Whew! What a crazy couple of months....
First off, October. In October we had Summit in Thies. Summit is a 2 day meeting to talk about projects and to get a little more training. Honestly I thought it was going to be a huge waste of time, but it was actually really great and I kind of confirmed what i want to do for the next year and a half. I had to make my action plan and I am really excited about the kind of projects I have coming up. More on those later. After Summit we celebrated Halloween. Each region kind of takes over a holiday-- Tamba has Halloween. It was the best Halloween ever. Me and 2 friends dressed as tetris pieces. Really cute idea until the house got packed with 200 people. The costumes lasted about 15 minutes. All in all, great start to my vacation in AMERICA!

In November I headed home to celebrate Thanksgiving and go to Disney World. It was amazing and just what I needed. I ate so much, slept so much, and just relaxed. Not going to lie, I had a brief moment when I asked myself how important it was for me to go back. Thanks Mom and Dad for making the best vacation ever happen! Love ya'll so much.

So now we are in December and I can hardly believe it. It has finally cooled off a bit. I am actually wearing a long sleeve shirt right now! Last night I slept with no fans on! Crazy. Last week I went to eye clinic in Bakel. Doctors from the organization Right to Sight and Health came in to do cataract surgeries. It was really exhausting, but totally worth it. Peace Corps volunteers were there to assist in translating, take vision tests, schedule surgeries, etc. It was really rewarding to see someone for a vision test, see them in pre op, then see them the next day and their eyesight is so much better. It was a great way to transition back into Senegal.

Now I am heading back to village to have a couple meetings, visit some new neighbors from the newest Ag stage, and catch up on some reading. Speaking of reading, I am in the third book of the Hunger Games series and WOW, just WOW. Such great page-turner reading. That Suzanne Collins knows how to spin a tale. Check it out if you haven't. And while you are at the bookstore, pick up a Christmas card for your favorite Peace Corps volunteer!

Lastly, check out this video. Tamba volunteers are putting together a marathon for girls education and we are trying to get Ellen and Oprah to come. No seriously. Send the link to everyone you know! This is one of those times you dont have to resist sending mail to everyone in your contacts list. K thanks bye!
Who run the world? GIRLS!

Apologies for the lack of updates. Ramadan finished with Korite, the holiday that celebrates the end of the fast. I have decided that Adama Diallo (my name in village) and Hilary Hines are not exactly the same people. While Hilary loves surprises, Adama does not. For example, Korite was one long day of surprises and Adama had her fill. The day started with lunch for breakfast followed closely by "fancy clothes time" when I had to put on my very itchy, very hot Senegalese clothes and sit around. Then, just when I thought it was over, I went to a party where all the women were done up and we sat and drank tea and listened to music. Not too bad, but really when it comes to Senegal, I don't like to be surprised. The best part of Korite was lunch (at lunchtime). I had explained to my family that I don't eat meat and while they seemed like they understood, I still had a "Big Fat Greek Wedding," "thats ok I make lamb" moment. My sister had a separate bowl for me and said this has no meat in it, just chicken. I was really touched by all her effort even though it wasn't exactly what I meant.

After Korite, me and some other Tamba volunteers went on tournee. This means that we went village to village doing little skits and giving informational talks about diarrhea. We did a skit about the importance of washing your hands and then one about making ORS (oral rehydration salts) because as you know, it is really important to replinish the fluids you lose when you are sick. We went to 13 villages in 5 days (if I remember correctly) and I would call it a huge success. We were able to talk to lots of people, and when I had a women's group meeting a couple weeks later several women were able to explain to those who didn't see the skits what we had said. Plus, working with your friends for 5 days straight is really really fun. I loved tournee and I can't wait to do it again soon.

Also in September I went to summer camp! USAID sponsored "EPQ" camps in Sare Coly, another village further south from me. They reviewed French and Math, and PC vols were able to help with the health-themed lessons. I didn't really help out that much (because they speak a different kind of Pulaar in Sare Coly) but it was fun to hang out with the kids. After the USAID camp, I went to Dakar (the capital) to participate in the US Embassy's English Camps. These camps were more "campy" mostly because PC vols organized the whole thing. We played sports games, told the kids a little about culture in America, and sang a lot of American pop music because kids here lose their minds for Justin Bieber (although I really don't blame them. I will admit I've got the Bieber fever). It was basically a time for the kids to practice their English and have a little fun before school starts. I was really amazed at how advanced some of the kids are in English. A couple of them were mostly fluent. One of my favorite parts of camp was field day. We set up 6 stations-- frisbee, bat spin, tug of war, 3 legged race, sack race, and egg race. I had the bat spin station which was absolutely hilarious. First the kids had to run down, pick up the bat, spin with their forehead on the bat 3 times, then run back. Of course I had to demonstrate for each group (6 times) and the kids really loved seeing a dizzy white girl run. We also sang this awesome song called the Moose Song. Probably because of my enthusiasm for the song, we sang it 5 times in 3 days.

Now i am back in Tamba and am heading back to site in a couple days. Myself and another fabulous volunteer, Emma, are planning a hygiene training for our villages. We are going to talk about hygiene/sanitation in family and home life and its relation to health. I am excited about this project and if it goes well, we hope to make another tournee out of it.

Also, I am officially going home in one month and 5 days! I have been here 7 months and can hardly believe how fast it has gone by. Thanks for all the letters, emails, cards, packages, I love them all!!! Thanks for the support. See you all really soon!

I am hanging out in Tamba at the regional house right now-- trying to escape the harsh reality of ramadan in the village. its actually not really as bad as i thought it would be but its starting to get old. my family wakes up around 5am to eat before sunup and then doesnt eat again until sundown around 7:20. by noon everyone is tired and a bit cranky so this is a good opportunity for me to catch up on my reading or to just sleep. the best part of the day is 7:21 when everyone has that first bite of "break fast" and we all calm down for a bit. to break the fast we eat tapalapa (village bread) and drink "coffee" which is really just sugar water with a dash of coffee. if there are 2 things senegalese love its sugar and oil. ramadan lasts until the end of this month then its the holiday of korite. from what i understand you put on a new outfit and eat all day-- doesnt sound so bad, right?

I have been back at site for a couple weeks since IST (in-service training). IST was a bit overwhelming-- we had sessions from 8am to 5ish pm covering everything from gardening practices to how to work with local health posts and schools. I have started my baseline survey and after talking to some of my neighbors, i am realizing that getting things done is not going to be easy. for example, there is a case de sante in my village. it is basically another hut except with occasional meds and maybe sometimes some gauze. this is the closest health facility for 7km. as my host father so eloquently put it, a hospital without meds is just another room. this is a major problem for my village because most people dont have the funds for both transportation to the closest town and also to buy medicine. why would you go to the hospital in your town if you know there isnt anything there to help you? another big issue in my town is the need for robinets (running water from a spigot). almost everyone has gardens and crops in or around their compound and having more water sources would make life a lot easier.  there are a lot of opportunitites for improvement obviously.

for now i am completing my survey, making an action plan for the next 2 years, and not believing that i have been here almost 6 months.

new pictures, ya'll

PICTURES

A day in the life

So after briefly forgetting that I have a blog, I am updating! Not much is happening here-- I have been moved in at site for 2 months now. I am still getting to know everyone and working on my Pulaar. Tomorrow I am headed back to Thies for "in service training" which is like more specific training on how to do my job. When I get back from Thies (which will be around August 1), I will head back to site and start my baseline survey. I might have explained this before, but the baseline survey is a survey of the community-- their sanitation, environmental behavior, health activities, etc. After the survey, I will ideally have a better idea of what my village actually needs/wants me to do.

I realize that the things I think of as commonplace and almost boring now are really hard to convey to ya'll back home. For example, the other day I was on the phone with my mom and she was like, "Is that a rooster?! It's so loud!" I hadn't even noticed the chickens until she said something. So here is a overview of my daily routine. I wake up around 7-ish usually to donkeys and chickens and goats and sheep. I make coffee and have breakfast inside my hut and usually head out to greet my family around 9. Sometimes I do laundry, sometimes I go greet other people in the village, sometimes I just hang out in my compound with my cousins and kids. I try to stay outside my hut until lunch which is anywhere from 12:30 to 2:30. It is almost always maffe tiga which is rice and peanut sauce. And by "almost always" I mean every day. It's not bad and I really hate being surprised when it comes to food here, so maffe tiga does not bother me. After lunch I go to my hut for the hot part (actually the whole day is hot, but after lunch it is especially hot) of the day and read or sleep for a while. In the afternoon I go hang out with my nene and baba (mom and dad) since I live next door to them and not actually in their compound. We just sit and talk-- usually about how hot it is-- and eat bananas since I live next to the plantation and my entire family (and probably entire village) works there. Around 6ish when the sun starts to go down I come back to my hut and "shower" then hang out until dinner which is usually at 8:30 and which is usually rice or lacceri haako (pounded corn and leaf sauce). I can hardly stay awake after dinner so I am always in bed by 9:30. That's pretty much it! After IST, I will be working in the mornings and afternoons on my baseline survey. Updates coming soon on my progress with that.

Things I thought I would never be: A Biker

I am back in the regional house in Tamba for the weekend. This past Friday, me and 2 other volunteers went to Manda (a town about ~15k from my village) to help out with the master farmer there. A master farmer is an accomplished farmer in his community. Peace Corps helps him build his farm so he can teach his community about better farming practices. we were there to dig holes and add amendments to the soil, but after realizing that the ground was too hard and the sun was too hot, mike (an agriculture volunteer leading the project) decided we should come back after the first rain. i was slightly disappointed because my task for the day was to chop down green leaves with a machete and while mike thought i was completely inept, i was actually getting into it. but i was glad to be done for the day as the sun was quickly approaching. after lunch we attempted to get to the regional house in tamba. this involved waiting around for 4 hours or so until the "alhum" (its like a bus/van combo that looks like it has been around since 1987) filled up and we could leave. i really hate public transportation here, but once in a while you sit next to a gem and leave with a great story. i sat next to one such gem. he was sitting in between me and mike and was carrying a tv wrapped in a doily and eating mutton (lamb) directly off the bone. he quickly realized that the greasy lamb was a potential bad decision and stashes it away in the tv. but what to do about his greasy fingers? he just puts them in his pocket and pulls them back out. makes sense. then he begins to dance and admits to being a little under the influence. we have a saying for these instances--TIA. this is africa.

tomorrow im heading back to village...on my BIKE. if you know me, you know that i used to have very strong feelings against bikers, what with the way they sashay about, with their rolled up pants legs and messenger bags, overtaking me as a drive down the road silently hoping they get a flat. not now! now i am hoping for the day i am fit enough to bike everywhere. its so easy! its so much easier than dealing with public transport and it counteracts all that rice i eat. i now understand the rolled up pants and the swagger of a biker and i dont hate it. check back for an update if i actually make it back to "vill" (village) without any major mishaps.

oh and a big thank you to my family for all the mail!! i went to the post and had FIVE cards/letters. ya'll are awesome. hint hint i really love mail! 

enlightenment from a chicken

About 2 weeks ago, I moved into my hut and my new village. My village is right next to a banana plantation which is absolutely gorgeous and it is relatively easy to get from place to place which is a huge bonus. My new host family is awesome and my hut is in the village chief's compound so it is nice and private. The first couple of days I introduced myself to the neighbors and such and tried to explain why I am here and what I will be doing. I am currently at the regional house but will be heading back to village on Tuesday morning to hopefully begin a couple projects. As I type this I am trying to upload pictures of my hut, so check back on my picasa page for new pictures in the next couple days! There isnt much else to tell-- im doing all the things you do when you move to a new home- nesting, unpacking, getting to know the neighbors.... i will have more exciting things to talk about once i come back from in-service training and start my baseline survey.

now for a glimpse into what i was doing last sunday:
when i went out to introduce myself, someone graciously gave me a chicken as a welcoming present. chickens are expensive and for special occassions so this was a really nice gift. so i decided i would fully commit to this whole "integration" thing and help my host cousin cook the chicken. first, the chicken was killed (by a man of course-- killing chicken is not a womans job. typical, but i would rather have killed it than cooked it had i known what fresh hell awaited me in the cooking process. and this is coming from a vegetarian.) after the chicken was dead, we de-feathered it. not that bad. then we tore the chicken apart (literally). my cousin handed me the legs while she cut that bad boy to bits. then she took the insides out. i held it together until she cut open the stomach and the chicken's breakfast fell out onto the floor. yum. then she stuck the feet through the beak and from what i gathered, this is supposed to be the best part. so after it cooked we ate it and i kept saying "no no its a gift for you! i want you to eat the delicious chicken head! i know how much you love it." so if there was any doubt that i had lost my sense of humor, never fear because a chicken reminded me you should never take yourself too seriously.

I did it! Yesterday me and 45 other trainees became actual, real life, live in a hut on your own VOLUNTEERS! The swearing in ceremony was held at the U.S. ambassadors house in dakar. it was really nice...and it felt a lot like a graduation ceremony except the intense swearing in part. the country director, chris hedrick, along with the training staff and a couple other trainees made speeches. we were our training director's (etienne senghor) first training class so he was beaming with pride all day just like a dad on graduation day. chris said something like we are all raindrops working together to cause a flood? it was very poetic and i just butchered it, but the gist was that we are all working together for the same goals. if nothing else, the ceremony reminded me why this is so important to me and why i am here. i have already been invested in peace corps for a year (from the time i first applied), and probably now more than ever i am committed to this and i am beyond excited to get started meeting my community!

now i am in thies for the day and tomorrow we leave for our regions at 6am, which probably means 7am. (i am already getting used to senegalese time) then i will buy all my housewares and such on monday and move into my hut on tuesday! wish me luck! (pictures coming soon...)

new address!

i have a new address! check it out on the right...

I am officially done with my homestay! I really cant believe that it has been 2 months since i first got here. this friday we will be swearing in as official volunteers. i am very excited for the swear in-- all of us have traditional outfits to wear so get ready for some more pictures. this past week was really stressful because we had our last language classes and we also had to complete projects in our homestay villages. we did a mural at the health post, did a demonstration on neem lotion (mosquito repellent made from neem leaves that grow here), practiced our baseline survey methods, and oh yeah, celebrated my BIRTHDAY. my birthday was awesome. after recovering from a small meltdown on my birthday eve due to stress, fatigue, and not knowing any pullo fuuta, i needed a good day-- and a good day i had! it started with the typical breakfast-- bread and coffee-- then class where marie and larocha (my language group) sang happy birthday to me. then i went home, listened to my ipod, and had a delicious lunch made by my sister in law. after our afternoon class, we went to the neighboring town of Mboro and met up with other trainees. they had presents and cards for me and made a cake out of cookies! larocha even whittled a birthday candle for me (seriously) and sacrificed american candy for me! i have never been so grateful for a snickers.

after swear in, we travel down to our regional houses and are installed one by one. we have to buy beds, kitchen stuff, chairs, buckets, etc for our huts and im having flashbacks to packing 2 months ago. i was so stressed out about which pair of pants to bring and now that just seems silly. now i have the mindset that things will happen when they happen-- theres not a lot of things to be stressed out about these days. i want to tell the next stage (group of trainees) to just relax! people told me that and i didnt believe them or heed their advice and i wish i would have. now i find myself missing random things from home-- like my couch and takeout. and maybe by random i mean indicators of how lazy i was.

our mini beach vacation was in popenguine and it is literally the most beautiful place i have ever seen. it looks like something out of a movie. the beach house was directly on the beach-- like we walked down steps from our door to the water. it was amazing and i plan to go back very soon. also as if seeing me isnt enough, if you come to senegal i promise to take you there and i promise you will have the same reaction i did.

after i move into my hut, i will probably only be going to the regional house (which has internet) once every couple weeks so the blog posts might be more sporadic. i hope everyone is having a great start to the summer and congrats to all my friends graduating this week!! wooo! the real world isnt that bad. 

drumroll please

Click below for the long awaited pictures!
my photos


Also, if you cant access the link (which is highly possible since my lack of computer knowledge is only surpassed by my lack of the pullo fuuta language), let me know and ill email it to you!

today and tomorrow we are doing counterpart workshop. this means our local work partners are in thies at the training center to learn about peace corps and to start a plan for the next 3 months. i cant believe that training is almost over! in 2 weeks i will be at site for good. i will probably have access to internet 1x a month so i might not be able to update as frequently. this training has felt a lot like summer camp-- everyone gets excited for packages from home, we sleep on bunkbeds, its really hot... i am slowly getting used to things that used to really bother me before i came here. screaming children were like nails on a chalkboard and now its just white noise which is good because i think my new host family has 11 children. (God help me)

this weekend we have our first day off! we are heading to popenguine to go to the beach and hopefully relax a little. we were in village for easter so it wasnt exactly a day off and it was kind of sad not being at home for the holiday. i feel like the days here come in waves-- maybe you are happy in the morning, by lunch you have had enough and just want to go to sleep and when it is finally time to go to bed you are back in a good mood. easter was like that for me-- i woke up kind of sad not to be at home, went to mass and was even sadder because of course i didnt understand anything. but then i realized that some things are universal-- they baptized babies at church and i saw the proud aunts and uncles taking pictures just like at home. i went to an easter party afterwards and the women were cooking and making sure everyone had drinks while the men did nothing-- just like at home in the south! no offense-- this is obviously a generalization anyways-- i happen to have a VERY culinary-ily talented male cousin. anyways, easter made me realize that i am happy to be here and i am so excited for holidays and birthdays and new experiences to come.

may 13th i swear in as an official volunteer and sometime soon after that i move to my hut. i will update ya'll with my new address but you can always email me (hhines77@gmail.com) and i will respond asap. thanks for reading and for all the prayers! updates on my last week at homestay coming soon....

So I found out my permanent site for the next two years-- Medina Afia! It is a small village (+1300 people) in the Kolda region. It is near the river, banana plantation, and has lots of trees. I couldn't be happier with the town. I am only 1-2 km off the main road and only 16km from my closest neighbor. I got to visit my site last week during volunteer visit. Volunteer visit is when current trainees go stay with current volunteers to "demyst" which means get a better idea of what you will actually be doing when you get to site. During the visit, I got to participate in baby weighings, "help" with gardening (i use "help" here very loosely as im not sure how much actual help i was), and i got to meet my counterparts in my new village. my counterparts seem very anxious to get to work so that makes me excited! Medina afia is about 7-8 hours from thies, where the training center is. i will be moving to medina afia probably may 15 or 16 after i am officially sworn in as a volunteer on may 13th. after i move there (which is what peace corps means when they say "install") i will just be getting to know the village and working on my pullo fuuta for a while until i can start my baseline survey. i am anxious to actually move into my very own hut and actually unpack my stuff. training is such a weird process-- at first, you get to thies and its not that bad, but you miss your bed and american food and the little things like your own bathroom. then you get to your homestay and you miss thies with its delicious food and english speakers. then you get to your village and you think "oh wow this is not going to be as easy as homestay." i understand more clearly now why they do training like this -- they wear you out in the beginning so that you are actually ready to go to village when its time. tomorrow we are going to dakar (the capital) for a tour and suprise suprise more shots! after that, we go back to homestay for a week then back to thies. next weekend we have a much needed beach weekend! check back for more details -- i will try to update again next week. thanks for all the prayers and emails and snail mail! i love it! also, i will be sure to let ya'll know when i get my new address in my village.

the power of a coke

i made it through the longest stint of homestay! there were so many ups and downs but now i really feel like i can do this. this time was much less terrifying because i sort of knew what to expect. i already knew the family, what my meals would be like, etc. the problems i have now are mostly with the language and not having much independence. the good thing is that i dont think "man i would love to be at home" instead i think "man i would love to be at my permanent site so i dont have to eat rice. AGAIN." i think it will be so much easier once i move into my own hut. i can control when i eat, what i eat, when i leave, when i come back...(the importance of eating in my life should surprise no one) i had several down days and all i can say is thank God for cold coke. there is a boutique (small shop) in my town and they have cold can drinks which is a rare luxury. the day really doesnt seem that bad if you are drinking an ice cold coke. but then i feel like im in a vintage coke commercial walking down the street with smiling african children following me.

i had an especially bad day last week when i was frustrated with the language, with all the problems with the systems here - both education and health, and with life in general. my lcf (language and cultural facilitator and general go-to person in village) called and said we had to be at the school for a meeting. this only frustrated me more because the meeting was in french. BUT afterwards we got served lunch. they brought out tray after tray of delicious vegetables! of course there was rice too, but the veggies were so nice! AND to top it all off, they brought out coke when the meal was finished! the coke even had that magical vapor of coolness when you popped the cap. oh the small things....

i was able to successfully execute an april fools joke as well! after an especially disgusting night of GI issues (ill leave it at that), i came to class and said - "thats it. im going home! last night was the final straw." of course no one believed me because i couldnt keep a straight face, but my lcf thought it was so funny that she called the head of the language program who then called the head of the entire training program who THEN called my lcf. it was hilarious-- he was freaking out and about to call dakar to get a car to come get me. we could not stop laughing. he texted me and told me to watch my back. i responded with "just exercising my swagger" (which is what he always tells us to do-- work our "swagger") and he said "swagger confirmed." success!

i am really excited for thursday because we find out our site placements. im more anxious to know who out of my group will be my neighbors, rather than where i will be. i mean there is really no surprise there-- it will be a hot sandy hut. im headed back to the village this thursday through sunday. then i go on my "volunteer visit" which is a week with a current volunteer at or near my permanent site. i am really excited about that because i can get the lowdown on the town-- administration, projects in place, etc.

i am starting to realize how much im missing-- graduations, big decisions in my friend's lives, and most importantly seeing the american idol finale. i didnt really realize everything i would be giving up, but thus far it seems that it was a more than fair trade. i already have gained so much -- i feel like i know myself better and what i want from life. i knew that i would gain so much more than i am giving, but now i just feel like a thief. this country has already given me so much. i am so grateful for every experience and sometimes i stop and think how lucky i am. i wish everyone could experience this-- being the only white person in a town, or seeing the cows come home (literally) every night. it teaches you about prejudice and tolerance, both of which i still have much more to learn. thank you all for the emails and prayers! i promise to keep you updated!

First stint in homestay

WOW. I just got back from my first week at my CBT (community based training) site. We headed out in groups of 3-5 to our training villages. My site is Darou and I am so happy with it. Thies is a bit overwhelming for me so it is nice to be in a smaller village. My family has lots of kids and they own a boutique so there are a lot of people coming and going. They gave me a new name-- Mamahwaa-- and I love it. I decided I will only answer to Mamahwaa hence forth. Its so surreal to be in another town, without knowing the language, and trying to survive. I am basically like a newborn-- the family tells me where to sit, what to eat, when to shower, etc. I am really lucky because my host sister speaks French. Of course my French isn't fluent, but I can get by and not make a fool of myself (hopefully). I have language classes for about 4 hours a day, eat lunch and dinner with my family, and then attempt to communicate with local Pullo Funta speakers. Lunch and dinner are quite the cultural experience. We all sit around 1 bowl and eat with our hands, spoons, or bread. Typically we eat fish with rice and vegetables. There is rice or cous cous or millet with every meal, and all I can say is I am glad I like rice! When I was packing I wanted to bring some Uncle Bens rice packets because they are cheesy and delicious, but I am SO glad I didn't! For heaven sakes we eat rice every meal. At least it isn't goat. I have been learning to count my blessings every morning- many days have been like emotional rollercoasters. I have really good moments where I feel affirmed and understood, then there are those moments when I seriously wonder what I got myself into. I was really prepared for the homestay, which is good, but there are still so many cultural things that sort of shock me and that I just have to get used to. This is my new normal and as I sit in the protective bubble of the training center, I am reminding myself that these moments with wifi and English speakers are really nice and I should enjoy them. On Wednesday we head back to our villages for a 13 day stint (which will be the longest). Everyone says that training is the hardest part so if I can do this, I am confident I can make it 2 years. I will try to update with more details and respond to emails. I know I keep promising pictures so I will try to upload those too! As always email me at hhines77@gmail.com-- I love hearing news about you even if you think there is nothing worth telling. Thanks for reading and thanks for all the prayers. 

Day 3

salaam meleykum! today we had a cultural fair where we learned more about the culture, obviously. we learned about islam, foods, dress, appropriate manners and habits, etc. suprisingly the senegalese dont mind cleavage, however you can never show your knees. we had lunch and dinner same as everyday we have been here, so i am quickly falling into a routine. its a good feeling, but i know the protective bubble of the training center will burst soon. i am also realizing that so many things about me are going to change here and when i get back home. for example, waisting the time to blow dry my hair just seems so stupid now. its such a process to even take a shower. not recycling used to bother me before, but now i cant imagine not recycling and composting. trash disposal is such a problem here and i really took for granted the small things - even being able to throw something in a trash can and not on the street. also today i played basketball! i know this is going to shock some of you who know me well...and those who dont...because i am very vocal about my hatred of all things sport. apparently i am less inhibited in senegal and am willing to shoot hoops. who knew? oh and i even WON a game of horse today. thats right-- i won it. somehow this eases the painful memories of being cut from the jr high bball team. i will have much more exciting news when i begin my homestay although i wont have access to internet to blog about it immediately after. stay tuned! love you all!
p.s. if you get bored, email me with news about you or questions-- it feels weird to talk about myself on this thing so answering questions would be fun-- hhines77@gmail.com

Day 2 of the great senegalese adventure

Bonjour! Today was more interviews and more orientation including a french test to see where we are. i was fairly confident with my test, and hopefully i will be learning a new exciting language soon. Tomorrow we begin cross cultural training and language training. it has been unseasonable cool and i am sitting outside with longsleeves on right now! i was very surprised when they offered (very delicious) vegetarian options. the training center is sort of meant to acclimate us to senegal while still giving some comforts of home-- for example we can still use american toilets and showers until we move into our homestay families next week and use squat toilets. once we are at our homestay there will be less access to internet, so bare with me if i am slow in postings! the homestay experience will be really exciting and i am ready to jump into full immersion. we had placement interviews today and were able to express fears, concerns, and preferences. they asked us to be honest, so when they asked if i could bike 20km, i laughed and said absolutely not. who knew peace corps volunteers wouldnt have diplomatic vehicles shuttling them from place to place?! (ha) i did however say i would sacrifice access to electricity to be close to other volunteers. also i told them being next to a church would be a huge bonus and they said it wouldnt be a problem getting to church. tomorrow i might be able to venture out of the compound so stay tuned for exciting info on the bustling metropolis of theis! i hear lots of promising sounds including donkeys and lots and lots of birds. (ivy, you would die.) i love you all very much and thank you for all the prayers!!

Arrival

YES! I made it to dakar and then to theis (pronounced "chess") safe and sound. Today was one of the longest days of my life- not because it was a bad day or anything but because so much has happened in such a short amount of time! I feel like I have been here for a week- at least. We had our staging in dc, which is just a long orientation, then headed to the airport the next day. We got to theis at maybe 9am? Then it was breakfast, nap, lunch, and tons of information. Tomorrow we have interviews and such to find out where we stand on language capabilities and technical skills. I am safe and happy... so mom, you can breathe a little tonight. Love you all and will update soon with pictures and more details.....

Packed and ready to go

This is  glimpse of everything I attempted to pack in 2 bags. You might be thinking "Hey that really doesn't look like a lot! You could get that in 2 bags without going over the weight limit" But oh how wrong you would be. I am quickly learning to stop freaking out when things don't happen like I want them to. I want to take everything I will need for 27 months because everyone says you have to make yourself happy and that you should take what makes you feel like yourself. But you just can't pack 27 months worth of Clif bars. I had my first Peace Corps breakdown while trying to cram my pillow in my bag. I threw the pillow, blanket, and a couple other things out of my bag, promptly zipped it up and declared that was it. I was not unzipping it again. I had to take SEVERAL deep breaths and leave the room. After my mom put the pillow in a space bag and vacuumed out the air until the pillow was wafer thin, I was able to squeeze it in and finally be content with my packing job.

After a week (literally) of packing and repacking, I think I'm done. I am actually very at peace with leaving. I am so over being sad about going. Last week I said a lot of goodbyes and it was REALLY hard. So this weekend before I leave on Monday, I am trying to be positive and relax. I'm leaving but I will come back. It's not my funeral so I'm over being dramatic and saying long goodbyes. These are really great intentions but talk to me on Monday and see if I make it without breaking down again.

wait, what?

After a weekend in Athens saying some goodbyes, I came home to an email telling me to book my flight for staging in DC. It suddenly feels so real that this journey is about to begin. When the departure date is just out there, looming in the distant future, it is really easy to say I'm ready for it to happen. But now with it only (gasp) 1 month away, I feel overwhelmed and not prepared with no real way to prepare or feel underwhelmed. After a year of the application process, answering the same questions over and over and enduring the awkward silence of meaning-well strangers after they have asked what my post grad plan is and I tell them I'm moving to Africa, I am having a Carrie Bradshaw moment. I can't help but wonder, am I really ready for this? I see sleepless nights and nausea in my future.

So now the tickets are ordered and another reassurance is here reminding me that yes, this is actually happening. March 7 I leave for DC for staging, which is like orientation. Then it is off to Senegal two days later to actually really and truly start the most exciting adventure in my life. I will be in training for the first 3 months, then move to a permanent site to begin work as a preventative health and environmental education volunteer. WOW.

Wordpress=not for novice bloggers

So I decided this is much easier to use than wordpress. And since I am very technologically inept, this seemed like the best option. Props to my cousin for helping me figure all of this out!

Anyways, I am still preparing for my departure in 49 days-- yikes! I'm navigating the packing list which seems more like a novella, and attempting to make my French sound less like slurred speech and more like actual French conversation. Unfortunately that is as difficult as it sounds. Oh well, C'est la vie.

Hopefully I will be checking back in soon with more exciting updates. Until then, I am counting down the days before I leave and saying my goodbyes. Thanks for reading!