Typical Senegalese Party: Video

It has been a wild ride so far and everyday really is like a roller-coaster. I will be sitting around the kitchen campfire with all my siblings looking up at the incredible stars with my adorable sister sleeping on my lap and my heart will swell with joy.
Then my host grandfather will tell me that I am a woman and no one will ever love me because I am not a good cook, and my sister will kick the puppy that wanders into our compound, and I will feel like I am in this cruel foreign place where no one understands me.
It really goes up and down like that in at least a dozen cycles everyday! Its nothing if not constantly interesting, but I don't know if my body can handle these crazy emotion changes for much more than two years.
I like to think I have been at a pretty constant happy for most of my life. Here my range of emotions varies drastically from satisfaction to frustration, empathy to anger, and deep joy to deep discomfort.
Everyone here in the Peace Corps says, "living in a vastly different culture builds character", "living in one of the hottest places on earth builds character", "living with the crazy health challenges builds character", "living in a hut with no electricity, running water, or people that speak your language builds character"... so... I'm planning on returning home with a lot of character :)

Lots of love and hugs and kisses to ya'll. Lo

Merry Christmas from Senegal!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS to my wonderful friends and family! It is weird to be spending Christmas without you, which is fitting, because this has probably been the weirdest couple months of my life. A lot has happened and it has been a tough first month in village. On Christmas Eve I am going to attend Catholic mass, which will be held in French, here in this 90% Muslim West African country - should be another interesting cultural experience! Here are a few of my journal entries from December:

December 6th, 2012

As I pull up to my new village I feel a nervous current running through me. This is IT! The first day of my two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Maleme Niani, Senegal. I have successfully completed a grueling yet enjoyable two months of in-county training, now I'm on my own in a small village in Africa. 

The hut they built for me is literally the size of a king-sized bed. There is not enough room for my double mattress-pad and the rest of my things which amount to two suitcases of stuff. We drop my things off in the hut and I try to keep an open-mind and role with the punches, as is always necessary in the Peace Corps.

We immediately head to the village center to meet with the elders and important people in the vil, and I'm feeling a little discouraged about my living situation. I put on a smile as I walk into the room and sit at the head of the table with 20 intent Senegalese staring at me, Oh shit, was I supposed to prepare a speech??

The women are clad in beautiful bright Senegalese dress and look to be the oldest women in the village. They all wear scarves covering their heads. The men look serious and are wearing their boubous.

Djitte introduces me before I have time to stumble on my words (Alhamdullilah/Thanks to Allah). Djitte is in charge of Agroforestry programming and came to my vil to help install me. Each person gives me a little welcome speech, and Djitte translates for me. Although their cadence sounds very rough and angry (like all Senegalese), the messages are friendly and welcoming and the villagers are eager to get started on projects!

As we head back to my house I decide to pull Djitte and my host father Souleyman aside and discuss my hut. I figure this will be my home for two full years and I might as well voice my concern right away. I ask them if I can move into one of the other huts on the compound. Djitte then calls Mboulle, the PC Safety & Security officer because everything goes through him...

Mboulle and my host father agree to the move. I am SO GLAD I spoke up. My new hut feels like a PALACE compared to the other one. I am all settled in and feel at home in my new hut.

Sunset from my family compound

My new host mother NeeNee reminds me a lot of my host mother during training; she is very large, warm, and has a wise and comforting tone to her voice even though she is only in her 30s. When it gets too hot she takes off her shirt and her giant breasts sag very low, her nipples the lowest point almost touching her belt line. Before dinner, my 1 year old sister Mane starts running naked around the compound with a Machete. I am mortified that she is going to trip and hurt herself, but my family notifies me that this happens all the time. Hey, T.I.A. (This is Africa).

My mom shows me her Senegalese ID card and I am surprised to learn that she was born in 1981! I believe that is around the time my real mom graduated from college (sorry mom!). NeeNee is only 9 years older than me and she already has 6 children. The oldest, Pape, is 15. That means she started having children when she was 16, common in Senegal. 

NeeNee is my host father's first wife. In Senegal, a man may have up to 4 wives, so long as he can financially provide for all of them and their children. Souleyman recently married another woman named Isatu- she is very young, he thinks between 20 and 22 (many people don't know their ages here), and she does not live with us. My mom does not like her; who can blame her? It's safe to say I wouldn't be happy about my husband marrying another woman. My mom says this second wife is "mang beteyaa" (not good) and men should only have "musoo killing" (one wife). I agree. After talking to other Peace Corps volunteers, I hear that sometimes having many wives actually can work really well, because when families get larger it is really nice to be able to share the large workload of cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. I have been informed that a lot of volunteers moms are best friends! I will let you know how my family dynamic develops.

My mom NeeNee and lil sis Mane eating lunch

December 9th, 2012

My second night in village was definitely my most physically exhausting and painful night in the Peace Corps so far. I had been feeling pretty crappy all day, and shared a lunch bowl with 8 dirty children (the norm - both the feeling crappy and the lunch bowl). As dusk began to fall the gut-wrenching vomitting session commenced. I sat outside wrenching over a puke bucket until dawn. I literally did not get more than a 60 second break at any point to catch my breath and by hour three it was all dry heaves and stomach acid. The vomit erupted with such force and noise that I swear every person in the village could hear me! My neighbor and siblings came and checked on me. My host parents were so worried and wanted me to go to the hospital. They sat with me  the entire night getting me water and squeezing a cool cloth on my neck. They spoke to the PC doctor on the phone, who informed them that the hospital would not help and I just need to wait it out (the hospital would probably give me a shot of large spectrum antibiotics, which they do for most anything - we aren't supposed to ever go there unless it is a life threatening emergency). Unfortunately, everyone in PC Senegal has to experience a few awful nights of adjusting - hopefully it never happens to that degree again!

My site mate Nicky and me with some of my siblings

December 15th, 2012

My first week was rough: from health issues to contant miscommunications. I think my friend Rene put it best, "What a mega weird week in our lives". Things are picking up and getting closer with my host family is really helping me feel more comfortable. My neighbor Fofana asked me what the differences between families in "Amerik" and Senegal are. To start, families in Senegal usually have between 10 - 40 children from the 1 - 4 wives. I told him that in Amerik, it is normal for couples to have 2 or 3 children, or even none. It was hard for him to understand because children play such a large role in helping the family run, and he asks, what do families in Amerik do when children die and they only have 1 or 2?

(Side note: On December 21 my 3 year old host cousin passed away. All they said was that he "wasn't well" and died in the hospital. It was very sad but the family seemed to keeping functioning the same. It is not uncommon for young children to not be healthy and pass away.)

December 20th, 2012

My second week was much better than my first, and I am starting to fall into a routine. I wake up around 7 and try to go on an hour long bike ride every morning. Dawn is beautiful, the sky is peachy-orange and it is not yet too warm to exercise (because it is the cold season). I ride along a dirt path into the bush, surrounded by only trees and silence. It is an hour of quiet I do not see again until I retreat to into my hut for bed. After my bike ride I usually stop at Fa Ndou's breakfast stand and get a bean and tapilapa (freshly baked village bread) sandwich, then head home to the Gory family compound.

I am continuing Nicky's latrine project she started about a year ago. PEPAM and USAID provide materials to build UN approved sanitary latrines and we coordinate finding the masons and families. So far 30 latrines have been built in Maleme Niani and last week we visited all of them surveying if they were working and being used properly. 73 people have signed up for the second round of latrines, and coordinating the building of those will be a big undertaking.

In January we will hold Maleme Niani Malaria Day at the middle school, and also hold a regional training on the uses of the Moringa tree, which has incredible health benefits. Before I head back to Thies for my 10-day intensive technical training in mid-Feb, I need to plant 50 trees in a tree nursery, collect as many seeds from local varieties as i can for the seed bank, and create a 15 minute powerpoint presentation on my potential projects. I am interested in starting a large-scale fruit tree orchard in which the people of Maleme could harvest and sell to supplement their incomes.

Living in a Muslim country has been really educational. A lot of the words we use everyday are actually in Arabic. Most people pray 5 times a day and work must always be scheduled around prayer times. Drinking alcohol is strictly forbidden, and there is none available in villages. Women are expected to keep their heads covered at all times, but this is largely changing in the bigger cities. As a foreigner, I am not expected to wear a head scarf, thankfully, that shit gets HOT! The mosques all have loud speakers that play prayers seemingly all day and night. I am regularly woken up at 4:30am by the mosque speakers, but thankfully my compound is not directly next to one.

I am getting pretty comfortable with Wolof, French, Mandinka, and Pulaar greetings, and Maleme is really a mix of all of those languages and cultures. My name here is Mariatou Gory and some people call me Ma-tou for short, which I think is cute.

There are so many animals in my daily life, but not the ones you would typically picture in Africa. I share my hut with at least 3 large rats and 4 giant lizards. They noisily chase each other across my walls each night. My first night I could not sleep at all and I kept sitting up with a start shining my flashlight on the wall trying to figure out what was rustling through my things. I'm hoping to get a cat to help me out with the rats, but Senegalese don't keep animals as pets, and are often very cruel to them. There are tons of wild cats and dogs running around though, and I might just adopt one! Hoards of donkeys, horses, goats, sheep, and chickens wander aimlessly though our home everyday. Apparently they returen to their owner's homes each night, but that has yet to be corroborated! 

Donkey's hanging out in front of my hut

My bed 

 My toilet and shower

Potential space for a garden/orchard

Cool shot of some Maleme boys under a tree

Much love to all - so thankful for you guys and thank you so much to everyone for sending the letters and packages :)

Peace out, LO

YouTube Vid of the Swearing-In Ceremony

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su6CF009zP4&feature=youtu.be

It's Official.

Yesterday I became an official Peace Corps Volunteer! I feel proud, nervous, and excited for what is to come.

I took the same oath that any individual, except the President, elected or appointed to an office in the civil service or uniformed services, takes: 

“I, Lauren Thomas do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.” 

Accepting my Peace Corps ID and certificate from Demba Sibite, the Agroforestry Associate Peace Corps Country Director

The Agroforestry group pic!

A couple quotations they shared with us during training:

Go to the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start

with what they know. Build with what they have. But with the best

leaders, when the work is done, the task accomplished, the people will

say 'We have done this ourselves'. ― Lao Tzu

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. 
– Andre Gide.

Tomorrow I leave for my village of Maleme Niani and everything is going to change. I am sad to be saying goodbye for now to the 55 awesome volunteers in my group and the incredible trainers and staff here in Thies, but I cannot wait for the challenge and freedom of being in village!

Mandinka Dialogue: Video

Here is a short video of Sam and I speaking in Mandinka!

Translation:
L: Hello, peace be with you!
S: And peace to you.
L: How are you/is there any evil?
S: All good, no evil.
L: What is sweet?
S: Nothing much.
L: Thanks to Allah.
S: Thanks to Allah.
L: How is your garden?
S: My garden is very big. Hot Pepper and Bissap and Onions are there.
S: How many siblings do you have?
L: In Senegal, I have 5 siblings. Their names are Abdou, Diarra, Bainsa, Mabintu, and Basekou.
S: Troublemaker Basekou!
L: Troublemaker Basekou.

Why am I here?

Now that training is almost over I will reflect a bit on the positives and negatives of being a Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal! I will swear in as an official volunteer on November 30th (after hopefully passing a Language Proficiency Exam and Agroforestry Technical Exam)!

The major challenges so far:

- The heat - always sweaty, all the time. Enough said.

- Doing laundry by hand - is extremely difficult and time consuming, the women here literally spend hours upon hours almost everyday washing clothing, which brings me to ...

- Gender roles and Women's Rights - it s often difficult and disheartening to witness the role of women in the Senegalese community. Most girls are forced to drop out of school before the High School level, or never allowed to go to school because their place is in the home doing chores. My 6 year old host sister sweeps the floor, does the dishes, helps cook lunch and dinner, deals with the trash, and obediently serves her father, brother, and guests. He two older brothers have never been seen helping with chores, while my sister is constantly yelled at to clean faster and better (again, she is 6!).
I feel no animosity at all toward my brothers who get to drink tea and play soccer all day and get to go to school. They have been raised to play and relax while their sisters and mothers work all day. Every other family they know functions the same way.

- Packs of children - especially the young boys who have too much free time, chasing after me and yelling Toubab. Yesterday, a kid threw a large rock at me and it hit me in the back of the shoulder. It hurt my pride more than anything. An older girl was standing there next to him and did not scold him. Also, when we were pulling water from the well, a young boy spit on Sam.

- Language barrier - there are many languages spoken in Senegal, and I currently speak none of them well. It is difficult to gain the respect and friendship of community members when communication is such a frustrating struggle!

- Pre-service training - is hard and the days at the center are jam packed with information and void of free time. Days start promptly at 8:15am and last for 10 straight hours. Sessions range from Integrated Pest Management Theory to The Role of the Volunteer in Development, from Sexual Assault Awareness to The Ecology of Senegal. At the end of the 10th hour, it is hard to stay awake with the heat!

Despite these challenges, I am feeling more and more sure that I am doing the right thing and that my work here will be meaningful and fulfilling.

There are many positives, and so far, they outweigh the negatives:

- I will move to my village on December 1st! - so many things to look forward to - the privacy of my own toilet and backyard to shower in - finally unpacking my suitcases after two months of lugging them back and forth between the training center and my homestay - a small community that will get to know me by name and will learn to not call me Toubab or throw rocks at me - freedom to cook for myself and get nutrients I am lacking eating white rice for every meal.

- Forever a student - the amount of new knowledge I am gaining and the pace at which I am obtaining it is energizing. Learning a new language is difficult but rewarding, and makes me feel productive. I am lucky to be learning Mandinka, and not many people in the world have to opportunity to learn it the way I am!
I know lightyears more about agriculture, land management, agroforestry, and gardens and field crops than I did two months ago (probably because I came in with about nothing!). I can now identify over 30 of Senegal's local tree species by their Latin names. My profession in Mandinka is "yiri tutu la", literally, planter of trees. I like it :)

- Opportunity for change -  Senegal is definitely a developing country, and there is much room for growth. I am very interested in getting involved with the Peace Corps' SENEGAD (Senegal Gender and Development) program, working with young girls on changing gender roles and increasing equality of opportunity through girls camps, school clubs, scholarships, and seminars!

- Taranga - is the Senegalese concept of hospitality. They really take to heart the idea of loving thy neighbor, or anyone else for that matter, as a brother or sister. I could walk into basically any family compound in Senegal and be offered a meal and a place to sleep, no matter how little food or space is available.

- Peace Corps/Senegal - the organization in Senegal is especially well-run and effective. We have over 250 volunteers in country and the way the program is run and connected through staff, trainings, safety and security, healthcare, summits, transportation, etc. blows my mind! The amount of time, money, and hard work that goes into operating the organization is enormous. The staff are extremely knowledgeable and passionate about development and make sure that we are producing tangible results. I feel very blessed to be placed here because Peace Corps programs can vary drastically by country.

- Support - I went into this with the feeling that my two years here in Senegal would be a daunting solitary journey. I know now that I was wrong. I feel supported on all sides from friends, family, coworkers, and Peace Corps staff here in Senegal and back at home (and in Argentina and Australia!). I have already made some great friends in my Ag stage who are really the glue keeping this whole process together. I feel connections with my language trainer, the Peace Corps medical officers, my host family, and current volunteers in my region. There are no lack of friendly and supportive peers to chat, laugh, and vent with. I have applied to be part of the volunteer-run Peer Support Network and act as a counselor to other PCVs - I hope I get it!

After two months of training, all I know for sure is... this isn't going to be easy, but it will be stimulating and rewarding - and I'm in it for the long haul!

My Home for the Next Two Years

I am in a really good place and so stoked on my permanent site placement! In December I will move to Malem Niani, in the Tambacounda region in the southeast of Senegal. Malem is considered a large village by Senegal standards (3,000 people), but it felt very small when I visited. Everyone was extremely welcoming and excited to meet the new volunteer! I am the fourth Peace Corps volunteer to serve in Malem, and I think it will be helpful that the community is already accustomed to working with Peace Corps. I just returned from spending 3 nights there for Volunteer Visit. VV used to be called "demyst" because it was a demystification of where we will be for the next two years!

Below is the Tamba region in orange. You can see the regional capital Tambacounda right above the tip of the Gambia. I am 70km up the road from Tambacounda, which I can get to fairly easily through flagging down public transit, or take a nice long bike ride on a flat paved road!

Malem is a road town and receives many travelers as it is on Route Nacional, which connects Dakar to both Mali and Guinea. My village has electricity from 7pm to 11pm every night meaning I can get cold drinks in the evening! This is a real luxury that most volunteers don't have. My home doesn't have electricity. My family (The Gory Family) is currently building me a small mud hut near their compound. When it is finished I will have my own fenced in backyard and private latrine. Half of my village speaks a dialect of Mandinka (which I am learning), and the other half of the village speaks Pulaar. This should be an interesting challenge and hopefully I will pick up some Pulaar also! Mandinka is not spoken in Dakar or Thies, so I will also have to learn some Wolof to be able to navigate public transportation. Beyond that, french is also spoken in the major cities and very useful. It looks like I am aiming to learn four languages in the next two years, I'll let you guys know how it turns out...

For Volunteer Visit I stayed with Nicky Olerich who is a current Health and Environmental Education volunteer in Malem Niani. She is from Huntington and has been in country for a little over a year and a half. I feel so lucky that I will have her to show me around for my first few months. After she finishes her service there will not be someone replacing her.

During our visit, Nicky, Adam and I took a Charette, or horse drawn cart, 12k into the bush to visit Adam's site. Adam will be living in Dawadi, a small village north of Malem. On our way there our charette popped a tire and we had to call another one. On our way back, our charette broke down again and we had to hang out for 3 hours with all our baggage half way between our sites!

I am so happy to be placed in Malem and I love the people and the environment. There are many trees and at night the stars glitter brightly in the sky; I am glad I brought my constellation guide! Because I am in a road town, we will almost always have access to fresh vegetables and eggs which is AMAZING! Most villages in Senegal don't have access to vegetables during the dry/hungry season. My families compound is literally right next door to a middle school and I am really excited to work with them on agriculture and health projects! I will be leaving my computer at the Peace Corps Regional house in Tambacounda. It is a central meeting place where all the volunteers in my region can come a couple times a month to cook food together and reboot. It slightly resembles a Fraternity house but is awesome nonetheless. During Volunteer Visit the current Tamba volunteers threw us a party and we got to meet most of the people in our region!

I definitely miss my friends and fam and it will be hard not being with you guys for Thanksgiving and Christmas! Know that I am doing well and thinking about all of you :)