So the previous post, I meant to post that, or I thought I posted it 3 weeks ago. turned out I only saved it as a draft. woopsie.  so now I will write the blog post I meant to write as I signed on before learning that the previous one had flunked.

Normally I plan out my blogs late at night in my hut but today I decided to make an impromptu post because I am feeling very motivated as of late.  and by late I mean the last day because I also recently experienced a week of a pretty emotional mood.  I mean they warned me this would happen..

Anyway I am currently sitting in a small restaurant in Kaolack awaiting a response from the medical team to the pictures I sent of my mystery illness.  Yes we thought it was staph and I suppose it still could be but antibiotics aren't doin the trick.  It is actually petty painful and hard to walk especially with the long pants and skirts I am culturally required to wear daily.

Anywho I decided to bide my time by informing myself and in doing so I've decided to read about development.  The process of working to develop the developing world has never been something I have studied too much in detail.  I am all about people, yes, and I loved studying psychology and anthropology but being a Peace Corps volunteer has seriously opened my mind to what the majority of our world is like and what there is to be done and the potential of what could be done but is not yet known.  my small experience so far in village has basically served as a neon sign that says, "Women and children need help!"  I have recently had an epiphany that I think my work in Senegal will revolve around helping women.  It is so apparent how bright and curious they are here in Senegal but also very astonishing to hear about what they go through and what they think is normal.  THen again who am I to quote normal and they have been living like they have for decades, centuries even, but I would sincerely like to take the small few groups of women that are motivated and use them as a tool to motivate others.  I am currently working to train a woman for my Casse de Sante (a small health hut to serve my villages basic needs) to be the Matrone (Midwife).  I am determined to make this happen smoothly because already a bright young woman is studying to be the nurse for this health hut.  SHe is under going training with a head nurse at the nearby Poste de Sante (a bigger health center with more resources), who is one of the most amazing woman I have met here in Senegal.  Seriously as bright as one can be and is also extremely busy but managing to juggle baby weighings and appointments and pregnant woman and sick children and injured men.  I admire her to the utmost.  But anyways the matron and nurse for my village are training with her as well as another young woman from my village who is shadowing the head nurse at the post to someday do what she does.  ALL women.  All intelligent, caring and motivated.  I got real lucky when I was placed in my site in Senegal.  Seeing these women living in the same village as young 17 year olds going on two children,...makes me think.  It makes me think hard.  I really want to work with this and help them realize there potential.  The scholarship for young girls to stay in school was at first just a project to get my feet wet, gain credibility and do a some good.  But now I believe it tipped off a service in which I an only hope will make a small change in the lives of women here and the nearby villages and regions. So that's that.  I plan to start helping out with the Poste de Sante and their activities including baby weighings and more tourneys next Monday.  As I wrote abut before, I have gone around assisting with the distribution of vaccines for small children and in doing so, got to know the health workers in my area.  The fact that one is my counter part and a few are close neighbors makes it that much more glorious cause I get to know them on many levels.  They have done nothing but help me immensely in directing me on how to begin my service.
On another hand, I am slowly learning about agriculture and farming, which is a barrel of fun.  Rainy season in Senegal makes the terrain unrecognizable which greenery everywhere.  For a desert, that is an incredible and miraculous change.  It is so fun to just look off in the horizon during the morning hours and see groups of men children and yes WOMEN! hoeing and digging and weeding and planting. Ah its just great!

I am also figuring out that I seriously enjoy reading here in Senegal and am determined to keep my mind exercised by reading old classics, guilty fiction novels, books on psychology (cause lord knows I always love those), and everything in between.  I have a lot of time.  To read, to think, to plan.  I have thought about my future but also know all to well I absolutely cannot live in the future.  I need to live in the now.  So now I will focus on my experience and what I am learning.  One funny thing, is as I am doing that, I am realizing my love for psychology even more as I learn about and live in the developing world.  Most definitely going to try out some ideas about woman empowerment and the psychology of the Senegalese as soon as my Wolof gets a bit better.

So despite my inspired post I have other news I suppose.  Such as that I am getting flashbacks of my life in America in the form of intense craving.  Today, my cravings so far have been for a strawberry blueberry banana smoothie with some spinach thrown in and going to Victoria Secret to shop.  Yes I know very random but those are some examples of the intense cravings I get when I am walking from my hut to a neighbors hut or when I am tidying my hut up.  Its nice to think about those things though.  After the "oh shit I'm not gonna see that for two years" moment, it becomes comforting.  Then I snap back to reality as I am making sure the baby doesn't fall off the cement slap as she is reaching for a piece of goat poo.

Well this is all I'm gonna write for today.  Hope you find some enjoyment from it.

Ba beneen yoon (until next time),

Miss everyone all the time!

Tina

 

Hello to all my friends and family!!  Thinking of you always but my experiences here in Senegal continue to get bigger and better every day.  I have been very busy for the past 3 weeks after completing the five week challenge in village and I would love to tell you all about it.

Here goes:

The five week challenge is a little challenge that our country director created to help us stick with the harsh requirements of staying in a small village for five weeks.  It means that we may not spend a night in another location other than our respective huts for the first five weeks after we install but we are however allowed to leave site for a day.  I personally thought this was an easy task.  I ended up going to the city of Kaolack twice for day trips during the first five weeks but my tiny village of 700 people is lucky enough to be located only 10 kilometers away from the medium sized city of Kaolack; which, also is home to the second largest market in Africa and the largest market in Senegal!  Yeah its pretty legit.  Like a dirty maze filled with stray cats, fish bones, puddles of foot washing water and a bazillion people trying to get your attention.  You gotta be on your game.

My family in village is wonderful but also very huge.  Reminds me of the Bryant clan in many ways.  There have been baby goat births almost every week including one on my first day while eating lunch.  It was pleasant.  Asides from that I have done a lot of wondering, reading, chilling and sweating under Neem trees, climbing baobabs, playing with children and conversing with people outside of my sister-in-law’s boutique.  I love all of the children despite their loud volume at all hours.  I’ve been eating lots of peanuts and peanut butter as Kaolack is one of the regions where peanut production is staple.  Another product of the region is salt so on many roads you can glimpse large white mountains of salt.  I have also been dabbling in a bit of work as my last blog post mentions.  I have learned how to make a tree pepineer aka nursery and will start an intensive bed of Morenga trees when I get back to my site.

So I mention “when I get back to my site” because I have been away from site for 2 weeks.  It seems like a long time but I think that is because a lot has been going on including our language seminar which included more language classes and sleepovers with my friends nearby from my stage.  What cut that in half for me however was a small insignificant trip to Dakar to meet the president…of the United States.  Jk.  It was by no means insignificant and so very neat of an experience.  Meeting Obama was a big deal to the 30 or so volunteers that were chosen.  I had to book it out of my village however after I found out they might stop people from entering Dakar at a certain time the evening before we were to meet him because of his arrival.  I fortunately made it before dark and after asking 30 people for directions to the Peace Corps regional house in Dakar I made it to “six” (French pronunciation) as it is nicknamed.  It was so cool to meet other volunteers and converse about what we would say to Obama if we had the chance to talk.  The next day we all spent time getting ready to American music and shaving our underpits for Mister President.  Soon we were on our way to the embassy excitedly talking about what was going to happen.  We ended up waiting in a line in front of the prestigious Radison Bleu for a lot less security than I imagined and then entered a small tent where about 3 or 4 hundred people eventually gathered.  It was a get-together for American hands in Senegal. After waiting 2 or 3 hours, the president made his appearance and made a lovely concise speech thanking us all for our hard work despite hardships and frustrations from time to time being away from family members and friends back home in America.  The President had also had a meeting earlier that day with our PC country Director as a guest to discuss food security and successful governance in Senegal.  SO it was a neat experience all in all.  After his speech, he made his way down some barriers to shake hands and greet people.  I unfortunately was behind two rows of people but I saw him and was not 2 feet from his face.  There was somewhat of a mad rush so I can understand his brief greetings before being escorted out of the tent.  It was strange how the Senegalese were more crazed to see him than the Americans.  He did however talk to a PCV and asked if he was “having fun.”  He did not mention PC in his speech but I gladly shouted it at the end of the list of people thanked before the round of applause.

The rest of my time in Dakar was wonderful and I had a lot of fun on the town that night.  After this trip to Dakar I traveled back to site to catch the very end of language seminar and to spend a nice weekend with my family, showing them pictures of Dakar and Obama.  However, I was soon off to the Kaolack garage again for an 8 hour trip down south to the Region of Kedougou.  Every year there is a very large gathering of PC Senegal volunteers in the beautiful mountainous region for the American Independence Day celebration.  Basically a few days of wild and crazy American fun!  We had pool parties in the rain and went all out decked in red, white and blue and American flags and temp tats and sparkles and anything festive you can imagine!  Had so much fun, it was unreal!  Kind of roughed up my body a bit but it was bound to happen after a very chill lifestyle in village for a month and a half.  Also became a 20 course meal for a family of mosquitoes but totally worth it down there.  Our hotel was right on the Gambia River and we were all very hopeful to see a family of hippos floating by.  It didn’t happen but there was something resembling an otter or lizard and then much mysterious pieces of wood and trash including a Talibe bucket.  (a Talibe is a young Koranic student who must beg for money and food).  We also held a bird funeral on the river for the unfortunate dove that ended its life on a hotel room window.  It was absolutely gorgeous watching the rain storms travel over the tree tops and fields across from the river and the humongous horizontal streaks of the thickest lightning I’ve ever seen in the sky!! Went on a great adventure one night risking our lives and our shoes to traverse large puddles in the muddy roads at night and then talking to taxi drivers and club owners to show us where we could get a drink or two.  After Kedougou we took a ten hour trip back up to Kaolack before heading up to Thies to the PC training center to attend a Training to learn tips on how to teach English to Senegalese.  Despite the two day training, a lot was covered and since it was run by the State Department, I believe they were very effective in shaping our skills to bring back to our communities, who are head over heels excited to learn English.  I hope to use the skills I learned in this training to help out with an English club for high school students in Kaolack and perhaps be a part-time English teach for a preschool in a nearby village by the river.  I have high ambitions but I guess that is what all this prep and training and getting to know my town and Senegal is for.

Now I am kickin it at the center.  I am loving it here as it’s quite relaxing with zero expectations!  I get to chill and internet and have fun nights with great conversation.  I’ve been meeting and getting to know more and more volunteers in other regions during each event I’ve attended in the past few weeks.  The only downside is I have essentially zero money which is never any good.  I will attend a SeneGAD meeting for Gender and Development in Senegal since it is a topic I am interested in and that is the area the scholarship project I did falls under.  I’d like to find out about as much as I can that is going on with Peace Corps and get involved.  It’s almost a bit like college.  Endless amounts of opportunities that you just gotta seek out. I am happy to do all of this but also that I get to go back to my village and back to speaking in only Wolof, seeking out the desires and needs of my community. Wooo!

 

I’ll leave you with some pictures as I normally do! 

Peace Out!

baboons in Kedougou!

 

The Gambia

the dirt road behind my house.  many travelers on their donkeys and horses come from far away

Amazing Thai soup in Dakar

Yeah I was there!  Obama!!

And the liggeey (work) begins!...(Finally J)

 

Hey everyone! 

I am now a month into my actual service and am still earnestly trying to learn Wolof and also some Pulaar!  Its difficult. To say the least.  Probably my top frustration. Since learning a language is hard enough.  Fortunately I have some awesome young girls in my family and they help me out immensely by first of all being very enthusiastic to teach me things but secondly being very knowledgeable and instrumental in my language learning since they have been studying French in school and I speak French for the most part; it is how they are effectively able to explain to me certain words in either Pulaar or Wolof.

  In addition to practicing my language I am getting to know the community and how things work around here.  I have played with the children, learned cooking tips, spoke with my neighbors and conversed with the professors at the school.  I am growing restless however as I am very excited to start work.  I have decided to start up a project led by Peace Corps and carried out by volunteers and their communities.  It is entitled the Michelle Sylvester Scholarship and is designed to be a small type of scholarship for young girls at the middle school level. In 1993, Peace Corps Senegal created the Michele Sylvester Scholarship (MSS) Program for Girls Education.  The program allows one volunteer to raise $180.00 to pay the upcoming year’s school fees and supplies for 9 middle school girls.  Along with the teachers, we choose the top 3 girls from each class to submit an essay and interview to receive the Scholarships

I would like to carry out this scholarship as an incentive for the girls to achieve high grades and to want to succeed, but also as a motivation for the school to continue to encourage their students, especially the girls, to be eager to learn, to stay in school, and even go on to attend a University.  I know the girls in my family love school to socialize with their friends and are eager to learn but have many other responsibilities around the household and village as well.  School does not always have a regular routine and therefore might be easy to lose touch with when other responsibilities are expected of them.  Since I am new to being a volunteer, I am a bit rusty as to the logistics of how this project should be carried out but I am excited to explore it and have fun as I get to know the school, the teachers and principal at the school, the students, and their families at the same time!

My job now is to raise money to provide for these scholarships.  I am asking you to participate in any way at you can because a little seriously goes a long way.  Only 180 American Dollars which roughly translates into 40,000 CFA, can help pay inscription fees and buy supplies for these 9 girls ensuring they have what they need to stay in school.  It can also be a wonderful emotional and mental booster for them as it builds their credibility among their peers and professors. This scholarship is a great and easy way to alleviate the economic burden for the village and the families, can help express a young girl’s potential, in addition to illustrating the importance of a young girls continued education with the rest of her life.

  Below are a link and the instructions for how to donate if you kindly choose to do so.  Unfortunately, there is a deadline of July 9, 2013 in order to ensure that funds are received in time for the next school year. 

How to Donate:   Click here to donate to the Peace Corps Senegal CountryFund and enter the amount you wish to contribute in the box on the right.  This will bring you to the payment page.

In order to ensure that the money goes toward my Scholarship fund in particular, you must input the following phrase into the comments box of the donation:

“This donation is to support MSS scholarships in PCV Christina Bryant’s village of Thiawando.” 

Your participation means an incredible amount to my village and since I get to be a part of helping young girls, like my younger sisters, get excited for school, I very much enjoy bringing this program to them!  This will be my first project as a volunteer so I am ready to make it a success!

For more information on Peace Corps Senegal’s gender equality initiatives, check out the  SeneGAD Blog which explains a little more about SeneGAD, a Peace Corps original initiative to help out with gender equality.

 

In other news,  it is mango season and the start of rainy season.  That means bugs and humidity and mangoes!!  It is lovely when it rains and despite the strange creatures that take refuge in my room when it pours, I really welcome the beauty of a storm after so much sun and dry air!!  I have about a mango or 5 a day and wish I could start drying them to have my much missed dried mangoes from the US J  Another Peace Corps project with Economic Development is in fact creating simple devices to dry mangoes and I hope that it catches on soon.  I look forward to finding out more and also bringing that to my region.  Other than mangoes, milk is a daily supplement.  Fresh milk straight from the udder.  And I finally succeeded in milking a cow and having actual milk come out!! (yay me!)  It is super relaxing to get away to the cow fields as the sun goes down.  The sunsets are not the most spectacular each night but the weather is perfect and breezy and I so enjoy that time of day in the fields.

 

I have some funny things to talk about but I am again running out of time in the city so until next time!! 

Ba beneen!

 

 

 

Well here it is!  The Eve of my move

 

Hi guys!!  Well tonight is the last night before I move into my hut for the next two years!  I have very much enjoyed my last few days in Kaolack though!  Glee and OC marathons!  I mean who could ask for better?  Rawatina (especially) between trips to the second biggest market in Africa?!

I have just as many thoughts going through my mind as new things for my hut!  shopping for everything was a blast and got to practice my Wolof and haggling skills, WHICH I must say,  I have gotten down preeeettty good.  Bought some sweet old t shirts from America at the Fukki Jaay.  Seriously it is quite amazing how many American shirts end up in Africa and the people have zero clue what they mean or say.  One guy kept holding a shirt up that had a picture of like a pastor on it and the name of a church and said. "its pretty isn't it?"  Before getting me to be interested in a shirt that said "Cosmic Bounce".  Seriously the most random things ever.  Which is why I absolutely love it.

 

Had a not so pleasant experience in the market today when a local guy spit on my shirt.  I was in such shock that I couldn't do anything but shortly after it took everything in me not to run after him and give him a good punch.  Anyways  I guess I just gotta always keep my cool and realize I look different and am therefore a target to some.  Nothing some good music, internet and a beer can't fix. 

 

Well Not much else interesting has happened except the internet going out in the regional Peace Corps apartment and saying bye one by one to my fellow PCVs and friends as they depart for their lives as a volunteer.  It is great knowing that we have a lot of fun and great events, festivals, meetings, and visits in our future though!!  Also learned how to make Ceere which is milliet couscous and is AMAZING!!

 

aaannnd Remember that time I said I would upload more pictures?  Well I will not since I forgot my camera memory chip and will not have internet for the next month or so.  But you guys can wait just a bit longer right???  MY apologies. but by then I will have a bunch more awesome pictures of my new family and village and potentially some photography experimentation??  haha who knows.

 

Well wish me luck!!  I am in for some intense language training and must meet all 800 people in my village and get to know them over the next three months.  Although I will have lots of downtime I will also have lots of stuff to take care of and learn so the journey is never over and never paused.

I'll leave you with these breathtaking pictures of Lac Rose.  I went there with my language group one of our last days in Bayakh (neex na), as our PC driver would say.  Granted, these pictures are from google and much better representations than what we actually saw but it looks better on my blog :)  the last three are more like the scenery I would describe from my journey.  Still Great though!!  I loved how deserted it was, except for the locals trying to sell us anything and EVERYTHING!
Short little anecdote of our journey back:  So because it was so not busy,  finding transport back looked like it would be difficult.  Thankfully we had told our taxi driver to meet us back at 6 PM  smart right?  wrong!  so by 6 30 we were getting worried.  We know Senegalese time can be mjorly delayed but when there is no one else around and you don't want to be stuck in a somewhat deserted location,  one starts to panic.  So we converse with our Senegalese friend/personal tour guide/ walking buddy about getting ride in this one car waiting there.  We finally decided to not wait for our taxi and take the car but by then it had filled up with people.  After much strained conversation in broken Wolof, French and English,  we found out that the driver would come back for us but we would need to pay him all of the money up front.  My RADAR said "uh uh!"  So we dismissed the man and thought walking up the sand road would be the best idea to catch any possibly taxis or rides back to the main road.  We ended up finding a red van that had stopped I said Halelulah!  We ran to catch his attention and negotiated a price before hopping in back.  It became scary when we heard him latch three locks on the outside and noticed all of the windows were barred.  Then we see our taxi driver on the road and mention to our current driver that we want to get out.  well he wasn't having it and sped away.  Then he noticed some women needing a ride and stopped to pick them up.  However, once he stopped, we made moves to get out.  Then once he noticed, he decided "nevermind!" and stepped on the gas yet again!!  Thought we were trapped and it is not a pleasant feeling when the windows are barred, the only exit is locked from the outside and there is a fence between you and the front seat passenger and driver.  Turns out he dropped us off at the main road to catch a bus safe and sound but let me tell you.  The experience was a tad stressful and made me sweat it out for a little while...  Okay that story was longer than usual but I wanted to add it in with the serene pictures.  Also what made the trip memorable was the tiny adorable orange kitten I got to hold and nuzzle for a few short but glorious minutes :)

Also had no clue the lake was so close to the ocean until now.  I new it was somewhat near but we did not see the ocean during our visit.

 

Okay well talk to you soon!!!
Grosses Bises!

Holy Cow!

I swore in yesterday at the Ambassadors house in Dakar.  Things are real now.  This is when it begins.  I am nervous and excited and unsure and ready and happy and proud and blown away all at the same time.  Currently I am taking it easy and getting the most of my internet usage in before I don't get to very often.  Thank gosh a fellow PCV showed me how to enable my wireless on my new computer because I was starting to become hopeless about the wireless situation..  I am hopeless with computers.  ANYHOW,  it feels weird to call myself a PCV now.  Everything I've ever read or heard about is now 100% applicable.

Swear in was nice yesterday!  WOOOOOO I am O to the FF to the ICIAL!  Gorgeous place and everyone had literally the most gorgeous outfits.  Very hot but whatcha gonna do.  the food was great and I finally got a ne phone by the end of the day!!  since mine broke after falling in dirty dish water last week :(  eeghhh.  so yeah then we got some excellent shopping in Thies and ended that with a phenomenal fancy dinner with just about everyone.  Definitely one of my favorite days here in Senegal.  Also got to be in Dakar for a little.  Man I love that city and I've only seen it three times and the first didn't really count.

I am so happy our training is over.  We had a tough day of language tests and presentations a few days ago and it was tiring.  I am ready to get the big move over with so I can unwind, do some yoga, relax and sleep :)

It has been wonderful playing with all of the kitties at the center!!  I am thinking about adopting a puppy after I talk with my host family!!  He is really cute and I'm normally a cat person but our guard dog in my site might have a problem with a cat always around.  I saw the way he was when the stray cam into my backyard during my site visit.

It is bittersweet spending the last day with everyone since it means we will start to live our experiences and travel to visit each other in the different parts of Senegal soon but after spending two months with each other, it means we will not see each other for awhile perhaps and that is sad.

SO  Now I am getting real hot as it is almost 5 and the sun has been baking me at Croisant Magique for an hour now.  I have to head back to the training center to pack all of my things which I AM NOT looking forward to doing cause I have a lot of crap.

But see you on the other side!!

I am now in the Peace Corps family!!

Love and kisses

Blog About Malaria Month  BAMM!

Hey guys!  It is Blog About Malaria Month and I'd like to tell you about my experience discussing malaria prevention with my host family in Bayakh, Senegal!

My name is Christina Bryant and I am from Rockville, MD USA.  My Community Based Training site is in Bayakh, Senegal.

My family lives in a compound with 5 rooms and they have mosquito nets for each sleeping space in the compound.  However after asking them about their use,  I found out they only use them during the wet/hot season, June through November.  I suggested they put them up during the remaining months but they reported that it is a hassle.  Instead I discussed with them about the care of mosquito nets and it turns out they were very knowledgeable about them.  They knew to wash them 3 to 4 times a year and to dry them in the shade.  I asked if they knew how to make a princess net which is a net that hangs from one point in the ceiling instead of from 4 posts.  A family friend said he had heard about it and told me he knew how to make them.  Then I shared with them tips on how to wash the mosquito nets.  I told them that it was alright to use soap but that they should not hear the infamous Senegalese "squish" noise while washing them; otherwise, the chemicals might wash away completely.  I asked them how long viable mosquito nets should last and they guessed one year.  It turns out the nets may last up to two years! 

Here is a picture of me fixing the hole in my net.  I did not want to undo the ties from my posts since they were tied pretty tight but I invited my family to come and see the technique I used to sew up the hole.

 

 So lets spread the word and Stomp Out Malaria!!!!! Use those nets and make sure to properly care for them!!

 

 

www.stompoutmalaria.org

 

World Malaria Day: April 25th