My host sister Ndack is 16 meaning she is the bottom of the food chain in our house since its just her and my host mom Fatou and I. There is a strick system kids learn very young here in Senegal that they must follow in order to not get hit by a tree branch! So this ranking system has now been changed since Ndack went to live with her aunt for a month during vacation! I know am obviously younger than my host mom meaning I heat up dinner; I bring her water; I sweep up after lunch... damn I have officially been put in my place! It does feel good though. In the beginning I was served to and treated too well and didnt like it that way since I am supposed to be integrated into the family and such. Its official! I am!
Work was pretty easy this weekend! It rained plenty and so I got guilt-free time to spend re-organizing my room and reading. I needed to move my room around since when it rains it pours! And I mean in my room... I have a puddle that collects in one corner that used to be where my armoire was. I also got to plant a mango tree in the compound. I was too late in making a tree nursery. Next year I will be able to do it so this year I bought a mango tree that comes up to my waist for about a dollar. I put him, my tree that is, on my porch while I built a goat-free home. I turned my back for 5 mintues and the frickin goats got into my porch and ate 6 precious leaves! Ah! That's when I got Gista, the dog out and tried my best to scare the goats into the back. Here again is a ranking system: Gista beats up on the 2 baby goats and baby sheep but comes to be crying when she gets head-butted by the mom. I outrank the mommy goat who ate my tree so we obviously dont get along! Every chance they get, I swear they go on to my porch and poop... ah. Anyways, I planted my thinned out tree in a beautiful santuary that hopefully will also sprout some sunsflowers in a week or so! Ill take pictures if it turns out to be anything impressive!
I met our acting mayor (we dont have a mayor, just a president of something, politics here are very confusing) for the second time to talk about the compost project. The first time I didnt get the best impression of him. But this time we explained our progress and he was happy and very open. He mentioned that he currently has an order for 50 bags of compost from the PC Joal site! He works at an agriculture training center and if I understood correctly, works with an initiative of president wades wife of growing organic bissap. He is all about a project here and we have his full support. Astou Kan was so happy after our meeting and saw one of the guys we intend in working on the project with outside the mayors office. She chewed him out for not coming to the meeting, something that I wanted to do but was... well.. outranked. She is such a great work partner! We should have a designated compost spot next week and we will start going house to house training everyone in the neighborhood on the 1st. Hope that goes well!
Heading to Ndem tomorrow! Hope to work more on the IFAT application and work with the West African Trade Hub. Its an organization that is great with artisans all over W Africa. There is someone coming from WATH to Dakar next week that wants to help Ndem branch into America. This could be the link that we need! I get to meet the representative at the end of the month and hopefully bring Abdou, my work partner in Ndem.
Friday my PC supervisors are coming to town to meet all my work partners and make sure that Im not only on vacation here in Senegal. It will be fun to show them around since the last time they were here I didnt know anyone! Then is time to celebrate Mandis birthday all weekend! I think I need a break from my new spot at the bottom of the food chain! I get to be an American for 3 days before coming back to claim my integrated place in society next week!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
Composting Project
As I have said before, it is a slow start as a first volunteer at a new site working with Small Enterprise Development. There has never been a volunteer in Bambey – which honestly has its perks along with downfalls. People see white skin and think money so ask me for it ALWAYS but there is no one to really compare me to in matters of personality and language skills. Other volunteers can’t go a day without hearing about their “anciens” or predecessor. But this has also been frustrating in terms with work. Agriculture volunteers work with trees and plant things every day, health volunteers work at health centers, teachers at schools, eco-tourism at campements… get the idea? I tell Senegalese that I work with small business and they say: “I have a small business! Work with me!” Yes, you and everyone else have a boutique selling the same thing. Those aren’t the people I want to work with. But as a SED volunteer, I can do just about whatever I want. It has just taken a long time to figure that out and who I want to work with. 10 months and 3 days in country – I found a permanent work partner who will be come my replacement volunteer’s counterpart.
AstouKan is a women’s group president interested in getting a compost project started in Bambey. I gave her a “test” when I went to Kedougou. I printed out over 50 invitations to hand out to the neighborhood. I got back and met with her. All the invites went out and she let a few officials know. I still had to figure everything out with the movie but I was in shock that she did everything I said!
There were a ton of technical problems on Wednesday, the day of our “town meeting”. First, I arranged to have a projector from a doctor at the health center. No problem right? Except that he forgot that he had an all-day seminar Wednesday. Should have been fine but power went out making them run late. So at 4, an hour before my meeting, I went to World Vision, called their director and got him to say it was ok for me to borrow theirs, even though a week prior, they said no. So all set right? Got the room set up at the Mayor’s Office and then the projector wouldn’t cooperate with my computer. Meanwhile, I had a friend at a cyber trying to help and set up speakers, which also weren’t working. So an hour and a half of fooling around with this, the other projector shows up. Now I have 2, but neither work. I called people from World Vision, had just about everyone who knows anything about computers come and look , meanwhile, Senegalese are starting to filter in the room to watch the display of a very stressed out toubab rather than a professional presentation. Finally, at like 7, someone sends for their manager of a microfinance organization to come with his laptop. Of course his works! So we played the movie, without very loud speakers, but at least everyone got the idea. Only 25 people showed up, but that’s just how it goes. People said I need to have live music, or at least a DJ and lots of food in order for people to come. AstouKan was also bummed more people didn’t show but there isn’t a whole lot we can do: except to go door to door in the neighborhood to let everyone know… sweet.
The day after all this, I stopped by AstouKan’s and talked with her about what to do. She said she didn’t want to wait too long until we pick out a site for the compost facility. I mentioned that I will be going on vacation in a month, for a month so (without even asking questions about that) she said Monday is when we will go to the mayor’s office to plan it out. After that, we will sit down and plan a budget. If that meeting goes well, I will write up a demand for money from the Peace Corps Partnership Program. The PCPP is pretty cool. I will fill out paperwork on information about my project, how many people it will benefit and what my goals and objectives are. Whatever money is budgeted, my community will have to provide 25%. PC will put it up on a website and people can check it out and donate money online. Can you do that for me? For the application to be complete, I need 5 names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of individuals, businesses, schools or foundations interested in donating to the project. If you are interested in being a part of this list, please e-mail me at keuhn.kira214@gmail.com and I will thank you forever! I will let you know of this more when I get to that point, but my goal is to have the application complete and turned in before Europe in like 3 weeks. (eeeeeeeeeee!!!)
So as for work, I am much happier knowing a compost project is under way. If I can get a good start to it for my replacement volunteer, he or she will have a much better start that the 10 months it took me to get going. So let’s hope the next few weeks go well: going door-to-door, explaining the project, teaching separation techniques of organic and inorganic trash, budget planning and learning my way around messed up African political systems! Wish me luck!
AstouKan is a women’s group president interested in getting a compost project started in Bambey. I gave her a “test” when I went to Kedougou. I printed out over 50 invitations to hand out to the neighborhood. I got back and met with her. All the invites went out and she let a few officials know. I still had to figure everything out with the movie but I was in shock that she did everything I said!
There were a ton of technical problems on Wednesday, the day of our “town meeting”. First, I arranged to have a projector from a doctor at the health center. No problem right? Except that he forgot that he had an all-day seminar Wednesday. Should have been fine but power went out making them run late. So at 4, an hour before my meeting, I went to World Vision, called their director and got him to say it was ok for me to borrow theirs, even though a week prior, they said no. So all set right? Got the room set up at the Mayor’s Office and then the projector wouldn’t cooperate with my computer. Meanwhile, I had a friend at a cyber trying to help and set up speakers, which also weren’t working. So an hour and a half of fooling around with this, the other projector shows up. Now I have 2, but neither work. I called people from World Vision, had just about everyone who knows anything about computers come and look , meanwhile, Senegalese are starting to filter in the room to watch the display of a very stressed out toubab rather than a professional presentation. Finally, at like 7, someone sends for their manager of a microfinance organization to come with his laptop. Of course his works! So we played the movie, without very loud speakers, but at least everyone got the idea. Only 25 people showed up, but that’s just how it goes. People said I need to have live music, or at least a DJ and lots of food in order for people to come. AstouKan was also bummed more people didn’t show but there isn’t a whole lot we can do: except to go door to door in the neighborhood to let everyone know… sweet.
The day after all this, I stopped by AstouKan’s and talked with her about what to do. She said she didn’t want to wait too long until we pick out a site for the compost facility. I mentioned that I will be going on vacation in a month, for a month so (without even asking questions about that) she said Monday is when we will go to the mayor’s office to plan it out. After that, we will sit down and plan a budget. If that meeting goes well, I will write up a demand for money from the Peace Corps Partnership Program. The PCPP is pretty cool. I will fill out paperwork on information about my project, how many people it will benefit and what my goals and objectives are. Whatever money is budgeted, my community will have to provide 25%. PC will put it up on a website and people can check it out and donate money online. Can you do that for me? For the application to be complete, I need 5 names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of individuals, businesses, schools or foundations interested in donating to the project. If you are interested in being a part of this list, please e-mail me at keuhn.kira214@gmail.com and I will thank you forever! I will let you know of this more when I get to that point, but my goal is to have the application complete and turned in before Europe in like 3 weeks. (eeeeeeeeeee!!!)
So as for work, I am much happier knowing a compost project is under way. If I can get a good start to it for my replacement volunteer, he or she will have a much better start that the 10 months it took me to get going. So let’s hope the next few weeks go well: going door-to-door, explaining the project, teaching separation techniques of organic and inorganic trash, budget planning and learning my way around messed up African political systems! Wish me luck!
Friday, July 11, 2008
Fly Season
Back from Dakar. My foot is nearly healed, just a little puffy and tender in one spot. Honestly it is the smallest cut now that in America would have been perfectly fine. Here, I needed ten days of antibiotics. Gotta love Africa.
I have spent my time wandering around Bambey greeting people. Hope to get some more work done with people before I leave for Europe. After just over a week, people say they missed me and that they thought I forgot all about them. They all ask for gifts. It’s rather stressful leaving and coming back. Not looking forward to that after my 35 day Euro-tour. But I am very much looking forward to Italian pasta, Greek men (oops, did I say that?) and French cuisine. 31 days – but who’s counting?
As for work, I am very happy with how my women’s group president handled things while I was away. We are planning a sort-of town meeting next week. I hope to ask a few questions about what people think can be done, show the DVD of the compost project in Joal, south of Dakar, and get contacts of people interested in helping. I really need authoritative support as well as an entire neighborhood to show up to see what this is all about. Hopefully we have a good turn-out. This may be a big project and we will need funding but I think it will be a great project to start here and leave for my replacement volunteer.
Other stuff that is going on: My fish salesman makes a great profit. Finally got him to admit that to me. He doesn’t need funding, in my opinion, and could expand his business whenever. It’s a motivation thing. But I have made contacts with 2 villages: one that I want to send a volunteer there next year and another that may get funding from my contacts at World Vision. My other women’s group is out in the fields farming. It is the rainy season so EVERYONE is working and there isn’t much spare change lying around. We will pick up projects after the rain. My porridge training won’t go. At least I haven’t heard from my president and refuse to work with the man at CEDEPS. I’ll call her soon enough but think that project also needs to wait until food is less scarce after the harvest. Price of everything is high. Propane tends to even run out and prices are almost double.
What else is new in Bambey? Flies. Mosquitoes. Humidity. Heat rash. Just to name a few. Mosquitoes really only come out at night and I have screens so just refuse to sit and watch TV with my family. But the flies! Sick! They are everywhere, crawling all over everything and everyone! The humid air has given me this wonderful, prickly rash all over my back that I am guessing will spread everywhere else until I leave this continent. 31 days… Have I ever mentioned that it is hot?! And I slept horribly last night. Oh story – woke up in a panic last night thinking someone was trying to break in at 12:30. I tried to let my eyes adjust since I was worried this “burglar” would see my flashlight. But then I couldn’t stand it and shined my light in that direction. Come to find out, what I was hoping wasn’t on the outside of my door was actually on the inside! A nasty, stray cat somehow got in my room, probably when I was eating dinner and I was so frightened of it! I first texted 3 friends, to try and figure out what to do! I considered staying in my bed and dealing with it in the morn but knew that wasn’t a good idea. So I got up, opened both my doors, turned on all my lights and had to yell and throw things under my bed to get it out from under there. My heart was pounding for like 10 minutes after. I prefer dogs.
Enjoy your summer for me. Summer’s here just aren’t that great. Sorry I am not my normal, positive self. It’s difficult. I still like it here, don’t want to leave, but know very well it is easier elsewhere. Like maybe a lifeguarding position when every 20 minutes you can splash water on yourself, every hour go down the slide and constantly hope some kid is in distress in the deep end. Yea, now that’s a sweet job.
I have spent my time wandering around Bambey greeting people. Hope to get some more work done with people before I leave for Europe. After just over a week, people say they missed me and that they thought I forgot all about them. They all ask for gifts. It’s rather stressful leaving and coming back. Not looking forward to that after my 35 day Euro-tour. But I am very much looking forward to Italian pasta, Greek men (oops, did I say that?) and French cuisine. 31 days – but who’s counting?
As for work, I am very happy with how my women’s group president handled things while I was away. We are planning a sort-of town meeting next week. I hope to ask a few questions about what people think can be done, show the DVD of the compost project in Joal, south of Dakar, and get contacts of people interested in helping. I really need authoritative support as well as an entire neighborhood to show up to see what this is all about. Hopefully we have a good turn-out. This may be a big project and we will need funding but I think it will be a great project to start here and leave for my replacement volunteer.
Other stuff that is going on: My fish salesman makes a great profit. Finally got him to admit that to me. He doesn’t need funding, in my opinion, and could expand his business whenever. It’s a motivation thing. But I have made contacts with 2 villages: one that I want to send a volunteer there next year and another that may get funding from my contacts at World Vision. My other women’s group is out in the fields farming. It is the rainy season so EVERYONE is working and there isn’t much spare change lying around. We will pick up projects after the rain. My porridge training won’t go. At least I haven’t heard from my president and refuse to work with the man at CEDEPS. I’ll call her soon enough but think that project also needs to wait until food is less scarce after the harvest. Price of everything is high. Propane tends to even run out and prices are almost double.
What else is new in Bambey? Flies. Mosquitoes. Humidity. Heat rash. Just to name a few. Mosquitoes really only come out at night and I have screens so just refuse to sit and watch TV with my family. But the flies! Sick! They are everywhere, crawling all over everything and everyone! The humid air has given me this wonderful, prickly rash all over my back that I am guessing will spread everywhere else until I leave this continent. 31 days… Have I ever mentioned that it is hot?! And I slept horribly last night. Oh story – woke up in a panic last night thinking someone was trying to break in at 12:30. I tried to let my eyes adjust since I was worried this “burglar” would see my flashlight. But then I couldn’t stand it and shined my light in that direction. Come to find out, what I was hoping wasn’t on the outside of my door was actually on the inside! A nasty, stray cat somehow got in my room, probably when I was eating dinner and I was so frightened of it! I first texted 3 friends, to try and figure out what to do! I considered staying in my bed and dealing with it in the morn but knew that wasn’t a good idea. So I got up, opened both my doors, turned on all my lights and had to yell and throw things under my bed to get it out from under there. My heart was pounding for like 10 minutes after. I prefer dogs.
Enjoy your summer for me. Summer’s here just aren’t that great. Sorry I am not my normal, positive self. It’s difficult. I still like it here, don’t want to leave, but know very well it is easier elsewhere. Like maybe a lifeguarding position when every 20 minutes you can splash water on yourself, every hour go down the slide and constantly hope some kid is in distress in the deep end. Yea, now that’s a sweet job.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Goo!
Happy belated birthday America! Turns out this was my first one celebrated abroad and it was just a bit different! Get out a map – we traveled as far away as possible in Senegal to Kedougou on the boarder near Guinea. What a blast! I’ll try to give you a re-cap of all the festivities!
A friend came here to Bambey to stay the night and we were picked up on July 1 by 4 others to fill a 7-place station wagon with 5 bikes on top. Normally, this famous road from Kaolack to Tambacounda takes an average 8 hours to go just 150 miles since it’s a paved road with deep pot holes. About an hour into the trip, since none of us had ever been down this road, we asked what village our driver thought would be a good one to stop and have lunch… he was also a rookie! Needless to say, it took us 12 hours to get to Tamba.
We stayed at that PC regional house overnight and got in another 7-place to Kedougou the next morning. This road is only supposed to take 4 hours. About 20 minutes after leaving the garage, we hit a cow, and then a tree. Our driver was an IDIOT! He sped up and aimed for its head. Honestly. Everyone was fine, I’ve hit deer before and they do damage. We got the hind leg of ol’ Bessy and she limped off, hopefully to be found sooner than later by her herder and our car didn’t have anything wrong with it. But our driver stopped the next 7-place going back to Tamba to tell them to send a mechanic and another 7-place since our car didn’t work properly. We thought this was very responsible, giving horribly unreliable transport in this county. So we waited in a village for 2 hours for this car to go 10 miles from the garage, he got there, we switched all the bikes and luggage, the mechanic took our old car for a spin and came back 2 minutes later to say it was fine and our driver didn’t know what he was talking about. So we moved all our luggage back and even though I asked sincerely for a smarter driver, they just laughed and sent us on our way. That took 8 hours total.
Arriving in the ‘gou was amazing. It is seriously a different world down there. Trees! Grass! Fat cows! Mountains! I couldn’t stop taking picture so make sure to check them out! I have tried to select the best. In 5 days I took nearly 200! So on the 3rd, we decided to bike to waterfalls. There were lots of us who wanted to go so I left with 3 other girls to get a head start in front of the boys, assuming they would catch up. Well then we got lost. A good hour, lost, until we found locals going the same direction to get us back on track. These are not easy paths! We were exhausted, pissed, hungry and thirsty. It is like 30k so like 18ish miles but an hour in the wrong direction added on to that. Never have I NEEDED a mountain bike on such terrain before so was rather unprepared. We got to the village and relaxed for a bit and decided to head to the falls still like 5k from this village. We left at 1pm without eating. We got to the bottom of the falls to the river, sat in it, and the 4 of us decided not to hike up the 45minutes uphill to see the falls. Sad but honestly, my body wouldn’t allow it. So by that time, everyone was starting to come down from the falls and we went to find lunch in the village. We stayed at a very nice campement, but also got lost getting there! Signs are needed for the inexperienced. That night, we ate dinner at 8 and fell asleep at 8:45 until sunrise. Then we headed back in order to make the party.
It was so easy getting back. Left at 7 and were home and showered by 10:30. About 70-80 volunteers made it down and we had delicious food: grilled pork and potato salad were my favorites! Plenty of beverages and our private DJ playing only American music, it was a constant dance party. We only had about 10 fireworks but we sang the national anthem through them all and it was great! We tried right?! The regional house in Kedougou is all outdoors so it was the perfect atmosphere!
The next day was recovery day. Dancing after all that biking and being just a bit dehydrated made for a pool day where friends were staying at a hotel. The next day we took transportation to a different set of falls further away. So I did get to see one! Pictures don’t do it justice: it was beautiful! The transport wasn’t that fun since it was the same road we biked on but it was the only way to do a day-trip. We only broke down once and another time had to all get out for him to properly clear a ditch so all in all it wasn’t that bad. To go that 30ishK was over 2 hours. Crazy right? Just not easy to travel down there!
I did have plans to go home through the north and take a few more vacation to see some friends’ sites but decided to come home instead. I got back here in 8 hours, yey! and am caring for my foot. I have a bit of an infection that I made someone else scrub like crazy, bringing plenty of tears streaming down my face. I came to Dakar to have our doctor look at it and she gave me meds to make things all better! I’ll live – all the adventures were well worth a sore foot!
Hope you all had a great Fourth!
A friend came here to Bambey to stay the night and we were picked up on July 1 by 4 others to fill a 7-place station wagon with 5 bikes on top. Normally, this famous road from Kaolack to Tambacounda takes an average 8 hours to go just 150 miles since it’s a paved road with deep pot holes. About an hour into the trip, since none of us had ever been down this road, we asked what village our driver thought would be a good one to stop and have lunch… he was also a rookie! Needless to say, it took us 12 hours to get to Tamba.
We stayed at that PC regional house overnight and got in another 7-place to Kedougou the next morning. This road is only supposed to take 4 hours. About 20 minutes after leaving the garage, we hit a cow, and then a tree. Our driver was an IDIOT! He sped up and aimed for its head. Honestly. Everyone was fine, I’ve hit deer before and they do damage. We got the hind leg of ol’ Bessy and she limped off, hopefully to be found sooner than later by her herder and our car didn’t have anything wrong with it. But our driver stopped the next 7-place going back to Tamba to tell them to send a mechanic and another 7-place since our car didn’t work properly. We thought this was very responsible, giving horribly unreliable transport in this county. So we waited in a village for 2 hours for this car to go 10 miles from the garage, he got there, we switched all the bikes and luggage, the mechanic took our old car for a spin and came back 2 minutes later to say it was fine and our driver didn’t know what he was talking about. So we moved all our luggage back and even though I asked sincerely for a smarter driver, they just laughed and sent us on our way. That took 8 hours total.
Arriving in the ‘gou was amazing. It is seriously a different world down there. Trees! Grass! Fat cows! Mountains! I couldn’t stop taking picture so make sure to check them out! I have tried to select the best. In 5 days I took nearly 200! So on the 3rd, we decided to bike to waterfalls. There were lots of us who wanted to go so I left with 3 other girls to get a head start in front of the boys, assuming they would catch up. Well then we got lost. A good hour, lost, until we found locals going the same direction to get us back on track. These are not easy paths! We were exhausted, pissed, hungry and thirsty. It is like 30k so like 18ish miles but an hour in the wrong direction added on to that. Never have I NEEDED a mountain bike on such terrain before so was rather unprepared. We got to the village and relaxed for a bit and decided to head to the falls still like 5k from this village. We left at 1pm without eating. We got to the bottom of the falls to the river, sat in it, and the 4 of us decided not to hike up the 45minutes uphill to see the falls. Sad but honestly, my body wouldn’t allow it. So by that time, everyone was starting to come down from the falls and we went to find lunch in the village. We stayed at a very nice campement, but also got lost getting there! Signs are needed for the inexperienced. That night, we ate dinner at 8 and fell asleep at 8:45 until sunrise. Then we headed back in order to make the party.
It was so easy getting back. Left at 7 and were home and showered by 10:30. About 70-80 volunteers made it down and we had delicious food: grilled pork and potato salad were my favorites! Plenty of beverages and our private DJ playing only American music, it was a constant dance party. We only had about 10 fireworks but we sang the national anthem through them all and it was great! We tried right?! The regional house in Kedougou is all outdoors so it was the perfect atmosphere!
The next day was recovery day. Dancing after all that biking and being just a bit dehydrated made for a pool day where friends were staying at a hotel. The next day we took transportation to a different set of falls further away. So I did get to see one! Pictures don’t do it justice: it was beautiful! The transport wasn’t that fun since it was the same road we biked on but it was the only way to do a day-trip. We only broke down once and another time had to all get out for him to properly clear a ditch so all in all it wasn’t that bad. To go that 30ishK was over 2 hours. Crazy right? Just not easy to travel down there!
I did have plans to go home through the north and take a few more vacation to see some friends’ sites but decided to come home instead. I got back here in 8 hours, yey! and am caring for my foot. I have a bit of an infection that I made someone else scrub like crazy, bringing plenty of tears streaming down my face. I came to Dakar to have our doctor look at it and she gave me meds to make things all better! I’ll live – all the adventures were well worth a sore foot!
Hope you all had a great Fourth!
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