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!