Hi Everyone,
Sorry I have not posted anything on my return until now! I have been busy enjoying the comforts of good ol’ US of A.
Hiking with sister, Megan, in Shenandoah:
Family stroll through cherry blossoms in DC:
I brought Mon Amie with me on the plane, and she survived being cooped up in her crate in cargo [...]
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This week started with a huge ordeal. When I came back from a run in the morning, I noticed that everyone in my family was somber, just sitting and staring in front of them. I asked my host sister what was going on and she started to speak but stopped when Demba, my [...]
This past week, all the PCVs from Senegal, as well as a few from Mali, Nigère, Burkina, and perhaps other countries, participated in a two-day all-volunteer conference in Dakar, followed by WAIST. Each region had their own softball team, and there were also several teams not affiliated with Peace Corps. Our team, The Dangerous Mimes, [...]
Girls in Senegal, especially here in the ultra-conservative North, are not encouraged to exercise. In fact, exercise is pretty much reserved solely for the boys. Often, it is not even important whether or not girls excel in school, because their main purpose is to marry young and raise children. Women are undoubtedly second-class citizens, and [...]
My parents flew from Virginia to see me right after Christmas, staying in Senegal twelve days. They said they had a great time but they also said that the conditions in Senegal are a lot worse than the fairy tale image I’m apparently projecting on this blog. They were able to see what life is [...]
Last week was all about the girls. On Wednesday, Awa, a Senegalese woman who grew up dirt-poor poor in a tiny village and now works full-time for the Peace Corps, came to Thilogne to talk to thirty 14 and 15-year-old girls at the school. Being that she is a Senegalese, Muslim woman, she [...]
This week I was in Thiès for a permaculture workshop, where there were about 15 other PCVs, representing each region of Senegal. Going back to Thiès is like seeing an old friend again - It’s where my Peace Corps life started, and it was nice to go back because I realized how far I’ve [...]
In Northern Senegal, people sleep outside for most of the year (February-October) to escape the unbearable indoor heat. Because they don’t have the necessary equipment to properly hang their bednets, they either do not use them or they hang them ineffectively. I observed several compounds using sticks to prop up their bednets, which [...]
After several weeks of planning and preparation, I was able to bring art to Thilogne this week. Using the art supplies donated by teachers from White Oaks Elementary School in Virginia, I taught a total of 150 7th grade students the very basics of color and line. More importantly, the class gave them a chance [...]
Thank you all for your kind words regarding Mon Amie. She and I visited the vet in Dakar every other day for two weeks, and now we are back in Thilogne. Mon Amie is barely limping, is almost up to the level of energy she had before the accident, and she should be fully recovered [...]
Lately, things have been pretty crazy, but I’ll start from the beginning. A couple of weeks ago, I went to the beach in St. Louis for a few days, and when I came back to Thilogne, the grasshoppers had magically disappeared - they went away along with the rain. The rainy season is [...]
Although I really don’t want to be negative, I pretty much have no choice because I am basically worn-out. I’ve been at my site for over a month without leaving, and the stresses of daily life have caught up to me. Usually, when people yell out ‘toubab,’ I go up to them and [...]
Since my last post, the dog situation has improved quite a bit. Demba has been bizarrely nice to me, and Mon Ami has actually become friends with the “mean” street dogs because she has been escaping from the compound whenever I’m not keeping her under strict supervision.
Ramadan is in full swing right now. We are [...]
I’m back in Thilogne once again, and I brought a new dog with me. She’s a 9-month-old African Terrier who I adopted from a volunteer who ended her Peace Corps service. I named her Mon Amie, and although she doesn’t understand the concept of chasing a tennis ball and she would rather eat [...]
After a short stint in Joal with all the Heath and Environment volunteers in Senegal, I zipped to Dakar to help out with English Camp for a week. The camp was located at a high school in the Dakar suburbs, and we had 150 teenagers and 12 PCV camp counselors. It was a really fun [...]
The past two weeks was spent in Thiès, at the Peace Corps Training Center, learning about gardening, tree planting, teaching in the village, grants, Pulaar, etc. - things to help us be more effective and competent volunteers. Below, you can see us at work during a session on how to make mango jam and [...]
For the 4th of July, the majority of the Senegal Peace Corps volunteers headed down to Kédougou to celebrate all things American. The weekend started with a 5K race and ended with my being exhausted, to the point where I actually enjoyed the 2-day crammed sept-place ride back to Thilogne. Kédougou is where I had [...]
Sunday, June 28th, will mark my 4th month in Senegal. Much has happened in these past two weeks, and like most things I have experienced so far in this country, the events have been bittersweet. I’ll start with the lightest subject: work.
Now that the rainy season has begun, it is time to start preparing for [...]
Congratulations to all the kids who have completd another year of school! Because school is out and Summer vacation has begun, I wanted to write a special post about the kids here in Thilogne! In Pulaar, the word for kids is Sukaabe (soo-KA- bay). Kids have a lot more freedom than kids in [...]
It’s taken me a while update this because every time I came to Ourossogui to use the internet the power was out. Yesterday, we had our first rains of the season! It was really exciting and everyone living in our house stood by the windows and watched the downpour. Now it is [...]
Actually I just touched the soil with my index finger but it was an adventure nonetheless. The biggest thing that’s happened these past two weeks is me working up enough courage to go swimming in the Senegal River. When med came in during PST to talk about the dangers of living here in [...]
Poetry, as defined by William Wordsworth, is “The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings arising from emotion recollected in tranquility.” When I studied Wordsworth briefly in school, I did not fully appreciate his philosophy as I do now, sitting in an air conditioned room, attempting to recount the past ten days at my new site as [...]
Bootcamp is officially over and we are now Peace Corps Volunteers! We took oath yesterday at the residence of Madame US Ambassador. We all dressed in traditional Senegalese outfits - boubous for the men and complets for the women - and the room was bursting with color.
The entire ceremony was was televised and included speeches [...]
Our group of PCTs decided to celebrate Easter together on the beach in Mboro. The day was filled with the usual beach activities: throwing a Frisbee, swimming in the ocean, chasing away large groups of unruly kids whose parents are invisible, building sandcastles, etc.
It was during this mini vacation when I realized how [...]
We just had volunteer visits. For those of you just tuning in, VV is when we all take a trip out near the village we will be staying in for the next two years. This is a lengthy post; in a nutshell, it was boiling hot. For details about the trip, continue [...]
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