Christmas in Kaolack

I spent Christmas this year in Kaolack along with 15 other volunteers. Another volunteer headed up the festivities for Christmas eve: many desserts, spiced cider, and a white elephant exchange. There were around 7 or 8 of us who decided to go to the Catholic vigil. So after the gift exchange, we headed out to the one church in town. In true Senegalese style, it started late with the traditional manger skit, along with some kind of skit about a rainbow. I'm not really sure--it was all in french. At the end when Jesus was born, they let loose a live white dove. That was pretty cool.
Friday morning, we made pancakes, bacon, and hot cocoa. Yummy! For lunch a couple of other volunteers made some tomato soup and grilled cheese, from scratch.
And then dinner. I made a five pound honey glazed baked ham, along with sweet corn, sauteed green beans, mashed potatos, and millet (corn) bread. Everyone said it was good-especially since we had pork twice in a day. Much smaller than Thanksgiving, too (and thus much easier to make the food).
I uploaded a few more pictures (from a long time ago) so click below and check them out. Also byron has many good pictures, so look at his too!

PST

chugging along

i'm still here! last week I went into Kaolack to do a radio show. Well really just introduce myself along with two others from my stage on air. Somehow we promised that in January we'd do the show ourselves, since the two who normally do it wouldn't be availiable (i.e. vacationing in the us). Bonne chances to us I suppose.
I haven't been doing much as of lately. Just learning some language, reading some books, and making attaaya (senegalese tea). There are about 10 or 12 high school guys who come over every afternoon now and for around two hours, talk and make tea in their customary elaborate ceremony.
Next week, I'm going to Kaolack againg for Christmas. Should be fun. We're making desserts and having a white elephant exchange Christmas eve. Then for the 25th making a gigantic dinner. yum.

More Pics

More pictur, slowly coming...

PST - training

a few pictures for now.

It's apparently incredibly difficult to put up pictures in this country, but here are a few. The turkey is one of the two we ate for thanksgiving. there is one from swear-in at the ambassador's house in dakar, then some from tabaski.

senegal

whats happening, qu'est-qui s'est passe?

if it's getting any colder in the usa (and all sources tell me it's true), I really can't tell here. The rains have stopped. I can tell that the baobab trees in my backyard are starting to lose their leaves. People are talking about Thanksgiving and Christmas, but it seems like mid-August. I'll have to get used to this I guess.
To my suprise, I received two big boxes of food from my dad; then another from my sister today. Made my day--no strike that, week. Everyone keeps asking what's ok to send so I'll address that. What makes a good care package? Anything really. Just don't send anything valuable, the postal service has been known in the past to check, (fortunately my boxes weren't opened this time). It costs similarly for me to send back to the us, but keep in mind that a dollar is worth a heck of a lot more here (I give about the equalivent to 2 bucks a day to my family for food). A stamp for a letter is 550 FCFA, you can look up the current exchange rate at xe.com, but it's about 500 per dollar. So what can you send? Anything that will last and not spoil for 2-3 weeks in transit. I suppose that reduces your options. Things like dried fruits, rasins, oatmeal/granola and cereals, nuts of all types (they have cashews and peanuts here, but they arent the same), along those lines PeanutButter (the stuff here is horrible, and I love some creamy PeterPan), any *hard* candy (it's hot here, things melt) (oh, and christmas is coming...candy canes!), dried meat such as jerky or canned tuna, drink mixes, and pens and paper. The last one may come as a suprise, but the paper here is weird and the pens rarely write well. Be sure to tape up any packages well, they are coming a long distance!
Today is my 100th day in country. Seems like a long time yet I'm only 1/8 done.
The wolof is coming along, tutti rekk.
Happy thanksgiving to everyone! We're going to try and fix thanksgiving dinner at the regional house in Kaolack. Then, maybe, I'll go the week after to the north to Ndioun for a Christmas party; Not sure yet.

starting 2 years in Guinguinéo

hello. i know that it's been a while. forgive me! it's difficult to get to a computer, but should be easier now that i live next to a cyber café in Guinguinéo.
it's cooling down a bit here, not sure the temp but it's cooler nonetheless. weather.com says it's 86 right now...ok that made me feel worse.
i realized that i forgot my cable for my camera, so hopefully i can find one in kaolack the next time i go there. i have some pictures of mboro and thies, and the beach south of dakar...but no way of getting them up right now. c'est la vie! speaking of français, my french is getting better. thats good i guess. i've been trying to learn wolof--by myself. that's proved to be difficult! little by little. mangiy jang wolof. (i'm learning wolof) that's pretty much what i've been doing alllll day. and reading a bit. there are two cousin boys living with us and sometimes we xiim attayah (make tea). every morning i eat my french style breakfast--bread-- and some warm sweet milk. that gives me an opportunity to talk to my host-dad, Pape DIOP. he's actually been to university and lived around the country, so that is awesome. he speaks english fairly well, so if i don't understand something in either french or wolof he'll try and tell me in english.
I'll be here until the end of February, at which time I'll go back to Thiès for IST (in service training).
All is well here. Take care everyone.

Guinguineo

I visited my permanent site this past week and it's awesome. I'm fairly central in the country in the Kaolack region. Guinguineo has about 30,000 people, but no one would guess it has that many. I feels much smaller than my hometown with a population of 6500. I have many options for work partners ranging from artisan groups, microfinance banks, a brand-new high school, a radio station, several boutiques and tailors, etc etc. Much that can be done. My new house is really nice with a lot of potential. I have a screened in porch, a *probably 15'x15' living room and likewise bedroom, and a bathroom. My host-dad, Pape Diop (though is called Pape Baye Fall or simply Baye Fall), is a butcher and spends a lot of his time grilling meat in his grill/stove. He has one wife who along with being a mom of three and house wife makes and sells soup. His mom also newly lives in the house too. There are three kids: Two girls, Ouly (4) and Soda (3); and one boy: Fallou (1). He is in the Baye Fall brotherhood/sect of Islam; and he doesn't pray 5x/day or fast during Ramadan (which works incredibly to my favor). He is super nice and fairly intelligent, so after I learn French better and Wolof I can have some nice conversations over the next two years without going crazy. All is well, save a day or two of not feeling up to par. Nothing major. I'm back in Thies right now until Saturday. Then it's back to Mboro for more language training for a while. Swearing in is in less than a month! I pick up my boubou (Google it. it's easier than explaining) from the tailor tomorrow (inchallah). It's silver bazin, and only cost 7000 (450 = 1 USD).

a week in

As things go in Senegal, (read:slowly) I can update only time to time. I've been in my home-stay village for the past week. It's a wonderful little city/large village about 5km from the ocean. It has sand everywhere and palm tres. The people are super nice, but always insist on wanting to make us learn wolof and not speak in french. My home-stay family is great and huge, thought it's awkward to interact because of the language problem. But we try and it's been going well. There is a 30 year old son Babarcar, and we bond well. I spend most of the day between class either sitting under a tree and trying to chit-chat or making amazing senegalese tea. We're back in Thies for a few days before another two weeks back in the village. All things are going well (Iinchallah).
Please, send me mail!
PCT Kenny Cox
Corps de la Paix
BP 299
Thies, Senegal
West Africa

I'm here

I arrived safely in Dakar and was greeted by the country director and some current PCVs. We took a nice (nap) bus ride to Thies where the Train Center compound is located. Our group of 50 trainees seem to be really great and motivated; and the staff with PC is amazing. They are very kind and patient. We've immediately begun cultural training (which senegalese culture is AMAZING). We were finally allowed to walk around with 3rd year PCVs outside the walls of our safe little compound yesterday. Thies is eye-opening. talk about extreme poverty. i've never seen anything like it before. hopefully i can get some pictures up, but the people are semi-offended by us taking pictures. they'll ask why we would want to take pictures, it's just their lives. but they are extremely friendly. We've been split up in language groups, and right now i'm learning french. though we've all picked up some Wolof. I travel up with my 4 person group and teacher to a village on the north western coast to live on-and-off for the next 9 weeks to train (traveling between there and Thies). It's a sweet beach resort town, so yea for that. I leave for there tomorrow evening for 10 days.
Asaalam aleikum

Logistics of Staging

I leave Indy on Tuesday (8/11/09) at 7am. US Air Flight #3302. I stage in D.C. and stay at the Washington Plaza Hotel. We fly out Wednesday night, non-stop to Dakar, Senegal on United Flight #4590 @ 5:40pm.