My house!

It’s almost been 8 months since I’ve been in Senegal… its incredible how time flies here. Though I may often complain about things here, I really do love Senegal and the Senegalese people. I contemplate returning back to America at least once a day, and it’s nice to know that I always have that option, but when it comes down to it, I don’t think I could leave this country right now.

So, many people are still questioning me about my living arrangements… I live in a small building that is approximately 5 feet away from the main house that my family lives in. I have a bedroom, a living room/kitchen/guest bedroom, and a bathroom. The walls are made of cement, and the roof is tin (when it rains, even the slightest sprinkling sounds like the world is ending… it is so loud!). My bathroom is the least attractive room in my place… the toilet is nothing more than a hole in the ground with porcelain surrounding the hole. Toilet paper is super expensive here, and most volunteers go without it. Instead, we use water to cleanse ourselves after we use the loo. I have to fetch water every day from our household faucet to use for showering and drinking. I have to walk to the other side of the compound and fill up two buckets of water (probably 3 gallons a bucket) and carry them back to my room. I usually stand inside of another bucket as I shower, and I dip a cup into the bucket of water and I pour it on me. That is how I shower. I usually pour water all over me then I soap up, then I pour water on me again to rinse off. My purpose for standing inside another bucket while I shower is to conserve water (it is a PAIN to have to fetch water every day!) I usually use the used water to flush my toilet (there is no running water for the toilet), or I use it to water my garden. I go through maybe two gallons of water a day- and that includes bathing, toilet and drinking. If I wash my hair (which I do maybe once a week) then I use a bit more water than that. I have electricity, but I can’t really ever depend on it… it comes and goes all the time. I have a small refrigerator, and a fan. I use the fan every night, mostly to drown out the noises of my town rather than to cool off. Senegalese people are SO loud! When they speak they sound like they’re yelling at each other, they love to turn the TV on very loud, and whenever they have weddings/baptisms or parties they hire out massive speakers and blast music. My ears are often ringing by the end of the day due to the constant loudness. My family is always awake before I wake up (I usually get up at 7am), and they’re always up much longer than I am at night (I usually go in to sleep at 10pm). It is still a mystery to me when they sleep… If I didn’t have a fan to drown out their noise, I am sure that I get a lot less sleep than I do now.
I have a small garden outside of my room, but I believe that it’s currently struggling with fungal problems. I planted okra, tomatoes, cucumbers, ginger, basil, flowers, beans, lettuce, pumpkin, a banana tree and mint. Only the flowers, mint and banana tree seem to be doing really well… the rest of the items either shriveled up and died immediately, produced a small amount then died (the okra) or is growing but can’t seem to produce fruit (the tomatoes). A tree in my yard has mushrooms growing off of it, and my gardeners and I assume that the problems stem from that.
My yard is really small, and surrounding it is a feeble chicken wire fence. The fence has holes in it, and on one side it is collapsing quite a bit onto its side. Because of this, I have a constant stream of chickens, ducks and Guinea Foul roaming about my yard. They don’t seem to do much harm, but sometimes they kick up the dirt and kill my little plant seedlings (the goats and sheep try to get inside my yard, but they haven’t managed to do that yet).