I am sitting at the PC Office in Bamako, the capital of Mali, taking advantage of their free internet (its 1000 CFA/hr here!!!) and figured it was as good of time as any to write about my vacation.

I planned this trip with my friend Jenna, another PCV who lives in the north of Senegal because I wanted to go to Timbuktu. Also, I have taken two trips to England, but felt that I should see more of West Africa than Senegal and the Gambia while I am here these two years and had heard really good things about Mali from other volunteers who had gone.

Still, Timbuktu was really the only reason I had to want to come to Mali and planned my trip around it. I wanted to take a boat up the Niger River and then back down to Bamako in two weeks. Having an intimate knowledge of the public transport horrors here in West Africa, we decided to fly to Bamako from Dakar to save two days of being crammed into one car or another on horrible paved roads. The plane ticket was twice as expensive as overland, but saves us 46 hours of transportation. I definately think it was worth it.

The first hitch in the plan (and there is always a hitch in the plan) was Jenna getting a staff infection on her face. She called me the day before we were scheduled to fly out and told me she wasnt medically cleared by PC to go, so I was on my own. Having already dealt with Megan dumping me right before a backpacking trip in Europe that I promptly did on my own, I decided to just do it and take my chances. So on Monday January 26 I flew out solo for Mali, with very few plans but figuring I would play it by ear.

My first thought as I peaked out the window at the desert that is Mali is how ugly this country was! A few seconds later I changed my mind, deciding that it wasn't ugly, just very different from Senegal and beautiful in its own African way.

My plane got in early and I went straight to the PC Office here in Bamako to make friends. There were several volunteers in town and they took me out to lunch and were so friendly, offering my advice on what to see and do here. PCVs always have good advice to give as we know the country we live in so well.

I stayed in Bamako for three days wandering around. I went to the National Museum, which was really cool and included a modern art exhibit and an exhibit on Malian textiles.

I finally left Bamako on Thurday to go Segou where a volunteer there said he could house me and there was a huge music festival going on. Loads of tourists in town. Couldnt afford the tickets to the festival as they were expensive, but hung out down town listening to music and going out with other PCVS. It was amazing. There was music and dance troups from all over West Africa not to mention an artisinal craft fair with AMAZINGLY beautiful products. I did do a little shopping there. I am human after all.

When the festival ended, Jenna (who was finally medically cleared and caught up with meon Friday) and two other Senegal PCVs and I headed to Djenne, the site of the world's largest mud structure: a mud mosque. I have seen pictures in guidebooks but they just cannot capture the beauty of these buildings. The mosque itself is gorgeous and I wandered around the town just admiring. Monday (the day we went) was their weekly market day and it was the craziest, busiest African market I have seen yet. So much fun to be a part of. I bought some fabric that is made here and much more cheap than in Senegal for my host family and friends in Pout. Hope they like it!

From Djenne we headed up to Mopti where we met with Oumar, who we had hired to lead us on a 4 day hike through Dogon country. The next 4 days were spent hiking up and down the most beautiful cliffs you can imagine, where houses are sometimes built into them, sleeping in campements in any one of the beautiful billages there and just being in awe at God's creation. It may be the most beautiful, amazing place I have ever been. If anyone is even thinking about coming to West Africa, they cant miss this. Unfortunately, as I dont exercise EVER in Senegal, my body took a beating, but it was so worth it. Oumar, our guide, was really great and funny. He always made jokes while explaining Dogon culture to us. I learned so much from him.

At this point in my vacation it was obvious that I didnt have enough time to make it up to Timbuktu and then back, which was really dissapointing, and yet the rest of the trip had been so amazing that it wasnt overly so.

Spent another day in Mopti after Dogon Country and then headed back to Bamako, where Jenna and I have been killing time waiting to get back to Senegal.

There is so much more to say about these last two weeks and I dont even know how to start!

It has been nothing short of amazing. 2 weeks is the perfect amount of time and I am very ready to get home. I do miss Senegal and all of its craziness. I will inevitably take this back tomorrow morning as I am arguing with someone at the garage in Dakar on my way home, but it will be nice to argue in Wolof again.

I am halfway throught with my entrepreneurship trainings. Due to serious incomptence on my counterparts part, the first week of trainings, scheduled the week of January 12 has had to be pushed back until mid February but the second week went ahead and started the week of Jan 19 as planned. The training lasted 5 days and Ousmane talked about various things such as why entrepreneurship is important here, what makes a good idea for a business, where to get funding for a project and basic business skills such as marketing and record-keeping. 16 members of the local ASC showed up to participate and they were a really fun group. They were fairly talkative (which pleasantly surprised me) and seem to be quite motivated. Several of them have really good ideas for projects. Masseck, for example, really wants to open a fish-selling business in town and Massamb wants to open a cyber. Now that Pout has internet, we will need more cybers, as the only one we have has 2 computers; neither of which work very well.

Although there were some stressful moments throughout the week, mainly dealing with budgeting issues, the week went quite smoothly and Ousmane did a really great job. He led all of the sessions as language and cultural barriers would make it a lot more difficult for me to do what he did. I wish that I was competent enough to have participated more, but sometimes the hardest thing is to admit that the best thing for everyone is for you to sit back and let someone else take charge (for the greater good). This is expecially hard for a control freak like me.

And the best part is: it's over! Halfway over in the long run. The plan had been to have two consecutive weeks of trainings and then I would leave to go on vacation in Mali, but now the two trainings sandwich my trip. I finished the first before I left and will come back to the second one. At least I have work when I get back, right? The participants were also really interested in doing basic IT trainings with Word and Excel when I get back so we may spend a couple of weekends in the computer room at the local middle school doing that.

I leave tomorrow morning to use up the last of my vacation days in sunny Mali. I know, I know, it's a bit early to have used them all up seeing as how I still have 7 months left in Senegal, but thats sort of how things worked out. If I went to Mali any later than January I would run into their hot season, which I hear is only suited for massochists. I am not a massochist.

So the next time you hear from me, I will be in Mali!

2009.

My first (and possibly only) visitor has returned to the UK, and so I am still in Senegal trying to figure out my work for the next eight months. Only, when I start to think about it, I get a little panicked at only having eight months left in Africa and my mind starts to wander.

My counterpart, Ousmane, and I submitted an application for a grant to put on two weeks of entrepreneurship trainings with a local youth organization the weeks of January 12 & 19. Our application was approved and the money was put in my account the first week in January, but when I went to finish up planning with Ousmane and buy the materials, he hadn't actually notified the ASC (the group we're doing the trainings for) of the dates and Friday was too short of notice to begin on Monday. Ipso facto: the trainings have been pushed back. I should have seen this coming, I really should have. I should have checked up on him more often to make sure that he had gotten ahold of the necessary people. There are a million things I should have done but didn't. Oh well. We will still have the week of trainings the 19, but then the second will have to wait until February 23 as I am heading off to Mali at the end of this month and then WAIST is upon us.

So this week, which I had planned on being super busy and productive, is turning out to be just another week of sitting around, checking up on my work partners and making plans for after WAIST in the hopes that I will contribute something to thie community before leaving it.

Sorry, I suppose this entry isn't very optimistic, but it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel sometimes amid all the frustration that goes hand in hand with development work.

In more exciting news: I received a donation of 40 books for my youth library that I get to drop off this week! Hurrah for the new english section language of the Pout Library!!!

Terry, my first visitor in Senegal, showed up on Christmas morning to spend two weeks here in sunny Senegal. A week and a half into his trip, I thought it might be a good idea to let him write about his impressions and experiences here. So, withouth further adue, here's Terry!

Well what can I say,

My first interesting experience in Senegal was Dakar airport. As I eventually made it through security and baggage claim at about 3am I was bombarded by about 15 taxi drivers asking me if I want a Taxi, well thats what I guess they were saying as they were speaking french and I don't.

Looking through the croud of taxi drivers I saw Mandi with a blow-up Santa doll, so fighting my way through them I got to Mandi and we then went to our hotel, The Hotel we stayed at was basic but it was great to be here with Mandi.

When we woke up we left the hotel and headed for Goree Island which is a small island off the coast of Dakar, it was used as one of the hubs in the african slave trade. It is a pretty Island.

We met up with 8 other PCV's there and we had a nice christmas dinner and hung out.

On Boxing Day Mandi and I went back to her site in Pout where I met her host family and even cooked them a hamburgers and chips for dinner, which was fun. We spent a couple of days in Pout with Ellie, her cat, then headed into Thies we spent a couple of nights there at a place called Massa Massa which was very nice and the food was amazing. We will go back there in April when I come back.

On the 30th we went back to Dakar to get the boat down to Zigunchor, as we got our tickets late there were no cabins left so we ended up with chairs so we spent 14 hours in the seats as there was no common seating area so it wasnt much fun but we got to Zigunchor.

We arrived in Zigunchor on New Years Eve and as we got off the boat we had to wait for the baggage, about 30 mins later we had to go through a door to collect the baggage.

There was about 200 people going through a single door and then looking for their bags it was an experience in its self. After we got the bags we got to the hotel and the fan didn't work and then the light in the bathroom stopped working and there was no water so I couldn't have a shower.

Needless to say we only stayed there for 1 night and we then went to the hotel over the road which had a fan that worked, lights that worked and water for the shower which was great.

We have been down here in Zigunchor for 5 days and it has been good. There is a street vendor that makes a mean spaghetti sandwhich which has been breakfast for the last 5 days.

The food in Senegal has been very good infact I don't think I have had a bad meal at all. Ironically, Mandi ate some Senegalese food that disagreed with her and upset her stomach, but I haven't had any problems.

We are heading back to Dakar today which means back on the boat in the seats again this time for 16 hours. Fun!

Well I have enjoyed my trip so far and it has opened my eyes a bit more on what I have. I will not take for granted as a lot of people here have nothing and are begging for money and food.

The transportation is an interesting experience as well as 95% of the cars would not be road legal in the west as there are bits hanging off and bits missing and smoke from the exhausts, but some how they are still going.

Well thats about it at the mo will try and post a bit more after the trip. Till Then

Take care and remember how lucky you are.

For those of you who don't already know, and I realize that I have been talking about this a lot, I have had the AMAZING opportunity to work with Operation Smile, an American NGO that is in Thiès, Senegal this week performing free surgeries, as an interpreter from Wolof to English. To give you a quick rundown on what they do, here are some facts from their website, www.operationsmile.org:

Operation Smile, headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, is a worldwide children’s medical charity. In 1982, Operation Smile was founded by Dr. William P. Magee Jr., a plastic surgeon, and his wife, Kathleen S. Magee, a nurse and clinical social worker.

Since 1982, more than 120,000 children and young adults with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities have been treated by thousands of volunteers worldwide and thousands of medical professionals have been trained globally.

Operation Smile was launched after its first mission to the Philippines in 1982. Operation Smile currently has a presence in 51 countries.

This week was their first trip to Senegal, and if all goes well, they will be coming back within the year to provide more surgeries. This week, a total of around 150 Senegalese patients, mostly children, with facial deformities had the opportunity to receive free, life-changing surgeries and I am so blessed to have been able to participate in it all. As the interpreter, I got to tell the patients about their surgery, how to prepare for it and explain post-operative care to them after surgery. I spent most of my time in post-operative with the nurses following them around and asking patients how they were doing and feeling. It felts really good to be that link between them and their medical care. On the opposite side, it was heartbreaking to have to tell people that we could not perform the surgery for whatever reason and that there was nothing we could ndo for them. Between the highs and the lows, it was an emotional week.

I am a little jealous of the volunteers with Operation Smile (every one of which I completely and utterly respect and admire) who get instant gratification. Within a week they get to see the results of their work. The development work that I am doing is a little different in that we "plant the seeds" of development and hope that our projects will be sustainable, but often it takes years for the results to come about. I believe that both types of development work are necessary, charity and sustainable development work, in order to encourage developping countries, but I suppose Im just a little jealous that I can't experience what these volunteers have.

Oh well, c'est la vie. Pastures always greener and whatnot. Operation Smile is having a farewell lunch in town that they have invited the Peace Corps Volunteers to attend and so I am off to a free lunch, and to say to goodbye to some amazing people who have become good friends in only a week.

I realize that I have touched on the subject before but I am running out of things to say!!! I haven't been online in almost two weeks for whatever reason, which is the main reason I haven't written, but also I just havent had anything to hurry up and get online to write about.

We got internet in Pout, which I expected to be this life changing event, but we only have one cyber café that is online and there are only two computers in it, both of which suck. Since Im in Thiès twice a week anyways, it just doesn't seem worth it to bother using the internet in town. Yes, the internet is that bad there. Plus I can use it for free here.

I applied for a grant with my work partner in order to fund two weeks worth of basic business skills trainings with leaders from a local youth organization and have been accepted, which I am really excited about. That means two solid weeks worth of work. :) Ousmane and I have a lot of planning to do getting everything ready. The trainings will be the middle two weeks of January.

So yeah, that's the news from over here in too-sunny Senegal (I dare anyone in America to complain about the cold).

Here in Peace Corps-land, after you've been in Senegal for one year, it's time to drop everything, come to Dakar and make sure you're healthy. Relatively so, at least. All volunteers are required to undergo a mid-service medical exam consisting of a complete physical and dental exam. It's about as much fun as it sounds, but it's a good excuse to come to Dakar and relax for a few days and also an example of how amazing our health coverage is here. I am getting very used to full medical coverage and going back to the states after Peace Corps is going to be an experience....

Peace Corps pays us once every three months and the end of November is the end of month number three (ie: I havent been paid since late August). My budgeting skills as they are, I am extremely close to broke and so can't actually afford to go out in Dakar with the other volunteers, but am cooking lots of yummy meals and catching up on my movie watching. I am very much looking forward to this next pay period.

Wolof phrase of the day: Obama is my president (see above). I could not be happier to come home to America with Barak Obama as my president next year. The reaction to his victory has been amusing here in Senegal. Mainly because EVERYONE knows the result. Some people may have pretended not to be paying attention to the US race for the White House, but as soon as Obama won, EVERYONE and their mother came over to my house to discuss the news and get my feelings on a black man as president. One man yesterday actually told me I had to make sure to keep the Republicans out of power, so perhaps there was one person here who hasn't heard, but I think he's alone. Another thing that I found really interesting was the Senegaleses reaction. Every single person started off by congratulating me. My family and friends here know I voted for Obama, but everyone else is congratulating me without even asking who I voted for. I can't really explain it, I just find the whole congratulatory thing strange. I appreciate their enthusiasm and boy are the Senegalese excited about Barak Obama!! My host mom has completely forgotten about telling me that if he won he would certainly be assasinated by racists and encouraging me to vote for Clinton and is singing his praises and congratulating me all day long. Barak Obama has some high standards to live up to here in Africa. Even more so in the United States....

In other news, I mentioned last entry that I had two university students staying with me for a week as part of their program. It's called a "rural visit" and every student spends one week of the program outside of Dakar either with a Peace Corps Volunteer or an NGO worker depending on their interests after university. I ended up with a student from UC Boulder and another from Occidental College in LA. Both were amazing. We had a very good time together and I think they were pretty relieved to not be in a village for their rural visits. They sat in on my computer classes in Thiès, got to witness firsthand me showing up for meetings only to have the other party not show up (which is beginning to feel like the majority of my work here), hung out with some Senegalese friends here in town, taste some of Pout's lovely fruit (it is after all what we're known for) and make some nice American food to boot. After two months of cebb u jenn, everyone could use a good plate of pasta, regardless of how tasty cebb u jenn is.

So yeah, a good time was had by all. I came in with them to Dakar this morning for a medical appointment on Monday. Having been here 14 months already (but who's counting?) I am due for my mid-service physical and dentist appointment. I am interested to see what all of this sugar in the attaya I drink here has done to my teeth...

You would think that living in a small farming town in West Africa would make me pretty out of touch as far as the US election goes, but there has been a surprising amount of coverage. Senegal's national TV station, RTS 1, has been providing a lot of coverage and there's always the internet. Walking through the Dakar market, we saw loads of Obama t-shirts (no McCain t-shirts for some reason...). Everyone here is supporting Barak Obama, mostly because he's African. Some don't like Bush and see McCain as the same, but yet again mostly Obama is black and the Senegalese are really excited about the possibility of a black president. I have been asked multiple times today who I am voting for, and am always met with a grin when I say Barak Obama. I sent my absentee ballot in 5 weeks ago, so I'm hoping that it arrived safely in Murfreesboro. I'm pretty sure it won't be counted, but I can't complain about who wins if I didn't vote, right?

Right now I am sitting in a hotel conference room in the fanciest hotel in Thies where they have set up chairs and mattresses and most importantly a tv with sattelite connection so that we can watch the non-stop coverage on CNN International. There is a restaurant attached to the hotel so we're pretty much set. The entire new stage (40 volunteers) is here as well as those volunteers who live nearby and the two university students that are visiting me in Pout for the week to see what exactly Peace Corps volunteers do as they are both looking into Peace Corps after graduating. More about our adventures later.

Just wanted to post something on Election Day before I know who my next president will be to let you all know that I do have constant english language news coverage, so you can stop worrying. :)

Allez Obama!!!

The title of this blog means "May God give us another car!" in Wolof. In case you hadn't guessed, this entry is about the Senegalese trasportation system, which I have mentioned randomly in previous postings. Transportation here in Senegal and in many parts of Africa is infamously unreliable and crazy, although until Wednesday I had been having pretty good luck with it all. I live in between the two largest cities in Senegal and so my transportation situation is nothing to complain about, at least not for me. At first, the system took a little while to figure out; where to go, what to pay, how to ask for things, schedules, etc. However, a year in I've got it (almost) figured out. Or so I thought.

Having just passed the year mark, the group of volunteers that I arrived in Senegal with decided to throw ourselves a reunion party where we would come from all over Senegal to Kolda, located in the south of the country. I was really looking forward to the opportunity to see a new part of Senegal and to get to travel through the Gambia, which is necessary as the Gambia intersects the middle of Senegal (well planned, Brits). I met up with some other volunteers in Kaolack, a three hour trip from my site, so that we could all travel together. We had heard it would take us around 8 hours to get to Kolda from there so we were at the garage by 8 ready to rent a car and leave.

When we pulled out of the garage, we noticed that the exhaust from the car wasn't going out the back but into the car which made it kinda hard to breathe. This is not an uncommon occurance here in Senegal and we thought about asking for another car, but decided that even if we did we couldn't guarantee the new car would be any better so we decided just to stick it out. After all, by now we were all seasoned 14 month in volunteers and could handle anything, right?

The first two hours passed quickly and at the Gambian border the driver stopped at a mechanics shop to get the car repaired. This was a typical Senegalese mechanic shop and so all the work was done outside while we all sat on a bench in the shade. We had been there about half an hour when our driver told us he would be back in 2 minutes and took off. With all our stuff in the car. We didn't think much about this at first, but were getting kind of nervous after an hour. He finally showed back up and we were off again.

Passing through the Gambia was easy enough and we got to take a ferry across the Gambia River. After getting off the ferry we made it all of 20 Km before our car broke down. The road is an absolute maze of potholes and while driving through them we had lost several lugnuts on one of the tires and it was hanging on by one. So we plopped down in the shade again to wait for our driver to go to the next town over to get some parts. This of course happened during the hottest part of the day and we quickly ran out of water. Three girls went to find a village where we could ask for water. While we were gone a man drove a donkey-cart past with full bottles of water. Only problem was, we had sent all of our empty water bottles with the girls. He was nice enough to give us a few cups of water and the girls got back soon enough so that we could continue sitting in the shade. After three hours, our driver came back and changed the tire with a borrowed jack, as he didn't have one in the car of course. We managed to get out of there around 5:00, which was just in the nick of time as we had to make it to the border crossing before close since we didnt have an overnight visa to stay in the country and there are hyenas.

As soon as we reentered Senegal there was a loud pop in the back of the car and the exhaust pipe had fallen off and was dragging on the ground. Driver acknowledged that it happened but didnt stop to do anything for another hour or so when we stopped at a big intersection known as Carrefour (French for intersection). Our car was obviously not doing so hot, so we asked around for another car leaving to Kolda, but were told there weren't any more leaving until the morning.

While there a group of men came up to help with the car and as it was already dark asked if we had any flashlights. There is one on my cell phone and so I lent it out. After dinner, I came back to the car and asked where the man with my cell phone had gone and no one seemed to know who I was talking about. Awesome. I hadn't gotten his name, all I knew was that he was really short. Shorter than I am. The Senegalese men at the garage yelled at me about what an idiot I was to give my cellphone away, which I was PERFECTLY aware of at that point. I was so upset I started crying. Daniel had been calling my phone repeatedly and we finally got ahold of the guy who had it and asked him to come back. We had a Senegalese communicate that part of the message so there was no misunderstanding. Nobody can yell like a Wolof, after all.

When Lamine got there all the men at the garage who had been telling me what a ridiculous, stupid tourist I was suddenly switched teams and surrounded this poor little man like a lynch mob. Everyone started yelling and I thought they were going to beat him up. All I could do was stand there yelling that I wasn't angry, I forgave him and wanted to go to Kolda. The moral of the story is that it was really quite frightening, but eventually ended and we finally got to leave that Godforsaken intersection heading to Kolda, after spending 2 hours there. We finally found a driver who was driving home to Kolda and agreed to take us. We had already paid the price all the way to Kolda, but had to pay an additional fare on top of this one to get there. After the day we had had, none of us objected. We just threw our money at the driver and begged him t get us out of there.

Praise be to God we pulled into Kolda around midnight, 16 hours after leaving. It was such a long day and I have never been as glad to be anywhere as I was to pull into Kolda that night.

One positive thing is that having lived here for 14 months., I was really well equipped to handle these situations and could laugh about them and hang out on the side of the road for several hours knowing (well, somewhat hoping) that things would work out, which they did. If this had happened at this point last year, I would have completely freaked out. I am very proud of the ways in which I have grown over the past year.

Back in Thiès where I have finished Microsoft Word lesson #2, and am currently waiting on Astou to finish work at her shop so we can go over her recordbooks that she kept while I was away. There are several pieces of information missing from her entries and I am also hoping to add the totals to see how much money she made during the month of Ramadan, or didn't make.

In Pout I continue work with Ousmane. We are still working on the grant application, which has proven to be rather lengthy, but once that is done I can turn it into Dakar for approval. Hopefully by November. Although Ousmane is a great work partner, the application process has been slowed down by his showing up late, leaving early, and constant smoking breaks. What can I say? I take what I can get. And he shows up at all, which is what makes him a great work partner.

I met with the principal of the middle school who informed me that both him and the high school principal have been replaced, so I have two new principals to work with. Shame, as I really liked these ones and they were so easy to work with!!! I am visiting the middle school again tomorrow to meet the new principal. Wish me luck.

I have also been helping out with training a bit with the new volunteers, as I mentioned last week, which has been a lot of fun. After the meeting with GIPS, I helped out with a talk on how to handle unwanted attention, and this week I am going in to talk about gender roles and SeneGAD (PC Senegal's gender and development program) as well as the women's health talk. Oh to be a woman in Africa :) I look forward to spending more time with the trainees. The more I get to know them, the better I like them, although it's still hard to think of them as replacing the volunteers that are currently leaving and who I adore. It will take some time to get used to. Until I leave.

A recent idea for a project has been to get english language books donated to my youth library. I have emailed several NGOs and family members in a search for information. I have found several that are willing to donate the books if I can get them to Africa from the states....which I can't, any help? Also if you would be interested in shipping any books over, bismillah and feel free to email me for more information! Those of you who know me know that literacy causes have a special place in my heart. Which means that so will you should you help me get some books over here for my kids to read.

Now that the holidays are over, I can get back to work.

I have set up my computer classes in Thiès with GIPS and Astou on Mondays and Wednesdays until further notice and just finished my first lesson on Microsoft Word. I now have 5 students and we have planned out classes until the new year working on Microsoft Word, Excel and using the internet for business purposes. So far so good.

I am spending the day here at GIPS office waiting for the new group of business volunteers to show up for a presentation. My students will introduce their business and how they work with women's groups in the community and also talk about our computer lessons and (hopefully) how much they have helped over these last few months. I get to sit back and pretend to be important.

I have also been spending a fair amount of time at the mayor's office working with Ousmane on a grant application to receive funding for two weeks of business trainings with ASC, a youth organization in my community, in an attempt to encourge entrepreneurship. My supervisor has given us the go ahead and all looks promising, so my hopes are up really high. This is very dangerous, but I cant help but be excited about this potential project!!! More news on that to come.

I still need to meet with the principals of the local middle and high schools to discuss how I will be working with them over the course of the school year but, I will admit, I have been procrastinting.

In other non-work news: Ellie is in heat. Not fun. She has lost her outside privileges until she stops begging to be humped by anything. No kittens, please. I can't wait for this to end so that I can get a decent night's sleep again.

So after my second Ramadan in country was over (mind you I was in England for most of it) came my second Korité. It feels really good to have been in country long enough to start experiencing things for a second time.

This years Korité was almost exactly like last years with the exception that I knew what the heck was going on and actually had a little bit of fun this year. In case you missed last years post, here is a typical Seengalese Korité:

8:00am Wake up. Men get dressed up and go to lengthy religious ceremony at the local mosque, women begin preparing the meals. Sexist, yes, but them's the rules here in Senegal. I helped my host mom peel and cut up vegetables, pound the spices together and cut up the meat before being asked to leave the kitchen (way better than last year!!!)

2:00pm Lunch. Food is alwas amazing on holidays. My family ate lamb (which is already a special occasion as we never eat anything but fish) with a sauce made of peas and onions. It was DELICIOUS. Host mom also gave me more credit. Also, I told my host mom I was full in Pulaar, which is her native language, and she was thrilled.

8:00pm Over to Fatou's house for dinner of chicken with an onion sauce. I helped her pick out the chickens and she let me carry them home the day before. I had named them Ane and Reer, which means lunch and dinner in Wolof, and thus felt a special bond with them. Felt wrong to eat them a little, as we had been friends, but can't pass up protein.

After dinner: Dress up in your best clothes and make the rounds. You spend the entire evening walking from house to house asking people to forgive you your sins and then blessing the year to come. Its the same script every time, but having a white person say it is always fun. Especially when she is in a boubou with her hair all braided.

Made the rounds until midnight, by which point both my camera and I had both overheated and called it a night.

As you may know, if youve ever read this blog, I am just back from a perfect vacation in England. Seeing as how this blog is to talk about my experiences inAfrica, posting while I was on vacation was not high on the priorities list. Certainly outranked by Starbucks runs. The most important thing to say about my vacation is that it was absolutely necessary for my mental health. Living in Senegal can be fun. It can also be horribly stressful and frustrating and every once in awhile, you need a break. Being in England made me feel normal, which I almost never get to feel here. I am not normal here.

Moral of the story: All PCVs need a break every now and then. I took mine during Ramadan in England and it was everything that I had hoped for and more.

I returned yesterday in the early morning. I was not terribly excited to be back, but not upset either. Its nice to be back and after speaking to several people in Wolof it was very reassuring to see that I could still speak it after a month long break. I spent all day yesterday in Dakar and this afternoon will catch a car home. Going back to Pout is going to be an ordeal. Ive been gone for a month and so my return will draw a lot of attention. Of course all I want to do is sneak in the back door, clean my house (which is guaranteed to be filthy after 4 weeks of neglect) and relax. This is impossible. I also will have to go around and greet all the neighbors or risk offending people and then contact all of my work partners to set my classes back on schedule and hopefully schedule my girls group for the year.

In short, I will be busy.

While I was in England, a new group of volunteers arrived in Senegal for training. They will replace the volunteers that are gradually leaving the country after having arrived two years ago. Peace Corps is one big cycle really. I am really looking forward to meeting them. Several of them are actually living in Pout so I may get to meet them as soon as tomorrow. Who knows?

I don't know when I will have internet access again, probably the weekend, but I will give more information on what its like to be back after a month long vacation.

1st of all: Happy Birthday Wanda!!!

This is my last week of work before leaving on vacation, and as such I am trying to get all of my classes to a good stopping point (it's not even worth pretending that any of my students are going to do anything while I'm away. I'm no longer that optimistic). That point is different for each class and so I am keeping myself busy adding extra classes here, going to see students there, and otherwise trying to be productive.

Spent this morning at GIPS wrapping up typing class with the womens groups that I work with. One student has finished the entire proggram, so there's something accomplished, right? I hope to get in a few lessons with Microsoft Excel so they can use it while I'm away, but yet again I am not so optimistic as to whether they actually will. I have also started teaching accounting to a local tailor and am feeling a lot of pressure to get her recordkeeping skills in shape before I leave. She has never used any type of recordkeeping system before and so we are starting from scratch here. She's actually doing really well with the first two lessons and I have learned that I really like this type of work. Teaching typing classes does not make me happy. I do it because I think that it will benefit my students. It's for their own good, if you will. Teaching accounting on the other hand makes me feel like I am really having a direct impact on this tailor's business. I don't know if that's a very good explanation, but I suppose it's that the effects of my teaching accounting to tailors is much more noticeable than teaching typing. I would like to find more people to teach accounting to during my second year here.

I have three days of classes left here in Thiès, and three days of classes in Pout, then off to Dakar.

My host mom's eldest son, who is attending college in Maryland, is here to visit this month. It's the first time he's been back to Senegal since leaving for the states 6 years ago. It's really nice to talk to a Senegalese who knows about my country (especially the fact that the streets are not paved with gold and that everyone lives exactly like Jack Bauer off of 24) and it's been a lot of fun to talk to him. He will be staying with my family for the week before visiting his dad's side of the family in the south of the country next week.

So the last day of English Camp went really well. We taught the kids how to play kickball, which was a bit harder than I orignally anticipated since they don't know the rules of baseball, and so we ended up with one kid kicking the ball into the outfield, the outfielders kicking it back, and both of them running like mad for the bases. After a few more explanations we worked out most of the kinks and the kids had fun. Then we broke off into small groups for an open discussion on whatever the kids wanted to talk about. Senegal being a muslim country, there were a lot of questions about US-Islamic relations such as:

"Why is America trying to get rid of Islam?"

"Why are you still in Iraq? When are you leaving?"

"Do you think that George Bush blew up the twin towers?"

et cetera. The discussion went really well actually, the kids were really eager to talk about the differences between our two countries and were very open with me when I asked them questions. These questions might at first glance look like the kids are anti-American, but they are just curious and I am the only American they know to ask these questions too. Most of the kids are pro-America, many want to live there and all want to know if it's really like what they see on tv. Do I really live like Jack Bauer? They were very dissapointed to find out that I do not.

Thursday night we baked the kids cookies and so Friday after the discussion we served them cookies and coke, congratulated them and sent them on their way, but not before a flurry of camera phones took pictures of us with the students and we all gave out our e-mail addresses so we could keep in touch. Just like regular summer camp as I recall.

Have done nothing of relevance this weekend besides watch movies and cook yummy food, the norm at the regional house when loads of volunteers are in town. I have put off site long enough and will leave this afternoon for home. Only two and a half more weeks of computer classes before I leave for London!!!

Every year, the Dakar English Language Center (DELC) and the US Embassy put on week long summer camps for high school students in underprivileged areas of the city. This year, I signed up. We have been given pretty much complete freedom to do what we want, activities wise, so its up to us to show these kids a good time and help them improve their english. Me and two other peace corps volunteers have been assigned to the high school in Thiaroy, which is on the outskirts of the city. We have already done the first four days and tomorrow will be our last day. It has been so much fun.

Monday we started by doing a question and answer session on America and discussing some of the cultural differences between the USA and Senegal, which I think went a little long and we definately had some glazed over eyes. We spent the afternoon doing leadership and teambuilding activities and having small group discussions. A completely mediocre start to the week, in my opinion. Then Tuesday we started off by playing a mix of frsibee, american football and soccer, all at the same time, and everyone was running around and having a good time. Things started to liven up. We taught them some sports vocabulary like "over here!" and "I'm open!" and got to watch them run around for the next half hour screaming "me! me! I'm open!", which was really fun. Then we broke up into groups and talked about gender roles in society here and had the kids make skits about gender roles. My group definately kicked butt. Their skits were sooooo funny! One of our boys put on a purse and hat and shoved two mangoes up his shirt to play a girl, and it had everyone on the floor. U can tell my group is a little agitated about the other gender because the girls portrayed the boys as unfaithful jerks and the boys portrayed the girls as superficial golddiggers. We then had a discussion on why boys lie in relationships here, to which one replied "well if you want a girlfriend, you have to lie."

Wednesday we talked about immigration in the morning (a very important topic in a country where every young boys dream is to leave) and then played jeopardy about American culture in the afternoon, which got a little rowdy. They didn't know who invented the telephone, but boy were they on top of who sang My Heart Will Go On! Celine Dion is huge here.

Today we played kickball in the morning, the rules of which weren't understood as well as we had hoped and so they basically just ran around throwing the ball at each other for a few hours. Then we talked about democracy and development. I have been very pleased with my groups contributions. Sure, there are a few who don't participate (when I called on one girl she told me she didnt speak english. Right.) But for the mostpart they are really eager to express their ideas and I have a few who love to be controversial, which I was not expecting. I love it!

I am sitting in one of the Dakar volunteer's apartments right now and soon we will bake chocolate chip cookies as a surprise for the kids tomorrow. I am kinda sad at the thought of camp being over, I have had a lot of fun with these kids, but I am already looking forward to next year.

So my 23rd birthday was a success. I was a little nervous about my first birthday abroad, but everything went so well. I spent the morning doing absolutely nothing, which I feel is an important part of any successful birthday. Watched movies, cooked up some stir-fry and otherwise pissed around. Scott called after lunch and it was good to hear his voice, although it made me sad. Scott is my twin brother, and i don't much care for celebrating our anniversary without him. Unfortunately, the stubborn bastard won't leave the states and so I may never see him again. At least not for two years.

Late afternoon some friends and I went to downtown Dakar where we bought mini ice cream cakes that are sold in a fancy patisserie. Mine was a butter-pecan ice cream with a shortbread crust. Think that sounds amazing in America? Try after 10 odd months of living on the outskirts of the sahara. That alone made the day amazing. Then we wandered over to a rooftop restaurant where they show movies. They have an outdoor screen and an indoor one, with a pretty decent DVD collection. We picked out Cassandra's Dream, which came out after I left the states so it was like watching a new movie, and they even showed the english version for us! So we sat around in an air conditioned room eating vietnamese food (caramel pork for me) on super-comfy couch. It was perfect. The dinner was a bit expensive for a peace corps volunteer, so we headed right back to the regional house after dinner to avoid spending any more money. Still, a wonderful, wonderful day.

Returned to site Wednesday morning and have gotten right back into the groove of teaching computer classes. Have one more to go today before I get to go home, and only one more day until I go to Dakar for the english camp next week. I am really looking forward to it.

As my 23rd birthday comes up tomorrow (I know, Im young) the festivities have already begun. As I mentioned in my last post, my work has fallen into a nice comfortable routine (shaken up every once in a while by a student who doesn't show up and doesn't call to tell me, argh) and so I had nothing better to do but plan myself a birthday party. Friday night some friends came over and the next day we cooked mom's potatoe salad for lunch, which I had really been craving, and then we watched some new movies (new to me, at least) that Lisa had downloaded on her computer. We watched Whatever Happens in Vegas and Definately, Maybe. Then we cooked up some tortillas and some meat and vegetables and had fajitas for dinner while hanging out on my porch. I have no oven to bake a cake at my house in Pout, so we used some marshmallows and rice krispies from the foreign import store to make a rice krispy treat cake of sorts. Then we just hung out talking. It was a nice, relaxing evening with friends, which was exactly what I wanted so I am pleased.

I came to Dakar yesterday because I had a Drs appointment this morning, this came just in time and since I'm already here, I might as well stay until tomorrow so I can celebrate Scott and my 23rd anniversary in style. Since Dakar is the best place in West Africa and you can pretty much get anything, I plan on buying an ice cream cake and hanging out at the regional house with some other volunteers. That's really what I want for my birthday, just to have a good, relaxing time with my friends. And an ice cream cake. There are a lot of volunteers in Dakar at the moment working with an english camp which I am signed up to work with next week so more details on that soon. I am really looking forward to it. All of it. Turning 23, celebrating 11 months in country soon, working with high school students in Dakar to help their english skills and teach them about American culture.

I can only stay until Wednesday morning when I have to catch a car to Thies where I have computer classes all day (every Monday and Wednesday still), but this weekend has been, and will hopefully continue to be, a much needed break from what has become my mundane, Senegalese life. Ok, its not as mundane as it could be, I know, but it's difficult after the honeymoon is over and nothing is new and exciting anymore and you get to the 'well now what?' phase of your peace corps service, which is where I am now. The positive side is that with the dullness comes understanding and I now understand what these people are saying to me and why they do (some) of the things they do, and can react accordingly. I can succesfully fend of marriage proposals (politely and offensively) in Wolof, I can have conversations with my friends, I can handle public transportation here (which is a complete mess), quite frankly I think I can handle anything.

So the problem with having been here 10 1/2 months so far is that I've now settled into a nice routine, which I find very comforting but doesn't give me anything to post on my blog about. Since my last post nothing new, and certainly not exciting has happened. I continue to work, giving computer classes, and hang out with my Senegalese friends. It rains a lot more here now. My roof has a leak. A big one. V. Unfortunate. You see how little I have to comment on? If you there is anything you want to know, ask and I will gladly answer, but if not I'm afraid I will have to wait until something new and/or exciting happens to post again.

It may be awhile, folks...

So now that I am back from vacation its time to get back into teaching my computer classes that I teach every Monday and Wednesday in Thies. I had to buy a new cell phone and so dont have the numbers of my students anymore, so I just showed up Monday morning hoping for the best. The office where I teach my first class was locked. Knocked at the gate a few times but no answer. I guess class was cancelled. My second student was there and we picked up where we left off two weeks ago. Exactly where we left off actually, because she hadnt done any of the homework I had asked while I was gone. This is normal, but I will admit that my hopes were high. So we went through the typing lesson, and then I went home.

Spent all day yesterday at the youth library where I FINALLY finished entering all the books. Thats right, all 4100 books are save in the database. What does this mean? First off it means I am the happiest girl in the world. Secondly, it means I get to start teaching Thierno how to maintain the database and hopefully get to the point where he is completely in charge of the project. Yay!!!

So today I show back up at the office where I am supposed to be teaching only to find myself locked out and the office empty. Again. First time it didnt really bother me since Ive been living iin Senegal long enough to know that its not a big deal. Today however, I was very frustrated. Knocked on the door long enough for someone to let me in and give me Julie, one of my students, phone number, and I called and we decided to start next monday. She didnt know I had gotten back and had tried to call me while my phone was awol and figured I was still out of touch. Slightly less frustrated (but still frustrated) I made my way over to Chris's house where I am killing time until my next computer lesson starts around noon (inshallah). I realize that in the states this sort of behavior is completely unacceptable, no matter what. But here in Senegal its just kinda the way things get done, or dont get done sometimes. Calling me to tell me they had work to do outside of the office when there was a computer class scheduled probably didnt occur to my students, although I will point this out next Monday assuming I have a class to teach. Its just another one of the joys of working in a different culture. There is nothing in Senegal that cant wait. Urgency as we know it in America doesnt exist here. They say that Americans have watches but the Senegalese have time.

So Im now back in Pout and it feels really good to be home!! My poor cat has come down with a serious case of cabin fever while I was gone and is bouncing off the walls now. Nice to be missed, I guessed. Two weeks isnt that long to go on vacation really, but here in Senegal it is. Since I got home I have attracted a lot of attention. Everytime I step out of the house I get bombarded with greetings and people saying "Aby! I havent seen you in a long time! Where have you been?" When I mention that I went to the other side of the country everyone's eyes get really big and then they ask how it was, telling me its so hot down there and far away and arent there loads of mosquitoes there? Good thing Im back home in lovely Pout where everything is perfect. After a few of these interviews, I realized that I have seen more of Senegal in these past two weeks of road tripping than most of my neighbors have in their entire lives. Most Senegalese don't like to travel as much as Americans (certainly not the kind of Americans that join the Peace Corps) do. My host mother and most of her friends are completely happy to just stay put and go with the flow. Some of the younger kids here are really interested in travelling, but most people that want to go abroad only want to do so to get a job and send money back here to Senegal. It makes sense really, if you dont have enough money to get by, travelling seems a bit frivolous. I wonder what they think of me? Their frivolous American who seems unable to stay in one place for more than a month.

Was supposed to start my computer classes again today but showed up and the office was locked and no one was there. I took that to mean that my morning class is cancelled, which gives me the rest of the morning to piss around in Thies until my afternoon class, which hopefully isnt cancelled. When my cell phone got stolen I lost all my work contacts and hence my ability to call ahead and check on the status of my classes. My students dont see the need to tell me theyre not going to show up, and this is how entire days of my life get wasted. Hopefully tomorrow's work will go a bit more smoothly...

This was my first one. Weird, but as resourceful peace corps volunteers we made the best of what we had and had a good time celebrating kicking Terry's country out a few hundred years ago. The Kedougou region, which is the farthest inland and hence most isolated part of Senegal, threw the party, which they do every year. I figured as I was already going across the country I might as well make a vacation out of it and for the past two weeks have almost entirely circled Senegal. Granted American roadtrips are much more fun and comfortable, my expectations were pretty low and I had a good time. I started last week travelling from Pout to Kaolack for the night, where someone kindly stole me cell phone off the roof while I was sleeping, then to Tamabacounda for a night, spent 3 nights in Kedougou celebrating with other volunteers, then another night in Tamba, went up through the Futa (which is the northern part of the country) and stopped at a volunteers house in Galoya for a night, 2 nights in the regional house in Ndioum and then headed home today hopefully. A perfect vacation. I have seen so many new parts of the country on this trip and couldnt be happier really. Unless I hadnt had to buy a new cell phone, that sucked.

Most of the time spent in regional houses was dedicated to tv time, since I dont ever get to watch tv or movies at site. Watched a lot of Flight of the Conchords, Sex and the City, and, most importantly, the Ndioum house has the third season of Law & Order SVU, so watched almost the entire season over the last three days. Soooo good. It was my first Law & Order in almost ten months now!!! We also did a fair amount of cooking. Quiche, banana cream pie, banana bread (there are a lot of bananas this time of year), cookies, breadsticks, chili, etc. Gotta take advantage of actually having access to a kitchen, which almost none of us do normally.

The fourth of july itself, the purpose of this pilgrimage, was so great. Kegoudou threw an awesome party. They cooked up a storm making us all fresh bread, hummus, tasiki (sp?) sauce, pork bbq, potatoe salad, pasta salad and coleslaw, all in mass quantities. There was a lot of sitting around, followed by much dancing, a lot of trash talking other countries and yelling about America, and even a few fireworks which were really small and unimpressive by American standards, but they were magical here. Apparantly I was the most excited about them. I think I embarrassed Erin by cheering my head off for the little explosions we got to see. They were cool, alright?

Kedougou is where we all pictured ourselves going when we thought of Africa. Its probably what you the reader are picturing right now in your head. The rainy season has just started so everything is green and beautiful, loads of baobab and nime trees in bloom, the most picturesque villages you could ever imagine everywhere. I dont know quite how to describe it but its beautiful. I wouldnt want to live there (I enjoy being spoiled) but its amazing to see. There are some waterfalls about 30km from Kedougou that a lot of volunteers biked out to for a day and really enjoyed but I didnt bring my bike so Im hoping to go next year. Ill have to actually start using my bike in advance so that the trip doesnt kill me, but i think I can do it.

So happy (late) 4th of July to everyone, and more news to come.

I had a totally productive day lined up yesterday with two classes and a meeting when Joey came into town and convinced me to leave site for the day to go to N'Ice Cream, an American style ice cream shop here in Dakar. Why would I cancel my appointments to go to Dakar for ice cream, you ask? Had you been on the outskirts of the sahara without any ice cream for the past nine months and you might understand. I had never been but everyone always talks about it and now I know why. I am in on the secret. It was wonderful!!! I had two scoops with whipped cream and sprinkles. For anyone who is thinking "but Mandi has been complaining about weight gain in Africa, why would she gorge herself on ice cream?"....fuck off. I am just trying to remain sane. And so, less than 24 hours later, my sanity restored, I am headed back to Pout to have a meeting with some potential work partners. One week left to kill until the 4th of July party down in Kedougou.

Two days ago I received a call from my first host family in Thiès, who I never really got on with, telling me that my younger host brother who was 14 drowned last weekend. I havent even seen the family in seven months out of my nine months here and now I feel horrible about it. Its so sad. I will go visit them this next week with another volunteer to give my condolences and some money to the family, which I understand is what is expected here. I also need to learn the expressions of sympathy I have scribbled somewhere in a Wolof notebook. I know that there are many Americans who think that Africans deal with so much death that surely its not the same as in America, but that's not true. When a Senegalese dies there is just as much hurt as anywhere else in the world. The only difference is the language that the mourning is done in. In nine months here this is the second person I know that has died (the first being a Peace Corps employee who died in a car accident while I was still in training). I find it horribly upsetting but am trying to deal with it in a culturally sensitive way and then move on. After all, that is what life is all about.

Sorry if its been awhile but I definately went through a two week stint where I wasn't online once. I do live in Senegal, after all. I can't be too connected. Things are going really well and I've been busy.

Had my consultation with Saër, the entrepeneur last Wednesday and it went well. He wants to submit a business plan to a local bank to finance a fruit and vegetable intermediary business to get financing and so my first meeting with him we just reformatted the business plan and I gave him a list of things to add to the business plan, such as a SWOT analysis and marketing study, and will check back up on him this week. Actually made the appointment for today, but am in Dakar at the moment, so will have to call and reschedule.

Other than that I have been spending most of my time at the youth library. We hit the halfway mark last week. 2500 books entered in the last two months. Have I really been working on this for two months? I hope to really focus on this work and get the next half done in by the end of July. It could be my birthday present to myself: the gift of a successfully completed project! We'll see how that goes.

Spent an entire day last week at the high school where they were putting on a Café Litéraire, or a coffee-shop forum on a piece of literature by a Senegalese author. The students made presentations about the piece, everyone got coffee (it was actually coffee Touba, which they make with tea and I think is vile) and doughnuts and there was a huge debate. It went really well and even the mayor showed up to participate. I think the students were all very pleased. I am supposed to speak with Mme. Diallo at the high school about working with her on her girls group there.

Had another meeting of my girls group on Friday where we played a game on saying no to sexual pressure and then talked about making good decisions using little scenarios that the girls had to make decisions for. This week will be my last meeting with them until the start of the next school year. After work on Friday I went to Popenguine for a party with some other Peace Corps volunteers on the beach. An excuse to bum around on the beach, get away from site and to get to know the new kids who have just sworn in as volunteers last month.

Monday morning had my first meeting with the womens groups to teach IT. We had a two hour lesson and I am going back on Friday. I will be in Thiès twice a week for the next who knows how long. Looking forward to it. They are very nice and super motivated to learn, which makes my job just a little bit easier.

And thats what I do for a living. In Dakar at the moment hanging out with one of my friends who is leaving for the states this weekend. I will miss her loads. Looking forward to getting back to site today, picking up some mangoes and getting back to work tomorrow. OK, Im looking forward to the mangoes more than my work, but still.