Sarah l'égaré en Senegal: January 2012

Monday, January 30, 2012

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.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

I came back to Linguere yesterday after a week and a half of meetings, topped off by the West African Invitational Softball Tournament (WAIST), which is the stuff of legend.

We headed to Thies for the Gender and Development summit- 2 days of seminars on gender-related projects from Senegal and a few of our neighbors. Next came all-volunteer conference, another 2 days of seminars about all kinds of PCV work going on in Senegal. There's a lot of great work happening, and it was inspiring to see what everyone's been up to.

We all got bussed to Dakar for WAIST when the all-volunteer conference was over, and the chaos ensued. Lots of teams from Peace Corps, the International School of Dakar, and other organizations came to play 2 days of softball, followed by championships. While many of these teams had coaches, scheduled practices throughout the year, uniforms, gloves, bats, tennis shoes, and other seemingly necessary items, us PCVs showed up in style with none of the above. We didn't win many games, but we did it in style.

Team Linguere- pure style in our custom-tailored suits.

Ann Marie, Emily, Kim, and Justin lookin' classy

Lunch break with Mac

Team Kolda- south of the border

The north- under the sea

The north, and the garbage man on his horse cart

LaRocha and Andrew at the 7th inning stretch

Emcee Ann Marie


Jenn and Mac ready to take on the world, or at least team Gambia

Once WAIST wrapped up, and we had a day to recover, a few of us stayed behind to train as peer counselors, and the 2nd-year volunteers had their close-of-service conference. It was a great time, but it's nice to get back to the village.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Portugal Holidays with Mom

For Christmas and New Year, I jetted over to Portugal to spend the holidays with Mom. We met up in Lisbon, and despite her lost luggage, headed out for our adventure. As soon as we got to our hotel, I ripped into presents from two of my lovely aunts- there was no waiting for Christmas. I reverted to childhood at the site of Christmas, and it was wonderful. We spent the first 3 nights in an old part of the city and did lots of wandering through pathways and staircases (and up lots of hills!) to cathedrals, museums, lookout points, and castles. We also visited the aquarium, saw a Cirque du Soleil show, and went to midnight mass at a nearby cathedral.

After Lisbon came a night in Sintra, which "...is the most beautiful in the world" according to both Lord Byron and myself. We hiked through mossy forest up to a Moorish castle followed by the Pena Palace, which I'm convinced was the inspiration for candyland. Our bed and breakfast looked over a scenic valley, and I took my first bath in 9 months! We also visited the art museum and a fantastic 3-floor toy museum, with a toy collection that would send any child into a fit of glee.

From Sintra, we took a train to Obidos, a medieval walled-in town with beautiful views and winding stone paths. It had been taken over by a children's Christmas village, but was charming nonetheless.

Porto came next- it's a great city with lots to see and do; we saw the sites in 2 days, and headed back down to Lisbon for New Year's eve.

The contemporary art museum in the Belem district was quite a site, as was the way the city exploded for the holiday. There were people out all night, and they paraded through the streets, champagne-in-hand, from one crowd to the next, following the crowd and the music. It was quite a way to ring in the new year.

I got back to Senegal to find a transportation strike, and after being stuck in Dakar for a few days, finally made it back to Linguere - it's back to home sweet home in the morning.