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.

5 Week Challenge Completed!

In an effort to encourage people to stay at site for the first little while after installing so that you will take the time necessary to really get to know your family and your site, our country director Chris Hedrick instituted the 5 week challenge. The rules are that you are not allowed to stay at any regional house overnight and if possible spend as little time as possible away from site for that first bit. Now this had to be modified slightly because my stage had Thanksgiving smack dab in the middle of that challenge. So we were allowed 2 days at the regional house and they tacked on an extra week to the challenge. I definitely went and enjoyed Thanksgiving with other Americans at the regional house but I have done well not staying anywhere else since install. I took a few day trips to visit some villages near me, but I was always home in time for dinner.

Now that I have completed this, I'm going to spend about a week away for Christmas. Though I think I'll be spending New Years in Kaffrine to save money for All Volunteer conference and WAIST next month. Plus I have friends willing to come to me to celebrate the new year! What is WAIST you ask? (I know you are oh so curious... :P) WAIST is the West African Invitational Softball Tournament. So all of the Peace Corps volunteers in West Africa are going to make their way to Dakar and we are going to have a grand ole time dressing up and playing ball. The theme my region (Kaolack) has chosen for our costumes is boy scout/girl scout. So I'm of course perusing every fukkijaay (second hand clothing vendors) I can find in search of the perfect costume! Oh how I love a good costume party! Apparently there will also be a masquerade the first night, so I need search hard for something appropriate for the occasion. If I had realized how much costuming and dressing up I would be doing here, I think I would have brought an extra suitcase just full of random costume stuff. Oh well. Hidesight is 20/20. Plus it is an entertaining time searching through all the stuff secondhand stores across America and Europe didn't want.

Now what on Earth have I been up to the past few weeks? Well, I've been trying to workout everyday. Usually I get up and do yoga and then go running. For those who don't know, I've decided to run a half marathon in March. This decision was made by a group of us here in the Kaffrine sub region. We will be the Kaff Half Team! I've never been a big runner, but it has been a goal of mine for a really long time and there happens to be a great cause to support so I'm going to make it happen. It will be part of Senegal's Race for Education. All donations (which you can make on pcsenegal.org) will go toward a scholarship to keep girls in school and for other GAD -gender and development- activities.

Also, I have been developing my farming callouses. By hauling 150-300 gallons of water everyday, I am getting some real working hands. My garden is 22m x 30m so wandering through it with 2 11L watering cans can get pretty tiring. But I feel like I'm getting the hang of it and have definitely gotten faster. It used to take me over 2-3 hours on the veggie days but now that only takes me 1 ½ hours. Maybe I'm still slow but I am methodical and it has become relaxing to focus on the garden and taking care of the plants. Plus who doesn't love wandering barefoot among beautiful plants? Sometimes the plants the bite though if step on a burr or get caught on the Zisiphus or Acacia Melodica (both are varieties of thorny bushes to act as live fencing) that lines my entire garden. I can deal with that though. It has been a while since I have been able to easily wander barefoot anywhere. I certainly wasn't going to do that while I was working in downtown Los Angeles... Also, I have been learning how to harvest casava and sweet potato. I'm just going to say for the record that while there are many ways to do this, the coolest by far that I have seen and practiced is with the use of a machete. Right now I have an awful rat problem where they dig and destroy all of my root crops. I've laid traps and poison but so far it doesn't seem to be doing any good. I don't really like killing things (I still struggle to squish the beetles that eat my veggies) so it is a tough battle to figure out the best way to deal with them so they stop eating my crops.

On the note of rodents, I also have mice that have moved in behind my shelf. At first I thought it was roaches moving up and down the back of it because the giant ones that had been living in my bathroom disappeared after the shelf was brought in. Now it is entirely possible that they are also living behind there, but I definitely saw a mouse today when I shined my cell phone flashlight back today because there was so much raucous going on. Strangely, I hate them less now that I know it is mice making all the noise rather than roaches, but it still doesn't solve my problem. And just for the record, banging on the shelf and telling them to be quiet and that you don't like them doesn't do dara (ambiguous word meaning something or nothing or anything).

By the by, it is kidding season here in Senegal. This means that I have an attack of cuteness at least twice a day when I see adorable baby goats frolicking about. For those who are curious (though for the life of me I can't fathom why) it is also lambing season but they are definitely not as cute. I know there has been some debate at whether or not certain photos I have posted are goats or sheep. This can seem confusing because there is a breed of goat called Nubians (because they are of East African origin) which have long floppy ears and a roman nose. To clarify, the animals in those photos are actually sheep. All sheep here have floppy ears, roman noses, a long tail, and are some variation of white in color. And all goats are much more delicate in features with either erect ears or airplane ears, a short tail, and numerous possible colors. Don't worry, I'll post pictures. Also, sheep here are still as mindless and unimaginative as they are in America, while goats seem to always be having an adventure. If you didn't already know, I'm slightly biased towards goats. My bad.

We just celebrated the Muslim New Year called Tamharit a couple of weeks ago. The best way to celebrate this is by making a big dinner of couscous {called cere (pronounced chair-ey)} steamed with nuts and raisins with a delightful sauce that was full of boiled veggies and yapp (some undefined meat). When the meal was almost over they poured fresh milk, from the Pulaar home down the street who keep cows, on top. Quite delightful really. Then the fun began. All the kids ran and changed into each other's, or their parent's, clothing so they could appropriately cross dress and then run around town with drums, pots, and pans to dance and sing for treats. Sound somewhat familiar to anyone? It was great to watch everyone let loose a bit and fully embrace the spirit of the new year. The dressing up is only for the kids, but I still managed to dance a bit in the streets with a bunch of Senegalese staring at me. How could I avoid a perfect opportunity to dance?

For those of you curious for a breakdown of my host family/those who live in my family compound:

Maam (Grandmother): Anta

Dad: Saloly Sylla

Mom: Alima Fall

Siblings:

Anta ~11*

Awa ~9

Bamba ~7

Mymuna ~3

Uncle: Ass

Aunt: Adama

Their kids:

Pap (never met him. He is older and lives in another ville)

Baas ~10

Adama ~8 (baby Ada as she is fondly called)

Fatu Ndiaye ~6

Lammine ~2

Adama ~16 (She is sort of adopted. Related in some way but she claims Adama as the mom who raised her. I met her real mom once. She is divorced and has a child named Souleye who is ~18 months.)

Uncle: Demba

Aunt: Keiwei

Kids:

Lat ~4

Kattime ~1

Souleye ~14 (He is a student who lives with my family. I don't actually know his relation, where he is from, or why he is living with us. I should probably find these things out.)

*People in Senegal don't really keep track of ages or birthdays. When I ask I get conficting results. Also, because so many people don't pass the yearly exams to move to the next grade in school, many people fudge their ages so it doesn't look so much like they had to repeat any classes. Never believe someone when they tell you their age here. The first time I asked my host mom in Bayakh what her age was, she told me 25. I have since met 2 of her younger sisters, and at least one was over 25 and I know there are siblings between her and my host mom in age. So obviously this is not terribly accurate. Yet it is a popular question to ask people when you first meet them. Don't ask me why.

Overall, I'm settling in pretty well. I have a tutor now named Khodia. We meet 3 times a week for 2 hours each time. I may cut this down after the holidays are over. I have found that when I go I don't really have questions to fill the 2 hours. So I either need to make the classes shorter or have fewer each week. I'm not really sure how much better my Wolof is after a month and a half at site, but I guess it is coming along. I've met some cool people. Did you know that you can basically go anywhere and expect to be hosted. One day my friend Christi (Otherwise known as Maamjara) and I rode our bikes to a ceeb shack which was not currently serving food. We were ushered into the backyard courthouse, offered water and a concoction of yogurt, millet, and bananas before we actually found out that the person we were looking for was not there. Then they invited us to stay for attaaya so of course we sat for another hour or 2 drinking attaaya and meeting these strangers who opened their home to us. Now we go back regularly and chat with them. This is the most common way I have met people actually. Just go somewhere random, sit and chat, drink tea or crack peanuts, and practice Wolof.

People here are always willing to share whatever they have. It is expected that you will offer whatever you have to those around you. I have heard some say that this is why everyone in Senegal is poor. This may or may not be the case. I certainly see a lot people offering everything they have to others, even if they don't have much. I enjoy this spirit of giving but I can see where some problems may arise. But I also think that the issues have more to do with wanting instant gratification rather than taking the time to plan for the future. You can see an example of this in the daily lunch bowl. At the beginning of the month there are typically a lot of veggies and fish but it definitely pieters off by the end of the month. This is something that I feel I will be working against a lot when doing work projects and helping people realize that if you plant live fences and other such things now, they will pay off in the future.

And on a random side note, all of the teachers in the Kaffrine area went on strike last week. Everyone comes to school for 1 hour from 8 to 9 AM and then they all leave. According to my host dad who is a school teacher, the government has not paid the teachers for administering the end of year testing in June. So they are striking now in hopes that they will be paid for that past labor. Apparently this has been happening every year at various times. I feel bad for the kids who have to suffer because of this. And the gardens we are helping them start which probably will be neglected until this is resolved. Oh broken system. When will you be fixed?

On that note, presidential elections are in February. There is a big hubbub about that because Abdoulaye Wade, the current president, wants to run for a third term, which goes against the constitution of Senegal. So he has submitted an amendment to allow for this and the Congress will rule sometime next month on whether or not he will be allowed to run. If he does there will most likely be rioting and a bit of chaos. So if you were thinking of traveling to Senegal any time between January 15th and March, I would suggest against it. Don't worry, I will be safe and away from major cities during that time. If something big does happen, we have a very good Emergency Action Plan in place. No need to be concerned, but I figured I would let you know what's up.

And in conclusion, I like Senegal! No really, I enjoy being here and meeting all of these people. I'm definitely learning and growing a great deal. I do love you all and miss you terribly, so please send me letters so I can actually keep up individual correspondences.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

New Toubab on the Block (and Happy Thanksgiving to all!)

      I'm safely installed at my new site! Kaffrine is great and my host family is awesome. They've helped me set up my room, my uncle built me shelves, my mom shows me around the market and tells me how much things should cost, and my dad has introduced me to his entire school. They are even more adamant than I am about correcting people when they call me Toubab than I am, which is reassuring. They are constantly teaching me things about Senegal. And my Wolof is progressing ndank ndank. I can hold basic conversations but I find that each time I begin a new task, there is an entire list of vocabulary necessary to complete it that I don't currently possess. I'm getting really good at pantomiming things until people get the gist of what I'm trying to say. Then they tell me the words I was looking for and after I repeat the words, they are almost entirely forgotten. So in general I walk around with a notebook in my bag and then I try to write down the word before it is lost. This is only marginally successful so far because I'm not always in a good position to write things. Like when washing clothes.

      While we are on the subject of washing clothes, I did that the other day for the first time with an entire house of spectators. It was unnerving. People like to ask you if you have the ability to perform any said task when you say you did something or you are about to do something so for days my family asked if I was able to do my laundry. Now, I never like to back down from a challenge so of course I said I could do it. Which I can, by the way. But I was still shown the Senegalese hand washing techniques. I want to paint this picture for you. I'm sitting on a stool about 6 inches tall, in a skirt, with 2 large basins (beniors) in front of me, a pile of clothes, and a bar of soap my mother said was necessary for . Enter my host mother who informs me that I will also need powder soap for the water, “bleu,” and bleach. So she promptly sent one of the children running around to buy small sachets of these things from a boutique down the street. Once we have these things we can then commence. Now the Senegalese have a technique of getting the right tension on the clothing with an over abundance of soap so that when then rub their fists full of cloth together, it makes a squeegee sound and launches soapy water everywhere. If you can't get that sound, you aren't doing it correctly. Now I was watching very closely and thought I was imitating that motions well, but I was only successful with that process a couple of times in the 2 hours I did this. I guess it will require more practice. Good thing I have 2 years for that... And if any of you are wondering what exactly the “bleu” is, you aren't alone. When I ask them to explain it, they just say that it is bleu. It kind of makes some of the clothes with blue hues a bit brighter but not enough that I think I would actively use it given the choice. With the incredible quantity of soap used, I certainly hope my clothes stay clean for a while. I think there is enough soap still left on them to repel a small army of mud monsters. Also, hand washing this way is really hard on clothes so between that and the heat my clothes are already looking a bit haggard.

      So a quick run down of my first 2 weeks at site: I live in a small family compound which houses about 20 people. I don't really feel out of place having 12 children under the age of 16 running around everywhere. And those are just my siblings and cousins that live here. Everyday I go to the lovely garden Susan has put together over the last 2 years. For the first couple of days she was there and she showed me around, gave me an idea of what she does on a daily basis and then let me go at it. She took a backseat over the next week as she finished up school lessons and trainings before leaving for her vacation to America. So now she is gone and I get to hold down the fort for the next month and a half. We'll see how well that goes.

      Every morning I wake up around 7AM, try to do a little yoga and go running. It is a routine I hope to keep up, though each morning I have to remind myself that I will feel better and more awake afterward. I'm still not a morning person, but I'm managing alright so far. Before I can leave the compound to go running I have to greet every person individually, asking if they slept well and informing them of my intentions for the day. This can take a while so I try to let them know I'm off to run and then I continue the greetings upon my return. Then I cook some breakfast (usually oatmeal and tea, though a couple of days I have made eggs) and take a lovely bike ride across town to my garden. Then after greeting everyone at the agriculture office, I spend the next few hours watering. Because it is the cool season I water the beds of veggies every other day and all of the trees on the off day. I'm pretty sure I use about 300 gallons of water just for the vegetable beds. Carrying 2 watering cans back and forth to my basin for that much water has definitely been giving me a work out. I'm building my farming callouses! Beyond that I don't have a ton of structure for the rest of my day except that I make sure I'm home for lunch and dinner. In the evenings I try to sit outside with my family and learn wolof. That is when I'm most proactive because I always bring my notebook out with me. I try to explore the city when I can and have met some very helpful people. There is a man who owns a small boutique down the street who will sit for hours telling me about his theories on life and explaining the words I don't understand using the english he learned when he went to primary school in Gambia.

      After Thanksgiving my site mate Emily is going to help me find a tutor. I think that will help give my studies a direction because right now I'm haphazardly bumbling along with the language. As much as I hate to admit it, I do much better with a classroom setting than trying to hold myself to an individual studying regiment. I always find some excuse that allows me to procrastinate things a little longer. But when somebody is expecting something and giving me deadlines, I feel a sense of obligation to uphold my end.

So life here is going well and I'm enjoying the people and my time. Hopefully I can get some projects up and running soon enough. I'm chilling at the regional house in Kaolack for Thanksgiving!! I'm so excited to be baking and eating American food. Plus I carried a pumpkin (on my head in Kaffrine) from my garden in Kaffrine to the regional house. This included wandering around both cities and coordinating a ride at the garage with everyone looking bewildered at the toubab carrying the giant squash. Great memories I hope to keep with me for a long time. :) Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm grateful to have you all in my life and I'm grateful for this opportunity to experience a new culture and way of life. Hugs all around!!