Goodbye Easy Life

It's official. I am a Peace Corps Volunteer. After eight weeks as a Peace Corps Trainee I have completed all of my assessments, learned the latin names of 25 tree species and their uses, achieved the level of Intermediate Medium in Jaxanke and adapted to the culture to Peace Corps standards. So, I have been officially sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer and will depart for my village tomorrow morning at 6 a.m.

I have a two day trip ahead of me to get there, and will be traveling with two other volunteers going to the same area. The volunteers already in the area will be there to welcome us and help us settle in, and then it's off to the village as of Tuesday morning.

As I've said before, my region is Kedougou, which is also the name of the closest "big" city. I have a two hour bike ride to get to Kedgougou, which is where I can get my mail and find an internet cafe, but to find a bank branch I'll have to go to Tambacounda, which is four hours from Kedougou in a car. So yes, I am about as out in the boonies as any volunteer in Senegal (some people from my training class will be living in apartments with electricity and refridgerators, and one even has wireless). But I'm glad I'm going to the bush. It's pretty much what I expected. In fact, I'll be more connected than I thought, because I assumed I wouldn't have any internet access at all. I'm going to try to make it into town once every two or three weeks, so keep your emails and facebook messages coming, and blog comments, and I'll keep up my end of the bargain. My mailing address will change, so I'll post it on here as soon as I know what it is.

A couple notes about Senegal in general.

Hospitality: If somebody stops by your house unexpectedly when you're about to eat, they eat with you, no questions asked. So the other night some people stopped by my house the other night and before I knew it we had twelve men around the same bowl with two small fish in it over a bed of rice. But nobody would ever think to complain that they werent getting enough. By the same token, a different night this week I finished stuffing myself on a big dinner at my house and went to my friend's. When I arrived they were just sitting down to dinner, so I was expected to sit down and eat dinner again, less than half an hour after i had finished. I guess it all comes around.

Jaxanke lesson of the day: "sate" (pronounced like a chicken sauteé) means village. It also means city and town. They only have one word for all these things. I guess it shows how rural the language's roots are.

Also, they have the same word "sigi" (see-gee) meaning "to sit" and "to live." Any discussion of what that could imply?

Anyway, I better get going. We have a party for at the center with our host families tonight. I helped prepare for it by grinding the pepper. And by that I mean I had a two foot wooden mortar and pestal and a bowl of pepper corns that I had to grind up. One of the cooks and I took turns pounding and holding the mortar - it's pretty physical work.

Love and miss you all, talk to you the next chance I get (i'll def be back into "The Gou" for thanksgiving dinner with the other volunteers in my region).

Boubs

ps. Yes, it's pronounced like Boobs. And my new last name will be Dumfaha. Sound it out. I love it.