So I've been long over due for a quick update. As of now I have finished my Pre Service Training. I am extremely glad for that to be over with. It wasn't bad but I really just want to start my actual service. That being said though at times PST seemed long in actuality it flew by. The most important aspect of the PST is the language training which I believe is one of the best training programs. I learned a lot of Pulaar du Nord (Pulaa Toro) in 2 months. Though at times I feel like I don't know the language at all I'll run into someone else and I can understand everything.
Right now I am in Tamba at the PC regional house. Basically meeting all the other regional volunteers and buying some things I'll need in Bakel. I head out to Bakel on Wednesday and then install into my site on Thursday. Then it is village life until December. In December I go back to Thies for In-service Training. My basic responsibility in the first 3 months is to just continue learning the language and get integrated into the community. That is a big reason why I install when I do. That gives me a couple of months to integrate into the community and learn the language before the next field crop season which isn't until the wet season in July.
Besides that all is well. Especially now that I'm in site I will be happily accepting care packages. I would enjoy anything but especially gatorade powder, protein bars/cliff bars and reading material. Though I'd accept anything.
My address is
Brian Bartle- Corps de la Paix
BP 320
Tambacounda, Senegal, West Africa
Besides that I hope to update everyone again after I've been at site for a bit. I'm not suppose to leave for 5 weeks. Not a requirement but just a recommendation/challenge.
Also no word on the mongoose but heard about Mauritanian black markets with everything you'd ever need. A good place to start. Until then I might get guinea hens or a camel. We'll see.
Peace and Love from Africa,
Brian
Monday, October 18, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Quick Update from Bakel
So I just got back to the Peace Corps regional house in Tamba from my volunteer site in a village just outside Bakel. It has a lot of really cool things to offer. On my journey (and from a hill in my village) I got to see the Malian and Maurtanian boarders. In fact in the dry season I can just swim across to Maurtania (then swim back because it is Maurtania). Addictionally I can just walk into Mali down the road where the river dries up. It is really pretty though. Like I said there is a hill and surrounding hills in the landscape. Maybe it is because I'm evlavation deprived back home in Michigan but I love my little mountains.
I will be living with the cheif of the village. Except for a couple of cerimonial things the cheif is more of a person of respect not of any actual power. That being said he is actually kind of poor in regards to the rest of the residents of the village. That is largely due to the fact that he has no family abroad sending him back remittances. There are a couple of real "Patron" families that have relatives working in France or what not. It is a interesting dynamic. Unfortantely that means the food is not always the best at my place. The good news is that in Senegalese culture it is prefectly fine to walk around town and get invited into dinner or lunch with another family.
Now the negative: It is hot. Not right now but supposidly it gets up to 120 degrees F. This will be interesting. So no one figure on visiting me from March to June as the dry hot season gets a little rough. That and it is a bit out there and a bit isolated. There will be three of us in close proximity to one another which will help a lot but getting to the next volunteer and the regional capital is a 4hrs bus ride. And that is Tamba. Which is fine and all except if I need or want to get to Dakar or the PC offices in Thies it is another 8hrs or so. I guess I can't complain too much as I have to cover the entire country to get there.
Besides that all is well. Meeting some of the other volunteers is a lot of fun. Spending the night in Tamba before heading out to Thies and then back to my homestay.
No word on the mongoose but was told that the volunteer before the current one serving there now had a pet monkey. Thus there is hope for a mongoose. That or I might be forced to switched to a monkey that eats peanuts and distracts the "toubob" screaming children (not all children though just the "toubob" yelling ones)
I will be living with the cheif of the village. Except for a couple of cerimonial things the cheif is more of a person of respect not of any actual power. That being said he is actually kind of poor in regards to the rest of the residents of the village. That is largely due to the fact that he has no family abroad sending him back remittances. There are a couple of real "Patron" families that have relatives working in France or what not. It is a interesting dynamic. Unfortantely that means the food is not always the best at my place. The good news is that in Senegalese culture it is prefectly fine to walk around town and get invited into dinner or lunch with another family.
Now the negative: It is hot. Not right now but supposidly it gets up to 120 degrees F. This will be interesting. So no one figure on visiting me from March to June as the dry hot season gets a little rough. That and it is a bit out there and a bit isolated. There will be three of us in close proximity to one another which will help a lot but getting to the next volunteer and the regional capital is a 4hrs bus ride. And that is Tamba. Which is fine and all except if I need or want to get to Dakar or the PC offices in Thies it is another 8hrs or so. I guess I can't complain too much as I have to cover the entire country to get there.
Besides that all is well. Meeting some of the other volunteers is a lot of fun. Spending the night in Tamba before heading out to Thies and then back to my homestay.
No word on the mongoose but was told that the volunteer before the current one serving there now had a pet monkey. Thus there is hope for a mongoose. That or I might be forced to switched to a monkey that eats peanuts and distracts the "toubob" screaming children (not all children though just the "toubob" yelling ones)
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Quick Update
Probably by the time I come back to the states you will all refer to me as "quick update" which is all i seem to be giving you lately. Thus is life in Senegal. A key point is my site switch. My last post indicated I was going to Kaolack. Well as is life in Senegal things happened. I am now going to Bakel on the Senegal/Mauritania boarder. Things happened with volunteers going home early so I got rotated. It is going to be hot I am not going to lie. It is in the desert and though it is on the Senegalese River it gets up to a 130 degrees in which the river dries up. This will provide an amble opportunity to run across the boarder to Mauritania.
That being said I am excited about it. It is suppose to be really pretty. That and the people in my village are suppose to be extremely nice. That and I am going out to that area with two other really cool people. It should add up for a fun time (except maybe when it gets up to 130 degrees during the hot dry season.)
Other updates: the pictures of our my host family during Korite (the last day of Ramadan). It was all together a cultural experience being my first Korite. Great food and awesome outfits. The only thing is it is a bit anti-climatic. So the girls basically spend all day getting ready (putting weaves in and make up on). Then during the evening they put on their fancy clothes. And then.. And then... And then...nothing. They might go visit a friend but most just watch TV and then go to bed. It is so interesting to see this lead up to something and something never coming. It is my first extremely culture shock.
Additionally, the picture of me and a goat you might see on facebook is how i am named after. That is right. I am named after the goat. I think it was the second day my sister pointed at the goat and then pointed at me and said Amadou. She continued to repeat this but I clearly understood what she was getting across.
That being said I am excited about it. It is suppose to be really pretty. That and the people in my village are suppose to be extremely nice. That and I am going out to that area with two other really cool people. It should add up for a fun time (except maybe when it gets up to 130 degrees during the hot dry season.)
Other updates: the pictures of our my host family during Korite (the last day of Ramadan). It was all together a cultural experience being my first Korite. Great food and awesome outfits. The only thing is it is a bit anti-climatic. So the girls basically spend all day getting ready (putting weaves in and make up on). Then during the evening they put on their fancy clothes. And then.. And then... And then...nothing. They might go visit a friend but most just watch TV and then go to bed. It is so interesting to see this lead up to something and something never coming. It is my first extremely culture shock.
Additionally, the picture of me and a goat you might see on facebook is how i am named after. That is right. I am named after the goat. I think it was the second day my sister pointed at the goat and then pointed at me and said Amadou. She continued to repeat this but I clearly understood what she was getting across.
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