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!