“At least you're not in a barn.”

One of my good friends is on a different continent this year for Christmas, like me, and had these words of wisdom for those of us not at home for Christmas: “Skype with family and friends. Use your time to work on new relationships where you are. Count your blessings. After all, the first Christmas took place when Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were away from home, too. At least you're not in a barn.” So true. I’ve taken her advice to heart – and here’s what I’ve done:

I have Skyped with numerous family and friends in the past week for my birthday and for Christmas, and that has been great to catch up on things and see people’s faces, as well as snow and Christmas trees.

Instead of spending most of my time this Christmas season with my family, I am getting to know other PCVs here better as well as my host family and friends in Kaymor. I will always have my family and friends in the States, but now here I have a new family and new friends – I have my host family, my PCV friends, and my Senegalese friends. And that is part of the holiday season – sharing love with others.

I’m not even sure where to start in terms of counting my blessings. Here’s a list of some things quickly off the top of my head:
- Family and friends (near and far) – that love and support me from all over the world
- Enough food to fill my stomach every day, and to satisfy (most of) my nutritional needs (vitamins take care of the rest) – I see way too many kids each day where this isn’t necessarily the case
- A computer and (relatively reliable) internet access to communicate with family and friends far away
- An education that has helped me in innumerable ways here – in learning Wolof, about the culture here, and about agriculture and other activities here; in getting integrated into the community; and in planning possible work projects
- Clothes that are not full of holes
- Being able to play soccer – keeps me fit and shows the guys that I can play tough too :)

Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were far away from home, too, and didn’t have any of the modern conveniences, like Skype, that we have to be able to stay in touch with family and friends while away. And it’s important to not focus on what I’m missing back home but on what new experiences I’m having here – how I’m creating a new Christmas tradition for myself, just like the very first Christmas.

And, though there are always chickens and goats wandering around here, I do not, in fact, live in a barn, which is certainly a nice thing. While I could complain about my housing here, I really shouldn’t – I have everything I really need, and am really only missing a few things that we, as Americans, find “essential”: a real shower, a sit-down toilet, a sink, and a kitchen. I am happy with bucket showers, squat toilets (though my knees are beginning to feel the combination of all those years of basketball and these squat toilets), and no sink, as well as no kitchen (since I can fulfill most of my cooking wishes when I go to Kaolack). All in all, I can’t complain – rather I have so many blessings I can’t count them all – and I am not in barn. What more could I really ask for? :)

Christmas in Senegal

My first Christmas not at home in Minnesota has been quite the experience. First of all, it wasn’t white – at least not in terms of snow, it was white in that I was surrounded by more white people than I’m used to. :) There were about 15 of us PCVs in Kaolack, my regional capital, for Christmas. I guess the best way to talk about my Christmas here in Senegal is to go chronologically…

I had gone up to Kaolack on Dec. 22nd because I had things I needed to get in the market for my hut and for our white elephant gift exchange we were planning on doing Christmas Eve, so I took care of that stuff on the 23rd, which meant I didn’t have to go into the market on Christmas Eve so I could focus on making all the Christmas cookies and goodies – I was in charge of desserts. After making a quick run to the Toubob store near the house (the type of store that caters to white people, so it has “white people food” like chips and cookies, as well as “white people stuff” like shampoo and conditioner) we stopped by the Catholic compound for lunch, which was delicious: rice and shrimp! Then it was back to the house to get crackin’ on all the baking. I and a few other PCVs made peanut butter marshmallow fudge, peanut clusters, snickerdoodles, oatmeal chocolate chunk bars, caramel peanut butter brownies, rice crispie treats (with corn puffs instead of rice crispies because we couldn’t find rice crispies), and sugar cookies (cut out in gingerbread men, star, and Christmas tree shapes with sprinkles and/or chunks of candy canes). We also made home-made egg nog, hot chocolate, and home-made apple cider! We had quite the sweet dinner (no pun intended) – as well popcorn thrown in to off-set the sugar a bit. :) We ate and drank all this goodness while doing our white-elephant gift exchange. I ended up getting 2 DVDs that have a ton of movies on them that apparently can be played on DVD players but not American computers because of the formatting, a totally outrageous necklace with a picture of a marabou (this is a really common thing in Senegal – to wear a picture of the marabou you are associated with in some way; I’m not sure who the marabou is on my necklace, so I won’t wear it in Kaymor since we have a really famous marabou there until I know which marabou it is), and some flavored powder mix for water. I was pretty happy with this, though I as jealous of the guy who ended up with black spandex shorts with “Barack Obama” written on the waistband. :)

After our white elephant gift exchange, several of us went to mass at the Catholic Church in Kaolack. It was supposed to start at 9:45 but it didn’t really get going until 10. For the first hour or so was the kids’ Christmas play (apparently they do that here, too). And then we had a full mass. It was really nice and the music was absolutely beautiful – Senegalese people certainly sing/play beautiful music, whether it’s Christian hymns or traditional African songs. It was a long service, like mass tends to be I guess, so we didn’t get back to the regional house until 12:30 or even later. We were all quite tired to say the least.

Here’s Mollie (on the left) and Jen (2 other new PCVs like me) showing off the wonderful Christmas tree and snowflakes they made to decorate our house:

Christmas morning involved cleaning the kitchen and all the dishes from the previous day (washing machines are such a luxury…), and once everything was clean, we started making everything dirty again by making a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon (this such a terrific treat since none of us have had any pig products since coming to Senegal – Muslim people don’t eat any pig products so since nearly everyone is Muslim, we haven’t had any bacon or pork or anything like that since coming to Senegal), and three types of pancakes: plain, banana cinnamon, and apple cinnamon (all the crushed apple bits left over from making apple cider the night before).

After breakfast, which was late as in typical Senegalese style, we played a game of telephone Pictionary, which was absolutely hilarious. Then we all scattered to do our separate things – I was able to Skype with my family and a few friends, which is always really great.

Since the main part of our day involved cooking and eating, we had a wonderful lunch of homemade tomato soup and gourmet grilled cheese. During breakfast we had all noticed that Santa had indeed made it to Kaolack, Senegal – each of us had a little bag of wrapped goodies “because everyone should have something to open on Christmas.”

Santa’s helper turned out to be another PCV, Mollie, though she wouldn’t admit it until we really pressed the issue.

Before dinner we had an interesting appetizer of deep-fat-fried onion rings, cheese cubes, cookies, sausages, and green beans – we had to try everything. Dinner was late, but not as late as we had actually originally thought, and it was delicious in our Christmas tradition here: honey-baked ham (yes, we splurged and got more pig), garlic mashed potatoes and gravy, almond-slivered green beans, canned corn, and millet bread (it was such a hit after Thanksgiving that Kenny made it again).

Dessert involved ice cream (another splurge item for us), pumpkin log, and left-over cookies from Christmas Eve. By that point we were all so stuffed moving was challenging. But American food is one of the things we all miss the most here – especially special food we’re used to having around the holidays – so it was great to be able to make such a variety of food and with such great company, too.

Even though I didn’t really get in the same “Christmas spirit” that I normally feel when I’m at home for Christmas, with all the Christmas ads on TV, shopping, Christmas lights and decorations, holiday parties, etc., it felt like Christmas here. I think that’s important – to really feel like it was Christmas here – because then I don’t feel so much like I missed Christmas back home, but that I just experienced a new and different Christmas. Several different links that were emailed to me helped me feel this Christmas spirit – one that was an electronic Christmas card St. Olaf made this year (first time ever, I think), one was an animation one of my friends made, and another was just a random website my dad got in an email and forwarded to me. They all made me incredibly nostalgic for snow and sledding, hot chocolate in Christmas mugs, big fluffy sweaters and hats and mittens and gloves, and listening to Christmas music while cuddled up in a blanket next the fire…oh Christmas in Minnesota. :)

St. Olaf’s 2009 (electronic) Christmas card:
http://www.stolaf.edu/about/holidaycard.html

My friend, Michelle’s, Christmas animation:
http://www.vimeo.com/8285160

A random (but cool!) online Christmas animation:
http://ak.imgag.com/imgag/product/preview/flash/bws8Shell_fps24.swf?ihost=http://ak.imgag.com/imgag&brandldrPath=/product/full/el/&cardNum=/product/full/ap/3166187/graphic1

PICTURES!!!

I’ve finally gotten around to uploading pictures to past blogs (in October) when I didn’t have a good enough internet connection to upload them, so check them out!!

My birthday – Senegalese style (well…in Senegal at least)

I spent my first birthday ever away from my twin sister this year – big step for a (now) 24-year-old! :) It was a great birthday, though, and, despite my blog title, it was definitely more of an American-style birthday than a Senegalese-style one. I’m not really sure what a Senegalese birthday party would be like – as far as I know most people don’t really celebrate their birthdays here because they don’t know their birthday (this is more often the case for older adults than younger people now) and it’s just not part of their culture to celebrate birthdays.

Anyway, my birthday (Dec. 17) started a few days early – on December 12th actually, when I went to Cora’s village with Teresa. We made Easy Mac (yes, the crappy mac n’ cheese stuff, but so good when you haven’t had anything like it in months) and then no-bake cookies. What a yummy treat!

The no-bake cookies on Cora’s (colorful!) trunk (where she keeps all her treats and food).

My actual birthday started off with a car ride from Tambacounda (a region to the east of my region, Kaolack) to Kaolack. (We had had a agricultural summit in Tamba for all the rural agricultural volunteers the couple days before my birthday.) Since the Peace Corps car that had brought the Peace Corps ag staff down to Tamba was heading back to Dakar the morning of my birthday, we were able to take that car to Kaolack instead of having to take public transportation – PC cars are always TONS better than public transport, because they’re free, they’re air conditioned (which is nice even when it’s not super hot), they’re quiet, they’re much smoother, they’re much faster, and they’re safe (in terms of people stealing my stuff or something) which means I feel comfortable listening to my iPod or reading a book or sleeping or doing whatever in them. When we first got to Kaolack (around 12:30), we stopped at a restaurant and had Senegal’s classic lunch: rice and fish – it was really good, though, because it had lots of vegetables (something that can be kind of rare in the village…). And, before we ate, everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to me – which is obviously a very American thing to do (and probably totally confused the Senegalese people in the restaurant). :)

Then the Peace Corps car took us to the Kaolack regional house. When I walked in the door, several other Volunteers yelled “Happy Birthday!” They had all come up for my birthday – something I totally didn’t expect – and had decorated the house with construction paper streamers (since that’s about the extent to party decorations we can do here). The dining room table was full of classic American party snacks – chips, crackers, candy, and cookie dough! We all hung out and ate snacks and chatted for a while, then I pulled out my computer and did a little work before getting on Skype to talk with my family and lots of friends – it was great! While I was skyping, my friends here ordered pizza and a salad for me at a local restaurant; the pizza wasn’t perfectly American, but it was delicious since I haven’t had pizza in months! And the salad was amazing – first salad in months, too! Then we had some juice and rum – what a treat, too! And later: chocolate cake with frosting and M&M’s and cookies crumbled on top! SO GOOD! :) No candles – but who needs candles with this kind of cake?!?!?

Breakfast the next morning consisted of pumpkin spice coffee (real, French-pressed coffee!!! NOT the crappy instant stuff they all drink here!), cake (who doesn't love cake for breakfast?!?!), plus pizza “reheated” on a frying pan. What a great 24th birthday! :)

YouTube Videos of Interviews with Farmers and PCV

When I went to Kaymor the first time for my Volunteer Visit (i.e. “Demyst”), Kate, the PCV in Kaymor before me, and I interviewed farmers regarding the work she’s been doing the past 2 years in the area. We did these interviews for a professor of mine at Cornell that is teaching a class (that I took last year) about farmer-centered research and extension (which is the type of work ag PCVs do here in Senegal). I posted the links on YouTube so the students in the class could watch them. The interviews were done in Wolof, so Kate helped me translate them into English (see translated summaries below).

Here are links to each of the interviews on YouTube:

Farmer Interview #1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIDN_ojQYcs


Farmer Interview #2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL8ynEc9Bek


Farmer Interview #3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l21hes6_mc


Peace Corps Volunteer Interview:
Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R82fIfAOCEY
Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_3XdaB4PcE


Here are the translated summaries of the farmer interviews, and a summary of the PCV interview:


First interview: Diomba Sow

Early tai corn variety is really good because it is so fast – if you plant it early, it will be ready when it is still the rainy season. The farmer planted another variety of corn, too, which produces more, but takes quite a bit longer, and the early tai variety produces enough to sustain his family through the dry season.

One way to improve the program is to extend more varieties of crops – he got corn, but would also like rice, for example. [Our program does extend rice – it extends corn, rice, sorghum, and cowpeas.]
The farmer has talked with other farmers because they saw how quickly the corn grew – it’s the fastest they’ve ever seen corn grow.


Second interview: Thierno Ba

The cowpeas are really good because they were fast and taste good, too, and are faster than the traditional variety.

He didn’t have many pest problems, because when he saw the pests initially he used a pesticide 3 times and used the pesticide Kate suggested. This allowed him to have 3 harvests of cowpeas (when some farmers would have been lucky to get only 1).

Many farmers have come up to him and asked him where he got the seeds because they are really good seeds, and he said he had gotten them from Kayemor because a white person lives there. So there is a lot of interest in the seeds. But the news about these seeds had already been spreading in the village because Kate had extended the seed to other farmers in the village the year before, so many people already knew about the seeds.


Third interview: Ndey Ndiaye Toure

She planted beans and rice because she shared the seeds with another woman in the woman’s group. (She knew the name of the bean variety when the other farmers didn’t.)

The beans were good because they had big fruits that you could sell or eat yourself. The rice was good because it was fast. More importantly, the rice was good because usually you have to grow millet or peanuts to sell and then buy rice, but with this variety you can grow the rice and eat it, too. So it improves your life.

The program is good but could be improved by teaching farmers how to store their seeds so that each year you can be giving new seed to new farmers because farmers from previous years will be storing their seed so you don’t have to give them seed any more. This increases sustainability and increases the number of individuals receiving seed.


Peace Corps Volunteer interview: Kate Ballentine

Rural sustainable agriculture Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) extend improved seed varieties (for field and garden crops) to farmers, extend improved farming techniques, and teach leadership and facilitation skills.

Since Kayemor is in the peanut basin of Senegal, people grow a lot of peanuts there, so one focus of Kate’s work was to help farmers diversify their crops both for monetary purposes and health/nutrition purposes.

“It’s like you’re giving us the seed for free – except better!” This is what one farmer had to say about the seed extension program the Peace Corps runs. It’s great because they get good, quality seed in a timely fashion for free upfront but are able to repay it (and not receive it as a handout) in kind at the end of the rainy season. And it’s obviously important to make sure the farmers are always onboard with the program because it’s them that do all the work.

The main challenges are environmental challenges, as is always the case in agriculture – sometimes it rains a lot and floods the fields, sometimes the rains come late and the seeds don’t even germinate, and sometimes the soil gets tired and can’t support the crops.

Kate encountered challenges being the first young, white woman in the area trying to teach farmers who had been farming for generations how to change and make improvements. But after the first year, the farmers quickly understood that she knows her stuff and can (and should) be respected and listened to.

Kate worked with Symbiosis, a local Senegalese NGO, and their branch in Kayemor, Peñc Mi.
With the help of the handful of men Kate worked with closely in Kayemor, she has developed an idea she calls the “village captain plan” where there is one farmer in each village who would act as the “captain” of the village and thereby receive special training so they could answer farmers’ questions (rather than the farmer having to always go to the PCV with questions) and receive special knowledge on how to plant, grow, and store the seed. This not only helps build capacity by educating farmers and giving the more power and ability to take initiative, but also makes the seed extension program more sustainable because it gives the farmers the vast majority of the power and gives them knowledge and resources so that when the PCV leaves, the program doesn’t die. One issue is how to pay these farmers. One suggestion is to give the village captains seed that they don’t have to return, so they’re receiving a payment in kind – a payment of seeds that they don’t have to repay at the end of the rainy season. This will give me them another kind of motivation (besides the motivation of gaining knowledge and respect in the village).

The main things Kate learned from her Peace Corps service was that everything takes time and nothing happens for free. Farmers are incredibly willing to help distribute seed and try new things, but they also are watching out for the welfare of their families and need to ensure that they won’t take too many chances and risk the health and wellbeing of their families.

Tabaski

Tabaski is the Islamic holiday celebrating the time when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, which Abraham was ready to do so, but then God stopped him at the last moment and told him to sacrifice a sheep instead. (See Genesis 22) Every family (that can afford to) is supposed to buy a sheep to kill for Tabaski. In fact, every adult male that is married or the head of the family in some way should buy a sheep. So my family bought and killed 7 sheep – one for every adult male in my family (i.e., my dad and his 6 brothers that live in my compound or the compound across the street from us).

Everyone goes back to their respective home villages (or towns/cities) for Tabaski to spend the holiday with their families, much like families in America do for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas. When they go home, they always bring back a lot of gifts – food, clothes, accessories, toys, etc. Everyone typically gets new, nice clothes, too, and I was part of that “everyone” – so I got my second Senegalese outfit made, this time with more expensive fabric that my host mom, Suckeye, helped me pick out. She liked the idea of getting the same outfit made for me and Kate, the volunteer before me in Kaymor (since she’s still here in Senegal and was going to go back to Kaymor for Tabaski), so we have the exact same outfit (see pictures below).

The first day of Tabaski (it is a 3-day holiday), all the sheep are killed in the morning, then the women spend most of the late morning and early afternoon cutting up all the meat and cooking a large lunch (of meat, onions, and potatoes, with other stuff usually, too). Then everyone showers and puts on their new clothes and walks around the village in the early evening into the night, greeting people, saying “I’m sorry; forgive me” (same phrase as is used during Korite – see my post on Korite in October), and saying “You look so great! You’ve changed so much!” (another standard Tabaski tradition – this is a specific phrase that everyone says, like the “I’m sorry; forgive me” phrase is a specific phrase). This same evening activity occurs all three days. The kids also walk around in small groups and adults give them really small money coins or candy or something – Kate and I gave the kids hard candy, which they all really liked.

No one officially works during the three days of Tabaski – in other words, no one goes out to the fields, and all the shops and stores and whatnot are closed, except for boutiques obviously, since people still need to buy food to cook with, tea and sugar to make tea, etc. Most people take this time to sit with family and friends and talk and make tea – two things Senegalese people are very good at. :)

After taking pictures of my dad, uncles, brothers, cousins, and Talibe boys kill and skin the seven sheep on the first morning ofTabaski, I helped my mom cut up some of the meat (my aunts cut up some, too, in their compound across the street). It was a new experience for me to say the least – enjoyable to an extent… :) Literally every part of the sheep is eaten here except for the hooves (see pictures below of the cuts of meat), which is not unlike meat in America, it’s just that the vast majority of people don’t see all the different cuts of meat and things like the intestines are eaten directly by people but are rather put into other foods (for people or animals). It’s nice that we have electricity here in Kaymor, because we were able to freeze the vast majority of our meat – which meant that we were eating that meat for breakfast, lunch, or dinner (or some combination of the three) for a couple weeks after Tabaski. Needless to say, I was always very excited to see fish in our lunch or dinner bowl as a change from our sheep meat… and I was not sad when the last bag of meat was taken out of the freezer for lunch. :) Those families that don’t have freezers would bring bags of meat to other families that do have freezers to keep the meat in their freezer, so our freezer was almost completely full of meat by the end of the first day of Tabaski.

WARNING: The pictures below involve lots of dead sheep and sheep meat, so if that’s not your cup of tea, I’d advise you to not scroll down and look at all the pictures.

My dad and cousin (in the shorts and t-shirt) watching as my 3 uncles and younger step-brother, Babacar (in the black), kill a sheep.

Sheep #1 – one down, six to go


My uncles killing a sheep by slitting its throat and letting it bleed to death.

My two (tall) step brothers, Babacar (in the black t-shirt) and Moustapha (in the white shirt and jeans), along with my little brother, Moussa, and uncles

The guys starting to skin one sheep…only six to go. :)

Skinning the sheep…continued

Starting the process of cutting the sheep into different cuts of meat.

Kate with a bunch of the boys after most of the meat has been cut. Some of the better cuts of meat are being cooked right now to be eaten immediately.

Some of the meat in bowls. The sandals are my little brothers. If you look closely, you can see 2 eyes in the bowl on the right…

The Diaw family – Kine (aka Kate), Sekh Ohmar, Suckeye, Moussa, Papa Amadou, and me, Ndeye
This is Senegal’s version of family Christmas photos – it’s family Tabaski photos instead :)

Kate and I with Yassa, a terrific young woman who is the vice president of the girls group I work with

Kate and I with Tomsir, a teenage talibe that Kate started teaching English to, and I am continuing to do so

My friend Saxrit (with a sucker in his mouth, and wearing an Akon belt!) and I

Kate and I with a friend and her son – isn’t he so cute?!? Kate and I are showing off our newly-braided hair in this picture instead of wearing our head wraps.

Summary: Seed Storage Facility in Kaymor

Here is a summary I've written to more clearly and concisely explain the seed storage facility I'm raising money for.


[Problem statement]

The current lack of reliable local crop seed storage is severely hampering the livelihood of the farmers in and around Kaymor, a village of about 1,800 in south-central Senegal. They do not have a secure facility in which to store their seed during the dry season; as a result they do not have the same seed market opportunities as farmers in more developed areas. Essentially, these farmers are forced to sell at a low price and buy over-priced and poor quality seed when they have the least spare cash.

Farmers in the region are not able to make profit-maximizing decisions about when to buy and sell peanut, corn, rice, millet, and bean seeds because there is no suitable seed storage. The seeds for these crops are large and take up a lot of space when being stored during the dry season. Most farmers do not have separate, secure buildings or storage units for their seed, so their seed is easily and quickly attacked by animals such as insects or mice. This means farmers must sell their crop soon after they harvest it at the end of the rainy season, when the price for their crop is typically at its lowest point in the year. Making matters worse, farmers are not able to save any seed for the next rainy season and are forced to buy seed when their savings are depleted. Also, they have to get seed from sources that are not necessarily reliable in terms of quality of seed, timeliness, or affordability because there are no other widespread seed sources. These constraints on the farmers’ options severely limit their earning potential and thus perpetuate their poverty and malnutrition.


[Proposed solution]

Therefore, the construction of a seed storage facility for large-grain crops such as peanuts, corn, rice, millet, and beans will lift these constraints from the farmers and allow them to make their own market decisions. At the end of the next growing season the benefits of this facility will – with your help – begin to be realized.

The local community group, called PENC-MI, which includes representatives from more than 20 surrounding villages and is based in Kaymor, is organizing this seed storage facility and will be in charge of managing the facility when it is built and running. The building itself will be a very simple one-level concrete structure, with a metal roof and large plastic storage containers for the seed. There are approximately 500 such buildings (of varying sizes and storage capacities) throughout Senegal, and the contracted builder is experienced at constructing such a facility. Farmers in Kaymor and the 20+ surrounding villages – adding up to over 200 farmers – will be able to store their seed in this clean, safe, secure building during the dry season, ensuring them access to quality seed whenever they want to plant, sell, or eat it. The community is required to contribute 25% of the total funds – 10% of the total must be in cash, and 15% can be in kind, such as labor, transportation, or supplies. The community has already raised the required cash: just over $300, about 170,000 cfa (which is more than 10 times my incredibly comfortable monthly stipend). Once all the cash is raised, the community will also be providing over 426,000 cfa worth of labor, transportation, and supplies. This is a significant contribution – the community is serious about and committed to this building. This building is designed to last decades so even though the building is very simple, low-levels of maintenance will inevitably be required; these costs will be covered by the community (in cash and/or in kind).

This seed storage facility will also act as an educational tool as well as a confidence- and capacity-builder because the farmers will learn how to properly select and store their seed and how to grow and store new crops. In addition, PENC-MI employees will learn certain skills, such as record keeping, contract making, payment practices, how to determine when seed is no longer viable, and how to obtain seed from local sources. Personnel employed by a local NGO experienced in organizing and maintaining such seed storage facilities will be in charge of teaching these farmers and PENC-MI employees.


[Call to action]

Over two-thirds of the funds needed for this project have already been raised – from the community’s contribution and from generous Americans – but we still need $3,158. We are looking for donations of any size so we can begin construction on this facility and have it completed before the rainy season starts in June (since construction is much more difficult during the rainy season). Please consider donating – any amount will help us get started on this facility, which is an investment in the future of more than 200 famers and their families.


[Means for continued communication]

I will continue to keep my blog (http://agentdstorm-senegal.blogspot.com/) updated throughout the fundraising, building, and implementation stages. I will take pictures as the construction starts, continues, and finishes to provide a visual report on the progress of the project. Though my access to internet is not nearly as reliable or consistent as it is in the States, email is still the fastest and most reliable method of communication with me, so please direct any questions, concerns, or comments to me at: danielle.stoermer@gmail.com

Seed Storage Facility Update

I thought I’d expand a bit on what this seed storage facility will look like physically and how it will be run. So read on if you’re curious and want to learn more about this important structure. :) Even if you’re not curious, check out this website and consider donating (any amount makes a difference!) because we’d like to have all the money in the next couple months so we can begin construction on this building before the rainy season: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=685-104

The building itself will be very basic – a rectangular cement building with a metal roof and cement floor, and doors with locks that are big enough so charettes can go in the building. Inside the building itself will be big barrels in which the seed will be stored. The main types of seed that will be stored in the building are rice, corn, cowpeas, millet, and sorghum, but other types of seed could also be stored there, such as vegetable and (fruit and non-fruit) tree seeds. Seeing as there will most likely be a few varieties of each kind of seed stored in the building (such as several varieties of rice and corn), the barrels will be labeled with the variety name as well as the kind of seed itself so different varieties don’t get mixed together. This type of building is very common throughout Senegal and Africa in general, so it is nothing complex or complicated to build and maintain.

A couple people will have copies of the keys to the locks on the doors. These same people will be the ones in charge of keeping the facility organized and run smoothly. These people have yet to be determined – they will be chosen democratically through PENC-MI, and will most likely be “paid” for their time and energy in seed. For example, they will be able to get improved seed varieties for free, though this also has yet to be formally determined. PENC-MI is the name of Kayemor’s “Communauté Rurale,” which is the community group that has been organizing this whole facility. Its headquarters are in Kayemor, but there are representatives from all the surrounding villages (upwards of 20+ villages) – one representative from each village (either male or female) except for a handful of the bigger villages, which have 2 representatives (one male and one female). Around 35 people in PENC-MI are directly involved in the design and implementation of this facility, and around 200 people will be impacted by the facility. (Wikipedia has a short snippet on these community groups, which are extremely common in Senegal, though the snippet is not very complete at all – it doesn’t even list Kayemor’s group, which is in the Nioro du Rip Department and Kaolack Region: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_communities_of_Senegal.) Since this facility is being funded through a Peace Corps Partnership, the Peace Corps will also be monitoring the construction, implementation, and improvement of the facility. I will do most of the day-to-day monitoring (which shouldn’t involve too much since part of the plan of the project/facility is to train the local men and women involved so they will be as self-sufficient as possible), and will direct questions or problems to my boss in the Peace Corps.

As part of the Peace Corps Partnership application process, Kate (the PCV in Kayemor before me) filled out a form with the help of the leaders in PENC-MI. Here is some information from the form that I thought other people might find interesting:
- There are 12 employees of PENC-MI, 46 village relays (i.e. the representatives to PENC-MI from Kayemor and the villages around Kayemor), and 200 farmers involved in the PENC-MI seed extension program
- Employees and replays will learn to manage a seed production program with record keeping, contract making, and payment practices
- PENC-MI employees will also learn how to determine when seed is no longer viable and how to obtain seed from local sources.
- Farmers will learn the technical skills in supplying their own seed by learning to select and store seed for current crops. They will increase their agricultural knowledge by learning to grow and store new crops.
- Success of the facility will be determined, in part, by 1) the number of farmers who reimburse the seed extended to them by PENC-MI, 2) the growth of the seed production program into numerous types of seed, and 3) the continuation of the project and facility after Peace Corps has left the area.

The building will be located behind the “peñc mi” (yes, the same word as the name of the rural community group; it literally means “public place” and is the area where teachers live, classes are held for school, community meetings are held, etc.). It is a good location because it is right next to the main road through Kayemor, and because it is in Kayemor itself, which is surrounded by many smaller villages and the people in these villages often come to Kayemor regularly to sell and buy things so it won’t be difficult for people to bring their seed to the building in Kayemor to store it. Here are a few photos to help orient you to where the building will be built – sorry they’re not more exciting, but right now it’s just empty land…

The metal posts along the left side of this photo mark the northern border of the peñc mi land, so the building will be built to the right (south) of the posts. The bigger trees in the background may need to be cut down for easier construction.

This is a picture of essentially the same area, but looking south. The building in the back is a class used for school and meetings. The seed storage facility will be built between where I am standing (when I took the photo) and where that classroom is.

Thanksgiving in Kaolack, Senegal!

Well we had quite a Thanksgiving feast here (on the day before Thanksgiving because there is a big Islamic celebration on Friday/Saturday [i.e. “Black Friday” and the day after it] so we all wanted extra time to travel back to our respective villages for that). Our meal consisted of 3 turkeys (2 grilled on a big enclosed charcoal grill [see picture below] and one deep fat fried), mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato mash (we have a different kind of sweet potato/yam here, but it was still just as delicious!), squash soup/mash (it was kind of thick soup), home-made rolls, cranberry sauce (from a can, but good nonetheless), deviled eggs, macaroni and cheese, cucumber, tomato, and carrot salad with home-made balsamic vinaigrette, lentil and veggie soup, and millet bread (instead of cornbread, which was sooooooo delicious and Kenny totally just made the recipe up as he went since we couldn’t find corn meal/flour). Everything was incredibly delicious – we’re pretty sure we had the best Thanksgiving meal in Senegal, even better than the thanksgiving dinner at the Ambassador’s house (where some PCVs ate). :)

Dessert consisted of several different options, all of which were pretty untraditional Thanksgiving Day desserts except for the pumpkin log (and Teresa actually used a squash, not a pumpkin) and apple crisp (since it’s easier to make in a large quantity than apple pie and just as tasty). Teresa made the pumpkin log, pineapple upside-down cake, and apple crisp. I made snickerdoodle cookies and peanut butter brownies with chocolate butter-cream frosting and chocolate sprinkles. The brownies were a huge hit – I am definitely going to be making them again!!

It was quite challenging cooking for 35+ people in such a small kitchen, but we made it work by planning ahead, making a schedule, starting the night before, and cooking all night. We were right on schedule, though – we started eating just a little bit after 5 (the turkey carving is what held us up at the end and you can only have so many people around a turkey with sharp knives…). :)

We were all so full after dinner – as is supposed to be the case after Thanksgiving dinner – that we couldn’t clean at all, but just had to sit/lay around and chat. What was so great about our dinner above and beyond the tastiness of it all, was that, after all the expenses, it still only cost each of us 3,200 cfa, which is about $7. I think that’s saying something about our creativity and resourcefulness that we were able to make a genuine American meal here so cheaply (and quickly for that matter – though about 5 people were cooking all day and anywhere from 5-10 more people were helping out with various things, like chopping, stirring, doing dishes, etc.). But creativity and resourcefulness are qualities a PCV must have – and if he/she doesn’t have them, he/she learns them very quickly! :)

Bissap – tea and sorbet!!!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the girls in the girls group in Kayemor I’m working with have just started harvesting their (beautiful) red bissap flowers. Last year it was transformed into tea and sold in the States and Europe, which will happen again this year, too. Also, though (I just found this out!), Ben and Jerry’s just made a deal with the NGO the helps guide the girls group to buy some of the bissap, too, to make bissap sorbet! I have no idea when this product will actually hit the market, but keep your eyes open because I’m sure it will be amazing!

CORRECTION: I was misinformed earlier – Ben and Jerry’s is interested in making bissap sorbet, but they have yet to make any sort of formal deal.

Here’s a close-up of these beautiful (and tasty – when boiled or soaked in water with sugar) flower:




The girls’ bissap field:

Giving Thanks for Food: Food Security and Seed Storage

It’s almost Thanksgiving and ‘tis the season to be thankful. And, as I think about all the great food we PCVs are pulling together for our Thanksgiving feast here in Kaolack, I can’t help but be thankful for food – and not just for the food itself (for how tasty it is and for how it sustains us), but also for the people that work so hard to grow it and transport it and sell it, for the sun and the soil that support the plants that become our food (directly or, as is increasingly the case in the States, indirectly), for the researchers and educators who help improve and adapt agricultural activities, and for the ways in which communities (large and small, local and international) can be built and strengthened through food. As an ag volunteer here in Senegal, the main part of my job is helping people grow better food – better in terms of increasing yields, increasing diversity, and increasing sustainability. This is essentially what is meant by the term “food security” – the ability to grow enough food for yourself (whether that “self” is a single individual, a family, a community, or a nation) to sustain yourself all year round. This concept focuses are the ability to literally grow the food yourself, rather than growing something else to sell to have money to buy other food, but it certainly does not exclude the possibility of trade and specialization (as is the current trend throughout the world). One way to help ensure food security is to improve farmers’ ability to store their seed from year to year during the dry season in a community-based seed storage facility. Seed storage in and of itself is helpful for food security because it allows farmers to have seed from the previous year to plant without having to worry about having money to buy seed (since the time right before the rainy season is usually when people are shortest on money) nor worry about if there will be seed available (based on many different factors that could affect this, like the government, seed companies, and roads and other infrastructure issues). And having a community-based seed storage facility helps farmers because it is a safer, more secure, better place to store seed than the average seed storage location for an individual family because it’s a actual separate building with (in theory) secure walls, ceiling, and doors so animals (and people) can’t get in and eat or steal seed. Having a common building for seed storage also means that farmers are less likely to eat their seed (if they are getting low on money and food), and it means seed is usually properly stored (in terms of using the correct chemical treatments if necessary) since everyone is storing their seed together. All in all, a seed storage facility is one of many ways to improve food security in a community. The PCV before me in Kayemor, Kate, met with farmers, community leaders, and a local NGO when she first got to Kayemor to determine what the community saw was their primary need/desire. They determined that a community seed storage facility was it – so she applied for a Peace Corps Partnership to raise money for the building: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=685-104 She has raised quite a bit of money already, and the community is contributing 25% of the total funds, but we still need to raise a little under $4,000. We would really like to have the money raised by January so construction of the building can begin during the cool, dry season, and be done before the start of the rainy season. Check out the website and let me know what you think of it! Part of what I want to do through this Peace Corps Partnership and building is not just to raise the money itself, but to create an ongoing relationship between people in the States and people in Kayemor, so everyone involved can learn and grow.
On another note related to food security, Peace Corps Senegal and USAID are working together on a new project focused on food security in Senegal, which will helpfully pull together the benefits of Peace Corps’ grassroots focus with the additional funding USAID can provide. I don’t know a whole lot about it right now, but as things develop I will do my best to post updates as I learn about them. For right now, check out this article from The Economist: http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14926122

My HUT!

In as few words as possible, my hut is amazing. It is big and spacious, has a light bulb and an outlet, has two doors (though unfortunately no windows), gets good air flow (which also means it gets really dusty – but what doesn’t here?!?!), has a nice backyard (with basil and mint and 2 young papaya trees that will hopefully produce fruit next year!) with an outdoor bathroom and “shower” area (for my bucket baths), is in the back corner of my family’s compound so I can feel part of the family but still can escape if I need to, is decorated with a world map and Senegal map and postcards and pictures already (and will be even more so with time – and I hope to paint a small mural of sorts, too!), has a nice bed and “desk” and dresser and bookshelf, is clean and organized, and feels like my home for the next 2 years (which is good, since it is my home for the next 2 years). Here are some pictures to help elaborate on the coolness of my hut:

My desk and front door (on the right):

Just to the right of my front door - my bike, world map, postcards, second chair, trunks, etc:

My backdoor, bookshelf, seed storage containers (yellow buckets and big water jugs), the mat for the kids to sit and play on, and the side of my dresser (with fabric hanging over the front):

Essentially the same stuff, with a slightly different angle (my water filter is featured prominently in the center there), and the Senegal map is off to the left:

My bed, mosquito net (yellow-ish thing hanging down from the ceiling), top of my dresser, desk, and front door:

My bathing area to the left (with my bucket of water and pan in the back to collect any extra water that I then use to water my basil, mint, and papaya trees) and my "toilet" to the right:

My backyard - nothing planted in it yet, but I might plant some stuff...or use it for my tree nursery area in the spring:

It’s getting’ chilly!

It now is getting chilly at night here – down in the low 60s. All the Senegalese people think it’s really cold here now – the women bundle up in shawls and the boys and men wear pants for sure (the men regardless pretty much always wear pants, though boys/teenagers often wear shorts), and jackets, too, if they have them. I’ve started sleeping in pants and a long sleeve shirt at night – and usually end up pulling up my sheet over me by morning. It is so amazing. Literally AMAZING. I still get hot and sweaty (a bit) during the day – the sun is still hot for sure (weather.com claims it gets in the mid-90s here still…but it really doesn’t seem that hot!), but it cools off nicely by evening. If I don’t get a chance to take my (often second) bucket bath of the day until after the sun has set, I can almost get the goose-bumps. Almost. :) The guys in my compound run back to their room after their bucket baths at night with their “towel” (i.e. a big cut of fabric) wrapped around them tightly because they’re so cold. I can’t wait to be able to wear pants all day and feel comfortable in them (i.e. not really get hot at all, or at least not too much). I think that should happen pretty soon – certainly by January at least. I can’t wait. Everyone here thinks I’m crazy when I say that it feels so nice now that it’s so “cold” – I tell them it really is not cold here, it’s cold in my home in the States right now. I tell them to imagine being surrounded by ice (since many people don’t understand the word for snow, nor what it means/looks or feels like) – and that is what Minnesota is like now (not really, but it will be soon, and the word for “now” and “soon” are the same in Wolof, so it works). When I told Suckeye this, she just looked at me and said, “If I went to Minnesota, I would die.” And I said, “Yeah, well, you might, but you’d learn to just wear a lot of layers of clothes like we do, and then you’d be fine.” (Or I more or less said that in my somewhat broken Wolof. I think she got the idea, though.)

More things I’ve done

- Plucked chickens out of a tree (do that almost every night now for my mom since we have 2 that like to chill in a tree in our courtyard, while the rest are dutiful and go to the chicken coop each night)
- Biked to Ndiba (a town about 20 km away from Kayemor from the main road), went to the weekly market there (called a "lumma"), and swam in the Bao Bolon River (pronounced very similar to “Babylon”) with 2 other PCVs
- Shelled more peanuts (thank goodness for athletic tape – my fingers would be raw if I hadn’t had it!) and also dropped them in the air from one big plastic bin to another to separate out the shells from the actual nuts
- Cooked millet at 6am with my mom

- Cooked peanuts in the evening with my mom and other women

- Played soccer with boys (mostly 10-15 year olds), and run around the field with older guys (while the younger boys just messed around with the ball)
- Actually made tea (I learned how to in TawaFall, but couldn’t quite get the technique down of pouring the tea from cup to cup to cool it down and get a foam on top, but now I can!) [Side note: my nickname among my family and a few other people like Yassa is “Xiim” which is the verb “to make tea” because the people in TawaFall would sometimes use that for when they were actually making tea, so I said it one of my first days in Kayemor and they all got a kick out of it because no one in Kayemor really uses that word…oh nicknames. :) Gotta love ‘em.]
- Went to Kayemor’s daily vegetable market, bought the vegetables for lunch, and then peeled and cut them as they should be (according to Senegalese cooking techniques) – all by myself! (I’ve done all that before, but with my mom, never by myself.)
- Learned how to open, fill (that’s easy!), and tie (quite challenging at first, but once I got it down, I got in quite a bit of a rhythm) the little plastic bags my mom (and the other kids in my compound) fill every day with bisaap juice to freeze and make “radi” (that my aunt then sells the next day, mostly to kids, for 25 cfa, which is about 5-10 cents)
- Made a garden in the fenced in area in my compound where my mom grows corn, cassava, and millet during the rainy season, has a couple papaya trees, and has a vegetable garden during the dry/cold season
- Locked myself in my hut and worked on my computer a few mornings, mainly to read past documents the PCV before me in Kayemor had emailed to me and to write up stuff for my blog (like this!)
- Had bisaap harvesting training with the girls in my girls group, and harvested a little of the bisaap flowers (and cut my fingers in a few places while doing so because my knife was so sharp and I am so used to dull knives)
- Started reading “A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson; still have yet to finish “Huckleberry Finn” (the first book I started here) but decided a wanted a little more intellectual stimulation one day, so pulled that book off my shelf [I am probably the only PCV in Senegal right now that has not read an entire book yet during our service so far…as much as I love reading, I just think that sitting and chatting as best I can with my family and friends is better for me right now in terms of community integration, learning Wolof, getting to know my family, etc. etc. – and I still have plenty of time to read all the books I want to]

Observations

[Disclaimer: Below is a list of observations I have made regarding life in Senegal as I see and interpret it. In no way is it meant to reflect everyone’s life nor their view of life in Senegal.]


There is an enormous gap in education levels among people here. For example, my mom, Suckeye, never went to school and is illiterate. Most of the children here go to school, but that’s because Kayemor is a “wealthier” village (it’s all a matter of perspective since they would still be considered extremely poor in the states) – and because we actually have a school (children come from all the surrounding villages to go to school here). A couple weeks ago I met a man who studied at the university in Dakar and at a university in Brazil, knows several languages, has travelled around South America and Europe a bit – and now lives in Nioro and works with women who are largely illiterate, never went to school, and have never even been to Dakar let alone another country (besides maybe the Gambia since we’re so close to it). While we have a similar gap in the US, it isn’t as extreme as here. The average American can read and write, knows generally about the world (ex. how many continents there are, that the ocean is salty, what snow and sand are), can do basic math, has general knowledge about the human body and other animals, can name a handful of famous people (other than just Barack Obama) and what they’re famous for, and knows generally about current events and what’s going on in the world. I’m not sure if the average Senegalese person could do these things – certainly if they’ve had anything beyond a primary school education they could, but many people (especially adult women right now – since widespread education is still in the process of spreading to the rural areas and there has been less of an emphasis on educating women in the past) haven’t even had that and it can make life much more challenging for these people for many reasons. For example, Suckeye has a cell phone but since she can’t read, she can’t save anyone’s number in her phone (I’ve saved other peoples numbers in her phone for her several times already – though that’s often largely useless since she usually ends up memorizing the numbers because she can’t read the names of the people in her address book…) or set the alarm on her phone if she, for example, wants to get up really early (like 5 am) to cook the millet so she doesn’t have to do it when it’s hot during the day. Also, when I’ve pointed at various places on the world map in my room (ex. Minnesota is where my parents and brother and his fiancée live, while Colorado is where my sister lives; and Europe is north and east of Senegal), she doesn’t really understand. I’m not sure if anyone has ever explained to her what the world is like, but maybe when my Wolof is better I will be able to.


Students here have a much more casual relationship with their teachers here. I say this slightly hesitantly, because I’m sure it’s not always the case and I’m not sure “casual” is the right word, but I’ve noticed it in several different aspects and scenarios, which I will try to explain. First, for example, my friend Yassa washes her French teacher’s clothes. This would be strange in the States because men do laundry there, but here men generally don’t wash clothes (they know how to, but it is part of the women’s job to do laundry, so if a man isn’t married yet but not living at home or with other family members, he finds some other girl/woman to do his laundry – and in this case, it’s Yassa, one of his students, whom he pays to wash his clothes). (I was glad to find out that he pays her because it’s hard work and takes a long time – all morning, or longer if she’s washing her own clothes and the clothes of other people in her family, too). I went with Yassa to go get his clothes one evening, and when we got to his room (he lives at the peñc mi, which translates as “public place”, along with many other teachers – so that means that it is one large compound with several buildings that consist of a row of rooms that act as bedrooms, living rooms, etc. with a door out to the central area of the compound) he was in the middle of praying, so we just went into his room and sat down on his bed and waited for him to finish. Then when we were done we had a nice conversation about me and my work here, and what I used to do in the States, and other stuff like that before Yassa’s teacher gathered up his clothes, wrapped them in a big towel (which I carried on my head back to Yassa’s house because I wanted to help out), and gave money to Yassa.
Another evening I went with Yassa to invite the doctor at the hospital in Kayemor over for lunch the next day because he was interested in getting to know me and learn more about my work here [this isn’t creepy like it kind of sounds – it is not uncommon here at all for people to be invited over or to just go to someone else’s house for the day to sit and eat lunch and drink tea and talk], but when we got to his house, we learned he was traveling for several days so we couldn’t talk with him. Instead, though, Yassa’s math and biology teacher was there reading and watching TV along with another young man, so we stayed and talked for quite a while about lots of different things. While Yassa may not have normally stayed there and chatted for such a long time with her teachers if I hadn’t been there, the thing I find most interesting is that it’s not uncommon or strange for her to sit and chat with her teachers outside of school in their homes or other places. This is just an extension of the fact that community is such an important and ever-present aspect of life here. Students are often related to their teachers (even if very remotely, it still counts) and interact with their teachers in many ways outside of class because the community is so small (by American standards). I guess this is probably very similar to life in a small rural town in the States, though I still think the emphasis on community here is more prevalent than even in a small town in the US. I wish I could have spent more time with my teachers growing up. I continue to keep in touch with several teachers (from elementary school, middle school, high school, and college) and I am still learning from them. As children and young adults I think we tend to greatly under-appreciate the wealth of knowledge, guidance, and direction teachers can offer if we are willing to be open to them and have the opportunity to learn from them not only in the classroom but outside the classroom as well. [I refrained from saying “out in the real world” because I think the classroom is the real world – it certainly has been real to me for the past 19+ years I’ve spent in a classroom.] Anyway, I’m not sure if students here take advantage of this opportunity to interact with and learn from their teachers outside the classroom, but at least it is easier for them to do so here than it usually is in the US. And not only can students learn from their teachers, but teachers can learn from their students – about what life is like for them now (because invariably it is different from when they were growing up, no matter how young the teacher is), what activities they’re involved in, what their families are like, what they like and dislike, what they think about school/the town/the world/life, etc. etc.


The topic of community is so important I think it deserves its own section. I’m not sure the best way to go about talking about it, so I’ll just give examples of ways the strength of the community is expressed. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before or not, but kids just roam freely here and parents don’t worry because they know older kids and other adults will watch out for them and keep them safe. If a person has a problem, family and friends (which is essentially almost everyone) are quick to help out. Families are very large and fluid – my mom’s brother’s wife’s step sister’s niece, for example, would be considered family and could come stay with us for any amount of time without any problems. We do, in fact, have 3 students staying at our house right now (and another one across the street staying with my aunt and uncle) who are related to me in some way (through my mom – have yet to figure out the details…but I know none of them have the same last name as my mom). They sometimes go back to their homes on the weekends, but not always. They act and are treated almost like Suckeye’s (my mom) children – the girl helps with the cooking, sweeping, dishes, laundry, etc., while the boys run errands and do manual labor activities (like building millet-stalk fences), and, in return, they get beds (the boys share one bed and the girl shares a bed with my brother who’s 6 – not at all uncommon) and meals here. I’m not exactly sure if their parents give them money to give to Suckeye or if they give her other things (ex. milk, bisaap, fabric, etc.) or if they don’t give her anything directly but all involved just know that they will help her out whenever she needs it (or just give her things they know she’ll like or want). In any case, community is an incredibly important aspect of life here and I’m sure I will be writing about many more examples of how community is expressed here in the months and years to come.


No one says “please”, and “thank yous” are limited. It is part of the culture here to not really say “please” ever (I don’t even know what the word for “please” is in Wolof), and to not say “thank you” very much (though people certainly do say it). Instead, people just make demands. For example, instead of saying “Can I have some water, please?” people say “Give me water.” And instead of saying “Will you help me shell my peanuts, please?” people say “Shell peanuts for me.” These demands have gotten on my nerves a bit at times because I am so used to being very polite, asking very nicely for things I need or want, and saying “please” and “thank you” all the time. However, I am gradually getting used to this fact of life here. I think part of the reason people don’t say “please” and “thank you” that much is because of the community culture here – since everyone shares everything so much, it is not strange or rude by any means to say “Give me some water” or “Shell peanuts for me” because the other person will most definitely say the same thing (or something similar) sometime later. What I think I will struggle with the most is figuring out if I want to change my habit of being polite and saying “please” and “thank you” to fit into the culture better here, or if I want to maintain that aspect of myself/American culture. I mean, I already stand out since I’m the only white person in Kayemor (except when other Peace Corps people come to visit), and they already think I’m a bit strange because I wear different clothes, can’t talk in Wolof very well, wear a helmet when I ride my bike, etc. etc., so it wouldn’t really make a difference if I continued to ask politely for things and say “thank you” a lot. I’m not sure if it would help people feel more comfortable with me if I acted like everyone else in this respect or not. I do think, though, that by saying “thank you” a lot and being polite I can help teach Senegalese people about American culture, which is one of the three goals of the Peace Corps, so perhaps that’s what I’ll continue to do.


Money is a tricky issue here, just like it is in the US. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the phrase “Amul xaalis fii” which means “There is no money here [in the village, in Senegal, in Africa, etc.]”. Since people have so little money here, they are always concerned about how much money they have, how much they’re spending, etc. One way I’ve seen this concern expressed very clearly is at baptisms. When women go to a baptism (and they go to them all the time since people are constantly having babies and since essentially everyone is invited to a baptism), they are expected to give money to the new mother (and her family). Usually the women all gather at some point late in the afternoon after lunch and after the dishes are done (and after those that were cooking/doing dishes have changed into their really nice clothes) to give/collect the money and record the amount of money given. The women have notebooks with lists of people’s baptisms, the people who attended each baptism, and how much money each woman gave. This is because when a woman attends another woman’s baby’s baptism she is expected to give the same amount of money (if not more) to that woman as that woman had given her when her baby had a baptism. As an American, where money is important but not exactly put on display quite as much and quite as regularly, this tradition seems a bit bizarre and condescending (in that it seems like the women don’t trust each other to give them money at their babies’ baptisms so they must record it), but it isn’t bizarre or condescending here – it is just a fact of their culture and another way community is strengthened because they are able to show how much they’ve been able to support and provide for other families.


Education is a major issue everywhere, and especially in developing countries. I was told here earlier in September that school should start early to mid October provided the teachers don’t go on strike because the government hasn’t gotten their act together to pay them. As far as I know, school started on time this year. But I have noticed (mainly through conversations with my friend Yassa and the students that live at my house) that classes are cancelled all day for the days when the teachers need to go into the nearest big town (Nioro) to get paid, which has happened at least once (and is maybe a monthly or bimonthly event) – there isn’t a direct deposit system for them as far as I know so they have to go to the bank (I assume…?) to get their paychecks. Also, there are no substitute teachers; if teachers are sick, traveling, at a baptism/wedding/funeral (which happens a lot), or whatever, then there just isn’t class. This is just one of many complicating factors that makes going to school/learning here so much harder than it (generally) is for students in the States. Another factor is the fact that students travel from all around Kayemor to go to school here. I’m sure it’s more like situations in really remote, rural places in the US. But I think there are definitely more schools in the States than here. And there is an actual school bus system in the US, whereas here the students have to walk, ride a bike (rare), ride a horse (even more rare), take a charette, or take the big alhams into to Kayemor everyday (or, like the students in my compound, once a week and stay over at a relative’s house). This obviously takes time and can become expensive over the extent of the school year (paying for the charette and/or alham every day or every week), plus since students are in school they can’t work in the fields as much, or do other money-gaining work. Students do definitely work, though – they go to the fields in the later afternoons/evenings before the sun sets around 7pm; they do the laundry; they help cook; they do the dishes; they sweep and clean; they build fences and repair tools; etc etc. This obviously takes time away from when the students could be studying and is very tiring (since most of this work is physically-demanding), which is another factor that makes learning more challenging here. (I definitely recognize that students in the States work, too – both for their families like students here, and for pay, in restaurants, stores, etc., but the work here really isn’t an option like it is for many students in the states – they choose to work because they want to have personal spending money, for example.) All in all, I am very impressed by the dedication and desire that I have seen in students here (not all, but many) to learn and improve their lives through education.

Jumping right in

Ever since getting to Senegal I’ve tried to not hesitate and be shy about trying new things, and I made sure to continue this trend when I got to Kaymore. My first evening in Kaymore my friend Tomsir came over to say hello and talk about me continuing to teach him English since that’s what the PCV in Kaymore before me did. I said I’d be happy to, so we made a plan for him to come over at least 3 evenings a week during which I would teach him English and he would help me with my Wolof. It works out very well since it gives me something to practice and prepare for each day. And we have a lot of fun – several times we’ve had long laughing fits because, for example, Tomsir will say something and I will have no idea if what he is saying, not even if it is Wolof or English. Good times for sure. And it’s nice that we have each other to complain to about how hard it is to learn another language – but usually we focus on providing each other support and encouragement since we both recognize that complaining isn’t going to help anything.

My first morning in Kaymore I went out to my uncle’s field with my mom (Soukeye), brothers, and several other women and young boys to gather the peanut plants into piles after they were uprooted by a young man (who works for my uncles) driving a team of oxen pulling a plow. It’s not that difficult of work – more straining on the back and hamstrings than physically exhausting. And the dust (because it’s such sandy soil) was annoying – it wasn’t long before my arms and feet had turned a light red because they were covered with soil. This part of the peanut harvesting was soon finished and this past week we’ve been picking up the remaining peanuts in the soil – even more tedious work but no one complains too much. In the afternoons we shell the peanuts. I got massive blisters on my index finger and thumb on my right hand from shelling peanuts the first day, but taped them after that and it was much better. I think the saving grace about all this tedious work is that the women (and girls and boys if they’re not in school) all do it together so they can chat the whole time. My Wolof is decent enough that I can sometimes follow their conversations and even participate, especially when Soukeye talks with me (or repeats what other people are asking/saying to me) because she is really good about talking slowly, using simple phrases, and acting things out which the other women haven’t totally caught on to yet.

Other mornings I’ve gone to the daily market in Kaymore with Soukeye to buy vegetables and fish for lunch and dinner. Then I’ve helped Soukeye (and my aunts on other days) cook lunch. They were impressed with the knowledge I already had about cooking here so I can thank my family in TawaFall for that! :) I am still continually amazed at how different cooking is here compared to the States…that topic probably deserves its own post at some point…

Almost every afternoon or evening my friend Yassa comes over to my house or I go to her house to hang out and chat, even if it’s for just 20 minutes. We talk in Wolof and English since she knows a fair amount of English. She is just a super outgoing friendly girl (17 years old) and is also very patient with the language barrier. I’m sure we’ll be good friends – in fact I’m already not looking forward to when she leaves Kaymore next October to start “lysée” (high school) in Kaolack for 3 years before university. It is also really nice that she lives right next door and her (much older) step brother is my counterpart, Moustapha. (They have the same dad, who passed away a few years ago, but different mothers – a common occurrence in Senegal since men can have up to 4 wives in Islam.) I went to school with Yassa one morning to see what school was like here. Elementary school is confined to a group of cement buildings around a shady area, but classes for “college” (middle school/junior high) are scattered all over Kaymore, much like college is often in the States. The two classes Yassa had that day were math and biology, which worked out well for me since math involves numbers so the language barrier is minimized and I love biology and many biologically-related words in French are very similar to their English counterparts so I could follow what was being taught in class relatively easily. In math we learned about solving complicated square root problems – something I haven’t done in years so I was struggling with it more than everyone else I think. After the teacher, Mousier Fall, taught for a while, he had the students come up as they wished to do practice problems in their book on the blackboard. He invited me to come up toward the end of class, which was quite nerve-wracking (I was back in high school – only now it was worse because I could barely speak the language!), but I solved the problem (incorrectly at first) so it was fun in the end. Yassa has Mousier Fall for math and biology, so it was nice that I didn’t have to explain who I was and why I was there twice. In biology we learned about the nervous system – how the central nervous system is different from the peripheral nervous system and how messages are transmitted through the nervous system. It is such a fascinating topic (and I took a class at St. Olaf on the nervous system so I’ve studied it a bit) that it was hard for me to not want to explain things in more detail than Mousier Fall was teaching. All in all it was a great morning and made me actually miss school and formal learning. Yes, I’m a nerd and proud of it. :) Yassa and I have also had short dance parties in her room with one of her friends, Marem, which are obviously fun. We biked out to the field that the girls’ group Yassa is vice president of has bisaab (aka hibiscus), sesame, millet, and cashew trees. And when I say “we biked” I mean I biked and Yassa sat on the back metal storage place above my rear tire (is there an actual name for that?) – even though I had put my towel down as padding her butt was pretty sore by the time we got back since it’s not exactly the most comfortable place to sit on for 4-5 km. Everyone we passed really enjoyed watching us go by – not only is a toubob going by, but it’s a toubob on a bike with a Senegalese girl sitting on back. I’ll have to have someone take a picture of us like that sometime. For now, here’s a picture of Yassa in the bisaab field – rafett na! (Very nice!)

My first Monday in Kaymore I had my first Wolof lesson with Malik. Mostly we talked about how things were going so far and I asked him questions about words I had heard but didn’t know and words I wanted or phrases to know. I anticipate these to be very productive classes, though slightly more disorganized than the Wolof classes I had during training since Malik isn’t an actual Wolof language teacher (though he is an elementary school teacher).

Another morning I went over and met with Moustapha, my counterpart (my female counterpart, Marem, is currently in Dakar), to talk about what I wanted to do for my first 3 months in Kaymore before I go back to Thiès for 2 weeks for IST (inter-service training) in late January. It was a slow conversation because of my poor Wolof, but he was patient and used French phrases when I really didn’t understand. I have lots of things I want to do in the next 3 months – some things I really need to do and some I would like to do if I have time and the resources. Here are the must-do’s first:
- Learn Wolof so I am fluent (or nearly fluent)
- Collect the seeds farmers in and around Kaymore owe me (since Kate, the PCV in Kaymore before me, extended many farmers improved seed varieties last year for corn, rice, millet, and cowpeas and as part of this Peace Corps program the farmers reimburse me twice the amount Kate gave them – which was 2 kg of seed in most cases)
- Finish raising the money for a seed storage building for Kaymore (about $4,000 left to raise) so farmers in and around Kaymore can have a reliable and safe place to store their seeds for the next year [I’m sure I will be writing more about this soon]
- Make demonstration cold-season garden plots in Soukeye’s garden (which is in my compound – so it will act as my personal demo plot) and in the fields of 2 women’s groups in nearby villages (I made one garden in one women’s field last week)
- Meet with the girls in the girls group I will be working with (I’ve already done this a couple times) and help them harvest their bisaab
- Continue formalizing the “village captain plan” Kate started to create last year – it is essentially that each village around Kaymore will have a “village captain” who I (with the help of my counterpart and a few others) will train regarding the improved seed varieties (ex. how best to plant them, when to weed, when and how much compost/manure/fertilizer to use, integrated pest management techniques, etc.) and then this village captain will go back to his/her village and train the other farmers there that are getting the improved seeds. This way these farmers can act as the go-to person in their villages and other farmers can ask them questions first before coming to me. This will help me/Peace Corps accomplish our goals of capacity building, self-sufficiency, and sustainability.

Things I want to do if and when I have time (I have already started doing several of these things):
- Teach English to Tomsir
- Hang out with and get to know everyone in my (large extended) family, the girls in “my” girls group, and other women, men, and kids in Kaymore and the other villages I’ll be working with
- Play soccer with the kids and possibly teach/coach in some capacity
- Participate in Peace Corps’ World Wise School’s Program and communicate with students in the middle school I went to
- Help out at the maternity clinic
- Learn French better (I’ve forgotten so much since I’ve been learning Wolof) and Pulaar (another local language in West Africa)
- Read, write, sketch, and explore as much as I can

My first Wednesday in Kaymore I went to a village very close to Kaymore (called Passy Kaymore) with several guys who work for 2 different NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in Senegal (ENDA Santé and Symbiosis) because they were working on a drip irrigation project with the women’s group in Passy for medicinal plants and they thought it would be a good time for me to meet the women, see their field, and learn more about their group and what they do. In the morning we finished getting the irrigation system hooked up and I talked with the women about how I wanted to do a garden plot in their field – they were really enthusiastic about it and said I should come back the following Monday in the late afternoon and we could start the garden. One of the guys that was there, Dioum, (and who Kate worked with quite a bit when she was in Kaymore) said he was going to be coming back on Monday, too, so we could go together. The next few days I reread the gardening info we had received from the Peace Corps and put together a plan for the garden. Monday morning Dioum stopped by my house and said he had to go to Passy that morning but his son would come by my house at 3 that day to take me to Passy. I decided to bike there instead of walking with Dioum’s son, so I just had him show me which road to take and I was off. We didn’t end up planting the garden that day because the women had a meeting to talk about their group – they’re thinking about slightly restructuring it so they were meeting to discuss their options (or at least I’m pretty sure that’s what it was about – obviously I couldn’t follow their conversation completely). But I went back again Wednesday morning planted the garden. We didn’t exactly follow the garden plan I wanted to because I couldn’t explain everything I wanted to do in Wolof, but I think what we did will be just fine. That afternoon I went back to Passy because the women were having another meeting about their group. This was an even more heated discussion – these women are passionate about working hard and making money and, as you can imagine, it’s hard for 40-50 women to all agree on what, when, and where to plant, what is being planted for the group to share (in labor and income) and what will be planted individually, how best to distribute the workload of watering, weeding, harvesting, selling, etc., and how to resolve the conflicts that will inevitably happen. The meeting ended because dusk was drawing near not because they had finished their discussions so I will keep you posted on how things turn out when I can. I’ll be heading back to Passy in a few days to check on the garden and visit with the women.

Last Thursday I biked to Nioro (the largest town closest to me – about 25km away) because I wanted to check my email. But when I got to Nioro I soon learned that the electricity was out and would be out all day because they’re doing some sort of construction in town and need to turn the power off every Tuesday and Thursday for the next month or so. This was a bit disappointing to say the least, but I was still able to do some work on my computer and hang out with the volunteer who lives in Nioro, her family, and 2 other PCVs who were in Nioro that day, too.

Last Friday I went to the maternity clinic in Kaymore to see what it’s like and help out in any way I could. A woman had just had a baby boy that morning, so I spent a little time with him, and then helped out the nurses who were taking the weights of the pregnant women, checking their blood pressure, etc. I didn’t do a whole lot but it was fun to see the place and see who mothers and children are taken care of here.

I’ve already been to 2 baptism parties and could have gone to 2 others but had other plans for those days already. It seems like there is a baptism or some sort of party almost every day here. One of the baptisms I went to was in a village a ways away, so we took a charette there – let’s just say my butt hurt by the time we finally got home later that evening; it wasn’t exactly the smooth charette ride I had experienced in TawaFall/Thiès. :)

With such a long post, it seems like I’ve been super busy the past few weeks. I have been, but I’ve also spent a lot of time just sitting, studying my Wolof, chatting with family and friends, drinking tea, etc. That is the way of life here – work hard in the morning, take the early afternoons off when it’s the hottest, and then work again in the late afternoons and evenings if necessary/possible. I’ve definitely gotten used to the rhythm of the day here and I like it.