I think I am getting really close to getting some concrete work done here in Senegal. How long has it been? Oh yea, I’ve been here for over 9 months! Geez. Honestly, sometimes it feels like all I do is meet and talk with people about working but never really work, per se. I have a list in my calendar of people that I need to call and schedule meetings or remind them of meetings to come. During these meetings, we first discuss how the family is and how my work is and what we plan on doing together, but really, we haven’t done that much yet. I’ll give some examples:
I have 2 women’s groups that I work with. One has been interested in doing a compost facility. I have met with the president of the group several times and now twice with a small array of the group’s members. We watched a DVD on the compost project that former volunteers did and discussed a bit about how we can change it to make it work here. To tell you the truth, I am so excited to get this going that I have too keep reminding myself to slow down so I don’t get disappointed. I talked to my supervisor about it tonight who immediatly took me to people working in the mayor's office. I just wanted to talk to him, my supervisor, about it and wasn't preparied to meet with officials. I guess it went alright and we should be planning another film watch and discussion soon. I'll keep you posted.
I got a call from a guy named Demba a few weeks ago who got my number from a volunteer down the road. He wants to do a training with me with 2 other women’s groups to make a vitamin rich porridge. I am all about this training and meeting all the women in the groups, but we, again, have been talking about doing this training now for the last 3 weeks. Maybe it will be tomorrow, as scheduled. Maybe.
My other women’s group has been all talk as well, but they are saving up money monthly so hopefully we can do a large tie-dying project in the future. Lamine, my fish salesman, and I planned a day to go out into the bush together. I stopped by his house the day before we were scheduled to leave and said everything was set up. I got picked up the next morning at 5ish and found no Lamine, but the other 3 guys from the last time. Lamine has been pretending to change his accounting system to please me, but he isn’t the one going out into the village and just writes the books up for me when I get there. Good to know I guess. The trip into the bush was worthwhile though: there is a women’s group there that wants funding so I got their contact info and will put them in contact with World Vision here in Bambey. Oh, side story: when I was meeting with the women, they wanted to make it official so introduced me to their religious leader. (Keep in mind, I work directly with the religious marabou in Ndem) The two women brought me over to him. They took off their shoes and knelt down in front of him, never looking him in the eye, to show respect. Naturally, the expected me to do the same. I have officially knelt down in front of a man…ah. What a complex he must have, thank goodness I am working with women! Don’t get me wrong, I do curtsey for elders here, which is something I had trouble with in the beginning, but not getting up from a kneeling position?! Really?!
I have plans to do a bit of work with Pres Wade’s Malaria Initiative. It’s a nation-wide thing and I will go to the meeting on Friday to see what I can do here in Bambey to help and next week I am going to our regional capital to do mosquito net distribution. Also, have plans to work with another volunteer put the Ndem catalogue on a CD to send to American clients…. Want to sell their products? http://www.maamsamba.com/ Let me know! In between all this work, I need to figure out how to repair my roof before the next storm. It rains just about as much in my room as out. Filled 4 bowls of water during the storm and cleaned for 2 hours after that. Not something I want to do until the end of August!
All that else is new is that Gista, the puppy, sat on command today while I was holding a bone from dinner rather than jumping. She’s learning! Oh, and I think I am allergic to ocotpus... long story, but we went to the beach, boiled and grilled octopus and about 5 hours later I broke out in hives. Real attractive in a swim suit! Haha! Happy summer!
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