Officially a PCV!!!

I just wanted everyone to know I am officially a PCV! I had swear-in at the American Embassy...got my first paycheck and on my way to moving to my permanent site!!!

“Jamono Dafa Sopeku”: Life Changes

*Please read the post’s below to catch up on my activities. I also now have a Picasa account linked to my blog so you can see more pictures and the pictures my friends take!

Mud stove creation- using clay, sand, and manure, we made an imporved mud stove that cuts the cost of wood in half. The family we made it for uses it for every meal, and decreased cooking time by one hour per meal. My language group also tested it out ourselves by baking a dutch oven coconut cake on it I the last night of our home stay, sooooo good (I wonder who’s idea that was ??). 

Here is the link to the mud stove info: http://www.thisisdiversity.com/articles/all/4280/mud-stoves-for-gender-equality/

Moringa Beignets- Basically doughnuts that are fortified with the highly nutritious Moringa leaf powder. I made these on my village visit with my hosts family. Many women sell these beignets in the markets, and by adding moringa powder, you increase the nutritional value without altering the flavor. I am thinking this could be a good area of research for my Master’s program. 

Link:http://www.treesforlife.org/documents/moringa/moringa_brochure_2up_a4.pdf

Neem lotion- The leaves of the neem tree are a natural pesticide, and when boiled then combined with basic soap and vegetable oil create a potent lotion that repells mosquitos that carry Malaria (the anopheles).  Half litre bag is enough for an entire family (5 ppl) for a mosquito season. Neem trees are prevalent throughout Senegal, so making the lotion is of little expense. We demonstrated this to a few women in my compound, and then one of the women showed her women’s group and introduced it as a income generating activity. (note that is women’s group is particularily motivated and has requested it’s own Peace Corps volunteer for next year). Neem info:http://www.planetnatural.com/site/xdpy/kb/neem-tree.html

Funny Disney Video on malaria transmission:  

Baseline survey- Practiced collecting data using the household survey method in our local language. The survey, with the use of popular aid mehcnasim PACA tools, gives a way for volunteers to gauge community need and desires for projects. 

Nutritional Porridges and the Hearth Model- The Hearth model is a specific teaching tool to combat child malnutrition, usually for children under age 5. There is huge success in holding 12 day wokshops where women make nutrient dense porridge for their weaned children, particularly important during the starving season.  By combining bananas, peanut butter, sugar, and millet flour, you have a tasty meal addition or substitute high in calories (it mocks Plumpy Nut, a nourishment substitute given out by food aid organizations). The women already sell porridge in the markets, so selling the cheap nutrition dense porridges could be lucrative. I ran out of time to practice this in my homestay, but cannot wait to try turning this into an income generating activity in my new home town! Plumpy nut and Hearth model links: http://www.ccih.org/forum/0105-03.htm

Garden update- Our garden is thriving, and we have since convinced the school guard, where the garden is located, to take ownership over it, so we handed him extra seeds and tools and let him go to work. After we were gone for a week, there was 4 new beds of Bissap (Hibiscus) planted , a bed of mint, and 2 beds lined for Mango and Lemon trees!! Yay go school gardens!

I am officially finished with my home stay. I will miss my routine, and family here, but I am glad to be moving on as I have more exciting adventure ahead of me. Not to mention the day I have been waiting for is finally nearing arrival in the next week…Swear-In, where I become an official Peace Corps Volunteer. In the last 3 weeks, I  have been particularly busy, as I spent most weekends travelling and the weeks in-between practicing my technical skills and language. 

In mid-April, the group travelled to Dakar to visit the American Embassy and the Peace Corps HQ. We went over the beurocratic aspects of being a volunteer, such as travel restrictins, payment schedules,  and general rules and regulations.  You can definitely see the influence of Western aid organizations in Dakar…there is a place called the American Club that is basically a country club on the beach. Despite what I had heard, I actually enjoyed Dakar, it was a refreshing taste of metropolitan lifestyle…I ate Lebanese food and had Gelato!!

The pinnacle of stress as a trainee also occurred in the last week and a half: the Counter Part Workshop. There were 80+ Senegalese people staying at our training center for 3 days, and life was just generally hectic. However the workshop itself was farely productive, and I learned a lot more about my activites in the coming months.

My two counter parts (partners in my community I work with) are awesome men! They are so motivated to try projects, and plan on doing their best to help me determine the needs of Ngodiba. Arona is the secretary of the Communite Rurale (local gov’t structure) and as well he works with health and urban ag folks and my new host dad on collaborative projects, yay! Malick is the president of the health post, and he spends 3 days a week doing baby weighings and malaria surveys in Ngodiba and surrounding villages, and the rest of the time works at the hospital in Kaffrine as a Community Health Worker. We outlined some of our goals in my 2 months before my In-Serivice Training in July, and they mainly include my integration into the community and doing research on community needs. They also plan to secure me a Wolof tutor and a French teacher in Kaffrine.

I will give more details on my Month to Month Action Plan after I install on May 14^th.

We capped the week off with an amazingly hodge-podge soccer game, and then our entire training group rented a house on the beach in a French tourist town Popenguine. All I have to say is that the place was beautiful, and enough mayhem ensued among 41 people that most of it should not be shared on the web (In fact, I am the one who organized the weekend, I recognized a need of MY community, and that need was fun!).

Pic of the Beach!

Race to the finish: The end of PST draws closer

      I was sick for the first time in Senegal…fever, chills, typical flu symptoms no big deal. However, I had to go to see my new home for the first time, and to shadow a current volunteer. I had terrible diahrreah the whole visit, but I perservered and the rewards were sweet indeed…

       The volunteer I visited is a Small Enterprise Development volunteer, so her work involves working with the local womens’ groups mainly. Her large project is a juice business, where the women use local ingerediants to make 100% natural juices (no added artificial colors or flavors), a rare thing in Senegal. We talked about using my knowledge of cooperatives to hopefully collaborate on a Co-Op project when I install in my site in May.

I received my Peace Corps issued bike before I left, and discovered on my volunteer visit I am truly going to appreciate having it. Kaffrine is a city, and a department in Senegal. The newly paved and bike lane lined national road runs right through the city, and as long as it is daylight, biking is relatively safe. It amazed me that some cities in America don’t have bike lanes but that they have them here! (Shout out to Eugene and Portland who took the #5 and #2 spost for most bike friendly cities).

     I had the pleasure of visitng Ngodbia, my new permanent home for 2 years. I have a cement hut with a thatch roof, electricity, and a personal restroom (Turkish style pit douche ). My host family has quite a bit of money, a difference from my training village for sure! My father,  Omar Ndaw, has had 2 volunteers before, both AgroForestry. Those volunteers actually started their own NGO , Tree’s For the Future, that focuses on re-forestation in developing countries. My host dad is the national rep and just an all around amazing dude who is commited to experimenting with cross-sector collaboration and Peace Corps initiatives.
 http://www.treesftf.org/    

I was also able to visit the local health post, a small center that doesn’t do much but administer aspirin, oral rehydration, and write prescriptions. The close proximity to the regional hospital (a 25 cent donkey cart ride away) has made the health services here nearly obsolete, but it does function as a point of contact for relais (local health volunteers), mid-wives, and rural doctors.  I toured the rest of my town, and noticed an absured number of gardens. They call my town “the place of salad” since most of the women have large gardens that generate income in Kaffrine… I couldn’t be happier! I even saw improved technologies such as drip irrigation being used, an indication that my village is progressive and accepts changes easily.

    The rest of my visit was spend essentially following around my volunteer and meeting people who I will never remember. I have 2 neighboors within 15 minutes in Kaffrine. I also have 3 or 4 other neighbors between 25 and 40 kilometers down my road, all in the Agro-Forestry sector. In Kaolack,the large city where my regional house is located, I got to see a number of volunteers in my region, across all sectors, and also have a taste of little America. The house has wi-fi, a movie projector, a computer lab, extensive personal and reference library, and refrigerators!! The regional house is usually populated on the weekends, and is a good place to hold meetings and other functions. My region is responsible for hosting Thanksgiving holiday and St. Patricks day for the entire country.

I am finally feeling like this place is my home!

The Day, it Walks

           I know it has been a while since I posted last, but being in Pre Service Training is kind of like going to a very intense Summer camp…you have a hard time keeping track of time. Every day is so full of information that 3 or 4 days go by without even realizing it, other than the feeling of sleep deprivation. Here is a look at my typical host  village and technical training days to give you an idea:

6:00 am – Call to Prayer…this means loud loud yelling over a loudspeaker next to the mosque. The whole village wakes, including all the animals and myself.

7:15- I reluctantly get out of bed. (note that my family has been awake and sweeping/crying/praying since 5:30 or 6)

8:15- 9:15 Garden time. Watering, pulling weeds, bed maintenance, etc.

9:30- 1:30 Language class. We typically spend this time doing actual lessons on grammar, structure,  and pronunciation

1:30-2:30 Lunch with the family; typically I help my host mom finish the meal.

2:30- 4:00- This is reserved for “noppalu” (rest time). In the hot season, this is the hottest part of the day, and the inside of concrete compounds can reach 135 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer, so actually sleeping is difficult. I usually do homework or listen to NPR podcasts.

4- 6:30/7 Language class/ Technically directed activities. This is typically discussion based class, either in my teachers compound or the community. Involves drinking lots of super sweet shots of tea and usually eating beignets.

7:00-9 Gardening again,  Shower time, help my mother cook dinner, hang with the family, play with kids, etc.

After 9:00 pm- Dinner occurs before 10 pm, well usually. This is when the television is brought out and the neighbors come over to chat/ watch terribly dubbed Spanish, Indian, French, and if I am luck American shows. My compound typically sleeps after about 11:00/11:30. Depending on the day of the week, my dad stays up and chants with the Mourides (religious leaders). I would say “sleep” is a loose definition of what I do before my day begins again.

As you can see, the day is LONG, and remember that during hot season it is upwards of 120 outside, and that I am consuming ¼ of the food I usually eat at home, thank god for vitamins! The last few months before rainy season are also called “starving season” because money, agriculture, and food supplies in general run low, this means meals get smaller and less nutritious. For lunch, the big meal of the day, this means  spicy tomato rice, 2 or 3 small fish, and maybe 1 or 2 heart vegetables like cabbage, carrot, or sweet potato. This is shared with 5-9 people. Dinner is usually plain rice with an MSG cube and oil, a handful  of cowpeas, and if we are lucky, half of a dried fish, shared between 9-12 people. So you can understand why people here feel so tired during the day. I try to supplement my diet by eating fish beignets, and fingering peanut butter into my mouth at any possible moment. On holidays and at the beginning of each month we typically eat larger meals or have “snacks” like bean sandwiches or millet with milk.

While life in the training villages is rough, it’s a good preparation for what we could face in our villages/towns for 2 years. Life at the center is much different; but has it’s own challenges.  My days at the training center usually follow the following schedule:

6:00 Call to prayer

7:30-8:00 Breakfast, shower, avoiding mosquitoes

8:15-12:30 Technical trainings (nutrition, medical, gardening, etc.)

12:45-2:30 Lunch/rest time/ errand time

2:30- 5ish Cultural trainings, language lessons, medical consults, etc.

5:30-7:30 “Down” time…basically everyone showers again, plays volleyball, and goes into town to buy things or have a beer before dinner. Internet usage during this period is highly prized.

7:30-9 Dinner. The kitchen staff tries to make us American comfort foods like pizza and spaghetti, and we ALWAYS have salad, a nice treat. Note: my intake of sketchy meat has increased significantly since living here, since I live in a life of feast or famine, I take what I can get when I can get it, my intestinal tract pays the price.

After 9:00 This is when we partake in typical activities that people in their 20’s partake in; going to the bar dominates here but it also includes gossiping, dancing, lots of laughing, posting on our blogs, and playing Mafia.

By 3 am Most people are in bed.

I liken training center schedule to that of a college campus. There are between 40 and 50 under 30’s in a concentrated area for days at a time, and general debauchery ensues. While we tend to be out to all hours, we still maintain a relatively professional sense of focus and alertness during our “learning hours”.

So that’s it! My life for the last 2 months in a nutshell…please read the above posts for more info about my specific activities and more pictures!