December into March: I’ve been here a year!(?!?)

It’s official. I have been in Senegal for over a year now.  The language feels proficient and the hair is long enough to be put in a proper bun (albeit the language could be better and I could probably use a maintenance haircut haha). So much has happened in the last three months, where do I start….

Portugal (That's not Senegal...?):

In my last post, I left y’all mid-month after my training in Tambacounda and a last minute decision to spend the holidays in Portugal. If you did not read my thanksgiving catastrophe in the last blog post, I would implore you to do so; It’s a good laugh, but good reason to not want to spend the holidays at site.  Portugal has been on my list of places to go since study abroad in 2014, but I never had the time or money.  It was worth the wait. For any foodie and/or history buff, there is no shortage of fun.  Actually, for anyone there is something to do. Even the sidewalks are beautiful. Not being able to go home for the holidays for the first time, and in the wake of startling events back home, being able to brunch on Christmas morning with some of my closest Peace Corps friends (Greyce and Sophie) made all the difference.  The Senegalese euphemism for “are you having fun?” is “are you eating your money?/Yangui lekk sa xalis?”. We literally and metaphorically did that to the fullest: tacos, sushi, more tacos, vegan eats (for Greyce, but would go back), pho, Portuguese dishes, wine that doesn’t come out of a box, McDonalds lol, etc etc. And I guess we would drag our full stomachs to the beautiful sites as well. It helped with digestion before the next big indulge. It also just felt good to be cold again for the first time since we left the U.S. last February.  I have a lot more to say on this, but I digress. I will leave you with this: It is troubling to be across the world from the only people you want to see, on a day you couldn’t imagine without them… But I could not have asked for a better group of people spend my holidays with. Despite its challenges, this may have been one of my favorite Christmases yet. See pics.
New year's brought much of the same. It was not the typical "drinking High Lifes in Chicago with the guys and other usual suspects," but surrounded by a great group of Peace Corps friends.

Christmas Brunch

Parca do Comercio

Views from LxFactory

Working during the holidays?

With the craze of travel and the holidays came a heavy "work hard, play hard" mentality.  Being out of site so much meant every second in site mattered.  The health club was back in full swing after the students’ vacation. Side note: while most students are Muslim, they still get a Christmas break, perhaps because the school system is French based.  We hit on topics such as nutrition, maternal health, and malaria.  All these topics are very applicable to the health needs here. I challenge them to bring these lessons home to their families and implement them where possible.  Other fun projects have been when volunteers come together as a region to accomplish a greater goal. Within our region of Kaffrine, we have recently beautified the local library in Karina’s site, Birkelane, with murals of influential African figures, a world map, and more; we revisited Birkelane to celebrate International Women’s Day and inform people at the weekly market on the significance of the day and the significance of Women in Senegal; and lastly, we hosted the first ever Kaffrine Girls’ Camp – A monumentous feat for us that earned its own paragraph to follow.

Health Club: Hand Washing Lesson

Health Club: Nutrition Lesson

Girls Camp:

Girls’ Camps have been Peace Corps's vessel to empower young women in Senegal .  These camps are great with visible results, but they almost always focus on girls with good marks in school. Over the last year and a half, the volunteers of Kaffrine have been planning their very own regional camp, focusing on an often overlooked population: girls without a formal education. However, problem after problem plagued the region resulting in changing of the camp dates (more than once), loss of funding, and many moments where we thought "this is the end. This project is a failure."  One of those moments was last October in a work zone meeting. One of the co-camp directors had a site change to another region, in addition to the slew of other issues that weighed us down.  Instead of letting it die, I made my claim as to why this camp needed to go on and stepped up as co-camp director.  Not only did I believe in the benefit this would bring to the region, but it also became personal vendetta when my host sister was selected to attend. When she was selected, there was push back as she is the one who cooks all the meals for the family. However, my host mom put her foot down and said “she will not cook for the rest of her life, she can do more!" From then on, she would routinely ask when the camp was, and after we lost funding, all I could do was shrug. That’s when I made it point to do all I could to make this camp a reality.  Now we had momentum and motivation, but there was much left to do. What would ensue was months of constant troubleshooting, problem solving and networking alongside fellow camp director, Karina.  Even with our new momentum, there were several doubtful moments, but we pushed on, pooled our resources, called upon other regions, partnered with CDEPS, and did everything in our power to put all the pieces together because we believed in the impact that this camp could have.  We were "putting out fires" up until the day of the camp, but as camp began, I could feel a weight being lifted off my shoulders. There was always something that needed to be done, but we could finally see the fruits of our labor.  Every day, every hour, the camp got better and the girls became more comfortable.  More importantly, you could see them absorbing the lessons and smiling more each day. By the last day, the girls reflected upon their favorite lessons, things learned, and what they hoped to bring back to site. Seeing their joy and their personal empowerment made every bit of hardship so worth it.  Although Karina was not able to be at the camp as she extended into her third year position (congrats!), I could not have managed the camp without the work she had done up to that point, the inspiration she instilled in the group, and the motivation she provided me along the way.  Moreover, this camp would not have been successful without each and every volunteer that was there (the wisdom from the old stages, the energy of the new stages, etc.).  Everyone stepped up, pulled their weight and then some. Special shout out to Michele and Jess - activities coordinator and grant manager, respectively - for going above and beyond in every way. I would have been in shambles without them.

The Gainth Pathe Squad

Co-Facilitating a Lesson with Camille

Volunteers, monitirices (counselors), and the girls!

Gainth Pathe: Zair Mbao Sy

With work and play taking up a large part of this post, it’s important to revisit all the great things happening with the host fam and the people of Gainth Pathe.  First off, my favorite Senegalese has earned his front teeth and now baby Mohamed can stand on his own.  I’m putting in a lot of work with the hope that his first word is in English haha.  Moreover, the biggest thing to happen in Gainth Pathe this past year was the Ziar Mbao Sy - The celebration of the late great grandfather Mbao Sy (AKA an incredibly huge family reunion). Consisting of family from all over the country plus most of the town, 4 large event tents, easily over 100 chairs, the loudest rentable sound system in the region, all the prayer mats from the neighboring mosque, a whole cow AND goat, an additional compound used to cook the five incredible meals (lunch itself was 4 completely different dishes within itself), some of the most beautiful fabrics, all squeezed into the family compound. For a day and a half, every second was filled with food, religious lessons, and plenty of family time. It was such an amazing gathering full of good spirit.  The photos don’t do it justice, but here are a few to tease your imagination.

All that food!

The (Host) Bros

All the matching outfits!

February…

February could have been a blog post on its own: trying to keep up with the super bowl while several time zones away (I fell asleep), making time for Valentine’s Day on the beach before running the (half) Marathon International du Senegal, Girls’ Camp which you already read, showing off my site to Greyce for a few days, and returning to the training center to teach the NEW VOLUNTEERS!

For the runners out there: the half marathon was tough.  I put in a solid 6 month training cycle, hitting long runs and weekly workouts (usually), but most of the training was solo runs and in the sand or rough laterite roads. I was sick several days before the race, but felt fit by the morning of.  The "gun" (AKA a man yelling "Allez") popped off a half hour late and I ripped off the start line with the top guys.  I hung back a bit because I could feel them going out to hard - stupid fast - flexing for the crowd. However, despite my best efforts I still came through mile one at a 5:20 pace and was about twenty people back in a long string of runners.  We hit a half mile stretch of sand not too far into the race which recalibrated a lot of our paces and I found a comfort zone in the low 6’s. But I was in no man’s land. I was moving steady despite my left hamstring feeling like it was ready to go (it would comically cramp after the race while I tried to take a nap)… That was until we hit the sand on the way back.  Every step felt like I was moving backwards. After slushing through the deep sand, my last mile or so was a full two minutes slower than my first. It wasn’t pretty ha. I didn’t finish like I thought I would, but I was 14^th overall and finished in about 86 minutes (also worth noting, I was the first toubab haha).

I’ve had better race days, but what made this one so special was seeing all the Peace Corps Volunteers come together, many of which had been using my training plan and/or asking me for advice. After training alone for so many months, staying connected over whatsapp and uniting on race day was the team feeling I had desperately been missing for so long. I was so proud to see our ‘team’ accomplish their goals: running further than they could have imagined 6 months ago, running faster than they believed they could, or simply running at all. Shout out to all of you. And shout out to Dad for the impromtu shirts.

Lastly, I had the pleasure of hosting Greyce in Gainth Pathe. I do not get a lot of guests being in a village so far off the route national, so this was a treat for me and the people of Gainth Pathe.  Coming of girls camp, it was a rather chill trip, but it was fun to see how similar and different our sites are (it’s also important to acknowledge that comparing sites and services can be dangerous). It was decided Gainth, being so far away still has an great amount of resources and boutiques, not mention the impressive weekly market; my hut is definitely smaller than hers, but I call it homey; and while Gainth has a lot to offer, the 2.5 hour car out of site at dawn just to get to the road is much more difficult than most haha. Hi’s and lo’s, but it’s my home and I love it.  Amongst all the time spent meeting people and taking much needed rest, we also painted this mural: a quote that I’ve held close since the start of my service. Peep the picture below.

New Hut Mural

(Semi) Marathon International du Senegal

In other news:

I sailed for the first time! See Pic.

I applied and was accepted to the Peer Support Network (PSN). PSN is a group of volunteers trained in how to be a resource for other volunteers from simple things like Peace Corps policy questions to much larger things like mental health. I am happy to help my fellow volunteers and give back to a group that has been there for me!

The PSN Group

Sailing in Foundiougne: Pelicans

Sailing in Foundiougne

Looking forward:

Mom, Kev, and Auntie Lyn are visiting at the end of March!   I   c a n n o t   w a i t.

The health club has a few more meeting that I am really looking forward to. The students are really excited to present the lessons learned to their peers in the form of theater!

The Training of Trainers I mentioned in the last blog post is coming to fruition at my site. Inshallah, we’ll be teaching local health volunteers how to best present health lessons in the most tangible ways, while implementing an array of soft skills.

Corona virus is here in Senegal as well.  We only have 5 confirmed cases and they’ve all been quarantined and under control (I think).  Fingers crossed.

Ramadan is coming....