Monday, April 11, 2011

I make small children cry

Yes ladies and gentlemen, you heard read that correctly. Here in Senegal, I make children cry. Most notably, yesterday, I made 5 children cry. They are terrified of me. In particular, the little boy who was visiting at my homestay, he couldn't have been more than 18 months, and every time he caught site of me, he literally became paralyzed with fear. He would stop mid-bit of food and in one case, in the middle of going to the bathroom. Forget about when they tried to give him to me to hold. You'd think I had been poking him with needles and broken glass bottles. And all the adults think that this is hysterical. The kids are screaming and crying and the adults just can't stop laughing. I'm just going to take it all in stride. I figure I don't really have to worry until I need 2 hands to count up the daily count of crying children. Here's a fun fact for everyone, there is a Senegal urban legend that talks about a witch coming out late at night. If you meet the witch, you either go crazy or die. Guess what color skin the witch has in the story... that would be white. At least this year for Halloween I can just go as myself. 


I had the best watermelon of my entire life the other night. It's funny, in the U.S. I don't even like watermelon, but here I'll take any sort of fruit or vegetable I can get. By the time I was finished eating, I had watermelon all over my. I think my host family thought I was crazy. I don't think they've ever seen me eat so much at one time. It also happened to be the same night that we had salad for dinner (here in Senegal, salad consists of lettuce, caramelized onions, fish, and french fries. Sometimes red pepper if I'm really lucky), so I had already eaten more then my usual 8 bites of food. I hope they forget this instance quickly because otherwise I'll be expected to eat a lot more. They already tell me to "niyam, niyam" ("eat, eat") whenever I put my spoon down. My 5 year-old sister thinks its especially funny to tell me that. She also tries to put more food into my section of the bowl. Here, it's considered rude to reach into someone else's section, so you have to wait until someone tosses some fish or vegetable your way. Now I tease her right back though. Sometimes we go back and forth with the same piece of fish, just throwing it back and forth to one another until my grandmother scoops it up and just eats it herself. 


I went to a Pulaar wedding this weekend. I hope it will be the first of many. It was pretty crazy, but a lot of fun. Everyone was decked out in their Senegalese finest (I felt a little under-dressed in my skirt from old navy and t-shirt. I think it's high time for me to have some Senegalese garb made for myself) and they spared no expense on the food. I think that at least 2 goats were slaughtered, probably even more since it seemed like every Pulaar person within a 30k radius was invited.  There was a ton of dancing and a lot of friendly people that wanted to speak Pulaar to us. I felt bad that my language skills are still not up to par. I'm going to have to work on that. 


Tomorrow, at 5am, I leave for the region Tambacounda. It is located in eastern Senegal, starting north above the Gambia. I plan on taking a lot of pictures so you can expect some visuals sometime soon. I will get to meet my fellow Tamba PCVs and most importantly, get to see my site! I'm super excited and also a little bit nervous. I will also get to meet my in-country counterpart (each PCV has 1-3 in-country counterparts). One of the senior PCVs told me today that my counterpart is really excited and really motivated, so I'm hoping that we'll be able to do a lot of good work together. I'll be back at the training center sometime on Sunday. Wish me luck and send me some love while I'm gone! I'll be thinking of you!


Asalaa maalekum,
Rachel

2 comments:

  1. this whole post made me giggle.

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  2. So proud of you Rachel! I am looking forward to reading more and seeing more pictures! I am also interested in how your laundry gets done.
    Keeping you in my prayers,
    Anita
    xo

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