A huge thanks to those who donated to my "health hut" or talked about it with others! It was fully funded within a month and I am in Dakar picking up the check this week. Really exciting! I'll take pictures of the building process and post them when I can. From me and the village of Madina Guinguineo, THANK YOU!
The past few weeks have been a bit slow. Of course, part of that has been due to the fact that I have been waiting anxiously to hear that the money was sent from Peace Corps Washington here to Senegal. Harvest is totally done and it is strange to not have anyone go to the fields anymore. I think it was an okay year, although they say that there aren't many peanuts. It still blows my mind that we farm all of the food we eat for entire year (except for rice, which we eat once a day). Cotton was the only cash crop; depending on the quality our family will get $1,000-3,000, although some villages can't repay their loans for the cotton seeds and fertilizer.
I heard the Super Bowl still happened at home this year. Well, the Africa Cup of Nations was going on here! Unfortunately Egypt ending up winning the entire thing, and Senegal didn't do great. The entire country (and probably continent) was really into the games. My family, with money from brothers and sisters in France and Spain, is the new proud owner of a color television, run off of car batteries! All of the men in the village would crowd around it to watch the games every night. Pretty amazing to literally see 100-150 people watching one little TV, outside in our courtyard, as sheep, goats, donkeys, etc. were roaming around! TIA.
My closest Peace Corps neighbor, Josh, had his parents come visit the last two weeks, so I went with them to visit the Nikolo-koba National Park about 30 km south of my village. We stayed for two days and saw plenty of waterbuck, warthogs, hippos, crocodiles, baboons, and monkeys. Late the second night we also heard a lion. There aren't too many left (and no elephants). Thirty years ago, when the government declared the area a national park, they forced out the villages. (Half of the people who live in my village used to live in the park, so this affected quite a few people.) When people lived in the area, if someone wanted to go hunting, they had to ask permission from the chiefs. This was a way to keep the animal populations healthy. Once everyone was forced out, however, everyone took advantage and populations plummetted. Only recently have they been growing again. Interesting. As an aside, Josh and I had a great time speaking Jaxanke/Bambara to everyone who worked in the park. Usually when we leave our villages people speak Pulaar or Wolof, but this time we were around our "own." :-) Late the second night around the campfire, we got our new friends to share some traditional Bambara folklore. Sometimes it's good fun knowing the local language!
After the National Park, I continued with Josh and his parents up north, following the Senegal River around the border of Mauritania up to Saint Louis in the north-west corner of Senegal on the coast. It was apparently the first French settlement in Africa and the capital of French West Africa. A small little colonial town, it felt like we were far from Senegal. It even rained!
Yesterday I made it to Dakar. This weekend is WAIST, the West African International Softball Tournament, with ex-pats from across West Africa attending. Should be a good time! Afterward, we have a country-wide meeting with all the Peace Corps volunteers and our new director. It's great to be in Dakar with all its ammenities, but also a little overwhelming. I also feel like a tourist again; no one here speaks Bambara!
A huge thanks again for your support with the health hut! You have made a difference!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
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