English Camps

Let me begin by saying Dakar is great and i have had an amazing week thus far. I have been busy teaching English this week for the Embassy summer camps. Working for the summer camp has been a great experience. I have been paired up with 3 other volunteers to teach about 50 students all week. The schedule is relaxed and we can pretty much do whatever we want with the students. The whole point of the week is to get the kids practicing their English with native English speakers. We have played a lot of games, read a lot in English, had conversation hours, etc. The students are really great with the language and have really warmed up to us volunteers. Yesterday, we had a conversation hour and my group of 15 students started their own debate. The topic was Polygamy. They chose the topic and ran with it. I was shocked that the kids had such an interest in the subject. They had an opportuniy to ask me questions about how i feel about certain subjects and about American culture in general. I gave my opinions on some of the topics and i really think what i said gave the girls a lot of confidence and they were able to speak about how they feel without being shy. The conversation/ debate went great and i think the kids learned a lot from it. These kids have only been studying English for about two years but are very smart and have picked up a good amount of vocabulary already. I only have two more days with the kids and will be sad to leave. Friday we are having a talent show and a small party to celebrate the kids finishing the program. After class friday, the kids will no longer be part of the Embassy English program. It is only a two year program. I think they will be sad to leave too. It has been great to have had the opportunity to work with such bright and talented kids. I have seen improvements in just this week alone. Sometimes it gets discouraging teaching English in the village because i started from square one. It has been nice to see that with hard work, the kids really can/will/want to learn English.
I have spent the week here in Dakar concentrating on getting healthy. I am happy to say that i hve no ailments at the moment lol. I am starting to feel like an old lady. I was blessed with Creeping Eruption last week (google it...its sick!) I also had a root canal last week. I went to the dentist for a minor tooth ache and came out with a root canal. Apparently the dentist i saw in the states before coming to Peace Corps was a quack. The dentist removed two of the fillings i had put in last summer and did the root canal because he said i would have serious trouble in the future because of the way she put the fillings in incorrectly... who knows if this is true or not... maybe he just needed some business. Either way, PC pays so i did what i was told and showed up for my appts. Since i am ALWAYS getting sick here, i have decided to make some major lifestyle changes. I am going to stop eating with my family and start cooking for myself. I think my family has cleanliness issues. I have never once seen soap around our home anywhere and am starting to think that they dont even use it to wash the dishes. Let me describe what happens before we eat lunch.... (keep in mind that everyone eats out of the same giant bowl)

First... everyone is called to the bowl and we all sit on small little benches that are about 2 inches off the ground. The girls get benches, the boys squat. There is a small can of water passed around the bowl and each person puts both hands in the bowl to wash before the meal. There is no soap involved and they do not change the water. Everyone uses the same water. There are approximately 13 people eating out of the bowl at any given lunch. Also, dont forget that most villagers do not eat with a fork or spoon, the eat with their right hand only. After pasing the can around and washing, everyone digs in. Can you imagine what the water looks like after 13 villagers wash their hands in it?? It is definately BLACK. After the meal, each person finishes at their own pace and then goes back to the same can filled with dirty water to re-wash. Often, they use this water to wash their face as well after eating.
Let me back up and say that I always eat with a spoon and i never wash in this can. After almost a year of eating with people who do this, i am starting to realize that eating out of the same bowl after people that "wash" this way is making me sick all of the time. I always thought that i would be fine since i am not touching the water and i dont eat with my hand... WRONG. Little Ablaye has started sitting between my legs when he eats. We eat after each other all the time. I absolutely cannot continue to live this way. When i go back to the vilage next week, i am going to have a long talk with my family about using soap. I plan to buy atleast 10 bars of soap and some dish washing soap also. I hope this helps. The kids have been passing pink-eye back and forth for months now. I have gotten it three times already! No wonder this keeps happening. I already bought them soap and pink-eye medicine multiple times. Finally, i had to become psycho and start chasing people around with hand sanitizer everyday for a week...after that, the pink eye seemed to go away. It will be interesting to see if it has come back while i have been away.
It is easy to get sucked in to the way people live here. Many volunteers start to think crazy/disgusting behavior is normal. I want to start cooking for myself but i know it will totally offend my family and many people will be mad. At this point though, i have to start thinking about myself. If they are mad, so be it. I have earned my right to cook. It is so bizarre that something like cooking would make so many people angry... but i guarantee it will! Ill update on that later.
Other news... im a sucker and got conned out of about 50 dollars. Here is the story. I was walking down the street in Dakar a few nights ago at around 8 PM. I saw an Italian man speaking about a hundred miles and hour to a police officer. The police officer was just telling the man he couldnt help him and that he was sorry. The man sees a white girl and immediately approaches me. He told me (in English) that he had been traveling earlier in the day from Gambia heading up to Mauritania. He was on a bus and when he got off, someone snatched his bag. Totally believable. The man kept telling me he was desperate and needed help. He was pacing up and down the streets in this neighborhood because someone told him that an Italian family lived there. He told me he went to his embassy earlier in the day and they were issueing him a new temporary passport early the next morning. He had no money, no passport, no identity card, no phone. Red flag possibly.. but also Why would someone be talking to a police officer if they were phony??? He was dressed nice and i really thought i was going to see a grown man cry. He was freaking out because it was getting late and he had nowhere to stay for the night. He asked me if i lived in the area or if i knew people who did. I said no. He then proceeded to show me his receipt from Western Union. He told me that his family was sending him money the next morning but he didnt know what he would do for the time being. So i thought about it for a minute and realized i had to help the man out so i lent him the equivalent of 50 dollars. He told me he would meet me the next day in the same place i found him at 2 pm to repay me. He was very, very grateful. He took my phone number just in case and went on his way. I knew i gave him the money knowing that i was trusting a total stranger. 50 dollars here is a decent amount of money. It would have been enough for him to get a hotel, dinner, and breakfast the next day. I walked away without a doubt in my mind that he would come back and repay me. He knew i am a volunteer and also we talked about how we get paid basically nothing... Also, a friend was with me and she agreed that i did the right thing and he would come back the next day. I dont think i could have slept that night knowing that i left someone out on the streets. I am staying in a multi-million dollar home all week out of the kindness of someone else. (I stay with a lady that works for the US Embassy...she is awesome!) After class tuesday, i rushed downtown and waited in the same place i had met the man the night before.... and i waited... and i waited... and he never showed. I guess i am a sucker! I am soo angry that i was completely taken advantage of. Part of me wants to continue to believe the man and trust what he said,... he was robbed and had nothing...but why didnt he show up to repay me? Why didnt he call?? I cant imagine letting someone help me out if i were at an ultimate low point without following up on my end of the deal. I also cant imagine being a con man for a living. Wherever this man is, i hope he is sleeping well tonight. But someday he will get whats coming to him for being so deceitful! How rude!!! UGHH. i get angry even thinking about i now. Im letting it go and putting this in the back of my mind. I wont be lending anyone money for awhile.
Back to good news... I will be flying home on December 7th and staying until January 2nd.... I cant wait for a vacation!! I miss all of my famil and friends more than words can describe.

I will be going to Kolda next wek for Ag classes. I am leaving Dakar on Sunday and heading south. Its always sad to leave Dakar but the sooner i leave, the sooner i get to come back! Hope all is wll on your side of the pond. I heard about all of the storms... Its still barely raining here. I think the wells will dry up next spring. Send a few drops our way!