After six, what seemed to be long, weeks of training, I’ve
finally been assigned the village I will be living in for the next two years! It’s
located in the southeast region of Senegal called, Kedougou, and is claimed to
be the most beautiful region because of its lush vegetation and waterfalls. Now
before I go on about my village, I think it’s appropriate to give you a little
background on the situation at hand. Six weeks ago, all of us trainees were
interviewed and asked certain questions about our site preferences. I told
Peace Corps that I wanted to be placed in a town, with electricity, near many
volunteers, and I also did not want to open a new site but would rather start
at a site where a previous volunteer had already worked. Was I being overly
picky? Possibly, but these sites do exist, and I was told by previous
volunteers that it’s important to tell Peace Corps exactly what you want. So those were my preferences, and I
guess the key word in this case is “preferences.” I probably should have known better
because when applying to the Peace Corps I said that I “preferred” to go to
Asia and was instead sent to Africa. What made me think it might be different
this time around? I do not know.
Now I bet you’re wondering which one of my preferences were actually
met? Well…first of all I am in a large village. Not exactly a town, but a
larger village of about 2,000 people so I guess you can say it’s sort of a
town. Do I have electricity? If you consider the solar charger I brought with
me, then yes I guess you can say that I also kind of have electricity…so far
two for two. Am I near many volunteers? Define near and many. My closest
neighbor is 12 kilometers and then the next closest is 25 kilometers away from
me, besides them It would take a good hour and a half by bush taxi to get to
another volunteer and another half an hour to get to the regional capitol. Talking
to other volunteers though, it seems like 10 kilometers is fairly close. I
should just be lucky that a river won’t block the road to my village during
rainy season, which is the case for a couple volunteers. And lastly am I
replacing a current volunteer? This one is a definite no. I’m opening a new
site.
As
I am finishing up this last paragraph I get a text message from my training
manager saying, “The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible,
and achieves the impossible.” Ironic?
You can imagine the panic and fear that ran through me when
I found all of this out. We were given a packet that had all of this
information written on it, but luckily the next day we left for volunteer
visits so I could actually see my future village for myself. I stayed with the
volunteer who is my closest neighbor, and we biked about 12 kilometers to see
my village. Fortunately for me, I hadn’t ridden a bike since the Fourth of July
in 2006, so biking through the mountainous region of Senegal, although
beautiful, wasn’t exactly enjoyable. Upon arrival to my village, a man who
spoke a bit of little English greeted me and I was brought to the family compound
in which I would be living. I saw the beginnings of the hut being built for me,
complete with my own private latrine and thatch roof. Throughout the day I met with some of the more important
figures in the village like the headmaster at the elementary school, the
village chief, and also my namesake.
Speaking of which, I forgot to mention I will be given a new name when I
move into village, Musa Cisokho.
The entire volunteer visit was overwhelming and it took me a
few days to process all the emotions I was feeling. For one, I know my
experience was a bit jaded by the bike ride to and from village, lucky for me I
know that with a lot of biking comes nice legs. It is also a surreal feeling to
be sitting in a thatch roof hut, in a remote village, knowing that this place
will be your home for the next two years. Going into this whole process, I knew
the possibility of no electricity and distance from other volunteers was likely,
but actually seeing it is different. It has been nice to slowly get acquainted
to the Senegalese culture and ways of life. Living both at the training center
and at my home stay in M’Bour for the last month has proven to be very
beneficial. If you stuck me in my village my first week here, you can bet that
I would have already come home. For now, I am taking it day by day. I have
about three weeks left of training and I will definitely be taking advantage of
what city life has to offer…that being internet, beer, and chicken.
