It’s the most wonderful time of the year, but it hardly
feels like it as I’m sitting out in my family’s compound sweating my face off.
Actually, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. The temperature has significantly
dropped and we’re probably sitting at a comfortable low 90’s. I’ve actually had
to pull my sleeping bag out at night and my family sits around a fire after
dinner, which has become one of my favorite times of day. Nonetheless, this
“cool” weather has not really put me in the holiday spirit. I suppose living in
a Muslim village where no one really knows about Christmas has something to do
with it. So instead I’ve been playing Christmas music in my hut and dreaming of
a white Christmas just like the one I used to know in Seattle when the city
shut down after two inches fell. I remember being at home around this time last
year and seeing all the Facebook posts from friends abroad saying how much they
miss the Seattle weather, and I would think to myself, “These people are NUTS!”
It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I realized, I am one of those nuts. I
literally fantasize about wearing my winter jackets and getting excited over
those silly red Starbucks cups, and it’s even sillier because I order iced
coffees year round so I don’t even get a holiday cup! So maybe it’s not so much
the weather I miss, but the feeling of home that the weather brings with it.
Either way I would kill to sit in my car waiting for the windows to defrost,
call me crazy.
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| Working hard, sitting in the shade, picking peanuts. |
In other news, I finally finished my baseline survey. From
doing baby weighings since the start of my service, I already decided that I
want to focus my work towards maternal and child health. For that reason I only
visited families with infants under the age of two. I luckily had my
counterpart with me to ask the more difficult questions, while I was still able
to ask the less complex questions and seem somewhat competent in the Jaxanke
language. All that’s left now is to input my data into an Excel spreadsheet so
I can make sense of these numbers. Of course I’m still waiting for this said
spreadsheet from admin, but after all, it is the holiday season and we could
all go for a little break right now. Aside from the never-ending survey, I’ve
been trying to live a little more in the moment and simply enjoy my time here.
So I actually went out to the fields with my family a couple days to see what a
normal day of work would look like. Yes, you’re reading this correctly; I
actually went to the peanut field and rice paddy to work! I mean granted, my
brother assigned me the job of picking peanuts off the plant, sitting in the
shade under a tree, and insisting I take multiple breaks so my hands wouldn’t
hurt. At the end of the day my family seemed overwhelmingly grateful.
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| My family's field of peanuts. |
A few days later I decided to give the fields another shot.
If it were going to be anything like the other day, work would be a breeze.
Wrong. That particular day I got a late start to my day so I headed out to the
rice paddy with the women. We stopped at the last compound on the edge of village
to fill buckets of water for everyone to drink before heading out into the
grassy bush. I volunteered to carry one of the three larger buckets of water on
my head so my host grandmother would only have to carry the small bucket, which
was still probably two gallons worth. I had an idea that the rice paddy was
far, but I didn’t realize how far that actually was until it felt like my neck
and upper back were about to give in. My grandma kept telling me to trade with
her, but I could not let that old woman show me up…and she’s also about half my
size so I would have just felt guilty! Once at the paddy, the men were already
hard at work. By then, all the rice plants had been harvested. It was just a
matter of getting the rice off of the plant and what better way of doing that
than repeatedly hitting the plants with four foot long sticks! So the plants
were piled in the center of the tarp as eight to ten men stood around the pile
simultaneously hitting the rice with full force, starting with the stick raised
behind their heads and striking in a completely vertical motion. It was quite a
sight to see and seemed very harmonious and almost dancelike. I was able to try
it a few rounds and let me say that they sure made it look way easier than it was.
I also needed to be aware of the people standing next to me as I swung the
stick back around my head to prepare for the next hit. In the end, I was really
happy I went because not only was I able to bond with my family, I got a really
good arm workout. In all honestly
though, I am definitely starting to feel closer with my family here and I think
it’s developing at a time when family and friends are missed the most. So Merry
Christmas from Senegal and know that I truly appreciate all the love and support
I’m receiving back home.
