Update 4

Saturday, April 1, 2005
Wow, the past week has flown by. I only have a little less than 800 days left in Senegal…I don’t know where the time has gone. Things are going well here but it is really intense. The other day I had 6 hours of wolof class accompanied with 2 hours of technical training. The length of the day was like any other, but we had yet to have 6 hours of language class in a day...basically, I had more foreign language class in one day than I had in two weeks when I took French in college. Training is pretty much like going to college but you are in the classroom 8 hours out of the day and the rest of the day is pretty much studying or standing around with a confused look on your face, not knowing what anyone is saying. Fortunately, the teachers are great and make it interesting.

We had our first weekly language performance review today. It is pretty much like a report card but more critical and you don’t have to have your parents sign it. Mine said that I was enthusiastic about learning, had a great sense of humor, and asked well-qualified questions. On the negative, coming from the south has its drawbacks…my accent apparently affects the pronunciation of wolof words, so I am going to start reading wolof books/newspapers. The other negative aspect of my review was that I think too much before I speak in wolof. If somebody had told me this in the States, it probably would have meant I was slow, but not here. Fortunately, the purpose of these reviews isn’t to criticize trainees, but to make everyone proficient in the language they are supposed to learn.

Jeff and Rob, your predictions came true. You can pretty much call me Kevin Bacon. My afternoon was much like a scene from The Air Up There. A fellow volunteer, his two brothers, two of my brothers, and myself played alittle ball at the lycee. It turned into a game of 5 on 5. It was pretty much like the And One tournament. I really don’t think I have seen my double dribbles and travels in my life. Kris (the other volunteer) and I were at a disadvantage due to the heat. I must say, my body isn’t conditioned to playing outside during the heat of the day here. But it was pretty cool. I had fun. But I did learn an important lesson while playing. Out of the 10 people playing, 8 were wearing flip-flops. I probably will be next time too, since one of my air bubbles popped in my running shoes while playing. I wasn’t expecting that to happen 3 weeks in here, but nothing I can do about it.

There are two tough aspects that are taking time to figure out. First, the whole lack of privacy thing. This isn’t a problem all the time because I like my fellow trainees and I love my host family, but I really haven’t been anywhere before where I haven’t been able to fully control the things I do and when I do them and I really can’t just go and get out. I probably wouldn’t be lying if I said that I’ve had about 30 seconds of time where I’ve been able to veg out and relax. It seems I’m on the go all the time, which I think I am. Am I complaining about it…it may seem, but its really not a huge problem, just one of the cultural aspects that takes some getting used to. The second one is how to spend my time after class. We get done at around 6:15 every night and my options are to study by myself, hang out with other trainees at a bar, or hang out with my family. Its tough being pulled in three drastically different directions, all of equal importance to some extent. Honestly and surprising to some, I prefer hanging out with my family or studying. Both of those things are pretty important too. Although, sometimes, peer pressure and the fact we get a discount at one of the local bars (discount makes the beer 500 CFA…..less than a dollar for about 30 oz. Senegalese beer is fairly good). It is nice after long days to go and just hang out outside and be able to talk English and sip on a beer. Looking back at this past week, I feel I have divided my time wisely, I hung out with other volunteers 2 times after class, studied at the local hotel one night, and studied/hung out with my family the other nights. I’m going to try and study more at the hotel. I found that it was nice and relaxing. No, I don’t like studying, but its nice to be by myself in some peace and quiet every once in a while.

I have alittle more to say, but I’m going to hold off till my next post. Hopefully I can get my pictures posted soon. I have found that it takes time to get some things done here. Also, once again, I got a cell phone. You can find the number below, but I really have no clue what the country code for Senegal is, but google it and it should come up. I’m trying to make a short call to the States a day, but I don’t know how well that is going to hold up. It is fairly expensive for me. They have international calling cards at Wal-mart, but I still think skype.com would be a much better solution. For anyone who has lived overseas, I’m sorry I didn’t/haven’t called that much, cause I must say, talking to familiar voices sure is nice.

For those of you who have sent emails, thank you so much. I’m trying to write everyone back. Due to the French keyboards accompanied by keys that sometimes stick, slow connections, and power outages, I typically prefer writing my responses back on my laptop and then sending them the next time I go to the Internet café. Due to better knowing my surroundings and an hour over Internet time costing about 50 cents, I am hoping to check it twice a week. I say that now, but who knows…it isn’t easy to predict things here.
Some of the other trainees and I have this running humorous conversation about things we miss from back home. It typically starts at breakfast when we are eating our half loaf of bread…we have that everyday for breakfast. Somebody usually suggests someone doing a doughnut run, but we have yet to find the krispy kreme here in Senegal. I will say one of the things I miss most from home, apart from all my friends and family, is Bojangles/Weaver D’s. I’m not gonna lie, if somebody asked me to meet them at one of the two places tomorrow, I just might be on the next plane out of Senegal. In all seriousness, it really is weird the things you miss. A lot of the things I miss are food related…some Scooby Snacks or Gummi Bears sure would be nice. I probably wouldn’t be opposed to MacDonald’s or Taco Bell right now either or a nice Mountain Dew. Its part of the whole experience being here and having to deal with it, which most of us here understand. It is nice to go through my box of pictures that I brought; pictures that range from the bleached blond hair days of high school to the JLand Farewell Tour. I’ve shown them to other volunteers and my family and its nice for them to see more of who I am.

Well, I think I am done rambling….I don’t know where this message was going, but I guess its going somewhere. Overall, things are going great and I still think I made the right decision coming here. Thanks for all your support. Hope things are going well in the States and I sure wish I could watch the Final Four….apparently George Mason is in it. I’m sure yall knew that a long time ago, but it takes some time for news to cross the Atlantic.