Ramadan

En jarama! Hono Sumayo?

Ramadan started at the beginning of August, which means my village is now a ghost town due to the lack of energy from their fast. Most of the days are spent lying on bamboo beds underneath various shade structures and mango trees. The first day I arrived back to my village after much too long of time away (IST…Dakar trip…birthday party…) my host family came running at me with hugs of joy and laughter, I’d missed them! It’s somewhat difficult to get any work done or to get people motivated this month, so besides working on the school garden with my counterpart early in the morning, I’ve been enjoying reading books in my favorite tree out by the school yard and taking pictures of random people.

 Here's my host siblings lounging around the compound being awesome.

At night, I usually lay out on the bamboo beds with the others, my old host dad lying in his hammock next to me. The stars are beaming here like a million crystals in a blanket of black. One cool thing about not having electricity, it’s impossible to miss the beauty of the night sky. We wait until it’s time to break the fast with baguettes and coffee, then an elaborate meal follows a couple hours later. 

The first two nights I tagged along with my host sisters to the Mosque in order to get a better idea of their prayer time. They wrapped me in a long skirt, draped a veil over my head and off we went.  I stood alongside my sister and shadowed her as she went through the motions bowing to Allah. It was fantastic! They were silently laughing hysterically at the thought of me praying like them. Secretly I think they appreciated it.

I’ve had some great visitors lately! Cibyl came over twice this week. We completely intended on doing work at my health post, but with the doctor gone, we were unable to access the information we needed. No complaints! We ended up lying on the floor of my hut watching movies on my laptop, snacking on goodies from the boutique and laughing for hours. So glad she’s my neighbor!

My favorite girl in village is Khaditu. She stopped by for a surprise visit hearing I was back in town. We sat in my bed for a while and I could tell she was feeling down.  We talked awhile about her life and the difficulties of it all. She asked me if I had a washing machine in America and I couldn’t help but be honest. I was relieved when she stopped at that. To continue with all the questions of luxuries I have would only make it more clear to her the unfortunate disposition she was born into. She told me about her 17 year old sister who is exceptionally good at English, but is married with two children and is no longer in school. Luckily, Khaditu turned out to be one of the scholarship winners! I told her the great news, that she now has money to stay in school and buy supplies. It lifted her spirits! Hopefully spending the next two years encouraging her and telling her how smart she is will do some good.

So I must tell you about my friend Wallie. Wallie is a brick maker from the Kolda city who also happens to speak some English and about nine other languages. He has nine children and one wife, something that’s quite uncommon here. We had a great conversation a couple days ago about how he believes one wife is the way it should be and how eating only rice for every meal is incredibly unhealthy. This guy gets it! He’s also one of the nicest people in the world, always saying things to me in broken English as I walk by like, “You very kind.” “The people nice to you yes?” “Okay tank you very well.” “I very happy for you here.” Wallie has been a delight to get to know, I’m sad he had to leave to go back to the city. Maybe someday he’ll be back in Mampatim making bricks again.

The school garden is growing beautifully!! We now have tomatoes, okra, hugeeeeeee cucumber plants (taking over all the other innocent small carrot and turnip plants) and last but not least, melons!!!!

Moustapha is an awesome gardener, with a huge plot of land in his own compound covered in all kinds of greens.

A couple days ago, we took my host dad’s donkey cart and ventured off into the woods one day in search of rich manure. Sounds dumb, but it was a really fun adventure. Guess I can now say I’ve ridden on a donkey cart. I’m really grateful I have him helping me. When I get back to village in a couple weeks, God only knows what kinds of delicious organic fruits and veggies we’ll have growing!

This is my last post before coming home to America. My flight leaves on Wednesday morning. I cannot wait to see you all! Love love lovee!

the beginning of 23

The first weekend of August all the volunteers in my group from the Kolda region came into the regional house for my birthday party! It was a pretty chill night, drinking horrible wine and hanging out on the patio outside.

Costa and Alex spent all night in the kitchen cooking up a delicious feast of potato salad and beer battered vegetables on a bed of rice with sweet and spicy sesame seed sauce.

On top of all that, Kelly brough out a coconut cake with cream cheese frosting at midnight. How sweet!! Then Sarah brought glow stick bracelets from who knows where. Everyone put them on and with Costa’s creative streak he had us stand in a line, take a letter each and motion the letters of my name with our arms.

The two days afterward we cleaned and painted the living room and dining room at the house. Its looks beautiful now!  

T'was a fantastic birthday! Thank you all for sending sweet birthday wishes my way!

Trip to Dakar

Hey loves!

Today is my 5^th and last day in Dakar.  A bunch of us came straight to the capital after our IST for a little break before returning to our villages. I’ve ended up staying a few days extra because of appointments with the dentist and the general doctor but now I’m heading back to Kolda for my 23^rd year of life celebration at the regional house! My dear friend Kelly is making a coconut cake. Mmmm! J

We’ve had the loveliest time here in the city! Dakar is substantially westernized with a grocery store, upscale clothing stores, temperature controllable showers, air conditioning and an ice cream shop! We had a couple birthdays to celebrate which gave us excuses to splurge on delicious fancy food. One of the first nights we all went out to an Italian restaurant for our friends birthdays and shared thin crust pizza with caramelized onions and goat cheese. To all of you who know me really well: I have taken a liking to onions now. True story! Turns out when you have limited food options in village, onions begin to taste incredibly satisfying in comparison to watery leaf sauce. However, I still hate mushrooms.

The next day we took a canoe ride from the coast of Dakar to the gorgeous Isle Ngour.

We were slightly worried about the ominous clouds overhead, but as it turned out they only added to the peaceful coastal Ireland effect as the Atlantic waves crashed up on the steep cliffs. I took a “look deep in thought” photo shoot of Ben and Ian on the rocks.

Afterward we walked through the intricate cobble stone pathways lined with vibrant wild plants and flowers draping over the high walls of the local residents. I can’t even describe the quaint splendor of this place.

After strolling around through the maze of trails, we came upon another ocean view clearing, only this time there were restaurants and umbrellas with lounge mats set up along the sand.

My friend Costa hanging out on the beach

We decided to spend the rest of the afternoon there where we swam in the ocean, ate lunch and got hackled by local vendors selling us their goodies. I gave in for the first time since arriving to Senegal and bought some pretty sweet stuff for people back home.

That night we got all dressed up and went out for Marielle and Larocha birthday celebration round two. We ate at this Thai restaurant called Le Jardin Thailandais and it was AMAZING! Seriously maybe the best Thai food I’ve ever had. All of us practically sat in silence at the overwhelming deliciousness as we inhaled our food.

In the morning we made caramel French toast and cheesy eggs for everyone back at the regional house before our second adventure to Goree Island, the home to many slaves departing towards America in the late 1700’s. Unfortunately now it’s much more of a tourist trap, but nonetheless very full of powerful history.

The next time I’ll be back here in Dakar is when I'll be flying home to see you lovely people in America is only 18 days away!!

IST

Hello dearest friends!

The past two weeks all the health and environmental education volunteers from my group had in service training (IST), similar to pre-service training consisting of seminars all day from 8am to 6pm. Booooo. But really, these sessions were much more in depth and helpful, focusing mainly on our specific questions and where to go from here. When returning to Mampatim, the first thing I’ll be doing is surveying people in my village on the prominent problems/needs they have and what they want for their community so I can get a more focused idea on work. On top of that, we learned how to transform our schools into eco friendly learning environments, how to write grants for projects, bed net distribution methods and malaria education. We had sessions on child and maternal health, how to cook nutritional porridge for malnourished children and ways to incorporate moringa into their diets (aka miracle plant that grows like wild fire here and just so happens to be jam packed with vitamins!)

Older volunteers came to teach us about improved technologies they’ve developed using local tools and materials such as a mud stove and an incinerator for trash cleanup. Last but not least, I received all kinds of knowledge on gardening techniques, tree grafting, live fencing, and how to make a tree nursery.  The best parts of the training days were when we actually got up to partake in hands on work instead of listening to the projects on slideshows and lecture forms. For instance, the day we learned about live fencing, we took a field trip to a nearby Mandinka village where we planted a couple hundred trees around their lake area. The locals came out to help, twas a great day!

 Fellow Fulakunda speaking friends Sarah and Alana having a jolly good time getting the tree sacks together

                          My closest neighb at site, Cibyl, planting some trees with a local boy

Afterward a delicious dinner at Massa Massa, we met up with the others at a hoppin' live music joint called Palais des Arts. We danced until 3 am!

In the running for one of the best nights here so far. Great music, great dancing, great food and great company. What more do you need in life?

Happy 4th of July! (belated)

Cheers to you ole America!

Last week I ventured down to the lovely southeastern side of the country, the sweet little side called Kedougou. There awaited my long lost friends who I hadn't seen in 7 weeks! I cannot tell you how happy I was to see everyone again! "Reunited and it feels so gooooood!!" The first two days we spent some relaxation time just walking around and enjoying the beauty that Kedougou has to offer. The regional "house" down there is not really a house at all, more or less just a hippie commune with various huts and hammocks scattered about a fenced off area in the middle of the mountains.

Saturday and Sunday night we went out for delicious spaghetti dinner from a little guy in a shack down the road from the peace corps compound. This wasn't just any spaghetti dinner. His amazing creation included noodles, beans, hard boiled eggs, onions, and potatoes all mixed together! Sounds weird, but it was so good. So delicious in fact that Ian and I decided it was a good idea to take the tandem bicycle in the pitch dark along a bumpy dirt road to go find the spaghetti. His bike was broken and I hadn't brought mine, but we were determined! The tandem bike was rigged and sketchy, probably incredibly unsafe but nonetheless so much fun! We survived, bellies happy n' all!

Monday the fourth finally arrived and so did everyone else, decked out in their red white and blue ridiculousness. Little innocent pigs were being roasted while I manged on delectable potato salad, coleslaw, and mango salsa. There was all American music playing, Bruce Springstein at his finest, while we danced like fools, popped open brews, and played bean bag tossing games all day. Go stereotypical America!

Once it got dark enough, the dancing continued as we shot off fireworks, waved a giant American flag in the air and  sang various patriotic songs at the top of our lungs. Hence, the night ended on a great note, feeling prouder than ever of my country!

time flies

En jarama sehelaabe am!

It appears it has been about EIGHT WEEKS since I last blogged! ahhh I'm the worst! I have so much to tell you all about, but forgive me if I forget some :) I want to start by thanking Grandma and Grandpa, my beautiful sister and her fiance Brandon, Paula, Debbie, and my lovely parents for the amazingly generous care packages I've received! You are all so thoughtful! Aunt Julie and Uncle Craig, thank you too!!!! I got your package in the mail today! You guys are the greatest.

Moving into my new village was surprisingly not frightening at all. I immediately felt comfortable there and everyone was very welcoming. My host dad is Dello Balde, super cool guy if I haven't mentioned that before. So Dello, being the sweet old wise chief that he is, surprised me the night of my arrival with a party! If I could only put into words the joy and amazement that was going through my head when I looked around to see beautiful African locals dancing wildly to rapid drum beats while a giant burning bon fire blazed in the background of the night sky.

Of course, they love when white people try to dance, so I was pushed into the middle of the dance circle awkwardly trying to re-enact there body movements. Ha! And I thought I could dance? yeah right. These people came out of the womb dancing! Ha, I love it!

The first week I spent most of my time decorating and painting and moving into my hut! It looks great! My room is all kinds of purple.

I have a lovely backyard with a cement pathway to my bathroom area and just enough grass space to grow a personal garden. There's even a little area in the back to snooze under the mango tree when the sun is blazzin'.

I have plenty of pictures hanging up of everyone back home. The villagers get a kick out of photographs, especially my little host sisters!

The time I wasn't spending obsessing over the design of my new space, I was walking around with my two counterparts Abou and Chierno, meeting local officials and familiarizing myself with the area. I discovered Mampatim has about four womens groups already! Most volunteers have to start them, but my villagers are cool enough to where they already have formed their own! Great job Mampatim!

Also great news: my third counterpart, Moustapha, is the most motivated guy ever. He's the English teacher at the local middle school and I've become quite comfortable hanging out there with him and all the other teachers. They're a great group of people with awesome ideas! For example, one afternoon I was sitting with one of the students reading over his final English exam when I stumbled upon one prompt that went a little something like this: Your father wants to marry your younger sister off to a wealthy man from another country but you disagree with his plan. Write a conversation between you and your father to convince him it is more important for your little sister to stay in school. <--- bah! You can imagine the surprise on my face when reading that! The subjects they choose to discuss at the middle school are serious issues that people face here yet no one wants to talk about. One of the biggest problems is early pregnancy and early marriage, some girls as young as 13. As a result of early marriage, they drop out of school. I think its great to incorporate these topics into the curriculum in order to open the minds of the teenagers and provide them with some forward thinking. Once again, great job Mampatim teachers!

These past two months I've been helping out with the Michelle Sylvester scholarship, which has been more than a great opportunity. There's 9 girls from the middle school in Mampatim that qualify for the scholarship, but only three girls from each school are chosen to receive the money. I jumped on board with my friend Kelly, biking out to each girl's village to observe their home lives and talk with them about their interests and what they wish to become. Their responses? Doctors, teachers... the President of Senegal!! :) The first day of June we had a formation in Dabo, a neighboring village about 15K from me, where the scholarship girls gathered to hear from Awa. If you don't remember Awa from past posts, she's the most inspirational woman ever. Awa talked to the young girls about early marriage and rather the importance of continuing their education despite social norms and local pressures. We did an AIDS awareness game with them and then led them to discuss solutions for what they view as prominent problems within their community.

These girls amazed me. So bright and so hopeful with great interviews and great essays, but studying only over by candlelight. To think of their daily struggles is beyond me, yet what they still manage to accomplish. So impressive! 

The first big project we got goin' on is the community garden at the middle school. I had a couple meetings with the teachers and the headmaster about planting fruit trees and vegetable gardens for anyone who wants to contribute so the children can cook nutritious lunches and eat delicious fruit for breakfast during school hours. On top of this gardening project, I want to start a co-ed cooking club using the food from the garden to teach them about local nutrition and also possibly break down some gender role barriers! Thats right Senegal, men can cook too :) The teachers would of course be welcome to anything growing in the garden since they've helped so much! So far we have the fencing up and a couple of beds dug.

Tomorrow I shall return to village to start planting, just in time for the rainy season!

I received consent to plant some bright pink and red flowers whose vines will grow wild along the walls of the school. Its going to look beautiful once the kiddies return in September!

Other than the garden and the scholarship, I taught my host family and neighboring compounds how to make all natural mosquito repellant using local ingredients. They seemed to love it and have been using the lotion every night (or at least that's what they say to make me happy). The demonstration went really well so I'm hoping to get my women groups together to teach them. It would be great if down the road they cooked it up to sell all the time, making money for themselves and fighting against malaria at the same time!

I spend everyday trying to get better at Fulakunda. Its coming along, I guess! The importance of bonding with my villagers and my host family is number one. I want these people to trust me and to know I'm here with them to help first and foremost. It gets tough with the language barrier, but everyday you make a little progress and that's encouraging. My host mom and namesake, Bambe, is the most helpful. She's super fun and takes great care of me always.

My church is something great I need to talk about. Its so cute!! The priest there speaks English pretty well and closely resembles Baloo the Bear from Jungle Book. We had a delightful celebration welcoming the Kolda Bishop a couple Sundays ago. Lively singing, children dancing down the isle way and the priest beating on the tam tam drums after each sermon. The most exciting Catholic service I've ever attended, African style! Unfortunately, not every Sunday is like this, but its still beautiful and really really comforting to have that community around.

Its good to be in Mampatim, but its also nice to visit other volunteers close by. My friend Cibyl is only 7K down the dirt road from me, quite the really peaceful bike ride. Her village speaks Mandinka, so I can only communicate with them slightly thanks to Cibyl feeding me the lines. I may be visiting her much more often now that she got a puppy!!!!! I'll be Aunty Chelsea :)

As always, I love you guys. So so much. I never realized how much I love being home until I've been somewhere really different for a while. I can't thank God enough for the love in my life! How lucky we all are :)

Chelsea

Its official!

My goodness! Has it really been since Easter? The past few weeks have flown by! Since the last post, my health is back to normal and things are better than ever. We went back to Mbour for more pre-service homestay, then back to the Thies center for more sessions and language training. So many great stories, but oh so hard to remember them all! The ones that stick out in my mind have all occurred in the last week. 

Thursday afternoon in Thies, one member from each homestay family came to represent the family in an all day celebration for having finished pre-service training! 

Delicious frood, dancing, awesome African entertainers and one of the greatest cross-cultural experience yet, my friends Ian and Paterick jammin' out a bluegrass song while the african musicians joined in on their drums! 

Awa gave a beautiful speech (what else is new) while the families and volunteers congratulated each other on getting through :)

The next morning, we were up bright and early around 6 am, dressed up and ready for our official "Swearing In" ceremony in Dakar. We arrived at the Ambassadors house (mansion), accompanied by various scary important government members from all around the world. Everyone looked so fancy! Especialllllllly us!! The trainees had beautiful traditional Senegalese attire bought and made by local tailors just for special events like this, worth every penny!

We sat patiently as our training leader, Etienne, said some sweet words of wisdom and hopeful thoughts followed by four of my fellow trainees giving speeches in their local languages. So proud! The ceremony came to a close after we raised our right hand and swore our oath to serve.

Arriving back in Thies, we packed up all night and said our bittersweet goodbyes and good lucks all day Saturday as each group ventured off to their separate sites. The Kolda group departed the next morning on Sunday at 6 am! Wheew! I piled in with my roadtrip buddies Alana and Cibyl, then we were off! Ironically, only a half hour into the trip, our car's back wheel had come loose/fallen apart. Yep.
This was the start of an incredibly exciting adventure to Kolda! Ha. luckily, there was a mechanic nearby to fix it. Only, the mechanic took TWO HOURS to show up! Alana, Cibyl and I decided to just go with it and relax, maybe buy some omelette sandwiches and hang out with the locals until the mechanic was done. Another two hours later, he finished and the car was good to go!

Typical roadtrip activities ensued- picture takin', trail mix munchin', great laughter and conversations flowin', but mostly snoozin'! So much so, that we failed to observe the exact road our driver was taking to get there...

BAM! hello, we are awoken by the Gambia police! Nice enough fellow, simply asking us for our passports, but in our heads, we were definitely not supposed to be at the Gambia border. Uh oh! Poor driver wasn't informed of the Peace Corps rules, taking us the fastest way he knew in order to get us to Kolda before curfew. We passed through just fine, riding a farry across the Gambia river and straight on through.

 *Gambia river

*cars packed onto the farry

 *Cibyl hangin out of the car for some fresh air

There were a few minor speed bumps along the way, like a fender bender with an alhum bus, getting lost again once in Kolda. However, there were also a few lucky moments, just as Peace Corps usually goes.  Driving with the windows down and a nice breeze, listenin to great music and waving at locals passing by makes ya realize how incredibly lucky we are for this whole thing.

Besides the deep thinking and moments of pure joy, arriving into Kolda an hour after curfew and still being allowed in was pretty great too!
Today we went shopping for supplies, furniture, and decor for our huts. So so excited to decorate!! I've been hanging out at the regional house with the others, catching up on tv shows, American food and good company. Tomorrow morning i'll be moving into my new village! Many mixed emotions of fear and excitement :)

I'll be without a computer for the next few weeks, but feel free to call me anytime on my phone! I miss you all like crazy and am eager to see you when I officially return for my sister's wedding at the end of August! I hope you are all in good health and peace.

Wish me luck, here I go!