Kedougou or Bust

5 months left.... part 4 ( July )

2011-08-04T10:36:00.000-07:00

And the last installment for the time being!

July!!
The 4th of July was kinda like a descending of every volunteer in the country to our regional house for a big ass party. I think in the end we ended up with like 90 odd folk there. It was a good time for sure! In the morning we had the race outside the community radio in the center of town. As was the case in the previous 2 years we had done the race, the military and the firefighters were the guys who were kicking ass and taking names! I had Ian and frank be the master of ceremony for the race, announcing the race start and handing out the awards at the end. I was the first volunteer to finish, but no where near the top 5! After the race we had to take down the tent, load up the speakers and chairs, and take everythign back to the regional house for the party.

I was helping organize everything from the tents to the pigs we cooked. The pigs were really good. There is a volunteer here that is from Hawaii and i guess that pig roasts are something that him and his buddies do quite frequently there. Now weve done pig roasts before but this was a new way to do it! Usually we just dig a big hole get a fire going and throw the pig on a metal sheet or some kind of prop and cover it with a sheet and keep it wet and cook it for hours on end. This way that CJ wanted to do was a little different. Same big hole for the pig, then pile it full of logs and then top it off with big rocks and light it on fire. The idea being the rocks get red hot and stay hot for a long time. Once its burned down theres coals and red hot rocks sitting in there. For the pigs, you take some of the smaller rocks that are now red hot and put them inside the stomach and sow up the pig so it starts to cook from the inside. Then you put the pig in banana leaves. wrap it up nice and tight and wrap it in chicken wire so that you can get the pig in and out of the hole. Put the pig in the hole on top of the red hot rocks and then burry it. Once the pit is almost all the way buried, you put a tarp down as the last insulation layer and finish burring. Then you let it cook for a day. By the next day the ground was hot above the pits where the pigs were! I was a little skeptical but it worked beautifully! The pigs we cooked were delicious, the meat literally was falling off the bones. And they were still piping hot when we undid the banana leaves and looked delicious. Lets just say I was happy i was one of the cooks and got to nibble on the meat as we were preparing ( i use that term loosely as we were just pulling the meat off the pigs!). The timing of the pigs getting done and the barbecue pork being done was a little off and i was running the show on the barbecue. Only bad part was the rain that decided to roll in right when we were about done with the barbecue, BUT not done! So it was trying frantically to get the pork done while rain is falling on the grill cover. everything got done, but it was a little ify there for a second if it had in fact kept on raining. Luckily for us, it didn't and our party kept rolling. there was a impromptu dance party in the middle of the rain storm though, that was pretty sweet to see. Patrick dancing away while waving a giant american flag over his head. What a beautiful site! Lucky for me cause i got a little too drunk and passed out pretty much right after that for about 4hrs! Yea so that last sentance pretty much sums up the theme of the party, i think we had something like 40 cases of beer, a case of gin, and a case of the finest Vin Rouge de Table that senegal can produce! A dance party that lasted till the wee hours of the morning and a shit ton of fireworks, even if CJ tried to blow himself up by holding onto a big rocket and getting showered in sparks. All in all I think we did America proud, good food, good friends, and a shit ton of booze! I had a great time!

After the 4th there was a great deal of things going on. We remeasured the plots for Beans and rice as some of the stakes that marked the plots had been knocked over and were a little lopsided. Once we had the plots reremasured, we got started actually plowing and seeding. I left to head out to Saraya then on a bike trip. I was going out to Missirah Dantila via Saraya and then coming back into Kédougou the next day via Dimboli. It was a nice trip, I had the beautiful new road that goes all the way to Saraya and then the ride to Dantila from there is really beautiful as well. I was delayed most of the morning I was going to head out, because it rained all morning. When I did finally take off around 1, I made good time and was in Saraya by 4:00. It had stayed overcast the whole day so i was able to make good time getting there. I stopped in and saw kates new place in Saraya. It was lucky that I stopped by as I was able to meet her host brother that was doing malinke rap! Real funny and kate had her computer with her and turned on garage band for him. It was so funny. After filling up my water and the little rap session i got to watch, i was back on the road by 4:45.

The next leg of the trip was to Nafadji and then heading further south and to the final destination for the day, Missirah Dantila. When I got to Nafadji I was quite hungry and feeling a little tired so decided to stop and get a biscrem and get recharged for the last leg of the day. I think at that point I was at 90km total for the day. That just left the the last 20km to Dantila. They didnt have biscrem, so i had to get these 100cfa (about 25cents) bags of cookies. They were great! Its amazing how just eating a little of food can recharge you for bike riding or running for a long distance! So after that I was feeling good and really enjoyed the last leg to Dantila. It is really pretty along the road. You start to see the mountains in guinea a lot clearer and the forest around that area is very green this time if year and very spectacular. I made it to Missirah Dantila right before dark and found Ian, the new volunteer there, waiting for me at the health post with his counterpart. Ian's from Georgia and went to Emory for his undergrad. Small world. I spent the night there and we both took off the next morning for kédougou via dimboli. The ride was fun, we both ended up getting lost at the beginning and found small children in the middle of the woods on peoples fields to take us back to the main road. It was funny that we both got lost at just about the same time really close to each other. Once we were back onto the main road it was smooth sailing from there. We made it to dimboli by late morning and got to watch the end of Ben and Eric's Neem lotion demonstration. As it was getting hot and because I really wanted to get back before it was scorching hot so took off with out them. Made good time getting in and was enjoying cold water sitting on the porch when they rolled in.

When I came back after the bike trip and made it out to Dindefelo next, Mumanie, Balla, and Djiby Sy (the guys helping me with the field out there) had run out of the seed I had given them and hadn't called me to tell me. I had just biked out there and had planed on continuing out to Franks site of Matacossi via the road to Eric's site Pelel. Since I had already packed my things for that trip and was planning on camping out at the waterfall inglee the next night while inbetween the two sites I decided to camp out there anyway and deal with the seed issue the next day. I figured that the best option was to head in the next day via Thiokoye (thats the road town that is like 3k from Matacossi) and then get the seeds on transport out to Dindefelo.

Inglee was fun. Eric and Frank actually decided to join me for the day, as they are only about 15km away and can easily make it a day trip. We had a good time, we went swimming in the falls and the multiple pools there. While we were all hanging out there we thought it would be a great place to have a party. We decided to organize a trip out there for the day after the house meeting, which is the 13th. It should be a really good time. Frank had bought a sleeping mat and stayed at the falls with me. Eric had to get back as we had had a meeting with the man in charge of eh case de santé in the next village over and decided eric would do a Neem leaf demonstration out there that afternoon. Frank and I made a fire and cooked up a nice dinner of pasta, and then crashed. Earlier before Frank had arrived, I made a little lean-to and covered it in the plastic that i had brought with me. Frank just had the mat that he brought. Of course it rained! We had to rush into the lean-to plastic tent to stay dry. It actually worked quite well surprisingly.

We woke up and ate the fonio we had cooked the night before only with milk and sugar and then took off for Thiokoye. The ride was nice, took a few pics and have the entire route saved on my GPS now as well. En route we stopped at a small village where my host sister lives. Ive known that she lives there but never had stopped to say hi when going to Inglee. She was happy to see us and wanted us to stay for lunch. Have to love senegalese hospitality. After crossing the river to get to Thiokoye, Frank and I went our separate ways. From the junction of the main road back into Kédougou is about 30km. I made it about 10km and my tire went flat. Of course my patch kit is empty and the glue that i had was all dried up! So I have to empty out my bag on the side of the road to get the spare tube that i had brought with me. This was a good reminder as to why you need to check your bike fixing materials BEFORE you take off on a bike trip! Luckily i did have the spare and got the flat fixed pretty quick. I did get some great pics of all my crap spread out on the side of the road. A guy also decided to come by and just stare at me trying to fix my bike. Not really in the mood to talk to this guy as i was busy i very briefly greet him. He stands around a while and then asks how i broke my bike as he knew that white peoples bikes dont break! I just kinda looked at him and said we'll what does it look like im doing right now! It was kinda funny. When i did get back i got those seeds on some transport for dindefelo.

Arfang came and visited the master farmer site again. This time he was helping mark out where the fruit trees were going to go in the field. There were Walking Tree kids there at the same time and they were able to assist in the digging of the holes for the fruit trees. some of the trees will be inside the demo plots for this year but it should be ok. The demo plots were coming along as well at this point. The conservation corn plots were growing quite nicely and just needed weeding and a little maintenance. The bean plots that had been planted with my high tech system of a rope with knots tied into it, looked beautiful! The seeds that i had sent out with transport though, looked awful. Mumine planted those and didn't know what the large scale organization of the demo plots was. So he just planted willy nilly and fucked up the layout and spacing for the rows and alleys. That was really frustrating seeing that sitting literally right next to a absolutely beautiful plot of beans that was done correctly. We just need to roll with the punches, its not like i didn't do everything to get them to understand what we are doing there! And the kicker is that the other two guys there completely understand what we are doing, so that makes it more frustrating! Oh well, the rice demo is coming along, just need more time to have the rice get large enough to weed and thin.

I was actually just out there a week or so ago for weeding and thinning of the plants in the bean and corn plots. They all looked good and will be doing a great deal better after the weeding they received. Hassana was in Dindefelo for that, making sure that everything was going well before he takes off for the States. When he went into Kédougou to take off to Dakar and then on to America, i went with him to finalize the details for the Grafting Trainings that we will be doing in the region this year. I had to meet with Demba Samoura who is the trainer that we have used for the past 3 or 4 years for these types of trainings. We were basically finalizing the dates and locations that we are doing this year. All of these trainings will be taking place over the next two weeks.

I think it was around this time that I decided to get a haircut and was talked into/thought it a good idea to get a mohawk. So Eric helped me cut off most of my hair and i now have a mohawk that people here in Senegal love! I've even gotten free beer out of it. Well that might have more to do with the fact that Blandine is usually drunk when i'm bringing back empties, and i'm the only one who brings back empties! Either way she said it was cause of the hair, so I'm happy with the results! Oh and people call me David Villa now, its great. I've gone from David Beckham to Messi to David Villa now, thats the progression i go through! More importantly, all white people look the same!

Right after this, a few folk were looking to go on a little two day trip up to Sokone and i decided that i would tag along. Great little trip, I got to see a bunch of guys i hadnt seen in a year or so. Solomon, Amadou, Moses, and Ibrihima. Great guys and really nice. We camped out on the beach and just chilled out for the two days. I got to go fishing with those guys and we caught a good amount of fish that we then ended up cooking and eating. This was just a drop of the hat decision to go back to kaolack region but was a great time! We only had slight trouble with the transport. We ended up broken down 30 km outside of kédougou at 6am and were stuck till 8 and then didn't get rolling till 930. After that it was smooth sailing though. coming back we just had a slow 7place but made decent time.

I also helped CJ make the radio then as well. We did a plug for the grafting trainings and then did a new segment called Joueugol ballon Juma, or for the non pulaars out there, football fridays. It was basically CJ and I bullshitting about all things soccer for about 20min in pulaar. It was great! We ragged on El Haji Diouf for a good chunk of it and then gave a little run down of who has signed who this offseason and all the goings on in the world of football. We think we have a decent blueprint for future segments as well. We put that radio show on at 1730 and then around 1930 i went to get some dinner. I sat down at the spaghetti shack that I go to a lot and greeted everyone only to have some of the guys there immediately ask me if i was guy who did the radio that day! They loved it! They were saying how important it was to have stuff like that on the radio. Great little confidence boost that! My pulaar sucks but the way that i learned it was bullshitting with my brothers about soccer so this was basically how i learned my pulaar!! I think the segment will be making a reappearance in the near future!

I think that that actually catches me up to August! Im going to try and write more for the last few months ive got here and take as many pictures as i can. Need to try and savour these last few months left in senegal, as writing this has reminded me of all the little things you forget about as time moves on. So hopefully more entries and pictures will follow.

5 Months left.... part 3 (May and June)

2011-08-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

And heres May and June.....

May

The month of May was quite nice, I got to watch Manchester United wrap up the Premiership surrounded by fervent supporters of both Manchester and Chelsea, who all spoke english! I got to meet Meg's mother and sister on their visit to the dark continent which was nice. I love meeting peoples parents, shows where people get their little quirks and peccadilloes. I met up with Meg and her family in Tamba and immediately got in a car for Meg's village. It was interesting to see Meg with her family and to see their interactions with Meg's host family in Madina. Overall they are very nice and i think that they left a very good impression on Meg's village. I left the day before they did for Kolda so that I could catch the Manchester United Champions league semi final vs Schakle. This was the day before cinco de mayo.

I spent Cinco de Mayo in Kolda where they were having a party and then took off for the coast to the north where they also speak english. There was a handful of us that went to stay at the timeshare that Ibu's dad had let him use. The place was really nice and run by brits. The local staff was great and really liked having some white people that weren't afraid of them stay there! I was there for a few days in which the gardener there befriended us and showed us around Serekunda. Took us to a party on the beach where it was basically all guys chillaxing. Really chill but at the same time seemed very sketch. We stayed a little bit then went to the bars. Bar hoping there was a great time and the people that we were with made it all the more fun. I could bullshit with anyone on the street about english football and everyone was really nice.

I met up with Meg and her family in Dakar right after this as they were getting ready to head back to the states. They were staying at the hotel Al Baraka, which is a very nice hotel that Kev introduced me too a year or two ago. We were able to go to Chez Lutcha while they were here. Always a good meal! Also were able to go to the Pointe Des Almadies for clams and oysters. That is my favourite place to eat in senegal! The furthest point west in Africa and beautiful with the sun setting over the ocean. It also is always delicious! They were only in Dakar for a short while and seemed to have a nice time in general for their whole trip. Coming to Africa for the first time is always an experience.

When I got back to Kédougou it was almost time for the new volunteers to instal at their sites! Its amazing how fast time flies here sometimes. Chris came down to officially instal this group and attended the Bassari initiations with his son JD as well. I was able to go with Chris to Dindefelo so as to greet his family there and to look at the master farmer site and the garden in Segou. We saw both of those and then went to the waterfall where we saw a snake swimming in the water which was fun. We talked about the master farmer program and how Hassana was doing and what he could do better in the future. Overall it was a good visit and gave me an outlet for several of the frustrations that I was having with the project.

It was shortly after this that Arfang came down to do his master farmer tour. We mapped out where the different demo plots were going to be in the field and planned for the next visit where we would map out where the grafted mangos and citrus's would go. We decided on three different demo plots, one of beans and peanuts, one of rice and one of corn. The corn i feel was the hardest to set up as each individual plant has its own hole that was dug and had soil amendments applied to. This is called conservation farming, or farming gods way as the people at ECHO called it. We learned about it when Steve, Jared, Arfang and myself were at their networking seminar in Burkina Faso. The corn was set up as follows. 4 plots, 2 with the holes for each individual plant and 2 where they farm as they normally would next to the conservation farming demo. The rice was a demonstration of appropriate spacing within a plot. All the demos have that aspect incorporated into their plots though as well as the thinning of plants. With rice i guess its a bigger deal though. Normally locals just broadcast their rice seed so deliberately planting them at the correct spacing will show how productive rice can be. The beans were set up as follows. There were 4plots of beans interspaced with plots of peanuts that acted as buffers between the bean plots. This demo was all about the affect of natural pesticides vs chemical pesticides on the beans. one plot is the control with nothing on it, the second is with neem leaf pesticide, the third is yellow sticky traps, and the 4th and final is with chemical pesticides.

The Champions League Final. A very fun evening, alas with a bad outcome for me, but all in all fun. Rooney scoring to make it level at the half was a hell of an accomplishment and Man U were just played off the field in the second, Barça were just too good. At least we scored a goal this time though! We watched the game at this nice Bassasri bar that is right next to a big mosque in town and it was a lot of fun. The crowd was def pro Barça but that didn't stop me from drinking a bunch and yelling at the TV! I stayed and watch the end and the presentation of the trophy and then peaced out afterwards. Funnily enough i left the next morning to go meet up with meg, as she was getting ready to leave for home, so i missed out on all the ridicule that ALL my senegalese friends were going to throw at me because they all know that I support Manchester United. So that at least worked out!

June

June was not a work heavy month, as i was hanging out with meg before she took off for the states. So the first half of the month i spent in Dakar and Palmarin and then the second half back in Kédougou. I basically hung out with Meg while she was getting all her paperwork and COS stuff in order. I was able to get certain things in order that required my presence at the office and Dakar. We went around Dakar looking for last minute gifts for meg's family back in the states. I think she ended up buying 13 jars of jam or something for assorted family members! In all fairness the jam is quite good and is all local fruit that you cant get in the states. I think that she ended up getting several cow horn cups and some jewelry as well. All very nice things. Once Meg was done with med clearance and basically was all COSd, we took off for Palmarin for a few days of tooling around on the beach and mangroves.

The drive down was one of the rides that I would like to forget about! instead of a 7-place, we basically were in a station wagon that had 2 seats put in the back. I was siting on the gas tank and when they filled her up, lucky me, the gas leaked out of the joint of the tank. So that with the shitty seat i was sitting in, I wasn't in the best of moods. It was a nice place and the mangroves were the best part of Palmarin in my opinion. We got to kayak around the mangroves with a really nice guy that had worked with Chris Murphy while he was in Palmarin. We had lunch out in the mangroves with fresh oysters and fish. We passed where the oysters had been grown. They were from a project that a local women's group was doing. It basically was thin planks that were attached to the mangroves and running 6 inches above the water. Strings were hanging off the planks and the oysters grow onto the strings. It was pretty interesting and very delicious!

The ride back to Dakar was much better than the ride down. We had a 7-place pick us up basically from the campament. We made decent time back to Dakar and just kicked it in and around dakar for a day or two till meg had to fly out. While we were waiting for megs flight, we got to meet one of the peace corps fellows that was attending Emory. John was a PCV from Niger and was doing research on polio here in Senegal. We had pizza close to the office and then went out for beer at the Pointe des Almadies which was fun. Late afternoon there is just a fun time. We also ended up going there the night before meg left, after minor financial issues with the ATM. After resolving that we had a good time at the pointe. That walk from the pointe to the office has had many interesting events, from being walked into a dirt mound to falling into large unmarked holes next to the new US embassy, i can honestly say ill never forget anything about the pointe. Seeing Meg off at the airport was the hardest thing that ive had to do in this country. Knowing that I wont be able to see her for at a minimum of 6 months sucks. It was even better when the guards at the door wouldn't let me in and we had to say our goodbyes at the front door of the airport. Meg was crying, i was trying to argue with the guards to let me in, all in all it could have gone alot better, even if saying goodbye is always going to hurt. I decided to walk back to the office after that and also decided to took off for kédougou the next morning.

Well I didnt make it out that next day, and I only made it as far as Klck when I did leave as I had to clear up some details for the master farmer demo plot in Dindefelo. i also was trying to get the fuck out of Dakar, as i had been there for a long time by then. The fact that it was my birthday was really neither here nor there. Birthdays are great and all but outside of getting older and your family and friends that know you well, i dont really like being around people. Its fake is the problem. Perfect example and really the kicker that got me out of dakar, someone i know who doesnt like me, its reciprocal believe me, feigned surprise and delight at hearing it was my birthday and immediately wished me a happy birthday. fuck that. Id rather no one wish me a happy birthday than have fake happy birthdays. Hence only the people i really care about know when my birthday is. So i spent my birthday in Klck getting drunk with some of the new volunteers there and had a good time.

Back in Kédougou it was time to get to work on the dindefelo demo site. We started off with the conservation farming demo. I think that that was as far as we got for that as Hassana had a group of american kids coming in for a trip run by Walking Tree and I had to head back in to Kédougou for the 4th of july prep. I had to get the material needed for the 4k on the 4th ready. Running around turning in invitations and making sure speakers, tents, and chairs were all reserved. Its always a little stressful getting all the different ducks all lined up, but is very rewarding when everything starts going smoothly. CJ was the master of ceremony for this year and therefore delegated all the responsibilities for the party to us Kédougou volunteers. I helped with the pigs and the tents and chairs. For the race i had to make the invitations for the governor, police, red cross, mayor and just about anyone who was mildly official in the local government.

While all this was going on, Zach Swank out in Segou was having a work day/opening of his campement there. A good number of volunteers all came out there to help out and have a good time with Zach. I went out as well, but had to bike back in right after i was done planting the sisal plants on the property line on the top of the campement. The only reason that i was required to head back to Kédougou was because the guy that was helping me with the invitations and getting in touch with all the local government folk needed an official stamp on one of the invitations. Kinda annoying but what can you do. Went back, signed and stamped the invitation and then decided to just spend the night in Kédougou. Then it was time to come in and start cooking and getting ready for the 4th!

5 months left.... part 2 (March and April)

2011-08-01T04:37:00.000-07:00

Ok March and April now...

March
So after WAIST we all return to our respective sites and get back to work, well kinda! I had to get back to the agfo regional plan that we were running all over the region with my counterpart karumba. We were still doing the 2nd technical training of the regional strategy and our piece de resistance was approaching. Zach Swank in Segou had just recently found one of the most complete gardens that i've ever seen in my time here in Senegal, just about a stones throw from where he was living! It is owned by the bakers that live in Segou and has been there for about 15yrs +. It sits at the base of the hills that form the border to Guinea and has a natural spring that flows out of hillside that runs year round. They can stick a hose end into the pool that has formed and run it down to where they garden and have their tree nursery and basically have running water! Its amazing! And more than just an amazing set up, the two guys who own it are so motivated to try new technologies and techniques. They understand progress and embrace change with open arms. The son, as its a father and son team that run the show there, can read french and is the driving force behind this quest for new techniques and knowledge. They do basically what ever we tell them in their garden and because they do it exactly as we tell them, they have the best demonstration garden in the region i would say.

That was some background on the field and that all led us to want to have a open field day there to show off all their good work to interested farmers in the region. A NGO in the area was able to let us use their pick up truck for transport, so we had people from all over the dindefelo area at the open field day. We showed off their composting, spacing of plants, hexagonal planting, and their tree nursery there. It was a great meeting and we were able to have lunch as apart of the regional agfo plan budget. I think all in all we had about 60 folk show up from all the surrounding villages and even some people from Ibel! Karumba was on the ticket as well for a tree nursery demo on how to make a tree nursery, what seeds you use and for what. He is getting better and better at doing these types of presentations to people. Hannah, Will, Lil Jess, Zach, Frank, and myself were all there and concurred that it was a very successful field day.

Also in March, Oliver and Ankiths finally COS'd and Steve and myself came up Dakar to see them off. We had a going away party for them and had a great time. We all went out to get Chinese food. It was a pretty large group of people, and a good time. We ended up singing karaoke after adn it basically turned into me Aaron and Emily Scott left closing the place. We head back to the regional house in Dakar to help oliver and ankith pack up and get ready to head to the airport. Always sad to see friends leave and even weirder as it leaves only the year extensioners left in country from my stage.

After getting back from dakar, my work was split between organizing Karumba, trying to get new sites set up for the new stage of volunteers coming in, and working on the demonstration site in Dindefelo. The site set up in bandafassi wasnt terribly hard as there had been volunteers there before and it was basically letting the family know that a new volunteer was going to be coming soon. Organizing Karumba wasnt too hard either as almost all of the villages we were looking to work in had already had the first two visits and trainings. Things in Dindefelo were a little slow as usual, but that was due more to Hassana having things to do in Dakar and the people left there not being terribly invested in the project.

Also in march Aaron came down for a last visit to the region before he left for Peace Corps China. I was also trying to finish up Kevins Case de Santé in Kafori so I didn't get to see him as much as i would have liked. We did go to the Africa Bar a couple times with Ian and other kgou folk. It reminded me of when Aaron came down before WAIST and took off to Guinea and Mali. Same type of an affair only we didn't have to worry about opening the safe this time to get his passport. Before Aaron went on that trip our safe jammed up and would not open! so we had to get Kanté over with a saw of some sort to cut the lock out. Seeing aaron getting ready to leave was a strange time as well. And then seeing pics of him back in NY before taking off for China with Kevin, Ben, Thomas and a few other RPCVs was also quite weird! As I mentioned above, I was trying to finally finish up Kevin's Case de Sante in Kafori around this time as well. Thankfully it is all done now! I had to run out there and give the key to the PCR and then in turn to the Chef de Village who then gave it to the Dr. All in all a very simple affair but necessary. It was a weight lifted off my shoulders and I was thankful for the removal to say the least!

I was able to do a little reading as well, which made for a nice change. Born to Run was the first book that i picked up while sick for a few days. Its a great read and if youre even remotely interested in sports i think you'll like this book. It is the story of a ultra marathon race in Mexico while also simultaneously discussing the evolution of people into being able to walk and then to being able to run. One of my all time favorite books now. I also finished up the Game of Thrones series and am patiently awaiting the next book in the series (which is out now!!). This series is a very good series and the author does a good job of keeping the many twisting and turning plot lines from getting to confusing. I highly recommend both this series and Born to Run for anyone looking for a couple good reads.

April
In April I had a very mixed month. It started out great with me helping the guys at the garden in Segou with their tree nursery and talking about what they wanted to see in a perma-garden there. Then there was the Kolda regional fair in Kolda ville. Very interesting time, i saw alot of the produce that there is in Kolda and learned alot about the appropriate technologies the volunteers down there are using. Martin was there and was getting ready to move to Dakar for his third year extension. We shot the shit about the best way to make moonshine from a still. Always the conversations I have with Martin are very interesting. While in Kolda one of the volunteers there, I think it was Will, had just downloaded the first HBO Game of Thrones episode and i immediately was addicted. It sticks quite well with the books and i'm excited to see what they will do with it.

Right after the regional fair, I went back to Tambacounda and Kédougou to get the tree sacs that had arrived to kgou and the farmers that are working with us. That was fun trying to organize all the drop offs of the tree sacs and getting people starting their tree nurseries. It turned out that we didn't get the tree sacs that we ordered, THere are two sizes, one for fruit trees and one for live fencing, and we didn't get enough large fruit tree sacs. This was right before the new volunteers came for their volunteer visits. The rest of the month was kinda a blur and saw me in Kolda for the Sus Ag summit and then in Dindefelo as well as Fungolimbi. Ill leave it at that.

5 months left.... part 1 (January and February)

2011-07-31T12:06:00.000-07:00

So while there are only 5 months left in my peace corps service, i havent updated in the last 7 or so months. Whoops. Oh well, not sure if i can really give a recap of what all has gone on in that time period but ill give it a try in installments of 2 months!

January
So lets start at January then. We had our regional retreat in mako at the beginning of the month where we talked about regional strategy and all the projects everyone had going on. I was able to present the idea that Ian Kate and myself had come up with regarding the regional agroforestry strategy. The basic idea is for a network of farmers throughout the region that act as relais for information sharing and demonstration fields. I think that it could have a interesting affect on the region in the cataloging of work partners and retention of institutional knowledge. We'll see how it has faired after this first pepinere season.

We also had the Ambasadpr visit the region during january to inspect some of the US government funded projects that are present here in the community. As it happened, Hassana was having a baptism for his baby girl at the same time as the ambassadors visit. With Hassanas father being the director of Peace Corps Senegal and a good friend of Mrs. Bernicats, Chris invited her to attend. It was an interesting affair, TV cameras filmed the whole event with Mrs. Bernicats entourage running her time meticulously, or at least trying to in the face of typical african delays. A few days later when she was about done with her trip, she invited a few of the volunteers to dinner with her at the Bedik, the nice hotel she was staying at. Dinner was nice, Mrs. Bernicat is a very down to earth person and very friendly. She even stopped by the night after that before she left to see the Peace Corps house and to attend one of the pizza nights that David threw at his house behind the CTC.

Megs came to visit toward the end of the month as well. We biked to Segou and Dindefelo, spending a few days out there. I was called back to Kédougou to meet with an Oromine guy (Oromine is one of the big gold mining companies that operates in the area around Sabodala in the north of the region). He has a interesting plan to reforest some of the areas that are going to be disturbed by the mining. It is an interesting plan and my counterpart from Trees for the Future was assisting them in the creation of a large scale tree nursery for their reforestation efforts.

February

In February, I was able to move around the region a little bit more than I usually do. I was able to go out to Salemata and kick it with steve, Ian, and tatiana for a day in Salemata. Ian and Steve were having a bunch of stuff delivered out to their sites via camion, so i decided to hop in and roll out with them. It was just Ian, myself, a guy from Ians village we picked up along the way and the driver al the way to Diarra Pont about 60 odd km away. We dropped off Ians stuff in Diarra Pont and met up with Steve there. From there we all rolled out to Steve's site of Kirkeressi to drop off Steve's stuff. We got into Kirkeressi after dark and we were all ready to go to bed. The next day we ended up drinking a lot, starting off with a bottle of gin in village before coming in to see the lummo (Senegalese market days). While sitting in one of the campament in town, Chez Gilberts, we enjoyed some lovely 'Le Pichet" wine. While there, two french tourists came in and had lunch. They showed up in this little Peugeot thing that looked way out of place in Salemata. They told us that they were going to Ethiolo and we all kinda looked at each other and then told them that they wouldnt be able to make it there in that car. They said they were going to try anyway. I remember driving out there for Tatiana's instal and how crazy the ride was! Sliding all over the place, really steep hills with not much of a road going up it. All that being in a Peace Corps land cruiser! No chance that thing was getting out there! We stayed there till evening time and Tatiana took off to go back to Ethiolo. Ian Steve and I had a very interesting but very delicious dinner at Chez Gilberts. I can now boast of having eaten porcupine! We had it with a nice onion sauce and spaghetti. Ian and I had a fun night time blast back to Diarra Pont after having drank all day and eaten a delicious dinner. It was a lot of fun if not really tiring!

Waking up in Diarra Pont and listening to Fac Alliance on Ians casset player as we made a avacado tree nursery in his back yard was pretty fun! Fac Alliance is a band from Guinea that sings in Pulaar, so all the vilages in Kédougou that speak Pulaar, love it. When we were heading to the edge of the village to head off for teh rest of out day, Ian stopped by to great one of his work partners. We arrive in the compound and say "As-Salamu Alaykum" to no response. The guys son also comes into the compound and tells us that his dad is in the back yard of his hut with his wife. We go back there and he is hunched over cutting something up. Ian and I greet him and his wife, seeing that he is cutting up some kind of goat. Ian and Momadou talk a little and then Momadou gives Ian a bunch of this meat. The description of the meat is as 'mbaywa ladde' which means sheep of the forest. So to us white people, that means bushbuck. We both kinda look at each other and then decide to go back to Ians hut. We cut up the meat and then marinate it in honey and cut up onions that Ian had in his hut. We then finally took off for the rest of our day.

After leaving Ian and I went to check out a site that the volunteers in the area thought might make a good new site for a volunteer. It was not too far from Ians site but it did look quite nice! Picturesque village sitting on the lower slope on the eat side of a beautiful little valley with a seasonal stream in the middle of the little valley.. Evidently there is a guy there that would make a great counterpart for a volunteer as well. Evidently the guy is a rockstar when it comes to learning new techniques and is really motivated to go forward. Only bad part is two fold, there was a problem with the water situation in that most of the wells in town went dry by the end of the dry season. Second part is that the rockstar counterpart has had some horrible luck with just about everything. Children getting sick, family members dying, just problem after problem. We went and checked out the gardening area next to the stream bed and saw the types of vegetables that they were growing. When we went to leave, the chef de village gave us a small bag of onions that the women's group had produced from the garden.

After checking out that site, Ian and I then went to Tatiana's site of Ethiolo. Ian was helping Tatiana and her village with a reforestation project for the community forest that sits on the hills next to the Basari's village. It was a fun morning. We ended up with several hundred tree sacs filled and two large bare root beds created. It was a very nice fenced in garden where we made the tree nurseries. It was the first time i had been to Ethiolo for a extended period of time in almost 2years! Its an interesting town because they are so used to white people. It makes for an interesting atmosphere. And then they are Basari and therefore christian and drink. It makes for a very fun time.

When I got back into Kédougou with Ian, I had to get in touch with my counterpart about the upcoming Trees for the Future/Peace Corps agroforestry informational tourney. Before we came in, Ian and I had planned on going out to check out a artisanal mining camp that isn't too far away from his site, but Ian hurt his hand and we had to go in to have that checked out. The tourney with Karumba was the first of three installments where Karumba came out and instructed. It was the start of the Kédougou regional agroforestry plan. The first was a informational meeting in villages where volunteers were located, where all the different agroforestry technologies are being explained. Overall the first part of the program was quite a success. A great deal of people were in attendance and many said they would come back for the technical installment later in the month

The second leg of the plan was for tree nursery creation. Karumba went around and held demonstrations on how to make a tree nursery and how to properly pretreat the seeds. Overall there were less people at this second meeting as the idea was to wean off the people that weren't really interested in the project. We even held a few seed collecting days in different areas of the region. I have a weird eye these days when it comes to IDing trees while i'm out and about on my bike. It only took 3 years to acquire but now im pretty good at IDing the trees that we use! I had been noticing some of the trees that we use the most in live fencing and other agroforestry technologies around and decided to start mapping them out and make a plan for seed collection. We ended up having two big seed collection days, one out by Franks site for Acacia nilotica and then one out near KC's site for Acacia senegal. Frank and bunch of the guys who were going to be creating pepineres this year came out and helped us collect the seeds in mbanding. It was a good time and we collected lots of seed pods at both the collection days.

Towards the end of the month, we had several things going on inside of Peace Corps Senegal. There was the Agroforestry summit in Thies plus WAIST and I believe also a all volunteer conference. The Ag/Fo summit was wonderfully placed to straddle my one year anniversary with meg and a agfo summit was really the last place i was looking to be for that! Alas I had to present the kédougou regional agroforesry plan to the assembled volunteers and then left for Dakar afterwards! Before leaving I had to sort out the tree sac order that the region of kédougou put together for the coming tree nursery season. There was a few issues with the collaboration with trees for the future and Peace Corps just buying them all the stuff they needed for their projects. While the trees for the future program here in senegal is very intertwined with the Peace Corps program, this still left a bad feeling in several peoples mouths. Everything was resolved though and all our tree sacs were ordered.

In Dakar Meg and I went out to the french cultural center for valentines day and all of our other usual haunts. Between nice cream, the point de almadies, and chez lucha, we ate very well and had a very good time. As WASIT was happening then as well we were able to stay at our home stay with two very nice friends of the PCMO Dr. Ullie. They were a Dutch and German couple that work for the german development agency. Very nice people and very hospitable. Now, what to say about WASIT. For those of you who dont know what WAIST is, it stands for West African Invitational Softball Tournament. Basically its a release valve for all volunteers to go up to dakar and have a good time with all the other volunteers in the country as well as the other neighboring Peace Corps countries. It turns into a big shit show and is an absolute blast! Kegougou always plays with the region to the north of us as we are both sparsely populated with volunteers. We always don a uniform/costume that is ridiculous and this year was no exception! We were Peace 'Cops and Robbers'. It was a blast. Meg and I went trawling through the fukiji for a costume for me and came up trumps! I found a cabbie hat that said fashion police on it and from there took the Cop angle to that of a Lt. Dangle fashion cop type person. It was alot of fun. Meg was Yoda as Kolda was Space Corps, anything to do with star wars and movies like that. Somehow i ended up being the captain for the team, i think because no one else wanted to do it! So i got to 'pick' our roster, which basically consisted of before the game starting, forfeiting and then yelling out random names for random positions on the field. It was a riotously good time. Cape Verde and Mali PCV's made the games we played against them a blast as well.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, of the tree days of WAIST, i think Meg and I only made it out in the evening once! I ended up drinking too much and passing out to recover and rally only to pass out for 4 hours! by that time we just stayed in! The one night that we did go out, we had dinner with our home stay family which was very nice and we learned a little about their family. After dinner we went to the american club where the event for the evening was being held. It was a good time and most of the guys from my stage ended up getting thrown into the pool. That sounds nice and all, but it was fucken cold! OK so not american cold, but senegal cold WITH a sea breeze. So i had to borrow mika's spare pants and shirt that he happened to have with him. Hes kinda a small guy and i was very surprised that I could wear his clothes!

So thats the update for January and February minus my x-mas and new years trip. Im holding the notes from that so i WILL write that up soon. Now onto March and April....

Delicious Refreshing Hot Water and Mango Flowers

2010-12-20T08:01:00.000-08:00

Back in Senegal! Its been a while since I was here but its nice to be back. I just got back from a top working training that another volunteer hosted out by his village this morning. Both the mango flowers and refreshing hot water came into play on this ride out and back.

The training was in Mbanding which is about 30km away from Kedougou next to Ibel. what we were teaching was the technique of top working. What that means, is basically lopping all of the branches off a large developed mango tree or any number of other fruit trees during the dry season with the aim to graft a more desirable scion onto the new sprouts that will then grow out of where the large branches were later in the year. Since you cant graft onto anything much bigger than a thick pencil, this is the only way to introduce a desired scion onto a the large tree without grafting hundreds of if not thousands of branches.

That is basically what grafting is in a nutshell. You usually graft young trees, as they are no thicker than a thick pencil, with scions from a tree that has larger fruit, is more hardy in terms of resistance to disease, or has some other desirable trait that your current tree lacks. You make a small diagonal cut through all the layers of tissue of the mango branch and insert the scion and then wrap up the whole thing with plastic and wait for the scion to take and sprout! Thats grafting in a nut shell in its simplest form, the tongue and groove method.

So basically you lop off all the large branches and wait! We covered the lopping and pruning aspects of the equation today with a group of farmers who had previously attended one of the grafting trainings that we host every year. The idea being that we are training up a group of so to speak 'advanced' tree farmers to be resources for the farmers in the region without the input of Peace Corps. Have to have an exit strategy right! In that vein we have been using locals as the facilitators for most of the trainings that weve been hosting. Its one thing hearing how to do something technical from a random white guy thats been in africa a fraction of the local farmers life time and a completely different thing to hear it from another local that is an expert in the field. Thats all mental, im not even going to start with how much easier it is for Karumba, our trainer, to explain something in one of his native tongues! Lets just say my pulaar leaves alot to be desired!

We had about 8-10 farmers at the training and most had worked with Peace Corps in some capacity in the past. Most already knew how to graft, plant fruit trees, and manage an orchard. They came from about 5 different villages from around the area and were all very enthusiastic for the training. We started off with a basic pruning demonstration as most local farmers have this extreme dislike of cutting off branches from their trees! Its because they see that as a potential source of fruit even though its competing with the tree as a whole and in the end weakening the fruit output.

After this we moved onto the actual top working. The reason we started with the pruning is that even while we were doing the top working it was necessary to prune down the trees to the appropriate size and number of main branches. Then we instructed them on how to correctly lop off the branches so the cut wasn't open to the sun. All in all it didnt take that long and we were able to practice a couple times with Karumba Frank and myself helping and then a couple times with the participants doing it by themselves.

While the participants were doing the analyzing and lopping by themselves, Karumba, Frank and myself were able to tour through the field we were having the training in. It was a great field! Its owned by a guy called Mangajan Diallo. Mangajan is one of the true remarkable cases for a Peace Corps volunteer to come across. He is soooo ready to do whatever you tell him in regards to techniques and new ways of farming or managing his trees. It was in another one of his fields that we had the grafting training earlier this year for this area of Kedougou. Most folk would look aghast at the suggestion of cutting off lots of branches from their fruit trees, almost as if you had asked them to give up their first born child! Its truly bizarre and wonderful that he is so willing to do the right things in regards to managing his orchard. While he has lots of work left to turn his field into a beautiful demonstration field, this particular gentleman i have complete faith in!

After touring his field, and with the participants having finished up their solo lopping, we all sat back down under the four large mango trees that create an almost cave like feel to discuss what all we had learned today. One of the farmers from mbanding gave a great summary of what all we had talked about and how it should be implemented in his field. After this Karumba, whos main work is with planting living fences, gave his boilerplate talk on live fencing adn how if your field isnt well protected all that hard work you just put in for grafting or plowing or whatever you do in your field is for nothing. There was a few guys there who are working with Karumba and I on live fencing and chimed in echoing what Karumba had said. Thats another part of Senegalese meetings, theres lots of echoing. Everyone has to throw their 2cents in even if it agreeing and repeating what the guy before them has said! It gets old but this time wasnt terribly bad.

Before we closed out the session Frank and I spoke a bit about what we were trying to accomplish with the training. Our goal was to create a network of advanced tree farmers in the region that act as local relais for tree work in their particular sub region or zone. We are trying to compile lists of advanced farmers throughout the region and keep them on record in the regional capital at the Peace Corps house for future volunteers to utilize. We also talked about how we have come up with a yearly schedule that has all the different seminars and trainings we would like to host in conjunction with these advanced farmers. Top working and pruning was the first of year and goes from seed collection to tree nursery creation all the way to out planting and plant protection. Everyone seemed interested and only time will tell how well our new approach to tree work in the region will pan out!

After this it was getting towards the hot part of the day and i had to get going as I had biked out from Kedougou in the morning and didn't fancy slogging through the midday heat to get back. We all say our goodbyes and go our separate ways. Franks village was only a few kilometeres away so he didn't have terribly far to go and most the farmers were in the same boat. I was the only one with a relatively long distance to go. I take off and immediately realize that theres no way I wont be biking through the hottest part of the day and will just have to bite the bullet about that. I had to stop a couple times along the way as I had noticed some thorny trees that I wanted to get pictures of as i thought they would be great for live fencing. As it turns out, 2 of the 5 species that I spotted on the way out I knew pretty much on site and the others i have a pretty good idea what they were! What that means is that there are literally hundreds of these trees along the road and a plethora of seed sources for us.

Finding the trees was a great mood booster for a very hot bike ride. And here is where the title comes from! I had about 2/3rds a liter and a quarter bottle of water left for the ride and it was cooked by the time I was ready to drink it! While being in america, you forget about that. Water gets hot fast while your'e biking along, and by the time im usually ready to drink it just doesn't matter! Hot water is water! Its really weird drinking down hot water in the blazing sun but you need fluids. So hence delicious refreshing hot water!

The second part of the title comes from the fact that lots of the mango trees here are starting to flower. Now the mango flower isn't really a flower in the sense of a rose or dog wood bloom or something like that you might. The blooms are rather odd looking. Almost tentacle like. The best part about them is the smell! While biking through a couple villages, the road is lined with mango trees and with most in bloom, you end up getting a blast of fruity perfume as you ride under their overstretched arms. So not only do you get to ride in shade, its wonderful smelling shade! You don't even notice the little children yelling toubob give me a present.

That bring us up to the right now, what else is going on in my life at the moment........? Well i was out in Dindefelo to check up on my project there and to see what all need to happen to get things running smoothly there. Looking to get the well digger going at the well again and blasting through the rock thats blocking the second well with a jackhammer that someone in town has. Basins and garden beds are the next step after that, so im looking to get those couple things going so my work there can begin in earnest. Thats the project I extended to work on after all!

I'm biking out to Kafori tomorrow to check out the progress with Kevin's case de santé. I had a meeting with the mason who that is in charge of the work and he said that everything was about done, just need one of the last installments of cash to get more materials. But ill be meeting with the mason and the president of the community rural tomorrow while im out there to hash out whats left and when it'll be done. So thats potentially exciting that that project could be done soon.

So thats about all I have for now. Im off to Kolda for xmas and the new year. I'll have more for you all than.

Post en route...

2010-11-28T23:16:00.001-08:00

new post coming soon...

Update thats loooong

2010-11-28T22:16:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know, been a long time. What can I say, Ill try my best to stay on top of this. Hey I think that the time lapse between this and the last post was less than the last lapse! So thats an improvement right? So what have I been up to. In the words of Matt McLaughlin, a little of this and a little of that. He has also left during this period of time. So it looks like the last entry was in may, so ill kick in around the start of June.

June - So June was a interesting month cause i was back in the States for my friends wedding for about a week and then it was my birthday right after that. So all in all I didn't spend that much time in Senegal working. I spent my 25th b-day on the beach with Meg. Great time and I look forward to having the opportunity to go back sometime. When I did end up back in Kédougou, it was still tree nursery season and constant check up was needed for the farmers I was working with.

This included the Master Farmer Site ive been working on with Hassana Diallo in Dindefello. I think by this point in time we had most of the fencing up? I cant remember when we finally got all the fencing material 'officially' done.

As always all of the travel I was doing inside Kédougou was via bike. Im getting pretty good at blasting out to Dindefello and Kafori. Its a great way to relax and get away from pretty much everything! No major problems with the bikes, both the house bikes and my own. Ive been way more lax about working on house bikes recently as we are lacking the parts needed to really be efficient in keeping them up and running. Alot of the problems stem from the rear cassettes being worn out or the rear derailleur being worn out or just the whole chain derailleur cassette system being all out of whack. Needless to say when im not there to fiddle around with the bikes when the desire takes me, they all go to shit.

July - So July was more interesting from a readers standpoint. We had the 4th of July part in Kgou, the 4th of July 4k run, getting the grafting trainings set up, helping kev pass along his Case de Santé project in Kafori to me, Kevs going away do, and then Joe the Bike Guy coming down for a bike fixing tourny.

Every year the region of Kédougou hosts the 4th of July party for all the volunteers in the country. This year was no exception! We had alot of work to do to get everything ready at the regional house. building corn hole sets, beer pong tables, organizing the tents, sound system, food, booze, everything! Its a huge undertaking as the person in charge has to delegate alot of jobs out. I was def NOT that person! I helped out where needed and then had to organize the 2nd annual 4k on the 4th run! Thomas and I came up with this idea last year and felt that it turned out really well. Because of last years success we decided to get it going again! The race was organized with the help of the local sports minister, a guy by the name of Fofana. Really nice guy and for the past two years has been very helpful in setting things up, getting in touch with all the appropriate powers that be, and all around good guy. The race was a success, some of us had to get there early to set up the tent that we rent for the party. We use it at the start of the race for shade and once the race is over take it back to the regional house and set it up there. So we have to set that up and then get the sound board, that again we take to the house for the party there, all hocked up as well. We play music for the race, which isnt very long, and then give out the prize for the winner. Once all that was set up we marshaled everyone who was participating, that being some PCV's, the local military, and the police and fire departments. For the last two years all three groups have kicked the crap out of us! Its all good fun though and the exposure that Peace Corps gets is a good little PR exercise.

While its a great race, the past two years weve had problems with people cheating. Its really funny because there is a police car that runs with the leaders. Both years weve had people cut the course as its just a big loop of the two main roads into town. There are lots of cross streets that cut through that all the participants know about. so they cut a 1/3rd of the course off and pop out where the lead pack is. This pisses them off and it generally creates a little push fest with tripping involved. Its really short and generally doesnt last that long cause everyone knows they cheated and they kinda ignore them. Slight blemish on the race but we think weve got a solution for next year!

After the 4th festivities, that were great. It was back to work in a sense. I was still trying to get everything working with the Master farmer demo site. But Hassana was working with an American group called walking tree at the time, so the students who were participating in that group helped out with the planting of live fencing along the fence line of the demonstration field. Walking Tree is the group and they take American High School students to different countries around the world to experience different cultures by participating in the local community or something like that. They helped out and it was very much appreciated. The species they helped plant were the baby Agave sisalana plants and the Ziziphus mauritiana plants. This was just one of the sites i was working at during the planting season. I was also working with my counterparts nursery creation initiative in several other villages around the region. The best of these being Syllacounda where we now have a badass demonstration field and very motivated farmers! We also now have a PCV there, which was really lucky and explain how that happened a little later.

Also of importance in my work from July was the passing of my buddy Kevins Case de Santé project on to my work load. He was getting ready to finish up his service and move on to Cote d'Ivoire for his next job, but his project was just getting ready to start. We had to meet with the President of the Rural Community (the PCR for short) and the mason to get everyone on the same playing field for the details for the project. We got together at the PCRs house in Kédougou and discussed all the details of the plan. It was good to meet with the PCR to create a good contact in the area. It was really good to get that out of the way as it was one of the last things that Kevin was working on hashing out the details of before he left. We threw Kevin a going away party around this time as well. It was really fun, playing beer pong, going to the bon coin, and just generally being ridiculous with Kevin and Aaron. I think this was the same night that some study abroad girls who lived in Saraya were in town getting ready to leave as well. Great night, and weird in that it marked the departure of Kevin from Kédougou.

The last thing that I got up to in July was the Bike repair mans tourny around senegal that i helped out with. He came to our region to try and fix up the house bikes at it was the rainy season and the bikes were taking a beating in the elements. So i basically helped hi for two days fixing up the bikes, and then we took off to the neighboring region for the same thing. I helped out there as well and had a great time doing it. Something about fixing bikes i like and its very enjoyable. After we get done eith that i was lucky enough to snag a free ride up to Dakar for our Close of Service conference, which happened in the beginning of August.

August - At the beginning of August, there was a number of things going on that required running up to Dakar and all around. Like I mentioned before, i got a free ride up to Dakar for the COS conference. Etienne was in Kolda checking out the security situation at a volunteers site. There had been some robberies by bandits in the area and a potentially sever risk to the volunteers safety. Shames has since then moved out of his site and lives in a village 100 odd km away. Etienne was only there for a day and then headed back with myself and a few other volunteers. There was also a training for people who were extending their service. So i went to both of those as i was getting ready to end my first two years of service but was also extending! Both of the meetings were nice, it was great to see a lot of the folks who came into Senegal in the same group as me before they finished up and went home. the 3rd year meeting was all about getting the different regions working together and just general synergy promotion. All helpful stuff.

Also in August, we started getting ready for the start of our annual Grafting Trainings throughout the region. For this we had to go around and find suitable demonstration sites for the trainings that we will be putting on. Between, Kate Carroll, Ian Hartman, and several other volunteers, we organized a great tourny with our trainer Demba. We ended up having the grafting sessions in Syllacounda, Khosontto, Salemata, Mbanding, Dindefelo, Bembou, and Tjibedji if memory serves me correctly. They all went smoothly and all the participants learned alot. By the end of the training the participant was able to demonstrate their newly acquired skill in actual grafting of a young mango. Tied into this training was my counterparts participation with the training. He also knows the different techniques for grafting and also works in with other agroforestry technologies. He was able to talk about his work with Trees for The Future that has participants all over the region, so all in all it was a nice Ag/Fo session for the people there.

September - In September we had a bunch of stuff going on in the region. We had the Summer Camp thats been put on the past two years by Peace Corps and the local youth organization, my trip to Burkina Fasso to check out the ECHO networking forum with some other volunteers, and the set up of the new volunteers sites. The new volunteers also came on their demystification visit. The site set up was probably the hardest of the things i was helping out with. It just required getting materials out to sites so the shower areas could be built and things like dealing with the families or masons that were in charge of getting all the work done for the volunteers on time. In the end we ended up a little short on some of the materials, i mean i didn't have a hut when i was dropped off at site so i see where we ended up as a pretty big step up!

While the new volunteers were on their demyst visit, i was trying get my passport and the paperwork for my trip to Burkina Faso up to Dakar so they could get my visa. I get a call when i'm out in one of the villages showing a volunteer around saying i need to get back to kgou really fast so that I can email a form to them. I hop on my bike and blast the 15km back into kgou just to find out that they really didnt need the paper work after all and i just waisted all that effort for nothing. Great times. Luckily my counterpart was out in this village with the new volunteer and the other volunteer from the area so the newbie got to see plenty of the village.

Right after this I took off for Dakar and then Burkina Faso. The group that was going was made up of a friend of mine from the kgou region Sully, another volunteer from my group that lives in Kaolack, and a PC tech trainer. It was really fun, they gave us per diem and took care of the travel there. The forum was quite interesting and yielded some intersting ideas for projects as well as being a good networking tool. They talked about different farming technologies, bio gas digesters, seed saving techniques, and many different presentations on the different trees that are helpful in agroforestry projects in the Sahel. We also met the Peace Corps country director for Burkina Faso who happened to be a volunteer in Kédougou back in the late 80's early 90's. It was very interesting and there were also volunteers there from Togo, Mali, and Burkina Faso.

When we got back, the summer camp was getting ready to start and I was helping out with the gardening and tree nursery sections of the camp. It was my counterpart Karumba and myself leading sessions on grafting, gardening, tree nursery creation and maintenance, out planting, and a few other agroforestry technologies. My counterpart is extremely good at working in this type of setting. He has been working with Peace Corps for about 10yrs and knows everything we were training the kids in great detail.

October - After the summer camp I took a little bike trip in Kaolack with two friends, Sarah and Jason, to the coast in one of the prettiest areas of the country. Sarah and myself took a 7place to Kaolack and Jason did the same only starting from his region of Kolda. We started from Kolda and biked down to the coast about 100km away. We spent a couple days there relaxing and then took 7places out as we were all tired from the ride in! I look forward to going back there as it was some of the nicest beaches ive seen in this country. After we got back it was time to make sure that the Case de Santé was following plan. We hit a snag with it as the rainy season had made the road un passable and impossible to get the materials out to the site to build it. Luckily right before i left to come back here the road dried out enough to get the supplies out there and start work.

After this we had the new volunteers instal and come down to Kédougou to go to their sites. I was able to go with the instal team for a couple of the volunteers as i had helped set up the sites. All the instals went well. I was able to go to the ones out in Salemata and the ones out in Fungolimbi area. Getting out to Ethilo, the village next to Salemata was a crazy drive though! Boubou, the driver, definitely proved his worth on the way out there. We were out there for one instillation and then were off to instal another volunteer on the other side of the region. We got to drive up to Fungolimbi to meet the important governmental officials there, Also a fun drive!

Once all this was over i was getting ready to head back to america. One of my good friends who had been my site mate for the last two years left. He was the last volunteer from our group of volunteers to leave. The only ones left were the ones that were extending for 6months or a year. The dynamics of the group that we have in Kédouguou and in the country has changed slightly but still remains great. I took off after this for america and vacation for a month.

......and now im in america! Ill be here till the beginning of next week i think. And then back to Senegal and 1 more year of Peace Corps. Ive taken the GRE's, checked out some grad school programs and weighed up some options that are presenting themselves. Ive also been able to go to some cyclones games and back to Miami to catch up with some old friends. Went to a concert in Hampton Virginia on Halloween. The String Cheese Incident were great and Sam Josh and I were able to drive up to DC the day before and at least witness the thousands of people on the washington mall for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colberts rally to restore sanity/evil. We werent that impressed with it as there was just loads of people there and it was hard to get close to the front where you could hear anything. The public transport we took into the city was crazy though. There were sooo many people doing the exact same thing as us. Parking in suburbia outside of DC and taking the train into town. So it was a huge pain in the ass to get tickets and catch a train. That ate up most of time really. Now im just getting ready to go back to Senegal which should happen soon. Maybe ill actually keep this thing up to date now! Doubt it.

Bike Rides and Relaxing since October

2010-05-06T07:05:00.000-07:00

Ok so heres the fun stuff i got up to in that time frame. For whatever reason blogger wont let me post photos now so go to facebook to see them....

also clarification, ok it looks like i wrote that last blog in march, but thats when i started it and then procrastinated for about a month until i actually finished it. continue reading...

-Kevin and I also attempted to start another massive bike trip at the end of oct, we were going to bike from kgou to kaolack, then south through The Gambia for a couple days and then continue on to kolda. it would have been 'Epic' in the words of a certain kolda volunteer, but my knee crapped out the first day. We tried to rest it up in Tamba, but it was still pissed at life so we just took public transport to Kaolack and rested there for a few days. Great time, spent halloween there. Had a blast with some folk we hadnt seen in quite some time and then continued on thinking my knee was all better. made it to our first stop in the gambia no prob and kicked it with some volunteers there for an evening. Very nice people and very hospitable. the next day when we took off again, knee said fuck you and we took a 7place to kolda. oddly enough, biking through the gambia, no hassel. As soon as you put those bikes on any type of public transport, wow, stopped at every stop and asked for the papers for the bikes.... ok let me explain something about bikes here. Think china, shit tons, and no one has papers for their bikes.... We have shnazy american bikes, therefore big fucken target on our backs. But as long as you are on the bike its no big deal as they think youre nuts for biking to Kolda from Kaolack. Anyway get to Kolda, kick it there for a couple days, get to see some cool people again. Catholic bar, brochets bar, terabite harddrive full of great tv and movies. Good time. After a couple days there we take off again with my knee feeling better. Kev and I make it about 2/3rds of the way to tamba and decide to just take public transport back to Kédougou. Fun trip but left me with a bum knee for the next 3 or 4 months.
Over the month of november i did a couple trips to different natural wonders here in the region. Over the course of two weeks i went to both the biggest waterfall in the region and a very interesting group of spires that is in the far east of the region. Both very fun trips, I went with Matt and Sheila to the spires and David Jen and one of jen's friends from america to inglee. Thats the waterfall to the west of Kédougou. Both good trips, great camp outs, and a good time with different groups of people. I took plenty of pictures of both trips so if you fancy a look, check out facebook.

After the Permaculture training i went to in November i went straight to Dakar to get ready to go back to america for xmas. That was a good time, like one big party for a week. Loads of people were going back to america for xmas so i got to see lots of people while hanging out waiting to go back. Great way to get ready to go back to america really. Dakar is alot better than kédougou as its much cooler there, a very nice break from kgou.
So December was america and most of you who are reading this prob know all about that trip.

Then back to Senegal at the beginning of january. I stayed in Dakar with Kevin and his brother for a couple days before heading back to Kgou. I got back just in time for the end of another mosquito net distribution in the arrondissement of Saraya. Didnt help with that but got back in time to hear all about it. It was interesting getting back to kédougou and not having all the luxuries that i had in america. My host family here was really happy to see me and it was almost like i was never really gone after a day or so. amazing how quickly that happens.

The next big thing that happened in country was the WAIST softball tournament in Dakar. This is the highlight of the year for a lot of people in as far as social get togethers go. The whole country is there in regards to volunteers because of the All Volunteer conference, and there are different teams from around west africa that come to play, so there are even more americans in dakar than normal. Its a good time fun for me as i got to meet some interesting folk who had been evacuated from Guinea and were in Benin now. They were so determined to come to WAIST and Ian, one of kédougou's guinean refugee volunteers, organized and refugee team for all the refugee volunteers who were evacuated from both Guinea and Mauritania. Yea Senegal is just this bastion of freedom and democracy as all of it neighbors fall into chaos, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Guinea, and The Gambia. just interesting to think about as a volunteer in a country pretty much surrounded by failed or failing states!
I stayed at the Dakar regional house this year instead of a home stay as no one was really staying there anyway and the people that were there were really cool. Thats how i ended up meeting the ex-Guinean, Benin volunteers. frank form kédougou stayed there as well and he's always a fun time to be around. The ride to our first game was great, frank and a couple friends from his stage were all in the car with me on the way. Richard had kinda woken up drunk and continued to drink and was so chatty with the cabbie, it was a great time. We stop at the bank on the way there and frank ends up finding some guinean pulaars selling phone credit on the street and immediately befriends them. He ends up in the guys hat trying to sell credit to cars in the parking lot of the bank. Classic.
The games were ok, like we did last year, we played to have a good time and be ridiculous. Our theme this year was Cavemen. So everyone was dressed up like that on the softball field. It was a good time and when we lost at the end, everyone was in such a good mood from all the drinking and screwing around i don't think anyone really remembered the score! We have 2 more games and its much the same for those two as well. i cant make it to the last 2 as im feeling really sick. I am able to make it to the big party that the Dakar region puts on which was a great time.
After that big party, its the playoffs and final for the tournament for those that were actually trying to play. Just kinda take it easy and go shopping with Sheila in the market in dakar and meet up with meg and colleen, a friend of megs who is a volunteer in Mali, for ice creme at the best ice cream place in Dakar, Nice Cream. Doesn't sound ubber cool, but when its that hot and you can never have ice cream, its really one of the highlights of the trips i take to Dakar! For dinner that night we go to the point of allmedies, which is the furthest point west in africa. They have great fresh seafood and a beautiful view of the ocean at sunset. We got a huge plate of clam/molusque type things that are really good. I get them every time i go there.
WAIST always leaves me a much more refreshed/recharged volunteer. Sheila and I head back to Kédougou the day after everything is done and have a nice ride back via Tamba. Sheila tells me about her adventure going to the spires and the subsequent bee attack on top of the spires. Its a good trip because we catch up a lot on stuff from when i was in america.
When i get back its the pepinere training for the villagers of Sintiou Roudji and Syllacounda, and then sheila's birthday. I ride out to tjibedji to bring sheila some food for a nice-ish bday dinner and hang out with her for the day. Her host sister and her talk me into staying for dinner and leaving the next morning early. It was a good dinner with plenty of meat and onions for everyone. Sheila's host mom was in charge of cooking or something so it turned out ok, not as good as if Dalanda(her host sister) had cooked it.
So the next morning, as i said i would, i took off at 530ish to get back to kédougou for my pepinere training. This ride was great as i got to take off in the dark and ride into the sunrise. Very pretty watching the change occur. I got to use the bike light that i bought in america to great effect as well which was very satisfying. My headlamp definitely helped out as well though. The morning time is very interesting time to be biking around as all the creatures are getting up and when you hit villages, all the people are still just stirring. Very nice ride with glowing eyes in the trees lighting up from my bike light. That was probe the best part of the trip. When i got back to Kédougou i told my host family that and they were a little taken aback that i had ridden in that early. It was really fun though and i got to see sheila on her birthday as well as participate in my pepinere trainings.
The pepinere trainings went well and when they were all done and taken care of, i took a little bike trip to visit my friend Meg in Kolda on her Birthday. I took the niokolo transport form kédougou to tamba in the morning and biked down to velingara to stay with another volunteer the day before and then on to megs site. It was a great ride minus the 50odd km of construction side roads i had to ride on before i got to a decent road! Lucky for me once i made it to the nice road, my tire swelled up and started to tear at the seams. I had to patch and re patch it several times before it held air. Evne in the end i ended up limping into Velingara having to stop every couple kilometers to pump up my tire. When i got there i immediately went to the market and bought a new tube! Make it out to Amber's site and crash the night there. Very nice family, Kevin and I stayed here when we biked to Kolda the last time. I take off the next morning and make good time getting to Madina Abdul. I stop in another volunteers site on the way in cause i like visiting people and seeing how they live in comparison.
I about rode past the turn off to Madina Abdul with meg sitting there waiting for me. I guess i kinda zone into the biking sometimes. Madina Abdul is a interesting village. It reminds me of Tougé in that it was very small. Meg's host family is very nice and hospitable as most senegalese people are. I mean they did immediately make fun of me for being a Diallo. They are Balde's which is kinda the joking cousin of the Diallo's. So basically ill call someone i meet with the last name Balde or Bah a thief and a liar as soon as i find out that they are a Balde or Bah. It works in reverse as well. If they find out im a Diallo they'll do the same. Yay african culture!
The next day we go up to the road to try and hitch a ride with a passing minicar type vehicle. Im assured that this never takes very long, but sure enough an hour and a half later were still sitting there. We make the call to bike the 40k into kola and try and flag down anyone that passes us. Oh yea no one passes us going the right direction either. Im happy to do the ride as it complete's my ride, tamba to kolda! Kolda is fun, we are able to kick it with a bunch of folk who are in town. Catholic bar, movies and relaxing are all we do. Kolda is a fun place.
In the end we spend 3 days or so there, and then head out with the Peace Corps car that is taking materials for a well project that meg has working in her village. We also take a bunch of material to another girl from my stage's site. So in the end i get to see 3 more people's site. Always a plus. After dropping meg and her well material off in her village i take off with Pape Djakaby, the Peace Corps all purpose man for the regions of Kolda Tamba and Kédougou, for Velingara and then on to Tamba with public transport. I take a 7place back to Kédougou the next day after staying in Tamba the night.
The next time i was on the road again was going up to Thies for a permaculture training before heading to Kolda for the Ag/Fo Summit. We got to hang out in the evenings in Thies at this great little bar right next to the training center. its called the catholic compound. Well thats what we call it cause its catholic woloof/sarere's that own the place. It was great hanging out with some folk i hadnt see in a while on the roof of this place drinking Gazelle's We also got to watch some of the NCAA tournament there as well because they had a projector.
After the training i took the Peace Corps car that was going back to Dakar to meet up with Meg and take the direct car down to Kolda for the ag/fo summit. The ride was very interesting as it left at like 2 in the morning so as to get to the Gambian border at first light. We definitely got there by first light. We were early, and ill always remember sleeping next to meg on the road by our 7place at the head of a long line of semi's and cars waiting to cross the Gambian border at first light. We were one of the first cars to cross the border and made it to the subsequent ferry crossing as one of the first cars there as well. I remembered the ferry crossing from when kevin and I had crossed there on our bike trip through the gambia. It was nice being able to hop back in a car and get to kolda at a decent time after crossing and not bike for two more days.
Kolda was fun for the ag/fo summit. Lots of cool people there and a great time hanging out after the sessions. We were frequently at the catholic bar in town as well as the riverside bar. My favorite was the riverside bar, it wasn't so much next to a river as a seasonal river that wasn't there but for lots of grass growing. very pretty none the less. The Kolda volunteers know how to put on a good show and i think everyone had a good time in-between and after sessions. I got a shirt called a leppe while there. Its white and basically has the sides cut off it and brings you luck. Its great for here as it has great ventilation!
While there i had a chance to chat with some of the Kolda volunteers about the possibility of a bike ride to Kédougou from Kolda for the 4th of July. We would start off from Kolda and shoot across the south side of the park to Salemata and then on to kédougou. It sounds like a great idea and should be fun if folk keep up their enthusiasm!
After the summit, we all took off back for site and a bunch of us from Tamba and Kgou rented out a 7place to take us. We ended up stopping in a big market town to buy peanut butter for people's family as it was really cheap and worth it. It sounds weird, but they use it in most of the cooking here and would set a family up quite nicely if they had a huge tube of it.
After the ag/fo summit, its kind of a busy time for ag/fo volunteer's as were putting together our tree nurseries or at least trying to organize them. for most of April its more of work related travel with a little waterfall trip sunk in at the end of the month. I do get out to Kevin's village on the 3rd for some seed collection. i had originally planned on going out and coming back in but since no one helped me with the collecting of the seeds it took way longer than i had originally though and had to go on to kevins for the night. It was something else biking with 2 huge saddle bags and 1 big duffle bag stuffed full of sisal plants. I get back to Kédougou the next day which happened to be the 4th of April, the Senegalese independence day. Big parade and carrying on all throughout the day.
We end up playing a basketball game versus the kédougou basketball club around the 4th as well which was really fun. They whooped the shit out of us in the first half and then they didn't score again in the second. We somehow managed to win the game! It was really fun.
The next fun little trip that i go on is with Aaron up to his site to check out a well that is being built for much cheaper then we were quoted by the GADEC guys. Aaron and i caught the Mini car up to saraya for our bikes and then biked out to Aaron's village faraba. We crashed there for the night after riding out in the dark. It was a fun ride, i again got to use my bike light to good effect. We take off for the site thats about 15-20odd km out of Aaron's village. We only got slightly turned around en route but it was a nice ride. The Basari guys were actually working rather diligently and seemed very knowledgeable about the well building process.
It wasn't till the ride out that i had bike problems. We were maybe 15km outside of Saraya when the quick release pin on the back wheel of my bike snapped at the threads. Bizarre but the 2nd time it has happened while here. So Aaron and I end up staying in this village for the next couple hours hopping to flag down a car and catch a ride back into Saraya. Of course that doesn't happen. 2 cars go by, the first of which i just didn't get to the road in time to flag down, and the second of which just ignored me and went 100m up the rd, and picked up some africans really quickly and took off again. French hunters suck in my opinion now.
So in the end i pay a guy in the town to carry me back into Saraya on the back of his Moto with my bike strapped on to his port-a-baggage. Very interesting ride back into town. Very hot and not very smooth. Because the bike is busted Aaron and i go to the police station to try and get help flagging down a car that would be able to take me back to kédougou. I end up hanging out there for a couple hours with the guards. Nice guys who thought that it was really funny that i had a Senegalese name and spoke pulaar. They were cool and ended up getting a big camion truck, like the one i took that flipped over in Guinea, to take me back to kédougou. Luckily for me the road here was a billion times nicer as they had just finished work on it and its for a new trans west african highway or something.
A couple weeks into April the new volunteers came for their demist visit. We got ready for them with a nice dinner of Nacho's and Pizza. I was kinda in charge of the Pizza and Hayes was in charge of the Nacho's. Both turned out really good. We made a bunch of Pizza's, barbecue chx pizza, Buffalo pizza, and the usual meat lovers and plain cheese with veggies. All really good thanks to Zach's blue cheese, barbecue sauce, and hot sauce. Hayes is becoming an expert at making home made nacho's. Making the chips with corn flour and deep frying them. So delicious! Throw on top of that really delicious Guacamole salsa beans and cheese. Youre in for a delicious meal! That and pizza knocked me out that night.
Its always cool to see a new group of volunteers roll into the regional house. I can remember when we did it. Quite a bit different now with the internet and power but its still an interesting experience as the regional house is set up more like a large senegalese compound with huts and large communal shade structures. Not unlike the training center in Thies, but still a little intimidating. We are getting about 6 or 7 new volunteers in the region. A mix of Malinke and Pulaar language groups and Environmental Education and Health sectors of volunteers. It was a good time enjoying the food and newbies.
After the new volunteers head back up to Thies for the rest of their training, i head out to this big waterfall that is 50odd km out to the west of Kédougou. I was planning on making a little trip out there a week after with some friends, but wanted to make sure that there was actually water flowing. I had heard from different people that it runs dry but no one had seen it dry themselves. So i hopped on my bike and took off for Inglee. Miserable ride, head wind the for pretty much all of the way there. Right when the head wind ended, the sun came out in force. Don't get me wrong the sun was there before, i just had a head wind cooling me off so i didn't notice! Crazy how that works sometimes. Anyway make it out to the falls around 11ish. Dry as a bone. Most of the pools that were below it were dry, and really no water was falling. I hike up to the pool directly underneath the main falls and eat a bean sandwich i brought with me. Fill up on water as i drank all of it on the way out and get ready to head out.
I took the north route to the falls via thokoye and decided to come back via the southern route. It was a interesting ride and i got to see the villages to the west of dindefello. It was neat but very very hot. I stopped in every village i came to and refilled on water. It is very pretty out there, very much like dindefello in that these villages are tucked up next to a plateau that leads up to Guinea. So you have great views of these sheer rock faces that basically lead up to Guinea. And again because of how close we were to dindefello, everywhere i stopped for water of breaks and talked to people, they all knew my host dad and greeted him and thought it was hilarious that i was so crazy as to do what i was doing in the heat of the day.
I kinda limp into Dindefello and buy a bunch of water that immediately sweats out. While im sitting catching my breath my deaf host uncle who i haven't seen in a week or so comes up to me to greet me. Again tells me im crazy for biking so much. Well uses hand gestures to tell me that. I buy a couple mango's and go greet his family and then head back to kédougou. I make it back to Kédougou around 3:30ish. So i still have the rest of the day to relax and drink cold water! All in all i ended up biking around 100km just for a dryad up waterfall! But im glad i did that rather than drag meg out there for a big let down.
My trip out to Segou's waterfall with meg and sheila followed this almost immediately. Since Inglee was out of the question, Segou made a nice second best. We bike out there early morning the day after meg got here. We made it out there in decent time and from sego followed another trail another 30min to the trail head that would take us to the waterfall. The hike to the falls was really nice as it followed the stream bed that the falls fed. it reminded me of the demise that Kevin and I went on with Steve Wood. There was even a nice swimming hole along the way which you were able to jump into from a raised stream bank. All very fun.
The falls themselves were a little bit of a let down. Im not a good judge as i now compare everything to the falls i saw in Guinea and to Inglee. Nothing can live up to that really. It was nice though, just no real swimming hole. We spend the afternoon there and make camp next to the falls.
We didn't really notice when we got there but i put a bag of trash down on the ground from our lunch. After an hour or so, it was crawling with ants. Again theyre ants, and they were going after trash that was a ways away from our camp site. We cook dinner, pesto pasta with meat and bread. Again we clean up our dinner quite well but there is still some onion peel and bread crumbs sitting around. just kinda sitting around the camp fire hanging out it starts to get dark. Meg goes to get something from her bag thats over by where the zip lock bag of trash is, and ants are just everywhere. Our sleeping area is a ways away from where the ants were so we don't think too much of it, but Meg gets bitten a little bit from this.
Again we think they will content themselves with going after our trash and as our sleeping area is a ways away from the campfire we'll be fine. Well we got bed and Sheila wakes us up because shes moving her sleeping area as the ants had found her. There were ants everywhere! Completely swarmed everything, our bags, the pot we cooked in, the Deet i brought, and the food bag we had. So this is about midnight when we realize were dealing with a problem that we need to deal with. We think about just moving further down the creek bed, but they found us when we were a ways away from the food, so we decide to dent all our stuff and hike out to the trail head. The de-anting sucked. They were everywhere!
The walk back to the trail head was interesting as well. We could see the small trail we followed in most of the time, but lost it every once and a while. That wasn't the bad part about it though. This area that the waterfall is in is home to chimps. Not monkeys or baboons, chimpanzees. We were walking through their territory at midnight with our lights and i don't think they really liked it. The creek bed sloped up on either side to steep hills and the chimps were up top looking down at us barking. We couldn't see them and didn't want to. we passed through two areas that had chimps before we were back to our bikes and the trail head.
Back at the trail head we thought our adventure was over and we would get a good nights rest all things considered. Well of course a flash thunderstorm comes up on us. This is the dry season so this is a little weird, ant it being the hot dry season, we had no tent. At first you think well its only gunna sprinkle a little bit, no worries. Then it keeps coming and getting a little harder and harder. We rig up a shitty little tent with the sheet that meg brought with her and sat under that trying unsuccessfully to stay dry. It made for the ride back being much more pleasant as it wasn't so hot and the sand on some of the road firmed up. Oh and on the way back my back wheel breaks 3 spokes! lots of things to talk about from this trip! All in all it was a fun trip and definitely a story! Meg took off the next morning with the Nokolo transport and back to Kolda.
After this little adventure and seeing pictures of myself, i felt it was time to loose the locks. A. i looked a little like girl, B. its way to hot to have that much hair on your head! So its back down to the really short for the time being.
Really the only biking for fun/ relaxing vie been doing these days is riding out to dindefello to drop off tree sac's or seeds and then spending the day out there with Hassana. That is great and i really enjoy it. We just sit around and talk about the things we want to accomplish with the pilot farm and what we miss in america or just shoot the shit. A bunch of my host family lives out there so i get to see a bunch of really nice folk that i don't get to see very often as well. As it turns out my deaf uncle is moving back to Dindefello as he is not happy in Kédougou. I mean he is from dindefello so he is really just going home.
I was out in kafori visiting Kevin 3 days ago now as he had asked me to bring him out some money and metal wire. It was a nice trip out there. Again got cooked on the way out there. the ride out to dindefello the day before was the complete opposite to this one. It was overcast and even sprinkled a little bit on the away to dindefello, this day it was not much wind, humid, and stinking hot! I was hurting when i rolled into Kafori. We just kinda kicked it for the day, hung out with some of the teachers at the school after lunch. Really cool guys, most of them are from the casamance and love it there. They really like kevin and i as we hang out with them and did a school garden for them. While we were talking to them, i told them i was thinking about visiting there and they all jumped to give me contacts of their families there for me to stay with. Senegal sometimes is really really hospitable. I think as you get further south it gets more and more like that.
Once i got back to Kédougou thomas had downloaded the new terry gillingham move, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Heath ledgers last movie. He died half way through the filming so they had to use johnny depp, jude law, and Colin farrell to stand in for the rest of the movie. Without a doubt one of the weirdest movies ive ever seen. interesting with the 4 actors playing heath ledgers part but really really weird.

Work I've Been Up to Since October

2010-03-30T10:42:00.000-07:00

So its been about 6 months since I last wrote. I decided to break it up into two entries, bike rides/relaxing and the work that I've been doing. here is the work that ive been doing.......

Oct- Did a couple more grafting trainings in the kédougou region with our grafting guy Demba Samoura, in Fungolimbi and Faraba. Great times, Demba is a rock

star when it comes to

grafting and getting folk interested in mango's and orchard work. Even though he doesnt speak french, hes a badass who speaks all the local languages which is more important id

say. Made some good contacts up in Fungolimbi as well as Faraba.

We received a new batch of volunteers in Kédougou near the end of the month. 5 new volunteers came down as well as 2 volunteers who had been evacuated from Mauritania. All really cool people and prob destined for bigger and better things than I.

The next event that i was involved in

was a training in permaculture that was held at the end of november in Thies. It was interesting, held by a former PCV from Tanzania or Mozambique. Basically promoting enriched permanent garden beds that utilize swales and berms to control the water. very interesting and be now have a demi permaculture garden here at the regional house that uses the sh

ower water to feed a intensive moringa bed. should be quite successful, and so far is doing quite well! The training itself was a good time, got to see a bunch of my friends that i hadnt really seen in quite some time. I was sick in the car on the way up from kaolack and was kinda feeling that the whole time i was there but the training was very interesting.

So once back in the swing of things, it was kinda just how it was before i left. Checking up on the farmers we had been working with and making sure they were ready for the coming tree nursery season.

Touching base with Sintiou Roudji villagers to check up on our farmers from last year and to organize the pepinere trainings that we were going to put on this tree nursery season. Set the dates for that for after WAIST(Wes

t African International Softball Tournament). We organized two trainings for the end of feb, one for the pulaars of Sintiou Roudji and Ibel and the other for the malinke folk from Syllacounda and around Kédougou.

So before WAIST, Thomas, who has been trying very hard to set up a waist sort in kedougou since hearing about the trash compost system that they have in Joal, decided to hold a waist sort. We did this

to test the amount of waist that households create as well as the percentage of the different categories of waist created. It was fun, i helped because i had attended the waist sort that was held in Thies after WAIST last year, and knew how to recognize the different categories. So Thomas and I got to play with trash for a morning with the guys that have started the trash collection service here in Kédougou. The results were much the same as they were in Thies and Joal. There is lots of organic waist that is being thrown away and that you probe could turn it into good compost.

After the waist sort Kevin and I made our way up to dakar for the All Volunteer C

onference that is held a few days before WAIST. It is an opportunity to for volunteers to showcase the projects that they are working on, as well as a forum to share sector specific information to interested parties from different sectors. For example you could sign up to go see a talk on health post creation, summer camp management, tree extension work, or on how to work with farmer federations. The conference was two days long and the second day was for demonstrations of different technologies that volunteers were implementing at their sites. These ranged from solar driers and bio gas generators, to giant cement water filters and hand pumps for wells. All very interesting stuff. Kevin was sick for most of this and WAIST so i hung out with him during most of the All Vol conference.

After WAIST, i get ready for the next pepinere training that Karumba and I are going to put on for the villagers of Sintiou Roudji and Syllacounda. Karumba and myself put these on at the end of February and i even did a interview with Karumba for the peace Corps radio program, the one that we have every monday, explaining, what Karumba's work is, What the organization that karumba works for, Trees for the Future, aims to accomplish, when the trainings were, and the hard parts of working in promoting tree work in the region of Kédougou.

The trainings were held in the format of a viewing of Karumba's demonstration orchard and all of the agroforestry technologies that were on display there. these range from contour planting with Leucaena and vert de vert to counter erosion, to live fencing with Sisal acacia nilotica and ziziphus mauritania to alley cropping with leucaena. The thought process that Karumba and I had in regard to the point of the trainings was that, with the wonderful demonstration site that Karumba has, people would more clearly understand these technologies by viewing what we explain. We felt that the work we did last year was hindered by relying on verbally conducting our main messages. By going individually to different farmers huts and explaining verbally the benefits, a lot was lost in translation. This type of development

work benefits greatly from a local who has already implemented the said technologies successfully and can show them off as a success. Just talking about it leaves a lot to the imagination for people who might not be able to envision more integrated sustainable technologies.

After viewing the orchard, we then set about the demonstration side of the training in getting the farmers to create a nursery with the tree sac's and materials we provided. We showed them the correct mixture of manure sand and soil as well as the importance of neem leaves and ash underneath the tree nursery to combat termites and any other pests that try to hurt the tree nursery. They did this very readily, all the while one of Karumba's friends is sitting near by cooking up tea for everyone to drink while working. No training is complete with out tea and cola nuts to drink and give out. After the tree sac's are full and in nursery, we show how to go about doing a semi direct nursery. This is for jatropha and since we promoted that last year as well, people are very interested in it. This is another type of live fence, just a non thorny one. In the end this method of nursery allows you to outplant a full plant that will have a much better chance of survival then if you direct seeded the fence line.

After we are done with all the learning and the cola nuts have been passed out by the oldest most respected person there, we head back to my house for lunch. Im very lucky in that

my house is very close to my counterparts field and that we can so these types of trainings very easily. My host family cooked up all the food i bought them for the trainings and made some great cheeb a yap which is wollof for meat and rice. The trainings were a big success as everyone puts in their orders for tree sac's and appears very energetic towards this years program. In the end we discussed forming communal pepineres for the 3 sites to simplify the watering and management process. We also talked about the possibility of getting funding from Trees For the Future for tools and materials.

We were actually very lucky in that Ethan, the former Kédougou Peace Corps Volunteer who is currently the coordinator for the West African Trees For the Future program, was very supportive and got us the funding for the trainings, communal pepineres, and materials. We were able to get each site a wheelbarrow, a couple shovels, crentin fencing, and a few water cans, plus close 30 thousand tree sac's for the coming season. It is great to have a viable source of funding that is fairly fast and reliable. Because of this the program for this year will be much larger in scale, with close to 40 thousand sacs out and some very motivated individuals involved.

After the trainings i was lucky enough to go to a training in Thies put on by a former Tanzanian Peace Corps Volunteer on permaculture. It was a very interesting training. It focusing on gardening and making permanent beds that you would never walk on that held very nutrient rich soil. It also incorporated berms and swales in and around the beds to control the flow of water. It encouraged planting of perennials into the berms to reinforce the permanent nature of the project. Very interesting and we put in something loosely based off of this in the regional house with a intensive moringa bed.

After the permaculture workshop and my trip to kolda in February, the region of Kédougou held its kinda annual Regional Retreat in the beginning of March. The Regional Retreat is a forum for everyone in the region to get together and discuss how to better work ensemble and to discuss projects we have ongoing. It also helps to plan out the coming year with projects that volunteers are going to need assistance with in terms of manpower. A good example of this is the mosquito net distribution as lots of volunteers had to help out with it. We also talked about the different technologies and secondary projects we have going on. Basically its anything and everything that you have done, are doing, or want to do. it lasted the weekend and was supposed to be kinda a team bonding event as well. It was held in the far west of the region in Salemata.

Almost immediately after the regional retreat on the second week of March, the hospital in Kédougou was holding another Eye Clinic like the one they held last year. It was for cataract surgery and eye glasses. It was the same team of Dr's who came last year plus a few others. Nice folk and doing good work. I was only there for a day of it or so as i left to go to another training in Thies for the pilot farmer program Peace Corps was starting with funding from USAID.

The pilot farm program is basically my boss's brain child. His idea was to have these farms strategically placed around the country with very motivated farmers demonstrating most of the main Ag and Ag/Fo technologies. The idea is to have these farmers well trained in why they are

doing this so that they can then in turn become a facilitator for that area in these technologies. They would host trainings throughout the year on the various techniques and technologies. Hassana's field in Dindefello was chosen for the project and makes for a great demo site as it fallow at the moment and is prime to be shaped how ever we want.

The program helps with funding for a viable water source(well), fencing, materials, transport, everything to get the farmers set up with the things they need to start. Its a great idea and with Hassana i see lots of possibilities for great work.

In trying to get a well for Hassana's field, another volunteer involved in the pilot farmer program, Aaron, and I talked to a local NGO that specializes in well projects for assistance. Since its the hot dry season i.e. construction season, we wanted to get a leg up on time. They were slightly helpful and have been so in the past, but after talking to the rep here in Kédougou, im very much displeased. We asked for a sample budget so that we could see if it would fit in out budget. We were handed the most outrageous estimate for a well that i think is around. It was for another charity organization that was putting a well into a campement in Dindefello. It was something like 12,000$. i know of wells that have been dug for 140$ that are fine just fine. Upon asking the gentleman about the price he basically told us that thats the price they give to big charity organizations/NGO's that they know they can take advantage of. I was floored. Who takes advantage of people who are trying to help others. its crazy. And the fact he said it so mater of faculty smacked me in the face as if it was normal. That left me very disillusioned with some of these other organizations that work in and around the area. Needless to say, neither of us are using them for our wells.

After this training i went to dakar to meet up with meg and take the direct car to Kolda for the ag/fo summit. The Summit was great as the folk running it did a good job. We had sessions about pruning fruit trees, bee keeping, tree protection, and nursery prep. We were able to go to Kolda's Eaux et Fôrets pepinere to see their nursery and have the tree protection and nursery prep demo there. The pruning demo was held at a volunteer's compound in the city where her host father had a few young fruit trees. The guy who led the session was a mauritania refugee who was now in kaolack. Mike really knew his stuff and evidently is extending for a third year.

The Bee demo was in David Shames's site which was Hans's old site. We got to see the hive and how it was built as well as a discussion on the different merits of different types of hives. We also got to walk out to an actual hive to see it in action. My bright red bandana and sheila's recent attack kinda limited us from going too close so we just hung out a little bit away watching everyone else.

When we got back from Kolda at the end of March, my counterpart, having received significant interest in hosting another training, suggested putting another one on. This was from the same village that some folk had come from at another training. We throw together another training for the end of March with the same format as before and it goes off without a hitch. We got the sac requests that they wanted and closed training programs down and got ready for nursery set up.

I got out to Kevin's village for a seed collection after this last training. I was collecting baby Agave sisilana plants from a field that had 2-3 plants that were flowering. Sisal is a great live fence as you can just plant it and basically leave it alone and it will survive. Sisal reproduces by producing thousands of baby sisal plants where it flowers. This happens every 8-9 years and the plant dies afterwards. Its a really cool plant and if planted well in a fence line, nothing will ever mess with your field.

The next project that i worked on was helping another volunteer with a well project he started while he was in his village and before he extended to Dakar for a third year. I thought this was going to be a really easy give some people money and get transport kinda deal. so wrong. It turned out that the well digger guy actually didn't have everything he said he did and we kinda had to scramble to get some new well diggers and materials. It was a huge pain, but useful in that i now know a bunch of drivers and the folk that own and work at the big hardware stores.

In the end i bought all the materials for the three wells that Andy had given me money for and organized transport, only for the digger and GADEC to say the diggers weren't here yet and that theyd be there the next day. That went on for a week or so. Finally when the big mould and digger show up, instead of three teams for the three wells, it was one guy only. So the digger had changed the plan, instead go three teams working simultaneously, it was one guy who would start when the mould got there and then move on to the next well. The mould was still in tamba so we still had to wait another couple days. This was all very frustrating.

The mould did eventually get there and i had to renegotiate for the transport as a big camion wont just take a small amount of materials, it needs to be full up. So i had to get in touch with a big mini car that was willing to be rented out for the day. Luckily the guy who i bought the materials from was cool with the situation and said we could keep the materials for the other wells at the store till we were ready for them. Then it was just running them up to Saraya and faraba to get the well digger started.

So when we put our budget together for the pepinere trainings for Trees for The Future, i told Ethan that Karumba and the program would benefit immensely if a moto was available. It would allow us to check out most of our nursery sites in a day rather then waist multiple days trying to bike out to these sites. I enjoy biking but Karumba doesn't have the nice bike or young legs i do! Anyway, Ethan said he would try his best but said no promises. Well he came through and my counterpart was able to buy a moto from Guinea! Its a very nice Moto and allows karma to be much more mobile in his work.

At the beginning of April Hassana and i go out to Sheila's village to help her with a compost training there. Sheila did a garden project there and one of the gardens has bad soil

and she decided to do a large compost pile to try and help the nutrient level in the soil. The training went well. Hassana was brought in to effectively translate for sheila and i went cause i guess i know stuff about composting.

So most of the tree sac's that Karumba and I had distributed were ones that Peace Corps had purchased for us. The ones that we received funding for from Trees For the Future arrived at the end of April with Pape Djakaby. Hes the liaison for peace corps here in the region as well as in tamba and kolda. We immediately get those out to Ibel which is 30km away, Syllacounda which is about 11km away, and Sintiou Roudji which is 5km away. After this we start making inquires about the cretin we told the demo sites we would need and start putting them up/making sure they are actually coming.

When ever there is straight money involved in Africa, it always a shit show. Originally we thought to let the womens group president take care of getting the crentin fencing, but that just proved to be a mistake. Crentin never comes and the village just builds a stick fence, which is a bunch of branches and sticks jammed in the ground where the fence is. Everyone does that here, but we had paid for crentin, which is more expensive. As soon as money becomes involved, its always contentious no matter how small the amount. I mean for crentin we arrant talking about a lot of money. At least they are doing the work that they said they were going to do.

Karumba and I go out to Ibel as well as Sintiou Roudji to check up on the progress there. Very encouraging there as they had filled most of the tree sac's and the crentin was en route. We had a little meeting there with the folk who were participating and was left with the impression that they were stoked to do some tree work. Next year i think we'll do a training there. One of the guys who is about my age even found one of the main seeds that we use for live fencing in the village of Ibel, Bauhinia rufenscis, and was ready to use them. Very very encouraging from a first attempt at work in a village.

So last year i went out to Dindefello to help Hassana with the orchard he was trying to establish. Well the fencing didn't come in time so most of the trees we planted were eaten and then cooked by the sun. Since we are using Hassana for the pilot farmer program, we should have a bunch of funding for making his field really really cool. The aim of the program is to build demo sites in the region with trainers who are going to actively try and promote the different technologies they have in their fields. They need lots of useful technologies implemented in their fields to successfully do this. Its my job to help get Hassana set up with everything he needs for his field as well as assisting in actually brainstorming what would be best to have there.

I went out there a week ago to check up with Hassana, and as i was walking from his house to the field i saw some Jatropha on the ground that had been broken off one of the millions of trees they have there as live fencing. I picked it up and took it out to his field thinking i would try and get him to start cutting jatropha branches for cuttings and plant them along the fence line. When i got to the field what was i greeted with but a huge line a jatropha cuttings planted along the fence line! I t was great and look amazing! I forgot that we had talked about doing that the last time i had been hanging out with Hassana and he had just remembered and taken the initiative to actually do it! That will make you feel good about your work to see motivated people trying really hard to work well.

So thats most of the work that vie been up to for the last 6months or so. It is really limited to the 3 tree nursery sites for Trees For the Future, kinda helping with Andy's well project, and hassana's pilot farm at the moment but there are plans for bigger and better things yet to come!

Aug/Sept

2009-10-06T06:05:00.000-07:00

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.

Grafting Seminars

2009-08-09T08:58:00.000-07:00

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.

Trip to Dakar

2009-07-18T12:23:00.000-07:00

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.

Yea ive been bad about this, so heres a recap

2009-07-09T13:23:00.000-07:00

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.

Its all Ups and Downs, Fuck the Downs and Bad Days

2009-04-19T08:02:00.000-07:00

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 audience 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.

Yea ive been bad about this recently, but here ya go

2009-04-08T04:43:00.000-07:00

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.

End of Sight Giving adn Moving On

2009-03-18T12:24:00.000-07:00

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

Curing Blindness and the like

2009-03-18T12:06:00.000-07:00

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.

Mali and Tamba fun, kinda long but FUN!!!

2009-03-06T09:54:00.000-08:00

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....

kédougou to kenieba

2009-03-03T01:22:00.000-08:00

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.

actually up to date

2009-02-23T05:21:00.000-08:00

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

Solid Waste Thing in Thies

2009-02-23T05:19:00.000-08:00

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!

Brief description of WASIT, how many days till next year?

2009-02-23T05:16:00.000-08:00

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!

1st Part of In Service Training

2009-02-07T11:23:00.000-08:00

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

Patron coming to check up on the newbies and other exciting things

2009-01-26T08:00:00.000-08:00

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

Mbookie's, little kiddies gardening, and Badass bike rides

2009-01-15T03:58:00.000-08:00

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!

Baptism/seed opening/kafori

2009-01-08T08:41:00.000-08:00

On Sunday 1/4/09 there was the grand opening of the seed store that Hassana had opened a few months ago. It was a good event even if a lot of the farmers from the Kédougou region didn't really come. But there was a good representation from up in Saraya with Aaron bringing down 4 farmers from there and a few from the Kédougou region. It was meant to be a informal little get to know the shop and have a open discussion about problems the farmers are having and why the relationship between seller producer and supplier is so important as they all depend upon each other. When all three are in line with the others, they work very smoothly and efficiently. So that was basically how that went. Very good and Hassana is going to go to the farmers federation this coming week to have a meeting about establishing a relationship with them that would be good for us as it would open the door for us to have a better working relationship with them. It was a good meeting and it was good to have a chat with hassana about all of his plans.
So monday the family had a baptism which was interesting. see pics in facebook for details. i woke up pretty early for it as i was under the assumption that it was a morning thing and wed eat lunch there and come back. Well as it turned out we were going to sit around all morning in true Senegalese fashion. it was kinda neat as they had all the gifts out in our little communal area. Basically, in my interpretation, it seems like the baptism here seems like a mix of a a baby shower and maybe a celebration of the birth. I've never heard of the later in the states but a really hyped up baby shower is the best i can do to describe it.
So like i said we sit about till about 11 and then head over to the house of the mother for the gathering of the family. We kinda hang out there for a while get to see the baby which was cool it was a newly born so tiny. But it was a big deal for the families involved and everyone was decked out in their best boubous. it was kinda cool to see. We had a great lunch there as well. I hung out with Hassana there as well as he is part of my family here as well. We basically sat around and waited for the mother to get back from the salon as its tradition for her to get all dolled up for this and she was def done up in spades. I got to play cards with my brother and his friend from across the street. It was fun and we got a damn good meal out of it.
I left to got to the market and stop off at the regional house and get the news that my plans to go to kafori and saraya kinda get screwed. Wula Nafaa was having a meeting and as the only ag/fo guy in town at the moment, i got to go. kinda sucked but it was kinda my job so i kinda put off my trip for a day. The meeting is basically about going over what they had gotten done in nov/dec of 08' and the second day was about what they planned for in jan/feb of this year. The first meeting was kinda interesting as they were talking about the projects that they had going on, funio and baobob production adn the relationship between the middlemen and producers and things along those lines. It was a good thing that thomas went with me as his french is a lot better then mine and he was able to help me with translation. After talking to Matt about the meeting and my tentative plans to go to kafori he said it was fine if i went to kafori and missed the second day of the meeting.
So I get ready to go for my little trip out to Kafori by getting my things in order. I bought a new backpack in the market which is really cool, knockoff jansport but its a pretty good knock off in my mind. load that up with my firstaid kit, ORS, fosters clark, camera, GPS, and all the other little gadgets that i take with me places on trips. I Hang out at the regional house tues night as its the last night that a bunch of the volunteers were going to be there, kinda the last remnants of the xmas vacation. it was a good time but i kinda left it late to go home and ended up getting locked out of the compound. Not a big deal as i ended up sleeping at the regional house and going to get my stuff in the morning. I end up helping kevin, my friend whos im going to visit with carrying a bunch of his stuff. It was a good ride out to his village. He lives about 20 miles away on a lovely little road. Its good up until dimboli or right after and then its more like a trail. good times though. we make it out there in decent time Kafori is a neat little village. When we get to the 'entrance' i.e. the first couple of houses there was a lady washing her clothes and she was just so happy to see kevin that she started dancing. Really cute as it was a really old lady with not many teeth, but she was just so stoked to see kevin again. similar reactions follow at his house.
So basically i was there to check out the lay of the land for kevin's garden project he was working on with the local school. He has a couple demo plots in Kafori now that are coming along and we were able to talk to the teachers at the school about the plan for what we are going to do on Monday. I think ive already said this but being out in the village was so much more helpful for the pullar. Thats all they speak really. much more incentive for learning the lang. But it was good for checking out the situation for this project. The way the garden class is going to work is that im going work with kevin in one of the classes, and roxy, the closest volunteer to kevin will take another and steve the second closest will take another. Were going to go over why its important to have a garden the benefits and then the technical side of making it and then get the kids to make it. It should be interesting. Ive and idea for a grander idea with a similar theme but im going to have a think on it first.
But this morning i came back to Kédougou and had a nice little ride. Got some good pics on the way. Well pics of me anyway. Got some good ones on the way out with kevin and I with all his stuff. But i made good time coming back in, its great to be able to go at your own pace and just relax. I had my ipod with me too, that was really nice, rock out a little bit in the middle of no where on a bike. I think in total going there and coming back i saw 1 car and about 3 motorcycles. heavy traffic this road. It was a good outing though, always feel a little better after a nice ride where ive accomplished something. I guess im just addicted to kicking my own ass on a bike/running, its fun.
Well today is the Islamic new year so i guess interesting happenings will be going on. So i should be off, ill write again soon, oh yeah been in site for 2 months, man time flies!

New Years in Tamba

2009-01-08T08:30:00.000-08:00

So yea been 5 days since new years but i should write up what went down for that. Like my entries said, i was stuck in Tambacunda until the third. Kinda screwed my new years plans for going up to Saraya and visiting Aaron and his site, but o well. instead Josh a volunteer from Missira, Nathaniel who is a volunteer in a village 6k off the road to Missira, Danny from Kolda, Erin from way the hell far away, and Krystel from Dar Salam all went camping on the banks of the gambia about 40k away from Tamba. It was a really good time. It took us a while to get there as we took a kinda weird way that did a little bush whacking so to speak. Instead of taking the long way around on a good road we cut a corner that saved us maybe 5-10k. It was fun but sands a bitch. During the ride i talked to Nathaniel a bit and while he was from long beach, he went to college in wooster ohio. Small world really. It took us about 4 hours to get out to the camp site because of a number of factors, a large-ish group and carrying a bunch of stuff. but it was a really fun ride, but thats coming from someone who likes riding bikes.
So we get to the camp site around 6-ish with a little bit of light left for a few folks to go for a swim in the river. josh actually managed to get 6 gazelles ( bottles of beer) intact to the camp site actually really cold. He Used his therma rest as a case and packed it with ice. Hell of an idea and it worked really well, so after are long dusty ride we were able to crack open a nice cold beer on the banks of the river. Really well worth the ride. After the swim and beer we get to work on dinner and a camp fire. Well the camp fire first then the dinner as the one was contingent on the other. I have to say that this was probably one of the best camp fire dinners ive had, def up there with the pasta i had in the sierra's with chris. Hard to believe but it was damn good. So we had pasta, easy enough, but also made a pasta sauce with all sorts of fresh veggies that we brought with us. Another factor in the equation that makes it that much better was that it was all done without a stove, all over open fire. The dried herbs and oil and vinegar that were added just gave it that much of a push to tip it over to the best. To cap it all off we had a few sweet potato's for desert. I have to say that the sweet potato's I've had here are quite possible the sweetest veggies I've ever had, and very desert worthy. oh yeah josh is a vegan and Krystel was in america hence the veggie heavy meal.
So we ushered in the new year sitting next to a camp fire on a really gorgeous camp site next to the gambia river. The next day we kinda have to deal with the problem that we overlooked coming out to the site. Water. While we camped near a town called Djariko or something, water purification was a must. Boozing the night before left the campsite rather parched of water come the next morning. So all morning, minus a lovely little dip in the gambia and a ridiculously good breakfast of oatmeal and tea, water boiling was the name of the game. Worked like a charm till we decided to stop in a large-ish town on the way back, Gulumbu, for lunch. But we get about 4/5 liters out of our water purification efforts. Really really warm water that is, almost hot water. If i got a cup of tea like this id be really happy, and no dad you wouldn't be as you like yours really really hot and it wasn't quite there. A very interesting experience and it didn't get me sick, well not yet anyway so it did its job. mmmmmm smokey water, ill never forget that taste, almost like starchy smokey. Mush have been the pasta we cooked the night before chiming in as well.
After the swim and subsequent powwow to decide to break camp and head to Gulumbu for lunch, we start cleaning up the bomb blast that was our camp site. Tents down claiming the odd sock or flashlight we repack the bikes and hit the road. On the ride back up to the main road i spotted some monkeys running across the trail way up in the distance. Yay Africa. But this ride is just as fun as the last one for me. Only this time I'm carrying the large metal pot we used for cooking. All the while were trying to stay hydrated with the almost hot water that really Isn't losing a whole lot of it warmth as its rather hot out as well. Krystel had a few little packets of gatorade-y type stuff that made it a little better but still pretty damn warm! We make it to Gulumbu though and get some bad ass chebajen. Thats the national dish here rice and fish, very oily as they dose the rise with a a good portion of oil. Really tasty after a nice bike ride though. Since were in a larger town everyone else decides to take an al-hum minibus type thing back to Tamba as they were a little tired after the two days excursions.
Its here where our paths part as i decide it wouldn't quite be the same rolling back into Tamba in a car when there is nothing wrong with me kinda like cheating. Well not cheating but i went out for a ride and id be damned if i didn't finish it. it was only like another 35k or so. So i take off while they're loading up their bikes onto the bus. Started off pretty well with pretty good time just kinda zipping along now that i was on my own at my own pace. unfortunately the wind had other ideas. I had either a side wind/headwind for almost 2/3rds of the way back. makes it quite a bit more interesting. Now this accompanied with the huge portion of delicious chebejin i ate right before hopping on my bike at the hottest part of the day produced a lovely oily mix in my stomach. With all this in mind i still made decent time getting back to Tamba. About 15k out a guy i had passed earlier was talking to someone and sprints after me and is real friendly and rides with me for the rest of the way to Tamba. Nice to have someone to ride with even if our communication is minimal. But i make it back to Tamba in about an hour and 45 min.
The day after this all goes on, the day after i decide that its about time to head back to Kédougou. This times out really well as Kevin is getting back from Koalack and wants to keep on going to Kédougou in one day. Well that does end up happening just greatly delayed. So Kevin makes it to Tamba around 6-ish. There are two cars waiting on two people to be full and leave for Kédougou when i get there about 10 min before kevin and it looks like it will work out real well. Well not really. Right before kevin gets here they give the seats to two other people and we get shafted with an empty car that we have to wait on to fill. Another guy shows up so it might not take all night at that rate, but no one else shows up till 10, when one other guy shows up. So all the while we've been sitting there waiting for our car to fill, a minibus type thing is sitting next to us waiting to fill up as well. Well around 11 they finally come over to us and offer us two seats on that so they can leave right then. We take it as does one of the other guys from our car. The wait in the garage was kinda neat though tedious. We drank a box of wine and sat around talking with a vendor from Guinea who made us an egg sandwich which was really good. It was a good little sit if anything else even if i expected to be back before the time we left.
Well that would put us in at about 3 if we left at 11, but we were committed at this point so we went for it. The first thing that we did was to go somewhere in Tamba and sit for about an 1/2hour so the driver could eat i think. That was great, and then when we were leaving the city limits we got stopped at the police check point for another good 10/20min. So all and all it took another 45 min for us to actually leave the city. Other then that the ride was uneventful and we made it in by 445 and promptly went to bed. but it worked out and we were back which was really nice.

Tamba again

2008-12-31T01:37:00.001-08:00

So here I am in Tamba. So like i said i am stuck here till the 3rd. So new years eve will be spent away from site like planned, just not saraya with aaron. Sounds like we might go camp by the river for the night and have a good time there. But thats tomorrow and this is today. I guess my perpetual sitting around for the last 5 days was getting to me and i was going a little stir crazy. So even when I'm in kédougou i dont go for rides a whole lot but ill get biking in at least. Down to the boutique, the market, or the CTC. So this sitting around doing absolutely nothing was driving me crazy. So basically i got a good case of just being really really pent up. looking back on it i get this way when i dont have an outlet to go running or biking or something. Someway of blowing off stress. So i borrow a bike from the rack of bikes thats here in the regional house. Not the best bike in the world but the back brakes worked and the gears kinda worked after a min or two of peddling. The guard here is really nice and I've been drinking tea with him while I've been sitting around watching movies or fiddling with my GIS program. Incidentally thats not acutely going all that well as a few problems cropped up with the instructions. Thats a different story though. So im trying to get this 'loaner' bike travel worthy and the guard who ive kinda befriended just takes over and does it for me. I like messing around with bikes but he seemed perfectly willing to just go to town on it. So hes making tea as well as helping me and i get a little shot glass of tea before i head off.
yeah thats how tea is done here. So its not english tea or iced tea like they have in the states. Its chinese green tea i think the box said. Although it said this its really strong so im a little skeptical, ill have a look at the box next time. But the way drinking tea works here is that you are served the first glass of tea, there are three, in a little shot glass with a bunch of foam on top. Now the foam is very important and the maker goes to quite a bit of length to make sure there is a good head of foam in each shot glass for all three doses of tea. This is done by pouring about a shot glass worth of the tea back and forth between the two glasses from a decent height. Once that is done and a nice head of foam is on each glass the preparer tries it and then fills the cup up and you drink. Its a good time killer as they usually cook the tea over charcoal. But this is done three times with the same batch of tea with lots of sugar. So over the course of the three glasses you end up getting weaker and weaker tea. Its good though and everyone here loves it. yea so its also kinda impolite to drink one cup of tea and then leave. Generally if you start drinking tea you should stick around for all three, but two sometimes is ok. But yea i figured id explain that as i drink a lot of tea. Being the local celeb i pretty much get the first or second glass when theres a group every time. its neat.
But yea that was a tangent. So i kinda break the rules and leave after the first glass, but the guard understood as i wanted to get my ride in before dark. And so i take off on my ride. I heard from one of the volunteers here that if you just head north on the main road you leave tamba pretty quick and are out in the country side again. I figured that would be my best bet and head off that way. it takes me about 40 min to get out to a little town called Thiawor or something like that. THe road out there was interesting. IT started out quite big and well traveled but narrowed down adn became more like a big trail then a road. It was neat though and i was able to enjoy the countryside rather then the small confines of the tamba regional house as nice as that is. So from there i go 20min further north from there which has the road deteriorate even more but still very accessible. After another 20min i decide to stop and turn around as i dont really feel like getting stuck out in the bush in the dark like i have done in the past. Right before i head back i stop and have a drink of water and relax a little and just take in the surroundings. Dead quite minus a few birds calling. It was great it made a wonderful change from Tamba which is considerably bigger then kédougou and a lot louder. The quite was nice and well worth the ride. So the ride back was nice also very relaxing minus the wonderful senegalese driver who look at me like im crazy as theyre rolling up the wrong side of the road/trail(in donkey/horse charets of course, saw one car only, very nice.
But yea in tamba thats the highlight so far really, which is a little bit of a letdown but i am stuck here so not a lot of high expectations. And considering i had pretty much sat around the house minus going to the internet a few times i was very relieved to have an activity to occupy my time, especially something i like. Well hopefully my new years eve will be better and ill be able to report back on that in a day or so.

stuck in tamba

2008-12-28T12:48:00.000-08:00

so yea we were in touch with the safety and security coordinator and i guess were stuck here till the 3rd. Not fun but i guess some guns were stolen form the military and theyre trying to track them down. Ill hopefully be back soon, keep you informed

Rioting Good Christmas

2008-12-25T12:06:00.000-08:00

12/25
So im sitting here in Tamba's movie room on watching a great B movie classic, Army of Darkness. Wow what a movie. Well any way this is my christmas entry as it is x-mas. So some interesting things happening here in senegal. Lets start from the beginning shall we.
So on the 22rd shelia came into kédougou for xmas and everything seems normal in town. Thomas tells us that the student youth in the town hold a meeting that evening to plan a march to protest the lack of jobs in the region and this combined with the fact that the students in the schools were striking because the teachers were striking because they hadn't been paid. So this was supposed to be a peaceful march Thomas's host sister had informed him when he specifically asked if they were going to burn things. So yeah that ought to get you thinking about how this ends up!
So the 23rd rolls round and i go into the CTC to go to the internet cafe with Shelia. We take off and head down the main road thats right outside the regional house and runs into town. We take off down the road and i can see 3 big plumes of smoke up off in near distance. Its not that unfamiliar here as lots of people burn their scrub grass and fields here quite regularly. So we keep going on down the road and thinking that this was normal until we start seeing lots of youngish students in the streets. again not that unheard of as the students do strike and they were this day. So we keep going until we come around a gentle turn in the road and are confronted with a large mob of students burning tires and the house next to the christian school, the car next to it and were in the process of setting more fires to the brush next to the road we were on. It was at this point that we decide that its best to turn around and head to the other Cyber on the other side of town. So we take off and head back, passing the military base where it is clear the troops are mustering to take care of the situation.
We get to the other cyber fine not passing anything looking remotely violent or threatening. We find out at this point at the cyber that the president of guinea has died and the government has taken control of the country and suspended the constitution. good times. I manage to get off my email to my trees for the future counterpart who wanted to know about my counterparts field and what had worked from the last year and what hadn't. Unfortunately the day before a 1/8th of my counterparts field here in kédougou was burned by accident, yay cigarette butts. So that kinda gives me a significant amount of work to do now as everything that was there needs to be replanted. But more on how ill have lots of work in a little bit.
So we make it back to the CTC fine after this as the power gets cut to the entire town and we leave the cyber. When we get back we let everyone know to stay away from town and stay put in the CTC as gun shots are being heard now from the CTC. So basically we end up staying there for the rest of the day as we kinda figure its not safe to be wandering round the town in all this. So we chill at the CTC not really having any news of what all was going on. We play catch in preparation for the west african invitational softball tournament in the field that peace corps owns behind our regional house. All the while we were doing this there were gun shots off in the distance and three big plumes of black smoke coming up from the center of town.
So after a while we head back to the kitchen hut and talk to some of the guards/workers that are at the center for news. It starts to trickle in now that some serious shit is going on in town. Rumors of the prefecture, and the prefecture's house as well as the tribunal and the governors office being burned makes us a little cautious. We let our safety and security coordinator know about what all is going on at this point and receive text's from the list server about the situation in Kédougou. Its now that we start making day bags in case we have to make a run to get out of town. We realize that we need to consolidate everyone in the here at the CTC in case we do need to leave and its now that we find out that one of the volunteers in the city is unaccounted for and not answering her phone. It turns out that she had gone to tamba and was safe but we don't find that out until we send one of the guards to go to her house to try and find her. By the time all this is sorted out it actually works out that he went out to look for her as he came back with a lot of information.
So when the guard got back this is what he had to say. The market had been attacked by the rioters, the police had killed one of the student rioters, marital law had been declared because all of the big government buildings had been burned, that the red berets had been flown in to help restore order, and that the road in from tamba had been shut down. So at this point no one is leaving the CTC even to go to the boutique down the road. So basically we spend the day talking to the guards and the workers who are building a new common area at the regional house getting info and just trying to keep light hearted. So another guard comes back in after going out to asses the situation with more news. The police station has been burned now and unofficially there are 4 deaths. All the while this is going on, steve wood out in togué has his family from america with him and was supposed to come back into town to leave that day. welcome to senegal!
To keep busy i decide to clean/orginize the bike shed which is kinda a mess from lots of use. In doing this i feel a lot better about being locked up in the CTC. While in the process of doing this i come across a box trunk that had gotten wet and who's contents were now completely moldy minus a few well protected/sealed items. This trunk was the old trunk that had all the board games in it until it got wet and moldy. Of the pieces that didn't get destroyed, was the pieces, cards, and instructions for risk. Being the macho dudes that we are, we all thought what a great idea it would be to make a map and spend our captivity playing risk. So that then takes priority, making the board and getting ready for dinner. I run back to my house right before the curfew thats been imposed by the military is implemented to grab a few things i need for the night, and am soo roundly criticized for being a wus and for being afraid and not spending the day there. This of course is all the while my family and brothers and sisters were at the riots in support of it. whatever i leave and head back to the CTC for dinner and a interesting night. Before dinner we come up with a shit hits the fan plan of action of how we would sneak out the back of the CTC and take our bikes down to the river to escape to dindefelo if really needed.
But nothing happened that night, minus matt beating the crap out of us in risk. The military had pickup trucks rolling around all night with three dudes in the back with m-16's and flack jackets ready for trouble. The next morning after talking to the guards, we find out that pretty much every brigade in eastern senegal was in fact in Kédougou. Also, and more importantly, the rioters had pretty much done a number on every government building in the town. So our friends and contacts at eaux et foret had their office burned out as well as, we think, the wulla naffa NGO who are partnered with USAID had a car at least and at worst their building torched. Their building is attached to eaux et foret so we kinda assumed it got hit as well. But none of this happened at night time, this was all at the end of the day the day before, so everything was pretty much calmed down by the curfew.
So we decide that we should go out and asses the damage from the night before as we were curious and were also wondering if there was still a risk. So we decide upon splitting up into smaller groups so its not a group of 6 white people walking around gawking at the damage. So i go with matt and shelia up the bandafassi road and try to go past the military camp and can see the two road blocks on the road on the way to the base. Were waved away from the street so as to miss the base where we had found out that all the families of the police and government were being protected there. while we were skirting around the camp we saw some guys sitting in trees, they were snipers protecting the base and the families there. We end up over by the cyber we ended up going to the day before, which is owned by the uncle of Matt's host family. it turns out that he has a nice garden that has potential for some ag/fo stuff and i go there a lot so potential.
So after stopping in there and making sure he was ok and his shop hadn't been looted we moved on down the road. Its down this road that the police station, hospital, and tribunal were on. So we come to the police station first. Shell of a building totally burned out, 5 cars burned out over 5 motorcycles burned out. It was really something else seeing it like that, i bike past it alot, almost everyday. We basically walk past to check it out but it looks calm there. We keep going down the road and come to the hospital. A couple lines of riot police are standing in the entryway to the hospital, with hundreds of rocks scattered in front of it where they had fallen from being thrown. We go in and talk to the head Dr. there so as to asses what was going on.
So as it turns out that one of the students that was killed was being held there and the families of the Dr.s and the hospital itself. So when we get in there the head Dr. says that they are going to have a meeting to settle whether or not they were going to shut the hospital or not. So we kept on walking down the street and get a call from michelle, the volunteer who was in tamba saying that she had come back to Kédougou and was at her house. So Matt tells her to stay there and that we would come and get her. As we keep walking we get to the main cross roads in town where the courthouse is and next to the burned out courthouse in the street where we need to go to get michelle is a large crowd of students facing down with the police. We skirt round it but as we start going around into the surrounding houses the cops cut and run and the military comes in. So now they are standing off against the students.
So nothing really happens, i guess they disperse, we book it into the neighborhood next to the street passing the busted up post office. It wasn't burned out though, just doors, windows, and large western union sign all busted up. So we make it to michelle's house and get her and instead of going back the way we came, we shoot down to the river to skirt round all the trouble. This works great and we make it back to the CTC just fine. When we get back we kinda hang out a bit and Steve Wood and his family show up having gotten a ride from a local. We hang out for a while and around lunch time everything seems pretty calm so i ask if i can go back to my house to grab a bag. I take off and get to my house and watch a little TV with my fam about all this. They all agree with the striking, maybe not the destroying but the reason behind it yes. I kinda bust their cops a little as they burned a bunch of our work partners and the courthouse has all the records of everything for the city. Also rumor has it they stole the money that was sent down to Kédougou for paying the people up at the sabodella mines. so thats a little ify.
But they make me lunch and after that i start making a bag when i get a call saying we are all leaving because the country director said we should leave the city. So i pack my bag and head back to the CTC and by this time everyone else is getting ready to leave. The country directors adopted son helped us arrange our rides. So two sept places show up in about 20min. So once thomas is back from his house getting things, we load up and head out. So its kinda a light hearted car ride, very uneventful, but we do end up passing 10 truck loads of troops and equipment heading in the opposite direction. But we get to tamba and the regional house to a nice x-mas eve dinner the tamba volunteers had made.
So today has been a pretty chill day, just sitting around watching movies. Army of darkness, dr. strangelove, a bunch of the rome series, and some of the bourne identity. Right now im sitting in a hotel next to the tamba regional house on some nice wireless. So yea getting ready for x-mas dinner away from home in rather odd circumstances. Hope no one else has anything even remotely close to this type of an x-mas experience. Merry Christmas from lovely west africa, weve got riots, coups and all sorts of fun!

Oh yeah nothing stolen, so its all good!

12/19

2008-12-20T03:44:00.000-08:00

12/19
So I've started my gardens. Today I was getting ready to go to the center to say hello to a friend of mine who came in to Kédougou from Kafori and yelled at me from the road, when my aunt started asking me when i was going to make the garden i had been talking about for the past couple of days. Understandable as i had bought the fencing material for the plot and just needed to get to work on preparing the ground. So i had really been dragging my feet on this and her busting my chops kinda got me motivated. So i said i was going to do it today and that i was going to the center to get tools, which i then did. So i chilled at the center for a little bit and got to see Dan and Willie come in with the Peace Corps land-cruiser. Dan had with him a puppy that had been rescued from his douche. kinda disgusting but he was evidently OK and is doing fine now. He has been adopted by Hayes out in Bandafassi. But yea also with the Peace Corps car came a new stove. Very important for our regional house as we've a reputation to uphold with our cooking abilities. Well Matt's really but we all chip in. But its nice to have that and some other spare parts for bikes and the like.
So yeah anyway I borrow the pick and shovel from the center and head back to my house to start my garden. My brother Mamadou helped me with this and is probably as much mine as it is his. The kids a tank. So basically we had to turn up the soil to mix it up and then toss in some manure. So this involves picking the soil in the desired shape, which is a hell of a lot harder then it sounds as the ground is ubber hard and requires some muscle. Enter my brother who pretty much does this type of work for a side job. He was the guy who made a bunch of the bricks for my hut. So i try to pick with the pick from the center and get about three strikes in and the handle just snaps in two. Nice borrowed pick busted. Luckily, my bro Mamadou does this when hes not at school and has a nice pick we can use. So once we had mixed up the soil with the pick, the cows that pretty much wake me up every day come into play. Yay cow poop! So i thought that there'd be maybe half a gardens worth in their stye, if thats the right word. Wrong. We were able to get enough for two of the plots and then we stopped cause it was the hot part of the day, and boy could you tell. Ok so basically we dumped the manure on the plot and then double dug it into the soil. This involves digging a trench about 1.5ft-2ft down and depositing it at the back of the plot and then filling in the trench from the soil right next to it and then digging a trench where it had been. Continue this till you get to the end where you fill in the last trench with the soil you took out of the first trench. it works pretty well and mixes in manure and the soil in general.
So we stop for lunch at the hot part of the day and agree to come back at 4 to finish up the last plot which hadn't even been started. So i eat with my brother like usual in my room and then decide to take a nap as I'm kinda tired after my tiny bit of work from the morning. So i nap for about an hour and am woken up at about 20 till 4 by my dad yelling at my 5 year old brothers who are knocking on my door bothering me. So i forgot i had a pullar lesson at 4 so it actually worked out as i was able to go to it on time. But when i stick my head out my door and look at the garden there's the cart that was used to take my bags from the center to the house tipped up dumping a bunch of cow poop on the ground next to the gardens. so yea I've got a lot of cow poop right now. I think my brother knows where to get it too so its basically readably accessible manure for free! Very cool. Also sitting next to the cart is the broken pick with a new handle that has been clearly cut from a tree 'en bruce' (see previous entry for thoughts on procuring things 'en bruce'). So double cool.
So i head off to my pullar lesson which is cool, learn about egol verbs which are verbs that mean that the action is being done to you. Also how adding orgol in place of ugol, agol,and egol to the end of verbs means that you happened to do the verb or by chance you did the verb. So kinda neat to learn that. Also got roped into coming and drinking with our tutor tomorrow evening. He just moved here and doesn't have a lot of friends, but is a really nice guy. I've gone and drank tea with him before and he's a chill guy. So yea were doing that tomorrow/today as ill probably post this tomorrow. But yea so after class i go to Hassana's Hendrick's agriculture shop for a watering can and some seeds. He's the adopted son of the country director, who's family Im living with at the moment, and is in fact Hassana's extended family as well. So i pick up the watering can, some onion seeds and tomato seeds, and i know I'm not getting ripped off as he's family.
When I get back to the house I immediately get to work on the last of the three plots. Oh yea the dimensions of these are roughly 2m40cm long(the length of the crentin, woven fence that I bought ) by 1m width. So I have three of them in a row right now with a mound of soil in between them as a barrier. So i just get started on the last one by myself and Mamadou rolls by after I've picked half of the plot and finishes it up. Once thats done we work with the pile of poop. So basically the poop need to be broken up so it can be applied to the soil. So we've got a rice bag and some sticks for this. I start using the busted handle of the pick i broke thinking that its the perfect job for a busted pick handle. Of course it breaks again and i resort to the tools Mamadou gives me. But we get this all beaten up and it is pretty good for mixing in with the soil and we double dig it in. By this time we've got a peanut gallery. Basically all the little kids from the neighborhood are there watching the toubob work. But they were actually really eager to help and i got them working on the poop beating and we were able to spread some more manure on top of the other two plots.
So while all this is going on it starting to get dark and my uncle and host dad come over to watch and offer advice as my dads a big time farmer and my uncles been around it all his life. So once my uncle and dad see the work I've done they remember that when Chris Hendrick was living with them in Dindafelo 20 yrs. ago, he did a garden as well and they got food out of the deal. so basically i was offered the area right next to my three plots for three more to grow more food. So once that area is cleared out, as its a hell of a lot dirtier then the area i was using for the first three ill have a proper garden to look after. And yes the family will be able to get some good eatin out of it! But i think that thats a ways down the road as it'll probably be able to be prepared when my douche is done, who knows when that'll be done. So yea productive day and ill be able use all sorts of neat techniques in the garden to try out, as there's a bunch of natural insecticides and fertilizers i want to try out. Also with the three other plot i might try to do a pepiniere for around the compound. Options options options!
But i need to get back in touch with ethan and do some interneting so ill update again later when I've got something exciting to report, who knows maybe ill talk to some of you before then.

12/17

2008-12-17T09:54:00.000-08:00

12/17
So I've finally moved into my hut. Albeit a month late and i still don't have a douche, but I'm moved in and my room is pretty patron. I've got a a nice bed, a chest, and a little stool my water filter sits on and a bedside table my host family is letting me use. so what has happened since my last update? Quite a bit really, Tabaski has come and gone I got some good pics of the family all dolled up for that, x-mas is next week and I'm in a muslim country, and I'm starting to make some progress with some actual work. So yea I'm really enjoying myself right now.
I've been hanging out with my host brother a lot of the time as he's supposed to go off and work up at one of the mines up by Saraya but hasn't yet been called back about it, so he's just kinda chilling here at the moment. But because of that I've got someone to hang out with pretty much all the time. This of course in between my language lessons, procuring things for my hut, and trying to learn ag/fo stuff from the 10yr old manuals I'm borrowing from the regional house as I've not been given mine yet. Yay PC being on top of things go figure right. Speaking of manuals I've been in touch with trees for the future, as that is who my counterpart works for here in Kédougou. Ive had a few email correspondences with their west african rep who was a PCV here in Kédougou 5 years ago or so. Ill be in touch with him again here in a little bit to coordinate my activities with him and Karumba for the next rainy season.
On the work front also, well kinda, today i should be working on my garden next to my hut. Ill post pics, but at the moment its rather ambitious as there isn't a whole lot there and I'm not so sure about the soil. I think if i remove a thin top layer, then double dig the soil with a bunch of manure, it should be decent enough. Yay for my host families having cows and a ample supply of cow poop! never thought id say that. But i think the garden will be roughly about 3x8 aprox. I haven't actually measured it but it the length of my hut and about 2-3m out so roughly 2/3x8m. A decent enough size for a little garden to keep me busy and provide a little something for the family and me!
More on the work front, i was rooting around the research section of the regional houses lib and came across a book called the miracle tree. Its all about a tree called 'never die' or Moringa oleifera for those who are scientifically inclined, which i know there are a few of you out there. Basically this tree is badass. You can use it for so much, just google it and check out the results. But i think im going to try and do something with this with my counterpart this coming growing season. I think it'd be interesting to alley crop with it and see how it does in helping out the surrounding crops as well as selling the leaves for fodder or human consumption, because in the market if you go looking for it you better go early in the morning as it'll all be gone by afternoon. I don't think there is a lot being produced at the moment on a carmercial scale, but if some serious farmers were to get interested it would be cool to see the results. So anyway that book that i was reading that got me interested was written by a organization called Church World Service. Well like i said this book is pretty cool and at the back of it it gives a bunch of organizations that use or promote M. olifera. Upon checking out these and getting a few names of interest, one who might actually send me some free seeds to promote the plant, i came across a blurb on the author. Well it turns out he's based out of Dakar for CWS and I'm going to shoot him a line to see if he has any thoughts on working together or something.
Right-o well thats about it for work type stuff. My new camera is here as the new pics on facebook and here(hopefully) indicate. Loving that, thanks so much chris, my host family loves it too. I think i must have taken about 100 pics on tabaski with each and every member of my family. It was cool and I've got lots of photos of my family now which is cool. They love digital cameras here and the pics. So I've taken a lot recently and plan on taking a lot more! Hopefully with x-mas around the corner ill be able to take a few more at a really nice waterfall with a few other people. but X-mas is next week, its kinda weird being away from home in really hot weather for xmas but it'll be different. But like i said there's a nice waterfall thats not too far away that I'm going to try to go to for a little excursion.
While ill do that, Thomas kinda got roped into working a sumer camp type thing for kids on their winter break. They did a similar one while we were site visiting back in October which was evidently a big success hence they are doing it again. So thomas got roped in and is basically roping others into it. I will probably go help him out a bit if I'm in the right mood. This camp thing is in Dindefello which is where all of my host family is from so perhaps ill meet some of them if I do this. My host dad has been wanting to show me the village and the waterfall that is there. So maybe thatll happen. But speaking of my dad, the garden that im trying to start up needs posts to hold up the fencing material i bought and my brother told me that my dad was going to go out 'en bruce' to get them for me. That is soooo not american. This is just land that i guess the government/no one owns and most people just kinda use when they need. Were not talking about hardcore logging or anything like that, but going to get poles/wood material people use for building. Its rather interesting. i saw the same thing when i was riding back from Tjibedji and we went en bruce to get Hayes's post for her douche. Same thing.
So last week i guess, i was hanging out with my brother and a friend of his who is a spanish teacher who has satellite TV. Yeah im roughing it i know, but anyway. We were watching the champions league game between Bayern Munich and Lyon in Lyon. It was a great game, Bayern were up 3-0 inside the first half. I figured the game was over and was ready to leave, but Thierno got some lacherie and cosan. Which is basically ground up cooked corn and sour milk with sugar. Its delicious. So we end up eating that and watching the second period. What a game it turned out to be! Ended up 3-2 with Bayern holding out. But the point was at half time as in all champions league games there was a advertisement for Heineken. Basically these adds consist of places all over the world where people are sitting around watching champions league football drinking Heineken. I think it says something like proudly sponsoring the champions league all over the world. I've never felt more like that then during that game while sitting in Kédougou in the south eastern corner of Senegal. Very appropriate for the worlds game.
So I think I've gotten over the worst of the sickness i was carrying about. I've just got a nice little cold left to show for it. Yea i got a cold in africa go figure. Its gorgeous during the day and cool at night. Perfect in my book but i guess my body thinks otherwise. But hopefully ill finally shake that as well. Right now I'm sitting in my room trying to add a bit of a personal touch. I've got some pics up that people have sent me. So send me pics and ill put them up on my wall. I've also got a few leaves on my wall that some crazy person sent me *cough* sarah *cough*. But i like things that can go up and remind me of home. Like the Obama montage that sarah sent me as well. My family loves that too, all of Africa loves that.
Lots of Africa also washes their clothes in rivers. I got to witness this first hand yesterday as well. Very interesting. The best example i can think of is when we were driving to Tambacunda earlier this week and crossed the Gambia river. There were prob a hundred people all crowed round this one spot that was quite accessible and were washing their clothes. Now this might seem normal but the way that clothes are washed here is a little different. Were not really talking about the washboard style cleaning I'm sure most of you are familiar with. This is taking the clothes, lathering them up and then beating the shit out of them on big rocks. lets just say i wash my nicer stuff as my clothes will be KOed in no time if i don't. Anyways i got a good pic of the place where my sisters were cleaning our clothes while i was busy fishing with my brothers. That was fun, fishing not really my thing, but catching the frogs for fishing was interesting. There's a big pebble beach that thousands of baby frogs live on, and we basically just started picking up rocks and smashing them down to kill the frogs for bait. very fun. I think we ended up catching 3/4 fish. When we were all done we trooped off back to the house with the laundry on our heads and it was a really fun day. I even learned some new Pullar words as well. Everything we end up doing generally gets me new words to learn as i really don't know a whole hell of a lot in Pullar.
Well i need to organize my room as i moved a bunch of stuff around for the little video i made for g-mas b-day, even got my brothers to say happy birthday for her, im sure she'll like that. but yeah got some things to do, ill update again later.

12/8

2008-12-08T09:50:00.000-08:00

So this will be a short little update as ive only got 15min left at the cyber cafe. So this week is the week of tabaski which is tomorrow. Something to do with the sacrafise abraham made or something. Basically everyone kills sheep and eats real well this day. So my hut might be done soon, my host dad said by tabaski, but im not holding my breath. The roof did get done today its the floor and bathroom that have yet to be done. Well see. So i went and helped my counterpart put up a fence at his field this week which was good, as i got to practice my pullar a little outside of my family here. I guess the guy that my counterpart works with with trees for the future will be back in the gou at the end of the month/begining of the year. Itll be neat to talk to him as hes in cameroun right now planting 2million trees or something. Ive also been talking to one of the other volunteers here in Gou meme, hes a ag volunteer and does some work with gardens around town. I might go with him to see what he does there. Other then that still working on the lang and trying to figure out what i want to do once the rainy sezason comes round as thats when ill be busy, well ive got 5min so ill write again later

Thanksgiving

2008-12-01T07:09:00.000-08:00

So my Senegalese name is Momadou Saliou Diallo, our families here give us names to help us integrate.

So im feeling a little better now, my dose of some lovely little African bug has left my head and just has remnants left in my nose and throat. Details i know. Anyway to catch up on the last week, we've done a lot really. So on Monday i had my french class with Jibby, my tutor for Pullar. I have class at his and Assana Hendricks apartment. Jibby i guess was friends with some peace corps volunteers about 10 years ago or so and they were visiting him. So i got to talk to a another RPCV about her service and all that jazz. The french was ok, basic stuff as it was the first time we had a session. That was the only thing of note that i can remember.
The next day on Tuesday Thomas and i went out to the rice field that my host dad has to help cut rice. That was really interesting. Its probably a good 10-15min bike ride away from the city. Thats on a bike, and I'm pretty sure i've seen my dad multiple times hoofing it out there on foot. Its just Africa and he had to get out there. It must take quite a while to get out there on foot. So the field is nice and around other fields. While I'm saying this its not really a American field, but a African one. No neat rows and isles, just a big section of rice running up the middle of the field. We Got to cut the rice by hand too, that was fun. We were using a hand sickle to cut the rice and then pile it up in little piles all over the field. It was fun and we did this for a little while until my host brother said he was heading back to the house and my dad said he would be coming along in a little while.
So we head back to the house and hang out for a little while until i fall asleep for about an hour. I get woken up by a phone call from Matt at the regional house requesting my presence for a swimming adventure down the Gambia. This is fun we swim around for a while and then get the idea to lazy river down the river a while. We find a cool tree thats hanging over the river and use it as a jumping pt. it was really fun. We get out of the river a little bit further on down and walk back to where our stuff is. It was fun, and everyone really seemed to enjoy it.
The next day, Wednesday the 25th Thomas and i have our pullar class with jibby. Between the french and the pullar ive got alot of 'classes' to go to. Im pretty sure no one else has this sort of arrangement. After class, thomas and i go to the market to try and get our beds so that the 35 people who are coming to the regional house will at least have two extra beds to sleep on. We first go to Thomas's host dads boutique to see if he can help us with the process. hes a nice guy and has a nice boutique. He was able to help us get mattress for our beds and then help us find the one remaining bed at the spot where they sell beds. We got everything loaded up on our bikes and the guy we bought them from said he'd get the bed to the regional house. We both figured he meant on a cart or something, but he just bends down and puts it on his head in true African style. So we walk the 20min it takes to get back there while this old man is hoofing it along with this bed on his head. Truly something to witness.
So Today as well, it is decided that we should go drifting on the river again. This is with a bunch more people as more people have shown up for thanksgiving. So now weve got about 16 people or so to go. This time we bring rope and a air tight bucket to put our stuff in. We also decide to try and float all the way down the river to where a restaurant is that we always go to, and can see the river from. Its really fun, and we end up making a rope swing and jumping into the water. After we do this for a while we float on down to the restaurant and have some nice warthog sandwich's. When we get back to the regional house yet more people are there and the place is starting to get crowded. I have dinner at the host family compound and then head back to go to bed as my head snot feeling too good.
Thanksgiving, what a hypocritical holiday, i cant think of a group of people weve treated worse, well maybe one, that we celebrate as if we didnt. For those who dont know we pretty much systematically wiped out the Indians from the north east, mid Atlantic, south, mid west, west and pacific north west. You name the area weve prob been pretty nasty to Indians there. But hey we give them this holiday as a little joke cause they saved our asses when white people first got to America. My thanksgiving sucked. I was sick all day. Not vomiting sick, but flu-ie feverish sick. I ended up with a 102 fever and was stuck in bed cause i wanted to fall over when i got up. I took a bunch of aspirin for the dinner and was able to eat a little bit of dinner but really didnt have much of an appetite. Ah well ill have another Thanksgiving next year and ill just have to make it that much better.
Friday was better, i was still a little sick but no fever and was able to eat some warmed up leftovers for breakfast. Unfortunately i missed the desert the night before and that was long gone. So i dont end up doing a whole lot Friday either as im just trying to get better. Thats basically what ive been doing up untill now, minus the few meals ive had at the family compound and the regional strategy meeting we had on Sunday. While at the compound on Saturday though, i walk in to it and right when you walk in theres a large 10x20ft shade type structure 10ft off the ground that has loads of corn on it. Ever since ive been there the corns been drying out. When i came in Saturday my uncle is sitting on top of it with about 5 little kids beating the corn. Now i wasnt really sure what he was doing until i remember that thats what they do to get teh corn off the cob. it was really interesting to see. They usually do this at a smaller scale with a bag, but they had a big tarp set up underneath it and he was swinging away at it. The kids loved it.
The regional strategy plan is roughly based on the millennium development goals outlined by the UN. It basically gave us a better platform to stand on to clearly define what it is we are trying to accomplish here. The meeting took 5hrs as we went over the entire doc, and the action plans associated with each of the 8 sections. It was interesting to hear everything.

Things that would be useful/nice to have

2008-11-27T04:29:00.000-08:00

So yeah i figured id post things that might be of use if i were to have them here in Senegal that i cant get here.

-Glue-less patches for my bike
-Panniers for my bike
-light for my bike
-I love cliff bars
-Ranch dressing and barbecue sauce, between warthog sandwich's and the bean sandwich's i eat pretty much every day, they make nice condiments
-tuna as i really don't eat meat here, the warthog sandwich is a special occasion, the beans and peanuts i eat constitute my protein intake
-battery powered speakers for an ipod
-seeds, send me and ill plant them
-Ok basically think about what you like about american life and if you can send that, ill prob enjoy it so yeah

ill post a post thanksgiving blog later this week so yeah you'll see what a african thanksgiving is like. It so far has involved slaughtering a turkey a duck and a couple chickens, if you've never plucked a bird before its a interesting experience. Im trying to keep from getting too sick as ive kinda relapsed to my little flu-ie symptoms i had last week. Im feeling ok today i had a nice sleep in so i think that helped out. But i think that thanksgiving and a really nice dinner will help out. I guess the Kédougou region is known throughout the country for having really good cooks, couldn't be in a better place. Ill update in a few days.

Newish

2008-11-21T09:56:00.000-08:00

So yeah havent been around a lot but theres not alot of wireless here and ive been kina busy. If anyone feels like shooting me a line id like that as itd tell me if its just my phone thats not letting me call the states. hope everyone has a great thanksgiving, weve gpot a huge turkey named tasty living in the regiponal house with us at the moment whop will soon be dinner. ill try and get another blog up soon though.

11/20 Fungolimbi

2008-11-21T09:54:00.000-08:00

So today was fun, i did end up biking out to Kafori/Fungalimbi. I didnt actually make it out to kafori but instead went to Fungalimbi. So i left this morning around 740 and made it down to the river crossing by about 8. I had to ride around the market a little bit till i found the right road that took me down to the river crossing, but i found it once i was able to find the mosque. So i made decent time in getting to Tougé. I did it in about an hour and 15min. I wasn't trying to break any land speed records or anything, and it was a nice ride. When i get there i meet steve and his family as he's eating breakfast with them. His dad, the chief of the village is really nice and i think might have remembered me from when we stayed here on our visit. So its while im talking to steve that i find out that kevin roxy and him are going to Fungolimbi that day for the luma, which is the larger weekly market in the region. I say what the hell i was just going to go hang out with kevin and do whatever anyway. Of course Fungolimbi is on top of a 'mt', (Senegalese Mt) but whatever. So steve and I take of for Dimbli to meet up with Roxy and kevin, and run into kevin on the way. Roxy is teaching an english class or something so he was the only one coming. We still need to go to Dimbli to get the rd to Fungo and to talk to Roxy, so shoot off back the way kevin had been coming. We get there and get to see Roxy teaching her english class, i guess steve needed to get some paperwork from her for a scholarship they were giving to a girl in Fungo, as that was another reason they were going. After this we take off on a road that shoots past the post de santé in Dimbli where we had planted trees during our visit. The first mile i guess was a little rough going as it was pretty much sand. Im not really a big fan of sand for biking.But after thats its the normal crapy road im used to. About half a mile of this takes us to the start of the climb, and thats where we start walking. Now seeing as id just biked out from Kédougou and it was pretty damn steep on shitty rocky road i didn't feel like being a hard ass and since steve stopped first i was more then willing to follow his lead.
When we get to the top you can really see a lot of the surrounding country side. You can also see all around the ash from where the fires had been burning. Kevin had been saying that during the night you can look up at the mt side and see these fires burning on them. But once we get to the top we still have a ways to go, kinda along the ridge with some ups and downs. Its a great ride and great scenery. At one pt a troop of monkeys ran out in front of us which was pretty cool to see. But we eventually get to Fungo. I guess its about 1500ft. So its not really that high but for someone who's out of shape it was more then enough as the roads leave quite a lot to be desired. The school where we gave the scholarship was at the high pt of the town and must have been 1600ft or so and you could really see all around. I guess its right next to Guinea also. The hills we were looking at around us were probably Guinea and we saw some 'border patrol guards' chilling under a tree. It didn't look all that official or too particularly bothered, although they did stop one guy on a bike and ask where he was coming from while we were talking to them. I guess Steve knew them. We also got to talk to the Eaux et Foret agent for the region also which was cool. Eaux et Foret is the government agency in charge of trees and water resources. I guess they've really been promoting the controlled burns that have been going on around the country, and steve was talking to him about that and some other stuff.
The market was pretty neat as lots of the stuff was from Guinea and for the region was pretty big. I got a great corn onion and hot pepper sandwich there for my lunch as well as some bissap juice. While we were there we ran meet a couple of important people in the community, we hung out at the dr.'s house for a while and were treated/subjected to prison break. Now ive never watched that in the US and don't ever plan to but it seems really really bad. But they love it here i guess, as i had watched at a friend of my brothers house a couple days ago also. After watching that for a while i decided to head on back as ive got a ways to go and my heads throbbing a little bit telling me im not 100% better. We go back to the market to get some water and steve points out the other road the shoots you down to the Kafori road but cuts off about 10k and drops you out at Velingarra. Before i take off Kevin gives me his Site locator form to give to andy to take to Dakar when he goes this weekend.
So i take off on that road, its a nice ride for a little while, maybe 20min or so and then it starts to get really steep and really rocky. Well the ride was nice the whole way. The view was even better then coming up because there wasn't as much vegetation to block you line of site and it was even prettier. But holy shit was that road something else. If kevin hadn't told me hed come up it in the PC car during his install to meet and greet important notables in his region, i wouldn't have believed that anything short of a tank could get up it. Needless to say i was walking my bike down this section of the road as well. Ive never felt like id wanted my helmet more, i mean i was really glad i was wearing my helmet the whole time. But one i was passed the worst part of the descent i hopped back on my bike and finished the rest of the road peddling. Id have to say that this road was twice as pretty as the other road. Now that i think about it we could have been at the highest point in senegal, which would be kinda neat.
Once back on the road back to Kédougou, it was smooth sailing. I was pretty much able to cruise the rest of the way back. I felt great on the way back to Kédougou though. I was cranking along for quite a bit of the ride. The ride back in is a lot more friendly as there is more downhills to enjoy. But like i said i was in good spirits and was really enjoying my ride. I think if i can do this once a week or so ill be content, just so long as my lang comes along. But i make it to the ferry crossing which is kinda neat, its a one car ferry basically, that is attached to a wire that keeps it from floating down stream and a rope that is used to pull it across. So its man power that takes it across the river. Once back in the city proper i stop to get a coke and to buy some kola nuts and fruit for my host family. They really are not very nice but have caffeine in them or something so they give you a little buzz. I tried one and they really are pretty gross, but they are kinda status/respectful thing to give people.
So when i show up at my host families compound, and they cant believe that i went to Fungolimbi and came back in one day. To most people here in Gou, Fungo is like the top of everest is what steve told me. After seeing both the roads that lead up to it i can kinda understand why they think that. My host dad is working on my door and loves the kola nuts i gave him. They bring out my lunch from that day which they had saved for me and i wolf it down, which prob wasn't the best idea as i kinda felt comatose after that. But since my feet and legs were red/brown to the extreme and i was kinda pooped i felt a shower and a nap were in order.
So i listened to the radio a little bit after my nap and shower, so i guess the price of oil has dropped a shit ton and a list of BNP members got leaked. Good times. I have the Economist and Time from the day after the election which is cool, reading about that was pretty cool seeing the breakdown of how the election was won. When i went back to my host families compound for dinner everyone was hanging out like usual. After i had made the rounds saying hello to people, one of my little brothers came up to me with a badly made paper airplane. So i decided id make a nice one for him. Well that went over really well. I had every kid in the compound thrusting sheets of used paper at me wanting paper airplanes. It was really funny. I guess theyd never seen one before and everyone wanted one. So i spent the rest of the evening making them and then eating dinner which i wasnt really too hungry for as id stuffed myself at lunch when id gotten back.
So a recurring event that happens every night during the week here at the Diallo household is Au Coeur du Pêche. Its this Brazilian soap opera that is dubbed into french and played every weeknight. I highly recommend that you have a look at it, its possibly one of the worst things ive ever seen. I mean its really funny but only because its soooo bad. While it is pretty bad, the dubbed french i think is helping with my french comprehension which is good. And its french french which is nice cause its easier to understand then senegalese french. So like i said this is a big event, I counted 25 people around the TV last night. Its truly amazing. So once this was over i leave to go get some sleep.

11/15 Tjibedji

2008-11-21T09:51:00.000-08:00

So here i am in Kédougou regional house, my home for the time being. So i was installed on the 10th after arriving in Gou on the evening of the 8th. It was a very uneventful trip down thankfully as we were in Sept places the whole time. We thought that we were going to spend the night in Tamba and go down to Kédougou the morning of the 9th but the drivers had other ideas. Luckily we were able to stop in Tamba to pull our money for instal. Not that it really mattered to me in the long run. But ill get to that. So we get down to the regional house about 7/8ish and get warthog sandwiches with pretty much the entire 'Gou Crew' as they are all in town for our install and a few meetings. It was a fun evening and we get to meet everyone. While we made it to Gou the night of the 8th, the girls in of our stage who were coming down had finageled their way into the PC car with Chris Hendrick. They didnt have to get up at 530 for a 6am leave time but a 11am leave time. While i was a little bitter about this, i dont really feel so bad anymore as it sounded like they had a miserable time on the way down. The car was completely full with too many people, too much stuff and they got a flat on the way to Tamba. They didnt get into tamba till late. So whatever but we all got there in the end so its all good, they just got there the morning of the 9th.
The next day was when we were supposed to get there and thats when we were expected and the current volunteers had ordered a whole pig for the occasion. It showed up around midday on the back of matts bike. the carcass of a pig sans head. Very interesting. Lets just say ive eaten some strange parts of pig now, fear factor doesnt bother me as much as it used to. But it was a great time, beer and barbecued pig. We got to meet the adopted son of the country director which was cool, he grew up in the states and is a badass basketball player i hear and just recently has moved back to Kédougou, so he'll be around which is cool. The country director was a volunteer here in Gou 20 odd years ago in dindéfella and thats where chris hendrick adopted him from.
So that night was really fun but i was being installed the next day so i crashed a little early so as to be ready. Lets just say everyone didnt follow my lead and i missed a bonfire and more drinking. This was a good thing as the car ride around Gou the next day was a bit rough for about half our group. We got to meet the governor and a few other notables in the town. After this we went back to the regional house and i got ready to get 'installed'. I put quotations around this cause it really wasnt a instillation as i didnt have a hut. Like at all. So basically i went and hung out with the fam all day and then went back to the regional house which is literally right down the street to hang out and go to bed. So basically i eat and spend the day at the house trying to pick up the lang and sleep and shower at the regional house which is cool as its kinda like im getting gently eased into my sight. Im not saying i wouldnt like to have a hut and be able to unpack. Id love that as im still living out of suitcase which sucks, and i can escape to the Regional house if im feeling like i need a break. i do get to watch my hut get built though which is pretty badass though. The other thing about my fam here in Gou is that its the same family that the country director had in dindéfella 20 odd yrs ago. Well its part of the family anyway and they all knew him when he rolled up and he knew them! He didnt know that i was going to be living with them so it was a surprise for him as well. So it was pretty cool that thats my family here. They are really nice and i think we'll get along very well, il just have to bust my ass to learn the lang, cause i really suck at that.
Well im not the only one who doesnt have a hut. here in Gou, Thomas Whitaker doesnt have one either. His was a little further along then mine, his had half walls when he was installed i think whereas mine was a trench where the walls were going to be. I just found this out yesterday as well, that kevin wilkins didnt even have a hut started when he was installed in kafori which really sucks for him. I guess he was moved into another family or something, ill have to ask him about it when we all come back for thanksgiving. Minus kevin and Aaron, everyone was around or came back for a meeting with Wulla Naffa on Thursday. Wulla Naffa is a NGO here in senegal that is funded by US AID and is working rather closly with the gold mining that is going on in the region. Their goal is to sustainably utilize the regions resources. Cause i was here at the regional house on Wednesday, i got to go to the actual meeting the day before, as the meeting on thursday was really just between peace corps and wulla naffa, kinda a meet greet and compare goals. Thomas and I went with another volunteer named daniel. While we were there we got to meet the main guy from Dakar for wulla naffa, and while we were talking, he mentioned that they were going to be bringing in a GIS system to help get some reliable maps down here. Knowing what it was and understanding/showing interest in what he was talking about might have landed me a side project working with their team on that.
So thursday morning, Hayes and Shelia biked back into Gou from bandafassi and Thjibedji respectfully. The meeting was a little bit of a recap for me but was neat as it really laid out in english what had been said the day before in french. So that was interesting, but it was cool to hang out with everyone for another day. Im definitely now a lover of the bean sandwiches. They have them all over down here and they have this great french bead thats like baguettes but about half the size. Its really good. I think ive had that every morning since ive been here and i dont see it ending anytime soon. So after that meeting we go to the market and get bean sandwiches and do a little shopping. Ive still yet to buy anything as ive no hut, but since shelia had already moved in and unpacked se had a few things on her list to get so we basically just took care of that. After that i took a nap back at the regional house and then went back to the family compound for the rest of the day. I got to play soccer with the army of little kids who live in my compound and the surrounding ones. It was fun as right next to where we were playing i got to watch the bricks for my hut being made out of the dirt from a big hole. There had o have been some concrete in there or something, but who knows. It was still pretty cool to watch what is going to be my hut be built. After dinner, i head back to the regional house for a shower and sleep. Talking to shelia i decide to ride out to Thjibedji with her and Hayes.
So we head out the next morning, the 14th. It was a great ride. hayes lives in bandafassi and thats only about 15k away. We make it there in about an hour. This arent you regular american roads were talking about here, but like mining roads, is the best comparison i can think off. It reminded me alot of the bike ride i went on in California in the Bristlecone forest and the sequoia national forest only wider. In Bandafassi we stop and check out Hayes hut, its badass as the volunteer she replaced had cement counters put in and its just really cool. While there shelia sees a chair being made and remembers she needs one at her hut. After inquiring and finding out its only 3mil cfa and that it can be attached to her bike no problem she buys it and has hayes counterpart strap it onto the back of her bike. This isnt a small chair, its like small dinning room chair i guess. It was hilarious looking but it was sturdy and made it the entire way to her site. A picture would have been priceless, but i wont soon forget that.
In Thjibedji we spend the day sitting with her host sister learning pullar and watching her cook. It really was helpful, and i think that with that shelia will have no problem picking up pullar. we walk around her village after lunch and meet and greet a bunch of people. it was really cool and me really jealous of the smaller village life that doesn't exist in Kédougou. Around 4 i head out so as to make it back to Gou before dark. Im kinda drained at this point as ive spent all day in the sun and had a 35k ride out there. Not a lot by my american standards, but im about 2 months out of shape and the african suns a little different. but i take off anyway and make it to bandafassi by 5, a god 20k so not bad, and hang out with hayes for a little but there. The site in Bandaffasi is really beautiful. Hayes basically lives under the face of a small mountain. The ride there you just keep getting closer to the mountain until you roll up on her village sitting there underneath these big cliffs. After resting for a bit her counterpart gets up and says that were going into the bush to get something for hayes hut so i tag along thinking we cant be gone that long. We'll we are and they end up chopping down 1 and a half trees for two posts with V's in them. Very expertly done, but we hiked a ways into the bush to get them and it took a while so i dont hit the road till about 615 and its getting dark. Basically about half my ride is in the dark/pitch black without my headlamp. Didnt think to bring it as i thought id be back way before dark. It was fun though and i got to pass some bush fires that were pretty cool to see in the dark.
The ride was badass and now im ready to explore some more. I even had a conversation with a local while we were both pushing our bikes up a particularly steep hill that i totally understood every word of. Baby steps with the language, baby steps. Im thinking that ill run out to kafori and check out kevins site for another little adventure. Tomorrow im going to the fields with my family to observe a little and to maybe get ideas for projects, as well as to try and pick up some vocab.
for' those of you with google earth and feel like checking out my site, N 12 33.477', WO 12 11.568' there you go. Not really sure what the WO is for west something, but you get the point.

swearing in 11/7

2008-11-08T04:45:00.000-08:00

So were officially sworn in as a peace corps volunteer. We went to Dakar yesterday morning for the ceremony at the ambassadors residence. The drive there was interesting, as all driving in senegal is. We actually got a police escort on the way there which consisted of a single motorcycle cop running the gauntlet ahead of us. Traffic got bad as we got closer to Dakar and the cop took us up the opposite side of the highway. That was definitely a experience, thought we were going to hit more then once to say the least.
Well we get to the ambassadors house on time and there was some local tv cameras outside for the occasion. The ambassadors residence was all decked out in american flags and leftovers from the election, so it looked like it had been all done up for us. The ceremony itself was nice, we got to hear the country director, the ambassador and the chief of staff for the president or something of senegal speak, as well as three people from our stage in their languages. It was nice. the little reception that we had afterward was nice and they gave us nice food which was very good. After we were all done there we headed off to the PC headquarters for some last paper work and to sign a doc saying that we had officially taken the oath, that all government employees take. kinda neat and more importantly they gave us our bank information for our living allowances. This was all done pretty quickly and afterward we headed off to the american club for a hour or two of relaxing. We got to swim and play a little volleyball which was fun. We really didnt have a whole lot of time there as we had to get back to the center in Thies for a little party thing to thank the home stay families.
That was interesting as the family member that came from my family was my sister who doesnt really speak pulla futa, and with my bad french there wasnt a whole lot to converse about. So overall it was fun to see the families one more time from Pout. Once they had all been thanked and given a certificate saying they had been home stay families, they were all driven back to their respective villages. After that our little celebration began, it was fun, everyone was happy we all made it through training and were heading off to our villages. I decided to try adn break the 'course time trial record' for racing around the compound on my bike at this point. Its two laps in under 2min basically. i think that i was pretty close, i wasnt really hauling ass cause it was dark and falling the day before we have to head off would have been silly. I ran into shelia doing somethign similar as she had heard me zipping by her room and was curious as to who was biking by. Id imagine she prob could have done the course in a faster time as well.
Well we didnt get a whole lot of sleep that night as everyone was coming in at all hours and it stayed fairly noisy in my room till 5ish. Not very cool when i wanted to go running at 6 and do my laundry but it was the last day not a big deal. So that brings us to today. Everyone is getting ready for their respective trips tomorrow and getting laundry and packing out of the way. So tomorrow we all head off at different times, but ill be heading off to Kédougou tomorrow rather early as its so far away and we have to take public transport to get there. Because of this we have to spend the night in Tambacounda and finish the trip monday morning. Some of the group is lucky and gets to ride down to tamba with the country director in his land cruiser. We switch it up in Tamba but thats the journey you want to be in the land cruiser for, to Kédougou its not bad. ah well, i need to head back and go for a run and pack up. So ill next post from Kédougou!

chaotic scatterbrain recap of a week

2008-11-05T12:30:00.000-08:00

so its election day and ive not updated for a while. We got back from pout monday afternoon, after 8 days in pout. It was a interesting week, as it was language intensive for the whole week. we looked after our garden a bit during the evenings but mostly just went over a few new language subjects and reviewed for our Language placement interview on tuesday, today. Sunday in Pout we went to the city football final. My brother Palomine is the keeper for the reserve team from quartier mbayen. It was quite a different scene then the last game that i was out. In that sense, considerably less excitement. The reserve game was ok, it was nil nil and went to penalties, and Palomine was substituted. The guy they put in was badass though, he saved three of them and they won the game. Palomine was very happy about it. We stuck around for the first half of the senior game and went back to our home stay's to pack up our stuff so it could be picked up the next morning. The senior team from Mbayen won that game as well, so it was a clean sweep for quartier mbayen. they paraded the trophy through the quatrier that night and everyone was having a good old fashioned street party basically.
So we came back to thies on monday afternoon after saying goodbye to our homestay families. We ate lunch with them and then waited around for the peace corps car. My family and lots of their friends were all curious about the election and wether or not i was voting for Obama. They all were very happy that i was voting for Obama even though when i asked them why they like him, some of them just pointed to their skin. i mean theyre not going to know the different policies and ins and outs of the american political system just like we dont know theirs. Hence we had a class on it on the 5th after the election. But we get back to thies and relax and get ready for the LPI the next day. I was rather worried about it as i felt like i was kinda at the same level as before maybe a little more advanced in the sense of knowing a few more verbs and how to build a sentence. Shelia and i go into thies to check email and the internet in general. So i study that night and still feel this kinda impending doom kinda feeling with the election, LPI, and other things going on in my life in Senegal. Writing this now on the 5th, one has turned out well in the shape of the election, yay ohio, way to step up to the plate. LPI is still unknown at the moment. We have the rematch of the staff trainee soccer game at 6, so thatll be fun, ill prob go into town after dinner for some interneting and beers.
So i had a crzy dream about 2 things, kinda seperate incidents. The first one was kinda neat/hectic, kinda a travel related one. We were going to Dakar for swearing in and we get to the Dakar HQ office and its got a huge rather american style parking garage underneith the building. So were pulling in and its really really long with support beams holding up the roof, and momadoud, from previous entries, is driving and for some reason were backing up and were late or something so hes just hauling ass down the length of the parking garage at top speed in the PC bus. Im sitting there think oh shit were going to hit one of the support pillars and wrap round it. we dont cause mama-dukes is the shit and we get to the door just a little late and make it to swear in. The second part that i remember was about the election and i thought it rather foreboding. Obama won by a tiny bit and everyone was all happy and celebrating but in 2000 fashion recount and he loses. Considering i had this the night before the election and my LPI i was a little nervous going into said day.
I just found out that our entire stage passed their language proficiency tests. Which is great as no one has early terminated from our stage also. The country director who was here to talk to us said that is the first time in a long while that no ones done that. I also just got my package from my parents, it had a really cool football jersey from croatia, as well as my obama pin, which im wearing now. After our last safety and security session we got our soccer game under way. It was supposed to be kicking off at 6 but the staff pulled the old switch-a-roo and moved the time up for some reason, some nonsense about daylight not being there or something. well due to some shady substitutions and some sub par defending on my part we were down 2-0 in the first half. In the second half i started on the bench and the rest of the trainees who wanted to play showed up by this point and subbed in. I tried to organize the team a little bit, but im not very good at that, and were not all soccer players. The second half was alot better then the first as we more then held our own and had more then 4 chances to put away, our last touch was just off. When i got back in i played up on right wing or attack. I think im better there as i can run more and expose tried defenders a little more. we had a few good runs up the wings once we started using the wings more. so the second half was good. But we ended up losing 3-0. Ah well what can you do, we'll catch shit from teh trainers now, but im pretty good at slinging it back.
So i suppose thats a really brief summary of what went down, really really brief. But ill be swearing in on friday at the ambassadors place or something and then off to Kédougou on sunday hopefully. So my new address there is as follows

PCV Alan Edwards
B.P. 37 Kédougou
Senegal
West Africa
so for those of you who feel inclined to send me things thats the spot to send them to.

10/24

2008-10-25T08:51:00.000-07:00

So today was definitely an interesting day. we woke up in Pout as all our counterparts are sleeping in our rooms in Thies. We roll into Thies to a late breakfast thats almost all gone and probably double the number of people that are usually there. I know from yesterday that at least one of my counterparts is coming as he had been in contact with andy from Kédougou who was helping with the Counterpart Workshop. The other guy who works for the forestry agency is the one that he didn't know about. But i get to meet Karumba when we get there and he seems like a real nice guy. He's got a bit of a crazy lazy eye but he knows literally 6 languages. So hes really smart. We get to sit through a days worth of orientation basically. Great fun but it was for the benefit of Karumba as we had already heard all of this information. In talking to him, i learned alot about him, he works for trees for the future and helps missionaries with language learning so e picked up english. he likes volleyball as well which is cool, so all round he seems like a cool guy.
The trainees all have to introduce a different session in the language that they are learning and i get to introduce the interview session in pulla futa. Im still not very good at all that but i get on with it. Its during this session that i find out about Karumba and his family and the like. I think i can honestly say ive never been so happy to hear that someone speaks french. Never thought that would happen! But seeing as he speaks all these languages, I think he'll be a great counterpart, especially working with trees for the future. After this session, during the break,i also found out a little bit about my homestay. Evidently im getting a brand new hut. Being built as we were talking i was informed. Good times.
The rest of the sessions were more of the same, lunch was interesting as there was so many people. THey opened up the dinner room for people as well because there were so many people. I think i heard that if everyone showed there would have been 80 people plus volunteers staff and trainees. Thats a lot of people in the small center. I just relaxed after lunch and read the rest of my Flashman book. Great book by the way, check it out, great fun. Very Sharp-esq but with alot more funny. But that reading basically put me to sleep and i have a hard time staying awake in the next session. Luckily for me i kinda wake up before the guy talking calls out someone else for nodding off. kinda funny really. The rest of this session after lunch is on the project plan for Ag/Fo in Senegal, again something we already had a class on. Oh yea all these sessions are in French or Wollof so weve really only a small idea of whats going on. They stop and recap for us in english every now and then, but its tough going.
After this session instead of taking a nap like i should i go with Shelia up to the main road and to a boutique to get some cookies. delicious little chocolate filled cookies, hit the spot they did. Something about sugar these days, just that much better. We get back and hang out in the sitting room area just chilling a bit till we realize theres no one else around and that the next session has prob already started. luckily it had only just started so we really didnt miss a lot. This session was on the counterparts role in our objectives and what was to be expected form them. The cross-cultural teacher made them close their eyes and pretend they had been taken to Japan and then ask the what they needed and how they would have liked to be helped in that situation. This session runs a little long so by the time were done, we have to all scurry over to where the cars are waiting for us so we can be taken back to our villages. The wollof speaker and us pulla futa folk were all in the same car. The head agriculture teacher snags a ride with us as well. Hes a nice guy, Yussefa. Kevin from our group taught him chillaxing after he dropped chilling like a villain one day while he was inspecting our garden and our tree nursery in POut. The funny part is he evidently uses it alot now! Its kinda funny cause hes this older african guy, kinda goofy but ubber nice, and he drops chillaxing and chilling like a villain, too funny.
The wollof village that the wollof group is staying in is about 4-600 people, and i feel like it would have been alot better had we been in something like that instead of a 30,000 person town. Ah well, what can you do, under a month left now. Oh yeah our LPI's were graded. I ended up bumping up another level to novice high, just one more level to go, intermediate low. I think if i bust my ass this next 8 days we spend in Pout ill be ok, but ill have to really work hard.
So when we get back to Pout we find out that were being picked up at 615, so we have to get up nice and early, which sucks. But we'll at least get breakfast at the center with everyone else. I was actually able to convey this to my host mother in pullar tonight which was cool. I just have to keep trying i guess. But speaking of my host family, its been a little odd here the fast couple of days as my host familys uncle who lived across the street died. I had meet him a couple of times and new his family. I remember them telling us us training that we'd prob all end up knowing someone who would die while we are here, but i didnt think itd be in pre service training. One other trainee had a death in the family, his dad died in his homestay family, so thats a little different. But i didnt understand the funeral procedures here, and when i was told a couple days ago at the center that he died and the funeral was the next day i figured it would last one day. No try 8. So i just figured that id not have to do anything, and didnt get why they kept bringing it up and talking about the funeral. I finally asked my brother about it and he said it lasts 8 days. This is the one that speaks a little english. I felt kinda bad about this as i hadnt made any kind of move to go and give my condolences to the family, outside of my immediate host family. So thats what i did tonight.
So if you really didnt know someone that well and they die, its a little awkward, now imagine youve only meet the person a few times and dont really speak the language. that intensifies the awkwardness ten fold. I was able to get out je suis tres desolie and condolences. My Aunt seemed happy with this, im stil not sure if i was supposed to give her money or something as there was a basket with a bunch of change in it next to her when i came over. Ill have to ask the LCF's about that. Her son is real nice and hangs out with my brother a lot so thats kinda how i knew the family. So that was my night basically, since i have to get up early im hitting the hay early. En jango bimmbi law

10/23

2008-10-25T08:50:00.002-07:00

10/21

2008-10-25T08:50:00.001-07:00

so today we spent at the training center doing our LPI's and some cross cultural things in the afternoon. I was going to wake up early and study for my LPI but ended up just getting up at around 7, which was still early really as my test wasnt till 920. So i get my usual breakfast of baguette and chocolate spread/butter and jam. I usually end up eating about a whole baguette of the mix. Not everyone else is up yet, but a good number are up doing the same thing. everyone wants to hit intermediate low to get it out of the way. One girl had already hit it on her first LPI, must have just clicked for her or something. Im thinking that mine will result in me getting novice high more for pity's/my confidences sake. It went ok i was able to describe activities i did in the past ok and the ones i was going to do in the future. I didnt know one of hte questions she asked and still cant ask questions. I just blank cause im staring a language teacher and cant think of what to ask them in these silly little scenarios they give you to prompt you. Ah well ive got one more shot after this to hit intermediate low, and if i dont then i get 'held back' so to speak till i do. If i dont get it in two weeks though, im doneski. So there is definitely incentive to make sure you get there.
After the LPI;s we have break with more baguette and coffee/tea, during which my roommates and I chill in our room listening to music. very nice. We have a session on the counter part workshop that we have this week where demba goes over the logistics of the week. Sounds like itll be interesting, theres close to 80 counterparts coming, 2 for every trainee. No wonder were staying in Pout during the CPW. After this we break up into our different sectors to go over the specifics that each group has to do to get ready. Basically every trainee has to introduce a session in the language that they are learning. should be interesting to see anyway. We also get assignments for different committees for different activities that are going on during. For me im on the welcoming committee from 3-5 tomorrow. I have to show the counterparts to their room and where the essentials are. If they dont speak french or Pullar, im thinking its going to be pretty difficult. I wanted to be on the tea committee as they just had to deliver charcoal and the little grill-esq things that they use to boil the water every day to the counterparts. But since no one was volunteering for the welcoming committee and it was getting to the point where someone was going to be volunteered regardless, i decided to take the fall for the team.
After this is lunch break and before lunch starts, as weve about 1/2 an hour, i decide to get my translation of the intro to my session out of the way. Its rather long, but its done now and lamine, my lang prof, looked it over and made the changes needed to make it make sense. We had a decent lunch today as well. some old rice and veggies, but the meat was a little curry-ie which was a nice change. We are informed about the ideas that are on the table for our stages tee-shirt, i guess every stage gets one. The ideas are ok, im not sure what one i like really. ones a picture of toilet paper with a big crossed out circle around it, with ive converted on the front. The second is PC senegal with the start of our stage on it and on the back is africa fun with three heads on it. the heads would have been demba, chris hendrick and someone else. The last idea was kinda vague, but would incorporate a phrase from each language that we thought was funny.
After lunch, Oliver, Jess, and I go into town to get money. Unfortunately all the banks are closed so i cant go to western Union and pick up the money id been sent. Oliver and Jess were just going to the ATM so it wasnt a problem for them. We end up hoofing it around town eventually ending up at the post office which is also on lunch break till 230 when our next class session started, and then promptly gave up. I make the decision to come back during the next culture session and get it taken care of as we had the staff trainee soccer game right after class in the afternoon. so basically i get back to the center just in time to turn right back round and head off back to the post office. I make it there in about 20min and theres about 4 other people in line ahead of me. Here in Senegal there isnt really line etiquette so to speak, people just bust a move to the front and try to get their business taken care of first. very hard to get used to for americans used to order and the like. SO i get shafted by 2 folk before i get pushy and get to the cashier. It was mildly confusing at first, but once i figured out what the numer-o was she was asking for, everything went smoothly... and it was all in french!! I was so proud of myself for that as im ubber paranoid about how bad my french is. I guess i can get by with the basic interactions at different basic shops/locations.
So i get back to the center in time to hear the end of the lecture on islam in daily life at the disco hut. THe guy talking was definitely english educated, very interesting to hear as most of the trainers are very clearly american trained. We have a break after that and the next session was on senegad or something. It was about Senegalese gender and development. The volunteer from Pout who is good friends with my family. She was told to keep the session short as we had the game directly after it. Thats really what i was looking forward too.
So we all troop over to the stade for the game. Well most everyone does, a few people who weren't interested in playing went into town for the internet. We had to play on the demi-all weather pitch i wrote about earlier which kinda sucked but the game was really fun. I think we got everyone who wanted to play involved in the game. that was the important part in my book really, and i think all the trainers and trainees all had a great time. The game ended up in a 3-3 draw which was totally unexpected as we figured the trainers would steam roll us. It looked like that was on the cards for the first 2/3rds of the game as it wa s2-1 going in to the half and 3-1 afterwards. We got our game together and caught them with the offsides trap a few times and strung some good passes together and got back in it with a fortunate goal and then with some great footwork chris leveled it with 10 min left! This kinda kicked the trainers up the back side a bit and they poured forward. IT kinda reminded me of the england argentina game a few world cup games age when Becks scored a penalty and then they sat on the goal and withstood the storm that rained down on them in the last 20 min. We had some outstanding performances though. In the first half our goalie totally kept us in the game, Tate was a badass and didn't take shit from anyone. The two goals weren't really his fault one was a absolute cracker of a goal upper ninety in the top left from about 20 yards out. Meg Thompson was also kinda a surprise, she played like a pro and totally took the trainers by surprise. So basically it was a great time and i think everyone would be totally down to play again like the trainers were saying after the game.
We all head back to the center in a good mood and have dinner which was great. Fries, salad, and fish. Everyone is kinda itching to go out and head up to pamandas(bar uptown) for drinks. I decide to head up to big faim for a beer and some interneting. Shelia and i go and chill for a bit, get my interneting done and have a beer. We end up chatting for a little bit. We head back to the center and some of the folk who didnt go up to pamandas were watching life aquatic on the projector the SEDers use for their tech training. great movie and i watch it for a bit before heading back to pack up all my stuff so some counterpart can use my armoire and room. Big pain in the ass but what ever.

10/20 Dakar

2008-10-20T14:48:00.001-07:00

So the next day we have to be @ PC HQ at 9. So everyone has to be up and at em by 730ish. Im feeling ok at this point as its a new day and i dont feel that awful. There were definetly people who were feeling the chinese booze so i though i was doing ok. We head out by 830 and make it to the HQ by 9, good for us as the rest of the trainees weren't going to get there till 930 as they were coming from Thies. So we get to hang out in the HQ til they get there. I guess the building is pretty brand spanking new as it just opened in january. The doors to get into the building could probably withstand some minor artillery fire which was interesting to see and heavy as all hell to open. So the rest of the group gets there and we meet a woman from the embassy who gave us some paperwork to fill out. She also took anybodies absentee ballot to send back in the states as a plane was heading back state side this evening. So my ballot is in transit as we speak which is good as itll get there with plenty of time. (hopefully)
We have to sit through a couple speakers from members of the HQ's staff. Kinda boring but important none the less. Its about this point that i really start to feel like shit. Not like sick as i was the previous day, but just headache and body ache. SO i sit through this and then have to wander around the HQ getting different members of the staffs signatures in a demi scavenger hunt. At this point im just lookin forward to getting out of there and getting my police report filed so as to get my money reimbursed and back to Thies to sleep and recoup. So once this little hunt for signatures is over, during which i find out that some of the SEDers in our group are using the info everyone gave them to make a list of everyones name number and location to sell to everybody. How nice right, makes me hate capitalism some times, everyone trying to make a buck. had i know that thats what they were using the info for, and had told me i wouldnt have given them it. Really pissed my off as i was already in a shitty mood. I mean come on selling us our own info back wtf? Whatever im not buying it.
Anyway we finish up the hunt and are getting ready to leave when i find out that no ones really that interested in going to file a police report to get our money reimbursed from PC. So im broke, sick, and pissed off for a 'fun' day out in Dakar. Great. The group i end up with ends up getting Indian food for lunch which sucks as thats the last thing im putting into my system to mess things up even further. It did look good for what it was worth, Jenn and Jared are good at finding good things to do. We head to the downtown area after that for the rest of the afternoon. the first stop was n-ice cream ice cream store. Again no money so no ice cream, i think thats the most upset ive been in country, toping even my language frustration. So we wonder round downtown and visit the french cultural center after that and the agricultural store that is one of the best in the country. Thats right across the street from the large toubab super market which was next on the list of things to do. It was really weird to go into as it was like a supermarket youd find in a european country. We mozy round that in awa at the contrast to what weve been seeing in our villages and the like. People end up buying a few things and the other groups end up visiting it as well, kinda funny really.
ONce everyone had had their fill of normalcy, we headed back up the street to the place de independence to wait for the cars to come and get us. Now in downtown Dakar, 40+ toubabs is a beacon to ever peddler and sales hawk to come running and try to get us to buy stupid shit. we were all sitting around the edge of this fountain that was drained, and theyd just walk around the edge of of it trying to get everyone to buy their stuff. Im pretty sure no one did. I suppose youve got to work right, i just dont think i could deal with that rejection really. The cars eventually get there and we all pile in adn head off back to Thies. I crash on the way back and wake up as were leaving Dakar, thats about an hour into the ride! After that i read for the rest of the ride, Flashman, great series.
So yeah were back now, dinner was good and Kevin and I are at Big Faim interneting it up before we study for our Language Proficiency Interview LPI tomorrow morning. I feel like my lang has come along even if it would prob be better if i could practice it more regularly then just in class. We do have alot of class mind you. Ah well i suppose i should study some and im out of beer so back to the center i go.
oh yeah so this week was supposed to be back in thies, but the counterpart workshop is this week. We get to meet the people we will be working with at our sites, which is cool, but because our homestay is close by we get to be bused into thies everyday and bused back every night. I was really looking forward to getting away from Pout for a little, kinda rubbing me the wrong way this past week really. whatever ill just be bitter i guess, anyhoo study study study

10/18 Dakar

2008-10-20T14:47:00.000-07:00

So back in Big Faim i sit again, back from Dakar and another kinda shitty time, a liter and a half of besap juice is not the best way to start off a stint in The capital. So about half of our training stage decided to roll into Dakar a day early to experience it early and take in the sights and sounds. When leaving kevin, aaron, ben, darren and I were taking a bit longer then the rest so were left behind. We had to make our own way to Dakar so we had to go to the gare and rent alhum's or sept places. Well by the time we get there we figure the group that had left before us would have already been on their way and long gone, but they're sitting there in an Al hum waiting for it to fill up which had to be fun as it was rather hot out. We decide a sept place is the best way to roll and promptly tell the people who are trying to get us into the Al hum that were not doing that and that we want to take a sept place. This basically saves us having to take a Taxi from the gare in Dakar to the regional house as with the sept place we can go straight to the door. So we basically end up geting there about 20min before them and claim beds in the packed regional house. I guess theres a lot of PCV's who were in their last few week/days in country and were 'close of servicing' and were in the capital. So it was lucky we took the sept place and beat out the other 15 people vying for the beds and space.
Once the rest of the group get there and settled, we decide on the american club as a starting point for everything. We swim and play a little sand volleyball, which was really fun, and have lunch which was also really good. Thats where i have my mishap with the besap juice, which is delicious by the way, just not in a liter and a half increments in short periods of time. i think the fact that it wasnt treated water the used to make it might have factored into the equation as well. Ah well live and learn. After this and lunch i group with the folks who are looking to head back to liberty 6 as im feeling a little off color and want to chill for a while. So we spend the afternoon back at the regional house relaxing. So about happy hour time we decide to go to a bar that a bunch of the PCV's know for cheap drinks. I go along, but am really not feeling all that happy so to speak but they had french soccer on the TV's there so i just milked my two beers and watched that. Entertaining in its own right as Marseille were playing and were playing a decent game. I end up talking ot oliver and daniel for a little bit as well, both nice guys. Oliver lived in France for a while and is a bad ass french speaker, and daniel lived in mexico for a while. They had interesting opinions on people studying abroad which i broadly agreed with as it really doesnt change your perspective on the world going to australia for a semester and partying it up with other americans. Theres some dissenting points which i dont fully agree with with, but for the most part i agree. Oliver likes soccer as well and we ended up talking about the soccer game against the staff we have on tuesday afternoon. should be good fun even if we do get beat up.
When everyone was good and watered, we head off to the Chinese restaurant that one of the PCV's knew and liked. That was really the plan form the beginning so everyone was game from the git-go. Kinda a hole in the wall place, but very good food, even if my stomach was in full revolt at this point. Theres about 3 full circle tables of us and another group of marines roll in so it was a full on american afair by the time we were done. A good time for sure minus my predicament. A bottle of some really awful chinese booze ends up on our table and after everyone tries it ends up staying there for the rest of the night. Really potent, and not really the best cure for a pissed off stomach i dont think. Anyway, after about 5 plates of food had been brought out and everyone was full up, we have to manage the bill which was fun, as there was so many of us all drinking different things, but it get sorted in the end.We all pile into cabs and head back to liberty 6 for the rest of the night. I just kinda curl up into a ball on the couch and try to read for the rest of the night before bed and then crash to hopefully feel better the next day at PC HQ.

10/12

2008-10-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

So today was quite a bit less interesting htne yesterday as no riots or international soccer games. We wake up around 8/9 and chill in the regional house for most of the morning. Jenn and Aaron go and get everyone bean sandwiches. As bad as that sounds its actually a great meal. jared shows up while we are waiting for jenn and Aaron to get back. I talk to him for a bit and relive the events of the previous night. Evidently another PCv got jumped while trying to leave the stadium and got roughed up pretty good. As the story was told it seemed like they thought that he was a gambia supporter and as they were trying to take his shirt realized he had a senegal jersey on underneath, and apologized for beating the crap out of him and stealing all his shit. But he lost about what i did and was significantly less off then i was. I guess i could have relied on that happening had i put up a fight and i feel a little less guilty for not putting up a bigger fight.
So Jenn and Aaron get back and we dig in as everyone else has gotten up as well. Everyone was really nice about the whole being skint bit and we were all taken care of for the rest of the day. We decided that we would go to the beach or the american club so as to change our interpretations of Dakar around. Jared had to go back to his house to get some things and seeing as he lived right next to where everything happened the previous night i decided i wanted to go with him to put to rest some demons about that area.
We caught a jeginjy(local bus type thing) from liberty 6, the are where the regional house is in Dakar over to the stadium side of town. We had to walk from there to Jared's house. We literally walked right past where we had been cowering from rocks the previous day. Not only that but Jared lives like 2 secs away from where we were. We could have gone straight there and been fine. Good to know now right! But i was glad i got to go back and walk around as it was life as usual, it was like nothing had happened the night before, minus the busted ass Senelac building and the remnants of burnt up tires in the roads. Everyone had lives to get on with so life went on. Jared and I hung out at his house for a while and headed out when Jenn txted jared to say they were going to the American Club.
So we started our journey back across Dakar to the american club, which PCV's get into free incidentally. It took us a while to get across town and two jeginjy rides. We had to take the firs one from the Stadium, basically right where everything was all crazy the night before with tire on fire and tear gas flying around. It was neat to see the north side of the peninsula though. We got to drive past a monument that president wade is having built kinda as a monument to be remembered by. Its pissed alot of people off as he cant do a lot of other things but is blowing all this money on a huge monument. Evidently it'll be as big as the jesus in Rio.
We eventually get over the Atlantic Club, which is really the American Club. A little slice of america in Dakar. A nice pool, tennis courts, volleyball court, and lots of americans and other ex-pats. When jared and I got there everyone else was there as well as the country director and his family. They were all hanging out by the pool in their swim trunks. Luckily for me i was ready for the beach the other day with my trunks on under my jeans. Chris Hendrick was chilling with us and just going over the events of the previous night. He was calm about it and didnt regret anything about it. It was a cultural event and we were going with experienced PCV's, shit just hit the fan. Nothing could have been done too differently so its was all good all things considered. We all hang out there for the rest of the afternoon, swimming and playing ping pong, evidently Chris is a competitor! We got to meet his kids and wife which was neat as both his wife and him were volunteers in Kedougou region. He breaks the news to us that we have to head back to Thies that night as we have class the next day. The security officer had told us to stay in Dakar till monday to get our police paperwork sorted out, but since we'll be going to Dakar next weekend, we can just do it then. Since about 2/3rds of us had all our money stolen he spotted us 10,000Cfa to get back to Thies which was really nice.
But we head back to liberty 6 to get our stuff and get ready to head back to thies. We take a sept place, which we were all really excited to be getting back into. After about 20min though we were all pretty much asleep as i think the events of the two days took their tole. We get back after getting the sept place driver to take us to the peace corps building instead of the gare for an extra mil. When we get back the story telling begins again, both form the beach party, which sounded like it was rather fun and us retelling our little adventure. After a while Kevin and I decide to go into town to do some internet-ing, and he wanted to get money, as his credit cards were very intelligently left here in Thies. We have a couple of beers and i typed up our adventure and check up on the world. All in all a much tamer day!

Senegal vs. The Gambia

2008-10-12T13:42:00.000-07:00

Oh my god, what a weekend. So like i said we went to go see the game in Dakar on saturday after class was over. It was kevin, Ian, Aaron, Thomas, Grant, and my self who all went to the game from the training center. A COSing PCV, Brin, kinda got us in touch with Jared who was getting tickets and they were really cheap so we decided to go. We all pile into the Sept Place that we had rented out for the trip and took off for Dakar at around one for a 4oclock kick off. Everyone else was going to go to a beach house for the weekend kinda as a way of chilling and getting away from Peace Corps for a while. We were planning on leaving the game and heading there. We got the sept place driver to agree to meet us where he was going to drop us off after the game and take us. The Drive there was rather busy as there was lots of people going to Dakar and it was rush hour as well. We make it there by about 4 and meet up with the other PCV's who are going all in all were going with a group of about 10 other americans. The line to get into the stadium is huge and we have to wait for about 20min to get in but it was an experience, with everyone all excited for the game and selling senegal shirts and headbands it was really cool. The bay before we go though we get a text message from our security officer telling people to be careful in Dakar as there have been riots there about the power outages that Dakar has been suffering. We didnt think too much of it but we were kinda joking around in the sept place if senegal didnt win, because they had too in order to qualify for the next round of world cup qualifiers as well as the africa cup of nations, that there was going ot be hooligans and a riot. Little did we know.
So we get there and finally get into the stadium after a bum rush of the gate. The group of trainees stay together with an american who is working in Dakar as well as a third year PCV. We all get into the stadium but not into the seating area as its packed and people are rushing the entrance ways to get into the seating sections. Theres no assigned seating so its a free for all once you get in. We passed two gates that led in to the stadium proper that were being closed up by police. They were billy clubbing the shit out of people to get them to get out of the doorway. It was crazy and the game hadn't even started! We keep walking around the inside of the stadium looking for a way in when a bunch of people all rush one doorway and we all jump for it. Japanese subway, wall to wall people. Just pushing everyone along trying to get in and get a seat. While this is going on pick pockets are going to town on us. luckily most of us have all our stuff in our bags or in pocket you cant get into. Kevin and Thomas both lose wallets and money, while someone was trying to get into my pocket for my phone. He didnt get it and i felt proud of myself for that, silly me that wouldnt last. So we get to some seats and sit down to watch the game.
The atmosphere was great, such a great experience, nothing bad had happened minus the wallets and we were all having a good time. No one scores in the first half and i got some great pics of the stadium and the game as well as a nice video of it. The second half starts off with a little more passion and by the 60th min senegal had scored a goal. The place blew up when they scored. It was sooo awesome. there had been drumming and chanting the whole game giving it a truly african atmosphere, but after that it got louder and some flares went off. Really a hell of a time. So that atmosphere changed from ubber jovial to deathly silent when the gambia equalized. Absolutely quiet. there was something like 3 min left in regulation plus about 7 min of stoppage time, but the mood had changed drastically. So the game ends in a draw and shit hits the fan.
The Gambians go nuts cause they think theve qualified for the next round and the senegalese are pissed. The Senegalese players eventually try to head off the pitch down the tunnel and are just bombarded with garbage and bricks. The riot police have to escort the players off with shields up to protect them. once the players had left and a good portion of the fans had left, the remaining fans decided to vent their frustration with their team by dismantling the stadium. They started small with the advertisements by pulling them down and setting them on fire. once they were all gone the started moving towards where we were. Luckily, or so we thought, there was a metal guard in the way of them and us. This was promptly dismantled and used to start breaking up the cement stairs to trow at the police. At this point we decided it was time to beat it. We get out of the seats and in to the inside of the stadium and the mood is completely normal. People selling food and cooking, walking no panic at all. As were leaving though we see aline of riot police running into the seating section we had just left to deal with the rioters. Problem over we thought. we start walking back to where we had been dropped off to meet the ride we were going to take to the beach. Off in the distance we were heading we can see tear gas going off and then people start running in our direction so pete decides its best to head off into the surrounding neighborhoods to try and get around the problem to get to the car. Great idea, everything is fine in the surrounding neighborhoods, life as normal. People cooking dinner and just being chill. So at this point we think everything is fine we'll get to the car and just leave. We get to where the car is and things are getting a little hairy but nothing really bad. As were getting into the car though we can see tear gas going off where we had just been walking and that starts a rush of the rioters our way. We hop in the car to get out of there but its too late really. Were crammed full of toubabs and everyone around us is trying to get into the car to get out of the area. Once they see that were full and not letting them in and that were all white they get pissed and start hitting the car and trying to take our stuff. So unfortunately were heading back against the flow of people running from the tear gas so were going up stream and end up hitting two people and we stop in the midst of chaos. After that we all get out of the car and bolt. The back of the sept place opens and someone says get out the back and i hop out and am in the think of it. All sept places are station wagons and i was in the far back. as soon as im out people are grabbing me and trying to take my bag with all my stuff in it. I try as long as i could to hang on to it but with so many people trying to take it and not wanting to fall to the ground fighting for my stuff i just let go and bolt. My stuff is replaceable, im not. Getting my ass kicked over a camera, phone, wallet and money didnt seem like a good idea. So i dart and get about 100yards away and realize im all alone and theres no one from my group around me. Quite possible one of the scariest moments in my life. Middle of a riot in a foreign city, oh yeah this was our first trip to Dakar, with absolutely no money or means to get in touch with anyone. Right as im about to really start to panic grant is running towards me in the exact same situation. ew make eye contact and relief spreads across our face. were kinda being ushered away from the center of the riot by locals who are actually trying to help. Some of these guys were trying to get Grant and I to take cover in a tent to get out of sight. Luckily Grant spots some of the others from our group heading off in another direction and we take off trying to catch up with them. It was a lucky spot had he not seen them we would have been completely cut off from our group with no way to get in touch with anyone.
Everyone around us is telling us not to run and to calm down so as to not make the situation worse. All in french of course so im guessing at most of that but hand gestures are fairly easily read.we Catch up with our friend who are taking shelter in a tin roofed shack right in front of the Senelec building.
Senelec is the power company in senegal and the recipient of most of the rioting the previous couple of days. Needless to say in front of their building, rocks were pouring down on the tin roof liek rain. As i said people were helping us and id say more people were trying to help us then hurt us it was just crazy. One of group got hit in the head with a rock but was fine, just bandaged up. We realize at this point were down three people from the car, Thomas, Ian, and the americans(jenny) roommate. This is when we start trying to get in touch with etienne and chris hendrick, the security officer and country director. While pete is doing that we are calling thomas and Ian and luckily get in touch with them. The same thing happened to them as they were in someones compound right by where the spet place hit the people. They were fine and safe so the only person missing is jenny's roommate a Italian who name escapes me now. He was fine but had booked it to the embassy after helping get the car off he guy we had hit. We didnt hear from him till later in the night though.
So eventually the rocks abate a bit and 4 stern looking riot cops roll up on us and our protectors. We tell them that were short 3 members of our group but 2 are in a compound down the road towards where we had come from. We head out of our shack and back into the scene. It was right next to a divided highway and there was tires burning in the road pretty close to us. Right after we emerged, a big truck full of riot cops flys by us rolling over the burning tires and the only thing i could think of was how scared the riot cops looked.
One of the original cops who found us walks with us back towards the sept place to find Ian and Thomas and luckily they come out and meet up with us. We head back the way we had come from our hideout and start taking some rocks again and the cop tells us to get back into the residential area behind where the senelec building was. we duly oblige him go that way. Behind the building was a residential street where a bunch of people were taking refuge. THere was some americans and fernch girls who were back there as well and we all got ushered into a nice looking house with a big iron gate. We end up staying here for a good couple hours as we regroup and count our losses. Grant and I were really the only people who had stuff taken from us out of the sept place thankfully. Jenny had her bag taken and her phone, money and keys were gone. She had no way of getting in touch with her roommate so was a little worried about him.
We basically chill and recap what had just happened. It all went by really quick and was kinda mind blowing. a.) we hit two people b.)we were in a fucken riot c.)all stuff got stolen d.)thankfully all the Peace Corps people were ok. After a while in the living room of this house we go up an their roof to get some air and check everything out. it cooler up there and night has started to descend. Luckily the game was played during the afternoon and not at night time. had it been at night i feel it would have been 10x worse. as were hanging out up there we here some pop/explosions and everyones eyes and sinuses start burning. Tear gas is floating our way so we all retreat back downstairs for a while. That was really the last of it though i think the tear gas was to clear up the last of the rioters.
Pete who is kinda in charge at this point tells us that we should move and the were going to Chris Hendricks house. were all cool with this, as we joke about living it up with the director and drinking scotch and smoking cigars with him. we originally were going to grab cabs and head over there but the cabbies dont want to drive yet so the powers that be send over a land cruiser for us. At this point id take any driver just to get to somewhere vaguely secure. The car rolls up and we all pile in but end up going to the regional house in Dakar instead.
Its a pretty cool place, no one was there when we got there but we got some food and relaxed a bit. Brin and sandy show up after a while at which point we decide we should find some liquid therapy. We end up killing 2 bottles of whiskey between us and just reliving the events of the day. Wasnt quite a day at the beach but quite a experience. We end up staying up till 3 going over stuff adn joking around.

10/10

2008-10-10T12:07:00.001-07:00

So i didnt get all the way updated, but i will when ive the time, i wrote it all down in my journal @ the time but havent put it up here yet. Well were off to Dakar tomorrow to watch the Senegal Gambia soccer game, and then form there off to a beech house for a break from PC for the rest of the weekend. It should be a good time, ill try and update more when i get back on sunday.

10/9

2008-10-10T11:58:00.000-07:00

So were back in Cees, we got back today at around 6ish after our 12 hour bob Marley filled adventure. We left the Kedougou regional house at around 7am so as to make decent time. Unfortunately as we found out on the ride down, the section between tambacounda and kaoulac is the worst so you have a fairly pleasant ride at the start of the trip and you begin to think it might not be that bad. Well then you hit Tamba and the shit show starts. I dont think ive ever been on roads as bad as this as i said before and have never been so happy to have a land cruiser, even if Mamadou likes to drive rather fast. weve come to the conclusion that hes the head henchman for the peace corps transportation and was the driver for us on our ride out from the airport in Dakar. The honking patterns are roughly the same so were fairly sure hes one and the same. But with Mamadou comes the inevitable bob marley tapes. a great tape i will say, but when played on repeat for 11 hours on the way down it got a little old. So on the way back up it had really worn out its welcome for the rest of the car. Im just glad that i like Marley in the first place. Other then that and the on huge pot hole we nailed, the ride was fairly uneventful.
Since we left so early we stopped at about 8ish at a little village along the road for some bean sandwiches and bread. THats one thing that the french did a damn good job of teaching the Senegalese how to do, was bake bread. I bought 2 kinda half baguettes for 200Cfa and they were delicious. The way it works here, which appears to be fairly universal is you can generally buy bread and they have some kind of sauce to put on it, generally chocolate, butter, mayonnaise-ie stuff, or beans. Its a pretty good deal and is really tasty. I basically have this for breakfast in pout every morning with a cup of Nescafé. I was glad i bought the two and saved half of one for later in the ride because we didn't stop for lunch till late so i was held over by the delicious bread.
In Kaoulac where we stopped for lunch and to drop off a PCV who had hitched a ride with us from the Regional house, we ran into the bus that was coming back from south of the Gambia. I guess their experience crossing into the Gambia on the way down scared them off for the return and they left a day early and went around the Gambia instead. They seemed really happy to have been in that bus for so long. THey did have nice AC which we really didn't have so that was some sort of a trade off. We had burgers again for lunch which sounds good, and was, just not really your normal idea of a burger as i mentioned. I had one for dinner at Big Faim as well. but everywhere i've had them here thats the norm.
So after lunch we took off again and made good progress. We made two stops after this where the driver mamadou bought corn and watermelon for his family just at the side of the road, and then again stopped to buy a bag a charcoal for his wife. It was an interesting experience, all these people shoot up to the cart with everything they're trying to sell and stick it in the car yammering at you in woolof, pullar, or the local lang. Its very very interesting. After they realize were not the ones buying anything and we dont really speak any of their lang, the splotchy french comes out where they want the bikes on the rack or something else we have. I swear between bonjour, @ anytime of the day or night, and toubab, they all know give me your bike in french. Its a riot. we get it a lot in Pout as were biking to class, but i was hearing it today as we were driving through some of the towns we were passing through.
After these little pit stops though the bumpy journey continued and concluded without any further incident. Once we were back the normal catching up with the other volunteers took place. i think we were the second or third group back from our PCV site visits. I had to organize all the dirty laundry i had accumulated over the past week or so so i will be able to do them tomorrow morning. Because i was busy trying to sort out all my stuff, George Carlin is coming to mind when i think about stuff, i missed everyone heading out to get dinner. I guess they weren't sure what time everyone was going to get back so there wasn't dinner for us tonight. So i hoofed it into Cees after the organizing and made it to big fam right as most everyone was getting ready to leave. I chilled with Darren and Chris who were sticking around for a little while and ate my burger Royal 2 cokes and a particularly good piece of chocolate cake. Yea i splurged a bit i never eat that well in Pout. Big Fam is a neat little restaurant, its got Wi Fi and AC so it really was a splurge. Cant get used to that as there's nothing like that in Kadougou!
RIght now im just writing a little bit and downloading all my pics from my trip down south. everyones pretty beat tonight, travel has the tendency to do that and being cooped up for 12 hours in the back of a bumpy land cruiser will defiantly do that. I figure with tomorrow being basically a technical day with no language, i can afford to run in the morning and then do laundry before class starts @ 8. The track and soccer field is a great little work out even if i feel like im losing 10lbs of water running. Ill just have to remember to pound water like its my job this time because i didn't do that last time and felt like crap. Pretty sure that was dehydration kicking my ass.

10/4

2008-10-10T11:55:00.001-07:00

So we woke up around 8ish from the regional house and hung out with everyone for a while. We manage to get Mamadou to drive us all out to our sites even though we'll have to bike back in. Before we head out we walk up the street to a boutique to get some breakfast which consisted of bread and chocolate. Kevin and I just got the bread and butter as we were going to put the left overs from the night before into the bread to make a sandwich. It was really tasty, and after wards, Shelia, Steve and Hayes and Lindsey took off for their sites in the cruiser.
Kevin and I were waiting for them to get back and then we'd head out to Steve Woods site @ Togué. While we were waiting, Steve took us into the market to have a look around and show us Kadougou a little bit. It was neat walking around and actually hearing pulla futa spoken. The town was really cool not as big as Pout about half the size but better i think. Being here next to the mts, makes it really cool and it just has a good vibe to it. So after walking around the market a bit we went back to the regional house to wait for the land cruiser to get back. When it did we reloaded the bikes and our bags back on board to head off to Togué. Roxy came with us as she lives right up the road form steve and she was delivering a huge package of mosquito nets to a local health center and wanted to use the car for that.
Because it had rained for the past 4 days before our arrival the normal route that we were supposed to take was un-passable due to the ferry being washed out. So we had to go the long way on a back road that was even worse then the ones we came down on. The only thing i could think of while on this ride was Camel Trophy racing for land rover. We had a video of it when i was little of somewhere in South America and they raced across Brazil or something on just awful roads through huge puddles of mud and steep rock faced grades. I feel like our land cruiser took part in the Camel Trophy lite racing. Still badass though. We drop off Roxy and her mosquito nets in Dimli and then head back to Togué.
Togué is a neat little town of about 100 people who all farm peanuts, corn, or funion (spelling?). Steves host father is the chief of the village and a very funny older man. Steve speaks awesome pula futa. Hes like a local basically. we went over to his counterparts hut and hung out for a little bit to introduce ourselves and then had dinner at the chiefs hut. We had the rice that steve had bought for his family. rice with oil never tasted so good. Hungry dogs eat dirty dinners or something. We really didnt do a whole lot in the village today as we had just gotten there in the evening and we were quite beat. We kinda laid out a plan for the three days we were going to spend in the area and settled on going to a waterfall at the village kevin was going to be placed at tomorrow and then hanging out and checking out the fields of Togué the day after and then heading back on wed morning so as to be back for thrurs morning when we had to head back to cees.

10/3

2008-10-10T11:51:00.000-07:00

So Today we headed off to Kagougou from Cees. We left at 730ish in our PC Land Cruiser. It was crammed full of stuff as we were acting as a pack mule for a couple of the regional houses along the route, like a computer, absentee ballots, med's, and other miscellaneous stuff. All this on top of all our bags and 5 bikes. It was quite a fit! Somehow i missed the memo saying that id need a bike and didnt get one yesterday, and all the other people who did get bikes got new helmets, a pump, patch kit, oil, tool kit, and saddle bag. Luckily the compound manager showed as we were loading up the land cruiser and i was able to get the helmet, and gear as there was a couple bikes we could use at the regional house in kadougou. i was really happy to get all this as i was relying on the one that i brought from home for all this.
So we eventually get everything all loaded up and everyone crammed in. Its all the kadougou volunteers minus aaron who was going somewhere else because of his language. So that makes seven total with the addition of hayes and lindsey who are both learning french. The journey starts off fairly uneventful as everyone is kinda tired and trying to sleep or listen to music. About 20k in a truck has gotten itself stuck almost literally completely across the road. I have no idea how it got to this location if you saw it youd wonder what on earth the driver was thinking positioning himself like that. Ah well welcome to Africa! there was a gap on the far left where we squeezed through and carried on. That should have been a hint for the type of journey it was going to be. We have a driver who blasts along, which makes sense as weve a lot of kilometers to cover but he really zips along.
So at about Kaoloack is where things start to get a little bumpy. At first its kinda a thought that this cant last that long. tsk tsk tsk thinking like an american, this lasts basically till we get to tambacounda. They are working on it its just kinda weird and sporadic the locations that are being worked on. The streatches that are done, like leading into tamba are really nice they just need to get the whole road done. Maybe by the time i leave. But to demonstrate the speed at which our fearless drive was zipping along at, we are all hanging on bouncing around the back of this land cruiser, and its fairly steady all things considered. Kevin is getting ready to drink some water when all of a sudden BAM everyone is air born water all over the roof of the car and shit all upended, we must have hit a huge pot hole or something that no one in the back was ready for. Its not like we were really going that fast by american standards, it was maybe 50mph or so but for the terrain, that sort of thing is the risk. After that everyone is wide awake and paying attention to what is coming next, craning their necks to see the road ahead. After that though nothing that big happens again. I will give momadou his dues cause nothing feel off the roof he really knows how to tie shit down, even if hes using one rope!
Once we get to tamba the road get a lot better as were driving through a national park for most of the rest of the journey. We stopped in Tamba at this place called best burger, no joke. NO one there looks like its closed but a guy comes running out to try to get us to come in. Were all in the mood for burgers or any food so we settle on it. Now the thing that most people are thinking is a burger and some fries sounds good right? yea but were in Senegal, not how they role here. So here in Senegal they put the french fries on the burger and for good measure toss a fried egg on there as well. Its delicious! I guess thats what they consider an american burger. After Lunch the drive was ubber nice in comparison. We got to see chimps and monkeys while driving through the park which was really cool. They were just hanging out on the road and all ran of when we drove by. It was really cool.
We ended up getting to the regional house around 645ish and were greeted by pretty much everyone from the region. They had come down to inspect the replacements. About half of them were getting ready to leave or leave in 6 months or so. All in all there is about 8 or 9 volunteers down there right now and were bringing 8 more so were doubling their numbers if only briefly. They had a great greeting for us, a nice home cooked meal of taco meat, spanish rice, salad and cold beer. It was cool meeting everyone and just chilling after that loverly car ride. We crash in the open air sleeping area after hanging out for a while.

10/2

2008-10-10T11:49:00.001-07:00

So im sitting here in my room in thies listening to the Beatles white album thinking about my trip to kedougu tomorrow. It should be a interesting trip, ill get to see the country at least, literally we drive from almost the north west in dakar to the south east in kedougou. It should be very interesting.I hung out with Dorothy and Erin at the magic croissant tonight as i sorted out some internet things. I got a blog started and a few pictures loaded to facebook. Im still not sure what the deal is with loading pics, i can kinda load on or two at a time but thats about it. The whole blog thing should be a good way to keep updated on things and people informed back home. Ill shoot short emails back saying im back with the internet if im only around it for short periods of time saying ive updated. RIght now im hanging out in the main room of the training center re recording the grey album so that i can listen to it during the ubber long car ride tomorrow. Ive got a good mix of things to listen to right now but this would top it off quite well. Ive put some of the music that matt stein gave me onto it and im kinda into it. some of its really out there though so im not so sure aout the majority of it. Shelia was just in here, i guess ill be spending quite a bit of time with her as shes going to be assigned to the same PCV in Kedougou. So that makes the training and shes down in the same region as well for her placement. Everyone in our pula futa group is down in this region except Dorothy who is in kolda. As well as our group, we have picked up the mandinka folk as well, well some of them anyway. Hayes and Aaron are both down in our area as well.

2008-10-10T11:49:00.000-07:00

Actually today!

2008-10-02T12:28:00.000-07:00

So here's today's post after all that! I woke up nice and early from my home stay in Pout for our ride back to Thies. Well our 'ride' was supposed to pick us up at 8, but around 9 we were still sitting around waiting. Right when i was going to call Lamine to see what was up, the Peace Corps land cruiser rolled up with Shelia, Dorthy, and Steve on board. We zipped round to pick up kevin and thomas and then went back to Thies for our language class for the day. We only had class for half the day as we found out in the afternoon where we were going to be placed for our two years here in senegal. So me starting this here blog today is kinda fitting as i found out that Kedougou is where ill be going assuming i make it out of training. The language classes are progressing, right before coming back to Thies we had a evaluation which placed me at novice medium. We have to be at intermediate low by the end of training so i think its doable.
Korite was yesterday which was a interesting affair. I got to run around in my boubou for most of the day which was interesting as it was quite a specticle for a toubab to be running around in one, toubab is woolof for foreigner/white person i believe and we get it alot in Pout from the little kids.
Korite for thise playing the home game is the end of rahmadan, so it basically means that everyone can now stop fasting during the day and eat breakfast and lunch again. Oh yeah not alowed drinking either during the day. At about 720 everyday my family would break the fast with bread and coffee which was awsume, even if i wasnt fasting. The korite meal was possible one of the best meals i think ive had. Maybe thats a factor of being in Senegal away from my favourite foods but it was damn good. Chicken marinated in garlic and onions with a bunch of spices. Sooooo good and lots of it! Other than the eating and going to the mosque, which was a interesting experience also, it was alot of sitting around. It was cool, it was like all the other days, lots of sitting around, thats the african way. Everything is ubber laid back which is kinda cool, just takes some time getting used to as i walk really really fast everywhere and try to be on time. so i clash a little bit currently. Ill get used to it as it seems liek the way to be when its sooo hot during the day.
So it was a fun on korite even if we didnt get up to much. But back at the center it was nice to be back with TP and a shower as ive been taking my bucket baths in the turkish toilet since my 'shower' room is clogged up. We had our language class followed by a brief session on peace corps administration. Right after that they took us to the basketball court that happens to have a large map of senegal on it. We were told to close our eyes and we were placed over the area where our site will be, and my site was kedougou. 16,000 people and in the south east of the country. about 15hrs away by car rumor has it. We get to find out tomorrow as were going there for our PCV site visits. should be interesting. well we leave at 7am tomorrow so im gunna go, ill prob write again in about 10 days.

Late Late Late

2008-10-02T12:20:00.000-07:00

9/21
So today was our off day. We basically just hung out for most of the day. I woke up ubber early and went running for the first time of my stay here in Senegal. I went up to the track that we were at yesterday and ran about three miles. It was very muggy and i was drenched by the end of my run. but it was nice. I put on this stick bug repellent which seems to work quite well, but seems to warm up while it son a slight bit. So by the time i was done with my run my legs felt like they were on fire. I think i ran the three in about 19/20min or so and then jogged back to the training center afterwards. There was guys there training for soccer when i got there at about 7am. I think i might do the same today and then do some laundry if ive got the time.
Were heading back to our villages tomorrow for 10 days so im not sure if ill have a lot of time to do stuff tomorrow so ill have to ration my time. I think we'll be learning about planting gardens and that type of thing which will be nice again. We were told to dress for getting dirty. So hopefully we'll be doing something fun!
I pretty much sat around for most of the day trying to sleep. This was after i showered and ate breakfast. I took a few pictures from around the compound which i hadnt done yet. i got a good one of myself and the peace corps sign, yay for tripods! I also got one in the garden where we did our demo the other day. Like i said i tried to sleep for pretty much the whole day so i really didnt end up doing anything till after lunch when i went into thies to try and upload some of my pictures, which ended in complete failure. ah well ill have to try when im back after the homestay.
We got to play a little ultimate frizbee when i got back to the compound, everyone was already over at the stade playing so i changed and ran over there to get in on the action. it was fun, but evidently you need a permit to use the fields there. Not like we'll be using them for a while anyway as were gone for almost three weeks now. After our village visits, were off to the PCV's sites so we'll be able to use our languages legitimately.

late again

2008-10-02T12:15:00.000-07:00

Again late but here we are
9/20
So ive kinda missed a few days, but thats cool. Its the 20th and and we spent the day doing training for half the day. We learned about the administration of Senegal for the first half of the first session 8-10. We had a test about the purpose, goals and objectives of our agfo project plans at the end of the session which was cake. Hopefully my language will be easy like that at some point. We got bikes after that which was great as im super pumped for being able to role around on my bike and have a little more freedom in some sense. I got a semi nice one which looked like it hadnt seen maybe as much wear and tear as the last one. It actually looked like a proper bike in the sense that it had a straight bar and seemed to handle well. I might fiddle around with it a little more if i have the time which i will most likely have. It was fun actually screwing around with a bike, even if i was dripping the whole time. I think it should work out quite well. We had a session about safety and security after our the bikes were handed out. The safety and security session was kinda depressing as its meant to scare the crap out of you to get you to behave and not do stupid stuff.
After this session we were done for the day and had lunch. I havent mentioned the lunch protocol which is cool. Its traditional Senegalese style with a big bowl of rice and with meat in it in the middle with 4-5 people sitting around it all eating out of it. Its kinda cool. My host family also eats the same way at dinner so it was nice to get used to that before hand. We had fish today which is very senegalese as they put some pesto type stuff in it thats spicy and very nice. overall ive been very happy with the food in general. breakie leaves a little to be desired as its bread and tea only. lunch and dinner are great though and i eat my fill every time. After lunch i reviewed my pula futa with one of the girls whos in our group. Shes called shelia, every time i hear it i think aussies and crack up a little bit inside. I think we'll work well together in sorting out this language stuff. Steve and kevin will also be good for studying while were in pout as well.
We had our first lesson on ag/fo techniques yesterday which was ubber cool. We learned how to plant a nursery and about seeding and things like that. It was very refreshing to get out and actually do something with my hands as we had yet to do that yet. We have to start a nursery when we get back to our home stay families on monday, well tuesday as we get back monday night. Basically our time in pout is spent learning the language which is important and also now doing a little gardening. Our language lessons are in this secondary school thats a little run down, mind you that quite a bit of things around here are that way, its just how stuff is here. Ill have to take pics when i get back its quite a scene. Its kinda a amphitheater style set up and were kinda backstage so to speak, only theres no curtain or raised stage.
While in the training center, weve run into other volunteers who have come back to assist the trainers in their different bits, weather thats health safety or technical stuff. They seem like an interesting bunch of people and all seem to enjoy it even if they really enjoy coming back to the training center to get a decent meal.
After studying with shelia today we both went into the city to do some interneting and pick up my booboo and pants that i had made at the tailor with the wax cloth that my and aaron bought on monday. It was pretty good as we only paid 5000cfa for it and thats about 10$. Its pretty neat ill have to wear it and see how it behaves.
After we picked up my clothes shelia and i went to the magic croissant for the internet.
When we got back people were frizbeeing and kicking a soccer ball around which was cool. Some of the girls were getting ready to go across the street to run around the track so we got a group to go with them and play a little soccer. It was super fun. I really want to get this language stuff down so i studied after dinner as well.
It was fun playing soccer though, they had a ubber nice field to play on and there were organized practices going on so we had to take the all weather pitch first but once they were done with the secondary field we moved over to the nice grass field. we also got some of the local kids in on it as they were watching us. A Iranian guy was there with his dad running so he joined in as well. It was truly an international affair. Truley global sport soccer is! Theres a game at the end of training where we take on the staff, which im really looking forward too. We'll get smoked but we'll put up a fight if ive anything to say about it.
So im sitting in the multi purpose room type area listening to keller williams incident writing this and chilling. ill have to write more later.

A little late, but ah well

2008-10-02T12:11:00.000-07:00

Well i meant to do this while i was in Philly but never got round to doing it so nows as good a time as ever. Ive a few older posts ill tag in here just cause,

I wrote this on the flight over so its kinda the first one
Well hello everybody, im writing this from a south african airways flight on my way to Dakar. Incidentally if youre looking for an airlines that doesn't charge you for drinks, both alcoholic and food id recommend these guys. Yay for free gin and tonics! Well my orientation stuff in Philadelphia is done, a very nice city, kinda puts cincy to shame. At the same time though its got a lot more people and doesn't have the same type of fell as home. I managed to get a run in while i was there which was cool, totally gives you a different perspective of a city. We were staying in the historic district and so my run took me past alot of some cool sites. While we were in Philly i was able to get in touch with a buddy of mine from HS who lives in Philly and chill with him for my last evening, last night, in the US. Its crazy how people grow up, the last time i saw matt stein was quite some time ago really, but it was cool to catch up. Matt hooked me up and gave me a bunch of music to listen to while on my travels which i owe him big time for. We left Philly this morning after going to some government building to get our yellow fever immunizations and then took off for New York City. Im happy to say this was the first shot ive received in quite some time that ive not tried to pass out on, so im very happy about that. Its weird i was more nervous about getting that then the whole buggering off for two years and now that its out of the way im feeling really good about everything. Im with a group of about 40 other volunteers who are all cool folk. All very like minded, go figure. Senegal should be a very interesting experience though and with the first three months being kinda centered around the learning and integrating aspect, i feel like i should be able to handle it. I was rather surprised about the diversity in the group, in the sense of where everyone came from. It is truly an american group with people from east west and everywhere in between. But the group should be a very encouraging and helpful group to be with. Interestingly enough i had kinda figured that there wouldnt be anyone else from around cincy or ohio, but there was a girl from N.Kentucky and a guy from Toledo. so that surprised me a great deal. Well im looking forwards to getting this 8 hour flight over with, even if we get in at 513am, and im sure ill have more to say when i get there and get all oriented at the training center.