Language emersion, sink or swim

They sure do pack it all in here at Peace Corps Senegal. Even though they do give us a lot of breaks during the day, I still sort of feel like my brain is on overload. 


This morning we started with a "survival Wolof" lesson. Boy was that embarrassing. I hope it's not a harbinger of how hard language emersion will be in the future. It also didn't help that when we broke down into groups of four, two out of the four of us not only had the Wolof down really well but were also fluent French speakers. Guess which half of the group I was in? I was definitely the person holding the group back. I sincerely hope that the Peace Corps mentality is not one of sink or swim. It would be very unfortunate to be the first PCV in history to be sent home due to lack of language skills and inability to master the local language. Due to that, I will dutifully dedicate the hour before dinner to trying to learn my "survival Wolof" vocabulary. 


I do have to wonder what happens if I get placed into another local language. I guess having the little bit of Wolof can't hurt, especially since its the language most widely spoken in Senegal. 


After our language lesson we had an introduction to our PST (pre-service training, the Peace Corps is BIG on acronyms) homestays. I believe that our first night there will be Mondays. Fears for homestay from our training group include; loneliness, isolation, sickness, cultural differences, embarrassment, humiliation, etc. I'm glad we started the lesson with fears and ended with hopes, otherwise the lecture would have just been depressing. 


After lunch we had a "cultural fair." We learned about local juices and foods, proper etiquette around the dinner table/mat with communal bowl on it, not to use your left hand for ANYTHING (don't ask), tea drinking in Senegalese culture, the Muslim religion, Senegalese dress, proper/common greetings and last but now least, bathroom strategies (please e-mail directly for more detailed information). Once all that was finished, we were tested on it. Fun. I anxiously await those scores. 


Not sure what's on tap for tomorrow, I left my schedule in the room. 


Asalaa maalekum, 
Rachel