Happy New Years!

I would like to start this blog off with some holiday cheer from Senegal since I still have yet to write about it, so, here I go. One the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me......A Baobab as tall as the giants feet.... On the 2nd day of Christmas my true love gave to me two toubabs visiting 3rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me three donkey calling 4th day of Christmas my true love gave to me four dog's are straying 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me five cups of attaya (Senegalase tea) 6th day of Christmas my true love gave to me six kola nuts (natural caffinated nuts) 7th day of Christmas my true love gave to me seven meters of lapi fabric (Nice Pular fabric) 8th day of Christmas my true love gave to me eight Ceeb mama's cooking 9th day of Christmas my true love gave to me nine Talibe children begging 10th day of Christmas my true love gave to me ten marabu praying 11th day of Christmas my true love gave to me eleven Woolofs speaking 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me twelve Tapalapa (Poor mans bread, but toubabs seem to like it) This years Christmas was spent in Tambacounda. The morning was spent waking up early and making hot chocolate with cinnamon rolls.

After, there were a few of us that wanted to go check out the morning mass at the local church. We attempted to go the night before for Christmas Eve but found that it was later then expected. We were told that the mass would start at 9:00pm but instead it started at 10:30pm and found out that there was going to be another mass in the morning. The morning seemed like the better option.

Once we got back from mass we prepared some drinks and sat around in the library to play white elephant. Everyone got a gift to put under the tree and each person picked which gift they wanted. If it was a person's turn and they wanted someone else's gift then they would be allowed to steal it. We were actually all pretty good about wanting to keep our gifts. We had a total of 16 people with lots of food. We decided to do a classy Christmas party partly because back home my friends would host a classy Christmas party and it has kind of grown as a tradition.

On the menu for Christmas dinner we had squash soup, spring soup, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, vegetarian gravy and ham. One of the volunteers was able to actually buy a pig and put his previous skills to use to butcher the whole pig without the head. There is pig meat still left over till this day. As for the desserts we has squash pie, sugar cookies, lemon meringue pie, rice pudding and honey cookies. We had so much food that we were able to go around three times. The afternoon was spent talking, relaxing, watching "Love Actually" and playing activities. Thanks to Allah we were able to have internet for skyping family and friends as well. It is amazing how we are able to keep in such good contact with people abroad now a days opposed to before when there was no phones or internet. The holidays don't have to seem as distant and far from home. After the main course we started to eat desserts and played a game where you have a name on your back and by mingling around you have to ask questions about what it is on your back without the person telling you exactly what it is. I had coal on my back. Now how did that happen? Lol

As for new years this year was my second new years in Senegal and decided to keep it low key. We made breakfast for dinner which consisted of "fluffy" pancakes, french toast, deviled eggs and irish coffee. We were able to start brinner (breakfast-dinner) around 8:30pm and continue our game of cards against humanity. The newest best thing in Tambacounda, after chedder cheese and before toilet paper. If you are asking yourself what this game is the best way to describe it is that it is similar to apples to apples with a twisted twist. It was kindly given to us by a current peace corps volunteer's family that came for holiday. There were quite a few families that came in this holiday and it was nice to see the parents of the people we have all learned to love and care for. I hope that my family had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. I am thankful for their guidance and unconditional love. I hope to see them soon in the coming New Year! Love you guys!

Divorced from reality

So, I created the title of this blog awhile ago and have yet to write on it partially because I forgot what I even dreamed about. But with a webpage history search I found the page that I was looking for and the essence of the dream came back to me. Drugs. My dream was about a drug that I had created. What the drug was for or why I even made it I can only imagine. It could have been because I watched a movie the night before and a character was influenced by some drugs. My sub-conscious mind decided that this was something that I needed to dream about. I looked up a google search and what I found through a majority of the searches is that when you dream about drugs you are trying to divorce and delude yourself from reality. Now I know whenever we look at these kinds of things such as dream interpretations, horoscopes etc... we always seem to try and find some truth to it and I say why not. It brings up things that we perhaps have thought about or brings about a different perspective. In my case I did feel like I was trying to take a break from where I am and in actuality that this is how most peace corps volunteers feel at least one time in their service. Perhaps it had come about more so now because of the holiday season also because I have finally come to terms that my host family will always see me as a foreigner no matter how much I try to integrate. Someone not from their world. Is that too extreme to say? Not from this world? Yet, I am not too far from their way of being. Both sides of my family are from third world countries and even though I was sheltered by the way that they lived for most of my life does not mean that I won't ever encounter it. Being here in Senegal has in a way allowed me to understand my families past and present without the emotional connection. Along the way my actual families have also helped me see how hard working we can be when given the right opportunities. What else is making me have such a disconnect? Perhaps it is the constant harassment everywhere I go or the lack of appreciation of your very existence. Sometimes the a way to take a handle on these moments are to take a step back and hide for a while. This doesn't mean hide from the world forever but it's like doing ardha kurmasana in yoga, coming back to a comfortable pose and staying there until you feel energized to come back out of it. Think things through and perhaps you will find something out that you didn't realize before. I know that all this may sound vague but when it comes down to it and it happens it will be so much more lucid.

Romeo oh Romeo wherefor art thou Romeo?

It was just another day in the village until I received a call from my one of my peace corps volunteer friends. They had found four one/two week old puppies at the local Tambacounda bar. She knew from previously that I had lost my first pup and decided to see if I would want to resurrect the experience again. I had a chance to think about it on my bike ride back into town and well when I got to the bar and saw the pups, I immediately couldn't say no. I knew that I fell in love. There were four of them and well I had to just pick one. So, out of the four there were three that looked like my previous puppy and then one that was different. This puppy had a color of dark brown and white fur. His face is black with a dark brown tint, he almost looks like a little bear. I feel in love with him and the name Romeo seemed appropriate. So, so far I have had him for a week now and the first few nights were rough with lack of sleep but now, slowly, slowly am I finally getting some sleep. If you would see the dogs here they are nothing like what you would see in the States. There are few people who own them and if they own them it is likely that they beat the dogs. My host family has a family dog already and if I train Romeo I hope that he can be a good addition to the family when I leave, if he makes it to that age. It is sad to say but it is hard for a dog here let alone a human being. I have yet to experience a funeral but I have experienced a death in the village. 2 months later.... So, I found out that the puppy I got ended up being a girl. I had to do a quick name change and decided that Lola was appropriate. The reason being because "Lola" in Tagalog means grandmother. My puppy was pretty much like an old person, she couldn't see well, could walk very well and didn't have any teeth. Now i'm not saying that all older people have this but it was like the movie "Benjamin Button". Lola is slowly integrating to my village and so are my villagers.

What's on the work front?

If I were back in California I know that summer would be ending, school would be starting soon and well LA drivers would probably be freaking out because of possible rain (well maybe not). But here I am entering into the cold season of Tambacounda, I was able to survive the rainy season, but have some left over scares and fights still going on. See the thing that you have to be careful with in the rainy season is the endless amounts of sicknesses that you can come into contact with. Let me tell you, I have never known myself to be skin sensitive but I soon found out here I am. I have had a number of staff infections, fungus and rashes. On top of that random fevers, colds and diarrhea. On the work side of things there has also been a good amount of experimentation with the farmers in my village. I was able to extend different variety seed to about 16 farmers in my village. The different seeds consisted of corn, cowpeas, millet, sorghum and rice. This rainy season was a good one yet, depending on the situation some farmers had problems with their seed. I am hoping for a more planned year for me in the area of the seed extension. I really do feel the first year for a peace corps volunteer is a experimentation year and that the projects that were thought of before or haven't been thought of yet will come in the next year.So, there is no need to worry because work will be done. I have found myself to be busy even with other secondary projects such as, latrine training, gardening, international hand washing day, mangrove restoration, English club and future project planning. I am currently waiting on a grant that I wrote for the women's garden so that I can continue to work more in the garden because I feel that the main focus right now should be water resource. It is difficult to garden here if you don't have an easier source of water than trying to pull from a 35 to 45 meter deep well. I know, I have to pull all the time. So, looking forward to the work to come and the people that I will meet during that time.

Stolen money....

Hey all! Sooooo, it has been quite the journey from November to February there is a lot so bare with me. I am going to try and summarize the best that I can, so here it goes.

Lets start off with two quotes:

There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor. The poor can think of nothing else.
Oscar Wilde

Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.
Mother Teresa


This week was going to be spent at my friend Mary's village, Fodebayo, which is in the Southern part of Senegal. I was excited to get out and see what Kolda was all about because I only heard stories from other volunteers of how lush and green it was. Before my big trip I had to get a few things done around my hut. First things first I cleaned my hut and started to pack. If you hate dust and dirt, well, let me tell you, I have dirt up the wazoo! (Fun Fact: Wazoo was first used in 1961) So, I did a little bit of cleaning and after waited for the mason to come and fix my door. The mason that had come was one of my fathers friends from Tambacunda. He came in early mid day and started on the door. While he worked on the door, I had noticed the man on the bike with the fish had stopped in my compound. My grandmother was talking to him and noticed that she had only bought one fish. I quickly asked her how man fish she bought for lunch and it was really just one for the whole family. I told the fish guy to wait. I went into my hut and got some money for him. I bought four fish and gave it to my grandmother. When I get back to my hut with the change my host father had given me a look like he was wondering what was in my hand. I opened my palm and showed him that I had change from buying fish. He then grabbed 200cfa from my hand and bought tea with it. At this moment I was so shocked at what happened I didn't know what to say. To me at that moment just stole money straight from my hand. I knew that he was testing me from the time that I arrived in the village because he had asked me to go and run errands for him but this was by far crossing the line. Since this was the last day that I was spending there I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, but it made me realize that I needed to firm up. It's like I try to do something good, by buying more fish yet there is no appreciation and respect to at least say "Thank you for the fish." or at least ask me if I could help buy tea. It was nothing like that. I would say in Mandinka "A maning baing nig, a be karing." Translating to "It is not right, and he isn't respectful."

So, after everything we had lunch and the mason had eaten with us. He finally finished up the last bit after lunch and I was getting ready to pay. I was thinking to myself wondering how much he was going to charge me. The normal price was and friendly price would be around 2,000 to 3,000cfa but the "Toubab" price I think would be around 5,000cfa. What was he going to charge me??? Not too surprised but he charged me for the "Toubab" price. Of course he would, and my father would agree to it. This was his friend and since "Toubabs" are foreigners they think we have money and will charge the highest price they can get. So, I paid him his 5,000cfa. Probably should have tried to get the price down but I just didn't. I didn't want to question the matter. (If interested an article on "Toubab" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maya-lau/what-the-peace-corp-taugh_b_1099202.html by a pcv:Peace Corps Volunteer)

The day went on and I was ready to leave for the language seminar in Mary's village and to explore some during the holiday. The last thing I did in village before I left was play freeze tag with the kids. They had so much fun and I gave all my brothers and my sister a hug good bye. My grandmother wasn't happy to see me leave considering that I was going to leave her there by herself for a while. She was hinting to me that she was going to be the only there to do the work and pull the water because my younger host sister was leaving the next day to another village. I felt bad leaving.

Stealing Ice Cream from a Toubab...

Oh your sweet skin melting in my mouth, giving me chills down my throat. I have been waiting for this moment for some time and I couldn't wait any longer, so I decided to eat the chocolate shelled, vanilla filled ice cream in front of the store. It seemed like the perfect idea, before heading back to the regional house. Yet, on this particular night it could have been the worst idea ever. There were unexpected guests that came towards my friend and I, as we both stood there enjoying our ice cream. The kids were out having a night of fun because on December 5, 2011 is the Senegalese New Year.

The Islamic new year is somewhat different then how we celebrate new years in the States. It is more like Halloween if you want to compare it to something. The start of this holiday begins with good food, such as rice with vegetables, chicken and onion sauce. The next day is when the party begins for the children. The boys dress up as girls and the girls dress up as boys. Once they have their costumes on they are out the door visiting neighbors to collect money or candy.

So, while we ate our ice cream a few of the children came up to us and started to as for our names. This normally happens so we were use to this, but then my friend (who's name shall be Mamadou) decided to give them candy. I thought to my self that if we give them candy then they will probably want more. So, I continued to eat my ice cream. Mamadou decided to go into the store and buy more candy for the kids. By the time that he had returned the number of children had in increased. I still tried to mind my own business hoping that they would find any interest in us, but more and more kids continued to come. They finally surrounded us and crowded us to the point that we could feel hands all over the place. Mamadou passed some of the candy that he had bought out but they fought to try to get more from him. As I stood there I could feel random tugs on my hair, I would look back and the kids would have smile on their face like nothing happened. Half of the ice cream to go, I was almost done until suddenly a hand came out of no where and my ice cream was out of my hands! Blessed be! They had stolen my ice cream! What thieves! We couldn't handle it anymore with the loud foreign shouts and the abusive handling that we mounted our bikes and road out back home. Thankfully the kids didn't try to follow us back to where we were staying, which could have possibly happened. We were free! Free at last! With two less ice creams since Mamadou lost his during the bike ride back, sadly he hit a bump and his ice cream hit the floor. So, with two less ice creams and a lesson well learned the day couldn't have been any better!

Two broken hoes and a bucket continued...

So, the story that I wanted to get to that related to the title was about the last day that we were leaving the garden. We were told that we should collect all of our tools and bring it back to the center. While we were gathering our tools and leaving a man starts to chase. We look back to see who it is and to our surprise it was the school director yelliing at us in Wolof. We have absolutely no idea why he is so up set until one of our teachers helped us out with the translation. Apparently he was complaining about us not leaving the materials for the garden. The school director had made a comment to us be fore about how bad our garden was looking. He also told us at the time that if we took the garden tools away he would destroy our garden. This made no sense to us because we were told that we had to bring the tools back. Also, we are not suppose to supply them with materials. If they want to continue the work they need to get their own materials. We already provided free labor for them and also a demo. The school director was just really on a power trip, I hate to say. He had not good intentions for the community and the children that the garden could benefit for.
I was shocked at the un-professionalism that the man had when he tried grabbing the bucket with rope and pulley in it. Which they told us to buy before had because they didn't want to share theirs. Also, what was left of our tools was ridiculous, not only did they want to take our bucket but they left us two broken hoes and our wheel barrel which was in alright shape. Yet, we came with a lot more tools then that. They seemed to just all disappear. While our teacher argued with the school director on the next course of action was made sure that we kept the bucket close so he would try to pull another fast one. If he took that bucket we would have felt as if we lost our pride over the garden, not to sound over extravagant but its true! So, all in all we made it out of the school grounds with our bucket and one broken hoe :/