Life in these parts never fails to surprise

Ok so I've looked at my last entry and I realized maybe I was a little to harsh on the men here.   We went to Dakar to tour the PC office (and eat AMAZING food-seriously the fries were on the side, not  on the hamburger and we got ice cream) and on the way back one of the current PCVs came back with us.  I mentioned what I had noticed and some gossip that I heard about people we know having very young wives or more than one wife.  He said that its weird but you get over it because you realize that there are some really great men in this country, who are good leaders and good people and they have a ridiciously young wife or more than one.  That said I'm still not completely ok with marriage standards here but I may find it easier to adjust to them as time goes by.

I've been working really hard on my language skills and I proud to say I can ask a few questions with minimal gestures.  Questions such as this

Hoto dogn-daa? -where do you run?

Hodum namm-daa-What do you eat?

And I can answer a few questions too!!   With a complete sentences!!  The moments of epiphany are wonderful and reassuring. 

I am also very happy to report that I was the happy recipient of 4 very large packages two days ago.  It took me two trips to carry them and it cost me about 5 mille but it was  worth the ten american dollars when I opened them to find hand sanitizer, oatmeal, colored pencils, undies (washing by hand is hard on them), a book (yes Nick Sparks!) magazine, peanut butter galor and candy.  Thank you everyone!!  

Before that I also recieved cards and letters and I possibly feel more popular in Africa than I was in America.  Africa I guess makes me cooler :)

We had the trainee-trainer game last friday.  We walked to the stad and as we enter we see these beautiful green fields.  Let me tell you Thies itself is not very green, except around the training center.  These were nice fields.  And they were full.  

Not just full of everyday people but full of what the trainers called All Stars-people who had played professionally and now got together to fun.  

The point of this is that fields were full except for the one in pack which was not a field as much as a sandpit where weeds were growing.  Thats where we played.  

Beggars can't be choosers and I had been dying to play since I got to Senegal.  I played briefly a game of 3 v 3 a few days before but I was craving a real, intense, physical contact, potential for pain kind of game.  

I was sore the next day and even more the day after that but it was worth it.  First of all the trainers can play soccer and it turned out so do many of the trainees. Apparently Only one team has beaten the trainers ever and we tied them (which they were not happy about.  If they counted the goal we scored when we were offsides then we would have won.)

None of the female trainers played which made me kind of sad and a little more curious about the over all  athletic status of women in Senegal.  My host sister does Tawekondo (sp?) but I also consider my host family pretty progessive.  And I know women here are capable of engaging in sports because they are ripped.  I've seen more muscular women than I have seen of men.  I want to be this muscular and if I keep doing my  laundry there is a chance it could happen.  However ironing will be a bigger priority as one person in the stage got a case of mango flies on her bum and while all of us are sharing tons of personal information with each other and I don't want to have to get help pulling flies out of my skin.  This girl and her roommate have my respect for dealing with it so well.  If I had flies where the sun don't shine first I would cry, then I could laugh and then I'd call America to say "guess what happened today?"  Watch now I'm gonna get mango flies.   

I find myself laughing a lot. Mostly because absurd stuff just happens constantly and its my way of dealing with it.   Like now, I think I have bed bugs because I have itchy bites all over my body concentrated on my knees, elbows, and ankles.  I even have some on my toes next pretty much underneath the toenail.  

I had to cut my fingernails so it would be less satisfying to scratch.  

Ooh and I am so not sick any more, Alhoumdililah!

We had our counterpart workshops yesterday and today.  I met both my partners and they seem very nice and enthusastic about the work.  My mine one, who I think will either be my father or my brother in Kolda insisted on having every meal with him.  I got alot of language practice.  He said he was very excited to get a female volunteer which put on me on guard at first. 

I asked why and he said he had one female volunteer before but since then he has had two male volunteers, so he can have two of each.  I thought that was a pretty good answer.  Of course then I think he said the female volunteer married one of the villagers and took him back to America.  Not sure but I'm going to check that out and hope that I misheard him with my limited pulaar vocab because I do not want to be the volunteer who they expect to marry.  

Ohh and I found out my installation date.  Its freaky.  We have two weeks exactly then we swear in.  It has gone by so quickly and I feel like I've learned a lot but also learned nothing.  

I think I was able to post some pictures to the internet via Shutterfly.  If  any one knows a quicker and more available site to post pictures to please give me a shout out. 

Oh and kooi we should talk again-lets schedule something while I am in an area that has reseau.  The same goes for everyone else too!  Kolda is awesome but reception is not always a reality.   

I'll post the link later

Love to all!