Counterpart Workshop and Dakar Day

This past week I’ve been doing a lot of traveling for Counterpart Workshop and a trip to Dakar. Follow along with my convenient subheadings to find out more!

Counterpart Workshop

This past Monday through Wednesday, our training stage hosted a Counterpart Workshop at the training center. A counterpart is a local Senegalese person in you community that will help you to integrate into the community, help you assess the community’s needs, help you find projects to work on, and be a general resource for language learning and cultural questions. My counterpart is an awesome woman named Kadiata Bah who runs an organization who runs an organization that teaches agricultural techniques to three surrounding villages near Taredji. She is the perfect counterpart and really understands that my role in the community to be a teacher and help facilitate her work (not to hand out money or be a knight in shining armor). She already has plans to start a demonstration garden at her organization’s location in Taredji and know a lot about the agriculture of the area.

Coming into the Peace Corps with doubts about what I could possibly do to help Senegalese people improve their agriculture system when I have no real expertise or local knowledge, I have been reassured by PC Senegal’s counterpart system. I will in fact be trained in agriculture technics by the Peace Corps and will be passing them along to someone who will stay in this community and is actively working with people in her community to pass along this knowledge. After Counterpart Workshop I have been slightly reassured about the sustainability of my work in the Peace Corps. I will still have to see how exactly my relationship between my counterpart, my community, and myself unfolds, but for know I am pretty content with my function as a volunteer.

Dakar Day and the US Embassy

Yesterday, we took two 25-seater PC buses from Thies to Dakar to see the PC Senegal office, apply for Senegalese residency, and get a general sense for the city. My first impression was that Dakar is practically like any other Western city I have been too. There were malls, bowling allies, resorts, a theme park, museums, organized roads, a highway, and a new traffic signal. Compared to Nairobi (the only other major city in Africa I have been to), Dakar was much more organized from my first impressions, qualified by the fact that I only spent a few hours there.

Peace Corps Senegal’s office was made up of a three-story air-conditioned building with a marbled staircase. The offices of the Country Director, the program assistant directors, and the admin are all located here as well as the medical office. We filled out a lot of paperwork and were introduced to all the people who work at the office, which were to a great relief of mine all Senegalese nationals minus the Country Director and one of the doctors.

The most interesting part of this trip was getting to go to the Atlantic Club – a mini-resort with a swimming pool, tennis courts, etc. that PCVs get free admission to. Here, we were met by two representatives of the US Embassy to discuss the services they provide to PCVs in Senegal and safety concerns for us. After that we got to eat American style cheeseburgers, and it was wonderful. 

In terms of  logistics, I found that I will be moving to my permanent site on November 11^th, so don’t send me any more mail until I have a new address or I will never get it.  Until next time! 

Volunteer Visit

Sorry this post is a long one, but there was so much to say about my not one, but three sites I will be working at! If you don’t care to read the details of the cities I’ll be working in and the projects, you can feel free to skip down to the highlights of the trip.

This past week I spent visiting my future permanent site of Taredji. My and my fellow stagemates Raphael and Erin who are also going to the North stayed with a group of volunteers who live in Ndioum, a pretty large town on the Rue National (the main highway throughout Senegal).  We got to see our sites and learn more about the communities we will be living in and the projects we might be working on. My situation is unique among volunteers—I will be living and working in Taredji as well as overseeing projects in Ndioum and Podor.

Let’s start with Podor. Podor is a city of around 12,000 people right on the boarder between Senegal and Mauritania (the two countries are divided by the Senegal River). It is a very historic city and was once occupied by the French and even has a 17^th century fort. The city also gets a small amount of tourism (I saw one French family on vacation with their two children while I was there). A volunteer who is COSing (Close of Service) used to be located in Podor but had to move to Ndioum during the middle of his service. He made a beautiful hospital garden in Podor, which is now mildly run down. I will be taking over this garden and hopefully reinvigorating my work partners there to keep with the project.

                                                                        The fort in Podor

                                                                    Podor Hospital Garden

 Looking out from Podor over the Senegal River and Mauritania 

Lounging on the side of the Senegal River 

Next stop, Ndioum! Ndioum is a regional capital for Peace Corps Senegal. This means there is a regional house there where volunteers in the North can stay from time to time. Also, three volunteers who used to live in Podor now live in Ndioum. It is a fairly large city but somewhat smaller and less organized than Podor. Ndioum is about 40 kilometers from Podor and on the Rue National. Ndioum had a very nice hospital that is currently the largest hospital in the Department of Podor (soon to be usurped by Pate). The director of the hospital is very excited to start a hospital garden there, and the project has already been approved by Peace Corps. Once I install at my permanent site, I will assist the other volunteers in Ndioum to build the garden which will help to cut food costs for patients.

Finally Taredji, where I will actually be living (inshallah, because a home for me there is yet to be found).Taredji is a road town at the junction of the Rue National and the road that takes you to Podor, thus it receives heavy traffic and essentially grew out of its prime location.  Taredji has about 5,000-6,000 people split into two areas of the town. There are two potential projects I am really excited for in Taredji. One is a school garden at a primary school. The director of the primary school is so excited about the garden that he has already fenced off an area at the school. Right across the street is a local CBO that does a wide variety of things including women’s rights, democracy, and trainings of various kinds that I am still learning about. Here, the organization wants to set up a demonstration site to teach farming techniques and best practices to the surrounding villages that the organization already has connections with. This is essentially what my whole job is as an Urban Ag volunteer, so I am really excited to have such a motivated organization to work with. 

Future site of the demo garden in Taredji

Highlights of VV

•       Lounging by the Senegal River and looking out to Mauritania
•     Almost driving into the Senegal River on the way back to the training center
•     Eating hamburgers and cake at the regional house
•     Meeting my awesome counterpart at the CBO who wants to name me after her
•     Climbing to the roof of the old French fort in Podor
•     Sleeping on the roof every night in Ndioum
•     Being woken up to the terrified crying of a baby goat stuck in the yard
•     Being woken up by the sounds of the mosque and Justin Beiber, simultaneously 

Pictures!

Here are some pictures of my first month in Senegal! Sorry some are videos, and I don't know if they will actually work out. My family started messing with the settings on my camera. 

My family in Ngheeho (my training city) 

 The Disco Hut at the Training Center

 My room in Ngheeho 

 More pictures of my family. 

My sister Kaljeta and a neighbor. 

 My mom Aysata

         

 My mom Adjumata and my sister Aysata. 

Two of my sisters and my little brother Hadji (he is quite a trouble maker)

One of my sisters and my youngest brother Seedou. He is still somewhat scared of me. 

Me making a weird face and having my sister laugh at me. 

My sisters Kaljeta and Fatimata.  

 My street after a big rain. The water went up to my knees, and I had to swim home. 

My garden in Ngheeho 

Site Announcement and CBT Site

I have just returned from a two week stay in my training village in Ngheeho, Senegal. First off before describing what living in small town in Senegal with very little language skills or cultural understanding is like, I have exciting news! When we got back to the training center, they announced where our permanent sites would be. For the next two years I will be living in Taredji, which is a small town in the very most northern part of Senegal right on the border of Mauritania. It is a very conservative Muslim area, and many people are herders. There are two areas of the town one that has between 1,000-2,000 people and one section that has between 5,000-6,000 people. As far as the urban sites the other volunteers in my stage are going to, this is pretty small. However, many of the agroforestry and sustainable agriculture volunteers are in villages with around 200 people. I will be close to several people from my training group (shout out to Erin and Raphael) but sadly will be separated from some people in my langage learning group. Currently, another volunteer works in my site and has several projects going on including a hospital garden and a very successful demonstration garden where he holds trainings on urban farming techniques. I am very excited to get to my site and start working! 

Right now, I am focused on learning the language and culture in my Community Based Training (CBT) site.  This usually involves me making a fool out of myself and having my family and my language teacher laugh at all of my "toubab" (foreigner) mistakes. My family, in particular my grandmother Fatimata, has taken affinity to teaching me inappropriate body parts and making me say them to their friends. A typical morning involves me walking to class and being stopped by random old women on the street who have heard of the toubab who knows how to say "butt" in Pulaar. After this, wild laughter ensues. Pulaar is the craziest language in the world, by the way. It was a verb for every single thing you can possibly think of. Instead of having prepositions, there are different verbs for "to eat", "to eat with", "to eat for", and "to eat at". Also, there are about 20 different pronouns for different types of nouns like liquids, people, trees, etc. They each have their own version of "the". The list goes on and on. 

Culture-wise, I have a very good language and culture teacher that is very strict and has a lot of attitude. Her name is Fatimata (different than my grandmother), and we affectionately call her Sassimata due to her playful but direct sense of humor. She makes sure we know when we have crossed some sort of cultural rule.  My family is very helpful by introducing me to all of our extended family so I can practice greeting people, which is very important culturally and religiously in Senegal.  My family has two wives and one dad and about 12 children plus some miscellaneous relatives that live in our compound. My dad works in large scale livestock business and also sells milk in the market. I frequently sit at the market in the evenings with one of my mothers (who is 24 and has five children, the oldest of which is 10) and practice my Pulaar and various ways to turn down marriage proposals. This is my favorite time of day because my mother buys me peanuts and bananas to eat while I wait for her. 

I will be at the training center for four days and then will be heading to the north to stay with a current volunteer in my area to see their projects and learn about their work. I will end here because I am being eaten alive by mosquitos. Until next time! 

Pulaar du Nord and Composting

Today we were placed into language groups, and I have now started learning Pulaar du nord! Pulaar du nord is spoken in the very northern part of Senegal, which means that is where my site will be for the next two years. This area is very conservative and very Muslim. I am very excited to learn about African Muslim culture! Also, the north is mainly desert and is very hot. The food is supposed to be very good.

Yesterday, we started hands-on technical training (which for me mean Urban Agriculture). I successfully made a beautiful meter high compost pile, double-dug two garden beds, and started a small vegetable nursery with tomatos, onions, and cabbage. They also explain what Urban Ag in the Peace Corps actually means and what type of work we will be doing. I will write another post describing all of that in more detail later. But I am hearing the tam tam (drum) calling us for lunch.

Hello from Thies, Senegal!

Hello everyone! This in now my fourth day in country! I am living on the PC Senegal Training Center in Thies (pronounced Chess) which is about a 1-2 hour drive inland from Dakar. I will be here for nine weeks, traveling back and forth between my Community Based Training (CBT) village where I will be focusing on learning language and culture. Right now I am in Pre-Service Training (PST). So far, there have been a lot of information sessions about what we are actually going to do here. And of course there has been a TON of paperwork; PC is still a government agency after all. Nothing major is going on as of yet so I'll just list some things I've been doing/ interesting tidbits.

• The Disco Hut is in fact a hut with a disco ball in the center. It's open on all sides and is a general meeting/hang out place. I spend a lot of time there. 
• There is a tree over the Disco Hut with EXPLODING PODS! How cool is that? 
• I have about 20 mosquito bites on my arms and legs, but no worries! I'm taking my malarian meds. 
• There are about four flea-infested cats that roam around that try to eat all the food during meal. I have a strong desire to pick them up and cuddle but so far I've had enough self control. 
• I've started learning Wolof and have some basic phrases down like greetings and travel words. Naka wa ker ga? (How is the family over there?) 
• Yes, it is super hot and humid. It's the wet season, so there are frequent storms with strong winds and lightening. 
• Most meals (and all the lunches at the center) are eaten in communal bowls with about four or five people around them. Shout out to Stacey-- the spoon is used exclusively (in village you usually eat with your hands). 
• Meals at the center are typically rice with a sauce and some sort of meat (beef/chicken/fish). There is always salad at dinner. It is always delicious. 
• So far I have played one game of basketball and three games of volleyball. During the last game today, one of the poor cats was hit dead-on with a ball spiked from the neat. It didn't even flinch. 
• We had a meeting today about what types of things we will do as Urban Ag volunteers, and I am very excited to get started!

I miss you all, and please write me e-mails or letters! 

Going to the Moon? Nah-- to Senegal!

I recently returned from a trip to Central Florida to watch the last space shuttle launch take off from Kennedy Space Center. While there, I got to meet a ton of really cool people involved at NASA as well as the World Bank, Apple, Disney, and more. All of these incredible people were there to witness the launch and be inspired by it.  We also all came together to discuss the future of NASA and of the space industry as a whole. The entire experience was amazing, and I got to have so many great conversations with very intelligent individuals. 

As I am not particularly a tech or space person, when meeting all these new people, I was frequently introduced as the girl going into the Peace Corps. Really, the only reason I was there in the first place is because my boyfriend works at NASA. The responses I got when I or anyone else told people I would be going to Senegal for 2+ years to work on Urban Ag were varied and amusing. A majority of the time, the initial response was "Sen-a-gal? Where is that?". Most people hadn't even heard of the country let alone knew where it was. It's in West Africa by the way-- I added a map of the African continent to my blog as soon as I got back from Florida, just in case you need a reference. They looked at me like I was absolutely insane to leave all the comforts of home and the technology they held so dear to work in a garden in Africa. While Peace Corps is definitely not for everyone, many of them at least seemed to respect my decision.

On the other side of the spectrum, there were a select handful who had a lot of travel experience and knew a lot about development work. These people were over the moon (sorry for the space reference) excited for me and wanted to know every last detail about what I would be doing and where I would be. I got to have an in-depth conversation about theories of sustainable development while waiting in line for the Norway ride at Epcot as well as a conversation about urban gardening techniques during "The Land"--  a boat ride that lead you through a series of greenhouse to take an inside look at innovative agriculture research being done at Disney World (the coolest ride of the day). One guy was even going to visit Dakar in a couple of weeks and said he would "do some recon" for me.

At a meeting about the future of NASA, one person made a comment that the agency focused too much on astronauts as heros when really they are just everyday people, and every day people do heroic things all the time. She turned to me and said, "You are doing the Peace Corps for two years. You are the real hero."  Me, a hero? I don't know about that. I'm going to Senegal to learn as much as I can about development work and to immerse myself in a new culture, not to be hero. Many people I've talked to about my service talk of me "going over there" to "help" and "make a difference in people's lives". But really, I'm the one that is going to be doing the learning and gaining so much more out of the experience. What can I as a recent grad in Development Studies with little to no real skills do to change people's lives? I have no idea. All I can do is open my eyes and ears and learn from the people around me. Hopefully, I will learn more about Urban Agriculture and help on an grassroots level at least in some small way, but hero is a label I do not take on easily. 

Overall, the week was a success. After much doubt that the shuttle would launch on time due to terrible Florida weather i.e. normal Florida weather, it went off with out a hitch and was absolutely amazing and inspiring (a word that was thrown around a lot). A couple even proposed next to us as we were watching (she said yes!). I got to meet and talk with people from all over the country working on space, open government, technology, international development, entertainment,  and even innovative ways to educate kids. I guess as Nathan Fillion would say, "Everyone's a hero in their own way" (sorry for the cheesiness).  

An aside-- if you are ever in Orlando, go to a place called Tasty Wok.