Hello everyone! I am now officially 18 months into my Peace Corps service! Where has the time gone? I can barely believe that in a little over six months I will be leaving Senegal. Hard to believe.
In true Sahel spirit, these last six months will be incredibly hot. The forecast above was on the France 24 cable news channel for Fatick. It feels hot, but I am still sleeping under a blanket at night, and some nights I even need to get under a blanket. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think it is still pleasant. We'll see how I feel in a couple months when the hot, dry, sandy season really picks up. Below are some updates of my time and work in the last couple months.
WAIST (West African Invitational Softball Tournament)
Once again this year the WAIST was held in Dakar and it was a lot of fun! One big difference this year was that before the games started we had an All-Volunteer Conference with people from all over West Africa. It was great to meet people from Niger, Mali, Gambia, Togo, etc and hear about their incredible projects! It is incredible how similar our experiences are and yet so unbelievably different! After the conference there is a full week of ex-pat activities in Dakar that are hosted from a variety of institutions. The US marines posted in Dakar hosted a big party at their “house” (it is more of a mansion) with real american hot dogs and beer! The International School hosted a banquet with an Indian food buffet. Besides the night time activities there are softball games all day with various teams. I was on the Kaolack Regional team and our theme was lumberjacks. SO we all wore flannel shirts and suspenders. Other teams had themes like cowboys, pirates, and cavemen. It is more of a big costume party than a serious tournament. I think calling it fun is an understatement.
Mangroves (Foundgioune, Sokone, Toubakouta)
Seeking some relief from the heat in the last month I went to a few of the popular tourist spots close to Fatick for some swimming among the mangroves. I went to Toubakouta and Sokone to visit my friend Candice and Calen at their sites. I always enjoy seing what other volunteers do and it helps that they live only a few kilometers from a pool! I did some soaking in a nice cool pool, had a chilled Coca-Cola and came back to Fatick.
I also biked to the port of Foundgioune (about 25 km from Fatick). The town has a really interesting history and was one of the capitals of the Serere kingdom centuries ago. As the Germans were advancing on Paris and the Vichy government was being formed, the very nervous French government decided to find a safe hiding place for all of its gold. Since Europe was too vulnerable they chose a hidden nook in the large expanse of French West Africa. To this day there are huge colonial warehouses, old cannons, and some military equipment that was abandoned. Although still over 100 km away from the Atlantic Ocean, Foundgioune is nestled among the network of rivers, mud, salt and mangroves that is the Sine-Saloum delta. Only the French colonial administration had navegable maps, so they safely kept their gold throughout the war. It is always interesting to think about how WWII really was a global war.
Getting work done...
Seeing that the hot season has not started and the peanut harvest is all in, people are finally able to sit down and talk about doing some work and interesting projects. Here is a run down of what has been keeping me busy and what will keep me busy.
Theater Troupe- For the past six months I have been working with a small troupe of perfomers from the village of Dassalame Serere (neat Toubakouta) to put together a set of skits to be performed at middle schools throughout the region of Fatick. The funding from USAID just came in, so in the next few months they will be visiting 5 schools in 5 cities performing on sexual health, home economics, and environmental protection. I look forward to seeing these skits performed!
SENEGAD girls' scholarship- I just finished giving out the Senegal Gender and Development scholarship to the three lucky winners in Fatick.
Community Gardens- A recent study by the Finnish government revealed that there is a deep water table here in Fatick that is desalinated. This is great news! A community group I have worked extensively with is preparing to start a garden and we have done a feasibility study that has been sent out to a number of NGOs to get funding for a well. The well will be used to nourish a garden in the heart of the city. There has not been a garden here since the 70s! We are working with the Finns so ensure that we are not depleting this valuable water source and I am currently looking for funding sources to build a large water reservoir so that there can be large scale gardens here.
Innovative fruit drying- There is a type of fruit here in Senegal called Ditax. It has a hard brownish shell and a fibrous green interior. The best way to describe it is a prehistoric kiwi. This fruit is extremely popular and tasty but is only available during its extremely short season in October. I have challenged a group of women juice makers to come up with creative ways to dry the ditax so it can be saved for months. Normal fruit driers don't work because of the consistency of the fruit; it rots much quicker than mangoes or coconut. Because the fruit is so specific to Senegal it needs an equally specific solution. I am excited to see what comes of this!
My sister Andrea took some great pictures while she was here with my parents and you can see all her pictures at this link. Enjoy!
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