One Time Use

So like most days here in senegal, while it's hot as hell and i'm sweating i start to think about all the things i miss so much from back home. i've created several meals i plan on eating upon arrival back to america, which is still so long away. but it helps pass the time and takes my mind off the heat and helps with the boredom. but anyways i was sitting outside the other day thinking about my former life in america, we all sometimes call it this 'movie' that we may or may not have not seen before. it seems like a dream at times. i was having a bad couple of days, i was really sick and thinking about college and all my friends. thinking about nights out on the square in ol' san marcos and all the fun times i had floating the river, hangin out at the park, eating at all my favorite places. then i was looking around in my hut at all the pics i have of my friends and i, there are also plenty of pics of the family too. but looking around at the pics i noticed most of them were taken with a one-time use camera, and just how freaking great one-time use cameras are. Then i got all nostalgic about one-time use cameras. they are perfect, cuz you really never know what will be on a one-time use camera when you develop them, or at least i never did. plus they always have the most random photos on them, because like i always did you randomly find one before going out and decide it could be funny to take the camera out with you. they usually end up being on nights of random birthday parties or random events, plus one-time use cameras are always i great impulse buy at the grocery store. they only cost $5 and they are just everywhere. but then i started thinking about how much of a waste one-time use cameras are. i mean you spend $5 of the camera and then another $8 or so on developing, and then are they even recycled, i'm sure or at least hope. but even though one-time use cameras seem to be a waste, i still love them and miss them dearly. so if anyone wants to send me out a couple one-time use cameras, that would much appreciated. Happy Thankgiving everyone, and don't worry i'm eating a good dinner today here in Kedougou. Although Aunt Debbie's German Chocolate Cake won't be here, that's going to kind of suck!!

I suck at spelling

so i realized after i published that last blog that i made some many spelling errors and didn't spell check it before. i'm slowly losing my abilities to spell and sometimes even speak english, let alone french or pulaar. so forgive me, hopefully i can remember to spell check from now on. showed up for my meeting at the radio station and of course home-boy didn't show up. i'm not too disappointed cuz i didn't sleep well last night and didn't feel like attempting to speak french for an hour. my abilities at speaking french have been on the major decline, i understand when someone speaks to me in french but hell if i can give a decent response in anything other than pulaar(and that is sometimes laughable). well i guess it's time to hit the market and get something for dinner, hope everyone is doing well.

Worst Week Ever

Not to be confused with the hit tv show 'Best Week Ever!'. So i've had a pretty rough week; from children who won't stop crying, goats who won't stop bleeting, roosters who won't stop making that god awful noise they make, added to that not being able to sleep! I've been on a mad search to find this middle school girl and give her a scholorship for this school year, foiled many times by her just not being around and then after tracking her down and giving her the money and this certificate, being informed that she's pregrant and her family won't allow her to go to school this year, to having to take the money back from her to finally selecting another girl for the scholorship, all of this after biking 60k just to complete this one task! Thank god for the two guys who spoke english to help me cuz i got all stressed out and lost all ability to speak french or pulaar. my school garden project was scutinized by some douche bag teacher on some soap box about development, your kinda preaching to the choir buddy!!! All in all he told me it was a dumb idea because the soil is bad and the water the far away. First of all, soil isn't bad, my family grows all kinds of veggies and secondly it's not my fault this village was settled at the top of a mountain and then all the huts were built so far away from the two natural springs which are the villages only water sources. i told them that we had to at least try, because this village doesn't have anything because no one is willing to try anything partly cuz they're all pretty unmotivated. then i also got a lot of crap from them because the volunteer i replaced didn't do anything in the village, i couldn't really say anything except 'well i'm not him.' and nothing is really getting done about getting our health clinic up and running, everyone seems to be pretty complacent about the whole thing. my girls club will start soon, that will be lots of fun and i'm excited about that. today myself and another volunteer have a meeting at our radio station, we're looking to re-do our show and make some improvements. i'm becoming quit the local celebrity from this radio show, people are always commenting on it and not just in kedougou. i've also made a new senegalese friend, one who happens to have a fridge, yes that means cold water and she eats very well. allah jaraama(thank god) she likes to feed this toubaako!!!!! i ate at her house three times this past week, only bad part of it is her house is 9k from my village. oh well i'll make that trip cuz it means no crying children, a nice couch to lounge on and good food and cold water! i'm having all these ideas for stuff but just finding it hard to figure out a starting point. hopefully it will start coming to me. hope all is well back home, send me letters!!!!!

james

I've created a MONSTER!!!

so doing laundry in my village is not fun, you have to hike your cloths all the way to this spring and then all the women make fun of me while i'm doing it. so i pay this girl in my compound to do it, plus i hated doing laundry in america where i had a machine to do it. so this girl is 12 or 13, really funny and probably does laundry for me once a week. let's also add she's probably one of the richest 12 year olds in the southern region of senegal, because of this. i'm always asking her what she does with the money, if she's saving it help with school stuff or what? she says no and that i would soon see. one thursday, weekly market day in a neighboring village, she returns with a ton of jewelery and a brand new outfit! she bought these giant bright green hoops, flower braclets encrusted with jems and flashy rings. another volunteer was in my village and so we started calling her 'bling-bling'. did i also mention that this girl is a total ham, she cracks me up all the time. so my friend and i are sitting under my shade structure, reading and what not. we look over and she, Marie, pronounced similiar to Mary, is laying on this stick bed having these two children massage her. as soon as she notices that we are wathcing her, the diva comes out. she said things like 'rub my eyes and i'll pay you 200cfa,' 'rub my neck and i'll pay you 300cfa,' 'rub my back and i'll pay you 1,500 cfa.' she sat there and did this for a good 20 minutes all the while wearing every piece of her new trashy jewelery. since she has bought even more new cloths and head scarves and is becoming one of the best dressed girls in senegal. so i've started doing alittle of my own laundry so as hopefully this won't keep going to her head. so everytime she walks by i say 'bling-bling'!!!

Hey Mr. DJ, Turn the music up!!

So we have this weekly radio show here in Kedougou, and today the girl who was supposed to do it peaced out and left the slot open. Another volunteer Alexa and I were in town and decided last minute that we would do the show as to keep good relations with Radio Communitaire here in Kedougou. without alot of time to prepare we decided we would have some friendly bantor but mainly play music. mind you the entire show is done in Pulaar. we were going to talk about how it's the month of fasting and whether or not we were fasting in our villages. Then we did alittle talk about how the rains are slowing down. While in a music set the techinican tells us he's not happy with our show because we aren't talking about important. So we add in a quick bit about what kind of work Alexa is doing in her village. She's at her one year mark so her pulaar is way better than mine. All of a sudden he just cuts off the music and says talk! we throw on our headphones and begin talking. I was so freaked out and messed up some of the words a bit. Then we're into another music set and he cuts off the music and again says talk! not knowing what to do we throw our headphones back on and Alexa decides to ask me what i'm doing in my village. My heart sake, i was so nervous, i choked up but i was able to get out some things i've done and some things i'm hoping to do. then she asked me about something, but i had no clue what she said, so we just started joking about how i can't speak pulaar. It was so nerve-racking, but fun and the techinican, although not my favorite person right now had some good ideas for radio shows he wants us to do. Turns out he is also the director of the station and all the DJ's. We talked over some things and Alexa and I promised him that our next show in two weeks would be much better. Also could to find out he spoke some english and we had been talking about him unaware of his abilities. We're so used to the techs not speaking english and usually just talk about whatever. So now the shows over, i'm getting a special shout-outs on all of his shows he said. I can't wait for the family in the village to hear me getting shout-outs from the DJ on the radio. I'm alittle disappointed the family didnt' know i was doing the show today, i greeted them in hopes that someone was listening. After all this excitment i need a beer! hope all is well with everyone. write me letters!!

james

Pics of the Mango Flies!!

http://txstate.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2148073&l=4c6cd&id=29606259

here is a link to my facebook album of the mango flies after they were squeezed out of butt cheeks! it's pretty gross, so weak stomachs shouldn't look after eating a full meal!!!

Your asking me for directions???

so yesterday i was riding into kedougou and because of the rains the bush path i take was pretty gross. there was one point where i was trekking through ankle deep mud and mid-calf stagiment, smelly, brown water. it was so gross and i just wasn't in a great mood anyways, i hadn't slept very good the night before. plus i have no music since my stupid iPod broke a while ago, but it's going back to texas with meg next month so i'll be getting it back when i meet my mom in portugal in feb. anyways, so i got the main road that takes me to kedougou and was getting in a better mood because i was almost there. everyone as i ride by likes to greet me, which is funny cuz they all act really surprised when i greet them in pulaar because they all tend to greet me in french. this one man kind of flagged me down a bit and started off with a big 'bonjour', well i greet him with a big 'wali e jam' and he goes oh and then started speaking in pulaar and asked me for directions! i always feel it's a big accomplishment when your asked for directions when your somewhere else, it's happened in paris, nice and amsterdam but serioulsy your going to ask the white guy for directions through the bush in africa?? but actually i knew exactly where he was going, it was another volunteers village and one i pass through. so i rode off feeling good, which was helpful it was a really rough week. just from the usual everyone and their mothers asking me for money or presents and the annoying ass children screaming 'cadeaux' or 'present' at me. it's the only french word they tend to know especially in my area where the education system is terrible. one of the hardest things now is dealing with this local celebrity status. i'm ready to go back to being just another face in the crowd, no one caring, staring or constantly laughing at everything i do. another volunteer and i were talking last night about all the stuff that drives us crazy about senegal and came to the conclusion that after this is all said and done we're probably not going to remember all these annoying things that make us crazy in senegal. i mean i could talk for hours about stuff that makes me want to rip my hair out here; children, animals(i was about to kill our dog at the kedougou house last night who barked for hours at absolutely nothing at 4a.m.), to trying to get a meeting with the village cheif so i can discuss my ideas for our health hut. he keeps changing the day on me, but it's ramadan now and nothing is going to get done because no one is eating during the day. but actually we've been eating really really well, some family member came from dakar with lots of money and food. so i'm enjoying that. another cool thing is that all the corn is so tall right now, it's so fun to walk through the little paths because the corn is almost two of me it's so tall. it also makes a good cover cuz the village can't see me when i ride down the main road through the village. well anyways, that's all i got for now. hope all is well back home.

james

It's funny what boasts your confidence

so after the entire peace corps community found out about my mango flies, i was surprised to find that many others have recently suffered the same terrible fate. while in tamba for regional IST i was talking with another who had gotten them on his bum as well, and he asked "Don't you now feel like a badass, like you can do anything now?" oddly enough, i do! this has probably been the grossest thing i've ever experienced, the next closest is the whole leaking appendix thing, but we won't go there today. i kind of feel like now i can do handle just about anything senegal has to throw at me, i mean i squeezed 7 larva out of my body. regional IST was actually better than i expected. i got some good feedback from 2nd year volunteers on the big project i'm wanting to do. so i'll break it down for you here. in my village we have a really nice health hut, it was built by an NGO a few years back, but they failed to do any follow-up to make sure it was functioning properly. it's a very nice two room building, with two hopsital beds and nice cabinets for storage, plus a big nice desk. problem is my counterpart doesn't know how to run it, this was told to me by a few different villagers. so i'm wanting to work with him and show him how to manage and run this health hut so that we have a functioning health structure within the village. first i need to set up a health committee to make all decisions and formulate a plan of action. then we will need to raise funds. i'm not wanting to be just another white guy who brings in all this money for stuff, so i'm hoping to raise the money within the village. maybe a health tax, something small, that would raise money to by medicine and books for record keeping. then i would work with my counterpart teaching him accounting and inventory management. it sounds simple enough, but the problem is i'm going to work at their pace and i'm hoping my counterpart will down for it all. the problem i've noticed is that my village is so used to white people just paying for things, and they're not the most motivated of people. other than that when school starts i'm going to start a girl's health club, i'll do little health lessons, but i'm going to focus on gender development. in most of the research i've done, most found working with young girls has the greatest impact on development within a community.

so some people have been asking for care-package ideas. here is just a list of things i would like, so pick and choose from here for care-packages.
Aveeno sunblock, flavored teas, high protein bars(low carb), high protein drink mixes, cashews, raisins, turkey or beef jerkies, trail mix, mac and cheese, sour patch kids, mags(GQ, Details, trashy mags(we all love those), also any good books you might have recently read. that is about all i can think of now, but you get the idea of stuff i would like. i hope all is well with everyone, take care and send letters.

james

Remember, i'm eating for 7!

hey all, i hope all is well. so i haven't posted in a while because i've been waiting for something to happen that would be interesting to write on here. there were a couple of funny stories from my return to kedougou via public transport, but i'm not going to go there today. so wednesday these little bumps started forming in my butt region. thursday they were swollen and looked to be boils. i've gotten a few boils while in senegal so i know what they look like. friday they were really sore, so i started hot compresses, cuz those always helped with my other boils. the only difference was these really, really hurt. sometimes i was woken up at night because they were hurting so bad. well today while taking a shower, i was poking around at one of bumps that wasn't in a good spot. so while poking and squeezing, out popped this little white thing. at first it thought it was just a really gross blackhead type thing, then i took a closer look. it was ALIVE!!! it was a nasty little, white, fat LARVA!!!!!! i freaked out and yelled for my friend annie, the only other pcv at the kedougou house. i came running out in my towel and ran directly to the phone to call the PC medical officier. so one down, but i have 6 to go!! i'm so grossed out. but we figured out that i became infested with these vile little creatures from not letting my underwear completely dry out. i was still in Thies and we were leaving that saturday but it had been rainy and so after two days of hanging outside to dry my cloths weren't fully dry. so my lesson from all of this, always let your cloths fully dry after washing in Senegal.

another funny thing that happened, why my friend holly and i were making our way back to site after IST, we were sitting in this sept place(old ass station wagon, that is used for public transport in senegal) waiting to go. guess how the driver started the car?? just go ahead and think of the most absurd way to start a car. that's right, he pressed the Defrost Button!!!! plus also in that particular sept place, the middle windows didn't roll down, and holly and i were sitting in the very back. it was a very pleasant 7 hour car ride, along the worst road on the face of the earth. it is covered in potholes, i mean covered. holly and i renamed it the "Road to Hell." so that's about all the sitting i can stand for the moment, my larva aren't too happy with me for sitting for so long. so 'si allah jabbi' or 'if god accepts' these damn larva will be gone within the next day or two, or i'll be making my way to dakar to have them surgically removed!!! wont' that be a fun car ride.

back in civilization!

so i've back in Thies for training again for a week now. currently in dakar, came for the night to see the city. It's so far away from Kedougou i figured i should check it out while at In-Service Training. we layed the by pool at the American Club yesterday which was awesome and i had a hot dog that wasn't that great, but still a hot dog. We went out in Dakar last night, which was so much fun and much needed. today being sunday i just found out that the massive grocery store i was hoping to visit is closed! but i do plan to eat my weight in baked goods while here. oh by the way, upon returning to Thies i weighed myself and have lost 35 lbs in the last three in the village. probably because all we eat is rice with peanut water, and cous cous with leaf soup. plus i ride my bike everywhere and for long distances. it's been nice to eat real food again, and surprisingly i haven't gotten sick once.

so a couple of interesting stories from the village. One day after getting caught in a rain storm while returning home with my massive bucket of water on my head, i saw my aunt sitting in her hut so i decided instead of sitting alone in my hut i would sit with her. It was just the two of us, and she is probably one of the coolest women i've met. i'm really thankful to have someone like her as my neighbor in the village. well we're sitting there talking and this cat was running around. she asked if we had cats in america and i told her yes. she then asked if i had a cat in america, they know i have dogs from my pictures. i told her no, and explained that they make my brother sick, he sneezes and gets itchy. i doubt there is a word for allergy in pulaar, even if there was i don't know it. she said she understood, and followed by saying how mean and bad cats are. She then went on to tell me how they are helpers of bad people. These people come into your hut in the night and scare you and do bad things. from everything she was doing i thought she was talking about having a nightmare, that she's had nightmares about cats. She kept explaining that these were people, not dreams. She said i had to know, because we have them in america, she's seen the film. she then tell me that they have sharp teeth and bite your neck. i'm fighting back the laughter at this point, VAMPIRES, seriously, in my small african village at the top of the mountain. i asked her if these people were scared of garlic and she raised her arms to the air and said "You Understand!" She went on to tell me that her daughter had been killed by a vampire, and we have one living in the village. this old woman, and i'm not supposed to talk to her and that she will let know if this woman is ever around. i found out why everyone has a corn cob and small piece of red fabric hanging above their doors, to keep out vampires.

i'll write more later, i'm too tired right now and ready to get off the internet. IST is going good, i'm taking french which is easy. The only Pula Fuuta class was for beginners so even though my french is alright i'm taking it again. we're all pretty good so we just sit around and talk a pratice the tenses, which i need the most help on. Most of my host family in Thies is gone, which is kinda nice i like not having many people around. Well i'm off to go lay by the pool some more! Hope everyone is doing well, write me letters. i'll try to be better about posting stuff since i'm in a large city with internet access all the time.

Hey Peg!!


James

All for 1 and a pineapple!

Hey all, so the past couple of days in the village have proved to be quit hard as i have become very homesick and missing all my friends and family back in the U.S. so wednesday, two days ago, i woke up in a fairly bad mood. i had tried to go meet with my official counterpart, only to find after i had rode the 9 k to Fongolimbi that he had gone to Kedougou for the day. so i ate this weird tuna sandwich and chatted with the lady who made it for awhile. turns out those tuna sandwiches don't agree with me very well. i spent wednesday reading and hanging out with my family. my mood had lifted some by the evening and as i lay in bed that night i heard a familiar song coming from my families house. it was 'unbreak my heart' by i think toni braxton. then i heard celine dion's 'my heart will go on' and i couldn't help but laugh some. i couldn't believe it, the titanic theme song in my little village in senegal. so i jumped up and got out my radio and found the station. it was the kedougou station and i couldn't help but get in a better mood because of the trashy american music being played. followed up by mariah carey and then michael bolton. then out of no where, All for 1's ' I swear' started playing. it took me straight back to 5th grade, cuz i had that tape and played it all the time. i started belting out the words to song as i lay under my mosquito net and couldn't get the stupid grin off my face from then on. i listened for awhile to more funny songs, really old and really bad. it was a little taste of america that i needed very much. the next day, thursday, was my weekly market. so i made the 9 k ride back to fongolimbi. i had two really good bean sandwiches and saw a new friend i had made the monday before when i had come in hopes of seeing my counterpart. we chatted for a bit and i chatted with some people i knew. i waited around hoping my friend robin, another pcv in the area would show up. by 10:30 a.m. i was ready to get of there, robin had made no appearance yet and i really wasn't in the mood for pulaar social scene that is the weekly market. as i was leaving i passed by the booth of a little old woman, who had pineapples. i was so very excited, because the following even i had dreamed about pineapples. so i bought 3, two for my family and one for me to eat in my hut. i rode home and the first thing i did was go inside and and eat this pineapple. it was so good, sweet and very juciy. i laid there, full of pineapple and extermely happy and took a nap. it was perfect. it's funny how it's the small things, like an old song and pineapple that make me very happy in this harsh enviroment. it's been very hot and humid lately, we have lots of rain which is good, because it's bring cools winds and cools the village down. i have been sleeping in my hut everynight and even had to cover up a few nights it's been so chilly. today i got to kedougou, i'm helping another volunteer prepare for a seminar he's holding and i will eat lots of good food. i'm very happy right now, althought i just went to the market here in hopes of more pineapple but with no luck. oh well. i hope all is well with everyone else, nothing new or exciting to report. my pulaar is improving which is good and i'm enjoying my family in the village more and more. they are very fun and we have fun laughing and joking with each other. i hope everyone has a great 4th of july. write me letters, i love showing up from the village and finding mail. take care.

james

Pulaar Wedding

Hello all, i hope all is well in the good ol' U.S. of A. I have had a very interesting almost two weeks in the village. From accidently calling a town meeting, i had intended it to be just myself and the mid-wife of the village, but because i don't speak pulaar very well she misunderstood and told the entire village i had called a town meeting to discuss future projects within the village. i'm definately not going to use the word "reno" anymore, because apparently it means a meeting for everyone, not just a simple meeting between two people. but this past sunday the women of my village insisted that i go with them to a wedding in a neighboring village. so myself and 20 or so women/young girls made our way in the heat of the day the 3k to this wedding. at events like these men and women are separeted and since no men from my village or family came i was forced to sit with a big group of men and drink tea. after exhausting my pulaar with them i decided to take a nap since i had just walked for an hour and half with the hot blazing african sun overhead. after i awoke the men took me to watch the actually ceremony. it was quit interesting. everyone gathered in a circle around the two men playing these odd looking instruments. everyone sang songs for a big and this man with a big stick was making sure the circle was kept big enough by slapping the ground and peoples feet when they moved in to closely. this did this during the entire ceremony and was really annoying about. i kind of wanted to take the stick at times and beat him with it. i stayed on the outside of the circle. they sang for about 30 minutes and then the presentation of the gifts was made. they announced what everyone had given as gifts and made the people who had given the gifts come out into the middle of the circle. after this the music continued and women took turns coming into the circle and dancing around, it looked like something similar to the helicopter. they would hold both arms out and dance around in the circle waving their arms about. at times there would be two women facing each other doing this dance. this took place for almost an hour, while i watched i ate mangos and drank bissap. bissap has become one of my favorite drinks here, it is bright red and very sweet. it is something similar to hibcus in the states but much sweeter and very good, plus it was cold which made it even better. after the dancing the couple was brought into the circle. i think the funniest part was that there was a guy video taping the whole thing. i had the groom beforehand and he seemed very excited to have a toubaako at his wedding. he wore a brand new white compte and the bride looked like an african prom queen. her dress was blue and her hair was done up very big. she had on full make-up and looked very pretty. all the women from my village joked that i needed to get myself a senegalese wife that looked like her. the bride was maybe 16 or 17, she had too much make-up on to really tell. the guy was fairly young, maybe in his early 20's. they sat on two small benches facing each other, while the music played and the women of their families danced around them. this went on for about 20 minutes while everyone in the crowd sang this beautiful song. after this the newly married couple departed and the helicopter dancing continued. they returned with the bride wearing a different white dress. there was so much detail on the dress it was beautiful. they then walked around posing with everyone while the guy video taped. the new groom brought his new wife over to greet me, she didn't seem to excited to have this toubaako at her wedding. the guy video taping then turned the camera to me and gave me a full up and down. i looked like a complete bum. my sister had told me that green t-shirt and dark brown pants looked fine, i was covered in sweat, was dirty because lets face it i live in a small african village and am always dirty. so forever on this couples wedding video there will be a toubaako looking like a big dirty bum. oh well, i don't know how they're ever going to watch the video considering there was on electricity in the village, so probably no tv or vcr. it was very beautiful, my family asked me that night to explain an american wedding, but after thinking for a few minutes i told my pulaar wasn't good enough so i would have to tell them later. but it was a cool experience and i'm sure i will be attending many more pulaar wedding in the future. i had left my camera at the kedougou regional house so there were no pics taken. but like i said i will go to many more and make sure i have my camera to take pics. i hope everyone is doing well, take care and send me letters, my address is in the previous post!

Village Life!

Hey everyone. so i've survived my first two weeks in the village! i was dropped off on the 16th of may and it wasn't as bad as i had expected. i didn't even watch the peace corps car drive away. my hut is cool just very very small. i have a small fenced in backyard where i bucket bath myself. outside of my hut is small shade structure where i sleep at night because it's far too hot in my hut. everyone i start the day by listening to the BBC and making myself some breakfast and tea. then i go greet the family and go get water. our spring is a little more than 1/4 a mile from my house so i have go instead of having the women do it. down at the spring i see monkeys sometimes, which is pretty cool. i get my water and carry it back to my house on my head. it's hard carring a 15 liter bucket of water on your head for over 1/4 of a mile. but i've gotten the hang of it. the food and heat have been the hardest parts so far. not much nutrition in the village, alot of peanut sauce which is like runny peanut butter soup on rice or cous cous. this week has also been the week of strange meats in my food. i've given my own bowl of food so i haven't been eating the gross things. example of weird meats, the other night i uncover my bowl to find wild deer testicles!!! my family had killed a wild deer that day, we ate the perfectly cooked meat that afternoon. but i wasn't about to eat his testicles. my family is really really nice and always tell me how great i speak pulaar, which is absurd because i don't speak pulaar. a funny thing about the pulaar people is that they always state the obvious. when i wake up i'm asked "you woke up?" and i always say "yes, i woke up." then when i'm going to get water everyone woman i pass askes "your going for water?" and i reply "yes, i'm going for water." then i'm carrying it on my head home i get "your carrying water on your head?" and again i say, "yes i'm carrying water on my head." so i've started to take action. i ask them silly questions before they can ask me. before they ask me if i woke up i always ask them, and they laugh when i do it, almost like i always laugh when they do it to me. they also make me tell the same stories over and over and over again. so now i get way into it and just act stupid and i usually have everyone rolling around laughing. it's pretty funny. our main conversations revolve around calling each crazy and "players". it will be interesting to go back there tomorrow morning, but i'm looking forward to it. i have alot of visiting people to do this week. i've kinda of just stayed around my house the past two weeks, just getting used to the shock and living in a small african village. but i've had lots of people asking when i'm coming to their house for tea or lunch. the tea they drink here is really bad, it has so much sugar in it i can barely stand it. imagine a shot glass of tea that has 5 cubes of sugar in it. it's just awful but they love it and i haven't been able to tell them no yet. anyways it's been a long day at the cyber, i've uploaded photos and am posting the link. also my address has changed. this is my address for the rest of my service.

PCV James Hardin
B.P. 37
Kedougou, Senegal
West Africa

photo link: http://txstate.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2125769&l=2dcf5&id=29606259

so send letters, funny newspaper articles or magazine articles, those are always fun. also care packages of food would be great. not alot of candy but some is always nice. Dr. Pepper jelly bellies would be excellent along with trail mixes or granola. magazines would always been nice too, Details, GQ, National Geographic, trashy celebrity mags always make our days. be creative and also if anyone wanted to include some kind of good hair stuff, the sun is frying my hair and there really isn't conditionar in this country. i have a trashy european style mohawk/faux hawk which i think is great and i'm going to grow my hair out cuz i think it would be funny. anyways i hope everyone is doing well in america. take care of yourselves!!

James

I'm a PCV now!!

hey everyone, sorry again for the long lapse in time since my last post. i've been super busy with language test and just trying to hang out with my stage before we leave for site, which is tomorrow!! today we had swearing in, where we officially become peace corps volunteers. we went to dakar and it was by the water, kinda cheesey like high school graduation but still cool. our ceremonies are shared with japanese and koreen peace corps, so that meant spring rolls and sushi for refreshments afterwards!! the senegalese went nuts when the food was put out. it was a mad house but oh so funny. two ladies filled their purses with food, it was great. then after it was all over we went to the american club and swan and had a couple beers! some current volunteers i've met were all there so we had so much fun. tomorrow i'm leaving for Tambacouda to set up bank accounts and what not, then monday we'll go to Kedougou to buy all the stuff for our huts. then wednesday morning at 10 a.m. i get installed to my site. i'm kinda nervous just about the language, but i know my local counterparts speak french, so i just be talking to them at first. i got intermediate low on my language test on tuesday which is what is required to become a volunteer. basically you have to be able to talk about yourself, express basic needs and be fairly comfortable in conversation. this is all recorded so it's alittle intimadating. i'm excited about getting to kedougou, 5 really cool people from my stage are going down there too, but i'm really going to miss all the others who are going to different parts of the country. it's been so hot here, i can't wait to sleep outside in my village. my little room is like a brick and tin over here. i wake up with sweat pouring off of me and my family doesn't to sleep outside for some reason. so basically i haven't really slept in the past few days becasue it's so hot, i think they are trying to bake the toubob!!!! well can't think of much else, i will have a new address in a few days and will post it so everyone will have it. i hope all is well in the mystical land of america, it all seems like such a blur. the past two months have flown by and i'm sure the next two years will fly by as well. take care everyone.

Tanna Alaa??

sorry for not posting in forever, i just find it difficult to get to the blog after writing e mails back to my mom and checking myspace and facebook. i'm doing great though, except for the stresses that come from training. tomorrow i have my 6 weeks language assestment and i'm pretty nervous. i'm learing one the hardest senegalese languages, Pullo Fuuta and its discouraging when everyone learning Wolof is excelling i just keep telling myself their language is really easy. it also doesn't help when my host family told me how bad i was at speaking their language last week. i only understood them because our only form of communication is french. my french has improved so much from speaking with them, plus i have to do alot of translation between my classmates and teacher. her english isn't great and they speak no french. it's pretty funny, plus for awhile there i was having to pick up my neighbor whenever we went somewhere because he spoke no french or local language. yesterday was my 24th birthday, which we started celebrating saturday night. we went to this hole in the wall place that was highly recommended by fellow PCVs and it was amazing. it cost about 4 dollars for the best meal i've had so far in senegal. grilled chicken and fries with ghetto salad. they grill it when you order it and was so tender and just perfectly burnt. yesterday for my actual birthday a few fellow trainees went with me to this french resturant which was also great. i had a salad with feta cheese, did i mention how much i miss cheese?!? well i do! it's hard to find the words to describe senegal or the people. but something that i saw today and have seen before that brings a huge smile to my face; people giving the goats a bath in the street. it's so bizarre and yet so funny!! we took a class outting today and went to a pullo fuuta families house for tea. while there i was offered 4 wives and a goat dinner whenever i wanted. the woman 1st offered me her younger sister, she was only 20 so i can only imagine how old her sister is. then she asked me to take her back to american when i leave in two years. i was pretty uncomfortable and didn't quit know how to repsond, so i just said 'mi faamaani' which means 'i don't understand!' i said that ALOT!!!

so i found out about my village and i'm so excited. it's just south of a regional capital which is called Kedegou. i'm not supposed to broadcast the name of my village for safety and security reasons. but it's really small, maybe 300 people and it's not the top of a big ol hill. there is no electricity and they have mango and papaya trees that pretty much produce fruit all year long. did i mention that they also have avocados in the south??? i'm really excited about that. plus i hear they have fruit that we have never seen and there are no english names for, i hear it's some of the best stuff i'll ever eat. also did i mention that there is a hippo reserve down by Kedegou, we're hoping to start hippo rodeoing!!!! it's going to be the next big craze in senegal. i can't wait. also i've seen pics of my hut and it's freaking cool, tons of fellow trainees are so jealous. i will post pics as soon as i can. i can't wait to get to site.

okay so sorry for not updating this sooner, but check out my friends meg's blog: neverbe6again.typepad.com she's got tons of great pics and her experiences are basically my experiences. by the way the engagement annoucement is a fake, we only did that because holly and i showed up at the training compound wearing matching blue polos. that's how bored we were on our two hour lunch break.

so send me letters and stuff, but i would hold off on packages until i get to my site. i'll have a new address in about a month. i hope the U.S. is good and everyone is doing well.

'HI' meg's mom, hope you enjoyed it!!!!

En Ontuma,
James

First days in Senegal

So i've been in Senegal for 6 days now and it's been awesome so far!!! The country is so beautiful but very very dirty, which i wasn't expecting. There is just garbage everywhere. But aside from that, i am having the time of my life. The food has been amazing so far, we eat very well at the training center, we even had fish and chips one night. I'm out on "demyst" right now, the Peace Corps bus drove us 10 hours to Kanel then we took a horse draw cart 7 miles to a little town. The people where so nice, i was given a Senegalese name already. i can't spell it though. I helped in building a house to the cheers of about 200 people. Then learned Senegalese checkers which is crazy!! We also swam in the river that divides Senegal and Maurtania. it was ice cold and amazing, there was also a herd of wild camels on the Maurtania side. I've had no stomach problems yet, which is surprising, considering i drank some well water yesterday! The volunteer i'm with for "demyst" is awesome, he's taught me alot about how to survive in PC and alot of little tricks. I feel like there is so much i can say, but i just dont' have the time to say it yet. I've been very heart-broken to see how these people live, but also very over joyed by their hospitality and just their overall happiness. But it is surprising to see a family living in a crumbling mud house, but with a TV and cell phones. I have already watched Passions, 24 and this great Brazilian soap opera all dubbed into French. It's quit funny.

All the PC kids are great that i came with. We all have so much sitting around all night talking. So far my favorites are this girl Holly who reminds me of my good college friend Whitey and this girl Lauren from Vegas, who i started calling Vegas and now everyone does. I'm almost out of time at the cyber so i'll post more later. Send me letters.

PCT James Hardin
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 299
Thies, Senegal
West Africa