Happy Easter!

Greetings friends and fam!

There hasn't been much to write about this past week, because I've been bed ridden since we got back from our Kolda visit. :( Last Thursday when I met my new homestay family, I started feeling like death. We took a two hour car ride to the regional house Friday and met all the older volunteers who were hilarious and crazy, but all I wanted to do was sleep. They probably think I'm pretty boring unfortunately. Really I just had 103 degree temp and a stomach that was unforgiving. Not quite sure what it was from, possibly a parasite, yuck! Anyways, I laid around while the others went goodwill shopping for the ugliest outfits they could find, all in preparation for the dance party they were throwing later that night. This is my friend Costa cooking us dinner in his Aladdin lookalike outfit..

So bummed I missed out!! Regardless, it was great meeting everyone and touring my hang out spot for the next two years.

The doc put me on antibiotics so that knocked it out. Thankfully she advised me to stay behind and rest up at the center in Thies instead of going back to my village in Mbour. Feeling so much better since yesterday. Hooorayyy! Healthy just in time for Easter! My good friend Emily caught the bug as well, so us sickies were here to comfort each other. A couple others arrived back to the center a day early, so we all were able to celebrate Easter Sunday together! Sunday was also Emily's 24th birthday! So whatever activities we did that day had to be her choice :) We went out for a delicious brunch that morning, coffee, chocolate bread and egg and cheese sandwiches mostly. MMMm!

Afterward we walked around the market and shopped for pretty fabric. Its so cheap and easy to buy fabric, take it to the local tailor, and have a dress made!

When we got back to the center I busted out the Easter candy my mom sent me and we relaxed all day until it was dinner time. We decided on a nice French restaurant that was somewhat fancy but so worth it. Everything was amazing! Emily and I split a goat cheese cinnamon apple hors d'oeuvres served on toast, a greek salad, and macaroni and cheese. YEP. who knew I'd be eating like this in africa?

One of the older volunteers, Claire, hung out with us all night. She went all out for Em's birthday and made her a chocolate peanut cluster concoction that was incredible!

 Birthday candles and all!

So sweet! What a great Easter! Hope you all had a great holiday as well, dying eggs and eating delicious food! There's nothing as great as spending time with family though.

new address!

hello loves! here's my new address:

PCV Chelsea Moeller
B.P. 26
Kolda, Senegal
West Africa


Tuesday morning at about 5 am, we all hopped on a bus and drove 12 hours down south to see our new villages!Arriving Wednesday afternoon to the village of Dabo,  my friend Alana and I  toured our host volunteer Dave's site.

We stayed there until yesterday then headed back on the road about 15K to  my new home! The village is Mampatim (pronounced Mom-Paw-Team). Its so so so cute!! the main road literally divides the village in half, heavily populated right off the outskirts of the paved road. there's a long stretch of boutiques and fruit and veggie stands where the local women make their money.  Its so nice to walk 5 minutes out of my compound and stumble upon delicious bean sandwiches, coffee and fresh mangoes for breakfast!

Everyone is super friendly, and because I stick out like a sore thumb, they were quickly recognizing me as I walked back and forth to either side of town. I met my elementary and middle school counterparts who I'll be working with on most projects, but more importantly i met my new family!!

my mom is my namesake, Bambe (pronounced like the city Bombay). she is really sweet. fed me mangoes and papaya and peanuts all afternoon! My new last name is Balde! That's right, i now have the coolest alliteration name Bambe Balde! My dad is pretty much exactly like Yoda, a 70 year old wise chief dressed all in white and two missing front teeth. he's adorable! what's even more adorable are my little siblings!

my father said he had 12 daughters and 3 sons, but 5 of his children have passed away. Unfortunately thats not an uncommon thing here. to make my visit even crazier, my father also informed me that he has 45 cows! I saw about 15 of them hanging out by our well, and who knows where they keep the rest. we also have about 6 ducks, two donkeys and about 8 little piglets. i'm living on a farm!!

My hut's roof is still being constructed, but its going to be so sweet! probably will be the most decorated hut there is.

We headed  back on a two hour bumpy bus ride to the regional house in Kolda where all the local volunteers come to hang, relax and get away for a day or two. We'll be partying it up tomorrow night once all the others arrive! Can't wait to meet everyone!

Sunday night we'll be getting back to Thies then its off to Dakar for a day to tour the big city. Hopefully I can skype with some of you Sunday night!

Talk to ya then :)

My future site: Mampatim

TODAY WAS LIKE CHRISTMAS! All of us have been eagerly awaiting the news: the day we would be told about our homes for the next two years and all about the villagers we'll be helping! It was exciting the way the staff did it. Theres a map of Senegal painted on the basketball court here at the center. They blindfolded us and individually led us out to stand on the court where our villages would be!

 On 3, we all took our blindfolds off revealing our perminant locations and the volunteer friends we'll be seeing everyday!

Mampatim!!!!!!!!!!!! my new village in May!! woooo! I had a fairly good idea I'd be in the Kolda region since that's about the only area that speaks Fulakunda, but it was still exciting to learn about my specific village! Turns out its pretty large, about 3,080 people! If you can't find it on the map, its cool. I'll try my best to describe it! Since Senegal is kinda shaped like a pacman that's facing with its mouth to the east (its mouth being the Gambia river).

 I'll be south central of the Gambia. Mampatim is right off the main paved road (the red dot) that goes between the city of Kolda to Velingara.

 I'm the first volunteer the village has ever had, so I sure will have my hands full! My new host dad is the chief of the Mampatim, which will give me some legit props and security :) I'll have my own hut with grass roofing and a cement floor, including my own fenced off backyard for private bathroom and shower activites! I'll be visiting the village on Tuesday with my host volunteer Dave who lives 15K west of me in Dabo. There's about 8 other incredible volunteers relatively close, but my friend Cybal will be the closest, only 6K away!

Crazy thing is I'll now be 12 hours south of Thies. Whew! Long car ride to the center! Regardless, Kolda is supposedly lush and green and tropical and full of monkeys and mangos and bananas and waterfalls! Hells yeah!

Gots to pack up for the Mbour village stay again tomorrow. I'll be back to the center on Sunday! Love you!!

under the mango tree

Hello beautiful people!

Back in Thies after the longest stint of straight village time, 12 days in Mbour! After this, I’ll be back and forth every couple days from Thies to homestay family time. So where to even start on updates? First off, things are really really amazing! I’m loving it here. Every day with the host family was fun and enlightening, the children are my favorite! Every worry or frustration throughout the day is wiped away when the kids run to meet me with their hands in the air looking up with a sweet smile of hope on their faces. 

Its pretty awesome to learn new things from them and to see progression in the language day after day. Remembering back to the beginning of the month, how lost I felt the first few days to now being able to actually converse with locals, pick up on conversations they’re having with each other, and being able to joke around is so encouraging!

I’ve become really close with the volunteers in my village. They’re all ridiculously fun. Every chance we can to meet up and go to the market or sneak away to our rooms for snack and chit chatin is the highlight of my week.  

Almost every day consists of the same schedule. I'm woken up around 6 am to a variety of loud noises. The few hours of tossing and turning to the Muslim prayers over the mosque loud speaker mixed with the goats right outside my room (the loudest goat in the world) allows for me to drift in and out of sleep until 8 am. Finally I roll myself out of bed to the sweet smell of rice pudding or bread and butter for breakfast. Then off to language classes under the mango tree at Sharon's house. We have class for about 4 hours until lunch time then I hide in the shade to avoid the extreme heat of the afternoon.

Around 5:00 the volunteers meet back up at the local school to work on our gardening project. It’s coming along too!! Who knew you could actually grow anything in endless sand? After tending to the garden, we head back to our families and hang out until dinner which is around 9:00. In between, all I really do is study Fulakunda and practice conversations with my family members. Pretty exciting, I know ;)

Thankfully we were able to get away from the desert heat and escape to the beach twice!  We had a big group lunch outing for my friend Costa’s 25^th birthday last weekend.

We stumbled upon this little paradise restaurant that served delicious but really expensive French cuisine! I ordered a salad and pizza, some brews and lemon sorbet! It’s hilarious to me that speaking French is such a comfort compared to my broken Fulakunda skills. Never thought that would happen.

 The next weekend was our friend Katie’s birthday so we ventured back to the beachside for an even sweeter restaurant that provided us with a private room upstairs and a heavenly lookout to the ocean. I ordered a rum and mango drink, possibly the greatest thing I’ve ever tasted.

Those of us who were short on cash walked back to our friend Ian’s house for lunch. Rice and veggies (cebbujen) are the usual, but it’s great to taste different styles of cooking! Turns out he has a really beautiful homestay villa with electricity, mosaic tile flooring, a mango tree growing up through the middle, and an upstairs roof for some good chill time and a great view. Sooo jealous!

Arriving back in Thies, we celebrated the Senegalese Independence day by walking around downtown for some comforting American food!  Always wonderful to have a reason to blow our spending money on a nice meal with great friends I hadn’t seen in two weeks. We had some pretty hilarious stories to share with one another about all the mishaps of language confusion and cultural differences. At least I’m not alone in these perplexities. Barbeque pizza dinner is ready here at the center so I must go!  I’m in great health and great happiness but always thinking about you folks at home and always praying you’re healthy and happy as well! So so so grateful for those of you who want to send me care packages!! It’s so exciting to receive mail!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!

All my love from Africa,

chelsea