I just returned to site after quite the whirlwind of activities in Dakar and Thies. First, we had All Volunteer Conference, where all 250 Senegal volunteers plus more from other West African countries came together to share best practices and projects. After this, was the West African Invitational Softball Tournament, or appropriately, WAIST, where I [...]
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After ringing in 2011 in front of Akon standing in a bubble on a tree in St. Louis, I decided that nothing could beat it besides having a village new years, clearly. Especially because of all the family and friends visiting plus All Volunteer Conference and WAIST coming up, I am spending a lot of [...]
It has been quite the busy holiday season in Senegal, believe it or not. Or at least for volunteers and I, and will continue to be pretty much until I leave here (which I can now start talking about because looking at my 2012 calendar- I will spend more of it in the U.S. than [...]
We stepped out of the pick-up truck in Nafadji, and Debbie and Liz were placed in our arms—the arms of Debbie and Liz. What an incredible welcome! The babies were wrapped in these beautiful, brightly colored fabrics, and just adorable. (If you missed the story on Leah’s blog—-these are the twin daughters of her Host [...]
At home, closed doors are acceptable, alone time is a real thing and people do not assume that you are sleeping or sick if you are in your room alone for an afternoon. In Senegal, most people have a lack of regard for privacy, that or Americans have way too much regard for privacy. This [...]
So a little bit after the fact, but I wanted to write a blog about HIV/AIDS in light of World Aids Day on December 1st. Saraya had quite the day, full of trivia, rap contests, theater and a dance contest. There are four dance teams, three rap groups and at least two theater troupes (only [...]
In the U.S., people talk about baby names practically on the third date, in Senegal, babies do not get names until a week after they are born. Today, the twins (read below post) had their kunliiyo, which means literally head shave, which is a naming ceremony or baptism. A kunliiyo is sort of like a [...]
Apparently, it is baby season in Senegal. Once one of the sage femmes told me that all of the babies are born around this time because the men do not work in hot season which was about 9 months ago and have a lot of energy at night… Anyways, the point is, that my toxoma, [...]
my host mom. i.e. the coolest senegalese woman ever. and my friend from nafadji at a sarakhabo, which is the ceremony that happens 40 days after someone in the family dies.
I have never been a big sister before. My brother and I had a blast growing up (except for maybe the ‘lost’ years when we were mostly trying to make each other miserable), but I had always wondered what it would be like to have a younger sibling. So much that I asked my mom [...]
Nets. A mosquito net distribution here in Senegal is much than bringing 3,000 mosquito nets to the hospital with some balloons and t-shirts. It is a science, a logistical undertaking, a Public Relations event, and sort of a party…in its own little way. Two weeks before the scheduled distributions, which were to take place in [...]
Languages. Gestures. Languages siitata here in Senegal, there are so many. By now I speak Malinke pretty well; some days seem better than others, but I manage to have more meaningful conversations than saying where I went, or I am full, i.e. I don’t want to eat that. I speak in French at the hospital [...]
This month, I had my first visitor! My BFF and former college housemate, Katie, dared to enter the life that I currently live in Peace Corps Senegal. I threw her right into the game by taking a nightbus to Kedougou the day she flew in. (Her sleep would already be screwed up right? All that [...]
Continuing the training that we started in January with our doctor friends from Chicago, this week we had a second training on testing for cervical cancer using the VIA (visual inspection) technique using acetic acid (or table vinegar). Because in January, the American doctors used the “training of trainers” method, i.e. trained the Saraya health [...]
Now, I don’t know if I have explained this thoroughly in my blog, but food here….not the country’s best asset. Minus delicious fruits when in season and if people are good at gardening…again by season….I am not so into the food here, and I am not alone in these thoughts. When people send us magazines [...]
Exactly one year ago, I was whining to my mom at the fancy GW hospital after breaking my ankle while dismounting my bicycle. Womp womp. One year later, I am part of our neem team! Riding around the entire district of Saraya in my adventure pants, spreading the good word of natural mosquito repellent in [...]
Lately, I have been listening to some of the TED talks on my ipod (Ideas Worth Spreading). This morning over my oatmeal and Starbucks VIA instant coffee in my huge wooden chair in my hut (coffee courtesy of mom and dad), I listened to one by Nigerian author Chiamamanda Adichie about the danger of a [...]
Sometimes, days in Senegal make me feel pessimistic, tense and overall just a little bit crazy. Yesterday, I needed some sort of punching bag, meditation video or muscle relaxant. I went into Kedougou for the weekend to see some friends and get some work done, assuming I would catch the morning car out the next [...]
Yesterday, Kate, Yasmin and I had the honor of being invited to be a panelist at the Saraya High School English Club’s celebration of Bob Marley Day, or the anniversary of Bob Marley’s death. Well, this is not something we turn down. Well, it started with all of our 15 year old boyfriends in Saraya [...]
It has been a long time since I have written. The busy time of year is now, before the hot season precludes anyone from moving beyond following the shade or to drink water. I will also spare you the details of WAIST- a drunken softball tournament that takes place every February among ex-pats and volunteers [...]
So what do you think of when you think of Peace Corps? The image of Peace Corps in many people’s minds I think is a bunch of 20-somethings living by themselves in the middle of nowhere among “the village people” with little to no contact to the outside world, without cell phones and they just [...]
Maps. Maps, not something we think about all the time, but certainly something not enough Senegalese people do not have chances to see. Case and point: Most students I have shown a world map to cannot find Senegal, some cannot find Africa; my host brother has asked me if Israel and Afghanistan are bordering countries [...]
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So enough writing about Senegalese holidays and parties. Sometimes, Peace Corps volunteers to development work too, surprise ! The past three weeks have been the busiest, most exhausting yet most fascinating and fulfilling weeks of my service thus far. For a few months now, Chris (the volunteer in my district capital) and I had been planning [...]
So my host father has a new name. El Hadji Tambajan Danfakah (yes, Danfakha is a common last name, and yes, I still do giggle at it). He and my host mother recently returned from their pilgrimage to Mecca, thanks to the funding from family in Europe. They are the first in Nafadji to make [...]
Last week, we celebrated Tabaski in Nafadji, or as I refer to it, Senegalese Thanksgiving. I call it this because the way I was explaining Thanksgiving to my Senegalese friends is that it is like the American Tabaski. (I could not really get anyone to explain the story of it to me so the best [...]
Last week, my counterpart who is also the head of our health post invited me to come along with the Saraya hospital car to a village 30k into the bush from Nafadji to give children vaccinations and give general check-ups to sick people in the community. Our health post serves the surrounding villages of Nafadji, [...]
My return to Nafadji was not as epically terrifying as expected. I hitched a ride from the very nice people at the hospital in Saraya. The road was not quite as under water from the rainy season as I feared and my arrival was not as overwhelming either. Most people were at the fields when [...]
Living in Dakar and continuing my rehab has been quite an education on living in the two extremes of Senegal. From my rural village, where most people have never been to a city larger than Kedougou, (which is not a city at all), cannot speak Wolof or drive a car to this bustling, crowded European-like [...]
After 45 days exactly, i am back in senegal. Still healing in the med hut in Dakar, I am anxious to get back to work. What I realized in the States is that we volunteers in Senegal surely romanticize the U.S. The food, the entertainment, cleanliness. I realized that the only things truly to be missed are [...]
so it looks like i am going to be here sitting on my butt catching up on celebrity gossip until mid-august. while i am sitting, i suppose i will advocate. check this out on npr: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128512803
So some might be wondering what this frequent internet access and blogging has been all about. Well, I wish I could say it was because Nafadji got wired. But in truth, it is because I am broken, on lots of painkillers, and in Washington, DC. David, Meera and I were biking to the pool like [...]
my hut. the village griot. he tells stories. and dances.
Each year in mid-June, this fruit called Kabaas in Malinke grow by the thousands in Nafadji. I do not know the word for them in English but they taste exactly like that candy Sour Warheads that I used to have contests over who could suck on the most before our ability to taste disappeared as [...]
So I have been an official resident of Nafadji for about six weeks now. And I’ll tell you, excitement all around. In my every day life I have become very good at sitting, opening peanuts with my hands and pumping water. I have also mastered the art of smack talking in Malinke which makes many [...]
Village life has been interesting so far, but rather bore myself with my daily life at the moment, I will write about the time I went hunting. Because you know, I always do things like that. So I am sitting at breakfast of Mono (weird, bally mush mixed with tons of sugar and powdered milk, [...]
It does not seem so long ago that I experienced teary goodbyes amongst friends and snow, and I have already had to say goodbye to more people that have become close to me. Except that I will see them soon. The other day, we had our last day in our training homestay families and on [...]
This morning, I was on my third cup of coffee at Konta Kunda (my training homestay house). **Side note: definitely thought I would have to quit coffee before coming to Senegal, turns out that this is jamfaata (far) from the truth. They make “café touba” here. I.e. coffee with spices and a diabetes-inducing amount of [...]
so. update on the new name, bamoussa damba. So I thought that this name meant one of the following: big woman, goat woman, ocean woman etc. but it turns out it’s a BOY’S name. So Aziz, our teacher, was telling us that sometimes people have names like “ugly” or “Wednesday” because if a woman has [...]
So. I saw a real volunteer at a real site AND I saw my own site that I will be moving to in a month! During training, each trainee goes on a “volunteer visit” or a “demystification” where we shadow a volunteer that we are either replacing or will be placed near. First, about my [...]
The other day, I crashed a baptism and a wedding in the same day. We were sitting in class at Bakary’s and all of the sudden 15 women come in with huge cooking vats and bowls and bowls of veggies and set up shop. So Aziz called of class because he said the Wolofs are [...]
The kitchen in my training homestay is a cement room with a place for a fire in it and no ventilation. And we cooked in it despite the looks of disbelief when I told my family “mnin Bakary nin Vieux ke siimon tabi, Amerik Tabiro.” We are going to cook dinner, American food. We took [...]
March 25, 2010 We have a garden going at the elementary school over in Diamagun Deux (our quartier). Aside from creatures eating every leaf that shows its face, we have been taking good care of it and has the potential to be somewhat successful…maybe…. Today I headed over to meet my kafinol (friends, in Mandinka) [...]
In one week I have become integrated into a family, and still have close to no ability to verbally communicate with most of my family members. The Senegalese hospitality is quite incredible. Here is a day in the life of Leah in the training homestay: Wake up at around 7 to sounds of my host [...]
March 13, 2010 we will all split up to different villages around Thies based on the languages we will be learning for CBT, which stands for Community Based Training. To immerse ourselves in the language and the cultures we will experience in our sites after training in three months, we will live with a family [...]
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