Asalamalekum, everyone

So I will officially be speaking Wolof the next 2 years! I'm actually super excited about that, the language is the most commonly spoken throughout the county, so I will be able to travel around Senegal and understand a lot more people wherever I go.

We actually started language classes today too. I learned how to greet people, ask what their name and job is, and say goodbye. It's pretty overwhelming because the language doesn't sound like anything you've ever heard. However, I think it'll be pretty fast to pick up once I get the hang of it and figure out the basic grammatical structure because verbs are not conjugated (though pronouns are, which is a bit awkward) and there are only three tenses. During class, our teacher made us go out in the middle of a lesson and talk to some of the Wolof-speaking staff members around us and ask them the questions that we had just learned. Between our horrible accents and barely remembering what to say, it was a bit of a mess. I can't imagine what tomorrow will be like.

So you know, tomorrow we are moving to our homestays for the first time. This means that we are placed with a random family that speaks our target language, and we have to wander around trying to figure out who people are and what is going on in a household where nobody speaks a word of English. Hopefully one or two people will speak some French so that we can meet halfway and they can help translate stuff occasionally. For the most part, however, it will be a major culture shock.

Logistics- I will have my own room and a key to that room, but I will share the bathroom, or hole in the ground, with the rest of the family. I don't know how many people I will be living with or at what level of development they are, but I suppose we'll see. One thing I do know, all of the families are extremely excited to meet us, and they are instructed to treat us as members of their own family and help us to learn the language and culture, understanding that we will all make mistakes and act like 3 year olds because we don't know any better.

One thing I can tell you, I will do my best to take pictures of everything going on in my life and get them uploaded when I get back to the training center on Sunday. I'll even get some posted for you tonight if possible!!

Love you all,

Emily