fun, friends, and frustrations

Jigeen Gem sa Bopp....Girls Believe in yourself!  That was the cheer of my team at our wonderful girls camp.  The week started off with a bus ride from Dahra to St. Louis.  The girls didn't talk with each other at all and were looking at the crazy volunteers in the back singing and dancing.  We got to the University and proceeded to stay up until midnight playing name games and such.  I was exhausted on the first day!!  The next day was our business theme.  The Peace Corps staff member that is in charge of our small business sector came and played a game about making and saving money with the girls.  They seemed to love it.  Oh!  and everyday before breakfast we did about half hour of zumba!!!  and we also danced to Beyonce because she's great and everyone here loves her.  We also had a panel of college students that day.  The next day was environment day.  We took a field trip to a PCV garden and they learned about composting, planting trees, and making nurseries.  After the garden we took them to the beach, which could have been the best part of the whole week.  Most of the girls have never seen any body of water let alone the ocean!  The loved it!!!  they were picking up garbage and finding plastic bottles to have people put ocean water in for them.  and then we let them put their feet in and they freaked out!  Fantastic!  We also played the Lorax for them with translation.  The next day was women's rights day.  We had a speaker that came and talked about going to college and the fact that women have all the same rights men do.  Then it was health day which was a great hit!  We had a mini olympics in the morning and a midwife come in the afternoon for a question and answer session.  The girls loved it!  A volunteer also gave a nutrition talk and played a game with it and it was interesting to watch because the education system here is very different than the education system in the U.S.  Here they just memorize things, so when it is time to apply what they learned it is very difficult.  That night we also had a bonfire, which was insane.  We just ran in circles around it while singing songs and people kept getting closer and closer.  I had a mini panic attack at one point.  Oh speaking of mini panic attacks, we used whistles all week to call girls to do something and it drove me up a wall because whistles have never meant good things for me.  So when girls would just blow whistles for ten minutes straight it drove me up a wall!  But so the last day was gender and development day.  This was another great day.  We watched a movie about women that grew up from similar backgrounds as these girls and have great success stories to tell.  And then we had one of the women in the movie come and talk to the girls!  Awesome.  We also did Theatre with the girls and they are great actors and hilarious!!  Then that night we had a talent show and gave out cake and certificates at two in the morning because things just went so late that night!!  Overall, fantastic week!!  The next day we had a bus ride back to linguere with the girls being much more talkative!  The girls just blossomed over the week and it gives me so much hope that they will do more with their lives.  I wish there was a way that we could keep up with all of them but its up to them now.  :-) 

So that was the fun and friends part......infections and PC doctors are frustrating!  I have had a skin infection for the past monthish and tried to see a doctor two weeks ago but couldn't get in.  So I finally sent pictures and description to one of the doctors and she was like you need to come to Dakar asap.  So I got on the night bus, which is by far the easiest way to get to dakar from linguere, after a lovely birthday party for one of the missionaries daughters.  She turned five.  We had delicious lunch with homemade cake and ice cream afterwards.  But so I get to Dakar and I settle into the med hut and one of the doctors comes gets me to go to the dermatologist.  I went with two other girls and we were waiting outside and they asked me if I was going for a mole removal too.  In my head I was like seriously!!!  Do you see my skin??? Do you really think I'm going for a mole removal.  but to their faces I was just like nope I have this lovely skin thing going on.  and they were like oh ok.  If you all could have seen this infection you would think the same thing I did.  I had bumps all over my face and chest and shoulders and neck.  It was a ridiculous question.  But one good thing that came from this was that I got to spend the week in the med hut with AC, internet, hot showers, and good food!  I also got to skype with so many people and it was wonderful.  I also got to run along the ocean and I don't want to leave.  Dakar is wonderful with the ocean and I don't want to go back to where everything is about to die.  But I will get through and get reacquainted with the desert.  It will be nice to see my host family again.  Oh and the PC doctor told me that this whole thing started from a bug bite and told me to see how I could avoid bug bites in the future and I was like I live outside!  I can't avoid bugs. lol.  But real work is starting now which is very exciting.  Hope all is well in the good ole U.S.A.  until next time.

The Rains down in Africa

Just got back from inservice training and Dakar.  Inservice training was much more useful than pre service training.  All of our sessions were much more applicable to what I am going to be doing.  I got a lot of project ideas which is exciting and I am also really excited to start my baseline survey.  However, I can't start that until the end of October because Peace Corps is just now standardizing our baseline surveys so they can actually compare the data we collect.  So because of this D.C. has to approve the questions and they haven't done that yet but I have other things to keep me busy until than.  Before IST was good as well.  Ramadan has finally ended!!  Korite was kind of a let down.  The morning was good.  We made beignets in the morning for breakfast and spent the rest of the morning cooking for lunch which was delicious!!!  My dad slaughtered a goat for lunch and dinner as well in the morning.  But other than that we sat around our compound and people came to say hi and ask for forgiveness for any wrongs they may have done you.  And also to show off their new clothes.  My mom and sister made me a new outfit for Korite which was super nice of them!  However, the next day I did laundry and washed the outfit and my sister saw and told everyone else.  I forgot you aren't supposed to wash new clothes until after the third time you've worn them and so I got a lot of grief for that one all day.  Even my dad made fun of me for it!  I have also decided that I never want to be in a room full of teenage-early 20 year olds again.  My sisters husband came over the night of Korite with a bunch of his friends.  I was settling in my bed outside for the night to watch the stars before dinner and my sister came out of her room to tell me that they all wanted me to go in there and hang out with them.  So I did....bad life choice.  I went in there and the conversation never left me.  The boy I sat down next to decided within two minutes of me being there that he loves me.  He told me in English once he found out I was american and then when I didn't say anything back he was like you don't understand me....then said it in French.  I was like I understood you the first time!  My first language is English!!!  Then they all decided that they wanted me as a wife but I had to break it to them that I'm a selfish girl and I don't want to share my husband with three other women.  They all tried to tell me that they didn't have any wives yet but my sister had my back and told me that all but one of them had at least one wife already and most of them were 18.  Crazy world I live in.  But then one of the boys asked if I could drive a car and I said yes then he asked me to be his chauffeur.  haha!  I told him I didn't know how to drive cars in Senegal...which is technically true because they are all stick shift and I don't know how to drive those.  I then had to go eat dinner which was a nice relief but they told me to come back after dinner.  I sat with my mom and rest of family after dinner for a couple minutes and told them that all the boys want me to marry them.  My mom was like just tell them they don't have any money or they need to have a lot. lol.  Then I got grief the next day as well for that.  I also think my family can have the shortest memories ever when they want to because my family and I talked about me leaving the next day for at least 15 minutes.  The next day when I was sitting on my bush taxi, my dad walked by and asked where I was going.  Then my aunt walked by and asked where I was going.  goodness. 

After spending ten days in Thies for training, I went to Dakar for a few days and it was great!  I got to eat good food and swim in the ocean.  I also stayed with a friend that lives in an apartment overlooking the ocean....great way to wake up.  I didn't want to leave but I am headed back to village tomorrow.  It will be great to see my family again.  And I can't wait to see how my garden is doing. 

I am also going to add a plug for one of my projects again.  I am currently trying to raise money to buy computers for my school in village.  Each computer costs $75 and my school director would like 7 computers.  Computers and the ability to access the internet are becoming more and more important especially for kids in villages that don't have any other access to educational resources.  For these children the internet will help them progress farther in their studies.  So please consider donating...https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1004912 

until next time....