Hello my wonderful readers around the world! I thought I owed you a post because it has been awhile. I have been back in Botou for about three weeks, next week is our Girls' Leadership Conference and eventually my real life should start...
Just kidding.
Life in Botou is wonderful, complex, beautiful, and my whole life right now. Yes, sometimes it seems boring or slow, but I have come to love my life as a villager in Botou. I spend much of my time with other villagers, my friends and my family. Sometimes my life here seems like a hiatus from my real life, as if it isn't my real life but some sort of break that I'll stop after 27 months and go back to my America and my "life." But in reality, and something that has become clear from the moment that I became comfortable in Botou, my life is here. Botou is my life. Peace Corps Senegal is my life. At the same time my life is so much different than those of the lives people are continuing at home.
I love walking through my village, taking photographs of people and their babies. I enjoy shelling peanuts, listening to village gossip, and most importantly speaking Bambara and getting to know my fellow village mates. But sometimes it is hard when there doesn't seem like there is much to "do." I'm working on a grant for my school garden, waiting for my tree sack and tree seed order to come through, and helping people with dry season gardening techniques but all of those things are very slow coming. Minutes here, minutes there. But I've also come to realize that my job is speaking Bambara, learning about people, and being in Botou.
I will post a blog next week about the Girls' Leadership Conference!
Love your posts, Lianna! Keep up your great work! Barb
ReplyDeleteHi Lianna, trying to figure out why I can't publish to your blog.
ReplyDeleteSharon, you can't publish a post on my blog, but you can comment like you just did. Is that what you meant?
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