I just finished a two-day workshop with my counterparts, the people who I am assigned to work with in the village. Most people have one or two, but I’m special because I have three. Two of them are younger, Ousmane and Clement. They are teachers and we have no problem communicating in French. But the third, Omar, is pure Pulaar and that limits things a lot. He has a kind smile though, so I think we’ll be fine if I ever learn the language.
(Omar tried to compensate for my failings by holding my hand a lot. This is perfectly normal here, even men hold hands. I still feel a little weird, and have to remind myself not to pull back.)
The workshop was slightly awkward. I could delve into more detail on that, but what’s the point? Besides, I’m trying to make these posts more concise, less of the novella and more to the point. It all worked out fine though, and while I still have no idea what I am actually supposed to do when I get to the village I'm confident I'll come up with something. Every one else seems to.
There was one 'aww hell' moment during the workshop. Senegal men are pretty aggressive, more so than I would have expected for a Muslim society, but what do I know? I get into a taxi and the first question is “are you married?” Knowing this, the training center arranged a series of skits during training, one of which dealt with this type of thing. In the skit, a volunteer is left alone with a counterpart and the counterpart starts to hit on her. The moral of the skit was that it is bad to make advances toward your counterpart.
The skit prompted the loudest reaction of the day and there was a lot of discussion during which the Peace Corps trainer reinforced the message several times. At one point one of my counterparts leaned over and said “we new guys aren’t okay with this.” I am not sure what he meant by that.
P.S. Actually, Wolof men (or Wolofs in general) seem to be more socially aggressive than Pulaars. It's not bad, just different (and I feel weird making generalizations like that). I am going to Pulaar country, but until now have mainly in a Wolof area. So really, I don't know what to expect.
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