A Baptism

Today I went to a baptism. Baptisms are a really big deal here and a lot of people attend. First, we sat while the religious men gathered around the baby in a circle and prayed. The baby is about two months old at this point but no one says it’s name out loud until after the ceremony. At the same time the name is said a sheep is killed. I think it probably has something to do with Abraham willing to kill his son and killing a sheep instead. Then they passed out little sweet pieces of bread in decorated bags, and we each got a bowl of millet and yogurt type topping. It was pretty tasty. Then they took the baby inside and shaved it’s head so it would have a clean start.

            Then there was a very very very long boring period. We sat and talked to people and danced a little with the women as they prepared lunch. I took a little nap on a mat under the tree for a while. Then the mother of the baby came in all dressed up with so much makeup and fake hair she looked like a walking doll. It was amazing. All of the women began dancing around her and took her to her bedroom and danced around her in there too. Then we sat around for a while again.

            Finally, we had lunch around 4:30. It was really good though. We ate the sheep they slaughtered on top of rice that was flavored really well almost like Chinese. There were hard boiled eggs, olives, onions, and carrots mixed in with the rice and it was awesome. After lunch they passed around small cups of soda, one for each person. I bet that cost them as much as the meal. I hung out for a little while longer chatting with some of the family and then left to spend time with my own.

            In America I think for Catholics at least Baptisms are more personal. It is more of the immediate family and not the whole family. Also the mother of the baby is the center of attention here more than the baby. I think at home the baby gets more attention. The last difference I notice at all events is the total lack of snacks. No chips, pretzels, dips, or candies. They just can’t afford it and food is such an important commodity here I wonder if they would even understand the concept of eating for pleasure or just to pass time rather than for life.

My First African Style Birthday

For my birthday I wanted to have a big dinner with my family in Thieneba and my trainee friends. In order to do this I knew I was going to have to find out where to buy food and how much it should cost. I talked with my little sisters and they took me and Eric to a chicken coop. Chicken is the safest meat here in my opinion so that’s what I wanted; unfortunately they were only selling eggs. We then went to a stand on the side of the road with what I assume was a half a cow on a table. There were flies all over and I had no idea how long the meat had been there. It was around 1pm and probably 80 degrees. I asked for 2 kilos (~4 lbs) and got a lot of bone, fat, and some meat for a total of less than $8. It was more meat than my sisters had ever seen someone buy at once and they thought I was joking at first. It really wasn’t that much meat when you consider I was feeding like 10 people, but $8 is a lot of money here, even for me.

            Then we went down the street and got potatoes, onions, and soda. The cola was the most expensive thing I bought all day. We took the food to my house and my family began preparing it for me. Peeling potatoes and onions, and chopping the meat into smaller pieces. They then of course fried it all in a huge pot of oil. French fries first, then the onions for a sauce, and finally they boiled the beef. It was delicious. Eric brought over some bread to top it off, and it hit the spot. They all put on their best clothes for me and the kids danced around me after dinner singing happy birthday in English. It was a great day!

CPW, Beach, Dakar

So last week we traveled every morning into Thies and returned every night to our villages. It was very tiring. We did this because of Counterpart Workshop (CPW). This is a 3-4 day event where our counterparts, people in our permanent village that we will work closely with, came to visit. They came to meet us, to learn about what we should be doing, and for facilitated discussion about possible problems. Since I have only middle level language skills we didn't have too much to say to each other. We didn't have a whole lot of time either as we had almost constant sessions. The sessions were all in Wolof. This made it hard to stay awake. After the third morning of driving into Thies I was pretty exhausted, but there is no rest for the wicked. We had a night at the beach planned. There will be few pictures of this on my facebook but most of the pictures and stories are meant to be remembered by those present only. One cool thing though was the bio-luminescent plankton. As I moved around in the water at night I could see the water glowing! It was sooo sweet!!! After swimming all day Sunday we returned to relax for the night at the training center. I was righteously hung over and it turned out I was actually sick too. Today we went into the capitol city of Senegal, Dakar. The PCMO there told me my ear is bleeding internally and I'll be on medicine for my birthday. No big deal. I love how something that would have totally freaked me out at home is like, please girl that ain't nothin' here. The city is very westernized. You can get all kinds of American type things so if I'm ever homesick a trip to the city can satisfy my needs for things like ice cream, a swimming pool in the american club, and stores with American brand foods. The roads are still not great even in the city and there is a big threat of pick-pockets. It's a cool place but we didn't really have all that much time to explore so I'll have to do that another time when I don't have to spend an hour in the med hut and multiple hours in security sessions. The American Embassy is there, and it's good to know that. They will mail in my absentee ballot. Well I think thats enough rambling of Dakar.

Killer Kids

So the other day while in the village my fellow trainees and I decided to celebrate our language test with a little whiskey, snacks, and Simpsons on the computer. We went to the local school which we have a key to. There were a bunch of kids in the yard plying soccer but we did't pay much attention to them. It was very hot in the school so we opened a window. As a few kids began to watch through the window they got louder and louder and so I shut the window in their face. I do love kids after all. They began to throw rocks at the school. After a little time had passed my friend had to pee. She went outside and I stood guard as some kids came up to where we were. We talked to them a little bit as they braked from their soccer game. When we decided we wanted to watch some more tv they of course wanted to watch. I knew this was a bad idea and had no desire to watch tv with 25 kids under age13. The other trainees are not so mean and told them if they could watch quietly they could look through the window. They couldn't be quiet and were really annoying so we shut the door and windows again. They began to throw rocks at the school again and put a stick through the outside of the door which locked us inside, with no adults knowing where we were as we had all told them we were at each others houses since Muslims don't drink. Eventually one kid was bribed by the promise of peanuts to take the stick out of the door. We didn't give him any peanuts and told them they were all bad kids. They started yelling "fuck you" in English and "I'll kill you" in Wolof. They threw rocks and actually hit me with one. Finally, my favorite trainee friend decided we needed backup. He went to the nearest house and in the small amount of language and lots of gesturing we can do told an adult what was going on. The adult asked what kids were doing this and began to beat them one by one. First by hand and then with a stick. the kids didn't come back to the school. I am more scared of children in this country than adults.

Sibling Rivalry

Today I noticed my little sister MamDiara, definitely spelled wrong, fights the most with the siblings closest to her in age. I grew up in a family where I was by far the youngest and there were no kids around. When I was a kid my brothers and sisters were teenagers. I don’t think I really ever fought with any of them, but if I did it would have been Valerie, the one closest to me in age. I guess it’s the same across cultures.  I thought about this more today and realized my irritation with my littlest brother may be due to the fact that I’m just not used to living with a baby. He is a little over a year old, he is always sick, and has vomited on me. He screams all the time. Sounds like a baby right? Although he does have a few unique characteristics which I feel make him more annoying. He pinches. I hate being pinched! He also has syphilis which as far as I know cannot be transferred by skin contact but the lesions on his skin are still gross enough that I don’t want him to touch me. I heard my dad on the phone tonight and he was talking about the pharmacy so I think they are getting him medicine tomorrow.  It is definitely an adjustment going from the youngest to the oldest even though I had a little experience with my awesome nieces and nephew it’s not the same as actually living with little people.

            My older siblings don’t fight with each other at all. I guess they don’t have anything to fight about. They have very few clothes and are different enough in size that they don’t share or steal. They have no toys except what they find in the garbage piles. There is one board game in our house and it does cause some commotion. It is currently in pieces due to the last scuffle. They are competitive, but since it broke the house is a much more peaceful, though I actually enjoyed watching them play and sometimes joined in. I had a feeling they were changing the rules as we played. The game is pretty much a version of sorry with no cards, dice only. They play friendly games of shoot ‘em up with the neighbor kids using plastic they find discarded.  They do know a little about having more things because they have a tv and there are soap operas from different countries, not North American, dubbed in French. They seem content though. I don’t know enough of the language to say they aren’t complaining but they smile and laugh a lot.

            The tv only works when the electric does. It’s a big problem in Senegal. Tonight for example, I am sitting typing in my room in the dark because the power has been out for hours. It goes out on pretty much a daily basis. The country has too many people using electricity and only one power source. If you have something important, or rather if you have a lot of money, you have a generator for backup. In the training center there is a generator so we never noticed the problem with the electric until we were in our home stays. My permanent site doesn’t have electric at all so it won’t matter to me then.  The only thing I really miss electric for is light. Candles just don’t do it. My friend said I could have his solar flashlight since he has electric and that might work out. I’ll let you know! I have a solar charger which I should be able to use for my camera, ipod, and phone. My computer will be staying at the regional house in a nearby city called Kaolack. It has electricity so I won’t have to worry about charging it at site. I will have to travel about 3 hours to get there and will probably stay the night when I do to make the trip worth it. The city has Americanized restaurants and the house has internet access. I will probably go once a month to clear my email and throw some new stories on the blog.

Day to day in Training

Until now I have blogged about some general topics to give something of an overview of the culture here. I think from this point on I will just be writing about things that happen to me. The last week was spent visiting current volunteers at their sites. I visited another sustainable agriculture volunteer and got to see the work he did. His site is in Nganda. We also took a trip to the village which will be my permanent site. My village is named Ndioudiene. In his site he has electric from 5pm to 7am. My village does not have electricity. We both have a robinet, I’m not sure if that’s spelled right. It’s a water spicket in the yard so we don’t have to pull water from the well. His site is pretty close to mine I could bike there in less than 2 hours. The boutiques in Nganda have processed packaged cheese, cookies, phone credit, and assorted toiletries. In Ndioudiene there is a little less variety so I will have to stock up a 2 or 3 week supply whenever I go to the city, also a few hours biking, or to Ben’s site.

            There are cars and busses that pass our sites on the main road. I could take a car or bus between 6 and 8am and take one home later in the day. They only leave in the morning so it does restrict my schedule. They pack them as full as they can and people even ride on the roof of the busses. Ben told me a story about a bus with some holes in the roof, sheep on the top, and the sheep started to pee. The pee was dripping through the holes in the bus and he was moving around trying to avoid it.  Busses also stop frequently to drop off and pick up passengers. Cars usually are more direct and less problematic. Although whatever type of transportation you take it is a possibility it will break down. The roads are either just dirt/sand with potholes and muddy areas. There are a few major highways which resemble American roads but even these are sometimes pretty rough riding. People often drive on the wrong side of the road to avoid large holes.

            I have an idea now of the work I will be doing and have met one of my counterparts. A counterpart is a native who lives at my site and will help me if I’m having trouble communicating. My counterpart is also my dad and the chief. He has a nice piece of ground set aside in the compound which I can do my work in, and the previous volunteer left a chicken coup. She also left some beads to make jewelry. I will have those things to work on when I get to site as well as continuing to practice my language skills. I am really happy about this because I’m ready to start doing something training is really boring and restricting.  

            While visiting Ben I got to do some technical stuff and saw some cool things. I transplanted a banana tree, turned compost, and looked at a lot of Ben’s fields and gardens where he has extended seed. One evening while at his familys’ compound I went outside to photograph a rainbow but ended up taking pictures of a goat instead. This is because the goat was eating their clothes off the line and it was hilarious!

            

Hard to Stay Healthy

Health is a major issue here whether it is due to lack of food causing malnutrition or lack of knowledge on germ and parasite transmission. I have not witnessed malnutrition yet in my time here as I have been relatively sheltered. My family does not often wash their hands properly and some people do not wash their hands at all. They wash their hands out of a bucket before eating dinner with their hands. They put food on the ground and still eat it. My little brother is always sick with congestion and a cough and throws up every other day at least. He coughs and sneezes on food which we all are meant to eat and is allowed to touch whatever he wants. He has been fed from a spoon which was then put into my food or drink. My family sees nothing wrong with any of this but wonders why I get sick. This is a lack of knowledge on disease transmission and not their fault. I do not have the words yet to teach them what is going on.

            I have had both bacterial and parasitic intestinal infections. The bacteria was no doubt due to bad food preparation practices on my family’s part. Parasites are transmitted through contaminated water and feces. I may have gotten them from under bleaching my water or from eating fruit which was washed with contaminated water. If I want to remain healthy here I must be more diligent about refusing things which have not been washed in filtered water and must avoid contact with my little brother at all costs.

            People here cannot afford to be on prophylaxis for malaria and only some can afford bed nets. There are also vaccines for many of the infectious diseases here which cannot be afforded. This contributes to the number of people whom are ill and unable to work on the farm or earn money in other ways. Providing people with sustainable agriculture techniques can improve yields and long term productivity of farms. With a healthy diet and increased income there is more money for vaccines and more time for education on disease transmission.