Douches, Porridge, and Computer skills

These are what I call the "Halfway Trees". If you pass these, you're halfway to Keur Ali Gueye from Nioro du Rip! Still got about four kilometers to go, though.


At the louma last week I succumbed to an impulse buy: two chickens, one red, one gray. I named them Lucy and Gertrude, tied them onto long strings, and set them loose in my backyard. To go along with them, I mixed up some grain of millet, sorghum, corn, and peanuts, to supplement the bugs and whatever else are out behind my hut. Like many impulse buys, I find myself wondering now what ever inspired me to buy such a thing, but here in Senegal you don't purchase a new coat or a pair of boots, you buy hens. So now they're mine. The consolation is, I got a good deal - only 1,500cfa each (the kid after me bought his chicken for 2,000! HA! I got a better price!!!), and hopefully in a little while they'll start laying eggs and I can have omelettes in my hut. If not I suppose we can eat them. I would worry about getting attached, because after all, they are my animals, but chickens make very unsympathetic pets. Too much loud squawking and terrified running around to really make you feel warm and fuzzy. But Gertrude and Lucy are now my very own, irregardless.
Otherwise, my week has been occupied with time-filling activities. The latrines are coming along splendidly. Everyone is doing the work at their own pace, but quickly. Pretty soon everything will be finished! It's really fantastic and people are as enthusiastic as ever about having family latrines. It will make the rainy season, especially, more tolerable. I, meanwhile, inspired by the seminar in Dakar, went into two classes to talk to kids a little about basic nutrition, and later on, the women from three different neighborhoods organized themselves to learn how to cook a rich porridge that's good for growing children. I brought the ingrediants, and gave insructions while they prepared the meal. It is so easy and accessible, too! Just a half kilo of millet flour, a kilo of peanut butter, some kind of fruit (I used baobab fruit once, bananas another time, and suggested squash, mango, or papaya as other choices or, if nothing else, at least nebedaye leaves! They're amazingly high in vitamins), as well as 100cfa each of sugar and oil. While the water boils, mash up the fruit, add the peanut butter, oil, and sugar to the fruit mash; when the water is boiling you mix in the flour until smooth, then add in the peanut butter-fruit mash, stir it all together, and voila! A delicious, nutritious, simple breakfast for young kids. The important part, of course, is that it combines all the necessary food groups, so carbohydrates, protein, fat, and vitamins are all together in good proportion. That's a hard concept to teach. But we've had fun making porridge and the children find it delicious, and all the ingredients can be found in the village, so hopefully some women will prepare it on their own.
The last thing is a project I just started, inspired by the fact that this year ten teenagers from Keur Ali Gueye passed the test into middle school, and are now studying in Nioro. Which is fantastic news, especially as four of them are girls - the first time that has ever happened. But in this day and age, education only get you so far if you don't have basic computer skills. So I decided that I would teach them how to type and use the Internet, by biking down to town twice a week and holding little classes at computers rented from the local cybercafe. The first class took place this Saturday. The kids were late, which made me angry, as I was offering to pay out of my own pocket (well, it's Uncle Sam's money, really) to teach them these important skills, and they were lounging at home! But the one girl who made it there first, and the other two students who finally showed up in time for a taste, really enjoyed it. They won't be late next time. My plan is to work on typing and using the keyboard until everyone can write paragraphs with proper capitals, punctuation, and indentation. Then, we'll go online! Inch'allah. But I'm excited because it's fun to teach something that I truly know, and even after a single lesson they're already catching on so fast. I have a feeling it could be a very rewarding little project.