Bazouk Du Saloum Mar Lodj

... I still cannot get over the fact that they eat macaroni with potatoes and bread...it's like carb nation over here. So we stuffed ourselves full of this meal which was followed by laying around. They cooked every part of the animal; it was honestly digusting to watch. But these women are amazing; they cleaned and cooked the whole thing. Now I ascribe to the belief that men should take care of the meat but here that is certainly not ...

... br>
- Donkey races with small child drivers

- Eating every meal with your hands (right hand only, left hand reserved for other things, you can only guess)

- Liberal use of insults to any and everyone, people you don't know are not exempt from the insult hurling; they actually seem to be ...

... get people to come out and fix things. Additionally, this is the second time the pump has broken and I really don't want to have the Dept. of Defense people who paid for the pump, and paid for it to be fixed the first time it broke, to pay to fix it again. Obviously we have a sustainability issue here or the pump would not be having so many problems. More to come on this later once I have figured out how to reasonably solve the situation.
It ...

... line because honestly that seemed impossible. However, to our surprise, one of the local Senegalese was sprinting his way to the finish line after about 8mins, meaning that he ran about a 4min mile, which makes me hurt just thinking about it. Not long after, the rest of the runners started to filter in, including one of our own volunteers who came in with great time considering his competition. This was probably the highlight of the weekend for me since it was ...

... culturally appropriate for them to ask these questions but I have been told by some of the more polite people I have met that I was wrong. Like many Americans who do culturally inappropriate things, they choose to ignore proper etiquette and do it anyways. I now laugh anytime someone asks me for something, unless I like them and at which point I will usually give it to them. I have realized that my job isn’t to be a rule-ridden tight-wad, but that there are people in ...

... members of the community that came to say their first hellos to the new volunteer in town.  My second day on site my father left to attend the wedding of one of my brothers in Tamba, about 130 km away, and he was gone for a full 4 days. I was actually really angry when I found out he had left, number 1 without telling me, and number 2 because he was supposed to be helping my meet the village.  My dad is what they call my "community counterpart" who is essentially in ...

... fact they all speak wolof it can be rather frustrating. The teacher likes to waste time and they really dont do much in 4 hours which is really sad. Trying my best though and will no doubt find ways to teach them numbers, alphabet etc. Every afternoon and on Thursday and Friday mornigns as well, i am working at what is called a Darra. Basically a run down squat where a religious preacher has gathered together ...

... me one.  I ended up with a kitten that was probably too young to leave its mom but I guess you have to get them early here if you want a disease free animal. There are tons of cats here but people mostly throw sandals at them instead of keeping them as pets.  Despite this, Paco the cat (named after the tall and brooding star of Au Couer du Peche, our favorite Brazilian soap opera) is very popular. I even had an old lady offer to hold its milk dish for me while I fed it ...

... US, I eat lunch, talk some more about whatever is happening at the time, make tea, talk about why I can't cook senegalese food and don't want a senegalese husband, etc. The park staff was kind of disappointed that I know nothing about raising animals, which is the primary reason for the park's existence, so they've said the only thing they really want me to do is help them market the park to tourists better and teach them English.   All the ecotourism volunteers are planning ...

... whenever I seem to look particulary lost. Everyday I wake up around 730-8ish, eat my breakfast (usually a piece of bread with butter and instant coffee that is mostly made up of powdered milk and a ton of sugar; they love sugar), and go to school. Then I go home for lunch with my family which is always served in a big bowl and consists of rice usually with fish and cooked to death vegetables or some sort other meat sauce. I feel like ...