Fall Recap

And in a blink of an eye it’s the end of November! Looking back to the last time I posted a blog, it seems as if someone hit the fast forward button. Rainy season is finally coming to an end, people in my village are starting to harvest their crops, I now have my hands on our much anticipated baseline survey, and I’ve been struck with my first battle of Giardia…I don’t suggest it. The end of September slash beginning of October seemed to be filled with birthday party after birthday party. The highlight was definitely celebrating my friend’s 30^th birthday in her village, which is about 12 miles away from mine. We introduced her family to the classic American game ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ and ate so much fried food; oil was seeping out of our pores by the end of the day. I ended the streak of birthday parties by travelling 16 hours north to the sandy and quaint region of Linguere to celebrate yet another friend’s birthday.

The landscape in the north is much different than my neck of the woods. It’s definitely the land of sand with scary thorn bushes and a lot less biking. In order to get to my friend’s village we had to take a bush taxi. I don’t even want to imagine trying to bike in the sand, but that bush taxi couldn’t have been much more enjoyable. This “taxi” is basically a flatbed truck with planks of wood across the back serving as benches. These benches are lifted, allowing the bed of the truck to still be used to carry luggage and, if need be, various animals. It gets better. They cram as many people as they can on top of these trucks and you must hang on for dear life as the truck speeds through the sandy maze of trees. The trees become an issue too because if the branches are hanging too low, everyone has to duck in order not to be whacked in the face! Once we reached her village though everything was fine. Our villages are actually quite similar, minus the landscape. And we even got a chance to paint some proverbs in her local language at the health hut.

From the quaint streets of Linguere we rented out a sept place with a few other volunteers from our training group to the bustling streets of Thies for the annual health summit. We were joined by the rest of our training group as well as volunteers from the health stage a year ahead of us to share project ideas and to also fatten up with the delicious training center food. It’s always exciting getting together with everyone in Thies, but also extremely exhausting. Our days are filled with various sessions and by night we’re ready to hit the town. My friends and I have renamed Thies (pronounced “Chess”) Thies Vegas even though this big town is far from the actual sin city. After so many weeks in village though, the makeshift bar at the Catholic family’s compound can sometimes feel like a night out on the strip…minus the lights…and premium spirits…and dress code. But you know what? I’ve actually come to appreciate my $3 flask of “London’s Best Seller Gin” no matter how misleading its name is.

My host brothers sacrificing a goat...right outside of my room.

Summit was followed by two completely opposite holidays. The first being Tabaski when my family slaughtered a goat and feasted on it for the following two days. Yes, two days, and remember that we are living without electricity, which means no refrigerator, which also means by day three my stomach was not feeling its finest. This significant Islamic holiday was followed by one of America’s most significant holidays, Halloween. Tambacounda hosted their infamous Halloween party and a group of us from my region took a quick 36-hour trip to partake in the festivities. I’m curious to know what the hotel staff must have thought seeing a bunch of Disney characters running around their establishment. Although I must admit, we were definitely the best dressed group at the party…shout out to my tailor who whipped up my costume in a mere three hours with nothing but a hand drawn picture of Aladdin!

Kedougou volunteers dressed up for Halloween.

And in between all the crazy Peace Corps happenings I’ve also been enjoying the simple life in village. School has finally started up and so I’ve been able to follow-up on the girls scholarship program I began last school year. I also invited Awa, a Senegalese woman who works for Peace Corps, to speak in my village on the importance of staying in school and communication between parents and children. To my surprise, the meeting went extremely well and was especially perceived well by the fathers present. It was reassuring to receive so much support and recognition and to know that my credibility has somewhat gone up with the adults in my village. Now for the next month I will be solely focusing on finishing up my baseline survey and hopefully when the survey is finished I will be able to pinpoint my village’s main problems. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back home and I will try to be better at updating my blog!!

Some of the girls in my village who attended the meeting on girl's education.