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!