December 6th, 2012
As I pull up to my new village I feel a nervous current running through me. This is IT! The first day of my two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Maleme Niani, Senegal. I have successfully completed a grueling yet enjoyable two months of in-county training, now I'm on my own in a small village in Africa.
The hut they built for me is literally the size of a king-sized bed. There is not enough room for my double mattress-pad and the rest of my things which amount to two suitcases of stuff. We drop my things off in the hut and I try to keep an open-mind and role with the punches, as is always necessary in the Peace Corps.
We immediately head to the village center to meet with the elders and important people in the vil, and I'm feeling a little discouraged about my living situation. I put on a smile as I walk into the room and sit at the head of the table with 20 intent Senegalese staring at me, Oh shit, was I supposed to prepare a speech??
The women are clad in beautiful bright Senegalese dress and look to be the oldest women in the village. They all wear scarves covering their heads. The men look serious and are wearing their boubous.
Djitte introduces me before I have time to stumble on my words (Alhamdullilah/Thanks to Allah). Djitte is in charge of Agroforestry programming and came to my vil to help install me. Each person gives me a little welcome speech, and Djitte translates for me. Although their cadence sounds very rough and angry (like all Senegalese), the messages are friendly and welcoming and the villagers are eager to get started on projects!
As we head back to my house I decide to pull Djitte and my host father Souleyman aside and discuss my hut. I figure this will be my home for two full years and I might as well voice my concern right away. I ask them if I can move into one of the other huts on the compound. Djitte then calls Mboulle, the PC Safety & Security officer because everything goes through him...
Mboulle and my host father agree to the move. I am SO GLAD I spoke up. My new hut feels like a PALACE compared to the other one. I am all settled in and feel at home in my new hut.
Sunset from my family compound
My new host mother NeeNee reminds me a lot of my host mother during training; she is very large, warm, and has a wise and comforting tone to her voice even though she is only in her 30s. When it gets too hot she takes off her shirt and her giant breasts sag very low, her nipples the lowest point almost touching her belt line. Before dinner, my 1 year old sister Mane starts running naked around the compound with a Machete. I am mortified that she is going to trip and hurt herself, but my family notifies me that this happens all the time. Hey, T.I.A. (This is Africa).
My mom shows me her Senegalese ID card and I am surprised to learn that she was born in 1981! I believe that is around the time my real mom graduated from college (sorry mom!). NeeNee is only 9 years older than me and she already has 6 children. The oldest, Pape, is 15. That means she started having children when she was 16, common in Senegal.
NeeNee is my host father's first wife. In Senegal, a man may have up to 4 wives, so long as he can financially provide for all of them and their children. Souleyman recently married another woman named Isatu- she is very young, he thinks between 20 and 22 (many people don't know their ages here), and she does not live with us. My mom does not like her; who can blame her? It's safe to say I wouldn't be happy about my husband marrying another woman. My mom says this second wife is "mang beteyaa" (not good) and men should only have "musoo killing" (one wife). I agree. After talking to other Peace Corps volunteers, I hear that sometimes having many wives actually can work really well, because when families get larger it is really nice to be able to share the large workload of cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. I have been informed that a lot of volunteers moms are best friends! I will let you know how my family dynamic develops.
My mom NeeNee and lil sis Mane eating lunch
December 9th, 2012
My second night in village was definitely my most physically exhausting and painful night in the Peace Corps so far. I had been feeling pretty crappy all day, and shared a lunch bowl with 8 dirty children (the norm - both the feeling crappy and the lunch bowl). As dusk began to fall the gut-wrenching vomitting session commenced. I sat outside wrenching over a puke bucket until dawn. I literally did not get more than a 60 second break at any point to catch my breath and by hour three it was all dry heaves and stomach acid. The vomit erupted with such force and noise that I swear every person in the village could hear me! My neighbor and siblings came and checked on me. My host parents were so worried and wanted me to go to the hospital. They sat with me the entire night getting me water and squeezing a cool cloth on my neck. They spoke to the PC doctor on the phone, who informed them that the hospital would not help and I just need to wait it out (the hospital would probably give me a shot of large spectrum antibiotics, which they do for most anything - we aren't supposed to ever go there unless it is a life threatening emergency). Unfortunately, everyone in PC Senegal has to experience a few awful nights of adjusting - hopefully it never happens to that degree again!
My site mate Nicky and me with some of my siblings
December 15th, 2012
My first week was rough: from health issues to contant miscommunications. I think my friend Rene put it best, "What a mega weird week in our lives". Things are picking up and getting closer with my host family is really helping me feel more comfortable. My neighbor Fofana asked me what the differences between families in "Amerik" and Senegal are. To start, families in Senegal usually have between 10 - 40 children from the 1 - 4 wives. I told him that in Amerik, it is normal for couples to have 2 or 3 children, or even none. It was hard for him to understand because children play such a large role in helping the family run, and he asks, what do families in Amerik do when children die and they only have 1 or 2?
(Side note: On December 21 my 3 year old host cousin passed away. All they said was that he "wasn't well" and died in the hospital. It was very sad but the family seemed to keeping functioning the same. It is not uncommon for young children to not be healthy and pass away.)
December 20th, 2012
My second week was much better than my first, and I am starting to fall into a routine. I wake up around 7 and try to go on an hour long bike ride every morning. Dawn is beautiful, the sky is peachy-orange and it is not yet too warm to exercise (because it is the cold season). I ride along a dirt path into the bush, surrounded by only trees and silence. It is an hour of quiet I do not see again until I retreat to into my hut for bed. After my bike ride I usually stop at Fa Ndou's breakfast stand and get a bean and tapilapa (freshly baked village bread) sandwich, then head home to the Gory family compound.
I am continuing Nicky's latrine project she started about a year ago. PEPAM and USAID provide materials to build UN approved sanitary latrines and we coordinate finding the masons and families. So far 30 latrines have been built in Maleme Niani and last week we visited all of them surveying if they were working and being used properly. 73 people have signed up for the second round of latrines, and coordinating the building of those will be a big undertaking.
In January we will hold Maleme Niani Malaria Day at the middle school, and also hold a regional training on the uses of the Moringa tree, which has incredible health benefits. Before I head back to Thies for my 10-day intensive technical training in mid-Feb, I need to plant 50 trees in a tree nursery, collect as many seeds from local varieties as i can for the seed bank, and create a 15 minute powerpoint presentation on my potential projects. I am interested in starting a large-scale fruit tree orchard in which the people of Maleme could harvest and sell to supplement their incomes.
Living in a Muslim country has been really educational. A lot of the words we use everyday are actually in Arabic. Most people pray 5 times a day and work must always be scheduled around prayer times. Drinking alcohol is strictly forbidden, and there is none available in villages. Women are expected to keep their heads covered at all times, but this is largely changing in the bigger cities. As a foreigner, I am not expected to wear a head scarf, thankfully, that shit gets HOT! The mosques all have loud speakers that play prayers seemingly all day and night. I am regularly woken up at 4:30am by the mosque speakers, but thankfully my compound is not directly next to one.
I am getting pretty comfortable with Wolof, French, Mandinka, and Pulaar greetings, and Maleme is really a mix of all of those languages and cultures. My name here is Mariatou Gory and some people call me Ma-tou for short, which I think is cute.
There are so many animals in my daily life, but not the ones you would typically picture in Africa. I share my hut with at least 3 large rats and 4 giant lizards. They noisily chase each other across my walls each night. My first night I could not sleep at all and I kept sitting up with a start shining my flashlight on the wall trying to figure out what was rustling through my things. I'm hoping to get a cat to help me out with the rats, but Senegalese don't keep animals as pets, and are often very cruel to them. There are tons of wild cats and dogs running around though, and I might just adopt one! Hoards of donkeys, horses, goats, sheep, and chickens wander aimlessly though our home everyday. Apparently they returen to their owner's homes each night, but that has yet to be corroborated!
Donkey's hanging out in front of my hut
My bed
My toilet and shower
Potential space for a garden/orchard
Cool shot of some Maleme boys under a tree
Much love to all - so thankful for you guys and thank you so much to everyone for sending the letters and packages :)
Peace out, LO
