Placement! New Cell Phone!

Quickly: I got a new cell phone number: +221 672 03 68

Now for the exciting stuff: where I will be going for the next two years! (and to visit in just a few days). DIARRA PONT near Salemata, 75km outside of the city of Kedougou in southeastern Senegal. It is rather close to the Guinea border (about 25km), and it looks like 150km from the Malian border. I didn't get a lot of preliminary information, but it small! A community with about 275 people.

It was kind of childish the way we found out, but fun nevertheless. Near the back of the training center is a half sized basketball court with a map of Senegal painted on it. We were all blind folded and moved to the area where we will be and given a manila envelope. On a countdown of three, we unblindfolded ourselves to see nearby volunteers and look at our envelope with our site placement. Inside was a map and paperwork from the previous volunteer with information. Some people got a lot, others, not so much. Me, I didn't get a ton of information, but I will be visiting soon, so I'm not too worried! I am really interested to see the ecology! The nearest volunteer will be 6km away, and it sounds like I have evening electricity the same distance away... crazyyy! Good thing I followed through on getting the solar charger!

Darou Khoudoss: Homestay #2

I just arrived back at the training center in Thies after a two week homestay in Darou Khoudoss. My sitemates, Robert and Kyle (although in Senegal known as Lirouane and Ibrahima) and I decided that our immersion during this “community based training” is equivalent to being a Chinese person being sent to Texas to learn Spanish. We have language classes every morning (at my house in the shade of a mango and orange tree) with a native speaker, Pape our Peace Corps language teacher, have workbooks to look into, but are expected to practice speaking outside of class. However, there isn’t really a lot of opportunity. Our families we are staying with speak Pulaar, although not everyone, and frequently speak Wolof or French amongst themselves, and our community is scattered with the random Pulaar speaker. If we go to the market to buy anything (the boys need supplemental calories most often in the form of donuts, cafee tuba-hot , highly sugared, caffeinated beverage- bean or beef skewer sandwiches, fried fish stuff, or mangoes) we speak Wolof of French, unless we visit Kyle’s mother who sells peanuts. The last day of our homestay we had our first language proficiency test where I was able to introduce myself, talk about my family back home and in Senegal, and ask questions. At this time Pape also shared with us that we are learning the most difficult language in training. Although the verbs are regular (three different kinds –ugol, -agol, -egol), we have already been introduced to six tenses, and we haven’t even started to learn the 24 different noun classes (rather than 2 I have previously been exposed to because of French; masculine and feminine). Joy. I am hoping the upcoming volunteer visit where we will be visiting the current volunteer we are replacing will be a necessary opportunity for learning.

During this homestay we had a really productive time in the garden (and it is coming along really well considering the immensely sandy “soil” we are dealing with. We visited a nearby groups’ garden, and ours is actually coming up!). Our compost looks like soil, we transplanted eggplants, jaxtu, hot pepper, and onion which all have taken; we planted our pepinier with lettuce, onion, tomato, cabbage, eggplant; we also planted our field crop beds with cowpeas, corn, millet, peanut, and sorgum; we also planted a bed with carrot, radish, bissap, cucumber, and pepper. We also planted a live fence and mango trench (yay for agfo technologies!) I have been put in charge of watering in the morning, which makes it easier to get out of bed, and an excuse to do yoga if I have energy and time before class. The hardest thing for me about the Senegalese diet is the timing. I do not do great with seven hours between meals. Further, the lack of variety.

Ohh typical Jackie, I lost my phone. It wasn’t totally my fault. It fell out of my pocket in the bathroom- no opportunity for retrieval. I’m getting a new one within days!

Yesterday, the last day of our homestay, was great! After the language test, we spent the day at the beach, the nearby group met up with us, we came back to village, and went to a party the community was having. We ended up unexpectedly speaking on behalf of the Peace Corps (thanking the village for the opportunity to learn Pulla Futa there), talk about nerve-wracking! I do not like public speaking. Random people went up and rapped, there was a skit, and lots of greetings and long introductions. Great immersion although everything was in Wolof and French.

I find out tonight where I will be going for the duration of my service as a volunteer!!! I think it will be Kedougou in the southeast, bordering Mali (CLIMBING!) and Guinea. Fingers crossed!

Mi innetee Aminatou Diallo!

Ajaaraama (the aloha of Pullo Fuuta) after the first homestay experience! Goodness, where to start. Well, I just got back to Thies to the PC center after our introductory one week immersion where we had intensive language and basic garden prep activities (making compost, double digging garden beds and a vegetable pepinier). In short, my family is wonderful and I have it pretty well! I feel a bit sheltered though and am going to make a point of going out more next time (which will be a two week homestay). It’s easy to not go far though because my house is the meeting point for our group, where we conduct language classes, and is across the field from the school where our garden is. I literally have only walked around the town once to see where Robert (Lirouane), Kyle (Ibrahim), and Pape (our language teacher from Ziguinchor) live on the second day, and on Sunday we went to the beach to meet up with the group staying in Mdoube. The ocean felt so wonderful!! I’m looking forward to it being a weekly tradition during training! It felt funny to be in a swimsuit (e.g uncovering my shoulders and knees! Scandalous!) Anyway, back to Darou: I always hear interesting stories from Kyle and Robert about their walks to and from my house (i.e. greetings, town regulars, marriage proposals, lunch invites, etc) so when we go back they have made it a point to make me walk around. At the Diallo house, I have my own room, an 8” foam mattress, and there is running water (a faucet that is not locked), electricity most of the time, and vegetables at every bowl (e.g. lunch and dinner). A bowl is typically rice or couscous with some sort of sauce, occasionally fish or beef. For me, it is followed by an apple or mango. My family is really, so good to me! I have four younger siblings, a baby boy (Mamadou), a one year old (I share the name Aminatou with her), a two year old boy (Jodi), and an eleven year old sister (Binda)- who I spend a lot of time with! She speaks French and is really helpful with learning Pullo Fuuta. The family (there is the grandmother, Mere, mother, Malado, father, Ibrahim, another Aminatou, and another woman who I am not sure of her relationship or name…) is really great about giving me space when I am studying, but are also just really generous and helpful. However, the grandmother has made it a habit it to give me a second dinner, which is certainly do not need, but can’t really refuse either… A typical day would be as such: wake up at 730, have an 8” baguette with butter for breakfast with a cup of Nescafe with sugar.

Then Pape, Robert, and Kyle come to my house between 9-10 and we have language class for about three hours. Then Pape will leave, the boys will stay and study, they will go home for lunch, then come back to study and have ataaya (tea). My mom typically prepares ataaya while Robert and my father converse in French and he helps us with vocabulary and clarifies things. At 1700, it cools down and we go across the sandy soccer field to the school to the garden. We work for an hour or so, but then it is prayer time and we take a break. We work until sunset and I am walked home.

Then, I will either play with the kids or study and then have dinner number one at 2030 followed by a bowl with the family 2130 or so. Then the tv is on in the family room or Binta and I stay up chatting or playing hand/rhythm games in French/Puula until I decide I am too tired and go to bed typically around 2330. It’s a nice little routine. I feel so dependent I am going to make a point of going to the market or helping in the kitchen next time! I do go with Binta to get ice sometimes in the evening so we have cold water after dinner.

Contact Information

I got a cell phone! Although, if you text my US number, I will still be able to see it thanks to googlevoice. My number (dialed from the US) is: 011 221 77 360 58 50.

I will be able to receive mail at the training center until November 4th, with things taking on average a couple weeks. The address is:

PCT Jackie Allen
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 299
Thiès, Senegal
West Africa

Initial Training Days

Assalaa Maallekum! (Common greeting, which is quite important in Senegalese culture. The response is Maallekum salaam).

The first few days have been relatively similar in the sense of a routine. Wake up, have breakfast at 815, have some sort of session, have a tea break, have another session, have lunch around 13, have a session, have some down time, have dinner around 1930. I have been really good about doing yoga everyday too! Our sessions are either language, cultural, medical, or technical trainings. For instance, the first language sessions were to learn introductory Wolof, whereas this morning, we found out what language we will actually be learning in full (finally! Everyone was anxiously awaiting since it is also an indicator to where we will be in the country for our projects). I will be learning Pullo Fuuta which is spoken in the Kolda, Kedouga and Guinee regions (southern, inland Senegal)! Our technical trainings have been a mix of powerpoints explaining the "big picture" (how can agroforestry help with food security? what are our roles to accomplish this, the Peace Corps?) and actual application. Things remain quite general because of importance of context and the wide variability of where we will be. Yesterday, we made vegetable gardens and planted seeds (tomato, onion, pepper, etc), started a compost pile, and learned how to "double dig." We are still in the basics for pretty much everything. We had a "cultural fair" where we got the lowdown on different sorts of food and juices here, how to eat, sorts of fabric and clothing, types of religion, etc. I'm looking forward to getting fabric for more skirts!

This afternoon we are going to go on a tour of Thies and get things we need for our homestays from the market. We have only been outside of the training compound once so far, yesterday, to see where we are not allowed to go (e.g. the red zone).

Tomorrow afternoon, I will be going to my homestay in Darou Khoudoss with my language teacher, Pape, and two other volunteers for a week. We will each be staying with a different family with our own room, share meals with them, and meet during the day to have language lessons. I am certainly nervous because of how little I know, but that is the whole point. They have changed the training from center based to community based because of the higher success rate as a result of immersion. I can only hope I catch on sooner than later!

As of now, the biggest challenge (besides not understanding the language going on around me amongst the staff) has been eating with my right hand, staying organized (we get so much paperwork!), drinking enough water, and occasionally the heat. It has not been below, probably 70, even at night, with the days in the mid 80s or more. We are supposed to cover our shoulders and knees. I'm fine on bottoms, but for tops, it sucks not being able to wear a tank top! I am looking forward to going to my project area (in 3 months after "pre service training"), and since I will be stationed in the south, supposedly it is less conservative on dress code (e.g. tank tops are ok, although covering your legs is still important since "thighs" are highly sexualized here).

Arriving in Thies

After watching “According to Barney,” and part of “Paul,” with little sleep on my behalf, we arrived in Dakar at 5:40am after an eight hour flight. We were met by the safety and security officer and the country director as well as some current PCVs. I was surprised at the ease of customs, more specifically the lack of inspection, although the last time I travelled internationally was to NZ and Australia where their inspections are intense! After watching our checked luggage be loaded into a large, white truck, we were given a liter and a half of water and crammed into two busses for an hour and a half drive. It was the Islamic holiday of korite, the end of Ramadan, and the first day people eat during daylight hours so we were going to have an “off day” mostly when we arrived. We saw numerous goats being skinned, baguettes and biscuits for sale by individual vendors, as well as women with bananas on their head on the side of the street. It is the end of the rainy season, and we watched parts of the streets flood as we drove due to the light rain that was occurring. There were also goats and horses seen on the side of the road. We unfortunately missed the African Renaissance statue recently created by current President Wade. Since I did not sleep as much as I wanted to on the plane, I dozed off a bit on the ride over.

Once we arrived at the Thies Training Center, one of the few permanent buildings Peace Corps has in a country; we were informed that we must stay within the compound for the next four days, as a safety precaution. We had breakfast (baguettes with a nutella like spread) and I took a much needed nap! After eating lunch, a large shared bowl of seasoned rice with beef in the middle for 4-6 people (which we ate with spoons or our right hand the portion that is right in front of us), on mats in a hut on the ground, we split up into the three groups (AgFo, Sust, Urban) and took turns: filling out paperwork (getting paperwork regarding the upcoming training) and turning in our passports, getting a tour of the grounds, and getting a lesson on “Turkish toilets,” (e.g. squat toilets). Then, the day was ours. I did some reading we were given and then did yoga with a couple others. It was hot! I constantly found myself navigating towards the shade or a building with a fan. Not unbearable, but I am certainly not used to it yet. A few people played basketball on the half court, and killed time until dinner. For dinner, we ate in the same room we had breakfast and it was spaghetti with a spicy meat sauce. We tried to do a movie night, but it didn’t really work. I left after the start of movie number three.

Staging

I was woken up by my roommate Kathleen at 11:30; our staging event started at noon. I didn’t even think to set an alarm because I figured I’d wake up at 10 at the latest. However, I clearly underestimated how tired I was! I quickly got ready and made it down to the lobby to wait in line, turn in paperwork, and then go into a conference room to sit for a couple hours while the other 55 people did the same thing. This took nearly two hours. The schedule was until 7pm. Since I woke up late, I also did not have time to submit the Wolof and AgroForestry tests online, so I did that during this time. Once everyone made it through, we were officially welcomed by our staging directors Amy, Abdul, and Jeff as trainees rather than just invitees. We were constantly welcomed by guests throughout the day as "part of the family."

We were also very fortunate because we had the deputy director, Carrie Hessler-Radelet, as well as the director of the Peace Corps, Aaron Williams, come to speak! Apparently, staging groups are lucky if they have just a single of those two to attend. Carrie is a RPCV (returned Peace Corps volunteer) who served in Somoa during the 80s and went on to have a long career in international development before her current position. Two memorable quotes that she shared was that the Peace Corps is "the toughest job you'll love," and it is the most "intense and transformative experience outside of marriage and childbearing." Aaron was also a volunteer in the Dominican Republic in the 60s. He discussed how now is a good time for the PC because of the current supportive administration (particularly with Obama having grown up in a developing country, and Clinton having visited every country that the PC is now active in), the bipartisan support in congress, and the fifty year anniversary this year and how it is an opportunity to implement the new vision and key strategies for the PC (while maintaining the original mission statement). Each were very inspiring and made me excited for my service.

I was particularly happy to hear that "new vision and key strategies" seem to hold true to critiques I had in my undergrad about the problems with developmental organizations, particularly exceptionally bureaucratic ones. For instance, an evaluation of the PC showed that countries with the most resources were not ones with the most "need" (using the human development index [HDI] as a means to determine need). For instance, Ukraine had over 200 volunteers whereas Ethiopia had only 60. Therefore, a major change is that as an organization, they were going to rationalize the number of volunteers in a country according to a country in need. Further, they were going to minimize the sorts of projects in order to maximize the impact of volunteers, although this is by maintaining six key sectors (Education, Environment, Health, Small Business Development, Youth Development, and Community Development), with a total of 40 different specific projects (i.e. I am in the Environment sector working on an AgroForestry project).

We also split up into groups several times to talk about safety, anxieties, aspirations. Tomorrow we meet in the morning to head to the health clinic for the DAY before going to the airport to fly out at 5:40PM on a direct eight hour flight!

All in all, staging was exhilarating despite the necessary logistics! I believe that it achieved its purpose is give us as trainees the "opportunity to reflect on one's commitment to service while orienting to the Peace Corps and general demands of being healthy, safe, and effective."