Tamkarit

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.

Thanksgiving

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!

transition period...

        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



Busy, Stressful, yet Rewarding

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…

Ramadan

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...

Vacation to Greece

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 :)

Waste Management Update

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.

One Year Anniversary plus Malaria Tournee

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!

busy, busy, busy

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!

9 Months In!

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!!!

Computers!!!

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

Project One = Success!

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.