The Unmentionables

Baby goat interrupting class.... Now I am not sure how I want to start this post off but I suppose I can just dive right in! I wanted to take a minute to talk about a few topics that one would normally avoid while blogging; personal hygiene. Now this is going to be interesting to say the least considering I have a fourteen year old leaning over my shoulder and reading everything that I am writing. I am assuming that he has no idea what I am writing, and if he does, well, he is in for a treat. So there are certain tasks...

Volunteer Visits

So I am sitting in the wonderfully airconditioned computer room here at the training center and I am trying to think of things that I wanted to mention in this post about my four days or so with Pamela, the volunteer that I am replacing (my ancienne in PC lingo). This brainstorming session is only resulting in me wanting to take the road trip back down south to Vélingara and start my project! It is not that I don't like Sangalkam but its a small village and, for lack of a better phrase, I get bored. There is only so much studying one can do before...

Site Announcements!

This is it, this is what we have all been waiting for, site announcements! I must say, I did not imagine this day being as big of a deal as it actually is. I guess I didn’t really put much thought into it but I am pleasantly surprised how much effort goes into making the moment of this day special - your LCF leading you blindly across a basketball court, painted to include a map of Senegal. Here you are to be dropped off hovering over the city where you will be spending the next two years in, awaiting for everyone to count to three, which...

The Time of Firsts

I am finally getting more comfortable in my surrounds that I am able to notice more cultural things and actual behaviors of the Senegalese, other than seemingly wondering around lost. This last week that I was in Sangalkamp, and about to head back to again here in a few minutes, I took "public transportation" for the first time, went with my host mom to find our goats in the "pasture", go on a unknown trip to bring my host brother lunch, and the list goes on and on. Public transportation here is something that is not as glamorous as the US but...