A Busy Few Weeks

So Happy Mid May Everyone!

Life has been crazy, in and out of the village over the last few weeks, so I've been staying quite busy. A lot of projects and events have been going on, especially with the school. The events of the last two weeks jump around a bit and are thus confused in my mind, but I hope that this post isn't too hard to follow...

Just after returning from Kaolack two weeks ago, my sister Khadium had her official wedding celebration. I'll spare the details, but it involved lots of presents (over 80 wash basins and 50+ buckets and 50 more bowls) all called out to the crowd (who gave what, elaborately announced), a traditional dance circle that lasted until 2 am, being woken up before 7am by the crowd gathering to accompany her to her husbands village an hour away, and my sister spending most of the night crying (traditional and symbolic reaction, though she has been unofficially married to him for 5+ years, she just now had the money to do the big ceremony). Traditional wedding celebrations are 5 days long, but time did not permit me to travel to her husband's village and join in the long celebration. It was a fun celebration in my village and I was sad not to have been able to go with her to her husband's village (she wanted me to be an equivillent of a bridesmaid-ish, but I don't like her husband and was too busy), but probably a good thing because the crowds would have been too much for me.

Tuesday I went to Foundiougne with Mary and Chris to finally pick up a bunch of mail that had been waiting for me for over a month. Special shout outs to my parents (with Uncle Mark), Saki, the Mahans, and Kurt and Jodi for excellent care packages! I was totally shocked and in awe of the kindness and knowing people were thinking of me. I was able to spend the following week eating well and reading celebrity gossip magazines whenever I wasn't running around working.

Biggest of all, last Wednesday (May 13), I celebrated my "anniversaire" in the village. One year in a small Senegalese village, wahoo! I was out of site however, for part of the day, so we had a belated lunch celebration the next day. At least one chicken was killed (maybe 2, I'm not really sure), and I gave my family food for yassa, a yummy Senegalese dish made with onions, garlic, mustard, and other deliciousness. My sisters did a great job cooking and there was enough that bowls could be sent to some of my closest friends in the village (Sally and the Teachers among others). Everyone enjoyed it, while reminding me I still have another year left (if you ask Sally, she will say at least 3 or 4 years...silly!).

Last Wednesday (my village anniversaire), I dropped nearly $900 ordering 4 TONS of cement and a bunch of PVC pipes for a joint 2 village latrine project. A good friend went with me to Passi (horrible place) to make the purchases and then we rode back on the huge delivery truck with the purchases.



The first pic to the side is of the delivery in my compound, then a bunch of the pipes and wood next to my hut, and then a (sideways because I couldn't fix it) picture of the first latrine built in my village with this project--at the teachers' compound. The mason does one a day while another does two a day in Mary's village--when he finishes, he will come to my village to speed up the work. It's going well, though it's quite annoying to keep having to ask people for money (for each latrine, villagers are supposed to pay $4 as "participation") and check to make sure their holes are dug. Yay for tackling diarrhea and sanitation!

The school garden is progressing nicely. We have started harvesting carrots and tomatoes, selling them in the village and at the local market. Over the past few weeks, we got a tree pepiniere (nursery) planted on the grounds of the school to provide trees for the school and rest of the village (about 250 bags or so). For those unfamiliar with tree nursery preparation, it involves collecting, pounding, and sifting dried cow manure (breaking it up with my hands and pounding with a large stick--several days of work), mixing it with sand (to form real-ish soil), filling long plastic bags with the soil mixture, watering for a few days, planting seeds (collected and prepped by your's truly and fellow PCVs), and watering twice a day for 3 months. It's a lot of work, but it should ultimately be good, providing shade for the school, fruit for the village, and nutrients for the garden soil. Here's a picture of some of the boys posing for the camera after filling a bunch of sacks.

Saturday was the grand opening of a youth foyer/classroom at the middle school nearest my village (not the one in my roadtown), where I've recently started getting involved. The event started almost 3 hours late (AST: Africa Standard Time--fortunately I brought a book to read), but then involved the principle talking about some of the events and activities of the middle school (Peace Corps and our reproductive health sessions got a big shout out), giving out awards to the highest achieving students in each grade, skits, martial arts demonstrations, and a rap about AIDS. All finished with boissons, begnets, and a fancy lunch (at like 4:30)--because what Senegalese celebration is complete without a good lunch? The answer is none!

Sunday, I accompanied Mary and one of her counterparts (the only Catholic in her village) to the nearest Catholic Church to have mass and watch some of the local kids receive their First Communions and be Confirmed into the Catholic Church. Unforunately for us, they took the few kids up to Foundiougne where there was a bigger group making their First Communions and thus, as is the story of every attempt of mine to attend mass in Djilor, there was not a mass. There was however a huge party with beignets (Senegalese donutholes), boissons (sodas and liquor for those partaking) and a good lunch (pork and lots of chicken), which I unfortunately couldn't participate in because by the time lunch was being served, I had to be in a village another 7km away, attending a health lesson on malaria prevention. I missed a great meal, or so I hear, but the lesson was a good chance to have women talk about malaria, how it is spread, and how it can be prevented (mosquito nets, village trash-pickups, and neem lotion making). When I returned to my village, I hurriedly planted a bunch of seeds in tree nursery sacks, and rushed home (at dusk) to find out that my sister Rhokya had given birth to a little boy around noon that day! When we found out there was no mass (around 11), I had thought about heading right back to the village and would have thus been around for the noon-time delivery, but alas, got distracted and wound up staying the whole afternoon until the health session. The baptism is going to be this coming Sunday and I am very excited because I will finally be around for a baptism, even if the kid won't be named after me (note: the newborn baby girl was NOT actually named after me...). It should be fun and interesting, and nice to know I can escape to my room when I need to during the course of the daylong celebration.

I have had a lot of journal entries and blogs in my mind the past few weeks to write, so maybe at some point I can get them onto paper and eventually into future blog posts. However, as you can tell, life is crazy busy. I came into Kaolack to attend to a bunch of projects, but could only really get away for 2 days, which isn't nearly enough time to even scratch their surfaces, and now I have to run back to site to attend to things. Hopefully next Monday I will have a day off, but probably not--maybe in another 2 weeks when I escape to Kaolack again. Life is busy and work crazy, but that's ultimately a good thing--especially because it should (hopefully) make the time between now and my US vacay fly by. I can't wait for it and find myself fantacizing about it way too much--I need to stop so I don't go crazy, err crazier than I already am :)

Special shout out to Heidi and Bryan who will by getting married this Saturday and Suz and Chris the following Saturday. I love you all and wish I could be celebrating with you, but know that I will be thinking about and praying for you guys. Many blessings on your continued lives together :)

Also, pictures are (mostly) updated on my Picasa website, so check them out. There's some weird self-portraits of me in the garden and carrying tomatoes on my head. They aren't pretty, but I was bored.

All for now, talk to you guys in another few weeks!