65 Days Later...

Finally another blog post! It's been a while, the last one was in the beginning of July.

July and August were crazy, hectic months of training, travel and get togethers. After finishing all of that and arriving back in my village, I was greeted by... Ramadan! What is Ramadan? Every good Muslim wakes at 5 in the morning and eats a rice pudding like substance with fresh liquid yogurt poured all over it, drinks a liter or so of water, then go back to sleep. They again wake up and start fasting until the sun goes down at 7:30pm: not eating, drinking, smoking or chewing sticks (very popular here). I have chosen to try to not eat anything during the day but the water thing is just silly. I tried not drinking a few times to see what it felt like, and you just get dizzy and have less energy. Not for me! Haha.

What am I doin' in my vill? When I got back from my month long tracation (training and vacation! I just made that up!) I weeded my garden beds and my back yard. I've made a bunch more polypots (tree nursery sacks) from the loads of cow poop I had collected before the tracation. I still have a lot more manure, enough to make about 200 polypots. I've been trying to get my host father to let me borrow his donkey cart but he keeps ducking me. I'll ask if I can use his chartette puccu and he will, like, pretend he doesn't hear me? Or he doesn't understand. It's a very straight forward sentance:

Me: Can I use your donkey cart tomorrow?
H-Dad: Huh?
Me: I want to get sand tomorrow, but it's too heavy, I need your donkey cart. Can you let me borrow your donkey cart?
H-Dad: Bismillah, Bismillah!

Which means something specific in Arabic but contextually in this situation means "Yes I and god allow it to happen, go ahead!"

So he ducked me a few times, saying he had to go watch his cows or go to the fields. Then he sent one of my cousins to find the cart, and he came back saying "The cart wasn't there, I didn't find it."

Creating these polypots is part of my grand action plan. And here it is, abbreviated for your pleasure:

Create 250 polypots of different species of trees: My villagers and I will be creating polypots and seeding mostly cashews, Moringa (a sort of superfood), and other native fruit species. I've got an avocado tree growing in one of the pots! These trees will be outplanted around our village elementary school, Health Hut and the Hut of the Children, which are all adjacent to each other. Others will be planted in households, family gardens, and perhaps be used to create a community orchard. Fencing for either the whole school or for individual trees or orchard will be built, the choice depending on possible budgetary restrictions.

The Hut of the Children: An older, unused building that my village and I will beautify, paint educational murals in and post educational posters/pictures. I've already officially requested a Case des Tout Petits, or a Hut for Toddlers, be installed in this building. If this request is granted, space in the Hut will be used as the classroom and work areas necessary. The rest of the space in this building will be used as a sort of community meeting place. I will conduct my health/nutrition/enviro-oriented causeries (non-formal educational talks) in this building. There is a group of women in my village that have formed a commission for the nutrition of children, and they will be cooking around the Hut and storing foodstuffs inside.

Turning the school into an Eco School: Eco School is a name the UN thought up of for a school that meets certain credentials. To name a few, the school must have a fenced garden, a wall or fence surrounding the compound, a hand washing station, a system for trash management (burning, burying or carting off, unless you can think of something better), and the list goes on and on. Between October and November I will be submitting a grant application for the capital to help our school become an Eco School. The school director and I are currently drawing up the plans for what the school grounds will become. Both he and I are writing seperate grants, mine to Peace Corps and his to the Government of Senegal as well as to another NGO, World Vision.

September nutrition causeries: Another volunteer, my health counterpart and I are conducting causeries in my village showing women, mothers and expecting mothers how to make nutritious baby weaning food as well as nutritional porridge made from beans, bananas, peanut butter, Moringa leaves and powder, and whatever else is available.

There are a lot of other facets to this grand scheme, such as implementing and demonstrating appropriate agricultural techniques within the school compound (nursery management, gardening, live fencing, composting, double digging, etc.) and on crop fields owned by villagers who are willing to experiment with techniques like alley cropping, windbreaks or live fencing. Then there is gathering a group of kids into an English Club, and perhaps having them as the primary caretakers  of the school gardens. And on and on and on, the possibility for work is endless.

***

As of right now, I have started my baseline survey, going from compound to compound asking questions and collecting data about family size, health and hygiene practices, water and sanitation practices, among other subdivisions of health and environmental education/resource management. There are about 40 compounds in my village, so by the time I've finished I'll be able to send in my grant application in the end of October and already have outplanted a number of trees, maybe started painting the interior of the Children's Hut and done the nutrition causeries.

***

I've been reading a lot in my hut when I'm not surveying or taking care of my garden, or dreaming up plans or talking to villagers. I'm almost done with my second book by Tom Wolfe. This guy is so funny, so clever, he is now one of my favorite writers. I'm also continuing to try to understand quantum physics, astrophysics, metaphysics and the universe in general. That quest started years ago when I realized how strange and intangible consciousness is. I thought it so strange at the time that I started banging my head against the wall in frustration! If anyone has any book recommendations please give them to me, we have so many books in our libraries at each regional house, I'm bound to find the book.

***

I wanted to recount two stories of lovely and much welcomed encounters that I've experienced so far, but I think I'm going to save those for my next post.

Until next time!

Love,
Costa

My Garden!

No words in this one, just pictures..

Pictures!!

Here's my hut!

This is my host father's hut, and the shade structure we sit under to hang out:

Here's my garden 10 days ago, I have three beds now and the plants are bigger in this one:

Here are some of my sisters and brothers:

And here's my well!

Behind the well in the corner is where we are putting our village tree nursery.




Next post, pictures of my room! Once I clean it!

Gardening is easy with poop!

I just want to let everyone know that gardening is very easy! Especially if you put a lot of cow poop in your soil. I'm sure i'll run into myriad problems in the future but for now the garden bed I started two weeks ago, the one i started 1 week ago and my snall 13-sack tree nursery are all doing very well. When I have a better internet connection I'll post pictures but for now i'll just describe what I've been cultivating...

Bed 1: 30 Nebedie (Moringa) Trees, 7 Okra plants, 5 Cucumber plants, 10 Jaxatu Plants (Bitter Tomato), 10 Nave (like carrots but white?) Plants.

Bed 2: 4 Cucumber plants, lots of Carrots, Lettuce which I'll thin down to around 5, 2 Watermelon plants, and 3 Honeydew Melon plants

Bed 3 (not planted yet but dug and ready for seed): Garlic, Potatoes, Marigolds, Tomatoes, Basil and Parsley.

Tree Nursery 1: out of 13 sacks; 2 Acacia trees, 3 Cashew trees and 1 Neem tree have all sprouted.

Tree Nursery 2: out of 30 sacks; I've just planted all Cashews and 2 sacks I'm testing some Lemon seeds.


Gardening seems so scary at first but so far it's been so easy and very fun and relaxing. It also gives a great sense of accomplishment. When I get back to the states I will definitely garden, no matter where I live.

Yesterday I went to the city of Velingara and bought a kilo of cashew seeds from Eaux e Forets, the Forest police here in Senegal. It was 2 dollars, or 1000 CFA. If they have a good sprouting ratio I'll sell them to whomever wants to start a tree nursery of their own at the price I bought them: 20 seeds for 50CFA (10 cents or 2 lollipops, or 2 seasoning cubes (MSG!) which are essential to every dish here). If they care to buy the seeds, I'll collect the cow poop and sand they need and my host dad, the village chief, will give them the nylon tree sacks. I'll work with them to make the nursery so they learn how.

And in a year or three we will all have cashew apples and cashew nuts to eat and sell! Or lemons, or guava, or papaya...

Think -> Do -> Watch -> Do

I had two meetings since last we spoke. The first was a "causerie" on how to make Neem Lotion. Causerie is the made up French word we use for "how-to" or "show and tell" meetings. I invited everyone I could and people came, watched me make it, and now people want to make it themselves, with my help. The only problem is that no one has actually bought the 200CFA worth of soap and oil to make it yet. But si Allah jabbi (if god agrees) they will buy it and want to make it.

I don't know what to think about Neem Lotion, honestly. You apply it to your skin when the sun goes down, and mosquitoes don't bite you all night. But I don't use it, and they seem like they don't want to shell out the 40 cents to make a bucket full of it.

The second meeting I had was yesterday. I wanted to have another causerie on how to make a tree nursery. It took me a few minutes to show people how to mix cow poop and sand, and put it in a tree sack. Afterwords, I asked those who showed up -- mainly women -- "What would you like to do with the old health hut?" Niandouba, my village, has an old health building and a new one. The old one is not being used, and its just collecting pests and dust. After much deliberation most of which I couldn't understand, the women of the village have agreed to donate 500CFA, aka 1 dollar, aka 30 mangoes (a lot of money!), to turn the old health hut into a Hut for the Nutrition of the Children of Niandouba.

I hope that name sounds better in Pulaar, I kept saying I don't like the names we were making up so they finally rested on that because I got tired of expressing myself in a different language. I said "That name is long and not easy." And my counterpart answered "Yes, it's a strong name". We stared at each other for a few seconds and I gave up.

So I told them that I would help clean up the hut; sweep it with the help of the people of the village, and paint it with the help of the people of the village. And then, with the help of the people of the village, I would paint murals and decorate the place. My idea is to make it into a museum-like space, the walls glittered with murals, photos, paintings, etc. teaching people about nutrition, stories and pictures of people successful Senegalese people, environmental education, gender equality, health issues, etc.

My work is moving. I plan, I do, then I watch as other ideas are created and presented to me, then we all do it! I'm happy, but now more than ever I don't want to leave my village for someone's birthday or for some event, and now is when people are starting to invite me to different cities for birthday parties, and the Fourth of July is a big big deal for PC Senegal. I'll just have to make sure the ball continues to roll, even if I leave for a few days to see my friends.

Love you all, see you in my dreams!

Earth!

Total lunar eclipse! On Wednesday, the 15th, at around 7pm, I and my village will be enjoying a total lunar eclipse. Sorry western hemis-fools! I'm happy my friend whom I visited last week informed me of this, because the next time it will happen is in 3 years!

So telling people about the eclipse is fun with my limited Pulaar:

Me: "In three days, on June 15, you wont be able to see the moon at 7pm. The sun will be behind here, and the moon will be in front of here. The shadow... you won't be able to see the moon. You understand?"

Villager 1: "I understand a little"

Villager 2: "Yes, I understand"

I don't know the word for Earth. I asked my teacher a while ago during training, but he told me they don't have a word in Pulaar.

Okay thats the fun post, now for business. Western hemis-fools!

The Practicalities of My Job (Pt. 2)

Everything we do, and everything we plan to do, we try to do in a sustainable, replicable way. And we try very hard to not just aid the people we work with. If I buy a pot for the school, I will ask for money from the people of the village, the school, and if they can't pay for it in entirety I will get the rest of the money through a SPA Grant or a small project grant through the Peace Corps. I can also write a grant request and send it to any of the numerous NGOs that are all around me in Senegal. USAID and World Vision are the two prominent organizations around my village. Grants to some volunteers are the first place to go, to others they are the last and to some grants are viewed as completely unsustainable and not to be used.

Projects aren't all that we do here. Everyday we speak to the people around us about healthy living, for instance. Yesterday I went to the Health Post with another volunteer and taught the doctor and his family how to make lekki bowdi or Anti-mosquito cream. There is a tree, the Newakim tree or Neem tree, that is everywhere in senegal, including the bunch 100 feet from my backyard. Boiling two handfuls of Neem leaves in water releases a potent anti-insect chemical, and when the Neem water is mixed with a shaved bar of soap and a bit of oil, a creamy lotion is created that when applied to your skin wards off insects. We make this specifically to ward off mosquitoes, and even more specifically mosquitoes that carry malaria

I've invited people to the health worker's house in my village for the same lesson tomorrow. But it's true that everything is give and take. The anecdotes I've heard about teaching how to make "Neem Cream" tell of villagers that don't want to make it, or want you to make it for them, or they say they want to make it but never buy the materials for it (soap and a little oil, around 200 CFA (the cost of 8 small bags of peanuts, or 4 lollipops, or almost a pack of Ronson Cigarettes which everyone in my village smokes, or 40 cents but that one's neither here nor there)).

My method will be I'll make it and let people apply it to their skin, then I will take the rest for myself and my family. If anyone wants to make it I will be more than happy to visit their home and help them, but they need to buy the materials. Some volunteers sell it, at 25 or 50 CFA a bag, from a recipe that makes around 30 bags. Villagers could sell it as well, and you could make a killing... saving lives! Hah.