Kira in Senegal - for only a few more weeks!

Home Sweet Home

2009-10-05T06:59:00.000-07:00

Over 2 years in Peace Corps - Senegal and I'm home. I've received questions like "How was it?", "Are you glad you did it?" and "Are you happy to be home?" like 100 times. Although it is hard to sum it up, overall, it was "Great", "Yes", and "Yes, like you wouldn't believe!"

The last week and a half has been crazy. I came in on a Wednesday and was greeted by my mom, dad, brother, grandma, boyfriend, and 3 family friends at the airport. We went home and had the best deli sandwiches and awaited 2 more friends who stopped by to visit. That evening, we got sushi from Nakashima's first and then had tacos for dinner. Food is soo good here!

Thursday and Friday I spend all day pampering myself. I got an 1 hour 1/2 long massage, manicure and a hair cut/color. Mom also ran me around Neenah fast enough to overwhelm me. Now, let's not blame her, but I can tell you the adjustment has been more or less what I expected. I am used to moving at African speed. Mom can get from one side of the Valley to the other in just 15 minutes! That's usually how long it took me to walk 1 block because of all the greeting! I went into one store with her and while she was busy going around the whole place picking up what she needed, I stared at one wall and answered the cashier's questions. I eventually sat down to wait for mom to finish. After we got back in the car I told Mom, slow down! Besides that, another time I got so stressed out I just started crying. I guess the errands, and doctors and dentist appointments just the best of me. I'm just going to take some time getting back into the swing of things.

After about a week, I was busy in the car buying search. I test drove a few different cars and small suv's and finally decided on an 04 Subaru Outback. I also have started the job search. I think that crying fit had something to do with my thoughts following my first interview. I don't think I'm ready for a 9-5 at a desk, on the phone. Could you get any more different from daily life in Africa?! But this is all what it takes to be American again, right? My second interview is today, so we'll see how it goes.

I've gone to a wedding and a concert, rollerbladed and played tennis, seen family and friends, drove my new car, gone shopping and done so much that I couldn't have done in Senegal, so really, you would think that I would stop thinking about it as often as I do. It's not that I forget I'm in America. And it's not that I miss Senegal, that much. I just am going through this stage of re-adjustment that we all go through, and I don't really know how to explain it to you.

Anyways, the other big question I have received is "So what are you going to do now?" Well. I don't really have an answer just yet. I want to be in WI through spring 2010. I hope to find temporary, flexible work close to Nick, in West Bend. I want to go to weddings, take road trips and enjoy the seasons. Come spring, Nick and I hope to move out to Colorado. I want to find work with the government in environmental sustainability or renewable energy. But I know that there is a limit to all the planning so I'm up for whatever comes my way!

Thanks for reading my blog all this while! This is my last posting and eventually, when I figure out how I want to scrapbook and bind up my last 2 years, I will remove this website. So enjoy the last album of photos and give me a call anytime - my new number is 920. 213.2800.

The Left Handshake

2009-09-16T08:36:00.000-07:00

The last few days at site were some of my most difficult yet. I sure had a tough service! But I still can't believe is just about over. On Saturday, I went to Thies to pick up my replacement, Katherine, from training center and bring her back to Bambey to show her around. We went to about 5 houses of my work partners and I answered many of her questions, but then I found out that a good work partner of mine, Fallou, passed away from a heart attack. He was going to be Katherine's assigned counterpart that would have shown her all around Bambey and been a great partner through out her service. Fallou was my host dad's uncle so the funeral was at my house. I have been to many Senegalese events, weddings and baptisms and a couple funerals, but this one was different. I knew Fallou. He was a great man. He was a man who shook my hand and made my whole arm shake. A man who I actually flirted back when he hit on me! I had seen him a few days prior and was saving his goodbye for Sunday. He was a man who was always smiling and so willing to go out of his way to help me out and believed in development. He showed me around to 4 schools and introduced me to principals so I could figure out where to do my tree nursery project. Hundreds of people came to our house to celebrate his life. They sacrificed a cow and made delicious food but my last 48 hours at site were spent among tears because the entire community suffered such an unexpected loss.

Since I spent the entire weekend at my house, I didn't get to see everyone and say all of my goodbyes. At 6pm Sunday, I changed out of my traditional Senegalese attire and made a grand tour of Bambey to say goodbye to as many people as I could one last time. I made some incredible frienships and will always remember my Senegalese families and friends. The Wolof way to say goodbye is to shake left hands, to ensure that we will see each other again. I cried saying goodbye to Awa and her daughter, who absolutly loved my teddy bear I gave her and I also cried after Matar left my house. Those people will always be in my heart. I found the perfect quote to summarize this:

You get a strange feeling when youre about to leave a place, like you'll not only miss the people you love but you'll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you'll never be this way ever again. -Azir Nafisi

I have very mixed feelings about these 2 years coming to an end. I had a tough service but honestly loved it here. I helped artisans out and met a lot of great people and introduced some new ideas in the failings of my compost project. I made a ton of contacts for Katherine and she is excited to continue a lot of my work which really puts me at ease. I made such great Peace Corps friends and traveled throughout Africa. I mastered the national language of Senegal and am completely comfortable among Islamic and Wolof lifestyles. I have lived in Senegal and love the person that it has made me.

So although the bitter part is leaving Senegal, the sweet part is that I am coming home! I can't wait to see my family, (with a much healthier brother and a grandma who said she owes me a few dinners) my wonderful boyfriend, and eat amazing food and go shopping. To buy a car, computer and cell phone will be expensive but it will also make an American out of me. No more eating out of a bowl with my right hand - my left is clean, I swear! I am looking forward to speeding up my lifestyle, working out and getting healthy (can't wait to be off my TB meds in under 20 days!). I am already deep in the job search and plan to stay in Wisconsin until Spring '10. After that, I am hoping to find an environmental job out west.

I don't know how many more blogs I will be writing, as I fly out 1 week from today, but thanks for reading! Everyone who has been in touch while I have been over seas has really helped me get through this part of my life that was quite challenging most of the time! Thank you! And see you next week!

Higher Ground

2009-09-07T09:24:00.000-07:00

I moved. Again. I remember a blog long, long ago where I mentioned how exciting it was to have the same apartment for 2 years time, since I moved every year I was at school. Well, in Peace Corps, there is no telling what will happen! I am now living in my 3rd apartment and I love it and know my replacement will be happy here. I feel lucky to have made friends and work partners in 2 different neighborhoods. Someone told me that my replacement is going to get tired quickly trying to meet as many people as I have met all over Bambey. I love that I am back in the same neighborhood where I started, back to my favorite breakfast boutique and where I am wading through less water! I think my favorite part of this new place is the ceiling fan and a toilet – get this – that you can sit on!!

I finished up my murals that the primary school before I moved, which is nice since it’s such a hike to get all the way back there. Bambey is bigger than you think! I started another mural in a middle school here and its going well. I had to take a break for a few days since I had a fever. Blame the mosquitoes! Everyone is getting sick here. As PCVs, we are required to take meds to prevent us from getting full-blown malaria but back in training, our doctor said “we all have a little malaria in us”. It was just my time for a 2 day fever I guess, which is normal – my temp didn’t go above 102. Looking forward to cooler weather and NO mosquitoes for a change! (15 days!) Just finished the mural this morning, looks pretty cool!

This week is my last week – my last full Monday in Bambey! I made a schedule of all the formal good byes I have to say, divided daily by neighborhood since some live pretty far away. My list has 23 people’s names, but I know there will be more. There is no way I could get it done in just 1 day. 4 days is going to be a stretch. I am going to give away all my stuff that my replacement won’t want and will be bringing home only souvenirs from Senegal. None of my clothes deserve the trip back to America! Then on Saturday, I will be showing my replacement around Bambey for the day, which I am really looking forward to. Since I can’t host him/her the whole week, we will go to the closest hosting volunteer’s place on Sunday and I will drop him/her off. Then Monday I’m moving out of Bambey! Can’t even believe that’s a week away!

Quick story that made me laugh: The other day I was walking through town and a little boy, not older than 5 came running up to me yelling “Toubab!” but unlucky for him, I choose to ignore this, so kept walking. He got very frustrated and finally said, “Toubab, hower ooo? Hower ooo?” So I replied, I’m fine, how are you? “Ahhh toubab bi wax na I’m fine, hower ooo!!!” He was so excited I couldn’t help but laugh! It’s the first time I’ve had a kid that young speak to me in English – I think they are finally getting it: I’m not French!
My two years of fame are just about up - I’ll be home before you know it and missing my Wolof life, that’s for sure! See you in a couple weeks!

Getting Dirty

2009-08-29T05:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-23T10:08:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-14T01:19:00.000-07:00

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.

Stir Crazy

2009-07-23T05:51:00.000-07:00

Bambey is getting really good at exhausting me. I am constantly thinking about my return home and all the food I'll get to eat, fun things I'll get to do and the people I will get to see. Here, the power is out more than it isn't, my fan is broken (getting fixed, hopefully today) making my room very hot and sleep hard to come by, and there isn't a whole lot of work to do. I'm at the point in my service when I have to close up everything rather than find new projects to initiate.

What have I done here lately? I planted a few trees from my tree nursery last weekend. At the middle school, the environmental club filled about 500 tree sacs and seeded them all. We out-planted 5 thorny trees and 1 neem tree. I will go back in a few weeks and out plant 30-50 more of 2 different varieties. It's not 500 but it's something, right? And my rooftop garden is sprouting! Yippee!

I have been working for Ndem quite a bit lately. I created a Winter in Africa collection and sent out documents to all the clients I have in the States promoting the new line. I also have a summer line and will hand off that to my replacement. Let's hope we have a group that chooses to purchase product from Ndem. I have tried my whole service to find them an American lead but have fallen short. I hear the economy isn't doing so well? I did all this work here in Bambey since there is no real reason to go to Ndem, but went just yesterday to greet everyone. I was rather disappointed with how it went. I walked there (2 hour hike - really enjoyable!) since my bike was there with a flat tire. I got there and hung out with the guys in the office for a bit, who were definately on a mental vacation. Not a lot of work to be done lately. Then I went to go and see the religious leader and his wife. I wanted to tell them what I have done with the Winter Collection and thank them for everything. I doubt I will be going back to the village. But they were very stand off-ish, and were in some secret meeting with 2 other white people that obviously they didn't want me present for. Maybe I shouldn't take offence to this, but I did. I waited 3 hours for a car to come and by noon, the religious leader didn't show up at the office so I took the car with my bike in the trunk and headed back to Bambey. I was also going to tell Ndem that I was gifting them my computer for the artisan office but I guess that will have to wait for some other time. Oh well.

A fun thing that I did earlier this week was shopping in Thies! I went to the artisanal village and bought souvenirs. I have been here a long time and see this stuff all the time, everywhere. But at the same time, it would be really wierd to go home without some wooden masks and artwork. So Mandi came along with me, and we ended up getting to a restaurant just in time to avoid getting soaked by the next 3 hours of downpour.

So today I went and and hung out with Matar for a while, but this afternoon I'm outta here! I know I haven't been in Bambey for very long, and there was a time when I could stay at site 3 weeks, but that time isn't now. I need to enjoy my last few weeks (8!) in Senegal and cooped up in my 100 degree room all day isn't making me happy. I have some big stuff planned in the next few weeks: next Wednesday I am co-teaching a session with Mandi to a different sector about SED work and how to collaborate between sectors; the week following I am teaching at an English camp and the week after that I am going up north to visit Erin's site. My time left (did I mention it's only 8 weeks?) will fly by, but I gotta DO something to keep me from going crazy!

Summer Time

2009-07-16T11:36:00.000-07:00

I have written almost as many blogs as books I've read! Just finished the Harry Potter series(amazing, and now I understand what I was missing out on when they came out) and have read 95 books and this is my 101st message. I think my free leisure time is something I will miss! The problem is that they are a trade off here: internet or book reading, because of frequent power outages. And I like to keep my room closed and dark during the day to keep the heat out, but then I can't read! Oh, the dilemas of PC life!

After Touba, I hydrated and met with a few work partners before heading off to Dakar for a long weekend. That seems to be happening more and more often. I went in on Friday since we had a Dakar regional meeting on Saturday and needed some pool time and stayed in until Wednesday. I swam to a nearby island as practice for the upcoming Isle de Goree 5k swim in August. The swim was enjoyable, but rather polluted: I had to keep dodging plastic bags! Since the PC house was over capacity, I was went over to hang out with a friend who stays at an expat's luxurious apartment. Why I haven't signed up for this sooner, I don't know. Expats in Dakar work at the Embassy or NGOs or elsewhere and always live in a little America. They usually are pretty disconnected from our way of life, but this particular woman was a PCV in what used to be Zaire and understands us perfectly. Well, she has satalite TV, Wii, internet, free long distance to America, air conditioning and the most comfortable couch! Like I said, I stuck around until Wednesday! But you can't say I was unproductive - I now have a resume that is not too bad! Not like I am in a hurry to send it out but, hey, it's a start!

So yesterday I fell right back into my daily routine here. I went to greet everyone in my old neighborhood and think it's almost better that I moved since I am gone so often for many days at a time, and this way, they don't always realize it. Matar was happy because I delivered his order of 12 bags and a hoodie to my friend in Dakar and gifted him with money and another hoodie order. I should check up on his accounting books again, but for the most part, he's got the hang of it.

I returned the wheelbarrows to the mayor's office. Haha, that attracted a bit of attention! I'm about a 10 minute walk to the office and rolled one wheelbarrow inside of the other all the way there at 5pm. Everyone kept saying, "Ouria, that's heavy, where is your male work partner?" Yet none of them offered to help... let's blame the heat and not their laziness. The guardian at the office was impressed and said this wasn't normally woman's work but I was a warrier! Returning them was just another step closer to closing down my project. I really do hope my replacement will work with the mayor's office and try again with this project, since everyone in the neighborhood is so disappointed it didn't work out but that's not for me to decide.

I have been talking with my Matar and a few other friends about how I want to move my replacement back to the original neighborhood I was in, but in a different house. I want a busy house with a Wolof family who's home every day and a nice room, location and all that. I got an email from my new boss who has never been to Bambey saying she wanted to come visit and meet the new host family and counterpart next Friday. I was worried I couldn't get it done but actually it worked out well. We visited 2 places and I had another in mind but no need. The next volunteer is going to be very happy, even if they are so close to my old place they may hear that dog of mine bark! It a new house with a room 3x what I have for less money. The family is popular and has a son Matar knows well who lives in Italy. The location is great, and honestly, I'm jealous!

So today I did nothing but get dirty! I woke up early and went to my compost site and brought home a bunch of compost. This is the kind of stuff you pay extra money for in the States! It's really rich, black dirt and was still warm. I filled about 12 containers and have them all up on the roof. I have a rooftop garden terrace! Nice right? Not really. I cut liter Coke bottles in half and cut holes in the cover and hung them up with string. It's a small garden but let's hope that when I plant all the seeds Mom sent from home I will have a nice herb garden to give away to all the families that were part of the garbage separation project.

This weekend will be relaxing, but nothing like the last one. I need to go and fix up my tree nursery with the kids at the school since weeds are taking over. I may road trip to Thies to hit up the market and artisan center but besides that I don't have much planned. I wish I could just spend the weekend in West Bend - dancing at a friend's summer wedding is where I'd rather be!

Toubab in Touba

2009-07-07T13:33:00.000-07:00

So today was an interesting day, to say the least. To explain a few things first: I live in Bambey, which is its own Department, that is included in the region of Diourbel. Maybe this is like states and counties, but on a much smaller scale, since then entire country of Senegal is the size of South Dakota. Every Department has a mayor, for exampe. I have heard that Bambey is the poorest department in Senegal, and Diourbel is quite possibly one of the poorest regions. Everyone leaves to work elsewhere with the highest goal of leaving the country. Touba is east of Diourbel, but still part of the region. It is the religious capital for Mourides: a brotherhood of Islam. Touba is the pilgrimage site for Magal, that I have talked about in the past, where millions of people all go to pray and celebrate their late leader's anniversary of returning to Senegal, from somewhere. Okay, don't hold me to that, it could be his birthday, not exactly sure. But it last ocurred in February so I won't get to go back to Touba. Which, maybe is ok!

Last night, an RPCV, John, gave me a call. He served in Cameroon til 2003 and just finished Law School and needed a break from America so came to West Africa for like 6 weeks. Randomly, he met someone who new someone who knew me and I got a call. We decided to go to Touba together.

I had heard that Touba is conservative and that I need to wear my Senegalese attire. No problem, I have quite a few different ensembles but had to pick the one that covered me the most. I have a few with no sleeves so those were out. I chose my newest one that has a head scarf too thinking this would be perfect: wrong. It is pants with a boubou (shirt) that goes down to the middle of my shins. Well, pants are apparently illegal in Touba.

We got to Touba early, around 8:30ish and found breakfast and walked to the Grande Mosquee. It was easy to find! We walked up and sure enough, a bayefall (typical mouride) walks up and introduces himself. John and I assumed this would happen so he walks with us talking about the mosque and Touba and notices immediatly that I need to cover up. We walk over to some women sitting across from the mosque and take a skirt to wrap around my pants and a shall to cover my already covered hair. We took off our shoes and got the tour from the bayefall. He told us which tiles came from France and what hand painted murals were imported from Morocco and all the other international influences. And John tried very hard to get into the mosque but since we aren't Muslim, the bayefall said no. He obviously had a better shot than I did but still no luck.

After giving back my additional clothing, we wandered around the market and took a charet ride around town. By 1 it was pretty hot and unbearable and we decided to head back to the garage to make it home. I was getting harrassed by just about anyone since I wasn't wearing a skirt and getting more and more irritated. I was nearly refused lunch at a restaurant and so we decided to just skip it! I understand, in a way, that they want to keep traditions and sure, they have their reasons, but honestly, I tried to please these people in my pretty boubou and didn't succeed.

Oh well, Touba was for sure an experience I figured you all would be interested in. I attached a few pictures so check out the link called Baol Baol (the region of Diourbel's nickname). There are also photos from a baptism on there from a few days ago since my work partner asked me to go around and take pictures of everyone for him. Enjoy!

Sparklers in Africa

2009-07-06T08:06:00.000-07:00

During the holidays, we PCVs try our best to bring American traditions to Africa. It doesn't always work but I think the 4th was just about as close as we could get. Last year I went down to Kedougou and celebrated with about 50 others where we had a pig roast and ate cole slaw and potato salad. This year it was just 4 of us, but we didn't have to take public transport 12 hours! We ate hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill and home made chili. We even had sparklers - they smell like the 4th of July back home! So it was no riverside, no finales, but that will only make next year that much more fun!

So I have gotten over my fever and have been left only with a cough and runny nose. I didn't leave my room much when I was sick and tried my best to call work partners, everyone of them who said, "Ouria - you sound horrible, you need to rest". Which is exactly what I did. My friend's parents came to visit her and they just happen to have a time share in Saly, Senegal. I got the invite to hang out at a 5 star resort for 3 nights and loved every minute of it. We had a 2 story hut with a kitchen and air conditioning. The pool was beautiful with wifi access. I read Harry Potter (now on number 6 and loving it!) and bought pretty necklaces on the beach.

So now that I am back, and feeling good, I have begun the work that I have been dreading. My compost project, as you know, kind of, well, failed. Eh, I hate to admit it. Shoulda, woulda, coulda... and it might have been a success. So today I wandered around to my houses who all have garbage cans to talk to them. I now have more than one source that tells me my donkey cart driver, Djebaye doesn't do his job. If there is no one to collect daily, families are forced to dump their trash else where. It is no longer separated, organic and non-organic, and just thrown out in the clearings. I have called the people at the mayor's office but they are too busy actually doing things for the town. Yes, this is a great thing: they are clearing out canals and making Bambey more live-able since it suffers from extreme flooding. So the assistant mayor said after they are done dealing with the rain, they will get to my project. Or, I should say, my replacement's project since I will be State-side when there is no more flooding! I still have to deal with my families who wanted this project and Djebaye, who is going to be very unwilling to give me back the supplies that I rented. He has "lost" a brand new wheelbarrow making me look real bad since I'm the one who has to go back and apologize.

Besides that, I have plans to get to Ndem in the next few days and show them my progress on selecting a Winter and Summer Collection. I would really like to find them some good contacts in America but still, have been unlucky. I have put together documents using Microsoft Publisher and will email them off to a few possible clients. Let's hope this new approach works!

Hope you all enjoyed your 4th, lit sparklers and enjoyed the finale! It's great knowing that I am running out of traditional American holidays to celebrate with a Senegalese twist. I'll be home for the best ones: Thanksgiving, Cookie Bake (yes, thats a holiday in my world) and Christmas!

Feverish

2009-06-27T11:41:00.000-07:00

And I'm back in Bambey! It's good to be back, although I'm sick with a fever and after just one rain Bambey has sitting water. Why am I sick you ask? Seriously, my best answer is air conditioning for almost a week! Geez... what is going to happen to me when I move home this fall?

After I wrote that last entry, I went back to the airport and borded my flight from Togo to Cote d'Ivoire where I had a lay over. I soon found out that they weren't running on time. They said it would leave at 3am rather than 11pm. I was kind of upset since that shot the whole idea of sleeping but I would still make it to my conference. The company bought me dinner (burnt tuna sandwich, but better than nothing) And then 3am rolled around and no plane was in site. I couldn't sleep since the air conditioning was on full blast and the chairs were all metal. I paced back and forth the empty terminal until 5am when we heard the engines of the plane. We boarded shortly after and I saw sunrise from above the clouds.

I arrived in Dakar around 9am and walked into my conference to all my stage-mates clapping. "Yeah, Togo! You made it!" I was exhausted and zoning in and out but so glad to be there. The COS conference was overwhelming, to say the least. We discussed how to write a resume and all about job shaddowing and networking among ReturnedPCVs. Good news is they say PCVs don't have too much trouble finding a job if we are dedicated to searching. We also talked about the readjustment and how, it seems, all you people back home aren't going to understand me. Hmm. So I have a lot of adjusting to do but if you're patient, I swear I will learn how to be an American again!

Which will happen the end of September! I got an Early COS approved for Sept 23 and will fly home shortly after. (I have decided not to travel after I COS but simply come home to red, orange and yellow leaves rather than snow!) I have plenty to do before I can think about it: accouting and marketing trainings, outplanting of my trees, closing up of my compost project, and a possible start up of a city-wide collection system with the mayor. I will start it all when my body temperature is lower than the heat outside! I'm sure the fact that I'm on meds that lower my immune system, I'm a bit stressed about the future and that I didn't get as much sleep as I am used to also played into a cooler temperature that caused such a bad head cold. But I'll live. Nap time. :-)

PS Enjoy the new pictures I put up from my vacation!

Traveling in West Africa

2009-06-21T11:27:00.000-07:00

I flew out of Dakar on the 8th and went from the Togo airport north to Kpalime. I didn't feel comfortable speaking in French and really prefer the edge I get from speaking the national language in Senegal. Togo is beautiful, tropic and green but humid since I am used to the desert heat. I took a day trip outside the city to see a couple waterfalls - one huge and impressive, the other small but with a wading pool. That afternoon I bought pottery from artisans and enjoyed my first electric lightening storm in a while.

After 2 nights in Togo, I went to Ho, Ghana. A sudden switch at the border and everything is English - now I really wish I spoke a different language! Wierd though right? I guess I just really hate being a tourist in Africa. In Ho I met a few PCVs. One has been here about8 months and works at an NGO who make clothing for Global Mamas, a fair trade store. Very cool. The other volunteer is actually just a trainee, since it was her demyst week. The next morning I went to meet up with another volunteer in his site that is a Kente weaving village. It attracts quite a few tourists hoping to buy the traditional woven artwork.

Later that afternoon, I went to Accra to meet up with my friend Meghan at the USAID-WATH office. It was nice to check email and catch up with a work partner. Meghan's boss and I exchange emails often about exportable artisans' products. And going to Meghan's apartment was wonderful - air conditioning and direct satalite tv! The next morning, I went to the Aburi botanical gardens - amazing! And since Meghan is far too busy preparing for an expo in NYC, I went to the beach for the weekend.

The Green Turtle is an eco-tourism site and beautiful. The food was incredible and I roughed it the first night in a tent, damp from the close proximity to the waves and without a ziper to close off the mosquitos. The next day I was upgraded to a dorm. There is a beautiful beach but it rained all day so I enjoyed the view but don't have tanlines to prove it. After 2 nights, I was ready to get back to civilization so I went to Cape Coast with high hopes. I saw a castle one day and went on a hike in seach of elephants the next. There is a national park about 30k north of Cape but since it rained all morning I got a later start than the elephants. They were long gone but we saw where they ate breakfast and I learned a lot about trees from my armed guard. He made sure to explain to me that the gun was not for me, it was for the animals in cas ethey attack. A stressful carride back made me contemplateleaving Africa NOW but I stuck it out... lets just say the driver and I had our differences that attracted attention of 50+ people. My problem is that I feel since I am a development worker that I know Africa and shouldn't be cheated. Well, in Ghana I am just another foreigner to take advantage of.

So I left Cape Coast for Winneba and got a sea-view room with a balcony big enough for a huge bbq. I took a long walk down the beach since several kilometers is a lagoon. It was peaceful and empty! A long walk while talking to my mom was exactly what I needed. And the next 2 nights made up for that nights' mice infested room! I went back to Meghan's and enjoyed a bubble bath, homemade dinners and the style network! I was as happy as can be!

Yesterday I traveled across the border where I am now stuck: Togo. I showed up nice and early at the airport since you never really know what the african airlines will throw at you. Surprise surprise - Air Ivoire cancelled every single flight today! So much for making it home... I will now miss my first day of the Close of Service Conference. This is the first time since Feb 08 that my stage has gotten together. We all have come a long way and have plenty to talk about to plan our lives post-PC and I get to miss 1/3 of that and couldn't be more upset. It's one thing to miss a flight home from Paris when it was MY FAULT. Its another when I havent really enjoy my2 weeks of solitude and just crave what I know is normal. Just for me, please appreciate where you are today and don't take for granted the simplicity of travel and life in general.

Expo - 3x the fun!

2009-06-07T12:30:00.000-07:00

Success! We just finished our third artisan exposition in Dakar. We got funding for this expo and had a training before hand taught by our Peace Corps trainer. The artisans learned all about networking among themselves and about quality control, product development and the importance of accounting. They all got so much out of it and I have plenty to work on now that 2 of my work partners want me to teach accounting and online marketing. Its nice to have motivated work partners!

Life in Bambey is slow work-wise. I am happy to start up accounting and marketing classes but I am hesitant to start other new projects at this point in my service. My compost project with the mayor is on hold. Politics...

I moved into a new neighborhood that is under sea-level from what I remember from last rainy season. So honestly, I don't anticipate wading through the water! That was a new verb I learned just last week talking to people about it. Hoos: to wade through deep water. Wonderful. And sitting water in this country isn't the cleanest. So in order to stay healthy, I'll check in with my work partners often by phone, but I plan to find projects elsewhere so my time there is limited.

Well, I am off on vacation for the next 2 weeks! I fly to Togo tomorrow and will see the waterfalls there for a few days before heading to Ghana for a some more waterfalls, chateaux and beaches! Should be a good time! I'll get back with a few stories and pictures to share with all of you!

The Roads in Guinea are Bad!

2009-05-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

I crossed another border! Traveling in West Africa is pretty crazy, but first let me explain what I did before my spontaneous decision to visit Guinea.

On Thursday, 7 of us rented out a car and made the 12 hour trek to Kedougou. Our gift upon arrival: RAIN! It felt amazing after such a long car ride. The next morning, we hiked about 7k to visit five hippos in a river. Don’t worry Dad, we didn’t get too close! Truthfully, they were pretty lazy in the late morning and stood up once or twice but didn’t put on much of a show. Saturday we went to Salemata, to spend the night on the ground since the campement couldn’t exactly provide us beds. And the next morning was the Bassari Rights Festival.

Kedougou is in the far south-east corner of Senegal and it looks and feels nothing like the rest of the country with its mountains, waterfalls and animists! There is an ethnic group called Bassari that live outside of the Salemata, south of Kedougou. Every year, a group of boys come of age and go through an initiation rights ceremony. The night prior to the circumcision, there is dancing done by the already-initiated men of the village. The next day, hundreds of men dress up with traditional masks and beading with red paint from head to two. They blow whistles and cry out, and when all of them do it, it gets pretty noisy! There is a fight between the already-initiated and the boys in their late teens, but this fight can’t be filmed, nor watched by women. I guess I would lose my fertility if I watched such an event! It was still pretty incredible that such a tradition has lasted through all the years of influence by the west. I mean, people were selling t-shirts of Barack Obama at the event!

The next morning, Erin and I biked to the garage to scope it out. A few of our friends have gone to Guinea and all of them have said it takes about 3 days to fill up a car, since transport won’t leave until it has enough people to pay for the gas. Well, we showed up and as they were putting baggage on top of the pick-up, they said “Yes, we have 2 spots available!” Erin and I weren’t really expecting that. So we biked back to the house and went back and forth. Should we go? Should we wait to go with Pulaar speakers? Should we wait and bike in July (since transport is even slower in the rainy season)? ….

So we are going then?! We packed up quickly, called our Safety Security Coordinator and got vacation days approved and were on our way to a city called Labe, 300k, or 200mi south of Kedougou. It took 27 hours. No joke. We stopped a few times since the pick-up truck had 32 people and baggage and couldn’t make it up the mountain with all of us. Yes: 32. There were 3 people in the front, 3 on top of the baggage on the roof, 5 nursing babies, 2 toddlers and 19 adults crammed in the back of a pick-up. We stopped other times to pray and cool down the engine and other times since we needed to get out when we nearly tipped over. The road was AWEFUL and all uphill. Kedougou is at sea-level and Guinea has mountains at over 1500 meters. We stopped for dinner at 10:30pm (yes, we left just after breakfast and only had a few cookies and a mango) and slept for almost 8 hours in some village. No one told us this would happen. We thought we were just stopping to eat and then they told us to lie down. Erin and I figured they wouldn’t leave without their 2 toubabs so we took up the chance to sleep on some cots made out of bamboo and palms. Better than the ground but not all that great of a night’s sleep. We woke up at sunrise and were back on the “road”. We made it to Labe and made the biggest, best tasting spaghetti either of us had ever tasted. Then we wandered around town to stretch our legs. We found numbers of other PCVs in Guinea who gave us advice on what to do. Obviously, we didn’t have much planned!

The next morning, although it was raining like crazy, we rented a car out and had a driver take us to the Chutes de Saala – a very impressive waterfall! So cool: we got to walk all around it since the water level was so low. That evening we hung out with some PCVs and woke up early the next day to get back in the car to go to Mali (a city in Guinea). In Senegal, a 7-place is a station wagon that has 7 seats, for 7 people. Makes since right? Well, this one had 16. Guinea is crazy! We got to Mali and met their SED volunteer after finding out that the car that goes to Kedougou “just left” and that “this one will leave on Sunday, Inchallah”. I think the “God willing” part was the fact that the sad looking truck only had 3 tires. It was Thursday. We needed to get back to site, so we got a list of villages, food, water and tape on our feet and within a few hours, we started hiking to the top of the last mountain that was uphill on the way to Senegal, the Grande Dame de Mali. It’s a rock formation that looks like the face and body of a woman. We decided to get a few kilometers head start and stay at a campement that the volunteer works at and get the advice of people who supposedly do this hike all the time.

These experts said it would take 7 hours and that there was no way we would get lost. Well, Erin and I have been here long enough to know that was BS. We hired a guide and didn’t regret a single cent! We left the campement at 6:15. The toughest part was getting down the mountain. Our guide knew all the shortcuts and Erin and I just kept looking back at the Dame de Mali, completely impressed with ourselves; she just kept getting smaller and further away! We ate hard boiled eggs, bread, tomatoes, sardines and mangoes and oranges. We stopped in every village to get more water and probably drank about 5 liters each. We rested from 1-2:30 and were really starting to question ourselves. I took off my tennis shoes at 3ish and switched to less invasive flip flops. I had one blister the size of a quarter on my big toe and 6 others. Ouch. But then, before 5, Alseny, our guide, turned around and said, “We’re in Senegal”. Wait a minute – no border crossing?! The next people we met said Dindefelo is just at the bottom of this mountain. That’s where a fellow PVC lives and works with a campement! YES! The last mountain was the toughest. Have I ever been this sore?! Erin twisted her ankle but was so determined to get down that it didn’t slow her much. We made it at 5:45pm. So this is what we figured: about 12 hours, about 3 miles an hour, if we figure terrain, breaks, heat and exhaustion: anywhere from 30 to 40 miles!

The people at the camepment took such great care of us. It was wonderful to speak Wolof again instead of Pulaar greetings and French. We ate dinner and slept so well. Everyone laughed at how slowly we were moving but were utterly impressed. As were Erin and I:
“Erin, remember when we walked from Guinea”
“Kira, we didn’t walk! We hiked! We’re awesome!”
This will go down as unforgettable forever. The roads are bad! So we walked back! No, we hiked back!

And you would think that was it right? Nope, Dindefelo has one of the most beautiful waterfalls in Senegal that is spring fed, so thus unaffected by the amount of rainfall. It was the most relaxing morning swimming and recounting our story of the day before. And although we were at first annoyed with the other tourists commenting on how slowly we were moving, they ended up giving us a free, air conditioned ride back, with seat belts!
There would have been no way to actually plan this trip – being spontaneous pays off! It was so much fun! Best 10 days I have had in a long time!

Wait... what?!

2009-05-12T13:39:00.000-07:00

Upon installment at site, Peace Corps generally introduces each volunteer to city officials, including police and government. If you don't remember what my installment was like, check back to November 2007, but it was unlike any other PCV. I didn't meet anyone in particular. But I found out later that we actually didn't have a mayor because President Wade kicked him out, probably because he was being corrupt someway or another. So when a mayor was elected in March 2009, I wanted to meet her, this Aida Mbodj, official mayor of Bambey, at last. She was quite talked about since most of Wade's party lost elections all over Senegal except a handfull - Aida is one on his team. Good or bad? Not sure.. She has been really active her first few weeks - cleaning up and has some good ideas to help the population, but of course I hear that from her supporters. So anyways, I waited until this week to arrange a meeting - and what an interesting meeting it was!

I went to the mayor's office Monday, but was unsuccessful. I came back on Friday, and she was still out of the office, but I was told she would be in Saturday so I should come back around 10 and find her then. So I did, and she was in a meeting, duh! Would she just be waiting for me?! Of course not, she doesn't even know I want to meet her. So I went home and came back around 11 and attracted the attention of her brother, Bira. He approached me and was wondering what I was doing and who I was, why I was this white girl greeting everyone in front of the mayor's office. I introduced myself and explained a bit that I just want to meet with Aida and talk to her about my projects in Bambey, that is, if she has time. As she has been quite active in Bambey with neighborhood clean-ups, I explained to Bira my compost project. Well, this sure got his interest and so he said I can meet her at her house at 6. But I wouldn't be allowed in, I should just wait by the door since she will be coming home from a different place at 6. Sweet! Sketchy... but sure!

So since I'm so integrated, obviously I didn't show up at 6, but rather called Bira at 6:45. He didn't answer but texted me that he'd call me right back. From here it just gets wierder! 5 minutes later he said I should go to the house and wait outside under a tree: she's coming. Okay! But then around 7:30 he calls me again. "Are you there? Waiting?"
Yes, Bira, is she still coming home?
"Yes, wait there"
So obviously he got off the phone with me and called the guard, since he then came up to me and was like, "Bira called and asked if there was a toubab waiting out here. Are you waiting to see Aida?"
Yes
"Okay, I'm supposed to let you inside"
Great! So he get's me a plastic chair and sits me in the courtyard to wait. By this time, its getting dark. But then the most beautiful SUV pulls in. (I know I've been here a while but this is nicer than any car my parents have owned!) The driver tells me to get in. Wierd, where is he taking me? --- okay! He takes me to the other house Aida was at, about a 3 minute drive away. He walks me into the house and Aida is waiting:
"Ouria Mara! How are you? Come sit!"
Aida was in a room with 5 other men but only 2 were introduced as her assistant mayor and a neighborhood rep. I explained that I've been here like a year and a half and then she asked me about my compost project. I explained that we've been collecting since December with about 10 houses and have a donkey cart driver and we manage it with a women's group. Then she said how she wants to contact my partner in Dakar that sells the garbage cans and ask how many she can buy. She said she wants me to meet with all the women's groups of Bambey and teach them this project. We can get together next week to talk more specifically about this and for her to get contact info from the Dakar partner, but less than 10 minutes after the greetings, I was walking out of the house saying : WAIT, WHAT JUST HAPPENED!!???!

Bambey has over 60 registered women's groups.
I have 5 months left of service, but enough planned that I probably won't be a site more than 2 1/2 months before COSing.
Aida wants me to teach 25,000 people how to separate and compost their trash. Hmmmmm

And this story only gets better: Today, I went to see Djebaye, my charet driver to ask when we are going to go door to door to get more people's down payment on their garbage cans to put in another order. During this meeting, Astou Kan, the women's group pres walks up, furious. They had a huge, yelling fight and after 20 minutes, it was decided to completely stop the project. We are no longer collecting compost since Djebaye wasn't really doing his job of collecting like he said he was. I didn't know how bad it really was until Astou Kan brought me to her house and showed me.

So how are we suppose to make a project work for the entire city if we can't convince a donkey cart driver to collect at 10 houses consistantly?

Connected!

2009-05-03T04:03:00.000-07:00

I am one of those spoiled PCVs: after living in a town with running water, electricity and internet for almost 20 months, I now no longer have to leave my room to Skype, check facebook and oh yeah, get work done with the artisan network. Internet has been installed and at this very moment, I am sitting in my furniture-less room, in front of the fan, enjoying a lazy Sunday in, most ways, typical of any Sunday anywhere else.

If I haven't said it before: I am very happy I moved. :o)

My friend Erin came to my site this weekend and it was rather productive. I enjoy that she knows people here, likes sitting at Matar's shop to watch him work (he's finishing up 3 new pairs of pants for me since all my jeans needed retiring 3 months ago) and has just about the same idea as I about travel plans in our remaining months of serive: NO IDEA! "Why not wing it?"

It's rather crazy that my service is dwindling. Check this out: I have plans for the next 6 months:

May: Bassari Rights festival in Kedougou. (the animists have an initiation ceremony that I know nothing about and will let you know after I come back) Then maybe we are going to bike to Guinea. Still undecided since Erin and I aren't exactly daily bikers. We may wait until July. I will be seeding more trees in my school and working one-on-one with my artisans and maybe even making some progress on my composting this month. We will see...

June: early on is my artisan training and expo. The 3-7 I will be running around like crazy. The 8th, I hope to fly to Ghana to visit a friend doing an internship there. 10 days in Ghana rainforests, beaches and animal parks is the plan. After Ghana, I have my COS (close of service) Conference. No, I can't believe that this is so soon that I will be talking about reverse culture shock!

July: Beach resort for the 4th, then Guinea if we don't end up going in May. After that, I am going to sure try and stay at site for a few weeks, although the rain, power outages, constant flooding and mosquito feasting is not my idea of fun.

August: the first week there is an English Camp in Dakar where PCVs lead typical camps for youth interested in improving their language skills. Last year I was on vacation but have heard really great things. The 5k open water swim to Goree Island is sometime before Ramadan starts too... I better get practicing! After that I hope to do some traveling to Erin's site (she knows Bambey so well and I wish I could have visited her sooner) and then to Mauritania.

September: ok, well maybe I don't have plans here. But it's my last full month in Senegal so I will surely have people to see and chebbu jen to eat whenever I can find families that aren't fasting for the month of Ramadan!

October: Kenya :-)

Although I am as busy as ever, my time here feels so disconnected from American lifestyle. We PCVs constantly talk about how this and that will be so akward when we return. I try not to think about it. Like I said, I am so happy right now with how work is going and my living situation. I am bummed that I don't have such a strong relationship with my family like some people do but I am ok with how it all worked out.

PS even though I am nearly finished with my service - still fill me in on your life! Miss you all back home in the States - so tell me a story! Send me an email, and I'll hopefully get back to you quickly!

In the Groove

2009-04-26T10:42:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-19T03:51:00.000-07:00

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!

Boite Postal 21

2009-03-25T13:01:00.000-07:00

Hold up, STOP whatever you are doing! Pick up a pen and a post-it. Write on it:

Kira Keuhn
BP 21
Bambey, Sénégal
West Africa

Okay, now you can keep reading. But when you are done reading, you need to write me a letter. A pretty one that I can hang on my new wall! International stamps cost like 94 cents. I’m not kidding: I expect mail from you in like a month. OR ELSE!

That’s right, I moved! I am no longer living with a family. I have a one room apartment. Let’s call it a studio; sounds more sophisticated. Yesterday, the Safety and Security Coordinator, my friend Erin, and I arrived in Bambey around 2. We looked at the place and talked to the owner. Then, we went to my old house to get my mattress, fan and a few other things and brought it to my studio. Then the SSC left. Erin I went back to my house and packed up everything. Within 2 hours, I was moved into my studio with the help of Morr Diouf and his horse El Hajj. Not exactly 2 Men and a Truck but much cheaper! I owe Erin big time. My room was about 10 degrees hotter than anywhere else in Bambey and we were there during the hottest part of the day! Love you Erin! She and I slept in my tent on top of my mattress last night. I have no furniture (everything was borrowed from my host mom at the last house), 2 bikes, a double mattress, more books than you can imagine, and 2 full suitcases of clothes all in a 3 ½ meter square room. But I have a window! And a cement roof!!

I spent all morning running around Bambey with the handyman I got to know very well early in my service. He repaired my roof twice and screened my windows and doors at the last house. “Screens are missing” was the phrase of the day. We went to 4 hardware stores to find all of our supplies. He will be making me a screen door and window and 2 shelves. It is much easier doing all this moving-in stuff when I already know my way around. I should be getting internet installed in the near future and am trying to make friends out of my new neighbors. I live in an apartment that’s a lot like a dorm so I have about 20 new housemates!

So now the countdown is on! I have an artisan reunion to plan, an eco-t conference to attend, a new volunteer and his artisan to visit, a tree nursery to plant, and a whole lot of other greetings to do before Nick arrives on April 5. Sama jëkër lay nëw Sénégal! Vacation is planned in the mangroves, the desert (aka Bambey), the beach and a few cities in between! Couldn’t be more excited!

Just a quick shout out to my 2 favorite women in the world – Happy belated 85th Grandma and Happy belated 50th Mom! Love you both! We’ll celebrate next year together!

Boiling Point

2009-03-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

Isn’t there a show about this? Where people play practical jokes to someone on tape to see how much they can stand before freaking out? Well. I reached that point. I don’t really like admitting it. But Saturday night, I went crazy. I don’t think there is a better way to put it. I literally threw the dog, slammed doors and yelled profanity to my host family. If you have read my blog in the past, I have probably mentioned this horrible animal and how much I have come to despise her. She barks and no one controls her. She has complete freedom and drives me insane. Literally.

She started barking at loud music at 10pm. She doesn’t understand where the noise is coming from so barks at it. By 11 I gently put her outside the compound walls so I could go to sleep. But 11:30 someone had let her back in the compound, and was yet again, barking NON STOP! I went out and found my host mom throwing rocks at her as some poor attempt to quiet her down. By 12:30, I had it. I grabbed her by the neck and threw her outside the door. But she’s a fast little thing, and got back inside before I had the chance to close the door. So I caught her again and threw her again, and kicked her to try and close the door quickly. She still got back in. By that point, my host mom heard the commotion and came out. I slammed the huge, metal compound door and said words in English that I’m sure, along with the tone, translates to just about any language.

The next day, after escaping Bambey to Dakar, I called my host family. I gave my host mom and ultimatum: me or the dog. Well, she is very worried about thieves, so I’m out. I talked with PC and have since visited a new apartment on the opposite side of town. Hopefully next week PC will approve of my new place and I will be a much happier PVC.

Back to Dakar. To breath. To sit at the pool or lay out on the beach. To relax. Since I just keep having people remind me that I gave up stress for 2009.

Benn At ak Gen Wàll

2009-03-13T15:05:00.000-07:00

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.

Tough Day

2009-03-06T13:27:00.000-08:00

I live in a city. I have power, running water, a cell phone and internet. I can communicate in the local language and have great friends and a decent family. I have good work partners, a few current projects and ideas for future ones. Yet, today, I’d still rather be anywhere but here.

Went to the cyber twice yesterday and once today and was unable to connect. For some reason, I could connect in Thies but can’t here. I have tried my home, both LAN and wifi, and 3 different cybers. Mystery unsolved.
Yesterday, I went door-to-door for 3 hours trying to collect money to get more garbage cans ordered to increase my project. Not a single payment.
I saw a baby pig get into my fence at my compost site. All I have to say to that – I want another BLT.
I have prepared a pretty interesting article on the Stimulus Act for the English class at the high school, but when I called to confirm with my English teacher, he told me he is in Thies, partying, rather than teaching. This, by the way, is just a week following a meeting we had when he told me that the kids need to learn 9 months of material in about 4 months because of holidays and strikes.
Showed up for another meeting with my work partner to go back around door-to-door, but my work partner didn’t show up. My women’s group president told me she knows nothing about compost and doesn’t know what to do with it. “Ouria, you need to find people who will buy it, I don’t know how to do that or how much to charge”. Great. Thanks for the help.
Since I’m crabby and obviously deserve something sweet, I went to the boutique to get flour, butter and sugar to make peanut butter cookie dough. (No oven, gotta improvise) But not only 1, but 2 boutiques are OUT OF FLOUR! Come on, give a girl a break!
And then tonight, I went to talk to my work partner, who tried to change everything on me. Long story short, we need a break from each other. He doesn’t want to listen to me, or meet me for our meetings, so its break time. I’m off to Dakar. Normally, I would go for a night or two. But Monday is another Muslim holiday. There is a pilgrimage to Tivaouane, north of Thies. So I will go to Dakar until Wednesday. I have friends COSing and I have to give blood to check liver function anyways. Damn, how good would a cold beer taste right about now? 7 months….

Rock throwing Riots

2009-03-02T09:59:00.001-08:00

Well, I think today was the first time I have experienced violence in Senegal. It's such a peaceful country but I find it rather ironic that it happened the same day that the president of Guinea Bissau was assassinated.

Yesterday I spent the night just outside of Thies at a friend's site. We left around 10 to get to Thies with no problem at all. Somewhere during the 11k drive, our Safety and Security Coordinator sent volunteers a mass text saying "Transport strikes and demonstrations reported in Dakar and Kaolack. Possibly nationwide. Expect transport delays and cancellations today. Please remain vigilant and alert". We get random messages like this all the time so didn't think anything of it. I wish I was exaggerating but honestly, within the next 5 minutes, our bus was stormed by dozens of angry people throwing rocks. We were warned at one stop to let someone off just before this by a fruit lady saying there will be problems ahead but our driver didn't listen to her. No one was hurt, thank goodness. I was able to sink down to nearly sitting on the floor. One brick ended up coming through the back window. It was obvious our driver didn't know whether to stop or drive faster but obviously this mob wanted him to stop. It is the drivers who are striking for higher wages and this was there way of saying, QUIT DRIVING, WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ON STRIKE.

But, knowing this culture pretty well, I know that there were a lot more people involved in this mess than there should have been. I doubt it was only the drivers throwing rocks. People looking for a thrill played along as well. We had to get off of our bus about a quarter mile before the entrance to Thies to be on the safe side. Near the garage of Thies, there was hundreds of people standing in front of the garage, as if to guard anyone else in search of transportation.

It's after 6 and I have heard there may still be problems with public transport now. I won't be going back to site tonight, that's for sure. And we have a taxi's number to bring us back to my friend's site. No need to worry!

It has been a fun day in Thies today. I met the new stage, who upon their arrival, makes our stage the next to leave. There are 2 stages a year - so I'm a senior. AKA next to COS. Crazy. Time to go get busy at site but here I am trapped into watching movies, eating restaurant food, and gossiping with my favorites! Life as a PCV

Always an Adventure

2009-02-28T09:55:00.000-08:00

I have now been to every regional house in Senegal! A friend of mine is COSing in the next few weeks and he had also never been to Kolda, (where Senegal is sandwiched between the Gambia and Guinea Bissau) so we decided to go for 2 nights. A group of people from the Dakar region went down there in October and had just about every breakdown in the book, taking them 12 hours. Pete and I lucked out, since it only took us 7! The next day, we woke up early and went to visit a friend’s site. She lives about 65k from Kolda, so we took transport for 50k and rode our bikes the remaining 15k. Honestly, the ride was very enjoyable! She is a health volunteer and lives in a Mandinka village so Pete and I tried our best to get at least one or two greetings down by the end of the day, but Wolof sounds so normal now and I just couldn’t make sense of Mandinka! Kirstin’s villagers make necklaces and bracelets out of big, red seeds that are plentiful in the region. We wanted to meet with some of the women to talk about the artisan network but they were out of town for a funeral. It was still great getting to the village, seeing such a different version of a Peace Corps service.

The way out of the village went well on our bikes, hot but a nice cool breeze, but then our bus got a flat tire after running out of gas, causing us to get back to Kolda after dark. The next morning I was outta there, and even that wasn’t as easy as the way there. PC has some weird agreement with the border patrol in the Gambia. Since we are volunteers, and residents of Senegal, we shouldn’t need to pay the 1,000cfa visa fee for passing through. All we need to show them is our PC identity and we should be fine. Well, I was kinda harassed by one guy, telling me that if anything happens to me in their country, and I didn’t have my passport signed, they wouldn’t know I was there. I wanted to just tell him, dude, you’re country is 40k wide, ease up. But they get rather defensive about that. Honestly, I had my idea checked 5 times! It sure is interesting though. This skinny little country, where instead of French, they speak English. It was fun. After that fiasco, we got a flat tire that took about an hour and then our driver stopped to help another car with a flat. What a great citizen right? Well, not exactly what we were thinking…

I got to Kaolack at 4 (8 hours of travel), tried to go to the bank but the ATM was Out of Order. So I went back to the house to spend the night but upon arriving I found out that the water was out. Happens more often that you would think! So since I was dirty and had nothing really I could do in Kaolack but wait for money (that probably won’t be available ‘til Monday), I decided to head for home. Not the most fun, but I made it by 8 or 8:30. Now I just need to stretch 3,000cfa through Monday.

I have some great ideas for the rest of my service and am trying real hard not to get discouraged. What if all that I have started in 2 years fails?!!!?! I found that my compost collection didn’t happen at all when I was gone, reason being that Djebaye’s religious leader is on his death bed and he can’t work until after the funeral. But my women’s group pres and I had a good chat and we made a plan of what we can do in the next few weeks. I will also be starting my tree nursery and planning 2 artisan meetings in March. My accounting meeting with Matar is today so we will see how he did the month of February and maybe even teach an English class about the Stimulus in America. These next few months are going to be an adventure for sure!

Obstacles

2009-02-22T10:20:00.000-08:00

Written the 19 of February...

The reason I haven’t written in a while is because my computer no longer connects to the internet. I hope I figure out a good way to still get photos up and keep in touch often but my computer is about 2x or 3x faster than computers at cybers so you just may have to wait to see the last 8 months of my service.

WAIST was so much fun this year. I know more people from Senegal and even a few from surrounding countries. I wore my mummy costume and black eye shadow! I was rather upset with our region since not many people dressed up. Some of my favorite Peace Corpses were the Dead Heads who even played the part of hippies with peaceful demonstrations on the field, and Etienne’s Worst Nightmare. Etienne is our Safety and Security Coordinator. They wore t-shirts that said, “went to bed with a cut on my foot and bled to death” and “adopted a cute puppy and died of rabies” and “went to Magal and died of Cholera”, etc. After our first game, I started telling everyone that if our pitcher didn’t find a costume before the next game I would pitch, completely ruining our chances of advancing to playoffs. It was meant to be a threat but in the end I pitched since we were ahead by so much. I’m not very good but only walked a few… we won 3 of our 4 games and then lost our playoff game to another PC Senegal team, who ended up getting third overall. PCV Mauritania Pirates won first place, which is much better than Senegal 1 winning. I mean, honestly, it’s an American sport! The Senegalese can’t win 2 years in a row!

Tuesday we had our All Volunteer Conference. It was a good chance to figure out who is doing what and how to work together more often, especially across sectors. I have still been talking to people about my idea of an Adopt-a-Tree project. I haven’t explained that yet, have I? Well, I have compost, and a fence! We still don’t have money collected from all the families, but that’s because Senegalese holidays are expensive and pretty much the only thing that people spend their money on rather than development projects. Not bitter, I swear…but I still need to go around door-to-door with the Chef de Quartier to get more people on board when it’s not a holiday around here. But my idea for selling the compost to get initial funds from my project is to plant trees in cooperation with the schools. Bambey is spread out along the route nationale but is deeper than it is longer. Kids cut across the “bush” to get to one of the middle schools and the high school. It’s a path cut through the desert with very few thorn trees that is seriously several degrees higher than the rest of town because of the lack of shade.

My idea is to go to the schools, sell one tree and some of our compost to one student or a pair of students. Then all together, we would go and plant these trees along this path together. The students would be responsible for their own fence and I would give prizes to those with the most creative, most effective, etc, as to motivate them. They would then be responsible for their tree to keep it watered and protected from goats until they are tall enough.

But my idea has hit a few road blocks. I went and talked with Eaux et Forets (Water and Forests) which is an organization that is funded to provide exactly what the name implies. I wanted advice on how to go about a tree nursery and he gave me the bad news. People don’t really like Neem trees, the kind I wanted to plant on this path, and that the trees take over a year to out-plant. Other trees can’t tolerate our salty tap water or don’t offer as much shade. So I think what I will do now is go to the middle schools and high school and do a survey on what the kids want and who would be willing to do this tree nursery, maybe for a year, at the school. But this doesn’t exactly sell my compost, which is the initial goal. So back to the drawing board. I am not giving up on this. I still want to plant lots of trees, work with the schools to teach about garbage separation and sell compost but I just need to get through the obstacle course that daily life is here in Senegal.

Busy and Happy

2009-02-22T10:17:00.000-08:00

Written the 12 of February

If every day was like today, I wouldn’t have a single complaint in Senegal. Well, maybe the heat, but it was easily escape-able in the shade of a tree! Yesterday and today have been my two most productive days, I think. And maybe the day before… let me start from the beginning.

After writing that last post, I started collecting money from houses that needed to pay for their poubelles (garbage can in French). Asking for money is a weird thing. Children do it all the time, even adults have been asking me for money, but it’s almost understood that they won’t get it. It’s worth a try I guess, since, we all know, white skin=money. Quick example, today when I asked Djebaye if he needed anything else to build a fence, he said, “Why yes, I need money so I can afford my pass to Touba for Magal”. Sorry dude. Anyways, we collected a few houses’ money and obviously don’t have enough for me to go back to Dakar and purchase more poubelles so I recommended to the group to build a fence so that we actually have compost, rather than simply centralizing the location of the pigs’ food.

After a long couple days of door-to-door greetings, sitting in houses, waiting for the money, I went to Dakar. Softball was a blast. We played the Dakar Academy (private school of toubabs) JV team. There were probably 20 chairs of cheering parents on one side and maybe 1 or 2 extras on our side. We let them win out of pity. You know, since we didn’t want all their work of practicing daily go to waste, along with their matching uniforms and cleats. I was barefoot. They were playing a bunch of hippy PCVs. So like I said, we let them win, otherwise who knows how upset they would have been!

Tuesday we did the waste sort in Mbour. It was a long day of bending over, an arm’s length from garbage, sorting everything in to piles to be weighed. We had a soda break at one-ish and lunch at 5. I got to talk technical with Curt which made the whole day worthwhile. I really hope I can duplicate, in a small way at least, the project. They admit they had everything going for them in order to make their project a success. We may arrange a meeting between our 2 mayor’s offices to see what collaboration is possible. My first step in that direction was my goal to meet with people of the mayor’s office Wednesday. I made a beautiful Power Point and was ready at 4, as we all planned. But only 1 guy showed up. Thank you for your support, mayor’s office... But since he is the Chef de Quartier (Chief of the Neighborhood), I wanted to fill him in anyways, and he was very interested in my project. Great! So next week he and I will go around door-to-door getting more people to give their advances so we can buy more poubelles. Although I still don’t have the support of my mayor’s office, I am moving right along.

I met with Djebaye yesterday and gave him money to buy “trees”. I guess that’s how we get enough branches to make a fence. 1 tree for 1,500cfa ($3). It doesn’t kill the tree, don’t worry, it just makes them shorter. So today we met out at the site and started fencing in the site. We worked all morning with the help of his and Astou Kan’s kids, invited the Chef and my counterpart even showed up by chance. I am very happy with how it is turning out. It’s about half done so I gave Djebaye another 3,000cfa to buy more trees and hopefully, cross your fingers, when I get back to site after WAIST, we will have a complete structure – PIG PROOF!!

So this weekend is WAIST and also Magal. Magal is the biggest pilgrimage in Senegal to Touba, about 60k east of Bambey. About 3 million people will be there Saturday. Thank goodness I will be in Dakar! It’s perfect timing since there will be nothing for me to do here in Bambey until Tuesday or Wednesday anyways. I am looking forward to the weekend at WAIST. At least 4 softball games, nearly all Senegal PCVs, and the PCVs from Mali, Mauritania, Gambia and Guinea will be there. Togo even had a team last year, not to mention all the other expats here. It will be a great time! As long as Erin and I have time to bake ourselves a cake! Her birthday is Monday.

Have a happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy February!

2009-02-01T13:10:00.000-08:00

It's February! When are we supposed to stop being excited for our birthdays? Is there some rule about this? ..... well I'm excited! :=)It's going to be fun month:

Softball playoffs are this Saturday. It's single elimination so it's pretty intense!

Next Tuesday I get to do a waste-sort! Hmmm, get to? Maybe that's a bad choice of words. The couple that organized the Joal Waste Management program is back visiting and helping extend the project to a few other cities. I get to go help them and at the same time study the technical side of composting.

West Africa Invitational Softball Tournment (WAIST) is next weekend. Our theme this year is Peace Corpse. I get to be dead! I have a pretty sweet costume that Matar made for me and I will have my camera in hand all weekend! It will be fun.

After WAIST weekend, we will have the All Volunteer Conference which gives us the opportunity to share stories and experiences.

Then my host sister and I are having a combined birthday party. Her bday is the 16th. Should be interesting... last year they had lots of food, cake, friends and even hired a photographer. I will have to invite toubab friends in order to keep sane. Maybe it will be fun!

Besides all the fun, I will be still working on my composting. I have a great new idea to do an adopt-a-tree project with our compost and to pair up with the schools. More details on that when I figure it all out. Matar is doing great with accounting and I'll be making it more difficult, but more precise for the month of February. We are having fun with it - the other day I walked into his shop and he was writing in his notebook and I just smiled. I like that kinda work.

Send some love to your valentine this month! <3

Dafa Wiis

2009-01-25T09:09:00.000-08:00

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!

Slowly Moving

2009-01-14T11:34:00.000-08:00

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! :-)

Nine

2009-01-09T12:13:00.000-08:00

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!

Here's to a Stressfree 2009!

2009-01-04T02:26:00.000-08:00

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! ;-)

Kira Day

2008-12-29T05:45:00.000-08:00

It’s not very often that it happens: that I get so stressed out that I don’t know what to do with myself. Life in Senegal is stressful… have I ever mentioned that before? And that sometimes when everything doesn’t really go how I want it to, I get upset. I am normally good at finding a solution, but sometimes it just gets to be too much to handle – so today is the second time in Senegal that I have declared it Kira Day. Mel Moye – you used to take the day off in school and call in to work sick and it inspired me here. I am taking the day off to do whatever I want.

I can now explain what has stressed me out and what I am going to do about it: Holidays, my composting project and the Mara Family.

The holidays are hard abroad. I can’t do a single thing that will make Senegal feel like Neenah, Wisconsin. 5 friends and I rented a house on the island Gorée, and had called ahead to make sure it had an oven available. We did all of our grocery shopping the morning before the ferry and had quite the impressive menu decided (pineapple glazed ham, green bean casserole, potatoes au gratin, Christmas cookies). But upon arriving, we found out the oven was there, in the kitchen, but didn’t work. So we ended up using the owner’s sister’s house. But she is Catholic and was planning her own Christmas meal and we felt awful making her run back and forth. People weren’t happy with us and let us know it. But I was very happy to just sit on the rocks, listening to the waves roll in alone, wearing blue jeans, a fleece and my new favorite Santa hat. It was chilly. Too bad I didn’t get tan lines. Dinner was alright, but what came after dinner was better. My friend’s boyfriend is here visiting and he brought us some pretty tasty drinks!

After the island, I came back here to Bambey with Erin. She is a close friend that lives very far away. So since she wasn’t able to go home between Gorée and New Year’s, she came here and I wanted to show her my compost site. I wanted to check and see if any collection had been done in the last few days anyways. But as we showed up, I noticed that people were at the site. Keep in mind, the government gave us a plot of land but we haven’t yet put up a fence of any kind. The people we noticed were actually stealing our compost. I asked them what they were doing and explained the situation. He was willing to buy it “tomorrow, inchallah”. So I call my women’s group pres but of course she wasn’t home and told me to handle it. No. Not going to happen. So I told this villager to go and talk to Djebaye, the donkey-cart guy, who hopefully won’t just pocket the money, but there is no way for me to control that.

I was stressed and talking it through with Erin on what to do. We decided that I just needed to talk to my group and explain my role better since they call me their boss and expect too much from me; and that we should sell the compost then to this villager pretty cheap to get some initial funds to start fencing.

So the next morning we both went to talk to Astou Kan, the pres, and our talk combined with the stress of everything going on just made me cry. She told me that they are hoping to get a loan for community projects from some Eco-Village in Diourbel and when I said it would be great to use that money for this project, she said “that won’t work since it doesn’t provide income so how could we pay back the loan”. BUT IT DOES! Just not today. “It makes sense to give the money to the women of the group for them each to raise their own money so that they can afford to pay for other things, like garbage cans and collection fees”. But honestly, these individual projects never work. Interest rates are too much to handle for people that don’t even know how to figure out if their project is making profits or not.

There is a meeting on Jan 12, inchallah, to hand out 10 garbage cans that Astou Kan’s brother fronted money for to start 10 example families. We will have all the women put some money in to buy fencing for the compost site, and this has been the plan since before Tabaski, but Astou Kan just first told me yesterday that the women won’t be able to put in more than 200cfa each, all 14 or 15 of them, making it 3000cfa if everyone shows, and pays: just over $5. How the hell can we fence in 30 square meters with $5?! We can’t.

So mid-tears yesterday, we talked about all the people I need to see and invite to our meeting Jan 12. I have to write up and print invites and hand them out to all the businesses in Bambey that could possibly donate money or materials toward the project. The more I think about it, the more I realize that I should get out of my room and start working on this list. No. It’s Kira Day. I will be back from Ziguanchor on the 5th and I will work then. Today, it’s my day and no one can mess with that.

And the third most stressful situation is my family. Not in America, alhumdulilaye; they are all happy with the new Wii playing with the dogs in the snow. But my Mara family: I have a bad maid, a stuck-up 16 year old sister, a mom who doesn’t understand me and a yapping, scared, energetic dog, who brings me more stress than anyone else. The maid, whatever, is fine, just not Kolé, our last maid. My sister and mom, I guess I can’t complain too much but I just like my real parents and brother more. The dog though! She has been tied up in a dark room all her life. I have been the only person that pets her, teaches her to sit on command, and removes her from this dark room. We let her out but then she just starts barking at everyone unless I am around. I don’t want this. No one knows what to do with dogs since everyone is afraid of them and thus, she is afraid of them. If I train her, provide for her and improve her life, I will have to bring her back to America with me and that is just not going to happen. Last night, while on the phone with America, she was barking non-stop so I went to see what the problem was. A friend of my sister’s was just standing there, watching her bark, teasing her. I don’t even know this girl but I yelled at her and made her leave the compound and close the door. Then my sister and her 3 friends laughed at me, since I care that the dog is scared, barking, annoying the entire neighborhood. “Crazy toubab” is not what I want to deal with in my own home.

So what am I going to do about all this? Stay in my room, do yoga, go to the post office, meet Nick (the best boyfriend in the world) online and relax. Tomorrow, I am getting back to Dakar to take a ferry south to Ziguanchor for New Year’s. I will be fine. I have responsibilities here. I have made a commitment to these people to stay here for 2 years to work on their development. I will invite everyone I need to, to my meeting. I will pass out garbage cans and motivate everyone in the neighborhood to clean up. I will get rid of this dog somehow. I will have fun at Zig before I have to stop drinking in a week or so and celebrate New Years the best way I know how! No one said living here would be easy: “Hardest 2 years you will ever love” is the Peace Corps recruitment phrase. Yesterday was hard. But I know I will love it again some day. If I ran away from this and ETed, it would be like quitting my dream job after a bad day.

Happy Kira Day. You can celebrate how ever you want!

Latent vs Active

2008-12-19T12:56:00.000-08:00

Alright so I'll admit it. I wasn't too active during the hot season. (Maybe you could call me latent - we'll get to that in a bit) It's not the easiest when it's over 100 and sitting still is exhausting. So I am taking advantage of the cool evenings - yes that's right - cool. Wonderful running weather. Every once in a while, I have moments here in Senegal that I call "blog-worthy". I hope you appreciate this:

Originally, getting out of the house was exhausting, not to mention crossing the gender-line by not cooking, cleaning and raising babies, like all the other women my age. So running like all the men was difficult the first time. But if today were my first, I probably would have quit completely!

I left the house just before sunset. I walk out of my neighborhood and start for a paved road (with plenty of pot holes attracting my constant attention). Once on this paved road that leads out the city to a village, I start running. There is a woman selling fruit that usually greets me as I pass, but today, she started running with me. Keep in mind, she was dressed in her Tabaski-best and fancy shoes. It created quite a show. When she stopped I made a big deal about how she shouldn't give up, "It's only 3k to the village, atcha, nu dem dow!" She said tomorrow, inshallah. I'm really sure.

After this, a few middle school girls started imitating my form, while they were walking. They get a free pass, make fun of me all you want. You are a teenage girl and we all know those are tough years. I was a jerk too!

A bit further up on the road, I passed 4 women packing up bunches of fire wood, and after greeting them, and inviting them along on my run, but they also said, "Another time, inshallah".

Then I greeted and passed 2 young girls, greeted and I thought that was rather uneventful. Until about a minute later I heard "Eh! Eh! Taxawal yo!". I turned around and noticed these girls were now running after to, asking me to wait for them. I slowed down, let them catch up. The whole time we ran, they were asking me questions, in greeting. They were very polite and are not in school, but work as maids in Bambey. They were on their way back to the village they live, beyond the village we were running to. Who knows if they do this 4 or 5k walk daily. I sure hope not, and that they have great families where they stay, but get to go home for the weekend. I had to actually stop running since one of the girls couldn't keep up. When I said it was time for me to turn around, they asked if I was going to take a car back. Haha, no, I'm actually running for fun. "How bizarre". Yea, I'm a toubab.

On the way home, I noticed that the 4 women were finished bundling the firewood. The youngest was waiting for someone to help her lift the bundle onto her head. The looked at me and the blank, unpopulated road, nearly gave up, but then were pleasently surprised when I said "Ma yem la". Of course there is a verb in Wolof for "to raise whatever you have that's heavy onto your head". I just learned that a few weeks ago. So I helped raise a bundle of wood onto this scrawny 10 year old's head. Keep in mind this bundle off wood is too big around for me to hug it. Can't believe what these women are expected to do at such young ages.

I guess that was the run. More eventful than I would have ever guessed. So now it's time for me to be latent, right? Ok, I'll explain.

I told you about my mid-service, and waiting for TB results... Well, results were positive, as in, I have tested positive for latent TB. Bummer. Let me just get this out in the open - this is NOT a big deal. I am not contageous, and I don't have any symptoms. I have just been exposed to someone who had active TB, thanks for nothing dude! So Peace Corps policy says that I need to go on anti-biotics for 9 months, of rather intensive meds that are hard on my liver. My biggest concern in all this is that I won't be able to drink alcohol during those 9 months. As if this is practice for something else, but I don't wanna practice that! Geez. So I'll let you know when I start these lovely meds, but just to re-emphasize, this is not a big deal. Just sucks, you know?

Anyways, I'll be actively-latent for the next 9 months.

Today is Kristofer's Birthday - Happy 25th Tof! And Happy 27th Anniversary Mom and Dad - I am so proud of you guys! And Happy Birthday Grandpa! What a happy day!

My typical service

2008-12-15T12:25:00.000-08:00

I made it through another Muslim holiday and was so classic Senegalese I even scare myself! I bought expensive fabric and had it tailored and embroidered, bought matching sandals, and got my hair braided. After my hair was done, 2 days before the holiday, my sister even mentioned I was ready before her. The night before Tabaski, I went to the market – kinda like the mall Christmas Eve, but at midnight, where you can get run over by horses rather than pushy moms. I then was invited to have tea and was in bed rather late, giving me full permission to sleep in and avoid festivities until late morning…

That didn’t really happen though, since I was assigned to peeling and slicing the 3 dozen onions immediately after getting out of the shower. They made fun of me for how I cut potatoes so I was demoted to peeling garlic. All this is done, by the way, without a cutting board, but after all these holidays, I managed to get by with only one cut! The sheep wasn’t so lucky. Find pictures in the album called At Home in Senegal. We ate “breakfast” at 1 consisting of liver and onions and some ribs. I can’t say that I love or hate it: I don’t mind it. But it’s the liver after-taste that killed my appetite for the rest of the day. Besides a few polite bites while visiting a work partner, it was my only meal, unless you count a package of cookies at 10pm.

2 days following Tabaski, I was on my way to Dakar. A friend and I pretended we were rich for the afternoon and did something I have never done before: got my legs waxed! Ouch! But about a quarter what it would cost in America, so why not! After that, we bought food to make an incredible dinner and a Bordeaux Red Wine. Typical PCV day right?

Friday we had a regional meeting, welcoming the 6 new volunteers to the region who installed in November. Saturday we lost our first softball game of the season, but won our second so we are 7-1. Not too bad. Except when you consider this is an American sport and the only team we lost to is Senegalese…

I am still hanging out in Dakar for my medical mid-service. No cavities Dr. Don! Peace Corps takes pretty good care of us and I doubt I will ever again have full, free health care! I hope to meet with people who sold Joal garbage cans at a discount for their compost project while I am waiting for my TB results on Wednesday. Gives me something to do I guess. Since you would not believe how COLD it is here! I cannot simply layout at the pool, and wouldn’t even think of swimming in it! It’s so windy and chilly and… ok it’s not below zero and we don’t have snow but geez! I guess I am used to the Senegalese heat that I used to complain so much about. Yesterday I spent the whole day in the hammock wearing jeans and a hooded sweatshirt with a blanket, reading. Perfect lazy Sunday!

Honestly, if you are looking for the blog of a typical PCV, I guess you need to go elsewhere. Life is good.

Goatee

2008-12-07T12:47:00.000-08:00

The week went well! Surprisingly, I got a few things done off the list. Bringin Djebaye to Joal was a success, although it made for an extremely long day. We left here at 8 but had to wait over an hour for the bus to fill. Then it just took forever! We got to Joal at 1. A little info about Fridays: they are the Muslim's holy day so they go to the big mosque and pray at 2ish. And then it's the weekend (thank you French for that influence). So normally there is not a whole lot that happens until Monday. I was so worried on the road that it would be a waste of money to go all the way there and see nothing. But it went so well! We met with someone who was very knowledgeable and told Djebaye the whole history and problems and solutions. After that, we had a great lunch, talked with the current volunteer there and 2 charretiers (donkey-cart drivers like Djebaye). Then we went to a government official who talked to us more about the project and how it has expanded. They are in the process of building a beautiful new compost site. Needless to say, Djebaye and I are jealous and motivated. We will start right back up with more trainings and collections after Tabaski!

But now it's time to relax, while everyone prepares for this big holiday Tabaski. It's in the Bible too, where Abraham sacrifices a sheep. So why don't we have this tradition in the Christian world?! It's fun! I have my hair braided (pics coming soon), new clothes, new sandales that mom bought me and plenty of invitations to spend the day with friends and work partners. I am ready to have this holiday over so I can get back to work but it is cool that this is my second. I know what to expect, and instead of being shown around as a guest, I get to go and do my own greetings and take pictures with people. Should be fun.

Oh, and we have a new member of the family. Population of this house is always changing. My favorite maid left to go work for her sister in Dakar. :-( It was rather lonely for a few days since mom and sis were at school and the other guy that rents is working out of town. But now my sister is striking at school til the 15th so I have company. The new addition is a baby goat! I call him Goatee. He was born 2 nights before I took this picture, where he is actually peeing. He will soon learn manners. He's so cute. He jumps and twitches when he gets excited. We have 2 other pregrant goats, hopefully one will have twins since she's much bigger that they other 2. Who knows what we will do with all these babies, but at least they are cute and don't make as much noise as other animals! My host mom, like I have said before, is good at investing. We are in the process of building a structure to house 50 chickens to do a raising project. I hope they become dinner more often!

After Tabaksi, I am heading to Dakar for the weekend. Then I'll be back for a week before Christmas! Staying at a house on an island. Be jealous. It's no snow angels and cookies but maybe I can work on my tanlines again!

To do List:

2008-12-01T11:26:00.000-08:00

1. Visit compost site tomorrow. (we were supposed to start collection today but had to pick up a wheelbarrow, pitch forks, and a rake - to no surprise, that took 2 hours)
2. Critique the work of my charretier, Djebaye (donkey cart driver) since he doesn't yet completely understand the project
3. Pick up boots, gloves and a mask from the health center on Wednesday
4. Go around with a woman door-to-door to all the same 35 houses to fully explain the project. Djebaye explained horribly the project to the "manager/men of the house"... they aren't the ones who sweep and clean - "managers of the compost". For some reason, when I say compost, he translates it to sheep/goat poop. Hmmm
5. Bring Djebaye to Joal, where this project originated with PCVs 2 years ago and has grown to be quite a success. He will then hopefully understand what we are trying to do and be able to ask questions of the compost employees there.
6. Convince the women of the neighborhood and the women's group to put money in. This will have to wait until after Tabaski, but we need funds and I am not white and made of money!
7. Build our site - make a fence, build a shade structure and buy a barrel to store water.
8. Find other people to help out Djebaye, other charreties, and people to manage the site. I need to meet people already employeed by the Mayor's Office since that's the direction I want to go, the government needs to pay for this!
9. Form a budget to ask for some money from a Peace Corps Partnership. But honestly, I am fully willing to write this, but it will need to be finished and turned in before my last 6 months of service. That is rapidly approaching. So I may just leave it for my replacement to do with whatever he/she wants.
10. Improvise... there is going to be a lot else to do as this moves along

And that's it! I think I have my work cut out for me...

I was so stressed out yesterday, thinking about this list and wondering what today would be like. I was anxious since the last 2 nights I went to meet Djebaye, he wasn't available to meet with me and Astou Kan, the women's group pres was out of town for 4 days. But this is going to be good work so let's hope this goes well! Keep your fingers crossed.

Oh, and a funny picture to think about: me wandering around with Djebaye, pulling a donkey with a cart of garbage all around town, between houses, in sandy "streets" all the way to the Mayor's Office and even through part of the market on MARKET DAY. Needless to say I attracted a bit of attention.

And it's Over!

2008-11-24T04:35:00.000-08:00

Success! We are done with the second volunteer-artisan network expo in Dakar. We had 12 artisans come from all over Senegal most with a volunteer and we ended up selling about 1,600,000cfa of product – which is over $3000! We printed a beautiful catalogue, which I spent hours and hours on… that may have been the most stressed out I have been in Senegal. Originally, I wanted all the volunteers bringing artisans to help. Seems simple enough, since I would send them a blank document with all the settings saved, they would edit, in French and English a biography of their artisan along with some pictures, and send it back to me. I would then compile all the bios and made 2 versions of the catalogue. Well, life isn’t that easy in Senegal. My first problem was that everyone doesn’t have Publisher. I ended up having to write, translate, upload pictures and edit the 20 page catalogue. This took some time. But it felt great to be finished 2 days before I was even in Dakar. The next problem became that the printers in Dakar were out of toner on Thursday. (Saturday was the expo) So I came back first thing on Friday ready to print but realized I needed to compile and edit stuff, have others proof my French, and put the document in PDF rather than publisher. So finally, around 1pm we were ready to print the English version, but then the office were the only functioning color printer was locked, and since it’s Friday, the employees were done for the weekend at noon. We ended up breaking in to this office by climbing in through the window. We finished stapling the 8 English and 15 French catalogues at around 6pm. Long day. I was so happy to crawl into bed Friday, already anxious for the weekend to be over.

Saturday, I was the “coordonatrice” for the weekend, starting before 9. More or less, I was the go-to girl for any question anyone could possibly have. I rarely got a chance to sit but we had a really good turn out Saturday morning and great chebu jen for lunch. At 4, we had a meeting to discuss the possibility of creating an organized group among the artisans so they become more in charge. Trying to work myself out of a job… At 5 we had a reception with some good food and a few VIPs or buyers came to meet our artisans and even the US ambassador and president of USAID. At 6, our SED trainer, Bamba Fall, led a training on costing that the artisans seemed to really enjoy. Funny when Bamba mentioned it’s not always a good investment to marry a second wife when profits are up. I got home a bit after 7, skipped dinner and was sleeping by 8:30. Much needed

Sunday was easier. It was a chilly day in Dakar that kept quite a few people away from the pool and the club but sales were still alright. We had good cheb (rice) and attaaya (tea) and the artisans started moving out around 3. We were excited to celebrate a bit with a tasty beer and the 3 or 4 of us who stuck around to clean up ended up scoring a free round from an RPCV. After that, we went out for a great dinner, spent more money that I can really afford, but the 4 of us ordered 2 good bottles of red wine and I had shrimp and pineapple pizza. I deserved it. The weekend was a complete success. Artisans are happy, we have a possibility to form an organized group to network together and new opportunities for personal orders.

Now I am on vacation. Alhumdulilaye. Happy Thanksgiving!

Uunk Poop

2008-11-19T06:05:00.001-08:00

Alright - I hope you have some time: Mom decided to write a book about her 2 weeks in Africa! Get comfortable! and Enjoy!

Asalaam Malekum ...

Malekum Salaam

Nanga def? ...

Maangi fii.

Ca va? ...

Ca va bien.

Ana waa Amerik? ...

Nungi ci jamm.

I have just greeted the people I met in Senegal...let me tell you what I have said:

Peace be with you ...

And peace be with you.

How are you? ...

I am fine.

How is it going? ...

It is going well.

Where/How are the Americans? ...

They are in peace.

Let me tell you, it was a crash course in a new language and it was very stressful as everyone who greets you EXPECTS you to answer. Kira answered for us in the first few days and I must say by the time I was leaving the Dakar airport two weeks later they were quite impressed with me. I think what was fun was the Africans hearing a blonde American speaking Wolof! Even fun for me!

It was so wonderful being with Kira and seeing another part of the world. We enjoyed the island, NGor, for a start. People came by selling whatever they had. Loved the fresh fruit. Loved listening to Kira talk to everyone. My first experience with mussells at dinner was a good one. The prawns were so big and grilled...Neex na (delicious)!

The next interesting part of our vaca was transportation. The garage is a different kind of place than what we think of as a garage. This is a "place" rather than a building attached to the house. This place is a very large parking lot filled with a lot of station wagons and a lot of people trying to sell you everything you will ever need for the rest of your life! From apples to water and everything else in between. These station wagons look like we really will not get from this "place" to the next "place" as they are very quite banged up and we are wondering if they will even start. There is a bottle of water and a bottle of oil in the back and an extra bottle of water on the dash for later if we will need to stop to give the engine one or the other. I was amazed that we were able to get form one place to the other with only a stop or two in the two weeks I was there. Kira said they are the best mechanics! And, we never hit another vehicle or animal as it was obvious that that happens! There was one driver that made me nervous as I could tell the broken window was from the passenger in the front seat who had hit the windshield with his (or her) head. I buckled up my seat belt! Do I appreciate my car? You bet! A trip to the car wash and a new air freshener are in order to show "it" how much I care!

Diama's (Jomma's) family are the first Senegalese the we really got to meet and now I know why it was as easy as it was for Kira to become a part of these people as quickly as she did. I remember crying in those first few months when she talked about her mom and siblings and feeling like I was not as important anymore to Kira. Now...I am so thankful for the love they gave and continue to give to Jomma. It is so genuine when you look into their eyes and see how much they appreciate all that my little girl has done and is still doing for the people of Senegal. They treat her as she is their daughter or sister or niece or granddaughter. And they love her as well. It makes me feel so proud of the people in this country so far away from home. It makes me so proud to call this person, my little girl, a true asset of this country. You are amazing Kira and I am so very very proud of everything you are doing for all your new family members in this country so far away.

Time to go to the market. OMG! Ok this is not like going to the mall even on Black Friday! One of the things I found in Africa I would call overwhelming! And we were there on a Sunday with some shops closed! Everything you could imagine buying was available for sale. So many people, so many choices, live animals for purchase, horses pulling carts with people and goods, flys on the fish and fruit and vegetables, garbage in the street, and of course the unique smell, chaos to say the least. I was able to find some very pretty material to buy. This would take some time getting used to doing on a weekly basis.

Our first Senegalese meal...Cheb ou jen. A huge pizza pan with a bed of rice and fish, tomato paste, onions, manioc, carrots, cabbage, sweet potatoes and spices. Everyone sits around the coffee table and digs into their "slice of the pizza". Was it ever good! I can see why Jomma calls this her favorite dish and has the recipe for us to make it here when she gets home. We had a choice of Fanta, Sprite or Coke after we finished eating. Dessert...fresh fruit. That is an idea for the great US of A. Fresh fruit for dessert will definetly take off a few pounds. We found the food was very good wherever we ate. And the fresh bread-yummy.

On our way to Bambey to Ouria's home. I was just getting used to Jomma. Why don't they just call her Kira? She has a different name everywhere we go!

It was a long day and we are still not caught up on sleep so we got settled into her home. OK...I know you really like your accomadations, Kira, but this would take a while to get used to. Nice comfy bed with a mosquito net...excellent! Those little buggers are fast! Enough space so you don't go nuts...two rooms and a porch! The best bathroom in Bambey?... OK, I guess it was better than the one I used while deer hunting. But truthfully I spent too much time there. Finding out you have an uunk living here...what the hell is that? The sheep and goats were always speaking their minds about the toubabs who moved in and so did Eeyore. Let's talk about the rooster who would have lost more than his cock-a-doodle-doo if I would have stayed one more day. I totally understand why Fatou has all these animals but I think if we would have stayed longer there would have been some serious training happening! Or how about the loud noise during a sound sleep...I panicked! Ouria slept through it. KIRA!!! What the hell is that? "Oh, it's the muus chasing the sindax on the roof." WHAT? More Woloff...muus=cat sindax=lizard. In this case the lizard is a foot long. The next thing I hear is snoring from Chuck and Kira. GREAT! I wonder for a very long time what noise the lizard will make next. Finally...sleep. And then the chanting starts over the loud speaker outside the compound. It is sunrise somewhere; sure not here as it is still pitch black where I am tyring to sleep. Kira says it is "the call to prayer". WHAT? One would have been tolerable but there were three different mosques trying to get their prayers started. This happens five times a day! The last morning we were there I was trying to chant with them. Chuck didn't like that. I was just working on my new language skills. I really think he was jealous as he had more trouble with this new tongue. Ouria was right, the fan really does blow hot air when the electricity IS working. This really is a hot part of the country. Closer to 100 than not. Oh yah, this is Africa! The children were really cute in this town of Bambey as we met them all, I think. As Ouria was complaining about, we met many as I was handing out candy to everyone who would greet me and then say merci. So cute! She finally made me say the candy was all gone and the kids stopped coming to see the blonde toubab. I wonder if any have come back looking for me? Just wait until you have children of your own, Kira!

What a party! Kira bought a lot of food including three chickens. Chuck loves chicken. Two additional women helped Cole' (their maid) prepare a wonderful meal of Chebbu ganaar. Chicken, potatoes, onions,pickled onions and olives over a bed of rice. We all gathered around and enjoyed another Senegalese favorite. We also had hot tea, Senagalese style. Many of Ouria friends and business associates arrived to meet her "real" parents and this is where the real pressure of greeting in Wolof was felt. I must say it was great to meet all of these special people in Kira's life. They are also very proud of her. Have I mentioned how proud we, as her parents, are of her? Her host Mom here is also a great person. We could tell she cares a lot about Kira. Later in the week when Fatou called to hear why she has not heard from Ouria, if everything was ok? Kira just said she was with her real mom and she was fine. You will understand only after you have your own children someday, Kira.

As you know, I did get sick while I was there. I guess the lettuce and raw veggies were not washed with beach water so that little bug got the better part of me. The next few days I was pampered by a great chef and was able to eat. I am still trying to get the E-Coli out of my body. I am on medication and am getting better with every dose. Those next few days really were an amazing part of our trip.

We stayed at a beautiful resort run by Jomma's family. So needless to say, we really got wonderful service! Yes, it did compare to Couples in Jamaica! Three three course meals. The room was beautiful and a much nicer bathroom (thank God)! The pool was so pretty, the grounds lush with pretty flowers and palms. Tiki huts on the sandy beach invite you to cool off for a swim in the rolling waves. And then back to the pool to rinse the salt from our tanning skin, only to find a hammock to read another chapter in a good book or to steal a glance at our little girl who has grown into a wonderful person right before our eyes. How did she do that so fast? The sunset was beautiful! We also went on a mini safari. The 25 square km is fenced in and the animals are brought in from other areas of Africa. They are cared for medically if they need it, otherwise they are free to roam and live in this wide open and wooded reserve. We got very close to the animals. The giraffes were in "plastic" according to our guide. They just waited and watched us to get the perfect picture. Kira was so excited a they are her favorite animal. She should blow up a cool picture to add to her collection back here at home. I was a bit worried that she got too close to the rhinos. The ostrich is one very ugly bird when you see it as close as we saw it. Poor thing! Other animals we saw: antelope, gazelles, monkeys, zebra, tortise, crockadiles and birds.

So have you been wondering about the title of this blog entry? OK, what is an uunk? It is an indoor short-tailed, pale lizard like a fat mouse, kind of I guess. Well, anyways it lives inside and it eats the bugs (and believe me there are a lot of really big ugly bugs in this country) that come in to try and make residence. OK, I like that part BUT what if this thing decides to make itself at home in my backpack and comes back to Neenah? I don't have but an occasional spider that sneaks in once in a while. It would starve to death. Kira said I could buy it bugs at the pet store. GREAT. Well, you always know the uunk has been walking around, bug hunting as there is a little pile of uunk poop on the floor wherever. That is Kira's job...to clean up the uunk poop. We had an uunk in everyplace we stayed. The really good part was it did not come back to Neenah! Well...I have not found any uunk poop yet but this is a bigger place than they are used to. I will keep my eyes open.

After getting Chuck to the airport, the next week Kira (Rokhaya) and I enjoyed nice places on the beach, laughter and stories, sunrises and sunsets, using up the tube of Banana Boat sunscreen, reading a good book, swimming in the ocean and pools, walks on the beach, hugs and kisses, shopping, drinking wine, taking pictures and naps, taking in African music and dance, eating blander meals, some homemade! Meeting other PCV friends...you are all great! Back to see family again in Theis and get our clothes we had made and more shopping and getting Henna tattoos on our feet, happy hour with more friends and a jazz concert!

It is time to leave Africa and my daughter. It will be another 13 and a half months before I hold you in my arms so tight again. I have so enjoyed our time here together. Kira, I am grateful that you wanted us to come, to teach us about your life and meet your new families who I am no longer jealous about, to meet many of the people you work with to make their lives even better than they know it now. They are all wonderful and am grateful to them for taking you into their hearts as well. To learn how these people can make their lives WORK with so little but they have a huge amount of pride. Africa...Amazing! Jerejef! Thank you!

I was online working on this entry when Kira also got online. I hooked up the webcam for her to watch it snowing. She shared the whole experience with her sister, NDack; Mom, Fatou; and best friend, Matar. It was so fun hearing all of them talking at the same time trying to understand how it could be colder than 0 degrees centigrade and seeing it snowing at Ouria's home in America and listening to me talking in Wolof here. I now know these people who speak a different language and have skin that is a different color than mine and I do miss them. Yes, Africa... Nungi ci Jamm. We are in Peace!

Speaking Peace

2008-11-16T09:08:00.001-08:00

I am working again! It is official - as of today, I have completed some real, genuine work in Bambey! I have been working with this compost project, as you know, since... March? (if I had to guess) We were granted a plot of land from the government and received documentation of such in September. As of today, I started my door-to-door trainings in Wakhal Jamm (Speak Peace in Wolof) the neighborhood in Bambey that I am starting this project in. I have 2 wonderful work partners and people seem interested and willing to be part of this project. All very exciting. I have to go back tomorrow to another 10 houses, and again on Tuesday, but honestly, it is much easier than I assumed. My Wolof was terrible the first house but I am picking up the new vocab for this project and hopefully the rest of the families will be understanding to this strange toubab "needing their organic trash on behalf of the government". Haha, that's how I am introduced, "coming all the way from America to do this project". I love how Wolof translates sometimes. I will have plenty of follow up to do. We are going to be doing door-to-door trainings and then starting the collection on the 1st. After that, I'll have to make sure families understand - all 30 of them. Then we will need to make sure the site is protected from wandering animals and build a small shelter to prevent the compost from drying in the sun. Lots to do, but hopefully it will be a success. Ndank ndank... slowly slowly.

Oh, and of course I have been plenty busy with my artisans! I am making 2 versions of a catalogue of our Volunteer-Artisan Network, one in french, one in english. It has contact numbers and pretty pics of artisans from all over Senegal. Even my parents pic with Matar, my tailor, is in there! The expo is this weekend and along with 2 or 3 other volunteers, I am planning the set-up, lunches, reception and training led by our tech trainer. Not to mention, I am bringing 3 different groups of artisans! Lots of work, so I am very anxious for it to go well and be over!

Soon after the expo is holiday season! I am going up north to Ndioum for the first time to kill a few birds for Thanksgiving. Less than 2 weeks later is Tabaski where my family will kill a sheep. Good thing I'm not a vegetarian!

So although it has been tough getting back into the swing of things, I have been crossing things of my to-do list and killing bugs to relieve stress! A billion mosquitos hatched in my bathroom so I sprayed and closed the door for a few hours. I took such pleasure in sweeping all the deceased mosquitoes, crickets, spiders and even one cockroach! Oh it's the small pleasures in life!

My side

2008-11-11T14:10:00.000-08:00

Mom and Dad have come and gone. (Still waiting on mom’s interpretation: coming soon) I am so happy they came to visit me but it had its challenges. A few stories to entertain you:

After picking up mom and dad from the airport, I thought I had this great cabby. He was so talkative at 4 in the morning. He gave me his card and all was great… right? Not so much, he demanded twice the money agreed and wouldn’t let up. So mom and dad’s first impression of their now Senegalese daughter was quite the argument before sunrise. I didn’t translate all my words for them but they could tell I was upset! I was most upset that I gave in! He got his money which made me mad for the rest of the day!

I brought mom and dad home to my Thies-training-host family first thing Sunday. I explained how to eat cebbu jen (fish and rice) out of a huge bowl with 6 adults and only had to coach a few times through the meal. Afternoon, we parted for Bambey. We had a big “party” the next day where I invited all my work partners and friends to come for lunch. We had a pretty good turn out and dad only accepted his Fanta with his left hand once! Don’t worry dad, I didn’t make a big deal about it since that would have just attracted more attention! Since I have been back home, people are giving me such a hard time about not bringing my parents back to Bambey. Why in the world would we stay on the beach when we could be in Bambey?! I have trouble explaining this so I just say that mom was scared to come back since she was “so sick I thought I’d die”, words from her mouth! Sorry mom. Don’t mean to tease. You all in America will have to pity her since she didn’t get much sympathy from me or my friends!

By far the worst thing that happened all trip (and I’ll live so just listen to me whine for a minute) was when mom started handing out candy and pretty much the entire neighborhood came demanding candy. Kids who got candy were coming back with their friends and I bet over 30 kids came. This sounds like nothing but mom and dad can tell you how stressed I got. I may have taken it out on them saying they get to leave soon and I have to live here for the next year. So I apologize. I have only heard a few kids in town asking for more and I bet they will for the rest of my service. Mom brought over a gallon ziplock bag full (guilty: I told her to bring candy) so over half was left and we gave it to my host mom to sell from her small boutique. Hope she made some money.

After the real African life, we did a 360. Popenguine was paradise. But I am too used to my life here that even when we went walking down the beach at sunset, I put on my gauchos since I am not used to not covering my knees! I didn’t realize this until mom pointed it out. After living in a Muslim society, I am no longer as confident to walk around in just a suit, as I did for over 10 years of my life!

After dropping dad off at the airport, the stress of the Wolofs at its height, we didn’t even get a hug goodbye. For some reason the Senegalese think they need to control the door to check-in. Daddy gets my first hug when I am back in WI.

Mom and I braved the Dakar garage to get in a car to Mbour – another beach city. She laughed and had trouble turning people away who are quite enthusiastic to sell junk and candy to whites. After leaving, we had quite the comfortable seat in the back of the station wagon! Well, actually, it was not really a padded seat and made for a long, hot ride. But again, this is normal for me and not for her, constantly surprised with how many kilometers were left before Mbour.

We had reservations for 2 nights at a nice beach hotel. I wasn’t surprised one bit when I went to take a shower in the afternoon and the water was out. Mom was outraged, convinced that if we went next door to the other hotel everything would be fine. What she didn’t realize was that when the water goes out, it’s out all over. Turns out this was just one of the things that bothered her about this hotel. Get her to drink her second glass of wine and she opens right up! We found a different beach city the next day, with the greatest house overlooking the beach and all was good again.

It was crazy being able to afford the transportation and the ritzy life. Mom asked at one point how I could afford living on just 200 american dollars a month. The way – I take buses and never taxis between cities! I like being a rich toubab in Senegal! There are some great beaches and hotels and was so happy to get the chance to see them.

Not every volunteer is as lucky as me; to have both my parents come and visit. They stressed me out, and helped me realize just how used to my way of life I am (and how different it really is), but spoiled me like crazy. (I kill all the bugs without flinching and if mom saw them from across the room she’d freak out) So mom and dad, thanks so much for coming, suffering through my life, complaining about the heat and testing the abilities of your gastro-intestinal tracks! I appreciate it so much, and will for the rest of my life. You two are amazing parents. Thank you. I love you.

Dad's Interpretation

2008-11-03T10:02:00.000-08:00

So Dad is home back in the best country in the world - America. A few days after my parents arrived, I told them that I would like to put on my blog what they thought of their trips. To give you another opportunity for interpretation of my life. I hope you enjoy what my dad has to say (although some of it was hard for me to hear, the thing that I love is that he knows now, rather than just guessing or assuming what my life is like):

Interesting -
Best: Seeing the leadership of Ndem advance its people in many ways; art,culture, science, technology and health.
Least: As an engineer my life and work are built around improving upon thecurrent model ... of everything. So, as normal, my expectation was to havemany ideas on how things should be changed to make the Peace Corps workbetter. But, I am not the one to ask how to change the way it works. Myanswers would be of no help. I suggest you look to the current volunteersfor good answers.

Food -
Best: We arrived at the beach resort La Pierre de Lisse. We enjoyed anice lobster dinner that surpassed any meal I have ever had before. The other meals were also terrific.
Worst: Spicy beans on a dry French baget for breakfast. This is a moderntraditional meal and Kira enjoys it almost daily. She can have mine aswell. To be honest I think I put on a bit of weight on this trip as Ienjoyed about everything I ate. While I did not have much in the way ofstomach distress, my wife had a bad bout of travelers-runs. She got to seefar more of Kira’s bathroom accommodations that desired. She was leftbehind for a day to get better, which she did thank heavens. But, thesefolks need more peanut butter in their diet.

Hotel -
Best: While the La Pierre was clearly charming, with its TIKI hut stylerooms, ocean view, and elegant pool. I don't want to spend my whole timetalking about the La Pierre so I am going to pass them by. (That said, Irecommend this resort to all American parents - just make sure you haveeither French or Wolof speaking skills and a healthy amount of money in youraccount) So for my money, the Dakar Savanna gets this vote, the pool wasfun, the bed was softer, the beach looked nice, the poolside bar wasenjoyable and all in all it was great.
Worst: This is a bit unfair as we only stayed for a couple hours as wearrived after our overnight flight. We did come back the next evening justbefore heading out of the city. We were so tired I don't remember much ofthis. The hotel was called Hotel du Phare (lighthouse) and was near Kira's side of town. On the first night, Erin a friend of Kira's needed a place so she spent the nightonly to suffer from bed-bug bites. They were loud outside our room late atnight and early in the morning as we were just off the lobby.

Transportation-
Best: We got around mostly in cab rides. We used the sept place ("setplace") to go longer distances. These are small economy station wagons inwhich you pack 7 people. I think it was when we were getting from a townoutside Dakar back to the city (the memory blurs) but Kira took upconversation with the driver in Wolof the native tongue. He of courseoffered his hand in marriage. Kira complimented his car and he acknowledgethat he had no money left for a wife right now as he was wanting severalwives. Anytime I got to ride anywhere no matter what, I enjoyed watchingout the window. Another interesting trip was heading to Ndem through thecountryside. The "road" to the village was a charett path (horse-drawntrailer). It would compare to a fire-lane through a remote NorthernWisconsin forest. But the interesting thing was that people wereencountered all along the way - much like a trip to town here at home.
Worst:We got in a sept-place for another ride and a man got in and promptly told uswhen he found out we were Americans that Osama bin Laden is his favoriteleader. This should scare all of us. But perhaps by having a car ride witha family of Americans who were friendly and “normal” might give him adifferent impression of us. His view of us comes entirely from the TV showssuch as "24" and news reports. This my friends gives the rest of the worlda very misleading twisted view of us as a people. The fact that we as apeople and our government do nothing about this is nothing short of stupid.
I think I also dislike Kira having to negotiate the price each time. But, Iadmit she was quite good at it. She has to get a bit nasty in some cases.She needs to make sure this is viewed as part of the game and not part oflife. We as a people should not live comfortably with conflict in themundane portion of our lives. I feel bad for the drivers who clearly didnot make much money on several of our trips. The cars did not fall apartfor us on the road but 50% of the cars on the road there would be in ajunkyard here in America.

Surprises-
Best: The people. They were interesting, kind and caring. They wereintelligent, hard working, and had the same values as me. They were familycentered, and have a great culture. They are truly a handsome people. Thewomen walking and working along the roads were often in beautiful clothing.
Worst: My daughter is taking risks with her health and welfare that make afather worry. (I am known to be a worrier.) She drinks the water untreated,she gets skin infections and lots of bug bites. She gets around in atransportation system that is not known for its safety. She eats riskyfoods. She travels a lot. She stands out and attracts attention to herpresence. She lives so far from good medical attention that she can notexpect to call 9-1-1 and get help when it is needed. I fully intend to rideher butt for the next year to take fewer risks. This girl needs her daddylooking over her shoulder…

Insight -
Best: My opinion is the single biggest thing the Peace Corps does for theworld is it puts our best people in touch with the people of the world. Ofcourse the projects matter, but the shear presence is the thing thatmatters. Our new President, who I am saying with confidence will beextracted from Africa, has an opportunity to change America's relationshipwith the world. This change in global relationships has the potential to bethe most significant since World War II - and the atomic bomb. It will beinteresting to see if we leverage this or squander the opportunity.

Thing about the trip:
Best: The best part of the trip was hearing Kira's laughter.
Worst: Having to leave both my wife and daughter behind.

Work and Play

2008-11-02T10:23:00.000-08:00

Alright. I admit. It’s been too long since I have written. But I’ve been busy! Planning a girl’s night, helping train the new volunteers, artisan work… what else? I spent a weekend in Dakar and I really just wanted to hang out with friends, play softball and swim at the pool but added to that, I also worked on a lot of translating for Ndem. Let me explain.

My ultimate goal when working with my artisans is to find them clients in America since they export to 5 countries in Europe but just not home! A few months ago we got into contact with West African Trade Hub and they came to meet some of the employees in Dakar and we have been put on their contact list for buyers in America. This is a huge start! And then just about a month ago, we got an invite from WATH to go to a week long expo in Burkina Faso and a 2-day expo in Mali. Well, the weren’t able to find the funds to send anyone to Burkina but I talked to the General Manager (Abdou) of Ndem telling him how important this would be for Ndem to go to meet American buyers in Mali. He said he’d talk to the president/religious chief to see if funds could be possible. A week later, I asked Abdou what the pres had said and he admitted he hadn’t yet asked. So since the power was out, and there’s not a whole lot else we can do, I went along with Abdou and met with the Pres and VP to discuss this huge opportunity. I guess I am pretty good at persuading! We got Abdou the money to go to this expo in Bamako, Mali under the condition that we prepared all the documents (contracts, brochures, price lists, etc) since they needed translating. And by “we”, I mean “I”. I had my hands full but in the end, it was worth it. I haven’t seen Abdou since he is back from the expo but I called him during the event and it seems like it was a success.

My girls’ night went SO well! I hope to get the pictures off my friend’s camera soon. I didn’t think it would go well since kids take a few weeks to trickle into school much unlike our first day of school. I harassed the principals enough and out of my 36 girls, I have 31 show and quite a few family members and school employees. Erin, my friend, counted 48 people! I gave all the girls certificates and had food and cold fantas and cokes for everyone.

So after a busy October – it’s been play time! Mom and Dad got in on Sat the 25th. We relaxed on the beach in Dakar for a day, and then went to Thies to meet my host family (during training) and all my 9 siblings. My host mom is a tailor (and an amazing one at that) so we went to the market and bought Mom some styling fabric to get a nice dress made. We ate the Senegalese traditional plate chebbu jen (fish and rice) and just hung out before getting back into the car and headed to Bambey. We had an uneventful night but the next day was busy with Mom and Dad dressed in Senegalese outfits and all my friends and work partners came over for chebbu ganaar (chicken and rice). They learned some of the greetings and although I had to coach them through some of the customs, they are quick learners and it went very well. It was a great day!

The next day, Dad and I went to the village of Ndem. Mom needed a day to rest her tummy so we spent the morning wandering around the workshops and talking with the religious leader. We relaxed all afternoon in the heat (mom complained about my room being 98….that’s nothing) and left the next morning for P-A-R-A-D-I-S-E! My host family in Thies is a real big family and my “uncle” is married to a French woman and they own this beach resort. We spent our time between the ocean, pool and 3 course meals. We even went on a safari! Okay, it is nothing like the Lion King but we saw antelope, gazelle, giraffes, ostriches, crocs, rhinos, tortoises, monkeys, and one zebra! It was such a nice vacation for me! And mom and dad just kept comparing it to Jamaica so I guess that’s a good thing.

So yesterday we were in Dakar saying goodbye to Daddy and planning the next week with mom. I think we are going to rough it on the beach… or not rough it at all but enjoy it out of my site! Senegal is fun with my parents but tiring with the language barriers. But I do love them here with me!

Eeyore Farts

2008-10-14T15:56:00.001-07:00

Enough said right? What a smelly little guy! I was fencing off a small compost site in the "backyard" of my family's compound, hanging out with Eeyore, our donkey. Well, that's what I call him at least. And he farted when he said HEEE HAAAAW! How rude!

Anyways. So I have a compost site at home but stray cats have been eating the fish. We hope to invite the neighbors around to add to the pile as well. Should be cool. My compost site in the neighborhood hasn't started yet, which kinda bums me out. I hope to get it fenced off soon but am plenty busy with everything else!

In Ndem I am working on a new order in America. It is such a great opportunity for the artisans! But in the mean time I am working on translating every document, brochure and flyer that they have since everything is in French. Lots to do and not enough time to do it all!

Besides that, I will be working with my middle school girls. The looks on the girls' faces when they find out they won 30,000cfa (about $65) is priceless. I will have 2 friends come and help me with the certificat ceremony! I am splurging on these girls and am going to buy donuts and cans of soda, not something I can afford to do too often.

So life is good. Busy is better than uneventful I guess! Take care! Send more love in envelopes, my walls need more cards and photos of your pretty faces! :-)

She's Senegalese Now

2008-10-11T13:25:00.000-07:00

So my week of training a “newbie” is finished. She arrived on Friday morning and left this evening. Her name is Ellen and she will soon be my closest neighbor, about 20k down the road. We got along very well and I think she will be a great volunteer. She is learning French right now since she hasn’t had any classes since high school but is doing so well for only being here 3 weeks! I wasn’t that confident with my language after just a few weeks, that’s for sure. Like I said, she will be great. I am very excited for her to move to Diourbel in November.

It was rather interesting being responsible to answer all the questions of a trainee. I brought in reinforcement! My best friend in Peace Corps came to spend the weekend with us. We made soup for dinner sent from America and talked about PC and gossiped about everything else. It was rather refreshing to be able to answer all the questions she asked, that I was asking last September. I even got to scold her for handing someone money with her left hand! I showed her how casual my work meetings are and a bit about public transport (like waiting over 2 hours at noon…). I was more exhausted than her in the heat as I introduced her to some past and many current work partners. We went to Diourbel for the day and I showed her the stores that sell ice cream, ate at the best restaurant in town and even introduced her to a future work partner. We biked to Ndem and she seems interested in working with artisans. She bought fabric in the market and my tailor made her look real good in 2 different Senegalese boubous.

I spent quite a bit of the time translating for her and telling the Senegalese that even though I speak Wolof, French is just as important to learn, since they just assume all whites speak it. (It was good practice for my translating duties when my parents arrive!) The Senegalese tend to compare us to each other quite often which is rather stressful at times. They told Ellen that I am now Senegalese and she soon will need to be as well. Me? Senegalese? I guess it’s a compliment. I have officially been told I am an integrated member of this culture. It’s a good feeling.

As for the next few weeks? I am going to be very busy. This weekend, I am getting part of my roof repaired (much needed since the tin has separated from the cement wall). I need to fence off my compost site and build a small compost area here in my family’s house protected from our goats. I need to go to all 3 middle schools to invite all my girls to a Soirée to celebrate my winners. All of this needs to get done before going to training for a few days, and before my parents get here on the 25th! I’m only kinda excited… NOT! Their 9 (daddy) and 15 (mom) days are going to go by too fast but I just can’t wait to be there at the airport to introduce them to their Senegalese daughter!

Liver on Korite, again

2008-10-09T19:12:00.000-07:00

It’s that time of year again, when we buy a sheep and murder it to become out breakfast, lunch and dinner! Ramadan is officially over so I can try and get back into a normal routine of actually working with hydrated, happier people who are not constantly thinking about food. This year’s Korite is a bit different than last year’s. The big reason being I am no longer in training, the others being that I understand more what is going on and am no longer freaked out by the fact that the sheep was hanging out, eating grass one minute and on the grill the next! And what made it even more exciting is that I was reading the book Alive, about the survivors of a plane crash where they survived 70 days in the Andes eating the crash victims. Eating liver of a sheep and reading how they ate human liver… Not a good combo!

I am celebrating Korite with my host mom’s sister’s family. You know the little 3 year old, Khali, that was staying at our house? We are with his (very pregnant) mom and dad in Mbour for 3 nights. I have to admit, I was dreading this since I didn’t really know what the situation would be. Being a guest at someone’s house, when sometimes, I feel like I am still a guest at my own home. So we got here on Monday evening and I was surprised to how beautiful this house is, that was built not quite 2 years ago. It has a nice roof to sit out on, tile rooms and hallways and cement ceilings! On Tuesday, myself and a volunteer that lives about 45 minutes south met for lunch. Mbour is a beach city, populated with Senegalese and Saly, it’s neighbor is a city that is more like a foreigner’s paradise with restaurants, chic hotels and night clubs. Well my friend and I wandered around Mbour the day before Korite when everyone was still fasting, and to our surprise, there were no restaurants open! So we went and spoiled ourselves in Saly at a restaurant where I had a seafood pizza and bailey’s ice cream for dessert. Amazing.

So that way my day yesterday until around 10pm when the women (mom, sister and aunt) decided it was a good time to go to the market. WHAT?! I was in the market earlier that day and it was crowded with far too many people, way too many cars and a lot of mud and pools of water from the rain that morning. This didn’t stop us! The market was bustling with people all last minute shopping, but like a thousand times worse than the day before Christmas since they are all yelling, pushing and shoving and one wrong step could cause you to fall in a puddle of mud. We got back after midnight and I was exhausted.

This morning, I woke up and got ready to come downstairs and see that the cooking had begun. I was assigned to pealing and cutting potatoes into fries. I have a small blister on my hand from too many potatoes and the dull knife only cut me once. I didn’t have to witness the killing of the sheep today, which was nice, since I was in the kitchen. “Breakfast” was ready around 2 consisting of liver, ribs and onions. “Lunch” was only a few hours later, with more meat, onions, french fries and raw veggies. Who knows when “dinner” will be but I know that it will involve more sheep! After the second meal, at 6 I wandered around greeting friends of Khali’s dad. Honestly, I hate doing this. I am like this token to show off to their friends who can speak Wolof. After a few houses, when he was ready to take a taxi into town to continue this, I said it was time for me to return home. Ha! I wasn’t able to express myself in that way last Korite! Life is good. I got some work done on my computer and am able to relax in front of the fan and type to you.

Tomorrow we are getting picked up by the same chauffer that brought us out here to bring us back home to Bambey. My host mom hates transport during the holidays so paid a bit more to reserve us a comfortable ride. Then on Friday I will have a demyster (a brand new volunteer who just arrived in September) coming to stay with me for a week. Hopefully she will be the replacement for my closest neighbor! It’s kind of hard to believe that now it is my turn to host rather than be the one to get de-mystified! I have been here a while huh?

Make sure to enjoy the turning colors of the leaves! I miss fall just thinking about it. Here everything is just going to die but there are no maples to appreciate. Take pictures for me!

Colette

2008-09-19T13:25:00.001-07:00

It is rather surprising to how much has changed in just 5 weeks. For example, there have been many changes around my house here in Bambey. The most noticeable is that of a missing family. There was a family of 6 renting 2 rooms within our family’s compound where they now no longer live. They provided plenty of drama (remember the story of how the mom gave birth ALONE at 3 in the morning?) and I guess my host mom has brought it to the police’s attention that they never paid her. Also, we have a new maid, but this time I really like her! Kolé is great, and all 3 of her precedents were nothing to write home about so that’s why I may have never mentioned them. She is wonderful. Another few changes are the 2 nephews of my host mom living with us. Granted it is just a temporary situation, but we now have a 3 year-old, Khali, and 5 year-old, Papy, here. They are hilarious. My favorite was when Khali went behind the donkey cart and when my host mom became worried, she said, “Khali, where are you, what are you doing?” His response: “I went to Spain”. The boys are very intrigued with the last and biggest change for me. I have adopted a cat.

Colette was my neighbor cat, meaning she was my second- closest- Peace Corps- neighbor’s cat. Lisa has since gone home to America. Colette needed some vaccines so she is here waiting out the time when in November, she will be put on a plane with a volunteer going home for Thanksgiving, who will then send her to Lisa. You may or not realize this about me – I have never had a cat. I sat down with a friend the night before bringing her home and asked the very basics. It is going well so far. She has made herself rather comfortable. I think her favorite spot is on top of my mosquito net. Yes: on top of it. I keep my net off of my bed during the day, but it’s tied at eye-level. This cat has figured out how to get up there and walk around until she gets comfortable. She meows like crazy and people in my car from Dakar were rather annoyed. I like her for her cricket-killing abilities. She fetches, better than most dogs have the patience for. She wakes me up by walking on me and lying down on my chest. I can’t read a book with out her pacing back and forth on the pages. She is a great cat. I don’t know if I am convinced enough to get a Colette-replacement come Thanksgiving, but it has crossed my mind. A lot has also stayed the same in Bambey. I go to appointments and people don’t show. Power outages are ever so frequent. It’s frickin’ hot. The rain still comes in my room, which I need to repair, again. Public transport is slow (150km in 6 hours – new record). But also, I love speaking in Wolof, drinking tea, eating dinner with my hands, riding my bike to Ndem (and sitting on the internet in the tiny village responding to emails and facebook messages), gossiping through text messages to other volunteers, and just hanging out. Senegal is great. It will get better when the rain stops and starts to cool again but I am willing to wait for just that!

5-4-3-2-1

2008-09-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

5 weeks, 4 countries, 3 continents, 21 cities (Dakar, Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Ischia, Syracuse, Messina, Palermo, Cefalu, Florence, Chambery, Annecy, Chamonix, Paris, Neenah, Milwaukee, West Bend, Green Bay, Grenoble, Venice, and Verona)

Overall it was great. But it feels really good to be back, in my room, not having to live out of a backpack. My host family even opened my room up and cleaned everything! I am a lucky girl.

In the last few days in Europe, I was trying to do everything that I wouldn’t be able to do in Senegal, like wear a hoodie, eat ice cream, drink wine in public while site-seeing with other crazy foreigners and not being judged or stared at by locals, not to mention all the while speaking English. I took many pictures of Grenoble, Venice and Verona but I broke my camera on my second to last day. All of them are lost, including pictures taken at home. Thank goodness I saved the first half of my trip online already. I’m rather upset but have yet again taken up the attitude that I really shouldn’t stress about the things I can’t control. Otherwise I would be a nutcase 24/7. I got my camera fixed and will begin taking pictures again soon.

Europe was fun. I think I had the most fun meeting other travelers, getting/giving advice about what to do and exchanging email addresses. It was difficult coming back to Europe after being home for only 10 days, and was rather depressed. But once I was on my way back, it started to be fun again and the people I was meeting only made it better. While wandering around one night with new friends in Rome, I even saw a couple get engaged! We were at the Trevi fountain, all lit up beautifully, and I saw him go down on his knee; pull out the ring, and she, speechless, was only able to kiss him. I think it was a yes!

There are some pretty spectacular things in Europe that will keep me coming back, but in my time abroad in the last year, I have really realized how wonderful our country is and how many people there are that I just can’t live without. I will eventually go back to Europe, but next time it will be more planned out and with someone else.

So now I am back to my Senegalese reality. I have plenty here to keep me occupied, that’s for sure! I got in this afternoon and started greeting everyone and handing out a few gifts. It’s Ramadan so no one is eating anything so I will save the hard candies for later but they seem to enjoy most the photos that I printed out of them and a brand new soccer ball. I plan to greet, talk, fast (well I did just one day and that was enough – give me a break, going from a European-American diet to no food and water in 100 degrees, 1 day, like I said, plenty)and hand out presents for the next 2 days. I am going to Dakar to see off some volunteers who are leaving, while also in the next few weeks I get to train the new volunteers who just got in last week. I will be going to Ndem, planning a girl’s night to celebrate my 3 scholarship winners, composting, fish selling and who knows what else! It stresses me out to think of everything I have to do but I wouldn’t have it any other way. 14 months to go! Now I just need to re-acclimate to the awfully hot weather…

Spotted Cow

2008-09-08T02:59:00.000-07:00

Some of my favorite things about home:

Spotted Cow, Nakashima's, outdoor seating at restaurants, canoeing, sports games and tailgating, hooded sweatshirts, talking about the new lives of my grown-up friends and dreaming that I may be just that in a year (or 2), future PCVs Kate (Micronesia) and Matt (Kenya) and all their questions, coaches, good news from doctors, phone calls and text messages on my grandmas razor, and NorthWest Airlines (TOTALLY KIDDING)

Being in Wisconsin was wonderful! I enjoyed so much seeing friends and family and spending time with my brother. The not so fun part of vacation was seeing how much pain he is in, how slow the healing process is going, and having to leave as scheduled since NW Airlines is a horrible company that makes no exceptions to their no-change policy.

So here I am back in Grenoble where I studied abroad almost 4 years ago. This time im just staying in a hotel and playing tourist. I just don't get lost like usual! I am happy to be staying a second night and will go out to my favorite wine bar. Yesterday I hiked up my mountain and felt wierd not calling mom at the phone booth on the bottom for her to call me on me cell on the way up, like we alsways used to do. It was a beautiful day and probably have a few duplicate photos from last time.

I have made reservations -- crazy for me, I know! But I just don't want things to go wrong on my way back. I will be here tonight, tomorrow staying with the French guy I met on my way up to Paris 2 weeks ago, then taking a train to Venice to stay for 2 nights, Verona 1 night, Florence 2 nights, and Rome 1 before flying back to Senegal. Hope this all works out!

If I saw you on vacation is wasn't for long enough. I truely miss home, maybe more now than what I thought. Plans to get internet installed in my room in Bambey have begun so contacting me will be easier than ever! If I didn't see you while in Wisconsin, you probably shouldn't have moved west! but I should be there as planned in 2010!
Take care Tofer, miss and love you!

Home Sweet Home

2008-08-27T19:10:00.000-07:00

Wow it is just wonderful in here, this country called home. I got in yesterday to Neenah, a day later than planned. That was an expensive mistake. My advice? Don't ever miss a flight after purchasing tickets online... you don't get your money back. And I wish I had a better excuse for missing it... I wanted a picture in front of the Eiffel Tower. Lame. I know. Then it took quite a while to get to the airport, about an hour longer than I expected and I didn't make the check-in. Oh well, I have pretty amazing parents, since, here I am - in good ol' Wisconsin!

So the rest of my trip? I told you I was in Sicily. I did like it; wished I could have made a winery tour but the only one available was a 7 day tour... no good for me! I hung out on the beaches and relaxed since I started getting a cold. I blame all the travel on the trains. So I took a (miserable) night train up to Florence. I slept on the floor in the aisle, trying to keep warm with a towel. But I think Florence is thus far my favorite city in Italy. Amazing. I will upload pictures soon, when I get the chance. It was beautiful there and I had a great hostel as well so ended up staying 2 nights rather than traveling to Venice in order to catch up on sleep, hang out with other American travelers and see the city.

From Florence, I left at about 11am with plans to either stay the night in Milan or Turin. Well I arrived to both and decided I didn't want to be in Italy anymore. I couldn't wait to get to France to be able to speak to people again, especially since I was having a few problems in Turin. I tried to find a hostel to make reservations anywhere, Italy or France, or a train to go directly to Grenoble, but was unsuccessful. My stubborn and exhausted-of-Italian mood came out, so I got on a train going toward Paris, where I would just get out in Chambery to switch trains to get into Grenoble. Or so I thought.

Another problem in Turin was the fact that the train was booked so I couldn't purchase a ticket, but they told me if I just got on the train, I would have to pay an extra 8 euro to make it to my destination. Sweet. So I got on and sat on a flip-out chair in the aisle (again) but the guy checking tickets NEVER checked me! I got a free 63 euro train ride. I'll take it. And then I sat next to a French guy, also sitting in a flip-down chair, who was awesome. I realized I can successfully have a conversation in French and only one or two Wolof words came out. He was great and offered me to stay at his apt, which I turned down in desperate hope to get to Grenoble. So I got out at my stop, which was his home, when it started pouring! I didn't bring anything to keep me warm... I was planning on a Mediterranean vaca, not a mountainous one! So I borrowed his phone, found out the hostel in Grenoble was booked and although I could have gotten on the train to get there and find something else, I didn't really want to do that in the rain at 11pm. So I went to Cyril's house!

He was so nice. We made a pesto-pasta dinner and he took me around to see the chateau in Chambery and other touristy sites after lending me a sweater that he ended up giving to me to keep! His roommate is actually Senegalese and was really interested in meeting him, but never got the opportunity since he got home late and I left by 7:30 to get on a train to go to Chamonix, with a layover in Annecy, another beautiful lake city with mountains all around.

Chamonix is still my favorite city in the entire world. I love it! I got in late, found a hostel and went out for an amazing dinner. I figured since the night before that I had a free dinner and night's stay, I could treat myself to a demi-bottle of wine and tartiflette (traditional cheesy potatoes). The next day I climbed a ski run to not-quite-the-top of a mountain looking down on Chamonix. It was a real tough climb, just as difficult down as up. I was wishing for snow and skis the whole time but the view was incredible. I decided I need to buy a chalet in Chamonix when I am rich. There isn't too much available in my budget at this time.

From Chamonix, I took a night train to Paris. Got in nice and early, at 6, put my luggage in storage and wandered the streets before missing my flight and coming back to find a hostel that evening. I was exhausted and rather upset, so I made dinner and was in bed early. Crazy for me but honestly, all I wanted was to be home.

Kristofer is still uncomfortable and confusing doctors with his chest pain. All I want is for him to feel better. It is amazing being home, sitting here watching a Brewer game while writing this blog, sitting in between my dad and brother, after a sushi dinner at Nakashima's. Life is good. Keep my bro in your thoughts. We need him to get better ASAP! As for plans in Neenah? A few dinners out and a Brewer game on Monday, but I don't have much else so feel free to give me a call. I would love to see you!

Oh Sicilia!

2008-08-19T00:31:00.000-07:00

Italy is wonderful. I spent 2 nights in Rome waiting for my luggage to catch up with me. Well, I didnt wait in the hostel... I walked, or more like wandered, the streets. Rome is great but on a strict budget i didnt go inside much and decided to spend my money on better things, like gelatto! Mom, Dad and I hit all the touristy sights when we visited Rome 4 years ago. All thats left is the Sistine Chapel that I will hit on my way out!

I traveled south from Rome to Naples. Overall, not impressive. Nearly left on the next train after seeing the neighborhood where my hostel was but I decided to give it a chance. Downtown, it was nice and there was a great view from a mountain. I daytripped to Pompeii, which in year 79AD a volcano errupted covering a whole city. Now it is a tourist attraction... the entire city! Pretty cool! Another day trip out of Naples was to an island called Ischia. I wish I would have spent 3 days there rather than anytime in Naples! Loved it!

I left Naples at midnight to spend the night on the train to Sicily. Sat in a 6 person cabin with a nun, an english speaking couple and an italien in his 30s who hogged 2 seats. I didnt sleep at all until he got off at like 5am. But then the 3 others freed up the 3 person bench just for me! Living in Africa, traveling on a budget... gotta milk it for all its worth right?

I spent the day in Siracusa and took a boat tour to some island caves and then went to Messina to spend the night. Got up early and caught a 3 hour train to Palermo, where I am now. It's located where the big toe would be of the boot of Italy! Amazing beach just a 20 min bus ride from the hostel and today I hope to find a vineyard.

So whats the plan now? (since they have changed a bit) I will take a night train to Florence and spend the night, then to Venice for the day to Turin for the night. Then to Grenoble, to Paris and then.... to Neenah Wisconsin! My brother has been real sick; a doctor's mystery for far too long. He was diagnosed with Diabetics Neuropothy a few days ago and is responding well to meds, thank goodness! So I will be in America to see him and anyone else who may want my company August 25 through September 5!

Stepping off the plane

2008-08-07T13:08:00.000-07:00

In training, our trainer said something like “Get off the jumbo jet, and take the train”. He was comparing the work ethic, style and way of doing things in America compared to Senegal. I have this quote written on my wall and think about it often. The problem is, though, that I am American, and some things never change.

Today was my second town meeting about the compost project in Bambey. The last one followed my vacation in Kedougou so I wasn’t around to invite anyone so this time I tried my best to go to people’s houses, talk with them about the meeting and the plans that I have for the future, and fully convince them to show up. 5/8 success. The one man that didn’t show up was there like 2 minutes after the meeting was scheduled and left since no one was there (expected, since no one in Senegal comes for the first hour of a scheduled meeting). Another showed up as we were all leaving. Whatever. I’ll take it.

Instead of planning a powerpoint or something technical, I put an outline of topics to discuss on flip chart paper for everyone to read. I mentioned how I only have a year left of service but will dedicate half of my work to the compost project. I told them we have been given a plot of 30 square meters of land. Then I began talking about how we should go about training and who the important people should be, who will monitor the compost and who will help write a budget. I was then cut off. They don’t care who runs the compost facility nor who will help set up the fence around it. They need to only concentrate on how to get the door-to-door trainings accomplished. I agree! Honestly I agree it is the most important part but all I can think about is November of 2009 when I am on a plane outta here and I don’t know if by that time anything will be accomplished. Shouldn’t we at least mention how we want things to turn out in the next 3, 6, 12 months? Why do they leave everything else up to God? Yes, things can change, but then we can change out plan; alter it to fit the new situation. This is just not the case.

So I am slowing myself down, again. It’s ok. I really wanted to get the application completed for the PC partnership for money but since that isn’t on the priority right now; I have to wait until after my vacation. All the women are meeting on the 12th to discuss funding they received from another organization so they can travel to Mauritania and Mali to buy from markets there and sell them here for a profit. That’s great and all, even though it has nothing to do with the project, but it means that all the women are actually going to show up for the meeting, unlike my meetings since I have no money to offer. I still haven’t met them all yet. And I fly out the morning of the 12 so I can’t meet them.

Who knows if the men who were at my meeting tonight will show up to this women’s group meeting on the 12th. I can encourage them to show but there isn’t a whole lot I can do besides that. All I know is that whether anything gets done while I am traveling or not, I will have work to do when I get back. Although none of my questions were answered at my meeting, it was still a good meeting. And now all I can think about is stepping of the plane in Rome and catching a few trains to see some unfamiliar Mediterranean Sea!

Top 10

2008-08-02T12:24:00.000-07:00

10 reasons I think I deserve to go on vacation:

1. I killed 5 mosquitoes, full from a night of feasting, this morning who took up residence inside my net.
2. When one rash goes away, another comes
3. My room leaks... a lot
4. Power outages all the time!
5. Many cancelled meetings because of rain
6. 3 books read in 3 days (I broke my computer and its getting fixed)
7. No compost site yet: we have no mayor so the job keeps getting passed on to the next guy
8. I rub deet mosquito repelent all over like body lotion daily
9. I sweat all the time
10. Havent been to France since Spring of 05... I'm due

Just 10 days until gelatto :P

The 10 things I need to do before I leave:

1. Meet with my host mom's womens group about funding a possible garden
2. Door to door trainings about composting (like all 40 will get done in the next week! not being negative... just realistic)
3. GET A COMPOST SITE which was supposed to happen like 2 weeks ago
4. Go to Thies: pick up my new pants and dress, see the host family, pick up my computer, check internet and meet a friend's mommy!
5. meet with a compost steering group: but they don't really know yet that they are in it so first I have to convince them to join the group and then to show up to the meeting... hmmm
6. plant a lime tree! host mom wants a new tree, i want something to do and host sister likes limes!
7. set up my room with many many buckets to catch the rain
8. make a list of everyone to buy gifts for in italy
9. call or visit all work partners!
10. PACK for the most amazing vacation of all time!

Have I mentioned that its just 10 days away? 10 days until:

1. I can wander around and not be stared at or called toubab
2. i dont have to tell anyone where i am going or where I am coming from
3. eat whenever i am hungry
4. stop eating whenever i am full
5. be confused when people speak a foreign language... wait a minute... but not get ridiculed when i dont understand
6. eat gelatto!
7. drink wine!
8. I wont have to greet and shake everyone hands whenever i walk into a room... even though i will have the tendancy to do it anyways!
9. i can expose my knees
10. i can opperate on my own schedule!!! yey!!

10 days friends. 10 days!

Ranking System

2008-07-22T12:55:00.000-07:00

My host sister Ndack is 16 meaning she is the bottom of the food chain in our house since its just her and my host mom Fatou and I. There is a strick system kids learn very young here in Senegal that they must follow in order to not get hit by a tree branch! So this ranking system has now been changed since Ndack went to live with her aunt for a month during vacation! I know am obviously younger than my host mom meaning I heat up dinner; I bring her water; I sweep up after lunch... damn I have officially been put in my place! It does feel good though. In the beginning I was served to and treated too well and didnt like it that way since I am supposed to be integrated into the family and such. Its official! I am!

Work was pretty easy this weekend! It rained plenty and so I got guilt-free time to spend re-organizing my room and reading. I needed to move my room around since when it rains it pours! And I mean in my room... I have a puddle that collects in one corner that used to be where my armoire was. I also got to plant a mango tree in the compound. I was too late in making a tree nursery. Next year I will be able to do it so this year I bought a mango tree that comes up to my waist for about a dollar. I put him, my tree that is, on my porch while I built a goat-free home. I turned my back for 5 mintues and the frickin goats got into my porch and ate 6 precious leaves! Ah! That's when I got Gista, the dog out and tried my best to scare the goats into the back. Here again is a ranking system: Gista beats up on the 2 baby goats and baby sheep but comes to be crying when she gets head-butted by the mom. I outrank the mommy goat who ate my tree so we obviously dont get along! Every chance they get, I swear they go on to my porch and poop... ah. Anyways, I planted my thinned out tree in a beautiful santuary that hopefully will also sprout some sunsflowers in a week or so! Ill take pictures if it turns out to be anything impressive!

I met our acting mayor (we dont have a mayor, just a president of something, politics here are very confusing) for the second time to talk about the compost project. The first time I didnt get the best impression of him. But this time we explained our progress and he was happy and very open. He mentioned that he currently has an order for 50 bags of compost from the PC Joal site! He works at an agriculture training center and if I understood correctly, works with an initiative of president wades wife of growing organic bissap. He is all about a project here and we have his full support. Astou Kan was so happy after our meeting and saw one of the guys we intend in working on the project with outside the mayors office. She chewed him out for not coming to the meeting, something that I wanted to do but was... well.. outranked. She is such a great work partner! We should have a designated compost spot next week and we will start going house to house training everyone in the neighborhood on the 1st. Hope that goes well!

Heading to Ndem tomorrow! Hope to work more on the IFAT application and work with the West African Trade Hub. Its an organization that is great with artisans all over W Africa. There is someone coming from WATH to Dakar next week that wants to help Ndem branch into America. This could be the link that we need! I get to meet the representative at the end of the month and hopefully bring Abdou, my work partner in Ndem.

Friday my PC supervisors are coming to town to meet all my work partners and make sure that Im not only on vacation here in Senegal. It will be fun to show them around since the last time they were here I didnt know anyone! Then is time to celebrate Mandis birthday all weekend! I think I need a break from my new spot at the bottom of the food chain! I get to be an American for 3 days before coming back to claim my integrated place in society next week!

Composting Project

2008-07-18T12:44:00.000-07:00

As I have said before, it is a slow start as a first volunteer at a new site working with Small Enterprise Development. There has never been a volunteer in Bambey – which honestly has its perks along with downfalls. People see white skin and think money so ask me for it ALWAYS but there is no one to really compare me to in matters of personality and language skills. Other volunteers can’t go a day without hearing about their “anciens” or predecessor. But this has also been frustrating in terms with work. Agriculture volunteers work with trees and plant things every day, health volunteers work at health centers, teachers at schools, eco-tourism at campements… get the idea? I tell Senegalese that I work with small business and they say: “I have a small business! Work with me!” Yes, you and everyone else have a boutique selling the same thing. Those aren’t the people I want to work with. But as a SED volunteer, I can do just about whatever I want. It has just taken a long time to figure that out and who I want to work with. 10 months and 3 days in country – I found a permanent work partner who will be come my replacement volunteer’s counterpart.

AstouKan is a women’s group president interested in getting a compost project started in Bambey. I gave her a “test” when I went to Kedougou. I printed out over 50 invitations to hand out to the neighborhood. I got back and met with her. All the invites went out and she let a few officials know. I still had to figure everything out with the movie but I was in shock that she did everything I said!

There were a ton of technical problems on Wednesday, the day of our “town meeting”. First, I arranged to have a projector from a doctor at the health center. No problem right? Except that he forgot that he had an all-day seminar Wednesday. Should have been fine but power went out making them run late. So at 4, an hour before my meeting, I went to World Vision, called their director and got him to say it was ok for me to borrow theirs, even though a week prior, they said no. So all set right? Got the room set up at the Mayor’s Office and then the projector wouldn’t cooperate with my computer. Meanwhile, I had a friend at a cyber trying to help and set up speakers, which also weren’t working. So an hour and a half of fooling around with this, the other projector shows up. Now I have 2, but neither work. I called people from World Vision, had just about everyone who knows anything about computers come and look , meanwhile, Senegalese are starting to filter in the room to watch the display of a very stressed out toubab rather than a professional presentation. Finally, at like 7, someone sends for their manager of a microfinance organization to come with his laptop. Of course his works! So we played the movie, without very loud speakers, but at least everyone got the idea. Only 25 people showed up, but that’s just how it goes. People said I need to have live music, or at least a DJ and lots of food in order for people to come. AstouKan was also bummed more people didn’t show but there isn’t a whole lot we can do: except to go door to door in the neighborhood to let everyone know… sweet.

The day after all this, I stopped by AstouKan’s and talked with her about what to do. She said she didn’t want to wait too long until we pick out a site for the compost facility. I mentioned that I will be going on vacation in a month, for a month so (without even asking questions about that) she said Monday is when we will go to the mayor’s office to plan it out. After that, we will sit down and plan a budget. If that meeting goes well, I will write up a demand for money from the Peace Corps Partnership Program. The PCPP is pretty cool. I will fill out paperwork on information about my project, how many people it will benefit and what my goals and objectives are. Whatever money is budgeted, my community will have to provide 25%. PC will put it up on a website and people can check it out and donate money online. Can you do that for me? For the application to be complete, I need 5 names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of individuals, businesses, schools or foundations interested in donating to the project. If you are interested in being a part of this list, please e-mail me at keuhn.kira214@gmail.com and I will thank you forever! I will let you know of this more when I get to that point, but my goal is to have the application complete and turned in before Europe in like 3 weeks. (eeeeeeeeeee!!!)

So as for work, I am much happier knowing a compost project is under way. If I can get a good start to it for my replacement volunteer, he or she will have a much better start that the 10 months it took me to get going. So let’s hope the next few weeks go well: going door-to-door, explaining the project, teaching separation techniques of organic and inorganic trash, budget planning and learning my way around messed up African political systems! Wish me luck!

Fly Season

2008-07-11T12:57:00.000-07:00

Back from Dakar. My foot is nearly healed, just a little puffy and tender in one spot. Honestly it is the smallest cut now that in America would have been perfectly fine. Here, I needed ten days of antibiotics. Gotta love Africa.

I have spent my time wandering around Bambey greeting people. Hope to get some more work done with people before I leave for Europe. After just over a week, people say they missed me and that they thought I forgot all about them. They all ask for gifts. It’s rather stressful leaving and coming back. Not looking forward to that after my 35 day Euro-tour. But I am very much looking forward to Italian pasta, Greek men (oops, did I say that?) and French cuisine. 31 days – but who’s counting?

As for work, I am very happy with how my women’s group president handled things while I was away. We are planning a sort-of town meeting next week. I hope to ask a few questions about what people think can be done, show the DVD of the compost project in Joal, south of Dakar, and get contacts of people interested in helping. I really need authoritative support as well as an entire neighborhood to show up to see what this is all about. Hopefully we have a good turn-out. This may be a big project and we will need funding but I think it will be a great project to start here and leave for my replacement volunteer.

Other stuff that is going on: My fish salesman makes a great profit. Finally got him to admit that to me. He doesn’t need funding, in my opinion, and could expand his business whenever. It’s a motivation thing. But I have made contacts with 2 villages: one that I want to send a volunteer there next year and another that may get funding from my contacts at World Vision. My other women’s group is out in the fields farming. It is the rainy season so EVERYONE is working and there isn’t much spare change lying around. We will pick up projects after the rain. My porridge training won’t go. At least I haven’t heard from my president and refuse to work with the man at CEDEPS. I’ll call her soon enough but think that project also needs to wait until food is less scarce after the harvest. Price of everything is high. Propane tends to even run out and prices are almost double.

What else is new in Bambey? Flies. Mosquitoes. Humidity. Heat rash. Just to name a few. Mosquitoes really only come out at night and I have screens so just refuse to sit and watch TV with my family. But the flies! Sick! They are everywhere, crawling all over everything and everyone! The humid air has given me this wonderful, prickly rash all over my back that I am guessing will spread everywhere else until I leave this continent. 31 days… Have I ever mentioned that it is hot?! And I slept horribly last night. Oh story – woke up in a panic last night thinking someone was trying to break in at 12:30. I tried to let my eyes adjust since I was worried this “burglar” would see my flashlight. But then I couldn’t stand it and shined my light in that direction. Come to find out, what I was hoping wasn’t on the outside of my door was actually on the inside! A nasty, stray cat somehow got in my room, probably when I was eating dinner and I was so frightened of it! I first texted 3 friends, to try and figure out what to do! I considered staying in my bed and dealing with it in the morn but knew that wasn’t a good idea. So I got up, opened both my doors, turned on all my lights and had to yell and throw things under my bed to get it out from under there. My heart was pounding for like 10 minutes after. I prefer dogs.

Enjoy your summer for me. Summer’s here just aren’t that great. Sorry I am not my normal, positive self. It’s difficult. I still like it here, don’t want to leave, but know very well it is easier elsewhere. Like maybe a lifeguarding position when every 20 minutes you can splash water on yourself, every hour go down the slide and constantly hope some kid is in distress in the deep end. Yea, now that’s a sweet job.

Goo!

2008-07-08T07:44:00.000-07:00

Happy belated birthday America! Turns out this was my first one celebrated abroad and it was just a bit different! Get out a map – we traveled as far away as possible in Senegal to Kedougou on the boarder near Guinea. What a blast! I’ll try to give you a re-cap of all the festivities!
A friend came here to Bambey to stay the night and we were picked up on July 1 by 4 others to fill a 7-place station wagon with 5 bikes on top. Normally, this famous road from Kaolack to Tambacounda takes an average 8 hours to go just 150 miles since it’s a paved road with deep pot holes. About an hour into the trip, since none of us had ever been down this road, we asked what village our driver thought would be a good one to stop and have lunch… he was also a rookie! Needless to say, it took us 12 hours to get to Tamba.

We stayed at that PC regional house overnight and got in another 7-place to Kedougou the next morning. This road is only supposed to take 4 hours. About 20 minutes after leaving the garage, we hit a cow, and then a tree. Our driver was an IDIOT! He sped up and aimed for its head. Honestly. Everyone was fine, I’ve hit deer before and they do damage. We got the hind leg of ol’ Bessy and she limped off, hopefully to be found sooner than later by her herder and our car didn’t have anything wrong with it. But our driver stopped the next 7-place going back to Tamba to tell them to send a mechanic and another 7-place since our car didn’t work properly. We thought this was very responsible, giving horribly unreliable transport in this county. So we waited in a village for 2 hours for this car to go 10 miles from the garage, he got there, we switched all the bikes and luggage, the mechanic took our old car for a spin and came back 2 minutes later to say it was fine and our driver didn’t know what he was talking about. So we moved all our luggage back and even though I asked sincerely for a smarter driver, they just laughed and sent us on our way. That took 8 hours total.

Arriving in the ‘gou was amazing. It is seriously a different world down there. Trees! Grass! Fat cows! Mountains! I couldn’t stop taking picture so make sure to check them out! I have tried to select the best. In 5 days I took nearly 200! So on the 3rd, we decided to bike to waterfalls. There were lots of us who wanted to go so I left with 3 other girls to get a head start in front of the boys, assuming they would catch up. Well then we got lost. A good hour, lost, until we found locals going the same direction to get us back on track. These are not easy paths! We were exhausted, pissed, hungry and thirsty. It is like 30k so like 18ish miles but an hour in the wrong direction added on to that. Never have I NEEDED a mountain bike on such terrain before so was rather unprepared. We got to the village and relaxed for a bit and decided to head to the falls still like 5k from this village. We left at 1pm without eating. We got to the bottom of the falls to the river, sat in it, and the 4 of us decided not to hike up the 45minutes uphill to see the falls. Sad but honestly, my body wouldn’t allow it. So by that time, everyone was starting to come down from the falls and we went to find lunch in the village. We stayed at a very nice campement, but also got lost getting there! Signs are needed for the inexperienced. That night, we ate dinner at 8 and fell asleep at 8:45 until sunrise. Then we headed back in order to make the party.

It was so easy getting back. Left at 7 and were home and showered by 10:30. About 70-80 volunteers made it down and we had delicious food: grilled pork and potato salad were my favorites! Plenty of beverages and our private DJ playing only American music, it was a constant dance party. We only had about 10 fireworks but we sang the national anthem through them all and it was great! We tried right?! The regional house in Kedougou is all outdoors so it was the perfect atmosphere!

The next day was recovery day. Dancing after all that biking and being just a bit dehydrated made for a pool day where friends were staying at a hotel. The next day we took transportation to a different set of falls further away. So I did get to see one! Pictures don’t do it justice: it was beautiful! The transport wasn’t that fun since it was the same road we biked on but it was the only way to do a day-trip. We only broke down once and another time had to all get out for him to properly clear a ditch so all in all it wasn’t that bad. To go that 30ishK was over 2 hours. Crazy right? Just not easy to travel down there!

I did have plans to go home through the north and take a few more vacation to see some friends’ sites but decided to come home instead. I got back here in 8 hours, yey! and am caring for my foot. I have a bit of an infection that I made someone else scrub like crazy, bringing plenty of tears streaming down my face. I came to Dakar to have our doctor look at it and she gave me meds to make things all better! I’ll live – all the adventures were well worth a sore foot!

Hope you all had a great Fourth!

Bring on the Mosquitoes

2008-06-28T04:32:00.000-07:00

First there is the rain. (By the way, I got my room fixed but it hasn’t rained since so I don’t know how well it was fixed. We will see.) Second, everything turns green. It is so nice to see bits of grass filling in the sand and the baobab trees have leaves again! Third, mosquitoes hatch… many, many mosquitoes.

This year, good ol’ president Wade made a President’s Malaria Initiative . USAID funded hundreds of thousands of mosquito nets. The department of Bambey (kinda like a county) received over 34,000 nets. What they do is pair up mosquito net coupons with Vitamin A supplements and Mebendazole distrib. Teams of Senegalese go into the bush and around the city door-to-door giving the vitamins and coupons to kids. Obviously this is hard work! And then pregnant women and people with kids age 0-5yrs come in to the Health Centers with their coupons to get the nets.

I heard about all this and went to a meeting to see if I can help. I paired up with World Vision since I already had a relationship with some people from the office. We became part of the supervision team. Yesterday, I went out with Bruno (world vision dude) to 3 different health centers distributing everything to check on the system. Today, I went with 5 others in an SUV (air conditioned – amazing) to three other sites (a long ways down a horrible road – not amazing). All in all… management of these health centers is HORRIBLE. There are so many people sitting around with screaming kids in the heat waiting in long lines for their nets. There is no easy way to show proof for ages of kids besides seeing the kids themselves. Birth certificates don’t exist, only vaccination cards but only people who want them have them. There are so many problems with all of this. Sometimes rumors exist that meds given cause infertility so moms don’t let their kids receive the vitamins. Nets aren’t hung since it’s hot so people sleep outside. There are so many nets given away for free that they don’t see their importance. Sometimes people really want them so they make the kids go 2 or 3 days in a row to take heavy doses of meds. And then management of it all is also difficult. There may be 2 or 3 health centers but like over 30 villages without transport since all the horses are used in the fields for tolling and planting, getting ready for the rain. We went around to ten houses asking if people had come around. It’s a cultural thing, like a superstition, to mention how many kids you have or if you are pregnant is bad luck; like if you talk about it, it causes a stillborn or a death of a child. So we tried to do a survey of 10 houses but it took over 2 hours to get all the answers! I am exhausted!

I have now decided it is just not possible for me to go back out again tomorrow. I am so tired I can hardly think! The heat of the afternoon and not nearly enough water and food… tomorrow I am going to say it is a day to recuperate. But get this: I have to talk with people at the mayor’s office, send a fax at the post office, eat lunch at my women’s group’s president’s house, call and talk to my fish salesman, go to CDEPS and personally drag my work partner (he’s the kind of guy that is better than us since he’s a man) to a training for another women’s group on porridge.
So next week – I am going on vacation. For the fourth of July there will be a PCV party in Kedougou. It’s a long ways away but should be fun. I’ll fill you all in when I’m back. In the mean time, I’ll be sleeping, inside my net away from all the mosquitoes!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

2008-06-17T12:45:00.000-07:00

I think I am getting really close to getting some concrete work done here in Senegal. How long has it been? Oh yea, I’ve been here for over 9 months! Geez. Honestly, sometimes it feels like all I do is meet and talk with people about working but never really work, per se. I have a list in my calendar of people that I need to call and schedule meetings or remind them of meetings to come. During these meetings, we first discuss how the family is and how my work is and what we plan on doing together, but really, we haven’t done that much yet. I’ll give some examples:

I have 2 women’s groups that I work with. One has been interested in doing a compost facility. I have met with the president of the group several times and now twice with a small array of the group’s members. We watched a DVD on the compost project that former volunteers did and discussed a bit about how we can change it to make it work here. To tell you the truth, I am so excited to get this going that I have too keep reminding myself to slow down so I don’t get disappointed. I talked to my supervisor about it tonight who immediatly took me to people working in the mayor's office. I just wanted to talk to him, my supervisor, about it and wasn't preparied to meet with officials. I guess it went alright and we should be planning another film watch and discussion soon. I'll keep you posted.

I got a call from a guy named Demba a few weeks ago who got my number from a volunteer down the road. He wants to do a training with me with 2 other women’s groups to make a vitamin rich porridge. I am all about this training and meeting all the women in the groups, but we, again, have been talking about doing this training now for the last 3 weeks. Maybe it will be tomorrow, as scheduled. Maybe.

My other women’s group has been all talk as well, but they are saving up money monthly so hopefully we can do a large tie-dying project in the future. Lamine, my fish salesman, and I planned a day to go out into the bush together. I stopped by his house the day before we were scheduled to leave and said everything was set up. I got picked up the next morning at 5ish and found no Lamine, but the other 3 guys from the last time. Lamine has been pretending to change his accounting system to please me, but he isn’t the one going out into the village and just writes the books up for me when I get there. Good to know I guess. The trip into the bush was worthwhile though: there is a women’s group there that wants funding so I got their contact info and will put them in contact with World Vision here in Bambey. Oh, side story: when I was meeting with the women, they wanted to make it official so introduced me to their religious leader. (Keep in mind, I work directly with the religious marabou in Ndem) The two women brought me over to him. They took off their shoes and knelt down in front of him, never looking him in the eye, to show respect. Naturally, the expected me to do the same. I have officially knelt down in front of a man…ah. What a complex he must have, thank goodness I am working with women! Don’t get me wrong, I do curtsey for elders here, which is something I had trouble with in the beginning, but not getting up from a kneeling position?! Really?!

I have plans to do a bit of work with Pres Wade’s Malaria Initiative. It’s a nation-wide thing and I will go to the meeting on Friday to see what I can do here in Bambey to help and next week I am going to our regional capital to do mosquito net distribution. Also, have plans to work with another volunteer put the Ndem catalogue on a CD to send to American clients…. Want to sell their products? http://www.maamsamba.com/ Let me know! In between all this work, I need to figure out how to repair my roof before the next storm. It rains just about as much in my room as out. Filled 4 bowls of water during the storm and cleaned for 2 hours after that. Not something I want to do until the end of August!

All that else is new is that Gista, the puppy, sat on command today while I was holding a bone from dinner rather than jumping. She’s learning! Oh, and I think I am allergic to ocotpus... long story, but we went to the beach, boiled and grilled octopus and about 5 hours later I broke out in hives. Real attractive in a swim suit! Haha! Happy summer!

Power is Out

2008-06-09T06:06:00.000-07:00

Bambey has been out of electricity so much this week, there is no where to find ice. Without a fan, my room acts just as an oven would, metal roof and very small windows with screens. I would love to leave my door open but tend to not wear enough clothes that is socially acceptable. Saw my thermostat at 105. It’s official – Africa is hot.

The other day, during a straight 10 hour power outage, I was at a funeral ceremony for my host mom’s dad’s second wife. Technically (well, not really), since I am my host mom’s mom, the woman who passed away was my co-wife. You get it? At this funeral, they rented 320 chairs, 3 big tents and cooked food for everyone, and we were all served at once! There weren’t enough chairs, nor rice to go around. I have never seen so many people all in one spot. It was a big deal, and felt weird to know everyone knew me (could be the fact that I stick out, with or without my Senegalese garb on), who my namesake was and how I somehow have replaced her in a way. This culture is particular, but interesting. Anyways, it was frickin’ hot with no cold water to be found.

We had a successful artisan expo this weekend. Planning for it was a bit stressful contacting all the volunteers to contact all their artisans. Keep in mind we don’t all have cell phone access and internet connections to make life easier. But as for the expo, we had about 12 artisans selling to all the expats and a few locals at a private club in Dakar. It was incredibly successful since the artisans sold their products very well – everything from clothing, sandals, juices and jewelry. It was great! We hope to have another one in time for Christmas presents.

As for other work, I have been busy meeting people to schedule other meetings. Maybe I am not really getting anything done just yet, but we all plan on it! I have several women’s groups; now I think I am up to 4 who all want to do different projects. I met with someone today that thinks classes to teach Microsoft Office would be nice. I saw my fisher salesman the other day. He wasn’t feeling well so his kids went out without him. I got there around 5 and they hadn’t made it back yet. Lamine called them and come to find out, they ran out of gas! I left Lamine’s at 6 and the boys found gas and were making their way back…. Glad I didn’t choose that day to go along! Who knows when the got back but Lamine said they left at 4 am.

Everything is good! I am getting real good at telling men off, and I really love working with women. Hope you are all enjoying late spring/ early summer while I am already looking forward to the feeling of goosebumps in February!

Rain

2008-05-23T11:02:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Senegal at the end of rainy season. It rained twice; the most recent being in October. Last night, I was awoken by the rain (for those who don’t know me well, I sleep through everything). I woke up with a smile on my face listening to the rain hit the tin roof of my little room here in Ndem, resisting the urge to go play in it. But then panic hit. If it is raining in Ndem, 11k away in Bambey, it is most definitely raining as well. I have a few quarter-size holes in my roof, not to mention probably another dozen smaller ones that I have put off getting fixed. Shit. Rain is great and all; I just would have been interested to see what it does to my room. I have heard devastating things about Bambey and the rainy season. We tend to have a bit of a garbage problem. With garbage comes puddles, and puddles come mosquitoes. I may be spending a lot more time in Ndem when the rain really starts coming.

I have been in Ndem since Wednesday early morning. That’s the coolest part of the day and there is no way I could bike it another other time. We finished a grant application that should get mailed out by next week. Then we started working more on the IFAT application and hit a few road blocks. I’ll try to explain. First, there were the obvious road blocks. Abdou, who I work directly with, happens to be the busiest and most popular person in Ndem. He is in charge of everyone’s problems and if there was enough time in every day, he would find them all solutions. So he had a bit of politics to deal with around here and our application got tossed aside. I planned to leave this morning before breakfast, but since he was so busy with other stuff, we hardly got started. So I have decided to leave after work tonight – around 7pm. (I may die in the heat but I have to get back)

The other road block deals with way the business here in Ndem is run. Back in training, they emphasized how businesses here in Senegal, and other African cultures have trouble separating business with family (social) affairs. I guess I just figured, assumed, that Ndem was different. Well! As we are going over the application, questions come up asking what percentage of profits is used to go back into development. He said plain and simply that we cannot know this. You see, here, if someone has a wedding or baptism or is too sick to work, Ndem takes money from the business and gives it to them. If there is ever a problem at the primary school or a need at the maternity center, they hand over money; not a whole lot of questions asked. They will have to change their entire way of accounting in order for us to make this IFAT certification possible. At least I alerted them of this problem. Maybe we will change some things?

It’s not the end of the world I guess. We have other plans for Ndem. As volunteers, we are forming a network of artisans here in Senegal. In 2 weeks, we are having an expo of products of artisans as our work partners at the Club Atlantique. We will sell products from all over Senegal in one place, joining together people that we all talk about all the time, and getting them to talk to each other. I get to go to an Ndem store in Dakar next weekend and pick out all the products that we hope to sell at the Club. Let’s hope I pick the right ones!

A few more hours until I hit the dusty trail… can’t it just spontaneously start raining now? I am cursing the beautiful blue sky.

The Downs and Ups of Public Transport

2008-05-16T05:26:00.000-07:00

My brother and I got a car to share a month after I got my licence. A year later, I got my own and from then on, didn't ever really need to share. Public transport in Wisconsin is completely underused and useless but I am convinced that I will someday live in a city where it is better than the alternative. I have studied mass transit in Brazil and know of all the wonderful qualities but honestly, until last night, I felt complete hatred toward transportation in Senegal.

Getting to Diourbel is generally not a problem. I usually have help from a guy at the garage, Sall, but when I don't I generally don't mind waiting until a bus comes. But a few weeks ago I was ready to head back home rather than get a much needed break from Bambey because of the hell the garage put me through.

I showed up at the garage and didn't find my friend. No big deal, there is a lady that sells food that I see every time I am with Sall. So her and I talked and I was in a good mood... that I feel I should point out since people tell me that I am quite easy to read. Keep listening to my story... So the bus pulls up to go to Diourbel and I approach it and greet the guy politely but he simply says I cannot get on. I ask why and he says because I need to wait for the bus to fill up in the garage rather than get on here. Meanwhile, several Senegalese get on the bus. I argued a bit more saying there is no bus in the garage and I would pay the fair and he stops in Diourbel on the way anyways, but he said there are no seats available for me. NOT TRUE - I could see seats. So when I tried to get on spite him, he got in my way and more or less kicked me off, honked the horn and drove away.

So then, my good mood started to fade away but I was convinced that I was still going to Diourbel. A 7-place car pulls up and let some people out. Normally I wouldn't pay for a seat in a 7-place since it is more expensive, but after the incident with the bus I said I didn't care. So I walked up, greeted, asked them all where they were going, noticed there were 2 seats available and asked the driver and he rudely replied that I couldn't get in. He said I had to wait at the garage or talk to "those men over there" to get a ride. So maybe this is the job of my friend, Sall, and I didn't realize it? I should know this by now.... or they are just pulling my leg. I started thinking, do I really want to go to Diourbel tonight?

So I walk up to the two men, greet properly and explain my situation. One explained to me that if I am in such a hurry, I just need to rent the minicar (aka bus for 20) to take me there alone. That was the breaking point. I blew up at them saying how outrageous that was, renting a bus to take one person... how I am a development worker living and working in this town and I probably threw too many insults in at them but couldn't help myself. He happened to know my host mom and asked questions about my work. I was still pissed. They were in disbelief, as I was a young woman telling them off in Wolof, nearly in tears but far too mad to cry. After their quick appologies, another bus pulls up and they simply said, why don't you get on that one. "AHHH! Ok! I will!"

So I walk over to the bus and see the two apprentices that collect the money. I explained where I was going and they said it was 800cfa. "No, its 300". No, 800. 300. 700. AHH I'll pay 500, just let me get on this damn bus! (Sometimes prices fluctuate but at this point I knew I was just getting screwed and tried real hard not to care) So I got on and sat down next to a nice woman. The apprentice asked her where she was going: Diourbel. She gave him a 500 piece and she got 200 back. He asked for my money, I gave him a 500 and didn't get any change. I normally wouldn't do this, but I called him a liar and said in a raised voice how unfair it was. He still didn't give me my money back.

I made it to Diourbel and vented to my friends and just hate public transportation. Point blank. Until last night. I decided to come to Diourbel late last night since an appointment fell through. It was dark by the time I wanted to leave so I just went to a gas station to wait rather than the garage. A bus pulled up right when I was arriving and got on. The guy said it was 400 and I was quick to say 300 but he stayed strong and I tried not to care. After a few people got off, the apprentice and I started talking and I asked where the bus was going and what his work is like. He asked where I was going and I said to town. He told me to make sure not to pay more than 125 for a clando cab ride. Very nice of him to even mention that, and then, he gave me back my 100cfa since he charged me too much! How nice right?

All that being said, if ever trip was like a few weeks ago, I would never leave Bambey. But last night was great! I guess the moral that I learned from this is that I am the minority and sometimes it can really suck but you only really know if you are the minority.

Busy month of May

2008-05-12T07:33:00.000-07:00

I have visited 11 out of 12 girls from one school, six from another and have yet to see the girls from my third middle school. I have scheduled appointments to meet with the rest this week. It has been rather stressful arranging all the meetings times and places but well worth it. I believe I am the only volunteer doing three schools alone, so that’s why I am so busy, but truthfully, if I have enough time, I will do the same thing next year. The principals chose the girls based on grades and financial limitations. I just get to read their essays answering questions about their futures, and visit and talk to them at their houses. Results have been fairly mixed, but I have mostly been quite impressed with the girls. Many want to be doctors, writers, and other want to be business owners and politicians. They never get the chance to answer the question about their futures so the essays were much harder for them than would be for an American kid, and I have asked one girl to re-write her essay since it wasn’t specific enough, but otherwise these girls are great. When I have some more time to breathe, maybe in the month of June, I may start up a few girls groups just to hang out and talk. They give us some very good ideas for capacity building and some of the brightest and most motivated girls have now fallen into my hands.

Last weekend was Jazz fest in St. Louis. I was up there for New Years but just wasn’t as impressed with the festivities this weekend. It was nice to get out of Bambey and see everyone, but I ended up coming home a day before I planned. It is expensive to be out of site staying in hotels and eating every meal out so after I bought the most expensive purse that I have ever purchased, (it’s beautiful !) I came home a day sooner. Played at the beach, in the pool and enjoyed everyone’s company, but am glad to be back.

This way, I have the day off and get to catch up on the internet and my plans for the next few weeks. I am trying so hard to organize all of my projects. I make lists of what I need to accomplish on the internet and who I need to call and where I need to visit. I know people in all corners of Bambey now. Thank goodness it is just a city of like 25,000 and just about a 30 minute walk from one side to the other. I just won’t make the mistake of walking home at 1:30 ever again! I had to cross the main road where there are plenty of boutiques and bought a cold yogurt and drink and came home and enjoyed it rather than a hot plate of rice and fish.

I am really starting to miss the updates on all of your lives! I feel like I am telling people all the time what I am doing but never hear about you!! Fill me in! Please send me an email or a card in the mail. How crazy are the elections? What are the headlines? Any good movies come out lately? It’s only 8 months in and I am officially disconnected! Help!

Camel Crossing

2008-04-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

So there are just a few things that are different about my world than they used to be. Sometimes it takes me a minute to think, “Wait a minute, that’s not normal”. Here are a few stories:

So I went “fishing in the desert” with Lamine yesterday. I am calling the project that in hopes that soon enough, when I convince him that he needs to change his accounting books, I can get American money to fund him in repairing his truck. Psst, that’s where you come in ;) wink wink. My alarm went off at 4:14am just in time for me to get ready in the dark. When I left I noticed that lights were on in my family’s compound, but I’ll get to that story in a minute. We sold fish to many women that I had never met before, showing me that Lamine really does have probably over 50 villages that he could sell to if he had 2 trucks that worked. You know in Wisconsin when you have to look out for deer? This time we had to slow down for camels in the road!! There were so many all over in between villages grazing. They are HUGE and I’ve decided that I have to go to Touba next year to celebrate Magal since friends told me they ate camel. I just have to try it!

So I have started my work in the middle schools. This week I will be going to all three of them and meeting with the girls to have them all write me an essay about their futures, as well as hear what the teachers have to say about them. Then, I’ll plan to visit all their houses to meet all their families. It is going to be an awful mess of Fre-olof but I hope it will be ok! I will be plenty busy the month of May! In getting to one of the middle schools, I pass a bunch of people working in a metal workshop. There are boys with apprenticeships starting in their early teens, up to men who have been in the trade all their lives. In passing, I normally get called “toubab” if I don’t greet them first. Well I’ve grown rather used to it so I didn’t greet them and walked on passed, but this time, an apprentice called out “red ear”, which is a much more derogatory way to point out our differences. I was pissed and called back saying that was rude but kept on walking, hearing them repeat what I said either in a mocking tone or surprise wondering if I really know Wolof. The next day, I took that same route and he did the same thing. This time, I went over, and explained in Wolof the proper way to greet someone, especially when they are your elder. He was extremely uncomfortable since obviously he knows this and didn’t think I would. The next time I passed him, he waved and smiled at me, with the proper greeting.

So why was their light on at 4:30 in the morning? A family moved into our compound about a month ago. They have a daughter with a disability, 10ish, son, 8ish, and another daughter, just learning to walk. The dad is off in Diourbel working while the mom stays here, never really leaving even to go to the market. I’m not here a lot so truthfully, I didn’t notice all of this, but I guess the kids don’t eat anything besides millet and yogurt and the mom doesn’t clean or even bath the kids daily. Late on Friday night, my host mom, Fatou, and sister went to Diourbel for a baptism at her sister’s. I had an appointment at the middle school Saturday so I went to that and then went to the baptism at eleven. I got back here and hung out until around 9 when a friend and I went for dinner. I was in bed by 10 since I had to get up the next morning at 4 and I slept through everything… When I woke up from my nap after “fishing” Fatou asked me where was I and what was I doing last night that I didn’t even help Koumba. I was very confused and said exactly what I did. Come to find out, Koumba had a baby at 3am – COMPLETELY ALONE! In our compound, there are about 6 rooms that that family, Sophie and Dabakh and I rent from Fatou. Koumba knocked on Dabakh’s door around midnight and asked him for help. He went to try and find a car to get her to the hospital and by the time he came back, she had already had the baby and cut its umbilical cord so she claimed that everything was alright and didn’t want to get in the car to go to the hospital. She didn’t even call her husband. In the car home from Diourbel, Fatou got a call from Koumba’s husband saying she had the baby and asked for her help to get her to Diourbel. When Fatou saw her, she knew she had lost too much blood and got her transport to Diourbel’s hospital. Koumba didn’t know how to cut the umbilical cord correctly and ended up needing 3 bags of blood when she got to Diourbel. The kids are now being taken care of by the neighbors while she is in the hospital. I guess Koumba’s family live in Matam, on the boarder of Mauritania/Mali so it may be awhile before she gets their help. There is no such thing as paternity leave here so Koumba is on her own. How did I sleep through the screaming of a new born baby; not to mention that of a woman giving birth?!

So needless to say, it’s been a crazy few days. The next few weeks are going to take a lot out of me so today I am claiming it to be a Kira Day. I slept in until 10:30, replanted my seeds in hopes that the 4th time will be the charm to get basil, spearmint and other delights to actually grow, I plan on watching a few movied and I may leave after lunch to go shopping in the market for a few things. I want to start cooking lunch on my own but I need to buy a propane tank first. And things to cook with. And a table to cook on. But If I don’t get around to it, that’s just fine. I need today to be normal so watching movies on my computer all day may just be necessary. Happy Kira Day.

Pufferfish are squishy!

2008-04-23T08:42:00.000-07:00

Maybe I should call this blog entry “playing tourist” since that’s exactly what I have done for the past few days. I went to celebrate a friend’s birthday in Dakar this weekend. We made chili, hamburgers and even chocolate cake! Then on Sunday, I was minding my own business, eating breakfast when I over heard a friend mention he was going scuba diving. I obviously had to invite myself along! I had heard good things about it before and had to check it out! That afternoon we went 12 and a half meters down to swim around a shipwreck! They gave us all the equipment and a nice warm full body wet suit that I really didn’t think was necessary until we were about 10 meters down. It was great! We saw quite a few fish and lots of blow fish that our guide agitated and passed around for us to touch. We saw lots of starfish and even though the water wasn’t incredibly clear, it was lots of fun, and not all that outrageously priced… unless you are looking at it from a volunteer’s point of view! Very fun, spontaneous afternoon!

From Dakar, I got to meet 2 friends visiting a friend here and we went a few hours south along the shore. Palmarin is actually quite difficult to get to and there is not much in between it and the closest city. We stayed at a campement there and walked to a village near by for dinner. The next day we went kayaking through the mangroves with a very cool guide. He took us all around the mangroves, pointed out the lizards sleeping in the trees and let us walk around to get a closer look at the flamingos. We even had coffee inside a baobab tree! After lunch in another village, we went back to Joal, the next closest city to spend the night. Previous volunteers in Joal started quite a profitable compost facility that was very interesting to check out after hearing so much about it.

Overall, these last few days were great! Check out my pictures when I get the chance to post them. Senegal is very pretty and rather fun as a tourist! I invite you all to come! Now I am back to reality in Bambey and hope to stick around a while to save some money! I’ve got lots of plans and plenty of people to meet up with! Should be a good next few weeks!

Watch out for the goats!

2008-04-18T12:48:00.000-07:00

Only for obvious reasons I guess! Biking back from Ndem today, I fell off my bike and skinned my knee in the gravel. When last did I have a skinned knee? Good question. And you know how everyone has that reaction to get up and look around to see who saw? Well, randomly, I was on 1km out of the 13K road that actually had kids on their way to school. So it was if I was back in grade school, just as mortified. Maybe I proved a point… “That’s why the toubab wears that funny thing on her head! She falls!” Terrific. Don’t worry, my knee will be fine and in order to restore my dignity, I am just going to tell everyone that I was going super fast and a stampede of goats ran out in front of me and had to swerve out of the way. You believe it right?

So like I said, I went to Ndem hoping to work on the IFAT application again. We didn’t exactly get to the application this time, but I am proud of my accomplishments. I had been asking Abdou how people send in orders because there is a chalkboard with clients’ names and dates, along with a mess of random papers that have very important information on them. So I talked to him about creating an order from. All of their products are already on the computer, so for the rest of the day, he and I made an order form! I am suddenly known in Ndem as “borom informatique” – master of computers! That’s right! It took me forever but I have it all set up and organized so that clients can simply copy and paste what they would like to order, specify the color and size and email it in. Abdou is going to send it to a few clients and ask them what they think, since we are probably missing a few things, but job well done in Ndem.

I went “fishing in the desert” earlier this week with Lamine. We sold 5 cases of fish to 23 villages including 34 women. I have recommended a different way for him to keep track of who owes him money in his accounting book. I have a feeling what he tells me his profits are, isn’t exactly accurate. I hope he understood me, but if not I can always go back out. This time, we didn’t get stuck in the sand and only had a slight scare with the missing breaks! I was asked to spend the day, and sometimes night by just about everyone, so I have to come up with a plan to avoid all the nice invitations next time. I took a few pictures, so check those out!

Ron Tchetter, the PC director came to visit us. I got the chances to talk to him, which was very cool. He told us stories about how he was a community health volunteer in India in the 60s with his wife and how since being the director, has traveled to over 40 countries and that he reports directly to the president, who “gets very excited about all this stuff”. (George? Excited?) This visit, he saw Guinea, Senegal and was on his way to the Gambia. 3 other volunteers and I met with him to talk about our work with artisans. The Africa regional director was also at the meeting and will get us in contact with other countries that are already exporting successfully. Hopefully we will get in touch with the people that export to Hallmark and Ten Thousand Villages!

I finally have met one of the three principals at the middle schools. And I’ll be meeting the rest as I will with my women’s groups soon enough. But early next week, I’ve got plans to play tourist in the mangroves! Life is good in Senegal. Watch out for the goats!

Gej naa la bind!

2008-04-13T07:58:00.000-07:00

So I have officially been in country for 7 months today! Mom, that means just 19 to go! And just 4 months from yesterday, I will be on my way to Rome. The Peace Corps gives us 2 days for every month in country as official vacation days. I will be using all of my days out of Senegal, and the first 35 are going to be in Europe! Hope to see four or five countries in that time and my plan is to go alone; on my own schedule (where for once I don’t have to tell anyone where I am going and when I will be back and deal with how they miss me and when they will see me next… oh the Senegalese). Can’t wait! If you know of anyone abroad in Italy, Greece, England, or France (or any boarding country for that matter) let me know if they are cool with me staying on their couch for a few days!

Gej naa la bind: It’s been a while since I’ve written… my apologies! I have nearly stopped writing in my journal too. Maybe I have been busy? Nothing to complain about. I was in Dakar for a few days following a business conference and had a university student who stayed with me for 5 nights. She is studying abroad here in Dakar and was assigned a week-long rural visit. I made sure she lived up the rural life since we went to Ndem for 2 of those nights, which she actually really enjoyed. She even got to experience how trying it is to get out there with public transport: took over 2 hours to get into a bus that ended up breaking down twice and needed to be pushed by like 10 men! We made it though! It was nice to show someone around my home, a bit too hot for her liking. Dakar gets an ocean breeze; I don’t.

So I have been introduced to 2 women’s groups’ presidents this week. I wrote up a “Demande de Travail” telling them what Peace Corps is and what I can do, requesting to only work with serious people. I gave it to my supervisor who found these women for me. My counterpart went with me to introduce me to Astou earlier this week. He did an excellent job of explaining what I can do and she responded with how she doesn’t want my money, but rather wants to know what she can do with what she has. I could hardly believe my ears. Hopefully she will be good to do actual development work with! The other president runs a restaurant with her group, so that will be interesting to learn about as well.

Still haven’t met with the middle school principals and am getting mad at myself. Lots to do there and I just keep putting it off since I have no one to introduce me to them. Honestly, I wish it wasn’t who you knew... And I haven’t been back into the bush with my fish salesman and it may be put off another week since he called me telling me his aunt passed away. I can’t wait to go again and take pictures and figure out the best way to find him some funding.

I went and made some good progress in Ndem earlier this week. I was quickly disappointed since they didn’t respond to my email asking questions to fill in the application for IFAT, but rather, I sat down with Abdou and he went to town answering questions. I will be going back to continue work on it. I would love to get to Ndem every week but I’ve made a few new contacts here in Bambey and need to figure out how to make it all work. I have always been the kind of person that wants to do everything all the time and its just not possible here. I am good at managing one appointment per day and making lists.

I will be going to the Thies training center this week. We have a new stage of volunteers that came in March and since the World Peace Corps Director is visiting Senegal for a few days, our country director thinks it is important to talk to him about Ndem and the work we are doing with artisans. Very cool, in my opinion.

What is work, really?

2008-03-28T12:10:00.000-07:00

So I have plans to break a record this week. I have yet to stay in Bambey for over a week without leaving the city limits… and I will be here for a total of 9 nights, inshallah. Do I say that now just like they do, as to not jinx myself? Like our expression, knock on wood? I guess so... I just haven’t planned to go to Ndem or go fishing or visit anyone else’s sites. I think it is a very good thing that I can stay here, comfortably for 10 days. Maybe I am making progress!

I have been taking a few baby steps to boost my confidence, friend circles and work partners. I am trying a whole new point of view and am getting good at saying how I feel. For example, one of my friends, Souliman (who admitted to me that God put him on this earth to love me) introduced me to a nice group of women my age working at a small organization. Ever since I met them all, they have supposedly been asking about me and gave Souliman their numbers so that he could then give them to me. Well, I went to CDEPS, where they all work, and ran into him and my soon-to-be best girl friends! So excited they won’t hit on me… anyways! I was sitting chatting with everyone and they asked why I hadn’t called. Well! I got on my friends case after he had asked me for a gift since I went to Gamou, the religious pilgrimage site. (By the way, its completely normal for people to demand gifts when ever I leave, so I usually buy a bag of oranges and whomever I see first gets them…) So when Souliman was asking for his gift, I simply laughed and him and said that he wasn’t nice, since I saw him in town just the other day and he didn’t give me my friends numbers. HA! It felt good to knock him down a bit. His ego will only suffer for a little while, but I was very happy with myself!

What else? I drank tea with both a tailor and an artist this week. I got them talking about the possibility of working together to sell products in more touristy areas. Hopefully Matar can get nice clothes designed and Dijibi can paint on them to make them unique. As volunteers, we are going to try to get a website to network artisans with eco-tourism sites. It is in such the early stages now, that it is hard to get artisans to really work since there are no immediate results. But it was a nice tea session!

I still haven’t started the girls’ scholarships for the middle schools yet, and when I think about it, I get stressed out. The MS scholarship is available for girls with good grades and motivation and also with limited financial resources to keep them in schools. I have three middle schools here in Bambey, and at each school, we interview 12 girls and their teachers, have them write an essay about their future and also, I will visit all of their homes. Do the math: I have to visit 36 families, read 36 essays and 36 recommendation letters. All of this needs to be done by June 1 so I can send my top 4 girls from each school! I have my work cut out for me whenever the schools quit striking and celebrating holidays… I sure hope that one girl from each school will get the scholarship. That is, if we have the funds! Want to help out? Send a check to:

Friends of Senegal and The Gambia
ATTN.: Daniel Theisen, SeneGAD
428 Bowleys Quarters Road
Baltimore, MD 21220

Volunteers all over Senegal do these scholarships and every year it is getting bigger. I know I will be throwing in 30,000cfa ($50) to support a girl; you should do the same!

My fish salesman came to visit me this morning. He says that all the women in the villages ask about me so I will be planning another day out soon enough. I also met with my supervisor and counterpart about finding women’s groups that actually want to work with me. I have started translating the IFAT application form for Ndem. They may think that I am going to do the whole thing for them since it’s all in English but that’s not the case. I will email them and tell them my change of opinion and see if they are serious enough to answer the questions I translated. I have had trouble wondering if they really want my help so that’s why I haven’t gone to visit in 3 weeks. If they want me to come, they will ask for me. It’s tough since they have such a huge opportunity in the world market and I love going there, but I feel used and useless, depending. We’ll see what happens. Life in Bambey is chill… not temperature wise, but it’s growing on me.

Off-roading in the bush

2008-03-24T09:53:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Mom! Hope you have a terrific day today! Go out for sushi, or Italian, or Red Lobster… or any meal that has a delicious bottle of red wine next to it. Enjoy for me! Love and miss you!

So it’s been a while since I have last written. I have been busy getting used to being frustrated. I have studied and been told thousands of times that when living abroad you go through different stages. Early on is the honeymoon stage when everything is wonderful and you think you never want to leave. Then that all disappears and you realize that life is better in America. I hope I move on soon to the stage that life becomes more comfortable. I’ll just say I have hit a few roadblocks of people not wanting to work with me or others saying they are in love with me and “there is nothing I can do about it since God made him that way”. Hmm. So I took a little break and I am back in Bambey ready to start again, but this time I am going to try and fit in less and be myself more. I’ll let you know how it goes.

My little break started with another Muslim holiday. Have I mentioned before that these holidays just aren’t the same? And other holidays in America are better (that’s the end of the honeymoon stage talking, sorry). So I went with my family in a rented van to the Tidiane pilgrimage site. I happen to have a friend that lives there so I was quite easily talked into going since I could spend the holiday with him and another friend that came in. Although I was told the van would be ready to pick us up at 7, that’s when I got up, took my time getting ready and packed, and it left after 10. It took a while finding the house, but we got there and without greeting anyone, we went in the house. The first thing weird about this celebration, was that we went to lie down in a back bedroom. Yes, like 10 of us women and kids in one bed and a few chairs to rest rather than socialize. After like 45 minutes, we were invited to breakfast at noon. After, we went up to the roof where a large shade structure was put up with lots of pillows and mattresses. There, we waited for lunch while people prayed. Lunch was great, but after I was rather excited to get out of there and speak some English; not to mention people watch. The city has 50,000 habitants, but it attracts over 1 million people. I bought some coconut and pineapple on the street and actually ran into someone from my Thies family.

After all these great celebrations, my friend and I decided to go to Dakar the next morn. The problem is that everyone wants to leave at that time so traffic just sits. I had 2 books with me and planned on reading them both and hopefully get to Dakar by sunset. Well! We lucked out, if you can call it that! After taking the last 2 seats of the 7-place car, excellent timing, it took us an hour just to get out of the garage. But that’s when the fun began! Our driver seems to have done this before. He followed a sand path into the bush, very quickly! A lot of sand acts like snow and I really thought we were going to fishtail into a few trees, people, and other vehicles. I say people since there were MANY people out pushing and digging sand out from under cars. Also, there were the manioc farmers running around with machetes threatening drivers that didn’t stay on the deep sandy path, which was impossible. Men were all in fancy clothing pushing and women were either in the cars (where I was :-) or in the shade breastfeeding kids and having to run after the cars after they became unstuck. It was hilarious and really dangerous, but most the whole way we could see the national road and traffic simply didn’t move. We weaved in and out of fields, cars and villages to make it almost the whole way to Thies, over 20k away! Somehow we made it to Dakar in about 5 and half hours, when usually it takes about 2 and half or 3. I only made it halfway through one of my books!

Gone Fishing

2008-03-12T12:33:00.000-07:00

Lamine is Moussa’s dad, one of the guys I work with in Ndem. Moussa once worked for his dad but has left his work for his younger brothers now since he has his own job in the office in Ndem. Lamine is an extremely hard working, smart, caring businessman. He has been selling fish to women in small villages for the last 20 years whom would otherwise have to access to it. So here is my story.

Woke up unhappily at 4:25 to mice eating something in my armoire. After I scared them off, my alarm went off just minutes later and didn’t really know if I could snooze since Lamine said he would be here “by 5, inshallah”, to pick me up. So I got ready and waited until almost 6 before he arrived (should have snoozed) and we left: Lamine, his sons, Pape Diop and Babacar and I. At this point, I thought we were headed all the way to the ocean to buy fish but since the truck isn’t reliable, they bought 4 cases of fish in Bambey at midnight. The pickup truck is small, smelly and unreliable with headlights that can only see a few meters in front of the car. Good thing Lamine knows the way well enough to downshift even before I could see the turn. The first few villages we sold to we did in the dark with a flashlight after waking up clients.

A little about the truck: it doesn’t start with a key, he hotwires it. Instead of antifreeze coolant, (like we have to worry about it freezing) they probably put over 40 liters of water in the radiator throughout the day since it goes through it so quickly. The breaks failed 2 or 3 times but good thing Babacar dropped out of school when he was 7 or 8 to become a mechanic. I couldn’t really figure out why Lamine brought along 2 sons rather than just one to help sell until we kept getting stuck in the sand… that’s why. Lamine would love to have a truck reliable enough to drive out to the ocean in the middle of the night and drive back through nearly 50 villages every day. Fish is unfairly marked up depending on the size of the catch and the middlemen who sell from refrigerated trucks in Bambey. He has rented a truck to see the possibilities and found out that fish could be sold as cheaply as 300 CFA/case. He purchased the 4 cases for 6500 CFA each in Bambey.

We drove far into the bush, as it is rightly called, on sandy paths worn down by Lamine’s truck and horse drawn carts. He knows everyone in these villages and works with women who sell the fish in their small markets. In some villages, when he started this, he had to train the women how to work. These women have such respect for him and what he is doing since he doesn’t only bring them nutrition, but he brings them income. There is no one else besides his kids and other fish sellers that he has trained that sell fish to these villagers. Weekly markets available to these villages are hard to get to several kilometers away and they can’t really stock up when they do manage to get there since they don’t have electricity for fridges and would love Lamine to sell fish to them every day.

So we passed through 16-18 villages, selling 3-40 fish to over 30 women, on credit. Sometimes they pay him from previous days and somehow he just knows who owes him however much. Most of the villages looked the same to me and I only went to like 16… he knows of over 50 with women in every one. He enters the center of a village and blows a whistle and women and kids come running with large bowls or buckets. They are rather picky about the fish he gives them so each woman is given their 40 fish plus 2 or 3 damaged ones as gifts. He passed by one grass hut in the middle of nowhere and just gave the woman 3 fish. I doubt she will pay since she is obviously a herder and hasn’t been there long, by the looks of her family’s hut. Can Lamine really afford to just give these fish away?

So we drive further and further in, selling to more and more villages. I questioned, what if you don’t sell all the fish? He looked at me, puzzled, “well you just have to go to another village”. It was probably 10:30 when we sold all the fish and we took a coffee break at a friend’s house. This is when he showed me his notebook. He writes down the name of the village and how much was collected or owed. After today’s sales, he should have made 44,800 but the only money collected so far was from paying back previous debts. So when we were done with breakfast, we passed back through different villages to pick up yesterday’s money. It was hard to see these women disappointed that he was out of fish already but when we sat down to talk with one woman he has been working with for all of the previous 20 years, she was so happy that I was going to be working with him and actually gave me a gift of 4 eggs that her hen laid that morning. Do you realize these people don’t have enough protein in their diets and she is giving me the eggs?

We passed through villages from the morning, picking up money all the way back. We also purchased 15 sacs of charcoal for 1500CFA that can be sold in Bambey for 2500CFA. He also bought feed for his chickens and goats.

So when we got back, technically Lamine should have (4x6500=26,000) +gas8000 =34000. Sales44800 - costs34000= 10,800. Ten thousand, my friend, is about $20. We left before 6 am and got home for lunch in Bambey after 4. And that is if everyone pays sometime in the next few days. He trusts his clients and has only had trouble getting his money back if he waits to revisit them over 4 or 5 days. So with that 10,800, he sets aside 7000, as depreciation for the truck. When I asked what he does with this, he said puts it into his bank account. But really, he invests it in other ways, like by buying a new sheep or more chickens. They provide more of an investment than the unreliable banks. So really, he made about 3,800CFA (about $7). Such a hard working family; hopefully I can help them out by finding either a loan big enough or funding for a new truck.

Every excuse in the book

2008-03-09T07:19:00.000-07:00

So I lived a bit of the village life this past week. I stayed over in Ndem and worked a bit figuring out what to do in the next few months. I am having a bit of trouble getting integrated since I just don’t spend as much time there as I do in Bambey. I am trying so hard to gain their respect and trust but I can’t really do that until I do something significant and I can’t get assignments or permission with out that respect and trust. Do you see the problem? I’ve heard of similar problems in the “real world”: can’t get the job without the experience, can’t get the experience without the job. Patience and will power… hope to get the IFAT application finished and perfect before I go to Ndem next time. If they can afford to apply to be fair trade certified, I will be on the right track. There are still a lot of ifs, but let’s hope everything works out to plan eventually.

So I am starting to call Ndem a black hole. Once you get in, it’s rather difficult to leave! Even Senegalese from other places consider this true. The previous time I went, I took a bus in but had to wait over an hour by the side of the road for a bus to pass. While I waited, so did 3 others who were very impatient and they were even tempted to pay double to get a taxi sent out! So this last time I biked in (after fixing a flat all by myself, thank you!) and then met up with Pete, another volunteer who works a lot with artisans. Since he took public transport in, we took it back to his site and left my bike in Ndem.

It was just like being on a safari! He and I rode on top of what we call a bush taxi. It’s more or less a pickup truck with a cover and a rack on top for luggage… or in this case, Pete and I! Since the road is so bumpy, the driver went off the road onto the sand rather quickly. Kind of frightening! This taxi was headed in our direction, so we got on without asking questions. Turns out, it needed to drop off a barrel of gas for a water tower in a village about 10k off the road, down another sand path. So every small village we passed, kids would run after the car shouting “Toubab! Toubab!” On the way out of the village, the driver took a short cut to meet up with the road rather than taking the same road back… well there were a lot of low, thorny branches! Pete actually ripped his shirt and I got a few scraps on my back. All we did see were goats, sheep and cows. Hopefully the next safari has less thorns, scary hairpin turns around trees, and getting stuck in the sand and more giraffes!

After our 5 hours of transport in the hottest part of the day, we made it back to Pete’s site, which is incredibly famous for all their sandals (ppssst: if you want some let me know!). The next day, we went to visit 3 of the 5 villages that are working on a huge order for baskets to be sent to America. People in the villages are wonderfully friendly, which is a good thing since they don’t often make it out of grade school meaning I can’t rely on my backup French.

Village life is a bit more difficult for the toubab woman than it is for the man. I have a lot of respect for my friends that are in tiny villages like this. Men don’t exactly want to shake my hand and expect me to curtsey to show respect, which I rarely do. I spent lunch around a bowl with Pete and Daniel and about 5 other Senegalese men. Right there I am crossing a gender barrier since I was eating with the men. Not to mention, conversation for the next hour was about how I needed a husband. Honestly, I am perfectly happy being a single 23 year old since I know for sure, if I did marry one of these men, I would be cooking and doing their laundry and answering to their beck and call. How appealing?! My excuses didn’t appease them and they all want me back to visit soon. My response: Inshallah.

Chebb u jen

2008-02-28T08:28:00.000-08:00

So yesterday, I was rather crabby if you read my previous post, when my family told me I should cook lunch tomorrow. Sweet! I realize this is a great way to be integrated into the family and all, but all I could think about is how the camera would come out, and how they would laugh when a toubab tried to cook and gasp, need to use her left hand! Whatev. I gave in.

So here’s how it started. My friend, Matar, was over for lunch yesterday and so he initiated this lovely idea of having me cook. So this morning he came over quarter after 11 and was like, where is the chef? Umm... I’m here (still hoping I was going to get out of it). Just after 11 is when we start cooking. People in America don’t have time for this! That’s what they said when Matar asked what is our national plate… sandwiches or hamburgers to go since “Time is Money”. Seems to be the one and only phrase the Senegalese know in English. I hate admitting that its true, but it is. By the way, what is our national dish?

So we got all of the food out of the fridge since someone must have gone to the market earlier in the week (obviously noted by the smell of the fridge). We pulled out the raw veggies and fish and stuck them in the same bowl. Keep reading if you want to see how many “rules of the kitchen” have been broken. I’ve worked in too many restaurants to know that cross contamination is bad and we must clean everything with bleach. HAHA – that doesn’t exactly get done here. So we moved all of the food out to the “garage” area, that’s more like a porch where the “gaaz” or propane tank is. There are buckets of water that have to be filled from the tap in the back of the compound and other buckets of water used as waste since there is no sink, not to mention counters. All of this is done on the sandy cement floor with 3 baby chickens running around our feet.

So we light the gaaz and pour some oil in. Then I crushed several baby tomatoes with my hands, which I wasn’t told to wash, and mix them with a bit of tomato paste. I started peeling the veggies and scaling the fish. The maid thought my mom and sister were crazy when they yelled at her for starting, and said, wait, “she can scale?!” (thanks mom for teaching me that way back when I used to play with the fish eyeballs when camping) So then it was time to throw in the tomatoes into the oil. Also, I crushed garlic, onion, hot pepper and some Jumbo (magic ingredient in Senegal, aka bouillon cubes) into a wooden mortar, and yes, got my picture taken by my sister. I’ll ask her for the photos. Peeled and prepared the rest of the carrots, manioc, cabbage, eggplant, squash and potato. After you know, a while, we put all the veggies and fish together into the oil, tomato and like 2 pots of water. I say pots since measuring cups don’t exist and she seriously used a pot normally used for cooking to put into the caldron on the gaaz.

What next? Oh yes, we had to pick through the dry rice to get out the black pieces. Don’t ask me why they are there. Can’t decide if its mice poop, dead bugs, or just black rice. There are probably not heavily enforced rules about importing rice from Thailand. Don’t worry though, I got it all out! So I got my picture again and my sister told me since I was being such a good Senegalese woman, she would give me a man to be my husband so I don’t have to go home to America. Excellent!

After all the rice was picked through, we washed it with water, and I don’t really understand why, but they have reasons for everything. Then we put it in a large metal strainer on top of the fish, veggie and tomato mixture to let it steam for, you know, a while. Who knows how long it takes! I’ll never be able to duplicate this in America, but I will sure try! When they just somehow know when the veggies and fish are cooked, we took them out, put them in the same bowl they were in when they were raw, but don’t fear, she rinsed it with tap water. Then we threw all the rice into the tomato and water mixture to let it fully cook. No such thing as minute rice. By the way, even though nothing was measured, the rice soaked up exactly enough of the tomato-water mixture.

When it was ready, we put all the rice into a large metal bowl. The crunchy rice that we scraped from the bottom was put into a separate bowl and is just as delicious and placed on top of the other rice like the veggies. It’s usually my favorite part until one of the birds jumped into it… but pretend it’s like the 10-second rule. (Yes we still ate the crunchy rice). All the fish and veggies were placed on top and we called Matar back and him, my sis, mom and maid and I ate an amazing chebb u jen meal (rice and fish) after 1:30 – only 2 and half hours! I feel like I should tell you this too: not once did I wash my hands, nor the maid. The maid and my mom both eat with their (right) hands, the rest of us with spoons, and they make sure to break up the 2 fish and all the veggies to be split 5 ways. So everything they touched, including their own mouths is shared with everyone. Now lets hope I haven’t jinxed myself for getting sick.

Not all Smiles

2008-02-27T14:05:00.000-08:00

So theres gotta be bad days to make the good days that much better. Muslim holidays sometimes arent the most fun thing. Yesterday was a huge pillgrimage for about 6million muslims -- yea thats nearly half of the country all going to one city just about 50k down the road. so needless to say Bambey was empty, except for my host mom and sister and one or two friends. i got back from Thies and Dakar extremely motivated; had quite a few meetings with possible work partners and pretty good confidence in Wolof. a lot has changed.

the city started to clear out on sunday. it was empty by monday. so i started reading and watching my christmas present: all three seasons of greys anatomy. i am on my second book and about halfway through the second season. ALL I WANT IS WORK!

so i have been simply thinking about what i can do here getting real frustrated. my host mom always seems to mention and wonder why i havent left the compound. i hate that. she also commented on how the peace corps would be a better organization if there was funding. i snapped and bit my tongue. come up with a good project and i can help find money! ah! there is so much i can do but i dont know where to start.

headed to Ndem Friday and a friends site to meet people in other villages that Ndem is working with next week. Then i will meet up with womens groups and head to middle schools to find girls to give a scholarship to and the high school to have english conversations. all these plans... lets hope something works so i can say; after 20 more months; that i have accoplished something i am proud of.

Back to Reality

2008-02-21T13:18:00.000-08:00

So I’m back in Bambey after being away from site about a month! Everyone I see tells me they miss me, I was gone too long, and asks for gifts. The norm. In-service training went well; although I am glad it’s done. Early mornings of Wolof and technical training is not my idea of fun although I did improve on my wolof and am very comfortable telling people I understand now. In Dakar, I went fruit shopping with a friend of mine. She greeted and asked how much everything was and was talking in French to the fruit seller. She asked me a question in English, and I responded, in English. Well, this upset the fruit seller and he looked at me and said, in French, “You are in a French country, you need to speak French”. I looked at him, insulted and said, Degg naa Wolof, man may lakk Wolof. He was dumbfounded. He didn’t believe me and asked me what I had for lunch and if I have an “owner of the house” aka husband just to test me. I was pissed and he got just what he asked for. I bought fruit elsewhere and made my point. They just aren’t very friendly. Earlier in the week I was also called a racist since I didn’t give money to a bayfall. Little does he know I work with bayfalls in Ndem daily and am in no way a racist!

Anyways! Dakar is fun! After training and plenty of playtime in Thies we went to Dakar for the West African International Softball Tournament (WAIST). But first, did I tell you about my birthday? Celebrated it in Africa as close to an American celebration as I could get. Went to training, got out early and went to get a drink. Told the owner of the resto it was my bday and he treated me to a second. After eating white rice and fish, not my idea of a dinner out with my fam to Red Lobster or Nakashimas but it did the job, we went to Palais des Arts. It’s our new favorite bar in Thies and we convinced them it was a good idea to offer PCVs happy hour! I made friends quickly and one of the artists gave me a sand painting! Beautiful! I even got his signature and phone number on the back! YES! The live band that was playing made me come up on stage, get kissed on both cheeks like the French do, and they sang Joyeuse Anniversaire to me! It was really fun and I had a good time!

As for WAIST! It was the 35th annual and everything went wonderfully! We stayed with an expat couple who have lived abroad working for the foreign service for the last 28 years in like 8 or 9 countries. They had an amazing house, 4 bedroom, washer and dryer, microwave, American tv! We had a blast! I stayed with 2 of my good friends and we each got our own room and hot showers everyday! Was I this easy to please in America? We played softball everyday and hung out at night! Very good time in Dakar. On Tuesday we had an All-Volunteer conference that was very useful. Good to see most everyone in the country although it was impossible to talk to them all. We talked about new ideas for malaria prevention and how to collaborate. I will be doing a lot of work with artisans and linking that to the tourism aspect of PC. Should be great. If you are interested in vacationing in Senegal, let me know, I have a few connections!

As for my plan now that I am back in Bambey – I hope to meet some more people, poke my head into a few English classrooms, work with artisans here, talk with women’s groups and the microfinance org. I will be back and forth in Ndem and some other villages not to far away and can’t wait to get the application in for the Fair Trade certification. Hope to get a lot accomplished but know that it’s going to be an uphill battle the whole way. Wish me luck! Happy winter! Mom sent me a thermometer and it’s inside my room, after 6pm and it says its 95 degrees. Can’t wait for the hot season to start!

Sometimes things just work out!

2008-02-10T10:23:00.000-08:00

So since our training stage is all back together in Thies, we are "eating our money" as the wolofs say it! We go out in the evenings and share great stories and on the weekends we try to head to the beach or hit up Dakar. Last weekend was wonderful at a new beach none of us had seen and this weekend we were up for the same thing! We all trade off on resposibility, and yes, you guessed right, i was nominated to plan Mbour.

So after talking with a few people; we lined up a house for 20 of us for just 20mille... aka about 40 dollars. Too good to be true?! Obviously: we got there and the hotel guy came to pick us up from the garage just like he said he would, but instead of bringing us to his hotel, he brought us to his friends since his rooms were rented out. Terrific! Let the fun begin! A little background on the city, major touristy stop yet residental. Rich europeans would rather buy houses on the beach than rent right? so we all sat around talking with hotel and boutique owners. Everything was waaay out of our price range. Not really knowing just what to do, some random guy named Moussa called us over.

Moussa was on his way to the market with his gardener and seems to be quite a rich senegalese man. He said he haed a house that we could stay in and when i said there were 14 of us he said ok, 50mille, (100 dollars) no problem! haha well we dont exactly have money like that to throw around so i said i will only go with him to see this supposed house that i was extremely skeptical of since i had already been screwed once. I took one of the boys with me and we went to see the house.

so we take a few winding streets down the road, get to the most beautiful home youve ever seen. Danny and I were trying our best not to smile because this uy was about to offer his house to 14 white toubabs dying to crack open a beer and toss a football on the beach. There was one bedroom with 2 beds able to sleep 6, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, living room, and loft. The veiw was a very nice sunset and he even has a pool, not to mention a back door to the beach, probably a pools length or 2 to water. He really wanted to have us pay 50mille, but i got him down to 30 and even though he wanted us out by 10 we talked him into 3pm.

After figuring this all out, we brought everyone back, locked up our things and went to play on the beach. Moussa didnt spend the night, but his 2 nephews did. 2 men in their 20s who partied and cooked along with us. We danced to loud music and they taught a few people to play the tam-tam! The house was beautiful and we did out best to clean it up this morning! Still cant believe what we got away with! Only in Africa can we wing it and end up better off... i think i spent under 15 dollars inbetween training and now!

ups and downs

2008-02-03T12:54:00.000-08:00

So being a white toubab can for sure have its perks as I will get to in just a minute. But first I want to tell you a shitty part of it as well. We have come back to Thies for training. We are back with our same families and it sure is fun to be able to tell Oumar to get out of my room with ease… he just doesn’t really listen. I like him though. Anyways. I was with 2 friends the other day after training about to get a taxi to go to a restaurant. We were let out the same time as the school kids were. In order to get our attention since we weren’t paying attention to their hissing and yelling toubab, one kid threw a rock and it hit my friend! We could hardly believe what happened! She reacted in the perfect way when I was completely unsure how to act. We all turned around and asked, in all wolof mind you, who threw it. The coward went running as all his friends ratted him out. At the same time all of this way happening a teacher was walking home as well. He knew the kid and called him back. Mandi explained to the kid that we live here, work here and speak their language. The teacher let us know that he knows the kid and he will get punished tomorrow at school. Excellent, good thing we didn’t have to witness the kid getting hit/educated, it’s the same word in Wolof.

The story gets better/worse. Just 2 days later, I was walking home, already in my neighborhood, able to see my house. There were plenty of kids, aka talibe, playing in the street, doing nothing but throwing rocks for entertainment. They were told to stop as I walked through and I greeted everyone. To explain the life of these kids is an entirely different thing. They are talibe: which means they are given by their families to the Marabou to learn Arabic from the Koran. They don’t have anything and walk around cities everywhere asking for alms. Muslims give alms daily, as it is part of their responsibility, so they usually make an extra plate of lunch and the talibe will come pick it up. These kids practically wander the streets all day looking for food and money and are dirty and it is easy to feel bad for them, except when they pinch my arms to get my attention or throw rocks at me! Twice in 2 days! A few months ago I was pinched and couldn’t believe how rude the child was but the other day a rock was thrown and it hit my neck! I tried to get the kid to come over to me but everyone around simply laughed and he was too afraid to come over to me… since obviously I was ready to smack him! I just walked away embarrassed. Well I told my family and I went over to the Marabou’s house tonight and although he wasn’t there, I got the neighborhood talking and the kid will get punished.

So life can be tough, but I’m making it. After training on Saturday, we got out at noon and 30 of us went to the beach. A different beach from last time, but still just as fun! We stayed in a very touristy place and the most beautiful hotel. You don’t want to know how affordable… when we pulled in I seriously said out loud that we must be lost because our budgets don’t allow for that! But they did! And I have bright tan lines to prove it! Enjoy the few pics I took, but they just may not do it justice!

the best of 2 worlds

2008-01-24T13:43:00.000-08:00

So last weekend was the Muslim New Year. They celebrate by eating millet and cross-dressing. The latter part of that I didn’t get to be a part of nor witness since I can’t be two places at once. I sure to try sometimes though! I initially had plans to visit a friend’s village and celebrate there but the celebration is late a night and I wanted to be in Dakar early Saturday morning for softball. I’ll visit the village some other time and the “cere” or millet was delicious, provided by the family of a friend in Dakar.

So Saturday we had our softball games with a break in the middle with plenty of time to swim some laps and lay out at the Atlantic Club. I’m so happy I brought my cap and goggles even though I thought they were just comfort items among all the necessities in my 100 pounds of luggage! Sunday we went out for a seafood dinner on the western most tip of Africa (I’m as close to you as I can get without crossing the Atlantic!). The 5 of us shared 2 huge piles of clams and I had mussels and boiled calamari. I think I splurged and spent about seven dollars! At sunset even! I do like it here!

It has occurred to me that you may not understand the difference between my two homes. I will try my best to explain… Ndem is a small village of about 500 people. It is divided into 3 areas. The first is a guarded area just off the main road. It has 12 workshops, a gallery and office, where I hang out. All the artisans have their place, for example the metal workers have a building in the front and the weavers are near the back. All the buildings are painted white and blue, as they are in the next section of the village. Outside the artisan center, there is a mosque and the entrance to the neighborhood where the Marabou lives. There are probably 10 houses of permanent residents and just that many more buildings for people who come and go like me! Animals are kept in cages and there is beautiful landscaping. On the outside of that section, there is a gathering of huts that make up the population of the village where there is a microfinance credit mutual and a health center. 350 employees work in Ndem coming from 15 villages totaling about 8,500 people. A power line goes out from Bambey so we have power in the office but not many huts have power. There are several taps through out the village but not everyone has a “robinet” as the French call it. These villages that surround depend on water they collect from wells.

Now for my explication of Bambey: it is a city of about 25,000. There is a daily market, boutiques, cybers, and hardware stores. We’ve got just about everything I need! There are animals, pigs, sheep and goats that roam, and sometimes I see chickens and turkeys (and wonder how they would taste), and donkeys and horses are tied up that eat the garbage that is blowing around. We do have a designated place on the outside of the city where garbage goes, but if people don’t bring it there, it just goes in the street. And the street! There is a blacktop road that divides the city a few ways, otherwise its just sand. But the blacktop isn’t used anymore for anyone besides pedestrians since it is so worn out that cars and horse/donkey carts cant use it and just use the sand next to it. As for security, I’ve never had any problems, but everyone keeps their compounds locked up by huge metal doors. It isn’t very welcoming but I have seen this same set up in other parts of the world, like France and Brazil. I guess it works for them, although I miss my grassy front yard!

So people here are always looking for jobs and I am trying my best to find Ndem some more clients, ahem, those in America looking for beautiful fair trade products! Help wanted signs don’t exist here since everyone wants a job. Men in their 20s are trying to attend class, find work or apply for visas, the thing is since all education here is paid for by the government, teachers strike and they usually have to go to Dakar to find work, or abroad. BRAIN DRAIN is a way of life. I can hope to help the women in my town since they all stay here. I want to teach them how to manage the money they do have since when men do send money, they need to know what to do with it. I sure have my work cut out for me, right?

Normality

2008-01-14T10:52:00.000-08:00

So I was talking online with my mom and dad the other day, since I can do that now that we have internet at home. (Yes, I quite possibly am one of the most spoiled Peace Corps Volunteers). It was my host mom’s idea! She figured since both my sister and I go to the cyber often enough, this is worth it! Awesome! Anyways. In talking to mom, my real one that I love the most, I realized there are quite a few things that have become normal and sometimes I need to take a step back and realize that I am living in Africa and some people consider that kind of different!

For example, every day I get up and get a sandwich for breakfast. At first I prided myself in getting out of the family compound but really there is no choice for milk and cereal. One because there is no grocery store to provide Honey Bunches of Oats and two, because I have no way of keeping milk cold. I was told I would be given a fridge but it hasn’t happened yet. These sandwiches are amazing though! The only type of bread here is like a fresh French baguette. And I get either an onion sauce, or hard boiled eggs and mayo, or spaghetti noodles with a spicy oil sauce. Not exactly pancakes but delicious! Chebb u jën or rice and fish for lunch and most every night I eat with my hands. Not to mention that I never use my left hand for anything anymore! No big deal!

Another thing that is normal is falling back on French. My language skills have really improved. Dad reminded me of this when he mentioned that in my last blog entry I said that I understand Wolof. The truth is for the most part I do. And when I don’t understand, I ask for clarification in French. I never thought English could be so useless! Don’t get me wrong, I love getting together and having care free conversations in English but I also really like that I can get away with my other two languages just after four months.

Bambey is now my home. It took a while to call it that but I absolutely love going away for the weekend and then coming back to sleep in my bed and use my shower. My family is very nice and I rarely can walk outside without someone shouting “OURIA”. Have I mentioned I’m the famous white person and that everyone wants to shake my hand? I don’t know what I am going to do when people don’t greet me in America. I may be very upset! All you have to do is ask about the weather and where I am going and where I was. I can always say, “I was there” and “I’m going for a walk” and “No, it’s not cold here, I am from a place where there is snow”. I am going to melt in April…

Overall, my life has started to become normal here and you will need to remind me to explain things for you. Like if you call me during the call to prayer you probably won’t be able to hear me, and rather my two nearest mosques that compete for airtime. Yet, it doesn’t faze me and I sleep right through them now. Muslim holidays are completely normal and honestly, don’t eat anything the day before and you won’t even need to the day after since the food is so good and there is too much to eat. Cold Fantas and Cokes have replaced other beverages that I used to drink casually but neex na! they are good! Please let me know if there is anything you want me to explain since I would love to! I didn’t know anything about this country before getting here and since I love it so much, I’ll answer anything because honestly, I’d like to help you understand a bit of my normal world a few thousand miles away from yours!

A road less traveled

2008-01-10T10:53:00.000-08:00

So I made it! I biked to Ndem from Bambey and it was much easier than I thought it would be and damn! Did it ever feel good to get a bit of exercise. I’ve come to realize a few things that I am missing. Whenever I was stressed out in school I could go out for a run or rollerblade to the river. Here, I don’t exactly have that same choice. Greetings are super important here and if I ignore people they think that I am a rude toubab or even worse that I don’t understand them; and I do! So I haven’t gotten outside much to do anything besides walk and it frustrates me. Even that isn’t relaxing since people always want to talk and it doesn’t exactly clear my head. But I did it – went for a 45 minute bike ride on a bumpy gravel road 13k to Ndem. Now I’m just missing my ipod because of all songs to have stuck in my head, it was “Let it Snow”. Honestly.

When I got there I think somehow I became famous. Everyone was asking where I came from and how much strength I must have. Haha, if only they knew I used to rollerblade to and from work at the Neenah Pool every chance I got even though it was about 7 miles! I am sure trying to get everyone’s names down because they have no trouble with mine! I know the office well now and a few artisans are very friendly. I am still trying to make myself have a familiar face rather than just another toubab visiting. There are always so many people coming and going and I have yet to go to Ndem and not see someone there for the day checking the place out. Which I know is a great thing for Ndem, but not for me trying to get established with a reputation of actually knowing Wolof and wanting to get work done. I’ve got time right?

So I work with Abdou there and he showed me a few things that he’s done since I was last there and I showed him some of the research that I found online. If you don’t know what www.ifat.org is you should look it up. I am going to try my hardest to get Ndem’s organization non-gouvernemental certified as a fair trade ONG. They deserve the certification and I just have to research to make sure the kids there are doing “light work” rather than child labor and the environment isn’t being abused by how they care for the toxic waste from the dyes, for example. I don’t really know if I am the best one for this job but like I said, I’m sure going to try.

I hit kind of an emotional roadblock yesterday. I was extremely excited since as of this week, Ndem set up dial-up internet in the office! Hurray! It is much faster than I remember dial being when we first got the internet when I was kid and I was so happy for them to be able to check their email more often. That is there only way right now of receiving orders and they have a brand new client who sent in an order just this week and we hope to send their product out before the end of the month, Inshallah! The emotional roadblock was more because I was researching the option of having PayPal on their website. We’ll come to find out, Ndem isn’t exactly ready for that. The internet is a vast place and it may get out of hand too quickly. I have been thinking having internet is the first step to a great future of expanding the business but as my boss said in training: “Americans, get off the jumbo jet and take the train”. Yes sir. I am American and crave instant results but that’s just not how it works here. Soon enough; little victories: we have internet!
So 2 nights of village life and I was ready to come home. I prefer my mattress and my own bathroom with a shower. You can call me spoiled but even though my bucket bath outside under the trees and bright blue sky was wonderful, it loses is glory when the wind blows! And I got to eat with a spoon for lunch today rather than burning my hand on hot food. Although I have to say thank goodness my taste buds are changing quickly. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that vending machines and pantries don’t exist and by 3pm and 9pm I’ll eat anything! But I eat Senegalese couscous (aka millet) that, in the beginning had the consistency of sand, and yes, I eat beans. The day had to come right? I still refuse to eat them when I come home!

No real big plans besides going to visit a friend 22k away since its her bday and she left me for the last 3 weeks to spend the holidays in America. Otherwise I’ll be sticking around Bambey until our next softball game in Dakar! Send a card in the mail for me! I’d love to hang it on my wall!

quick update

2008-01-03T04:49:00.000-08:00

So since I wrote that blog, a bit has changed! I caught a bit of a cold and dont feel up to biking to Ndem. Our softball game was canceled so now I think I may have to meet some friends in Thies for a day maybe.. well see!

I celebrated my christmas in the most bizarre way! my host mom called me when i was in st louis telling me i had lots of mail waiting for me but also a tax of 11000 cfa for 2 packages!! i was rather mad at you people, making me pay over 20 bucks for presents! geez! i know i didnt get you anything but come on!! haha so i went to the poste and picked up not 2 but 6 packages! ahh happy day! i was only charged for one above the normal rate even though they were all opened and taped shut. I dont care - I have some of the best family and friends! and i didnt even have to wait my turn to rip open packages!

I dont know how i will ever finish all the food or when i will actually get around to watching all 3 seasons of Greys but man was i ever smiling and still love going home, cuz i can really call it that now, to see my maps hanging on my walls and snow and the smell of candles and ahhh you people are great!

needless to say there is a very happy peace corps volunteer living in bambey! you people are going to have to wait til 2010 to get be back there if life continues like this! keep the cards and pictures coming! i hope to run out of wall space! all of you who sent something will have letters from africa in the mail soon! love you and THANKS!

Happy 2008!

2008

2008-01-03T04:47:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year’s everyone! Hope celebrations were everything you wanted and more! I had a blast up north. Last time I was up there it was for demystification, so needless to say I have learned a little since then and was a bit more confident.

To start off my vaca, I went in to Thies and hung out with my family there. The kids were all thrilled to see me and although I missed my host dad, since he was visiting family in Dakar, my host mom was wonderful. She was a bit tired considering all the work she had to do to prepare Tabaski outfits (she’s a tailor) but made sure to make me not one but two lunches. Pays de la taranga = country of hospitality.

Mandi and I then made the five-hour hike up to the north. We went to Richard Toll and spend a few nights there. We spent Christmas Eve at some French missionaries house and had a nice meal with lots of Catholics and watched RV (Robin Williams dubbed is not as funny) and made brownies in their oven. Bryn is amazing and made us all stockings and filled them with lots of fun things like floss, oral rehydration salts, drink mixes and candy. It was nice to open something Christmas morning since my packages didn’t make it in time. Who knew that a huge Muslim holiday would slow down the Senegalese postal service!?!

After a few days in Toll, we went to another friend’s site and hung out with his family as he showed us around. Since there were so many people, we even got the privilege of having a sheep for dinner! I took more pictures so maybe you can enjoy the thought of how dinner goes from a living, breathing being to dinner; and it’s delicious. I never thought I would look at an animal and think about how it will taste for dinner later, but I do! Hanging out at Josh’s site was fun, but a little scary. You may have heard on the news that a French family was murdered in Mauritania. Well, their killers crossed over into the exact location we were which made for tighter security. We decided to avoid the beautiful river and discuss Wolof with Josh’s brothers so we didn’t leave the family compound the second day and had like 10 rounds of attaya (tea that causes cavities) instead!

After that, we went to St. Louis. BEAUTIFUL. I loved it there. Over 20 volunteers got together to celebrate the New Year and there were more white people than we were used to seeing in the streets since it’s quite touristy. But we did go on a walk to where the ocean meets the Senegal River. Had an amazing shrimp dinner that you probably don’t want to know how affordable it was. Laid out on the beach but didn’t go in since it’s cold! Yea, I guess I’ve adjusted to the heat of Bambey!

Now I’m back home, and it feels good. Hope to bike to Ndem (13k on a gravel road, wish me luck!) this week and we have a softball game in Dakar this weekend. I plan on using computers there to update you on photos. Happy 2008!

We ate the liver first

2007-12-25T02:56:00.000-08:00

bookSo happy belated Tabaski! The Muslim holiday that follows two months after Korite. Tabaski is as big as Christmas in America. Preparations are expensive and chic: everyone has to have their hair done and get brand new clothing made; markets are like shopping malls and the food is real good… but let me explain.
So when I moved in to my family’s compound, they mentioned there are like 3 or 4 spare rooms that relatives stay in for holidays. So when I saw that Fatou, my host mom purchased not just one sheep, she got three, I figured we were having quite a few guests. I guessed wrong! One guest was here for lunch, and two others made it in time for our second dinner. 2 others were here to… umm… prepare dinner.
The day started when I wanted to go and get breakfast but Fatou had already been up for a few hours and let me have some bread. Then we started cutting potatoes and onions, and pealing garlic. At this point, I still thought we were going to be feeding an army, no joke. I probably pealed 4 entire cloves of garlic! After the call to prayer in the morning, we grabbed the unluckiest sheep of the three and the men held it down as we all stood in a line holding each other. I could barely watch but the sound of the knife and breathing out of a slit rather than its mouth was mortifying. Use your imagination – they dug a hole in the sand to absorb the blood. My host sister took pictures on her camera so I hope to get them put on here!
The first piece of meat that was eaten was the liver. Next were the testicles. I didn’t ask if there is a reason for this but that’s just what we did! The liver was delicious, surprising, even though I was thinking the whole time that just a half hour ago, this liver was a perfectly functioning liver in the sheep that lived in our backyard for the past few days. I didn’t dare touch the testicles; there’s always next year.
The rest of the meat kept coming, and we had just about every part of it grilled on the open flame. It really was tasty (still trying to get the sound of it out of my head before it died). Since there were only about 7 of us eating and entire sheep, and our fridge is dorm-size, we ate a lot and I would get harassed every time I tried to say I was full.
After dinner, we sat around and people came to visit. One of our guests is from Guinea and only moved here two years ago and I loved it when I would get complimented that I speak better Wolof than him. (I really don’t but people are nice on the holidays) Kids do what seems like trick-or-treating and go house-to-house asking for change, but they were all dressed in pretty boubous rather than as monsters. After another meal, I went to meet neighbors and had them teach me how to dance Senegalese in my new outfit. Then I went with my sister around to see some more people and since she had on heals that hurt, we walked at a snail’s pace around Bambey. Came back after 11 and Fatou tried to offer more food but I successfully turned it down. Instead of tea, we had hot milk with a mint flavor and I was in bed by 1. The morning after I could smell meat cooking outside but took my time getting ready!
I have big plans to celebrate the Christian way starting the 23rd. I went to see my Thies host family because they were really bummed I couldn’t made it for Tabaski and because I miss little Oumar. Monday, Mandi and I are headed up to Richard Toll and see the northern country for a week and enjoy a mini vacation. I think we may even make some eggnog! I have friends spread all along the boarder of Mauritania so we all are going to get together. Then, and this is the best part, we are staying in a hotel (yes, a hotel) with a pool for 3 nights in Saint Louis to celebrate 2008!
Merry Christmas to all! Happy New Year!

Accomplishments

2007-12-14T10:02:00.000-08:00

Hoping that you are all planning for Christmas and 2008! Crazy how time is flying right? I just don’t have snow and Xmas lights to remind me what time of the year it is. It’s kind of sad, but I do have plans for Christmas up north and a fun celebration for New Years in St. Louis with lots of Americans.

So since it’s been a while since I’ve filled you in, I’ll try my best to summarize. Last week, Mark and Bamba (my bosses) came to visit me. I tried my best to show them around and it felt good to tell them what little I have done. From there, I took a free ride in a nice Peace Corps car to Diourbel to hit up the bank and hang out with Christyne. We then headed to Dakar for the weekend. Played a little softball and had fun meeting the Peace Corps family that all live in this region, many people I hadn’t met yet. Came back to site Sunday and started quite a productive week Monday!

I had my first tutor session and it went rather well. It will be a different learning environment for sure since it was my teacher, Awa, and her mom, sister, sister’s kids and my counterpart. Not exactly the easiest place to concentrate but I did alright. I think it may work out once Awa understands what Wolof I know already and how she can help me. She has taught literacy courses before, but only to fluent Wolof speakers. I’m a bit of an exception! Anyways, it should work.

Later in the week, I met with all the presidents of women’s groups in Bambey. They meet together once a month and pay dues and discuss different issues. It was a challenging 2½ hours since it was all in Wolof and they don’t really understand why I am here. But I hope to help them out in the future. I also met with my neighbor, Sophie, who works at a new microfinance mutual. She explained what she does and how all the loans work. A lot of work can be done there linking the women to microfinance since they are the people who take out loans, and not the men. That may be a lot of what I’ll do in Bambey and the rest of my work will be in Ndem.

Just got back today from a nice stay there. I went with the PC Country Director and 3 other volunteers. Pete and I are the closest to Ndem and will be working together often. They other two, Christopher and Daniel are closer to Thies and hope to help out as well. We were all there randomly when a woman representing USAID was there so we talked with her about how they can help fund Ndem. After everyone left, I stayed and worked in the office with Abdou, my older brother when it comes to my name in Ndem – Rokhaya. We hope to get funding for an Internet line out of Ndem from Bambey with the help of USAID. Keep your fingers crossed. Put together a proposal with Abdou and have hopes to get Ndem fair trade certified with www.IFAT.com.

I sometimes feel like I am pretending to know what I am doing. I am so new at all this. As if the language was enough, I am learning how a relatively new business in a third world country runs and what can be done to improve it! I am in good spirits and hope I can make a positive impact. If you have any hints or clues, let me know!

Noo tudd?

2007-12-05T14:04:00.000-08:00

So life in Senegal is going. Man is it ever tough sometimes. Ive been here almost 3 months and the language is coming along slowly. Confusion is a constant state of being and I am really trying to learn to fit in here. Give me a few months!! Im glad the PC gives us the 3 months of integration cuz I need it!

About my names! I get one every where I go! It took me a while to get used to Diama Gueye pronounces Ja-ma Gay. But here in Bambey Im Yaay Ouria Mara, yaay rhymes with eye and the Rs are like spanish; but this causes a great deal of trouble. People in my town who know my host mom get it.. but the name is actually Guinean and not senegalese so people get real confused. And since I was named after my host moms late mother; i technically replace her so my host mom calls me yaay, aka mom and she is my daughter! funny right? completely normal though..

But today I jsut got back from Ndem! I do really love that village, just 11k down the road. They have beautiful stuff since its an artisanal village and they are already exporting abroad. They are the ultimate success story and i get to work with them!! Well anyways; they werent happy with my guinean name so I will be Rokhaya Dieye. Yea; I cant pronounce it either, you prolly do it better than me! Besides all of the work that we were doing; my work being struggling to understand normal conversation, my favorite parts were enjoying all the stars at night (it doesnt get better than that) and when we were eating lunch, someone went to go pick limes off the tree to squeeze on our rice. soo good!! youre missing out!

all and all; life is good but a constant struggle. im to the point where i can mostly understand if conversations are considerate of toubab ears. im just having trouble responding. i want to do a lot here.. ive just gotta figure out how. im lucky because there is lots of opportunity here, not every pcv is as lucky. i hope i can figure out how to pronounce my names and start to respond correctly to questions; and it will be an accomplishment!

thats all!! and anyone reading this needs to get on the phone and call my dad -- his number is 920 851 0641. he has yet to hang christmas lights.... scrudge! get on his case ;)

Attaya

2007-11-30T08:34:00.000-08:00

So it’s been a while since I’ve had a nice entry here. It has been a tough two weeks, not going to lie about that. In the past several years, I have been way too busy. In school I would make lists of what needed to be accomplished before going to bed and I kept myself working over 50 hour weeks in the summer. I dreamed about being bored and that’s exactly what I am getting good at now; watching cement dry.

The first three months of Peace Corps out of training are called the “integration period”. I am supposed to go around with my counterparts, 2 assigned influential men from the PC that live in Bambey, and meet with people and become familiar with my city. Moctar and Ibrahima are my counterparts and we met for 2 days in training in an attempt to explain what PC is and how they can help me. We made a detailed list of all the places they wanted to me see along with a schedule of when we would do it all. Haven’t really gotten to that schedule just yet….

The first week I was here I spend all my time trying to figure out my housing situation and have been remodeling ever since. Even today I had people installing my screen doors. I hope you find humor in this like I do: the screen doors didn’t exactly fit into the cement frames that existed. Instead of bringing the doors back to be remade, they broke down the cement walls to make room! Haha, I could hardly believe it. So they were back today applying fresh cement but now I wish I had hired my painter after this was all done. Oh well! At least some of the mosquitoes will stay out now (needless to say it’s not a perfect fit and only the smart ones will make it in my room). Hopefully it’s the dumb mosquitoes that carry malaria!

So for the past week I have been priding myself of greetings and getting breakfast but I think I can consider the last 24 hours a breakthrough. Last night, Moctar came to my house and we went to Ibrahima’s house. Although they both told me they are busy and don’t have time to show me around just yet, we set up appointments in the middle of December. I may have to find my way around until then… hmm. I am rather frustrated that they don’t have time just yet but I’m patient. I do have a time set up to go to Ndem next week with Pete (he’s one of my closest neighbors working with artisans; he’s been here over a year) and Daniel (another near neighbor who is interested in helping with basket exporting). That will be productive. And Moctar’s wife may be able to tutor me in Wolof. So work is as good as it can be in Bambey.

And you are wondering about “attaya”. It is famous here. During the hot afternoons when there is nothing you can seriously do besides sit, we drink tea. And about the heat, it is getting cooler, alhumdulilaye, and I wake up in the middle of the night and when my sheet is no longer efficient, I put on a sweatshirt and smile. Anyways. I was leaving the compound to get some cookies and to find a new store with people to chat with and impress them that I’m the new toubab in town who knows how to greet in Wolof, and my name was called from down the street. You have no idea how good this feels. Well, it was my Senegalese name, Ouria, but I answered to it happily trying to hide my smile. It was the guy I met and explained to you that I was hoping he wouldn’t want a plane ticket to America, remember? Well, since I stood him on that Saturday afternoon, and avoided him another time last week, he invited me for attaya=tea with his friends. My cookies could wait.

I ended up talking with him, my family’s tailor and a few of their friends for almost two hours. They were interested in why I am here and what my goals are for the next 2 years. Mostly, the conversations are in French, but every time there was silence, they’d teach me something new in Wolof telling me if I come hang out for attaya often, I’ll be fluent in Wolof before I know it. Attaya is kind of strong and sugary, but I may take them up on it.

Little by Little – Ndank ndank

2007-11-21T04:05:00.000-08:00

The first four days, I only left the compound with the help of my host mom or sister or Dabakh to go to Diourbel. Needless to say, that wasn’t very often and I have finished 2 books and am on my third. BUT! Yesterday I actually got myself breakfast and sat outside under the tree and read. It’s the little victories! Having white skin is quite the attraction, especially since I live on the road that goes to the market. I’m trying really hard to figure out how to establish a good reputation in a city where I will be working, but if I understood correctly, I think I have a date lined up for Saturday afternoon, under that same tree. Great. You all are saying “I told you so”. I can hear it. But this really isn’t what I want, not right now. I want someone to show me around the city, introduce me to people and not want a ring on their left hand that is the equivalent to a one-way ticket and visa in America.

I am proud of myself for the little things I have accomplished. I want to try and get a routine set up so I can figure out how to survive here. So today, with that in mind, I went down to buy breakfast at a little boutique. They all called me by name, which is one of the greatest feelings in the world, since Fatou introduced me to them the first day I was here. So I got a French style baguette, the only type of bread around (damn) with onion sauce. Very typical here and it only costs 110 cfa = about 20 cents. After that, I swept out my little apartment and did some yoga. Physical exercise doesn’t exist here and I’m dying to sweat for some other reason than the heat! I filled up my water filter since I bought water from a guy who sells it on a donkey pulled cart. We do have a tap, but its really salty water. Gross! Even fancy powders don’t cover that up! I’ll be buying water and bleaching it…

So my plans for the afternoon! I think I’m going into town to maybe buy a broom and go to the cyber. I may even wait for Fatou to get home since I think we have some errands to run and she’s acting like my security blanket. I would have never thought I would be the type of person that wants to run to my room to hide from it all, but I’ve had that feeling more than I’d like to admit. Hopefully I’ll get my counterparts to help me out and find me a tutor in Wolof so I can get more confident. I am the only white person and although I came to Africa with the plan to become a minority for 2 years, it’s truly frightening until I meet those people that are searching for a friend rather than an airplane ticket.

Have a happy Thanksgiving! Don’t worry about me; lots of us volunteers are getting together to enjoy a typical Turkey Day meal in Koalack, about an hour from here. I hear there is even pumpkin pie for dessert! Miss you – enjoy some raw cookie dough at the cookie bake!

I have a home!

2007-11-21T04:04:00.000-08:00

This is great news. As of last night, I moved into where I’ll be living for the next 2 years, Inchallah (god willing in Arabic, used at the end of every sentence, along with alhumdulilaye, which means thanks be to god). It was kind of weird at first, but now I’m used to it. Anyways!

So I was supposed to get to Bambey Tuesday, the lucky 13th, remember? But then I didn’t move in until the 15th, but here’s what really happened. On the morning of the 15th my boss came to pick me up and brought me to Bambey to interview a possible host family. So around 9ish, we went to the high school where Fatou (my new host mom) works. We chatted with her and Mark explained the situation of how it should all work. Then we went to her house to have a nice look around. It is just her and her daughter, N’dack, in one structure and 2 subleasers, Dabakh and Sophie, in another structure, within the same compound. I would be renting 2 rooms in the second structure like the subleasers. When she showed us the rooms I was rather dumbfounded. There was a lot of furniture and about an inch of dust and we eventually had to carry out 2 large buckets of broken cement that had either chipped off the floor and the walls, not easy sweeping. Needless to say I was shocked, but at this point I couldn’t be picky. Then she showed us the bathroom. Since no one was using it for as long as no one was using my 2 bedrooms, she shut the water off and we had to move a door that was used as a gate to keep the goats and chickens in the back of the compound. So the bathroom was a complete disaster and pretty much only had a hole cut out in the cement to potentially pee in. There is another functioning bathroom with a shower on the other side of the compound, but I would have to share this with everyone and the Peace Corps is cool about giving us our own bathrooms whenever possible. So Mark told her that we should start asap renovating the bathroom and bedrooms and PC would pay. In the mean time, I would move into one of the spare bedrooms. So when can I move in?! was my thought exactly…

Since by this time it was after 10, we would have to drive back to Thies and then back to Bambey with all of my things. It’s only an hour drive from Thies, alhumdulilaye, so we were back in Bambey before my host mom’s lunch break was up. So I was really bummed and wanted to finally move things out of my suitcases and into a real place for the first time in 2 months, but I had to wait. Things did move along quite quickly, which is surprising in this country, which I am very happy for. We went shopping the next day and had a painter there in the afternoon to start my rooms, baby blue – darling. Bought a fancy Turkish toilet and showerhead and flooring and spent money faster than I thought possible! (I’m cheap like my dad and hate spending money!) And then it got stressful again. Mind you, this is all in another language and although I’ve taken a lot of French, I still have trouble. They asked me about how I want to do the bathroom since we can’t paint it since the paint would just chip off the cement when it got wet. So, Fatou, suggested tile. Sure, thinking it would be cheap and not a lot of it right? Wrong. Since it was too expensive in Bambey, we would have to go to the next closest large city to get it. Dabakh would be the one installing it and since he knows what his doing, he brought to to Diourbel to go to the bank and to buy tile. I had to withdrawal pretty much all of my money from the PC “move-in allowance” to pay for everything possible before getting reimbursed. Then we went to the tile place. Dabakh wanted to get 15 square meters! I didn’t think this was necessary but I didn’t really have a choice at this point. We came all this way and I tried texting my boss to get a second opinion but he didn’t get back to me in time. I spent A LOT of money on tile, which come to find out, since it wasn’t necessary, I won’t get reimbursed. We could have just put fresh cement on the walls and been fine, but no. By the end of today, I will have the best looking bathroom in all of Peace Corps Senegal, thank you French degree. Now I’ll just need a set of locks to keep the whole neighborhood out.

SEND MAIL!

2007-11-17T10:28:00.000-08:00

Hey hey!! Im a resident in Bambey... so now you need to send me letters! My address is:

PCV Kira Keuhn
BP 03
Bambey, Senegal
West Africa

Some quick hints since I only have 10 min left at the cyber:
international stamps are 90 cents! cant wait to have christmas cards on display all over my bedroom walls!
there is a flat rate box that you can pay for and stuff with as heavy of stuff you want... if necessary; it may be worthwhile to look into. i dont really know that much about it!
For ideas on what to put in to the packages; FOOD! haha does that really surprise you? the best stuff we crave is candy, mom got scolded for not sending chocolate in the last one; and junk food; beef jerky and dried fruit: i,m easy to please! if you are real inclined; send your fav funny movie or burn a new cd... but make sure to take it out of the wrapping since otherwise a newly packaged electronic thing would be highly taxed on my behalf and i cant afford that!

thats really all ive got! next time i have more time, ill fill you in on my living situation in bambey! real big switch. i went from having 9 younger siblings to now one and a mom with 2 subleasers! its calm and im a big fan!
no more time! anxious to get your letters!!

All I can do is Laugh

2007-11-14T04:18:00.001-08:00

So site installations went fairly well for everyone, with on exception. I was the second to last to leave Thies. Everyone by now is safely in their regions at least… except for me. Want the long version or short? Haha – I have time, how about the long version?

So we packed up the Peace Corps Land Cruiser with my luggage inside, and my mattress and bike on top. It is only about an hour drive to Bambey so we left “fashionably late” because my install coordinator, Mamadou, said that if we got their early, no one would be there. I already knew this and had no problem hanging out at the center taking a quick noppalu (nap ci wolof). So after 2 we left and arrived in Bambey right around 3. First we went to the police station to exchange numbers and get them familiar with me and what I would be doing there. It feels good to have an in with the police chief! After that we went to the Mayors office where I should have met the mayor and my counterpart and my future host dad. None of whom we found so we went to my supervisor’s house. (I already met my supervisor and counterpart and they were well aware that I was coming on the 13th… so I thought) So, surprisingly by freak chance, my supervisor also wasn’t home and had left his cell at home, where he wasn’t. So we waited and Mamadou called some people to find where my counterpart lived. We found him! Success! Everything should get better from here, right?

Wrong! My counterpart took me to my host family’s house. They, needless to say, weren’t expecting me (I specifically told my counterpart two times to talk to them to tell them I will be coming on the 13th) I wished from here on out that I didn’t understand Wolof or French, because that’s what they all figured and talked about me when I was standing right there. So we went back to the mayor’s office, for the third time within an hour, and I met my host dad, kinda. Mamadou put him on the phone talking to my Peace Corps supervisor, Bamba. My host dad seemed extremely uncomfortable and after a long conversation, I came to find out that he had given my apartment to someone else. He says that he waited until November and since he “couldn’t get a hold of Peace Corps” he couldn’t afford to wait any longer and is now renting it to someone and her daughter. This was just decided a few weeks ago, right around the time that my counterpart got back from the counterpart workshop…

After this, my counterpart went home and we went back to my supervisor’s house to wait for him. We waited until after 5 and decided to head back to Thies. Surprisingly, we saw my supervisor on the road so we stopped. He apologized a great deal, saying this hurts him that I will not be there yet. He is a wonderful person, highly influential in the town and very wise. I do really appreciate that I have him and seeing him cheered me up at this point, which I needed. Bamba and Mark, my PC bosses are working with him now to get a new family set up.

Like I said, all I can do is laugh about this. If it were a perfect world, there would have been a welcome committee waiting for me at my house, when in reality, that’s what I got when I got back to Thies. My host mom was called to make sure it was alright for me to come back to use my room. She was more than happy but since I got home before she was done with work, my family was very happy to see me again, and incredibly confused. In wolof, I tried to explain that I have no home in Bambey and they were like great! Stay here! No problem! I am lucky that I have such a great family. Not everyone is this lucky. So now I just get to hang out in Thies! Rough Peace Corps life…

no longer in Training!

2007-11-10T07:15:00.000-08:00

Its official! I am a volunteer in Senegal! We swore in yesterday in Dakar and ate wonderful food and put on a funny skit after singing the national anthems. It was a good time. My host family said they saw me on national tv during the skit.. haha amazing! There are a few pictures up of the skit. It wasn't very good and i screwed up one of my 3 lines i had to memorize. But you are reading the blog of a famous toubab in africa!

So needless to say, it feels good to be a volunteer finally. We had a big dinner with one member of our family last night after getting back from Dakar at the training center and danced until after 1. They brought in a dj and we danced in an attempt to burn off some calories. There is this problem I have, as well as other city volunteers. We have many friends that are moving out into the bush and will serisouly lose weight since there are not proper nutrients available. Me, on the other hand, will be in a decent city of 25,000 but feel like I still need to eat the delishous food available for us at the training center. Oh well! Life is good!

So I will be moving to Bambey on Tuesday! I am getting rather nervous to meet my new family and get to know the entire town. I can't believe its actually happening though. Remember when I first came up with the idea to do the Peace Corps? It's going to be real now. Crazy!

Well check out my pictures and next time I write on here I should have a new address that you will have to send mail to. I'm bummed that I haven't got any lately.. you will have no excuses when I have a permenant address! :-) Love and miss you all!

The Number 13

2007-11-05T11:08:00.000-08:00

I have always hated that number - 14 being my fav obviously. And the number is haunting me. I arrived in Senegal on the 13 of September, I have cubby hole 13 meaning I'm 13th in the alphabet in our stage. My cell number is 221-77-713-3897 (call anytime - I'd love it) and of a possibility of 5 days to be installed at site in Bambey, it will be the 13th of November. Lucky 13 right?

So life is pretty good considering. I have a bit of a stomach ache to say politely. I am thanking Schuelke from the bottom of my heart for the largest 3 containers of drink mix powder. The gatorade is coming in handy today! (as side note - Schuelke, the best former swim coach in WI, set me up with enough drink mix for the next two years, so if you are as kind, don't send any, I'm set!)

So to say again, I am (hopefully) moving to Bambey next week. Hopefully since I still have to pass my oral Wolof exam. EEEK. If not, I'll be hanging out in Thies for another week or two with a private tutor. But about Bambey, I guess it will be more accurate then, but I did get to meet my supervisor and my counterpart last week. They will be helping me introduce myself into the community and seem to be pretty good so far. I don't know that much but time will tell.

That's about all I have time for right now. Keep me in mind on the 13th!

Equipe Toubab!

2007-10-30T13:19:00.000-07:00

So we had a soccer game against the trainers last night. For the first time the toubabs (aka foreigners, which I am proud to be) won!! This is amazing and has been the talk of the center, such a good feeling. We played on a rocky, sandy dirt with a real goal on one side and 2 rocks on the other. I should have had a point if our ref wasn’t a trainer… a serious bias, saying that my shot was over the imaginary post. Whatever. We won 2-1 and we get to rub it in their faces for the rest of training! It feels good.

That’s one huge difference here. Have I talked about racism? It doesn’t exist here, at least the entire concept of it being taboo. I am different because I have white skin and they make it known. They have different class systems of different ethnic groups here and they tell each other (teasingly) that one is a slave to another. Would that fly in corporate America? I think NOT! I am somehow getting used to it. For example, greetings here are super important. But all they are really saying is: Nanga def? Maangi fii…, which means How are you doing? I am here. So the obvious is stated. Yaangi toog? Waaw, maangi toog. Are you sitting? Yes, I am sitting. These are greetings necessary to survival in Africa. So in a few months, when I am complaining about how people are calling me toubab and fat and that I can’t speak Wolof, remind me that it is just a part of the culture and I need to get over it. Thanks. Be blunt… its life in Senegal.

So does anyone else think that time is flying like crazy? I have been in Senegal for over 6 weeks. Does that surprise anyone besides me? Time is flying and in just 2 weeks I will be swearing in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer and moving to my home in Bambey. WHAT?!!! I am not ready for this. Prepare yourself for some emotional blogs about how I am not happy and how life is just better in America. But just remember that I do love it here and that my life will improve (I will need to be reminded of this often… ok?) I am here for many reasons and truthfully; I would not be enjoying life in America anymore. You have a desk job?! Ha! Sorry, I am getting paid by the government to have three-month vacation. My only expectation until February is to meet people and make relationships. We need to integrate ourselves and get an idea of what is available at our sites. And that can take up to a year to do… so my frustration is going to be about how I have never had time to just sit in America, and that’s what I will be doing for the next 2 years… maangi toog. I am going to be bored out of my frickin’ mind!

So I know you are wondering what you can do for me! Send me mail, comments and wall posts, email and packages. You just may want to wait now until after my address changes... I don't know what it is yet. I want to know what is going on in America and the rest of the world. I want to know the scored of games whether its your intramural team or the Packers. You would be surprised about how disconnected I already am. Partly, my fault since CNN is not my favorite site to spend time on when I am paying for the internet but how else can I get Hollywood gossip if I don’t do my grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. (I used to pick long lines just to read People).

One quick plug of a small frustration I have to deal with is that I am living with Muslims who don’t drink. It’s Friday. I went to a bar with friends at 6pm for 3 beers. I came home and my 21 and 19-year-old sisters took me aside and told me they could smell alcohol. They were not happy and said that the Peace Corps said we couldn’t drink. Needless to say, I wasn’t happy. I am American and drink alcohol and that may never change.

This is Africa. TIA.

BEANS

2007-10-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

If you know me at all, you know this is no good.

Last weekend we ate richly, since it was a holiday. I am paying for it now. 2 nights in a row... beans. Nothing but beans cooked in some type of sauce. 2 nights ago they were mashed before they were cooked, and I honestly couldnt eat them. Last night they were whole.

I hope dinner tonight is better. I just figured you all needed to know that it took 5 weeks, but beans were for dinner: enough said.

Bambey … India?

2007-10-14T04:44:00.000-07:00

So I know where I am going to be living for the next 2 years of my life! This is such a big deal! I only planned usually one year in advance to lease signing and all that and haven’t known where I would be living since high school! I am excited to have my own home and make it just that so that I will be comfortably living, considering, in Senegal! I will have a double bed and fridge… it will just be under a mosquito net and a mini fridge filled with filtered and beech water!

So the Peace Corps is very good at torturing us. They have known our sites for weeks since we have been learning the language that is spoken at our cities for over 3 weeks. They interviewed us and placed us but don’t like to tell us early just in case things change. Well, this is not very nice in my opinion. 2 years! And this year, because of a major change in scheduling, our site announcement date was moved back a day and a half. So when this time came, it was so exciting!

How they tell us is by taking us to the basketball court at the training center. It is painted as the country of Senegal labeling major cities all over. They make us stand in Mauritania and close our eyes. Then quietly, they spun us around and brought us to where our sites are. It was so fun! So that’s what a few pictures are from if you wanted to see. I had an ancien (a current volunteer that has been here over a year) take pictures. So when we all opened our eyes we could see where we were and who was near us! I am moving to Bambey! It is close to Thies, where I am right now and Dakar is my regional house… meaning whenever I need to get out of my town and relax to remind myself that I am an American, I get to hang out and spend too much money in Dakar! Pretty cool!

So what I know about Bambey—is not much really. I am the first volunteer ever to go to the city of 25,000. There is agriculture, animal raising and commerce in the area with a large daily market. What is extremely exciting for me is high concentration of artisans in a nearby town of Ndem (I’ll talk about that in a sec). There are available microfinance institutions, women’s associations and youth groups in Bambey that all need management training. I will be living in a compound with a family of 8. I will have 2 rooms, private bathroom with wonderful amenities such as cement floor, metal roof, bars on windows, locks on doors, electricity and water available. That probably means bucket baths for the next 2 years… oh well.

Myself and another volunteer were talking with a current volunteer who is COSing (close of service) in October. He has been working with the people of Ndem and hopes we will be continuing his work. He gave me contact numbers and information on their business of exporting baskets. They have already started exporting to Europe. I will need to (first learn and then) help with computerized inventory and accounting systems, along with improve English capacities in order to get into the American market. I will be working hard to get marketing improved along with basic computer skills to improve their website.

How cool is this?! I have a lot to learn about what they are doing now and how we can improve it. It will be a very slow start. My goal over 3 months is first to meet everyone and become friends. There is no way for my to jump in and make a change in the first month or two. I get, from the Peace Corps, a 3-month window to hang out, drink tea and greet everyone in town! After 3 months, we come back to Thies for IST (In-service training) where they will train me to help me with what I want to accomplish in the next year or so. What you could do to help me if find people/businesses that are interested in importing hand-made baskets made from palm trees! Haha – thank god for the internet!

Spaghetti with my Hands

2007-10-14T04:42:00.000-07:00

So I would have never thought possible. Instead of rice for dinner a few days back we had spaghetti! So exciting, except there was no sauce, just oil and noodles with meat, probably goat. They gave me the only fork in the house but I have a bit of trouble with a fork and my right hand so I gave that up shortly after losing a few noodles onto my feet. Just had to let you know that this brought eating with your hands to a whole new level… spaghetti! My dad used to make Kris and I eat our French fries and tater tots with forks! Loving it here! No complaints on food. And what is also nice and has taken some time to get used to, it is perfectly acceptable to insult the cook. If I don’t like something, I can say that and either they will give me their rice without the yucky sauce or make me something else. The honesty is brutal, but it’s better than suffering by eating supakanja, in my opinion.

So Ramadan is finished! Korite is the big celebration that caused us to cancel class on Saturday and we were to spend the day with the family. I totally lucked out by the way. Everyone wears traditional Senegalese clothing and all the trainees needed to go and get it made. I, on the other hand, got not one but 2 dresses made for me. My mom is one of the best tailors in town and my namesake is also a tailor. SWEET! I look good! Pictures coming soon. So today was the first time that I got to eat a very good meal with my family during the day, without the use of a flashlight! Since otherwise we had to eat after sunset and dinners have been after 9 usually. It is going to be interesting to see how everything changes since people have been fasting in the past 4 weeks that we’ve been here and they haven’t been the most enthusiastic during the heat of the afternoons. Overall, the holiday of Korite was rather uneventful. I was expecting a huge celebration filling the streets but people just got real dressed up to head to the mosque and then the night life was supposed to be amazing since my sisters said they went out until 3 last night. I was going to go but got the feeling I would feel out of place since it was about 6 late teenagers asking if I could pay for the taxi. Not thanks! I got over 10 hours of sleep last night instead and LOVED it.

Everything is going wonderfully with my family. They were extremely worried about me since I didn’t break the fast the other night. I was so tired and needed to just lay down with my door shut and I could hear them talking about me for most of the evening. It is quite a challenge to sleep around here. They are noisy! But life is good and I am going to take today as a day to relax since I feel a fall cold coming on… I guess it doesn’t need to be cold out to get one!

Photos Posted!

2007-10-07T05:17:00.000-07:00

Life is good in Senegal! I posted more photos on facebook for you lovelies to enjoy! There are all from either Thies – at our favorite restaurant that gives us beers for 500cfa ($1), at Popinguine, which is an eco-tourism site and some photos of some of my family! The eco site was a field trip for us to see what it was all about. You Americans may not realize that Senegal is a hot spot for rich Europeans. Obviously, after seeing this city, if I were rich and European, I’d go too! The water was super warm – unbelievable I didn’t swim in it right? If only they gave us more than 2 minutes to touch it! And the pictures of my family are limited to whoever was around at that time before I had to hide my camera from my 2 and 4-year-old brothers! I do have a new sister or cousin… she is going to be hanging out for a while in the next few days/weeks. Her name is Soxna and she’s in the pictures!

So today we got a lecture from our Wolof teacher than we are not doing as well as she wants. I need to practice more with my family but it has been tough since Soxna makes it 4 Senegalese young women gossiping non-stop, with hundreds of children coming and going as they please. I brought over 3 of my guy friends and my sisters were excited and making them dance and repeat phrases so they can pretty much be entertained by us. Who knew having white skin could be such an intriguing thing? Children love us! I just need to get the language down! Maybe after Korite, the holiday that will end Ramadan, I will have more time to sit and chat with my yaye. She is extremely busy with her clothing shop making beautiful dresses and boubous for the entire neighborhood it seems! I saw my dress today and I love it! I haven’t tried it on but although it is a simple style, I love the pattern. I’ll be just like the Senegalese next weekend! We will all eat chicken, drink coffee and visit with neighbors, not to mention dance! Should be fun!

The heat hasn’t let up. At the center, we are under fans and in the shade all day but at lunch today, I walked with 2 friends to my yaye’s shop. I remember what it was like sitting in the lifeguard stand at the Neenah Pool, sitting, watching the water and dripping, surprisingly since you are not physically moving. SAME HERE! It’s hot and humid and all the Senegalese keep saying it will get better in October. I’m waiting! But I have heard rumors the dry season is just as bad and worse in some areas. Oh well – it will be a game to see if I can drink enough water to replace my sweat. And that’s another thing that reminds me of the pool – our water at the center is filtered and bleached. It is cold right out of the filter, but if it sits around and warms up, it tastes like the pool. Mmmm right? If you do send a package, send powder gaterade, juices and tea! I’ll love you forever! other things that would be wonderful is if you print off your favorite photos that i have saved put on facebook and I can give them out as gifts to people here! it would be nice to have some photos on my walls! Thanks! :)

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2007-10-05T13:12:00.000-07:00

Everyone reading this needs to send a birthday wish to my dad since I am not able to as easily! He is half a century old today!!! And he loves me for making this known on the internet; right dad? Love you!

I am rather upset since I am at the cyber without my USB. I sat up last night typing a long blog entry and with about 40 new photos to show you all and I fogot it at home! you will have to be patient! but since im here i figured id have to fill you in on my most stressful day since you havent heard that side of me just yet. here it goes

so you know i have been taking wolof and trying my best to practice with my family. the problem is that i rely on my french toget me out of any trouble i have and its all good. well! today we have 6 hours of wolof class and we were all dreading sitting in the classroom for so long! so what our teacher said this morning is that we werent going to be in class all day! great right???!! NOT! everyone loaded into the peace corps bus that took us into town to a large plaza. they dropped us off with a few simple rules. we could not have a buddy, we could not speak french and we could not speak english. awesome. i had to walk up to groups of people and start conversations! what?! it was extremely stressful and what our teachers kept saying is that this is reality! this is what we will have to experience every day when we move to site! needless to say it was eye opening.
(side note: a grasshopper just jumped onto my computer)
the country of senegal known as the country of hospitality. they are so nice and will bend over backwards for you. this aspect was essential today. imagine in the states; if you were enjoying your afternoon in the park reading or simply people wathing and some non-english speaker came up to you to carry on the conversation of a 3year old. i know how to say where i live and what i am doing in senegal, but if they get too specific in questions; i have no clue! it was the most interesting activity we have done so far.. but im still here; fighting harder to learn the frickin language of wolof....

trying my best to laugh off the misery of today and enjoy the thought of my dad drinking a spotted cow for me, since im not there to do that with him.
keep the letters and comments coming -- i need it!

Little Victories

2007-09-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I am having trouble going back and forth between the French keyboard any my own. In the “cyber” as we call it, I spend an hour or so getting used to the keyboard where the A and the Q and the Z have all traded places, not to mention many others. So getting used to my laptop again is a challenge. It is easiest for me to write my blog and save it to a disk rather than type at the cyber….

Anyways, I just wanted to fill you in a bit more on my family life. It’s great! At the center, we all talk about each other’s experiences and I have heard horror stories about cockroach infestations and cruel, backstabbing uncles, but besides a ‘terrible two’ year old, life is good. And if you know me at all, I love Cher Oumar too much already to complain about his crying every so often. He is actually throwing crayons around in my room right now and I only have the vocab to say déedéet – which means no. He just kinda looks at me and smiles. I just got him to pick up about half of the crayons. Little victories… little victories. (I do miss my Fischer kids!) Now, my goal is to answer a single question he asks me before I leave – unlikely, but hey, it’s a goal. The language barrier is very evident with the kids. The girls that are 17, 19 and 21 speak French beautifully and help me daily with my Wolof. My yaye – or mom is also very good at French but encourages me daily to use my Wolof. My papa is working in St. Louis, a city about 5 hours away. He is only home every other weekend. But the kids are a challenge! I try so hard to listen to their conversations but they are very quick! I’ll get it though; it’s only been a week!

Last night, when I was lying in bed reading comfortably under my mosquito net, one of my sisters came down from the roof and asked me if I wanted to come up. So our house is all cement pretty much, and the roof is flat. They call it the terrace because there are stairs up to it and a railing and everything. Its like a second story without a roof, because it is one! Haha! At first I said no cuz I was tired, but I changed my mind since I don’t have school today, since it’s Sunday. They had blankets and pillows and some kids that sleep here sleep under the stars. It was beautiful. And I sat and listened to them. I’d get excited when I understood and would chime in a bit (little victories). Then they taught me all the names of body parts. There is a song a lot like head, shoulders knees and toes. I am no good and they kept teasing me! The kids think it is just hilarious when a toubab – aka white foreigner speaks their language! One of my sisters is going to have me write down and memorize all the parts today. I am back to the status of a 4 year old!

And this weeks training went well. It is tough to concentrate for the 8 hour long day. We get there before 8 so we can have breakfast and then start usually with language. On average, I’d say it’s been about 4 hours a day, but I guess that’s going to pick up! We do get a nice 2 hour break for lunch when sometimes we go to the cyber or market. When we do, we always pass my house and see my family and then we pass my mom’s shop and say hello to everyone there. My mom is a tailor! Which makes most people jealous! I haven’t had anything made just yet, besides a simple skirt when I was in Richard Toll. But I brought in some business for her. My friend is getting a whole outfit made so he can be dressed like the Senegalese. The fabric and they style they wear here is beautiful. I will get something made in a few weeks. Right now, my yaye is very busy with a holiday coming up. After our lunch break, we are at the center until 6pm. At around 7 we break the fast (it’s the month of Ramadan and Muslims don’t eat between sunrise and sunset). Lately dinner has been after 9 sometime. For me, by that time, I’m exhausted and head to bed. Yesterday afternoon when I was getting my hair braided, my sisters were saying that I am pretty much a loser because I don’t watch the African basketball tournament on TV and hang out with them. I never really liked TV in the states (besides Greys and Friends) and basketball? Come on! It’s women’s and they only score like 60 or 70 points in a game… Sleep is higher on my priority list!

Alright, I like Oumar again. He just gave me cookies! I’ll try to get pictures up of my family soon! I haven’t taken any just yet but I’ll get there! Love you all!

Left Brained – not Handed!

2007-09-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

Life is still wonderful in Senegal. I spent four days in Richard Toll to demystify the Peace Corps experience. Richard Toll is a large city of about 70,000 people and is on the Mauritania boarder up north. It was wonderful getting out of Thies and the center for a mini vacation, if you will. Mandi and I stayed with Bryn and she showed us around. Everywhere we went, kids would yell out “Bonjour toubab!!” which means hello foreigner!! It was really funny, but I know eventually I will like to be called by my name! We also got together with 2 other current volunteers with 3 demysters and played at a local hotel pool. It was wonderful!

So I have started my family stay. I am no longer Binta… I am Diama Gueye. (Di = J so Ja-ma… ) Yea, I can hardly pronounce it either! I was named after my host mother’s big sister. So my family in Thies is huge, and honestly I am having quite a hard time learning all of their names. Here’s why: My mom is Astou, but I call her maman or yaye in wolof. My dad is Daouda, or Papa. I have 3 sisters around my age – Nogaye, Khadi, and Astou. And I have four very young siblings: Ahmadou, Cher Dianjan, Maman Ami, and Cher Omar (who just turned 2). There are also other children who possibly live here as well, like Madi and one other. I also have an uncle Cheikh Ndiaye and an older brother whose name I don’t know. There are a few of us here! But I have my own room with 2 windows and a fan (and a few bugs that I kill and pretend are now extinct)! I have a twin bed, 2 chairs and a table that makes many other trainees jealous. Everyone has very different living situations. I live on the same street as two other volunteers and we are less than a 5-minute walk to the center. As for a bathroom, I do have a western style toilet (excellent!) that I share with my parents and all the kids use a Turkish toilet. Honestly, I would have no problem using that because I used it in France for 4 months, but I won’t tell them that!! Instead of a shower, I take bucket baths, which are better than you think. It’s not weird to take like 5 showers a day to stay cool, which is nice. Last night I actually slept underneath a sheet because I was chilly in the middle of the night! Crazy right? It was a first since arriving!

Food is still delicious. We eat a lot of rice and fish. Last night was the first time that I got to eat with my hands! It is quite common here, which is crazy with rice, but that’s not what we had last night. It was lettuce, something like French fries (just not potatoes) onion sauce with fish. It was very with bread. Oh, and about being left handed…so much for that in the next 2 years! That hand is considered dirty and only used in the bathroom, if you know what I mean. I am now a righty, which tends to be challenging at times! It is an insult and frowned upon to reach for something or give something with your left, not to mention eat! After 2 years of this, will I ever be normal again? Haha! But I can’t complain about the food really. I like the spice and haven’t been sick yet (knock on wood!!) Some people in the group have had some problems with the mefloquine prophylaxis that we take for malaria but I must have a tough stomach! It’s a good thing to have here!!

I have a cell phone now! 221 713 3897.... 6 hours ahead? We don’t do fall back.. so i think we will be 7 hours ahead soon... but hey! feel free to text me and then buy a calling card with international minutes!

Training at the center has started and it will be a lot of intensive learning. We start the day at 8, after breakfast, and go from 8-6 with a nice 2-hour lunch break from 12:30-2:30. It is mostly all language right now, and since I passed out of French, I am learning Wolof. This is also what my family speaks. I am able to use French with everyone except the young kids but I am trying to use as much Wolof as possible. Maybe I will be tri-lingual when I leave!

I will try to make sure you all can see photos on my facebook account. It is the fastest way to download them!

Send letters to me! I just bought stamps and should send some stuff out soon! For you, you can buy 90cent stamps at the post office. It is a bit more for me, but you are worth it if you write to me!

flat lizards

2007-09-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

Hey hey!!

so before i forget, my title is PCT Kira Keuhn.. so completely ignore my last post! im sure mail will still get here if you sent it to pst, but just for the future! im an idiot i guess!!

so you want to know how africa is? i like it! should i start from the beginning?

so training in atlanta was great. they put us up in a sweet hotel and besides the 10 hour days of training stuff, it was simply amazing meeting people who know just as much, and little, as i do about senegal!! the peace corps likes to keep us uninfomed/misinformed/oblivious from time to time. its all good! all part of the adventure right?

the first day we got to thies - pronounced Chess - was exhausting. it wasnt the flight really, just the fact that we were in a federal building from before it opened until 4 hours later-ish sucked! i got 2 of the 3 possible shots (and had 2 the otherday and will get like 10 more) and then once we got to senegal, the sun wasnt yet up and we had to wait a while to get through customs and ride a bus for 2 hours. all in all a long day but sooo worth it! everyone is aamazing!!

so they have been feeding us very well (only bugs) and im learning wolof! weve had interviews on our language and business skills and we should know where we will be placed in like 3 weeks! ooo and im not eating bugs! there is baguettes and tea in the morn, rice and fish/chicken/beef for lunch and dinner. fresh fruit is everywhere and although i havent had a mango yet, i will tonight! it is all very tasty and moving to africa will not cause me to lose weight. (all my hopes and dreams down the drain. ha) so last night was pretty much the first night that we we not that tired that we all stayed up pretty late and talked. its kinda like summer camp! but thats changing right now!

today, 9 of us got in a peace corps van and drove north. every hour of so we would drop people off at a current volunteers site. they call this demystification. so me and one other girl are staying so far north we can see the Mauritania border from our volunteers bedroom window! its just across the river and its wonderful! we went outside today for bread and i got my first senegalese name! they dont bother to ask what your american name is, but mom and dad, so much for kira, im Binta until i get back to Thies!

oo and your probably wondering --flat lizard? i saw one on our walk to use the internet. rather unfortunate because we were on a side walk, so it must have been a bike that took it out? sad, i know.

thats all i will write for now!
send me letters and i will love you forrever! when i get stamps ill send you mail and the cell phone should be within the week!
love you

ps dad - call grandma and read this to her! love you!