15 days in!

All right! Two weeks in Africa, and all continues to go well. We've been taking classes 6 days a week at the training center, living with Senegalese homestay families in and around the city of Thiès, and I'm starting to feel like I'm not quite so helpless as when we first arrived.  I can hold my own for most of the greetings in Wolof, and have even started to be able to ask simple questions of my host family, who are a tremendous resource, even though it can be hard sometimes to feel like I have privacy, with 18 or so extended family members all living within the same compound. But they all know who I am now, even if I'm still learning all their names, and when the Peace Corps Land Rover drops me off every evening at my village, 9 km from Thiès, I hear my name from every direction:

"Bineta! Bineta! Asalaam malekum! Nanga def? Naka wa Thiès? Naka wa ekool?" 

"Peace be with you! How's it going? How's Thiès? How was school?" 

Bineta is my name here, now, after the first night with my homestay family in my village. My older sister named me, and it's how I introduce myself to people.  I hear I'll probably get another name when I go out to site, after swear-in May 9th, Inch'Allah (God willing), but I like Bineta - it's easy to remember :)

It's been a tiring few weeks, but it's a good tired - the kind you feel when you've been working hard, challenging yourself, and constantly moving forward.  Hopefully I'll get to put up some photos soon, though it seems to take quite a while to get anything up on this site.  Send your best wishes and good vibes, and I'll write more later. Until then, ba beneen yoon (until next time), Inch'Allah!