Agent Stoermer in Senegal

2 Years in Senegal…and counting…

2011-10-07T16:25:00.003Z

[Note: This post was written toward the end of August,during Ramadan.]

August 13, 2011 marked my 2 year anniversary inSenegal. That day was just like anyother day here – I went out to 4 different villages and visited farmers; I wasstopped by several different people along the way who were curious to see anwhite person out biking in the bush but who were all very friendly; I talkedwith the host father of a previous PCV who had lived in a village nearby(because he had sent me a letter to deliver to them) and heard him reminisceabout those “good ol’ days” when the PCV had been his “son”; and when I wasalmost home, I ran into a few different friends and colleagues, and it was niceto catch up with all of them. While Iwas fasting that day, I was really tired when I got home (since it was almost5pm and I have left at 8am!), so I drank some water before taking my normalbucket bath. Then I did some work on mycomputer and relaxed a little before breaking the fast at 7:30. After breaking the fast, I sat outside withmy host family for a while like I often do if I don’t have to do some work onmy computer, and chatted and messed around with the kids. A few of my host nieces are here for theirsummer vacation (they live in Dakar), so it was fun to talk with the kids abouthow different life is depending on where you live – but also have similar it isfor kids everywhere. After dinner, Iwent to bed without a thought to how long I had been in Senegal…

It wasn’t until the following afternoon that somethingtriggered my memory and I realized that the previous day had been my 2 yearanniversary in Senegal. It surprised mebecause of how fast it seems to have gone – and yet it also surprised me inthat it also feels like it has been at least a decade if not a quarter centurysince I left Minnesota for Senegal. Ihave a lot I could say about these past 2 years, and perhaps someday I willwrite it all down (I’ve obviously written some stuff down – on my blog and inmy journal) but for now I’m going to blame a lack of more thorough evaluationand analysis of the past 2 years on limited time (it is the rainy season afterall!), reduced energy (I’m fasting remember), and a current inability to reallymuster up the motivation to take a thorough look at how these past 2 years havebeen, perhaps because I’m having a hard time actually acknowledging that my 2years in Kaymor are almost over. Someday, though, Inch’Allah (God willing), I will.

One thing I can say right now is that my faith in JesusChrist has been absolutely essential in supporting me these past 2 years. And the following prayers are just an exampleof the kinds of prayers I say on a daily basis, and they, with God’s faithfulhand, have been an enormous blessing to me the past 2 years – and I have nodoubt they will continue to be well into the future, down whatever path Godleads me.

The Prayer of St.Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Heavenly Father, grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled as to console,

To be understood as to understand,

To be loved as to love;

For it is in giving that we receive,

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

And it is dying to self that we are born to eternal life.

---

The following threeprayers are from “Forward Day by Day”, a manual of daily Bible readings anddevotions that is published quarterly by Forward Movement, an agency of theEpiscopal church (www.forwardmovement.org).

For Today

O God:

Give me strength to live another day;

Let me not turn coward before its difficulties or proverecreant to its duties;

Let me not lose faith in other people;

Keep me sweet and sound of heart, in spite of ingratitude,treachery, or meanness;

Preserve me from minding little stings or giving them;

Help me to keep my heart clean, and to live so honestly andfearlessly that no outward failure can dishearten me or take away the joy ofconscious integrity;

Open wide the eyes of my soul that I may see good in allthings;

Grant me this day some new vision of thy truth;

Inspire me with the spirit of joy and gladness; and make methe dup of strength to suffering souls; in the name of the strong Deliverer,our only Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

---

O Thou who givest visions to them that praise Thee, give usalso the courage to make our dreams come true. Help us to know that the ideal cannot evade us forever; that it isknocking at the door, wondrously fair, wondrously practical, an urgent pressureupon us, hungering to be made real. (1944)

---

A Morning Resolve

I will try this day to live a simple, sincere, and serenelife, repelling promptly every thought of discontent, anxiety, discouragement,impurity, and self-seeking; cultivating cheerfulness, magnanimity, charity, andthe habit of holy silence; exercising economy in expenditure, generosity ingiven, carefulness in conversation, diligence in appointed service, fidelity toevery trust, and a childlike faith in God.

In particular I will try to be faithful in those habits ofprayer, work, study, physical exercise, eating and sleep which I believe theHoly Spirit has shown me to be right.

And as I cannot in my own strength do this, nor even with ahope of success attempt it, I look to thee, O Lord God my Father, in Jesus mySavior, and ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Building local capacity through seed extension

2011-10-07T16:15:00.003Z

As I’ve written about on my blog before, I help oversee apretty large (for Peace Corps standards) seed extension program in mycommunity. There are farmers who areinvolved in the program in all 23 villages that make up the Communauté Rural de Kayemor. Last year there were about 100 farmers in theprogram, and this year there’s even more. I tried to start a village relay system last year where a farmer in eachvillage would be the “relay” between me and the other farmers in his/hervillage, but it didn’t really get off the ground. So this year, I invited Peace Corps’agriculture technical trainer, Youssoupha Boye, to lead a training in Kayemorfor all the selected relays to get move this system from a good idea tosomething actually being put into practice. The ultimate goal of this system is to not simply have a network offarmers who gather data on the seed extension program in their respectivevillages (though that is very important!) but to build up the capacity of thesefarmers and others involved so this seed extension program can be sustainableand potentially expand into other crops and/or evolve to include a farmercooperative that buys and sells seed and other things like fertilizer. Below is an outline that Youssoupha and Iused during the training we held in July, and after that is asummary/evaluation that I wrote up for my boss regarding the training. (FYI “keppar” is the word in Wolof used in myarea for “relay”, and “Ndeye Diaw” is me, my Senegalese name.)

Since the training, I have gotten out and visited a lot ofthe relays and their farmers, though due to time constraints (because I’vealready started doing some of the responsibilities I’ll have once I move toDakar) I have not been able to visit everyone. The relays that I’ve visited have been all over the board – a couple ofthem have been collecting all the correct data and doing everything else Iasked of them, some of them have collected the basic data (like who has seed intheir village, what type of seed and seeding dates), and others have more orless done nothing (for various reasons). I will work with the PCV who is replacing me in Kayemor (in just over amonth!) to organize a training in November or early December to gather all thedata and then evaluate how the program went this year and how we can work toimprove things. So stay tuned to learnmore. J

Improved Seed ExtensionRelay Training Outline

Kaymor,July 25, 2011

Greetings and introductions

Reminder to everyone: please turn offyour phones or put them on vibrate only; if you have to take a call, pleasestep outside

Reason for training:

- PeaceCorps has an improved seed extension program that every agriculture PCVparticipates in.

- Therehas been a PCV extending improved seed in the Communauté Rural de Kaymor for 6years now. The program started out withabout 10 farmers and, 6 years later, has expanded to over 160 farmers. Ndeye Diaw managed the program last year, butit is now too large for one person (Ndeye Diaw) to manage. So a village relay system is being started,which will put the management of the seed extension program in the hands ofseveral different people.

- PeñcMi has a “keppar” system for its activities, so these “keppars” have beenselected to act as the relays for the seed extension program.

- Weare having this training to train the “keppars” and other members of Peñc Mi sothey will be able to effectively and efficiently take over the management ofthe improved seed extension program that Ndeye Diaw has been managing.

Summary of schedule:

- Reviewthe improved seed extension program

- Explainthe village relay system

- Explainimproved field crop management techniques

- Explaindata collection specifics

- Explainseed production, saving and storage

- Nextsteps, closing remarks and evaluation

Review of the improved seed extensionprogram

- Whatis the importance of improved varieties versus traditional varieties?

- ISRA(Institut Sénégalais de Recherche Agricole) has been doing research on fieldcrops for almost 80 years in order to develop improved varieties for Senegal

- ISRA/PeaceCorps extends 5 different types of seed and several different varieties (someof which are not included here because they are not appropriate for our regionin Senegal):

§ Millet– Souna 3

§ Sorghum– CE 180-33 and CE 145-66

§ Corn– Early Thai, Synthetic C, Swan

§ Beans– Melakh and Yacine

§ Rice– IRAT 10 and Nerika

- Programis a type of loan program: 2 kg of seed are given to each participating farmerat the beginning of the rainy season, and then each farmer is expected toreturn 4 kg of seed after harvest, unless the farmer has no harvest due togermination problems, severe pest problems, or other similar problems. This way the program can grow larger everyyear – i.e., with each passing year, the number of farmers in the program willgrow so that eventually every farmer in the area will be planting improvedvarieties. Farmers in the program areencouraged to keep seed for themselves so they can continue to plant theimproved variety year after year; they are also encouraged to try a new varietyof seed each successive year in the program, so that after several years in theprogram they could be planting only improved varieties of all 5 different typesof field crops.

- Thisis the 6^th year the ISRA/Peace Corps improved seed extension programhas been in the Communauté Rural de Kaymor; there are now over 160 farmers inthe program

- Thereis specific data that ISRA needs from each farmer in order to continuallyimprove the varieties that they develop; the PCVs usually collect this data,but because there are so many farmers now, the “keppars” will now be collectingthis data

Improvedfield crop management techniques

- Fieldpreparation techniques (ex. manure application, tilling timing)

- Plantingtechniques (ex. seed spacing, timing)

- Chemicalfertilizer use (ex. NPK versus urea, quantities, timing)

- Weedingtechniques (ex. timing, frequency)

- Integratedpest management (ex. organic versus chemical)

- Seedgathering and storage techniques (ex. seed for food versus seed for planting,organic storage versus chemical storage)

Thevillage relay system

- Asmentioned, there are so many farmers in the program now that Ndeye Diaw cannotmanage the program by herself; she needs help from individuals in every village

- Youare all part of Peñc Mi’s “keppar” system so you are motivated and dedicated toagricultural development. For thisreason you have been selected to be the village relays for the seed extensionprogram. This responsibility will takesome time and effort – not a lot – but some. Obviously you have a choice if you want to be a relay or not; is thereanyone who does not want to be a relay? I will ask again after I tell you what your responsibilities will be.

- Aswith the Peñc Mi “keppar” system, all 23 villages in the Communauté Rural deKaymor will have 1 relay except for the 3 larger villages, which will have 2relays. Each relay will be responsiblefor the farmers in his/her village who are part of the seed extension program;there will not be more than 10 farmers per relay.

- Hereare your responsibilities as a relay, should you accept the position:

§ Answerany questions your farmers might have regarding the program, crop maintenance,seed storage, etc.

§ Encouragefarmers to use improved field crop management techniques, such as applyingmanure and fertilizer, thinning, etc.

§ Actas a relay between Ndeye Diaw and your farmers – Ndeye will contact you if shewants to share information with your farmers; you should contact her regularlyto share with her how things are going for your farmers and if they have hadany problems or questions; if you have any questions that you neededimmediately, beep her and she will call you back as soon as she can – here isher cell phone number: 77.330.48.63

§ Collectthe necessary data and share that data with Ndeye Diaw and others as necessaryin a timely fashion

§ Attendthe results and evaluation meeting at the end of the rainy season; during thatmeeting everyone will share their results from the rainy season and we willevaluate how the program is going and make any necessary changes

- Whocan tell me what one of the responsibilities of a relay is? [whenone is given, ask:] What is another responsibility? [etc.]

- Isthere anyone that does not want to be a relay?

Data collection

- Thissystem of seed extension is a way of testing out new seed varieties to see howthey will perform throughout Senegal with various soils, climates and farmingpractices. Thus, there is certaininformation that needs to be collected and recorded for ISRA for them to beable to know how well these seed varieties are performing and for them to,therefore, continue to develop new and better varieties.

- Eachrelay will get a data collection record sheet to use when collecting data. [Pass out sheets]

- If youdon’t understand the French, that’s ok. You can rewrite it in Wolof, or memorize each column, and if you forget,you can always ask someone else who can read.

- Hereis the data you need to collect for each farmer:

§ Farmer

§ Village

§ Crop

§ Variety

§ Amountof Seed (kg)

§ PreviousCrop in Field

§ SeedingDate

§ SpacingBetween

§ Rows(cm)

§ #Plants per Meter per Row

§ Thinned?(Yes/No)

§ 1stWeeding Date

§ 2ndWeeding Date

§ SoilAmendments (Manure, NPK, Urea)

§ Date(s)Applied

§ Disease/PestProblems

§ ChemicalControls

§ ChemicalApplication Date(s)

§ HarvestDate

§ Yieldof 2mx2m (kg)

§ Yield(kg/ha)

§ FarmerCommentary and Feed Back

§ YourNotes and Commentary

- Thehardest part will probably be getting accurate yield estimates from the 2x2 mplots. Because this may be difficult, ifyou have more than 2 farmers growing the same variety, you can choose 2 of themand have a 2x2 m plot in each of those 2 farmers only. If you have 2 farmers with, for example,Melakh, and 2 farmers with Yacine, please mark out 2x2 m plots in all of thefields since, though Melakh and Yacine are both beans, they are differentvarieties, so we want yield estimates from both of them. If you don’t do a 2x2 m plot but can get ayield estimate from the farmer, please do that.

- [Go out to a field and practicecollecting data]

- NdeyeDiaw will go out and visit all of you periodically throughout the rainy seasonto see how things are going. Pleasevisit her at her house when you’re in Kayemor on louma days or for anythingelse.

Seed production, saving and storage

- Thisprogram wouldn’t work if we didn’t save seed from year to year.

- Thereare certain things you should do to make sure you save the best seed forplanting. [Explain the methods for collecting the best seed for planting and thenhow to properly store this seed.] Youshould share this information with your farmers.

- Itwill be your responsibility to gather the 4 kg of seed that each farmer needsto give as their payment for being in the program.

- TheCommunauté Rural de Kaymor has a seed storage facility, so we will save theseed there. The seed needs to beproperly labeled with the name of the farmer, type of crop, the name of thevariety, the year it was grown and the date it was stored in the seed storagefacility.

Next steps, closing remarks and trainingevaluation

- Thankyou all for coming and for participating so well.

- Whatis the first thing you all need to do when you get back to your villages? [Answer:introduce themselves to their farmers, explain their role/responsibility, andbegin collecting data]

- Howdid the training go? Was there anythingthat you don’t think worked well? Howcould we change it to make it better in the future?

- NdeyeDiaw will be visiting you all within the next few weeks, but be patient becauseshe has to visit 23 villages! Again,always feel free to beep her and she’ll call you back, and/or stop by her hutwhen you’re in Kaymor.

- NdeyeDiaw will inform you all when the end of the year results and evaluationmeeting is.

- Thankyou all again!

SeedExtension Village Relay Training

Kaymor,July 25, 2011

Summary

On Monday, July25, 2011, PCV Danielle Stoermer hosted a training in Kaymor to train the groupof farmers who are village relays in the Peñc Mi organization in how to berelays for the ISRA/Peace Corps Senegal improved seed extension program thathas been present in the Communauté Rural de Kaymor for 6 years. The program has grown to include over 160farmers, which is too large for Danielle to manage herself, so she decided amore decentralized system of village relays would be better. She organized the training with Peñc Mi, alocally-run development organization that has been present in the CommunautéRural de Kaymor for over 10 years, because they had a preexisting system ofvillage relays, where each relay is called a “keppar”. All of the relays, as well as the members ofthe Peñc Mi bureau and its animateurs, were invited to participate in thetraining. [See Appendix I for a completelist of participants.] Peace CorpsAgricultural Technical Trainer Youssoupha Boye came down to Kaymor and assistedwith the training. Youssoupha startedthe training by explaining the reasons for the training. Then he explained the ISRA/Peace Corps seedextension program since some of the relays were not familiar with the detailsof the program. Next he explained therelay system: what it is, why it’s being started, how it’s being implemented,and what the responsibilities of the relays are. Data collection was discussed after the relaysystem was clear: why data collection is important, what specific data needs tobe collected and how it should be collected. The data collection record sheets were written in French, but time wasspent during the training translating the document into Wolof or Arabic forthose relays who are not literate in French. In order to ensure that the relays clearly understood how to collect thedata, a brief field trip was taken out to a nearby field in order to practicecollecting all the necessary data. During this practical session, the relays were trained in how to usesimple tools to measure and collect data, such as using the distance betweenthe tip of one’s index finger and thumb (which is generally 20 cm) to measurethe distance between plants between rows and within rows and using 2 long stridesto mark off the 2x2 meter plots. Timewas also spent discussing seed production, saving and storage, since this issuch an integral part of the seed extension program. Youssoupha closed the training by giving abrief summary of what was discussed, asking for feedback from the relaysregarding how the training was conducted, and explaining to them the next stepsthey need to take to get the program fully underway. [See Appendix II for a couple of picturesfrom the training and Appendix III for a detailed outline of the order of andthe material covered during the training.]

Evaluation

From theperspective of both the trainers and the trainees, the training was asuccess. At the end of the training,Youssoupha asked the relays for feedback regarding the training, and they allcommented on how beneficial it was – how the village relay system is a reallygood idea and the training was a very effective way to get it started. Several people commented that the datacollection sheets are particularly important and beneficial for this work, sothey were glad that they had been developed and handed out during thetraining. The hands-on data collectionpart of the training was also particularly effective because, by teaching thefarmers how to measure distances with specific parts of their bodies, iteliminated the need for them to have measuring tools other than themselves; italso allowed the farmers to see how little time it takes to collect the data,thereby providing them with the confidence that they will be able to besuccessful relays and collect the necessary data.

While thetraining was a success overall, there were a few changes that could be made forany future trainings similar to this. The training occurred at the end of July, after nearly all the seed inthe program had been dispersed and after many of the farmers had plantedalready. In this new system, the relaysare expected to train their farmers in improved agricultural techniques(especially ones recommended for the improved varieties), but they hadn’t beentrained before some of their farmers planted. This meant that some of the farmers (who were new to the program) werenot trained in how to plant their improved varieties of seed. So it might beneficial to have this trainingearlier in the year, like in late May. While this would allow all farmers adequate time to be trained inimproved techniques, it would make the practical data collection field sessionduring the training difficult if not impossible since no field crops would begrowing. A nearby garden could be usedfor that session if it had field crops in it.

Due tocircumstances out of the control of the PCV and Tech Trainer, they did notarrive in Kaymor until almost 11am, so the training started quite late. Most of the relays had been waiting aroundfor a couple hours and were therefore quite discouraged by how late thetraining ended up starting. This alsomessed up the schedule, such that the practical data collection field sessionoccurred just after lunch, during the heat of the day. It also meant that the training didn’t enduntil about 4:30pm, so many farmers had little or no time to rest before theywent out to their fields to do some evening work. While everyone agreed that the datacollection sheets are essential for this relay system to work effectively, morespace should have been left at the top of each column for the relays totranslate the column heading into Wolof or Arabic. Leaving space for the relays to translate theheadings themselves is better than translating them ahead of time because thereis no consistent spelling of words in Wolof and because some of the relays areonly literate in Arabic. Some of therelays are not literate at all; this created problems in terms of motivatingand convincing those relays that they would be able to collect the data. Those relays were told to find a literateindividual in their village to help them with the data collection; while theyagreed that this would definitely be possible, it would be easier if in allfuture situations all the relays were literate in either French or Wolof. Few relays brought pens, so they also had toshare pens when they were translating the column headings, which added extratime; therefore, extra pens should be brought to any future trainings. Relays also mentioned that notebooks shouldhave been provided for them so they could have been able to take notes duringthe training; this will be particularly relevant in future trainings if all therelays are literate in French or Wolof.

Because of timeconstraints, the practical data collection field session was used primarily toexplain how to collect the necessary data, with little elaboration intoimproved field crop management techniques; however, this is an ideal time inwhich to review improved agricultural techniques as well as the recommendedtechniques for the improved varieties of seed. Another activity that could be included during this session if timeallows in future trainings, is to have one or more relays do a practice datacollection interview with a farmer regarding his/her field. This will be another way to further empowerthe relays to feel confident in their ability to succeed as a relay and it willprovide an opportunity for corrections to be made if relays make mistakes orstill don’t quite fully understand the data that should be collected or how itshould be collected.

Serigne Djim Ndiaye’s Gamou Gi

2011-10-07T15:37:00.001Z

Just like last year (here’s my post from last year: http://agentdstorm-senegal.blogspot.com/2010/05/gamou-gi.html),the marabou in my village, Serigne Djim Ndiaye, hosted his annual Gamou Gi,this time in mid May. The activitieswere more or less the same this year as they were last year, except that it wasmore elaborate and extravagant: he killed something like 17 or 18 cows thisyear (as compared to the 15 he killed last year) plus goats and chickens; the majornational television station plus other media stations were there to broadcastand record the event; and the preparations included not only building morelatrines and fixing up falling apart huts in the (vast) marabou’s compound, butalso persuading the village to commit to paying their water bills on time and convincingthe water company that these were not empty promises (because the running waterhad been cut in Kayemor for several months prior to the Gamou since somethingbroke in the water tower and the water company was refusing to fix it becauseso many villagers were not paying their water bill).

Here is an album I uploaded to Picasa with a bunch ofpictures and videos that I took from the Gamou: https://picasaweb.google.com/116102942817396013841/GamouGi2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCIvd3979ybr8Hw#. Don’t I blend in so well in the newSenegalese outfit I got made just for this event?!?!? J

Day at the beach

2011-08-25T08:07:00.004Z

The subject to this post, “Day at the beach," is perhaps a bit of an exaggeration in several different aspects. First, we didn’t actually spend a day there; we only spent about 2 hours there. Second, we weren’t actually at a beach, or not a “real” beach by American standards; we were on the side of a (really mucky, salty) river that happened to be covered mostly in sand, though it had patches of mucky clay. Despite these inaccuracies, we still had a great time on our 2 hour sojourn on the sandy side of a river.

Perhaps I need to back up though. This all started several years ago when my best friend in Kaymor, Yassay, attended a girls camp run by an American NGO. The camp was held at a small resort among the mangroves in the delta of the Gambia River. Even though there was a really nice swimming area at the resort, she (like the rest of the girls at the camp) was not allowed to go swimming in the mangroves. Fast forward a few years, Yassay attended a day-trip to a beach south of Dakar with her classmates, where she was allowed to swim. Their definition of “swimming” though simply involves wading into the water up to your knees (or waist if you’re really daring!) and splashing around a little. Because of this, and knowing that I know how to swim really well, Yassay told me the other day that she wanted me to teach her how to swim. Since the Bao Bolon River is the only body of water within any reasonable distance for us, we made plans to go there the following Sunday afternoon. And that is exactly what we did. Yassay came over to my hut late morning and we chit-chatted for a while. Then, as 12:30, we left: me peddling my bike, Yassay sitting on the back, doing a fabulous job of balancing (the road to the river isn’t exactly smooth…). A half an hour and tons of stares (from Senegalese people who have never seen a white person biking with a Senegalese girl sitting on the back) later, we arrived at the river. Once there, we changed into our swimming attire: I put my workout clothes on (shorts and a soccer jersey) because my swimming suit was in Kaolack (not that I would have worn it anyway – it’s much too scandalous for a grown woman to show that much leg and stomach), and Yassay pulled on a one-piece swimming suit and then slipped on a short skirt over top.

We took some pictures to document the experience, and then proceeded to wade into the water. Even though it was mostly sand on the shore, once we hit the water, the ground was all mucky clay. The water is quite salty (almost the same saltiness of sea water) so there really isn’t much plant life growing in the water. However, there is a fairly large fish population in the river; these fish don’t get much bigger than 15cm, or at least that’s what I’m told; all the fish I’ve ever seen from the river are really small – no more than 5 cm long. We waded into the water a little – just until the water was up to our mid-shin – and then Yassay said that that was enough. After a few minutes she told me I could go a little farther out, so I waded a ways and then, when the water was about at my knees I did a really shallow dive and swam for a little ways before Yassay called me back again. We proceeded to do that several times, always with Yassay calling me back when I wasn’t even 100m from her. She clearly was concerned for me, though I assured her I could swim very well and even if I couldn’t, it didn’t matter, the water never got higher than my waist so I could easily stand up.

After all while, we got bored and went and sat on the beach. There we chatted and listened to music on Yassay’s cell phone for a while (until her cell phone battery died, and then we just chatted). We both lamented how neither of us had thought to bring a towel or wrap skirt so we could lay down on the beach and sleep. When we were ready to leave, we went back in the water one last time, but not for long, since we were getting cold – a rarity here, but it does happen. Then Yassay changed back into her clothes (I didn’t feel the need to change) and we biked home the same way we had biked there.

All in all, it was a fun experience, though we both agreed that a real beach day, with a real beach on the side of a lake or ocean, with towels to lie on, lunch to eat, pop to drink, music to listen to and perhaps a soccer ball or Frisbee to play with, would be way more fun. Yassay is going to come visit me after I move up to Dakar in October, so hopefully we can do that there sometime.

Expanding students' worlds with books and computers

2011-08-18T12:35:00.017Z

Since the fall of 2008, Kayemor has had a library system for borrowing books run by the first PCV in Kayemor, Kate Ballentine, and then continued by her replacement, Danielle Stoermer (ME!). The library program started with a trunk of books that Kate kept in her hut; students were allowed to come over to her hut anytime to return a book and check out a new one. As more books were donated to the program, the program was expanded so that the books were kept at the elementary school; students could return books they had read and check-out new books at designated times each month. During these times, Danielle would go to the school and assist the teachers check books in and out.

Here, lots of students are lining up to return and/or check-out books. It was always a challenge to get the students to wait in line patiently - they were all so anxious to get their new books!

As this library system grew, so did the hopes of the students, teachers and parents in Kayemor: they began dreaming of building an actual library complete with (even more) books, tables, chairs, bookshelves, and even computers, where anyone in the community could go to read books, have small group study sessions, and learn how to work on a computer. Once this dream was expressed to Danielle, she began looking into options to make it a reality.

An American NGO and a local organization that collaborates with the American Embassy in Dakar are donating some books for the library; these new books cover more topics than the first set of books in Kayemor, from science to history to philosophy to fiction, and they are primarily in French, though some are in Wolof, Arabic and English. The PCV is also working with other PCVs throughout Senegal to bring more books to Kaymor, through the Books for Africa program:

http://www.booksforafrica.org/

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projdetail&projdesc=685-164

These two pictures are of two young boys in Kayemor that have not started school yet but are just as excited to look at picture books as any other child - even if the book is upside down (like the second boy's book)!! :)

In order to get computers for the library in Kayemor, the PCV is collaborating with other PCVs in Senegal to bring computers to Senegal through the World Computer Exchange. The fundraising for the computers is not yet complete, but all the PCVs are hoping it will be soon so the computers can be shipped to Dakar in September:

https://www.networkforgood.org/donation/MakeDonation.aspx?ORGID2=043529016&vlrStratCode=7ZDGDDWq6MZ%2bzwFba8s6bMXCMEWtOjah%2bP36rs%2f53gFTE%2bEzBjELLIE%2fRaHc1Rtx

http://www.worldcomputerexchange.org/greatest-need-senegal

(The first link is better, because all the money goes straight to the project. The second link has a donate button on the side, where only 93% of the donation goes to the project.)

Check out these websites and support these programs in any way you can!

Thanks!

Michele Sylvester Scholarship - it's for the girls!

2011-08-18T11:56:00.010Z

As you all know, my projects over the past 2 years here in Senegal have spanned many sectors of development. One area where I see a great need is basic education. Lack of educational attainment prevents people from obtaining many of the best jobs and perpetuates a cycle of poverty. Even where families want their children to finish primary and secondary school, they are often under pressure to pull them out in order to work. This is especially the case for young girls, who shoulder a disproportionate amount of household tasks. The resulting gender gap is stark and contributes to society-wide gender inequity.

To take on the issue of girls’ education in Senegal, Peace Corps Volunteers have organized the Michelle Sylvester Scholarship program. At each participating school (over 40 this year!), three girls are chosen out of nine candidates based on a combination of need and academic promise. Each candidate receives help (about $10) paying their inscription fees for the next school year, and each winner receives an additional $30 to buy school supplies. While this is a tiny amount of money by American standards, for the poorest Senegalese families this goes a long way. While I don't have any pictures of the candidates in Kaymor (because my external hard drive is broken), this is a picture of the Kaolack girls camp participants, which is another educational (and fun!) opportunity many of these girls get to participate in.

Together with other Volunteers, I am helping to raise the $10,000 it will take to fund this program for more than 400 girls nationwide. While this may sound like a lot, remember that for a contribution as small as $10, you can help one of these girls stay in school for another year. The cost for the entire program in my community is just $200, and any funds raised above this target will be used to support the program in other schools and to fund follow-up activities to further empower these young women. To make a tax-deductible contribution, follow the link below.

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=685-181

I truly think basic girls’ education is one of the most pressing issues in development. Research has shown that advancements in education, particularly for girls, lead to faster economic growth, smaller and healthier families, reduced rates of HIV transmission, and more equitable and democratic communities. As leading economist Lawrence Summers puts it, “...investment in girls' education may well be the highest return investment available in the developing world."

Check out Peace Corps/Senegal's website about the scholarship for more information and pictures: http://senegad.pcsenegal.org/scholarship.html

Thanks for your support!!

Appropriate Projects

2011-07-30T17:42:00.002Z

I've done a couple of latrine projects in my village, with funding from Appropriate Projects. Check out their website for more info:

http://appropriateprojects.com/

Here are the sites where my projects have been reported:

http://appropriateprojects.com/node/802

http://appropriateprojects.com/node/508

If you've got money burning a whole in your pocket, throw it their way - Appropriate Projects makes small, sustainable water-related projects possible throughout the world!

New and improved Peace Corps Senegal website

2011-05-04T20:07:00.003Z

Check out the new and improved Peace Corps Senegal website: http://pcsenegal.org/

Can you find the picture of me trying to be a typical Senegalese woman carrying a pan on my head?

Peace Corps Senegal Documentary

2011-04-17T12:38:00.015Z

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

2011-04-17T12:14:00.002Z

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?

2011-04-17T12:07:00.010Z

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

2011-04-17T08:21:00.003Z

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... ;)

The Stoermer Family Invades Senegal - Palmarin, Toubacouta and Kaolack

2011-03-07T20:34:00.028Z

On February 24, 2011, the number of Stoermers in Senegal quadrupled – and for the next 9 days, Senegal was taken by storm. Here is a chronicle of their adventures…and misadventures…

I had planned to meet my parents and sister, Kristina, at the baggage claim are in the Dakar airport, but when I got to the airport at 6 am, the guards at the entrance to the arrival area of the airport said that no one can go in without a badge. By the time we had gotten to this point in the conversation I could tell the 2 guards already liked me because I was talking with them in Wolof (obviously the vast majority of people that talk with them speak French and not Wolof), so I continued to joke around with them and the woman standing nearby hoping I could sweet talk my way in to baggage claim. As it would turn out, it wasn’t my sweet talking that did the trick – it was my dancing skills, or, perhaps more realistically, it was my shameless willingness to make myself look like a fool doing a really popular Senegalese dance that got me behind the “badge required” area without a badge.

One of the first things Kristina asked me was where the bathroom was. I had told them several times before they came to go to the bathroom on the airplane right before getting off because the bathroom in the airport was worse than the airplane bathroom. She had done that, but she had also drunk lots of coffee and already needed to go again. The airport is being remodeled and they had added a couple toilets since when I had first arrived here back in August 2009, which were a lot nicer than the bathroom I had used when I first arrived, but still nothing compared to even a low quality bathroom in an airport in the States. We hung out in the airport for our driver to arrive, and then made our way through a mass of Senegalese men and boys trying to help us with our bags to our car. After a brief stop at the Peace Corps office to drop off a couple bags of stuff just for me (I had a long wish list of goodies I wanted from America…) so we wouldn’t have to drag them all over Senegal, we were off for our first destination: Palmarin.

Palmarin is actually a collection of villages on the ocean that have developed into a small tourist area. We spent 2 nights there at a cute little “resort” that is owned by a Senegalese man, Max, who lived in Italy for 25 years. Max opened the resort, La Tulipe Noire (The Black Tulip), about 3 years ago and works with a woman in Italy who sends him Italian goods (such as tea, coffee, chocolate, and liquor) and who helps him advertise in Europe. The drive to Palmarin was a bit rough – nothing exceptionally bad for me, but quite a long rough ride for my family, especially since they were so exhausted after traveling for so long. We had a short hike on stones across a flooded area before we arrived at our little oasis, La Tulipe Noire.

Hyena watching:

After a short rest and light lunch, we left for our hyena watching trip. This involved riding a horse-pulled charette for about an hour out to the nature reserve. Once we were there, we waited a little while for the sun to go down a little more, and then we started looking. Our guide, Philip, was the first to spot a hyena off in the distance. After a few minutes of watching it, we got back on the charette to move to a spot a little closer to it. We got a little bit better view of it from this second place, but the hyena refused to cooperate and come any closer. It still was a fun adventure!

We stopped to get a closer look at these salt holes that people dig to collect salt. My dad almost slipped in trying to get close enough to stick his hand in the salty water, and then Philip did, too, but luckily my dad was close by to help him up and out.
The hyena is in the middle of the photo, on the edge of the water.
The hyena is in the middle of this picture, too; you can just barely see his ears sticking up.

That night we had a delicious Italian dinner (unlike almost every other Senegalese man, Max sure can cook!) and then hit the sack, we were all quite exhausted.

Kayaking and picnic:

I was up at 7am the next morning, but let my family sleep in until 8 – possibly the latest I’ve ever seen my parents sleep, though they can obviously blame it on the time change. We had a pleasant Italian-style breakfast and then walked over to where we were going to meet our guide, Pierre, for our kayaking/picnic lunch trip. We had a pleasant morning kayaking through the mangroves, learning about the flora and fauna of the area. This was possibly one of the hardest times for me in terms of translation because of the different vocabulary – I don’t often talk about bird nests and tides, but we made it work. Pierre has worked with Peace Corps in the past and has given tours to many PCVs and their families, so we knew how to talk to make things clear for me, which is always nice.

We had a short mid-day rest while Pierre and our guide from the hyena excursion (who is good friends with Pierre), Philip, made lunch for us: fresh shrimp, onions, and tomatoes with a spicy mustard sauce and bread.

On our kayak back we stopped for our “surprise” – coffee inside a hollow baobob tree. Kristina and I squeezed our way in, but our parents didn’t really think it was necessary.

Tulip Noir: (http://www.latulipenoiresenegal.com/)

Here are some shots of La Tulipe Noire: the stone “bridge” we traversed several times, the beach, us swimming, us enjoying evening cocktails, the sunset, us enjoying dinner, us eating breakfast, the lobby and restaurant, and us saying goodbye.

Boat ride:

In a stroke of genius, I booked us a boat ride from Palmarin to our second destination: Toubacouta. The boat ride only took us about 3 hours, whereas that trip on land would have been upwards of 6 hours, and a lot rougher and hotter. The only difficulty was getting out to the boat, but we were used to trekking over random terrain with our bags by then. The boat we took is called a pirogue; it’s a traditional boat which fisherman all along the coast use.

Bird watching:

After getting settled in to our next resort, we had lunch and went for a swim. Then it was off for our evening activity: bird watching. We took a short boat ride through the mangroves and got off on an island to walk around. Our guide (the host father of the PCV that lives in Toubacouta) said that their grandparents (i.e., generations ago) used to live on the island, but when white people arrived they moved inland and never returned to live on the island. Now it is actually a protected place and no one is supposed to take anything off the island, including the beautiful little shells. Then we got back on the boat and went to wait next to a little area in the mangroves where lots of birds come in every evening to nest – and we sure saw a lot of birds!

Keur Saloum:

The resort we stayed at in Toubacouta is called Keur Saloum, which in Wolof means “The house of bush” – “keur” means house and “saloum” is the area of Senegal that Toubacouta (and Kaymore and Kaolack) is in; it also kind of means “to be out in the bush”. I had been there a couple times before, but never to sleep (I can’t afford a room there on my Peace Corps budget, but when Dad’s paying… J ). Kristina and I were able to check our email, which was nice. We also enjoyed the wildlife in the resort itself – all the birds and the tortoises, too! (They’re not wild; Keur Saloum keeps them in a pen.)

Hotel Relais, Kaolack:

Our third destination was my home away from home here in Senegal: Kaolack. Instead of staying our hot regional house, though, I was at Hotel Relais, which was so great. After a trek through the market in Kaolack, Kristina and I took a (cold) swim in the pool and relaxed by the pool. After dinner we even watched some BBC on the TV in our room (what a luxury to me!) before hitting the sack.

The Stoermer Family Invades Senegal - Kaymor

2011-03-07T19:12:00.036Z

After several days of gradually breaking my family in to Senegal, we took the plunge and left for Kaymor for 3 nights and 2.5 days. Before leaving Kaolack, I picked up a few “essentials” for their stay in Kaymor: water (I drink the water straight from the tap and the well, but they weren’t about to do that so we got just enough water to last them until I could get water and filter it in my Peace Corps-provided filter), apples and bananas (I do this myself a lot now: stock up on fruit before heading back to the village; I try to make my dried fruit stash stretch for as long as possible), and another sleeping pad (I have one for my bed inside my hut, and had another for my bed outside behind my hut, but I lent that one to the girls that live with my family to go to school in Kaymor, and I thought it would be kind of mean to have to take that back from them for my family’s visit and then again in a few weeks when I knew it would begin to be too hot to sleep inside my hut, so I bought a new one; at about $15, it didn’t break the bank). And then we were off!

I’ve become accustomed to the bumpy, dusty ride down to Kaymor, but my parents weren’t overly excited about it. We arrived in Kaymor just before 1pm, and the kids quickly attacked us, so excited to greet my family. Once we unloaded all of our stuff (we sure had a lot because of all the gifts we had brought for my host family and friends), I swept out my hut because it had gotten really really dusty in the several days I had been gone because of the frequent dust storms we have now. I gave my family a quick tour of my hut and backyard – “quick” being an overstatement since there’s not much to my “home.” Luckily we’re used to camping and living in other similarly rustic situations with tight quarters so we all survived just fine. The hardest part for my family was probably the heat – not only is it starting to get above 100 degrees F every day, but there also is obviously no source of respite from the heat, such as air conditioning, and things were especially harder for my family because they came from Minnesota and Colorado, where the average temperature for the past few months is often 80 degrees cooler, if not more. It was often still almost 90 degrees F inside my hut when we were getting ready for bed, which made sleeping hard for my parents, who slept on my bed inside (Kristina and I slept on my bed outside). All the night noises also made sleeping difficult for all of them – the donkey’s hee-hawing, the dogs barking, the people listening to their radios late into the night, and the 6am call to prayer…I’ve gotten (more or less) used to all these sounds, but they definitely kept my family awake and/or woke them up periodically throughout the night.

Another thing they had to get used to my “bathroom” and general lack of plumbing. To make matters worse, too, the power had been cut to the water tower in Kaymor because the bill hadn’t been paid, so I had to go to the well and pull water for my family. My dad came with me one morning and tried pulling water with me – all the Senegalese women at the well made fun of him, but I saw it as a great gender teaching moment: men in America do all the things women do – cook, clean, take care of the children, and (if the situation ever arose) pull water from the well.

Here is a tour of my hut that Kristina filmed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vknVWdKwVI0

Food:

Before my family arrived in Senegal, I had planned out with my host mom everything that we were going to eat because I wanted my family to be able to get a taste of as many different kinds of Senegalese dishes as possible. For lunch our first day in Kaymor, I told her we would just eat whatever the rest of my host family was eating. It was my host mom’s turn to cook for the family our first 2 days in Kaymor, which worked out well for my family because my host mom can cook the best among the women in my host family who cook (i.e., my host mom and 3 aunts). For lunch that first day she cooked us “chou jen,” which is a rice and fish dish with an onion and tomato sauce. When I have more than one guest in Kaymor (especially more than one female guest), I ask whoever is cooking that day to put our lunch in a separate bowl which we eat from in my hut so there aren’t so many people around the women’s bowl. I did this when my family was here for that reason (and to keep the number of dirty hands reaching in the bowl to a minimum). In typical Senegalese fashion, our lunch bowl was enormous – way more than the four of us could ever eat – because we (or rather, my parents and sister) were guests of the family, so my host family served us way more food than we could possibly eat, to make sure that we would eat a lot and be really full.

After lunch, we went out and sat under the tree in front of my host parents’ rooms like I often do in the afternoon to chat and drink tea with my family. During that time my host mom caught one of my host dad’s chickens to cook for dinner. My host mom thought it would be funny to make my mom hold it, but she was really disappointed when my mom was clearly not fazed by it at all – when my mom was a child, her grandma used to raise and butcher chickens, so my mom was familiar with all that. My host family was surprised by that – that my mom’s grandma butchered chickens, because here (in Muslim culture) only men can do the actual killing of animals, so my host dad took the chicken and killed it. Dinner that night was delicious: chicken, lettuce, and potato wedges all covered in an oily onion sauce, with bread on the side.

For dinner our second night in Kaymor, we ate a millet dish, called “ngelax”, which I really like but which I rarely eat because it is expensive (compared to other millet dishes) to cook for a large number of people (which is how my host family cooks). It is millet mixed into a sauce of baobob fruit juice, peanut butter, and sugar, with raisins as garnish. Pretty sweet – and very tasty! For dinner our last night in Kaymor, we ate a very standard millet dish: “ceere mboom”. “Ceere” is the Wolof word for the cooked millet we eat, and “mboom” is the word for any leaf sauce served over millet. It can be a leaf sauce made from cabbage or baobob leaves, but it typically (at least in my host family) made from leaves from the moringa tree. These leaves are incredibly nutritious; we in Peace Corps Senegal promote moringa leaf consumption and intensive moringa bed planting because eating the tree’s leaves is so effective at combating under-nutrition and malnutrition in children (and adults). The first photo below is a picture of a woman stripping moringa leaves off their twigs. My host mom ate dinner with us that night and got to watch my family force themselves to eat it. I had forgotten to tell my host mom to not add any of the nasty dried and salted fish to the leaf sauce, so it had a pretty gross taste to it (much grosser than it normally is anyway – I typically really like our ceere mboom). Luckily my family was still full from the big lunch they had eaten. I was still not feeling well, so I barely ate a couple bites. I’m glad that my family got a taste of the kinds of potentially gross foods I eat because now they’ll hopefully have more sympathy for me on the rare occasions when I complain about the food. J

Visiting people:

When we were in Kaymor, I obviously wanted my family to meet all the different people I am friends with and work with as well as show them my work.

On numerous occasions women gave my mom their child, telling her to take the child back to America with her, which is their way of saying they like and trust my mom (since most of them wouldn’t actually want my mom to take their child, though I don’t doubt that some of them would be happy to see their child be taken to America).

I got a lot of pictures printed off of people in Kaymor and gave them away as gifts, which everyone loved! Here are the kids in my family looking at some of the pictures.

Some kids are scared of white people – especially when they see 4 white people.

Here is one of my dad’s chicken coops; my family was very curious about every aspect of life here, which I totally understand (I was the same way when I first got here).

Here Kristina and I are with my host mom in my host uncle’s boutique:

I brought my family to my Master Farmer’s field and showed them his vegetable and tree nursery and all the different intercropping/companion planting schemes we have, such as cabbage with onions and carrots, tomatoes with lettuce, and okra with cucumber. I was really disappointed that none of the mangoes were ripe yet… A few weeks later and we would have been swimming in mangoes.

We also visited the daily vegetable market.

Our second day in Kaymor was a Tuesday, which is the day for the weekly market in Kaymor, so I gave my family a tour of that.

We also stopped at the elementary school, where my parents examined the kids’ books. The teachers also gave us a tour of the school garden I helped them start.

We crossed the “bridge of death” numerous times when we were out and about.

We also stopped at the “peñc mi” to see the seed storage building I helped raise money for.

My dad is a mechanical engineer so we stopped a few times to investigate various machinery, such as a peanut butter machine and millet milling machine – the passerby’s were always curious why these white people were so curious about this very common machinery.

Near the entrance to Kaymor lots of people had sold bags of peanuts and left them for when one of the big trucks would come to pick them up, which it did on the Tuesday we were in Kaymor. The stacked bags of peanuts are under baobob trees and surrounded by peanut shells.

We obviously had to go visit the marabou’s house. He was unfortunately in Dakar during that time, but we met his first wife (pictured below with one of her kids). We spent time with Tomsir and Gallo, two of the marabou’s talibe who speak English pretty well (Gallo speaks English because he grew up in the Gambia and Tomsir speaks English because I tutor him in it). Tomsir bought a chicken and lettuce breakfast for us and then read a short speech that he had written for my family about his life and how much I’m helping him with learning English and teaching him about the world. It was so cute!!

We also went out the talibe’s garden – it sure has come such a long way in the year since I have started working with them!

While we were out there, one of the marabou’s sons started dancing – what a cutey pie!

Gifts:

Hospitality is a huge part of Senegalese culture: a host is expected to not hold back when providing for a guest, never asking for anything in return. However, this host-guest relationship is, in reality, a 2-way street: guests are expected to bring gifts for the host. Bringing gifts is important in other situations, too, such as when a family member travels, he/she is expected to bring back gifts for the family. I learned this quickly after coming to Senegal. Now I bring a gift back for my host family pretty much any time I travel for more than just a day; usually I bring fruit back because I like to give them something healthy and nutritious – and something that we rarely get in Kaymor (except during mango season). I realized a long time ago that when my family from America would come to Kaymor we would have to bring a bunch of gifts for my host family and friends, so I have been gathering clothes and toys from numerous sources over the past year in preparation. I also told my family about it, giving them suggestions of things to get to bring here, such as cotton t-shirts and other clothes, toys such as tennis balls and toy cars, sunglasses, belts, fingernail polish, pens and crayons, etc. My parents, Kristina, and one of my aunts took my list of suggestions and got everything on it! Needless to say, we had an enormous pile of gifts to give out. Luckily my host mom helped me decided who would get what (I did not want to have that responsibility): our first night in Kaymor I literally dumped all the gifts on the floor in her room and sorted through it all with her, discussing who should get what, and then she would send one of my host brothers or sisters to bring the gift to the person right then or the following day (since by the end of this all it was getting pretty late).

Here’s my host brother Moussa with Kristina and my mom – I had just written his name on the ball and he was so proud!

Here’s a girl who was dancing at the party we hosted with her new baby doll:

Cooking:

On our last day in Kaymor we hosted a huge party for the village: we had a big lunch of rice with beef and tons of veggies, then we had frozen bissap and baobob juice, and then live music and dancing.

That whole morning the women spent cooking lunch – and my mom even helped out, and she impressed them with her nimble vegetable cutting abilities. (I wasn’t feeling well so I opted out – and I’ve cut onions and carrots in my hands too much to know that I will inevitably end up with sliced fingers.)

Kristina juggled tennis balls for a while, entertaining all the kids: The chickens tried to get a pre-lunch snack, but we quickly shooed them away.

The daughter of a friend of mine really wanted her mom to give her a slice of the turnip!

We took several videos throughout the day; here is one that Kristina took when the women were cooking lunch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3m0j-4zuy8

Finally lunch was done – and it was time to dish it all up and then eat! Lots of bowls left our compound on top of women’s heads, destined for another family in Kaymor. Our delicious platter had lots more meat and veggies than most bowls – apparently the people who foot the bill get a better portion than others. I was really disappointed I wasn’t feeling well and barely ate anything – this was the best Senegalese lunch I’d had in Kaymor, and probably would ever have again!

Dancing:

After a brief rest in the afternoon to let our food digest and let the hot sun go down a little bit, we showered and put on our nice Senegalese clothes (or rather, my mom, Kristina, and I all put on a different Senegalese “complet” of mine, and my dad borrowed a “boubou” from my host dad to wear). As usual, my host mom helped all three of us put on our head wraps (I still haven’t gotten the hang of that…)

They all looked so out of place in their Senegalese clothes! Kristina wanted to get a picture of the 2 of us with the Travel section from the Denver newspaper, because if you submit a photo like that, they sometimes print your picture! Keep your eyes open for this photo (or another one at the African Renaissance Monument in Dakar; see ‘Dakar’ blog post) in the Denver newspaper’s Travel section! Then we got a picture with my talibe friends:

This little boy was not quite sure what to think of my dad in his boubou.

After long contemplation, he approved: We had front row seats for the music and dancing.

Us three ladies:

My mom with my host mom: My dad with my host dad: Just Kristina and I: Kristina with my youngest host brother (in one of the t-shirts my family had brought as gifts):

Here are some videos from the party. The way a dancing party like this works is that the women singing will sing a song about a different person there and then that person is supposed to come up and dance and give money to the women singing. Since we hosted the party, the women sang about us a ton – so I would always have to tell my family who they were singing about and then push them up to dance (which meant I was up dancing all the time to encourage my family – and other people – to dance). Men typically don’t attend such dancing events, but since my dad was there, they sang about him and everyone got a huge kick out of him when he got up to dance. That was probably my favorite part of the day – showing off to them how American men can dance and that it is perfectly normal for a husband to dance with his wife and a father to dance with his daughter.

Dad dancing with Danielle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6PizTSZ3Rk

Dad dancing with Kristina

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0ZXGreFSXc

Dad dancing with Mom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnVrMLF3qsA

Cooking lunch for party

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3m0j-4zuy8

Soukaye and other women dancing with Mom and Danielle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBFV8YUcebI

Tanta Sadju with baby teaching Kristina to dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGJqwBeNZFw

Soukaye and Danielle's songs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSB42LiSRgQ

Singing and dancing for Mom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmyqLifnt7M

Dancing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPjtcq6ZuGI

Singers and drummers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7puiWB4hZTI

My family said they had quite the “experience” in Kaymor and I know they’re really glad they spent time there. What I found really interesting was hearing what the people in Kaymor had to say about my family. Here are some of the people of Kaymor’s comments:

- Danielle and Kristina look a lot alike except that Kristina is skinnier, has whiter and straighter teeth, and is more beautiful than Danielle (though, in typical Senegalese fashion, they said Kristina would be more beautiful if she were just a little bit fatter). (It’s a good thing I have a healthy level of self-confidence and love Kristina a lot, or, after hearing these comments so often, I might have just packed my bags and followed my family back to the States. J )

- Jean (my mom) looks very young and is very beautiful. They also couldn’t believe that my mom is 2 years older than my dad – no such thing as that ever happens here!

- Craig (my dad) is very handsome and very young (they were calling him a child he looked so young to them!) – apparently lots of women (who already have husbands) told my host mom that they would be more than happy to marry him; I didn’t tell him that – I don’t want him getting too full of himself. J

Traveling:

Up to this point, we had rented out a car to take us from place to place – the kind of car in the second photo below. But after 3 days in Kaymor I figured my family would be tough enough to take the only kind of transportation I take to and from Kaymor: an “alham”. So we got up early our last morning in Kaymor, finished packing our bags, and went out to stand on the side of the road by my house to wait for the car to go by, then we threw our bags on top and hopped in. We got rearranged a couple times throughout the 3 hour trip; Kristina ended up sitting in the front seat – something I had never done in my 1.5 years in Senegal, and here she was doing it on her first ride in that kind of car! People were more or less continuously hopping on and off, but we estimate it had an average of about 30 people crammed inside, sitting and standing. We also had 3 goats on top, and several chickens at our feet. I was glad that my family couldn’t understand Wolof at one point when a girl right behind me asked for a bag because she felt like she was going to vomit. I’m really glad they had that experience, and I think they were, too, but I know that they were glad we got out in Kaolack and took a taxi to Dakar rather than staying in the alham for the whole trip.

The Stoermer Family Invades Senegal - Dakar

2011-03-07T18:45:00.018Z

We spent the last day and a half of our vacation in Dakar. We hit several of the “must-sees”: the African Renaissance Monument, Gorée Island, Ngor Island, and Almadies Point.

African Renaissance Monument:

While I don’t necessarily think this was the smartest way President Abdoulaye Wade could have spent $27 million (to say the least), I still thought my family should see it up close. It was dedicated last year on Senegal’s “National Day” (April 4) to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of Senegal’s from France.

Gorée Island:

A beautiful little island with history museums, numerous restaurants, a diverse array of traditional African art, and countless people wanting to sell you anything and everything – from a pair of earrings to a tour of the island to glue to fix your shoe (my sandal was starting to break, which numerous boys and young men graciously pointed out and kindly offered to fix, for a fee). We took the 10am ferry across to the island, spent a couple hours wandering around the island and looking at the main history museum, ate lunch, and then took the 2pm ferry back to the mainland.

Ngor Island:

This is another really cute island on the other side of the Dakar peninsula. We took a pirogue to get there (the same kind of boat we took from Palmarin to Toubacouta), though this time we even had life jackets! While the island is small, it has a very different feel depending on which side you’re on – the west side is jagged rocks that get smashed by strong ocean waves, while the east side has calm sandy beaches perfect for soaking in some rays. When we were getting ready to leave the island on the boat, so many people piled in to the front of the boat that the prop of the motor was barely in the water so we couldn’t back our way out. Eventually the guys running the boat got enough people to move farther back in the boat so that prop was in the water and could propel us through the water.

Dakar proper:

The first thing we did when we got to Dakar (after dropping our bags off in our hotel), was to find a restaurant that served beer – my parents needed one after 3 days in my village. J This is a view from the balcony of my parent’s room in our hotel in Dakar, Hotel Farid.

I still wasn’t feeling great the whole time we were in Dakar; Kristina snapped this photo when I was resting for a few minutes in between our excursions.

The big Hotel de Ville – an old hotel in Dakar.

The infamous (among PCVs anyway) N’Ice Cream ice cream shop – that ice cream was almost the only thing I ate all day (because I was still kind of sick) and I was so glad I could eat it…delicious is the only word to describe it!!

Almadies Point:

We had dinner their last night in Dakar at Almadies Point, the westernmost point on the African continent. I'm not sure if it was something Kristina ate that night or not, but she got very sick for several days afterwards (we were all glad she got sick on the last night they were in Senegal rather than earlier in the trip).

The Stoermer Family Invades Senegal - Out the car window

2011-03-06T19:02:00.013Z

These are pictures that Kristina or I took out the window of one of our many vehicles (sept-place, alham, or taxi). They give a diverse view of life here in Senegal.

WAIST 2011: Celebrating softball, America, and… ballerinas…?

2011-03-06T13:46:00.011Z

If you remember from my blog post from last year, WAIST is the big West Africa softball tournament that happens every year in Dakar over President's Day weekend. Peace Corps Volunteers make up a big portion of the participants, and us PCVs from the Kaolack region made our presence known in high style – as ballerinas. It’s not weird to be running around the softball field in tutus, right? While our team didn’t do as well as we had hoped, we certainly had a great time prancing around the field. And we turned a lot of heads walking the streets of Dakar, to and from our games.

Even the United States Ambassador to Senegal joined in on our silliness! (She is in the middle of this photo with the pink boa.)

New Year’s Eve among the mangroves

2011-02-12T09:31:00.005Z

I spent New Year’s Eve in Kaymor last year. To my surprise, my host family did nothing special at all for New Year’s and while I didn’t not enjoy it (we treated it just like any other night, so I enjoyed it just as much as I enjoy any other night in Kaymor, which is to say that I enjoyed it because it was quiet and relaxing but didn’t really enjoy it like I really enjoy most other New Year’s Eves because because it was boring), I knew I didn’t want to do that again this year. I thought about going up to Dakar or Saint Louis because there are big celebrations there on New Year’s Eve that a lot of PCVs go to, but I ended up deciding to go to Toubacouta with a few other PCVs for several reasons: it is closer to Kaymor and I had a lot of work to do in Kaymor, I knew it would be a lot quieter and therefore a lot safer in many ways, and it would be a lot cheaper (I didn’t want to spend my entire month’s “salary” over the course of 2 days). The morning of New Year’s Eve, 3 other PCVs (Cora, Jen, and Teresa) and I took a car from Kaolack to Toubacouta, where we met a few other PCVs that live in that region. We got bread, Laughing Cow cheese, bananas, and cookies and made ourselves a picnic lunch in one of our bedroom/huts. Then we headed over to the nicest campement in Toubacouta, Keur Saloum, where a lot of French and other Europeans were spending their holiday. We spent the late afternoon and evening on their veranda, drinking, munching on peanuts, chatting, playing a card game, and enjoying the beautiful scenery. (I think you can see from the pictures why I decided to stay here with my parents and sister when they visited me.)

Then we headed back to our rooms to freshen up before going out to dinner. Almost all of us had the “demi-poulet” plate, which is half a chicken with salad and fries. Then it was back to Keur Saloum, where we chatted away the last hour or so of 2010. I don’t know about anyone else, but I always find the transition into a new year rather anti-climatic, and this year was no exception: there was no ball for us to watch drop, there was no announcement over the music playing at Keur Saloum, and there was no explosion of fireworks when the clock struck midnight. Since all of our watches had slightly different times, we just agreed on a middle ground and had our own little cheers of “Happy new year!” when we thought it was midnight. Several minutes later fireworks started going off not too far away, but they were really sad fireworks – there was only about one blast of fireworks every 45 seconds or so, as if they had to recharge after each one. Even though they were not very good fireworks, I was impressed that we were able to see them at all.

Last video from my birthday party

2011-02-06T11:43:00.002Z

Slow internet connections have caused this separation of videos, but I think you get the point.

Sand instead of snow, water-less pools, creepy Santa masks, and dancing to drumming – my second Christmas in Senegal

2011-02-04T06:31:00.012Z

Here’s a recap of my second Christmas in Senegal:

I got a package from a friend soon after Thanksgiving that had some Christmas supplies: a small wooden Christmas tree, evergreen incense, and an advent calendar, complete with a chocolate for every day! I had to take a picture of the beautiful Christmas arrangement for my hut that I was able to make with these supplies:

This (kind of creepy) Santa mask that Jen bought in the Kaolack market for about 50 cents shows up throughout these photos.

I spent my second Christmas in Senegal in another PCV’s (Jen) village and nearby “campement” (i.e., rustic resort). I spent Christmas Eve morning baking goodies to bring (such as banana bread, cinnamon rolls, and cookies) and then we (several other PCVs and I) went to Jen’s village that afternoon. We (Cora, Emily, and Toby) met Jen, Peter, and Jenny at the nearby campement, which is run by a French couple, who were just getting ready to officially re-open for their busy season (Jen had talked to them ahead of time to let ask them if we could spend the day there, and they said it wouldn’t be a problem at all). There, we all had a beer and relaxed, enjoying the beautiful weather, flowering trees, and wondering if the pool would be magically filled that night so we could go swimming the next day.

When the sun was just starting to set, we left for Jen’s village, getting a ride for most of the way from her host family’s horse-pulled charette. On the way back we stopped at the boutique at the bigger village on the main road where Jen had bought the last of the ingredients her host mother would need to cook the Christmas dinner she was going to make for us (and the rest of their family). After we all took short showers (it’s chilly now at night, especially when you’re showering with well water, so we’ve all become very efficient when showering), we made cider, listened to music, and danced (with Jen’s zillions of host siblings) while we waited for dinner. Toby even played his drum a little, which the kids loved. (They have a similar tradition of playing drums here, though Toby’s drum is a little different from their style of drum.)

Jen requested my (and several others’) favorite village dinner: millet with beans in a peanut-based sauce (without dried fish – that stuff totally ruins the meal). Then we hung out some more and went to bed (Cora, Emily, and I stayed with Jen while Toby and Peter walked the 10 minutes back to Peter’s village; Jenny had met us at the campement but decided just to go back to her own village for the night, which is a couple kilometers in the opposite direction from the campement).

The first thing we did the next morning ws go to the well to get water – the first time I’ve ever done that on Christmas morning. While it wasn’t tiring at all (the women at the well wouldn’t even let us pull the water ourselves, so all we had to do was carry the water back to Jen’s hut), it certainly wasn’t as exciting as opening up my stocking, which is the first thing I would do at home…it definitely makes me appreciate the conveniences that allow me to do that a lot more though!

After that, we had to get a picture next to the “Merry Christmas” note Jen had written the previous day on the blackboard outside the library hut that she built for her village.

By this time Toby and Peter had made their way over to Jen’s hut. (Toby in his brand new Christmas “bou-bou” that he got made just for this occasion.) So then it was breakfast time! Breakfast consisted of coffee (real American coffee – and a Christmas blend at that!) and cinnamon rolls. It was delicious!

On our way out to the campement, we got a picture of all of us next to the Merry Christmas note. (Cora made sure Obama was in the photo, too – can you find him?)

We decided to walk the dusty 7-8 km to the campement rather than getting a ride, which was actually quite pleasant, and on the way we saw the tracks of a snake, which was exciting.

Once at the campement, we got a couple bottles of wine and some Sprite, and brought out the rest of the treats for a late morning snack.

Due to complications we had an incomplete white elephant exchange, so Jen and Jenny opened up gifts.

After the short gift opening event, we played a dice game while listening to music and chatting. It was really fun and relaxing. Toby even whipped out his drum a couple times when the music fit.

We had told the campement we wanted lunch, so they cooked a special meal for us: a small salad to start, and then steak or fish with fries, followed by an assortment of goodies for dessert (chilled bananas, cake, and cream puffs). While it’s not a traditional Christmas lunch (by my standards anyway), it was still delicious!

We were so full from lunch that we couldn’t do much but sit around and talk. I had brought my laptop and portable internet phone, so I plugged that into my computer and was able to Skype with my family. We got cut off numerous times because the connection wasn’t great, but I enjoyed being able to feel like I was part of my family’s Christmas even if I wasn’t there physically.

When the sun was starting to set, we left again, walking home again to try to work up an appetite for the chicken dinner we knew Jen’s mom was cooking for us. The sunset was beautiful that night.

Then we all took quick showers like the previous night, drank hot cider, and chatted while waiting for our chicken dinner, which involved tons of onions in an oily sauce, with village-style fries and village-style fried chicken. Despite all the oil, we cleaned out of the bowl!

Then, since Jen’s dad (the chief of the village and a very religious man) doesn’t allow drumming in his compound, we went to a neighbor’s compound so Toby could play his drum and the boys could dance (a few girls danced, too, but boys dance more to drumming while girls dance more to other music). Everyone loved it – and Toby was exhausted by the time they called it quits more than a half hour later!

We wished each other Merry Christmas one more time and then hit the sack. We finished up the goodies the next morning, then all met in Peter’s village to get the basic bean sandwich and coffee for breakfast before hiking out to the main road to catch a car back to Kaolack. While I can truthfully say I am glad to be having these unique experiences, I am excited that I will be home next year for Christmas. Non-white Christmas’s just don’t seem like the real thing… :)

Sunset over Bao Balon River

2011-02-04T06:22:00.004Z

The other day when I was biking home to Kaymor the sun was setting over the river I cross to get to Kaymor, Bao Balon (pronounced like “Babylon”). It was so pretty that I dug out my camera out of my bag even though I was in a hurry to get back before it got dark.

Happy birthday you old fart!

2011-01-29T03:38:00.005Z

That’s the really uplifting text I got from a fellow PCV the morning of my 25th birthday, December 17, 2010. I guess by Senegalese standards I am old, or at least old in that I don’t have a husband and don’t have any children. But, as I reflect back on the quarter of a century that I’ve been alive, I have come to the conclusion that I have learned a lot and have come a long way – but I’m really just getting warmed up: I have so much more to learn and a lot farther to go. Seeing as it was my birthday, I figured I should learn how birthdays are celebrated in Senegal. Last year I spent my birthday in Kaolack celebrating with several other PCVs, but this year I wanted to spend the day in Kaymor. Many people in Senegal (like most developing countries) don’t know what their birth date is, so birthdays aren’t a big deal at all, so my birthday party was the first birthday party most of the people – if not everyone – had ever been to. It was the second birthday party I’d attended in Kaymor – my friend Yassa had a small joint party with a friend last year for her birthday (January 1). My host mom helped me plan my party, which involved deciding what food and drinks I wanted to have, what music to play (if any), and who to invite. For food, I made banana bread, chocolate chip cookies, and snickerdoodles in Kaolack (since I was there for a meeting a couple days before my birthday). Then in Kaymor, I made a cake from 2 brownie mixes, complete with frosting and caramel (which I made from boiling sweetened condensed milk in its can for 4 hours – isn’t that cool?!?!) and popcorn, and my host mom and several other women and girls helped me make beignets, which are balls of fried sweet bread. For drinks, we made juice from a simple powder mix we can buy at any store here. And for music, my host mom was nice enough to let me play American music on my computer rather than getting a stereo and playing Senegalese music. (Playing American music made it difficult to get people to dance because they claimed they didn’t know how to “dance American” but I was able to get the kids to dance – and my host mom even got up and danced for a while.) As far as who to invite, I obviously had to invite my entire family, including extended family that lives in Kaymor, and then beyond them I invited just a few friends: the guy I tutor in English, Tomsir, my friend (who was also my Wolof teacher), Malick, and his family, and my Talibe friends (who have a garden that I help with). I was hoping Yassa and my other friends that are in high school in Thiès would be back for their Christmas break in time for my birthday party, but they weren’t. I invited most people by telling them about my birthday and my party, and any family members I didn’t see my host mom invited.

On the day of my birthday, I got up early and went for a long run. I ran out on the main road into Kaymor and got a little homesick when I reached the river because it was so calm and beautiful that it reminded me of going out to the lake early in the morning in Minnesota. It was a great way to start the day, though, because running always gets me energized. I had to do some work in the morning but wrapped it up quickly so I could help the women and girls make the beignets and so I could make my cake because no one knows how to make a cake here, and for good reason – it was a bit challenging. Even though I could have gotten all the ingredients to make a cake from scratch in Kaymor (except vanilla, though I can buy small packets of vanilla-flavored sugar, which might work just as well…?), I just used brownie mixes for my cake because it was easier and faster. But then I had to bake the cake…we obviously don’t have an oven here, so I was hoping to make an oven by putting the pot with cake dough inside another pot with charcoal inside the big pot and on top of it. But my host mom was correct to argue that putting charcoal in the pot would wreck it, so we just put the big pot on top of the charcoal, as you can see from the pictures below.

After a while we realized that the big pot might be getting wrecked because there wasn’t anything in it (besides the other pot), so we took the small pot out and just put that on top of an old canned tomato can on top of the charcoal, which turned out to be a better system anyway (the second cake wasn’t burnt on the bottom at all like the first one was):

While I was messing with my cake, my host mom and the girls that live with us to go to school made lunch (it was my host mom’s turn to cook lunch). If I had been in America, my mom would have cooked me a special meal, but seeing as the women in my family cook for 25+ people every day, I didn’t think it was feasible to try to make an American meal for all of them. And, I lucked out and the fish car came to Kaymor that day, so we were able to have one of my favorite Senegalese dishes: rice and fish (with lots of veggies!).

While the second cake was baking, we made the beignets. This was much more of a team effort (since making beignets is much more common so everyone knows how to make them). We put some of the beignets in little plastic bags so people would have some treats to take home (you can’t really go to a party in Senegal and not bring back something to share with your family).

While we were wrapping up the beignets, some of the girls made the juice quickly and put them in little plastic bags so each person could be handed a little bag to drink the juice from (this is much more common than everyone having a cup; in fact, when people are traveling here and want to buy water, they usually just buy a small plastic bag of it because that’s much cheaper than getting a bottle of water). Then my host mom and I quickly popped the popcorn, and I put my cake together. The frosting quickly started running off the cake – it was not that warm, but certainly warm enough to “melt” the frosting.

Once all the food was prepared, I took a bucket bath and put my “nice” clothes on – my mom was surprised when I came out of my room wearing “American clothes” because she thought I was going to wear my new Senegalese outfit from Tabaski, but she understood me when I explained that celebrating birthdays is more American than Senegalese so I wanted to wear my American clothes (and my pants/tank top are a lot cooler and more comfortable than my Tabaski outfit!). Right when I was done getting dressed Tomsir and my Talibe friends came over. They were the only ones (besides Malick) who actually brought me a present (not that I expected it by any means, but it was super nice of them). They brought me a pencil and a couple pens, as well as an (apparently pretty rare) photo of their marabou (whom they really revere, seeing as they’re his talibe/he’s their marabou). (Malick brought over 2 bottles of pop to add to the treats I already had.) They were the first “real” guests to arrive (i.e., the first people besides the people that live in my compound), but other people gradually trickled over as the afternoon progressed. Most of the time we just sat around listening to my music and chatting, though I was able to get people up dancing for a little while. The whole thing was slightly anti-climatic because it wasn’t like what I would consider a normal party in America where people mingle around, eating, drinking, and talking. Here, everyone just sat there and chatted a little with the person sitting next to them, and my host mom said we had to wait to give people food until the end because that’s what they do here to make sure everyone gets some and to make sure things are proportioned out properly I guess. That’s one thing that bothered me (and has bothered me in general the whole time I’ve been here) – the way food and other things are distributed among family/friends: the older men get the best and the most of whatever it is, and then the middle-aged men, and then the older women, and then the middle-aged women, and then all the kids. I know this is all based on respect and everything, but it still bothered me that the kids got last dibs on the treats – I don’t know about other people’s families, but in my family whenever we have a big family gathering or a multi-generational party (such as a neighborhood Christmas party), the kids almost always get to go through the line and get food first while the adults wait patiently, and if there’s only one piece of cake left, an adult with leave it for a child. That just isn’t the case here. Don’t get me wrong, the kids certainly got enough of the treats, but my host dad and uncles certainly got a much bigger share (and much bigger than is proportional to their larger size as adults). Before everyone dug into the food, the three people at the party that understand at least some English (Tomsir, Malick, and Gallo, one of my Talibe friends) sang “Happy Birthday” to me while everyone else just sat there staring at them confusedly. It was cute. After that I went over to my host mom’s “kitchen” to get a knife to cut the cake and by the time I had come back (literally less than 30 seconds later), everyone was digging in to the food and someone had already stuck their hand in the cake a taken out a chunk – clearly I shouldn’t have assumed people would understand the concept of me cutting the cake…or of the birthday girl getting the first piece of cake. I cut the cake and then let my host mom distribute it as she saw fit. By this point I had to step back from the food because it was just too crazy – I guess I should take it as a compliment (or maybe everyone was just really hungry): the food was just devoured. Fortunately for my sanity, my sister called me when everyone was eating so I had an excuse to step away and talk with her. Everyone wanted to know if she was having her party at the same time as mine, and they were surprised (as they always are) when I said that she was going to have her party later because in America, it was only mid-day. The food was more or less gone by the time it was time for the 5th (and last for the day) call to prayer, so everyone went home to pray and to eat dinner. (The adults prayed the evening/4th call to prayer at my party, as you can see from the photos below.)

I was pretty tired by this point, and just read a little before going to bed myself. Overall, I’m glad I had my birthday party in Kaymor, mostly so people here could get a glimpse of what birthday parties are like in the States and so they could have some treats since eating beignets and drinking juice is not a common activity for villagers. And as an added bonus, my host mom insisted I eat the leftovers for breakfast the next morning – my real mom would never insist that I eat beignets, cookies, and cake for breakfast, though perhaps that’s because in America we could store the food so it wouldn’t spoil… :)

Happy New Year! (Senegalese style)

2011-01-16T11:37:00.005Z

Tamxarit is the Muslim New Year celebration. The kids celebrate it by dressing up as the opposite sex and/or painting their faces white (almost like ghosts) and running around the village in small groups banging drums and asking adults for something (similar to what we do for Halloween, though instead of directly receiving candy the kids usually get corn or millet or small coins to share as a group, which they divide among themselves at the end of the night and exchange at the boutiques for candy or other treats). This year kids weren’t the only ones dressing up and running around – even adults did, too!

Great photos of Nioro

2011-01-16T11:32:00.001Z

Here’s my attempt at making a long story short so I can get to the point of this post: the blog of a professional photographer that has some great shots of Nioro.

I’m working with the 4 other PCVs in my sub-region to start school gardens in 4 different schools in 4 different towns/villages. This was all started because a woman, Khady, who grew up in Nioro but now lives in the States, started a private middle school in Nioro for students who didn’t make it in the regular school system and she wanted the school to see if they could find a way to make use of a massive fenced-in field that her dad used to grow things on but now is overgrown with trees (though delicious trees, like mango and lemon trees) and weeds. One of the teachers knew the PCV in Nioro, Elizabeth, so he contacted her to see if she had ideas about what to do, and after many meetings we developed the school garden plan, which has now expanded to 3 other schools. Khady tries to come back to Senegal every year, and this year she came back with a professional photographer, Dawn, to photograph and school and students and stuff because Khady is in the process of turning the project into an NGO. I’m writing all this because Dawn’s blog has some great photos of Nioro (she is a professional after all), so check out her blog: http://dawndeeksphotography.wordpress.com/ Her posts about Nioro start in December and go through January 2. Hope you enjoy her pictures and stories as much as I did!

PS There will be much more coming about the school gardening stuff soon, so stay tuned! :)

What's black and white allover but red on the inside? Lunch on Tabaski.

2011-01-16T10:42:00.004Z

Arguably the biggest Muslim holiday, Tabaski, fell a week before Thanksgiving this year, on November 17, 2010, though we continued to celebrate it for several days after that. Since I had been in Kaymor last year for Tabaski, I was more prepared for it this year: I was ready for the blood and guts that accompany the sheep slaughter (since that is really what it is), I was ready to hold the raw meat while my host mom and aunts hacked it to pieces (sometimes more gently, simply using a knife, other times much more dramatically, with a machete), I was ready to eat oily sheep for days on end (even though I was ready for this, I can’t say I really enjoyed it…), and I was ready with my fancy new Tabaski outfit to wear (after I had scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed to get the sheep guts smell off my hands) when we (quite literally) paraded around Kaymor, greeting everyone with the traditional Tabaski greeting/prayer (“Forgive me.” “I forgive you. Forgive me.” “I forgive you. May God give us peace and allow us to be together next year.” Etc. etc.).

The first day of our Tabaski celebrations involved basic prepping for the day, which meant that I helped my host mom sweep the compound. Since it was a special occasion, we had to be particularly meticulous, so it took longer than normal and I was hot and dusty by the time we were done. I’ll never get over how women here can stand sweeping bent over with their faces right next to the ground so the majority if what they’re inhaling isn’t air but rather dust. After that, we prepped for cooking lunch, which involved cutting onions and potatoes in our hands rather than on a cutting board, which I’ve mentioned before is a tricky skill to master. During this time the men gathered all the sheep and slaughtered them one by one. In general, the head of a household is supposed to purchase a sheep to kill for Tabaski, so we had a lot of sheep since each of my 5 uncles (and host dad) who live in Kaymor (with their wives and children) had a sheep, plus each of my 3 uncles who came back to Kaymor for Tabaski (with their wives and children, if they have them) also had a sheep. As you can tell from the pictures below, it was quite a process, which the kids enjoyed watching.

(Continued on next post.)