Senegalese men are making this country poorer.

I have been reading lately about how the economists are predicting the world will fall into crisis around 2030. They then show pictures of an African mother feeding half a dozen children. In other words implying that Africa is basically going to starve to death in about 20 years because of lack of food and water. And I have to say from here, I wouldn't be too surprised if they turned out to be right.

The whole thing frustrates me a lot because being in Africa I see that the problems are partially created by the Africans themselves, mainly the men. The Koran says a man can take up to 4 wives but he must treat them equally. In some parts of the Muslim world they understand this to mean that they must be able to treat them equally financially as well as love them equally and that is not possible so most men have one wife. In Senegal they interpret that as only treat them equally financially. I have been told by Senegalese men that they take multiple wives because they want more women to sleep with and take care of the house! So you either starve, struggle along or thrive together but as long as its equal, its ok. Unfortunately this is not and never has been a good idea because wives mean children and 4 wives can mean 16-20 children for one man to support which is incredibly difficult in an economy that only has half of its working population in the formal sector and the other half is in the informal sector. You cannot support 20 children by hawking peanuts on the side of the road! 45% of this country's population is under the age of 15 and a large percentage of them are going to have very sad futures. Its so enraging to see this vicious train of arrogance leading to the suffering of children. If only the men here could see that what was written over 1400 years ago is not a good idea in the 21st Century. They are endangering the future of their offspring by having so many of them!
One of the PCVs here worked with a mosquito-net distribution project last year. In her village of 800 people, 300 where between the ages of 6 months and 5 years. Those are the ages you could get a free mosquito net for because they are the most vulnerable for malaria. The pregnant and nursing mothers also got them. But 3/8 of her village was between 6 months and 5 years!!! How on earth are these children to survive? They already are malnourished and barely educated. Yet the average man in her village has two wives and takes another when he gets any type of windfall! Its is so incredibly stressful. I feel like there is very little I can do about it from this end. I am a young single white female. The men here are more interested in making me wife number 3 than listening to me.
What they need here is one of the Muslim development agencies to come in here and do some serious family planning work. I feel like its the only way to make them listen. It would also make the International Muslim Community look a lot better!
Yes, there are many other reasons that Africa is not developing, lack of work ethic amongst men is one reason due to too much aid from developed countries. (But then the Wolofs were noted as "lazy" and only want to "dance and sing" as far back as the 16th century.) Also the fact that the schools are almost always on strike because the government thinks its more important to build statues of Mother Africa (or whatever that large odd looking this is in Dakar) then pay their teachers. The students are then not prepared for their exams to go to high school or university and so fail out of school.
This place is a mess. And quite frankly I feel is a mess of their own doing.
Even in tourism they do it too themselves. The government levys a hefty tax on all passengers going through the Dakar airport which inflates ticket prices and makes Senegal a less appealing destination.
You feel like you are trying to swim into a tidal wave. Petit a petit. Only in the individuals can we make any sort of change.

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!