Day 95, 96: An unexpected journey

On Friday, I was faced with a decision. I had the opportunity to take a trip with my French teacher to his village in the northern part of the country. The only thing I knew was that we would have to leave early in the morning (around 330am) and that we would be staying one night, and coming back Sunday. While it was tough to commit to such a huge amount of driving and such a little amount of sleep and time to relax, I decided that this was such a unique opportunity that couldn’t be passed up…maybe that’s one of the ways I’ve changed since being here (because I really fought the urge to stay in Yoff and have a nice relaxing Saturday.)

So, the next morning (Saturday) at 330, I woke up and went outside to be picked up by Ousmane (our French teacher) and Allison, who was the only other student who chose to go. It was still dark at that hour (and I was still asleep) and we drove to Ousmane’s house to wait for his friend to come (who would actually be giving us a ride to the village.)

After waiting around until 4, his friend showed up and we left by 430. We drove until the sun came up, and found ourselves in St. Louis by about 7am. Driving in a nearly new Toyota Land Cruiser, we reached St. Louis in about ½ the time it had taken us in our bus. We went to Ousmane’s friend’s house that lived in St. Louis and stopped in for a nice breakfast. His friend, Diallo, was very kind, and made sure that we were all well fed before parting. We left and continued on our journey northwards. Eventually, we passed the road that leads to Nder, and it pained me to drive by without visiting, but it would have been difficult to stop in for such a short amount of time...

We continued on and took a right before reaching Rosso, the town on the border of Senegal. We then traveled East on the main road that runs along the River Senegal, passed through Richard Toll, and finally reached a village in the region of Fouta. The first village we visited was Guede Chantier, the village of Ousmane’s father. This was where Ousmane had grown up, and where most of his family still lived. It was about 11am, and Allison and I were introduced to most of his family, but parted soon after.

We then drove to Ndioum, a rather large town close by. There, we met Ousmane’s maternal grandmother, and basically her entire village. Minutes after pulling up, we attracted quite a crowd, and ended up meeting tons of people, all of whom were extremely nice. The Toucouleur people of the northern part of Senegal are very nice by reputation, and they certainly lived up to that reputation.

After meeting one of Ousmane’s grandmothers, we continued on to another village called Diomandou where we met some friend of Ousmane’s and dropped off a letter from someone in Dakar…

We then crossed to rivers via ferries and arrived at the village of Ousmane’s paternal grandmother. This village was directly adjacent to the River Senegal, across which was the neighboring country of Mauritania.

We received an extremely warm welcome in this village called Lahel. We were invited in to a hut and introduced to Ousmane’s grandmother, who was seated. She told us (through translation) that she was 99 years old. She said that there had been other people in the village that morning, waiting for our arrival, as they thought we were coming in the morning. She then told us stories of what it used to be like there, in her village. She told us that what was once green and full of wildlife was now desert (which we could observe) and that she had once fought off a crocodile that had tried to eat one of her cattle. She also told us the story of when she encountered a lion (which were apparently abundant) while herding her cows…

After eating the best ceebu jen I’ve ever had (yea, it was amazing, I swear) we sat around and talked some more. Many people came by to greet us everyone was extremely kind. Although we had asked them not to, the villagers slaughtered a goat and cooked it for us while we were sitting talking to Ousmane’s grandmother. After eating lots of ceebu jen, I was disinclined to eat a lot, but managed to eat some of the goat, which was actually really good…

We spent most of the middle part of the day there, in the hut, listening to Ousmane’s grandmother’s stories and asking questions. It was truly an honor to be in her presence, and there was just something an aura around her; an aura of respect, wisdom, and fortitude. She was surprisingly sharp and aware for a person of her age, especially one who has lived in (not the most comfortable) conditions.

When it was time to go, she blessed us and sent us on our way. We left at around 4pm and drove back across the two rivers we had crossed on the way over. We visited one last village called Alwar, the birthplace of El Ajama Omar, a famous marabout who had an extremely large influence on West Africa in the 1800’s. We also saw a Sudanese style mosque, which was really interesting. As in most of the villages we visited, we were followed by a crowd of children, which seemed to grow larger as we would walk through the village.

Returning to the first village that we went to, we received a tour from Ousmane. He introduced us to many members of his extended family, along with some of his close friends as well. He showed us the community garden that was once so big that it created a microclimate over the village, bringing rain to a very arid region. Although the garden had been mostly destroyed by a government project in the 1990’s, there was still about 30% remaining. Walking in to this garden was like walking in to a rainforest, or rather, in to Narnia (as Allison put it), or some magical place. There were all sorts of fruits growing including bananas, guavas, mangoes, and dates.

Guede Chantier is a village of about 6,000, and is one that was organized by the French. Most of the buildings are arranged in streets or rows, and the village is shaped in sort of an “H” and is surrounded by rice (and other crops) fields. Ousmane also told us about how in 1960, a group of Chinese people had come and taught the village how to grow rice. The Chinese stayed for 15 years and now, the farmers in the village still use the techniques (and breeds of rice) that the Chinese brought.

By the time we made it back to Ousmane’s compound, we were nearly falling down from exhaustion. Having been awake since 330 that morning, we were ready to pass out. After a quick dinner, I fell asleep immediately.

The next morning, we awoke around 8. We had a nice breakfast, with good bread (like the kind in Medina Kouta) and coffee. We bid farewell to Ousmane’s family, and left for Dakar. On the way back, we drove through Dagana, a small city where the French had built a large fort when they conquered and colonized the area. We stopped in St. Louis briefly, and got back to Dakar around 4pm. We parted ways with Ousmane (until tomorrow when he’ll be giving us our final French exam) and returned home for dinner and some good showers.

While the trip was difficult and exhausting, it was well worth it. Before going on this short trip, we had seen 5 villages. In 36 hours, we doubled that number, and gained experiences that I would have regretted turning up. Plus, I’ll have plenty of time to sleep late in January…

Day 91: Back in to the Swing

With only 10 days left, we began planning our final days of our program in Senegal. We had a meeting at 9 discussing the schedule that the staff had created the day before. The revised schedule now includes 2 or 3 exams, a 10 page paper, and 2 presentations. I spent the rest of the day writing e-mails and starting work on all of these tasks…

It appears that these last days (before my mom comes) will be extremely busy. I don’t anticipate much time to sit around and write journal entries, but hopefully I’ll have enough time to be able to enjoy and appreciate what this environment has to offer. This entry will be one of the last, and I’ll probably write one or two more on the last few days of the program…

Day 89: Back to Yoff

Still being in my Nder routine, I woke up really early, at around 7. While I ought to have been quite tired, I really wasn’t…

After spending most of the morning typing up journal entries on my laptop, I had some tea and bread for breakfast. As a group, we decided that we would try to depart for Yoff around 1. Once again, we set off to explore St. Louis, this time, with Tom and Sam. We showed them the places we had seen yesterday, and ended up seeing more places we had missed on the first day. We stumbled upon a family that had a pelican as a pet…and they even invited us in to their compound to take pictures. The pelican was huge: almost waist-high. It was one of those things where you say: “only in Africa.”

After walking around some more, we began searching for a place to eat lunch. The search ended up being extremely difficult, due to Sam and Tom’s desire for “steak and chips.” Sometimes, those English can be quite picky. They turned down almost every place, and finally, under time constraints, they agreed to this café place (which didn’t have steak and chips.)

We returned to the hotel at 1:15 to find everyone still sitting around, waiting for the bus. After numerous transportation difficulties, the 14 of us and all of our luggage piled in to two “sept places” or, small station wagons with seven seats. It was quite a cramped ride home, and probably four of the most uncomfortable hours of this trip. We saw three camels walking with a herd of cattle...which added to the strangeness of the day (in terms of seeing animals.)

We arrived in Yoff at around 8, and Rich and I walked home to our house by the beach. We greeted our family, which was nice…I still miss my family in Nder though.

Day 88: A Sad Parting

Before beginning this entry, I would like to write some things about my family in Nder. I’m going to individually mention some of them:

Pap Thioye: the father of my family and chief of the ecovillage (not to be confused with the chief of the village) Pap spent a lot of time away from Nder either in St. Louis or Dakar, attending eco-village meetings or visiting his third wife…

Ndeye Salle: Pap’s first wife. Ndeye Salle has 6 children, and one of them just had twins, making her a grandmother. She went to Mauritania numerous times and would return with massive amounts of goods (a lot smuggled through customs I assume.)

Asta: Pap’s second wife. Asta is a beautiful, stoic woman with strength like I have never seen before. She has massive hands, which she uses to keep her 4 children in check. She was my favorite woman in the village, and was always very kind and looked out for me. She is pregnant with her 5^th child, which will probably be born in December or January.

Iserre: Asta’s 9 year-old daughter. Iserre was my favorite child in my family. She looked like her mother, and was always very nice to me. When I gave out my gifts to all of the children, she was the only one who thanked me…she also invited me to come to school with her every afternoon (although most days I was unable to because I had to go work in the field…)

Ndery: Pap Thioye’s younger brother and member of our agriculture group. Ndery has one son who is only a few years old. In the agriculture, we referred to Ndery as “Rude boy”, as he frequently would express his opinion rather loudly and inappropriately…But that's not to say that he wasn't nice, he just had a strange way of treating people.

Ndeye Astou: One of Ndeye Salle’s 6 children, and mother of 3 month-old twins. Ndeye Astou was really loud and full of energy, but not to the point of annoyance. She was really nice to me as well, and offered to give me one of her twins to take to the US…she always wanted me to dance, and was a good dancer herself.

Marem: Another one of Ndeye Salle’s daughters, Marem did most of the work around the compound. She is 19 years old, and I spent a lot of time trying to communicate with her. Marem made sure that Eric and I had everything we needed, like meals and water for showers and stuff…

A few more things about Nder that I have to write down so I won’t forget…

Walking through the village, everyone knew my name. I would walk around during the day and little kids would come up to me shouting “Bilal!” and asking to shake my hand. Even most adults would call me by name…it just showed that the village really had an interest in our stay there.

As for Saturday, it was an early morning. After really sad goodbyes (including me nearly crying), our bus left Nder for the last time. After such a great stay, it was so difficult to watch the people whom we had come so close with grow smaller in the distance. I like to think that someday I’ll come and visit, to see my family and also to see how sustainable our projects ended up being…

The trip to St. Louis only took a couple hours, and for most of us, it was spent thinking and reflecting on the past 3 weeks. For me, it had gone faster than I could have possibly imagined. Being November 26^th, it was difficult to comprehend what happened to the entire month of November…

Before embarking on our trip to Nder, I assumed that it would be the longest and hardest portion of our trip. It ended up being the shortest, most enjoyable, and certainly most beneficial to me…It’s funny how what you get is so different from you had imagined it to be.

We checked into our “Auberge de Jeunesse” in St. Louis at around 9am. The name of the hotel is translated in to “youth hostel”, but it was really quite a nice place to stay. We each had our own beds, with mattresses (not made of foam), and a couple bathrooms with showers and hot water.

We had a breakfast of watermelons that we had brought from Nder (where they were plentiful), and shortly after, we set out in to the streets of St. Louis. The group split up, and I ended up walking around with Rich and Allison. The island on which St. Louis is located is pretty high-end, and there are some really colorful buildings. It kind of reminded me of New Orleans (or what NO used to be like). The streets were narrow and very clean, with an absence of trash, which is something we aren’t used to…

We had lunch at a small place that sold shwarma and burgers…it was border-line...

After lunch, the three of us walked around some more and saw pretty much the entire island. We walked all the way down to the southern point (our hotel was located at the north end) and looked out at the Senegal River.

After stopping in at numerous shops and artisan boutiques, we returned to the auberge. We took some really nice showers and hung around until leaving for dinner. We walked up to the northern point to this Vietnamese restaurant. The food was decent, expensive, and afterwards, we walked back to the hotel. After discussing what to do, we all went out again, but I returned after a little bit because I was pretty tired.

At around 11, I was about to go to sleep when Tom and Sam (our friends who are independent students in Yoff) walked in to the room. We had been contacting each other throughout the day, and they said that they might be coming to St. Louis, but I didn’t really believe them…

Anyway, after they arrived, we went out to a “tapas bar” where there was some live music. We got some drinks (sodas…of course) and some food. Allison and I talked to them, told them stories about Nder, and listened to them talk about their time in Yoff.

We came back pretty late, and I was exhausted and fell asleep.

Day 87: Last Day in Nder

The day after Thanksgiving didn’t feel like the day after Thanksgiving…no shopping, no sales, no…anything. Except working. We got up in the morning and walked out to the field for the last time. We worked until 1230 planting and finalizing the drip system. Leaving the community garden, we all felt pretty good about what we had set up here. However, so much depends on the sustainability of the project. Now that our work is finished, it will be interesting to see how (or if) the villagers will continue what we’ve have all started together.

We came back to the village for our final lunch, which was truly, tremendous. We had “choo”, rice with a tomato/onion sauce, and I ate more than plenty.

We had a restitution with the villagers in the afternoon. We got together at the chief’s house with all of the people that had been involved with our projects (and many more), and discussed what had been accomplished over the past 2.5 weeks. There were prayers, thanks, and sad partings…but it was good to see how much has really been done here, considering how difficult work can be in developing countries.

After the restitution, I took some pictures of my family, and packed all of my belongings for our departure. There have been a couple things that I’ve learned here that really stand out to me at the moment; the first being the amount of Wolof that I’ve learned. Before coming to Nder, I knew very words in Wolof, because I had been trying to learn more French. However, at the end of our stay here, I realize that I now know basic vocabulary, and I can understand a lot of words when my family speaks to me…

The second thing that really stands out to me is the strength of the relationships that I’ve formed here, without being able to speak to my family. Learning how to communicate without speaking has been a really valuable experience…there’s not really a better way to describe it to someone who hasn’t experienced it…

After taking pictures, I gave out gifts (that I had been saving since coming to Senegal) to the children in my family. They seemed to really like the jump-rope, and hopefully they enjoyed the rest of the toys. I wish I had more gifts to give to the adults in my family, but unfortunately, I didn’t have any…

After dinner, there was a dance was a dance ceremony, which I went to (although most of the other students did not.) The dance circle was similar to that which we had seen in Medina Kouta, although there were more women at the Nder ceremony. I even danced a little bit, which greatly excited my family, who had been asking me to dance for them for quite a while.

After the ceremony, I sat with my family outside on a mat, talking with them (mostly listening of course) really for the last time. The stars were breathtaking, and I took one last good look…

Day 86: Thanksgiving Nov. 24th

While most Americans will never work on Thanksgiving for their entire lives, I broke my own streak of 18 years today. Kristin and I had decided that I was important to finish what we had come here to do, and thus, would work on Thanksgiving to make it happen. The remaining work was planting and improving the fence. The only crops we planted were sweet potatoes, of which we planted almost 450 m²…

Planting was not really my favorite activity, but I consented to doing a few rows. Instead of planting seeds, we planted actual sweet potato plants that had been grown and cut from another farmer’s field. (I’ve taken so many pictures in the past couple weeks, so once again, I’m going to defer to my photos.)

After a busy morning, we returned for lunch and a nice rest. Daniel, a Full-Bright student arrived at around 3 with the rest of our materials. At 4, I went back to the field (Kristin didn’t come in the afternoon), and we installed the rest of the drip tubes. We watched the sunset, ate watermelon at the field, and walked back for dinner.

The girls and Rich had spent most of the day preparing our Thanksgiving dinner in solar ovens. We had brought the solar ovens to Nder when we came, and they have been used to teach the women to cook more nutritious food with less oil. Today however, they were used to cook potatoes, squash, etc. (no turkey, which in my opinion was basically sacrilegious…)

At around 8, we (the Americans and some of the Senegalese) had our Thanksgiving dinner, sitting on the floor in Rich’s room. It was pretty good, I ate loads of the garlic mashed potatoes…it was certainly quite different from any Thanksgiving I’ve ever had (or probably ever will have.)

Day 85: Installation

After 2+ weeks here, today was the day we actually installed the drip system, the project which we had planned to do here. As beneficial a system as drip irrigation is, it’s surprisingly easy to set up. It’s quite simple, and involves connecting tubes, running the tubes out in crop lines, and poking some holes in tubes. Each of the 2 tanks has a principal line that is 20mm in diameter and runs perpendicular to the crop lines. Then, spaced at 80cm intervals, there are small diameter drip tubes connected to the principal line, running on top of the crop lines. All of the tubing needs to be staked in to the ground to prevent movement of the tubes. We worked from about 9:30 until 1. It has been extremely hot lately…brutal.

Lunch was really good today, a dish called “yassa”, and I ate way too much. However, I certainly didn’t regret it, as it’s a rarity that we receive anything other than Ceebu Jen.

After taking a long break after lunch, I decided that I wanted to go to the school for half an hour to watch the children perform what they have been preparing for the last couple weeks. My decision didn’t sit well with Ronald, who said that it was necessary to work, but I went to the school anyway. While I only stayed for 20 minutes, it was really nice to see the kids sing songs and perform skits. My sister Iserre was performing and I got to see her as well. I left to go to the community garden at about 5.

We installed as much of the small tubing as possible, but we came up a little short and realized that we didn’t have enough to cover the whole field. Luckily, a Full-Bright student working with Cresp will be coming to Nder tomorrow, and he will bring some more supplies.

After installing most of the tubing, we dug out trenches along the crop lines to prepare the field for planting. We even got some planting done before the sunset, and hitched a ride on a horse-drawn cart back to the village. Dinner was tremendous; chicken and pasta.

Day 84: Hard at work

We had decided the day before that we would wake up early today in order to get as much done as possible. We brought the supports to the field that we had previously constructed, and began to place them. We had to figure out what was the best way to set up the tanks, so that we could supply water to the entire field. I’ve been make sure to take plenty of pictures throughout this entire process, so they can much better illustrate the process that we have gone through.

After placing the supports, we built a make-shift barbed wire fence around the field. The goats and sheep grazing can be detrimental to a crop field, so it’s important to keep them out. Working with barbed wire was slow and we had to be very careful. Also in preparation for the drip system, we hacked some tree stumps, and did various shoveling and hoeing.

In the afternoon, we finished the fence, and Eric and I returned for a really nice dinner of meat and potatoes. The stars lately have been quite spectacular here, and I’ve spent a lot of time outside. At night, I walked around, and sat outside for a while, trying not to get bitten by mosquitoes…

Day 83: Spreading (shit)

This morning, we had a meeting discussing the final few days of our stay here. Each group had a status check, and gave an estimate on when they would be finished. Although some groups would be finished with their work prior to our departure date, we decided to stay until Saturday (as we had previously planned.) Also discussed was the upcoming holiday, Thanksgiving. We discussed some of the logistics of getting food to prepare, how to prepare it, etc.

The meeting lasted until 11, and we, the agriculture group didn’t go out to the garden until 4. We spent the entire afternoon shoveling manure in to buckets and spreading it over our field. This was the second time that we had done this, and the purpose was basically just to add more nutrients to the (nutrient-poor) soil. It was hard, but it felt good to do some physical activity. Once our massive pile of manure/soil was gone, we walked back home. Not much else today…

Day 82: Judy and Nicky

For a Sunday, I did significantly more than I usually do. The Senegalese students and staff went to Rosso, Mauritania, and we (the Americans) chose not to go to Rosso, Senegal, because there’s really nothing to do there. For the Senegalese, the attraction of going to Mauritania comes from the fact that it’s easy to buy cheap goods (cell phones, DVD’s, fabrics, etc) and bring them back over the border into Senegal.

The Senegalese left early in the morning, but after being woken up by Eric, I was unable to go back to sleep. After a nice breakfast, I went to Allison’s, where she informed me that a meeting had been scheduled for the Americans and Judy and Nicky (the two program assistants that had arrived with Marian on Tuesday.

During the meeting, we talked a lot about how the program had been so far. More specifically, we talked about the goal of synthesizing our previous experiences, and gaining a better understanding of our trip (on all levels). Both Judy and Nicky are experienced in group dynamics work, and have worked in India (with the other Living Routes program.) They are very intelligent and articulate, and we all feel very comfortable speaking with them.

After meeting (for quite a while), we took a break for lunch and agreed to continue in the afternoon. We recommenced our discussion by talking about how these experiences (that we’re having now) will affect us when we return to the US. While this has definitely been a topic that I’ve thought about before, it was interesting to here what other people had to say, especially Nikki and Judy who have dealt with a lot of other international programs. Overall, everyone in our group was very happy to have some help in bringing all of our experiences together; help that we haven’t really received much of in the past.

(Unfortunately, Marian was not able to get the additional materials that we had expected to get. However, we weren’t really ready to receive them, and we can make due with what we have here already.)

Day 81: Market and Composting

We got up really early this morning to go to a weekly market called Kurr Mam Sanga. We piled in the back of a truck, bundled up in sweatshirts and sheets (cause the mornings here are pretty chilly) and set off. The drive was pretty long and uncomfortable, with most people sitting on the bed of the truck. By the time we got to the market, it was around 830, and we all stopped in to this tiny little restaurant place where we got bread, eggs, and coffee. It was nice to have an addition to the bread; just plain bread every morning gets pretty boring (after 11+ weeks).

After eating, we all walked around the market together, some people buying things, and others just looking. To give you an idea of what the market was like, here are some examples of what people bought: Incense holders, palm oil, cloth, carrots, beesap leaves (hibiscus), tea by the bag, a metal pipe, bowls, and mats to sit on. This small town was clearly one that rarely saw any tourists, let alone toubabs (white people), especially in such a large group. So, we got stared at a lot, but the people didn’t really hassle us like they have in Dakar and even Yoff. In Dakar, they’re used to having lots of foreigners come through their markets, but this town was certainly no tourist attraction.

We got back to the truck, and returned to Nder before lunch. After a tiring journey, I planned to just sit around for the rest of the day, but my repose was disturbed by Ronald, who wanted to make some compost piles. The agriculture group then met and started 3 large compost piles. I took a lot of pictures, showing exactly how we did it, but I’ll describe briefly here.

We used what is called the “pit method.” First we dug 1mx1m holes about 30cm deep. We then put layers of tifa (dried reeds), chipped wood, manure, ash, and tall grass. This creates a good base on which people can put their organic materials to be decomposed. We are going to make the villagers aware of this composting area, and hopefully they will utilize (maybe even adopt) the practice of composting.

Dinner was alright, fish and French fries…we’ve had so much fish for the past 3 months that I’m really getting pretty sick of it…

After dinner, there was a get-together at another students house (who had cooked a large dinner) and I went and briefly visited, but left to relax and go to sleep.

Day 80: School

After such a long day of work the day before, I really wanted to relax today. We met at around 9 to work on the tanks (for the drip system), installing valves, hinges, filters, etc. It didn’t take very long and certainly wasn’t physically demanding…

At 11, we had a meeting with all of the students and the staff, discussing our experiences here in Nder, as well as the status of our projects and plans for the remainder of our stay here. Although the meeting was a little more than 2 hours, it was pretty difficult to sit in one place for so long…

After lunch, a daughter in my family asked me to come to school with her in the afternoon. Her name is Ndeye Salle and she is the daughter of Pap Thioye’s second wife, Asta. It has taken me quite a while to learn names (there are SO many to remember), but I’m getting there. Anyway, Ndeye Salle is my favorite of all the children; she’s about 9 or 10 years old (it’s bad luck to ask), and she has a beautiful smile. If anyone knows me, they would know that I usually don’t spend any time with little children, but Ndeye Salle (and the other children in my family) are just so nice, and I love them. Every time they see me, they shout my name and come to shake my hand. We can’t really communicate that well, but we try.

So, I decided to take a break from agriculture, and went off to school at 4 with Ndeye Salle and the other Thioye children. I really had no idea what I was getting into. We arrived at the school room where there were probably about 50 children. The room was about the size of a normal class room, with some tables and benches for the kids to sit at. Sophie and Rokhaya, the two people in the education group were preparing to do a lesson on malaria, and to sing some songs. I really wish I had brought a camera, and hopefully I’ll get a chance to go back and take some pictures on another day…

Sophie and I taught the kids to sing “Row, row, row your boat”, although it was difficult because they don’t speak any English…But it kind of worked, and sounded pretty cool (even I sang, quite loudly I might add.)

It was nice to get away from agriculture for an afternoon and work with children. I don’t usually like kids, and I certainly never sing in front of everyone…but I guess I’m already far enough out of my comfort zone that it doesn’t make a difference anymore…

Day 79: All Work

This morning, I woke up with the assumption that it would be a pretty easy day; laid back, relaxing, etc. This would not be so. After meeting up with the others in our group, we immediately went off to the fields where we began working. On the agenda for the day was to irrigate the field by flooding it. While I still haven’t figured out why this was a necessary step, I just have to trust that our 3 village farmers know what they are doing. Anyway, they say that before planting and installing a drip system, it’s necessary to get a water pump and flood the field, further mixing the nutrients with the soil.

Setting up the water pump was the first step. As can be seen in my pictures, the water pump was set up to get the water from the channel (running alongside the garden) to the channel leading to our field. With a crew of about 9 men, we placed the large moto/water pump in a location where it could complete its task. Following that, we dug channels to guide the water to our field, which we wanted to flood.

All of this took quite a good amount of time. Something that should be noted: There’s lots of watermelon here, and it’s usually delivered on trucks that are totally full of them. So, as we were working, a truck drove by, and I saw that it was full of watermelon. Off I went, running after the truck screaming “HAL, HAL!!” (Wolof for watermelon). Overjoyed, I caught up with the truck while it slowed down. A man riding in the back handed me two watermelons, and I carried them back to my fellow workers in the field. This scenario occurred a few times throughout the day, and we ended up eating about seven or eight watermelons…I felt sick by the end. We called ourselves “customs” as we demanded watermelons from each truck that passed…

Anyway, after preparing the pump and the channels, we turned on the pump and soaked the garden. It’s really hard to accurately describe it; I took a ton of pictures though…”flood irrigation.”

After flooding the garden, we sat down and waited for lunch to be delivered. By this point, it was almost 3pm and we were all pretty hungry. Finally, some boys came on a cart (pulled by a donkey) and gave us the lunch that our families had prepared for us. After lunch and a break, we began preparing the field to be flooded once more. After successfully doing so, we walked back to the village.

After spending 8 hours out in the sun working, we were all pretty exhausted and went to bed rather early…

Day 78: Moving along

Because Ronald had returned the day before, we were able to get back to a more rigorous schedule. Our group (ag) had a meeting together to discuss our schedule for the upcoming week. In our plans included tasks such as preparing the drip irrigation system, getting the garden ready for crops, and training the villagers on how the drip system is built and used.

One of the tasks necessary for getting the garden ready was to spread a large amount of manure/soil on the field. After our scheduling meeting, we walked to the field and proceeded to commence filling buckets of this dirt stuff and dispersing the dirt over the existing soil. It’s important to understand that the current state of all the soil here is rather poor. To us northeasterners, it looks like we’re about to plant vegetables on a beach…However, it seems that other people are successful in growing crops here.

After at least a couple hours of shoveling dirt into buckets, we were almost finished spreading the soil over the field. We took a break and went home for lunch before returning to the garden to complete our work there. With the villagers, we manually mixed the brown soil that we had dropped on the field with the sand that was already there. To be quite honest, it still looks like a beach, but I think that there are a lot more nutrients in it now…

Marian left today for Dakar, saying that she had lots of work to finish, but that she hoped to return before our stay here is finished.

For our group, it’s nice to see that we’re really starting to get some work done. It’s quite remarkable how things can go so slowly, and how difficult it is to make progress sometimes. However, today was another step towards completing what we have come to do here. There’s certainly plenty more work to do, and hopefully enough time…

Day 77: Tuesday, November 15th – Marians Arrival (and others too)

The majority of this morning was dedicated to the usual hanging around and chilling. Not much really happened until around 2pm, when Marian arrived, along with 2 new project assistants and 1 of the Senegalese students. The new project assistants had arrived in Senegal the previous morning. However, being very experienced in development education and action research, adjusting to this new place didn’t seem to be too much of a problem for them.

We were informally introduced to these middle-aged women, named Nikki and Judy and I talked with them about their abrupt decision to come to Africa and help with our program. They were asked to come after Daniel (head the Living Routes program) had visited Yoff in October. Both of the women seem very knowledgeable and certainly competent enough to help us learn as much as we can here in the last few weeks of our program.

Also coming with Marian was Ronald, our (agriculture) group leader, and we were able to speak with the villagers and to go out to the community garden to make some concrete plans for doing work. There was some debate over how much of the community garden should be used for sweet potatoes and how much should be used for other vegetables. This debate went on for quite a while (us Americans just kind of standing there not understanding a word) but it was finally decided to use ¾ of the field for sweet potatoes and the remaining quarter for vegetables like turnips and carrots.

Day 76: Rain

Quite unusually, it rained last night and continued in to this morning. Because we’ve entered the dry season here, I didn’t expect to see rain again until I got back to the US in December. Of all places though, it rained here, a much more arid climate than Dakar. Not having had rain for at least a month, it was nice to have a change.

We had a meeting at 9am between the staff and the student. Each group talked about what they had accomplished so far and what they were planning to do for this coming week. Marian, Ronald, and a few other people will be arriving tomorrow, so it’s important that we know what we’re planning to do, to make sure that we wont get sidetracked. Also in the meeting of the subject of a trip to Rosso, Mauritania – a town right over the Senegalese/Mauritanian border. It was decided after calling embassies and other sources that it wouldn’t be safe for the Americans to cross the border, as there has just recently been a coup d’etat in Mauritania. While the Americans will stay in Rosso, Senegal, the Senegalese students and staff will cross the river to Mauritania to buy all sorts of cool stuff…

It’s unfortunate that we’ll miss out on seeing a small piece of another country here, but it’s really not worth taking the risk.

After the meeting, we took a break until lunch. After lunch, the agriculture group built the second of 2 wooden supports (that we had the materials for). Hopefully, Marian will bring supplies that will enable us to build two more supports, and set up two more drip systems, allowing us to irrigate almost the entire large community garden (which would be over 1000 square meters...huuuge)

Day 75: Hanging around

This morning, Sunday, I tried to sleep as late as I could. Trying didn’t help much…

Because I did absolutely nothing today, I’m going to write up a schedule of my daily routine, to give you an idea of what everyday life is like here:

7:30 - 8:00AM is usually around the time when I wake up. Like I have mentioned in other entries, there are numerous sounds that can contribute to my awakening; animals, children, insects, to name a few.

8:30: Breakfast time. Everyday, Eric and I are given a baguette to split between us. Also, we are given powdered milk, margarine, sugar, Nescafe, and hot water. I don’t really like the margarine (which is basically just oil) so instead I put “Laughing Cow” cheese (which I purchased) on mine. Instead of the Nescafe coffee (which has a monopoly on coffee sold in this country), I drink chai that I got in my birthday package --mmm.

9-11AM: On a given day, we might be in a meeting at this time. However, it’s usually just hanging around. The weather at this time is usually pretty pleasant, and there are no mosquitoes. The sun is still rising in the sky, but it’s not hot yet. The women in my compound usually do the laundry around now, and most of the (many) children are at school.

11-1PM: This is the more uncomfortable part of the day, when it’s hot outside. Almost everyone (the villagers and us included) just kind of lay around in the shade. Basically, you would be crazy to leave the shelter and walk somewhere in the midday sun: it’s too hot, and nothing is worth bearing it.

1PM: Lunch is usually eaten around 1. It’s pretty much always rice and fish, usually a special style called Ceebu Jen, which is the national dish of Senegal. Other variations include yassa (sliced onions and mustard sauce), choo (tomato onion sauce), and maffe (peanut sauce).

2-4PM: After lunch, everyone (and I mean everyone) just sits around and talks. There’s also someone preparing a kind of tea (served in shot glasses) called attaia (spelling?). The tea is served in three courses (I believed I’ve explained the process in an earlier entry). Anyway, the tea is really good here because it comes from the nearby border of neighboring Mauritania, which is known for its good tea.

I usually just sit and listen to the conversations, understanding few (if any words.) Everything goes on in Wolof, and I certainly can’t contribute to that kind of conversation…(although I am trying to learn some.)

4PM: Being in the agriculture group, this is the time when we usually go out to the community garden. It’s still hot at this point, but it quickly cools down, and it’s pleasant around 430. Work in the field can include setting fire to brush, hacking plants with machetes, creating plant beds, or just observing the farmers do what they do.

6PM: Return to my compound, take a bucket bath, hang out. Like the morning, this is a really pleasant time of day because it’s cool, dry, and the mosquitoes haven’t yet come out to begin the nightly massacre.

730: Dinner time. Dinners have varied in quality, ranging from pasta & chicken to eggs served over oil and onion sauce…Sometimes Eric and I eat with the family, and other times, we eat alone in our room.

8-10: Around this time, I’ll maybe be sitting outside with my family, wrapped in a sheet to keep the bugs away, or I might be at Allison’s or Fatou’s house. This is really just more chill time before I go to bed, which happens at around 1030.

Day 74: Saturday

While today was a weekend day, there wasn’t so much of an urge to sit around and do nothing, seeing that we already have so much downtime here. This morning, Kristin, Eric (who arrived last night), and I attempted to build one of the two supports for the water tanks. With limited tools (nails, wood, hammer, saw) we tried to make a structure that would hold a barrel of 200+ liters of water. We had drawn pictures of other supports we had observed at the Cresp garden in Yoff, and tried to replicate.

Without a leveling tool, we had a difficult time making everything even and flat (and level). However, with the help of Mr. Thioye, we were able to construct a pretty solid structure, and I feel very confident that it’s strong enough to support one of the water tanks. We’ll probably build the second support on Sunday or Monday (cause that’s all we have left to do until Ronald gets back.)

I ate lunch at Fatou’s for the second day in a row, and when I returned to my house, my family wasn’t so happy with me. Or at least I thought so…but Fatou said later that she talked to my mother and that they had just been kidding…

At around 6pm, I went with a few other people to the Laobe, a group of 3 women and men who are the artisans of the village. They make mostly crafts out of wood, and then burn designs in to them. They have made some really cool stuff, and it’s 100% authentic, which is something that’s surprisingly hard to find here.

Without any plans for tomorrow, I anticipate a pretty relaxing day…

Day 73: Ronald’s parting, working without him

This morning was once again a late morning. By the time I got to Kristin’s to see what was on the schedule for the day, it was around 10:30. Fatou, who lives with Kristin, then informed us that there was a meeting at 11, for all of the staff and students.

At the meeting, we learned that Ronald (our agriculture group facilitator/leader/translator) had left for Dakar to attend the funeral of his uncle. This was sad news, but we were told that he would hopefully return on Tuesday (with Marian and the rest of the Senegalese students.)

Luckily, we had scheduled stuff to do until Saturday, so we weren’t totally (screwed). However, without a translator, Kristin and I worried if we would be able to communicate with the villagers (considering they speak Wolof…)

Anyway, the rest of the meeting included some brief summaries of what each group had accomplished (and planned to) so far. Also in the meeting was a discussion about some issues in the group…

After the meeting and lunch (at Fatou’s), Kristin and I went out to the community garden once again with Guedal, Maodo, and Ndery. This time Allison came with us, but we had no Ronald. Once we got to the field, we surveyed the land. Through broken French, the villagers were able to tell us that there wasn’t really much to do until Ronald came back, as they didn’t want to do the wrong thing. They said the only thing that could be cone was to prepare a few planting beds in an area adjacent to the community garden…so we helped them do that.

After going back home, we started to draw up a plan showing how we could irrigate the entire field with the limited resources that we had. Here’s a basic review of how drip irrigation works (it’s really simple): You have an elevated tank of water, with tubes running down to the ground and along lines of crops. Because of small holes in the tubes at spaced intervals, the water from the tank drips onto each plant. The advantages of this system include more efficient water usage, more accurate placement of water, and the fact that the system requires no energy source.

So, in a nutshell, our job is to: build wooden supports to elevate the water tanks, assemble the tubing, and strategically place tubes to irrigate the whole field. Also while we’re here, we plan to teach the villagers how to make better compost piles and how to make their soil better for growing.

Dinner was potatoes and goat meat served over oil. My family had looked for bread but couldn’t find any… It’s hard to understand how the villagers use SO much oil in their cooking…it’s ridiculous.

Day 72: More field work

With no meetings or things to do in the morning, I slept late. By late, I mean about 8am. There’s really no such thing as “sleeping late” here; there are numerous things that prevent such a concept. When the sun rises, all life in our compound is awakened. This includes goats, sheep, cows, chickens, donkeys, bats (yea, for real) and loudest of all, small children. Also awakened are the insects, namely the bumble bees, which live in our room. It’s impossible to sleep with all these noises, but I guess I’ve just come to accept it.

After breakfast and stuff, we chilled until the afternoon. I spent some time talking with Mama Dou Thioye (the father of my family and chief of the ecovillage here.) He speaks French (one of the only people in my family,) and he has been extremely nice to me since I arrived the other night. Unfortunately, he wasn’t here for his last visit because he was in St. Louis visiting his 3^rd wife. His two other wives live here in Nder…

After lunch, Kristin and I walked out to the fields once again to observe the large tractor/plow machine clear the community garden. The garden has more than tripled in size, and has gone from a pretty scrubby looking garden to a massive crop field. It’s very cool to imagine what it could look like if we successfully install an efficient irrigation system for the whole thing.

After observing, doing a little work, and playing with machetes, we returned to our families. Dinner was rice and some kind of meat (maybe beef? I have no idea…). You just come to accept it, there’s really no other choice…

Day 71: Beginning our project

After waking up, we ate a small breakfast and went off to a meeting taking place nearby. The meeting was for all of the staff and students to talk about how our time here would be managed. We then broke into our smaller groups to talk about how exactly we would use the time to complete our project (installing a drip irrigation system.) Kristin, Ronald, and I met with three of the villagers to discuss these matters. Together, we set up a schedule that began with improving the soil, installing the system, and finally, planting crops.

After the meeting, we hung around, ate lunch, and rested. At around four, Kristin and I walked out to the community garden to watch (and aid) a few of the villagers burn the growth and brush in the space that they wanted to use for the community garden. Basically, the community garden had previously only had an area of about 150 m² and we burned enough brush to create a garden over 3 times that size. Anyway, it was quite a display (and pretty damn hot as well.) When the tall grass ignited, there would be an exodus of flies, wasps, and all sorts of other bugs that had been living there. Really hot.

After watching the fields burn for a while, we walked back to the village, and then we were invited to go get some fresh watermelon from the fields. Kristin, Allison, and I walked with three of the villagers quite a ways out and found some ripe watermelons to eat. We just squatted there and ate fresh-picked watermelons. Note: in the past week, I’ve had So much (really good) watermelon, it’s hard to imagine.

We returned to our houses in time for dinner, and spent the rest of the night watching some Ali G. and sleeping.

Day 70: Back in Nder

We came back to Nder today: 2 days later than we had originally scheduled. The delay in our departure was due mostly in part to the Senegalese students and staff that needed extra time after the Korite festival. Almost all of our (American students) time in Yoff was spent hanging around, and doing stuff (not much though) to prepare for this second voyage to Nder.

After arriving at around 8pm last night, we ate dinner (which was actually really good; pasta & chicken) and soon thereafter, went to sleep. Because of some issues with their university, some of the Senegalese students (and staff) were not able to join us for at least 1 week of this second trip. So, instead of staying with Eric (like last time), I stayed with Rich (who hadn’t come with us on the first trip here.)

Day 69: Update before Nder

We have just spent a week in Yoff, and we will be departing for Nder early tomorrow morning. I apologize for the lack of entries, but not too much has been going on. Over the past week, we have done a lot of hanging around, while the holiday of Korite (the end of Ramadan) was being celebrated. We will be in Nder for close to three weeks, and we will not be returning to Yoff until around the 27th or 28th. I will be writing plenty of journal entries while in Nder, and I will be sure to post them all when I return to Yoff.

Day 62: Gnit

We had planned to leave for Gnit (a village nearby to visit the market) at around 10am. However, after calling Marian to tell her about our proposed projects, the staff wanted to have a meeting with us to discuss how realistic these projects actually were. Basically, they told us whether the money we had requested from NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) would be available for us to buy resources etc. for our projects. Our group, the agriculture group, had requested 600,000 CFA (about $1200) to install a drip irrigation in a large community garden. We were told that only 400,000 was possible, so we’ll have to see if we can make it work. We might only be able to install a drip ag. system in a smaller, non-community garden.

Anyway, we didn’t leave for Gnit until about 130. We all piled in the back of this truck-like thing, (it look like a vehicle that you might see transporting troops, not a hummer) and started off for Gnit. It was about 10km on dirt roads, and it took about 45 minutes. We reached the market, which was pretty laid back, and shopped around for a bit. Most of the products being sold were produce and livestock. I bought a watermelon, because they are grown here (by the people of Nder and other villages) and they are of really high quality (and cheap too.) Some of the staff and some of the students even bought a sheep that they ate for dinner. (I didn’t participate in that, because I’ve developed relationships with the sheep and goats that live in my compound, and I couldn’t bear to eat one of their friends.)

The ride back to Nder felt shorter, but hotter. To give you an accurate description of the heat, this is what I came up with: Imagine that it’s a really hot day in early August. You’ve just started your car. You get out of your car, walk around to the back, get down on your knees, and station your head so that it directly receives all the exhaust from the exhaust pipe – that was how it felt to have the wind blow in your face…

Anyway, after that pleasant ride, we returned to our compound, where I rested and played some more chess with Ousmane. He then led us to the canal that leads from the Lac du Guiers to the pipeline that takes all the water to Dakar and the rest of Senegal.

For dinner, we had Ceebu Jen once again, but just as the first course. The second course was pasta and beef, eaten with the older men again, with hands of course. I’m starting to get better at eating with my hands…

After dinner, I went to Katie’s house, where there was quite a get-together with all of the students, staff, and villagers. There was plenty of dancing (by everyone) and some drumming, but not as formal as we had experienced in Medina Kouta. Nonetheless, it was a memorable Halloween. (I realize that I describe a lot of these experiences as ones that I won’t forget; please understand that there’s really no better way to describe them to people who back in the US…)

Day 61: AI Completion

We woke up this morning to find a misty fog outside. While it was still cool, it was kind of unpleasant because of the humidity. We had our final AI meeting to do the Design phase.

We took the dreams that people had come up with the previous day and tried to design projects to fulfill them. We had the villagers prioritize their dreams, and figure out which ones were really possible for us all to accomplish together during our 18 day stay. Their first priority was to install a drip irrigation system in the community garden, to increase the water-use efficiency. We then figured out what materials/resources would be needed to do this, and how much it would all cost.

After designing projects for the drip irrigation and 10 other goals, we finally finished our meeting. The meeting had taken about three hours, and we were all pretty tired. Eric and I returned to our compound for lunch (back to Ceebu Jen, 6/7) Eric and I then got some cold sodas at the boutique, and hung out with Ousmane Thioye, one of the brothers in our family. Ousmane is my age, and he is studying for his baccalaureate. He really likes math and physics, and he’s really good at repairing electronics and in general, fixing things.

After the afternoon break, we met again to discuss the results of our AI. All of the groups came together and had a big meeting; each group presented what they had come up with and how much money it would cost. By the time the meeting was over, it was time to break the fast (because it’s still Ramadan) and we returned to our families to do so.

Once again, dinner was Ceebu Jen. Honestly: it’s really not that bad. It’s just the fact that we eat it every meal that makes it distasteful. After managing to eat some of the dinner at our house, Eric and I went to Tom’s (the British marketing student studying ecotourism) house and enjoyed goat over pasta. After finishing our second dinner, our brother, Ousmane, led us back to our house where we ate once again with some of the older man. This time, it was beef and couscous.

I haven’t really liked any of the couscous that I’ve had in Senegal, but, like the Ceebu Jen, the couscous is better here than it is in Yoff. Anyway, Eric and I ate with these older men, and no one sitting around the plate was using a spoon. So, for the first time since I’ve gotten to Senegal, I really had to eat completely with my hands. Usually, when there aren’t spoons, there will be bread to help with the messiness of the meal. However, this was not the case.

So visualize: Me, sitting (wrapped in my sheet to keep the bugs away) with my Senegalese friend, Eric, with five other Senegalese men, all reaching our hands in to a giant platter of couscous and beef. There’s a special technique to eat with your hands: you just kind of pick up some food, and roll it into a nice ball, so it’s easy to eat. This may sound easy, but trust me, it’s not. So there were all of the Senegalese have spent their entire lives eating with their hands, and me, who’s never done anything of the sort. Yeah…I was made fun of. It was a good experience though. Another one.

After dinner, one of the two French students traveling with us (Fred) had everyone over to his house to just kind of hang out. I played chess with Ousmane for a little while, and went home to go to sleep. The heat really drains your energy, so even though it cools off really well at night, you still feel the effects of the day.

Day 60: AI in Nder

Today we completed the Discovery and Dream phases of Appreciative Inquiry. (For more info on AI, refer to previous entries from the first village visit.) In our agriculture group, we learned of previous successes that the villagers had accomplished, in terms of community gardens, organic practices, etc.

We met in Ronald’s room (another program assistant) with three villagers. There were four of us Living Routes students (Eric, Ali, Kristin, me) meeting with the chief’s son (Maodo), a brother in my home-stay family (Ndery) and another villager named Guedal. Because it was the morning, it was still cool, and we were able to stay comfortable (at least for a little while.) The villagers explained to us about the projects they had done when the previous Living Routes students had visited them back in the spring. They talked about their desires to use fewer pesticides, but at the same time, keep up their crop yields. They grow mostly sweet potatoes, but they also grow okra, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelons, and peanuts.

After finishing the meeting, it was about 1130, about the time when it starts to get really hot. As long as you stay out of the sun though, it’s bearable. Eric and I then returned to our compound to hang out, sleep, play chess, and eat lunch (Ceebu Jen, yup, 4 for 4.)

We did the Dream phase in the afternoon at around 4. We asked the three villagers to close their eyes, and imagine what this village would look like in 3 years. They came up with some good ideas, and we combined them with the dreams that we, the students came up with. It’s nice to have something to look forward to, like an actual project that we can accomplish when return here for our 2.5 week stay. After talking for a while, we, the agriculture group took a walk to (what had been) the community garden where there wasn’t much growing.

The landscape here is basically identical to that of a desert, with no trees taller than about 15 feet. There are lots of succulent plants, or rather, desert plants (however, no cacti.) The sun burns off any cloud cover by about 11am, and scorches most things that try to grow. There are so many types of insects here, including mosquitoes, dung beetles, scarabs, praying mantis(es) and plenty of others that you just don’t want to mess with.

Anyway, we finished our tour of the community garden, and returned to our compound by about 7pm. Dinner was Maffe (white rice with peanut sauce, not Ceebu Jen…YES.) Night activities included hanging out with some of the other students, and falling asleep early.

Day 59: Tour of Nder

After a night where I didn’t get too much sleep, I woke up to the call from the mosque. During Ramadan, the person (I don’t know who) gets on the loud speaker at about 5am and starts yelling and telling people to wake up to eat before the sunrises. I’ve been experiencing this 5am wake up for pretty much the entirety of Ramadan, because they do the same calling/chanting thing in Yoff.

Anyway, Eric and I woke up, had some breakfast, and went to meet the others for our morning meeting. We then departed on our tour of the village. However, by the time we actually got going, it was about 10, and about an hour in to the tour, it started getting really hot. Oumar Diene, the director of our NGO Cresp, was leading the tour. Oumar has the tendency to talk for long periods of time because he is so knowledgeable, something that doesn’t really cater to 20 other people who are standing in the heat listening.

Let me explain a bit about the weather: The Lac Du Guiers is one of the first permanent water sources south of the Sahara. Basically, what that mean is, that Nder is very close to the desert. During the day, it gets up to about 100+ degrees, but it’s not very humid (like it is in Yoff.) By about 5pm, it starts to cool off relatively quickly, and by the time it gets dark, the weather is perfectly comfortable. However, most of our activities go on during the day, in the heat.

So, we’re on our tour, and it starts to get hot. We saw most of the village, including the school, the planting fields, and met some elders. After finishing the tour, we had another meeting, trying to organize for the afternoon. By that point, we were all sitting in the shade. Because it’s so hot, that’s really all you can do here in the middle of the day.

After the meeting, we continued to lounge around, and I played chess with Anthony, a French student coming along with us just for the Nder trip. He was pretty much a chess genius, but I managed to beat him once (out of 5 times I think.)

We ate lunch (Ceebu Jen, again) and lay around until 4, when we had a meeting at the chiefs house. The purpose of this meeting was to tell the village elders exactly why we are here, and to explain to them the concept and phases of Appreciative Inquiry (the same thing we had done in Medina Kouta on the first village trip.) After greetings, welcome-ings, thanks, etc, we split up into our 5 groups (education, agriculture, nutrition, ecotourism, and women’s roles in development) and discussed what we would be doing the following few days.

After quite a long meeting (2.5 hours,) we returned to our compounds to rest before breaking the fast. Even though we aren’t fasting, our family makes us break the fast with them. I then took a bucket bath, the result of which (for the first time) I felt really clean. Taking a bucket bath is really an art, and I’m just starting to get the hang of it. By Thanksgiving, the end of our second stay here, I’m going to be a pro.

Dinner was Ceebu Jen. Again. 3 for 3. Maybe we’ll have better luck tomorrow.

Day 58: Déjà vu… kind of

Last night, at around 8pm, I finished my college application essay and submitted my early app. to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell. The focus of the essay was my last stay in a village at Medina Kouta.

This morning, I found myself on a bus once again bound for a rural village. Instead of going East towards the interior of the country, we were headed North towards St. Louis (and the Sahara Desert.) Instead of increasing (like the last trip), the amount of green plants decreased as our journey wore on. On the contrary, the temperature rose. By midday, we had reached St. Louis (the first place that the French colonized.) We ate lunch at a place there that had good food but sub-par service (to say the least), and continued on our journey. About 2 hours later, we reached Nder. Nder is basically in the desert, but it’s next to Senegal’s largest potable water source – the Lac du Guiers.

(it’s important to note that this entry would be longer if not for the ridiculous amount of mosquitoes that are biting me right now. Right now, I’m sitting here typing this up, attempting to cover myself with my sheet…just try and imagine it…)

Anyway, we arrived here and hung out in front of the chief’s house while the staff worked out our living arrangements. I ended up being put with Eric, one of the Senegalese students. I was quite happy about this because quite frankly, Eric is awesome. He’s just really laid back and definitely the kind of person who would be cool to live with.

We ate dinner with the men of the family (rather than by ourselves) and enjoyed the national dish: Ceebu Jen (fish and rice). It’s basically the same thing we’ve had about 100 times here so far…but they make it a little different here (not so spicy, less oil.) After dinner, I rested, met a few of my family members, struggled to communicate to them in Wolof, etc. We then had a short meeting, the point of which was just to check in…

After finishing this entry, I plan on lathering up with bug/deet cream and wrapping myself in my sheet, and trying to go to sleep. We’ll be spending plenty of time here over the next month, so I’ll have plenty of opportunities to describe my surroundings…A demain…

Day 52: Updates

First off, I would like to apologize for the lack of entries lately. It has been over a week since I’ve had time to sit down and write an entry. However, there haven’t been any significant events here, and things have been pretty much routine.

Early in the week, the director of Living Routes (our program) came from Amherst, MA to work out some issues that had come up about faculty and academics. Being a mediator, Daniel helped everyone to see both sides of the story, and more importantly, to work towards a solution that worked for everyone.

Thinking back on this week, it’s hard to remember what I did each day. In the beginning of the program, I could recount each day clearly, remembering lots of specific details. Now however, more than halfway through the trip, I realize that days have just become blurry. Routine seems to have eliminated details. Also, now that Yoff is starting to feel a lot like home, it doesn’t really occur to me to write journal entries. I mean, would I write a journal entry everyday if I were in Brookline? However, we’re leaving for Nder (a village in the north) on Thursday. Once there, we will be assessing the village, and how we can help (in our smaller groups). We will return to Yoff after 4 days, due to the end of Ramadan (a holiday called Korate). For the Senegalese students to spend Korate away from their families is like an American student not going home for Thanksgiving…So we’ll return to Yoff for 5 days before return to Nder again to really get going on our projects. We’ll be there for about 2.5 weeks. We’ll spend Thanksgiving in St. Louis, and return to Yoff for a couple more weeks. And then the trip is over. It’s weird because even though we’ve only completed a little more than half the trip, we’re on the home stretch. It’s sad, so I’m going to stop writing about it.

So to recount all that I can from the past week: Daniel from Living Routes left on Tuesday night, and the rest of the week consisted of a lot of lectures. Personally, I was working on college apps, because I’ve decided I’m going to try to get in to some other schools for next year. Writing essays and filling out forms were things that I never thought I’d be doing again, but I’ve decided that that’s what I want to do.

As for routines that I’ve developed: I now sleep on the roof, because it’s gotten too hot to sleep in my room. Even with a fan blowing right at my face, I wake up in a pool of sweat. Anyway, on the roof, I enjoy a great sea breeze, a starry sky, and a nice view of the beach and Yoff. Also, the sunrise wakes me up at around 7, which gets me going early, and I get a lot of stuff done. Once it’s starts getting hot, I tend to get less productive.

Another routine that I’ve developed is going to boutiques (the little shops here) and getting a cold soda. The sodas come in thin glass bottle (30cl), but they only cost 200CFA (about 40 cents). Usually, I go with Allison and we’ll split a Coke and a Fanta. You might compare this to adults going to a bar and getting a drink…While getting soda may seem not very exciting, there’s a reason why I mention it. It’s so much different from the US, where I’ll drive to Shaw’s Supermarket and buy a 12 pack of cans, which I’ll bring home to put in my fridge. Here, I walk 3 minutes from my house to the boutique where I know the guy who works there, and get one soda, and sit on the stoop there, and drink it. When finished, I give the bottle back to him, (because all the glass bottles are recycled). In fact, last night, Allison and I got a couple of sodas there, and when we realized we didn’t have any money, the guy just said we could pay next time. It’s like we have a credit there now, or a tab. It’s just one of those small things that really makes you realize that you’re at home, that you live here. It’s also nice to support local businesses, rather than going to the Shell Station and buying sodas there.

As for weekend events, we took another trip to Dakar yesterday. We went to the fabric market there, which was totally different from the other market we had been to called Sandaga. At the fabric market, no one hassled, no one followed us around, and everyone was pretty nice. There was probably enough fabric at this market to blanket the entire country…

After the fabric market, we went into downtown Dakar and got burgers and ice cream (just like we had done for my birthday). It was just as satisfying.

Today being Sunday, I’ll probably just hang around, relax, and get some work done hopefully. I’ll try to write at least one more entry before I leave for Nder, and I’m sure I’ll have plenty to write when I’m away from Yoff.

Day 46: My 18th Birthday

To fully describe my 18^th birthday here, I must begin at 12AM. We were down at the beach celebrating Sophie’s birthday (our program assistant) having a party. It involved cake (I mean good cake…and for those of you who don’t know me, I don’t even like cake) and a lot of dancing. The music was provided by some of Sophie’s Senegalese friends who played the drums. Overall, it was quite a cultural experience (duh).

I then went back to my house with a few other kids and I consented to opening the package I had received the day before from my mom (because it was actually my birthday at 3AM). We just hung out, ate candy, and watched an Ali G. episode (which was stellar of course; we’ve been doing impressions for a few weeks now, just waiting for the DVD to get here.) Finally, people left, and I went to sleep.

I woke up around 10 and began to sort through the entire contents of the package. I opened the cards. I inspected each bag of candy, each granola bar, each package of hot chocolate, and sealed everything in their Ziploc bags. It was like Christmas in October (and 90 degree weather.)

I left my house and went to Cresp, where I met up with the other kids. We got in taxis and went downtown to Dakar to visit the market which we had vistited previously. This time however, I was much more prepared for the craziness of the Sandaga Market. I got a nice jersey and a bracelet (the kind that most Senegalese men wear) for myself. However, the things I bought at the market were not the highlight of the trip.

After walking through the market, dealing with the oppressive heat and humidity, and being hassled by 1023938 people, we were ready for a break. We walked to the restaurant that I had visited with Fatou Lo the day before, and sat down at a table to eat. Everyone liked the restaurant, and the girls that were fasting all broke their fasts to eat falafel. Personally, I got the Tyson Burger (double burger, double cheese) and pretty much inhaled it. It was the best burger I’ve had in my entire life. I say that without doubt.

After that amazing meal, we walked around in Dakar for a while, and eventually stopped for ice cream. We ate sundaes and banana splits at this little place owned by Lebanese guys. Incredible. (while writing this, I realize how hard it is to accurately portray how amazing it was to have these foods. It’s funny how food has such a huge affect on me now…)

After banana splits, we decided it was finally time to get back to Yoff. We hailed cabs, bartered for our passage back and enjoyed the 30 minute cab ride home. Walking towards my house near the ocean, I felt a great feeling of satisfaction.

Because everyone was so tired from the days events, we just kind of hung out on my roof, and recovered from a hectic day in the market.

It was a great birthday.