I am here!! I only have a few minutes but I have a few fun things to tell you all
- We have Turkish Toilets here and the locals all call them douches. And when you flush the water (for the ones that do flush) the water squirts out at you at full speed, so it literally is a douche attack.
- The main language of the country, Wolof (pronounced Wool-off) is the shit and my favorite so far is the word for yes, which is "waaw" (pronounced "wow") and since were speaking in French and Wolof right now I can't stop saying "waaw oui waaw!" which to me is endlessly funny.
- I will be speaking a language called Mandinka (pronounced the way it sounds) and I'm stoked because a) the Mandinkas are known as the craziest and most fun people in the country which is nice b/c some of the local groups are re-donkulously conservative, b) I will be living literally in the jungle next to a wildlife preserve which is also the shit because most of the country is arid desert depressing-ness, c) there are 7 volunteers (including me) that are going to be in the south of Senegal and we're the most isolated of everyone so I've dubbed us "The Southerhood," d) Mandinka is the language spoken in The Gambia (the country that cuts right through Senegal) which is the shit too because my site will be directly below The Gambia which means that I can cut through the country HOLLA! So, I'll be learning Mandinka and Wolof fluently, and there's another language called Jahankhe (Ja-han-kahe) which is 80% similar to Mandinka so that's pretty ballin'.
- I will be speaking a language called Mandinka (pronounced the way it sounds) and I'm stoked because a) the Mandinkas are known as the craziest and most fun people in the country which is nice b/c some of the local groups are re-donkulously conservative, b) I will be living literally in the jungle next to a wildlife preserve which is also the shit because most of the country is arid desert depressing-ness, c) there are 7 volunteers (including me) that are going to be in the south of Senegal and we're the most isolated of everyone so I've dubbed us "The Southerhood," d) Mandinka is the language spoken in The Gambia (the country that cuts right through Senegal) which is the shit too because my site will be directly below The Gambia which means that I can cut through the country HOLLA! So, I'll be learning Mandinka and Wolof fluently, and there's another language called Jahankhe (Ja-han-kahe) which is 80% similar to Mandinka so that's pretty ballin'.
- On a serious note, PC Senegal is headlining some PC efforts which means that the stuff I will be doing no other Peace Corps country in the world will be doing... basically we're combining volunteers, as in me as a health volunteer will be trained with environment volunteers and we're all going to be doing the same things (almost - Environ. will plant a few more trees, I'll do a few more AIDs talks etc.), and we're taking lots of numbers and doing surveys and it's awesome because we're going to have a published document on all of our ish by the time I'm outtie. Senegal is beautiful, the people are the shit, the languages are hilarious (b/c they sound so cool!) and I will be living with hippos and flamingos so I expect to see you all by the end of April 2011.
