So there is a ton to catch you all up on, but I have to keep it quick because the laptop I'm borrowing is running very low on juice.
I move into my homestay tomorrow, which should be a lot of fun. They drop us off at individual sites and we spend the week doing both language and technical training. The language I have been assigned is Pulaar Fulakunnda, which is the language I'll be using and learning for the next 9 weeks or so of training both at Thies and at my homestay.
Here's what I know (again, sorry for this being incredibly disjointed......time is short), this particular dialect of Pulaar is relatively difficult, but represents only one of the five Pulaar varieties in existence. Fulakunnda is spoken primarily in the Kolda region of Senegal, which is awesome not only because it is exactly where I was hoping to be sited, but also because it means I get to commute from Thies to the coastal city of Mbour every other week or so with the homestay. Mbour is awesome because it is apparently super close to the Atlantic, and because it is a large enough city I will be able to buy most items I need to stock up on.
Kolda seems pretty awesome because it is one of the greenest areas of Senegal, and the farmers there, although still very poor, have decent soil to work with. I've also heard through the grapevine that Kolda's regional house will be at most 30Ks from my actual site and is getting or already has a wifi network---meaning if all goes well down the road I might be able to get a notebook type laptop sent from D.C. and can bike in every other week or so.
Alright, gotta cut this short because the laptop is making noises. Love you all. Please don't worry because I'm EXTREMELY happy with how everything is going thus far. Oh, and I'm basically a vegetarian now just because of the food situation (which is still amazing, so don't worry Mom). I'm currently toying with the idea of trying to adhear to Ramadan's fasting rules.........we shall see how the homestay works out, however, before I make a final decision.
Pulaar expression of the day: how are you = Hono Mbad-daa
word of the day: vendor/seller = njeeyoowo , pronounced njee e yo o woe.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
From Senegal
So this is going to be extremely brief, but I wanted to just let everyone know that I've arrived in Senegal and am now writing from a fellow PCT's laptop. Since everything from touching down to this very minute has been too intense to give proper justice in such a short post I'll stick to the very basics.
I'm safe, and the training facility is amazing. Everyone has been extremely supportive and friendly in terms of the PC staff. Fellow PCTs have come from all sorts of different backgrounds and regions which is already making for an interesting and very fluid dynamic.
Senegal is hot. This didn't come as much of a shock, but I figured I'd just throw it out there for anyone who had any remaining doubt. The next couple of days are going to be extremely busy, only to be followed by the start of actual language training on Monday and the move in with a host family. Should be a ton of fun, and provide me with something actually interesting to include in the next post.
Missing you all,
David
and looking at pictures of home on day 1 was definitely a terrible idea.
I'm safe, and the training facility is amazing. Everyone has been extremely supportive and friendly in terms of the PC staff. Fellow PCTs have come from all sorts of different backgrounds and regions which is already making for an interesting and very fluid dynamic.
Senegal is hot. This didn't come as much of a shock, but I figured I'd just throw it out there for anyone who had any remaining doubt. The next couple of days are going to be extremely busy, only to be followed by the start of actual language training on Monday and the move in with a host family. Should be a ton of fun, and provide me with something actually interesting to include in the next post.
Missing you all,
David
and looking at pictures of home on day 1 was definitely a terrible idea.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Last post from the USA, etc.
In the previous post I made a promise of anti over-sentimentalism, which in accordance with (for the time being), I have decided to make this “goodbye USA” post as brief and to the point as possible.
Over the past two weeks I’ve been dragging out my goodbyes. From Richmond to Annapolis and then back to Williamsburg I’ve spent a significant amount of time trying to put in the face time you friends who have meant the most to me over the years. I was planning on naming names, but you all know who you are. You know my reasons for leaving, you’ve placed bets on my eminent return, but above all else, you’ve really supported my decision to go to Senegal. Cue the violins. For the friends I didn’t get a chance to speak with prior to tonight you missed some great times, but you can always make up for it by becoming “followers” of this blog. Not only does that mean you’d get an instant update via email if I was to ever be mauled by lions, but it also means that Kool Aid will rain from the sky on my birthday, and I’ll seem a lot more popular to my fellow PC trainees.
I could have written a lot more on the subject of how terrible I am at saying goodbyes, more especially to my close friends and family, but the violins have all been packed, the band has gone home, and in the next 12 hours I’m headed to D.C. Good luck to you all, stay in touch, and feel free to visit if you ever feel like a LHS or UR reunion is necessary.
My address for the time being (to be changed after swear in and site assignment) is:
PCT David Shames
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 299
Thiès, Senegal
West Africa
If you write Par Avion or Airmail on the package/letter it should reach me within a month, if you forget I might not get it for several months as it will be sent via boat. Furthermore, make sure to write on the customs form that the value contained within the package is less than 20 dollars (makes it cheaper for me to pick up), and use lots of packing tape so whatever you might send isn’t “appropriated” by anyone handling the mail during transit. I’ve read that making religious references in red pen or drawing crosses can also help deter theft.
And lastly, I’ll leave you all with my top 10 most frequently played songs over the past week. Feel free to read between the lines, but I think by now it is patently obvious that I’m going to miss you all.
In no particular order:
Back Where I Come From—Kenny Chesney
James River Blues—Old Crow Medicine Show
People Are Crazy—Billy Currington
Find out Who Your Friends Are—Tracy Lawrence
These Boots—Eric Church
Fast Car—Wyclef
Firecracker—Ryan Adams
The Joker—The Steve Miller Band
Home—Blake Shelton
Sing me Home—Tim McGraw
Over the past two weeks I’ve been dragging out my goodbyes. From Richmond to Annapolis and then back to Williamsburg I’ve spent a significant amount of time trying to put in the face time you friends who have meant the most to me over the years. I was planning on naming names, but you all know who you are. You know my reasons for leaving, you’ve placed bets on my eminent return, but above all else, you’ve really supported my decision to go to Senegal. Cue the violins. For the friends I didn’t get a chance to speak with prior to tonight you missed some great times, but you can always make up for it by becoming “followers” of this blog. Not only does that mean you’d get an instant update via email if I was to ever be mauled by lions, but it also means that Kool Aid will rain from the sky on my birthday, and I’ll seem a lot more popular to my fellow PC trainees.
I could have written a lot more on the subject of how terrible I am at saying goodbyes, more especially to my close friends and family, but the violins have all been packed, the band has gone home, and in the next 12 hours I’m headed to D.C. Good luck to you all, stay in touch, and feel free to visit if you ever feel like a LHS or UR reunion is necessary.
My address for the time being (to be changed after swear in and site assignment) is:
PCT David Shames
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 299
Thiès, Senegal
West Africa
If you write Par Avion or Airmail on the package/letter it should reach me within a month, if you forget I might not get it for several months as it will be sent via boat. Furthermore, make sure to write on the customs form that the value contained within the package is less than 20 dollars (makes it cheaper for me to pick up), and use lots of packing tape so whatever you might send isn’t “appropriated” by anyone handling the mail during transit. I’ve read that making religious references in red pen or drawing crosses can also help deter theft.
And lastly, I’ll leave you all with my top 10 most frequently played songs over the past week. Feel free to read between the lines, but I think by now it is patently obvious that I’m going to miss you all.
In no particular order:
Back Where I Come From—Kenny Chesney
James River Blues—Old Crow Medicine Show
People Are Crazy—Billy Currington
Find out Who Your Friends Are—Tracy Lawrence
These Boots—Eric Church
Fast Car—Wyclef
Firecracker—Ryan Adams
The Joker—The Steve Miller Band
Home—Blake Shelton
Sing me Home—Tim McGraw
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
A long, but needed introduction.
Introduction
The following ramblings are intended to provide an introduction to both how I plan on using this blog, and how I hope the friends and family members who discover my posts use it to contact me during my 27 months in Africa. I’ve started with a basic overview and then go from there. I’d also like to go on record as saying this will most likely be the longest blog post I make during the entirety of the time I am serving in Senegal.
Firstly, I am leaving for Senegal, West Africa on Wednesday the 12th of August after a day of pre-departure orientation and document-handing-over the day before in Washington D.C. I will arrive in the capital city of Dakar Thursday morning, and then be bussed with the 56 or so other prospective volunteers to the training city of Thies for nine weeks of language, technical, safety, and health training. During this training I will be working in a small group of 3-8 other prospective Volunteers to learn enough of the language and cultural perspectives of rural Senegalese society so that I can serve as a successful Volunteer once I am actually given a “site” somewhere in rural Senegal.
Just for the sake of clarification, I will not actually be a Volunteer until I have proven competency to the Peace Corps powers that be in country, and demonstrated to them various other/more nebulous qualities. Upon being found competent at the end of the 9 week training mark I will hopefully be sworn in as a full fledged Volunteer in the American embassy in Dakar, dropped off in the community in which I will be living and begin serving my two year commitment as a PC Volunteer.
My thought process concerning the use of this blog---Most of the people who have already started or will be following my service in Senegal are family and good friends. You all know me well enough by now that I as much as I love to tell a good story to a captivated audience, the idea of posting my innermost emotions and thought processes in such an open forum makes me extremely uneasy. I created this blog primarily as a means of keeping you all relatively up to date with my activities in Senegal……IT IS NOT, NOR WILL IT EVER BE any sort of emotion fueled private diary.
I know I’ll have good days and bad days, but vomiting out things like fears and apprehensions in a moment of loneliness or dissatisfaction serve absolutely no useful purpose. I’ll do my best to keep things interesting (as I have for each and every one of my 22 years leading up to this point ….but the following entries will be more along the lines of. “I’ve been eating rice 3 meals a day and have developed a keen taste for goat; am hoping to start/finish project X in the near future,” than, “today I sat around my hut/house and contemplated the meaning of life as defined by what I gleaned from reading between the lines of Kerouac and Nietzsche.” Apologies in advance, but that is just not my style. My strong suspicion is that anyone who knows me and is reading this already knew that about me. Furthermore, if anyone really truly wants to know something specific concerning my emotions on a monthly basis, then A- I’d be flattered but extremely concerned , and B-you’ll just have to send me something to my gmail or give me a call once I get a cell phone in country.
By this same standard, I would absolutely LOVE to have feedback with the various blog entries I make. Please let me know you people out there are still reading this thing six months down the road by posting something below the entries. The more responses I get, the more often I’ll post. If anyone has any random and short questions, thoughts, or words of encouragement that’s the place to put em, and I’ll love you all the more for it. Anything more substantial can be sent to my gmail (facebook or email for the new address) and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
Final disclaimer: I will not be referencing my own religious or political beliefs in this blog as doing so would be in direct opposition to the goals and mission of the Peace Corps which I have already come to embrace. Those of you who are reading this know of my faith and my political leanings, but Senegal is a predominantly Muslim country, and my political beliefs have no place in this blog. Me posting of my beliefs in these two matters might indirectly make things difficult for me while abroad if someone in Senegal was to misinterpret such expressions. And again…there is always Gmail or a phone call for stuff like that.
Lastly……this time for real….. I love and will miss you all. My family and friends have been such a huge influence in my decision to serve in the Peace Corps. It is with your encouragement, patience, love, and understanding I am entering a very unknown and foreign situation. And it is with your encouragement and love I will hopefully remain in Senegal for the duration of the 27 months, and prove to be an effective Volunteer. Not merely as a Volunteer serving in Senegal on a personal lark, but as a Volunteer who can hopefully make a meaningful difference, however that may be defined upon arrival. Love you all!!!! ----David.
The following ramblings are intended to provide an introduction to both how I plan on using this blog, and how I hope the friends and family members who discover my posts use it to contact me during my 27 months in Africa. I’ve started with a basic overview and then go from there. I’d also like to go on record as saying this will most likely be the longest blog post I make during the entirety of the time I am serving in Senegal.
Firstly, I am leaving for Senegal, West Africa on Wednesday the 12th of August after a day of pre-departure orientation and document-handing-over the day before in Washington D.C. I will arrive in the capital city of Dakar Thursday morning, and then be bussed with the 56 or so other prospective volunteers to the training city of Thies for nine weeks of language, technical, safety, and health training. During this training I will be working in a small group of 3-8 other prospective Volunteers to learn enough of the language and cultural perspectives of rural Senegalese society so that I can serve as a successful Volunteer once I am actually given a “site” somewhere in rural Senegal.
Just for the sake of clarification, I will not actually be a Volunteer until I have proven competency to the Peace Corps powers that be in country, and demonstrated to them various other/more nebulous qualities. Upon being found competent at the end of the 9 week training mark I will hopefully be sworn in as a full fledged Volunteer in the American embassy in Dakar, dropped off in the community in which I will be living and begin serving my two year commitment as a PC Volunteer.
My thought process concerning the use of this blog---Most of the people who have already started or will be following my service in Senegal are family and good friends. You all know me well enough by now that I as much as I love to tell a good story to a captivated audience, the idea of posting my innermost emotions and thought processes in such an open forum makes me extremely uneasy. I created this blog primarily as a means of keeping you all relatively up to date with my activities in Senegal……IT IS NOT, NOR WILL IT EVER BE any sort of emotion fueled private diary.
I know I’ll have good days and bad days, but vomiting out things like fears and apprehensions in a moment of loneliness or dissatisfaction serve absolutely no useful purpose. I’ll do my best to keep things interesting (as I have for each and every one of my 22 years leading up to this point ….but the following entries will be more along the lines of. “I’ve been eating rice 3 meals a day and have developed a keen taste for goat; am hoping to start/finish project X in the near future,” than, “today I sat around my hut/house and contemplated the meaning of life as defined by what I gleaned from reading between the lines of Kerouac and Nietzsche.” Apologies in advance, but that is just not my style. My strong suspicion is that anyone who knows me and is reading this already knew that about me. Furthermore, if anyone really truly wants to know something specific concerning my emotions on a monthly basis, then A- I’d be flattered but extremely concerned , and B-you’ll just have to send me something to my gmail or give me a call once I get a cell phone in country.
By this same standard, I would absolutely LOVE to have feedback with the various blog entries I make. Please let me know you people out there are still reading this thing six months down the road by posting something below the entries. The more responses I get, the more often I’ll post. If anyone has any random and short questions, thoughts, or words of encouragement that’s the place to put em, and I’ll love you all the more for it. Anything more substantial can be sent to my gmail (facebook or email for the new address) and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
Final disclaimer: I will not be referencing my own religious or political beliefs in this blog as doing so would be in direct opposition to the goals and mission of the Peace Corps which I have already come to embrace. Those of you who are reading this know of my faith and my political leanings, but Senegal is a predominantly Muslim country, and my political beliefs have no place in this blog. Me posting of my beliefs in these two matters might indirectly make things difficult for me while abroad if someone in Senegal was to misinterpret such expressions. And again…there is always Gmail or a phone call for stuff like that.
Lastly……this time for real….. I love and will miss you all. My family and friends have been such a huge influence in my decision to serve in the Peace Corps. It is with your encouragement, patience, love, and understanding I am entering a very unknown and foreign situation. And it is with your encouragement and love I will hopefully remain in Senegal for the duration of the 27 months, and prove to be an effective Volunteer. Not merely as a Volunteer serving in Senegal on a personal lark, but as a Volunteer who can hopefully make a meaningful difference, however that may be defined upon arrival. Love you all!!!! ----David.
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