Care packages

I would love a package! News is always appreciated, as is junk food or health food. Basically any American food would make my day, especially when I get to my site and choices are more limited. (I love dried fruit, trail mix, chocolate, peanut butter...) Books and other reading material would also be devoured, should you want to send it! THANKS!!! =)

Details...

Okay mom, this post is for you! My house in Thies is open to the courtyard, so you have to walk on a porch/patio to get to any other room. They have electricity but it is only used for lights and for the television. (I think there is one channel that shows lots of soap operas and sometimes the news from Senegal. I have also seen a few soccer games and wrestling matches.) The kitchen is a small building outside in the courtyard. They cook with a small portable gas stove. The main meal is lunch, which is usually rice with fish (or another type of meat) and vegetables, mainly potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and a few others. Different sauces change the entire meal. My family in Thies eats around the communal bowl with spoons, although this might just be because I am here. During demystification it was always with your right hand. Dinner is either leftover lunch or something similar but smaller. Breakfast is usually baguettes with butter and/or chocolate "mousse," although they have peanut butter (definitely not American PB) at the training center. The bathroom is also a separate building with a wall separating the toilet area from the bathing area. To get into details, the toilet is a Turkish toilet, so a porcelin hole in the ground. The bathing area is for bucket baths, but both areas are paved.

Mandinka is not a "click" language... Here are some phrases:
Greetings:
Asalaam malekum!
Malekum salaam!
Iba herra to?
Herra durun.
Kortanante?
Tanante.

Isaama - Good morning
I too dun? What is your name?
Ntoo mu Djeneba Diatta le ti. My name is Djeneba Diatta.

More later.... and yes, I know more!

I am here and I am well!

So much to write and not enough time. After arriving in Thies, we spent four days in demystification, shadowing a current volunteer. I was placed with Kate who lives in a small village of 1000 people in the Fouta, north east near the Senegal River and the Mauritanian border. It was HOT and DRY. And truthfully, it felt like the middle of nowhere, until meeting some of the people in the community. It definitely made me nervous and for a second I wondered what I had gotten myself into. But, it was reassuring that she had mastered the language in a year and was working on some interesting projects. I spent a day with her weighing babies in a nearby village across a small river. (Yes, we crossed by dugout canoe!) We are now back in Thies and just started our homestays. My family is very hospitable and has taken in many Peace Corps trainees in the past. There are lots of girls in the family and I am now named after one: Djenaba Diatta. (The Di/Dj is pronounced J.) There is a mango tree and a mandarin tree in the courtyard and I hope they will be ripe the next two months. I will be learning Mandinka, so I will probably be placed near the Gambian border (on the north) or between Tambacounda and Kedagou in the southeast. The bugs will be bigger than in the north, but perhaps there will be more vegetation!

I am happy and healthy, although it seems I have been here longer. I rarely get on the internet and it will probably get harder when I get to my site, but I would still love your emails, and ESPECIALLY your letters! (See address below!)

Packing for 2 years!

When I packed for college the first time, I could put everything I owned in my car, and come back the next weekend for other things, if I wanted. Going to Boston required a bit more selectivity, but I could still have my parents mail things left behind. Packing for two years in a place I've never been to, under conditions I'm not used to, proved to be a bit more challenging. Overshadowing the packing process is, of course, the greater question of, CAN I DO IT? Can I take what I have -- both the items that I have delicately and deliberately placed in my two bags and my experiences, beliefs, and goals -- and move to a new country, work on a project with which I have no real tangible experience, positively impact a community, AND be happy? Just typing that was exhausting! Yet despite my nervousness and anxiousness, I am very excited and will definitely get on that plane on Sunday.

For anyone interested, here's what I'm taking:

• 5 tank tops, 5 shirts (I'm planning on buying more clothes when I get there)


• 3 skirts, 3 khakis, 1 pair jeans


• 1 long-sleeved shirt, 1 sweatshirt, 1 light-weight sweater


• Sleepwear


• 2 swimsuits


• A hat and bandannas


• LOTS of underwear and bras


• Shoes: 2 pairs sandals (Chacos and old Rainbows that I finally broke-in), 1 pair running shoes, 1 pair nice shoes


• Transistor AM/FM radio, with light


• Set of portable non-stick pots


• Small set of Tupperware and 2 Nalgene bottles


• Lantern


• Flashlights (1 mag light, 1 solar, 1 beautiful headlamp)


• Duct tape


• Scissors


• Games: Uno, cards, Scrabble


• iPod with charger


• Digital Camera and Lomo (film)


• Flash drive


• Towel


• Fitted and flat sheet


• Pillow


• Photo album


• Several books


• Several journals, pens, envelopes, US stamps

Now that I type it out, my list isn't very exciting... I wonder what things I wish I had brought and what I wish I had left at home!

At this point, the only thing I can focus on is still packing, re-packing, doing the little things that need to be done before I leave, because it really is hard for me to believe I'll be LIVING in another country for 2 years. (It still seems like such a long time!) I still need to remember to call friends, too, but a part of me still doesn't believe I'm actually leaving...