Happy New Year! My first month

Alas, I have passed the one-month mark at my permanent site - really, just one month? - and mungi dox (it's going). Currently, I'm in Toubacouta with my AmeriCorps friend Sydney Davis(!) relaxing among the mangroves before she heads off to another volunteer's site tomorrow. She's doing a bit of tournee of PC-Senegal after having done the same thing in Morocco with her PC friend there. So, if you have questions about the Peace Corps, feel free to ask her about her range of impressions!

Happy to report: I have received letters and a few packages! I danced. I ate. I will have an exorbitant amount of nutrition and German baked goods for the next two weeks. Shout out to my mother - you and your lebkuchen are the best!

Sunset behind my compound

Happy New Years! Fatayas (fried dough) with the family, some with onion sauce and some with cinnamon and sugar (I insisted). 

 

 

 

 

 

Highlights:
Riding a horse bare back
Riding a horse charette for an hour at night, dodging some seriously thorny live-fencing species
Spilling less and less water from carrying buckets on my head
Chaff (roasted peanuts and salt my mom makes every week)
Having a bike
Cute kids
Whenever I'm complimented on my language or efforts

Challenges:
Learing Wolof in a Sereer village
Constantly explaining: why I'm learning Wolof, that I'm not the previous volunteer, and why I don't have a husband (which is only a challenge if it's the third time that day)
Dealing with the bank (5-hour wait was my most recent)
Low variety of food, limited fruits and veggies

Charette ride with my family and Sydney to the Louma (weekly market)

Rocking our matching pants

New Wolof word I learned this week: emb. It means pregnant, and it refers to my cat. I thought she was just getting fat, until she seemed unnaturally moody and my host sister says she must have a night-time husband. I also figured out that even if I lock my room, it gets in through the roof. My roof will be raining kitties soon!