The End of Homestay*

Remember how on Christmas Eve you would get so excited that you couldn't sleep and Mom and Dad would remind you that, "The sooner you fall asleep, the sooner you will wake up and it will be Christmas Day!" Well it works in the other direction too.  I am currently doing everything I can so I don't have to go to sleep and wake up tomorrow and leave my new family.

It is my opinion that Peace Corps is like a 27(ish) month lifetime.  Right now, I'm getting ready to leave for college.  Okay, I have to put another clause on this 'lifetime'; it's more at the turn of the century, when leaving for college didn't necessarily mean you were coming back.

I've been living with the Mandian family in MBour for the past 2 months.  They have fed me, taught me to talk, taught me how to get around on my own, even clothed me.  What it comes down to is I love these guys, and owe them the most for helping to be able to integrate into this new society.  I might not be able to speak the same language as everyone in the house, or even be able to carry on a conversation with the ones who speak my language.  I'm going be near tears all day tomorrow, I was having trouble today when my LCF left the city.  It made it all too real.

So not only am I leaving the family I love and the city I've grown up in to go to a village where they don't speak the exact same language I've been learning... I'm also leaving the Mandikol.  The three of us have gone through pretty much all of this together, and I think the rest of our stage would agree that we are quite possibly the closest language group here (I swear we aren't exclusive, it's just that no one knows our language).

I'm leaving my family behind, my friends are splitting up, and I'm starting something completely different.  Yup, I'm off to college.  Graduation and the "Real World" coming up after IST (In Service Training) in mid July.

But, for all of my sadness and worry about the changes about to happen, I have the world to look forward to!  I'm about to get started on what I actually came to the country for.  I can look back to my post on Village Visit to get a refresher on what I have to be excited about.  It's all about keeping a handle on the past but always looking to the future.

Happy

To Host a Wrestling Tournament*

Wrestling in Senegal is a pretty big deal. According to my LCF (Language Teacher) Aziz it has gotten more popular than Soccer in Senegal.

TANGENT: Aziz also told us a little story about why this is a good thing. About 5 years ago mugging was a big problem in the cities of Senegal. Apparently, as wrestling has gained popularity all the muggers became wrestlers. More money in a legitimate way, kind of a win win situation.

Spence’s Senegalese father, Lamine, was a wrestler back in the day, and still loves it. He seems to be grooming his son to be good too. So as a gift to his Tubabs (white people), Lamine organized a Wrestling tournament for us in front of his house. All we had to do was pay 3000cfa (pronounce cfa “say-faa”). This seemed reasonable to us, so we started calling the other trainees in our city. To most of them this price seemed unreasonable apparently, and since we didn’t want to have to pay more we extended our search the trainees of a neighboring village. They were all for the wrestling tournament so it was still on! Which was good, since in a true Senegalese fashion, we didn’t get this taken care of until the morning of. We were a little worried, but it turned out AMAZING!

It started off with the little kids wrestling, and little kids doing anything like that is just cute. As the evening wore on the age of the participants increased and the crowd got bigger, louder, and closer. As with any amateur sporting event there were more pauses than one would prefer to see, but it was none the less a great time. It started to get intense when the oldest group was going (I think age maxed out at 17ish).

Lamine’s son, Ismaela, won his bracket of the tournament, which gave him bragging rights that he tried his best to keep under control. At first it was just confusing to watch and just looked like chaos, but as the evening moved forward it became clearer what was happening and significantly more fun to watch. A little more details on the wrestling itself now.

Senegalese wrestling is best described, in my opinion, as a mix between WWE style wrestling and Sumo. Probably a little dull by American standards. The wrestlers basically bat at each other like cats for a few minutes before grabbing one another by their diapers and trying to get the other's torso/head to hit the ground before theirs. The action usually lasts a few seconds.

Back on April 4th (Senegal’s Independence Day) there was a HUGE match between and wrestler names Yekini and one named Tyson (Yes, as in Mike Tyson). The story as I know it is that Tyson was the former champion but moved to America for a few years and this was his big return match. There were some fans rooting for Tyson, but it seemed like most people were rooting for Yekini with all their Senegalese pride. It was a long build up, felt a little like watching the Super Bowl on TV, except that when Yekenni finally won you could hear the city EXPLODE with excitement. People literally flooded the streets. It was a fairly exciting match too, long, and it was close, but Tyson’s head hit the ground just before Yekini’s shoulder did.  With that the party began.

Quick Pic Post 1

Aarona, My little homestay brother.