so i have finally said goodbye to my village. it's been a roller coaster of emotions - excited, happy, sad, relieved, nervous - the desert has been my home for the last 2 years. it's weird to leave it in a way...
currently sitting in dakar, officially in the process of closing out my service aka FUN things like typing reports, last meetings, medical appointments, finance settling.
now let's looking back at the last month. things in retrospect.
senegal's elections have come and gone. relatively peaceful actually. i mean compared with all the bordering countries - a coup d'etat in mali, instability in guinea bissau, a violent election in cote d'ivoire a few months back, and not even gonna mention the arab spring or south sudan - yeah senegal's was pretty unexciting. which is a good thing. stability! the people have spoken and they have chosen a new president over the dinosaur of a president (he's like 90 years old). hats off to you Macky Sall...
so final projects. with the help of friends and family back home, we bought an ambulance for my health district! it's done (sorta) and currently sitting in the djolof. i explained to the dakar mechanics that where i live is not like dakar at all. no paved roads, no gravel roads. heavy sand and wash-board rocky pebble roads. and there are thorns everywhere. and the temperature is WAY hotter. but they didnt listen and last i heard, it sounds like some wiring melted in the motor area. they're fixing it right now so hopefully it'll be done very soon.
i had decals made for all participating parties! there's the NGO, BLIA. There's my boy scouts troop. and a girl scouts troop. and of course peace corps!
so thank you all donors and sponsors back home. the village is thrilled and overwhelmed!
to celebrate, we combined the reception / inauguration with the village's culture festival and added some health stuff, like HIV testing. i lead as an example. and we got 100 people tested! not to toot my own horn but that's a huge accomplishment. people HATE needles here. like absolutely terrified of them.
there were village wrestling matches...
and lots of dancing to celebrate...
other news. i sent my women's group women (and some men) to a regional garden training on Abby's master farm. they learned more about soil amendments and things like composting and plant spacing and crop rotations.
i'm just so proud of my women. things are growing...
and they planted the moringa (albeit extremely close to an eggplant) that we gave them a few months back! moringa is magical. it's like a vitamin A-Z pill.
the children wreak havoc in the garden, running around plucking things up but hey, i'm okay with it because i see them eating the vegetables - tomatoes, carrots - raw!! RAW! soo good for you, as opposed to boiling it for 7,000 hours and having all the nutrients boiled away... so keep at it children!
my legacy...
Per tradition, we went to Regina's house (my language teacher in Thies) for Easter. 3rd year in a row. The first year, we brought sodas. The second year, we brought cakes and wine. This year, i had pictures and some local oils from my region to give. But then we also bought... a pig!! yeah, we're awesome like that.
yes the pig was killed and we ate it.
it was delicious. i havent had pork in soo long...
regina, our teacher. we made her a shirt back in may 2010. she still has it! and judging by the faded-ness, she wears it on occasion! wears our faces!
the awesome faye (their last name) family... boy am i going to miss them...
i dont think i've ever posted pictures about it. but im sure i mentioned that my tiny village of 200 has a museum. well here's a picture of said museum. it's a converted train station.
but, why was there ever trains going through my village?! where were you going french colonizers?! where did you come from?! why on earth, 35 kilometers in the bush with nothing around did they need a train station?! so bizarre...
a book i read in high school: the things they carried.
and things left behind.
the things im leaving behind...
a small moringa intensive bed for the family. i hope it survives and they'll get to make leaf sauce for years to come.
after the death of my moringa trees and mango trees, i was too distraught about tree growing. but a family asked me for one so i gave them a moringa tree. it's doing well. once the rains come, it'll do even better but i have faith in this one. maybe years from now when i visit yang yang again, there will be a moringa tree there. i can pretty much just die after that.
i'm also leaving behind the kids. adorable kids.
... and cheap plastic sandals
and beautiful skies. this one was cool! michigan maize and blue!
and delicious senegalese cooking. for my last meal, the family made my favorite dish, domada! it's a tomatoey sauce with fish balls and vegetables over white rice. yum...
my fellow linguere-ites that i came with. 2 of them have already (technically) left the country. we are slowly trickling away...
as per tradition again, right before you leave the djolof region, you must sign the wall in our one and only bar. hence where the title of this post came from. if only bubbles were 'dome u saabu'...
wolof is a fun language. we learned 2 years ago that fire is taal and ash is dome u taal or the 'offspring of fire'. it's all very poetic really. so soap is saabu and i asked my teacher if bubbles were dome u saabu or the 'offspring of soap'. she looked at me with a blank expression and then yelled at me that im crazy. i make up words and expressions all the time. i think it's poetic.
it's all very fitting...
so 2 years have come and gone. i will spend my last week in dakar. should be fun! that'll be my last post probably, on the 28th. things are happening. goodbyes are being said. it's still not sinking in yet...
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