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
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
A Chance Meeting
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.
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.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
4th of July
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
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
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
And then overnight...
... 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
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
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Girls Camp!
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 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
Friday, June 18, 2010
A Little Bribery Never Hurt
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
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
Thursday, June 17, 2010
A Personal Odyssey
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
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
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