My experience thus far as a Peace Corps volunteer has been an emotional roller coaster. One minute can be the best minute of my life, the next minute I ask myself why I ever came to this country (notice how I stress the word minute… I purposefully did not write week, day or even hour). Luckily, feeling lonely, scared, bored and misunderstood are emotions that are not new to me… and I am grateful that my experiences in India, France, NYC and even Delhi/Bovina helped me to prepare for this. Without having had such experiences in my life, I highly doubt that I would have the courage to continue with what I am doing here.
Today I went to an anniversary party for a women’s circle here in Sokone. There are about 25 women, and they meet twice a week to do projects that will increase their health, wealth and well-being. For example, they do mosquito net dipping (in an insect repellent), they make anti-mosquito lotions, sew clothes, make dolls, syrups, jams and juice. Anyways, the ‘party’ was supposed to start around 10am sharp (I was told), so I get there at 10am, and I sit and wait…and wait…and wait…. It wasn’t until about 1:00pm when the ‘party’ actually started. Typical. But still as frustrating as ever!
Tonight I had a mini-dance party with my younger sisters…it was fun (but not quite like the dance parties in the previous village that I lived in called Keur Sadaro). I love the Senegalese for the very simple reason that they will burst out in song and dance at any given moment…and WOW can they move!!! Young and old alike can move their bodies in ways that I never before imagined was possible! But what was funny about the dance party was that my two 19 year old ‘sisters’ decided to ‘go for a walk’ instead of partaking in the dance party. Normally, they dress fairly conservatively around the house, but as they were leaving to go for their walk, they ripped off their long skirts and snuck out of the house with little short skirts on and tight tops! Even in Africa, 19 year old girls are just like girls of that age in the USA.
Just the other week, I was bored one afternoon and decided to put dreadlocks in my hair! When I was doing it I thought that it looked great, so I put glue on the ends and in the middle of the strands to keep them in place… But when I woke up the next morning, I looked in the morning and realized that I am quite possibly the most ridiculous girl in the world. They looked HORRIBLE!!! I was going to leave that morning to go to a beach with some friends, but I didn’t want to leave the house looking like I did, so I asked two of my friends to take them out for me. It took a whole morning for them to do so (and some cutting of the pieces that I GLUED), and I missed my trip to the beach, but I no longer have dreads, thankfully!
As for my work here…it’s coming together slowly. I think. I go to a ‘demonstration garden’ every morning to plant new things and to water the garden. The purpose of this garden is to ‘experiment’ with different micro-gardening techniques, and in turn we will show this garden to people with the hopes that it will give them some ideas that they could try on their own. I actually find the gardening aspect quite interesting… I like working there… but the two men that I work with go there from 8:30am and they leave at about 10:00am! They themselves are somewhat volunteer workers there, so they don’t put a ton of work into it, they have other priorities. So sometimes I am there working by myself… but in cases like that I bring my ipod, and the music keeps me company (and so do the cute little girls that live next to the garden and call my name and stare at me all morning). There are other aspects that my work will entail in the future, but for right now I am merely getting to know the people of Sokone and the language, and I am even learning how to garden (something I honestly didn’t know much about before I came here!!). In August I will go back to the training center in Thies for 3 weeks of further training, and after that I assume that my real work will begin. I’ll delve into that a little later when I myself have a firmer grasp on what I will be doing.
I even started planting a garden outside of my ‘apartment’, and I am super excited about it!!! It’s going to be really pretty!! I have flowers, okra, hot peppers, green beans, a pumpkin, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and a banana tree! (The okra and hot peppers are used often in Senegalese cooking). Sometimes I have a problem with chickens and our sheep (named Matilda), they like to come into my fenced-in area and eat what I’ve worked on. And my two year old host brother likes to pick my flowers and hit my plants with a shovel until they are beyond redemption. But my brother is so cute that I can’t get upset with him.