Ndank Ndank.....ndank.....

The backyard chicken project: Lucy the red hen, Gertrude the gray hen, and Studly Dudley the rooster.


I bought a rooster at the louma. Having proven that chickens WILL lay without one, I decided that little baby chicks are just too adorable to resist, and I want some in my backyard. Plus, the roosters in my compound are ugly so I wanted to purchase a handsome one who can hopefully breed better chickens in the whole quartier. The result: Studly Dudley. Four dollars worth of strutting, crowing male chicken. And he is a good-looking rooster, isn't he? No eggs yet, but when they happen again I'll have adorable chicks to look forward to!
My pepiniere finally sprouted, only to be attacked by the aforementioned poultry. But I found a way to fence it in using old broom-like dry stalks of weeds, which makes a thick barrier around the pepiniere. Then I laid a piece of old mosquito net on top, and so far that seems to be working well. This year I want nebadaye for the whole town!
The kids at Internet class are progressing quickly. They all have e-mail addresses now, either Hotmail, Gmail, or Yahoo (since there's a silly daily limit on all of those) and they are practicing sending messages back and forth to one another. The next thing they all want to do is search for "correspondants" from other countries. Anybody want a Senegalese penpal?
Days in the village are slow this time of year. There is really nothing going on. Though in the evenings I've taken to helping some of the neighborhood kids study, by asking them questions about their lessons, to test how well they retained the information. It's all in French, which I'm the only one who speaks French in the village, so I try to help them out. But it is frustrating because some can recite the information, but have no idea what any of it means. So I try to have them explain it in Wolof afterward (rather, I explain it in Wolof) and ask the questions a couple of different ways, to try and help them learn what information goes together. There are a few star pupils, which is always encouraging. But one student makes me sad. I know he's very bright, he can speak French fairly well and is extra-quick with numbers. But he simply cannot read. I think he's probably dyslexic, but of course they don't have any resources to work with those kinds of children here. So what can he do? Struggle in class and, despite his smarts, probably not get into middle or high school.
Now I'm in Kaolack, where I have to work like mad to put the finishing touches on a Bookmobile fund raising event that will be held in Dakar this weekend. It's exciting that the Bookmobile is finally getting near completion, and I think it'll be a fun day in Dakar talking about books. But I need to get to work and make this all happen before Saturday! Luckily the fantastic people at 10,000 Girls have done most of the tough stuff already. I just have to confirm the details.