Independence Day!

The 4^th of July one of the holidays where you are almost guaranteed too see all of your PCV friends in one place. We have small get togethers for things like Easter, Christmas, and Cinco de Mayo. Usually these consist mostly of people within the same region as you and a couple outliers. The 4^th however, is held every year in Kedegou. This is in my opinion the most beautiful region of the country. I went down with 6 other crazy kids in a 12 hour or so sept place ride. The ride itself was an adventure. With some of my best friends we made this long usually uncomfortable trip a pre-party. This years celebration was especially important to my stage as it was the last time that many of us would all be in one place. (My stage begins COSing in August.) We arrived on the 2^nd ready for a dance marathon. It was great to see everyone arriving and sharing what we have been up to and where we are going. The day of the third I went with a bunch of volunteers to a hotel where they were staying which had a pool. It's so nice to be in a pool. I also managed to jump into the river, immediately, realizing it was deep and the current was fast. Luckily a guy had been watching me and was ready to pull me out and tell me how stupid I was in Wolof. It was a crazy day, but not as crazy as the 4^th.

The Kedegou crew did an amazing job at decorating and preparing lots of food! We had all sorts of dips, beans, and PIG! It was so delicious. We danced until the early hours of the morning. The were of course beverages aplenty. The infamous Royal Dutch, the cheapest and most disgusting beer on the plant was bought in a large enough amount for a small army. Which is not far from what it was destined to serve. They also made a delicious local concoction called G-sap. Gin Bissap. It's really sweet and until you have a few bags there is no telling how strong it is. I believe my dance moves and level of voice showed it to be far stronger than I had anticipated. This wonderful evening included a mud fight, paint fight, glow stick breaking, fireworks, and lots of smiling faces :)

The day of the 5^th there was defiantly an air of “we need to rest”. In true form after sleeping in a bit, we all helped clean up and got back to celebrating. There were some great instrumentalists there, and we took turns singing if we knew the words. There were also a couple groups of people who went on little expeditions. Some of my friends went on a river float, but as I had scared myself in the river I chose another course. I went with a group to hike to one of the amazing waterfalls. It was a bit of a hike and when I got back I was soaked. It was absolutely gorgeous and one of my favorite places in country. I believe from my site mate the phrase “Kraused” was coined on this expedition. I have a tendency to do my own thing, so when I disappeared it was strange to those who didn't know me. Even stranger yet was when I popped out of the woods next to term after bashing open a termite mound to see the different castes inside. I had a great day! I am sure the phrase means something along the lines of my enhancement of any and all experiences.

The next day it was time to go home. We counted our losses, (for me sunglasses and a skirt), and said goodbye to our friends. Some of them for the last time in Senegal. I'm sure many of us will see each other again in the states. It was an absolutely fabulous time. The ride home was horrible and it took me 2-3 days of recovery at the regional house before I dared go back to site with my newly acquired wounds and skin infections (see the Frog Blog). I wish I could come back next summer to do it again, but then it wouldn't be the same without all the people who came in and will leave the country with me.

The rains are HERE!!

In Senegal the dry season is just that, dry. It is hard to find water for animals and gardens. If a village only has wells all of the water must be drawn. In villages which have advanced slightly, pipe systems exist. Water must still be filled into bucket or large pans and carried to the desired location but it is surely easier than pulling from a well. My grandmother has permanent scars on her hands from pulling so much water. Very few people own a water hose. They are not of high quality, are hard to attach to the spout head, and are generally only for large scale farms. I am lucky to be in a village with a water system. This ensures our water to be cleaner and provides easier access.

Its a great relief when the rainy season comes. Though it does not come soon enough for all. The vegetation is greatly reduced until the rains start. My area looks like a desert and many of the domesticated animals die. It only takes one or two big rains before everything bursts to life. Animals have water, large scale grain and bean fields are planted, and millions of insects and other creatures begin to reveal themselves. One day while jogging I had to stop to photo a group of frogs that had gathered in a large pot hole in the road. They were just doing there thing, and being very noisy about it!

I love the seasonal pools and rivers that form. In these you can see animals coming for a drink, birds coming to eat all the insects that have gathered, and more often than not a lot of naked kids having one of the best days of their childhoods. It's a beautiful sound to hear all of the kids laughing and playing in a resource we take for granted at home. It's also really nice to have them out of my hut haha. These seasonal water holes can be troublesome. Last rainy season my site mate and I had to walk through one to get to her village. When it starts to get over your waist and you can't see to the bottom, you really begin to wonder what else is in there with you. I personally recall the movie Anaconda. I'm lucky to be next to what is considered a pretty good road. In the rains it is unlikely that I'll be stuck at site. I may occasionally be stuck in a mud hole, but I must say the guys here are great about getting out and pushing. I have only had to push one car, and I chalk it up to an experience I would never have had in an American road.

I also enjoy not having to water my garden. If it goes more than 3-4 days without rain I will do it. The months of July to September generally have rain often enough that I can be a little lazy. The constant high humidity helps keep the ground from drying out too fast. I have tried to show villagers this is especially true when garden beds are covered in peanut shells. The shells are often not used for anything and they improve the soil quality. Every once in a while a peanut plant grows. I consider that a plus as well as it can serve as a trap crop for nematodes, that would otherwise go after my vegetables.

There are some other major disadvantages to the season. Hand washed clothes may not dry. Things mold quickly. Fungus grows everywhere. On my bed, in my garden, even on my skin. Mites have infested my mattress and my whole body itches. I just put it out on sunny days and it seems to at least knock them down for a while. I am not fond at all of all the weird skin things. I have gotten used to them though. I know when a blister is from too much sun, a blister beetle, or the ones I get that go away after a week or so without much damage. I don't know what causes them but they are pretty harmless. I was afraid my chest was going to have permanent scars from a group of them, but after time and a little more sun the marks faded. The worst are the never healing wounds. We are slow healers here. Our immune systems are not quite up to par. I have seen some pretty bad wounds. My current ones really are nothing. It is well known among the PCV community that you take care of your wounds in the rainy season. I have to disinfect it daily and occasionally apply some antibacterial ointment. They can really get out of hand. This one is two weeks old, and much better than it started. I must say regardless of it all, I love the rainy season. It reminds me of home to hear the thunder storms, and fall asleep to the rain. (It's also a sign the food will get better soon!)

Latrine Project

So I'll just poo in the yard yea?

My village has about 1300 people. There were about 5 latrines that I knew of in the village. I am not a health volunteer, but I saw this as a major need in my area that I could help with. Through donations from my family and friends, The St. Paul's Ladies Sodality Club, and The New Alsace Legion I was able to give my village more latrines. I combined this money with a grant I wrote through Appropriate Projects. In total I was able to build 13 latrine and pay for 2 members of my community to go to a basic health and sanitation training.

The project was amazingly simple. I think was due to the genuine need of the community for the structures. I asked each family to dig the hole for the latrine and contribute a small dollar amount to ensure their commitment to the project. The money went towards paying the mason for labor. It went really fast. All of them were built in less than 2 months time.

People from the village often came to my room to thank me, even those who did not receive a latrine in their own home! I gave priority to the elderly and households with large numbers of children. My father was able to point these out to me and went house to house with me to collect the money and explain the project.

I would write another grant if I only had time. They do not build things in the rainy season here because it is too likely for materials to be wasted. For example, cement getting wet, or a hole that was dug filling with water. I hope my replacement does a couple rounds of latrines in their two years. If they did almost my whole village would have a clean place to use the bathroom. This would decrease the amount of fecal matter in the streets, the likelihood of it getting onto the food, and hopefully raise awareness of diseases vectored through waste.

This was one of my most fulfilling projects. It went smoothly, people were grateful, and I think it can help the long-term overall health of the village. I would recommend all volunteers in similar situations to take advantage of the available grants and to voice the situation of your village across the internet. This is a cause well worth contributing to and everyone comes out on top!

There are rocks over the hole to keep out mosquitoes

This is how we do it

I've had some requests for more of my daily life. Every PCV is different, but as a Sustainable Ag volunteer we all have some things in common. So this is how we do it :)

Wake up in the morning feelin' like P Diddy, grab my glasses I'm out the door, I'm 'bout to hit bush city, before I leave brush my teeth with a litre of salts 'cause the next time I'm in my hut there can't be no halts . OK thank you Ke$ha but really on to the story. (also that was a reference to diarrhea

PCV memory is like that of a person with Alzheimer's. There are those of us who manage without an agenda, and those of us who spend half our days looking for our keys. I'm somewhere in between. I have an agenda, but I also have 3 keys in random places to find at any time when I have lost (usually temporarily) my normal set. I write down everything from meetings to clean your room, to text Eric.

Generally, I am split between my village, my Master farmers village (not all PCVs have one, and some are in their own village), and the regional house. In village I wake up and greet my family as I get water. Then I go for a jog. Sometimes if I'm working at the Master Farm I'll just jog there, it's like 6-7 Km. If I stay in my village I will then either clean various things in my room, visit my counterparts, work in my garden, or like now write a blog which I will later post when I get to the city. I also take the hours of 12-3 for cooking my lunch, napping and listening to music with my brothers. Sometime I do non-sus ag stuff like go to the health post, or talk to families about malaria.

If I do go to the Master Farm I will help make vegetable and tree nurseries, survey for insect problems, and make future plans with my awesome site mates and Fatou. We spend a good deal of time there just talking and waiting for her delicious yet stomach breaking lunches.

This is us seeding her farm

After nap/music time, I will go back out to the fields. If I don't have field work I spend a lot of time chillin' with the ladies as they shell peanuts and gossip. Sometimes they gossip about me until I pick up on what's going on. I think it's there way of seeing if I am paying attention.

In the evening I enjoy holding Fatou my little sister or playing with her and Bussa my niece until one of my moms yells at us for too much giggling. Then I read until I am sleepy enough to pass out. As of late there has been a camel spider in my room. It will run up to the light crawl up my arms or legs and freak me out. They don't bite but they are fast and creepy looking. I killed one last night very gently so I could take pictures. I know I am an Entomologist after all right!

The regional house is where we go to use the internet, have meetings, get supplies in the surrounding city, and socialize. There is also an office in Kaffrine which is closer to me. I find that some visits to the house end with me getting a lot of work done while others end with having only done the socializing aspect. I write it off as necessary for mental health. It is so nice just to talk to other volunteers about what they are doing and brainstorm what we can do together. It's also been the location of some pretty sweet stress relief sessions that carry on to the wee hours of the morning.

This lady is the JAM! She is a bouncer/bartender and protects me from all of Kaffrine ;)

There are days when as a volunteer with more time on the clock I go to other volunteers villages and help them give trainings. I have done this with Lorraine in January which I wrote about and again just this week. I have a new site mate named Ann. She asked me to come and help her get a garden going. We showed her family some techniques and planted a nice vegetable nursery. As a health/ environmental education volunteer the garden should be very useful to her.

AND THAT'S HOW WE DO IT!

Senegal to Americ and back

I had not initially planned on a trip to America during my service. So many things were happening in my family in the month of May that I simply could not resist the use of my vacation time. Thanks again to mom and dad for fronting the travel costs! I was very excited to go as I made my reservations. I looked forward to my cousin Lea's wedding, Sara's 16^th birthday, my mother birthday and mother's day, as well as Memorial day weekend. Though as the time approached I got a little scared. I hadn't been home in over 600 days. Just under 2 years, and I wasn't sure if I was going to be the same person. Would I randomly talk in Wolof, eat with my hands, or make an off color comment? When I finally saw American soil though all my worries were gone and I was glad to be home.

Miss these guys every day!

While I was there I went to the above mentioned events as well as so much more. I talked to elementary, middle and high school classes, went 4-wheeling, canoeing, shooting, boating with dad, 2 concerts (one at which I crowd surfed to the stage!), and so much time with family and friends. It was so great to see my brothers and sisters and how much my nieces and nephews had grown up. I caught up with my cousins, and spent a lot of time with Sara. I also got to see my best friend Jess who flew in from Portland just for me :). The ease with which people can travel was refreshing.

I had some great days working with my dad and seeing wildlife. Everything was so green! My family vacation to Lake Cumberland was also a highlight of the trip I won't forget. We went out on the lake and saw Mammoth Caves. We also stayed out late to see a moon-bow over a waterfall. It was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen.

I relished as much meat and cheese as I could. I even took time to cook some Senegalese food for my family. I finally had Penn Station and Skyline, omg soooo good! I got to eat at some other great restaurants too, and was fully satisfied by the time I had to go. I was there for a whole month and it was just enough time to see almost everyone. I did miss my friends and family in Senegal though.

I knew my friends were waiting for me here and that my family was hoping I would actually come back lol! I had some trouble getting back home but I'm not even getting into that until it is resolved. There will either be a future posting of Peace Corps caring for its' volunteers, or how little they really care, we will see. When I finally got here I was so happy to see my friends and it was so great giving gifts to my family. It is so cute to see my little baby siblings in frilly American dresses. Kids are still coming to my hut this day asking for more toys. I have some hidden in my trunk that I'm waiting to hand out so they aren't too overloaded. I also stocked up on some goodies for my friends and I, so don't worry I'm not starving yet!

There were a lot of feelings I had in America that I hadn't expected to have. For example, I was really annoyed when people asked about the animals in my area. Yes, I live in Africa. No, there are not large animals like lions and elephants here. They are all being wiped out. Habitat loss and poaching are clearing the plant of these mega charismatic beasts. I was shocked to find that people had no idea that many of these animal aren't just endangered but some of them are down to less than 100 individuals in the wild. 100 individuals is considered to be the bare minimum of animals needed to continue a species due to the need for genetic recombination.

I was also disgusted by the wastefulness. Half full plates being thrown away, gigantic portions well beyond what is necessary to survive, or even to live healthily, and all of the plastic. There is so much excessive packaging on everything. Why do all the fruits and veggies need containers? I hope I find a nearby farmers market when I get home. The first and only trip I took to the mall I almost had a panic attack. The consumerism is disgusting and so many things are completely unnecessary. They seemed to me the perfect symbol of American laziness. Why is America obese? Maybe because we have machines to do everything for us so we have more time to watch TV. I'm sorry, but seriously after a week I wanted to throw the TV off the roof. There is so much out there and so many things to do. I don't understand watching a box for 4-6 hours a day. I didn't own a TV in college and now I'm glad I didn't or I may have become just as addicted.

I was also appalled by the excessive use of energy. Lights left on during the day, TV's an radios on that no one is listening to, car rides just out of boredom, and I know this is crazy but it seemed weird to me all the fuel used to keep the yard “pretty”. I don't mean to rip on my homeland, but I hope when I return I keep the ideals I have learned here and don't abuse the resources we have such easy access to at home just because I can. People in Senegal have a minimal trash system and no recycling. I recycled everything at home and see no excuse for people who don't. I want to enjoy a good quality of life while I am alive and I don't mind working a little to ensure that future generations can have that too.

Overall, I feel I must end with this; Despite the things I don't like about America I still can't wait to get back.

So you Think Monkeys are Cute

As you know if you have been reading my blog, one of my main projects is to work with a woman named Fatou Willane. We have had a very rocky relationship. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that we did not choose to work with each other but were told to work with each other by Peace Corps. She is part of the Master Farmer Program. The objective is to give her everything she needs to have a beautiful and prosperous field that will serve to show other farmers in the area technologies that they may incorporate into their own farms to increase productivity. In some ways the program works. We have demonstrations in vegetable crops and open field days in the rainy season showing some of the best ways to take care of field crops. This includes things such as spacing, thinning, weeding, and pesticide application and alternatives.Although  no farmers could actually afford to do what she does on the large scale, just parts. 

It has also shown many volunteers that even with seemingly endless funds there are problems here that just cannot be solved. Farmers in Senegal have been burning their fields since their great grandparents time and before. It is nearly impossible to convince farmers that this is not the best practice. I cannot for the life of me get it into Fatou's head why this is bad. It removes the vegetation that could be reincorporated into the soil as nitrogen and each year villages or parts of them are burnt down due to out of control fires.

An unusual problem I had was a monkey. This is not unusual to the Senegalese these animals have always been pests. I had never seen one near my village but they appear to be coming back. My site mate saw a whole troop of them the other day. Fatou and I had a beautiful field going. We had inter-cropped eggplant with corn; as well as having cabbage, hot pepper, and jaxatu (Google it). This was all planted inside the drip irrigation system we had installed to preserve water. Then the monkey came. It would pull of ears of corn, squash tomato, takes bites out of the eggplant and then toss one and move on. It also chewed the water cans and the very expensive drip irrigation. I had no idea how to get rid of a monkey as I had no firearm.

We tried a scarecrow. Nothing the monkey was not that stupid. We tried putting poison in a bucket of water. We assumed it was there for water as much as food, but alas it was too smart for that too. Finally, one of her employees borrowed a rifle. He was a poor shot and I really wish I could have done it myself, bit PCV's are forbidden to handle firearms. If we could you see, all the taxi and moto drivers would be dead (they are the scum of Senegal). I thought though maybe the sound of being shot at would do something. It didn't the monkey just kept on coming.

While I was at home I thought maybe I could hang aluminum foil or pie pans to scare the monkey and was ready to try this upon my return. When I went to visit Fatou the first time I was shocked. Her field had nothing left but trees. I asked what had happened. She said the squirrels had come too and were chewing the drip irrigation and since everything was getting ruined she decided to stop everything till I came back.

Back to square one. We have made a new vegetable nursery and seeded our millet and sorghum crops. When things begin to fruit I honestly don't know what we'll do. I'm in favor of hiring one of the French men who frequent the nearby bush hotel for hunting and have them kill the little buggers. I'm open to any other suggestions anyone out there may have.

The Election and Associated Riots

When a developing country comes to a point where the constitution dictates the time has come to have an election all hell breaks loose. This is what happened from January through March of this year in Senegal. The people of Senegal were angry and willing to point fingers in any direction. I will say before I go on that no PCVs were seriously hurt due to the civil unrest. I experienced three events in this time which served as visuals of this unrest. The first was the riot in Kaolack when the late President Abdulaye Wade came for a visit. People were running like crazy throught he streets. The police came and fired gas at them. I got the shot below from the safety of the roof of the Kaolack regional house. When the presidential candidate left things immediately calmed down.

After this event I knew it would be better to stay in the bush, but I didn't. One day I decided to go to the market. I smelled smoke and saw policeman and knew I needed to get out of there. I called our security director and he told me to get back to the house. I followed his instructions almost exactly. I had to take a little peek as I found a taxi. It turns out either by "electrical failure" or malintent the front 1/3 of the market had been burnt down. This was a major blow to the cities economy. My favorite seed store happened to be in this area. Lucky for me they were able to relocate.

The last experience I had with the riots before I literally stayed in village only until it was over was a bad one. We were driving down the road one morning on the way to the market to get some veggies. A group of outraged teens started throwing bricks into the road just ahead of us while others started rollingin tires. This is what they use to start fires. Our cab hit it in reverse and we got out of there. Unfortunately on the next road was yet another fire. We turned down a third street and were almost back to our house when another driver waved to us. He told our driver there was another fire just ahead. We turned and took yet another street before finally getting back to our house. It was scary and I can't say I have ever experienced anything like it.

When it's all said and done, the good guy won, the old guy accepted it, and the country calmed down. I am now safe to travel, go to the market, and live the way I had the previous 15 months.