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.

Trips to Gambia

Over the course of my service in Senegal I have done quite a bit of traveling. Before my site mate left she decided to introduce me to the country inside of Senegal, Gambia. After going with her I have been a couple of more times to enjoy the culture and scenic beauty the country has to offer. Kourtney and I just went for a night. It's about a 30K bike ride from my house, so we went out into the forest and camped. In the morning we biked out to the river for our breakfast.This was in the town of Kauur. Then we turned around and went home. It was a short sweet trip.

Me and Kourt by the Gambian River

After

The next time I went I was accompanied by two great friends. I met up with Jason in Koungel where we stayed with a friend. In the morning we took a bus down to Wassu. It was a luma day and the streets were busy. Spencer met us there and we embarked on our mission. It took us a little while but eventually we found Fatou Cisse. She may be old and a little blind, but she gives great Pulaar scars. These are ethnic scars created by cutting the skin and rubbing in ash.  We all got them on our chests and I also had them done behind my ears. It was a dirty process but the final product is like a tattoo.

Before

After our fun scarring experience we went to the local bar and drank cashew liquer. That night we took a horse cart back into Senegal and spent the night in Spencer's village. It was nice and they fed us a good dinner we were all hungry for. In the morning Jason and I returned to our respective regions of the country. It was this trip that made me realize how easy I could get from my site to Kolda. So, a month later I embarked on another adventure through the Gambia with three other girls and our friend Mike.





This turned out to be a long adventure. Amy and I left Kaolack and went to Kafffrine where my bike was. Yasmine, Emily, and Mike met us there. We then biked to my village to spend the night. We made ourselves some dinner hung out with my brother and got a good nights rest because we knew we had a few long days ahead of us. We woke up and got an early start biking south to Nganda. We stopped here for breakfast. From Nganda to Kauur we passed through a small national forest. The same one Kourtney and I had camped in. Mike had some bike troubles but was able to make it to the river town and get it fixed. I fell off my bike once. The road was sandy and rough. A real workout. We hung out in Kauur and went swimming in the river. Once we were cooled we continued on East. Although we had lost Mike somewhere we weren't really worried. He's a big guy and speaks like six languages. We figured he'd catch up. We set up camp under a tree in the bush. Passed around a bottle to congratulate ourselves on reaching our destination for the day. I thought from where we were at this point it was about 50K to Wassu. It was 50 miles. This made for a long morning. We were all exhausted by the time we got there. We scored free lunch at the bar, maffee (peanut sause on rice). Then we went to see ancient rock circles from 600 AD. I went in and touched the rocks, took pictures, and checked out the museum. These circles were made for religious beliefs. Often the are in some relation to astrology. There are stories that these circles were made for burials, and for human sacrifices. It was very cool. Then Yasmine and Emily got Pulaar scars. Mike finally caught up to us and we moved on South in the heat. Mike got a flat tire and we ended up stuck in a village waiting on him for a while. We had meant to make it to Pata in Senegal this night but we only got as far as the Gambian river. We crossed the river in a boat at sunset. It was amazing. An absolutely gorgeous site. We biked across some rice paddys which was something I had never seen before, and set up camp. In the morning we biked further South into Brikima Ba. The group stopped for breakfast but I moved on as I didn't like biking in the afternoon. I biked a long time by mysekf and in Soulabali. Here I ended up sitting with Pulaar children for five hours. I leaned a little Pulaar though! At this point The girls caught up with me, but Mike had jumped in a car and given up. Amy, Yasmine, and I finished the trip alone. It was at this point a monkey ran across the road! In all it was 240K. We were all sore but not too tired to eat lots of chicken, re-energize, and dance, for a friends passover party. We had made it!! We decided to take a car home after a few days of abusing a nearby hotels pool :)

This is the ferry we took on the way home.  They put on all the cars and people and cruise across.

IST- In service training

This year I was invited to teach the incoming trainees at their in service training (IST). Compared to the previous training, this time it was after they had been to and seen their sites. This changed things as they knew more about what they were doing here. My talks focused on pest identification and how to slove pest problems. It was great to see the newer volunteers and hear how they were liking their sites. It was also more challenging for me as they had a lot more questions. The days went too fast and I felt that I didn't get much time with some of the people from other regions, but overall it was a success. Trainings are structured so that the days are full of sessions on different topics. When I wasn't teaching, I went to sessions other volunteers were leading and gave any input I could. The evenings were free time for volunteers to network with each other and discuss what they had taken in. This was a great time for socializing both with the new volunteers and PCVs from my stage who I didn't see often. This fall I will leave country before the new stage arrives so I won't be involved with either PST or IST. It was a lot of fun and I have always enjoyed teaching. I hope my presentations helped the new stage and that the rest of their service is awesome!