Mailing Information

Alright everyone I have a permanent mailing address for the next 2 years.  Here is a disclaimer about sending things.  I have been told that things sometimes do not find there way from the states to Linguere or Senegal, but please don't let that deter you from sending your packaged love. 

 PCV Justin Feeman

B.P. 79

Linguere, Louga Region
Senegal

Here are some recommendations:

• It is a good idea to line the package with aluminum foil to deter rodents if the packages have to sit and there are tasty treats inside
• If you put any valuable things in a package like electronics you should not necessarily hide them but not make them too obvious.

I have heard that things take about a month to get here from the states and that the shipping is expensive.  Here are some things that I think our house and I would appreciate if you would like to be charitable.

• Coffee
• Hot Sauce
• Cool Vegetable Seeds
• Non Perishable American Food
• This I might be updated as my cravings become more developed
• Spices

I want to thank everyone in advance.  

Second Half of PST. Sorry it is Long!

Well, I will try to catch everyone up and I will hope that this will post in its entirety.

On Wednesday, the 26th of November I celebrated completing the 10 week training and officially became a Peace Corps Volunteer.  Here is the story of the second half of our pre-service training.

I returned from my volunteer visit to Linguere with enthusiasm to learn my language, purpose, and a desire to want to live the Djolof life for the next two years.  My visit was fulfilling and relaxing and I enjoyed hearing of the stories of others about their experience; which varied greatly from wonderful to boring to disappointing to embarrassing to full of parasites and sickness.  When we returned we had a few more days at the training center in Thies doing government powerpoints and technical training before heading back to our Community Based Training (CBT) families.  There was a large shift in many of us during the 4 days or so back at the center.  We were all motivated to go back to CBT either because we were embarrassed by our language inadequacy at site or motivated to be the very best we could be or because some of us formed such tight bonds with their CBT families over just a few weeks that they were much more comfortable there only understanding a quarter of what was being said than to be with 55 people from the states that they could communicate fine with but didn't have the same bonds with.  Personally, I was motivated to learn more and I was ready for things to slow down.
I returned to CBT with the most focus I had had since being in Senegal.  I wrote every Pulaar verb I knew in a fresh notebook and worked to conjugate them in as many tenses as I could, I created flash cards of those verbs and technical vocabulary, and I worked hard to seek out conversation where I could speak more Pulaar.
I arrived about 11AM in the morning on my first day back at CBT.  I greeted my family and put my bags in my room and came out to talk more with my CBT father Thierno about my trip to Linguere.  He listened to me and then quickly told me that my uncle, Sidy, was being married that afternoon and that I would not be able to go to school.  Due to my lack of language, I called Oumar, my language teacher, who confirmed what I had thought I had heard and then invited them to come and join me.  I left to go unpack and get settled in and in the short time that it took to unpack two backpacks of clothes my house had begun to fill up with relatives from Dakar and Thies and Nguekhokh who all spoke fast whether it was in Pulaar or Wolof; I couldn't tell you at the time which one it was but I can say that it was not English and it was not slow.  I was greeted by almost everyone and I introduced myself and then I made simple sentences once explained what the questions were of me and I stared at people and laughed at myself.  I sat with my family, my huge family, for about 4 hours until my Dad told me to take a shower and put on my nice clothes.  I obliged and once out was quickly put into a car with 4 other men and driven across town.  We stopped and went into a small compound, greeted everyone, and then were guided out and a couple of blocks down the street.  My Dad looked at me and told me to take a seat while the men prayed.  I sat down in front of a concrete building and soon cars came driving up and groups of men started walking down the road and kids came around and started playing football; and I sat in front of a small mosque and greeted all of the men that entered like I was the greeter at the church.  This was the wedding.  The men met and discussed and prayed and they gave gifts and the women brought juice and bignets for the guests and they prayed again and I sat ,not quite knowing if I was supposed to do anything, so I sat as good as I could and I greeted everyone that came by with smiles but probably a bit of surprise behind both of our smiles.  Once everything had concluded, I was once again put in a car to another unknown location where I was given a chair and sat in a large circle with all of the men that I had been greeting, later I found out that it was the house of the bride.  Again all was begun with a prayer, and then many men went around to speak finishing with the father of the bride giving a long talk to my Dad, because my uncle Sidy's father was deceased, in Wolof, I didn't understand the words but seemed to be praise and appreciation for our family.  I have to say that I was quite proud to be sitting there with this prestigious man talking to us with great respect.  After a while we ended with prayer and I was once again loaded into a vehicle to go home.  I was looking forward to the ability to settle in and rest a bit before I was bombarded with more unknown, but my house was still full of family and we were joined all the men from the bride's house.  Here there were speeches and prayers and greetings again and then as a storm in Tennessee it went from chaos to calm.  All that remained was a small group of men from my family who sat around on the road with just a cool breeze and a civil conversation at a decent speed.  I was happy to be able to hear Pulaar and sit relaxed but I was tired.  I asked my Dad if I could go and take a shower and change clothes, but my night wasn't even close to being over.  He informed me that there was going to be a dinner soon and that I would attend and then I could be relax.  So we sat for a while and then a little bit more and then we loaded up into a car and went to a remote house I had never been to and we sat some more and the other men drank coffee and we continued to sit.  At about 11PM headlights started to pop up over the concrete wall and people started to enter and introductions became more frequent and then a group of women with bowls of food and then we were called to eat.  We sat down around a bowl on the floor of couscous and sheep and we stuffed ourselves until we could barely stand and then we went home.  It wasn't my first Senegalese wedding, but it was my first real sight of the workings of one.  I saw my uncle Sidy the next day.  We greeted and then he put all of his things and that of his wife in a taxi that headed for Dakar.  After that my CBT stay slowed down significantly.

2 weeks at CBT came and went quickly.  I celebrated the Islamic New Year with our extended family and I had really nice ups were I was happy and learning and thought I was doing well and I had some real disappointing times when I was frustrated with myself and others and tired and isolated.  With the help of my Language teacher Oumar and talking with my friends and just letting some things go I survived with my sanity mostly intact and headed back to Thies on a large white bus with 25 other volunteers ready to go and drink a beer and worried about evaluations that would occur until we finished our training.  Thies was a similar site as it had been.  We had exams about security and agriculture and health and composure, and we gave presentations in English and Pulaar about agriculture and cultural misunderstanding and about desertification and about school gardens.  Then, we headed back to CBT to prepare for our final Language proficiency interview (LPI), where trainees struggle the most and stress the most and sometimes sends people home before being a volunteer.  My final day at CBT I was given my own plate of food for dinner with my own fish and my own carrot and my own cabbage. I assumed others would join but only my grandmother sat next to me in order to pull the meat from the fish and throw it in front of me, I felt like a king, a very fat king.  I was fed another large meal the next day for breakfast and then my dad and I walked down the road with my things to say final goodbyes and go catch the bus.  Once we picked up Oumar and Alicia we headed to the road with 8 children and three adults escorting us and carrying our things.  The site was memorable.

 The day of the LPI the center was full of people pacing around awaiting their turn to talk for 20 minutes answering and asking questions in ways that proved that they had sufficient understanding of their language that they could survive and build.  There was anxiety everywhere.  My LPI was stressful and hard, but it was one of the best conversations I had had in Pulaar to date.  I left with a good feeling and then awaited the 5 other Pulaar du Nords that I had become close with and understood the same struggles as myself.  There was universal unknown following and nerves were high across the board, but we were able to relax the rest of the day while our language instructors met to discuss our ability to work for two years, that afternoon my friend and language instructor Oumar informed me that all of us had passed.  To say the least we were all very relieved.  Not all were so fortunate as the 6 of us.
With nothing else in our way we all gathered in a beautiful building in Thies with the US ambassador and all the political figures of Thies and all of the staff from Peace Corps Senegal in Dakar to make it official.  Most of us were dressed in outfits that had been custom tailored for the event and made of fabric that ranged from tie dye to peacocks, I wore my same old comci that I had always worn which the Senegalese love but makes me look like I am going to bed.  We piled in tight with members from our CBT family and everyone in our group, listened to presentations in French for over an hour and then presentations from 4 brave souls from our group in their new language, and then we stood and raised our right hands and pledged to serve the best that we could to help the development of Senegal without any desire to take advantage of the situation.  Everything became official and then we ate, took pictures, a lot of pictures, and we danced, not so much, and then headed back to the training center to prepare for a trip to the beach for 3 days.
The beach was the beach.  There was drinking, and there was swimming, and there wasn't much rest, and there were photos like any other trip to the beach, but the note worthy part was that this trip fell during Thanksgiving and there was a plan to do Thanksgiving Senegalese style.  Accompanying us to the beach were two turkeys not excited at all about going and enough potatoes, squash, apples, and other food items to do Thanksgiving for 60 people in a land that does not cater to roasted turkey dinners and cranberry sauce.  When the time came we all sat on mats in the living room of our house and shared bowls of turkey slaughtered that morning and cooked on spits over charcoal, squash, mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing with our hands and ripping apart the turkey and throwing it in front of everyone around our bowls.  When we were done stuffing ourselves, bowls were taken away and more bowls were brought out containing pumpkin bignets with apple sauce.  To conclude the meal our PCV chef Jake came out when demanded to speak and thanked  everyone.  It was a dinner to be remembered and greatly enjoyed.
When the buses arrived to take us back to Thies, everyone was exhausted and sun baked and dehydrated.  We all piled in and slept or tried to sleep on the hour ride back.  Once back we assembled and took care of some necessities and then ran to town to utilize the nice stores in Thies before going to our remote sites and limited shopping opportunities for at least a month or so.  We went and ate good food did some shopping and returned to the center to pack our dirty and disorganized gear for a 7AM departure to our regional capitals.  The next morning I awoke to about 20 Peugeot station wagons piled into the training center.  We got each other's phone numbers and we took pictures and we piled our vehicles with way too many things until they spilled out onto our laps and below our feet and unhappy drivers and we headed out to not see one another for 2 months.  Our driver was especially unhappy due to the load of Meg, Sara, and I.  We headed out as the sun was rising through the palms and the baobab trees, we stopped twice by police, we stopped once to fix the transmission with a piece of bailing wire, and we arrived in Linguere tired and sweaty and relieved and scared and maybe a bit excited, but not much.
Now it is Tuesday afternoon here.  I am worried if anyone will read to this point due to it's size and wondering if I should break the post into chapters.  I have been in Linguere for a few days now buying tools and supplies and trying to think of everything I might ever need and realizing they are all wants.  We have been making good meals together and playing cards and enjoying our company and getting to know the town.  This morning Meg and Sara bravely loaded their things into our Peace Corps vehicle and went to begin their journey.  I go tomorrow.  I have spent the last few days doing too much thinking but afraid of doing.  Afraid of not knowing a language everyone speaks and not having anywhere to run when I can't understand anyone and they can't understand me, but as we helped Sara to settle in I realized that I was excited and I was wishing that it was I who had installed today.  I have been here for long enough.  It is time that I started to do something toward my purpose here.  To start sharing.
I go tomorrow for what I hope will be 5 weeks.  We are given a challenge to stay at site for 5 week and fight through the problems that we have.  This means Christmas and New Years will be spent with people that don't celebrate either of those.  It means little cell service and no internet and no electricity, but it means beautiful skies and calm and new faces.  A gentle rain is beginning here and I don't think is supposed to but I am taking it as a good omen and blessing for the next two years.

Continuation of Incomplete Blog Post

I tried to write a blog post on my Volunteer Visit but i was unable due to internet problems.  I didn't realize this until it we started to get really busy and lose all internet, so I wrote the rest of the adventure down and will try to add to the previous blog to share the second half of our training.

We continued on the bush taxi dodging 2 inch long Desert Date tree thorns and forgetting any personal space requirements we had ever had until we spotted a water tower on the horizon that I would call home for he next few days and would serve as my example of a "wuro Fulbe" (Pulaar Village.  The whole trip on a whole took about an hour and a half.  Becca motioned to the driver to stop and we jumped down, paid the equivalent of $1.50 and headed towards a concrete building with about 4 thatch roof huts located around it, which was Becca's family compound.  We went around and greeted everyone and learned where every one lived, and then we sat down on a mat under a shade tree and relaxed and watched as a chicken was slaughtered for a wonderful meal that would follow.  We talked a little, ate a bunch, and the night came quick.

The following morning, I awoke in Becca's Dad's bed, which he had graciously allowed me to use for my stay, as well rested as I had since first arriving in Senegal.  The morning was cool and calm, the women of the compound were heating water, cleaning, and making breakfast in front of each hut and the children were slowly beginning to stir from their beds and congregate.  Becca and I ate an easy breakfast and then began our tour of Tiargni at the market then a stop at the health post where unexpected excitement awaited with a women in labor, another woman finding out she was pregnant, and a host of other people greeting me and then asking Becca who I was, as I sat in front of the health post like a concierge.  Following the trip to the health post we walked back through town greeting people, returned back to the Becca's compound, ate a fabulous lunch, and then laid under a shade tree drinking attaya and me trying to communicate with a couple of older Pulaar men and Becca's aunt.  An enjoyable pastime for all seemed to be sharing the words of different types of livestock and helping the other to pronounce it, neither team did very well.  Once fully rested we went in search of the lady that held the key to the women's garden at about 4, who was not there, so we went and greeted for the afternoon and received the flashlight tour of the women's garden by flashlight that evening.  This I thoroughly enjoyed and was excited to finally see some agriculture in Senegal and be able to talk with the ones farming.  The women's garden had eggplant, okra, bissap(hibiscus which is used here in many dishes), cucumber, tomato, bitter tomato (African Solanaceae), peppers, and corn.  We left in the pitch black and were escorted by one of Becca's friends back to the family compound where we ate a nice dinner and laid on mats under one of the most beautiful starlight nights I had ever seen, keep in mind that I have lived in Nevada and Wyoming.  As I lost count of of the shooting stars and felt a cool evening breeze, my time here became feasible, the language became manageable, my agricultural knowledge became transferable, and I anticipated many more nights looking at the stars and talking about life a world away from anywhere I had lived previously.
The next morning was as calm and pleasant as the one before, but we needed to catch an 8 AM bush taxi home so we hurried our instant coffee and biscuits, no Tennesseans not the ones you are thinking, and headed to the market.  On the ride back to Dahra I was given the middle seat on top of the cab, my feet rested on the windshield of the truck and the passengers watched me for when to take cover from the 2 inch long thorns.  The air on the trip back was cool against my face as I watched unknown birds of many colors flying in front of the truck. 

We arrived back in Dahra, met up with more PCVs, and headed to Linguere to meet the rest of our work zone.  The work zone in Linguere greeted us with open arms and full plates.  We spent the next 3 days eating good food, playing games, and relaxing.  The three of us that showed up as strangers to Linguere left as family. I am excited about the fellowship at my village and with the other volunteers that will help me to remember the land that I came from.

By the end of the trip I had made peace.  I will learn Pulaar by bumbling sentences and hand signals, I will learn the culture through embarrassment and laughter, I will enjoy and celebrate the successes in the fields and gardens, and I will ponder the failures and move through them.

Site Announcements

On Thursday, we gathered on a concrete pad with a painted map of Senegal to receive our site announcements for where we would be working for the next 2 years.  We were blindfolded and then taken by the hand to our location to stand, given an envelope of the Close of Service (COS) report from the last volunteer,  and told to wait until we could all remove our blindfolds and know where our sites were.  I was quite certain that I was going to go a village close to the Senegal River on the northern border of Senegal and Mauritania, but was surprised to learn that I had been placed in a region of Senegal called the Djolof, in the village of Diagali, pronounced Ja gally.  I recieved a beautifully written COS report from a previous health volunteer that was very sincere and gave me an understanding of his emotional connection to the town.

After our site announcements we gathered with our northern regions for quick introduction and Q&A session, began packing, and then anticipated a 6AM departure to our sites for Volunteer Visit (VV) to be given by a current volunteer in the village or a similar village.  The next morning a small group of us loaded into a Peace Corps vehicle and left Thies as the sun was coming up through the African Mahoghany trees.  We drove north along the coast with a flat horizon of palm trees and Baobab trees in Millet and watermelon fields on both sides of the road.  We continued for over an hour driving and finally getting to see a little more of this country we will call home for the next two years, we dropped off our first passenger at a gas station with a volunteer, and continued on.  Finally after stopping we turned right and left the palm trees and the coast of Senegal to see the arid north central that we would call home.  Driving east into the interior of the country we began to see large herds of Brahma-like cows, sheep, and camels in herds along the sides of the road.  The terrain was very flat and the vegetation was a savannah of annual grasses and scattered trees.  We arrived in the town of Dahra to be warmly welcomed by a two PC volunteers and fed and taken around to meet school directors and mayors and markets.  Once we had been fully fed with locale fare I was taken to a catch a "bush taxi" with one of the volunteers.  The location of my permanent site was inaccessible during my VV and there was is not a volunteer currently in the site so I was taken to a similar site that spoke Pulaar and was similar in size to my permanent site.  My translator and guide was a health volunteer from Southern Oregon who had been in Senegal for about 8 months and had been site for 6 months.  So back to the "bush taxi"

As we sat in the shade next to a boutique with people talking the language, I had been learning but me understanding nothing, about me  and the having Becca, my tour guide, telling me what they were saying, a truck pulled up and stopped in front of us.  The truck had what looked like a latter rack over the truck bed and the truck bed was full up with bags of rice, across the top of the latter rack were wooded boards that were tied down for people to sit; with surprise I was told by Becca that this was our ride and that I should get on quick because there were only a few good seats, I think there might have been one.  We loaded up and headed into the savannah for a 90 minute ride going by little fields of peanuts, millet, and cowpeas, passing small isolated family compounds and small satellite villages until we reached a larger one that would serve as my example  of my final site.

Welcome to Senegal

Assalamalekoum.  I am now writing y'all from Africa.

On Saturday, September 20th, I gathered with 57 other people to stage in New York, and then ,we all loaded onto a direct flight from New York to Dakar, Senegal.  We flew all night to reach a hot and humid airport in Dakar complete with many foreign sights, sounds, and smells, but we were welcomed with open arms by our country director and two buses to take us from the airport to the training center in Thies, Senegal where I am now. 

The past week has been full of class room sessions, vaccinations, interviews about our desires and fears, intermittent down time with volunteers in hammocks, Attaya (tea), fiddle playing, guitar listening and back country bocce ball competitions.  Although the sessions have been full of power points and workbooks, the excitement and necessity of the information has kept me on the edge of my seat.  Most of the information up to today has been on general Senegal, but today we were given a small window into the future we will experience in the next 27 months; we received our language designations.  I will be learning a dialect of Pular called Pular du Nord.  My limited knowledge of the expanse of the Pular language and the people I have met here who are Pulars adds to the excitement of the clarification of my role here.  My small group of two other trainees worked with our Language instructor, Oumar, to learn and practice some basic Pular du Norde in the short time we had to meet today, and I believe that our team will be motivated and assist one another in this almost daunting task. 

I apologize to all as for the delay in my notification of safe arrival here in Senegal, but internet has been slow if present at all since I arrived here and our schedules have been very full.  I believe that this is a good indication of things to come in the future of this blog as I am now in one of the largest cities in Senegal and I have poor service.  I also will not be dedicating too much time to spending on a computer on the internet as I want to be present here. 

That being said.  I am wonderful here in Africa.  The other trainees, the staff, and the current volunteers are all wonderful people that have very different backgrounds, motivations, and personalities.  I have been overjoyed by the glimpses of current volunteer's experiences and photos which help for the excitement level to overshadow the enormous amount of work that will need to be done in the next three weeks to prepare me to be effective as a volunteer.  My love to all of you.

Haa janngo jamma

Justin Feeman

Pre Departure Note

Well all the planning, the confusion, the needles, the money, the research, and the emotions I have put into my trip are about to come to a head.  I will be departing for staging in New York City on Friday morning, staging with all of the people in my training on Saturday, and flying to Senegal as a group on Saturday evening.  I have tried to stock up on all of the everyday luxuries that I will go without for the next two years and now my stomach aches from an excess of Krispy Kreme Donuts, Buddys BBQ, Hardee's Biscuits, ribs, pork chops, french fries, and lots of cheese .  Along with food I have also tried to spend as much time as I could with friends and family, but no there is never enough time to prepare one for greater than two years apart.  Although, I plan to develop many more relationships on this new journey and create a family of Senegalese and Peace Corps volunteers, I will miss all of my friends and family state side greatly.  Know that much of the strength and character I have was fostered from such great companionship.

Many of you have expressed fears about the various dangers I might encounter on my trip.  I appreciate your concern for me, but I have faith that the Peace Corps, the Lord, and occasionally my common sense will lead me through safely.  Currently, I am much more fearful of crocodiles than I am of the ebola virus. 

I know a little bit more information now than my last post as to my schedule.  All of my training, for the most part, will be done in Senegal.  I am unsure as to my post location right now.  There are different languages spoken in different regions in Senegal.  Within the first week of my training I will be designated a host family that will speak the language I will speak for the next two years and indicate the region I will be in.  During the next month I will go through a series of interviews as to my comfort with different aspects of life and understanding of the material in order to find a suitable location/town for me to reside in during my service.  As a result, I will not know a mailing address for my entire stay in Senegal for sometime.  I will have an address in Thies, Senegal that I will be able to post when I am certain the address is accurate for all of you to send me goodies, mainly Krispy Kreme donuts.  Once a Krispy Kreme is built in Senegal I will no longer need care packages. 

I am sure that there is much that I do not know right now and I will try to keep all of my blog fans in the loop as I can. 

Now I must thank everyone for your support.  I am excited to walk through the door I am about to enter and blessed that I am able to make the journey. 

Justin

Welcome and Blog Mission Statement

Welcome all my friends and family!  I hope this will be a small window into my next adventure to Senegal working with the Sustainable Agriculture Program through the Peace Corps.  I have never created a blog before and I do not plan to take a computer with me to Senegal; so be patient with the posts.  I will try to update my progress and development as I can.

I am currently in Tennessee staying with my father trying to soak up family time before I leave.  I am scheduled to leave on September 19th to go to New York City for a day of staging and meet and great activities before heading to Thies, Senegal with the group I will be teamed with for the next 2 years.  Currently, I do not know much about the life I will lead in the next 27 months in West Africa, but I am beginning to get more and more small puzzle pieces to create an image of my life for the future.

Here is what I know right now:

• I will not know the location/region I will be placed in Senegal until I have begun training in Thies.  I will be given my assignment once I arrive.  This will be a major influence into whether or not I have easy access to internet, electricity, and running water. 
• Currently, the Peace Corps has not stopped working in Senegal due to the Ebola virus.  I have every intention of leaving New York bound for Senegal on September 20th.

Thanks to everyone's support and prayers for my trip.  I will miss you all, but I also am very excited for the experiences I will have in the next two years.  My term ends December 2016.