"If I could walk 500 hundred miles, then I could walk 500 more"

DONATE HERE (before you read please please donate to my library project).
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=685-164


So, I did it. 1 calender year. 365 days. 52 weeks.
While I haven't been an officially sworn in Peace Corps volunteer for 1 year (that happens in May),  I have been living here in Senegal for a year.


 I remember how tough the first few months of being here were for me, but I also now that I don't have to do it again (hurray). Which doesn't mean that there will be fewer stumbling blocks, just my ability to take what comes with greater stride. I can now predict what will happen in the future, because I have been here before! I know what the weather will be like in the next coming months (hot, hott, and hotter). I know that a new group of Trainees are in Washington at this very moment waiting to arrive. I know that the work load will be greater, and time will go faster. I know that starting August 1st, my life will be consumed with fasting and reading. Then the rains will come. Before I know it, I will have to start planning for my life AFTER Peace Corps. This year felt like an insurmountable mountain to climb before reaching the peak, and in the next few weeks, I will begin my descent. Some of my favorite people will be leaving to head off on their new adventures: Grad school, jobs, and travelling.


While hitting this milestone is important as a PCV, it is also the time when you get that feeling that you are tightening the reigns on your projects, and the ability to actually 'do work' is now made easier. But also, knowing exactly how to plan that work time around the American holiday celebrations, and large regional projects that now fall upon the year-in people to organize and run.  I also feel much less guilty about having fun... See the end of the post about the West Africa Invitational Softball Tournament.


And about that work, which is moving along swimmingly thank you for asking. I had my first Health Committee meeting. The members have committed both money and time to improving my health facility. Tomorrow I will be collecting the first moneys for a new fence. They are starting the search for a new volunteer to help handle the work load. The people who work there now, will start bi-monthly trainings with the NGO World Vision this month. And finally, the long talked about mural series, will also begin this month at their request.
I am helping at with the local bed-net distributions by organizing an educational series to go along with it. We travel to weekly markets and talk about ways to not only take care of your nets, but other effective ways to protect against malaria (neem lotion, environmental controls). I will hopefully do follow-ups to these tournees in August around the rainy season, and complete adherence surveys.

I recently returned from a reproductive health training series for middle schoolers, arranged by another volunteer, Stephanie Schumsky. I plan on replicating this in my village middle school, on a smaller scale.

I am sure there are many more things I can talk about, but will have to wait until next time. Enjoy my lagniappe about WAIST 2011. And don't forget to donate!!
"Yearly, held in Dakar, Senegal, is the West African Invitation Softball Tournament (WAIST). Included in the tourney for 2011 were PCV's from Mali, Cape Verde, the closed Mauritania program, Niger evacuee's, The Gambia, and one or two stragglers from other West African countries (Guinea, Burkina Faso, etc). We were not only pitted against each other by region and country, but against teams from the American Embassy league, Missionary organizations, and other NGO's working here in Senegal. Historically, organizations have uniforms for their teams, but leave it to the Senegal volunteers to take it to a whole new level. Featured from our regions were: cowboys, cops and robbers, liederhosen,  space-core, and the 52 ballerinas from my region in Kaolack.

The festivities encompassed 4 days of talent shows, pool parties, and good ole' fashioned American fun (BBQ hot dogs and pulled pork were featured foods). Volunteers usually stay in the homes of foreign service workers while participating in WAIST, which adds that extra touch of being back home (hot showers, home-cooked foods, laundry facilities, etc.).

The U.S. Marine Corps even hosted a date auction where PCV's and Military men were sold off to the highest bidder to help fund the Gender and Development scholarship program in Senegal run by the Peace Corps organization SeneGAD.

Fun-times had, and utterly exhausted, Volunteers returned to their usual lives, just awaiting February to come next year, for another round of American good times.  Oh and don't forget all that softball playing!!"

Across the Atlantic and Back Again

“All they now wanted was to stay where they were with the Lotus-eaters, to browse on the lotus, and to forget all thoughts of return”

Homer, The Odyssey

When I left Senegal, I tried hard to leave behind my frustrations and annoyances, in order to truly enjoy my time at home. However, it seems that such feelings, after being built up for the previous nine months, were an awful lot to leave behind, and inevitably, some came along. I did all of the things in America that I wanted to do. I ate huge portions of food of every variety and all the fresh fruit and veggies you could imagine. I drank vintage wine and micro-brewed beer. I went to the grocery store, and shopping mall, all in the same day by way of car. I spent the holidays surrounded by close friends and all my family, drinking cocoa in a rustic log cabin. Like Homer in The Odyssey, I was eating the sweet lotus, and rarely thought about return. Yet, I did return. No matter how much I justified my anger with my community, frustrations, and otherwise bad experiences...there is a family here for me too. A group of mostly 20-somethings feeling exactly the way I do most of the time, but pressing onward; a family of Senegalese relying on me to make small changes in their way of life today, so they might lead better lives in the future.

While in America, I knew all along I had made the right decision coming to the Peace Corps, and while it is never what anyone expects it will be, it is a time to grow as a person if nothing else. I often fooled myself into believing that I did not subscribe to the American brand of complacency; I bought local, rode my bike, used Eco-friendly products, and bought alternative fiber clothes. But, I still took for granted how incredibly easy my life was...and how floating along, eating the lotus blossoms, gave little thought for anything else. Half of me did not want to get back on the plane, but the other half knew if I didn't, it might mean never leaving; falling back into sweet complacency.

Now that I have been home, I can see my mission here with fresher eyes, washed of the expectations I had in the beginning. I will continue to do whatever it is I am willing and able, but also take steps to be remain happy and sane...getting out of my village if things are bothering me, working more on regional projects, spending more down time with my host family, and not pressuring people into work....follow the West African time-line, not my American one.

Thankfully, Spring is an incredibly busy time for PCV's, and I am really happy that I have things to do right away. My personal projects in village are still slow, but coming along. I have taken on the role of the annoying white person at any meeting, NGO, or health facility I can get in too...I want to make myself more visible in the community at large, and also as someone who will push to make changes. So far, just simply putting myself out there, and caring less about what some Senegalese may think about me showing up everywhere, has paid off. There are a couple major projects in motion, and I will blog about them as they happen. I am also focusing my energy more into training other volunteers by way of Peace Corps connections. The end of the week, I am working with an organization, TOSTAN, to do a basic training on personal health and living in Senegal for their short-term (6 month volunteers).

Also, as a project with Books for Africa, I am creating a school library in my village. The books have to come in a standard shipping container size, and we need money to get them here! Bring 500 books to my village and thousands more to others in Senegal: see Link below!

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=685-164

Gobble Gobble!!

Well, despite my defeated voice in my previous blog post, many good things have happened recently, not the least being Thanksgiving!! 
In a time and a place where I often forget how lucky I am ...and who I have to be thankful for, this day was with my new Peace Corps family in body,  but with my American families (both East and West Coast alike) in spirit. 
A few quick "thanks":
 My parents, first and foremost, for supporting me the whole way in the crazy adventure I have called life for the last 24 years. 
 The endless care packages, cards, and letters from friends and family while being here.

And now, a photo Ode to Turkey Day!

The Band

Jessica dunking her fried turk

Playing the Uke!

EW

Deviled

Turkey pikins

Veggies

Green Bean casserole

Mac n Cheese

Mashed potatoes

Stuffing

Corn Bread

more veggies

Cran sauce

Gravy

Snagria

Fried Turkey

After the meal (my friend Mika)

The month I stopped sweating the small stuff

In the last couple weeks, it has cooled off considerably in my village. At night it gets down in the sixties, and I literally freeze. In the day time it still gets hot, but not like I am used to and on most days I don‘t even break a sweat(although as someone informed me it still gets up into the mid-90‘s everyday)….think New Mexico in late Spring…very arid. As someone who prefers a bit of humidity, the sudden change has wreaked some havoc on my body (super dry skin, cracking lips, a 3 week long cold), but on the good side, the mold in my hut has cleared out, and the mosquitos (most of them) are gone!!


Every new month continues to bring new challenges, and like the months past, I continue to question the motivation of my community, but now also my own motivation. One of my Senegalese “ colleagues” from Peace Corps came to my site to sit down and talk to the leaders about my plan for the community. It also served as a forum for them to express any grievances or amendments they might have to my proposed work plan.  It was helpful in the sense that my community heard from someone in a position of power at PC what exactly I was supposed too do, and would be doing. At the same time, I felt incredibly embarrassed that I had so little to actually show for the last 6 months I have been living here. As much as Peace Corps pushes the intangible experiences, they tend to look more upon physical changes in the community as indicators of your work…I have painted no murals and worked little with the school since my failed school garden; mainly because people did not express interest/motivation for those things. But, now I am feeling pressured to do those things, even if I do not think it is important or a need of the community.
In situations like this, I find myself bowing down to the beaurocracy, because if I do those projects that are looked upon favorably, I have a better chance of positive job recommendations, and a better chance of the administration looking on me as a better volunteer. So then, why am I here?  Because I want to help people, or because I want to help myself…I think any volunteer would tell you both. It still leaves an uneasy feeling in my stomach that I could be letting my community down, or the PC down, or myself down depending upon how I choose to live out this experience; which as of now has 16 months remaining in it.


I decided all of my time here is compromise, and that doesn’t just mean everyone else compromises so I get what I want. I did a mural at the health hut; there is proof that art is therapeutic, right? In this, I have discovered, nay confirmed, something I already new about myself: I am an organizer. I want to be the person at the top organizing, planning, and researching programs for other people to execute at a lower level…I lack a lot of the patience to do small scale projects. One day I will be a great boss, but in order to be at the top, you have to start somewhere, usually at the bottom. In this sense, Peace Corps is the first 2 years of my working career, where I can be on the bottom with an immense amount of freedom. I know where I want to be when I turn 30, and this experience is just the beginning of what I hope is a long career (having just celebrated my 24th birthday this is something I was thinking about). And at 24, I feel like I have so many choices; more choices than my family has in Senegal, more choices than my grandmother, and even my mother, had when they were my age.  I am not married (with no prospects here to the dismay of many Senegalese men), no kids (to the dismay of Senegalese women), and no heavy financial burdens (like a house or car payment)…I could literally do whatever it is I wanted, a powerful motivator for me to provide opportunities for others; even as small as helping a girl delay pregnancy a year so she can finish middle school by giving out condoms. So, while I might question the motivations of myself and my community, one thing is clear that I can do: be an example of a woman who has chosen this life over others, while creating small opportunities so that others might have a choice too.




In addition to all this woeful reflection, another Senegalese Holiday has broached upon us. Tabaski; in Arabic “Eid al Adha”عيد الأضحى‎ 

My sisters and I in our traditional whites

In tradition, the celebration is an "important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness ofAbraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his son Ishmael (Isma'il) as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a ram to sacrifice instead.^[1] The meat is divided into three parts to be distributed to others. The family retains one third of the share, another third is given to relatives, friends and neighbors, and the other third is given to the poor & needy." However, as with many Koranic events, the Senegalese interpretation is simply 
about food and family. My Tabaski was really fun actually. We spent the day before in preperation mode, celaning the compound buying the supplies, etc. In an effort to really embrace the holiday, I wore clothes that matched the other 15 women in the compounds around us. Quite the site given the fabric was polka dotted. My measurements weren't taken before the holiday, ad so the clothes were huge, but I am getting them fixed. No one seemed to care.

I know I look ridiculous, don't hate

Skinning the sheep

The day itself was absolutely exhausting. We killed 3 sheep and 1 goat at around 10 am. There was a lot of tea drank, and we fried up huge meat parts and ate with mustard before our lunch even began. Then our neighbors came over and we ate lunch. Then everyone had sodas. Then we all showered and rested a bit before eating another snack. Right before night fell, we changed into other clothes, and started off visiting neighbors and sitting around with the family. Then we ate again...twice. 

Frying up the rib and shank portions with mustard

I ate so much sheep that day.  As is typical, we all stayed up late drinking tea. The next day a similar festivity  ensued, and the day following. The last day we ate the goat and drank yogurt drinks all day. So for 4 days, we celebrated. On the 5th day, things went more back to normal, but we still were eating the meat (which by this time had been sitting in heat without refrigeration for 5 days). My stomach was glad when it was over. The best and worse part about it all was the lack of work. I got to relax, but it was impossible to accomplish anything at all. 
See pics below!

My sister Rhamma and I

Our lunch...onion sauce ad sheep

Posing for my sister in my second clothing change

My sister Fatu and her cousin in their whites

Sophie and me

The goat head...which we also ate

It seems that October has come and gone, along with the cooling rains. The dry sahellian wind has returned to my village, but with a slightly colder edge. The nights cool off, and the days are hot, but not blistering or humid. My throat and lungs are having a hard time getting used to the sudden dryness. The days too, are shorter, the sun rises about an hour later and sets about an hour earlier….much like Fall in the States. 
The millet harvest has finished up, and so have the last of the peanuts. Everyone is preparing to sell and hoping for higher market prices than last year. Since Senegal exports most of it’s agricultural products, the small farmers make hardly enough to live off of, and large co-ops and unions have not formed to fight for better price security while foreign imports of rice and wheat flood the domestic market. This is the plight of the third-world farmer all-over the world, and even the small farmers in America face a similar fate.


I spent the first 18 days of this month traveling to and from meetings, appointments, and fun days with my stage-mates.  We now have the tradition of renting our trusty beach house before any large event, and as such did so the first weekend of October. It was calm, and not too hot. We went for our night swim around midnight and were blown away by the bioluminescence. We had seen it before, but it was especially bright and dense this time. Some of us stayed out there for 3 hours, just floating in the tepid water surrounded by  pearls of light.  The next day we headed up the coast to Joal for our meeting.

Example of Luminescence 
Wikepedia article about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioluminescence


All of the health and environmental education volunteers in the country had a ‘summit’….basically it was a 2 day open forum for sharing ideas, problems, stories, and ideas about how to improve and modify the current programs and projects.  It was the first time the first and second year vols had been together in a place to exchange information. I felt relieved that like my fellow volunteers, I was facing adversity and malaise when trying to start projects, and comforted by the second years who said, in most cases, all comes with time. 


I am finally at peace with the pace of my work, partly because of the reassurance from my family that the village only expects that I set up projects for the next volunteer, and that I can get people thinking about ‘health’ as more than just illness and medecine. I still occasionally get ‘where is your money for us’ or ‘why don’t you farm or plant trees’, but those comments are slowing as the idea that I will be here for the next 1.5 years and working with the health hut sinks in.


After the summit, I went to Dakar,  always a nice getaway…I forgot how exhausting the stimulation of the city is. There were nights when all I wanted to do was hear crickets and see starts, but in Dakar, those things barely exist. One night a group of us went to down to the beach where some very smart Senegalese men have set up a maekshift tikki bar with a generator. We paid in advance and they had a donkey cart bring the beer to the top of cliff, and it was carried down to the tikki hut. We swam, had a beer, and chatted until it was way past dark, then headed of to a BBQ at one of the third year volunteer apartments. At times like those, it is hard to believe that I am living in western Africa, and can go from barely having electricity to a life that is the picture of a 20-something in America.


On the work front:
I am constantly in the process of procuring supplies for our health hut, as it is severly lacking. A few NGO’s furnish health facilities for free, so I am trying to get one of them to come out and do an evaluation. In the mean time, I have basically been begging anyone I have contact with for things: a scale, medicine, patient logs, pharmacy requests, etc. I also am trying to rally my health committee to start meeting once a month. I want them to try and find someone in the community who can be trained as a health educator, and can volunteer their time at the health hut when the guy who runs it is out (which is often).


I participated in a vegetable pepinere training in the next large village over, and started intensive moringa beds in the health hut. I eventually want to train the midwife to take care of the moringa, turn it into powder, and then sell it for profit so the health hut has extra cash to either pay a full-time employee or subsideze the volunteers.
I came to the realization however, before any of these things happen, I have to get the health hut functional and organized. I gave a calender to my counterpart, so he can mark important events, as well as anything that is regularly occurring (such as vaccination days). He also is learning, however slowly, to keep track of  who comes in, for what, where they are from, age, etc. I made a makeshift log book until I can get an official one for him. I try not to get frustrated by the fact that this is all so basic, and is part of the training they receive when they agree to work at clinic…but often it just becomes a medicine dispenseray and nothing more. 


The amount of guess work they do here freaks me out; how does everyone survive without knowing what is what and when things are supposed to occur?? Not only that, but most fot he people   (men specially) who I have met who work in the health system are not just jerks, but also completely incomepentant and okay with doing the bare minimum. The lack of accountability to human life blows my mind. But, overworked and underpaid will do that to you…right??


Food of the Month: Bush Meat
While I ate like a queen in Dakar (Korean, French, American style Sandwiches, Ice Cream!!!!!), this is not so in the village. We have unfortunately fallen on lean times, waiting for the harvest to sell, and the last of the seasons veggie crops winding down. What do lean times mean in a country where most people subsit off of only rice and millet? It means BUSH MEAT. In an effort to make the bowl hardier than the few beans and plain oiled rice, often bush meat is added (or old salted and dried fish). What exactly is bush meat you ask? Well that’s the beauty of it, you don’t really want to know!!
Lizard is a popular secret ingrediant where I live, since they are enormous and bountiful…no matter the poison. it’s like eating bony girstle. I have seen other types of meat like things in the bowl, and when I ask if it is lizard, the response is ‘no’…and no further explanation. So I don’t really want to know what critters are being consumed on a bi-weekly basis, but if I had to guess I would say rat, dog, and field rabbits are likely contenders.

"Bushmeat initially referred to the hunting of wild animals in West andCentral Africa and is a calque from the French viande de brousse. Nowadays the term is commonly used for meat of terrestrial wild animals, killed for subsistence or commercial purposes throughout the humid tropics of the Americas, Asia, and Africa......"
\http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushmeat

So much time, and so little to do! .....Strike that, reverse it.

Back home: leaves are falling, a smell of crisp apples apples is in the air, and jack-o-lanterns are beginning to appear on doorsteps.....

In Senegal: The humidity has no threats to subside, the humming of millet chaffing machines is all around us, and the mosquitoes cling to every surface........ Ahh Fall.


Where has the month gone? It seems like Ramadan ended  light years ago. I forgot how quickly the days pass when people are being active; and how much happier people are with their bellies full (well fuller during the day at least…most still only eat one regular meal a day!)
We had the naming ceremony for my new baby sister. It is the first Seneglese event that I felt truly included in, and excited about! We had so many people running around the compound; I had forgotten how much I loved parties in the states. I invited another Peace Corps volunteer who lives 5k away, so it made the experience that much better. There was music, and we killed a sheep, and everyone was giddy with excitement!! It seems like all we did that day was eat, from morning until about 11 pm… a bit of a shock to my system just one day after Ramadan. 

                                
      I think he knows he's done for....              

Waiting for the Kilifa (religious leaders to confirm the baby name)                                        

When the babies name is confirmed they kill the sheep, and bury some blood for a blessing

             Mom and Baby

My aunt cooking a traditional rice topping Chou....parsnips onions and carrots in a broth

   Notice the HUGE pots used to cook the food

    My host brother and his daughter and me




I am not sure if I mentioned it earlier on, but I am getting new PCV neighbors. 3 will be replacing current COS-ing volunteers, and 2 will be new sites. The volunteers in my region of Senegal had a “Kaffrine Day” where we took them to the market, our favorite juice spot, and showed them the cyber café. We finished up by taking them for a beer and our favorite ceeb shack (lunch hut). It was nice to see the new, fresh  excited faces…I know I have been here barely 7 months, but I am amazed how my attitude has changed to fit my situation. I thought I had good coping skills before I came here, but now, I am hard as a rock. I have also had to change my perspective/reality of what I will achieve here, and what development as a whole can achieve on the small scale community based level. The simple fact is: sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and everyone fails at least once (something I was NOT accustomed to back home). If you want to read more about the shortcomings and failures about aid in Africa check out a great book: 

On the work front: 


I was able to participate in a regional project in the mangroves a couple weeks ago. Mangroves are known as Forests of the Tide, and support more life in their ecosystems than any other system on earth. According to National Geographic "Mangroves provide nursery grounds for fish; a food source for monkeys, deer, tree-climbing crabs, even kangaroos; and a nectar source for bats and honeybees. .. Each mangrove has an ultrafiltration system to keep much of the salt out and a complex root system that allows it to survive in the intertidal zone.  The plants' interlocking roots stop riverborne sediments from coursing out to sea, and their trunks and branches serve as a palisade that diminishes the erosive power of waves." 
We planted mangroves in a delta town called Toubacouta. The place is beautiful…. But the human impact on the mangroves forests over the last 50 years that Senegal has been industrializing is enormous. Where there used to be a network of tidal flats and acre deep forest, there is now just empty sand bars.  
We had a total of 50 community members, in addition to 20-ish PCV’s out in the mud flats during low tide planting mangroves. It was a fun, dirty, tiring day, but by the time we had finished, there were acres and acres of new mangroves seedlings planted in the thick mud.

Mangrove inlet where we stayed

Sorting through the seeds before planting time

Planting the seedlings along the natural water line

The last Friday of every month, my  health hut holds post-natal vaccinations sponsored by UNICEF. I was given a job at the one we had this month…I sold the aspirin and explained the dosage instructions and proper uses. Not exactly the most important job, but I participated none the less. I spoke with the mid-wife in my village, and starting next month we are going to have an information table, covering a different topic each month. I am going to try to get my hands on a baby scale also so I can monitor the children who routinely come through. Hopefully I will have some pictures of this in November.


I also went to an “open field day”… a project held by AgFo and Sustainable Ag volunteers, and part of the region-wide food security initiative. The tour was held in a village at the site of a farming demo plot. The plot is designed to maximize space and food production, while using natural pest management, live fencing, and a host of other techniques. There were tons of Senegalese farmers there, as well as many PCV’s, and our Country Director. Eventually, we want to integrate nutrition and health education into the program, since both play a large role in food security.

                                                       Rice paddy demo plot

                                        The farmers doing a question and answer session


And now for some lagniappe (New Orleans lingo for "a little something extra")


“A Wolof Guide to the Supernatural in Honor of All Hallows Eve"
Since I have been here, I have heard some odd and varied bits of information about supernatural beings and the underworld…although the country as a whole is Muslim, it does retain some of it’s animist beliefs. (There is an ethnic group who is wholly animist, the Bassari, I would love to go to visit a village of this group during a ceremonial celebration!)


Witches: People here talk about witches all the time. 
- If you don’t eat the bitter tomato in the bowl, or you eat it and spit it out, you’re definitely a witch.
-If you ride you’re bicycle in a skirt, you’re probably a witch.
- If the local schizophrenic/fortune teller says you’re a witch, you might not be a witch.


Ghosts: Ghosts are the scape goat for everything, they also serve as reason not to do something.
-If you whistle, you are actually calling the ghosts. (oops! No wonder people give me weird looks when I whistle a tune while I work). This also means you might be a witch, especially if you’re a woman.
- You can’t go into the Baobob forests alone, because ghosts will attack you (this is always the first thing people say, not that you will get attacked by animals, or get lost, but ghosts!!)
- You can’t walk in between corners of buldings and other objects ( ex. Between a house and electrical pole) because the ghosts will get you.
- you can’t go to the well after dark, because there are ghosts
- The most dangerous thing on the bush paths are lions and ghosts (let me remind you there is only 1 pride of lions in all of Senegal and it lives in a protected reserve)


I am sure there are other superstitions, but this is what I have compiled so far…I am totally a witch, and I communicate frequently with ghosts!

The non work related picture of the month:

Kaolack Kitchen Dance Krew...if we aren't busy singing Glee at the top of our lungs, we are cleaning, cooking, and dancing away in the kitchen