Happy New Year!

Ringing in 2012 was fantastic. I came back into the regional house to spend one more holiday with my volunteer family. We shot off pathetic fireworks from the rooftops, linked arm and arm and sang Auld Lang Syne after counting down to 2012. We even slowly lowered my giant glowing ball lamp that my friend Paul sent me from Thailand. As always, we do what we can here with respect to American traditions.

Back in my village, I've been talking to people about installing two water pumps, one for the health post and one for the new primary school. Hopefully that will happen soon. One thing I've learned while being here is patience. There's an island style work ethic here and sometimes its hard to get used to. Locals don't seem to be in a rush to do pretty much anything. Therefore, projects take a lot longer than they should. Good thing I have two years to do them! I've been continuing to promote Moringa, planting two moringa intensive beds at the health post and offering to plant some personal beds in some of my favorite compounds. I'm trying to convince the health post to make moringa powder from the plants and then sell it to patients and children who are malnourished. Baby Koumba loves moringa!

 Happy to update you all on my thriving flamboyant trees, soon enough they'll be ready to outplant at the schools and along the road for shade.

The mango tree in my backyard is beautiful as ever, sprouting bundles of pink flowers where juicy mangos will arrive in no time.

I went a little crazy with the muraling and painted one more at the health post about the importance of using a bed net to avoid malaria. Along side the bed net picture, I painted the recipe for homemade mosquito repellant. 

My next murals will be chronological pictures of someone using their douche then washing their hands then a recipe on how to make ORS, a rehydration formula for people with diarrhea. Locals are extremely receptive to bright fun pictures. So far it seems to be the fastest most effective way to educate them and get them talking about common problems and solutions.

After leaving the hospital and finishing my last mural, I stumbled upon a huge gathering of people along the roadside and a group of USaid workers setting up for a movie screening. Turned out they were doing a tourney on violence against women awareness. They showed a documentary of Senegalese women attesting to their experiences followed by a Q&A with the crowd. It was the first time I saw my villagers get really heated about an issue as well as the first time I heard women speaking up at a meeting. I cannot explain how powerful this night was.

This past week I attended my first annual Gender and Development conference in Thies. One of the most powerful sessions was when the NGO Tostan presented their projects about gential cutting. This organization is incredible and their tactic for working with entire communities about this issue proves a 95% success rate. By the time they leave the village after 3 years, they get the community to sign a contract promisig to end the practice of genital cutting while raising awareness on human's rights and the ways they've been violated.

It was so cool to hear about all the awesome things going on all around West Africa when it comes to gender equality. I was so inspired! Afterward was our All Volunteer conference where I learned about medicinal plants and how to incorporate all natural medicine alternatives when they don't have money for pills and sythetics. These are plants that have been working for thousands of years to cure people of simple sicknesses and I think its a really sustainable way to help.
I went to another malaria session where I received a packet of flashcards used to teach locals about how to use their bed net and prevent malaria. I'll be going around with one of the health post workers quizzing compounds on their knowledge of malaria, then a month later, I'll be going around again to see if they learned anything or if the information stuck and what kind of answers had changed. This is the first experimental thing they're doing for malaria education and prevention at a local level, so we'll see how effective it is.

Coming up this week, an amazing woman named Awa who works for Peace Corps is coming to my village to talk to the boys, girls, and their parents about teen pregnacy, early marriage, and the importance of staying in school. Hopefully this talk will go well and stimulate some progressive discussion within the households. The whole purpose is to empower young girls by setting the record straight first with the male population.

W.A.I.S.T.

After our all volunteer conference, we drove to Dakar for an epic softball tournament with volunteers from all over West Africa. W.A.I.S.T. is West African Intermural Softball Tournament, and iit is complete insanity. Every region had a different themed costume they dressed up in, so you can guess how serious we were about this tournament.

 My region of Kolda was "South of the Border" meaning wild west cowboys and saloon girls, along with a little hint of Mexico. We had a couple guys dress up as a Mariachi band, some Mexican peasants, and even a piñata.

Here's me as chiquita banana. Ha! And yes, I attempted to play softball in this. Not easy.

Other region's  themes included  "suits" made of ridiclous fibrant fabrics,

 girl scouts and boy scouts,

 "under the sea" with scuba gear and blow up whales,

and lastly, "the French", whom forfeited every game and took a lot of coffee breaks. All and all, the conference and tournament was a success and it was great to see everyone as always.

**a million hugs and kisses to Mrs. Franz and my sweet parents for the amazing care packages you sent me!! You have no idea how grateful I am to receive packages like these. Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY mama!! I'm sorry I missed it, but I hope it was a great one. It's no coincidence you were born on the day celebrating the life of a great peacemaker, so in honor of the both of you, here's a message we should all avide by...

"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."
-Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy 2012!!

I want to start off by thanking my lovely grandparents for sending me an amazing care package!! Thank you thank you! So sweet. I got it right in time for ChristmasJ

 This month has been somewhat bittersweet being away from home for the holidays. Despite all the enchantment of America at Christmas time, my volunteer friends made it a wonderful holiday here as well. To start off the celebration, I attempted my first batch Swedish glug, my family’s famous spicy Christmas cocktail, served nice and warm with wine soaked almonds and dried fruit. I lit it on fire and blessed it Swedish just like my mom taught me. It was a huge hit!

The best part of it all was the delectable smell wafting from the kitchen all day. Pro bakers Jenae and Wilma slaved away making a variety of homemade cookies. Seriously delicious.

We blasted the good ole holiday tunes, taped up snowflake cutouts and strung stockings made from local festive fabric.

We even had our own little Christmas tree to decorate thanks to my mama’s Christmas care package. Can you see it in the background behind Sarah and I?

At midnight a couple of us went downtown for church mass. It was beautiful to see church in a different culture, a whole fellowship gathered together half way around the world. I couldn’t help but to imagine all the millions of  people simultaneously in peace and prayer just for one night. The choir sang popular Christmas hymns in between sermons, only their version was in French with bongo drums and an island rhythm. 

Back in Mampatim, I’ve been working on spreading the news about the benefits of eating magical moringa. I’ve been having lunch at different compounds bringing my little baggie of moringa powder with me and sprinkling on my side of the bowl. It sparks up their curiosity and gives me a window of opportunity to tell them all about its healing qualities. The other day my friend Whitney came to visit my village. We painted a moringa mural on my health post wall illustrating it’s superabundance of vitamins. We also painted one advertising the free vaccination program. I plan on painting a lot more in the days to come. Its fun for me and the locals love them. Win win!

The day before Christmas Eve my friend Wilma came to my village to promote ceramine, a nutritional porridge made to wean babies off breast feeding.

Mariama helping sift the ceramine powder

 Forty of my village women came with their babies to hear about the porridge and to learn about general nutrition. Such a great turnout! The awesome thing about having large causeries is it gets people talking. Just a couple days later I had everyone in my village asking about it and where they could get some. Way to go Wilma.

Little update on little Mijo: already 3 months old and growing at rapid speeds! He’s currently going through the lovely phase of chewing on anything and everything he can see. He’s also transformed my laundry basket into his own personal bed where he cuddles up every night alongside his new baby brother, Lyon.

 He and I send our love and sweet holiday wishes back home to you all.

 2012... may it be a year full of joy, laughter, love and adventure. cheers!

Peace Corps moments

The last month was full of “peace corps moments”. Peace Corps moments are little successes, moments of pure joy and fulfillment in the realization that your efforts are making way. The first one was when my little host sister came to me for soap. This sounds silly and insignificant, but she likes to show me what she's learned about hygiene in the process. Since she rough houses all the time and always manages to get cuts and scrapes from playing in the dirt, she’s been coming to me asking for moringa (local medicinal plant) and for my soap so she can wash her scrapes. There's all kinds of funky ways villagers treat wounds, and most all of them are incredibly unsanitary and illogical. Glad to be making progress in that department.

The next moment came when I went around to gather manure and sand for my tree nursery. The children in my village were curious about what I was doing and began taking over the project. I taught them all how to make a nursery and they knocked out 60 sacks in about 20 minutes. I’ve never seen them so excited about something.

Every day they ask me how the trees are doing and offer to water the nursery. I’ll be planting some at the school for the girl’s camp in January and along the main road for shade.

The other Peace Corps moments have been with the local middle age school girls. I painted a chalkboard in my room and almost everyday the girls in and around my compound ask me for a little English tutor session.

Some of the girls sitting on my bedroom floor studying English

Also, the 100 permission slip/invitation forms for the girl’s camp were snatched up really quickly which indicates to me that they seem pretty excited about it. I'm expecting a good turnout. The after school girls club is coming along as well. One of the female teachers, Madame Mallu, is going to help me run the club and hopefully continue running it after I leave. The first meeting is next week! I'll let you know how it goes :)

Happy Holidays!

My gosh, two big holidays have passed and I haven’t even found the time to say Happy Halloween and Happy Thanksgiving! How was it? Did everyone dress up in hilarious costumes and a month later did everyone eat delicious food? I know I did. The Tambacounda region hosts Halloween every year at their regional house. Volunteers from all over Senegal came down for the festivities! Like always, it was fantastic to see everyone, although some were especially unrecognizable in their getups. One of my favorite costumes was my friend CJ who personally sewed her own tutu for her interpretation of Natalie Portman in Black Swain. I dressed up like a life-size carrot for the love of vegetables and vegetarians worldwide.

A week after Halloween came Tabaski, a Muslim holiday where every father must kill a sheep in celebration of the sacrifice of Abraham. All my villagers were dressed in their finest attire and relatives from out of town came in to socialize and feast all day. We ate special onion and potato sauce over rice with chunks of our dear sheep friend.

This is Omar the sheep along side my host sibilings the night before Tabaski.
Omar is unfortunately no longer with us.

My host sister Mawnde and baby Koumba dressed up for the holiday.

The day after Tabaski, I caught a bus into Kolda to help the new agriculture volunteers shop around for fun items for their new huts. In the days that followed, they installed into their permanent villages. I can’t explain how strange it was to now be the person helping the newbies move in. Wasn’t that just me a couple months ago?

When I arrived back to Mampatim, my host brother Malik greeted me with an especially excited look on his face. He took my hand and led me over to the little shed behind my host mother’s room. To my surprise, a tiny little puppy came crawling out and sauntered over to me. Malik looked at me and said  “Ko an wodi rawandu ndu.”This was my new pup!! They must have found him somewhere in the village because he looked pretty mangy and malnourished, but how could I say no? He was so cute!!! I named him Mijo, Mijo Moyyo Balde.

 This was taken a couple days after cleaning him up. He's grown so much since this!

Mijo Moyyo means good thought or good idea. Seemed like a pretty good idea to keep him :) He’s been my pride and joy, trotting alongside me everywhere I go and sleeping next to me on his little blanket at night. I can safely say I’ll be very much attached to him after two years and he’s definitely destined to have a great life if I’m his owner forever JWhat a wonderful early Christmas present!

I came back to the regional house for Thanksgiving. We turned on Christmas music and cooked amazing food, a beautiful collaborative effort which went surprisingly smooth considering we had about 35 people in the house. We managed to make almost every traditional dish, just about as good as being back in America for the real thing. The best part? Nine different pies! Who would have thought? Before feasting, all 35 of us sat in a circle and wrote on notecards all the reasons we're thankful and read eachother's aloud. It was a sweet little moment and a warm reminder that its possible to create family anywhere you go.
I'm returning back to village now with the little mini Christmas tree my parents sent me. I'll be sure to decorate my hut for the holidays this week. This month is a little tough when it comes to missing home for the holidays, but I hope so much you all are enjoying the crisp cold weather, the comfort of holiday cheer and the deliciousness of pumpkin spice lattes. Happy December!

back to work

 I've been working on a baseline survey to get a better idea of what the specific problems are in my village and what people would like to see improve. The survey has helped me to learn a lot more about my village and all the people in it. I've gathered that water accessability is a major problem, along with malaria.

Luckily,  people are really good about going to the health post and getting it treated. However, in the 50 compounds I've interviewed, every other person said they had 1-2 children die in the last year. Its a tough thing when you move to your village and everyone you see on the road is friendly and happy as ever, then you really start to talk to them on a personal level and realize the statistics you read are about people you now know. All you can hope is that they'll take what you've taught them and use it.

I met with my women's group president and taught her and my counterparts how to make neem lotion, the all natural mosquito repellent. Bed nets are a great concept, but malaria mosquitos are said to bite only at dusk and dawn, which is when people are either cooking dinner or in the fields. I'm planning on doing neem lotion demonstrations for all of the women's groups. Eventually they'll teach or sell it to ten compounds each and if that makes a difference in the number of sick people, then hopefully word of mouth will spread and people will start using it every evening. There used to be a nearby river which dried up and the water tower has been broken down for years so in dealing with their water shortage, I'm looking into writing a grant to build more wells so that 50 people aren't all using the same one each day.

We have a new principal at the middle school and he seems really motivated and excited for the upcoming projects I'll be doing with them. School just resumed and now they'll be able to see their brand new garden.

The girls empowerment club and the environmental club should be starting up next month once I figure out logistics and get students on board. They'll be helping me paint murals, clean up trash, tend to the garden, and learning nutritious ways to cook during their lunch breaks. To top it off, I planted some beautiful red and pink flowers that will grow wild on the vines up and around the walls in a few months.

The other day Cibyl, Moustapha and I biked out to Kelly's village, Thiewal Lao, for a formation with her master farmer.

Moustapha is an incredible farmer with a magnificant magical garden all around his house. I figured it would be beneficial for him to come and learn about  better farming techniques for more efficient and faster crop growth. He was really inspired by it, and hopefully now he'll take what he learned back to Mampatim and share it with his other farming friends.

 

Spending time with the kids in my compounds has been my greatest happiness. During the hot daytime hours, they've been coming in my hut and listening to my guitar. I'm horrible at it, but they don't realize that. They love it! Here's my host sister, Fatoumata, trying to play it herself.

A couple days ago was the day of the Konkouran. The Konkouran is a crazy scary looking guy dressed in rags and grass who carries a machete around the village in a pretend attempt to circumcise the little boys. Its a tradition every year, kind of like the boogie man, except if the boogie man carried a machete and pretended to cut off your junk. He doesn't actually ever hurt anybody, just a fun game of forewarning that in the following days, it will actually happen... poor fellas. 

The other night the kids broke out into an awesome dance party to the music on the radio.

 For some reason, it reminded me of a specific childhood memory. One time my extended family was over for a party and Jimmy Buffett's Volcano came on. All of us cousins got out in the middle of my living room and were assigned a different instrument to mime. The adults gathered around and we performed the whole song, miming the instruments when they would sound. Ah, childhood.

The last time I had a hammock was in the backyard of the old house I grew up in. Almost every night we would have a bon fire and lay on that thing. I spent many of hours starring up at the night sky, lying on our hammock and contemplating life in deep conversations with my friends. Come to think of it, we were very much wise beyond our years. Now it all comes back around. I have inherited a hammock of my own and strung it up in my backyard under my mango tree. This is to be the downfall of productivity but the upswing of happiness.

Return from America

Hello beautiful people! Its been about a month since I've been back and my return from America went smoothly, much more than I anticipated. I remember first arriving in Senegal in March, stepping off the plane into a foreign land in the middle of the night. I'm not going to pretend I wasn't terrified. This second time around, it felt oddly like I was returning to my second home.

My sister's wedding was incredible. Truly the most gorgeous breathtaking ceremony I've ever seen. I was overwhelmed with happiness for her and brandon. The whole trip went by in a flash, but nonetheless was full of autumn nights snuggled up around bon fires with the greatest people in the world, laughing and sharing stories and eating food that has never tasted so good. I felt grateful as ever to be able to come home. Nothing like your own heavenly bed to sleep in again and trader joe's right down the road. But talking with people about my life in Senegal made me feel excited and motivated to get back to work.

I made my way down to Kedougou the next day after arriving in Dakar again. The first night was spent dancing uncontrollably for hours in the Kedougou kitchen while making cookies and five different types of smoothies.

All that time they spend around breathtaking moutains and waterfalls must be the explaination for such excessive amounts of hyperactivity.

The next day we ventured to Saraya to meet up with our buddies doing bed net distributions for malaria prevention. The best part was sitting in on their radio show! I threw in a little Pulaar blurb about malaria but that's about all I could muster. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stay long enough for the actual distribution, but to be able to observe the meetings and efforts beforehand were beneficial for future projects.

On my way back to my village, I stopped in Tamba for a night to spend time with my dearest Emma. We popped open a bottle of wine and cooked up some delicious America pasta I had packed away. What intended on being a chill night turned into a wild dance party to various Britney Spears songs on full blast. Nobody else was in the house so we figured, why not? Girlfriends are the greatest.  :)

Returning to Mampatim always warms my heart! As always, I was greeted by a flood of hugging, clapping and dancing. Wouldn't it be awesome if thats what happened everytime you went anywhere?



payaya parents... expecting

 After unpacking, I walked out my backdoor to the sight of two papaya trees that had grown taller than my fence while I was away! Even more amazing, four other baby papaya trees are sprouting up too! 6 papaya trees in my small backyard? I'll be outplanting the other ones into the school garden, but for the two that are remaining, I shall be enjoying their fruits by next year!

My tomato plant is in full force and my friend Kelly brought me a banana tree to plant as well.

 So, as it turns out, this may be the only time where I have banana, mango, and papaya trees in my backyard all at once. What is my life nowadays? The mango season ended a while ago and now we're on to corn and cucumber season. Now these aren't just any cucumbers, the ones they grown here are seriously the size of melons. Villagers dice up the cucumbers and drench them in a vinegar mustard onion sauce for a snack. Mmmm!!! it. is. so. good.

mr. banana tree

Tomato plant

host sisters pounding corn

 Besides food, I have come to terms with my other two obsessions, slacklining and painting. My host family probably thinks I'm crazy, but I decided to paint my room again. I guess you gotta do what you gotta do to keep things interesting when you're entire living space is a small square cement room. Our volunteer newspaper, Sabaar, wants me to submit pictures and an article about interior design in next month's Better Huts and Gardens column.

Slacklining. A gigantic thank you goes out to Kaede Holland, the coolest chick ever. Slacklining is something that Kaede is really into, and I trust her opinion on things, so I was more than willing to bring it back with me and try it out. My friend Cibyl and I often ride our bikes out to remote parts of my village and set it up in the woods. It's hilarious to think of Senegalese people crossing our path one day, discovering two foreigners tight rope walking in the middle of nowhere. What would they think of us? We had an Oktoberfest /euro trash theme party for the newcomers back at the regional house, so I set it up on the roof that night to see what would happen. They loved it. I'm glad I've been able to spread the slacklining love here in Senegal.