To my friends who have waited o so patiently for a blog update:
HI! Assalamalakum and may you have peace only! I'm going to try to keep up the ten short stories theme I started in Costa, basically forever ago, but we'll start off with a quick scene description of life here in Senegal. First off...I've been here more than a month already and we're halfway through training, know our actual site assignments and I can already speak a lot of Wolof (the indigenous language I'm learning...more on that soon!). The training center that I write this from is like a toubab (gringo/giri/foreigner) oasis that we visit every so often for group training activities and as a staging grounds before big trips. My fellow stagaires and I share a few dozen rooms and are free to roam the city of Thies when not in class...with access to(in order of importance) cold beer, chocolate ice cream, and wi-fi Internet cafes. For the majority of our time thus far we've been stationed in small villages nearby and working in the communities to get hands on training in our technical fields and learn two languages faster than I had previously thought possible!

I'm heading out tomorrow for my first visit to the site I'll call home for the next two years, a small village named Patar-Lia. There are a few hundred people, a middle and primary school, and apparently a lot of excitement about what might be accomplished. I'll know infinitely more after this next week...and hopefully update accordingly so you can all start planning you visits! Get pumped...my town is only three hours by car from Dakar (the capital city with an international airport) and there's no need to take a 12 seater prop plane/8 hours in hell bus ride in the style of Playa San Miguel, Costa Rica!

So ten or so stories for you all and more love than I can count!
1.My name is Sophialau Ndianye...rafet na n'est pas? Pretty crazy huh...Sophie is my favorite name in the world and they picked it out for me...after knowing me for just a few hours. Best of all...no one here knows its my dog's name back home haha so I can use it and be so so happy!

2.I love African Dance...like real African Dance...like hundreds of people forming a circle with pounding drums in the background and mass chaos of bodies in the center. The women move in ways I didn't know excited and I have resolved myself to learning! Obviously the fact that I don't exactly know how to dance didn't stop me from trying and it was the craziest thing I've ever experienced. Picture sand flying, arms spinning, and a crush of people as they all rush towards the middle and explode in movement. Yeah...I'll need to get a video haha!

3.I live in a village called Keur Madoro with the Imam and his family. The peace that radiates from the mango trees at the center of my compound has inspired me to write poetry. I won't subject you guys to it but it is a magical place to spend every afternoon. 15 or so children learn to recite the Koran in Arabic while my 'father' discreetly dozes off and I help my older sisters make sweet sweet green tea foamy by pouring it from glass to glass. Their rhythm comes from everywhere at once and seems perfectly in time.

4. I'm pretty convinced Wolof is the best language ever invented. Wow = yes, your best friend is your one nose, children are called sticks of G-d..as in how many sticks of G-d do you have...and there are so many similarities to Spanish I'm convinced that the Christopher Columbus stopped by at some point in 1500s! I've already tested out of the language requirement, I got to an intermediate low level after only 4 weeks and I'm so excited! Its just going to get better and easier and hopefully I'll be fluent in no time at all...and move on to learning arabic haha. My 'dad' the Imam says its a piece of cake haha...well not really he says its un-hard like making rice which is how they say it haha.

5.I'm pretty sure I've found my cultural group the Senegalese eat bread with nutella everyday for breakfast and wear sparkley clothing whenever possible and place great importance on inner peace for all.

6.Eating in general is kind of crazy. We all sit on the floor and eat with our hands..its an art form really and there are an entire set of verbs to describe the different ways of making balls of rice so you can pop them in your mouth. All in all the food is pretty good...fish, veggies, rice and some surprisingly awesome sauces made from the leaves, flowers, and roots of native plants. O and lots and lots of MSG haha...but what are you going to do?

7.Mango season is coming! I'm excited...my family has a mango tree plantation and I think it's going to be amazing. The trees are everywhere around my village...something I think peace corps had a lot to do with a few years ago and had really made a difference for many of the locals!

8.The medicine I'm on to prevent malaria has interesting side effects...mainly that it gives you incredible acid trip dreams that are so vivid you can't imagine they didn't really happen. So far all of my have been absolutely fantastic! Haha...par example I started a Dispatch concert naked from the balcony of my hotel, had a raging party at the Coulton's house in Doylestown complete with all of our parents, every member of the Killer Bees and pretty much every coach we've ever played for, I got to fly an airplane, and go hang gliding...haha. Crazy seriously, but definitely more entertaining that anything I've every seen on tv.

9.I have fallen completely and totally in love with the kids here, they've already made everything we work towards totally worth it. I will be adopting dozens...please plan accordingly. Seriously, these kids are absolutely adorable, so incredibly motivated, giving, open and I just can't stop smiling when I'm with them. They follow the other two girls in my training village and I around in groups from place to place and climb on anytime we sit...or even stand still for a little too long! Haha. The little girls especially...ah There are pictures...you'll understand I'm sure.

10.We had our first gardening demonstrations...in Wolof...for 40 kids at once....and believe it or not...things were fantastic! The kids were so excited to get the school gardens going and had so much motivation they made a second seed bed even better than our demonstration one while the other PCTs and I were working on a different part of the garden! LOVE it! They're so receptive to any information we try to teach them and are just so passionately into whatever we want to do with them! O and we've painted our first mural and more are coming soon!

11.I'm running out of things to say....hmmm what else is there....I miss you guys! I did manage to get phone service here and a new number...I have reception everywhere and I can call/text the states! Its a bit expensive....ok not really...its like 20 cents a minute haha and peace corps pays BANK in terms of the local economy. We're in Thies for a few days doing technical training...code word for partying up with all the local volunteers and learning how to do the things we are supposed to teach the locals!

So anyways the new phone number is +221776719932

love and love and love and hopefully another update much sooner than later!!
Stephanie

ps. i rode bumper cars last night...here in Thies. I don't know how in the world they got here but omygosh I am so glad it happened! haha! The senegalese do not call them bumper cars...they're actually called little cars and people drive slowly and carefully trying not to disturb anyone else's ride....a concept that was clearly lost on the Toubob contingent and would have resulted in our first international incident had we not managed to go all at once without any locals on the floor at the same time. SO MUCH FUN!!! Followed by whiskey shots, disco hut dancing, and big big big smiles! <3 besossss!