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.
 

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.

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.

Lisbon

Lisbon's castle

The downtown Lisbon Elevador

Sintra's moorish castle

Lisbon's waterfront

We were mooned in Sintra...

Pena palace in Sintra

Obidos

Porto's Casa de Music

The port caves at night

Porto's covered market- a lot more organized than the ones in Senegal!

Check out that squash...

If I didn't mention it, the people of Portugal love their salted cod- bacalhau

WWII posters at Lisbon's contemporary art center