"What the heck am I doing!?"
This is often the question I wake up with in my head these days. The reason being that I am currently residing in an Senegalese village in the boondocks of Africa. But the question is generally asked out of sheer joy and excitement, because I am having the time of my life. I am going to give a very short and sweet synopsis here, lest the internet crap out or my time in the cyber cafe run short. So here we go...
As I said before, I have left my abode in Dakar and taken up residence in Mbam, a village in the middle of the Saloum Delta just north of the Gambia. Don't bother looking on a map, because as far as I can tell, my village is uncharted. You can, however, look for Foudiougne and I am 3 km south. I don't know how many inhabitants there are, and though sizeable, I have to go to Foudiougne for things like internet and big bottles of water. And that is where I am typing right now.
To tell you a little about my new family would take pages and pages, but I'll do my best to give a little census, though don't expect much detail...
My host mom is named Binta and she is also my supervisor for my internship. She isn't married and has no children, but is the matriarch of the little compound in which I live. My room is in a house, and out the back door is an open area with four little huts. In these huts live several other people, though I'm not sure exactly how they're all related to me yet. Here is the rundown: Cheikh, Momo, Mami, Jean, Joe, Marie, Pinda, Stafa, Mbagnick, Assan, Pape, Baffa, Mama, Alioune, Awa, Sadio, and Racki. Woah that was a mouthful, and I sure do hope I'm not forgetting anyone (Cheikh is sitting next to me helping me out with all the names...he and Momo are Binta's nephews and age somewhere in the mid twenties). Oh yeah, and then there's the donkey, the horse, the three dogs, the cat, and the goats and chickens that come to visit every now and then. When I first arrived, I was bombarded with all the names and it took me until yesterday to figure out and finally remember who everyone is, they have it easy; there's only one of me...
I may as well announce it now; I have recently gotten married. Twice. Within the first hour of being in Mbam, I was introduced to Stafa (full name Moustapha) and informed that he would soon become my husband. Don't worry Dad, he's only four years old, so you're not really in danger of losing me yet. Stafa only speaks Wolof and Sereer (one of which I have limited comprehesion of and the other none whatsoever), so communication is our own little language and lots of laughing. My other husband is little Mbagnick. He was born in July, and is absolutely adorable! Seeing as he doesn't speak at all, it's pretty easy to communicate.
In general, life here is peaceful and slow, but I'm starting to really enjoy the chill atmosphere. It is an interesting atmosphere in which to work, because things aren't done fast at all. By my second day of interning at the Zoo, I was already involved with classes and running back and forth doing lots of things. By my second day of interning here, I had had a discussion sort of about what I maybe want to do here. I still don't know exactly what I'm going to be doing, but since I'm interested in education, I'll probably be doing something in the schools here and other villages. I guess we'll have to see. I haven't been completely idle, though, which is good, because I would probably go insane if I were. I have been touring the village with Diene, an ecoguide who works with my organization. He's been showing me around, telling me about how things work around here, and introducing me to lots of people. In general my days look like this: I get up, bucket shower it up, eat, head out with Diene to go somewhere in the village, go back for lunch, take a power nap, have ataaya, hang out with the fam until dinner time, hang out some more, and then go to bed. And then repeat.
Yesterday was really interesting because I got to go around meeting different villagers and asking questions about life here in the village. This was a part of my tour; to learn more about social life here. It was so cool, and has actually turned into something of an informal research project for me. If any of you know me, you know that I am somewhat of a socialite :) and so this was my chance to be social with the Senegalese of my village. I asked a lot of questions, the answers of which I would like to be able to compare to American answers... So if you don't mind, I would like to ask you to participate in a little survey. I'll post the questions on the next post, and if you want to email your answers, that would be utterly fantastic. Someday, I will write up all of my findings, so that you can all know how your answers compare to those given here.
This is all I have time to write for now...But hopefully I will have more time to write next week to give more details.
Just know that I am healthy and enjoying myself tremendously. Alhamdoullilah.
