3 more weeks of training!!!

I returned to Thies yesterday after a looong week of more language training. My language sky rocketed this week! I can have a conversation about anything now…its definitely not fluent but at least now I have a good grasp on the vocab and verb conjugations. The village was good last week but I am definitely happy to be back in the city. My sister Cuumbu is going back to school today. I am not very excited about that. She helps me with language more than anyone else. She is only 17 but I hang out with her a lot. EVERY girl my age is married and has about 3 kids we don’t really have much in common. I get questioned daily about why I don’t have a husband and children yet.
I finally have started be become more of a family member now instead of a guest. My sisters stopped cleaning my room and doing my laundry. It’s nice to finally have somewhat of a normal life. I will admit I miss them doing my laundry. Laundry takes hours and I can never get my clothes clean.
Today is the first day I have had to myself in a week. Most of the people from my stage went to Dakar for the day (the capital). I stayed back to get laundry done and chill for a day. It gets tiring living out of a bag and being on the go every day. After we get sworn in, I think things will slow down a lot. I will actually have a place I can unpack my clothes and call “home.” My hut in Dgiangle( my permanent village) is awesome too. Elizabeth is leaving tons of stuff there for me so I am hoping I will be able to just sort of move in and go.
This week we have a counterpart workshop. My counterparts from Dgiangle are coming for 4 days. I am unsure of what the counterpart workshop consists of but I am excited to spend more time with them to et to know them. I have only met them one time and I will be working with them for the next two years… if work goes as planned! I just found out we have to spend Wed, Thurs, and Fri night in our villages so our counterparts can stay in our rooms in the training center. We will be having class in the city but sleeping in the village. I think those days will be very tiring and long… it’s a lot of travelling just for sleep. My current village is about 40 minutes outside of Thies on a windy sand road. Hopefully the workshop goes well and it will be worth it.
It is finally starting to cool of…a little anyway. Two weeks ago it was 105 in the shade in my village. Now its about 95. Some days it gets hotter. I am still unsure of the weather pattern in Senegal but I think November, December, and January is “winter” here. I don’t think its fair to even use the word winter but you get my point. I have stopped sweating 24/7 and am getting used to the heat. I am reallllly looking forward to the cool weather that should be coming. The rainy season is slowly coming to an end. It has only rained twice this month and I won’t be surprised if we don’t get anymore until after the dry season.
I finally figured out how to upload photos…WOOHOOO. I am putting photos up at this very moment. I hope you all enjoy! I will be in the city for most of the week so I will be in touch very soon! Shout out to Angie and anyone else from HCH that tossed something into my package. I haven’t received it yet but the guard checks the mail on Mondays so hopefully this time tomorrow I will be eating goodies!!!!