The Beginning and The End

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.

KO

Khady

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

Pictures

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

Back in Bambey

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

Leftovers

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

It's beginning to look a lot like Tabaski!

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

Girls Scouts: Senegal Style

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