The Start of Junior Year...

(Note: I am not pictured above)

As PCVs, many of us joke or at least refer to our Service as very similar to high school (which it is in many different ways, which are not the subject of this post), and for my Stage, Junior Year (halfway point) started as a group of 26 awesome people swore-in as the newest Peace Corps Senegal Volunteers! Don't they all look beautiful?! Congratulations!!!!!

It has been a pleasure for me to be involved in their PST, spending time with them and Training Staff in order to improve the quality of PC PST for future groups. While I've been mostly involved with the cross-cultural aspects, as a year-in Health PCV, I've been able to offer some technical/work advice (and learn a lot of new things in the process as well!). The entire Stage was very friendly and welcoming to me throughout the length of training and I am going to miss them all a lot. Fortunately, some of them are going to be my newest neighbors: Marie Diouf (Mary) and Moustapha Senghor (Chris). We took a picture of the old and new Djilor groups, but I think that they are on Jaime's camera because I definitely do not have them on mine, so those will come in time.

So, life is pretty crazy work-wise right now, which is a blessing and a bit of a surprise. I was just in Thies, as already mentioned, finishing up stuff with PST and working on the evaluation of the new Cross Culture book I helped put together for training. In June, probably, I will go back or at least spend some time in Kaolack editing and getting the next edition ready for the August 2009 Stage and prepping stuff for their PST (since I will, Inchallah, be in the US right before their arrival).

I was also around for the end of the Counterpart Workshop, where Trainees and their work partners meet, talk about PC stuff, and plan the first several months of their Service. It's nice to have counterparts learn about PC and PCV work, because they can usually better explain it to other community members once the PCV is Installed at site. Mary and Chris' counterparts were there, all of whom I have met and could chat with, as was Jaime, which was cool. What was weird though was that not one of them (4 Senegalese, plus Jaime) did NOT recognize me when they first saw me. Why? Perhaps because I was wearing jeans and a nice shirt rather than an old wrap skirt (pagne, laapa), or perhaps because I was showered and my hair was down (curly and to Jaime's surprise, quite blond!). I greeted them in Serere and they just gave me weird looks, not knowing who I was at first. Jaime told me that later they said they were surprised that "Khady looks nice!" haha, yep...not even kidding. I guess I clean up ok, but must be a pretty big mess when I'm just in the village. Not really a surprise to me though.

Hopefully my next post will have an introduction to Khady Diouf ondep (little Khady Diouf, my namesake), my sister Diboor's new baby girl, born the day before I headed up to Thies. [Note: Diboor walked the 4km to Djilor to deliver at the health post because her husband had taken the charet to the fields and no one else passed her on the way in. She then delivered almost immediately. Next time you are in labor, imagine walking that distance in the African sun...no thank you!] She is the 4th baby to be born in my compound since I've been there, and the 4th baptism I've missed. I'm a pretty horrible aunt. I will also try and get a picture of "James" Ndaar Diouf, Khodya's baby boy born just a few weeks before little Khady, and unofficially named after my US dad. I'm excited to get to know these two little babies (James cries A LOT...), esp since Ndeye took Baby Ibou (the formerly malnourished baby, who happens to be the light of my life here in Senegal) away (just to Kaolack, but she doesn't have a phone and I have no way of contacting her) until Tabaski (December...). I was sooooooooooo sad when they left, but hopefully Ndeye has some work or something to help take care of her and Ibou (since his father claims he's not the father--jerk!). Rhoky will hopefully be delivering within the next month or two so there will really be lots and lots of babies around the compound!

Sorry for such a random post...this week will be tree nursery planting, Mary and Chris' Installs, the first girls' reproductive health session at a new middle school, and major latrine project stuffs. I'll hopefully be back in Kaolack in another week to work with some other PCVs on some joint projects (theater group health tourney, Serere dictionary, etc). My one year at site is coming up in just 2 weeks and it's great to have lots to do!

Not just any ordinary Sunday...

Happy Easter Everyone!!!!!!!!!! From the looks of facebook, the weather (in DC and CL) was beautiful today so I hope you all enjoyed such an awesome holiday.

My Easter was fine, nothing spectacular though the highlights include a phone call from Josh and loaded Kraft Mac and Cheese for dinner (including packaged salmon, dried veggies, extra cheese, plus some French wine). I went to mass at the cathedral in Kaolack this morning. I could have stayed at site and hoped the priest would show up at the church in Djilor, but I didn't want to take the chance and miss out on Easter mass. Pretty good music, but a good majority of the homily was in Wolof and I don't understand Wolof enough to follow it in such a situation and had to prevent myself from dreaming up clothes to have made. A bunch of babies were baptised and many kids also received their First Holy Communion (they didn't have an Easter Vigil service), so that was pretty cool. Though it didn't particularly feel like Easter (there weren't any events leading up to it, I was the only PCV celebrating it in Kaolack, plus Senegal is like 90% Muslim even though a lot of Sereres are Catholic, I just don't know many of them), it's amazing to know that no matter what, He rose so things can rock. Good day!

On a side note, I think a shopping trip is an order upon my return to the States after COSing next year. I really want some new cute stuff (I've been facebook stalking just to keep up on the fashions...I think I have a problem, lol) and that's been on my mind lately (hence the mentally designing clothes while in church...). I have plenty of village appropriate clothes, but am just looking forward to nice stuff again. Just 12 months to go--CRAZY!

Back to the village tomorrow for just 3 days, then up to Thies again. Lots of stuff coming up and my calendar is pretty booked, but that's a good feeling. I need to get on the same page with Marc before he leaves his village next week with regards to our latrine project, etc. Also this week, meeting with the Djilor middle school principal about the PC Scholarship program and meeting with the Sadioga middle school principal about bringing a sexual education program to the school. Lots and lots to do!

A call for posts!

I just wanted to give a chance for any of you who so faithfully (or not) read this blog, to ask questions or give suggestions on topics you want me to write about, with regards to life in Senegal, Peace Corps, culture, work, etc. Even though I only have internet access every few weeks, even then I sometimes don't know what to write about, esp since for the most part, projects take a really long time (a few or several months at least) to complete, so I feel like any update about work is really just the same thing from week to week and don't know if it really necessitates a post. Ya know?

Also, shout outs to the awesome peeps at Women for Women International for an awesome Inauguration-inspired care package (Obama face cookies!), to Suz for keeping me fed with oatmeal and updated on current events with a liberal bias (ala old Time Mags), and for Kurt and Jodi (Jan too, prob?) for keeping me up to speed on all of the hottest celebrity gossip. As always, I love all letters and care packages and really appreciate people taking time (and money in a horrible economy, or so BBC tells me) and sharing their love. You all rock!

Spring Break? What spring break?

Yea, I would love a spring break. A chance to get away from the daily hustle and bustle and to a nicer climate...

Wait a second! Where am I? DC or Senegal?

Yep... well, technically it is the end of a two-week Easter Break for most of the students in Senegal (though Senegal is about 90% Muslim, they take both Muslim and Catholic holidays off, meaning kids are rarely ever in school). These past two weeks found me in the village, keeping busy even though I couldn't do any work that was school related (such as lessons or making a tree nursery, etc).

The week before last, my two future neighbors, Chris and Mary came to visit our area and see their future sites (Chris is replacing Jaime and Mary is replacing Marc). The really cool thing about training now is that current trainees have a week where they shadow a current PCV and for most of them, have a chance to visit their future site if they are replacing a COSing (leaving) PCVs. They met their families, saw some of our fave spots in the area, and had their first interactions with the crazy Serere Saloum language spoken in our villages (as opposed to the Serere Sine taught in Thies). I spent some time with them, helping supervise mural paintings in Jaime's village, filling sacks for a tree pepiniere in Marc's village, and tagging along on a trip to a protected forest/mangrove area that Marc's village, my village, and two others oversee. It was just unreal realizing that very shortly Marc and Jaime, two people I heavily rely on for support and work help, will be leaving the area (Jaime to the US and Marc to Dakar). The people of the area will also miss them both a lot--Marc speaks almost perfect Serere and knows all of these old Serere stories and expressions of speech that I have no hope of learning (his dad is super old and knows a lot) and Jaime is a bubbly personality and due to her Wolof skills, can speak to anyone in the area she wants. I'm the crazy Serere-speaking lady who walks so fast no one can keep up with me, or so I'm told. Haha.

Mary and Chris were also around for the 4th (of April)--Senegalese Independence Day.
The excitement in Djilor was high as random school and culture groups marched down the main drag (ie the only street). It wasn't quite the 4th of July in CL, but still enjoyable. Lots of people and cashew apples (see pic--so delicious and weird!) and salad for lunch, so it was a pretty enjoyable holiday. That afternoon, our Country Director made his first trip to our part of the Delta, checking out all of our sites. He saw my village's school garden and was quite impressed and the other PCV with him (the famous Gallo Ba) made some great suggestions for improving water retention and continuing things with the garden. Fab!

Sunday I rested (Alhumduilliah!) and then spent Monday waiting for a study abroad student to come visit me for the week. She has been studying in Dakar since September and as part of their program, they go on rural visits, often with NGOs or PCVs (though I don't quite see how Kaolack is considered a rural visit...), to see life in real Senegal--ie NOT Dakar. My family and village loved having her around and I'm sure will talk about it for the remainder of my service--we taught the kids the Macarena for gosh sakes! Tuesday, we visited Jaime and helped paint the inside of her hut for Chris and wait on the chickens for a chicken-selling project Jaime started and Chris and I will have to finish (the chickens didn't come until 10pm, long after we returned to my village), cooking lunch (tortellini, thanks Mom and Dad!), and doing some "landscaping" in her backyard. Wednesday, I took her around my village, introducing her (I got some major village points for introducing my guest!) and checking on the progress of the pits for the latrine project Marc and I have been working on (I must admit, he's done a whole LOT more work on it than I have) and surprise surprise, very few had been dug. O ndang oo ndang. Thursday, I took her to Marc's village and to the river, where she met Marc and another PCV, both of whom were tying iron for the latrine project (and I looked like a lazy lady not tying it myself--Marc is a beast with the iron!) and she got to witness a Serere cultural event...circumcision.

Ok, it wasn't really witnessing the action per se, but the "coming out" of the boys after the circumcision (I should probably say "men" since this initiation marks their entrance into manhood, but some of the boys were as young as 4, which I consider far from manhood, whereas a few others were like 12 or 13 and a little closer). The boys were circumcised last Sunday (I believe) and spent the week in a secluded area in the outskirts of the village. During the week, they are initiated into manhood, learning the "secrets of manhood" (I can only imagine...) and other stuff I am not eligible to know, but that I heard a little of through a reputable source. The week of seclusion ended with all of the circumcised men of the village accompanying the "new men" from their secret space into a public gathering with their heads covered in fabric from their mothers, singing old Serere songs, walking around a tree several times (while my village dad and another fired shot guns into the tree?), and sitting down in order to have their mothers approach them (the boys couldn't see anything) and pour cotton and millet on their heads, one by one. The boys sat as all of the older men of the village danced and sang old songs about what happens during the week--or, more correctly, they sing about how they can't say what happened during the week. One of the songs, when translated, goes something like this, "You who have seen, you are now seen. Your mothers see you, so don't say anything. Don't say anything about what you have seen this week." I promise it sounds better and makes more sense in Serere (I had to have a village friend translate the old Serere into new Serere I could understand), but from what I've been told, the initiation involves the 5 senses (hence the seeing and saying part of the song).

The best part for me, witnessing, was seeing the really old men of my village such as my host dad (the chief) and others super animated, dancing, singing, smiling, and acting silly. I seriously had not seen my village dad go that long without sitting or standing (a few hours!), nor did I have any clue he could sing or dance. It was crazy. And then all of the "new men" one by one were unveiled by their mothers, given money and candy, and made to dance in front of everyone--with their mothers and other women then running up to them, dancing, and giving them more money and candy. After they danced, the older men called the women out from the circle to dance, by pointing a stick at them. I purposely avoided eye contact with my village dad so he couldn't call me out and then, gosh darn old man Laity Ndiaye (who I didn't know could smile and was just beaming with excitement all afternoon) came up to me, grabbed my hand, and made me dance in the circle (and the student visiting me came with)--despite all our reluctance and protests. Oh well, got some more village points there--even if I purposely didn't kneel down like the other women did when they were called to dance (cultural respect, subordination, you can call it many different things, but I refuse to do it in my village--but most people are cool with me for that now). The old men sang some more and threatened the "new men" and all of the other circumcised guys once again not to tell anyone about what happens (translated: "what was, what happened last year, and what will happen next year--what is"), or they would be beaten (sticks went flying, guys went running--mostly playful and fake drama, but some of the younger kids were terrified). Then the mothers of the circumcised boys passed out money and fabric to everyone who had helped them cook for the event all week and we went home. It was an experience.

And now I am in Kaolack for Easter weekend. I had really wanted to go and visit my good friend in Joal-Fadiouth, where there are some awesome Catholic Sereres and a beautiful church guaranteed to have a good party come Easter morn, but recently found out that I need to be in Thies next week and so should probably return to site as soon as possible. Basically from now until mid-late June (I will so deserve that US visit come July, Inchallah), things will be pretty ridiculously busy. Between stuff for the garden, the latrine project, Jaime's chicken project, starting a tree pepiniere (nursery) with the school, sexual health planning and sessions with two different middle schools, starting the Senegad (gender and development) scholarship program at a nearby middle school, new PCV Installs (welcome Mary and Chris!), an awesome Serere dictionary with another PCV, and stuff in Thies (evaluating the stuff I've been working on the past 9 months), and some health lessons with the school, plus who-knows-what-else, I'm going to be really ridiculously busy. It's kind of daunting. And then there is the fact that I've been here a year and I haven't traveled east of Kaolack or north of Thies, so I need to get my travel on. Funny how it doesn't matter where one is, time is always an issue and there is never quite enough time to do everything one wants. Please don't think that I'm complaining about being busy--I'm not at all and love having work--but getting everything done while working within an African time frame is a different story. Maybe I'll just save all of my traveling for Ramadan, haha.

And now this post is ridiculously long. Talk to you all later!