Back to CBT

Going back to community based training (CBT) after seeing my site was a bit weird. However, everyone was so welcoming. It is amazing how much people miss you after being gone for a week! It was SO great to go to my actual site that coming back to CBT was anticlimactic. First of all, Kedougou is so much more beautiful than Darou Khoudoss! Secondly, I liked the language exposure, even though it was overwhelming at times. Nevertheless, it was nice to come back in the sense that I am going to completely appreciate the the amenities of my CBT site: the electricity, the water that is within my compound, the option of going to a boutique or market within walking distance, and the cell phone service. Below is my family with a few other volunteers who are learning Wolof in the next town, Mboru.

Ohh yes! We had our second language proficiency exam earlier this week, and I placed intermediate mid! That's the level that I need to be at by the end of training :) I'm really proud of myself too because I was the only person in my group who "advanced" a level from the last test!

This upcoming week is counterpart workshop (CPW); CPW is a time for our host country national work partners from our worksites to come to Thies, get updates about the Peace Corps, and an opportunity for us as volunteers to meet them, if we didn't already. Since I had already met my counterpart, Amadou Diallo, in Diarra Pont, when he arrived, it was kind of awkward- mostly because he arrived before everyone else, while we still had sessions going on in the morning, and then, I still have rudimentary language skills so there isn't much to talk about! We will see how it goes in the upcoming days. I have to introduce a speaker in Pulaar. YIKES. I don't like public speaking... particularly in foreign languages!

Updated Contact Information

My mailing address is as follows:

Jackie Allen
BP 37
Kedougou
Senegal, West Africa

Also, the word on the street for care packages is that the flat rate box is the best deal at about $40. Things I will always welcome: bars, dried fruit, beef jerky, treats!

Also, I got my old cell phone number back! (+221) 77 360 58 50

Volunteer Visit

Formerly called demystification, although still commonly referred to as "demyst," (ohh the politics of vocabulary) I just got back from my volunteer visit today. Here is a quick low down, with more in depth details below.

In short...
I visited Kedougou in the southeastern corner of the country, an area known for its greenery as a foothill region to the Guinean "mountains," met a number of current volunteers at the regional house (who are great and I am really looking forward to getting to know them better!), went to my site in Diarra Pont, met my new family and person I will be working closely with while in village (counterpart), saw the school and women's groups' gardens, met the chef du village, was introduced to the women's group, almost was given a new name (likely Adama Jan Diallo, where I will go by Jan so I will not be confused with the mother, Adama), biked to the nearby town (Salemata) for the Tuesday market, saw the family fields, and got a ton of information about what Ian (the person I will be replacing) worked on as the first volunteer at site.

As for my future living conditions: I will be living in a concrete hut with a straw thatched roof without water or electricity, but a water pump run is about 10 minutes round trip away, and I have my solar charger for my ipod and speakers. I have a personal shower area and toilet behind by hut. There currently is not cell service, although at my family's fields I can get some (3k away). Supposedly additional towers are being put in, sometime soon (so who knows what that means in Senegalese time). The former volunteer is leaving me a machete and sharpening stone, an extra mosquito net and bike helment, a cannery (to keep water cool in the hot season), a nifty rope system suspended from the ceiling to hang things from and a blackboard that is painted on the wall! I have plans for a new bed, table, chair, stool, and hanging bookshelf! I'm really excited to move in :) There is a shade structure in the compound too that I can hang my hammock from!

More details:
So Diarra Pont is 70km west of the city of Kedougou, which is supposed to be a 12hour drive from Thies, although our driver was a speed demon and got us there (in the 4x4 with luggage strapped to the top, fixed a flat, with a lunch stop) in only 8hours. When we arrived, the current volunteers gave us a tour of the regional house, which was formerly a training center and is set up much like the one I am currently staying at in Thies, but on a much smaller scale. They threw us a party and made us Mexican food! It was delicious! The following morning, a volunteer went to the store and bought baguettes (which are so much better than in the north) so we could have bean sandwiches with the left over beans from dinner. I had an easy going morning due to the car situation (bring some people to their site in the opposite direction of mine) and I left for my site with a few others who are 5km and 10km away from me after lunch. It was about an hour and a half drive or so on an unpaved, bumpy red rock road. I was really excited to see rock cliffs in the distance, although they are in themselves probably 30-40km away from my site. When I arrived, Ian (the volunteer I will be replacing who initially started his service in Guinea, served a year, then came to Senegal for two, and has AMAZING language skills; I am thoroughly jealous), greeted me, introduced me to the family I will be living with, showed me my hut, and then we went to meet the village chief. Ian chatted it up in Pulaar and apparently when I come back, a goat is going to be killed for my "naming ceremony," (since I need a Pullo name, as "jacki" means to "chomp down" on food in Pulaar). We came back to the hut, had dinner, corn, sauce, and chicken (that Ian bought since he knew I was coming). Afterwards, the village women's group came and I was introduced. The whole lack of having a Pullo name ended up being a conversation starter and everyone wanted to name me. It sounds like the runner up as of yet is Adama Jan Diallo, although I would go by Jan Diallo, not to be confused with the mother of the household, Adama. They went home, we listened to the radio, and went to bed relatively early.

The following morning, we woke up to have a rice porridge for breakfast and we went to the other quartier of the village to meet more people and see some of the cotton, peanut, and corn fields. I met the health advisor for the community, who will also likely be my language tutor when I install. We meandered to the women's group garden, the non-women's group garden, the school, the unfinished well, the new and old water pumps, and came back to the house for lunch. Afterwards, we biked the 5km along the "highway" (unpaved road we took in from Kedougou) to Salemata. Every Tuesday is the weekly market, and after buying seasoning, vegetables, sugar, tea, and soap for the family, we walked around the town, met the local officer for Eaux et Forets (essentially the dept. of land management in Senegal). We biked home, went to the river, I did a bit of yoga, had another corn variation with sauce for dinner (having to decline a second dinner from a neighbor) and went to bed after listening to the BBC on the battery powered short wave radio (I am looking forward to the nightly news!).

The following day we knew I was going to be picked up sometime, although it was unclear. So, after breakfast, a corn type porridge, we biked 3km to the family's fields (which is the most intense biking I have ever done. Hills, sticks, mud puddles, dodging trees... I think I will be able to hit up Whistler in the summer after my time here in Senegal). It is also the closest place with cell phone reception and we were trying to find out a better timeline of when the car was coming, although Ian's phone died before we could figure that out. So, after looking at a live fencing project, we dropped the bikes off at the house, and walked down to the river. We came back for lunch, a corn based thing with sauce, and laid under the shade hut in the family courtyard until the car came. A couple hours brought us back to the regional house (also referred to as the CTC, a throwback term for when it was a community training center). A few of us went to the market to buy fabric for our swear in outfits (I got a great indigo fabric from Guinea- reason being that my village's inhabitants are exclusively Guinean immigrants, and the dialect of Pulaar I am learning is essentially Guienean), and then met up with everyone else at a restaurant. After dinner, we took a cab back to the CTC, I watched GLEE for the first time on someone's computer and went to bed. I was woken up sometime in the middle of the night when the people next to me had a wasp attack since they forgot to close their mosquito net.

The following morning, a number of people walked down the street to get bean sandwiches, but a current volunteer and I went to boutique instead. We decided to get a baguette, onion, and the equivalent of SPAM. We biked back to the CTC, fried it up, and put on mustard. Interesting breakfast, surprisingly filling, and I can't say I'm opposed to it. There is a first for everything right?! We were on the road by 8:30am and made it in spectacular timing again to Thies. I unpacked, got a brief lowdown on others' visits, made a huge laundry pile that I will hopefully do tomorrow, and went out to dinner at a notoriously good chicken place since dinner was not provided at the center for the evening.

Now I have been wasting away on the internet for far too long into the night... but there is so much to catch up on that I literally haven't had the opportunity to! There are a few new photos on facebook too! 2am. Goodnight. My day starts in 6hours.

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