KO In Senegal

So Long Senegal!

2011-07-17T11:00:00.002-01:00

I had always thought about joining the Peace Corps but, it took until the summer before my senior year of college to realize that a corporate job was not what I wanted for post-graduation: I wanted a little adventure and I wanted to push myself.

I ended up submitting my application in September 2008 and, over the course of almost a year, worked towards THE PEACE CORPS. I have to believe several people, myself included, weren't sure if I was actually going to end up spending two years in a developing country, but I went through the application process. There was no way I could have understood what Peace Corps would actually be then but here I am, an RPCV (returned peace corps volunteer) with a complete service behind me. There really is no experience like Peace Corps - I've hit some of the lowest lows but I can't tell you how great the highs are. Work projects have failed, I've been harassed, and several days have passed when I just wanted to give up. I've also done more than I thought I could, have made some amazing friends, and have really experience part of the world in a way just visiting wouldn't do.

There's nothing like being a Peace Corps volunteer. If you're thinking about joining, I would recommend it. As much as I hate to admit it but all of the cheesy promotional sayings about Peace Corps are true - it's going to be possibly one of the most difficult times in my life, but I've loved it.

703 days after I left Chicago I'll be returning. Thank you everyone for reading my blog and following this adventure. Thanks Peace Corps and Senegal for giving me two truly unforgettable years.

So long!

Goodbye Bambey

2011-07-17T09:18:00.006-01:00

Because it was my last morning in Bambey, I got up before sunrise yesterday to give myself some time and to enjoy the last few hours of this part of my life. I finished cleaning my room, swept one last time, packed all of my electronics away, and showered - by the time everything was ready the car that I had rented was there to pick me up. He driver was only a few minutes early but I couldn't help feeling like it was too soon. Before I go on, let me say that, regardless of the emotions I had while leaving - I am still extremely excited and ready to go home.

Back to Bambey: the driver and Miss helped me take my bags (2 suitcases, 3 rice sacks full of trash) out to the car. It was still fairly early so only the women and my host dad were awake. First I said goodbye to Aisha, Khady's mom. We were both pretty teary-eyed but we managed to keep it together for our left handshake (which, in Wolof, is symbolic that the handshake isn't "completed" or "right" so you have to go back and finish it, in other words, it's a "this isn't goodbye" sort of goodbye). Next to Aisha was my host mom and the second we made eye contact we both started crying. It might seem ridiculous but I really do feel like we're family so saying goodbye to her and not knowing if I will see her again was hard. The rest of the goodbyes with my host family were all a teary blur; my host dad offered a prayer for my safe return back and the driver set off. I feel like emotions are normally fairly mixed: you're sad yet anxious, you're angry and frustrated, etc. but yesterday morning was just sad. It was just raw, pure sad. Yes, like I said, I'm very excited to come home but I wasn't thinking about that while I was saying goodbye to what has been my home for two years.

It took about 45 minutes to get from Bambey to Alyssa's house in Thies. We loaded her bags in the car when the driver told me that we had too much baggage for what he and I had negotiated - we needed to pay him more. I LOST it and just snapped at him, "we're leaving our Senegalese families today, the people we've lived with for two years, and we don't know when we'll ever see them again and YOU'RE ASKING ME FOR MORE MONEY?!" I think my outburst scared him enough and he didn't mention it further. While Alyssa said goodbye to her host family I hid in the car - I couldn't deal with another crying Senegalese mom. After leaving Alyssa's, before leaving Thies, the driver stopped to pick something up. I got out and started taking my trash bags out of the car. The drive came and was EXTREMELY confused but we explained it to him and he decided we should wait until we were out of town to dump my trash. A few kilos out of Thies we stopped so I could get rid of the bags:

Sure I might have set some Peace Corps Volunteer's project back several years by dumping trash on the road but at least my replacement won't have to get rid of it and my host family won't go through it. After the trash dump we continued to Pout to get Jackie. This pick-up aws exactly like Alyssa's - we loaded her bags then hid from the crying families.

Once we started on the road out of Pout our normal rented sept-place became the PARTY PLACE! Alyssa popped open one of our bottles of champagne (that had been hanging out in Jackie's fridge) out the car window while Jackie pulled out special bucket/cups, decorated with American stickers, and I got an American playlist playing. We toasted to our two years and to the ridiculousness of it all. The trip into Dakar didn't take too long - just a few hours and we only got lost once.

In Dakar we grabbed burgers from the place next to the regional house and tackled the repacking of our suitcases. Alyssa and I had things to redistribute and we all had lots of things in our lockers at the regional house. Because there are several people leaving this week the house is just an explosion of bags. There's almost no room for walking because everyone has so much stuff. Add to that one of the hottest days we've had in a while and you get a slow afternoon.

Once the bags had been repacked we all just hung out in the backyard of the house where it's always the coolest. Eventually we cleaned up and went to a friend's apartment for some cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Even though the day was very emotionally overwhelming it was nice to just sit with friends and talk.

Today we're hanging out at the Peace Corps office so we have internet and because there isn't much to do in Dakar when it's raining like it is today. Later tonight we'll have some sort of celebratory dinner and then, around 2am, Alyssa, Matt, and I head to the airport for the PARTY PLANE back home.

I'm hoping to get one final blog posted tonight so keep a look out.

KO

Goodbyes

2011-07-15T20:38:00.002-01:00

Today was my last day in Bambey. Tomorrow a car picks me up drive on to get Alyssa, then Jackie, then we're off to Dakar. I can't believe it's the end. Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited to get home but I just can't believe that it's been two years and that my Peace Corps Service - a block of time I've been talking about and thinking about for almost three years now... is done. This part of my life has two days left on it then it's on to the next thing, whatever that ends up being.

Yesterday I went around town saying my final goodbyes to some of my work partners. I also had a little last minute business to wrap up, securing my replacement a counterpart, and then I needed to pack. I was taught to pack in piles, which, in Onyshko speak, usually means a pile to pack and a pile to throw out.... in my current life it means a pile pack for home, a pile to pack then unpack and give to specific volunteers, a pile to pack then unpack for the general free-for-all volunteer closet, a pile for my host family, a pile of things to leave for my replacement, and a pile of trash. Add Khady coming to my room and constantly moving things and you get quite a hectic time, but it's almost done. All I have left to do tomorrow morning is pack my electronics, sweep, and lock the trunk for my replacement.

Today I said goodbye to Matar and gave him the Peace Corps shirt my training group made. It's dorky and probably too small for him but he has my ancienne's so I thought it would be nice if he had mine too. That was a hard goodbye but I know that nothing will be as hard as saying goodbye to my family.

Tonight they made me beans for dinner because they're my favorite. One of the kids saw it and said, "beans? ugh? really? we're eating beans? whhhyyyy?" and the three women responded "because Fatou loves them and it's her last night!" It was so nice that they did that for me. My host mom also made me a care package of my favorite Senegalese things to take back home. Adji (the 12 year old) will be in summer school tomorrow when I leave so I had to say goodbye to her today... we were both crying by the end of it so I know that tomorrow I'm going to be a mess. Normally my philosophy on goodbyes is that you're either good enough friends you'll see them again or you're not really friends so you shouldn't cry. My host family really is the exception to that rule. They've become a second family to me and I want to see them again but I don't know when it will be, who will be around, all of that. It's just going to be sad but to come home I have to say goodbye.

So! Tomorrow I leave Bambey. I'm going to try and blog at least once more from Dakar, hopefully in that sitting I'll have two blogs to post. Happy Friday everyone.

KO

Passing the Torch

2011-07-12T22:14:00.002-01:00

Yesterday was the last day of de-myst/volunteer visit and the Thies Region decided to celebrate 4 generations of volunteers in style. The Thies region didn't really exist, or at least not in its current strong form, until my group came along. We started organizing lunches in Thies and followed our social gathering with work projects: collaborations and the girls' camp. Top this off with shirts and an appreciation for the finer things in Senegal and you get the current Thies region.

So! To introduce our replacements into this high class living style as well as to their new besties (or at least their newest neighbors), we organized a little get-together. Everyone from the region met at Warang, a liquor distillery, for a tasting of liquors made with local flavors (bissap, ginger, cashew apple, etc.) followed by lunch at a beach front restaurant. The lunch place is FAMOUS for their pizzas, apparently some of the best in Senegal, but somehow their wood burning pizza oven was broken and irreparable (even by a specialist brought in from France), so we had pasta instead. Originally we were supposed to get rice, chicken, and onion sauce but, given that Alyssa and I have PROUDLY gone 2 years without paying for Senegalese food outside of our houses, we weren't going to let that slide. I called to organize alternative options. We settled on two pasta options; I asked for 11 of one and 11 of the other... instead we each got a plate with, from left to right, sauce 1 (carbonara), pasta, sauce 2 (bolognaise)... it was a little odd but kind of brilliant at the same time. After lunch I took my last public transport ride back to site and here I am. I need to spend my final two days packing and saying goodbye to people but I can't help but stall. It's bizarre for the end to actually be almost here. I really can't believe that what has seemed so mundane for two years is the end - I'm trying to remember everything. I need to get a little more packing done tonight but I'll leave you with a picture of the Thies/Dakar region, past, present, and future.

The Beginning and The End

2011-07-09T18:50:00.004-01:00

I got up bright and early this morning to leave the training center for the last time. I wasn't traveling alone on this trip, I was accompanying my replacement, Stanzi, to see her new home. She and I will be in Bambey until Tuesday touring around a really just enjoying all that there is to offer. It is exciting and encourages a lot of retrospection on my part. I remember seeing Bambey for the first time and, simultaneously, the city looked unique and indistinguishable from what I'd already seen of Senegal. I remember all of the questions I had so I'm trying to preempt them or at least answer them as well as I can. I honestly seems like just yesterday when I walked from my new house, down the main street, met Matar for the first time, and continued into town. I can't believe that my two years are up and that this is now Stanzi's new house, my old house; her first time meeting Matar, one of my last times with him.

Today we did a basic walking tour just so she could start orienting herself. We walked through the market to visit my vegetable lady while causing quite a scene the entire time (two Americans! Ridiculous!). At one point several women gathered round to exclaim how amazing it was that I was Kira (my ancienne volunteer)'s replacement and I was standing next to my replacement! Shocking! Amazing! SO MANY GENERATIONS OF VOLUNTEERS! Every vendor we've seen has also made sure that I told Stanzi she should shop with them.

We also visited Matar and I showed her all of the different designs. It seems like she has a ton of great ideas already - I'm so excited to see how the artisan network and Matar's product line grows!

Most importantly of the day was her introduction and interactions with the family. We walked in and there was a huge to-do because she was here, I'd come back from a long trip, and Awa (my host sister who was studying in Algeria) came back and I saw her for the first time today. She needed a Senegalese name so I told my host family and my host mom and dad thought about it. They finally suggested Khady because they know how close I am to the little Khady already in my house. After deciding that it wouldn't be too confusing to have two "Khady Falls" in the house, Stanzi got her new name! At the time, little Khady wasn't home but I was anxious to see how she would react to the new toubab that I had promised her. She was definitely shocked that the new toubab was here and was actually a real person. I think it took her even more by surprise when she learned that they shared the exact same name. Throughout the course of the day, however, little Khady went from being abnormally shy to her normal, sassy, bossy self. By this evening she was taking turns climbing all over Stanzi and I. I'm really happy that my host family seems to excited and welcoming of Stanzi. I had a feeling they would be but it's great to see that my replacement will be well taken care of for her two years.

One last thing, I had my last girls' group meeting today with the core group of girls and boy was that sad. It was really exciting to introduce them to Stanzi and to listen to them talk about what they want to do with her next year. Salamata (my favorite) even came early and gave me a pair of shoes which is so unbelievable nice, especially considering how poor her family is. She and I didn't have a ton of time to talk but she told me that her sister asked her dad if Salamata could live with and work for her sister for the summer. I'm a little worried that she won't be able to come back to school but she seems to think she will - I hope she's right. Saying goodbye to my little group of girl scouts was sad. They haven't been my largest project but they've become like members of my Senegalese family. I was getting a little choked up when thanking them for helping me and being so kind and welcoming to me.

But! Enough about today from my perspective... you should all go to Stanzi's blog (www.scatteringthemorningdew.tumblr.com) and read about her first Bambey day.

Relationships

2011-07-08T13:53:00.003-01:00

Over the past two years I've seen a lot of growth in a lot of my relationships. I've been so impressed with everyone.

I came to Peace Corps with several really amazing friends from college and from high school. Though I was a little worried about how they would fare, two years is a long time, but I have been so impressed and thankful for how these relationships have changed over the past two years. I've had friends that I already loved dearly show me so much support through packages, letters, emails, phone calls, and even visits. There have been friends that I feel like I have actually grown closer to during these two years. I think I said this a while ago but I am constantly impressed with how much effort my friends, including women from my sorority, have put into staying in touch. I really cannot thank all of you enough for everything you've done during the past two years. On my worst days you listened to be complain about things that were a world away and not related to you, you've let me escape from Senegal with news from home, and you've really shown that the line between friends and family often blurs in a beautiful way.

Not only have I really been impressed by my friends from home, but I seriously never expected to make the strong friendships that I've found in Peace Corps. All of the volunteers are so helpful and accepting but I have found such a good, close group of friends I am sure we will stay in contact. They've also helped me through some of the lowest points in my service and they've been there to celebrate the high points. We've had a really reciprocal relationship so I'm pretty sure they know how integral they have been to my service - thanks toubabs!

I wish I had more to write about how supportive Alan has been during my service but I really am speechless. I know anything I say won't appropriately explain how amazing he has been with letters, packages, coming to visit, and spending a ton of money to call me almost every night on Skype or Google Voice. I really feel like our relationship has grown in depth exponentially.

This brings me to my family. Oh man, what do I say. My parents have sent me a small grocery store of packages that has really pulled me through my service. They've come to visit and put up with the tortures of Senegal that I put them through. They've always been so supportive and encouraging - it sounds so simple but it really has made my service easier. Beyond just the support of my parents, my extended family has really shown how strong a family can be - even a family that's spread around the country. Every email, call, or conversation we've had has really made me feel the great Onyshko/Pulley network.

Everyone who has read my blog and been part of these two years have put so much work into my service that I really cannot thank you enough. It might seem very simple, but even just being an audience to my stories has made a positive impact on my service. Thank you all so much for the support and the love you've given over the past two years. It really has meant a lot and it's made my Peace Corps service easier.

KO

PS: Tomorrow I'll write more about my replacement as she visits Bambey for the first time - I'm excited to see Bambey again for the first time through her eyes!

Changes

2011-07-08T13:51:00.001-01:00

Two years is a fair amount of time - so here's a list of some of the things that have changed:

-I can wear black and brown at the same time. I would NEVER wear any black at all with any brown at all... until I came to Peace Corps when clothing became more about "keeping me cool" then "looking cool."

-I now eat onions and mustard. Didn't before, do now.

-I enjoy working with youth.

-I have an awesome gag reflex. Sure when I came here I had pretty good control of my gag reflex (I think that comes from growing up with bad dogs who poop in the house) but now, many, most nasty smells and disgusting things only trigger a grimace.
-My confidence with French has really improved.

-I think I'm impervious to awkward. Seriously, just about every second of my day is awkward so I'm kind of just over it now. (No, this is not a challenge)
-I am a lot more patient.
-My "camp fire cooking" ability has really expanded. I have several recipes to pull from that are all one pot, one knife, and cooked over a fire/gas.

-Speaking of fire... I've cooked over fire, charcoal, and gas.

-I can light a gas stove, though I'm still afraid of it.
-I'm outstanding at killing bugs, especially mosquitoes.
In just a few hours my replacement will know they're going to Bambey and I'm sure I'll have a lot to write about her three day visit to Bambey over this weekend. I keep saying this, but keep watching for more blogs posted - maybe even a second today.

American Holidays Celebrated Internationally

2011-07-05T11:44:00.001-01:00

I hope everyone had an amazing holiday this past weekend! The Fourth of July has always been a fun holiday but I’ve really come to appreciate it even more living here (yes, I realize that sounds a little ironic).

Saturday morning April (the volunteer that lives 25km east of me) rented me a place in a sept-place to pick me up on the way to Thies. She planned on leaving around 8am but called me around 7:20am to tell me she was leaving the garage… I quickly threw a ton of stuff in my bag and jumped in the shower. In 20 minutes I was locking my door and on the way out. It usually takes me about 5 minutes to walk to the road - where April was meeting me – but I was about 3 minutes late. April, and her car of Senegalese people were waiting for me so I took off running. Sure I’ve picked up running since being here but I’ve never taken an early morning jog in normal clothes, sandals, with a full hiking backpack and carrying a purse with my computer. According to April, I came running up to the car, opened the back door, and immediately offered a winded “Saalamaalikum” greeting. April and I were the first people in Thies and got out of the car just as the dashboard started smoking. Eventually we met the other 6 people in our party and left for the beach!

For this holiday weekend (America and Tamar’s birthdays) we decided to try a new beach. We rented rooms at a hotel that we thought had been recommended by volunteers but no one could remember the name so we just went based on the prices of the rooms. It turns out we had made an excellent decision and we ended up in a hobbit like/medieval castle/stone fortress/monastery hotel on the beach. We spent most of the weekend eating crepes and lounging at the beach and in the water. We all got a little burned but it was helpful in evening out all of our tan lines that are quite stark from two years of walking around under the African sun with our knees covered.

Yesterday morning we left to go to Dakar to celebrate the Fourth. I decided that, in honor of the birthday for the greatest country ever, I would get a high-five for all 235 years of America. That started early in the morning and has continued all day. It’s included many high-fives over the phone, including 11 from Alan and his friends celebrating in New York. The traffic on the way into Dakar was HORRIBLE but eventually we made it to the regional house. We quickly threw in a load of laundry and washed the soot and exhaust from the ride before heading to the American club. There was a big barbeque so we all got to eat burgers for the Fourth. Because all of the US Embassy workers have a more formal event in the evening, the day barbeque was aimed at kids… which explains the CREEPY Senegalese clowns. Seriously. I thought normal clowns were unsettling but Senegalese clowns are really creepy. One point of their act included balancing kids high in the air above concrete – horrifying.

After burgers, we the 8 volunteers went downtown to run a few errands and eat ice cream. Alyssa, April, and I hit a GOLDMINE at a bead store. We found two amazing Senegalese guys who sell big strings of beads. Usually, artists like Alyssa’s jewelry maker, buy a strand of beads and make several necklaces using a few of these beads as focal point beads. As people who cannot pass up interesting jewelry, the three of us spent a while in the store creating different combinations and eventually purchasing a ton. Here’s what volunteers having too much fun with beads looks like:

With new necklaces in hand, we went to N’Ice Cream – the ice cream store – to continue our celebration of America through food: Obama Cookie Ice Cream. YUM!

After ice cream we met back the rest of our crew at the regional house to begin making dinner. Let me add a quick disclaimer that, though it sounds like all we do is eat, and though we do eat a lot of food, it takes a lot of time to travel so between ice cream and starting to cook it was maybe an hour or so. We made a delicious, America dinner with many thanks to my mom for sending us the key ingredient: Velveeta. If you combine Velveeta with bacon and macaroni you get an addicting, amazing, dinner. For a third time today – amazing. Dinner was followed by a viewing of The American President.

For the next few days I’ll be in Dakar doing close of service things. The plan is to be totally done before I head to Thies on Thursday. Here’s hoping it all works and everything gets done!

I promised more retrospective blogs and I’ll try and get those going!

KO

And when I come back...

2011-07-02T05:56:00.002-01:00

Most of the volunteers are down in Kedougou celebrating America but, because I have to be in the office on Tuesday, I'm sticking around the Dakar area. We're trying out a new beach town slightly north of the place we usually go. For the 4th I'll, hopefully, be at the bbq in Dakar. If that doesn't happen, however, several volunteers have the back up plan of a "donut party" because what's more American than fried food.

I'll spend about a week out of site and when I come back next week it will be with my replacement! The end is really approaching quickly. I have 16 days left in country, and only 6 of them are left in Bambey. I really need to up the retrospective blogging so I will try and post Tuesday.

Have an amazing 4th! Eat a burger or some very American chips and dip for all the Peace Corps volunteers trying to celebrate it internationally!

KO

Senegalese Women

2011-06-26T09:46:00.004-01:00

I cannot tell you enough how amazing Senegalese women are. Seriously. They are so impressive.

All of the women in my host family, I feel, really represent a different aspect of the badassness of Senegalese women. My host mom runs the entire house - which is currently 3 families in 1 house. She coordinates all of our meals, the cleaning schedule, she buys all of the food, she makes presents for her kids living outside of Bambey, she handles most of the household's bills, and she somehow seems to know everyone and everything that's going on in the neighborhood. Oh, also, she never seems to be in a bad mood - ever. She's always jolly and happy even though she gets up at 5am, doesn't go to sleep until 11pm, and is doing manual work 80% of her day. She's awesome.

Aisha is a single mom raising her two kids in her husband's parents house. She helps with the house work while managing Khady and helping Adji with her schoolwork - even though she doesn't speak much French. She was the first person to really joke with me but not in the normal mean way, just joke about the way I say things (which isn't as mean as it sounds).

Miss is a whole different kind of impressive that I have come to appreciate more the more time I spend with her. Sure she lives in my house and no one is ever not nice to her, but her husband (who's actually related to my host family) lives in Dakar and she only gets to see him about 7 days a month. They've been trying to have kids for a few years now and she is really trying to remain positive through all of those challenges. Her family lives in Bambey but she rarely sees them because she spends so much time doing housework here. Recently, she and I have started joking and she always has been really nice to me in the kitchen... the normal Senegalese reaction is to make fun of my inability to do something (cook ceeb u jen, clean a fish, etc.) but she has always tried to teach me and give me simple tasks that I can do so I can help.

Mairame and Ndeye Diop spend most of their days in school and when they get home they help cook and clean, then do all of their homework. Now that Mairame is studying for the BAC (end of high school exam) she studies almost the entire day and into the night, sometimes morning (the national passage rate is about 10% and you can't finish high school until you pass it). They are really an example of a generation struggling the divide between modern and traditional women's roles.

Adji and Khady are still young but they often, Adji especially, help with housework and run errands for different family members. Adji does the same school work that the male students do but spends more time doing chores around the house - all while staying ahead of most of her class.

I always have an underlying appreciation for the women in my host family. But occasionally they do something particularly impressive just to remind me how cool they are. A few days ago I heard pounding outside my window and went to check it out.

They were making a peanut butter/sugar/chocolate snack that requires pounding all of the ingrediants with this HUGE mortar and pestle. In the picture Adji is doing it but Miss did most of the work. Take my word for it, the pestle is heavy - it's solid wood and several feet tall. I could do it for a few minutes but Miss was doing her thing for about 20 or 30 minutes. In some houses women do this every day to prepare millet for dinner.

Anyway you see it - Senegalese women are impressive.

KO

Protests in Dakar

2011-06-23T19:52:00.002-01:00

I don't know how much of a splash this made in American news but there have been large, violent riots in most of the regional capitals in Senegal. I'm alright - I didn't see anything in Bambey today - and as far as I can tell, my friends are also all safe. The protests were over a change to the constitution that the President ended up withdrawing because of the reaction.

I don't really want to comment on my blog other than to say we're fine and I think Peace Corps has handled this situation really well. I know Peace Corps internationally has been hit hard for their safety practices so I think this is a good time to say that all I know if Peace Corps Senegal and, from what I've seen and how they responded today, I feel safe.

Here are some articles about the riots and constitution changes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13895089

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/23/us-senegal-protests-idUSTRE75M6G020110623

http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/23/6925742-protests-erupt-over-constitution-changes-in-senegal

Khady

2011-06-19T10:53:00.003-01:00

Almost every afternoon Khady comes up to my room to play with paperdolls that my friend Katie brought when she visited. Once Khady got bored of the paperdolls' clothing (they're Disney Princess dolls, by the way) I started tracing the dresses on white paper and letting her color her own designs.

She usually gets through about 3 dresses before she gets bored and starts wandering around my room. Now it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's seen any room I've lived in but there's quite a lot of crap here. Add into that the fact it took me a year to figure out how to get rid of trash and you have a treasure trove for a 5 year old. After she colors, she usually finds something interesting and plays with that:

Yesterday she and her sister (the 12 year old) were up here coloring when Khady found a drink packet on my desk. I have a million Crystal Lite like packets and she found a bright pink raspberry lemonade packet. I told her it was to put in your water and she started ripping it open... she then ate the sugary drink mix like a pixie stick. I was disgusted and I let her keep the rest of the packet.

Later that night she was running around like a crazy person... crawling, yelling, wrestling, climbing, shrieking.... I wondering why.... oops.

KO

COS Conference Day 3, New Volunteers!

2011-06-16T18:46:00.003-01:00

The last day of my COS conference started at 4:45am when I left the hotel, along with our Country Director who's also the acting APCD and 5 other volunteers to meet the new trainees at the airport! We waited around for about an hour until they got through customs and found us in the lobby. We escorted them to the bus and chased off people asking for money.

We went back to the hotel just in time for a quick shower, breakfast, and the morning session. During the morning we learned what we need to do medically to get out of Senegal and then in the afternoon just wrapped up with a really good ending game/discussion. Tara, the conference leader (who was a PCV in Cameroon), wrote a question for each of us and we took turns answering. The questions were all about our service like: Who was the first PCV you met? What was the first thing you bought with CFA? What's the worst thing you've eaten? If you were going to open a Senegalese restaurant what would you call it? Just things to get us reflecting light-heartedly.

Chris invited us all over to his house for a little reception and celebration of our service. A few volunteers had written short bios of us all at the very beginning of our service so we re-read those and then watched a slideshow of pictures from the past two years.

After the reception we hung out as a stage a little more before going to bed. Everyone was pretty tired (especially those who got up at 4:45am) so the last night wasn't too crazy.

This morning I left with 4 other volunteers to do a round of presentation at the training center. We presented on some of the major project areas SED volunteers are working in (Alyssa and I talked about artisan work, other topics were: junior achievement classes, trash projects, cross-sector/agricultural econ, and eco-tourism). There was, magically, a Peace Corps car going from the training center to Bambey (to pick up seeds at the agricultural research facility outside of Bambey) so Alyssa and I presented first which let me leave immediately after the presentation.

I would have really loved to hang out with the new volunteers but I'm in my last stretch at site and this is just where I would rather be. During the entire COS conference I didn't feel like the end was really near - it was only today, standing in front of the new volunteers and talking about the possibilities for their work when it felt like the end. I still remember some of the presentations I saw at my PST almost two years ago and it's a little absurd to think that I am now one of those volunteers.

Though I am a little sad to be leaving, more than anything I am so excited for the new volunteers. When I was in training I was scared more than anything - I don't actually know a time in my service that "excited" was my dominant emotion except for now. I wish I could give them all of my knowledge, and I'll do my best to impart it in my COS report, but I can see their potential. I know they're going to be huge successes because I feel like my group really built some solid foundation and these volunteers will be able to really hit the ground running. Overall, they speak better French than my group so they'll learn Wolof sooner. They have more collective experience pre-Peace Corps than us as well. I am just so excited for the amazing possibilities they have in front of them. Looking back on my service, these really were two outstanding years that brought all types of new experiences I would not have had any other way. I think I've learned more and had more personal growth than I originally expected. And, not to sound selfish, but I really believe that I could take on almost anything after doing this for two years.

It's all of these prospects - the successful projects and the development that comes with failed projects and challenges - that make me excited and enthusiastic about the two year adventure they're all starting on.

I have a month left in Senegal which will be spent on and off at site, in Dakar closing out my service, and at training. My major projects are finished, I just have some camp preparations to make before I leave.

To part, here's a picture of almost everyone in my stage... at least it's everyone that was at COS conference. We started with 56, 6 people ET'ed, 2 people had "interrupted service," 4 people were "refugees" from Mauritania that already COS'ed, and 1 person couldn't be at the COS conference because his sister was getting married. So! The first picture is of all of the business volunteers (with Chris who's our acting program director) and the second is everyone that made it to COS conference... Congrats Fall '09!

Jazz Fest, COS Conference Day 1 and 2

2011-06-13T07:17:00.003-01:00

I'm currently at my COS ("Close of Service") conference and was at Jazz Fest before that. This blog will be a little long because I think I have a lot to sum up so I'll break it into two sections:

Jazz Fest

Last Wednesday I met Alyssa in Thies so we could head up to Jazz Fest. It's an annual festival of music in St. Louis - now in its 19th year. While most volunteers went to Jazz Fest to have fun, we were going to work. The artisan network had decided to buy two booths at the artisan festival part of Jazz Fest. Alyssa, Mary (the 1st year volunteer working with the network), and I fronted the money for the booths (a total of $280) and then were paid back by artisans at the last artisan meeting. Alyssa and I went up early so we could be ready to coordinate both parts of the expo (the two booths as well as the gallery that some artisans were also showing at) the day it started! Wednesday night all we had to do was make Rice Krispie Treats (thanks for sending the ingredients Mom!) and plan a presentation for the new SED volunteers. Unfortunately the gas stove was out of gas so we had to... cook over fire! We found sticks around the side of the highway and got to making fire! Shockingly, for two business volunteers, we were able to make OUTSTANDING Rice Krispie Treats over our little fire!

The next day we got to the gallery which was an EXPLOSION of products so we knew there wouldn't be any work to do there Thursday. We met up with the artisans and, even though we told them the booths would be VERY small, the amount of baggage they brought kept growing. At one point they were all paralyzed by the amount of baggage and couldn't set anything up. Alyssa, Alys, and I FINALLY managed to rearrange the entire two booths and left them for the night (after putting in a 9 hour work day).

Overall the artisan fest was not the best experience. We thought it was going to be like any craft/artisan fair but it was mostly people selling second hand clothes and crappy plastic things. We had one of the only handmade booths and I don't think the artisans all broke even. I've heard from some of them and they say they aren't mad at us - they're just glad they had the change to see it so they know not to go again.

The rest of Jazz Fest was REALLY fun. Richard - the volunteer from my stage in St. Louis - threw a big party and we danced all night! The morning after the big party we all dragged ourselves out of bed and into a car to get to Dakar for COS Conference.

COS Conference Day 1 and 2

The Close Of Service Conference for my training group (or "stage") started yesterday! Of the 56 of us that were here there are 45 currently present (a few people didn't ET aka quit early, they just couldn't be here/were refugees from PC Mauritania so they finished their service already). The past two days have had sessions about how we actually get out of Senegal - all of the paperwork and approval we need; what we would change about Peace Corps/improvements; and life after Peace Corps. The big push now is that we are actually just "continuing our service" in a different way. Some of us are staying in Senegal (about 10 people) and the rest of us are about to embark on a new adventure. Two people are going to teach English in Asia, some people going back to school, and the rest of us are moving all over the States.

We've heard from other returned volunteers and our suspicions have been confirmed - there is life after Peace Corps. Sure we might think we're way more badass than we actually are and our friends and families will find our stories a little old after a while, but we will always be volunteers and we'll always have the adventure of the last two years.

Personally I can't actually believe the end is so close. I feel like I've spent the last two years thinking about the end and.. here it is?It just doesn't seem like it's possible that I've actually made it two years! Tomorrow morning the new SED volunteers (my replacement among them) land in Senegal and start the craziest two years of their lives! I'll be meeting them at the airport at 5am to welcome them to Senegal and make sure they get on the Peace Corps bus with all of their bags.

I'll update you more tomorrow or the next day!

KO

To the Ladj and Back

2011-06-04T20:49:00.003-01:00

Thursday Jackie, Alyssa, and I left the desert-y Thies region to visit Tamar on her island in the Sine-Saloum Delta. I took a bus to meet the other two in Thies then we got into a 7-place to Joal. In Joal we ate a delicious lunch while watching a fish farm pond. After lunch we arranged our transport to Tamar's mainland town. It was going to be $2 a person in a 14 seat mini-bus... we were seats 2,3, and 4 - the bus wouldn't leave until all 14 people were there. We asked, just to know, how much renting a car would be... total it was going to be $10... so we took that option. The driver cut across salt flats and drove, occasionally, at what seemed like a 45 degree angle. We got to the dock and found the boat to Tamar's island - Mar Ladj - which we shorten to "the Ladj" (pronounced like "lodge").

We spent two days in the Ladj cooking delicious food and enjoying the island life. Tamar's island in the river which is a tidal river and VERY salty (even though I'm 30km from the river my water is salty because of the river). We swam, hung out around a beach, and enjoyed our mini-vacation.

This morning Alyssa, Jackie, and I started the trek back to site. We ran for the boat and caught it in time. After about 30 minutes we got to the mainland and piled into a bus. We were then moved to another bus. That bus left and about two and a half hours later we were piling into a 7-place. The three of us were the last three in the car so we paid, then got into a fight about the money/change, then left the garage. Once we got to Thies we met up with Kerry to talk about some of the training for the new volunteers.

After lunch I got in another 7-place to finally get back to site. I was the second to last person in the car so I was in the last row. The last guy loaded a rice sack and got into the middle seat in the last row, next to me. I turned around the glance at my backpack and a bird head popped out of the rice sack! It turns out he was traveling with 4 pigeons in a rice sack that had some air holes. Throughout the ride one pigeon kept really working on sticking his entire body out of a hole. I honestly was sure it was going to escape and fly around the car. Luckily it did not and I got back to Bambey without a pigeon attack.

Tomorrow I have some more scholarship meetings and then I need to really start tackling my to-do list for my last few weeks!

KO

Lesson 4 With The Fifth Graders

2011-05-31T20:15:00.003-01:00

I've spent the majority of my time focusing on development projects at the middle school and a little with the high school so working with 5th grades has been a challenge. Today we had our 4th lesson which was about decision making. I started by asking students what we had previously discussed and they actually remembered a lot of things.

Next we pretended that there was an open lot for us to put a business! We talked about how you have to weight the positives and the negatives and the lesson liked this to a decision tree (no, I wasn't teaching them game theory it was literally a drawing of a tree). The lesson plan suggested the three choices be: a clothing store, a club, and a bakery. I talked with Jackie who's taught this class a few times and she suggested getting rid of the club and using a boutique. Great! Then I also have the chance to teach them that, if there is something on every corner, you probably don't need a new one. I decided to make the lesson even a little more personal - instead of bakery and clothing store I used my two favorite businesses from my middle and high schoolers: pool and dairy store/factory.

The kids broke into groups and were each assigned to come up with positives and negatives for a specific of the three choices. After about 5 minutes each group had one pro and one con so they sent a representative to the front of the room to present: 2 groups had "pool," 2 had "dairy," and 1 had boutique. A pool kid volunteered to start, "A negative of having a pool is that then boys and girls would go there and there would be a big problem with pregnancy."

Yeeaaaahhhhhh. I'm honestly not sure if the students were laughing at what he said or at the "can I be fired from a volunteer job?" face I made. My mind was working a million miles an hour trying to find a solution. These kids are 10 years old - I can't be discussing all of this without their parents! What could I say to make it better? Should I tell them to forget they heard it? Would that make it worse? Then I remembered what my host sister (one in high school, not the one in this class) told me yesterday: a middle school student is being accused of sexually harassing another middle school student. It is a tragedy that happened and my heart sincerely goes out to the victim. Knowing the culture, I know it took that person a lot to speak out about what happened and I hope they are receiving endless love and support from their friends and family.

These 5th graders will be in middle school next year and, I wish it was different, but this is part of their lives. It isn't my job to encourage this discussion in a school but I wasn't the one who brought it up - it occurred to this group of students on their own. So I moved the lesson forward with no real comment acknowledging or denying it. Maybe I made the wrong call but I just didn't feel comfortable getting involved in even a harmless seeming discussion.

The class got back on track and we discussed voting, who gets to vote, and how you win an election in a democracy. The students then voted for the option they wanted and they picked pool. I told them that it would be a safe pool and that we would have police so everyone would be fine.

After the class I ran some errands and eventually went to a scholarship girl's house. It's always great to visit the students and learn about their lives which are all difficult and impressive in their own ways. While at this girl's house I had a great conversation with her about how it's a lot harder for Senegalese girls in school because they have more housework than boys which makes it even more impressive that most of the top students are girls.

Tomorrow's scholarship home visits are FAR from my house (we're talking 2km out) so I'll probably be too tired to blog.

KO

Thrown A Bone

2011-05-29T20:03:00.003-01:00

Senegal has thrown a lot of bad days at me. Sometimes it's because of work (or lack their off), weather, bad moods, rudeness, or even just too much heat and rice. Every now and again, however, I get thrown a bone and today was one of those days. My morning started slowly, sure the virtual Sunday paper might not beat a real paper and a bagel but it's become a nice ritual. Around 11am I headed towards the middle school I've recently been working in to meet one of my scholarship winners. After she came we quickly did the interview and then she told me she needed to run to the market before we went to her house. Though it turns out by "run to the market" she meant buy everything for her family's lunch - I actually didn't mind today. While we were in the market I ran into about 10 people I knew and, not going to lie, it made me feel kind of famous. Sure not in an "Angelina Jolie" way but in a "after two years, someone's come to realize I'm just a random, lost American" way. Yes, one of these 10 people was my host sister who was picking up things for our lunch - but it was still pretty awesome.

After signing autographs and kissing babies (obviously joking) in the market, we went to this girl's house. This girl's dad is actually one of the point-people at the University. Last week her dad told me that she was going to try and hide that fact from me because if she was worried that I wouldn't let her go to the camp because her dad has a good job. I explained to him that she had ALREADY won the invitation to the camp based only on her intelligence and hard work at school. I visited with her family for a bit and then she took me to another scholarship winner's house. This second girl sat while I talked to her parents and we did the interview. Sure, chatting with people's parents sounds like nothing but I love being able to praise these girls in front of their parents. Affirmation doesn't exist in Senegalese culture - my host sisters always say if you get a 19/20 you'll be made fun of for the point you missed - so it's nice to come in and provide a little bit of positivity. The two families I visited today seem to support their daughters' educations more than other families. Keep in mind that by "supporting" their daughter's education I mean, their daughters still do insane amounts of chores, care the younger children, all while studying on their own without help - it just means that their parents care that they're studying and know that they have good grades.

Around 1pm I knew I had to make my exit. Though it was almost the hottest part of the day and I was sure to get sunburned from walking home (which I did burned a little) if I stayed I would miss lunch at my house and have to eat with this girl. Sure it would have been a really nice thing for me to have stayed but my family is used to the little amount of rice I eat - this family would have been offended. The two girls that I had visited walked me home - which was pretty far. About halfway through the walk they asked if, at this year's camp, we would be doing skits and dances like they had heard about from last year's camp. Sure the image of middle school girls doing a HORRIBLY raunchy dance last year flashed through my mind but it was quickly replaced by joy that the camp was being talked about! These girls had heard about the camp and were so excited they got to go! They were so excited they were already talking about what skit themes or dances they could do! I was ecstatic that, a camp that didn't exist this time last year, is being talked about! I honestly think that, if there was the space, I could fill all 30 camper spots with outstanding girls from Bambey. I'm sure the camp will continue to expand and give more girls this great opportunity over the next few years.

Youssou's older sisters were randomly visiting (unfortunately he didn't come but they brought word that he is in peace aka the Senegalese way of saying "nothing's up") so we had chicken instead of fish today! Yes it was still accompanied with rice and, yes, because it was a "special occasion" the rice had so much oil you could see it pooling under the rice... but it was still chicken!

This afternoon I tried to have a girls' group meeting with last year's campers but only two showed up. One of them was, not surprisingly, the rockstar herself Salamata. I explained how the camp was going to work this year and told them about the meeting on the 19th. I also asked that, on the 19th, they explain the camp a little more to the new girls. My language skills are better than they were last year but I know that it will be more clear if the girls explain it themselves.

Today was one of those good days in Senegal which is like a roller coaster. When I have good days - they're outstanding and the bad days, when they hit, are wretched. Luckily today was one of the good ones which I'm hoping for come frequently during the last two months that I'm here.

KO

To Thies and Back

2011-05-28T20:22:00.000-01:00

This morning I went into Thies to run a few errands and meet up with the girl posse. Alyssa and I did some banking and then bought fabric for Matar to turn into chic dresses (I’ll update you on how it turns out). We bought a TON of cheese, bread, and apples then met Jackie, Tamar, and her friend from home at the training center. After a lovely picnic I grabbed my COS packet and headed back to Bambey.

If I haven’t defined it before “COS” means close of service or continuation of service… depending on who you are and how you look at things. Some say that because I will always have fond memories of Peace Corps and I hope to continue spreading my stories of this adventure it’s a “continuation of service” just no in Senegal. In my mind one chapter is ending and another is starting so it’s a “close of service” which, besides, sounds way more exciting and way more like I’m done in 2 months! So today I got my COS packet, it contains all sorts of information about COS: paperwork to do, checklists to fill out, advice from former volunteers, and much, much more! The checklist is definitely my favorite part of the entire packet it makes it look like the 30 or so tasks I have to do before July will be a breeze. The next step is to attend my COS conference which will be in Dakar early next month. It’s three days with my entire stage (or the 40 some of us that are left) where we’ll learn all of the final details about how to get out of Senegal and end these two years.

After reading my entire COS packet on the ride back to Bambey, I dropped it off in my room then went to a meeting at the middle school. Today my scholarship girls met me at the school to write their essays for the application. The questions were simple: what do you want to be when you grow up? and what’s the largest issue facing girls in education in your town? One girl also did her interview and the rest of them picked times for me to visit their house and do the interview. After I’ve done that, I will recommend 6 of the 9 girls. A final committee of volunteers from other sites will pick the 3 girls that win $30 each to buy school supplies. My replacement will take those 3 girls shopping (which, if it’s like last year, will be amazing) and then pay $10 of all 9 of the girls’ enrollment fees for the school (the girls will be left with about $2 to pay themselves).

It’s up to me to figure out who gets to come to the camp from Bambey so I’ve decided that the 9 scholarship girls from this year as well as the 5 girls that went to the camp last year and have been actively participating in the girls’ group are guaranteed spots. For the rest of the spots, I’m inviting everyone that participated last year (but wasn’t part of the girls’ group on their own choosing), the top students from the other two middle schools, and I told this year’s scholarship girls they could each invite a friend, to my house on the 19^th. I’m going to have Salamata and Soukey (another OUTSTANDING camper from last year) present on what the camp was like so the girls get a better idea. Then I’m going to give them each a form to fill out and tell them to return the forms to me by a certain date. The forms won’t be that involved – it’s more of making sure they’re dedicated enough to actually fill out a form and return it. Last year I had to invite random girls at the last minute (which worked out but was unnecessary) because girls weren’t dedicated or excited for the camp. I think giving the girls a little bit of responsibility (writing their information, getting their parents approval or inviting me to talk to their parents, and maybe writing a reason why they want to go to the camp) will give them some responsibility and ownership of the camp. The camp will be the last week of September – so about a month after my replacement gets to Bambey. I’m so excited that my replacement will get to participate in all of these incredible activities at the beginning of their service – I hope it sets the tone for the rest of their two years.

One other awesome thing happened today, I was walking back from the essay writing and had this conversation with a random 8 year old girl:

Girl: How are you?
Me: I’m fine, how are you?
Girl: I’m fine. What’s your name?
Me: Fatou, what’s your name?
Girl: Ndeye. Will you give me 25cfa?
Me: Will you give me 25cfa?
Girl: But you should give me money because you’re so pretty.
Me: You’re also pretty.
Girl: Will you give me your hair?
Me: I can’t do that.
Girl: Look – I live over there. Bye!

The last thing today is just well wishes for my cousin and his fiancée who are getting tomorrow – I hope everyone has a great time at the wedding and I wish I could be there to see it!

KO

Work Updates

2011-05-25T19:07:00.004-01:00

I have two main types of projects, Junior Achievement (aka business classes at the high school, middle school, and elementary school) and then the Artisan Network. So here are some work updates:

I taught my third class at the elementary school. We talked about government services and how it pays for those services (taxes). When I asked the students if government employees had to pay taxes too they all said no - that was clearly corrected quickly. That group has two classes left (the next two Tuesdays) then I'm totally done.

Today I was supposed to hand out certificates to the high schoolers who had finished the program. Last year I printed the certificates but I decided to class it up a little this time around. There are pre-made Junior Achievement certificates that look a little more official so about two weeks ago I requested those certificates. I kept double checking that I would be getting them yesterday when I was in Thies for another meeting. I was assured that OF COURSE I would have the certificates - so I didn't prepare any of my own. Yesterday came and - no certificates... the woman in Dakar hadn't signed them. Which meant that I had to go today and tell the kids to come back another week when I may or may not have the certificates. Though it seems like something small it is truly infuriating that something so simple couldn't be accomplished. Had I known that these certificates weren't going to be there - I would have printed my own yesterday when I had access to a color printer. It drives me nuts that this type of disappointment happens so often that the kids have come to expect it from their teachers and other adults. I was really hoping to show them throughout the class that you could defy the norms and succeed - that a creative business could do well - that when I set a meeting it would happen... and it didn't happen. On my way to the class I bought two liters of soda as an apology. While I was walking under the burning sun and being have racial slurs thrown at me by kids - I just kept getting more frustrated. These students have finals coming up, they live really far, and as if their lives aren't hard enough just being in Senegal, two of them have physical handicaps. It was eating me up that I couldn't follow through on such a simple thing. Everyone was really appreciative of the soda and the students that won were excited and proud of themselves. I told them I would give the certificates to the principal and they could just stop by and pick them up when they were around the school. Tomorrow I have to go through the same thing with my middle schoolers. Here is a picture of the high schoolers and me.

In artisan news we had our second official Artisan Network meeting yesterday. I think there were about nine artists there (that includes the two that showed up after the two hour meeting ended). We talked about preparations for Jazz Fest and Network membership regulations. Because Alyssa and I don't want to force any of our ideas on the group everything has to be done leadingly as in, "If I was someone who wanted to join, what should I have to pay?" "Really, so I would have to pay the inscription fee AND dues for when I wasn't a member... oohhhh ok so just the inscription fee then dues moving forward... great." After two hours of that (including an artist mocking the way I said, "ok, are we good, can we move on?" I was exhausted. Sure, running a two hour meeting isn't actually THAT mentally draining but add on the complicated layers of language and it's a lot. Amongst the volunteers we all speak English - and that's including during the artisan meeting... if we had a point to clarify or double check, it's just easier for us to speak to each other in English. And we speak to the artists in French, Wolof, or Frolof (the combination of the two) and they respond in Wolof which was then translated to us in French for total comprehension. It was draining.

The new business volunteers (aka my replacement and their new best friends) have 20 days left in the US! If any of you are out there reading - enjoy a burger or, even better, a salad with good dressing, for me! I'll be posting more summation type things soon, but I'll leave you all with this impressive tibit: I was bored today (shocking) and calculated that, during the past almost two years I have eaten approximately more than my own weight in rice - about 125% my weight in rice. Yum.

KO

Cookin'

2011-05-21T20:10:00.003-01:00

When I came downstairs for my evening "sitting with the host family" time Miss was making dinner so I walked towards the kitchen. As I got near she said, "if you come in here I'm going to put you to work!" and I gladly accepted her offer. I grew up cooking and food always strong social glue so I am always happy to help cook here.

Miss was making salad and sauce for dinner so, while she was preparing the sauce I cleaned the lettuce. Preparing lettuce Senegalese style involves removing the leafy part from the more stem part of a piece of lettuce (for some reason they don't like the good crunchy part), soaking the leafy part in bleach and water, then drying it off. After finishing with the lettuce I "marinated" the tomatoes and cucumbers aka covered them in vinaigrette. Miss had boiled potatoes (to be part of the sauce) and took those off to cool. She put the sauce in the pot (Senegalese people refer to all sauce as "sauce" no matter what's in it... usually, like tonight, it's beef bullion/MSG cube, salt, oil, onions, garlic) to cook while I cut the boiled potatoes into bite sized cubes. The potatoes were added to the sauce and that was left to sit.

We eat dinner at 8:30pm pretty much on the dot and, because the meal was ready before, we sat around waiting. The kids did their homework and the rest of us sat around listening to Khady jabber. Close to 8:30pm Miss plated (tossed the lettuce in the vinaigrette, placed it around the edge of the plate, put cucumber and tomatoes on top of it, then placed the sauce in the middle of the plate). At 8:30pm we all sat down on the mat, got our pieces of bread, and dug in.

From now on just know that I'm going to use Miss' rule when it comes to cooking: if you come in this kitchen - you're going to help!

Cheers,
KO

And the winner is...

2011-05-20T07:14:00.003-01:00

This week I finished teaching the business classes at the middle school and high school! Each group sold their business idea to me as if I was an investor and then answered some questions about the general topics they've learned. Some groups gave mediocre presentations but there were a few groups who really seemed to have learned a lot. In the high school I was particularly impressed by the group who's business idea was to open a pool. I told them to dream big and, without a model business to go on, they came up with a pretty good plan for their pool. They had the most unique idea overall and they seemed to really understand the material from the class.

In the middle school there weren't any ideas that were just leaps and bounds above everyone else but my favorites were: a library, a dairy products factory, a clothing line. Sure not the MOST original ideas in the world but those groups worked really hard and understood the lessons well.

This week I also started teaching at the elementary school my 12 year-old host sister attends. I'm working with 30 students in her grade (including her) on a 5 week program that introduces really basic business and community structure ideas. Last week we did the first two lessons (what are communities/jobs within a community and unit/assembly line production) and I'll be teaching every Tuesday for the next 3 weeks.

The girls' camp is moving along but I'm just the liaison between the University and volunteers running it so I don't know much of their plans. I know it's in the works and I'm sure it's going to be great.

Work with Matar is also coming along - there's a meeting for all of the artists in the Artist Network Tuesday in Thies. The Network also paid for two booths at the big Jazz Fest in St. Louis at the beginning of June.

Oh! How could I forget! I had my first meeting with my scholarship girls yesterday! I'm doing it at a different school from last year (I wanted to spread a wealth a little). One of the girls was in my business class and overall they all seem very pleasant. We're meeting next week so they can write their essays (what do you want to be when you grow up? and what's the largest problem facing girls in education?) then they'll each have a really basic interview with me and I'll visit their houses. They all already won $10 towards their school enrollment fees and 3 of them will win $30 to buy all of their school supplies for next year. I'll be doing all of the paperwork and submitting the applications to the volunteer committee but it'll be my replacements job to go school supply shopping with them and actually distribute the money/certificates. I had such an amazing time last year shopping for school supplies with the winners so I don't think my replacement will mind that I've lined up some work for them already. I'll keep you posted on this new batch of impressive young women!

That's all that's been going on here work-wise. The power outages have been very frequent and long (I think, recently, the longest one was 18 hours). Sure not having power is annoying but not having water (the water cuts about 45 minutes after the power) is HORRIBLE. I have 6 gallons of water stored in my room and my host family has another 20 in huge plastic drums downstairs. We have power this morning, though, so I'm taking full advantage of it.

One final note - congratulations to everyone who just graduated! I have many wonderful friends who finished undergrad or completed classes for their masters - hats off to them! Good luck conquering the world!

Cheers,
KO

Tips for Falling Asleep with Loud Music

2011-05-19T14:20:00.002-01:00

There have been many nights during the past almost two years that have been disrupted by loud music. Sometimes it's because I'm at a party with volunteers and I want to call it quits before the dance party stops, mostly it's because someone in town is having a party with drums and/or singing and/or speakers and/or mosque singing. So today I propose a few tips to help you fall asleep in case you ever encounter loud music:

1. If it's possible (so in my situation there's electricity) make your room a comfortable temperature. This way instead of thinking, "how will I ever fall asleep with this music," you're thinking, "it's amazing that my room is below 90 degrees! How comfortable and conducive for sleeping!"

2. Earplugs. I have battled with the earplugs v. ipod struggle but I've found that earplugs are almost always a better option (the only exception if the noise is actually in your room). I usually cannot turn my ipod up loud enough to drown out the sounds but have it still be quiet enough to sleep.

3. Don't be afraid to adjust your earplugs. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries, but no worries, it will always make the noise a little quieter.

4. Don't hesitate to make a pillow sandwich - sure you'll feel like a cartoon character with a pillow on your head trying to stop some noise but sometimes it works.

5. DON'T get angry about the music. This seems counter-intuitive but whenever I get angry or start to question the sanity of the jerks making noise I start to fixate on it and then it's all downhill.

6. Also, DON'T pick apart the music. If it's a song you know, pretend it isn't! Once you start acknowledging the lyrics you can't stop and then you've given a name to your foe.

7. Don't think about how early you have to get up - this is a continuation on tip #5... just don't get angry.

8. Think about how comfortable you are. Keep your thoughts positive.

9. As easy as it is to let your thoughts slip to yanking the cords out of the speaker and puncturing the drum tops - don't. That fantasy can keep you up for a long time and won't make the music stop.

10. And the next morning, feel free to complain to your host family because if you couldn't sleep you know that they couldn't sleep. They are almost always more annoyed than you are.

Hopefully you're never in a situation where you have to call on these tips - but just in case you are good luck!

KO

PS I'll have a real work update soon. Sorry I've been a bad blogger.

Salemata

2011-05-13T20:54:00.005-01:00

I haven't been blogging recently because I haven't had much to blog about but I got great news a few days ago:

Last year I did a scholarship for the top female students at one of the middle schools. These girls were invited to the camp. Before the camp one of them, Salemata (who had the 3rd highest grades for the girls), called to ask me to talk to her older brother: her dad didn't want to let her go to the camp but if I could convince her older brother maybe he could convince her dad. A few days after I talked to her older brother she called to tell me she could go to the camp! At the camp participated a lot and was really outgoing during the camp. About halfway through the camp she found me one day and asked to use my phone. She took off running towards the dorms and started crying. I followed her and she explained that another girl had taken her phone and her shoes and hid them. Needless to say I was horribly upset at the bullies and I felt so bad for this amazing girl. We resolved the issue and Salemata's classmates really rallied around her which was great to see.

After the camp Salemata has been the most responsible and participatory girls in the girls' group. She always comes to meetings and she'll call if she can't come. For Tabaski (the big sheep killing holiday) she invited me to visit her house. This sounds pretty mundane but visiting people on holidays is a really huge part of Senegalese culture but I hadn't really felt like there was anyone that I was close enough to not feel like I was being a burden on their holiday celebration. I decided to follow up on Salemata's invitation and I went over to her house to hang out with her family for about half an hour. We just sat and talked, nothing big, but I was really honored that she felt comfortable enough with me to invite me over.

I really don't feel like I'm explaining her well but take my word - she's amazing. She's the girl that I think about when I need motivation to go to a meeting I think might be cancelled or when I had to go back to the University a million times last year while I was organizing the girls' camp.

So for the great news part: I got a call from her a few days ago and we chatted like normal then she told me that she had just received her grades for first semester and she has the highest grades in the class. She doesn't have the highest grades of the girls but of everyone which is huge! I am so unbelievably proud of her and I wish that there was more I could do to continue to encourage her but she seems to really be rocking the world on her own.

That's my good news! In other events I'm finishing my middle school business classes tomorrow and I'm starting classes at the elementary school (including with my 12 year old host sister) Tuesday!

There are also only 66 days left of this adventure!

KO

The Magical Cleaning Fairy

2011-05-07T16:57:00.003-01:00

All of my life I've wished there was a magical cleaning fairy. When I was very young I once convinced my grandmother to take up this role for a limited time. Again in college another cleaning fairy entered my life in form of my best friend Amy who, when stressed out, liked cleaning (and when really stressed out would run out of things to clean in her side of the room and would move to mine). Since I've moved to Senegal I've just had to accept the existence of a magic cleaning fairy that, while remaining invisible, cleans things. Here are some examples of her work (which might also demonstrate how desperately I need to pretend this is true):

1. During training (yes almost two years ago), one of my host sisters who never wore shoes went into the kitchen to get a knife. When she returned, she used the knife to cut her toenails. Ten minutes later (and after the work of the magic fairy) my host mom was using the knife to cut our vegetables.

2. This afternoon my host mom, who always eats with her right hand (no spoon), was doling out fish like usual. She uses her hand to rip the fish off the bone and put it in my section of the bowl - like she does every day. Five minutes go I heard a commotion outside, I looked and Khady was walking to the trash holding a dirty diaper in her hand. She was followed by my host mom with her right hand covering the baby's bum.

These are just two of the examples showing the necessity that I believe that magically between baby's bum and my lunch tomorrow my host mom's hands will be disinfected.

Sorry you didn't get a blog about the cultural differences between Senegal and The Gambia like I promised a few days ago - I thought this was more important.

Ciao,
KO

Vacation to The Gambia

2011-05-03T20:14:00.002-01:00

I’m back from a short vacation in The Gambia (the country inside of Senegal)! It was only 4 days and full of plenty of adventure and transportation… Here’s a rundown of the trip, it’s a little long so you might want to get a snack before reading it:

Day 0: The Royal Wedding
Friday I headed to Thies to catch the Royal Wedding… not surprisingly the bus took FOREVER so I missed the ceremony but I got there in time to see all of the clothes and the kiss at Buckingham Palace. I loved her dress – I loved Pippa’s (seriously who didn’t?)! Cheers! After the wedding Alyssa and I hung out with her artist (who makes fabulous jewelry) and eventually the entire girl posse was in Thies and we prepared bought some things for dinner. Dinner was our standard – beans with Mexican seasoning then chopped vegetables, salsa, and lettuce (oh not to forget the cream fraiche which is a good substitute for sour cream). We watched part of a movie but decided to call it a night.

Day 1: From One Country To Another?
To make sure we got all the way to Georgetown (our first stop) we all got to the garage around 6:30am. Once at the garage the 4 of us tried to get a car to Kaolack and immediately found 3 Pulaar men which made a full car and we were off! We flew from Thies to Kaolack and were in Kaolack by 10am. We switched garages (obviously it would have been too easy for all of the cars to leave from the same place) and the second garage was literally just a whole bunch of cars parked – usually there the cars are marked with their destination. We walked around yelling the name of the border city where we were going and were the first 4 people in the car! Within an hour the rest of the car was full and we were moving forward for the second leg of the journey! Then we stopped about five minutes out… then we started! Then we stopped… Then we started again! After lots of driving we hit the border around 12pm. We stopped at the Senegal side of the border and they wished us a good trip. We walked across the border and passed over this sign and all of the sudden!!!! It was no different (as you would expect). The Gambian customs agents stopped us and we had to buy a visa – that took an hour and we were off again on foot. This time we were walking to the actual town near the border to get another car – we realized it was way hotter than we thought and caught a cab to the town and an ATM to get money.

The town (Farfenni) has 3 banks – the first one had a broken ATM and the second and third had ATMs but they were locked (even though they had a 24hours sign). Alyssa and I bought SIM cards for our phones and we all got chicken sandwiches (which EVERYONE talks about) then found our next car. Once again this was a sept-place (the same kind of brokenish station wagon with an extra row that we take in Senegal) and we were lucky enough to be the last 4 people in the car. Our 3^rd sept-place of the day started and it took about two hours but along the way we found one of the differences between Senegal and The Gambia… no it wasn’t the scenery that was the same. The Gambia actually has occasional police checks where the car is stopped (which happens in Senegal) but different to Senegal the police actually checked our passports and looked for our visas – they also checked everyone else’s identity cards. Around 4pm we got to the north bank of Georgetown. We knew there were several hotels on the island (where most of the town is located) so we found a boat and went across. Off of the boat we picked a hotel, ordered dinner (they had to go to the market and get what we needed) then showered from a LONG day of travel. That night we all just hung out, ate chicken and fries, and we to bed fairly early.

Day Two: How Many Types of Public Transport Can You Take?
On our way to Georgetown on the first day we negotiated a price for the boat to take us up the river a little bit where sometimes you can see hippos and monkeys. The driver told us we would see hippos jumping on a sandbar so we were positive we weren’t going to see anything. On day two we got up before 7am and were ready to leave the hotel by 7:30. Tamar pointed out that our boat had a little bit of an “Apocalypse Now” vibe to it but we were dedicated to seeing animals so we trekked forward. During the first 30 minutes we didn’t really see anything but then we saw a huge family of Baboons on the south shore. Clearly we didn’t get out of the boat but we could still see them pretty well. After an hour of traveling (we were told the whole trip was going to be two hours) there were no hippos in site… THEN ALL OF THE SUDDEN 5 hippos were spotted in the water. We watched them for a few minutes while the submerged and came back up. While we were watching a large hippo took a giant leap – kind of like a whale! None of us could believe that the guide had been right that we would see hippos actually jumping but we were happily proven wrong. After the hippos we turned back to Georgetown. Once we got off the boat we found another sept place and were the first 4 in the car. The boat guides had helped us find that car but then decided it might be better if we crossed the river to the island then again to the other side to get a car on the south side of the river. We debated this option pretty seriously because: 1. The river runs all the way through the Gambia and there are only a few large ferry crossing spots – I don’t think there’s a bridge that spans the whole thing. 2. We needed to end on the south side. 3. It was a national holiday. We eventually stuck with our original plan. Another guy came in the car but we had been waiting more than an hour so we bought the last two seats and left. That day we were going more than 300km with unknown transportation so we were worried about getting to Banjul (the capital) before dark.
This trip again went fairly well – it was the reverse of the last car ride we took the day before and the road was in excellent condition (aka paved). When we got back to Farfenni we found a conversion van stuffed full of about 20 people that was going to the ferry dock. I ended up sitting kind of on Alyssa’s lap kind of on a seat while we bounced down a dirt road for 30 minutes. We got our ferry tickets and picked up lunch (chicken sandwiches again) before getting on the boat. Once on the boat we realized that there were vans loading people to go to Soma the site of our next transportation/direction change so we jumped in a car. I ended up in the back of the van on a bench that could have comfortably fit two so we obviously uncomfortably fit three with each of us holding a child. The kid I was holding was probably around 8 years old and only spoke Mandinka which is a local language that I don’t speak. She looked a little scared but her mom was sitting across from us (holding another child). After another 15 minutes of bumpy dirt roads (with the back door next to Jackie flying open) we got to Soma!
Everything we had read described Soma as a big junction town – a town where you can go north or south or east or west – we needed to go to the capital which was west. We were a little surprised when we didn’t find any sept-places. Instead of a station wagon we bought seats in another conversion van – this time the four of us sat on the two back benches (we bought the 5^th and 6^th seats because the trip was 200km. The day before the customs agents told us that the south road was very bad and it turns out they weren’t lying! The south road was about two hours of just a very bumpy very dusty road. We took turns sleeping and watching out the back of the bus to make sure luggage didn’t come flying off (early in the ride we had to stop the bus because Tamar’s bag wasn’t tied down and flew off the top of the bus). It only took about thirty minutes to realize that dirt was just streaming in the windows. Every time I moved or sweat or touched more dirt would become noticeable. During the last hour of the trip we got on a paved road and made it into Banjul. We got a cab, went to the bank, then went to the PCGambia regional house. Now, I’ve been dirty in Peace Corps and I’ve taken day long bike rides and been dirty before but honestly never have I been as dirty as I was after that trip. I looked extremely tan and all of my clothes were just coated in a thick layer of dust and dirt. At the regional house (which is WAY nicer than our regional house in Senegal – probably because the volunteers aren’t supposed to have parties there) I took a shower and the dirt just streamed off of me. I honestly don’t think I got all of the dirt off after my first shower but I tried my hardest. Even though we were trying to clean up everyone was also really hungry so we were in a hurry. That night for dinner we had Chinese food – which means I’ve eaten Chinese food in 3 African countries (Senegal, The Gambia, and Ghana)! It was better than you would expect! After dinner we went back to the regional house and crashed after what was over 13 hours of travel in several modes of transportation.

Day Three: Visiting Banjul on a Monday That’s Also a National Holiday
This was the only morning of the trip we didn’t need to set an alarm so we all slept in aka got up at 8am instead of 6:15am. Even though I didn’t have my computer I was current on the big international news thanks to Alan. He and I share an affinity for news/politics/current affairs and he knew I didn’t have internet access (I didn’t bring my computer) so he texted me with a few updates – thanks!
After getting ready and talking to The Gambian volunteers we decided to go into Banjul – the regional house is actually outside of the main capital. The Gambia has around 4 million people and Banjul is about double the size of Bambey – only 50,000 people. We took a cab into the city, saw their independence arch, walked around a market, and walked along the beach. Around noon we went back to the regional house (which is in a more touristy area). We found a pizza place and had really good pizza (unlike in Senegal, Gambians actually cook the pizza until the crust is crispy). After pizza we returned to the regional house and chatted with some volunteers. We had been invited to go to a hotel that overlooks the fish market for a few pre-dinner drinks. We arrived at the hotel just in time for sunset and all of the boats coming in so I was able to take some good pictures. After drinks we split from The Gambian volunteers and went to El Sol. Our friend (PCV in Senegal) had visited there last year and told us we had to go for the closest thing to Mexican we would find in Senegal/Gambia. Though it was a little pricey I wasn’t disappointed in the food or in the margarita. After sitting for half an hour to digest we decided to move to a bar nearby. The regional house is next to a really touristy strip of bars and restaurants so we found an “Irish bar” and drank some Gambian beer. It was around 10pm and we were all struggling. We were so full and had already decided to get up at 5:45 the next morning to catch the first ferry out. Eventually we decided to walk over to the club we had heard was the best to make a decision about if we would end our night or stay out and dance. When we got to the club we realized that it was almost entirely empty because it was Monday and a National Holiday (labor day) and they were playing really good music… WIN!
The four of us were the only people on the dance floor until we got some women…possibly/most likely prostitutes up dancing too. The DJ played every single one of our requests and the bar was also playing CNN on the tvs. It was like we were at our own private dance party – now I know how VIPs feel. Around 1am we decided that we would leave during the next bad song. “Bad Romance” came on which was a huge favorite by Thomas a volunteer who left last year so we stayed to dance for that then a crappy sang came on and we left. We all went pretty much immediately to bed after that.

Day Four: More Transportation
My alarm went off at 5:45am and we were up! We had been told that sometimes there were 3 ferries running and sometimes there was 1. Also sometimes the ferry took 30 minutes and sometimes it took 3 hours. Not willing to chance the trip we wanted to catch the first one (which left between 6:30 and 7, so we were told). We got a cab to the ferry and got on the boat about 20 minutes later. While we were waiting for the ferry to cross the river we noticed that, like two days before, they were filling up cars going to the border town we needed to go to! We grabbed practically the last four seats on a bus that was jam packed. Then we waited. And rocked back and forth. And waited. And rocked. And waited. About 30 minutes into sitting in a van on a rocking ferry I was starting to feel a little queasy. The few glimpses I got of land made it seem like we weren’t moving forward at all just side of side. At one point Alyssa turned around and stated that we must be in the 7^th circle of Dante’s Inferno. Finally we heard some banging metal (not always a good sign when you’re on a boat but in this case it marked that we were running into the dock in a good way). All of the people not in a bus got off of the boat then the other cars started to get off. Our bus was packed with people... and not starting. Six guys managed to give it enough momentum to start and we were off! Until we got on land and a guy had to go to the bathroom so we had to stop. Everyone else in the bus was as angry as we were but finally we were moving towards Senegal.
The trip took about 30 minutes then we were at the border. We got our passports stamped in The Gambia, spent the last of our Dalasi (Gambian currency) and walked across the border. The Senegalese side stamped our passports and we got a horse cart to the garage (a type of transit we hadn’t taken yet on the trip). After 15 minutes of riding on the horse cart we got to the garage. From here the posse split – Jackie and Alyssa went to Thies and Tamar and I went back to Kaolack. In Kaolack we went to a bank and switched garages. As we got to the garage Tamar was still trying to decide if she could make it all the way back to site tonight. I was the last seat in the car going through my town so I jumped in and we said a quick goodbye. I was the middle seat of the back row and only the windows in the front row opened so it was a hot ride… a little like a sauna. About 45km outside of Bambey the car stopped and we all stood in the middle of a field while the driver fixed a flat tire. Finally around 3pm I got out of the car in Bambey! Overall I had a great time in The Gambia even though a lot of it was spent inside cars. It was the perfect length trip and now I have only 75 days (as of tomorrow) left as a Peace Corps Volunteer!

Cheers – KO

Pictures

2011-04-25T21:15:00.003-01:00

I know that I need to start taking more pictures so today I started! I brought my camera downstairs during lunch and told my host family that I would be taking a lot of pictures now and July.... Miss said I was only allowed to take pictures of her when she had her hair done and was wearing make up... Khady, on the other hand, didn't have a problem.

Lunch: Rice, Fried Fish, Onion Sauce with Tomato Paste

Our Courtyard

The Good and The Bad

2011-04-23T19:51:00.003-01:00

Before I get into the good and the bad of my time here, let me first say that today was a day of letters galore! Today Alan got my valentine's day card (after 3 months of traveling the globe). Also, I have a friend who's a PCV in Honduras and I got a letter from her (which also traveled for 3 months). Inspired by a recent blog post from that same friend, I've decided to give you some of the good and the bad things about Senegal. Let me give a disclaimer that this is my own totally unprofessional opinion and don't take it as fact. Also, I feel like I could go on about this forever but here's just a glimpse:

The Bad:

The way Senegalese men behave sometimes drives me crazy. They're told they are superior of women and most men believe this and act on it all the time. I can barely stand working with partners who may not think that I'm totally inferior (because I'm a foreigner) but that they will never respect half of their own country. This happened a while ago (and I already blogged about it) but I got into a huge discussion with several male teachers/school administrators about how women shouldn't work because they aren't intelligent enough....ugh how can you write off half of your country's brainpower and workforce.

The way concept of time and important things. People are never late for food or prayers but can't seem to be on time for anything else. If a meeting is supposed to start at 9 people will show up around 10 and you can maybe start around 10:30... if you're lucky. I know it's not impossible to be on time, it's just not important.

The Good:
Senegalese women are seriously amazing. All of the women in my house and all of the girls that I work with are so strong and do so much every single day. The women in my house do almost everything every day to make sure we eat, things are clean, people have clothes, etc. and they don't take credit for ANYTHING. I know that the girls I work with do a ton of housework to support their mothers and sisters while also doing school work and maintaining great grades (better than some of the boys in their classes who don't have as much housework).

Hardworking means hardworking - there are a couple of people (Matar included) that work so, so, so hard to provide for their families. I just find it so impressive that someone like Matar, at the age of 31, supports his entire huge family. He works 7 days a week to support them and this kind of dedication to family is amazing.

One more thing that, though it's not exactly about Senegal, is making my Peace Corps service great is my friends. I'm so lucky to have such great other volunteers in my area and around the country. Even when I'm not with my girl posse I feel like I can hang out with any other volunteer in country because everyone is awesome.

There's a little about Senegal for you.... once my service really starts to come to a close I plan on having more retrospective blogs, but you'll have to wait at least a month for that.

This is a little early but Happy Easter everyone! I hope you have ham and peeps and maybe even a butter lamb on your table!

America: Part 2

2011-04-22T19:33:00.005-01:00

I got to spend the last few weeks in the US and my entire trip was AMAZING! I started the trip in New York where I got to catch up with a ton of friends. Almost all of my old roommates from sophomore year (except for Jess who's in Berlin saving the environment). We had brunch and

then I got to spend the entire day hearing how successful they all are. We all lived on the same floor freshman year then lived in a tiny 6 person apartment our sophomore year. Now we're all in different areas (art, politics, business, law, environment) but have stayed friends so it was great to hear about everyone's life (except Jess who was dearly missed but will hopefully be there when we all get together again in the fall).

During the rest of the time I was in New York I got to see so many people and eat so much delicious food. I think I was most excited for soup (possibly because it was rainy) but everything I ate was great!

Right before the weekend I flew to Phoenix to meet my parents and start weddingpalooza! Straight from the airport we went to In-and-Out (my family might not have a lot of traditions so we stick to the ones we have)! Then I tried on my bridesmaid's dress and got it measured for alterations. Next we checked into the hotel then went to COSTCOOOOOOOO which was AMAZING. I had brought back several cloth bags and my parents packed them full of treats for the guests from their side of the wedding. My parents friends the Herrans came and then my Grandma and my cousin - it was the first time seeing them in about 2 years. Noah and Tara came for dinner and then Alan landed.

Friday was rehearsal dinner prep and more family and friends arrived. It was so amazing that so many people came to celebrate Noah and Tara's wedding. At the rehearsal that night I got to meet the rest of Tara's bridesmaids and Noah's groomsmen as well as his dad's side of the family. The rehearsal dinner was really fun and I think everyone had a great time.

Saturday wedding frenzy started around 10am. I hung out with the other bridesmaids while one of them did all of our hair and makeup (which was really nice of her because otherwise I would have had straight hair with barely any makeup). We started taking pictures before the wedding and then the wedding started around 6pm. It was at the resort on the first tee which was a really pretty golf green with water around it. The ceremony was very pretty even though everyone's heal's were ruining the grass (sorry!). After the ceremony there was a cocktail hour in a really beautiful outdoor area. The reception kicked off with all of the bridal party being introduced and Noah and Tara's big entrance. I'm not going to run down the reception one by one because that would take forever but I'll sum it up by saying I had a ton of fun with my family and friends. I this we all had a blast dancing and my mom and Noah looked great dancing to "One Shining Moment" during the mother of the groom dance.

Sunday morning Alan and I flew back to New York VERY early and I spent the rest of the day in New York hanging out with a few other people (and eating ice cream). Monday for lunch I got to hang out with some of the younger girls in the sorority and it was so great catching up with them. Afterwards I had a few people over to Alan's apartment and we made dinner and ate on the roof

until it got too cold. Once it was cold we went downstairs just in time to watch the Lifetime Original Movie about William and Kate (so good) to get everyone pumped for the Royal Wedding! Tuesday I grabbed lunch with another friend before she went off to class and I went off to the airport. At the airport I bought a ton of magazines and ate Wendy's before getting on my plane. Luckily the plane was almost empty and I got an entire row and sleep. I landed and went met up with some friends to deliver the bagels and cream cheese I had brought from Trader Joe's.

That day I was reunited with my Peace Corps Girl Posse and I got to catch up on their trip to Cape Verde. We made velveeta and bacon mac and cheese which was delicious! The next day I headed back to site and I've been hanging around since. Because it's almost Easter people are just around not really doing much and they have the next few days off. My posse and I are planning our next trip - this time to The Gambia. It's a country inside of Senegal and we're only going for 3 days mostly to say we've gone.

Radio Stars!

2011-04-03T17:13:00.003-01:00

Salamata, Ndeye Coumba, Soukey, Erin, Safie, Ndeye Awa, and I

Erin, in the middle, an ag volunteer living in a small village outside of Thies, has started working towards a Peace Corps radio program. Other regions of the country work with local radio stations and volunteers' topics range from explaining American culture to talking about work/teaching even reading children's stories in the local language. We were brainstorming topics for this potential Thies radio show and I decided to get my girls' group involved.

When I mentioned that they could be on the radio all of my girls jumped at the opportunity! They immediately started brainstorming skit ideas which were eventually narrowed down to a single skit discussing AIDS, early and forced marriage, abuse against children, and the environment. After that meeting we decided to take a break and get back together the next week to start working on the script. The next week I showed them a basic plot diagram (intro, rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion) which they had never seen before. I was able to convince them to drop the multi-themed skit and do two skits with one theme each: abuse against children and forced/early marriage.

They started writing the abuse against children script to present to me. When they were finished they explained the plot and let's just say it was WAY too inappropriate for 14 year old girls to be talking about. I hated to censor them but I couldn't have them talking about things that were culturally inappropriate especially not under the Peace Corps name. We decided to take another week break and come back together the next week. The next Sunday they had two great scripts to present and we started practice!

The first skit was about a girl who's mom wants her to get married to a wealthy man so her family can have money. Eventually the girl's friends convince her mom to let her finish school and everything ends happily. The idea might seem far fetched but unfortunately, the only far fetched part is that the girl didn't have to get married. Sometimes girls are married off at really young ages because their family can't support them or doesn't want to anymore.

The second skit is kind of the Senegalese version of Cinderella: an orphaned daughter (of a second wife) is forced to do all of the housework by her dad's first wife until the first wife's friend comes over and points out that the orphan shouldn't be abused, that she has rights, and that the actual daughter of the first wife doesn't know how to do anything because she's never had to do any chores.

Erin came out to Bambey yesterday to record the skits and the girls' introduction. To make it seem like more of an event I bought a few bottles of soda and we had a little party. I've attached some photos from the day! Erin's going to edit the piece and I'll have a copy to play for the girls May 1st!

Erin handing the mic off

Hammering out last minute details (and Salamata is hiding from the picture because she said her hair was ugly)

Practicing before the recording

Dinner's On Me

2011-03-30T20:15:00.003-01:00

My house is about half full right now so we've been having a lot of food left over after lunch each day. Because I know there's food that could be simply reheated, I decided to cook dinner for everyone! I wasn't sure if anyone was going to like it (though I knew they would pretend) but the leftovers were a fall back in case they hated my food.

I had been thinking about cooking dinner for a while and I was going to attempt a macaroni noodle with Laughing Cow (or Vache Qui Rit if you're in a Francophone country) cheese sauce that other volunteers had made...then we had spaghetti for dinner last night. Not wanting to bore my host family I decided on a peanut sauce stir fry mix vegetable pile with lettuce around the edges (usually my host family eats cooked mixed vegetables with onions sauce and lettuce around the edges so this was my Asian/American take on that). This morning I went to the market and bought: lettuce, green beans, green peppers, onions, garlic, carrots, peanut butter (which is really just mashed up peanuts with no salt or sugar), and limes.

After lunch I cut the green beans, cleaned the lettuce, then bleached all of the vegetables. (Side note: that might sound like a bad idea but it's to kill any parasites or amoebas living on the vegetables so eating minimal quantities of bleach is better than eating those.) Around 7pm I realized that I hadn't bought bread yet so I ran out to get that, most Senegalese cooking involves the rule of: if there's not rice there's bread. After the soap opera I boiled the green beans and carrots while cutting the peppers, onions, and garlic. The garlic, onions, and peppers were then sauteed, the green beans and carrots were added, and then they were taken off. I only have one pot so they were moved to a plate while I put the peanut butter with some water, to thin the sauce, soy sauce (bought in a bottle in Thies but you can buy it in packets in most boutiques), lime juice, some sugar, some salt, and some Chinese hot pepper sauce that my parents sent me. After lots of whipping it was ready so I threw the vegetables in and tossed the mixture.

That was put in the center of a plate, lettuce was put around the edges, and the bread was cut for everyone. Miss helped me get the mat down, water bottles out, and forks ready then we ate! I thought the meal was pretty good, not the best thing I've cooked but not bad by any means. One of my host sisters didn't really like it but pretended she did. Another seemed to really like it - or is just really good at pretending. I couldn't tell if Miss liked it or not but then later she asked if she could save some for tomorrow so I guess she did... and that's everyone in my house right now (except for my host mom but she's been eating yogurt and millet every night).

So overall I think it was a success and I'm glad I finally cooked for them. It doesn't look too appetizing but here's a photo:

Quel But!!

2011-03-26T19:39:00.003-01:00

Before I get to the spectacular goal scored tonight ("quel but" = what a goal), I'll start at the beginning of my day.

I had been invited to the "Fete de l'Ouverture de Foyer" at the middle school which is a morning of speeches by officials and then skits and dances by students. I was told it started at 1oam so after much internal debate I finally decided to be a good volunteer and headed over to the school around 10:45. When I arrived at 11am nothing had even started but all of the students were gathered around the school's large sand courtyard just waiting. The principal saw me and invited me into his office where I waited with a few other teachers. Around noon we sat down and all of the guests (a delegation from the mayor's office, the retired principal, and a principal of another middle school) had arrived and we started! The first hour was speeches by all of the principals, retired and serving, present. After the speeches the skits started...and kept going... and going... Most of the skits were done in the same style that Senegalese TV is which, to be nice, I would describe as extremely overacted and lacking clear plot lines (and that's being generous). The skits had to do with AIDs, teen pregnancy, or early/forced marriage. Each skit also had a whole bunch of boys playing older men that sat around and talked most of the skit (which is a pretty accurate portrayal but never seemed to move the plot forward). The average skit lasted half an hour.

At 2pm I decided to try for an escape. I should explain that the school is surrounded by a wall on all sides with a single door on the Northwest corner. I was sitting on the South side of the courtyard so between me and the door were the skits, the entire dj/microphone area, and about 300 students... not to mention that literally everyone would have seen me leave. I asked the teacher next to me if I could go around one of the buildings and sneak to the door but he responded with, "it'll be over soon."

Two hours later I was fairly dehydrated, hungry, and hot (we were sitting under a plastic awning which did block the sun but seemed to trap the heat). The teachers sitting around me were also starting to grumble a little and trying to get the proceedings to move a little faster. FINALLY the second to last group came to perform around 4:15pm and man am I glad I stayed for it. Now, Senegalese culture is a little more casual with stereotyping ethnic groups and nationalities than Americans are, so keep that in mind as I explain the skit. The skit started with an announcer saying something (muffled on the mic) as two students came out dressed in nice Senegalese clothes. The students said they were ethnically Wolofs and gave a nice message encouraging youth. Next a few other students came out dressed like religious people and did a dance and gave an encouraging message. Next another couple came out dressed in slightly ridiculous traditional clothes and the girl had stuffed her skirt as to make her butt seem HUGE. When they announced that they were Jolla (from the Southern part of Senegal) everyone started laughing hysterically. After the Jolla's was a boy with a fake fat stomach in a suit and a young girl - no worries, they were Americans, they were Russians! After the Russians came a boy in a dress shirt and a girl in a cute summer dress and heels - they were French! When a child came up to them to ask them if they had kids they laughed and said they never wanted children.. hilarious! After the French people came 3 students dressed in North African clothing they pretended to speak Arabic and referred to themselves using a mild racial slur. After the North Africans came two boys in karate outfits. They were Chinese and spoke only in fake Chinese (aka "ching chong") which got a HUGE laugh. Then they drank 2 cokes (I'm not really sure about that part) and had a fake martial arts battle. Finally an Akon song started blasting and out came the Americans: 5 students wearing jeans, shiny shirts, and sunglasses. They all danced like a mix of Michael Jackson and Usher then spoke in English about how wonderful Senegal was. After the Americans that group took their bows and we were on to the last performance! Before I get there, let me say that of all the ways the students could have portrayed Americans - I'm actually happy with the way they chose... also I don't dress that that at all here.

The last group was the gymnastics club who did some cool tumbling but at that point I think I was a little delirious so I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have had it happened at during the first two hours not during the fifth hour.

The second the gymnastics club looked like it was wrapping up one of the teachers I work with quickly whisked me away to the teacher's lounge where there were cold sodas and sugary baked/fried goods! I drank my soda and chatted with a few people and was out of there in about 10 minutes. While I was chatting EVERY student had emptied out and the crew was taking down the tents - it had cleared out.

I got back to my house about 6 hours after I had left. I went straight to my room to chug some gatorade to make up for the hours sitting in the heat.

Tonight Senegal played Cameroon in a qualifier game for the African Cup of Nations in 2012. In the last 2 minutes of additional time Senegal scored a goal! The entire city erupted with cheering including my host family screaming loudly! Senegal ended up winning 1-0 so they keep their lead in their group. Games are halfway over so we'll know if they qualify in September I think.

I hope everyone is enjoying watching March Madness Games - if your championship team has been kicked out, feel free to join me in cheering for UNC!

A Visit From The Boss

2011-03-25T10:37:00.002-01:00

This morning the SED PTA (or Peace Corps speak for trainer for business volunteers) Talla came to check-up on my work. We visited the schools I've been working in and he stopped by my house. Now, I think I'm doing some good work here but man can my work partners sell it! Senegalese culture is EXTREMELY complimentary so everywhere we went the principals and teachers just talked about what an amazing job I've been doing. I'm not trying to sell myself short but I'm not revolutionizing the world here. After visiting my work partners, we stopped by my house where Talla and my host mom had this conversation:

Talla - I know she doesn't have any problems here because you're amazing.

Host Mom - No she's amazing.

Talla - No You're amazing
Host Mom - No Peace Corps is amazing...

etc.

I wonder if it's possible for Talla to get an accurate read on how my work is going. I was able to show him several substantial work projects and he seems really enthusiastic about the girls' group radio stuff but with everyone fawning over me and the Peace Corps in general, I wonder what he writes in his report.

Schools gets out this afternoon and resumes around April 27th (with Senegalese Independence Day being April 4th and Easter the 24th they just took the whole month). So my work will slow down a little bit BUT Noah (my brother) and Tara are just a few weeks from being married so I'll be back in the States soon for a week or so for that wedding!

KO

2011-03-21T08:25:00.002-01:00

My internet has finally been fixed! I promise I'll blog more now that I don't need to email my postings to my parents and have them post (thanks parents).

Things are moving along in Bambey - nothing too exciting to report. On Saturday the opposition parties (there are several smaller parties) held a rally in Dakar and a few other large cities. There wasn't a rally here but everyone watched the Dakar march on tv. It's just interesting how life still goes on even through something that people were thinking might be huge (Reuters' Article Pre-Rally). Everyone still had to go to the market and do their chores, they just did it with the tv on in the background. So far there hasn't been any follow up.

Yesterday I had a girls' group meeting - we're working on a radio show project. The girls are writing radio scripts and in two weeks another volunteer is coming to record them. The other volunteer, Erin, is arranging a deal with a local radio station for a "Peace Corps Hour" a few times a month. Hopefully my girls' skits and discussions can be on the radio someday! They tried to write a script last week but it was horribly confusing and a little inappropriate. For this week, I started with a basic plot diagram (intro, rising action, climax, concluding action, resolution) which none of them had seen or been taught before (that creative writing isn't taught here shouldn't surprise me at this point). Using that, they were able to put together one skit and are working on the other skit during the week. They have two weeks until Erin comes to record so hopefully everything will be ready.

My classes resume today because, theoretically, the strikes are over.

Also, it's the hot season like whoa. It was cool in Dakar and when I got back here it was hot. I'm talking about almost unbearable hot. The kind of heat that takes your breath away when you walk into the sun. The kind of hot when a gallon of water isn't enough during the day (yeah that's not a joke). This should stay until it starts raining in July, and it's still cooling off at night enough to sleep without a fan so that's a success! Speaking of heat though, I should go fill up my water-bottle! Happy Monday! I hope all of your brackets are doing well!

News Round Up

2011-03-17T22:52:00.002-01:00

Senegal Updates:

The power outages have been horrible and the teachers were on strike for a few weeks; those two things together just caused restlessness among the students. Last Monday the students decided to go on strike themselves to protest the teachers striking… it wasn’t entirely in solidarity but it was a little. They threw big rocks and burned tires to block the national highway that cuts through Bambey. It made it on the news (even though taking to other volunteers these strikes were going on all over the country). My host family and I were watching the news that night when we noticed a familiar face… YOUSSOU WAS ON THE NEWS! He wasn’t speaking but he was standing next to the student being interviewed! Now whenever I ask how his day was I ask if he talked to any news crews.

On Saturday there’s supposed to be a huge opposition rally in the main square in Dakar and also in other cities. The government is cautiously letting it happen and supposedly each opposition party will be represented (Senegal isn’t a 2 party system). My host sisters haven’t heard anything happening in Bambey – I’ll keep you updated as it all happens.

Peace Corps Updates:

My work is coming along well. I’m still teaching business classes and I have several side projects. We’re gearing up for the 2011 Girls’ Camp. I’m trying to put together some stuff with my girls’ group and also one of my business classes to do some skits. There’s a volunteer working with a radio station and, theoretically, these girls’ skits will be played during a “Peace Corps Hour” sort of thing on the radio.

In other areas of the country it’s just volunteers talking about things on the radio – which ours will be as well – but I’m hoping that my girls’ can create some good discussions and we can diversify the project.

Last night 3 volunteers finished their services! Oliver and Ankit were a year ahead of me and extended for a few extra months. Chris was a few months ahead of me and just finished his two years. A whole bunch of people went into Dakar to see them off. We spent most of the afternoon at the American club and then went down to Happy Hour. After Happy Hour, around 30 of us went to the Chinese Restaurant. We toasted to their services and safe travels with moonshine made of rice alcohol which was followed with cans of PBR. Yes. American beer that had been made in America, sent to China, imported from China to Senegal, then drank by Americans… globalization at its finest. After Chinese we all went back to the regional house and ate the cookies, brownies, and cake that Alyssa, Jackie, Erin, Tamar, and I had baked in the morning.

Finally around 2:30am they said their goodbyes and went to the airport. They’re now somewhere in the US on their way to Las Vegas for some March Madness games. While it was sad to say goodbye to volunteers that I’ve become really good friends with, I found it also really exciting. They had put in two amazing years of work for Senegal and influenced so many volunteers’ services (mine included) with their senses of humor and kindness. It was exciting to see them basically graduate from Peace Corps and go on to their next adventures. Also, being a little selfish, it made my end-date seem just a little closer.

That’s all that’s really going on in Bambey right now. I’ll try and blog more – hopefully the internet will be fixed.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day and enjoy March Madness for me!

WAIST 2011

2011-02-22T19:57:00.005-01:00

I have so much to say about WAIST so I'll try and get it all in. For those of you that don't know WAIST aka West African Invitational Softball Tournament is an annual softball tournament that the US Embassy puts on. For the USO team, Senegalese teams, high school team, and almost everyone else - WAIST is both fun and competitive.... for Peace Corps volunteers costumes are the most important part. Let's be honest - I still don't know who won but I know who had my favorite costumes (well, who had the second best costumes to our lederhosen).

The festivities kicked off Friday night with a Peace Corps talent show that was great but WAY more importantly, that my sub-region and I rocked these shirts:

We live in the "Thies Region" of Senegal - pronounced like "chess" so, as an entire region of girls (with Oliver and Thomas as honorary members) we got shirts - pretty clever, no?

After seeing our talented friends sing, dance, juggle, act out a puppet show, and more - we headed to a Peace Corps standard bar. No first night of WAIST is complete without 100 volunteers packing a club and that's how we ended the night.

Our first game was bright and early Saturday so we got up, dressed in lederhosen, and met our team mates (for WAIST we all play in regional teams, so I played with Dakar because Thies is my sub-region). Our first game was against Tambagou (a combination team of the Kedougou and Tamba regions) who were cops and robbers (including several ladies in jump suits, a couple of guys in SHORT shorts and cut off shirts, and the hamburgerler). Tambagou is notorious for forfeiting every game and that's what they did. Instead of playing real softball there was a little of this:

Followed by some of this (leap frog between 1st and 2nd and more awesome batting):

Not to mention, the robbers kept charging the field to steal the bases - yes actually pick them up off the ground - while the cops chased them down.

Our second game followed immediately and was a little bit of a buzz kill as we played the Mali team that was more about softball and less about costumes. It was still fun and we put up a really good showing (in our defense, we make an effort to let everyone play not just our people who will hit home runs).

That ended softball for day one. Everyone hung around the American club (where there's a pool) for a bit until going home to nap, ice sun burn, and (in the case of my homestay) make AWESOME bacon mac and cheese. The second night of WAIST is a date auction (raising money for Gender and Development projects) but I decided to take an easy night so I could be ready for the last full day of WAIST.

Sunday started with a game against CapeGerLi aka Cape Verde, Mali, and Niger volunteers (the Cape Verde volunteers were on vacation, the Mali team was mostly visiting Dakar so only a few people played, and the Niger volunteers had just transfered to Senegal after their program got shut down). Our second and final game was against Kaolack - our closest neighboring PCSenegal region who was dress like ballerinas. Though we started serious at the beginning (and I got a base hit and eventually scored a run) we started playing 3-ball softball which like if 2 softballs had a kickball for a child. That game ended, somewhat surprisingly, without injury, and everyone headed back to the pool. Sunday afternoon was for swimming, volleyball, and admiring everyone's costumes. In case you were wondering:
The North was Jersey Shore
Dakar was Lederhosen

Linguere was Cows and Cowboys
Kaolack was Ballerinas
Tambagou was Cops and Robbers

Kolda was Star Corps (like Star Wars - and they had some impressive storm trooper and Princess Leia costumes)

Sunday night two of the Cape Verde volunteers came over for a pasta dinner and we all headed to the defining WAIST party. During the day Oceanuim is a hotel/scuba school and by night can be rented for open air parties. The third year volunteers did an amazing job of planning, bar-tending, and generally supervising the party (while wearing matching white suits) while everyone else danced the night away. I can't think of a perfect way to describe the Oceanuim party other than to say imagine having all of your friends and their friends over (about 200 of them) and dancing until 5am. One of the great things about PCVs is that, in a situation like that, we've all had WAY more embarrassing things happen to us (getting sick, being peed on by a sheep, you name it) so no one cares about how they look when dancing - we just enjoy ourselves.

Unfortunately Alyssa got really sick pretty much the second we got to the party, so she went home early. I was the second person home and went to use the bathroom then to hang out with Alyssa. My first question was about how she was feeling and then my second question was whether or not she had seen the dead scorpion on the stairs next to the bathroom. She pretty much called me crazy until we went to look. I tried to prove it was dead by throwing a shoe at it and was proven HORRIBLY wrong when the 3-inch scorpion started skittering all over. We beat the crap out of it and quickly flushed it. My feet had been danced on all night (the nail polish on my toes chipped off and they were coated in dirt) so I couldn't really feel them. After doing significant Google research and being reassured by Alyssa and I would have felt a scorpion sting, I finally went to bed.

Monday was all about recovering, sleeping, and doing laundry. Monday evening we went back to the American club for one last hurrah. Like last year, the party started a little slowly. It was supposed to be a pool party but most people were either dancing or sitting and talking. While I was sitting by the pool with my legs dangling in I noticed 2 people from my training group looking suspicious and I heard one of them say, "I think she heard us, we can't do it now!" I moved away from the pool but took my phone out of my jean pocket instead. As a joke I then offered another volunteer $1 to throw Oliver - the volunteer who had planned the entire party and made a HUGE deal about it being a pool party - in. Like a good business volunteer, Oliver upped the offer to $4 to throw me in... eventually we ended up agreeing to jump in together (after taking our shoes off). We quickly became a pool gang: we would pick a target, then the guys would jump out and throw that person into the pool. Sure it sounds a little childish and maybe a little reckless but we all knew we would be returning to site the next day and back to our normal American-less lives of work. After finding some dry clothes I played some volleyball and joined the dance party.

Today, with WAIST actually over, I ran some errands and headed to Thies for an Artisan training. It ends tomorrow afternoon and I'll be back at site by dinner.

Summing up WAIST is fairly difficult (hence the long post) and I'll have more pictures in an album over the next few days. Overall, I had an amazing, amazing time - it was an awesome WAIST to be my last (then again I think WAIST is always great).

WAIST

2011-02-21T16:08:00.004-01:00

I'll write more about WAIST over the next few days but I thought these pictures needed to be shown immediately. Our theme was, very simply, "lederhosen."

My room the clubhouse

2011-02-15T19:22:00.005-01:00

My room has officially become a clubhouse - I'm writing you this email while Khady is coloring. Someone else came upstairs to give me something and after they left she was like "now close the door." I feel like I need a "no boys allowed" sign or something to really secure clubhouse status.

Also she was like "I want to look at the book with your mom and dad" (my photo album) and when I said "here's my mom" she said "you have two moms! your mom here and aunt amy diop!" so now she calls you guys my "white mom" and "white dad"

Oh, and she thinks nikki, our black pug/chihuahua mix is our sheep because I don't know the word for dog in wolof.

Schools, Spaghetti, and Sass

2011-02-12T18:51:00.000-01:00

The past week has been pretty uneventful in Bambey. Finals are going
on so my classes are on hold until after WAIST (next week!). I've been
getting work done for the upcoming conferences we have and the
presentations I'll be giving. But a few things happened over this past
week that are worth noting:

1. Last week I learned that in addition to the 4 public middle and
high schools in Bambey there are 3 private schools. When I asked what
kind of private schools they are I received a simple answer from
Miriam: schools for kids who were expelled, are too old to be in
normal school, or got pregnant (that explains why they're always so
mean to me!). For a few days I racked my brain trying to figure out
why a fairly small town would need 3 of these schools until Tamar
called. She explained that her counterpart was talking to his son
about his poor performance in school and actually threatened to send
him to Bambey! Yes, my town is a threat to bad kids all over!

2. Three nights ago Mor came in from hunting with his archaic, scary
looking shot gun and summed Youssou to get his killin's from the car.
Youssou carried in a rabbit... so the next night we had spaghetti and
rabbit with onion sauce! Yum.

3. I realized why I like Khady so much: she talks all the time, she
asks a million questions, and she's a little bossy...hmmmm sounds like
someone else... Last night she followed me into my room and we had
this conversation "Where's my coloring book?" "Right here." "Can I
have it?" "Tomorrow." "Okay, tomorrow."

Next week I'll hopefully be back to normal internet and can keep you
updated with WAIST info - I promise I'll take way more pictures this
year than I did last year.

KO

Just Like Normal

2011-02-07T10:30:00.002-01:00

I've had some internet troubles so this post is a little but last week I was teaching my favorite class which is a group of 12 girls. They knew each other before the class so they're more outgoing than the other classes. While they were working in their groups on picking a business idea I was wandering around the classroom. I noticed there was a schedule for sweeping the classroom. After reading the schedule, I realized that there were only girls' names on the list. I asked my class about this and they said that of course only the girls have to sweep and clean the board. When I asked what the boys did they responded with a simple, "nothing, of course, just like normal."

I've really been frustrated with the simple things that seem so easy to fix but are so ingrained in the culture. By having only the girls do chores while the boys sit and do nothing or study, it seems to me, that you're basically asking the male students to think they're superior with more valuable time. Maybe I'm over reacting but it's annoying to watch the girls be treated so unevenly and have it just be "normal."

In other news, I've been in Dakar to get some work done and to watch the Superbowl. Because it's not on tv here, the Marines invited everyone over to watch the game - which started at 11:30pm local time. The game went until 3:30am but we brought some veggies and dip (homemade and it was awesome, if I might say so myself) and the Marines had some other food out (including peanut m&ms, chips, and other dips).

Today I'M on my way back to site after lunch but I had to cancel my classes for the next two weeks because it's first semester finals/essays.

Hopefully my internet will work when I get back to site and I can update more regularly.

KO

Magal: Part Two

2011-01-24T19:11:00.002-01:00

Yesterday seemed a little calm for such a big holiday and now I know why... today was the social part!

People started arriving at our house by 9am (which means they left Touba EARLY). The women started on the big basin of onions to peel and chop for sauce. Once the onions had been finished everyone (all of the women) started specializing. By this time (11am) almost everyone had arrived. Like normal, the men sat outside the house, talked, and drank tea; the women were cooking; children were fetching things for everyone. After onions, some of the women prepared the other vegetables (cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, and green peppers) and the rest cleaned the meat (two big tubs of beef not mutton!!) and made the marinated. Miss started on the sauce (onions, vinegar, bullion cube, msg, salt, oil, maybe mustard) while my host mom made a fire. Because there was so much that needed to be cooked, we needed more than just the one gas burner... so fire! A piece of scrap metal was laid out, on top of that a mound of sand was added, and then the kindling and wood. Once the fire was going a GIANT pot was put on the fire and the meat went inside. After finishing most of the vegetables, the women started bleaching the lettuce and picking off the brown parts (I joined in and helped). The meat cooked for maybe an hour or two and was then moved to another marinate of oil, mustard, bullion cube, vinegar (you'll notice a seasoning theme) and then into a giant metal colander/rice steamer over another fire to grill for a little. By this point it was about 4pm and people were getting hungry. The kids started setting up mats for eating, bowls for hand washing, and bottles of water. Next, the women started plating giant metal plates with a few chunks of meat, two huge servings of onion sauce, fries, lettuce, and chopped vegetables (which was covered in a dressing of mustard, oil, salt, pepper, vinegar). Six big plates went out and the 25+ men (I couldn't get a good count) sat around them and started eating. A few minutes later a plate was made and all of the kids (about 10 of them) sat down to eat. A few minutes after that the women made their plates and we sat down to eat.
I'm usually the only person who prefers vegetables and today was no different. There were 4 women at my plate total and we had two HUGE pieces of meat as well as a ton of other stuff. I let everyone eat my share of the onion sauce and fries while I focused on making lettuce wraps with the meat (which is really just a fancy way of saying that I was eating them both at the same time). I've gotten pretty good at eating with my hand (right hand only per cultural rules)... ripping meat with only one hand is kind of hard. Today was probably the best Senegalese meal I've eaten. I mean, really, grilled beef and salad - awesome.
After lunch we all got a can of soda (which is pretty impressive and expensive). Once everyone had finished their soda the house cleared out in a matter of minutes. We went from having more than 50 people to having less than 15. The remaining women did the cleaning and we all pretty much settled down to watch soap operas because it was fairly late. At one point someone gave me a baby to hold that started crying immediately upon being given to me and stopped immediately upon being taken away from me... oh well.

There's one more day until everything, hopefully, gets back to normal and my classes start again.

KO

The Magal

2011-01-23T20:11:00.002-01:00

The Magal is the religious pilgrimage that has put everything on hold for the past few days (and will continue to do so the next few days). Members of the Mourid brotherhood (the largest sect of Islam in the country) travel to Touba for the day. Today almost everyone from my house left to go to Touba - at lunch it was only my host mom, Aisha (Khady's mom), Saly (who lives with the grown up host sister across town), and myself. People trickled back during the day but we're still only about half full... which is about to change.
I've mentioned it before but anyone coming from Thies or Dakar is going to pass through Bambey on their way to and from Touba which means that everyone my host family knows is invited to our house for lunch tomorrow on their way back home! We have soda for more than 60 people so I'm nervous. I've been told that people will be stopping by for lunch and staying until...?
In other news, we had porridge for dinner tonight. I was fairly hungry so I ate a decent amount. As I walked by Khady to put my bowl away (porridge is the only thing we don't share on a plate) she hid her porridge from me like I was going to steal some - she's a pretty funny kid.

That's all for today - I'm just biding my time until the holiday is over and things get back to normal (and class start hopefully).

KO

Class...

2011-01-18T16:25:00.002-01:00

Before going home for vacation I organized my Junior Achievement business classes. I have 3 at one of the middle schools and 3 at one of the high schools. My first class was Thursday of last week. About 3 weeks ago I reminded the principal to place a notice to the students reminding them that the class would be starting Jan. 13. Last Thursday I showed up at the high school and it was a surprise to everyone! Whoops! Forgot to remind the students - but no worries, he would remind the Tuesday class! Monday I went to the middle school and, without reminder, the students were there! I have 12 students in that class and they're all girls (which is even more exciting because of the 60-something high schoolers there are only 3 girls)! The class went alright and they seemed really excited about the competition (at the end of the course).

Today I went in for classes 3 and 4. This morning the high school didn't have a room for me (and hadn't reminded their students) so the Tuesday class was permanently cancelled and those kids were moved into the Wednesday section. I was really excited, though, for my afternoon class! It was at the middle school so the kids knew about it! I had fixed the kinks from Monday! I was ready to go!

But the students were striking.

When I got back to my house, I explained to my host mom why I wasn't teaching and her response was, "Oh, right, the students are striking because a teacher got 2 or 3 students pregnant."

Yep.

There's really nothing more to say than that.

Tomorrow starts the week long holiday for the Magal - religious pilgrimage of the largest sect to Touba.

Maybe I'll have more to stay but I'm still pretty speechless several hours after finding out about the pregnancies.

Power Outages

2011-01-15T14:29:00.002-01:00

Power outages are a subject that, while not absolutely riveting, deserve a little more attention because they're such a part of daily life.

First let me say that they aren't the typical type of outage caused by a big storm or freak accident. Whatever your explanation for it (grid over-extension, not enough power to go around, etc.), the government/power company (who are co-mingled) has to cut the power. There isn't an actual "schedule" or anything - the power just goes out... and then eventually (so far every time) comes back on. Sometimes it goes out for a few hours, sometimes for more than just a few hours. It's different in different areas but recently Alyssa (who's 50km away) and I have been having the same outages which leads me to believe a huge chunk of the country doesn't have power at the same time. Over the past few days we've been loosing power between about 11am-2pm then again from 7:30pm-10:30pm. My host family said that the power had been cutting almost everyday like that for a while. The power cut this morning at 5am and didn't come back until 2:30pm. It actually just cut again while I was blogging (3:45pm) so we'll see when it comes back this time.

I would say the worst part about the power cutting is that about 45 minutes after the power has cut - the water stops being able to be pumped and it cuts. I've been pretty diligent about keeping my water filter filled and my host family keeps about 100 liters of water for cleaning/washing... it's still just frustrating to not have running water to say.. wash your hands.

Now I understand that there are many volunteers that don't have any electricity or running water but this is just another description of my little slice of Africa.

Back in Bambey

2011-01-14T13:58:00.002-01:00

A very delayed Happy New Year everyone! I had a wonderful trip home and got to spend a quality time with my family, friends, and boyfriend. I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season!
The adventure (which I say with neither a positive or negative connotation) began on the plane: it was 3 seats per row I was seat F the window seat. When I got to my row there was a guy in the aisle seat and one in the window seat who I made switch (no way I'm giving up my window seat for an 8 hour flight). A few minutes later another girl came along and said she was in the aisle seat... whoops... 4 people for 3 seats. The flight attendant quickly saw the problem and came over to discover that both of those men had been issued tickets with the same seat. The flight attendant put the woman who was supposed to be in the aisle in another seat and left. He came back a few minutes later and explained that the two men had bought their ticket at the same agency and, because they have the same name (which happens all the time in Senegal), the agency sold them the same seat. He explained that they would both have to get a refund from their ticket agency and buy new tickets but that they would have to get a new ticket immediately if they wanted to be on that flight. It blows my mind that two people were able to get ALL THE WAY ON A PLANE with the same ticket.

Anyway - once I was back in Dakar I went to the office and got some stuff taken care of. I wasn't feeling very well so I went to med and stayed for a day. I'm better now and back at site!

Yesterday morning I gave my host mom the 6 pounds of candy and 3 pounds of oreos I brought back for the family (she said "this is too much!!"). Then I gave her the gift I brought back for her which she really liked and seemed really touched by (she kept saying "but we didn't give you anything to give your parents!"). I was waiting to give everyone else their gifts until Mor got his but he was gone all day and in the evening I finally decided that, though I'm normally quite culturally respectful - they were my gifts and I would hand them out as I wanted to. While everyone was sitting in the dark (we haven't been having power between 7:30-10:30pm so we sit in the dark outside), I grabbed presents. Everyone was really appreciative when I handed them out and they took turns looking at each others gifts. Youssou kept using his new pump to pump and deflate the soccer ball. Khady was the best though, she danced around with the cabbage patch doll she got saying "Fatou gave this to me!"

I'm still trying to motivate myself to go see other people and get work started. I had a class I was supposed to teach yesterday but the principal forgot to remind people (I had asked him to right before I left) so no one showed up. The most frustrating part isn't that I spent all morning prepping or that I walked to the high school to do this but it's the principal's nonchalant attitude regarding wasting my time and delaying the start of these classes. He doesn't seem to care if the classes actually ever happen which doesn't help my motivation problems.

Today right before lunch, Ndeye (one of the high school girls) asked Khady if her baby was hungry and Khady said "yes!" ran into her room, brought out her doll, and then strapped it to her back (like all Senegalese women). Last I saw her she was still carrying the baby doll on her back.

KO

I'll be home for Christmas

2010-12-21T17:49:00.001-01:00

Happy Holidays Everyone! This might be my only blog from the States but I thought my journey back was worth a post.
I planned on leaving Bambey by 8am Monday because I had things to do in the Peace Corps office in the afternoon. My host mom helped me look for a donkey cart to take my baggage to the road so I could flag down a bus but we couldn’t find one. Eventually I walked to the market and got the first cart I saw. At a pace slower than I walk we headed back to my house. When we got there my host dad was starting his car and said to me in English, “I’m going to Dakar too put your stuff in the car.” When I told my host mom what was going on she was PISSED - not at me but because my host dad had just gotten back from Dakar the day before and hadn’t told her he was going back. I felt bad kind of picking sides but how can you turn down a free ride that will take half the time as the bus? We had to take a detour out of Bambey because the teachers and students had barricaded the national highway because the teachers were owed 6 months of paychecks.
We made it to Dakar in only a few hours and I was at the office on time. After the office I went back to the regional house which is bursting at the seams of volunteers leaving and volunteers waiting to pick up friends or family. There was another volunteer on my flight so we got take out Chinese food and just hung around repacking our bags.
I like getting to the airport early (not a surprise if you know my parents) so I convinced the other volunteer to leave the regional house at 4am. We went to the airport with two other volunteers going to Tanzania and found a cab pretty quickly. When we made it to the highway the cab pulled over and said that we had to get out because his car was broken but he would find us another car. We switched cars and made our way to the airport. At the airport we had our bags weighted (mine were under which was a good surprise) and then completely searched through. After most of the things were taken out of my bag they had to be put back in – which took time considering the number of presents I’m bringing home!
After checking in the other volunteer and I went through customs and security. Then we bought a juice and went to the special Delta gate which had… ANOTHER SECURITY CHECK! At this point we’d been through several and it was just humorous. Our carry-ons were searched, we had to drink our juices, we were pat down, then we were sent to another waiting room. Around 6:50am we boarded our flight and that’s where I am now. There’s a second Senegal PCV on this flight and one from The Gambia too. I’m currently about 4 and a half hours from JFK. Hopefully I won’t have any more blog-worthy adventures and will make it safely and quickly to Chicago.
I’m back! This time I’m blogging from JFK while waiting for my flight to Chicago. The flight before mine was cancelled because of bad weather but hopefully mine will get out alright. So a few things worth noting:

1. To get between terminals at JFK you have to walk outside. SURPRISE! I’m in flipflops and a shirt… and still defrosting but it was refreshing!

2. I look crazy because I’m so smiley and I’m thanking everyone.

3. Turkey sandwiches are amazing

4. Blue Moon’s are also amazing

Merry Christmas!
KO

Alyssa and Katherine go to Diourbel: Pictures

2010-12-19T14:22:00.002-01:00

For all of the pictures go to Alyssa's blog: http://alyssainsenegal.blogspot.com/ or her Picasa album http://picasaweb.google.com/alyssatitche/SoftballSeason#

but here are two kids with axes:

Alyssa and Katherine go to Diourbel

2010-12-18T19:07:00.002-01:00

During the Artisan Expo Alyssa, Tamar, and I put in orders for wooden, "traditional", Senegalese chairs. The artist works in Diourbel which is 25km east of me. We sat in the chairs and described the coloring we wanted and the complete lack of a design EXCEPT we wanted "Corps de la Paix 2009-2011" on the bottom of the chairs. We wrote it all out and had a long conversation about how we needed to get the chairs by the 18th. Everything was agreed upon, we shook hands, and paid the down payment (half).

Everyday last week I called the artist and he seemed to be making great progress. He was sure he would be able to get all 6 chairs done for us to take on the 18th. When I called Thursday he said they would be done after 5pm. When I called Friday they would be done before noon!

Today Alyssa and I (because Tamar has already returned to the glorious America) met in Diourbel. We called the artist and he said to stop by after lunch. We ate lunch at pretty much the only restaurant in Diourbel and had bad sandwiches. Afterwards we went to the "artist village" which is a bunch of half build buildings and is 95% jewelery makers. After rounding several corners and following the sound of axes we found the wood working section... and we found an entire wood posse making our chairs! There were other people making other chairs which, it appears, you do by hacking away with an ax at a piece of wood then sanding a ton. All 6 of our chairs were being sanded by Mamadou (the artist), his father, and his brothers who ranged from in their 20s to 6 years old. The 6 year old was sanding a chair piece that was actually bigger than him. Mamadou gave us two other chairs to sit in away from the action in what seemed to be the pee corner... like where you go if you need to pee... or at least that's what it smelled like. Eventually he brought over a bottle of Sprite with two glasses for us which was really nice of him, we each drank a glass not to be rude then spent about 30 minutes trying to call over the 6 year old. Eventually he took the Sprite and shared it with the entire posse.

Once the sanding was done Mamadou came over with the bottoms of the chair (where we wanted the carvings) and asked us to write what we wanted. After writing it on one he took a chisel and started hacking away. We then wrote it on all of the bottoms and he hacked away at all of them. While they were varnishing/tinting the chairs with shoe polish Alyssa and I took a stroll around the market to get empty rice sacks to put our chairs in. When we came back we were able to take in the full multi-generational scene that seems to be the Diourbel artist village. It seems like under 10 years old you're allowed to sand and carry things. Once you're over 10 you're allowed to swing an ax uncontrollably at a log. 10-15 it looks like you can hack away at the big pieces and older than 15 you're doing the more artistic hacking, the finishing touches if you will.

Once our chairs were finished we paid for the rest and were on our way! Mamadou put us in a cab to the garage where Alyssa and I parted ways (until post-America time!). I got into my "mini-bus" which is an old conversion van with WAY too many seats. We left Diourbel with 19 people in the car and my chair pieces (they break down into 2 pieces) in an open rice sack on the roof. I spent the first half of the ride watching for chair pieces to fly off the roof and impale donkeys on the side of the road. Once we hit the halfway point I got distracted - the door next to me flew open while we were driving but NO WORRIES! it was closed again. Then, 10km, from Bambey we loaded up with people... by my count we had 21 people in the car and 5 people hanging off the back.

I'm back safely (with all of the chair pieces) and the chairs fit into my suitcase! I have 1 last girls' group meeting tomorrow. Monday I'm off to Dakar and to America Tuesday - send positive thoughts about the weather to New York and Chicago!

KO

Happy New Year's!

2010-12-15T19:49:00.002-01:00

Tonight is New Year's for the Muslim calendar aka Tamkharit in Senegal! Unlike most holidays this one is pretty low-key... there was even school this morning! Forgetting it was Tamkharit I scheduled a meeting for this afternoon but I had 32 students show up which added another 3 Junior Achievement classes to my schedule starting in January - I'm now over 100 students (and that's only at two of the 4 schools).

But back to the holiday!

For dinner we ate Senegalese couscous, chicken, and tomato sauce. As we sat down to the bowl they asked if I wanted a spoon then explained that everyone usually eats with their hands on Tamkharit so I dived in! Eating couscous isn't all that hard - just a little messy. After dinner the kids put on a ton of random clothes - some cross dressing, some just in ridiculous outfits - and put on whiteface. Then they got drums they had made earlier in the week and are marching around house to house kind of trick-or-treating. I bought a bag of candy earlier today that my family is giving out along with some cookies they bought.

Happy Tamkharit Everyone!

Artisan Expo!

2010-12-14T09:26:00.004-01:00

I've been in Dakar for the last few days to the Artisan Exposition. Every year artists, who work with PCVs, travel to Dakar and have a two-day exposition/market. This year Alyssa was the expo chief and I was her runner/helper. She did an AMAZING job putting the expo together. The artists were from all over the country and sold: wood sculptures, silver jewelery, beaded jewelery, cloth bags, clothing, art work, traditional crafts, and a variety of other things. The first day the artists sold from 10am-5pm.
The second day the expo started with a training for the artists while volunteers sold for the artists. During the expo the artists created a network and elected a board to run the network. Theoretically they will be able to start planning and eventually take over the planning for the expo. After the network was created there was an instant increase in comradery and togetherness with the artisans. They started buying things from each other and collaborating on projects. Matar, my tailor/artist, is working with a leather artist to leather handles on some bags.
Another huge success of the expo was in the marketing. Usually notices are sent out by people who work in the office but this year Alyssa and I decided amp it up a little. We put flyers all around downtown Dakar hoping that it would attract some new clients... and it totally did! We had some people fill out surveys and most of the clients said they heard about the expo from our flyers downtown. One woman owns a boutique, heard about the expo from the flyers, and ended up buying a ton of stuff to resell. At the end of the expo we totaled the amount sold and this year we had tripled last year's expo total! Overall it was a HUGE success!
In addition to a great expo, we spent the weekend making delicious meals! The first night we made amazing taco salad, that was followed with bacon mac and cheese (made from Velveeta my mom sent), then Tamar and Alyssa made brisket and latkes, and last night we had pasta with an arrabiata sauce.
I'm at the training center in Thies right now to give a presentation this afternoon and then back to site! After that it's only a few days until I'm off to the US! I'm trying to load up the next few days with things to be busy so they don't drag on. I'll post my pictures from the expo tonight or tomorrow when I'm back at site.

KO

All Volunteer Conference

2010-12-07T20:03:00.003-01:00

Last weekend was the annual All Volunteer Conference (or all vol for short) when Peace Corps Senegal (about 200 volunteers) descends upon one city (this time Thies) for a weekend of learning and sharing. The sessions were interesting but I think what happened outside of sessions makes for a more interesting blog!

The night before all vol I stayed at Jackie's in Pout and we had a nice Mexican fiesta (vegetarians taco salad) and enjoyed trashy tv. The next morning dinner became breakfast (fiesta omelet) and we were off to Thies!

For the first night of Hanukkah the Jewish volunteers lit a menorah while drinking in the Catholic compound next to the training center - how about that for sharing cultures! Another night we had a HUGE trivia game with most of the volunteers - my team was second by 1 point.

For the final night of all vol, my friends and I treated ourselves to a lovely Massa Massa dinner. After dinner we went to the bumper cars. Yes. Thies has bumper cars. It's run by a Lebanese guy and mostly filled with Lebanese teenage boys while Senegalese kids stand around the outside and watch. Most of the cars are broken and hard to drive - for example, I had a car that only went backwards - but it was a hilarious time.

I'm now back at site getting some work done before the Artisan Expo which is this weekend in Dakar. Alyssa, Tamar, and I have been working on creating an eating plan that includes: mexican, mac and cheese, Shabbat dinner, breakfast sandwiches, and a romantic sunset date with shellfish.

I hope everyone's enjoying the cold and listening to Christmas music!

KO

Curtsying

2010-11-30T19:24:00.003-01:00

It's been a while since I had a run-in with my contention with curtsying but yesterday brought another battle.

I was at the department of education (where I've gone almost every week for the past few months) to organize some Junior Achievement classes. There's usually a group of men (teachers or administrators) sitting under a tree past the door so, like usual, I greeted them as I was walking into the building. They asked me to come back to them and this was the conversation we had:
"In our culture when a woman like you sees a group of men like us, you walk over and greet us personally and curtsy."
"I'll greet you all personally (then I did) and I'll ask you about your day (and I did) but I won't curtsy."
"You have to curtsy."
"I'll curtsy when you curtsy for me."
(some of the men laughed)
"Men are always the chief. They are always in of a family so that is why you must curtsy to me."
"This isn't a family, this is a place of business - a government organization."
"It doesn't matter. Men are always superior to women."
(At this point I was using all of my self-control) "Well, those may be your beliefs but I think they're wrong."
"No, men are always superior. And you're not being culturally respectful."
"I've lived here a year, I've made an effort to learn Wolof, I wear respectful clothing, and I participate in your culture but I won't curtsy unless you show me the same respect."
From there the conversation became about Senegalese food and whether or not I could cook any until I got away to go to my meeting.

I completely understand, and try very hard, to be culturally respectful - to a point. I will not start a meeting 2 hours late because that's a cultural norm. I will not pay people to attend a training I'm giving because they expect it. I won't curtsy to anyone because it is meant to put women in their "inferior" place.

In other news, I'm off for the All Volunteer Conference! Have a good (early) weekend!

Thanksgiving: Part 2

2010-11-28T19:18:00.004-01:00

Happy belated Thanksgiving and happy start of the Christmas season! My Thanksgiving holiday kicked off with marketing for the Artisan Expo. Alyssa and I walked around downtown handing out flyers to restaurants, hotels, and businesses downstairs. The big coup of the day was when we walked into the European Union building and, using Alyssa's Wolof, convinced the guards to let us leave a flyer and a pamphlet. During the next week our awesome publicity materials should be posted on www.pcsenegal.org so check it out this week to see if it gets posted.

The night before Thanksgiving the 2nd year volunteers made chili and cornbread (which Alyssa and I made from scratch without a recipe and it was AWESOME) for the new volunteers. We all ate chili and had an awesome welcome party for the new Dakar region volunteers (they arrived in August so our party was a little late). We also voted on our WAIST costume theme... but I'm going to keep that a secret until WAIST in February!

On Thanksgiving morning Alyssa, Erin, Jackie, Brian, Tamar, and I went to Nicole's house to use her oven (there were a lot of people needing to use the oven at the regional house). We made an amazing breakfast with eggs, toast, bacon, and cooked vegetables. The rest of the day was spent hanging out and cooking, it was really great to have a real kitchen to use and be able to spend a relaxing time with friends. Brian made brownies and brownies with peanuts while the rest of us made a huge dish of squash casserole and another of homemade stuffing. After cleaning ourselves up a little (which I have to say we do well) we went to the Ambassador's and joined 40 other volunteers for an AMAZING Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone had brought a ton of sides, mashed potatoes, stuffing, salad, green beans, cranberry sauce, pasta salad, homemade bread, and a ton of other stuff along with 3 turkeys and desserts galore. It was so great to have a normal dinner and get a 2 hour break from our normal lives - it was a really holiday. After dinner some of us took a walk over to the Meridian hotel and got a nice drink before heading back to the regional house.

The next morning I was up and back to site! Yesterday I caught up with Matar about artisan expo things and took stock of the work he has left to do before the expo (Dec 11-12). The volunteer from Diourbel was in town with her counterpart so I visited with her for a few hours - they're doing interesting work with solar ovens and were giving a training in my town to try and sell them.

Today I had a girls' group meeting that, unfortunately, only 3 girls showed up for but we made friendship bracelets and I asked them some questions about the girls' camp to help with our planning of future camps.

Happy Holiday Season Everyone!
KO

Thanksgiving: Part 1

2010-11-22T23:01:00.002-01:00

Today was Thanksgiving in Bambey! My parents had sent me two cans of cranberry sauce which paired nicely with the mashed potatoes I made. I would have made more if it was possible but there isn't much in the market these days (also it all had to be cooked over a burner).

Before dinner (because I couldn't think of a better time), I peeled potatoes and then cooked them in my room (so I didn't use up my host family's gas burner). I took the potatoes downstairs when they were done cooking and I mashed them (and added salt, butter, and powdered milk) while they prayed. After prayer time I opened the cranberry sauce (that had been chilling in the fridge) and Youssou came in to check on what I was doing. He sampled the potatoes then carried out spoons for everyone else. I cut the cranberry sauce, along the lines of the can obviously, and followed with the food. Everyone really liked what I made, I think they ate most, if not all, of it. My host mom asked if I used a machine to get the potatoes like that and when I responded, "No, I used this fork," they were impressed (I overcooked the potatoes so they were really easy to mash).

I tried to explain that we eat a turkey with a whole bunch of side dishes but I think it translated into we eat turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and lots of vegetables... which is sort of right. Everyone ate the cranberry sauce into the mashed potatoes so, unintentionally, they got the awesomeness of when things mix together on your plate.

Tomorrow I go to Dakar for some work, a welcome party for the new (arrived in August - we're a little late) volunteers, and real Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
KO

Leftovers

2010-11-20T22:34:00.004-01:00

What do you do when faced with a few pieces of ram stomach, some bites of boiled potato, an oily broth, and a piece of bread? I opted to eat the stomach with the potato then conquered the broth with the bread. It's Tabaski leftover time!

The stomach soup was, not surprisingly, not the highlight of my day though. This morning I was sitting downstairs reading when the neighborhood kids realized they could see me through the open door and talk to me without coming into the house. They started chanting my name, asking me to come outside because they had something to show me, and then telling me they loved me. I normally would be nicer to neighborhood kids except everyone is running wild after a week without school. Every time I leave my house I get harassed with demands for money, a soccer ball, called names - everything. Also I've realized that I only enable kids when I give them attention for things like this... if you give a mouse a cookie. Eventually, Miss became annoyed with them chanting my name so she went out to tell them to leave. This caused them to momentarily scatter... but they returned. Adji (the 12 year old) went out to tell them to leave but they ignored her so she, all on her own, got a pitcher of water to throw at them. After enjoying the hilarity of the situation (my 12 year old host sister was sticking up for me against a whole bunch of 8 year old boys) I went out. "What do you want to show me?" they responded with giggles and silence. "Okay, if you don't have anything to show me or anything to ask me, you need to leave." Khady (the 3 year old) emphasized with a "go! get out!" It didn't really stop the kids.

I decided, regardless of the success of the mission, I would reward Khady and Adji for helping me out. My parents sent me bubbles a while ago and I'd been looking for a not-awkward time to bring them down. After realizing what they were Adji quickly hid hers in her room (that she shares with her mom and sister) while Khady was AMAZED. After having me blow bubbles for her, she tried to do it on her own. Unable to master the skill she had everyone else blow bubbles for her while she cheered and pointed out the bubbles. Eventually she spilled most of it but had enough left that, when she filled the bottle with water, it still worked.

This evening she brought her bottle out again and sat on Miss' lap trying to blow bubbles. Every time she would get one she would chant, "I can do it! I can do it!" or "look! I did it!" She also took turns having us blow bubbles for her. Mom and Dad, thanks for the bubbles - they were a huge hit.

If anyone wants the recipe for stomach soup I'm sure Miss will share!

KO

Tabaski: Year 2

2010-11-17T20:41:00.003-01:00

Happy Tabaski Everyone! I'm going to try and explain the day as well as I can, I'll warn you it might be a little gruesome and the pictures that I'll post tomorrow are a little gory.

The day started around 8am when the mosque started calling. Eventually at 9am men from allover town had gathered in the open space at the end of my block. I later found out that on Tabaski, the religious leaders pick a few large open spaces instead of having everyone to crowded mosques. The men prayed and, as uncomfortable as I felt for watching them (which I barely did anyway), it was amazing to see all of the men and boys in their brightly colored boubous. While the men were praying the women were at home waiting. Around 9:30 Miss brought out a giant bucket filled with onions and another bucket to put the chopped onions in. Everyone started cutting. Senegalese women cut onions in their hands but, as an American who was raised with a healthy concern of knives, I requested a plate to act as a cutting board. Everyone said what I was going made sense and we all chuckled remember last year when I cut myself trying it their way. By the time the onions were done the men were back and it was sheep killin' time. We had 3 sheep (one for Mor, his older brother, and his younger brother - Miss' husband). Youssou led the sheep into the street and around the corner from the house while the women waited inside. After killing the sheep and letting them bleed out, they were returned into the "drive-way" area under my window and set on pieces of scrap metal. About this time Mor's brothers showed up and brought a ton of soda, bissap juice, bread, tomatoes, and peppers.

After sheep killin' time, it's sheep butcherin' time. We actually hired a butcher to come and help with all of that. Taco (Miss' husband) cut a slit in the leg of the sheep and then used a piece of tubing to inflate the sheep separating the skin from the organs. Then the sheep were skinned one at a time. After a sheep was skinned it was hung on the garage door and the butcher basically played pinata with a machete. He was hacking away parts and throwing them into buckets while Khady (the three year old) stared at the gruesome scene and squealed in delight.

While the sheep were being butchered the women (myself included) skinned potatoes and prepped the rest of the vegetables.

As soon as the animals were butchered the cooking began! First comes the liver (which sounds a lot better when you call it fois). Liver is grilled then eaten with onions and mustard. While Miriam grilled the liver and then the ribs, my host mom was working on the onion sauce for later in the day, Miss was cleaning EVERYTHING, I was peeling potatoes then helping Miriam cut meat, Aisha was cutting the larger pieces of meat into cookable pieces, Youssou was cleaning up the blood, and the men sat outside playing scrabble drinking sprite. At one point in this cooking madness everyone heard what sounded like my host dad calling my host mom from outside the house all of the women looked at her and she said, "I didn't hear anything... did you?" and everyone obviously agreed with her.

After the liver comes ribs and kababs (which Miriam and I put together). Once the first batch of kababs was finished the women and Youssou sat down/crouched around a platter to eat. Overcooked mutton isn't the best but mixed with grilled onions and mustard it isn't bad. I finished eating first and they let me take over for cooking the kababs - which isn't that impressive because they overcook everything so I just sat and watched them cook to far overdone.

Khady had been watching me all day and finally decided that if the women let me cook, or at least help, I must not be all that bad so she took to hanging on me when everyone else was annoying her/actually cooking. She led me around the house and then she pretended to hit me, eventually she was sent to do something else and I went upstairs to digest.

At some point after 4pm the main meal was ready (meat, onion sauce, fries, and bread) but luckily I wasn't called to eat... I don't think I could have at that point. Eventually it became time to put on my nice new dress. I had gone to the market and in a moment of confusion bought a polka dotted fabric. ugh. Then I asked Matar to turn it into a dress that looked like it had no shape... basically a recipe for attractiveness BUT WAS I EVER WRONG! The "shapeless" dress was TIGHT like Senegalese women like their clothes - I was worried it was going to burst every time I sat down or moved too quickly. A girls' camp/group girl had called me yesterday and asked if I could visit her so I was prepping to visit her. While I was putting in my contacts (hey it's the biggest day of the year!) the power cut. I had a Laura Ingles Wilde moment while putting on make-up (even though I don't think she wore eyeliner) and made my way downstairs. My host mom was really concerned with me going in the dark to visit someone so she sent Youssou along. He scared away some kids that were making fun of me...and then realized I was lost. We called the girl and she talked to Youssou and found us (I wasn't that lost - just one block past her house). By this time the power had come back on.

Youssou, who's normally the bottom of the ladder, was my guest/a guest of the house and it was nice to see him get a chair and be offered water (usually he's the one getting things for other people). I got to talk to the girl's older brother (who had convinced her parents that they should let her come to the camp). I'm glad I got to talk to him while his sister was around because he was thanking me for the work I did and I was able to say (loudly so she heard me) that I wasn't doing anything and that it was all his intelligent, hard working sister. It was even better to hear him acknowledge all of that (usually people just ignore when I compliment their kids/siblings). After a while there, Youssou and I returned to our house talking about the rebels in the southern part of the country (fyi - I'm sneaking him a pudding cup for coming along).

Because my household is mostly women who spent the entire day working everyone was tired and there wasn't much going on. After chatting with my host family for a little bit I came upstairs and here we are!

Everything smells like meat and we'll be eating these 3 sheep for the next 3 months BUT I had a really good holiday. Happy Tabaski everyone!

KO

Preparations: Beauty

2010-11-13T20:59:00.002-01:00

Today Tabaski preparations were all about beauty! Over the past few days everyone has gotten rid of their weaves and let their braids go...all to get ready for NEW WEAVES! The fun actually started a few days ago: Miss and Aisha (Khady's mom) got their hair done a few days ago; yesterday my host mom had her braids taken out. Today's day of beauty started with Adji (the 12 year old) getting her new braids trimmed (the loose hairs had to be cut off). Then it was Khady's turn...her braids had been taken out yesterday so she had an adorable little fro. Miriam is the expert braider in our household so she sat in a plastic chair with Khady on a stool. The second a comb touched Khady's hair she started SCREAMING. She was writhing and Miriam had to hold her in place with her legs but it all finally stopped when Miriam gave up. During lunch everyone told Khady that she should get her hair braided and that she would be really pretty. Eventually Miriam was able to braid Khady's hair this afternoon. This evening Miriam and Ndeye went to get their hair relaxed before getting their weaves tomorrow or the next day.

More Tabaski preparations tomorrow I'm sure!

Are you preparing for the holiday?

2010-11-12T14:35:00.002-01:00

I've been asked a LOT recently if I'm preparing for the holiday so eventually I asked what that entailed and no one could give me a direct answer. I've noticed, though, that there is a real festive mood that I didn't notice last year (possibly because last year, Tabaski was the day after Thanksgiving so I was a little distracted). Mor hasn't bought our Tabaski ram yet - I thought he had but it was just another sheep not the special one. He did explain the important things to consider when buying a Tabaski ram. According to him:
-God didn't set a price range, just that you spend what you can
-The sheep must be a male and must be at least 1 year old (so it's not a lamb)
-1 and 2 year old sheep are preferred because their meat is more tender
-A ram loses 2 teeth a year so you check how many teeth a ram has before buying it to make sure you're paying for the right aged ram
-Color and horns don't really matter - size is a way to show off your wealth

So there's a short guide for buying a Tabaski ram for those of you who still need to! The holiday this year will be Wednesday and school is out for the break. The students get a full week of classes off and only went on strike for one extra day off. I'm impressed they only demanded one extra day - usually they take another week or so off on strike.

More about holiday preparations tomorrow!

It's beginning to look a lot like Tabaski!

2010-11-04T20:23:00.002-01:00

Tabaski and the meat overload it brings is around the corner! Our Tabaski sheep have arrived and are happily living in the pen behind out our house. Tonight we had a huge sack of onions delivered to make enough onion sauce to feed the entire town. The holiday is the 17th and everyone is getting ready!

In other news, I received approval from the Department of Education to start teaching business classes again - this time at all 3 middle schools. Though I'd like the classes to start ASAP, which in Senegalese terms means January after the holidays.

And a little story for you:
Today we were eating lunch (ceeb u jen like normal) and I was sitting next to the three year old. While everyone either eats with their hand or a spoon (and doesn't change between their preferred method), Khady switches on a daily basis. Sometimes she eats with her hand and sometimes she eats with a baby spoon. Regardless of how she's eating she normally only eats hoyn which is the crunch rice scrapped off of the bottom of the pot. Like normal, my host mom was dividing up everyone fish and vegetables (she rips off pieces for us while we eat the rice). About halfway through my meal of fish, rice, and some carrot, Khady reached into my section and grabbed a piece of carrot. Everyone was silent waiting to see how I would react. Khady immediately realized that she had committed a HUGE faux pas and put the carrot back in my section. I thought it was pretty funny so I started chuckling and everyone else relaxed and saw the humor. I gave Khady the carrot back but she was still too afraid to eat it. Everyone around the bowl told her she could eat it and that I, as her friend, had given it to her. After finishing what I wanted to eat, I left the bowl. When I looked back the first thing Khady did was eat the carrot.

KO

Help!

2010-10-31T19:34:00.002-01:00

I didn't have a girls' group meeting today because I promised a really exciting meeting next week.... and that's where there's a problem. I'm not really a crafty person and was obviously not a good girl scout so I am LACKING for ideas. Sure, I have a ton of development/discussion topics but I don't have any fun activities. So! If you have any ideas for any kind of activity/art/craft/project ANYTHING, please leave them in comments or email me! Send it even if it requires a lot of craft-like things.. Bambey doesn't have a craft store but I might be able to find substitutes!

Happy Halloween!

The Senegalese Locksmith: Part 3

2010-10-26T22:38:00.003-01:00

Today I had what I thought would be the third part of making things right after losing my keys - I had to get a new key to my post box. Now, usually the post office is minimally helpful. If I need something done, they'll do it but only to the least extent they have to (as an aside, this isn't different than most businesses in Senegal). I went in this morning and explained the situation... and was told to come back at 3pm then I could have a new key - easy enough!

At 3pm I showed up at the post office and the guy who I had talked to earlier went to get his boss/the head of the post office (who apparently doesn't work mornings). The guy started yelling at me in Wolof for losing my key. I made him switch to French. He yelled some more about making me lose my key. As the good fake-Wolof I am, I started yelling at him about how I needed him to give me a key. Then he yelled that he couldn't give me a key. So I started yelling, "so it's done? forever? that box is closed forever? it can never be opened again?!" and he didn't disagree. So I told him I wanted to buy a new box and that really set him off. He COULDN'T have me pay for a new box because I would ABSOLUTELY lose the key again then I would come back and get another box and lose the key and keep doing all of that until I had lost all of the keys for all of their boxes.

Refusing to acknowledge his offensive, patronizing manor for losing a stupid key (which, fyi, I think those might have been the first set of keys I've ever misplaced in my life) AND refusing to get into a discussion of his poor business skills - JUST SELL ME ANOTHER BOX. I yelled at him for being ridiculous. While we'd been yelling back and forth like good Wolof people, we'd created quite a scene and everyone in the post office (all 5 people) were paying attention and laughing along. I finally told him that if he wasn't going to give me a new key or box, I was going to make the people at the post office check my box for me whenever I wanted to know if there was something. I gave him the ultimatum of, "I can do the work or you can do the work," and that drove him into the back office...

...only to come back with a spare key for my box! He patronized me for losing the key a little more and I told him I was going to make 5 copies of the key and give them all back to him. I paid my 1000cfa ($2) and strutted out with my new key. Bambey does not have a place to copy keys so this weekend I'm going to make a ton of copies of the key and put them all in my mailbox for the people at the post office to see!

KO

The Senegalese Locksmith: Part 2

2010-10-25T22:52:00.003-01:00

I woke up bright and early Saturday morning because I had a list of things to accomplish! Alyssa and I had a meeting in Dakar and I needed to leave by 10am to make it on time. I went to the hardware store and bought the best lock I could find aka the only lock she had. Next, I visited my good friend Babacar and gave him the lock. He was eating his bean sandwich so I told him to finish his breakfast then come over and repair my door. Eventually he reinstalled the new lock which involved gluing the pieces of door that had been chipped off the night before back to the larger door frame. By 9:15am I had a new lock and 3 new keys! I immediately grabbed my bag for Dakar, locked my fancy new lock, gave a key to Awa to give to my host mom (who was at the market), and hit the road!

Alyssa and I had a good meeting and things with the Artisan Exposition are moving along. It's kind of odd that a year ago I had no idea what was going on and now I'm one of the people planning it. After the meeting, we played some softball on the Peace Corps team (there's a league that runs until WAIST the big, costumed, tournament in Feb.). We both played the entire game (her as 2nd base, me as catcher) and had a few good hits. After softball we had a wonderful dinner (thai salad and a vegetable stir fry), then met up with other volunteers at a bar. After the bar we all headed to 'da club' which ended up being OUR club... because we were the only people in it. Eventually 4 middle aged Indian businessmen showed up and hit the dance floor when the theme song from Slumdog Millionaire came on. After a night of dancing - which was really fun because it was like we had a private party - we went back to the regional house which was gloriously empty.

The next morning we had breakfast and headed home. I had a meeting with my girls' group and fell asleep pretty early - travel always makes me tired. The key saga will hopefully end tomorrow: in addition to my room key, I lost the key to my mailbox and tomorrow I try to get a new one!

Wish me luck!
KO

A Senegalese Locksmith or Why Miriam is my Favorite Host Sister

2010-10-22T21:12:00.002-01:00

Today I went for a really good long run. I ran about six miles and came home EXHAUSTED. Then I realized that my key had fallen out of my pocket during my run. Somewhere. Miriam volunteered to walk the whole way back and look for my key which was helpful because I run without my glasses and couldn't really see anything. After re-walking the 6 miles we came home without a key. My host dad offered to let me sleep in the extra bedroom but I was disgustingly sweaty from running and really wanted to get into my room. Eventually the carpenter came and broke into my room! It mostly involved him chipping away at the lock with a chisel and hammer but I got in my room! Tomorrow I'm getting a new lock and giving a spare key to my host mom immediately!

KO

Girls Scouts: Senegal Style

2010-10-17T20:01:00.004-01:00

I was a girl scout (technically a brownie) when we lived in Texas. As you can see, I wasn't a very good Girl Scout (there's disagreement over whether I never earned a merit badge or if they just didn't make it onto my sash):

Regardless of my poor performance as a Girl Scout, I really do see the importance of women and girls in development. In the US women's groups when done correctly (girl scouts, sororities, book clubs - you name it) can have a million positive impacts on the lives of the members (I consider myself among the lucky with my amazing sorority). Internationally, these groups have a lot of potential, so I believe, at changing the members but also doing development work. The girls' camp was a great week but I'm not willing to let it end there so I invited all of the Bambey campers to my house for a meeting today. After chatting about the camp (they all emphatically claim they've done yoga since the camp), we got down to business. I asked if they would like to have a girls' group for the school year, we would be doing the same sort of things that the camp did just for a couple hours a month instead of compacted. Everyone wanted in! When I asked who they wanted it to be, just them or invite their friends, they all agreed that it should just be the girls who went to the camp. While I don't agree with their exclusivity, I told them it was their group and they could decide - and I'm going to suggest we open it up at the start of the year to new members. We then elected a board for the next 3 months (that's what we decided a term would be), and ended up with a tie for President. The two presidential candidates decided to split the term (they wouldn't agree on being co-presidents, "that just can't happen!").

Next we talked about my big, kind of a long shot, dream project: doing a 3-day day camp for younger girls and having these girls act as the counselors. They thought I was crazy but they loved the idea! When I told them that I would organize it all but would expect them to teach the classes they all started talking at once. I admit, the project has a huge chance to never get off the ground or, if it does start, blow up in my face. Having 10 middle school girls teach a camp to 9 year olds? Crazy! But if it worked, it would be amazing and, for that reason, I have to try.

While I do my behind-the-scenes organizing work for these day camp, the girls' group (what I'm calling my girl scouts) is moving forward! At the end of our first meeting, after agreeing the next would be next week, same time, same place, I tried to explain "kudos" to them. At the end of every meeting, my sorority would have time for "kudos," it was basically a time to go around and give people props for awesome or nice things they had done during the week. They always ranged from, "congrats so and so on getting your internship" to "I was having a crappy day on Monday and so and so cheered me up - thanks." It was a positive way to end a meeting. Well, the girls didn't pick up kudos today, but I wished them all good luck (the first actual day of school starts tomorrow!) and I'm going to try with the kudos again next week.

In other news, I totally won over the 2 or 3 year old that now lives in my house! I let her play with my hair, then she held my hand and not her sister's (who's maybe 10) when we went to get me light bulbs (I'm not exactly sure they the kids had to accompany me down the street but I appreciated it). Khady (the little one) then sat on my lap while I read. We're besties now.

KO

Happy Anniversary Fall 09 Stage!

2010-10-16T20:21:00.004-01:00

Today marks one year since I became an official Peace Corps Volunteer! Congrats to everyone who made it this far! I'm celebrating tonight with a can of chili and some wine (thanks parents)! In real news:

There was a Staples or Office Depot commercial a few years ago with a dad walking through the aisles of the store singing "it's the most wonderful time of the year" as he bought school supplies. That commercial typifies how I feel about the start of a school year. I LOVE school supplies, the start of a new school year, and everything involved. I had to take my scholarship girls shopping for school supplies and was a little worried that it wouldn't compare (there is almost no comparison between Target and the market in Bambey). It turned out to be amazing though! Before shopping, we made a list of everything they needed and then I gave them the 15000cfa they had each won (for having the best grades). I explained that, while the money needed to go towards school supplies, it was their money to spend - I was just going to collect receipts. As we walked through the market, the girls would pick stores, ask the price, and then either buy something or leave. At one point a girl needed to buy a backpack and she searched stall after stall for the right one. At one point the turned and apologized to me but I explained that I was more than happy to be there with her. Later in the day, when buying calculators, the girls told me the price and asked for my approval to buy them - when I told them that it was their money, not mine, their pride was visible. I kept remind them that they earned the money with their hard work and I think everyone had a great time.

I've also spent this week going around to the schools re-introducing myself and talking a little bit about projects I want to do. Everyone seems receptive but they're swamped with school opening and need me to come back. Last year I was timid in getting my projects started and it took a while. I'm learning from my mistakes and hoping to get working soon!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful fall!

KO

Full House

2010-10-12T20:46:00.002-01:00

Yesterday there were only 6 of us in the house. Today there are 11. School's starting back up so Miriam is back (and I think Ndeye should be back soon as well). A distant family member has decided to move in (lots of gossip behind that) and she brought 2 kids and another younger woman who might have also been a daughter. Lamine (my "new" host brother) is going back to Algeria tomorrow and Awa (who just got her high school diploma) is leaving to study there at the end of the month. Youssou had his first day of school so the summer vacation really is over!

KO

Transportation

2010-10-11T19:01:00.003-01:00

First let me apologize for not blogging in forever. I was in Dakar for my mandatory mid-service medical appointments (all's well) and the power situation has been horrible. Senegal ran out of gas. I'm not joking, the country didn't have gas. Everyone was driving on what reserves where left and when people (who normally cook over gas tanks) ran out, they had to use firewood. Luckily the gas boat docked and the situation seems to be temporarily solved. Now on to today's actual blog:

I went to Thies this morning to get lunch with Jackie and Elizabeth for Elizabeth's birthday (happy birthday!). Like normal, after lunch I went to the garage and got a seat in a sept place to Diourbel (the large city after mine - I just get out in Bambey). If I haven't described a sept-place before picture a brand new station wagon. Now age it about 50 years in harsh conditions, add a third row in the back, remove the handles from all of the windows, and maybe exchange some parts with another equally run-down car. This glorious mode of public transport is called a "sept-place" because there are 7 seats (in order of preference): passanger seat, middle row left side, middle row right side, middle row middle, back row left side, back row right side, back row middle. This is an undisputed ranking of seats (you get in and out of the car always from the right side which is why left is better). Like usual, I was one of the last people getting into the car (somehow it always works like that). I was the 6th person so I took the back row right side seat. After paying my fair and buying a sack of water, the 7th person came - a woman with a baby. Feeling the need for some karma, I gave up my seat and scooted to the dreaded back middle seat. The woman took the baby off her back and handed him to me while she climbed in. I quickly realized that it wasn't a baby but a giant toddler and my arm strength could barely support the weight of the near-teenager.

With all 7 people in the car, we could start the drive. The women took her kid back to sit on her lap and I was wedged in the middle. Usually there is at least one "ceeb mama" (ceeb meaning rice, but generally a "ceeb mama" is a large woman) so I was content to be between two average people. I'm used to kids being afraid of me and I'm used to kids being amused by me, I was not prepared, though, for the giant toddler next to me to start touching my skin. Yep. He spent the first 45 minutes of the car ride touching my shoulder and my hair. Awkward situation - sure - but what are you supposed to do about it? My wolof isn't quite there to say "Hey lady, I realize I'm an oddity but can your kid stop touching my arm?" so I let it slide. Then, because it would not be a ride in a car in Senegal without it, the woman started breastfeeding. I stared straight ahead and just waited for my stop. Then I noticed that you could actually see the road through a hole in the bottom of the car. But, at the end of the day, I got home safe and that's what matters! Oh, also, in most West African countries the same car that is a "sept place" to me is a "neuf place" (for the non French speakers neuf means 9).

Cheer Senegal!

Girls' Camp Day 4 and 5

2010-10-01T18:47:00.004-01:00

Wednesday was environment day and it was a huge hit! Erin and Emily (the ag volunteers in our area) are great in Wolof and the girls really enjoyed them. They started the day with a theoretical discussion about the environment then moved outside. They had hidden a bunch of trash around the yard and had the girls collect it. Afterwards they explained how some of the trash could be used in composting for even for small container gardening. They made a tree nursery and did some small containers of vegetables. Wednesday evening was a trivia night that was mostly questions the girls had written earlier in the week. One of the questions they had written was "name the 5 continents" which we changed to "name the 7 regions of the world" and we had an accompanying map. Sometimes Senegalese schools teach things that just seem wrong/are wrong (like that there are 52 states in the US) and we refused to give in to there being only 5 continents (in case you were wondering, North America and South America are combined and Antarctica doesn't exist).

Thursday was themed "business day" and Brian and Christine did an amazing job. They lead a great discussion about small businesses and then had some hands on projects of things the girls could sell at home. Everyone LOVED the activities and I think learned a lot. Thursday night we had a talent show! Each team was told to prepare a skit and then we had time for individual talents as well. The skits were all about things they had learned that week. After the skits, 2 girls read poems they had written which were AMAZING (they're both from Bambey and I couldn't be more proud)! Another girl sang Halo (the Beyonce song) and a group of girls did a kind of inappropriate dance to Rude Boy. The girl who sang Beyonce asked to sing another song and ended up singing the opening credit song to Marina - the telenovella that just ended. The avid Marina fans in the room (Alyssa, Tamar, and I) lost it - it was so amazing. To end the night the counselors did a silly dance to "forever young" (the remade version). Every day Christine and Alys had lead the girls in the yoga Sun Salute so we did that with the music and then Alex rapped the first verse. While he was rapping we danced in the back. At one point I broke out the really popular dance in Senegal right now and the girls enjoyed my feeble attempt. We then pulled them up and had a little dance party.

Before I continue you need a little back story: one volunteer had brought a counterpart who insisted we called him "red" because he's the head of the communist party in her town. He always had games to play to fill the empty times.

At the end of the talent show we had some crappy fireworks (yes, a bad idea) to signify an end to everything. Alex was lighting them very responsibly - one at a time, far from the girls, and carefully aimed. At some point Red decided he was going to take over the lighting... let's just say we all almost got kicked out of the Peace Corps. The night ended when a fire work went off barely over the girls' heads. I QUICKLY called a stop to it and he didn't seem to understand why.

On the way back to the dorms, I heard some of the girls saying "we aren't going home tomorrow! we don't want to go!"

This morning we ate breakfast, did evaluations, and handed out certificates. I took some more pictures and then the Bambey girls had to get on the bus to leave. Everyone was crying as they left. Eventually the Pout and Mboro girls left and the volunteers did a final wrap-up and cleaned.

I remember driving back from Illini Girls' State one year and having to stop every 20 minutes to buy something with caffeine... I think I might be more tired now. I ate spaghettios for dinner and I'm about to pass out. The picture of everyone is on Alyssa's camera (I'll get it next week) but here's a picture of my Bambey girls:

Girls' Camp Day 3: Our Future

2010-09-29T17:11:00.002-01:00

Yesterday was the second full day of the camp, third day overall. The theme was "our future" and involved a career panel. The girls got to ask questions to professional Senegalese women. They rarely, if ever, get a chance to discuss careers so it was a great time to talk about education, professional training, work/life balance, and just see that it is possible to be a Senegalese woman and still have a career. They also had time for art projects and we did a few other games. The power cut around 4pm and didn't come back on until sometime in the middle of the night. We ate dinner by candle light (which is normal for these girls) and stayed up chatting for a while. The Mayor of Bambey even sent a few people to come welcome everyone and encourage them to continue studying and working hard.
Unfortunately teenage girls are teenage girls all over the world and we have had some bullying issues. Yesterday one of my Bambey girls told me she lost her phone (which is cultural for "it was was stolen") and then took off towards the dorms crying. We went upstairs and some girls were sitting in a room laughing at her because they had taken her phone and hidden her shoes. We eventually solved the problem and the girl who was being bullied was in a way better mood today. She was participating and had a lot of support from her group.
The last noteworthy camp thing is that last night Jackie and I had a bat in our room. I noticed it while she was getting ready for bed and I was in bed. The power was out so we only had cellphone light but it was circling the room. Brian came in to try and chase it out (by throwing a towel at it) and eventually all of the noise had attracted all of the other volunteers. Eventually we just went to bed and it was gone by the morning.
I'm off to dinner now! I'll blog again about today if there's power!
KO

Girls' Camp Day 2 or how Alex gained a fan club

2010-09-27T19:44:00.002-01:00

Today was the first full day of camp! The entire camp is themed "Our World" and so each day is "our world..." - today was "our world, our health." We discussed clean environments, did some yoga, and talked about general good health practices. In the afternoon Alex had organized "olympics" which were like a field day.

The olympics started out with tug of war which got everyone excited for the rest of the games. Next we limbo'ed and followed that with a long jump. The girl that won the limbo is the only girl from a really small village, so it was great to see her be the center of attention. For the 4th event we played what he called "THE MANGO! THE SPOON! THE RACE!" which was our attempt at a egg on a spoon race (eggs are expensive, mangoes are not). The next event involved the girls having to balance a balloon between 2 people and walk around a baseball diamond shape. The crowning glory of the day was a water balloon toss. By the end all of the girls loved Alex so they chased him around with the extra balloons. Dinner was beans (my favorite!) and now we're watching a French movie.

The girls seemed pretty unsure at the beginning of today but by lunch they were completely hanging out with their teams (and new friends) not staying close by the girls they came with. They had an AMAZING time doing art projects and getting to be creative. We overheard a girl say to her friend, "I didn't have to do laundry today! It was great!" and two counselors had to tell the girls they didn't have to clean the bathrooms. I think they're all having an amazing time - thank you so much to everyone who made this possible. It really is a once in a lifetime week for these girls!

KO

Girls' Camp Day 1

2010-09-26T22:07:00.002-01:00

Today was the first actual day of the camp! The morning kicked off with a little more planning before the Senegalese counterparts arrived. We then discussed the week with the counterparts and sent Jackie, Alys, and Erin off to get their girls. Luckily it rained before the girls got here which cooled Bambey down a LOT. Once the car showed up with the first group of girls I took the bus into town and picked up the Bambey girls. Once everyone had arrived the final number was 33 girls ranging from 12-16 years old. We gave everyone their room assignments and told them to meet their new friends. We had worked hard to split everyone up from the girls they came with. The rest of the night was "team" activities like making a banner and explaining the rest of the week. The girls all seem pretty tired/overwhelmed so tonight was an early night.

I'm exhausted already so I'm keeping the blog short. I'll update as much as possible!

KO

Girls' Camp Prep Day!

2010-09-25T18:38:00.002-01:00

Today was all about preparing for the camp to actually start. This morning Jackie, Alyssa, Tamar, and I brought everything to the University of Bambey. The other 6 volunteers arrived shortly after and we ate sandwiches. After lunch we went through each day and made a list of everything left to buy. Around 5pm some of us went into town and everyone else did prep work for the classes they are teaching. In town we went to the store where I've been buying everything. A few days ago the woman had asked why I kept buying lots of things and I explained the camp to her. She asked why her daughter wasn't invited and, because her daughter met the criteria I told her she could come. Today her daughter was actually the one running the store (and teaching her siblings French) so Tamar and I invited her.

We ate dinner and might watch a movie later to relax before everyone comes tomorrow!

Girls' Camp Countdown!

2010-09-23T19:52:00.002-01:00

The 1st ever Regional Girls Leadership Camp starts in 2 days! The past week has been non-stop preparations and constant trips to the University. Every time I go to the University the guy organizing the food tries to find a new way to get more money from us. After explaining to him several times that we're working with a budget and can't just add things left and right I finally put my foot down today. Alyssa had created a BEAUTIFUL excel document with the ingredients per meal and total ingredients. For a week of meals we needed 244 pounds of onions. Senegalese people put onions in everything so it's not too surprising a number... except today the guy tried to change it to 266 pounds. He also claims we need 44 (not 33) pounds of fish for one meal. I obviously want to spend money on the camp but had to shut him down from making any other additions. At this point, he has us buying a TON of food, which I don't have a problem with, but I'm worried he might be paying himself a commission. We agreed to buy the original amounts of food and, if come Wednesday, are low on onions to buy more. Alyssa and I will be spending a lot of time in the kitchen next week but I'm sure things will end up working.

Jackie, Alyssa, and I, however, aren't the only people putting work into the camp. Yesterday one of my camper's father called me to ask about the camp. After explaining it to him, he said, "my daughter isn't smart enough to go to your camp." I told him that his daughter had been invited because she has the best grades in her class and he said, "well, I don't think she's smart enough but if you do I would love for her to go to the camp."

Even if they learn nothing from the classes we're teaching, I really believe the camp will give a little self-esteem boost to girls who, frankly, probably don't have any self-esteem.

More camp updates to come!
KO

The end of an era

2010-09-22T21:12:00.002-01:00

Every night at 7:30pm everyone, all around Senegal, gathered around their TVs for Marina, the Telemundo soap opera. On Monday there was a commercial for Le Roman de La Vie to start Wednesday at 7:30pm!

Yesterday I made Jiffypop and we all sat down to watch the last episode of Marina (of the series). Not surprisingly, it ended with everyone happy and everything right. There was a great montage of clips spanning in the future showing everyone's happy lives (including new babies and ability to walk restored).

Tonight our TV wasn't working so we couldn't start the new soap! Tragic! Instead my host mom and I just chatted. I very very rarely ever get time with just her. Unasked for (but completely welcomed) she gave me some awesome information about my host family. Who's related to who, who had a kid but isn't married, where the kid is now, etc. Yes it was gossipy but it made up for a good replacement of a soap.

In work news, Alyssa, Jackie, and I went to the University today for some last minute camp things. I'm going back tomorrow to deliver cleaning supplies so the rooms can get cleaned before we come Saturday. I have a few more things to buy and then everyone comes Saturday - the girls Sunday!

More updates to come!

KO

Local Transportation

2010-09-20T20:02:00.002-01:00

If I haven't said it before, I live about 10 blocks from the start of the market, which is also the "center of town." The post office is probably the same distance to my house as the start of the market, though down a few different streets. The garage is maybe twice as far as the market. Most of the streets in Bambey are sand/dirt but there are a few streets that once were paved and now are worse than even the worst Chicago potholes. Asphalt seems to be just a fading memory for some of these streets... like the one in front of my house.

I always walk to wherever I'm going because the walk is never unmanageable. Getting back is another story entirely. If I'm a lucky volunteer and I have packages at the post office or, like today, a lot of purchases in the market (I'm buying things for the camp), I need a little help getting back. The distance is never the problem, it's more an issue of weight or bulkiness. Though I'm mastering carrying things on my head, sometimes it's too much or too awkward. When walking isn't an option, I turn to a charette. A charette is a "horse cart"... or in reality, a piece of wood with two weeks, attached to a horse or donkey. They aren't the most secure things in the world but they make due.

Sometimes, when other people are on charettes, the horses are healthy and going at a nice pace. I am never on those charettes. The other day the donkey looked like it was actually going to die while pulling myself and my awesome packages home from the post office. A few weeks ago, I had a driver cross the train tracks, diagonally, at as much speed as he could get his emaciated horse to manage. When Alyssa came to visit we had an 8 year old for a charette driver... I'm generally not very lucky at getting charettes. Today was no different:

I had just bought a ton of things for the camp and needed to find a charette. It was raining so the roads were flooding and there was mud everywhere. Luckily my new friend (the shop keeper who I had probably just doubled her monthly income) stopped a cart and I negotiated the price, loaded on my belongings, and climbed on. Then the cart took off. Literally, took off as if we were racing someone. The driver was making the horse go at death defying speeds (probably slower than 10mph but through muddy roads on a barely balancing 2x4 was HORRIFYING). We turned out of the market and hit my street in all of its pothole-y glory.

"This is a bad road," the driver said to me as I clung to life... I pointed out the well worn in charette tracks in the dirt NEXT to the "bad road" and the switched. After a few near hit-and-runs with pedestrians, we arrived at my house. I jumped off, paid, and ran inside. I just know I will never complain again about an American cab driver's driving...

ba suba,
KO

To Turkey and Back

2010-09-18T13:08:00.003-01:00

This post is long overdue... sorry about that:

About two weeks ago I packed my backpack and left to go on vacation. As I was leaving the kids across the street said, "is the Toubab going home?" and I responded, "no just on vacation." They all told me to have a good trip and I was off. Before the trip I had to do some office work in Dakar so that's how I spent the day before. My flight was at noon which is an odd time for flights out of Dakar (normally flights leave between 10pm-5am) so the airport was really empty. While waiting to board I met a nice Egyptian man who has a daughter my age. He's working in The Gambia and only gets to go home to Egypt once a year, he had to fly through Istanbul to get home but he was really excited. I also met a nice family from Burkina Faso who lives in Dakar and was going to turkey on vacation. The Dakar-Istanbul flight is the farthest East you can go directly from Dakar so there were a lot of people using it as the first leg of a trip into the Middle East.

When I landed in Turkey I met my parents and we traveled to Ephesus.The ruins at Ephesus are amazing but we were all exhausted from travel. The next day the three of us went to Cappadocia (where the original Star Wars was supposed to be filmed). It was beautiful and the landscape was bizarre and lovely. Made of volcanic rock formations, the entire area seems to be a combination of sandy colored rocks and bright blue sky. Turkish food is AMAZING and in both places we ate really well.

After 4 days of traveling with my parents we flew to Istanbul to meet Alan, Noah, and Tara. It was great to see everyone and so nice to live a somewhat normal life again. Istanbul was beautiful and interesting with the mixing of cultures, religions, and a continents. One evening Noah, Tara, Alan, our tour guide, and I went to the Asia side and just hung out in some local bars. In addition to eating amazingly fresh, well seasoned Turkish food, everyone humored me and we had McDonalds, Starbucks, Italian food, and Mexican food. Coming back to Senegal was really difficult but I forced myself to go straight from the airport to Bambey.

I made it back to Bambey in time for the Korite (or Eid al Fitr in the rest of the world) celebration. My family is tame so it involved eating meat and onion sauce for lunch/dinner then sitting in front of our house in the pitch black waiting for people to walk by. Usually you ask forgiveness from people you've wronged but I was tired and no one was stopping by our house so I went to bed pretty early.

The past week or so since the trip have been a whirlwind. The girls' camp starts 7 days from today and there's a lot of leg work to do. Alyssa came to see the University and the guy who had priced the food told us he had priced it wrong and we were VERY over budget. We were able to redo the entire menu and get back to being on budget but that took a lot of work. I have a meeting with my campers tomorrow to give them the permission slips and tell them final camp details. This next week I'll spend buying all of the supplies, visiting the University again, and preparing any other last minute needs.

As far as host family news goes: Youssou has asked me to teach him English... it all started when he asked me to take him back to the US with me when I leave. I explained that he wouldn't be able to talk to anyone because he doesn't speak English ... now we're doing short "classes." Mostly I just say a sentence in English and give him a written copy too (i.e. "how are you?"). We have a grand-child visiting for the holiday and she's about 3. She was afraid of me the first few days then started to warm up. I let her and another neighborhood girl color the other day and I overheard them talking about me. Last night she sat on my lap while we watched tv. I've recently gotten AMAZING packages from an old roommate, a girl in my sorority, and my parents! It's made days better (work is less difficult when you know there are amazing snacks to follow) and my host family is even enjoying the American treats. My parents sent me a package of oreos that I gave to my host mom who is the gift "banker." It's her job to hand out oreos to the kids and decide who gets how many. Thank you to everyone who's sent stuff! You have no idea how much it makes my day.

I didn't have internet when I got back from the trip but now that it's back I promise I'll be a better blogger!

KO

Rain

2010-08-23T19:13:00.003-01:00

Until a few nights ago the rainy season seemed to have skipped Bambey. Alysas would call with news of flash floods in Thies and there wouldn't be a cloud in the sky for me. One day my host dad and I were 7km away from Bambey and were told it had poured rain the night before - not a drop for us.

Two nights ago I went to bed with my windows and balcony door open like normal. Around midnight the power cut but my fan stopping barely woke me up. At 2am the wind jarred me awake (it sounds odd to be woken by the wind, I realize). I jumped out of bed to close my balcony door. The wind was so strong that I was struggling against it for about 10 minutes before finally jamming my door shut. Wind had already started blowing rain into my room and my sheets were wet. I quickly closed my windows and moved my computer to a safe spot. By the time I had finished closing everything, I noticed my floor was wet. I'd seen water drip in through my windows before so I wasn't surprised until I realized there was actual standing water. I quickly got a bucket and started mopping up the water with an old towel. It was fast to use my hands so I started trying to cup the water into the bucket (making cups with my hands and then emptying it into the bucket). I found the source (my balcony) and started working there. When the bucket was completely full I emptied it and kept going. An hour and a half later there wasn't much water on the floor and I had emptied two full buckets (for an idea, I use 1 bucket of water when I have to bucket bath). I had a dry sheet and found the corner of my mattress that was still dry and collapsed around 4am.

I think I've solved the problem of my balcony door and I moved everything that was on the floor into plastic buckets so if my room floods again I won't have to worry about things getting ruined.

The past two days have just been some more setting up for the camp, reminding people it's happening and things like that. Oh and avoiding the donkey gang.

KO

Under the hot sun

2010-08-21T19:05:00.002-01:00

This morning was my last English class and, though the girls acted like I was pulling their teeth, I have to believe they were a little sad it was over. Even though they never once showed it was anything more than a huge chore for them to come all 3 of my girls would be annoyed and kind of sad when I had to cancel classes. At the end of the class I told them I wanted to help them, if they wanted it, during the school year with their English homework because I'm like an English dictionary (at least compared to anyone else in this town) and made them translate one last sentence: when you're not fasting, I will give you candy for completing this class.

After the English class I went to meet the family of a camper (who was actually on vacation). I had called her dad the day before and he told me he lived in the high school which I thought was a misunderstanding because someone else had told me he was a high school teacher... nope. His house is in the high school and he's actually a middle school principal. The meeting went really well and he was all for the camp. Then he invited me to work at his middle school (which is about 10km away from Bambey) next school year. His son even asked me for help with English (when work rains it pours). As I was leaving the awesome meeting I decided to call Tamar.

The walk from the high school to my house is about 20 minutes and, at 12:30pm, the sun was beating down relentlessly. A few minutes into the walk I noticed a group of boys under some trees in front of me.
"There are 7 8-12 year old boys just waiting for me under some trees... two of them are on donkeys," I explained to Tamar. We both agreed I should just keep walking and ignore their "watsyourname?" and "iluuvyou"'s. When I passed the first kid on a donkey the second kid, whose donkey was facing away from me, started to turn his donkey around and as I walked past him he started chasing me.

An 8 year old on a donkey chased me. Lucky for me donkey's walk slower than I do in heat and sun so I didn't have to pick up my pace. So confused by what was going on Tamar and I brainstormed for solutions (while the donkey/kid continued to "chase" me). Finally I turned around and pretended like I was going to smack the donkey and the kid stopped. Then, like clockwork, the oldest kid called me a racial slur which normally would have pissed me off but I was still digesting the whole donkey-chasing.

I feel like once you've been chased by a donkey there really isn't much more you can do that day and I just hung around with my fasting host fam.

Ba suba,
KO

From America:

2010-08-20T20:22:00.001-01:00

Today I watched Jersey Shore while eating chex mix sent to me from New Jersey! Thank you to Amy, her mom, Alan, and my parents for the amazing packages full of awesome American things!

In other Senegal news, Ramadan's about halfway over and I'm starting to set up work for next school year. Tomorrow is my last English class for the summer. That's pretty much it! Happy weekend!

KO

My new host brother

2010-08-17T19:26:00.003-01:00

I might have mentioned it before but I have a new host brother! Imagine my shck when I came home after the English camp and found a 20something year old boy living in my house (and imagine his when I came home). He's been in Algeria at his first year of school (studying civil engineering) and is home only for vacation before starting his second year in October (I think).
Lamin (that's his name) is quickly becoming awesome in my mind. He's absolutely what I imagine Senegalese university students to be. During the day he always wears a Lakers jersey and Puma athletic shorts. At night he wears a button up shirt (which is usually only has 3 buttons buttoned - tonight he didn't even bother buttoning any) and either black jeans or stylishly ripped jeans - not to mention a silver chain. He has a really high tech phone (compared to my Nokia) and a laptop. I don't think he's a player though because he seems really quiet (apparently engineers world wide are almost always nerdy).
Today the mason came to fix my ant hole/wall and Lamin and Youssou played the role of protective brothers. Lamin actually direct the mason and made him fi parts he had done shoddily while Youssou pointed at things in my room and asked me about them.
I also found out, as we were breaking fast, that Lamin gave Youssou 100cfa with which he bought a mayonnaise sandwich. Not that I'm counting (my host mom is) but Youssou broke fast with: 6 inches of bread slathered in butter, 6 inches of bread slathered in mayonnaise, and a giant cup of coffee that had at least half a cup of sugar in it. He is obviously my favorite host brother but it's fun to have another too.

Happy Ramadan everyone!
KO

New kids on the block... and ants

2010-08-16T18:57:00.004-01:00

I spent the weekend at the training center helping with the PST for the newest group of trainees. It's bizarre to be the one with the answers to questions and to be the "expert" on things that were completely new to me just a year ago. I helped with a few sessions on Senegalese culture and then answered a million questions on everything else. I would spend all day if I could answering questions because I had a ton last year and I remember what it's like to be completely clueless. On Sunday we gave tours of Thies and showed the trainees where to buy fabric and presents for their homestay language families. Afterwards Jackie, Alyssa, and I went to a nice dinner to celebrate our one year in country. Today I answered any last minute questions and wished everyone luck as they left for the village the first time for a week of language training. I'm back at site now and enjoying a quiet evening (without all of the mosquitoes the training center has).

I got back to Bambey around 5pm and found my room in pretty normal shape - no flooding, not too many paint chips on the ground, that sort of thing. I had finished showering when I noticed there were about 5 large ants (about half an inch each) near one of my windows. I stepped on them and kept unpacking. Then I realized that there were a few more ants coming out of the 4 inch crack in my wall so I sprayed some bug spray on the wall and went back to straightening things. A minute or so later I noticed that the ants weren't really dying but stumbling around like they were drunk I decided to attack them with bug spray (which has GOT to be highly toxic and not ok for use in the US). I sprayed the wall a little then started spraying the 4 inch crack.... which opened the flood gates. Ants started POURING out of the crack and I sprayed for probably a minute straight. By the time the ants stopped coming I had killed at least a couple hundred. I swept them up and duct taped the hole but I'll be patching it with cement tomorrow (my walls are cement).

The fumes have aired out of my room and the duct tapes seems to be holding up for now so I feel comfortable going to bed and not waking up with giant ants all over.

Ba suba,
KO

Happy One Year Africaversary!

2010-08-13T20:01:00.002-01:00

A year ago today I landed in Senegal! It feels crazy to think that it's been a year - on one hand PST feels like it was 10 years ago but, on the other, I feel like I got to Bambey a month ago. I wish I had more to say about my first year but it seems to have gone by so fast. I can't believe that a year ago I was a complete stranger to everything Senegalese and today I actually helped lead a session on Senegalese culture to the new volunteers. I remember what it was like meeting new volunteers and asking them questions when I first got to country and it's odd to think that I'm now the one with the answers (or at least trying to come up with answers). Maybe at my one year at site (which will come in October) I'll have more thoughts on this first year.

In other news Ramadan started yesterday and the day before that we got 65 new SED and Ag volunteers! For those of you not familiar with Ramadan here's the basic run down (at least how we do it in the Fall household): everyone (but me because I'm not fasting) gets up at 5:45 for morning prayer and then eats a small meal (bread, butter, coffee, maybe water). From sunrise to sunset during Ramadan, no one eats, drinks anything, or smokes (in the Koran it's refereed to as "drinking smoke"). Everyone does the normal household chores in the morning which is the only time of the day anyone is willing to work or even discuss work with me. Around lunch, I sneak up to my room and make lunch for myself as well as chug water (during Ramadan it's REALLY rude to drink or eat in public so I confine my eating and drinking to my room). In the afternoon everyone just lays around and naps. Around 6pm Awa starts cooking dinner (because cooking takes a few hours here) and at 7pm my hostmom and Youssou put out our break fast table. Around 7:20pm Youssou takes off running to the mosque because they have, supposedly, good break fast food there. At 7:30pm everyone prays and we all break fast (eventually Youssou comes back in a breaks fast a second time - which everyone makes fun of him for). We each drink spiced coffee (Youssou and Awa drink mostly milk with a hint of coffee), eat bread with either tuna or butter, and some dates (the Koran says Muhammad ate them when he was fasting). After break fast I've been heading back upstairs and skipping dinner even though my host family can't believe I'm not hungry because I didn't fast. Because Miss is pregnant, thus not fasting, she's not living with us now (she's with her family who, I'm told, lives across town). Ramadan will continue for the next 27 or 28 days - until the new moon is seen. I'm sure I'll get annoyed withe everyone's crankiness and lack of wanting to work but for now it's nice to cook my own lunches and break fast/dinner is pretty delicious too.

KO

Back in Bambey

2010-08-08T19:02:00.002-01:00

When I've been gone from site for more than a few days it feels like years. Yesterday I came home to a mostly empty house - all of the girls are gone on vacation and Miss was sick. There was one new addition... a new host brother who just finished his first year of university in Algeria. He's home for the "summer" and we chatted briefly (I'm guessing it's weird for him that in the year he's been gone a toubab moved in).

I was supposed to teach an accounting class this morning at the Mayor's office but it was closed and the guard's phone was turned off so I had no room to teach in... no students showed up anyway so the class was cancelled. I decided to not let the whole day be a waste so I sat outside of my house to work on my personal statement a little. About 10 minutes into outlining a group of neighborhood boys saw me and started sprinting towards me. "Tata Fatou! Tata Fatou! Menanunu dessiner???" My coloring group hadn't seen me for a week and they were eager to color. I brought down my crayons and some paper and made them all say "please" before they got paper. I finished my work while approving of all of their drawings. Eventually Youssou came out and made them all go home so they wouldn't miss lunch.

This afternoon I organized things for the camp and read a little - not much to do during the hot part of the day. This evening Youssou and I watched lutte (Senegalese wrestling). He explained the two wrestlers, who was mean, who was smart, and who he supported. Just as the pre-match fanfare ended my host mom came out and we all cheered on the smart one (who ended up winning). Youssou and I also talked about how he might want to go into the army (which I encouraged because it's a stable, good income and the Senegalese army does mostly peace keeping missions in other countries) or go to Italy to work (which I discouraged).

The rest of this week I am doing more camp work - we're almost a month away! Also Ramadan starts Wednesday or Thursday (depending on when we see the moon).

Ba suba,
KO

The English camp was legendary and sweet. I made so many new bffls. Then I took a jankity car back.

2010-08-07T20:01:00.003-01:00

I'm back in Bambey after an outstanding week at the ACCESS English camp (and the title of this blog contains all of the "slang" words we taught them). The camp is for high-achieving, low-income students and they were all so amazing. Some of my favorites were (by their English names):
LandonDonovan: who was quiet but very intelligent and an outstanding dancer;
Jym: pronounced like 'Jim,' also quiet but always said very complicated sentences;
Claire: super intense and always ready to participate;
Ana: short and halfway through the week got awesome braids - she also danced well;
Holly: wore a side ponytail, large shirt, and leggings all week - also won the olympics for our team.

This afternoon we had a really successful meeting for our own camp. We were able to take the things we learned from the ACCESS camp and apply it to our girls' camp. The curriculum looks great and I'm really excited.

Now that I'm back at site I'm starting an accounting class tomorrow (if anyone shows up) and I'm a week away from my one year in Africa.

KO

English Camp Day 2

2010-08-03T19:20:00.001-01:00

The past few days it has stormed every evening for two or three hours. Usually it starts around 4pm and continues until right before dinner. Yesterday I was caught in the rain and had clothes drying on the line so I was unhappy with the storm. Today, it’s a completely different story. We made it back to the training center before the rain came and now, even though I’m trapped in my room, I don’t mind the storm. The training center is designed like most Senegalese compounds with unconnected buildings. My room, for example, is in a building with other bedrooms and 1 bathroom but all of the doors face outward and you walk between the rooms under a little awning. The rest of the buildings are separate with no awnings or coverings. Because the center floods with heavy rain, we’re trapped in our room which, frankly, I don’t mind that much.
After a morning of running around and leading camp games (flashback to my Girls’ State days) I don’t mind having a few hours to read and relax. After the camp we ate lunch (at a restaurant this time), and went to the market to buy food for dinner. From now until the rain lets up or we get hungry enough to brave it and run to the kitchen, I’m in forced, but enjoyed, isolation (with my 3 friends and a little bit of internet).
The English camp continues tomorrow with the main event: ask the Americans! In the meantime I’m going to continue reading and eventually eat dinner.
KO

Access English Camp Day 1

2010-08-02T16:08:00.006-01:00

Today was the first day of the US Embassy sponsored English camp. We left the center this morning not knowing what to really expect and were met at the high school by about 50 15-17 year olds and a few English teachers. We had of only the lesson plan a few volunteers had created which was, no fault on them, bare bones. The teachers hadn't bought any of the supplies we requested so we had nothing (no paper, pens, markers, etc.). We broke the kids into groups and started playing games.
My group has 17 Senegalese kids, Jackie, Zach (a volunteer from Kedougou), and me. We started off with name games ("my name is Katherine and I like ketchup) but had to explain several times that if your name was Anna you couldn't like "the beach" but something with an "a" (they all chose to pick American names for the week - we have a Landon Donovan). The rest of the day was full of other games and things you can do outside without any supplies. It was fun to speak in English the whole time and I think the kids really enjoyed themselves. At one point, the game involved asking each other questions and one girl asked another (who then said "yes"), "would you like to have an American husband?" Zach better watch out!

The camp was 4 hours and we were all pretty tired (with no lesson plan it had been 4 hours of making up games on the fly) and went to the garage to get chicken sandwiches. It sounds gross but I think I've explained it before: the garages (where you get cars to go to Dakar etc.) have food for people to buy and eat while they're traveling. A while ago Jackie, Alyssa, and I made friends with the best chicken sandwich lady (we'd tried a few and decided on the best one). Jackie and I were there earlier in the week and she remembered us and was annoyed that we didn't invite our 3rd friend (Alyssa) to eat lunch with us (we had invited her but she was eating with her host family). Today we came to our friend's stand with other volunteers and pretty much bought all of her chicken sandwiches. In case you were wondering, a chicken sandwich is: 6 inches of baguette, onion sauce, rotisserie type chicken, and fries... they have lettuce when lettuce is in season which is not now... all for 500cfa (about $1).

Post chicken sandwiches we ran some other errands and are now hanging out. The English camp is every morning this week so I'm sure I'll have more updates coming. I hope all's well in the US!

KO

Access English Camp Day 1

2010-08-02T16:08:00.005-01:00

The Rainy Season?

2010-07-27T22:00:00.002-01:00

Since we had our first huge storm of the rainy season... it hasn't rained. Normally, I'm told, it rains every few days in July and then everyday in August... we'll see if that happens this year.

Things in Bambey have been moving along. The girls' camp is fully funded! thank you so much to everyone who donated! Things are moving along quickly with the camp. I"m also setting up an accounting class for August. In addition to Bambey work, I'm working with SeneGAD (gender and development). We have a quarterly meeting soon and I'm working to re-vamp the activities program (as per my job as 'activities director'). There's also an English camp sponsored by the US Embassy that several of us are helping out at soon.

Lurking on the horizon, however, is Ramadan. An entire month of fasting during the day and - apparently - doing nothing. People now are claiming that they don't want to schedule work because Ramadan's coming up (it starts mid-August).

Things are moving along quickly... I can't believe I've almost been in Senegal for a year!

KO

Tradition

2010-07-20T19:57:00.003-01:00

As much of a jerk as my hostfather sometimes is (not to me but to other family members) he is a wealth of knowledge, specifically on Senegalese traditions and values. Senegalese values are so interesting and, often times, not cohesive with business work.

Mor and Awa (hostfather and sister who just finished high school) were in Dakar getting a scholarship for Awa to go to university in Algeria. They didn't get the scholarship but they got a "promise" and seemed hopeful. We were talking about going to university abroad (contrary to US "study abroad" she would actually be doing her entire studies in Algeria, not just a fun semester) and I asked if students often stayed abroad or returned to Senegal after school. It's a valid question because the main force of Senegal's economy comes from remittances from Spain, Algeria, Tunisia, and Italy (to name the main ones). Mor, however, was quick to explain that all Senegalese people want to do is to come back to Senegal which doesn't surprise me. Sure you probably can't get good ceeb u jen outside of Senegal, but the real reason is the "sacredness" placed on family and community. He continued to explain that in the village, an entire extended family lives within one compound and they all have their own houses. If you have a child who is successful enough and builds his own house, outside of your compound he is a traitor. Of course, he elaborated, this has been altered because it's impossible to live like this in cities - so now you have urban families where success is shown by children building their own houses and village families where the money is expected to be divided among the entire family regardless of who earned it. The Senegalese version of the American Dream, as it was explained to me, is to give more to your parents than they gave you.

Now, don't get me wrong (especially the parents reading this blog), I think, as kids of wonderful parents, we have a responsibility to them... but if you're always looking backwards it's hard to move forward.

It's always interesting talking to Mor because he is full of cultural lessons I'm missing by living in a city or just can't be picked up in everyday interaction.

In other news, the rainy season proved that it was here today. It stormed like crazy in the morning and rained on and off all day. I did manage to get to the post office and find a lovely surprise! Thanks to the Kerrs and Kadlecs for the packages! I am very much enjoying them!

KO

Power Outages

2010-07-19T20:52:00.003-01:00

Senegal's having huge power problems. The power outages were in a nice pattern of being on from about 9pm-7am then off all day but recently it changed to be completely sporadic. Sure not having power's a pain but the real problem is when the water cuts (because the pumping stations/water towers can't work) which we've somehow avoided mostly.
When we don't have power during the day my host family sits in front of the house chatting or playing scrabble. Youssou goes out during the day and comes back for lunch then leaves again (I have no idea what he does). When power's out at night we sit on the mat outside and very occasionally talk. Tonight Youssou, who has a cell phone but no credit (everything here is a pay as you go), spent the entire night recording himself singing then playing it back. First he was singing Koranic songs and would play them back and re-record. Then he started beat-boxing. It was so awesome.

In work news, today I finished my second training at the health center (like a mini-hospital). I've taught 40 health workers from the villages how to make a bug repellent using things that are easily found here (the actually repellent comes from the leaves of the neem tree which is ALL OVER).

Off to Thies tomorrow for some errands!

KO

KO

Explaining Myself

2010-07-18T15:46:00.002-01:00

Last Thursday I had a meeting in the morning and another in the afternoon with the families of 2 invited campers. The first was with one of my scholarship girls who I've spent a fair amount of time with and have been to her house several times. Her brother (the oldest person in her family and thus the head of the family) was never around so I met him for the first time Thursday. As I came into their house he was sitting on a carpet feeding his son and his sister (the camper) and I sat down. We began to talk about the camp - he was concerned about the subject matter. After I explained everything we were discussing he seemed alright. He then started talking, very broadly, about the "other experiences" (with a negative connotation) that were possible - I explained there would be no boys there (possible 1 or 2 male volunteers but no one else). Then he started in on how smart his sister is and how he wants to protect her future - to which I explain that was the entire reason behind the scholarship she had won AND the camp.
As the conversation progressed it became apparent he really didn't want to be convinced that the camp wasn't going to ruin this girls life but it became blatantly obvious when he started questioning my intentions. As a side note, explaining the peace corps is fairly difficult because volunteers and the US don't get any tangible benefits but usually people understand it's about experience and that it's similar to all NGOs/Development Organizations. So he started asking if I was a University student doing research because he saw some at a Koranic school (that takes in orphans/abandoned kids and often makes them beg on the street) that were trying to change the way this "traditional" school works. (is not exactly traditional but is on Amnesty International's human rights violation watch). I think Daara's aren't great but that has NOTHING to do with my work, so I explained that I was not a university student, I was not doing research, and I worked only with small businesses. Then some obscure mentions (from the brother) of George Bush and all of the US relations with Middle Eastern countries came up and he insinuated that my placement in Senegal was a direct extension of that in the role of propaganda/culture changing. I explained that the Peace Corps was established in 1960 and came to Senegal in 1963 thus could not POSSIBLY be part of anything he was getting at. Then it came to religion. It was obvious that he was conservative and I had tried to respect without giving in to any traditional cultural roles (read: just giving in to whatever he was saying because I'm a woman). He asked me my religion and I told him that I didn't discuss religion and that it didn't matter. He then accused me of trying to convert people away from Islam. After explaining that I always work around people's religious beliefs, regardless of what they are, I tried to explain that it really didn't matter to me because I am (as I had explained a million times to him) a SMALL BUSINESS VOLUNTEER.
Then he rehashed every element of his argument in a cumulative last hit against Peace Corps and me. I had been getting annoyed during the entire conversation but had kept my cool until this "closing statement" of sort. I still didn't yell at him and stayed fairly calm as I defended myself on last time. He could tell, however, that he had offended me and said he would love for his sister to go to the camp, but she can't sleep over - he'll take her to and from every day. At this point I realized there was absolutely nothing I could say to him because he had no interest in thinking of me as anything but an evil American so I said that I would think about it and we could discuss it another time.

Later the same day I met an invited camper from another middle school in Bambey. She hadn't come to the introduction meeting so I'd never met her. On our way to her house she told me she would come to the camp but, through further questioning, I learned she hadn't asked permission of anyone. When we got to her house I had a conversation with her cousin (the head of the household) who, upon learning the subject material and purpose of the camp, wholeheartedly agreed to let her be there. He and I then talked about the importance of girls' education and other things in general. She lives in her dad's village during the summer (and with her cousin to go to school) so I offered to give her a run down of the final meeting we'll be having Sept. 19 because she would be in the village. Her cousin told me it was not necessary because he would make sure she was at that meeting. When I left both she and her cousin agreed to come to my next English club/girls' group meeting.

I know that Peace Corps is hard to explain, and I understand some concern when a stranger shows up offering to take your daughter to a summer camp. But keep in mind, Senegalese culture is very different. And this stranger has been working with the principal and staff at your daughter's school. She lives in the community, has several reputable people who would vouch for her in a second, and stops by your house several times to continue building relationships. More frustrating than the brother's lack of confidence with the camp was his total lack of interest in believing that I was anything but a horrible person trying to brainwash the community. I'm going to have a Senegalese Peace Corps person call him and talk to him about it so we'll see how it goes.

Sorry this was a long blog - in social news: we had a regional meeting and a welcome party for the new Daka

A Chance Meeting

2010-07-08T21:44:00.002-01:00

Now that the school year is over and the girls' camp is on it's way to being funded, I'm starting new projects. I set out this morning hoping to meet about the first new project idea (which has to do with malaria prevention). The meeting went well and the contact at the health center seems really interested in the project but, not surprisingly, everything's a little slow coming together. As I was walking to the post office to mail some letters a random car pulled up next to me. There was an older Senegalese guy sitting in the passenger seat who then showed me his UN ID card. I explained that I was the PCV in Bambey and he invited me to his meeting. He's based in Diourbel (my regional capital) and is working with mobilizing local volunteers (not like me but actual community members) to work towards the millennium development goals. I ended up meeting 3 people from Bambey who have organizations I hope to work with in the future. The UN guy is coming back in a few weeks to check on the progress of the Senegalese volunteers and he seems excited to involve me in whatever projects come from this. It was absolutely random that I ran into this guy and that he stopped to invite me to this meeting. I'm really hoping that good things can come from it.

In other Bambey news, the magazines my parents and friends have sent are pretty much falling apart because my host sisters look through them every day and have started inviting friends over to look through them. Youssou only looks through them to point out ads for food and ask me if I could make it for him (most of the stuff I can't like today is was Jello's new chocolate mousse thing). Also, my host sister Awa just found out today that she passed her baccalaureate exam and is officially a high school grad! Just to give you an idea about how big of a thing it is, there was a news story about how one school had "outstandingly high passage rates" this year... 48% of the students passed... meaning more than half the students have to repeat their senior year of high school.

4th of July

2010-07-07T20:50:00.002-01:00

At 5:30am on July 2nd Jackie and I were standing outside of a gas station in Bambey, with our bikes, bags, and wearing birthday hats. Around 6am a sept-place pulled up from Thies with Alyssa and the birthday girl (Tamar). We were off to our way to Kedougou for the annual 4th of July party!

After around 11 hours in the car we finally made it to Kedougou and practically collapsed in the hotel. We managed to get out in time to eat some warthog sandwiches (the first of many during the trip) and met other volunteers at a bar to watch the Ghana v. Uruguay game.

The morning of the 3rd we explored Kedougou a little: it's the capital of the most Southeastern region (it borders Guinea and Mali) and is mostly Pulaar (compared to the mostly Wolof rest of the country). No offense to Kedougou but it is the most underdeveloped region of the country (but the people are way nicer than in Wolof country). The rest of the 3rd was spent watching soccer and hanging out in the pool with other volunteers (not to mention 3 Senegalese prostitutes who were hanging out at the pool while their French guys were working... one of them was wearing shorts that said "I do you you do me").

On the 4th we went to the regional house where everyone was in red, white, and blue; we sang the Star Spangled Banner; and we ate potato salad with 2 roasted pigs. We all joke that we've never loved America more than we do now but the Kedougou volunteers did an AMAZING job of throwing together a great party to celebrate.

We got up early on the 5th of bike to the waterfalls 40km away. After about 4 hours of mountain biking we got to the waterfalls and went for a swim. (In case you were wondering, we were closer to Guinea than we were to Kedougou.) We decided to take a car back but that ended up kind of backfiring. The car got a flat on the way to get us which took a few hours to fix. Finally, we ended up getting in the car around 8 to set off through the rocky, muddy water filled road... and got a flat tire in the middle of a puddle in an area without cell reception. We drove on the rim and almost got stuck in a ditch but ended up making it to the road where the driver's friend met us with a tire. Eventually, 3 and a half hours later we made it back to the hotel. The next morning we were up at 5am and back in the car to get back to site.

Today I just hung out and recovered for a little bought of dehydration. I also read a Time magazine while my host sisters read a J-14 Rachel P. had sent me. At one point Ndiaye pointed to a picture and asked if it was a movie ad. I said, "no he's a singer," and her response was, "I know who Justin Beiber is, I just didn't know if he was in a movie too."

KO

And then overnight...

2010-06-30T20:40:00.002-01:00

... it became the rainy season. Around 10pm, the power cut and wind started whipping across the desert and then the rains came. I was able to close my windows in time to avoid a lot of water and dirt in my room. Sometime after about 2am the rain stopped and the power (and water) came back on today around 1pm. When I left my room this morning (to get a bucket of water because the running water was out with the electricity) it had become the rainy season. On my way to my morning meeting there were kids standing on the edge of every pool of water throwing rocks at it. The market was a muddy mess and everyone seemed a little jittery with the change in weather. Sure, it's still hot and now it's also humid - but the rainy season looks like it's here!

Work wise, things are going well. I've been organizing "career meetings" with some of my scholarship girls. Together we meet with someone that has a career they're interested in and the person talks, then they ask questions. There aren't any "take your daughter to work days" or career panels or anything. I'm using this as a chance to educate the girls a little more and get them excited about their future.

We're off to Kedougou soon for the big 4th of July party!

KO

Girls Camp!

2010-06-23T21:59:00.002-01:00

I've mentioned a girls' camp a few times over the past couple of months but here's a full explanation of the project:

A group of 10 volunteers, myself included, decided to create a week long summer camp for a handful of high-achieving middle school girls. Aside from the one camp set up by volunteers in another region, summer camps don't exist in Senegal... so we started pretty much from scratch. First, we decided on the campers: a total of 40 girls aging from 12-15 from Bambey, Pout, Mboro, and a small village outside of Thies. We chose the girls because they had the highest grade averages among their female peers. Most of the girls face financial constraints when going to school and they all struggle with the social pressures of women's roles in life. For example, several of my girls live with a distant family member during the school year because their parents live in a village without a middle school. In addition to doing their school work (the school days last from 8am-7pm), they're often in charge of all of the household chores in exchange for their school year board. I've had interviews with all of the girls and they're extremely bright and very motivated to finish school. Once we found our cause, we had to get a community partner (we wanted to have the full support of the community).

While looking for possible sites and partners, I met the Secretary General of the University of Bambey who immediately loved the idea and pledged his full support. We then hit a rough patch trying to negotiate everything with the university, but recently the agreement was made official. They're providing us with free lodging for the entire week, about 10 students who will act as camp counselors, and are hoping to eventually take on the project on their own.

Now that we have the location and the girls, we're working on the final schedule. The entire camp has been themed "our world" to try to encourage the girls to take ownership of every aspect of their communities including: the environment, their health, money matters, and planning for the future. The camp will run from September 26 - October 1, and we've already planned follow-ups with the girls. In addition to the campers and university students, we're bringing a female teacher from each of their schools. We hope this project not only affects the 40 girls, but that they have a ripple effect on their peers and siblings.

Because the housing has been provided, we need to buy food, supplies, and transportation for the girls. The total amount needed is $2491.13 and you can donate (or just read more about the project) here! If that doesn't work, you can go to www.peacecorps.gov and search for the project using "Senegal" or "regional girls camp" as your keywords. All donations are tax deductible.

I understand that not everyone can donate, if that's the case, please just send us your positive thoughts. If you have any questions or would like to get involved in another way, please contact me. Hopefully I'll have some pictures to post of some of my future campers tomorrow.

Thanks for all of your support (and I hope everyone's enjoying the World Cup)!

KO

A Little Bribery Never Hurt

2010-06-18T20:08:00.002-01:00

My parents sent me some Jiffy Pop that I used to bribe my host family to support the US in today's World Cup Match. The bribery probably wasn't necessary but it made the game a little more special (at least compared to all of the other games).

In other news, all of the budget issues with the camp project were finalized and we're almost ready to move onto the last stage of planning (grant submission).

I posted photos from the Ghana trip so check those out!

KO

A Personal Odyssey

2010-06-17T12:07:00.002-01:00

Tuesday afternoon Alyssa and I had our last meal in Accra (Chinese food) and set off for the airport. I had confirmed over the phone that our flight was leaving at 8:35pm (contrary to the official flight time of 10:25pm) and that check-in would open at 5:30 or 6 (depending on who you asked). We got to the airport around 4pm and went to the ticket office to triple check the flight was leaving. "The Dakar flight? It's cancelled," explained the ticket guy but before I flew into a storm of rage he added, "just joking!" Yeah. Really funny. We then waited for an hour and a half for the check-in counter to open. Before checking-in we had to have our bags "checked" by customs... the customs woman asked me what I had in my bag (she didn't open it) and she asked Alyssa if she was traveling with me and then let us move on to check-in. We were waiting in line to check-in and twice the agent called me forward to the counter and then reprimanded me for not letting her finish with the people in front of me. Finally it actually was my turn and we checked in and moved on to the second customs area.

Just a fun fact, the entire Accra airport is filled with posters about drug trafficking, for example: parents, watch your children's bags and toys - traffickers will stuff drugs in them; are you trafficking drugs? You WILL be caught and sentenced to 10 years hard labor.

After customs we picked up some chocolate for our host families and waited to go through security (which we couldn't do until our flight was called). Finally a woman walked by and mumbled something about the Virgin Nigeria flight and we ran after her and got through security. While waiting to have our tickets and passports checked for the 4th time we heard an announcement for the Virgin Nigeria flight to Banjul (capital of The Gambia) and Dakar... when asked what city would be first - because this was the first time we'd heard ANYTHING about The Gambia - we were assured Dakar was the first stop. Once the Brazil v. North Korea World Cup match was over we boarded the flight.

Not too surprisingly there was someone in my seat and when I tried to explain I was told that as a "new comer" (the flight left from Nigeria) I had to go find another seat regardless of whether it was my assigned seat or not. We ended up sitting one row behind our original row. I had my seatbelt on and made the mistake of thinking that there could be no more surprises... SURPRISE! THE GAMBIA WAS THE FIRST STOP! Alyssa and I were apparently the only people who didn't know we were taking a detour to a 3rd country (our tickets said nothing about Banjul, our flight was never on the departures board, and when we asked we were told Dakar was the first stop).
5 hours and 1 country later, we finally landed in Dakar. I never thought I would be that happy to be back in Senegal but I was ecstatic. I loved when we got in an argument over cab price, when everyone was yelling at me - it was amazing. Around 2am we made it to the regional house which was pretty empty and passed out.

The next morning I was in a car to Bambey by 10am. After being stuck in traffic for an hour we got a flat tire and had to wait for it to be changed. Normally that would have driven me crazy but I was just so happy to be back I was fine. When I got out of the car in Bambey someone who knew me (I didn't know them) helped me get a good price for a donkey cart to take me to my house ("she's not a foreigner! she's Senegalese!), and the post office was still open 30 minutes after they normally close. I had 6 packages (from my parents and Sarah Lowry THANK YOU!!) and rolled into my house like Santa on Christmas. I kid you not neighborhood kids appeared and helped carry everything up to my room. As I got in lunch was being set down. It's as if Senegal wanted to prove that it wasn't so bad after all and, even if things never work in Ghana, they sometimes work here.

I have a fair amount of work to catch up on now and I'm trying to keep busy. Things with the camp should become definite over the next two days. I hope everyone watches the US game tomorrow!

KO

Stuck.

2010-06-13T17:48:00.001-01:00

Yesterday Alyssa and I went to the airport in early enough to check-in for an international flight in the US. Normally check-in counters don’t open more than 2 hours in advance of a flight so we thought we had plenty of time. The departure area was a mess and as we looked for the Virgin Nigeria counter Alyssa saw that was flight was boarding. I started pushing through people (not very nice, I realize) and ran to the ticket counter.
“Your flight is closed.”
After trying to clarify that we were on the Dakar flight, the one leaving at 10:25pm, we learned that our flight had already left… hours before it was supposed to. The next flight to Dakar? Tuesday. As we rebooked our tickets we learned that the flight almost ALWAYS switches times to leave a few hours early… didn’t we know that? Well, no worries, people usually miss the flight. They were able to tell us that the check-in for our second flight, the one leaving at “10:25pm” will be closed by 7:30pm. Our only option for leaving last night was to fly to South Africa and then be on stand-by… we obviously didn’t take that flight. Air Ivoirian had a flight at 9am that went to Dakar but it stopped in the Ivory Coast and you need a visa even if you just have a layover. To avoid being thrown in Ivoirian jail we decided to wait until Tuesday.
When we got back to the hotel, there was a Nigerian guy leaving who profusely apologized on behalf of his country and then told us that it’s happened to him a million times – flights leave early and they don’t tell anyone. Our hotel only had a room for last night, however, so we checked out this morning and into another hotel.
Today was Ghana’s first game of the world cup and it was fun to watch that here. During the first half the entire bar cheered every time Ghana had possession of the ball. People quieted down a little during the second half but the bar erupted in cheers and horns when Ghana scored. As an added bonus to the win, before the game the bar owner had the crowd pick 2 Ghanaian players and, if they scored, everyone in the bar would get a vodka and Coke. Luckily for us all, the player that scored the penalty was one of the free drink players. Vodka and coke must be a British drink (the owner of the bar is British) because neither of us had heard of making that combination. It was really interesting to see everyone SO excited behind one team. I hope World Cup Fever is strong in the US and I’m interested to see how it is in Senegal (whose team didn’t qualify).
So for another two days I am unwillingly on vacation. I’m thankful we were able to get a room, the flight isn’t too many days away, and everything’s going fairly smoothly… but I still can’t wait to get back to Bambey. I’m done being on African vacation and I want to be back in my own little corner of Africa. Hopefully we’ll only be stuck in Ghana for another two-ish days. Off to watch the Australia v. Germany game!
KO

Last day in Ghana

2010-06-12T09:55:00.002-01:00

Alyssa and I leave Ghana later tonight, and I think we're both ready to get back. The vacation has been fun and Accra has so much to offer, and as much as I don't want to go back to fish and rice, it'll be nice to get back to my room. I called my host family last night to tell them I would hopefully be back to Bambey by lunch on Sunday - Youssou said hi in the background. Our flight leaves tonight at 11pm, so we're about the check out of the hotel and pick up some last minute souvenirs for people in Senegal. Sorry if the descriptions of Ghana have been lacking - maybe I'll make up for that when I'm back in Senegal.

I hope everyone enjoys the US v. England game today!

KO

LSAT and Shopping

2010-06-09T19:21:00.002-01:00

Yesterday morning we took the LSAT at the US Embassy. There were another 2 peace corps volunteers and about 6 Africans. There really isn't much to blog about the test, but it went well and I'm glad it's over. After the test we went to Champ's... yes... the American franchise sports bar Champs... and had buffalo wings, nachos with guacamole, and celebratory beer. We continued the celebration by hitting the street and trying everything that looked good along the way. Everyone says Ghana has amazing street food so we had some grilled corn and some grilled bananas. We saw amazing looking grilled meat but were full from Champs. (A side note, I realize it sounds stupid to be eating street food in Africa but chances are it's prepared no differently than the food I eat daily.)We walked around and saw downtown Accra and then came back to the hotel. We ended up hanging out with a returned peace corps volunteer who now works for a micro-finance institution and his co-workers who are all at our hotel. In case you're visiting Ghana, while their beer "Star" is good, I would highly recommend the cider, "Savannah."
We slept in this morning and then hit the markets. Rumor is Ghana has excellent shopping and I have not been disappointed. We wandered through their main market and saw all of the crabs, fresh vegetables (including avocado which we can't get in Senegal), and pigs feet. Ghanaians are definitely different than Senegalese. Aside from the fact it's odd to hear people speaking English, they are calmer and way less aggressive. I didn't feel like anything was a fight like everything is in Senegal. Then we went to the market when Alyssa remembered the top souvenir on our list: Obama fabric. Within 10 minutes we had each bought 6 yards of fabric with Obama's face. It's amazing and I'll get pictures up after the trip. After the big market we headed towards the artisan/touristy market. We wandered up and down the different stalls and finally found a good jewelery stall. A lot of the jewelery is similar across West Africa and we were looking for Ghanaian pieces. We both bought a fair amount of glass necklaces and some metal pieces before heading to the fabric stalls. While looking around we passed a woman who said, "hey sister, come by wooden spoons for you mother." I actually almost bought spoons from her because I thought the marketing pitch was great but, sorry mom, I was on a mission for fabric,not spoons.
Ghana is known for kente cloth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kente_cloth) which is fairly expensive but we each found colors and designs we really liked. Sure I have no use for a heavy scarf now but once I'm out of Africa I will! Armed with successful purchases we headed back to the hotel, first grabbing lunch at a seafood restaurant near the hotel.
After a few hours of hanging out we tried to venture into the rain to see Iron Man 2. We jumped in the first cab we saw who then told us he had no interest in taking us to the movie theater because there would be traffic and made us get out. We were both soaking wet from the heavy rain and returned to the hotel within 5 minutes of leaving.

Ghana Day 2

2010-06-06T19:32:00.002-01:00

Our plan to play into the lack of sleep to get on an "LSAT Schedule" worked and Alyssa and I got up around 7am without an alarm. We then went to breakfast and spent most of the morning studying. After working for a few hours we ventured outside of the hotel. I'd read online that Accra has a Chinese Restaurant that serves a dim sum menu on Sundays so we decided to check it out. Dakar has a delicious Chinese restaurant that's really low key, no decorations, simple tables - that kind of thing. Apparently always aiming to out-do Dakar, Dynasty Chinese restaurant in Accra is FANCY. The food was really good and the service was good which is a huge change from Senegal where good service means getting your food within 45 minutes of ordering and maybe having your order taken without having to find someone to take it. We walked around the Osu area after lunch and down a side street. I'm sure the rest of Ghana is nothing like this street was but the Ghanaian houses looked a little like Senegalese houses except they were all completely built and they were painted bright colors.

This afternoon was more studying and dinner was take out from lunch. We have one more day until the test and are just trying to lay low and stay in test mode. After the test we're going to try to go to the markets and take a day trip out of Accra to see just a hint more of Ghana. I have more to write about Accra compared to Dakar but that'll have to wait for another day.

KO