A chicken walked in on me in the shower and other tales from demystification

Emma, Hailey and Me at the regional house

As evidenced from the title of this post, my first story for the past 5 days is fairly self-explanatory. A chicken walked in on me in the shower. When I told the volunteer that I was staying with (Mika) what had happened, he asked me if I felt violated. My response, "not as much as I would have thought." I'm just glad that all it really did was stand there. A few weeks ago when I was on my way to language class at my homestay site, a rooster ran at me and tried to attack. Luckily, I'm faster then I look (at least when being chased by wild animals). 

I've decided that I'm just going to let Africa happen. I'm going to let it wash over me like the waves in the ocean. Very zen isn't it. That was my attitude for my "demystification" experience. That's what the Peace Corps used to call our first visit to site. Now they call it "volunteer visit" but I think demystification sounds a lot better so that's what I'm sticking to. 


I left the training center on Tuesday morning at the ungodly hour of 5am. It was miserable. Luckily, the people that I rode out east with were a lot of fun and not annoying at all (a very hard combination at 5am). The bus first dropped 10 of us off in Tamba and then continued on to the Kolda region (located below the Gambia) to drop everyone else off. We arrived at the regional house in Tamba around 1pm and the party was already in full swing. Almost all of the current Tamba PCVs were there to welcome us. They showed us around the house and took us to get lunch in the city (I'm playing fast and loose with the term "city" since Tamba has about 30,000 people) and after that we all hung out and just had a good time. It was a little bit like the house parties that I remember from senior year of college. 


The regional house in Tamba is pretty cool. It's a little bit what I imagine a hippie commune would look like. A lot of beds, people walking around barefoot, communal cooking space. You get the idea. The roof of the house is also pretty sweet. It's where everyone sleeps during the hot season. We just drag up foam mattress pads from the downstairs of the house and rig up mosquito netting wherever we can. The only down side is that sleeping late is impossible. When the sun is up, you're up. From what I've been told there are about 20-25 PCVs stationed in the Tambacounda region of Senegal. I think that's a pretty good number if you ask me. The Kaolack region is huge. They have over 50 volunteers. I'm not sure that I would be able to handle that. 


On Wednesday, Mika took me back to his site. He lives about 40k from Tamba (30k on a paved road and then 7-8k on a path made of sand via bicycle). It was my first public transportation experience in country and boy was it interesting. Not only would this vehicle (called an "Alhum") not have passed inspection in the states (we could see the road through the floor), but they also crammed way more people in there then was comfortable (both space-wise and heat-wise). I guess I'll just have to get used to that. After we departed the vehicle it was time for the biking. Ugh. But I made it. And I'm sure that 6 months from now, 7k will seem like nothing. 

Mika's village

Mika with one of his sisters

This is where I slept while in village

Mika's village is pretty cool. 150ish people, no electricity, no running water. I didn't mind the no electricity thing as much as I thought I would. When it gets dark, everyone just goes to sleep. Not a bad plan if you ask me. The village has one well and it's really deep so donkeys are used to pull the water. Very interesting when you're seeing it for the first time. Just as we rolled in, Mika's host family had finished his shade structure. What does that mean you ask? It means that we were able to sleep outside in the cool night air as opposed to in an oppressively hot hut. I'm going to have to request a similar set-up in my own village. 

Speaking of my own village, I finally got to see it! Very exciting. It's about 8k on a paved road from the regional house in Tamba and then an additional 2k bike ride off the road. It's a mixed ethnicity site (Pulaar and Mandinka), so this means that I might need to start learning another language. Oh boy. My hut is not yet built, but they did show me all of the concrete blocks that they will be using to assemble my hut. I just hope it's done by the time I have to move it. The section of the compound designated for my hut is in a little corner, so hopefully that will lend itself to increased privacy. Lack of privacy is something that a lot of PC Senegal volunteers struggle with. I did not get to meet the chief/my host father but I did get to meet my host brother who seemed really nice. He showed us all around the village, including the beautiful school bathrooms (it's interesting what excites me here in Senegal...) and the 4-room health hut. 


Yesterday we met up with a bunch of other PCVs and biked to Wassadu, which is on the bank of the Gambia River. Supposedly there are hippos (and sometimes monkeys) that hang out there, but we weren't fortunate enough to see any this time. It sounds like going to Wassadu is a fairly frequent occurrence so better luck next time. 

Marie, Me and Anne at the Gambia River

At Wassadu

Oh the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer

I'll leave you all with another chicken story. On Thursday, Mika and I ate lunch at Shannon's village (she will be the closest volunteer to me at just about 2k). Guess what we were served. A chicken head...stuffed with chicken feet. We gave it back. I'm not quite that integrated yet.