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.
10.13.2008
10.04.2008
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.
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.
9.28.2008
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.
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.
8.18.2008
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.
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.
8.10.2008
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!!!
"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!!!
8.07.2008
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.
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.
8.01.2008
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.
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.
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