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!

Update: The Circle of Life

So I've been meaning to do an update for awhile and saying I would and then *BAM!* March is basically over. Where did it go? I have absolutely no idea, but these past 3 weeks have flown by, so it is time for an update.

Arrival back in the village after a month away was fabulous. People were a little annoyed that I had been gone a few weeks longer than I had originally said, but were forgiving. I brought my family back spoons, soap, and vegetables as gifts (I'm such a health PCV!). The biggest and most beautiful surprise was seeing how far the garden had progressed in a month. Almost everything was outplanted into these beautiful and long plots. The lettuce has already started being sold across the village and everyone seems to love it. Salad Senegalese-style is lettuce with a hot and oily-onion sauce, sometimes with chicken or fish, and bread. A far cry from a Whole Foods salad, but I may try and get a little fancy when the tomatoes in the garden turn ripe so my family can try it.
Better than that, gardening has caught on across the village. The school started selling tomato, lettuce, and cabbage seedlings and tons of families started their own gardens. It's super exciting!

Later that week, wrestling came to Marc's village and I actually went two different times because some there were some other PCVs visiting our area who do not have the pleasure of the weekly wrestling tournaments which the Sereres enjoy so much. There's some pics of it on my website...uneventful and boring for PCVs but quite the event for the Senegalese.

Sunday night, the last night of the tournament, Jaime and I got back to my hut around 1:30/2am and hurried into my hut since we were exhausted--I thought about seeing if anyone was awake, but was too exhausted. As I was laying in my bed, I heard a baby cry in the distance and told Jaime who was laying on my new cot, "a month ago, everytime I heard a baby cry, I was convinced it was Khodya giving birth..." and fell asleep. Well, the next morning I found out it WAS Khodya giving birth!!!!!!!! [She was the one who told me she was having twins and I saw the echogram, but there was only one baby...I don't know what happened and she wouldn't say anything other than she had one baby.] She had a boy (her 5th boy...7th kid), which everyone visiting promptly pointed out by saying "Khady, wo jegiro chance" or "Khady, you have no luck," meaning that the baby couldn't be named after me. That doesn't matter to me, just the fact that they are both healthy (he weighed in at 3.5kg). I had never seen a baby so recently after it was born and also had the pleasure of witnessing the first time he breastfed. [In Senegal, they don't start breastfeeding right away for various reasons, which is bad and makes it harder for the mother to recover post-delivery] My village mom wanted to give the baby this weird brown liquid she said was from the Imam, but I stopped that (well, she may have given it after I left the room...), explaining Ndeye's baby Ibou got sick and malnourished because of the water they gave him and how this baby needs to exclusively breastfeed until 6months.

Over the next few days, along with people coming by to see the baby and express my badluck, the idea came up that the baby should be named after my dad--James. Sereres (all of Senegal?) like to be silly from here on and confuse the relationship. For examp, because it was my brother's wife who gave birth (she's my sis-in-law in the village), sometimes they like to say that she is thus my wife and the baby is my father. So basically, my wife gave birth to my father. Crazy, huh? Yea... well I knew that they wouldn't actually baptize a Muslim baby James, but he will be nicknamed that--by me at the very least.

Unfortunately, I was called away to Thies and missed the baptism (I think they named him Aman Faye Diouf, but I can't really remember), which I'm sure was a fabulous fete (party). I was brought back to Thies to help with the cross-culture assessments of the Trainees (all of whom are totally fabulous!), which turned out to be good timing because the PC staff member in charge of all of that got really sick and I basically did her job in place of her all week. With the help of a few other PCVs, I led a session on Styles of Communication in Senegal (basically how people say yes as a way of saying no, etc), reviewed XCulture books, helped paint the huge map of Senegal for Site Announcements, hung out with the trainees, and just generally helped out wherever I could.

Tuesday night, another sister in the village called me to tell me that someone in our compound passed away that day (day after the baptism). Her name was Coumba and she had some type of serious mental disability, couldn't talk, was basically paralyzed, and was probably in her late 20s or early 30s. Her quality of life was probably not very high, though every day family members took care to feed and bather her, so I believe she is in a better place, but it was still a surprise. Even harder was the fact that the week before a different sister brought me into Coumba's room to show me a lesion on her hip/butt. It was red and white and slimy looking--cancerous looking or like some other super nasty type of infection, but I didn't know what it could be. They said it hurt her a lot and had just appeared the previous week. She had a few other white spots that looked like weird bed sores but not quite, between her knees and on her shoulder blades. I looked through my Where There is No Doctor Book (an amazing book filled with all of these village remedies and advice on all sorts of things--I could deliver a baby with the help of this book, if God willed it), but couldn't really find much of any advice, except clean out the wound with soap. A few days later, the ticket seller from the Health Post stopped by on his way home to check on her (she can't get to the health post, nor can they do much of anything for her), but I don't know what he said (nor is he a trained medical professional). I still wondered about it, but no one asked me about it again. I was sad to hear about it, but am personally glad to have missed a death in my compound (the funeral happens almost immediately after one passes), because even though I've been here a year, I don't know if I'm quite ready for that. They told Marc it was breast cancer, because apparently that is what her mother died of several years ago. I don't know for sure, nor do I think anyone would tell me, but from the look of that sore (I don't know if there was anything on her breast), I wouldn't be surprised if it was some type of cancer. Wow. Cancer really sucks--in Africa too.

On a lighter note, the day after (this past Wednesday), the new trainees received their site placements--yay! The greater Kaolack region is receiving 4 newbies: Chris, Stephanie, Mary, and Jessie.I'm now back in Kaolack and headed to the village (via evil Passi) tomorrow morning. I have to talk to Jaime about her chicken project which I get to inherit once she COSes (which I wish she wouldn't do!). This week, Mary and Chris are coming to visit Marc and Jaime to see their future sites, so I'm sure I will spend some time with them, amidst gardening and checking on the progress of hole digging in the village. Next weekend, le 4 d'Avril, is Senegal's Independence Day, which I will be celebrating at site (the kids march, it should be a site!) and then the next day I will be welcoming a study abroad student (American student studying for the year in Dakar) to my site for a week. It will be a challenge sharing my hut for a week, esp since I've come to value my private time in the village so much, but everyone else I know who has hosted says it's a great experience. Basically I will drag her around as I do random things around the village and get a chance to have new eyes experience my village and life in Senegal.

Pictures are updated on my Picasa website, so go check them out! Also, as for mail...for some reason it's taking forever and a day for anything to reach my box in Foundiougne. Please don't stop trying, but just have patience. I know I'm doing my best, eagerly awaiting lots of mail people have told me about (and a pair of replacement flipflops still coming from Chacos). Love you and miss you all!

If you are looking for the adventure of a lifetime...

Senegal might just be it!

I meant to mention it in my mass email, but if you are looking for an exciting and fabulous trip, you should think about Senegal. It's not a trip for the faint of heart or a relaxing vacation, but it will be an experience. Think about it. Let me know, I'll be here another year... :)

One Year Down

and one year (and a month or two) to go!

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(The below is taken from a mass update email I just sent, so don't worry about reading it again, but I just wanted to put it up...)
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Hey Everyone!!!! [Please be warned that this is a long email...but it's a once-a year thing]

Well, I'm not at the official One Year in Senegal, but will be there on Friday, March 13. Yes, Friday is the one year mark when myself and 38 other young Americans landed in Dakar, after two days Staging in Philly, a full day of flights, and God-only-knows how many months or years of application and preparation for the life in the Peace Corps. Since I will most likely be in my village on Friday, I thought I would send the one year email a few days early. I am quite shocked that the year mark has hit, and I know several others who came in with me are as well. One year is three times as long as I spent in Brussels and six times as long as I lived in Paris, yet in many ways they are even still more familiar to me than Senegal. Maybe not, but it's definitely been and will continue to be a much longer journey.

So what has this year held for me? Really, what has it not? (Marriage proposals have been plentiful, but none accepted, so no worries!) It has probably been the hardest and most challenging year of my life, but one where I learned way more than I ever have over a 12 month period and I thought it would be interesting to reflect on this year based on the things that I have learned--knowing full well that I still have SO MUCH to learn about life in Senegal and my work. I've learned a lot about Senegal, health, development, culture, education, myself, my friends, and more--too much to even begin to put into words. I know when I come back in April/May 2010, it will take me awhile to process through it all, but here's a start.

Some things (in no particular order) that I have learned include:
Two different languages (Serere and Wolof, to different degrees)
How to bargain for goods at the market, cabs, etc
How to travel in West African public transport (eek...)
Who in my life will make the effort to stay in touch (def had some surprises there)
How to garden (in the ground and in random containers), do a tree nursery, to plant trees, collect seeds
That I'm capable of more than I sometimes think I can handle
How to pull water from a well and then carry it on my head
To use a squatty toilet
That I had absolutely NO CLUE what I was doing when I signed up for Peace Corps, which was probably a good thing
To paint murals
That waking up to a rooster's crow is not enjoyable or cute
To hand wash my laundry (pull water from the well, add soap, soak clothes, agitate/scrub, squeeze out, rinse, squeeze, hang on the line, soak feet in rinse water, dump leftover water on garden) and realize the value of a washing machine
To bathe with a bucket (one big one, one little)
How to ride a charette (ish)
That I actually love raw milk with millet (and a little sugar)
How to defend my marital status in multiple languages and to know when to lie about it as well
How to read Senegalese indirect communication (they don't like to directly say no, so you need to know when they say yes but actually mean no)
How to tie a hairwrap-ish
To distinguish the sounds of the cries of 25 different children as well as baby animals
That mangoes are INCROYABLE
The value of the cold season
The importance of long-distance phone calls
The beauty of letter-writing and letter reading (though I sometimes feel like I write more than I receive)
How lucky I am to have been born in a country that values mens and womens education and rights (relatively) equally and not to suffer oppression based on my gender or ethnicity
The oral-fecal cycle and how to explain it to people, how to prevent it (hand washing with soap), and other basic health lessons
The importance of education in development and how lack of education (through strikes, the government not paying, poverty, etc) can cripple several generations of potential
The tragedy of tallibees and how it really is a human rights abuse taking kids away from their families for "religious education" only to make them beg on the streets and their begged money go into the pockets of ridiculously rich religious leaders with fancy homes, cars, and cell phones, while the kids wear rags and starve...and yet, know that helping the kids really only helps the system, so what is one to do?
To design my own clothes (then get them made!) and (horribly) patch holes in my clothes
How to pound millet and make Senegalese couscous
The true meaning of the phrase "to grow like a weed"
To laugh at myself (I think I learned this during years of mission trips, but I really value it now) and to JUST DANCE!
About breastfeeding and pre and post natal care
That the Harry Potter books are absolutely fabulous!
That no matter where I am, I still love/appreciate the value of a good cup of coffee or glass of red wine
To travel lightly, yet still be prepared and probably overpack
About all sorts of health issues like reproductive health, Malaria, hygiene and sanitation, clean water, and many other issues
To appreciate the environment (not like I didn't before, but still...)
About mangroves as an ecosystem and really understand the problem of deforestation (Senegal is quickly turning into the Sahara Desert)
That vacations are AMAZING in so many ways--esp around the holidays to see friends and family
How to rely on the kindness of strangers and non-strangers, but also know when to be aware of people trying to take advantage of you
How to sit around (and why one should ALWAYS carry a book on your person)
The necessity of a delicious and nutrient-packed meal after weeks in the village (or after Ramadan)
The amazingness of peanut butter (peanuts in general) as a nutritional substance, esp with bananas!
That care packages in the PC are 500% better than care packages in college
How amazing going to church is after not being able to for several months, even if it's in a crazy French/English/Serere mix, that I only partially understand--it still means a lot
That I am soooo thankful capital punishment is no longer allowed in schools and that beating your child is NOT acceptable in the States--that breaks my heart here
How to really be creative with cooking and with limited supplies in general
That I can no longer spell correctly in any language or hold a normal American conversation (after we get past name, job, hometown, weather, marital status, I'm at a loss for words--actually it's a problem many PCVs here have, we can only hold Senegalese style convos...)
That I still have no idea what I want to do post-PC, where I want to live, or what exactly I want to study for grad school
That I have amazingly supportive family and friends who haven't once told me that I should just get up and leave--ie quit PC, or not do it at all, and I am very blessed for having that
That as hard as it can be, this is where I need to be right now

Ok, well that list is long enough for now, but is really just the tip of the iceberg of learning experiences here in Senegal. I'm sure if I sat here long enough I could double or triple that list, at least!

Work has been picking up a lot the past few months. I am doing a mixture of stuff in the village (gardening at the school, a latrine project, getting community and school educational health sessions going, working with teachers), stuff in my nearest town slowly coming together (girls' group and English club, maybe a summer camp?), regional activities (preparing for a Girls' Leadership camp next summer, learning about the mangroves and reforesting them), and training activities for future PCVs (I've done a lot of work with the cross culture training of the newest groups of trainees, including a cross culture book, plus I'm working with a fellow PCV to write a Serere-English dictionary). There's also a ton more things that I want to do in this next year, but probably won't quite have time for (in part because things move much slower here as well). I need to make sure to find a balance between work (in and out of the village) and personal time, because just like in the States, I seem to have a hard time finding it. Either I feel like I'm sitting around too much reading in the village (for fun and work) and that I need to be doing a lot more, or I'm just constantly running around doing things (in and out of the village) and then feel exhausted and horrible because I don't have time to sit with friends and family in the village, or to visit fellow PCVs. I still haven't seen much of Senegal at all, so I want to spend time visiting fellow PCVs around the country, and see it because for such a small country, every region is sooo different, and maybe a trip to some neighboring countries. We shall see.