"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

April Showers?

I was under the impression that I wouldn't see a drop of rain until June, but apparently there are occasionally small storms which are known as mango rains during the hot dry season.  The 2-3 rains we have had in the past 2 months have been absolutely delightful! And mango season is upon us! I can't tell you what pleasure it is to bite into a tree-ripened mango on a hot day.

But enough about that.  Things have been progressing well over the past couple of months.  Went on an amazing trip to Kedougou and swam under waterfalls!  I also visited some of the amazing volunteers down there and completely fell in love with that region.  Don't worry, I will be back there in July for Independence Day celebration!  I have spent an amazing amount of time gardening and getting things ready for the rainy season.  We had a summit for all of the Urban Agriculture volunteers a few weeks ago and in that time went over the various projects that are happening around Senegal.  People here are doing some amazing stuff! From hospital gardens to help the people in the psych ward, teaching people about the awesome properties of moringa, school gardening, working with Talibe, and so much more.

Since then I have been assessing my current projects and am figuring out where to put my energies. I have been at site 6 months now and am beginning to grasp the language and my role here a bit better.  My family is still amazing and they love saying that I'm a girl when I help with cooking and cleaning.  And guys who come to my garden say I work hard like a boy.  Don't worry, I'm quick to respond that I work hard like a girl and then list off all the work girls here do every day while men sit under trees drinking ataaya and talking about how hot it is.  Women here are amazing and very under appreciated.  I hope that can slowly change.  On that note, I'm helping put together a girls camp in June.  It will be a great way for girls who are eager to continue their education to meet likeminded girls from all over the region and take part in awesome activities with the Peace Corps Volunteers in this area. I'm going to teach salsa and help out on other great sessions too. More on that later.

And the final bit of news....I'm going on vacation to Cape Verde! I fly out on Saturday and will be gone about 2 weeks. I'm so excited and nervous! But I will take lots of pictures :)

Ba bennen yoon!

Full Spectrum Experiences

As life continually teaches me, there is never one side to things.  You think things might be down, but soon enough it will jump back up.  I have found over the past month that the pendulum is constantly swinging.  A quick recap of contrasting experiences include:

• ·         I was stung by a scorpion / The next day I avoided a scorpion sting (though my friend’s skirt did catch fire in the process of trying to kill it…)
• ·         I dealt with the sudden death of my counterpart from an asthma attack and experienced my first Senegalese funeral / My Wolof tutor had a baby girl and I went to my first naming ceremony.
• ·         I planted many trees (and will soon plant many more) / A tree toppled over on top of me because termites had eaten and killed the roots.
• ·         I dealt with the sudden onset of the hot season in Kaffrine / I had a short break from the heat by a visit to the delta region.
• ·         My computer crashed / I have an amazing friend who is working on sending me a new one.
• ·         I taught school gardening lessons where the kids made fun on my language and didn’t really care about the lesson / and I taught classes that were engaged and excited about gardening and didn’t mind that I stumbled along with my words.

Other things that I have done this month include taking an 80 km bike ride with Christi to visit the sites of Sarah F and Lorraine PD (In that time we played in various trees, visited the scary acacia forest, saw the megalith stone circles, were nearly stung by the scorpion, and watched Lorraine battle a flaming skirt, and it was all worth to so I could watch Sarah sit in a bucket and open her birthday present), had some great dinner parties with friends, and slowly progressed with my language.

So life has been working hard to keep things fairly balanced in my world this month.  I’m constantly learning and growing, I have amazing site mates who are patient with me and teach me very useful things, and I’m always collecting new stories to tell. 

(If you want to know about any of these specific stories, just let me know.  Sorry I fail at posting regularly and crazy experiences tend to add up quickly here.)

P.S. I'm heading to the land of greenery and waterfalls tomorrow, also known as Kedougou! I'll let you know about that adventure when I return.

IST and upcoming elections

IST has come and gone, and now I feel that I have a wealth of knowledge ready to impart! I had 11 days of intensive technical training where I learned everything from organic (and chemical) pest management to erosion control to seed saving. It was fascinating, yet quite exhausting. My brain definitely hurt by the end. But I did counteract that by hanging out with my amazing friends in the down time. At one point we decided that our cuddle sessions weren't adequate in a small bed, so we pushed two bunk beds together, tied the mosquito nets together, and had a bunk bed fort! This made cuddle time soo much cooler!! Also, at one point we played in a seemingly abandoned old Beetle that was sitting in the middle of a field. When we came back by 10 minutes later, the car was gone! So I may or may not have accidentally broken into someone's car... These are mere samplings of the amazing times we had. After spending 2 months together during PST many of us became very close, only to be placed in various parts of the country that are quite far apart. So we went a little crazy with how much time we spent together.

But now I'm back at site, figuring out how to get involved in projects. It is a little bit difficult because of the upcoming election. Everyone is waiting in anticipation to see what happens. There have been a lot of riots in the major cities as people protest Wade's candidacy. Don't worry, Kaffrine has been very mild. We have had a lot of presidential candidates come through on their campaign tours, but they have remained peaceful. (Though when Wade came through, there were a lot of riot police around in case something happened.) The first round of elections happens on Sunday, February 26^th. The results should be released sometime that night or the next morning. That is when I anticipate things going crazy. Right now we aren't allowed to travel to any regional capitols until after this wave of the elections are over to see how people respond. So I'm putting most everything on hold until then too. I still retreat to my lovely garden everyday and that has been delightful. I love seeing things grow!

Oh, I also had my first sleepover in a hut! The other day I biked to my friend Christi's village, which is about 5km south. We went around and greeted most of the village, danced a little, ate two dinners, and carried a basin of water on my head across the village! (This is a lot harder than you would think...) She doesn't have electricity so we lit some candles and chatted late into the night, while also listening to the birds that have built a nest in the rafters. It was quite romantic! The next day after a lovely breakfast we filled tree sacks and planted some lemon trees. All in all, a successful trip that I will certainly cherish.

I'm heading into the bush again tomorrow to help my friend Sarah celebrate her birthday. Yay for 20+ km bike rides through the bush! I love the adventure!

P.S. I was stung by a scorpion today. It was intensely painful but is getting better slowly. Right now half of my hand is numb... so typing is interesting. But rest assured, it isn't lethal. And I did consult medical staff. So really, all in a day's work. Bismillah!

When push comes to shove

Christmas here was lovely and New Years was entertaining. I went to a beach town with some friends for Christmas and basically spent 3 days laying on the beach reading, splashing in the waves, and enjoying awesome company. It was the best way to escape site after my first 6 weeks. I also had an intensive language seminar at the end of that where my LCF came to Kaffrine for 3 days. So the break was delightful.

Christmas at Toubab Dialaw

I did not end up celebrating the New Year at site. Instead, I traveled to the lovely region of Fatick with some friends where we were to stay at a campement on the edge of the Mangroves. Basically, a gorgeous area full of life (compared to what I experience at site...) To start off this trip I took my first mini bus where 30+ people crammed into this vehicle and we stopped at every village along the way from Kaffrine to Kaolack. Fortunately I sat in the back of the bus so I wasn't overly squished. And I made friends with the guy who hangs out the back door or on the ladder to the roof yelling prices and destinations to people waiting on the side of the road. It seems a bit dangerous because often times the bus will start pulling away and the guy has to run and hop on the back. Oh, and they never wear sturdier shoes than a flip flop. Not sure how often they get injured in this job but they seem to have a good time.

When I arrived in Kaolack I found my friends and we had to argue prices with the next driver to put 8 people in a sept place. It is slightly illegal so whenever we passed a Gendarmerie (the police station) I would duck down. That part wasn't a big deal to me because we did something similar to get back from Christmas vacation. The biggest issue was that we were all set to go and then the people at the garage decided that our car needed to go to Dakar instead. So they put us into this very beat up car. The driver knew his car was struggling and so would take as many bush paths as possible to avoid the awful state of the regular road. Bush paths are nicer because it is packed sand, but not nice because it is a tiny one-lane path with many blind turns. I'm sure you can see where this is heading. We had multiple close calls. The last one both cars had to stop to avoid colliding. There was a patch of deep sand next to us which the other car refused to take so we had to turn into that. This of course entailed being too stuck in the sand to move at all. And then the transmission blew. So there was nothing we could do but push this car along these bush paths in the middle of nowhere. We passed a few villages and kids would occasionally come out in order to the see the spectacle of 8 white people pushing this car. I don't know exactly how far we went but I would estimate it at about 2 km. Fortunately for us my friend Ash had made friends with a driver who lived pretty close to there so she called him and he rescued us when we reached the main road. So that turned out well.

The actual New Years celebration was an interesting one because we ended up getting kicked out of the first place we went. The family of one of the volunteers were visiting and we met with them at their hotel. But the owner of the place decided we were unruly and said we had to leave. It was a ridiculous situation but we ended up going to another hotel that is owned by this awesome Dutch couple and that worked out nicely. There were fireworks on the docks and Senegalese drummers. The owners even danced with us late into the night. And then on my way back the next day I saw a giant troop of baboons!! That was the best way to start out the new year.

It took me a lot longer to get home than I had expected because of a transportation strike. I was stuck at the regional house in Kaolack for a couple of days until that was over. It was weird not seeing any taxis, busses, or sept places on any of the roads for days. This country doesn't function well without the public transit system and things weren't really resolved then. Another transport strike occurred last week for a few days but some sort of agreement was finally made (ie the religious leaders who own most of the vehicles in the public transit system were given something to assuage their discontent).

I was home for less than a week before heading out again to the All Volunteer Conference in Thiès. There were transportation issues again but this time because of a major religious holiday where people were flooding to Maggal Touba (slightly less important than the pilgrimage to Mecca for the Senegalese Mouride Muslim sect which caters to the majority of Senegal). Basically most of the cars in Senegal were heading to Touba, so we couldn't get to Thiès. Peace Corps ended up sending some buses out to consolidated locations for us to get to the conference. My bus ended up arriving 6 hours late so I didn't make it to Thiès until almost 4AM. But I was still up by 7AM to attend the various sessions. It was actually a really fascinating conference because volunteers from all over West Africa came to present various projects that they have been working on. It gave me a lot of ideas for projects here and even things I could do in the States. There is a really cool recycled paper briquette maker that I really want to make and use when I get back. It was also really neat to meet so many other volunteers. I'm still pretty new here so I hadn't met the majority of volunteers in Senegal, and then there were also volunteers from Mali, Guinea, Gambia, and Cape Verde so it was great to network.

After the conference we all headed to Dakar for the West African Invitational Softball Tournament aka WAIST. Basically this is a chance for everyone to relax, play some ball and enjoy the amenities of the largest city in West Africa. I think I mentioned before, each of the teams chose a theme to dress up and make things more interesting. My region did Boy scout/Girl scout and I must say I think I made an awesome Brownie. I ended up not playing for my team though because we had plenty of people. But I did decide to help out the Cape Verde/Guinea/Mali team because they were short players. This included the game against my own team. But that was really the best game of all because we decided to ditch the softball and we played full-contact kick ball! It was a free for all with very few rules and blurred lines on who was playing for whom. There was tackling, intentional fumbling, and at one point the third baseman decided to score a point for the other team by running home! (Thanks Christi!) It was the best kickball game I've had in a really long time. And I became an honorary member of PC Cape Verde! I intend to visit sometime this summer. (Side note: Peace Corps is leaving Cape Verde in September! They have decided the job is done and their presence is no longer needed. The volunteers who aren't leaving before then will be transferred to another country for the rest of their service. So I need to visit soon!)

 

Cape Verde Softball team

Another aspect of WAIST is the PC Talent Show, Prom, and date auction. During Prom/Date Auction I ended up enlisting the help of some friends and we bought our friend Bob, who is a volunteer in Cape Verde. All the proceeds go to a scholarship fund for underprivileged girls, so we figured an afternoon of friends hanging out would be a good way to support that. I'm sure he felt pretty special going out to dinner with 3 lovely ladies. So all in all, I had a great time dancing, hanging out with other volunteers and eating great food in Dakar.

I had one day to recover from WAIST before my next conference, which was training for the PC Senegal Peer Support Network. 2-3 volunteers from each region were selected for this support counsel that any volunteer can turn to when they are struggling or maybe just need someone to talk to. It is also an important thing to have during crisis situations. We had a two-day training with psychologists, medical staff, and the cross cultural coordinator in order to be most effective in this work. Since this is the line of work that I want to pursue, I'm really grateful that I can do this during my service.

Peer Support Network

The rest of my month has been spent reconnecting with people at site, working in my garden and on the school gardening projects, as well as doing a seed collection training where we went into the bush and collected seed pods. Basically I spent a morning climbing trees and running around in as much forest as we have in this part of Senegal with friends. We also had a picnic in a Baobab grove and were eventually chased away by a swarm of bees. So all in all, a great time!

Now I'm off to IST (In Service Training) which marks the completion of my first 3 months as a volunteer. We will have 11 days of intensive agriculture training and preparation to kick start projects. I'm looking forward to this because I'm hoping it will give me the direction I've been lacking thus far.

P.S. If you were wondering, I have now been able to get halfway through my laundry before someone stepped in to help me. Progress! Maybe soon they will trust me to do the whole thing on my own.