Week One

For the record, Im writing my Christmas letters now... before Thanksgiving has even passed. But anyways...


Wow, I am completely exhausted. Last Sunday (the 1st), we met my host parents Lamine and Aida at the Village des Tourtues, where they both work. We went to the house, which is about a five minute walk down the road, dropped off my bags, and then I started work. I had my first day off yesterday. All the others had their first week off so that they could get to know their families and villages. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love working. I love the feeling of being completely spent at the end of the day because you know that you did everything you could have, of going to bed with that happy exhaustion. But I am pretty darn spent. So heres the intro.
Family:
Pap Lamine- Really, really nice. He knows a ton about turtles. He actually works for the NGO SOPCOM (and I know that’s the wrong acronym) that supports the turtle village. Hes also really into politics, is trying to start a reptile reserve near the Casamance region, and is also trying to start a library in a rural town (almost a la Room to Read).
Aida- Is interesting. I decided that the perfect way to describe her is a mix between Mrs. Weasley and the stepmother in Cinderella. Shes really nice to me and always makes me eat tons (as every Senegalise mother does). But she also gets jelous really easily, gossips about the people at work, and is a slight swindler/stingy person. Her French is also rougher which makes it hard.
Penda-18, really nice, speaks a bit of French.
Thomas, 11, and Abdoulaye,9, are adorable. They play soccer. We have fun playing games, but they wear me a out a bit. And their French is really rough so there is a ton of miscommunication.
Mouhammed- Is 1 years old. Is really adorable with huge eyelashes, but also the bain of my existence as a constant 7am wake up call. I also think he’s the reason I have woken up at exactly 3:30am every single day this past week, but that is just a guess. They also let him eat dinner once day without pants on. And let me say, when you eat from a giant bowl, and there naked boy bits (that he acknowledged fully) right up by the food, it is beyond unappetizing.
Penda- around my age, Aida’s sisters daughter that they helped raise. She cooks a lot and helps run Aida’s restaurant.
Awa-shes the maid/friend. Shes kind of a baller. Her and Penda speak zero French, so our communication is kind of funny. But its getting better.
We eat fish every lunch. Depressing my life.
Senegal has made breakfast my favorite meal of the day… because it doesn’t have oil in it. Also, I’ve taken to the English Black tea that Lamine got me for breakfast. Maybe because it tastes like England and the west, or maybe because it counters the chocolate paste that always goes on my bread.
So work. Heres a little recap from the first two days:
November 2nd: 2.5 hours of raking poo and leaves. 2.5 hours painting a sign. 1.2 hours helping to make things on the computer. It should be noted that everything I did this day, save the poo raking, was later nixed. They had told me they wanted something, but forgot about three essential elements for the computer documents. They then decided the sign, after I spend about four more hours on it, was not going to work because it caused to much discontent (it was promoting tipping the guides).
November 3rd: ½ hour handpicking baby turtle poo. There were 14 turtle sets mating. The turtles named Bill Clinton and Monica mated twice. I weighed and measured 53 baby turtles. Translated a tour for two Russians.
I also started with about three boses. So I would be getting a billion different sets of directions, and not know what in the world to do. Rachel and Babacar came to settle everything out, so its all good for the most part.
Okay, tons of experiences to share, but I’m so tired, and I want to try and sleep before I mysteriously wake up at 3:30 and then at 7. Promise I’ll get something up about the actual goings on though.
With Love,
Ananda
PS. It’s the day after I wrote this while I am putting this up. I just ate this fruit called a carasol and it’s a mix has the taste of a lemon with a little berry, and the consistency of a papaya. Actually pretty good.