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!