Just Some Cultural Ramblings...

So, I'll start with the medical report: the antibiotics started to kick in on my toe and I was able to go back to village. Yay! I missed everyone after spending a week out, but I was only able to stay in Mbeuleukhe for a week before leaving again for my In-Service Training (IST) in Thies, which I'm leaving for tonight.

Village was village. The same as always. My family was very interested in my toe and I was asked many times a day how it was. A lot of times in Wolof when someone asks you a question there's a response that goes along with it, no matter what you actually would like to respond. (Examples: How's your family? They're there. How's your morning? Peace only.) So when someone asks how any illness/injury is, the response is supposed to be "it's healing," but sometimes to keep it lively I would say other things like "it's ugly," or "it's dead," and my family seemed to get a kick out of that.

The highlight of my week in village was one night I was showing the kids some of my pictures from home. I showed them one of me at the White House and told them that that was me at Barack Obama's house. They seemed semi-excited but then very enthusiastically asked if I had a photo of me at Akon's house. Unfortunately I didn't. Here Akon > Obama.

Also very exciting- my parents sent me some toys for the kids and they LOVED them. Standard American stuff like crayons and a coloring book, a little slinky, stickers, colored pens, etc. It was cute seeing them play and hearing them practicing the word "slinky" over and over again.

On that note, I'm going to go on a tangent about Senegalese people and words that start with "s"... Some of the names here begin with the letter "s", like Samba or Seyni (my youngest sister's name), and everyone here has no problem pronouncing those names. But every other word that begins with "s" gets an "es" sound before it (spaghetti becomes espaghetti and our dog Sparky is Esparky). It's the weirdest thing. I can't quite figure out why they can say some things with a normal "s" sound but then other things get the "es" sound. So anyway, the point is that the kids keep saying "eslinkyyyyy, eslinkyyyy" when they play with the slinky. It's entertaining.

Also, while I'm talking about language, I'll write about my own problems. No matter how clear my Wolof is, people here can't seem to understand anything I say. And it's not just me. My friend Jenn and I were getting breakfast one morning during our Kedougou trip and we asked the woman if she had any mustard. The word in French/Wolof for mustard is "moutard," which really isn't any great stretch for us, but we literally said it 20 times and she just kept looking at us blankly. We would mime putting it on bread and she said say, "Oh, butter?" And then we would say it again and she'd go, "You want milk?" So finally I went over to another seller's breakfast stand and held up his mustard and she goes "Ooooh, moutard! No I don't have that" Sometimes it's like I'm on Planet Toubab where I'm the only one that understands what I'm doing/saying.

The same kind of thing happens every time we go to  a garage to get a car anywhere. Everyone runs up screaming "DAKAR?! DAKAR?!" because we're white, and when we say "No, Linguere" or wherever else we're going, they grab our bags and say "THE CAR FOR DAKAR IS OVER HERE!!" These are the kind of instances when yelling just makes everything easier, because these people will literally push you onto the car for Dakar.

But I can't say that we weren't warned in Pre-Service Training that here you need to repeat everything many times to get your point across. Even with the breakfast woman in my own village, if I ever splurge and spend the 25 cents on breakfast I'll need to tell her about 4 or 5 times what I want. And even then there have been several instances where I'll notice her about to put something completely wrong on my food because even though I said 5 times that I didn't want mayo, I probably really do want mayo. One of the fun things you get used to here. Just repeat, repeat, repeat.

One final cultural thing while I'm on a roll... In America if you didn't know where someone/something was and someone asked you where that person/thing were, you respond "I don't know," because you don't. In Senegal, people NEVER respond "I don't know;" it's better to just make up an answer than say you don't know. Saying someone's at the market when you actually have no idea where they are is completely fine. But this has been a trait that I just can't seem to adapt to yet. When people ask me where someone is and I don't know, my knee-jerk reaction is to say "I don't know," and since no one here ever says that, they then either 1) keep asking over again until I give a place or 2) think that I don't understand the question and rephrase it or 3) (my favorite) say "You don't understand Wolof" to me. So there have been many times where I've responded to random questions with responses like "I understand the question but I don't know where my mom is right now. Maybe she's at the market, or maybe a friend's house. But I don't know right now. But I do understand that you're asking where my mom is. I just don't know where she is right now" And usually once I've finished a speech like that the person semi-understands that I don't know. So that's been fun to have to either make up answers or give these long drawn out speeches whenever I don't know the answer to something.

Now that I've bored you with all of this cultural/language stuff, I'll get to more interesting things...

I'll be in Thies for the next 2 weeks, which means I'll have internet for 2 WHOLE WEEKS! I'll be able to e-mail, skype, facebook, blog, everything! It'll be like I'm in a first world country or something! So get ready for e-mail responses and skype dates because Fae Patton/Mariama Diaw will be connected.

And, I'll wrap this up by begging for more stuff. In case any of you wonderful people were intending to send anything my way, these are the latest things I could use/I'm craving (and yes, I've asked for many of these things already but my friends and I are creatures of habits and continue to crave things like mac and cheese on a regular basis):

Stuff:

·        A Frisbee

·        A cheese grater (not for cheese- I use it for soap to make lotion to repel mosquitoes for my village)

·        Maps -World, US, Africa, Senegal (even if they're just printed off the computer that would be great)

·        Photos of my friends, family, favorite places

·        Schick Intuition razor blades

·        Small tissue packets, wipes

·        Magazines!

·        Sharpies

·        Double A batteries

·        Anything small that the kids would enjoy

Food/drinks:

·        Drink packets (Crystal Light, Ocean Spray, Propel, Gatorade, etc.)

·        Hot chocolate mix, Chai and Earl Grey teabags

·        Peanut butter

·        Granola bars- Kashi GoLean! chocolate caramel, Nature Valley peanut butter, any Clif bars (but in particular Black Cherry Almond, Banada Nut Bread, Chocolate Almond Coconut or Chocolate Dipped Coconut- yummm)

·        Cereal!!! A box or the little variety-pack boxes or even loose in a ziplock bag. (Rice Krispies, Cheerios, Life, Peanut Butter Captain Crunch, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Honey Nut Cheerios, basically anything)

·        Oatmeal packets (Maple & Brown Sugar's my fave, but I'll take any)

·        Raisons, Craisons, any small dried fruit

·        Mac & Cheese! (to save space you can just send the cheese sauce, I can get macaroni here)

·        Any dry snacky stuff (Cheeze-its, pretzels, cookies, Animal Crackers, Wheat Thins, Goldfish, Fig Newtons, Chex Mix, graham crackers, Sunchips, Teddy Grahams, etc.)

·        Peanut Butter M&M's (orange bag, my fave), Plain M&M's,  Skittles, anything chocolate

·        Hard candies for my village (Jolly Ranchers, Jolly Rancher Pops, Tootsie Pops, Dum Dums)

·        And if anyone would like to attempt to send baked goods to Africa, be my guest!

I know that's a lot of stuff, but they're just thoughts. Don't rush to send it all at once; I can pretty much guarantee that I'll still want peanut butter and drink packets throughout my entire service.

Like I said, I'll be online, so hopefully I'll talk to everyone soon! Byyyeee!

Independence, Waterfalls and a Really Gross Big Toe

So I celebrated my first 4th of July in country, had my first big trip, and developed my first major ailment. All in all I would say it was it was a very successful Independence Day. Here's a play by play...

July 1st- Seven of us left our house in Linguere together to make the trek down to Kedougou. There are many various forms of transportation in Senegal, and one of them is called a sept-place (seven places). It's a station wagon that can fit seven passengers and a driver. We were very lucky in getting exactly seven of us, and the ride down was more or less calm and easy (compared to most travel in Senegal). After many hours in the car, we arrived in Tambacounda, the region right about Kedougou. We stayed overnight there at the Tamba regional house.

        At the Tamba house I mentioned that my toe was bugging me. I think it started out as an ingrown toenail, but I hadn't been able to fall asleep the night before because it was throbbing so much. I'd been taking advil, but it was starting to really be annoying. One of the older volunteers decided I probably had a staph infection. Onto the next day...

July 2nd- A bunch of us rented out a van and travelled to nearby Wassadou, a beautiful park where you can see hippos and baboons! All of us from my area were very excited about this because we have sand and camels, so greenery and hippos is like a whole other world. Four of us from my region decided that we wanted to keep going south and make it to Kedougou that night, so after a very long and complicated afternoon of begging for a ride, we finally got a car down to our campement. After briefly greeting our friends there we all crashed.

July 3rd- A down day. After walking around Kedougou for a bit, we ended up spending the majority of the day in the pool. At this point my toe was starting to look pretty funky, but wasn't hurting as bad as it had been earlier.

July 4th- We got up and hung around the campement for a while, and started making the journey to the 4th of Juky party around noon. The party was at the Kedougou volunteers' house, which is really more of a hippy commune than a regional house. It's comprised mainly of huts, so most everything is outdoors. The ideal location for a huge gathering of volunteers to celebrate their nation's independence. The party was awesome, despite the fact that my toe was becoming really ugly really fast.

July 5th- I woke up and called my PC doctor, who put me on antibiotics. We rented two cars and drove to Dindefelo, a nearby village with a waterfall. The small hike made my foot very unhappy, but the waterfalls were beautiful and I'm so glad I went.

July 6th- The worst day I've had in country thus far. Jenn and I caught a 5am bus from Kedougou to Tamba, and in order to catch said bus we had to wake up at 3:50am. We arrived in Tamba around 9am and began the great wait for a car. We had breakfast at the Tamba garage and waited. And waited. And waited. By 2pm we finally filled up a car and got going. Around 7pm we arrived in Touba, not too far from Linguere. Then we had to negotiate a car from Touba to Linguere. Long story short I ended up screaming at a man who turned out to be my friend's host cousin and after resolving our differences he invited me to his house sometime for yogurt and dancing.

        *Note: I used to have a calm temper, but it doesn't help to be calm here. Yelling seems much more effective and people don't get upset by someone yelling in their face the way they do in the US. In the future, if I ever write that I was yelling at someone or fighting with a stranger, don't think that I've lost my mind... I'm just adapting to my surroundings. And maybe losing my mind just a little bit.

        Anyway, we FINALLY got back to Linguere. Jenn and I sat down to eat and stretch out a little bit. This was when I realized that my toe no longer looked human and that my entire foot was swollen. I called my doctor (truly a saint for dealing with all of us volunteers all hours of the day and night) and she put me on a stronger antibiotic and told me to e-mail me a picture of my toe. I'll spare you the photo on here, but it's in my latest Facebook album for whoever wants to see it.

July 7th/8th- I spent the day of the 7th catching up on e-mails, doing laundry and trying to stay off my foot. I was able to skype with my parents and aunt Anne Marie, which was nice! I was originally planning on getting my act together and heading back to village now, since I've been out for a whole week for the 4th; but I've been advised by the older volunteers that that's not the best idea right now. So now I'm sitting around uploading pictures and writing this really long blog entry. I'm hoping the antibiotics will start to heal my toe soon and that the pain will go down. For now I'm just waiting and trying to stay off it as much as possible. I really just want to get back to village because I'm going to leave again for my In-Service Training (IST) in Thies on the 17th. Had this occurred in the middle of August when I'm not so busy I would've loved the opportunity to chill for a few days watching movies and using the internet. Can't this stuff ever happen at the right time?

So that's what's going on in my life right now, just waiting to see if my toe falls off. Hopefully you won't read another blog entry for about a week because that means that I'm able to go back to village. I'll keep everyone posted.

Also... it's Cait Mac's 23rd birthdayyyy!!!!!!!!!! Happy birthday, you crazy girl!

Bye, everyoneeee!

Wet, Hot, African Summer

Back to the real world after slightly over two weeks in village! I was just on the verge of going a little loopy at the two week mark, but luckily I'm now at my regional house in Linguere. It feels amazing to have an internet connection, a fridge, cell reception and PACKAGES! Let me start off by saying a huuuuuge thank you to Michael & Mary Jean and Pat & Dawn for the absolutely amazing packages! They were greatly, greatly, greatly appreciated.

Village life has been much of the same as before... lots of amusing language mistakes (at one point a man asked my friend Jenn how old she was and she responded "ten horses"), attempts to begin actual work (I've learned that growing cucumbers in the desert is surprisingly easy, but keeping goats out of the garden is not), and many more ridiculous moments when I wish a camera crew was behind me recording everything.

Some examples... Jenn and I watched a doctor stitch up a man's toe with clothing thread. I've been learning insults (like "you're so ugly you look like a hyena,") and it's now quite common in village for people to scream out to me to insult them. And this morning at the regional house, one of our dogs brought in a live hedgehog (which we thought was dead) and proceeded to throw it at all of us as we screamed and hopped around like our feet were on fire.  Just average, normal days in the life of an American in Senegal.

Also, another new item to report... it's beginning to cool down here and it's very slowly creeping into rainy season. Which means... SCORPIONS! I've never been really afraid of any bugs but scorpions just freak me out. And we don't just get your standard scorpions in Mbeuleukhe; we also get horse scorpions (below's a photo stolen from my friend Justin's blog- don't let their small size deceive you, they're scary). I was visiting Jenn one night helping her water her garden and one literally charged at us, ready to attack. We freaked the eff out. Her family ran out to us to see why we were screaming and, naturally, assumed that we'd seen a frog. When we told them that it was a horse scorpion that was causing us to freak out they cracked up. The standard Senegalese response (and you can really ask anyone and get this verbatim) is: "Oh, they don't do anything. Don't be afraid of them. When they sting you it hurts really bad. You'll cry." These people aren't scared of the horse scorpions and laugh at us when we scream, but had we said that it was a frog that we were yelling about that would have been perfectly acceptable. Because, after all, frogs are dangerous and sneaky characters.



Now that I'm done my scorpion rant, here's what I'll be up to now that I'm out of village... currently I'm in Linguere for two nights getting myself a little organized and caught up on the important stuff going on in the world- like learning that Snooki was recently in a car accident in Italy (thanks to Cait Mac for informing me about that). Then on July 1st my friends and I are heading down to Kedougou, one of the other regions of Senegal, for a big 4th of July party! It's my first time traveling for pleasure here and I'm so ready for a little R&R.

I'm also pysched because Kedougou (down at the bottom in red) is supposed to be beautiful, complete with waterfalls and warthog sandwiches. I live in region Louga (green, north) and the trip is kind of far, so I think that we might end up spending the night at the regional house in Tambacounda too. I'm excited to check out more of the country... especially since my region very closely resembles a big sandbox with thorns.



I will admit that I'm a little sad because 4th of July is my favorite holiday and I've never missed the annual Cape May Point bike parade before. Those of you who've never been to this historic and celebrated event cannot understand the pain I've been feeling thinking about this. I've been mentally preparing myself that come the morning of the 4th I will not be getting out my streamers and ribbon to decorate my bike and get to listen to the age-old argument of who will get to ride the double-bike this year. I guess I'll just have to suck it up and enjoy the waterfalls in Africa. It's a sad, sad life I lead. But seriously, I'll be thinking of everyone in CMP on the 4th! Shout out to the CMP Pattons, my blonde sister Taylor, all of the Glassboro frisbee fam and all of our other friends and family that I always celebrate the 4th with. Have some rainbow water ice and think of me.

And before I leave, two final notes of business: First, I am now the proud owner of a new camera thanks to my thoughtful parents who must really want me to finally start taking pictures. So, get ready for pictures, people! If all goes according to plan I should put up a new post next week on my way back up north to village.

Secondly, I'd like to use this blog to publically campaign for my brother, James Patton Patton Patton, to reactivate his Facebook. I respect his decision to take a break from technology and go against the grain... but seriously... when your only sibling is away in Africa, and you're notoriously bad about checking your e-mail, and you lose your cell phone at least once every three months... isn't it just easier for everyone if you have a Facebook? The world needs to see what James is doing, and I for one miss being able to share precious brother-sister bonding via a social networking website. That's my position and I'm sticking to it.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

1st Birthday in Senegal

Okay, I know it's been a long time and I have a LOT to write about. So this is going to be a ridiculously long entry, but I'll try to break it up into sections so it isn't unbearable.

As I mentioned last time, I officially moved into my site (Mbeuleukhe) and "began" my stint as a volunteer; but these first two months are really more like practicing. From May 18 (my move in date) to July 18, I'm really just working on my language skills, greeting with people (a realllllly important part of the culture here), and getting to know my village. On July 18, I return to the Thies Training Center and have an intensive two-week In-Service Training (IST), and after that I really "begin."

But nevertheless, I've been at site for about 3 weeks now. I really like my family and my village. I have a lot of "youngers" in my house (in Senegal, the division between sibling/cousin/niece/nephew is much less defined, so everyone younger than me in my compound is simply referred to as my younger) and it's a lot of fun playing with them and teaching them English words and stuff like that. There are so many times a day when I wish I had a camera crew following me around because I literally feel like I'm living in a movie. My best friend Taylor always used to joke around that her college should be on the MTV show True Life and I feel like I need a True Life: Toubab episode.

Because I've been isolated in my village for the past few weeks, I've had a LOT of time to think. And I don't just mean before I fall asleep at night I have time to gather my thoughts... I mean I've had hours and hours and hours of time to daydream and think. Try to imagine no internet, no other fluent English-speakers around, no movie theaters, malls, restaurants, bars, or any other places to go to occupy your time; just hours for thinking.

So, in my spare time, I've been reading a lot and writing down basically every thought that pops into my head. Here are some of the main points...

·         My surroundings- Before I left, my friends back home and I made a lot of Lion King references because that's what we associated with Africa; but I've realized that my life here is much more Aladdin than Lion King. The only times I'm reminded of Pride Rock here are the scenes from the movie when Scar has taken over and everything is barren, dry and dead. But Aladdin is much more on target. The sand, scarves, camels, the food, begging, etc in Aladdin is all much closer to home right now than lions and warthogs. I've heard that everything is much greener and alive during the rainy season (which is quickly approaching), but I'll believe that when I see it. As of right now, I'd say Senegal is 80% Aladdin, 20% Lion King. We'll see how much it changes with the rain.

·         The language barrier- I had to pass a final language exam in order to swear-in, meaning that Peace Corps has determined that my Wolof is good enough for me  to function on my own. That by no means makes me a fluent Wolof speaker yet. I'm getting by and learning more every day, but there are definitely times when it's difficult. In these instances, I feel like I'm in the Colin Firth part of Love Actually, when he and the woman he likes struggle to communicate through hand gestures and  their respective languages; except that in real life the dialogue isn't clever and cute like in the movie, and most times I'm trying to say/ask important things (example- me filling out paperwork for PC and trying to ask my family where a helicopter should land in the event that I would have to be medically evacuated). The language barrier in Love Actually is sweet and makes it seem like fun to have to use gestures to communicate, but I'm over it.

·         The food- I'm going to warn everyone of this right off the bat, in the coming months my blog posts are probably going to start to revolve around food: the food I'm currently craving, the foods I want people to send me, etc. I've been here three months now, so I'm definitely not in bad shape right now in terms of cravings, but it's the knowledge that I still have two years ahead of me without American foods that makes me start to go a little insane. Here I eat breakfast on my own, usually a granola bar or oatmeal which my parents sent over in a package (thanks, guys!) or a mango from the market. Lunch every day is ceebu jen, Senegal's national dish. Ceebu jen is rice and fish with veggies. It honestly could be a lot worse. My family thankfully adds a lot of veggies, and I try not to eat too much rice. Then there's the tea. Tea here is served in a cup the size of a shot glass and I would estimate that each cup probably has about 3 tablespoons of sugar in it, if not more. Dinner is always different and my favorite dinner is a dish called laaj, which is like a porridge with yogurt poured over top (not the kind of yogurt you have in the US, but more like a sweet, thick milk sauce). It reminds of what would probably have been served in an orphanage in England during Oliver Twist's time. Every time I eat it I imagine I'm in a Charles Dickens novel or Goldilocks, but it is what it is. What I would give for a good salad, sandwich, dessert and cold draught beer. But for now I'll stick with my porridge.

·         Being a Toubab- This is probably what I've spent the most time thinking about. Being the only toubab in an African village is a very surreal experience. During our training, one of the older volunteers said that she views it as being a really rare bird; some people want to pet you and love you, others just want to stare at you, and some want to yank out your feathers and sell them. It's just such a hard concept for a white American to wrap their mind around. Imagine rolling up in a random village. You're obviously different, everyone has heard of you but most people have never seen you before, and then suddenly you're there. Some people want to befriend you immediately and get on your good side because obviously you're very powerful/special/different, others tease you and pick on you because you're different. You never have any privacy because everyone wants to know what you're doing at every second, and everything you do is broadcast around the village in a matter of hours (Example- one day I rode my bike to my friend's village and I go a flat tire so I stayed overnight. The next day every single person in my entire village was talking about my flat tire. It was breaking news.) It's just so weird. One morning I went to the little kids' school with one of my counterparts to drop something off. All of the children there were probably 6 and under. My counterpart said to the kids, "Hey guys, do you know who this is?" and they all nodded and smiled and he asked them what my name was and all of them screamed "TOUBAB!!" with such happy enthusiasm that you just have to laugh. It really is the weirdest thing

Okay so this entry is ridiculously long already, but now I'll start talking about packages. THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who's been writing that they sent something out. I can't even describe how excited I am to get American food/goodies. My friends and I came to our regional house yesterday and there was a package waiting for me from my aunt Anne Marie (thank you!!) which had mac and cheese and other yummy stuff in it and we literally devoured it.
Here are a few more things I've been thinking about:

• bandanas
• potholders (for my mom/the women here. they use their hands and burn themselves)
• popcorn kernels
• magazines! (people, us weekly, cosmo, entertainment, time, really anything)
• more drink mixes (propel, crystal light, gatorade, etc.)
• any little trinkets for my little siblings
• post-its, flash cards, small notebooks
• fig newtons
• graham crackers
• in-ear headphones

That's all for now. In a little bit my friend and I are going to go the lumo in our town, which is like a big market on Fridays. I'm hoping I'll luck out and find delicacies like watermelon or bananas. We'll see how I do.

And, finally, I couldn't write a post on my bday without a shout-out to my friends/family in the US. Mom and Dad- love you both and miss you today! Dani Shinder- hope your bday yesterday was awesome!! Tee, Mer, Cait, Amanda, etc.- Miss you all and wish we could celebrate together, but I know that in two years we'll be making up for lost time. And my dear twin, Kyle- I can't believe this is the first year in such a long time that we aren't together. I feel like we've been at least exchanging gifts since we were about 15. And then of course there were the epic birthdays like the 20th bday Scranton DMB debacle and our very classy 21st. Miss you so much today I can't even put it into words. Have fun and we'll skype at some point.

Thanks for everything, everyone! It's probably going to be a while till my next post, but I'm doing well and learning a lot. Love you!

Install Day!

Okay so I lied. I said that my next post would be from my new home but I'm anxious and jumping the gun. So Jenn and I leave to install in about 45 minutes. I'm nervous/excited/scared/everything! Three of our friends left to install yesterday and they all seemed to have awesome parties awaiting them at their sites. They had goat slaughterings, dancing, speeches, the whole nine yards. I'm really excited to see what my village has cooked up for me. Hopefully it'll be fun and not unbelievably intimidating.

I bought a wireless USB internet card to plug into my laptop and get wireless when I'm in village, but it's not quite up and running just yet, so I'm not sure when the next time I'll have internet will be. I will definitely do a blog post next time I'm able to.

Alright, now really the next time that I post I will be at my site. Wish me luck!

It's Official! I'm a PCV!

So I'm now officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! We had our swearing in on Friday at the US Ambassador's house in Dakar. You can look at a little snipit of the ceremony here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTL-u1UM4oI

Here's a shot of my Stage right after we swore in!

And here's the group of the 6 of us that are in the Linguere region! Get used to seeing these faces because they're the people that I'm going to be with for the next two years. It just stinks that I hate all of them. Just kidding. I'm super happy about my group.

Anyway... so we swore in on Friday, then on Saturday most of us headed out. My group left around 2pm and arrived in Linguere at around 7pm. Not a bad drive at all. We're hanging out all together at the regional house for a few days buying things for our new homes and meeting local officials and all that important stuff. We start installing in our new sites TOMORROW! Luckily, my friend Jenn and I are the last two to be installed in our region so we get an extra night of American time together and install on Wednesday.

I'm not really freaking out yet, but I know that the first couple days are going to be really hard. Up until this point I've been able to see my friends and speak English on a regular basis, even when I was living with my homestay family. But once I'm dropped off in my new village it's just me there. Scary. Thankfully Jenn is a 10k bike ride away each way and we both plan on seeing each other as much as possible. Nothing like biking 20k to work of all the rice you eat here.

New volunteers are encouraged to try to spend as much of their first 2 months as possible in their village. I'm going to try as much as I can, but there will be a few times I think I'm going to see my friends (my birthday, possibly)... and the Barcelona-Manchester game on the 28th is a big event as well. We're all REALLLLY excited because everyone gets together for 4th of July, so I know that in less than 2 months I'll be able to see all of my friends and we can swap horror stories. It's gonna be tough, but my new family seems really cool and I have an awesome support system here in Linguere. Also, we get free volunteer-to-volunteer calling, so I have a feeling we'll all be venting to each other quite a bit.

AND now that I'm in my region, I have my address for packages, letters, huge boxes full of American delicacies, etc. It is:

PCV Fae Patton
B.P. 79
Linguere, Louga Region
Senegal, West Africa

If any of you are wonderful enough to entertain the idea of sending me anything, just make sure you send it air mail. Also, flat rate boxes are a wise choice because stuff can get pretty pricey. Currently I'm craving....

• Anything sweet- peanut butter m&ms or regular m&ms, pepperidge farm soft baked cookies (OH MY GOD!), basically anything sweet
• MAC AND CHEESE! Boxes of Kraft, or ez mac, really anything even resembling mac and cheese
• Peanut butter would also be amazing
• Propel drink mixes. The tiny ones you put in water bottles
• Salty snacks like goldfish, wheat thins, cheeze-its, etc.
• Honestly anything American and delicious
• And tupperware containers would be too good to be true

That's all I got for now. Just trying to get all of my stuff together to move in in 2 days. I need to get my family a present for install and I'm leaning towards a live chicken because they would appreciate it and then I'd get to eat chicken, which is a rare treat here.

Next time I update I'll be living in my new home that I'll be in for the next two years. So weird!

Bed Bugs, the Beach and Flea

Hello! I know I've been majorly slacking in the blog posts recently, so I'll try to go over everything that's been happening since Volunteer Visit.

Fist thing we had after VV was Counterpart Workshop, where all of our counterparts from our various villages came to Thies and we had a 2-day conference going over all of the Peace Corps policies, rules, expectations, etc. I was nervous for it ahead of time, but it actually turned out to be a really nice experience.

My two counterparts are a teacher in Mbeulehke's lycee named Mohammed and a boutique owner who works with the local Eaux et Foret named Ale. They both couldn't have been nicer, raved over my "amazing" Wolof, and seem like they're going to be great resources when I move to the village. Mohammed's already called me multiple times since the workshop to ask how my language classes are going, if I'm excited, etc.

After Counterpart Workshop, we all needed a break so we got to go to the beach! We went to Popenguine, which is about an hour away from Thies and honestly the most beautiful place I've ever seen. Google image it and check it out. Here are some stolen pics from other ppl:

So beach weekend was awesome. A few interesting things did happen though, like me getting bed bugs. Nothing can ever go completely perfectly here haha. I woke up covered in bites all over my face, shoulders, chest, etc. I looked REALLY pretty. But the bites went away pretty quickly, so I really have no complaints.

Immediately after we got back to the Training Center from the beach (as in, like an hour later) we piled into the vans and headed back to our homestays. We had our LAST week at the homestays. I can't believe it's already over with my family! Hopefully by the next entry I'll have some pictures of my fam. But here's my language group with our beautiful mural that we painted at the local ecole, and us having a party at my house on our last day...

Now we're back in Thies and preparing for swear-in! I have my final language exam in about an hour. Fingers crossed! We swear-in on Friday the 13th and I had a FABULOUS Senegalese outfit made so I can't wait for everyone to see the pictures. It's gonna be awesome. We're also having a party on Thursday for our host families here at the Training Center. That should be exciting too. My mom won't stop talking about it.

And one final note before I peace out... It's not important, but I feel like it should probably be mentioned.. NO ONE here can understand that my name is Fae. "Faye" (rhymes with eye) is a very common last name here and people just can't get that my first name is Fae and rhymes with hey; so I've been encountering some pretty funny mix ups that I think you good folks back home would enjoy.

For example, we went to a police station in Dakar one day to sign paperwork and offical stuff.. and when it was my turn I go up and my forms say Fab Patton. So obviously I start laughing and explain that that's not my name and the officers are just looking at me with a blank expression like I'm crazy. So there's a good chance I might still be Fab in the Dakar police system.

Also, one of the first days here when we were still learning everyone's names, one of the guys in my Stage mentioned that he always wants to put a "L" in my name and call me Flea. So we all laughed and said that that makes no sense, that putting an "L" in my name would make it Flae, etc. But somehow Flea has stuck with me and that's what all of my friends call me now.

So on any given day here in Senegal I could be called Fae, Ami, Fab, Flea or Mariama and I now will respond to any of those names. Just thought you'd like to know.

Next entry will have some fly pics of me in my Senegalese gear! Get ready!