Sheep and Hungry kitten

Thierno has been gifted upon the Bassoum family. Paul and I will miss him (enormous belly and all).

Thierno and hungry kitten

Jonno

This post is dedicated to Jonno, one of our closest neighbors and friends here in Senegal. Paul and I have been fortunate to be closest to some of the best people in Peace Corps Senegal. Jonno is one of those people. I have compiled some of the photos that capture Jonno at his happiest: eating large quantities of delicious foods.

Northern Thanksgiving and Moving Forward

Happy Tamkarit (Islamic New Year’s)!  An update on our lives: We just finished up the TB project.  The training and forum book-ended the two weekends surrounding Thanksgiving.  The PCVs of every region of Senegal throw an annual party for the rest of PC Senegal.  Our region holds an annual Thanksgiving party.  Around 35 people attended!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

The menu included: 1 turkey, 6 chickens, 3 guinea fowl, fruit salad, mac-and-cheese, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole with marshmallows, cranberry sauce, stuffing, squash rolls, biscuits, horchata, pumpkin doughnuts, apple pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, brownies, gazelle beer, and g-sap (gin and bissap).

 
The poultry took several days to find (turkey are more common than one would guess), one day to kill/pluck/clean/brine, and another day of deep-frying with our pulley-stove system set-up on the basketball court.

 
Friends came from all over, visiting the north of Senegal for the first time.  Even Sheep came to celebrate.  And after stuffing ourselves silly, some took a late-afternoon nap to sleep off the effects of tryptophan and others attempted to hit the turkey piñata.  All in all, I think we threw a pretty good party.

 

Since Thanksgiving, we have been thinking much about our future.  The people in my life are doing so well.  Paul has been admitted (and has accepted the admission) to the Bryn Mawr post-baccalaureate program, an intensive one-year program near Philadelphia where he will take all the prerequisites for medical school.  What is great is that this program offers linkages to medical schools, schools that will admit any Bryn Mawr student who does well during the program.  Also congratulations to Jess for passing her bar exam in California where the passing rate is just barely over 50%!  I’ve finally finished my grad school applications, at least for this round (made a turkey piñata out of my statement of purpose drafts…felt good to say the least).

THANK YOU!!

Health workers discussing TB

Thank you to those who donated to my TB project!  The training and forum were a great success.  Health workers throughout the Commune of Ndioum have learned important concepts about tuberculosis: knowledge that will motivate them to teach others within their communities and work together towards decreasing TB.  Please see the “Complete Projects tabs for some more info and pictures.

MSS Finalists go SHOPPING!

Here are some pictures of the 3 finalists going shopping at our local bookstore for their $30 worth of school supplies under the supervision of the middle school’s PTA president.  The girls were excited to receive their new supplies.  Thanks to those who donated to make this possible!

Exploring Kedegou

In the middle of October, I finally got the chance to visit the other half of Senegal.  Paul was not able to go due to a few meetings concerning SeneGAD in Dakar, however our friend Evan and I took a little trip to the Kedegou region.  The first day we spent traveling–sept-places from Dakar to Tamba, and then Tamba to Kedegou with a lunch break in between with Mika who met us at the Tamba garage.  As you drive towards Kedegou, the huts get progressively rounder and the grass roofs steeper, while the overall foliage and tree cover exponentially rises.  The Nikola-Koba park straddles the Tamba-Kedegou border, at which point, the trees rise thick and create layers of canopy that are non-existent in the north ofSenegal.  Once you hit the border of Kedegou, the road suddenly worsens, turning to a red gravel laterite road where they are rebuilding the road.  We watched as the sun sank, casting muted pinks and oranges over dark tree-covered mountains in a scene that is so typical Africa, like a postcard or a National Geographic magazine fold-out.  Funny because, as the cold air whipped past me in the shadows of looming trees, I could feel that we were going somewhere that did not fit into my understanding of Senegal.

The Kedegou house is like summer camp, with outdoor sleeping and living space in addition to separate huts for each room of the house—a kitchen hut, a library hut, etc.  I slept well that first night, waking in the middle of the night from the wet cold to pull the sheet beneath me around me.  That first day, Evan and I explored Kedegou, taking in the city itself–if you could call it that, as Kedegou has no buildings along its main road that are two stories tall.  The Pulaar is slightly different—sing-songing “jam toon” instead of the normal stiff “jam tan,” and “a jaraama” used like “aloha” in that it starts and ends every conversation.  Evan and I went on a small walk along the Gambia River, silenced by the beautiful red cliffs covered in trees in the distance marking the end of Senegal and the beginning ofGuinea.  Birds were everywhere—a violet turaco, its wings shining brilliant red through the rising sun and the sound of a pure-toned angel of a bird too high in the canopy to see.  During dinner at the (creatively named) Africa Restaurant, we met an American named Tad, who is a master’s epidemiology student at the Mailman School of Public Health in Columbia University.  He was in Kedegou collecting mosquito samples to test for a variety of diseases; the samples get processed typically in Dakar.

Evan near Dindefelo

Dindefelo Falls

The second morning, we set off early with the sun on two bikes and our backpacks to Dindefelo.  Volunteers kept warning us of the difficulty of the bike ride, warnings that made us laugh when we did reach Dindefelo –25 km to Segou and another 5 or so km to Dindefelo along laterite roads that were shaded by the trees along the two sides of the road.  Rushing through shoulder-high grass among palms and leafy trees that weaken the force of the sun, it was finally comprehensible why Kedegou and Kolda volunteers ride their bikes everywhere.  We hiked late morning to the Dindefelo Falls, stopping to take photos of Vervet monkeys.  The falls are so beautiful, much more glorious and dramatic than the photos of volunteers captured.  The waterfall sits in a U-shaped dead-end of the canyon, the slates of red granite rock creating latticed designs that jut out and are emphasized by the falling water.  At the bottom of the falls is a pool with rocks behind the falls to sit on.  A group of Dakar folk brought their drum, and with great joy but without suppression, they sang and danced along the edge of the falls to the beating of the drum.  After spending a few hours at the falls, we went back to the main part of the town to find some provisions before setting off for Segou.

At Segou, we stayed at Zach’s campement, which overlooks a beautiful valley of cotton and corn fields surrounded on both sides by red-granite cliffs covered in trees.  While walking through the valley, red-throated bee-eaters zipped back and forth snagging the bugs that come out at dusk and then returning to trees to whack the bugs against branches.  Thap-thap—the bee-eater had found dinner.

Boy napping at Dindefelo Falls

 

Roots

 

boy guarding fields, Segou

We were treated to an amazing dinner of funio, a grain that is similar to Moroccan cous-cous in its texture and lightness, and onion sauce that left Evan rolling around in pain from fullness the rest of that evening and me too full to move.  The next morning, we ate breakfast and had a surprise run-in with Lily, a chimp researcher who works for the Jane Goodall Institute.  There is a chimp family of 10 living in the hills of Segou; Lily studies the most northern group of chimpanzees in Africa.

We then set out for Segou Falls, seeing no-one but a few farmers in the valley for the entirety of the hike.  The hiking trail is beautiful in that it is so naturally a part of the riverbed—granite rocks that form the river bed also form a natural trail.  Hopping from rock to rock, we picked our way to the falls, marked by an exclamation mark.  The Segou falls were also incredibly beautiful, a smaller waterfall that is stunning in its isolation and tranquility.  Little light reaches the falls due to the thick trees and canyon that surround the falls and pool.  The granite rocks form small steps that impede and slow the fall of the water as it falls into a pool that is deep only at the base of the falls.  After our return from this falls, we biked back to Kedegou, the last incredibly long uphill stretch somewhat painful as we climbed to the town.

The next day we headed back to Tamba, spotting two troupes of baboons, warthogs, and a bateleur scavenging a fox-like mammal on the road in the park.  We spent the night at the Tamba regional house with Mika and his two kitty friends Colin and Irv (both girls…) and the other Tamba region volunteers.  Tamba is a huge city, full of different organizations, ethnic groups, and shops—a crossroads where cars leave everyday forMali.  Mika makes us an incredible biscuit, SPAM, egg breakfast before we take the slowest sept-place in existence to Kaolack.  In Kaolack, our group of friends has prepared an amazing pasta dinner.  And then the next morning to Mbour, back on the coast of Senegal near Thies and Ngekhokh where we spend the day sampling local fruit liquors made by a Belgium family.

From our time in Kedegou, Evan and I assembled this list of differences between Kedegou and the north:

• Goats are extremely short-legged (to the point that they look they are dragging their huge overfed tummies along the ground)
• Good-looking healthy dogs
• Small short cows w/o humps and adorable calfs
• Pulaar difference: no changing of the first letter of verbs while in post-position  (for example No wiyete-daa instead of No mbiyete-daa to say “how are you called”)
• Biking everywhere and overall lack of transportation (Evan and I were passed by two cars our entire bike-ride—both of them were tourist vehicles)
• Girls on bikes (even with pagnes on)
• No charettes or horses (supposedly sleeping sickness spread by tsetse flies kills off all horses and larger mammals)
• Fewer men wearing traditional clothes
• Huts are usually circular (not square)
• Our Kedegou PCVs are here…like Meera!
• The village bread here is 2x as long as ours (I thought it was French bread at first)
• People are in general more relaxed—language and greetings are much more lax
• A higher proportion of people seem poor (it seems that there is a general poverty level among all, unlike the large discrepancy between certain families or villages in the North)
• People eat more seasonally here than they do up north (starving season actually means something here for the people and not just the livestock as is the case up north)

Donate now to decrease tuberculosis!

Source: WHO, Global TB Control 2010 report

I am once again asking for money.  However, this time is for a large project that is completely community-initiated.  The chief of the health post in Ndioum approached me asking for help for a project of his.  He was recently trained in Mbour on tuberculosis and wants to pass this knowledge to Ndioum and the two surrounding communities of Toulde Galle and Gamadji Sare.  This project has two phases: (1) health worker training on how to best control TB and (2) a social forum where important community members, health workers, and TB patients talk about the issues of the disease.  The chief states that people in the area often do not come to the health post to receive treatment due to some of the negative stigmatizations associated with the disease.  This project hopes to mobilize the entire community towards decreasing the prevalence of this disease.  I need to raise $1222.83 for this project.

Please donate and see a more detailed description of the project here!

Please Donate to the Michelle Sylvester Memorial Scholarship

If you haven’t done so yet, please think about donating to the Michelle Sylvester Memorial Scholarship Fund.  We still need to raise $6400 to fund this scholarship program for the more than 400 scholarship winners throughout Senegal.  A donation of only $10 will help keep one of these girls in school by paying for her annual school fees.  An additional $30 will pay for the school supplies of one scholarship finalist.

To donate online, click here.

“[I]nvestment in girls’ education may well be the highest return investment available in the developing world.” –Lawrence Summers

Ramadan and Sheep Update!

Just a quick update about what we’ve been up to.

Please welcome Thierno (pronounced with a “ch”–french spelling), the newest member of our family:

New family member

Paul giving Thierno a bath

Paul and I have been making our way slowly through the month of Ramadan.  The first morning, a neighbor woke the entire neighborhood with his good intentions to remind all to eat an early breakfast before the rising of the sun.  He did this by banging on a bucket while running up and down the dirt road that passes by our house.  Since then, Paul and I have been fasting halfway—ranging between going the day with only sips of water to eating full meals cooked at the regional house.  But as tradition commands, we’ve been breaking fast every evening with dates and tea loaded with milk and sugar (and on good days, a cooler of ice to make a yogurt drink that I adore).

We are finally settling into our neighborhood.  I’ve been going around doing a small baseline survey of our neighborhood to understand what some of the health/environmental issues are.  So far, I’m seeing lots of issues with malnutrition (among children typically).  In addition, I have been helping each Monday and Thursday with baby-weighings and vaccinations at the local health post.  I’ve been working my way up to where I can now help fill out information and weigh babies.  The health post here has a progressive malnutrition ward that helps women with kids ages 0-5 years who have either health issues or low weight.  They get together to cook porridges, milk, and lunch while also discussing some health issues.  I am hoping to survey women at this ward and at the baby vaccinations to get a better understanding of what types of factors lead to malnutrition in Ndioum.  My guesses are: premature giving of water/weaning foods to children younger than six months and poor maternal nutrition/hygiene.

GIRLS LEADERSHIP CAMP and then some

Here is an old post from the week of the 18^th of July:

The Podor department just finished with a week-long Girls leadership camp (10^th to 16^th of July).  The camp was held at the NGO Tostan’s regional house in Ndioum.  Each volunteer invited 4 female students from their community.  All girls were from the last grade in elementary school (CM2) or the first grade in middle school (6eme).  Jonno also invited 6 (3 of 4eme and 4 of 5eme grade) of his MSS girls from Taredji to act as junior counselors (JCs) for the camp.  In all we had 29 girls from Diambo Dialbe, Donaye Taredji,Ndioum,Aram Soubalo, Madina Ndiathbe, Boke Dialbe, and Boke Salsalbe.

Girls after an EE lesson on trash at Girls Leadership Camp

On the 9^th of July, Jonno (with help from Paul and myself) lead a JC training to teach the older girls about their role and responsibilities as counselors and role models for the camp participants.  The other girls for the camp arrived the 10^thof July.  The camp started the 10^th and closed with a party for the participants and their parents on the 16^th.  Each day of camp began with breakfast followed by an environmental lesson, a health lesson, and a guest speaker presentation before breaking for lunch.  After lunch the girls did an art/crafts activity, followed by a life skills session and then a cultural activity before dinner.  After dinner, the girls watched films like Planet Earth, Mulan, and Bend it like Beckham before heading to bed.

Environmental lessons taught by Sarah and myself covered trees/pepineres, moringa/nutrition, trash management, animals/ecology, and environmental issues.  Hygiene lessons taught by Amber covered basic first aid, dental hygiene, washing hands, and neem lotion.  Paul taught sexual health about HIV/AIDS and organized guest speakers: Madame Ly taught the girls about STIs and talked about her work as a matrone, Cheikh Diallo (Jonno’s host dad) talked about the right to education, Kadhiata Ba talked about her entrepreneurship women’s group who makes/sells yogurt and gardens while also providing trainings to surrounding villages.  I held sessions about tye-dye and pottery while Amber taught the girls to make homemade shampoos, conditioner, lipgloss, and face scrub.  Jonno and Hadiel taught life skill lessons about role models, forming short/long term goals, effective communication, and self-esteem.  Evan taught the girls about cultures around the world through sports, food, dance, and collages.

Group Photo of Girls from Leadership Camp

It was amazing to see girls from such different backgrounds making friends with each other and growing in confidence when voicing their opinions and ideas.  We hope the girls learned skills and knowledge that will help them make good decisions and motivate them to become the future leaders ofSenegal. On the last day, each girl invited a family member to come to Ndioum for a party.  We ate good food, the girls showed their parents and loved ones what they had been doing all week, Tidiane gave a small speech to the girls, the girls presented their action plans to help people in their communities, and each girl received a certificate for her achievements.

For the most part, the camp went really well although there were small issues such as name-calling, stealing, watching TV, and going outside unaccompanied.  The girls left Saturday afternoon, many of the counselors and girls crying sadly about leaving.  It was a long time for many kids to be away from home, but it also was a week filled with lessons that will hopefully affect how they live their lives.

Even with the camp ending, the excitement did not end.  As the camp came to a close, Hadiel and Jonno fell ill.  While Jonno recovered quickly, Hadiel’s fever mounted to a 105 deg F the following day.  With the sudden onset of her fever, Team Podor quickly moved into gear.  We managed to do a malaria rapid-test that came back positive, two lines appearing and not disappearing.  We got Hadiel her medication and into Tidiane’s car to Dakar the following morning.  She is doing well now, recovering and regaining her strength.  It was scary to see a friend get so sick so quickly.  A warning to people visiting malaria-infested areas: take precautions to prevent malarial symptoms—prophylaxis, using mosquito nets, etc.  We always think things like this won’t happen, and then they do to people who are close to us.

More photos to come on my flickr once I can get our internet to load up my huge back-log of pictures