Week One

I seem to have blog block.  There's so much going on here physically, emotionally, mentally, that its hard to figure out where to begin sharing my experience.

I'm currently at the Peace Corps Senegal training center in Thies, trying to accomplish millions of things in a three day time span. Like buy clothes, wash clothes, buy other supplies, buy a gift for my family, do yoga, ascend as much as possible, practice my Wolof, make friends, ... and I'm sure I'm forgetting something.  I mean, we still have meetings all day too.  But its really all good.  In fact, its really great.  It's nice to have a little break from the immersion experience, to get that stuff done, but mostly I can't wait to be back with my family in Mboro.

Thats what this two month training mostly is: language and culture immersion with a host family. My family is great.  Very patient with me and ready to teach me. And my mom makes me coffee with cream every morning.  My host mom is lovely as are the other members of the house. My uncle lives there and is a teacher for his profession, so he's really good about helping me learn. My oldest brother Petit knows French and some English. He wants to learn more English, so we help each other. Also, he's already my friend on facebook, which trips me out for some reason.  Its not at all strange, really, but, yeah... okay.  I also have two teenage sisters, one male cousin, and a six yr old brother.  They're all great, and all together, I just really like the family vibe.  Also, Mboro is really lovely.  Temperature is pretty nice because we're near the ocean, and aside from the mountains of sand I have to climb on a daily basis, the surroudings are beautiful.  Lots of green from vegetable fields and palm trees.

We're making gardens at a local school (yes, a garden in solid sand as far as you can dig), and I have to mention how amazing these kids are. They run to help us with everything we try to do, and they Really dive in. Majorly impressive. So cute, too.

Islam is the dominant religion here, for those who don't know, and daily prayers are pretty much universal. As are mid-day naps.  So, its been really easy to have two to three times to ascend every day, which I'm so grateful for, because I've had a lot of overwhelming emotions moving around. Will say more about that soon... spirituality and the experience of God and Stillness in this utterly new context.  I will say that this is undoubtedly a huge opportunity for growth.  To continually reveal my attachments to content and provide me the opportunity to let go.  While supported by all the wonderful humans around.

... Hmm... tiny tastes of this huge thing I'm experiencing.  I'll try to share more soon. I'm going back to Mboro on Wednesday and will probably have my computer there or possibly hit up an internet cafe cause we'll be there for two weeks this time. We're painting a mural!! :)  I'm psyched...