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...
7.14.2008
7.10.2008
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.
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.
6.26.2008
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.
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.
6.18.2008
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.
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.
6.06.2008
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.
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.
6.03.2008
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.
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.
5.25.2008
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.
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.
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