Excitement

A lot has happened since my last blog entry.  So I will do my best to capture everything.  First off is volunteer visit.  I was so nervous when we pulled up to my new house and was getting dropped off.  But at least this time I had someone with me that knows wolof and I know at least a little now, so it wasn't quite as frightening as being dropped off at my homestay house with no language knowledge.  Everyone gets out of the car to see my new house and my family and my hut.  We go in and my dad shows us my hut, which is nice...it is hexagonal, has two doors and a window so I get a nice breeze through there which will be nice during the hot season.  I also have a light and an outlet!  So now I've decided I need to get an external hard drive to put lots of movies on because now I can have my computer at site with me so I can watch a movie every night if I want!  I'm so excited.  I just got a few movies from a friend here and am psyched to get more.  So anyways, I also have a little backyard with a little bathroom back there.  Well a Senegalese bathroom....I have a latrine and room for a bucket bath.  But that's nice.  I also have a robine in my compound, which means I don't have to pull water from a well and carry it a long ways.  I am feeling very spoiled at this point.  Then my dad gives me my new name which is Fati Kinee Niang.  However, my moms name is Fati so I will just be called Kinee.  I really like my new name and it is also nice because it is semi close to Katie.  But so my grandpa is the chief of the village so I'm pretty important.  I think my dad has two wives and there are many children running all over but they are the most well behaved children I have seen here.  They sat for a couple hours one day playing marbles without getting into a fight and they boys had a wrestling match for a good half hour before anyone started crying.  I was impressed.  

We spent one night with my family before going to Dara which is where Laura, the volunteer that was with me, lived.  But the day that we were there, after lunch many women started to show up to my compound to chat and drink cafe touba.  Laura and I hung out for a while but then decided to go for a walk.  When we got back my moms were walking somewhere and so we asked where and they were like oh just to another compound to drink cafe touba.  and we were like you just drank cafe touba!  but we decided to walk with them anyways and we turn the corner into this compound and I swear every woman in affe was in this compound.  It was so overwhelming at first.  They were all talking with each other and dressed in their best.  But a couple good things that came out of it is now everyone will know who Kinee Niang is and my mom already was claiming me as her child!  Which was awesome and such a good sign.  Laura and I later found out that apparently the women do that either once a week or once a month as a solidarity thing as women.  Kinda cool and definitely a good way to get to know the women who you have to get on the good side of or else no one will like you.  

We also met with the school director and the ICP of the poste de sante.  Both were great.  They already have things they want me to do and realistic things as well, nothing like build me a new school more like create after school groups and create a school garden.  I'm really looking forward to working with them both.  The ICP is also one of my counterparts in the community.  He already told me that I am welcome to go on all of his vaccination tours with him and am welcome at the poste de sante anytime even just to continue working on my language.  

But so we left in the afternoon to go to Dara.  We traveled by bush taxi, which is the best way ever to travel I have decided.  It is a pick up truck with boards placed across the back and people sit on the boards, in the cab, or on top of the cab!  It was awesome.  I had goats under my feet for our ride.  It is like a safari without the african animals.  We got to Dara and got cold drinks which were great and went back to Lauras house but it was so hot that night that it was difficult to sleep even with a fan.  Mosquito nets are incredibly hot to sleep under which is why it is difficult to get people to sleep under them especially during the hot season.

The next day we had lunch with lauras family and went to the school in the morning.  We also sat at a boutique for a long time chatting with the guy that works there.  It was really good for my wolof to be able to listen to someone I can understand and see how she interacts with wolofs.  Oh!  It also rained this day which was incredibly unusual for this time of year.  It normally doesn't start raining until July.  I got to watch the daily show and paint my nails which was amazing.  I forgot I was in Africa for a little while. lol.  

We then went to Linguere to the Regional Office to meet and hang out with the other volunteers in the Linguere region.  It was a great time.  We had some wonderful Bissap juice and played name games/icebreakers.  Then it was time to go back to Thies for a few sessions and back to our homestays.  Which I wasn't looking forward to because I didn't feel well but it was great to be back and I understood a lot more than I thought I would.  Also, when my family found out I am living in Linguere everyone just kept telling me oh it is so hot up there.  You are going to be hot all the time.  It should be interesting.....definitely investing in a fan!