So I tried to include some pictures with that last post about my vacay, but Blogspot was not cooperating, so you'll just have to go to my Picassa web page listed on the side of this page.
I am back in Kaolack after 10 days in Thies, working with the training staff and meeting the 50 new trainees (and 3 Mauritanian PCV transfers). This is the last group of Trainees before my Stage's replacements come in March, which is crazy to think about! I am heading back to site today, loaded down with a huge hiking bag, a small duffel, and a purse, hoping to get a bus-thing headed directly to my road town. I called the family in the village last night to tell them to send a charret for me, so hopefully they pull through for me. I'm going to greet everyone back in the village, finish outplanting my last few trees, and sleep for a few days before even thinking about work--or at least that's the idea. It's weird to think that my next month at site is relatively up in the air--I've got some ideas for things that I want to do or places that I want to see, but nothing that has a time restraint or is extremely time sensitive at this point, which is a shock after the past 6+ months.
Ramadan supposedly starts Friday night and Saturday should be the first day of the fasting month. Enjoy something delicious for me this weekend!
Btw, a street cat gave birth to a litter of kittens in the Kaolack house (side bedroom, underneath the bunkbeds, in a box). Though they have now been moved in box outside, they are very cute--still blind, can't really move, and just beginning to squeak. Adorable! If only I had time to take care of a kitten at site...
mercredi 19 août 2009
Amerik, Alhumdouliliah!
(Written about a week and a half ago, when I had just returned from my vacation and was still jetlagged)
From mid-June to July 20, this was my mantra: I’m going to
My vacation was incredible. I don’t think I actually have words for it, adequate enough to describe all of the feelings and thoughts going through my head during the trip. It was exciting, overwhelming, invigorating, exhausting, refreshing, eye-opening, reassuring, and any other word you can throw at it. Most of all, it was too short.
I know many PCVs I have talked to feel ready to return to
Honestly, it’s good to be back. Though I’m in Thies, I really wish I could bypass this step (though the start of PST is why I cut my trip short in the first place) and just hide out in my hut in my village for a few days, but that can’t happen. Well, at least not for another 10 days or so—welcome the newbies and show them around a little, regroup in Kaolack, get back to the village, give out gifts, finish outplanting the last few trees from my tree nursery, and then sleep for a few days with the start of Ramadan (end of next week, probably). Gotta hit the ground running and plan the last 9 months or so of my Service, can you believe it?
So back to my trip…AWESOME! After some relatively quick flights from
So to the surprise of many, I’m sure, I didn’t have my first coffee until I had been back for four days—Conscious Cup Latte, so good! However, my body has been off of caffeine, especially espresso, that I didn’t realize what the side effects might be…so I dragged my parents to the gym and had the most intense workout I’ve had in recent memory (I even ran, of my own free will!). I was on fire, full of energy and couldn’t stop, until I crashed a few hours later. It was rough. That wasn’t the first time I felt such extreme effects of caffeine on my trip—kinda worrying, but so delicious that it was totally worth it. It was quite interesting to actually be able to notice the direct effects of the caffeine. This doesn’t mean I plan on cutting my coffee habit upon my return to the States—maybe just curb it a (very) little. I really enjoyed being able to be back in the coffeehouse/café culture in both CL and DC, even as I went from one coffee date to another to another (though I can count my actual coffee drinks over the entire trip on one hand—I think). Absolutely fabulous!
After a few days in CL, I headed to DC, my post-University home and met up with some of my faves. A highlight was my Serere-titles “Garyo, I yeriik margaritas” (Come, let’s drink margaritas) party at Cactus Cantina. I was honored and amazed by everyone who showed up to say hi and give hugs. Seriously, it was such an awesome mix of people (MT, AU, XA, Brussels, etc, all showed up to say “hey”) and while I was worried at first about people not knowing each other or getting along, my worrying was for naught. It was awesome and my only regret is that I didn’t take any pictures that night (turns out my battery was dead anyways, but still)—instead I will have to save the images in my memory. Fabulous, seriously.
Other DC highlights included Mama Marcia’s West African Dance class at Dance Place, seeing the ladies from Women for Women International, hanging at MTC with those cool cats, getting a Whole Foods salad with a former resident, bridesmaid dress shopping with Em, innumerable coffee/breakfast/coffee/dinner/random chat dates with people, the Mahan housewarming party, seeing the White House and wandering around DC/MD, and so much more. Special thanks to the Lewis’, Mahans, Abby and Co, and Em and Brian for housing me throughout my DC stay and many more thanks to everyone who showed me such kindness and generosity while I was around. Your kindness will not soon be forgotten.
Weddings, weddings, weddings. All of us over here in
After the wedding extravaganzas, I was able to finally spend some (all-to-brief) time with my sister and family for a few days. Lots of shopping with my sister, gym time, a quick trip into Chicago, a pilates mini-class with Deb, strawberry shortcake, Italian and Mexican foods, and a fabulous big family party were all highlights of the brief four days I had in CL before returning to
The trip was good for my spirit and soul. It reminded me of the people I have in the
So after my excited (and long) post about my vacay, please don’t think that I’m not excited/glad to be back here in
And, of course, musings about where God will send me in the next chapter of my life…
Thank you again to everyone who made my trip to the
mardi 11 août 2009
brief...
I promise a (ridiculously long) post about my trip to America is coming (not like I didn't see many of you while I was there...), but until then check out the pictures from the trip.
Amerik, Alhumdouliliah!
Hopefully I will get the update posted tomorrow, before the new Trainees come on Thursday morning, Inchallah. Miss you all already and enjoy the heat! Just remember, you have access to A/C!
Amerik, Alhumdouliliah!
Hopefully I will get the update posted tomorrow, before the new Trainees come on Thursday morning, Inchallah. Miss you all already and enjoy the heat! Just remember, you have access to A/C!
samedi 18 juillet 2009
Belated 4th of July Post
So as I was traveling back in our 7 Place from Kedegou to Tamba on July 6, I had all of the words for a nice blog post about the 4th of July. Ya know, about cross-cultural sharing and community and a new landscape, but by the time I got to a computer, I was too tired and the words escaped me. Now I'm still tired and can really only think about my upcoming vacation. :)
So, if you want to see the trip, click here to check out my Picassa site and see what happens when a bunch of PCVs take a road trip to the land of hills and waterfalls. It was a great trip and a great chance to see a new part of the country. My friend Daniel was a great tourguide for the waterfall at his site in Dindefello, so thanks for showing us around! Honestly, the best part was getting together with a bunch of PCVs from my Stage as well as seeing the new kids for the first time since the end of April. Man, how I missed them!
Also, I've "secretly" updated a bunch of other pics on the Picassa site as my parents discovered.
Time to run off and finish packing my stuff for traveling to Dakar this afternoon. I fly out of Dakar early early Monday morning/super late Sunday night and should arrive in Chicago before noon. Can't wait to see everyone on the other side of the ocean!
So, if you want to see the trip, click here to check out my Picassa site and see what happens when a bunch of PCVs take a road trip to the land of hills and waterfalls. It was a great trip and a great chance to see a new part of the country. My friend Daniel was a great tourguide for the waterfall at his site in Dindefello, so thanks for showing us around! Honestly, the best part was getting together with a bunch of PCVs from my Stage as well as seeing the new kids for the first time since the end of April. Man, how I missed them!
Also, I've "secretly" updated a bunch of other pics on the Picassa site as my parents discovered.
Time to run off and finish packing my stuff for traveling to Dakar this afternoon. I fly out of Dakar early early Monday morning/super late Sunday night and should arrive in Chicago before noon. Can't wait to see everyone on the other side of the ocean!
jeudi 2 juillet 2009
Fighting Malaria 1 Bar of Soap at a Time
Lately I've been doing my bit as a Health PCV to fight Malaria by cooking up batches of what is warmly referred to as đuu book (the d and b have to be pronounced by making a difficult swallowing sound as you say it), or mosquito "neem" lotion (made from the leaves of the neem tree, which naturally keeps bugs away). I held two different formations (training sessions) with women of my village, teaching them how to make it, talking about how to prevent Malaria, and passing out bags of it (for a 50franc participation fee, or I would be making lotion for the entire village). In total, I've made 7 batches of the stuff and have very few bags remaining (I also gave away some as cadeaux to various people). The stuff is a hit, so hopefully people will use it to keep off the mosquitoes and make more of it when they run out.
How to Make Neem Lotion (đuu book)
Step 1: Grate a large bar (240g) of Fanico Soap. It can be any
large bar of soap, but Fanico smells better. Soap is easier to grate once it's been sitting out of its package for a few days.
Step 2: Bowl 1.5L of water. While the water heats, tear up two large handfuls of neem leaves. (Go to the tree, grab several stems of leaves, tear them off the stem, and tear them up)
Step 3: When the water is boiled, put the two large handfuls of broken up leaves in the water and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the water is green.
Step 4: Drain the leaves from the water. This can be done by pouring the leaf-water through a clean cloth into a bowl or bucket, or by using a slotted spoon to manually pick the leaves out.
Step 5: (Sorry the picture is sideways) Stir in the grated soap, little by little, until it's thoroughly mixed and the soap has melted into the hot water.
Step 6: Add 1/4L (or just 100f worth) of cooking oil, little by little, stirring as you add it.
Step 7: Let the hot mixture cool for a bit and then put it in bags or containers to give/sell to your friends. If it's too hot, the bags will break and hot liquid will spill in your hut.
Step 8: You're done! Rub it on yourself and your kids to prevent mosquitoes from biting you at night (before sleeping under a mosquito net). Make more to sell in your village or at the weekly market. It's soooo easy and only costs about $1.50 to make!
How to Make Neem Lotion (đuu book)
Step 1: Grate a large bar (240g) of Fanico Soap. It can be any
large bar of soap, but Fanico smells better. Soap is easier to grate once it's been sitting out of its package for a few days.
Step 2: Bowl 1.5L of water. While the water heats, tear up two large handfuls of neem leaves. (Go to the tree, grab several stems of leaves, tear them off the stem, and tear them up)Step 3: When the water is boiled, put the two large handfuls of broken up leaves in the water and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the water is green.
Step 4: Drain the leaves from the water. This can be done by pouring the leaf-water through a clean cloth into a bowl or bucket, or by using a slotted spoon to manually pick the leaves out.
Step 5: (Sorry the picture is sideways) Stir in the grated soap, little by little, until it's thoroughly mixed and the soap has melted into the hot water.
Step 6: Add 1/4L (or just 100f worth) of cooking oil, little by little, stirring as you add it.
Step 7: Let the hot mixture cool for a bit and then put it in bags or containers to give/sell to your friends. If it's too hot, the bags will break and hot liquid will spill in your hut.
Step 8: You're done! Rub it on yourself and your kids to prevent mosquitoes from biting you at night (before sleeping under a mosquito net). Make more to sell in your village or at the weekly market. It's soooo easy and only costs about $1.50 to make!
vendredi 26 juin 2009
Quick Update
I don't have a lot of time or very much to say so I will keep this short. I just got back from spending nearly a week in Dakar (way too much Big City time for this village Vol) for my Mid Service Medical Appointment. Mid Service Med basically means general physical and dental (free cleaning and flouride treatment too!) checkups to see what kind of a toll life in this country is taking on a PCV. Good news, I am healthy! (or at least as healthy as a Rural PCV can be, with the usual ailments) The best part of Dakar was being there with several good friends from my Stage for their appointments and thus being able to hang out, get icecream (mmm Obama Cookie and Strawberry!), buy fabric, and run errands around the PC Office/Dakar.
As for the village, rain has been slowly starting, a bit delayed from last year. I overheard a bunch of different convos between people last week about how they were worried that we won't have a very good rainy season because all of the rain clouds kept passing over us without any rain. Surrounding areas are already planting, but we haven't had enough rain yet. Hopefully there will be a good Rainy Season and harvest, Inchallah. The one positive about the delay in the rains is that NO ONE in the village is done with their dry season work. Yes, the Dry Season lasts about 8 months and yet it's mostly been in the last month that people (men) have gotten off their butts and been building batiments (homes), roofing huts, and building latrines (my project). This just amazes me because March and most of April, the men of all ages in my village just sat around, playing games and listening to music, and now are running around trying to get everything done--and having to start prepping their fields. Good job guys. I guess procrastination is a problem here too (not like I should be one talking...).
Anyways, so the influx of hurried work before the rains has slowed down our village mason and my latrine project. Where several weeks ago he was doing two latrines in one day, the past few weeks have gone by with just 3 latrines being done in one week. Not cool with me because, frankly, I am ready to be done with this project (at least til next dry season, as I've told people). When I left my village, only 6 were left to be done and told the mason it would be GREAT to come back to them all being done. Here's to hoping!
So I only have a few days in the village before heading on my first real traveling in Senegal: down to Kedegou to celebrate the 4th of July with the majority of PC Senegal. In the four or so days, I hope to make a few more batches of neem lotion (natural mosquito repellent...I did 2 causeries on it in the last few weeks and have sold approximately 50 bags of it for about $.12), check up on the latrines and talk to people about covering the latrine holes, help transition the school garden to the Rainy Season, hold an end-of-year evaluation meeting on the school garden, outplant a few trees, talk Malaria (I think we just got a bunch of free nets last week, yay!), and prepare people for the fact I will be gone most of the summer.
And so begins my summers of travel and generally being out of site...
I love and miss everyone!
As for the village, rain has been slowly starting, a bit delayed from last year. I overheard a bunch of different convos between people last week about how they were worried that we won't have a very good rainy season because all of the rain clouds kept passing over us without any rain. Surrounding areas are already planting, but we haven't had enough rain yet. Hopefully there will be a good Rainy Season and harvest, Inchallah. The one positive about the delay in the rains is that NO ONE in the village is done with their dry season work. Yes, the Dry Season lasts about 8 months and yet it's mostly been in the last month that people (men) have gotten off their butts and been building batiments (homes), roofing huts, and building latrines (my project). This just amazes me because March and most of April, the men of all ages in my village just sat around, playing games and listening to music, and now are running around trying to get everything done--and having to start prepping their fields. Good job guys. I guess procrastination is a problem here too (not like I should be one talking...).
Anyways, so the influx of hurried work before the rains has slowed down our village mason and my latrine project. Where several weeks ago he was doing two latrines in one day, the past few weeks have gone by with just 3 latrines being done in one week. Not cool with me because, frankly, I am ready to be done with this project (at least til next dry season, as I've told people). When I left my village, only 6 were left to be done and told the mason it would be GREAT to come back to them all being done. Here's to hoping!
So I only have a few days in the village before heading on my first real traveling in Senegal: down to Kedegou to celebrate the 4th of July with the majority of PC Senegal. In the four or so days, I hope to make a few more batches of neem lotion (natural mosquito repellent...I did 2 causeries on it in the last few weeks and have sold approximately 50 bags of it for about $.12), check up on the latrines and talk to people about covering the latrine holes, help transition the school garden to the Rainy Season, hold an end-of-year evaluation meeting on the school garden, outplant a few trees, talk Malaria (I think we just got a bunch of free nets last week, yay!), and prepare people for the fact I will be gone most of the summer.
And so begins my summers of travel and generally being out of site...
I love and miss everyone!
mardi 2 juin 2009
My Weekend at Sin Fest
Muslim Sin Fest, ie a big Catholic pilgrimage/party!
Story to follow...
So this weekend was perhaps one of the best weekends I've had in Senegal in a very long time and definitely one of the best since I arrived. Saturday, feeling stressed and annoyed at the people around me, I boarded a bus with 10 other PCVs headed to the beach to celebrate some birthdays. I was along for the ride only, as I was not in the mood for a big crazy beach trip of that nature, asking the bus driver to drop me off in Sindia, a small crossroads town known for it's towering bowls of mangoes available for around $1 each. I found a bench in the shade, greeted the men sitting nearby, and pulled out my latest reading book, expecting nothing but non-stop "hey, let's annoy the toubab" games as I waited for Jen, another PCV from my Stage coming from Dakar to meet me. Amazingly, apart from some general questioning and people finding out I speak Serere Sine/Saloum (and thus making other friends who spoke to me in Serere), I was allowed to read my book in peace. No probing questions about my marital status or "Hey Toubab!" or anything. It was such a pleasant wait!
When Jen arrived, we bought a few bowls of mangoes and hopped in a car headed to Popenguine with one of my new Serere buddies, a quiet Serere (Serere Safen, very different from Serere Sine/Saloum, so I don't understand it...) beach town to meet up with the PCV who lives there.
Popenguine, a small town of perhaps 2,000-some inhabitants is a popular spot for PC Trainees to visit for a weekend during PST, but this weekend would be anything but quiet as over 100,000 people descended on it for Pentecost. In the late 19th Century, some missionaries in the area were walking along the beach and saw an image of the Black Madonna--an African Virgin Mary--and Infant Jesus. Ever since then, the Catholics of Senegal have celebrated this apparition and this was the 121st celebration.
Some information on Senegal: Senegal is something like 90% Muslim, 8% Christian (mostly Catholic), and 2% indigenous beliefs, and that's being generous to the Christians. Popenguine itself is really only like 10-20% Christian, but it boasts a beautiful church in the heart of town and beautiful grounds for its priests and brothers, and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year. In Senegal, Christians are most likely members of either the Serere or the Diola (Casamance) ethnic groups--major generalization, but true. These groups, especially the Sereres (who fought slavery by hiding in the islands and were some of the last to conform to Islam), converted to Christianity and found favor with the French, and thus have a history of generally being wealthier, better educated, more powerful (2 former presidents, etc), and with smaller families (imagine, Catholics known for small families?!?!) than their Muslim counterparts. Again, I am overgeneralizing, but I'm trying to paint a picture of one aspect of Senegalese society. In my own (Serere) village, myself and a teacher (not from the area) are the only Christians, but there is a handful in the roadtown 4km away and a scattering of others in various villages. That is all to say that there were a lot of Sereres (of all dialects) around this weekend, which was awesome!
Anyway, we arrived in Popenguine on a Saturday afternoon only to find it quite transformed from the sleepy beach town we knew and loved. A few thousand people had already arrived, camping at relatives' homes or setting up tents in random patches of grass or gravel across town. Street food vendors were beginning to set up shop in a way that was strangely reminiscent of the Taste of Crystal Lake (or any other similar event), selling sandwiches with chicken, eggs, onions, fish, you name it--plus pork! (An obvious rarity in a mostly Muslim country) All 3 Senegalese phone companies were around, promoting their products, plus cooking oil companies, Coca Cola, tea companies, Obama Rice (a new brand), and many other companies had signs and tents, giving away free hats or shirts to people around. Ankith, the PCV there, showed us around to all of his "hot spots" and introduced us to his friends and "village" family while at the same time being totally astounded by the transformation that was taking place in his village and would only get crazier the next few days.
On Sunday afternoon, THOUSANDS of marchers converged on Popenguine--walking from
Dakar, Thies, and Mbour (distances of 30-60km, if not more). Groups were divided by parishes, coming from each of those cities, and farther regions such as Kolda and Zuiginchore (below the Gambia) and even from a few neighboring countries such as Cape Verde. It was an awesome site to watch: exhausted marchers walking/running/skipping in, singing fabulous songs, spraying water from bottles and branches, and wearing matching white march tshirts and matching brightly patterned wax pants. There was so much energy in the air, I couldn't help but clap and dance along (only a little, I did have to restrain myself from really busting it out!). It was a hot day and reminded me of Toronto in 2002 when I was a pilgrim along with 800,000+ other people to World Youth Day in Toronto. There was one super energetic group that sang, ran forward, and then turned around, ran backwards thus confusing people behind them, danced, and then ran forward again that totally reminded me of any one of the St Elizabeth Ann Seton mission teams I had been a part of over my high school years.
Earlier that morning, Jen, Ankith, and I visited an American girl one village over, who is in Senegal on a university fellowship--she is basically doing her own Peace Corps thing, but without all of the benefits of healthcare, support, etc--named Brittany (she is awesome and super brave, I couldn't do what she did!). She joined us as we welcomed the pilgrims into Popenguine, climbed around, and explored the enormous and beautiful stage area and greater Popenguine that was all abuzz with the event. In Senegal, religious events such as this (or similar Muslim equivalents Gamou and Magal), are basically GINORMOUS shopping events as well. Vendors appeared out of nowhere (ie Dakar, Kaolack, Thies, all of the roads from Podor to Zuiginchore and everywhere in between), peddling tshirts with the Virgin Mary and Jesus, glow in the dark crucifixes, laminated prayer cards, plastic church hats, rosaries, Bibles, and other "religious items," not to mention hats, used clothing, shoes, purses, dvds (not real, of course), beaded bracelets and shells, etc, AND all types of street snack food and drink, including kinkiliba (a type of tea--I purchased a HUGE bag of leaves for my vil fam), homemade popsicles, cookies, gum, local juices, fried foods, mangoes, water, beignets (Senegalese donuts), and so MUCH more! As always, prices were only "kind of" set and thus up for negotiation (except on food), but amazingly, since this was a Senegalese celebration and not a Western one, we were mostly given fair prices and treated like everyone else, AMAZING!
So Sunday evening, there was a big mass for the youth while everyone else took private prayer time and later that night was a big mass. It started an hour + later than it should have, and for obvious reasons (the heat and walking 30+ km that day), most people were practically asleep during the mass or out in the village eating and drinking up. The mass (what we saw before we left 2+ hours into it) included an interpretive dance segment and a (long) theater piece about the life of Paul. The mood around town was one of excitement, friendship, and celebration of the Catholic faith. It was cool, and there were so many freakin' people!
Monday morning was the big mass of the weekend, and I mean BIG! Seriously, well over 100,000 people crammed into the large space, specially created for this event each year. And, there were probably another 20,000+ people not at mass--either sleeping, standing around, selling things, or helping with crowd control (military, police, firefighters, Red Cross, etc). The picture to the side is taken during mass. We were standing on the grass behind the alter and thus couldn't really see anything except Red Cross officials and military people carrying people who passed out due to the heat, out on stretchers every two or three minutes. The music was pretty good, but the mass was hard to follow since they kept turning off the speaker nearest us every time the priest spoke. This was mass meets Senegal in the fact that people were standing, sitting, squeezing past other people into tiny spaces, and the heat made it necessary for people to drink water and suck on popsicles and frozen juices in the midst of mass. However, everyone that wanted to, received Holy Communion, which was pretty incredible. It was done similar to the World Youth Day I attended back in 2002: teams of priests, nuns, alter servers, and boy/girl scouts (scouts and "guides" are run through the Catholic Church in France and Senegal), were dispersed to various locations across the entire grounds to give out the Eucharist. It was really cool. The music was also, as it should be here in West Africa, pretty rockin'.
After mass, we wandered around, amazed by all of the vendors (and all of the ridiculous junk they had to sell) and the crowd. At one point as we walked by, an obnoxious person selling tshirt from the back of a truck and using a loud speaker called out "I miss you!" a phrase that made me think "typical Senegalese...finding the white girls in the crowd and calling out to them," until it was followed by "Khady Diouf, I miss you! Khady Fall (Jen), I miss you!" I looked up and saw that loud speaker man was in fact my good friend Bartholomew from Thies (he is the best waiter in Senegal and thus Jen and I became good friends with him)! He proceeded to chat with us, while leaving the loudspeaker turned on, and I couldn't stop laughing for a good half hour after. Oh what a small world! While shopping around, we found a Serere Bible (which I now own), a partially translated Wolof Bible for Jen, and a fabulously ridiculous and horribly-printed muscle tank (Mary on one side, Jesus on the other). As we worked our way through the crowd, Brittany unfortunately became the victim of a pickpocket (lame!) who snagged her phone, but fortunately Jen had just received a freebe phone from a Dakar expat, so Brittany wasn't out too much (just a bunch of numbers). It was unfortunate, but could have been worse. And then we ate delicious cashew fruits on our way to the make-shift garage set up for all of the thousands of people.
I rode with Jen back to Mbour, rather than head straight to Kaolack, which was a good decision. We talked about the fun weekend, how good it was to get away, and generally catch up over delicious PIZZA!
So back to the whole "Sin Fest," which I am sure that you are all wondering about... first off, ANY Catholic event here in Senegal comes complete with cheap Senegalese alcohol--beer, wine, hard liquor, as well as palm wine--and these things were in the plenty as make-shift bars and palm wine vendors littered the roads everywhere the eye could look, and people were definitely partaking. Islam does not allow followers to drink alcohol (many do, but they aren't supposed to), so both alcohol and pork (which was being grilled up everywhere as well) are big defining characteristics of Catholic events. The authorities actually had the good forwarning to close down the beach, since there aren't any lifeguards, to prevent any intoxicated people from doing anything stupid. Another big thing was all of the couples everywhere--like seriously! In Senegal, it is rare to see a guy and girl hold hands or display any affection in public, with the exception of male/female prostitues and Westerners, while it is very common to see groups of men only touching each other and holding hands or groups of women doing the same. This weekend was a different story. Young guy/girl couples were talking together, holding hands, hugging, and generally interacting together in a positive way. We were all kind of, admittedly, shocked to see such a change, not realizing that the lack of handholding, etc, was probably a result of Islam's influence on local culture. And finally, there was the fact that for the better part of the weekend, no one harassed us at all. As a group of four foreigners, we were large enough to watch out for each other but small enough not to draw too much attention to ourselves. People just let us be, rather than saying "Toubab! TOUBAB!!!!!!!!!" over and over, which was just incredible. Catholics, go figure!
I also want to express my surprise and appreciation towards the planning committee who put the entire event together. There were tons of military people, police, firefighters, and general security people, plus ambulances, Red Cross volunteers, and several make-shift hospital areas for people who got sick/dehydrated/injured/otherwise ill. There were tons of port-o-potties all around town so people wouldn't relieve themselves in public, which is the first time we had seen such things in this country. There was a lot of water, though people didn't drink as much of it as they should have, and things were generally clean (no cholera, unlike Touba). The people of Popenguine will have a good amount of cleanup to do, but nothing compared with how bad it could have been. The local TV station had been showing public logistic meetings for the two weeks before the pilgrimage, so they had definitely been planning ahead. Things were as orderly and organized as they get in Senegal and we were genuinely impressed.
Thank you Ankith and your Popenguine family for being such kind and generous hosts for us for the weekend. Ankith kindly gave Jen and I his double bed for the weekend and his family kept us fed (when we weren't indulging in delicious street food).
-----
Tomorrow I am headed back to site. This weekend was the first time in over a month where I went two whole days without doing any work, which was incredible. It wasn't the type of spiritual retreat that I had hoped for, for various reasons (in many ways I was more of a spectator than a pilgrim, or so it felt), but it was a great psychological break from everything. I have to remind myself that it's ok and actually quite good to do that once in awhile rather than work myself to exhaustion. This week will be more latrines, scholarship follow-up (hopefully more on that in a future post), maybe some garden work/planning ahead, and spending time with friends and family in the village because I haven't done that in awhile. My APCD (boss) is coming to visit my site in a week and a half (Inchallah) and I need to plan ahead the next three weeks before life gets really crazy for 2 months straight. Love you and miss you all!
Btw, pictures are updated on my Picasa website, so check them out!
Story to follow...
So this weekend was perhaps one of the best weekends I've had in Senegal in a very long time and definitely one of the best since I arrived. Saturday, feeling stressed and annoyed at the people around me, I boarded a bus with 10 other PCVs headed to the beach to celebrate some birthdays. I was along for the ride only, as I was not in the mood for a big crazy beach trip of that nature, asking the bus driver to drop me off in Sindia, a small crossroads town known for it's towering bowls of mangoes available for around $1 each. I found a bench in the shade, greeted the men sitting nearby, and pulled out my latest reading book, expecting nothing but non-stop "hey, let's annoy the toubab" games as I waited for Jen, another PCV from my Stage coming from Dakar to meet me. Amazingly, apart from some general questioning and people finding out I speak Serere Sine/Saloum (and thus making other friends who spoke to me in Serere), I was allowed to read my book in peace. No probing questions about my marital status or "Hey Toubab!" or anything. It was such a pleasant wait!When Jen arrived, we bought a few bowls of mangoes and hopped in a car headed to Popenguine with one of my new Serere buddies, a quiet Serere (Serere Safen, very different from Serere Sine/Saloum, so I don't understand it...) beach town to meet up with the PCV who lives there.
Popenguine, a small town of perhaps 2,000-some inhabitants is a popular spot for PC Trainees to visit for a weekend during PST, but this weekend would be anything but quiet as over 100,000 people descended on it for Pentecost. In the late 19th Century, some missionaries in the area were walking along the beach and saw an image of the Black Madonna--an African Virgin Mary--and Infant Jesus. Ever since then, the Catholics of Senegal have celebrated this apparition and this was the 121st celebration.
Some information on Senegal: Senegal is something like 90% Muslim, 8% Christian (mostly Catholic), and 2% indigenous beliefs, and that's being generous to the Christians. Popenguine itself is really only like 10-20% Christian, but it boasts a beautiful church in the heart of town and beautiful grounds for its priests and brothers, and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year. In Senegal, Christians are most likely members of either the Serere or the Diola (Casamance) ethnic groups--major generalization, but true. These groups, especially the Sereres (who fought slavery by hiding in the islands and were some of the last to conform to Islam), converted to Christianity and found favor with the French, and thus have a history of generally being wealthier, better educated, more powerful (2 former presidents, etc), and with smaller families (imagine, Catholics known for small families?!?!) than their Muslim counterparts. Again, I am overgeneralizing, but I'm trying to paint a picture of one aspect of Senegalese society. In my own (Serere) village, myself and a teacher (not from the area) are the only Christians, but there is a handful in the roadtown 4km away and a scattering of others in various villages. That is all to say that there were a lot of Sereres (of all dialects) around this weekend, which was awesome!
Anyway, we arrived in Popenguine on a Saturday afternoon only to find it quite transformed from the sleepy beach town we knew and loved. A few thousand people had already arrived, camping at relatives' homes or setting up tents in random patches of grass or gravel across town. Street food vendors were beginning to set up shop in a way that was strangely reminiscent of the Taste of Crystal Lake (or any other similar event), selling sandwiches with chicken, eggs, onions, fish, you name it--plus pork! (An obvious rarity in a mostly Muslim country) All 3 Senegalese phone companies were around, promoting their products, plus cooking oil companies, Coca Cola, tea companies, Obama Rice (a new brand), and many other companies had signs and tents, giving away free hats or shirts to people around. Ankith, the PCV there, showed us around to all of his "hot spots" and introduced us to his friends and "village" family while at the same time being totally astounded by the transformation that was taking place in his village and would only get crazier the next few days.
On Sunday afternoon, THOUSANDS of marchers converged on Popenguine--walking from
Dakar, Thies, and Mbour (distances of 30-60km, if not more). Groups were divided by parishes, coming from each of those cities, and farther regions such as Kolda and Zuiginchore (below the Gambia) and even from a few neighboring countries such as Cape Verde. It was an awesome site to watch: exhausted marchers walking/running/skipping in, singing fabulous songs, spraying water from bottles and branches, and wearing matching white march tshirts and matching brightly patterned wax pants. There was so much energy in the air, I couldn't help but clap and dance along (only a little, I did have to restrain myself from really busting it out!). It was a hot day and reminded me of Toronto in 2002 when I was a pilgrim along with 800,000+ other people to World Youth Day in Toronto. There was one super energetic group that sang, ran forward, and then turned around, ran backwards thus confusing people behind them, danced, and then ran forward again that totally reminded me of any one of the St Elizabeth Ann Seton mission teams I had been a part of over my high school years.
Earlier that morning, Jen, Ankith, and I visited an American girl one village over, who is in Senegal on a university fellowship--she is basically doing her own Peace Corps thing, but without all of the benefits of healthcare, support, etc--named Brittany (she is awesome and super brave, I couldn't do what she did!). She joined us as we welcomed the pilgrims into Popenguine, climbed around, and explored the enormous and beautiful stage area and greater Popenguine that was all abuzz with the event. In Senegal, religious events such as this (or similar Muslim equivalents Gamou and Magal), are basically GINORMOUS shopping events as well. Vendors appeared out of nowhere (ie Dakar, Kaolack, Thies, all of the roads from Podor to Zuiginchore and everywhere in between), peddling tshirts with the Virgin Mary and Jesus, glow in the dark crucifixes, laminated prayer cards, plastic church hats, rosaries, Bibles, and other "religious items," not to mention hats, used clothing, shoes, purses, dvds (not real, of course), beaded bracelets and shells, etc, AND all types of street snack food and drink, including kinkiliba (a type of tea--I purchased a HUGE bag of leaves for my vil fam), homemade popsicles, cookies, gum, local juices, fried foods, mangoes, water, beignets (Senegalese donuts), and so MUCH more! As always, prices were only "kind of" set and thus up for negotiation (except on food), but amazingly, since this was a Senegalese celebration and not a Western one, we were mostly given fair prices and treated like everyone else, AMAZING!So Sunday evening, there was a big mass for the youth while everyone else took private prayer time and later that night was a big mass. It started an hour + later than it should have, and for obvious reasons (the heat and walking 30+ km that day), most people were practically asleep during the mass or out in the village eating and drinking up. The mass (what we saw before we left 2+ hours into it) included an interpretive dance segment and a (long) theater piece about the life of Paul. The mood around town was one of excitement, friendship, and celebration of the Catholic faith. It was cool, and there were so many freakin' people!
Monday morning was the big mass of the weekend, and I mean BIG! Seriously, well over 100,000 people crammed into the large space, specially created for this event each year. And, there were probably another 20,000+ people not at mass--either sleeping, standing around, selling things, or helping with crowd control (military, police, firefighters, Red Cross, etc). The picture to the side is taken during mass. We were standing on the grass behind the alter and thus couldn't really see anything except Red Cross officials and military people carrying people who passed out due to the heat, out on stretchers every two or three minutes. The music was pretty good, but the mass was hard to follow since they kept turning off the speaker nearest us every time the priest spoke. This was mass meets Senegal in the fact that people were standing, sitting, squeezing past other people into tiny spaces, and the heat made it necessary for people to drink water and suck on popsicles and frozen juices in the midst of mass. However, everyone that wanted to, received Holy Communion, which was pretty incredible. It was done similar to the World Youth Day I attended back in 2002: teams of priests, nuns, alter servers, and boy/girl scouts (scouts and "guides" are run through the Catholic Church in France and Senegal), were dispersed to various locations across the entire grounds to give out the Eucharist. It was really cool. The music was also, as it should be here in West Africa, pretty rockin'.After mass, we wandered around, amazed by all of the vendors (and all of the ridiculous junk they had to sell) and the crowd. At one point as we walked by, an obnoxious person selling tshirt from the back of a truck and using a loud speaker called out "I miss you!" a phrase that made me think "typical Senegalese...finding the white girls in the crowd and calling out to them," until it was followed by "Khady Diouf, I miss you! Khady Fall (Jen), I miss you!" I looked up and saw that loud speaker man was in fact my good friend Bartholomew from Thies (he is the best waiter in Senegal and thus Jen and I became good friends with him)! He proceeded to chat with us, while leaving the loudspeaker turned on, and I couldn't stop laughing for a good half hour after. Oh what a small world! While shopping around, we found a Serere Bible (which I now own), a partially translated Wolof Bible for Jen, and a fabulously ridiculous and horribly-printed muscle tank (Mary on one side, Jesus on the other). As we worked our way through the crowd, Brittany unfortunately became the victim of a pickpocket (lame!) who snagged her phone, but fortunately Jen had just received a freebe phone from a Dakar expat, so Brittany wasn't out too much (just a bunch of numbers). It was unfortunate, but could have been worse. And then we ate delicious cashew fruits on our way to the make-shift garage set up for all of the thousands of people.
I rode with Jen back to Mbour, rather than head straight to Kaolack, which was a good decision. We talked about the fun weekend, how good it was to get away, and generally catch up over delicious PIZZA!
So back to the whole "Sin Fest," which I am sure that you are all wondering about... first off, ANY Catholic event here in Senegal comes complete with cheap Senegalese alcohol--beer, wine, hard liquor, as well as palm wine--and these things were in the plenty as make-shift bars and palm wine vendors littered the roads everywhere the eye could look, and people were definitely partaking. Islam does not allow followers to drink alcohol (many do, but they aren't supposed to), so both alcohol and pork (which was being grilled up everywhere as well) are big defining characteristics of Catholic events. The authorities actually had the good forwarning to close down the beach, since there aren't any lifeguards, to prevent any intoxicated people from doing anything stupid. Another big thing was all of the couples everywhere--like seriously! In Senegal, it is rare to see a guy and girl hold hands or display any affection in public, with the exception of male/female prostitues and Westerners, while it is very common to see groups of men only touching each other and holding hands or groups of women doing the same. This weekend was a different story. Young guy/girl couples were talking together, holding hands, hugging, and generally interacting together in a positive way. We were all kind of, admittedly, shocked to see such a change, not realizing that the lack of handholding, etc, was probably a result of Islam's influence on local culture. And finally, there was the fact that for the better part of the weekend, no one harassed us at all. As a group of four foreigners, we were large enough to watch out for each other but small enough not to draw too much attention to ourselves. People just let us be, rather than saying "Toubab! TOUBAB!!!!!!!!!" over and over, which was just incredible. Catholics, go figure!
I also want to express my surprise and appreciation towards the planning committee who put the entire event together. There were tons of military people, police, firefighters, and general security people, plus ambulances, Red Cross volunteers, and several make-shift hospital areas for people who got sick/dehydrated/injured/otherwise ill. There were tons of port-o-potties all around town so people wouldn't relieve themselves in public, which is the first time we had seen such things in this country. There was a lot of water, though people didn't drink as much of it as they should have, and things were generally clean (no cholera, unlike Touba). The people of Popenguine will have a good amount of cleanup to do, but nothing compared with how bad it could have been. The local TV station had been showing public logistic meetings for the two weeks before the pilgrimage, so they had definitely been planning ahead. Things were as orderly and organized as they get in Senegal and we were genuinely impressed.
Thank you Ankith and your Popenguine family for being such kind and generous hosts for us for the weekend. Ankith kindly gave Jen and I his double bed for the weekend and his family kept us fed (when we weren't indulging in delicious street food).
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Tomorrow I am headed back to site. This weekend was the first time in over a month where I went two whole days without doing any work, which was incredible. It wasn't the type of spiritual retreat that I had hoped for, for various reasons (in many ways I was more of a spectator than a pilgrim, or so it felt), but it was a great psychological break from everything. I have to remind myself that it's ok and actually quite good to do that once in awhile rather than work myself to exhaustion. This week will be more latrines, scholarship follow-up (hopefully more on that in a future post), maybe some garden work/planning ahead, and spending time with friends and family in the village because I haven't done that in awhile. My APCD (boss) is coming to visit my site in a week and a half (Inchallah) and I need to plan ahead the next three weeks before life gets really crazy for 2 months straight. Love you and miss you all!
Btw, pictures are updated on my Picasa website, so check them out!
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