Ngaye Mekhe!

Hello to everyone back home! Today was a very important day for us, as we discovered where everyone will be working for the next two years. My site is called Ngaye Mekhe. It is about 45 kilometers north of Thies, meaning I will not be going very far from my current location. Mekhe is a city of about 25,000 people, speaking primarily Wolof, but a lot of French as well. The town is widely known through Senegal for the leather sandals that are made there (apparently they are even sold in Europe and in the U.S). I am very pleased with this site, as I will be relatively close to a lot of my friends and can easily get to Dakar and Thies. I don't know much else about the site at the moment, but I'm sure I will learn much more about it starting tomorrow. As for tomorrow itself, myself and another trainee will be going to Tivaouane to visit another current volunteer and see what kind of work they are up to. We'll be there for about 6 days, and then will come back to Thies for a few days.

Our time in Tassette was filled with experiences I won't soon forget. While the 8 hours a day classes in Wolof got tiring, the time spent with my fellow volunteers and our host families was priceless. This past Sunday, I was lucky enough to go lizard hunting with my host father. Having previously lived in the 3rd world, I have seen my share of lizards. But it was not until I was face to face with one of these monsters that I realized it wasn't really lizards we were hunting. These animals resemble small komodo dragons more than anything, and the "small one" we caught must have weighed about 5-6 pounds. The hunt was incredibly fun, as my host father and I ventured deep into the bush, and even walked through some streams/swamp areas. Oviously, hunting these animals means we later consumed them. The following day, my host mother served me a big bowl of macaroni and lizard meat. To be honest, it was actually quite good, with the lizard reminding me of chicken wings. I'm sure there will be more food adventures to come, but the lizard was definitely an interesting experience (the attached pictures is of me discussing the details of the kill to my host mother). I have come to realize that bugs are simply bigger and more intimidating here. Every night as I prepare to sleep, crickets large enough to be sold as puppies in Asia, as well as beetles that sound like Luftwaffe fighter planes fill the damp air in my room. There are also blister beetles, which my fellow town mate Daniel has had the privilege of being bitten by (As the name suggests, they leave a big nasty blister that spreads if you pop it). I have been lucky so far in terms of all kinds of bug bites, but I feel that my time is coming.

This past Wednesday was also the Korite celebration, signaling the end of Rammadan. On the morning of Korite, the men get up, have breakfast, and then go to the mosque and pray. Being male, I was "strongly encouraged" (yelled at until i submitted) to go to the mosque and pray with the men. So off I went with my two little brothers to the mosque (my host father didn't go because he had a burn on his leg from the family motorcycle...). A few minutes later, there I was, standing in a crowd of 300 or so Senegalese men (a few women were present as well), praying towards Mecca. I felt very awkward about the experience while it was going on, since I am obviously not of the same faith, and have never even attempted a true prayer. But once prayer was finished, tons of people came up and thanked me for coming and seemed to love the fact that the local toobab (white person) had made such an effort to integrate. Once we returned, I chatted with my family for a few hours until a massive lunch was served that was comprised of green beans, potatoes, and meat. It was by far one of the best meals I've had while in Tassete, and I ate until I was about to burst. Once full, we enjoyed tea (very tasty) and some soda. Later in the evening, we all took some pictures with my fellow volunteers and our respective families (see pictures). Finally, at around 11pm, we left to go to "la soiree de dance", which was a party for the young people. This event was widely the most anticipated by many of the villagers, and everyone was excited that we would be attending. The dance was on the whole extremely fun, and we all crashed at around 2am... only to be woken up by the Peace Corps van at 6:45am (nobody had told us when we would be going back to Thies, so this morning was quite a scramble). For now, I'm off to go enjoy the local bar with all the other volunteers (as well as normal food...hence a large pizza to myself). I may or may not be in contact when in Tivaouane, but I will update everyone on my progress at the next opportunity. Ba ci kanam!