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
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
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