So, its been about a month since i've updated everyone on my crazy life over here. Once again, I went to Thies for another round of training, but feel no more comfortable with my skills as an "agro-forestry extension agent" (whatever that is). It was really strange to go back though, my life in Thies seems like a lifetime ago and living in a city is so much different for anything than i'm used to. It made me realize that i'm pretty much screwed when I go back to the states. For some reason (and feel free to hold this against me), I really miss sitting around cracking peanuts, drinking tea and god help me, eating millet! And in all honesty, i miss the Danza Bat most. :)
IST was as organized as you can expect a Senegalese training session to be. In other words, not at all. During our grafting session, our trainers decided not to show up. It was great considering it was the only real lesson we had during the whole 2 weeks. Needless to say, I was not impressed. But, one useful thing that we did do in training was seed collecting, but then we spent an entire day on opening up the seeds. It sucked a little bit. :( On the plus side, I did get to play with a machete. I bought one and completely intend on bringing it back to the states. For when Chris gets out of line of course. But the good news is, that my homestay ended up being in the city instead of out in the middle of nowhere with the family that made my first 2 months so enjoyable (insert sarcasm here). Its crazy the differences in city vs. rural life. We had a flat screen tv and ate salad, need i say more? I watched soap operas...IN COLOR! wow. just, wow. haha
After IST, hundreds of Peace Corps volunteers went up to Dakar for the aptly named softball tournament: WAIST (or should i say waste). An endless week of parties and slightly intoxicated softball was just another excuse for the Kaolack kids to show off just how great we are. With a costume theme like Braveheart, how could we go wrong? Kilts and constant mooning seemed to be just the key to winning the 3rd place trophy. That and maybe that my kilt was a "mini kilt." It may have distracted my batters. I have never met another team that heckles as much as we do. My catcher was even heckling me!!! In a good way though. She would constantly yell "Potato" at me, or the names of random family members from my village and sometimes random pulaar phrases that she knew. Haha! Imagine the other team's (and my own) confusion. For you all who are wondering, the "potato" part was from the two of us practicing in my village with a potato, since i forgot to bring a softball. African baseball at its finest. I've never gotten such weird looks from my villagers. But as far as the other teams, they had to deal with our drunk antics. Always putting "Mac" at the beginning of a word, our names, swear words at the other teams turned out to be hilarious. For example, MacKaolack was a constant chant along with MacSarah or my favorite was when I called the other team "MacSluts" hahahha! I'm still doing it actually. its a little hard to stop :/ I wonder if I can add it to pulaar words? MacKuudi. Bwahahaha!
Ill be putting up more pictures soon, but my camera was dead and I have no charger as I said before. So, I'm waiting for my friends to put theirs up so I can steal them. Be on the lookout. I had a blue lightening bolt painted onto my face all weekend and then it was the only place not sunburned. Haha! I hope to put up a picture of that! So be prepared. Its pretty attractive :) We also proceeded to dance around our trophy all night at the banquet, much to the dismay of the other teams. Oh well! Pole dancing with a trophy---classy! and very VERY awkward.
- our attempt at a pyramid fell down--
