Color In Senegal: July 2013

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!