Things are Changing!

The rains have arrived! And so have a lot of other perks and pitfalls that accompany them! Check out a few photos I just uploaded of the now rain-inundated Sali.

http://s1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa428/katierichards0/Sali/

Rain Waiting

Hello all! Here in Senegal, things are about to change drastically, everyone has their eyes glued to the sky…waiting for rain. The other night after dinner (around 10 pm), as I sat outside and continued to sweat, a good friend informed me that Allah is in the process of “cooking water.” Essentially meaning, it is necessary for it to get extremely hot, so that we can get consistent rains during the next few months. So, recently, temperatures have been getting higher and higher….or…are at least feeling higher and higher (reaching around 110 degrees). Needless to say, 90% of the day, my hand is extended with a small handheld fan (non-electric, energy-consuming).

Aside from sweating, the work pace is also starting to pick up for the villagers of Sali. In the past few months, in preparation for the rains, all the men of the village have been waking up early and spending most days in the fields. Their field preparation involves cleaning up last year’s left over field crop residues, cutting down any new bushes or weeds, raking all this into piles and burning it up! As you might imagine, in an area that has not seen a significant amount of moisture in more than 9 months, this preparation process leads to lots and lots of bush fires. Villagers are often very careful to wait until dawn or dusk when the wind subsides, but with so many of them, there is no avoiding it. As a result, the bush surrounding my village is suffering some severe damage from generations and generations of this same process. The fires have also been known to make their way into villages (believed to be the work of a genie according to many) which can become extremely devastating very quickly with roofs of houses made of dried weeds, fences/walls made of dried millet stalks and the only water source coming from wells with pulleys and buckets to pull the water. Luckily, my village only had a small fire incident this year and no one was hurt.

In the region of Kaffrine, meteorologists predict that the first large rain of the season should occur between June 18^th and 23^rd  (defined by 20 millimeters at least). Farmers here rely on this. When seeding (primarily peanuts, millet, corn, sorghum and beans), they eagerly await enough rain to keep the soil moist for a few days, enough to get their seeds to germinate. If it does not rain again within a week or so of that first rain, their entire crop could dry up under the midday sun. If they wait too long, however, until the rains are consistent, they may not have enough time for their crop to fully mature during the season. A delicate balance! Just to give you an idea of the importance riding on this rainy season, these crops are the primary source of income for villagers, and currently the cash from the previous crop, 9 months ago, is running dry….and the food running bland (also, add to this that the last rainy season was marked by very few rains and many had poor crops or little money). Most are very anxious.

             In addition, just outside of the village, things are on the move for the nomadic pulaar people. These people make a living with extremely large herds of cows, sheep and goats. As the rains get closer and closer, they are now headed north. I did not understand this phenomenon at first, but then someone explained that clearly, if all these herds were in the fields during seeding time, any brand new baby field crops would be eaten up! Therefore, recently, large charettes pulled by multiple donkeys (sometimes up to five!) piled with every one of their possessions have been parading through the village. And to think, I thought we were living the hard life in rural Senegal, these people are yet another step down (or up?)…

As for me, with the changing seasons, my work is picking up. As a “sustainable agriculture extension agent,” I am responsible for extending improved seed varieties to motivated farmers in the village. Once extended, I follow the seeds, visit the farms weekly and provide small pointers on how to get a better crop (what the heck do I know!!??). So, my life for the next few months will involve a lot of walking, looking at fields and trying to get farmers to think I know what I’m talking about. We’ll see how it goes!
Lastly, check out some new photos on photobucket (sorry there are not too many!).

http://s1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa428/katierichards0/Sali/

Until next time! Love!

Food for thought...

Having now lived in Senegal for almost 8 months, there are many sights and cultural phenomena that no longer strike me as strange. Seeing sheep and goats piled on top of public transport, watching a cow SLEEP on a horse-drawn carriage or eating out of a communal bowl with lots of snotty children... now un-phased.   However, there are a few things here in Senegal that, despite how much time I spend adapting to village life, still strike me as drastically different from the American culture in which I was raised.

On a daily basis I get the pleasure of interacting with seven amazing children (those that live within my compound). None of these children exceed the age of 11, though all of them are working on daily chores for the majority of the day. Fatou, a sassy pre-teen/my namesake/one of my best informants, is quickly learning the skills she needs to be a wife and a mother. Her responsibilities include sweeping and cleaning the compound, washing clothes (including mine), cooking lunch and dinner, pounding millet and pulling water from the well for the family to both drink and shower…all done while carrying baby Sulemon on her back (considering he prefers her back to his own mother’s). The younger sister, Awa (age 5), is quickly following in Fatou’s footsteps and beginning to share responsibility in many of these tasks. As boys, Aadama (twin of Awa) and Mali (age 8) are responsible for taking care of the farm animals (goats, sheep, ducks, chickens, a cow and a donkey). Every morning they get up at dawn to venture into the bush and fill large rice sacks with weeds to feed the animals, in addition to watering them twice daily. This may sound cruel to many, though I see a strong desire in very small children to start this process and contribute to the family’s wellbeing. Aissatou, age 3, frequently follows Fatou to the well with a kilo-tomato paste can in hopes of filling it with water, carrying it on her head and adding to the family’s water reserves. And when my morning goal was to carry extensive amounts of manure from the backyard to my small demonstration garden, I was followed by 7 or so children working to contribute their small portions of manure to my pile. In experiencing all of this, I can’t help but think that we need a taste of it in rearing our children. Make the 3-year old cook dinner! Put the 5-year-old in charge of babysitting! Or at the very least get them away from the video games or TV…

In addition, I recently had an extensive conversation with the French teacher in Saly. He was able to give me some great insight as to how families in Senegalese communities deal with money matters. As the eldest brother in his family and the most prosperous, he is responsible for funding the entire Muslim celebration of Tabaski each year (a Thanksgiving or Christmas equivalent). This involves buying new clothing for each member of his family, any food for the day and, of course, the sheep. For his family, he said, these expenses could add up to a couple thousand dollars and successfully empty his bank account/savings from the previous year of work. This does not matter. Here, if you have funds, you share them. If you see an individual wandering the streets with no way to eat/survive, you take them in or provide them with a meal…even if it generates a burden for you and your family. Our closest neighbor in village, a woman named Marem Dimb, is pretty darn old and pretty darn blind. Her daily visits to our house usually result in lots of laughter (specifically from her fear of my cat that she cannot see) but often in my father offering her some money from the family funds, despite the fact that they may not be able to afford this. Why is sharing money such a problem in our culture? This is something else I think we can learn from, Senegalese will share until they have nothing left…though maybe we shouldn’t go this far…

            Anyway, just thought I would share a few things that I’ve been thinking about and provide a little more insight into some cultural values here. Time in village involves a lot of moments to sit and drink tea and ponder all of this. Until next time!

Featuring....

Sulemon! (Male/7 months old/single) The best series of photos I have taken yet in Senegal. 

I have also just updated my photobucket with a few more photos, so check them out.

http://s1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa428/katierichards0/Sali/

This next week I should have good access to internet and hope to write a good blog update! Ba beneen yoon! (until next time).

Girls Leadership Camp!

Hi All!

Just wanted to send out a quick update, as I have some great internet access! Currently, I am in the city of Koalack (known for its sheer amounts of trash) and have just had a meeting regarding the upcoming Girls Leadership Camp in June. This is all very exciting, as now I am finally getting to start into some projects. This leadership camp chooses high performing high school aged girls from all across the Koalack region (each region of Senegal hosts a camp). These girls are of course volunteer chosen, and my close neigherbor, Josh, and I plan to attend a couple of high schools in his area (Koungheul) in search of some good candidates in the future. As I have already experienced throughout my rural village, women in Senegal are often married off at a very young age (as little as 10 or 12) and destined to spend their lives cooking, cleaning, doing laundry and reproducing. This five day long camp aims to educate these girls about the opportunities that exist for them outside this lifestyle. The camp incorporates sessions on self-esteem, individuality, women's health, career opportunities, sports, self defense etc... many of which are volunteer taught. Currently, as some of you may have guessed, the camp is looking for funding so as to make it the most effective for these girls. If anyone would like to donate please follow the link below!

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=685-198

This website provides a small blurb about the camp and look to the side bar on the right for information about donating! No donation is too small!

In addition to this, I have just added more photos to my "Sali" album on photobucket. Nothing too exciting has occurred recently in village, but the new photos do include the brand new baby (the second wife's first child) which was born on March 3rd, a boy named Ibrahima Sal Sarr or Ibu for short. In addition, upon my return to village tomorrow, I should be greeted (fingers crossed) with a brand new hut! A few things might be missing from it (including cement covering the walls) but I will still welcome the chance to move away from the bats and mice into a nice, cool hut! So, there are a few photos of the building process as well.

Enjoy!  http://s1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa428/katierichards0/Sali/

Also, I would welcome any suggestions about what you would like to see or hear about! I am still very new at blogging and am not sure if what I include in my posts is the information that everyone is looking to hear. Shoot me an email or comment and let me know if you have questions or want to see pictures of anything etc.

Thanks again! Katie

Raw Hog

My life has been pretty crazy most recently and is only just starting to slow down and develop a routine. In the first couple of weeks in February, all of the agricultural volunteers that arrived with me in Senegal in August (totaling 54) got together at the Training center for our In-Service Training (IST). These were two very exhausting weeks involving 8-5 everyday in the classroom or garden, trying to obtain as much knowledge as possible about farming in Senegal/what our future job involves. After finishing this training, I returned to my village on the 16^th of February. Now, as other Peace Corps volunteers may attest to, is kind of a strange and stressful transition period. The first three months in village (before IST), is when our time should be spent getting to know the community, chatting while shelling peanuts or drinking attaaya. However now, all of the sudden, things are expected of us. I feel pressure from myself, the community and my colleagues to get some projects underway/be of some importance within the community. Though something you learn very quickly as a PCV in developing countries is that nothing happens fast. And in addition, you as the PCV, are never to lead a project, only to facilitate or hopefully initiate motivation. This is of course all in the hope that our projects will be sustainable and after we return to the states there will be some sort of community structure in place to continue them. In addition, we have to be very careful in the projects we choose for this exact reason –sustainability. The community must actually be interested in the project and have some investment, as opposed to it being imposed upon them. Thus, here I sit, still slightly nervous to take the first step and trying to be sure that everything is in line before I do so.

Most recently, I have been spending lots of time in my small 12x12 meter garden space, digging beds and seeding things like tomato, lettuce, carrot, eggplant, okra, and Moringa (a great tree! A craze in international development work, google it!). I hope that I can set up some demonstrations in the garden that will be of interest to the village, i.e. mulching, composting etc. Though this is all under the assumption that my baby plants will survive the fast approaching 120-30^oF sunshine (now at about 100^oF). Other than this my head is spinning with more projects but it may be a while until I know where to start.

Before I go, I do feel obligated to update a story that shows a little of what Senegalese hospitability really means. A few days ago I traveled about 5 kilometers away on a horse drawn charette to a tourist camp nearby. A Frenchman owns the camp and brings in small groups of people to visit Senegal and go hunting for various bird species in the bush. Every once in a while they catch a warthog and since this is way too much meat for just those at the camp, they often offer it to the few catholic villages nearby. A few Senegalese that work at the camp asked if I would like to try a taste the next time they catch one. Of course, I was thrilled to integrate more protein into my diet and responded with yes. A few nights ago, I had completely forgotten about this encounter and turned in early, around 9 or 10 pm. About 10 minutes after settling into bed, I got a knock at the door from a friend who works at the camp. I opened it to find him struggling to hoist a large front leg and shoulder of warthog into the air to show me. This leg had been FRESHLY cut off the carcass, still covered with course warthog hair and a lovely tick crawling on it. My friend was completely expectant that I would simply set the raw piece of flesh on a shelf in my room, wait until morning and consume the kilos of meat all to the myself. After much shock and babbling on my part, I finally convinced him to at least cut the meat from the leg, throw the remains to the dogs in the bush and then I would keep the rest in an enclosed bowl through the night. Needless to say, I did not sleep at all that night as I assumed rabid dogs would break down my rickety door in search of the raw hog. All turned out okay, I ended up cutting off a small piece for myself and carried the rest to a nearby catholic friend. Anyway, just goes to show you, you ask for a little, they give a lot!

Until next time! Love you all, sending some of this sunshine your way!  

Laying the Foundation...

...of a brand new hut (or some other metaphor if you prefer)!!

My village has officially begun the building process of my new hut, almost three months late... And I am ecstatic! I can't wait to move in! My father has informed me that the search for weeds to complete the roof should be finished soon and the doors and floor will follow shortly after (you guessed it, I just have walls).
     Other than this, I recently visited the post office in Koungheul. My multiple previous visits in search for some mysterious packages (I had heard rumors of from the states) always ended up in disappointment. Most recently, however, after a long stint in village, I chose to make the voyage again. This time, I was led into the back storage room....only to find... a nearly entirely empty room, except for a corner filled with packages all addressed to me! This was the best Christmas ever!! Thank you all so much! I really appreciate the thought that went into each and every one of those and I seriously cannot describe the shear joy that any PCV feels when receiving quality food and goodies from America. Thank you!
     At this point, I don't have too much to update a full blog post, but I have recently added quite a few photos to my "Sali" album on photobucket. The photos have a few family members and include a bit of the  hut building process. Follow the link to check it out:

http://s1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa428/katierichards0/Sali/

Currently I am in the wonderful city of Thies for what's called IST or In Service Training. The idea being that now that we've been in village a few months, as volunteers, and we should have some understanding of what things we would like to learn about/implement within our sites. Thus, we have two big weeks of classes to get a lot of information! This does mean that I will have some pretty good access to internet for a while, so if you would like to get in touch, I would love to hear from you!

Hope all is well and the weather is turning up! Maybe even a little snow?
Love