Fourth of July, Ramadan, and Just a Little Bit of Work

This year has marked many first for me.  As you can imagine, the past few months have been full of even more new experiences.  Among many others, this year I was out of the country on July 4^th for the first time, I am observing Ramadan (sort-of) for the first time, and I’ve been doing a lot of work that I never expected to be doing. 

Peace Corps Volunteers in Senegal has a strong tradition of celebrating the Fourth of July together in true American fashion: way too much food, fun, and fireworks.  Volunteers from all over the country gathered in one of Senegal’s southernmost regions (still a 9 hour station wagon ride from my region), called Kedougou, to celebrate, sight-see, and do a little work along the way.  The volunteers in Kedougou organized a massive tree-planting project for the whole city of Kedougou on the 1^st and 2^nd of July to make use of all the volunteers that would be visiting for the party.  Then on the 3^rd, I took a short hiking trip to an amazing waterfall.  It was, without question, one of the most beautiful experiences of my life.  Naturally, I forgot to bring my camera but I will get some pics from a friend soon.  The actual Fourth, volunteers cooked up massive quantities of roasted pig (roasted overnight in pits in the ground… pretty cool), potato salad, cole slaw, French fries, guacamole, cookies, and brownies.  We had music, games, and fireworks.  It was a great time to meet new volunteers, catch up with my friends from training, and see a new part of Senegal.  

As fun as my trip to Kedougou was, after spending almost a week away from site, I was ready to get back to my village.  Before I left, I did my first work-like activity in my village and it went pretty well.  Six months ago the Kolda Region was hit by a Mosquito Net Universal Coverage campaign.  Every house in Kolda was given complimentary mosquito nets for every sleeping space in their house.  This program was facilitated by USAID and the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) in Senegal and Peace Corps volunteers were a big part of the on-the-ground effort to distribute nets.  Now, every six months, there is a monitoring and evaluation survey to see how people are using the nets and if they have been effective. There is a wide range of net usage throughout my village among men, women, and children.  Some people sleep under a net every night while some others think that it’s only important when mosquitoes are abundant after the rain.  Some make sure that their children are covered while leaving themselves exposed and I suspect that some others weren’t completely honest with me about their family’s net usage.  It felt good to talk to people about malaria and net usage, particularly in the weeks leading up to the rainy season when the incidences of malaria are going to skyrocket.  It was a good challenge for my language skills and definitely forced me outside of my comfort zone in my village. 

This month has definitely had a different feel in my village because most everyone is fasting for Ramadan.  Adults wake up at 5am to eat and drink water and do not ingest anything until 7:30pm.  However, the amount of work that people need to do each day hasn’t decreased.  Most men in the village are still spending the better part of the day working in the fields and women are still cooking meals for those not fasting (children, pregnant women, the elderly, etc.), doing laundry, cleaning, and having to prepare food to be ready at the earliest possible moment for breaking the fast and dinner at night.   In general people are more tired and there is much less activity in my village.  I’ve been joining the fast for the days that I’ve been in village (though drinking water in private) and it is definitely exhausting.  

I’ve actually found that Ramadan has been a good time for certain types of work (despite my additional exhaustion). I was able to work up the motivation to start a compost pile in my backyard (to be used for future gardening activities).  Other work however probably needs to wait until Ramadan is over.  For example, a baby weighing that my community health worker planned for a few of the surrounding villages was poorly attended last week.  Don’t worry though, there were still a lot of mothers who came with their children.  I even got peed on while picking one baby up from the scale… 

This week, Ramadan ends and there is a large celebration called Korité.  I’ve also made plans with a few other volunteers for work projects.  I’ll be planting Moringa (a very fast growing tree that produces highly nutritious leaves) at a nearby health post and we’ll be setting up a booth in one of the local markets to talk to people about malaria and net care and repair.  

I’ll be in Kolda for about another week and a half before I go back to Thiès for another two weeks of training and a summit for all health volunteers.  I am excited to get the second part of my training because I think it will help me get a better idea of what’s possible over the next two years however I am really not excited about being away from my village for more than two weeks (or the 12 hour car ride between here and Thiès).  Either way, I should have more to report soon.  Happy Trails!