Operation Smile

For those of you who don't already know, and I realize that I have been talking about this a lot, I have had the AMAZING opportunity to work with Operation Smile, an American NGO that is in Thiès, Senegal this week performing free surgeries, as an interpreter from Wolof to English. To give you a quick rundown on what they do, here are some facts from their website, www.operationsmile.org:

Operation Smile, headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, is a worldwide children’s medical charity. In 1982, Operation Smile was founded by Dr. William P. Magee Jr., a plastic surgeon, and his wife, Kathleen S. Magee, a nurse and clinical social worker.

Since 1982, more than 120,000 children and young adults with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities have been treated by thousands of volunteers worldwide and thousands of medical professionals have been trained globally.

Operation Smile was launched after its first mission to the Philippines in 1982. Operation Smile currently has a presence in 51 countries.

This week was their first trip to Senegal, and if all goes well, they will be coming back within the year to provide more surgeries. This week, a total of around 150 Senegalese patients, mostly children, with facial deformities had the opportunity to receive free, life-changing surgeries and I am so blessed to have been able to participate in it all. As the interpreter, I got to tell the patients about their surgery, how to prepare for it and explain post-operative care to them after surgery. I spent most of my time in post-operative with the nurses following them around and asking patients how they were doing and feeling. It felts really good to be that link between them and their medical care. On the opposite side, it was heartbreaking to have to tell people that we could not perform the surgery for whatever reason and that there was nothing we could ndo for them. Between the highs and the lows, it was an emotional week.

I am a little jealous of the volunteers with Operation Smile (every one of which I completely and utterly respect and admire) who get instant gratification. Within a week they get to see the results of their work. The development work that I am doing is a little different in that we "plant the seeds" of development and hope that our projects will be sustainable, but often it takes years for the results to come about. I believe that both types of development work are necessary, charity and sustainable development work, in order to encourage developping countries, but I suppose Im just a little jealous that I can't experience what these volunteers have.

Oh well, c'est la vie. Pastures always greener and whatnot. Operation Smile is having a farewell lunch in town that they have invited the Peace Corps Volunteers to attend and so I am off to a free lunch, and to say to goodbye to some amazing people who have become good friends in only a week.

Bloggers Block

I realize that I have touched on the subject before but I am running out of things to say!!! I haven't been online in almost two weeks for whatever reason, which is the main reason I haven't written, but also I just havent had anything to hurry up and get online to write about.

We got internet in Pout, which I expected to be this life changing event, but we only have one cyber café that is online and there are only two computers in it, both of which suck. Since Im in Thiès twice a week anyways, it just doesn't seem worth it to bother using the internet in town. Yes, the internet is that bad there. Plus I can use it for free here.

I applied for a grant with my work partner in order to fund two weeks worth of basic business skills trainings with leaders from a local youth organization and have been accepted, which I am really excited about. That means two solid weeks worth of work. :) Ousmane and I have a lot of planning to do getting everything ready. The trainings will be the middle two weeks of January.

So yeah, that's the news from over here in too-sunny Senegal (I dare anyone in America to complain about the cold).

Mid-Service Fun

Here in Peace Corps-land, after you've been in Senegal for one year, it's time to drop everything, come to Dakar and make sure you're healthy. Relatively so, at least. All volunteers are required to undergo a mid-service medical exam consisting of a complete physical and dental exam. It's about as much fun as it sounds, but it's a good excuse to come to Dakar and relax for a few days and also an example of how amazing our health coverage is here. I am getting very used to full medical coverage and going back to the states after Peace Corps is going to be an experience....

Peace Corps pays us once every three months and the end of November is the end of month number three (ie: I havent been paid since late August). My budgeting skills as they are, I am extremely close to broke and so can't actually afford to go out in Dakar with the other volunteers, but am cooking lots of yummy meals and catching up on my movie watching. I am very much looking forward to this next pay period.

Obama Mooy Sama Président

Wolof phrase of the day: Obama is my president (see above). I could not be happier to come home to America with Barak Obama as my president next year. The reaction to his victory has been amusing here in Senegal. Mainly because EVERYONE knows the result. Some people may have pretended not to be paying attention to the US race for the White House, but as soon as Obama won, EVERYONE and their mother came over to my house to discuss the news and get my feelings on a black man as president. One man yesterday actually told me I had to make sure to keep the Republicans out of power, so perhaps there was one person here who hasn't heard, but I think he's alone. Another thing that I found really interesting was the Senegaleses reaction. Every single person started off by congratulating me. My family and friends here know I voted for Obama, but everyone else is congratulating me without even asking who I voted for. I can't really explain it, I just find the whole congratulatory thing strange. I appreciate their enthusiasm and boy are the Senegalese excited about Barak Obama!! My host mom has completely forgotten about telling me that if he won he would certainly be assasinated by racists and encouraging me to vote for Clinton and is singing his praises and congratulating me all day long. Barak Obama has some high standards to live up to here in Africa. Even more so in the United States....

In other news, I mentioned last entry that I had two university students staying with me for a week as part of their program. It's called a "rural visit" and every student spends one week of the program outside of Dakar either with a Peace Corps Volunteer or an NGO worker depending on their interests after university. I ended up with a student from UC Boulder and another from Occidental College in LA. Both were amazing. We had a very good time together and I think they were pretty relieved to not be in a village for their rural visits. They sat in on my computer classes in Thiès, got to witness firsthand me showing up for meetings only to have the other party not show up (which is beginning to feel like the majority of my work here), hung out with some Senegalese friends here in town, taste some of Pout's lovely fruit (it is after all what we're known for) and make some nice American food to boot. After two months of cebb u jenn, everyone could use a good plate of pasta, regardless of how tasty cebb u jenn is.

So yeah, a good time was had by all. I came in with them to Dakar this morning for a medical appointment on Monday. Having been here 14 months already (but who's counting?) I am due for my mid-service physical and dentist appointment. I am interested to see what all of this sugar in the attaya I drink here has done to my teeth...

Election Madness

You would think that living in a small farming town in West Africa would make me pretty out of touch as far as the US election goes, but there has been a surprising amount of coverage. Senegal's national TV station, RTS 1, has been providing a lot of coverage and there's always the internet. Walking through the Dakar market, we saw loads of Obama t-shirts (no McCain t-shirts for some reason...). Everyone here is supporting Barak Obama, mostly because he's African. Some don't like Bush and see McCain as the same, but yet again mostly Obama is black and the Senegalese are really excited about the possibility of a black president. I have been asked multiple times today who I am voting for, and am always met with a grin when I say Barak Obama. I sent my absentee ballot in 5 weeks ago, so I'm hoping that it arrived safely in Murfreesboro. I'm pretty sure it won't be counted, but I can't complain about who wins if I didn't vote, right?

Right now I am sitting in a hotel conference room in the fanciest hotel in Thies where they have set up chairs and mattresses and most importantly a tv with sattelite connection so that we can watch the non-stop coverage on CNN International. There is a restaurant attached to the hotel so we're pretty much set. The entire new stage (40 volunteers) is here as well as those volunteers who live nearby and the two university students that are visiting me in Pout for the week to see what exactly Peace Corps volunteers do as they are both looking into Peace Corps after graduating. More about our adventures later.

Just wanted to post something on Election Day before I know who my next president will be to let you all know that I do have constant english language news coverage, so you can stop worrying. :)

Allez Obama!!!

Yalla Yalla Maay Nu Bennen Auto!

The title of this blog means "May God give us another car!" in Wolof. In case you hadn't guessed, this entry is about the Senegalese trasportation system, which I have mentioned randomly in previous postings. Transportation here in Senegal and in many parts of Africa is infamously unreliable and crazy, although until Wednesday I had been having pretty good luck with it all. I live in between the two largest cities in Senegal and so my transportation situation is nothing to complain about, at least not for me. At first, the system took a little while to figure out; where to go, what to pay, how to ask for things, schedules, etc. However, a year in I've got it (almost) figured out. Or so I thought.

Having just passed the year mark, the group of volunteers that I arrived in Senegal with decided to throw ourselves a reunion party where we would come from all over Senegal to Kolda, located in the south of the country. I was really looking forward to the opportunity to see a new part of Senegal and to get to travel through the Gambia, which is necessary as the Gambia intersects the middle of Senegal (well planned, Brits). I met up with some other volunteers in Kaolack, a three hour trip from my site, so that we could all travel together. We had heard it would take us around 8 hours to get to Kolda from there so we were at the garage by 8 ready to rent a car and leave.

When we pulled out of the garage, we noticed that the exhaust from the car wasn't going out the back but into the car which made it kinda hard to breathe. This is not an uncommon occurance here in Senegal and we thought about asking for another car, but decided that even if we did we couldn't guarantee the new car would be any better so we decided just to stick it out. After all, by now we were all seasoned 14 month in volunteers and could handle anything, right?

The first two hours passed quickly and at the Gambian border the driver stopped at a mechanics shop to get the car repaired. This was a typical Senegalese mechanic shop and so all the work was done outside while we all sat on a bench in the shade. We had been there about half an hour when our driver told us he would be back in 2 minutes and took off. With all our stuff in the car. We didn't think much about this at first, but were getting kind of nervous after an hour. He finally showed back up and we were off again.

Passing through the Gambia was easy enough and we got to take a ferry across the Gambia River. After getting off the ferry we made it all of 20 Km before our car broke down. The road is an absolute maze of potholes and while driving through them we had lost several lugnuts on one of the tires and it was hanging on by one. So we plopped down in the shade again to wait for our driver to go to the next town over to get some parts. This of course happened during the hottest part of the day and we quickly ran out of water. Three girls went to find a village where we could ask for water. While we were gone a man drove a donkey-cart past with full bottles of water. Only problem was, we had sent all of our empty water bottles with the girls. He was nice enough to give us a few cups of water and the girls got back soon enough so that we could continue sitting in the shade. After three hours, our driver came back and changed the tire with a borrowed jack, as he didn't have one in the car of course. We managed to get out of there around 5:00, which was just in the nick of time as we had to make it to the border crossing before close since we didnt have an overnight visa to stay in the country and there are hyenas.

As soon as we reentered Senegal there was a loud pop in the back of the car and the exhaust pipe had fallen off and was dragging on the ground. Driver acknowledged that it happened but didnt stop to do anything for another hour or so when we stopped at a big intersection known as Carrefour (French for intersection). Our car was obviously not doing so hot, so we asked around for another car leaving to Kolda, but were told there weren't any more leaving until the morning.

While there a group of men came up to help with the car and as it was already dark asked if we had any flashlights. There is one on my cell phone and so I lent it out. After dinner, I came back to the car and asked where the man with my cell phone had gone and no one seemed to know who I was talking about. Awesome. I hadn't gotten his name, all I knew was that he was really short. Shorter than I am. The Senegalese men at the garage yelled at me about what an idiot I was to give my cellphone away, which I was PERFECTLY aware of at that point. I was so upset I started crying. Daniel had been calling my phone repeatedly and we finally got ahold of the guy who had it and asked him to come back. We had a Senegalese communicate that part of the message so there was no misunderstanding. Nobody can yell like a Wolof, after all.

When Lamine got there all the men at the garage who had been telling me what a ridiculous, stupid tourist I was suddenly switched teams and surrounded this poor little man like a lynch mob. Everyone started yelling and I thought they were going to beat him up. All I could do was stand there yelling that I wasn't angry, I forgave him and wanted to go to Kolda. The moral of the story is that it was really quite frightening, but eventually ended and we finally got to leave that Godforsaken intersection heading to Kolda, after spending 2 hours there. We finally found a driver who was driving home to Kolda and agreed to take us. We had already paid the price all the way to Kolda, but had to pay an additional fare on top of this one to get there. After the day we had had, none of us objected. We just threw our money at the driver and begged him t get us out of there.

Praise be to God we pulled into Kolda around midnight, 16 hours after leaving. It was such a long day and I have never been as glad to be anywhere as I was to pull into Kolda that night.

One positive thing is that having lived here for 14 months., I was really well equipped to handle these situations and could laugh about them and hang out on the side of the road for several hours knowing (well, somewhat hoping) that things would work out, which they did. If this had happened at this point last year, I would have completely freaked out. I am very proud of the ways in which I have grown over the past year.

Class, Class, Class

Back in Thiès where I have finished Microsoft Word lesson #2, and am currently waiting on Astou to finish work at her shop so we can go over her recordbooks that she kept while I was away. There are several pieces of information missing from her entries and I am also hoping to add the totals to see how much money she made during the month of Ramadan, or didn't make.

In Pout I continue work with Ousmane. We are still working on the grant application, which has proven to be rather lengthy, but once that is done I can turn it into Dakar for approval. Hopefully by November. Although Ousmane is a great work partner, the application process has been slowed down by his showing up late, leaving early, and constant smoking breaks. What can I say? I take what I can get. And he shows up at all, which is what makes him a great work partner.

I met with the principal of the middle school who informed me that both him and the high school principal have been replaced, so I have two new principals to work with. Shame, as I really liked these ones and they were so easy to work with!!! I am visiting the middle school again tomorrow to meet the new principal. Wish me luck.

I have also been helping out with training a bit with the new volunteers, as I mentioned last week, which has been a lot of fun. After the meeting with GIPS, I helped out with a talk on how to handle unwanted attention, and this week I am going in to talk about gender roles and SeneGAD (PC Senegal's gender and development program) as well as the women's health talk. Oh to be a woman in Africa :) I look forward to spending more time with the trainees. The more I get to know them, the better I like them, although it's still hard to think of them as replacing the volunteers that are currently leaving and who I adore. It will take some time to get used to. Until I leave.

A recent idea for a project has been to get english language books donated to my youth library. I have emailed several NGOs and family members in a search for information. I have found several that are willing to donate the books if I can get them to Africa from the states....which I can't, any help? Also if you would be interested in shipping any books over, bismillah and feel free to email me for more information! Those of you who know me know that literacy causes have a special place in my heart. Which means that so will you should you help me get some books over here for my kids to read.

Back in the Game

Now that the holidays are over, I can get back to work.

I have set up my computer classes in Thiès with GIPS and Astou on Mondays and Wednesdays until further notice and just finished my first lesson on Microsoft Word. I now have 5 students and we have planned out classes until the new year working on Microsoft Word, Excel and using the internet for business purposes. So far so good.

I am spending the day here at GIPS office waiting for the new group of business volunteers to show up for a presentation. My students will introduce their business and how they work with women's groups in the community and also talk about our computer lessons and (hopefully) how much they have helped over these last few months. I get to sit back and pretend to be important.

I have also been spending a fair amount of time at the mayor's office working with Ousmane on a grant application to receive funding for two weeks of business trainings with ASC, a youth organization in my community, in an attempt to encourge entrepreneurship. My supervisor has given us the go ahead and all looks promising, so my hopes are up really high. This is very dangerous, but I cant help but be excited about this potential project!!! More news on that to come.

I still need to meet with the principals of the local middle and high schools to discuss how I will be working with them over the course of the school year but, I will admit, I have been procrastinting.

In other non-work news: Ellie is in heat. Not fun. She has lost her outside privileges until she stops begging to be humped by anything. No kittens, please. I can't wait for this to end so that I can get a decent night's sleep again.

Korité: Take 2

So after my second Ramadan in country was over (mind you I was in England for most of it) came my second Korité. It feels really good to have been in country long enough to start experiencing things for a second time.

This years Korité was almost exactly like last years with the exception that I knew what the heck was going on and actually had a little bit of fun this year. In case you missed last years post, here is a typical Seengalese Korité:

8:00am Wake up. Men get dressed up and go to lengthy religious ceremony at the local mosque, women begin preparing the meals. Sexist, yes, but them's the rules here in Senegal. I helped my host mom peel and cut up vegetables, pound the spices together and cut up the meat before being asked to leave the kitchen (way better than last year!!!)

2:00pm Lunch. Food is alwas amazing on holidays. My family ate lamb (which is already a special occasion as we never eat anything but fish) with a sauce made of peas and onions. It was DELICIOUS. Host mom also gave me more credit. Also, I told my host mom I was full in Pulaar, which is her native language, and she was thrilled.

8:00pm Over to Fatou's house for dinner of chicken with an onion sauce. I helped her pick out the chickens and she let me carry them home the day before. I had named them Ane and Reer, which means lunch and dinner in Wolof, and thus felt a special bond with them. Felt wrong to eat them a little, as we had been friends, but can't pass up protein.

After dinner: Dress up in your best clothes and make the rounds. You spend the entire evening walking from house to house asking people to forgive you your sins and then blessing the year to come. Its the same script every time, but having a white person say it is always fun. Especially when she is in a boubou with her hair all braided.

Made the rounds until midnight, by which point both my camera and I had both overheated and called it a night.

Home Sweet Senegal

As you may know, if youve ever read this blog, I am just back from a perfect vacation in England. Seeing as how this blog is to talk about my experiences inAfrica, posting while I was on vacation was not high on the priorities list. Certainly outranked by Starbucks runs. The most important thing to say about my vacation is that it was absolutely necessary for my mental health. Living in Senegal can be fun. It can also be horribly stressful and frustrating and every once in awhile, you need a break. Being in England made me feel normal, which I almost never get to feel here. I am not normal here.

Moral of the story: All PCVs need a break every now and then. I took mine during Ramadan in England and it was everything that I had hoped for and more.

I returned yesterday in the early morning. I was not terribly excited to be back, but not upset either. Its nice to be back and after speaking to several people in Wolof it was very reassuring to see that I could still speak it after a month long break. I spent all day yesterday in Dakar and this afternoon will catch a car home. Going back to Pout is going to be an ordeal. Ive been gone for a month and so my return will draw a lot of attention. Of course all I want to do is sneak in the back door, clean my house (which is guaranteed to be filthy after 4 weeks of neglect) and relax. This is impossible. I also will have to go around and greet all the neighbors or risk offending people and then contact all of my work partners to set my classes back on schedule and hopefully schedule my girls group for the year.

In short, I will be busy.

While I was in England, a new group of volunteers arrived in Senegal for training. They will replace the volunteers that are gradually leaving the country after having arrived two years ago. Peace Corps is one big cycle really. I am really looking forward to meeting them. Several of them are actually living in Pout so I may get to meet them as soon as tomorrow. Who knows?

I don't know when I will have internet access again, probably the weekend, but I will give more information on what its like to be back after a month long vacation.

Wrapping Up

1st of all: Happy Birthday Wanda!!!

This is my last week of work before leaving on vacation, and as such I am trying to get all of my classes to a good stopping point (it's not even worth pretending that any of my students are going to do anything while I'm away. I'm no longer that optimistic). That point is different for each class and so I am keeping myself busy adding extra classes here, going to see students there, and otherwise trying to be productive.

Spent this morning at GIPS wrapping up typing class with the womens groups that I work with. One student has finished the entire proggram, so there's something accomplished, right? I hope to get in a few lessons with Microsoft Excel so they can use it while I'm away, but yet again I am not so optimistic as to whether they actually will. I have also started teaching accounting to a local tailor and am feeling a lot of pressure to get her recordkeeping skills in shape before I leave. She has never used any type of recordkeeping system before and so we are starting from scratch here. She's actually doing really well with the first two lessons and I have learned that I really like this type of work. Teaching typing classes does not make me happy. I do it because I think that it will benefit my students. It's for their own good, if you will. Teaching accounting on the other hand makes me feel like I am really having a direct impact on this tailor's business. I don't know if that's a very good explanation, but I suppose it's that the effects of my teaching accounting to tailors is much more noticeable than teaching typing. I would like to find more people to teach accounting to during my second year here.

I have three days of classes left here in Thiès, and three days of classes in Pout, then off to Dakar.

My host mom's eldest son, who is attending college in Maryland, is here to visit this month. It's the first time he's been back to Senegal since leaving for the states 6 years ago. It's really nice to talk to a Senegalese who knows about my country (especially the fact that the streets are not paved with gold and that everyone lives exactly like Jack Bauer off of 24) and it's been a lot of fun to talk to him. He will be staying with my family for the week before visiting his dad's side of the family in the south of the country next week.

The End of English Camp

So the last day of English Camp went really well. We taught the kids how to play kickball, which was a bit harder than I orignally anticipated since they don't know the rules of baseball, and so we ended up with one kid kicking the ball into the outfield, the outfielders kicking it back, and both of them running like mad for the bases. After a few more explanations we worked out most of the kinks and the kids had fun. Then we broke off into small groups for an open discussion on whatever the kids wanted to talk about. Senegal being a muslim country, there were a lot of questions about US-Islamic relations such as:

"Why is America trying to get rid of Islam?"
"Why are you still in Iraq? When are you leaving?"
"Do you think that George Bush blew up the twin towers?"

et cetera. The discussion went really well actually, the kids were really eager to talk about the differences between our two countries and were very open with me when I asked them questions. These questions might at first glance look like the kids are anti-American, but they are just curious and I am the only American they know to ask these questions too. Most of the kids are pro-America, many want to live there and all want to know if it's really like what they see on tv. Do I really live like Jack Bauer? They were very dissapointed to find out that I do not.

Thursday night we baked the kids cookies and so Friday after the discussion we served them cookies and coke, congratulated them and sent them on their way, but not before a flurry of camera phones took pictures of us with the students and we all gave out our e-mail addresses so we could keep in touch. Just like regular summer camp as I recall.

Have done nothing of relevance this weekend besides watch movies and cook yummy food, the norm at the regional house when loads of volunteers are in town. I have put off site long enough and will leave this afternoon for home. Only two and a half more weeks of computer classes before I leave for London!!!

English Camp

Every year, the Dakar English Language Center (DELC) and the US Embassy put on week long summer camps for high school students in underprivileged areas of the city. This year, I signed up. We have been given pretty much complete freedom to do what we want, activities wise, so its up to us to show these kids a good time and help them improve their english. Me and two other peace corps volunteers have been assigned to the high school in Thiaroy, which is on the outskirts of the city. We have already done the first four days and tomorrow will be our last day. It has been so much fun.

Monday we started by doing a question and answer session on America and discussing some of the cultural differences between the USA and Senegal, which I think went a little long and we definately had some glazed over eyes. We spent the afternoon doing leadership and teambuilding activities and having small group discussions. A completely mediocre start to the week, in my opinion. Then Tuesday we started off by playing a mix of frsibee, american football and soccer, all at the same time, and everyone was running around and having a good time. Things started to liven up. We taught them some sports vocabulary like "over here!" and "I'm open!" and got to watch them run around for the next half hour screaming "me! me! I'm open!", which was really fun. Then we broke up into groups and talked about gender roles in society here and had the kids make skits about gender roles. My group definately kicked butt. Their skits were sooooo funny! One of our boys put on a purse and hat and shoved two mangoes up his shirt to play a girl, and it had everyone on the floor. U can tell my group is a little agitated about the other gender because the girls portrayed the boys as unfaithful jerks and the boys portrayed the girls as superficial golddiggers. We then had a discussion on why boys lie in relationships here, to which one replied "well if you want a girlfriend, you have to lie."

Wednesday we talked about immigration in the morning (a very important topic in a country where every young boys dream is to leave) and then played jeopardy about American culture in the afternoon, which got a little rowdy. They didn't know who invented the telephone, but boy were they on top of who sang My Heart Will Go On! Celine Dion is huge here.

Today we played kickball in the morning, the rules of which weren't understood as well as we had hoped and so they basically just ran around throwing the ball at each other for a few hours. Then we talked about democracy and development. I have been very pleased with my groups contributions. Sure, there are a few who don't participate (when I called on one girl she told me she didnt speak english. Right.) But for the mostpart they are really eager to express their ideas and I have a few who love to be controversial, which I was not expecting. I love it!

I am sitting in one of the Dakar volunteer's apartments right now and soon we will bake chocolate chip cookies as a surprise for the kids tomorrow. I am kinda sad at the thought of camp being over, I have had a lot of fun with these kids, but I am already looking forward to next year.

23 and Counting

So my 23rd birthday was a success. I was a little nervous about my first birthday abroad, but everything went so well. I spent the morning doing absolutely nothing, which I feel is an important part of any successful birthday. Watched movies, cooked up some stir-fry and otherwise pissed around. Scott called after lunch and it was good to hear his voice, although it made me sad. Scott is my twin brother, and i don't much care for celebrating our anniversary without him. Unfortunately, the stubborn bastard won't leave the states and so I may never see him again. At least not for two years.

Late afternoon some friends and I went to downtown Dakar where we bought mini ice cream cakes that are sold in a fancy patisserie. Mine was a butter-pecan ice cream with a shortbread crust. Think that sounds amazing in America? Try after 10 odd months of living on the outskirts of the sahara. That alone made the day amazing. Then we wandered over to a rooftop restaurant where they show movies. They have an outdoor screen and an indoor one, with a pretty decent DVD collection. We picked out Cassandra's Dream, which came out after I left the states so it was like watching a new movie, and they even showed the english version for us! So we sat around in an air conditioned room eating vietnamese food (caramel pork for me) on super-comfy couch. It was perfect. The dinner was a bit expensive for a peace corps volunteer, so we headed right back to the regional house after dinner to avoid spending any more money. Still, a wonderful, wonderful day.

Returned to site Wednesday morning and have gotten right back into the groove of teaching computer classes. Have one more to go today before I get to go home, and only one more day until I go to Dakar for the english camp next week. I am really looking forward to it.

Joyeux Anniversaire

As my 23rd birthday comes up tomorrow (I know, Im young) the festivities have already begun. As I mentioned in my last post, my work has fallen into a nice comfortable routine (shaken up every once in a while by a student who doesn't show up and doesn't call to tell me, argh) and so I had nothing better to do but plan myself a birthday party. Friday night some friends came over and the next day we cooked mom's potatoe salad for lunch, which I had really been craving, and then we watched some new movies (new to me, at least) that Lisa had downloaded on her computer. We watched Whatever Happens in Vegas and Definately, Maybe. Then we cooked up some tortillas and some meat and vegetables and had fajitas for dinner while hanging out on my porch. I have no oven to bake a cake at my house in Pout, so we used some marshmallows and rice krispies from the foreign import store to make a rice krispy treat cake of sorts. Then we just hung out talking. It was a nice, relaxing evening with friends, which was exactly what I wanted so I am pleased.

I came to Dakar yesterday because I had a Drs appointment this morning, this came just in time and since I'm already here, I might as well stay until tomorrow so I can celebrate Scott and my 23rd anniversary in style. Since Dakar is the best place in West Africa and you can pretty much get anything, I plan on buying an ice cream cake and hanging out at the regional house with some other volunteers. That's really what I want for my birthday, just to have a good, relaxing time with my friends. And an ice cream cake. There are a lot of volunteers in Dakar at the moment working with an english camp which I am signed up to work with next week so more details on that soon. I am really looking forward to it. All of it. Turning 23, celebrating 11 months in country soon, working with high school students in Dakar to help their english skills and teach them about American culture.

I can only stay until Wednesday morning when I have to catch a car to Thies where I have computer classes all day (every Monday and Wednesday still), but this weekend has been, and will hopefully continue to be, a much needed break from what has become my mundane, Senegalese life. Ok, its not as mundane as it could be, I know, but it's difficult after the honeymoon is over and nothing is new and exciting anymore and you get to the 'well now what?' phase of your peace corps service, which is where I am now. The positive side is that with the dullness comes understanding and I now understand what these people are saying to me and why they do (some) of the things they do, and can react accordingly. I can succesfully fend of marriage proposals (politely and offensively) in Wolof, I can have conversations with my friends, I can handle public transportation here (which is a complete mess), quite frankly I think I can handle anything.

My Life is Becoming Boring

So the problem with having been here 10 1/2 months so far is that I've now settled into a nice routine, which I find very comforting but doesn't give me anything to post on my blog about. Since my last post nothing new, and certainly not exciting has happened. I continue to work, giving computer classes, and hang out with my Senegalese friends. It rains a lot more here now. My roof has a leak. A big one. V. Unfortunate. You see how little I have to comment on? If you there is anything you want to know, ask and I will gladly answer, but if not I'm afraid I will have to wait until something new and/or exciting happens to post again.

It may be awhile, folks...

The Joys of (Not) Working in Senegal

So now that I am back from vacation its time to get back into teaching my computer classes that I teach every Monday and Wednesday in Thies. I had to buy a new cell phone and so dont have the numbers of my students anymore, so I just showed up Monday morning hoping for the best. The office where I teach my first class was locked. Knocked at the gate a few times but no answer. I guess class was cancelled. My second student was there and we picked up where we left off two weeks ago. Exactly where we left off actually, because she hadnt done any of the homework I had asked while I was gone. This is normal, but I will admit that my hopes were high. So we went through the typing lesson, and then I went home.

Spent all day yesterday at the youth library where I FINALLY finished entering all the books. Thats right, all 4100 books are save in the database. What does this mean? First off it means I am the happiest girl in the world. Secondly, it means I get to start teaching Thierno how to maintain the database and hopefully get to the point where he is completely in charge of the project. Yay!!!

So today I show back up at the office where I am supposed to be teaching only to find myself locked out and the office empty. Again. First time it didnt really bother me since Ive been living iin Senegal long enough to know that its not a big deal. Today however, I was very frustrated. Knocked on the door long enough for someone to let me in and give me Julie, one of my students, phone number, and I called and we decided to start next monday. She didnt know I had gotten back and had tried to call me while my phone was awol and figured I was still out of touch. Slightly less frustrated (but still frustrated) I made my way over to Chris's house where I am killing time until my next computer lesson starts around noon (inshallah). I realize that in the states this sort of behavior is completely unacceptable, no matter what. But here in Senegal its just kinda the way things get done, or dont get done sometimes. Calling me to tell me they had work to do outside of the office when there was a computer class scheduled probably didnt occur to my students, although I will point this out next Monday assuming I have a class to teach. Its just another one of the joys of working in a different culture. There is nothing in Senegal that cant wait. Urgency as we know it in America doesnt exist here. They say that Americans have watches but the Senegalese have time.

Back at Site

So Im now back in Pout and it feels really good to be home!! My poor cat has come down with a serious case of cabin fever while I was gone and is bouncing off the walls now. Nice to be missed, I guessed. Two weeks isnt that long to go on vacation really, but here in Senegal it is. Since I got home I have attracted a lot of attention. Everytime I step out of the house I get bombarded with greetings and people saying "Aby! I havent seen you in a long time! Where have you been?" When I mention that I went to the other side of the country everyone's eyes get really big and then they ask how it was, telling me its so hot down there and far away and arent there loads of mosquitoes there? Good thing Im back home in lovely Pout where everything is perfect. After a few of these interviews, I realized that I have seen more of Senegal in these past two weeks of road tripping than most of my neighbors have in their entire lives. Most Senegalese don't like to travel as much as Americans (certainly not the kind of Americans that join the Peace Corps) do. My host mother and most of her friends are completely happy to just stay put and go with the flow. Some of the younger kids here are really interested in travelling, but most people that want to go abroad only want to do so to get a job and send money back here to Senegal. It makes sense really, if you dont have enough money to get by, travelling seems a bit frivolous. I wonder what they think of me? Their frivolous American who seems unable to stay in one place for more than a month.

Was supposed to start my computer classes again today but showed up and the office was locked and no one was there. I took that to mean that my morning class is cancelled, which gives me the rest of the morning to piss around in Thies until my afternoon class, which hopefully isnt cancelled. When my cell phone got stolen I lost all my work contacts and hence my ability to call ahead and check on the status of my classes. My students dont see the need to tell me theyre not going to show up, and this is how entire days of my life get wasted. Hopefully tomorrow's work will go a bit more smoothly...

4th of July Abroad

This was my first one. Weird, but as resourceful peace corps volunteers we made the best of what we had and had a good time celebrating kicking Terry's country out a few hundred years ago. The Kedougou region, which is the farthest inland and hence most isolated part of Senegal, threw the party, which they do every year. I figured as I was already going across the country I might as well make a vacation out of it and for the past two weeks have almost entirely circled Senegal. Granted American roadtrips are much more fun and comfortable, my expectations were pretty low and I had a good time. I started last week travelling from Pout to Kaolack for the night, where someone kindly stole me cell phone off the roof while I was sleeping, then to Tamabacounda for a night, spent 3 nights in Kedougou celebrating with other volunteers, then another night in Tamba, went up through the Futa (which is the northern part of the country) and stopped at a volunteers house in Galoya for a night, 2 nights in the regional house in Ndioum and then headed home today hopefully. A perfect vacation. I have seen so many new parts of the country on this trip and couldnt be happier really. Unless I hadnt had to buy a new cell phone, that sucked.

Most of the time spent in regional houses was dedicated to tv time, since I dont ever get to watch tv or movies at site. Watched a lot of Flight of the Conchords, Sex and the City, and, most importantly, the Ndioum house has the third season of Law & Order SVU, so watched almost the entire season over the last three days. Soooo good. It was my first Law & Order in almost ten months now!!! We also did a fair amount of cooking. Quiche, banana cream pie, banana bread (there are a lot of bananas this time of year), cookies, breadsticks, chili, etc. Gotta take advantage of actually having access to a kitchen, which almost none of us do normally.

The fourth of july itself, the purpose of this pilgrimage, was so great. Kegoudou threw an awesome party. They cooked up a storm making us all fresh bread, hummus, tasiki (sp?) sauce, pork bbq, potatoe salad, pasta salad and coleslaw, all in mass quantities. There was a lot of sitting around, followed by much dancing, a lot of trash talking other countries and yelling about America, and even a few fireworks which were really small and unimpressive by American standards, but they were magical here. Apparantly I was the most excited about them. I think I embarrassed Erin by cheering my head off for the little explosions we got to see. They were cool, alright?

Kedougou is where we all pictured ourselves going when we thought of Africa. Its probably what you the reader are picturing right now in your head. The rainy season has just started so everything is green and beautiful, loads of baobab and nime trees in bloom, the most picturesque villages you could ever imagine everywhere. I dont know quite how to describe it but its beautiful. I wouldnt want to live there (I enjoy being spoiled) but its amazing to see. There are some waterfalls about 30km from Kedougou that a lot of volunteers biked out to for a day and really enjoyed but I didnt bring my bike so Im hoping to go next year. Ill have to actually start using my bike in advance so that the trip doesnt kill me, but i think I can do it.

So happy (late) 4th of July to everyone, and more news to come.

N'Ice Cream

I had a totally productive day lined up yesterday with two classes and a meeting when Joey came into town and convinced me to leave site for the day to go to N'Ice Cream, an American style ice cream shop here in Dakar. Why would I cancel my appointments to go to Dakar for ice cream, you ask? Had you been on the outskirts of the sahara without any ice cream for the past nine months and you might understand. I had never been but everyone always talks about it and now I know why. I am in on the secret. It was wonderful!!! I had two scoops with whipped cream and sprinkles. For anyone who is thinking "but Mandi has been complaining about weight gain in Africa, why would she gorge herself on ice cream?"....fuck off. I am just trying to remain sane. And so, less than 24 hours later, my sanity restored, I am headed back to Pout to have a meeting with some potential work partners. One week left to kill until the 4th of July party down in Kedougou.

Two days ago I received a call from my first host family in Thiès, who I never really got on with, telling me that my younger host brother who was 14 drowned last weekend. I havent even seen the family in seven months out of my nine months here and now I feel horrible about it. Its so sad. I will go visit them this next week with another volunteer to give my condolences and some money to the family, which I understand is what is expected here. I also need to learn the expressions of sympathy I have scribbled somewhere in a Wolof notebook. I know that there are many Americans who think that Africans deal with so much death that surely its not the same as in America, but that's not true. When a Senegalese dies there is just as much hurt as anywhere else in the world. The only difference is the language that the mourning is done in. In nine months here this is the second person I know that has died (the first being a Peace Corps employee who died in a car accident while I was still in training). I find it horribly upsetting but am trying to deal with it in a culturally sensitive way and then move on. After all, that is what life is all about.

I'm Not Dead Yet

Sorry if its been awhile but I definately went through a two week stint where I wasn't online once. I do live in Senegal, after all. I can't be too connected. Things are going really well and I've been busy.

Had my consultation with Saër, the entrepeneur last Wednesday and it went well. He wants to submit a business plan to a local bank to finance a fruit and vegetable intermediary business to get financing and so my first meeting with him we just reformatted the business plan and I gave him a list of things to add to the business plan, such as a SWOT analysis and marketing study, and will check back up on him this week. Actually made the appointment for today, but am in Dakar at the moment, so will have to call and reschedule.

Other than that I have been spending most of my time at the youth library. We hit the halfway mark last week. 2500 books entered in the last two months. Have I really been working on this for two months? I hope to really focus on this work and get the next half done in by the end of July. It could be my birthday present to myself: the gift of a successfully completed project! We'll see how that goes.

Spent an entire day last week at the high school where they were putting on a Café Litéraire, or a coffee-shop forum on a piece of literature by a Senegalese author. The students made presentations about the piece, everyone got coffee (it was actually coffee Touba, which they make with tea and I think is vile) and doughnuts and there was a huge debate. It went really well and even the mayor showed up to participate. I think the students were all very pleased. I am supposed to speak with Mme. Diallo at the high school about working with her on her girls group there.

Had another meeting of my girls group on Friday where we played a game on saying no to sexual pressure and then talked about making good decisions using little scenarios that the girls had to make decisions for. This week will be my last meeting with them until the start of the next school year. After work on Friday I went to Popenguine for a party with some other Peace Corps volunteers on the beach. An excuse to bum around on the beach, get away from site and to get to know the new kids who have just sworn in as volunteers last month.

Monday morning had my first meeting with the womens groups to teach IT. We had a two hour lesson and I am going back on Friday. I will be in Thiès twice a week for the next who knows how long. Looking forward to it. They are very nice and super motivated to learn, which makes my job just a little bit easier.

And thats what I do for a living. In Dakar at the moment hanging out with one of my friends who is leaving for the states this weekend. I will miss her loads. Looking forward to getting back to site today, picking up some mangoes and getting back to work tomorrow. OK, Im looking forward to the mangoes more than my work, but still.

Tostan Trainings

Today started off with the plan of coming into Thies to meet with the womens groups that I plan to work with here, pick up my two new dresses from the tailor and give a session on training Senegalese to work with IT at a training being put on for a local NGO. In true Senegalese fashion, one of those has worked out. My dresses arent ready yet, the woman I was supposed to meet with at the womens groups didnt show up, but luckily the NGO training went really well. There are 6 new volunteers in, one of whom was a pcv in Morocco recently, all of whom are really great, so Chris and I went over to their training and put on a two hour training session. We mostly discussed cultural differences that have to be taken into account when preparing training sessions here. It went really well. Afterwards had a nice lunch and then hung out before coming over to Chris's to use the internet and then planning on going home for some much needed rest.

Spent the day in Tivaoune yesterday with Daniel meeting with a womans group there who might be interested in doing some basic business trainings. One of the things the Senegalese have mastered is asking for things. Its mostly in jest, but if the Senegalese like something (say an article of clothing) they ask for it. I always tell them I will give them what they asked for as I keep on walking. Its really a kind of joke. So, thinking that I have this whole joke figured out, I comment on a womans earrings and ask for them. To my surprise, she takes them out of her ears and puts them in mine. To take them out would be a huge insult to her, but these are her earrings, I dont want to steal them!!! So now I have a brand new pair of pulaar earrings that are really cool, but I feel like I stole them from a woman who sells mangoes on the side of the road. I feel like such a jerk!! I was only kidding!! This speaks wonders about Senegalese generosity, as it should. People here truly will give you the shirt off their back if you ask for it. Or, as in this case, the earrings out of their ears.

June is Off to a Good Start

First off, congratulations to Sarina for finding my blog. I was beginning to worry about you. My address here is:
PCV Mandi Kimberly
B.P. 360
Thies, Senegal
West Africa

Packages are always warmly accepted. :) I will tell you about everything if you send me an email at mandikimberly at yahoo.com. You didnt give me your email address, you know.

In other news, yesterday was really crazy involving a meeting with the principal of the high school to discuss a sexual health weekend to talk about aids and other STDS and promote awareness (something desperately needed in this country as the Senegalese are very squirmish about talking about sex at all. Its very taboo). Its not going to work out this school year, since the students are really busy planning for their exams, but hopefully towards the beginning of the next one. After that I went to the youth library where I seem to have sabotaged my own work by accidentally deleting one of the columns and am just now catching back up with where I left off. Damn.

After lunch I had a meeting with my girls group where we did skits on how to react to peer pressure to drink, smoke and have sex. It was of course after the meeting that someone pointed out that in Senegal it is taboo for women to either smoke or drink, therefore they will probably not be pressured to do so. Perhaps I should have made the lesson more culturally appropriate? At any rate the girls were silly and had fun and if nothing else the sex one was relevent. One out of three is good, right? I found out there are two more weeks in the school year here until summer vacation so I only have to plan out two more lessons. Im actually a little dissappointed, but I know there is no way these girls are having enough fun to sign up to come into school once a week over summer vacation. I am not that inspiring. Or intelligible when I speak. Spent the rest of the evening at the library trying to fix my mistake.

Today am in Thies working with one of my neighbors on a two hour presentation we are giving to American volunteers who have just gotten into Senegal to work with a local NGO on how to train Senegalese in IT. Should be fun. I will head home after lunch and have a consultation with an aspiring entrepeneur (not sure of what, havent heard his idea yet) and then more library fun. And thats my life these days.

Girls Night

Being in Peace Corps Senegal can be really stressful and sometimes you just need a litte break, some time alone, to regroup before you can even think about continuing to live and work here. Enter girls night. Christyne, another volunteer in my region, offered to have three of us over for a nice relaxing girls night. I showed up yesterday morning and she had filled up an inflatable swimming pool in her back yard, which we filled with ice and sat in all afternoon. Then we watched chick flicks (PS I love you, Juno and Atonement), while eating chips and salse. For dinner we made burritos, and then we spent the night hanging out in the pool and talking. So much fun. None of these activities are possible without buying something from the foreign import store here, and all are things you can only do with other Americans. This morning when we got up we made pancakes with realy syrup that she had in her kitchen. Real syrup!! They were amazing. I am full of pancakes and not at all well rested because I was up too late but I am happy. I am refreshed and renewed and happy.

Good thing because tomorrow is going to be a busy day. My meeting on Friday with my girls group went well. 30 girls showed up, the rest will probably show up at the next one. We have dvided the girls up according to grade and I will meet with the older students on Mondays and the younger girls on Fridays. So I will now be at the middle school twice a week, every week. Much as we tried to explain what it is we want to do with these girls in this girls club, they are all still really confused, and quite frankly so are we as we figure out what to do. There is a female teacher who will be the chaperone and liaison for us. She is really great and motivated and she will be very helpful to me by speaking Wolof when I cant and also making things culturally relevant for them. Sometimes its hard for me to think these girls will take anything I say seriously when I have next to nothing in common with any of them. So my first "real" meeting is tomorrow after school and I will spend the morning in Thies meeting with potential work partners. One of these days I will also find time to get back to the youth library and keep working on that project. This should be a nice, busy week for me in Pout.

Golden Anniversary

This is my 50th blog posting, so for both of you that read it: congrats! Things are going well here in Senegal. Trying to get back into work at site has been a little frustrating after I got back from vacation because nothing happened while I was gone since I wasnt there to nag people into doing things. Oh well. I have since started going to the youth library every morning again and will continue to do so until what feels like the end of time, or until all 5000 books are entered. Whichever comes first. Havent gone to the middle school yet as classes are cancelled in preparation for the big cultural festival this weekend. There will be a huge party tomorrow night and I get the feeling its going to be the Senegalese equivalent of the prom. I am planning on going, but God only knows.

As I have very little work to do today, I came into Thies to hang out with Daniel and Chris for a little neighborly bonding. We cooked chili for lunch which was sooo good. Chris's host family tried it and didnt like it even though the Senegalese have a dish thats really similar called ndembe. In the words of Chris's host sister "it tastes good but I dont like it because I dont know it". That is the perfect way to summarize the Senegalese feeling towards any food that isnt Senegalese. That means anything. They eat cebb u jenn every single day for lunch and that is perfectly ok with them. Its really the only way to go about it. Introduce something else and it throws off the whole balance of things. The Senegalese are very comfortable with the familiar and its just interesting to see their attitudes in comparison to my American desire to try any and every type of new food I can. I love ethnic food and have really enjoyed getting to know Senegalese food, but I now understand that they do not want to know or appreciate my food in the same way.

My host family has requested hamburgers for dinner tomorrow night and I am going to cook them with fries, but I am hesitant about them liking it. I may very well end up eating all of the hamburgers by myself, which I know I can do after eight months in country.

St. Louis Jazz Festival

Just back from St. Louis (Senegal, not Missouri) where tere was a big internatioal jazz festival. Read all about it at www.saintlouisjazzfest.com. As Peace Corps Volunteers we couldnt afford to go to all of the formal shows which were kind of expensive to get in to, so we just played around on the beaches all day and then at night, after the official concerts were over, the bands headed out to the bars and EVERY bar in St. Louis had live music. Sometimes people in the bars would just step right up and join in on the guitar or drums. One drunken Mauritanian volunteer did some scat on the microphone and refused to give it back to the band, which was possibly the funniest thing about the whole weekend. Im not a huge jazz enthusiast but the music was really grea, there were loads of Peace Corps Volunteers from all over Senegal and from Mauritania, our friendly neighbors to the north, and it was a really great time. A great vacation.

I am now in Dakar where I am hanging out with my university student tha came to visit me last month and is headed back to America on Wednesday. Tomorrow I will head back to Pout, buy a big bag of mangoes, check in on my kitten who most likely has come down with cabin fever, and get back to work. I dont have any official work until Wednesday when I have a meeting at the middle school about my girls group and a computer course at the preschool. Then things will just kick back to the normal swing of things and it will probably feel like I never left.

In other exciting news, the new volunteers who got here in March swore in on Friday and are now in Dakar hanging out with us until they go to their sites next week. They are all pretty nervous about it. I remember those days. It appears that I am now a seasoned Peace Corps Volunteer and am expected to know stuff when the new kids ask about it. Hmmm.....didnt I just get here last week?

8 month anniversary in Senegal tomorrow, btw!! V. exciting

Business As Usual

In response to the questions, Ellie eats cat food I buy from the foreign import store and drinks milk. I gave her water instead last week and she stuck her nose up at it. My cat is a snob already. Oh well, so am I in some ways.

As far as work, the home interviews with the girls continue. I had my first one on Tuesday, one tonight and ten this weekend. It should be a long one but the first one went so well that I am looking forward to the rest of them. I dont know how I am going to narrow it down to four when they are all amazing!! I have been asking if they would be interested in forming a girls club and all signs point to yes, so tomorrow I am headed back to the school while the girls have class to talk to the principal about how I would go about getting sponsorship. I am very excited about this project.

I have spent two mornings this week at the youth library working on the inventory project. Two hours this morning and I only ended up entering 115 books. There are 5000. I will be there a lot in the next month. M. Diallo (the supervisor) is supposed to be entering book information in the afternoons when I am not there, but has not actually started yet. I will go check on him tomorrow. I will not do this alone. After all of the books information is in the database, we will use Access to check out the books and I will spend a week or so showing how to use and maintain the database. Should be fun after all of this horrible, tedious data entry is taken care of.

So thats how I spend my time. Sometimes (like right now) I take breaks to meet other volunteers in Thies for lunch and eat ice cream. I dont care how much weight Im gaining here, some things are just plain necessary to mental well being. Also, I am going to St. Louis next weekend for the international Jazz fest which I have heard really good things about and am super excited to get to go to. I will let you know how it turns out.

Am Na Beneen Muus, Quoi

In Wolof that means i have another cat. Lisa found a kitten at her house and I couldnt say no so no I have a roommate. Her name is Ellie, she is tiny and adorable and my host family is terrified of her. Senegalese, for the mostpart, HATE cats and my family is horrified that I have one living with me. I pretended to throw her at my host brother while he was making fun of me and he screamed like a little girl and ran. My host mother also ran and hid behind me when Ellie went to nuzzle up aginst her. So funny. I know I get a lot of people talking about me, but that happens anyway and now I have some company in the house.

Work is going really well at the moment. I finished the first round of interviews for the scholarship and these girls are aweomse!!! Next round of interviews next week...Still teaching various computer and english classes. More news about them when I have more time on the internet.

Moving On Up

After two joyfully miserable weeks, Ive recovered from this whole strep ordeal. Alhumdulillah as they say here in Senegal (praise be to God). In Dakar at the moment to do some work related stuff at the Peace Corps office here and to talk with my supervisors about my projects, but more importantly to celebrate Daniel (one of my closest neighbors and friends here) turning 23. Last night we made chili cheese burgers (which are a big deal for us pcvs and expensive to make). Erin and I made a double layer chocolate cake with a cream filling and fudge frosting. Yes, it tasted just as good as it sounds. Nothing like not being able to bake at site to make you want to do it. We made the first cake, which obviously didnt last very long, and when Kira got back she was really mad that we had made one without her so we made a second.

So Im just finishing things up here and then off to the garage to get a car home where I have work to do. I had to cancel all my meetings when I got sick and it was so disheartening. I am really looking forward to getting the ball rolling and actually having something to do besides lay in bed all day feeling sorry for myself. I am headed to the middle school to have a meeting with the girls that are eligible for the Michelle Sylvester scholarship program and am really looking forward to beginning that application process. There are 12 finalists from the school, 4 from each of three grades, and each will write an essay on what they want to do when they grow up and why. Then I will visit each of them at home and interview them and their family to see if their family supports them going to school and also to assess financial need. After the interviews I will pick the three finalists and send their information to Peace Corps in Dakar who will select the winner. I am looking forward to meeting the girls and getting to know them. I would love to start a girls club at the school, but one thing at a time. Right now, its time to go home.

In other exciting news, the mangoes have started coming and its glorious!! They are so beautiful and delicious and cheap! And my site is the heart of the Senegalese mango production. Hurrah!!

Visitors, Strep Throat and Other Fun Things

So its been awhile since Ive actually written anything on here and I apologize to both of you who read this regularly (dont think anyone else noticed). As you can see from the title a lot of fun has been going on down here in Senegal. I got back to site last Saturday and everything went really well. Ive been doing a lot of greeting and giving people their suriche (gifts) that I brought them from England. Everyone except for one person has been so excited and grateful and its gone really smoothly entering back into life here. I dont know what I was worried about.

Monday an American student studying abroad in Dakar for the semester showed up for a week long visit so that she could see what life was like elsewhere in Senegal and it went really well. She was super cool and we cooked a lot and I showed her around the town, we went to Thies for a day and to the beach at Popenguine. She had been told that she would be going to a small village with no electricity or running water and was kind of dreading the experience, so imagine her surprise when she shows up in my "village" of 25,000 with running water and electricity, then gets to my house where she gets her own room and I have my own shower. She wasnt prepared for all that Pout had to offer, but I think she had a good time. It was really nice to have a guest, especially one who has been in the country less time than I have, because I got to see just how far Ive come these last seven months. She was really impressed with my Wolof and I was flattered and thought, you know, my wolof really has improved.

Halfway through her visit I woke up with a really sore throat. One thing led to another and I had a full blown case of strep throat. Suck. Its kinda weird getting what I consider normal diseases here. You come prepared to face malaria and parasites, and then when you come down with the common cold youre a little surprised. I guess there are still ways that I myself am unprepared for life in this country. Moral of the story is that Ive spent the last 6 days in bed with my fan blowing on me drinking anything cold I can get my hands on and taking copious amounts of ibuprofen to deal with the pain. Getting sick here sucks. What I would give for a pint of Ben & Jerrys and a Law and Order Marathon. Oh well, at least I dont actually live in a village, right?

And Im Back

My vacation in England was perfect but like all good things, has finally come to an end. I arrived in Dakar at 3am Monday morning and have been hanging out here ever since. Tomorrow I will be attending a SED conference where all business volunteers in the Dakar region will get together to discuss the projects we are currently working on as well as how we can work together on future projects. It will be good to see everyone when they come in. The past few days have been spent watching movies back to back, eating the rest of the chocolate easter eggs Terrys mom sent back with me and trying to convince myself not to just turn around and head back to England. So far so good and I am planning on heading back to site on Friday, which Ive just discovered may be more difficult than I originally thought since tomorrow is the Senegalese Independence Day and everyone has the day off work. I am hoping for an overdedicated driver that will be heading in my direction....

I have ideas of work to be done when I get back to site, but no guarantee that anything will actually get done. I will let you know how things turn out.

Getting The Heck Out of Dodge

Since my previous journal entry Ive found several new projects to start working on, 40 new volunteers have arrived in country to start their service and are now in training and I celebrated my six month anniversary of arriving in Senegal on March 13. I cant believe how fast the time goes by, its been six months since I left the USA. This is the longest I have ever been away from home. Reaching this milemark makes you reflect on the time youve spent in country and Im happy. Im happy to be living in Senegal, I like my job, I like my friends, I like my town, in spite of its goofy name.

Now that Ive been here so long, its time for a vacation. I am the first person of the 38 volunteers I came in with to leave the country and I leave Wednesday to visit the boy in England for two weeks as well as see my parents for their week long vacation. I could not be more excited. In preparation for the trip I had fudin done, which is Senegalese henna, on my hands and feet. You can have orange or black and so now my hands and feet are black with various designs. Pictures to follow when I get my camera back next week. I like it; the Senegalese love it. Yesterday at the garage when I was catching a bus, random strangers kept walking up and grabbing my hands to admire the work. They look at it and clap their hands together and tell me that now I am Senegalese. Apparantly its that easy. A white person with Senegalese henna, its wonderful. I also had two little girls ask me for my henna. I am used to being asked for things here, but this seemed an odd request. I offered them my right hand and they giggled, I guess they were joking? I am still trying to figure the Senegalese sense of humor out. It may take the next eighteen months. Maybe I will never figure it out?

My (Mona's) Big Fat Senegalese Wedding

Maimouna, one of my friends here, is getting married tomorrow. Senegalese weddings all tend to be the same, and so I anticipate sitting around in plastic chairs being served amazing food, drinking tea and listening to music thats been turned up just one notch too loud. Two nights ago Fatou, Maimouna and I went around to lots of houses in the neighborhood inviting people. We walkted into a given compound, greeted everyone , mentioned the wedding on saturday, and then left. This is very un-Senegalese where everyone stays to talk , but I guess the protocol is a little different when weddings are concerned? I couldnt help but think of all the American couples who waste so much time and effort picking the perfect invitations, addressing them and sending them out months in advance and how much simpler this is. As I recall, everyone is coming, inshallah, or godwilling. Tomorrow morning I will get up early, put on my Senegalese complete, or skirt and top, and spend the whole day sitting and talking with my neighbors. Six months into service this task does not seem nearly so daunting as it did when I first got here and couldnt talk to anyone and didnt know what to expect. I am beginning to figure this out.

Back To Work

So Id been away from site for over a month and got back on Thursday night after three weeks of training and a week in Dakar for waist. I was sad to say goodbye to all the other volunteers, especially since I dont know the next time I will see some of them, and it very well may be at the end of our Peace Corps service, but also glad to get back to site where everybody knows my name. Literally. As I rode in my donkey cart back to my house, the children were running behind us yelling Aby Toubab!!! I just smiled and waved pretending I was in a parade. Whens the next time I will get to be in a parade, after all? Spent the weekend resting up and went to my first Catholic mass ever at the Keur Moussa monastery located 11 k from my house, which was really interesting. They dont use any organs, only drums and koras, traditional african instruments. The singing was beautiful and after service I bought some of the best grapefruit Ive ever had and some homemade goat cheese. The monks make so much money selling fruit and cheese that they dont need to take collection.

Monday morning I was up early and ready to work. A month of sitting around thinking up ideas and I was ready to be productive. Made a list of 13 things to do/people to see to look into doing some projects and went to my supervisors office 1st thing only to be told that he was headed to Touba for the Grand Magal de Touba 2008, which is a religious pilgrimage for the Mouride muslims, one of Senegals denominations or brotherhoods, and so were a lot of people. They get back Wednesday but will be tired, so its probably best if I wait until next week to get work done. So much for productivity. Argh. This is an excellent example of one of a Peace Corps Volunteers biggest challenges: Trying to do work in Senegal at an American pace. Things here go much more slowly and religious holidays (for both Christians and Muslims) are strictly observed. No questions asked. Im learning to slow myself down, but its frustrating as hell. Also, On the way home yesterday stopped by the market to pick up some food for dinner and they moved it. I leave Pout for one month and they move the whole freaking market on me. Finally found it, but still. Life is full of surprises these days.

Spent the rest of the day catching up on reading, which is apparantly what I will be doing all this week. Just finished Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and I would highly recommend it to all. Its a bit hoakily written, but such a good, uplifting story of excellent, sustainable development work. Check it out at www.threecupsoftea.com. Next book: King Leopolds Ghost about King Leopold IIs reign of terror in the Congo at the turn of the century. This ones going to be a bit depressing. Btw, if you know of any good books, send them to me. I read a lot and good books are always appreciated here in Peace Corps Senegal.

West African Invitational Softball Tournament

...has been awesome. We had four games, won 3 and lost 1 and didnt make it to playoffs but had so much fun. The team that won was actually a group of Senegalese. Yes thats right, the Americans have been beaten at our own game. There were Peace Corps teams from 6 west African countries (Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Guinea, Benin and the Gambia) and it was so good to meet volunteers from other countries. Were all living the dream, you know. :) Over the weekend we ate a ridiculous amount of hotdogs, m&ms, doritos and other amazing food that none of us ever get any other time of year. Ok, maybe the Dakar regions volunteers do (thats me), but some of these other kids (and countries) are seriously deprived.

During the tournament two other volunteers and I have been staying with a lovely host family that feeds us amazing food, lets us use their laundry machine, their internet and watch American tv so that we even got to watch an episode of this seasons American Idol. That was a hug deal, I am just sad its the only one I will have the opportunity to watch, so keep me posted!!!

All is well in Dakar and I head back to site tomorrow, which I am ready for after almost a month away. I have several projects to look into as I kill the next four weeks until my vacation so I am really looking forward to it. Life is good.

Killing Time Until WAIST

So this is the last week of training here in Thiès. Today we had Wolof all day and now my second round of language training is over, so I guess linguistically speaking, I am trained. Funny, it doesnt feel that way. I am very comfortable speaking basic Wolof with people in the market and whatnot, but it is definately my third language and I have so much left to learn. The rest of this week will be spent doing technical training such as learning how to write grants to apply for funds for our projects and work with AIDS.

The most important part of training for the volunteers is getting to hang out with each other and we went to Mbour, a tourist town on the coast, to hang out last weeked. 24 hours of beach bumming and a sunburn later, headed back to Thiès. Today after work we went to the local artisinal village to see what they had. Personally I wanted to see what my options were for souvenirs for my upco,ing vacation to England. BTW, if you have any requests, please make them.

In other exciting news, I have been asked to work with a local NGO after I finish training working with IT training in the region, which will give me a sense of purpose as I pursue other projects. I am very excited about the work. In still more exciting news, I received care packages from mom and the Bradfords today. Could not be happier with my goodies. The m and ms have been given to other volunteers, the godiva however is being hoarded. Care packages are ALWAYS appreicated, hint hint. Ideas for those of you who need them:

Any magazines
Flavors for drinking water
Hersheys anything
Mac and Cheese
Ramen Noodles
Spices or seasonings
Anything American and good (which is everything)

Hope that helps.

Le SuperBowl

So for those of you who were concerned, worry no more, I did watch the Superbowl. Live. There is a really nice hotel in Thies where the volunteers are having out traning that let us rent out a room and we showed up at 12:30am to watch the kickoff. There were of course no nachos, chicen wings, or even food. The whole thing was horribly dubbed in French, so each touchdown resulted in an ooh lala!! Cetait tellement magnifique!! There were also no commercials, but yet again I live in Africa and I was just happy to get to watch the super bowl. The hotel also set up mats for us so we could sleep until time to leave for work the next morning. You could tell at training who had watched the super bowl by who had fallen asleep in class. Good times.

Training continues. Its so awaesome to see everyone and weve organized several capture the flag games at the training center which has been fun. My new host family that I am staying with as the first one didnt really work out is really nice, I think, I never really see them as I am normally out with other volunteers or in my room asleep. Celebrate my five month anniversary in Senegal next week. Cant believe it. Life continues to be amazing.

IST

So Im back in Thies for training and its really good to see everyone. Today has actually kind of sucked in that I gave a presentation and as most of the people I work with have just started studying french, no one understood me, so I got no class participation and was really dissapointed in it. Josh made faces at me and made me laugh during the presentation, so I felt stupid. Also, walking home from work today a middle school aged boy threw a rock at me and I flipped out. I ran after him and yelled at him for a good five minutes in wolof about how dare he, I live here, I work here, Im white but I have feelings and whatnot, then I got in a taxi and cried. I was really upset. How mean is that? I dont expect that in Thies where there are loads of white people. He apologized but I was mad as hell. I suppose my language teacher would be impressed at my wolof language yelling skills?

I have a new host family here and they seem really nice. I dont see them that often as I go out after work everyday with the other volunteers and only see them for dinner before going to bed early as I have to be up at 6:30 to go back to training. We have class from 8:00am to 5:30pm and this week its all business, literally. More news as it happens.

Ten Weeks

I cant believe that I have been at site ten weeks!! They say that in the Peace Corps, the days are slow but the months are fast. Its true. This past week has been somewhat eventful in that I have been visiting and meeting people in the community. Of course I have to explain to them all that I will be leaving soon for a month to finish up my training in Thies. But I will come back, Im sure of it. I really like my site. Sure its ugly, but the people are soo kind and wonderful and there is good work to be done. I hope.

Tonight is American night at my house and I am cooking spaghetti for my host family. I hope they like it. If not, thats just plain un American. Everyone loves spaghetti. It is doubling as a going away party for me. I am having some volunteers over for girls night on Saturday and then Sunday we all move back to Thies for three weeks of training. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone again. There will be some good stories, I am sure of it.

Other than that life here is blissfully uneventful.

Tamxarit

...is the name of the muslim new year, which was yesterday. Last night my family and I ate Senegalese couscous (sand in disguise) with a meat and bean sauce, which is the only option for dinner on tamxarit. People had been telling me all week about it. On Friday Aby, you will see, you will have Senegalese couscous. for dinner with your family. Senegalese couscous is hard work and preparations for the meal began on Monday with women pounding whatever it is they pound to make this stuff in big pestles and mortars.

After dinner, the festivities begin. PCVs call it cross dressing night, similar to halloween. Little boys dress in pagnes and little girls wear the traditional boys boubous and they run around banging drums in courtyards for sugar, rice, candles or anything else white that happens to be lying around. Money is also kindly accepted, of course. The toubabs house (mine) is a very popular destination and I walked out of my shower wrapped in my towel to eight little faces peering in my screens. They had stopped banging the drums and I thought they left. Almost dropped my towel in fear and screamed. Little things scared the hell out of me!!!

In other news, came into Thies today to grab more oatmeal (my lastest food obsession. How did I not appreciate and eat more of this stuff in the states? Ill never know) from the foreign import store and on the way walked past a parade of horse drawn carts all carrying small children dressed up. The little boys had shaving cream on their faces as beards and eyebrows and little girls were wearing pretty traditional clothes and jewelry. I suppose today they return to their own gender again.

African Cup of Nations starts tomorrow in Ghana. Allez les lions de la teranga!!

Life Is Good

Life here in Peace Corps Senegal is full of ups and downs. I spend every day torn between romantic Peace Corps moments, like pounding millet in the biggest pestal and mortar that I have ever seen with my host mom and two other women (and being laughed at the whole time for doing so like a sissy), and wanting to just pack up and go home. Recently, things have been going really well.

As far as my new years resolutions are coming, I have been keeping myself busy teaching computer literacy classes, attending trainings on costing and accounting practices and visiting meetings of local womens groups, where they always want to stop talking business and share their secrets on how to seduce men. This is done, as I am told, by wearing "petite pagnes" (Senegalese undergarments); using incense and wearing bin-bins (beaded jewelry worn around the waist). They love nothing more than letting me in on these secrets and listing every eligible bachelor they know of. One of these days we will talk about work, I hope.

In other news, after the womens group meeting last night went to a party for a local man who just returned from Mecca. This is a huge deal. HUGE. Every muslim that can afford it (which arent many here in Senegal) is to make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime. This was this guys year. As we walked up to the house they were slaughtering the biggest bull Ive seen, which must have cost a fortune, but I guess if you can afford a trip to Mecca... the entire courtyard was filled with food and I sat in his living room watching him receive guests, all of whom were hugging and congratulating him and asking him to pray over them. Like I said, huge honor and big deal. Now that he has been to Mecca the man gets to change his name to El Hadj, which literally means the pilgrimage and distinguishes him as having gone. The festivities are going on all day today as well. I went this morning but am having some other volunteers over for dinner so wont be able to go back. This morning I was offered a shotglass size golden cup of something to drink and told it came from Mecca so I drank it, and it was just water. I think I drank Muslim holy water. I took it like a shot but other people were rubbing it on their hands and face in addition to drinking it. Hmmmm, Ill have to ask about that.

Greetings and Salutations

It has recently occurred to me that I post an awful lot of what I do and not so much about the Senegalese culture that I am struggling to learn. As things become more normal for me here I tend not to notice them anymore, which I suppose is a good sign, but then they never come up.

So instead of talking about the amazing chinese restaurant Chris found in Dakar last night (its hard to get anything other than Senegalese food of hamburgers here, so this is a big deal), I will talk a little about greetings. Greetings in Senegal are a big deal. Everyone greets everyone, all the time. Every time you see someone, you start of on this long list of greetings, regardless of whether you just saw them at the market a few hours ago. The other day I walked out of my house and told the maid I was going to the market and she yelled at me for not properly greeting her. She was totally right, it was rude of me not to. Greetings depend somewhat on who you are greeting, but there is a basic fomat that you run through.

Person A: Asalaa malekum (Arabic for I greet you all in peace)
Person B: Malekum Salaam (ditto)
A: How are you?
B: I am here.
A: How is the family?
B: They are there.
A: How is the cold? (recently as it has been getting down to 60 here)
B: It is cold.
A: How is everything?
B: Its going.
A: Praise be to God.

Then you reverse the greetings. There are hundreds of variations of course and everyday I run into a new greeting that I dont know how to answer. When I get home today from Dakar everyone will ask how Dakar is and how my weekend was. Then they will ask what presents I brought them and I will pretend not to understand.

Happy 2008

The rest of my vacation was really great. Spent a few days visiting the volunteer in Dagana and then went over to St. Louis to celebrate New Years with other volunteers. It was really good to see everyone and St. Louis is the most beautiful city in Senegal. Our hotel was right on the beach and we played around all day and then went out dancing at nights. Super fun, but exhausting and its good to be back at site. I got home yesterday and my host family made a really big deal about me coming home, which made me feel loved. I suppose I had been gone awhile.

New years resolutions:
1. Become more opinionated (Ive become horribly passive here)
2. Work
3. Dont get fat (Im hesitant to say lose weight, as Im not sure I have the motivation to do that here)

So we will see if any of these work out. Happy 2008 to all and heres to a good year!