I added a section on the right side of other Peace Corps friends Blogs. Check them out. My friend Cruger has a video on his site of us driving home from training one day. You'll enjoy it!

Today is saturday. Which means so many wonderful things. First of all, we are done with class/training at 12:30. Second of all, tomorrow is sunday! After training today, me and a few friends rode our bike through Thies to this nice cafe with FREE WIFI! So, I'm enjoying a beer with some friends and using the internet on my own computer! It's wonderful because those french keyboards are a pain.

Things are going so great. I love living here and it's already starting to feel like home. I love my host family and the town I live in is great. It's a really small town so already everyone knows me and yells my name as I walk home everyday. "Matar Diop! Matar Diop!" I have been teaching the village kids how to make whistle noises with their hands and they love it! Each day they proudly show me their progress.

So, I'll describe a normal day for you so you can all feel like you know what I'm doing right now. I wake up at about 6am while it's still dark and my family is sleeping. I get dressed etc and wash my feet with a little plastic kettle out in my courtyard. I walk to the main road passing many donkeys, chickens, goats and the few people who are up that early. At the main road I greet people as I pass, "Malekum Salaam! Nanga Def? Nanga fanaane? Naka waa ker nga?" and many more. I meet up with a few other PC volunteers and we get picked up for the 18km drive to Thies. We do language, cultural, technical and security training which lasts until about 6pm at which point the few of us who live out where I do get driven home. The rest of the day I spent with my family, watching brazilian soap operas in french, playing in the courtyard with my little brothers, homework and lots of trying to speak wolof with the family which is going quite well. My family loves staying up late and hanging out, so I'm usually one of the first ones to go to bed at about 10:30pm. Dinner with the family is always wonderful. We eat on the ground outside, all around a bowl that we share from. Pretty much every night we eat rice with fish and some vegetables. My family is trying so hard to make me fat......"Kay Lekkal Matar! Kay Lekkal!" (come eat matar, come eat!). There was one day when they fed me two lunches and 3 dinners!

So that's pretty much a normal day. Language is going surprisingly well. I can't believe how quickly a persons brain can absorb knowledge. I am now a huge advocate for total immersion when it comes to learning languages. I've been asked what the toilet situation it like too. Well, let's just say I'm a PRO SQUATTER now! We have turkish toilets which wasn't that difficult to get used to. The thing that I'm still trying to adapt to, is......NO TOILET PAPER! Let's just say you never hand anything to anyone with your left hand! Seriously.

Well, I guess that's it. I miss you all tons, and your comments bring me joy everyday. Let me know if there is anything else you want to know! I'll conclude my post with a few pics that my friend took.

Life continues to be great here in Senegal. I'm now living with a host family in an urban area, but keep in mind, urban is quite loosely used in this country. In fact, it's not uncommon for a few donkeys or chickens to come running through my family's courtyard from time to time. My new name is Mattar Diop, which i'm still getting used to answering to, but i really like it. My family is incredible and filled with so much generosity and patience. Trying to get the toubab (white guy) to understand what they are saying often turns into a game of charades, but I must admit, my wolof is getting better by the day. I keep telling my family "ndank ndank" or bit by bit. I'm looking forward to spending the next two days with them since we have no class until tuesday. I'll see how many new words I can learn in those two days. Again, sorry for the short updates; one day i'll find the time to write a detailed one filled with pictures and great stories. Oh, and I got a cell phone which you all can call or text anytime. If you use skype on your computers, it's really cheap.

(221) 771077136

you should be able to dial it just like that. I love you all and miss you tons! Ba baneen inchallah!

finally in senegal. ive been here almost a week and big surprise i love it. also, dont mind all the typos, because im on a french keyboard and the letters are all mixed up. some highlights for you

i have been loving walking the streets and greeting people. Greetings here are so important, you have to greet someone everytime you see them. I have also loved having tea with strangers that i meet on the street. the people are so friendly here and always want to talk with you for hours. sorry this is so short but my time is almost up! i miss you all and will try to blog again soon.

Well, this is my last night at the nice Holiday Inn in Philly where I can use the free wireless internet whenever I want. We completed our "staging" today and so tomorrow we begin the long journey to Senegal. Staging has been awesome and I feel affirmed in my decision to serve with Peace Corps, especially after meeting all the other incredible volunteers. I have immensely enjoined hanging out and getting to know them all. Many of my fears have been put at ease (specifically about language capability) as I have found many people to be at a comparable skill level as myself. To celebrate our completion of staging, some of us went out and had some great sushi and then later, a smaller group, went to get some drinks at a pizza place not far from the hotel.

As I've gotten familiar with one setting, it's time to uproot yet again and head to Senegal! I'm nervous and excited; all the things that I probably should feel. So, here's to tomorrow..... the beginning of a new life. (For two years anyway)

Goodbyes are hard. It's slowly been hitting me that a lot of time is going to pass before I see everyone I love. I left this morning (really early) and had to say good bye to my family and Biermann. It was hard to hear my mom tell me that she was scared for me. Hopefully her fears will abate as she hears how much fun I'm having. I flew to San Fran then got on another plane for Philadelphia. About halfway through the flight, I realized I was sitting next to another guy who was going to Senegal with the Peace Corps. We ended up chatting the rest of the way there, and felt lucky that we didn't have to try and find a shuttle to the hotel by ourselves. When I got to the hotel, I met my roommate, and then the three of us went to dinner at this pretty cool pizza place. We are staying in the historic district, so we decided to walk around and look at all the old buildings. I felt like I was in the movie National Treasure because I was seeing all the places depicted in it. All the history here is really cool. Now I'm just hanging out in my room about to go to bed. Orientation starts tomorrow afternoon. It'll be interesting that's for sure.

I miss you all!