First off, sorry about the delay in posting. It’s been a busy, yet somehow uneventful few
weeks. Right after Ramadan ended, I made
my way back up to Thiès for the second half of my training. But the other new volunteers and I decided it
might be worth our time to leave a day or two early and take a slight detour in
Dakar. We were right. Twelve hours and
seven vehicles (including a boat) later we found ourselves practically a world
away in Senegal’s capital. Dakar has
very little in common with my village, and while it’s definitely not like being
back in America, it’s pretty darn close.
There are sit-down restaurants, high-class shopping, ice cream parlors,
and my personal favorite, American style grocery stores. Our excursion pretty much centered on food
cravings and planning our next “extravagant” meal. Highlights included bagels and lox, veggie
pizza, ice cream, and not a single bit of rice.
On the last day we visited Gorée Island, an historic slave trading
post.
Then, it was back to the training center in Thiès for an
intensive two weeks of technical training.
This included sessions on common malaria prevention activities, proper
cooking of nutritious porridges, and the ins and outs (literally) of building
latrines. The days were long but the
information was mostly useful and, as usual, it was great to see everyone from
my training group. By the end of
training, I was pretty eager to get back to site and start planning with my
counterparts but after spending time with all my friends again (not to mention
the air conditioning and nice showers) it was a little hard to pull myself away
from Thiès.
When we finally did get back to Kolda (a 14-hour trip this
time without a boat since we didn’t come through the Gambia) I got stuck for
another two days at the regional house.
Last year, the volunteers in Kolda planned a youth camp for middle
schoolers that took place in March. I
really want to be involved in next year’s camp so I volunteered to write the
grant. But this was a slightly rushed
process as the grant deadline was September 1st. I couldn’t start the grant until after
training, and as you may have noticed, internet is in short supply. After traveling to Bagadadji (another city in
Kolda) to meet the staff of the campsite where camp will take place, I could
hammer out a budget and got the grant submitted on time. Now I get to sit back and not think about
camp for another three months until the real fun will begin.
Life back in village has resumed its pre-Ramadan pace, so
there is still lots of free time. I
spend some time each day gardening (I’ve got basil, sweet potato, cucumber, and
squash started with tomato, lettuce, eggplant, and pepper on the way) and I
started practicing with the village soccer team every afternoon. I’m still abysmal at soccer but all the
running is a good workout and people here really get a kick out of it (pun
intended) when they see me try.
The talk of the town is that the forage (water tower), an
NGO project that was underway until they ran out of money, is being
resumed. Meaning, si Allah jabi (if God
agrees), in the next few months houses in the village will have taps of
running, safe, drinking water. Tied to
the forage is a plan to start a massive community garden. Gardens in the past have been relatively
unsuccessful because of high labor costs.
However, with the need to pull water from wells eliminated, hopefully
this time will be much different.
I think that catches us all up. Thanks for reading and I’ll update again as I
can. Happy Trails!
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