Yes, that’s right, it is sprinkling. Or it was, for like 10 or 15 minutes! First sight of precipitation since the 21 of October! I could hardly believe the familiar noise my roof was making so I went outside and sure enough. Not really enough to cover the ground but still, I was excited.
So I haven’t written in over a week but I guess that’s because I have fallen in to a routine around here. I have never spent so much time at site and am really enjoying it. Since getting back from Ziguinchor, I have only slept 1 night outside of Bambey. The weather here is great – my winter involves high seventies to mid-eighties with slight breeze. What is yours like? :-) I missed 2 softball games but just was not feeling traveling into Dakar for one game, consecutive Saturdays. So I have been trying my best to keep busy.
Since I last wrote to you, I had quite a productive day in Ndem. First things first, I am amazing at fixing bike tires. I had 2 flats from 3 thorns since November and since my pump is broken, I brought my repaired tires to the bike-pump guy. He was very impressed with me. Anyways! I am trying very hard to find Ndem clients/partners in the US without a lot of luck. I got an email from a possible client in Wisconsin explaining the US market and used it as English practice for my partner. Even though most of what was written is bad news for us, since the economy just isn’t stable to import expensive fair trade goods, it gave my partner some good ideas. I was also in Ndem the day they were packaging a huge order of over 400 bags, 200 baby booties, and 200 tableaux being sent to Belgium. At least not all over the world has a suffering economy.
My project is going well. We need to figure out how to get more water available at our site and to get the frickin’ government of Bambey to cooperate, and then we’ll be set. They needed to do inventory so we had to give back the wheelbarrow, rake and pitchforks, and said the next day we could come back and pick them back up. Easy enough? Not. I went to the mayor’s office at 10 and handed in my “demand” for the materials. They said come back in a little bit after the president dude signs the paper to make it all official. So I went to greet some people and came back to find Djebaye sitting around waiting. We waited in the sand storm that Bambey is most days, until noon. I called the pres until I ran out of credit wondering what was taking so long. He finally showed up at 12:30 to tell me simply that I needed to go elsewhere. So I went there and waited around for over an hour, missed lunch and still only had the wheelbarrows. I scheduled a meeting on Monday for another business to lend us the rakes and pitchforks but just called to double check that and I’ll have to wait to do that until later in the week. That’s what I am here for right? Otherwise, the project is going well!
So tomorrow I am off to teach at training! It’s the new kids’ IST so I agreed to go to help out. It will be good to be back and see my Thies family and get a new dress made from my host mom there. Should be a fun week!
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Slowly Moving
Not just my projects, the pregnant goat too! The poor thing, I thought she would have had her twins a month ago! Every time I heard a “BLEEEEET” I’m hopeful it’s her, and if you knew anything about my life, you would know that sound is not uncommon, but every day she is still prego! Hang in there Mama!
Traffic was rather slow moving. Honestly, I want to leave site less and less because of transport. (I miss my car!) I told you that I had an appointment to pick up garbage cans cancelled on me when I was in Dakar on Friday. So I rested up over the weekend and woke up around 6 Monday morning. It was so cold (yes, I dare say that when you all are having below zero temps) so after taking my meds I crawled back in to bed for a bit. Much regretted: I got in to a fast moving bus at 7 but then was stuck in traffic all morning. I got to my appointment to simply find out that there is no company vehicle available to me so I would have to pay for the taxi across town to get to the storage building. No big deal, I’m white, which means I have money. More on this further…
I got my ten BEAUTIFUL garbage cans and took another taxi to the garage. (Side note: this garage is the worst place in Senegal.) I show up to have someone, who says he knows me (for how often I take 7-places to Diourbel), say he is going to help me out. He stands up for me when the crowd of men circles me asking “ana sa jeker? Nob na la, begg na la takk” by saying, “she is already married, doesn’t love you and won’t marry you, and she speaks Wolof so leave her alone”. Well, the pretty, obviously rich, white girl was perfect before, but now that she speaks Wolof…! Needless to say, the garage is full of men with nothing else to do but find second wives, most preferably white ones. But after about an hour of this and constant people hissing at me to buy bananas, planners, clothing, baby toys... I got in the front seat of a 7-place, with 6 (1-scrawny, 4-average, and 1-fat) men behind me, and my ten garbage cans tied to the roof. Harassment paid off!
So Monday was a long day: 7-11 bus, 11:30-12 taxi to pick up cans, 12:30-1:30 garage, 4:30 arrive in Bambey to get a horse cart to take me to Astou Kan’s house. 5:30 lunch, shower, and bed until Tuesday. 10 hours to end right where I started. I hate thinking that 8 hours in the car can get me half-way to Colorado. I traveled the same 120k – or a total of 150 miles!
But it all pays off! Sunday I went to Astou Kan’s house to tell her about my Friday and how I would be going back on Monday. She told me she appreciates me and all the sacrifices I make. I couldn’t help but smile. This was my first REAL thank-you in 16 months! She said they wouldn’t have a site without me, the government wouldn’t be on our side and nothing would be happening. And that this project won’t be going at full speed when I leave, but when I call her 3, 4 or 5 years down the road, she will be able to tell me how my project is a success.
So my snail-paced compost project has garbage cans. We had a meeting and talked about what will happen next. People love this idea and I am still making great contacts. I just met a compost-expert! He talked to the whole group at length about how to improve this and Astou Kan said exactly what I was thinking: “Okay, we know you know everything, but are running out of time tonight, so give me your number and I will call you and personally drag you out to the site every weekend”. She is awesome.
Slow moving is better than not moving at all! :-)
Traffic was rather slow moving. Honestly, I want to leave site less and less because of transport. (I miss my car!) I told you that I had an appointment to pick up garbage cans cancelled on me when I was in Dakar on Friday. So I rested up over the weekend and woke up around 6 Monday morning. It was so cold (yes, I dare say that when you all are having below zero temps) so after taking my meds I crawled back in to bed for a bit. Much regretted: I got in to a fast moving bus at 7 but then was stuck in traffic all morning. I got to my appointment to simply find out that there is no company vehicle available to me so I would have to pay for the taxi across town to get to the storage building. No big deal, I’m white, which means I have money. More on this further…
I got my ten BEAUTIFUL garbage cans and took another taxi to the garage. (Side note: this garage is the worst place in Senegal.) I show up to have someone, who says he knows me (for how often I take 7-places to Diourbel), say he is going to help me out. He stands up for me when the crowd of men circles me asking “ana sa jeker? Nob na la, begg na la takk” by saying, “she is already married, doesn’t love you and won’t marry you, and she speaks Wolof so leave her alone”. Well, the pretty, obviously rich, white girl was perfect before, but now that she speaks Wolof…! Needless to say, the garage is full of men with nothing else to do but find second wives, most preferably white ones. But after about an hour of this and constant people hissing at me to buy bananas, planners, clothing, baby toys... I got in the front seat of a 7-place, with 6 (1-scrawny, 4-average, and 1-fat) men behind me, and my ten garbage cans tied to the roof. Harassment paid off!
So Monday was a long day: 7-11 bus, 11:30-12 taxi to pick up cans, 12:30-1:30 garage, 4:30 arrive in Bambey to get a horse cart to take me to Astou Kan’s house. 5:30 lunch, shower, and bed until Tuesday. 10 hours to end right where I started. I hate thinking that 8 hours in the car can get me half-way to Colorado. I traveled the same 120k – or a total of 150 miles!
But it all pays off! Sunday I went to Astou Kan’s house to tell her about my Friday and how I would be going back on Monday. She told me she appreciates me and all the sacrifices I make. I couldn’t help but smile. This was my first REAL thank-you in 16 months! She said they wouldn’t have a site without me, the government wouldn’t be on our side and nothing would be happening. And that this project won’t be going at full speed when I leave, but when I call her 3, 4 or 5 years down the road, she will be able to tell me how my project is a success.
So my snail-paced compost project has garbage cans. We had a meeting and talked about what will happen next. People love this idea and I am still making great contacts. I just met a compost-expert! He talked to the whole group at length about how to improve this and Astou Kan said exactly what I was thinking: “Okay, we know you know everything, but are running out of time tonight, so give me your number and I will call you and personally drag you out to the site every weekend”. She is awesome.
Slow moving is better than not moving at all! :-)
Friday, January 9, 2009
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!
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!
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Here's to a Stressfree 2009!
Yes - that's my New Year's resolution: less stress. I don't really know how I am going to go about it yet since if I really knew how to de-stress I wouldn't be making that as a resolution, but I am going to try very hard to reduce my stress in Senegal. And just think, the last 2 months (maybe 3!) of 2009 will not even be in Senegal!
I have been practicing this stress-free lifestyle here in Ziguinchor (south-west). 3 friends and myself came down on the boat from Dakar, taking about 14 hours, overnight. The boat was amazing! We had our own beds with pillows and blankets. There was a little bar with ham sandwiches and music. After an 8-hour night of sleep (thanks to a bit of dramaine - which really was not necessary since it was smooth sailing) we woke up and had some oranges and apples for breakfast and watched dolphins playing in the water! I didn't really believe Erin at first when she said she saw them since we were already pretty far in the river, but sure enough! There was probably a dozen feeding; small black dolphins. On the way out today I hope to get some pictures of them!
When we got here to Zig, we found our hostel and were not satisfied! It was a crappy room, ripped mosquito nets and the water was out all afternoon. So we upgraded. Right across the street, for 8,000 ($16) more a night, we have wifi, a pool, hot water showers... it's wonderful! Should have brought my cord to plug in my camera, but pictures will be coming soon. Zig, being close to the ocean, has incredible and cheap seafood. We went to get half a kilo uncooked shrimp yesterday for just over a dollar. They we had them cooked and seasoned for a dollar. Can't go wrong with that! The sunsets have been beautiful and the weather wonderful. Not really looking forward to getting back to site tomorrow...
But I have a few ideas on what to do when I get back. I need to talk to my family (about the dog). I need to organized a meeting to hand out garbage cans on the 12th. I need to run to Dakar and pick up those garbage cans on the 8th. And the organizing part will take most of the week, because I have lots of invites to hand out. I will be preparing quite the meeting, hopefully motivating, but also giving my neighborhood once last chance to get working. I am just not satisfied with the speed of this project and they need to know that. I will explain to everyone my role, since they call me their patrone - or boss. Nope, I'm a little ol' volunteer who wants to teach but can't do it all! That's when I start to break down and cry! I have asked seaonsed veterans, aka, volunteers who have already gone home, and advice has been to completely abandon the project. It's not sustainable if I am doing all the work. So I have some backup plans: going to a village to see about a bio-digestor (when I know all about it, I'll let you know), teaching English once a week at the high school, more work in Ndem, preparing,for planting a pepinere (tree nursery) in my back yard before the rains start.
So I will be busy. Which will be good. I hope to be spending most of January at site so hopefully less travel all over the place will also be a plus. I otherwise will run completely out of money: who knew Christmas, New Years, 4 weekends of softball in Dakar, WAIST and my birthday could all fit into a 3-month volunteer's pay period. Should be interesting the end of February!
Miss you all! Hope you all have attainable new year's resolutions! And even though this is my last 10 months of service, don't forget about me! Send cards and pictures otherwise I may just as well forget about you! ;-)
I have been practicing this stress-free lifestyle here in Ziguinchor (south-west). 3 friends and myself came down on the boat from Dakar, taking about 14 hours, overnight. The boat was amazing! We had our own beds with pillows and blankets. There was a little bar with ham sandwiches and music. After an 8-hour night of sleep (thanks to a bit of dramaine - which really was not necessary since it was smooth sailing) we woke up and had some oranges and apples for breakfast and watched dolphins playing in the water! I didn't really believe Erin at first when she said she saw them since we were already pretty far in the river, but sure enough! There was probably a dozen feeding; small black dolphins. On the way out today I hope to get some pictures of them!
When we got here to Zig, we found our hostel and were not satisfied! It was a crappy room, ripped mosquito nets and the water was out all afternoon. So we upgraded. Right across the street, for 8,000 ($16) more a night, we have wifi, a pool, hot water showers... it's wonderful! Should have brought my cord to plug in my camera, but pictures will be coming soon. Zig, being close to the ocean, has incredible and cheap seafood. We went to get half a kilo uncooked shrimp yesterday for just over a dollar. They we had them cooked and seasoned for a dollar. Can't go wrong with that! The sunsets have been beautiful and the weather wonderful. Not really looking forward to getting back to site tomorrow...
But I have a few ideas on what to do when I get back. I need to talk to my family (about the dog). I need to organized a meeting to hand out garbage cans on the 12th. I need to run to Dakar and pick up those garbage cans on the 8th. And the organizing part will take most of the week, because I have lots of invites to hand out. I will be preparing quite the meeting, hopefully motivating, but also giving my neighborhood once last chance to get working. I am just not satisfied with the speed of this project and they need to know that. I will explain to everyone my role, since they call me their patrone - or boss. Nope, I'm a little ol' volunteer who wants to teach but can't do it all! That's when I start to break down and cry! I have asked seaonsed veterans, aka, volunteers who have already gone home, and advice has been to completely abandon the project. It's not sustainable if I am doing all the work. So I have some backup plans: going to a village to see about a bio-digestor (when I know all about it, I'll let you know), teaching English once a week at the high school, more work in Ndem, preparing,for planting a pepinere (tree nursery) in my back yard before the rains start.
So I will be busy. Which will be good. I hope to be spending most of January at site so hopefully less travel all over the place will also be a plus. I otherwise will run completely out of money: who knew Christmas, New Years, 4 weekends of softball in Dakar, WAIST and my birthday could all fit into a 3-month volunteer's pay period. Should be interesting the end of February!
Miss you all! Hope you all have attainable new year's resolutions! And even though this is my last 10 months of service, don't forget about me! Send cards and pictures otherwise I may just as well forget about you! ;-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)