first post from site

Blog Entry:

Hey lookie here! I’m updating my blog from site! My host family compound has solar paneling, and my host dad is patron enough to have a fixed line in the house, and he offered me to use it to get internet access once the AC/DC converter was up and running. Basically, I got sick of waiting and bought it myself as a gift for Tabaski and to provide myself with free electricity for the 2 years that I am here. It turns out the internet I get through the fixed line is quite cheap and faster than the internet in Kaolack since there are normally 10 or 11 computers trying to use internet at once in the regional house, so this is a pretty good option.

At any rate, I will be here for 2 more days, then I travel to Thies for our all-volunteer conference. We get two days of meetings about best-management practices in the field with volunteers from all over the country and a few from surrounding countries. Then, IST starts, and I have two more full weeks of sitting in class learning about agroforestry technologies. Ironically, I am actually super excited. It will be nice to see the rest of the stage again, be out of the village for a bit, eat training center food (it’s amazing the things you appreciate being in the village) and have a bit of fun. I also plan on visiting my homestay family and seeing how they’re doing, considering they’ve been calling me continuously since I left. It’s cute, but the fact that I haven’t really called them back on a regular basis makes me a bit of an asshole by Senegalese standards. There are a few times when I absolutely refuse to be part of Senegalese culture- calling everyone I know on a regular basis just to see if they’re doing ok is something I do not plan on doing.

I came to a realization though- being a PCV is strikingly like being an RA at site. Everyone is watching you all of the time, they see you as some form of authority figure but that does not necessarily mean they respect you, you are living “in a fishbowl,” you have to plan program and projects in your community, and you are responsible for presenting a good image all of the time to represent American culture. It’s also funny; I was remembering the weekly reports we used to have to fill out about our floors, and all of the questions still seem to apply: which new resident (villager) have you interacted with this week? What situations have you encountered and how have you followed up on them? What are you doing to keep yourself healthy and deal with stress? The list goes on. When all else fails and I am going crazy, I usually remember how in some ways, nothing has really changed. The sad part is, I used most of those comparisons during my interview for Peace Corps. I now realize why my recruiter decided I was a good candidate. Apparently, I said the right thing.

In terms of work, yesterday was actually somewhat successful! I sat down with my counterpart and two very motivated local farmers to decide what the overall needs of the community were and what types of projects they were interested in carrying out so that I can do the research for them while I am in Thies. I explained some of our training and offered some ideas, but it seems that people are particularly interested in “diversifying” types of fruit trees being planted, protecting fields, starting a bee-fodder project, fish farming in our little pond, and soil stabilization to prevent continued erosion. We’ll see how many of those projects get started or turn out to be successful, but now I feel like I’ve made connections and have a goal in life. It’s a pretty good feeling.

So I’ll check in again when I’ve made it safely to Thies. Remind me not to overuse my computer at site- I found myself looking through old pictures a lot in my hut halfway through writing this entry; I’m hoping that does not become an addiction. Homesickness is a painful thing sometimes, but I’ll leave it at that.

Love and miss you all!

~E