TravelStream™ news feed for member snowinsenegal on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/snowinsenegal en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:17:54 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/2/1244433600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/2/1244433600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/2/1244433600/tpod.html Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:17:54 -0400 Denali Once Again

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Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, United States

Hello hello all,

Just a quick up date from way up north. I just went on my first backpacking trip of the season and lets just say things were really teeth chattering frigid. Anne and I were stuck in a tent, in our sleeping bags for a good three hours before we decided that the closterphobia and cold might just make us go a tad crazy so we bundled back up and decided to head back down. The mist and fog was crazy thick like no visibility 10ft ahead...then as soon as we crested the little ridge we had been chilled out on and literally chilled out on, things got clear and the sun peeked her little round golden orb to say "hello, don't go!" So we decided to stay and found a new camp site right by this super neat rock outcroping. Dinner was...well not good per say but...warm in our bellies. Then began the long night of trying to sleep but because the sun is out all the time we kept waking up every two hours. But then at two o'clock in the am, sleep eyed with slight headackes tucked behind really tired eye lids...we saw her. The mountain Denali all pink with Alpenglow. That was why we stayed even though we often thought back to the cute little Snow shoe hare who came so close to us at the start of our climb. We thought he came so close to tell us "no don't go." But in fact perhaps he was saying "good-luck, I'd give you my foot if I could but I need it, take the one over there." We actually saw quite a few snow shoe hare feet because apparently everything but their feet are tasty morsles to the bear, wolf, lynx, and wolverines out here.

Then Sunday after returning from the journey I had to lead my first McKinley Station Hike and...besides being beyond tired I actually had a blast leading folks down the little trail and talking about the natural and human histories of the park. In fact I loved it. I'll be a Ranger yet...or maybe I'll start gorilla ranger led walks...think card board ranger hat and long curly mustaches hiding in the willow and spruce steeling unsuspecting tourist from one hike and taking them on my own...tee hee. Thank you Cassalyn for that image.

love Desneige

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/2/1244236017/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/2/1244236017/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/2/1244236017/tpod.html Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:35:57 -0400 Denali Once Again

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Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, United States

So here I am again in Denali. Life is good. I still think about Senegal a lot and I'm starting to ask myself "was I really there for two years?" because when I come back to a place that feels like I never left I just feel like those two years were a dream.
But this summer will be very different from those two past because I am working for a different non-profit, the Denali Education Center and so far I really like the people I am working with and while I am still learning the ropes for the job I think things will start to flow pretty smoothly pretty soon because it just feels right being here. Although lately I've been really missing Maine too. I wish I could be in two places at once...don't we all.

But so things have been pretty darn swell so far. I have a great little trailer all to myself located right on this little overhang with the rushing Nenana not for below and I fall asleep even in the midst of all the sunlight still shining through because the sound of the water flowing is so peaceful. I like living near the Arctic circle because the sun never really sets during the summer here and its actually really awesome because sunsets and sunrises last so freakin' long. So lovely indeed. I'd love to spend a winter one of these years but the long days of darkness...its a frightening thought...not that I'm afraid of the dark or anything...but well, anyone want to join me?! Think about it.

So also I just wanted to say hello to everyone like really HELLO. HOW ARE YOU!? I have a lot of emotions and thoughts going through my mind these days because while I love this free spirited life I've been living going this way and that...I'm torn with thoughts of wanting to be near those I love so just so you alls know I really do think of you often and I enjoy the happy memories we've sharred. I'm realizing I'm becoming more and more literal and sappy these days...oh dear, oh my.

love Desneige

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1234180440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1234180440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1234180440/tpod.html Mon, 09 Feb 2009 07:08:05 -0500 Adventures in Senegal: woes and wonders

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Dakar, Senegal

Hello everyone,

So this is it. The last entry I will make from Senegal and I'm feeling really good about it because its just time for me to go home. I've learned more in two years living in Senegal about development than I think I ever could back in the states sitting in a classroom and I am so grateful that I got to do this. Its been really really tough, expectations not met and the environment more different than I have ever known. I know quite a bit more about myself now and am ready to start the next chapter of my life. I think if this adventure were a book it would have one of those endings that leaves you with a smile, a good feeling, but also you know you'd never read it again. Oh I know I'll come back here to visit, I'd love to do a trip someday to the neighboring countries, but it probably won't be to live here ever again. And that is very strange because two years of my life have been devoted to this place. Its the longest I've ever been in one place that wasn't close to mommy and daddy, if you know what I mean.
So with that, I say thankyou to Senegal and the Peace Corps and all the friends I've made here you will not be forgotten and to those who I've said I will keep in touch, may god help me keep my word. Life is always moving and I've climbed another mountain here and now I start at the bottom of another...

I fly home on my birthday. The 20th of February. I touch down at 2:45 pm on the 21st of February at JFK and will be in NYC for a week then home to Belfast on the 2nd of March. Can't wait to see you all again and hear your sweet voices!

love Desneige and wish me luck!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1230571800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1230571800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1230571800/tpod.html Mon, 29 Dec 2008 13:26:40 -0500 Adventures in Senegal: woes and wonders

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Nguith, Senegal

hello everyone, its been five months since my last entry. And well I guess its because I've been really busy with visitors and also these final few months are so weird. I lay awake tossing and turning and wondering did I do enough, what could I have done better, and I realize that two years is not enough and even when Peace Corps puts people in the same place for six years, the transition from one volunteer to the next is never smooth. The most frustrating thing has been the work and I think every Peace Corps Volunteer will say that. So many factors go into producing an actual project and I guess all my ducks didn't line up because I can't help but feel like I tried everything I could and still was anything acomplished? I know I need to think small and I guess on the small scale I feel very accomplished and its a pity that my mind keeps wondering back to wanting the entire village to have successfully participated in a project or the school to have started art and theatre programs with me. The village elders gave me some funding for the library but it wasn't enough to make anything special like I wanted to, but it might as well be so because now I'm having trouble getting anyone interested in doing a literacy program at the school...they just aren't excited about it...then I think about how I have only one month left...then I think about thank goodness I only have one month left and then I think about how I'm just not motivated anymore. I don't like giving up but when endlessly trying gets really tireing what else can you do? My answer: save it for when I get home and am in my own culture, speaking my own language, where I really know people because we can say more than just "how are you, how's the family, how's the heat." I see the missionaries in the area and one family has speant nearly 8 years here and, they've seen thier fair share of failure, of course, but they've also put in the time and have seen results with thier awesome milk project and health education facility. They've seen us PCV's flow in and out and complain about work and really its because we just don't have enough time here... Two years is not enough to do development work but its is enough to know if its the type of work you want to do. So at least I know that its not the type of work for me at least not internationally. I think becoming a teacher is the ultimate form of development work but I know enouhg now to stay in my own country. And I'm not saying that I don't like Senegaliease culture by any means. I love it and have had some wonderful times here and I think the hardest thing for me when I go home will be losing the ease of living I've achieved in this culture. Wolof is a super fun language and people use thier entire bodies when they speak. I can joke with everyone and whenever I dance everyone just laughs and I'm one of the family. But I will never be Wolof and I think that's what makes work here so difficult, I sapose if I had a Wolof husband and lived here for the rest of my life, I could come close, but in reality I can't wait a lifetime in order to find a job. I can't wait any longer for work to happen. I hope I'm not disapointed in the States when I return home in February...I'm applying to be a Park Ranger and if I get it I don't think I'll have any problem finding work to do! Alhumdililay!

So a quick update of my past few months. October brought my mom to site for two glorious weeks! She was such a thrill to have there and because she spoke French she was able to ask all the questions I'd always wanted to ask but had forgotten to. After two years you get so accustom to things that you forget to ask why you're doing them. We had so much fun fabric shoping and getting clothes made...at one point mom even wore pants on her head to a babtism. They made a perfect head wrap!! Then we met my father in Dakar and had a wonderful two weeks touring the coast of Senegal, relaxing on the beach to riding camels in sand dunes, mom and dad even salsa danced to sabaar drumming! We slept in a Baobob tree and body surfed till the sun went down, all three of us just laughing in the waves! I sent them home with lots of stuff, the taxi was so full that even if I wanted to ride with them to the airport it would have been impossible.
Then in November my best bud from college came, Siri. She spent two weeks in village with me as well and we catalougued all the library books in the stinking heat as well as helped host a girl's leadership conference. Also she got to experience a day in the life of Desneige trying to work at the school...ask her about it sometime, she felt my frustration. It was great having someone to vent to and to talk to and reminisce about old times over a cup of coffee (she brough me organic, fair trade, deliciousness!) Also because she is a newly liscenced massage thearapist, we did massages EVERY night! Also we played YATZI...pretty much everynight at least two games. Quite a treat. Then she and I speant a fabulous few days in St. Louis in a cute little hut for super cheap. We bought lots of wine and chocolate and splurged on two amazing dinners. Then we did henna and played a final game of yantzi where Siri rolled TWO Yantzi's in ONE game!!! I cried when all visitors left.
Then I spent a month working with two other volunteers planning this final seminar on Community Content Based Instruction, basically my primary job these past two years. So we're working with my former school director on inviting 27 schools to participate and learn how to encorporate environmental education into lesson plans. We also are inviting the Forest Service, the Hostpiol, and the Agriculture Service to attend because we want to start getting schools to invite these groups to do talks and projects and do something other than stay in class and lechture all day long.
Then the week of Christams brought me to Toubob Diallow to do a week long African Dance workshop. I loved it! Absolutley loved it and I met some wondeful people. Also because I can speak Wolof I just got a long so well with everyone and really three hours a day of dance and one and half hours of drumming and then getting the most yummy food ever and getting a single room...The hotel gave me a special deal for being Peace Corps and I really appreciate thier hospitality, really really I am so grateful to them. So I put in a special plug for Espace Sobo Bade in Toubob Diallow. Good food, good prices and a beautiful setting...not to mention the nicest staff ever!
Christmas Eve was pretty spectacular, first a nice dinner dressed in my green booboo, then Chrismas Caroling with two other friends, then we had a final show and got to see our dance instructors and drummers put on this really great performance, then my little group did our bit and had such a blast. So so fun! Christmas day brought me to Mbour just an hour south of Toubab Diallow to visit my Catholic friend and I got a free ride all the way there, it was a pretty sweet day! We ate great food, listened to Christmas songs, and I even got to drink wine because they're Catholic! He has a wonderful family and the cutest baby ever! Again great hospitality and yes Taranga is real in Senegal but you have to know where to find it.

Now I am back in Nguith. I'm counting down the days and know it will be hard to say goodbye but I truly am so excited and ready to be home. I miss you all and I hope this holiday season was wonderful for you ALL!!

love with all my heart! Desneige
for photos with my mom and dad:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=david.hallbert&target=ALBUM&id=5280234796694327105&authkey=pUFgBBlN7tE&feat=email

Siri photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/dhallbert/SiriSPhotos?feat=directlink
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1222604880/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1222604880/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1222604880/tpod.html Sun, 28 Sep 2008 09:44:08 -0400 Adventures in Senegal: woes and wonders

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Nguith, Senegal

So this month started off with a pretty cool event. The Dakar Isle de Goree Traversee meaning myself and about 15 other peace corps volunteers swam from Dakar to Goree Island (Gorée is known as the location of the House of Slaves (French: Maison des esclaves), built by an Afro-French Métis family about 1780 - 1784. The House of Slaves is one of the oldest houses on the island. It is used as a tourist destination to dramatize the horrors of the slave trade throughout the Atlantic world. It was rumored to have been the slave-shipping point for all Africans captured into slavery. It was said to be thier last stop before heading to the Americas. Today it remains an important trading post)
The island is about 3 kilometers away, although for some reason they upted the race to 4 k this year even though it was the exact same route...hmm. Also the reace was sapose to start at 10:00, we showed up at 9:00...it didn't start till 12:30, typical. About 500 people signed up to swim, drink salt water and offer thier bodies to the waves and blistering sun made worse by the reflection of the water. Cap burn happened, and it was not so fun (I put sunscreen on I swear, I guess I needed to reapply for a third time.)
I preconditioned for the week before the race, going to the pool and only ever swiming about half the race (swimming laps in a pool can be a little boring...) I swam two open water test swims and hnd serious doubts about doing the race because the salt water that gets into your mouth is so intense. It makes you gag. You have to make yourself not swallow...also I had heard that you swim with plastic bags, bottles, and various pieces of trash, not to mention you swim through streaks of oil that leave black wavy marks on your body...why would I want to do this? Good question...perhaps it was the challange, the comrodery, the rumored sandwich, t-shirt and red bull at the end, I don't know. Its something I will probably never do again...but while doing it...it was really quite peaceful. You get into a rhythm of stroking and breathing. After the initial start of flaling arms,legs and waves, it then becomes just you and the open water. When you come up to breath you look up at the blue sky and every now and then you look to see where the island is and readjust your course accordingly. The salt wasn't nearly so bad as it had been at the other open water site so that was a welcomed surprise that not all salt water has the same salinity. At the end I was pumping what was left of my strength and I was racing a 14 year old boy...he beat me, I came in 154 though and I was pretty proud of that. I practically fell over from exaustion while people handed me my number, water, redbull and...where was the sandwich?...oh you downsized to little crackers...well that's ok... I didnt' do it for the sandwich...it just would have been really really nice.

Since the swim, village has been interesting. The maribout, or religous leader, of my town died while I was in Dakar for the swim. Apparently it was a pretty big blow to the village and now everyone will ubstain from any form of dancing for an entire year out of respect. So all weddings and babtisms will have no dancing...no dancing...NO DANCING!! That's my life here in this village, that's how I connect to people here....the women's groups and celebrations...now all will be reduced to sitting around and talking and eating...the same thing that we do everyday. I know this will be hard on everyone and not just me. Everyone here loves to dance, I mean its thier other life. Kids play thier tomato can drums and beat on tin chairs and they dance. The women have the weekly get togethers to escape from the house, dress up and beat on pots and pans and dance. Babtisms and weddings happen at least once or twice a month and they are always dancing!!! Well I guess its good that I only have five months left...five months...wow.

It went so fast and yet sometimes it didn't go fast enough...like the month of September-Ramadan. I don't want to disrespect this month in any way its just that it is the nightmare of any Peace Corps volunteer who actually came here to work. Basically you have to resign yourself to let sleeping dogs lay, because well they aren't eating, and they aren't drinking (even though its utterly hot and humid out). I tried fasting for a day because everyone is always telling you that you should do it with them for solidarity, so I thought sure I'll try, why not, then I can actually say I tried. My host mom didn't think it was a good idea, saying it rather condecendingly, which made me all the more want to try. Oh Desneige, you and your pride! I realized later that she had a valid point...I don't pray...I'm not Muslim, I'm not helping them by not eating and drinking. The day I fasted left me utterly useless. My body felt so tired and lazy and I couldn't do anything...I read Fountainhead and got over half way throug with it (great book by the way!). My reasoning now for why I don't fast is that I don't like the way I feel...my body...useless, lazy...I already feel enough of that here so once I got over why I don't fast...I'm feeling much better. The breaking of the fast is my favorite part, we eat a fig, drink this speacial sweet tea (which I went and harvested in the wild), curddled milk like yogurt here, watermelon, bread with a speacial sauce that changes each day and these string beans prepared like edemame...so good. But I don't get all of that just at my house...my house is a little different so I basically go to different people's houses each night and get a variety of what really happens at the breaking of fast. This is the only way I survive Ramadan...because on top of this....meals are now left overs at lunch and dinners are at 10:30 at night, also the young men of the village like to stay up really late and they talk loud and laugh...then they sleep till 2:00 the next day...that way they only have five hours of real fasting...I get mad at them though because the mothers and young women and the farmer men work all day and fast... and then they have to deal with loud talk at night...I just don't get it. Respect is huge here and yet the respect of sleep...not respected at all.

But now I am back in Dakar awaiting the arrival of my mother. Only four days left of Ramadan and then Koritee with my mom! And then two weeks later my dad comes and its a little vacation in Senegal for us three!

These last five month are going to be the hardest. Because I'm dealing with a new director at the school which makes all work done before he was there...pretty null and void...starting over agian when you only have five months left is hard. I want to work on fixing up the Nguith library they have and don't ever use. We have so many French books! Kids and young and adult and some research books. While other villages are working to build libraries, mine has one and has let it go to waste...I want to work on creating a literacy program at the school but we'll see if the village elders can pull together to help fund it. I know that if a few people from the village pitch in we can fund it and I don't want to ask anyone from home to give because that's what happened last time, people from home helped build it but the village wasn't really part of it...when my village friend and I asked to raise some money within the village the elders asked..."what's a library?" Other projects include maybe doing a play based on a children's book about picking up trash, and also doing the evaluation on the Trash project in the village this time putting the women in charge and not the men...something that should have happened long ago...I had a great univeristy student help me explain more about incorporating compost too and so I hope that within these next five months the village will take control of thier project and really make it great. I beleive they can...it just takes a long time....

ok love you all and I'm hanging in there...I can't wait for the cool season here...and then home!

Desneige
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1218827880/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1218827880/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1218827880/tpod.html Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:15:19 -0400 Adventures in Senegal: woes and wonders

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Nguith, Senegal

Writing this blog is always so daunting. So much to say and I never know where to begin. I guess I'll start with the fact that I ended up taking a mini vacation away from Senegal. I thought I could hack it and stay here the whole two years but this work is the most frustrating work I've ever done and when friends in France said they could host me, I borrowed against my readjustment allowance to go. It was the best vacation I ever took, simply because everything that I ever missed, that my heart ever ached for while in Senegal, I got to do it, see it, feel it during this small vacation in France and Spain. Things I didn't' even plan on doing or seeing just happened like getting to see the Tour de France in Toulouse, getting to hike in the Pyrenees and sled on Snow, wear a sweater, see fireworks on Bastille Day, pick apples and peaches and almonds, drink wine and eat cheese and chocolate for every meal. I was so appreciative of everything, the friends I got to see the new people I met and the book I was reading. Barbara Kingsolver's new book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle couldn't have been a more fitting read for my vacation, it was all about food and the food culture of the US, and reading it while WWOOFing on the organic farm was unbelievable. It included recipes that I could try out...oh how I miss cooking! FOOD how I missed food!
But so now I am back in Senegal and it feels good to be back. I like my village and the people in it and I think I actually have friends and recently just made a new one who took me out into the country and taught me how to milk a cow! My region is beautiful right now because the rain has come. There's grass everywhere and even I wish I could be a cow roaming freely in this African desert turned green pasture.
There is still a lot of work to do and prepare for and now on top of it all the stress of trying to figure out what I want to do after all this. I'm still almost 100% certain that I want to apply to be an Interpretive Park Ranger at Denali National Park the summer I return, and I also am 100% certain that I want to be an elementary or middle school teacher...I just don't know where or how I will go about doing that...also do I want to take a year off and live in France or Canada and work more on my French, do I want to travel more before settling down to a real job...so many questions.
I'm starting to reflect on my service already and feel as though my notions of development have changed dramatically, I mean I know they have....and I know I don't want to do international development, mostly I feel as though developing countries are doing fine and they get more screwed up when other people come in and tell them what's good for them...do we really want developing counties to be like the United States?! Really I think we can learn something from them. Like for instance my family even though they have a satellite TV and are probably the most "developed" family I know, my village actually being the most developed village I know, they still live close to the earth and their carbon footprint is pretty low. Clothes are washed by hand and dried by the wind, cooking is using a renewable energy (although wood is getting scarce now and its probably more of a hazard in this area to use it) but also for the most part, besides the huge rice consumption, they go to the local market and eat only the fruits and veggies in season and rejoice in the Mango and watermelons when they come only three months out of the year. They can look at the sky and feel the air change to know when it'll rain or when the dry season has officially come. Even I have started to really live by the environment here and I know when its 6:30 because that's when the first birds start to sing. I sleep under the stars and count down the months according to the full moons that pass me. Never have I been so in tune with nature even though I've hiked huge mountains and canoed long rivers and gone camping....I mean I live with electricity and running water here but...its different...so different.
However I also want to acknowledge this little fact. When did we become really developed...when women got washing machines, when we got air conditioners....is this the future of Africa too...I mean we want women to be liberated but at the cost of including more contraptions and appliances that will only fall apart in the sand storms, I think people are lazy but part of it is that its just really fucking hot! So what is development....? Its a really messy situation that I think can only be decided by the people themselves and through education....that's why I want to be a teacher...we can only progress through research and feeding our curiosity. Haman's have the ability for abstract thought is that what they say makes us different from the beasts (I mean other animals)? Well then let's all start using that brain of ours and don't' forget to be happy...its a beautiful world, love it and enjoy it and...well always dance and smile...I guess that's my own personal philosophy. Questions? Comments? Have you ever read "This I Beleive" its another good book to pick up.
I went to the seasonal watering hole the other day and just enjoyed the sound of the birds, busy making their nests, I don't' care to know their names because they are all human given names...I appreciate their song and when I hear the music I look for the colors of their body, smile and that is all.

Cheers cheers to beers and bears, I can't and can wait to get out of he-ah!

love Desneige

P.S More Pictures! go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/dhallbert/FranceVacation02
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1213463820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1213463820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1213463820/tpod.html Sat, 14 Jun 2008 14:00:42 -0400 Adventures in Senegal: woes and wonders

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Nguith, Senegal

OK fourteen months down and ten to go. I'm not really counting down the days but when its this hot you wish you were anywhere else but here. The good news is that it is the last hot season that I will have to endure and so each day comes and goes with pleasure, although right now due to a bad batch of Fatayas(something a kin to fried fish dumplings) I now have the worse case of intestinal ailment I have ever had in country and it is not so pleasurable...in fact I realized half way through the day yesterday that it was Friday the 13th. Now I'm usually not a superstitious person but...yesterday not only was I sick and hot and sweaty but also the power went off so I had no fan, my radio decided to die, I had no credit on my phone and a little mouse ate all my favorite cereal, we had our first sand storm of the season and I was so sick that I could not get out of bed to shut the windows and so my room was covered in sand...but then it rained....and that was the most beautiful sound I've ever heard, the wonderful pitter patter on the tin roof, I smiled in spite of the bad luck the day brought for rain my friends means more rain to come.
So it has been a while since my last entry. Lots has happened. Like we got new volunteers in the area and I love them all. One of them has a sister that I went to college with, another is from northern Maine and knows Canada well, and the other, well he is just a hoot. All are extremely motivated and we already of tons of ideas we want to do together so I think this year will really fly. I have also decided that I want to work outside of my village this year and I want to work with some of the governmental groups in the area to create some fun school programs on trees and small gardens, and also to incorporate world days like Earth Day and International Women's Day in to the curriculum. I had two days of utter depression thinking about what exactly I had accomplished this past year and after the kids at the school, while unsupervised forgot to close the garden door letting the free range donkeys eat everything, it was bad enought that the goats had already gotten in via the same forgettfulness but at least they didn't eat the trees and the basil...but the donkeys ate everything!...And so it felt like nothing had been accomplished, but really there has been a lot but I just let all my frustrations get the better of me and it cloudes over the accomplishments, I know my mother would say right now that is just how I am but, gosh its hard here. You second guess yourself all the time because, well you operated one way in the states...and here well you can't operate that way, you just can't, you might as well just go home, and believe me I have thought about it, oh to move to Portland Maine and feel the nice cool sea breeze and gentle sun on my cheek, to taste a snowflake, hug a close friend....pick apples, sweat from a run and not from just sitting....but then I think about how lucky I am to have been given that life of coolness and here so many live and survive in this heat and dust, and they still find time to laugh and dance and make lots of food for marriages and baptisms. I know there will be so much that I will miss.
Earth Day was a success, a headache, but a success. Not sure I want to plan another one. I did a lot of the work by myself. I did have one teacher and a community member help out with the theater and music aspect of the Earth Day and I was beside myself with happiness even thought they only got it together two days before the performance. Then Perry came and all was oh so wonderful. I cried just waiting for him at the airport every person that turned the corner could have been him and the tears just poured.
Then he got there and I had this nice little theatrical planned where we went over to the taxis and I had to haggle for a good price to take us to where we would be staying....Perry fit right in. Really. He was a perfect visitor and he got a good idea of what my life is like here. The right amount of site seeing with other volunteers, the feel of the heat, the frustrations of my school, the fun of planting trees, some surfing and I made him treat me to lots of good food, mainly ice cream and Lebanese pizza in Dakar. We had our fair share of set backs, mainly my skin infection, lose of his debit card, my cell phone died while we were in the Gambia on some strange island...but he didn't get sick once and all my peace corps buds loved him and he asked a lot of good questions and played with all the kids and learned wolof, well sort of...I was kind of mean teacher and made him fend for his self a lot....but really, what an amazing visit. My little brother. We had a lot to catch up with....a month wasn't even enough. I cried again in the taxi to the airport and yelled at the guard for not letting me go in a wait with him, I then went back to the Peace Corps transit house and talked into the wee hours of the night with a good friend, we made chicken soup and dipped bread and talked of boyfriends and after Peace Corps plans. That made me feel a little better after losing Perry.
This is my last hot season. I can't believe it, part of me is sooo happy about this thought, but beneath it all I realize that it is also my last time to get to sleep out on the roof and look at the stars without the obstruction of a mosquito net, I will never eat such sweet delicious mangoes again. Oh and the other day I got to see vultures feeding on a carcase...it was so cool, such big birds with snake-like pink necks....reminded me of wolfs in Alaska feeding on a dead caribou...oh oh oh where to go from here...Enjoy the fabulous Maine summer for those of you in Maine and for the rest where ever you may be, you too have a happy day.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1206968580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1206968580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1206968580/tpod.html Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:35:36 -0400 Adventures in Senegal: woes and wonders

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Nguith, Senegal

Asalam Alekum tout la monde!
I am literally living in a Sauna right now...I was sitting in my room playing kid dominoes with my two year old neice and I was wasting brain power thinking about how much hotter it would have to be if my room were really a sauna. It's pushing 115°F. I wake up early now and try to get work done before the heat of the day really settles in at around 12:00 and then at around 6:00 it cools off a bit and you can move around again. I forgot what it was like. Its times like this that I find it unfathomable that you are all in relativly cool places where snow, real, white, glorious flakes of solid water might even still be sleeping on the service of the earth.
I recently went to Dakar for Easter weekend to take care of a rather itchy skin infection I have going on again. Most likely stress and heat related. Also there was a trash management confrence that I attended about one particular town in Joal-Fadiouth that has an amazing trash/composting project going on. An middle-aged couple got it started and they are really doing wonders down there. You all might be able to look information up on it on the internet, I don't have site on hand to give you but its really cool and I only wish I could get somthing like that going in my village. But alas the craziness of Peace Corps is that no two villages are alike. These past few months have been a real eye opener for me because I have had and needed ample time to discuss with other volunteers and in conversations alone with myself what exactly does development mean. In learning about the Joal project and how it was created, there are many factors that went into making it a success: 1. the village has a tourism industry 2. The mayor and the Volunteers there met and the biggest problem sighted was the trash issue 3. The volunteers there have worked in and written policy on trash management in the states. And so a perfect relationship formed to bring about this money making, environmentally-friendly, trash management project. My village is very different (much hotter too) and so this fabulous project cannot be replicated in entirely the same manor and I hate to say that my age has anything to do with it but I think it does. However I will keep trying and my goals for my last year are: I would love to have a composting componant to my trash project ...I invited two university students who are studying in Dakar who come from my village to the confrence with me and so my hope is that during this vacation they can help me explain and incorporate the composting into our trash project. The university students are the future of Sengal and I feel that they are more than capable to deveope there own country...my one wish for them is for there to eventually be a study abroad progam available to them like we have in the states.
My other goals are to create a fun children's garden, keep the EE club going which gives me lots of time to practice writing lesson plans for my future job as a teacher. With the middle school teachers to start doing experiments in class rather than just lechturing. And keep the SeneGAD comittee going.
In the near future I have new volunteers comming and will be training them on my work here. Tree Pepeneer day is the 15th and Earth Day is the 22nd hopefully face painting will be involved. Then Perry comes in May!!!I can't wait to see family.

Ok love you all and if you go to my photo site I have uploaded new pics!

Send letters and pics and mix CDs

love Diarra
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1203455100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1203455100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1203455100/tpod.html Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:50:39 -0500 Adventures in Senegal: woes and wonders

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Dakar, Senegal

It has been a while since my last entry and so much has happened. There were two more holidays celebrated. One involving girls dressing as boys and boys dressed as girls with ash painted on their faces. Home made drums were fashioned out of tomato cans and plastic and kids went compound to compound collecting not candy or money but a much healthier option: cheery, or millet. Tom Harit was a very fun holiday and we all ate lots of millet with meat and milk. Then ten days later my village doubled in size as relatives from all over Senegal and abroad gathered to eat, dress up and stay up all night listening to the life of Mohammad. Gamou is different for every village. It is not uniformly celebrated though out the county at the same time but rather celebrated at different times and then relatives can go to as many Gamous as they want. It was kind of funny that I got stuck tattooing a bunch of flowers on women's hands and feet for the celebration...but I could draw and they wanted to go all out for the holiday. I had fun but also still felt like an observer, but I met a lot of new people and got to talk to the wise men of the village about the start of Nguith and the big move they all made from the county to the roadside and what it meant to all of them. I also got to hear a bit about the circumcision ceremony of boys. The traditional way was having them all going out into the forest for a month and they were not allowed to see any women. I had a great time sitting with the older men and listening to their stories. I should sit down with the women and do the same thing. Oh there are so many things I want to do....I ended up staying in village for a total of 7 weeks straight and well I went a little stir crazy and so I ended up moving my work site to Dakar and taking a few day trips to national parks as a mini vacation. I was working hard on SeneGAD stuff which is Peace Corps Senegal's Gender and Development committee to help volunteers work with girls and boys, women and men to learn to integrate gender equality into their daily lives. I ran for a position on the committee and have ended up with Vice National Coordinator after a very interesting election. I am very happy about the prospect and look forward to continuing the work of previous GAD volunteers. They are big shoes, or should I say flip flops, to fill!
Dakar has been very hectic and I really do try to avoid coming but if you are at all ever missing home, Dakar is a great place to go to visit the super market and eat at some restaurants of food you are missing. However this means that your salary that is meant for village life does not hold out long in the big city. After visiting a friend in another village and doing a 40 k bike ride to the famous bird park of St. Louis, Dakar was hardly relaxing. However it does bring some perks, like the super market, free modern dance show at the French cultural center, great great Lebanese food and Thai (which was eaten on my birthday) and fun surrounding islands like Ils de la Madelene and Ngor Island. I got my fix of nature and exploring and am now ready to return to the desert.
I am doing OK these days, still a little frustrated with the school, but the ideas keep coming so I am bound to find something that'll work eventually, also we had an "all volunteer conference" and I really like the new county director. It felt good to be in the room with all volunteers and really feeling like we were a part of the bigger picture. We will all have to work on Ending Malaria initiatives and tree planting. I now feel motivated to go back and keep trying.

I miss you all so much. Also if anyone knows of schools or classes that want french or even English pen pals from Africa, please let me k now I would love to start a pen pal exchange. My next projects include a possible collaboration with the middle school on teaching about alternate sources of energy. A theater and art class and Karate group. Working on strengthening the Environmental Education club, a kids garden and getting each of the classes to come to the garden once a week. Also Earth Day is coming up (April 22) and myself and the surrounding volunteers are planning some festivities. Also I will try to get a small celebration for International Women's Day on March 8th. Always things to do or try to do so I will continue to do what I can.

Send me your thoughts, pics, pretty things to put on my wall and music. I will post pictures soon!

love Diarra Coundoul
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1199195700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1199195700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/snowinsenegal/senegal/1199195700/tpod.html Tue, 01 Jan 2008 09:15:42 -0500 Adventures in Senegal: woes and wonders

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Nguith, Senegal

HUT chit chit chit. This is a common exclaimation muttered here, kind of like a sigh when things are going to get a bit difficult. Its kind of how I feel right now about this new year. I just spent the entire holiday season in village and while it was really wonderful and spectacular to see all that they did to celebrate I couldn't help but feel this void that simply could not be filled. I ate tons of yummy food and saw traditional dance and last night for New Years, the party of the yougins, we had a disco at the school and I had a real good taste of modern Senegal dance. It was all really great but I felt like a spectator, an observer, not really part of it...looking at it all from above, but I guess that is what I am.
As always I've got ideas and people say they are interested but as the saying goes here "talking doesn't cook rice" and I am anxious to start this year and see what will all happen. Control of plans is not something easily obtained here, really it's a river and you just have to go with the flow or you'll just add water to that river with your tears. I haven't done it yet, ok maybe a little, like today when I got five letters! I was so happy to hear from home. I have never known such homesickness that is not only for the people but the places and smells and just plain old familiarity...I miss miss miss all that is known to my spirit but continualy realize this chance to be here living and breathing other ways of knowing this world, is amazing and I will one day miss it too.

Happy New Year folks and PEACE PEACE PEACE let it be real!

love Desneige
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