Mariama Jallo

Hello loved ones!
Monday afternoon we packed up our stuff and piled into various buses and safari cars eager to take us away to our new site locations. Leaving the Peace Corps center in Thies and venturing on an hour long ride through desert, it was quite a sight arriving in Mbour to meet our host families. One by one they dropped us off and with just a few Pulaar phrases under our belts, I cannot tell you how nervous we were.

When my stop came, I saw my new neene (mom) waiting for me outside with all her sweet little children! They were really friendly and excited to meet me. The mom offered me rice and saucy veggies after I settled into my room. Not quite sure what else was in it, but it tasted like sand had made its way in. Mmm crunchy! They named me Mariama, after the mother of the family. The second wife, Ruby, is really down to earth and pretty much just laughs at everything I do. You can't find Ruby and the mom without the two littlest ones swattled up and tied to her back. The one little girl, Adama, I'm especially attached to. She always wants me to hold her and she always comes into my room to play. The other night she fell asleep in my lap after dinner. Awww!

 Its hard to tell how many people are in the family exactly. Cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles all hang out together all the time, especially with the children always running around. I constantly am finding myself doing head counts once everyone is settled. My guess is 7 or 8 brothers and sisters.

The houses out in Mbour are made of concrete blocks. No roof and no floor, just sand. Honestly, it looks like I'm in Egypt with the architecture styles and Islamic influences. The door and windows are either just open cutouts in the concrete, squeeky tin, or sheets nailed to the walls for privacy.

Thankfully, its really beautiful outside and it doesn't start raining until June, in which case I'm not sure what they do without a roof. My shower consists of a bucket of water (from the well nearby) and a cup. My toliet? A hole in the ground :) Some houses have electricity, not mine. Thank God I brought a headlamp! I also have two nice chairs in my room and a bed! Not bad eh?

The hardest thing so far is the language barrier. Mainly its just been awkward silences and awkward laughing. However, my sign language and mime skills have peaked. I'm thankful for the father in my family. He's pretty cool and speaks french well.  When he gets home at night from his painting job, he teaches me Pulaar by using French to help me understand. I have Pulaar class every morning with the other volunteers in the area. Never thought I would be so excited to go to class everyday! Im really pushing to learn it because the better we can communicate with the locals, the more of an impact we can make!

On Wednesday we started on our vegetable gardens at the school. The kiddies kept running over to see what we were doing, then they'd play in the sand piles and make it difficult for us to work. They're cute, but when you're tired and sweaty from digging through sand in 95 degree heat, your patience starts to wear thin. Regardless, its nice to get out of the house and be active. Working on the garden projects makes me feel like I'm actually doing something here haha.

I'm kind of bummed I missed St. Patty's Day in the states! Obviously, there's no kind of celebration here, but you better believe I'm drinking green beer on Sunday when all the volunteers come back to the center! I wore a green skirt, but that's about all I was able to do. My mom's irish bread pudding sounds reallllllllly great right about now! Picturing her do the Irish jig all day has been making me smile. My language culture facilitator (LCF), Sammba, visited my house Thursday night and lent me his phone to call my mom. It helped so much to hear her voice!

Supposedly this first week is the hardest with being homesick and frustrations of language and adapting to the rural environment in general.

After I got off the phone with my mama, I ate dinner with the fam. Not such a good idea. Yep, food poisoning. Yuck! Puked all night and most of the day Friday. My host dad called the center and they came and brought me back to Thies a day early. I'm feeling better, resting up, and am finally able to hold down some fruit. I'm sure I'll be fine and feeling 100% by tomorrow. Lets hope so! On the brighter side, I have an awesome tan.

En burini han (see you soon)
Chelsea