In the Groove

The month of February was my birthday, WAIST and a spontaneous trip to Kolda. March was an unhappy month of (host) family feuds. April has been 50% vacation, 50% work and I am back in the game! I am no longer noos-ing (PCV phrase: noos in Wolof means to have fun/spend money) with Nick and have been plenty busy! I am settled in my room, have been promised internet installation soon and my only every day complaint is the heat!

I spent all week greeting everyone. Most people in my old neighborhood feel betrayed that I left. I spent all week proving to them I can walk the 10 minutes to greet them, eat lunch and drink attaaya with them. Matar, my tailor friend, just finished his first toubab order of 60 bags so with his profits, he re-cemented and re-painted his shop. He’s so high class now! And preparing for not one, but two artisan expos the end of May and the beginning of June. He is going to be a busy guy. I hope he has time to sew me a few pair of pants. I have worn out all the jeans that I brought to country so need some replacements to get me through the hot season.

I biked to Ndem this week with another new-ish volunteer, Oliver. (Still getting used to the fact that the new group is, as of the 24, not the newest group anymore – newbies install on Monday meaning I am the next group to be replaced!) We got some good work done in the day that we were in the village. Hoping to find some American clients for Ndem before I leave but if not, I am prepping Oliver to know Ndem well enough to show around my replacement.

Besides artisan work, my composting is still there, getting collected but in order to reduce some of the stress in my life, I am waiting for other people to do something about it. I got burnt out trying to do it all so if on the 5th I have enough money to go and buy more garbage cans, wonderful. If not, I won’t lose any sleep.
My pépinière (tree nursery) is starting to show signs of life! Thanks to another volunteer, Caitrin, and Nick, we may just be responsible for creating some shade in the schools hopefully by 2015! My main goal of out-planting the trees may not be as important as installing the motivation of the school kids to continue a garden of trees at the school. The location is perfect and I hope to get more seeds available for the kids.
I also have a biodigestor side project that some other volunteers interested me in. Another sector heard about Antione, this expert who makes biodigestors and he happens to live in Bambey. I just passed through today, and sure enough, manure produces flammable gas that can be used for cooking! Impressive!

So I am glad to be back in the groove of things around here and it feels good. It’s hot and miserable during the day but exactly what I signed up for right? I am trying my best not to countdown the days ‘til fall when I’ll be sitting around a campfire cuddled under blankets, freezing since my body is used to 100 degrees. But who’s to say I can’t countdown the days left of my TB meds – a cold beer is possible in 166 days!

Spring Break

It feels good being taken care of! My boyfriend, Nick came to visit for the last 2 weeks and shared his spring break with me. I had to scramble the end of March in order to take 2 weeks off work, and even after telling everyone “sama jëkër lay nëw Sénégal” (translating to my husband is coming to Senegal), I still had work partners calling the whole time.

Going back in time, the last Saturday of March was our artisan reunion. It was a complete success! We had about 10 artisans show up from all over to discuss the past expos and training and the future expos. This reunion really shows that the artisans are interested in working together. This is an oddity in Senegal. Normally people don’t work together outside of their little villages. Travel is tough and they just aren’t used to working with people of different expertise. Normally you just see a whole bunch of jewelry women selling the same stuff all together, trying to make a profit; but more likely losing money and just having something to do to pass the time. We are trying to encourage collaboration rather than competition and sharing. There is a St Louis Jazz Festival coming up in the end of May where booth rental is 30,000cfa. None of our artisans can afford this but a few can share it so that may be what will be happening! Lots of work to do… Overall, this meeting went real well. Did you know I can lead a meeting in Wolof?! It’s hard for even me to believe!

After the meeting in Thies, I went north. The Eco-tourism volunteers were all together for a conference in a village, so no Senegalese were present. We slept in a tent and since it was so cold, I enjoyed sunrise while watching the birds. The next morning we had a 3 hour meeting about how to collaborate our artisan and eco-t volunteers’ work partners. We have received a grant to put on a training that we are calling “Toubab 101”. More or less, people will learn customer service and quality control. The following weekend will be our 3rd Artisan Expo in Dakar. The end of May and early June, I will be plenty busy and probably ready for Summer Break!

But I have to say this spring break was pretty incredible! I think I was due for a vacation. After moving out and in to a new place, struggling with a compost project and introducing a new tree nursery idea to a middle school, I needed 2 weeks to be spoiled! Nick came on April 5 and stayed until the 18th. We first hung out in Dakar on an island, and then went to mangroves for lizard hunts and kayaking. We endured Alhums and horrible garages so Nick got to know the real Senegal. We planted trees in Bambey and Nick met our baby. (Yes, I have a baby. Her name is Farma. She was born in November, a few weeks after I installed in Bambey. Nick has been absent in her life for over a year! ;-) We celebrated Easter on the beach and ate delicious seafood. And we went down to another beach city to a hotel with a pool a few days later. And rather than pay for a hostel in Dakar, we decided to live it up in a nice hotel. I think my speaking Wolof impressed the staff enough to give us a cheaper rate for a room with a balcony and a view of the pool, ocean and the island that we hit up his first day!

Like I said, spring break was pretty amazing. And I know it had to end since I do have work to do, and Nick has work to do since he insisted on paying for everything! But it was a tough goodbye. But just 6 more months; crazy how fast time flies!