Girls Leadership Conference

I’m back down in Kedougou this week for a girls leadership conference that a few volunteers have organized. They invited 26 of the top female students from the area. They asked Awa Traore, one of the women I interviewed for my film, to run the conference. First off, Awa Traore is on e of the most passionate and dynamic speakers I’ve ever met. She works at the Peace Corps Training Center in Thies as the Cross-Culture trainer and as the SeneGAD (Gender and Development) advisor. For the past few years she has helped PCVs facilitate girls meetings and conferences focusing on some relatively taboo subjects like Aids, underage marriages, and rape as well as the softer topics like education, self-confidence, and independence. A few of us met with Awa last night to talk about the plan for the conference and it was classic Awa. She had a long list of issues she wanted to discuss with the girls and she noted our suggestions as well but told us that the sessions would inevitably be shaped by the dynamic of the group and the girls’ level of interest in the topics. She told us about her experience doing this in Tambacounda last year with a group of 30 girls where one of the girls told the group she had been raped. In Senegal, this speaking out about sexual abuses is extremely uncommon and is often considered culturally inappropriate. But these are the types of barriers that need to be brought up and discussed with the youth; with the future of this country. These girls are smart and motivated and capable but the system they are working in is flawed. Girls are supposed to go to school through sixth grade while learning how to cook and clean and then they should get married, drop out of school, and start having children. They should not stand up to men. They should be obedient and submissive. Awa has come to show these girls there’s another way. They can make decisions about their own lives; whether they want to get married at an early age or not, whether they want to quit school or not. And so this morning at 9am, the doors of the Peace Corps CTC (Community Training Center) in Kedougou opened up to the 26 girls invited to the conference. It’s incredible to see the change the girls go through from just one day of talking. In the morning, they were all so scared and timid but within a few hours of discussion and activities with Awa and the PCVs, they were pumped up and excited. You could literally see the empowerment happening. This girls leadership conference was an experience unlike any other I’ve ever had. To see these girls be so engaged and encouraged by such a wonderful role-model, you just wouldn’t believe it.

Kedougou, the 4th, and beyond…

Recently, I went down to Kedougou (on the boarder of Guinea) to the infamous annual 4th of July party. Some friends and I actually left a few days early and went for a bike ride out to a village called Segou. We arrived as the sun was setting and talked to the guys at the campament about staying the night. They told us that a few days before, the wind had taken off some of the hut roofs but if we wanted to we could still stay there. We put our bikes and bags away and walked to the stream just down the path. We all waded out into the water to rinse off and cool down. Some of our bike ride had been through the rain but by the time we got to Segou, the storm clouds had passed and the stars were out in full force. We all gathered around the two candles they gave us at the campament and made dinner… Avocados, canned lentils, limes, mustard, and mayonnaise on bread. And for desert we had peanut butter and mango jam sandwiches. So good. That night we all slept great and the next morning we headed out to the waterfalls. We biked about 30 minutes, then parked our bikes and started hiking. About 15 minutes in, there was this beautiful pool where we stopped and swam. We passed two more swimming holes on our way up to the falls. When we got to the falls, there was already another group of Peace Corps volunteers there. They had stayed at a different campament about 20k away. We all scaled the rock wall a few meters up and jumped into the deep pool below. It was incredible. Of course on our way out, as we were all drying off, we saw two water snakes on the rocks nearby.
The party itself was fun. A giant piñata full of pints of whisky, cigarettes, and candy. Horse shoes, bocce ball, and beer pong for the more athletic types. And fresh palm wine out in clay pots. The music was good (if only all the speakers worked). The food was great – vats of humus and babaganoush. The dance party wasn’t quite the sexual frenzy it had been the year before but it was still fun. I got a chance to stay in a hotel for the weekend and that was incredible. A giant hut with a shower, air-conditioning, a ceiling fan, comfortable clean beds… what more could you want. Oh, and there was a pool. So sweet.
These days I’m in Tambacounda working on my next film, “Tree Nurseries of the Sahel”. I’ve asked fellow PCV Caitlin Givens to come on as the producer. I’ve written a script and had it translated into French. I’ve drawn up the story boards and cut out and organized the collage materials. Caitlin is writing a proposal for a small grant from the US Embassy in Dakar to cover our costs and we are still looking for local music. I am also hoping to reach the artist in Dakar about doing some of the cell animation of trees growing. If all goes as planned, it will be done and on DVD by the time I leave.
Of course, I am also very excited about the arrival of two of my friends, Duncan and Sahil. They are coming at the end of the month and they’re staying for 3 weeks. I’m going to show them around Senegal, take them down to Kedougou, bring them to my village… I can’t wait. I haven’t left on vacation my whole service so I’m treating this trip as my vacation. Just traveling around, doing the tourist thing a little bit. I’m also interested to see their reactions to things I’ve become accustomed to. And as it turns out, I think I’ll be saying good bye to my village the days that Duncan and Sahil will be there. So that will definitely be interesting. Then, once they leave, I’ll be in Dakar for our COS (close of service) conference and then I’ll stay in Dakar to work on the tree nursery video for the month of September. Then, October 1st, I fly out – to Fatlanta – to my friends and family – to breakfast burritos and IBC root beer… Inchallah.

The Fabric of Amadara

It’s a hot world out here in the bush. The wind blows every now and then but when it does it brings lots of dust. Not just a little bit of dust to be rinsed off at my evening bucket bath but what would amount to be mountains of dust. This past month, that dust has crept into every crevice and nook available. And when there is liquid involved such as sweat or a cup of water left uncovered, well, you can start to collect your own little mountain of dust. A few days ago, my throat started feeling scratchy and in no time at all, I lost my voice completely. I was literally whispering greetings to my villagers as they looked at me with sympathetic eyes. I thought it was the cold that I’ve had for the past week and a half but my Tokara told me it was definitely the dust. And its crazy to see the dust funnels come sweeping through the village. Yesterday during my bucket bath I looked out over my grass fence and saw an enormous, well, what looked like a tornado. It was taller than the tallest mango trees and wider than a hut and it was moving so much dust around it was unbelievable. I watched as it moved down the main path in the village just beyond my backyard. It was picking up trash and leaves, even corn stalks. It went through a group of donkeys and they all started braying uncontrollably and eventually it spun down toward the river bed and outside of the village.
The wind does give a break from the sort of calm that usually persists. It adds excitement to an otherwise pretty boring environment and you can feel the electricity in the air. I’ve had some days recently where I would just sit in my hammock and let the wind storm blow all around me (I usually have to close my eyes though). But now I’m in Tambacounda, trying to get better. I’ve had headaches and body aches for the past week. And all of those kids constantly coming into my hut… well, I felt I earned a little time in front of a fan. We’re having a regional planning meeting this weekend to talk about region wide initiatives and projects in and around the city of Tambacounda itself. We had a neighborhood park clean up last month and it was a lot of fun. And I’m hoping to pass out a few trees this year to the compounds along our street (dirt path).
On Friday, my Agro-forestry boss is coming to see my tree nurseries so I’m going home after the meeting to get these last 200 cashew seeds in the ground. I’m having the farmers that want cashews either in their compounds or fields, dig the holes and prepare the soil. My counterpart told them that I would only give them seeds for the holes already dug. Hopefully my village will be full of half a meter in diameter holes when I get back. Inchalla I guess.
Also, I’m participating in a few meetings this week. A few of us from the Tambacounda region are meeting with Tostan’s volunteer coordinator to talk about what sort of collaborative projects are possible. Tostan (http://www.tostan.org/) is an NGO that works in rural education outreach by assigning a teacher for two years to each village they work with. The classes are held a few days a week (under the big mango tree in my village) and they teach Pulaar literacy, Senegalese civics, and health and hygiene practices. Then I’m meeting with a group of five pre-med students from the States that are in Senegal for a month to help out with mosquito net distribution, some primary care at a village hospital, and a new HIV testing center in Kedougou. They’ve just arrived in country and the med student they are being chaperoned by wanted us to speak to them about Senegal, the cultural do’s and don’ts, what our most common concerns are within the health field, and our ideas on improving the health issues like malaria and infant mortality in the bush. Then, in a few days I have another meeting, this time with the other volunteers from the Velingara area, a few people from Peace Corps Staff, and the head of World Vision in Velingara. Currently, Peace Corps Senegal is trying to make working contacts between volunteers and every major NGO in country. I think it’s a great idea and I can’t wait to see the results of these meetings. Hopefully it will help us as Peace Corps volunteers have more concrete plans of action and help the NGO’s in bringing their proposed projects to more remote villages. Of course, all of this is to help the Senegalese people. We are going to develop the shit out of this country.
Well, enjoy the summer in Amerik (or wherever you may be) and I’ll talk to you all soon. Ajarama e yeho e jam (Thanks and go in peace).

Elle Travaille, Elle Vit!

And it's over... The movie is done minus the subtitles - but I'm done. Feels good to save it for the last time. These past few weeks in Dakar have been great though. Seen a few concerts, caught an awesome contemparary art exhibit downtown, had lots of happy hours, found some hip shirts at the Fuggi Jai (the Shake and Sell market), even spent two free nights on the floor of L'Meridien thanks to a friend of a friend of a friend. I've been working at the US Embassy training the AV specialist on Final Cut Pro during the days and working at a local documentary filmmaker's house, Cheikh Darou Seck, at night.
Dakar is amazing and all but I’m glad to be back in Tambacounda. The slow pace of life and the big kitchen at the Peace Corps regional house – Yesterday I made a huge pot of veggie chili and then for dinner we did spring rolls with fresh mint and red beans. Incredible. Today I’m just doing some last minute interneting from looking at jobs on idealist.com to emailing my boss my quarterly report and vacation request forms. Its been probably 6 or 7 months since I’ve really spent a lot of time in my village what with the movie and all but now the rains have started and its time to put some trees in the ground. I talked to my family in the village and the boys, Ibou and Malick, have been watering the tree nursery every other day. I’m planning on giving those trees out mostly within my village but in another month or so, when the Forestry Dept here starts giving away trees, I’ll be showing up there with a donkey cart to bring more out to the neighboring villages. I’m excited about trees this year because I feel like I’ve learned so much from my mistakes last year; namely that I will have to make each farmer protect each tree they plant. And it looks like I only have about 4 months left in Senegal all together. I’m applying for a few jobs in Dakar but my guess is I’ll be home sooner rather than later. A lot of volunteers from my stage are planning on extending a third year either at their sites or in Dakar as admin assistants but my student loans are hovering over every decision I make about the immediate future. I’m trying not to spend my last few months in country thinking about being in America but its hard. Who doesn’t think about air-conditioning and ice when its 100 degrees day after day? I just don’t want to regret spending my last months thinking about the future when the present is so cool. I mean, I live and work in Africa. And not only that but I live in a small, remote village and I communicate with the villagers in their own language and I am doing good work that will hopefully have lasting effects. My life couldn’t be cooler right now (except in degrees celcius). I can’t wait for these next few months what with my vacation plans starting to take shape. Both Duncan and Sahil (my buddies from college) are planning to come out here. We’re thinking about either doing a big loop through Mali or heading up through Mauritania and Morocco. We’ll see. Ok, I’m off. Hope the all of you are doing well and I hope Obama wins. Peace and Lots of Love,
BP

Trees Please...

Over the past week or so my tree nursery has really started to come together; about 600 strong and growing. And now that I’ve relocated it to a more easily noticed place in the village I’ve been peaking lots of interest. Last year my backyard seemed like the most logical place to put my tree nursery but barely anyone came back to see it. I also worked on some larger seed beds in my family’s garden down by the river and even less people saw that. But over the past few months, my Tokara has been building a dead fence around a fairly large area right next to our compound. Eventually, he wants to be able to build a batiment (a building) for the whole family inside this new area. Of course, until then, he’s using this newly fenced off area to have a garden and tree nursery. Mangos, cashews, eucalyptus, shade trees, thorny trees, orange trees, jatropha, nebadaya… I’m hoping that within the next two weeks I’ll be able to put in at least five hundred more sacks. The proximity to a well is unbelievable. I bought a water bag, 10 meters of rope, and a pulley to do my daily watering. Before I was having to bike to the water pump, fill up a 20 liter jug and bike it back to my backyard twice every morning to water my tree nursery. Now it only takes me two minutes to fill a watering can and bring it to the nursery. I’ve got old mosquito nets up to protect the saplings from frogs and lizards and birds. I’m trying to promote using mosquito nets for the other farmers doing tree nurseries in their own compounds since they are relatively inexpensive (they are sold at cost) and they should be replacing them every year or two. We’ll see if it catches on. Primarily I’m working with the four schools in the neighboring villages this year. They all need more shade outside for the kids so I’ve sectioned off 100 tree sacks specifically for them. I’m also working on a giant wood-lot with a group of farmers from Nemetaba, the bigger village nearby. We are planning on out-planting 250 eucalyptus trees in a field just outside the village. Eucalyptus is great where I live because you don’t have to protect the baby trees once they’ve been out-planted. Nothing eats them. The only concern is that cows don’t trample on them. And my Tokara is really making out like a bandit on this one. I’m using his fenced off land as a model for live-fencing (Jatropha), intercropping, and grafting mangos for the whole village to see. I can only hope that after I leave, someone will plant a few trees next rainy season.
And this week I should have some extra help in the village. A study abroad student is coming to spend 5 days in my village. Last year I hosted two guys, both Jewish, both surfers, and both from places not necessarily known for having lots of Jews or surfers: Mexico and Vermont. It turned out great though. They were happy to get their hands dirty and being mango season and all, who wouldn’t have fun. And as much as I appreciate the beauty of the bush, its nice to be reminded of the beauty that is the village routine.
Ok, hope all is well Stateside. Happy Passover on 4/20 ya’ll.