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!