Its been a while. What's happened since the last time that i wrote... hmmm thats a good question. Out planting has taken up some of my time since i last wrote as it is the season for such things. Well not so much anymore but was. Karumba and myself have gotten lots of trees in the ground this year, no idea how many will live or die but it'll be interesting to see.
Took a little hike to Guinée at the beginning of October from Kevin's village to the border. That was fun because it was the same border crossing that we crossed when we were coming back from Guinée. We stayed with Kevin's host Aunt or something. Really nice and since it was ramadan and we were fasting it was an interesting time as we didn't eat or drink on the couple hour hike there. But when we broke the fast that night we ate extremely well. We stayed there for the morning and then hiked back in the afternoon. On the way back we stopped at a waterfall that is nearby Kevin's village. Since it was the rainy season it was really full and very spectacular. We got to swim in it and then headed back to Kafori.
After this trip i went out to Dindefello to help a farmer there set up a mango orchard there. That went really well. Great ride out there in the rain. We actually didn't get anything done the first day I was there because of the rain. So we watched Indiana Jones in french instead. Good flick even when in french. The next day we did actually get around to planting trees. Hassana had a line of Jatropha already planted on his soon to be fence line. We ended up planting about 50 trees total i think. A line cashews along the line of Jatropha and the actual Mangos in the field. It was really rewarding seeing these guys going into the ground. They had been left in the nursery a bit long and were huge because of it but should go really well.
So after that was done i headed back to Kédougou to sort out the end of my SPA grant which still hadn't been taken care of. Pain in the ass but needed to be taken care of. A couple of things were going on when i got back that were of note. Michelle, a 3rd year from Mali was getting married to her host brother on our year anniversary of being in country. All the volunteers got done up and went down to the mayors office to witness the ceremony. we did up a charet so it said just married and had cans running off the back. It was a nice touch. We all hang out at the PC house after that. Huge thunderstorm kicks in while we are sitting there eating a bunch of american food that the guys from netlife left us after the mosquito net distribution. I leave in the middle of the thunderstorm to go home. It was fun walking in the torrential down pour. Manage to kill my phone in the process though so it wasn't all that good.
That brings me up to my Dakar trip as i leave the day after that at 5 in the morning on the Nikolo Transport. Kinda leave a few days early for whatever reason. Make good time id say on the road there. i think we got there by 5 or 6. I missed getting to see the newbies though which doesn't really matter as they'll be here soon enough. So dakar. had a good time. Got to hang out with Ian, Phulbright Phil, Oliver, Meg, and even a de-misters. It was a good time. Got mid service out of the way, got two cavities filled, talked to Manning again about anything and everything, and went drinking every night i was there. And i wonder how I'm broke. Kevin was there for all of this as well as his mother was coming to Senegal during all this as well. nice lady, seemed to be not fazed at all by the sights and sounds of africa.
So when we get back to kédougou, its back to life as usual i guess. The summer camp that i put 500 thousand CFA towards was getting ready to kick off. Wait a min thats where all my money went! and the regional house was overflowing with people, volunteers, counselor, and organizers. Not really my kind of place. Heads not in the right place for a shit ton of people all running around like they're ubber important. Well they all take off for Dindefello finally and I start fixing bikes. There's a bunch of people coming down to Kédougou in the following weeks that want bikes so we need working ones. The fact that peoples real bikes are in shitty condition means that most of the house bikes we have been commandeered. So basically I'm fixing peoples bikes that have been sitting around for weeks on end in the rain.
During all this i have to run Counterpart workshop money out to two sites in the Fungolimbi area for the newbies counterparts. Basically the newbies counterparts go to Thiés, meet their volunteers, and get a rundown of what all is expected of them. To do this they need some travel allowance. so i ran out to Koboye and Tougé to do this. had to go twice as the first time the Tougé folk weren't there and i had to come back. The Koboye folk were and i got to deliver that and then hike down a Mt. with my bike on my back. Not fun but fun at the same time. Absolutely gorgeous site Koboye. Sitting on the edge of cliffs that look down into senegal while backing into the Mts. of Guinée. So like i said i had to come back another day for the Tougé folk as they weren't there. Tried the next day but the ferry that runs you across the bridge was broken and i had to wait. The day after that i was able to go but quite late as a rainstorm rolled in and delayed my departure. Because of this i was on a time limit for how long my trip could take. The ferry stops running at 6 or 7. I cant remember exactly but what ever time it was i rolled up to the ferry exactly on time. I ended up waiting a while for it to cross and come and get me. While waiting a talked to a bunch of the others who were waiting with me. A few others rolled up while we were waiting and were very impressed by a. how fast i was moving and b. my bike. Everyone here loves my bike. its kinda funny but its just something that they are completely blown away by.
So that kinda brings us up to now. American Football has started again. Amazing that a year has rolled by again. Camp is over and a bunch of people are out at another waterfall as a kinda b-day celebration/camp over kinda thing. Newbies get here the 18/19th, bike trip the 28th,
hmm what else... thats about all i got for now.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Grafting Seminars
As I sat riding back into Kédougou from the last grafting seminar we organized down here, a number of things were buzzing around my head. Its amazing what a bike ride across Senegal's newly greened landscape can do to clear your head. The road between Kédougou
and Djakaba, where the last grafting seminar had just finished, is brand new and you can practically fly on it. This tarmaced piece of heaven allows you to drift off to your own little world where you're doing whatever you want. For me that could be anything from going for a ride back home to relax, racing in the Tour de France (and getting smoked by Lance Armstrong and his successor Alberto Contador, both huge badasses this year by the way) or just getting away from site to enjoy the much anticipated arrival of the rainy season. The change that has taken place because of that rain is truly phenomenal. This ride, while to the north of Kédougou, completely blindsided me in that I remember quite clearly riding that same route after install and being very put off of this region to the north. Sarraya? Malinke, NO pulaar, no thank you! Ugly language and Ugly land, not for me. The Malinke's can keep it for all I care as I just didn't see what they saw
in it. How wrong was I. Two different worlds and its absolutely beautiful now.
This ride, the recent mosquito net distribution in that same area, and a few other recent events have reaffirmed my desire to continue to explore and enjoy this completely amazing region as well as the rest of the country. The transformation from a blurry non dispirit brown haze down a bumpy makeshift dirt construction road, to a vibrant overpowering blast of green along a brand new smooth super highway was amazing. Maybe its not a super highway but it is pretty badass in these parts. With just a small amount of time passing, the complete make up of this area as well as my mentality has been completely reversed. Saraya and Kédougou as a whole have been transformed into this green paradise that I was warned about when we demisted down here almost a year ago now. Of course I naively said 'yea Im sure it'll get greener then this', as it was pretty green then. Naive like I said. Its amazing how time has flown by since then, as things have gone up and down since those days of PST.
With the completion of these grafting seminars here in Kédougou, I think a number of things have been learned. The trainer we used for all of these seminars, Demba (not the one we all know and love up in Dah-Kar), but Demba Samoura of Kédougou, was great. Absolutely wonderful resource for these seminars as he speaks Wolof, Pulaar, and Malinke. It is an interesting mix of languages and his ability to teach mango farmers the techniques of grafting as well as how to out plant and set up an orchard is irreplaceable. The four sites we used for this were well spaced within the region, with the goal being trying to cover main hubs throughout region. The first day was out in Dimboli and after a few kinks went really smoothly, the local militia even showed up, oh wait that was just the Eaux et Foret agent who loves to look like he is out on patrol stoping the guinean army from invading! Got to love those uniforms and the complete lack of local language skills. Everyone was really interested and I feel like they really learned a lot from the practice they received in Momadou Diallo's field (yea theres only one MD in these neck of the woods). As arranged, at the end of the seminar, everyone received about 10 scions to take back to their fields to graft their own mangos. This was twofold in importance as they got to teach others in their villages as well graft their own trees. A couple of the guys who came, left immediately after lunch to go back to Fungolimbi and their fields to get started grafting immediately. Development at work, craziness!
The second seminar was out in Thjibedji the next day which I did not go to as two other volunteers were there. I hear that everything went smoothly there with Jordan Welty and Sheila McAtee having everything more than under control. That brings us up to my home site and the seminar there. I think it got progressively smoother for Demba as the week went on as he got better with his Pulaar, he is a native Malinke speaker. So Between my counterpart who attended, Demba, and my host dad, we had a explosion of knowledge and personalities at work. It was awesome! My dad was a Sodefedex
agent for like 20yrs and has a radio show here in Kédougou for agriculture and is a big personality down here. Everywhere I go people know my dad its crazy and very helpful for work. Karumba, my counterpart, has been working with Peace Corps for at least 6yrs and knows about every technique we teach. So with these three guys leading the seminar every possible aspect that could have been covered, was, and by qualified people as well. Fertilizer, out-planting, furadin, orchard setup, windbreaks, live-fencing, like I said anything and everything. It was great. Did I mention my host family loves hosting people? Oh yea they love it, food to die for, tea served by my sisters throughout the discussion as well as ice water, absolutely top notch. Yea I live in a bigger town and it has its pluses. More than anything I owe my family for being so cool about this whole day, they kicked ass.
The demonstration in my counterparts field, which is literally across the road from my house, went really well. We started off with some practice on some branches of a huge mango tree in the center of his field and then the practical implementation on young mangos once people got the hang of the technique. The tongue and groove technique isn't that hard when described like the main branch is bambugoling the scion, thats carrying it on its back to non Pulaars. It clicked really well with everyone when he said that cause they could picture a baby strapped onto its mothers back and then replicate it so the scion wouldn't fall! Great time out in the field and I think everyone had a good time and learned a lot.
Had someone told me a year ago that id be in charge of a seminar like this I would have said they were crazy. Well to be honest this was all Boobs Dunfuxhers project, thats Andy Jondahl to anyone who isn't yet familiar with Mr. Boobakar. Some how my name ended up on the SPA grant form and then Andy left, so the Ag/Fo's and Aggies of the region were called into action.(maybe ill get reimbursed for fronting the entire budget soon, that'd be greeeaaat) Without
Kevin, Sheila, Jordan, Aaron and Kellen, it would not have been possible to complete this project. Progress has been made this year, I definitely learned how to graft more efficiently during this week, some really misguided folk seem to think my Pulaar is actually half way decent, and I have a better understanding on what is needed to organize a project like this. A year can change a lot and I think through the course of a volunteers first year of service everyone goes through different changes, ups and downs, and trying moments. But a years halfway to the finish line and its all downhill from there so to speak. So it can only get better after this right? Ill say yes, ignore the Talibes, half starved participants of Rhamadan, and bleating goats and sheep. Those goats and sheep are probably just Kevin and Aaron impersinations anyway.
and Djakaba, where the last grafting seminar had just finished, is brand new and you can practically fly on it. This tarmaced piece of heaven allows you to drift off to your own little world where you're doing whatever you want. For me that could be anything from going for a ride back home to relax, racing in the Tour de France (and getting smoked by Lance Armstrong and his successor Alberto Contador, both huge badasses this year by the way) or just getting away from site to enjoy the much anticipated arrival of the rainy season. The change that has taken place because of that rain is truly phenomenal. This ride, while to the north of Kédougou, completely blindsided me in that I remember quite clearly riding that same route after install and being very put off of this region to the north. Sarraya? Malinke, NO pulaar, no thank you! Ugly language and Ugly land, not for me. The Malinke's can keep it for all I care as I just didn't see what they saw
in it. How wrong was I. Two different worlds and its absolutely beautiful now.This ride, the recent mosquito net distribution in that same area, and a few other recent events have reaffirmed my desire to continue to explore and enjoy this completely amazing region as well as the rest of the country. The transformation from a blurry non dispirit brown haze down a bumpy makeshift dirt construction road, to a vibrant overpowering blast of green along a brand new smooth super highway was amazing. Maybe its not a super highway but it is pretty badass in these parts. With just a small amount of time passing, the complete make up of this area as well as my mentality has been completely reversed. Saraya and Kédougou as a whole have been transformed into this green paradise that I was warned about when we demisted down here almost a year ago now. Of course I naively said 'yea Im sure it'll get greener then this', as it was pretty green then. Naive like I said. Its amazing how time has flown by since then, as things have gone up and down since those days of PST.
With the completion of these grafting seminars here in Kédougou, I think a number of things have been learned. The trainer we used for all of these seminars, Demba (not the one we all know and love up in Dah-Kar), but Demba Samoura of Kédougou, was great. Absolutely wonderful resource for these seminars as he speaks Wolof, Pulaar, and Malinke. It is an interesting mix of languages and his ability to teach mango farmers the techniques of grafting as well as how to out plant and set up an orchard is irreplaceable. The four sites we used for this were well spaced within the region, with the goal being trying to cover main hubs throughout region. The first day was out in Dimboli and after a few kinks went really smoothly, the local militia even showed up, oh wait that was just the Eaux et Foret agent who loves to look like he is out on patrol stoping the guinean army from invading! Got to love those uniforms and the complete lack of local language skills. Everyone was really interested and I feel like they really learned a lot from the practice they received in Momadou Diallo's field (yea theres only one MD in these neck of the woods). As arranged, at the end of the seminar, everyone received about 10 scions to take back to their fields to graft their own mangos. This was twofold in importance as they got to teach others in their villages as well graft their own trees. A couple of the guys who came, left immediately after lunch to go back to Fungolimbi and their fields to get started grafting immediately. Development at work, craziness!
The second seminar was out in Thjibedji the next day which I did not go to as two other volunteers were there. I hear that everything went smoothly there with Jordan Welty and Sheila McAtee having everything more than under control. That brings us up to my home site and the seminar there. I think it got progressively smoother for Demba as the week went on as he got better with his Pulaar, he is a native Malinke speaker. So Between my counterpart who attended, Demba, and my host dad, we had a explosion of knowledge and personalities at work. It was awesome! My dad was a Sodefedex
agent for like 20yrs and has a radio show here in Kédougou for agriculture and is a big personality down here. Everywhere I go people know my dad its crazy and very helpful for work. Karumba, my counterpart, has been working with Peace Corps for at least 6yrs and knows about every technique we teach. So with these three guys leading the seminar every possible aspect that could have been covered, was, and by qualified people as well. Fertilizer, out-planting, furadin, orchard setup, windbreaks, live-fencing, like I said anything and everything. It was great. Did I mention my host family loves hosting people? Oh yea they love it, food to die for, tea served by my sisters throughout the discussion as well as ice water, absolutely top notch. Yea I live in a bigger town and it has its pluses. More than anything I owe my family for being so cool about this whole day, they kicked ass.The demonstration in my counterparts field, which is literally across the road from my house, went really well. We started off with some practice on some branches of a huge mango tree in the center of his field and then the practical implementation on young mangos once people got the hang of the technique. The tongue and groove technique isn't that hard when described like the main branch is bambugoling the scion, thats carrying it on its back to non Pulaars. It clicked really well with everyone when he said that cause they could picture a baby strapped onto its mothers back and then replicate it so the scion wouldn't fall! Great time out in the field and I think everyone had a good time and learned a lot.
Had someone told me a year ago that id be in charge of a seminar like this I would have said they were crazy. Well to be honest this was all Boobs Dunfuxhers project, thats Andy Jondahl to anyone who isn't yet familiar with Mr. Boobakar. Some how my name ended up on the SPA grant form and then Andy left, so the Ag/Fo's and Aggies of the region were called into action.(maybe ill get reimbursed for fronting the entire budget soon, that'd be greeeaaat) Without
Kevin, Sheila, Jordan, Aaron and Kellen, it would not have been possible to complete this project. Progress has been made this year, I definitely learned how to graft more efficiently during this week, some really misguided folk seem to think my Pulaar is actually half way decent, and I have a better understanding on what is needed to organize a project like this. A year can change a lot and I think through the course of a volunteers first year of service everyone goes through different changes, ups and downs, and trying moments. But a years halfway to the finish line and its all downhill from there so to speak. So it can only get better after this right? Ill say yes, ignore the Talibes, half starved participants of Rhamadan, and bleating goats and sheep. Those goats and sheep are probably just Kevin and Aaron impersinations anyway.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Trip to Dakar
So here i am in Dakar, whop-d-do really. been here since tuesday morning when we got here on the overnight bus from Tamba. Nice trip could have been a lot worse considering it was Senegalese public transport. So I came up to Dakar with Kevin and his two brothers from the village. Kevin wanted to take them to Dakar as they have never been past Kédougou. So they were very keen to know every little village that we passed through on the way to Tamba. It was kinda funny really.
So we left Kédougou on the morning of the 13th and rolled into Tamba around 1ish. I was lugging about 55 kilo's of Jatropha seeds with me in the attempt to get them to Kaolack for the volunteers there. When we get to the garage in Tamba i realize it would be a big pain in the ass as well as expensive to transport them all the way there by 7-place and resolve to leave them at the regional house for the next peace corps car to take on its way back north. Luckily there is a car coming down to Tamba with bed nets sometime in the next two weeks. So that kinda ended my dealings with Jatropha seed. I still haven't heard if its gotten down there, but oh well.
We make arrangements to take the Nikolo transport up to Dakar that night, the bus leaves at 10 and gets into Dakar at 9ish the next morning. Kills a night and you're in Dakar! Worked out well, the 4 of us were the first four on the bus and got great seats. The bus ride was uneventful luckily and we got to Dakar after a awful trip through Rufisquie in the morning. Rufisique is a town on the outskirts of Dakar that is really awful to get through. It took much longer than it would take if we were in the states or anywhere else.
We arrived in Dakar and went to Kevins Hotel to drop off our stuff and allow his brothers to relax a bit before heading out to explore the town. The Hotel is nice and the guy who was at the desk spoke Pulaar as well as the usual french and Wolof which was nice as we were able to talk to him quite easily. We relaxed a bit then took off to check out the sites of the area we were in. We saw the Presidential Palace and the changing of the guards which was interesting. The government buildings and the place de independence were the other two land marks we checked out. The place de independence is a big square that is in the heart of town. Also a landmark for volunteers is the Casino supermarket that is next to the place de independence. European/American supermarket, super nice and great to just wander around in. The two boys loved it and i think enjoyed walking around the town.
After this i head back to the Peace Corps Office to meet with the Med Staff as i told them i would. Of course by the time i get there around 1:30ish, its lunch time and i have to wait for them to get back. Not a problem as i have my laptop with me and they have wireless there. After lunch and my meeting with med i get to stay in the 'Med Hut' which is basically a section of the office which is for PCV's who are sick and need to stay at the office. Its really nice with AC, power, running water, TV, DVD's, everything! I basically hang out here for the rest of the night. While playing around on the wireless i find out that kevin had gone to the french cultural center for lunch and said it was great. I think ill head over there for dinner tonight actually.
Anyway I meet the guy whos in charge of the net distribution and who was getting my Jatropha seeds to Kaolack in the Med Hut as he had bronchitis. Kicked it there for the night and had a nice chwarma for dinner and ended up speaking pulaar with the guy who made it as he was from Conakry. It was nice to be able to speak a little pulaar here as usually no one really does.
So i wasnt scheduled to meet with med till the 16th so that meant i had 15th to myself. Basically that meant i would hang out with Kevin and his brothers. We went to Gorée Island and had a great time there. Got a tour guide and walked about the Island. Had lunch and relaxed before catching the ferry back around 3ish. We ran into another volunteer from Kédougou on the boat on the way over there with two of her friends from the states. It was a good outing and I think the two boys really enjoyed it as well. It was the first time that these boys had seen the ocean and been on a boat. Its really crazy that they hadn't been outside of Kédougou, it must have been something else for them to deal with all the sites and sounds of Dakar.
So when we get back to Dakar, I head back to the Med Hut to wash up and get ready for dinner. We decide to head to a restaurant that is known by volunteers that has really good food and is decently priced for the portions you get. We were told that you get huge portions so we decided that Chez Loutcha was our destination for the evening. So while I was washing up and getting ready, there was another guy in the Med Hut from the Gambia that was extending here in Dakar for his 3rd year of service. Spoke good Wolof hence he was allowed to extend there. Gambia speaks English so he doesn't know any french. Adam said he'd come with us for dinner. Nice guy and definitely knows Wolof well. As promised, Big portions and great food. Kay, her two American friends and two Dakar Volunteers were there as well, so it was definitely a winner for volunteers. It was a fun night and I think the boys again really enjoyed themselves.
So the 16th I meet with med and have a chat and agree to come back the next day again. After this I end up tagging along with Kevin as they were going over to Ngor island for a picnic and a afternoon on the beach. We take a pirogue over to the island which takes all of about 5 min. A pirogue is a traditional senegalese boat, only they tag on a Mitsubishi motor onto the end of it these days. Lots of kids were there as it is the summer holidays right now. It was fun and we got to swim and sit about on the beach for a couple hours. Very nice afternoon.
The boys decide that they want to go back to Chez Loutcha as they really enjoyed it. So we do that. This is their last night in Dakar as they head back to Kédougou via Kaolack the next day. Again good dinner, after they remembered my plate. We don't eat all the food again, but the boys while walking over to the restaurant see a homeless family and didn't understand what the deal was with that. Once Kevin explained the situation to them, they got a little quite. So as with the previous night, they took all the leftovers to this family. Very nice, very innocent they are.
So Kevin and the boys head off to Kaolack yesterday the 17th. While they are on the way back, I meet with a Mrs. Helen Manning for a chat. That goes OK and ill be back in Dakar at the end of August again for another chat, good times. After this I basically hang out for the rest of the day. There are a couple Kaolack volunteers hanging out in the Med Hut when I get back enjoying the AC and TV, and I end up hanging out with them and eating lunch with one of them who is a Ag/Fo down there. We go to the farthest point west in Africa for lunch. Sitting on the point eating ridiculously fresh seafood was great. Swapped hyena stories and generally had a good time. He had swam over to Ngor Island that morning and that left me really wanting to do that! There is a swim race sometime that is just that, that I think I will end up doing at some point while im here. But the rest of the day is just hanging out watching TV and dicking around online.
Towards the late afternoon, I get a call from the country director to see if ill be around as he was bringing some sick Gambian volunteers in. Yea ill be around thinking they were just in need of Dakar speciality or something. Well when they get her its a little more serious than that. So we kinda joke around in the PC about all the crazy shit you can get here during your service. One of the ones no one really thinks anyone will end up getting was this particular one. So these three volunteers have flesh eating bacteria in multiple spots on there bodies! Fucking crazy. They were being med evaced out to the states that night and were just hanging out till there flight left at 2 or something.
So I have company for the evening which was nice, as they were really nice folk. I walked with one of them who was actually just the wife of one of the two that had the bacteria to get pizza and had a nice chat about the Gambia and Senegal. Its a little ridiculous that the Gambia is there at all really, sandwiched in-between Senegal as it is. Ah well good old colonialism. Well they take off that night late to catch a flight back to DC to get the bacteria taken care of.
And that brings us up to today. I really haven't done a whole lot today. Sat around and watched the entire 4th season on the Office. Very funny. Went and sorted out why my American bank card didn't work. Having sorted that out went to the bigger Casino next to the office and literally wandered for about 20min wanting to get basically everything I saw! Ended up getting some stuff to make a good pizza back in Kédougou as well as razor blades for my mach3. Then back to the Med Hut to watch more TV and screw around online some more.
When I have finally worn myself out on TV I go for a walk to collect cactus pears I had spotted a few buildings down as a live fence. So needless to say my hands and arms are full of thorns while my hands are dyed red/orange from the juice. I should have a good amount of the seeds to take back to Kédougou. It'll be nice to finally be able to plant these guys as I had a batch of them from out in service training that I managed to lose. Either way ill get on that when I get back to Kédougou on Sunday/Monday. That brings us to now. I'm sitting around finishing this up and then debating about what to do for dinner. Not sure, I'm hungry though so I'm going to go figure that out.
So we left Kédougou on the morning of the 13th and rolled into Tamba around 1ish. I was lugging about 55 kilo's of Jatropha seeds with me in the attempt to get them to Kaolack for the volunteers there. When we get to the garage in Tamba i realize it would be a big pain in the ass as well as expensive to transport them all the way there by 7-place and resolve to leave them at the regional house for the next peace corps car to take on its way back north. Luckily there is a car coming down to Tamba with bed nets sometime in the next two weeks. So that kinda ended my dealings with Jatropha seed. I still haven't heard if its gotten down there, but oh well.
We make arrangements to take the Nikolo transport up to Dakar that night, the bus leaves at 10 and gets into Dakar at 9ish the next morning. Kills a night and you're in Dakar! Worked out well, the 4 of us were the first four on the bus and got great seats. The bus ride was uneventful luckily and we got to Dakar after a awful trip through Rufisquie in the morning. Rufisique is a town on the outskirts of Dakar that is really awful to get through. It took much longer than it would take if we were in the states or anywhere else.
We arrived in Dakar and went to Kevins Hotel to drop off our stuff and allow his brothers to relax a bit before heading out to explore the town. The Hotel is nice and the guy who was at the desk spoke Pulaar as well as the usual french and Wolof which was nice as we were able to talk to him quite easily. We relaxed a bit then took off to check out the sites of the area we were in. We saw the Presidential Palace and the changing of the guards which was interesting. The government buildings and the place de independence were the other two land marks we checked out. The place de independence is a big square that is in the heart of town. Also a landmark for volunteers is the Casino supermarket that is next to the place de independence. European/American supermarket, super nice and great to just wander around in. The two boys loved it and i think enjoyed walking around the town.
After this i head back to the Peace Corps Office to meet with the Med Staff as i told them i would. Of course by the time i get there around 1:30ish, its lunch time and i have to wait for them to get back. Not a problem as i have my laptop with me and they have wireless there. After lunch and my meeting with med i get to stay in the 'Med Hut' which is basically a section of the office which is for PCV's who are sick and need to stay at the office. Its really nice with AC, power, running water, TV, DVD's, everything! I basically hang out here for the rest of the night. While playing around on the wireless i find out that kevin had gone to the french cultural center for lunch and said it was great. I think ill head over there for dinner tonight actually.
Anyway I meet the guy whos in charge of the net distribution and who was getting my Jatropha seeds to Kaolack in the Med Hut as he had bronchitis. Kicked it there for the night and had a nice chwarma for dinner and ended up speaking pulaar with the guy who made it as he was from Conakry. It was nice to be able to speak a little pulaar here as usually no one really does.
So i wasnt scheduled to meet with med till the 16th so that meant i had 15th to myself. Basically that meant i would hang out with Kevin and his brothers. We went to Gorée Island and had a great time there. Got a tour guide and walked about the Island. Had lunch and relaxed before catching the ferry back around 3ish. We ran into another volunteer from Kédougou on the boat on the way over there with two of her friends from the states. It was a good outing and I think the two boys really enjoyed it as well. It was the first time that these boys had seen the ocean and been on a boat. Its really crazy that they hadn't been outside of Kédougou, it must have been something else for them to deal with all the sites and sounds of Dakar.
So when we get back to Dakar, I head back to the Med Hut to wash up and get ready for dinner. We decide to head to a restaurant that is known by volunteers that has really good food and is decently priced for the portions you get. We were told that you get huge portions so we decided that Chez Loutcha was our destination for the evening. So while I was washing up and getting ready, there was another guy in the Med Hut from the Gambia that was extending here in Dakar for his 3rd year of service. Spoke good Wolof hence he was allowed to extend there. Gambia speaks English so he doesn't know any french. Adam said he'd come with us for dinner. Nice guy and definitely knows Wolof well. As promised, Big portions and great food. Kay, her two American friends and two Dakar Volunteers were there as well, so it was definitely a winner for volunteers. It was a fun night and I think the boys again really enjoyed themselves.
So the 16th I meet with med and have a chat and agree to come back the next day again. After this I end up tagging along with Kevin as they were going over to Ngor island for a picnic and a afternoon on the beach. We take a pirogue over to the island which takes all of about 5 min. A pirogue is a traditional senegalese boat, only they tag on a Mitsubishi motor onto the end of it these days. Lots of kids were there as it is the summer holidays right now. It was fun and we got to swim and sit about on the beach for a couple hours. Very nice afternoon.
The boys decide that they want to go back to Chez Loutcha as they really enjoyed it. So we do that. This is their last night in Dakar as they head back to Kédougou via Kaolack the next day. Again good dinner, after they remembered my plate. We don't eat all the food again, but the boys while walking over to the restaurant see a homeless family and didn't understand what the deal was with that. Once Kevin explained the situation to them, they got a little quite. So as with the previous night, they took all the leftovers to this family. Very nice, very innocent they are.
So Kevin and the boys head off to Kaolack yesterday the 17th. While they are on the way back, I meet with a Mrs. Helen Manning for a chat. That goes OK and ill be back in Dakar at the end of August again for another chat, good times. After this I basically hang out for the rest of the day. There are a couple Kaolack volunteers hanging out in the Med Hut when I get back enjoying the AC and TV, and I end up hanging out with them and eating lunch with one of them who is a Ag/Fo down there. We go to the farthest point west in Africa for lunch. Sitting on the point eating ridiculously fresh seafood was great. Swapped hyena stories and generally had a good time. He had swam over to Ngor Island that morning and that left me really wanting to do that! There is a swim race sometime that is just that, that I think I will end up doing at some point while im here. But the rest of the day is just hanging out watching TV and dicking around online.
Towards the late afternoon, I get a call from the country director to see if ill be around as he was bringing some sick Gambian volunteers in. Yea ill be around thinking they were just in need of Dakar speciality or something. Well when they get her its a little more serious than that. So we kinda joke around in the PC about all the crazy shit you can get here during your service. One of the ones no one really thinks anyone will end up getting was this particular one. So these three volunteers have flesh eating bacteria in multiple spots on there bodies! Fucking crazy. They were being med evaced out to the states that night and were just hanging out till there flight left at 2 or something.
So I have company for the evening which was nice, as they were really nice folk. I walked with one of them who was actually just the wife of one of the two that had the bacteria to get pizza and had a nice chat about the Gambia and Senegal. Its a little ridiculous that the Gambia is there at all really, sandwiched in-between Senegal as it is. Ah well good old colonialism. Well they take off that night late to catch a flight back to DC to get the bacteria taken care of.
And that brings us up to today. I really haven't done a whole lot today. Sat around and watched the entire 4th season on the Office. Very funny. Went and sorted out why my American bank card didn't work. Having sorted that out went to the bigger Casino next to the office and literally wandered for about 20min wanting to get basically everything I saw! Ended up getting some stuff to make a good pizza back in Kédougou as well as razor blades for my mach3. Then back to the Med Hut to watch more TV and screw around online some more.
When I have finally worn myself out on TV I go for a walk to collect cactus pears I had spotted a few buildings down as a live fence. So needless to say my hands and arms are full of thorns while my hands are dyed red/orange from the juice. I should have a good amount of the seeds to take back to Kédougou. It'll be nice to finally be able to plant these guys as I had a batch of them from out in service training that I managed to lose. Either way ill get on that when I get back to Kédougou on Sunday/Monday. That brings us to now. I'm sitting around finishing this up and then debating about what to do for dinner. Not sure, I'm hungry though so I'm going to go figure that out.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Yea ive been bad about this, so heres a recap
so its been a while, i know, what can i say. haven't really been that busy but I've been a little out of touch so to speak. So what all has been going on? I think it was back in april or may that i last wrote.
bunch has gone on,
went on a long bike trip ask about that ive got a write up floating around
Biked out to the Bassari Initiation festival out in Salemata. interesting time but i left before the ceremony actually kicked off on the second day so as to not bike back in the heat of the day/not be around 25 other toubobs
Tried to bike to Tambacounda and ran out of water with a 1/3rd of the distance left and hitched a ride with a car the rest and then picked up a stomach bug.
Champions league final, the best team won, what can i say. and then C. Ronaldo left, wanker.
Confederations Cup with the USA surprising the shit out of everyone by getting to the final and racing out to a two goal lead only to lose 3-2.
AIDS garden thing kinda is up in the air because of well im not really quite sure although my participation has been dropped to a minimum. wankers.
Biked some rice out a friends village about 20k out and back during the hot part of the day, not the best idea. dehydration's a bitch and I'm not the biker i was when i got here.
Checked out the pepiniere that we made out in Dindefello for a 500 mango orchard, looking good.
Birthday, not a fun day
Boss came to check out my work and was quite pleased with what ive got going on here.
my pepiniere at the regional house has a great germination rate and theres lots that will be out-planted from there
Visited Kevins site for the day and ended up finding a source for sizel plants, good find kinda made my day as when my boss came out for our site check up, he mentioned he wanted to find somewhere where he could get some for demonstration during the next pre service training.
Went out to Sheila's village as well and hung out there for a day to see what all she was up too there, got my wireless odometer stolen, not the whole thing, just the computer which is useless alone. assholes, that'll bring you down
Also working on getting a list of all the fields that current volunteers are working with to make a database for future volunteers to use.
iPod broke, africa wears down and breaks anything and everything, bye bye music on rides
giardic scists and persistent headaches, shitty literally, not fun and the headaches aren't going away
The decent of 50 other white people onto Kédougou (my site) is a great way to stress the hell out of someone, especially with a party and 5k to prepare.
Independence Day 4k Thomas and I organized went off great and was a great start to the 4th. 18th overall, absolutely smoked by the locals, of which it was basically military, firemen, and police participating. So they better be able to whoop a sick, skinny out of shape, toubobs ass, i was def the first toubob though my legs are still a little sore from that and i wont bother telling my time for those of you who care as it wasnt good. The winner was about 12min
And then the big party that Kédougou throws every year that i tried and failed to avoid. Not a good time for me particularly, avoidance and anxiety to the max moy´y´a mi anddi
Jatropha seeding out in Djakaba with Andy and some of the other new volunteers, which reinforced my belief that I'm losing my ability to bounce back from rides as I'm fried, it was a good ride though.
Have yet to hear back from the bank about my missing 200,000 cFa, so again that sucks, fuck banks
Tour de France season! Mark Cavendish is kicking ass and armstrong aint doing half bad as well, good time of the year from a sporting perspective. what a bunch of badasses, seriously the hardest sporting event in the world! Not only is it the season for this, but i can watch it as well! French TV, sat drinking a beer enjoying this past stage with one of the new volunteers, great time
Frogs! So when it rains frogs come out. Theres big puddles everywhere down the street, we wont mention the malaria, but the frogs are wonderful! absolutely wonderful, overwhelming almost with all their calls
Flooding toilet, well the rain also tested the architectural design of my douch which sucks as it failed miserably. The first mildly big rain and the damn thing filled up 2/3rds of the way with water, one more rain and im fucked.
In the future, i can look forward to these things
Organized a grafting training seminar for the region with Andy, 4 dates across the region in collaboration with the other ag/fo volunteers here in Kédougou. Beginning of august is when that goes on.
A bike trip to Kolda at the end of august, maybe further on down that road as well
a new pay period! losing out on that 200,000 kinda fucked me for this period
erosion control with my counterpart in his field and other fields of interested parties around kédougou.
New site mate in October, will probably know pulaar better than me but interesting none the less
beginning the getting back in shape process as its not as hot and i dont have babies living in my gut! WoooHooo for that one
New premier league season in august! alhumdeallah! im sick of real madrid buying everyone they see, the season needs to start
inchallah my head will stop wanting to explode most of the time, we'll see about that one
So its not all bad, but im not really having a great time at the moment, i was kinda waiting for something good to come along to write about, but alas not really happening. Everyone here is really nice though and keep my spirits up so what can you do right. Off to Dakar on monday to take care of some med stuff there, we'll see what they say. so were on a large scale recap this time, if anyone has any questions about anything in particular let me know and ill fill in the gaps if I've got the time. Ill be in touch if i feel like something fun and interesting has happened.
bunch has gone on,
went on a long bike trip ask about that ive got a write up floating around
Biked out to the Bassari Initiation festival out in Salemata. interesting time but i left before the ceremony actually kicked off on the second day so as to not bike back in the heat of the day/not be around 25 other toubobs
Tried to bike to Tambacounda and ran out of water with a 1/3rd of the distance left and hitched a ride with a car the rest and then picked up a stomach bug.
Champions league final, the best team won, what can i say. and then C. Ronaldo left, wanker.
Confederations Cup with the USA surprising the shit out of everyone by getting to the final and racing out to a two goal lead only to lose 3-2.
AIDS garden thing kinda is up in the air because of well im not really quite sure although my participation has been dropped to a minimum. wankers.
Biked some rice out a friends village about 20k out and back during the hot part of the day, not the best idea. dehydration's a bitch and I'm not the biker i was when i got here.
Checked out the pepiniere that we made out in Dindefello for a 500 mango orchard, looking good.
Birthday, not a fun day
Boss came to check out my work and was quite pleased with what ive got going on here.
my pepiniere at the regional house has a great germination rate and theres lots that will be out-planted from there
Visited Kevins site for the day and ended up finding a source for sizel plants, good find kinda made my day as when my boss came out for our site check up, he mentioned he wanted to find somewhere where he could get some for demonstration during the next pre service training.
Went out to Sheila's village as well and hung out there for a day to see what all she was up too there, got my wireless odometer stolen, not the whole thing, just the computer which is useless alone. assholes, that'll bring you down
Also working on getting a list of all the fields that current volunteers are working with to make a database for future volunteers to use.
iPod broke, africa wears down and breaks anything and everything, bye bye music on rides
giardic scists and persistent headaches, shitty literally, not fun and the headaches aren't going away
The decent of 50 other white people onto Kédougou (my site) is a great way to stress the hell out of someone, especially with a party and 5k to prepare.
Independence Day 4k Thomas and I organized went off great and was a great start to the 4th. 18th overall, absolutely smoked by the locals, of which it was basically military, firemen, and police participating. So they better be able to whoop a sick, skinny out of shape, toubobs ass, i was def the first toubob though my legs are still a little sore from that and i wont bother telling my time for those of you who care as it wasnt good. The winner was about 12min
And then the big party that Kédougou throws every year that i tried and failed to avoid. Not a good time for me particularly, avoidance and anxiety to the max moy´y´a mi anddi
Jatropha seeding out in Djakaba with Andy and some of the other new volunteers, which reinforced my belief that I'm losing my ability to bounce back from rides as I'm fried, it was a good ride though.
Have yet to hear back from the bank about my missing 200,000 cFa, so again that sucks, fuck banks
Tour de France season! Mark Cavendish is kicking ass and armstrong aint doing half bad as well, good time of the year from a sporting perspective. what a bunch of badasses, seriously the hardest sporting event in the world! Not only is it the season for this, but i can watch it as well! French TV, sat drinking a beer enjoying this past stage with one of the new volunteers, great time
Frogs! So when it rains frogs come out. Theres big puddles everywhere down the street, we wont mention the malaria, but the frogs are wonderful! absolutely wonderful, overwhelming almost with all their calls
Flooding toilet, well the rain also tested the architectural design of my douch which sucks as it failed miserably. The first mildly big rain and the damn thing filled up 2/3rds of the way with water, one more rain and im fucked.
In the future, i can look forward to these things
Organized a grafting training seminar for the region with Andy, 4 dates across the region in collaboration with the other ag/fo volunteers here in Kédougou. Beginning of august is when that goes on.
A bike trip to Kolda at the end of august, maybe further on down that road as well
a new pay period! losing out on that 200,000 kinda fucked me for this period
erosion control with my counterpart in his field and other fields of interested parties around kédougou.
New site mate in October, will probably know pulaar better than me but interesting none the less
beginning the getting back in shape process as its not as hot and i dont have babies living in my gut! WoooHooo for that one
New premier league season in august! alhumdeallah! im sick of real madrid buying everyone they see, the season needs to start
inchallah my head will stop wanting to explode most of the time, we'll see about that one
So its not all bad, but im not really having a great time at the moment, i was kinda waiting for something good to come along to write about, but alas not really happening. Everyone here is really nice though and keep my spirits up so what can you do right. Off to Dakar on monday to take care of some med stuff there, we'll see what they say. so were on a large scale recap this time, if anyone has any questions about anything in particular let me know and ill fill in the gaps if I've got the time. Ill be in touch if i feel like something fun and interesting has happened.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Its all Ups and Downs, Fuck the Downs and Bad Days
So Recently ive been busy with work running around the region of Kédougou trying to plant trees and keep my sanity in ridiculous heat. Had a little break last weekend when a Guinean musician came to Kédougou for a concert which was a great time minus the lost phone bit, but fun none the less. Something about the music here is just fun, makes you want to get up and dance around a bit. So much so i had to go both nights of the concert. The second night was cool as a friend of mine who speaks pullar like a native was called up and asked some questions in front of the au
dience in pullar and had the crowd rolling on the floor laughing. Too funny, everyone was blown away that he knew pullar that well. So that was a fun couple evenings. Before the concert we were hanging out at the hotel that has a pool here in Kédougou as there was a hand full of study abroad kids visiting and we were trying to keep them entertained. While kicking it there we actually got to meet Momadou yati golle( it means Momadou who doesnt work or something along those lines). Great time got my pic with him too. My host family loved that and now im called Momadou yati golle when they want to bust my chops.
So yea the part where i start to want to come home starts then. So this happens to corespond with easter as well. Im really not a big fan of easter, not since freshman year in college anyway, something i dont really participate in and dont get. Anyway, like i said i lost my phone, reason being i was ended up drinking way too much. Didnt realize that i was without phone till the four of us got back to the peace corps house. Being as inebriated as i was, i was talked into walking the like 1/2 hour back to the concert venue with one of the study abroad kids, little weird and awkward as i dont know this chick and find out she'd stepped on glass at the concert and still wanted to walk all the way back there, whatever. And of course i dont find my phone there and walk back rather let down. great times, to top that, i end up locking myself out of my hut when i eventually get home at like 430 in the morning. fuck that night. Even with that it was fun, it was just building up to my having a mild freak out and wanting to ditch it all and go home yesterday.
Adding to this is my host dad pulling me aside and having a little talk with me about looking after my things as he heard i lost my phone. I had told my family here about my little experience in Dakar after the soccer game but i guess they didnt quite understand the entirety of the situstion and seemed to believe that it was me being careless that led to me having all my stuff stolen. So my dad was lecturing me on why i should better look after my things here. Appreciated, sweet even, but unneeded and litte demeaning. i then had to explain that i had my locked bag, me being one of the few that didnt have anything stolen at the game, ripped off my back after we flee a car thats just hit 2 people. He wasnt expecting that and was a little taken aback by the full extent of that. Always fun reliving that fun experience. but whatever just knocks my head about a bit all this nonsense.
So yea concert was fun and the day after easter im immediately back out biking around kédougou doing pepiniere formations and demo sites which is great keeps your mind off things and content. Went out to a village where they want to put a new ag/fo volunteer about 17k out of kedougou and did a formation there all day with plans for a check up tomorrow. that was fun, my pullar is def way behind the other two guys who came with me and they did most of the talking, i guess i was just the technician or something(not that pepiniereing is that hard). It was good though got to swim in the river Gambia there, very nice and cool as it is getting really hot here. So the formation itself was a little ify, we basically had to sit around all day waiting for the chef de village to get people motivated to come and attend this. Very Senegalese and very annoying, adding to my kinda built up frustration. In the end everyone shows up and is very interested and has good questions. We leave planning on coming back like i said and matt and I head back for Kédougou. Still really hot out, even in the afternoon in the cooler part of the day.
So when we get back to Kédougou i find out that my friend kevin out in kafori hasnt left yet for site and decide to head out with him the following morning to help him with his pepinieres out there. Good times, hes got a really cool family, and kafori is a great site. We get two pepinieres seeded out there as kevin had already spoken to the farmers there and had them prepare the pepinieres as in fill the tree sacs and water them for a week so weeds will grow. It was good, good experience and very nice to get out of kédougou for a day. Unfortunately i think the bike ride back at the end of the morning kinda zapped me a little bit. In fact i think that might have something to do with my recent down turn in moods. Dehydration kinda sneaks up on you even when youre drinking shit tons of water. 110 is really fucken hot, and its really hard to stay hydrated in that. I kinda learned that in PST a little but i think this is another learning experience. Its not just water that your body needs, i found that out after of course.
So i get back from kafori and rack out for a bit, get up on time to watch man u vs fc porto, great goal by c. ronaldo by the way. good times feeling pretty good after that game have more work planned as i ran into andy when i got back and was planning on going out to laminia in the morning with him as its on the way to his site. I needed to check up on a some folk who i had given tree sacs to at a site of a old volunteer and trade some of them out for larger tree sacs. So basically day # 4 id be hoping on my bike and heading out to do something work related. Great as its again keeping me occupied and and happy. On the way out of town we stopped and meet with the commandant of eaux et forret here in Kédougou which was important as were supposed to be working with them in our tree work. Seemed like a nice guy, said he was game to work with us, we'll see how that works out. Anyway make it out to Laminia and drop off the sacs as the guy hadnt even began to start his pepiniere yet. Great, switch the sacs out and head on back to the Gou. I manage to get some more accomplished back at the regional house as well as we needed to organize the seed bank that we have there as well as take stock of all the tree sacs that we have there. Done and Done.
Now the day after this, i think is where i start to run my self down, but it is jsut kinda things building up. I end up going over to the Regional house to start a pepiniere there, good times, get 50 r so sacs filled and realize its like 1230 and i should stop as its fucken hot out. id been working without a shirt, bad idea, back got burned. Also means my body was cooking a little bit. I was only out in the sun for like a hour or two but it kicked my ass. I head home for lunch as it was getting towards that time of the day and chill out for the afternoon till it got cooler out. Thats kinda how most days are here. anyway by 430 i kinda start asking around to see if we can use the families charet, 'donkey cart' to go buy some wicker fencing for my douch/bathroom. Turns out that the charet has a flat and they need to take it to the garage to get it fixed. well my brother and i head into the market to get a cell phone cover for my new phone. get that after just giving my brother 1mil to go get it for me as the first couple boutiques we went to saw toubab and thought rip off. any way end up going to the garage after that to meet up with my host dad and the charet to see about getting some of that fencing so as to finally 6 months on have a finished complete hut. long and short is we got the crentin and head back and put it up. Done and dusted. Thinking that that day was one of the best ive had! Obviously not the case as the next day proved.
Next day matt the head volunteer here comes over to check it out and see about using the families charet and asks why the cement pad is covered by dirt? I dont know but say ill get it off. So I go down to the river with matt to collect smooth rocks for the douche and swim a bit, it is nice living next to a river. come back and chill a bit., then start removing the dirt thats on top of the cement pad. Oh but its like 1230 when i start ie really fucken hot. End up working in the heat for like the next two hours only to find that the cement pad is bowing and water pools on it. Not good, bubble burst. No finished douche. THe new stage is going to be installed and ill still not have a complete site. bubble well and truly burst. Not that its a huge deal, it was more of this should have been done 6 months ago kinda thing. My family of course comes and tells me to stop digging in the heat of the day and my stubborn ass declines as im almost done. So ive come to the conclusion that when i get dehydrated im ubber irritable and always in a pissy mood. so fast forward to the evening when matt comes over again to check out what i found to say that yes some more work needs to be done on it and that prob wont happen for the foreseeable future as im so fucken busy. the never ending project continues and im pissed. Also didnt finish the pepiniere i wanted to at the regional house or my houe that day either. So tag all this onto me having to sit in my back yard brooding listening to one of my little brothers get the shit kicked out of him for some unknown reason by my dad (not literally kicked but beaten). At that point i said fuck it what the hell am i doing here i could be sitting in a nice well conditioned room where its fairly illegal to do that kinda of thing to kids and people actually do good work. So yea i was feeling liek a big empty hole opened up in my chest, really shitty feeling and most everyone was back in site so i couldnt really go kick it and relax.
So after sitting there for a good 20min feeling this way i kinda phsyc myself up to go eat with my brother, oh yea to make me feel even better i basically eat by myself. I think ive already mentioned my dislike of that s i started out eating with the fam. And now heres where my science power of deduction comes into play. Im eating with my bro, lachery and maffay hako, pounded corn and leaf sauce, and i start to feel a little better. My brother doesnt like maffay hako so he always eats a little and then get cossan, sour milk to mix into the lachery. very tasty with the sugar you add in, ah ha a clue Sherlock! After dinner im feeling better and after the surgery cossan im feeling like a million bucks. Id run myself into the ground and basically all the underlying thins that are going on in my life surface and make me feel like shit. sugar and water. awa gassi! sugar water and dinner, im recharged and ready to run up a mt again. lesson of this particular sequence of events, the sun is hot. Fucken do like the locals do and dont do anything in the heat of the day without lots of sugar and water. So yea i wanted to go home yesterday, im sure everyone has that go on, and some of the underlying problems that surfaced havent gone away and wont for the foreseeable future cause im just a awkward son of a bitch whos got way too much going on at the moment.
Anyway today was productive and some work stuff has been semi sorted out. Checked up on the two pilot villages im working in with my counterpart and even got to check out the site where we're going ot try to do some erosion control (youd like that one dad), thats actually a decent orchard. Still need a bunch of sacs but was pleased to see that people had actually started to make their pepinieres and they didnt look that awful. Some even looked down right good. Also in the second site, we got orders for tree sacs from people who have worked with peace corps in the past. they basically know how to pepiniere and we just need to get them the supplies. so that was very encouraging. Up and Down, that just how these days go. what can you do? day to day week to week, and month to month. The new stage is here next week and were not the newbies anymore. Craziness. Well i think i can deal with situations liek that if they so arise again int he future, heres hoping they dont! it helps to vent to some folk here if they are around, and if not hop on the bike and ride till im tired. it generally works.
So work work work, thats basically whats on the agenda for this week. going to Tabakari for a follow up tom on their pepinieres, then wed help hassana and andy with a grant proposal for wulla naffa and then the Kédougou Regional Strategy from the 24-26 and the install dinner the 27th. lots going on. keep in touch ill try to as well if i dont go lose my mind to the heat first.
dience in pullar and had the crowd rolling on the floor laughing. Too funny, everyone was blown away that he knew pullar that well. So that was a fun couple evenings. Before the concert we were hanging out at the hotel that has a pool here in Kédougou as there was a hand full of study abroad kids visiting and we were trying to keep them entertained. While kicking it there we actually got to meet Momadou yati golle( it means Momadou who doesnt work or something along those lines). Great time got my pic with him too. My host family loved that and now im called Momadou yati golle when they want to bust my chops.So yea the part where i start to want to come home starts then. So this happens to corespond with easter as well. Im really not a big fan of easter, not since freshman year in college anyway, something i dont really participate in and dont get. Anyway, like i said i lost my phone, reason being i was ended up drinking way too much. Didnt realize that i was without phone till the four of us got back to the peace corps house. Being as inebriated as i was, i was talked into walking the like 1/2 hour back to the concert venue with one of the study abroad kids, little weird and awkward as i dont know this chick and find out she'd stepped on glass at the concert and still wanted to walk all the way back there, whatever. And of course i dont find my phone there and walk back rather let down. great times, to top that, i end up locking myself out of my hut when i eventually get home at like 430 in the morning. fuck that night. Even with that it was fun, it was just building up to my having a mild freak out and wanting to ditch it all and go home yesterday.
Adding to this is my host dad pulling me aside and having a little talk with me about looking after my things as he heard i lost my phone. I had told my family here about my little experience in Dakar after the soccer game but i guess they didnt quite understand the entirety of the situstion and seemed to believe that it was me being careless that led to me having all my stuff stolen. So my dad was lecturing me on why i should better look after my things here. Appreciated, sweet even, but unneeded and litte demeaning. i then had to explain that i had my locked bag, me being one of the few that didnt have anything stolen at the game, ripped off my back after we flee a car thats just hit 2 people. He wasnt expecting that and was a little taken aback by the full extent of that. Always fun reliving that fun experience. but whatever just knocks my head about a bit all this nonsense.
So yea concert was fun and the day after easter im immediately back out biking around kédougou doing pepiniere formations and demo sites which is great keeps your mind off things and content. Went out to a village where they want to put a new ag/fo volunteer about 17k out of kedougou and did a formation there all day with plans for a check up tomorrow. that was fun, my pullar is def way behind the other two guys who came with me and they did most of the talking, i guess i was just the technician or something(not that pepiniereing is that hard). It was good though got to swim in the river Gambia there, very nice and cool as it is getting really hot here. So the formation itself was a little ify, we basically had to sit around all day waiting for the chef de village to get people motivated to come and attend this. Very Senegalese and very annoying, adding to my kinda built up frustration. In the end everyone shows up and is very interested and has good questions. We leave planning on coming back like i said and matt and I head back for Kédougou. Still really hot out, even in the afternoon in the cooler part of the day.
So when we get back to Kédougou i find out that my friend kevin out in kafori hasnt left yet for site and decide to head out with him the following morning to help him with his pepinieres out there. Good times, hes got a really cool family, and kafori is a great site. We get two pepinieres seeded out there as kevin had already spoken to the farmers there and had them prepare the pepinieres as in fill the tree sacs and water them for a week so weeds will grow. It was good, good experience and very nice to get out of kédougou for a day. Unfortunately i think the bike ride back at the end of the morning kinda zapped me a little bit. In fact i think that might have something to do with my recent down turn in moods. Dehydration kinda sneaks up on you even when youre drinking shit tons of water. 110 is really fucken hot, and its really hard to stay hydrated in that. I kinda learned that in PST a little but i think this is another learning experience. Its not just water that your body needs, i found that out after of course.
So i get back from kafori and rack out for a bit, get up on time to watch man u vs fc porto, great goal by c. ronaldo by the way. good times feeling pretty good after that game have more work planned as i ran into andy when i got back and was planning on going out to laminia in the morning with him as its on the way to his site. I needed to check up on a some folk who i had given tree sacs to at a site of a old volunteer and trade some of them out for larger tree sacs. So basically day # 4 id be hoping on my bike and heading out to do something work related. Great as its again keeping me occupied and and happy. On the way out of town we stopped and meet with the commandant of eaux et forret here in Kédougou which was important as were supposed to be working with them in our tree work. Seemed like a nice guy, said he was game to work with us, we'll see how that works out. Anyway make it out to Laminia and drop off the sacs as the guy hadnt even began to start his pepiniere yet. Great, switch the sacs out and head on back to the Gou. I manage to get some more accomplished back at the regional house as well as we needed to organize the seed bank that we have there as well as take stock of all the tree sacs that we have there. Done and Done.
Now the day after this, i think is where i start to run my self down, but it is jsut kinda things building up. I end up going over to the Regional house to start a pepiniere there, good times, get 50 r so sacs filled and realize its like 1230 and i should stop as its fucken hot out. id been working without a shirt, bad idea, back got burned. Also means my body was cooking a little bit. I was only out in the sun for like a hour or two but it kicked my ass. I head home for lunch as it was getting towards that time of the day and chill out for the afternoon till it got cooler out. Thats kinda how most days are here. anyway by 430 i kinda start asking around to see if we can use the families charet, 'donkey cart' to go buy some wicker fencing for my douch/bathroom. Turns out that the charet has a flat and they need to take it to the garage to get it fixed. well my brother and i head into the market to get a cell phone cover for my new phone. get that after just giving my brother 1mil to go get it for me as the first couple boutiques we went to saw toubab and thought rip off. any way end up going to the garage after that to meet up with my host dad and the charet to see about getting some of that fencing so as to finally 6 months on have a finished complete hut. long and short is we got the crentin and head back and put it up. Done and dusted. Thinking that that day was one of the best ive had! Obviously not the case as the next day proved.
Next day matt the head volunteer here comes over to check it out and see about using the families charet and asks why the cement pad is covered by dirt? I dont know but say ill get it off. So I go down to the river with matt to collect smooth rocks for the douche and swim a bit, it is nice living next to a river. come back and chill a bit., then start removing the dirt thats on top of the cement pad. Oh but its like 1230 when i start ie really fucken hot. End up working in the heat for like the next two hours only to find that the cement pad is bowing and water pools on it. Not good, bubble burst. No finished douche. THe new stage is going to be installed and ill still not have a complete site. bubble well and truly burst. Not that its a huge deal, it was more of this should have been done 6 months ago kinda thing. My family of course comes and tells me to stop digging in the heat of the day and my stubborn ass declines as im almost done. So ive come to the conclusion that when i get dehydrated im ubber irritable and always in a pissy mood. so fast forward to the evening when matt comes over again to check out what i found to say that yes some more work needs to be done on it and that prob wont happen for the foreseeable future as im so fucken busy. the never ending project continues and im pissed. Also didnt finish the pepiniere i wanted to at the regional house or my houe that day either. So tag all this onto me having to sit in my back yard brooding listening to one of my little brothers get the shit kicked out of him for some unknown reason by my dad (not literally kicked but beaten). At that point i said fuck it what the hell am i doing here i could be sitting in a nice well conditioned room where its fairly illegal to do that kinda of thing to kids and people actually do good work. So yea i was feeling liek a big empty hole opened up in my chest, really shitty feeling and most everyone was back in site so i couldnt really go kick it and relax.
So after sitting there for a good 20min feeling this way i kinda phsyc myself up to go eat with my brother, oh yea to make me feel even better i basically eat by myself. I think ive already mentioned my dislike of that s i started out eating with the fam. And now heres where my science power of deduction comes into play. Im eating with my bro, lachery and maffay hako, pounded corn and leaf sauce, and i start to feel a little better. My brother doesnt like maffay hako so he always eats a little and then get cossan, sour milk to mix into the lachery. very tasty with the sugar you add in, ah ha a clue Sherlock! After dinner im feeling better and after the surgery cossan im feeling like a million bucks. Id run myself into the ground and basically all the underlying thins that are going on in my life surface and make me feel like shit. sugar and water. awa gassi! sugar water and dinner, im recharged and ready to run up a mt again. lesson of this particular sequence of events, the sun is hot. Fucken do like the locals do and dont do anything in the heat of the day without lots of sugar and water. So yea i wanted to go home yesterday, im sure everyone has that go on, and some of the underlying problems that surfaced havent gone away and wont for the foreseeable future cause im just a awkward son of a bitch whos got way too much going on at the moment.
Anyway today was productive and some work stuff has been semi sorted out. Checked up on the two pilot villages im working in with my counterpart and even got to check out the site where we're going ot try to do some erosion control (youd like that one dad), thats actually a decent orchard. Still need a bunch of sacs but was pleased to see that people had actually started to make their pepinieres and they didnt look that awful. Some even looked down right good. Also in the second site, we got orders for tree sacs from people who have worked with peace corps in the past. they basically know how to pepiniere and we just need to get them the supplies. so that was very encouraging. Up and Down, that just how these days go. what can you do? day to day week to week, and month to month. The new stage is here next week and were not the newbies anymore. Craziness. Well i think i can deal with situations liek that if they so arise again int he future, heres hoping they dont! it helps to vent to some folk here if they are around, and if not hop on the bike and ride till im tired. it generally works.
So work work work, thats basically whats on the agenda for this week. going to Tabakari for a follow up tom on their pepinieres, then wed help hassana and andy with a grant proposal for wulla naffa and then the Kédougou Regional Strategy from the 24-26 and the install dinner the 27th. lots going on. keep in touch ill try to as well if i dont go lose my mind to the heat first.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Yea ive been bad about this recently, but here ya go
So its been a long little while. Lots has happened lots is happening. Brief run down of the events that have transpired... After the eye clinic we had a work day at the regional house and cleaned the whole place up real nice. Also had a meeting about what is going on and what will be going on in the coming months. We ended up talking about the 4th of July, we hold a big party down here for all the volunteers in country.
Also had a meeting about an AIDS garden that i might be working on here in the near future down by the river. Its for people who are living with AIDS and is supposed to help supplement some nutrients that they are not normally getting.
Also went out to Tjibedji to visit Sheila for a day and hike around the hills out there, very fun got some good pics and had a great time. Shes got a new puppy who is rather cute.
The day after we got back we had the ag/fo conference and i was kinda fighting some kinda weird bug or something. Upon further review, consensus says it was dehydration i was fighting as i was running/biking too much without drinking enough. So that was fun for the conference but it was nice to see the rest of the ag/fo folk for a day or two and short of a few awkward exchanges had a good time while actually learning some interesting information for my work. Too bad it was only 2 days, would have liked to spend more time with some folk.
The day after the conference was over, Kevin and I hoped on our bikes and headed out to dindefello for the day to check out the waterfall and all that it had to offer. Dindefello is a very cool place, very pretty and great for hiking and camping if youre into that type of thing. We stayed at a nice campement there for like 4$ and had a great time hanging out. The next day we shoot out to the waterfall and then hop on our bikes to get back to Kédougou for the instal/COS dinner. On the ride back to kédougou we actually run into the Folk who were COSing as they were coming back from a trip to Guinea.
So kevin beats me back to kédougou as he found a short cut and i thought hed blown a tire or something and went back looking for him. i only bring this up as it has endlessly been brought up to me since as me getting soft and slow as kevin beat me back. he loves reminding me of this just to bust my chops.
The dinner was really good we roasted a pig and had a great time. Great food, we really know how to put a good spread out when we put our minds to it down here. So like i said it was a two sided shindig, newbies arriving for the first time and les anciene leaving for the last time. the newbies seem cool, three jahanky speakers. All three of them are over 6ft and all dudes. That makes for a grand total of about 20 people down here and 4 girls, yea what are the odds right! Oh and in contrast to that, tamba our nearest neighbors have 2 guys and the rest girls. So polar opposites basically. these guys seem cool and one of them os a cyclist, well more so then me and im looking forward to seeing how much better he is then me! They dont instal down here till the 28th as this visit was more for checking out their sites and meeting and greeting people.
So basically while they were off up north at their sites i was working down here in kédougou with my counterpart in two places, Sintiou Roudji and Jalaya, both within like 7k of kédougou. My counterpart and I basically handed out some tree sacs to motivated farmers in jalaya and are kinda still assessing the situation in sintiou Roudji but it looks like we'll be doing some interesting work in and around kédougou. Also have started visiting the Kédougou Eaux et Forets pepiniere. Its a sweet location next to the river and just loads of potential for some interesting tree work.
Started up my pullar classes again which i think will be a big help with my language. Although my tutor did kinda bust my chops for forgetting most of the stuff we had learned before i went up to Thies for IST. Ill get it back, im feeling better with the classes now anyway. I feel like the language plays a large role in good days and bad days. My theory is that you have varying degrees of good and bad days here, and the language plays a large role in that process. Well that and how awkward im acting around people, just kidding of course.
So the 4th was Independence day here in Senegal, 49 years of independence and it was kinda neat to see everyone all worked up down here. They had a big parade and everyone watched it. I bailed as the sun is hot, very hot and all this nonsense was going on at like 11-12. Far too hot to be standing around in the sun for really no reason. The day after independence day there was a Omar Pene concert here in Kédougou. he is a big Senegalese singer and it was a big deal he was putting on this free concert here. Long and short of it was that it didn't start till 12:45 and he only did a few songs so i bailed. I guess i didn't miss much.
I had my pullar class on monday and that was productive, djiby is a great tutor, so glad he knows english so well! End up getting invited to tag along with Andy and Hassana to Dindefello to check out his field there. We end up doing that the next day, good times, hes got a great field, lots of potential for some good work there. We'll see how things go.
Also at the moment there are US Department of Defense folk down here checking out projects that they are funding and are thinking about funding. Got to sit down with them with Kevin the other night and have a few beers. Weird hanging out with the full spectrum of Americans after being rather sheltered with the peace corps folk we hang out with here. Nice folk though, bought us some dinner. Its just so interesting seeing folk who are in the military, the couple times weve run into them here they all seem to be cut from the same cloth. Not a bad thing but very different for sure. They sure arent the guys i went to school with ill just say that, although its always nice to meet new types of people.
That pretty much brings us up to today, short of my little run in with a beard trimmer and a pair of scissors making me rather a lot cooler. shockingly short, the first words out of my tutors mouth when he saw me was i didnt realize that you looked like david beckham, not sure how to take that really as most people here think all toubabs look the same. Good times all round though working on a run of good days with only a few marginal ones sprinkled in there to keep things interesting. Ill try to keep on top of this blog thing a little more now that im back in a regular schedule and am feeling like ill have some interesting work shit going on to tell you all about. Stay in touch and ill do my best as well.
Also had a meeting about an AIDS garden that i might be working on here in the near future down by the river. Its for people who are living with AIDS and is supposed to help supplement some nutrients that they are not normally getting.
Also went out to Tjibedji to visit Sheila for a day and hike around the hills out there, very fun got some good pics and had a great time. Shes got a new puppy who is rather cute.
The day after we got back we had the ag/fo conference and i was kinda fighting some kinda weird bug or something. Upon further review, consensus says it was dehydration i was fighting as i was running/biking too much without drinking enough. So that was fun for the conference but it was nice to see the rest of the ag/fo folk for a day or two and short of a few awkward exchanges had a good time while actually learning some interesting information for my work. Too bad it was only 2 days, would have liked to spend more time with some folk.
The day after the conference was over, Kevin and I hoped on our bikes and headed out to dindefello for the day to check out the waterfall and all that it had to offer. Dindefello is a very cool place, very pretty and great for hiking and camping if youre into that type of thing. We stayed at a nice campement there for like 4$ and had a great time hanging out. The next day we shoot out to the waterfall and then hop on our bikes to get back to Kédougou for the instal/COS dinner. On the ride back to kédougou we actually run into the Folk who were COSing as they were coming back from a trip to Guinea.
So kevin beats me back to kédougou as he found a short cut and i thought hed blown a tire or something and went back looking for him. i only bring this up as it has endlessly been brought up to me since as me getting soft and slow as kevin beat me back. he loves reminding me of this just to bust my chops.
The dinner was really good we roasted a pig and had a great time. Great food, we really know how to put a good spread out when we put our minds to it down here. So like i said it was a two sided shindig, newbies arriving for the first time and les anciene leaving for the last time. the newbies seem cool, three jahanky speakers. All three of them are over 6ft and all dudes. That makes for a grand total of about 20 people down here and 4 girls, yea what are the odds right! Oh and in contrast to that, tamba our nearest neighbors have 2 guys and the rest girls. So polar opposites basically. these guys seem cool and one of them os a cyclist, well more so then me and im looking forward to seeing how much better he is then me! They dont instal down here till the 28th as this visit was more for checking out their sites and meeting and greeting people.
So basically while they were off up north at their sites i was working down here in kédougou with my counterpart in two places, Sintiou Roudji and Jalaya, both within like 7k of kédougou. My counterpart and I basically handed out some tree sacs to motivated farmers in jalaya and are kinda still assessing the situation in sintiou Roudji but it looks like we'll be doing some interesting work in and around kédougou. Also have started visiting the Kédougou Eaux et Forets pepiniere. Its a sweet location next to the river and just loads of potential for some interesting tree work.
Started up my pullar classes again which i think will be a big help with my language. Although my tutor did kinda bust my chops for forgetting most of the stuff we had learned before i went up to Thies for IST. Ill get it back, im feeling better with the classes now anyway. I feel like the language plays a large role in good days and bad days. My theory is that you have varying degrees of good and bad days here, and the language plays a large role in that process. Well that and how awkward im acting around people, just kidding of course.
So the 4th was Independence day here in Senegal, 49 years of independence and it was kinda neat to see everyone all worked up down here. They had a big parade and everyone watched it. I bailed as the sun is hot, very hot and all this nonsense was going on at like 11-12. Far too hot to be standing around in the sun for really no reason. The day after independence day there was a Omar Pene concert here in Kédougou. he is a big Senegalese singer and it was a big deal he was putting on this free concert here. Long and short of it was that it didn't start till 12:45 and he only did a few songs so i bailed. I guess i didn't miss much.
I had my pullar class on monday and that was productive, djiby is a great tutor, so glad he knows english so well! End up getting invited to tag along with Andy and Hassana to Dindefello to check out his field there. We end up doing that the next day, good times, hes got a great field, lots of potential for some good work there. We'll see how things go.
Also at the moment there are US Department of Defense folk down here checking out projects that they are funding and are thinking about funding. Got to sit down with them with Kevin the other night and have a few beers. Weird hanging out with the full spectrum of Americans after being rather sheltered with the peace corps folk we hang out with here. Nice folk though, bought us some dinner. Its just so interesting seeing folk who are in the military, the couple times weve run into them here they all seem to be cut from the same cloth. Not a bad thing but very different for sure. They sure arent the guys i went to school with ill just say that, although its always nice to meet new types of people.
That pretty much brings us up to today, short of my little run in with a beard trimmer and a pair of scissors making me rather a lot cooler. shockingly short, the first words out of my tutors mouth when he saw me was i didnt realize that you looked like david beckham, not sure how to take that really as most people here think all toubabs look the same. Good times all round though working on a run of good days with only a few marginal ones sprinkled in there to keep things interesting. Ill try to keep on top of this blog thing a little more now that im back in a regular schedule and am feeling like ill have some interesting work shit going on to tell you all about. Stay in touch and ill do my best as well.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
End of Sight Giving adn Moving On
So the clinic is about over and guess what, blindness cured world wide! oh yea thats how we roll in Kédougou. Of course its not but theres a lot more people who can see than at the beginning of the clinic. Basically it was for people with cataracts and there are rather a lot of people with that here. We had to turn away people with legitimate problems at the end just cause we were all booked up which was rather hard as these practically blind people had to be sent home with nothing. Not much to be done about that i guess. I will say that today when we were doing some for the post operation instructions and seeing just how ecstatic these people are now that they can actually see, it was worth all the depressing bits. People dancing as they were walking out and thanking allah and everyone in the room, they were truly happy. The last day for the clinic is friday morning for last minute post operation check up and then done. Weve stopped taking consultations as were completely booked up for the rest of the week and theres nothing more we can do. It was a good practice and i think everyone who helped out had a good experience, as corny as that sounds.
Theres still lots going on at the moment, we have a house meeting the day after the clinic and a ag/fo clinic at the end of next week where we get to brush up on some tech stuff and hang out with the rest of the ag/fo folk. should be fun, good people and they should be bringing seeds with them as well! so double cool. After that the new stage comes down for a visit and we get to see the replacements for the stage that COSing. and right after that is the Senegalese new years and our regional strategy retreat. So busy busy busy outside of actual ag/fo stuff.
With ag/fo tagged in im hopefully going to be checking out a couple things here in the next few days, a aids garden down by the river, a potential sight out on the road to dindefello, and check up with my counterpart on some promising leads for projects this year. So between regional helping out, ag/fo and keeping in shape, ive got full days! good times, now to actually accomplish something! ill keep in touch
Theres still lots going on at the moment, we have a house meeting the day after the clinic and a ag/fo clinic at the end of next week where we get to brush up on some tech stuff and hang out with the rest of the ag/fo folk. should be fun, good people and they should be bringing seeds with them as well! so double cool. After that the new stage comes down for a visit and we get to see the replacements for the stage that COSing. and right after that is the Senegalese new years and our regional strategy retreat. So busy busy busy outside of actual ag/fo stuff.
With ag/fo tagged in im hopefully going to be checking out a couple things here in the next few days, a aids garden down by the river, a potential sight out on the road to dindefello, and check up with my counterpart on some promising leads for projects this year. So between regional helping out, ag/fo and keeping in shape, ive got full days! good times, now to actually accomplish something! ill keep in touch
Curing Blindness and the like
So I've not written in a while as beaucoup is going on right now. I've been really busy for the past few days as there has been a eye clinic here in Kédougou with american doctors removing cataracts and giving away free eye glasses. This is quite possibly the most interesting experience ive had so far here in senegal. Not only do we open our doors at 8 and close at 6/7, but because there are so many people that come into the clinic with such a variety of problems, we have to turn people away with legitimate problems. Kinda depressing as someone who has glaucoma, theres nothing that we can do for them though so we have to tell them to go home even though they are basically blind. I mean the only thing i can take away from it is that we are actually helping the people that we are giving the surgery to. Also with the glasses that we're giving away, along with the free loaders that just come to get free glasses like the governor and the commandant of the local military camp, we do actually help some people. Today I had a kid in to get glasses that could barely see the chart that we were using for our distance tests, but by the end of trail and error, we were able to get him to see about 5 lines down the chart. with some seriously strong glasses. That does make you feel good when you know that in with these people who are just after a col looking pair of glasses there are actually people who need glasses.
There are about 7/8 of us working the clinic at a time with about 4 american doctors as our guides so to speak. My main job over the course of this past week is as the glasses guy. My job is to test peoples vision who want glasses. So basically all the volunteers who are here to help end up doing some kind of translating. most of the people who come in are pulaar speakers with a healthy mix of malinke thrown in. Those are the two main languages down here. So Its kinda important that we have the speakers here that know those two languages. Weve had a few people down for the nearest big city, Tambacounda, to help out and there will be more next week to help out as well. My french and pulaar has made my glasses station a one man operation. I only have to go get help when i get truly stumped with the pulaar or a malinke comes in as i can pretty much get by with the french most of the time.
So as well as this clinic ive been doing some ag/fo type stuff as well. On this past tuesday i went out to a village on the other side of the river from kédougou to check out some potential work partners with my counterpart and Sheila. Good meeting with the chief of the village, he seems interested in working with us and was going to go talk to the farmers to figure out how big their fields are and check interest levels. I think my counterpart is really trying to brach out for this coming year to try and find people who are interested in working with ag/fo technologies. I need to get my counterpart some tree sacks for a nursery he wants to make for this year. Also the seeds that will be coming down with some of the other volunteers for the ag/fo conference at the end of the month.
Also on the ag/fo front, i was able to make contact with a farmer on the banks of the gambia in a town called Sintiou Roudji who has a very nice looking field with a pump up from the river. I just kinda introduced myself and said that i worked with my counterpart on planting trees and helping people with their farming. He seemed interested and his field would be perfect for this type of work as hes got cement basins already made for storing water that he pumps up from the river for watering his field. He said he knew my counterpart as well so we'll hopefully swing by and talk to him next week or so when im not busy working this eye clinic thing.
But the eye clinic is going well and when i was walking round the market yesterday with one of the volunteers that come down to help out with it, we ran into at least 4-5 people who had been there and knew me because of it. Great practice for the pulaar and french though.Hopefully this afternoon ill be collecting seeds for the ag/fo clinic and maybe finishing up my bathroom fence. Thatd be great, only 4 months since I've been here and ill be done. im also going to be trying to bang out a proposal for a irrigation system for a farmer here in kedougou as well as for my counterpart as he wants a cement basin for his field to hold water for his jerry rigged irrigation system. Im thinking that i could write into the proposal a request for a pump for his well, as there are good hand pumps that could work very well for his situation. We'll see how it goes.
There are about 7/8 of us working the clinic at a time with about 4 american doctors as our guides so to speak. My main job over the course of this past week is as the glasses guy. My job is to test peoples vision who want glasses. So basically all the volunteers who are here to help end up doing some kind of translating. most of the people who come in are pulaar speakers with a healthy mix of malinke thrown in. Those are the two main languages down here. So Its kinda important that we have the speakers here that know those two languages. Weve had a few people down for the nearest big city, Tambacounda, to help out and there will be more next week to help out as well. My french and pulaar has made my glasses station a one man operation. I only have to go get help when i get truly stumped with the pulaar or a malinke comes in as i can pretty much get by with the french most of the time.
So as well as this clinic ive been doing some ag/fo type stuff as well. On this past tuesday i went out to a village on the other side of the river from kédougou to check out some potential work partners with my counterpart and Sheila. Good meeting with the chief of the village, he seems interested in working with us and was going to go talk to the farmers to figure out how big their fields are and check interest levels. I think my counterpart is really trying to brach out for this coming year to try and find people who are interested in working with ag/fo technologies. I need to get my counterpart some tree sacks for a nursery he wants to make for this year. Also the seeds that will be coming down with some of the other volunteers for the ag/fo conference at the end of the month.
Also on the ag/fo front, i was able to make contact with a farmer on the banks of the gambia in a town called Sintiou Roudji who has a very nice looking field with a pump up from the river. I just kinda introduced myself and said that i worked with my counterpart on planting trees and helping people with their farming. He seemed interested and his field would be perfect for this type of work as hes got cement basins already made for storing water that he pumps up from the river for watering his field. He said he knew my counterpart as well so we'll hopefully swing by and talk to him next week or so when im not busy working this eye clinic thing.
But the eye clinic is going well and when i was walking round the market yesterday with one of the volunteers that come down to help out with it, we ran into at least 4-5 people who had been there and knew me because of it. Great practice for the pulaar and french though.Hopefully this afternoon ill be collecting seeds for the ag/fo clinic and maybe finishing up my bathroom fence. Thatd be great, only 4 months since I've been here and ill be done. im also going to be trying to bang out a proposal for a irrigation system for a farmer here in kedougou as well as for my counterpart as he wants a cement basin for his field to hold water for his jerry rigged irrigation system. Im thinking that i could write into the proposal a request for a pump for his well, as there are good hand pumps that could work very well for his situation. We'll see how it goes.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Mali and Tamba fun, kinda long but FUN!!!
So im back from Mali. Took about 5 days and 322km but im back. It was a fun trip two other volunteers and I took off from Kédougou on the 24th and stayed in steve woods village the night which was only 25k away. I really didnt count this first little stint as we were meeting steve there and then really taking off the next day from Touge. A huge wind/rainstorm had gone through the region a couple days before which is really really weird as its the dry season and ended up doing a lot of damage. A bunch of trees got knocked over and you could see where the water had been flowing on the ground. So we stayed the night there and took off the morning of the 25th. We had a great day of biking made it about 83k and basically stayed in a village called bofeto on the border with mali. That was our best case scenario and we did it quite handily to our surprise. We breaked during the hot part of the day as its ridiculously hot. we just chilled in a village under a tree and ate our lunch that we brought with us. Its always kinda neat rolling into these little villages and seeing how the locals react. sometimes you get good reactions or sometimes people are a little weirded out by the random white people who show up. This was a little of both for lunch as they let us chill in a compound for the hot part of the day. We ate a MRE and took a nap and continued on down the road at about 4ish. basically killing the hottest part of the day.
The goal was to try and reach bofeto by nightfall and talk t the mining camp there about potential work partnership options for our mosquito net distribution in july. We basically would like to use their cars and they get the publicity of having their sticker on the side of the car that drops off free mosquito nets. It turned out that the guy who was in charge of the camp is the brother of my counterpart in kédougou so we were able to get a meeting and get some concrete results. We were thinking of trying to weasel our way to a nice bed for the night there but ended up crashing with the locals in the village of bofeto in some friendly villagers compound. They were going to kick people out of one of their huts for us but we insisted on them not doing that and taking where ever else was available. We did have a tent and made that aware, but they insisted on putting us up somewhere. We ended up staying in a unfinished hut that was all but done except for the floor. They insisted on putting wood pallets down for us to sleep on and even gave us a mat to put on top of it. This is what i was talking about with the different type of villagers there are, some will bend over backwards to help and aide you while others are a little warry of the foreigners. these folk even made us eat dinner with them, it was great and was more then we could have asked for. We left nice and early the next morning at about 7ish so as to get teh majority of the biking done in the morning. That was basically for the extent of the trip, waking up at 6 and getting riding by 7.
After staying bofeto the first fun river crossing was upon us. This being of course the international border crossing with no border guards or anyone even remotely close by. So this was the first international border crossing of the trip without any semblance of official interaction. While looking at the map of the area that we would be traveling across, the mali side of the border looked fairly sparse. We thought that that was due to the fact that we were looking at a map of senegal and they just didn't put any of the towns in mali on it, but it is actually the case! there's about jack and shit on the other side of the border. It was fun biking through as it was really pretty, mountains and gorgeous landscapes, but not many people. We made it to keneiba in about 50 odd km and by lunch time.
Keneiba is a neat little town in the southwestern corner of mali. Its bigger then kedougou but less developed, i believe that we heard they only got power a few years ago and thats still a night time thing as opposed to a all day thing. So our plan upon reaching Keneiba was to try and find a friendly family to crash with or find the peace corps volunteer there and crash with them. Well we stop at a boutique for a nice cold drink which is harder then it sounds because of the power thing only being at night. We end up finding a boutique that has a gas generator and semi cold drinks, relax a bit and start questioning about americans in the area. The guy who ran the boutique actually spoke english and said there was a american next door. So that was very convenient and we headed over thinking well heres the peace corps volunteer. that would be the wrong assumption. This woman was a who had been living in senegal for the past 8-10years who was in mali now. She was really really nice and immediately offered us a place to stay and was very hospitable. Also weirdly enough, she lived with my counterpart while she was living in Kédougou. My counterpart has been central to the whole trip which was cool.
The missionary told us some good info about the town and actually spoke wonderful malinke. She told us a nice little restaurant to go to for lunch which was great and cheap as most of these little cheb shacks are and really hit the spot after our bike ride. While coming back form the restaurant we spotted a very common sight for peace corps volunteers, a red trek bike. Standard issue for most volunteers and was a little odd for a Senegalese guy to be biking around on. We chase him down and ask him about the bike and hes more then helpful and offers to take us to meet the volunteer who lent it to him. So we make contact with the volunteer who is a little weirded out to have three white boys roll up in the middle of nowhere just to see what was going on. she is a environmental volunteer and has been there a year or so. it was nice to make a contact there as well as the missionary.
The shower and hospitality of the missionary was great, she even bought us some local food as a welcome to mali kinda thing. We again wake up early the next day after a wonderful nights sleep on nice mattresses and blankets as padding. She even had a spare room for us. But the next morning we leave her a note and head out to the garage to find some breakfast. Without a doubt the breakfast we found was one of the biggest bean sandwiches that ive ever had as well as one of the sweetest cups of coffee ive had as well. Not really the best thing to get you going right before a nice long bike ride but it did suffice. We ended up taking off a bit latter then normal because of the breakfast and it was slow going for the first part because of this. the ride back from mali was again not that interesting, passed more villages then on the way up to keneiba. So basically we did a big loop from kédougou up to keneiba and then over to saraya and then back down to kedougou. we end up talking ot Aaron in faraba, near to saraya to find a similar river crossing back to senegal as hes been over to mali before without running into any border guards. he tells us the village to go to and end up talking to a kid on the road to get him to show us the way. Another thing that people will love to do is bike with you and show you the tight way to go even if its out of their way.
So we end up making the trip back to senegal in the same fashion as we came into mali. see facebook fro pics, ill hopefully have them up in a bit. But the ride to Aarons village was good we even managed to book it into the final 20k or so which was great. right up my alley booking it along at the end of the trip. Aaron meet us at a village that was actually about 8k away from his village where there was a big party thing going on as some people from the village who had made it to france 15 yrs earlier and were back celebrating the magal, a muslim holiday. So everyone and their brother was there for this and we roll up all dirty and road weary. We basically leave as soon as we've done the compulsory greetings of everyone and their mother and head for Aarons village.
Aarons got a cool village and hes really coming along with his malinke. We only stay there the night then head off for andys village, stopping at a few more work sites on the way meet and greeting work partners. Andy hadnt been back to his village for a while but his family were all happy to see him and we had a good meal there. We again take off early to get back to kédougou only to get stopped by a meeting where andys trying to sort out a irrigation project that hes been working on. We end up leaving at 11, ie the hottest part of the day. we dont get into Kédougou till like 230 and im done by that point. Dehydrated from our last little blast into the gou trying to out race a local kid, which we did, but dead none the less. I pay for that latter when i spent the night puking up anything and everything i had eaten. But i was happy to be back and back in one piece even if i did limp into town on my first flat of the trip. good luck if i dont say so myself.
I end up leaving for tamba the next day feeling a lot better for not being on a bike and sufficient fluids in my system. Theres a public transport strike on so we kinda have to find a ride in unconventional ways in the back of a truck thats been converted to a people carrier with just a open back. It was a fun time even if it did take 6hrs for a like 3 1/2 hour trip. We make it and i have a badass time in tamba. The stage that is about to go home is such a cool group of people. They just know how to have a good time. Well the folk in tamba are pretty good at that as well. A bunch of the guys who are getting ready to leave had just gotten back from their close of service conference and were heading back to site for the last time and were hanging out in the regional house. Great time, even got to talk to a bunch of folk from the states and around senegal, put me in a great mood and i had a great night. Got my banking done in the morning and then headed out as the strike was over. The 7 place driver was a hot head young-un and was driving way to fast, never thought id say that, but senegelese public transport we'll change a lot of impressions you have. Nearly got ran off the road and now im back in gou thankfully in one piece and in 3 and 1/2 hrs. Meet my counterpart and am going on a work related field visit in a neighboring town on the 10th and things are looking pretty good. Got a initial proposal out of the way for a irrigation project here in gou, and i might end up working with him some more if hes down for doing some tree work. His field is really cool and in the center of town. Anyways back to the nitty gritty i guess but im feeling pretty good, lots is going good for me at the moment, just need to work on that lang and work bit i guess! stay tuned for the next edition....
The goal was to try and reach bofeto by nightfall and talk t the mining camp there about potential work partnership options for our mosquito net distribution in july. We basically would like to use their cars and they get the publicity of having their sticker on the side of the car that drops off free mosquito nets. It turned out that the guy who was in charge of the camp is the brother of my counterpart in kédougou so we were able to get a meeting and get some concrete results. We were thinking of trying to weasel our way to a nice bed for the night there but ended up crashing with the locals in the village of bofeto in some friendly villagers compound. They were going to kick people out of one of their huts for us but we insisted on them not doing that and taking where ever else was available. We did have a tent and made that aware, but they insisted on putting us up somewhere. We ended up staying in a unfinished hut that was all but done except for the floor. They insisted on putting wood pallets down for us to sleep on and even gave us a mat to put on top of it. This is what i was talking about with the different type of villagers there are, some will bend over backwards to help and aide you while others are a little warry of the foreigners. these folk even made us eat dinner with them, it was great and was more then we could have asked for. We left nice and early the next morning at about 7ish so as to get teh majority of the biking done in the morning. That was basically for the extent of the trip, waking up at 6 and getting riding by 7.
After staying bofeto the first fun river crossing was upon us. This being of course the international border crossing with no border guards or anyone even remotely close by. So this was the first international border crossing of the trip without any semblance of official interaction. While looking at the map of the area that we would be traveling across, the mali side of the border looked fairly sparse. We thought that that was due to the fact that we were looking at a map of senegal and they just didn't put any of the towns in mali on it, but it is actually the case! there's about jack and shit on the other side of the border. It was fun biking through as it was really pretty, mountains and gorgeous landscapes, but not many people. We made it to keneiba in about 50 odd km and by lunch time.
Keneiba is a neat little town in the southwestern corner of mali. Its bigger then kedougou but less developed, i believe that we heard they only got power a few years ago and thats still a night time thing as opposed to a all day thing. So our plan upon reaching Keneiba was to try and find a friendly family to crash with or find the peace corps volunteer there and crash with them. Well we stop at a boutique for a nice cold drink which is harder then it sounds because of the power thing only being at night. We end up finding a boutique that has a gas generator and semi cold drinks, relax a bit and start questioning about americans in the area. The guy who ran the boutique actually spoke english and said there was a american next door. So that was very convenient and we headed over thinking well heres the peace corps volunteer. that would be the wrong assumption. This woman was a who had been living in senegal for the past 8-10years who was in mali now. She was really really nice and immediately offered us a place to stay and was very hospitable. Also weirdly enough, she lived with my counterpart while she was living in Kédougou. My counterpart has been central to the whole trip which was cool.
The missionary told us some good info about the town and actually spoke wonderful malinke. She told us a nice little restaurant to go to for lunch which was great and cheap as most of these little cheb shacks are and really hit the spot after our bike ride. While coming back form the restaurant we spotted a very common sight for peace corps volunteers, a red trek bike. Standard issue for most volunteers and was a little odd for a Senegalese guy to be biking around on. We chase him down and ask him about the bike and hes more then helpful and offers to take us to meet the volunteer who lent it to him. So we make contact with the volunteer who is a little weirded out to have three white boys roll up in the middle of nowhere just to see what was going on. she is a environmental volunteer and has been there a year or so. it was nice to make a contact there as well as the missionary.
The shower and hospitality of the missionary was great, she even bought us some local food as a welcome to mali kinda thing. We again wake up early the next day after a wonderful nights sleep on nice mattresses and blankets as padding. She even had a spare room for us. But the next morning we leave her a note and head out to the garage to find some breakfast. Without a doubt the breakfast we found was one of the biggest bean sandwiches that ive ever had as well as one of the sweetest cups of coffee ive had as well. Not really the best thing to get you going right before a nice long bike ride but it did suffice. We ended up taking off a bit latter then normal because of the breakfast and it was slow going for the first part because of this. the ride back from mali was again not that interesting, passed more villages then on the way up to keneiba. So basically we did a big loop from kédougou up to keneiba and then over to saraya and then back down to kedougou. we end up talking ot Aaron in faraba, near to saraya to find a similar river crossing back to senegal as hes been over to mali before without running into any border guards. he tells us the village to go to and end up talking to a kid on the road to get him to show us the way. Another thing that people will love to do is bike with you and show you the tight way to go even if its out of their way.
So we end up making the trip back to senegal in the same fashion as we came into mali. see facebook fro pics, ill hopefully have them up in a bit. But the ride to Aarons village was good we even managed to book it into the final 20k or so which was great. right up my alley booking it along at the end of the trip. Aaron meet us at a village that was actually about 8k away from his village where there was a big party thing going on as some people from the village who had made it to france 15 yrs earlier and were back celebrating the magal, a muslim holiday. So everyone and their brother was there for this and we roll up all dirty and road weary. We basically leave as soon as we've done the compulsory greetings of everyone and their mother and head for Aarons village.
Aarons got a cool village and hes really coming along with his malinke. We only stay there the night then head off for andys village, stopping at a few more work sites on the way meet and greeting work partners. Andy hadnt been back to his village for a while but his family were all happy to see him and we had a good meal there. We again take off early to get back to kédougou only to get stopped by a meeting where andys trying to sort out a irrigation project that hes been working on. We end up leaving at 11, ie the hottest part of the day. we dont get into Kédougou till like 230 and im done by that point. Dehydrated from our last little blast into the gou trying to out race a local kid, which we did, but dead none the less. I pay for that latter when i spent the night puking up anything and everything i had eaten. But i was happy to be back and back in one piece even if i did limp into town on my first flat of the trip. good luck if i dont say so myself.
I end up leaving for tamba the next day feeling a lot better for not being on a bike and sufficient fluids in my system. Theres a public transport strike on so we kinda have to find a ride in unconventional ways in the back of a truck thats been converted to a people carrier with just a open back. It was a fun time even if it did take 6hrs for a like 3 1/2 hour trip. We make it and i have a badass time in tamba. The stage that is about to go home is such a cool group of people. They just know how to have a good time. Well the folk in tamba are pretty good at that as well. A bunch of the guys who are getting ready to leave had just gotten back from their close of service conference and were heading back to site for the last time and were hanging out in the regional house. Great time, even got to talk to a bunch of folk from the states and around senegal, put me in a great mood and i had a great night. Got my banking done in the morning and then headed out as the strike was over. The 7 place driver was a hot head young-un and was driving way to fast, never thought id say that, but senegelese public transport we'll change a lot of impressions you have. Nearly got ran off the road and now im back in gou thankfully in one piece and in 3 and 1/2 hrs. Meet my counterpart and am going on a work related field visit in a neighboring town on the 10th and things are looking pretty good. Got a initial proposal out of the way for a irrigation project here in gou, and i might end up working with him some more if hes down for doing some tree work. His field is really cool and in the center of town. Anyways back to the nitty gritty i guess but im feeling pretty good, lots is going good for me at the moment, just need to work on that lang and work bit i guess! stay tuned for the next edition....
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
kédougou to kenieba
working on a blog from my trip to mali, itll be up in a few days, but i just got back from a 322km bike trip to mali. ill update soon, it was fun.
Monday, February 23, 2009
actually up to date
Just for reference, those last two entries were old from a week or two ago, im now back in Kédougou and running around all crazy like! Its great. some guys from Trees for The Future are here right now, former Peace Corps volunteers from kédougou of all places and ive been going round with them checking out fields and figuring out what were going to do this coming year. Weve a meeting with the farmers federation tomorrow morning which will be cool as they seem really eager to work with trees for the future and are on a bit of a high after sorting out some food shipments to the mines. Also went and checked out a garden were going to try and get irrigation for from the Israelis as well as visiting my counterparts field to go through what were going to do there this year. What else what else, first internet trip away from nice fast internet, ive got a douch but no wall around it but also have a mbar(shade structure) in from of my hut as its sooooo fucken hot here now. I believe yesterday it was 105 in the shade good times as its no where near the hottest part of the year yet! Anyway im off to the border with Mali tomorrow so ill be out of touch for a while.
And sarah a few things about the letters, social taboos, men and women dont hold hands, multiple wives are a-ok, left hand = poop hand(dont ask), and a few other things. year of the Ox, slow and steady, i think i can work with that, fits a bunch of shit going on in my life at the moment, lang, work, social stuff, personal stuff, good times. thanks for the letters and packages even if they do get destroyed along the way and things taken out of them, weak sauce senegal, weak sauce. Ah well fun bike ride and then nursery season, great times ahead! stay in touch people!
Oh yea Man U- Inter Milan this evening, lets go you red devils! Special one my ass
And sarah a few things about the letters, social taboos, men and women dont hold hands, multiple wives are a-ok, left hand = poop hand(dont ask), and a few other things. year of the Ox, slow and steady, i think i can work with that, fits a bunch of shit going on in my life at the moment, lang, work, social stuff, personal stuff, good times. thanks for the letters and packages even if they do get destroyed along the way and things taken out of them, weak sauce senegal, weak sauce. Ah well fun bike ride and then nursery season, great times ahead! stay in touch people!
Oh yea Man U- Inter Milan this evening, lets go you red devils! Special one my ass
Solid Waste Thing in Thies
So im still in Thies today, went to a trash sort to better understand how that works with some RPCV's who had a badass waste removal project going on in a city called joel or something like that. It was the birthplace of the founder of senegal i believe. Anyway they created a solid waste management plan there that turned most of the cities waste into compost, and really good compost at that. It turns out that most of the waste that folk have here is organic, like 70-80%. Turns into real good compost. It was cool to be able to see how it is done and how much organic waste actually comes out of peoples trash. It would have made great compost the stuff we sorted today. Oh yea plastic, the folk in joel managed to find a company in dakar that bought plastic to be recycled and was basically getting rid of all of the waste they were taking in.
So i basically spent most of the day with them doing that, managed to get a run in after that which was much needed. I get really frustrated and kinda pent up when my outlets get taken away, ie biking. Ill be really happy to get back to kédougou and MY bike. hopefully Ill be able to get all the way to Tamba tomorrow by the afternoon, and if i feel up to it maybe all the way to Gou in the evening. Im thinking ill stay in Tamba the night and get my family some gifts as thats the tradition here when you return from a long time away. I was going to do that in Dakar but drinking dancing and goofy softball games got in the way. I dont need to ge t alot or anything but its important none the less.
For dinner tonight i had a great meal at a restaurant called massa massa here in thies, it was a little pricy, but one of the best ive had in quite some time. There are a bunch of health and environmental education volunteers here at the moment for some seminar type thing and i went with a bunch of them. Its nice to meet some of the other stages and these folks all seeded nice, even the one who supports arsenal. Id say that that guy prob. knows about as much if not more than me about soccer, love it when i find people like that! Speaking of people i like talking to, its my good friend Sheila's birthday tomorrow so ill have to shoot out there this week to wish her a happy birthday. If you know who she is wish her a happy birthday! Well thats about the long and short of it for today, not that exciting but kinda fun. In a much better mood since i got back from massa massa, food comma/running/misc others are all to blame. Gotta love the other volunteers!
So i basically spent most of the day with them doing that, managed to get a run in after that which was much needed. I get really frustrated and kinda pent up when my outlets get taken away, ie biking. Ill be really happy to get back to kédougou and MY bike. hopefully Ill be able to get all the way to Tamba tomorrow by the afternoon, and if i feel up to it maybe all the way to Gou in the evening. Im thinking ill stay in Tamba the night and get my family some gifts as thats the tradition here when you return from a long time away. I was going to do that in Dakar but drinking dancing and goofy softball games got in the way. I dont need to ge t alot or anything but its important none the less.
For dinner tonight i had a great meal at a restaurant called massa massa here in thies, it was a little pricy, but one of the best ive had in quite some time. There are a bunch of health and environmental education volunteers here at the moment for some seminar type thing and i went with a bunch of them. Its nice to meet some of the other stages and these folks all seeded nice, even the one who supports arsenal. Id say that that guy prob. knows about as much if not more than me about soccer, love it when i find people like that! Speaking of people i like talking to, its my good friend Sheila's birthday tomorrow so ill have to shoot out there this week to wish her a happy birthday. If you know who she is wish her a happy birthday! Well thats about the long and short of it for today, not that exciting but kinda fun. In a much better mood since i got back from massa massa, food comma/running/misc others are all to blame. Gotta love the other volunteers!
Brief description of WASIT, how many days till next year?
Wow, what a couple of days. Im getting ready to leave Dakar today and head to thies for a irrigation meeting and really understand Dakar a little better now. Im just finishing up a good 4 day stint in the capital of West Africa and man does it make you want to go home! So basically i was here in Dakar for two things, there was the West African Invitational Softball Tournament (WAIST) which was the majority of the time here and then the All Volunteer Conference (AVC) which was the day after WAIST. WAIST has been going on for a rather long time and every year pretty much all the volunteers from around senegal and the other west African nations all show up to play some softball and just generally get waisted for 3 days straight. Its neat as there was volunteers from Mali, Mauritania, Guinea, The Gambia, and i believe i heard that there might have been a team from Togo but im not sure about that one. We all play in the recreational league and have a good time really. My team never tries and have a perfect record of never winning. We also have the best reputation of having the best time out there. not only do we play we have themes which is fairly commonplace for all teams, with ours generally consisting of short shorts of some variety. Oh yea the teams are broken up roughly along the regional lines of the country. The only thing we set out to do was to uphold the name of Tamba-Gou's ridiculousness.
We upheld that name, lost every game and had the best crowds and fans all throughout the tourny. Beer being available at everygame was kinda a factor in the crzyness considering we stared at 8am for a game or two. The games were fun, have a look at the pics i posted, great time. All throughout the tourny, I have been staying with a major in the US army who works with the embassy. Hes a really cool guy his name is Rob Atienza, hes from San Diego. Hes living here in dakar by himself in a badass apt. He basically told us that were more then welcome to stop by and stay when we are in Dakar whenever we want. Thats pretty cool even though i really dont ever go through Dakar that much. Either way its a nice offer and ill be more then happy to take it up when in the situation.
So throughout the tourny of WAIST the evening time has been filled with outings to such establishments as the viking bar, marine parties, or the Oceanium club in dakar. It was a great time even if it was just like college/america in so many words. Shit ton of white folk all letting lose as its one of the only times we have the opportunity to do so. And because of that people generally end up acting kinda ridiculous or making rather quick decisions. I have to say that even with all of that, WASIT has been one of the best weekend/couple of days ive had in a very long time for that very reason. specific incidents aside it was great hanging out with all the people from my stage and in general just dancing the night away. anyone who knows me would probably say that that this kind of behavior is very much out of character as i never dance but when you're dragged out to the dance floor you'll have a decent time!
So now in Thies with WAIST over and only a day or two left up north im write this blog. It was a good time, i learned how to graft mango and citrus trees as well as witnessing a bunch of other ag/fo technologies in action. Went to a meeting put on by the Israeli embassy about irrigation which was neat as we got to see a example of it in action here in thies and gave me some good ideas for potential projects down south. WAIST was great and i wish i had more time to spend with some people in particular up here, ah well ive 2 years. Ill be heading to a solid waste management trash sorting tomorrow to observe for a similar project down in Kédougou which has great potential. I'll then be making my way back down to the Gou to meet up with some work partners for a meeting as soon as i get back basically. Either way ill be really busy when i get back as ive got to start working on some projects when i get back as the nursery season is fast approaching and im rather excited to get started on actually planting some trees. I've a few plans for such projects and we'll see how they pan out. Either way as bummed as i am to leave Dakar and all that was there, im excited to get back to Gou and get to work.
Any questions shoot me a line as its not entirely well written this time and kinda short!
We upheld that name, lost every game and had the best crowds and fans all throughout the tourny. Beer being available at everygame was kinda a factor in the crzyness considering we stared at 8am for a game or two. The games were fun, have a look at the pics i posted, great time. All throughout the tourny, I have been staying with a major in the US army who works with the embassy. Hes a really cool guy his name is Rob Atienza, hes from San Diego. Hes living here in dakar by himself in a badass apt. He basically told us that were more then welcome to stop by and stay when we are in Dakar whenever we want. Thats pretty cool even though i really dont ever go through Dakar that much. Either way its a nice offer and ill be more then happy to take it up when in the situation.
So throughout the tourny of WAIST the evening time has been filled with outings to such establishments as the viking bar, marine parties, or the Oceanium club in dakar. It was a great time even if it was just like college/america in so many words. Shit ton of white folk all letting lose as its one of the only times we have the opportunity to do so. And because of that people generally end up acting kinda ridiculous or making rather quick decisions. I have to say that even with all of that, WASIT has been one of the best weekend/couple of days ive had in a very long time for that very reason. specific incidents aside it was great hanging out with all the people from my stage and in general just dancing the night away. anyone who knows me would probably say that that this kind of behavior is very much out of character as i never dance but when you're dragged out to the dance floor you'll have a decent time!
So now in Thies with WAIST over and only a day or two left up north im write this blog. It was a good time, i learned how to graft mango and citrus trees as well as witnessing a bunch of other ag/fo technologies in action. Went to a meeting put on by the Israeli embassy about irrigation which was neat as we got to see a example of it in action here in thies and gave me some good ideas for potential projects down south. WAIST was great and i wish i had more time to spend with some people in particular up here, ah well ive 2 years. Ill be heading to a solid waste management trash sorting tomorrow to observe for a similar project down in Kédougou which has great potential. I'll then be making my way back down to the Gou to meet up with some work partners for a meeting as soon as i get back basically. Either way ill be really busy when i get back as ive got to start working on some projects when i get back as the nursery season is fast approaching and im rather excited to get started on actually planting some trees. I've a few plans for such projects and we'll see how they pan out. Either way as bummed as i am to leave Dakar and all that was there, im excited to get back to Gou and get to work.
Any questions shoot me a line as its not entirely well written this time and kinda short!
Saturday, February 7, 2009
1st Part of In Service Training
Well i havent written in a while and im here in the north where the internet is in ample supply. Im up here for my in service training where i basically get to learn about all sorts of neat agro forestry techniques. Basically i got into Thies on the 31st after spending the night , in Koalack on the way up to Thies as its a hell of a long way for on eday of traveling. its very doable if you feel like sitting in a car literally all day. I mean thats fun and all but unless there is something very serious going on i plan on not doing that. So we stayed in Kaolack for the night with the other volunteers there. There was quite a few volunteers there as most of the volunteers form my stage were making their way back north for our IST(In Service Training). It was a nice night, the regional house in Koalack is pretty nice and they have wifi so that was nice. We didnt get in till after dark which kinda limited our actions in Kaolack but we basically went straight to the bar where the other volunteers were already hanging out. It was really good to see a bunch of people form our stage again as i hadnt seen them since we had been at Pre Service Training. It was me Kevin, Steve, and Shelia who made the trip from Kédougou to Tamba and from Tamba to Kaolack that day.
So we got up early the the next day to beginning our trip to Thies as we wanted to get there on the 31st before we were supposed to be there. This kinda gave us the chance to chill in Thies a day or have something go wrong on the way. We made decent time getting to thies as we had possibly the best 7place ive ever seen in country. That and the road wasnt that bad on the way to Thies. We only had one problem on the way there as we got a flat as we were about 30/40km out of theis. I guess it was flat as a guy next to the road kinda pointed it out by yelling at the car as we drove by. It was kinda nice to have a break from the ride but we were that close to thies i was kinda ant-sy to get going again. They were really good at fixing it and we were on the road again in no time.
The rest of the trip is pretty easy as the driver again made good time getting to Thies and getting to the center from the station was a non issue as the driver let us off at a taxi stand right next to the main road into town. Getting back to the Training center was interesting as seeing all the Small enterprise and development volunteers, who had been there for a week, was very interesting. Some people have changed and some people are the same as i remembered them from PST.
So our IST didnt start till the monday and we didn't really officially get started till then. We basically hung out, took in the familiar sights of thies and had a good time till monday rolled round. When our IST started on the monday, we had a language exam where our respective local languages were tested to see how far we had come in the first three months. As opposed to the ones that i had taken during PST i actually felt good about this one. And evidently i passed as well. All that required was moving up one level from where you were during your PST training. In all honesty i was a little stressed out about it as i figured it would be a little more difficult, but you really dont even notice the language that you pick up. So it was good to get that result and be able to move on to Frecnh and brush up on that really.
So the format of the IST is basically the same as the format for PST we are supposed to stay in our home stay's at night and get bussed back and forth for the day to thies. We'll i suppose i should clarify, during PST the people learning Peula Futa had their home stay's in a town called Pout about 15km away. So again we Peula Futa's are staying there. Unfortunately that means we have to be bussed back and forth every day to the training center in thies. So while i can understand pretty much all of what the one/two people in my family who speak peula futa say i spend the evenings with them only. kinda lame and really not too helpful in my opinion. What ive heard through the grape vine is that this is to keep us from all going to the bar, where i am at right now, to help us better integrate. While i appreciate that, at IST i'd say were well and truly on the way to being integrated, were not Peace Corps Trainees anymore but PCV's true and proper. whatever im learning important ag/fo information during the sessions here even if i have to be bussed away from my friends who dont speak peula futa every night.
So for the tech training that weve gotten while here is quite helpful, as weve been able to see some good species for live fencing and other useful species for ag/fo work. weve had two field trips into the surrounding countryside to see some techniques in action and the specific species that we should be using. Very helpful and good for kinda catching up on what the other ag/fo volunteers from my stage are doing in their respective sites. Weve also learned how to make mud stoves and some decent shade tree species that thrive here in senegal.
Today was all french and i feel like ive been benefiting from the lessons that ive been having as its a really good reminder of what ive been putting off for the entirety of my service so far. we learned the past and the imparfait as well as the basic greetings which i kinda already know but like i said its good practice for work. Thats about it for the time being i think im sure ill have some more entries to post around the end of waist when the all volunteer conference and our meeting with the Israeli Embassy Staff is. hope all is well everywhere! ill be in touch
So we got up early the the next day to beginning our trip to Thies as we wanted to get there on the 31st before we were supposed to be there. This kinda gave us the chance to chill in Thies a day or have something go wrong on the way. We made decent time getting to thies as we had possibly the best 7place ive ever seen in country. That and the road wasnt that bad on the way to Thies. We only had one problem on the way there as we got a flat as we were about 30/40km out of theis. I guess it was flat as a guy next to the road kinda pointed it out by yelling at the car as we drove by. It was kinda nice to have a break from the ride but we were that close to thies i was kinda ant-sy to get going again. They were really good at fixing it and we were on the road again in no time.
The rest of the trip is pretty easy as the driver again made good time getting to Thies and getting to the center from the station was a non issue as the driver let us off at a taxi stand right next to the main road into town. Getting back to the Training center was interesting as seeing all the Small enterprise and development volunteers, who had been there for a week, was very interesting. Some people have changed and some people are the same as i remembered them from PST.
So our IST didnt start till the monday and we didn't really officially get started till then. We basically hung out, took in the familiar sights of thies and had a good time till monday rolled round. When our IST started on the monday, we had a language exam where our respective local languages were tested to see how far we had come in the first three months. As opposed to the ones that i had taken during PST i actually felt good about this one. And evidently i passed as well. All that required was moving up one level from where you were during your PST training. In all honesty i was a little stressed out about it as i figured it would be a little more difficult, but you really dont even notice the language that you pick up. So it was good to get that result and be able to move on to Frecnh and brush up on that really.
So the format of the IST is basically the same as the format for PST we are supposed to stay in our home stay's at night and get bussed back and forth for the day to thies. We'll i suppose i should clarify, during PST the people learning Peula Futa had their home stay's in a town called Pout about 15km away. So again we Peula Futa's are staying there. Unfortunately that means we have to be bussed back and forth every day to the training center in thies. So while i can understand pretty much all of what the one/two people in my family who speak peula futa say i spend the evenings with them only. kinda lame and really not too helpful in my opinion. What ive heard through the grape vine is that this is to keep us from all going to the bar, where i am at right now, to help us better integrate. While i appreciate that, at IST i'd say were well and truly on the way to being integrated, were not Peace Corps Trainees anymore but PCV's true and proper. whatever im learning important ag/fo information during the sessions here even if i have to be bussed away from my friends who dont speak peula futa every night.
So for the tech training that weve gotten while here is quite helpful, as weve been able to see some good species for live fencing and other useful species for ag/fo work. weve had two field trips into the surrounding countryside to see some techniques in action and the specific species that we should be using. Very helpful and good for kinda catching up on what the other ag/fo volunteers from my stage are doing in their respective sites. Weve also learned how to make mud stoves and some decent shade tree species that thrive here in senegal.
Today was all french and i feel like ive been benefiting from the lessons that ive been having as its a really good reminder of what ive been putting off for the entirety of my service so far. we learned the past and the imparfait as well as the basic greetings which i kinda already know but like i said its good practice for work. Thats about it for the time being i think im sure ill have some more entries to post around the end of waist when the all volunteer conference and our meeting with the Israeli Embassy Staff is. hope all is well everywhere! ill be in touch
Monday, January 26, 2009
Patron coming to check up on the newbies and other exciting things
So what have i been up to these past couple of weeks. Well I had been planning on going back out to Kafori to check out some caves and then hike up to fungolimbi to see a women's groups garden. Alas that kinda fell through as the country director, safety and security coordinator and the director of agriculture and agroforestry all came to check up on the progress of the newbies. So it basically ended up with them all coming to see me on the same day. So the 23rd was a busy day for me.
So before all this went on, i was out in Kafori for the seeding of the school garden there. That was good, went off without a hitch really. not a lot of the kids showed up for the planting as there was a little confusion over all the classes availability. But we ended up having a decent number of kids there for it. It went well, the teachers there were kinda giving kevin some grief because we werent nursery planting some of the plants we were planting. All in all it isn't ubber important as we only put 2/3 seeds into the holes so it'll be easy to weed them down to the appropriate size. It will be interesting to see what goes on with it as were heading off to Thies for our In Service Training (IST) on Friday. The family kevin is staying with in Kafori is really nice and my aunt lives with them in the same compound, so its nice to see her as well. Kevin got sick that night with flu-y like symptoms but it wasn't that bad luckily as we were meeting the country director the next day. It was kinda nice cause he got to see the work we had done in Kafori with the school and meet the teachers and all that. We also were able to snag a ride back to kédougou in their car which was rather nice as well. Both the country director ad the safety and security coordinator are really nice guys so it was nice to see them. They were down here with some Department of Defense guys who checking out some projects that they were funding. Interesting bunch of guys those DoD guys. Complete opposite of PCV thats for sure, polar opposites, but nice.
Chris and Etienne (country director and S&S coordinator) came by and meet my family and busted their chops about not having my douche done and promised me that they'd make sure that it would get done before i got back from IST or else. The family i live with is the family that chris lived with when he was a PCV 20 yrs ago so he was able to really get on their case about it. But other then that the visit with them went well, they were happy with the way things were coming along and kinda reinforced my idea of a kinda volunteer with my base in Kédougou and working all around helping other volunteers in the region. Great for me as i get to bike a lot and plant a bunch of trees and make a lot of gardens. I guess the guy who was supposed to be making my douche is the big brother of my dad and therefor Chris's brother. Whatever he came over last night all pissed saying he had other things to be doing and that chris had called him. Whatever he was supposed to have this done over three months ago. But they're working on it and it should be done soonish.
Anyway after chris and Etienne left, Massaly showed up to have a chat. He is my immediate boss i guess. He's the guy in charge of the aggies and ag/fos. He was really just checking things out making sure everything was in order and then checking out how i was doing. He shot a few ideas at me about what i could possibly get up to here in kédougou, again reinforcing my roll here in the gou as helping others around the region while conducting my own projects. but it was a good little meeting even if they did kinda mess up my plans for shooting up to fungolimbi.
Other comings and goings, been going to my tutor for getting ready for my pullar exam. Going over my notes and writing out sentences for tech vocab. We'll see how it goes on the 2nd. ill be back in Pout either way so ill be able to at least practice my pullar a little bit with my host family a little to prove that I'm not completely retarded. Im sure that they must have thought that i was special needs for the time i was there. Babby Steps i suppose.
I got to meet a really good farmer the other day which was neat, Boobs took me out to visit with this guy, i guess hes a really good source for scions which is good to know even if we haven't been trained in grafting yet. IST is only a week or so away. Boobs, who's real Senegalese name is boobakar dumfuker, no joke, goes for short as boobs, so boobs dumfuker took me out to meet this guy who has a garden/orchard out on the saraya road thats probably the best I've seen in country. Great orchard and garden, badass live fence, and a fairly decent irrigation system. Trees for the future should definitely check this guy out. Demba Samara is the guys name, doesnt speak french but does speak pullar and malinke boobs and my languages. I guess that boobs used this guy for a grafting seminar he did last rainy season. The guy was real friendly and very interested in working together i think and wanted me to call him when i get back from IST.
I talked to my counterpart today, which was nice, kinda ran into him as he was leaving the sonatel building next to the road i live on and had a chat with him about what i was thinking after going to the farmers federation meeting the other week. It was an ok meeting, lots of talking and not a lot of attendance unfortunately. I did manage to get some positive out of it though as thomas the other volunteer here in kédougou from my stage has been going to these meetings and has even been going to the farmers gardens to check them out. Right now the farmers federation is trying to supply the mining companies up in Sabodela with fresh produce so that they don't have to import them from Dakar. Only problem is the Dakar prices are really cheaper and they are trying to work that out. Me thinking that this was a SED type thing didn't go and was a little skeptical of the Ag/Fo potential there, but have since come around. When we get back from IST I'm going to continue along with Thomas on his visits around the gardens of Kédougou and try to talk to the farmers and kinda gage their interest in Ag/Fo technologies. My counterpart thought that this was a good idea and i think between him and Demba id be able to do that quite well. The objective now is to get a solid plan together as to what i want ot accomplish with them and what these farmers around Kédougou would actually want from me. We'll see when i get back in a month, here comes WAIST West African Invitational Softball Tournament. Weve never won a game and that doesnt look good for me cause i dont like losing. We'll see what happens
So before all this went on, i was out in Kafori for the seeding of the school garden there. That was good, went off without a hitch really. not a lot of the kids showed up for the planting as there was a little confusion over all the classes availability. But we ended up having a decent number of kids there for it. It went well, the teachers there were kinda giving kevin some grief because we werent nursery planting some of the plants we were planting. All in all it isn't ubber important as we only put 2/3 seeds into the holes so it'll be easy to weed them down to the appropriate size. It will be interesting to see what goes on with it as were heading off to Thies for our In Service Training (IST) on Friday. The family kevin is staying with in Kafori is really nice and my aunt lives with them in the same compound, so its nice to see her as well. Kevin got sick that night with flu-y like symptoms but it wasn't that bad luckily as we were meeting the country director the next day. It was kinda nice cause he got to see the work we had done in Kafori with the school and meet the teachers and all that. We also were able to snag a ride back to kédougou in their car which was rather nice as well. Both the country director ad the safety and security coordinator are really nice guys so it was nice to see them. They were down here with some Department of Defense guys who checking out some projects that they were funding. Interesting bunch of guys those DoD guys. Complete opposite of PCV thats for sure, polar opposites, but nice.
Chris and Etienne (country director and S&S coordinator) came by and meet my family and busted their chops about not having my douche done and promised me that they'd make sure that it would get done before i got back from IST or else. The family i live with is the family that chris lived with when he was a PCV 20 yrs ago so he was able to really get on their case about it. But other then that the visit with them went well, they were happy with the way things were coming along and kinda reinforced my idea of a kinda volunteer with my base in Kédougou and working all around helping other volunteers in the region. Great for me as i get to bike a lot and plant a bunch of trees and make a lot of gardens. I guess the guy who was supposed to be making my douche is the big brother of my dad and therefor Chris's brother. Whatever he came over last night all pissed saying he had other things to be doing and that chris had called him. Whatever he was supposed to have this done over three months ago. But they're working on it and it should be done soonish.
Anyway after chris and Etienne left, Massaly showed up to have a chat. He is my immediate boss i guess. He's the guy in charge of the aggies and ag/fos. He was really just checking things out making sure everything was in order and then checking out how i was doing. He shot a few ideas at me about what i could possibly get up to here in kédougou, again reinforcing my roll here in the gou as helping others around the region while conducting my own projects. but it was a good little meeting even if they did kinda mess up my plans for shooting up to fungolimbi.
Other comings and goings, been going to my tutor for getting ready for my pullar exam. Going over my notes and writing out sentences for tech vocab. We'll see how it goes on the 2nd. ill be back in Pout either way so ill be able to at least practice my pullar a little bit with my host family a little to prove that I'm not completely retarded. Im sure that they must have thought that i was special needs for the time i was there. Babby Steps i suppose.
I got to meet a really good farmer the other day which was neat, Boobs took me out to visit with this guy, i guess hes a really good source for scions which is good to know even if we haven't been trained in grafting yet. IST is only a week or so away. Boobs, who's real Senegalese name is boobakar dumfuker, no joke, goes for short as boobs, so boobs dumfuker took me out to meet this guy who has a garden/orchard out on the saraya road thats probably the best I've seen in country. Great orchard and garden, badass live fence, and a fairly decent irrigation system. Trees for the future should definitely check this guy out. Demba Samara is the guys name, doesnt speak french but does speak pullar and malinke boobs and my languages. I guess that boobs used this guy for a grafting seminar he did last rainy season. The guy was real friendly and very interested in working together i think and wanted me to call him when i get back from IST.
I talked to my counterpart today, which was nice, kinda ran into him as he was leaving the sonatel building next to the road i live on and had a chat with him about what i was thinking after going to the farmers federation meeting the other week. It was an ok meeting, lots of talking and not a lot of attendance unfortunately. I did manage to get some positive out of it though as thomas the other volunteer here in kédougou from my stage has been going to these meetings and has even been going to the farmers gardens to check them out. Right now the farmers federation is trying to supply the mining companies up in Sabodela with fresh produce so that they don't have to import them from Dakar. Only problem is the Dakar prices are really cheaper and they are trying to work that out. Me thinking that this was a SED type thing didn't go and was a little skeptical of the Ag/Fo potential there, but have since come around. When we get back from IST I'm going to continue along with Thomas on his visits around the gardens of Kédougou and try to talk to the farmers and kinda gage their interest in Ag/Fo technologies. My counterpart thought that this was a good idea and i think between him and Demba id be able to do that quite well. The objective now is to get a solid plan together as to what i want ot accomplish with them and what these farmers around Kédougou would actually want from me. We'll see when i get back in a month, here comes WAIST West African Invitational Softball Tournament. Weve never won a game and that doesnt look good for me cause i dont like losing. We'll see what happens
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Mbookie's, little kiddies gardening, and Badass bike rides
Story time it is again i guess. So I'm back in the Gou after a couple eventful days out in Kafori about 35k away from Kédougou. I originally went out there on the 7th to check out kevins site and help him haul some of his stuff out there as he had a lot. It was a nice bike ride out there as it wasnt balls to the wall fast and we had a bunch of stuff attached to our bikes. I got a couple good pics along the way of our loaded own bikes though and it was a nice way to spend a morning. We get out to Kafori in about 2 1/2 hours or so so it wasn't that bad of a time. The first lady we run into as were coming up out of the creek bed crossing that leads you into kafori is one of kevins neighbors who is a really old lady who is just thrilled to bits to see him and starts dancing and is just genuinely soo very happy to see him. so with my first impressions of kofori that we walk up the hill to where kevin is living at the moment as his hut hasnt even been started yet. He does have some really nice digs though as hes living with the president of the community rural for Kafori. My Aunt from my host family in Kédougou lives in the same compound as well as she is a teacher there in Kafori. So we get to unpack our stuff and relax a bit when we get there after we get through the ritual of greeting everyone and their mother in the compound. It was nice to relax a bit as the bike ride is kinda a tax, especially with a fully loaded port-a-bagage. After we relax a bit we head out to a couple of garden plots that kevin is working on throughout the village. A few of them weren't doing as well as he would have liked as the people that were supposed to be looking after them really weren't or hadn't done what they were supposed to do. But it was nice to see what someone else was up to during their first three months out in the village.
Another reason that i came out to Kafori was to get an idea about the school gardening project that kevin was working on as well. His main plan was to get about 6 plots going for the school to look after and then have the garden become a sort of communal garden once established. We got to scope out the site of the garden and have a good talk about the way the garden project was going to work. Basically the idea was to teach a class about the importance of a garden and then follow that up with a class on the actual making of the garden. It was a good plan and going over it kinda sealed the deal for me as far as my participation. So we crash and the next morning i take off back to Kédougou.
So basically i end up hanging out in Kédougou for the next two days and heading back out to Kafori again on the 11th to help prepare the plots for the garden class. I make good time going out there. Make it in in about and hour forty min. Great time riding out, basically get to go my own speed and my load this time is a little less then before but I've still got a decent sized load as I've got all my books for the class, sleeping bag and clothes for the next 2 days. Im so glad i brought my sleeping bag to country because it is rather cold here at nights during the cold dry season. mind you its still ridiculously hot during the day but the cool nights are nice. Like i said i made good time on the way out and with the ride out being the harder part of the journey, i felt pretty good with my self. Basically you end up climbing a lot more during the ride out and you descend a lot more on the way in, or at least the change is a lot more noticeable on the way out. Its basically rolling the whole way, and that makes for a nice ride either way. So when i get out there i chill for a little catching my breath. We head out to the Director of the schools house to get started on the plots. His hut is right next to the school and the forage so there is water readably available.
So we start making the plots with the help of several of the teachers helping out which was nice. We measure out 6 2x1 plots in two rows of three. The total plot size is 9x9 but we dont use it all. Measuring it out is a bit of a chore as we need to clear the ground first a bit and then have it dead on. We get that done and start clearing all the weeds and plants that are there which is harder then it sounds as its quite dry and the ground is rather hard. with the plots marked out and the ground cleared that takes us up till about midday and lunch time. All the while that we are working kevin brings out his CD player and portable speakers and we have a little music to listen to. A girl that is in our stage and in our region made the CD for kevin and it was a interesting mix of music. So whenever i now think of this project and making the plots, Britney spears newest song pops into my head with it starting out with her saying 'its Britney bitch'. That wasnt the only song on it but it had me on the floor laughing when it first came on.
So after our three lunches, as we get to eat with the teachers, kevins host family, and the family that he is living with at the moment, we get back to the plot to begin the process of finishing up the three plots we were making completely ready. So this involved double digging and mixing in manure so that it would be just right for the garden. On the way back to the site we stop and pick up a bunch of manure thats all over the place as cows kinda just roam about the village. This eats up the rest of the afternoon as we are working during the hottest part of the day. And that means its really fucken hot for those of you playing the home game, i think i clocked it at being in the mid 30's C the other day and this is the cool dry season. Who's looking forward to the hot dry season, this guy ain't. Like i said this eats up the rest of the day and we retire with a couple gorgeous looking plots ready to be seeded after a week of watering.
So This is the first day that I'm out there and when we get back to the presidents house, we are greeted with a nice little snack of some rice and meat. Now this might not seem to weird to you all back home, but considering peanut sauce or leaf sauce are the staples here minus holidays, this was a little odd for us. So we kinda enquire as to what the reason was for this. So after talking to the son of the president, as he was in Kédougou at the time, we find out something called mbookie had attacked and killed three cows the previous night. Kevin then chimes in that he remembers hearing it and that it was crazy sounding. Kinda bad for the owner of the cow, but we ate like kings for the night, totally unexpected. So upon trying to figure out what this mbookie animal is, we kinda end up on the conclusion that it was Baboons as i know in french monkey is sainge or something and when i asked the kid if that was what it was he said yea it was mbookie's. So kevin and i are kinda like WTF they attacked and killed three cows not far from where we were sleeping. Were sitting there thinking wow crazy killer monkeys running around right next to the house. So after our badass dinner, we head to bed and the night is fairly uneventful. The next day when the two other volunteers show up for the class one of them speaks really good pullar enquires as to what did all this we find out that it was hyenas' that had attacked the cows and that only one of them had died. Makes a lot more sense and i kinda chill out a bit after that as hyena's cant climb through windows like crazy killer monkeys!
But the 12th is the day of the actual formal class for the kids at the school. There were 6 classes, and they were broken into three groups of two classes. Each group would get one volunteer minus the group that got kevin and I as were newbies. Were slotted for a noon start time and kick off at fairly promptly. Luckily for me the teacher in our class spoke fairly decent english as the french i was using was pretty bad. Kevins Pullar was really good though, when he asked if the kids understood him at the end of each of his sections they all got it where as some of the kids didnt really get mine and the teacher had to jump in and explain what i was trying to say. That might have been a factor of some of the subject matter as well my language skill but it was still really difficult. My hat goes off to all my teacher friends out there, you've got a hard job even if you can do it in english. So it didnt go all that badly as i was able to get the point across.
After were done with the class, it happened that it was the same day as the local market, the luma. So we all kinda traipse over there to have a poke around to get a few things. Its weird for me because kédougou has a market everyday purely because it is a big town. But it was neat to have a walk around and see what it was like there. I bought some bread as the lunch we had this day wasnt as good or filling as the one we had the day before, and we head back to the presidents house. Steve and Roxy, the other two volunteers take off for their villages and kevin and i kinda just chill at his place.
While i was coming out to Kafori i stopped to take a picture and was using my new kickstand. it stood there for a bit and then bent pretty much in half as my bike fell over. Great times as i had to take it off on the side of the road. I had pretty much written it off as i couldnt bend it back with my hands and wasnt able to pop down to the tool shed to use the handy dandy vice until the kid who had told us about the mbookies came in and said he could probably fix it. He gave it a try with his hands then said yea it was busted. This all happened when i first got there, but while we were hanging out in Kevins room he comes back in and says that there will be someone who can fix it at the luma. Not wanting to get my hopes up i say sure take it see what you can do if not just keep it. He comes back about 20min later with a much straighter kickstand and the loaves of bread we asked him to get. the kickstand is better then when i bought it, thats how good they fixed it. Blown away, i wish i would have seen them do it cause im really curious to see how they did it! My kickstand is as good as new now and im very happy about that.
So we relax for a while just kinda chilling, and get the news that theres no dinner tonight. Kinda bummed we decide to bust into kevins stash of american food hes had sent out to him. Tuna sandwiches will suffice for the evening and will be pretty damn nice. So we give them to kevins brother to make in his room as kevin doesnt want his room to get crumbs and food all over it. So he takes it across the compound to his room and comes back with the news that we are going to have dinner. So we go and eat with the fam, but the brothers hut is right next to the eating area and his mom knows something is going on. Its not that we werent trying to share as kevins 2 brother and i were going to eat, there just wasnt that much to go around. So after dinner was over it becomes really apparent as kevins sister is standing outside her brothers door trying to get in to see what is going on and totally blows our cover. In the end kevin gives a packet of tuna to his host mother to kinda appease her. We get to eat tuna sandwiches and everyones happy.
So we kinda retire after this and head to bed. Now this is where the mbookies come back into the picture. I guess the previous night kevin had heard the hyenas out and about. So we end up talking about how messed up it would be if they came back and how we would eat really well again if they did. So that precedes our slumber and around 12/1am kevin wakes me up the cackling of hyenas. You can hear them all around the compound and evne hear them running right next to the wall kevins room bumps up against. ohhh ahhh what fun not really too worried i kinda sit up for the next hour or two listening to them. There is one of the cows that was attacked in the compound with us and a flock of sheep/goats for their own protection. so around 3 the sheep/goats start running round the compound. The interior of the compound is a circle type area with river stones covering it for better drainage. Also amplifies hooves. So you can really hear these guys running around the compound. Thinking theyre just freaked out by the hyenas i didn't think too much of it until the dog inside the compound starts growling and barking at something either inside the compound or right at the gate. I kinda hear a scuffle of dogs and a yelp. Then the dog is running after something and barking after it. Its kinda nuts but kevin and i are thinking that hyena was in the compound or really damn close to being inside it judging by the animals reactions. That was about it for the nights excitement really, but very interesting none the less.
So the next morning when we get up and come out the seat that is kinda in the middle of the compound was knocked over, it was a bench style seat made of pieces of bamboo. When i came out of kevins room my host aunt who lives there as well was cleaning it up and i asked her if she heard the mbookies and she said yea and that was about it really. The weird thing was that no one else really seemed bothered by it if they had heard it all. Most the people i asked said they were asleep and didnt hear anything! i guess im just a newbie and after so many times that gets old! But we get ready to go teach our class over at the school on the technical side of the making of the garden. Steve started off first, Roxy second and kevin and I last at 2. Steve is great, he got their attention by doing a little dance as they came filing into the field which broke the ice really well. I mean what can beat a crazy toubob dancing african style? His pullar is badass and he did a great job. He ended up teaching the class that kevin and I had the day before. They were probably middle schoolers at the front end of middle school or before. Roxy had the second group which was more like the end of middle school and they were probably the most capable of the three groups purely because of age. They were all very enthused by the whole event. Kevin and I ended up with the youngest of the three at the end, they must have been 2nd graders or so and basically the director ended up explaining most of it which was nice as he got it done tout suit! I got some great pics of everything if youre so inclined to check facebook out.
After the last class, I'm heading back to Kédougou and Roxy is heading back to Dimboli so we head out together. I was meeting up with steve at his villages turn off as all the volunteers are along the same road. So i kinda take off once we get going as im not sure when the last ferry crossing is at the entry way into kédougou to make sure i ride in with steve. I make it down to Togué in pretty decent time and steve and I take off. We end up flying into kédougou. It took and hour and twenty mineutes to get to the ferry crossing where as it took me roughly an hour and fifty min to get there the last time i tried to do it. I really think it was the company as when im riding with people the motivation factor is just there to keep up and not get dropped. I noticed that a bit during a couple races and group rides ive been on. If im with people i can generally keep pace but if i was just on my own it just wouldnt feel the need to go that fast or keep up a pace for a certain amount of time. So it was a great ride back into the gou with steve. We chatted about different projects hes working on, things im thinking about trying to set up in terms of projects, cycling and this and that. It was a good ride. Were thinking of planing a trip out past kafori and then up to another volunteer, aaron's village near saraya after my IST(In Service Training).
We made it back in damn good time and i was pretty racked out by the time we got back and i just kinda kick it with the host fam who are happy to see me for the evening. About 20min or so after i get back i look at my bike which is next to my hut and the front is flat ! I guess i either picked up the flat as i go t my compound or was really lucky that it was only a small thorn and was leaking only slightly so that i was able to get home without really being flat. But i bring my chair out front of my hut to repair it and end up getting a call form Ethan with Trees for the Future. He was just checking in to se what i was thinking of doing with my counterpart, who he worked with while he was in PC a few years back and who is working with TFF now. I shot him my ideas and he seemed totally onboard and just wanted to be kept in touch with what all was going on. It kinda weird whenever i get back from these rides im usually kinda up on a high and a really good mood. Just genuinely in a good place, i think i'm addicted to this kicking my ass thing and i have no desire to kick the habit!
Another reason that i came out to Kafori was to get an idea about the school gardening project that kevin was working on as well. His main plan was to get about 6 plots going for the school to look after and then have the garden become a sort of communal garden once established. We got to scope out the site of the garden and have a good talk about the way the garden project was going to work. Basically the idea was to teach a class about the importance of a garden and then follow that up with a class on the actual making of the garden. It was a good plan and going over it kinda sealed the deal for me as far as my participation. So we crash and the next morning i take off back to Kédougou.
So basically i end up hanging out in Kédougou for the next two days and heading back out to Kafori again on the 11th to help prepare the plots for the garden class. I make good time going out there. Make it in in about and hour forty min. Great time riding out, basically get to go my own speed and my load this time is a little less then before but I've still got a decent sized load as I've got all my books for the class, sleeping bag and clothes for the next 2 days. Im so glad i brought my sleeping bag to country because it is rather cold here at nights during the cold dry season. mind you its still ridiculously hot during the day but the cool nights are nice. Like i said i made good time on the way out and with the ride out being the harder part of the journey, i felt pretty good with my self. Basically you end up climbing a lot more during the ride out and you descend a lot more on the way in, or at least the change is a lot more noticeable on the way out. Its basically rolling the whole way, and that makes for a nice ride either way. So when i get out there i chill for a little catching my breath. We head out to the Director of the schools house to get started on the plots. His hut is right next to the school and the forage so there is water readably available.
So we start making the plots with the help of several of the teachers helping out which was nice. We measure out 6 2x1 plots in two rows of three. The total plot size is 9x9 but we dont use it all. Measuring it out is a bit of a chore as we need to clear the ground first a bit and then have it dead on. We get that done and start clearing all the weeds and plants that are there which is harder then it sounds as its quite dry and the ground is rather hard. with the plots marked out and the ground cleared that takes us up till about midday and lunch time. All the while that we are working kevin brings out his CD player and portable speakers and we have a little music to listen to. A girl that is in our stage and in our region made the CD for kevin and it was a interesting mix of music. So whenever i now think of this project and making the plots, Britney spears newest song pops into my head with it starting out with her saying 'its Britney bitch'. That wasnt the only song on it but it had me on the floor laughing when it first came on.
So after our three lunches, as we get to eat with the teachers, kevins host family, and the family that he is living with at the moment, we get back to the plot to begin the process of finishing up the three plots we were making completely ready. So this involved double digging and mixing in manure so that it would be just right for the garden. On the way back to the site we stop and pick up a bunch of manure thats all over the place as cows kinda just roam about the village. This eats up the rest of the afternoon as we are working during the hottest part of the day. And that means its really fucken hot for those of you playing the home game, i think i clocked it at being in the mid 30's C the other day and this is the cool dry season. Who's looking forward to the hot dry season, this guy ain't. Like i said this eats up the rest of the day and we retire with a couple gorgeous looking plots ready to be seeded after a week of watering.
So This is the first day that I'm out there and when we get back to the presidents house, we are greeted with a nice little snack of some rice and meat. Now this might not seem to weird to you all back home, but considering peanut sauce or leaf sauce are the staples here minus holidays, this was a little odd for us. So we kinda enquire as to what the reason was for this. So after talking to the son of the president, as he was in Kédougou at the time, we find out something called mbookie had attacked and killed three cows the previous night. Kevin then chimes in that he remembers hearing it and that it was crazy sounding. Kinda bad for the owner of the cow, but we ate like kings for the night, totally unexpected. So upon trying to figure out what this mbookie animal is, we kinda end up on the conclusion that it was Baboons as i know in french monkey is sainge or something and when i asked the kid if that was what it was he said yea it was mbookie's. So kevin and i are kinda like WTF they attacked and killed three cows not far from where we were sleeping. Were sitting there thinking wow crazy killer monkeys running around right next to the house. So after our badass dinner, we head to bed and the night is fairly uneventful. The next day when the two other volunteers show up for the class one of them speaks really good pullar enquires as to what did all this we find out that it was hyenas' that had attacked the cows and that only one of them had died. Makes a lot more sense and i kinda chill out a bit after that as hyena's cant climb through windows like crazy killer monkeys!
But the 12th is the day of the actual formal class for the kids at the school. There were 6 classes, and they were broken into three groups of two classes. Each group would get one volunteer minus the group that got kevin and I as were newbies. Were slotted for a noon start time and kick off at fairly promptly. Luckily for me the teacher in our class spoke fairly decent english as the french i was using was pretty bad. Kevins Pullar was really good though, when he asked if the kids understood him at the end of each of his sections they all got it where as some of the kids didnt really get mine and the teacher had to jump in and explain what i was trying to say. That might have been a factor of some of the subject matter as well my language skill but it was still really difficult. My hat goes off to all my teacher friends out there, you've got a hard job even if you can do it in english. So it didnt go all that badly as i was able to get the point across.
After were done with the class, it happened that it was the same day as the local market, the luma. So we all kinda traipse over there to have a poke around to get a few things. Its weird for me because kédougou has a market everyday purely because it is a big town. But it was neat to have a walk around and see what it was like there. I bought some bread as the lunch we had this day wasnt as good or filling as the one we had the day before, and we head back to the presidents house. Steve and Roxy, the other two volunteers take off for their villages and kevin and i kinda just chill at his place.
While i was coming out to Kafori i stopped to take a picture and was using my new kickstand. it stood there for a bit and then bent pretty much in half as my bike fell over. Great times as i had to take it off on the side of the road. I had pretty much written it off as i couldnt bend it back with my hands and wasnt able to pop down to the tool shed to use the handy dandy vice until the kid who had told us about the mbookies came in and said he could probably fix it. He gave it a try with his hands then said yea it was busted. This all happened when i first got there, but while we were hanging out in Kevins room he comes back in and says that there will be someone who can fix it at the luma. Not wanting to get my hopes up i say sure take it see what you can do if not just keep it. He comes back about 20min later with a much straighter kickstand and the loaves of bread we asked him to get. the kickstand is better then when i bought it, thats how good they fixed it. Blown away, i wish i would have seen them do it cause im really curious to see how they did it! My kickstand is as good as new now and im very happy about that.
So we relax for a while just kinda chilling, and get the news that theres no dinner tonight. Kinda bummed we decide to bust into kevins stash of american food hes had sent out to him. Tuna sandwiches will suffice for the evening and will be pretty damn nice. So we give them to kevins brother to make in his room as kevin doesnt want his room to get crumbs and food all over it. So he takes it across the compound to his room and comes back with the news that we are going to have dinner. So we go and eat with the fam, but the brothers hut is right next to the eating area and his mom knows something is going on. Its not that we werent trying to share as kevins 2 brother and i were going to eat, there just wasnt that much to go around. So after dinner was over it becomes really apparent as kevins sister is standing outside her brothers door trying to get in to see what is going on and totally blows our cover. In the end kevin gives a packet of tuna to his host mother to kinda appease her. We get to eat tuna sandwiches and everyones happy.
So we kinda retire after this and head to bed. Now this is where the mbookies come back into the picture. I guess the previous night kevin had heard the hyenas out and about. So we end up talking about how messed up it would be if they came back and how we would eat really well again if they did. So that precedes our slumber and around 12/1am kevin wakes me up the cackling of hyenas. You can hear them all around the compound and evne hear them running right next to the wall kevins room bumps up against. ohhh ahhh what fun not really too worried i kinda sit up for the next hour or two listening to them. There is one of the cows that was attacked in the compound with us and a flock of sheep/goats for their own protection. so around 3 the sheep/goats start running round the compound. The interior of the compound is a circle type area with river stones covering it for better drainage. Also amplifies hooves. So you can really hear these guys running around the compound. Thinking theyre just freaked out by the hyenas i didn't think too much of it until the dog inside the compound starts growling and barking at something either inside the compound or right at the gate. I kinda hear a scuffle of dogs and a yelp. Then the dog is running after something and barking after it. Its kinda nuts but kevin and i are thinking that hyena was in the compound or really damn close to being inside it judging by the animals reactions. That was about it for the nights excitement really, but very interesting none the less.
So the next morning when we get up and come out the seat that is kinda in the middle of the compound was knocked over, it was a bench style seat made of pieces of bamboo. When i came out of kevins room my host aunt who lives there as well was cleaning it up and i asked her if she heard the mbookies and she said yea and that was about it really. The weird thing was that no one else really seemed bothered by it if they had heard it all. Most the people i asked said they were asleep and didnt hear anything! i guess im just a newbie and after so many times that gets old! But we get ready to go teach our class over at the school on the technical side of the making of the garden. Steve started off first, Roxy second and kevin and I last at 2. Steve is great, he got their attention by doing a little dance as they came filing into the field which broke the ice really well. I mean what can beat a crazy toubob dancing african style? His pullar is badass and he did a great job. He ended up teaching the class that kevin and I had the day before. They were probably middle schoolers at the front end of middle school or before. Roxy had the second group which was more like the end of middle school and they were probably the most capable of the three groups purely because of age. They were all very enthused by the whole event. Kevin and I ended up with the youngest of the three at the end, they must have been 2nd graders or so and basically the director ended up explaining most of it which was nice as he got it done tout suit! I got some great pics of everything if youre so inclined to check facebook out.
After the last class, I'm heading back to Kédougou and Roxy is heading back to Dimboli so we head out together. I was meeting up with steve at his villages turn off as all the volunteers are along the same road. So i kinda take off once we get going as im not sure when the last ferry crossing is at the entry way into kédougou to make sure i ride in with steve. I make it down to Togué in pretty decent time and steve and I take off. We end up flying into kédougou. It took and hour and twenty mineutes to get to the ferry crossing where as it took me roughly an hour and fifty min to get there the last time i tried to do it. I really think it was the company as when im riding with people the motivation factor is just there to keep up and not get dropped. I noticed that a bit during a couple races and group rides ive been on. If im with people i can generally keep pace but if i was just on my own it just wouldnt feel the need to go that fast or keep up a pace for a certain amount of time. So it was a great ride back into the gou with steve. We chatted about different projects hes working on, things im thinking about trying to set up in terms of projects, cycling and this and that. It was a good ride. Were thinking of planing a trip out past kafori and then up to another volunteer, aaron's village near saraya after my IST(In Service Training).
We made it back in damn good time and i was pretty racked out by the time we got back and i just kinda kick it with the host fam who are happy to see me for the evening. About 20min or so after i get back i look at my bike which is next to my hut and the front is flat ! I guess i either picked up the flat as i go t my compound or was really lucky that it was only a small thorn and was leaking only slightly so that i was able to get home without really being flat. But i bring my chair out front of my hut to repair it and end up getting a call form Ethan with Trees for the Future. He was just checking in to se what i was thinking of doing with my counterpart, who he worked with while he was in PC a few years back and who is working with TFF now. I shot him my ideas and he seemed totally onboard and just wanted to be kept in touch with what all was going on. It kinda weird whenever i get back from these rides im usually kinda up on a high and a really good mood. Just genuinely in a good place, i think i'm addicted to this kicking my ass thing and i have no desire to kick the habit!
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