New Post, Finally!!!

Well, as seems to be the trend, I haven't written in my blog for a long, long time. I apologize to anyone that is anxiously waiting on the edge of their seat for the next exciting installment, but I have been really, really busy recently and the little free time I have I just like to hang out and relax. Nonetheless, as time has passed I've made a little outline of the important things that have happened, lest I forget them, and have finally found the time to go through and fill in the blanks. So here is the first bit, with more to come soon, Inshallah! Also, I put some new photo albums up on my Picasa account, so check them out if you want to see some corresponding visuals.

(Early November) : Finally, the cool season has arrived. Although it can still be in the upper 90's under the sun during the day, at night it gets quite cool and I've actually been wearing pajama pants and a tee-shirt to bed while wrapping myself in a bed-sheet. It's glorious! It's also quite amusing to see my family shivering, huddling around a fire when it can't be any less than 60 degrees out. They ask me if this is like America, and are amazed when I say that America is much, much colder. They're reactions are priceless that when I tell them that America is like the inside of a freezer. Although the cold air makes it tough to get out of bed in the morning (it's so comfortable I just want to sleep all day!) it also makes it much easier to go biking and do other outside activities. I have had the chance to make multiple trips back and forth from Kolda via bike, something that is nearly impossible during the hot season. Also, a Peace Corps friend of mine, Darren, and I took advantage of the weather to build a large, cement grill at the regional house. I must say, however, that even in the cool season mixing cement by hand with a half-broken tiny shovel is not easy work. I have a lot of respect for all the masons here, who build whole houses entirely by hand.

The cool season also means that Thanksgiving is coming. Our Country Director was kind enough to buy each regional house an American Turkey for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, our oven is nowhere near big enough, has little to no temperature control, and was needed to cook the various other Thanksgiving day treats, so we were obliged to deep-fry the turkey, along with a few locally bought chickens. It was no true Quinn family Thanksgiving feast, but I have to say it was quite impressive and delicious considering the circumstances. The other volunteers really become your third family here (after, of course, your real family and your Senegalese family) and we all get together at least once every couple months and treat ourselves to a little slice of America. After these parties you can go back to site feeling refreshed and ready, once again, to tackle Senegal. But the longer I've been here the more I realize that while I have become very 'integrated' (to use one of Peace Corps favorite terms) I am, and always will be, American. But as always, these short breathes of fresh air that one oftentimes finds himself daydreaming about while at site pass all too quick, and in no time it's back to business as usual.

This time, for me it meant the arrival of the computer lab project. After months of talking, planning, filling out paper-work and bugging people for money (thanks again!), the computers were finally on the boat and on their way to Senegal. This meant it was time to tell the greater public about the project, which until now had been kept between me and a few key players. So we had a meeting with representatives of the teachers, the parents, the quartier chief and many others to discuss how the project would be implemented. It very quickly turned into a yelling match, each group claiming the others were going to try and monopolize the lab. In the end we made sure that everyone understood that, above all, the lab was for the students and that the adults would be the secondary beneficiaries. Fortunately, on that point at least everyone was in accord. I left the meeting a little scared about the future success of the lab, as it seemed as though some people would rather see the project ruined than see someone else gain something that they are not, and would even go as far as to actively hinder it in spite. It's really disappointing, but I've heard many, many stories of just such a thing happening. Fortunately there is still time before the computers actually arrive in Velingara to try and figure this all out.

To continue on the somewhat negative note and get it all over with at once, there have recently been some troubles in Guinea, stemming from the military junta of Dadis Camara that claimed control of the country about a year ago and is now being held responsible for killing and rape of over 150 Guineans by the Guinean military at a pro-democracy rally earlier in the year. Since then, there had been an assassination attempt on Camara's life (yes, he has the same last name as me!) and rumors of mercenary groups entering the country from South Africa and Nigeria. In an attempt to prepare for a possible civil war (Guinea borders Liberia, which had a massively violent civil war in the 90's), USAID and World Vision are making plans and stocking up on resources to create possible refugee camp sites. If violence was to break out in Guinea, there would likely be a large flow of people fleeing the country, and they would end up right where I live. So lets all hope, for the good of everyone, that it doesn't come to that. (*Note from the future... it's been working out 'ok' in Guinea, at least well enough that no war has broken out*)

Now I will try to be a little more upbeat. Too often all we hear about Africa in the West are the terrible things that happen, which is a gross misrepresentation of the facts. Yes, terrible things happen, but on a daily basis it isn't like that (fortunately at least not in Senegal) and it's a shame that many of the normal day-to-day things happening are heard in the States. So on that note, my host father wants to create a little business to try and generate some extra income for the family. After talking through a few projects, we decided to mostly work on creating a small chicken farm with the goal of selling eggs. All of the eggs in Velingara come all the way from Dakar, which is absolutely absurd, and it is frequently difficult to find any at all. The demand is clearly here and the project has potential to be quite profitable, that largest problem is his lack of start-up funds, likely the most common impediment to would-be entrepreneurs in Senegal. So I helped him to make a financial plan, so that he could clearly see all the costs and the possible future rentabilty of the project. Also, this paperwork is necessary if he is going to seek out a loan from a bank in order to get the project started. At this point we are waiting on him to collect the 10% contribution that he needs to provide in order to receive the loan, a sum which, frankly, I have no idea how he will be able to raise. I really hope that this, or another project, works out for him in the future, because the family could use the extra income and he could use something to do!

My father is not the only burgeoning entrepreneur in the family. My sister who had lasted about 1 month in her marriage and is now back home is also looking for something to do. Now that she is no longer in school she basically just sits around the house, does some laundry and cooks, and that's it. Clearly not the most exciting life for a 20 year old. She has said that she wanted to start her own little business. She wants to buy a freezer and make these little freeze-pop type treats that people sell around here. So my first question was how did she plan on buying a freezer? To this she had no good answer, so I encouraged her to find people in town, mainly single men (teachers, etc.) for whom she could do their laundry. Clearly not the most glamourous job, but for someone in her situation it's pretty much her only choice. If she did this, I said I'd pay her to do my laundry as well, and I'd take the money she earned each week and save it for her so she wouldn't 'eat it,' as the Senegalese saying goes. In the way, after a few months of doing laundry she could buy a freezer and start selling the crèmes. As with my father, I wish her the best of luck... there are far too many people around here who sit around doing nothing all day and if they can gain any job, no matter how small, it's for the betterment of everyone. As I've said before, the one person with a job ends up being obliged to buy food for the other ten people in their family who do nothing, and never have the chance to ameliorate their own situation. They're stuck and therefore the society as a whole is often left in the same position: stagnant and in a cycle of dependence.

My work with World Vision has also continued. I have been recruited as their unofficial marketing guy and have been helping them to make a year-in review booklet for the 'Grandmother Project.' Basically this involves me going out to the villages with them for their various forums where they discuss the loss of traditional culture and problems currently facing women in the society, and I take a lot of pictures etc. I then took the photos and quotations and made this booklet (there's a French and a Pulaar version) which has since been printed out hundreds of times and distributed to all the surrounding villages. I've enjoyed working on it, as it is a large change of pace from my other work. I get to just sit in their office and mess around with Photoshop, so it's a nice break from the normal running around.

There is also a large mosquito net distribution project that is being planned for the department of Velingara which will involve Peace Corps, World Vision, Tostan (another large NGO presence in the area), the local Health System, and Malaria No More, an NGO from the US. It's the biggest ever done in Africa, and is going for a new approach to fighting malaria known as Universal Coverage. Basically, in the past nets have been given mainly to children, the elderly, and pregnant women: the people most susceptible to the malaria infection. The idea with universal coverage, however, is that by giving nets to everyone, you not only keep them protected but destroy the vector that spreads malaria. Basically, a mosquito needs to bite someone that already has malaria, and then bite you, in order to give you the infection. If no-one around you has malaria, however, you can get bit by mosquitoes all day and you won't become sick. So the hope behind giving 75,000 mosquito nets to cover every single bed in the whole department is that the malaria vector will be completely wiped out. It's a bit of a test, and if it is successful will be repeated throughout all of Senegal and then most likely all of Africa.

I must admit that I've been a little skeptical as to the long-term efficacy of this project, particularly as I tend to be wary of large-scale handouts, except for in real emergencies. It doesn't seem like a very sustainable approach to solving a problem. What happens in three years when the nets are all ripped and broken? I would prefer to see a system set up where Senegalese sell nets in the area, creating not only jobs and income but a durable system of distribution (plus, people will take much better care of nets they spend their own money on). Yes, this means not everyone will have one, but with this large scale handout, anyone that tried to sell nets will now be out of business, and in three years there will be nowhere for anyone to get nets in the area unless another huge handout is undertaken. There never seems to be any completely right or wrong solution to these types of problems, so many interconnected factors that play a large role in the outcome. As to this project, though, I hope I end up being wrong and that it ultimately saves a lot of people lives, in the near future and long term. So wish us luck!

The project is also funny because it is one of the ones that apparently gets a lot of media attention in the states. You know how there is always some actor or musician saying we all need to save the poor, suffering people of Africa (which, by the way, while well intentioned is a very one-sided and narrow view of what life is actually like here), well this project is being largely funded my Ashton Kutcher and something he did with Twitter, as well as Yousou Ndor, the most famous Senegalese musician in the world. It's funny, after seeing all those ads and benefit concerts, etc. in America, to actually be the person who physically hands the mosquito net over to someone in a village here.

So there is a lot more coming, this is only up to around the beginning of December, but I will try to get in up as soon as possible. A lot of it is already written, I just need to fill in the gaps! Also, go check out my picasa site, as I have put some photos up on-line... some of them having already been explained here and some others that I have not yet talked about here, but will shortly, si Allah jabbi!

Back to the Real World (about a month and a half belated)

(First of, I've skipped a description of my vacation, but will try to write something up about it and get it in soon. Until then... back to Africa!)

As the title of the post says, it's time for me to re-enter the 'real world' after my delicious, relaxing, well-deserved (ok, so that one's a matter of opinion) vacation. Upon my return to Dakar, I was instantly hit in the face by a wall of hot, humid air and surrounded by 1,000 people calling my their 'friend,' trying to grab my bags from my hands and carry them to a taxi for me for an exorbitant price. Welcome home...! I ended up having to spend a few more days in Dakar, doing paper work and getting my mid-service health exam. Lucky me, I even got my first cavity and filling! I assume that's thanks to the sugary tea and coffee that I drink far too much of here. Fortunately, I got a chance to go out 'surfing' (I use quotes because it mostly just involved my getting tossed by waves all day) with some other volunteer friends.

So after a few days of hanging out in the big city, I took the beloved 13 hour car ride down to Kolda (as usual, I was in the back, middle seat... they manage to make me take the worst seat in the car every time, not exactly sure how). It was a pretty average ride down, desperately trying to get some sleep in a seat that's so small my head is pressed against the roof at a 45 degree angle. It was, however, spiced up a bit when a bus hit our car around the Gambian border, taking off the back bumper and tail-light. I guess that I'm lucky that my first Senegalese car accident was so harmless (no-one got hurt), another volunteer had just the week before seen a car flip and roll, killing multiple people; and of course if you're the only white person around at the scene of the accident, people for some reason assume you know what you're doing and expect you to help all the injured people and officially declare the dead. Like I said, I'm lucky my accident was minor and no-one was hurt, her description of what she saw was pretty graphic, and even a month later she was scared to enter a car in Senegal. The Senegalese tend drive really crazy, the car's are usually about 30 years old, don't have seat belts and are made up of pieces of six different cars, so I dont blame her.

Upon my arrival in Kolda I spent a couple days getting back into the swing of things, walking around town practicing my Pular a bit (which fortunately was still there, I didn't lose too much of it over the course of the vacation) and getting ready to go back to site. At this point I was quite ready to get back, while vacation is great it can get tiring not being able to sleep in your own bed and living out of a bag for a month. I wasn't looking forward to the inevitable "Wheres my suriche (gift)?" question that I knew everyone in Velingara would be asking me, but I knew that would only last a couple of days. For some reason every (people I've talked to for a total of 5 minutes before included) thinks I'm going to bring them back cell-phones and other such gifts upon my return, and they act offended when I say I didn't bring them anything. I know, I'm so selfish. Here I am, so rich that I'm just rolling in the money, and I just keep it all for myself and never help anyone out (it's very nice to listen to people tell you that all day)! Fortunately my family knows I hate it when people ask me that, so they don't any more, plus they're they only people I actually did bring gifts back for, so that probably contributed to their praise and approval and lack of nagging. In the end, however, it was great to see my host family again. I had missed them and they had genuinly missed me. They all started singing and dancing: "Ahmed returned! Ahmed returned!" which is quite a welcome home.

There was, however, a big surprise awaiting me as well. My sister, who had gotten married right before I had left on vacation was back living in our house. Apparently while I was gone she had decided that she didn't like her new husband and didn't wish to be married to him; which is bizarre considering he wasn't even at the house with her the whole time, but in Dakar working. There was some small conflict and drama between the two families, whom have been friends since my parents were young, but in the end they decided to annul the wedding. While my parents were disappointed (and, understandably, somewhat angry) with my sister for waiting until after the wedding to declare that she didn't like her husband instead of speaking up before hand, the whole situation made me realize how reasonable and 'Western' my host father really is. Many, if not most, marriages around here are forced; usually involving the marrying off of a young girl, aged 14 years old or so, so an often much older man with no choice given to the bride-to-be. My father, however, has stated how he wants all of his daughters to be able to choose who they marry and to do so at a point late enough in their lives to allow them to finish school.

My sister is lucky to have a father who is as forward thinking as that, it's a rare trait here. I find it admirable that she had the guts to speak up and say that she didn't wish to be married to this man instead of living out her whole life in silent discontent, as many women do here. It's just too bad she didn't speak up sooner, for a family that already has difficulty simply eating each day and buying each child one pen for school, they spent A LOT of money on the wedding and strained the relationship between the two families. I just hope she can now find something good to do with herself, as she's no longer in school and is now a 'woman' after her wedding night, which her in Senegal means it will be much harder for her to find a husband in the future. As of now she pretty much just hangs around the house, yet another mouth for my father to feed which is quite a challenge in and of itself. We'll see how that one works out, only time will tell!

When I got back I also had a lot of work to do, which is good and makes the transition a lot easier. For one, all the money for the computer lab project has been raised! We thank you all again for your help, it's really appreciated! So the computers are currently on the ship and are due to arrive in Dakar around the first of December. Peace Corp has offered to ship the computers from Dakar to each of our sites, although the date for that is not yet definitively set. I plan on trying to go up to Dakar to see the computers before they are shipped down to Velingara and buy all the other needed computer accessories to have them shipped down to Velingara along with the computers. Hopefully all this will be happening around December 5-10; although this being Senegal I would not be surprised if that date gets pushed back. In preparation for the arrival of the computers, we have started getting the room ready, which has been keeping my busy to say the least. The chairs and tables are being built, the electricity and security (metal bars in the windows and a reinforced door) are being installed in the room, and the internet company is planning on bringing the line in soon. At this point it's a bit of a waiting game on the computers themselves. It's just nice to know that they're at least on the way... so even if it takes longer than expected they will eventually arrive.

Upon my return the school year had officially started as well. I say officially because while the schools had opened they have yet to really start classes. In most classes only a quarter of the students show up each day because their parents don't let them go to school until the majority of the crops have been harvested (which won't be until near the end of November). So the teachers and 1/4 of the students come in each day, just to be sent back home. Worst of all, some of these students are walking miles and miles to come in just to turn around and go back home. Also, in many classes the teachers are already on strike as the government has yet again failed to pay the teachers salaries on time. Oh well... at least the hundred-odd government ministers in Dakar (aka. friends of 'His Excellence, Master Abdoulaye Wade") are boosting the sales of expensive imported cars and boosting the economy!

The beginning of the school year also means that my classes at the CETF (Centre d'Enseignement Technique Feminine) are getting under way. I had worked all summer with one of the teachers from the school, Mr. Corea, giving him personal business classes and creating a curriculum that will span three years. Each grade, therefore, will have 2 hrs of class time a week, thereby giving me some structure for at least three afternoons a week. This combined with the preparations for the computer lab and my work at World Vision with 'The Grandmother Project' is doing a good job of keeping me very busy.

Being back in Velingara, I can really tell that I was due for a vacation. It was exactly what I needed: I came back feeling refreshed and ready to go. It's nice to have a clear 'half-way done' divide like that as well. I can already tell how different this second year is going to be from the first. I'm used to being here at this point, each day seems pretty normal instead of something wildly different and unpredictable, thereby making being here simply life as normal. Plus, I now have a level of French and Pular that allows me to communicate without much difficulty. Most importantly, however, I now have more direction in terms of work and how I spend my time. Instead of aimlessly wandering around town trying desperately to find places where I can help out, I know have stong connection with many people and concrete projects on which to work. This leaves me with more of a 9-5 type schedule which is actually quite nice after a year of ambiguity. All this with the fact that it is the beginning of the cool season (Alhumdoulhilai!) means that I am ready and happy to be back.

Here's to one more year!

Vacation Time!

Before I start the 'Vacation Time!' Entry, I just want to say that all the money needed for the computer lab project at Ecole 4 has been raised! Thank you all so much for your support, it honestly wouldn't have been possible without you. Everyone at the school and I are really excited that this is moving forward without any hang-ups (as of yet, knock on wood)! I will keep everyone updated as the project moves along. Now to the entry...

(Nov. 1)

So it's been a year and it's vacation time! I'm actually in Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris writing this while I wait for my parents plane to arrive. Before setting out on vacation however, there was the end of Ramadan and the ensuing holiday, Korité. At the end of the month of fasting, Senegalese Muslims celebrate by eating all day. That's basically it, but it's certainly a great thing to be able to eat and drink during the day after a full month (about 20 days for me, I took a break from fasting when I was in Kolda and not Vélingara) of abstaining. Once again, I joined everyone in the communal morning prayer, basically just imitating whatever the person next to me is doing: kneeling, touching your forehead against the ground, getting back up and repeating. It's amazing how open they are about their religion that they would allow someone such as myself, who is clearly not Muslim, join in on the prayers. They actually want me to pray with them all the time, but I politely decline. The holidays are good enough for me!

The day after Korité I left site and headed to Kolda to officially begin my vacation! The past month or so I had been in somewhat of a funk, just kind of floating through the days. I think a lot of the excitement that came with the first months in Senegal had largely worn off, and now some of the monotonous aspect of life in a developing country was starting to wear on me. Needless to say, I was ready for a little break: a breath of fresh air. And what better way than to go see my parents in Europe?!?! I spent a few days in Kolda, hanging out, watching movies and soaking in the glory of knowing that I was totally free for the next month! I started eating some pasta in order to get myself ready for the upcoming days in Italy; going from fasting all day and only eating white bread and white rice to rich Italian food was going to be a challenge and I felt as though I should prepare my body as best I could.

The fact that even the change to Western food kind of scared me is a strong indicator of how I felt towards returning to the first-world. I had gotten so used to living in Velingara, that the thought of such big cities, huge crowds of clean, white people and hot showers kind of intimidated me. Maybe that was yet another good sign that I was ready for a vacation? Even Dakar, where I haven't been in over six months was overwhelming, so I could only imagine what Rome and Paris would be like. Well after a few days in Dakar the day finally came where I went to the airport to start my trip.

On the plane I was very excited to get going, but at the same time I found myself thinking about my Senegalese family. It made me realize that the next time I would be boarding a plane in Dakar would be for my trip home, for good, which is going to be a very difficult moment for me. Even though I was so ready for a break, I started missing my host family already and knew that in a year's time it would only be a hundred times harder. It's then that it really hit me how lucky I am to be able to be doing what I'm doing, and while I'm now going to go ahead and enjoy my vacation, when I get back I need to make the most out of every last day. Before I know it, I'll be back in the States, stupefied out how fast two years could pass.

More coming... I have three posts to put up at the same time, but the next two aren't done yet!

Rainy Season Fun

I want to apologize for how long it's been since my last entry (not including the one describing the computer project it has been a couple of months!) And yes, I am still here in Senegal: alive and well. I will continue to write about my adventures in this blog post, but first need to make one more desperate plea. I have received many well-wishes concerning the computer project, and they are greatly appreciated. Thank you all. However, I have not received many donations and still have a long ways left to go in order to get these computer shipped to Senegal. About $650 of the $2000 needed has been raised and I want to thank everyone who contributed. I understand that most everyone is having some economic troubles back home now and it is not the easiest time to share what is left, but I can assure you that a little money can go a long way here (and believe it or not the economic problems hit Senegal as well... when you're already unable to eat every meal and the price of rice, oil, and gas drastically increases it hits hard).

So please visit the World Computer Exchange website - (http://www.worldcomputerexchange.org).

1. 
   Click the "Donate Now" option from the top navigation bar
   
   
   
2. 
   Click on the "Donate Now through Network for Good" button
   
   
   
3. Specify “PCV Michael Hebert - Senegal” as the designation, and your donation will be applied to the Senegal shipment for Ecole 4, Vélingara.
   

Even $5 would be a great help. The grant I applied for in conjuncture with the WCE computers should be going through any day (it received positive remarks from my superiors) and will be paying for everything needed besides the computers themselves. So the project is waiting and ready to go as soon as the computers can be shipped! Thank you all once again and I'll stop this shameless begging and continue on with some stories. And for anyone who is interested, here is an article that appeared in our Hingham paper, describing my project in further detail: http://www.wickedlocal.com/hingham/news/education/x488842557/HHS-grad-wants-to-bring-computers-to-Senegal.

I suppose I left off right before the Fourth of July, so I will start there. Now you may want to settle in and get comfortable for this entry, it's going to be a bit long! To celebrate our national holiday, a bunch of volunteers went down to Kedegou to celebrate. I went a few days early with friends to check out some of the local waterfalls that Kedegou is known for. Upon arriving in Kedegou we biked about 40km on dirt trails out to the village of Segou. There we then left the village and biked into the woods on a small dirt path surrounded by palm trees, bamboo, huge red-rock cliffs and monkeys yelping. It was definitely a cool bike ride! Eventually the path ended and we had to hide our gear and lock our bikes to a tree and started hiking along the rocky, slippery river bed. It felt like being in an Indiana Jones movie and was a nice break away from the normal day to day life in Senegal. After about an hour and a half of walking we finally made it to the waterfall, which, to our surprise, was almost completely dry! The rainy season had started, but I guess we needed to wait a bit longer before the full brunt of the rains could feed the waterfall. At least we got a few rocks showered down on us from some monkeys above.

That afternoon, after a little swim in the waterfall pool and refilling our water bottles, we headed back to where we left our bikes and set up camp. We spent the night camping, nestled between bamboo chutes and giant termite mounds while listening to the baboons howling all around us. Pretty cool... and we didn't run into any poisonous snakes or scorpions, which was a plus! At this point all of our diets have changed quite substantially, and we can survive miles and miles of biking and hiking across a few days on a little bread and some sardines. It's amazing what you can get used: mentally, socially and physically. So after getting a little sleep (can't lie, it's a little hard to sleep by yourself in a tent when baboons sound angry at you for being in their territory... and they can travel in packs of sixty plus and are aggressive) we got back on our bikes and went to another village, Dindephelo, to see yet another waterfall. Fortunately, this fall was fed by an underground spring, so there was actually a substantial chute and a large pool of cool, clear water in which to swim. There were also some groups of young Senegalese people there, who had come to the village for a party, dancing and rapping under the falls. It was quite hilarious. Finally, that afternoon, we biked back to Kedegou to get some rest and regain our energy for the Fourth of July, which was only 2 days away.

When the Fourth finally arrived, there were about 50 Peace Corps Senegal volunteers in Kedegou. Some of the local Kedegou volunteers had organized a morning 5k memorial run that was open to volunteers and the Senegalese public to celebrate our nation's holiday and better inform the public as to exactly what Peace Corps is and does (plus it was fun). The race essentially ended up being between all the military and police forces of Kedegou and a bunch of Peace Corps Volunteers who had partied a little too hard the night before. Needless to say, my fellow volunteers were crushed (I didn't run, I was 'helping' work the race / I didn't feel like trying to run in 95 degrees after getting only a couple hours of sleep). It was quite a sight, however, to see a bunch of white people running through the town, some with American flags as capes, getting confused looks from all the local Senegalese. The first place prize was three live chickens, tied by the ankles and handed to the winner at the podium. The other prizes were various articles American paraphernalia that you can find in most any market here: Barack Obama hologram belts, 'Barack and Michelle in Love' slow-dancing t-shirts and World Trade Center sandals. Meanwhile, great American classic 80's music was blaring from speakers lent from the local radio station, most likely doing a better job of scaring people off than attracting them. Oh well, we were all having a great time!

When the race was over it was time for the real party to begin. The Kedegou Crew does a great job getting ready for the party, which is the second biggest Peace Corps gathering off the year, after WAIST. We had large speakers rented (and stole the power from next door to use them), two large party tents, some games reminiscent of college, freshly made honey wine, a piñata full of goodies, more than enough to drink and two pigs to eat! Basically we all just enjoyed ourselves celebrating the great country that we are fortunate enough to have been born in. At night we even shot off a few fireworks, which some Senegalese people apparently mistook for something blowing up (there had been some fairly intense riots there a few months before). All in all it was a good time and gives me something to look forward to the next 4th of July.

After the nice break for the Fourth, it was back to day-to-day life in Vélingara. Now that we are in the rainy season and school summer vacation, my schedule has changed slightly. One of the main projects I've been working on (besides the computer lab project) has been continuing work with the Girl's Technical School. In the spring I gave entrepreneurial classes at the school to the girls who were about to graduate. This, however, is not incredibly sustainable as I will be gone in a little over a year and won't be able to teach the course. Throughout the summer, therefore, I have been working with one of the school's teachers, Mr. Gaspar Korea, on the class. I have been teaching him all the business basics while we simultaneously create a curriculum for the school to use, complete with tests and homework and all. Mr. Korea is a great guy and one of the few Catholics in town, so it's been quite humorous the few times he's wanted to have a glass a wine after lunch, and he asks me in a low, secretive voice if I know what wine is. To his surprise, I do! Senegal being a mainly Muslim country, the Christians who are here tend to be discreet when enjoying an alcoholic beverage. He also has more of an entrepreneurial spirit than most Senegalese (possibly to be attributed to his religion... it seems that the average Christian is a slightly more successful business person than their Muslim counterpart) and a great person with whom to work on this project.

The plan is to teach the class together the upcoming school year, work out any 'bugs' in the curriculum next summer, and then he can continue teaching the course once I return to the States. I'm a huge fan of the project because it is directly applicable to the students real lives, and isn't just an exercise in theory. During the last year, the students will spend half the year working to plan their proper enterprises. They will then graduate with a micro-loan from a local credit mutual and have the plans for their business already worked out. In this way the young girls can start working and making money right out of school. This will also help to get the women out of the house, where they are often stuck doing all the work. People here often complain that there isn't enough work. They will sit around construction sites and hope someone will pay them $2 a day to move cement. Otherwise they spend 75% of their time sitting around the house talking about how there is no work. Apparently the idea of creating their own enterprise and job is one that doesn't cross many people’s minds, and leaves the local economy stagnant and heavy in unemployment. Hopefully this course can improve the standard of living for these girls and their families and prove that with a little entrepreneurial spirit and effort there is work out there. Inshallah.

So on a day-to-day basis I have mostly been working on that project, teaching excel classes to people that work at the IDEN and doing any more work needed to get the computer project going strong. From time to time, however, it proves necessary to head out of Vélingara for a day and visit another volunteer; enjoy a change of scenery and company. While I like it here in Vélingara, it can be a very repetitive life (something I was partially hoping to avoid by coming to Senegal in the first place!) and a slight change of pace can be refreshing. Plus, it's always a boost of self-confidence to visit a volunteer in their village. When meeting people for the first time they are always amazed that you can speak Pular, while the people you're around everyday can tend to focus more on what you cannot yet understand. This is mainly due to the fact that with new people I just go through introductions and basic conversations that I have down pat in Pular, while with your own host family there tend to be more in-depth and complicated conversations that test your language level.

So on one of these days I went to visit my friend, Anika, in a village about 20km down the road. Very similar to my computer lab project, Anika worked in cooperation with a mosquito net distribution NGO and donors from home to bring over 650 mosquito nets to her village and the surrounding village. On this day she was distributing the nets to one of the surrounding villages while also doing a malaria 'info-session' to inform the public how to avoid catching malaria, how it's spread, etc. So I came to help carry the nets by bike from her village to the distribution village and, unexpectedly, to give a presentation in Pular on how to detect and avoid malaria. It was interesting being put on the spot in front of thirty women and told to do this presentation with Anika with no prior preparation. It's surprising, however, how well I was able to explain things through broken speech, some hand motions and a few animated demonstrations. It's also interesting to work a bit in another field, specifically health, as most of my work has to do with business and computers. Malaria is a disease that gets large international coverage and for good reason: it kills a lot people here every year, mainly children and elderly. The worst part about it is that someone can be completely healthy, a day later they have incredible hot sweats and are hallucinating in agony, and the next day they are dead. It's hard to get medical attention for such an affliction when your village is 25 km from the nearest health post. A teacher at the Girl's Technical School had recently fallen ill to malaria and couldn't so much as speak, never mind get out of bed. Fortunately he got the medicine in time and appears to be on the mend, but it just goes to show the problem malaria poses.

Being on this subject, it's interesting to note the difference in attitudes towards death between Americans and Senegalese. When someone died recently in the neighborhood, I asked my brother how or why. He looked at me with a face of amused confusion and said: "What do you mean how did he die? He just did, God willed it so." Of course I wanted to know if it was malaria, an infection that had spread, a car accident, anything! But to him it seemed a completely ridiculous question... people just die sometimes. Whether it's a child, adult or elderly person, it just happens. Back home we like to find the exact reason why a death occurred, oftentimes find someone to blame for it, and do everything we can to prevent it from happening to someone again. Quite a different attitude towards the one thing that we all, as human beings, have in common: the inevitability of death.

I was going to mention this later on, but I might as well get all the gloomy stuff out of the way all at once. Recently a 14 year old girl in Vélingara died while giving birth. Fortunately her baby daughter survived. I mention this as it is all too common here, especially in the southern sections of Senegal. Girls here tend to be far too young when they quit school and start having children, whether in wedlock or out. In the villages it is common for a girl to be married at the age of 14 to a man who's forty years old and already has two wives and ten children that he cannot adequetly support. I suppose the idea is that it's better for a young girl to become pregnant under these circumstances than young and unwed, however neither seems all that appealing. Fortunately the girls in town are often given more of a chance to attend school and hold of on having children than their village counterparts. My father here is good about insisting that all his daughters finish school just like the boys, but still uses marriage in an interesting way to avoid the girls getting pregnant. My one cousin, for example, tends to spend a little more time out roaming the streets at night than a 13 year old girl should. After not listening to her families warnings and continuing to go out, my father solved to the problem the best way he knew how: by marrying her off. The way this works is that the actual marriage will not happen for at least a few more years, probably depending on how she does in school and how demanding her husband to be is. In the meantime, the mariage promis will, theoretically, stop her from putting herself in the position to get impregnated by another man. An interesting solution and one that seems absurd given the way we view maraiges (true love, free choice, etc.), but given the culture and circumstances there are, at the very least, worse ways of dealing with this issue.

Ok, so after that I'll now try to lighten it up a bit. We're deep into the rainy season now, a fact that drastically changes life here in Senegal. For one, everything is green where it used to be sandy and dry. Seriously, no exaggeration, everything is green, including most of my possessions. Due to the extremely high level of humidity most everything has a thin layer of mold growing on it. My clothes, shoes, bed etc. are all finely coated in a thin layer of green. Smells great! The rainy season, as the name indicates, means there is a lot of rain. The storms, unlike at home, appear very quickly. One minute it's sunny out, the next you are hit in the face by a wall of wind and sand which is immediately followed by a downpour. Fortunately, the storms often leave as quickly as they appear, although sometimes they can be more reminiscent of New England rains by simply drizzling and keeping the skies grey for a few days. Here in Vélingara, the rains turn the roads into little rivers, sometimes forcing you to wade up to your knees in flood water, disgustingly dirty flood water, just to walk next door. As there is no trash collection system the water in the roads is stained brown by the run-off dirt and mud, the animal (and likely human) feces which covers the roads and all sorts of trash which was not fully burnt away. I make sure to do a good job washing off my sandals and feet after a walk around town.

The coming of the rainy season also means that it's time to work in the fields. Almost every Senegalese person has at least one field, regardless of their profession. Even in town, every square meter of free space within the compounds is used up with miniature corn fields. I enjoy riding my bike through the fields and watching everyone working, hacking away at the ground with a crude hoe, planting their livelihood. It also makes me glad that I'm not an agriculture volunteer, it looks like backbreaking, hard labor. Even the kids are involved, and they can commonly be seen working all day, leading donkey's with plows in tow or hanging out in the fields over-night warding off hungry monkeys; troops of which are know to eat entire fields in one night. It's a beautiful, although wet, time and while I enjoy it I'm also looking forward to it ending. Every small cut or scrape, even ones that are so small you couldn't see them, somehow get infected and turn into large sores lasting weeks at a time. It's a good thing Peace Corps gave me a whole briefcase full of meds upon my arrival in Senegal!

Recently we celebrated the marriage of one of my sisters, Hadji Camara. She has been 'promised' / engaged for a while, and hardly knows her husband as he lives and works in Dakar, but the two family compounds know each other well. Senegalese weddings tend to last a couple of days (they love their parties) and involve overwhelming amounts of people hanging around the house. Much of the celebration is only for the women. In the morning, about fifty women descended on the house and starting preparing the food together. Preparing a feast for 100 plus people without any modern equipment takes a while, so it makes sense that all the women come and prepare the meal together. They prepare rice, meat (a treat!) and sauce for the main meal and make packets of salt as a traditional gift to all the visitors. For me, being the unofficial camera-man of the whole celebration, it was somewhat overwhelming: being surrounded by a seemingly endless number of women yelling at me in Pular from all sides to take their picture, and then demanding to know when I'm going to print everyone off copies and deliver them! Some of the pictures, however, are quite funny. I wasn't able to figure out exactly why they do this, but as part of the celebration, the sisters of the bride dress up as men and pretend to hassle the bride. Like I said, I'm not exactly sure why but it's funny! After an afternoon of picture taking, I used the incoming rain storm as an excuse to sneak back to my compound and room and catch a breather.

Later in the night, the party was moved from the house to the local 'hotel.' This is the nicest place in town, but would be at about the same level as a Motel 8 without cleaning maids. Here was the celebration for the younger people (no children and older adults allowed) which impersonated the type of wedding celebration we all know at home. This part of the wedding is, as far as I can tell, fairly new and not generally found in the villages, just the 'hip' town kids. It involved the cutting of cake which the bride and groom then fed each other, arms crossed. They also shared the first dance, while being encircled by all the bride's maids and best men. The weird part is the giving of gifts. Each guest has to come up one by one, kiss the bride and groom on the cheek and pose for a picture while handing over the gift. That way everyone gets to see who gave gifts and how many! After all of this is some excessively load music and dancing. My family, particularly my sisters, have been bugging me to come out and dance with them at some point and I usually turn them down... I don't think it's really necessary for me to go to parties with a bunch of teenagers. So I agreed to dance with them at the wedding, and after all the build-up and hype there was only music and dancing for about 15 minutes. I couldn't believe how worked up they could get for those 15 minutes! (Check out my picasaweb account for pictures from the wedding.) All in all it was a fun day, a nice change from the ordinary, and made for quite a few funny pictures and memories.

This past month has also been the month of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting for the Muslim faith. This means a lot of praying, reflecting on how you live your life and, of course, fasting. The rule is that you can't eat or drink anything during the sunlight hours. So every morning we wake up a 5am and eat a little bread and drink some coffee. My family members then go and pray at the mosque, and I go back to sleep. Most people end up sleeping half the day away, trying to conserve energy, while others take the philosophy of working away the hunger. I've found that I can agree with both schools of thought. Some days I go out and work all day and am able to, for the most part, forget my hunger and thirst. Other days, however, I simply sleep most of the day away then watch movies on my computer or read. Overall the fasting is not nearly as bad as I had expected it would be. It being in the mid-nineties every day the whole no-drinking part is a little tough, but it sure does make that first sip of water and bite of bread taste great when you break the fast at around 7:15 pm! Most people here appreciate it when I take part in the fast. Most people tell me "No, you're not fasting, white people can't fast." But then my family members defend me and say I actually am and the person usually ends up looking pleasantly surprised. There are also the people that have been vehemently trying to convince me to pray with them and I just respond that I will not say something in pray that I don't understand. This led to a few small attempts at learning some basic Arab, which will unlikely go anywhere as my head is already full with two new languages. Plus, Arab would be much harder to learn than French or Pular as a whole new system of writing is involved and the pronunciation is just plain crazy. Ramadan will be over soon, though, and I can get back to my normal eating habits... that is if my stomach lets me! At this point a little bread and a cup of water and I'm pretty much full.

Now that you've all been staring at your computer screens so long that you've had out and vamp up you eyeglass prescriptions, I'll try to wrap it up. As of September 10th (today), I've officially been in Senegal for a year. I know it's cliché to say, but time is flying by! I'm in Kolda, at the regional house, for a good-bye party. A group of my fellow volunteers are leaving and a new group is going to arrive any day. Believe it or not, I'm a 'junior' in the Peace Corps world. Pretty soon it'll be me who is coming home. While I'm starting to realize how much I will miss being here when my time is up (and its half-way there), I'm also starting to realize how much I miss being home. Much of the excitement surrounding my that came with being in a new environment has, at this point, largely been lost as I am used to living here now. This makes some of the repetitive aspects of life in Senegal wear on you over time, and recently I've been a bit out of it. I guess that's the real trick of life, viewing each day as new and exciting, even if it's almost identical to all the days prior. Fortunately, I'm about to go on vacation and see my parents in Europe for a couple weeks. Getting this break a year in is perfect. It will let me get a taste of life in the first-world, which, frankly, I'm a little afraid of at this point. Upon arriving in Senegal I remember thinking all the volunteers that had been here a little while were a little weird or off. I'm sure that's me and this point, I just hope I can still function in 'toubab' society! Upon returning to Senegal I will know that each day that passes will be one day closer to me coming home for good, so I better enjoy the time while I have it. While I miss home, I know I will miss Senegal as well. Life here sure is something else...

Computers for Ecole 4, Velingara

Hello everybody! So I haven't written in a while, as is per usual, but this time I'd like to talk a little about one of the projects I'm working on (I'll tell you all about the 4th of July, etc in the next post). One of the projects I am currently working on, in collaboration with The World Computer Exchange, aims to bring used, discarded computers from America to “Ecole 4: Thierno Souaïbou Souaré,” an elementary school in Vélingara, giving students and the local community access to technology. The school draws students from surrounding rural areas, as education in the villages only exists for the elementary level, if at all. Currently, there are no schools in all of Vélingara with properly functioning computers, leaving most students completely ignorant as to their use and potential.

I has observed that education in Vélingara faces many obstacles. Only a small minority of students earn a high school degree. For most families, simply buying the 50¢ notebook and pen required for class is a struggle and a decision to go without a meal. The school has only a few books which must be shared amongst the students. They are treasured to the point that they are never allowed to leave school grounds. A typical classroom consists of 30 plus students per class under a tin roof in a concrete room with outdoor temperatures over 100 degrees. Needless to say there are no fans or air-conditioning. Some temporary classrooms are simply grass-reed structures which are cooler, but more distracting as teachers have a hard time being heard over the din of the adjacent class.

The biggest challenge for the students, however, is simply a lack of access to information. As Director Baldé states, “We don’t even have adequate textbooks with pictures, so how can we explain things such as mountains, the ocean, and islands to students that have never seen them?” This inspired me to start this campaign to bring computers to Vélingara. Computers would give the students access to an incredible amount of information, where currently their education only consists of copying word-for-word passages their teachers write on the chalkboards. It would allow them to see images of the world and its peoples, read innumerable historical accounts previously unavailable, and grant them access to the wealth of knowledge that we take for granted in America.

I believe that one of the main purposes of education is to open the student’s mind, imagination, and interest to the wider world around them. Bringing computers to this school will provide that window to the world for its 866 students and the community at large, granting them access to more information than any other medium can provide. This would effectively allow the students to discover interests and be well equipped to pursue them: broadening their horizons beyond their current view of the world, which is limited to the 10 miles they know between Vélingara and their village of origin.

In the United States, most companies update their computers every couple of years and end up filling the landfills with fully functioning computers that could be put to good use somewhere else. I am aiming to bring twenty computers to Vélingara to build a computer lab for the students and the community at large. I will be in Vélingara for another year and a half with the Peace Corps, so I will be able to train the teachers and create a curriculum for the school. Outside of school hours the lab will also be open for community training -- educating the general population while simultaneously providing income for the school to maintain the computer lab. An overriding goal of the Peace Corp is to provide technical knowledge and sustainable assistance and, in setting up a technology program that also generates income, I hope to fulfill this goal.
The Vélingara School has also expressed interest in setting up an electronic exchange program with a Hingham School with their new email capabilities, so any Hingham teachers out there if you're interested, once the lab is all set-up, I will be looking for some partner classes! Note: they don't speak English, just poor French!

The computers are available through World Computer Exchange, but I need to raise enough money to fund shipment to Senegal. This cost will be approximately $2000. In addition, I am applying for a Peace Corps grant to fund installation costs (electricity, internet, fans, tables, etc).
If anyone is interested in helping to provide financial support for the project, donations can be made through the World Computer Exchange (www.worldcomputerexchange.org). By clicking on the “Donate Now through Network for Good” button and specifying “PCV Michael Hebert - Senegal” as the designation, funds will be applied to the Senegal shipment. Additional information and my complete project proposal is also available on the Senegal page of this site under “Ecole 4: Thierno Souaibou Souare de Vélingara”.

Also, check out my photo album dedicated to the Ecole 4, Vélingara school at http://picasaweb.google.com/MichaelHebert. Please send any questions, comments, or simply small talk to me at MichaelTHebert@gmail.com. Thank you all very much for keeping up with my blog and tendency to rant (including this entry, which those of who live in Hingham will notice is almost exactly the same as an article that should be appearing soon in the Hingham Journal). Thank you again for bearing with my little promo here and I'll start writting interesting things again next time, Inshallah. On jaaraama buy!!!

Bassari Festival and Ligge, Ligge, Ligge!!!

On jaaraama buy sahelbe-an fof! Right after my last journal entry I left for Kedegou to see the local Bassari festival. After a full day of sitting, waiting in garages and sept-places, I finally got to Kedegou to find many of my good friends from my stage already there! In general, you see the people that live around you a lot more frequently than the other volunteers in country, so I hadn't seen many of these people in months. Needless to say, it was nice to share a few drinks and stories and catch up.

The next day we all set off from Kedegou to go out into the bush where the festival is taking place. Kedegou is a very pretty place and much different than the rest of Senegal in that there are actually small mountains instead of being completely void of any change in elevation; and like the Kolda region, it is far more forested than any place in the North. So although it is the end of the dry season and hasn't rained in at least six months, hence leaving the landscape rather dried out, it is still quite a beautiful site. So to get back on track, we all got in this giant, open-sided tour bus to get out to the campsite. As is typical with traveling in Senegal there was a huge number of us shoved into the bus, which was driving about 100mph on dirt roads, and which practically flipped on many occasions while on the real rough trails (the Senegalese guys sitting on the roof even had to jump off a few times). We did, however, finally make it to the campamment (group of huts rented out to tourists) to find that all the huts were already full. So we, about 40 of us, just set out our mats under this one big open-air shade structure and slept 3 or 4 to a mat. One good thing about the Peace Corp is that you know all the other volunteers around you are used to living in villages too, so everyone lowers their standards (as far as comfort, sanitation, eating with hands, etc...) to the level we are used to here, which can be quite comical when taken out of perspective.

That night we headed up the mountain and hung out in the village with all the locals: drinking palm wine, eating rice and bush meat, and simply having a good time. One of the great thing about hanging out with the Bassaris is that they are animists, not Muslims, so they will actually have some drinks with you and share in the merry-making (sometimes a little too much!) In typcial Senegalese fashion, someone called us over and gave us a giant bowl of rice to eat: that's one lesson I hope I never forget, there's always enough to share! The next day was the 'coming of age ceremony' for the young men of the village. This consists of the older brothers dressing up as their ancestral spirits, dancing around all morning, and then culminating in some hand to hand combat. Unfortunately, women and cameras were off limits during the fighting, so I don't have any pictures; but at least I was allowed to watch! Check out the picasaweb account for some pictures, they're costumes are great! I can only imagine how long it took some of the women of the village to make them.

After returning from Kedegou it was back to business as usual in Vélingara. I went on another weekend forum trip to the village with World Vision (check out the photo album Sare Thierno Demba). I basically act as photographer at the actual forums themselves and don't give too much other input, but it provides me with a greater understanding of what the organization is doing as a whole so I can work more effectively on other aspects of the project, such as hopefully creating a book of traditional Pulaar stories and proverbs.

I have also continued my work at the girl's technical school. I gave my last two classes of the school year, and had them create 'fake' businesses and describe their product, market, etc... Basically the 4 P's of marketing. Unfortunately I think some of the students didn't really understand what I was looking for and basically just copied my example, but there were definitely at least a few that had a good grasp on the material. Now that those classes are done for this school year I can look ahead to next year. I hope to work directly with another teacher next year so that when I return back to the US the classes can continue and become a permanent part of the curriculum. This summer I will likely work one-on-one with one of the teachers to provide a basic business training. After which we will create lesson plans and teach the classes together next year. Here's to hoping!

I, and another volunteer, Colleen, also painted some murals at the girl's school; which was a lot of fun and a nice small project that shows concrete results! She has been going around most all Senegal painting various health and education related murals, and so when I expressed interest she stopped by and helped me out. We wanted to do some murals that expressed the subjects the girls were learning in school (cooking, sewing, gardening, etc.) but also wanted to show a certain professional or entrepreneurial aspect to it. In the end we decided to paint a few designs (will put pictures of them up asap) so we did the outlines and had the girls at the school paint in the colors. Overall it came out pretty well, and the girls seemed generally pleased to play a role in beautifying their school a bit.

After all this I had to head up north to Thies for two days of a Small Enterprise Development training. Unfortunately it's a lot of traveling for only a few days of work, but Peace Corp said they'd pay for the transport and I can order good food up there (chicken!!!), so I figured it was worth it for that if nothing else. And yes, to answer your question, it is worth 25 hours (round trip) shoved in the back of a broken down old car on broken roads for chicken. The 9 hour plane ride home at the end of service is going to seem like a living in the lap of luxury!

After the training, which also offered another good chance to hang out with some old friends, I went to Dakar for a few days to hang out. I didn't really plan on spending those couple of days there, but one thing you learn quickly here is that things hardly ever go as planned in Africa. It's amazing being in Dakar... somewhere where I can simply walk down the street and walk into a mini 7-11 type store. The options are seemingly endless. There's real restaurants, that serve meat, and so many countless things that it is overwhelming. I can only imagine going back to the US at this point... everything you could want in easy access! The funny thing is that I have found my desire for many of these simple creature comforts diminish. So while it was great to see them available, I hardly ended up buying any of it. At one point while in Dakar I stopped by the zoo, which was easily the most depressing zoo I have ever been in. All the animals are in these tiny little cages alone; and while it is neat to be able to get so close to them you can practically see them losing any and all spirit they may have had. I even got hit by a rotten apple that an unhappy chimpanze threw at me!

So to continue on another one of my excessively long entrees... I finally came back down to good old Pular-land (Pulars are soooo much nicer and more laid back than Wolofs!) and have had a lot of work to try and organize within a week before heading out again. The Directrice of the girl's school, whom I give personal computer lessons, just gave birth to her fourth girl! Therefore, I attended my first Senegalese baptism this week (they do the baptism one week after the birth). It's yet another celebration centered around food, which is always ok with me! After a lot of dancing, the Directrice came out all done up in Senegalese fashion (basically that means totally over-done with makeup etc. to the point that they look like crazed monsters), and did a bit of a model runway type tour around the celebration's attendants. Unfortunately my camera's batteries were dead, so I wasn't able to take any photos, but I'm sure this will not be the last baptism I go to here in Senegal.

Well that's basically it. I will write another entry soon describing the new project I'm working on in detail. But until then, Jamtun!

Fun in the (115 degree plus) Sun

So I gave my second lesson at the Girl's School and it went reasonably well. There are some girls in the class you seem generally interested and a few who could care less... same as teenagers in the states I suppose. I decided to start with marketing instead of accounting / costing as it is much less technical and (hopefully) will catch their attention better than the other subjects. Of course when I say marketing, costing, accounting I am talking really basic stuff: "Qu'est-ce que c'est une client?... Ko hundon woni 'client'? (What is a client?)" I do the class in French, but have to speak really slow as even my French is, amazingly, far better than most of the girls in the class; but I also find myself repeating some key phrases in Pulaar when I can. I think the hardest thing for the students is to understand how to take these ideas and apply them to there real lives. They think of business as buying something in bulk, sitting in the market next to all the other people selling the same good, and selling it for the same price as everyone else. What I'm trying, therefore, to get across in my course is not so much a lot of technical information, but simply trying to get them to start thinking like entrepreneurs with an eye for competition. It's the only way that a sustainable business with prospect for any growth will ever happen.

This brings into question some personal problems I've had with people thinking solely with a capitalistic frame of mind that plagued me before leaving America to joining the Peace Corps. The Senegalese are incredibly community focused and help out their neighbors, friends, extended family (usually these groups are all one in the same) without a second's thought as to what they are giving up. This is a trait I feel as though we've lost in the States, where everyone seems to look out for themselves and immediate families only. On the other hand, when your society expects you to support everyone around you regardless of the cause of their problems it creates a situation where all too often the one motivated, productive individual is held back by the large number of people who are dependent upon him or her, leaving no room for growth and hence an overall stagnant economy and a country with little hope of development. In the end I think that both cultures can ultimately learn from each other: yes, competition is good and drives progress but it wouldn't hurt if we looked out for each other a little more. I mean people here are giving food to each other when they themselves haven't eaten and at home we second guess helping someone in need because we are saving up for a nicer car. So, as I said before (in another of my little philosophical/sociological rants... I think it helps to clear my mind sometimes if I write it down), I think we in the States could learn from the Senegalese: help each other out a bit, and realize that we really do have it pretty good (I know I'm not home for the big economic crisis right now, but I doubt anyone reading this is missing meals); and maybe the Senegalese could learn that a little competition could help 'whip them into shape' a bit and the people that are motivated and hardworking here would be allowed to flourish and develop their country.

One day I also made my first attempt at making 'Neem Cream' at my house. There is a tree that grows around here, called Neem (in Pulaar maybe... not sure what language that name is in), that has certain properties which deter insects. It's therefore used in agriculture to ward of pests that eat crops, and can also be made into a type of insect repellent. Basically you just boil a bunch of the leaves in water for a while, whittle up a bar of soap, and mix it all together with some oil. Then you get a cheap, homemade insect repellent. The idea is that people can make this in their village and get bitten by mosquitoes less frequently, leading to less malaria and infected mosquito bites. Of course my family thought I was crazy for using perfectly good cooking oil and a bar of soap for a purpose other than what they're intended for. Soon (the rainy season should be starting within this month and is strongest June - August, bringing not only a lot of rain but A LOT of bugs as well) we will find out how well it works and just maybe they will actually want to make the next batch themselves! Here's to hoping...

This past month some of the volunteers and I also had another one of our sex ed meetings at the school in Diaobé; this time it was actually the students presenting what they had learned from us to their classmates. This consisted of two days of work, the first being a day of planning with the students, helping them to make lesson plans out of the information they learned and letting them practice presenting one time before having to do it in front of their peers. The topic chosen to start with was 'Grossesses Précoces et Non-Desirée' or Premature and Unwanted Pregnancies. Then the next day the students presented to their classes while the other volunteers and I walked between classes to monitor the talks and add little tidbits in when deemed necessary, sometimes trying to steer the direction of the conversation a little. It went well over all, the students were very interested, but some pretty amazing cultural differences shone through in the course of the classes. The relation between women and men is much different here than in the states and some of the classes turned mainly into a discussion between girls and boys (the girls being vastly outnumbered as so many have quite school by the age of 14... hence why we're trying to have them talk about premature and unwanted pregnancies!) Also some people mentioned how people will purposely cut the tips of condoms to purposely impregnate / get impregnated to force a marriage, how it is 100% impossible for guys to resist a girl if she says she wants to have sex without a condom and it is totally her fault for the lack of protection (apparently guys just can't say "no, I'd rather use a condom"), and some other really unique statements I've never heard before. In the end the talks should help, if nothing else they now at least know they can get condoms from their classmates without having to go to the med hut to ask for them where everyone in the village with know they're searching for condoms: blush, blush. It worked last year in another village, so hopefully the talks prove effective in Diaobé as well, Inshallah.

Well, since this was a two day event I got to spend the night in Kounkané; giving myself time to go swimming in a local river. I had heard mixed reports about crocodiles and hippos but when it's 105 in the shade and you're biking in the sun it's hard to resist. I even got some nice photos with a local fisherman, who then told me there are crocodiles, so that ended that swimming session. I'll just have to wait to go to Kolda again and swim in the pool! Before heading back to Velingara I went to the large market in Diaobé with my Senegalese Mother. She used to buy stuff in bulk here (mainly this type of cooking oil they use in almost every sauce here) and then sell it back in Velingara for a pretty good profit. But, as I had mentioned, my host Dad has been having trouble with money recently as the government here simply will go 9 months without paying people while the bosses are visiting France and Dakar... so my family spent all the capital my mom uses to buy the goods on food that we ate. So I went with her and bought all the stuff she sells just to get her doing something again other than just sitting around the house with no way to make any money. This way she can sell it all, give me back my investment (theoretically) and keep the profit she makes until my dad actually gets paid.

Well this entry is going to be another long one, sorry, but I've been going a month between posts and I'm actually a little more active now. Since I've gotten to Velingara my family has been saying I need to visit this village called Lenkering where some family friends live. So one weekend I just called up my Dad's friend, Sadio, (he's like 60 but really nice) and told him I was coming for a few days. The village is farther south, approaching the border of Guinea, and is beautiful! The farther south you go the more trees there are, so it's not quite so sandy there even though we're in the driest part of the year right now. I spent a day walking all around the town with a friend and neighbor of Sadio, including visiting a really cool community garden they have fenced in where there are a lot of grafted mango trees and vegetables. Ohhh ya, it's mango season now and for the next couple months, which here in the south of Sénégal basically means I get to eat as many free, freshly picked mangoes as I want, which is awesome and simply delicious.

I have also been battling wing Senelac recentely, which is the the Senegalese power company. I have been trying to get electricity installed in my hut, which is no small feet. Basically they are waiting for the bride that I'm resisting giving them. Anyways I have been stopping by there most everyday hanging out with the workers there, trying the build enough trust for them to give me my counter before I leave in a year and a half! It's to the point where the "patron de base" is sick of seeing me, so hopefully I will win soon. Inshallah, I will win without paying them they're extra money soon; we exchange knowing, smiling glances each time I pay them a visit.

In the meantime I have been continuing the classes at the girls' school and recently showed a video aimed at improving girls rights in the area. The movie encourages Senegalese girls to leave the house and aspire to achieve their personal dreams: outside of playing the typical culturally appropriate role of house maker (and not the only the only house-maker, but one of many at that). So we are giving out scholarships to girls in volunteer communities throughout Sénégal, encouraging them to continue their education beyond an elementary level, which is very lacking here. People here can't so much as buy a single notebook or pen, so it's great to know a few girls will at least be able to pay their school dues and get the utter basic supplies.

This past weekend I went on some village visits with World Vision and The Grandmother Project, who I work with. We had these forums with grandmothers and others from the villages and talked about reinforcing traditional values while ending female genital cutting, etc. My 'job' for the day was photographer, so I got to take a lot of photos (check my picasaweb account, a lot of new pictures are up, haven't had time to comment them yet though!) It was a fun weekend that included a lot of dancing with really old Senegalese women, some interesting car rides including one in the truck bed on dirt roads with about 50 plastic chairs and 8 elderly African, I had two grandmother's sitting on my lap as we drove through the bush!

Finally back in Kolda though, been a month since I was last here! So I'm more than ready for the break and to speak a little English. I'm going to be going to Kedagou soon to see a local Bassari animist festival, then back to site to continue working. Missed a bunch of stuff again but this is already a long enough post. Although it's now 115 degrees every day, it is at least mango season, so I can fight the heat with as many fresh mangoes as I want! Jamtun and more soon, Inshallah!