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Check underneath the brief Paris post, it's about my time in London.

Family heading out tomorrow AM and I'm heading to visit Sommer in Germany. Yay!

Paris

So I started writing a blog about my time in London and do really need to post it, but am having trouble getting myself to do so. It will come soon, I promise.

The fam is here (yay!) and I am freezing cold (fun, but where's the snow!?). Lots of pics are coming to Picasa asap!

Happy Boxing Day!!!!!!!!!!!!--posted a day or two later

Merry Christmas everyone and as the Brits would say today, Happy Boxing Day as well!

Last night, Saki and I made a FABULOUS Christmas dinner, including chicken (precooked, we just heated it up), mashed taters (premade too...thanks Sainesbury!), gravy (powdered plus water), yummy baked veggies, green beans, rolls, French wine, mincemeat pie, and chocolate cake. Yummy!

Christmas Eve was quite the day! Since all of the museums were closed, Saki and I thought that it might be fun to visit the crazy-big and super ridiculously luxurious department store, Harrod's. Saki had to wait at her apartment for much of the morning for some furniture delivery men, so we agreed to meet up at the Princess Diana and Dodi AlFayeed (sp?) memorial at a designated time. I quickly found the memorial and went off to explore all of the crazy rooms (like the Luxury Room and Egyptian Room or Food Room). When the time to meet up approached, I headed to our meeting place and waited and waited. I figured she was held up somewhere, so I went to go and find a bathroom in part of the store I hadn't yet visited, passing by several of the large David Beckham Armani ad's (that's the brand, right? I forget). As I walked by a counter, I heard a women mention David and Victoria Beckham, but didn't know what she was talking about. Anyways, found the bathroom, but the line was way too freakin' long and I was worried about missing Saki, so I hurried back to the memorial. As I was standing against the wall facing the escalators (alone, probably looking a little suspicious), a crowd came down on the escalators. I notice that there are two young boys, both very well dressed in shirts and ties and I think, "wow, they must be going somewhere soon for Christmas Eve." There father was behind them and I noticed that he was also dressed very well (and pretty handsome looking as well). The kids turn to continue going down the escalator in the opposite direction, there's an old man and another person and then the woman who I assume is the wife/mom of the group because she was thin, pretty, and also very well dressed. She looks me straight in the eyes as she goes down the escalator and I realize, "wait! That's Posh Spice!!!!!!!!" as she turns to continue down the escalator. I notice a group of people behind them, taking pictures with camera phones, remember I have a camera in my purse, pull it out, and snag a quick pick, yes! I have just seen the Beckhams! Craziness! And just a day or two before I had been telling Saki how I didn't think I had really seen anyone famous (other than Condi Rice and now that I think about it, various other people the KPU brought to campus, mostly politics-related). Very cool and totally made my Christmas Eve Day, justly beating out dinner at McDonald's since every other place in Chelsea was closed or had stopped serving food.

Other highlights from my trip to the UK included the V(ictoria) and A(lbert) Museum, overpaying to see the movie Four Christmases with Saki, seeing The Sound of Music, Midnight Mass (which actually started at midnight) and the extremely cold 30+ min walk back to my apartment made in 15 min, shopping at H&M for cold weather gear, walking around London at dusk (er 3pm!), and a super delicious Whole Foods salad!!!! These were all in addition to the fabulous Sunday I spent with Theresa and Rob in Oxford, their home for the next few years.

Above all, thank you Saki for showing me around London and finding me a fab place to stay for an enjoyable holiday week (which was also not nearly as lonely as I had predicted it might be). You were amazing!

I will try and post pics on this blog too, but pics have recently been updated on Picasa, though many still need descriptions. More will come soon, Inchallah, due to the recent acquisition of my laptop.

London Calling

Greetings from London!!!!!!!!! Vacation is thus far going well (though expensive) and it's great seeing Saki again and seeing Theresa in Oxford yesterday. It's crazy how much London feels like America and so many things are a bit of a shock to the system...like grocery shopping! Many things I had only kind of realized that I had missed and just generally realizing how much my life has changed in the last 9.5 months.

Anyway, I just wanted to take this chance to wish everyone a very Merry and blessed Christmas!!!!!!!!! (and Channukah and Kwanza and Boxing Day and everything else...). More when I have the chance (and quasi-free internet). I love and miss you all!

Tabaski in pictures

So, Tabaski has now come and gone and I have pics to prove it. It is probably the biggest holiday of the year for Senegal (and other Muslim countries) and in many ways parallels Christmas because family member travel across the country to go back home for a week and be together, eating good food, though the meaning is different. Taken straight from Annicka's blog, this is the general gist of Tabaski:

"Tabaski is the celebration of what I believe in Jewish tradition is the Akedah? It’s when Abraham took his son to the mountain to sacrifice him and the son was spared and God provided a ram to stand in his place. Judeo-christian belief is that it was Isaac. Muslims tell the story with Ishmael. To each his own, literally. So each family has appointed at least one person to be responsible for sacrificing a sheep on Tabaski. They’ll fast until after the prayer service and then they’ll slaughter the sheep and we’ll eat meat all day long. "

Yea, that's basically it...
There were a lot more pics, but I can't change the orientation of pictures with blogspot, so the pic of the sheep being gutted and a bunch of the kids are only available on picasa (which has also been updated, but not arranged or with descriptions, yet).

Tabaski Dinner, the Dioufs!

Tabaski dinner, the Gningues

Killing the Gningues' Tabaski dinnerPrepping the "sauce" with the Gningue women

Abdou "Jambar" Diouf and Kara Diouf, my village parents
"George" Gningue and Mame Dib, his first wife. (He's the 93 year old who thinks I'm his 3rd wife...not so much!)

Head shot of my in my Tabaski outfit...you can't see the braids or the henna, but they are there, I promise!


A week later, I took my hair out of the braids, and this was the scary result...

And now I am off on vacation, yay!!!!!! More posts from there, maybe :)

Thanksgiving shots, in reverse order

A lot of people crowded around the small Kaolack living room.

Jaime with 2 of the birds. 3 turkeys and 1 chicken, but the meat was gone within minutes, lame!

8:10pm, time to eat!

Afternoon football at the high school

Chris, the top chef and Thankgsiving Master did a fabulous job with everything! Way to be Chris! (and Kyle and everyone else who played a role in the cooking)

Myself, I helped cut veggies for the salad, grill the sweet potatos, and clean a lot...plus the requisite taste testing. Delicious food and greet company!

On the Eve of Thanksgiving--Posted the Day After

I’ve been debating whether or not to update the blog right now as not much is really going on. My biggest news is that my vacation is 3 weeks away and I am just about to start the 7th and final Harry Potter book, one of the big goals of my PC Service.

So basically nothing of what I said would happen in my last blog entry occurred in the past two weeks. So Africa… I still haven’t heard official word about my grant, but unofficially that it’s a go…though it may take 4-5 weeks for the money to go through. Since I just received my 3 month pay, I may front some of the money and wait for the grant to come through, just so that we don’t have to wait FOREVER for the project to start, but whatever. Then again, maybe I won’t.

I did not wind up going to “Pulaar Land,” aka up north for Thanksgiving and am instead writing this from dirty ol’ Kaolack (much improved, however, with the dry season). There are about 25-30 Vols here and we are making Senegalese versions of the American classics (and some Vols’ kind family members sent over lots of cans of pumpkin filling and cranberry sauce). We have 3 turkeys and 1 chicken (please don’t think American sized turkeys or chickens…it would disappoint), a bunch of apple and pumpkin pies, stuffing, mashed potatos, etc. And an afternoon game of football planned in a nearby field.

Almost all of last week I spent prepping for my big village meeting when we were to create an Action Plan based on the major health and environmental problems of the village and thus focus my work the next two years. After the morning meeting, there was to be a nice lunch for the 35 or so participants and then an afternoon teacher training. The meal was perhaps the most dramatic part. Last Tuesday, I went to Foundiougne and bought 6kg onions, 4kg carrots, 2 kg navet (a root veggie), 6 heads of garlic (is that what they are called?), 6 hot peppers, and 3 green peppers. Thursday morning I bought 20 maggi cubes (large bouillon cubes, basically), a ton of pepper, mustard, random seasoning, vinegar, dish soap, drink flavoring, 2kg sugar (smuggled from the Gambia…), and 1/4kg tea. As I was heading back to my village from town Thursday morning, I was planning on going around to buy 15kgs of rice, 4L oil, and make sure the 5 chickens were purchased and procured. However, while planning, I received a text message from my APCD saying he had Malaria and wouldn’t be coming the next day anymore. I don’t blame him in the least—he was traveling around the country running these meetings the past several months and was worn out and such. However, it did mean that most of my planning and work of the week went to naught, and a lot of money was spent, which I may or may not receive back... I gave the veggies to my family and a few others in the village, kept the nonperishables to use when he does come, and begged my counterpart for the chicken money back.

The big achievement of the week however was starting my own garden in my backyard. My nearest PCV neighbor came by on Monday to help me dig space for the school veggie pepineer, which was a lot of work. We had to dig through 6-9 inches of hard clay before getting to soil (rectangle space about 1m x 2.5m or so), dig that up, mix in manure and fertilizer, and water. We wound up not planting the seeds for the pepineer since there still wasn’t official word on the grant, but I did spend the next few days digging up similar spaces next to it for my own garden. I planted carrots, green beans, zucchini, and pumpkins, and when the eggplant and green peppers are ready, will add those to the plot as well. It’s small because it was so much work to dig and prepare the space, but oh well. Until I talk with the teachers more about the garden and have a better timeline, I still can’t plant their veggie pepineer, unfortunately (don’t want them to be ready to be out-planted only to not yet have a fence or garden space prepared, etc).

Also, I took a TON of pictures this past week, of the people of the village, myself, my backyard, etc, so hopefully I will at some point have access to a good internet connection to upload more photos. My village has also started having weekly Saturday night wrestling tournaments. This past weekend it was Friday AND Saturday. They are an experience worthy of a good blog entry, which will come at a later point in time.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am thankful for this opportunity, to be here, serving, even though I do not always know what my purpose or work is, and experiencing a new way of life. I am thankful for my family in the village, fellow PCVs, for dancing, laughter, and having a hut to call my very own. Most of all, I am thankful for all of my loved ones in the States and around the world who have sent me mail, packages, thoughts, and most importantly, their prayers. Thank you for the support and encouragement. It means a lot, more than words can even begin to express my gratitude and amazement at all of the love, especially on the worst days, the best days, and everything in between.

Thanks. Merci beaucoup. Njookoonjal. Jeregeenjef.

Peace Corps Expansion

I wanted to include this link to a petition to President Elect Obama about his promise to double the Peace Corps. As any fellow PCV around the world would say, our budget needs o be doubled first before a surge of new Vols, but really any extra support for the Peace Corps is appreciated. If you are interested, sign this. Thanks.

http://www.petitiononline.com/morepc/petition.html

My new daily life

So last Wednesday was officially my 6mos at site; meaning, 6months after a white Peace Corps SUV drove me to my village, we danced a little, unloaded my stuff, and then drove off. It was a moment that I dreaded 9 months before I even left for Senegal—I remember reading a PC story one slow summer evening at MT that talked about such a dreadful moment—something many would liken to “abandonment.” This post isn’t about how I’ve grown and moved on from that fearful day, not at all. While it was not nearly as bad as I had long imagined (I didn’t burst into tears when Demba and Laura drove off in the PC car, leaving me behind), I am glad it is behind me. (I actually went along on an Install this past Thursday and was surprised how calm and excited the new Vol was, rather than coming across scared or nervous. She has a great attitude and will be awesome at her site!)

So, back to Wednesday: I actually forgot that it was my 6 months in Senegal until around 6:45 that evening, while taking my bucket bath in my family’s bathing area, as my area is still out of commission…stupid fence! Instead of really celebrating that day, I had a very typical “This is Africa” day and I thought it might be interesting to reflect on that in terms of what happened during the day, the abbreviated version. (I hope that the grammar tenses are not too out of whack, I was sick and exhausted while typing it, so I apologize)

7:45am: pull myself out of bed. It had been a cold night and I was wrapped in long sleeves and pants, plus my thin fleece blanket. I made some porridge (another PCV sells it for her women’s group) with banana and fake coffee with powdered milk. I spilled powdered milk and hot water over most of my table, so things had kind of cooled down by the time I sat down to eat myself, while reading Harry Potter 5.

8:15: a parade of people starts coming to my door that lasts for at least half an hour. Why they chose this particular day to interrupt me constantly so early in the morning, I don’t know, it was rather out of the ordinary. Included in this group is my sister Ndeye and her formerly malnourished baby (he’s getting chubby!), another sister asking what I do when I go out of town with my trees (ie who waters…no one so far—Again, why this was necessary before I even stepped foot out of my hut to greet people, I don’t know), and a sister offering me breakfast of millet and milk (a full two hours earlier than it was offered the day before).

9:30: I drag myself from Harry Potter to the clothes that are sitting and soaking in my large bucket of water in the backyard. My enthusiasm for hand washing laundry has considerably decreased in my 8 months here and I now barely put enough energy into it to get the smell out. I am fine with the fact that almost all of my clothes that have come to Africa will die here as well.

10ish: while stuff is still soaking, I do a brief morning greeting tour of the compound, though not many people are around as they have already headed towards the fields. Return to my hut and put the laundry on the line to dry, wash some dishes, and water my trees and recently planted flower, pepper, and eggplant seeds. Read some more Harry Potter while I wait for the kids to get out of school for their morning break.

11: Head to the school to pick the teachers’ brains about the school garden grant I’m working on. I learn a lot of things, about the garden plans, poverty in the village, and much more. And a political debate begins as well (one teacher is a Bush/McCain fan while the other is hardcore Obama). Take some pictures of where the garden will be and head off when the kids come back from the break.

Noonish: Attempt to visit counterpart as well as Sally—neither one are at their respective homes…typical. On my way from my counterpart’s to Sally’s, I greet some of the older men who are laying under a tree in the center of the village (what they do everyday…). One asks me if I have medicine for old men or just for the kids (I later realize he was talking about the vaccine drive I went on in June giving kids deworming vaccines and Vitamin A). Then he informs me that my bro Coly is looking for a 2nd wife and really likes me. They have apparently been offering other women to him, but he really just likes me. Awkward. I insist that is not good because he is my older brother and while the agree, they still maintain that my bro wants to marry me. Anyway, I head back to my hut with a horrible headache and lay down, only to be awoken a half hour later by the sound of something crunching in my backyard. The sheep have broken through and are back eating my trees again. Grr! I spend the next half hour chasing sheep and goats out of my backyard, attempting to sleep, chasing them some more (running around with a piece of millet stalk in my hand!), and then storming out into the compound looking for rice sacks or anything to repair my fence, exclaiming to the compound how annoyed I am at the animals. Everyone insists that when my bro Lamin gets back from the fields, he will fix it. Yea…

2pm: After getting harassed for sleeping midday and explaining I have a headache, it’s lunch time with both sides of the family. One side had oily rice and chicken, however the 90 yr old man kept most of the chicken for himself and after eating a few small pieces that were offered to me, I get up because I was sick of coveting the rest of the chicken in his hand. The other side of the family is still out of rice and thus had millet with some peanut sauce and the same unknown animal meat we had been eating for every meal the past few days. Head back to my hut, headache still, and read an OK! magazine that Jodi and Kurt had sent me, while trying to gather the energy to harass Lamin about a rice sack. He of course had returned to the fields by the time I come back out, however a little bit later my dad the chief comes by with rice sacks and helps me fix the gaping hole in my fence (I had been reminding them that I want to start my garden next week and things better be fixed before then!).

4:30ish: Realizing that the kids never went back to school after lunch, I head to visit the teachers again, making sure I had everything that I needed for the grant. We sit around, though the conversation quickly turns into a political/gender/racial debate of which I am already more than sick of. One teacher makes a comment pro-polygamy about all of the work for women and I had it and walk out, saying I am over this debate. They thought I was joking, but it was freeing to leave. I then head back to Sally’s compound. Sally and the rest of the women are behind their compound with many other women from the village, pounding and separating pieces of the millet stalk, under a mango tree. They start drumming and singing as I approach, so I dance for them a bit. A good time was had—they are all funny and silly—and after asking Sally some questions for the grant, I head back to my compound to bathe.

6:30: while pulling water for my bucket bath, the rope slips a lot and I am convinced that I will either lose the entire rope/bucket combo in the water again this week (I had been after since arriving of slipping and letting the thing fall into the well and it finally happened) or lose a finger trying to prevent it from happening. As I am bathing, I realize it’s my 6 months and how my day has consisted of laundry, marriage proposals, sickness, bad food, political debates, sheep, and kids (the cute, the dirty, the sick, and the screaming to my annoyance “Khady Toubab!!!!” or “White Khady!!!!”) and how this is all normal in my life nowadays. Weird huh?

8:00: send texts to fellow Vols about my 6 mos and congratulating others on their’s as well. I sit with family members, drink some bissap (hibiscus) juice and chat about random stuff. I tell them that I am going to Pulaar Land for Thanksgiving and they are utterly shocked that I would go so far away randomly (or not so randomly). Just wait until they hear that I am going to Europe for vacation in another month... The moon is full so everything is super bright (seriously, it seemed more like daylight than night, it was fabulous--if you have never experienced the full moon away from the city lights, do it! Its incredible!) and I was full of energy. Before heading to bed around 9:30ish, I have a dance party with myself in the brightness of my backyard and then curl up with Harry Potter again, thinking that it was a pretty decent and relatively normal day in Senegal.

Oh life!

6mos

Last week I celebrated 6months at site and a post is coming on that, but it might be another week. Let's just say it was a very typical day in Africa for me.

Ive been in Kaolack updating and editing my grant proposal, and suffering another round of this stupid cold that has been harassing me. I would stay in town another day, but I just heard my APCD is coming on Friday, so I need to get to the market in Passi tomorrow and buy some supplies and get out the word for a big community meeting and lunch. And rest...

This week I hope to plant my garden and start pepineering the school garden (in hopes that the grant goes through). The following week I will be heading up North to the land of the Pulaars to celebrate Thanksgiving with a bunch of other Volunteers.

That is all for now. More later.

Welcome to the Family!

The inside of the Ambassador's residence, taking the oath.  The whole place was very patriotically decorated and BEAUTIFUL!!!

The whole group after Swear In (and the ,ini burgers, but before the brownies and cream puffs!)

Yesterday, 40 new Peace Corps Senegal Volunteers swore in.  As the Ambassador reminded us, it was the same oath that Obama will take in January (with the exception of 2 words, though we dont know which those are).  They are in the programs of Small Enterprise Development (SED), EcoTourism, Agroforestry, and Sustainable Agriculture.  Welcome to the fam!

It was great being at Swear In to witness the arrival of the new Stage into the Peace Corps family.  The Country Director Chris spoke, 3 new Vols gave speeches in local languages (Maggie who gave the Mandinka one was especially awesome, though maybe 3 people in the whole room understood what she said), the US Ambassador spoke, as did someone representing Wade (the Prez here).  At night the whole thing aired on national Senegalese tv (your's truly made an appearance there too) and the event was rounded off with a party and yummy food--important for Americans as well as Senegalese

The Ambassador left us with an inspiring quote from an email:

"In 1955  Rosa Parks sat,

In 1963  Martin Luther King Jr walked,

In 2008 Barack Obama ran,

so that one day my kids may fly."

Cool, huh?

Working on slowly getting photos updated when I have time and good internet connections.  Back to the village in the am, until Thursday or Friday, Inchallah.

The Morning After

"Well, its good to be from Chicago, eh?"
--Rithvik, another Kaolack Health PCV via text


Exhausted. Lasted until 2am. Am very glad that Katie called me to let me know the results. Thanks again!

Election Edition

This afternoon, while walking to a boutique down theroad from the training center, a Senegalese man greeted me, I responded, and then he automatically asked if I voted, I responded, and then he went on lecturing how he hopes I voted for Obama blahblahblah. I walked away, letting him yell after me in Wolof.

Senegal (and most of Africa and the Peace Corps for that matter) has caught Obama fever. In my true fashion as an Independent, I usually play devil's advocate no matter which side the other person supports and I do the same here. That, and I refuse to tell anyone in my village who I voted for. While I know that most Senegalese would give me their undying support if I told them that I voted for Obama (which I did), I also dont want to fuel their fanaticism for him. Most people here support Obama not for his political views but because he is part black. Simple as that. Most people ask me, if Obama doesnt win, is it because he's black? It is very frustrating that almost every conversation about Obama here is fueled because of his skin color. People also do not seem to understand that people vote for McCain not because he is white, but because they like him and his policies. There is obviously more behind both of these men (and their running mates) than skin color or even gender. They are peoplewith ideas and policies, and none of them are perfect. It is very frustrating. However, it is good to know that if Obama wins, he will have a lot of international support, but I have to constantly tell people here that he wont be the President of the World but the President of the USA. Most do not get that, especially those in the village.

I will also say that I remember, 4 years ago, watching the last election in the 7th floor McD suite and making the prediction with a few others that in 2008, it would be Obama on the Democratic ticket. While we predicted Edwards as his running mate and that obviously didnt happen, it's still cool to see the prediction come around.

SO I am inThies, watching the election on CNN via satelite with other PCVs and trainees at a hotel in Thies. People areplanning on being here all night. I am not since I have a nasty cold or something and like sleep, however I hope Obama pulls ahead significantly before I head back to the training center. One of the teachers from my village did, however, promise to call and tell me the results at 4am or whenever things are figured out (6am or later...). I said I would probably hang up (not true if you do call me and let me know).

And that is all I will say about the candidates and whom I support. I am not a political analyst nor do I want this blog to be of a political nature. My only political message is to love each other. That, and don't be stupid.

Our Peace Corps Senegal Country Director, Chris, was just on tv, being interviewed at the Obama Viewing Party in Dakar. We were channel surfing and came across RFS, the national radio station, and were all "wait a second! we know that guy!" Yay Chris!

Going back a little, even though I did vote, I am one in the population of disenfranchised voters. 1, I'm registered in IL, a state that always goesdemocrat plus Obama is our Senator, so it's really no contest. 2, Absentee ballots are only counted if the election is close, so yet again, my vote doesn't really count. 3, The absentee ballot arrived in the mail in late September,at the end of the Rainy Season and at the height of humidity. That being said, the envelope I was supposed to return my ballot in had self-glued itself shut before I could put my ballot in. I pried it open and attempted to reseal it shut, however it looks pretty obviously tampered with and would thus be thrown out even if my vote was otherwise going to be counted. Meh, still voted, but it would be nice if those of us American citizens working for the government in tropical climates had more reliable and effective ways of absentee voting.

Ok, that is all for now. We'll see what happens overnight.

i dont really know what to call this, so back in Thies

yep, in Thies again. I am excited to be here, though also kind of mixed feelings, but it is now the last week of training for the new stage. They swear in on Friday, officially bumping my Stage into our sophomore year...err 6mos. Actually, it's almost 8 months incountry...another 12 days or so.

As illustrated in my last entry, the maps at the school are basically done. i say basically becausse i want to do a little mor eoutlining with black marker on the world map and need to add the new region of senegal. however, i am considering them done. they were a lot of work and i am glad to move on to a new activiy (and the nurse is ready for me to finally repaint the sign outside the health post, which i have been delaying due to the maps). school started about 2 weeks ago, just a little over a week and a half after it was supposed to start. my village is still waiting for another teacher to come, but that may take months. hopefully not though. ive already started talkingand working with the teachers and am really excited for my apcd to come in november and meet with the teachers to better figure out what my work here can be with them and better explain the pc approach to lesson plans. actually, i have been very impressed with my school this past week. i started talking with the director about a school garden and thenext day he broughtme a huge Projet d'Ecole in which they detailed exactly what the problems of the school are (specifically low retention rates and poor math a science scores, among others). also included in theProjet was an action plan and budget for addressing the problems, through the creation of a school bookstore (to provide low cost school supplies to all students,a big issue here), improved teachertraining and qualifications, and a school garden (nutrition and practical application of MULTIPLE shool lesson, including math, science,vocab, health, etc). I basically translated and rewrote the garden part of the Projet into anapplication for a Peace Corps grant to help fund it. I spent the better part of lastweek handwriting, typing, and running around trying to find a computer andprinter with which to print it up on. My apcd turned it in for me, so now we just wait. The school andvillage is very excited about the prospect of having a garden at the school for teaching and the vegetables to be given to the students at the lunch canteen (which will also help them improve wih their school scores through improved nutrition). Think good thoughts!

Other village updates: 2 baptisms two weeks ago, only went to one, but gotsmoe Sereer dancing in, which was fun. Now everyone is in the fields, bringing in peanuts, processing millit and corn, and whoknowswhatelse. Friday was a bit of a dramatic day in the village however. A healthy baby was morning in the early morning (delivered in town,at the health post!) and the mom is a first time mom. i sat with her and some of the older villge women a bit, talking about breastfeeding and stuff (they were shocked that american women breastfeed...). however, the afternoon was when the drama happened. a 15 year old boy the next village over was climbing a tree (getting fruit or leaves for dinner), fell, cracked his head open, and died, just an hour or so after school let out for the morning. around the same time, in my village (but the adjacent one about half a km away from themainpart), a 5 year old girl died of malaria. i did not go to either funeral (i dont think anyone wanted me to go and visit the grieving like they did), but saw the village men carry asmall wrapped in fabric body past our backyard as iwas pulling water. what is extremely sad about both is that they were both so young and these things could have been prevented (malaria more sothan the fall, but still).

that evening, one of my youngger sisters stepped on a nail or smoe otherpiece of rusty metal. another sister brought aburning stick to her mom, who proceeded to hold it up to the injury as my sister moaned in pain, which is what alerted me to the entire incident. what followed was a bit of an argument between me, her mom and dad, andthe village relai who was siting there the whole time, not really saying anything. her mom said the wood "takes out the tetanus,"to which i had to disagree as the shot is the only thing that can really help after such an injury. it turned in to a passionate argument on my side and abit of a nervous joke for my brother (her dad), him talkingabout how the shot is exensive theywouldsee how she is in the morning andmaybe takeher,etc. ikept maintaining how my brother has money bc hehas 2 cell phones, lots of animals,and wants a 3rd wife (this comment got a hysterical risefrom my sisters/his 2 other wives). it was frustrating after the2 other deaths of the day, knowing that they had no intention to take her to the healthpost to get the shot unless she was dead or almost the following morning. iguess i will find out whathappened in aweek. grrr... another reason why my village needs a health hut, it will help get rid of the excuses no to go.

on a sidenote, the 90 yr old wasslightly redeemed inmy eyes after some teachers enlightened me about smoe of the really good and honorable things he has done in his past. he also has been a big supporter this week of me writing this school grant and one of the fewwho seemed to understand what i was doing. that, and pre-foot drama friday night,he also was lecturing/encouraging a younger bro of mine who wants to quit school because he didnt pass an entrance exam last year. he kept saying how he needs to go to school if he wants tobe important and help hisfamily, etc, even as the younger bro was saying he couldnt. idont know what the outcome of the lectuer wassince it went on for like 2 hours, but school starts at the middle school on monday, so hopefully he will bethere. dontworry, i still dont want tomarry the 90yr old man. nochance.

ok, time to get out of here and visit the Thies Dioufs again. thanks for reading this random post. and no, the maps were not free-handed--i had stencils.

School Maps--done, and of course Senegal decides to add a new region...not included here

Senegal: Africa:

World:

Think of all of these times 2... so glad to be done!

Just spent the past 3.5 hours typing up a grant for a school garden. Say some prayers that it gets approved, please!

Update

Headed back to the village tomorrow...been busy-ish, though a part of me still feels like I havenot yet gotten to the health-related aspect of my work. Ondang ondang (little by little)

Just spent another week in Thies, once again helping with training (this time Emotional Health and Cross Culture). It was once again nice to be back, though I missed my training buddy Jenn. It was also really interesting to talk with the Trainees again bc now they all know their future sites and you can kind of almost see glimpses into what they will be like as future Volunteers. While they are all clean and healthy looking still, there is as significant increase in Senegalese clothing and understanding about life here. It will be cool to see what they are like just a month down the road when Swear In happens, and if all 40 of them will still be around. Cool people though and I am very excited about many of the new ones who will be coming to the Kaolack house who seem really cool.

Before leaving the village, I finished the world, Africa, and Senegal maps in Madame Evelyn's classroom. I worked really hard in the excruciating heat and humidity (and without adequate meals) to get them done before school started this past Monday. Well, that was when school was supposed to start Monday. However, teachers in Senegal have not yet been paid, so school in many parts of the country has not yet started. It started here in Kaolack, but according to my nearest neighbor, not in our area. I am not even sure if the teachers have arrived from their homes in various parts of the country, because it sounds like not many have. I will officially find out when I get back tomorrow and if school indeed hasnt started, I will try and get the maps done in the second classroom as soon as possible as well. Otherwise it may be a slow process based on when kids are NOT in school, or wait until the next teacher strike (happens a lot here...).

Before I left for Thies again, I had finally tracked down my community health relai (health educator), who I think had been out of town since late June, maybe? At first he was surprised I even knew he's a relai ("who told you that? the nurse?"), and while he wouldnt directly say he doesnt run causeries (which are educational programs in the village), he expressed his willingness to help me run causeries in the village. We had a long chat where I reminded him doing these educational sessions are his job and are very important and he seems to know his stuff, now we just need to plan them. I fully intend this next week on stopping by his compound and looking at the relai materials he told me about and planning a village causerie with him about either malaria or handwashing for within the next 2 weeks. Causeries are a big and important aspect of a Health PCVs work, and since he has been trained in doing these, I just need to "encourage" him a little. I also do not feel comfortable enough running one by myself only mainly because I want EVERYONE to understand whats going on easily and my language skills (while they are functional) are still sometimes difficult for others to follow, if they arent used to me or my accent). I think it will be best to start with either Malaria or Handwashing (diarrhea prevention). He was not there in July for the Neem Lotion causerie, so I will probably teach him that as well. We need to come up with a program lesson and then set up a date with the women's group. Should be good, God willing.

Also, in other news, my sister Ndeye's tiny and malnourished 2 month old baby is slowly gaining weight. We took him to a clinic in Foundiougne almost a month ago where he weighed in at just 2kg (4.4 lbs) and after a lot of breast-feeding coaching (bc I alone dont pull enough credibility just saying "keep breastfeeding, all of the time," even if thats what they said at the clinic, and powdered milk as well, he weighed in at 2.5kg when we took him back 2 weeks later. The ladies (nurse/nuns since it is a Catholic clinic) were very excited and I hope that when I see him tomorrow, he will have put on even more weight!

Until later...

Just kidding!

So I know that I said I was leaving Kaolack and all that jazz, but as a wise old man once taught me, "We make plans and God laughs." Actually, all day I had the intention of returning to site, but what leaving my options open as I was feeling kind of sick still and had things I wanted to do. I also had never tried leaving here in the afternoon, so I wanted to, esp because I hate leaving here in the morning only to arrive in town around noon and have the decision of awkwardly waiting around for a charret or the temperature to cool down or walking the 4ish km in the sun (almost always stopping at a tree for a rest and to read halfway through). My family claimed that the reason I was sick on Korite (read entry below) was because I had several days in a row insisted on returning from town in the afternoon heat rather than sit around. Village medicine, whatever. Anyway, I made it to the garage, leaving the Regional House a little later than originally expected, to find many cars still, but not nearly the morning buzz of cars and vendors that I was used to. I ask around and there isnt a 7Place (loaded station wagon) headed my way, but there is a bus that is going to Passi, on the road to town, where I could transfer. The bus however was only half full and knowing I didnt want to get to Passi only to have their not be any cars going because it was too late (after waiting to load up, it would have probably be 6 or 6:30 when we got there), even though it was a market day, I resigned to returning to the Regional House. There were of course many men at the garage trying to get me on the bus anyway, while others insisted that a bus to my road town was getting some repairs and would return shortly. Then a strange looking bus shows up and they tell me it is going in my direction, ask the guy, who says a different end destination that I am not familiar with but says he's still going my way and the men around insist I pay the fare and climb in. I think not. That bus was totally EMPTY and I have received one too many of Etienne's text messages warning against evening travel and even if I make it to town before dusk, it might be pretty dark by the time I got to my village (and I know hear the hyennas almost everynight, no thanks!). I know I could stay with my counterpart's family at the Health Post or call a family member to meet me with a charret, but I figured I should be smart--and the house is surprisingly almost empty, making it much more relaxing. I will head out in the very early AM back to site, to hopefully get the maps finished and a window installed by Zednesday (Inchallah).

Anyway, listed below are some other blog entries from the past week or so, please enjoy!

A Sick Vol’s Take on Korite

Sorry, this is long. You don’t have to read it all, but I wanted to chronicle the end of Ramadan even just for myself.

So Tuesday was the official last day of Ramadan, marking the end of 29 days of fasting from sunrise to sunset. The end of Ramadan was officially celebrated on Wednesday, one of the biggest holidays in Senegal (and the greater Islamic world, I presume), known as Korite. While I do not understand absolutely everything about this holiday, it mainly involves eating a lot, putting on brand new clothes, and going around and asking forgiveness from family/friends/neighbors for how you have wronged them over the past year, sharing blessings and prayers with each other. Kids also go around from house to house, dressed nicely, and people give them money. Unfortunately, I was not able to fully enjoy the fête as much as I would have liked, so here’s my take.

Tuesday night, from 10:15pm until 5:20am, the people of my village held what I believe was an all-night prayer service at the mosque. While I was not physically in attendance, the fact that my head in my bed is a mere 50m (if that) from the mosque and they hooked up a mic and amp to the only electrical source in town, I felt like I was in attendance all night, constantly waking up, hearing the chanting of prayers, and checking the time (it’s midnight/1am/3am/5am/etc). Rough night’s sleep, especially when I awoke to the chanting at 1:30am with chills and knowing I had a fever…fab). People went back to sleep for a few hours and around 7am, I stumbled out of bed, feeling sick as a dog, opened my front door (but with the curtain down so people would leave me alone), and dove back into bed. Around 8, I was roused by a sister to come for breakfast (yummy millet and sour yogurt, something I had been looking forward to since early Ramadan). However, my head was pounding too much that I could barely reply as the people at my bowl commented on how my spoon was to small to eat properly and wanting me to greet them better, etc. I threw myself into bed for another few hours, noises rising and falling and large groups of people come and go from my compound and the men go off to a huge prayer service by a mango tree (um?). Around 10ish, a group of kids knock on my door, dressed in their finest, greeting me, asking me to forgive them, and telling me directions for how to reply. My head was pounding unlike any headache I had ever had before in my life, sick to my stomach, and fighting back tears, while not really understanding what they were saying. This was a bad omen for how the rest of my morning would play out and it only got worse, as soon all of the old and important men, as well as the young university-ages ones, start coming to my door, rousing me from my bed, chair, floor, bathroom, or however I was trying to comfort my pains, all while not being dressed nice enough to compare with what the men were wearing (formal clothes vs my pjs with a pagne tied around my waist…). At one point my counterpart comes by, doing the same, and then wants to come into my hut. I try explaining that I’m sick and trying to rest, but he comes in, starts walking around talking about masons and carpenters (thanks to my fab APCD putting some wheels in motion, I should have a window in my hut within the next week), me only partially understanding. He keeps talking, my head keeps pounding, and more and more older men keep coming to my door, some wanting to come in and me trying to block others out since I didn’t want my room on display at that moment. It was rough, that’s for sure. However, one of the men who came by happens to be the mason or carpenter who will be putting in the window, so at least that got figured out, kinda.

Anyway, I couldn’t figure out if I should put my new clothes on or not, but used my sisters as a model and since they were running around in their normal chores clothes, when I stepped out I basically did the same thing. Though I was sick and they knew it, I still wanted to see what was going on with this fête (party). I watched some of my sisters cooking a goat (or lamb?) and oily noodles with onion sauce, which turned out to be the standard fare across the village for the day. I sat around with some of the kids a bit too when all of the sudden a great hoard of men and little boys come rushing into our compound, no longer as nicely dressed as they had been earlier. They hurry by, hands oily as the shake my hand and pass me by and then I realize that they are going from house to house across the village, eating as much food as possible. My sisters (both sides of the family) bring out dish after dish and bring them into different rooms. The little boys and younger men storm the rooms where they are served, grabbing handfuls of oily noodles and running out, while the older (and more “notable”) men take their time eating in private rooms. My sisters and I start making fun of one of our 18 year old bros who ran into a room, stuffed his face, and came out holding a HUGE handful of oily noodles that he proceeded to jam into his mouth as well. With a mouthful of noodles, he just insists “it’s no longer Ramadan, so of course I’m going to have fun and stuff my face!” Almost as fast as it started, the young men and boys are off to the next house, with the older men trailing after a more relaxed meal.

Sisters from both sides of my family then gather in the middle of the compound, with two or three bowls of similar yet different oily noodles and goat meat. I eat a bit, them all once again commenting on how small my spoon is and how bad it is for eating properly (we’ve been having this same discussion for 5 months, really?) and my head is pounding, so I’m not much of a sport. I quickly disappear to my room, wanting to pass out on my bed again when a knock comes and it’s one of my younger sisters with a lunch bowl from Sally, an awesome lady from my village who was with me when I fell off the charret. In it was peas in a spicy onion sauce, a hunk of presumably goat meat, and half a loaf of village bread—yum! After eating some and giving the rest back to my family, I try to pass out again, occasionally being roused with offers of juice or tea or whatever. As I’m laying there, head pounding (stupid 600 mg ibuprofen didn’t do a thing!), and the drumming on metal bowls starts…really?!?! I lay there, zoning in and out, younger kids constantly rapping on my door to get me to come out and dance. After a while, I tell myself “this is a big holiday, try and see a little bit of it,” so I go out and sit in the middle of my compound with my sisters who are just sitting around, helping the little kids get dressed in their nice and new clothes again. Kids from other compounds come around in groups, greeting but not doing anything else but awkwardly standing around for a little bit, and then continue on their way. I had heard through the grapevine something about a holiday where kids go around dressed up asking for money from people and realize that this is that holiday. Evidently, you are not obliged to give every kid money or even any of them for that matter. Some sisters gave one of their visiting friends money when she came around and she asked me for some, but still confused and sick, I just kind of sat there, only partially understanding what was going on.

After awhile, my sisters start disappearing to bathe and get dressed up and I do the same. I put on this tie-dyed dress that my Thies family gave me with my jeans (that don’t really fit anymore, mind you) since it’s a little too short to be alone and my bright blue sparkly Senegalese shoes and my family LOVED it (sorry, I don’t have any pics due to my lovely sickness). Then two of my sisters in their teens head out of the compound and tell me to follow them. Thinking it was just to do the standard apologizing (wasaani huk) of the day, I go with them, only to realize that they were dragging me around to get money in our new clothes too. Not what I had planned on… The first few houses gave us money, mainly because they were excited to see this white girl in Senegalese clothing, and my sisters were excited about the promise of lots of money from having me with them, but we soon turned into the rest of the kids awkwardly standing around and greeting people and then not being given money. I felt ridiculous because, well, I obviously don’t need the meager coins that people were giving me and should have been giving money myself, plus feeling sick, but didn’t really know how to turn back, so just went around with them and tried to be friendly and social with the people we ran into (mostly successful, though a group of older men reprimanded me for greeting the women but not the men—because they didn’t hear or respond to me when I greeted them. Whatever). It was kind of fun, kind of awkward, but let my sisters split my 100 cfe ($0.25) rather than take it myself. As we walked around, my sisters told me that there was going to be a wrestling ceremony after dinner in the village and Sally had prior told me that there would be a big drum party at the Imam’s house, so I was excited for the promise of more fête, even if I was still somewhat sick. Dinner was more of the oily rice with maybe a chicken leg and much to the protests of the family, barely ate anything. I sat around with my family for the rest of the evening as we watching Senegalese MTV, or so it seemed, waiting for the rest of the activities to start (people were still dressed up, so I figured it was for something). Well, by 10pm nothing had happened so to the protests of my family (“but today’s a fête!”), I head to bed, to curl up with Harry Potter and hope that the pains in my stomach would soon subside. Around 11 or so, still reading Harry Potter and feeling terrible, I hear someone testing a mic (again?) and soon crazy loud Senegalese club music starts blasting from near the mosque (yet again, not far from my head). I get up and see that huge lights and amps have been set up on just the other side of my fence, meaning I will get NO sleep all night, in addition to this unknown illness. Fab. Well, the party went until after 3am or so, and while I would have loved to have been dancing and enjoying such a huge holiday celebration, I was just not having it and was excited to escape here to Kaolack first thing in the morning (barely anyone in my family was awake for me to even let them know where I was going).

Such was my first major Islamic holiday in the village. Hopefully Tabaski in two months will go much better… I know fellow PCVs enjoyed the holiday, it just wasn’t my day.

First Hiccups in Africa

So today (err, last Saturday, I guess), I had what I believe were my first set of hiccups in Africa, or at least I’m pretty sure of it. How am I so sure of it, since 6 months is such a freakin’ long time to go without hiccups? Well, because it was so awkward and I don’t know/remember the Serere word for hiccups, or the French word for that matter. Anyway, here’s a slightly humorous story…or at least I hope so.

It had rained from 5:30-7:15ish AM, so there was a lot of water in the road as I walked barefoot with my 50 year old bro Ibou to town, holding my Chaco flipflops, an Entertainment Weekly magazine (thanks Jodi!), and my long skirt to my knees to that it didn’t get totally soaked in water. I had sneezed a few times and Ibou commented on it (though I had forgotten the word “to have a cold,” ie “kaa gourfeel” or “you have a cold”), we chatted briefly, and then stayed mostly silent as we weaved our way through the water-filled dirt road, avoiding puddles as best we could. The whole time I was thinking about how once I got to town, a delicious bean sandwich and fake coffee would be waiting for me (as well as a fellow PCV before we went to the last day of summer school). All of the sudden, hiccup! It was quiet and then again! Hiccup! Ibou kind of looked back, but I didn’t say anything as I tried to recall the word for hiccup, wondering if he would soon comment on it. He didn’t, leaving me hoping the hiccups would stop, but knowing it would be rude to use water to stop them since Ibou can’t drink water as it was still Ramadan. As I was thinking about how awkward my hiccupping was, but also about the cool-ishness in the air (post rain, I was almost “chilled,” so it was probably 85 or 90 degrees, let’s be honest…), I started thinking about how I’ll miss the changing seasons, especially winter in DC. Then my head automatically went to Peppermint Mochas. Yes, Peppermint Mochas. I LOVE them! They are by far my favorite seasonal drink (when properly done, of course), and I suddenly realized that I won’t be able to get one this year. It made me sad and then I thought about my proposed Euro vacay this winter and how London and Paris both have (the dreaded) Starbucks, which could (God forbid!) fill my Peppermint Mocha need this Christmas (because traditional Parisian cafés do not offer such treats). At once, I was filled with a mixture of excitement and dread, caving in to my desire for a yummy treat as to bring myself to go to Starbucks, which successfully got my mind off my hiccups. How silly is that? Anyway, when I met up with Jaime for our bean sandwich breakfast, I shared my silliness and she just thought that the connection between hiccups and Peppermint Mochas was too funny and that I definitely needed to turn it into a blog post.

So I did. The End.

Brief update

So I had a few different blog entries to post, however in my continual fabulous luck with computers in Senegal, especially Kaolack as of late, this computer does not have Word so it wont let me open my saved entries on my thumb drive. Alas, another time...at least there is power right now (after waiting for it to come back on for 10 minutes).

So yea, in dirty and disgusting Kaolack right now. Hopefully will be headed back to site this afternoon, after lunch and a nap since I havent slept well in a few days. School starts a week from Monday, God willing, so I need to work hard this week to finish the world maps I am painting on the walls of the two real classrooms at my school. The world, Africa, and Senegal maps are mostly completed in one of the rooms, now it just needs finer details and touchups, while the other still needs them all to be traced and painted. I am not sure that will all get done, but we shall see. Little by little.

My APCD came to visit me and have a village meeting about a week ago, to start talking about my work and informing my village that procuring a health hut is not my sole responsibility. While I think people understood a lot of what he was talking about with development and thinking about village health problems, it really only served as a reminder for them to keep telling me how much they want a health hut (like a small first aid/delivery clinic). I want and plan to help them take the steps to start developing one, but that is a big project that can take several years, so I dont want to have the pressure of their expectations that I will get it done in my two years here. If it happens, fabulous. If I only help start getting people to work their trained and help them start raising money but my replacements actually get it built, that should be ok as well. Alas.

Also in the past week, with the end of Ramadan, I have officially started reading the Harry Potter series. I am planning on finishing 2 before leaving Kaolack and taking 3 and 4 with me back to the village. I feel like a 12 year old, its fabulous!

Ok, that is basically it. While I have real updates, I guess you can all wait until I have better internet access to read it. Thanks for the emails, letters, and packages. Love you and miss you all... I am almost 7 months in!

Six Months in Senegal, A Reflection

Well, this is not really a reflection as much as it is a list of observances. A reflection might imply it is more personal or with really deep insights. This is neither, really.


So this past weekend I celebrated my official 6 months In Country, as we say. Yea, 6 months, weird huh? When a fellow PCV in another country near me hit her 6months, she wrote an email listing all of the things in her life that had drastically changed, keeping tally in a way of her different experiences. While I don’t have a tally, I have some general thoughts, listed in no particular order

Ways my life has changed in the past 6 months:
-I now get almost daily marriage proposals
-I bathe outside in the sunlight, with a bucket and well water
-I live in a 3x4m hut with a grass roof, `nuff said
-I am malnourished… (working on overcoming that though)
-Coffee is Nescafe with powdered milk rather than a beautiful and delicious latte
-I LOVE buckets
-I hand wash and line dry all of my clothing
-Rarely do I really understand what is going on around me
-I can use up to 4 different languages in daily interactions
-I realized that I cannot kill every cricket in my room, but have the right to be annoyed by them, but especially by frogs and mice in my hut
-I am rarely ever actually clean
-I hate traveling in this country, but also cannot stay in my village for more than a few weeks without going more than a little crazy.

Ways my life has remained the same:
-Ridiculous things happen to me or around me on a daily basis
-I have great friends and family (in the States and in Senegal)
-I love mail and email
-Simple things make me happy
-I dance a lot
-Oatmeal with peanut butter and bananas is still my favorite breakfast, when chocolate chip pancakes aren’t available
-Crowds and lots of people overwhelm me
-I journal a lot

There are a lot more than listed for both, but these are the ones that really stood out in my head as I sat typing at the Kaolack computer this morning.

It is crazy to think about how much things have changed in my life in 6 months. I constantly feel torn between thinking I still know nothing about life here and realizing how much I do in fact know. I’ve been here 6 months, but that’s still only 6 months. However, I was able to reasonably answer new trainees questions about life in Senegal, which made me realize I do actually know a lot. Another Volunteer, 1 year in, mentioned that 6months in Vols shouldn’t be invited to help with PST because we are too new and thus know nothing, but then some COSing Vols stood up for us, saying the first 6months is when you really learn the most in the shortest period of time because life is just soooo different and you have to adapt fast. It was energizing meeting the new trainees and knowing that my Stage is no longer the newest group In Country. I see some things in them that remind me of my Stage and it’s good to be able to observe things in them that I’m sure the Vols we met during PST saw in us. Really, it is like high school or college. My Stage is now the sophomores of PC Senegal, or "wise fools" as the word means. I think it is quite fitting.

back in Thies...again?

Yep, i am back in Thies (and on this blasted XO laptop again), just 2 weeks after the end of IST. Why you may ask? Well,I was kindly invited to help prepforthe new stagiares (trainees) whoare in flight to Senegal as we speak, inshallah. I have been here since Sunday and will be here until next Wednesday morning, after they have headedto their village homestays. Myself along with another are working hard on rewriting some of the cross culture assignments trainees have as well as orienting them around Thies and probably leading some cross culture and adaptation sessions. We are both freakishly excited to meet these new kids. Arrival in Country is traumatic and while I am glad not to have to do it again for the first time like I did that late night back in March, but I am looking forward to seeing the responses of the new trainees.

Right before I came back here however, I was actually kindof having work todo...ieI went toplace outsidemy compound and sat whilepeople talked. Ididnt do anything, but itlooked like it. Just kidding. I actually did start helping with my village's summer school session, mainly with English for the middle and high school students. Nevertheless, it has been fabulous (and exhausting) to be back here in Thies,working hard. Its a good feeling.

So this Saturday marks my 6months in Senegal and hopefully I will have agood post in celebration...or not. I cannot believe that we are approaching 6 months and nolonger thenewbies. Even weirder isto think that fall isapproaching in theStates. Bizarre...

All for now.Maybe i will have some good stories later this week, we shallsee. Also, still thinking about a vacay around the holidays. If you areinterested, please let me know. Also, now is time to start entertaining the idea of a visit toSenegal smoetimeinthe next year and a half. However, itis not for the faint of heart.

back in the Delta!

Hi friends. Unfortunately, I dont have a lot of time for a long post as I am nearing the end of my hour of internet here in Foundiougne, but I did want to send a brief update. First of all, after being lectured by the postman on Sunday, I finally made it back out to the Post Office here in Foundiougne and to my great surprise, found several packages and letters, so thank you everyone very much! (V, I didnt receive yours, but I am sure its on the way)

I arrived back at site Thursday evening and just yesterday had the chance to finally unpack and give out the last of the cadeaux I had brought back from Thies. There was a big US AID funded summer camp in town that Jamie orchestrated, so I was there, standing around and occassionally helping with murals. It was good to see the camp because that may be a project for me to work on next summer after sshe has COSed. Daniel, a Vol from Kedegou, came through our area Friday and was at camp and my site as well which was fun. We went down to the river, which was at unusually low tide, and saw a few flocks of flamingos!!! I had never seen them outside of a zoo or Disney World and man, they are beautiful (and pink)!

Yesterday was the only day I have had yet to relax, clean, and unpack, and man was all of that necessary. During my time away, a plague Moses-style was cast on my hut, complete with lots of mice, frogs, crickets, weeds, and many different types of animal feces. Oh Africa. And yet with all of these animal adventures, I am still here, remarkably. As my sister said, "I am just trying to imagine how you, of all people, are doing with all of these critters." Haha, yea, me too. This week might be busy-ish as well. Post office/market/etc today, meeting with an NGO in town tomorrow (not exactly sure what for, but they approachedme during the summer camp and asked me to come), ans summer school in the village starts Thursday and they want me to at least come the first day. I am glad to have stuff to do...my huge pile of laundry can wait until next weekend, I hope.

Ramadan started today, we shall see how this turns out!

Pics

With the fam: Codou, Me, Moussa

(full photo shoot available on my picture website)

Me and my bro Ameth--he's a science and math teacher in a nearby village
Oumi and I
Watching the Olympics on our last day of training, I think it was an intense track event that the US won...
Typical lunch at the center: rice with meat/fish in huge bowls
My village family would probably fit 20+ people around a bowl this size. At the Center, we average 3-5...

I’m an Aunt!!!! (again)

Haha, Katie don’t kill me, I’m only kidding. Well, not really. I have a newborn nephew. I just found out that my 22-year old sister in the village gave birth to a son last Tuesday. I talked to my family twice in the past week and did anyone mention this? No, of course not. It’s evidently not news. I found out from one of the teachers who lives in Dakar right now, today when she called me this morning after I texted her telling her I was in her city. Sadly, I am missing the baptism which I believe is today and is also when the baby will receive his name. I was hoping for a girl because of the 4 babies in my compound right now, 3 are boys, but I’m just glad that they are both fine. I was hoping to be around for the birth as well as the baptism, but I don’t doubt that one of my many fertile sisters in the village will get pregnant and deliver in the next year and a half, though we will see.

Anyway... Greetings once again from Dakar! I’m here for a mixture of med appointment and SENEGAD (Senegal’s Gender and Development Program) meeting, after finishing IST on Saturday. Dakar is full of PCVs right now bc there is an Environmental Ed conference, COS conference (for those finishing their service in the next few months), plus SENEGAD meetings. Most of my stage came here together after going down to Mbour for a day on the beach Saturday. Many Vols have new Dakar homestays with ExPats, but I didn’t get one and am staying in the Med Hut bc of my appointment and the fact that a cold decided to be kind enough to visit me from Saturday afternoon on.

IST is now over, which is really crazy. We are not just official sworn-in Vols (we were that in May), but now we are just 2.5 weeks away from being PC Sophomores as the next Stage arrives in country September 11 (really, ndigil ndigil?). Yea, unbelievably my Stage has been here 5.5 months, which seems crazy—time has both flown and dragged (ie neverending hot days in the village). To any future PC Senegal trainees out there, welcome! Get excited bc this will be the most exciting, insane, amazing, and generally ridiculous 2+ years of your life, or at least mine is going that way already… Get over yourselves before coming here and be prepared to learn to laugh at yourself, otherwise you won’t survive. Oh, and eat a lot of good food (fruits, veggies, dairy, coffee!) before you come here, just a suggestion.

I’m coming out of IST with some basic Wolof skills, which is fab, even though I found I wasn’t super excited to learn it (Serere pride I guess), but it’s nice to be able to understand a little more of what is going on around me. I also learned practical skills like gardening, murals and visual aids, porridge making, and creating new and innovative lesson plans to help the teachers teach health and environmental-related classes in the elementary and middle schools. We also heard from different NGOs and US development programs, discussing their work in different parts of the country (very few health-related programs exist in the Delta, which is dumb but maybe we can change that...) and how we as Vols can collaborate with them on projects and work more efficiently. The whole IST was a mixture of empowering (yes! Ideas! I can really do this!) and overwhelming (shoot, where do I even start?!) at once. Thankfully, my APCD is going to go on tourney after Ramadan ends at the end of September, to every health and EE site, to meet with village leaders, and help them create a long-term Action Plan to address the problems and needs of the community. The Action Plan will serve as a guide for my priorities throughout my service and will carryover to the Volunteers that will replace me after my two years of service in the Delta. I’m really excited about this meeting, though it probably won’t happen until November because my APCD has a ton of sites across the country to visit. I feel like while I don’t know exactly how my work is going to start out, there are some potentially big events on the calendar for the next few months, which will make long village weeks much more tolerable.

On that note, I’m getting ready for a vacay, it’s needed. I’m not taking it right away, but am exploring the possibility of a trip to Europe in December or January and am putting out the call to any loved ones out there interested in meeting up with me somewhere—wherever it may be (Eastern/Western/Northern/Southern Europe, or even Morocco or Egypt). Many people from my Stage are planning vacations for that time as well, whether to other places in Africa, Europe, or the States (which I would do, but have already promised to come back next summer for various special events). It’s been forever it seems since I took a vacation and am thinking by then I will be about 9 or 10 mos in country and will need a breath of fresh air, even if I’m not sure exactly how I will afford it, but hopefully loans won’t have totally eaten away all of my personal money by then. A fellow Vol is planning on being in Paris during that time so I may plan it with her, but would love an opportunity to see anyone willing to make the trip. Please think about it and let me know if you are interested.

Well, this is a pretty long post. I will probably post once more before going to the village, but that’s all depending on internet reliability and power, so one never knows in this country. For those of you who have kindly sent mail my way, I’m headed to the post office next Tuesday (inshallah) to pick it up and hope the post people aren’t too angry with me or try and overcharge me for the fact I haven’t been there in a month, we’ll see. Also, thanks for the blog comments, I love checking them and am glad to see my family members are tackling the world of blogs. Heidi, my friends here are continually impressed by your use of haikus to comment. Way to be!

Sunday

It is a sunday inthise, which means all volunteers arecampedd out at the 3 cafes in townwith wierless, attempting to getstuf done,moe or less successully. less for me,however, i did, with the helpof marissa's computer, upload a bunch ofpics to my picassa album, so checkthem out!

trainingis goingwell. wolof isstarting to makesense, evenwith the melange of languages flooting through my head, english, french, serere, and now wolof. im really enjoying having a fixed schedule these few weeks, soi am not minding the long days and extrawork. not at all, though i may be aminority.

just one mor eweek of training left...then to dakar sunday for a meeting with other volunteers to giveout scholarships to girls for lycee for this coming school year. i will probably be backin thevillge next thursday or friday. then ramadan starts monday...yipee...

dad, yes,thetypos arefrom this crazy laptop. le pere de cru, "cru" and i just had a convo about how poorly this computer actuallyworks.

Maangiy dox

(I am walking, en wolof)

So we ar enow inweek 2 of IST and inmany ways it still feels like the fisrtweek, mainly bc the languageclasses started this week which also means that mostof the language tutors showed up for the first time since PST and the center feels like "normal." I started Wolof, which will become the 3rd foreign language I usein country. i am bsically learning it to better communicate wiht people outside of mysmall serere village. while i dont really want tolearn it right now, bci still dontknow serere perfectly, i recognize thatit will be a goodskill to have. alli really want to learn, however, is to convey basic ideas while shopping at the market and how to insult children/men in wolof when theyannoy me and theserere doesnt work9like when i am inkaolack). wolof is going ok and it is much easire thn serere grammtically speaking, howeve i am constantly mixing up serere words with wolof and remember how hard i twas to just start learning serere backin march too. that being said, iam still known aroundthe training center to most people as "serere oo,"rather than by my name, american or senegalese. as a serere, it basically meanstht anyone and eveyone willpick on and tease me at thecenter bc as one of twoserere speakers (and theres only a smallgroup of staffers who speak the language) i am in a smallminority. its okthough bc they only do it bc they knowi can take it and dish it back out too, lol. thatbeing said, if i had been assigned to another languge, i doubtiwould hve themerelationship wiht all of the taff that i have right now. as a fellow vol said thisweek, "who knew how much thelanguage you were assigned in the fisrt week in country would come to impact all ofyour interactions here?"

well, i am going togo now. i have wolof homeworkand it isgettingdark. the lightbulb inthe shower t myhomestay dosntwork anymore, so iam going tohaveto take a showerinthe pitch black, whether itake it tonight or wait until tomorro am before training. talk to you alllater and sorry for the typos and lack of spaes, this xo is weird...

Olympics

So the Olympics started this week. I absolutely love watching the Olympics and basically spend the 14 days with the TV constantly turned to NBC, or whoever happens to be airing them, and fully or partially paying attention to the different events. I realized it will be another 4 years before I get that chance again. You see, the next Olympics will be in 2010, winter, and unless the Winter Olympics aren't until May, I will still be in Senegal, and will thus have to wait until Summer 1212 to see friendly international competition aired 24/7. This being said, here in Thies, we are not totally cut off from this international event, thankfully. In fact, right as the lunch drum sounded on Friday, many of my fellow Vols were parked in front of the tv in the foyer of the training center. The program? Not wacky Senegalese wrestling or soccer or even Coeur de Peche (a ridiculous Brazilian soap opera dubbed in French and on tv almost every night). No, it was the Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics! A few people even brought a lunch bowl into the foyer to watch the crazy lights and girl flying from a kite, though most of us just returned to the foyer after we were finished with our maffe and rice. We returned and didn't leave for an hour and a half... Now, to be fair, there was a point to our lengthy watching...we were waiting for the US and Senegal, our two countries (though some claim Canada, Ethiopia, and Ireland as well), to walk their athletes across the arena. So we waited. And waited. And waited, all the while making comments (see Alexis' blog for some fab quotes) about the athletes of large and small countries alike, commenting on costume, size, appearance, names, anything to occupy the time. (That, and acknowledging how great they all look while we look varying degrees of sickly...jk!) After an hour, the US finally shows up, looking slightly like sailors, but it brought a cheer across the room, filling us all with pride and amazement at the sheer size of the US Olympic team. But that wasn't enough...we needed to see Senegal. The drum for class came and went, until we were all over 30 minutes late to our afternoon session. Where was Senegal? No clue. Trainers came and went until Demba finally unplugged the TV and forced us all to class. Apparently the Olympic spirit doesn't carry all of the way over here, because our trainers called us silly for wanting to see the Senegalese team walk across the arena, in whatever costume was chosen for them (we all hoped for some wax and crazy Pulaar pants!).

Then again, it is hard to justify the importance of the Olympics in a country where the majority of the population has to worry about whether or not the impending harvest will be adequate enough to feed their families.

I love the Olympics, but this was just a thought brought up by another Vol when a family member back in the States asked about Olympics excitement over here.

Thies time

Quick note from IST in Thies...

Coup today in Mauritania, no probs here though PCSenegal is monitoring things. There hasnt been any violence, so things are relatively calm, just a little exciting, lol.

Danny G, yes that is the correct address.


So I am using my weidr XO laptop that sadly wont letme upload pictuers or anything like that. Lameness. At some point, I will once again update pictures again. Someday...

Training going well and its fab to see everyone from my Stage again. Sorry to keep this so short and lame, but I needto gethome now. Hope everyoneis enjoying the start of August!

Almost there

Dear friends, I have almost made it through the first 3 months at site, as IST starts Monday. I am really looking forward to IST, being in Thies again (electricity and running water!), seeing the Vols from my Stage, and getting away from the village for the intense August rains. I am hoping to head out of the village Thursday and spend a few days in Kaolack (to do some work pre-IST) before hopefully heading up to Thies on Saturday; though it may be Sunday, depending on what my fellow Vols in Klack want to do. Tomorrow I will be hosting my first "formation" in the village, teaching a small group of women how to make Neem Lotion, a natural mosquito repellant made from the leaves of the Neem Tree. Hopefully it will go well (think good Serere thoughts for me please) and people will use it. I already know of two women (one of my sisters, a young mother of at least 5 or 6 kids, and another friend in the village, mother of her own army of children) in my village with probable Malaria, but they cant or wont go to the Health Post, luch against my protests and insisting someone take them. However, money is low, the Post is far away, and most of the charrets are in the field. Its crazy scary and frustrating that they cant go to the HPost, esp since Malaria cases are only going to rise from here on out.

I just picked up a few more packages/letters from the Post Office. I guess some others are on their way, but will have to wait until the end of August for me to pick them up. Thank you all very much, I am very excited and it means a lot to know people are thinking and carring about me. I love you all and my next post will either be from Thies or Kaolack, depending.

Quick Q

For those of you who are tech inclined, how does one get blog updates emailed to you? I want to do what I can to stay on top of fellow PCVs and friends' blogs, but cant figure out if its w Google Reader or otherwise.

Sorry for this pathetic post, I had one about the great guests I had last weekend, but Internet Explorer freaked out. Annoying.

Oh yea, I actually have a job here...

Hey Friends. Once again in dirty, annoying Kaolack.

So I’ve come to the realization that my blog mostly shares the horrors and ridiculousness of my Service thus far, so maybe I should actually share a little about my job and what I’ve been doing (or should be doing) with these first few months at site (and honestly, the first few months following IST which starts in just two weeks). This has been spurred by reading fellow Vols blogs and remembering, “hey, I’m actually here to do something, maybe people are interested in that too?” We shall see.

I came here for a meeting with my new APCD over the new direction of the Health Education program. The meeting was a good chance to sit down and talk about ideas for training and what we want the program to be, and while it was a tad frustrating, it was overall good. I think I went off a little over my own frustrations with some aspects of my assignment, but I think he has a better understanding of the importance of proper site selection and Volunteer placement for the future. [Note: there’s nothing wrong with my placement, I merely commented on the fact that the Nurse (one of my counterparts) doesn’t actually speak Serere nor really know much about the Peace Corps and if I wasn’t able to effectively communicate in French, it would have been a disastrous and ridiculous pair-up. I just really wanted to make sure that they know issues encountered for future groups.] It was also a good chance to share my desire to work more with the schools than the health posts as well.

Anyways, so as many of you may know, during these first three months at site, we aren’t really supposed to do much “real work,” like projects and such. Instead, we are supposed to focus on getting to know our villages (integrating), learning about the area, and learning the language. This is hard and also basically means a lot of sitting around, or wandering around, hoping someone wants to talk to you. It would be a lot easier if I was good at small talk and/or had a better grasp on Serere, which I do not. As part of learning about the area, we are supposed to ask a lot of questions, about everything from health to crops to families to education, etc. Health Volunteers have what is called a Community Health Survey to complete, by going house to house, or otherwise collecting a decently-sized sample of the community. It asks about things such as sanitation (Do you have a douche/toilet? Do you clean it?), maternal and child health (Do you give birth at home or at the Health Post? At what age do you begin weaning your child? With what foods?), basic illnesses (What are the most common diseases in your village?), food and nutrition (How often do you eat vegetables/meat/fish?), and water management (Where do you get your water? Where do you store it? What do you do with it before drinking? What do you do with dirty water?). It is basically an attempt to learn about the health practices of the village, not to mention work on the language and meet/hang out with people. After some procrastination (and language frustration, let’s be honest), I started conducting my survey with my counterpart. It basically involved me translating the questions from English to Serere, talking over them with him, and then him basically asking all of the questions very quickly as we went house to house, me understanding about 70% of what was said (and by 70%, probably 50%, lol). We’ve done it two different afternoons so far and will do at least two more afternoons together, then I may wander alone to the places we didn’t get, though I’m getting a pretty good idea of the answers, or at least what they are telling me. The reality and what they tell me though may be very different things. It’s interesting and eye-opening to say the least.

Sometimes I wonder if my counterpart was feeding people the answers, especially to the question, “Why do you want a Volonteer? What are the major health concerns of the village?” The answer to both of those is “We should have a health hut, with medicine, and maybe a communally shared charret to take people from the village to the Health Post in Djilor, esp for those who don’t have charrets or when the charrets are in the fields and people don’t have time to take away from the fields.” That, and “we should have a millet grinder because pounding millet is hard on the body.” (Note: we do have a millet grinder, but it hasn’t worked in over a month, for some unknown reason) Great, all anyone will tell me is that they want a health hut, a charret, and a millet-grinding machine. Good start, but those are not going to be easy things to tackle or even good places to start out in my work. We are supposed to come up with a plan of things to tackle in our communities, a combo of our own ideas and what the community wants and needs. I’ll add a health hut to the list, but the village also has other issues like hygiene, nutrition, and Malaria, not to mention training people in the village to run health education programs and work with the schools. I feel like my list of things to tackle grows on a weekly basis. Exciting but very overwhelming as I have no idea of where to start, esp with my current language level. O ndang o ndang (little by little).

Part of the difficulty though with starting the survey now (though I don’t really have much choice, IST starts in 2 weeks), is that everyone goes to the fields on a daily basis here in the Delta. The millet was planted over a month ago, so it’s now coming up, as are the weeds. That basically means that everyone except the really old, really young, or very pregnant (so the men, women, teens, kids), go to the fields from 7:30 until 6:30 or so, to weed, re-seed, and who knows what else. I’ve gone a few times, but don’t go everyday because, well, I have other stuff to do, both around my hut and in preparation for IST. It’s definitely weird being around though because it’s just the 4 really old people at my compound, a few of the babies (those under 4), and me, the crazy white girl who reads and writes a lot. And now that the teachers are gone, there’s no one else hanging around that’s not a farmer with fields and crops. It makes for a creepy and deserted feeling around the village during the late morning and afternoon. The women, of course, are the champions. They are up before sunrise pounding millet for breakfast (I heard my sister once around 5am), cook, do laundry, sweep, etc, then work in the fields, one or two come back to make lunch and take back out to the fields, work, come back around 5:30 or so, pound more millet, cook, bathe children, eat dinner, and then even after dinner, around 9pm or so, sit in the dark sifting millet for the following day’s meals—While the men rest. It’s kind of ridiculous, but they are definitely the champs, so strong and yet totally exhausted by the end of the day.

Here’s a common convo I now have on a daily basis, translated from Serere:
Person: You don’t go to the fields?
Me: Yes, I went yesterday but I didn’t go today.
Person: You have a field?
Me: No, I don’t have a field.
Person: You don’t have a field? (shock and disbelief) You can’t farm, can you?
Me: I can farm.
Person: You can farm?! (shock and disbelief again)
Me: Yes, I can farm, I can gnos (basically weed, with a spade-like tool).
Person: You can gnos?! (more shock and disbelief)
Me: Yes, I can gnos. (I walk toward them in the field, take their tool and start weeding) I can gnos, I have a gnosi (the thing you weed with)
Person: You have a gnosi?! (shock and disbelief) You can gnos! Oh Khady Diouf, haha
(I walk away, glad to have shown them that I can indeed gnos, even if I don’t have a field and am not actually a farmer)

However, I have only gnos-ed for a few hours at a time, whether in the field or in my backyard, and doubt my ability to spend 10 hours a day in the fields gnos-ing. The farmers (ie everyone here) are tough, but I guess, they have to be, their food supply for next year depends on it. This is subsistence farming, ladies and gentlemen, not the big corporate or otherwise subsidized farms of the US. There’s a food crisis and the people of the Delta are doing everything they can to keep food in their bellies. Makes you appreciate what we have, doesn’t it?

Other things to work on pre-IST while people are in the fields include maps of my village and what’s around as well as a map of what’s in town, lists of activities I’ve done to “help with my integration” (uh, I sit around in the day, and walk around the village in the late afternoon and greet people…I dance at baptisms, is that enough?), and a kind of analysis of the health situation in the village, done through the help of the Health Survey. We are supposed to write something up as well as do like a 15 minute presentation at IST…we’ll see how those go.

I’m going to go now that this post is ridiculously long and full of insanely long run-on sentences. Please don’t judge me J