Happy Belated Thanksgiving! Hope everyone's holiday went as well as ours; though for us, "well" meant feeding a group of about 40 people, including the country director and his family and figuring out how to make a turducken. I, however, has the sense to leave the cooking to the pros and just chop or carry something from one room to another every now and then, so I didn't have to do much of any cooking.
I was happy to get back to Kedougou for the holiday, which meant seeing everyone from our region, including the newest volunteers with whom I havent spent much time yet, as well as the neighboring region of Tamba (we're affectionately known as TambaGou whenever we get together). It was also exciting to be back in the regional capital as I had just been at site for about 4.5 weeks (hence the long-awaited update, right?). It was the longest stint I had done in the village thus far without leaving, except to go to the nearest town over for the weekly market. It was a relief to simply be speaking English again and to be around friends; though for my own mini-village-marathon, it wasnt all that difficult. I fortunately had a lot of work to do, what with calculating yields harvested from the farmers I worked with this growing season, outplanting my woodlot of about 100 trees, many now over my head, into rows to be used as fuel/fodder wood, plus I got to teach a few more art lessons at the school (BAD time to not have a camera), as well as help them with an activity for Children's Rights Day, unclear as to whether or not it was celebrated anywhere but my primary school; and by "help them", I mean a teacher asked me to do something for Children's Rights Day.
This became a really interesting opportunity to use the boatloads of art supplies I've received from the States, but also came at a time when I was becoming increasingly frustrated with the parenting techniques of my village family. In general, most parents here use more of a negative reinforcement technique when raising their kids; it was actually part of a session during training as explained to us by one of the Senegalese staff, also a mom. Instead of a, "This is what you did wrong here; dont do it again" approach, its more like a "What, you cant do it this way? This is the right way; are you stupid?" And you can only hear "If you...I'll beat the piss out of you" so many times from the same woman in one day before you at least start wishing they'd mix it up a bit. Verbal abuse is one thing, but at least have some sense of originality.
I dont mean to paint a bleak picture of the parents in my village;' I know the parents in my family love their kids. This is how they were raised and how they were taught was the proper way to raise children. And theres probably something to it since most of the adolescent girls in my village are more self-reliant and capable then people I went to college with. But I do think my family should exercise a certain amount of perspective when dealing with their kids, since they use the same tone/harsh language for serious transgressions, as well as stupid crap. I've started to be more vocal about things I dont like or that make me angry; I think I've earned that right at this point, so we'll see how that works out.
Anyway, with this on my mind, Childrens' Rights Day, which apparently was sponsored by UNICEF as they had sent posters to the school, seemed like a great opportunity to have the kids bring home to their parents what they had learned about their own rights (i.e. the right to be well fed, to be vaccinated, to live in a clean environment, to express themselves) and what they needed from their parents in order to be happy and successful. So, with the whole school, we went over the rights they had learned, and I asked them who could help them achieve each on. Low and behold, "PARENTS" showed up the most number of times, so they all went back to their classrooms and, armed with good old Crayola, picked a couple from the list of rights for which they needed the support of their parents; they wrote/drew whatever they wanted to take home to them as a visual reminder. Doubt it did much to change anything about how parents treat their kids, but they enjoyed the activity anyhow.
After coming in for Thanksgiving and having a great time, I jetted back to my village (luckily got a car) the next day so I'd be there for the Muslim holiday, that Saturday. It was exhausting, but it was good to have made it back and be able to reminisce with them about with them about last year's Tabaski when I had only just got there it seemed. So, I went from turkey and stuffing to the Mosque and goat slaughtering in a matter of a couple days; totally worth it.
I'm back in Gou again, however, because I needed to continue/finish a project I had started when I was here for Thanksgiving. I may have mentioned this before, bu the volunteers here in Gou are trying to work alongside the hospital for an AIDS awareness and campaign in the form of multiple billboards that would be put up in prominent spots all over town. Yours truly got asked to paint said billboards, and once we had a list of possible messages from the hospital, it was on to figuring out just what the hell I was supposed to do. The billboards having long since been made, it was now left to come up with some way of sending these messages visually to the public. Anyway, World AIDS Day was December 1st, and thus I had come right back to Gou to try and finish the billboard for the big unveilling during the town's AIDS activities, as organized by the hospital and one of our city-based health volunteers. Unfortunately, the hospital decided to postpone these AIDS Days activities for a later, non-AIDS Day day because they felt it was too close to Tabaski; they have yet to reschedule. So, I'm here finishing it at my leisure, waiting to see when they might reschedule the event; though I plan to go back to my site tomorrow regardless.
Again, hope everyone had a great holiday; let me know! Hope to talk to you again soon; I should be back through here again in a little over a week on my way to Tamba for the next Ag Summit, and then it's Christmas. A bunch of us are thinking Christmas in Kedougou has a nice ring to it.
Talk to you soon!
Love,
Sully
Friday, December 4, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Year In (almost) Update!
Hey everyone,
Im glad to finally have a chance to write another long awaited update; however this extra time I have is thanks to the fact that the twice a week car that goes out to the town nearest my village has randomly decided to change its schedule from Thurs/Mon to Sat/Mon; meaning Ive got two more days stuck out here away from site unless I can find some other mode of transport out there. This also means that if they keep this new schedule, that leaves two days between trips which would force me to either come in and leave again almost immediately, or stick around for almost a week each visit. The joys of Senegalese public transport.
In other more uplifting news though, work projects have been going very well and Ive been pretty excited about some of the successes weve been having, both personally within my village and through our regional work as a whole. Its also an exciting time because we are welcoming yet another new group of volunteers who are actually being installed into their villages over the course of this week. Its been interesting to get to watch the whole install experience from the perspective of one who has been here a year; especially since it never feels like you know enough to be considered as knowledgable as someone who has finished half their service. Though it is comforting to know that those people who were a year ahead of me, who seemed so experienced, their language and tech skills so very intimidating, also felt like they were in no place to teach anyone new. The general rule seems to be that, in the end, you know a lot more than you think you do.
I also had the opportunity to host one of our new volunteers at my site about a month ago during the program where trainees get to visit the region theyll be ultimately going to and stay with a volunteer who speaks the same language they are learning and ideally also work in their same sector. It was a real chance to see my village from a fresh perspective, but also use that perspective to reflect on my last year here and find out if I really was in a position to prepare a brand new volunteer for; well, anything. It seemed like KC, the girl whom I hosted, got a lot out of her visit, however short, which I was happy to hear. I also was able to pass on my Pulaar bible I had been adding to pretty much since my training and during the subsequent months at site to try and help her get through her last few weeks of language class. She passed her test in the end, and Im comfortable with taking full credit for her success.
But despite all these exciting new introductions, and somber goodbyes to our friends being replaced and moving on with their lives, work goes on; most notably the Youth Summer Camp I had written you all about a couple months ago. Long story short, it went fantastically well in my opinion; of course there were some hangups and quick thinking that needed to go on to keep things running smoothly, but the kids all seemed to have a blast and really took away a lot from the experience; as did all us counselors. We had an awesome ratio of counselors to the 38 campers we had of almost 2:1, since on top of the PCVs who helped out, we had about 10 additional Senegalese counterparts working with us. In the 7 days we were there, the kids got to go to sessions about food security, sexual health, economics, agroforestry, malaria prevention, and more; not to mention getting to participate in awesome challenge courses set up in the woods, learn to play dodgeball and other camp games, and have a Career Day where successful Senegalese male and female entrepreneurs came in and basically used their stories to inspire the youth to stay in school and pursure their own futures; not allow themselves to be pigeonholed, especially the girls, into a life chosen for them by tradition. Not to mention the fact that we held the camp in the town of Dindefelo, which is a tourism hotspot here in Kedougou thanks to its amazingly beautiful waterfall only a short hike away; so of course a trip to the falls was included in our agenda. Also, I was able to use some of the art supplies that had been shipped to me from the US to conduct 4 art sessions which went really well; especially since, regardless of the content of the lessons, the campers were just excited to use materials theyd hardly had a chance to use up to this point in their lives (and a bunch of them said it was their favorite activity...just saying...) I was also involved with the food security sessions which we were able to enhance by having them make visual aids thanks to those same supplies. So thanks again!
This has also been a very exciting time for me personally thanks to the continued selfless efforts of friends and family back home, particularly my mom and stepdad and my former art teacher Elaine Farmer, to organize not one but two showings of my artwork I left behind to try and raise money for this camp. Its been so gratifying to hear how excited people are about the shows and about helping out one of their own, not to mention how much press this project and PC in general have gotten out of it; and equally gratifying to be able to contribute about $700 towards my fellow volunteers project. Truly, thank you so very much again.
Unfortunately the only downside to my recent trip to Dindefelo was that I lost my digital camera with the pictures Ive taken since arriving here on it. I know it wasnt stolen, because it was lost when it fell out of the vehicle we were taking out to the camp without my knowledge. We had to take some cramped safari esque cars on a less than ideal road and I had been seated on a bench facing the opposite direction in which we were travelling. I had had my camera to take some pics of the kids I was facing as we travelled out there; and it was securely in my lap when we went down a pretty steep embankment to cross a river, then had to lurch up the other side. It was only afterward that I noticed my camera was gone and no where to be found within the car; but what I did find was about a 6inch gap of space between the bench I was on and the wall of the car: a space which opened onto nothing besides the machinery that connected the passenger car with the drivers car; and Sullivan law would dictate that, however unlikely the chances, if my camera could find its way through that narrow opening down to the ground, or more likely the river, below, it most certainly would...and did. Im still hoping that maybe it wasnt washed away in the river and that perhaps someone in the village we passed through has it and may give it to one of the volunteers in passing who lives out that way, which has been known to happen with lost items in the past; but considering when I got on my bike and immediately backtracked to said village after arriving at the camp and searched/asked around for about an hour and got nothing, the chances are probably slim. Its not the end of the world though; I did lose a lot of photos but the best of the best tended to find themselves posted online anyway.
Ill leave you with one more experience I had recently which besides being trying was a pretty good closing to my first year here. After the camp a group of about 8 of us decided to head out to the very same waterfall I got to go to during my training a year ago while I was on my own PCV site visit like the one I described earlier. Last year when I went, the 10k bike ride, which included fording a river and one of the crappiest bush paths known to man, was the most I had ever biked in my life and was extremely challenging. But I was surprised to see how much difference a year can make, because even though this trip wasnt without its challenges, I felt well equipped to deal with them and help lead some of the other visiting volunteers who had never done such a trip before. Besides the long bike ride out there in the first place, our 23 hour journey from Kedougou to the falls, thats right, 23 HOURS, included plenty of exhaustion and dehydration for those unaccustomed to biking, thus we stopped a lot, fording the same river with bikes over our heads, finding ourselves not at the falls by the time it got dark and myself negotiating with a Pulaar family in a passing village to spend the night with them, then getting up early the next morning to make short work of the rest of the trip only to have my friends chain break and having that be the first time Ive ever fixed one in the bush and only finally arriving at the falls at about 11am, having left at about NOON the PREVIOUS day. The waterfall is so beautiful though that it makes any amount of hardship worth it just to get there and I was happy to go.
So, like I said, you really do know more thank you think.
Thanks so much again, especially Bernie and Jo Brennan for their package I recently got, and to everyone for your continued support!
Talk to you again soon (if I dont die on the road...Pulaar saying...).
Love,
Steve Sullivan
Im glad to finally have a chance to write another long awaited update; however this extra time I have is thanks to the fact that the twice a week car that goes out to the town nearest my village has randomly decided to change its schedule from Thurs/Mon to Sat/Mon; meaning Ive got two more days stuck out here away from site unless I can find some other mode of transport out there. This also means that if they keep this new schedule, that leaves two days between trips which would force me to either come in and leave again almost immediately, or stick around for almost a week each visit. The joys of Senegalese public transport.
In other more uplifting news though, work projects have been going very well and Ive been pretty excited about some of the successes weve been having, both personally within my village and through our regional work as a whole. Its also an exciting time because we are welcoming yet another new group of volunteers who are actually being installed into their villages over the course of this week. Its been interesting to get to watch the whole install experience from the perspective of one who has been here a year; especially since it never feels like you know enough to be considered as knowledgable as someone who has finished half their service. Though it is comforting to know that those people who were a year ahead of me, who seemed so experienced, their language and tech skills so very intimidating, also felt like they were in no place to teach anyone new. The general rule seems to be that, in the end, you know a lot more than you think you do.
I also had the opportunity to host one of our new volunteers at my site about a month ago during the program where trainees get to visit the region theyll be ultimately going to and stay with a volunteer who speaks the same language they are learning and ideally also work in their same sector. It was a real chance to see my village from a fresh perspective, but also use that perspective to reflect on my last year here and find out if I really was in a position to prepare a brand new volunteer for; well, anything. It seemed like KC, the girl whom I hosted, got a lot out of her visit, however short, which I was happy to hear. I also was able to pass on my Pulaar bible I had been adding to pretty much since my training and during the subsequent months at site to try and help her get through her last few weeks of language class. She passed her test in the end, and Im comfortable with taking full credit for her success.
But despite all these exciting new introductions, and somber goodbyes to our friends being replaced and moving on with their lives, work goes on; most notably the Youth Summer Camp I had written you all about a couple months ago. Long story short, it went fantastically well in my opinion; of course there were some hangups and quick thinking that needed to go on to keep things running smoothly, but the kids all seemed to have a blast and really took away a lot from the experience; as did all us counselors. We had an awesome ratio of counselors to the 38 campers we had of almost 2:1, since on top of the PCVs who helped out, we had about 10 additional Senegalese counterparts working with us. In the 7 days we were there, the kids got to go to sessions about food security, sexual health, economics, agroforestry, malaria prevention, and more; not to mention getting to participate in awesome challenge courses set up in the woods, learn to play dodgeball and other camp games, and have a Career Day where successful Senegalese male and female entrepreneurs came in and basically used their stories to inspire the youth to stay in school and pursure their own futures; not allow themselves to be pigeonholed, especially the girls, into a life chosen for them by tradition. Not to mention the fact that we held the camp in the town of Dindefelo, which is a tourism hotspot here in Kedougou thanks to its amazingly beautiful waterfall only a short hike away; so of course a trip to the falls was included in our agenda. Also, I was able to use some of the art supplies that had been shipped to me from the US to conduct 4 art sessions which went really well; especially since, regardless of the content of the lessons, the campers were just excited to use materials theyd hardly had a chance to use up to this point in their lives (and a bunch of them said it was their favorite activity...just saying...) I was also involved with the food security sessions which we were able to enhance by having them make visual aids thanks to those same supplies. So thanks again!
This has also been a very exciting time for me personally thanks to the continued selfless efforts of friends and family back home, particularly my mom and stepdad and my former art teacher Elaine Farmer, to organize not one but two showings of my artwork I left behind to try and raise money for this camp. Its been so gratifying to hear how excited people are about the shows and about helping out one of their own, not to mention how much press this project and PC in general have gotten out of it; and equally gratifying to be able to contribute about $700 towards my fellow volunteers project. Truly, thank you so very much again.
Unfortunately the only downside to my recent trip to Dindefelo was that I lost my digital camera with the pictures Ive taken since arriving here on it. I know it wasnt stolen, because it was lost when it fell out of the vehicle we were taking out to the camp without my knowledge. We had to take some cramped safari esque cars on a less than ideal road and I had been seated on a bench facing the opposite direction in which we were travelling. I had had my camera to take some pics of the kids I was facing as we travelled out there; and it was securely in my lap when we went down a pretty steep embankment to cross a river, then had to lurch up the other side. It was only afterward that I noticed my camera was gone and no where to be found within the car; but what I did find was about a 6inch gap of space between the bench I was on and the wall of the car: a space which opened onto nothing besides the machinery that connected the passenger car with the drivers car; and Sullivan law would dictate that, however unlikely the chances, if my camera could find its way through that narrow opening down to the ground, or more likely the river, below, it most certainly would...and did. Im still hoping that maybe it wasnt washed away in the river and that perhaps someone in the village we passed through has it and may give it to one of the volunteers in passing who lives out that way, which has been known to happen with lost items in the past; but considering when I got on my bike and immediately backtracked to said village after arriving at the camp and searched/asked around for about an hour and got nothing, the chances are probably slim. Its not the end of the world though; I did lose a lot of photos but the best of the best tended to find themselves posted online anyway.
Ill leave you with one more experience I had recently which besides being trying was a pretty good closing to my first year here. After the camp a group of about 8 of us decided to head out to the very same waterfall I got to go to during my training a year ago while I was on my own PCV site visit like the one I described earlier. Last year when I went, the 10k bike ride, which included fording a river and one of the crappiest bush paths known to man, was the most I had ever biked in my life and was extremely challenging. But I was surprised to see how much difference a year can make, because even though this trip wasnt without its challenges, I felt well equipped to deal with them and help lead some of the other visiting volunteers who had never done such a trip before. Besides the long bike ride out there in the first place, our 23 hour journey from Kedougou to the falls, thats right, 23 HOURS, included plenty of exhaustion and dehydration for those unaccustomed to biking, thus we stopped a lot, fording the same river with bikes over our heads, finding ourselves not at the falls by the time it got dark and myself negotiating with a Pulaar family in a passing village to spend the night with them, then getting up early the next morning to make short work of the rest of the trip only to have my friends chain break and having that be the first time Ive ever fixed one in the bush and only finally arriving at the falls at about 11am, having left at about NOON the PREVIOUS day. The waterfall is so beautiful though that it makes any amount of hardship worth it just to get there and I was happy to go.
So, like I said, you really do know more thank you think.
Thanks so much again, especially Bernie and Jo Brennan for their package I recently got, and to everyone for your continued support!
Talk to you again soon (if I dont die on the road...Pulaar saying...).
Love,
Steve Sullivan
Friday, August 28, 2009
Long Overdue Update...Again
Hey everyone,
Sorry for the overdue update, but then again, haven't they all been? When I last wrote, I was on my way back to the village after recuperating a little at our regional house. Once I felt up to it, which was only after about a day and a half, I was able to get myself and the seeds for my farmers transported back to Kekeressi. Afterwards came the challenging task of getting all the seeds out to those whom I had decided to extend to, which proved not to be as hard as I thought. Over the course of a few days, I managed to get corn, sorghum, bean, and rice seed out with the help of my counterparts in the village. Part of the deal with this seed distribution is that, in exchange for getting a kilo or more of an improved variety of the crops their used to farming, the farmers who receive them agree to pay me back doubly. For example, for those who I gave a kilo of corn seed to, they have to give me 2 kilos of seed for me to save at the harvest; if I gave them two kilos of beans, they have to give me 4 kilos at harvest, etc. I had heard putting something in writing to try and hold them more accountable works well, so though most of the villagers are illiterate, I wrote out a very simple sheet that said (in Pulaar) "Samba Diallo gave me..." and then wrote in what I gave them; "I, (their name), will give him..." and then what I expected of them, and we both signed it. They all seemed to understand what they were agreeing to well enough, and if anything they got a kick out of it when I asked them to hold the paper up while I took their picture (they got to keep the paper, so I needed my own proof, right?).
For weeks after the seed distribution, it had been a constant struggle with the weather in order to continue with the program. What I found out in terms of their usual practices is that they wait until it's rained a few times for the soil to moisten and then they begin seeding. It's a slow process which continues gradually over a couple of weeks, so with respect to my seeds, I had to wait for farmers to get around to that part of their fields where they had chosen to plant them. However, troubles began for us when the rains began enough to motivate the farmers to begin seeding, and then they promptly...stopped. The farmers understand the typical weather patterns better than I ever will, and even they were concerned that the rains were extremely late in their consistency. It was sporadic enough for those first few weeks that a few farmers had to actually reseed what I had given them (thankfully they had some leftover) because they had seeded thinking the rains were finally come, then they stopped for 15-20 days, and the crops died short of their germination.
For myself, this was a trying time because it was one base of the whole seed-distribution program that I could do nothing to cover. Seeds were out, instructions given, demonstrations planned, meetings held, etc...and then no rain. What could any of us do? It was also physically challenging as I had been investing a lot of time and energy into a few of my own demonstrations involving a lot of agroforestry work that I wasn't prepared to see wasted because of a lack of rain, so I was obliged to schlep water from the well up and over hills and mountainsides to try and keep them alive. Thankfully, however, the rains have now become sufficient enough that many of the villagers' worries, as well as my own, have been assuaged, the fields look gorgeous, and the seeds which I distributed, as well as the demos myself and my Pilot Farmers have been implementing, are looking really promising. I talked somewhat about the demos we're doing in my last post, but the ones I myself have worked a lot on are the contour-planting demo to try and combat soil erosion (a pic of the A-frame we used to find the contours is on the blog), as well as an alley-cropping demo, where rows of trees are planted intermittently within a field to improve the soil fertility and, hopefully, the crop's yield. Both demos have gone well so far, now that I've gotten everything in the ground and haven't been having to hand water them. I outplanted 50 trees from my tree nursery into one farmers corn field, so they'd have an idea of how the rows will look eventually, and the remaining two rows were direct-seeded into the ground. The PC Director for Agriculture/Agroforestry, Famara Massaly, just recently came out to my site to see all this work, and he seemed to approve.
Other agriculture stuff we've been working on in the village, as exciting as I'm sure it is for you all to read about, have been to demonstrate other ways trees can help benefit a farmer's field. Once such example was a windbreak which I planted along a farmer's corn field; the idea of a windbreak is to slow down the powerful winds that often whip through fields during storms, damaging crops and/or gardens. The trees slow it down, but don't stop it entirely; wind has a way, if it hits a solid wall with nowhere else to go, of simply going up and over it and not really losing any force whatsoever. The trees help diffuse the wind to the point where it can still get through but is nowhere near as powerful by the time it hits the crops. I also tried a demonstration of a firebreak, which was my director's suggestion at his first visit, since I'm in such a rural location where the high grasses come within the village boundaries and ultimately become a danger during the dry season when wildfires run rampant. The benefit of planting a firebreak now, such as with rows of cashew trees which I did, is that these trees typically have large canopies which shade out the ground underneath them, stopping the growth of vegetation; and, in the case of cashew trees, they have medium-sized, thick leaves, that, when they fall, canvas the ground around the parent tree, further preventing anything from growing under them. Thus, if a wildfire approaches the fire break, it finds that there's nothing to fuel it, and ultimately goes out. Obviously, this would take a ton of trees and a decent amount of manpower to do a whole village, so I just did a small section to try and entice others to do it in their own fields; which, really, is the point of doing ANY of these demonstrations.
As exciting as all this Ag work has been over the past couple months, people are probably more anxious to hear about how our mosquito net distribution went (THANK YOU again to everyone who donated), and I'm happy to say it went really well, and was something I was extremely proud to be a part of. It certainly had it's ups and downs; it didn't involve a whole lot of rest and relaxation, but that was probably what made it all the more rewarding. Without detailing the entire 10 days here and including every trip to every tiny village we went to, I can say that in general it involved quite a bit of thinking on one's fit, a lot of biking, and a lot of patience. First of all, as you probably know already, we weren't the ones behind this distribution, but were there in support of those who were: the NGO, NetLife. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, NetLife was started by a former PCV who came back to his village after he had finished his service to try and supply them all with sufficient bed nets, and since then the project, and the NGO, have expanded to try and cover entire Departments in the region of Kedougou. Of course, the PCVs were there to help with transporting as well as translating, and in the end we were able to provide almost full coverage to the entire department of Saraya. Unfortunately, the nets werent quite enough, as it was not uncommon for us to bike into one small village and be told about an even smaller one with about 20 people in the vicinity that we hadn't planned for, but that of course we couldn't refuse. However, we are going to be trying to do a sort of Phase 2 to finish out the rest, so if anyone is still interested in donating, the website is http://www.againstmalaria.com/NetLifePCV2009.
I was happy to get to help out with another aspect of the distribution which was aimed at providing education for villagers on how they can contract malaria, what the symptoms are and what to do if they appear, and how to properly maintain their mosquito nets. It was important to us to not seem like we were another NGO giving out handouts, and one way to do this was to actually have discussions with the villagers in their native languages. While most everyone already knew that mosquitoes posed the biggest threat to contracting the disease, there were other important aspects of prevention we wanted to make sure got across, especially with regards to children under 5 and pregnant women. My part came, surprisingly enough, when I was asked to draw visuals that could be used when giving these presentations, so I ended up making about 4 identical bed sheets (since we were split into teams) with images that could help aid the discussion; including a scene with people in the village doing what they should not be doing, like hanging out outside a dusk when the mosquitoes first come out, people experiencing the symptoms, a mother taking her child to the local health "relais" (a rural health contact), the Poste de Sante, or Dispensaire where they could receive free treatment, and finally someone correctly using their mosquito net. It seemed to really help with the trainings, and I know I had fun using them on the distributions I did. I know there were some great videos taken, some of them with me in them doing these trainings, and once they've been put up and I know where to find them, I'll let you know.
I also just got to have another Ag volunteer, my friend Jordan, out to check out my site for a couple of days, which was exciting since, besides the volunteer who is 5k from me, I haven't had anyone out to see where I live and what I'm doing til now. He also helped me out with a project at the primary school in my village, where I started the art lessons, in conjunction with the school director/staff where we planted 12 flamboyant trees. Flamboyant are, as the name suggests, very beautiful, though that's about all they're good for. However, the director has asked me about doing some beautification stuff at the school, so I included them in my tree nursery a few months ago, and decided they were big enough to plant. So with Jordan's help, and several Senegalese who have a tendency to assume the white guys cant work and did most of the digging for us anyway, we got them all planted and they'll be a nice addition to the school grounds...God-willing.
That's about it for now; sorry for the long update but, like I said, aren't they always?
Thanks again, and talk to you soon!
Love,
Steve "Samba" Sullivan
Villagers helping me sort seeds for extension
Some of the sorted seeds ready to distribute (beans)
One of the farmers I work with holding our contracts I mentioned
Two of my friends hanging up our banner at the 4th of July "5k"; everyone in Kedougou was invited to come run alongside PCVs for prizes and to learn more about what we do
Hanging up signs advertising what PCVs have to offer (zoom in)
At the starting line...
And they're off
The visual aid I made for our training sessions
Matt, our PCV Leader for the region, using the visual aid to educate villagers
We transported a lot of the nets by bike to the smaller villages, like this one shown with a Senegalese man who helped us out for the day
Sorry for the overdue update, but then again, haven't they all been? When I last wrote, I was on my way back to the village after recuperating a little at our regional house. Once I felt up to it, which was only after about a day and a half, I was able to get myself and the seeds for my farmers transported back to Kekeressi. Afterwards came the challenging task of getting all the seeds out to those whom I had decided to extend to, which proved not to be as hard as I thought. Over the course of a few days, I managed to get corn, sorghum, bean, and rice seed out with the help of my counterparts in the village. Part of the deal with this seed distribution is that, in exchange for getting a kilo or more of an improved variety of the crops their used to farming, the farmers who receive them agree to pay me back doubly. For example, for those who I gave a kilo of corn seed to, they have to give me 2 kilos of seed for me to save at the harvest; if I gave them two kilos of beans, they have to give me 4 kilos at harvest, etc. I had heard putting something in writing to try and hold them more accountable works well, so though most of the villagers are illiterate, I wrote out a very simple sheet that said (in Pulaar) "Samba Diallo gave me..." and then wrote in what I gave them; "I, (their name), will give him..." and then what I expected of them, and we both signed it. They all seemed to understand what they were agreeing to well enough, and if anything they got a kick out of it when I asked them to hold the paper up while I took their picture (they got to keep the paper, so I needed my own proof, right?).
For weeks after the seed distribution, it had been a constant struggle with the weather in order to continue with the program. What I found out in terms of their usual practices is that they wait until it's rained a few times for the soil to moisten and then they begin seeding. It's a slow process which continues gradually over a couple of weeks, so with respect to my seeds, I had to wait for farmers to get around to that part of their fields where they had chosen to plant them. However, troubles began for us when the rains began enough to motivate the farmers to begin seeding, and then they promptly...stopped. The farmers understand the typical weather patterns better than I ever will, and even they were concerned that the rains were extremely late in their consistency. It was sporadic enough for those first few weeks that a few farmers had to actually reseed what I had given them (thankfully they had some leftover) because they had seeded thinking the rains were finally come, then they stopped for 15-20 days, and the crops died short of their germination.
For myself, this was a trying time because it was one base of the whole seed-distribution program that I could do nothing to cover. Seeds were out, instructions given, demonstrations planned, meetings held, etc...and then no rain. What could any of us do? It was also physically challenging as I had been investing a lot of time and energy into a few of my own demonstrations involving a lot of agroforestry work that I wasn't prepared to see wasted because of a lack of rain, so I was obliged to schlep water from the well up and over hills and mountainsides to try and keep them alive. Thankfully, however, the rains have now become sufficient enough that many of the villagers' worries, as well as my own, have been assuaged, the fields look gorgeous, and the seeds which I distributed, as well as the demos myself and my Pilot Farmers have been implementing, are looking really promising. I talked somewhat about the demos we're doing in my last post, but the ones I myself have worked a lot on are the contour-planting demo to try and combat soil erosion (a pic of the A-frame we used to find the contours is on the blog), as well as an alley-cropping demo, where rows of trees are planted intermittently within a field to improve the soil fertility and, hopefully, the crop's yield. Both demos have gone well so far, now that I've gotten everything in the ground and haven't been having to hand water them. I outplanted 50 trees from my tree nursery into one farmers corn field, so they'd have an idea of how the rows will look eventually, and the remaining two rows were direct-seeded into the ground. The PC Director for Agriculture/Agroforestry, Famara Massaly, just recently came out to my site to see all this work, and he seemed to approve.
Other agriculture stuff we've been working on in the village, as exciting as I'm sure it is for you all to read about, have been to demonstrate other ways trees can help benefit a farmer's field. Once such example was a windbreak which I planted along a farmer's corn field; the idea of a windbreak is to slow down the powerful winds that often whip through fields during storms, damaging crops and/or gardens. The trees slow it down, but don't stop it entirely; wind has a way, if it hits a solid wall with nowhere else to go, of simply going up and over it and not really losing any force whatsoever. The trees help diffuse the wind to the point where it can still get through but is nowhere near as powerful by the time it hits the crops. I also tried a demonstration of a firebreak, which was my director's suggestion at his first visit, since I'm in such a rural location where the high grasses come within the village boundaries and ultimately become a danger during the dry season when wildfires run rampant. The benefit of planting a firebreak now, such as with rows of cashew trees which I did, is that these trees typically have large canopies which shade out the ground underneath them, stopping the growth of vegetation; and, in the case of cashew trees, they have medium-sized, thick leaves, that, when they fall, canvas the ground around the parent tree, further preventing anything from growing under them. Thus, if a wildfire approaches the fire break, it finds that there's nothing to fuel it, and ultimately goes out. Obviously, this would take a ton of trees and a decent amount of manpower to do a whole village, so I just did a small section to try and entice others to do it in their own fields; which, really, is the point of doing ANY of these demonstrations.
As exciting as all this Ag work has been over the past couple months, people are probably more anxious to hear about how our mosquito net distribution went (THANK YOU again to everyone who donated), and I'm happy to say it went really well, and was something I was extremely proud to be a part of. It certainly had it's ups and downs; it didn't involve a whole lot of rest and relaxation, but that was probably what made it all the more rewarding. Without detailing the entire 10 days here and including every trip to every tiny village we went to, I can say that in general it involved quite a bit of thinking on one's fit, a lot of biking, and a lot of patience. First of all, as you probably know already, we weren't the ones behind this distribution, but were there in support of those who were: the NGO, NetLife. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, NetLife was started by a former PCV who came back to his village after he had finished his service to try and supply them all with sufficient bed nets, and since then the project, and the NGO, have expanded to try and cover entire Departments in the region of Kedougou. Of course, the PCVs were there to help with transporting as well as translating, and in the end we were able to provide almost full coverage to the entire department of Saraya. Unfortunately, the nets werent quite enough, as it was not uncommon for us to bike into one small village and be told about an even smaller one with about 20 people in the vicinity that we hadn't planned for, but that of course we couldn't refuse. However, we are going to be trying to do a sort of Phase 2 to finish out the rest, so if anyone is still interested in donating, the website is http://www.againstmalaria.com/NetLifePCV2009.
I was happy to get to help out with another aspect of the distribution which was aimed at providing education for villagers on how they can contract malaria, what the symptoms are and what to do if they appear, and how to properly maintain their mosquito nets. It was important to us to not seem like we were another NGO giving out handouts, and one way to do this was to actually have discussions with the villagers in their native languages. While most everyone already knew that mosquitoes posed the biggest threat to contracting the disease, there were other important aspects of prevention we wanted to make sure got across, especially with regards to children under 5 and pregnant women. My part came, surprisingly enough, when I was asked to draw visuals that could be used when giving these presentations, so I ended up making about 4 identical bed sheets (since we were split into teams) with images that could help aid the discussion; including a scene with people in the village doing what they should not be doing, like hanging out outside a dusk when the mosquitoes first come out, people experiencing the symptoms, a mother taking her child to the local health "relais" (a rural health contact), the Poste de Sante, or Dispensaire where they could receive free treatment, and finally someone correctly using their mosquito net. It seemed to really help with the trainings, and I know I had fun using them on the distributions I did. I know there were some great videos taken, some of them with me in them doing these trainings, and once they've been put up and I know where to find them, I'll let you know.
I also just got to have another Ag volunteer, my friend Jordan, out to check out my site for a couple of days, which was exciting since, besides the volunteer who is 5k from me, I haven't had anyone out to see where I live and what I'm doing til now. He also helped me out with a project at the primary school in my village, where I started the art lessons, in conjunction with the school director/staff where we planted 12 flamboyant trees. Flamboyant are, as the name suggests, very beautiful, though that's about all they're good for. However, the director has asked me about doing some beautification stuff at the school, so I included them in my tree nursery a few months ago, and decided they were big enough to plant. So with Jordan's help, and several Senegalese who have a tendency to assume the white guys cant work and did most of the digging for us anyway, we got them all planted and they'll be a nice addition to the school grounds...God-willing.
That's about it for now; sorry for the long update but, like I said, aren't they always?
Thanks again, and talk to you soon!
Love,
Steve "Samba" Sullivan
Villagers helping me sort seeds for extension
Some of the sorted seeds ready to distribute (beans)
One of the farmers I work with holding our contracts I mentioned
Two of my friends hanging up our banner at the 4th of July "5k"; everyone in Kedougou was invited to come run alongside PCVs for prizes and to learn more about what we do
Hanging up signs advertising what PCVs have to offer (zoom in)
At the starting line...
And they're off
The visual aid I made for our training sessions
Matt, our PCV Leader for the region, using the visual aid to educate villagers
We transported a lot of the nets by bike to the smaller villages, like this one shown with a Senegalese man who helped us out for the daySunday, June 21, 2009
Tournée; A Festival; A Big Thank You, and Happy Father's Day, Dad
Hey everyone (or, as they say here, I greet you),
Just wanted to send another exciting (hopefully) update on my life here in Senegal. I promise its much less of a downer than the last one.
When I last wrote, I was on my way to being a "tournee" of all the collèges (essentially middle schools) of the Kedougou Region. A group of volunteers, myself included, were going to be travelling to each location with the aim of accomplishing three goals: paint an AIDS awareness mural (that was my team), conduct interviews for the Michelle Sylvester Scholarship (a scholarship created in memory of a former PC Senegal volunteer which provides money for school supplies for the winner), and to invite students to apply for our upcoming summer leadership camp (headed by a group of 3 other volunteers).
As I mentioned, I was recruited to be on the mural team and worked alongside another PCV from the north of Senegal, Colleen, who extended an extra 6 months in order to do educational murals such as this in various regions of the country. She and I worked on the design together, which was simply a guy and a girl holding hands, apparently coming to an agreement to talk about the most crucial ways to prevent HIV/AIDS: abstinence, fidelity, condoms, and testing. The message, in French, was "We respect our community. We talk about AIDS (SIDA in French), and we included the red ribbon, Senegalese flag, and I tried reproducing the PC logo later on. Then we got started on our whirlwind tour. Rather than go through each and every one, in the end, we completed a mural at each of the 11 collèges in our region, as well as interviews and camp stuff. Of course, being Senegal, some schools had to be completed piece-meal, with our only doing a mural that day because the teachers weren't prepared with the girls' info, etc. and it required multiple trips by different people to get everything done. Others went very smoothly, with Colleen and I knocking out the mural while the others did the interviews. We got pretty fast towards the end; using a grid-system was much easier and made the drawing much faster so we could get other people to help us fill in the colors sooner. Our adventures included a lot of biking out to some pretty beautiful areas of the region, getting caught in a storms and spending the night at health posts, taking some nice, and not so nice transportation, and above all interacting with a lot of different students. The best ones were where the discussions already started to take place before we had even finished the painting. At the collège in Salemata, the town closest to my village, a teacher started asking the onlookers (they were usually more willing to watch us than paint themselves) what they saw: A boy and a girl. And what are the dangers of them being together? Diseases. Like what kind of diseases? Like AIDS. What do you know about AIDS?...and they were off. It was a great experience and a great way to see a lot of the region I had yet to visit. Colleen had to leave shortly after completing #10, which I had gone back to the village for, so #11 was completed by myself and a few other volunteers just a couple weeks ago.
In amongst this whole tour of the region, the Bassari Festival happened. Im not sure if Ive mentioned this before, but the Bassari Fest is an initiation ceremony for adolescent males thats steeped in tradition, since the Bassaris around me claim to have been there long before the Pulaars. Theres one of the largest populations of Bassari villages out by Salemata, near my village, and finally having a volunteer in Salemata, my closest neighbor, Lindsey, after about 12 years, made getting to see the initiation a lot easier than in years past. The Bassaris are notorious for not announcing when their particular village is going to be staging its initiation until the last second, which makes it difficult for tourists, especially PCVs, to get out there; last year, in fact, before Lindsey or myself or any PCV was out there, a group of volunteers traveled all the way there on the weekend they had heard the initiation was supposed to take place, and found they were a week early. This year, though, Lindsey had the inside scoop so people new exactly when to be there.
The result was a group of approximately 40 volunteers descending upon the department of Salemata. We had a little soiree at our house, which we took a break from the scholarship tournee for, and the next day had transport arranged to take us all out there. We left our things at the nearest tourist campement, and let the festivities commence. As some of you may know, Muslims dont drink alcohol; Bassaris, however, are NOT Muslim by any means, and the palm wine flowed like, well, wine. The next day was the big event of the entire initiation, the combat. Each of the 45 "pledges", we'll call them, had to go up against a Bassari "brother" in one-on-one combat. However, we had the feeling that over the years, despite the fact that the young men get a sword and a kind of bow-shaped shield, and the brothers are armed with sticks and a handguard, that the fighting had probably been dumbed down a bit once tourism to the event started to take hold, because most of the fights quickly turned to just grappling, and either one of them got thrown down or they called a stalemate...lame. Some of the fights were pretty good though, with kids making good use of their swords and cocky brothers getting taken down.
Now, a few weeks prior, Lindsey and I had gone to a smaller village's initiation, which was much the same order of events as this one. However, Lindsey was told she was not allowed to go to the battleground because it was for men only to watch. The Bassaris, during the festival, wear elaborate masks to hide their faces (check out the pics on my blog), and those come off for the most part during the fights. This "secret" must be kept from the women, so they arent allowed to watch at all. That sucked for Lindsey, but we talked to the coordinator from the village whose initiation this huge group of PCVs was going to attend, many of them women, and asked if they would be prohibited as well. He said maybe not, but it would be up to the village. Well, the village ultimately went the same way as the others, and all the females who came to the ceremony werent allowed to watch. They said they still had a good time though, and were able to watch from the top of a large hill where you could still see what as generally going on.
With the Bassari Fest over and the subsequent mural/scholarship tournee done, Ive been back in my village focusing on slowly getting a new garden going (currently waiting on new fencing to be made), and mainly working with my 5 pilot farmers about what we're going to do with their fields this rainy season. Id been meeting with them individually, since they were the people said to be the better farmers in my village and the one nextdoor, to see if they would be willing to not only receive improved seed varieties from me for their crops, but also to try new techniques that, if they work well, can be taught to other farmers. They're commonly called "demo plots". Theyve all been very receptive to reserving parts of their fields for these demonstrations, and we had a good meeting with everyone together not long ago where they were able to learn the demos each other was doing and get an idea of the bigger picture. Ive been told with all the things I want them to try, Ill be putting a lot on my plate, but I think they can handle it. Some of the demos include (if youre interested in that sort of thing): improved spacing between rows/plants for corn, sorghum, and peanuts; intercropping beans with corn/peanuts; a demo of chemical vs. organic fertilizers, a demo of alleycropping rows of trees into the corn field for fertilizer; planting other trees for fertilizer in various places within fields. One other that Im proud of is one that my village brother and I are doing. He wanted to some of his corn on the side of one of the many large slopes in our village, so we're trying a contour planting demo with him. We constructed whats called an A-frame (see pics) to find the contours along the hill every 5 meters, and we will be planting rows of trees along them to help stop soil erosion.
Most importantly, theyll be helping me distribute the improved seeds to other farmers as well, which is what I came in to Kedougou to pick up. Id be back there with them not, if not for my first case of Senegalitis that floored me all day Thursday with a fever, vomiting, and diahrrea. Its gotten progressively better since then by yesterday I was feeling much better without having had to take any antibiotics which was good. I figured I should pay my dues at some point for having made it this long without getting that sick, and the fact that it only lasted 2 days, well...it could have been much worse.
Last thing, but definitely not the least, is a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone back home for contributing the AMAZING number of art supplies that have been shipped over here slowly but surely over the last couple months (and THANK YOU to Mom for packing them all up). The request went out at my moms work, Spectrum Gymnastics Academy, for any supplies people might like to donate, since I had expressed interest at our primary school to start teaching art classes; a curriculum which they currently dont have. The response was enormous, and the supplies havent even all made it here yet. Needless to say, these kids are going to be set for a while. I completed the first class with the youngest kids about a week ago, and with the help of a couple of the teachers it went over really well. I told them to draw their families and their compounds, with markers and crayons, and did a little demo of what I meant. It was obvious these kids had never been encouraged or given the opportunity to draw before; they seemed to think it was some type of test. But once they realized it was supposed to be fun, they loosened up a bit. Check out the pics on my blog if you get a chance (a handful of the 130 that the teacher I loaned my camera to took over the course of an hour). Hopefully we'll get to do many more of these in the future.
Thats about it for now; I'm heading back to the village tomorrow, healthy and ready to get these seeds in the ground (hopefully); and I wont be coming back again until our huge 4th of July bash, which I'll be sure to tell you all about...or not, depending.
Thanks again for everything!
Happy Fathers Day, Dad. Love and Miss You.
And Happy Fathers Day to all the other Dads.
- Steve "Samba" Sullivan
P.S. I also included a picture of the mural I've been doing off-and-on at our regional house, which will probably be done by our party.
Collège in Dindefelo
Colleen working on the grid for the mural
One of the teachers who helped us with the writing in Fongolimbi
Two Bassari Warriors
Bassaris marching
And again
Me with my A-frame
My village brother working with the A-frame
The school in Kékeressi
The other side of the school
Trying to explain the concept of markers
How most of them started...
How they ended up
The one on the right is my nephew
More finished products
Cracking the whip
Mural of the Ingles Waterfall at the house (in-progress)
Just wanted to send another exciting (hopefully) update on my life here in Senegal. I promise its much less of a downer than the last one.
When I last wrote, I was on my way to being a "tournee" of all the collèges (essentially middle schools) of the Kedougou Region. A group of volunteers, myself included, were going to be travelling to each location with the aim of accomplishing three goals: paint an AIDS awareness mural (that was my team), conduct interviews for the Michelle Sylvester Scholarship (a scholarship created in memory of a former PC Senegal volunteer which provides money for school supplies for the winner), and to invite students to apply for our upcoming summer leadership camp (headed by a group of 3 other volunteers).
As I mentioned, I was recruited to be on the mural team and worked alongside another PCV from the north of Senegal, Colleen, who extended an extra 6 months in order to do educational murals such as this in various regions of the country. She and I worked on the design together, which was simply a guy and a girl holding hands, apparently coming to an agreement to talk about the most crucial ways to prevent HIV/AIDS: abstinence, fidelity, condoms, and testing. The message, in French, was "We respect our community. We talk about AIDS (SIDA in French), and we included the red ribbon, Senegalese flag, and I tried reproducing the PC logo later on. Then we got started on our whirlwind tour. Rather than go through each and every one, in the end, we completed a mural at each of the 11 collèges in our region, as well as interviews and camp stuff. Of course, being Senegal, some schools had to be completed piece-meal, with our only doing a mural that day because the teachers weren't prepared with the girls' info, etc. and it required multiple trips by different people to get everything done. Others went very smoothly, with Colleen and I knocking out the mural while the others did the interviews. We got pretty fast towards the end; using a grid-system was much easier and made the drawing much faster so we could get other people to help us fill in the colors sooner. Our adventures included a lot of biking out to some pretty beautiful areas of the region, getting caught in a storms and spending the night at health posts, taking some nice, and not so nice transportation, and above all interacting with a lot of different students. The best ones were where the discussions already started to take place before we had even finished the painting. At the collège in Salemata, the town closest to my village, a teacher started asking the onlookers (they were usually more willing to watch us than paint themselves) what they saw: A boy and a girl. And what are the dangers of them being together? Diseases. Like what kind of diseases? Like AIDS. What do you know about AIDS?...and they were off. It was a great experience and a great way to see a lot of the region I had yet to visit. Colleen had to leave shortly after completing #10, which I had gone back to the village for, so #11 was completed by myself and a few other volunteers just a couple weeks ago.
In amongst this whole tour of the region, the Bassari Festival happened. Im not sure if Ive mentioned this before, but the Bassari Fest is an initiation ceremony for adolescent males thats steeped in tradition, since the Bassaris around me claim to have been there long before the Pulaars. Theres one of the largest populations of Bassari villages out by Salemata, near my village, and finally having a volunteer in Salemata, my closest neighbor, Lindsey, after about 12 years, made getting to see the initiation a lot easier than in years past. The Bassaris are notorious for not announcing when their particular village is going to be staging its initiation until the last second, which makes it difficult for tourists, especially PCVs, to get out there; last year, in fact, before Lindsey or myself or any PCV was out there, a group of volunteers traveled all the way there on the weekend they had heard the initiation was supposed to take place, and found they were a week early. This year, though, Lindsey had the inside scoop so people new exactly when to be there.
The result was a group of approximately 40 volunteers descending upon the department of Salemata. We had a little soiree at our house, which we took a break from the scholarship tournee for, and the next day had transport arranged to take us all out there. We left our things at the nearest tourist campement, and let the festivities commence. As some of you may know, Muslims dont drink alcohol; Bassaris, however, are NOT Muslim by any means, and the palm wine flowed like, well, wine. The next day was the big event of the entire initiation, the combat. Each of the 45 "pledges", we'll call them, had to go up against a Bassari "brother" in one-on-one combat. However, we had the feeling that over the years, despite the fact that the young men get a sword and a kind of bow-shaped shield, and the brothers are armed with sticks and a handguard, that the fighting had probably been dumbed down a bit once tourism to the event started to take hold, because most of the fights quickly turned to just grappling, and either one of them got thrown down or they called a stalemate...lame. Some of the fights were pretty good though, with kids making good use of their swords and cocky brothers getting taken down.
Now, a few weeks prior, Lindsey and I had gone to a smaller village's initiation, which was much the same order of events as this one. However, Lindsey was told she was not allowed to go to the battleground because it was for men only to watch. The Bassaris, during the festival, wear elaborate masks to hide their faces (check out the pics on my blog), and those come off for the most part during the fights. This "secret" must be kept from the women, so they arent allowed to watch at all. That sucked for Lindsey, but we talked to the coordinator from the village whose initiation this huge group of PCVs was going to attend, many of them women, and asked if they would be prohibited as well. He said maybe not, but it would be up to the village. Well, the village ultimately went the same way as the others, and all the females who came to the ceremony werent allowed to watch. They said they still had a good time though, and were able to watch from the top of a large hill where you could still see what as generally going on.
With the Bassari Fest over and the subsequent mural/scholarship tournee done, Ive been back in my village focusing on slowly getting a new garden going (currently waiting on new fencing to be made), and mainly working with my 5 pilot farmers about what we're going to do with their fields this rainy season. Id been meeting with them individually, since they were the people said to be the better farmers in my village and the one nextdoor, to see if they would be willing to not only receive improved seed varieties from me for their crops, but also to try new techniques that, if they work well, can be taught to other farmers. They're commonly called "demo plots". Theyve all been very receptive to reserving parts of their fields for these demonstrations, and we had a good meeting with everyone together not long ago where they were able to learn the demos each other was doing and get an idea of the bigger picture. Ive been told with all the things I want them to try, Ill be putting a lot on my plate, but I think they can handle it. Some of the demos include (if youre interested in that sort of thing): improved spacing between rows/plants for corn, sorghum, and peanuts; intercropping beans with corn/peanuts; a demo of chemical vs. organic fertilizers, a demo of alleycropping rows of trees into the corn field for fertilizer; planting other trees for fertilizer in various places within fields. One other that Im proud of is one that my village brother and I are doing. He wanted to some of his corn on the side of one of the many large slopes in our village, so we're trying a contour planting demo with him. We constructed whats called an A-frame (see pics) to find the contours along the hill every 5 meters, and we will be planting rows of trees along them to help stop soil erosion.
Most importantly, theyll be helping me distribute the improved seeds to other farmers as well, which is what I came in to Kedougou to pick up. Id be back there with them not, if not for my first case of Senegalitis that floored me all day Thursday with a fever, vomiting, and diahrrea. Its gotten progressively better since then by yesterday I was feeling much better without having had to take any antibiotics which was good. I figured I should pay my dues at some point for having made it this long without getting that sick, and the fact that it only lasted 2 days, well...it could have been much worse.
Last thing, but definitely not the least, is a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone back home for contributing the AMAZING number of art supplies that have been shipped over here slowly but surely over the last couple months (and THANK YOU to Mom for packing them all up). The request went out at my moms work, Spectrum Gymnastics Academy, for any supplies people might like to donate, since I had expressed interest at our primary school to start teaching art classes; a curriculum which they currently dont have. The response was enormous, and the supplies havent even all made it here yet. Needless to say, these kids are going to be set for a while. I completed the first class with the youngest kids about a week ago, and with the help of a couple of the teachers it went over really well. I told them to draw their families and their compounds, with markers and crayons, and did a little demo of what I meant. It was obvious these kids had never been encouraged or given the opportunity to draw before; they seemed to think it was some type of test. But once they realized it was supposed to be fun, they loosened up a bit. Check out the pics on my blog if you get a chance (a handful of the 130 that the teacher I loaned my camera to took over the course of an hour). Hopefully we'll get to do many more of these in the future.
Thats about it for now; I'm heading back to the village tomorrow, healthy and ready to get these seeds in the ground (hopefully); and I wont be coming back again until our huge 4th of July bash, which I'll be sure to tell you all about...or not, depending.
Thanks again for everything!
Happy Fathers Day, Dad. Love and Miss You.
And Happy Fathers Day to all the other Dads.
- Steve "Samba" Sullivan
P.S. I also included a picture of the mural I've been doing off-and-on at our regional house, which will probably be done by our party.
Collège in Dindefelo
Colleen working on the grid for the mural
One of the teachers who helped us with the writing in Fongolimbi
Two Bassari Warriors
Bassaris marching
And again
Me with my A-frame
My village brother working with the A-frame
The school in Kékeressi
The other side of the school
Trying to explain the concept of markers
How most of them started...
How they ended up
The one on the right is my nephew
More finished products
Cracking the whip
Mural of the Ingles Waterfall at the house (in-progress)Saturday, May 9, 2009
Overdue Update...Prepare Yourselves
Hey all,
Sorry it's been a while since the last time I wrote; I cant believe it was the Eye Clinic...pathetic on my part, but all the better since I've got a lot more interesting stuff to write about. So really, I did it for you.
It's been an interesting couple months between the village and everything else PC-related. I officially graduated from freshman to sophomore status (though I hate when people refer to it like that), as we welcomed a new stage of volunteers into our ever-expanding Kedougou family. It was a smaller group than our stage, 3 guys versus the 8 people we had, but theyre great additions to the group and have fit right in. They were installed in their villages a little over a week ago and seem to be doing well so far from what theyve told me.
Unfortunately, with the welcoming of new volunteers comes the departure of the volunteers theyre replacing, and we had to say farewell to two guys from our group; which was tough, but theyre on to bigger and better things, i.e America, and were great friends in the short time I knew them. Best of luck Dan and Willie!
It felt like quite a milestone to officially become not the newest people in country, and made us realize just how much we've learned in our time here, though none of us would have really attested to being wizened old vets just yet (still not). It also has put into perspective just how quickly our time is passing, and how soon we'll be saying goodbye to the next group, and how much that will change things. Though it seems strange to say it when we're only in the month of May, the year mark is quickly approaching and it wont be long before we'll be the ones having to seriously consider what to do when we leave. Crazy.
Anyhow, I did get to go up to Dakar for a while for the Ag Summit, where all the Sustainable Ag volunteers got together for a kind of interim training for the 1st years and discussion time for the second years to impart some of their wisdom, especially regarding things they would have liked to know going into their first rainy season (which is almost upon us); all in all it was a very helpful 2-day session. Plus, I got to hang in Dakar...which is like a vacation in and of itself.
Right after getting back to the summit, everyone from our region got together for a retreat to a local campement in Mako, a beautiful little town just outside of Kedougou, to discuss regional projects and initiatives. It was a really effective meeting, with our doing some serious re-evaluating and re-planning for what we wanted to accomplish as a group on top of our personal PC goals. Plus, we saw hippos in the river, which anyone would agree was clearly the best part.
That weekend I also began a mural at our regional house of a local waterfall that I actually got to go to during our initial Kedougou visit during training. So far it's coming out well, at least everyone here approves, and will hopefully be done by our fourth of July party. I dont have pictures up of it yet but once I do I will post them as soon as possible.
What I DO have pictures of and what I really haven't been able to wait to share with you all is my current gardening situation. I was having some great success with my hot/dry season garden after my cool/dry season garden had been essentially wiped out by grasshoppers in my absence when I was at my In-Service Training. But we pressed on, and developed a hot season garden, making efforts to ward off grasshoppers by protecting young seedlings with netting and doing everything from burning plastic to smoke them out to covering leaves in wood ash to make them less desirable. And, for the most part, it was working.
If you get a chance, I highly recommend checking out my blog for the pics to get the full effect of what I'm about to write. So, I mentioned having great success; in fact, it was awesome. Eggplant and okra were growing amazingly well, as well as tomatoes and some cabbage, but the real prize were my cucumbers. At my last count, I had over fifty that were almost ripe and ready to be picked, and given that they're my favorite vegetable, I was pretty excited. Not to mention my plans to try to make pickles for our 4th of July party.
But, of course, my mistake was getting too satisfied with the results and happy with my success, because that's naturally when these things get taken away. We had a notably windy night at the beginning of this week, and the "rope" that we had used to tie my fencing together snapped in a couple places, exposing a corner of the garden. I used the term "rope" loosely because it's actually strips of bark soaked in water to be maleable and then tied; but, of course, it eventually dries out, gets brittle, and becomes the harbinger of utter chaos.
So, on my walk to the bathroom, I noticed that this one corner of my fencing had fallen down, and that the rest of the fencing was no longer protecting anything. I ran down to catch a cow in the act of entering the garden, but unfortunately for him, his friends had beaten him to it, and like me, he found nothing there. Like I say, check out the pictures, but they left no trace...it was actually quite impressive (I'm not including one of my tree nursery which was also within the confines of the garden, which was also destroyed; approximately 175 trees...hamburger, anyone?)
I didn't exactly know what to do; I was utterly defeated. My family was sympathetic, especially my brother who had been helping with watering in my absence, as well as anything else I asked of him. He was quick to begin cleaning up the area and performing what to be just seemed like mundane acts of maintenance on a thing that no longer needed to be maintained, but I think he felt he needed to do something to improve the situation, even the littlest bit. I was pretty calm about the whole thing, at least on the outside, considering other people have told me if it were them they would have gone on a rampage, which did cross my mind.
Instead we talked about the fact that this "rope" was not sufficient enough when it came to withstanding the winds we're now experiencing, and even turned into a healthy discussion about livestock management (after I had gone the 5k into Salemata and got a couple luke warm beers in me from the local campement, of course; it was Cinqo de Mayo after all). So, we're pushing forward...again, and will hopefully see the same level of improvement in this 3rd "rainy season" garden as we did between the 2nd and the 1st. Live and learn, especially in Africa.
I'm back in Kedougou now, obviously, because I agreed to help out with this next regional initiative we have coming up. The Michelle Sylvester Scholarship was established in memory of a former volunteer who passed away and gives opportunities to young motivated girls at the middle school level to win a monetary prize for school supplies, as well as be exposed to other successful students such as themselves. We're going to be putting on a tournee of all these schools in the region of Kedougou to not only conduct interviews of nominated girls, but also to distribute information about our Summer Leadership Camp that a few volunteers started last year and is being continued this year. The final part, and the part which I'm most involved in, will be the painting of HIV/AIDS prevention and education murals at each of the schools. It's the project of a 3rd year volunteer from the north who is coming down and whom I agreed to help with the design and then ultimately the implementation of these murals. It'll be exhausting, but also a great chance to see a lot more of the region.
So, hope you're enjoying the ups and downs as much as I am; but then again, if it weren't hard, it wouldn't be worth doing, right?
I also want to say thanks to The Brennans, to Uncle Ed and Aunt Maureen, The Simbolis, and of course Mom, SND, and Bobby & Amy for all the great packages I've gotten as of late. Thanks for helping keep me going!
Til next time,
Samba
Overdue Eye Clinic Pic
Women's Group in neighboring village I did a tree nursery
with (their's hasn't been eaten yet as far as I know)
Part of the garden BEFORE (cucumbers and okra)
Beautiful
The Aftermath
The Horror
A Happier Time - filling tree sacs for the nursery
Thanks to The Brennans! Kids love them (I drew on them so they could differentiate)
Sorry it's been a while since the last time I wrote; I cant believe it was the Eye Clinic...pathetic on my part, but all the better since I've got a lot more interesting stuff to write about. So really, I did it for you.
It's been an interesting couple months between the village and everything else PC-related. I officially graduated from freshman to sophomore status (though I hate when people refer to it like that), as we welcomed a new stage of volunteers into our ever-expanding Kedougou family. It was a smaller group than our stage, 3 guys versus the 8 people we had, but theyre great additions to the group and have fit right in. They were installed in their villages a little over a week ago and seem to be doing well so far from what theyve told me.
Unfortunately, with the welcoming of new volunteers comes the departure of the volunteers theyre replacing, and we had to say farewell to two guys from our group; which was tough, but theyre on to bigger and better things, i.e America, and were great friends in the short time I knew them. Best of luck Dan and Willie!
It felt like quite a milestone to officially become not the newest people in country, and made us realize just how much we've learned in our time here, though none of us would have really attested to being wizened old vets just yet (still not). It also has put into perspective just how quickly our time is passing, and how soon we'll be saying goodbye to the next group, and how much that will change things. Though it seems strange to say it when we're only in the month of May, the year mark is quickly approaching and it wont be long before we'll be the ones having to seriously consider what to do when we leave. Crazy.
Anyhow, I did get to go up to Dakar for a while for the Ag Summit, where all the Sustainable Ag volunteers got together for a kind of interim training for the 1st years and discussion time for the second years to impart some of their wisdom, especially regarding things they would have liked to know going into their first rainy season (which is almost upon us); all in all it was a very helpful 2-day session. Plus, I got to hang in Dakar...which is like a vacation in and of itself.
Right after getting back to the summit, everyone from our region got together for a retreat to a local campement in Mako, a beautiful little town just outside of Kedougou, to discuss regional projects and initiatives. It was a really effective meeting, with our doing some serious re-evaluating and re-planning for what we wanted to accomplish as a group on top of our personal PC goals. Plus, we saw hippos in the river, which anyone would agree was clearly the best part.
That weekend I also began a mural at our regional house of a local waterfall that I actually got to go to during our initial Kedougou visit during training. So far it's coming out well, at least everyone here approves, and will hopefully be done by our fourth of July party. I dont have pictures up of it yet but once I do I will post them as soon as possible.
What I DO have pictures of and what I really haven't been able to wait to share with you all is my current gardening situation. I was having some great success with my hot/dry season garden after my cool/dry season garden had been essentially wiped out by grasshoppers in my absence when I was at my In-Service Training. But we pressed on, and developed a hot season garden, making efforts to ward off grasshoppers by protecting young seedlings with netting and doing everything from burning plastic to smoke them out to covering leaves in wood ash to make them less desirable. And, for the most part, it was working.
If you get a chance, I highly recommend checking out my blog for the pics to get the full effect of what I'm about to write. So, I mentioned having great success; in fact, it was awesome. Eggplant and okra were growing amazingly well, as well as tomatoes and some cabbage, but the real prize were my cucumbers. At my last count, I had over fifty that were almost ripe and ready to be picked, and given that they're my favorite vegetable, I was pretty excited. Not to mention my plans to try to make pickles for our 4th of July party.
But, of course, my mistake was getting too satisfied with the results and happy with my success, because that's naturally when these things get taken away. We had a notably windy night at the beginning of this week, and the "rope" that we had used to tie my fencing together snapped in a couple places, exposing a corner of the garden. I used the term "rope" loosely because it's actually strips of bark soaked in water to be maleable and then tied; but, of course, it eventually dries out, gets brittle, and becomes the harbinger of utter chaos.
So, on my walk to the bathroom, I noticed that this one corner of my fencing had fallen down, and that the rest of the fencing was no longer protecting anything. I ran down to catch a cow in the act of entering the garden, but unfortunately for him, his friends had beaten him to it, and like me, he found nothing there. Like I say, check out the pictures, but they left no trace...it was actually quite impressive (I'm not including one of my tree nursery which was also within the confines of the garden, which was also destroyed; approximately 175 trees...hamburger, anyone?)
I didn't exactly know what to do; I was utterly defeated. My family was sympathetic, especially my brother who had been helping with watering in my absence, as well as anything else I asked of him. He was quick to begin cleaning up the area and performing what to be just seemed like mundane acts of maintenance on a thing that no longer needed to be maintained, but I think he felt he needed to do something to improve the situation, even the littlest bit. I was pretty calm about the whole thing, at least on the outside, considering other people have told me if it were them they would have gone on a rampage, which did cross my mind.
Instead we talked about the fact that this "rope" was not sufficient enough when it came to withstanding the winds we're now experiencing, and even turned into a healthy discussion about livestock management (after I had gone the 5k into Salemata and got a couple luke warm beers in me from the local campement, of course; it was Cinqo de Mayo after all). So, we're pushing forward...again, and will hopefully see the same level of improvement in this 3rd "rainy season" garden as we did between the 2nd and the 1st. Live and learn, especially in Africa.
I'm back in Kedougou now, obviously, because I agreed to help out with this next regional initiative we have coming up. The Michelle Sylvester Scholarship was established in memory of a former volunteer who passed away and gives opportunities to young motivated girls at the middle school level to win a monetary prize for school supplies, as well as be exposed to other successful students such as themselves. We're going to be putting on a tournee of all these schools in the region of Kedougou to not only conduct interviews of nominated girls, but also to distribute information about our Summer Leadership Camp that a few volunteers started last year and is being continued this year. The final part, and the part which I'm most involved in, will be the painting of HIV/AIDS prevention and education murals at each of the schools. It's the project of a 3rd year volunteer from the north who is coming down and whom I agreed to help with the design and then ultimately the implementation of these murals. It'll be exhausting, but also a great chance to see a lot more of the region.
So, hope you're enjoying the ups and downs as much as I am; but then again, if it weren't hard, it wouldn't be worth doing, right?
I also want to say thanks to The Brennans, to Uncle Ed and Aunt Maureen, The Simbolis, and of course Mom, SND, and Bobby & Amy for all the great packages I've gotten as of late. Thanks for helping keep me going!
Til next time,
Samba
Overdue Eye Clinic Pic
Women's Group in neighboring village I did a tree nurserywith (their's hasn't been eaten yet as far as I know)
Part of the garden BEFORE (cucumbers and okra)
Beautiful
The Aftermath
The Horror
A Happier Time - filling tree sacs for the nursery
Thanks to The Brennans! Kids love them (I drew on them so they could differentiate)Saturday, March 21, 2009
Eye Clinic Recap
On jaaraama, y'all,
First off: Thanks Nana! I got a great package full of stuff to keep me going from her, so thanks again! Love You!
Just wanted to send a quick update while Im still in a place with electricity to let you all know how the Eye Clinic went down. I ended up staying for the full 10 days, and while it was exhausting, actually going back to an 8am-6pm or later work day was a little tough, it was an amazing experience nonetheless. The two opthomalogists, with the help of their team of a consulting doctor and OR nurse, as well as that of the PCVs acting as translators (and much more), were able to perform 107 cataract surgeries, many of them performed on patients who were nearly completely blind; and the next day, they could see. It was the most surgeries they said theyve ever performed on one of these missions, and they credited the volunteers with playing a large role in that success.
I personally ended up with a cool job after a couple days, which ended up being why i chose to continue working there and not returning to my village, working solo in the pre-op room. I got to deliver the pre-op instructions to patients in the local language, which was great practice for me, as well as prepare them for their local anesthesia and ultimately their surgery, which included administering a lot of different eye drops, taking blood pressure, stuff like that, then helping them after surgery and making sure they knew to come back and when.
It was a really fulfilling experience, one which many of the veteran volunteers credited as being one of the most interesting things theyd been able to do during their service, and one which, to borrow my friends words, showed what can happen when two different development groups come together and do what they do best. It also showed the value of having people around who spoke both English and the local languages; many things had to be explained to patients, some less reassuring then others. There were several times where it became the volunteers duty to tell a patient there was nothing that could be done to save their vision, giving the doctors orders on behalf of the doctors. Tough parts aside, we were all really pleased with what we were able to accomplish, so much so that the docs intend on returning next year and try to expand the patient-base even further.
In terms of personal work, besides the village, it looks as though Im going to be collaborating with another PCV from up north, who is apparently extending for a third year simply for the sake of producing educational murals at the middle/high schools throughout the country. Ill be working with her to begin a tournee of all these schools in Kedougou with a health-related mural design that we will be working together to complete. Id also like to try to expand on this project during my service to do not one but several murals at each of these same schools that would cover other topics besides health; such as malaria prevention, AIDS, nutrition, etc. You could argue they all have to do with health anyway...but please dont. Im also in charge of beautifying our regional house; which is more like a compound with multiple huts, by muralizing them as well.
Which brings me to another big undertaking that we as a region would like to see succeed, and thats our bed net distribution I mentioned last time. In an effort to reduce the amount of incidents of malaria and malaria related deaths, the PCVs will be delivering enough nets to cover each bed in one of the largest departments in our region. In order to do that, we need not only strong legs to bike out to all these village, but also some financial help as well. For a reminder on the nitty gritty, you can refer to my last email, since i know this ones gone on long already.
Thank you so much to everyone who already donated, and if you would like to still donate, here's the link again: http://www.againstmalaria.com/netlife
Remember, its only approximately $2.50 for one net, so a donation of 5 bucks can help protect two people, probably kids, who would otherwise remain vulnerable.
Thanks so much again for the emails and the support, and talk to you again soon (inshallah)!
Love, Steve "Samba" Sullivan
First off: Thanks Nana! I got a great package full of stuff to keep me going from her, so thanks again! Love You!
Just wanted to send a quick update while Im still in a place with electricity to let you all know how the Eye Clinic went down. I ended up staying for the full 10 days, and while it was exhausting, actually going back to an 8am-6pm or later work day was a little tough, it was an amazing experience nonetheless. The two opthomalogists, with the help of their team of a consulting doctor and OR nurse, as well as that of the PCVs acting as translators (and much more), were able to perform 107 cataract surgeries, many of them performed on patients who were nearly completely blind; and the next day, they could see. It was the most surgeries they said theyve ever performed on one of these missions, and they credited the volunteers with playing a large role in that success.
I personally ended up with a cool job after a couple days, which ended up being why i chose to continue working there and not returning to my village, working solo in the pre-op room. I got to deliver the pre-op instructions to patients in the local language, which was great practice for me, as well as prepare them for their local anesthesia and ultimately their surgery, which included administering a lot of different eye drops, taking blood pressure, stuff like that, then helping them after surgery and making sure they knew to come back and when.
It was a really fulfilling experience, one which many of the veteran volunteers credited as being one of the most interesting things theyd been able to do during their service, and one which, to borrow my friends words, showed what can happen when two different development groups come together and do what they do best. It also showed the value of having people around who spoke both English and the local languages; many things had to be explained to patients, some less reassuring then others. There were several times where it became the volunteers duty to tell a patient there was nothing that could be done to save their vision, giving the doctors orders on behalf of the doctors. Tough parts aside, we were all really pleased with what we were able to accomplish, so much so that the docs intend on returning next year and try to expand the patient-base even further.
In terms of personal work, besides the village, it looks as though Im going to be collaborating with another PCV from up north, who is apparently extending for a third year simply for the sake of producing educational murals at the middle/high schools throughout the country. Ill be working with her to begin a tournee of all these schools in Kedougou with a health-related mural design that we will be working together to complete. Id also like to try to expand on this project during my service to do not one but several murals at each of these same schools that would cover other topics besides health; such as malaria prevention, AIDS, nutrition, etc. You could argue they all have to do with health anyway...but please dont. Im also in charge of beautifying our regional house; which is more like a compound with multiple huts, by muralizing them as well.
Which brings me to another big undertaking that we as a region would like to see succeed, and thats our bed net distribution I mentioned last time. In an effort to reduce the amount of incidents of malaria and malaria related deaths, the PCVs will be delivering enough nets to cover each bed in one of the largest departments in our region. In order to do that, we need not only strong legs to bike out to all these village, but also some financial help as well. For a reminder on the nitty gritty, you can refer to my last email, since i know this ones gone on long already.
Thank you so much to everyone who already donated, and if you would like to still donate, here's the link again: http://www.againstmalaria.com/netlife
Remember, its only approximately $2.50 for one net, so a donation of 5 bucks can help protect two people, probably kids, who would otherwise remain vulnerable.
Thanks so much again for the emails and the support, and talk to you again soon (inshallah)!
Love, Steve "Samba" Sullivan
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Update...and a small request...
Hey everyone!
Thanks so much for all the birthday wishes! It was an interesting time in the village, and a way to spend my bday that I wont soon forget. I didnt do much on my actual birthday, but this Friday I headed to Tamba where we were celebrating all the recent birthdays that had happened in the last few weeks, so I still got to see a lot of my friends, have cake, the whole nine yards.
I'm now back in Kedougou, where tomorrow I'm going to begin helping as a doctor's aid/potential translator for an Eye Clinic being held for locals in the area in need of glasses or affected by cataracts, which PCVs are going to be helping with in a big way.
I'm afraid, however, that I have an alterior motive in writing this time besides giving the usual updates, and that's to ask for YOUR help...in a semi-big way. Below is a blurb about a major project coming up for the Kedougou region (I didnt write to whole thing, so forgive me if it sounds cut and pasted...it is).
As you know, malaria is the biggest public health problem in much of Africa, and the largest killer of children in Senegal. Last year, with the financial support of the non-profits Net Life and Against Malaria, these Volunteers put together a comprehensive program in about 20 villages to provide a malaria prevention education and 100% coverage with insecticide treated bed nets.
The results were amazing: malaria-related sickness dropped by more than half and malaria related deaths after the bed net distribution dropped to zero. In another village where Peace Corps/Senegal Volunteers worked, serious malaria illness cases dropped from 48 the previous year to 6. This year, the Kedougou Volunteers plan to conduct a comprehensive program in the Department of Saraya, an area of 45,000 people with some of the highest incidence of malaria in Africa. They project that our program will save about 20 lives per year over the current state, in which about 40 kids per year die of malaria. They need 16,600 nets, along with what the Senegalese government is doing this year, to cover the whole department.
Right now, they and their partners have raised enough funds for about 10,000 nets. You can do the math, but the gap represents the lives of about 12 children this year. Against Malaria, the British charity we partner with, guarantees that they can get the absolutely lowest price quality nets delivered to Dakar at no cost. Plus, they will match every donation dollar for dollar, so the effective cost of these nets is about $2.50 per net. Every penny that we raise will go to buying the bed nets needed to cover this area.
Here is where you can donate: www.againstmalaria.com/Netlife.
Thanks so much in advance for your consideration, and hope to talk to you all again soon!
Love,
Steve "Samba" Sullivan
P.S. Ill try and post some pics in the next week to make up for the very business-like post.
Thanks so much for all the birthday wishes! It was an interesting time in the village, and a way to spend my bday that I wont soon forget. I didnt do much on my actual birthday, but this Friday I headed to Tamba where we were celebrating all the recent birthdays that had happened in the last few weeks, so I still got to see a lot of my friends, have cake, the whole nine yards.
I'm now back in Kedougou, where tomorrow I'm going to begin helping as a doctor's aid/potential translator for an Eye Clinic being held for locals in the area in need of glasses or affected by cataracts, which PCVs are going to be helping with in a big way.
I'm afraid, however, that I have an alterior motive in writing this time besides giving the usual updates, and that's to ask for YOUR help...in a semi-big way. Below is a blurb about a major project coming up for the Kedougou region (I didnt write to whole thing, so forgive me if it sounds cut and pasted...it is).
As you know, malaria is the biggest public health problem in much of Africa, and the largest killer of children in Senegal. Last year, with the financial support of the non-profits Net Life and Against Malaria, these Volunteers put together a comprehensive program in about 20 villages to provide a malaria prevention education and 100% coverage with insecticide treated bed nets.
The results were amazing: malaria-related sickness dropped by more than half and malaria related deaths after the bed net distribution dropped to zero. In another village where Peace Corps/Senegal Volunteers worked, serious malaria illness cases dropped from 48 the previous year to 6. This year, the Kedougou Volunteers plan to conduct a comprehensive program in the Department of Saraya, an area of 45,000 people with some of the highest incidence of malaria in Africa. They project that our program will save about 20 lives per year over the current state, in which about 40 kids per year die of malaria. They need 16,600 nets, along with what the Senegalese government is doing this year, to cover the whole department.
Right now, they and their partners have raised enough funds for about 10,000 nets. You can do the math, but the gap represents the lives of about 12 children this year. Against Malaria, the British charity we partner with, guarantees that they can get the absolutely lowest price quality nets delivered to Dakar at no cost. Plus, they will match every donation dollar for dollar, so the effective cost of these nets is about $2.50 per net. Every penny that we raise will go to buying the bed nets needed to cover this area.
Here is where you can donate: www.againstmalaria.com/Netlife.
Thanks so much in advance for your consideration, and hope to talk to you all again soon!
Love,
Steve "Samba" Sullivan
P.S. Ill try and post some pics in the next week to make up for the very business-like post.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
IST Update
Hey everyone,
I wanted to update you all on how things have been going during the last month, but I need to be quick because our favorite bar/restaurant in Thies just got WiFi so there's a long line of people waiting to use my friend's laptop. Needless to say, the fact that WiFi even exists says a lot about how much more developed this area of the country is compared to where I've become accustomed to living, and it's interesting to see how much my perception of this city has changed since I first came to it back in September.
It's been an educational few weeks in the village; I only just left about a week and half ago to come to Thies for our In-Service Training; also difficult to believe we've already made it to this point in our service. I learned a lot, linguistically and agriculturally, but most importantly, culturally, as I unfortunately faced my first Senegalese funeral. My counterpart's wife passed away after a long illness, and seeing the mourning of the villagers for their loss was one of the more horrible events I've experienced since coming here. She was a nice lady, who once brought me water when I got home from Thanksgiving, and swept my room for me as well, and though I got to visit her in the dispensaire before she died, I didnt feel like I got nearly enough time to get to know her. Without going much into detail, I did my best to express my solidarity to the family in the most culturally appropriate way, and I think everyone appreciated that at least I was trying. Despite how much I learned from it, it's not something I'd like to experience again anytime soon.
I mentioned learning a lot technically speaking, and a lot of that was thanks to the Director for Agriculture, Massaly, coming out to all the first year agriculture volunteers' sites to see how we were doing. It was an awesome opportunity to ask questions, especially with regards to my garden, which had some veggies taking a turn for the worse for no apparent reason which I was anxious to figure out. He seemed happy though; at least with how my site was working out, and not with the broken window his car suffered after the P.C. driver locked his keys in the car.
So we've been back in Thies for a little over a week now for training, and despite being tiring, it's been really beneficial. I'm staying with my same old host family in Pout that I stayed with for my original training, so it's been great to see them again. The downside, however, is having to get up at the crack of dawn to be picked up and brought to the center each day. I've started taking another language, though, called Wolof (probably the most widely spoken language in the country) and it's been difficult since I was put in a class with other volunteers who, despite having taken French during our first training, have at least been living in Wolof-speaking sites for the last couple months and thus have more experience. I've been holding my own, though, I think, as it's seemed to me over the last 5 days that Wolof is much more straight-forward than the Pulaar I'm used to speaking, so I've been picking it up much faster. I only have to reach the level of "Novice Mid" in order to "pass" this training, so I think I should be all set.
Before I get throttled by other internet-starved volunteers, I should probably cut it short there, since there isn't much more to specifically report. We'll leave at the end of IST for WAIST, which I mentioned at the end of my last post, the "West African International Softball Tournament, which should be an exciting and, hopefully, re-memorable time. I've been assigned a homestay for WAIST with an "ex-pat", the affectionate name given to Americans who work outside the country, with two of my friends, so that's a relief that I'll have a place to stay in Dakar without having to pay an arm and a leg each night.
Wish our region luck!
Love always,
St. Louis
A boat tour
I wanted to update you all on how things have been going during the last month, but I need to be quick because our favorite bar/restaurant in Thies just got WiFi so there's a long line of people waiting to use my friend's laptop. Needless to say, the fact that WiFi even exists says a lot about how much more developed this area of the country is compared to where I've become accustomed to living, and it's interesting to see how much my perception of this city has changed since I first came to it back in September.
It's been an educational few weeks in the village; I only just left about a week and half ago to come to Thies for our In-Service Training; also difficult to believe we've already made it to this point in our service. I learned a lot, linguistically and agriculturally, but most importantly, culturally, as I unfortunately faced my first Senegalese funeral. My counterpart's wife passed away after a long illness, and seeing the mourning of the villagers for their loss was one of the more horrible events I've experienced since coming here. She was a nice lady, who once brought me water when I got home from Thanksgiving, and swept my room for me as well, and though I got to visit her in the dispensaire before she died, I didnt feel like I got nearly enough time to get to know her. Without going much into detail, I did my best to express my solidarity to the family in the most culturally appropriate way, and I think everyone appreciated that at least I was trying. Despite how much I learned from it, it's not something I'd like to experience again anytime soon.
I mentioned learning a lot technically speaking, and a lot of that was thanks to the Director for Agriculture, Massaly, coming out to all the first year agriculture volunteers' sites to see how we were doing. It was an awesome opportunity to ask questions, especially with regards to my garden, which had some veggies taking a turn for the worse for no apparent reason which I was anxious to figure out. He seemed happy though; at least with how my site was working out, and not with the broken window his car suffered after the P.C. driver locked his keys in the car.
So we've been back in Thies for a little over a week now for training, and despite being tiring, it's been really beneficial. I'm staying with my same old host family in Pout that I stayed with for my original training, so it's been great to see them again. The downside, however, is having to get up at the crack of dawn to be picked up and brought to the center each day. I've started taking another language, though, called Wolof (probably the most widely spoken language in the country) and it's been difficult since I was put in a class with other volunteers who, despite having taken French during our first training, have at least been living in Wolof-speaking sites for the last couple months and thus have more experience. I've been holding my own, though, I think, as it's seemed to me over the last 5 days that Wolof is much more straight-forward than the Pulaar I'm used to speaking, so I've been picking it up much faster. I only have to reach the level of "Novice Mid" in order to "pass" this training, so I think I should be all set.
Before I get throttled by other internet-starved volunteers, I should probably cut it short there, since there isn't much more to specifically report. We'll leave at the end of IST for WAIST, which I mentioned at the end of my last post, the "West African International Softball Tournament, which should be an exciting and, hopefully, re-memorable time. I've been assigned a homestay for WAIST with an "ex-pat", the affectionate name given to Americans who work outside the country, with two of my friends, so that's a relief that I'll have a place to stay in Dakar without having to pay an arm and a leg each night.
Wish our region luck!
Love always,
Samba
Me in St. Louis
Me in St. Louis
St. Louis
A boat tour
The beach
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Post Holiday Bender Update
Hey all,
Just a short update this time, but I wanted to write and let you know how my holiday adventures panned out. I went to Dakar, the capital city of Senegal, with three of my good friends from my "stage" where we stayed in a hotel for a few nights and basically concentrated on eating...a lot. We did find a lot of great restaurants to dine out in, and the place we found for our Christmas dinner was no exception. We were pleasantly surprised that they were all decorated for the holiday, with lights and a tree and the whole nine yards, and even had a guy playing Christmas carols on the piano...in English! And, of course, the food was amazing...though, then again, when youre used to cous-cous and leaf sauce for most of your meals, anything would have tasted good as long as it was different and not from a communal bowl. All in all, Dakar was a great place to spend the holiday, since a large population of its residents are Christian and it finally felt like the Christmas season walking around the city and seeing store windows all decked out and what not. Having guys walking around trying to hock full size artificial xmas trees helped bring a certain amount of cheer as well.
I then went with one of my friends, after the four of split up, to a place called Sally, which is a highly popular tourist town where a large amount of people from my stage had rented rooms. I only stayed for one night, but still got to visit the beach and, most importantly, see a lot of my old friends...and drink with them again. The next day, one of my friends and I got a sept-place to St. Louis, which is roughly the second biggest city next to Dakar, if I'm not mistaken, and also one of the largest tourist attractions. Another group of my friends had been there since Christmas, and I was going up to crash with them for New Years. It worked out well, as I got to stay for free in the apartment of a very generous 3rd year volunteer who loaned it out for the holidays while he was away visiting America. St. Louis, the old capital of Senegal, is very beautiful, and I got a lot of great pictures that I'll try to post on a day where I have a couple hours to spare to sit in the cyber while they load.
It was also a happening place to celebrate the new year, not only because there was a large conglomeration of Senegalese volunteers there, but roughly 70 volunteers from Mauritania travelled across the border to party there as well. See, unlike Senegal, alcohol is strictly prohibited in Mauritania, so needless to say they were all excited to get their drink on. Meeting them was very cool, though, and now I'll have more people to hang out with at the upcoming West African International Softball Tournament (WAIST).
All in all, despite my travel weariness and noticably lighter wallet, it was an awesome trip, if only for the sole chance to see almost all of the people I swore in with again, as well as the chance to meet a lot more of the volunteers from my country and beyond. Its also exciting to be able to see as much of Senegal as I can as early as I can, and I feel like I've gotten to explore quite a bit in my short time here. Im also actually getting more used to the public transportation system here, if you can call it that, and needless to say, my haggling has much improved as a result.
I probably wont be updating again for a while, as I'm looking at about a month in my village before coming back through Kedougou on my way back to Thies for our In-Service Training, but please feel free to email me and keep me updated on how you all are doing, and I'll look forward to reading them when I get back.
Thanks, and Happy New Year!
-Samba
Just a short update this time, but I wanted to write and let you know how my holiday adventures panned out. I went to Dakar, the capital city of Senegal, with three of my good friends from my "stage" where we stayed in a hotel for a few nights and basically concentrated on eating...a lot. We did find a lot of great restaurants to dine out in, and the place we found for our Christmas dinner was no exception. We were pleasantly surprised that they were all decorated for the holiday, with lights and a tree and the whole nine yards, and even had a guy playing Christmas carols on the piano...in English! And, of course, the food was amazing...though, then again, when youre used to cous-cous and leaf sauce for most of your meals, anything would have tasted good as long as it was different and not from a communal bowl. All in all, Dakar was a great place to spend the holiday, since a large population of its residents are Christian and it finally felt like the Christmas season walking around the city and seeing store windows all decked out and what not. Having guys walking around trying to hock full size artificial xmas trees helped bring a certain amount of cheer as well.
I then went with one of my friends, after the four of split up, to a place called Sally, which is a highly popular tourist town where a large amount of people from my stage had rented rooms. I only stayed for one night, but still got to visit the beach and, most importantly, see a lot of my old friends...and drink with them again. The next day, one of my friends and I got a sept-place to St. Louis, which is roughly the second biggest city next to Dakar, if I'm not mistaken, and also one of the largest tourist attractions. Another group of my friends had been there since Christmas, and I was going up to crash with them for New Years. It worked out well, as I got to stay for free in the apartment of a very generous 3rd year volunteer who loaned it out for the holidays while he was away visiting America. St. Louis, the old capital of Senegal, is very beautiful, and I got a lot of great pictures that I'll try to post on a day where I have a couple hours to spare to sit in the cyber while they load.
It was also a happening place to celebrate the new year, not only because there was a large conglomeration of Senegalese volunteers there, but roughly 70 volunteers from Mauritania travelled across the border to party there as well. See, unlike Senegal, alcohol is strictly prohibited in Mauritania, so needless to say they were all excited to get their drink on. Meeting them was very cool, though, and now I'll have more people to hang out with at the upcoming West African International Softball Tournament (WAIST).
All in all, despite my travel weariness and noticably lighter wallet, it was an awesome trip, if only for the sole chance to see almost all of the people I swore in with again, as well as the chance to meet a lot more of the volunteers from my country and beyond. Its also exciting to be able to see as much of Senegal as I can as early as I can, and I feel like I've gotten to explore quite a bit in my short time here. Im also actually getting more used to the public transportation system here, if you can call it that, and needless to say, my haggling has much improved as a result.
I probably wont be updating again for a while, as I'm looking at about a month in my village before coming back through Kedougou on my way back to Thies for our In-Service Training, but please feel free to email me and keep me updated on how you all are doing, and I'll look forward to reading them when I get back.
Thanks, and Happy New Year!
-Samba
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