Map of Senegal

After our World Map Mural went so well the director of the Primary School asked me to do another mural, an outdoor one, to beautify the school. Actually, he didn't really ask so much as declared, in a loud, jovial way, that I must come back and do another mural, as soon as possible. I agreed, got my paints together, gridded a little map of Senegal I had lying around, and got to work. 

I got this far in one afternoon, but the holes in the wall were a stumbling block. Fortunately, there were some Bassari guys doing a construction project at the school, putting a cement floor in a new classroom, and it was pretty easy to convince them to come put some extra cement in the wall. 

After the cement dried I used bits of leftover paint to smooth things over (and because it's fun to smush colors around) and then came back the next day to paint a background for the school title. I also touched up the places where some little kids had scribbled with charcoal and left dusty little hand-prints in the still-tacky paint. Ugh. Kids.

Most of the kids were pretty cute and extremely respectful, actually. They'd sit near me, asking questions, bickering with each other, or reading the names of each department aloud. There was one kid who greeted me and then sat in the shade, making little things out bits of trash and singing made-up songs using the text from the wrappers and tins he was playing with. (He was my favorite.) The morning after that I came back again to add text, a fancy ribbon, and general finishing touches. 

The director requested that I write "Discipline - Work - Success" across the bottom, and I obliged, even though it isn't the slogan I would have chosen for an elementary school. I might have gone with something like "Friendship! Learning! Dreams and Rainbows!" or something similarly American, but he's the director and he seems to care about improving the school. I also misspelled "Discipline" but realized it only a couple hours after I'd finished up, while jogging by to admire my own handiwork, so I'm pretty sure corrected it before anyone noticed. Success!

Spell-Checked.

“Oranges.” And bananas.

The word for “orange” in Pular is leemune (“lem-oon-eh’) and it’s orange season now. My host father has been going around in the afternoons, handing everyone a couple oranges, and I like them.

They’re green, even when they’re ripe, which is a little weird at first, and they’re not as sweet or seedless as the Navel oranges I grew up with in California, but it’s nice to have a little extra vitamin C and potassium (I’m fighting off the cold that has everyone and their baby sneezing all over the place) and they’re fun to peel. 

There are banana plantations around here, especially over the border in Guinea, and there have been bananas at the weekly lumo market for awhile now. They’re small and dingy, but they taste delicious and make me think of this thing Iheard on NPR awhile back. 

Things That Make Me Nervous

Now that the rainy season is long over and even the cold season is beginning to peter out and heat up, people are doing a lot of grass-clearing. These are photos from the lot next to the Regional House, and even though the fire was under control it made a snapping, crackling sound that kept me on edge until it went out. 

Some of it seems to be prescribed burning, and some of it is just to clear fields, and either way it creates lots of smoke. Sometimes it’s really hazy around town. 

On Beauty

I'm very clean and dress appropriately in village and all that, but I haven't really made many concessions to the Pular ideals of feminine beauty. I don't wear earrings often, and I never wear giant shiny dangling earrings. I don't braid my hair into interesting designs, I don't wear lots of bracelets or colorful skirts or have my gums tattooed black. My host family is really nice about this, and even though they're obviously thrilled when I dress up Senewgalese-style for holidays they've never pushed me to wear dresses or anything like that. 

So, partly because I knew they'd be super into it and partly because I'm totally curious about how it works, I said I wanted to do the henna-type thing that my host sisters like so much. They call it foudin or poudin, depending on who's doing it, and it turns out that the leaves it's made from grow all around my compound. 

First, we picked leaves and spread them out to dry int the sun for an afternoon. 

Once they were dry we pounded them in a big wooden mortal and pestle and then sifted the powder, re-pounding the bigger bits until we had a smooth, green, talcum-like dust.

Then we cut up some limes, which also grow nearby, and mixed in lime juice and water until we had a nice paste.

Then we got out the tape. I did my own taping and my host sisters were very impressed, so then I had to do their taping, too. The little baggies on the left are filled with mangiac, which looks like dirty rock salt and can be used to turn the orange of the foudin into a dark inky black.

After my designs were all taped in place Mariama Kesso helped my smear the paste on.

Then, once I was all covered in leaf paste they put plastic bags over my feet and told me not to walk around for a few hours.

Once the color had set I peeled and scraped the goo and tape off and let my prune-y orange feet dry out before rinsing them off with cool water. 

Everyone was happy. My host sisters were super pleased that I'd let them help me with something, we were all fascinated with how ridiculously orange the foudin looks on my pale, pale skin, and people liked that I was looking a (very) little bit more Senegalese.

Every single time I have gone outside someone stops me to tell me how pretty my feet look. people have been way nicer than usual (they're nice usually, but even nicer now) and a fruit seller lady in the market gave me a lime for free.

On the other hand, I can't shake the constant feeling that I'm wearing little nylon socklets, which is weird. 

Biking in to Town

Today my sitemate Little Jess and I biked from Salémata to the Regional House in Kédougou , about 80 kilometers/50 miles on a fairly terrible laterite road. My pants caught on my bike and ripped all the way across my upper upper thigh, Jess fell in a huge mud puddle and had to fish around in it for her flip flops, by noon it felt like we were on the sunny side of Mercury, and all we ate was Biskrem and bananas. 

Obviously, it was pretty fantastic, we're going to do it again soon. 

Yesterday was Tabaski (more on that when the photos upload) and we came in to Kédougou today for the day, to check mail, enjoy the Install Dinner for the new Agriculture/Forestry volunteers. We (Meera, really) cooked up a giant vat of delicious, delicious chili, it's going to be great.

Waterfall Tourney

A "tourney" is our anglicization of the French tournée, which, as you can prob'ly guess, means "tour." So, say, if some volunteers around going around to a group of villages giving Neem Cream demonstrations we'd call it a Neem Tourney.

The region of Kédougou is known for being lush and verdant, especially compared with the northern regions of Senegal, and also for having very pretty hills, rivers, and waterfalls. So, since it's been raining and the rivers are flowing, my friend Meera's been talking about going on a Waterfall Tourney. It was a fantastic idea, and so far I've seen four of the best waterfalls in the area.

Here they are, in order of lovely to loveliest:

Dindéfélo: The easiest hike in, but it was kinda cold, and there was a pretty big snake.

Mike, Patrick, Meghan, Jess A., Eric, and LaRocha

  

We we saw a snake and almost took off
but then realized it was already dead. 

Ségou: A big hike, but the hike is almost as nice as the waterfalls. And the campement is really nice.

The campement at Segou has a lovely view.

Me, Jess A., Eric, Meghan, & Tatiana

Pélal : And easy ride, a pretty short hike, lovely falls, and not one but two snakes. And they were alive. Yay for a good zoom. Fun times!

One of TWO snakes we saw here.

Patrick

Me and Tatiana

Ingoley: There was a lot of biking and some impressive river crossings, but it was definitely worth it! And no snakes.

Patrick & Kate

Ingoley!