So here I am in Tamba. So like i said i am stuck here till the 3rd. So new years eve will be spent away from site like planned, just not saraya with aaron. Sounds like we might go camp by the river for the night and have a good time there. But thats tomorrow and this is today. I guess my perpetual sitting around for the last 5 days was getting to me and i was going a little stir crazy. So even when I'm in kédougou i dont go for rides a whole lot but ill get biking in at least. Down to the boutique, the market, or the CTC. So this sitting around doing absolutely nothing was driving me crazy. So basically i got a good case of just being really really pent up. looking back on it i get this way when i dont have an outlet to go running or biking or something. Someway of blowing off stress. So i borrow a bike from the rack of bikes thats here in the regional house. Not the best bike in the world but the back brakes worked and the gears kinda worked after a min or two of peddling. The guard here is really nice and I've been drinking tea with him while I've been sitting around watching movies or fiddling with my GIS program. Incidentally thats not acutely going all that well as a few problems cropped up with the instructions. Thats a different story though. So im trying to get this 'loaner' bike travel worthy and the guard who ive kinda befriended just takes over and does it for me. I like messing around with bikes but he seemed perfectly willing to just go to town on it. So hes making tea as well as helping me and i get a little shot glass of tea before i head off.
yeah thats how tea is done here. So its not english tea or iced tea like they have in the states. Its chinese green tea i think the box said. Although it said this its really strong so im a little skeptical, ill have a look at the box next time. But the way drinking tea works here is that you are served the first glass of tea, there are three, in a little shot glass with a bunch of foam on top. Now the foam is very important and the maker goes to quite a bit of length to make sure there is a good head of foam in each shot glass for all three doses of tea. This is done by pouring about a shot glass worth of the tea back and forth between the two glasses from a decent height. Once that is done and a nice head of foam is on each glass the preparer tries it and then fills the cup up and you drink. Its a good time killer as they usually cook the tea over charcoal. But this is done three times with the same batch of tea with lots of sugar. So over the course of the three glasses you end up getting weaker and weaker tea. Its good though and everyone here loves it. yea so its also kinda impolite to drink one cup of tea and then leave. Generally if you start drinking tea you should stick around for all three, but two sometimes is ok. But yea i figured id explain that as i drink a lot of tea. Being the local celeb i pretty much get the first or second glass when theres a group every time. its neat.
But yea that was a tangent. So i kinda break the rules and leave after the first glass, but the guard understood as i wanted to get my ride in before dark. And so i take off on my ride. I heard from one of the volunteers here that if you just head north on the main road you leave tamba pretty quick and are out in the country side again. I figured that would be my best bet and head off that way. it takes me about 40 min to get out to a little town called Thiawor or something like that. THe road out there was interesting. IT started out quite big and well traveled but narrowed down adn became more like a big trail then a road. It was neat though and i was able to enjoy the countryside rather then the small confines of the tamba regional house as nice as that is. So from there i go 20min further north from there which has the road deteriorate even more but still very accessible. After another 20min i decide to stop and turn around as i dont really feel like getting stuck out in the bush in the dark like i have done in the past. Right before i head back i stop and have a drink of water and relax a little and just take in the surroundings. Dead quite minus a few birds calling. It was great it made a wonderful change from Tamba which is considerably bigger then kédougou and a lot louder. The quite was nice and well worth the ride. So the ride back was nice also very relaxing minus the wonderful senegalese driver who look at me like im crazy as theyre rolling up the wrong side of the road/trail(in donkey/horse charets of course, saw one car only, very nice.
But yea in tamba thats the highlight so far really, which is a little bit of a letdown but i am stuck here so not a lot of high expectations. And considering i had pretty much sat around the house minus going to the internet a few times i was very relieved to have an activity to occupy my time, especially something i like. Well hopefully my new years eve will be better and ill be able to report back on that in a day or so.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Sunday, December 28, 2008
stuck in tamba
so yea we were in touch with the safety and security coordinator and i guess were stuck here till the 3rd. Not fun but i guess some guns were stolen form the military and theyre trying to track them down. Ill hopefully be back soon, keep you informed
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Rioting Good Christmas
12/25
So im sitting here in Tamba's movie room on watching a great B movie classic, Army of Darkness. Wow what a movie. Well any way this is my christmas entry as it is x-mas. So some interesting things happening here in senegal. Lets start from the beginning shall we.
So on the 22rd shelia came into kédougou for xmas and everything seems normal in town. Thomas tells us that the student youth in the town hold a meeting that evening to plan a march to protest the lack of jobs in the region and this combined with the fact that the students in the schools were striking because the teachers were striking because they hadn't been paid. So this was supposed to be a peaceful march Thomas's host sister had informed him when he specifically asked if they were going to burn things. So yeah that ought to get you thinking about how this ends up!
So the 23rd rolls round and i go into the CTC to go to the internet cafe with Shelia. We take off and head down the main road thats right outside the regional house and runs into town. We take off down the road and i can see 3 big plumes of smoke up off in near distance. Its not that unfamiliar here as lots of people burn their scrub grass and fields here quite regularly. So we keep going on down the road and thinking that this was normal until we start seeing lots of youngish students in the streets. again not that unheard of as the students do strike and they were this day. So we keep going until we come around a gentle turn in the road and are confronted with a large mob of students burning tires and the house next to the christian school, the car next to it and were in the process of setting more fires to the brush next to the road we were on. It was at this point that we decide that its best to turn around and head to the other Cyber on the other side of town. So we take off and head back, passing the military base where it is clear the troops are mustering to take care of the situation.
We get to the other cyber fine not passing anything looking remotely violent or threatening. We find out at this point at the cyber that the president of guinea has died and the government has taken control of the country and suspended the constitution. good times. I manage to get off my email to my trees for the future counterpart who wanted to know about my counterparts field and what had worked from the last year and what hadn't. Unfortunately the day before a 1/8th of my counterparts field here in kédougou was burned by accident, yay cigarette butts. So that kinda gives me a significant amount of work to do now as everything that was there needs to be replanted. But more on how ill have lots of work in a little bit.
So we make it back to the CTC fine after this as the power gets cut to the entire town and we leave the cyber. When we get back we let everyone know to stay away from town and stay put in the CTC as gun shots are being heard now from the CTC. So basically we end up staying there for the rest of the day as we kinda figure its not safe to be wandering round the town in all this. So we chill at the CTC not really having any news of what all was going on. We play catch in preparation for the west african invitational softball tournament in the field that peace corps owns behind our regional house. All the while we were doing this there were gun shots off in the distance and three big plumes of black smoke coming up from the center of town.
So after a while we head back to the kitchen hut and talk to some of the guards/workers that are at the center for news. It starts to trickle in now that some serious shit is going on in town. Rumors of the prefecture, and the prefecture's house as well as the tribunal and the governors office being burned makes us a little cautious. We let our safety and security coordinator know about what all is going on at this point and receive text's from the list server about the situation in Kédougou. Its now that we start making day bags in case we have to make a run to get out of town. We realize that we need to consolidate everyone in the here at the CTC in case we do need to leave and its now that we find out that one of the volunteers in the city is unaccounted for and not answering her phone. It turns out that she had gone to tamba and was safe but we don't find that out until we send one of the guards to go to her house to try and find her. By the time all this is sorted out it actually works out that he went out to look for her as he came back with a lot of information.
So when the guard got back this is what he had to say. The market had been attacked by the rioters, the police had killed one of the student rioters, marital law had been declared because all of the big government buildings had been burned, that the red berets had been flown in to help restore order, and that the road in from tamba had been shut down. So at this point no one is leaving the CTC even to go to the boutique down the road. So basically we spend the day talking to the guards and the workers who are building a new common area at the regional house getting info and just trying to keep light hearted. So another guard comes back in after going out to asses the situation with more news. The police station has been burned now and unofficially there are 4 deaths. All the while this is going on, steve wood out in togué has his family from america with him and was supposed to come back into town to leave that day. welcome to senegal!
To keep busy i decide to clean/orginize the bike shed which is kinda a mess from lots of use. In doing this i feel a lot better about being locked up in the CTC. While in the process of doing this i come across a box trunk that had gotten wet and who's contents were now completely moldy minus a few well protected/sealed items. This trunk was the old trunk that had all the board games in it until it got wet and moldy. Of the pieces that didn't get destroyed, was the pieces, cards, and instructions for risk. Being the macho dudes that we are, we all thought what a great idea it would be to make a map and spend our captivity playing risk. So that then takes priority, making the board and getting ready for dinner. I run back to my house right before the curfew thats been imposed by the military is implemented to grab a few things i need for the night, and am soo roundly criticized for being a wus and for being afraid and not spending the day there. This of course is all the while my family and brothers and sisters were at the riots in support of it. whatever i leave and head back to the CTC for dinner and a interesting night. Before dinner we come up with a shit hits the fan plan of action of how we would sneak out the back of the CTC and take our bikes down to the river to escape to dindefelo if really needed.
But nothing happened that night, minus matt beating the crap out of us in risk. The military had pickup trucks rolling around all night with three dudes in the back with m-16's and flack jackets ready for trouble. The next morning after talking to the guards, we find out that pretty much every brigade in eastern senegal was in fact in Kédougou. Also, and more importantly, the rioters had pretty much done a number on every government building in the town. So our friends and contacts at eaux et foret had their office burned out as well as, we think, the wulla naffa NGO who are partnered with USAID had a car at least and at worst their building torched. Their building is attached to eaux et foret so we kinda assumed it got hit as well. But none of this happened at night time, this was all at the end of the day the day before, so everything was pretty much calmed down by the curfew.
So we decide that we should go out and asses the damage from the night before as we were curious and were also wondering if there was still a risk. So we decide upon splitting up into smaller groups so its not a group of 6 white people walking around gawking at the damage. So i go with matt and shelia up the bandafassi road and try to go past the military camp and can see the two road blocks on the road on the way to the base. Were waved away from the street so as to miss the base where we had found out that all the families of the police and government were being protected there. while we were skirting around the camp we saw some guys sitting in trees, they were snipers protecting the base and the families there. We end up over by the cyber we ended up going to the day before, which is owned by the uncle of Matt's host family. it turns out that he has a nice garden that has potential for some ag/fo stuff and i go there a lot so potential.
So after stopping in there and making sure he was ok and his shop hadn't been looted we moved on down the road. Its down this road that the police station, hospital, and tribunal were on. So we come to the police station first. Shell of a building totally burned out, 5 cars burned out over 5 motorcycles burned out. It was really something else seeing it like that, i bike past it alot, almost everyday. We basically walk past to check it out but it looks calm there. We keep going down the road and come to the hospital. A couple lines of riot police are standing in the entryway to the hospital, with hundreds of rocks scattered in front of it where they had fallen from being thrown. We go in and talk to the head Dr. there so as to asses what was going on.
So as it turns out that one of the students that was killed was being held there and the families of the Dr.s and the hospital itself. So when we get in there the head Dr. says that they are going to have a meeting to settle whether or not they were going to shut the hospital or not. So we kept on walking down the street and get a call from michelle, the volunteer who was in tamba saying that she had come back to Kédougou and was at her house. So Matt tells her to stay there and that we would come and get her. As we keep walking we get to the main cross roads in town where the courthouse is and next to the burned out courthouse in the street where we need to go to get michelle is a large crowd of students facing down with the police. We skirt round it but as we start going around into the surrounding houses the cops cut and run and the military comes in. So now they are standing off against the students.
So nothing really happens, i guess they disperse, we book it into the neighborhood next to the street passing the busted up post office. It wasn't burned out though, just doors, windows, and large western union sign all busted up. So we make it to michelle's house and get her and instead of going back the way we came, we shoot down to the river to skirt round all the trouble. This works great and we make it back to the CTC just fine. When we get back we kinda hang out a bit and Steve Wood and his family show up having gotten a ride from a local. We hang out for a while and around lunch time everything seems pretty calm so i ask if i can go back to my house to grab a bag. I take off and get to my house and watch a little TV with my fam about all this. They all agree with the striking, maybe not the destroying but the reason behind it yes. I kinda bust their cops a little as they burned a bunch of our work partners and the courthouse has all the records of everything for the city. Also rumor has it they stole the money that was sent down to Kédougou for paying the people up at the sabodella mines. so thats a little ify.
But they make me lunch and after that i start making a bag when i get a call saying we are all leaving because the country director said we should leave the city. So i pack my bag and head back to the CTC and by this time everyone else is getting ready to leave. The country directors adopted son helped us arrange our rides. So two sept places show up in about 20min. So once thomas is back from his house getting things, we load up and head out. So its kinda a light hearted car ride, very uneventful, but we do end up passing 10 truck loads of troops and equipment heading in the opposite direction. But we get to tamba and the regional house to a nice x-mas eve dinner the tamba volunteers had made.
So today has been a pretty chill day, just sitting around watching movies. Army of darkness, dr. strangelove, a bunch of the rome series, and some of the bourne identity. Right now im sitting in a hotel next to the tamba regional house on some nice wireless. So yea getting ready for x-mas dinner away from home in rather odd circumstances. Hope no one else has anything even remotely close to this type of an x-mas experience. Merry Christmas from lovely west africa, weve got riots, coups and all sorts of fun!
Oh yeah nothing stolen, so its all good!
So im sitting here in Tamba's movie room on watching a great B movie classic, Army of Darkness. Wow what a movie. Well any way this is my christmas entry as it is x-mas. So some interesting things happening here in senegal. Lets start from the beginning shall we.
So on the 22rd shelia came into kédougou for xmas and everything seems normal in town. Thomas tells us that the student youth in the town hold a meeting that evening to plan a march to protest the lack of jobs in the region and this combined with the fact that the students in the schools were striking because the teachers were striking because they hadn't been paid. So this was supposed to be a peaceful march Thomas's host sister had informed him when he specifically asked if they were going to burn things. So yeah that ought to get you thinking about how this ends up!
So the 23rd rolls round and i go into the CTC to go to the internet cafe with Shelia. We take off and head down the main road thats right outside the regional house and runs into town. We take off down the road and i can see 3 big plumes of smoke up off in near distance. Its not that unfamiliar here as lots of people burn their scrub grass and fields here quite regularly. So we keep going on down the road and thinking that this was normal until we start seeing lots of youngish students in the streets. again not that unheard of as the students do strike and they were this day. So we keep going until we come around a gentle turn in the road and are confronted with a large mob of students burning tires and the house next to the christian school, the car next to it and were in the process of setting more fires to the brush next to the road we were on. It was at this point that we decide that its best to turn around and head to the other Cyber on the other side of town. So we take off and head back, passing the military base where it is clear the troops are mustering to take care of the situation.
We get to the other cyber fine not passing anything looking remotely violent or threatening. We find out at this point at the cyber that the president of guinea has died and the government has taken control of the country and suspended the constitution. good times. I manage to get off my email to my trees for the future counterpart who wanted to know about my counterparts field and what had worked from the last year and what hadn't. Unfortunately the day before a 1/8th of my counterparts field here in kédougou was burned by accident, yay cigarette butts. So that kinda gives me a significant amount of work to do now as everything that was there needs to be replanted. But more on how ill have lots of work in a little bit.
So we make it back to the CTC fine after this as the power gets cut to the entire town and we leave the cyber. When we get back we let everyone know to stay away from town and stay put in the CTC as gun shots are being heard now from the CTC. So basically we end up staying there for the rest of the day as we kinda figure its not safe to be wandering round the town in all this. So we chill at the CTC not really having any news of what all was going on. We play catch in preparation for the west african invitational softball tournament in the field that peace corps owns behind our regional house. All the while we were doing this there were gun shots off in the distance and three big plumes of black smoke coming up from the center of town.
So after a while we head back to the kitchen hut and talk to some of the guards/workers that are at the center for news. It starts to trickle in now that some serious shit is going on in town. Rumors of the prefecture, and the prefecture's house as well as the tribunal and the governors office being burned makes us a little cautious. We let our safety and security coordinator know about what all is going on at this point and receive text's from the list server about the situation in Kédougou. Its now that we start making day bags in case we have to make a run to get out of town. We realize that we need to consolidate everyone in the here at the CTC in case we do need to leave and its now that we find out that one of the volunteers in the city is unaccounted for and not answering her phone. It turns out that she had gone to tamba and was safe but we don't find that out until we send one of the guards to go to her house to try and find her. By the time all this is sorted out it actually works out that he went out to look for her as he came back with a lot of information.
So when the guard got back this is what he had to say. The market had been attacked by the rioters, the police had killed one of the student rioters, marital law had been declared because all of the big government buildings had been burned, that the red berets had been flown in to help restore order, and that the road in from tamba had been shut down. So at this point no one is leaving the CTC even to go to the boutique down the road. So basically we spend the day talking to the guards and the workers who are building a new common area at the regional house getting info and just trying to keep light hearted. So another guard comes back in after going out to asses the situation with more news. The police station has been burned now and unofficially there are 4 deaths. All the while this is going on, steve wood out in togué has his family from america with him and was supposed to come back into town to leave that day. welcome to senegal!
To keep busy i decide to clean/orginize the bike shed which is kinda a mess from lots of use. In doing this i feel a lot better about being locked up in the CTC. While in the process of doing this i come across a box trunk that had gotten wet and who's contents were now completely moldy minus a few well protected/sealed items. This trunk was the old trunk that had all the board games in it until it got wet and moldy. Of the pieces that didn't get destroyed, was the pieces, cards, and instructions for risk. Being the macho dudes that we are, we all thought what a great idea it would be to make a map and spend our captivity playing risk. So that then takes priority, making the board and getting ready for dinner. I run back to my house right before the curfew thats been imposed by the military is implemented to grab a few things i need for the night, and am soo roundly criticized for being a wus and for being afraid and not spending the day there. This of course is all the while my family and brothers and sisters were at the riots in support of it. whatever i leave and head back to the CTC for dinner and a interesting night. Before dinner we come up with a shit hits the fan plan of action of how we would sneak out the back of the CTC and take our bikes down to the river to escape to dindefelo if really needed.
But nothing happened that night, minus matt beating the crap out of us in risk. The military had pickup trucks rolling around all night with three dudes in the back with m-16's and flack jackets ready for trouble. The next morning after talking to the guards, we find out that pretty much every brigade in eastern senegal was in fact in Kédougou. Also, and more importantly, the rioters had pretty much done a number on every government building in the town. So our friends and contacts at eaux et foret had their office burned out as well as, we think, the wulla naffa NGO who are partnered with USAID had a car at least and at worst their building torched. Their building is attached to eaux et foret so we kinda assumed it got hit as well. But none of this happened at night time, this was all at the end of the day the day before, so everything was pretty much calmed down by the curfew.
So we decide that we should go out and asses the damage from the night before as we were curious and were also wondering if there was still a risk. So we decide upon splitting up into smaller groups so its not a group of 6 white people walking around gawking at the damage. So i go with matt and shelia up the bandafassi road and try to go past the military camp and can see the two road blocks on the road on the way to the base. Were waved away from the street so as to miss the base where we had found out that all the families of the police and government were being protected there. while we were skirting around the camp we saw some guys sitting in trees, they were snipers protecting the base and the families there. We end up over by the cyber we ended up going to the day before, which is owned by the uncle of Matt's host family. it turns out that he has a nice garden that has potential for some ag/fo stuff and i go there a lot so potential.
So after stopping in there and making sure he was ok and his shop hadn't been looted we moved on down the road. Its down this road that the police station, hospital, and tribunal were on. So we come to the police station first. Shell of a building totally burned out, 5 cars burned out over 5 motorcycles burned out. It was really something else seeing it like that, i bike past it alot, almost everyday. We basically walk past to check it out but it looks calm there. We keep going down the road and come to the hospital. A couple lines of riot police are standing in the entryway to the hospital, with hundreds of rocks scattered in front of it where they had fallen from being thrown. We go in and talk to the head Dr. there so as to asses what was going on.
So as it turns out that one of the students that was killed was being held there and the families of the Dr.s and the hospital itself. So when we get in there the head Dr. says that they are going to have a meeting to settle whether or not they were going to shut the hospital or not. So we kept on walking down the street and get a call from michelle, the volunteer who was in tamba saying that she had come back to Kédougou and was at her house. So Matt tells her to stay there and that we would come and get her. As we keep walking we get to the main cross roads in town where the courthouse is and next to the burned out courthouse in the street where we need to go to get michelle is a large crowd of students facing down with the police. We skirt round it but as we start going around into the surrounding houses the cops cut and run and the military comes in. So now they are standing off against the students.
So nothing really happens, i guess they disperse, we book it into the neighborhood next to the street passing the busted up post office. It wasn't burned out though, just doors, windows, and large western union sign all busted up. So we make it to michelle's house and get her and instead of going back the way we came, we shoot down to the river to skirt round all the trouble. This works great and we make it back to the CTC just fine. When we get back we kinda hang out a bit and Steve Wood and his family show up having gotten a ride from a local. We hang out for a while and around lunch time everything seems pretty calm so i ask if i can go back to my house to grab a bag. I take off and get to my house and watch a little TV with my fam about all this. They all agree with the striking, maybe not the destroying but the reason behind it yes. I kinda bust their cops a little as they burned a bunch of our work partners and the courthouse has all the records of everything for the city. Also rumor has it they stole the money that was sent down to Kédougou for paying the people up at the sabodella mines. so thats a little ify.
But they make me lunch and after that i start making a bag when i get a call saying we are all leaving because the country director said we should leave the city. So i pack my bag and head back to the CTC and by this time everyone else is getting ready to leave. The country directors adopted son helped us arrange our rides. So two sept places show up in about 20min. So once thomas is back from his house getting things, we load up and head out. So its kinda a light hearted car ride, very uneventful, but we do end up passing 10 truck loads of troops and equipment heading in the opposite direction. But we get to tamba and the regional house to a nice x-mas eve dinner the tamba volunteers had made.
So today has been a pretty chill day, just sitting around watching movies. Army of darkness, dr. strangelove, a bunch of the rome series, and some of the bourne identity. Right now im sitting in a hotel next to the tamba regional house on some nice wireless. So yea getting ready for x-mas dinner away from home in rather odd circumstances. Hope no one else has anything even remotely close to this type of an x-mas experience. Merry Christmas from lovely west africa, weve got riots, coups and all sorts of fun!
Oh yeah nothing stolen, so its all good!
Saturday, December 20, 2008
12/19
12/19
So I've started my gardens. Today I was getting ready to go to the center to say hello to a friend of mine who came in to Kédougou from Kafori and yelled at me from the road, when my aunt started asking me when i was going to make the garden i had been talking about for the past couple of days. Understandable as i had bought the fencing material for the plot and just needed to get to work on preparing the ground. So i had really been dragging my feet on this and her busting my chops kinda got me motivated. So i said i was going to do it today and that i was going to the center to get tools, which i then did. So i chilled at the center for a little bit and got to see Dan and Willie come in with the Peace Corps land-cruiser. Dan had with him a puppy that had been rescued from his douche. kinda disgusting but he was evidently OK and is doing fine now. He has been adopted by Hayes out in Bandafassi. But yea also with the Peace Corps car came a new stove. Very important for our regional house as we've a reputation to uphold with our cooking abilities. Well Matt's really but we all chip in. But its nice to have that and some other spare parts for bikes and the like.
So yeah anyway I borrow the pick and shovel from the center and head back to my house to start my garden. My brother Mamadou helped me with this and is probably as much mine as it is his. The kids a tank. So basically we had to turn up the soil to mix it up and then toss in some manure. So this involves picking the soil in the desired shape, which is a hell of a lot harder then it sounds as the ground is ubber hard and requires some muscle. Enter my brother who pretty much does this type of work for a side job. He was the guy who made a bunch of the bricks for my hut. So i try to pick with the pick from the center and get about three strikes in and the handle just snaps in two. Nice borrowed pick busted. Luckily, my bro Mamadou does this when hes not at school and has a nice pick we can use. So once we had mixed up the soil with the pick, the cows that pretty much wake me up every day come into play. Yay cow poop! So i thought that there'd be maybe half a gardens worth in their stye, if thats the right word. Wrong. We were able to get enough for two of the plots and then we stopped cause it was the hot part of the day, and boy could you tell. Ok so basically we dumped the manure on the plot and then double dug it into the soil. This involves digging a trench about 1.5ft-2ft down and depositing it at the back of the plot and then filling in the trench from the soil right next to it and then digging a trench where it had been. Continue this till you get to the end where you fill in the last trench with the soil you took out of the first trench. it works pretty well and mixes in manure and the soil in general.
So we stop for lunch at the hot part of the day and agree to come back at 4 to finish up the last plot which hadn't even been started. So i eat with my brother like usual in my room and then decide to take a nap as I'm kinda tired after my tiny bit of work from the morning. So i nap for about an hour and am woken up at about 20 till 4 by my dad yelling at my 5 year old brothers who are knocking on my door bothering me. So i forgot i had a pullar lesson at 4 so it actually worked out as i was able to go to it on time. But when i stick my head out my door and look at the garden there's the cart that was used to take my bags from the center to the house tipped up dumping a bunch of cow poop on the ground next to the gardens. so yea I've got a lot of cow poop right now. I think my brother knows where to get it too so its basically readably accessible manure for free! Very cool. Also sitting next to the cart is the broken pick with a new handle that has been clearly cut from a tree 'en bruce' (see previous entry for thoughts on procuring things 'en bruce'). So double cool.
So i head off to my pullar lesson which is cool, learn about egol verbs which are verbs that mean that the action is being done to you. Also how adding orgol in place of ugol, agol,and egol to the end of verbs means that you happened to do the verb or by chance you did the verb. So kinda neat to learn that. Also got roped into coming and drinking with our tutor tomorrow evening. He just moved here and doesn't have a lot of friends, but is a really nice guy. I've gone and drank tea with him before and he's a chill guy. So yea were doing that tomorrow/today as ill probably post this tomorrow. But yea so after class i go to Hassana's Hendrick's agriculture shop for a watering can and some seeds. He's the adopted son of the country director, who's family Im living with at the moment, and is in fact Hassana's extended family as well. So i pick up the watering can, some onion seeds and tomato seeds, and i know I'm not getting ripped off as he's family.
When I get back to the house I immediately get to work on the last of the three plots. Oh yea the dimensions of these are roughly 2m40cm long(the length of the crentin, woven fence that I bought ) by 1m width. So I have three of them in a row right now with a mound of soil in between them as a barrier. So i just get started on the last one by myself and Mamadou rolls by after I've picked half of the plot and finishes it up. Once thats done we work with the pile of poop. So basically the poop need to be broken up so it can be applied to the soil. So we've got a rice bag and some sticks for this. I start using the busted handle of the pick i broke thinking that its the perfect job for a busted pick handle. Of course it breaks again and i resort to the tools Mamadou gives me. But we get this all beaten up and it is pretty good for mixing in with the soil and we double dig it in. By this time we've got a peanut gallery. Basically all the little kids from the neighborhood are there watching the toubob work. But they were actually really eager to help and i got them working on the poop beating and we were able to spread some more manure on top of the other two plots.
So while all this is going on it starting to get dark and my uncle and host dad come over to watch and offer advice as my dads a big time farmer and my uncles been around it all his life. So once my uncle and dad see the work I've done they remember that when Chris Hendrick was living with them in Dindafelo 20 yrs. ago, he did a garden as well and they got food out of the deal. so basically i was offered the area right next to my three plots for three more to grow more food. So once that area is cleared out, as its a hell of a lot dirtier then the area i was using for the first three ill have a proper garden to look after. And yes the family will be able to get some good eatin out of it! But i think that thats a ways down the road as it'll probably be able to be prepared when my douche is done, who knows when that'll be done. So yea productive day and ill be able use all sorts of neat techniques in the garden to try out, as there's a bunch of natural insecticides and fertilizers i want to try out. Also with the three other plot i might try to do a pepiniere for around the compound. Options options options!
But i need to get back in touch with ethan and do some interneting so ill update again later when I've got something exciting to report, who knows maybe ill talk to some of you before then.
So I've started my gardens. Today I was getting ready to go to the center to say hello to a friend of mine who came in to Kédougou from Kafori and yelled at me from the road, when my aunt started asking me when i was going to make the garden i had been talking about for the past couple of days. Understandable as i had bought the fencing material for the plot and just needed to get to work on preparing the ground. So i had really been dragging my feet on this and her busting my chops kinda got me motivated. So i said i was going to do it today and that i was going to the center to get tools, which i then did. So i chilled at the center for a little bit and got to see Dan and Willie come in with the Peace Corps land-cruiser. Dan had with him a puppy that had been rescued from his douche. kinda disgusting but he was evidently OK and is doing fine now. He has been adopted by Hayes out in Bandafassi. But yea also with the Peace Corps car came a new stove. Very important for our regional house as we've a reputation to uphold with our cooking abilities. Well Matt's really but we all chip in. But its nice to have that and some other spare parts for bikes and the like.
So yeah anyway I borrow the pick and shovel from the center and head back to my house to start my garden. My brother Mamadou helped me with this and is probably as much mine as it is his. The kids a tank. So basically we had to turn up the soil to mix it up and then toss in some manure. So this involves picking the soil in the desired shape, which is a hell of a lot harder then it sounds as the ground is ubber hard and requires some muscle. Enter my brother who pretty much does this type of work for a side job. He was the guy who made a bunch of the bricks for my hut. So i try to pick with the pick from the center and get about three strikes in and the handle just snaps in two. Nice borrowed pick busted. Luckily, my bro Mamadou does this when hes not at school and has a nice pick we can use. So once we had mixed up the soil with the pick, the cows that pretty much wake me up every day come into play. Yay cow poop! So i thought that there'd be maybe half a gardens worth in their stye, if thats the right word. Wrong. We were able to get enough for two of the plots and then we stopped cause it was the hot part of the day, and boy could you tell. Ok so basically we dumped the manure on the plot and then double dug it into the soil. This involves digging a trench about 1.5ft-2ft down and depositing it at the back of the plot and then filling in the trench from the soil right next to it and then digging a trench where it had been. Continue this till you get to the end where you fill in the last trench with the soil you took out of the first trench. it works pretty well and mixes in manure and the soil in general.
So we stop for lunch at the hot part of the day and agree to come back at 4 to finish up the last plot which hadn't even been started. So i eat with my brother like usual in my room and then decide to take a nap as I'm kinda tired after my tiny bit of work from the morning. So i nap for about an hour and am woken up at about 20 till 4 by my dad yelling at my 5 year old brothers who are knocking on my door bothering me. So i forgot i had a pullar lesson at 4 so it actually worked out as i was able to go to it on time. But when i stick my head out my door and look at the garden there's the cart that was used to take my bags from the center to the house tipped up dumping a bunch of cow poop on the ground next to the gardens. so yea I've got a lot of cow poop right now. I think my brother knows where to get it too so its basically readably accessible manure for free! Very cool. Also sitting next to the cart is the broken pick with a new handle that has been clearly cut from a tree 'en bruce' (see previous entry for thoughts on procuring things 'en bruce'). So double cool.
So i head off to my pullar lesson which is cool, learn about egol verbs which are verbs that mean that the action is being done to you. Also how adding orgol in place of ugol, agol,and egol to the end of verbs means that you happened to do the verb or by chance you did the verb. So kinda neat to learn that. Also got roped into coming and drinking with our tutor tomorrow evening. He just moved here and doesn't have a lot of friends, but is a really nice guy. I've gone and drank tea with him before and he's a chill guy. So yea were doing that tomorrow/today as ill probably post this tomorrow. But yea so after class i go to Hassana's Hendrick's agriculture shop for a watering can and some seeds. He's the adopted son of the country director, who's family Im living with at the moment, and is in fact Hassana's extended family as well. So i pick up the watering can, some onion seeds and tomato seeds, and i know I'm not getting ripped off as he's family.
When I get back to the house I immediately get to work on the last of the three plots. Oh yea the dimensions of these are roughly 2m40cm long(the length of the crentin, woven fence that I bought ) by 1m width. So I have three of them in a row right now with a mound of soil in between them as a barrier. So i just get started on the last one by myself and Mamadou rolls by after I've picked half of the plot and finishes it up. Once thats done we work with the pile of poop. So basically the poop need to be broken up so it can be applied to the soil. So we've got a rice bag and some sticks for this. I start using the busted handle of the pick i broke thinking that its the perfect job for a busted pick handle. Of course it breaks again and i resort to the tools Mamadou gives me. But we get this all beaten up and it is pretty good for mixing in with the soil and we double dig it in. By this time we've got a peanut gallery. Basically all the little kids from the neighborhood are there watching the toubob work. But they were actually really eager to help and i got them working on the poop beating and we were able to spread some more manure on top of the other two plots.
So while all this is going on it starting to get dark and my uncle and host dad come over to watch and offer advice as my dads a big time farmer and my uncles been around it all his life. So once my uncle and dad see the work I've done they remember that when Chris Hendrick was living with them in Dindafelo 20 yrs. ago, he did a garden as well and they got food out of the deal. so basically i was offered the area right next to my three plots for three more to grow more food. So once that area is cleared out, as its a hell of a lot dirtier then the area i was using for the first three ill have a proper garden to look after. And yes the family will be able to get some good eatin out of it! But i think that thats a ways down the road as it'll probably be able to be prepared when my douche is done, who knows when that'll be done. So yea productive day and ill be able use all sorts of neat techniques in the garden to try out, as there's a bunch of natural insecticides and fertilizers i want to try out. Also with the three other plot i might try to do a pepiniere for around the compound. Options options options!
But i need to get back in touch with ethan and do some interneting so ill update again later when I've got something exciting to report, who knows maybe ill talk to some of you before then.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
12/17
12/17
So I've finally moved into my hut. Albeit a month late and i still don't have a douche, but I'm moved in and my room is pretty patron. I've got a a nice bed, a chest, and a little stool my water filter sits on and a bedside table my host family is letting me use. so what has happened since my last update? Quite a bit really, Tabaski has come and gone I got some good pics of the family all dolled up for that, x-mas is next week and I'm in a muslim country, and I'm starting to make some progress with some actual work. So yea I'm really enjoying myself right now.
I've been hanging out with my host brother a lot of the time as he's supposed to go off and work up at one of the mines up by Saraya but hasn't yet been called back about it, so he's just kinda chilling here at the moment. But because of that I've got someone to hang out with pretty much all the time. This of course in between my language lessons, procuring things for my hut, and trying to learn ag/fo stuff from the 10yr old manuals I'm borrowing from the regional house as I've not been given mine yet. Yay PC being on top of things go figure right. Speaking of manuals I've been in touch with trees for the future, as that is who my counterpart works for here in Kédougou. Ive had a few email correspondences with their west african rep who was a PCV here in Kédougou 5 years ago or so. Ill be in touch with him again here in a little bit to coordinate my activities with him and Karumba for the next rainy season.
On the work front also, well kinda, today i should be working on my garden next to my hut. Ill post pics, but at the moment its rather ambitious as there isn't a whole lot there and I'm not so sure about the soil. I think if i remove a thin top layer, then double dig the soil with a bunch of manure, it should be decent enough. Yay for my host families having cows and a ample supply of cow poop! never thought id say that. But i think the garden will be roughly about 3x8 aprox. I haven't actually measured it but it the length of my hut and about 2-3m out so roughly 2/3x8m. A decent enough size for a little garden to keep me busy and provide a little something for the family and me!
More on the work front, i was rooting around the research section of the regional houses lib and came across a book called the miracle tree. Its all about a tree called 'never die' or Moringa oleifera for those who are scientifically inclined, which i know there are a few of you out there. Basically this tree is badass. You can use it for so much, just google it and check out the results. But i think im going to try and do something with this with my counterpart this coming growing season. I think it'd be interesting to alley crop with it and see how it does in helping out the surrounding crops as well as selling the leaves for fodder or human consumption, because in the market if you go looking for it you better go early in the morning as it'll all be gone by afternoon. I don't think there is a lot being produced at the moment on a carmercial scale, but if some serious farmers were to get interested it would be cool to see the results. So anyway that book that i was reading that got me interested was written by a organization called Church World Service. Well like i said this book is pretty cool and at the back of it it gives a bunch of organizations that use or promote M. olifera. Upon checking out these and getting a few names of interest, one who might actually send me some free seeds to promote the plant, i came across a blurb on the author. Well it turns out he's based out of Dakar for CWS and I'm going to shoot him a line to see if he has any thoughts on working together or something.
Right-o well thats about it for work type stuff. My new camera is here as the new pics on facebook and here(hopefully) indicate. Loving that, thanks so much chris, my host family loves it too. I think i must have taken about 100 pics on tabaski with each and every member of my family. It was cool and I've got lots of photos of my family now which is cool. They love digital cameras here and the pics. So I've taken a lot recently and plan on taking a lot more! Hopefully with x-mas around the corner ill be able to take a few more at a really nice waterfall with a few other people. but X-mas is next week, its kinda weird being away from home in really hot weather for xmas but it'll be different. But like i said there's a nice waterfall thats not too far away that I'm going to try to go to for a little excursion.
While ill do that, Thomas kinda got roped into working a sumer camp type thing for kids on their winter break. They did a similar one while we were site visiting back in October which was evidently a big success hence they are doing it again. So thomas got roped in and is basically roping others into it. I will probably go help him out a bit if I'm in the right mood. This camp thing is in Dindefello which is where all of my host family is from so perhaps ill meet some of them if I do this. My host dad has been wanting to show me the village and the waterfall that is there. So maybe thatll happen. But speaking of my dad, the garden that im trying to start up needs posts to hold up the fencing material i bought and my brother told me that my dad was going to go out 'en bruce' to get them for me. That is soooo not american. This is just land that i guess the government/no one owns and most people just kinda use when they need. Were not talking about hardcore logging or anything like that, but going to get poles/wood material people use for building. Its rather interesting. i saw the same thing when i was riding back from Tjibedji and we went en bruce to get Hayes's post for her douche. Same thing.
So last week i guess, i was hanging out with my brother and a friend of his who is a spanish teacher who has satellite TV. Yeah im roughing it i know, but anyway. We were watching the champions league game between Bayern Munich and Lyon in Lyon. It was a great game, Bayern were up 3-0 inside the first half. I figured the game was over and was ready to leave, but Thierno got some lacherie and cosan. Which is basically ground up cooked corn and sour milk with sugar. Its delicious. So we end up eating that and watching the second period. What a game it turned out to be! Ended up 3-2 with Bayern holding out. But the point was at half time as in all champions league games there was a advertisement for Heineken. Basically these adds consist of places all over the world where people are sitting around watching champions league football drinking Heineken. I think it says something like proudly sponsoring the champions league all over the world. I've never felt more like that then during that game while sitting in Kédougou in the south eastern corner of Senegal. Very appropriate for the worlds game.
So I think I've gotten over the worst of the sickness i was carrying about. I've just got a nice little cold left to show for it. Yea i got a cold in africa go figure. Its gorgeous during the day and cool at night. Perfect in my book but i guess my body thinks otherwise. But hopefully ill finally shake that as well. Right now I'm sitting in my room trying to add a bit of a personal touch. I've got some pics up that people have sent me. So send me pics and ill put them up on my wall. I've also got a few leaves on my wall that some crazy person sent me *cough* sarah *cough*. But i like things that can go up and remind me of home. Like the Obama montage that sarah sent me as well. My family loves that too, all of Africa loves that.
Lots of Africa also washes their clothes in rivers. I got to witness this first hand yesterday as well. Very interesting. The best example i can think of is when we were driving to Tambacunda earlier this week and crossed the Gambia river. There were prob a hundred people all crowed round this one spot that was quite accessible and were washing their clothes. Now this might seem normal but the way that clothes are washed here is a little different. Were not really talking about the washboard style cleaning I'm sure most of you are familiar with. This is taking the clothes, lathering them up and then beating the shit out of them on big rocks. lets just say i wash my nicer stuff as my clothes will be KOed in no time if i don't. Anyways i got a good pic of the place where my sisters were cleaning our clothes while i was busy fishing with my brothers. That was fun, fishing not really my thing, but catching the frogs for fishing was interesting. There's a big pebble beach that thousands of baby frogs live on, and we basically just started picking up rocks and smashing them down to kill the frogs for bait. very fun. I think we ended up catching 3/4 fish. When we were all done we trooped off back to the house with the laundry on our heads and it was a really fun day. I even learned some new Pullar words as well. Everything we end up doing generally gets me new words to learn as i really don't know a whole hell of a lot in Pullar.
Well i need to organize my room as i moved a bunch of stuff around for the little video i made for g-mas b-day, even got my brothers to say happy birthday for her, im sure she'll like that. but yeah got some things to do, ill update again later.
So I've finally moved into my hut. Albeit a month late and i still don't have a douche, but I'm moved in and my room is pretty patron. I've got a a nice bed, a chest, and a little stool my water filter sits on and a bedside table my host family is letting me use. so what has happened since my last update? Quite a bit really, Tabaski has come and gone I got some good pics of the family all dolled up for that, x-mas is next week and I'm in a muslim country, and I'm starting to make some progress with some actual work. So yea I'm really enjoying myself right now.
I've been hanging out with my host brother a lot of the time as he's supposed to go off and work up at one of the mines up by Saraya but hasn't yet been called back about it, so he's just kinda chilling here at the moment. But because of that I've got someone to hang out with pretty much all the time. This of course in between my language lessons, procuring things for my hut, and trying to learn ag/fo stuff from the 10yr old manuals I'm borrowing from the regional house as I've not been given mine yet. Yay PC being on top of things go figure right. Speaking of manuals I've been in touch with trees for the future, as that is who my counterpart works for here in Kédougou. Ive had a few email correspondences with their west african rep who was a PCV here in Kédougou 5 years ago or so. Ill be in touch with him again here in a little bit to coordinate my activities with him and Karumba for the next rainy season.
On the work front also, well kinda, today i should be working on my garden next to my hut. Ill post pics, but at the moment its rather ambitious as there isn't a whole lot there and I'm not so sure about the soil. I think if i remove a thin top layer, then double dig the soil with a bunch of manure, it should be decent enough. Yay for my host families having cows and a ample supply of cow poop! never thought id say that. But i think the garden will be roughly about 3x8 aprox. I haven't actually measured it but it the length of my hut and about 2-3m out so roughly 2/3x8m. A decent enough size for a little garden to keep me busy and provide a little something for the family and me!
More on the work front, i was rooting around the research section of the regional houses lib and came across a book called the miracle tree. Its all about a tree called 'never die' or Moringa oleifera for those who are scientifically inclined, which i know there are a few of you out there. Basically this tree is badass. You can use it for so much, just google it and check out the results. But i think im going to try and do something with this with my counterpart this coming growing season. I think it'd be interesting to alley crop with it and see how it does in helping out the surrounding crops as well as selling the leaves for fodder or human consumption, because in the market if you go looking for it you better go early in the morning as it'll all be gone by afternoon. I don't think there is a lot being produced at the moment on a carmercial scale, but if some serious farmers were to get interested it would be cool to see the results. So anyway that book that i was reading that got me interested was written by a organization called Church World Service. Well like i said this book is pretty cool and at the back of it it gives a bunch of organizations that use or promote M. olifera. Upon checking out these and getting a few names of interest, one who might actually send me some free seeds to promote the plant, i came across a blurb on the author. Well it turns out he's based out of Dakar for CWS and I'm going to shoot him a line to see if he has any thoughts on working together or something.
Right-o well thats about it for work type stuff. My new camera is here as the new pics on facebook and here(hopefully) indicate. Loving that, thanks so much chris, my host family loves it too. I think i must have taken about 100 pics on tabaski with each and every member of my family. It was cool and I've got lots of photos of my family now which is cool. They love digital cameras here and the pics. So I've taken a lot recently and plan on taking a lot more! Hopefully with x-mas around the corner ill be able to take a few more at a really nice waterfall with a few other people. but X-mas is next week, its kinda weird being away from home in really hot weather for xmas but it'll be different. But like i said there's a nice waterfall thats not too far away that I'm going to try to go to for a little excursion.
While ill do that, Thomas kinda got roped into working a sumer camp type thing for kids on their winter break. They did a similar one while we were site visiting back in October which was evidently a big success hence they are doing it again. So thomas got roped in and is basically roping others into it. I will probably go help him out a bit if I'm in the right mood. This camp thing is in Dindefello which is where all of my host family is from so perhaps ill meet some of them if I do this. My host dad has been wanting to show me the village and the waterfall that is there. So maybe thatll happen. But speaking of my dad, the garden that im trying to start up needs posts to hold up the fencing material i bought and my brother told me that my dad was going to go out 'en bruce' to get them for me. That is soooo not american. This is just land that i guess the government/no one owns and most people just kinda use when they need. Were not talking about hardcore logging or anything like that, but going to get poles/wood material people use for building. Its rather interesting. i saw the same thing when i was riding back from Tjibedji and we went en bruce to get Hayes's post for her douche. Same thing.
So last week i guess, i was hanging out with my brother and a friend of his who is a spanish teacher who has satellite TV. Yeah im roughing it i know, but anyway. We were watching the champions league game between Bayern Munich and Lyon in Lyon. It was a great game, Bayern were up 3-0 inside the first half. I figured the game was over and was ready to leave, but Thierno got some lacherie and cosan. Which is basically ground up cooked corn and sour milk with sugar. Its delicious. So we end up eating that and watching the second period. What a game it turned out to be! Ended up 3-2 with Bayern holding out. But the point was at half time as in all champions league games there was a advertisement for Heineken. Basically these adds consist of places all over the world where people are sitting around watching champions league football drinking Heineken. I think it says something like proudly sponsoring the champions league all over the world. I've never felt more like that then during that game while sitting in Kédougou in the south eastern corner of Senegal. Very appropriate for the worlds game.
So I think I've gotten over the worst of the sickness i was carrying about. I've just got a nice little cold left to show for it. Yea i got a cold in africa go figure. Its gorgeous during the day and cool at night. Perfect in my book but i guess my body thinks otherwise. But hopefully ill finally shake that as well. Right now I'm sitting in my room trying to add a bit of a personal touch. I've got some pics up that people have sent me. So send me pics and ill put them up on my wall. I've also got a few leaves on my wall that some crazy person sent me *cough* sarah *cough*. But i like things that can go up and remind me of home. Like the Obama montage that sarah sent me as well. My family loves that too, all of Africa loves that.
Lots of Africa also washes their clothes in rivers. I got to witness this first hand yesterday as well. Very interesting. The best example i can think of is when we were driving to Tambacunda earlier this week and crossed the Gambia river. There were prob a hundred people all crowed round this one spot that was quite accessible and were washing their clothes. Now this might seem normal but the way that clothes are washed here is a little different. Were not really talking about the washboard style cleaning I'm sure most of you are familiar with. This is taking the clothes, lathering them up and then beating the shit out of them on big rocks. lets just say i wash my nicer stuff as my clothes will be KOed in no time if i don't. Anyways i got a good pic of the place where my sisters were cleaning our clothes while i was busy fishing with my brothers. That was fun, fishing not really my thing, but catching the frogs for fishing was interesting. There's a big pebble beach that thousands of baby frogs live on, and we basically just started picking up rocks and smashing them down to kill the frogs for bait. very fun. I think we ended up catching 3/4 fish. When we were all done we trooped off back to the house with the laundry on our heads and it was a really fun day. I even learned some new Pullar words as well. Everything we end up doing generally gets me new words to learn as i really don't know a whole hell of a lot in Pullar.
Well i need to organize my room as i moved a bunch of stuff around for the little video i made for g-mas b-day, even got my brothers to say happy birthday for her, im sure she'll like that. but yeah got some things to do, ill update again later.
Monday, December 8, 2008
12/8
So this will be a short little update as ive only got 15min left at the cyber cafe. So this week is the week of tabaski which is tomorrow. Something to do with the sacrafise abraham made or something. Basically everyone kills sheep and eats real well this day. So my hut might be done soon, my host dad said by tabaski, but im not holding my breath. The roof did get done today its the floor and bathroom that have yet to be done. Well see. So i went and helped my counterpart put up a fence at his field this week which was good, as i got to practice my pullar a little outside of my family here. I guess the guy that my counterpart works with with trees for the future will be back in the gou at the end of the month/begining of the year. Itll be neat to talk to him as hes in cameroun right now planting 2million trees or something. Ive also been talking to one of the other volunteers here in Gou meme, hes a ag volunteer and does some work with gardens around town. I might go with him to see what he does there. Other then that still working on the lang and trying to figure out what i want to do once the rainy sezason comes round as thats when ill be busy, well ive got 5min so ill write again later
Monday, December 1, 2008
Thanksgiving
So my Senegalese name is Momadou Saliou Diallo, our families here give us names to help us integrate.
So im feeling a little better now, my dose of some lovely little African bug has left my head and just has remnants left in my nose and throat. Details i know. Anyway to catch up on the last week, we've done a lot really. So on Monday i had my french class with Jibby, my tutor for Pullar. I have class at his and Assana Hendricks apartment. Jibby i guess was friends with some peace corps volunteers about 10 years ago or so and they were visiting him. So i got to talk to a another RPCV about her service and all that jazz. The french was ok, basic stuff as it was the first time we had a session. That was the only thing of note that i can remember.
The next day on Tuesday Thomas and i went out to the rice field that my host dad has to help cut rice. That was really interesting. Its probably a good 10-15min bike ride away from the city. Thats on a bike, and I'm pretty sure i've seen my dad multiple times hoofing it out there on foot. Its just Africa and he had to get out there. It must take quite a while to get out there on foot. So the field is nice and around other fields. While I'm saying this its not really a American field, but a African one. No neat rows and isles, just a big section of rice running up the middle of the field. We Got to cut the rice by hand too, that was fun. We were using a hand sickle to cut the rice and then pile it up in little piles all over the field. It was fun and we did this for a little while until my host brother said he was heading back to the house and my dad said he would be coming along in a little while.
So we head back to the house and hang out for a little while until i fall asleep for about an hour. I get woken up by a phone call from Matt at the regional house requesting my presence for a swimming adventure down the Gambia. This is fun we swim around for a while and then get the idea to lazy river down the river a while. We find a cool tree thats hanging over the river and use it as a jumping pt. it was really fun. We get out of the river a little bit further on down and walk back to where our stuff is. It was fun, and everyone really seemed to enjoy it.
The next day, Wednesday the 25th Thomas and i have our pullar class with jibby. Between the french and the pullar ive got alot of 'classes' to go to. Im pretty sure no one else has this sort of arrangement. After class, thomas and i go to the market to try and get our beds so that the 35 people who are coming to the regional house will at least have two extra beds to sleep on. We first go to Thomas's host dads boutique to see if he can help us with the process. hes a nice guy and has a nice boutique. He was able to help us get mattress for our beds and then help us find the one remaining bed at the spot where they sell beds. We got everything loaded up on our bikes and the guy we bought them from said he'd get the bed to the regional house. We both figured he meant on a cart or something, but he just bends down and puts it on his head in true African style. So we walk the 20min it takes to get back there while this old man is hoofing it along with this bed on his head. Truly something to witness.
So Today as well, it is decided that we should go drifting on the river again. This is with a bunch more people as more people have shown up for thanksgiving. So now weve got about 16 people or so to go. This time we bring rope and a air tight bucket to put our stuff in. We also decide to try and float all the way down the river to where a restaurant is that we always go to, and can see the river from. Its really fun, and we end up making a rope swing and jumping into the water. After we do this for a while we float on down to the restaurant and have some nice warthog sandwich's. When we get back to the regional house yet more people are there and the place is starting to get crowded. I have dinner at the host family compound and then head back to go to bed as my head snot feeling too good.
Thanksgiving, what a hypocritical holiday, i cant think of a group of people weve treated worse, well maybe one, that we celebrate as if we didnt. For those who dont know we pretty much systematically wiped out the Indians from the north east, mid Atlantic, south, mid west, west and pacific north west. You name the area weve prob been pretty nasty to Indians there. But hey we give them this holiday as a little joke cause they saved our asses when white people first got to America. My thanksgiving sucked. I was sick all day. Not vomiting sick, but flu-ie feverish sick. I ended up with a 102 fever and was stuck in bed cause i wanted to fall over when i got up. I took a bunch of aspirin for the dinner and was able to eat a little bit of dinner but really didnt have much of an appetite. Ah well ill have another Thanksgiving next year and ill just have to make it that much better.
Friday was better, i was still a little sick but no fever and was able to eat some warmed up leftovers for breakfast. Unfortunately i missed the desert the night before and that was long gone. So i dont end up doing a whole lot Friday either as im just trying to get better. Thats basically what ive been doing up untill now, minus the few meals ive had at the family compound and the regional strategy meeting we had on Sunday. While at the compound on Saturday though, i walk in to it and right when you walk in theres a large 10x20ft shade type structure 10ft off the ground that has loads of corn on it. Ever since ive been there the corns been drying out. When i came in Saturday my uncle is sitting on top of it with about 5 little kids beating the corn. Now i wasnt really sure what he was doing until i remember that thats what they do to get teh corn off the cob. it was really interesting to see. They usually do this at a smaller scale with a bag, but they had a big tarp set up underneath it and he was swinging away at it. The kids loved it.
The regional strategy plan is roughly based on the millennium development goals outlined by the UN. It basically gave us a better platform to stand on to clearly define what it is we are trying to accomplish here. The meeting took 5hrs as we went over the entire doc, and the action plans associated with each of the 8 sections. It was interesting to hear everything.
So im feeling a little better now, my dose of some lovely little African bug has left my head and just has remnants left in my nose and throat. Details i know. Anyway to catch up on the last week, we've done a lot really. So on Monday i had my french class with Jibby, my tutor for Pullar. I have class at his and Assana Hendricks apartment. Jibby i guess was friends with some peace corps volunteers about 10 years ago or so and they were visiting him. So i got to talk to a another RPCV about her service and all that jazz. The french was ok, basic stuff as it was the first time we had a session. That was the only thing of note that i can remember.
The next day on Tuesday Thomas and i went out to the rice field that my host dad has to help cut rice. That was really interesting. Its probably a good 10-15min bike ride away from the city. Thats on a bike, and I'm pretty sure i've seen my dad multiple times hoofing it out there on foot. Its just Africa and he had to get out there. It must take quite a while to get out there on foot. So the field is nice and around other fields. While I'm saying this its not really a American field, but a African one. No neat rows and isles, just a big section of rice running up the middle of the field. We Got to cut the rice by hand too, that was fun. We were using a hand sickle to cut the rice and then pile it up in little piles all over the field. It was fun and we did this for a little while until my host brother said he was heading back to the house and my dad said he would be coming along in a little while.
So we head back to the house and hang out for a little while until i fall asleep for about an hour. I get woken up by a phone call from Matt at the regional house requesting my presence for a swimming adventure down the Gambia. This is fun we swim around for a while and then get the idea to lazy river down the river a while. We find a cool tree thats hanging over the river and use it as a jumping pt. it was really fun. We get out of the river a little bit further on down and walk back to where our stuff is. It was fun, and everyone really seemed to enjoy it.
The next day, Wednesday the 25th Thomas and i have our pullar class with jibby. Between the french and the pullar ive got alot of 'classes' to go to. Im pretty sure no one else has this sort of arrangement. After class, thomas and i go to the market to try and get our beds so that the 35 people who are coming to the regional house will at least have two extra beds to sleep on. We first go to Thomas's host dads boutique to see if he can help us with the process. hes a nice guy and has a nice boutique. He was able to help us get mattress for our beds and then help us find the one remaining bed at the spot where they sell beds. We got everything loaded up on our bikes and the guy we bought them from said he'd get the bed to the regional house. We both figured he meant on a cart or something, but he just bends down and puts it on his head in true African style. So we walk the 20min it takes to get back there while this old man is hoofing it along with this bed on his head. Truly something to witness.
So Today as well, it is decided that we should go drifting on the river again. This is with a bunch more people as more people have shown up for thanksgiving. So now weve got about 16 people or so to go. This time we bring rope and a air tight bucket to put our stuff in. We also decide to try and float all the way down the river to where a restaurant is that we always go to, and can see the river from. Its really fun, and we end up making a rope swing and jumping into the water. After we do this for a while we float on down to the restaurant and have some nice warthog sandwich's. When we get back to the regional house yet more people are there and the place is starting to get crowded. I have dinner at the host family compound and then head back to go to bed as my head snot feeling too good.
Thanksgiving, what a hypocritical holiday, i cant think of a group of people weve treated worse, well maybe one, that we celebrate as if we didnt. For those who dont know we pretty much systematically wiped out the Indians from the north east, mid Atlantic, south, mid west, west and pacific north west. You name the area weve prob been pretty nasty to Indians there. But hey we give them this holiday as a little joke cause they saved our asses when white people first got to America. My thanksgiving sucked. I was sick all day. Not vomiting sick, but flu-ie feverish sick. I ended up with a 102 fever and was stuck in bed cause i wanted to fall over when i got up. I took a bunch of aspirin for the dinner and was able to eat a little bit of dinner but really didnt have much of an appetite. Ah well ill have another Thanksgiving next year and ill just have to make it that much better.
Friday was better, i was still a little sick but no fever and was able to eat some warmed up leftovers for breakfast. Unfortunately i missed the desert the night before and that was long gone. So i dont end up doing a whole lot Friday either as im just trying to get better. Thats basically what ive been doing up untill now, minus the few meals ive had at the family compound and the regional strategy meeting we had on Sunday. While at the compound on Saturday though, i walk in to it and right when you walk in theres a large 10x20ft shade type structure 10ft off the ground that has loads of corn on it. Ever since ive been there the corns been drying out. When i came in Saturday my uncle is sitting on top of it with about 5 little kids beating the corn. Now i wasnt really sure what he was doing until i remember that thats what they do to get teh corn off the cob. it was really interesting to see. They usually do this at a smaller scale with a bag, but they had a big tarp set up underneath it and he was swinging away at it. The kids loved it.
The regional strategy plan is roughly based on the millennium development goals outlined by the UN. It basically gave us a better platform to stand on to clearly define what it is we are trying to accomplish here. The meeting took 5hrs as we went over the entire doc, and the action plans associated with each of the 8 sections. It was interesting to hear everything.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Things that would be useful/nice to have
So yeah i figured id post things that might be of use if i were to have them here in Senegal that i cant get here.
-Glue-less patches for my bike
-Panniers for my bike
-light for my bike
-I love cliff bars
-Ranch dressing and barbecue sauce, between warthog sandwich's and the bean sandwich's i eat pretty much every day, they make nice condiments
-tuna as i really don't eat meat here, the warthog sandwich is a special occasion, the beans and peanuts i eat constitute my protein intake
-battery powered speakers for an ipod
-seeds, send me and ill plant them
-Ok basically think about what you like about american life and if you can send that, ill prob enjoy it so yeah
ill post a post thanksgiving blog later this week so yeah you'll see what a african thanksgiving is like. It so far has involved slaughtering a turkey a duck and a couple chickens, if you've never plucked a bird before its a interesting experience. Im trying to keep from getting too sick as ive kinda relapsed to my little flu-ie symptoms i had last week. Im feeling ok today i had a nice sleep in so i think that helped out. But i think that thanksgiving and a really nice dinner will help out. I guess the Kédougou region is known throughout the country for having really good cooks, couldn't be in a better place. Ill update in a few days.
-Glue-less patches for my bike
-Panniers for my bike
-light for my bike
-I love cliff bars
-Ranch dressing and barbecue sauce, between warthog sandwich's and the bean sandwich's i eat pretty much every day, they make nice condiments
-tuna as i really don't eat meat here, the warthog sandwich is a special occasion, the beans and peanuts i eat constitute my protein intake
-battery powered speakers for an ipod
-seeds, send me and ill plant them
-Ok basically think about what you like about american life and if you can send that, ill prob enjoy it so yeah
ill post a post thanksgiving blog later this week so yeah you'll see what a african thanksgiving is like. It so far has involved slaughtering a turkey a duck and a couple chickens, if you've never plucked a bird before its a interesting experience. Im trying to keep from getting too sick as ive kinda relapsed to my little flu-ie symptoms i had last week. Im feeling ok today i had a nice sleep in so i think that helped out. But i think that thanksgiving and a really nice dinner will help out. I guess the Kédougou region is known throughout the country for having really good cooks, couldn't be in a better place. Ill update in a few days.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Newish
So yeah havent been around a lot but theres not alot of wireless here and ive been kina busy. If anyone feels like shooting me a line id like that as itd tell me if its just my phone thats not letting me call the states. hope everyone has a great thanksgiving, weve gpot a huge turkey named tasty living in the regiponal house with us at the moment whop will soon be dinner. ill try and get another blog up soon though.
11/20 Fungolimbi
So today was fun, i did end up biking out to Kafori/Fungalimbi. I didnt actually make it out to kafori but instead went to Fungalimbi. So i left this morning around 740 and made it down to the river crossing by about 8. I had to ride around the market a little bit till i found the right road that took me down to the river crossing, but i found it once i was able to find the mosque. So i made decent time in getting to Tougé. I did it in about an hour and 15min. I wasn't trying to break any land speed records or anything, and it was a nice ride. When i get there i meet steve and his family as he's eating breakfast with them. His dad, the chief of the village is really nice and i think might have remembered me from when we stayed here on our visit. So its while im talking to steve that i find out that kevin roxy and him are going to Fungolimbi that day for the luma, which is the larger weekly market in the region. I say what the hell i was just going to go hang out with kevin and do whatever anyway. Of course Fungolimbi is on top of a 'mt', (Senegalese Mt) but whatever. So steve and I take of for Dimbli to meet up with Roxy and kevin, and run into kevin on the way. Roxy is teaching an english class or something so he was the only one coming. We still need to go to Dimbli to get the rd to Fungo and to talk to Roxy, so shoot off back the way kevin had been coming. We get there and get to see Roxy teaching her english class, i guess steve needed to get some paperwork from her for a scholarship they were giving to a girl in Fungo, as that was another reason they were going. After this we take off on a road that shoots past the post de santé in Dimbli where we had planted trees during our visit. The first mile i guess was a little rough going as it was pretty much sand. Im not really a big fan of sand for biking.But after thats its the normal crapy road im used to. About half a mile of this takes us to the start of the climb, and thats where we start walking. Now seeing as id just biked out from Kédougou and it was pretty damn steep on shitty rocky road i didn't feel like being a hard ass and since steve stopped first i was more then willing to follow his lead.
When we get to the top you can really see a lot of the surrounding country side. You can also see all around the ash from where the fires had been burning. Kevin had been saying that during the night you can look up at the mt side and see these fires burning on them. But once we get to the top we still have a ways to go, kinda along the ridge with some ups and downs. Its a great ride and great scenery. At one pt a troop of monkeys ran out in front of us which was pretty cool to see. But we eventually get to Fungo. I guess its about 1500ft. So its not really that high but for someone who's out of shape it was more then enough as the roads leave quite a lot to be desired. The school where we gave the scholarship was at the high pt of the town and must have been 1600ft or so and you could really see all around. I guess its right next to Guinea also. The hills we were looking at around us were probably Guinea and we saw some 'border patrol guards' chilling under a tree. It didn't look all that official or too particularly bothered, although they did stop one guy on a bike and ask where he was coming from while we were talking to them. I guess Steve knew them. We also got to talk to the Eaux et Foret agent for the region also which was cool. Eaux et Foret is the government agency in charge of trees and water resources. I guess they've really been promoting the controlled burns that have been going on around the country, and steve was talking to him about that and some other stuff.
The market was pretty neat as lots of the stuff was from Guinea and for the region was pretty big. I got a great corn onion and hot pepper sandwich there for my lunch as well as some bissap juice. While we were there we ran meet a couple of important people in the community, we hung out at the dr.'s house for a while and were treated/subjected to prison break. Now ive never watched that in the US and don't ever plan to but it seems really really bad. But they love it here i guess, as i had watched at a friend of my brothers house a couple days ago also. After watching that for a while i decided to head on back as ive got a ways to go and my heads throbbing a little bit telling me im not 100% better. We go back to the market to get some water and steve points out the other road the shoots you down to the Kafori road but cuts off about 10k and drops you out at Velingarra. Before i take off Kevin gives me his Site locator form to give to andy to take to Dakar when he goes this weekend.
So i take off on that road, its a nice ride for a little while, maybe 20min or so and then it starts to get really steep and really rocky. Well the ride was nice the whole way. The view was even better then coming up because there wasn't as much vegetation to block you line of site and it was even prettier. But holy shit was that road something else. If kevin hadn't told me hed come up it in the PC car during his install to meet and greet important notables in his region, i wouldn't have believed that anything short of a tank could get up it. Needless to say i was walking my bike down this section of the road as well. Ive never felt like id wanted my helmet more, i mean i was really glad i was wearing my helmet the whole time. But one i was passed the worst part of the descent i hopped back on my bike and finished the rest of the road peddling. Id have to say that this road was twice as pretty as the other road. Now that i think about it we could have been at the highest point in senegal, which would be kinda neat.
Once back on the road back to Kédougou, it was smooth sailing. I was pretty much able to cruise the rest of the way back. I felt great on the way back to Kédougou though. I was cranking along for quite a bit of the ride. The ride back in is a lot more friendly as there is more downhills to enjoy. But like i said i was in good spirits and was really enjoying my ride. I think if i can do this once a week or so ill be content, just so long as my lang comes along. But i make it to the ferry crossing which is kinda neat, its a one car ferry basically, that is attached to a wire that keeps it from floating down stream and a rope that is used to pull it across. So its man power that takes it across the river. Once back in the city proper i stop to get a coke and to buy some kola nuts and fruit for my host family. They really are not very nice but have caffeine in them or something so they give you a little buzz. I tried one and they really are pretty gross, but they are kinda status/respectful thing to give people.
So when i show up at my host families compound, and they cant believe that i went to Fungolimbi and came back in one day. To most people here in Gou, Fungo is like the top of everest is what steve told me. After seeing both the roads that lead up to it i can kinda understand why they think that. My host dad is working on my door and loves the kola nuts i gave him. They bring out my lunch from that day which they had saved for me and i wolf it down, which prob wasn't the best idea as i kinda felt comatose after that. But since my feet and legs were red/brown to the extreme and i was kinda pooped i felt a shower and a nap were in order.
So i listened to the radio a little bit after my nap and shower, so i guess the price of oil has dropped a shit ton and a list of BNP members got leaked. Good times. I have the Economist and Time from the day after the election which is cool, reading about that was pretty cool seeing the breakdown of how the election was won. When i went back to my host families compound for dinner everyone was hanging out like usual. After i had made the rounds saying hello to people, one of my little brothers came up to me with a badly made paper airplane. So i decided id make a nice one for him. Well that went over really well. I had every kid in the compound thrusting sheets of used paper at me wanting paper airplanes. It was really funny. I guess theyd never seen one before and everyone wanted one. So i spent the rest of the evening making them and then eating dinner which i wasnt really too hungry for as id stuffed myself at lunch when id gotten back.
So a recurring event that happens every night during the week here at the Diallo household is Au Coeur du Pêche. Its this Brazilian soap opera that is dubbed into french and played every weeknight. I highly recommend that you have a look at it, its possibly one of the worst things ive ever seen. I mean its really funny but only because its soooo bad. While it is pretty bad, the dubbed french i think is helping with my french comprehension which is good. And its french french which is nice cause its easier to understand then senegalese french. So like i said this is a big event, I counted 25 people around the TV last night. Its truly amazing. So once this was over i leave to go get some sleep.
When we get to the top you can really see a lot of the surrounding country side. You can also see all around the ash from where the fires had been burning. Kevin had been saying that during the night you can look up at the mt side and see these fires burning on them. But once we get to the top we still have a ways to go, kinda along the ridge with some ups and downs. Its a great ride and great scenery. At one pt a troop of monkeys ran out in front of us which was pretty cool to see. But we eventually get to Fungo. I guess its about 1500ft. So its not really that high but for someone who's out of shape it was more then enough as the roads leave quite a lot to be desired. The school where we gave the scholarship was at the high pt of the town and must have been 1600ft or so and you could really see all around. I guess its right next to Guinea also. The hills we were looking at around us were probably Guinea and we saw some 'border patrol guards' chilling under a tree. It didn't look all that official or too particularly bothered, although they did stop one guy on a bike and ask where he was coming from while we were talking to them. I guess Steve knew them. We also got to talk to the Eaux et Foret agent for the region also which was cool. Eaux et Foret is the government agency in charge of trees and water resources. I guess they've really been promoting the controlled burns that have been going on around the country, and steve was talking to him about that and some other stuff.
The market was pretty neat as lots of the stuff was from Guinea and for the region was pretty big. I got a great corn onion and hot pepper sandwich there for my lunch as well as some bissap juice. While we were there we ran meet a couple of important people in the community, we hung out at the dr.'s house for a while and were treated/subjected to prison break. Now ive never watched that in the US and don't ever plan to but it seems really really bad. But they love it here i guess, as i had watched at a friend of my brothers house a couple days ago also. After watching that for a while i decided to head on back as ive got a ways to go and my heads throbbing a little bit telling me im not 100% better. We go back to the market to get some water and steve points out the other road the shoots you down to the Kafori road but cuts off about 10k and drops you out at Velingarra. Before i take off Kevin gives me his Site locator form to give to andy to take to Dakar when he goes this weekend.
So i take off on that road, its a nice ride for a little while, maybe 20min or so and then it starts to get really steep and really rocky. Well the ride was nice the whole way. The view was even better then coming up because there wasn't as much vegetation to block you line of site and it was even prettier. But holy shit was that road something else. If kevin hadn't told me hed come up it in the PC car during his install to meet and greet important notables in his region, i wouldn't have believed that anything short of a tank could get up it. Needless to say i was walking my bike down this section of the road as well. Ive never felt like id wanted my helmet more, i mean i was really glad i was wearing my helmet the whole time. But one i was passed the worst part of the descent i hopped back on my bike and finished the rest of the road peddling. Id have to say that this road was twice as pretty as the other road. Now that i think about it we could have been at the highest point in senegal, which would be kinda neat.
Once back on the road back to Kédougou, it was smooth sailing. I was pretty much able to cruise the rest of the way back. I felt great on the way back to Kédougou though. I was cranking along for quite a bit of the ride. The ride back in is a lot more friendly as there is more downhills to enjoy. But like i said i was in good spirits and was really enjoying my ride. I think if i can do this once a week or so ill be content, just so long as my lang comes along. But i make it to the ferry crossing which is kinda neat, its a one car ferry basically, that is attached to a wire that keeps it from floating down stream and a rope that is used to pull it across. So its man power that takes it across the river. Once back in the city proper i stop to get a coke and to buy some kola nuts and fruit for my host family. They really are not very nice but have caffeine in them or something so they give you a little buzz. I tried one and they really are pretty gross, but they are kinda status/respectful thing to give people.
So when i show up at my host families compound, and they cant believe that i went to Fungolimbi and came back in one day. To most people here in Gou, Fungo is like the top of everest is what steve told me. After seeing both the roads that lead up to it i can kinda understand why they think that. My host dad is working on my door and loves the kola nuts i gave him. They bring out my lunch from that day which they had saved for me and i wolf it down, which prob wasn't the best idea as i kinda felt comatose after that. But since my feet and legs were red/brown to the extreme and i was kinda pooped i felt a shower and a nap were in order.
So i listened to the radio a little bit after my nap and shower, so i guess the price of oil has dropped a shit ton and a list of BNP members got leaked. Good times. I have the Economist and Time from the day after the election which is cool, reading about that was pretty cool seeing the breakdown of how the election was won. When i went back to my host families compound for dinner everyone was hanging out like usual. After i had made the rounds saying hello to people, one of my little brothers came up to me with a badly made paper airplane. So i decided id make a nice one for him. Well that went over really well. I had every kid in the compound thrusting sheets of used paper at me wanting paper airplanes. It was really funny. I guess theyd never seen one before and everyone wanted one. So i spent the rest of the evening making them and then eating dinner which i wasnt really too hungry for as id stuffed myself at lunch when id gotten back.
So a recurring event that happens every night during the week here at the Diallo household is Au Coeur du Pêche. Its this Brazilian soap opera that is dubbed into french and played every weeknight. I highly recommend that you have a look at it, its possibly one of the worst things ive ever seen. I mean its really funny but only because its soooo bad. While it is pretty bad, the dubbed french i think is helping with my french comprehension which is good. And its french french which is nice cause its easier to understand then senegalese french. So like i said this is a big event, I counted 25 people around the TV last night. Its truly amazing. So once this was over i leave to go get some sleep.
11/15 Tjibedji
So here i am in Kédougou regional house, my home for the time being. So i was installed on the 10th after arriving in Gou on the evening of the 8th. It was a very uneventful trip down thankfully as we were in Sept places the whole time. We thought that we were going to spend the night in Tamba and go down to Kédougou the morning of the 9th but the drivers had other ideas. Luckily we were able to stop in Tamba to pull our money for instal. Not that it really mattered to me in the long run. But ill get to that. So we get down to the regional house about 7/8ish and get warthog sandwiches with pretty much the entire 'Gou Crew' as they are all in town for our install and a few meetings. It was a fun evening and we get to meet everyone. While we made it to Gou the night of the 8th, the girls in of our stage who were coming down had finageled their way into the PC car with Chris Hendrick. They didnt have to get up at 530 for a 6am leave time but a 11am leave time. While i was a little bitter about this, i dont really feel so bad anymore as it sounded like they had a miserable time on the way down. The car was completely full with too many people, too much stuff and they got a flat on the way to Tamba. They didnt get into tamba till late. So whatever but we all got there in the end so its all good, they just got there the morning of the 9th.
The next day was when we were supposed to get there and thats when we were expected and the current volunteers had ordered a whole pig for the occasion. It showed up around midday on the back of matts bike. the carcass of a pig sans head. Very interesting. Lets just say ive eaten some strange parts of pig now, fear factor doesnt bother me as much as it used to. But it was a great time, beer and barbecued pig. We got to meet the adopted son of the country director which was cool, he grew up in the states and is a badass basketball player i hear and just recently has moved back to Kédougou, so he'll be around which is cool. The country director was a volunteer here in Gou 20 odd years ago in dindéfella and thats where chris hendrick adopted him from.
So that night was really fun but i was being installed the next day so i crashed a little early so as to be ready. Lets just say everyone didnt follow my lead and i missed a bonfire and more drinking. This was a good thing as the car ride around Gou the next day was a bit rough for about half our group. We got to meet the governor and a few other notables in the town. After this we went back to the regional house and i got ready to get 'installed'. I put quotations around this cause it really wasnt a instillation as i didnt have a hut. Like at all. So basically i went and hung out with the fam all day and then went back to the regional house which is literally right down the street to hang out and go to bed. So basically i eat and spend the day at the house trying to pick up the lang and sleep and shower at the regional house which is cool as its kinda like im getting gently eased into my sight. Im not saying i wouldnt like to have a hut and be able to unpack. Id love that as im still living out of suitcase which sucks, and i can escape to the Regional house if im feeling like i need a break. i do get to watch my hut get built though which is pretty badass though. The other thing about my fam here in Gou is that its the same family that the country director had in dindéfella 20 odd yrs ago. Well its part of the family anyway and they all knew him when he rolled up and he knew them! He didnt know that i was going to be living with them so it was a surprise for him as well. So it was pretty cool that thats my family here. They are really nice and i think we'll get along very well, il just have to bust my ass to learn the lang, cause i really suck at that.
Well im not the only one who doesnt have a hut. here in Gou, Thomas Whitaker doesnt have one either. His was a little further along then mine, his had half walls when he was installed i think whereas mine was a trench where the walls were going to be. I just found this out yesterday as well, that kevin wilkins didnt even have a hut started when he was installed in kafori which really sucks for him. I guess he was moved into another family or something, ill have to ask him about it when we all come back for thanksgiving. Minus kevin and Aaron, everyone was around or came back for a meeting with Wulla Naffa on Thursday. Wulla Naffa is a NGO here in senegal that is funded by US AID and is working rather closly with the gold mining that is going on in the region. Their goal is to sustainably utilize the regions resources. Cause i was here at the regional house on Wednesday, i got to go to the actual meeting the day before, as the meeting on thursday was really just between peace corps and wulla naffa, kinda a meet greet and compare goals. Thomas and I went with another volunteer named daniel. While we were there we got to meet the main guy from Dakar for wulla naffa, and while we were talking, he mentioned that they were going to be bringing in a GIS system to help get some reliable maps down here. Knowing what it was and understanding/showing interest in what he was talking about might have landed me a side project working with their team on that.
So thursday morning, Hayes and Shelia biked back into Gou from bandafassi and Thjibedji respectfully. The meeting was a little bit of a recap for me but was neat as it really laid out in english what had been said the day before in french. So that was interesting, but it was cool to hang out with everyone for another day. Im definitely now a lover of the bean sandwiches. They have them all over down here and they have this great french bead thats like baguettes but about half the size. Its really good. I think ive had that every morning since ive been here and i dont see it ending anytime soon. So after that meeting we go to the market and get bean sandwiches and do a little shopping. Ive still yet to buy anything as ive no hut, but since shelia had already moved in and unpacked se had a few things on her list to get so we basically just took care of that. After that i took a nap back at the regional house and then went back to the family compound for the rest of the day. I got to play soccer with the army of little kids who live in my compound and the surrounding ones. It was fun as right next to where we were playing i got to watch the bricks for my hut being made out of the dirt from a big hole. There had o have been some concrete in there or something, but who knows. It was still pretty cool to watch what is going to be my hut be built. After dinner, i head back to the regional house for a shower and sleep. Talking to shelia i decide to ride out to Thjibedji with her and Hayes.
So we head out the next morning, the 14th. It was a great ride. hayes lives in bandafassi and thats only about 15k away. We make it there in about an hour. This arent you regular american roads were talking about here, but like mining roads, is the best comparison i can think off. It reminded me alot of the bike ride i went on in California in the Bristlecone forest and the sequoia national forest only wider. In Bandafassi we stop and check out Hayes hut, its badass as the volunteer she replaced had cement counters put in and its just really cool. While there shelia sees a chair being made and remembers she needs one at her hut. After inquiring and finding out its only 3mil cfa and that it can be attached to her bike no problem she buys it and has hayes counterpart strap it onto the back of her bike. This isnt a small chair, its like small dinning room chair i guess. It was hilarious looking but it was sturdy and made it the entire way to her site. A picture would have been priceless, but i wont soon forget that.
In Thjibedji we spend the day sitting with her host sister learning pullar and watching her cook. It really was helpful, and i think that with that shelia will have no problem picking up pullar. we walk around her village after lunch and meet and greet a bunch of people. it was really cool and me really jealous of the smaller village life that doesn't exist in Kédougou. Around 4 i head out so as to make it back to Gou before dark. Im kinda drained at this point as ive spent all day in the sun and had a 35k ride out there. Not a lot by my american standards, but im about 2 months out of shape and the african suns a little different. but i take off anyway and make it to bandafassi by 5, a god 20k so not bad, and hang out with hayes for a little but there. The site in Bandaffasi is really beautiful. Hayes basically lives under the face of a small mountain. The ride there you just keep getting closer to the mountain until you roll up on her village sitting there underneath these big cliffs. After resting for a bit her counterpart gets up and says that were going into the bush to get something for hayes hut so i tag along thinking we cant be gone that long. We'll we are and they end up chopping down 1 and a half trees for two posts with V's in them. Very expertly done, but we hiked a ways into the bush to get them and it took a while so i dont hit the road till about 615 and its getting dark. Basically about half my ride is in the dark/pitch black without my headlamp. Didnt think to bring it as i thought id be back way before dark. It was fun though and i got to pass some bush fires that were pretty cool to see in the dark.
The ride was badass and now im ready to explore some more. I even had a conversation with a local while we were both pushing our bikes up a particularly steep hill that i totally understood every word of. Baby steps with the language, baby steps. Im thinking that ill run out to kafori and check out kevins site for another little adventure. Tomorrow im going to the fields with my family to observe a little and to maybe get ideas for projects, as well as to try and pick up some vocab.
for' those of you with google earth and feel like checking out my site, N 12 33.477', WO 12 11.568' there you go. Not really sure what the WO is for west something, but you get the point.
The next day was when we were supposed to get there and thats when we were expected and the current volunteers had ordered a whole pig for the occasion. It showed up around midday on the back of matts bike. the carcass of a pig sans head. Very interesting. Lets just say ive eaten some strange parts of pig now, fear factor doesnt bother me as much as it used to. But it was a great time, beer and barbecued pig. We got to meet the adopted son of the country director which was cool, he grew up in the states and is a badass basketball player i hear and just recently has moved back to Kédougou, so he'll be around which is cool. The country director was a volunteer here in Gou 20 odd years ago in dindéfella and thats where chris hendrick adopted him from.
So that night was really fun but i was being installed the next day so i crashed a little early so as to be ready. Lets just say everyone didnt follow my lead and i missed a bonfire and more drinking. This was a good thing as the car ride around Gou the next day was a bit rough for about half our group. We got to meet the governor and a few other notables in the town. After this we went back to the regional house and i got ready to get 'installed'. I put quotations around this cause it really wasnt a instillation as i didnt have a hut. Like at all. So basically i went and hung out with the fam all day and then went back to the regional house which is literally right down the street to hang out and go to bed. So basically i eat and spend the day at the house trying to pick up the lang and sleep and shower at the regional house which is cool as its kinda like im getting gently eased into my sight. Im not saying i wouldnt like to have a hut and be able to unpack. Id love that as im still living out of suitcase which sucks, and i can escape to the Regional house if im feeling like i need a break. i do get to watch my hut get built though which is pretty badass though. The other thing about my fam here in Gou is that its the same family that the country director had in dindéfella 20 odd yrs ago. Well its part of the family anyway and they all knew him when he rolled up and he knew them! He didnt know that i was going to be living with them so it was a surprise for him as well. So it was pretty cool that thats my family here. They are really nice and i think we'll get along very well, il just have to bust my ass to learn the lang, cause i really suck at that.
Well im not the only one who doesnt have a hut. here in Gou, Thomas Whitaker doesnt have one either. His was a little further along then mine, his had half walls when he was installed i think whereas mine was a trench where the walls were going to be. I just found this out yesterday as well, that kevin wilkins didnt even have a hut started when he was installed in kafori which really sucks for him. I guess he was moved into another family or something, ill have to ask him about it when we all come back for thanksgiving. Minus kevin and Aaron, everyone was around or came back for a meeting with Wulla Naffa on Thursday. Wulla Naffa is a NGO here in senegal that is funded by US AID and is working rather closly with the gold mining that is going on in the region. Their goal is to sustainably utilize the regions resources. Cause i was here at the regional house on Wednesday, i got to go to the actual meeting the day before, as the meeting on thursday was really just between peace corps and wulla naffa, kinda a meet greet and compare goals. Thomas and I went with another volunteer named daniel. While we were there we got to meet the main guy from Dakar for wulla naffa, and while we were talking, he mentioned that they were going to be bringing in a GIS system to help get some reliable maps down here. Knowing what it was and understanding/showing interest in what he was talking about might have landed me a side project working with their team on that.
So thursday morning, Hayes and Shelia biked back into Gou from bandafassi and Thjibedji respectfully. The meeting was a little bit of a recap for me but was neat as it really laid out in english what had been said the day before in french. So that was interesting, but it was cool to hang out with everyone for another day. Im definitely now a lover of the bean sandwiches. They have them all over down here and they have this great french bead thats like baguettes but about half the size. Its really good. I think ive had that every morning since ive been here and i dont see it ending anytime soon. So after that meeting we go to the market and get bean sandwiches and do a little shopping. Ive still yet to buy anything as ive no hut, but since shelia had already moved in and unpacked se had a few things on her list to get so we basically just took care of that. After that i took a nap back at the regional house and then went back to the family compound for the rest of the day. I got to play soccer with the army of little kids who live in my compound and the surrounding ones. It was fun as right next to where we were playing i got to watch the bricks for my hut being made out of the dirt from a big hole. There had o have been some concrete in there or something, but who knows. It was still pretty cool to watch what is going to be my hut be built. After dinner, i head back to the regional house for a shower and sleep. Talking to shelia i decide to ride out to Thjibedji with her and Hayes.
So we head out the next morning, the 14th. It was a great ride. hayes lives in bandafassi and thats only about 15k away. We make it there in about an hour. This arent you regular american roads were talking about here, but like mining roads, is the best comparison i can think off. It reminded me alot of the bike ride i went on in California in the Bristlecone forest and the sequoia national forest only wider. In Bandafassi we stop and check out Hayes hut, its badass as the volunteer she replaced had cement counters put in and its just really cool. While there shelia sees a chair being made and remembers she needs one at her hut. After inquiring and finding out its only 3mil cfa and that it can be attached to her bike no problem she buys it and has hayes counterpart strap it onto the back of her bike. This isnt a small chair, its like small dinning room chair i guess. It was hilarious looking but it was sturdy and made it the entire way to her site. A picture would have been priceless, but i wont soon forget that.
In Thjibedji we spend the day sitting with her host sister learning pullar and watching her cook. It really was helpful, and i think that with that shelia will have no problem picking up pullar. we walk around her village after lunch and meet and greet a bunch of people. it was really cool and me really jealous of the smaller village life that doesn't exist in Kédougou. Around 4 i head out so as to make it back to Gou before dark. Im kinda drained at this point as ive spent all day in the sun and had a 35k ride out there. Not a lot by my american standards, but im about 2 months out of shape and the african suns a little different. but i take off anyway and make it to bandafassi by 5, a god 20k so not bad, and hang out with hayes for a little but there. The site in Bandaffasi is really beautiful. Hayes basically lives under the face of a small mountain. The ride there you just keep getting closer to the mountain until you roll up on her village sitting there underneath these big cliffs. After resting for a bit her counterpart gets up and says that were going into the bush to get something for hayes hut so i tag along thinking we cant be gone that long. We'll we are and they end up chopping down 1 and a half trees for two posts with V's in them. Very expertly done, but we hiked a ways into the bush to get them and it took a while so i dont hit the road till about 615 and its getting dark. Basically about half my ride is in the dark/pitch black without my headlamp. Didnt think to bring it as i thought id be back way before dark. It was fun though and i got to pass some bush fires that were pretty cool to see in the dark.
The ride was badass and now im ready to explore some more. I even had a conversation with a local while we were both pushing our bikes up a particularly steep hill that i totally understood every word of. Baby steps with the language, baby steps. Im thinking that ill run out to kafori and check out kevins site for another little adventure. Tomorrow im going to the fields with my family to observe a little and to maybe get ideas for projects, as well as to try and pick up some vocab.
for' those of you with google earth and feel like checking out my site, N 12 33.477', WO 12 11.568' there you go. Not really sure what the WO is for west something, but you get the point.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
swearing in 11/7
So were officially sworn in as a peace corps volunteer. We went to Dakar yesterday morning for the ceremony at the ambassadors residence. The drive there was interesting, as all driving in senegal is. We actually got a police escort on the way there which consisted of a single motorcycle cop running the gauntlet ahead of us. Traffic got bad as we got closer to Dakar and the cop took us up the opposite side of the highway. That was definitely a experience, thought we were going to hit more then once to say the least.
Well we get to the ambassadors house on time and there was some local tv cameras outside for the occasion. The ambassadors residence was all decked out in american flags and leftovers from the election, so it looked like it had been all done up for us. The ceremony itself was nice, we got to hear the country director, the ambassador and the chief of staff for the president or something of senegal speak, as well as three people from our stage in their languages. It was nice. the little reception that we had afterward was nice and they gave us nice food which was very good. After we were all done there we headed off to the PC headquarters for some last paper work and to sign a doc saying that we had officially taken the oath, that all government employees take. kinda neat and more importantly they gave us our bank information for our living allowances. This was all done pretty quickly and afterward we headed off to the american club for a hour or two of relaxing. We got to swim and play a little volleyball which was fun. We really didnt have a whole lot of time there as we had to get back to the center in Thies for a little party thing to thank the home stay families.
That was interesting as the family member that came from my family was my sister who doesnt really speak pulla futa, and with my bad french there wasnt a whole lot to converse about. So overall it was fun to see the families one more time from Pout. Once they had all been thanked and given a certificate saying they had been home stay families, they were all driven back to their respective villages. After that our little celebration began, it was fun, everyone was happy we all made it through training and were heading off to our villages. I decided to try adn break the 'course time trial record' for racing around the compound on my bike at this point. Its two laps in under 2min basically. i think that i was pretty close, i wasnt really hauling ass cause it was dark and falling the day before we have to head off would have been silly. I ran into shelia doing somethign similar as she had heard me zipping by her room and was curious as to who was biking by. Id imagine she prob could have done the course in a faster time as well.
Well we didnt get a whole lot of sleep that night as everyone was coming in at all hours and it stayed fairly noisy in my room till 5ish. Not very cool when i wanted to go running at 6 and do my laundry but it was the last day not a big deal. So that brings us to today. Everyone is getting ready for their respective trips tomorrow and getting laundry and packing out of the way. So tomorrow we all head off at different times, but ill be heading off to Kédougou tomorrow rather early as its so far away and we have to take public transport to get there. Because of this we have to spend the night in Tambacounda and finish the trip monday morning. Some of the group is lucky and gets to ride down to tamba with the country director in his land cruiser. We switch it up in Tamba but thats the journey you want to be in the land cruiser for, to Kédougou its not bad. ah well, i need to head back and go for a run and pack up. So ill next post from Kédougou!
Well we get to the ambassadors house on time and there was some local tv cameras outside for the occasion. The ambassadors residence was all decked out in american flags and leftovers from the election, so it looked like it had been all done up for us. The ceremony itself was nice, we got to hear the country director, the ambassador and the chief of staff for the president or something of senegal speak, as well as three people from our stage in their languages. It was nice. the little reception that we had afterward was nice and they gave us nice food which was very good. After we were all done there we headed off to the PC headquarters for some last paper work and to sign a doc saying that we had officially taken the oath, that all government employees take. kinda neat and more importantly they gave us our bank information for our living allowances. This was all done pretty quickly and afterward we headed off to the american club for a hour or two of relaxing. We got to swim and play a little volleyball which was fun. We really didnt have a whole lot of time there as we had to get back to the center in Thies for a little party thing to thank the home stay families.
That was interesting as the family member that came from my family was my sister who doesnt really speak pulla futa, and with my bad french there wasnt a whole lot to converse about. So overall it was fun to see the families one more time from Pout. Once they had all been thanked and given a certificate saying they had been home stay families, they were all driven back to their respective villages. After that our little celebration began, it was fun, everyone was happy we all made it through training and were heading off to our villages. I decided to try adn break the 'course time trial record' for racing around the compound on my bike at this point. Its two laps in under 2min basically. i think that i was pretty close, i wasnt really hauling ass cause it was dark and falling the day before we have to head off would have been silly. I ran into shelia doing somethign similar as she had heard me zipping by her room and was curious as to who was biking by. Id imagine she prob could have done the course in a faster time as well.
Well we didnt get a whole lot of sleep that night as everyone was coming in at all hours and it stayed fairly noisy in my room till 5ish. Not very cool when i wanted to go running at 6 and do my laundry but it was the last day not a big deal. So that brings us to today. Everyone is getting ready for their respective trips tomorrow and getting laundry and packing out of the way. So tomorrow we all head off at different times, but ill be heading off to Kédougou tomorrow rather early as its so far away and we have to take public transport to get there. Because of this we have to spend the night in Tambacounda and finish the trip monday morning. Some of the group is lucky and gets to ride down to tamba with the country director in his land cruiser. We switch it up in Tamba but thats the journey you want to be in the land cruiser for, to Kédougou its not bad. ah well, i need to head back and go for a run and pack up. So ill next post from Kédougou!
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
chaotic scatterbrain recap of a week
so its election day and ive not updated for a while. We got back from pout monday afternoon, after 8 days in pout. It was a interesting week, as it was language intensive for the whole week. we looked after our garden a bit during the evenings but mostly just went over a few new language subjects and reviewed for our Language placement interview on tuesday, today. Sunday in Pout we went to the city football final. My brother Palomine is the keeper for the reserve team from quartier mbayen. It was quite a different scene then the last game that i was out. In that sense, considerably less excitement. The reserve game was ok, it was nil nil and went to penalties, and Palomine was substituted. The guy they put in was badass though, he saved three of them and they won the game. Palomine was very happy about it. We stuck around for the first half of the senior game and went back to our home stay's to pack up our stuff so it could be picked up the next morning. The senior team from Mbayen won that game as well, so it was a clean sweep for quartier mbayen. they paraded the trophy through the quatrier that night and everyone was having a good old fashioned street party basically.
So we came back to thies on monday afternoon after saying goodbye to our homestay families. We ate lunch with them and then waited around for the peace corps car. My family and lots of their friends were all curious about the election and wether or not i was voting for Obama. They all were very happy that i was voting for Obama even though when i asked them why they like him, some of them just pointed to their skin. i mean theyre not going to know the different policies and ins and outs of the american political system just like we dont know theirs. Hence we had a class on it on the 5th after the election. But we get back to thies and relax and get ready for the LPI the next day. I was rather worried about it as i felt like i was kinda at the same level as before maybe a little more advanced in the sense of knowing a few more verbs and how to build a sentence. Shelia and i go into thies to check email and the internet in general. So i study that night and still feel this kinda impending doom kinda feeling with the election, LPI, and other things going on in my life in Senegal. Writing this now on the 5th, one has turned out well in the shape of the election, yay ohio, way to step up to the plate. LPI is still unknown at the moment. We have the rematch of the staff trainee soccer game at 6, so thatll be fun, ill prob go into town after dinner for some interneting and beers.
So i had a crzy dream about 2 things, kinda seperate incidents. The first one was kinda neat/hectic, kinda a travel related one. We were going to Dakar for swearing in and we get to the Dakar HQ office and its got a huge rather american style parking garage underneith the building. So were pulling in and its really really long with support beams holding up the roof, and momadoud, from previous entries, is driving and for some reason were backing up and were late or something so hes just hauling ass down the length of the parking garage at top speed in the PC bus. Im sitting there think oh shit were going to hit one of the support pillars and wrap round it. we dont cause mama-dukes is the shit and we get to the door just a little late and make it to swear in. The second part that i remember was about the election and i thought it rather foreboding. Obama won by a tiny bit and everyone was all happy and celebrating but in 2000 fashion recount and he loses. Considering i had this the night before the election and my LPI i was a little nervous going into said day.
I just found out that our entire stage passed their language proficiency tests. Which is great as no one has early terminated from our stage also. The country director who was here to talk to us said that is the first time in a long while that no ones done that. I also just got my package from my parents, it had a really cool football jersey from croatia, as well as my obama pin, which im wearing now. After our last safety and security session we got our soccer game under way. It was supposed to be kicking off at 6 but the staff pulled the old switch-a-roo and moved the time up for some reason, some nonsense about daylight not being there or something. well due to some shady substitutions and some sub par defending on my part we were down 2-0 in the first half. In the second half i started on the bench and the rest of the trainees who wanted to play showed up by this point and subbed in. I tried to organize the team a little bit, but im not very good at that, and were not all soccer players. The second half was alot better then the first as we more then held our own and had more then 4 chances to put away, our last touch was just off. When i got back in i played up on right wing or attack. I think im better there as i can run more and expose tried defenders a little more. we had a few good runs up the wings once we started using the wings more. so the second half was good. But we ended up losing 3-0. Ah well what can you do, we'll catch shit from teh trainers now, but im pretty good at slinging it back.
So i suppose thats a really brief summary of what went down, really really brief. But ill be swearing in on friday at the ambassadors place or something and then off to Kédougou on sunday hopefully. So my new address there is as follows
PCV Alan Edwards
B.P. 37 Kédougou
Senegal
West Africa
so for those of you who feel inclined to send me things thats the spot to send them to.
So we came back to thies on monday afternoon after saying goodbye to our homestay families. We ate lunch with them and then waited around for the peace corps car. My family and lots of their friends were all curious about the election and wether or not i was voting for Obama. They all were very happy that i was voting for Obama even though when i asked them why they like him, some of them just pointed to their skin. i mean theyre not going to know the different policies and ins and outs of the american political system just like we dont know theirs. Hence we had a class on it on the 5th after the election. But we get back to thies and relax and get ready for the LPI the next day. I was rather worried about it as i felt like i was kinda at the same level as before maybe a little more advanced in the sense of knowing a few more verbs and how to build a sentence. Shelia and i go into thies to check email and the internet in general. So i study that night and still feel this kinda impending doom kinda feeling with the election, LPI, and other things going on in my life in Senegal. Writing this now on the 5th, one has turned out well in the shape of the election, yay ohio, way to step up to the plate. LPI is still unknown at the moment. We have the rematch of the staff trainee soccer game at 6, so thatll be fun, ill prob go into town after dinner for some interneting and beers.
So i had a crzy dream about 2 things, kinda seperate incidents. The first one was kinda neat/hectic, kinda a travel related one. We were going to Dakar for swearing in and we get to the Dakar HQ office and its got a huge rather american style parking garage underneith the building. So were pulling in and its really really long with support beams holding up the roof, and momadoud, from previous entries, is driving and for some reason were backing up and were late or something so hes just hauling ass down the length of the parking garage at top speed in the PC bus. Im sitting there think oh shit were going to hit one of the support pillars and wrap round it. we dont cause mama-dukes is the shit and we get to the door just a little late and make it to swear in. The second part that i remember was about the election and i thought it rather foreboding. Obama won by a tiny bit and everyone was all happy and celebrating but in 2000 fashion recount and he loses. Considering i had this the night before the election and my LPI i was a little nervous going into said day.
I just found out that our entire stage passed their language proficiency tests. Which is great as no one has early terminated from our stage also. The country director who was here to talk to us said that is the first time in a long while that no ones done that. I also just got my package from my parents, it had a really cool football jersey from croatia, as well as my obama pin, which im wearing now. After our last safety and security session we got our soccer game under way. It was supposed to be kicking off at 6 but the staff pulled the old switch-a-roo and moved the time up for some reason, some nonsense about daylight not being there or something. well due to some shady substitutions and some sub par defending on my part we were down 2-0 in the first half. In the second half i started on the bench and the rest of the trainees who wanted to play showed up by this point and subbed in. I tried to organize the team a little bit, but im not very good at that, and were not all soccer players. The second half was alot better then the first as we more then held our own and had more then 4 chances to put away, our last touch was just off. When i got back in i played up on right wing or attack. I think im better there as i can run more and expose tried defenders a little more. we had a few good runs up the wings once we started using the wings more. so the second half was good. But we ended up losing 3-0. Ah well what can you do, we'll catch shit from teh trainers now, but im pretty good at slinging it back.
So i suppose thats a really brief summary of what went down, really really brief. But ill be swearing in on friday at the ambassadors place or something and then off to Kédougou on sunday hopefully. So my new address there is as follows
PCV Alan Edwards
B.P. 37 Kédougou
Senegal
West Africa
so for those of you who feel inclined to send me things thats the spot to send them to.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
10/24
So today was definitely an interesting day. we woke up in Pout as all our counterparts are sleeping in our rooms in Thies. We roll into Thies to a late breakfast thats almost all gone and probably double the number of people that are usually there. I know from yesterday that at least one of my counterparts is coming as he had been in contact with andy from Kédougou who was helping with the Counterpart Workshop. The other guy who works for the forestry agency is the one that he didn't know about. But i get to meet Karumba when we get there and he seems like a real nice guy. He's got a bit of a crazy lazy eye but he knows literally 6 languages. So hes really smart. We get to sit through a days worth of orientation basically. Great fun but it was for the benefit of Karumba as we had already heard all of this information. In talking to him, i learned alot about him, he works for trees for the future and helps missionaries with language learning so e picked up english. he likes volleyball as well which is cool, so all round he seems like a cool guy.
The trainees all have to introduce a different session in the language that they are learning and i get to introduce the interview session in pulla futa. Im still not very good at all that but i get on with it. Its during this session that i find out about Karumba and his family and the like. I think i can honestly say ive never been so happy to hear that someone speaks french. Never thought that would happen! But seeing as he speaks all these languages, I think he'll be a great counterpart, especially working with trees for the future. After this session, during the break,i also found out a little bit about my homestay. Evidently im getting a brand new hut. Being built as we were talking i was informed. Good times.
The rest of the sessions were more of the same, lunch was interesting as there was so many people. THey opened up the dinner room for people as well because there were so many people. I think i heard that if everyone showed there would have been 80 people plus volunteers staff and trainees. Thats a lot of people in the small center. I just relaxed after lunch and read the rest of my Flashman book. Great book by the way, check it out, great fun. Very Sharp-esq but with alot more funny. But that reading basically put me to sleep and i have a hard time staying awake in the next session. Luckily for me i kinda wake up before the guy talking calls out someone else for nodding off. kinda funny really. The rest of this session after lunch is on the project plan for Ag/Fo in Senegal, again something we already had a class on. Oh yea all these sessions are in French or Wollof so weve really only a small idea of whats going on. They stop and recap for us in english every now and then, but its tough going.
After this session instead of taking a nap like i should i go with Shelia up to the main road and to a boutique to get some cookies. delicious little chocolate filled cookies, hit the spot they did. Something about sugar these days, just that much better. We get back and hang out in the sitting room area just chilling a bit till we realize theres no one else around and that the next session has prob already started. luckily it had only just started so we really didnt miss a lot. This session was on the counterparts role in our objectives and what was to be expected form them. The cross-cultural teacher made them close their eyes and pretend they had been taken to Japan and then ask the what they needed and how they would have liked to be helped in that situation. This session runs a little long so by the time were done, we have to all scurry over to where the cars are waiting for us so we can be taken back to our villages. The wollof speaker and us pulla futa folk were all in the same car. The head agriculture teacher snags a ride with us as well. Hes a nice guy, Yussefa. Kevin from our group taught him chillaxing after he dropped chilling like a villain one day while he was inspecting our garden and our tree nursery in POut. The funny part is he evidently uses it alot now! Its kinda funny cause hes this older african guy, kinda goofy but ubber nice, and he drops chillaxing and chilling like a villain, too funny.
The wollof village that the wollof group is staying in is about 4-600 people, and i feel like it would have been alot better had we been in something like that instead of a 30,000 person town. Ah well, what can you do, under a month left now. Oh yeah our LPI's were graded. I ended up bumping up another level to novice high, just one more level to go, intermediate low. I think if i bust my ass this next 8 days we spend in Pout ill be ok, but ill have to really work hard.
So when we get back to Pout we find out that were being picked up at 615, so we have to get up nice and early, which sucks. But we'll at least get breakfast at the center with everyone else. I was actually able to convey this to my host mother in pullar tonight which was cool. I just have to keep trying i guess. But speaking of my host family, its been a little odd here the fast couple of days as my host familys uncle who lived across the street died. I had meet him a couple of times and new his family. I remember them telling us us training that we'd prob all end up knowing someone who would die while we are here, but i didnt think itd be in pre service training. One other trainee had a death in the family, his dad died in his homestay family, so thats a little different. But i didnt understand the funeral procedures here, and when i was told a couple days ago at the center that he died and the funeral was the next day i figured it would last one day. No try 8. So i just figured that id not have to do anything, and didnt get why they kept bringing it up and talking about the funeral. I finally asked my brother about it and he said it lasts 8 days. This is the one that speaks a little english. I felt kinda bad about this as i hadnt made any kind of move to go and give my condolences to the family, outside of my immediate host family. So thats what i did tonight.
So if you really didnt know someone that well and they die, its a little awkward, now imagine youve only meet the person a few times and dont really speak the language. that intensifies the awkwardness ten fold. I was able to get out je suis tres desolie and condolences. My Aunt seemed happy with this, im stil not sure if i was supposed to give her money or something as there was a basket with a bunch of change in it next to her when i came over. Ill have to ask the LCF's about that. Her son is real nice and hangs out with my brother a lot so thats kinda how i knew the family. So that was my night basically, since i have to get up early im hitting the hay early. En jango bimmbi law
The trainees all have to introduce a different session in the language that they are learning and i get to introduce the interview session in pulla futa. Im still not very good at all that but i get on with it. Its during this session that i find out about Karumba and his family and the like. I think i can honestly say ive never been so happy to hear that someone speaks french. Never thought that would happen! But seeing as he speaks all these languages, I think he'll be a great counterpart, especially working with trees for the future. After this session, during the break,i also found out a little bit about my homestay. Evidently im getting a brand new hut. Being built as we were talking i was informed. Good times.
The rest of the sessions were more of the same, lunch was interesting as there was so many people. THey opened up the dinner room for people as well because there were so many people. I think i heard that if everyone showed there would have been 80 people plus volunteers staff and trainees. Thats a lot of people in the small center. I just relaxed after lunch and read the rest of my Flashman book. Great book by the way, check it out, great fun. Very Sharp-esq but with alot more funny. But that reading basically put me to sleep and i have a hard time staying awake in the next session. Luckily for me i kinda wake up before the guy talking calls out someone else for nodding off. kinda funny really. The rest of this session after lunch is on the project plan for Ag/Fo in Senegal, again something we already had a class on. Oh yea all these sessions are in French or Wollof so weve really only a small idea of whats going on. They stop and recap for us in english every now and then, but its tough going.
After this session instead of taking a nap like i should i go with Shelia up to the main road and to a boutique to get some cookies. delicious little chocolate filled cookies, hit the spot they did. Something about sugar these days, just that much better. We get back and hang out in the sitting room area just chilling a bit till we realize theres no one else around and that the next session has prob already started. luckily it had only just started so we really didnt miss a lot. This session was on the counterparts role in our objectives and what was to be expected form them. The cross-cultural teacher made them close their eyes and pretend they had been taken to Japan and then ask the what they needed and how they would have liked to be helped in that situation. This session runs a little long so by the time were done, we have to all scurry over to where the cars are waiting for us so we can be taken back to our villages. The wollof speaker and us pulla futa folk were all in the same car. The head agriculture teacher snags a ride with us as well. Hes a nice guy, Yussefa. Kevin from our group taught him chillaxing after he dropped chilling like a villain one day while he was inspecting our garden and our tree nursery in POut. The funny part is he evidently uses it alot now! Its kinda funny cause hes this older african guy, kinda goofy but ubber nice, and he drops chillaxing and chilling like a villain, too funny.
The wollof village that the wollof group is staying in is about 4-600 people, and i feel like it would have been alot better had we been in something like that instead of a 30,000 person town. Ah well, what can you do, under a month left now. Oh yeah our LPI's were graded. I ended up bumping up another level to novice high, just one more level to go, intermediate low. I think if i bust my ass this next 8 days we spend in Pout ill be ok, but ill have to really work hard.
So when we get back to Pout we find out that were being picked up at 615, so we have to get up nice and early, which sucks. But we'll at least get breakfast at the center with everyone else. I was actually able to convey this to my host mother in pullar tonight which was cool. I just have to keep trying i guess. But speaking of my host family, its been a little odd here the fast couple of days as my host familys uncle who lived across the street died. I had meet him a couple of times and new his family. I remember them telling us us training that we'd prob all end up knowing someone who would die while we are here, but i didnt think itd be in pre service training. One other trainee had a death in the family, his dad died in his homestay family, so thats a little different. But i didnt understand the funeral procedures here, and when i was told a couple days ago at the center that he died and the funeral was the next day i figured it would last one day. No try 8. So i just figured that id not have to do anything, and didnt get why they kept bringing it up and talking about the funeral. I finally asked my brother about it and he said it lasts 8 days. This is the one that speaks a little english. I felt kinda bad about this as i hadnt made any kind of move to go and give my condolences to the family, outside of my immediate host family. So thats what i did tonight.
So if you really didnt know someone that well and they die, its a little awkward, now imagine youve only meet the person a few times and dont really speak the language. that intensifies the awkwardness ten fold. I was able to get out je suis tres desolie and condolences. My Aunt seemed happy with this, im stil not sure if i was supposed to give her money or something as there was a basket with a bunch of change in it next to her when i came over. Ill have to ask the LCF's about that. Her son is real nice and hangs out with my brother a lot so thats kinda how i knew the family. So that was my night basically, since i have to get up early im hitting the hay early. En jango bimmbi law
10/23
So today was definitely an interesting day. we woke up in Pout as all our counterparts are sleeping in our rooms in Thies. We roll into Thies to a late breakfast thats almost all gone and probably double the number of people that are usually there. I know from yesterday that at least one of my counterparts is coming as he had been in contact with andy from Kédougou who was helping with the Counterpart Workshop. The other guy who works for the forestry agency is the one that he didn't know about. But i get to meet Karumba when we get there and he seems like a real nice guy. He's got a bit of a crazy lazy eye but he knows literally 6 languages. So hes really smart. We get to sit through a days worth of orientation basically. Great fun but it was for the benefit of Karumba as we had already heard all of this information. In talking to him, i learned alot about him, he works for trees for the future and helps missionaries with language learning so e picked up english. he likes volleyball as well which is cool, so all round he seems like a cool guy.
The trainees all have to introduce a different session in the language that they are learning and i get to introduce the interview session in pulla futa. Im still not very good at all that but i get on with it. Its during this session that i find out about Karumba and his family and the like. I think i can honestly say ive never been so happy to hear that someone speaks french. Never thought that would happen! But seeing as he speaks all these languages, I think he'll be a great counterpart, especially working with trees for the future. After this session, during the break,i also found out a little bit about my homestay. Evidently im getting a brand new hut. Being built as we were talking i was informed. Good times.
The rest of the sessions were more of the same, lunch was interesting as there was so many people. THey opened up the dinner room for people as well because there were so many people. I think i heard that if everyone showed there would have been 80 people plus volunteers staff and trainees. Thats a lot of people in the small center. I just relaxed after lunch and read the rest of my Flashman book. Great book by the way, check it out, great fun. Very Sharp-esq but with alot more funny. But that reading basically put me to sleep and i have a hard time staying awake in the next session. Luckily for me i kinda wake up before the guy talking calls out someone else for nodding off. kinda funny really. The rest of this session after lunch is on the project plan for Ag/Fo in Senegal, again something we already had a class on. Oh yea all these sessions are in French or Wollof so weve really only a small idea of whats going on. They stop and recap for us in english every now and then, but its tough going.
After this session instead of taking a nap like i should i go with Shelia up to the main road and to a boutique to get some cookies. delicious little chocolate filled cookies, hit the spot they did. Something about sugar these days, just that much better. We get back and hang out in the sitting room area just chilling a bit till we realize theres no one else around and that the next session has prob already started. luckily it had only just started so we really didnt miss a lot. This session was on the counterparts role in our objectives and what was to be expected form them. The cross-cultural teacher made them close their eyes and pretend they had been taken to Japan and then ask the what they needed and how they would have liked to be helped in that situation. This session runs a little long so by the time were done, we have to all scurry over to where the cars are waiting for us so we can be taken back to our villages. The wollof speaker and us pulla futa folk were all in the same car. The head agriculture teacher snags a ride with us as well. Hes a nice guy, Yussefa. Kevin from our group taught him chillaxing after he dropped chilling like a villain one day while he was inspecting our garden and our tree nursery in POut. The funny part is he evidently uses it alot now! Its kinda funny cause hes this older african guy, kinda goofy but ubber nice, and he drops chillaxing and chilling like a villain, too funny.
The wollof village that the wollof group is staying in is about 4-600 people, and i feel like it would have been alot better had we been in something like that instead of a 30,000 person town. Ah well, what can you do, under a month left now. Oh yeah our LPI's were graded. I ended up bumping up another level to novice high, just one more level to go, intermediate low. I think if i bust my ass this next 8 days we spend in Pout ill be ok, but ill have to really work hard.
So when we get back to Pout we find out that were being picked up at 615, so we have to get up nice and early, which sucks. But we'll at least get breakfast at the center with everyone else. I was actually able to convey this to my host mother in pullar tonight which was cool. I just have to keep trying i guess. But speaking of my host family, its been a little odd here the fast couple of days as my host familys uncle who lived across the street died. I had meet him a couple of times and new his family. I remember them telling us us training that we'd prob all end up knowing someone who would die while we are here, but i didnt think itd be in pre service training. One other trainee had a death in the family, his dad died in his homestay family, so thats a little different. But i didnt understand the funeral procedures here, and when i was told a couple days ago at the center that he died and the funeral was the next day i figured it would last one day. No try 8. So i just figured that id not have to do anything, and didnt get why they kept bringing it up and talking about the funeral. I finally asked my brother about it and he said it lasts 8 days. This is the one that speaks a little english. I felt kinda bad about this as i hadnt made any kind of move to go and give my condolences to the family, outside of my immediate host family. So thats what i did tonight.
So if you really didnt know someone that well and they die, its a little awkward, now imagine youve only meet the person a few times and dont really speak the language. that intensifies the awkwardness ten fold. I was able to get out je suis tres desolie and condolences. My Aunt seemed happy with this, im stil not sure if i was supposed to give her money or something as there was a basket with a bunch of change in it next to her when i came over. Ill have to ask the LCF's about that. Her son is real nice and hangs out with my brother a lot so thats kinda how i knew the family. So that was my night basically, since i have to get up early im hitting the hay early. En jango bimmbi law
The trainees all have to introduce a different session in the language that they are learning and i get to introduce the interview session in pulla futa. Im still not very good at all that but i get on with it. Its during this session that i find out about Karumba and his family and the like. I think i can honestly say ive never been so happy to hear that someone speaks french. Never thought that would happen! But seeing as he speaks all these languages, I think he'll be a great counterpart, especially working with trees for the future. After this session, during the break,i also found out a little bit about my homestay. Evidently im getting a brand new hut. Being built as we were talking i was informed. Good times.
The rest of the sessions were more of the same, lunch was interesting as there was so many people. THey opened up the dinner room for people as well because there were so many people. I think i heard that if everyone showed there would have been 80 people plus volunteers staff and trainees. Thats a lot of people in the small center. I just relaxed after lunch and read the rest of my Flashman book. Great book by the way, check it out, great fun. Very Sharp-esq but with alot more funny. But that reading basically put me to sleep and i have a hard time staying awake in the next session. Luckily for me i kinda wake up before the guy talking calls out someone else for nodding off. kinda funny really. The rest of this session after lunch is on the project plan for Ag/Fo in Senegal, again something we already had a class on. Oh yea all these sessions are in French or Wollof so weve really only a small idea of whats going on. They stop and recap for us in english every now and then, but its tough going.
After this session instead of taking a nap like i should i go with Shelia up to the main road and to a boutique to get some cookies. delicious little chocolate filled cookies, hit the spot they did. Something about sugar these days, just that much better. We get back and hang out in the sitting room area just chilling a bit till we realize theres no one else around and that the next session has prob already started. luckily it had only just started so we really didnt miss a lot. This session was on the counterparts role in our objectives and what was to be expected form them. The cross-cultural teacher made them close their eyes and pretend they had been taken to Japan and then ask the what they needed and how they would have liked to be helped in that situation. This session runs a little long so by the time were done, we have to all scurry over to where the cars are waiting for us so we can be taken back to our villages. The wollof speaker and us pulla futa folk were all in the same car. The head agriculture teacher snags a ride with us as well. Hes a nice guy, Yussefa. Kevin from our group taught him chillaxing after he dropped chilling like a villain one day while he was inspecting our garden and our tree nursery in POut. The funny part is he evidently uses it alot now! Its kinda funny cause hes this older african guy, kinda goofy but ubber nice, and he drops chillaxing and chilling like a villain, too funny.
The wollof village that the wollof group is staying in is about 4-600 people, and i feel like it would have been alot better had we been in something like that instead of a 30,000 person town. Ah well, what can you do, under a month left now. Oh yeah our LPI's were graded. I ended up bumping up another level to novice high, just one more level to go, intermediate low. I think if i bust my ass this next 8 days we spend in Pout ill be ok, but ill have to really work hard.
So when we get back to Pout we find out that were being picked up at 615, so we have to get up nice and early, which sucks. But we'll at least get breakfast at the center with everyone else. I was actually able to convey this to my host mother in pullar tonight which was cool. I just have to keep trying i guess. But speaking of my host family, its been a little odd here the fast couple of days as my host familys uncle who lived across the street died. I had meet him a couple of times and new his family. I remember them telling us us training that we'd prob all end up knowing someone who would die while we are here, but i didnt think itd be in pre service training. One other trainee had a death in the family, his dad died in his homestay family, so thats a little different. But i didnt understand the funeral procedures here, and when i was told a couple days ago at the center that he died and the funeral was the next day i figured it would last one day. No try 8. So i just figured that id not have to do anything, and didnt get why they kept bringing it up and talking about the funeral. I finally asked my brother about it and he said it lasts 8 days. This is the one that speaks a little english. I felt kinda bad about this as i hadnt made any kind of move to go and give my condolences to the family, outside of my immediate host family. So thats what i did tonight.
So if you really didnt know someone that well and they die, its a little awkward, now imagine youve only meet the person a few times and dont really speak the language. that intensifies the awkwardness ten fold. I was able to get out je suis tres desolie and condolences. My Aunt seemed happy with this, im stil not sure if i was supposed to give her money or something as there was a basket with a bunch of change in it next to her when i came over. Ill have to ask the LCF's about that. Her son is real nice and hangs out with my brother a lot so thats kinda how i knew the family. So that was my night basically, since i have to get up early im hitting the hay early. En jango bimmbi law
10/21
so today we spent at the training center doing our LPI's and some cross cultural things in the afternoon. I was going to wake up early and study for my LPI but ended up just getting up at around 7, which was still early really as my test wasnt till 920. So i get my usual breakfast of baguette and chocolate spread/butter and jam. I usually end up eating about a whole baguette of the mix. Not everyone else is up yet, but a good number are up doing the same thing. everyone wants to hit intermediate low to get it out of the way. One girl had already hit it on her first LPI, must have just clicked for her or something. Im thinking that mine will result in me getting novice high more for pity's/my confidences sake. It went ok i was able to describe activities i did in the past ok and the ones i was going to do in the future. I didnt know one of hte questions she asked and still cant ask questions. I just blank cause im staring a language teacher and cant think of what to ask them in these silly little scenarios they give you to prompt you. Ah well ive got one more shot after this to hit intermediate low, and if i dont then i get 'held back' so to speak till i do. If i dont get it in two weeks though, im doneski. So there is definitely incentive to make sure you get there.
After the LPI;s we have break with more baguette and coffee/tea, during which my roommates and I chill in our room listening to music. very nice. We have a session on the counter part workshop that we have this week where demba goes over the logistics of the week. Sounds like itll be interesting, theres close to 80 counterparts coming, 2 for every trainee. No wonder were staying in Pout during the CPW. After this we break up into our different sectors to go over the specifics that each group has to do to get ready. Basically every trainee has to introduce a session in the language that they are learning. should be interesting to see anyway. We also get assignments for different committees for different activities that are going on during. For me im on the welcoming committee from 3-5 tomorrow. I have to show the counterparts to their room and where the essentials are. If they dont speak french or Pullar, im thinking its going to be pretty difficult. I wanted to be on the tea committee as they just had to deliver charcoal and the little grill-esq things that they use to boil the water every day to the counterparts. But since no one was volunteering for the welcoming committee and it was getting to the point where someone was going to be volunteered regardless, i decided to take the fall for the team.
After this is lunch break and before lunch starts, as weve about 1/2 an hour, i decide to get my translation of the intro to my session out of the way. Its rather long, but its done now and lamine, my lang prof, looked it over and made the changes needed to make it make sense. We had a decent lunch today as well. some old rice and veggies, but the meat was a little curry-ie which was a nice change. We are informed about the ideas that are on the table for our stages tee-shirt, i guess every stage gets one. The ideas are ok, im not sure what one i like really. ones a picture of toilet paper with a big crossed out circle around it, with ive converted on the front. The second is PC senegal with the start of our stage on it and on the back is africa fun with three heads on it. the heads would have been demba, chris hendrick and someone else. The last idea was kinda vague, but would incorporate a phrase from each language that we thought was funny.
After lunch, Oliver, Jess, and I go into town to get money. Unfortunately all the banks are closed so i cant go to western Union and pick up the money id been sent. Oliver and Jess were just going to the ATM so it wasnt a problem for them. We end up hoofing it around town eventually ending up at the post office which is also on lunch break till 230 when our next class session started, and then promptly gave up. I make the decision to come back during the next culture session and get it taken care of as we had the staff trainee soccer game right after class in the afternoon. so basically i get back to the center just in time to turn right back round and head off back to the post office. I make it there in about 20min and theres about 4 other people in line ahead of me. Here in Senegal there isnt really line etiquette so to speak, people just bust a move to the front and try to get their business taken care of first. very hard to get used to for americans used to order and the like. SO i get shafted by 2 folk before i get pushy and get to the cashier. It was mildly confusing at first, but once i figured out what the numer-o was she was asking for, everything went smoothly... and it was all in french!! I was so proud of myself for that as im ubber paranoid about how bad my french is. I guess i can get by with the basic interactions at different basic shops/locations.
So i get back to the center in time to hear the end of the lecture on islam in daily life at the disco hut. THe guy talking was definitely english educated, very interesting to hear as most of the trainers are very clearly american trained. We have a break after that and the next session was on senegad or something. It was about Senegalese gender and development. The volunteer from Pout who is good friends with my family. She was told to keep the session short as we had the game directly after it. Thats really what i was looking forward too.
So we all troop over to the stade for the game. Well most everyone does, a few people who weren't interested in playing went into town for the internet. We had to play on the demi-all weather pitch i wrote about earlier which kinda sucked but the game was really fun. I think we got everyone who wanted to play involved in the game. that was the important part in my book really, and i think all the trainers and trainees all had a great time. The game ended up in a 3-3 draw which was totally unexpected as we figured the trainers would steam roll us. It looked like that was on the cards for the first 2/3rds of the game as it wa s2-1 going in to the half and 3-1 afterwards. We got our game together and caught them with the offsides trap a few times and strung some good passes together and got back in it with a fortunate goal and then with some great footwork chris leveled it with 10 min left! This kinda kicked the trainers up the back side a bit and they poured forward. IT kinda reminded me of the england argentina game a few world cup games age when Becks scored a penalty and then they sat on the goal and withstood the storm that rained down on them in the last 20 min. We had some outstanding performances though. In the first half our goalie totally kept us in the game, Tate was a badass and didn't take shit from anyone. The two goals weren't really his fault one was a absolute cracker of a goal upper ninety in the top left from about 20 yards out. Meg Thompson was also kinda a surprise, she played like a pro and totally took the trainers by surprise. So basically it was a great time and i think everyone would be totally down to play again like the trainers were saying after the game.
We all head back to the center in a good mood and have dinner which was great. Fries, salad, and fish. Everyone is kinda itching to go out and head up to pamandas(bar uptown) for drinks. I decide to head up to big faim for a beer and some interneting. Shelia and i go and chill for a bit, get my interneting done and have a beer. We end up chatting for a little bit. We head back to the center and some of the folk who didnt go up to pamandas were watching life aquatic on the projector the SEDers use for their tech training. great movie and i watch it for a bit before heading back to pack up all my stuff so some counterpart can use my armoire and room. Big pain in the ass but what ever.
After the LPI;s we have break with more baguette and coffee/tea, during which my roommates and I chill in our room listening to music. very nice. We have a session on the counter part workshop that we have this week where demba goes over the logistics of the week. Sounds like itll be interesting, theres close to 80 counterparts coming, 2 for every trainee. No wonder were staying in Pout during the CPW. After this we break up into our different sectors to go over the specifics that each group has to do to get ready. Basically every trainee has to introduce a session in the language that they are learning. should be interesting to see anyway. We also get assignments for different committees for different activities that are going on during. For me im on the welcoming committee from 3-5 tomorrow. I have to show the counterparts to their room and where the essentials are. If they dont speak french or Pullar, im thinking its going to be pretty difficult. I wanted to be on the tea committee as they just had to deliver charcoal and the little grill-esq things that they use to boil the water every day to the counterparts. But since no one was volunteering for the welcoming committee and it was getting to the point where someone was going to be volunteered regardless, i decided to take the fall for the team.
After this is lunch break and before lunch starts, as weve about 1/2 an hour, i decide to get my translation of the intro to my session out of the way. Its rather long, but its done now and lamine, my lang prof, looked it over and made the changes needed to make it make sense. We had a decent lunch today as well. some old rice and veggies, but the meat was a little curry-ie which was a nice change. We are informed about the ideas that are on the table for our stages tee-shirt, i guess every stage gets one. The ideas are ok, im not sure what one i like really. ones a picture of toilet paper with a big crossed out circle around it, with ive converted on the front. The second is PC senegal with the start of our stage on it and on the back is africa fun with three heads on it. the heads would have been demba, chris hendrick and someone else. The last idea was kinda vague, but would incorporate a phrase from each language that we thought was funny.
After lunch, Oliver, Jess, and I go into town to get money. Unfortunately all the banks are closed so i cant go to western Union and pick up the money id been sent. Oliver and Jess were just going to the ATM so it wasnt a problem for them. We end up hoofing it around town eventually ending up at the post office which is also on lunch break till 230 when our next class session started, and then promptly gave up. I make the decision to come back during the next culture session and get it taken care of as we had the staff trainee soccer game right after class in the afternoon. so basically i get back to the center just in time to turn right back round and head off back to the post office. I make it there in about 20min and theres about 4 other people in line ahead of me. Here in Senegal there isnt really line etiquette so to speak, people just bust a move to the front and try to get their business taken care of first. very hard to get used to for americans used to order and the like. SO i get shafted by 2 folk before i get pushy and get to the cashier. It was mildly confusing at first, but once i figured out what the numer-o was she was asking for, everything went smoothly... and it was all in french!! I was so proud of myself for that as im ubber paranoid about how bad my french is. I guess i can get by with the basic interactions at different basic shops/locations.
So i get back to the center in time to hear the end of the lecture on islam in daily life at the disco hut. THe guy talking was definitely english educated, very interesting to hear as most of the trainers are very clearly american trained. We have a break after that and the next session was on senegad or something. It was about Senegalese gender and development. The volunteer from Pout who is good friends with my family. She was told to keep the session short as we had the game directly after it. Thats really what i was looking forward too.
So we all troop over to the stade for the game. Well most everyone does, a few people who weren't interested in playing went into town for the internet. We had to play on the demi-all weather pitch i wrote about earlier which kinda sucked but the game was really fun. I think we got everyone who wanted to play involved in the game. that was the important part in my book really, and i think all the trainers and trainees all had a great time. The game ended up in a 3-3 draw which was totally unexpected as we figured the trainers would steam roll us. It looked like that was on the cards for the first 2/3rds of the game as it wa s2-1 going in to the half and 3-1 afterwards. We got our game together and caught them with the offsides trap a few times and strung some good passes together and got back in it with a fortunate goal and then with some great footwork chris leveled it with 10 min left! This kinda kicked the trainers up the back side a bit and they poured forward. IT kinda reminded me of the england argentina game a few world cup games age when Becks scored a penalty and then they sat on the goal and withstood the storm that rained down on them in the last 20 min. We had some outstanding performances though. In the first half our goalie totally kept us in the game, Tate was a badass and didn't take shit from anyone. The two goals weren't really his fault one was a absolute cracker of a goal upper ninety in the top left from about 20 yards out. Meg Thompson was also kinda a surprise, she played like a pro and totally took the trainers by surprise. So basically it was a great time and i think everyone would be totally down to play again like the trainers were saying after the game.
We all head back to the center in a good mood and have dinner which was great. Fries, salad, and fish. Everyone is kinda itching to go out and head up to pamandas(bar uptown) for drinks. I decide to head up to big faim for a beer and some interneting. Shelia and i go and chill for a bit, get my interneting done and have a beer. We end up chatting for a little bit. We head back to the center and some of the folk who didnt go up to pamandas were watching life aquatic on the projector the SEDers use for their tech training. great movie and i watch it for a bit before heading back to pack up all my stuff so some counterpart can use my armoire and room. Big pain in the ass but what ever.
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