Merry Happy!

Ahh, the holidays. We decided that last year's Christmas in Popenguine just really could not be topped, so we settled down for a pleasant, low-key Christmas and it has been very, very nice. We've been staying at my friends' place, where there are two cats, a washing machine, and a little Christmas tree decorated with small gourd ornaments. It's lovely. Marielle baked pumpkin muffins and Marie and Sarah L. just came over for Christmas breakfast. We're all up in Dakar to meet family and friends who are flying over to visit. At this point we're all counting down the hours and looking forward to (and fretting slightly about) showing our guests around and introducing our American families to our Senegalese ones. 

Merry Christmas from West Africa!

So, whether you celebrate Kwanzaa, Saturnalia, Yuletide, Christmas,  Hanukkah, Chrishaunakwanstice, or abstain entirely from all the of the many winter festivals that there are out there, I hope you're well and having a lovely day, wherever you are. 

Adios Amigos

When it comes to living in Senegal there are hard parts (e.g. the heat, the awful transport cars, the skinny skinny babies, the pockets of abject poverty, the unwanted marriage propositions, the complete lack of dental care...), there are nice parts (e.g. the wonderful host families, the chubby babies who try to steal my glasses, the total strangers who take us in and feed us just because we're there, the tailor who refuses to accept payment for fixing the holes in my pants, the beautiful waterfalls, overwhelmingly delicious holiday dinners, everyone's Halloween costumes, N'ice Cream...). And then there are sad parts (e.g. the good-byes).

The new stage of Health PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) are almost done with PST (Pre-Service Training), which means that the last stage of Health Volunteers has gone up to Dakar and COS-ed (Close-of-Service) and we miss them already. Especially these ones:

Frosting with Meera

Meera taught me everything I know about tailors in Kedougou, making pancakes at the Regional House and dancing like an old Bedik lady. We are an amazing food-making team and breakfast will not be the same without her. I took most of the clothes she left behind and pretty much plan on dressing up like her for the rest of my service. I'm currently wearing her pants. 

Laterite Spray-Tanning with Leah

One time Leah let me come to her doctor's appointment to get an x-ray looked at, just because I had nothing better to do that day and afterwards the doctor bought us both ice cream, which was awesome. Another time I completely covered her kitchen basket with pictures of babies, because she totally has Baby Fever. One of the most unexpectedly best times I've had in Senegal was on a bike trip when Kate's tire sheared open and we all spent the afternoon slogging through ridiculous mud fields and pushing our bikes across rivers. It could have been completely miserable, but because Leah was there it was hilarious and fun.

Hamburgaling with Eric

Ohhhh Eric! Whether we were taking imaginary vacations, making Joseph into a real person, watching tonic magically freeze, or trying to discretely mix Fant-angria in the back seat of a sept-place, we always had the best times and the funniest nonsense jokes. When I got really sick and completely fainted while coming out of the latrine Eric went into EMT mode, put me in a recovery position, cleaned up my scrapes, set up a straw system so that I didn't have to sit up to drink ORS, and pointed out that at least I fainted coming out of the latrine or things could have been a lot worse dignity-wise.  Fun Fact: Eric coined the term "John Boehner Laterite Road Tan."

On a side note, I can't help noticing that the John Boehner Laterite Road Tan makes my teeth look so pearly white. And also that I maybe should wear a different tank top sometimes. 

Vacation Leave

I'm currently on vacation and will be back in Senegal in April. In the meantime I'm enjoying all the fresh veggies, fancy cheese, and wonderful coffee that America has to offer. 

Joseph the Cat

This is Joseph, the Kédougou Regional House cat. 

He used to be Kate’s cat in village, but he made the move to the big city and (after an epic Dino Party) since then Kate has COSed¹ and gone back America. He’s chatty and slightly nuts and likes to sit at the table like a human person and sometimes comes and sleeps on my feet, which is adorable. 

He is INSANE about hard-boiled eggs. 

I really can’t exaggerate his egg-mania. (I feel like there should be a word for that.) He yowls if he sees them, comes running if he hears shells cracking, and rears up dancing on his hind legs if you’re dawdling while peeling one. Once you drop it (you have to drop it, he will tear into your fingers if they’re between him and an egg) he’ll latch on, growling like a ferocious little wildcat, and wolf it down as fast as his little jaws can demolish it.

¹Close-of-Service, when you do a mid-sized mountain of paperwork and they send you home.

Les Dakarois

After the  Health/EE Summit my friend Leah and I went up to Dakar and had a wonderful time visiting Rachel & Emily at their completely lovely home, which, coming from village, pretty much seemed like Hearst Castle to us.

(Rachel is going to make the best baby blankets.)

I took some photos out the window of our sept-place (the hearse-looking station wagons that have seven seats) to capture the stunning scenic beauty of the Dakar freeways. 

It was mostly partly finished houses and rubble piles and the occasional baobab, but also a surprising number of these bizarre billboards encouraging everyone to "Be clever like Leuk!" and get bank loans to buy Christmas/a fridge. Leuk is apparently the father of a family of rabbits with human bodies? 

Termite (In)Fest(Ation)



Hey, what are those funny little piles everywhere?

Are those leaves?

Oh. Yeah, those are bugs.

And they're everywhere.

For a couple days the Regional House was swarming with termites. They're harmless, and not really that gross, at least not until they start piling up in the shower, shedding their wings and piling up in the corners until you can't even see the floor. The only one who was happy to see the termites was Joseph, the cat, because he likes to eat them by the dozen, which is helpful but also a little disgusting to watch.

Care Package Paradise

This weekend I'm going to write a post all about In-Service Training and work stuff and what I've been up to and all that, but right now I just want to talk about some of the wonderful things that have arrived in the mail recently.
First, from my mom, this pink mini-sewing-kit egg, which came in a box filled with protein bars and postcards and whatnot.

Miniature Things That I Own 

Then, from my brother, a pound of Peet's coffee (Major Dickason's Roast, my favorite) and cat postcard, which I loved and used to make a new nametag for my basket in the Regional House kitchen hut. 

AND THEN this arrived via Diplomatic Pouch:

(My brother is the best brother.)

Dried fruit, BBQ sauce, iPod cord, chocolate chip cookie mix, OREOS, Ritter Dark with Hazlenuts, Toblerone, Tom's of Maine toothpaste, Hawaiian Punch (Juicy Red Flavor), dental floss, facewash... OH, and A NETBOOK. And an external hard drive. It was a little overwhelming, like Christmas and Easter and my birthday all at once.

So, now I have a computer again (and a battery, which arrived separately) and I'm super thrilled about it (even though Windows is ridiculous) and will be doing my best to catch up on e-mail and Facebook and all that.

The Cat in the Glasses

There is a very small, very thin, very pregnant orange tabby cat that lives around the Training Center. She's always coming in to loll around on the couches in the foyer and clamber around the buckets where we scrape the leftovers off our plates, teetering precariously while she reaches in after little bits of stewed meat and whatnot. She's a nice cat, and people like her.

Also, a whole lot of the people in my group of trainees (or stage, "stah-je") wear glasses, which is supposedly why our nickname among the current volunteers is the "Library Stage." (It also might be because a certain number of us are somewhat stodgy and bookish by Peace Corps standards, but officially it's the glasses thing.)
 
Anyway, earlier today someone said that they wanted to have stage t-shirts made, and that people should come up with ideas, and that is how I came to have the following conversation:


Cady, coming in & not seeing me at first: "Oh! Hey, whatcha up to?"

Me: " Oh! Hi! Just.... mmm... photoshopping glasses... on this cat picture... that I have."

Cady: "Oh. Wait, what?"

Me: "I'm, uh, photoshopping glasses. On this cat."

Please note the teeny tiny colored pencil set. It is my favorite thing. 

I explained about t-shirt thing and finished my photoshopping and then turned out the lights, put some paper over my screen, and used my laptop like a light table to trace the cat picture. I was in the middle of doing this when someone came in looking for something they'd left by my roommate's desk, and I got to have a whole other mildly awkward conversation about cats, glasses and Photoshop.