My new home!

I just got back to Thies yesterday. I spent the last week in Diangle (pronounced JOG lay). I will be moving there next month for two years. My village is the bomb.com. I really think I am one of the luckiest volunteers here. I am taking over for a girl named Elizabeth. Elizabeth has everything all lined out for me and I think I will be able to start working fairly early in my service. The first 6 months at site are usually spent just trying to build relationships with people in the community and volunteers often try to start looking for projects that have potential in the area. Elizabeth has done a great job in the last two years and there are several projects already in progress that hopefully I will be able to finish. After spending a week with her, I am really excited to get to my village. The set up there is GREAT! I will have my own hut with a fenced in backyard. The hut is about 4 meters x 4 meters and the yard is about the same. The family seems very laid back. I have two moms…Binta and Amie. There are A LOT of kids in my family. There are 5 children under 5 years old and my mother Amie is pregnant now. I think she is due in January/Febuaryish…. There are several other children in the family as well. I definitely don’t remember all of them but I think there are about 12 kids. I am slightly disappointed about the healthcare situation in my family. My little brothers and sisters are in serious need of medical attention. I think they are very wormy and lacking vitamins in their diets. After I move to my site, my first goal is the get my family healthy. My father is very intelligent. His name is Jokel. He is a great gardener. I feel that most of my work in the village will not be Ag related because many of the people there are great gardeners. My village has so much potential in other areas though. The young girls in my village have to grow up very fast. Many of them are sexually active or even have babies. Many of the girls are in their teens. I really want to get a women’s group started for these girls. I think there is a need for discussions about healthcare for their babies, STD’s/ HIV and most importantly contraception. Since Senegal is predominately Muslim (meaning very conservative), many of the above topics are never discussed.
Elizabeth also chose my counterparts for me. I met them both and am very please. My female counterpart is a woman around 50 years old. Her name is Janaba. Elizabeth worked closely with her and said she is very determined to get things done. As soon as I met Janaba, I knew I liked her. She is also a great gardener. My male counterparts is a man about 35 yr old named Ebu. He is a great gardener and is very intelligent. Ebu speaks English!! WOOHOOO!!! Elizabeth uses Ebu for advice about everything. He seems very trustworthy and I think he will be great to work with. Most volunteers don’t have their counterparts yet and usually it is just someone kind of random that is appointed. I am so grateful that Elizabeth took the time to choose counterparts for me that seem like they know whats up.
Also, a big international highway goes right past my village….so travelling is very easy. I live about 2 miles out of Sokone which is a town that has basically everything I will need including a post office and restaurants and such. There is a big campsite about a 15 minute walk from my hut. The camp site is a place for tourists. It has little cabin type buildings that can be rented out. There is a restaurant/bar there and also a beach. It looks like a great getaway from the village. There are mangroves all around the campsite and the village. It is so gorgeous. Mangroves are beautiful trees that grow in water.
Im pretty excited about what is to come. ….
Soo… last week I thought I had scabies.I had bumps that started out on my feet and continued to move up my legs and continue up my stomach and arms. After a week of trying everything, I am convinced I am allergic to something here and I just don’t know what it is yet. I have sensitive skin anyway, but this sucks. I have been downing Benadryl which has helped tremendously; however, Benadryl nocks ne out. If anyone wants to send me a package with some non-drowsy Benadryl and some Flintstone vitamins for my brothers and sisters, I would greatly appreciate it!!
Some funny statistics you may want to know about….
Number of times I had to get out and push the taxi I was riding in: 1
Number of times I have been lost in a taxi and the driver didn’t speak French or any other language I have ever heard of: 1
Number of marriage proposals: 4
Number of times I have thrown up: ZERO!!
Number of people from my group that have gone back to the States: Zero!!
Number of mice I have seen at any one time at the regional house: 4 LARGe mice and 2 babies

Sorry i have not responded to emails lately. I will be online sunday and will write back to everyone. until then..... Boojaklakes (goodbye in Sereer)