upitydate

Hello, hello!
I have very busy the past several weeks and will continue to be so until mid-Jan at least. My cousin Anya is coming in 10 days for a visit... of 10 days! Before that I am going to be hosting a study abroad student from Dakar for 4 nights, showing her around Sokone and probably Toubakuta too. We are still waiting for the financing to come in for our fruit drying project. When that does we can start purchasing supplies and put the order in for the dryers to be made. I also have started tutoring in English again. I really am enjoying that. Its fun finding creative ways to teach things. I explained autumn and leaves changing colors and why it happens in my last session with my friend Mariame.
Currently I'm in Kaolack. Our new volunteers for the Kaolack Region arrived at the regional house yesterday and are going to be installed this week into their towns and villages. This thursday is my one year anniversary in Sokone. Seems crazy that time has gone this fast! I am glad I still have 10 months left. I don't want any more or any less. Lots of plans are going through my head right now for after peace corps.
My birthday is now less then 2 weeks away! The big 24. Anya is going to be here for my birthday which will be a lot of fun. Last year I was sick!

traveling again

Well the month of October is bringing me to the distant corners of the country again. I went down to Kedougou at the beginning of the month after Korité. I was down there for a camp this time. Next summer the PCVs in my area would like to do a camp and so I went down to observe and help out with one that was going on in Dindefello in the region of Kedougou. It was an awesome spot for a camp because it is a great place to be outdoors as it is at the foot of some hills/cliffs and there is a waterfall about at 40 minute hike away. Well do ours hopefully in the Mangroves.

After that I went up to Kaolack for a night and then on to Thiés to help at training for the new volunteers. Then to Dakar where I did my midservice physical and other errands. Tomorrow I'll head back to Sokone and finally sleep in my own bed again!

Its been interesting to watch the election lead up and reaction to it from over here across the pond. Obama is the overwelming favorite. At the camp this kid from a small village in the middle of Africa made a collage that said I Love Obama on it in an Art session. The awe in people's faces when you tell them that not only is he African American but that his father was from Kenya is really incredible. Its like they can see the idea of the American Dream being realized in such amazing way.

I went to an Indian buffet today. It was so awesome. The Channa Masala and the Chicken Masala were so good. I decided I'm going to become an excellent cook when I go home. I would like to be good at Italian, Indian, Greek and Moroccan.

ramandan pt 2

The second half of Ramandan has been just as good as the first. Last weekend a bunch of us took a boat to an island and had a great time getting a bit fried on the beach. It was a nice relaxing over night get away. Not that Ramandan is stressful but its nice to have some time with a bunch of the other female PCVs. We did have one guy with and he did very well with all the girl talk that was going on.

I can't remember if I mentioned last time that I got my hair braided. Well its still in... sort of. I took out all 167 little elastics and tied the braids into a pony tail which is slowly unraveling itself.

Thursday is Korité here and I will take off for Kedougou the day after to help at a camp down there. Not really looking forward to the long trip down but it should be a good experience.

I've started some new exercises that I am enjoying. I got them out of a couple magazines that my wonderful sister, Kelly, gave me. Trying to keep fit here is a bit tough right now since its so hot you don't want to go out and run or walk.

Ohhh I've also started Salsa lessons with my sitemate, Laura. They are a lot of fun. We are learning a Senegalese style which according to the teacher is more advanced then the basic steps. We've had two lessons so far and have gotten some of the movements down. Its fun to just start practicing them when your doing things like brushing your teeth.

ok need to go. ciao.

so i guess this actually gets read....

I recently met someone who told me they actually read my blog before coming to country and it was helpful so now I feel obligated to keep updating it.


Well things are good. Very good. My sitemate, Laura, and I have been having a lot of fun lately. It is currently the second week of Ramadan. I fasted for two days with water and then got bored so on Wednesday Laura came over for lunch and we made a very nice veggie curry with moraccan couscous and then had a nice glass of sherry afterwords that I had bought in the Madrid DutyFree on my way back from a lovely 4 week vacation to the UK with my family.



The vacation was just what I needed. Relaxing, with my wonderful family and good friends, cold (wearing jeans and longsleeves was so nice), good food (berry season!), siteseeing, and not being the center of attention when I walk down the street. I'm glad I didn't go back to the US for vacation. I think I would have been bored and at the same time not want to come back. My family would have all been working as would my friends. The UK was a better choice because it was really expensive and I wasn't prepared to be in that weather for an extended period of time. Plus my family was on holiday too. But living out of a suitcase is fine for a bit but then you just want to be in your own bed.

My first few days back were mainly spent hanging out in kaolack waiting for the rain to stop so I could go back to Sokone. I ended up only getting 5 hours there before heading back up to Dakar to get a proposal written for the Fruit Dryers for Ndef Leng. That was a lot of fun because there were a lot of other volunteers there for various conferences and meetings. Everything getting squeezed in before Ramadan starts.

Well thats all I have time for today. Oh yesterday was my one year anniversary in country!

Ciao!

happy 23.5 bday to me!

Today is 23 years and 6 months exactly from my birth. During those past 23.5 years I have now spent 16 years out side of my country of citizenship… not too shabby. Still have spent more time in the US than any other country… but only by a year and a half. Wonder if another country will ever take over the top spot?

Life is good. I feel like I’ve gotten into my groove and its such a nice place to be. I feel like I am actually getting productive work done, my language is finally getting better (both Wolof and French), I’ve gotten to see a bit of the other parts of Senegal, I get to see my family in 8.5 weeks in the U.K., the weather isn’t too hot and the evenings and mornings are still cool and I am very content to just be where I am at the moment. Hopefully I can keep away the itchy-feet feeling for awhile!

Oh we had our first little rain shower! It was so exciting. It was a week ago and it rained for 10 minutes right after dusk. It was lovely to hear it on my tin roof. I really miss rain and weather. I need rain and gloom to help discharge my bad mood times. For me weather keeps me even keel. I love rain so much. I really miss it! Hopefully we get a lot of it this year. There is something very enchanting about listening to rain on a tin roof.

Mango season is in full force. My body doesn’t really like me eating a ton of them so I’m eating them in moderation. But I can buy a dozen for $1. I’m working with a group at the moment to hopefully start drying them. Mangos are so messy to eat but if you dry them they become so much better for travel and snacking. They taste so nice too. We already have one dryer and are going to apply for funding to get more and make it a proper business opportunity. We did one test run this week on some and they were delicious. We ate our test run very quickly!

Two weeks ago I went down to the Southeast corner of Senegal, to Kedougou. We were supposed to go down for the Bassari Initiation ceremonies but we got all the way out to the area they were to be held and found out they were actually not happening this year in the village we’d gone to and the neighboring village was having them the weekend after! It was a beautiful area so well worth the time and money spent getting down there. It’s a really hilly area which was a nice change after the flat of the rest of Senegal. I’m glad I got to see it. It was interesting seeing the town of Kedougou too because it’s the same size as Sokone but looks very different. Kedougou is a frontier town and Sokone is an old-colonial town. The compounds and business in Sokone are built very close together compared to Kedougou. They have the Gambia River running through it whereas we have the mangroves of the Siné-Saloum Delta. Quite a few people in the town speak French which was nice because I could communicate just fine. It’s a Pulaar speaking area (one of the other tribal languages which has dialects spoken in 28 African countries) and not very many people speak Wolof though some do.

So that is a basic update on me. Keeping busy and loving life!

Gambia, April and Orange!

So the past month has been up and down. I’ve been feeling pretty tired lately. Going to bed early and taking naps in my hammock. I’m not sure if I’ve just gotten warn down from various things on an emotional level and that’s how my body is trying to slow me down or if it’s the heat or if I’m not sleeping well. That’s the thing about being a PC Volunteer, when something isn’t right, there are usually many possible reasons for it which can make rectifying stuff very hard to do! I spent the last weeks in March in Sokone working on various projects. I was actually surprisingly busy going from various meetings and doing other prep work. I then went up to Dakar for a week for various Peace Corps related stuff.
For Easter, back in the end of March, I took 4 days of vacation and went and visited Gary and Denise Williamson in their village of Pirang, Gambia. They are only about 60km as the crow flies from Sokone but more like 85km if you drive it. I had to take vacation because you must if you go out of the country. It was a lovely long weekend. I really like the Serekunda area where most of the tourist related stuff is in the Gambia. Banjul is mainly administrative type stuff. Its on an island in the mouth of the Gambia River so it can’t spread so most development is on the Southern Coast of the Southern Bank. We visited the beach a couple times and I enjoyed following the Williamsons around and seeing their life. The weekend I was there was during the circumcision ceremonies for the Jola people in the area. They have this figure sort of like the bogey man named the Koncharan. The man who plays the role dresses up in a costume and carries two big machetes which he clangs together while making eerie sound screams. He is supposed to be protecting the newly circumcised boys from evil sprits. Women and children (the uncircumcised) are supposed to stay away and in doors. So when he’s out the streets are deserted. He was out starting around dusk and all night. He wanders through the town clanging the machetes and screaming. It was very different, to say the lease.
After that I came down to Kaolack for the annual Kaolack party. The theme was the color Orange so our decorations were orange and we all wore orange too. I wore an orange toga-like thing and have a streak of my hair dyed orange. The orange was the color of the Thai Buddhist monks. It was a lot of fun. We rented a big sound system and got lots of drinks and snacks. Most people were from our region but there were a few from outside. I danced a lot.
Oh sad news, Raja died. He died when I was in Dakar so I wasn’t there. I think he must have eaten something because my host family said he got really weak over two days and then died on the evening of the second night. I was really sad of course when it first happened but I also had kept the possibility that it could happen in the back of my mind. I know of other PCVs who’ve had animals who died. Usually they get attacked or hit by a car. I’m not sure if I’ll get another cat. I’ll not be much in site starting June until the end of August between going on vacation and various other conferences and other stuff going on around the country. I’d feel bad leaving a kitten for that long. So hopefully I don’t get mice! I still have Mador, the very badly behaved dog that my predecessor left behind. He is one of the biggest dogs I’ve seen in Senegal and likes to chase anything non-human… except for cats. He leaves them well alone. I think he got his nose scratched a few times as a puppy.
The second week of April I hosted an American study abroad student from Dakar named Jessie. I had a lot of fun showing her around Sokone. She helped me do a presentation on the American Family to the English Club one evening. She also came in to watch me teach a first level English class at the private middle school. I’ve done that a few times now, teach English. It’s a lot of fun and I think having an American teacher is more interesting for them then the Senegalese headmaster who usually teaches it. I try to make the class fun.
Last Thursday I got to come up to Kaolack to meet the National Director for Peace Corps from Washington. There was a lunch that was arranged for us to meet him and a couple other staff from D.C. The food was very good. He used to be a Peace Corps Volunteer in India in the 60’s with his wife. He was quite surprised when I could answer his “topi ko nam kay ho”. I got a quite a bit of time to talk to him because I got a ride in his car to Sokone. They were on their way to visit PC Gambia and so took the road that Sokone is on because it’s the main road from Kaolack to Banjul, the capital of the Gambia.
I’ll be at site now for the next 2.5 weeks. In two weeks we are having the Kaolack Regional Strategy Meeting in Sokone. We are going to be staying at a new hotel on the mangroves. It’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m glad I only have a 30 minute walk through the mangroves to get there! Certainly makes it cheaper for me! Hopefully we get some good ideas from all of it. We’ll certainly have fun swimming in the mangroves when the meetings are done!

Mid-March

On the Ides of March, what do I have to say for myself? Well I have just past the six months anniversary of my arrival date in Senegal. March 13th was also the day the 39 members of the new stagé entered the country. My stagé is now the “sophomore” stagé. No longer the newbies and supposedly now we are “forgotten” i.e. not the focus of Admin any more because by now we have good idea of the hang of things. There are usually 4 stagés in country at any given point with a few from a fifth that are on their way out and are just closing up at site, getting ready to hand over to the next volunteer and doing their last medical checkup. That is the point my sitemate, Erica, is at. She’ll be flying out on May 10th. Before that there is lots going on in my life.

I am currently in Kaolack for the night to get caught up on internet stuff as well as to celebrate Tayo’s, the PCV stationed in Kaolack, finishing with his TB meds. He also had a small chance that he had TB when he entered the Peace Corps and had to take medications “just in case”. He was on the 9 month plan but I was fortunate to be on the 4 month plan which was far more expensive but Montgomery County’s TB control program paid for it.

Next weekend I am going down to the Gambia for Easter or Paak as its called in Wolof. I’ll be there for three nights and it will be my first official vacation while in the PC. I’m really excited to go and I have to take a ferry and I love ferries! You have to take vacation days if you leave the country. For stuff like going to Kaolack or other in-country stuff you don’t, particularly if the trip involves service related stuff such as if you go to observe what another volunteer is doing in another part of the country or you help someone with a training or you yourself go for a conference.

I also was in Kolda during the first week in March. Kolda is a city and also a region south of Gambia. There are only about 14 or 15 PCVs in that region so it is far less populated than the Kaolack region that I think is at 39 right now. The “Kaolack” region is really made up of three different government regions but Peace Corps groups them together. I don’t mind it because that means our regional house is in Kaolack which is a great place for shopping and internet is pretty cheap. About 65 cents an hour. Anyways, I really enjoyed going down to Kolda. I saw a few people from my stagé as well as a couple others I knew from other groups. I hung out at their very nice regional house, enjoyed cooking with them, watched movies, spent lots of time talking, walked a long the river, explored their main market street. It was a really good time. I’m not sure if I’m going to go again during my service so I am glad I got to get down there and see the place. One thing I noticed is that animals in the south seem to have no sense of the danger of vehicles. They just start across the year despite the fact that there is a big bus heading straight toward them. I also at lots of vegetables that I usually never eat because one of the PCVs down there is a vegan…. Ocra, eggplant, zucchini….
Raja is getting very big and he is a wonderful source of entertainment. When I sit down he still comes bounding in from the other room to sit on my lap and kneed my belly. I’m very glad I have him. He’s started to spend the night outside now. He’s big enough I think that the other males cats in the area can’t kill him to protect their territory and his claws are very very sharp. I have plenty of little scratches to prove it!

Dakar and Softball...

I've just spent a week in Dakar and its been a fantastic, sleepless and busy week.

Lets see... I was here originally for the West Africa Invitational Softball Tournament (W.A.I.S.T.). My region, Kaolack, had a team. I didn't play because there are so many people in my region who want to play and frankly, I haven't played softball since freshman year of high school so I would have been very bad at it. Plus I don't like hard projectiles coming at me. There were plenty of people walking around with black eyes and other injuries by the end of the long weekend!

All the Peace Corps participants stayed in a homestay. I was with two girls from PC Benin. We had a lot of fun together. I spent a lot of time with them. I reasoned that I can see and talk to PC Senegal people all the time and far less frequently do I get the opportunity to talk to PCVs from other areas. The family we stayed with were lovely and had a very nice house right near the Peace Corps office and by many good restaurants. Days were spent by the pool or watching games and evenings were spent at good restaurants and bars. It was such a difference from everywhere else in Senegal. Even Thies is completely different. Dakar is much more metropolitan. I really, really had a good time. Lol, oh yes. There was a date auction one of the nights too to raise money for scholarships to help keep girls in school (literacy amongst women in Senegal is only around 30%). I bid (and won). It was a lot of fun. I bid on someone that I was told to and didn't know but it ended up working out well.

The day after WAIST we had an all PCV conference and talked about Malaria prevention and funding options. Malaria kills more people in Africa than any other disease. It really is a problem. In my area in particular because of the delta. There is a lot of standing water. Kaolack is also really bad because of the excessive number of open sewers.

Tomorrow I'm heading back to Sokone, I'll have been gone for four weeks exactly. I'm definately ready to get back to my kitten and my bed! Until next time...

reporting in from thies!

Reporting in from Thiès again. I am almost done with my second week of my second round of training here. I arrived the 27th of Jan and will be here until the 15th of Feb. It has been nice being back here with the people from my stage. This round of training has been focused for me on Wolof and tech class for Small Business Development and Ecotourism. I actually am going to be working in both areas. The girl I replaced was actually an ecotourism volunteer so I will be working on some of the projects that she was working on as well as hopefully get involved in other small business areas. There are a couple new campements/little hotels opening up in Sokone so maybe I’ll be able to work with them. It would cover both areas.

I am enjoying being in Thiès in general. Don’t get me wrong, Sokone is a lovely little town but it is also the smallest place I ever remember living in (the only place smaller was only until I turned 1). I’ve grown used to living in the suburbs of big cities and I miss the energy that they have. Thiès is by no means an energetic place compared to most cities around the world but it certainly is compared to Sokone. Actually, I remember my first impression of Thiès was that it was a pretty sleepy city for having a million inhabitants but then it was also the beginning of Ramadan so that might also have had something to do with it.

It has been chilly here in the mornings. I get up at 6:10AM and then do about half an hour of Pilates before getting dressed and bags ready for the day. I leave the house at about 7:10 to walk with my next door neighbor Lauren to the center. Breky is then at the center and then classes start at 8. I definitely feel like I have more energy this time around then I did when I was here for the first eight weeks. That’s is likely do to the fact that it is no longer peaky humidity season as well as that my body has adjusted better to food and water. I have lost about 5 pounds since I left here in November. I figure I’m probably closest to the healthiest I’ve ever been. Between the fact that I do Pilates regularly as well as eat a pretty balance diet (need a bit more dairy but I get more then most volunteers in Senegal so I’m fortunate in that) as well as get a good amount of sleep and a good regular does of Vitamin D and my daily Centrum all leave me feeling great. When I do come into Thies and eat things like pastries at the Magic Croissant I don’t feel bad about it at all. I know that I probably actually need the sugar… I just have to remember to brush my teeth well!!

I actually went to the beach again last weekend with the other people in my stage. It was so nice to be back on a real beach. The Sokone mangroves are wonderfully refreshing to swim in though, particularly on a hot afternoon. I love looking out though from the beach here and thinking that the next thing really out there (other then maybe the Cape Verde Islands) is the Americas.

the cross dressing holiday is today!!

Hello from Thies this time!

I am here for two nights on a whirl wind trip. I left Sokone yesterday morning at 5AM on the horaire which is basically a Senegalese bus. It went directly from Sokone to Dakar and took a bit over 5 hours. Then I did a bunch of errands in Dakar and then in the evening traveled down here to Thies. I'm staying with one of the guys in my Stage named Christopher. Tomorrow morning I'll go to Kaolack for a regional meeting for PCVs in the area and then down to Sokone in the evening.

Today is also Tamharite which celebrates the end of the Muslim year. In Senegal, in the evenings the children will cross-dress.... the girls in boys clothes with painted mustaches and the boys in girls' dresses. They then go around banging pots and pans and what ever else they can find to make as much noise as possible. Its quite a racket outside right now!

I only have one week left in Sokone before I come back here to Thies for another three weeks of training and then about 5 days in Dakar for the West African Invitational Softball Tournament and a conference. No, I'm not playing softball but I am going to cheer. It is basically the social event of the year for PCVs because we come from all over the country to it. It is over President's Day Weekend every February.

The past two weeks have been good for the most part. I did get sick on this past Monday but it was nothing too bad and has only been the third time I've really been sick here (I don't count colds). I think I was sick because of something I ate, not sure what it was exactly because I had eaten a wide variety of foods that day. I have been enjoying getting to know the Japanese volunteers in my town. There are currently four located in Sokone. Three of them speak English so we get a long just fine in our mix of french, wolof and english. I hope that I'll be able to work with them on something because I think it would be a really good experience.

My kitten is doing well. I left him for the first time overnight lastnight and tonight. I'm sure he'll do just fine. He likes to complain though. He's getting a little spoilt. He is a rascal though and loves to play with anything that moves or looks fun to climb/swat at. Raja really is good company and makes me laugh with his antics which is always a good mood boster.

kittens and the mystery machine

The Mystery Machine drove by me today. Yes, the one from Scuby-Doo. An exact replica. And there were foreigners in it. It was a very surreal experience. I was walking toward the main road that goes through Sokone from Kaolack to Banjul, The Gambia, and then I saw it drive by. A bunch of other cars came after it, also painted but nothing I recognized. I got up close enough to the road to see the last car go by. It said “Plymouth to Banjul Challenge” on the side. I’ll have to look it up.

I also got a kitten today. My host brother came by this morning and asked me if I wanted a kitten because there was one right outside the gate. I went out and there was this tiny little thing meowing and looking very bedraggled. I picked him up and figured he is possibly a male. It’s been about 11 years since I had a cat so I think I checked correctly!!! I’ve named him Raja which is king in Hindi/Nepali. Cats that belong to PCVs tend to be in much better condition than most in Senegal so the name should suit him. He is able to lap up milk by himself and will go to the bathroom in the sandbox I made him so hopefully he is old enough to survive without his mother. He is grayish-white and black with grayish-green eyes. He keeps swatting at my fingers as I try to type. He definitely livened up after the milk and a good long nap. Ah, he finally settled down to clean himself instead of playing with my fingers which will make the writing of this post much easier!!

I also bought some plants yesterday to beautify the outside of my house. I bought two hibiscus plants and a frangipani tree. Well the frangipani is only about 10 inches tall so it has a very long way to grow but I was told there will be flowers on it within a year. I’m sure it will grow a lot during the rainy season. The hibiscuses are about 2-3 feet but they have a long way to maturity too. I carried them all about a kilometer yesterday. My arms were so incredibly tired by the end that I could barely do anything. I didn’t even want to cook so had bananas and pretzels for dinner. Yes, I can buy pretzels in Senegal! Not terribly cheap. They are from Germany.

New Years came and went, not terribly eventful. I was with two other PCVs when the year changed. We had this really good hot mint flavored milk. It was so good. Better than egg nogg in my opinion. Only three more weeks until I’m back in Thiès. Time had really gone fast. I left the US four months ago next Saturday, Jan. 12th.