Biir bu daw

I have returned to the training center in Thies after being in Mboro for 1 1/2 weeks.  The end of training is truly nearing the corner now, and I can't wait.  I will only be in Mboro for 2 more days, so I took the majority of my belongings with me when I left.  When my family saw me carrying so much from my room (it's amazing how much I accumulated in my small room as a result of so many short visits during which I brought more and more stuff), they panicked and assumed I was not coming back.  Despite the explanation I had given them the night before and my reassurances that morning, I don't think they were convinced I was ever returning.  So I showed them the sheets still on my bed, my filter still set up, my wash bucket still in the corner of my room - all evidence that I had to return.  It was nice to see how much they enjoyed having me in their house and didn't want me to leave.

But I am jumping ahead of myself and must backtrack to my time in Mboro during this stay.  My language skills have improved so much more during this stay.  I attribute this completely to my wonderful teacher, Aissatu, as well as the format of language learning in the Peace Corps - we have language classes in small groups for about 6 hours a day (approximately 4 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening), are completely immersed in the language, and are not surrounded by many other Americans so we are not distracted by speaking english or engaging in other pasttimes with our peers.  My language class has been reduced to just 2 of us.  (The 3rd girl was switched to learning Mandinka instead as the village she is placed in is predominantly Mandinka.)  Having just one other student in a language class allows for conversation to easily flow back and forth; as we each tell stories and question each other, it begins to feel natural to speak in Wolof.  (My classmate has unfortunately fallen sick, so I have reaped the benefit of several days of 1-on-1 classes with Aissatu, though Anne is definitely missed.)

Three days ago, we held a discussion for women in the community about malaria and diarrhea.  12 women came to learn in Wolof (from just me) and Pular (from 2 Pular trainees also living in Mboro) about these issues.  It was interesting to hear their thoughts on these issues.  One woman said that babies who nursed were more prone to diarrhea.  Another said that garbage caused malaria.  But for the most part these women were well informed about these sicknesses.  I think their knowledge is in part due to their location; they live in a large town.  (Here I need to correct a statement from an earlier post.  My brother Michael has so graciously Wikipediaed Mboro and found that it has a population of about 12,000, so it is actually much smaller than EB.  Though these statistics should be taken with a grain of salt; it is very difficult to get census data in Senegal and the developing world in general.)  They also were well informed about the importance of using a mosquito net (though most did not understand that they should use this in the dry season as well-not just the wet season).  And they understood the importance of drinking water to prevent dehydration when you have diarrhea.  (Interestingly, the Wolof word for diarrhea is "biir bu daw," literally "stomach that runs.")  We taught them how to make ORS - a solution containing salt, sugar, and water that is good for replenishing electrolytes when you have diarrhea.  We also made neem cream, a mosquito repellent made of soap, oil, and leaves from the neem tree.  This cream is very effective at reducing the risk for malaria.  (However, I am also told that not much research has been conducted on how effective it also is and how often the cream should be reapplied.  This all just shows how much more research is needed for the developing world.)  The women were all very intrigued by the neem cream.  They had never heard of it before (though they had put neem leaves on burns) and were all eager to participate and watch us make the cream.  They also offered some of their traditional malaria prevention techniques - using a cream composed of a different plant as well as calling for the powers of a mystical being to find 3 sticks that prevent malaria.  It was very interesting to talk with them, and I was glad when they told my teacher that my Wolof was very good.  I had successfully led this discussion, explained how to make ORS and neem cream, answered their questions, and understood their responses to me in Wolof.

This session taught me that there is much I can offer my village in terms of malaria and preventative health education.  In many parts of Senegal, people are much less educated than these women.  As I said earlier, Mboro is a larger town so the people tend to be slightly wealthier.  The women we gathered were more involved members of the community.  Additionally, Mboro has an "aunt of the community," a woman who works for the health post to spread important information.  She holds monthly sessions with women about different health issues of their choosing, speaks to women who did not attend the baby weighing and vaccinations to encourage them to attend the next time, speaks with men who are not treating their wives properly, and conducts other critical community health outreach.  My language group was fortunate to be able to speak with her (we went to her house, requested to speak to her, and sat in her bedroom for 30 minutes asking her questions until she needed to go to the market to shop for lunch).  Her job is truly important for the entire community, and I am very impressed by her work and passion for it.

The rest of my time in Mboro passed somewhat uneventfully.  I ate maffe for the first time, and it immediately became my favorite Senegalese dish.  It is a peanut-sauce on rice, served sometimes with meat. Absolutely delicious.  I also spent two days sick and unable to eat food for an entire day.  After skipping on both lunch and dinner, as well as spending all afternoon and evening in my room rather than with my family, my mother and sister rushed into my bedroom to find me lying on my bed in the dark.  They were extremely concerned about my well-being; again, it is nice to know that my family cares so much about me.  (Thankfully, I am better now.)  For the two days after that, every time I entered a room, they asked me if I was feeling better.  And in Wolof, the answer always is yes, I am feeling better (even if you're not).

So as I said in the beginning, I am now back at the training center.  As before, it feels like I am at summer camp, and everyone is itching to get to their permanent sites.  But it is nice to see everyone again.

Waxtaan ci lekk gu sell ak seen wa ker

Let me just take the time to recount two more events from visiting my village.  As I said in my last post, we took public transportation to get there.  I was jammed in the first row of the van, next to five other people (the van is the width of a minivan in the US).  Somehow, when climbing out of the van, I managed to rip a huge hole in my skirt, right at the butt.  When I rolled my skirt up to hide this hole, the skirt was too short and didn't cover my knees, so I had to resort to pulling my shirt down really far in the back and hoping no one would notice.  Talk about making a good first impression...

Later that day, we decided to take a walk to the Gambian border.  To get there, we walked through another village along a bush path (path through the sand/off the main road).  A group of children formed behind us and grew as we continued, picking up more people along the main road.  By the time we reached the border town, we had a large following of children.  It must've been funny to see.

I also don't know if I mentioned this last time, but my village doesn't have electricity and gets its water from a well.  I'm very excited to live without technology, which my langauge teacher thinks is very bizarre.

So after visiting my village, I returned to the training center for a day for some technical, medical, and safety training; and now I am back with my host family in Mboro for a stay of one and a half weeks.  To be honest, I wasn't excited about coming back to Mboro; after seeing my permanent site, I just wanted to go there and begin my service.  But, as I rounded the corner near my house on Monday evening, my sentiments were immediately reversed by my 3 little brothers running toward me and screaming excitedly, "Aida Job, Aida Job!"  I couldn't have been welcomed more warmly and am glad to be back.

It's been about two weeks since I was last here, and it's exciting to see how much my language skills have improved since then.  I can now communicate much more with my family.  Yesterday, my language class had a "waxtaan ci lekk gu sell ak seen wa ker" (discussion about nutrition with our families) conducted all in Wolof.  We introduced the importance of healthy eating for children, explained exclusive breastfeeding and then complementary foods for babies, and made a vitamin-rich porridge for the mothers and the children to try.  In the porridge, we put flour, sugar, oil, water, peanut butter, bananas, and meringa.  (Meringa is an amazing plant-in just a small pinch of dried/crushed merigna, there is a vast majority of the vitamins needed for the day and is extremely cheap to buy or can be found growing all over Senegal.  It seems too good to be true, as one volunteer put it.  In Wolof, it is nicknamed "neberdi" after the english "never die" because it is so healthy.)  I was glad to find that this recipe developed by the Peace Corps was well received by adults and children alike, and some even said that they will start adding peanut butter, bananas, and meringa to the porridges they make.  So, despite the fact that vocabulary limitations made it a very rudimentary session, it was altogether a success.

Today, we spent the morning at the health post, assisting with baby weighing and vaccinations.  We had tried to come watch this several times before, but the health post hadn't received the vaccines each time.  Finally; the vaccines had arrived.  We got to play an integral role in this process.  I was in charge of weighing the babies (the weight would then be used to determine if the baby had adequate nutrition) while others in my group held the baby, prepared the vaccine shots, and delivered oral vaccines/nutrition supplements.  Altogether, we vaccinated about 50 babies.  It was great to see how the process occurs and to be able to assist in it.  In our sites, we will be helping with these as well and perhaps working on improving the organization of it.  I do also have to say that a lot of babies in Senegal do not come and those are often the ones who are malnourished and need the supplements and also means that not all babies are receiving the vaccines, despite the small cost of only 100 cfa for the visit.  There are a lot of reasons for lack of attendance including mothers not having the time to go (some waited for over 5 hours) or being embarrassed that their child may not weigh enough.

To continue this blog filled with short random stories, I will list some of my pasttime accomplishments here, which oddly (and unintentionally) all relate to the number 3.  1: I have crocheted three hats for family members.  (Yarn here is cheap, but not consistent.  One ball that I bought had continuously different thicnknesses, and another ball had several breaks in the thread that had simply been knotted together.) 2: Read three books and started a fourth-all excellent, and I highly recommend them all.  (Purple Hibiscus; Prodigal Summer; Modern Piracy and the High Seas; and Desert Solitaire.)  3: Went to the tailor to have three outfits (two skirts and one dress) made from bright, beautiful fabric that I bought in the market.

And finally, I'd like to take some time to explain Peace Corps because I don't think I've done that yet, and some of you might be wondering what exactly I am doing here.  Peace Corps Senegal is a 26 month program; the first 2 months consist of training, and the next 2 years are service in the community.  As an environmental ed/health volunteer, I can work on projects as diverse as building latrines, covering wells, baby weighing, maternal health, youth programs, girls' empowerment, community gardening, and much more.  We spend training learning some of these technical skills, as well as medical and safety information at the training center in Thies.  We also spend a majority of training with a host family for what is called community-based training, where I am in Mboro.  Here, we learn langauge and cultural skills.  This way, when training is over, we will have the language to interact with the village and the means to learn more language there.  We will then have an in-service training about 2 months after we begin service to learn more technical skills.  In essence, less than one month until my service begins!

Wolunteer bu bees.

I just returned from spending 5 days with a current volunteer (Lisa) living near my site. I was able to see the projects that she's working on, meet some of the community members she coordinates projects with, spend time with her family, and then spend a day in my village. And I was able to eat lots of fresh mangoes-I don't think I'll ever get sick of eating them, they're so delicious and juicy and cheap!!

We hadn't been able to contact anyone in my village prior to arrival because they didn't pick up their phones. So on Thursday morning, we decided to head down there anyway. We had planned on biking the 25 kilometers from her town (Nioro) to my village, and she had even borrowed a bike for me, but we realized her tire was flat and decided to take public transport down instead. The busses that travel between cities are packed full of people-imagine a 12 person passenger van packed with 20-25 people; we were all jammed in together. The road from Nioro south is a major road (it connects Senegal to the Gambia), but it is in very poor condition with huge pot holes and some parts not even fully paved. Needless to say, it took us about an hour and a half to arrive at the crossroads that leads to my village. We walked down this road for about a kilometer and then turned onto a bush path (a path in the sand/dirt that donkey carts, motorcycles, and people can walk on but cars don't drive on) for about a kilometer until we reached my village.

We asked a few boys to lead us to my family's compound, and they were very excited to see me. I have two mothers, and one decided to take me around to meet everyone in the village. I was introduced to people as "Wolunteer bu bees" (The new volunteer) here to help the village in the areas of health and the environment, but not to give any money. The village is very open; unlike other villages in Senegal where each family has a fenced-in compound and then individual huts (essentially detached rooms) within the fencing, my village does not have any fencing at all. It is an agricultural community, farming primarily millet and some peanuts, and a very beautiful area. Even though it is sandy, there are a lot of neem trees and of course the crops in the fields. There is also a school with 2 classes, and the teachers are very friendly.

I met about half the people before we headed back to my family's compound to sit and talk for a little. I was a little overwhelmed and also still cannot speak too much Wolof, so Lisa told them all about me and asked them lots of questions about the village. They then noticed that we were getting tired, so they swept out my hut (newly built for me and still requiring a bit of roof patching) and laid a mat down for us to nap on. When we woke up, they had brought us lunch and family and friends were sitting in the hut with us. We ate, spoke with them for awhile, and had tea. They are all very excited for me to come live with them and also very encouraging about my language skills, promising me that they'll help me improve my Wolof. Also, as my mother put it, everyone in the village loves to smile and laugh; a perfect setting for me to live in.

I am so excited to finish training and begin working at my site. I can't wait to get to know everyone in my village, learn about them, and begin working on projects. It was also nice to follow Lisa around and to meet Meg and Courtney (other volunteers in the Nioro area). All of them are amazing people with a great attitude, and I am happy to be located so close to them. The location of my village is also great because it feels remote, but Nioro is easily bikable (or I can take the public transport) and there are also 2 road towns within 2 km of me with markets to buy food or supplies at. I am also only about 2 km from the border with Gambia, and we walked to Farfenni (a city in Gambia) in half an hour. So the location of the village is perfect for me. Today, when I met up with my fellow Peace Corps trainees, I could not stop raving about my village. Less than a month, and I can finally live there! Now I just need to focus on improving my Wolof so that I can communicate when I arrive there; my motivation for my language classes has now drastically increased....And I can't stop smiling to myself!

Maangiy nekk ci Kaolack.

Today we learned where our site for the next 2 years is located...Maangiy nekk ci Kaolack. (I live in the Kaolack region.) I will be very close to the border with Gambia in a village of approximately 200 people. I will be traveling there tomorrow to stay with the closest volunteer to me (about 23 km away - a 2 hour bike ride), and I am so excited to see my village.

They told us our sites in a very unique, dramatic fashion. We were all blindfolded and placed on a map of Senegal at our location. Then, we all removed our blindfolds at the same time to see where we were and who is near us. I admit that I became very nervous as I stood there waiting to remove the blindfold, for my life situation for the remainder of the Peace Corps to be revealed. I am very excited about the other trainees who will be close to me, as well as the trainees in the Gambia who are right across the border.

Essentially, I am just excited now to begin my work; this is the most eager I have been since I arrived in Senegal, and I finally feel that I am really in the Peace Corps.

Maangiy jeem!

I am currently back at the training center in Thies learning more about my personal health/safety in Senegal as well as health and environmental issues the people face.

First, my two exciting pieces of news. We had our first of 3 language assessment orals. I received the level of intermediate-low, which is very good after 3 weeks of language classes. This is the 4th level, and I need to increase by just one level by the end of training to pass (though obviously the better I am by the end, the easier communicating in my village will be). And, my other good news, yesterday I successfully bartered in Wolof in the market. After greeting and telling the shopkeepers what I wanted, I was able to reduce the cost of a bag in half-to just $3. Maangiy jeem! (I'm trying!)

While in Mboro, I began to fall into a routine. Wake up at 7:30, meet another trainee for a morning run, shower, study Wolof, eat breakfast, and then head to my teacher's house at 9:30. Wolof classes usually lasted 3 or 4 hours, then I would go home, spend some time with my family, eat lunch, review my Wolof notes, and sometimes nap before heading back to my teacher's house at 4:00. At this time, we would have another Wolof class for about an hour. Afterward, we generally went to the garden to work. And then I would go to the market to buy some fruit before returning home to spend time with my family, crochet (I made a hat for my newborn niece and one for one of my sisters), read, watch television, eat dinner, read a bit, and go to sleep.

As practice for our permanent site, we established a garden at the school. With the students' help, we created about 5 garden beds and a compost pile. We then planted vegetables and tree seedlings in the beds. Since the soil is essentially a sand box, I am very pleased that these seeds are growing - I guess the double digging and soil amendment techniques the Peace Corps taught us are effective. (Double digging is a way to loosen the soil and allow for the addition of soil amendments, which are the addition of compost, manure, wood ash, and charcoal to the soil to act as fertilizer and pest deterrents.) So we often return to the school to add to the garden, water it (using water drawn from the school's well), and weed. We also painted a mural at the school of a woman taking her baby to the health post. I was impressed by how good the mural turned out. We used a grid technique - by drawing a grid on the wall, and then focusing on the lines for each specific box (based upon a grid of the picture on a piece of paper), no artistic talent was necessary.

Let me also take this time to write a bit about my family. My father is polygamous, so in addition to my mother, he has one other wife. Polygamy is legal in Senegal, and many men see it as an obligation to have more than one wife if they can. Sometimes they marry both at the same time, and other times they wait awhile before taking another wife. Some times all the wives live in one compound (as in my family's case) and other times they live in different compounds and even different cities; sometimes the wives don't even know that their husbands have additional wives. I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to talk with women in different situations to hear about their experiences with polygamy. My mother has 5 children - 2 girls and 3 boys. The youngest is 4 years old. Also, one of my sister's grandchildren lives with us. There is also another couple that lives in the compound with us. I think in total, 15 people live in the compound, though it is difficult to tell because people are always coming and going. There is my father, my mother, my mother's co-wife, my older sister, her newborn baby, my younger sister, my two older brothers, my younger brother, my nephew, the other couple, and a few other people who I am not sure how they are related. My family is all very nice, though they only speak Wolof and there have been some funny communication problems.

The weather has been pleasant so far. We arrived at the end of the cold dry season/beginning of the hot dry season. (The third season in Senegal is the hot rainy season.) Since it's the dry season, there is no humidity, which is nice. The temperature has also been moderate, and there have been one or two evenings where I've even considered a jacket. I admit that one night my sheet wasn't enough, and I woke up cold debating cracking out my sleeping bag. (How have I acclimated so quickly?) But during the day, it heats up, and I am usually sweating by mid-day.

So that's it for today. The next time I write, I will know where in Senegal I will be located for the next 2 years!

Toubab Toubab!

Silence is hard to find here in Senegal, as I am constantly surrounded by a cacophany of sounds, some familiar, some new. There are always voices calling across to each other. In my house, my family members are constantly calling one another by name and shouting commands or comments. Sometimes, it is my mohter with her deep, raspy voice calling to one of her children to do a chore. Other times, it is my sister or aunt reprimanding a child or telling something to someone else in the compound. And of course, there are the sounds of children laughing, playing, or crying, as well as the voices of neighbors visiting and children coming to buy peanuts or baobab from my mother. All of these conversations are ones I strain to listen to, so that I can pick out the few words I understand in Wolof. But Senegalese love to talk and laugh - if you think I talk alot, you should hear how much they speak.

In my house, there's also the sound of goats baying behind the gate. (Interestingly, the Wolof word for goat is 'baay.') Then there's the sound of flip flops sloshing on the ground, doors opening and closing, money clinking into the can as people pay my mother for the food she sells, and metal utensils scraping bowls. There's also an occasional mooing or crowing from cows, roosters screeching, or cats fighting. All of these are noises I am not accustomed to. It's the other sounds I hear that I am particularly interested in. I have woken up many morning to a "pshing" sound, that of clothes being washed by hand in buckets outside my windows. It seems that in order for clothes to be considered clean, they must be rubbed together in such a way as to produce this squishing sound. I also hear the morning call to prayer and Muslim songs ringing out from the mosque nearby. There are also the sounds of other chores - there is often teh sound of sweeping (done with a handleless broom), pots banging together, and water being poured into buckets for household use (as well as personal washing).

And finally, the other normal sounds in my house include chairs and wooden benches being slid across the floor, the outhouse door banging closed, bowls being set down, and cell phones ringing. One of the most common sounds in the house, besides talking, is of the television. It is almost always on with Wolof soap operas, French soap operas, and sometimes (if I'm lucky) the news. They even leave the tv on during dinner. (I have probably watched more tv in the past 2 weeks than in the past 4 years of my life combined.) Sometimes, my father will have his radio on at the same times as the tv is playing.

So noises in my house usually begin around 4 or 5 am with door squeaking open, voices calling out, and my father's radio turning on. They last until the tv is turned off and people stop talking around midnight. Only during those few short hours is there no noise in my house, an unusual sound.

But of course there are also sounds from the streets. Often, there are the sounds of religious music and singing that comes in loud and continues for awhile. Then, there are constantly people passing and greeting each other and children playing. Without adult supervision, it's almost like Lord of the Flies at times with "gangs" of children running around. There are the sounds of squeaky doors and gates as well as coins being clinked. On the main street, there are donkey and horse drawn carts with the clonk-clonk of the hooves and the dragging of the carts. There are the sounds of old cars and motorcycle engines, car doors slamming, and people tapping on the cars. Also, people banging on objects, voices encouraging you to buy something, and the crash of things falling.

Impossible to escape is the sound of "Toubab Toubab" in the street, as children run up to shake my hand or ask me my name. Toubab is the Wolof word for foreigner, or someone dressed well. Once I tell them my name, it is shouted after me, and they remember it for the next time they see me and tell it to other children as well.

At the training center, there is also the sound of birds chirping in the trees, cats fighting with each other, and dogs barking.

All together, these sounds all keep me constantly entertained and preoccupied. When I do wake up int he middle of the night and hear the silence, it is overpowering and seems unusual. Sounds are the norm here.