Anyone remember high school biology?

I’m sure that none of you were losing sleep after my last blog post mentioning my recent illness in country, but just in case you were intently waiting for an update, I just got the test result that I have amoebas. It’s funny how all I can think of is going back to high school and looking at the prepared iodine-soaked slides under a microscope of those little critters, and now they are alive and well, floating around in my intestinal track. A month ago, this may have freaked me out a bit. Now, it is a relatively normal occurrence that is quickly taken care of with Peace Corps’ readily available supply of medication. I swear I will dread the health care system upon my return to the states; I am spoiled here, medically speaking.

In other news, I get to go to the beach tomorrow! Every year, the new stage takes a day to put together a trip to a house on the coast as a chance to get away from the daily grind and relax a bit. I will be a much needed bought of repose, if you will. Pictures are forthcoming as well.

Finally, the fun part of this entry- counterpart workshop. I met one of my two counterparts, and his name is Ousman Sy (pronounced Usman See). He is a relatively short and mildly chubby quiet man, all unusual characteristics as Senegalese go. He also has only one wife and one kid, which is also pretty surprising given that Senegalese families tend to be around 10-20 people. He speaks French in addition to Wolof, which is quite lovely, as I was told that being in a village I would have very little chance to learn or practice French. This also means that he knows the difficulty of learning a new language and being able to pronounce it. His Wolof is pretty clear as well, so our conversations are less labored. We chatted a bit, and we agreed to be patient with each other while I learn the language and adjust to the culture.

Both of us are motivated to work and make some changes in the village, but from what I hear, the village is doing pretty damn well on its own. It has a few women’s gardening groups that meet regularly, good sources of water, large fields, many trees, and is set in a pretty beautiful location. I learned this from several sources including PCVs who have been in the area, my site information sheet and my counterpart himself. It looks to be a pretty good outlook for the next two years. Secondary projects may become a priority. However, it’s hard to really talk about my work when I have not even seen my village yet. We’ll come back to that, no worries.

For now, it’s onto more Wolof-ing and counterpart-ing. Let the good times roll.

~E