In Service Training

For the last two weeks I have been learning what is expected of me as an agriculture volunteer in more detail than we have ever had before. Some of the second and third year volunteers demonstrated what they have done at their sites and we had endless power points. I have some great ideas of how things should roll and I'm so ready to be back in my hut. I'm also too broke to stay in the city any longer. Also, since we had our agriculture summit and all vol the week before I have been away from my village for three weeks! That's just ridiculous. I plan to spend a lot of time convincing everyone that I'm not going home. I never want to hear some of the trainers talk again, I would rather take their place and prepare for the class than sit through jumbled English on a subject that has been repeated so often I want to shoot myself.
I am ready for my first Christmas and New Years here and plan to be very busy. I hope to visit some of the more picturesque parts of Senegal. Although they will have to be short trips because I have a lot of work to do. Farmers to train, bed nets to distribute, and overall teaching my village how they can make money! The past weeks should be the longest time I will ever be out of site and I'm glad because it is a pain to travel with more than a day or two of clothing.

All volunteer Conference

This week we had all the volunteers in Senegal get together and share our most successful moments and projects. It was really informative and cool to talk to everyone. I have some ideas for my garden now and know more than I did before about how we can use trees to reclaim the soil and improve farming practices. It is also nice to share all of the frustrations that are the same across the country and sectors. For example, your cab driver didn't really know how to get where you were going, your host brother wants to marry you, your acne from teen years has returned, and my favorite question how many pairs of underwear have you ruined? Also, after being in village for 6 weeks not having electric and taking bucket baths it is nice to be back in the center using the internet for free and having a free flowing shower. I did have to do my laundry in brown water this morning. It may be the center but it's still Senegal :)

Tabaski

Tabaski is a holiday which celebrates the willingness of a Bilical man to sacrifice his only son in the name of the Lord. An angel comes and gives him a sheep instead. So my family killed four sheep, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I had a chill morning; I watered my garden and braided the hair of one of my youngest sisters. It hurts and before we were done with it she was, and started crying. It kinda sucked trying to do it while she was crying and moving. Then  they killed the sheep in the yard. My dad came by and dug a hole. I was like huh maybe we are putting up a tent for shade. Nope that is for blood, they slit the sheeps’ throat over the top and drain it in there so that it doesn’t make a mess. The chickens came by later and were picking at it and small scraps of flesh. Then I helped cook lunch. We hacked the sheep into smaller pieces after the men had skinned them and cooked it all. I mean all, heart, liver, stomach, and oh yeah intestines. We peeled onions and potatoes and boiled macaroni. I ate by myself which I thought was weird it being a holiday I thought they would have me eat with them. Then we went and greeted people in wolof clothes. I wore the same thing I did for Korite. I didn’t have anything new made that was ready yet, but my family didn’t know it wasn’t new. Then we ate dinner EWWWWW is all I really wanna say about that. I should have taken a picture! I tried to stay up late but shortly after 9 a little girl began destroying my hair and I had to excuse myself to salvage what is left. She was trying to help me take out my braids. They have fake hair so when they take out their braids they don’t care if it is destroyed, hence my dilemma. The next day we did it all again. I stayed out longer this night greeting some of my aunt’s friends, this aunt is younger than me and the people were cool. Overall as I told my sister it was a two day Christmas party at your inlaws with no booze. I hope next year I am magically in America for Tabaski and our Thanksgiving J

My New Lifestyle

I have been trying to integrate into the community and make my presence known while staying within my comfort zone. I went and ate at the "egg mans" the other day. In all cities and many villages in Africa there are women who sell beans and bread in the morning for breakfast While it sounds simple I assure to a malnutritioned volunteer in need of protein they are the shit! In my village I have instead of a bean lady a man who sells bread and eggs.  Not as good as a bean lady though, and he overcharged me. I do have a new friend in the village now  though! I have been to people's fields and gardens and sometimes I just walk around and say hi to people. There is one boutique, and by that a mean a room in someones compound where I can buy sugar and soap, which I frequent. I think the people there are used to me and that the woman though I don't know her name yet likes me.  My family is getting used to my schedule and know the times I will be sleeping or showering and I feel that they give me my space. Things are looking good :)

Veggie Wars!

My family never has vegetables. I tried to fix my lack of nutrition by buying veggies for my family. This worked for all of one day until the veggies I bought were not appearing in the lunch bowl. I was offered to eat with my brothers' family for dinner one night. I saw them cooking and they had a lot of veggies so I accepted. This infuriated my grandma. I was told I am never allowed to eat with that family again. I will now be hiding vegetables and fruit in my room and eating it when I have my door shut and locked. Crazy crazy crazy lady, just feed me some of the veggies I buy, and really why do you care if I eat with them? Then I'm not eating your food which I'm still paying for. In this culture it makes my family look bad if I eat with someone else, that's why they got mad.

The real work begins

So far I have bought a fence, weeded an area for gardening, and began to fertilize soil for a veggie pepiniere. It was hard work considering I was given a more or less junk yard to start with. Check out the before and after pictures on facebook, it’s a serious improvement I plan to have five beds which I will use to demonstrate the  techniques I learned in training which will help improve the soil lifetime and fertility. This includes making burms to hold in water and digging soil deeply while adding green leaves and manure for nitrogen replacement. It is important for me to teach the farmers to use what is naturally in their area to decrease input costs and demonstrate how you can work with the environment instead of depleting it.

            I planted a mango tree yesterday but it was stolen or eaten this afternoon.... I’m a little pissed off about that. I also did food security work at a nearby school. I went to another volunteer’s site and helped her. She works with an NGO called Trees for the Future. We taught ten kids how to transplant mango and orange trees. It was pretty cool. There is a serious lack of trees here. I will plant trees all along my fence so that when it breaks, because it will, there will be a living fence and windbreak to replace it. This is considered sustainable because you have a living tree working as a fence instead of cutting one down to build and rebuild. My fence is made out of millet stalks and I am having trouble keeping the sheep from eating it.

            I plan to seed in the next couple days. They will have a month to grow before I have to go into in service training (IST) for three weeks. During this time my dad will be responsible for keeping the garden alive. IST is the #1 killer of gardens they say, but I’m confident that my dad understands farming and most of all wants the vegetables. Hopefully it survives because I don’t want to have to find and buy more seeds.

            It is really hot and humid here and since I’m working outdoors my schedule has changed. Sunrise is at 6:30 now. I wake up at 6 and am in the garden by 7. I work till about 12pm and then chill in my room until 4:30 or 5 when it’s cool again. And work until about 7 which is sunset. If I don’t work in the garden I either go to the peanut field with my dad or help the women at home shell peanuts. Working with the women is really good because it forces me to talk and listen which improves my language. I have also gone to other volunteers sites to help with their work and to work with a nearby pilot farmer. The pilot farmer is someone who we have taught techniques and allows us to show her fields’ and gardens’ to other farmers in order to spread the knowledge. I don’t feel like I’ve done any real Peace Corps work yet but that’s normal for a PCV before IST.

Now I’m a real volunteer!

After another week in the village of Thieneba I returned to the training center. There we did some final meetings on what we are here for and discussed swear in and install. Swear in is when we became official volunteers as opposed to trainees. We went to the capitol city, Dakar, and had the ceremony at the US Ambassadors house. There were speeches by our trainers, the ambassador, and various other important officials. It was mostly in French so I didn’t understand it. We got our official IDs and had awesome snacks afterwards. There was tuna and caviar, mini hamburgers, and brownies. It will be the only time for the next two years that I’ll have any of those I’m sure. Then we went to Club Atlantiqe or as the volunteers refer to it “the American Club”. There is a swimming pool, good food, and beer. It was great!

            We had one last night in Thies at the training center and then we went to our regional houses. The 60 Americans that I have been with the last two months are now spread across the country. There were about 20 of us in my region. For three days I stayed in Kaolack. We shopped, ate, and drank. The only reason I mention beer is that since it is a predominantly Muslim society alcohol is available in the cities but very rarely near volunteers’ sites, so it’s a real treat to have a beer. Volunteers can stay in the city at regional houses across the country for free. We have been given a challenge to stay out of the regional houses until Thanksgiving in order to integrate into the community instead of hanging out with other Americans. There was plenty of time to shop but shopping sucks! First of all imagine shopping for your new home with no car. You can only buy what you can carry at a time. Transport is more expensive if you have baggage even for a car ride. People also like to steal out of your bags if they get put on the roof of the car. In the city there are pick pockets every where! One of the volunteers got picked while we were there and caught the guy in the act. He gave back her wallet without a fight.

            We were installed over a few days after that three or four at a time. A car would come to the house we would load up the people and massive amount of stuff that was purchases and then a PC staff member would take them to their sites. I had a fever and some stomach issues the day of my install so it really sucked, especially when we got lost in the bush for half an hour. I made it to my hut though and found it to be unfinished. It had a roof and doors though so it was good enough. My family was very excited to see me and many people in the town came to visit. It is a medium sized village of maybe 1000 people. There is a robinet in my dads’ backyard for water and there is no electricity. There are seven boutiques which sell soap, tea, sugar, candy, batteries, and a few veggies. I did find a guy who sells eggs out of his back door though. My family makes my lunch and dinner so it’s not a big deal. I get rice with peanut sauce and bitter tomaotoes, a veggie they have here, for lunch and millet and milk for dinner. Every day it’s the same thing. I can buke 20 kilometers to Kaffrine a small city and get anything else I need. I have to go all the way to Kaolack for an ATM though and that is the only way I can get the stipend I receive to live and travel on. I get about $40 a week. I give my dad $8 a week for food and water the rest I use for travel, breakfast, a tutor, and a little will be getting sent home for my student loan interestL.

            I am not sure yet how many brothers and sisters I have. I know I have 2 moms and a grandma. I have at least 9 brothers and sisters all younger again. There are like 10 huts in my compound and there are women with kids and husbands who I am somehow related to but haven’t figured it out yet. It’s so confusing here because women call their brother and sisters kids their kids. My dad calls people his mom and dad out of respect People also call other people uncle out of respect so it can be hard to tell what real relations are especially when we all live together.

            A big difference between here and training is that I have my own hut and side yard which is fenced in. It gives me a lot of privacy compared to the last place. I will even plant a few of my own veggies and watermelon back there so I can improve my diet. It’s hard to buy things and not share them but I just can’t afford to buy my family fruit and veggies every day. I hide what I buy for myself the best I can so that they don’t have to see it and wish they had it. They ask me for stuff all the time. Today they asked if I would buy tea and milk. I said no because I pay for food already. I’m not heartless I bought them tea last week and bananas just yesterday. They seriously ask if they can have anything they see, including the clothed you’re wearing. I have not gone a day without someone asking if they could have one thing or another out of my room or on my person. Its the culture though, here that isn't an offensive line of questioning.