Nine

It is January 9th of 2009. I have 9 months of my Peace Corps service remaining since I swore in on November 9, 2007. My COS (close of service) date should be October 9, 2009. Today is also a day that I picked up my TB medication that I’ll be taking for 9 months starting tomorrow. Let’s hope it’s a good 273 days!

So I have been back at site for a few days now and I have to say, I am not stressed out yet! I have been organizing my meeting on Tuesday the 13th. I chatted with Djebaye about my frustrations and explained that this is not my only work here since when he first saw me he said he was mad at me that I hadn’t been around to see him. He seemed to understand. I have been passing out invitations all over Bambey while Djebaye is passing out the invites door-to-door in the neighborhood. I am rather proud of myself for knowing phone numbers and locations of contacts all over Bambey. Hope there is a good turn out. I was very close to giving the project up since it just isn’t moving along. But then after talking to Djebaye, I realized that I am still really attached to it. It’s a slow start. I can’t change people’s actions over night. Obviously this is frustrating and I get discouraged, but that is just because I grew up in America where productivity is everything. Here, it takes a bit more convincing. It’s a good project. Everyone likes the idea, and let’s hope that giving out the first 10 garbage cans will help everyone realized this project is going to improve their quality of life, maybe not tomorrow, but hopefully in the near future. Just need to convince everyone that we need to fence in the site otherwise people are going to steal our compost before we can do anything with it!

As for what else is going on: better relations with my family! J I talked to my host mom about the dog. She is no longer tied up and after just 2 days of being able to roam free, I can already see her calming down and getting used to people coming and going. She is a very good watch dog, since she barks at anything that moves. It’s taking me a while to get used to that since for the last 10 years we have had a dog that we command when we want her to bark. I do think it is good that my family has a dog since it is all women here and we have animals in the back. There has been a lot of theft in the recent weeks of sheep and goats – which are more of less people’s savings accounts. Not cool. I am using all Wolof commands with Gista so that hopefully when I leave people will still be able to tell her to sit (togal), come (newal) and when to shut up, by saying that’s enough (doy na). She does still like my porch and comes and goes as she pleases, except at night when she is sleeping/protecting the compound.

Yesterday was the Muslim New Year! So happy Tamaxarit! Last night it was rather difficult talking on the phone since people cross-dress, walk around “trick-or-treating” for money, rice and millet. Weird, I know. They also bang drums and sing. Good thing I am used to the mosque and have always been able to sleep through everything! It was noisy until this morning but honestly, I am really going to miss the mosques and singing when I leave here.

I have started accounting classes with Matar, my tailor and best friend in Bambey. It is a slow start since he dropped out of school at 12 or 13 but is very smart so will catch on. He seems motivated by it and I am very interested to see what his income is since after his dad passed away he has been the borom ker, or man of the house, supporting his mom, aunts and 8 younger siblings, none of which work.

So I went to Dakar for my last night to “enjoy” Senegalese beer in Senegal, and this morning had medical appointment. I was supposed to meet with a woman providing the garbage cans but when I called her this morning, she cancelled on me. What she doesn’t understand how hard it is for me to get out of site. It takes a lot of time and energy. I went all that way for that meeting and now I have to go all the way back on Monday. Coming home in 9 months is always on my mind but maybe that’s because when I am on the side of the road for over an hour, all I think about is how traveling 75 miles in America takes just about that long, but in reality, leaving my door, waiting on the side of the road and switching buses 4 times takes about 5 hours. Looking forward to doing it again Monday!