Frogs & Maps

The rainy season is drawing to a close, and the frogs and snails that appeared in drove when the rains started are beginning to disappear as well. The giant land snails are almost pretty, with their big, swirled, periwinkle-esque shells, but I didn't like them sliming around inside my hut. I wasn't a huge fan of frogs in my hut, either, but the smaller ones are kinda cute, and they eat centipedes (I think) and other creepier crawly things so I don't mind. I don't like the idea of the larger ones hopping up under my mosquito net at night, so I shoo them out. 

Froggie behind my clothes trunk.

I really like this map, it shows how Salémata is at the center of a bunch of smaller satellite villages. It makes Salémata feel like a bigger village than it is; people come from all around for the weekly market, and cars in to Kédougou (and anywhere else) all depart from Salémata's garage, which is really just a shady spot in the market where the guy who has the ticket book and keeps track of things hangs out. Kédougou is off to the right somewhere, and the Guinean border is just below the general Salémata area.

Map from the Health Center

Flashback: Site Assignments

I just came across these photos from our site assignments, during Pre-Service Training. They gave us blindfolds and had us line up...

... and then, while blindfolded, lead us out onto a giant map of Senegal, stood us each on our respective villages, and then told us all to take off our blindfolds at the same time, so we could see who our neighbors would be.

It was a fun, very summer-camp-ish way of going about the whole site announcement thing.

SALEMATA, KEDOUGOU! Alhamdelilaay...

We got our site announcements, and so after we swear in on May 13th I now know that I'll be headed to Salemata, in the southeastern region of Kédougou, where it is hot and green and pretty much everyone gets schistosomiasis at some point. (kidding! sortof...) My village, Salemata, is about 80 kilometers west of the main city of Kédougou, and I'm actually really happy about my posting; I've heard from very reliable sources that it's a beautiful site (the "prettiest site in Senegal," actually) and that the three nearby current volunteers are both good people and extremely funny, so that's good, too.

They let you know where you've been assigned by rounding up the entire stage (the word used for my training group, pronounced "stah-je," from the French) on the basketball court at the training center, where they've painted a giant map of Senegal. We're all blindfolded, spun around, and then walked over to where our sites will be. When everyone's in place, they tell everyone to take off their blindfolds and everyone looks around and either balks or gets all excited about their posting. Most people were pretty pleased, including me (I wound up pretty much exactly where I thought I'd be working, which was nice) and the whole thing was indeed filmed for Senegalese TV. I was interviewed (in French) about where I come from and the work I'll be doing, and if I can find a clip of that at some point I will post it for sure.

Next week we'll be doing Volunteer Visits in Kédougou, where we stay with current volunteers for a week, shadowing them and getting an idea of what our lives at site will be like.