I had always thought about joining the Peace Corps but, it took until the summer before my senior year of college to realize that a corporate job was not what I wanted for post-graduation: I wanted a little adventure and I wanted to push myself.

I ended up submitting my application in September 2008 and, over the course of almost a year, worked towards THE PEACE CORPS. I have to believe several people, myself included, weren't sure if I was actually going to end up spending two years in a developing country, but I went through the application process. There was no way I could have understood what Peace Corps would actually be then but here I am, an RPCV (returned peace corps volunteer) with a complete service behind me. There really is no experience like Peace Corps - I've hit some of the lowest lows but I can't tell you how great the highs are. Work projects have failed, I've been harassed, and several days have passed when I just wanted to give up. I've also done more than I thought I could, have made some amazing friends, and have really experience part of the world in a way just visiting wouldn't do.

There's nothing like being a Peace Corps volunteer. If you're thinking about joining, I would recommend it. As much as I hate to admit it but all of the cheesy promotional sayings about Peace Corps are true - it's going to be possibly one of the most difficult times in my life, but I've loved it.

703 days after I left Chicago I'll be returning. Thank you everyone for reading my blog and following this adventure. Thanks Peace Corps and Senegal for giving me two truly unforgettable years.

So long!

Because it was my last morning in Bambey, I got up before sunrise yesterday to give myself some time and to enjoy the last few hours of this part of my life. I finished cleaning my room, swept one last time, packed all of my electronics away, and showered - by the time everything was ready the car that I had rented was there to pick me up. He driver was only a few minutes early but I couldn't help feeling like it was too soon. Before I go on, let me say that, regardless of the emotions I had while leaving - I am still extremely excited and ready to go home.

Back to Bambey: the driver and Miss helped me take my bags (2 suitcases, 3 rice sacks full of trash) out to the car. It was still fairly early so only the women and my host dad were awake. First I said goodbye to Aisha, Khady's mom. We were both pretty teary-eyed but we managed to keep it together for our left handshake (which, in Wolof, is symbolic that the handshake isn't "completed" or "right" so you have to go back and finish it, in other words, it's a "this isn't goodbye" sort of goodbye). Next to Aisha was my host mom and the second we made eye contact we both started crying. It might seem ridiculous but I really do feel like we're family so saying goodbye to her and not knowing if I will see her again was hard. The rest of the goodbyes with my host family were all a teary blur; my host dad offered a prayer for my safe return back and the driver set off. I feel like emotions are normally fairly mixed: you're sad yet anxious, you're angry and frustrated, etc. but yesterday morning was just sad. It was just raw, pure sad. Yes, like I said, I'm very excited to come home but I wasn't thinking about that while I was saying goodbye to what has been my home for two years.

It took about 45 minutes to get from Bambey to Alyssa's house in Thies. We loaded her bags in the car when the driver told me that we had too much baggage for what he and I had negotiated - we needed to pay him more. I LOST it and just snapped at him, "we're leaving our Senegalese families today, the people we've lived with for two years, and we don't know when we'll ever see them again and YOU'RE ASKING ME FOR MORE MONEY?!" I think my outburst scared him enough and he didn't mention it further. While Alyssa said goodbye to her host family I hid in the car - I couldn't deal with another crying Senegalese mom. After leaving Alyssa's, before leaving Thies, the driver stopped to pick something up. I got out and started taking my trash bags out of the car. The drive came and was EXTREMELY confused but we explained it to him and he decided we should wait until we were out of town to dump my trash. A few kilos out of Thies we stopped so I could get rid of the bags:

Sure I might have set some Peace Corps Volunteer's project back several years by dumping trash on the road but at least my replacement won't have to get rid of it and my host family won't go through it. After the trash dump we continued to Pout to get Jackie. This pick-up aws exactly like Alyssa's - we loaded her bags then hid from the crying families.

Once we started on the road out of Pout our normal rented sept-place became the PARTY PLACE! Alyssa popped open one of our bottles of champagne (that had been hanging out in Jackie's fridge) out the car window while Jackie pulled out special bucket/cups, decorated with American stickers, and I got an American playlist playing. We toasted to our two years and to the ridiculousness of it all. The trip into Dakar didn't take too long - just a few hours and we only got lost once. In Dakar we grabbed burgers from the place next to the regional house and tackled the repacking of our suitcases. Alyssa and I had things to redistribute and we all had lots of things in our lockers at the regional house. Because there are several people leaving this week the house is just an explosion of bags. There's almost no room for walking because everyone has so much stuff. Add to that one of the hottest days we've had in a while and you get a slow afternoon.

Once the bags had been repacked we all just hung out in the backyard of the house where it's always the coolest. Eventually we cleaned up and went to a friend's apartment for some cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Even though the day was very emotionally overwhelming it was nice to just sit with friends and talk.

Today we're hanging out at the Peace Corps office so we have internet and because there isn't much to do in Dakar when it's raining like it is today. Later tonight we'll have some sort of celebratory dinner and then, around 2am, Alyssa, Matt, and I head to the airport for the PARTY PLANE back home.

I'm hoping to get one final blog posted tonight so keep a look out.

KO

Today was my last day in Bambey. Tomorrow a car picks me up drive on to get Alyssa, then Jackie, then we're off to Dakar. I can't believe it's the end. Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited to get home but I just can't believe that it's been two years and that my Peace Corps Service - a block of time I've been talking about and thinking about for almost three years now... is done. This part of my life has two days left on it then it's on to the next thing, whatever that ends up being.

Yesterday I went around town saying my final goodbyes to some of my work partners. I also had a little last minute business to wrap up, securing my replacement a counterpart, and then I needed to pack. I was taught to pack in piles, which, in Onyshko speak, usually means a pile to pack and a pile to throw out.... in my current life it means a pile pack for home, a pile to pack then unpack and give to specific volunteers, a pile to pack then unpack for the general free-for-all volunteer closet, a pile for my host family, a pile of things to leave for my replacement, and a pile of trash. Add Khady coming to my room and constantly moving things and you get quite a hectic time, but it's almost done. All I have left to do tomorrow morning is pack my electronics, sweep, and lock the trunk for my replacement.

Today I said goodbye to Matar and gave him the Peace Corps shirt my training group made. It's dorky and probably too small for him but he has my ancienne's so I thought it would be nice if he had mine too. That was a hard goodbye but I know that nothing will be as hard as saying goodbye to my family.

Tonight they made me beans for dinner because they're my favorite. One of the kids saw it and said, "beans? ugh? really? we're eating beans? whhhyyyy?" and the three women responded "because Fatou loves them and it's her last night!" It was so nice that they did that for me. My host mom also made me a care package of my favorite Senegalese things to take back home. Adji (the 12 year old) will be in summer school tomorrow when I leave so I had to say goodbye to her today... we were both crying by the end of it so I know that tomorrow I'm going to be a mess. Normally my philosophy on goodbyes is that you're either good enough friends you'll see them again or you're not really friends so you shouldn't cry. My host family really is the exception to that rule. They've become a second family to me and I want to see them again but I don't know when it will be, who will be around, all of that. It's just going to be sad but to come home I have to say goodbye.

So! Tomorrow I leave Bambey. I'm going to try and blog at least once more from Dakar, hopefully in that sitting I'll have two blogs to post. Happy Friday everyone.

KO

Yesterday was the last day of de-myst/volunteer visit and the Thies Region decided to celebrate 4 generations of volunteers in style. The Thies region didn't really exist, or at least not in its current strong form, until my group came along. We started organizing lunches in Thies and followed our social gathering with work projects: collaborations and the girls' camp. Top this off with shirts and an appreciation for the finer things in Senegal and you get the current Thies region.

So! To introduce our replacements into this high class living style as well as to their new besties (or at least their newest neighbors), we organized a little get-together. Everyone from the region met at Warang, a liquor distillery, for a tasting of liquors made with local flavors (bissap, ginger, cashew apple, etc.) followed by lunch at a beach front restaurant. The lunch place is FAMOUS for their pizzas, apparently some of the best in Senegal, but somehow their wood burning pizza oven was broken and irreparable (even by a specialist brought in from France), so we had pasta instead. Originally we were supposed to get rice, chicken, and onion sauce but, given that Alyssa and I have PROUDLY gone 2 years without paying for Senegalese food outside of our houses, we weren't going to let that slide. I called to organize alternative options. We settled on two pasta options; I asked for 11 of one and 11 of the other... instead we each got a plate with, from left to right, sauce 1 (carbonara), pasta, sauce 2 (bolognaise)... it was a little odd but kind of brilliant at the same time. After lunch I took my last public transport ride back to site and here I am. I need to spend my final two days packing and saying goodbye to people but I can't help but stall. It's bizarre for the end to actually be almost here. I really can't believe that what has seemed so mundane for two years is the end - I'm trying to remember everything. I need to get a little more packing done tonight but I'll leave you with a picture of the Thies/Dakar region, past, present, and future.

I got up bright and early this morning to leave the training center for the last time. I wasn't traveling alone on this trip, I was accompanying my replacement, Stanzi, to see her new home. She and I will be in Bambey until Tuesday touring around a really just enjoying all that there is to offer. It is exciting and encourages a lot of retrospection on my part. I remember seeing Bambey for the first time and, simultaneously, the city looked unique and indistinguishable from what I'd already seen of Senegal. I remember all of the questions I had so I'm trying to preempt them or at least answer them as well as I can. I honestly seems like just yesterday when I walked from my new house, down the main street, met Matar for the first time, and continued into town. I can't believe that my two years are up and that this is now Stanzi's new house, my old house; her first time meeting Matar, one of my last times with him.

Today we did a basic walking tour just so she could start orienting herself. We walked through the market to visit my vegetable lady while causing quite a scene the entire time (two Americans! Ridiculous!). At one point several women gathered round to exclaim how amazing it was that I was Kira (my ancienne volunteer)'s replacement and I was standing next to my replacement! Shocking! Amazing! SO MANY GENERATIONS OF VOLUNTEERS! Every vendor we've seen has also made sure that I told Stanzi she should shop with them.

We also visited Matar and I showed her all of the different designs. It seems like she has a ton of great ideas already - I'm so excited to see how the artisan network and Matar's product line grows!

Most importantly of the day was her introduction and interactions with the family. We walked in and there was a huge to-do because she was here, I'd come back from a long trip, and Awa (my host sister who was studying in Algeria) came back and I saw her for the first time today. She needed a Senegalese name so I told my host family and my host mom and dad thought about it. They finally suggested Khady because they know how close I am to the little Khady already in my house. After deciding that it wouldn't be too confusing to have two "Khady Falls" in the house, Stanzi got her new name! At the time, little Khady wasn't home but I was anxious to see how she would react to the new toubab that I had promised her. She was definitely shocked that the new toubab was here and was actually a real person. I think it took her even more by surprise when she learned that they shared the exact same name. Throughout the course of the day, however, little Khady went from being abnormally shy to her normal, sassy, bossy self. By this evening she was taking turns climbing all over Stanzi and I. I'm really happy that my host family seems to excited and welcoming of Stanzi. I had a feeling they would be but it's great to see that my replacement will be well taken care of for her two years.

One last thing, I had my last girls' group meeting today with the core group of girls and boy was that sad. It was really exciting to introduce them to Stanzi and to listen to them talk about what they want to do with her next year. Salamata (my favorite) even came early and gave me a pair of shoes which is so unbelievable nice, especially considering how poor her family is. She and I didn't have a ton of time to talk but she told me that her sister asked her dad if Salamata could live with and work for her sister for the summer. I'm a little worried that she won't be able to come back to school but she seems to think she will - I hope she's right. Saying goodbye to my little group of girl scouts was sad. They haven't been my largest project but they've become like members of my Senegalese family. I was getting a little choked up when thanking them for helping me and being so kind and welcoming to me.

But! Enough about today from my perspective... you should all go to Stanzi's blog (www.scatteringthemorningdew.tumblr.com) and read about her first Bambey day.

KO

Over the past two years I've seen a lot of growth in a lot of my relationships. I've been so impressed with everyone.

I came to Peace Corps with several really amazing friends from college and from high school. Though I was a little worried about how they would fare, two years is a long time, but I have been so impressed and thankful for how these relationships have changed over the past two years. I've had friends that I already loved dearly show me so much support through packages, letters, emails, phone calls, and even visits. There have been friends that I feel like I have actually grown closer to during these two years. I think I said this a while ago but I am constantly impressed with how much effort my friends, including women from my sorority, have put into staying in touch. I really cannot thank all of you enough for everything you've done during the past two years. On my worst days you listened to be complain about things that were a world away and not related to you, you've let me escape from Senegal with news from home, and you've really shown that the line between friends and family often blurs in a beautiful way.

Not only have I really been impressed by my friends from home, but I seriously never expected to make the strong friendships that I've found in Peace Corps. All of the volunteers are so helpful and accepting but I have found such a good, close group of friends I am sure we will stay in contact. They've also helped me through some of the lowest points in my service and they've been there to celebrate the high points. We've had a really reciprocal relationship so I'm pretty sure they know how integral they have been to my service - thanks toubabs!

I wish I had more to write about how supportive Alan has been during my service but I really am speechless. I know anything I say won't appropriately explain how amazing he has been with letters, packages, coming to visit, and spending a ton of money to call me almost every night on Skype or Google Voice. I really feel like our relationship has grown in depth exponentially.

This brings me to my family. Oh man, what do I say. My parents have sent me a small grocery store of packages that has really pulled me through my service. They've come to visit and put up with the tortures of Senegal that I put them through. They've always been so supportive and encouraging - it sounds so simple but it really has made my service easier. Beyond just the support of my parents, my extended family has really shown how strong a family can be - even a family that's spread around the country. Every email, call, or conversation we've had has really made me feel the great Onyshko/Pulley network.

Everyone who has read my blog and been part of these two years have put so much work into my service that I really cannot thank you enough. It might seem very simple, but even just being an audience to my stories has made a positive impact on my service. Thank you all so much for the support and the love you've given over the past two years. It really has meant a lot and it's made my Peace Corps service easier.

KO

PS: Tomorrow I'll write more about my replacement as she visits Bambey for the first time - I'm excited to see Bambey again for the first time through her eyes!

Two years is a fair amount of time - so here's a list of some of the things that have changed:

-I can wear black and brown at the same time. I would NEVER wear any black at all with any brown at all... until I came to Peace Corps when clothing became more about "keeping me cool" then "looking cool."

-I now eat onions and mustard. Didn't before, do now.

-I enjoy working with youth.

-I have an awesome gag reflex. Sure when I came here I had pretty good control of my gag reflex (I think that comes from growing up with bad dogs who poop in the house) but now, many, most nasty smells and disgusting things only trigger a grimace.

-My confidence with French has really improved.

-I think I'm impervious to awkward. Seriously, just about every second of my day is awkward so I'm kind of just over it now. (No, this is not a challenge)

-I am a lot more patient.

-My "camp fire cooking" ability has really expanded. I have several recipes to pull from that are all one pot, one knife, and cooked over a fire/gas.

-Speaking of fire... I've cooked over fire, charcoal, and gas.

-I can light a gas stove, though I'm still afraid of it.

-I'm outstanding at killing bugs, especially mosquitoes.

In just a few hours my replacement will know they're going to Bambey and I'm sure I'll have a lot to write about her three day visit to Bambey over this weekend. I keep saying this, but keep watching for more blogs posted - maybe even a second today.

I hope everyone had an amazing holiday this past weekend! The Fourth of July has always been a fun holiday but I’ve really come to appreciate it even more living here (yes, I realize that sounds a little ironic).

Saturday morning April (the volunteer that lives 25km east of me) rented me a place in a sept-place to pick me up on the way to Thies. She planned on leaving around 8am but called me around 7:20am to tell me she was leaving the garage… I quickly threw a ton of stuff in my bag and jumped in the shower. In 20 minutes I was locking my door and on the way out. It usually takes me about 5 minutes to walk to the road - where April was meeting me – but I was about 3 minutes late. April, and her car of Senegalese people were waiting for me so I took off running. Sure I’ve picked up running since being here but I’ve never taken an early morning jog in normal clothes, sandals, with a full hiking backpack and carrying a purse with my computer. According to April, I came running up to the car, opened the back door, and immediately offered a winded “Saalamaalikum” greeting. April and I were the first people in Thies and got out of the car just as the dashboard started smoking. Eventually we met the other 6 people in our party and left for the beach!

For this holiday weekend (America and Tamar’s birthdays) we decided to try a new beach. We rented rooms at a hotel that we thought had been recommended by volunteers but no one could remember the name so we just went based on the prices of the rooms. It turns out we had made an excellent decision and we ended up in a hobbit like/medieval castle/stone fortress/monastery hotel on the beach. We spent most of the weekend eating crepes and lounging at the beach and in the water. We all got a little burned but it was helpful in evening out all of our tan lines that are quite stark from two years of walking around under the African sun with our knees covered.

Yesterday morning we left to go to Dakar to celebrate the Fourth. I decided that, in honor of the birthday for the greatest country ever, I would get a high-five for all 235 years of America. That started early in the morning and has continued all day. It’s included many high-fives over the phone, including 11 from Alan and his friends celebrating in New York. The traffic on the way into Dakar was HORRIBLE but eventually we made it to the regional house. We quickly threw in a load of laundry and washed the soot and exhaust from the ride before heading to the American club. There was a big barbeque so we all got to eat burgers for the Fourth. Because all of the US Embassy workers have a more formal event in the evening, the day barbeque was aimed at kids… which explains the CREEPY Senegalese clowns. Seriously. I thought normal clowns were unsettling but Senegalese clowns are really creepy. One point of their act included balancing kids high in the air above concrete – horrifying.

After burgers, we the 8 volunteers went downtown to run a few errands and eat ice cream. Alyssa, April, and I hit a GOLDMINE at a bead store. We found two amazing Senegalese guys who sell big strings of beads. Usually, artists like Alyssa’s jewelry maker, buy a strand of beads and make several necklaces using a few of these beads as focal point beads. As people who cannot pass up interesting jewelry, the three of us spent a while in the store creating different combinations and eventually purchasing a ton. Here’s what volunteers having too much fun with beads looks like:

With new necklaces in hand, we went to N’Ice Cream – the ice cream store – to continue our celebration of America through food: Obama Cookie Ice Cream. YUM!

After ice cream we met back the rest of our crew at the regional house to begin making dinner. Let me add a quick disclaimer that, though it sounds like all we do is eat, and though we do eat a lot of food, it takes a lot of time to travel so between ice cream and starting to cook it was maybe an hour or so. We made a delicious, America dinner with many thanks to my mom for sending us the key ingredient: Velveeta. If you combine Velveeta with bacon and macaroni you get an addicting, amazing, dinner. For a third time today – amazing. Dinner was followed by a viewing of The American President.

For the next few days I’ll be in Dakar doing close of service things. The plan is to be totally done before I head to Thies on Thursday. Here’s hoping it all works and everything gets done!

I promised more retrospective blogs and I’ll try and get those going!

KO

Most of the volunteers are down in Kedougou celebrating America but, because I have to be in the office on Tuesday, I'm sticking around the Dakar area. We're trying out a new beach town slightly north of the place we usually go. For the 4th I'll, hopefully, be at the bbq in Dakar. If that doesn't happen, however, several volunteers have the back up plan of a "donut party" because what's more American than fried food.

I'll spend about a week out of site and when I come back next week it will be with my replacement! The end is really approaching quickly. I have 16 days left in country, and only 6 of them are left in Bambey. I really need to up the retrospective blogging so I will try and post Tuesday.

Have an amazing 4th! Eat a burger or some very American chips and dip for all the Peace Corps volunteers trying to celebrate it internationally!

KO

I cannot tell you enough how amazing Senegalese women are. Seriously. They are so impressive.

All of the women in my host family, I feel, really represent a different aspect of the badassness of Senegalese women. My host mom runs the entire house - which is currently 3 families in 1 house. She coordinates all of our meals, the cleaning schedule, she buys all of the food, she makes presents for her kids living outside of Bambey, she handles most of the household's bills, and she somehow seems to know everyone and everything that's going on in the neighborhood. Oh, also, she never seems to be in a bad mood - ever. She's always jolly and happy even though she gets up at 5am, doesn't go to sleep until 11pm, and is doing manual work 80% of her day. She's awesome.

Aisha is a single mom raising her two kids in her husband's parents house. She helps with the house work while managing Khady and helping Adji with her schoolwork - even though she doesn't speak much French. She was the first person to really joke with me but not in the normal mean way, just joke about the way I say things (which isn't as mean as it sounds).

Miss is a whole different kind of impressive that I have come to appreciate more the more time I spend with her. Sure she lives in my house and no one is ever not nice to her, but her husband (who's actually related to my host family) lives in Dakar and she only gets to see him about 7 days a month. They've been trying to have kids for a few years now and she is really trying to remain positive through all of those challenges. Her family lives in Bambey but she rarely sees them because she spends so much time doing housework here. Recently, she and I have started joking and she always has been really nice to me in the kitchen... the normal Senegalese reaction is to make fun of my inability to do something (cook ceeb u jen, clean a fish, etc.) but she has always tried to teach me and give me simple tasks that I can do so I can help.

Mairame and Ndeye Diop spend most of their days in school and when they get home they help cook and clean, then do all of their homework. Now that Mairame is studying for the BAC (end of high school exam) she studies almost the entire day and into the night, sometimes morning (the national passage rate is about 10% and you can't finish high school until you pass it). They are really an example of a generation struggling the divide between modern and traditional women's roles.

Adji and Khady are still young but they often, Adji especially, help with housework and run errands for different family members. Adji does the same school work that the male students do but spends more time doing chores around the house - all while staying ahead of most of her class.

I always have an underlying appreciation for the women in my host family. But occasionally they do something particularly impressive just to remind me how cool they are. A few days ago I heard pounding outside my window and went to check it out.

They were making a peanut butter/sugar/chocolate snack that requires pounding all of the ingrediants with this HUGE mortar and pestle. In the picture Adji is doing it but Miss did most of the work. Take my word for it, the pestle is heavy - it's solid wood and several feet tall. I could do it for a few minutes but Miss was doing her thing for about 20 or 30 minutes. In some houses women do this every day to prepare millet for dinner.

Anyway you see it - Senegalese women are impressive.

KO

I don't know how much of a splash this made in American news but there have been large, violent riots in most of the regional capitals in Senegal. I'm alright - I didn't see anything in Bambey today - and as far as I can tell, my friends are also all safe. The protests were over a change to the constitution that the President ended up withdrawing because of the reaction.

I don't really want to comment on my blog other than to say we're fine and I think Peace Corps has handled this situation really well. I know Peace Corps internationally has been hit hard for their safety practices so I think this is a good time to say that all I know if Peace Corps Senegal and, from what I've seen and how they responded today, I feel safe.

Here are some articles about the riots and constitution changes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13895089

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/23/us-senegal-protests-idUSTRE75M6G020110623

http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/23/6925742-protests-erupt-over-constitution-changes-in-senegal

KO

Almost every afternoon Khady comes up to my room to play with paperdolls that my friend Katie brought when she visited. Once Khady got bored of the paperdolls' clothing (they're Disney Princess dolls, by the way) I started tracing the dresses on white paper and letting her color her own designs. She usually gets through about 3 dresses before she gets bored and starts wandering around my room. Now it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's seen any room I've lived in but there's quite a lot of crap here. Add into that the fact it took me a year to figure out how to get rid of trash and you have a treasure trove for a 5 year old. After she colors, she usually finds something interesting and plays with that:Yesterday she and her sister (the 12 year old) were up here coloring when Khady found a drink packet on my desk. I have a million Crystal Lite like packets and she found a bright pink raspberry lemonade packet. I told her it was to put in your water and she started ripping it open... she then ate the sugary drink mix like a pixie stick. I was disgusted and I let her keep the rest of the packet.

Later that night she was running around like a crazy person... crawling, yelling, wrestling, climbing, shrieking.... I wondering why.... oops.

KO

The last day of my COS conference started at 4:45am when I left the hotel, along with our Country Director who's also the acting APCD and 5 other volunteers to meet the new trainees at the airport! We waited around for about an hour until they got through customs and found us in the lobby. We escorted them to the bus and chased off people asking for money.

We went back to the hotel just in time for a quick shower, breakfast, and the morning session. During the morning we learned what we need to do medically to get out of Senegal and then in the afternoon just wrapped up with a really good ending game/discussion. Tara, the conference leader (who was a PCV in Cameroon), wrote a question for each of us and we took turns answering. The questions were all about our service like: Who was the first PCV you met? What was the first thing you bought with CFA? What's the worst thing you've eaten? If you were going to open a Senegalese restaurant what would you call it? Just things to get us reflecting light-heartedly.

Chris invited us all over to his house for a little reception and celebration of our service. A few volunteers had written short bios of us all at the very beginning of our service so we re-read those and then watched a slideshow of pictures from the past two years.

After the reception we hung out as a stage a little more before going to bed. Everyone was pretty tired (especially those who got up at 4:45am) so the last night wasn't too crazy.

This morning I left with 4 other volunteers to do a round of presentation at the training center. We presented on some of the major project areas SED volunteers are working in (Alyssa and I talked about artisan work, other topics were: junior achievement classes, trash projects, cross-sector/agricultural econ, and eco-tourism). There was, magically, a Peace Corps car going from the training center to Bambey (to pick up seeds at the agricultural research facility outside of Bambey) so Alyssa and I presented first which let me leave immediately after the presentation.

I would have really loved to hang out with the new volunteers but I'm in my last stretch at site and this is just where I would rather be. During the entire COS conference I didn't feel like the end was really near - it was only today, standing in front of the new volunteers and talking about the possibilities for their work when it felt like the end. I still remember some of the presentations I saw at my PST almost two years ago and it's a little absurd to think that I am now one of those volunteers.

Though I am a little sad to be leaving, more than anything I am so excited for the new volunteers. When I was in training I was scared more than anything - I don't actually know a time in my service that "excited" was my dominant emotion except for now. I wish I could give them all of my knowledge, and I'll do my best to impart it in my COS report, but I can see their potential. I know they're going to be huge successes because I feel like my group really built some solid foundation and these volunteers will be able to really hit the ground running. Overall, they speak better French than my group so they'll learn Wolof sooner. They have more collective experience pre-Peace Corps than us as well. I am just so excited for the amazing possibilities they have in front of them. Looking back on my service, these really were two outstanding years that brought all types of new experiences I would not have had any other way. I think I've learned more and had more personal growth than I originally expected. And, not to sound selfish, but I really believe that I could take on almost anything after doing this for two years.

It's all of these prospects - the successful projects and the development that comes with failed projects and challenges - that make me excited and enthusiastic about the two year adventure they're all starting on.

I have a month left in Senegal which will be spent on and off at site, in Dakar closing out my service, and at training. My major projects are finished, I just have some camp preparations to make before I leave.

To part, here's a picture of almost everyone in my stage... at least it's everyone that was at COS conference. We started with 56, 6 people ET'ed, 2 people had "interrupted service," 4 people were "refugees" from Mauritania that already COS'ed, and 1 person couldn't be at the COS conference because his sister was getting married. So! The first picture is of all of the business volunteers (with Chris who's our acting program director) and the second is everyone that made it to COS conference... Congrats Fall '09!

I'm currently at my COS ("Close of Service") conference and was at Jazz Fest before that. This blog will be a little long because I think I have a lot to sum up so I'll break it into two sections:

Jazz FestLast Wednesday I met Alyssa in Thies so we could head up to Jazz Fest. It's an annual festival of music in St. Louis - now in its 19th year. While most volunteers went to Jazz Fest to have fun, we were going to work. The artisan network had decided to buy two booths at the artisan festival part of Jazz Fest. Alyssa, Mary (the 1st year volunteer working with the network), and I fronted the money for the booths (a total of $280) and then were paid back by artisans at the last artisan meeting. Alyssa and I went up early so we could be ready to coordinate both parts of the expo (the two booths as well as the gallery that some artisans were also showing at) the day it started! Wednesday night all we had to do was make Rice Krispie Treats (thanks for sending the ingredients Mom!) and plan a presentation for the new SED volunteers. Unfortunately the gas stove was out of gas so we had to... cook over fire! We found sticks around the side of the highway and got to making fire! Shockingly, for two business volunteers, we were able to make OUTSTANDING Rice Krispie Treats over our little fire!

The next day we got to the gallery which was an EXPLOSION of products so we knew there wouldn't be any work to do there Thursday. We met up with the artisans and, even though we told them the booths would be VERY small, the amount of baggage they brought kept growing. At one point they were all paralyzed by the amount of baggage and couldn't set anything up. Alyssa, Alys, and I FINALLY managed to rearrange the entire two booths and left them for the night (after putting in a 9 hour work day).

Overall the artisan fest was not the best experience. We thought it was going to be like any craft/artisan fair but it was mostly people selling second hand clothes and crappy plastic things. We had one of the only handmade booths and I don't think the artisans all broke even. I've heard from some of them and they say they aren't mad at us - they're just glad they had the change to see it so they know not to go again.

The rest of Jazz Fest was REALLY fun. Richard - the volunteer from my stage in St. Louis - threw a big party and we danced all night! The morning after the big party we all dragged ourselves out of bed and into a car to get to Dakar for COS Conference.

COS Conference Day 1 and 2The Close Of Service Conference for my training group (or "stage") started yesterday! Of the 56 of us that were here there are 45 currently present (a few people didn't ET aka quit early, they just couldn't be here/were refugees from PC Mauritania so they finished their service already). The past two days have had sessions about how we actually get out of Senegal - all of the paperwork and approval we need; what we would change about Peace Corps/improvements; and life after Peace Corps. The big push now is that we are actually just "continuing our service" in a different way. Some of us are staying in Senegal (about 10 people) and the rest of us are about to embark on a new adventure. Two people are going to teach English in Asia, some people going back to school, and the rest of us are moving all over the States.

We've heard from other returned volunteers and our suspicions have been confirmed - there is life after Peace Corps. Sure we might think we're way more badass than we actually are and our friends and families will find our stories a little old after a while, but we will always be volunteers and we'll always have the adventure of the last two years.

Personally I can't actually believe the end is so close. I feel like I've spent the last two years thinking about the end and.. here it is?It just doesn't seem like it's possible that I've actually made it two years! Tomorrow morning the new SED volunteers (my replacement among them) land in Senegal and start the craziest two years of their lives! I'll be meeting them at the airport at 5am to welcome them to Senegal and make sure they get on the Peace Corps bus with all of their bags.

I'll update you more tomorrow or the next day!

KO

Thursday Jackie, Alyssa, and I left the desert-y Thies region to visit Tamar on her island in the Sine-Saloum Delta. I took a bus to meet the other two in Thies then we got into a 7-place to Joal. In Joal we ate a delicious lunch while watching a fish farm pond. After lunch we arranged our transport to Tamar's mainland town. It was going to be $2 a person in a 14 seat mini-bus... we were seats 2,3, and 4 - the bus wouldn't leave until all 14 people were there. We asked, just to know, how much renting a car would be... total it was going to be $10... so we took that option. The driver cut across salt flats and drove, occasionally, at what seemed like a 45 degree angle. We got to the dock and found the boat to Tamar's island - Mar Ladj - which we shorten to "the Ladj" (pronounced like "lodge").

We spent two days in the Ladj cooking delicious food and enjoying the island life. Tamar's island in the river which is a tidal river and VERY salty (even though I'm 30km from the river my water is salty because of the river). We swam, hung out around a beach, and enjoyed our mini-vacation.

This morning Alyssa, Jackie, and I started the trek back to site. We ran for the boat and caught it in time. After about 30 minutes we got to the mainland and piled into a bus. We were then moved to another bus. That bus left and about two and a half hours later we were piling into a 7-place. The three of us were the last three in the car so we paid, then got into a fight about the money/change, then left the garage. Once we got to Thies we met up with Kerry to talk about some of the training for the new volunteers.

After lunch I got in another 7-place to finally get back to site. I was the second to last person in the car so I was in the last row. The last guy loaded a rice sack and got into the middle seat in the last row, next to me. I turned around the glance at my backpack and a bird head popped out of the rice sack! It turns out he was traveling with 4 pigeons in a rice sack that had some air holes. Throughout the ride one pigeon kept really working on sticking his entire body out of a hole. I honestly was sure it was going to escape and fly around the car. Luckily it did not and I got back to Bambey without a pigeon attack.

Tomorrow I have some more scholarship meetings and then I need to really start tackling my to-do list for my last few weeks!

KO

I've spent the majority of my time focusing on development projects at the middle school and a little with the high school so working with 5th grades has been a challenge. Today we had our 4th lesson which was about decision making. I started by asking students what we had previously discussed and they actually remembered a lot of things.

Next we pretended that there was an open lot for us to put a business! We talked about how you have to weight the positives and the negatives and the lesson liked this to a decision tree (no, I wasn't teaching them game theory it was literally a drawing of a tree). The lesson plan suggested the three choices be: a clothing store, a club, and a bakery. I talked with Jackie who's taught this class a few times and she suggested getting rid of the club and using a boutique. Great! Then I also have the chance to teach them that, if there is something on every corner, you probably don't need a new one. I decided to make the lesson even a little more personal - instead of bakery and clothing store I used my two favorite businesses from my middle and high schoolers: pool and dairy store/factory.

The kids broke into groups and were each assigned to come up with positives and negatives for a specific of the three choices. After about 5 minutes each group had one pro and one con so they sent a representative to the front of the room to present: 2 groups had "pool," 2 had "dairy," and 1 had boutique. A pool kid volunteered to start, "A negative of having a pool is that then boys and girls would go there and there would be a big problem with pregnancy."

Yeeaaaahhhhhh. I'm honestly not sure if the students were laughing at what he said or at the "can I be fired from a volunteer job?" face I made. My mind was working a million miles an hour trying to find a solution. These kids are 10 years old - I can't be discussing all of this without their parents! What could I say to make it better? Should I tell them to forget they heard it? Would that make it worse? Then I remembered what my host sister (one in high school, not the one in this class) told me yesterday: a middle school student is being accused of sexually harassing another middle school student. It is a tragedy that happened and my heart sincerely goes out to the victim. Knowing the culture, I know it took that person a lot to speak out about what happened and I hope they are receiving endless love and support from their friends and family.

These 5th graders will be in middle school next year and, I wish it was different, but this is part of their lives. It isn't my job to encourage this discussion in a school but I wasn't the one who brought it up - it occurred to this group of students on their own. So I moved the lesson forward with no real comment acknowledging or denying it. Maybe I made the wrong call but I just didn't feel comfortable getting involved in even a harmless seeming discussion.

The class got back on track and we discussed voting, who gets to vote, and how you win an election in a democracy. The students then voted for the option they wanted and they picked pool. I told them that it would be a safe pool and that we would have police so everyone would be fine.

After the class I ran some errands and eventually went to a scholarship girl's house. It's always great to visit the students and learn about their lives which are all difficult and impressive in their own ways. While at this girl's house I had a great conversation with her about how it's a lot harder for Senegalese girls in school because they have more housework than boys which makes it even more impressive that most of the top students are girls.

Tomorrow's scholarship home visits are FAR from my house (we're talking 2km out) so I'll probably be too tired to blog.

KO

Senegal has thrown a lot of bad days at me. Sometimes it's because of work (or lack their off), weather, bad moods, rudeness, or even just too much heat and rice. Every now and again, however, I get thrown a bone and today was one of those days. My morning started slowly, sure the virtual Sunday paper might not beat a real paper and a bagel but it's become a nice ritual. Around 11am I headed towards the middle school I've recently been working in to meet one of my scholarship winners. After she came we quickly did the interview and then she told me she needed to run to the market before we went to her house. Though it turns out by "run to the market" she meant buy everything for her family's lunch - I actually didn't mind today. While we were in the market I ran into about 10 people I knew and, not going to lie, it made me feel kind of famous. Sure not in an "Angelina Jolie" way but in a "after two years, someone's come to realize I'm just a random, lost American" way. Yes, one of these 10 people was my host sister who was picking up things for our lunch - but it was still pretty awesome.

After signing autographs and kissing babies (obviously joking) in the market, we went to this girl's house. This girl's dad is actually one of the point-people at the University. Last week her dad told me that she was going to try and hide that fact from me because if she was worried that I wouldn't let her go to the camp because her dad has a good job. I explained to him that she had ALREADY won the invitation to the camp based only on her intelligence and hard work at school. I visited with her family for a bit and then she took me to another scholarship winner's house. This second girl sat while I talked to her parents and we did the interview. Sure, chatting with people's parents sounds like nothing but I love being able to praise these girls in front of their parents. Affirmation doesn't exist in Senegalese culture - my host sisters always say if you get a 19/20 you'll be made fun of for the point you missed - so it's nice to come in and provide a little bit of positivity. The two families I visited today seem to support their daughters' educations more than other families. Keep in mind that by "supporting" their daughter's education I mean, their daughters still do insane amounts of chores, care the younger children, all while studying on their own without help - it just means that their parents care that they're studying and know that they have good grades.

Around 1pm I knew I had to make my exit. Though it was almost the hottest part of the day and I was sure to get sunburned from walking home (which I did burned a little) if I stayed I would miss lunch at my house and have to eat with this girl. Sure it would have been a really nice thing for me to have stayed but my family is used to the little amount of rice I eat - this family would have been offended. The two girls that I had visited walked me home - which was pretty far. About halfway through the walk they asked if, at this year's camp, we would be doing skits and dances like they had heard about from last year's camp. Sure the image of middle school girls doing a HORRIBLY raunchy dance last year flashed through my mind but it was quickly replaced by joy that the camp was being talked about! These girls had heard about the camp and were so excited they got to go! They were so excited they were already talking about what skit themes or dances they could do! I was ecstatic that, a camp that didn't exist this time last year, is being talked about! I honestly think that, if there was the space, I could fill all 30 camper spots with outstanding girls from Bambey. I'm sure the camp will continue to expand and give more girls this great opportunity over the next few years.

Youssou's older sisters were randomly visiting (unfortunately he didn't come but they brought word that he is in peace aka the Senegalese way of saying "nothing's up") so we had chicken instead of fish today! Yes it was still accompanied with rice and, yes, because it was a "special occasion" the rice had so much oil you could see it pooling under the rice... but it was still chicken!

This afternoon I tried to have a girls' group meeting with last year's campers but only two showed up. One of them was, not surprisingly, the rockstar herself Salamata. I explained how the camp was going to work this year and told them about the meeting on the 19th. I also asked that, on the 19th, they explain the camp a little more to the new girls. My language skills are better than they were last year but I know that it will be more clear if the girls explain it themselves.

Today was one of those good days in Senegal which is like a roller coaster. When I have good days - they're outstanding and the bad days, when they hit, are wretched. Luckily today was one of the good ones which I'm hoping for come frequently during the last two months that I'm here.

KO

This morning I went into Thies to run a few errands and meet up with the girl posse. Alyssa and I did some banking and then bought fabric for Matar to turn into chic dresses (I’ll update you on how it turns out). We bought a TON of cheese, bread, and apples then met Jackie, Tamar, and her friend from home at the training center. After a lovely picnic I grabbed my COS packet and headed back to Bambey.

If I haven’t defined it before “COS” means close of service or continuation of service… depending on who you are and how you look at things. Some say that because I will always have fond memories of Peace Corps and I hope to continue spreading my stories of this adventure it’s a “continuation of service” just no in Senegal. In my mind one chapter is ending and another is starting so it’s a “close of service” which, besides, sounds way more exciting and way more like I’m done in 2 months! So today I got my COS packet, it contains all sorts of information about COS: paperwork to do, checklists to fill out, advice from former volunteers, and much, much more! The checklist is definitely my favorite part of the entire packet it makes it look like the 30 or so tasks I have to do before July will be a breeze. The next step is to attend my COS conference which will be in Dakar early next month. It’s three days with my entire stage (or the 40 some of us that are left) where we’ll learn all of the final details about how to get out of Senegal and end these two years.

After reading my entire COS packet on the ride back to Bambey, I dropped it off in my room then went to a meeting at the middle school. Today my scholarship girls met me at the school to write their essays for the application. The questions were simple: what do you want to be when you grow up? and what’s the largest issue facing girls in education in your town? One girl also did her interview and the rest of them picked times for me to visit their house and do the interview. After I’ve done that, I will recommend 6 of the 9 girls. A final committee of volunteers from other sites will pick the 3 girls that win $30 each to buy school supplies. My replacement will take those 3 girls shopping (which, if it’s like last year, will be amazing) and then pay $10 of all 9 of the girls’ enrollment fees for the school (the girls will be left with about $2 to pay themselves). It’s up to me to figure out who gets to come to the camp from Bambey so I’ve decided that the 9 scholarship girls from this year as well as the 5 girls that went to the camp last year and have been actively participating in the girls’ group are guaranteed spots. For the rest of the spots, I’m inviting everyone that participated last year (but wasn’t part of the girls’ group on their own choosing), the top students from the other two middle schools, and I told this year’s scholarship girls they could each invite a friend, to my house on the 19th. I’m going to have Salamata and Soukey (another OUTSTANDING camper from last year) present on what the camp was like so the girls get a better idea. Then I’m going to give them each a form to fill out and tell them to return the forms to me by a certain date. The forms won’t be that involved – it’s more of making sure they’re dedicated enough to actually fill out a form and return it. Last year I had to invite random girls at the last minute (which worked out but was unnecessary) because girls weren’t dedicated or excited for the camp. I think giving the girls a little bit of responsibility (writing their information, getting their parents approval or inviting me to talk to their parents, and maybe writing a reason why they want to go to the camp) will give them some responsibility and ownership of the camp. The camp will be the last week of September – so about a month after my replacement gets to Bambey. I’m so excited that my replacement will get to participate in all of these incredible activities at the beginning of their service – I hope it sets the tone for the rest of their two years. One other awesome thing happened today, I was walking back from the essay writing and had this conversation with a random 8 year old girl:

Girl: How are you?

Me: I’m fine, how are you?

Girl: I’m fine. What’s your name?

Me: Fatou, what’s your name?

Girl: Ndeye. Will you give me 25cfa?

Me: Will you give me 25cfa?

Girl: But you should give me money because you’re so pretty.

Me: You’re also pretty.

Girl: Will you give me your hair?

Me: I can’t do that.

Girl: Look – I live over there. Bye!

The last thing today is just well wishes for my cousin and his fiancée who are getting tomorrow – I hope everyone has a great time at the wedding and I wish I could be there to see it!

KO

I have two main types of projects, Junior Achievement (aka business classes at the high school, middle school, and elementary school) and then the Artisan Network. So here are some work updates:

I taught my third class at the elementary school. We talked about government services and how it pays for those services (taxes). When I asked the students if government employees had to pay taxes too they all said no - that was clearly corrected quickly. That group has two classes left (the next two Tuesdays) then I'm totally done.

Today I was supposed to hand out certificates to the high schoolers who had finished the program. Last year I printed the certificates but I decided to class it up a little this time around. There are pre-made Junior Achievement certificates that look a little more official so about two weeks ago I requested those certificates. I kept double checking that I would be getting them yesterday when I was in Thies for another meeting. I was assured that OF COURSE I would have the certificates - so I didn't prepare any of my own. Yesterday came and - no certificates... the woman in Dakar hadn't signed them. Which meant that I had to go today and tell the kids to come back another week when I may or may not have the certificates. Though it seems like something small it is truly infuriating that something so simple couldn't be accomplished. Had I known that these certificates weren't going to be there - I would have printed my own yesterday when I had access to a color printer. It drives me nuts that this type of disappointment happens so often that the kids have come to expect it from their teachers and other adults. I was really hoping to show them throughout the class that you could defy the norms and succeed - that a creative business could do well - that when I set a meeting it would happen... and it didn't happen. On my way to the class I bought two liters of soda as an apology. While I was walking under the burning sun and being have racial slurs thrown at me by kids - I just kept getting more frustrated. These students have finals coming up, they live really far, and as if their lives aren't hard enough just being in Senegal, two of them have physical handicaps. It was eating me up that I couldn't follow through on such a simple thing. Everyone was really appreciative of the soda and the students that won were excited and proud of themselves. I told them I would give the certificates to the principal and they could just stop by and pick them up when they were around the school. Tomorrow I have to go through the same thing with my middle schoolers. Here is a picture of the high schoolers and me.

In artisan news we had our second official Artisan Network meeting yesterday. I think there were about nine artists there (that includes the two that showed up after the two hour meeting ended). We talked about preparations for Jazz Fest and Network membership regulations. Because Alyssa and I don't want to force any of our ideas on the group everything has to be done leadingly as in, "If I was someone who wanted to join, what should I have to pay?" "Really, so I would have to pay the inscription fee AND dues for when I wasn't a member... oohhhh ok so just the inscription fee then dues moving forward... great." After two hours of that (including an artist mocking the way I said, "ok, are we good, can we move on?" I was exhausted. Sure, running a two hour meeting isn't actually THAT mentally draining but add on the complicated layers of language and it's a lot. Amongst the volunteers we all speak English - and that's including during the artisan meeting... if we had a point to clarify or double check, it's just easier for us to speak to each other in English. And we speak to the artists in French, Wolof, or Frolof (the combination of the two) and they respond in Wolof which was then translated to us in French for total comprehension. It was draining.

The new business volunteers (aka my replacement and their new best friends) have 20 days left in the US! If any of you are out there reading - enjoy a burger or, even better, a salad with good dressing, for me! I'll be posting more summation type things soon, but I'll leave you all with this impressive tibit: I was bored today (shocking) and calculated that, during the past almost two years I have eaten approximately more than my own weight in rice - about 125% my weight in rice. Yum.

KO

When I came downstairs for my evening "sitting with the host family" time Miss was making dinner so I walked towards the kitchen. As I got near she said, "if you come in here I'm going to put you to work!" and I gladly accepted her offer. I grew up cooking and food always strong social glue so I am always happy to help cook here.

Miss was making salad and sauce for dinner so, while she was preparing the sauce I cleaned the lettuce. Preparing lettuce Senegalese style involves removing the leafy part from the more stem part of a piece of lettuce (for some reason they don't like the good crunchy part), soaking the leafy part in bleach and water, then drying it off. After finishing with the lettuce I "marinated" the tomatoes and cucumbers aka covered them in vinaigrette. Miss had boiled potatoes (to be part of the sauce) and took those off to cool. She put the sauce in the pot (Senegalese people refer to all sauce as "sauce" no matter what's in it... usually, like tonight, it's beef bullion/MSG cube, salt, oil, onions, garlic) to cook while I cut the boiled potatoes into bite sized cubes. The potatoes were added to the sauce and that was left to sit.

We eat dinner at 8:30pm pretty much on the dot and, because the meal was ready before, we sat around waiting. The kids did their homework and the rest of us sat around listening to Khady jabber. Close to 8:30pm Miss plated (tossed the lettuce in the vinaigrette, placed it around the edge of the plate, put cucumber and tomatoes on top of it, then placed the sauce in the middle of the plate). At 8:30pm we all sat down on the mat, got our pieces of bread, and dug in.

From now on just know that I'm going to use Miss' rule when it comes to cooking: if you come in this kitchen - you're going to help!

Cheers,

KO

This week I finished teaching the business classes at the middle school and high school! Each group sold their business idea to me as if I was an investor and then answered some questions about the general topics they've learned. Some groups gave mediocre presentations but there were a few groups who really seemed to have learned a lot. In the high school I was particularly impressed by the group who's business idea was to open a pool. I told them to dream big and, without a model business to go on, they came up with a pretty good plan for their pool. They had the most unique idea overall and they seemed to really understand the material from the class.

In the middle school there weren't any ideas that were just leaps and bounds above everyone else but my favorites were: a library, a dairy products factory, a clothing line. Sure not the MOST original ideas in the world but those groups worked really hard and understood the lessons well.

This week I also started teaching at the elementary school my 12 year-old host sister attends. I'm working with 30 students in her grade (including her) on a 5 week program that introduces really basic business and community structure ideas. Last week we did the first two lessons (what are communities/jobs within a community and unit/assembly line production) and I'll be teaching every Tuesday for the next 3 weeks.

The girls' camp is moving along but I'm just the liaison between the University and volunteers running it so I don't know much of their plans. I know it's in the works and I'm sure it's going to be great.

Work with Matar is also coming along - there's a meeting for all of the artists in the Artist Network Tuesday in Thies. The Network also paid for two booths at the big Jazz Fest in St. Louis at the beginning of June.

Oh! How could I forget! I had my first meeting with my scholarship girls yesterday! I'm doing it at a different school from last year (I wanted to spread a wealth a little). One of the girls was in my business class and overall they all seem very pleasant. We're meeting next week so they can write their essays (what do you want to be when you grow up? and what's the largest problem facing girls in education?) then they'll each have a really basic interview with me and I'll visit their houses. They all already won $10 towards their school enrollment fees and 3 of them will win $30 to buy all of their school supplies for next year. I'll be doing all of the paperwork and submitting the applications to the volunteer committee but it'll be my replacements job to go school supply shopping with them and actually distribute the money/certificates. I had such an amazing time last year shopping for school supplies with the winners so I don't think my replacement will mind that I've lined up some work for them already. I'll keep you posted on this new batch of impressive young women!

That's all that's been going on here work-wise. The power outages have been very frequent and long (I think, recently, the longest one was 18 hours). Sure not having power is annoying but not having water (the water cuts about 45 minutes after the power) is HORRIBLE. I have 6 gallons of water stored in my room and my host family has another 20 in huge plastic drums downstairs. We have power this morning, though, so I'm taking full advantage of it.

One final note - congratulations to everyone who just graduated! I have many wonderful friends who finished undergrad or completed classes for their masters - hats off to them! Good luck conquering the world!

Cheers,

KO

There have been many nights during the past almost two years that have been disrupted by loud music. Sometimes it's because I'm at a party with volunteers and I want to call it quits before the dance party stops, mostly it's because someone in town is having a party with drums and/or singing and/or speakers and/or mosque singing. So today I propose a few tips to help you fall asleep in case you ever encounter loud music:

1. If it's possible (so in my situation there's electricity) make your room a comfortable temperature. This way instead of thinking, "how will I ever fall asleep with this music," you're thinking, "it's amazing that my room is below 90 degrees! How comfortable and conducive for sleeping!"

2. Earplugs. I have battled with the earplugs v. ipod struggle but I've found that earplugs are almost always a better option (the only exception if the noise is actually in your room). I usually cannot turn my ipod up loud enough to drown out the sounds but have it still be quiet enough to sleep.

3. Don't be afraid to adjust your earplugs. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries, but no worries, it will always make the noise a little quieter.

4. Don't hesitate to make a pillow sandwich - sure you'll feel like a cartoon character with a pillow on your head trying to stop some noise but sometimes it works.

5. DON'T get angry about the music. This seems counter-intuitive but whenever I get angry or start to question the sanity of the jerks making noise I start to fixate on it and then it's all downhill.

6. Also, DON'T pick apart the music. If it's a song you know, pretend it isn't! Once you start acknowledging the lyrics you can't stop and then you've given a name to your foe.

7. Don't think about how early you have to get up - this is a continuation on tip #5... just don't get angry.

8. Think about how comfortable you are. Keep your thoughts positive.

9. As easy as it is to let your thoughts slip to yanking the cords out of the speaker and puncturing the drum tops - don't. That fantasy can keep you up for a long time and won't make the music stop.

10. And the next morning, feel free to complain to your host family because if you couldn't sleep you know that they couldn't sleep. They are almost always more annoyed than you are.

Hopefully you're never in a situation where you have to call on these tips - but just in case you are good luck!

KO

PS I'll have a real work update soon. Sorry I've been a bad blogger.

I haven't been blogging recently because I haven't had much to blog about but I got great news a few days ago:

Last year I did a scholarship for the top female students at one of the middle schools. These girls were invited to the camp. Before the camp one of them, Salemata (who had the 3rd highest grades for the girls), called to ask me to talk to her older brother: her dad didn't want to let her go to the camp but if I could convince her older brother maybe he could convince her dad. A few days after I talked to her older brother she called to tell me she could go to the camp! At the camp participated a lot and was really outgoing during the camp. About halfway through the camp she found me one day and asked to use my phone. She took off running towards the dorms and started crying. I followed her and she explained that another girl had taken her phone and her shoes and hid them. Needless to say I was horribly upset at the bullies and I felt so bad for this amazing girl. We resolved the issue and Salemata's classmates really rallied around her which was great to see.

After the camp Salemata has been the most responsible and participatory girls in the girls' group. She always comes to meetings and she'll call if she can't come. For Tabaski (the big sheep killing holiday) she invited me to visit her house. This sounds pretty mundane but visiting people on holidays is a really huge part of Senegalese culture but I hadn't really felt like there was anyone that I was close enough to not feel like I was being a burden on their holiday celebration. I decided to follow up on Salemata's invitation and I went over to her house to hang out with her family for about half an hour. We just sat and talked, nothing big, but I was really honored that she felt comfortable enough with me to invite me over.

I really don't feel like I'm explaining her well but take my word - she's amazing. She's the girl that I think about when I need motivation to go to a meeting I think might be cancelled or when I had to go back to the University a million times last year while I was organizing the girls' camp.

So for the great news part: I got a call from her a few days ago and we chatted like normal then she told me that she had just received her grades for first semester and she has the highest grades in the class. She doesn't have the highest grades of the girls but of everyone which is huge! I am so unbelievably proud of her and I wish that there was more I could do to continue to encourage her but she seems to really be rocking the world on her own.

That's my good news! In other events I'm finishing my middle school business classes tomorrow and I'm starting classes at the elementary school (including with my 12 year old host sister) Tuesday!

There are also only 66 days left of this adventure!

KO

All of my life I've wished there was a magical cleaning fairy. When I was very young I once convinced my grandmother to take up this role for a limited time. Again in college another cleaning fairy entered my life in form of my best friend Amy who, when stressed out, liked cleaning (and when really stressed out would run out of things to clean in her side of the room and would move to mine). Since I've moved to Senegal I've just had to accept the existence of a magic cleaning fairy that, while remaining invisible, cleans things. Here are some examples of her work (which might also demonstrate how desperately I need to pretend this is true):

1. During training (yes almost two years ago), one of my host sisters who never wore shoes went into the kitchen to get a knife. When she returned, she used the knife to cut her toenails. Ten minutes later (and after the work of the magic fairy) my host mom was using the knife to cut our vegetables.

2. This afternoon my host mom, who always eats with her right hand (no spoon), was doling out fish like usual. She uses her hand to rip the fish off the bone and put it in my section of the bowl - like she does every day. Five minutes go I heard a commotion outside, I looked and Khady was walking to the trash holding a dirty diaper in her hand. She was followed by my host mom with her right hand covering the baby's bum.

These are just two of the examples showing the necessity that I believe that magically between baby's bum and my lunch tomorrow my host mom's hands will be disinfected.

Sorry you didn't get a blog about the cultural differences between Senegal and The Gambia like I promised a few days ago - I thought this was more important.

Ciao,

KO

I’m back from a short vacation in The Gambia (the country inside of Senegal)! It was only 4 days and full of plenty of adventure and transportation… Here’s a rundown of the trip, it’s a little long so you might want to get a snack before reading it:

Day 0: The Royal Wedding

Friday I headed to Thies to catch the Royal Wedding… not surprisingly the bus took FOREVER so I missed the ceremony but I got there in time to see all of the clothes and the kiss at Buckingham Palace. I loved her dress – I loved Pippa’s (seriously who didn’t?)! Cheers! After the wedding Alyssa and I hung out with her artist (who makes fabulous jewelry) and eventually the entire girl posse was in Thies and we prepared bought some things for dinner. Dinner was our standard – beans with Mexican seasoning then chopped vegetables, salsa, and lettuce (oh not to forget the cream fraiche which is a good substitute for sour cream). We watched part of a movie but decided to call it a night.

Day 1: From One Country To Another?

To make sure we got all the way to Georgetown (our first stop) we all got to the garage around 6:30am. Once at the garage the 4 of us tried to get a car to Kaolack and immediately found 3 Pulaar men which made a full car and we were off! We flew from Thies to Kaolack and were in Kaolack by 10am. We switched garages (obviously it would have been too easy for all of the cars to leave from the same place) and the second garage was literally just a whole bunch of cars parked – usually there the cars are marked with their destination. We walked around yelling the name of the border city where we were going and were the first 4 people in the car! Within an hour the rest of the car was full and we were moving forward for the second leg of the journey! Then we stopped about five minutes out… then we started! Then we stopped… Then we started again! After lots of driving we hit the border around 12pm. We stopped at the Senegal side of the border and they wished us a good trip. We walked across the border and passed over this sign and all of the sudden!!!! It was no different (as you would expect). The Gambian customs agents stopped us and we had to buy a visa – that took an hour and we were off again on foot. This time we were walking to the actual town near the border to get another car – we realized it was way hotter than we thought and caught a cab to the town and an ATM to get money. The town (Farfenni) has 3 banks – the first one had a broken ATM and the second and third had ATMs but they were locked (even though they had a 24hours sign). Alyssa and I bought SIM cards for our phones and we all got chicken sandwiches (which EVERYONE talks about) then found our next car. Once again this was a sept-place (the same kind of brokenish station wagon with an extra row that we take in Senegal) and we were lucky enough to be the last 4 people in the car. Our 3rd sept-place of the day started and it took about two hours but along the way we found one of the differences between Senegal and The Gambia… no it wasn’t the scenery that was the same. The Gambia actually has occasional police checks where the car is stopped (which happens in Senegal) but different to Senegal the police actually checked our passports and looked for our visas – they also checked everyone else’s identity cards. Around 4pm we got to the north bank of Georgetown. We knew there were several hotels on the island (where most of the town is located) so we found a boat and went across. Off of the boat we picked a hotel, ordered dinner (they had to go to the market and get what we needed) then showered from a LONG day of travel. That night we all just hung out, ate chicken and fries, and we to bed fairly early.

Day Two: How Many Types of Public Transport Can You Take?

On our way to Georgetown on the first day we negotiated a price for the boat to take us up the river a little bit where sometimes you can see hippos and monkeys. The driver told us we would see hippos jumping on a sandbar so we were positive we weren’t going to see anything. On day two we got up before 7am and were ready to leave the hotel by 7:30. Tamar pointed out that our boat had a little bit of an “Apocalypse Now” vibe to it but we were dedicated to seeing animals so we trekked forward. During the first 30 minutes we didn’t really see anything but then we saw a huge family of Baboons on the south shore. Clearly we didn’t get out of the boat but we could still see them pretty well. After an hour of traveling (we were told the whole trip was going to be two hours) there were no hippos in site… THEN ALL OF THE SUDDEN 5 hippos were spotted in the water. We watched them for a few minutes while the submerged and came back up. While we were watching a large hippo took a giant leap – kind of like a whale! None of us could believe that the guide had been right that we would see hippos actually jumping but we were happily proven wrong. After the hippos we turned back to Georgetown. Once we got off the boat we found another sept place and were the first 4 in the car. The boat guides had helped us find that car but then decided it might be better if we crossed the river to the island then again to the other side to get a car on the south side of the river. We debated this option pretty seriously because: 1. The river runs all the way through the Gambia and there are only a few large ferry crossing spots – I don’t think there’s a bridge that spans the whole thing. 2. We needed to end on the south side. 3. It was a national holiday. We eventually stuck with our original plan. Another guy came in the car but we had been waiting more than an hour so we bought the last two seats and left. That day we were going more than 300km with unknown transportation so we were worried about getting to Banjul (the capital) before dark.

This trip again went fairly well – it was the reverse of the last car ride we took the day before and the road was in excellent condition (aka paved). When we got back to Farfenni we found a conversion van stuffed full of about 20 people that was going to the ferry dock. I ended up sitting kind of on Alyssa’s lap kind of on a seat while we bounced down a dirt road for 30 minutes. We got our ferry tickets and picked up lunch (chicken sandwiches again) before getting on the boat. Once on the boat we realized that there were vans loading people to go to Soma the site of our next transportation/direction change so we jumped in a car. I ended up in the back of the van on a bench that could have comfortably fit two so we obviously uncomfortably fit three with each of us holding a child. The kid I was holding was probably around 8 years old and only spoke Mandinka which is a local language that I don’t speak. She looked a little scared but her mom was sitting across from us (holding another child). After another 15 minutes of bumpy dirt roads (with the back door next to Jackie flying open) we got to Soma!

Everything we had read described Soma as a big junction town – a town where you can go north or south or east or west – we needed to go to the capital which was west. We were a little surprised when we didn’t find any sept-places. Instead of a station wagon we bought seats in another conversion van – this time the four of us sat on the two back benches (we bought the 5th and 6th seats because the trip was 200km. The day before the customs agents told us that the south road was very bad and it turns out they weren’t lying! The south road was about two hours of just a very bumpy very dusty road. We took turns sleeping and watching out the back of the bus to make sure luggage didn’t come flying off (early in the ride we had to stop the bus because Tamar’s bag wasn’t tied down and flew off the top of the bus). It only took about thirty minutes to realize that dirt was just streaming in the windows. Every time I moved or sweat or touched more dirt would become noticeable. During the last hour of the trip we got on a paved road and made it into Banjul. We got a cab, went to the bank, then went to the PCGambia regional house. Now, I’ve been dirty in Peace Corps and I’ve taken day long bike rides and been dirty before but honestly never have I been as dirty as I was after that trip. I looked extremely tan and all of my clothes were just coated in a thick layer of dust and dirt. At the regional house (which is WAY nicer than our regional house in Senegal – probably because the volunteers aren’t supposed to have parties there) I took a shower and the dirt just streamed off of me. I honestly don’t think I got all of the dirt off after my first shower but I tried my hardest. Even though we were trying to clean up everyone was also really hungry so we were in a hurry. That night for dinner we had Chinese food – which means I’ve eaten Chinese food in 3 African countries (Senegal, The Gambia, and Ghana)! It was better than you would expect! After dinner we went back to the regional house and crashed after what was over 13 hours of travel in several modes of transportation.

Day Three: Visiting Banjul on a Monday That’s Also a National Holiday

This was the only morning of the trip we didn’t need to set an alarm so we all slept in aka got up at 8am instead of 6:15am. Even though I didn’t have my computer I was current on the big international news thanks to Alan. He and I share an affinity for news/politics/current affairs and he knew I didn’t have internet access (I didn’t bring my computer) so he texted me with a few updates – thanks!

After getting ready and talking to The Gambian volunteers we decided to go into Banjul – the regional house is actually outside of the main capital. The Gambia has around 4 million people and Banjul is about double the size of Bambey – only 50,000 people. We took a cab into the city, saw their independence arch, walked around a market, and walked along the beach. Around noon we went back to the regional house (which is in a more touristy area). We found a pizza place and had really good pizza (unlike in Senegal, Gambians actually cook the pizza until the crust is crispy). After pizza we returned to the regional house and chatted with some volunteers. We had been invited to go to a hotel that overlooks the fish market for a few pre-dinner drinks. We arrived at the hotel just in time for sunset and all of the boats coming in so I was able to take some good pictures. After drinks we split from The Gambian volunteers and went to El Sol. Our friend (PCV in Senegal) had visited there last year and told us we had to go for the closest thing to Mexican we would find in Senegal/Gambia. Though it was a little pricey I wasn’t disappointed in the food or in the margarita. After sitting for half an hour to digest we decided to move to a bar nearby. The regional house is next to a really touristy strip of bars and restaurants so we found an “Irish bar” and drank some Gambian beer. It was around 10pm and we were all struggling. We were so full and had already decided to get up at 5:45 the next morning to catch the first ferry out. Eventually we decided to walk over to the club we had heard was the best to make a decision about if we would end our night or stay out and dance. When we got to the club we realized that it was almost entirely empty because it was Monday and a National Holiday (labor day) and they were playing really good music… WIN!

The four of us were the only people on the dance floor until we got some women…possibly/most likely prostitutes up dancing too. The DJ played every single one of our requests and the bar was also playing CNN on the tvs. It was like we were at our own private dance party – now I know how VIPs feel. Around 1am we decided that we would leave during the next bad song. “Bad Romance” came on which was a huge favorite by Thomas a volunteer who left last year so we stayed to dance for that then a crappy sang came on and we left. We all went pretty much immediately to bed after that.

Day Four: More Transportation

My alarm went off at 5:45am and we were up! We had been told that sometimes there were 3 ferries running and sometimes there was 1. Also sometimes the ferry took 30 minutes and sometimes it took 3 hours. Not willing to chance the trip we wanted to catch the first one (which left between 6:30 and 7, so we were told). We got a cab to the ferry and got on the boat about 20 minutes later. While we were waiting for the ferry to cross the river we noticed that, like two days before, they were filling up cars going to the border town we needed to go to! We grabbed practically the last four seats on a bus that was jam packed. Then we waited. And rocked back and forth. And waited. And rocked. And waited. About 30 minutes into sitting in a van on a rocking ferry I was starting to feel a little queasy. The few glimpses I got of land made it seem like we weren’t moving forward at all just side of side. At one point Alyssa turned around and stated that we must be in the 7th circle of Dante’s Inferno. Finally we heard some banging metal (not always a good sign when you’re on a boat but in this case it marked that we were running into the dock in a good way). All of the people not in a bus got off of the boat then the other cars started to get off. Our bus was packed with people... and not starting. Six guys managed to give it enough momentum to start and we were off! Until we got on land and a guy had to go to the bathroom so we had to stop. Everyone else in the bus was as angry as we were but finally we were moving towards Senegal.

The trip took about 30 minutes then we were at the border. We got our passports stamped in The Gambia, spent the last of our Dalasi (Gambian currency) and walked across the border. The Senegalese side stamped our passports and we got a horse cart to the garage (a type of transit we hadn’t taken yet on the trip). After 15 minutes of riding on the horse cart we got to the garage. From here the posse split – Jackie and Alyssa went to Thies and Tamar and I went back to Kaolack. In Kaolack we went to a bank and switched garages. As we got to the garage Tamar was still trying to decide if she could make it all the way back to site tonight. I was the last seat in the car going through my town so I jumped in and we said a quick goodbye. I was the middle seat of the back row and only the windows in the front row opened so it was a hot ride… a little like a sauna. About 45km outside of Bambey the car stopped and we all stood in the middle of a field while the driver fixed a flat tire. Finally around 3pm I got out of the car in Bambey! Overall I had a great time in The Gambia even though a lot of it was spent inside cars. It was the perfect length trip and now I have only 75 days (as of tomorrow) left as a Peace Corps Volunteer!

Cheers – KO

I know that I need to start taking more pictures so today I started! I brought my camera downstairs during lunch and told my host family that I would be taking a lot of pictures now and July.... Miss said I was only allowed to take pictures of her when she had her hair done and was wearing make up... Khady, on the other hand, didn't have a problem.

Lunch: Rice, Fried Fish, Onion Sauce with Tomato PasteOur Courtyard

Before I get into the good and the bad of my time here, let me first say that today was a day of letters galore! Today Alan got my valentine's day card (after 3 months of traveling the globe). Also, I have a friend who's a PCV in Honduras and I got a letter from her (which also traveled for 3 months). Inspired by a recent blog post from that same friend, I've decided to give you some of the good and the bad things about Senegal. Let me give a disclaimer that this is my own totally unprofessional opinion and don't take it as fact. Also, I feel like I could go on about this forever but here's just a glimpse:

The Bad:The way Senegalese men behave sometimes drives me crazy. They're told they are superior of women and most men believe this and act on it all the time. I can barely stand working with partners who may not think that I'm totally inferior (because I'm a foreigner) but that they will never respect half of their own country. This happened a while ago (and I already blogged about it) but I got into a huge discussion with several male teachers/school administrators about how women shouldn't work because they aren't intelligent enough....ugh how can you write off half of your country's brainpower and workforce.

The way concept of time and important things. People are never late for food or prayers but can't seem to be on time for anything else. If a meeting is supposed to start at 9 people will show up around 10 and you can maybe start around 10:30... if you're lucky. I know it's not impossible to be on time, it's just not important.

The Good:

Senegalese women are seriously amazing. All of the women in my house and all of the girls that I work with are so strong and do so much every single day. The women in my house do almost everything every day to make sure we eat, things are clean, people have clothes, etc. and they don't take credit for ANYTHING. I know that the girls I work with do a ton of housework to support their mothers and sisters while also doing school work and maintaining great grades (better than some of the boys in their classes who don't have as much housework).

Hardworking means hardworking - there are a couple of people (Matar included) that work so, so, so hard to provide for their families. I just find it so impressive that someone like Matar, at the age of 31, supports his entire huge family. He works 7 days a week to support them and this kind of dedication to family is amazing.

One more thing that, though it's not exactly about Senegal, is making my Peace Corps service great is my friends. I'm so lucky to have such great other volunteers in my area and around the country. Even when I'm not with my girl posse I feel like I can hang out with any other volunteer in country because everyone is awesome.

There's a little about Senegal for you.... once my service really starts to come to a close I plan on having more retrospective blogs, but you'll have to wait at least a month for that.

This is a little early but Happy Easter everyone! I hope you have ham and peeps and maybe even a butter lamb on your table!

KO

I got to spend the last few weeks in the US and my entire trip was AMAZING! I started the trip in New York where I got to catch up with a ton of friends. Almost all of my old roommates from sophomore year (except for Jess who's in Berlin saving the environment). We had brunch andthen I got to spend the entire day hearing how successful they all are. We all lived on the same floor freshman year then lived in a tiny 6 person apartment our sophomore year. Now we're all in different areas (art, politics, business, law, environment) but have stayed friends so it was great to hear about everyone's life (except Jess who was dearly missed but will hopefully be there when we all get together again in the fall).

During the rest of the time I was in New York I got to see so many people and eat so much delicious food. I think I was most excited for soup (possibly because it was rainy) but everything I ate was great!

Right before the weekend I flew to Phoenix to meet my parents and start weddingpalooza! Straight from the airport we went to In-and-Out (my family might not have a lot of traditions so we stick to the ones we have)! Then I tried on my bridesmaid's dress and got it measured for alterations. Next we checked into the hotel then went to COSTCOOOOOOOO which was AMAZING. I had brought back several cloth bags and my parents packed them full of treats for the guests from their side of the wedding. My parents friends the Herrans came and then my Grandma and my cousin - it was the first time seeing them in about 2 years. Noah and Tara came for dinner and then Alan landed.

Friday was rehearsal dinner prep and more family and friends arrived. It was so amazing that so many people came to celebrate Noah and Tara's wedding. At the rehearsal that night I got to meet the rest of Tara's bridesmaids and Noah's groomsmen as well as his dad's side of the family. The rehearsal dinner was really fun and I think everyone had a great time.

Saturday wedding frenzy started around 10am. I hung out with the other bridesmaids while one of them did all of our hair and makeup (which was really nice of her because otherwise I would have had straight hair with barely any makeup). We started taking pictures before the wedding and then the wedding started around 6pm. It was at the resort on the first tee which was a really pretty golf green with water around it. The ceremony was very pretty even though everyone's heal's were ruining the grass (sorry!). After the ceremony there was a cocktail hour in a really beautiful outdoor area. The reception kicked off with all of the bridal party being introduced and Noah and Tara's big entrance. I'm not going to run down the reception one by one because that would take forever but I'll sum it up by saying I had a ton of fun with my family and friends. I this we all had a blast dancing and my mom and Noah looked great dancing to "One Shining Moment" during the mother of the groom dance.

Sunday morning Alan and I flew back to New York VERY early and I spent the rest of the day in New York hanging out with a few other people (and eating ice cream). Monday for lunch I got to hang out with some of the younger girls in the sorority and it was so great catching up with them. Afterwards I had a few people over to Alan's apartment and we made dinner and ate on the roofuntil it got too cold. Once it was cold we went downstairs just in time to watch the Lifetime Original Movie about William and Kate (so good) to get everyone pumped for the Royal Wedding! Tuesday I grabbed lunch with another friend before she went off to class and I went off to the airport. At the airport I bought a ton of magazines and ate Wendy's before getting on my plane. Luckily the plane was almost empty and I got an entire row and sleep. I landed and went met up with some friends to deliver the bagels and cream cheese I had brought from Trader Joe's.

That day I was reunited with my Peace Corps Girl Posse and I got to catch up on their trip to Cape Verde. We made velveeta and bacon mac and cheese which was delicious! The next day I headed back to site and I've been hanging around since. Because it's almost Easter people are just around not really doing much and they have the next few days off. My posse and I are planning our next trip - this time to The Gambia. It's a country inside of Senegal and we're only going for 3 days mostly to say we've gone.

Salamata, Ndeye Coumba, Soukey, Erin, Safie, Ndeye Awa, and I

Erin, in the middle, an ag volunteer living in a small village outside of Thies, has started working towards a Peace Corps radio program. Other regions of the country work with local radio stations and volunteers' topics range from explaining American culture to talking about work/teaching even reading children's stories in the local language. We were brainstorming topics for this potential Thies radio show and I decided to get my girls' group involved.

When I mentioned that they could be on the radio all of my girls jumped at the opportunity! They immediately started brainstorming skit ideas which were eventually narrowed down to a single skit discussing AIDS, early and forced marriage, abuse against children, and the environment. After that meeting we decided to take a break and get back together the next week to start working on the script. The next week I showed them a basic plot diagram (intro, rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion) which they had never seen before. I was able to convince them to drop the multi-themed skit and do two skits with one theme each: abuse against children and forced/early marriage.

They started writing the abuse against children script to present to me. When they were finished they explained the plot and let's just say it was WAY too inappropriate for 14 year old girls to be talking about. I hated to censor them but I couldn't have them talking about things that were culturally inappropriate especially not under the Peace Corps name. We decided to take another week break and come back together the next week. The next Sunday they had two great scripts to present and we started practice!

The first skit was about a girl who's mom wants her to get married to a wealthy man so her family can have money. Eventually the girl's friends convince her mom to let her finish school and everything ends happily. The idea might seem far fetched but unfortunately, the only far fetched part is that the girl didn't have to get married. Sometimes girls are married off at really young ages because their family can't support them or doesn't want to anymore.

The second skit is kind of the Senegalese version of Cinderella: an orphaned daughter (of a second wife) is forced to do all of the housework by her dad's first wife until the first wife's friend comes over and points out that the orphan shouldn't be abused, that she has rights, and that the actual daughter of the first wife doesn't know how to do anything because she's never had to do any chores.

Erin came out to Bambey yesterday to record the skits and the girls' introduction. To make it seem like more of an event I bought a few bottles of soda and we had a little party. I've attached some photos from the day! Erin's going to edit the piece and I'll have a copy to play for the girls May 1st!

Erin handing the mic off

Hammering out last minute details (and Salamata is hiding from the picture because she said her hair was ugly)Practicing before the recording

My house is about half full right now so we've been having a lot of food left over after lunch each day. Because I know there's food that could be simply reheated, I decided to cook dinner for everyone! I wasn't sure if anyone was going to like it (though I knew they would pretend) but the leftovers were a fall back in case they hated my food.

I had been thinking about cooking dinner for a while and I was going to attempt a macaroni noodle with Laughing Cow (or Vache Qui Rit if you're in a Francophone country) cheese sauce that other volunteers had made...then we had spaghetti for dinner last night. Not wanting to bore my host family I decided on a peanut sauce stir fry mix vegetable pile with lettuce around the edges (usually my host family eats cooked mixed vegetables with onions sauce and lettuce around the edges so this was my Asian/American take on that). This morning I went to the market and bought: lettuce, green beans, green peppers, onions, garlic, carrots, peanut butter (which is really just mashed up peanuts with no salt or sugar), and limes.

After lunch I cut the green beans, cleaned the lettuce, then bleached all of the vegetables. (Side note: that might sound like a bad idea but it's to kill any parasites or amoebas living on the vegetables so eating minimal quantities of bleach is better than eating those.) Around 7pm I realized that I hadn't bought bread yet so I ran out to get that, most Senegalese cooking involves the rule of: if there's not rice there's bread. After the soap opera I boiled the green beans and carrots while cutting the peppers, onions, and garlic. The garlic, onions, and peppers were then sauteed, the green beans and carrots were added, and then they were taken off. I only have one pot so they were moved to a plate while I put the peanut butter with some water, to thin the sauce, soy sauce (bought in a bottle in Thies but you can buy it in packets in most boutiques), lime juice, some sugar, some salt, and some Chinese hot pepper sauce that my parents sent me. After lots of whipping it was ready so I threw the vegetables in and tossed the mixture.

That was put in the center of a plate, lettuce was put around the edges, and the bread was cut for everyone. Miss helped me get the mat down, water bottles out, and forks ready then we ate! I thought the meal was pretty good, not the best thing I've cooked but not bad by any means. One of my host sisters didn't really like it but pretended she did. Another seemed to really like it - or is just really good at pretending. I couldn't tell if Miss liked it or not but then later she asked if she could save some for tomorrow so I guess she did... and that's everyone in my house right now (except for my host mom but she's been eating yogurt and millet every night).

So overall I think it was a success and I'm glad I finally cooked for them. It doesn't look too appetizing but here's a photo:

Before I get to the spectacular goal scored tonight ("quel but" = what a goal), I'll start at the beginning of my day.

I had been invited to the "Fete de l'Ouverture de Foyer" at the middle school which is a morning of speeches by officials and then skits and dances by students. I was told it started at 1oam so after much internal debate I finally decided to be a good volunteer and headed over to the school around 10:45. When I arrived at 11am nothing had even started but all of the students were gathered around the school's large sand courtyard just waiting. The principal saw me and invited me into his office where I waited with a few other teachers. Around noon we sat down and all of the guests (a delegation from the mayor's office, the retired principal, and a principal of another middle school) had arrived and we started! The first hour was speeches by all of the principals, retired and serving, present. After the speeches the skits started...and kept going... and going... Most of the skits were done in the same style that Senegalese TV is which, to be nice, I would describe as extremely overacted and lacking clear plot lines (and that's being generous). The skits had to do with AIDs, teen pregnancy, or early/forced marriage. Each skit also had a whole bunch of boys playing older men that sat around and talked most of the skit (which is a pretty accurate portrayal but never seemed to move the plot forward). The average skit lasted half an hour.

At 2pm I decided to try for an escape. I should explain that the school is surrounded by a wall on all sides with a single door on the Northwest corner. I was sitting on the South side of the courtyard so between me and the door were the skits, the entire dj/microphone area, and about 300 students... not to mention that literally everyone would have seen me leave. I asked the teacher next to me if I could go around one of the buildings and sneak to the door but he responded with, "it'll be over soon."

Two hours later I was fairly dehydrated, hungry, and hot (we were sitting under a plastic awning which did block the sun but seemed to trap the heat). The teachers sitting around me were also starting to grumble a little and trying to get the proceedings to move a little faster. FINALLY the second to last group came to perform around 4:15pm and man am I glad I stayed for it. Now, Senegalese culture is a little more casual with stereotyping ethnic groups and nationalities than Americans are, so keep that in mind as I explain the skit. The skit started with an announcer saying something (muffled on the mic) as two students came out dressed in nice Senegalese clothes. The students said they were ethnically Wolofs and gave a nice message encouraging youth. Next a few other students came out dressed like religious people and did a dance and gave an encouraging message. Next another couple came out dressed in slightly ridiculous traditional clothes and the girl had stuffed her skirt as to make her butt seem HUGE. When they announced that they were Jolla (from the Southern part of Senegal) everyone started laughing hysterically. After the Jolla's was a boy with a fake fat stomach in a suit and a young girl - no worries, they were Americans, they were Russians! After the Russians came a boy in a dress shirt and a girl in a cute summer dress and heels - they were French! When a child came up to them to ask them if they had kids they laughed and said they never wanted children.. hilarious! After the French people came 3 students dressed in North African clothing they pretended to speak Arabic and referred to themselves using a mild racial slur. After the North Africans came two boys in karate outfits. They were Chinese and spoke only in fake Chinese (aka "ching chong") which got a HUGE laugh. Then they drank 2 cokes (I'm not really sure about that part) and had a fake martial arts battle. Finally an Akon song started blasting and out came the Americans: 5 students wearing jeans, shiny shirts, and sunglasses. They all danced like a mix of Michael Jackson and Usher then spoke in English about how wonderful Senegal was. After the Americans that group took their bows and we were on to the last performance! Before I get there, let me say that of all the ways the students could have portrayed Americans - I'm actually happy with the way they chose... also I don't dress that that at all here.

The last group was the gymnastics club who did some cool tumbling but at that point I think I was a little delirious so I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have had it happened at during the first two hours not during the fifth hour.

The second the gymnastics club looked like it was wrapping up one of the teachers I work with quickly whisked me away to the teacher's lounge where there were cold sodas and sugary baked/fried goods! I drank my soda and chatted with a few people and was out of there in about 10 minutes. While I was chatting EVERY student had emptied out and the crew was taking down the tents - it had cleared out.

I got back to my house about 6 hours after I had left. I went straight to my room to chug some gatorade to make up for the hours sitting in the heat.

Tonight Senegal played Cameroon in a qualifier game for the African Cup of Nations in 2012. In the last 2 minutes of additional time Senegal scored a goal! The entire city erupted with cheering including my host family screaming loudly! Senegal ended up winning 1-0 so they keep their lead in their group. Games are halfway over so we'll know if they qualify in September I think.

I hope everyone is enjoying watching March Madness Games - if your championship team has been kicked out, feel free to join me in cheering for UNC!

KO

This morning the SED PTA (or Peace Corps speak for trainer for business volunteers) Talla came to check-up on my work. We visited the schools I've been working in and he stopped by my house. Now, I think I'm doing some good work here but man can my work partners sell it! Senegalese culture is EXTREMELY complimentary so everywhere we went the principals and teachers just talked about what an amazing job I've been doing. I'm not trying to sell myself short but I'm not revolutionizing the world here. After visiting my work partners, we stopped by my house where Talla and my host mom had this conversation:Talla - I know she doesn't have any problems here because you're amazing.Host Mom - No she's amazing.Talla - No You're amazing

Host Mom - No Peace Corps is amazing...etc.I wonder if it's possible for Talla to get an accurate read on how my work is going. I was able to show him several substantial work projects and he seems really enthusiastic about the girls' group radio stuff but with everyone fawning over me and the Peace Corps in general, I wonder what he writes in his report.

Schools gets out this afternoon and resumes around April 27th (with Senegalese Independence Day being April 4th and Easter the 24th they just took the whole month). So my work will slow down a little bit BUT Noah (my brother) and Tara are just a few weeks from being married so I'll be back in the States soon for a week or so for that wedding!

KO

My internet has finally been fixed! I promise I'll blog more now that I don't need to email my postings to my parents and have them post (thanks parents).

Things are moving along in Bambey - nothing too exciting to report. On Saturday the opposition parties (there are several smaller parties) held a rally in Dakar and a few other large cities. There wasn't a rally here but everyone watched the Dakar march on tv. It's just interesting how life still goes on even through something that people were thinking might be huge (Reuters' Article Pre-Rally). Everyone still had to go to the market and do their chores, they just did it with the tv on in the background. So far there hasn't been any follow up.

Yesterday I had a girls' group meeting - we're working on a radio show project. The girls are writing radio scripts and in two weeks another volunteer is coming to record them. The other volunteer, Erin, is arranging a deal with a local radio station for a "Peace Corps Hour" a few times a month. Hopefully my girls' skits and discussions can be on the radio someday! They tried to write a script last week but it was horribly confusing and a little inappropriate. For this week, I started with a basic plot diagram (intro, rising action, climax, concluding action, resolution) which none of them had seen or been taught before (that creative writing isn't taught here shouldn't surprise me at this point). Using that, they were able to put together one skit and are working on the other skit during the week. They have two weeks until Erin comes to record so hopefully everything will be ready.

My classes resume today because, theoretically, the strikes are over.

Also, it's the hot season like whoa. It was cool in Dakar and when I got back here it was hot. I'm talking about almost unbearable hot. The kind of heat that takes your breath away when you walk into the sun. The kind of hot when a gallon of water isn't enough during the day (yeah that's not a joke). This should stay until it starts raining in July, and it's still cooling off at night enough to sleep without a fan so that's a success! Speaking of heat though, I should go fill up my water-bottle! Happy Monday! I hope all of your brackets are doing well!

KO

Senegal Updates: The power outages have been horrible and the teachers were on strike for a few weeks; those two things together just caused restlessness among the students. Last Monday the students decided to go on strike themselves to protest the teachers striking… it wasn’t entirely in solidarity but it was a little. They threw big rocks and burned tires to block the national highway that cuts through Bambey. It made it on the news (even though taking to other volunteers these strikes were going on all over the country). My host family and I were watching the news that night when we noticed a familiar face… YOUSSOU WAS ON THE NEWS! He wasn’t speaking but he was standing next to the student being interviewed! Now whenever I ask how his day was I ask if he talked to any news crews. On Saturday there’s supposed to be a huge opposition rally in the main square in Dakar and also in other cities. The government is cautiously letting it happen and supposedly each opposition party will be represented (Senegal isn’t a 2 party system). My host sisters haven’t heard anything happening in Bambey – I’ll keep you updated as it all happens. Peace Corps Updates: My work is coming along well. I’m still teaching business classes and I have several side projects. We’re gearing up for the 2011 Girls’ Camp. I’m trying to put together some stuff with my girls’ group and also one of my business classes to do some skits. There’s a volunteer working with a radio station and, theoretically, these girls’ skits will be played during a “Peace Corps Hour” sort of thing on the radio. In other areas of the country it’s just volunteers talking about things on the radio – which ours will be as well – but I’m hoping that my girls’ can create some good discussions and we can diversify the project. Last night 3 volunteers finished their services! Oliver and Ankit were a year ahead of me and extended for a few extra months. Chris was a few months ahead of me and just finished his two years. A whole bunch of people went into Dakar to see them off. We spent most of the afternoon at the American club and then went down to Happy Hour. After Happy Hour, around 30 of us went to the Chinese Restaurant. We toasted to their services and safe travels with moonshine made of rice alcohol which was followed with cans of PBR. Yes. American beer that had been made in America, sent to China, imported from China to Senegal, then drank by Americans… globalization at its finest. After Chinese we all went back to the regional house and ate the cookies, brownies, and cake that Alyssa, Jackie, Erin, Tamar, and I had baked in the morning. Finally around 2:30am they said their goodbyes and went to the airport. They’re now somewhere in the US on their way to Las Vegas for some March Madness games. While it was sad to say goodbye to volunteers that I’ve become really good friends with, I found it also really exciting. They had put in two amazing years of work for Senegal and influenced so many volunteers’ services (mine included) with their senses of humor and kindness. It was exciting to see them basically graduate from Peace Corps and go on to their next adventures. Also, being a little selfish, it made my end-date seem just a little closer. That’s all that’s really going on in Bambey right now. I’ll try and blog more – hopefully the internet will be fixed. Happy St. Patrick’s Day and enjoy March Madness for me! KO

I have so much to say about WAIST so I'll try and get it all in. For those of you that don't know WAIST aka West African Invitational Softball Tournament is an annual softball tournament that the US Embassy puts on. For the USO team, Senegalese teams, high school team, and almost everyone else - WAIST is both fun and competitive.... for Peace Corps volunteers costumes are the most important part. Let's be honest - I still don't know who won but I know who had my favorite costumes (well, who had the second best costumes to our lederhosen).

The festivities kicked off Friday night with a Peace Corps talent show that was great but WAY more importantly, that my sub-region and I rocked these shirts:

We live in the "Thies Region" of Senegal - pronounced like "chess" so, as an entire region of girls (with Oliver and Thomas as honorary members) we got shirts - pretty clever, no?

After seeing our talented friends sing, dance, juggle, act out a puppet show, and more - we headed to a Peace Corps standard bar. No first night of WAIST is complete without 100 volunteers packing a club and that's how we ended the night.

Our first game was bright and early Saturday so we got up, dressed in lederhosen, and met our team mates (for WAIST we all play in regional teams, so I played with Dakar because Thies is my sub-region). Our first game was against Tambagou (a combination team of the Kedougou and Tamba regions) who were cops and robbers (including several ladies in jump suits, a couple of guys in SHORT shorts and cut off shirts, and the hamburgerler). Tambagou is notorious for forfeiting every game and that's what they did. Instead of playing real softball there was a little of this:

Followed by some of this (leap frog between 1st and 2nd and more awesome batting):

Not to mention, the robbers kept charging the field to steal the bases - yes actually pick them up off the ground - while the cops chased them down.

Our second game followed immediately and was a little bit of a buzz kill as we played the Mali team that was more about softball and less about costumes. It was still fun and we put up a really good showing (in our defense, we make an effort to let everyone play not just our people who will hit home runs).

That ended softball for day one. Everyone hung around the American club (where there's a pool) for a bit until going home to nap, ice sun burn, and (in the case of my homestay) make AWESOME bacon mac and cheese. The second night of WAIST is a date auction (raising money for Gender and Development projects) but I decided to take an easy night so I could be ready for the last full day of WAIST.

Sunday started with a game against CapeGerLi aka Cape Verde, Mali, and Niger volunteers (the Cape Verde volunteers were on vacation, the Mali team was mostly visiting Dakar so only a few people played, and the Niger volunteers had just transfered to Senegal after their program got shut down). Our second and final game was against Kaolack - our closest neighboring PCSenegal region who was dress like ballerinas. Though we started serious at the beginning (and I got a base hit and eventually scored a run) we started playing 3-ball softball which like if 2 softballs had a kickball for a child. That game ended, somewhat surprisingly, without injury, and everyone headed back to the pool. Sunday afternoon was for swimming, volleyball, and admiring everyone's costumes. In case you were wondering:

The North was Jersey Shore

Dakar was LederhosenLinguere was Cows and Cowboys

Kaolack was Ballerinas

Tambagou was Cops and RobbersKolda was Star Corps (like Star Wars - and they had some impressive storm trooper and Princess Leia costumes)

Sunday night two of the Cape Verde volunteers came over for a pasta dinner and we all headed to the defining WAIST party. During the day Oceanuim is a hotel/scuba school and by night can be rented for open air parties. The third year volunteers did an amazing job of planning, bar-tending, and generally supervising the party (while wearing matching white suits) while everyone else danced the night away. I can't think of a perfect way to describe the Oceanuim party other than to say imagine having all of your friends and their friends over (about 200 of them) and dancing until 5am. One of the great things about PCVs is that, in a situation like that, we've all had WAY more embarrassing things happen to us (getting sick, being peed on by a sheep, you name it) so no one cares about how they look when dancing - we just enjoy ourselves.

Unfortunately Alyssa got really sick pretty much the second we got to the party, so she went home early. I was the second person home and went to use the bathroom then to hang out with Alyssa. My first question was about how she was feeling and then my second question was whether or not she had seen the dead scorpion on the stairs next to the bathroom. She pretty much called me crazy until we went to look. I tried to prove it was dead by throwing a shoe at it and was proven HORRIBLY wrong when the 3-inch scorpion started skittering all over. We beat the crap out of it and quickly flushed it. My feet had been danced on all night (the nail polish on my toes chipped off and they were coated in dirt) so I couldn't really feel them. After doing significant Google research and being reassured by Alyssa and I would have felt a scorpion sting, I finally went to bed.

Monday was all about recovering, sleeping, and doing laundry. Monday evening we went back to the American club for one last hurrah. Like last year, the party started a little slowly. It was supposed to be a pool party but most people were either dancing or sitting and talking. While I was sitting by the pool with my legs dangling in I noticed 2 people from my training group looking suspicious and I heard one of them say, "I think she heard us, we can't do it now!" I moved away from the pool but took my phone out of my jean pocket instead. As a joke I then offered another volunteer $1 to throw Oliver - the volunteer who had planned the entire party and made a HUGE deal about it being a pool party - in. Like a good business volunteer, Oliver upped the offer to $4 to throw me in... eventually we ended up agreeing to jump in together (after taking our shoes off). We quickly became a pool gang: we would pick a target, then the guys would jump out and throw that person into the pool. Sure it sounds a little childish and maybe a little reckless but we all knew we would be returning to site the next day and back to our normal American-less lives of work. After finding some dry clothes I played some volleyball and joined the dance party.

Today, with WAIST actually over, I ran some errands and headed to Thies for an Artisan training. It ends tomorrow afternoon and I'll be back at site by dinner.

Summing up WAIST is fairly difficult (hence the long post) and I'll have more pictures in an album over the next few days. Overall, I had an amazing, amazing time - it was an awesome WAIST to be my last (then again I think WAIST is always great).

KO

I'll write more about WAIST over the next few days but I thought these pictures needed to be shown immediately. Our theme was, very simply, "lederhosen."

My room has officially become a clubhouse - I'm writing you this email while Khady is coloring. Someone else came upstairs to give me something and after they left she was like "now close the door." I feel like I need a "no boys allowed" sign or something to really secure clubhouse status.

Also she was like "I want to look at the book with your mom and dad" (my photo album) and when I said "here's my mom" she said "you have two moms! your mom here and aunt amy diop!" so now she calls you guys my "white mom" and "white dad"

Oh, and she thinks nikki, our black pug/chihuahua mix is our sheep because I don't know the word for dog in wolof.

The past week has been pretty uneventful in Bambey. Finals are going

on so my classes are on hold until after WAIST (next week!). I've been

getting work done for the upcoming conferences we have and the

presentations I'll be giving. But a few things happened over this past

week that are worth noting:

1. Last week I learned that in addition to the 4 public middle and

high schools in Bambey there are 3 private schools. When I asked what

kind of private schools they are I received a simple answer from

Miriam: schools for kids who were expelled, are too old to be in

normal school, or got pregnant (that explains why they're always so

mean to me!). For a few days I racked my brain trying to figure out

why a fairly small town would need 3 of these schools until Tamar

called. She explained that her counterpart was talking to his son

about his poor performance in school and actually threatened to send

him to Bambey! Yes, my town is a threat to bad kids all over!

2. Three nights ago Mor came in from hunting with his archaic, scary

looking shot gun and summed Youssou to get his killin's from the car.

Youssou carried in a rabbit... so the next night we had spaghetti and

rabbit with onion sauce! Yum.

3. I realized why I like Khady so much: she talks all the time, she

asks a million questions, and she's a little bossy...hmmmm sounds like

someone else... Last night she followed me into my room and we had

this conversation "Where's my coloring book?" "Right here." "Can I

have it?" "Tomorrow." "Okay, tomorrow."

Next week I'll hopefully be back to normal internet and can keep you

updated with WAIST info - I promise I'll take way more pictures this

year than I did last year.

KO

I've had some internet troubles so this post is a little but last week I was teaching my favorite class which is a group of 12 girls. They knew each other before the class so they're more outgoing than the other classes. While they were working in their groups on picking a business idea I was wandering around the classroom. I noticed there was a schedule for sweeping the classroom. After reading the schedule, I realized that there were only girls' names on the list. I asked my class about this and they said that of course only the girls have to sweep and clean the board. When I asked what the boys did they responded with a simple, "nothing, of course, just like normal."

I've really been frustrated with the simple things that seem so easy to fix but are so ingrained in the culture. By having only the girls do chores while the boys sit and do nothing or study, it seems to me, that you're basically asking the male students to think they're superior with more valuable time. Maybe I'm over reacting but it's annoying to watch the girls be treated so unevenly and have it just be "normal."

In other news, I've been in Dakar to get some work done and to watch the Superbowl. Because it's not on tv here, the Marines invited everyone over to watch the game - which started at 11:30pm local time. The game went until 3:30am but we brought some veggies and dip (homemade and it was awesome, if I might say so myself) and the Marines had some other food out (including peanut m&ms, chips, and other dips).

Today I'M on my way back to site after lunch but I had to cancel my classes for the next two weeks because it's first semester finals/essays.

Hopefully my internet will work when I get back to site and I can update more regularly.

KO

Yesterday seemed a little calm for such a big holiday and now I know why... today was the social part!

People started arriving at our house by 9am (which means they left Touba EARLY). The women started on the big basin of onions to peel and chop for sauce. Once the onions had been finished everyone (all of the women) started specializing. By this time (11am) almost everyone had arrived. Like normal, the men sat outside the house, talked, and drank tea; the women were cooking; children were fetching things for everyone. After onions, some of the women prepared the other vegetables (cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, and green peppers) and the rest cleaned the meat (two big tubs of beef not mutton!!) and made the marinated. Miss started on the sauce (onions, vinegar, bullion cube, msg, salt, oil, maybe mustard) while my host mom made a fire. Because there was so much that needed to be cooked, we needed more than just the one gas burner... so fire! A piece of scrap metal was laid out, on top of that a mound of sand was added, and then the kindling and wood. Once the fire was going a GIANT pot was put on the fire and the meat went inside. After finishing most of the vegetables, the women started bleaching the lettuce and picking off the brown parts (I joined in and helped). The meat cooked for maybe an hour or two and was then moved to another marinate of oil, mustard, bullion cube, vinegar (you'll notice a seasoning theme) and then into a giant metal colander/rice steamer over another fire to grill for a little. By this point it was about 4pm and people were getting hungry. The kids started setting up mats for eating, bowls for hand washing, and bottles of water. Next, the women started plating giant metal plates with a few chunks of meat, two huge servings of onion sauce, fries, lettuce, and chopped vegetables (which was covered in a dressing of mustard, oil, salt, pepper, vinegar). Six big plates went out and the 25+ men (I couldn't get a good count) sat around them and started eating. A few minutes later a plate was made and all of the kids (about 10 of them) sat down to eat. A few minutes after that the women made their plates and we sat down to eat.

I'm usually the only person who prefers vegetables and today was no different. There were 4 women at my plate total and we had two HUGE pieces of meat as well as a ton of other stuff. I let everyone eat my share of the onion sauce and fries while I focused on making lettuce wraps with the meat (which is really just a fancy way of saying that I was eating them both at the same time). I've gotten pretty good at eating with my hand (right hand only per cultural rules)... ripping meat with only one hand is kind of hard. Today was probably the best Senegalese meal I've eaten. I mean, really, grilled beef and salad - awesome.

After lunch we all got a can of soda (which is pretty impressive and expensive). Once everyone had finished their soda the house cleared out in a matter of minutes. We went from having more than 50 people to having less than 15. The remaining women did the cleaning and we all pretty much settled down to watch soap operas because it was fairly late. At one point someone gave me a baby to hold that started crying immediately upon being given to me and stopped immediately upon being taken away from me... oh well.

There's one more day until everything, hopefully, gets back to normal and my classes start again.

KO

The Magal is the religious pilgrimage that has put everything on hold for the past few days (and will continue to do so the next few days). Members of the Mourid brotherhood (the largest sect of Islam in the country) travel to Touba for the day. Today almost everyone from my house left to go to Touba - at lunch it was only my host mom, Aisha (Khady's mom), Saly (who lives with the grown up host sister across town), and myself. People trickled back during the day but we're still only about half full... which is about to change.

I've mentioned it before but anyone coming from Thies or Dakar is going to pass through Bambey on their way to and from Touba which means that everyone my host family knows is invited to our house for lunch tomorrow on their way back home! We have soda for more than 60 people so I'm nervous. I've been told that people will be stopping by for lunch and staying until...?

In other news, we had porridge for dinner tonight. I was fairly hungry so I ate a decent amount. As I walked by Khady to put my bowl away (porridge is the only thing we don't share on a plate) she hid her porridge from me like I was going to steal some - she's a pretty funny kid.

That's all for today - I'm just biding my time until the holiday is over and things get back to normal (and class start hopefully).

KO

Before going home for vacation I organized my Junior Achievement business classes. I have 3 at one of the middle schools and 3 at one of the high schools. My first class was Thursday of last week. About 3 weeks ago I reminded the principal to place a notice to the students reminding them that the class would be starting Jan. 13. Last Thursday I showed up at the high school and it was a surprise to everyone! Whoops! Forgot to remind the students - but no worries, he would remind the Tuesday class! Monday I went to the middle school and, without reminder, the students were there! I have 12 students in that class and they're all girls (which is even more exciting because of the 60-something high schoolers there are only 3 girls)! The class went alright and they seemed really excited about the competition (at the end of the course).

Today I went in for classes 3 and 4. This morning the high school didn't have a room for me (and hadn't reminded their students) so the Tuesday class was permanently cancelled and those kids were moved into the Wednesday section. I was really excited, though, for my afternoon class! It was at the middle school so the kids knew about it! I had fixed the kinks from Monday! I was ready to go!

But the students were striking.

When I got back to my house, I explained to my host mom why I wasn't teaching and her response was, "Oh, right, the students are striking because a teacher got 2 or 3 students pregnant."

Yep.

There's really nothing more to say than that.

Tomorrow starts the week long holiday for the Magal - religious pilgrimage of the largest sect to Touba.

Maybe I'll have more to stay but I'm still pretty speechless several hours after finding out about the pregnancies.

Power outages are a subject that, while not absolutely riveting, deserve a little more attention because they're such a part of daily life.

First let me say that they aren't the typical type of outage caused by a big storm or freak accident. Whatever your explanation for it (grid over-extension, not enough power to go around, etc.), the government/power company (who are co-mingled) has to cut the power. There isn't an actual "schedule" or anything - the power just goes out... and then eventually (so far every time) comes back on. Sometimes it goes out for a few hours, sometimes for more than just a few hours. It's different in different areas but recently Alyssa (who's 50km away) and I have been having the same outages which leads me to believe a huge chunk of the country doesn't have power at the same time. Over the past few days we've been loosing power between about 11am-2pm then again from 7:30pm-10:30pm. My host family said that the power had been cutting almost everyday like that for a while. The power cut this morning at 5am and didn't come back until 2:30pm. It actually just cut again while I was blogging (3:45pm) so we'll see when it comes back this time.

I would say the worst part about the power cutting is that about 45 minutes after the power has cut - the water stops being able to be pumped and it cuts. I've been pretty diligent about keeping my water filter filled and my host family keeps about 100 liters of water for cleaning/washing... it's still just frustrating to not have running water to say.. wash your hands.

Now I understand that there are many volunteers that don't have any electricity or running water but this is just another description of my little slice of Africa.

A very delayed Happy New Year everyone! I had a wonderful trip home and got to spend a quality time with my family, friends, and boyfriend. I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season!

The adventure (which I say with neither a positive or negative connotation) began on the plane: it was 3 seats per row I was seat F the window seat. When I got to my row there was a guy in the aisle seat and one in the window seat who I made switch (no way I'm giving up my window seat for an 8 hour flight). A few minutes later another girl came along and said she was in the aisle seat... whoops... 4 people for 3 seats. The flight attendant quickly saw the problem and came over to discover that both of those men had been issued tickets with the same seat. The flight attendant put the woman who was supposed to be in the aisle in another seat and left. He came back a few minutes later and explained that the two men had bought their ticket at the same agency and, because they have the same name (which happens all the time in Senegal), the agency sold them the same seat. He explained that they would both have to get a refund from their ticket agency and buy new tickets but that they would have to get a new ticket immediately if they wanted to be on that flight. It blows my mind that two people were able to get ALL THE WAY ON A PLANE with the same ticket.

Anyway - once I was back in Dakar I went to the office and got some stuff taken care of. I wasn't feeling very well so I went to med and stayed for a day. I'm better now and back at site!

Yesterday morning I gave my host mom the 6 pounds of candy and 3 pounds of oreos I brought back for the family (she said "this is too much!!"). Then I gave her the gift I brought back for her which she really liked and seemed really touched by (she kept saying "but we didn't give you anything to give your parents!"). I was waiting to give everyone else their gifts until Mor got his but he was gone all day and in the evening I finally decided that, though I'm normally quite culturally respectful - they were my gifts and I would hand them out as I wanted to. While everyone was sitting in the dark (we haven't been having power between 7:30-10:30pm so we sit in the dark outside), I grabbed presents. Everyone was really appreciative when I handed them out and they took turns looking at each others gifts. Youssou kept using his new pump to pump and deflate the soccer ball. Khady was the best though, she danced around with the cabbage patch doll she got saying "Fatou gave this to me!"

I'm still trying to motivate myself to go see other people and get work started. I had a class I was supposed to teach yesterday but the principal forgot to remind people (I had asked him to right before I left) so no one showed up. The most frustrating part isn't that I spent all morning prepping or that I walked to the high school to do this but it's the principal's nonchalant attitude regarding wasting my time and delaying the start of these classes. He doesn't seem to care if the classes actually ever happen which doesn't help my motivation problems.

Today right before lunch, Ndeye (one of the high school girls) asked Khady if her baby was hungry and Khady said "yes!" ran into her room, brought out her doll, and then strapped it to her back (like all Senegalese women). Last I saw her she was still carrying the baby doll on her back.

KO

Happy Holidays Everyone! This might be my only blog from the States but I thought my journey back was worth a post.

I planned on leaving Bambey by 8am Monday because I had things to do in the Peace Corps office in the afternoon. My host mom helped me look for a donkey cart to take my baggage to the road so I could flag down a bus but we couldn’t find one. Eventually I walked to the market and got the first cart I saw. At a pace slower than I walk we headed back to my house. When we got there my host dad was starting his car and said to me in English, “I’m going to Dakar too put your stuff in the car.” When I told my host mom what was going on she was PISSED - not at me but because my host dad had just gotten back from Dakar the day before and hadn’t told her he was going back. I felt bad kind of picking sides but how can you turn down a free ride that will take half the time as the bus? We had to take a detour out of Bambey because the teachers and students had barricaded the national highway because the teachers were owed 6 months of paychecks.

We made it to Dakar in only a few hours and I was at the office on time. After the office I went back to the regional house which is bursting at the seams of volunteers leaving and volunteers waiting to pick up friends or family. There was another volunteer on my flight so we got take out Chinese food and just hung around repacking our bags.

I like getting to the airport early (not a surprise if you know my parents) so I convinced the other volunteer to leave the regional house at 4am. We went to the airport with two other volunteers going to Tanzania and found a cab pretty quickly. When we made it to the highway the cab pulled over and said that we had to get out because his car was broken but he would find us another car. We switched cars and made our way to the airport. At the airport we had our bags weighted (mine were under which was a good surprise) and then completely searched through. After most of the things were taken out of my bag they had to be put back in – which took time considering the number of presents I’m bringing home!

After checking in the other volunteer and I went through customs and security. Then we bought a juice and went to the special Delta gate which had… ANOTHER SECURITY CHECK! At this point we’d been through several and it was just humorous. Our carry-ons were searched, we had to drink our juices, we were pat down, then we were sent to another waiting room. Around 6:50am we boarded our flight and that’s where I am now. There’s a second Senegal PCV on this flight and one from The Gambia too. I’m currently about 4 and a half hours from JFK. Hopefully I won’t have any more blog-worthy adventures and will make it safely and quickly to Chicago.

I’m back! This time I’m blogging from JFK while waiting for my flight to Chicago. The flight before mine was cancelled because of bad weather but hopefully mine will get out alright. So a few things worth noting:

1. To get between terminals at JFK you have to walk outside. SURPRISE! I’m in flipflops and a shirt… and still defrosting but it was refreshing!

2. I look crazy because I’m so smiley and I’m thanking everyone.

3. Turkey sandwiches are amazing

4. Blue Moon’s are also amazing

Merry Christmas!

KO

For all of the pictures go to Alyssa's blog: http://alyssainsenegal.blogspot.com/ or her Picasa album http://picasaweb.google.com/alyssatitche/SoftballSeason#

but here are two kids with axes:

During the Artisan Expo Alyssa, Tamar, and I put in orders for wooden, "traditional", Senegalese chairs. The artist works in Diourbel which is 25km east of me. We sat in the chairs and described the coloring we wanted and the complete lack of a design EXCEPT we wanted "Corps de la Paix 2009-2011" on the bottom of the chairs. We wrote it all out and had a long conversation about how we needed to get the chairs by the 18th. Everything was agreed upon, we shook hands, and paid the down payment (half).

Everyday last week I called the artist and he seemed to be making great progress. He was sure he would be able to get all 6 chairs done for us to take on the 18th. When I called Thursday he said they would be done after 5pm. When I called Friday they would be done before noon!

Today Alyssa and I (because Tamar has already returned to the glorious America) met in Diourbel. We called the artist and he said to stop by after lunch. We ate lunch at pretty much the only restaurant in Diourbel and had bad sandwiches. Afterwards we went to the "artist village" which is a bunch of half build buildings and is 95% jewelery makers. After rounding several corners and following the sound of axes we found the wood working section... and we found an entire wood posse making our chairs! There were other people making other chairs which, it appears, you do by hacking away with an ax at a piece of wood then sanding a ton. All 6 of our chairs were being sanded by Mamadou (the artist), his father, and his brothers who ranged from in their 20s to 6 years old. The 6 year old was sanding a chair piece that was actually bigger than him. Mamadou gave us two other chairs to sit in away from the action in what seemed to be the pee corner... like where you go if you need to pee... or at least that's what it smelled like. Eventually he brought over a bottle of Sprite with two glasses for us which was really nice of him, we each drank a glass not to be rude then spent about 30 minutes trying to call over the 6 year old. Eventually he took the Sprite and shared it with the entire posse.

Once the sanding was done Mamadou came over with the bottoms of the chair (where we wanted the carvings) and asked us to write what we wanted. After writing it on one he took a chisel and started hacking away. We then wrote it on all of the bottoms and he hacked away at all of them. While they were varnishing/tinting the chairs with shoe polish Alyssa and I took a stroll around the market to get empty rice sacks to put our chairs in. When we came back we were able to take in the full multi-generational scene that seems to be the Diourbel artist village. It seems like under 10 years old you're allowed to sand and carry things. Once you're over 10 you're allowed to swing an ax uncontrollably at a log. 10-15 it looks like you can hack away at the big pieces and older than 15 you're doing the more artistic hacking, the finishing touches if you will.

Once our chairs were finished we paid for the rest and were on our way! Mamadou put us in a cab to the garage where Alyssa and I parted ways (until post-America time!). I got into my "mini-bus" which is an old conversion van with WAY too many seats. We left Diourbel with 19 people in the car and my chair pieces (they break down into 2 pieces) in an open rice sack on the roof. I spent the first half of the ride watching for chair pieces to fly off the roof and impale donkeys on the side of the road. Once we hit the halfway point I got distracted - the door next to me flew open while we were driving but NO WORRIES! it was closed again. Then, 10km, from Bambey we loaded up with people... by my count we had 21 people in the car and 5 people hanging off the back.

I'm back safely (with all of the chair pieces) and the chairs fit into my suitcase! I have 1 last girls' group meeting tomorrow. Monday I'm off to Dakar and to America Tuesday - send positive thoughts about the weather to New York and Chicago!

KO

Tonight is New Year's for the Muslim calendar aka Tamkharit in Senegal! Unlike most holidays this one is pretty low-key... there was even school this morning! Forgetting it was Tamkharit I scheduled a meeting for this afternoon but I had 32 students show up which added another 3 Junior Achievement classes to my schedule starting in January - I'm now over 100 students (and that's only at two of the 4 schools).

But back to the holiday!

For dinner we ate Senegalese couscous, chicken, and tomato sauce. As we sat down to the bowl they asked if I wanted a spoon then explained that everyone usually eats with their hands on Tamkharit so I dived in! Eating couscous isn't all that hard - just a little messy. After dinner the kids put on a ton of random clothes - some cross dressing, some just in ridiculous outfits - and put on whiteface. Then they got drums they had made earlier in the week and are marching around house to house kind of trick-or-treating. I bought a bag of candy earlier today that my family is giving out along with some cookies they bought.

Happy Tamkharit Everyone!

I've been in Dakar for the last few days to the Artisan Exposition. Every year artists, who work with PCVs, travel to Dakar and have a two-day exposition/market. This year Alyssa was the expo chief and I was her runner/helper. She did an AMAZING job putting the expo together. The artists were from all over the country and sold: wood sculptures, silver jewelery, beaded jewelery, cloth bags, clothing, art work, traditional crafts, and a variety of other things. The first day the artists sold from 10am-5pm.

The second day the expo started with a training for the artists while volunteers sold for the artists. During the expo the artists created a network and elected a board to run the network. Theoretically they will be able to start planning and eventually take over the planning for the expo. After the network was created there was an instant increase in comradery and togetherness with the artisans. They started buying things from each other and collaborating on projects. Matar, my tailor/artist, is working with a leather artist to leather handles on some bags.

Another huge success of the expo was in the marketing. Usually notices are sent out by people who work in the office but this year Alyssa and I decided amp it up a little. We put flyers all around downtown Dakar hoping that it would attract some new clients... and it totally did! We had some people fill out surveys and most of the clients said they heard about the expo from our flyers downtown. One woman owns a boutique, heard about the expo from the flyers, and ended up buying a ton of stuff to resell. At the end of the expo we totaled the amount sold and this year we had tripled last year's expo total! Overall it was a HUGE success!

In addition to a great expo, we spent the weekend making delicious meals! The first night we made amazing taco salad, that was followed with bacon mac and cheese (made from Velveeta my mom sent), then Tamar and Alyssa made brisket and latkes, and last night we had pasta with an arrabiata sauce.

I'm at the training center in Thies right now to give a presentation this afternoon and then back to site! After that it's only a few days until I'm off to the US! I'm trying to load up the next few days with things to be busy so they don't drag on. I'll post my pictures from the expo tonight or tomorrow when I'm back at site.

KO

Last weekend was the annual All Volunteer Conference (or all vol for short) when Peace Corps Senegal (about 200 volunteers) descends upon one city (this time Thies) for a weekend of learning and sharing. The sessions were interesting but I think what happened outside of sessions makes for a more interesting blog!

The night before all vol I stayed at Jackie's in Pout and we had a nice Mexican fiesta (vegetarians taco salad) and enjoyed trashy tv. The next morning dinner became breakfast (fiesta omelet) and we were off to Thies!

For the first night of Hanukkah the Jewish volunteers lit a menorah while drinking in the Catholic compound next to the training center - how about that for sharing cultures! Another night we had a HUGE trivia game with most of the volunteers - my team was second by 1 point.

For the final night of all vol, my friends and I treated ourselves to a lovely Massa Massa dinner. After dinner we went to the bumper cars. Yes. Thies has bumper cars. It's run by a Lebanese guy and mostly filled with Lebanese teenage boys while Senegalese kids stand around the outside and watch. Most of the cars are broken and hard to drive - for example, I had a car that only went backwards - but it was a hilarious time.

I'm now back at site getting some work done before the Artisan Expo which is this weekend in Dakar. Alyssa, Tamar, and I have been working on creating an eating plan that includes: mexican, mac and cheese, Shabbat dinner, breakfast sandwiches, and a romantic sunset date with shellfish.

I hope everyone's enjoying the cold and listening to Christmas music!

KO