Wolof is fun!

In case sarcasm is lost on blogs, Wolof started out fun and I am sure it will get fun again but for now it is just ridiculously hard. The pronunciation alone is ridiculous with fused words, new letters and a base 5 number system. Any number higher than five gets a formula applied to it. Example: 6 is 5 (juroom) + 1 (bena) so six=juroom bena. It literally takes a paragraph to say a number higher than 20. Right now my nights are filled with Wolof studying with other PCT's although last night the cramming was pleasantly accented by the guitar and fiddle stylings of two very musical trainees. It was sureal to be sitting in a pavilion in Gambia surronded by strange sounds, studying Wolof with a kid from Montana and listening to blues guitar and celtic fiddle. Hopefully some of the Wolof sunk in because tomorrow we get to go the market to practice haggling in Wolof so it should be a good time!

Other than cramming as much Wolof into my head as possible, days are filled with hours upon hours of sessions on topics ranging from adjusting to culture, to bucket bath lessons to preventing disease. Training is exhausting but still mostly interesting. PCV's joke that training is the best thing you will ever do to prepare for service but not something you ever want to go through again. I believe it.

Thanks to all for reading and posting, it has been great to hear from all of you. I am excited to head out to my training village to see the real Gambia that I will be living in for the next two years.

Jamma rek! (Peace only!)