Tamxarit- New Years December 6th

This is the holiday celebrating the Muslim New year. It is celebrated much like other big holidays here with abig oily dinner and lots of tea drinking. There was one big difference though. Everyone under 25 or so cross dressed. Yea, it was amazing! My brother wore a bra, girls tank top, and skirt. My sisters wore various mens clothing and used ash to make beards on their faces. After getting all dressed up it was time to parade around town in their costumes while of course beating a drum. It was the first time I staed up with my family after midnight. I thought the whole thing was especially ironic as homosexuality is illegal here. I also couldn't figure out why the tradition had started in the first place. Unfortunately I had no camera at the time so you will all just have to use your imagiations!

Just another Saturday

What do your Saturdays consist of? My are never the same. For example in early November I went to visit a volunteer (Spencer Macklin) in his village. I had no idea what we would be doing but I expected we would mix in some work with our visit so I didn't have to take vacation time. It's not that I didn't want ot do work, but digging garden beds and discussing soil erosion gets old. However, I was in for a pleasant surprise. Spencer frequently works with his village doctor. So we woke up a little early went over to the hospital and found that we would be giving polio vaccinations to the kids in his village. It is a three dose vaccine. Children who had gotten it once immediately recognized our coolers and ran screaming. Usually a father or older brother would bring them back laughing. It was just an oral vaccination so I was able to administer it myself. It made me feel like I was doing something important, something worthwhile, something that I thought I would be doing when I joined the corps. It's just a difference between the instant gratification of knowing a child is now protected and the long wait to know if an agricuturte demonstration was effective. It was a great Saturday.


Like I mentioned not all my Saturdays are the same. Another Saturday I spent with my Master Farmer. A farmer chosen to demonstrate and explain new technologies to locals. We planted a vegetable pepiniere, contacted a mason for repairs, and then had a nice lunch. In the afternoon I had to fix the lock on my door, clean my room, do some laundry, and read some Stephen king. That was a really productive day.
Yet another Saturday consisted of me going house to house to check on farmers I had worked with. Working on the report I have to do for seed extension, and doing pedicures with my moms and sisters. It's never the same here. Life moves on in whatever direction it can take. It does make time management difficult but I like it. I have the freedom to decide if it is a Saturday for Ag, for cleaning, for writing reports, or as last Saturday for celebrating a friends birthday. I often forget what day of the week it is here, but Saturdays will always stick out they are special whether its a work day or a fun day, and usually I get reminded by other volunteers or people at home. Imagine if your Saturday's weren't always days off. There is no hump day, no end to a week, just times when you work, times when you don't, and times when the work is so satisfying it makes you feel guilty to call it work.

You ate what?!

The title implies another story of me eating an animal we do not consider edible at home. However, I had my thanksgiving dinner in Dakar at the home of the new Senegalese American Ambassadors. Yea. It was so nice. As volunteers we rarely take off our sandals and put on our classy attire. Some of us actually don't have any. There was a lot of borrowing and sharing going on before the day was over! The food was AMAZING! There was everything Thanksgiving should have. The pumkin pie, the turkey, the dressing (which I didn't get any of....), and the mashed potatoes. There were also many non-traditional dishes that volunteers put together. Just by looking at some of the food you could tell it was made by a PCV and not one of the Expats or PC staff. I personally made fruit salad and brought it in tupperware. Sorry mom, I tried to be classy it just didn't work out. The food did get eaten though!! A favorite moment of the night was seeing a fellow PCV bringing over a plate full of chocolate cake, various pies, and excessive amounts of whipped cream. Classic. Another volunteer was talented at the piano and even busted out the mario brothers :) The party was nice but being the youngsters we are we had to go out for more! Karoke! I think that's how you spell it. If not let me explain. In front of a bunch of people me and new friend Lisa belted out Whitney Houstons' "I'm Every Woman". It was a great night. After all the festivities were over we slept in and took our time getting to the Artisinal Festival. There were many hand made super awesome things there. All very authentically made in Senegal. Yes family I got you stuff! There was jewelry, wooden carvings and masks, baskets, purses, and even clothing. One volunteers tailor was there to make sure it really was the perfect fit. Dakar was great but travel is always rough, so on the way home I took a pit stop in Kaolack. Then I found it time to go back to my meager little hut and chow on millet :)

Tabaski 2 and Cold season begins!

This year we once again celebrated the life of Abrahams son Isaac. I think. Well we killed three sheep and wore our fancy clothes. No pictures this year though :( It's too bad because my little sisters hair was so cute! The celebration was on the 7th, however we began preparing on the  6th. Meaning the late night drumming, high energy children, and dancing had already begun. This continued to the 9th. I wore Senegalese clothing all day the 7th and on the nights of the 8th and 9th. My clothes this year were hot pink :) My sister goes to a school in Dakar for design and she really like my outfit. My dad said he liked it but I thin khe was just being nice. My mom cane to me mid day on the 7th and put half a heart and part of a sheep leg in my hand and was like "cook this" then we'll have 2 more lunches! It was a lot of eating. The meat I cooked was delicious thanks to my knowledge of cooking deer meat, I was able to prepare myself a tasty treat in my hut. I didn't enjoy cutting off the fat and removing the bone, but it was nice for those things to not be in the final meal for once. Finally, the night of the 9th as I'm trying to study for my GRE my family announces there is going to be a few more days of celebration becasue my sister is getting married. This I found odd as she already has a kid, and claimed to have a husband in Dakar. Confusing, I think my dad was just really desperate to get her out of our house. I decided it was in my best interest not to tell her new mother inlaw even though the results could have been interesting.... Due to the importance of my exam I chose not to stay in village for another few nights of drum pounding into the morning hours. I know my sister will be mad, but there wasn't really any other option in my mind. Meantime, in Kaolack the new volunteerss have installed. It is a time for me to share my great knowledge of culture and technical work with them. It's so funny to hear people saying what I was thinking a year ago and how some of it hasn't really changed.It's cool enough I need to wear a shawl at night all the way down to 70! Still gets up to 100 in the afternoon though. This requires careful layer planning for going out. It reminds me a little of fall in Indiana. I bet I'll die of cold when I go back there! New season means new work. I plan on completing an insect guide for volunteers as well as doing some small trainings in my village and demonstrations with my master farmer. she is getting better all the time. This season she started her vegetable nursery all on her own and even used ash and manure to boost the soil, go Fatou! Hopefully I will get my camera fixed soon and have some pictures to put up here.

Breakin in the Newbies

The first week of October I had the pleasure of hosting a brand new volunteer. She had been in country for a month at her training site. I was happy to show her how the next two years of her life were going to be travel and food wise. It was fun bc I had forgotten so many of the things that the PC doctors and security had told us not to do. I'll explain them as I go. First, we went into Kaolack from Thies. Then I took her along with many others to one of the few restaurants in town that are decent. She later told me this was the best meal of her time with me lol :) Then it was to the garage and I didn't think about the fact that she had never been to a Senegalese garage. She handled the men screaming at us and filthy conditions quite well. Then we were off to my village. We just had time to settle our things and shower before a dinner of millet and milk, one of the best things I ever get to eat at site. Then she reminded me we aren't supposed to eat milk because it's not pasturized and can transmit tuberculosis. We continued eating anyway. The next day I attempted to take her to see her village which I had only been to twice. Only one from my village and I got lost that time. This time we didn't get lost but we did have to walk through a seasonal river. This is when she reminded me that the freshwater could harbor schistosomiasis and other parasites. On we went. Finally, we reached her village and after not having breakfast we were happy to have maffe for lunch. It's white rice with peanut sauce. She will probably eat it every day like my family does. Then we tried to make it home before dark but we weren't fast enough. We got stuck in my master farmers village and she let us shower there. We didn't have any other clothes though so we slept in our sweaty river water clothes. She did have a nice dinner of millet and beans in peanut sauce. I thought it was great anyway. My visitor was too hungry to complain much. We started out the next morning and were able to catch a car to my village after taking a look at the farm. Then I wanted to show her her master farmers village and let them meet. We got my bother to hook up a horse cart for us and he drove us there and back. We both got sunburnt and were so tired by the time we got back we slept through lunch. After we had rested I showed her 2 of the fields I'm doing research in and then we got some nice showers and clean cloths right before dark. My family then gave us a dinner of millet with an eggplant from my garden on top. We had paid them extra for food so I was kind of mad. Then my mom brought in milk! and it was sour! She spit it out and I quuickly returned it to my family. So I can see why the restaurant was her best meal. The next day I took her to my road town and we saw what will be the sub region office ina month or two and most importantly THE BAR! We hung out till after lunch, we were full from bean and egg sandwiches and then went back to Kaolack. In the city we showered again and put on our dancing shoes. There is a club in Kaolack and I was up till 5am. Great night for the end of the trip. I did end up sick a couple days later with a fever and headache who knows from what, but I think she is as ready as she can be for bush life.

Field work galore!

I knew the rainly season was going to be busy and it is! Everyday I'm in a different feild noting current practices such as planting space and manure application, while I give advice on potential ways to increase the yield. It's been really hard to keep track of so many farmers. I have Fatou in Katakel and I usually see her twice a week. Her farm has improved greatly and it makes me so happy. It is a lot of work and data collection, but I feel she might be starting to see why I am asking her to do these "crazy" things. We are having an open field day in Octoer and I really hope it goes well. Other than that I have a few random farmers in Ndioudiene who ask me to look at one problem or another in thier vegetable gardens. I am only too willing to do this as I really want ot promote everyone to have rainy season veggie gardens in addition to thier field crops. Then I have 17 farmers whom I have given seed to and must collect data on for a research organization called ISRA. It's nice for the farmers to get free seed, although I'm not sure how sustainable it is. After I leave it will be difficult for them to get the seed without me. This is why I'll be stressing proper seed storage over the next month. I hope at least a few farmers get some tips that help them improve their yields and make a little mopre money for themselves.
I've outplanted a lot of trees and I have 7 papaya growing in my garden maybe the next volunteer if there is one will get to see the fruits of that work. My dad has been lazy about transplanting the trees I raised for him so they probally won't make it, but I can't force him. Either he wants fruit trees, alley cropping or live fencing, or her doesn't. My garden is so great! I sold 17 kilos of eggplant the other day. I wish my camera hadn't broke so I could show you them. they looked so nice. It has tired me out but I feel I had a successful season so far and I hope I can carry on to the end and get some farmers to really stick woth the new technologies.

Moringa Madness!

This last week the volunteers in my area made an enormous effort to visit about 20 villages in a week and educate them on the uses of moringa powder. Moringa olifera is a tree which has highly nutrtious leaves. It is very hardy and grows fast. We often eat the leaves in a peanut sauce over millet for dinner. This method decreases the aount of vitamins in the leaves as they are cooked. Moringa has an unimaginable amount of vitamins. For example in one kilo of powder that has been dried and crushed there is more vitamin C than  7 kilos of oranges. We began by visiting the villages and planting intensive beds. These small beds have about 100 trees in each dependig on the size of course. After a month the trees can be cut and the leaves harvested. The tress then grow back more bushlike. We taught them to plant and harvest the beds. They can also use individual trees that grow in the village. After this portion of the program we waited a month before returing to do the second part. This involved going village to village teaching them to make the powder without reducing the vitamin content. Then we showed them how they can add it to certain foods to increase the nutritional value of their diets. We specifically made a type of porridge which is easy to feed to children who are malnourished. There was a range of interest from village to village. Some people were very interested and I feel they are likely to utilize the technique. Others became aware of the importance of nutrition. I had a few people asking me about the nutritional value of certain vegetables in my village. There are always those who miss the point and wer asking me to make them more porridge. Sigh. Overall I think the program was very successful!

Travel

It is hard to travel in Senegal. There is always a fight over the price first of all. I want to pay the same as everyone else on the bus. No I will not pay extra for my bags and no I will not pay for two seats so we can leave sooner. The transport is based on a when the car is packed and everyone is uncomfortable we will go system. In the rainy season this gets even worse. People don't want to open their windows. Drivers want to wait longer. The roads disappear. A couple weeks ago a guy driving a sand truck wasn't paying attention and hit my bus. All the volunteers agree that everytime we get in a car we risk our lives.

This is the road behind my hut when it rains. The kids like to swim in it :) I really do love how all my little brothers and sisters just run around naked in the rain it's so funny :) Sometimes in the big storms we can't go outside though. The wind is so strong and it blows everything all around. Also this time of year a lot of huts fall down. I have informed my family of the anger I will feel if my hut falls. My brother promises it won't....

Rainy Season Work, is working!

Thus far in the rainy season I have raised almost 200 fruit trees and am giving them to villagers to plant in their homes and feilds. Hopefully this will become a food and shade source. Some of the trees will also be used in live fencing to keep the millions of goats and sheep out of my brothers and dads field. I hope other people see them and take initiative to do it themselves next year. Thats asking a lot, but a very smart woman told me once never to lose hope. I have my garden all planted. The eggplant and green pepper are fruiting and the okra is flowering. I just got my melon and suash seeds in the ground I don't actually want the fruits coming up till the rains are infrequent. They just rot otherwise. I have successfully transplanted papaya and some other trees I don't know how to say in English. I have also been busy distributing seed to farmers and giving them advice on planting, spacing, fertilizing, and good old bug killing! This has been keeping me really busy and it's probally better that I don't have a computer of my own to distract me or draw me into the city. I am also very very very happy to say that me and my master farmer have formed an alliance. She will do what I ask as long as it's actually her idea and she gets frequent compliments. She is like an old car. She needs to be sweet talked and babied. My normal attitude of brutal honesty does not mesh with the cultural norms here. I feel like we have a good working relationship now though. Last time we were woring in the field she found a hedgehog! It was so cool! I also saw a goat give birth to twins. Not that you can't see that in Indiana but it was cool anyway. I am also very happy to have made good relatioships with some farmers who I think will be very good at helping me and the next volunteer share our knowledge. The guy below is Samba Dieng I am recommending him to be the next volunteers counterpart. He is so openminded and that is really important in our work.

He is farming beans for me and we will probably do some pesticide application demonstrations. So overall the rainy season while busy has been full of work. I am currently doing a moringa tournee with the other Kaolack volunteers. Check back soon to see how our nutrition trainings go!

Everything is Breaking

Senegal is not very kind on electronics. In June my ipod screen broke, July my computer began having difficulty turning on, August computer now completely broken, and camera having trouble turning on. I think it's all the sand. The house computer is also broken now which means I am relying on my fellow PCVs to let me use their computers until another PCV comes back from America with my new one. Which will break in approximately one year. I hope my camera makes it. I can't afford another and it would be horrible not to get pictures of the waterfalls in Kedegou, or me and my friends having a night in Dakar. Senegal appears to be harder on electronics than people. Although I feel like I am breaking I know I'll make it back home!

America Day!

I had the brilliant idea to fulfill my Peace Corps Goal of sharing American Culture by having a few hours dedicated to our food music and sports. My friends came from far and away to help me. We baked cookies of many sorts, banana bread, and cornbread. I also gave a lot of candy that my family sent me. I mean I didn't really need all of it for myself though it was a tough choice lol! They went a little crazy as they always do. They even fought over the foods they didn't like just because they were crazed and wanted something free. Lauren and I had enough for everyone but I think a lot of people didn't get any because they were shoving and yelling and stealing from each other. It made me mad in the end and I yelled at them for being impatient and pushy and gave the rest to my family.

My fellow PCVs Andrew and Kourtney made a music display showing that some of our roots in music came from Africa and that we have a lot of singers of African origin. He also talked about Bob Marley and the Beatles. We had a portable speaker blasting the good tunes the whole time.

Finally Amy and Albert played sports with the kids. They had football, baseball, Frisbee, and a basketball which we didn't really use. Some of the kids were really good! I let them keep the Frisbees and gave away squirt guns. I had them do a race for the last one and one very happy little girl got there first. I'm glad she didn't get hurt, like I said when free things are involved they go crazy. It was a lot of fun! Thanks to all the other PCVs who helped me out!

Master Farmer Fails

Peace corps puts large dollar sums into a program under the title of the Master Farmer Program. This project has had its' success and failures, or so I hear. Unfortunately I am only familiar with the shortcoming of this project and the lack of administratively applied consequences. The ideal master farmer would have a field which PC would support by building fencing, buying seeds, pesticides, and giving technical training. They are expected to share their knowledge with the community and improve agriculture overall in the area. I know one such farmer who is very motivated and seems to understand the importance and benefits of the program. The farmer who was chosen for me to work with does not like to work or get dirty. Those are very close to her exact words.They all have a protocol to follow in order to keep the farms the same and compare them to make success and failure more obvious. She chooses to ignore nearly all of these rules and utilize the grant money for her own gain without making demos. For example we put in a vegetable nursery for her to transplant, and a live fence was started with various tree types. We trained her on the subjects and she has decided to sell the nursery instead of doing the demo work. She also burnt our live fence. Peace Corps will not fire her now bc they have invested too much so it falls on my shoulders to deal with a lazy insubordinate, well you know me and what I'd call her.I have no choice but to 1) do her work for her 2) go there every day and be a dictator, I don't have the time fo that , or 3) join her in her laziness go three days a week and if she doesnt work well at least I'll get a good lunch.

On top are the peppers she refuses to transplant below are the trees she burned. Great work :(

Girls Camp

Every year the volunteers in my region host a camp for girls who show ambition, intelligence, and motivation to progress in the world in a way that their gender may have previously inhibited them. I only stayed two of the five days but, I could tell the girls were getting a lot out of it. 6 teachers also attended. We had sessions ranging from education on topics such as environment, health, and gender, as well as leadership sessions. Fun sessions included sports and my specialty spa night. There were about 35-40 girls and they all now know how to apply a facial exfoliator made from locally obtainable items. We also did some glamor and nail painting. Each girl got to keep her eyeliner and lip gloss.

The camp had a few problems. Mainly the emperor scorpions and horse spiders. Also it became very tiring to volunteers who stayed multiple days. Some are there all week. Trying to cook for all of them was a challenge. We wanted to introduce American  foods but also didn't want them to starve. Just as much as I don't like some of their foods they don't like all of ours. No one can resist mac and cheese though.

For one day we took a boat ride. The camp was in the delta wetlands. We saw the second larget mangrove forest in the world. The girls learned about the wildlife there and the danger that it is in. We brought in a speaker who had specific knowledge  on the area to educate them. Then we took a little break on an island and went for a swim. That is something many of these girls have never done before and will  have little opportunity to do again, UNLESS they took away all the knowledge we tried to instill in them.

I also helped in sessions to help the girls describe their environment and what kinds of nature and man made things are around them. This was fun to see all the things they drew. The last thing I did before leaving was mainly for girls who live in the city. We taught them to use trash as containers to grow plants in. There is trash everywhere he it just gets scooped into piled and burned or left where it falls. So we taught them to make use of it and grow some veggies or herbs at the same time. We used mint as an herb and water bottles for containers. They were really into it and they all got to keep their bottle.

I hope that each of these girls understands more about the world they live in now. I especially hope that they can use this knowledge to succeed beyond their highest expectations. Thank you to everyone who sent care packages and donated for the camp to run. Mom thank you for the marshmallows they LOVED smores :)

RAIN!!!

Finally it rained! 8 months of nothing and now it's here. Everything changed so fast. It's nice because I missed the changing of seasons in America. It's different though because at home it's gradual. Here over three days it went from hot, dry, and dusty to humid wet and the wildlife has come out. I biked through the bush the other day and it was the first time I saw dragonflies here. The first batch of mayflies came out for mating too. Then there were these crazy velvety red hemipterans and I have never seen anything like them. Alas my camera was dead! It was beautiful. Little ponds had formed and frogs where everywhere! I mean by the hundreds Egyptian plague style. I got lost for a while but I didn't even mind. Everything looked so different after just one rain. Where there were bush paths there was just bush. Little creeks are already beginning to form too. It will make travel more difficult in the sense of mud and creeks for the horse and donkey carts but easier for me on bike. It's not gonna be like biking on a beach anymore. On the last leg of my trip a giant lizard jumped at me and tried to bite me! Finally, the Africa I imagined is coming back to life.

Celebrating the Ascension Senegalese Style

I have a close relationship with a catholic family here and was invited to go to Pompenguine,  a beautiful beach side area, to celebrate the Ascension. I was initially scared and unsure if I wanted to go. I was a little afraid to be with a family other than my own without any other volunteers.I knew it would be a day and a half of wolof only and possibly more church than I wanted to attend. Well I decided to bite the bullet. We left early on Sunday morning and I knew I had made the right decision when I saw a case of beer under the seat :) When we got there, hundreds of people were walking the down the street and people were putting up tents everywhere they could find a spot. People were selling all kinds of religious artifacts from pictures, to rosaries, you name it. It was also like a huge market. People selling all the normal market clothes, shoes, junk, and sooo much food! There were even a couple makeshift bars made of tents. This reminded me of my home town church picnic.

They had a midnight mass and another mass at 8am. I chose a dress and Eduard told me first of all I had to cover my shoulders and secondly I had to buy prettier shoes. So I bought some senegalese dress shoes that literally tore up my feet. We stayed up late talking and having a good time.Monday morning came and I was asked if I would like to throw in some money on a goat. I also snuck off to the market for some whiskey so when lunch came around we were all in high spirits. Goat tastes so much better than sheep. The whole day music was coming from the church. It was very interesting to see that a lot of people came for the party but didn't go to mass, also like my hometown church picnic lol! Senegal  has it's "cafeteria catholics" just like the rest of the world.

I thought it was so cool to pop up a tent, not pay for anything, and go to friends of friends houses to bucket bath in the morning. I also noted that all the tourists were in beach houses and hotels while the majority of the Senegalese were in the tents. Our camp was in between a cemetery and a trash pile. Some of the people sharing our camp didn't seem to have come for anything but the camp. I must say they seemed to have the most fun too! Overall it was an amazing experience, and I would do it again the same way. I don't think the experience would have been worth it in a hotel or house. The camping was way to cool and also reminded me of a piece of home since I know my family just went on a big memorial day campout.

Jazz Festival in Saint Louis

The weekend of June 9-12 there was a festival in the more northern part of the country. Saint Louis. This city is known for it's fishing industry and colonial French culture. I know it as pickpocket land as at least 3 PCVs got robbed. However, it is a pretty sweet city and I'll be sure to visit it again before I leave. The fishing boats are the coolest looking boat and it was cool to see men carrying buckets of fish on their heads the way women usually carry water here. I went with a group and we all stayed in the upstairs rooms of a Senegalese family house for the price of $8 a night. It was a really nice place if you have access to my facebook you should check it out. Other volunteers stayed in hotels and we had fun visiting each other and ventured into the city.

 There were a lot of cool shops and some very artsy places like I haven't seen in other areas. I bought the coolest postcard ever which my family will eventually receive. They also had some of the countries only restaurants considered high quality by American standards. I had seafood like every day :)

The beach was also beautiful with so much life. There were lots of little snails and crabs. I found a coddle fish bone which was really cool. It is always nice to see a clean beach, I've seen worse by far in Cali. No oil washing  up on these shores.

The last night I stayed there I we all went to the same club. It was like an American invasion. Homosexuality is illegal here so there were guys trying to pull apart any girls who were dancing together. This is the club where everyone got pick pocketed. It was a blast though. One of the PCVs took over the DJ booth and it was so awesome to dance to music not entirely made of drums.

As for the Jazz, well I missed that this year. A good reason to go back next year!

Why shouldn't a yes or no answer take three hours?

Sometimes talking here with the language and cultural barrier are just too much. Occasionally it's funny other times you just wanna cry. For example the other day I talked with my Dad for over an hour about building Douche's in my village. I couldn't figure out what he was talking about and every time he would agree with me he would then contradict the statement I had just confirmed. Finally we discovered that he was talking about my seed extension project not my douche. I'm not sure how that even went on for that long. Then there are times when people either totally misread your emotions or understand which emotion your having but not why. For example, Sunday I had a mason come to fix the locks on my room. He didn't finish and so I was upset because at night I couldn't lock up my room. Then my weave got caught on a cup of water and spilled on my work papers. Earlier in the day I had lent my machete to my mom and she returned it all dirty. So I go to my garden for some release. My family sees that I'm a little tiffed but didn't know the combination of things that had led up to my mood. Once in my garden there is the devil aka the neighbors chicken. I begin to yell a few words in English and threw my watering can as I chased the chicken. My neighbor sees me and says "wow you really don't want that chicken in your garden". I then could do nothing but go to my room and cry. There was just no point in trying to explain how one thing might not be so bad but when all the bad happens at once its hard to handle. The pic is my backyard where I go to cry.
My family also has funny language talks when I learn new words. The other night one of my little brothers told the other he hit him in the privates. I understood and then my whole family laughed and asked where I have been learning my wolof. Mostly I learn from people yelling random rude things at me and then I ask another volunteer. The normal vocab I learn everywhere. With my wolof friends and family. A common thing rude boys yell is how is your ahem lady part, so for a while I didn't know what they were saying and I'd just reply peace only. Oh my will I ever know the language all the way.

Show time!

This past weekend I participated in a skit with some of the teens here that belong to an English club. They had been working for a few months on mixing English they were learning and wolof into a skit. The skit was a parody of Senegalese life. It was also to promote girls to stand up for themselves. I was the second wife of Elhadje and his first wife Isata thought that he should start doing the cooking. He agrees but as a conservative woman I get in an argument with her stating that it is not a mans job to cook. There is a lot more going on in the play than just my scene. One character says if he ever sees a woman praying he will kill himself. The play ends with a woman leading prayer and him killing himself. Many people laughed and were able to see some humor in their cultural ties. It was great to work with the kids and I hope I get another chance in the future!

In house stress

Sometimes it's the little things that really get to me. Like not having cheese or ranch dressing. Those have even started to seem like insignificant things since the electricity and water at the Peace Corps house have been cutting out so much. I am used to living without in village but when I expect to have internet and be able to shower and I can't it just stings a little more. Not to mention we share this house, all 55 of us. We are never all here at the same time but it can be hard not to step on peoples toes. I have been noted as being loud, dancing at late hours of the night, and after a few beers eating unlabeled food. Well to that I say, 1) I'm a Kraus suck it up I can't do a thing about it, 2) Just dance gonna be OK, I mean this is why I leave village, and 3) put your name on it and I won't eat it. My options now are to find a new place of refuge. I have bought a satellite key, will take my computer and some gin/whiskey to site, and then why would I ever need this place. I'm totally cool with pouring water over my head to shower instead of it falling on it's own, my family thinks I'm crazy I don't think they would notice if I were drunk. I would probably share more of my American candy though, that's a potential downfall for me great for them though. I can bike for an hour to charge my computer more exercise more computer usage no down side. While I'm in the road town I can even get chicken spam and razors, yea we do still shave (some of us). So yea I guess it comes back to ranch dressing and cheese. Oh yea and a pumice stone lol!

Working with Kids

In the past I have not been interested in working with kids.They are loud and dirty and hard to control. The kids here are all of those to the most extreme extent. However, I broke out of my shell and ended up having two amazing experiences.
The first was a day I gave my brothers and sisters puzzles from America and stuff to color with. They even got some American toys my mom had sent like a frisbee, squirt guns, and candy. They were initially very afraid of the pop rocks but after they realized they weren't going to get hurt they liked them. It was so much fun and an experience they never get to have. There were about 25 of them there and I never lost my cool :)

The next thing I did was a school garden. The kids were between the ages of 7-15 I think. It's really hard for me to tell. The teachers did a great job controlling the students and I think they all learned something from it. We had a lot of fun talking about how to make the soil strong and the teachers have the lessons plans from  my previous training so that they can use the garden to teach math, science, nutrition, and basic agricuture/ecology. I plan in the near future to help them make a tree nursery and a moringa intensive bed. A moringa intensive bed is a lot of trees grown really close together just for leaf use. The leaves are really nutritious and hopefully will improve the health of the students.

I am in hopes that by working with the kids ideas will start changing from the ground up. It might be 10 years but hopefully this generation has a better quality of life than their parents and grandparents. The school will sell the vegetables to buy more seeds for the next season as well as supplies for the students.

   

So like what do you do there?

I decided to write this blog as a generalization of what my days are like here. I travel a lot for work and a little for fun. When I am in village I wake up, water my garden, talk to my family, and then get on whatever activities I have that day. I might need to make some compost, plant a vegetable nursery, visit the school, or work with my master farmer. I like to take walks around my village in my spare time or play with my sisters. I go to the boutique a few times a week like you all go to Krogers or whatever. I need laundry soap, food, and sometimes candy for the little kids if they help me in the garden. I sit and talk with my moms a lot when I'm bored. I also always seem to have some meeting with either my dad, my counterpart, or some farmer. I like to do my laubdry in the mornings while its still cool. In the evenings we just sit around. There is no electric so no TV, no light, and really not much to do except wish it was below 100 degrees. When I travel out of site I help other volunteers with their projects, or go to meetings to meet people who can help my area. I go to the Peace Corps house in Kaolack a couple times a month to hang with volunteers and watch movies. Also to use the internet and free phone! It's the best time to have a long chat with your boss about a project, when you can be looking at all your materials and it's FREE! Soon I'm going to a jazz festival in the northern part of the country so yay! When I'm gone I am always worried about 2 things. The death/destruction of my garden and the death/destruction of my cat. So  I'm always glad to go home and clean up my hut and chill. While I'm gone so much dust gets in my hut it's so gross! I know I do lots of other stuff but I just can't think of any of it now....I have read like 10-15 books since I've been here development is slow work. You can't make crops grow any faster and you can't overload people with too much information at once. I guess my life here isn't all that exciting but TIA -- this is Africa.

Garden Work and Farmer trainings

Lot of work has been going down with my Ag duties as well. Below is my garden with Turnip, squash,cucumber, and okra.There are peanut shells on all the beds to help conserve water. Along the fence I had green pepper. While I was out of town for three days they mysteriously died. My family just really doesn't see the value of a variety of veggies in a garden. That just means I have more work to do.Next week Ill start a new nursery and should have all the beds and pepper border replanted. Sheep and chicken have become my mortal enemies.

This week we trained 4 new farmers in our techniques which they will use at their farms and share the knowledge with the locals. It is part of our master farmer program. This is them getting dirty and learning a zy hole like method. They seemed to be really promising guys. Hopefully we can get them set up before the rains come!

 Master Farmers aren't the only ones who have to do trainings. This is the sus ag sector reviewing the techniques we had learned earlier to refresh our memories, share our success and failures,and ask any questions that we have come up with. This took place in Kolda which is in the south of the country. There are a lot more trees there and big ol' termite mounds! I was able to give a talk about insecticide use and I was reminded how amazing bugs really are :)

This is one of the smaller termite mounds

Luma madness

Malaria kills 1 million kids each year. A main goal of PCVs is to educate individual communities on malaria transmission, and prevention. USAID, an NGO, works extensively on this goal as well. Working together we hope to decrease prevalence of the disease in Western Africa. Over the last two months USAID has donated bed nets to every household in Senegal. After net distribution was complete some of us volunteers got together and went around our region talking about malaria and demonstration how to make a cheap mosquito repellent lotion. We used local tree leaves with repellent properties, soap, and oil to make it.We rented speakers had American and Senegalese music. While we were cooking up the lotion, which we gave free samples of, we talked about how malaria is transmitted and how they can protect themselves. We also did a good bit of dancing! I think the people learned a lot. Initially answers to what transmits malaria brought answers like "the wind" and "god". By the end I think they got it! We did these at 5 different Lumas. A luma is a weekly flea market more or less. I feel like it was good work but I just wish there was a better way to educate them. It makes me so mad at the pathetic school system here and the lack of respect for education. 

Work that Works!

The last couple weeks have shown me that not all work I do here is in vain. It sometimes feels like that. I have been working with other volunteers the last couple of weeks on what are considered as my secondary goals. I am an ag volunteer so when I do health or business work it goes under that title. Ngoudiba is a village about 15K from me and I helped the health volunteer there paint murals on the "House of Health" there. There were three of us and it proved to be true that a picture says a thousand words.

We made murals depicting Malaria, AIDS, Pregnacy, and hand washing. While we were painting people asked a lot of questions and even stopped as driving by! After we were done we heard people talking about them and what they meant. People in my village over the next ccouple days were like I saw what you did in Ngoudiba why haven't you done that here? I will, next cold season, too hot to paint more now. After the mural madness ended I helped another couple volunteers with a training for teachers who want to have school gardens. We had 9 teachers show up. They were all teachers of the elementary level. One volunteer Susan had made manuals including a five week lesson plan. The lessons included math, nutrition, and agriculture as well as other subjects. Hopefully the teachers utilize their knowledge to create a school garden. This could not only provide a medium for valuable lessons in the school but generate a school lunch program or income for study materials through vegetable sales.

It feels good to have done work where I can see the direct benefits. Sometimes when I'm working with a farmer I don't know if he is listening or will use the technology again. Both of these activities left me felling like I had shared knowledge that could really help the development of the community.

My Uncle's Wedding

A wedding in Senegal even though I have now experienced it is still a bit of a mystery. One day my host dad told me he was going to go to a nearby village for the day. I was ok whatever, it's not like you do anything when your here (he's a little on the lazy side). Then I was talking to my 1st host mom and she told me was bargaining. For what? For his younger brother wife. My dad is 50-52 and my uncle can't be more than 5 years younger. The girl bargained for is 20. I am not sire how much of a choice she had in the decision. My uncle already had one wife and 6 kids at this point. After negotiations were done they set a date for her to move to our compound. For two days before this there were like 30 women in my house pounding and steaming millet. I was told Iwas not allowed to work for a week and had to have discussions only. I managed to keep my garden alive and even get some okra planted even though they mildly disapproved. The day of the wedding Adja (the bride) arrived at 630 before it was even light out. The car stopped right outside my room while women screamed and people beat on drums and danced. The bride usually sits with the mother of the groom during the ceremony but that one of my grandmas is dead so her little sister took her place. The groom wasn't even at the part where the spiritual leader (Maribout) prayed some prayers. I didn't understand a word of it unfortunately. Next the women of the compound went about getting breakfast together which was millet and sour milk with sugar. It tastes better than it sounds especially when you never get milk. It was like yogurt and granola. We had that at around 10. The bride was getting here hair and makeup done at the neighbors the whole time. For the previous two days and this days included all the men did was sit and drink tea. Well they did kill and dismember 2 goats. I really feel an animal knows the difference of when you want to catch it and when you want to catch and eat it. Around 430 the bride and the 1st wife walked through the compound on top of fabric like we would put in the aisle in church. When lunch was done my moms and grandmas,the bride and first wife, all put on clothes we had made from the same fabric. Then we pretty much just hung out and talked all night. The next day we ate another big goat lunch but no big breakfast. This day it was only the closer family and not many friends. By Sunday we were all exhausted and laid around all day. Monday though,just when I thought it was done, there was as ceremony of laundry washing. The newly wed was taken to a robinet and she knelt at all four corners to pray. Then they helped her fill pans with water and everyone brought some clothes. They washed clothes and danced. My family wore their matching clothes again. I didn't really understand the significance and I had to work so I only watched a little of this. So be thankful that in our culture we hire people to do all the cooking and a lot of the other prep stuff. I didn't see anyone else with a camera there so I am printing the ones I have off for them.

WAIST- West African Intramural Softball Tournament

This is a time for volunteers to relax and see people from other countries and regions. It started all business with an all volunteer conference to meet NGO contacts, and then it was to the pool! After a day of sunning most volunteers went to their home stays in the city. These are French or American people who volunteered to allow us to stay in their homes and feed us a few meals, all the while knowing what we were going to be doing all day and night. That would be having fun however you like! The first night we had a talent show and it showed that PCVs can do a lot more than play in the sand! There are some very talented singers/jokers here. The next morning it was bright and early to the American Club for softball games. Each team had their own uniforms. My region were all dressed as ballerinas as you can see I didn't exactly put as much work into mine as some others did, but I look at this years as practice. After this first day our region was taken out of the competitive league as we were more into having fun and goofing off than playing a real game and that really annoys competitive people. I am competitive when I'm good at something. I'm not good at softball. I told them to put me in a position where I could do the least damage. They gave me second base one inning. It was just sad. That night the US Marines in Dakar hosted a dance party for us. I was pretty tired from the day and didn't make it all night, it was pretty cold for Senegal since we were so close to the ocean. The next day was more softball! We did pretty good. I was so sunburned from the first day that I had to alter my costume to cover more of my body.

This was a fun filled day and I ate a philly cheese steak mmmm so good. I had forgotten food like that. Our host family made us amazing dinners as well. One night we had lasagna and another night we had smoked salmon. THey gave us cereal, eggs, bread and cheese each morning. All out of the goodness of their hearts. That night we had a dance party at Club Oceanium. It was fabulous...I think. I only made it until 2 that night, but they had prepared a nice "drunk tank" so I could sleep until my roomates for the weekend were ready to go. The last day we slept in and went to the pool. It was a day of relaxing and reminding each other of what we had done over the last two days. Then we had a nice dinner and I called it donesies and went to bed early so I could return to my village the next day. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait till next year!

What do you mean in village?

I have stayed in my village, Ndoudiene, for the last month. What this means is that I did not come to the regional house in the last month to use free internet, speak English, and eat at a restaurant. These are the things volunteers do to escape the stress of village life. Staying in village meant that I saw my family every day, spoke in wolof every day, ate maffee (rice with oily peanut sauce) every day, and experienced my first illnesses due to malnutrition. On that note, I know who I can trust in my family and who I can't. I know who has been making fun of me for the last four months because I understand the language quite well now. The food has been and will be horrible for the next year and a half. I pay my family for food but they never buy vegetables and if I buy them I have to buy enough for 20 people. It makes it hard to eat healthy. While I was in village I had Giardia. This is diagnosed by symptoms including diarrhea, excessive gas, sulfur tasting burps, and abdominal discomfort. I had it from Christmas until last Thursday the 10th. The combination of bad food and Giardia really crashed my immune system, thus I have an ulcer in my mouth. Through it all I'm still pretty happy and am now gorging on cucumbers,carrots,and yogurt. I don't think I'll do another month long stitch. It's not healthy and I run out of money because I have no access to a bank or ATM. Three weeks will be my max from this point on. Little miss kitty, Jasmine, was the best thing that has happened in the month I stayed. People are seriously afraid of cats here. The women run and scream fromthis kitten. My little brothers and sisters poured water on her and were trying to post her with a stick so I had to save her. I just couldn't watch that or know that I just walked away while it was happening. Now the kids are afraid to come in my room. Double bonus cute kitty and no dirty kids :)

Oh yea, I'm in Africa

So I spent the holidays traveling. I went to a friend's village for Christmas and we had an exquisite lunch at a campemant. Campemants are like hotels with swimming pools which usually cater to French or Europeans who come here to hunt. We had the whole place to ourselves though :) For New Years I went to Pompenguine. Its an area on the West Coast that is absolutely beautiful. It was the first time I didn't stay up until midnight. I fell asleep on the patio listening to the waves. Peaceful. The last couple weeks I have been working at site getting my cool season garden plans ready and visiting my Master Farmer. A Master Farmer is a person who has expressed interest in learning new techniques and is willing to teach them to others in the community.Mine is a woman who doesn't like to get  dirty....a major source of frustration. The other day I was biking through the bush,which is very sandy and not fun a t all, I looked around and was like oh yea I'm in Africa. I wonder what books and movies I had seen before I came here and I want to look again to compare what I now call home. I'm going to try to stay at site for the next month solid so that I can get a lot of work done in my community. That's why the last three days have been spent shopping in Kaolack for hut repair and garden materials. There was a monster rat in my room the other day he dug a hole into the cement under my dresser. Gross!! Well I better get some work done on the pest manual I'mmaking. Educating farmers about pesticide use has gone to near the top of my list. Below is a picture of a Baobob tree between two of my friends sites....I thought it had some interesting qualities ;)