Re-boot

Where do I even start? I managed to leave my blog in hopeless abandon during the flurry of work I've been swept up in over the last several months. Here's to a blog re-boot.

The last 6 months have been a fabulous, albeit exhausting adventure. Linguere is finally finished with mosquito net distribution, and Mac and I with our USAID-funded partnership with the program. I wrote an article about the work for Peace Corps' Stomp Out Malaria initiative, which is posted here:
http://stompoutmalaria.org/linguere-universal-coverage-campaign/

The latest excitement here has been Tabaski, a celebration marking the end of the annual Muslim pilgrimmage to Mecca, and marked by an incredible amount of meat. I was in Doundodji for the party, and spent the day helping with the processing and cooking of the 3 sheep the men in my family killed. It was a good day, topped of by an old guys vs. youngins soccer match in my neighborhood. The old guys won, and surprised everyone...

Of course I can't forget the election. The endlessly wonderful missionaries in Linguere, Dirk (who had to be out of town during the election) and Sarah invited all of us PCVs over for an all-night CNN-watching party. Most of us crashed before the final hours, but Andrew and Sarah made it all the way through to Obama's speech around 6:30AM. Despite our sleepiness, it was exciting, and refreshing taste of the (comparatively) organized, informed, technologically literate life in America... which is peeking right over the horizon.

Cape Verde, The Most Beautiful Place on Earth

Lord Byron may have said that Sintra, Portugal was the most beautiful place in the world, but the man obviously never made it to Cape Verde. That place has it all- great beaches, beautiful mountains, lush green valleys brimming with fruits, and most of all, wonderful people. My dear friend Emily Naftalin, who recently finished her Peace Corps service and transitioned from PCV to RPCV and I are just back from a 10-day trip to 4 of the 10 Cape Verdean islands. Both work and all the great people and things here in Senegal brought me back, but I can't say that the two of us didn't have moments of scheming to never leave the islands.

We started our trip in Praia on the island of Santiago, where we spent the morning, then hopped on a car North to Assomada. We were met there on a rooftop bar for a glass of wine with our gracious hosts, CV PCVs Toby and Bob. We made our way further North through the mountains to Toby's site, Tarrafal, with the guys providing a guided tour along the way. Our first two nights were spent there- strolling around town, hiking to black sand beaches and shell-filled caves, drinking CV's signature capareinas and eating its cachupa (the can't-miss-it dish- corn and bean stew with fish for dinner, then re-fried with an egg and sausage for breakfast). We went back down to Assomada for our third night, where we hiked to see the most enormous tree I've set eyes on.



Tarrafal



Toby took us to this shell-filled cave in Tarrafal



Emily and her crab shell- spirit animal? Maybe...

 

On a hike to a black sand beach outside of Tarrafal

  

Emily and Toby at one of Assomada's grog production sites

  

The big tree!

  

After a hurl-inducing boat ride (Emily and I managed to keep our lunches down...) to the island of Fogo and a car ride up to a little town in a volcanic crater, Cha das Calderas, we climbed Mt. Fogo. The way up the mountain took about 4 hours, and the way down, a little less than an hour, thanks to volcanic ash slopes and an exhilarating downhill slide. We were there for a couple more nights, then flew back to Praia and up to the North for a flawless cinco de mayo spent with the volunteers (& company) of Mindelo on the island of Sao Vicente. Our next fabulous hosts Drew and Rory brought us to meet all the PCVs at a 5/5 get-together, followed by some of Mindelo's finest music and dancing. We hopped on a boat the next morning, accompanied by the elite of Europe's middle-aged adventure hiker scene to Santo Antao.



Early-morning Mount Fogo



Emily on the ascent



Mt. Fogo



At the summit with our guide, Nezito



Skiing down the ash fields, with only a few tumbles, ending with volcanic ash in every nook and cranny



Cha des Calderas' music scene



Up to the boat ride to Santo Antao, the trip was full of all kinds of great things, but there was no topping that place. It was take-your-breath-away amazing from start to finish. We took a car up to the top of a peak, where we found PCVs Scott and Melissa, who were great company, gracious, and oh-so-wonderful, in their mountain homestead getaway. After some shady relaxation on the porch shelling beans, chatting, and munching on sugar cane, we got out for a little hike to see the scenery, then wandered back to find that Scott had killed a chicken and Melissa cooked up a traditional Cape Verdean dinner. After the feast, we stepped up to a successful Cape Verde/ Senegal dance-off.



On the boat to Santo Antao



Leaving Mindelo



The port on Santo Antao



The next day was the stuff of dreams... Emily and I strapped on our packs and headed out for the famous, if not infamous "grog and cheese" hike, which we'd been hearing about from near every PCV along the way. It was just a little way around a volcanic crater to the top of the mountain, then down switchbacks into a valley that looked something like never-never land meets the shire. It was an oasis of irrigated terraced gardens, sugar cane, coffee, fruit trees, little huts, women selling coffee and homemade liquor (Cape Verde's moonshine- grog and ponche), all looking over the ocean.Once we made it down to the main road, and after a little ponche-tasting detour, we got to our destination- grog and cheese. It was an airy restaurant on a farm with a view where we had a lunch-to-die-for: goat cheese, salad, fresh yogurt with papaya and honey, and of course grog. This was the place that prompted our conversation about how we could possibly live right in that very spot.

(No photos here... just as we got to the top of the mountain, with the most spectacular view I've ever laid eyes on, my camera gave up.)
Unfortunately, we had to hop on a car to head to the port to catch the boat to Mindelo then a flight  back down to Praia. We spent our last night where we started, in grand finale style, with Bob and Toby in Assomada.

This trip was a great break from the usual routine in Senegal, a reminder of how many wonderful people and places there are in the world, an affirmation that us PCVs have got something special going on, and a great time spent with miss Emily before she flew back to the US. While it was hard to leave, I was happy to be back with friends, host family, people who speak a language I understand, and with whom any commonality or a shared joke is cause to be instant friends.

Since I've been back, I've kept busy with census-taking for our mosquito net distribution, a meeting in Thies with fellow peer support network members, and no shortage of mango eating. While it's hard to be here without the volunteers who showed us the way and each of whom I came to love completely, we have 6 great new volunteers, lots of good work to do,  and I can't complain.

Every child deserves a 5th birthday

Although it's the tail end, April is Blog about Malaria Month (BAMM), and yesterday- the 25th- was World Malaria Day, so here's a little something about what's going on with our malaria-related work here.

For the past couple of years, Senegal has been working to achieve universal mosquito net coverage; the goal is for every sleeping area in every house across the country to have a mosquito net treated with long-lasting insecticide. The campaign is accompanied by education to help people use and maintain their nets properly, and to have every member of the family sleep under a net every night throughout the whole year. The net distributions have covered the majority of the country already, prioritizing regions with very high rates. Here in the Louga region, we're on the verge of our very own distribution. The program looks like this:

• April 8th: Peace Corps' very own Jessie Seiler and Mike Toso, who work on coordinating nation-wide malaria efforts, drove all the way from Dakar to our little desert haven of Linguere to get us in the loop about the master plan. It being Easter Sunday, the meeting was followed by a successful and delicious easter-mango hunt.
• April 17th: Mac, Andrew, and I headed to the regional capital of Louga for a meeting with project coordinators and hospital officials about big-picture logistics (stay tuned for photos). Being in the big city and all, we got to eat delicious ceebu jen (rice and fish) and drink ice cold juice.
• April 18th-19th: I went to the training for hospital and health post staff in the district of Linguere for a look at the local specifics. Again, they fed us delicious lunch...
• April 20th: Mac and I met with Linguere hospital staff to clarify our role in the distribution. We'll be attending future trainings, supporting health workers in each of our sites, helping to teach community health volunteers about net use and how to make mosquito repellant with neem tree leaves, and holding a city-wide malaria awareness event in Linguere. After the meeting, we hunkered down to apply for a USAID small projects grant to support our programming.
• Beginning around May 10th, and lasting 45 days (if all goes as scheduled), trainings for health hut staff and community health volunteers will begin, followed by village-wide censuses throughout the region, verification of census results, net distribution, and home visits by health volunteers.
• Towards the end of all the official programming, us PCVs will accompany hospital staff on a district-wide tournament to emphasize key points about net use and care, teach about making mosquito repelling neem lotion, and finally hold our big malaria event in Linguere.

Malaria's a big problem here in Senegal, as I've seen too much evidence of, and it's really exciting to be a part of such a widespread and well-coordinated effort to get rid of it all together. Peace Corps is playing a huge role in all of it- and not just in Senegal- check out http://stompoutmalaria.org/ if you want to see what other volunteers across Africa are working on.

Until next time- the wonderful Emily Naftalin and I are headed to Cape Verde for an island vacation. My mosquito net is packed.

A year later

 As of March 9th, I've been in Senegal for a whole year, and it's all gone by in a flash. The wonderful 2nd-year volunteers of Linguere who showed us the way as newbies are on their way out, and their replacements are in training. The hot season is creeping in, and Senegal is starting to feel like home.

The last month has been full of (mostly) great stuff:
 

Laundry day with my favorite nieces Ndeye and Codou helping out

 The middle school students from my neighborhood organized themselves into a group for village development, complete with officers. They are meeting every Saturday morning to sweep and rake up trash, no parents in sight. I've been totally amazed at their initiative; they're a great group of kids.

Doundodji Parba cleanup day one at the mosque

Sweeping outside the back of my compound. 

 As a part of the Linguere-area AIDS initiative that Ann Marie, Kim, and Emily have been working on for the last few months, there were AIDS testing days in 3 villages- I made it to two of the events to help out. Over 60 people were tested in each of two sites, and 101 in the third. Each day had film screenings, skits, music, speeches, and goodies for everyone who got tested. The project has been a lot of work for the volunteers, but is so inspiring and has been a huge success.

Watching skits at Kim's testing day in Diagely

Beignets and juice for the brave testees

There was no shortage of help at the snack station

Some of our new friends who showed up for the entertainment

Mac got tested

The Diagely crowd

Watching skits... more fun than herding your cows

Manning the tech station during Barkedji's testing day

Barkedji skits under their enormous neem tree

All of us Linguere-area volunteers got together in late February to do a tour of our villages to spread the word about moringa, the miracle tree. It was a lot like our malaria tour in August- we did skits, danced, and gave out prizes to people in 15 different villages.

The wonderful Jonno Larson came down from the north to help us out- he was indispensable and even put in overtime in getting baobab fruit during our picnic between presentations.

Thicogne, a pulaar village outside of Doundodji

the future moringa gardeners of Linguere

Doundodji's audience

Explaining ways to plant moringa to the people of Doundodji

Dancing in Doundodji

Mac in Xol Xol

A few of us went down to Tambacounda in the first few days of March for a Peace Corps half-marathon, 10k, and 5k run to support girls' education. Linguere was well represented in the races: I petered along in the 5k, Kim and Justin (in flip-flops, no less) ran the 10k, and our very own Emily took 2nd in the women's half-marathon. The event was lots of fun and a huge success, raising $3,000 for our girls' scholarship program.

The beginning of March also brought some sad news. My host sister, Mbayeng passed away after a long illness. From the very beginning of my service, she was nothing but wonderful- I have great memories of chats with her, laughing about the shenanigans of her 3-year-old daughter, Codou, the birth her baby who she named after me, and her warm giving spirit.

Happy Birthday, Mohammed

Saturday was a party all around Senegal to celebrate the Muslim prophet Mohammed's birthday. I biked in to Linguere to go to the get-together (gamou) at my aunt's house. The main idea is to sit around, cook and eat an incredible amount of food, listen to music, then go to an all-night singing/praying fest under a big tent with lots of lights, dressed to the nines. I skipped the night part this time, but spent the day cutting kilos and kilos of onions, then chatting with family, neighbors, and no shortage of precocious children.

The men killed and processed 2 cows in the morning

Then the women cooked the meat with more rice than I have ever seen in my life.

  

The lunch serving process was quite a production- complete with a parade of boys carrying platters upon platters of food to their recipients. This is my cousin's wife Yacine getting things organized.

A few of the plates

... after lunch, the women cooked another unbelievable amount of food- macaroni with meat and onion sauce for dinner.

A few of my new friends- two of my cousin's kids and a neighbor.

Sitting with my little sister Rose and her son

And that was that- cooking, eating, sitting, and catching as much of the Africa Cup games as possible in between. I got my Senegalese party fix, and lots of brownie points with the family for chopping onions and taking photos.

The real parties are in 2 cities in Senegal: Tivaoune and Kaolack. People belonging to one of the Muslim brotherhoods, Tidiane, go to Tivaoune if they can, and lots people head to Kaolack. These gamous are a real big deal here- people travel from all over the country to go, and take them very seriously. Of course, this makes it hard to travel through the crowds and to get a car to anywhere else, so unless you're in it for the full gamou experience, it's best to just stay put until the chaos subsides.

In other news, the official presidential election campaign started yesterday, and we're all staying tuned to see how things go. If you're not following the latest Senegal news, the election is set for February 26th and the government recently declared the current president, Abdoulaye Wade eligible to run in the election despite his already having served two terms. The term limit was changed from three to two while he was in office, and it's been decided that he can be grandfathered in. He's 85 now, has made some controversial decisions recently, and those opposing his re-election have been more and more vocal about their views. There is also speculation that if he wins, his son Karim Wade will be appointed in his stead.

The opposing party has also had difficulty organizing behind a single candidate. The singer Youssou N'Dour, who recently decided to enter the presidential race was was declared ineligible to run (this accompanied the the ruling that Wade is eligible). There have been some problems in big cities with violence and demonstrations, but nothing so far in or around Linguere. My Senegalese friends and family tell me that it should stay pretty quiet here, so I'm safe and sound. If there's any sign that there will be major problems, Peace Core has plans of action, and we've all been briefed. So don't worry- I'm probably just sitting here inmy hut drinking tea while people are working out the election problems elsewhere:

Back to work

It's been a productive week- I started off with a garden meeting in one of my village's quartiers. The womens' group there got together to plant vegetables and trees and gather moringa leaves to cook for dinner.

Niangen Ale women's group filling sacks to make a tree nursery

Gathering moringa leaves for dinner

Softening the soil to be planted

Raking...

 Next, I befriended the puppy that my host nephew found outside the village. He's a precocious little guy- and my older brother decided to keep him to guard the sheep, but he's not quite trained yet...

Waiting for cookies

Wreaking havoc, looking innocent.

Next, Mac and I came into Linguere to paint a mural at an elementary school. The teacher who requested the mural has a little sister who came to our girls' camp over the summer, and he's wanted to be a part of a Peace Corps project since. He asked us to paint a mural based on the cover of the book he teaches from- Sidi et Rama. I was a little nervous about it, but when the weekend was through, it looked beautiful.

The original

Getting going with the grid

A crew of helpers showed up- Mr. Mar, my counterpart Ndeye, and a high school student who lives nearby

Mr. Mar was pretty excited to be able to help.

Sidi and Rama penciled in

Drinking tea and painting- all in a day's work.

Mac, tree artist extraordinaire

Abby came on Sunday to help us out

Finished!

We also stopped by my aunt's house in Linguere for lunch on Sunday, and in addition to some delicious rice and fish with lots of veggies, we were treated to some fantastic storytelling by my uncle, El Hadji Ndiaye. He's 85 and remembers the days when there were lions in Linguere- no detail spared. After the lion tales, he told us all about WWII and the cold war- a little embellished, I'm sure, but we all went home in stitches. I wish I'd had my camera with me- he belongs in the history books.

Until next weekend- back to Doundodji.