(This is my last journal post unless you have any questions or anything you think I should talk about. Thanks for listening and commenting all along.)

I'm leaving Senegal Friday night and arriving at Chicago O'Hare International Airport at 9:02 a.m. on Saturday, May 6. Typing it, I hardly believe it.

I left Linguere on Friday, April, 27 in a nice SUV driven by some missionaries from Linguere who were coming to Dakar anyway. I sold my furniture and gave away a lot of my dishes, implements, and appliances, and had already sent back my bicycle and my refrigerator to the Peace Corps, who was nice enough to give them to me in the first place. I took with me 5 bags of varying size, from mammoth, impossible to lift suitcase to small backpack, and a cat, who refused to go in her basket since basket means vet and vet means shot and she hates shots, in an onion sack. My bags have already dwindled to 3 (a lot of my stuff was Peace Corps property I was returning and clothes that I'm donating to our bi-annual auction that raises money for our girls' scholarship) and soon will be 2, as I head to Thies this evening to say good bye to my host family and give them all of my little-kid stuff (stuffed animals that I've gotten in packages, art supplies, toys, a gameboy that I probably will no longer have time for, etc) since there are none in my house in Linguere.

I'm in Dakar to take care of all of the administrative details that need caring for, to purchase the necessary crate to put Nanaa in so that I can check her as baggage, to work out the papers I need for her, and to say goodbye to a few volunteer friends and a few friends from Linguere as well who are coming to see me off. Even as I write this, though, I know that I have not realized the finality of the situation; that I will never pass my friend's boutique again and get called to come have tea, that I will never again freak out when I hear someone's last name is Ndiaye because I can't wait to tell them that they like to eat beans, that I'll never lay in front of my fan in the middle of the day, accepting the hot air blowing at me not because it's comfortable but because it at least dries the sweat, that I'll never wake up to the feeling of desparation when my fan turns off as the electricity is cut, that I'll never sit down with good ole Khar Niang for a tasty dish of rice and fish. I could go on forever, with both things that I will miss and things that I won't, but it doesn't seem to sink in, no matter how much I think about it.

Of course these days with the internet, and especially now that there's internet in Linguere, keeping in touch is monumentally easier, and thus I can tell myself until I'm blue in the face that I'll keep in touch, that I'll write every week or every month, that I'll maintain my Wolof skills through frequent Skype conversations, but even if that is true, it's not the same. I feel like I'm losing Rokhaya Diop, (my Senegalese name); whoever that was and however different she was from Kari Browning, though, I don't know.

You know what I want? I want Meredith Grey (or some other tv narrator, for some reason, I don't know why *cough Meryl's collection of all the Grey's Anatomy shows on DVD and our marathon watching of them cough* she's the one who came to mind) to come on at the end of this episode of my life and tell me what to think about it. I want her to tell me what's important, what has changed, how I have changed, and I want it to give me closure and something to talk about in the job interviews that I've promised myself I'll be getting in the coming months. I know that that's not coming, and that closure will be a long process that perhaps never even comes to a close, but it sure would be nice to have some answer to the inevitable "So, how was Africa?" question that I'll be getting. You're going to have to come up with a more specific question if you're looking for any answer other than "hot," by the way.

But I know that I liked it here, I know that I made friends, learned things about myself and about the world, that I would recommend Peace Corps to anyone of any age who is interested in not just traveling but really LIVING another life, and that my personal relationships with people were what really defined my experience here. That the question isn't "what can I do to help?" but "what can we both learn from each other?" That no matter how poor or how uneducated, people are people, with feelings, thoughts, and ideas about their way of life that will always trump mine because it is their life. That I can experience and perhaps even understand a little of what their life is like, but that even if I stayed 10 years, we will always be different because at the end of the day, I have an American passport and can go back to the US whenever I want; that I will never have as much vested interest as them, because I can always leave. That I should ask before telling, or even assuming, because it's rare that I can see the whole picture, in the complicated layers of culture, history, and social context that blanket every situation, and not just in a foreign country but in my culture as well.

Most of all, I learned that I love Senegal, as I love my own country, taking it for better or worse. I love Senegalese people who were so welcoming to me and who didn't bat an eye when I showed up on their doorstep and said "hey, what's up, I'm just going to stay here for awhile and poke around in your community and see if I can't make it better, then I'm going to leave and you might not ever see me again, but can we be friends and can you teach me your language and have the patience to try to figure out what I'm trying to say;" they just said bisimilah and gave me a name that made me belong and taught me (or tried) to act like them. Of course sometimes there were misunderstandings, frustrations, and the occasional jerkface, but really I should marvel at how few there were.

So thank you, everyone, Senegalese and American, for supporting me through this, listening when I needed you to and telling me to get my act together when I needed that too, and please bear with me as I transition back. I realized yesterday that I have the really annoying habit of anytime people are talking about food that I think is tasty, which is pretty much any food that doesn't involve rice or fish, I repeat the name of the food then say "ooooh, i love that" or something along those lines. I also use Wolof phrases all the time and make clicking noises to say "I got it," "unkay" to express disgreement, "waawgoor" when I agree with you, and "ngok" when I should be saying "voila" or "there it is." I'm not trying to be cool, it's just habit, but in time I'll be back to being able to talk about food without sounding nostalgic and just saying "ok," "no I don't agree," "that's it" and the like. I also pick my nose and clean my fingernails in public. And I tell details about my bathroom trips, or about those times I didn't quite make it to the bathroom. But don't worry, it will fade with time. I don't necessarily want it to, but I know it will, and that's a part of me going back to the States, and that's ok.

So thanks again and I'll see you all on the other side of the Atlantic.

The problem with teaching in national languages in Africa is that many of the national languages are only spoken by a small percentage of the population of one country. When you develop learning materials in a certain language, you want to be able to sell enough to make your money back. Also, since Wolof was not a written language until it was "alphabetized" recently, there is little agreement on how you should write the words. Wolof seems like it would be a good choice for Senegal of course, but it would put the kids who speak Wolof in the home at a distinct advantage over the other kids, and would probably help to crowd out the other national languages even faster than it already is. That being said, of course some Wolof is spoken in the lowest classrooms, and I know there are some experimental schools where they teach in Wolof the first couple years and slowly phase into French.

So I've had a busy week. Last weekend, 6 (Senegalese) friends and I went to Kaolack to a religious pilgrimmage for a different Muslim brotherhood in Senegal, the Tijanes. There are many on that day, so it wasn't nearly as full of people as the Magal I wrote about a month ago. The thing is, they really just went to visit another friend, and I just went because I had nothing else to do, so we didn't actually go to the religious part of it, just hung out, but it was really fun.

On the way back, our car broke down about 20 km before Dahra, so the chauffeur called someone in Dahra who brought a car of equal size out and a rope that looked to be on its last legs, tied the broken down car to his car, and we towed it all the way to Dahra, going about 15 mph tops and hitting every single pothole along the way, since he couldn't do the normal swerving to miss potholes with a car precariously attached to his. It wasn't even funny to me. Just normal.

Then yesterday, April 4, was Senegal's independance day, from France in 1960. I was somewhat involved in the planning of the events, and so was pretty busy. The night before there was a torch bearing thing by the military through town, then the morning of there was a parade, and last night a big party for all the important people in Linguere, to which I wasn't technically invited, because I'm not important enough, but since I was on the committee got to go. I awkwardly danced to Senegalese music (really, it's impossible, I just don't get it) but had a lot of fun laughing at my friends who really can dance.

So I've been having a good time, which is the best way to end my stay of course. I have exactly 3 weeks left in Linguere. Time flies when you're sweating balls.

So since my last entry highlighted some aspects of children in Senegal, there is a lot left to say.

There are several different "levels" of childhood...

The first would be the child that gets to go to school. Education in Senegal is technically free, but parents have to afford nice clothes for their children, books, either to rent from the school or to buy (usually rent) and they also have to be able to afford to give up the labor they would otherwise be providing at home, especially in the case of girls.

Kids start school typically between the ages of 5 and 7. If they live in a town, they most likely have at least 50 students in their classroom. If a village, the class might be smaller, but the more remote the village, the more likely it is that the teachers will not be there all the time (teachers apply to be teachers at a central office in Dakar, who then assigns them out. They can state a preference, but they often don't get it) because they'll be in town taking care of something, or just generally avoiding work. To teach here in elementary school, you have to have passed middle school. To teach in middle school or high school, you have to have studied for at least two years the subject that you are teaching. Your pay depends on your level of education. You often go on strike, for various reasons. So the kids go to school, where the teacher teaches in French. Except these kids don't speak French, they speak Wolof or Pulaar or Sereer. So basically the first couple years, the kids learn French, because you can't learn Science in French if you don't speak French.

As they finish elementary school, they have to take a qualifying test to get into middle school. Many kids, especially girls, drop out at this level. About 50% of the students who take the test pass it. The remaining 50 repeat the year or give up. Once you've moved on to middle school, there's a lot more responsibility. You only have class 3-5 hours a day, so sometimes you have breaks during the middle of the day, or no school in the afternoon, or whatever. Middle school is 4 years long, and at the end you have to take another comprehensive test to get into high school. Most students drop out sometime during middle school, with girls at a higher percentage than boys, because middle school girls who get married (they're usually at least 16 if they went to school when they get married, and the girls are older than middle school in the US because there's a lot of repeating grades and they start later) quit school. I'm pretty sure if they're in high school, they're allowed to finish. But if you don't get a high enough average on your tests at the end of each year, you have to repeat a grade, meaning most students who start high school are 18-20. High school lasts 3 years. It's really hard, and not everyone who enters it comes out with the BAC, the French-school-system-based test at the end of high school, required for your diploma. But that's if you're lucky enough to go to school.

If not, and you're a boy, you can do a few things. Your family, especially if they're extremely poor, and (it seems) especially in the cases of Pulaar families, might send you off to study with a marabout, a religious leader who will teach them about Islam. Unfortunately, these marabouts usually have no source of income, and so the boys end up begging for money, rice, bread, etc for a big portion of the day. They often don't have shoes, and only one outfit. They're a constant presence in the stations where you go to get a car anywhere, and during lunch time go around to houses and beg for leftover food. They are called talibé (pronounced tal-ee-bay), which I'm pretty sure means "student" in Arabic, or perhaps "disciple." They're often far from their family's village, and I really have no idea how often they get to see their family. Otherwise, if you're not a talibé, you can become an apprentice (unpaid) to a carpenter, metal worker, general store owner, work in the fields, what have you.

If you don't go to school and you're a girl, which is a much higher probability, then you either leave the house to work in a better-off household as a maid, who will then pay your familyfor your services (at most $1/day, no weekends, breaks, except for important ceremonies) or you work in your own as a maid. You could also sell things along the side of the road, such as cold water, fried dough balls, or peanuts, but when you're not doing that, you're working in the home. Actually, in Wolof, the word for "young (unmarried) woman" also means "maid." This is no coincidence. You help with laundry (by hand), cooking, sweeping, if you don't have water in your compound, you haul water. You work your butt off until, as they say in Wolof, your parents literally "give" you to a man, at the age of 14, 16, 18, but God forbid it be 20 because by then you might as well be a spinster. This way when you get married, you continue to work your butt of, but this time you work for yourself, and have more girl babies and you get to tell them what to do. Eventually, once you've had lots of children, you get to become a "mère" (mother) and you don't have to do anything really but you do from time to time just to show everyone who's in charge.

The thing is about my last entry, it's always the kids who go to school, the privileged kids, who are the worst to us, the others are often much more quiet and complacent. So it's also those kids who go to school who are more confident, who are a lot more like American kids I guess. I mean, you know what it was like to be a kid and make fun of the kid who was different, or at least not be as nice to him/her, or put a magnifying glass over ants, or boil a frog. Kids do mean things, and here, sometimes we're the recipient of it because we stand out so much. Of course it's annoying as all get out, but when I type this up, I can't stay that mad. They don't start out with much. They're just kids, and some of them are lucky enough to "get to be" kids. And hopefully, with more schools, better teachers, and more money in education, more and more kids will get to be kids every year.

Ndeysan.

I came to Louga this morning. Meryl, Ted, and I had breakfast at the fabulous pastry cafe, then Ted continued on to Dakar and Meryl and I ran errands around Louga. (One of them was purchasing a sedative for my cat in the event that I decide to take her home so that she'll sleep on the plane and not claw her way out of whatever container i find for her...) Anyway, these two high school girls who were clearly very well off, wearing nice clothes and what not, were walking slightly ahead of us. They were looking at us very mischievously, and it was clear they were going to say something. They slowed down to let us pass, and the faceoff finally came in the form of "Donne moi cent francs," give me 100 francs (20 cents), but the girls knew they were being so stupid asking and actually started cracking up during it. I can't really convey how rude it was, but they knew they were being rude, and Meryl and I have had it with that, so we just didn't even respond, kept walking.

Then we stopped for a second to greet someone Meryl knew and the girls passed us again. Then we turned, following them, just in time to see the girl who had asked us trip and fall FLAT on her face. Normally, Kari in the States, even after they had insulted us, wouldn't laugh, because it looked painful and had to be embarrassing. But jaded, horrible, probably going you know where Kari tried to suppress her laughter but eventually had to give in to the convulsions of laughter and stop walking and bend over just to control them. I can't say I'm proud of myself, but I can say that we finally scored one in the constant kids trying to get the best of toubabs (pretty much all kids under the age of 18, especially when traveling in groups) vs. toubabs battle.

Kids - 84 (most often in the form of asking for money, saying really loud obnoxious things that i don't fully understand and cracking up when i walk by, saying "bonjour" and when i respond kindly with a "bonjour" even though that drives me nuts, they then say "donne moi cent francs" (again asking for money) or just continuously saying "BONJOUR" regardless of my response, and when my cat's lost telling me they killed it, etc)
Toubabs - 3 (the other times being the time Meryl hit the kid at the fair back in December 2005 and the time one threw a rock at me and I turned around and all his friends turned on him, pointed him out, so I made a step toward him and he ran like the wind, in total fear (being older than him automatically gives me the right to beat him) though that one was cancelled out of course by the fact that he did actually hit me with the rock)

I'm going to get to work on evening the score.

Hello all.

Just a quick announcement. I have decided, for many reasons, that when I come home in May for the wedding of the year that I will be staying, hopefully finding a job, and becoming self sufficient for the first time in my 23 years.

I want to thank everyone who has supported me throughout this endeavor, and say that this decision was very difficult to make but is the right one. Any questions, comments, concerns, you know where to go.

I'm still here for a month and a half, so any lingering questions you have about Senegal, feel free to ask. I'll try to keep a regular update of the goings on, but with all the stuff that accompanies trying to close up shop here, not sure how much time I'm going to have.

Is today!

It's the annual pilgrimmage to Touba, the capitol of the Mouride brotherhood of Islam, founded in Senegal. I just saw that you can actually look up Touba or Mouride on Wikipedia and get a better explanation that I could give you, so there's that. Wikipedia is amazing. However, there's a lot more in depth explanation on this website http://www.islamfortoday.com/senegal1.htm

Magal is a really big deal. For a lot of people, it's one of or the only time in the year that they leave their village or town. It's especially acceptable for people to ask for money to go to Magal, and people with means often pay other people's transport. Rachel and I biked to Dahra yesterday, and we were passed by more trucks/buses/cars than probably normally leave Linguere in a week, all headed to Touba, and all overly crowded with people. Even huge semi trucks with people in them. When we arrived in Linguere in a car (Rachel got a serious flat that we couldn't patch so we put our bikes on top of a car and rode back), our car was overrun with people trying to get a spot in it, and Rachel and I were in the back seat and couldn't get out because people had already filled the middle seat and refused to move even for a second for fear of losing it. It took about 5 minutes, some of me yelling in Wolof, and lots of swearing in English, but we finally got someone to scoot over so we could push his seat up and get out (we were in the very back seat of a four door station wagon)

I don't know exactly what goes on at the event; (I know there are often cholera outbreaks and fatal car accidents due to the overwhelming number of pilgrims who go and to Touba's lack of infrastructure to support all of them), but I know that it's a lot of religious chants and staying up all night and just dressing to the nines and seeing people from all over the country and even world. Which is pretty cool. Actually as I'm sitting here a friend of mine just arrived, and he seems excited and energized. He really wanted me to go with him, but I was too afraid of getting lost in a sea of people, so he told me he prayed for me. So I've got that going for me, which is nice.

If you're interested, this covers 10 of 15 candidates. If one candidate doesn't get over 50% of the vote the first time, he goes into a runoff with whoever got the second most votes, with all the other candidates choosing to support one or the other, effectively giving the candidate his votes from the first round.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6379847.stm

adsl has made it to my little corner of heaven, (linguere), making it all the more heavenly. of course, it's hot as balls in the cyber cafe, everyone else is watching videos, slowing down the connection, and there are three people to every computer, but what are you going to do.

i don't really know what to do with the internet now that i have it, so i'll leave it at that.

First things first, I've posted a lot of photos, you can go there from the link on the right. Most are from this past weekend at the West African Invitational Softball Tournament (WAIST) and the parties that colored our evenings.

Anyway, thought that one of my recent work projects was particularly indicative of how things work around here, so thought I'd give you the run down.

In September, I attended a meeting with all of the presidents of women's groups in Linguere (about 15 came, it was actually a meeting for a lot of things, I was just on the agenda). This meeting was to address the fact that I had been in town 10 months and had tried several different avenues for collaborating with them but had as yet not been asked to do anything. I typed up an informational sheet with all of my contact information and a brief summary of what I could help them with. I checked it with my supervisor for French errors (people don't typically write Wolof, so although I can read and write it with no problem, it actually is harder for people to read than French, and there's also no standard way to write anything, you just spell it like it sounds), and tried to print it off. His printer was out of ink. He sent me to the prefect's office, called him in advance to tell him to help me out. The computer there would not read my USB key. I went back to the high school, where I had typed everything up (during the school break they had an available computer lab) and paid to print it off there.

I showed up to the meeting at the appointed time, 5 pm. It didn't start until 7, which is also the time the sun was setting those days, so they had to stop the meeting right after it started to pray. The president of the resource center for all women's groups introduced me, and I explained what I do. In French, in Wolof, in many different ways. The president then rephrased everything, asking to make sure everyone understood. I then presented them with an idea for a computer training in basic Windows and Microsoft Word, one afternoon every week for 5 weeks, for $2 a person, so that we could pay for electricity. Everyone agreed that this was a fabulous idea. Very excited. I passed out my information, telling them to ask the members of their groups, then come to my office or call me with the number of people interested, so I could figure out how many trainings to run (we only had access to the lab until school started so it had to be simultaneous). One woman went ahead and signed herself up that night, telling me that she worked at the preschool and that they had just gotten a computer and she really wanted to know how to use it. I wanted to reiterate my points at the end of the meeting, but it ran so late that everyone was anxious to get out and they ran out before I could stop them.

I went home, feeling great about this new project.

Nobody else signed up. Not a single person.

So I went to the woman's house who had signed up and offered to come to the preschool and just teach her there. I stopped by to meet the director, only to find out that the preschool's electricity had been turned off until they paid their electricity bill, which was not in the foreseeable future. The woman I orginally talked to offered to stop by my house when it came back. This was in September.

When Brett was visiting in November, she came, and I was very impressed that she was dedicated enough to remember and to come by. Electricity was back. I stopped by there the next week, arranging to come every Wednesday and Thursday morning until everyone there knew what was up. I tried to turn on the computer to see what it had, but the one outlet in the room was really touchy and we struggled to get it to stay connected. Finally one person managed to balance it well enough, and I looked at the computer for about 2 minutes before someone stepped on the cord and it disconnected. But it was enough.

I came back on Wednesday and the cord was unplugged. We tried to get it plugged in for the longest time, but to no avail. The director assured me she would call an electrician that morning and it would be ready for the next day.

The next day I came back to find that the solution was to remove the plastic outlet cover, which had been preventing the plug from going in far enough. I have reason to doubt it was an electrician's solution.

I helped the one man who works there, who got to go first, even though he didn't speak French and I said that was a requirement. There just aren't many Wolof words for computers, since they came around long after French. Anyway, it was fine.

Then I went on vacation to the US of A.

I came back, and when I stopped in to check in, the man, Ameth, showed me that he now knows how to open and play mp3s and music videos, which is what he termed "using a computer." He wasn't too interested in working on Word.

I've helped three other women thus far and have a few to go, and still work to do with the ones who have started. The other challenges I have met include, but are not limited to:

Once I came and the mouse was gone. Someone had taken it home for their home computer. Had to wait for it to come back.

A couple of times, there has been no power.

Once the password was changed but nobody knew what to.

This is my favorite. They had lent the power strip to someone else because that person was having a naming ceremony at their house and needed it for the speakers, etc. They had been particularly irresponsible lately, so the director felt she needed to prove to me that they still wanted me to come around. They tried calling the house for the power strip, but after 15 minutes or so concluded that wasn't going to happen for some reason. She then gave a young man $2 to go buy a new one. He did. He came back. We couldn't get the cord to unravel, so he opened it up to investigate. The cord had melted together and was no longer good. He put it back together and took it back. He came back again with a new one. He plugged it in, and the little light wouldn't come on. We tried playing with the plug, but to no avail. Then we tried turning on the light switch (nobody turns on lights during the day, all rooms have enough natural light so you don't have to do that). The power had been cut. Perfect.

kbsenegal.shutterfly.com

Don't have many up yet, but it needs no password and is convenient, so you can look here from now on. Will hopefully upload lots more before weekend is over. Am loving the softball and friends. But I'm sore as can be and must rush to the fields so we can get beat. WOOT.

This has nothing to do with Senegal, but my friend Tori is going to shave her head to raise money for cancer research, and I think she'll look really funny, so if you've got an extra 5 bucks laying around, here you go...

http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/shavee_info.html?ShaveeID=1679

When I got back to Linguere, my aunt Kine and her five children were at my house, still there since Tabaski, which had been December 31. They stayed because they had to take care of the house because my host mother was in the hospital. I don't exactly know what was wrong with her; she has diabetes, something that sounds a lot like arthritis, and complains of chest pains a lot, but she's never been hospitalized before. She actually just came to Dakar with me to go to the hospital and get tests done that are not available in the hospital in Linguere. She's fine now, at least back to her old self, but she's just trying to figure out what's causing the chest pains.

Anyway, seeing the community's reaction to her being sick reminded me of home; people brought over food (I had 4 different lunches one day), everyone came to visit once she got home, and everywhere I went in town people were asking if my mother was alright. Of course I was constrained by the one possible response I can give to that question, since there is only one response for most formalities, and that is "she's doing better," so that was a little different.

Having 5 kids at the house simultaneously, all under the age of 12, was another experience. For the first time, people were entering my room without knocking, I had to use my elbows at the bowl to get my share of food, and I was hearing my name at all hours. The three year old, Amy, (pronouced ah-me) took a special liking to me and when she babbled, which was often, she would say my name every third or fourth word. Once though, I was coming home and all five children were sitting outside my house on the fallen log that sits there, and when I turned a corner and was in sight, they all started clapping and singing a song that you sing when people come home that is basically "ROKHAYA came home!" over and over again. Then they couldn't stand to wait any longer and all got up and took off in a run toward me, including the girl who was carrying the baby. It was basically that moment that you think of having and knowing that you've finally arrived in Peace Corps, that you are finally accepted and welcomed and everything, but then one of the girls asked me for my earrings before even giving me a hug, so she TOTALLY blew it. The truth is I'm still waiting for that part, where I think "I know I made the right decision" or "I really belong here." But I've stopped holding my breath.

Being around the kids all the time also made me think a lot more about what it's like to be a kid in Senegal, which I will write about very soon. Or perhaps just some time in the future.

My next big adventure is three days in Thies for my second year In-Service Training, followed by a weekend of softball and fun in the annual West African Invitational Softball Tournament. Then on February 25, we have presidential elections (Once every 7 years, although after this, each term will be 5 years). I'm not authorized to discuss Senegalese politics at all, but if you see any news articles on the election I would be interested, since all of my news outlets happen to be owned by the government...

All that fun packed into just 28 days you ask? I think I can handle it.

I've made it back to Dakar and must admit that it feels kind of nice to be back. Within two minutes of setting foot on Senegalese soil, someone asked me to give them something and also bugged me about where I learned Wolof, so really it feels like I never left.

I missed the weather above all else. Getting off the plane at 6am to greet a 70 degree (Dakar is cooler than Linguere since it's on the coast) morning was a treat. Also, the airport wasn't too crowded, and I only had to yell for 5 minutes until I negotiated the appropriate taxi price, so I'm feeling pretty good. It is weird to not speak English though. On some of my first days back in the States I would use French or Wolof at times when you don't really think about what you're saying...for example when I was walking away from the post office I said "merci" instead of "thanks," and so today I've been saying "excuse me" when I run into people instead of the French "pardon" or the Wolof nothing at all.

I also missed having a cell phone where people send me messages and call me. I felt so uncool hanging out with people who were constantly being validated by other people who were texting or calling, nobody wanted to talk to me about the random thing that just happened to them. It was hard enough getting used to not having instant messenger to come home to every night. Poor me.

I still miss my cat, and am hoping to make it back to Linguere soon so I pet her for hours on end.

I also missed having a sense of purpose...I had no job to go to, no important emails to send, no projects to worry about...I was accountable only to my mother while home. It was a strange feeling, I felt somewhat useless actually.

But it was a much needed break. It was great to see everyone I saw, you all know who you are, and I'm sorry if I didn't call you even though I said I would...I got a lot busier in the end than I was expecting and kept putting things off until it was too late. Highlights of the trip include my cousin Annie's visit to my house, seeing the extended family at Drew and Leigh Ann's wedding shower, a high school reunion of mammoth proportions at the Firehouse Pub, a night of fun and dancing for New Years with good friends, and the Hold Steady concert at the House of Blues in Chicago on my last night. Thanks to everyone who put aside time for me, I know yours is very valuable and I valued it highly.

Impressions: (All of this is just what struck me, not what I like or dislike about the US or Senegal, just things that I noticed that I never noticed before.) Cell phones are 100 times cooler than when I left, internet is faster, tv is clearer, I don't imagine it's cleaner there but it seemed like it after being here so long, people seemed busy, people spend a lot of money (not an accusation, just what I noticed), just have a lot of disposable income, even if you don't consider it disposable, such as your cell phone bill, it is...I was shocked by how many young people have good jobs...I know that's normal too but here young people rarely have jobs and if they do they're not in any position of authority, people there wear very casual clothes out in public, eat in restaurants, drive often, don't greet, (more than one greeting is bizarre, as in if i say how are you? and you say fine, good, great, whatever, we cut to the chase instead of me asking about your family, your job, the weather, etc), hand things to you with their left hand (i honestly flinched a couple times, but got used to it) and generally don't know the people who live around them all that well or at all.

So that's all I've got for right now. Happy 2007 to all of you...I remember very clearly telling people in Linguere that I would be leaving in Oct/Nov 2007 and them saying that was very far away and me feeling like it was a lifetime away, but now it feels manageable. Good luck in your studies, your job, or whatever else it is that you do. Please continue to keep in touch; I love letters just as much as ever.

Happy 2007 to you all! I'm about to pack up and leave the States for another 4 and a half months, until I come back in May for my brother's wedding.

I had to change the way I share my photos because I realized the websites were saving my credit card information, and I didn't want to share that with you all. From now on, I'll post a link when I add photos. If you'd like to see any photos that have already been posted, just ask and I'll post the link.

See you back in Senegal

Well, here I am with a countdown not of months or days but of hours until I head home. It's hard to believe I'm going, but it's even harder to believe how long I've been gone. I just looked at my Christmas entry from last year. I remember the internet cafe I wrote that in -- I actually remember which computer I sat at in the internet cafe where I wrote it. The year has definitely slipped by, and for that I am both grateful and sad.

I keep getting warned about how much my country has changed in my absence (how dare it) but as long as I've still got my family, friends, and BLTs, I think I'll manage.

Hope you all have a happy holiday season full of the people you love and the food you like to eat.

I just uploaded more photos to snapfish from Brett's visit, but he took the majority of the pictures so I'll upload those in 2ish weeks when I'm home (!!!) The pictures of my cat show her amazing climbing-curtain abilities.

There's also an album that Meryl shared with me from her photos...titled November 2006. The very last few are the only ones I was in, but the others are PCVs when they try to have a good time. The last few are from our delicious Thanksgiving in St Louis.

The Dec2006 album photos were taken at this huge international fair that Dakar held. Meryl, Rachel, and I went today and saw goods from all over Africa, and each region of Senegal also had its own room. It was really fun, felt like going to a mall.

I'll be leaving for the airport two weeks from now, arriving in the States on Dec 21. Even if I can't see you, I'd like to talk to you on the phone, so if you would like to call and don't have my home phone number, email me and I'll give it to you.

Stay warm! FYI - I'm comfortably wearing a long sleeved tshirt and a skirt, but only because it's night. The days get up in the 80s and 90s still, but the nights are amazing. This is the only time of year when weather here beats weather there. So of course it makes sense for me to go home...

Well, it's been quite the week making a tour of Senegal with Brett, gone quickly.

We went straight to Linguere once he got here, but the three days just weren't enough to greet everyone before we left for St Louis to share a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with some other volunteers. Still, it was enjoyable showing him my site and teaching him Wolof 101 so he could at least greet people. After that we went to an eco tourism volunteer's site which was beautiful - just have to wait for the photos, of which he took most.

After St Louis stopped off in Thies and visited and ate lunch with my host family for training, who were amazing as always. Back to Dakar and today visited Gorée Island before he left tonight.

All in all a great trip and I think he had a good, illness-free time. Traveling around sure wipes me out though, so back to the PC House to sleep before heading back to Linguere tomorrow.

3 and 1/2 weeks before heading home now, sure snuck up on me. Can't wait to see you all.
Hope you all had Happy Thanksgivings.

Mali? Did I go to Mali?

These are all of Caroline's pictures from her trip, we went around in Senegal then to Mali...if you don't remember those colorful entries, you can look around July 2006.

countdown to brett's arrival: 6 hours!!!

First, I uploaded pictures to snapfish. www.snapfish.com email is browning.kari@gmail.com, password is Senegal. It's the Nov 2006 folder. I think the captions explain themselves. Make sure you look at the ones of the cat eating the lizard in blown up form. Then know that she eats on average 4 of those a week.

Mrs. Kelley's new class of 7th graders (new as of August) have some questions for me, thought I'd answer here.

1. Why did you go over there? Did you pick Senegal yourself?

Why did I go? Tough question. I graduated from college in May 2005 and always wanted to spend a few years trying to do something to help people, and love to travel so wanted to do it in another country. Peace Corps takes care of everything for you...medical concerns, money, and visas, so it's a great way to go if you are interested in working in a less developed country for awhile and are very flexible about where you go.
I did not pick Senegal myself. Peace Corps lets you express a preference for a region of the world, and since I speak French, I thought that it would be easier for me to come to West Africa because it is the official language of most West African countries, because the French colonized Senegal and most countries in West Africa. It definitely did help, especially at the beginning, but I also have had to learn Wolof, one of the many languages spoken in Senegal, but which is also the dominant language of the Senegalese. There are many ethnic groups here, and they each speak their own language, but when a Pulaar person speaks to a Wolof, or a Sereer to a Wolof, or even a Sereer to a Pulaar, they will most likely use Wolof, because everyone speaks at least Wolof. So I'm lucky in that I can communicate with almost anyone.

2. Is it hard for you to accept how the people don't show emotion over the death of loved ones? Not really. Pretty much every thing is different here. People react to each other in very different ways than we do. For example, people yell at each other often when discussing something without being angry; people often send their children to live with other relatives in other towns and the kids will only come back to their mothers' home maybe once a year. They just treat each other differently, so I've kind of accepted that I don't value people the same way that they do. It was just very surprising coming to those realizations.

3. How can we help you help the people?
The best thing I can think of for right now is to just try to educate yourself about places other than America, and pay attention to what goes on in the world. If I think of more, I'll let you know.

4. Was it hard to leave your family and friends?
It was very hard to leave, and has been even harder than I expected not seeing them for over a year. But I'll be seeing them very very VERY soon, so I'm looking forward to that.

5. Have you ever been afraid over there?
A couple of times, yeah. Mostly in public transportation when the driver is driving too fast. Usually people yell at him to slow down though, so it's alright. And a few times walking around Thies, the city we trained in, before I really spoke Wolof and knew my way around. But not really anymore. I don't think I'm scared any more often here than I am in the States.

6. What kind of house do you live in?
To get to my house you have to go through a door that is set in a wall that surrounds all of the buildings in my compound. The compound is pretty much like a yard. In that compound, there are 6 buildings - 4 buildings with bedrooms, one building that houses the shower and toilet (hole in the ground) and one building that is used as the kitchen. I have a room in a building that has three rooms. However, each room has a door to the outside, and they are not connected in the interior. There is a covered porch area that is in front of all of the rooms. It's made of cement, my walls and my floor, and my roof is made of aluminum. Not exactly great when the sun beats down on it all day...it's actually hotter in my room at 7pm than it is at 2pm even though it's much hotter outside at 2, this is because all that heat from the day time sun gets attracted by the roof and heats up the room all day.

7. What kind of games do the kids play?
Soccer. During the school break, the streets, which are made of sand, are filled with young boys playing soccer. They usually don't have a real soccer ball, and they use rocks as goals, but they're really good. There is one board game that I've seen at a few houses that is very similar to Sorry. But for the most part, the kids don't play, especially the girls. They are very busy working in the house and running errands for whoever is older than them and sends them on one - kids here are sent to do anything...go get me a bucket of water, go to the store and buy my cigarettes (not kidding), bring me the matches, answer the phone, even when the parent or person slightly older is not doing anything and is closer to the thing they want. The kids do watch some tv, but there is only one channel.

8. How long did it take you to learn the language?
I'm still learning!!! Every day. But it took me about 6 months to get to the point where I could always get my point across, even though it took awhile, and I usually understood whatever was being said to me.

9. What kinds of animals have you seen?
Camels, monkeys, warthogs, alligators I have seen a few times.
Every day I see sheep, goats, chickens, donkeys, horses, cats, dogs.
There are a lot of cooler animals in Senegal, but I don't live where they do, unfortunately.

10. Are there any oases there?
I live just south of the Sahara desert in a region of Africa called the Sahel. It is not quite dry or sparsely populated enough to have oases, but it looks, especially during dry season, very much like desert.

11.What kind of food do you eat?
Every day for lunch I eat rice. Every single day. Sometimes there is fish in the rice, sometimes there is meat. There are usually vegetables. I am really lucky, most volunteers never see fish, meat, or vegetables, they just eat rice and peanut sauce. For dinner I usually have pasta and meat with lots of oil (oil is a sign of wealth here so they put waaaaaay too much on everything, fat is also a sign of wealth so all the women actually try to gain weight) or a dish that is kind of like oatmeal except that it is made with millet instead of oats. Millet is a grain kind of like corn that grows very well in Senegal, so it is in a lot of our dishes.

12. What is the religion like?
I'll have to write a separate entry about that question.

13. Did you ever get lost over there?
I've been lost in Dakar, but that's only because it's a huge city and I'm too cheap to pay for taxis and the streets are all diagonal and curved so it's not like a normal American city where every intersection is a right angle. I've never been lost otherwise. Luckily there are only a few paved roads out in the country, so there are only a few ways you can go (from Linguere there's only one) and the drivers always know the way. I'm not allowed to drive here, so I never have to worry about it.

14. Why did you join the peace corp?
Refer to question number 1.

15. What runs the country economically?
The biggest industries in Senegal are fishing, agriculture, phosphates and tourism. Our main agricultural products are peanuts, millet, beans, corn in the south, rice in the north by the Senegal River, and sugar also in the north. Tourists are usually European, and usually Francophones (French speakers), since it's so close to Europe. There are Peace Corps Volunteers working in Agriculture, trying to help people improve their farming techniques as well as distributing hybrid seeds which grow better, and also in eco-tourism, a branch of the tourism industry that entertains people while also preserving the environment.

16. Considering it has a seacoast, is there any fishing industry?
Refer to previous question...you guys are smart!!! One of the main problems though is that the waters are being overfished, so the fish that come from the rivers and from the coast are becoming smaller and smaller, because they're not given enough time to grow and to reproduce. The European Union has an agreement to Senegal for access to fishing rights along the coast in exchange for some development aid or something or other, so the well-financed boats that catch the best fish send the fish off to Europe for consumption there.

17. What is the per capita income of the people?
According to the CIA World Factbook, it is $1,800. This is a pretty high number for the region, but it is a bit distorted (skewed) by the fact that Dakar is very cosmopolitan and there are some people who make a lot of money there. But on average, they make $1,800 a year.

18, During dry season how do the people get water
There are wells in villages and Linguere luckily has a water tower. Because it rains so infrequently in Linguere even in the rainy season though, the water table, which is how far you have to dig into the ground before you can find water, is very low and therefore it takes a lot of electricity to pump it out of the ground. Sometimes during the dry season, the water company cannot afford to pay the electricity company, so there is no running water for a period of time. Usually those last half of a day, but they can be longer. Also, if the power goes out for extended periods of time, which it often does, the water company can't pump more water out, so the faucet stops working until the electricity comes back.

It was a delight to get your very insightful questions, and I hope if you have any more you will send them my way. Hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Stuart's question from awhile ago asking about Ramadan and why Muslims fast prompted me to ask my friend from University of Virginia, Reza, who is a Muslim, if he could explain the central beliefs of Islam for everyone. Granted, he is not a scholar of Islam or anything, but he knows a heck of a lot more about it than me. Plus Islam here is very influenced by the animist traditions that were practiced before Islam came here and are observed by a few people even today...sometime I'll try to explain that. Here's what Reza had to say.

so, islam has its central 5 pillars, the most important of all being belief in one god, and that prophet muhammad was his messenger. (the order of the next 4 is of no significance)

2. zakaat, the giving of alms to the poor- every one must pay charity tax (not non-muslims), which comes to 2.5% of your annual savings and certain assets like gold, land, livestock, etc. you dont pay on money you would use to support your household, etc. there are some people inpakistan who (as merchants) give 2.5% of their daily earnings to the poor. i suppose the main idea is just giving to the poor in accordance to your wealth, the 2.5% being a rough guideline. in any case, i feel that most people (at least in pakistan) give more than their required 2.5%.

3. performance of the hajj- the pilgrimage to mecca that muslims are asked to perform once in their lives, if they can afford it. it is not acceptable to go on hajj if it means not feeding your family, etc. the point of the trip is primarily to visit the kabah, the house of god. if im not mistaken, it was originally built by abraham (called ibrahim in arabic languages). initially, the pagan tribes of arabia used to use it to house their idol gods, and the prophet cleared it out and restored it to its original (dont have the word to put here, but i think you know what i mean)

4. prayer 5 times per day facing the direction of the kabah. the rememberance of god and contemplation about god, life, religion, right and wrong are very important in islam, which i believe is the point of regular prayer troughout the day- you are constantly thinking about god and your position in regards to him.

5. ramadan- the fasting is done to make people appreciate what they have, and to practice self control and abstinence from certain things. you are not only supposed to not eat or drink or smoke during your fast, but you are also supposed to refrain from violence, using foul language, losing your temper, having sex, etc. there are a couple of reasons. 1, it teaches you to practice self-resraint and control, and also makes you understand the many ways in which you are more fortunate than others: not being able to eat and drink makes you appreciate the fact that you can afford to eat as much as you want. not being able to show your temper and fight etc makes you appreciate the fact that perhaps you can do that and not fear the consequences whereas a less strong or powerful person may not be able to afford to do so. there are certain other rules regarding fasting- you are forbidden to fast if you are sick. god wants you to appreciate hardships, but not kill yourself. if you miss fasts you can either make them up later, or give additional alms to the poor, usually by feeding somebody poor for the day that you missed. if a woman is menstruating, she is exempt from fasting. the general rules are that if you bleed (as in are wounded or have your period), or if you vomit (are sick), your fast is broken adn you do not continue until you have recovered. as for why its a month, i guess its long enough to make you really feel the lack of all these things. it definately is quite a test..:-p

So there that is. Thanks to Reza. If anyone has more questions, I can ask him or ask people here. ¨Peace.