First Perceptions

                Fist perceptions of Africa… it’s hot. We exited the plane and headed to the terminal to pass through a security and fingerprinting station.  After collecting bags and shaking hands with the PC country director we packed onto buses for the two hour ride from Dakar to Thies. The ride was odd for several reasons, we had little sleep on the eight hour plane ride and arrived late because Air Force One had been at our departing airport, freezing all take offs for about an hour and a half. So, sleep deprived, we took in our first sights of Senegal, our home for the next two years.  The streets are lined with trash and random piles of it dot the sidewalks because there is no organized sanitation department.  The houses are constructed of cinderblocks and mortar; most look so similar it is difficult to orient oneself. There are beat up cars doing as they please in a country with no road rules. Any road straight enough and empty enough where one might build up speed has a giant speed bump every km or so to keep people from driving too fast. Thin sheep and horses drawing carts dot the city streets while cows and other animals appear sporadically throughout the suburbs and rural areas. I was surprised to find that the general odor of the air wasn’t unpleasant. The allure to this part of the country for me has been the countryside. Huge half a century old Boab trees dot the landscape otherwise dominated by short bushes. There is a fairly clear distinction between vast open areas and small cities.

                We arrived at the Theis (pronounced chi-es) training center and began lessons on culture and an array of safety concerns and other such things. During the following days we had 1 on 1 meeting to discuss language and technical skills as well as placement preference. I communicated a desire to be somewhere small and rural. The area which everyone worried about most extensively was the area we all needed to work on the most, language. So obviously they needed to digest the interview information and figure out where we should be put… meaning we didn’t find out which language we should even start to learn until we’d been here a week already. Also for reference the country is loosely split into the arid hot dry north and the jungle humid south. They also don’t tell us where we’ll be spending our two years until we’ve been in country for several months so they can observe our strengths and weaknesses.

                Well after the first 4 days or so we were informed of what language we would be learning. This was interesting because from the language you can somewhat identify what region of the country you will be placed in for two years. I am learning Fulakunnda… a dialect of Pulaar, and that means I will most likely be in the Kolda region in the center of the country below The Gambia, a jungle region with many interesting plants and animals, I am quite excited about this for your information. Well anyway we are told our language and have about 2.5 hours of language training… then they take us 20km away and drop us off with a host country family for 5 days so we can learn everything first hand. That… was an intense experience. You arrive and they take your bags and show you a room, then you sit around smiling while people talk at you and you haven’t the slightest idea what is going on. I wasn’t actually even nervous, I thought the whole thing was somewhat comical really. Well my host family is my Baaba(father) and his three wives and their kids and I think some of their kids… numbering around 25 in total… all living in a walled compound 12m squared. It’s a bit hectic but I like the kids so far and the older adults are nice to me. In Senegal eating is done from a communal bowl. As many as 10 people sit around a bowl of rice and fish or meat and eat with their right hand or occasionally a spoon. Right hand is for eating and left hand is for toilet paper so…. Yeah.  It’s also impolite to hand or take anything with the left hand. Morning prayer is at 6 and there are loudspeaker calls at 5am or so. It’s a different environment all around.  Although it can be very similar at times too.

                I found humor to be a wonderful ally. I informed my host mother that I was 25 and she thought that was funny, then I told her I wasn’t married and she thought that was hilarious. Also foreigners are called Tubob and we hear it frequently from children. I have taken to pointing at myself and asking confusedly “me tubob? No no no, you’re a tubob, I’m Senegalese”(as best I can in my local language) and people seem to think that is hilarious. There’s tons more information but this room, despite it being like 9pm, is exceedingly hot.  So I’ll throw in a some more cool stuff and hopefully pictures eventually. Sorry for lack of communication the internet when available is quite spotty.