Hamidou Diogo Ba, and the PC Sick Hut

So I have a lot to catch up on since my last post. Internet access here is pretty scarce for the time being since we’ve been cycling between the training center in Thies and my homestay in Sangalkam. The internet sucks at the center and has not been invented yet in my homestay village. I’ll try to section this post off into headings since there is a lot to say, especially because the reason I have internet is because I’m at the medical sick hut (aka the resort in Dakar where sick PCVs and PCTs in my case go to get better) oh no Eric is sick? Read on if you want to know more.

Sangalkam – The Homestay

I live with the Ba family in Sangalkam which is halfway in between Dakar and Thies. The reason for living there is immersion in the language I’ll be using for the next 2 years of service in the southern region of the country. That language is Pulaar Futa, and it comes from Guinea, a lot of people from Guinea live in Sangalkam therefore…I live there now too. My host brother is the main patriarch of the compound and also my namesake, Hamidou Diogo Ba. So that’s my new name here in Senegal Hamidou Diogo Ba but you can just call me Hamidou… Either way, the original Hamidou is a teacher in Dakar, and his wife Aissiatou basically takes care of me, she is awesome and we’re basically best friends now. She literally does everything for me, including carrying the water for my bucket bath, which is a little strange since she’s only a few years older than I, so is Hamidou. My mom is actually Hamidou’s sister-in-law and her husband the missing elder brother (my dad…) lives in Dakar and I only met him for a minute literally. The whole family is very nice but speaking a new language is difficult after only a little over a week of training. Luckily for now and unfortunately for the future, my sister does not speak that language so we only ever use French, which has simplified things so far. Below are a couple of photos of the family. The best photo is the one where my sister took her wig off and put it on her 1.5yo son Baba’s head (that’s right his name is Baba Ba).

my House, my room is on the left

my room

my sister and her son Baba

the men of my house, Hamidou is in the light blue boo-boo

the women of my house

Training In General

So these 2.5 months of training are very jam packed. In the homestay villages we have language classes from 9am until nearly 2 some days, then there is a break for lunch, then we have to meet again to practice and then around 6 we’re required to do something for our group garden at the local middle school (see pictures below with some of the many local kids who like to help out).

Then we return home to never-ending children screaming and chaotic family time where we try to practice the language. I usually pass out around 10pm which leaves little time for homework and almost no time for revision. When we’re not in the villages the days are filled with shots (not the good kind, had probably close a dozen injections since we got into the country), and back-to-back talks about technical training we’ll need for when we’re eventually in our final site. As hectic as it is it’s a lot of fun and we’re all having a really great time.

the group from Sangalkam

Being Sick

So Tuesday afternoon I started feeling achy, by 1am that night I was standing in a cold shower trying to bring down a high fever. The fevers came back the next morning which forced me to skip some talks at the training center but I was well enough to get on the van for the afternoon ride back to the villages. Half way through the trip I started getting chills and I basically went to my homestay, said hello and that I was sick and went to bed immediately with a fever of 102. This continued, fevers sweating and chills for the next 3 days until medical finally said I needed to go to Dakar to have blood drawn. So that’s where I am now. This morning I got half-way through my language class and a PC driver came to pick me up. The “medical hut” as they call it is a full apartment with a kitchen dining room, common rooms, TV, AC, WiFi, free calls to the US, and lots of rooms for sick PCVs….it’s amazing after being in the shack I was in laying in a pool of sweat night after night shivering…wish I had called to be picked up a day earlier. The hut, or as I am calling it “club med” since it’s like a resort, is on the ground level of the Peace Corps Senegal Headquarters in Dakar, which is an embassy like building that is pretty cool. I’ll have to venture down the street to a real supermarket just like in the states to buy some food for dinner….i can’t wait I’m a bit sick of onions and fish, my host bro/sis insisted on giving me proper sick people food which consisted of 3 whole fish, salad covered in onion sauce and an entire baguette one night, and a pot of the spiciest soup I’ve ever had last night, which I approximately 45mins after my last fever broke, but the soup left me feeling like I was in a sauna.

It seems as if medical wants to keep me here until Monday morning, most likely because there won’t be a driver on a Sunday, but the extra day of rest will be good for me. The blood tests did come back and my awesome nurse Vonnie said no malaria and that I have “perfect blood” so it had to have been a virus. I’m looking forward to feeling 100% better and getting back to my village on Monday morning. Thanks for checking in. I’ll try to get a Picasa photo album up and linked on this page along with addresses and other info since I think this is the most reliable internet I’ll ever have here in Senegal.

Just Dance

So the first “almost week” is over, it feels like it’s been a month but it hasn’t even been 6 days… We’ve had a lot of training classes, cultural lessons and demonstrations, and the most intense language crash courses you could imagine. Some of those training classes included hands-on instruction on creating our garden and tree nursery (that all volunteers are required to make and maintain). But by far the best demo was fetching water from a well (which for men in this culture, it’s recommended we just hire a little Senegalese girl to do it for us, it’s become my running joke), and the BEST, pooping…that’s right pooping and going to the “squatter” because as easy as you think it’d be, pooping in this country is drastically different and a skill to be mastered. Toilet paper is frowned upon here and more importantly it’s just damn expensive, I’ve brought 4 rolls with me to wean myself off, let’s see if I can do it before they run out. The alternative here to TP involves your left hand and a cup of water, the cup is not nice, and for one of my first purchases I’m considering one of these nice marble colored plastic tea kettles that we’ve taken to calling poo kettles….email me for more details I’ll spare the 3 other actual readers of this blog.

Despite learning “Survival Wolof” (wolof is the main local language, French being the official language but we’ll need to be fluent in a local language for our future village), I just found out yesterday that I will be learning Pullo Futa. It’s a flavor of Pulaar (the next biggest language after Wolof) and this particular one is spoken in the south of the country aka the foresty, hilly, lusher part of the country and AKA the sticks, that’s right I’m learning the Hillbilly language of Senegal, and it comes complete with all the ridicule. I think it’s pretty awesome, all the other regions totally hate on each other and my language and region is apparently Senegalese redneck…so this will be fun.

On Monday, I along with 7 others from our overall 42 will move to a nearby town. There’s 4 of us under one Language and Culture Facilitator (LCF as we call them), mine is Jeemba, she’s pretty much awesome and learning the language is rapid fire and fun. We’ll be moving into our homestays where we will be for 9 weeks. I’m very excited to meet my family, I bought them tea and sugar at the market today as a hello gift, the Senegalese are all about giving and sharing no matter how small it might be. More on the homestay next time.

The first day here here while we were completely exhausted from the redeye flight that had only ended eight hours earlier and after the seemingly endless meetings and info sessions, we of course had a dance party. Let’s not forget this is AFRICA! These people love to drum and love to dance even more, and they’re wicked good at it too. At first I felt a little strange joining in the dancing. I usually dance with a group of long-time friends at clubs/bars after a few ginger ales…so with a huge group of new people, and approaching dehydration, it was a bit awkward at first. After awhile I realized the only way to do this, and by this I mean the dancing and the next two years of bizarre and new experiences, is to just go in head first and not care. An hour and a half into crazy dancing, they opened the gates and a huge crowd of local children rushed in. Watching a bunch of 5-12 year-olds out dance us was a great experience. I may have accidentally side-grinded a small Senegalese girl but the overall experience was great and in the end I was happy I really got into it. So that’s why for the next years no matter what I come across I’m gonna have to put my pride aside and ‘just dance’, certainly wouldn’t want to miss out.

Photos from the first week:

Dancing

the training center in Thies

working hard learning to make a tree nursery (note: i actually did do work in addition just posing with the pick...)

Arrived in Senegal

so this morning around 5:30 local time, I took my first steps in Africa! Senegal is cool thus far, there's still a lot to do and get out to see, still just on the Peace Corps training compound, more info and fun news and updates to come soon, just wanted to say hi for now! here's a few photos of the bus ride from Dakar to Thies (pronounced Cha-es as one syllable) there were over 20 of us in each van (42 in total), the group at the PC training compoundand the building where my dorm is for the next few days