I'm a millionaire and WAIST'd

definitely not in chronological order but tons of photos so i'll let them do the talking...

there was a photo contest and i submitted a ton of photos. the prize was to have your photo hung up in the office for the year. none of my photos won because my camera is the shitty point and shoot kind but some made it into the semi-finals so that's cool! anyway here are the ones i submitted...

category: artsy

category: animal

category: architecture

category: culture

category: group photo

category: integration

category: nature

category: ugly baby

category: portrait

category: portrait (submitted under a friend's name since i couldnt submit more than 1 per category but these were all soo good)

category: portrait (again)

so i went to the bank and this is what my account balance read - over a million dollars!!! ok, cfa dollars but still! granted half of it isnt even mine; it's the money for my causerie project so in reality, i am still insanely poor after paying my regional dues, monthly rent, and other expenses (aka WAIST). anyway, now that the money came in, i can begin my project. let's see how smoothly this will go...

dave glovsky came to visit me in yang yang. this was our attempt at leaving it. sitting on the side of an empty road for almost 4 hours. the world could explode and i would not hear of it. terrifying...

and then there was WAIST... the acronym for West African International Softball Tournament (or something along the lines of that). it's such a great spin off the word waste (or wasted) because... well maybe i cant physically write it all down but you can imagine. (think 96 hours of perma-consuming debuachery). volunteers from all over west africa came - cape verde, mali, niger, guinea, etc etc... then there were embassy families and other ex pats, and missionaries, and even some local senegalese. just think of 400 or so americans - deprived, starved, ready for some good ol' american fun. there was softball, there was beach, and pool parties, and parties, and lots of ethanol. because your tax dollars cannot pay for hotels, we ended up boarding with ex pats and families in the embassy and boy do they have nice houses! america is wonderful. anyway, i'll let the pictures do the talking (maybe i'll annotate a couple)

(this is what all of us looked like. my body is literally rejecting life right now. every fiber in my is hating my brain for making the decisions it did).

a huge necessity for every trip to dakar - ice cream...

if you notice the times on the phones, they are all different. time does not matter in senegal.








other photos are not fit to post, haha.

and that is all...

i climb trees in my spare time; what do you do?

i live on a farm. there are goats and sheep and chicken and horses and donkeys and cats and dogs and cows (and the occasional camels that pass through, but no pigs because we're muslim) everywhere. you know that customs form that you have to fill out every time you re-enter the states, the one where you normally check no for a list of boxes that ask random questions like are you smuggling shit (literally) into the country or have you been doing naughty things abroad? well, back in december when i went home, i paused for a second on the question that asked if ive been anywhere near a farm. i wasnt sure how familiar customs agents are with the lives of peace corps volunteers (my passport has a huge sign on the cover (and in back) saying "hey, im in fucking peace corps bitch!") so i guess i finally had to check yes for something. wasnt too much of a hassle. i did the right thing by not bringing the footwear that i wore on the farm back into the states. i mean, i only step in poop all the time!

goats have pretty much destroyed everything in my garden. it looks like world war three - a battle between plants struggling for life, already in an inhospitable environment such as this desert, versus demon goats that eat everything. and i mean everything. the teeth marks along even my small moringa trees (yes, they are no longer little shrubs anymore but small trees now) are disheartening. it seems that some of the moringa trees, the "neverdies", are dead. again.

(a picture of remains of a struggling eggplant plant (?) after being bombarded by goats. i think it'll make it. who knew that by surrounding things with pieces of someone's collapsed cement house, it could look so artistic!)

dad once said that there are 3 things destroying senegal: goats, donkeys, and children.

the other day, dad built me a new fence to keep the goats out of my garden. i helped out minimally because dad thinks i'm incompetent in just about everything. which, to some extent, is true. at least when it comes to manual labor and farm work. my holes are never dug correctly, or deep enough, or fast enough, or at the right angle. i cant even rake the sand correctly. africa is teaching me how to become a real man.

a military cargo plane was flying very low over my village and some of the little kids were screaming in horror, running away and crying, afraid of this massive creature in the sky. how cute. a mother laughs and says it's only an airplane. are airplanes so foreign an object as to elicit a response of bewilderment and terror? amazing. where do i live again?

sometimes i fail to understand this country at all. when i got back from my regional meeting the other day, i saw that my aunt had a staph infection on her arm the size of a baseball. it was oozying and pus-ing. i asked her why she didnt go to the health center and she said it's because no one was there. apparently, the doctor has gone away for a couple of days. my counterpart. he does this a lot. when he's out, people arent treated. the other day, i asked my 12 year old brother what he learned in school and he showed me his school notes. chicken scratch looks more legible. i asked him to read me his lesson and he just stared at me and said he couldn't read it. in a school system that teaches based on rote memorization, straight copying and repeating, no wonder kids here dont learn or absorb anything. whats the point of education then? and some days the teachers go on strike. unlike america, there are no substitute teachers. a teacher strike means no school. and then when the teachers end their strike, the students go on strike protesting the strike of the teachers. aka, no school. how outrageous is that?

ive been reading books like mountains beyond mountains and three cups of tea. people like Greg Mortenson and Paul Farmer make me feel ashamed and inadequate as a human being. how am i contributing to this world? are my two years here in senegal just a complete waste of time? i built mud stoves, taught some people how to make mosquito repellent, and supplemented my family's diet with an occasional extra vegetable. that's it? feeling useless and unaccomplished is an understatement. i guess on a positive note, my grant money has finally come through and i hope to be starting the maternal health causeries soon, inshallah.

in the mean time, i play with kids. we climb trees, we play soccer barefoot in a field of thorns, we draw pictures in the sand, we race, we wrestle senegal style (i wouldnt call it wrestling. it's more like me lifting kids in the air since they cant knock me over). i get petted because i have a lot of body hair (comparatively. im only asian. imagine the amount of petting caucasian males get). the kids are greatly and funny.

this is a homemade toy gun or slingshot. pretty ingenious if you ask me. and it's completely environmentally friendly - recycled, made from a random piece of wood on the group, some used rubber, used nails, and random things are pellets.

(the little one, if you havent noticed, is quite the character.)

riddle: how many senegalese children can a medium sized niim tree hold?

answer: at least 10. we couldve packed it like a sept-place but then, i would feel sad for the tree.)

took another bike trip the other day (my knee is so f'ed up). 25 miles from any paved road, one can find beautiful mosques such as this one. i wonder where the money came from to build such a massive (use the trees as comparison of size) structure in the middle of nowhere and why waste it on a mosque when roads are shitty, children dont have enough to eat, health care is practically non-existent, and the school system is abysmal.

BUT... at least the camels have returned to the region!

my first mud stove is almost ready. it takes forever to dry. i was impatient so i tried to flip it and ended up cracking the rim. luckily, the expert, michael, says the bottom 12-15 cms are what really matters so i can just chip the top away to make it look more aesthetically pleasing. i hope it works? im getting bad feelings...

oh and miraculously, i was able to shrink these videos and the internet was kind enough to let me upload them over night so here they are!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiafOFa91Bo

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

happy valentines day everyone. (irony in africa?)

i kinda feel like jesus christ

ok maybe he's not quite the right person to compare myself to. actually this will be a terrible comparison and i will probably go to hell for it. but you know how when he was crucified and all, he was in all that pain with every step he took, you know, because he got lashed and all? well my situation is not exactly like his but pain with every step wouldnt be a huge over-exaggeration. the amount of thorns and spikes and needle like seeds/rocks in the sand in my area is beyond bordering excessive. pretty much every couple of steps i take, i have to pause to remove a spike from my feet or a thorn that has pierced through my flip flops and is sticking into me. i'd like to think of myself as becoming more weathered, more rugged, maturing physically. and there are more cases to attest to this physical abuse my body has to withstand.

the other day, i was riding a bus car back to my village, you know the ones where i sit on top and the cars drive too close to trees. well, i guess i wasnt paying attention for a split second and WHAM! i get smacked by an acacia thorn tree. for a second, i thought my eye was leaking. turns out there was a cut/scratch on my eyelid right where my eyelashes were... aka way too close to my eyeball for my comfort.

the cuts arent deep but thats not the point. in this country, there's just too much sand and dust and shit in the air. im totally going to scar. but hey, i got scratched by a lion whilst i was in africa... right?

as i await the arrival of funding for my causerie project, ive decided to build "improved mud rocket stoves". ideally, they cut down wood consumption, speed up cooking time, as well as decrease the prevalence of upper respiratory infections due to smoke irriation from the cooking fire. that's if i built everything right, in terms of dimensions, raw material ratios, whatnot. well, now i gotta wait 3ish weeks for the stove to dry til we can try it out. that means 3 weeks of kids not breaking it or goats not breaking it, an impossible feat really, but if allah willing...

the building of the mudstove also hurt. i didnt sift the millet chauf (clearly completely my fault) well enough and now i have splinters and scratches all over my hands from working the clay with my hands.

my friend kim's mom had a baby so i went to its baptism. kim lives in an ethnically pulaar village (mine is wolof) so new traditions, new experiences? ive never been to a pulaar baptism.

turned out to be a ton of fun. the food was amazing, the music was great, the dancing was fun to watch, and the people were just nicer and smilier. if the stupid pulaar men in my area would stop harassing me, pulaars would be just awesome.

oh and i think i sprained my knee on the bike trip to kim's village. my 2 months of bike inactivity which included 1 month in america being idle and gluttonous wasnt very good on my body. it is dying.

in about 5 weeks, i will have been in senegal for a year... wow

and 10 months have passed...

notice anything different?! yes ive started posting pictures again. the girl was never able to fix my camera so i had to buy a new one when i was in america. i have ventured away from canon (sadface) but this new discovery is not really a downgrade. welcome panasonic lumix into my life. it is waterproof, dustproof, sandproof, shockproof, and freezeproof (uhh what do i possibly need that for here?!)... pretty much indestructible, which is perfect for this country. we will put this camera to the ultimate test - can it last until the end of my service in this country that is not very friendly to electronics? we shall see...

(thanks varun for your suggestions and help though. after much consideration and research, i decided to go with this one but +1 for looking out)

anyway, whilst in dakar for new years, we went to the beach. yes it was 80 degrees. ive never been in warm weather around winter time so this was quiet exciting. i may go to warm places from now on when the snow starts to settle in nyc. miami anyone for new years in the future?

the sunset was beautiful. of course we climbed a mountain of garbage just to get to the lighthouse on top. didnt really realize that there was a road wrapping the otherside of the massive hill.

my camera has a ton of cool features and this is one of them. the quality is actually amazing for a camera that doesnt have a lens that can extend or retract. +1 for awesome purchase.

after returning to village and hanging out with my siblings for 2 weeks straight, i dont think i really ever want to have kids. they are just so misbehaving and naughty! but i guess cute nonetheless. i gained a new little sister (see below)

so this is what yang yang looks like now...
remember when it used to look like this?!

the non-rainy season versus the rainy season of this desert is such a ridiculous contrast. im loving the cold season and kinda scared of the hot season that is slowly, slowly creeping up on us...

the mango tree i planted last august or so is looking pretty good. it's grown at least...

however the state of my garden is abysmal. dad and mom say that the eggplants were soo beautiful and then goats got in again and destroyed everything. dad and i are currently in the process of extending and reinforcing the barrier around the garden to make it impenetrable.

is that... a baby lettuce?! why yes! i have pepiniere'd lettuce but this photo was taken before the chicken and rats got into the garden and obliterated the pepiniere. i no longer have any lettuce or hot peppers... sad face

the ONLY exciting news about the state of my garden is that the tomatoes have all been left alone and now they are starting to turn red aka soon we will have tomatoes to eat... yay!

my causerie project has been approved so now i just sit and wait for the funding to arrive. in the mean time, let's build some mud rocket stoves (i'll take pictures) and read a ton!

til next time... maybe around valentines day?

introduction to some foods of senegal...

ahh the foods of senegal, how i really dont miss you but i do crave you, thanks to your abundance of MSG in every bite. people have asked me what the food is like here so i thought id give an introduction to the cuisine that predominates senegal.

the very basic and most popular (shall we say national dish?) is ceebujen. literally translated, it means rice and (of) fish. it's basically fish and vegetables and rice. the rice is seasoned and can be white or red depending on the sauce you use (the red comes from the tomato paste, white without). vegetables depend on the season though in richer households, there will be an abundance and variation - though always thoroughly boiled to the point where nothing retains its nutritional value. fish can be fresh or as not fresh depending on where you live and your access to fish. the fish is also stuffed with spices.

there can be many variations on the ceebujen. sometimes there's lemon. sometimes there's bissap sauce. and sometimes theres an onion tomato sauce with the occasional fish ball drizzled on the rice. this variation is called ceebucaga (literally rice of prostitute).

then the other very popular and traditionally senegalese dish is called yassa. yassa is pretty much an onion sauce over white rice. there are occasional vegetables like carrot and potatoes but otherwise, not as plentiful as the fish and rice dish. yassa can come with meat (yassa yapp), fish balls (yassa boulette), or chicken (yassa ginaar). the picture is of yassa boulette.

then there are the heavy and rich sauces on top of white rice. below we have maafe gerte yapp - a peanut sauce over white rice with some meat. variations can be substituting the meat with fish. i dont have a picture of another dish called domada but it's also a thick and rich sauce that is more tomato based and usually with fish balls.

this is a variation of fasi which is a tomato onion sauce over white rice with vegetables and some form of protein. depending where in the country you are, they cook it differently so it may not look like this anywhere else.

one dish that is not very high in my book is called ceebuyapp which is just rice and meat. it's only because the meat in this country just isnt that great and a lot of the time, it's different organs and body parts. the senegalese really prize the liver and intestines, etc. although the good thing about this dish is that the rice is usually very flavorful (aka MSG saturated) and it's usually served with a very spicy mustard/hot pepper sauce.

most of these plates are generally found at lunch. lunch is probably the more exciting meal out of all the meals. dinner is usually not very fun so i havent really taken any pictures but dinner for me is usually rice with beans and dried fish (baxal nebe) or rice with peanuts and dried fish (baxal gerte) or one of the above where the rice is very soggy (daxin bopp). i generally enjoy dinner though because it's plain and simple and there are different variations that we wont get into but are quite good (ie baxal goorjigeen, baxal peuhl, laxubissap)

aside from rice, millet (cherri) is extremely popular. millet is pounded into a fine grain so it's like couscous, only more of a sandy texture. millet, however, is more nutritious than rice. theres a bean sauce, and leaf sauce, and a tomato sauce. sometimes post meal, milk is added to the millet as a dessert (though not a very fulfilling one at that).

the millet can be worked into little balls and then mixed with yogurt (lax ak sew) which is a very delicious sweet dish.

of course senegalese food has also adopted some western ideas and especially in larger cities where people are wealthier, dishes like the one below are more affordable and perhaps more common (?). you have a grilled chicken stuffed with spices, french fries, with a side of peas and an onion sauce.

since it's a predominantly muslim country, there isnt a lot of pork consumed here. but if you go to a sereer ethnic town (there arent any where i live) where many sereers are catholic, you can find plates like this - grilled pork with french fries and tomatoes on top of a bed of lettuce.

and there you have it. a basic introduction to senegalese food.

appreciation, the return, 2011

i have returned home to africa - yay!

america and shanghai were amazing.

there are many things and people i would like to thank in this post. let's break it down by categories

1. i would like to thank america for being as wonderful as it is. you are simply amazing, with your abundance of, literally, everything - the copious varieties and options as i walked down the aisles of target, the bountiful cuisines (even choices on menus) readily accessible at all hours of every day, the unlimited supply of water (cold AND hot), heat, gas, electricity, internet and phone service, the extensive availability of technology and electronics at my fingertips, such as a washing machine, or a drier, an oven, a car, or a flat screen tv with crystal clear quality, displaying the millions of channels of cable that immediately broadcast news, or soap operas, or movies, or reality shows into my temperature-controlled living room with comfortable couches and comforters and pillows. thank you america, for your bars and clubs and lounges, your free thinking, and acceptance of different opinions, for your highways without potholes and your seemly public transportation, your toilets that dont have a swarm of flies above them, your movie theaters with popcorn and nachos, your ethnic foods and beverages. thank you america for your seasons, your supermarkets and delis, your smart phones, your time schedules and promptness. thank you america, for everything, and i will see you when i get back.

2. i would like to thank all my friends in america (and shanghai) for still being friends with me (haha). no matter how dirty i've become, in physical appearance, in behavior, or the stories and experiences i tell, you are there, holding in the vomit that my life stories do induce. you sat with me through my gluttonous vacation, we danced, we ate, we drank. i will see you all in 16 months... not a very long time at all.

3. i would like to thank my family, for allowing me to see the world, allowing me to be different than the usual mold, allowing me to be me.

4. i would like to thank all the musicians, that have gotten me through all those wonderful times in senegal. just to name a few: owl city, la roux, bruno mars, mike posner, katy perry, girl talk, kill paradise, silversun pickups, david guetta, taio cruz, far east movement, lady gaga, jay sean, and the members of the glee cast.

5. and last but not least, i would like to thank my senegal friends (namely my linguere family) who put up with me, my quirks, my uselessness, my neediness, and my shit. without you guys, i am nothing...

just some pictures to sum up my trip...

went to visit vivi in shanghai! look how dark i am haha

this is what shanghai looks like these days... kinda like nyc

one of the most tasty chicken wings ive ever had, courtesy of jess' bday and the sunburnt cow

another view of shanghai from the park - beautiful, clean modernity

nothing like these in senegal

countryside shanghai and it snowed!

now back in senegal and spent new years in dakar. it was... interesting. ended up not going to the akon concert in st louis because big crowds give me anxiety these days and akon isnt so great anyway... so we hung around in dakar and ate, drank, and danced. but because local people dont drink here, instead, they shoot fireworks at each other. at first it was kinda pretty, albeit ridiculously loud. then it was kind of crazy, idiotic, dangerous. our group (since everyone was white and thus stood out) was targeted many times and i actually got hit twice. we had to run into bars to avoid the danger outside for most of the night. why would you ever shoot fireworks AT each other? and at close range? and the children were doing it too. thank you allah for not making me lose an eye or two that night haha...

hello 2011! new years resolution: keep at it.

anyway, heading back to village tomorrow. have a new camera so will take pics and post again in 2 weeks or so!!