The Little Things

Each evening as the fiery hot Senegalese sun sets over the sparse, dust-tornado-ridden plains of Tambacounda, my body literally swells with joy (or is that just the heat?) that I have survived another day of this extreme adventure known as Peace Corps West Africa.

I eagerly await the mid-night temperature drop from the 110s to the 90s, then laugh hysterically at the absurdity of my life, and wonder if the malaria medication Mefloquin (which most people have switched off of due to increased anxiety) is making me crazy, or if I'm doing that all on my own.

I then proceed to take my daily "shower" which consists of pouring a bucket of boiling hot water over my head (no, I do not prefer my water to be hot enough to cook an egg, but there is no way to keep the water cool, even if it is in the shade all day).

The best part of my day is the two hours from 7pm to 9pm we spend lying around waiting for dinner. Often all eight of my immediate family members and I lay on one stick bed laughing and cuddling and looking at the stars. A soft breeze begins to cool us off and my youngest siblings fall into peaceful sleep. These are the moments that make me feel full and infinite.

The ensuing dinner experience is not the best part of my day. Twelve of us crowd around a single bowl of millet, grabbing handfuls with our filthy hands. After about three bites my apetite is gone, which is fitting because that is about the time the food runs out.

BUT, that's not what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about: the Advanced Gardening and Vegetable Production training I put on in my community garden a couple days ago! As the first major event I organized myself, it went fairly well, but there are definitely improvements I can make for next time.

Planting lettuce and jaxatu in the nursery

The Sitch: Program Training Assistant Youssapha Boye came to my village to do a hands-on training on soil fertility and amendments, vegetable nurseries, and natural pest management.

Lessons Learned: 
1) Senegalese Time - As Youssapha put it, Senegalese have "no concept of time", and the majority of participants showed up to the 9am training at about 11am. If any of you know me well, you know I am a huge fan of punctuality, so this was frustrating even if to be expected. Next time I should account for this and ask people to arrive much earlier that I plan on starting.

2) Prep Work - The day before the training I went on a bit of a scavenger hunt to find everything I would need for the soil amendment and natural pesticide demonstrations: 250g of garlic and onions, hot pepper powder, liquid soap, one sack of wood ash, one sack of charcoal, a bucket full of neem leaves, a sifter, a tablespoon, 3 large buckets, 3 sacks of manure, a mortar and pestle, seeds, shovels, rakes, etc. Needless to say I did my best but next time I will start this earlier.

3) Accountability - Other PCVs recommend reminding people of your training in person everyday for at least two weeks leading up to the event. Besides being a lot of work this seemed a little excessive to me, but I was disappointed that not everyone I wanted to be there showed up. We did have 44 women attend and I think they got a lot out of it.

At the end we passed out vegetable seed varieties suitable for the climate in my village:
- lettuce - hibiscus - eggplant - bitter tomato - hot pepper - parsley

Learning how to make natural pesticides to spray on the vegetables

Overall the project was successful and I got a lot of positive feedback from the women. A couple of days later when I went to help out in the garden, I was really pleased to see women double-digging garden beds and amending the soil like they learned in the training.

Final thought: While I do find what most people think of as the main purpose of Peace Corps very important: disseminating technical training and knowledge to aid international development, I am beginning to put more weight on the 2nd goal of Peace Corps: helping promote a better understanding of Americans with my host country. Especially living in a predominantly conservative Muslim country, bordered by Mali and Mauritania which are exposed to Extremists, often with very anti-american sentiments.  I am proud to share that Americans can be humble, hard-working, and kind, and do care about what is happening in the rest of the world.

Studying Environmental Sciences at Berkeley, I learned a lot about the problems we face in the United States (overwhelmingly of our own creation), and had countless discussions on corruption in our Government and corporations. It wasn't until really living in another country that I fully appreciate the opportunity we are afforded. Now, for the first time, I feel sincerely proud to be an American.

Now: Off to spend my 23rd birthday with my sister in Argentina! REALLY looking forward to the Weather and Wine :)

PEACE OUT