Saturday, August 30, 2008

Why my blog is boring

I've realized that my blog entries have become less rich, less detailed and interesting lately; compared to how they were during training in Thies; or my first few months at site. The reason for this, I think, is that I"m used to it all. Riding along in a rickety white minivan, hurtling through potholes and getting out to push this questionable vehicle through the mud, is no longer a noteworthy event. I don't feel thrilled or overwhelmed as I navigate the narrow aisles of the weekly market, walking past ladies selling cheap jewelry or cosmetics; guys with tables loaded down with betteries, pens, and other miscellania; louma pharmacists vending dubious pills of unknown composition. I find myself - loaded down with several kilos of vegetables, beans, or perhaps some dried, salted fish - wandering in search of a beignet seller or a girl with a bowl of frozen bissap juice bags on her head. And this is normal. Passing carts pulled by bony horses, their tales rubbed raw from contact with the wooden boards, no longer shocks me as it used to. Stepping over piles of litter and dark puddles of unknown muck, while wearing flip-flops, is not a frightening activity. Herds of sheep or frolicking families of goats, ownerless cats or dogs, all picking their way through the garbage for a snack, is a daily sight. Even the bright colors have become second-nature to me. Shocking orange and pink print fabric, worn perhaps as a figure-hugging complet, blends in with the many other striking colors and scenery that I see, every day, every week. So, inevitably, I notice these thigns less. They cease to be noteworthy for me, and thus do not get mentioned in this blog, and therefore are not passed on to you all. In my head I know that the USA is not like this, and that even mundane aspects of my life here are meaningful for those who don't live them, but it is hard to remeber what is worth recording anymore. I get excited by flowering sesame plants, for God's sake! Tree saplings make me clap my hands and when I get greasy rice for lunch it is a big deal. I am pleased when it rains enough to fill my buckets so I don't have to pull water from the well. That's what the Peace Corps does to you. I have no perspective on the world anymore. Is this blog even interesting? I find ripening millet to be interesting! But as I said, I am so far gone now that I have forgotten what's worth writing down.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Putting Keur Ali Gueye on the Map

My neighbor Wanna painting the names on the countries of the world.Last week Wanna came over to help me paint maps on the school walls. With the inevitable flock of children clustered around the door, studying our every move, we painted in all the colors of the countries of the world on one wall, a map of the African continent on another, and a large map of Senegal on a last wall. It was a fun project! Though not improved by the breathing in of paint fumes and the use of a mysterious mixing chemical, which may or may not have been turpentine. Anyway, the walls of the school look beautiful! We wrote out all the country names and labeled everything and, though there are some tiny inaccuracies (which we fixed as best we could, drawing lines and erasing borders) the whole ensemble is colorful and really exciting for the kids. They took off singing the Senegalese national anthem as we painted the country map, along with the occasional refrains of "We Shall Overcome", which I still hear often from my visitors' and my song teaching adventure. Now one whole room of the school is bright with maps that the children can study during their breaks, or during class, I hope. The plan is to use the remaining paint to put murals on the walls of the other classrooms. At the moment the school is very bland, so unlike what I remember from elementary school, with colorful posters, paintings, quotes, and art projects hanging everywhere. So murals will really improve the atmosphere.
And now, the millet is above my head! It's starting to produce "candles" - the long, thin heads of grain - though now they are in the flowering stage. It is a deep kind of contentment, walking next to a towering field of heavy-topped grass, hearing the wind rustle through the leaves, and know that this is our food. Corn is producing ears, though not ripe ones yet, and the beans are absolutely fantastic. People are already harvesting and eating some of the dried pods! I have on occasion pilfered a green pod, too. Tastes like fresh green beans. Though I am growing fond of the many ways Senegalese find to prepare black-eyed peas too. Also, two small cashew fields have been planted and are doing well, and one farmer (with my help, but only a LITTLE help!) has planted a live fence of thorny tree saplings around his orchard. Yay! That's EXACTLY what we want to see! The women are beginning to weed the bissap field, too, which will no doubt occupy our days for several months once it ripens, as it did when I first arrived in the village last November. And Ramadan is coming soon. When it arrives, I will have been here a year - a lunar year, since it started the day after I set foot into Senegal.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The Daily Grind

Farming goes on daily, which means lots of bending over at the waist for weeding. Just yesterday my host brothers and sisters and I finished up on my host dad's big peanut field, so they were feeling pretty good. I spent a blessedly cool afternoon weeding in a few other people's fields, just to keep busy. Though it's hard on the back, there is something inherently relaxing about monotonous physical labor; you can let your mind wander and you complete the repetitive task, row by row, back and forth across the field. I am getting better at it, my body slowly growing accustomed to straining different muscles, but I still lag far behind most everybody when we're farming. There have been three good rains this past week, so the soil is heavy and damp. The crops look really good for the most part. Some of the corn is stringy, because the soil is not rich enough to support it, and farmers didn't add fertilizer (probably most could not afford to buy it) but the peanuts are thick and growing taller - they are the priority crop in this area - and the millet is puffing out into thick, many-tillered bushes. Hard to believe just a few weeks ago it looked like tender blades of grass, scattered tenuously around a huge brown field. Now you can't see the ground in most places, for the concentration of sprawling millet leaves. Cowpeas are so far the most satisfying crop for me to watch. They're so quick to mature, one farmer already has green pods starting to develop! We'll be cooking beans in no time.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Contrast

Just for a bit of perspective: a photo of the same classic baobab tree,
in the rainy season and the dry.



Pretty crazy, huh? A little bit of water really awakens everything here! I've spent the last few days in the village working. Yesterday morning I bent over at the waist for three hours, weeding a peanut field. It was backbreaking work, and I am SO much slower than the local children, who toil seemingly tirelessly and thoroughly, though I'm sure their backs must ache just as much as mine. The peanuts are looking great now, sprouting lovely little yellow flowers, like mini snapdragons. Who knew peanuts looked like that? The day before yesterday my host father killed a big male duck, so I spent the morning plucking and cleaning it for lunch. If you'd asked me a year ago whether I could see myself ripping out feathers from a decapitated duck, moistened with hot water to loosen the follicles, and would be bloodying my hands holding it to be chopped into bowl-sized pieces, and savoring the taste of rich organ meat, I would been unable to imagine myself doing it. But now, that's a special event in my life. And duck for lunch makes for one happy family.