Gerte tella nor

At last, full rainy season again! The bean seed I gave out is all seeded and sprouted, and so is the rice, corn, and soprghum. I didn't hand out any millet seed or peanut, but those are growing too, and looking beautiful. The millet is dark green and lush, while some of the early-ripening peanut varieties ("gerte tella nor") are already showing their charming yellow flowers. In my backyard I have intercropped two rows of corn and beans, and out behind my fence I tried to create a thick-mulched no-till garden of beans and bissap, with an intensive nebedaye plot. But after spending an entire morning weeding, thinning, and successfully making the garden look wonderful, I went out that afternoon and returned to find....no leaves on my bissap. They had been eaten by goats. I was so angry! But futily so, because there is nothing to be done. Little goats can get through even the barbed wire fence that is around my field, and the bissap was just too tempting for them. My only hope is that it will recover fast enough that the next time they come around, it will be big enough to get not entirely defoliated. Bah! Meanwhile I am enjoying the return to field labor. It's not hard for me, since I can take a break whenever I want, but people work all morning, and oftentimes all afternoon again, bent over at the waist, weeding up and down rows of peanut. I like to weed a row or two nd then walk for a bit to stretch out my back. It is physically demanding work. People who grow up and work in a village like mine get very strong, very young. Not like me! But I love the shock of a cold rain every other day or so, and the touch of warm soil beneath my bare soles as I do my little share of fieldwork.

Dr. Seuss in Wolof

Reading aloud to a remarkably respectful group in a village near Foundiougne.



It has been a long time since my last blog post! I haven't been busy, exactly, but somehow the time got away from me anyway. Things in the village are going, ndank ndank. People are farming, and most have seeded what I have them. I am more hands-off this season because there are so many other things to do, and besides the village is occupied with other activities, such as constructing their new mosque, which got financed from somewhere. There's a big green sign in Arabic no doubt explaining it, but of course I have no idea what that says. Many of the young men spend all day there, building, and of course there are also fields to be tilled. It's a busy season!

I just finished a long but satisfying week with the Bookmobile. Finally a little money came through so we were able to do another run, and it went extremely well! Actually, not all of it went smoothly. Because of the rains, the soil is soft, so almost once a day the heavy truck got stuck in the mud. It went in DEEP, and we had to solicit help from whoever happened to be nearby to dig out the tires and get the Bookmobile back on the squishy path. Our poor chauffeur exhausted himself every day just driving on these questionable bush roads, dodging potholes and maneuvering around bumpy deviations. On one memorable occasion, he exclaimed: "This road doesn't have potholes - it has wells!" Which is practically did. So our truck is feeling pretty battered. I'll recommend that from now on the Bookmobile only run in the dry season, when it can't damage anyone's field (that was a loud and intense situation) and the ground is packed, so it cannot get sucked into the dirt. I am just grateful that we got around to all the villages, and back to Kaolack again, safely and in mostly one piece.

Despite automobile difficulties, though, the program went smoothly. We left 150 books in each of four villages, checking them out to anyone who could write their name. Everyone loved it! We got such amazing welcomes everywhere we went. The villages cooked us tasty meals, and provided overnight accommodation (organized by their Volunteer, usually) as their contribution to the project. Meanwhile, we spent a day in each, distributing books and reading stories. One of the biggest hits was Dr. Seuss' "The Foot Book", which was fun and easy to translate into Wolof. Also, "Tikki tikki tango", that story about the little Chinese boy with the too-long name that I remember from my own childhood. They loved that one! Things were calm and people really seemed thrilled to have the Bookmobile in their villages. Seeing kids clustered around a book in the shade, looking through the pictures or sounding out French words, was reward in itself.

Still, I am exhausted from the terrible roads and constant break-downs. So, a weekend in Kaolack, then village time again, then another Ag conference, then back to the village again. Alhamdullilah!

Planting 2010

The season got off to a slower start this year, but by now it has established itself enough that people are well into rainy season work. Peanuts are sprouting again, along with delicate fields of tiny corn and millet like blades of grass. The farmers I gave seed to are slowly sowing it; the other day one man seeded his corn, and another his beans. No sorghum has been planted yet, and there are many more kilos of beans waiting, but there is time. This year I'm working with farmers in three villages, so I'll be doing more coming and going, which will be nice. Plus there's the Bookmobile to wrap up before I go! Hopefully we'll do another run in a week or two, now that a little funding has come in.
Now that it's rainy season, the horses are especially skinny, since they are working extra-hard and are out of good peanut fodder. The mares especially, since they are often nursing a foal as well as pulling a plow. Soon the grass will grow, though, and they'll have fresh greens to eat. But the birds are coming back! I remember how beautiful and various were all the birds of rainy season last year, and this time around it is the same. There are so many colors and species of birds! From tiny, bright finches; to iridescent starling-like birds; to shocking blue; to white and black striped birds with curved red beaks; to large brown-and-black ones, boldly colored. There are also butterflies. They like my flower bush the best, and congregate there in all their fluttering beauty. In the evening, crickets and toads compete to dominate the night noise. In the puddles in the road are minute wiggling tadpoles waiting to join the song in a few weeks.

Dad & Becca's Visit, plus rain

Dad and Becca waiting for a charette in Nioro, before heading to the village.


It's a much slower rainy season this year. Hopefully it will pick up soon, because the little baby corn and peanuts are thirsty! But Yallah is in charge of all that. I have been rushing around Senegal with Dad and Becca. We had a lot of fun, though it was a whirlwind! A couple good days in the village, where I extended all my seed. Focus this year on beans, with some corn and rice as well, and I am working with my village, as well as a nearby one where we hope to place a Volunteer soon, and a very progressive farmer in Nioro. Afterwards, we spent a good day at Keur Bamboung enjoying the beauty of the mangroves. As a nice surprise, the hotel invited a fantastic drumming-and-dance troupe there on our last night. They were amazing! Then a nice dinner in Dakar, drinks and some live music. A quick visit to Senegal, but a fun one. Now I am trying to do some more Bookmobile preparation and then head back to the village! I do miss them, not to mention that the agriculture work season is finally picking up. Now, too, many people from my stage are heading home in mere weeks. I'll be finished in three months...it's strange to think about. But there is plenty to be done before then.

chez Dakar

The Close of Service Conference in Dakar concluded this afternoon, and it went really well. We discussed all the things I had been wondering about, like the work environment at home, how to use Peace Corps in our resumes, what needs to be done administratively to finish our service, and how to communicate about Senegal to everyone in the USA. Our conference leader was really great. She kept us involved and interested in the sessions, and I for one learned a lot of important things in a short space of time. Meanwhile, it really IS good to be back in Senegal! My visit home went so smoothly, with no real culture shock at all, and the re-entry here went just as easily. Right off the plane, into a taxi I go (after bargaining in Wolof, as usual, to a reasonable price) and into the market downtown. And it felt GOOD to be here again. Truly! I admit that was a bit of a surprise, but it does, and I am so lucky that I am honestly delighted to be here still for a few more months. Now I know that home is still there, and Senegal and I still have things to teach each other before I go.
My wonderful counterpart - who I appreciate immensely because he is such a motivated worker and generally awesome guy - has called me twice glowing because such good things are happening in the village in my absence. They're working on constructing a health hut near the school, which will get stocked with basic medications and staffed by a trained "matrone". What little cement was leftover from the latrine project is going to that, and the work is happening! A nearby doctor promised to train the matrone (like a nurse-midwife) for free if the village did their own construction work, so hopefully he'll keep his word and Keur Ali Gueye will have a little health post of their own right in town. Also, the USAID project to spray rooms with pesticide has happened again, along with distribution of free mosquito nets for kids. Your tax dollars at work! He was really excited to tell me about how smoothly that went as well.

Who says you can't go home?

I'm home for ten days, for my brother's university graduation. And it is AMAZING! How even to describe it? There wasn't the culture shock I was expecting. Some things have changed, but not enough to make me feel disoriented. Seattle seems even more beautiful than ever, a veritable paved paradise, liberally splashed with thick groves of evergreens. There are flowers blooming and robins nesting. It is so lovely! When I see the familiar curve of the Space Needle, or the emerald patches of growing things dotted throughout the city, it feels so natural, as though I never left. That's how I feel I can describe it. Not surreal, not even startling in contrast to life in Senegal. Because when I am here, my I am ONLY here. When in Seattle, eating the food I love and being with my friends and family in this comfortable environment, it is the only kind of life I can concretely imagine. All other ways and places of living are like a fantasy, only half-real. And the same goes for Senegal. When I'm there, pulling water at the well, eating millet from a communal bowl, speaking Wolof, THAT is the only kind of existence that I can viscerally imagine. Both times, in my head I know that this isn't so. When in Senegal I know that in the USA there are people commuting to work on smooth roads, buying $100 sundresses and eating burritos, but these are like imaginary things, too unfathomable to be true. Likewise, while here in Seattle, I know that not so very far away there are people bathing in murky well water, who are excited about finally having a latrine for their family, who are eating (really pretty unappetizing) rice with peanut sauce... but it seems so impossible that such things could be real, when my experience is so completely unlike it. So that's how it is. Like two different worlds sharing the same small Earth. But in any case, it is wonderful to be home.

A taste of success

A girl hoping to check out a book from the Bookmobile.

The kitchen smells amazing at this moment, because my friend Kyle and I are making dinner. There are green beans with ham simmering, garlic mashed potatoes, and two kinds of guinea fowl: fried (by Kyle) in cornflake breading, and roasted (by me) with carrots and potatoes in a marinade of tamarind and Worcester sauce. I wanted to try guinea fowl, which are so funny looking with their bald heads and droopy-looking bodies. But they can dart away as quick as a flash, and are much less common than chickens. Anyway, I have never eaten one, nor have I ever killed an animal by myself. So I decided to kill two birds with one stone...well, one bird with one knife, actually. Which I did. Killed it, bled it, de-feathered it, cleaned out the insides, cut it up, and now I'm roasting it. If the smells are any clue, it's bound to be tasty! And though I didn't ENJOY killing the bird (or doing the messy work of preparing it, either), I feel a kind of satisfaction having done it, the way I'd planned to.

The big news today though is that the BOOKMOBILE went on it's first test run! To my village and my friend's village. All things considered, the event went pretty well. The kids loved that big red truck, all full of books. In each village, we were able to check out about 150 books, but had to stop there so as not to overwhelm the Peace Corps Volunteer who has to keep track of them all. The titles and name of who checked it out are written in a notebook, which we left in the village where the book is in order to know who has each book at any given time. We read aloud some children's stories, and taught some interactive songs, which were a big hit. There is still some work left to do on the truck (the shelving had been badly installed, so we'll have to have it fixed) but we are slowly checking those things off the list. What fun! The Bookmobile is finally on its way, and it looks like the program will be wonderful for these village kids.

But now the water is out in Kaolack again, which is a bummer. Our bean seeds finally came in, though, so when I get back to the village tomorrow I can start telling farmers how many kilos of seed they'll get, and hopefully even see some fields now before the rains come.