah but I am not sure I really got my point across.

During the next few stays at our CBT sites, we are supposed to conduct a few small health activities to get practice for the next two years. The first two are a hand washing demonstration and a gardening activity so hopefully that will address some of my family’s needs.

So, I am learning a lot and experiencing something new every day. Two weeks has already felt like months and this is just the beginning. Thanks for reading and I’ll try and update again soon. Happy Trails