Its been a while. What's happened since the last time that i wrote... hmmm thats a good question. Out planting has taken up some of my time since i last wrote as it is the season for such things. Well not so much anymore but was. Karumba and myself have gotten lots of trees in the ground this year, no idea how many will live or die but it'll be interesting to see.
Took a little hike to Guinée at the beginning of October from Kevin's village to the border. That was fun because it was the same border crossing that we crossed when we were coming back from Guinée. We stayed with Kevin's host Aunt or something. Really nice and since it was ramadan and we were fasting it was an interesting time as we didn't eat or drink on the couple hour hike there. But when we broke the fast that night we ate extremely well. We stayed there for the morning and then hiked back in the afternoon. On the way back we stopped at a waterfall that is nearby Kevin's village. Since it was the rainy season it was really full and very spectacular. We got to swim in it and then headed back to Kafori.
After this trip i went out to Dindefello to help a farmer there set up a mango orchard there. That went really well. Great ride out there in the rain. We actually didn't get anything done the first day I was there because of the rain. So we watched Indiana Jones in french instead. Good flick even when in french. The next day we did actually get around to planting trees. Hassana had a line of Jatropha already planted on his soon to be fence line. We ended up planting about 50 trees total i think. A line cashews along the line of Jatropha and the actual Mangos in the field. It was really rewarding seeing these guys going into the ground. They had been left in the nursery a bit long and were huge because of it but should go really well.
So after that was done i headed back to Kédougou to sort out the end of my SPA grant which still hadn't been taken care of. Pain in the ass but needed to be taken care of. A couple of things were going on when i got back that were of note. Michelle, a 3rd year from Mali was getting married to her host brother on our year anniversary of being in country. All the volunteers got done up and went down to the mayors office to witness the ceremony. we did up a charet so it said just married and had cans running off the back. It was a nice touch. We all hang out at the PC house after that. Huge thunderstorm kicks in while we are sitting there eating a bunch of american food that the guys from netlife left us after the mosquito net distribution. I leave in the middle of the thunderstorm to go home. It was fun walking in the torrential down pour. Manage to kill my phone in the process though so it wasn't all that good.
That brings me up to my Dakar trip as i leave the day after that at 5 in the morning on the Nikolo Transport. Kinda leave a few days early for whatever reason. Make good time id say on the road there. i think we got there by 5 or 6. I missed getting to see the newbies though which doesn't really matter as they'll be here soon enough. So dakar. had a good time. Got to hang out with Ian, Phulbright Phil, Oliver, Meg, and even a de-misters. It was a good time. Got mid service out of the way, got two cavities filled, talked to Manning again about anything and everything, and went drinking every night i was there. And i wonder how I'm broke. Kevin was there for all of this as well as his mother was coming to Senegal during all this as well. nice lady, seemed to be not fazed at all by the sights and sounds of africa.
So when we get back to kédougou, its back to life as usual i guess. The summer camp that i put 500 thousand CFA towards was getting ready to kick off. Wait a min thats where all my money went! and the regional house was overflowing with people, volunteers, counselor, and organizers. Not really my kind of place. Heads not in the right place for a shit ton of people all running around like they're ubber important. Well they all take off for Dindefello finally and I start fixing bikes. There's a bunch of people coming down to Kédougou in the following weeks that want bikes so we need working ones. The fact that peoples real bikes are in shitty condition means that most of the house bikes we have been commandeered. So basically I'm fixing peoples bikes that have been sitting around for weeks on end in the rain.
During all this i have to run Counterpart workshop money out to two sites in the Fungolimbi area for the newbies counterparts. Basically the newbies counterparts go to Thiés, meet their volunteers, and get a rundown of what all is expected of them. To do this they need some travel allowance. so i ran out to Koboye and Tougé to do this. had to go twice as the first time the Tougé folk weren't there and i had to come back. The Koboye folk were and i got to deliver that and then hike down a Mt. with my bike on my back. Not fun but fun at the same time. Absolutely gorgeous site Koboye. Sitting on the edge of cliffs that look down into senegal while backing into the Mts. of Guinée. So like i said i had to come back another day for the Tougé folk as they weren't there. Tried the next day but the ferry that runs you across the bridge was broken and i had to wait. The day after that i was able to go but quite late as a rainstorm rolled in and delayed my departure. Because of this i was on a time limit for how long my trip could take. The ferry stops running at 6 or 7. I cant remember exactly but what ever time it was i rolled up to the ferry exactly on time. I ended up waiting a while for it to cross and come and get me. While waiting a talked to a bunch of the others who were waiting with me. A few others rolled up while we were waiting and were very impressed by a. how fast i was moving and b. my bike. Everyone here loves my bike. its kinda funny but its just something that they are completely blown away by.
So that kinda brings us up to now. American Football has started again. Amazing that a year has rolled by again. Camp is over and a bunch of people are out at another waterfall as a kinda b-day celebration/camp over kinda thing. Newbies get here the 18/19th, bike trip the 28th,
hmm what else... thats about all i got for now.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Grafting Seminars
As I sat riding back into Kédougou from the last grafting seminar we organized down here, a number of things were buzzing around my head. Its amazing what a bike ride across Senegal's newly greened landscape can do to clear your head. The road between Kédougou
and Djakaba, where the last grafting seminar had just finished, is brand new and you can practically fly on it. This tarmaced piece of heaven allows you to drift off to your own little world where you're doing whatever you want. For me that could be anything from going for a ride back home to relax, racing in the Tour de France (and getting smoked by Lance Armstrong and his successor Alberto Contador, both huge badasses this year by the way) or just getting away from site to enjoy the much anticipated arrival of the rainy season. The change that has taken place because of that rain is truly phenomenal. This ride, while to the north of Kédougou, completely blindsided me in that I remember quite clearly riding that same route after install and being very put off of this region to the north. Sarraya? Malinke, NO pulaar, no thank you! Ugly language and Ugly land, not for me. The Malinke's can keep it for all I care as I just didn't see what they saw
in it. How wrong was I. Two different worlds and its absolutely beautiful now.
This ride, the recent mosquito net distribution in that same area, and a few other recent events have reaffirmed my desire to continue to explore and enjoy this completely amazing region as well as the rest of the country. The transformation from a blurry non dispirit brown haze down a bumpy makeshift dirt construction road, to a vibrant overpowering blast of green along a brand new smooth super highway was amazing. Maybe its not a super highway but it is pretty badass in these parts. With just a small amount of time passing, the complete make up of this area as well as my mentality has been completely reversed. Saraya and Kédougou as a whole have been transformed into this green paradise that I was warned about when we demisted down here almost a year ago now. Of course I naively said 'yea Im sure it'll get greener then this', as it was pretty green then. Naive like I said. Its amazing how time has flown by since then, as things have gone up and down since those days of PST.
With the completion of these grafting seminars here in Kédougou, I think a number of things have been learned. The trainer we used for all of these seminars, Demba (not the one we all know and love up in Dah-Kar), but Demba Samoura of Kédougou, was great. Absolutely wonderful resource for these seminars as he speaks Wolof, Pulaar, and Malinke. It is an interesting mix of languages and his ability to teach mango farmers the techniques of grafting as well as how to out plant and set up an orchard is irreplaceable. The four sites we used for this were well spaced within the region, with the goal being trying to cover main hubs throughout region. The first day was out in Dimboli and after a few kinks went really smoothly, the local militia even showed up, oh wait that was just the Eaux et Foret agent who loves to look like he is out on patrol stoping the guinean army from invading! Got to love those uniforms and the complete lack of local language skills. Everyone was really interested and I feel like they really learned a lot from the practice they received in Momadou Diallo's field (yea theres only one MD in these neck of the woods). As arranged, at the end of the seminar, everyone received about 10 scions to take back to their fields to graft their own mangos. This was twofold in importance as they got to teach others in their villages as well graft their own trees. A couple of the guys who came, left immediately after lunch to go back to Fungolimbi and their fields to get started grafting immediately. Development at work, craziness!
The second seminar was out in Thjibedji the next day which I did not go to as two other volunteers were there. I hear that everything went smoothly there with Jordan Welty and Sheila McAtee having everything more than under control. That brings us up to my home site and the seminar there. I think it got progressively smoother for Demba as the week went on as he got better with his Pulaar, he is a native Malinke speaker. So Between my counterpart who attended, Demba, and my host dad, we had a explosion of knowledge and personalities at work. It was awesome! My dad was a Sodefedex
agent for like 20yrs and has a radio show here in Kédougou for agriculture and is a big personality down here. Everywhere I go people know my dad its crazy and very helpful for work. Karumba, my counterpart, has been working with Peace Corps for at least 6yrs and knows about every technique we teach. So with these three guys leading the seminar every possible aspect that could have been covered, was, and by qualified people as well. Fertilizer, out-planting, furadin, orchard setup, windbreaks, live-fencing, like I said anything and everything. It was great. Did I mention my host family loves hosting people? Oh yea they love it, food to die for, tea served by my sisters throughout the discussion as well as ice water, absolutely top notch. Yea I live in a bigger town and it has its pluses. More than anything I owe my family for being so cool about this whole day, they kicked ass.
The demonstration in my counterparts field, which is literally across the road from my house, went really well. We started off with some practice on some branches of a huge mango tree in the center of his field and then the practical implementation on young mangos once people got the hang of the technique. The tongue and groove technique isn't that hard when described like the main branch is bambugoling the scion, thats carrying it on its back to non Pulaars. It clicked really well with everyone when he said that cause they could picture a baby strapped onto its mothers back and then replicate it so the scion wouldn't fall! Great time out in the field and I think everyone had a good time and learned a lot.
Had someone told me a year ago that id be in charge of a seminar like this I would have said they were crazy. Well to be honest this was all Boobs Dunfuxhers project, thats Andy Jondahl to anyone who isn't yet familiar with Mr. Boobakar. Some how my name ended up on the SPA grant form and then Andy left, so the Ag/Fo's and Aggies of the region were called into action.(maybe ill get reimbursed for fronting the entire budget soon, that'd be greeeaaat) Without
Kevin, Sheila, Jordan, Aaron and Kellen, it would not have been possible to complete this project. Progress has been made this year, I definitely learned how to graft more efficiently during this week, some really misguided folk seem to think my Pulaar is actually half way decent, and I have a better understanding on what is needed to organize a project like this. A year can change a lot and I think through the course of a volunteers first year of service everyone goes through different changes, ups and downs, and trying moments. But a years halfway to the finish line and its all downhill from there so to speak. So it can only get better after this right? Ill say yes, ignore the Talibes, half starved participants of Rhamadan, and bleating goats and sheep. Those goats and sheep are probably just Kevin and Aaron impersinations anyway.
and Djakaba, where the last grafting seminar had just finished, is brand new and you can practically fly on it. This tarmaced piece of heaven allows you to drift off to your own little world where you're doing whatever you want. For me that could be anything from going for a ride back home to relax, racing in the Tour de France (and getting smoked by Lance Armstrong and his successor Alberto Contador, both huge badasses this year by the way) or just getting away from site to enjoy the much anticipated arrival of the rainy season. The change that has taken place because of that rain is truly phenomenal. This ride, while to the north of Kédougou, completely blindsided me in that I remember quite clearly riding that same route after install and being very put off of this region to the north. Sarraya? Malinke, NO pulaar, no thank you! Ugly language and Ugly land, not for me. The Malinke's can keep it for all I care as I just didn't see what they saw
in it. How wrong was I. Two different worlds and its absolutely beautiful now.This ride, the recent mosquito net distribution in that same area, and a few other recent events have reaffirmed my desire to continue to explore and enjoy this completely amazing region as well as the rest of the country. The transformation from a blurry non dispirit brown haze down a bumpy makeshift dirt construction road, to a vibrant overpowering blast of green along a brand new smooth super highway was amazing. Maybe its not a super highway but it is pretty badass in these parts. With just a small amount of time passing, the complete make up of this area as well as my mentality has been completely reversed. Saraya and Kédougou as a whole have been transformed into this green paradise that I was warned about when we demisted down here almost a year ago now. Of course I naively said 'yea Im sure it'll get greener then this', as it was pretty green then. Naive like I said. Its amazing how time has flown by since then, as things have gone up and down since those days of PST.
With the completion of these grafting seminars here in Kédougou, I think a number of things have been learned. The trainer we used for all of these seminars, Demba (not the one we all know and love up in Dah-Kar), but Demba Samoura of Kédougou, was great. Absolutely wonderful resource for these seminars as he speaks Wolof, Pulaar, and Malinke. It is an interesting mix of languages and his ability to teach mango farmers the techniques of grafting as well as how to out plant and set up an orchard is irreplaceable. The four sites we used for this were well spaced within the region, with the goal being trying to cover main hubs throughout region. The first day was out in Dimboli and after a few kinks went really smoothly, the local militia even showed up, oh wait that was just the Eaux et Foret agent who loves to look like he is out on patrol stoping the guinean army from invading! Got to love those uniforms and the complete lack of local language skills. Everyone was really interested and I feel like they really learned a lot from the practice they received in Momadou Diallo's field (yea theres only one MD in these neck of the woods). As arranged, at the end of the seminar, everyone received about 10 scions to take back to their fields to graft their own mangos. This was twofold in importance as they got to teach others in their villages as well graft their own trees. A couple of the guys who came, left immediately after lunch to go back to Fungolimbi and their fields to get started grafting immediately. Development at work, craziness!
The second seminar was out in Thjibedji the next day which I did not go to as two other volunteers were there. I hear that everything went smoothly there with Jordan Welty and Sheila McAtee having everything more than under control. That brings us up to my home site and the seminar there. I think it got progressively smoother for Demba as the week went on as he got better with his Pulaar, he is a native Malinke speaker. So Between my counterpart who attended, Demba, and my host dad, we had a explosion of knowledge and personalities at work. It was awesome! My dad was a Sodefedex
agent for like 20yrs and has a radio show here in Kédougou for agriculture and is a big personality down here. Everywhere I go people know my dad its crazy and very helpful for work. Karumba, my counterpart, has been working with Peace Corps for at least 6yrs and knows about every technique we teach. So with these three guys leading the seminar every possible aspect that could have been covered, was, and by qualified people as well. Fertilizer, out-planting, furadin, orchard setup, windbreaks, live-fencing, like I said anything and everything. It was great. Did I mention my host family loves hosting people? Oh yea they love it, food to die for, tea served by my sisters throughout the discussion as well as ice water, absolutely top notch. Yea I live in a bigger town and it has its pluses. More than anything I owe my family for being so cool about this whole day, they kicked ass.The demonstration in my counterparts field, which is literally across the road from my house, went really well. We started off with some practice on some branches of a huge mango tree in the center of his field and then the practical implementation on young mangos once people got the hang of the technique. The tongue and groove technique isn't that hard when described like the main branch is bambugoling the scion, thats carrying it on its back to non Pulaars. It clicked really well with everyone when he said that cause they could picture a baby strapped onto its mothers back and then replicate it so the scion wouldn't fall! Great time out in the field and I think everyone had a good time and learned a lot.
Had someone told me a year ago that id be in charge of a seminar like this I would have said they were crazy. Well to be honest this was all Boobs Dunfuxhers project, thats Andy Jondahl to anyone who isn't yet familiar with Mr. Boobakar. Some how my name ended up on the SPA grant form and then Andy left, so the Ag/Fo's and Aggies of the region were called into action.(maybe ill get reimbursed for fronting the entire budget soon, that'd be greeeaaat) Without
Kevin, Sheila, Jordan, Aaron and Kellen, it would not have been possible to complete this project. Progress has been made this year, I definitely learned how to graft more efficiently during this week, some really misguided folk seem to think my Pulaar is actually half way decent, and I have a better understanding on what is needed to organize a project like this. A year can change a lot and I think through the course of a volunteers first year of service everyone goes through different changes, ups and downs, and trying moments. But a years halfway to the finish line and its all downhill from there so to speak. So it can only get better after this right? Ill say yes, ignore the Talibes, half starved participants of Rhamadan, and bleating goats and sheep. Those goats and sheep are probably just Kevin and Aaron impersinations anyway.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Trip to Dakar
So here i am in Dakar, whop-d-do really. been here since tuesday morning when we got here on the overnight bus from Tamba. Nice trip could have been a lot worse considering it was Senegalese public transport. So I came up to Dakar with Kevin and his two brothers from the village. Kevin wanted to take them to Dakar as they have never been past Kédougou. So they were very keen to know every little village that we passed through on the way to Tamba. It was kinda funny really.
So we left Kédougou on the morning of the 13th and rolled into Tamba around 1ish. I was lugging about 55 kilo's of Jatropha seeds with me in the attempt to get them to Kaolack for the volunteers there. When we get to the garage in Tamba i realize it would be a big pain in the ass as well as expensive to transport them all the way there by 7-place and resolve to leave them at the regional house for the next peace corps car to take on its way back north. Luckily there is a car coming down to Tamba with bed nets sometime in the next two weeks. So that kinda ended my dealings with Jatropha seed. I still haven't heard if its gotten down there, but oh well.
We make arrangements to take the Nikolo transport up to Dakar that night, the bus leaves at 10 and gets into Dakar at 9ish the next morning. Kills a night and you're in Dakar! Worked out well, the 4 of us were the first four on the bus and got great seats. The bus ride was uneventful luckily and we got to Dakar after a awful trip through Rufisquie in the morning. Rufisique is a town on the outskirts of Dakar that is really awful to get through. It took much longer than it would take if we were in the states or anywhere else.
We arrived in Dakar and went to Kevins Hotel to drop off our stuff and allow his brothers to relax a bit before heading out to explore the town. The Hotel is nice and the guy who was at the desk spoke Pulaar as well as the usual french and Wolof which was nice as we were able to talk to him quite easily. We relaxed a bit then took off to check out the sites of the area we were in. We saw the Presidential Palace and the changing of the guards which was interesting. The government buildings and the place de independence were the other two land marks we checked out. The place de independence is a big square that is in the heart of town. Also a landmark for volunteers is the Casino supermarket that is next to the place de independence. European/American supermarket, super nice and great to just wander around in. The two boys loved it and i think enjoyed walking around the town.
After this i head back to the Peace Corps Office to meet with the Med Staff as i told them i would. Of course by the time i get there around 1:30ish, its lunch time and i have to wait for them to get back. Not a problem as i have my laptop with me and they have wireless there. After lunch and my meeting with med i get to stay in the 'Med Hut' which is basically a section of the office which is for PCV's who are sick and need to stay at the office. Its really nice with AC, power, running water, TV, DVD's, everything! I basically hang out here for the rest of the night. While playing around on the wireless i find out that kevin had gone to the french cultural center for lunch and said it was great. I think ill head over there for dinner tonight actually.
Anyway I meet the guy whos in charge of the net distribution and who was getting my Jatropha seeds to Kaolack in the Med Hut as he had bronchitis. Kicked it there for the night and had a nice chwarma for dinner and ended up speaking pulaar with the guy who made it as he was from Conakry. It was nice to be able to speak a little pulaar here as usually no one really does.
So i wasnt scheduled to meet with med till the 16th so that meant i had 15th to myself. Basically that meant i would hang out with Kevin and his brothers. We went to Gorée Island and had a great time there. Got a tour guide and walked about the Island. Had lunch and relaxed before catching the ferry back around 3ish. We ran into another volunteer from Kédougou on the boat on the way over there with two of her friends from the states. It was a good outing and I think the two boys really enjoyed it as well. It was the first time that these boys had seen the ocean and been on a boat. Its really crazy that they hadn't been outside of Kédougou, it must have been something else for them to deal with all the sites and sounds of Dakar.
So when we get back to Dakar, I head back to the Med Hut to wash up and get ready for dinner. We decide to head to a restaurant that is known by volunteers that has really good food and is decently priced for the portions you get. We were told that you get huge portions so we decided that Chez Loutcha was our destination for the evening. So while I was washing up and getting ready, there was another guy in the Med Hut from the Gambia that was extending here in Dakar for his 3rd year of service. Spoke good Wolof hence he was allowed to extend there. Gambia speaks English so he doesn't know any french. Adam said he'd come with us for dinner. Nice guy and definitely knows Wolof well. As promised, Big portions and great food. Kay, her two American friends and two Dakar Volunteers were there as well, so it was definitely a winner for volunteers. It was a fun night and I think the boys again really enjoyed themselves.
So the 16th I meet with med and have a chat and agree to come back the next day again. After this I end up tagging along with Kevin as they were going over to Ngor island for a picnic and a afternoon on the beach. We take a pirogue over to the island which takes all of about 5 min. A pirogue is a traditional senegalese boat, only they tag on a Mitsubishi motor onto the end of it these days. Lots of kids were there as it is the summer holidays right now. It was fun and we got to swim and sit about on the beach for a couple hours. Very nice afternoon.
The boys decide that they want to go back to Chez Loutcha as they really enjoyed it. So we do that. This is their last night in Dakar as they head back to Kédougou via Kaolack the next day. Again good dinner, after they remembered my plate. We don't eat all the food again, but the boys while walking over to the restaurant see a homeless family and didn't understand what the deal was with that. Once Kevin explained the situation to them, they got a little quite. So as with the previous night, they took all the leftovers to this family. Very nice, very innocent they are.
So Kevin and the boys head off to Kaolack yesterday the 17th. While they are on the way back, I meet with a Mrs. Helen Manning for a chat. That goes OK and ill be back in Dakar at the end of August again for another chat, good times. After this I basically hang out for the rest of the day. There are a couple Kaolack volunteers hanging out in the Med Hut when I get back enjoying the AC and TV, and I end up hanging out with them and eating lunch with one of them who is a Ag/Fo down there. We go to the farthest point west in Africa for lunch. Sitting on the point eating ridiculously fresh seafood was great. Swapped hyena stories and generally had a good time. He had swam over to Ngor Island that morning and that left me really wanting to do that! There is a swim race sometime that is just that, that I think I will end up doing at some point while im here. But the rest of the day is just hanging out watching TV and dicking around online.
Towards the late afternoon, I get a call from the country director to see if ill be around as he was bringing some sick Gambian volunteers in. Yea ill be around thinking they were just in need of Dakar speciality or something. Well when they get her its a little more serious than that. So we kinda joke around in the PC about all the crazy shit you can get here during your service. One of the ones no one really thinks anyone will end up getting was this particular one. So these three volunteers have flesh eating bacteria in multiple spots on there bodies! Fucking crazy. They were being med evaced out to the states that night and were just hanging out till there flight left at 2 or something.
So I have company for the evening which was nice, as they were really nice folk. I walked with one of them who was actually just the wife of one of the two that had the bacteria to get pizza and had a nice chat about the Gambia and Senegal. Its a little ridiculous that the Gambia is there at all really, sandwiched in-between Senegal as it is. Ah well good old colonialism. Well they take off that night late to catch a flight back to DC to get the bacteria taken care of.
And that brings us up to today. I really haven't done a whole lot today. Sat around and watched the entire 4th season on the Office. Very funny. Went and sorted out why my American bank card didn't work. Having sorted that out went to the bigger Casino next to the office and literally wandered for about 20min wanting to get basically everything I saw! Ended up getting some stuff to make a good pizza back in Kédougou as well as razor blades for my mach3. Then back to the Med Hut to watch more TV and screw around online some more.
When I have finally worn myself out on TV I go for a walk to collect cactus pears I had spotted a few buildings down as a live fence. So needless to say my hands and arms are full of thorns while my hands are dyed red/orange from the juice. I should have a good amount of the seeds to take back to Kédougou. It'll be nice to finally be able to plant these guys as I had a batch of them from out in service training that I managed to lose. Either way ill get on that when I get back to Kédougou on Sunday/Monday. That brings us to now. I'm sitting around finishing this up and then debating about what to do for dinner. Not sure, I'm hungry though so I'm going to go figure that out.
So we left Kédougou on the morning of the 13th and rolled into Tamba around 1ish. I was lugging about 55 kilo's of Jatropha seeds with me in the attempt to get them to Kaolack for the volunteers there. When we get to the garage in Tamba i realize it would be a big pain in the ass as well as expensive to transport them all the way there by 7-place and resolve to leave them at the regional house for the next peace corps car to take on its way back north. Luckily there is a car coming down to Tamba with bed nets sometime in the next two weeks. So that kinda ended my dealings with Jatropha seed. I still haven't heard if its gotten down there, but oh well.
We make arrangements to take the Nikolo transport up to Dakar that night, the bus leaves at 10 and gets into Dakar at 9ish the next morning. Kills a night and you're in Dakar! Worked out well, the 4 of us were the first four on the bus and got great seats. The bus ride was uneventful luckily and we got to Dakar after a awful trip through Rufisquie in the morning. Rufisique is a town on the outskirts of Dakar that is really awful to get through. It took much longer than it would take if we were in the states or anywhere else.
We arrived in Dakar and went to Kevins Hotel to drop off our stuff and allow his brothers to relax a bit before heading out to explore the town. The Hotel is nice and the guy who was at the desk spoke Pulaar as well as the usual french and Wolof which was nice as we were able to talk to him quite easily. We relaxed a bit then took off to check out the sites of the area we were in. We saw the Presidential Palace and the changing of the guards which was interesting. The government buildings and the place de independence were the other two land marks we checked out. The place de independence is a big square that is in the heart of town. Also a landmark for volunteers is the Casino supermarket that is next to the place de independence. European/American supermarket, super nice and great to just wander around in. The two boys loved it and i think enjoyed walking around the town.
After this i head back to the Peace Corps Office to meet with the Med Staff as i told them i would. Of course by the time i get there around 1:30ish, its lunch time and i have to wait for them to get back. Not a problem as i have my laptop with me and they have wireless there. After lunch and my meeting with med i get to stay in the 'Med Hut' which is basically a section of the office which is for PCV's who are sick and need to stay at the office. Its really nice with AC, power, running water, TV, DVD's, everything! I basically hang out here for the rest of the night. While playing around on the wireless i find out that kevin had gone to the french cultural center for lunch and said it was great. I think ill head over there for dinner tonight actually.
Anyway I meet the guy whos in charge of the net distribution and who was getting my Jatropha seeds to Kaolack in the Med Hut as he had bronchitis. Kicked it there for the night and had a nice chwarma for dinner and ended up speaking pulaar with the guy who made it as he was from Conakry. It was nice to be able to speak a little pulaar here as usually no one really does.
So i wasnt scheduled to meet with med till the 16th so that meant i had 15th to myself. Basically that meant i would hang out with Kevin and his brothers. We went to Gorée Island and had a great time there. Got a tour guide and walked about the Island. Had lunch and relaxed before catching the ferry back around 3ish. We ran into another volunteer from Kédougou on the boat on the way over there with two of her friends from the states. It was a good outing and I think the two boys really enjoyed it as well. It was the first time that these boys had seen the ocean and been on a boat. Its really crazy that they hadn't been outside of Kédougou, it must have been something else for them to deal with all the sites and sounds of Dakar.
So when we get back to Dakar, I head back to the Med Hut to wash up and get ready for dinner. We decide to head to a restaurant that is known by volunteers that has really good food and is decently priced for the portions you get. We were told that you get huge portions so we decided that Chez Loutcha was our destination for the evening. So while I was washing up and getting ready, there was another guy in the Med Hut from the Gambia that was extending here in Dakar for his 3rd year of service. Spoke good Wolof hence he was allowed to extend there. Gambia speaks English so he doesn't know any french. Adam said he'd come with us for dinner. Nice guy and definitely knows Wolof well. As promised, Big portions and great food. Kay, her two American friends and two Dakar Volunteers were there as well, so it was definitely a winner for volunteers. It was a fun night and I think the boys again really enjoyed themselves.
So the 16th I meet with med and have a chat and agree to come back the next day again. After this I end up tagging along with Kevin as they were going over to Ngor island for a picnic and a afternoon on the beach. We take a pirogue over to the island which takes all of about 5 min. A pirogue is a traditional senegalese boat, only they tag on a Mitsubishi motor onto the end of it these days. Lots of kids were there as it is the summer holidays right now. It was fun and we got to swim and sit about on the beach for a couple hours. Very nice afternoon.
The boys decide that they want to go back to Chez Loutcha as they really enjoyed it. So we do that. This is their last night in Dakar as they head back to Kédougou via Kaolack the next day. Again good dinner, after they remembered my plate. We don't eat all the food again, but the boys while walking over to the restaurant see a homeless family and didn't understand what the deal was with that. Once Kevin explained the situation to them, they got a little quite. So as with the previous night, they took all the leftovers to this family. Very nice, very innocent they are.
So Kevin and the boys head off to Kaolack yesterday the 17th. While they are on the way back, I meet with a Mrs. Helen Manning for a chat. That goes OK and ill be back in Dakar at the end of August again for another chat, good times. After this I basically hang out for the rest of the day. There are a couple Kaolack volunteers hanging out in the Med Hut when I get back enjoying the AC and TV, and I end up hanging out with them and eating lunch with one of them who is a Ag/Fo down there. We go to the farthest point west in Africa for lunch. Sitting on the point eating ridiculously fresh seafood was great. Swapped hyena stories and generally had a good time. He had swam over to Ngor Island that morning and that left me really wanting to do that! There is a swim race sometime that is just that, that I think I will end up doing at some point while im here. But the rest of the day is just hanging out watching TV and dicking around online.
Towards the late afternoon, I get a call from the country director to see if ill be around as he was bringing some sick Gambian volunteers in. Yea ill be around thinking they were just in need of Dakar speciality or something. Well when they get her its a little more serious than that. So we kinda joke around in the PC about all the crazy shit you can get here during your service. One of the ones no one really thinks anyone will end up getting was this particular one. So these three volunteers have flesh eating bacteria in multiple spots on there bodies! Fucking crazy. They were being med evaced out to the states that night and were just hanging out till there flight left at 2 or something.
So I have company for the evening which was nice, as they were really nice folk. I walked with one of them who was actually just the wife of one of the two that had the bacteria to get pizza and had a nice chat about the Gambia and Senegal. Its a little ridiculous that the Gambia is there at all really, sandwiched in-between Senegal as it is. Ah well good old colonialism. Well they take off that night late to catch a flight back to DC to get the bacteria taken care of.
And that brings us up to today. I really haven't done a whole lot today. Sat around and watched the entire 4th season on the Office. Very funny. Went and sorted out why my American bank card didn't work. Having sorted that out went to the bigger Casino next to the office and literally wandered for about 20min wanting to get basically everything I saw! Ended up getting some stuff to make a good pizza back in Kédougou as well as razor blades for my mach3. Then back to the Med Hut to watch more TV and screw around online some more.
When I have finally worn myself out on TV I go for a walk to collect cactus pears I had spotted a few buildings down as a live fence. So needless to say my hands and arms are full of thorns while my hands are dyed red/orange from the juice. I should have a good amount of the seeds to take back to Kédougou. It'll be nice to finally be able to plant these guys as I had a batch of them from out in service training that I managed to lose. Either way ill get on that when I get back to Kédougou on Sunday/Monday. That brings us to now. I'm sitting around finishing this up and then debating about what to do for dinner. Not sure, I'm hungry though so I'm going to go figure that out.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Yea ive been bad about this, so heres a recap
so its been a while, i know, what can i say. haven't really been that busy but I've been a little out of touch so to speak. So what all has been going on? I think it was back in april or may that i last wrote.
bunch has gone on,
went on a long bike trip ask about that ive got a write up floating around
Biked out to the Bassari Initiation festival out in Salemata. interesting time but i left before the ceremony actually kicked off on the second day so as to not bike back in the heat of the day/not be around 25 other toubobs
Tried to bike to Tambacounda and ran out of water with a 1/3rd of the distance left and hitched a ride with a car the rest and then picked up a stomach bug.
Champions league final, the best team won, what can i say. and then C. Ronaldo left, wanker.
Confederations Cup with the USA surprising the shit out of everyone by getting to the final and racing out to a two goal lead only to lose 3-2.
AIDS garden thing kinda is up in the air because of well im not really quite sure although my participation has been dropped to a minimum. wankers.
Biked some rice out a friends village about 20k out and back during the hot part of the day, not the best idea. dehydration's a bitch and I'm not the biker i was when i got here.
Checked out the pepiniere that we made out in Dindefello for a 500 mango orchard, looking good.
Birthday, not a fun day
Boss came to check out my work and was quite pleased with what ive got going on here.
my pepiniere at the regional house has a great germination rate and theres lots that will be out-planted from there
Visited Kevins site for the day and ended up finding a source for sizel plants, good find kinda made my day as when my boss came out for our site check up, he mentioned he wanted to find somewhere where he could get some for demonstration during the next pre service training.
Went out to Sheila's village as well and hung out there for a day to see what all she was up too there, got my wireless odometer stolen, not the whole thing, just the computer which is useless alone. assholes, that'll bring you down
Also working on getting a list of all the fields that current volunteers are working with to make a database for future volunteers to use.
iPod broke, africa wears down and breaks anything and everything, bye bye music on rides
giardic scists and persistent headaches, shitty literally, not fun and the headaches aren't going away
The decent of 50 other white people onto Kédougou (my site) is a great way to stress the hell out of someone, especially with a party and 5k to prepare.
Independence Day 4k Thomas and I organized went off great and was a great start to the 4th. 18th overall, absolutely smoked by the locals, of which it was basically military, firemen, and police participating. So they better be able to whoop a sick, skinny out of shape, toubobs ass, i was def the first toubob though my legs are still a little sore from that and i wont bother telling my time for those of you who care as it wasnt good. The winner was about 12min
And then the big party that Kédougou throws every year that i tried and failed to avoid. Not a good time for me particularly, avoidance and anxiety to the max moy´y´a mi anddi
Jatropha seeding out in Djakaba with Andy and some of the other new volunteers, which reinforced my belief that I'm losing my ability to bounce back from rides as I'm fried, it was a good ride though.
Have yet to hear back from the bank about my missing 200,000 cFa, so again that sucks, fuck banks
Tour de France season! Mark Cavendish is kicking ass and armstrong aint doing half bad as well, good time of the year from a sporting perspective. what a bunch of badasses, seriously the hardest sporting event in the world! Not only is it the season for this, but i can watch it as well! French TV, sat drinking a beer enjoying this past stage with one of the new volunteers, great time
Frogs! So when it rains frogs come out. Theres big puddles everywhere down the street, we wont mention the malaria, but the frogs are wonderful! absolutely wonderful, overwhelming almost with all their calls
Flooding toilet, well the rain also tested the architectural design of my douch which sucks as it failed miserably. The first mildly big rain and the damn thing filled up 2/3rds of the way with water, one more rain and im fucked.
In the future, i can look forward to these things
Organized a grafting training seminar for the region with Andy, 4 dates across the region in collaboration with the other ag/fo volunteers here in Kédougou. Beginning of august is when that goes on.
A bike trip to Kolda at the end of august, maybe further on down that road as well
a new pay period! losing out on that 200,000 kinda fucked me for this period
erosion control with my counterpart in his field and other fields of interested parties around kédougou.
New site mate in October, will probably know pulaar better than me but interesting none the less
beginning the getting back in shape process as its not as hot and i dont have babies living in my gut! WoooHooo for that one
New premier league season in august! alhumdeallah! im sick of real madrid buying everyone they see, the season needs to start
inchallah my head will stop wanting to explode most of the time, we'll see about that one
So its not all bad, but im not really having a great time at the moment, i was kinda waiting for something good to come along to write about, but alas not really happening. Everyone here is really nice though and keep my spirits up so what can you do right. Off to Dakar on monday to take care of some med stuff there, we'll see what they say. so were on a large scale recap this time, if anyone has any questions about anything in particular let me know and ill fill in the gaps if I've got the time. Ill be in touch if i feel like something fun and interesting has happened.
bunch has gone on,
went on a long bike trip ask about that ive got a write up floating around
Biked out to the Bassari Initiation festival out in Salemata. interesting time but i left before the ceremony actually kicked off on the second day so as to not bike back in the heat of the day/not be around 25 other toubobs
Tried to bike to Tambacounda and ran out of water with a 1/3rd of the distance left and hitched a ride with a car the rest and then picked up a stomach bug.
Champions league final, the best team won, what can i say. and then C. Ronaldo left, wanker.
Confederations Cup with the USA surprising the shit out of everyone by getting to the final and racing out to a two goal lead only to lose 3-2.
AIDS garden thing kinda is up in the air because of well im not really quite sure although my participation has been dropped to a minimum. wankers.
Biked some rice out a friends village about 20k out and back during the hot part of the day, not the best idea. dehydration's a bitch and I'm not the biker i was when i got here.
Checked out the pepiniere that we made out in Dindefello for a 500 mango orchard, looking good.
Birthday, not a fun day
Boss came to check out my work and was quite pleased with what ive got going on here.
my pepiniere at the regional house has a great germination rate and theres lots that will be out-planted from there
Visited Kevins site for the day and ended up finding a source for sizel plants, good find kinda made my day as when my boss came out for our site check up, he mentioned he wanted to find somewhere where he could get some for demonstration during the next pre service training.
Went out to Sheila's village as well and hung out there for a day to see what all she was up too there, got my wireless odometer stolen, not the whole thing, just the computer which is useless alone. assholes, that'll bring you down
Also working on getting a list of all the fields that current volunteers are working with to make a database for future volunteers to use.
iPod broke, africa wears down and breaks anything and everything, bye bye music on rides
giardic scists and persistent headaches, shitty literally, not fun and the headaches aren't going away
The decent of 50 other white people onto Kédougou (my site) is a great way to stress the hell out of someone, especially with a party and 5k to prepare.
Independence Day 4k Thomas and I organized went off great and was a great start to the 4th. 18th overall, absolutely smoked by the locals, of which it was basically military, firemen, and police participating. So they better be able to whoop a sick, skinny out of shape, toubobs ass, i was def the first toubob though my legs are still a little sore from that and i wont bother telling my time for those of you who care as it wasnt good. The winner was about 12min
And then the big party that Kédougou throws every year that i tried and failed to avoid. Not a good time for me particularly, avoidance and anxiety to the max moy´y´a mi anddi
Jatropha seeding out in Djakaba with Andy and some of the other new volunteers, which reinforced my belief that I'm losing my ability to bounce back from rides as I'm fried, it was a good ride though.
Have yet to hear back from the bank about my missing 200,000 cFa, so again that sucks, fuck banks
Tour de France season! Mark Cavendish is kicking ass and armstrong aint doing half bad as well, good time of the year from a sporting perspective. what a bunch of badasses, seriously the hardest sporting event in the world! Not only is it the season for this, but i can watch it as well! French TV, sat drinking a beer enjoying this past stage with one of the new volunteers, great time
Frogs! So when it rains frogs come out. Theres big puddles everywhere down the street, we wont mention the malaria, but the frogs are wonderful! absolutely wonderful, overwhelming almost with all their calls
Flooding toilet, well the rain also tested the architectural design of my douch which sucks as it failed miserably. The first mildly big rain and the damn thing filled up 2/3rds of the way with water, one more rain and im fucked.
In the future, i can look forward to these things
Organized a grafting training seminar for the region with Andy, 4 dates across the region in collaboration with the other ag/fo volunteers here in Kédougou. Beginning of august is when that goes on.
A bike trip to Kolda at the end of august, maybe further on down that road as well
a new pay period! losing out on that 200,000 kinda fucked me for this period
erosion control with my counterpart in his field and other fields of interested parties around kédougou.
New site mate in October, will probably know pulaar better than me but interesting none the less
beginning the getting back in shape process as its not as hot and i dont have babies living in my gut! WoooHooo for that one
New premier league season in august! alhumdeallah! im sick of real madrid buying everyone they see, the season needs to start
inchallah my head will stop wanting to explode most of the time, we'll see about that one
So its not all bad, but im not really having a great time at the moment, i was kinda waiting for something good to come along to write about, but alas not really happening. Everyone here is really nice though and keep my spirits up so what can you do right. Off to Dakar on monday to take care of some med stuff there, we'll see what they say. so were on a large scale recap this time, if anyone has any questions about anything in particular let me know and ill fill in the gaps if I've got the time. Ill be in touch if i feel like something fun and interesting has happened.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Its all Ups and Downs, Fuck the Downs and Bad Days
So Recently ive been busy with work running around the region of Kédougou trying to plant trees and keep my sanity in ridiculous heat. Had a little break last weekend when a Guinean musician came to Kédougou for a concert which was a great time minus the lost phone bit, but fun none the less. Something about the music here is just fun, makes you want to get up and dance around a bit. So much so i had to go both nights of the concert. The second night was cool as a friend of mine who speaks pullar like a native was called up and asked some questions in front of the au
dience in pullar and had the crowd rolling on the floor laughing. Too funny, everyone was blown away that he knew pullar that well. So that was a fun couple evenings. Before the concert we were hanging out at the hotel that has a pool here in Kédougou as there was a hand full of study abroad kids visiting and we were trying to keep them entertained. While kicking it there we actually got to meet Momadou yati golle( it means Momadou who doesnt work or something along those lines). Great time got my pic with him too. My host family loved that and now im called Momadou yati golle when they want to bust my chops.
So yea the part where i start to want to come home starts then. So this happens to corespond with easter as well. Im really not a big fan of easter, not since freshman year in college anyway, something i dont really participate in and dont get. Anyway, like i said i lost my phone, reason being i was ended up drinking way too much. Didnt realize that i was without phone till the four of us got back to the peace corps house. Being as inebriated as i was, i was talked into walking the like 1/2 hour back to the concert venue with one of the study abroad kids, little weird and awkward as i dont know this chick and find out she'd stepped on glass at the concert and still wanted to walk all the way back there, whatever. And of course i dont find my phone there and walk back rather let down. great times, to top that, i end up locking myself out of my hut when i eventually get home at like 430 in the morning. fuck that night. Even with that it was fun, it was just building up to my having a mild freak out and wanting to ditch it all and go home yesterday.
Adding to this is my host dad pulling me aside and having a little talk with me about looking after my things as he heard i lost my phone. I had told my family here about my little experience in Dakar after the soccer game but i guess they didnt quite understand the entirety of the situstion and seemed to believe that it was me being careless that led to me having all my stuff stolen. So my dad was lecturing me on why i should better look after my things here. Appreciated, sweet even, but unneeded and litte demeaning. i then had to explain that i had my locked bag, me being one of the few that didnt have anything stolen at the game, ripped off my back after we flee a car thats just hit 2 people. He wasnt expecting that and was a little taken aback by the full extent of that. Always fun reliving that fun experience. but whatever just knocks my head about a bit all this nonsense.
So yea concert was fun and the day after easter im immediately back out biking around kédougou doing pepiniere formations and demo sites which is great keeps your mind off things and content. Went out to a village where they want to put a new ag/fo volunteer about 17k out of kedougou and did a formation there all day with plans for a check up tomorrow. that was fun, my pullar is def way behind the other two guys who came with me and they did most of the talking, i guess i was just the technician or something(not that pepiniereing is that hard). It was good though got to swim in the river Gambia there, very nice and cool as it is getting really hot here. So the formation itself was a little ify, we basically had to sit around all day waiting for the chef de village to get people motivated to come and attend this. Very Senegalese and very annoying, adding to my kinda built up frustration. In the end everyone shows up and is very interested and has good questions. We leave planning on coming back like i said and matt and I head back for Kédougou. Still really hot out, even in the afternoon in the cooler part of the day.
So when we get back to Kédougou i find out that my friend kevin out in kafori hasnt left yet for site and decide to head out with him the following morning to help him with his pepinieres out there. Good times, hes got a really cool family, and kafori is a great site. We get two pepinieres seeded out there as kevin had already spoken to the farmers there and had them prepare the pepinieres as in fill the tree sacs and water them for a week so weeds will grow. It was good, good experience and very nice to get out of kédougou for a day. Unfortunately i think the bike ride back at the end of the morning kinda zapped me a little bit. In fact i think that might have something to do with my recent down turn in moods. Dehydration kinda sneaks up on you even when youre drinking shit tons of water. 110 is really fucken hot, and its really hard to stay hydrated in that. I kinda learned that in PST a little but i think this is another learning experience. Its not just water that your body needs, i found that out after of course.
So i get back from kafori and rack out for a bit, get up on time to watch man u vs fc porto, great goal by c. ronaldo by the way. good times feeling pretty good after that game have more work planned as i ran into andy when i got back and was planning on going out to laminia in the morning with him as its on the way to his site. I needed to check up on a some folk who i had given tree sacs to at a site of a old volunteer and trade some of them out for larger tree sacs. So basically day # 4 id be hoping on my bike and heading out to do something work related. Great as its again keeping me occupied and and happy. On the way out of town we stopped and meet with the commandant of eaux et forret here in Kédougou which was important as were supposed to be working with them in our tree work. Seemed like a nice guy, said he was game to work with us, we'll see how that works out. Anyway make it out to Laminia and drop off the sacs as the guy hadnt even began to start his pepiniere yet. Great, switch the sacs out and head on back to the Gou. I manage to get some more accomplished back at the regional house as well as we needed to organize the seed bank that we have there as well as take stock of all the tree sacs that we have there. Done and Done.
Now the day after this, i think is where i start to run my self down, but it is jsut kinda things building up. I end up going over to the Regional house to start a pepiniere there, good times, get 50 r so sacs filled and realize its like 1230 and i should stop as its fucken hot out. id been working without a shirt, bad idea, back got burned. Also means my body was cooking a little bit. I was only out in the sun for like a hour or two but it kicked my ass. I head home for lunch as it was getting towards that time of the day and chill out for the afternoon till it got cooler out. Thats kinda how most days are here. anyway by 430 i kinda start asking around to see if we can use the families charet, 'donkey cart' to go buy some wicker fencing for my douch/bathroom. Turns out that the charet has a flat and they need to take it to the garage to get it fixed. well my brother and i head into the market to get a cell phone cover for my new phone. get that after just giving my brother 1mil to go get it for me as the first couple boutiques we went to saw toubab and thought rip off. any way end up going to the garage after that to meet up with my host dad and the charet to see about getting some of that fencing so as to finally 6 months on have a finished complete hut. long and short is we got the crentin and head back and put it up. Done and dusted. Thinking that that day was one of the best ive had! Obviously not the case as the next day proved.
Next day matt the head volunteer here comes over to check it out and see about using the families charet and asks why the cement pad is covered by dirt? I dont know but say ill get it off. So I go down to the river with matt to collect smooth rocks for the douche and swim a bit, it is nice living next to a river. come back and chill a bit., then start removing the dirt thats on top of the cement pad. Oh but its like 1230 when i start ie really fucken hot. End up working in the heat for like the next two hours only to find that the cement pad is bowing and water pools on it. Not good, bubble burst. No finished douche. THe new stage is going to be installed and ill still not have a complete site. bubble well and truly burst. Not that its a huge deal, it was more of this should have been done 6 months ago kinda thing. My family of course comes and tells me to stop digging in the heat of the day and my stubborn ass declines as im almost done. So ive come to the conclusion that when i get dehydrated im ubber irritable and always in a pissy mood. so fast forward to the evening when matt comes over again to check out what i found to say that yes some more work needs to be done on it and that prob wont happen for the foreseeable future as im so fucken busy. the never ending project continues and im pissed. Also didnt finish the pepiniere i wanted to at the regional house or my houe that day either. So tag all this onto me having to sit in my back yard brooding listening to one of my little brothers get the shit kicked out of him for some unknown reason by my dad (not literally kicked but beaten). At that point i said fuck it what the hell am i doing here i could be sitting in a nice well conditioned room where its fairly illegal to do that kinda of thing to kids and people actually do good work. So yea i was feeling liek a big empty hole opened up in my chest, really shitty feeling and most everyone was back in site so i couldnt really go kick it and relax.
So after sitting there for a good 20min feeling this way i kinda phsyc myself up to go eat with my brother, oh yea to make me feel even better i basically eat by myself. I think ive already mentioned my dislike of that s i started out eating with the fam. And now heres where my science power of deduction comes into play. Im eating with my bro, lachery and maffay hako, pounded corn and leaf sauce, and i start to feel a little better. My brother doesnt like maffay hako so he always eats a little and then get cossan, sour milk to mix into the lachery. very tasty with the sugar you add in, ah ha a clue Sherlock! After dinner im feeling better and after the surgery cossan im feeling like a million bucks. Id run myself into the ground and basically all the underlying thins that are going on in my life surface and make me feel like shit. sugar and water. awa gassi! sugar water and dinner, im recharged and ready to run up a mt again. lesson of this particular sequence of events, the sun is hot. Fucken do like the locals do and dont do anything in the heat of the day without lots of sugar and water. So yea i wanted to go home yesterday, im sure everyone has that go on, and some of the underlying problems that surfaced havent gone away and wont for the foreseeable future cause im just a awkward son of a bitch whos got way too much going on at the moment.
Anyway today was productive and some work stuff has been semi sorted out. Checked up on the two pilot villages im working in with my counterpart and even got to check out the site where we're going ot try to do some erosion control (youd like that one dad), thats actually a decent orchard. Still need a bunch of sacs but was pleased to see that people had actually started to make their pepinieres and they didnt look that awful. Some even looked down right good. Also in the second site, we got orders for tree sacs from people who have worked with peace corps in the past. they basically know how to pepiniere and we just need to get them the supplies. so that was very encouraging. Up and Down, that just how these days go. what can you do? day to day week to week, and month to month. The new stage is here next week and were not the newbies anymore. Craziness. Well i think i can deal with situations liek that if they so arise again int he future, heres hoping they dont! it helps to vent to some folk here if they are around, and if not hop on the bike and ride till im tired. it generally works.
So work work work, thats basically whats on the agenda for this week. going to Tabakari for a follow up tom on their pepinieres, then wed help hassana and andy with a grant proposal for wulla naffa and then the Kédougou Regional Strategy from the 24-26 and the install dinner the 27th. lots going on. keep in touch ill try to as well if i dont go lose my mind to the heat first.
dience in pullar and had the crowd rolling on the floor laughing. Too funny, everyone was blown away that he knew pullar that well. So that was a fun couple evenings. Before the concert we were hanging out at the hotel that has a pool here in Kédougou as there was a hand full of study abroad kids visiting and we were trying to keep them entertained. While kicking it there we actually got to meet Momadou yati golle( it means Momadou who doesnt work or something along those lines). Great time got my pic with him too. My host family loved that and now im called Momadou yati golle when they want to bust my chops.So yea the part where i start to want to come home starts then. So this happens to corespond with easter as well. Im really not a big fan of easter, not since freshman year in college anyway, something i dont really participate in and dont get. Anyway, like i said i lost my phone, reason being i was ended up drinking way too much. Didnt realize that i was without phone till the four of us got back to the peace corps house. Being as inebriated as i was, i was talked into walking the like 1/2 hour back to the concert venue with one of the study abroad kids, little weird and awkward as i dont know this chick and find out she'd stepped on glass at the concert and still wanted to walk all the way back there, whatever. And of course i dont find my phone there and walk back rather let down. great times, to top that, i end up locking myself out of my hut when i eventually get home at like 430 in the morning. fuck that night. Even with that it was fun, it was just building up to my having a mild freak out and wanting to ditch it all and go home yesterday.
Adding to this is my host dad pulling me aside and having a little talk with me about looking after my things as he heard i lost my phone. I had told my family here about my little experience in Dakar after the soccer game but i guess they didnt quite understand the entirety of the situstion and seemed to believe that it was me being careless that led to me having all my stuff stolen. So my dad was lecturing me on why i should better look after my things here. Appreciated, sweet even, but unneeded and litte demeaning. i then had to explain that i had my locked bag, me being one of the few that didnt have anything stolen at the game, ripped off my back after we flee a car thats just hit 2 people. He wasnt expecting that and was a little taken aback by the full extent of that. Always fun reliving that fun experience. but whatever just knocks my head about a bit all this nonsense.
So yea concert was fun and the day after easter im immediately back out biking around kédougou doing pepiniere formations and demo sites which is great keeps your mind off things and content. Went out to a village where they want to put a new ag/fo volunteer about 17k out of kedougou and did a formation there all day with plans for a check up tomorrow. that was fun, my pullar is def way behind the other two guys who came with me and they did most of the talking, i guess i was just the technician or something(not that pepiniereing is that hard). It was good though got to swim in the river Gambia there, very nice and cool as it is getting really hot here. So the formation itself was a little ify, we basically had to sit around all day waiting for the chef de village to get people motivated to come and attend this. Very Senegalese and very annoying, adding to my kinda built up frustration. In the end everyone shows up and is very interested and has good questions. We leave planning on coming back like i said and matt and I head back for Kédougou. Still really hot out, even in the afternoon in the cooler part of the day.
So when we get back to Kédougou i find out that my friend kevin out in kafori hasnt left yet for site and decide to head out with him the following morning to help him with his pepinieres out there. Good times, hes got a really cool family, and kafori is a great site. We get two pepinieres seeded out there as kevin had already spoken to the farmers there and had them prepare the pepinieres as in fill the tree sacs and water them for a week so weeds will grow. It was good, good experience and very nice to get out of kédougou for a day. Unfortunately i think the bike ride back at the end of the morning kinda zapped me a little bit. In fact i think that might have something to do with my recent down turn in moods. Dehydration kinda sneaks up on you even when youre drinking shit tons of water. 110 is really fucken hot, and its really hard to stay hydrated in that. I kinda learned that in PST a little but i think this is another learning experience. Its not just water that your body needs, i found that out after of course.
So i get back from kafori and rack out for a bit, get up on time to watch man u vs fc porto, great goal by c. ronaldo by the way. good times feeling pretty good after that game have more work planned as i ran into andy when i got back and was planning on going out to laminia in the morning with him as its on the way to his site. I needed to check up on a some folk who i had given tree sacs to at a site of a old volunteer and trade some of them out for larger tree sacs. So basically day # 4 id be hoping on my bike and heading out to do something work related. Great as its again keeping me occupied and and happy. On the way out of town we stopped and meet with the commandant of eaux et forret here in Kédougou which was important as were supposed to be working with them in our tree work. Seemed like a nice guy, said he was game to work with us, we'll see how that works out. Anyway make it out to Laminia and drop off the sacs as the guy hadnt even began to start his pepiniere yet. Great, switch the sacs out and head on back to the Gou. I manage to get some more accomplished back at the regional house as well as we needed to organize the seed bank that we have there as well as take stock of all the tree sacs that we have there. Done and Done.
Now the day after this, i think is where i start to run my self down, but it is jsut kinda things building up. I end up going over to the Regional house to start a pepiniere there, good times, get 50 r so sacs filled and realize its like 1230 and i should stop as its fucken hot out. id been working without a shirt, bad idea, back got burned. Also means my body was cooking a little bit. I was only out in the sun for like a hour or two but it kicked my ass. I head home for lunch as it was getting towards that time of the day and chill out for the afternoon till it got cooler out. Thats kinda how most days are here. anyway by 430 i kinda start asking around to see if we can use the families charet, 'donkey cart' to go buy some wicker fencing for my douch/bathroom. Turns out that the charet has a flat and they need to take it to the garage to get it fixed. well my brother and i head into the market to get a cell phone cover for my new phone. get that after just giving my brother 1mil to go get it for me as the first couple boutiques we went to saw toubab and thought rip off. any way end up going to the garage after that to meet up with my host dad and the charet to see about getting some of that fencing so as to finally 6 months on have a finished complete hut. long and short is we got the crentin and head back and put it up. Done and dusted. Thinking that that day was one of the best ive had! Obviously not the case as the next day proved.
Next day matt the head volunteer here comes over to check it out and see about using the families charet and asks why the cement pad is covered by dirt? I dont know but say ill get it off. So I go down to the river with matt to collect smooth rocks for the douche and swim a bit, it is nice living next to a river. come back and chill a bit., then start removing the dirt thats on top of the cement pad. Oh but its like 1230 when i start ie really fucken hot. End up working in the heat for like the next two hours only to find that the cement pad is bowing and water pools on it. Not good, bubble burst. No finished douche. THe new stage is going to be installed and ill still not have a complete site. bubble well and truly burst. Not that its a huge deal, it was more of this should have been done 6 months ago kinda thing. My family of course comes and tells me to stop digging in the heat of the day and my stubborn ass declines as im almost done. So ive come to the conclusion that when i get dehydrated im ubber irritable and always in a pissy mood. so fast forward to the evening when matt comes over again to check out what i found to say that yes some more work needs to be done on it and that prob wont happen for the foreseeable future as im so fucken busy. the never ending project continues and im pissed. Also didnt finish the pepiniere i wanted to at the regional house or my houe that day either. So tag all this onto me having to sit in my back yard brooding listening to one of my little brothers get the shit kicked out of him for some unknown reason by my dad (not literally kicked but beaten). At that point i said fuck it what the hell am i doing here i could be sitting in a nice well conditioned room where its fairly illegal to do that kinda of thing to kids and people actually do good work. So yea i was feeling liek a big empty hole opened up in my chest, really shitty feeling and most everyone was back in site so i couldnt really go kick it and relax.
So after sitting there for a good 20min feeling this way i kinda phsyc myself up to go eat with my brother, oh yea to make me feel even better i basically eat by myself. I think ive already mentioned my dislike of that s i started out eating with the fam. And now heres where my science power of deduction comes into play. Im eating with my bro, lachery and maffay hako, pounded corn and leaf sauce, and i start to feel a little better. My brother doesnt like maffay hako so he always eats a little and then get cossan, sour milk to mix into the lachery. very tasty with the sugar you add in, ah ha a clue Sherlock! After dinner im feeling better and after the surgery cossan im feeling like a million bucks. Id run myself into the ground and basically all the underlying thins that are going on in my life surface and make me feel like shit. sugar and water. awa gassi! sugar water and dinner, im recharged and ready to run up a mt again. lesson of this particular sequence of events, the sun is hot. Fucken do like the locals do and dont do anything in the heat of the day without lots of sugar and water. So yea i wanted to go home yesterday, im sure everyone has that go on, and some of the underlying problems that surfaced havent gone away and wont for the foreseeable future cause im just a awkward son of a bitch whos got way too much going on at the moment.
Anyway today was productive and some work stuff has been semi sorted out. Checked up on the two pilot villages im working in with my counterpart and even got to check out the site where we're going ot try to do some erosion control (youd like that one dad), thats actually a decent orchard. Still need a bunch of sacs but was pleased to see that people had actually started to make their pepinieres and they didnt look that awful. Some even looked down right good. Also in the second site, we got orders for tree sacs from people who have worked with peace corps in the past. they basically know how to pepiniere and we just need to get them the supplies. so that was very encouraging. Up and Down, that just how these days go. what can you do? day to day week to week, and month to month. The new stage is here next week and were not the newbies anymore. Craziness. Well i think i can deal with situations liek that if they so arise again int he future, heres hoping they dont! it helps to vent to some folk here if they are around, and if not hop on the bike and ride till im tired. it generally works.
So work work work, thats basically whats on the agenda for this week. going to Tabakari for a follow up tom on their pepinieres, then wed help hassana and andy with a grant proposal for wulla naffa and then the Kédougou Regional Strategy from the 24-26 and the install dinner the 27th. lots going on. keep in touch ill try to as well if i dont go lose my mind to the heat first.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Yea ive been bad about this recently, but here ya go
So its been a long little while. Lots has happened lots is happening. Brief run down of the events that have transpired... After the eye clinic we had a work day at the regional house and cleaned the whole place up real nice. Also had a meeting about what is going on and what will be going on in the coming months. We ended up talking about the 4th of July, we hold a big party down here for all the volunteers in country.
Also had a meeting about an AIDS garden that i might be working on here in the near future down by the river. Its for people who are living with AIDS and is supposed to help supplement some nutrients that they are not normally getting.
Also went out to Tjibedji to visit Sheila for a day and hike around the hills out there, very fun got some good pics and had a great time. Shes got a new puppy who is rather cute.
The day after we got back we had the ag/fo conference and i was kinda fighting some kinda weird bug or something. Upon further review, consensus says it was dehydration i was fighting as i was running/biking too much without drinking enough. So that was fun for the conference but it was nice to see the rest of the ag/fo folk for a day or two and short of a few awkward exchanges had a good time while actually learning some interesting information for my work. Too bad it was only 2 days, would have liked to spend more time with some folk.
The day after the conference was over, Kevin and I hoped on our bikes and headed out to dindefello for the day to check out the waterfall and all that it had to offer. Dindefello is a very cool place, very pretty and great for hiking and camping if youre into that type of thing. We stayed at a nice campement there for like 4$ and had a great time hanging out. The next day we shoot out to the waterfall and then hop on our bikes to get back to Kédougou for the instal/COS dinner. On the ride back to kédougou we actually run into the Folk who were COSing as they were coming back from a trip to Guinea.
So kevin beats me back to kédougou as he found a short cut and i thought hed blown a tire or something and went back looking for him. i only bring this up as it has endlessly been brought up to me since as me getting soft and slow as kevin beat me back. he loves reminding me of this just to bust my chops.
The dinner was really good we roasted a pig and had a great time. Great food, we really know how to put a good spread out when we put our minds to it down here. So like i said it was a two sided shindig, newbies arriving for the first time and les anciene leaving for the last time. the newbies seem cool, three jahanky speakers. All three of them are over 6ft and all dudes. That makes for a grand total of about 20 people down here and 4 girls, yea what are the odds right! Oh and in contrast to that, tamba our nearest neighbors have 2 guys and the rest girls. So polar opposites basically. these guys seem cool and one of them os a cyclist, well more so then me and im looking forward to seeing how much better he is then me! They dont instal down here till the 28th as this visit was more for checking out their sites and meeting and greeting people.
So basically while they were off up north at their sites i was working down here in kédougou with my counterpart in two places, Sintiou Roudji and Jalaya, both within like 7k of kédougou. My counterpart and I basically handed out some tree sacs to motivated farmers in jalaya and are kinda still assessing the situation in sintiou Roudji but it looks like we'll be doing some interesting work in and around kédougou. Also have started visiting the Kédougou Eaux et Forets pepiniere. Its a sweet location next to the river and just loads of potential for some interesting tree work.
Started up my pullar classes again which i think will be a big help with my language. Although my tutor did kinda bust my chops for forgetting most of the stuff we had learned before i went up to Thies for IST. Ill get it back, im feeling better with the classes now anyway. I feel like the language plays a large role in good days and bad days. My theory is that you have varying degrees of good and bad days here, and the language plays a large role in that process. Well that and how awkward im acting around people, just kidding of course.
So the 4th was Independence day here in Senegal, 49 years of independence and it was kinda neat to see everyone all worked up down here. They had a big parade and everyone watched it. I bailed as the sun is hot, very hot and all this nonsense was going on at like 11-12. Far too hot to be standing around in the sun for really no reason. The day after independence day there was a Omar Pene concert here in Kédougou. he is a big Senegalese singer and it was a big deal he was putting on this free concert here. Long and short of it was that it didn't start till 12:45 and he only did a few songs so i bailed. I guess i didn't miss much.
I had my pullar class on monday and that was productive, djiby is a great tutor, so glad he knows english so well! End up getting invited to tag along with Andy and Hassana to Dindefello to check out his field there. We end up doing that the next day, good times, hes got a great field, lots of potential for some good work there. We'll see how things go.
Also at the moment there are US Department of Defense folk down here checking out projects that they are funding and are thinking about funding. Got to sit down with them with Kevin the other night and have a few beers. Weird hanging out with the full spectrum of Americans after being rather sheltered with the peace corps folk we hang out with here. Nice folk though, bought us some dinner. Its just so interesting seeing folk who are in the military, the couple times weve run into them here they all seem to be cut from the same cloth. Not a bad thing but very different for sure. They sure arent the guys i went to school with ill just say that, although its always nice to meet new types of people.
That pretty much brings us up to today, short of my little run in with a beard trimmer and a pair of scissors making me rather a lot cooler. shockingly short, the first words out of my tutors mouth when he saw me was i didnt realize that you looked like david beckham, not sure how to take that really as most people here think all toubabs look the same. Good times all round though working on a run of good days with only a few marginal ones sprinkled in there to keep things interesting. Ill try to keep on top of this blog thing a little more now that im back in a regular schedule and am feeling like ill have some interesting work shit going on to tell you all about. Stay in touch and ill do my best as well.
Also had a meeting about an AIDS garden that i might be working on here in the near future down by the river. Its for people who are living with AIDS and is supposed to help supplement some nutrients that they are not normally getting.
Also went out to Tjibedji to visit Sheila for a day and hike around the hills out there, very fun got some good pics and had a great time. Shes got a new puppy who is rather cute.
The day after we got back we had the ag/fo conference and i was kinda fighting some kinda weird bug or something. Upon further review, consensus says it was dehydration i was fighting as i was running/biking too much without drinking enough. So that was fun for the conference but it was nice to see the rest of the ag/fo folk for a day or two and short of a few awkward exchanges had a good time while actually learning some interesting information for my work. Too bad it was only 2 days, would have liked to spend more time with some folk.
The day after the conference was over, Kevin and I hoped on our bikes and headed out to dindefello for the day to check out the waterfall and all that it had to offer. Dindefello is a very cool place, very pretty and great for hiking and camping if youre into that type of thing. We stayed at a nice campement there for like 4$ and had a great time hanging out. The next day we shoot out to the waterfall and then hop on our bikes to get back to Kédougou for the instal/COS dinner. On the ride back to kédougou we actually run into the Folk who were COSing as they were coming back from a trip to Guinea.
So kevin beats me back to kédougou as he found a short cut and i thought hed blown a tire or something and went back looking for him. i only bring this up as it has endlessly been brought up to me since as me getting soft and slow as kevin beat me back. he loves reminding me of this just to bust my chops.
The dinner was really good we roasted a pig and had a great time. Great food, we really know how to put a good spread out when we put our minds to it down here. So like i said it was a two sided shindig, newbies arriving for the first time and les anciene leaving for the last time. the newbies seem cool, three jahanky speakers. All three of them are over 6ft and all dudes. That makes for a grand total of about 20 people down here and 4 girls, yea what are the odds right! Oh and in contrast to that, tamba our nearest neighbors have 2 guys and the rest girls. So polar opposites basically. these guys seem cool and one of them os a cyclist, well more so then me and im looking forward to seeing how much better he is then me! They dont instal down here till the 28th as this visit was more for checking out their sites and meeting and greeting people.
So basically while they were off up north at their sites i was working down here in kédougou with my counterpart in two places, Sintiou Roudji and Jalaya, both within like 7k of kédougou. My counterpart and I basically handed out some tree sacs to motivated farmers in jalaya and are kinda still assessing the situation in sintiou Roudji but it looks like we'll be doing some interesting work in and around kédougou. Also have started visiting the Kédougou Eaux et Forets pepiniere. Its a sweet location next to the river and just loads of potential for some interesting tree work.
Started up my pullar classes again which i think will be a big help with my language. Although my tutor did kinda bust my chops for forgetting most of the stuff we had learned before i went up to Thies for IST. Ill get it back, im feeling better with the classes now anyway. I feel like the language plays a large role in good days and bad days. My theory is that you have varying degrees of good and bad days here, and the language plays a large role in that process. Well that and how awkward im acting around people, just kidding of course.
So the 4th was Independence day here in Senegal, 49 years of independence and it was kinda neat to see everyone all worked up down here. They had a big parade and everyone watched it. I bailed as the sun is hot, very hot and all this nonsense was going on at like 11-12. Far too hot to be standing around in the sun for really no reason. The day after independence day there was a Omar Pene concert here in Kédougou. he is a big Senegalese singer and it was a big deal he was putting on this free concert here. Long and short of it was that it didn't start till 12:45 and he only did a few songs so i bailed. I guess i didn't miss much.
I had my pullar class on monday and that was productive, djiby is a great tutor, so glad he knows english so well! End up getting invited to tag along with Andy and Hassana to Dindefello to check out his field there. We end up doing that the next day, good times, hes got a great field, lots of potential for some good work there. We'll see how things go.
Also at the moment there are US Department of Defense folk down here checking out projects that they are funding and are thinking about funding. Got to sit down with them with Kevin the other night and have a few beers. Weird hanging out with the full spectrum of Americans after being rather sheltered with the peace corps folk we hang out with here. Nice folk though, bought us some dinner. Its just so interesting seeing folk who are in the military, the couple times weve run into them here they all seem to be cut from the same cloth. Not a bad thing but very different for sure. They sure arent the guys i went to school with ill just say that, although its always nice to meet new types of people.
That pretty much brings us up to today, short of my little run in with a beard trimmer and a pair of scissors making me rather a lot cooler. shockingly short, the first words out of my tutors mouth when he saw me was i didnt realize that you looked like david beckham, not sure how to take that really as most people here think all toubabs look the same. Good times all round though working on a run of good days with only a few marginal ones sprinkled in there to keep things interesting. Ill try to keep on top of this blog thing a little more now that im back in a regular schedule and am feeling like ill have some interesting work shit going on to tell you all about. Stay in touch and ill do my best as well.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
End of Sight Giving adn Moving On
So the clinic is about over and guess what, blindness cured world wide! oh yea thats how we roll in Kédougou. Of course its not but theres a lot more people who can see than at the beginning of the clinic. Basically it was for people with cataracts and there are rather a lot of people with that here. We had to turn away people with legitimate problems at the end just cause we were all booked up which was rather hard as these practically blind people had to be sent home with nothing. Not much to be done about that i guess. I will say that today when we were doing some for the post operation instructions and seeing just how ecstatic these people are now that they can actually see, it was worth all the depressing bits. People dancing as they were walking out and thanking allah and everyone in the room, they were truly happy. The last day for the clinic is friday morning for last minute post operation check up and then done. Weve stopped taking consultations as were completely booked up for the rest of the week and theres nothing more we can do. It was a good practice and i think everyone who helped out had a good experience, as corny as that sounds.
Theres still lots going on at the moment, we have a house meeting the day after the clinic and a ag/fo clinic at the end of next week where we get to brush up on some tech stuff and hang out with the rest of the ag/fo folk. should be fun, good people and they should be bringing seeds with them as well! so double cool. After that the new stage comes down for a visit and we get to see the replacements for the stage that COSing. and right after that is the Senegalese new years and our regional strategy retreat. So busy busy busy outside of actual ag/fo stuff.
With ag/fo tagged in im hopefully going to be checking out a couple things here in the next few days, a aids garden down by the river, a potential sight out on the road to dindefello, and check up with my counterpart on some promising leads for projects this year. So between regional helping out, ag/fo and keeping in shape, ive got full days! good times, now to actually accomplish something! ill keep in touch
Theres still lots going on at the moment, we have a house meeting the day after the clinic and a ag/fo clinic at the end of next week where we get to brush up on some tech stuff and hang out with the rest of the ag/fo folk. should be fun, good people and they should be bringing seeds with them as well! so double cool. After that the new stage comes down for a visit and we get to see the replacements for the stage that COSing. and right after that is the Senegalese new years and our regional strategy retreat. So busy busy busy outside of actual ag/fo stuff.
With ag/fo tagged in im hopefully going to be checking out a couple things here in the next few days, a aids garden down by the river, a potential sight out on the road to dindefello, and check up with my counterpart on some promising leads for projects this year. So between regional helping out, ag/fo and keeping in shape, ive got full days! good times, now to actually accomplish something! ill keep in touch
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
