I was in Dahra for only two and a half days before heading back out again for some trainings and the infamous WAIST (West African Invitational Softball Tournament). Sunday afternoon, I headed into Thies for our first ever SED summit. This was a 2-day summit that focused on the restructuring of the SED program and a couple of field trips. I felt as though the SED summit was really great, and our new APCD is doing some wonderful things; however, since I will be leaving in about 6-7 months and I already have several projects planned, the summit wasn’t that relevant to my work…still interesting though.

Wednesday was our SeneGAD conference, focusing on gender and development project best practices. I skipped out of some of the morning sessions because I had a few errands that I needed to take care of in Thies, but the afternoon sessions were really informative.

Thursday and Friday were our All-Volunteer Conference sessions; overall, very informative. I went to several sessions on Moringa (this amazing tree that Peace Corps is really “gung-ho” about) and a few sessions about bee-keeping (even went on a bee-keeping fieldtrip and bought some delicious honey).

Friday afternoon, I was lucky and got on the first bus to Dakar. April and I went for a late lunch and then met up with our homestay hosts for WAIST. Our hosts were so cool and very welcoming; the husband is an RPCV from Nicaragua. They also have two little children and two dogs, so I had a blast playing with them. As far as the softball aspect of WAIST goes, our team was better this year, but I still think we lost all of our games; I even pitched one game lol. The games were fun though, so that’s all that matters. As for the evening festivities, I was a huge bum this year. April and I decided to stay in every night; our homestay was just so quiet and calm, whereas each party would have at least 250 volunteers and then some. This WAIST was completely different than last year, but I think I enjoyed this year so much more. It was great getting to see some friends that live in other regions, even if it was just for a few days.

I am now back at site and already back to work. Starting Monday, I am helping with building bathrooms at a local elementary school. Hopefully this will only take 2 weeks to complete. After that, if all goes well, we will be able to build a water connection to the school also. While this project is pre-funded by Appropriate Projects, if you would like to donate to this project, please follow the link below.

http://appropriateprojects.com/node/985

This group is doing some amazing things when it comes to water and sanitation projects, so please consider donating. I also have another meeting set up with the local high school to finally start teaching some IT classes. I’ll keep you posted as soon as they start. I also have several other meetings that I need to set up, dealing with Waste Management, peanuts, oil presses, Junior Achievement, and cow manure; I’ll keep you posted as each of these projects develop…

P.S. I am still trying to bring computers to Dahra via World Computer Exchange...please consider donating to this project. I would like to see it through before I leave. As of the last update, no one has donated towards this project under my name, so if you are able to help out, please make sure to add my name in the comment box. Thanks!



http://www.worldcomputerexchange.org/greatest-need-senegal

This year, I went home to spend Christmas and New Year’s with my family. Words cannot express how happy I was to be back home with those whom I love and love me in return. This was one of my favorite Christmases ever. I arrived in Kingsport on Thursday Dec. 15th. My plane arrived a little early so I beat my parents and Bob to the airport (luckily Aunt Glenda was there to welcome me home); however, Bob did surprise me by driving down a day early. Bob was able to spend a week with me before having to leave to spend Christmas with his family, so we were able to spend a lot of quality time together.

A brief summary:

That first Saturday marked my grandmother’s 80th birthday, so we held a big party for her and a joint “congratulations” party for me for finishing up with my graduate school degree ( I now have an M.A. in Political Science: Applied Community Development). Sunday evening, we headed up to Bristol to see the Speedway in Lights (Bob’s a Nascar fan)…pretty cool stuff. On Monday, we went to Gatlinburg to see all the lights (Bob had never been). Tuesday and Wednesday, we just ran errands; and Bob had to leave Thursday morning. On Thursday afternoon, Mom and I had a spa day and it was amazing! I was pretty much comatose after the massage. Also throughout the week, we visited several friends and went to numerous Christmas parties. I also ate a ton of delicious food! My goal was to gain 10 pounds while I was back home and I gained 9, so pretty close.

Christmas Eve and Christmas day were spent with family, exchanging gifts and eating more delicious food.

The Monday after Christmas, we packed up the car to head to Birmingham to see my little nephew Jackson. Along the way, we spent the night in Chattanooga, so I was able to hang out with my best friends Bethany and Greg. Once in Birmingham, we spent the next two days hanging out with Jackson and his little sister Emma, spoiling them as much as possible.

Mom drove me to the airport early Thursday morning so that I could fly up and spend New Year’s with Bob. It was really nice being back up “north” …minus the cold lol. Bob and I went bowling, watched a hockey game, and ate some great food. We spent New Year’s up at Kemp’s, the bar where Bob works as a cook. We had a blast! His friends are super cool, and the evening was amazing! On Sunday, I had to fly back to Kingsport…saying goodbye was hard, but we know we’ll get to see each other again much sooner than this previous time.

Back home, I spent the next couple of days packing, eating, and visiting with family. I flew out late Wednesday morning and made it back to site Thursday around lunchtime.

Minus being a little ill right after Christmas and then a cold at the end of my stay, my trip home was wonderful! I am truly blessed to have so many people in my life that love and support me. Thank you to everyone who made this trip home so memorable!

first meal...Zaxby's









red wine and red velvet cupcake= delicious!

Me and Mamaw Livesay for her 80th birthday Speedway in Lights

GatlinburgMe and B

Jackson and Emma

New Year's Eve

Yesterday was the holiday Tamkarit, which celebrates the Islamic New Year. I missed Tamkarit last year because I was in the middle of my in-service training in Thies, so I was looking forward to spending it this year with my Senegalese family. This holiday is kind of like their version of Halloween; the kids dress up as opposites (boys as girls, girls as boys, children as adults, and even “white” face) and go around asking for money (I handed out candy). You are also supposed to eat couscous so as to have a healthy new year. I had a hard time figuring out this holiday because no one really does that much for it like they do for the other holidays; it’s mainly for the children. We had an awesome dinner though: lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, fried eggs, French fries, onion sauce, and meat; and since I do not eat red meat in Senegal, my grandmother brought over half a chicken for me to enjoy. I love my family here! They really try to take care of me. After that delicious meal, we had a little bit of couscous with sauce as to keep with tradition. After that, we sat around and waited for the children to make their rounds in the neighborhood.

Me and my twin rocking our new outfits

enjoying some tasty non-alcoholic beverages

"white" face...not exactly PC, but no one gets offended over here

School update: I submitted the final version of my Capstone this past weekend and am scheduled to graduate this December :)

Homecoming: I will be State-side in less than 10 days! I will be in Kingsport Dec.15th-25th; Chattanooga the 26th; Birmingham, AL the 27th-28th; Lexington/Bloomington-Normal, IL Dec.29th-Jan.1st; Kingsport Jan.1st-4th; I will be back in Senegal on Jan.5th, 2012.

For Thanksgiving this year, I went to Linguere to celebrate with my Linguere “family”. This Thanksgiving was much better than last year (last year, I had the flu), and I am so grateful that I was able to spend that time with some amazing people.

I headed into Linguere on Wednesday to do laundry at the missionaries’ house and help watch their youngest child while they prepped for our Thanksgiving gathering. Afterwards, I made it back to the Linguere house just in time to watch the slaughtering of our Thanksgiving turkey, which by far, was one of the most entertaining events I have seen while in Senegal. For one, the turkey was rather large. We had found some Senegalese women who were willing to de-feather it and clean it, but refused to kill it since men are usually the one’s responsible for slaughtering animals. So Justin agreed to kill the turkey, and Kim and Abby held it down. Side note: none of us have ever killed a turkey before. The first swipe to cut off the head didn’t do anything, so then Justin had to slowly cut the fat around the neck until he was able to cut the entire head off. Once that happened, both Kim and Abby ran away as the turkey started to flop around and spray blood everywhere. Justin held on to the turkey though until it stopped moving, getting sprayed with blood in the meantime. All of the Senegalese women that were watching thought it was hysterical and we probably provided them with their entertainment for the week.

On Thanksgiving, I headed over to the missionaries’ house to help finish cooking the food and entertain their youngest child again. By 2:30, everyone else had shown up and Thanksgiving lunch was ready to eat! We had so much food, and everything was amazing! After everyone had eaten their fill, we took a break before digging into dessert. After some more lounging, I finally went back to the Linguere office where we watched “Love Actually” and I had the opportunity to talk to my mom and Bob before going to sleep. I could not have asked for a better Thanksgiving here in Senegal :)

mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cream-style corn, chicken goodness, beet salad

bread, tzaziki, green bean casserole, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes

my plate -- first round :)

Now, I can focus on Christmas and the fact that I will be state-side in less than 3 weeks! Time to listen to Christmas music and watch some of my favorite movies!

So I am in a transitional period of my service. As you can tell from the last blog post, life and work had been pretty busy. All of those projects are finished now and I am slowly trying to figure out the rest of my service. Peace Corps Senegal is restructuring their small enterprise development (SED) program – which is a good thing – and I am trying to make sure that any future projects fall into the new framework. If you’ve been keeping up with my blog, you’ve read about my multiple agriculture projects and one SED related project. SED is a very difficult project sector here; since most people just want you to give them money, not actually teach them new skills or how to manage that money. Also, you hardly ever see immediate results, thus people think that whatever you have taught them isn’t actually working. During the past year though, I have discovered four different groups that have potential. I have worked with them on small scale projects and feel like I can help them out. Three of the groups are not “legal” in the sense that they have not formally registered as a group, so I am going to help them get their paperwork together and set up some bank accounts. The fourth group is already registered and has a bank account, so now we just need to find a feasible and sustainable project for them to do. I have also talked with the supervisor at the local high school and will start teaching some computer classes once solar panels have been installed. I am looking forward to the rest of my service and focusing on these projects; however, due to some upcoming trainings and my vacation to the States (woo-hoo!), I can only plan at the moment, and then hopefully start working on them once I return in January.

In other news, these past few weeks have been fun and a nice break from work. I had an exchange student who is studying in Dakar come out and stay with me for a week. It was nice to have someone to speak English with and to show how I live. Meredith was really cool and we had a lot of stuff to talk about. She seemed to enjoy her stay as well. We also got to travel to two new volunteer sites to meet with the families and make sure that everything was in order for their new volunteer.



Balla teaching Meredith how to make tea

After that, I headed down to Tamba for a few days to visit my friend Jamie and to celebrate Halloween. Halloween was so much fun, and it was great to spend time with Jamie.

Team Linguere





cranberry crayon

After that, I returned to site in time for Tabaski, the biggest Muslim holiday celebrated in Senegal. Tabaski commemorates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac (according to Islam, it was Ishmeal), and therefore they slaughter a ram to celebrate the holiday. My family slaughtered five rams this year…I have not seen that much meat in a while! My family spent the entire morning killing and preparing the sheep, and then spent the rest of the day cooking and eating. My host mom was awesome once again, by preparing a chicken just for me. As with all holidays here, that means you have to get a new outfit or two. For the morning, several of the women in my family had their outfits made out of the same fabric, and asked me to join in. For my evening outfit, my counterpart’s mother had given my fabric. When I visited my counterpart’s family, his mom also gave me some vegetables and a couple of pomegranates! Overall, a wonderful holiday well spent with my Senegalese family.

Twins! Same outfit, same birthday!

Me and my host mom my evening outfit

The time since my last blog post has been some of the busiest, stressful, and most rewarding time of my service to date. First, I was able to send in a rough draft of my Capstone. I have yet to hear any feedback from my advisor, but I am hoping to graduate in December if all goes as planned. After sending that in, I headed to Saint Louis for a week for our first Camp Gem Sa Bopp (Believe in Yourself). We hosted 42 middle-school aged girls from eight different towns, and worked alongside 5 jr. counselors and 7 Senegalese counterparts. Each day, we focused on a different topic – health, culture, environment, business, and future—trying to show the girls different opportunities for their future. Life here is so different, especially for girls. Girls are expected to do all the household chores, marry early, and maintain the housework of their new home; most women do sell random items at the market or from their homes, but they are not considered the “breadwinner” in any aspect. The other volunteers and I realized how fortunate we were to grow up in the conditions that we did, and wanted to put on this camp to help guide these young Senegalese women to a better life. Overall, the camp was a success. Yes, we made some mistakes, but you have to make mistakes in order to learn. All of the participants seemed to enjoy themselves and our Senegalese counterparts were such a blessing! A huge thank you to all that donated to help make this project a success!

I had to return to Dahra right after our Girls Camp in Saint Louis to help out with the Linguere region’s own two-day camp for middle school aged girls. These participants were all scholarship winners from a Peace Corps scholarship fund that helps out bright, motivated students that may have financial, social, or medical limitations. The theme of this camp was women’s empowerment, and also was a great success. It seemed to take the girls a little bit longer to open up, but they seemed to enjoy the camp and were receptive to all of the activities. On the second day of the camp, we had one of the Peace Corps employees who deals extensively with cultural issues talk to the girls and then the parents of the girls. The parents seemed to understand the issues, but I’m not sure how quickly behaviors can or will change.

Following the Girls Camp, I had a tree planting project planned. Overall, not a success. Almost everyone who was supposed to come out and help did not show up, including my supervisor/ host dad. Nevertheless, 46 trees were planted that day, and another 25 were planted a week later. We still have several trees that need to be planted, but due to lack of funding for protection, we have to re-think our strategy. Hopefully we can distribute the rest of the trees next week to individual households.

During the Girls Camp in Saint Louis, I fell during a 3-leg race, and really messed up my toe. I thought I had broken it, but was unable to go to Dakar for an x-ray until a week later due to all the other projects I had going on. After a week, it was still swollen, but turns out, not broken. I just really sprained it. So I took about 4 days of doing nothing in Dakar, and then went on with the rest of my mid-service exams. Supposedly I am healthy (even though I keep getting sick, and continue to lose weight), still have no cavities, but do have an issue with my jaw/bite. I hope to hear back from med next week to find out the next step with my jaw/bite. I then came down with a nasty cold, but was able to recuperate in the Dakar med hut for the weekend, resulting in the best sleep since I’ve been in Senegal.

Now I am healthy and back in Dahra, ready to get back to work. I plan on taking it slow though, so as to keep myself healthy. Plus, now the rain has stopped, so it’s nice and hot again…looking forward to the cool season :)

Also, for those that may not already know…I will be back in the States from December 15th to January 4th…I am more excited than I ever thought possible about coming home! Until the next post…

So this post is a little behind, but I’ve been rather busy (still busy, but needed a break). Ramadan is considered the holy month of Islam. During that month, followers are to abstain from food and drink during the day time hours, as well as any behavior viewed as impure. This year, Ramadan occurred from August 2 to August 31. I was not really looking forward to Ramadan, because it’s really hot and no one does anything because they are fasting and do not have the energy to do anything. For this reason, I had planned ahead of time to take my vacation to Greece (see previous blog post), plus, we held our malaria tournee (see other blog post), so I really only had to deal with about 10 days of Ramadan.

I must say, I was rather surprised at how much I enjoyed Ramadan this year. I got to sleep in and lounge around, which was nice. I broke fast at night with my family on most days, but also with a few friends. Breaking fast was really cool. There was really a sense of family, and my host family made sure to include me and to take care of me. My host grandparents were so cute, making sure that I got plenty to drink. One of my host brothers that I rarely communicate with because of the language barriers, made me extra sweet bissap juice every night as well. Even though I am not Muslim and have no desire to be, it was really amazing to watch some of my family truly sacrifice, without complaining, and then come together to pray with one another…truly a beautiful thing. So, you may be wondering, did I actually fast any? And the answer is yes…sort of. I still drank my coffee in the morning and then drank water throughout the afternoon. I did not fast every day, but some. This was a really good time for me to explain some religious differences, since everyone in Dahra knows that I am a Christian. I explained differences in fasting and that for me, it’s a personal decision. I’m not sure how much people understood, but they seemed to understand and also seemed very appreciative of my explanations.

To celebrate the end of Ramadan, everyone buys new clothes, visits with friends to ask forgiveness, and eats a lot of food. The dish that they usually prepare is meat with potatoes and onions. I’ve told my host family that I do not eat red meat and have no problems eating everything else that’s in the food bowl. Usually this does not cause a problem (even though my host dad will still try to serve me meat occasionally), so I was fully prepared to eat a lot of potatoes and onions (which are delicious by the way). However, my host mom decided that I needed to celebrate too, so she prepared a chicken just for me :) When it came time to eat lunch, she sent me to the living room with a plate that held a full chicken, potatoes, onions, and some bread…so delicious! And so thoughtful too! I ate half the chicken and then gave the rest to my family to eat after their meal.

I also spent the day taking lots of pictures of my host family. Everyone was all decked out in their new “complets” so I took several photos, which I will upload, send to my mom to have her print them out and then send them to me in Dahra, where I will give them out later as presents. Senegalese people love having their photo taken, but they usually do not smile. On Korite, almost everyone smiled in their photos – it was wonderful! It just makes them look as happy as I hope they are.



I'll add more pictures later when my internet connection isn't so slow...

To celebrate my one year anniversary in Senegal, I took a vacation to Greece :) I have always wanted to go to Greece, so this seemed like a perfect time to do so. Greece was amazing! I had such a blast, and ate so much food! (I gained 4 pounds in 10 days lol). I arrived in Athens on a Saturday and spent most of the evening just wandering around. On Sunday, I went up to the Acropolis and then spent the rest of the day visiting some of the other ruins sites.

Parthenon

Me in the midst of Greek ruins

Temple of Zeus, Hadrian's Arch, and the Acropolis

Monday and Tuesday were museum days.

On Wednesday, I took a ferry to the beautiful island of Santorini where I would spend the next couple of days. I spent most of my time on the beach, but also rented an ATV one day so that I could tour the island. That was probably my favorite part of the trip. I have been without a vehicle (or reliable transportation of any kind) for over a year now; just being able to go where I wanted, when I wanted to, was amazing and liberating. The island of Santorini is gorgeous and very unique. The way it is today is because of a volcano eruption, which makes for a very interesting landscape. I was able to tour 3 of the local wineries; that was really cool because it's hard to believe the grapes are able to be cultivated out of volcanic ash...but it's possible and the result is delicious!

On Saturday, I headed back to Athens for the night before getting on a plane to take me back to Senegal. I had a wonderful vacation and am very glad that I chose to go to Greece. Another good sign, I was actually looking forward to being back in Dahra...guess I do really enjoying being in Senegal :)

So one of the projects that I am working on is trying to find a waste management solution for the horrible, disgusting trash problem that plagues Dahra (as well as the rest of the country). As you may remember from previous blog posts, I have had some trouble with this because the mayor’s office wants to help out, yet they are not willing to provide any sort of financing (in other words, they just want their name on it). Well, I had pretty much given up on this project until my counterpart started finding women’s groups that were already cleaning their neighborhoods. These women sweep their streets once a week and then pay a horse cart to take their trash outside the city. This is awesome, because it’s what the mayor’s office wants, yet the women themselves started it (yay for grassroots initiative!). So how am I able to help them? I am trying to link the women’s groups to the mayor’s office so that the mayor’s office can supply the horse cart. I am also helping the women buy more brooms and sifters; and hopefully can invest in some trashcans down the road.

August 11, 2011 marked my one year anniversary in Senegal; and it was a wonderful day! I had just spent the previous few days travelling around the Djolof (the area of Senegal that I am located in) with the other Linguere region volunteers discussing malaria causes and prevention. We visited 11 villages in four days and over 1300 people were informed…I consider that a success! At each village, we started out with some “theatre” debunking some of the popular, local myths as to how one can get malaria (eating un-ripened mangoes, working out in the sun, spirits, drinking too much milk, or dancing too much). Afterwards, the volunteers took turns explaining how malaria is really transmitted (via mosquitoes), symptoms of malaria, and prevention options. Each village audience was different, but I think that overall, they truly enjoyed having a bunch of white people come in and make fools of themselves (while speaking the local language), while informing them how to protect themselves against malaria. A huge thanks goes out to Mr. Tidiane Diao, who was nice enough to drive us around for several days (carting 13 volunteers and props in a pick-up truck throughout the bush), and who went above and beyond in helping us explain our message to the local population.

Afterwards, I was able to have a nice cold beer with my stage-mate Abby and our PCVL Mary, to celebrate our one year in country and Mary’s two year anniversary in country. We then went and broke fast with Tidiane (who is Muslim and had been fasting everyday as well as dealing with us); and then headed back to the regional house for some cake…Overall, a wonderful way to celebrate my one year anniversary in Senegal!

My apologies for not writing sooner, but I’ve been rather busy and the power cuts have been frequent. Where to start…

Good:

I held my first SED (small enterprise development) oriented activity – woo-hoo! I held a training to explain the benefits of having a bank account and had my PTA (program and training assistant) come up to host a game which reinforced what I was teaching, plus the importance of planning and quality. We had over 40 women participate; they were the presidents and secretaries of various groups within Dahra. Now why did I have this training in the first place, you may ask? Because most Senegalese do not keep their money in bank accounts. Most keep their earnings somewhere in their homes which leaves them vulnerable to multiple risks – theft, fire, having to lend/give money to other family members. The participants appeared to be quite receptive to the training, and I plan on doing follow-ups with each group that was present over the next couple of months.



I have also started working with an association named “Les Amis de la Nature” and another women’s group. With these two groups, we were able to create a tree nursery of 1,730 tree sacks. Only time will tell how many of these will actually germinate… The plan is to plant most of these trees in the local schools, mosques, and other public areas.

I have just completed all the paperwork for the Michelle Sylvester Scholarship. This is a Peace Corps initiated scholarship that is aimed at middle school age young women who earn good grades, are active in school activities, but lack financial support. Each dossier contains a short essay written by the candidate, teacher recommendation, home visit and an interview. I really enjoyed meeting each of the young women and their families. It was really cool to see all the different dynamics. The volunteers in my region will be hosting a two day workshop for all MSS participants and their parents at the end of September (this is different than the Girls’ Leadership Camp that I have been planning in Saint Louis).

I held two separate Neem lotion trainings. Neem is a tree that is bountiful in Senegal, and one can use its’ leaves for a variety of purposes. For this training, the leaves are boiled in water (then discarded) to create a concentrate which is added to soap and a little bit of cooking oil (so as to remain “cream-like”) to create a lotion which acts as a natural mosquito repellent. This lotion is great and easy to make with local materials. One can use this lotion to protect their families or sell at the local market. The first training had 35 participants, and the second had 25 participants.

I finished my first mural! This mural took forever...it's huge (over 6 ft x 6 ft) and the surface was really hard to paint on. However, I am now finished and I think it looks great :) It is of a dove with the word "peace" written in multiple languages.



Disappointing:

Remember that beautiful green space project that I was so happy about? Well things have quickly gone downhill for several reasons. One, there is a problem with water at the school. Like the rest of Dahra, the school suffers from water cuts. Another problem though is that the school sets on a hill and there is not always enough pressure to get the water up the pipes to the school. This issue was not mentioned until we had already started in the project. I think the water situation is slowly getting better…the school received funding to purchase several water reservoirs and have held meetings with the local water company to find another solution. Second problem, the school guardian is lazy and does not perform his job well. He keeps the gates open all the time, which allows all types of livestock to enter the school grounds. The hedges and flowers planted were unappetizing to sheep, but goats got in and destroyed most of the area. Since then, the students and teachers have become discouraged and no longer care for the space (with a few exceptions). I have had several meetings with the school principal and the main teacher involved about necessary changes, but I am not sure if anything will come from our discussions. There is another mission team that is planning on planting some trees at the school. I will post again after that project…

At the beginning of May, my host mother’s literacy group planted six different vegetable nurseries. Only two grew – eggplant and onion. Since then, they have also planted bissap, which has grown very well. Another issue is that their garden space has diminished greatly due to the construction of another house, so there is not enough room to transplant all the vegetables…Needless to say, this is still a work in progress, with lots of “roadblocks” along the way…

Travels and Goodbyes:

I travelled to Saint Louis for a Girls’ Camp meeting and the Saint Louis Jazz Festival. Saint Louis is gorgeous! I stayed in a cute little campement right on the beach…such a nice, relaxing trip!

I travelled to Thies to welcome the new SED volunteers and to help out with a little bit of training. It was so nice being back in Thies; the staff there is wonderful! It was also great getting to hang out with my friend Lyzz :)

I went to Linguere at the end of May to celebrate Abby’s birthday. We had a Mexican extravaganza! It was wonderful and delicious! At the end of June, I returned to Linguere for our regional meeting. Afterwards, the Linguere missionaries brought over chips and queso (amazing!) and we all wished them safe travels back to the US (3 month furlough).

I have also had to say goodbye to some of my missionary friends in Dahra. The missionary family returned to the US for a seven month furlough. The other missionary that I have worked with had to return home early due to some family illnesses back in the States. While I was sad to see them go, I know that I will be seeing the family again in January 2012, and can keep in touch with the other via e-mail. Also, they both let me raid their fridges before they left – it was like Christmas! I was able to stock up on all sorts of American goodies—yummy!

Well, I think that’s enough for now…thanks for taking the time to read all this!

Today marks 9 months here in Senegal. Time is just flying by, and all of a sudden, I am busy with work. I have several projects going on -- gardening, murals, computers and numerous meetings. I am feeling more "at home" everyday. Even though my host family doesn't think that my Wolof skills are up to par, everyone else that I talk to in town compliments me on my language improvement. I am finished with one-third of my service, and am looking forward to the rest of my time here. I am very thankful for all of the loving support from my friends and family back in the States. My parents especially have been so supportive. I never really thought about how hard this would be on them, but they are acting like champs. I am truly blessed to have such loving and supportive parents. On that note, one of the many reasons why I love my mom...her sense of humor:

Skype conversation:

[10:11:54 PM] Laura Livesay: so today marks 9 months in country :)

[10:13:06 PM] Mom & Dad: WOO HOO!!! I remembered that earlier today. That's like having a baby but no pooh to clean up HA HA



Love it!!!

Today marks 9 months here in Senegal. Time is just flying by, and all of a sudden, I am busy with work. I have several projects going on -- gardening, murals, computers and numerous meetings. I am feeling more "at home" everyday. Even though my host family doesn't think that my Wolof skills are up to par, everyone else that I talk to in town compliments me on my language improvement. I am finished with one-third of my service, and am looking forward to the rest of my time here. I am very thankful for all of the loving support from my friends and family back in the States. My parents especially have been so supportive. I never really thought about how hard this would be on them, but they are acting like champs. I am truly blessed to have such loving and supportive parents. On that note, one of the many reasons why I love my mom...her sense of humor:

Skype conversation:

[10:11:54 PM] Laura Livesay: so today marks 9 months in country :)

[10:13:06 PM] Mom & Dad: WOO HOO!!! I remembered that earlier today. That's like having a baby but no pooh to clean up HA HA



Love it!!!

Hello all! I am working in colaboration with several other Peace Corps volunteers and World Computer Exchange to bring computers to Senegal. I have requested 15 for the city of Dahra. The Mayor's office has agreed to supply a place (local youth center), electricity, chairs, tables, ect. for these computers. After installing the computers in Dahra, I hope to start teaching basic computer skills (Microsoft Word, Excel, and internet) and then train local Senegalese to teach IT after I return to the States. Below is the link to our webpage on World Computer Exchange. If you can help finance this project, I would greatly appreciate it. If computers are not your thing, no worries...I will have other opportunities later on that I will need help financing :) Thanks!

http://www.worldcomputerexchange.org/greatest-need-senegal

My first official project has come and gone...quite successfully if I do say so myself :) One of the missionaries in Dahra approached me about managing a "green space" project at the local middle school. I agreed and started working. Originally, the missionary had a missions team coming in that were willing to finance the project; they were going to have a local florist complete the work. I was able to step in, cut the cost of the project in half, act as interpreter, and get the school more involved in the project so as to promote ownership, which in turn will help with sustainability. An environmental club was formed (30-40 students) under the leadership of 4 science teachers and the school director. We held a meeting with everyone to introduce ourselves and discuss the project. The teachers did a wonderful job of explaining to the students the benefits of planting trees, how this experience would continue their classroom learning, and that the girls were just as capable as the boys to help with the project.

Environmental Club students

Partners!

We met one evening to start prepping the land for the project. Luckily, my PTA (program and training assistant) had arrived for a site visit and got to see me in action (great success!).

A few days later, we all met again to start planting. We planted two sets of hedges, ten fruit trees, ground covering, two ornamental trees, and some bushes. I do not have pictures yet of the work day, but here is the finished project:

A week later, Abby (an urban agriculture volunteer) visited the school to teach the students how to make a tree nursery. The students then helped to fill fifty tree sacks which were later sowed with shade tree seeds.

Overall, I consider this project a great success and hope to continue working with this school with future projects.

Wow...the month of March just flew by! I spent my days meeting with people to discuss future projects, travelling in country and having some work done at my house. So I actually feel like I have started working (woo-hoo!). These are the projects that I am working on right now:

bringing computers to Dahra (on hold at the moment due to the fact that several people are involved); trying to figure out a Waste Management solution for Dahran(almost impossible as the Mayor's office wants to "work" with me but are unwilling to produce any sort of financing); starting a garden with a women's group; teaching English to a small group of gentlemen; creating a "green" space at the local middle school; starting a tree nursury at my houseplanning a Girls' Leadership camp for individuals selected by our Michelle Sylvester scholarship (will explain more in a later post)painting a mural at a local elementary schoolI am also still reading and researching for my Capstone project as well...

Some notable events from the month of March until now:

Our Country Director came out to visit, so I was able to tag along and see some other volunteer sites :). It was really neat to see what other volunteers are up to in my region. We all talk a lot, but to be able to see first-hand is pretty cool and gives me hope for my future work.

I had to go to Dakar twice. It turns out that I have been clenching my teeth in my sleep which has in turn caused some issues with my jaw. I now have a mouthguard to wear at night which seems to be helping. I go back to the orthodontist in May for a follow-up visit.During my second trip to Dakar, we celebrated our PCVL April's birthday. We had a nice picnic, followed by cocktails and ice cream cake while watching the sunset over the ocean -- Awesome!



All of the volunteers in my region headed out to Barkedji (Ann-Marie's site) to help out with a field day event and AIDS awareness discussion. Overall, a wonderfull event. The kids really seemed to enjoy it and actually participated in the AIDS discussion which was surprising. The next day, Justin and I helped Ann-Marie start a mural of the world map which will be amazing and huge when finished.

We all gathered again in Linguere to celebrate Ann-Marie's birthday. We had pizza, cake, cocktails and camel rides! We had a slight issue with the gentleman who rented us the camel concerning payment, but the police were in our favor so everything turned out alright and Ann-Marie still considered her birthday a success!

On a sadder note, my kitten, Punx, passed away. My friend, who is a veteranerian, is pretty sure that she had one of the feline diseases, so once she became ill, as small as she was, there wasn't much we could do to save her. On a positive note, I have two new kittens! Their names are Timone and Pumba and I saved them from the streets of Linguere. They are all black and brothers. I would post pictures, however, my camera died. I am now waiting on a new one from the States that Justin's dad is nice enough to bring over.Well, that's about it for now...Thanks for reading!

I just returned from my one-week mini vacation away from site…and it was amazing! Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my site and most of the people in Dahra (plus I have an adorable little kitten to keep me company). However, it’s always nice to get away, take a breather and just enjoy some wonderful American pastimes :).

I left site on Wednesday to travel to Thies for a gender and development seminar. It was actually the easiest and quickest trip I have had so far to Thies. Upon my arrival, I went out for pizza and beer (yay!) and then back to the training center to hang out for the night. The next day was full of presentations concerning gender and development work, a conference call with Dr. Joshua Busby, a speacialist on climate change, and a lovely dinner at Massa Massa with a small group of close friends.

Friday morning started off early as we loaded the buses to head to Dakar for another All-Vol conference. For the morning sessions, each region and sector had a table set up to discuss current work projects in their area. The afternoon session followed the same format, but was with NGOs that are serving in Senegal. It was interesting to see what other volunteers and organizations are doing, but we had a little too much liberty and mainly took the time to catch up with friends. After the conference, I went to Casino (an actual grocery store- yay!) and then headed to the Atlantique Club where the rest of my time in Dakar would be spent :)

So the main reason why I was in Dakar was for WAIST (West African Invitational Softball Tournament). WAIST happens every year, and I was kind of apprehensive about it, as most of the volunteers refer to it as WASTE (due to the insane amount of drinking that occurs). I will say though, I was pleasantly surprised :) There was a lot of drinking involved, but also just a lot of fun! This is the one time when all the volunteers (plus some volunteers from other neighboring countries) get to come together and enjoy softball, cheap beer, American food and swimming. So for WAIST, I had the pleasure of staying with a wonderful woman (RPCV Niger) who works at the U.S. Embassy, who was gracious enough to host 12 girls!

Her only rule: make yourself at home! She was awesome, her cook is amazing (I ate soooo well!), her son was fun to play with (like a younger brother), and her dogs were amazing (they even slept with me!). She even went with us to one of the parties, cramming all of us into her Hummer. There was a talent show that Friday night, which was fun to see some of the interesting talent that resides within Peace Corps volunteers.

 The first day of WAIST started with me making some baked goods for our SENEGAD (gender and development group) bake sell. Afterwards, I headed to the club for some American food and swimming before our first softball game. Now if you know me, you know that I am very uncoordinated, thus I decided to remain on the sidelines to cheer my team on. One cool thing about WAIST that I forgot to mention is that the Peace Corps teams dress up each year. This year was the first year our “region” had a separate team and our theme was cows and cowboys (think Wild, Wild West because that is where we are in Senegal…nothing but sand, some livestock and herders).

 Team Djolof a.k.a. PC Linguere/Louga

Unfortunately, we didn’t fare to well the first day. We lost both games; one to PC Gambia and the other to a Senegalese team that actually practices (they were very good and not very social). That night was the SENEGAD Date Action at the U.S. Marine House. It was pretty cool to see so many expats hanging out, enjoying themselves. I called it an early night though because the party was held outside and it was actually quite chilly.

The second day of WAIST, I had to head to the club early to help out with the bake sell and then head over to our games. The first game was against the Kolda region, and we actually played quite well. We even thought that we had won, but it turns out that Kolda still had another inning to bat in which they scored several runs :). For the second game, we were to play PC Gambia again, and we decided to have some fun and just play kickball instead. I can play kickball, so I joined in :). I didn’t score any, but I did make it on base both times that I kicked –yay! Goal for next WAIST: kickball tournament on the side :). After the games, I decided it was time for some more swimming before heading back to my homestay for dinner. After dinner, we all headed over to a club that overlooks the ocean. I think I danced for over 5 hours straight that night! It was so much fun! Needless to say, I was rather sore and slow the next day – haha.

The third and final day of WAIST involved the semi-finals and finals for each division, which my team did not make. So I spent the day relaxing by the pool and just hanging out with friends. That night was a pool party, but I was quite exhausted and just decided to stay in for the evening with some of the other girls at my homestay. I got to watch “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” which made me extremely happy :). Another bonus to the homestay…hot showers! Woo hoo!

On Tuesday, I had to head over to the Peace Corps office to drop off some medical paperwork. After that, I made my way to the garage to find a ride back to Dahra. I was hoping to go back with one of the other volunteers in my region, but nobody else was ready to get back to site (I missed Punx). The ride back was pretty quick actually until we were about an hour away from Dahra. Our sept-place driver accidently hit someone. It was truly an accident on both sides. The gentleman didn’t look our way because it was supposed to be a one-way street, but due to construction, had been turned into two-ways. Our driver blew the horn and tried to stop in time, but he was going too fast and his breaks were not the best. Luckily, the man was able to walk to the ambulance when it arrived, so I pray that he is ok. That was my first experience with accidents here and I hope it was the last (doubtful though).

Upon returning to Dahra, Punx greeted me as I came through the door :) She is so cute and I am so thankful that the missionaries were able to take care of her while I was gone. As much as I enjoyed my stay in Dakar, I am glad to be back “home” and to get some work done :).

 

Today marks 6 months of being in Senegal...and wow, time has flown by! I am still adjusting, and know that will probably continue my entire time in Senegal, but I am okay with that :) I am feeling more comfortable though, with the culture and language. And while I do not understand everything, or agree with everything Senegalese, I have learned to accept and appreciate those that I come in contact on a regular basis.

I have spent a lot of time at my house this past week due to several factors (waiting on a desk and chair that was promised to me in November that has yet to appear, taking care of a newborn kitten, dealing with some severe allergy issues, ect), which has been rather nice. I have been able to start planning a few projects, thinking about logistics and looking up vocabulary terms. Some projects about to start after my week escape to Dakar (huge softball tournament for expats; more to come in the next blog post): moringa presentation with my host mom's new mothers group; pepinaire to start preparing for tree transplantation in local schools during the rainy season; setting up a computer room to teach IT classes; and building a solar oven and solar dryer. Very random, I know...which suits me perfectly :) Until my return from Dakar...Me and Punx

Yesterday, I celebrated my 28th birthday, and had a wonderful day! First off, I went to the missionaries' house on Tuesday and made a birthday cake (they have an oven). The cake turned out awesome...just melted in your mouth. I had some issues with the icing...turns out softened butter and melted butter will not produce the same results. Thus the icing was more of a glaze, which turned the cake into an gooy mess, but it was delicious!

So I woke up on my birthday to coffee and cake for breakfast (breakfast of champions!) and then opend up my presents (my parents had sent me a package and the missionaries had gave me one) and cards. I am so thankful to have people care and love me as much as my family does. I am truly blessed. For lunch, I headed over to my host family's house, where my host mom had prepared Yassa Genard for me (Chicken, rice, and onion sauce). It was delicious! Afterwards, I got my birthday present...a kitten! It's so tiny, but sooooo cute! I just hope it makes it. It is probably too young to be taken away from it's mom, but seeing how my host family reacted around the cat and kittens, it probably has a better chance of surviving with me.

I was also able to talk to my parents and Bob last night which always makes me happy. Even though we are so far away from each other, it felt like they were able to celebrate my birthday with me :) Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes...makes me feel loved and special!

So this past month, I have been working on language a lot. After my first two months at site and then IST, I felt as though my Wolof skills were not where they needed to be to start working. So I had a nice meeting with my supervisor and counterpart after IST, telling them that I needed to be more independent and work on Wolof for another month or so. I can tell that this "break" has really helped. I still don't enderstand everything, but I'm able to have more conversations and understand more of what people are saying to me. This coming month, I still plan on focusing a lot on Wolof, but I feel confortable to start work too. I'm not sure how quickly I can start projects in Dahra, but I'm going to try to start planning some things and meeting with a few of the women's groups and associations in town.

Here are a few projects that I hope to start working on within the next two months:

waste management project (hopefully city-wide with the support of the mayor's office)IT training help out with the English club at the local high schoolplanning for teaching Junior Achievement next school yearstart gardens and/or tree nurseries at local schools. Some cross-sectoral work projects include:

HIV/AIDS tournee Moringa tournee Girls' Leadership Camp Field Days in nearby villages. I have also been appoved for my Capstone proposal, so I will begin working on that too. My research question is "How does social capital affect local economic development?" I will be focusing my research on my work in Dahra and throughout Senegal. I plan to graduate with my M.A. in December of 2011.

So that's what's been going on here in Dahra :) The weather has been somewhat cooler (upper 80s and lower 90s throughout the day), but we've had a lot of issues with power and water cuts. I'm still adjusting to everything, but I am enjoying my time here. Thank you to everyone for the prayers, words of encouragement, packages, and cards. I appreciate them all!

As I am writing this, I am listening to Christmas music, compliments of my parents. That’s right, it is now January 6, 2011 and I am still celebrating Christmas. Why, you might ask? Because Christmas just wasn’t the same this year without my family, or when the average daily temperature is 100 degrees; besides, Christmas is really about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, not about presents. I did celebrate Christmas at its’ appointed time, but decided that I would continue for another month or so, as I knew that I had a few packages on the way and several Christmas cards. Today I received 3 packages, one from my parents and one from each of my grandmothers. I am so blessed to have family that wants to make me feel as home as much as possible in a country so far away. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for me and who have sent me cards…I appreciate your thoughts more than I can express.American goodies :)

Merry Christmas from Dahra! So I decided to spend Christmas in my site this year instead of going to Dakar, St. Louis, or Popinguine with some other volunteers. I am really glad that I decided to stay in Dahra. While Christmas wasn’t the same as in the States, I had a wonderful experience :) . On Christmas Eve day, I went to the missionaries’ house here in Dahra for a delicious turkey dinner, complete with stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, salad, and pies :) . Afterwards, we all hung out and played some cards. They even gave me a Christmas present – a decorated container with some candy inside :) . I am so grateful for having other Christian believers nearby. They were also kind enough to loan some Christmas decorations for my house:

Afterwards, I went to a Senegalese wrestling match (very “Christmas-y” right?). As in true Senegalese fashion, the match started about 3 hours late, which meant the sun was already setting. Of course, just as the match started, the power went out…lol. I used this as my time to escape to my host family’s house to eat dinner with them. The Senegalese people celebrate the 24th for some reason with a big meal of chicken…I don’t even think they know why they celebrate from what I gathered. *Sidenote: There was also a Gamou going on near my family’s house that I was invited to; a Gamou is similar to an Islamic revival, so needless to say, I did not want to participate. Luckily with the power outage, I was able to avoid that and not offend anyone. So my family wanted me to come have dinner with them; they were so awesome….they prepared half a chicken just for me and gave me my own bowl with that, French fries, onion sauce, lettuce, and bread…it was delicious! I hung out with them a little bit until the power came back on and then headed back home. Once home, I was able to Skype my parents who were at my grandmother’s house with the rest of my mom’s side of the family. I was able to talk and see everyone for a few minutes, so that was incredible. I am so thankful for technology…it has made this whole experience so much easier!

On Christmas, I spent most of the day at my house just reading and watching Christmas movies. Late that afternoon, I was able to Skype mom and dad over at my other grandmother’s house so as to talk to all the family over there :) Afterwards, I went out to a local Christian-ran clinic where they were showing the “Jesus film” in Pulaar (and no I do not understand Pulaar, but I know the story :) ) There was a good gathering, so that was encouraging to see. After the film, they served dinner and some sort of fruity drink (which I am pretty sure is the cause of my violent illness later that night…better now though). Afterwards, I made a short appearance at an AIDS awareness event and then went home to call it a night. Overall, a wonderful experience that I am very thankful for; definitely not your typical American Christmas, but I am in Senegal…

Hello! My apologies again for such a long delay between postings; I’m new at this whole blog thing. So I spent the last 3 weeks in Thies for our West African All-Volunteer Conference (All-Vol) and In-Service Training (IST). All-Vol is when all the PC volunteers in Senegal and some from neighboring countries gather together to share best practices in the field. The conference was for 2 ½ days filled with presentations from all sectors; all of the presentations that I went to were really interesting. I’m not sure how much they relate to possible work that I will be doing here in Dahra, but it was still really cool to see success stories from other volunteers. One of the best parts about the conference was actually the night before All-Vol started when we had a conference call with Steve Radelet, author of Emerging Africa. I am taking part in a development theory seminar that our Country Director is facilitating, and Emerging Africa was one of the books that we had read. Steve Radelet is very knowledgeable in the subject area of development, and is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer, so he was very helpful in discussing PCV’s role in development.

After All-Vol, I had two weeks of IST with all of the other volunteers in my stage. IST is when we are supposed to gain more technical knowledge that will help us better execute our projects. Overall, I enjoyed IST. I feel as though I did learn a lot and it helped me to focus on what I really want to accomplish over the next two years. However, it was a lot of time stuck inside watching PowerPoint presentations. It would have been nice to have some more hands-on activities or some more cross-sector classes. In the middle of IST, we were able to go to Dakar to visit the Artisans Expo. This is when PCVs that are working with artisans bring them to Dakar to showcase and sell their items to ex-pats that may be returning home for the holidays. I bought several things :) My favorite purchase is my new chair; it may not look that comfortable, but it is…also, the engraving is really cool!

Hello!

So with Christmas approching quickly and my birthday soon to follow, I thought I would provide you all with a wish list of some sort, in case anyone would like to send me packages :) Please see the list below my mailing address. These are items that I would like throughout my service, so feel free to send them at anytime :) Of course, I will be happy with anything that is sent to me and I would love to receive cards as much as anything else. Thank you in advance!

My apologies for not posting any sooner, I have been having some internet issues but I do believe that they have been resolved. So I have been in Dahra since October 20, 2010, and I feel like I am going non-stop. My counterpart is very excited and committed to working with Peace Corps, so he has introduced me everyone in town that he feels like I should know in order to be successful. It has been crazy. It’s so hard to remember everyone’s name here because they sound so different than American names. It’s also difficult because they all remember mine since I’m the new toubob in town (“toubob” is the wonderful Senegalese word for “foreigner”…and they love to call you that…especially the children).

Overall though, I am really enjoying Dahra. It’s really freaking hot, and I’m pretty sure I’m dehydrated everyday no matter how much water I drink. Supposedly the cool season is approaching…I will believe it when I feel it :) Everyone that I have met so far seems really nice and excited to have a volunteer. I do feel overwhelmed at times though, because they want me to fix all these problems, like lack of water or electricity in every home or build them a new school (which are very important actually), but I do not have the skills nor is it my responsibility. Also trying to explain that I am here to help the community via training, facilitating workshops or help find finance option, not just giving them money, has been a little difficult. Luckily my counterpart understands that, so he’s able to help re-enforce that. He’s also doing a great job in screening people and not giving anyone my phone number.

So my living situation here is pretty sweet. I actually have my own house! I have a host family which lives about 15 minutes away by foot (in sand), but there are a lot of people in that household – 20+ -- so my counterpart and PC supervisor thought that the house would be best. It’s in a rather quiet neighborhood, so not much noise going on. I have a main room, bedroom, office, bathroom, and kitchen. I have a fence, but there are several holes throughout and there is no gate which invites all the local livestock to come hang out. Sheep, goats, chickens, cats and dogs all like to hang out in my front yard. Still needs a little sprucing up, but I’m really happy. I’m able to head home each night, relax and cook my own dinner :)

Here are some pictures of my life in Dahra...I promise to add more later :)

 yes, those are Obama pens

So some of you may know this, but probably not: I love baby goats! They are so adorable and I just enjoying watching them play. Well, my counterpart’s family invited me over for lunch one day and they had 8 baby goats at their house. I was so excited! I couldn’t help staring at them. My counterpart’s mom noticed and decided to give me one as a gift. I tried to refuse, but she insisted. So I picked one out (the runt of the litter) but said that she needed to stay there with it’s family. Well, I named her Star and visited as much as I could without the family thinking I was cuckoo. However, she passed away a week ago; she had been the smallest and not able to feed as much as she needed to in order to stay healthy and grow. Here’s a picture of me holding her J

Last week I went to St. Louis for a few days for a Wolof language seminar. While I was there for training, it felt like a vacation! St. Louis is very nice and much cooler than Dahra since it is on the coast. We had class in the morning, but then had the evenings off so we could explore. The seminar was great for me because it reminded that I really needed to work on Wolof more (haven’t had to really because I can communicate with my counterpart in French and my level of Wolof was nowhere near being able to communicate with people, so I kind of just shut down). Our language teacher did a wonderful job and I hope that I can continue to improve. Below are some pictures from St. Louis:

yes, that is a baby hammerhead shark

So this Wednesday is a major Muslim holiday here in Senegal, called Tabaski. This is one holiday I can understand and have no issues celebrating because it celebrates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac when God asked him to, and then God provided a ram in Isaac’s place. To celebrate, each family buys a sheep (more than one if they have multiple families or have the money to do so) which they slaughter the morning of Tabaski and then eat later on in the day. Because of this, there are a ton of sheep everywhere! Dahra already had a lot of sheep, but due to Tabaski, the number has increased dramatically.

Well, on our (one of the volunteers in Linguere, a neighboring city, went to the language seminar with me) way to St. Louis, we took a bus. This bus had, I kid you not, at least 30 sheep inside the bus on the floor under the seats. Then there were about 25-30 people inside the bus. Also,there were probably close to another 20 sheep on top of the bus. We had to ride 6 hours to St. Louis with our feet up or risk being jabbed by a horn (a good Tabaski sheep is white and has massive horns). Needless to say, it was a rather interesting experience. Below is a picture, but it doesn’t do the experience justice.

I am on my way to Dahra, with a two-day stop in Louga. I'll try to post my new address as soon as I know it. Until then, thanks for all the prayers and encouragement!

As of October 15th, I am an official Peace Corps Volunteer :) Woo Hoo!

We left for Dakar early Friday morning to go to our swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Ambassador's residence. We were all decked out in traditional African wear (see the pics below). The ceremony took about two hours, with speeches from our country director, the ambassador, and our training director. Afterwards, we went outside to a nice spread of snacks and Senegalese cocktails (i.e. no alcohol). Then we headed to the Peace Corps office to finish up some paperwork. Lastly, we ended up at the Atlantique Club for an afternoon of relaxation :) Overall, a wonderful day, a little emotional, but really good. I am glad that I am now official :)



61 new volunteers!

celebrating at the Atlantique club

Thank you to everyone for all the support and prayers! These past two months have been harder than I expected, and I am so thankful for everyone back home supporting me!I am being installed in Dahra on Wednesday, so wish me luck! I'll post more after I get to my new "home".

On Thursday, we had a reception for our host families. It was really nice to see my host mom again and all the other family heads from Bayakh. It started with everyone arriving around noon, followed by lunch. After lunch, there was a group of Pulaar singers and then a short ceremony thanking all the families for taking us in, caring and teaching us for two months. It was just really cool to hear how happy everyone was to have us here in Senegal, trying to help the people here.

The Bayakh group





 Bayakh volunteers and families 

Well my last week in Bayakh went very quickly. We only had a few days of class, which was good and bad at the same time. It was a nice change from the excessive amount of class we had the week before, yet I don't feel like it was enough to progress any in Wolof. I did end up moving up a level of Wolof though, which was quite uunexpected. I'm sure I'll get more comfortable with it as I move into my new site; right now, it's still just all mushed up in my head. Over the weekend, Julia's mom taught us how to make beignets and then cooked duck for dinner. Both were amazing! I definitely plan on making beignets when I get back to the States...yum!



Julia mixing the ingredients







before

after



Me and my host sister, SodaSo saying goodbye to my family was kind of sad. They are very sweet and welcomed me into their home for two months. I don't feel like we really communicated or connected that much, but they definitely have a place in my heart. I plan on visiting them in December when I come back to Thies for IST. Before leaving, my mom gave me a new dress and then cooked lamb for lunch. Unfortunately, I am not a fan of lamb, but I was able to eat the rice and sauce that she prepared as well. It was very sweet of her...now she knows that I do not like lamb though... Overall, I had a wonderful time in Bayakh and will miss everyone there. Definitely a wonderful learning experience :)

me and my host mom :)

 

My apologies for not posting anything in a couple of weeks...I have been a little under the weather and have spent all of my free time resting. I am still not at 100 %, but thought I would try to update everyone on my last couple of weeks here in Senegal. So I started learning Wolof when I returned back to Bayakh, and wow.... It seems like it will be a fun language once I get the hang of it, but right now, my head is just spinning. It is completely different than french or english, both in grammatical structure and pronunciation. We were having class for 6 hours a day, so by the end of the day, all I wanted to do was go home and veg out...no time to process anything really. The only reason we were having so much class is because we technically only have 14 days to learn Wolof, so our LCF was trying to provide us with as much vocabulary and information as possible. That was very kind of him, however, my brain did not appreciate it. This week we kind of have a break from language which is nice, and I think when we go back to Bayakh, classes will run more smoothly.

Life in Bayakh hasn't been too eventful. As I mentioned earlier, I have been sick so I haven't spent that much time outside of class doing anything other than resting. However, there was a baptism one day that we were invited to. Baptism here are really baby-naming ceremonies. It's kind of an odd event, from my perspective at least. The baptism takes place one week after the baby is born. At some point in the morning, the Iman(Islamic religious leader) comes over and whispers the name (of the parents' choosing) of the baby into the baby's ear. After that, the mom goes and gets all dressed up (we're talking celebrity fabulous) and everyone else just hangs out at the house socializing. Up in the afternoon, the mom returns, and then everyone eats lunch. After that, the mom may go and change again for the evening party; I left before that happened. Most of the ceremonies here appear to be a good excuse for people to dress up and socialize; much like in the States, yet just seems really different since the cultures are so different.

Jamie and the new mom

One evening, our LCFs surprised us with a quick trip to the beach :) There is a small fishing community about 20 minutes away from Bayakh called Kayar. Absolutely gorgeous beach! I could hardly beleive that I was in Senegal. The trip was unexpected; the beach was gorgeous; and was a perfect ending to a rather heavy week of classes.

We also had our counterpart workshop this past weekend. This is a two-day workshop where the supervisors and counterparts for each new volunteer visit Thies to go over logistics and expectations of/for volunteers. We also put on an American Cultural Fair to show our counterparts differents aspects of American Culture that are important to us and might help to explain our "odd" behavior at times :) The 6 areas discussed were: American history and politics; the role of women; daily life and leisure activites; diversity; food and clothing; and pop culture vs. real culture. Our group presented on diversity; I think it went really well. Everyone was attentive and had some really good questions. The training coordinator even asked us to make a copy of everything for her so that she can use it when training new Senegalese staff.

Well, that's about it for now. I have two more weeks of training and then I will officially be a Peace Corps Volunteer :) The next couple of weeks will be rather busy, but I will try to post whenever I can. Until then, thank you for all the prayers and support :) I greatly appreciate them!

So I am currently in Linguere on my volunteer visit. The purpose of the volunteer visit is to see what a volunteer in your region/sector does on a daily basis. My situation is a little different because there is not a current SED volunteer in my region, nor a volunteer in my site since it is a new site. I am staying in the regional house with the PCVL (Peace Corps Volunteer Leader) who is basically in charge of the administrative stuff in this area. The house here is really nice, couple of rooms, wifi, and dogs :) Linguere seems to be pretty chill too...pretty calm compared to Bayakh. Being at the regional house, I've been able to meet several of the other volunteers in the region; everyone seems pretty cool, so I am looking forward to living and working in this region :) The PCVL has cooked some awesome American food for us while here, so I am very happy. Yesterday, we headed to Dahra to see the town and meet my new family. My new "dad" is the deputy mayor of the town, so pretty well connected. My new "family" is rather large (19 people!) but seem really nice. I also got to meet my counterpart whom I'll be working with a lot while in Dahra; his name is Balla and seems very nice as well. We spent most of the afternoon just hanging out with my new family. We also went to a soccer match that my "dad"'s organization sponsors, so we were treated as VIPs :)

Dahra seems like a nice town; a little bigger than expected -- about 40,000 people. Because it is such a large town though, I believe that I will have a lot of options when it comes to volunteer projects. I''ll just have to figure out which projects will be the most feasible and most beneficial to the community.

Friday was the Muslim holiday Korite, which represents the end of Ramadam. I headed back to Bayakh to celebrate with my family, as did the other volunteers. We were told that Korite was a pretty big holiday, but I guess it depends on the family. I had a good time eating and socializing with my family and the other volunteers, but it wasn't that much different than any other day (except for the eating part!) I did get to have some amazing fried potatoes and lots of yogurt though :) Below are some pictures of my African family (extended) and the other volunteers in my village.

YUMMY!

While in Thies, I made it into town with a few other volunteers. I was able to share a chicken sawarma (sp?/ chicken, onions, sauce and fries in a wrap) with my friend Daisy, have a beer, and an ice-cream treat!!! Sooo good!!! I have been living off of fish, rice, and bread for the last two weeks, so it was nice to change things up a little:)

Site Placement!

So today we headed back to the training center in Thies for some more medical sessions and then to receive our permanent site placements. This will be where we will be working at in Senegal for the next two years. The way in which they reveal our sites to us was really cool  There is a basketball court at the center that has a map of Senegal painted on it. All of the volunteers were blindfolded and a staff member or current volunteer led each trainee to their respective spot on the map and handed them an envelope. Once everyone was placed, we were told to take off the blindfolds, look around to see who would be near us, and to look at our folder (see pictures below). It turns out that I will be serving in Darha in the Louga region. By what I can tell, this is a new SED site (and possible new Peace Corps site). The town has a population of 15,000 to 20,000; the town also has a busy market area. Other than that, there was not that much information in my folder, so I guess I will have to wait until my volunteer visit next week to find out more  At least I know where “home” will be for the next two years. I promise to post more information as I get it 

I returned to Bayakh on Wednesday, August, 25. I had mixed feelings about returning, but my host family was so welcoming that I felt completely relieved. It’s hard to integrate into a family, especially when you do not speak their native language. My family is very nice though, and helps me out as much as possible. Here are some pictures of my Senegalese family breaking fast one evening (my family is Muslim and fasting during the day since it is Ramadan).

coffee and bread -- typical "breaking fast" mealIn terms of classes, I am on my own a lot. My LCF recognized that my level of French is higher than the other volunteers (as it should be, since I’ve studied it for years and lived in France as well), so I am studying separately than the other volunteers. I’ve been going out into the community and speaking with a few business owners in French. It’s rather difficult to find people here to speak French to you; Wolof is the local language and people’s French levels vary tremendously. I like going out into the community though and greeting people :) I laugh a lot and they laugh at me, so it’s all good.

In terms of cultural experiences, I truly enjoy watching my family do everyday chores. My “sisters” wash clothes by hand, and my mom roasts her own coffee and dyes clothes. My brother takes care of the livestock (we have 2 goats and a sheep); watching him give the sheep a bath is hilarious! I think the sheep knows that it will be dinner one day soon, so it tries to be as annoying as possible – I think it’s hilarious :) I have also been able to watch a new brick wall be constructed and actual bricks be made

Overall, I am having a great time in Bayakh. There are times that I question “why am I here?” but I know that I am here in Senegal for a reason. I just pray that I make use of any and all opportunities that I am given. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for me and checking in on me – I greatly appreciate it!

So I spent the last week in my PST CBT site (pre-service training community-based training), Bayakh. Bayakh is a town of about 5,000 people. Everyone that I have met so far has been really nice. My host family is very welcoming; I have one set of parents, two brothers, and three sisters. My family is Wolof and speaks that language for most of the time. I have one brother and one sister who speak French, but no one else in the family does, which makes it rather difficult to communicate to the rest of my family. Hopefully I can test out of French in a few weeks and start learning Wolof, that way I can actually communicate with my family 

Language classes are good. As most of you know, I already know French, but I did not interview well which is why I am still studying French at the moment. This week has been a nice refresher course though. The two LCFs (language cross-culture facilitator) have noticed my level of French though and have recommended that I start doing some other activities within my community to improve my French at a quicker pace. Then, maybe in a few weeks, I may be able to test out and start learning Wolof.

In terms of culture, I am just taking it all in right now…there are a lot of things to observe. Once I get a good grasp on everything, I will post more  Some of the biggest adjustments have to do with food and lack of privacy. The food here is really good…lots of rice, which I truly enjoy. It’s just really hot, so I haven’t been very hungry. Also, when eating, everyone sits around one bowl and eats together. I get to eat with a spoon while everyone else eats with their hands. Kind of interesting for me if any of you know my strange food habits. Plus, I know how my stomach is, so I have been trying to watch what I eat so that I don’t get too sick.

In terms of privacy, my family is always hanging out, so it’s kind of rude to go lock myself in my room. My only alone times are breakfast and lunch (because it’s Ramadan, my family is fasting so I eat alone in my room), and right before bed.

Right now, I am back in Thies at the training center. I head back to Bayakh on Wednesday and will be there for two weeks next time. There is an internet café there, so I should be able to update some more and post pictures in a few weeks. A huge thank you to all who are keeping up with me! A bientot!

Hello all! So the last couple of days here have been full of learning :) We had a culture fair where the staff went through and explained some really important aspects of Senegalse culture; my favorite sessions were on clothes and food (of course!). We also learned our hoemstay sites for the next two and a half months; I will be living in Bayack (see map) and continue to study French. We will be living in our homestay sites off and on for the next couple of months to help us better understand the culture and languages of the Senegalese people; and then travel back to Thies for debriefings. I am really looking forward to this, but definitely a little nervous. I will be living with a Senegalese family, so it will be interesting to see how I adapt. We also got to get out and explore Thies a little bit last night; I was able to have a nice beverage and buy a few things at the market. That's all for now; I'll try to update more after my first week in Bayakh :)

I made it! Our plane landed around 5am local time; cleared customs just fine. We had a nice bus ride to Thies; got to see the sunrise :) The training facility at Thies is really nice and the staff here is awesome! They had breakfast ready for us and then let us take a nap until lunch. After lunch, we spent the rest of the afternoon going over the logistics of our pre-service training (PST) and ended the evening with some dancing to African drums!

Today, we actually broke into our groups ( I am an SED - small enterprise development -- agent) and then had a session on some medical issues. The rest of the afternoon is filled with individual interviews, so I thought that I would go ahead and update my blog.

I would like to thank everyone for the warm farewell and prayers. I am having a great time so far and adjusting well. I did get a cell phone yesterday as well, so if you want it, contact me via facebook or e-mail and I will send it to you (free for me if you call). Until next time....

Well this is my first attempt at a blog, so please be gentle! I leave next Monday for Senegal to begin the next 2 years of my life. I am both excited and sad; I know that this is going to be an amazing experience, but I know that it will be difficult to be away from friends and family for such a long period of time.

Actually, I fly out early Monday morning for orientation in Arlington,VA; and will then head out to Dakar, Senegal on Tuesday evening and should land early Wednesday morning.

After arriving in Dakar, our group( appr. 65 volunteers) will take a bus to the Peace Corps training center in Thies. We will spend the next couple of days in numerous language and skill interviews, and in culture and health workshops. After that (maybe next Monday), we will be placed with a host family in a nearby city to complete the rest of our 9-week training.

Well, that is all for now! I probably will not update again until after my arrival in Senegal. Wish me luck! Prayers are welcomed :)