5 May, 2011 6:59am, sitting in Dabo. Definitely the earliest I’ve ever seen this town. My last ride out was not ferocious, more a slow rotation that began before dawn. Maneuvering down the bush path, my mind drifted between fuzzy scenes dense with the feelings of leaving my family of two years that morning and [...]
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Note: Reading these journal entries outside of the mindset in which they were written, they seem a bit dramatic yes. But trying to be true to form with trying to keep this blog as an honest representation of my time in the FB, because they are a clear description of how I felt and what [...]
On harvesting Last year’s preferred method of harvesting mangoes was all about acrobatics. Starting under the lowest lying branches, jump up, grab hold, lock your ankles around a particularly sturdy off-shoot, then snake up the limb. Here, your view of the over-lying trove should be good enough to strategically plan your next move. Once a [...]
“2011 marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of Amnesty International, which began with one person and an idea — to protect the basic dignity and human rights of those imprisoned for their beliefs.” – AI YouTube video caption http://www.protectthehuman.com/videos/50-years-of-amnesty-international Amnesty International is one organization that I have often imagined working for, and am constantly [...]
Feast your eyes on my second guest blog, brought to you by my recent demyster. “Demysting” is what we call the five days trainees spend in or near their future villages, “demystifying” themselves on the realities of PCV life in Senegal. My demyster, Cibyl, is fantastic (click on her name to check out her blog [...]
I’m not sure what this post is about. I’m wary that it’ll turn into a big jumble of complaining. Most likely it’ll be a word vomit/stream of consciousness heave marinating in the theme of irritability. I apologize ahead of time, feel free to skip this post – I promise another one in the next [...]
Feast your eyes on my second guest blog, brought to you by my recent demyster. “Demysting” is what we call the five days trainees spend in or near their future villages, “demystifying” themselves on the realities of PCV life in Senegal. My demyster, Cibyl, is fantastic. We had an enjoyable, eventful, and definitely memorable few days [...]
Just “See ya later.” As more than half of my training group (stage) will have left country by the end of the month, this post is in honor of them. ”Lame Stage” my face, these people are among my most favorite in country. As tough as it is to delete their names from my phone, my sorrows [...]
Dear Mr. Stein, I would like to thank you for your column. If you’re bored, allow me to elaborate. If, as I assume, you are not, please skip to the last paragraph. I’ve been a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural (“rural” meaning accessible by bike or foot, no running water, no iPads) Senegal for the [...]
As it is now hot season and my fear of dehydration has me consuming 6 liters of water a day, I’ve noticed my water supply in my cannery running low much quicker than usual. Duh I know, but wouldn’t be so duh if I wasn’t making up for the gulping by pulling an extra bucket [...]
It’s 22:17 in the Tambakunda regional house and an old white dude just walked in the door. For story-telling purposed, let’s call him rando. Four volunteers (including myself) are mulling about the house, wrapping up emails and packing our bags since most of us intend to head out early tomorrow morning; none of us see [...]
Ok ok ok, here it is. I know I mentioned this video we made about… oh a year ago… and have since been pestered by volunteers and friends/family alike to upload it. Then I forgot about it completely. Then this past week I was sifting around my external hard drive looking for something else pertaining [...]
Hello lovely friends and family and random internet wanders who’ve happened upon my blog, As of this past Tuesday, the increasingly epic Kolda Donkey Rally trotted into Kolda, ending a six-day journey of over 100 kilometers, 12 causeries, 1 kilo of Moringa seeds, 17 volunteers, and of course 4 donkeys. [...]
Life in the Peace Corps community relentlessly puts PCVs in interesting social situations. One that always amuses me is that of location-relations. When settling into our new PC ways of life, volunteers quickly realize that it does not matter that during your three months of pre-service training your best friend was so-and-so, because now that [...]
Two weeks ago was WAIST – the West Africa Invitational Softball Tournament, which was basically 4 nights and 3 days of non-stop chaos. This led directly into my Close of Service Conference (COS conf) where I experienced the first panic attack I’ve ever had; we met all of these incredible people during a career panel, [...]
Did I mention that our team was Space Corps? Think space suits, Star Wars characters, Avitars, and squirt-guns. [...]
Life in village the past few months has revolved around the peanut harvest. Peanuts have been the buzz of village conversation: How many peanuts have you harvested? Did we get them all from the fields? Have the been brought in from the fields before the goats and cows got to them? Does Nacho still eat [...]
Watch closely – two RPCVs from Senegal are featured! Wicked cool. So happy to be where I am in my life right now. Enjoy the video! Filed under: Development Musings, Peace Corps, Senegal, Videos
I am currently in the third and final day of my COS conference (“Close of Service” conference ), and trust there is much for me to write for you about the swirls of emotional everything that has been going on (and of course this year’s West Africa Invitational Softball Tournament - WAIST!), but first let me share with you all [...]
A bit over a month ago, I received an email from my good friend in country, Jessie, about a project she wants to do, but needs some help with. She found an amazing organization that ships books in French from Europe to Senegal, but the thing is that they only ship large amounts of books. [...]
A gem arrived to my mailbox last month, in the form of 18 letters from my seventh grade pen-pal class outside of Boston, MA. Below are snippets from a few of them, because they are just too great to keep to myself: “Did you like Boston or did you like Boston. Did you like Burger [...]
The grant process is delayed yet again as I need secondary approval for my project, which translates into two more weeks of waiting for an answer as to whether or not the grant is approved. In the meantime, I’m working on visual aids and murals for the health workers and matrone (midwife) that works at [...]
Remember this blog entry from February 2010 about the beginnings of my food security project? And this one from May 2010 about waiting for people to get motivated about doing this project? And this one from December 2010 where I may have gotten on my soapbox during a post about the frustrations of this project? [...]
Hi everyone! My friends Geoff and David (volunteers in my region) have come up with a fantastic project, and now a bunch of us are joining in! All the details and descriptions are in the video below, and as a side-note, yes – I am participating as well – my name just missed the video [...]
27/12/2010 Dear Mrs Goodrich’s Kindergarten Class, Hey everyone! Did you have a nice holiday season? What did you do for new years? For Christmas, a bunch of volunteers and I gatherered in the city of Kolda and celebrated together. Lots of food, fun and good times. NO snow though. I was thinking about the letters [...]
24/12/2010 Dear Mr Simon and Class, Hey Everyone, Merry Christmas! I’m currently in my village wrapping up some work , but will be heading into Kolda meme to celebrate the holiday with other volunteers soon. There is a small population of Catholics in Senegal, but most volunteers live in Muslim villages (as I do!), so [...]
Warmest wishes for a wonderful holiday season! Love, the Peace Corps volunteers from the region of Kolda, peaceonly. Filed under: Peace Corps, Photos, Silliness in the PC
Among the frustrations and annoyances that being sick supplies, it offered me the time to peruse some reading that I haven’t touched in a while. For example, the little Senegal textbook that my aunt purchased for me as a preparation gift before coming here. It’s a series called Culture and Customs of Africa, my book [...]
Let’s talk work – I’m in crunch time. Little projects and the day to day musings that take place in the life of a health volunteer, I’m not worried about. That kind of work I do every day, and will continue to do until I leave Fodé Bayo in May. What has my nerves on [...]
Back in July (eek!), I began a blog post about the first Mandinka wedding I was able to attend in my site. Well, I think the idea for the post has flown at this point, but here’s the link to the wedding photos. Excuse my forgetfulness, and enjoy! Filed under: Mandinka-ness, Photos, Senegalese Culture, Village [...]
Mr. Simon’s class is a new class I’m exchanging letters with this year. They are a 7th grade class outside of Boston. Below is my second letter to them. Dear Mr. Simon and Class, Hey guys? How’s everything going state-side? Things are crazy-busy here, as I’ve had to travel all over Senegal the past few [...]
Among frantic trips to camping stores and wild nights of goodbyes with my friends, I took ten days during my last month in the states to visit my good friend Jonathan, who was at the time a PCV in Panama. We visited his site (they call them communities there, not villages), attended a traditional [...]
A few weeks ago, my village was the place to be. The vice mayor of Kolda (don’t ask I had no idea that this was a position either until the guy materialized) made an appearance in my village. Representatives from about twenty villages converged on Fodé Bayo to greet and chat with the Vice Mayor [...]
When I finally got to unpack my bags and fully move into my hut (five weeks after I initially got there, remember all this fun stuff? New roof, etc?), I nested. I realize now, that I nested a lot more than most PCVs do, but I needed to make my hut a happy place for [...]
I don’t know what the deal is but for serious my feet are taking a beating in this country. Along with many other parts of my body I know, but specifically my big-toenails … they are just getting creamed here! They both fell off shortly after the new year, but thankfully grew back to look [...]
First off, I am sincerely sorry for not having been in contact in so many months. From the beginning stages of the Department of Kolda’s mosquito net distribution back in June, through… well this morning actually, I feel like I have been running around Kolda and Senegal non-stop, only able to stay in touch via [...]
Ahh, fall leaves blow and a new school year begins. Below is my second letter to the Kindergarten class I write to in Maine. I will hopefully be starting up a correspondence with a middle school class in Massachusetts soon, but it’s unsure, I’ll keep you updated! Dear Mrs. Goodrich’s Kindergarten Class, Hey [...]
I know, I know, it’s be an insanely long time since I posted. I’ve been an extremely neglectful person who before was an insanely busy PCV who then went on vacation to Spain and decided to not think about PC more than I need to while I was gone. More on that later. In the [...]
Three days ago, my moms and I were hacking away at the earth in the faroo and when they started singing. Faroo time usually coincides with gossip-hour and singing about different things, but this day one of my moms started up a song about everyone’s husbands. Bent over at the hips, hamstrings and shoulders aching, [...]
As I was flitting around my village last year, talking to every person I could about what they needed and wanted me to do during my two years as a Mandink in Fodé Bayo, one of the most common responses I got from the women in my village was to help them with the rice [...]
Last year around this time, I wrote a blog post about the ferocity of storms that pound my little village during the beginning of the rainy season. Storms that make a typically violent-weather enthuasist like myself shake; storms that make my heart race as I sit, pitch-black inside my round home of clay, mud, thatch, [...]
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