One week and counting!

One week. That is all I have left in Kaffrine, the community I've served for the past 2 years. With that realization is the fact that I must say my final goodbyes to people who are very dear to my heart. I hope it won't be the last time I see them, but as of yet I cannot yet offer a date for when I will return. I keep mentioning a return to soften the blow of my departure, and I absolutely intend to come back here within the next 5 years, but maybe teasing them with an uncertain return is worse. I am constantly asked to just marry someone here so that I have to stay, or at least come back quite soon. Usually it is an old man who is offering to take me as a second or third wife so that I will stay. Sweet? Sometimes it does makes me laugh. A few of them seem so genuine about it. But alas, I am not marrying anyone in order to stay, nor am I just adding another 6 months or 5 years, as the requests go. I am leaving. It will be tearful and it will hurt my heart to leave so many people I love without knowing when I will see them again. But the time is close at hand.

I have been cleaning out my room and giving away a lot of things. My host siblings think it is a grand time. I try not to get frustrated when they start asking for things. I like giving gifts, but I hate feeling asked to give someone something, or feeling obligated to give things. It takes all the fun out of it. I've gotten better at that here because the culture has built in a system of asking for things, and a system of obligated gift giving when returning from a trip. I suppose there is some of that in the States as well with souvenirs. But still. It is a lesson I continue to learn. I'm not taking much with me, so it is pretty easy to give away most things. I am holding onto a few things though so I can give them to people individually as special gifts right before I leave.

One of my PCV friends is bringing a duffel back to the States for me, so I really only have a single backpack to prep. It is basically all set, so now I am just spending as much time as possible with individuals in my community who I consider friends or family. The emotions of leaving have strongly affected me; it seems that every emotion I feel right now is more heightened. We'll see if I can keep it together. My host dad told me he wants to leave Kaffrine before I leave so he doesn't have to say goodbye. I don't know if he is serious, but I understand his feeling. Part of me wants to sneak out. I doubt I can though. I need goodbyes, even though I hate completing them.

Things aren't all sad. The past few months have been really great actually. I feel accomplished. We had Girls Camp, which was phenomenal. The girls have transformed my hopes for the future of Senegal. We transplanted all the trees at my Women's Group's gardens. There are now over 1000 trees in the ground, ready to protect their gardens. We had a great Open Field Day at my Master Farmer's field. He even incorporated a nutrition training into it. We held a 3 day health and soccer camp with 35 girls in Kaffrine, teaching them about puberty, sex, STIs, HIV, nutrition, and healthy relationships while making it fun with soccer. It was one of the highlights of my service. I'm really going to miss my camp girls. And I've led a lot of informal trainings with women on organic pest control, planting, trees, etc. I am an Ag volunteer afterall. 

On top of all of that I managed to attend the Mangrove Reforestation project where we planted over 100,000 mangrove seedlings in one morning! I led the first team that brought many of the seeds to the spot, carried on our heads up the channel because the tide was so low the boat couldn't get there. I personally think my crew trumped all the other teams who planted, but that may only be because we were there longest (and because we were more bad-ass since no one else had to carry their own seeds like that since they arrived after the tide had started coming in). Also, I visited Touba again, the Senegalese mecca for the main Muslim brotherhood here. It was far less crazy than last time when I went during the annual pilgrimage. And my friends and I got a personal tour through many of the religious buildings, which was awesome (until one of my friends told someone that he wasn't Muslim. Then we weren't allowed in anymore...) We also just celebrated Tabaski, or in the rest of the Muslim world, Eid al-Adha.  It is the festival of the sacrifice and we honored that by sacrificing 3 male sheep.  I may have gotten blood splatter all over my face and clothes when I was too close trying to get a photo of the first slaughter... But after all of that we ate far too much meat for the next 4 days, and in dressed up in new, fancy clothing to walk around and greet people, asking for forgiveness for past wrongdoings and giving blessings for the coming year.  Don't worry, I got dolled up too!

 

Also, today some of the Kaffrine volunteers got together to dig a 2m x 3m x 2m hole in the ground in a small village, to be made into toilets for the brand new school that my good friend Christi erected in honor of her host sister who tragically passed away in May.  Right now there are 140 children ready to start learning in this two-room school.  All that is left are the desks, which are being built as we speak, and then for the teachers to come. It was hard labor in the hot sun, but I think it is a very worthwhile endeavor. Yay for douches! (Yes, that is what toilets are called here. I realize the irony in this statement.)

Needless to say, it has been a whirlwind of activity topped by emotional departure preparation. I leave Kaffrine in a week, Senegal in a week and a half. I'm not ready for that. But I am eager to see what lies ahead. Europe is calling! I get 6 weeks to backpack around Western Europe before I need to get back to the States and figure out my life. Barcelona is my first stop on November 1st! England is my last. And Germany for Thanksgiving with my little brother David. Now to fill in the gaps... Suggestions?

The End Is In Sight

     I have less than 3 months left until my service as an Urban Agriculture Extension Agent for Peace Corps Senegal is over. That is exciting and terrifying at the same time. At the end of this month I will have been living in Senegal for 2 years. In real time that seems like quite awhile, where careers are started, families created, and technology advances at a mind-spinning pace. I suppose in some way, I too have experienced all of those things in my little town in West Africa. Peace Corps will be a experience that I will continue to draw on as I search out where my career may lead, with increased knowledge, patience, and flexibility, along with an entire network of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCV's) that I can tap into for assistance. I certainly have made a family here, not only by being adopted into the Sylla household in Kaffrine, but also my Peace Corps family, full of fellow volunteers who have shared my highs and lows of service (only a fellow PCV can understand why we would call pooping one's pants a gold star). My exit from this country will be full of emotion. I have had to start some of my goodbyes already, and they haven't exactly been dry-eyed. It will probably only get worse the closer I am to leaving. As for technological advances, I have seen children learn to use electronics that I don't even know yet, and then watch them teach those around them. Villages are beginning to use solar energy to power well pumps, boutiques, and much more. People here have created ingenious ways to recycle everything. I wish more people in the western world were willing to do that. So yes, I guess 2 years really have gone by, and all around the world people are living it as fully as possible. It seems to have gone by far too quickly though.

     I find myself feeling that the Becca of America, pre-Peace Corps, no longer exists, and that the Becca of Senegal won't fit in very well when she tries to fit into her old roles. How do you explain that you are still yourself, but very different at the same time? Perhaps saying my former self no longer exists is not quite true, but I do feel like my experiences the past 2 years have shaped me into a stronger, more resilient individual. It may have been the most difficult 2 years of my life for many varied reasons, and I think that if I were the same person I was before I came, I wouldn't still be here. But I am, and now the next step is to go on and find a new place for myself, full of more experiences that will mold me into a better person. I haven't quite figured out in all of the ways I have changed yet, and I don't think I will until I am confronted with moments that question that. Our minds and wills are malleable, our souls are eager for inspiration. I decided that the only way I could shape my life into what I want it to be is by pursuing those experiences that will force me into a disequilibrium, the optimal place for learning.

     So the next step is to wrap up my service here, slowly make my way back home, and then when I'm in a calm, quiet place, I can begin to digest my experiences and use what I learn to choose my next direction. I know it will take awhile after returning to find that lull, I have many people and places I want to visit upon my return, but it will come, and it will be good. Everyone needs some time to just sit and ponder life. It is one of the things I love about life here: people are willing to just sit with nowhere to go, and nothing to do for that brief bit of time beyond loving that moment of tranquility. I find it best when I sit in my garden, balancing on the edge of the cement water basin, feet splashing in the cool water as I enjoy the light breeze that rustles the leaves of the neem tree above my head. A blissful moment.

     The blessing and curse of my service is that now I am in the height of my abilities, my language is decent, people have come to accept and trust my knowledge, the rains are active and helping everything to grow and flourish, my projects are going well, and inchallah, the harvest will be good. And so I will leave on a high note, but at the same time, two years just isn't enough time to be really effective. If I were here longer, there is so much more I could do, more people I could work with, more communities I could serve. But two years is all I can offer right now. My family back home needs me and I need them. So two years will have to be enough. Perhaps later I can do more.

     With all of that in mind, I intend to make these last few months as memorable as possible. This month I was able to spend a fair amount of time visiting some of my favorite places, including going to Kedougou and cycling out about 50 km each way to reach the breathtakingly beautiful Ingeley waterfall for my birthday. I also went to an Training to teach English and have been holding informal lessons at my house with the children in the neighborhood. Ramadan, the month of fasting is almost over and we will celebrate by killing and eating a goat. This weekend we will begin transplanting the 2000 trees we seeded and cared for the last couple of months. We are preparing for our annual girls camp, which starts August 18^th. I just met with the families of all of the girls I chose from Kaffrine to make sure they will be ready, and I'm working on lessons I will be teaching. And in a month I will join volunteers from around the country for the Mangrove Reforestation project. In the midst of all of those things, I am finishing the paperwork to complete grants, working in my garden, advising my master farmer, and managing the affairs at our regional office. Soon I will will be phasing out of my roles and working to install others to fill the positions, or find a way for projects to sustain themselves through the work of community members.

     A lot to do and to think about over the next couple of months. As of October 31, 2013, I will get my “R” and join the ranks of RPCVs around the world. Then, we'll see what life has in store next.

Where has the time gone?

How could June already be almost over? I'm on the fast track to finishing my service in Senegal and it makes me really uncomfortable when I think about it too much. I will announce my official Close of Service (COS) date in my next update but it will most likely be around the 1^st of November. That means I have a little more than 4 months to get all of my projects to a point where I can comfortably leave them or find someone who can take them over. That also means I have a lot of paperwork to do, grants to complete, PC bucket list items to accomplish, items to give away, items to accumulate, and too many goodbyes. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of things in that list but I don't want to get into everything quite yet.

A couple of weeks ago we had our COS conference, which brought together all of the people who arrived in Senegal with me almost 2 years ago, some of whom I haven't seen since our In-Service Training in February 2012. It was great to see everyone and a few new faces who had transferred here from Mali when it was evacuated last April. This conference was set up to discuss exactly what we need to do before leaving and how to prepare for life post-Peace Corps. The administration offered some really great tools to make the adjustment easier, including resumés, job searches, and graduate school options. I'm glad it forced me to think about some of these things, which I might have procrastinated too long, but at the same time it felt a bit early to jump into thoughts of leaving. Now I can't get my mind off of it. I want to make my last 4 months really worthwhile, but that may prove difficult if I struggle to focus on being in the present. So that being said, we're going to skip to real life updates:

Gardens! I basically live in my garden right now. The rains are right around the corner; we had a decent rain 2 weeks ago which got everyone's hopes up and now the skies are just teasing us. So while we anxiously await the nectar of the gods I'm helping as many women as I can to get tree and vegetable nurseries growing so that soon after the rains become frequent we can transplant into their respective gardens. My two groups of women filled and seeded 1200 tree sacks each and after a few re-seedings we have most sacks growing with little thorny trees that will hopefully become a live fence around their 1 hectare gardens. This is a techniques we promote in Peace Corps Senegal because it offers a cheaper and more long-lasting protection option than a chain-link fence or a fence made of old sticks or millet stalks. I'm eager to see the trees get established and hopefully my replacement can help fill in any gaps next rainy season. We also planted beds of eggplant, bitter tomato (actually a type of eggplant), hot pepper, green pepper, and tomatoes, which will be divided up and transplanted in each woman's plot. Beyond those they will probably grow okra, tropical hibiscus, squash, beans, and whatever other seeds they can find the space to plant. In the dry season they haven't used their garden space because it is on the edge of town and far for everyone, plus trying to pull water from a 35-meter well every day to maintain their crops in this heat was a little absurd. Because of that I'm offering a portion of my garden for them to use for their nurseries, which is more centrally located and has easy access to water (I have a faucet and hose that fill up a large cement water basin in my garden).

Beyond laboring in my garden and helping the women's groups, the school year just ended so I'm wrapping up this year's school gardening project and figuring out how best to get that running again when school reopens in October so that it can survive until my replacement is ready to take it over. I'm also working with a Master Farmer about 10 km away from Kaffrine where we are preparing improved farming experiments and demonstrations for this rainy season. Last week I was out there measuring the the demo plots and discussing which techniques he wants to focus on this season. At the end of the rainy season we will have a big Open Field Day where farmers from all over the region are invited to come out and learn what was done and how well it worked, with the eventual aim that more farmers will adopt some of the techniques he is using.

We raised all the money we needed for this year's Girls Camp! I'm really excited that we can now make this project a reality. I have chosen 7 girls from Kaffrine and we will have a total of 40 girls from all over the tri-region area who will take part in a week of educational and inspirational experiences they would never have had the opportunity for otherwise. It will be held in late August and I'm still working on dance routine to teach (I might have put that on the back burner for a bit with some of my other work...). I'm also going to help with a geography activity, crafts, and overall energy. It's going to be phenomenal.

So right now is a lot of prep work. Most of my projects are either in the labor-intensive preparatory stage or in the wrap-up stage. And yet I still manage to make time for some minor projects as well. I'm helping to host a training about Moringa this weekend, I check up with other notable farmers and help them when needed, I'm still active in the Peer Support Network, I manage the local PC office in Kaffrine, and I'm constantly on the lookout for ridiculous adventures. All together I feel like I'm living a pretty decent life and I am not quite ready to give it up in order to return to whatever America has in store for me. All in due time.

P.S. In my efforts to combat the heat and because I think this is the best time in my life to experiment, I shaved my head.  It was one of the best decisions I've made in awhile!

Getting back on my feet

First and foremost, I want to thank the countless people who have reached out to me over the past few months to offer love and support in my time of need. Your thoughts and words have really touched me. I honestly didn't realize how many people keep up with what is happening in my world. I know there are a lot of expectations for my work in Senegal, and I'm not sure if I always live up to them, but I am striving to fulfill my own aspirations to create an environment of mutual learning and growth.

This past month I have worked really hard to get back on my feet and to renew my energy for the projects that I have currently. It hasn't always been easy, and sometimes I have to take a moment to just let my emotions have some time. Right now I am working with 6 elementary schools in Kaffrine that are establishing gardens as a teaching tool for their students. I check up with each school every week to make sure their gardens are on track and to teach gardening techniques that they can then teach to their students. This month I also started to work with the local high school to set up a school garden and they have cleared a space, put up a fence, and are in the process of getting access to water from one of the buildings. I'm excited to see how that will turn out because the students are much older and only those who are interested in gardening will come to the classes we are setting up.

Kaffrine invitees for Girls Camp 2012

This week I interviewed girls from 3 different middle schools to choose the best girls (grades, motivation to continue their education, and willingness to learn new things from another culture) in 5ieme (approximately 8^th grade) for our annual girls camp.Volunteers from the regions of Kaolack, Fatick, and Kaffrine are putting it together in conjuction with Senegalese camp counselors for 40 girls for one week in August. I took part in it last year and it was an incredibly rewarding experience. This year I am the regional coordinator for the selection process and hopefully by this time next month I will know the names all all 14 girls from the region who will be attending. It is a great opportunity for the girls, many of whom have never left their region or seen the ocean, to go to a resort in the mangroves where we will have themed activities each day to teach the girls about their health, environment, identities, gender, and possible future careers. I will be teaching dance again and am currently on the lookout for some fun, yet easy to learn dance steps for the girls. Last year I taught two different types of dance but I think I'm just going to stick with one that they can easily remember and perform at our closing ceremony. If you love helping underprivileged girls, please take a moment to donate to make Girls Camp 2013 happen. The camp is made possibly purely through outside donations. And the best part is that you will receive a hand-written letter from one of the girls! 

Another project that I'm working on right now is to create a live fence of thorny trees for the garden spaces of two women's groups. We had the training last Saturday on how to fill tree sacks, seed them, take care of them, and then how to transplant them in a few months when the rains come. I had 2500 sacks for this so I gave each group 1250 and the next day women showed up to my garden and started sifting sand and manure, mixing it together, and then filling tree sacks. As of today, one group has already done 1000, and the other has done 650. So hopefully by Sunday they will all be done and we can seed them next week before I leave for a conference and then vacation.

Those are my current highlight projects, but I also have small activities that take up my time as well. I currently manage the Peace Corps office in Kaffrine and we just hosted the new trainees who are going to be place in Kaffrine next month. So now I am working on pre-ordering certain items for them so they don't have to worry about picking up everything they need for their new homes in the 2 days they will be given between arriving in the city and being taken to their new homes to be installed. I remember how overwhelming that time was for me, so hopefully getting these things will make the process a little less hectic. This weekend there is also a graffiti project being put together by an Italian non-profit (NGO) who work to get assistance for people with handicaps and their families. The graffiti art is one of the best tools they have found to teach students and communities about important topics like this. I have become good friends with the couple who run this NGO and I'm looking forward to helping out with this project.

So yes, I'm staying busy and working with as many people as possible who are interested in what I have to teach. I enjoy my time here and I know that when I leave it will be really difficult. I love the people I have met here and I continue to learn new things everyday. There are so many things here that I think I take for granted now, and things that don't even phase me that might have before. Like today, as I was locking up my garden one of the women took off her top and asked if she could leave it there so she would have some work clothes for tomorrow. Of course I had no problem with it and didn't even think twice about if she had something else to put on because then she proceeded to walk topless back to the trees where the other women were waiting. Apparently she did have another top and she put it on before we walked across town, but it wouldn't have surprised me if she had just tied her wrap skirt over her chest before making the trek home.

There is always a lot that I can share about my life and service here, and I know I don't ever say enough, but if you have any questions or comments I would love to hear them. Also, if there is some topic here you want me to address, I would be more than happy to share my experiences and opinions relating to it.  

It needs to be said

Dear World,

I know I haven't written in awhile. There is a perfectly good reason for that. In fact, the only reason I'm writing now is because I feel like I need to get some things off my chest. Firstly, thank you to those people who reached out to me and my family in our time of need. It was very kind. I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to most anyone, but I really do appreciate the sentiment. Since my last update in November, I've done some really great work, had delightful adventures, and then watched it all come crashing around me last month when my mom called me to tell me that my oldest brother had committed suicide. Suddenly none of the work I had been doing seemed to matter. My world was shattered with only a few words.

Honestly, I had no intention of going to the States at all during my service. I knew it would be a mentally shaking experience because I've cut a lot of things out of my life that seem so important there. Mostly material things, but also I have been shifting my worldview to try to see things in larger scheme of things. What I'm getting at is that I was in no way prepared for the very sudden decision to go home. (It was less of a decision and more a feeling that there is nowhere else I could imagine myself.) So in a daze I contacted PC admin with the help of a friend because I was still struggling putting coherent sentences together through the tears.

I want to take a moment to say that everyone who helped me in this process, host family, Senegalese and PC friends, and most especially PC Administration in Senegal were absolutely amazing. I was in some of the best hands possible for dealing with this situation. By the time I arrived in Dakar office hours were long over, but there was a dedicated crew still there to make sure that I had emotional support I needed and that I could get on a plane that same night. That alone was enough to make me emotional. I know there is no way possible to ever thank them enough, but hopefully one day I can show them the gratitude I feel.

A grueling 36 hours after my mom called me, I was in Salt Lake City, Utah, in running into the arms of my dear big sister, Missie. All the emotions I tried to repress during the long trek were finally able to gush out in the safest environment possible. There is nothing like sharing your broken soul to someone who understands exactly what you are going through because they are dealing with it too.

Over the next couple of days the rest of my family arrived and we had the first reunion of my very expansive family in many years. Very few things could make that happen. I wish this hadn't been one of those. But at least I was able to see everyone. I think that is one of the few consolations of my trip: I spent time with family and a few close friends. It was an absolutely exhausting and emotionally tumultuous trip. The States is weird. I really didn't know how to handle it. I think I went on autopilot a bit so that I didn't have to deal with too many stimuli at once. Grief trumps all.

I lost my big brother, the one who spoiled me when I was little, who taught me archery and sparked my youngest memories of wanderlust as I heard him describe his various adventures and mishaps. Somehow our paths diverged over the years as he grew up and I did too. I don't think he knew how much I looked up to him and then later how much I wanted to be his equal, his compatriot. He cut my family out of his life a few months ago, and as much as I didn't think it was fair because we had never had a bad relationship, I could do very little from my post in Senegal. And now it's too late to change.

I didn't write this for sympathy. The point of my blog is to let people who care about me know what I'm up to. I came back to Senegal 3 weeks ago because it seemed silly to do anything else. I had two weeks in America and while I had the option to stay longer, I don't think I could have handled it. I'm glad I came back. This is my home right now and I very much want to finish my service here. To be honest though, I'm not back to my old self yet. I know they say that time heals all wounds, but I would sure like it to hurry up. I'm riding this emotional roller coaster, hoping it doesn't have too many more unexpected twists and drops for awhile.

So in the meantime, I'm allowing myself mental health days as needed. I stayed with some friends in Toubacouta shortly after returning because they had visitors from America and I love seeing how people react differently around people who they've had relationships with pre-Peace Corps. I know I acted differently when my sister and her fiancé came to visit. It was really easy to fall into the little sister roll, but at times it did contrast sharply with my PC persona and the personal growth that I have experienced here. When that happened I had to step back and consciously change how I responded. I did that somewhat when I was home too, but to a lesser degree because it wasn't so glaringly obvious when removed from my PC world. But I have changed. I have overcome mental hurdles while adapting to a completely foreign environment. I'm not done growing though. I think when I finally find peace with the death of my brother I will be a more capable, competent person. And who knows what other experiences await over the next 8 months and beyond. So here's to riding the wave until I finally settle on a gentle sun-kissed shore.

"There are some things money can't buy"

Tabaski sheep: 210,000 cfa

Thanksgiving turkey: 16,000 cfa

Witnessing the engagement of your sister: priceless

Master Card had a good idea when they used this memorable slogan for how best to spend your money. Unfortunately they haven't made it to the inner reaches of the Sahel desert so in the meantime I dole out very colorful West African Francs (cfa) for many of my adventures.

The last month of regaling experiences starts with Tabaski, the largest Senegalese and Islamic holiday of the year. It is to celebrate Abraham's sparing of his eldest son and killing a sheep instead. Each head of household is required to slaughter an animal, preferably a sheep but a goat is acceptable and a chicken will do in a pinch. Since my house has 3 families living here, they each bought and killed a sheep, as well as my grandmother (though the only part she played was to give money for the sheep to be bought). So basically we ate a LOT of meat for a few days. However, since we are one of the more fortunate families in our neighborhood, we gave away about 2/3 of the meat. (We did however receive some meat from other families in the spirit of giving, so maybe we really did eat that much meat...) It was quite a festive 3 days where I ate lunch with a different family each day. It's so fun to see how different people choose to celebrate the holiday.

After the festivities were over and people slowly began to go back to work, I left for a pre-vacation to St. Louis, one of the best locales for a tourist in Senegal. It is located in the very northwest of the country, right on the coast. Now my reasoning for this little trip comes down to a couple of things. My good friend Robert was bitten by a venomous snake a few days beforehand in the jungles of Kedougou and was flown to Dakar for treatment. After he was released from the hospital he needed a break from life to really absorb what had just happened to him and that is very difficult to do in the hubbub of the capitol. Since I needed to leave site in a couple of days to pick up Beth and Chris from the airport, and my friend Jessica was flying home for Thanksgiving right before then, we decided this would be an opportune time to relax together in a city known for its chill atmosphere. That one top of the fact that by day 4 of Tabaski, if you still have meat left over, it has begun to go rancid and I didn't want any part of that. So off I went, and after 8 hours of travel, I arrived in the city and spent the next 3 days in total relaxation with some of my dearest friends. We did some site-seeing of the old French colonial quarters, ate delicious food, live music, and hung out with the volunteers there, including spending some time in the demonstration garden of my friend Mike Lieberman. That last part was really great because I've been looking for some inspirations for my own garden and I was able to give some creative sections. Also, the live music was quite wonderful. We met a harmonica musician who has been traveling the world in search of the best ways to express himself with music. His music had a bluegrass feel while also giving me the feel of dancing on a riverboat in the Bayou. He was a delightful character and I hope I run into him again someday.

When we finally left it was with a reluctant heart, but I certainly intend to go back there before I leave. Plus St. Louis hold Jazz Fest in May or June so I can't miss that. We left and headed straight for Dakar since Jessica had to fly out that night and I needed to be back at the airport the next morning. It remained the overly-crowded city that I remembered, so I was eager to leave as quickly as possible. I was up with the morning call to prayer and in a cab to pick them up when I received a call from an airport official informing me that my family had arrived early and were anxiously waiting. I felt so bad that I wasn't there to meet them directly and hoped they were ok. As soon as my cab pulled up and I saw them standing at the arrival exit, I started running and didn't stop until my momentum was stopped by Beth running and leaping into my arms. As soon as I put her down I received an overjoyed and relieved hug from Chris and it sealed the excitement that had been bubbling over. I had been waiting over a year for those embraces and they were perfect.

After that, I knew the next two weeks were going to be great, if only because I at last had my family here to share the world I have come to love and treasure. Once we arrived at the regional house they showed me some wonderful gifts that had brought, including an entire backpack full of food and other supplies that were a communal gift of many family members. As always, I'm amazed my mother's packing job and kept finding treasures days after I had unpacked the bag. One of the most notable gifts though was a burrito from Chipotle. It isn't that I'm a diehard fan or anything, but I have been craving an overstuffed burrito more than any other thing in this country. Of course my dreams tend to be of a veggie burrito from Cedar City's Roberto's, but I knew that was a near impossibility and the Dulles Airport in DC could offer me some semblance of the deliciousness that my mind remembered. And I didn't care that it had been sitting on an airplane for 8 hours. In fact, I busted that baby out for breakfast that morning and then because Chris had left a second one he hadn't finished, I also ate that one on the 4 hour bus ride to Kaolack that I forced them on that same morning.

I didn't give them much time to recuperate from their long travels because I wanted to leave Dakar and get us down to my friends' village on the border of Gambia as quickly as possible. So by the time we arrived at dusk, they had been traveling for over 24 hours. And this was the moment we realized that Chris bag had been broken into sometime between the DC airport and his arrival and baggage collection in Dakar and they took his camera! We were all so angry and upset because that had been his graduation present and he had been looking forward to the photographic opportunities here. Also, it was his carry-on luggage and the airline told him it was too big so they were going to put it under the plane. And that was the point when the thief had access to it! Needless to say, we were upset and Chris was still quite panicked. I sent Beth to splash her face and clean up because we were supposed to meet our friends at the local bar for a birthday party. When she left the room Chris quickly rummaged through the rest of his bag until he found the box that was the real reason for his panic. As soon as I saw it my heart skipped a beat and I held my breath as he opened it and found his grandmother's wedding rings still securely inside it. We both visibly relaxed and he handed me the box for safe keeping on the rest of our journey. When Beth returned, we headed out to the bar and then spent the next 2 days with great company, trying to deal with the issues of the stolen camera while still being secretly relieved that the most valuable items hadn't been taken.

We were back on the road pretty quickly, stopping for a day to go kayaking in the delta and to dine with a baby monkey before finally arriving at my home in Kaffrine. There we hung out with some of my favorite people, visited my garden, biked to my friend Christi's village, and had an election party into the wee hours of the morning. While this was our longest period of time sleeping in the same place, we were still so busy it flew by so quickly that I couldn't fit everything in. One thing I did make sure to do was give Chris his birthday present, a traditional Senegalese boubou. Beth also got a matching complet as well. From the moment he arrived, he asked about the possibility of getting one made, I ended up having to spill the beans early that I had already done that and that the tailor had it ready and waiting.  Good thing my eyeball measurements fit!

The next leg of our journey started very early. We woke up, biked across town, and were on a makeshift van-bus before 6am. It took us 5 hours to get to Tamba, and after a lunch break, another 4 to get to Kedougou. But we arrived safely and ready to enjoy the crazy adventure that Kedougou always holds. Since the bike situation looked a bit haggard and we were all tired from travel, I arranged for a car to pick us up and the next morning we were on our way to the mountain village of Segou, which is on the road to Guinea and home to a beautiful waterfall. This had been prearranged as the ideal site for Chris to pop the question so I wanted to make sure thing went smoothly. My friends Robert and Cameron joined us for the hike and as we meandered on the long path in and out of the mountain stream I was constantly reminded of how great and yet surreal it felt to have my Peace Corps Senegal life merging with my America world for this period of time. I noticed a lot on this trip how much I have changed and continue to change, hopefully for the better.

But on to the part everyone is waiting for... When we arrived at the waterfall we took a little lunch break of peanut butter and apple sandwiches before Beth decided it was time to go splashing in the water. She and I stripped to our bikinis and ventured into the water a bit. After a bit of this Chris handed me the camera (I had put him in charge of mine ever since his was stolen because I wanted him to continue to capture the memories he had hoped to on this trip), and I went up to my bag to grab the ring box I had been stowing away this whole time. While he and Beth spent time holding each other and being cutesy, I slipped the box into his hand without her noticing. I'm a ninja like that. Then in a pretense of taking more photos of the waterfall and them, I started recording them and it took Beth a bit to notice that I was so close, though she didn't catch on that the video was on. After she tried to get him to go under the waterfall with her and he explained they should wait a little bit, he began to explain why he loved her so much and that he wanted to spend his life with her. Then he got down on his knee and asked her to marry him. She responded, “Of course!” He then told her the story of the ring being his grandmother's. It was such a touching moment and I felt honored to be a part of it. They've already chosen a date too: June 13, 2014. Eight years to the day after they started dating. And they are specifically waiting that long so I can be home for it. I have the best siblings!

We basically rode that high all the way back to Kedougou the next day and through the longest haul of the trip, all the way back across the country in less than 24 hours. We arrived in Dakar at 5 am on Chris's birthday and spent the day on a very relaxed meander around parts of the city. We hit the beach, enjoyed chilling on an island, ate ice cream, jumped on trampolines and finally ate Ethiopian food to polish off the day. Their last day we did very little, which was very ok since we were all pretty exhausted from such a packed trip. It was hard to see them go though. My family is very important to me and if it weren't for the distance from them and some of my dear friends, I think I could make Senegal my home for far longer than the allotted 27 months. As it is, I very much look forward to seeing everyone in a year (give or take a few months).

Well that pretty much covers the biggest highlights of the last month. Though I will give a shout-out to some other memorable moments: Christi's birthday picnic in a baobab grove, convincing my friend who hasn't really ridden a bicycle since high school to bike 20km with me to visit on of my work partners, and finally sharing Thanksgiving with some awesome volunteers and introducing it to my dearest Senegalese friends. Also, we just enjoyed Tamkharit here, the celebration of the Islamic New Year. It also happens to be the month I officially became a Peace Corps Volunteer and moved to Kaffrine. I look forward to what awaits for my second year here. It's already shaping up to be quite an experience!

Heat + Rain = Adventure!

I know it has been a ridiculously long time since I last wrote, but that doesn't mean things have stopped being interesting here. I still find a new challenge/adventure everyday. I will try to give a few highlights for you over the last few months though, and then we can try to move forward from there.

My last teaser was to tell you about my epic trip to Cape Verde, which really was phenomenal! Probably one of the best vacations in my life thus far. I traveled with my good friends Cameron and Frank, who are both volunteers in the Kedougou region. They are a bit more accustomed to the type of greenery that we encountered in CV but I was blown away by how alive everything was, even though it was May and the hottest time of the dry season. The volunteers there were quick to inform me that it is normally much more breathtaking. Regardless, I thought it was delightful and fell in love with the topography (mountains, valleys, beaches, rocky cliffs). As much as I love Senegal, my region is incredibly flat, with few trees and nothing close to beaches or cliffs. Needless to say, I was a little jealous, but definitely appreciative of the chance to spend time with volunteers who knew the area and who could show us all the best places.

 We spent a few days on the volcanic island Fogo so of course we had to hike up to the base of the vocano (5+ hrs) and then the next morning hike the volcano (4+ hrs). It was beautiful! The valley by the volcano has been turned into a vineyard of sorts with grapes and pomegranates growing out of the nutrient rich soil. I don't have adequate words to describe how wonderful the wine and cheese were there... We were fortunate to have the lovely Rachel Day, a volunteer on Fogo, host us and show us the hike.

 After our epic time in Fogo we didn't know if Santiago could really compete, but it definitely made a great impression. Black sand beaches, mountain villages, caves full of washed up seashells, old colonial tunnels through the mountain that emerge onto a cliff beach that was crying to be explored, flying a kite on top of a mountain, music festivals, climbing inside of The Big Tree, and of course fantastic volunteers showing us countless adventures along the way. I want to give a big shoutout to all the volunteers in Cape Verde. You know how to live the good life while still making a difference. Sorry that Peace Corps closed your country program. Cape Verde is now very dear in my heart and I hope to go back there someday to see the gems of the other islands as well.

Skip forward to late June... RAIN!!! The rainy season came and brought life everywhere! I didn't realize that Kaffrine could be so beautiful, but I was certainly proven wrong. Not only was everything green, but the people became more active. Everyone was working, fields were plowed with the year's crops, and in general people seemed happy to be more active. One tough part about the rainy season though is that because everyone has invested their time and money into their fields, and the crops haven't been harvested yet, Senegal goes through what is known as the Starvation Season. There isn't a lot of money to buy vegetables or meat, and in some of the poorer families they only eat rice and oil at times. I'm fortunate to have a school teacher for my host dad, so he has a steady income to provide for the family during this time. Sometimes it is hard knowing that I'm still eating well when the people I work with (mostly farmers) are struggling to provide more than what they grow themselves. (Strange that I would feel that way here when I know it is far less than what is spent on food in the U.S.) So the big push is to teach people to at least keep a small vegetable garden during that time. My women's groups seemed to do pretty well with that this season and even had enough left to sell in the markets too.

I ended up traveling a fair amount in July and August due to Independence Day celebration in Kedougou, a training about moringa in another subregion, celebrating birthdays, and my friend Toby coming to visit as his close of service (COS) trip after serving 2 years in Cape Verde. We jumped on trampolines overlooking the ocean in Dakar, went kayaking in the Mangroves in Toubacouta, hung out in Kaffrine, and eventually finished up relaxing in Kedougou. Attempted to go to a waterfall, but we both got sick during the bike ride there, so we hung out a campement in the mountains and then biked back the next day. It was still really fun even though we didn't see the falls. (Consolation was that I trashed him at playing rummy. :D) The best part about Kedougou was lounging in hammocks, listening to guitar music and great conversations.

I had to leave early and send Toby back to Dakar by himself because I was supposed to go to a training for all the Urban Agriculture volunteers in Senegal. The training was held in the far north of the country, so it was quite a trek to get there. And since I caught the free PC ride part of the way, I took part in teaching some farmers up there about erosion control. I felt like the information I imparted was well received, though it definitely helped that I had other volunteers there to help me translate. Also, I pulled a muscle in my back while carrying large rocks to create a dam.... The rest of the training was alright, though I was still dealing with being sick, and then my injured back on top of that meant that a fair amount of the information was lost on me and I was irritated that I had traveled so far, not been able to see Toby off, and then was in a position to receive information well. So that was fun. But on the plus side, I did loop all the way around the country in a month. The only sections I missed out on were the middle of the country between me and the north: Linguere, and then the lower jaw of Senegal (really, the country looks like pac man and it is swallowing The Gambia): Kolda/Casamance. I intend to go to every region before I COS so I'm well on my way!

Next stop: Mangroves! If I haven't mentioned before, the mangroves are a special type of tree the live in salt water and actually acts as a water purification system so the ecosystem surrounding them are crazy cool. I hear rumor if you are lucky you can even see a manatee there. Anyway, they are being deforested at a rapid rate because the wood is so good at repelling salt water and humidity. So in short, the ecosystem is suffering and as Peace Corps volunteers working to improve the environment, we have a few annual mangrove reforestation projects. The one I attended was about 45 volunteers and a local community working in hand with Oceania to plant 40-45,000 seedlings in the sand at low tide. It was an awesome experience and in a few months volunteers will go back out to count how many survived so we can assess what we should do for next year. And as they like to say in wolof, “Ndank ndank mooy jappe golo ci ñaay” : “slowly slowly you catch the monkey in the fields”

Not long after the reforestation project, I was back in that area for Girls Camp! We had 32 motivated and outstanding girls from all over the region come together for a week of activities focused on health, education and gender development. I was there for half of the days and I loved every minute of it. We were constantly busy running around making sure all of the activities were going smoothly and keeping the girls engaged. I was mostly involved in leading dance, yoga, self-defense, and container gardening. Mostly I was on the physical activity team so by the end of camp I was ridiculously exhausted, but in a good way. The girls were wonderful and it was a tearful goodbye. I'm still in contact with the 5 girls I brought from Kaffrine and I hope that continues.

My sitemate Susan also got married around that time to a wonderful Senegalese man named Souleye and I've really enjoyed hanging out with them and watching the newlywed bliss.

Other than that it has been a lot of farming time. I had a beautiful garden for awhile until a fungal disease decided to wreak havoc. I still got a good harvest out of my corn though! So now I'm in a transitional period as the rains end and the cool dry season has yet to begin. So I've pulled out all the diseased plants and am re-amending the soil with happy natural nutrients and prepping for the next season crops.

That pretty sums up my last few months except when I went to Dakar a few weeks ago to get physical therapy for my back that decided it wouldn't heal after that training. So I did that and my back is slowly improving. I wasn't great to it while in Dakar though because there were too many opportunities for me to actually dance, which was hard to refuse. Even in the med hut (a section of the PC headquarters for volunteers to stay who are receiving medical treatment), there was a male volunteer that was evacuated from Guinea and sent there who happened to be a great salsa dancer. Do you know how hard it is to find a good male dance partner around here? Well anyway, it was great to work out my dancing feet (even if they wanted to refuse by giving me a blood blister on the bottom of my foot) and I restrained myself somewhat to preserve my back. So all in all, a great time in Dakar, and I am actively doing my physical therapy exercises. As long as I can remember to take it easy in the garden too, I'll be fine. :P