2009, A Year in Review

For me, 2009 was neither a normal year nor a remarkable year in and of itself, or so it seems. No one single event sticks out in my head for any particular reason, and yet it was the day-to-day events of life in Senegal which will forever endear it in my mind as “a GREAT year,” solely for the fact that it was during my Peace Corps Service. I did a fair amount of traveling during 2009, inside and out of Senegal, visiting friends across the country, in Europe, and spending some much-needed time back in the USA.

For myself as well as my small, but loyal(ish) reading public, I have compiled a list of some of the events of the past year (with the help of my trusty German day planner—thanks Sommer!).

January:

• The second half of my European Winter Vacation, visiting Sommer and enjoying some winter weather while gorging on delicious German treats and hot drinks, seeing Paris in the snow
• Installation of fence around school garden and starting the pepiniere (seedling) process, and the beginning of my new love of gardening
• Kaolack Regional Strategy Retreat to talk about PC work in the regions of Fatick, Kaolack, and Sokone—great opportunity for regional collaboration! Also, Ndiomdy wrestling tournament that lasted for 6 days and overwhelmed my village (and me!).
• Celebrating our joint-birthdays on January 20 with my old sitemate Jaime in Sokone, listening to Obama’s inauguration on Jess’ porch with a tiny radio, then watching it on a generator-powered TV at the Orange boutique. Knowing we were American, the owners gave us chairs to sit on so we could watch such an important event in public.
• My APCD Mamadou came to my village and hosted a community meeting where we identified the main overal needs of Ndiomdy being related to hygiene and sanitation. This meeting gave purpose and understanding for my service and got the village thinking and working together.

February:

• Continuation of early stages of school garden, first outplanting and sales of seedlings and lettuce. Home gardening picked up as more people tried their hands at gardening.
• First reproductive health lesson with Jaime and the staff in Djilor. We met with the girls of 4eme (aged approximately 15/16) and opened up important discussions in our attempt to bust through the taboo and reduce teenage pregnancy in the area. We also started meeting with the boys of the same level.
• A LOT of time out-of-site:
• Thies to continue work helping with the Cross-Culture aspects of the upcoming PST
• WAIST (West African Invitational Softball Tournament), where the Braveheart-themed Team McKaolack took 3^rd place and brought home a nice trophy;
• LifeSkills training in Thies with my unofficial counterpart Farba where we learned about encouraging good decision making and “life skills” for use in our reproductive health sessions
• GRE in Dakar! When standardized testing meets West Africa, crazy things may happen but PCVs are victorious (more or less…)
• Back to Thies to welcome the new Health and EE trainees and help them get oriented to life in Senegal

March:

· Starting work on the Ndiomdy-Pethie latrine project, which came directly from the January community meeting.

· Reproductive health sessions with the boys of Djilor, expansion of program into Sadioga middle school as well

· The birth of “James” Ndar Diouf, my American dad’s fake namesake

· Senegalese local elections…

· More helping in Thies for PST, bonding with the new Health/EE stage

April:

• Mary and Chris make their first visit to the Djilor area and we watched the Independence Day parade together
• Hosted a Dakar study abroad student (from America): I put her to work weeding in the garden and working on latrines. We taught my family the Macarena, watched the post-circumcision release (rite of passage) ceremony for the young men, and she gave me a new appreciation for my village.
• A lot more time in Thies and Swear-In of new PCVs; Marc and Jaime leave their villages so Mary and Chris can move in

May:

• Continuation of latrine project and mass-purchasing of 6 tons of cement and other supplies (on my village 1 year anniversary); local villages start buzzing with talk of our latrine project
• Planting of tree nursery for school and greater village (and my own backyard)
• Strikes and testing put a damper on further already scheduled reproductive health sessions in the two villages
• Village sister Khadium’s wedding in family compound
• Running of scholarship competition to encourage middle school girls to stay in school, including home interviews, both sad and inspiring all at once
• Attended first baby baptism/naming ceremony in my compound (I missed the other 3 baptisms due to my crazy travel schedule)
• Attended Popenguine Pèlerinage 2009 (Pilgrimage) with a few other PCVs and half a million Senegalese. Awesome! One of my best weekends in Senegal! The Catholics know what’s up: Jesus, pork, alcohol, and not harassing the white kids running around!

June:

• More latrine supply purchases, work on the Serere dictionary, and planning ahead for the upcoming PreService Training
• APCD came to visit and check out the latrines and school garden—felt really good about my work and the potential for the village after this
• Making LOTS of neem lotion to help protect people from mosquito bites. Held two educational causeries with village women and sold bags of it which went like hot cakes! Yay for fighting malaria!
• Helping Mary and Chris get acquainted with life in the area, following up on Jaime’s disastrous chicken project, helping Mary distribute mosquito nets
• MidService Medical: a week in Dakar to see how much damage being in this country has caused my body. Ate a lot of icecream and hung out with some fabulous people from my Stage.

July:

• School garden evaluation and planning ahead meeting: discussed how to improve upon the first year. Also introduced the teachers and my counterparts to Crystal Light Pink Lemonade, Jiffy Pop, and Walker’s Shortbread Cookies. Now if only we could follow through with what we planned at that meeting…
• Trip down to Kedegou in southeastern Senegal for the 4^th of July. Ate warthog sandwiches, danced the night away, took a traumatic trip down a nonexistent road in a top-heavy vehicle full of PCVs, swam in a waterfall after a nice hike, visited the Tamba regional house, and continued on to Thies to do some planning work for training.
• Initial outplanting of tree nursery at school, in village, in my backyard, and in town. I carried 7 trees in a bucket on my head for an entire 4km walk to Djilor to bring them to the health post at the request of the nurse, outplanted the trees while being supervised by the nurse and midwife (but NOT assisted), and was caught in a terrifying and violent storm on the walk back—after not being given a ride by one charret, I started crying and cursing until my brother’s charret appeared out of nowhere and I shared with them how bad the first charret was not to give me a ride in the storm. By the time I arrived in the village, I looked like a drowned rat. Oh, and the trees did not survive a month because no one took care of them. I haven’t been inside the health post since.
• Went to Thies to help with the Health/EE IST only to have my session taken over by an outside actor. Annoyed, I hoped a plane to …
• AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Need I say more? A much needed visit to CL and DC, full of coffee dates, gossip, hugs, and African Dance class, plus an old friend’s wedding in South Carolina.

August:

• The America fun continued for a few days with a 18hour turn around between the SC wedding and another good friend’s wedding in CL—though exhausted, lots of dancing, quality time with friends and family, visits to the gym with my parents’ guest passes, and good times and conversations ensued.
• Welcomed yet another group of new Trainees to Senegal, showed them around Thies, and led training sessions to help them get oriented to life in Senegal.
• Finished outplanting tree nursery around the school and larger village. Discovered that the local soccer team destroyed the mango trees I outplanted because they “interfered” with their terrain. Thanks boys…(sarcasm)
• Relaxing time in the village: lots of reading and sudoku puzzles, quality time with the village and the start of Ramadan

September:

• Ramadan, ‘nuff said
• Made a little more neem lotion which quickly disappeared due to high demand with the remaining month of the rainy season
• Trip up to Dakar to treat the massive heat rashes and infections that were covering my body in the heat and humidity of the end of the rainy season. Afterwards, hopped a PC car down to Kolda to visit the PCVs down there and experience life in the land of the southern Pulaars. Gained a new appreciation and love for my own region while admiring life on the other side of The Gambia.
• Moving of the Kaolack house, where I got the creeping eruption on my wrist that wasn’t treated for another two months
• George’s passing…rough week even though it was the Korite holiday. By far the worst week of the year. For more details, read the blog entry about that
• Still not much work going on because people were in the fields and school hadn’t yet started. More reading and sudoku puzzles, quality time in the village, and clearing of the garden.

October:

• Gave remaining mango and papaya trees to the elders of the village
• Trip to Thies for the end of PST to do follow-up work, hang out at swear-in, and spend another week in Dakar with various skin infections…weird diseases and skin issues really were the theme of my fall…
• Started graduate school applications which soon took over my life
• School starts, in theory…in actuality, elementary school didn’t start until the end of the month and the middle school started in November, but has yet to have a full week of school…
• Prepping school garden for another year

November:

• Hosted an American study abroad student. She had been spending the semester studying in Dakar and this was her first time to really get out into the bush. I put her to work helping in the school garden, attending meetings at the middle school, and spending time in the village. We also took a few trips to the river and ate 6 watermelons in two days. It was intense and fabulous! I also realized how much my language skills (Serere, French, and Wolof) have improved over the course of my Peace Corps Service)
• Hosted Girls’ Leadership Day in Djilor with girls from nearby middle schools, also shared on a previous blog entry. Awesome day!
• Prepping and planting of vegetable pepiniere (seed plots) for school garden, ensuing drama
• The birth of James Diouf, my US dad’s namesake, the son of my closest friend in the village, Seynabou. What an honor!
• More grad school application work…statements of purpose tortured me as I spent day after day in Kaolack staring at my computer attempting to write something to convince various grad schools to accept me
• Early Thanksgiving in Kaolack, Tabaski in the village, and several days of extreme illness (in continuation of my medical problem heavy fall)

December:

• International Volunteer Day Conference in Joal with PCVs and other volunteers from all over Senegal, visiting around Joal, and beach cleanup
• Outplanting of vegetable pepiniere in plots around the government
• Planning meetings at local middle schools for a peer-educator training in January (stay tuned…)
• Trip to Ndiom, in northern Senegal, for the annual (but this year much belated) Thanksgiving celebration. I saw an entirely new side of Senegal and spent several days relaxing and socializing—by far my favorite Peace Corps social event ever. Chill and super fun!
• Very quick and amazing Christmas vacation!

So that was my 2009: A lot of work, some new friends and good time with old ones, and many growing experiences (on a daily basis), but a good year. Happy 2010!