Dafa taw!

It was wonderful to return to my village after being away for about 2 weeks at a language seminar (some additional Wolof instruction at my friend's site with a Peace Corps teacher) and then in Kedagou for vacation.  As I sat in the car nearing my village, I couldn't help but smile.  Plus, the entire area has erupted in greenery now that the rainy season is in full swing, and it was beautiful - way different from the sandy, brown landscape I had left behind.  I stepped out of the car and began to walk the 1 km of bushpath to my site.  A lot of my village was in the fields farming, and they all waved at me as I passed.  Everyone greeted me excitedly and children ran out to me.  I neared my compound, and my whole family came out to see me.  It was a great homecoming.  Apparently everyone had been asking about me (children and adults alike) and couldn't wait to see me again.

Life is a bit different now that the farming season has started.  Every morning, everyone goes out to the fields to work until 12 or 1, then they come back for lunch and a short nap.  They usually return to the fields around 4, after the heat has decreased.  My village farms peanuts, millet, and corn, and this is all very labor-intensive without modern technology.  The men usually begin the field first.  A boy leads a horse or donkey attached to an old-metal contraption that digs the soil and is guided by a man.  Women and children follow behind to dig up the soil with hand tools, pulling out all the weeds to leave just the crop behind.  I have accompanied them to the field twice so far.  It is exhausting work, and everyone is wiped out at the end of the day from bending over and hacking at the ground all day.  I enjoy helping in the fields but am a bit nervous at accidentally digging up the crops.  I can just imagine the headlines: Peace Corps volunteer destroys village’s harvest.  I’m sure that won’t happen, but I do get a bit nervous nonetheless.

I am finally feeling a part of my village and not just a guest.  The toddlers in my family are no longer scared of me either.  One shook my hand, I carried one on my back through the fields when we went to pick hibiscus leaves for sauce, and the other absolutely adores me.  This last one hobbles toward me when she sees me coming, and I am put in charge of watching her when everyone else is in the fields.  She is so cute.  When she walks, she gets a very concentrated look on her face and stares intently at her destination.  There are also the older children who I spend a lot of time with.  My room is often the coolest place in the morning, so I hang out with the children and even my parents in my room.  They all love the chalkboard I have painted on my wall, and I have begun some tutoring sessions with my siblings to help them with school.  One time, during a rainstorm, all the kids piled into my room.  I taught them to play pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, which they all loved.  Then we sat around my headlamp and just talked, one of my sisters repeating that she didn't want me to ever leave.  During other rain storms, I stand in my backyard, singing and dancing.  The storms are intense, like summer thunderstorms in the US, and I love them.  I just sit and watch the rain pouring down, listening to the thunder in the distance, and laughing at all the kids and adults dashing through the rain on some mission.  Dafa taw! (It’s raining!)  Yesterday, 2 boys came running through the pounding rain in the pitch-black, trying to catch a duck.  The duck kept evading them, and the boys tried all different angles to tackle it.  Finally, they were successful and took it back home to their compound to spend the night in the backyard.  I am constantly entertained and never stop laughing.