For a week, Paul and I got the chance to help with a great project in Senegal. The organization called Right to Sight and Health and two of its ophthalmologists Dr. Judith Simon and Dr. Donald MacDonald spent two weeks doing cataract surgeries in Bakel, a city located along the Senegal River on the far east edge [...]
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Thierno has been gifted upon the Bassoum family. Paul and I will miss him (enormous belly and all).
This post is dedicated to Jonno, one of our closest neighbors and friends here in Senegal. Paul and I have been fortunate to be closest to some of the best people in Peace Corps Senegal. Jonno is one of those people. I have compiled some of the photos that capture Jonno at his happiest: eating [...]
Happy Tamkarit (Islamic New Year’s)! An update on our lives: We just finished up the TB project. The training and forum book-ended the two weekends surrounding Thanksgiving. The PCVs of every region of Senegal throw an annual party for the rest of PC Senegal. Our region holds an annual Thanksgiving party. Around 35 people attended! [...]
Thank you to those who donated to my TB project! The training and forum were a great success. Health workers throughout the Commune of Ndioum have learned important concepts about tuberculosis: knowledge that will motivate them to teach others within their communities and work together towards decreasing TB. Please see the “Complete Projects tabs for [...]
Here are some pictures of the 3 finalists going shopping at our local bookstore for their $30 worth of school supplies under the supervision of the middle school’s PTA president. The girls were excited to receive their new supplies. Thanks to those who donated to make this possible!
In the middle of October, I finally got the chance to visit the other half of Senegal. Paul was not able to go due to a few meetings concerning SeneGAD in Dakar, however our friend Evan and I took a little trip to the Kedegou region. The first day we spent traveling–sept-places from Dakar to [...]
I am once again asking for money. However, this time is for a large project that is completely community-initiated. The chief of the health post in Ndioum approached me asking for help for a project of his. He was recently trained in Mbour on tuberculosis and wants to pass this knowledge to Ndioum and the [...]
If you haven’t done so yet, please think about donating to the Michelle Sylvester Memorial Scholarship Fund. We still need to raise $6400 to fund this scholarship program for the more than 400 scholarship winners throughout Senegal. A donation of only $10 will help keep one of these girls in school by paying for her [...]
Just a quick update about what we’ve been up to. Please welcome Thierno (pronounced with a “ch”–french spelling), the newest member of our family: Paul and I have been making our way slowly through the month of Ramadan. The first morning, a neighbor woke the entire neighborhood with his good intentions to remind all to [...]
Here is an old post from the week of the 18th of July: The Podor department just finished with a week-long Girls leadership camp (10th to 16th of July). The camp was held at the NGO Tostan’s regional house in Ndioum. Each volunteer invited 4 female students from their community. All girls were from the last grade in [...]
I have blogged about our MS Scholarship at the Ndioum middle school. The funding for this scholarship comes mostly from the generous donations of people like you. Throughout Senegal, there are several PCVs participating in the MS Scholarship, amounting to about 53 schools and 500 Senegal middle school girls who will be receiving money from [...]
Violence has broken out in Senegal in ways that we never imagined. Protests erupted in the streets of Dakar June 23rd when President Wade proposed changes to the constitution that would decrease the percentage of votes needed to win the presidential election from more than 50% to 25% and that would create the position of [...]
We love you and are keeping you in our prayers. Thank you to those who are opening up their homes for our loved ones. Please be safe. Below are photos from a variety of sources. Click on the photo to connect to the source.
Paul and I are back in the Fuuta. We had an incredible 3-week vacation back to the states–three very short weeks jam-packed with graduations, a beautiful wedding, and lots of family time. Then we headed back to Senegal up to St. Louis for the annual Jazz festival. Stayed at a little hotel on the beach [...]
The neighborhood kids have a funny new habit. When Paul runs stairs for his evening workout at the regional house, the kids next door can see him at the top of the flight of stairs. They push out their hands to make two stop-signs with their palms and yell “Yooni, yooni!” (“Enough, enough!”). Its hilarious. [...]
Just a small work update: Ecole Maternelle: I have been helping a preschool (ecole maternelle-kids ages 2-6) in Ndioum with a pepinere and garden. Tried growing some sunflowers and lavender, but the seeds did not germinate at all…maybe too old. The kids are adorable and enthusiastic. I put the eldest class to work filling tree [...]
One interesting approach to stopping the encroachment of the Sahara desert is to plant a tree belt across northern Africa: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10344622 The best part: my home is north of that line. Better get planting.
Amazing to see the difference in birds here in Ndioum. There have been noisy morning choruses by green wood hoopoes, quiet shy purrs from the blue-naped mousebirds, the chuh-chuh-chuhs of the little weaver who perches each morning on the bedlegs of our mosquito net, the slightly out of tune whuoup-whuoup-whuoup duets of the Vieillot’s barbet, and [...]
Paul made up a Pulaar joke last night: What do you say after you’ve finished eating a bowl of beans? GASII!! (It means it is finished in Pulaar!).
Remember in elementary school through middle school, girls would go to the restroom in groups. I guess, Senegal has a similar phenomenon. I’m outside, working out with Paul in the late evening (how can it still be 110 degrees F?), and I see the five neighbor gals outside behind their house, just off a pretty [...]
Nguleeki ari. The heat has come. It has crept its sweaty cloak of suffocating heaviness over the Fuuta. The cold fights it hesitantly, holding apathetically and apologetically onto a few wee hours at night. It feels like a losing battle between a passive Pulaar herder and a large abrasive Wolof man. The nights were cold [...]
I think that now would be the time to say a HUGE thank you to Appropriate Projects, Janine and Bob (and the Tiee family), and Yuan for their donations to my latrine project in Podor! I never really posted anything about the completion of the project, and Appropriate Projects has just posted the conclusion report. [...]
We celebrate our one year anniversary in Senegal today! One year ago, we arrived in Dakar and began our pre-service training.
Today is International Women’s Day! Celebrate by donating to SeneGAD (Gender and Development) here!
We have moved completely out of Podor. Spent one last night there to pack up all our furniture and remaining belongings. In early January, we had a falling out with our downstairs neighbor over a puppy. Paul and I took in a puppy with several dozen ticks in his ears and oozing eyes. We bathed [...]
Our new mailing address in Ndioum: PCV Madeline Tiee and Paul Levy Corps de la Paix B.P. 6 Ndioum Senegal, West Africa
DC and Chris have come to a compromise. Anyone less than 10 km from the Senegal River and Mauritanian border will be moved to a site farther from the river. This means the two volunteers in Richard-Toll, one volunteer in Dagana, two volunteers in Matam, and the three of us in Podor are moving sites. [...]
Our world is slowly unraveling itself. On February 1st, the Dr. Drame called to inform me that I was being med-evaced to D.C. for a tooth. Jon, Christine, Ravi, Evan, remember? I came home to Cello house after a biking accident with a cut on my chin and blood trailing down my white scarf. My [...]
About 20 of the PCVs in Senegal are working together with our communities to bring books to villages and school communities in Senegal. I am planning on giving books to the 5 elementary schools, 1 middle school, and 1 high school here in Podor. Some of these schools have small libraries, whereas a few of [...]
…all I want is your support for my latrine project at the primary school where I work. Its another project similar to the one Paul did in Guia. Basically, improving the latrines there now so that the kids will actually use them. The biggest issue with our latrines is the ventilation (smells truly terrible in [...]
Just a small work/life update about what Paul and I have been up to. Moringa Tourney: For the first week of November, Paul and I helped with a Moringa tourney in the departments of Matam and Kanel. We stayed in Ourosogui and worked with Counterpart International based there. There were 6 volunteers in all divided [...]
They say that when the sky is full of stars, the rabbit is grazing (hojjere aynoyi). And when the sky has few stars, the hyena is grazing (fowru aynoyi). Samba is a good herder who lets his rabbits graze only as much as they need. Demba is the hyena herder who lets his hyenas graze [...]
(this is a blog that started out only about peanut harvest…but has morphed into a blog about women and gender roles here in Senegal. Its long. Sorry. I’ll save talking about FGC for another day) This has been an exhaustingly good week. My fingers hurt from picking mud off of peanuts. Our Neene Ba is [...]
Would anyone be willing to send me some pomegranate seeds? My closest neighbor Evan read up on them and they are perfect for growing in the sandy soil here. Supposedly there are some in St. Louis.
Yesterday marked the end of Ramadan. Korite. The whole day a fete where you start the morning off going to the mosque, then eating niiri (balls of millet powder boiled in water) with kossam (yogurt) poured on top. Everyone looks so beautiful in their new clothes. Then people go from house to house greeting families [...]
In the NYT Africa section (global edition). They speak the truth. Paul *Edit* About a week ago a group of Talibe came into our host family’s house. One of them couldn’t have been more than 3 or 4 years old–he could barely walk, much less communicate what he wanted. Either embarrassed or rather literally incapable [...]
Just started a new sanitation project, you can check it out here, as well as take a gander at other projects in Senegal. Any help on the project would be appreciated, but to be honest I’m not 100% sure on how one might go about doing that. Paypal’s aesthetic continues to thwart my understanding of [...]
Tonight was the first night I have accompanied the women in my family to the neighborhood mosque. I hear the call to prayer and we go, prayer mats and head scarfs in hand. The mosque is filled with men, and a long line of men stand outside bordering the mosque’s walls. And across the road [...]
He poured three rounds of sugary tea—“the first as hard as life, the second as sweet as love, and the third as light as death.” –Lauren Collins, “Profile: Angle of Vision” from The New Yorker, 19 April 2010
Paul found this article about the talibee of Senegal: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/08/25/world/AP-AF-Senegal-Beggars-Banned.html?_r=1&ref=global-home During Ramadan, the talibees go house to house asking for food and money while the family is breaking fast or eating dinner. There is a small talibee, who looks not more than 2 years old. An older talibee holds his hand and leads him. When [...]
We’re over a week into Ramadan now, which means every day around sundown I begin to teeter from side to side, eliciting concern in Maddy and laughter in our host family. Maddy and I are both fasting, and though we’re not going as far as some—the old ladies that spit every few steps as to [...]
Night Chorus2 Originally uploaded by madeline.tiee The rains have been coming intermittently. When it rains, it pours in sheets wide as the lightening tall. And after it rains, seasonal lakes form, the soil too fine to absorb the downpour. The geese and children play. The streets are mud. And at night, the toads chorus to [...]
Last night in Thies. Spent the night at a restaurant, eating Croque Madame and drinking a Sprite to the stories of fellow volunteers. I have lived a relatively tame life to say the least. It is pouring rain. Pouring in sheets of water that make the road outside the restaurant a river. We push our [...]
Learned today in IPM (Integrated Pest Management) that: Fact—hanging a dead monkey (especially if painted red to imitate blood) in your fields will send fear into the hearts of all other monkeys, resulting in monkeys never entering your fields or garden again. Can I do this with the kids that destroy my trees and garden [...]
IMG_0439 Kigelia pinnata Originally uploaded by madeline.tiee Kigelia pinnata: The Wolof name for this tree means “big penis” because of the medicinal properties of its fruit and leaves, rumored to increase breast size and male stamina. The fruits bear a remarkable resemblance to their Wolof name in both their size and shape.
Truth is that my head can’t quite get a hold of where I am in the world. One moment its in Podor. Then to Dakar by sept-place with Babakar in the front seat. Maimouna is sitting beside me, and I am watching her see her life pass before her eyes through a dirty car window [...]
Hedgehog SURPRISE! Originally uploaded by madeline.tiee Finally have the video up of my hedgehog midnight surprise.
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