See you later! COS Conference

Close of Service (COS) means I've made it through my two years in the Peace Corps: I've lived in a different culture, learned a new language, met so many interesting people, challenged established beliefs (American and Senegalese), served my country and the people of Senegal. It's kind of a big deal...
In order to help volunteers through that transition, Peace Corps Senegal brings us all together as a training group one last time to reflect, debrief, and start looking at our options in the future. Reverse culture shock is an overwhelming process, so it's really great that we can come together as a training group, remember the good times, discuss tentative plans for the future, and get away for a weekend in a beautiful beach house.

My Training Group

What's really amazing is how close I've become to my training group, even though some of us are so far apart and don't get to see each other very often. They are a great group of people that have been nothing but supportive. And seeing everyone all together again was such an exciting moment - it doesn't really matter that this is the last time we will be all together. It doesn't matter that life is going to lead us down a hundred divergent paths - something will keep us together and I'm sure we will run into each other again.

Goodbye Send-off Breakfast

While we were going through our COS conference, the training group before us was getting ready to actual COS and leave. I have spent so much of my service working with these people, not to mention they make up about half of my neighbors, that it is surreal to know they're gone. I am so happy and excited for them: congratulations on completing Peace Corps service and getting to go off on some new amazing adventure! Of course I will miss them, but I have a feeling that it's not actually goodbye... I'm going to see all these wonderful volunteers again in someplace better!

Easter Ceeb

Village had gotten so quiet; all my host siblings and cousins had gone off to CEM (middle school) and Lycee (high school) in the bigger towns. Suddenly there is no one to have a friendly conversation with during siesta or late at night waiting for the winds to cool things off. The daily discussions of market prices, okra, and why I'm not married yet just don't do it for me. And these seem to be the only things anyone ever wants to discuss with me. I had this idea that maybe I ask Senegalese villagers their opinions on GRE essay prompts, but it kind of fell on deaf ears - what was I talking about and how did that have any relevance to their very orderly (if not monotonous) lives? They do things they way they've always done them because that's the way to do things... or so they say.
Down time during the day, I played with the kids. They are a lot more fun: leap frog, coloring, reading at the library, adventure hikes, and imitating anything and everything. Playing with them is great, but I'm not a huge fun of the crowds of children that tend to develop - 8 is my cut off...

When Easter break finally rolled around and my teenage/young adult siblings started to wander back home, it was such a relief to have more stimulating conversations and debates about values, lifestyles, beliefs. Suddenly the dull evenings turned into inter-village soccer tournaments and late night parties. The students were interested in my projects and tagged along everywhere. And older siblings came, listened and helped younger siblings read books from the Goundaga Primary School Library. (Thank you all for your donations!) Everyone is so excited about the library; I got 5 kids reading their first chapter book!

Harriet, Lisa, and I cooking over the fire.

Best of all, my favorite girl friends in village came back for the holiday: Lisa, Harriet, Jenny (not their real names, but they figured if I got a Senegalese name, they should also have American names). We had a long over due cooking date so we planned to make the most patron (bougie) ceeb (Senegalese style fried rice) ever! Unlike people stuck in the village all the time, i.e. the adults and children that I had spent all of the previous month with, these young women know their food and know the importance of a balanced meal. Our market list was full of every vegetable in season and a special note for Lisa's dad to catch us the biggest fish he could find. One of my host mom's, Mata Sadio, got on board and sent us a small mountain of fresh basil to stuff the fish with. My neighbor, Jenae, and her friend visiting from America came by too to enjoy the day in village.



So, how do you cook the best ceeb ever?

Easter Ceeb

We started washing and cutting the bucket full of vegetables we had bought in the road town market. We cleaned and gutted the big fish. We built a big fire and boiled a big cauldron of water over it. We picked the rocks out of the rice and rinsed it before steaming it. We mashed basil, garlic, pepper, green onions, and chili peppers up in a mortal and pestle and stuffed the fish with the mixture. We fried the fish with oil and onion, put that to the side, and fried some potatoes and sweet potatoes. We added water and spices and boiled the vegetables until soft, then we added the steamed rice and let everything simmer. And when it was all done, we served it up to the whole family and ate until we were stuffed. So good!

Tamba Race Aftermath

Hot season has arrived and with it, a constant trickle of sweat. The notebook I wrote a draft of this blog in left a rectangular sweat stain on my pants. Even holding a pen is sweaty business here.

Yet, somehow, despite the heat and lethargy it forces on everyone, the Race for Education in Tambacounda went tremendously well. Over 100 participants came to run the 5k, 10k, or half marathon and we raised over $3000 to fund projects supporting girls education in Senegal. The runners were a diverse crowd: firemen, police, Peace Corps volunteers, local students, teachers, school admins, military, a marathonist from the Caimens team, and even the Prefet of Tamba (the county's official head)! The race achieved its purpose and had everyone out talking about girls education... or at least how silly we all looked running through the city.




The Principal of CEM Wassadou came all the way to Tamba to run 5k and support the girls at his school!


The race was also a personal achievement for me. It's the furtherest I've run and I did it in hot, dusty Tambacounda, Senegal, West Africa! So I gave myself a pat on the back and spent the next two days lounging around the regional house. It took a good week for biking (main means of transportation around here) to not be painful and leave me exhausted after every small trip. Somehow, I muster enough energy to bike all over the place 2 days later and put together a Pest Control Training in a village across the river from me... Then I needed another two days to recover from heat exhaustion and soreness. But I think I'm finally back to being a normal, functioning human being! Thanks everyone for your support!

Just over two weeks left until the Tambacounda Race for Education. I've pledged to run the half marathon in an effort to raise money for Peace Corps Senegal's Michele Sylvester Scholarship. Each year the scholarship awards middle school girls with school tuition and supplies for their hard work and excellence in scholarship.

This past year, I have been working with the 9 scholarship recipients at the middle school in Wassadou and it has been one of the most rewarding experiences I have had so far. I have learned so much about the hardships these girls, and so many others around the world, face everyday just to get half an education. [I am so grateful I have always known the support of family, friends, and teachers in pursuing my own education. Thank you!] Together, these 9 girls and I planned a two day conference, drawing attention to these obstacles and searching for the resources they need to overcome. The event concluded with a moving dialogue between parents and daughters, pledging their support and understanding for one another. Once again, the conference could not have happened without Awa Traore, Peace Corps Senegal's amazing cross-cultural instructor.

The work and effort Awa, Aissatou, Maimouna, Binta, Goundo, Fatimata, Jenabou, Fatimata Binta, and Awa put into their schoolwork and this conference inspired me to run. Their principal was inspired too, and has pledged to run 5k and donate the money he raises back to the girls at the Wassadou middle school.

Seeing me running through their fields early in the morning, people in my village are becoming inspired too. When they first asked jokingly what in the world I'm training form we were laughing at my bright red face and sweat-soaked shirt. (I'm definitely not the image of beauty after a run.) But their faces quickly grew serious when I explained the cause. Especially, so many women, my host moms, grandmas and aunts, who never had the opportunity to go to school, never learned anything but pounding millet and spinning thread.

No one here thinks that I can actually run the 21 kilometers, but I got a couple neighbors to say that they'd throw a dollar my way if I come back with a half marathon certificate. The money's a nice gesture, of course, even more so when it's coming from those who have so little. What really makes me smile, though, is getting the conversation started: girls education and how necessary it is. Now when they see me out running at the crack of dawn, they know I'm not just crazy. We are making a difference - one stride at a time.

For more information about Michele Sylvester Scholarship click here. To donate to the Race for Education, click here - "Race for Education" in comments line please.

Kids Say the Darnest Things

Just over a year ago, I was a fresh, naive volunteer with well-shaped opinions and concrete preferences. Going through all the trainings that Peace Corps Senegal offered, I would tend to zone out whenever radio was mentioned and be completely gone when working with children was topic of discussion. These were great activities for other volunteers but I don't have a radio voice and I didn't fly across the Atlantic to babysit. Not interested.

But working as a Peace Corps volunteer is not about yourself. Yeah, there is know boss breathing down my neck demanding results, and my closest neighbors are a half hour bike ride away (or hour and twenty minutes by donkey cart). That may seem like complete freedom and independence at work - ideal conditions to some maybe, paid vacation to cynics. Yet the longer I am hear the more I realize my assignment to my community makes me accountable to them first and foremost. And I have to live with them everyday, eat all my meals with them, and chase away peeping Toms at shower time. The longer I am here, the more I have come to understand and respond to my communities needs. While my (least favorite) host mom has flat out told me to babysit her kids - met with point blank refusal - the community as a whole has shown me there is a huge lack of support for the children and youth. And so, whether I like it or not, working with kids has grown on me.

Last year, I avoided the school like the plague and creepy teacher stories made my weary to work with them. This year, the director at my primary school is when of my favorite people to talk to in the village (one out of five that I can have intellectual, in-depth conversations with). Now I am at the school nearly everyday: helping out in the school garden, teaching kids how to make compost and mulch garden beds, or visiting the library and letting 20 kids fight over who gets to read to me first. And it's become the favorite part of my day - funny how life as a volunteer changes you.

Spending so much time with the little ones, however, has still not given me much insight into their shakily constructed worldviews and their unique ideas of what's what. Just like kids everywhere, Senegalese village children say the darnest things, usually questions - they're curious. Here's a sampling.

"Is America in the sky?" "What?! No, America is next to the sunset." "But all the planes go to the sky!"

"What is the dirt like in America?" "ummmm...?" "I mean, does stuff grow in the dirt in America?"

"Is there fire in America?"

"Is there rice in America?" "Yes." "Peanuts??" "Yes." "Corn??!" "Definitely."

"Do you eat with spoons in America?"

"Will sunscreen (sun cream) make me white like you?"

"Who did you weave?" (asking about my natural hair)

"Do you breastfeed your kitten?" "What?! No!" "But she's a baby!"

"If you can eat in a plane, can you poop in a plane?" "Yes you can." "Where does the poop go?"

"Are you going to Kounkane? Buy me money!" (Kounkane is the closest road-side town.)

"Are there people named Harouna in America?" "Yeah, some." What about Maimouna?" "Yes, a few." What about Seydou?" "Yeah, a couple." "What about Gomez?" "Yes. There are a LOT of Gomez's in America." (giggles and cheering)



"Are there kids in America?" "Yes." "Really? Kids? Like us?" "Yes, there are kids in America." "Are there babies?"

Girl: "I'm going to be the President of Senegal." Boy: "You can't be president. You're a girl, right Ramatoulaye?" Me: "Actually, no. Women can be presidents too." Girl: "See? I can be president." Boy: "Okay, but I am going to be president first."

"I want a white husband. Can you give me one of you friends?" (from my six year old host niece.)



"Are you a afraid of babies?"

"Did you go to school? Even high school?"

"What's a chinois?" "Umm, they are people from China." "But what do they look like? Draw a chinois for me!" (Chinois  is the French for Chinese, but the term is used rather loosely in Senegal to cover lots of different Asian peoples - there is no politically correct here.)

"You are going to teach Pulaar when you go back to America, right?"



"Do want want to split a lollipop?" (from the dirty, snot-covered kid)

"Are there black people in America?" "Yes, lots. America has all different type of people." "No, you didn't understand me. I said black people, like us." (pulls at skin for effect)
[Probably Peace Corps biggest downfall - the volunteer population could be a lot more diverse, especially if we are going for an accurate picture of America.]

"Can vampires get you if you sleep under the mosquito net?"


After being gone from village for a week... (Ramartoulaye is my village name)
"Is Ramatoulaye lost? Who lost her?!"

At least, I know they love me... in their own weird way.

Holiday Spirit

December is a month full of holiday spirit back home. It's something terribly lacking in every Peace Corps volunteer's humble existence abroad (though we try to make up for it celebrating together). This holiday season, I have found a spirit (cousin to the glistening, gaudy, tinsel-covered one that has taken over the American Christmas experience) among my Senegalese friends; it is a spirit come from working together for something bigger than ourselves and inspiring one another to try just a little bit harder; it is a spirit that depends hope, faith, love... and isn't that what the holidays are all about in the end?
After last month's inner battle coming to terms with female genital cutting and learning more about this practice worldwide (did you know clitoral excisions were practiced in Europe too through the Middle Ages and Renaissance?), I finally got to address the situation in my region in what I hope will be a constructive manner. My Peace Corps neighbor Samantha and I approched a local radio-journalist, Satou, who hosts a segment on Women and Development at the local radio station. Together, we came up with a program to address FGC, the culture behind it, the health risks, and legal consequences for continuing the practice in Senegal: it's very much illegal, but underground.We enlisted the help of Budi, a local healthworker and former TOSTAN member.
Meeting at Satou's huose one Sunday afternoon, we shut ourselves into her son's hut in a vain attempt to keep out the animal bleats, baby cries, and general background hum of Senegal. During the recording, I am moved by the personal stories they share with me: stories of deception, womenhood, fear, pain, and even death. Although I've tried to keep any bias out of my simple questions, seeking to provide the community with raw facts to make their own judgements, it is clear that my counterparts' presentations cannot be passive: this dangerous tradition is maiming and killing women and girs throughout Africa. It's hard (impossible?) not to take sides when people you know are suffering. The program will air this Monday; hopefully my community and host family will respect the information shared and challenge tradition that is harmful to its own members.
Another face of the Senegalese village woman's reality is lack of education and (hence) profitable econonmic channels. Studies show that women in developing countries who make money spend more of it on their children and family than men that receive the same amount. But how does a village woman come about money? Many of the women in my host village have gardens along the river and have been growing the same produce (mostly okra) for years, selling the fruits of their labor every Wednesday at the big market in Diaobe. The work day after day, but still they have little to show for it; and now, a soil fungus is causing most of the okra to wilt before it bears much fruit. At the open field day my counterpart and I held at our demo garden this October, several women requested training in market gardening and basic money management. Last week, we answered there demand with a three-day training: two days on gardening techniques and the final day about money management.
In a word, the training was successful. Twenty-five women representing different villages along the river showed up. Youssoupha Boye, of Peace Corps Senegal, led the gardening portion, covering everything from the nutritional values of veggies to ammending the soil to organic pest solutions, and everything in between. He joked with the women during hands-on activities, but patiently answered all of their questions. And Hudu Boir, a local finance/entrepreneurship trainer, covered the rest. He led an open discuss of the women's buying and selling practices at the market (assuredly a first for them all) and taught a nifty system for keeping track of their expenditures that even illerate participants could understand.
Of course, 3 days is just skimming the surface. Yet, all the women came to the training everyday, participated, and asked questions; afterwards, they sang and danced and shared what they learned on the local radio! They are empowered with new knowledge and excited to share it with their friends back home. My counterpart and I informed them that we will come and visit them next month and check up on their gardens - all of them immmediately started bragging about all of the new skills they would being showing off... Success!
Last, but certainly not east, I have to give a shout out to the Michele Sylvester Scholarship winners at the CEM (middle school) in Wassadou and their prncipal. Many of my friends and family have donated to Peace Corps Senegal's MS Scholarship Fund, which provides tuition and school supplies for middle school girls selected on a competitive basis, and I am sure you are all curious about how they are doing.
All of the girls that won last year continue to be the top students in their respective grades and are thankful to be in school for another year. So thankful that they want to help the rest of their female peers stay in school too. Together we are planning a two day workshop to discuss the local challenges to girls' education and how they can overcome these obstacles. The event will be similar to last spring's Girls Leadership Conference in Koukane, accept with a lot more facilitation from the scholarship winners and (unfortunately?) no funding from the outside. They are determined to make this weekend a success and bring their parents out to hear their role in supporting their daughters.
One more thing: these girls might have a lot of daily challenges, but they are lucky to have the support of the region's most committed CEM principal, Daouda Kande. Due to early experiences in my service, I have developed a natural distrust of teachers and education admins. But Prinicpal Kande has completely reversed my views, at least at his school. He is a hard worker, and his belief in education has definitely rubbed off on most of the CEM's teachers, who show up to teach everyday, even when the rest of Senegal seems to be on strike. Furthermore, P. Kande is invested in his students, standing up for the girls (and occassional boy) forced into early arranged marriages and out of school. There are plenty of people here that talk for hours about their commitment to development, etc., etc. But I've only meet a few like P. Kande that actually do something about the problems eating away at Senegal.
Yet again women, and a handful of open-minded men, flavored this month of my Peace Corps experience. For all the hardships that Senegalese women face everyday, among them are leaders daring to make a difference. This blog goes out to all the exceptional leaders I have had the opportunity to work with this month. And to everyone back home of course: thank you for your constant support! Happy holidays! Happy new year!

Heartbreak

Last week, I witnessed a heartbreaking Pulaar custom. While I was out in the fields one morning, my host mothers lured my little host sisters and nieces (ages 4-6) into a hut with promises of kosam (home-made yogurt, a village treat) for breakfast. There, they were forcibly circumcised. It was supposed to be kept a secret from me, but the change of attitude was evident when I entered my compound. For starters, my sisters didn't come running to greet me like they always do and there were a bunch of women in my compound including the female elders, all of them with they're eyes following me but everyone avoiding me, real strange in a culture that loves to greet. My brother filled me in later over lunch and I couldn't help but start crying.  As I saw it, it was sexual abuse on little girls too young to have any idea what happened to them and I was overcome with guilt at not being home to protect the girls that have grown to be family in this past year. Their behavior towards me and the exclusive was also hurtful, as it showed they were both ashamed and distrustful of me. My host brother couldn't understand; for him it's just a tradition, plus he never have a clitoris.

The tradition turned taboo ten years ago in Senegalese law, but nothing much has changed in the remote villages. Instead, the practice went underground, arguably making it more dangerous. Meanwhile, male circumcisions have adopted an air of modernity; boys are often brought to health posts for circumcision, or at least a health worker is present at village circumcisions, with access to sanitary equipment, soap, and antibiotics in case of infection. Village women circumcise girls in the secrecy of their homes under unsanitary conditions: the cutting instrument is whatever knife or razor blade is available and I know that soap is in near constant shortage in my house. Furthermore, since female genital cutting (FGC) is illegal, parents fear prosecution if they seek medical treatment for a daughter with a botched circumcision, resulting in infection or severe blood loss. These girls are condemned to die in secret. I've heard of two such deaths in my commune the past 6 months, which leads be to the believe the death rate associated with the practice is pretty high, as these deaths are not openly discussed, and then only in secret, and certainly not with an outsider.

Host siblings playing with bubbles

Hearing about these deaths in the past was shocking, but now the practice was in my home - how can I deal with that? At first I was so angry, I wanted to report all the women involved to the police; fortunately, the cellphone reception in my village is horrible. I had time to reflect and realized that reporting the crime would put my ability to work (and possibly my safety) in village in jeopardy. Even worse, if my host parents were jailed or faced a fine, the girls' education would be the first expense sacrificed to pay the bail or fine, not to mention the trauma it might cause the kids seeing their parents in such a position. Ultimately, reporting the incident would only make my girls' lives even worse.

As usual, I turned to Sam, my closest neighbor, to get me through yet another crisis; she harbored me while I cooled off and brainstormed an action plan to end FGC in the area. We've meet a couple women in the Department of Velingara who speak out against the practice. One woman works with a local radio station; we approached her to see if she would like to help us air a question and answer about the risks and realities of genital cutting in the area. She agreed, and just setting a project in motion, doing something made me feel that much better.

I asked an older host sister for more information about the project when I caught her alone, a tricking task since all the women in the compound seemed on their guard towards me. She told me more detail about the process, but admitted that it happened to her so young she doesn't remember much. After the kosam to lure you into the hut, women hold the girls down and, before the girl knows whats happening, another one cuts, not sure what all is cut, but nothing is sewn at least, i.e. infibulation. She doesn't remember being in too much pain during the 3 day healing period, though it was painful to watch my host sisters limp around, unable to bend over to retrieve the bottle caps they'd dropped. Still, he went on to talk about the health consequences of FGC that she had learned about: pain during intercourse and/or increased problems of giving birth due to scar tissue, not to mention that it's illegal. She seemed upset that it had happened to her sisters; she had also gone out that morning.

I did some more research on my own, too. There's a chapter in Half the Sky (a great book on women's rights issues worldwide by Kristof and WuDunn) that gives an overview of the subject, but gives way to lather praise on a Senegalese based organization, Tostan. A recent article in the New York Times also cited the breakthrough work that Tostan is doing to end female genital cutting. Sadly, my village and the surrounding ones a a Tostan failure: they went through the 3 year alternative education program, but have since forgotten or disregarded the literacy, health, organization, and human rights lessons provided to them. FCG still has  a tenacious grip on the cultural collective of the community, with nearly 100% circumcision rates among local women. It is abysmal feeling to know the poster child in the fight to end this practice hadn't made an impact on my community. What is a measly Peace Corps volunteer like me to do? Is there any hope for the girls of the Department of Velingara?

Welcome to the compound

One midwife at the Kounkane Health Post believes that education about FGC consequences is the best way to get women to discontinue the practice. She spoke with the Kounkane High School Girls Club that Sam and I founded last spring when the members requested more information about genital cutting. At the end of the meeting, all the members agreed they will never submit their own daughters to this practice. Neither will the sister that gave me information about cuttings in our village, if she can help it. She is in her final year of CEM (middle school) this year and says that she learned about the horrible consequences of FGC out of village, attending school in Kounkane. Educating girls provides them with the information and economic value that empowers them to speak out against cutting. Hopefully, the next generation will end this practice as more and more Senegalese girls get access to schools. Peace Corps volunteers are working to keep girls in school by providing scholarships to the best female students in middle schools throughout the country through the Michele Sylvester Scholarship (more info here).

But Lord knows I'm impatient for change. Isn't there anything else I can do?