Guilt and Peace Corps

Peace Corps isn't easy.  No one ever said it was nor did I have the illusion that it would be.  But what I didn't expect was this.  Aside from feeling unproductive 80% of the time I also get waves of guilt (not the Jewish kind), boredom, frustration, unhappiness and general dissatisfaction.  The good news is that I know that this all will pass.  Things will get better, everyone says so, and I believe them, if I didn't, I wouldn't be here anymore.  Things don't just get better with the snap of my fingers though, it takes time, dedication, and perseverance.  Staying in village for me has been key.  Getting through the hard days is always rewarded with good days and great moments.

Christmas was hard, and not because I wanted to celebrate Christmas, nor was I upset that family and friends back home were, but it was that I knew that all my family and friends were getting together; something that I always enjoyed during college was getting together and seeing people who often I would see only once or twice a year.  It wasn't even that I necessarily wanted to be there instead of here, but the simple fact that it was happening, even when I was here, in Botou, was difficult to say the least.  But I did come out on the other side, and as I said there are always great moments.  Christmas afternoon my host siblings said that we were going to go and do something.  It came across to me as some sort of adventure and of course I said yes.  It turned out that we went to pick little shriveled fruits off my least favorite tree in Senegal.  A tree that during CBT would constantly attack Jordan and me at our garden, a tree that has the most painful spines, but a tree nonetheless that provides a strange, and occasionally satisfying taste of sweet and sour.  Spending time with my host siblings, whether it be pulling water from the well like a donkey and watering the garden, or picking these bizarre fruits are the great moments that I rely on to keep me sane and happy at site.  My siblings, the three girls in particular, are sometimes the siblings that I never had growing up as a kid.  I give them a hard time when they do silly or stupid things, I roll my eyes with them behind the back of their mother and watch them giggle, and I help them with their French homework.

The other frustration of being at site is feeling guilty.  I feel guilty when I read, I feel guilty when I cook food in my hut to supplement my diet of rice, I feel guilty when I use a pen that works much better than the pens my host siblings use for school, and generally there isn't much I can do about any of these guilt ridden daily happenings.  I still read in my hut because it gives me a piece of mind.  Reading is now, and always has been my sanctuary, my escape from reality, even if for a little bit.  While I could (and sometimes do) read outside my hut, I am then surrounded by a group of kids from the village who can't read or participate in what I'm doing, so begin to chatter in Bambara. I also feel guilty about cooking beans in my hut.  While the food at site is particularly good for Senegalese food, it isn't varied.  Most lunches are either peanut sauce or fish and rice and dinners are corn couscous with a bean sauce, often with moringa, but usually with few actual beans themselves.  Protein is obviously lacking in their diets so I have taken to cooking myself a cup of beans every few days to supplement.  Sometimes to the point that I'm not as hungry for lunch, and this my host mother, in particular, notices.  It's frustrating because I don't love the food in Senegal, but I do eat it and sometimes I genuinely like the food, but I do feel the need to eat some beans now and again.  Maybe it's the language barrier right now that doesn't quite allow me to express what I'm feeling or thinking, but I try the best I can to explain and hope that either the message gets across and they get used to it, or we can laugh and joke about it whenever it becomes an issue.

The point of frustration about the lack of productivity is the one thing I know will get better in the months to come, guaranteed.  Right now I have my garden seeded, I started a nursery with my host mom and dad under the water chateau in my uncle's garden, and now that the harvesting of peanuts is basically finished, people should be around more so that I can spend time in other compounds.  But sometimes I think about whether my presence in village really means something to the villagers other than the fact that they have an American living in their village.  I know that at times it truly does, that they enjoy talking to me and learning about American culture and ideas, but at times I feel like I'm enduring many more daily struggles and personally getting a lot more out of my time at site then they are.  Part of that may be because I can't see, and may not see, the effects of my work at site.

Halima Fofana

Life has changed once again in Peace Corps Senegal.  This time, for Halima Fofana! I am now living at my permanent site, Botou, Tambacounda, Senegal.  It's a village of 900 people according to the village chief and 2500 according to another source.  It lies just 10km outside of Tamba, the capitol of the region.  I installed on Tuesday December 2, 2014.  That morning a group of us as new volunteers visited the prefect (like the governor) of Tamba, the head of the gendarmerie, the head of the police, the head of agriculture for Tamba and the head of Eaux et Forests, the body that governs the national forests in Senegal.  While we were at the Eaux et Forets office, Djitte, one of my supervisors got a call from my host dad Bouna, because everyone in Botou was ready, waiting to dance me into the village.

We went and picked up all of my stuff and drove to Botou.  Upon arriving, the women were gathered in a circle dancing and singing my name.  They had cleverly made a drum out of a gourd bowl placed upside down in a bucket of water.  I danced with them and clapped as they danced.  Before I knew it, I was whisked away, covered in a white shroud and walked to my hut with a group of 15 or so women.  It was simply amazing.  I got to my hut and when I turned back into the hut from the back yard all of my belongings were in my hut!  My hut is made of cement/mud and wood for the structure itself and the roof is made out of grasses from the fields placed on top of a conical beam structure.  This kind of hut is ideal because the straw roof keeps things relatively cool.  I have a shade structure/porch that faces the other huts in the compound.  Then there is a window facing the garden and a door to my backyard and to my bathroom.  I sleep on a stick bed frame made by a man who lives in Jam Jam, a bush village not far from Botou, that was commissioned by my ancien.  I also have a great work table- made by my ancien and our uncle Mahdu.  I have made a few additions to my perfect new abode.  I painted two rectangles inside with chalkboard paint to keep lists, etc.  I painted an image of Vermont on the outside of my hut.  Seeing as both Connor and I are from the wonderful and beautiful 802 it seemed only fitting.  Now I am hoping to secure the next volunteer's home state.  I finally feel settled into the hut.  Just a week in and I built a stand for the clay pot I bought that will keep my water nice and cool during the hot season.  I've planted some vegetables in my nurseries and made a compost as well as started experimenting with some basil and nasturtium container gardens.  I also planted some sunflower seeds from High Mowing Seeds on the edge of a berm, but I have no idea if they are going to grow- stay tuned.

My host family consists of two families.  My host dad Bouna is the de facto village chief as his elder brother lives in Tamba now.  He is married to Raki and they have nine kids, six who live in Botou, two who go to high school in Tamba and one who lives in another village.  The kids range from Sorkhna who is about 15-16 to Tene who is a year and a half.  There there is Bouna's younger brother Cooli who's wife is Seynabu and their child Fili who is a bit older than Tene.  Another brother of Bouna's also lives in the compound but is in and out.  Then next door is Mahdu and his wife Muya  Mahdu is another brother of Bouna's.  Their sister Masirrah also lives with them.  She is deaf and watching people speak to her with their hands has been one of the most interesting parts of my short time here so far.  Mahdu has 5 kids and works at the water tower that the town recently got.  He's also a woodworker and farms.  All of the men in the family farm, peanuts and corn are their main sources of income. The women sort of garden and do all of the cooking, cleaning and child rearing.  The one thing about the men in the Fofana family is that they are among the most kind, patient, and interested/interesting men I've met so far during my time in Senegal.  They will sit with me as I ask them questions, they won't yell at me to speak as Raki has done, and they are very sweet to their young children.

It has been exhausting getting used to this new pace of life.  I got strep throat again...But otherwise I'm learning to become a more patient, more relaxed person.  So much work happens, but slowly, day by day.  They say that here in the Peace Corps, days go by slowly and months rush by.  I've felt that, but I also love spending the day with the kids in my family, wandering around my village, or helping in the peanut fields.  The manual labor is exhausting in itself in Senegal.  Everyday I pull water from a bidon from the well in our compound, 30 meters down, which is pretty deep for a water table here.  Harvesting peanuts, and the work they put into their fields is amazing but sometimes I wonder if their physical exertion is worth the amount of money they get for all of their hard labor.  I guess at this point it is their only option.  Let's just hope that the rains will fall harder and more frequently in the years to come!

Always a Vermonter

work table

Bed, with my mosquito net cocoon, front door

My roof

Bathroom; I hope to plant a banana tree there in that hole

backdoor; outside yard; I do my laundry here

bathroom: we call it douche here

My garden

Moving to Botu

Today is the day!  It feels a lot like the Dr. Seuss book,  Oh, the places you'll go right now.  Today after visits to government officials in Tamba, I will be driven in my last official Peace Corps approved ride to my village of 2500 people and install into Botu.  I will also be accompanied by a current Agfo volunteer, a Mandinka speaker (in the Mande family) for support and company, a nice tradition.  As I install we will walk around and greet the village leaders, Almami, village chief (my host father), among others. Then they will move all of my stuff into my hut...if they can fit everything, and set off!  It's exciting, scary, and freeing all at the same time.

After install I'll spend 5 concentrated weeks at my site, learning as much Bambara as I can, soaking up the daily life, and settling into my new home.  I've bought chalkboard paint to paint the inside walls of my hut, pictures to hang, maps to stretch out, and a beautiful garden to start planting in.  The 5 week challenge is a Peace Corps tradition where volunteers try and spend 5 consecutive weeks (35 nights) in your village.  This does not preclude a trip or two to skype with my family, but it is a concerted effort to show your village that you are there for them, to live with them, and to immerse yourself in what will become your life.  I'm ready.

I want to thank you all for reading and commenting about my training with Peace Corps Senegal, the struggles and the successes, but do stay tuned.  This is only the beginning.  Now is when the real work begins, the real work partners forged, and the relationships formed across cultures.

This is where my two years in Peace Corps will be:

Sworn in!!!

Officially a volunteer!  I have my affectation to Botu, I've taken the oath, and I'm heading off to Tamba this coming Saturday! It's all quite a whirlwind, and it's hard to believe that it all happened.  I'll come back to Thiès in February for two more weeks of intense technical training, and then I'll certainly be off, doing sustainable agriculture work in Botu, ni alla sonna!

Jordan, Mallory

Jordan, Falaye (our LCF)

Youssoupha, PTA Sustainable Agriculture, one of my favorite people in Senegal 

Etienne and Mbouille, our Training Supervisor and our Safety and Security Manager

Koomba, my CBT host mom..Matching twins

Officially volunteers!

All the SusAg volunteers

Now I'm off to the beach for Thanksgiving with the other volunteers.  I have more photos, but I'll have to upload them later.  I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Smelling Senegal

A certain father of mine asked me about the smells in Senegal and I thought I would take a stab at that blog post.  The smells are one thing in Senegal that are everywhere and not always good.  The first true smells that I encountered were the burning of garbage and the smell of dried fish, both smells that I could do without.

The smell of garbage burning is pungent and accompanied by smoke as well.  You can catch a whiff as you drive by in a car or it can meander over in village as well.  The most intense component of this smell is that of burning plastic which is unlike anything I've smelled before, worse than burning rubber on the highway.  The other smell that I encountered soon after my arrival in Senegal came while walking through the outdoor market in Thiès.  In the markets here they sell everything, fresh food, canned foods, clothing, tailors set up shop, brooms, knives, mattresses, buckets.  You name it, it's there.  The smell of the foods, fresh from wherever are intense.  The fruits and vegetables are not always in the finest condition so there's that smell.  But the fish have a sharper smell.  Fresh fish is okay.  Flies buzz around their dead bodies but in general they just smell like the ocean, salty.  Dried fish, cured fish, on the other hand are a whole other beast (metaphorically speaking of course).  That odor truly smells like something crawled up somewhere and died, many many years ago.  It's a rotten, salty, fishy smell and the taste is even worse.  Luckily it has only been in the bowl once and it was offered to me, I tried it and immediately told them the truth.  Thank you but no thanks.  Koomba seemed fine with that...no big deal.

The other market smells include the roasting of peanuts on the street.  They roast them here in wide bowls in sand.  The smell is that of burning sand.  Roasted peanuts here aren't what we are used to back home.  Yes they are roasted, but not according to the standards of Planters.  Lightly roasted, would be putting it mildly.  There's also the smell of freshly baked bread, although the bread itself, known as machine bread, isn't good to eat necessarily, the smell of bread baking anywhere is a pleasure for the nose. Beignets cooking is also a good smell but that of oil frying rather than something baking. Again, you can't smell the actual product but the smell of sweet dough frying in oil is not something to be ignored in Senegal.  And if you can get your mitts (the right one in particular) around a millet beignet you are in like flynn.  Those are the whole wheat equivalent of any good, healthy doughnut.

Outside of the market there are the smells from the village.  The most perfumed of those is the soap, Madar, that they use for everything.  They use the same soap for dishes, laundry, and bathing and it has so much perfume and incense that you might think you are in a Bath and Body Works in the States.  A smell I had the good fortune of getting whiff of in village was cooked lizard.  This is not your ordinary lizard, but rather a very large lizard that people in Karamoho So considered a delicacy.  I considered it the opposite and politely declined eating it after they swung it's dead and decapitated body/head at me one night a few weeks ago.  The smell of that beast cooking puts the dried fish to shame.

The smells on the road are what I find the most interesting.  I encountered these recently when I started running (I didn't have the Senegal culturally appropriate clothing at the beginning of my two months so I only recently was able to run in village).  The general air is smoggy with a constant smell of trees burning or exhausting burning.  The trucks that pass by on the main roads are incredibly overloaded with who knows what and they produce an exhaust that could knock a small child on their feet.  There is also the occasionally smell of street pizza.  I've seen more dead dogs and dead cats in Senegal than I've seen in my lifetime.  When they are dead here, on the road, they are really dead.  Intestines, blood, and fur smeared across the side of the road, and if it is fresh, it is rank.  Not something I would want to run by everyday.  But there is a silver lining.  Sometimes, on those early morning runs I've taken, or walking along a road an Al Halm (a large white vehicle that takes can take 15+ people) passes with the best perfumed smell.  Senegalese people often douse themselves in perfume and ironically enough usually men where women's perfume and women men's.  Don't know why and I'm not sure if they realize it, but maybe they are onto something.  That is a smell that I am grateful for whenever I run past a dead dog.

Counterpart Workshop (Bara Nohon) and the end is near!

I am almost done with training and will soon be an official Peace Corps Volunteer, alla sonna (as they say in Bambara, God willing).  Next week this time, if all goes well I will be a PCV and on my way to the beach for Thanksgiving.

We just finished an exhausting few days here in Thiès which included Counterpart Workshop, our final medical exam, our final safety and security exam, and our Readiness to Serve presentations.

Counterpart Workshop was fascinating and exhausting.  My male counterpart, Karim Cisse came from Botu.  He was my ancien's counterpart as well, but for the last CPW Hawa our female counterpart came instead.  He was very enthusiastic and an excited learner.  He participated exuberantly in all of the group discussions and he reminded me a lot of...me as a student so that was reassuring.  The very first day when they first arrived I spent about three hours sitting down with Karim, one of the Jaxanke's counterparts, and some Mandinka speakers as they made tea.  One of the Mandinka speakers starting talking to Karim and I very enthusiastically. He would speak in Mandinka and Karim would translate into Bambara.  I could pick up a bit of Mandinka since it is related to Bambara, but the translation was definitely helpful.  This old man, with few teeth, was speaking in proverbs, which in Bambara we call sendat.  I'll tell you, I can barely grasp the meaning of proverbs in English let alone Bambara, let alone Mandinka, so this was quite the three hour conversation.  I picked up some of the morals that he was trying to tell me. God is within all of us. If you ask God for help, he will only help you if you first help yourself, and one about a a bird that I think was the same as the one about helping yourself.  And then there's the one about something that goes across the ocean and walks up on the other side and still has sand on it...the fruit of a baobab tree...I guess I"ll figure these out when I've been here two years.  Or not... It was thrilling and so much Bambara and Mande all at once. Karim is a great mentor, very patient, speaks French so sometime if I really don't get something he'll translate, but he doesn't use French first which I also really appreciate.

Most of the two day workshop was about sensitizing the counterparts to Peace Corps as an organization and to what Peace Corps does to train us; in language, techniques, and in culture.  For most of the sessions the Mande speakers were together which made the most sense, but was challenging for the two Bambara counterparts, who sometimes had a harder time understanding some of the Jaxanke and Mandinka regional dialects.  I'm still impressed by the languages of these Senegalese people.  Most speak at least three languages, Wolof, French, and one other local language.  But so many speak so many more.  Karim, my counterpart speaks, Bambara, Mandinka, Basari, Wolof, French, Pulafuta, and understands Jaxanke and probably some Soninke as well.  It stuns me, and they are so fluid with their language as well.  Quite impressive if I do say so myself.  There were some really interesting discussions that I could sort of understand in Mande about language acquisition for us as trainees, culture differences, and the general knowledge the counterparts knew about Peace Corps (or didn't as they case mostly was).

While it was great to have all of the counterparts here, it was also exhausting.  Talking Bambara is exhausting all the time when conversation topics are limited by what vocabulary I have in my brain at any given moment.  At the same time that they were here, we also had to study and prepare for our Medical exam and our Readiness to Serve presentations which included a two-minute elevator speech in our local language.  We also had a Safety and Security exam but that one was pretty much common sense.  I spent these past few days getting overloaded with Bambara and putting together a presentation based on our project framework as Sustainable Agriculture volunteers and a two minute diddy in Bambara. I studied a bit for Medical as well although it was all stuff we had been previously tested on.  Everything went swimmingly today and I'm relieved that it is over.

Tomorrow we go to Dakar for the day...still not quite sure what that will entail and I'm still intimidated by Dakar but I'm sure it will be exciting nonetheless.  Next week we have our final LPI and then the official swear in. It's all happening! And so fast! I couldn't tell you this day would come two months ago.

What do we do in training? Technical Training

Many of you, I'm sure, have been wondering what I've exactly been doing during training.  Technical training is a component of Pre-Service Training.  Basically Peace Corps wants all of its volunteers to have the same basic level of understanding of agricultural techniques so that we can all ostensibly extend similar techniques around the country.  We learn these techniques or these methods at the Training Center when we come to Thiès and then we practice them at our CBT sites in the gardens that we have.  Every CBT site has their own garden, but some people have 4-5 working their garden whereas Jordan and I are just two.

We have been double digging beds, amending the soil, building and maintaining composts, hexagonal spacing, seedling nursery, tree nursery, pre-seed treatments, moringa intensive bed, field crops, mulching, microgardening, mosquito bed net repair, pest ID and management, fruit tree identification, tree identification, agro-ecological design, etc.

We learn these techniques in theory, practice them at the center, and then practice them at our sites!  Then the tech team comes to visit us at CBT and checks to make sure that we have done all of these "Training Directed Activities."

Now that I have explained what we do and there are pictures of our garden on my photo site, if you have any questions please comment on this post and I will expand (in the post) what any of these things are!

Days of CBT

So much has happened since I last wrote.  First of all, I got the strep...which is probably one of the worst non-serious illnesses you can get here since it means that swallowing anything (water being the most important) is the most painful thing.  Luckily after two weeks of being sick (but only a few days of the strep) I am now on antibiotics and on the road to recovery!  Alla sonna!

I have just finished the long CBT stay of 15 days and we are back at the center for the next week.  We are having a bit of schedule changes because 50+ francophone presidents are coming to Senegal the day we were supposed to swear-in as volunteers in Dakar.  Things have been switched around and now we will swear in the 26th of November!  It is so soon!  In the next few days we have counterpart workshop where our counterparts from the villages where we will be permanently come to Thiès to learn about Peace Corps.  Then I'll go back to CBT for a few days, say goodbye to my family (Koomba and Jaitu in particular) and then we swear in and it's off to Botu I go!

But, in the meantime, this past two weeks was filled with lots of different things.  A few days after we arrived Jordan and I were about to soak our seeds for our tree nursery in hot water when we were called to the Almami's house (Iman) for some big event!  It would become clearer later that the important person visiting was a Calif of the Khadri (one of the brotherhoods in Senegal).  These brotherhoods are not like the Muslim Brotherhood that we hear about in the States.  These brotherhoods are different groups of Muslims in Senegal who choose to follow certain Khalifs based on miracles they performed.  These Khalifs also act as intermediaries between the people of Senegal and the political power (i.e. Macky Sall) and so in fact these brotherhoods help to keep and maintain the peace throughout Senegal.  We were brought into the almami's compound and were made to sit upfront right next to this very old man.  He blessed us in Bambara or Wolof (not quite sure which language) and we spoke in French and Bambara to his assistant/driver who spoke French and English and Bambara and Wolof.  At one point the call to prayer came and all the women got up and left to go pray in their homes and then some of the men went to the mosque to pray and we left thinking it was over.  But after we went home and pre-treated our seeds, my mom was getting ready to go to the Almami's house and so we went back.  We sat more towards the back this time and slowly women went up to this mori (marabout/Khalif) and brought their kids to receive blessings.  There was some more singing that was in Arabic and then at one point, the dugutigi (village chief) brought in a sheep which I was convinced they would slaughter...After it was all over people got up and linked hands and created a path of Arabic singing to guide the mori out to his car, which by the way, was the newest black SUV that I have seen since here in Senegal.  He got into the car and drove off, and as the car passed in front of me I saw the sheep strapped to the top of the car.  It was apparently a gift from the village to him.  I learned later that he was a regional Khalif and that he was 90 years old!  It was pretty cool and obviously a big deal that he came to Karamoho So.  He was apparently half Bambara so I'm sure that's partly why he came to our village.

Then, last Saturday there was a wedding in our village.  I'm not sure if it was the bride who comes from our village or the groom.  Anyways at the Si compound there was a big dance party (mostly women).  We went after dinner and there were drummers (tam-tam) and the women had made a dance circle.  There was one woman with a stick who was slapping anybody (mainly children) who dared to enter the circle.  When a song started, the women would start dancing together and as the music speeded up, the dancing got faster and faster and eventually it became a competition between the women about who could dance the fastest.  It was amazing to watch their feet move so fast.  Even some of the older women can dance faster than I could ever imagine.  It was so much fun, I joined in for some with my host mom and some of my aunts and even my Maman Musso (grandmother)!  It was lots of fun. I asked my host mom at one point where the bride was and she brought me to the porch area of the house and the bride was there, watching the dancing happening.  Apparently the bride isn't allowed to come out in public for a while.  I don't really understand the weddings here but it was a lot of fun.  Exhausting, and eventually I went to bed and as I was brushing my teeth, sirens, lights and a bunch of motorcycles came into the village, doing papawheelies and it was all of the men who had been elsewhere during the dance party, showing off and tooting their horns.  It was quite the experience!

The other big adventure was on Sunday, Koomba (my host mom), Jordan and I went to Thiès so that I could get some fabric and clothing made for swear in.  My host mom brought us to a Malian fabric store where they spoken a bit of Bambara and some French.  I wanted a dark purple fabric just like my mom had for Tabaski (and luckily she was wearing it when we went to Thiès too!).  I paid a bit more for the fabric but I could tell that some of the fabric was nicer than others and I decided that I would only wear it occasionally and I would be nice to have something fancy.  I also wanted some waxed cotton for some basic wrap skirts because my clothing is falling apart already and it took awhile but I managed to find what I wanted.  Then she brought us to the tailor that she uses and the tailor measured me, I paid him for the work and I'm supposed to pick it up today!  I'll wear it for swear in on the 26th so look for pictures soon after!

I'm going to write a blog post sometime in the next few days about what we have been doing in terms of technical training so that y'all can get a sense of what I've actually been doing!  Pictures to come as well, I'm really getting good at portraits, mainly I think because the kids are stunned by the camera itself!

Baba and Mohammed, u be yelekan ka ca (they laugh a lot)

My host sister in red bissap (hibiscus)

Mamawa

Our Moringa bed

Volunteer Visit

I just got back from a whirlwind visit of my amazing site-to-be.  Botou is 10km outside of Tamba-meme, which is the regional capitol of the Tambacounda region.

On Thursday we left Thiès for Tambacounda.  The roads in Senegal are not of the highest quality so severe holes in the road surface are common.  Some that even span the width of the road.  This makes driving particularly dangerous, especially when the drivers go 40km/hour over the speed limit.  Our bus driver was not particularly cautious and so we ended up blowing out one of the inner tires in the back, and the other one was about ready to go as well. After a number of very startling noises we eventually pulled over and the driver decided to replace one of the tires with the spare, but because the other tire was about to go, he wanted to replace the other, but there wasn't another spare.  So he called back to Peace Corps and they managed to get another spare tire on a public transportation bus that eventually met up with our disabled bus on the side of the road (I'm pretty sure there's really only one main road from Thiès to Tamba).  Pretty crazy!  Then the driver put the other tire on the bus and proceeded to get sick on the side of the road because he was dehydrated...We gave him some Oral Rehydration Solution (what we at Peace Corps call ORS) with some raspberry lemonade and went on our way. The whole trip took about 8 hours.  I arrived at the Tamba regional house and met Connor, my VVer who is also my ancien, the person I'll be replacing, and who just happens to be from Vermont! We ate lunch and then after a tour of the house before we biked to his (our) village.

Botou is a village that is 99% Bambara and has a population of about 2,500 people.  The village itself doesn't feel like that many people, but I think that is because so many people live in each compound so large groups of people are in "quartiers" of sorts.  When we first arrived I got my name from my host mother (who's name is Raki).  My new name (which will replace Awa Kouloubali) is Halima Fofana!  I'm pretty pumped, it seems like a great name.  My tahoma (namesake) is actually Connor's namesake's younger sister.  We are both named after people from a generation above the current village chief's (our host dad) generation.  Connor after Bouna's (host dad) dad and me after his sister.  All in all, it was a good third naming experience.  To top it all off, Lianna Fofana is pretty much a stellar Sengamerican name.

Thursday night Connor showed me his (our) hut, the garden space that he completely worked over so that it has become a beautiful demo garden complete with an extensive (and intensive) earth works, a water catchment system, as well as the douche (bathroom/shower) and the other things that he has done to the space over his two years.  At site in the village chief's compound we have a really nice hut with a stick bed frame from the village in the bush that we biked to this weekend, a table and stool that our uncle made with Connor's help.  We also have shade structure in the front that's kind of like a porch, as well as a tripod of poles that Connor used to set up punching bags when he had his martial arts gym at his place and where I can now put up a mosquito net for sleeping outside!  The whole place is just great and I'm so excited about what I have to look forward to in just over a month!

Friday we greeted many of the people in the village that Connor had worked with or had become friends with.  We first went over to the elementary school and met all of the teachers, who all speak French, and some of them speak Bambara.  We also met one of my counterparts (who are the official liaisons between us, as volunteers, and our community).  They aren't Peace Corps affiliated except through their work with us.  They are picked by the community and are there in village for any support we might need, linguistically or technically during service.  Karim is my male counterpart and he has an extensive garden that Connor helped set up as well as the punching bags that Connor once had at his hut and that Karim is now taking over (it was a big hit in the village)!  Karim was very outgoing, super nice, and seemed understanding and keen on working with me in the future.  We met with many women throughout the village (who I'm looking forward to working with I think) that Connor had become friends with and had extended trees/techniques to as well as the families that Connor most enjoyed in the village (which was the majority).  Everyone was so nice and so understanding of the fact that our service is only a two year term and that I would be replacing Connor.  I'm sure they'll be sad for him to go (his service ends in about two weeks), and I certainly have big shoes to fill, but Connor graciously reminded them that I was still learning Bambara and that they should speak doonin (slowly) so that I could learn Bambara and understand what they are saying. His Bambara was amazing and it really gave me the inspiration that I needed (a boost, if you will) to work on my Bambara during this long CBT stay so that I can feel as confident as I am capable of in my Bambara when I get to site in December.

Friday afternoon we walked across Route 1 (the road that goes from Tamba to Mali!!!) and looked at some of the field crop plots of seeds that Connor had extended and we talked about his service and some of the advice he had regarding seed extension and best practices for keeping up with data collection, etc.  It was really great to be able to see his service (at least to the extent that I did) up close and sort of imagine what my service might be like.  We also walked to the water tower that became operational during Connor's service and is operated by our uncle and he let us climb up to the top (which Connor had done before).  It is a tall tower and this one is four stories while most are three maximum.  I am the first woman to ever climb up it, and there is an amazing view at the top with a visual distance of abut 15km.  On a clear day you could probably see Tamba-meme.

On Saturday we biked to one of the bush villages that Connor frequented during his service. It's about 6km away on a really nice bush road that was a thrill to bike on, particularly for me because I have been chaffered from place to place since my arrival in Senegal.  It was nice to have the freedom of a bike again and the flexibility to be where I wanted to be.  The village is also a Bambara village but it has a Pulaar name, Jam-Jam which translates to Peace Peace.  It was a smaller village but the chief in the village is the father of one of the women in the chief's compound in Botou (small world).  What was most interesting about this site was how different it was linguistically from Botou. Botou is right off the main road and the level of French amongst the people there is pretty high (relatively of course).  French is sort of mixed into the Bambara and some phrases are always used like est-ce-que, mais, peut-être, etc.  But in Jam Jam even the days of the week in French didn't register.  I'm curious as to whether this is because they are more isolated from a main road, or if there is another reason.  They aren't really that far from a main road, if you bike 3 or 4km from Jam Jam in the opposite direction of Botou you reach a road that connects up to Tamba-meme as well.  I've found that the linguistic differences among these languages are so interesting and pose many curious questions that may not have answers about the evolution of these spoken languages.

On Saturday afternoon we walked over to the hospital which just recently got a doctor who is living in Botou.  My female counterpart Hawa works with the hospital a lot (baby weighings among other things) and so Connor thought it would be a good idea to introduce the two of us to this new doctor.  She is a Pulaar and doesn't speak Bambara although seems to understand some of it. She does speak French and I'm thinking about possibly starting some projects with her at the hospital itself because there seems to be some really great land available for garden space and a number of trees that could make the hospital compound a productive and sustainable area.  We shall see.

What was terrific about Volunteer Visit was having a window (a sneak peak) into what my life will be like for the next two years.  My host family is terrific.  It is the chief's family, Bouna is the village chief (de facto actually because his brother is actually the chief but he lives in Tamba). His wife, Raki, and then his two brothers with their families.  Raki and Bouna have 10 kids all together but only some still live in Botou. I'll wait to tell you more about them when I move into site.  Right now I'm just thrilled at my site and my site placement. I think Peace Corps did a really great job matching who I am as an individual with a site that I will work really well in (or at least one that I will try to work hard at) and I can't wait to move down to Botou during the first week of December!

Botou, Tambacounda, Senegal

It's official...well almost!  Considering all goes well, inshallah, I will be a volunteer in Botou, Tambacounda, Senegal!  And guess what?!  I am replacing another Vermont volunteer!  Tomorrow I am going on Volunteer Visit which is my chance to gain as much information from the volunteer that I will be replacing.  I can ask him questions, get to know the village a bit through him, and use him as my first resource and my first look into my next two years.

This is me dancing right before we were allowed to take off our bandanas!

Taking off the bandana!

Oh my goodness!  I'm here! But where am I?

What I know so far...and I'll post more when I get back, is that Boutou is a village of about 2,500 people right off of the main, paved road.  This is the main road to Mali, from Tamba, the capitol of the region. This village is 10km from Tamba (which is within biking distance).  A village that is 99% Bambara -- woot woot!

26 more months to go!

I have been a Peace Corps Trainee for a month now!  Sometimes it feels like much longer than that, and sometimes it feels like just yesterday I was hanging out in Vermont, Colorado, Rochester, New York and New Haven.  I am back at the Training Center in Thiès until Thursday morning.  We just had our technical mid-term exam this morning on all of the various agriculture/gardening techniques that we've been practicing at our CBT sites.  I think it went well, although I couldn't remember whether rice had a head or a panicle...pretty sure that when I need to know that, I can look it up in my manuals.  We have so many manuals with so much information and while I understand needing a basic comprehension of some of the technical information, so much of the information will become ingrained in my head after months of working and being in the field.

Tomorrow we find out our permanent sites which is the biggest surprise after our language announcement.  I honestly have no idea where I might be placed, I know in general the region but after that it's anyone's game.  It's pretty exciting because as soon as we get our site announcements we go and visit our sites on what Peace Corps calls Volunteer Visit.  This is where we travel (with Peace Corps Transportation) to the regional capitol and meet up with an existing volunteer to visit our future site and ask questions about our site, life as a volunteer there, etc.   I even got a bike because my volunteer said that it would make traveling more convenient.  I'm expecting this weekend (Thursday-Monday) to be a very intense, overwhelming, and exciting time.  I'm trying to think of all the questions I have or should have so that I can be the most prepared installing into my site at the end of November.

Last week we were at CBT for 11 days.  It was much less overwhelming than the initial CBT stay but everything is still so unusual and strange.  The language is becoming a bit easier although my family still speaks Wolof occasionally but now I am able to decipher a bit better between the two.  Last Friday we had our first Language Proficiency Interview which is Peace Corps' method of assessing the level of language comprehension and ability.  I was able to speak about my present, my past, and my future using a somewhat limited vocabulary after about 3 weeks of classes and immersion.  I think this is pretty great! I was thinking about how much Arabic I learned in a year at Bryn Mawr/Haverford and it is just amazing to see how great of an impact intense culture and language immersion has on one's language capabilities.

I am also adapting more to living with my family and I have adjusted much more to the daily pace of life which has been one of the biggest struggles for me.  I appreciate now, the down time under the neem or the gemelia arborea, when the wind is just right and the dapple shade provides a refuge during the hot afternoons.  Sitting around is still different, and definitely takes an adjustment but as my language improves (and even when it doesn't) I like trying to make jokes with my family using limited vocabulary to make them laugh or make myself seem silly. One of the younger kids in my extended compound is less than two years old and we call her Mamawa (her name is also Awa) and she has gotten quite close to me over this past stay.  Now, whenever I enter the compound she runs up to me saying Awa, Awa, Awa and puts her head between my legs.  She's always dirty, covered with sand, but she's such a bright addition to any moment in my day.  The other young person who has recently warmed up to me is Mambo, a boy of about two, who wouldn't come near me during my first stay.  Now, he greets me as well, extending his right hand or running up to give me a leg hug.  It is so nice that these kids have grown accustomed to me and to having me around and it will be sad for both me and them I assume when I leave for my permanent site.  Just the night before I left to come back to Thiès my aunt asked if I would come visit or if I would call regularly when I was at site.

One of the times when I was able to make my family laugh was during one evening when we were all sitting outside at the big compound watching TV and these enormous grasshoppers started hopping on top of everyone and everyone was squealing.  Mambo is terrified of all of them so he cries if one even gets close to him.  I was chasing after them into one of my aunt's houses and then at one point my host mom had one in her hand and I asked her if she was going to eat it and she laughed and said, no, are you?  I said maybe in one of the beignets that my aunt Jo cooks and they thought that was hysterical.  I'm sure half of what was actually funny was me trying to joke about eating a grasshopper stuffed into a beignet but I thought it was fun just to try and make a joke in Bambara.  Now they know that I like to laugh and that me laughing is a part of who I am.  It's interesting because not much laughing out loud actually happens in my family.  People will smile at something nice or funny, but big belly laughs don't really seem to exist in Senegalese culture so when I can make my aunts or my mom laugh it really brightens my day.

Photos, a post to come!

Here are my most recent photos!  I'll post a blog post this afternoon after my agricultural technical midterm!



http://liannareed.smugmug.com/Peace-Corps-Senegal-2014/October-2014/

N'toho ye Awa Kouloubali de ye

N’toho ye Awa Kouloubali de ye

My name is now Awa Kouloubali and I live in a village called Karamoho So which means house of the teacher in Bambara.  The village is mainly Bambara although there are also Wolof and Pulaar speakers as well.  One of the more difficult things that I have experienced during this past week is not knowing the difference between Bambara and Wolof when it is spoken in my family compound.  We just finished our first CBT stay (Community Based Training) and we are back at the training center as one large group for a few days and then we go back to our host families for ten days or so, this will happen for ten weeks or so, just until we swear in as official volunteers.  Right now we are not technically volunteers; we are trainees.  It is an odd stage to be in, as we are completely immersed in the culture and language at this point, but we are not doing much technical stuff and given our limited language skills after a week of class, there isn’t much communication that we can do. 

My room is on the left, the other room is where my mom sleeps with the three kids.  The building in the far left of the photo is the bathroom/shower.  Right next to my room, outside, is the kitchen.

Baba

I have a host mom named Koomba and a host father named Boubacar.  Nfaa (my father) is never home though because he has a small grocery store in Thiès (about 7km away) and an apartment and only comes home Friday until Sunday or so.  Nbaa (my mom) sells cashews in Thiès but she said that she is not working as much while I’m here (or at least I think that’s what she meant). There are three kids that live at my compound, which consists of two rooms, an outside toilet, and some “lawn.”  Ame is the oldest and is about 11, Baba is around 8 and Khadijah is 2 or 3.  It wasn’t until last night that I was finally told the whole story about my family.  I knew from the first day or so that my host mom was 25 so I thought it was a bit odd that she would have a 11 year old daughter but I figured that having children at a young age isn’t that unusual here.  Last night, Nbaa told me that she is in fact that second wife of Boubacar and that his first wife died during complications in childbirth with her third child Yaya (who is also deceased).  Ame and Baba are therefore the “stepchildren” of my host mom and she only has one biological child, Khadijah, This makes a lot of sense.  But Koomba and Ame (Boubacar’s first wife) are sisters.  In the compound next to mine is the rest of my family.  There I have a grandfather and a grandmother, who are the parents of Koomba, Ame, and all of my aunts and uncles.  There are generally 4 aunts and 2 husbands or so on a daily basis that all live in the same compound.  Then there are about 14 children from the ages of 4 months to 12 or so.  The first day I was completely overwhelmed by all of their names and after these past seven days I’m just beginning to know just about everyone.  At one point, for Bambara class, I made a family tree and figured out who the parents of all the kids were.  In my family compound, which is composed of 6 or so home buildings, a kitchen, and a room with two refrigerators that I’m not sure actually work there are 4 or 5 family units, all related.  I spend most of my days after class in the bigger compound with all of the kids, either doing my homework, just hanging out and trying to listen to their conversation, or watching them.  Sometimes I nap.  Around 4pm I usually go with my CBT partner (there are only two of us learning Bambara) to the garden (where we are doing our technical activities) and do some work; water our compost, double dig a bed or just berm.  It’s nice to be doing something hands on during the day. 

One of the hardest things for me is feeling bored and unproductive.  I’m completely immersed in the culture and the language, which isn’t boring or unproductive in itself, but it is a completely different way of living my life.  I’ve never had to live like this before.  I sit with my family, all of my aunt and cousins, and I’m surrounded by constant noise. The chatter of Bambara with the possibility of some Wolof mixed in is overwhelming but since my language and vocabulary is limited, I am not yet able to say enough to make myself feel productive in those situations.  And for me, an industrious and inquisitive American, I find that not speaking much or understanding much and just sitting isn’t doing anything.  I know that in reality, what I consider to be “doing nothing” is immersion.  What I have been doing for the past week is cultural and linguistic integration to an extreme but sometimes when I’m sitting under a neem tree it is hard for me to grasp that that is in fact what I’m doing.  I’m beginning to understand more that I will need to be patient with myself.  My language will come, and I will be able to converse.   But I also can learn to enjoy doing very little and having that become a part of who I am while in Senegal. 

Welcome to Thiès Training Center!

I have finally arrived in Senegal!  It was quite the adventure.  We had staging for less than 24 hours in New York and as we were about to leave for the airport, the two coach buses scheduled to pick us up did not arrive (they were, however, at the hotel at 1pm, 4 hours before we needed to depart for our flight).  We were supposed to load the buses and check into the airport as organized alphabetical groups, but since things did not turn out as anticipated we took 8 passenger vans (in no particular order) and then waited in the longest security line that I’ve ever seen.  Surprisingly, we made our flight and then proceeded to sit on the tarmac for almost an hour.  It turned out later, that the person we were waiting for was another PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) who won the Blog It Home contest, a sustainable agriculture volunteer, named Erika Hooker (http://senegalwritinghome.wordpress.com/). 

            We landed in Dakar and they immediately took our temperatures to check for any signs of Ebola.  Then we went through border patrol and retrieved our bags.  We had put orange yarn on all of our bags.  It is a Peace Corps tradition for each stage (that is what each sector/country group is called) to tie yarn to all of our baggage so that they are easily identifiable.  People also keep their yarn on their bags for years after service so that at any time another PCV could easily recognize another. I got one of my bags but the other never showed up (and I went through the process to report it missing through Delta) but it turned out that another trainee had pulled off my bag because they noticed the orange yarn, but never told me where it was.  Anyways, because I was the last person out of the airport I missed the large group going through customs (which we all got so skip) and upon leaving the airport this other PCV immediately started taking photographs of me, sweaty and completely overwhelmed.  This photograph you can see on the Peace Corps Senegal (peacecorpssenegal.org) website.  As the latest arrival to the vans I got the royal treatment and not only did I get a ride in one of the PC land cruisers, I also had the pleasure of sitting next to this woman, Erika (the woman who ended up our plane and won the Blog It Home competition and had just recently been in Washington DC on a tour for Peace Corps about PC Senegal, her work, and technology and the third goal of Peace Corps which is “helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans (in her case, as in mine, that of the Senegalese)).  Our vehicle that Erica and I were in, was driven by the head of safety and security, Mbouille who I have come to know is awesome.  We arrived at the training center to a huge dance party led by the Language and Cultural Facilitator (LCFs) who will be the ones who live in the same villages with us for CBT and teach us our languages.  It has been amazing and wonderful so far.  We haven’t left the Peace Corps Thiès Training Center but it has been nice to get acclimated to the weather, which has been humid, but less hot than I thought.  I have been speaking French to anyone that will talk with me and we have sat through many information sessions, mostly introductory about Pre-Service Training and the various thematic areas we will cover. 

            We have had sessions on international development and the role of Peace Corps in Senegal, as well as a session on the role of the volunteer in Peace Corps development.  We also had a session on food security and the relationship that Peace Corps has developed with USAID since 2008.  We are currently working with a $1 million budget from USAID on two goals that make up our project framework.  All of our projects within the agriculture sectors must align with this work.  Today we had language interviews, technical interviews, and medical interviews.  We will be finding out what language we will be learning at the end of this week and next Monday we will leave the training center for our CBT sites.  Today we also got fitted for complets, which are full Senegalese outfits.  We all got to choose fabric and a simple design because our first Senegalese holiday called Tabaski is coming up on October 4^th and we will participate in this holiday with our CBT families.   

            If there is something else that you would like to know, or if you have a specific question, please feel free to ask me because I can’t write about everything but I’m happy to try and give you as much information as I know. 

Update on the Ebola virus in West Africa

For those of you concerned about my safety (in relation to the ebola outbreak) here is information that may provide you some comfort.  

This Q&A from the NYTimes is very thorough. If you have any other questions, please ask me, as I have been keeping close tabs on the outbreak.  

Senegal closed its borders in March 2014.  

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/31/world/africa/ebola-virus-outbreak-qa.html

Welcome!

Welcome to Sustainable Senegal Vermont!

I am hoping that this blog will provide you, my friends and family, with as much information as I can provide you about my time in the Peace Corps.  My aim is to give you information on what my life is like, what my day-to-day experiences are, what my work is, and what my feelings surrounding the entire experience are.

This blog is meant to be as user friendly as possible.  You can see that there are five links to various pages at the top of the page.  If you click any of these titles, the link will bring you to a separate page with more information.  At any time if you click the large banner that reads "One Vermont woman..." you will be brought back to the home page with the blog roll of posts.

The About Me section is, well, just that.  Information about myself for anyone wondering what I am about.

The About Peace Corps is a section that provides a brief background/history of the Peace Corps and a number of statistics.  These are quick facts, but it will give you some information and allow you to look up any other details that might interest you.  On this page is a link to the Peace Corps website itself.

Keeping in touch is also self-explanatory. I love mail!  As many of you know, I am pretty good at writing letters back and forth and keeping in touch while overseas.  I would greatly appreciate any sort of mail you would like to send me.  It may take awhile to get to Senegal, but eventually it should arrive.  For those of you interested in sending letters and/or packages, please number your letters and packages so that I know if any of them have been lost along the way, particularly if you will be sending more than one item of mail during my tenure in West Africa.

Photographs, a link to my photo site.

And finally, Peace Corps Senegal has information on Senegal and a bit of history on the Peace Corps' involvement in Senegal.  This page also has a link to the Peace Corps Senegal site which is recently updated and quite interesting.  I am hoping to be able to point out other things on this site as I begin my training and continue with my service.

If you have any questions please feel free to comment on a post, or email me.  I looking forward to keeping in touch with you as I continue on this exciting adventure.

Starting out: Future Peace Corps Volunteer

As many of you know, I decided that after I finished college I would do something.  I have thought about what I would do once I graduated since I began my undergraduate career about four years ago. Joining the Peace Corps had always been in the back of my mind, but I only seriously considered it as a post-graduate job when I spent a summer at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia and met many amazing RPCV.  Once I decided that I would apply to something I only applied to the Peace Corps.  I applied in October and made no other inquiries for a job prospect.  I was convinced I would get it, and luckily I did.  My application process was surprisingly fluid and speedy.  Peace Corps describes the application process as a 9-12 month commitment (although recently they have changed this.  I applied in October of 2013 (the fall of my senior year) and I was accepted at the end of March 2014.

After the initial interview, I got to choose my top five placements and I was then funneled into the Agriculture program in Senegal which was my top choice.  I knew I wanted to be in a francophone country and having the opportunity to do sustainable agriculture in Senegal was terrific.  After the interview process I received my official nomination for Ag in Senegal and then after my legal pre-clearance I waited for my final and official invitation.  Many other people that I know that applied had many tasks to complete in order for their application to be more competitive.  I think that my fluency in French definitely helped speed up my application process.

After receiving my invitation, I immediately accepted the position.  I was given a position was a sustainable agriculture extension agent in Senegal.  Most likely I'll be placed somewhere rural and my guess is that I'll have three or four communities (small villages) within some sort of small radius (maybe 20 miles) and those I'll bike to.  After that, I'll be working with farmers, women's market garden groups, community gardens, etc and helping to improve their sustainable practices.

The Sahel (which is an ecoclimatic and biogeographic zone that stretches across the continent) experienced almost fifty years of drought (off and on) that has changed what the Senegalese grow and how they grow it.  These practices will include improving seed extension, extending erosion control and water catchment techniques.  I will also be working with individual (and community farmers) in improving field crop management such as soil preparation, seeding, pest control, timely planting, timely weeding, and timely harvest.  These practices will hopefully help to improve food production in Senegal and develop an independent and productive system for the Senegalese population.

One of the things that I have become most aware of is my position as an American volunteer in Senegal.  I have studied African politics for 6 years and I understand the implications of Americans doing work in countries in the Global South.  But having never been to Africa (but knowing a number of people and having done lots of work on Africa/with Africans) I am aware of how I should position myself as a volunteer, visitor, and as a community member.