It’s been 2 months since my last blog entry and I've been
on-the-go the entire time. They say that
your project work picks up after the first year of Peace Corps service, and
apparently “they” know what they’re talking about. This is beginning to feel like a real job all
of a sudden!
Before the rush began, I took my second vacation of the year
and spent 3 weeks back in the states visiting with friends and family and
enjoying the splendors of autumn in Virginia. Although I wasn’t able to catch up with
everyone I’d hoped to, I did see quite a few people and many a four-legged
friend. Being home wasn’t as
overwhelming as my trip to Europe this past summer. I’d already experienced the shock of the
modern world and my mind was no longer making comparisons with everything I
saw. In fact, it was more like I’d
landed on a different planet, Planet America, and therefore I didn’t expect for
things to be the same. I did have a few first impressions, though. It seems I’ve
spent the better part of a year telling Senegalese folks who are enthralled
with the idea of the U.S. that America is not really like it appears on
T.V. After having been back just a day,
I realized that, well, it actually kind of is--clean, pretty, organized, and filled with things that cost a lot of money.
I guess I’ll have to change my tune on this and just accept it for what
it is. The other things that caught my
eye were the little trends that had popped up since I’ve been gone. Everywhere I looked there was Greek yogurt,
scan squares, Angry Birds, and eyebrow threading.
Odd, what catches on so quickly.
Other than that, home was pretty much like I left it. I filled my days sightseeing, walking in the woods,
enjoying the company of friends and family, hanging with my dog, attending
a film festival, eating good food, sipping tea, drinking good
coffee, and appreciating fine libations. I overextended myself a bit with all of the
socializing I tried to fit in, so by the time I left I was fighting a cold and
cough, but it was totally worth it. How
often to you get to be a vacationing visitor in your own home-town? Click on this photo to open an album with pictures from my trip.
Special thanks go out to the many friends and family who
hosted me while I was back. It was a bit
strange not to have a home to return to, but the hospitality extended to me was
grand and I was happy to see that my renters are taking great care of my house
in Batesville. Also, a big “merci” goes
out to The Peabody School for holding an assembly so I could tell them all
about my adventures in the Peace Corps.
After the assembly, I spent an hour with the kids from the French classes with
whom I’ve been corresponding and it was really great to meet them in
person. Then there are folks who
came to the Cider Dinner at my friend Kevin’s house, who were gracious enough
to donate almost $800 to my “Bringing Books to Senegal” campaign. This is a project I was working on with a group
of volunteers in Senegal. We were
teaming up with the non-profit organization, Books for Africa,to raise funds to
bring over 22,000 local language books and text books to local libraries and
schools Senegal. Unfortunately, I just
found out this week, that the campaign has been cancelled, as the request for
funds has exceeded the time limit allotted.
Never fear, the $4,400 already donated to this project will be diverted to the Peace Corps
Marathon fundraiser whose proceeds will be going to a scholarship program for
middle school girls. I’ve been involved
with this scholarship program for some time and, in fact, some of the recipients of this year’s
scholarships are the ones who attended our Girls Leadership Camp in September.
Click here for a clever video clip promoting the Peace Corps Race for Education Marathon. Although I'm not planning to train for this race (are you kidding me?!?!--I struggled to train for a 5K while I was home and this is taking place in Sub-Saharan Africa!), I do plan to go down to cheer on those brave souls who will be running and make sure everyone stays hydrated.
On 11-11-11, just a couple of days after returning to
Senegal, I organized a World Hoop Day celebration to spread my joy of wiggling
and giggling (aka hoop dancing) with the people in my community.
World Hoop Day is a non-profitorganization based in the U.S. that granted me funds to make a slew of hoops
for the kids of Diourbel. I teamed up
with my friend Nar Dieng, who heads a roller-blading association, to put on a
grand spectacle for the kids. A local
youth center donated the space and Nar and his friends helped me make and
decorate 50 new hoops for this event. A
couple of Peace Corps Volunteers from neighboring villages came in for the day
to help me out and several school officials came to partake in the
festivities. We had well over 70 kids
join us for an afternoon of hooping and roller-blading. The local radio station even covered the
event in their evening broadcast. Aside
from the usual annoyances, like having to transport chairs and hoops on the
back of a horse-drawn cart, people showing up late, and a sound system that
was many decibels too loud, everything came together and it was a fun-filled
afternoon
. Click on the picture below to open an album of photos from the event.
The following week, I gathered a training group in Dakar to
conduct another round of Safe Zone Training to discuss gay awareness and
sensitivity with our local Peace Corps staff.
This was our third round of training and was, again, well-received. This always provokes lots of discussion and
controversy, but that’s why we put it together in the first place. We give the
staff a safe place to talk about these issues and to better understand how to
support homosexual volunteers who are serving in a country where homosexual
acts are treated as both immoral and illegal. During this session, one of the staff members
shared with us her concerns about an Islamic belief that if you touch a
homosexual, even a casual touch upon the arm, then your prayers will not count
for 40 days. Since Muslims pray 5 times
a day, that’s 200 prayers down the drain.
She understood that she has a professional obligation to interact with
homosexual volunteers, but wanted to make it clear to us that she was
uncomfortable with this. Fair enough—we weren’t
there to change their opinions, just broaden their understanding and hopefully
identify some folks who could step up to provide support. Regardless, it was hard to hear. Soon after this discussion, however, one of
our openly gay volunteers returned a pen to another participant and to thank
him for remembering to give it back, she hugged him. Yes, right there in front of Allah and everybody,
with 200 prayers in jeopardy, she hugged him. It was beautiful.
The next week I returned to Dakar to attend a Thanksgiving
feast at the home of the new Ambassador and his wife, Lewis and Lucy Lukens. They arrived in Senegal in August and were
brave enough to follow in the tradition of previous ambassadors and invite the
Peace Corps Volunteers over to their house to celebrate the holiday. I say
brave, because letting a group of mostly 20-somethings who’ve been living
meager lives subsisting on rice and millet for many months around unlimited
amounts of good food and wine can be a scary sight. Many volunteers chose to stay in their
respective regions, hosting smaller gatherings at regional houses, but there
were still over 100 volunteers who signed up for the pot luck in Dakar. In addition, 30 or so embassy employees
joined us, so it was quite an impressive gathering (that’s a lot of toubabs)
and the food was amazing.
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| Stanzi rolling out pie dough with a beer bottle--classic Peace Corps ingenuity! |
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| An impressive variety of foods at the pot luck |
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| One of the MANY long tables set up for the event. |
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| So I over-indulged a little! |
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The Tivaouane gang had a Thanksgiving reunion of sorts.
Phil, Kelsey, April, and Chris |
The following day, a small group of volunteers hosted a
Black Friday Art Expo in Dakar. I
brought two artisans from Diourbel: Mamadou, who I’ve introduced before, and
Dibor, a new tailor with whom I’m working.
She and I designed some satchels and bags made from recycled rice sacks and
these sold really well. I also worked
with her to create some other new items that we thought would interest the
ex-pat community of Dakar. She made placemat
and napkin sets, adjustable aprons, and wrap-pants. Dibor sold so many things the first day of
the Expo that she stayed up late at her sewing machine that night to replenish her stocks. In the first two days of the
sale, she netted well over $200, which in an economy where people survive on
less than $1/day, is pretty substantial.
Her husband called me later that week to thank me personally.
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| Dibor at the Art Expo |
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| Dibor's rice sack bags |
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| Mamadou and his friend Matar |
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| Hanging with my artisans |
Khady returned to France at the end of November and won’t
return to Senegal until after my service has ended. I’m going to miss having her around, although
it will be nice for Ibou and me to have the compound back to ourselves. This time around we’re not exactly alone
though. We now have a young French volunteer named Anna who has just started
working with us. She arrived in Senegal a
few weeks ago and will likely stay for the three months that her visa will
allow. So far, she’s settling in and
getting used to the heat, culture, and language. That’s a lot to come at you at once, I
know. Soon, she’ll be helping us with
our Eco-Ecole program and our village garden projects. Although she doesn’t speak a lick of English
and my ears strain to understand her accent (so different for the African
French accent), it’s nice to have another toubab around. Her arrival was also a good excuse not to
return to eating lunches with the family across the street. As much as I enjoyed their company, I’m happy
not to be forced to eat my weight in rice every day.
Another welcome change that’s occurred since my return from
the States is that we’ve had over 2 straight months without any electricity outages to speak of. I’m not sure I’ve ever had two straight days
prior to this. Not sure what’s afoot,
but the upcoming election surely plays a part in this. Unfortunately, now that I have reliable
power, my internet service has been on the fritz, working only periodically. This
has been annoying and disruptive for me, but knowing that the majority of Peace
Corps Volunteers in Senegal (or around the world) don’t have the luxury of WiFi, I really shouldn’t
complain.
The first weekend in December, a reporter from Voice of
America came out to Diourbel to do a story on our paper briquette press
project. She attended our Saturday
morning Eco-Ecole and interviewed some of the kids and school directors. She was impressed with our little compound
oasis and the projects that we’re working on. Here is a link to the
radio transcript.
Last week, my friends Andrew and CJ came up from
Kaolack to conduct a training seminar about the wonders of the Moringa tree. My neighbor Stanzi came from Bambey, as well. The first day we brought
several people in from neighboring villages for a train-the-trainer session,
teaching them how to best grow and cultivate it, the nutritional value of
its leaves, and how to incorporate them into their diet. The next two days were spent in the villages
repeating these same lessons, but with the help of the participants from the first
day. The information was well-received
and each village now has a small Moringa nursery to tend to. I’ll be following up with them in late
January to see how things are going. Click on the photo below to open an album of our Gardens of Moringa Training.
Here's a special bonus--a short video of the women of Khokhe who broke out into song and dance while pounding moringa leaves.
And finally, last week marked another milestone for me; I
turned 44. To celebrate, I traveled to
Thiès to join a few friends for lunch and then went on a little shopping spree
to replenish my cupboards. As a special
treat, I bought myself a bottle of Scotch, a frying pan, a can of artichoke
hearts, a hand-blender for making soups and smoothies. That alone equaled half
of my monthly living allowance—but, heh, I’m worth it, right?! All in all it was a good day and it was so nice to hear from so many of you.
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. May Santa's sleigh be filled with sacks of rice and boxes of live chickens!
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| I shared my ride into Thies with a box full of chickens |
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| Ice Cream - Yum! |
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| Joyeux Noel |
