Peace Corps Senegal Documentary

In coordination with Peace Corps Senegal and the US Embassy, the major national TV station in Senegal, RTS, recently finished a documentary on Peace Corps Senegal, called "Etre Utile" which means "Being Useful". The documentary briefly chronicles the history of Peace Corps, from its birth at the University of Michigan campus in a 2 a.m. impromptu presidential campaign speechby John F. Kennedy to its expansion and current state with thousands of Volunteers serving in 77 countries around the world. It then moves into the specifics of Peace Corps Senegal: the kinds of Volunteers that serve here, the language, cultural, and technical training we receive when we arrive, etc. The majority of the documentary, though, follows 5 PCVs doing their work, hanging out with family and friends, and talking about their Peace Corps experience. I happened to be one of those PCVs selected to participate in the documentary. The film crew came and filmed me for 2 days back in January. It was stressful and nerve-wracking preparing for their visit – and even worse when they were actually filming – but I think they did an excellent job portraying all aspects of our work and presenting an accurate image of Peace Corps Senegal as an institution as well as Peace Corps Volunteers themselves. The documentary has aired numerous times and has been extremely well received. I have been stopped numerous times in Kaymor and other villages and towns by people that said they saw me on TV. I have also received many phone calls from Senegalese host family members and friends that don’t live in Kaymor saying they watched the documentary. I even received a phone call from a man who works in Dakar but is from a village near Kaymor because he saw the gardening work I was doing and wants to start a garden himself. He apparently has friends in Kaymor and after several phone calls to a few different people he was able to track down my number. He said he has a nice field by his village and would much rather be working out in his field than in Dakar. A few days before the documentary aired on national television, the Ambassador hosted a preview party. Here is a short video from that party: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v11nO32xJRM&NR=1 Sorry it’s in French. I think the whole documentary will be posted online at some point for you all to see. I have the French version on my computer, but it’s enormous so I can’t post it myself. RTS is also making an English version, which I will also get when it’s finished.

Podcasts for company

Before I joined the Peace Corps and came to Senegal, I used to go running a lot, but almost always with someone – usually with my sister, or if not with her (when we didn’t live together) then with another friend. During the past year and a half that I’ve spent in Senegal, though, I typically haven’t had anyone to go running with: I clearly haven’t been able to go running with my sister and I am not usually with other Peace Corps volunteers to go running with them; I have gone running with a couple young guys in my village (when there has been too many people that want to play soccer so they can’t play right then), but that doesn’t happen very often since I usually go running in the morning and these guys all play soccer/go running in the evenings. Like many people who run by themselves, I would listen to music on my iPod. This was fine, but I still missed the conversations I used to have while running with someone else. So, I started listening to podcasts, and now I’ve gotten in the habit of listening to podcasts when I do lots of things, not just go running, and, to be perfectly honest, it’s kind of an addicting habit. By listening to podcasts when I’m running, not only do I get my English fix for the day (something that used to bother me a lot more than it does now that I speak Wolof quite well) but I also am able to stay on top of American and world news while being entertained. Sometimes I get so engrossed in the podcast that I forget what I’m doing, which then usually means I slow down, but it’s well worth that sacrifice. J The podcast that I listen to the most when I’m running is The Story by American Public Media (http://thestory.org/). It’s a little less than an hour long, which means I never get to the end of it during my normal 45-minute loop and therefore don’t have to try to flip through podcasts to find another one to listen to while I’m also still trying to run. I also really like it because it’s so conversational – Dick Gordon interviews people who have interesting stories to tell, whether they’re about a unique job, a strange coincidence, a heartrending narrative, or an uplifting experience.

I also listen to podcasts when I go biking. Some people (both other PCVs and Senegalese people) have asked me about how safe that is on the roads here, but I always make sure to have the volume soft enough so I can hear approaching cars – and it’s not like that’s that hard anyway because the roads are so bad so the cars are usually not going that fast and they are also jostling around so much you can hear them over a kilometer away. My favorite podcast when I’m biking is Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! According to their website (http://www.npr.org/programs/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/) it’s “NPR's weekly hour-long quiz program. Each week on the radio you can test your knowledge against some of the best and brightest in the news and entertainment world while figuring out what's real news and what's made up.” In the program callers can call in and answer questions; if they get enough questions answered correctly, they win the prize of Carl Kasell’s voice on their home answering machine or voicemail. There are also three panelists that are on the show that answer questions, too, as well as chime in with funny comments throughout the show. In addition, there is always a famous guest on the show who is interviewed briefly and then answers questions, with the hopes of winning Carl Kasell’s voice on another (not famous) person’s home answering machine or voicemail. I learn the week’s headlines from this podcast, as well as obscure events that happened recently – all in a hilarious format that keeps me smiling and sometimes even gets me laughing out loud. In fact, I can still distinctly remember one evening last November I was biking back to Kaymor from Nioro and listening to a Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! podcast. I was approaching a small group of men that were sitting on the side of the road waiting for a car to drive by that they could get on to go wherever they wanted to go, when the podcast go to the limerick part of the show, where host Peter Sagal reads a limerick and the caller has to provide the final word or phrase. Just as I reached the group of men Peter Sagal finished the limerick and paused for the caller to provide the final word/phrase. I don’t remember what the limerick was about, but I do remember the caller’s response: “plaid shirt”. I think the limericks are usually pretty easy, and I remember knowing the answer to this specific limerick, and it was not “plaid shirt”, nor anything even remotely close to that. So when the caller responded with that phrase, I immediately just burst out laughing – it was just such a random phrase to say! – and this happened to coincide exactly with me passing this group of men. I usually greet anyone I meet along the road, but couldn’t this time because I was laughing so hard, and I can’t imagine what those men must have thought – this white girl biking along the road in the hot late afternoon sun with something wrapped around her arm and something else sticking into her ears (most people don’t know what iPods are, or even what headphones are) and just bursting out laughing randomly; they probably thought I was crazy. By the time I pulled myself together enough, I was too far past them to even yell them a greeting, and then I started laughing again as I contemplated what they were thinking of me. I still chuckle every once in a while when I happen to think about this.

There are several other podcasts that I listen to when I’m running or biking, or, more commonly, when I’m doing sit-ups or some other workout behind my hut, doing laundry, doing other random chores in and around my hut, or traveling in cars: BBC’s Global News, NPR’s Science Friday, NPR’s Talk of the Nation, NPR’s Fresh Air, Freakonomics Radio, APM’s A Prairie Home Companion’s News from Lake Wobegon, and sermons from All Saints Lutheran Church (ELCA, Cottage Grove, MN), Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church (MN), and h2o (a church in Columbus, Ohio, on the University of Ohio campus). I used to listen to Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion online all the time when I was at Cornell to get my Minnesota/Lutheran fix for the week, and since I can’t easily listen to the whole thing here, the News from Lake Wobegon has to suffice.

I don’t just listen to saved radio programs (i.e., podcasts) for my news and entertainment – I also listen to the radio itself. Obviously most of the radio stations that I get in my hut on my short-wave radio are Senegalese, and are therefore in Wolof or French, neither of which I can easily understand (because they always talk too fast…). Usually if I’m listening to a Senegalese station, I listen to a station that plays fun Senegalese music. I can sometimes get random American or European radio stations, but not with much consistency or clarity. I did recently discover, however, that a Gambian radio station that I can get with great clarity plays the BBC’s world news hour every day from 8-9pm, so I have also started listening to that.

It’s amazing to think about how radio revolutionized how we share information, and how now, with the advances the internet has provided in terms of storing and distributing radio programs, radio is still such a major medium for information sharing.

Wishing on a shooting…airplane? Where did all the stars go?

The first time I heard the song “Airplanes” I liked it. The single, which came out just over a year ago, was released by Atlantic Records and has verses written by B.o.B. and chorus and music by Kinetics (Jeremy Dussolliet, Cornell '09) and One Love (Tim Sommers, Cornell '10). I first heard about the song from fellow PCV and Cornell graduate. I have listened to it quite frequently over the past year, but it wasn’t until just a couple months ago, when my family from America came to Senegal to visit me, that I really started to think about the song’s lyrics and how they relate to me here in Senegal. The main theme is summed up by the following lyrics: "Can we pretend that airplanes/In the night sky/Are like shooting stars/I could really use a wish right now." As I lay out in the bush in Senegal on my outdoor bed staring up at the star riddled night sky, this seems like a really strange question to ask – why in the world would I want to make a wish on an airplane when shooting stars are so much more common? Clearly these lyrics weren’t written for an audience living out in the bush in Senegal – they were written for an audience living in the countless towns and cities in the US. There, with the high degree of light pollution and frequency of airplane flights, wishing on an airplane is a much more reasonable desire than wishing on a shooting star. But here in Senegal, I can lay on my bed outside behind my hut and often on a clear, moon-less night I can see at least one shooting star within the span of half an hour, if not several. To see an airplane streak across the sky, on the other hand, I would probably have to wait weeks if not a few months. With all these shooting stars I must be making lots of wishes, right? Well, yes. So what are all these wishes that I’m making, you might ask. The wishes I make on these numerous shooting stars range from wishes related to my work, such as a wish for the pesticide that one of my gardener’s sprayed to work so the rest of his tomato and eggplant crop isn’t destroyed or a wish that the training I’m preparing for goes well and the farmers that attend understand and implement the concepts I teach them or a wish for people to start being more careful when they’re out in the bush roasting peanuts or tossing a cigarette butt out so no more bush fires are started, to wishes that are more trivial, such as a wish for a nice breeze so I can sleep comfortably that night or a wish for fish for lunch the next day instead of the slimy okra dish we sometimes get or a wish for my internet in my hut to work sometime soon so I can check my email. The one wish I’m saving to make when I see an airplane, though, is a wish that these 2 years I’m spending out in the bush in Senegal not only teaches me many things, such as how to be more independent, confident and resourceful, as well as what international agricultural development really looks like (because I already know that I have learned these things), but also truly makes a positive difference in the lives of the people I work with and get to know – and a difference that will not just be seen in the next few months or years, but will rather be sustained for generations.

The Stoermer Family Invades Senegal - Reflections

When I started writing these blog posts about my family’s trip to Senegal I realized I really wanted – and even needed – to share their perspective on things, too. I’ve lived here over a year and a half and so many things that shocked me when I first arrived here are now completely normal. Like me, they had never really spent any time in a developing country before coming to Senegal. So I thought it would be interesting to have them write a paragraph or 2 reflection on the trip. While I am touched by my family’s flattering comments regarding me and my work here, I am posting their reflections more for their interesting perspectives on the trip.

My mom’s reflections:

We really enjoyed our trip to Senegal. I cannot even imagine what it was like for her to arrive there and not really know what she was getting into. She did not know the language, culture, money, and so many other things. We enjoyed meeting many of the people Danielle has told us about. So many of them are very appreciative of what Danielle has done to attempt to make their lives better. Also, it was great to see all the projects with which Danielle has been involved – either by coordinating or improving them. Now we can visualize the projects she is talking about. We would not have survived 5 minutes without her. She was a great guide. It was a trip we will never forget!!

My dad’s reflections:

• Tulip Noir and Palmarin – Max, the owner, was a great host and a guy Craig can relate to!! The Italian food was superb, conversations with Max discussing sports (both ex-jocks) was entertaining. It had a beautiful beach, ocean surf and sunsets. It was truly an oasis in Africa, as we soon found out!! The kayaking in the mangroves was one of the top 3 activities of our trip, our “shore lunch” was extremely unique!
• Keur Saloum and Toubacouta – Very Fun! Big, fresh water swimming pool, interesting huts that were comfortable to AMERICAN standards!! We had a terrific time exploring the mangroves, native history and bird life.
• Hotel Relais and Kaolack – Exploring the market was fun, but hot. The hotel is a peaceful get-a-way with a nice pool and a respectable restaurant. Air Conditioning and a TV with one English station (BBC) was FABULOUS!!!
• Danielle’s village was a step back in time!! Think 100 to 150 years ago to the frontier living of our American forefathers in the Midwest. No indoor plumbing, sparse and very erratic electricity, dirt floors, wood fires for cooking, a water well with bucket, rope and pulley!! Three days and nights were an adventure!! Her host family, local villagers and numerous people she interacts with were very friendly, supportive and THRILLED with Danielle and her contributions to their village and surrounding community!! She has made an impact with the local teaching and religious sectors, developed a master farmer program, built a seed storage facility and restroom facility for the local school, etc. etc. The Peace Corps truly does impact and make a difference in the lives and quality of living, at least from what we saw and experienced.
• Heading back to Dakar, the capital of Senegal, was an adventure in itself! Local transportation in a 3rd world country is an experience, no details are needed!! Once back to Dakar, we had educational times seeing the local historical sites and culture in the area, some very disturbing, like the slave trading history of West Africa in the 1700 and 1800’s. Overall, it was a great trip and an experience that won’t be forgotten!

Kristina’s reflections:

After returning to the States, I of course got asked the question, “How was your trip?” I didn’t really want to respond to it with the normal response, “It was good!” So I tried out a variety of responses – “It was interesting”, “It was an adventure”, that sort of thing. I mean, I had just gotten back from a developing country, not a relaxing vacation in Florida.

As cliché as it sounds, the trip really was an eye-opening experience. Seeing pictures and video of a third world country is not the same as being in the middle of it. I honestly think I was in a state of semi-shock for most of the trip – more or less until we arrived back in Dakar for our last couple of days. It was all so new – I took it in but wasn’t really able to process it.

As one example, you don’t realize how hard it is to communicate until you arrive in a country where there is no common language besides futile attempts at “sign language” – i.e., hand gestures. Fortunately for us, Danielle is essentially fluent in Wolof, the predominant local language of Senegal, which Danielle learned in less than a year and a half. This was also fortunate for our checkbook since the taxi drivers were unable to scam us “Toubobs” when Danielle was speaking!

As I began processing the experiences we had on the trip, I made a few observations. One such observation originates from the clear gender division of labor. Even though there are still gender gaps in some areas in the US, I realized that I took for granted the fact that I never felt like being a female would impact my chances at success. My heart breaks thinking about the massive gender gaps in Senegal and a lot of the rest of the developing world. But I become heartened when I remember that women in the US fought for decades for the right to vote, for a spot in the work place, for equal pay – so those of us who are now reaping those rewards here can – and should – advocate for women elsewhere.

When I was dealing with diarrhea and vomiting in the JFK airport, my dad asked me if I wanted to go back to Africa any time soon. I said with as much heart as I could muster for feeling so awful – “No.” But, time always smoothes over the rough patches and brightens the highlights. And next time I’ll have an idea of what I’m getting myself into. So now you never know... ;)