Hello World (i.e. the 6 people who have continued to read my
blog)! I have emerged from my village
cocoon a beautiful volunteer butterfly, fluent in Pulaar and able to cure the
sick children of Senegal. Ok, obviously
not really but I did cut off most of my hair and grow a pretty solid
beard. My first few weeks at site were
amazing. As you can imagine, it’s next
to impossible to hit the ground running with work in village; I’m not very
confident in my language, I can hardly remember anyone’s name, and there are
still a lot of people who have no idea why I am here in Senegal, let alone
their fairly remote village. As a
result, I spent a lot of time greeting the different families in my village
(there are about 400 people in 30 compounds), getting to know the people in
live in my house, reading, sitting, and asking questions.
I have my own hut and live with the village chief and his
(relatively) small family. He has one
wife, five children, three nephews, and one grandchild that live in a 6 hut
compound. There are also 33 cows and an
assortment of other livestock that live with us. Most of the week, two of my brothers and my
three cousins spend the nights in Kolda with other family members and go to
school. They are all pretty well
educated and three of them are in their final year of high school and will
hopefully be going to university in Dakar next year. They come back to the village on the weekends
but most of the time, it’s just me, my host-parents, and one brother and sister
in my compound. I can’t even begin to
explain how much I enjoy the peace and quiet with this family compared to my
huge family at training. My family is
incredibly nice and generous and it seems like they are excited to have a Peace
Corps Volunteer living with them.
My first few weeks were filled with lots of mangoes, attaya
(tea), and miscommunications. Every time
I visited a new compound and introduced myself I left with a bag of mangoes and
having drank at least one cup of tea. My
family also has three mango trees of our own.
Mangoes are the best snack ever. On a hot day, sitting under a mango tree and
enjoying the juicy goodness just makes everything feel easier. The skin is also high in fiber (a serious
necessity when enjoying the rice-heavy Senegalese diet). In my first few days, I also averaged about 9
cups of tea (small, but high in sugar) a day.
I have cut back a lot since then (mostly for the sake of my teeth) but
sitting around and making the traditional 3 cups of attaya once or twice a day
with my family or other friends in my village is a great way to start
conversations and get to know people.
There were also quite a few misunderstandings due to my
limited Pulaar. I can feel myself
starting to understand more and more every day but it’s just going to take a
lot of time. In most cases, when I am
directing the conversation and asking questions I can have a good talk with
people in my village but if I am trying to understand a conversation between
two Pulaar speakers, I am generally lost.
The Pulaar phrase I used the most was probably “Mi famaani” or “I don’t
understand.”
The most frustrating part for me is how similar some words
are. For example, the words for “lightning”
and “to lose” are pretty much the same.
Now, I know what you’re thinking.
“Nathan, shouldn’t it be easy to figure out which one people are saying
based on context? What’s wrong you,
idiot?” Normally, I would agree but one
day in my village I was having a debate with a young man in my village over
which was scarier: climbing on a homemade bamboo ladder or flying in an
airplane (don’t worry Mom, I didn’t climb the ladder). I thought the kid was saying that planes are
scarier because of the lightning in the sky.
Turns out he was talking about the plane that was lost on the way to
Malaysia. Congratulations, lost
airplane, you have now merited two mentions in my blog and I still have no idea
what happened with that story.
This week, I am staying in Kolda with five other new
volunteers for a Pulaar language seminar.
It is nice to have a teacher going through lessons rather than trying to
absorb language from the people in my village.
Unfortunately, we are staying at the Kolda regional house. The house is nice and has running water and
internet (sometimes) so I really shouldn’t complain but it is a little crowded
with so many people here right now. I
can also honestly say that I miss spending time with my village and with my
family. I go back tomorrow and right
after that one of my neighboring volunteers is having a Senegalese style
wedding to her fiancé who is visiting for a few weeks. I will take lots of pictures!
Sorry about the long post.
Thanks for reading and happy trails!
