Camp Gem Sa Bopp

In the U.S. girls have many opportunities to become and do whatever they dream.  Here in Senegal girls and women do not have that luxury.  If they have grown up in a bigger city then maybe the will create a life outside of the house for themselves.  However, many women in my village of Affe will never leave because they do not have the opportunity.  They also do not have the support system in place that many girls in the U.S. are lucky to have.  Many girls are expected to get married at a fairly young age and begin a family.  These women are some of the strongest women I have met.  They cook and clean and take care of children all day without the modern conveniences the western world has.  However, many girls drop out of school when they are teenagers either by choice or by outside pressures.  Men do not have those outside pressures to drop out.  In fact in most cases they are pressured to finish school.  When asked what they would like to do when they grow up, many girls say doctor, midwife, teacher, or something similar.  They have the same dreams that little girls in the U.S. do but do not have the same liberties to realize these dreams.  In September a group of Peace Corps Volunteers, myself included, will be holding a camp in Saint Louis for 12-15 year old girls.  The camp is named Gem Sa Bopp, which means believe in yourself.  This is an amazing opportunity and experience for Senegalese girls to get outside of their village and meet successful women.  I have included the website of the camp.  Please take a look at it and consider donating even five dollars, every little bit helps.

http://campgemsabopp.wordpress.com/donate/

 

Greenery

So not much has happened in village except a couple of really awesome things.  The first one was one day when I came back from a run my aunt had on this beautiful blue outfit and so I told her that it was really pretty.  She asked if I wanted it and because all Senegalese people tell me they want my stuff I said yes, not thinking she would actually give it to me.  But then twoish days later she came into my hut with the outfit and gave it to me!  I was shocked but now I have a wonderful new outfit that my mom made me wear when I went into linguere last weekend.  The Senegalese dress up when they travel for some reason.  I normally wear just comfortable clothes but I had to wear this nice outfit because they told me to. lol.  Then the next awesome thing that happened was when I was cleaning my room one day and the same aunt came in and saw my tub for food and asked what it was for because it has a cover on it.  So I opened it and she asked what was in a package and I said macaroni.  Then she asked if I wanted it for dinner and I said yes, once again thinking that I could do it myself sometime but then on thursday she cut up onions and potatoes and mad me a delicious pasta dinner with a potato and onion sauce!  My stomach was bursting afterwards because a different aunt had brought my normal dinner in first so I ate that thinking that was my dinner and then my other aunt brought me the pasta and I ate it all.  So good!  I then headed into linguere to begin our fourth of July trip to Kedougou in the south of Senegal.  It was about a 12 hour car ride including blowing a tire and many bathroom breaks on the side of the road.  But we made it fun and it slowly got greener and greener on the way down!  It was so beautiful.  Kedougou has forests and rivers and fat cows.  I haven't seen a fat cow in Linguere since I've been here.  Then on the 2nd a few of us hiked through the beautiful green forest to a waterfall and went swimming.  The water itself was great to see and be in but the waterfall made it spectacular.  On the hike back it started to rain and we had to hike almost the whole way in the rain which was delightful because I have only had one rain since I've been here.  The next day the same group went floating down a river together. It was wonderful.  The water felt so good.  We got a little freaked out at one point because a man on the shore told us that there were hippos and that the part of the river we were floating to was bad.  However, there was no place to get out so we just had to keep floating.  Guess what....no hippos.  But we did see monkeys playing in the trees!  It was so cool.  Kedougou has hills that look like mountains compared to the flatness of my area.  I didn't want to leave but we eventually had to.  We had a huge party on the fourth at the regional house there where pigs were roasted and delicious food made.  We had fireworks and everything.  Then on the fifth we made our trek back to the north.  This trip was a bit shorter, being around 11 hours.  We also stopped at a great gas station that had everything.  I got chocolate milk, cheese, pringles, chocolate, and pretzels.  It was amazing and I wish we had one in Linguere.  Now it is time to go back to village and work.  until next time....