Benn At ak Gen Wàll

Waaw, def naa benn at ak gen wàll fii ci Sénégal. Jot bi gaaw na torop! Waaye itam, namm naa waaAmerik te bëgg naa nibi ndax fofu, mo gëna yomb!

Surprisingly, today marks my 18th month in Senegal. It was also my 3rd site visit by my 2 bosses Mark and Bamba. They drive up in their fancy Land Cruiser that attracts all this attention and legitimizes my work and existence in this town. This is how it played out:

They came to my house, met with my mom, who told them that everything is just fine, and that I am a great daughter. I told them later that she left out the part that we have been on thin ice lately since she had been telling the maid to use my propane tank when I was gone. According to her, we are family and this means that she shouldn’t need to ask to use my things in my room. Maybe this recent argument is the reason I wasn’t invited to Gamou, the Tidiane pilgrimage to Tivoauane with them. No, Mark and Bamba, everything isn’t just fine. But they still feed me and let me live here. I haven’t figured out how to murder Gista, the beloved, barking, nasty dog. But I am in the process of finding my replacement a new house in a different neighborhood with another family!

Matar came over. He was very proud to talk about our work together. His accounting is coming right along, happily showing profits this month! Bamba: “What are you learning from your recordkeeping?” Matar: “To be cheap.” Haha, so much for eating all that silver, as the Wolof expression is equivalent for having fun! We are continually developing his products and he is planning the next expo while also completing orders for more patchwork hoodies and pj pants for volunteers. Bamba told Matar not to let me leave with my expertise; that he needs to learn it all before October. Matar will now be my most motivated work partner!

Then, we headed to my compost site. A short story about that! I just got back yesterday from my 5 nights to de-stress in Dakar. I went to see Djebaye last night and had quite the interesting talk. He explained that he is thanking God for giving him the ability to work and his connections with Astou Kane (women’s group pres) and me. But honestly, it is just not right that I should get mad if he doesn’t show up for meetings. It isn’t right that he isn’t getting paid for all this work that he is doing; and that I should have pity on him when he needs money for a transport pass to visit his religious leader. Alright, I see where he is coming from, on some points. So he forgives me for storming off. But we still have more problems to solve, like, where is that 15,000cfa from people who have already paid Djebaye and yet the money hasn’t made its way into the cash box? And if we don’t have enough money for a new order of garbage cans by the end of the month, I will refund people’s money. Anyways, last night, I sent a text around to about 10 people to invite them to the site and to meet my bosses. About 7 showed up, which is incredible! Some people didn’t know the others existed and they were all talking about how to correct current problems and keep this project going. Honestly, it is no longer my number one priority, but I can’t just quit. They are interested in continuing this work. Now let’s just find someone to buy it to pay Djebaye for his work! And then I’ll leave it up to my replacement to decide if they are ready to find funding for this to really take off.

The last introduction with Mark and Bamba was with Fallou, who is a retired teacher who will be helping me with my adopt-a-tree project. As soon as tomorrow, we are going to the schools to see if there is the interest to do tree nurseries. I need space, protection from animals and a water source, along with students willing to water the trees. My idea is to give them the choice of using the compost, but they will have to purchase it. I haven’t figured out how exactly to fence in all the trees once we out-plant them but I hope to have 1 or 2 students adopt a tree and, using whatever they can find at home, fence in their tree. Then I will go around and give out prizes to the “Most Effective” and “Most Creative” fences. Let’s hope tomorrow and next week I will find the willingness to start this project since by the end of the month, I need to start the tree nursery!

(Yes, I have done a year and a half here in Senegal. Time is very fast! But also, I miss the people of America and want to go home because there, it is easier!) Peace Corps: Hardest job you’ll ever love. True story.