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!