wait, you forgot the tuubab?!

that was really funny. my village no longer considers me a white person/foreigner. they'll forget about me when i try to take the car sometimes, early in the morning. how can you forget the white person?! "oops, we forgot..."

anyway, short entry...

the mural is "finished" as in if i dont have to do faces, then it's done. we'll see...

i think the village likes it. the main image in the middle is of a woman bringing her baby to the health post. it's surrounded by 4 circles - one of a mother breastfeeding her baby, one of a baby being weighed, one of a baby being vaccinated, and one of a mother and a baby sleeping under a mosquito net. i think the message is getting across...

sidenote: i'm terrified of funerals. i actually havent been to one. i've only watched from afar. people act as if theyre possessed and throw themselves against walls and the ground and wail. the wailing is what gets me. it's such a scary sound...

round 2 of causeries have begun. they are really interesting. my counterpart is talking about a couple of STDs and UTIs and how to properly wash menstrual cloth (there are no disposable pads or tampons here) and the women just giggle.

USAID has board games that teach women about proper solutions for different problems.

during the causeries, there's also a debunking myths section, sort of a "lets throw out those old superstitions type thing". my counterpart tries to correct any misconceptions that have to do with reproductive health. the talks are a hoot!

yeah, that's pretty much what i occupy my time with these days - holding causeries. and finishing up the michele sylvester scholarship. im taking up a women's garden project next month and then gotta build a health hut. then i think my peace corps service would be complete. in the mean time, gotta get that med school application rolling... (yikes)

sidenote2: my friend wrote 'development accomplished' on her wall... yeah if they forget the tuubab, we've sensitized enough and done our job...

going to st. louis in a few days for the st. louis (in senegal) jazz festival. get to eat some food!!

the outside world seems so far away...

exhaust face

yay! no TB! no cavities! healthy as a clifbar (well, minus the whole worm in tummy thing...)

anyway, quick post with lots of pics again.

after returning from the wonderful city of dakar, i arrive in a village overrun with human beings. my tiny village of 200 easily swelled to over 1500. the gamou has arrived and busloads and truckloads of family members are pouring in for the religious awakening event of yang yang. my family tried introducing me to people but it just didnt work and got exhaustive. this is the wife of your grandfather's brother's grandson, on your mom's side. but it was kinda cool to get to meet the entire extended family. i've never been to a family reunion before (my family doesnt have one) so it was entertaining to watch. annmarie and abby also came up to enjoy the festivities.

the kitchen was constantly packed and busy, what with all the cooking and feeding of hundreds of mouths. the family had to slaughter 2 cows. TWO COWS!! jeez...

people came in from dakar and thies and touba and louga and st louis and linguere and dahra. some even as far as kaolack and tamba.

my brothers also invited a bunch of their friends. it was just children galore. throughout the whole ordeal, i really did miss peaceful yang yang. there were simply just too many people. overrun is an understatement. and guests are dirty! the state of my bathroom was abysmal.

and as i now sit typing this blog post, i once again have some minor GI issues. probably due to the fact that my food had passed through a million hands and clearly someone didnt wash their hands after using the bathroom. but it's fine. riding this one out - piece of cake.

it could also have been the gross meat we kept eating. im thinking the family didnt do a very good job cleaning the remnants of cow shit off the the beef (i witnessed) and maybe that's what did it.

you can seriously cook babies in pots this size. witch's brew 101 anyone?

the girls all got pretty, got their hairs did. this is my sister with her cool ass braids...

of course with the massive increase in vehicles moving into sandy yang yang, a few cars are bound to get stuck in my desert. here, teenage boys pushing a car to safe haven aka rocks.

first outfit of the day. really my swearing in outfit from last year, also used at korite and all baptisms last year.

abby and annmarie in their beautiful gamou getups

as a gift for the event, i bought the family 18 bottles of soda (which is a huge amount of boisson). of course with an event this size, it wasnt enough but luckily all the other guests brought gifts too so it was soda soda time 24/7. cant drink booze so gotta substitute with sugar and caffeine right? lol

this is my 2nd outfit that i did make for the gamou. i look like a clown but the pants are sweet. im wearing 'em in america. look at the white people all dressed up!

then when night fell, i wore my last outfit (the one i made for tabaski last year). remember the garbage bag? haha, it's some serious shit. but seriously, i kinda dig these flowly things down. lots of room to breathe. i also had on these white pointed slip-ons.

we didnt actually get to the gamou until 2am. i cant stand senegalese events. start earlier! this is painful! by 3, i had to leave because i was just too mentally and physically exhausted to stay any longer. (i also didnt feel very spiritual at the time)

my new homie (or as they say here, friend of one nose). he's learning english in dakar right now and he's taking his bac soon. he wants to go to canada. we're gonna be besties.

the gamou is over, the guests start leaving (slowly) and eventually yang yang returns to its famous tranquility. but there is no rest. i have work to do.

a small pulaar village that i was supposed to be working with but dropped because they never showed up, suddenly took interest and took initiative to invite me out there with my counterpart to include them in our causeries. that was kinda cool. so right now, im working with 5 pulaar villages and 3 wolof villages (the last pulaar village is MIA and uninterested)

next week, allah willing, we will start our 2nd round of talks - this time about the importance of post birthing visits that include vaccinations and baby weighing and proper nutrition. hopefully we'll talk about family planning and spacing out births as well.

abby and i have also started (almost finished, maybe next wednesday it will be done) a mural at the health post about child health.

the main picture is of a woman bringing her baby to the health post surrounded by 4 images: a mother breast feeding her baby, a baby being weighed, a baby being vaccinated, and a mother and baby sleeping under a mosquito net. i think it'll get the message across and it'll be beautiful.

im also chugging along with the Michele Sylvester Scholarship - not sure how im going to do the home visits in the 7 villages that the girls are from though.

and after speaking to my boss, we've decided that i should go ahead and build a health hut for the village of Ndala. it's the farthest pulaar village (farthest overall) from yang yang so it would make sense for them to get closer medical facilities (i use this term extremely loosely). that means when i finish writing up the project, get ready for email and facebook and personal message spams for DONATIONS! i just need to raise around USD1500 so that's not too bad right?!

the new kids of the region will be here in a couple of hours. in less than a week, i really will have neighbors!

busy, busy

camels, and scorpions, and people oh my!

sorry i havent blogged in over a month. it's been a busy 5 weeks. and i think it's time to take a little break right about now...

a few side thoughts before i run through my eventful month:

1. the justin beiber phenomenom. there are 4 foreign artists that are HUGE here. akon, for obvious reasons. rihanna, for obvious reasons. celine dion, because her last name is senegalese if you pronounce it the way they pronounce it here. and justin beiber. they love justin beiber here. i am completely dumbfounded as to why. there have been cases where the kids have mistaken his voice for that of a girls but still, no explanation. it's the justin beiber phenomenon. they're simply in love with him.

2. when i have kids, i am sending them to senegal. they will be the toughest kids ever. babies here are constantly in training. heat, for example. it's already 130 degrees out but instead of letting their babies hang loose in their birthday suits, mothers still wrap their babies up in tons of blankets. no wonder hot aint too hot and warm is actually pretty freezing. babies get training in sleeping through everything as well. mothers bring their babies along to nighttime soirees and other events instead of the usual 'hiring a babysitter when the grownups want to go out'. even with the loud blaring music, the babies sleep peacefully. impressive. what's also impressive is their pain tolerance training. as children, they run around on the 150 degree sand barefoot. and this isnt just sand like on the beach. there are thorns and pricks and spiny spiky things everywhere. talk about developing thick skin or serious pain tolerance.

3. water shortages are painful. my friend lived 2 weeks in her village once without water. she had to ration what existing water she had for drinking. showers were forfeited. gardens died. i dont know how she did it. yang yang had 2 well pump breaks recently, due to the hot weather damaging something. it was not fun. when you sweat all day everyday for 2, 3 days and cannot shower after, it is no good at all.

4. our thought process is changing. when i see trees, i immediately look for seeds to collect. when i see water being thrown around on tv, i think of how wasteful it is and how precious it is. when i use money, i try to hoard change because theyre so hard to come by.

5. my malnourishment has taken on the form of really thin skin. my skin breaks from simple scratches. i really do think i have a worm. i may find out next week when i do my midservice medical and dental exam. we shall see...

hot season is here. we left a thermometer out in the sun a while back. this was around noon, not even the hottest which is 2-3pm. it read 53 degrees celsius. aka 130 degrees for you folks. of course i dont usually just stand out in the sun for no good reason so under a shade tree, it isnt too terrible.

the entire region went to barkedji, annmarie's village, to help out at her HIV/AIDS awareness day event. we started with a sort of battle of the sexes where the kids had activities that demonstrated that girls were just as capable as boys. then there were dicussions and we showed short movies about different aspects on protecting yourself from HIV. it was a pretty cool event and i think the kids got the message. just some pictures of her siblings...

after that, we celebrated annmarie's birthday, in style, with a camel! it was a huge fiasco (will tell this story at dinners when i return) but i rode my first camel and annmarie had a blast turning 25.

we may or may not have had an argument with a couple of mauritanians living/working in senegal. the news of the white people riding camels also may or may not have traveled throughout the region. it quite possibly might turn into an urban legend.

just an awesome blur shot... the balloon makes the day.

then i returned to yang yang where the kids were throwing a culture fair - a 2 day event that included village cleanup, amateur wrestling matches, dancing, a comedy show, a theater piece, trivia, and a soiree. intense right?

the village cleanup was what really got me. on their own accord, they started sweeping the community. keep in mind, sweeping sand is not an easy task, and with the amount of farm animals around, it could ultimately be a futile attempt but still, they made an awesome effort.

all the children helped out. even the really young ones, which was super adorable.

my brother - the one in charge of organizing the event. kinda cool huh?

then at night, there were amateur wrestling matches. village kids were paired up based on size (there were 7 matches in all) and they all had to do the traditional dancing and speeches involved pre-match. the older kids were super exciting to watch. it was almost like a professional wrestling match. the wrestling started around midnight and with the amount of dust and sand in the air, i couldnt really get good shots.

my brother was in one of the matches . he lost but he put up a good fight.

the theater piece, comedy show, trivia, and dancing drew out the entire village as well as kids from surrounding villages. it couldve also been the prepared lunch too. but im super proud of the older kids being able to put together this culture fair. things arent easily accomplished here and they were able to do something on a large scale. maybe it's just because im not senegalese... lol

i killed my first scorpion(s)! the first one was huge! like 4 inches! it ran by my foot - couldve stung me. didnt. alhumdulilah.

the second one was tiny so im not sure if it wouldve even done me any harm. it was crawling around something i was carrying so it couldve easily slipped under my shirt or somewhere. see if you can see it on the rice sack.

the tomato plants have finally given their last fruits and now are on their way out. in their stead, i have bitter tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and lettuce (!!!) coming up. how wonderful it is to have vegetables in your life...

my 2nd improved mud stove is looking pretty good. the family has started using it again. it has a couple of cracks here and there which im not too pleased about though. i think it's the clay that im using. i also learned that the improved mud stove has been improved even further. there's a lighter version that works just as effectively. it's smaller so easier to carry/move around, and it uses less material. ooh the wonders of technology and improvement.

i had 2 more causeries both in pulaar villages. they turned out pretty well. good content, pretty good turnout. it just really sucks that i cant understand a lot of what is being said. my counterpart does translate for me sometimes, but it would be awesome to be able to hear the discussion firsthand, unabbreviated.

im starting to see small minor changes in my counterpart and i think this is a good thing. in the beginning, he was extremely lazy and super reluctant to do this project because he felt that he wasnt making any money at all but i think he's starting to realize how important his work is and what an impact he's making. the discussions are getting longer and his content coverage is pretty thorough. it's easier to get him to get on a charrette and go out to these villages now and this i am glad about.

my 2nd pulaar causerie had a guest audience - my new neighbors!

Fae (right) will be living in Mbeuleukhe, 10k (6 miles) away. Jenn (left) will be living in Mboula, 20k (12 miles) away. a year ago, my nearest white person was 34 miles away. 6 months ago, the nearest was 22 miles away. this is way better!

the newbies came to visit the region so i took them bike riding in the desert, camel riding, and other adventures galore. at one point, there was a hand down a poop hole. and by a hand, i mean my hand retrieving a dropped phone. im at a new level of what i find absolutely disgusting and what i find occasionally tolerable.

my neighbors will be moving up here in 2 and a half weeks so, yeah, im excited!

dad and friend (henry) also came to visit me in senegal! yang yang has had a busy april...

i think we spent about $250 per person for 7 days ($35 a day - not bad). this included all eating, sleeping, traveling, and touristy expenses. not too shabby ehh? granted, it was a lot of public transportation but that's part of the fun of being in this country.

i took them to the sand dunes where at night, we camped out, basking in the glow of the starry night sky at night. it's one of the most peaceful places ive ever been. a vast expanse of sand, Adele on your ipod, a couple of good american magazines. this is the life...

took them on their first camel rides too...!

and of course, i got to sandboard - which was awesome!! (video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_yxmuhP3fA)

the beautiful, majestic desert

we also spent easter with my language teacher, regina's family and friends, as well as reuniting with our old language group, myself, annmarie, and jillian. the booze was flowing, the food was plenty, dancing, music, laughter, fun.

and now i am in thies, tired after helping out at the new kids' counterpart workshop. intently listening and speaking wolof for 3 days straight is quite tasking. the day after tomorrow, i will be in dakar doing my mid-service medical and dental exams. then it's rushing back up for the gammu (religious awakening?) of my village. i also need to continue with the Michele Sylvester Scholarship as well as start the 2nd rounds of my causerie series. and the new kids are coming so we have to help them settle in! busy busy busy... they did say the 2nd year is when things really do pick up and time flies even faster...

well, until next time (around the 14th of may perhaps?)

i hear america isnt in good shape these days... what with the loss of federal funding for planned parenthood and abortion clinics, the millions of tornadoes, the rise of china's rmb and the fall of the dollar, sarah palin, and the burning of korans... not good at all