Sorry Im so lazy

I know I know, its been a while since I wrote on here. We didnt have internet at the house and I lost my charger for a while haha! I am one special kid. And plus, now that i have my charger and computer, im just being lazy. Anyway....

What have I been up to since my last stint in Dakar? That is a great question haha! Well the rainy season has since ended, meaning that my tree work is finished. Outplanting is finally done and my papayas from this season are already fruiting! In about a month I'll be eating the fruits of my labor, so to speak. And, we made our first sauce with the leaves from my nebadaye trees the other day.

Korite has come and passed, which means that Ramadan is over. Hooray! Like all senegalese holidays that i've experienced, everyone made a big fuss, dressed up, ate about 4 lunches and then sat around for the rest of the day talking about how fat we all are. Ha! Very anti-climactic. Where as last year I was in my training village, this year in Pakane we ate chicken instead of goat. Which to be honest, was much better despite the chickens being the miniscule. They were delicious none the less. Although, I must admit that opening the bowl to see the boiled chicken head the the feet stuffed through the neck hole is not really what I was expecting.

Thinking back to last years Korite post, I have to wonder, why is it that Senegalese always want to eat animal faces? Last year it was goat face, this year chicken face. I mean seriously, there cant be very much meat on that, and there definitely isnt any on the feet! But sure enough, my little sisters chomped away at the msg flavored parts. To look over and see a chicken foot or a beak sticking out of a 3 year old's mouth, well, I guess all I can say is, thats interesting.

As with all holidays, I became the village photographer. Such is life I suppose. Annoying, annoying life lol.

In other news, we've got a new little bundle of joy in the Ba household! Halimatou Ba, tiniest little thing ever! She's a doll. In her honor, we had everyone in the village over for lunch to pray and eat goat for lunch. While its awesome to have meat for lunch, or ever, having 200 people hanging out in my compound all day and every single one of them wanting to hang out in the toubab's room is not my idea of fun. After a few hours I had to grab my book and escape into the bush.

However, I did discover that I thoroughly enjoy tying babies on my back.....until they pee. After the fourth time I took the munchkin to my room and tied a plastic bag around her butt. Problem solved. Now everyone gives me funny looks and thinks I'm weird for tying bags onto babies. But hey, theyre the ones getting peed on, not me!


My least favorite thing about Peace Corps is when my friends leave the country. This last group to go was by far the hardest. These were my best friends, my closest neighbors and my support group. Saturday night, one of by bests left, fellow nioro-er and romance novel extraordinaire. This weekend, Kate and myself came up to Dakar to see of Abigail before she left. A night on the town, which was pieced together the next morning lol, a trip to the zoo and tapas/drinks at a nice restaurant was a great way to see her off. I must say, the zoo in Dakar has to be the most depressing place I've ever been! You know how growing up you think that the zoo has metal bars encaging every animal, and then you go and its actually nice cases with little habitats and the animals actually eat better than you do? Well, here is not the case. They fed them all with the city's left over stale bread and whatever visitors decided to throw at them, and for the first time, those metal bars were there. Except for the camels. Walking around to the otherside of there chain link fence, one stuck its head out to nudge us, turns out there was an entire chunk missing and the camels could easily escape. Hey more power to them! Run camel run! And seriously Senegal, where the heck did you get a tiger? I'm pretty sure they're not native to Africa!



Saturday night, Abi left and Kate and I decided to do the Goree Swim. I wrote about it in my list of things to do before I was 25. Well done Miss Knight, you can mark one off the list! I swam 4.4 k in open ocean (with my shark friends) to an island just for a tshirt and a couple of small cookies. Well, and I guess the bragging rights. Less than a quarter of the way there I remembered, oh yea, I am not a swimmer! The farthest I've ever swam is from the middle of the deep end to the wall. Divers should not attempt this EVER. Poor life choice Sira Ba, poor life choice. With the only things going through my head for the next three quarters being dori's voice from finding nemo singing "just keep swimming, just keep swimming" and the chorus to "Oh what a night" you can see why I wanted to finish immediately. I was even annoying myself. A 2 and a half hour long swim with waves? Kill me. But now its done and I never have to do it again!!!! Alhumdoulillah! There were four volunteers who swam and if I may say, we're cooler than the ones who didnt do it. Haha, well maybe more crazy than cool, but whatever. Its been a eventful month or so, so there was a lot to say, but this is for you rachel. Your blog post, I get lazy sometimes. My bad. Love you all and thanks for the care packages this month!!!! Im eating like a queen!!!! Jabba the hut better watch his back, sira ba might be able to kick is ass pretty soon. HA! yes mom, I said ass!





















----Side note, I have creeping eruption. Look it up, its gross!

Pakane, mi yewnitii maa!!!!

Squishy couches, air conditioning, hot showers, an endless supply of American movies and tv shows and everyone around me speaks english. Who knew that Peace Corps was so, well, comfortable! Minus the crippling pain under my right rib, the inconvenient IV in my arm that, after day 4, became so painful that I couldn't stand another minute of it and the mind-numbing headache, I'd say its a pretty nice stay in Dakar!

Last Wednesday I headed back to the village after having to come up to Dakar for the SeneGAD (gender development) meeting. On the way home, my stomach started feeling a little "iffy" if you will. But, considering this is Senegal, and my stomach is never really normal, I shrugged it off and figured it would just go away. Come morning, lets just say, things did not improve. To put it lightly, death would have been a relief. On a normal day, my temperature is around 96 degrees. I guess I'm just cold-blooded. But anyway, I had a fever of 101 and I could barely move or breath because the pain was so bad. Finally, I sucked it up and called our doctors. As I feared, they insisted that I come back to Dakar immediately. I said no. Mi Jabaa! I mean, I had just gotten back to the village the day before and felt bad leaving again so soon. She told me to go to Kaolack early in the morning. Bright and early at 630AM, the doctor called back to see if I had left yet. I had not, because I couldn't get out of bed. She sent a car to my village to pick me up since I couldn't walk myself out to the road. Yikes! Maybe I should have listened Thursday.

Turns out, the driver was an A-hole and decided that his personal errands (bargaining for corn for 4 hours on the side of the road) were more important than a sick volunteer. Needless to say, my doctor was not pleased. After finally making it to come pick me up at noon (5 hours late), we were on our way to Dakar. I made it there at 5 and was admitted to the hospital immediately. I was so scared, but my doctor stayed with me the entire time I was there and went to every test with me. It was nice to have someone to speak french for me, since I could barely think in english as it was! Chest x-rays, ultra sounds, blood tests and what seemed like an endless supply of morphine into my IV made for one eventful weekend. End result? Drum roll please......

Gall Bladder Attack.

What the heck does the gall bladder even do was my question! and what did I ever do to it to make it hate me so much!!!! Apparently, I am no longer allowed to binge eat when I come out of the village. BOO! And have to make sure that most of my foods are low-fat, at least for a while. What fun is that?!? I suppose i'll have to follow it or else I'll land myself right into gall bladder surgery. Lame.

But, at the moment, I am on the mend and can hopefully go home on Monday. Well see, as of now, they said it was ok, but we'll see if anything ridiculous happens this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed that my body stays normal!!!! I miss my village and would like to spend more than 2 nights there this month.

Senegal Je t'aime

As I sit on the eve (almost) of my one year anniversary with Senegal drinking a Gin and Bissap (aka g-sap) and listening to year-old American music since I have no idea what is popular there now, its hard to believe how different my life has become. One year ago today, I was sitting in a mess of clothes, giant bottles of hair supplies/make up and God knows whatever else I brought into country arguing with my mom about the best way to pack and telling my dad that there was no way in hell I was leaving out the Q-tips (I was right about that one by the way). The closest to roughing it I had ever come was sleeping in a hammock in Red River Gorge while eating Cheetos and drinking bourbon. My motto, to use my mom's words, was "camping is no room service." As the deadline drew closer, I of course, ate all my favorite foods and had my annual identity crisis about the meaning of life and why it is that I do what I do.

But, on the morning of September 8th, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I jumped on a plane to Philidelphia for staging. Showing up to my hotel room with my hair styled cute, heels on and make up applied perfectly, I succeeded in scaring the hell out of my now, best friend here Natalie. Haha! If it were not for this girl, I would never have survived training. Even as late as November, when I installed in Pakane, I trapped a huge cricket under tupperwear and made a neighbor come to get it out of my hut. I don't do bugs.

Now however, my life seems to play a different tune. With the rainy season upon us, creepy crawlies come out of the woodworks to terrorize me, the smell of mildew and black mold on my clothes, bed and probably even myself is unbelievably pungent, the roof on my hut leaks so badly that I might stay dryer standing in the torrential downpour and on more than one occasion I've woken up to a scorpion climbing up my mosquito net. On any given day, my whole body breaks out with heat rash or some sort or fungal infection, I discover some sort of parasite/worm living in my body or a naked man chases me through the Kaolack market (that happened today). For some reason, this was left out of the booklet they gave before we accepted our positions. With that said, this is my life, my love, my Africa. And God help me, I wouldn't change it for the world. At no other point in my life would I voluntarily give up food and water (in addition to the previous paragraph) for an entire month during 125 degree weather and still have a smile on my face.

All of this said, I can only look back on the past year with happiness. So many things have changed. For example, I drink most of my beverages out of plastic bags (my gin included), I haven't shown my knees in public since last year (me, the queen of mini skirts), things like hard boiled eggs and milk straight from the cow are, in my opinion, more valuable than gold and don't find it odd at all to see two grown men, wearing thug-life tshirts and baggy jeans, holding hands or sitting on each others laps. But, on the other hand, some things will always stay the same. I make Starbucks espresso every morning before leaving my hut and yesterday, I trapped a big creepy spider under a pot and had my host brother take care of it. Scorpions I can do, spiders I cannot.

This past year, I feel like i've found some of the beauty in Senegal, which is not the creepy crawlies, and plan to keep doing the same for my next and final year. It has all gone by so quickly that I can only hope to slow it down just a little. See you all in December for my first time back in the states in over a year. I AM TERRIFIED!

My peace corps bucket list

Sometimes, things happen in life that make you really just have no idea what to do with yourself. Personally, I'm a planner (no seriously, my favorite thing in college was making class schedules) so that's exactly what I'm doing to keep myself occupied while i'm not planting trees in the village. After one more night in Kaolack, I'm heading home to start fasting and I can escape into my "real world." Here's a list of 25 things I want to do before I turn 25. So, essentially I have a year and a half to do all of these things....wish me luck!

1. Learn just enough Czech, German and Dutch to allow me to flirt and get my way when I travel through Prague, Germany, Belgium and Holland.
2. Learn to drive a motorcycle. Not that I want to buy one, but just to know how to ride it.
3. Test drive a Porsche
4. Eat steak tar-tar
5. Bike to Kolda (Just over 100 miles) in one day
6. Go on a quest for the Abominable Snowman
7. See the Taj-Mahal
8. Go on a road trip across the United States, preferably ending up in Napa Valley. God knows I'll want a glass of wine when thats over
9. Learn how to belly dance. Maybe i'll incorporate it into my hour long dance party every night before bed
10. Learn guitar (well, more than the 6 chords that I know)
11. Complete the Goree Swim in November. (Swim from the coast of Dakar to Goree Island)
12. Visit 10 different countries
13. Ride a camel
    
14. Run a half marathon
15. Go skydiving
16. Take up yoga
    
17. travel alone
18. Host Saturday Night Live (I can be pretty entertaining, I think i'd do a good job)
19. Start playing piano again
20. Go to Oktoberfest in Germany
21. Go to Mardi Gras
22. Keep a journal
    
23. Learn how to make a tiny ship in a bottle (I mean seriously, how the heck do they do that?)
24. Become a vegetarian for a year (looks like I should start that one soon)
25. Spend one night pampering myself in a snobby hotel/spa alone

Looks like I'd better get started on some of these. Its been a rough day and night and I think I'll go to bed and head back to the village in a bit. I'll be fasting for Ramadan. Its one month and we'll only be eating or drinking after the sun goes down. Wish me luck and lets hope I don't waste away :)

A busy little girl

So, yes I know, I've been slacking a little on the blogging. Its probably a little frustrating for you guys at home, wondering if I'm dead or if I was killed by my second scorpion sting of the season. Sorry. In a nutshell (I know my mom is laughing at that intro), My past few weeks have been stressful, exhausting but fun and as of yesterday, parasitolicious (yes, I made that word up). Work season has officially started! Alhumdoulillah! So far, I've outplanted half of my trees woot woot! Unfortunately caterpillars ate my nebadye trees, but my advisor told me that they would all grow back. Now, they key is convincing a my villagers to let me plant a bunch of glorified sticks (eventual trees) in their compounds. Hmmm....

Me: Ok guys, are you ready to plant some awesome nebadye trees in your compound!
Villagers: Yea, but I want you, a little girl with the flu who just got stung by a scorpion, do all the work. And after you dig a massive hole, you should go buy me some tea.
Me: Riiiiiiigggggghhhht. OK, well here are 3 papayas, 1 mango, 1 guava and 4 nebadyes! lets get to work
Villagers: Woah woah woah, Sira, why are are planting a stick in my front yard
Me: Its not a stick, caterpillars ate the leaves but they'll come back
Villagers: there are no leaves, its a stick
Me: I know, but they'll grow back
Villagers: Its a stick
Me: No, its not
silence for a moment and then.....
Villagers: (under their breath) stick

(This went on for 10 minutes at each compound)
So, since I was doing all the digging, I planted my little sticks, I mean trees, in their yards. I came back to check on them the 2 days later and they had pulled them out of the ground and the damn goats were eating them. :( Insert heart break here.

Anyway, after my disappointment, I went out to the fields to direct seed some species for a live fence around their crops. You know those moments when you're feeling a little cocky about being able to speak the language? Maybe for those of you at home its french, or spanish, or hell, even english sometimes. Well, I was having a day like that with Pulaar when we went out. In my defense, I had the flu of death and was quite feverish.

The conversation went a little like this....
Farmer: Hand me that shovel
Me: (confused look) I point to a big creepy ass bug.
Farmer: (Sassy tone) No Sira Ba, thats a millipede, not a shovel.
Me: oh, sorry hahaha!

Sometimes, you just look like an idiot, there's no avoiding it. That week or so in the village was pretty busy though. With the start of the rainy season, the nights are a lot cooler, which is amazing. However, the down side of that is that 1. the scorpions come out in full force. I had my second scorpion sting. My fence fell so I tried to push it back to and prop it up with a post. Unfortunately, the little jerks are the same color as my fence and stuck its little pointy thing right into my finger. I have never had something itch so badly! That and it swelled to 5x the normal size. Very attractive let me tell you. 2. The sheep aren't tied up at night. They like to hang out under my overhang and talk all night long. Either that or knock on my door. One night at about 4am after this had been going on all night, I have a fever from the flu of death, I lost it. Went out side in my shorts and sports bra (only) wearing my headlamp and screaming at sheep in the pouring down rain. Samba came out and asked me what the h I was doing haha! He tied them up and told me to go to bed. Gossip the next day you ask? Oh yea, apparently the weird toubab (me) likes to run around at 4am in the rain, naked, yelling at sheep. Awesome.

That and I had the flu of death for the first 5 days, with a 104 fever. Awesome. While swelling and dying of a fever, I had to do my mosquito net distribution (thanks to all of you who donated and your hand drawn thankyou notes from my kiddos are coming soon). Imagine being swarmed by 150 people wanting whats in your hand, and you're delirious from fever. Overwhelming!

Anyways, I spent the past week in Dakar teaching at an English camp, going to happy hour and trying to live in the Western-ish world. We had a lot of fun with the kids. We started off every morning by making them do "head, shoulders, knees and toes" at the top of their lungs, had them to playing kick ball and even had an olympic day where we played with frisbees and basketballs. But, I think the best part was by far watching them try to do a 3-legged race. I actually had a team hop all the way down to the end and back. Apparently they didn't believe me when I said the other way was easier ha! It was a blast and we had some great discussions with the kids about things going on in America and let them think up possible ways to improve the problems.

However, my favorite part was letting the kids pick names. I figured, that since I had to have a senegalese name, they should have an american name. In my group, the best names were Lola, Rihanna, Ludacris, Celine Dion and Peaches. Seriously, I think these kids watch a little to much TV and music videos. And peaches....really? She must have been hungry. Also, one of my group members asked me to write an inspirational american quote in his diary. I agreed, but with the pressure of being put on the spot, I could only think of one thing, a commercial that I hope he never sees. "On the road of life, there are passengers and there are drivers" - Saturn. I'm ridiculous.

Whats the plan now?

Well, I'm headed back to the village this afternoon. Going to finish my out planting and plant my farmers' pepiners. Next week, I'm headed to Sokone to do mangrove restoration. Apparently there are people from DC coming to document. We're a big deal over here I guess. Then, once outplanting is completely finished, I am heading up a mural tourney. I'm going to all of the different subregions in Kaolack and painting murals on walls, schools and who knows, maybe even the villagers themselves! Paint-a-holic. That should bring me up to the early December and alhumdoulillah I'm home!!!!! VACAY FOR A MONTH!!!!

Again, I'll try to be better at updating this from now on. Love you guys and can't wait to see everyone!

Back to Reality

Ok I know its been forever and I haven't updated. My bad haha, so you can stop worrying that I fell off the planet. My first vacation came, and unfortunately went too quickly and I am back to reality. Lame.


















Paris was absolutely amazing. Minus the fact that anytime I wanted to take a nap or go home for the night, I had to climb five fights of stairs, the apartment was adorable. If we walked a couple of blocks on one side we were right on the steps of Sacre Coeur. Drinking wine on the steps with all of the frenchies (sigh). We sat there a few nights and watched the sunset. One night, we decided to cook dinner (steak and salad with bread and cheese) DELISH!!! Only problem, which I discovered later, was that for some reason, the sun sets later there. And by later I mean like 1030pm. So a huge steak dinner at 1230am? A little strange, but was tasty regardless of the hour. I made sure to get in most of my cravings. One morning, I was dead set on having a strawberry tart. The first two boulangeries didn't have them but I felt weird walking in without buying anything, so I had three different pastries for breakfast. Fat kid at heart I guess :)

After doing the museums, the Eiffel Tower, all your typical touristy things, even some that aren't so touristy and way too much shopping, wine and cheese, we headed off to Dakar. Happy Hour and some non-3rd world things are the typical things to do in Dakar. So, we headed off to Ile de Ngor where we took a little canoe-like boat (pirogue) across and i succeeded in soaking my pants and covering myself with sand. After drinking some Gazelles and taking in the view, we headed down to Kedagou for the 4th of July party and a 36k bike ride to the waterfalls.

Ok, let me just say.....I kicked Chris's butt on that bike ride. No offense babe, but you should practice before I come home for good. This is a habit that I think will be kept. Any way, overall, it was a pretty nice bike ride. Nice view, nice pulaars, nice waterfalls....and then a nice flat tire. LAME! Who knows what did it, but turned out the patches were crap and I did not have my glue. A "nice" pulaar man stopped and helped us try to patch the hole, but lo and behold, crappy patches. So he told us to go to Segou, the next town, and that he would be back with a car. He was going back to Kedagou as well. So we walk my bike there and wait. and wait......and wait. It would have been nice if he had told me he was going back 3 days later. So we walked back to the town and stayed that night at the waterfall, where we were eaten alive by any an everything. Not fun. Granted the people were really nice and the view was gorgeous, I wanted to be in an uncomfortable hammock at the regional house. The next morning, being the charming pulaar lady that I am, we hitched a ride on a massive truck coming from Guinea up into town again. We made it finally, tired and hungry.....or well....tired and really needing a beer. So we did, we partied it up in the name of independence and then floated down the gambian river on intertubes (with the hippos) to obtain more much needed beers and eat warthog sandwiches. Sorry pumba....but I was achin' for some bacon!!

Back up to Kaolack, that wonderful cess pool of a place (especially during the rainy season) before going to Pakane. My village was one of the highlights. I put that boy to work making live fences, planting my papaya trees and of course greeting the village. Which was well, necessary, but a lot of work for me. I don't really do it that much anymore. He also got to accompany me as I yelled at a villager about letting all of his outplanted mangos get eaten by goats. Not so much as yell but sas him until he apologized. The food was a surprise for Chris. On the first day, the bowl was opened and hello bassi! A dish of white rice with ground peanuts, hot peppers and dried fish. Chris was terrified, I let him fend for himself haha. And he absolutely hated millet. I think he may have gagged a few times. If you recall, I used to hate it as well (referencing my millet poem/blog entry). I laughed at him....and then made fun of him with my host family.

The best part of the village would be the death of the goat. Yes ladies and gentlemen, there is one less goat on this earth, alhumdoulillah! I helped the ladies cook, the men sat. big surprise there. But it was delicious, by far the best meal at site in the past year!

Toubacouta was our last little mini vacay. We stayed in the mangroves (a funky looking tree that grows out of the water). The first night, we were typical cheapos living on a budget. But the second, Chris treated me to a fancy hotel overlooking the river. It had a pool, included dinner and breakfast, air conditioning and hot water!!! I'm telling you, I got way too used to this. I'm actually thinking about installing some AC into my hut. You think they do that solar? I actually was cold that night and shivered all night long. It was GLORIOUS!!!!! We even went kayaking, which is nowhere near as fun as jet skiing in the ocean like at Myrtle Beach. Pushing myself along? Pssshhh....who are we kidding, "oh butler.... prepare the air conditioning and run my bath....while you're at it, get me a beer." Man, I could get used to that life! Oh who am I kidding...I live in a freakin village.

I'm sad that this month went by so quickly. Chris is home, I head back to the village tomorrow with 3 bacterial infections and strep throat. Thats right folks, I'm back in Senegal. Kuddi. At least I'll be home for Christmas. 4 months!

A cute picture and the typical senegalese pose....at the gambian bar!

Timeout!!!! no one told me there were scorpions!

Ending my 22nd year at the beach, we brought in my new year with a game of Kings. For those of you who aren't familiar, its a college drinking game with rules for each card. On in particular, I think it was the 10 card was snake master. If you make eye contact with the person who drew that card, they make a hissing sound and you have to drink.

After I went back to Pakane, my little hut sweet hut, i started sweeping and getting my place ready for visitors. Not an easy task let me tell you. Swept under the desk, under trunk number one, under trunk number two and SSSTTTT!!! Snake eyes! Or should I say Scorpion eyes!!!! Yes thats right ladies and gentleman. The little bastard ran out from under my trunk right at me with his little stabby tail thing up in the air ready to strike. AAAHHHH, hold on....oops peed my pants..... now again AHHHHHHH!

Taking a closer look, there were 3 of them, all running around, stabbing each other, the wall, the giant millipede who also decided to make a home under my trunk for a week (ew) as well as my pinky toe. Stupid scorpion. Thats it, I was pissed. Who has the nerve to make a home under MY trunk, and then stab MY toe with its pointy thing?! Some house guest. SSSTTT SSTT SSSTTT! Scorpion eyes my ass!

Since I was already sweeping, I had my dust pan and used it as a weapon, of sorts. I'm pretty proud of myself that my first instinct was to beat the crap out of them until they died. Considering, that when I first came to my hut, I trapped a cricket under tupperwear and made my friend come and get it out. I managed to crush one, and squish the other two (screaming the whole time) in between the pan and the wall until my younger brother came and rescued me. Only then, did they find it necessary to tell me that once the rains come, there will be scorpions the size of my forearm. I wish they hadn't.

Other than that, things have been better. I haven't posted in a while. I figured, since things were not going so well in the village, it was best to hold off writing until I wasn't so negative about my life there. I'm back to hanging out with my friends there and we have successfully completed 9 latrines, working with 12 farmers with their tree nurseries and I'm about to hand out the 125 nets that you all helped to raise money for. Again, thank you. Things are good, no fights, just sitting around with the locs. I outplanted my first tree. Unfortunately, it got eaten by termites. DAMN! but i'll throw some ash in the hole and try again.

I'm heading to Paris on Sunday and can't wait. Its time for a vacation at last!!! Mali is on for September. I'm going with 3 other girls and I can't wait!!!!! Before you know it i'll be home for christmas too. I'll post again after Paris Rachel. Rest easy I'll stay more updated from now on, if for no other reason than your entertainment hahaha!

Oh what a week

As if I wasn't stressed out enough a week and a half ago, this latrine project, I am convinced is going to kill me. We succeeded in picking up the materials for 9 latrines, 3 of which were built before I left for Kaolack. However, the rest of the villagers have started accusing me of being "political" for only giving them to 9 people. At least 10 times a day, I explain that everyone will, in fact, receive a latrine. At the moment though, we are funded for nine and hopefully, once these 9 are done, the other money will have arrived and we can start the rest. The only reason they are getting them first is because they showed me that they have finished digging their holes. And, since there is only one mason in the village, we can only do one at a time any way so there is no problem and they need to chill. Needless to say, they don't get it. And on my way to another compound to start his douche, I was confronted, wait no, ambushed, by a villager. He begins screaming at me like a crazy person (and a 5 year old). Well, after a week of trying to get my point across and having people treat me like crap, I lost it. Straight up, legit flipped out. Started screaming about how he was acting like a child, what a big jerk he was, how he needed to stop chewing with his mouth open and spitting mango on me, how i'd make sure he never received anything from me as long as I lived in the village....anything you name it, I screamed about it. To add to things, my family decided to leave me out of lunch that day too. So 330 comes around and still no lunch, but luckily I was too upset to be hungry. So I left and said nothing to my family or the village. This was monday night. I'm not going back until Friday, I'm still too angry with them.

On a brighter note, I taught a sexual health session in natalie's village. Since its a pulaar village I was able to speak comfortably about, well, birth control and condoms. I managed to learn a thing or two as well. For example, a bike pump is useful for more than just helping out with flat tires. It can act as "a man" when you're doing a condom presentation. To make things even better, the condoms were Christmas colors! Although, really, who the hell would want to use a green condom? Even in Africa, ok especially in Africa, do you really want to associate green with your errrr ummm "private time?" My vote-- not so much.

While everyone laughed histerically the entire time, we had one woman and one man (separately of course) come up and demonstrate how to put the condom on. Mainly just to embarrass them, but I think that they did end up learning about their options. When we explained how the women are tired of having children and raising them for as long as they can remember, and the men are busy, ok maybe thats not the right word. So, while the men are drinking tea and sitting in the shade, maybe they should consider not knocking the women up quite as often. Condoms! Birth Control! USE THEM!!! They seemed rather receptive and it didn't seem to offend them. Or at least they didn't tell us if it did. The best part came when we needed to take the Christmas condoms off the bike pump. Its so much more fun to actually use the pump. And in doing so, i shot a condom off into the crowd, hitting natalie's mom in the head (not hard). Myself and everyone else lost it and to be honest, I almost peed my pants laughing so hard. Giant green condom flying through the air-- and SMACK! Stuck right in her weave. How charming.

I'm staying an extra day here in Kaolack, as I said and tomorrow I'm going to a hotel pool to drink bloody marys and lay by the pool. Thank god. I'm going to the beach on the 31st to celebrate my 23rd birthday. God I'm getting old. But i'm certainly ready for a vacation. Im looking forward to it. Luckily, considering how angry I am with the village, I only have to be back for a few days before I go to Thies for my meeting. Working on my birthday. Nice. I'm still going out!

Job description: stressed out nag

Back in Kaolack after a two and a half week long stint in Pakane. Let me just say, this might have been the most stressful at site since arriving. My tree nursery has been finished for over 3 weeks now, and I am just now getting the villagers to start theirs. Although, the chickens have taken a liking to my trees so I had to buy chicken wire and threaten my family that I would eat the chickens if they touched my trees again. Is it bad that I kind of want them to maybe just eat one -- so i can have them for lunch? Anyway, over and over they gave me a time or day to come and over and over again they blew me off. "Sira Ba, I don't have something I need, come tomorrow morning around 9." Nine o'clock comes around and I show up, "Oh sorry, he went to Kaolack." What the h? I think it might be a record to have been blown off 6 times in one day. Seriously?! Finally, I took a book and retreated to the bush shooting dirty look after dirty look and avoiding children by ducking behind trees so they wouldn't follow me. I feel like rather than spending most of my time nagging the villagers to work instead of actually working. Although I have been able to start 7 nurserys before I left, so that helps.

On one especially frustrating day, I decided it would be a good idea to go to my road town to buy a mango. And while I can get them in the village, they're either so squishy it reminds me of the inside of a gusher or dripping with drool from my year old brother sucking on it. Probably a bad idea on that day since I was already in a bad mood and I had to deal with people. The next time I hear anyone in America complaining about racism, I'm probably going to flip. The fact that I had to hide in a random shack, to keep from being harassed, only to be surrounded by 15 teenage boys shouting "toubab" and hissing/making kissing noises as I tried to eat it is, to put it nicely, obnoxious. Seriously, you would be hard pressed to find that in America.

On the bright side, thanks to you all, I am almost fully funded for my bed-net distribution by now! And in less than 24hours! But don't feel like we have to stop at the goal of $250, any extra proceeds will go to other volunteers in need of bed nets as well and who haven't raised the money that they need yet. Thank you so much! Also, I am funded for 8 latrines and am waiting for the reset of the money to come in from a local NGO. I want to start construction this weekend when I go back home to Pakane. The villagers can stop bugging me 3 times a day. They still have not given me their share though, so again with the nagging, I need to start in on them yet again.

So, I came in for Cinco de Mayo and made enchilladas! They were absolutely delicious. However, I came in by car instead of biking Alhumdillilah! That was by far the hardest thing have ever done. I'll probably do it again haha! Peace corps has turned me into a socially awkward masochist. But, since having been here, I've learned that the money we raised fund-raising, for the gender and developement group I run communications for, is not able to be used. According to a new rule, we are not allowed to specifically raise the funds or handle the money in any way. Meaning, all of the money we raised at WAIST (by drinking and selling the boys off as dates) can't be used for the 80 scholarships we are giving out this month. All and all, we may not be able to give out the scholarships. Not good! I'm desperately trying to come of with an answer, so that these girls can actually receive the money to buy school supplies and food.

So, as you can see, I am beyond stressed. Despite even the work aspects, one of my closest neighbors seems to have it out for me since i'm not my ancient (the girl I replaced). Apparently they were friends, and since I'm not her that makes me, well, the devil. What a jerk. Cant relax in Kaolack because of work and can't relax at home because of stupid men (and mice). Lame! On the bright side I did decide on some travel plans!

In October I'm going to Mali with two other people. One of the girls is from up north and I don't know her very well, but the other girl is in the Kaolack region and one of my favorite people in country. 2 full weeks of hiking, riding camels and taking a picture in front of the "Welcome to Timbuktu" sign. I shortened my trip home by a week, sorry mom (we'll talk later) so that in March I can travel West Africa for 3 weeks. My goal is to hit Guinea, Sierra Leonne and Liberia. As for a trip at the end of my service, I'm off to Nepal to trekk in the Himalayas and to find the Abominable Snowman (more like the Adorable Snowman!). After 4-5 days in India I'll be back in the good 'ole US of A.

Also, thank you all so much for helping me with my bed net distribution. If anyone else wants to help me out with funding you can go to my website. Any money over the $250 will go to other volunteers involved in the distribution who have not yet raised enough. So extras are always welcome! I miss and love you all so much and I can't wait to see everyone in 6 months!
www.AgainstMalaria.com/SarahKnight

AHHH!

So I was getting my stuff ready to leave in the morning, cleaning out my cubbie and reorganizing etc. 2 baby mice ran out of the cubbie and onto my thigh, then the floor. My shriek could have woken the neighbors. Needless to say, the little monsters have a death sentence and I set 2 mouse traps with nutella. Take that critters! See what happens when you chose to run around on the wrong leg!!!!

In the land of Ceeb-mommas

So you may be asking yourself, what on earth is a Ceeb momma?

The dictionary definition: Ceeb (pronounced cheb), the wolof word for rice, when added to momma is the definition of a large african woman.

The ACTUAL/REAL LIFE definition: A 3-400 pound african woman who tries to squeeze into seats that are too small for her monster jaayfunday (huge butt) and will not move for any reason once shes plopped down. Most likely this seat is next to me. She constantly will shift the entire ride trying to knock you out of the way to make more room for herself, all the while shoveling beneigts, bread, a chicken leg she pulled out of her shirt, children, etc into her mouth resting only for a moment, not to breath, but to dump carmelized sugar (attaya) down her glistening greasy gullet.

For some reason, it seems that anytime I get into a car, the 5 person row consists of 4 Ceeb mommas and myself. Most of the time I end up having to shift onto my hip to make room for them. In between mouth noises, however, I constantly get dirty looks from them for not in fact my stomach growling. Sorry ladies, but I did not eat Hansel and Gretel for breakfast like you may have. This tradition of travel was no different when I went to my counterparts house finally. He made me eat lunch twice, which I was completely thrilled about. Overall, I think it ended up being an entire chicken, lots of french fries, an onion sauce and 3 hard boiled eggs that found their final resting place in the stomach of yours truley.

It was AMAZING, I've never been so happy for lunch in my life. Diouf (the counterpart) then informed me that I didn't eat anything haha! I responded by telling him that my goal in Senegal was not to become Jaba the Ceeb Momma. I don't think he got it and looked at me funny when I started laughing.

If anything is going to ensure my place in life as a normal sized person, it will be the fact that I biked 70k from my site and will bike back tomorrow, god help me. It is a lot farther than you realize, let me tell you. At one point, I called my friend and asked how much farther I had to go, considering I was absolutely exhausted and my legs were in fact starting to shake. He told me, I still had a ways to go. Now, there may or may not have been a few tears shed at this devistating text message. On the bright side, the dirt that accumulated on my face from the ride made me look like I had a unibrow, it was quite sexy let me tell you. And I get to do it all over again tomorrow!!!! Hooray!!!! Kill me now.

Also, coming up soon, Ill be starting to need some fundraising from friends and family. I'm giving out mosquito nets in my village and need to raise $2 per net, for a total $250. Ill keep you all posted on the details, but anyone who wants to help, my villagers and I would appreciate it! Love you guys! And I'll be out again on May 5th!

A senegalese filling....OUCH!

March seems to have flown by, I cant believe that tomorrow will be April already! yikes! The 7 month mark is already here! However, I can't help but feel like I did nothing but travel this month. Unfortunately, the excitement in March was minimal, no one proposing on alhums or telling me their name is Usher Raymond then proceeding to sing (very badly mind you) Let it Burn. I'm both happy about this and a bit disappointed, as much as it sucks and the men are sleezy, it does make for a great story to put on the blog.

I started off the month with a trip to the dentist....in Dakar. Granted, the guy was Lebanese or French or something so it wasn't like I went into a hole in the wall, dark and dirty rip out your teeth and put in Razorblades kind of dentist. (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1573625485.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg) That would seriously have sucked. But none the less, I would not recommend getting a filling removed/put in here. So, about a month into service, I broke a filling and just figured, whatever no big deal. Go figure, I got a cavity underneath. FUUUUUNNNNN! A night in Dakar eating waaaay to much later, I'm gripping the chair, white-knuckled and trying not to bite the guys damn hands off. Really, if you're going to rip out a filling, scrape out a cavity and put in a new filling, at least give me some novicaine! And quit asking "ca c'est sensitive?" Yes, that is sensitive, you're ripping my face off you jerk. And then thep power went out. Go figure. Senegal, you really know how to make a girls day. Haha! Needless to say my back tooth is just as beautiful as it was before I came here.

On the other hand, I took a lovely 9 hour drive down to the waterfalls for some more AgFo training. Alhumdilillah! We learned everything that we should have at PST and IST. I am actually somewhat comfortable planting some trees now. We also recieved our seeds and sacks which is wonderful, my villagers have been bugging me for weeks. I was stressing out about it more than I think is normal. Apparently they wanted 13,500 Eucalyptus seeds and 1,000 Cashew and Mango seeds. Not to mention all of the ones for live fencing and ornamental trees. A little excessive, in my opinion, considering this is a village of 250. Dude, where they hell are we going to plant all of these? Redic! And I must say, warthog sandwiches are tasty.

Upon returning to Kaolack, I went out to buy my tools and get everything ready. I am now the proud owner of a freshly sharpened Machete. I swear to god goats, if you get in my nursery, I will use it......and then eat you. Muahahahhaha! (evil laughing and a creepy look). But, considering all of these sacks and seeds (not to mention the damn gift I have to buy for the family everytime I come back to the village, stupid cultural norms....what the hell, why dont I ever get a gift?) weigh more about the same as I do, I have no idea how I will manage to drag everything back to the ville. And yes, I was curious and actually weighed my bags. I have too much time on my hands. I'm on my way out though, so Ill have a more interesting blog when i come back in to kaolack on the 16th or 17th.

Kaolack in all of its glory, burning tires and all. I'm heading to Dakar tomorrow just in time for elections. Riots are expected so lets hope I stay alive!

Did you know....

So its been almost 7 months since I arrived in Senegal. Its really hard to believe but here I am, full-fledged, pulaar speaking dirty peace corps volunteer. Just today, when I came in to Kaolack, even the other volunteers were so impressed by how dirty I managed to get on the way in today that they wouldn't even give me a hug. Needless to say, I showered immediately. Thank god we had water today.

With 6 1/2 months under my belt/ bin bin (senegalese lingerie) I feel like now is an excellent time to reflect on the things I've learned or discovered, for better or for worse, while in country. Mind you, some of these things may seem insignificant, but they are a big part of my life here.

1.) Quiet as a mouse my ass. Mice are NOT quite. They have made themselves known many times in my hut over the past few months. Living with an obnoxious cat, throwing down poison/glue and smashing them or sleeping with your ipod full blast the damn things do not die! Now, not only have they taken to keeping me awake until 5AM, making little Sira Ba quite the grumpy pulaar, but now they've gotten so bold as to run up and down my mosquito net. Thank god I keep that thing tucked into the bottom of my mattress or they would be climbing up and down my body while I slept. GREEEEAAATTT....

2.) The warning on batteries about not keeping them in settings where the temperature rises above a certain temperature......yea its true. Last night as I slept/ lay awake waiting to shine my head lamp on the mice to make them run out the door, the headlamp that lay on my stomach basically exploded. No actually the batteries inside exploded. Apparently that does happen. Battery acid on your stomach, well....not the most pleasant of experiences let me tell you. Every swear word (English, French and Pulaar) that could be imagined EVER came out of my mouth. My family thinks I'm even more crazy than before.

3.) There is such a thing as a Toubab collector.
Toubab: a racist term used in reference to white people. I hear it every day. Its lovely.
Some people in Senegal really like to show off the fact that they know white people. They pretend we are their friends and take pictures with us to show their friends. In America this would be really weird and why the hell would you ever do it. But, before they actually take your picture, they make sure to show you all of the other pictures with white people that they have taken to show that they have white friends. Really? In my opinion, this is weird.

4.) You can actually strap a full grown 22 year old girl onto a persons back. I know this because I was strapped onto my friends back and carried around earlier this evening. We'll see how this goes over when I ask my host mom in the village. Just add 100lbs to whatever that infant on your back weighs and its practically the same thing! Swear to god mom....

5.) Baby goats are called kids for a reason. Sometimes in the middle of the night I wake up to the glorious sound of a baby goat calling for its mother. Or, is that an actual kid calling for its mother. Really, I can't tell the difference 90 percent of the time. Its pretty strange. Even worse, during the day when a kid (human kid) is crying, but you cant see them. All you see is a goat...... with its mouth open..... is it a baby or a goat making the noise. 30 minutes of boredom are cured each day in response to this question. The answer on most days is not observed. The goat gets bored and runs away. Damn lucky goat.

6.) Your hand is just as good as an eating utensil.

7.) If you gain weight after going to Kaolack, your family WILL call you out. Thanks fam, first I'm too small now im too big? what the hell make up your mind. At least they didn't call me pretty. I would ET

8.) Peace Corps is said to take 15 years off your life. I believe it. I have started to develop smokers cough....but instead of smoke, my lungs are filled with Sand. All of the things that go wrong with our health here, plus the stress and all of the possible things that could go wrong even after we get back to the states, its a wonder we even make it home alive. It should take about 50 years off our lives! Not to mention all of the random medicines we take, plus the 3 shots twice a week we got during training. God knows a shot filled with rabies can not make me healthy. come to think of it, my spit was a little foamy yesterday....hmmm.....

9.) Even with my language skills improving, some words are still ridiculous. There is actually a word for the action of digging peanuts out of the ground. It is "kissy-kissy." Again, really? I tried to explain what kiss means in English and I think they took it to another level. Its quite disturbing. Especially since they think I'm married, the women make it their mission in life to make me blush. They find it hilarious. I on the other hand, do not. Well....in all honesty, it is pretty funny, who knew that was what African women talked about most. So bizarre!

10.) So I've been living in Pakane for 4 months. Yet, some of the children still burst into tears as soon as they see me. Am I really that scary looking? Its a real self esteem booster when children cry as soon as you leave your hut in the morning. Oh Africa, you're starting to grow on me.

I will keep adding to this list....but right now its st patty's and the other volunteers are upstairs....I'm done being anti-social for now. I'm sending kissy-kissy's your way!

riots and tear gas. always fun

Alhum confessions

Alhums. What can I say. They are source of constant frustration as well as hilarity in my life these days. Today, as it seems, is no exception. My one and a half hour ride to Kaolack, holding true to African ideals of time management, took four and a half hours. When we ran out of gas no more than 5k from my road town, I knew it was doomed. On a normal day, I would just chalk up the two dollars and find a new car. However, fate had it out for me and as it turned out, I only had 800cfa (a little more than a dollar) in my wallet. Damn! So I sat. and sat. and then, I sat some more. About two hours later, and about a gallon of gas, diluted with water mind you, in the the tank, we were off! I could still make it by noon. Tacos here I come (I swear the prenatal vitamins give me preggo cravings)! Regardless, I was ecstatic.

Well, was being the key word. Go figure, the damn wheel fell off! Its a car! how the hell does a wheel just "fall" off?!? Great, I thought, so much for "tacos at twelve." In my excitement to go to the city, I forgot to eat breakfast and now felt the need to give clever names to my mealtimes. Hunger dilusions is my guess. So, as they open the side door of the creepy monster van/alhum, to my amusement, the other passengers seemed to have forgotten that the wheel fell off and we were now sitting at an angle right above a ditch. Much to my amusement and the dismay of the senegalese, they fell right out the door and into the ditch. That did it. I lost it! Im telling you, tears streaming, clutching your heart and snorting kind of laughter. Apparently, I was the only one who found it so amusing. Pssshhh, whatever lighten up people.

Another hour later, still laughing, I was back on the road. Screeching to a halt, I think holy crap what now? Oh yea the police want us to pay a bribe, I should have expected this much. But, since there have been student protests and rioting in Kaolack, they felt the need to search everyones bags, buckets and even pockets. Lucky for me, I was wearing a skirt. As he searched my bookbag, I gave him my best "go ahead, pull my underwear out of the bag and see what happens" look. I don't know how intimidating a skinny little white girl in a Dr Seuss shirt and pigtails looked to a big burly black police officer, but needless to say no underwear left the premises. Just gonna throw this out there, I must have been pretty damn intimidating. Yertle the turtle, you do not steer me wrong when it comes to intimidation. 2 more bribes and 3 more gas refills later, I made it to my tacos. THANK GOD! I was starving.

All the time this is going on though, you cannot forget about the sleezeball africans that will ruin even the best of days for a female peace corps volunteer. And yes, they are ALWAYS sleezeballs, and they ALWAYS ruin your day. Unfortunately, subtleties do not make an impact on them, nor does sarcasm. But, it does help to make the situation more enjoyable for me. Now if you will, sit back in your alhum (aka your comfy american chair) and pretend you're in my shoes. This was my conversation this afternoon.

Me: minding my own business, listening to my ipod and trying, very unsuccesfully, to touch as few people as possible
Unattractive, over confident, testosterone-driven creepy african man: "La di da, I think Ill go to Kaolack today. Oh look, a toubab! Just wait until she meets me, I am in fact god's gift to women"

And so it begins

Creeper: Bonjour madame
Me: Ignoring him
Creeper: Hello my sister
Me: Insert dirty look here, turn up Ipod volume
Creeper: After a few moments of silence, he scooches closer and squishes me against the wall. I said hello my sister. I speak very good english.
Me: Wow! Thats really good for you! (I know you can sense the sarcasm. He could not) Insert eye roll here
Creeper: Yes! I am an educated man
Me: I am soooo happy for you
get ready for it.....
Creeper: Me, I want a white wife

Me: Ugh, good for you. I have a husband
Creeper: I want to go to America.
Me: Great, um....do you think you could not pick your nose right now. Its pretty gross. And Im afraid that the booger that you're playing with in your fingers will, ooohhh, yea there it went, right on my skirt. Thank you
Creeper: Yes, I work in Dakar.
Me: What?
10 minute silence
Creeper: Do you love me?
Me: Ew, you're gross.
Creeper: You don't love me? Why not
Me: You're ugly, now go away (ipod turns up to full volume)
Creeper: let me listen
Me: Go away

He makes his move

Me: SMACK!!! I think you mistook your knee for mine. I see how they're easily confused. Ass. Again, insert dirty look here.
Creeper: Oh haha I am sorry. You are very nice.
Me: Touch me again and you may never make babies
Creeper: You want to make babies yes?
Me: UGH!!!!
We arrive in Kaolack thank god!!
Creeper: Give me money now.

*As you can see, the men here are scum* This is what we have to deal with every day of our lives. So, ladies, appreciate the ability to walk down the street with out getting harrassed, hissed at or followed.


- Even though this is a 3 month old picture, I think it captures my reaction to this day perfectly!

***Ok, so i forgot to add this in the last post and I think you will all get a kick out of my ridiculousness. So, we all know that I live without running water or electricity right? Well, in staying with such a patron family in Thies, my rural life caught up with me. Before bed one evening, I started my routine. Brush my teeth, wash my face.....you know the usual. I return to my room, put my head lamp on and start to put on my pajamas. The whole time, I'm stumbling around because, well lets face it, there's no light. right? WRONG! Duh Sarah, this house has electricity. My host mother slowly opens my door when she realized what I was trying to do and quietly flipped on the light switch. I am officially an indiot.***

- our attempt at a pyramid fell down--

MacKaolack takes 3rd

So, its been about a month since i've updated everyone on my crazy life over here. Once again, I went to Thies for another round of training, but feel no more comfortable with my skills as an "agro-forestry extension agent" (whatever that is). It was really strange to go back though, my life in Thies seems like a lifetime ago and living in a city is so much different for anything than i'm used to. It made me realize that i'm pretty much screwed when I go back to the states. For some reason (and feel free to hold this against me), I really miss sitting around cracking peanuts, drinking tea and god help me, eating millet! And in all honesty, i miss the Danza Bat most. :)

IST was as organized as you can expect a Senegalese training session to be. In other words, not at all. During our grafting session, our trainers decided not to show up. It was great considering it was the only real lesson we had during the whole 2 weeks. Needless to say, I was not impressed. But, one useful thing that we did do in training was seed collecting, but then we spent an entire day on opening up the seeds. It sucked a little bit. :( On the plus side, I did get to play with a machete. I bought one and completely intend on bringing it back to the states. For when Chris gets out of line of course. But the good news is, that my homestay ended up being in the city instead of out in the middle of nowhere with the family that made my first 2 months so enjoyable (insert sarcasm here). Its crazy the differences in city vs. rural life. We had a flat screen tv and ate salad, need i say more? I watched soap operas...IN COLOR! wow. just, wow. haha

After IST, hundreds of Peace Corps volunteers went up to Dakar for the aptly named softball tournament: WAIST (or should i say waste). An endless week of parties and slightly intoxicated softball was just another excuse for the Kaolack kids to show off just how great we are. With a costume theme like Braveheart, how could we go wrong? Kilts and constant mooning seemed to be just the key to winning the 3rd place trophy. That and maybe that my kilt was a "mini kilt." It may have distracted my batters. I have never met another team that heckles as much as we do. My catcher was even heckling me!!! In a good way though. She would constantly yell "Potato" at me, or the names of random family members from my village and sometimes random pulaar phrases that she knew. Haha! Imagine the other team's (and my own) confusion. For you all who are wondering, the "potato" part was from the two of us practicing in my village with a potato, since i forgot to bring a softball. African baseball at its finest. I've never gotten such weird looks from my villagers. But as far as the other teams, they had to deal with our drunk antics. Always putting "Mac" at the beginning of a word, our names, swear words at the other teams turned out to be hilarious. For example, MacKaolack was a constant chant along with MacSarah or my favorite was when I called the other team "MacSluts" hahahha! I'm still doing it actually. its a little hard to stop :/ I wonder if I can add it to pulaar words? MacKuudi. Bwahahaha!

Ill be putting up more pictures soon, but my camera was dead and I have no charger as I said before. So, I'm waiting for my friends to put theirs up so I can steal them. Be on the lookout. I had a blue lightening bolt painted onto my face all weekend and then it was the only place not sunburned. Haha! I hope to put up a picture of that! So be prepared. Its pretty attractive :) We also proceeded to dance around our trophy all night at the banquet, much to the dismay of the other teams. Oh well! Pole dancing with a trophy---classy! and very VERY awkward.