CBT - Community Based Training

They said the first day of CBT would be the hardest and most awkward day in all of our 27 months in the PC.

On October 3rd I got dropped off in a Mandinka community in M'Bour, about 45 minutes from the training center. I was alone with my backpack, water filter, and the family I would spend the next 2 months living on and off with during training. I stayed with them for 7 nights and just got back to the PC training center.

Within 30 seconds of arriving I had used up all of my Mandinka I knew - I be heera to? Heera dorong. Kor tanante? Tanante. (How are you? Only peace. Is there any evil? No problems.) Roughly translated. I was then told my new name is Mariama Danso. Mariama is the Muslim name for the Virgin Mary and Danso is their family name.

We sat down in a circle outside and they proceeded to talk about me in Mandinka while I smiled and laughed. Then abruptly they all stood up and moved the mats and chairs inside. It had been about 100 degrees and clear skies but sure enough it started to rain 5 minutes later.

For the next 3 hours we proceeded to eat uncooked peanuts and drink Attaya (tea). Tea is a huge part of their culture and we spend the majority of everyday sitting in a circle and drinking tea. As is customary I brought them 10 boxes and tea and a large bag of sugar. They prepared the tea in a small tin teapot over hot coals.

We drank out of two shot glasses that got passed around the group. The tea was delicious and dark, with lots of sugar and mint from the little boy who had just popped in a traded his mint for some of our peanuts.

October 6th

I just kind of realized that as an Ag volunteer in Senegal I got myself into two years of hard manual labor in the sweltering heat...

But really, I am excited about the training garden Samantha, Adam, and I are building in M'Bour! I hope stuff grows :) It was a lot of work gathering all the materials we needed for the 1m cubed compost pile, vegetable nursery, and 3 1x3m garden beds. To amend the soil we needed charcoal, wood ash, and manure. To make the compost pile we needed to stack layers of nitrogen and carbon: for nitrogen we picked green leaves and grass and found horse manure, for carbon we searched for dry leaves and used peanut shells. So far it is looking good! When we go back to CBT in 2 days we will start planting...

October 8th

Every morning from about 9am to 12pm we we have Mandinka language class with our LCF (language and culture facilitator) Pape Sanou. I am happy to have Binta (Sam) and Bakarey (Adam) in my Mandinka group.

I hang out with my youngest siblings Baseko (4) and Mabintu (6) a lot. They are adorable and I love chilling with them. My sister Diarra is 17 and her husband Moussa in 31. They were with us the past week but left for Dakar today to attend the University. I am sad because I am not sure if I will get to see them again!

I get all of my water from my British Berkefeld water filter and then treat it with bleach. The first time I used it I had not screwed on the filter candles correctly and the unfiltered water leaked through. I then proceeded to serve Sam and Adam water from my filter. Luckily none of us got sick and hopefully it will just make our immune systems stronger!

It was definitely difficult and at times lonely spending a week with people that I cannot communicate with, but I totally see how impactful learning a language through this method is. I will spend 2 nights here at the center and then go back to CBT for 16 days! Right now the word I hear the most is "Domo, domo, domo" (eat!). My family loves to feed me and feeding guests well is something Senegalese take pride in.

Anyways, I am alive and well and still adjusting and trying to take everything in! Lots of love to friends and family.