I apologize for the delay with this, but it is much more of a daunting task than I anticipated. I have had a crazy first month.  We have been in classes constantly and then our first 3 weeks on site with our first host family, and then the people! OH THE PEOPLE! I am such a lucky lucky lady.

I thought I may share a few anecdotes with you fine people.
First, I have comprised a list of things that I had done before coming that were shockingly helpful upon my first week at site.
1.) Knowing Spanish. My 18 year old sister Nema knew Spanish so when I couldn't communicate in Mandinka or English, we would speak in Spanish.
2.) Living in New York for 4 years, learning to ignore certain amounts of attention while simultaneously being constantly surrounded by people.
3.) Acting! Makes learning new languages so much easier.
4.) An unlimited knowledge of Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Chris Brown, Rhianna, Kesha, etc. The kids LOVE them here.

When we went to the market yesterday for the first time. It was INSANE. As soon as we got out of the taxi we were immediatly swarmed by people wanting to abuse us like tourists. It was supposed to be our first trip to the oceon, and instead it was full of absolutely ridiculous attention. The "ocean" was full (no exaggeration) FULL of people fishing and cleaning fish and moving fish and 2 toubobs. I know it's the part of the market and day where people make thier living and I know that's where my daily fish comes from but it was still overwhelming to see.
I really like my family, I have a mother and 3 sisters that live here 5 in total (Faatou, my namesake, lives somewhere around here in Mbur and Sophie lives in Dakar) Nogaye (20) Nema (18) and Umi (15) live here. My mothers' first husband has passed and she is remarried to someone in Dakar, her brother Sid (31) lives in the front yard and always has his friends over. I like it here, lots of electricity and genuinely full of love and appreciation but sort of difficult. Thier first language is Wolof, second is french, and third is Mandinka, which ultimately is not even the same words let alone dialect that will be used in The Gambia. But it will be good to know some basic greetings and such. It's good practice, a great opportunity to learn another culture. Just sort of confusing for the roundabout.  My permanent site in The Gambia will not have electricity at all, so having a plug in my bedroom was a real treat. In 3 days we say goodbye to the other 48 people (2 people have already left, one during initial training and another after our first homestay) we have befriended and leave them behind in Senegal as we make the 10 hour trek to The gambia to meet the other volunteers who are already there and waiting for us. It will be, I promise you, a 10 hour party. there are 20 of us and we are the 20 musketeers (as Stephen says) and the general consensus is, literally none of us have EVER missed a place so much that we have never been before. It is amazing how much pride I feel and how excited I am to go. THE COUNTDOWN IS ON!! I also feel lucky for the group of totally righteous people I am surrounded by. We are all so supportive of eachother and so inclusive of the other group. When we are in Thies at the training center we always meet after dinner, just the 20 of us and debrief. I really love us all, and there are a few Senegal folks I would love to sort of acquire, like steal for us but even they all say we are an amazing group. It's a great feeling.
My sisters and I like to draw and then they give me thier prictures, they are usually pictures of thier family and thier home and I label them with Mandinka words and then I hang them up in my room. I draw pictures of things I would like to talk about and then use them as vocab references.  So when the time come for true sentence structure I'll have the vocab to insert and then I will be able to (in theory) say what I want to say!!
[sidenote, the dude who lives in the room attached to my compound named Usumoo apparently, I made a joke about him hiding his arm and it turns out he doesn't have one. Oops]
I have started a book referred to as "the poop book" among my other PCT's to share latrine and illness woes over the next 2 years. My only entry from myself is about my very first night on site where I went to use the latrine and forgot to take all my money out of my pockets so I dropped a whole bunch of coins down. So far, it has already served to be truly amusing. This, will be one very grand adventure.

I actually recorded a video of me video blogging, which I promise was much more amusing. I don't think I'm very entertaining in written form. But hey, someday I'll figure out a way.

I'll work on linking some blogs of my friends, maybe they will keep you all in the loop better. Until then, I go into Dakar tomorrow to check out the huge statue and check out the city.  Tuesday I find out where my permanent site is (WHOOHOO!!) and then Wednesday we're out.

I miss you all and hope you're all doing well.
Happy thoughts.
Until then, check out this website
http://www.gapminder.org/