Home Away From Home

When I walk from my hut to get water (or go to the boutique, or buy a bean sandwich) I usually walk through this field, next to the Sofidetex shed where they store cotton-related stuff, and, especially with the palm tree, the view always strikes me as being very Northern California-esque, like the foothills around Mount Hamilton. 

The North

To celebrate Thanksgiving I decided to make the trip up North, to Ndioum, where some volunteers were hosting a big Thanksgiving dinner.

It was quite a trek.

Along the way we noticed many things that were different up there - Meera and I made a list, actually.

Dinner was really impressive and overwhelmingly delicious and here is the Picasa album to prove it.

Hope you all had a very happy Thanksgiving, too! 

Mama's Baby

My host sister, Mariama Kesso, had a baby! The baby's name is Fatou Diaboula Diallo and she's a very healthy little girl. 

Because she's unmarried the baptism was low-key, but we still had a good time getting dressed up, drawing eyebrows in the baby, and taking photos of each other. 

Adama and Fatou

Kesso and the kids

Baby Mama

Awhile back I was telling someone how cute Saliou, their little boy, is and they exclaimed "You should marry him You think he's pretty! Marry him!" Because my Pullo Fuuta was still just barely functional I was slightly confused, and I guess it showed in my face, prompting my host sister to gently place a hand on my knee while telling me in an overly reassuring tone that they were, in fact, joking, and did not expect me to marry a baby.

Saliou and Sajou Ba, being serious.

Then, the other day, I was chatting with a neighbor, admiring her newborn baby girl, and she said "Oh, you think she's very pretty? Well, then she should marry your father! Because he's the chef du village! And then... she would be your mother! Come greet your baby-mother!" This was pretty funny for everyone except the baby, Kadjitou, who slept through the whole thing. I see them around my village, at the Health Center and in the weekly market, and the mom always calls out "Adama! Come greet your neene! Your neene is here!"

And so I do. 

The Lorax in Pullo-Fuuta

If you've ever wondered what it sounds like when people in my village talk, here's a reading of Dr. Seuss' classic The Lorax in Pullo Fuuta, translated and read by Ian Hartman (aka Mama Saliou Diallo). Before he COSed and went back to Amerik  last month as an RPCV Ian was one of my closest neighbors, and this version of The Lorax was one of the many pieces he did for for the Peace Corps radio show in Kédougou.

Bismillah!  

The Well Near My Hut: A Series

November 2011

August 2011

May 2011

On the Laterite Road

So, my toe scrape hewaled up quickly and nicely and this morning Little Jess, Tatiana, Jubal and I all biked in from Salémata and now I'm running around, getting my stuff together to head up North to celebrate Thanksgiving (and a couple birthdays) with some other PCVs.

I hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving! 

Village Etc

Yesterday I was (painfully) reminded that biking in flip-flops is a terrible idea. My foot slipped and I scraped my big toe, not very badly but I will be wearing shoes for awhile.

Now I'm headed back to Salémata, and will be back to town in a week or so, after my Action Plan community meeting is all done.

UPDATE: My toe is healing up very nicely. Again. 

Tabaski!

So it's Tabaski time in Senegal. that means that day before yesterday I gave my family a whole bunch of onions, Maggi bouillon, and vegetable oil, and spent the morning helping stir pots and chop things for yassa onion sauce.

The day started with my host brothers warming up the skin of the big drum that they used to call people to prayer at the mosque.

Everyone got dressed up in their newest, nicest, clothes, and much to everyone's great delight I wore a new complet, earrings, and a headband thing. I went to the mosque for the morning prayer, and even though I had to sit outside the mosque, with all the other women and children, it was really pleasant and nice to see people and greet everyone. People around here are observant but not particularly conservative, so it's a relaxed atmosphere and everyone was really warm and welcoming even though I was wearing nail polish, had no idea what was going on half the time, and am not Muslim.

Complets are neat-looking, but really hot and not super flattering. 

Mankaba and Sajou Ba and their shiny new clothes.

There aren't any horses in the southern part of Senegal (there are tse tse flies here and their bites are apparently lethal to horses) but there are cows, who stand in the middle of the road when there are cars coming, and donkeys, who usually hang out on the outskirts of the village, braying loudly and eating grass. Every once in awhile, though, they chase each other around and it's terrifying because they come tearing through the compound and everyone scatters to avoid being trampled. The donkeys were  out and about on Tabaski, so people kept an eye out, shooing them away so they wouldn't overturn all the cooking pots or run over anyone.

The most terrifying animal in Salémata.

Aside from the donkey excitement, it was a very mellow day. My family slaughtered a ram, which I thought would be messy but turned out to be shockingly quick, calm, and totally silent, and my host father, Sadat Souaré, portioned out piles of meat for the mosque, for elderly people in the neighborhood, and for lunch and dinner. It's impressive how every possible piece of the ram gets used.

Dividing up shares of meat.

I mostly hung out with my host sisters, watching them steam vermicelli ("cous cous Americain" as they call it) and slicing up onions and garlic, stirring pots, and keeping an eye out for marauding donkeys. There are usually between 20 and 30 people eating meals on my host family's compound, and almost everyone comes home for Tabaski so there are quite a few pots and bowls and fires and whatnot involved in holiday food prep.

After lunch we all put our fancy clothes back on, and I walked around the village, greeting people, being fed all sorts of little sandwiches and bon bons, and complimenting everyone on their lovely new complet outfits.

Bailo and Bineta chopping meat and peeling potatoes 

Host mom Mariama dishing up lunch.

Host sister Diabou smiling in her fancy new clothes.

Me (Adama) and host sister Mariama Gaulo

Host siblings Gaulo and Mamadou

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.

Village/Other People's Blogs

It's been a busy week or so, and now I''m headed back to village for a few days.

I'll be back next week to help welcome the new Agriculture PCVs when they arrive for Installs, but in the meantime if you want to read more I've added more links to my list of blogs written by PCVs in Senegal. 

Tamba-ween!

We all went to Tambacounda for Halloween, and the Tamba PCVs did an excellent job of decoarting and cooking for a crowd - there were impressive decorations and lots of treats, from chili, hummus, and cucumber salads to squash bread, cookies, and gissap. And of course, there were costumes:

After Halloween was over it was time to head back, so everyone going to Kédougou all piled clown-car style into a mini-bus and hit the road. In the Niokolo-Koba National Park we stopped for a minute to stretch our legs (one of the biggest mefloquine side effects is that your limbs fall asleep all the time) and were warned by the police to watch our bags because there monkeys that hang out and snatch things that people unattended.