Getting Dirty

So this is it -- it's my last 19 day stretch at site. Hard to believe that I won't be back here anytime soon, if ever. The "this is my last (insert something here)" seems to be happening more often than not! I have to admit, it is really bitter-sweet. I am LOVING Bambey.

After I left Dakar, I went to Thies to meet the newbies. It took us over 3 hours to get there in a Peace Corps car because of so much flooding. You should check out my pictures in Baol Baol and Beyond - I have added some to show you just what rainy season looks like. I caught enough rain water last night in buckets to do my laundry!!

I presented to the new stage my work with Matar on accounting. Daniel and I tried our best to spark interest in artisan work since about 1/4 of everyone in there will be working with artisans, they just don't know it yet! They should find out their sites Sept 10. And I get to meet my replacement Sept 12!

I got back to site loaded with painting supplies and contacted a teacher in the primary school. I am no artist, that is for sure! But I am trying to get the message across even if my pictures don't look like the example. It is really fun to do and I have a great sense of accomplishment: I painted 2 murals this morning, what did you do? Today I finished a wash your hands and a brush your teeth mural. This afternoon I will start one on AIDS on the outside of the school wall. Can't wait to see how much attention I get!

I have been really enjoying Ramadan this year. Maybe it's because I eat lunch with a Catholic family, and then break the fast with Muslims, and then eat dinner at home. How can you go wrong? Everything is going to change when I move back to my old neighborhood in September, but I think I may still come and eat with my Catholic family, even though it will be a long walk. It will be great to leave my mark here in Wakhal Diam with paintings on the walls and trees planted in my apartment from my compost project, but even better to go back to the neighborhood that felt betrayed when I left them. It's nice knowing I will be leaving on a good note.

So my hands are full of paint, I get to splash in puddles everywhere I go, and eat at least 4 times a day! I think these last few days in Bambey are going to be good ones!

Fasting... again

It’s Ramadan again. I arrived in Senegal during Ramadan, so this would be my third month of fasting for Muslims. Not that I am a fan of fasting! Many volunteers do it: wake up before dawn to eat the first meal with their families and then avoid all water and food until the sun sets. I tried just one day of it last year and by 4pm I was seeing stars every time I stood up, dizzy with dehydration. This year will be the first Ramadan that I will actually be in Senegal the entire month. The first one we arrived on the second day of Ramadan at the training center, so it wasn’t real Senegal: more like summer camp where they provided our lunch while all the trainers took a nap. The second one I was 3 weeks of it in Europe and America. (Do you realize it’s been a year since I was home last?) So this year, what is my plan for Ramadan ‘09?

I am currently in Dakar. I had to say goodbye to my good friends Chris and Mandi, who just COS’ed. Chris was the first PCV that I met at staging and we ate lunch together in Atlanta. Mandi was my roommate at Sheraton and my roommate at the training center. Our first night apart in Senegal was install in November when she went off to Pout and I went to Bambey. Saying these goodbyes is not easy but just something in Peace Corps we get used to since everyone leaves sometime.

This week I will be at the training center teaching the newbies about my experience teaching record keeping and answering their many questions. I am looking forward to meeting the group that is replacing my group.

When I get back to site, it will be my last stretch at site before leaving. My plan is to paint some murals like I did with Erin up at her site and finish out-planting the trees at the middle school. I will have plenty of time since everyone that I could usually hang out with will be too tired and hungry to think. Me on the other hand, I will be eating. The idea of not eating to test my self control doesn’t sound too appealing, especially since who knows what would happen since I’m still on antibiotics for latent TB; I don’t want to test my body’s limits. I will be moving out of site around the 14th and since Ramadan follows the lunar cycle so it should be over to celebrate Korite with my Thies family on September 20 or 21. Peace Corps is purchasing my plane tickets to fly me home on September 23. I think I will be ready and am pretty excited to find out what it’s like to live in America again.

Working out of Site

Okay, so it's been a while! Sorry if your daily schedule depends on my updates ;-)

Since I last wrote, I first had a site visit from my new boss. Nicole is American and just replaced our last APCD (assistant peace corps director) who was here for 6 years. It is nice to have a change of pace! She came along with Bamba, my tech trainer and I wanted to introduce them to the counterpart I have chosen for my replacement. I was assigned a counterpart that didn't do his job for me, hurting me real early on since he didn't show me around. I think Fallou will be great for my replacement. When Fallou didn't show up right away for our meeting at the mayor's office, it was so interesting what happened. We were brought in to a small room in the mayor's office to meet with someone who I recognized but couldn't name. So akward since he knew me, but anyways, it turns out his daughter won the scholarship last year that I did in the middle schools. We decided after all the pleasentries to leave and continue with our other meetings, since why did I really need to introduce this guy to my bosses?! Turns out he has a room he would like to show us for the next volunteer. And it all comes together! I had been looking for a few weeks and didn't have any really good leads. But the second we saw his place, we were sold. I am officially jealous of my replacement: second floor room with private balcony, bathroom, ceiling fan and screens on the windows! And a great counterpart! How can they not succeed?!

Following a successful site visit, I took the free ride to Dakar. We stopped in Thies for lunch and hung out at the training center for a while. All the Mauritanian volunteers are in Senegal now, and it sounds to be for longer than planned. For security reasons they are closing down the program, temporarily at least. They were given the choice to go home but about 40 want to be reassigned in Senegal. We will see! Anyways, because they were interested in doing a bit of tourism in the region, we took the long way around (in the pc car) to a monestary that sells the most amazing goat cheese and to Lac Rose. Supposidly, the lake is pink because of the salt level. We took a picture but weren't that impressed, and just really wanted to get out of there because of the horrible harrassment to buy from the tourist stalkers!

After I arrived in Dakar, I enjoyed an empty regional house and relaxation. Didn't do much besides the pool and movies but I think it was exactly what I needed. A few days later, I went to Joal for the Health/Enviro Education Summit. Mandi and I were asked to lead sessions on how to effectively do SED work with groups. It was really fun to hang out with the group that got here 6 months and 1yr and 6 months after we did, since up until now, I didn't know anyone outside the Dakar region.

The first week of Dakar I was teaching at a summer English Camp funded by the US Embassy. Since there were so many volunteers in Dakar the regional house was full, so Mandi, Erin and I stayed at our country director's house. I slept so well under blankets in air conditioning! The camp was a lot of fun. It was in a poor suburb of Dakar. We had 150 high school students and only 11 volunteers. More or less, mass chaos daily! Discussions went well in small groups and we made them do head, shoulders, knees and toes every time we heard Wolof. I helped organize Olympic Day and the kids had a bast with tug-of-war especially.

Before leaving Dakar, I went to see my wood-working artisan, Mamadou. He is illiterate but wants a web site to find him more more clients. I will be working with Ellen, my closest neighbor to see what we can do for him. I hope to get him brochures at least and set up an easy website but obviously am running out of time in my service so I hope Ellen will continue working with him. He does great work, but deals with too much competition since every woodcarver makes the same stuff!

After we were done in Dakar, Erin and I went up to her site which borders Mauritania. It was a long car ride but so worth it! I wish I would have gone up sooner. We had a blast together and painted a mural at a school, and started a second one but got rained out before we could finish. Her site is so remote and tree-less but the people are great! This mural says "We respect our community, we discuss AIDS".

And so now I am back at site and have plenty to do this week. Reports to write to PC being the most time consuming - most are due a month prior to my COS - which is next week! I have trees to outplant and people interested in starting up new tree nurseries. I also want to go around and see people once more before I have to say goodbye to them, so that is going to involve cooking some ceebu jen and drinking some attaya, but I am up for it! I should be around until next weekend when I will go back to Dakar to say some more dreaded goodbyes to friends leaving.