27/12/2010
Dear Mrs Goodrich’s Kindergarten Class,
Hey everyone! Did you have a nice holiday season? What did you do for new years? For Christmas, a bunch of volunteers and I gatherered in the city of Kolda and celebrated together. Lots of food, fun and good times. NO snow though.
I was thinking about the letters I’ve written you this year and realized that I’ve never really explained the Peace Corps to you.
The peace corps is the organization I work for. It was started in 1961 by US President Kennedy. Today, Peace Corps volunteers work in over 130 countries all over the world. When volunteers (like me!) get assigned to a country, they live there for at least two years. As a peace corps volunteer, you live with, eat the same foods, speak the same language, alive in the same environment, and follow the same cultural norms as your host country family and friends. As you know, I’ve been living and working in Senegal since March of 2009 and will leave here sometime in May of 2011.
As you may have figured out by now, life in Senegal is pretty different than life in Boston, MA, where I lived before coming here. For example, in Boston, one of the leaders of the city is the mayor, but in my village the leader is the chief and the Imam (the religious leader of the community).
Something else that’s different – food! Not just how it tastes, but also where it comes from. Where do you buy food in Maine? The food store? The farmers market? The cafeteria? In my village, we grow all of our food, and when that runs out, we go to a weekly market called luumo. The luumo consists of a bunch of traveling vendors who sell everything from vegetables to clothes to spoons and pots.
What are the daily sounds you hear living in Mine? Horns form cars driving by? People talking to each other? Cell phones ringing and music playing? In my village, I hear animals all the time. Donkeys, sheep, and goats are the loudest animals – they like to make noise all day and night. Sometimes it drives me crazy! But usually I don’t notice day-to-day because I’ve lived here for so long. When I hear people talking in my village, no one speaks English like the y do in Maine. Here, I hear people speaking Mandinka, Pulaar, French, or Wolof. I speak Mandinka in my village, but have learned a little Pulaar, French and Wolof for when I travel.
Sounds a little bit different from daily life in Maine, huh? One of the things I miss the most about living in the east coast are the seasons – warm summers, pretty fall leaves, lots of flowers in spring and snowy winters! In Senegal, the season mostly change between hot and less hot, (though right now the nights get very chilly), then from rainy to dry. No fall leaves or snow here!
Anyway, I must run – lots of errands to do today!
Your friend in Senegal,
Amanda
