I stole your weave...

Hello all! I apologize for not blogging the past few months. I have been spending a lot of time putting together private emails and writing personal letters, and have neglected the public forum. Shame on me! Anyway, I am back with a newfound urge to blog.

Things have been very very crazy up north! Nic and I have begun working with the Yaajeende program, a program in a handful of regions in Senegal, sponsored by the US government, and with a focus on Pulaar speakers in Senegal (and Pulaar is of course our specialty!). The program has several pillars which align perfectly with our work in the Peace Corps, specifically, animal husbandry, infant and maternal health, and agriculture. The animal husbandry portion of the program is very much needed in this region, and the program itself is based on the Heifer model (see www.heifer.org for more information). In fact, USAID and Heifer are working together on this particular project. Owning animals, especially large ones like cows and lots of them, is a huge status symbol. Animals = $$$$. People often just let them roam around the area, and these large herds of sheep, goats, and cows, sometimes unattended, eat gardens, destroy grain crops, and annihilate low to the ground or young trees. One of the benefits of the Heifer model is that the donation of an animal includes education- what are sustainable ways to manage your animals? How can what is typically considered to be an animal waste be used to improve one's way of living? How can you transform something that is detrimental to the already-eroded soil and degraded environment into something that improves soil quality? The work isn't easy, but the transformation is possible. Teaching people how to properly manage those herds of cows, goats, and sheep is a necessary step in the right direction towards a healthier, greener (literally
- it's all sand out here) landscape. It doesn't matter how many gardens are planted if every fence is trampled and every little sprout eaten by a hungry herd of zebus. Education is key!



(Exhibit A: Adorable but deadly baby zebu cow. This little creature will soon grow into a crop killer worse than any cloud of locusts!)

We've also had some great, as well as difficult, interactions in our home and with our host family and friends. One of my earliest memories of arriving in site was one day when I was playing with my host sister and her friend, who is around 4 years old (parents in general aren't fully aware of their children's ages, nor their own. Oftentimes you will get an estimate of the age of a child when you ask the child or the parent, and sometimes they will give you different answers. This can be tricky!). The small children in the area have oftentimes never seen a white person before, and have no shame about pulling my hair, tugging my skin, sticking their faces on my chest and inhaling- imagine how a small child treats a new stuffed animal- and that day was no exception. The girl was pulling my hair, brushing it around with her fingers, picking it with a stick, and yelling something at me. "Mes maa yodaani! Mes maa yodaani!"

After a few seconds of processing, I realized she was yelling: "Your weave is ugly! Your weave is ugly!" (Mes being the word typically used for fake hair, wigs, or weaves). Not only did this little girl think my hair was fake, she thought it was ugly!

(Exhibit B: How small Senegalese girls perceive my appearance. Actually, my hair has been falling out recently. Really need to keep on the vitamins. )

Fast forward a few months. It's boiling hot outside and water for luxurious hair washing is hard to come by where we are, so I decide to cut off my ponytail. I have used hair in gardens and in potted plants before, so as gross as it may sound, I decided to put my ponytail in our back window to eventually put in a garden. Not too much later, I noticed it was gone from the window. I had assumed Nic had thrown it out, a very reasonable thing to do to with a dusty old ponytail. I went outside to watch the sky- it looked like a sandstorm was coming- and was approached by one of the neighborhood girls that hangs out at our house. She starts talking about my weave. She pulls at my hair, and I tell her, no, no, that's my hair, that's not a weave! And then she explains that she stole my weave. "What?" "I stole your weave! Your weave!" She makes a ponytails with her hands, and it clicks. She stole my ponytail from the window! ...and now I am so sure it is being woven into the hair of small girls all over the neighborhood...

Either way around, I have been weighing lots of babies lately! One of the best parts of it is seeing mothers giggle when their babies are being weighed, but one of the scariest parts is weighing babies that are severely underweight and feeling helpless to do anything about it. One of the babies that I weighed was 2.9 kilos, or a little over 6 pounds, and several months old. TOO. SMALL. It's heartbreaking. But the doctor, the midwives, and the pharmacist that are around do a great job of providing individual consultations for each mother and baby, and exclusive breastfeeding are mentioned for the first 6 months without even a deep breath being taken. Mothers want healthy babies, and the health staff that I work with wants healthy patients, so it works out.

I also got to experience the crazyness that is a healthpost childbirth. I was with two midwives in Agnam Goly, a neighboring village that is about 3 k, or a 45 minute walk if you're in a fancy skirt. Which I was. Anyway, after a day of evaluating the post, watching the flow of people, and finally sitting down to some tea, the midwives pulled me into the back room to watch them deliver a tiny baby girl (3 kilos, newborn and bigger than the baby I weighed at the health center. :( ). It was in some ways a great experience. I was proud of the new mother, the baby seemed healthy, and things went as well as they could. I was shocked, however, by the lack of supplies. This health post was cleaner and nicer than home delivery, but there was only one clamp for the umbilical cord, dirty old foam mattresses with no sheets or pillows for the new mother to rest on, and when a hole was broken in one of the midwife's gloves, she just tied the hole with a piece from an old pair of gloves. Supplies are very limited, the rooms are dusty and dingy, and pieces of surgical equipment that we just use once and throw away in the states are boiled or bleached and used again and again and again. I feel that these midwives are competent and did a good job with the supplies that they have. I also feel that the system is broken if well-trained health care workers have to provide care with substandard, broken, dirty, or nonexistent supplies. The people that I know are well aware of the shortcomings of the system as well. They tell me that they need new this, new that, and show off the various countries that have donated medicines or supplies (this antibiotic is from France! Germany! Belgium!), and at the same time acknowledge that there simply isn't enough money in the local system to replace what gets old and to buy what needs buying. I don't think throwing more money into the system from outside will help it, but I'm not sure what will either.

Oh yeah! And there was a wedding at the village chief's house! Good times. I will post pictures on my Facebook for interested folks.

Have a great one, everybody!

Long lost update

Hello! Nic and I have been installed in our permanent site of Agnam Thiodaye and life is good! We just got our own house a few days ago (unfortunately, they did not have a house for us when we arrived,so we were living at the health post with my counterpart). It was definitely interesting seeing people come and go at the health post, and it's interesting how different the concepts of privacy and medicine are. People would just show up at all hours of the day and night and ask for the doctor, and would sit and wait for him, even if he wasn't even in town. Either way around, our new house is nice, has two rooms and a small porch area. We've started to lay the foundations for our work and have been working on our language.
Nic and I just finished our language seminar in Kassak Nord, a beautiful green area on the opposite side of the country from where we live, the dry and brown Agnam Thiodaye which desperately needs a water tower. We spent the week in class learning all sorts of new vocabulary, and correcting the vocabulary that we thought we did know. There are many words here which sound very very close to each other but have different meanings that it's been pretty difficult adapting my ear to, but it's coming. For example: daanaade is to sleep, but dannaade is to travel. Luubde is to smell bad, but lubde is to lend. To the untrained ear (i.e. mine), they sound identical. The doubling of vowels doesn't change the sound, it just means you say the sound a little bit longer. One word that really caught me up was hebde, which means (drum roll please) to get.
Now, imagine this: a young foreigner comes into your town, school, and health post and proclaims proudly that she wants to help the people in your community get malaria. Wait, what? Oh, that's right... hAbde is to prevent! I told my entire town, with full confidence, that I will help them get malaria. I imagine by now they've set up the road block and are all on the look out for the foreigner who is going to come in and cut holes in their mosquito nets and leave vats of open water sitting around, not to mention hiding all of the malaria medication and burn down all the NEEM trees. Oi, vey. The pitfalls of language learning!
Right now we are in San Louis enjoying a luxurious day off after spending a very long time in our village. In Agnam, I've started attending elementary school for the purpose of learning French and mastering the French number system (one year of French was NOT enough, but I've got plenty of time to study and Nic is very helpful and patient with me). It's been an awesome time because the school was not assigned a volunteer, so there wasn't any pressure to work, and now every elementary school kid in town knows who I am. I will walk down the road and there is a chorus of Aisata Kane! Aisata Kane! (my new name). Because the school was so generous with their time and welcomed me to their school, I talked to the director and set it up so that when the fall comes I will be finding a work partner and working at the school. I wrote up an action plan and talked it over with the director, who was very receptive to gardening, murals, and clubs, and whenever we get back to site on Monday I will be going to talk to him again to finalize some details. I explained that right now I need to really focus on language learning (I think that part was probably obvious once he heard my French and Pulaar) but that when school starts if the staff is willing to work with me I'd be very willing to help start student groups, clubs, and teach about moringa, gardening, and sanitation. I'm so excited. My job is becoming more clear to me and I am more pumped every day about spending time at the health post and working with the elementary school. In my eyes, preventative health is very important for children as they are a very vulnerable group. A sick child cannot force a parent to take them to the doctor, but a healthy child can take the initiative to wash his/her hands, eat well, and avoid unhealthy habits. Nic and I have also talked over the possibility of doing health and environment themed radio programs on the local station, a prospect I am particularly excited about. I talked to the director at the school about having a student club (like a radio club) that would work together to write skits that could be recorded and played over the local station. Volunteers have done this in the past and apparently they have been very successful. Just have to wait until October and see if there is a group of students and a supportive teacher that are willing to work with me on this project.
In the meantime, our in-service training is coming up, which means that I get to spend sometime learning additional technical skills that are particularly relevant to my site and the needs of my site. It's been difficult adjusting as it's currently the hot season and we spend an insane amount of time sweating like crazy. I drink at least 5 liters of water most days and still sometimes go to bed feeling dehydrated. This, however, hasn't kept Nic and I from evaluating our surroundings and finding out our community's needs. We still have lots to learn, don't get me wrong, but I at least think we've got something to get the ball rolling.
Our 4th of July celebration is coming up and it is taking place in a very beautiful part of the country. Rumor has it that it is a land of waterfalls and forests, which sounds like a paradise as a citizen of the land of thorns and scorpions. Speaking of scorpions, I had one run up my dress and sting my three times. The stupid thing was maybe 4 inches long, sandy colored, and had big claws, and those stings hurt like H*ll, but the best part was that I panicked, my host family panicked, and I got to experience a bit of the Senegalese health care system. They took me to the health post where my counterpart (the head doctor at the health post) wanted to inject me with Novocaine in the right breast! Of course, I didn't let him (that sounded worse than dealing with the stings), but until that moment I hadn't realized how easy it was to get access to any sort of drug that I might want. At pharmacies you literally just go to the pharmacist and tell him or her what you want and most of the time you just get it. Regulations are lax at best. I don't have any inclination to hang out at the pharmacy, but it's a very different approach from the American-style have-to-sign-for-and-show-id-for-decongestant pharmacist. Our health post is actually in pretty good shape, and people definitely come to the health post with problems. One thing that observing the health post has made me realize is that a basic first aid class would go a very long way in my community. Yes, people do come to the health post for very valid reasons, but sometimes people come with simple cuts and burns that they could take care of themselves at home if somebody showed them how to do it. Infection prevention could also go a long way here, and teaching people methods of sterilizing and cleaning cloth used to cover wounds and proper care of minor injuries could go miles, and potentially relax the work load on the employees at the health post. I am going to be working on my vocabulary for the next few months and talk to some folks about the prospect of teaching a basic first aid class, and perhaps I can pull in some of the health workers in my community to really make sure I am teaching things clearly and properly. The future is formulating.
Being a health volunteer is going to be rewarding in a way that being an English teacher in Kyrgyzstan was not going to be for me. Being a teacher can be very rewarding, but I find this job a much better suit for me in terms of both personal interest and meaningfulness. Certain people are better suited for certain jobs, and this one is a perfect match for me. One of the best mornings I've had in a while was when I woke up early and headed to the health post- rumor had it vaccinations were that day, so I went to check it out. It turns out that while they were not doing vaccinations, they were doing deworming and providing vitamin supplements to the community. The staff broke up into several groups and each of these groups went into the village and provided children within a certain age range with a liquid vitamin A drop (vit. A deficiency is a big problem here) and a dewormer. I went with two staff members into the community and went to about 30 houses and gave supplements to over 100 kids, and it felt wonderful. I got to meet families that I hadn't met before, and it felt good to meet people and show that I was there to help and provide assistance. The staff I went with let me administer the drops which I really appreciated, and I got a much better perspective of the malnutrition issues that exist in my community. At the elementary school, I see mainly healthy kids whose parents have the resources to send their children to school. Sure, there are exceptions, and there are definitely malnourished kids in the schools too. However, the children that need the most outreach are the ones that are the hardest to find: they don't go to school, that stay at home, that are too sick to be in public, etc. At times I question what, if anything, I can do to serve these communities as I am not a doctor, but, when I am feeling good, I can remind myself that simply inspiring a parent to take their sick child to the health post or cook healthier meals with higher nutrient content, or even teaching someone how to make oral re-hydration fluid, can make a world of difference to one person. It's a small step but hopefully a step in the right direction. It's been said about peace corps volunteers that the biggest impact they may have in their community may be the most subtle one, and I can definitely believe that. I have no idea what an impact I will really have in the long run, if I have one at all, but we'll see, we'll see. In the end, in some ways these projects are not my projects, but instead the community's projects, and I am merely the liaison. We will see what the future holds.

Friday

Hello all! Today is Friday, a holy day, and our Peace Corps trainers are looking their best in their traditional clothing. Today we (the trainees) had our cultural fair and it was amazing. We were introduced to everything from proper eating and drinking etiquette to how to clean yourself without toilet paper *ahem*. The trainees were first split into six groups, and we rotated through six different stations. Each station had a theme and the trainees were guided through that theme by current volunteers and natives of Senegal. My favorite stations were the ones about Senegalese food and unique Senegalese cultural items, because at these stations I got to taste, touch, smell, try, and drink a variety of new things. I chewed a cola nut (origionally found in coca cola!) and used a tooth stick. I drank baobab juice and ate baobab fruit, as well as drank ginger juice, Touba cafe, and a traditional tea. One of the great things about this cultural fair is that I can try things in a safe environment where I can communiate effectively if any problems were to arise. If I have a bad reaction to something new, I can communicate immediately in English that I am having a negative reaction that needs addressing. If I have a bad reaction to a food or drink within the context of my future host family, I unfortunately do not have the language skills yet to effectively communicate anything other than I feel sick and need to call the Peace Corps doctor. Don't get me wrong- this is sufficient in most situations and being with a host family is 99% positive, but Culture fair was definitely a perfect opportunity to try and learn plenty of new things.

The trainees will probably learn what language they are learning and what their language group is either tomorrow or the next day. I'm pumped about this. I don't think there are any "bad" languages to learn. They all seem really cool and beautiful and the ability to speak any of them opens up doors to entirely new aspects of Senegalese culture. The groups are pretty small,
3-4 maximum, and should in theory accommodate a variety of learning styles. I will have plenty of opportunities after class to practice new things learned with my host family, in the market, with my neighbors, with children, etc etc. This time around, I feel much more confident. During PST in Kyrgyzstan I felt very insecure about my ability to learn a third language and my progress as a volunteer trainee. Now, I feel much more relaxed about language learning and am more willing to let it come to me informally. It is not a waste of time to sit under a tree and drink tea and chew sticks and listen to the radio- in fact, this will be how the best language learning will happen.

Everyone has started taking their malaria medications, myself included. While in the United States I dreaded the possibility of taking malaria meds and all of their wild sounding side effects, but now that I am in Senegal and see just how many mosquitoes their are around here, I am relieved to have the malaria meds. I couldn't wait to start taking them. I do not want to get
malaria under any circumstances and plan to be a very faithful malaria medication taker. One great thing that I did not realize while I was in the states is that if I have any bad side effects with a malaria medication that I am on, the Peace Corps medical officers can switch me to a different medicine. Before I was in country, I was afraid that I would be stuck with side effects if I had them. Now I am aware that I have options, and a few of them. Peace Corps medical has our backs.


Well, that's all for now. Still no pictures. I will get around to taking them, I promise, but now isn't the right time. In the meantime, happy reading!

In SENEGAL!

Hey everyone, and welcome to this Senegalese life. I'm your host, Ivy Glass, and today we will be bringing you stories from men and women born in all corners of the United States, and brought here, to Senegal, to live and work in a culture new to them.

One of these stories is mine.

So I've been in Senegal for almost 30 hours now, and it has been wonderful. The flight felt very long, but I got to watch Over the Hedge in French, and finally got to see The King's Speech, which was awesome. The plane was huge- at least 74 rows, and I'm not sure how many more. We flew in to very early morning, and immediately after getting off of the plane, we got on a bus to Thies, where we are training. The bus ride was beautiful and the sun was coming up as we traveled to our training center. The longer we were riding, the more the surrounding areas woke up- we saw people traveling with cart and horse/donkey, chickens pecking around, herds of goats and sheep, people at market, and cars full of baguettes parked on the side of the road. Yep, cars. We arrived exhausted from the trip but the general feel was excitement and satisfaction.

The training center is a small enclosed area with several dorms and offices where volunteers have showers, rooms, beds, and wireless internet (but having the time to use it, and whether or not it is working on your computer, is a different story), so I will have internet at least for the next two or three days. We are only at the center until we get our host families, which will happen soon. The area is generally sandy, with banana, mango, and yet-to-be-identified trees growing everywhere. Pink and purple flowers surround the area and top the clay-colored walls that enclose the center. Nic and I are staying in a room with two beds with wax fabric sheets and mosquito nets. Our walls our yellow, During the day it is quite warm, but at night it cools off, and it's the type of cool where you sleep perfectly with just a sheet. I brought a pillow but don't need it at the training center. I'm sure it will come in handy sooner or later.

The food here at the center is awesome. For breakfast we have baguettes with chocomousse, peanut butter, butter, and jam. Every morning there are just giant bowls of baguette and you spread your spread of choice. Typically breakfast comes with tea or nescafe. I've been going for the nescafe. The tea is a basic black, Nic's drink of choice. Lunch has been a big bowl of rice with some form of meat and sauce. Today it was chicken with a brown onion sauce. Simple yet delicious. 4-5 people sitting on the ground gather around one bowl of food, which is maybe a foot and a half/two feet across, and eat from it at the same time using a spoon- or your hands, if you want, but so far all of us are using spoons. Dinner yesterday was pasta; no idea what it will be tonight. I'm excited though.

There's running water and electricity at the center, which is pretty posh compared to what our sites will be like. Nic and I in theory will be near another married couple, as PC Senegal has discovered in the past that married couples do better placed near each other as there are so few of us in the country, and it is better for us emotionally if we have others near us we can relate to. The Heifer International headquarters for Senegal is located here in Thies, but unfortunately I am not sure we will be living in this area after Peace Corps Training, but we'll see. I am sure that Nic and I will have a good permanent site.

Yesterday afternoon, after our sessions, we had a big dancing circle and we were taught a few Senegalese dances. There were drummers pounding various beats, some were slow and predictable, others fast and fun. Some neighborhood folk and kids came and joined in and showed of their skills. The Senegalese are great drummers and dancers so far! I can't wait to meet my host family and see if they are musically inclined. Speaking of drummers, the sound of a drum indicates lunch and dinner, so when we hear the drum around 12:30 and 7:30, we all come running, as by those times we are hungry and actually have been hungry for a while. Though the baguettes and coffee are great, they sure don't stay with you.

My general impression of the country is very very positive. The Peace Corps staff is friendly and helpful, and I feel very comfortable experimenting with my very very very limited Wolof and somewhat limited French. They are receptive and happy-seeming. Wonderful folk. The country is beautiful and sandy. Lots of tropical looking plants, like bananas, and there are tons of birds. They made so much sound this morning that neither Nic nor I heard the alarm clock go off- just the birds. Tonight I will be sleeping with my alarm clock under my pillow.

We've been issued our cell phones, so family folk and friends, here in a few days I will be sending you my cell phone number.

Alright, that's all for now. I'm still not sure how often I will be able to update this, but nonetheless, tune in occasionally for more stories from This Senegalese life.

Maybe some pics, too.

As the world turns!

Hello! In just a few days, Nic and I will be flying out of MA and back to AR, where we will have about a month to prepare for our journey to Senegal. This includes visiting our local friends, doing some packing, doing some work, and hopefully plenty of down time. Peace Corps Training was intense last time around, and I am looking forward to the intensity of PST in Senegal, and am really looking forward to the climate! Right now in MA it's in the 20s and there is a snowstorm and several feet of snow on the ground. Rumor has it after some time in Senegal the 60 degree evenings will feel cool. Can't wait!

My packing list is minimalistic. Instead of focusing on business clothes or reading material, I've shifted the focus towards bare minimums plus materials for hobbies. Bringing lots of nice clothes won't help the adjustment period, but having my sketchpad and journals definitely will. I made the mistake last time of not bringing drawing pens and not having a sketchpad and not bringing a single square of watercolor paper... what a fool was I! Not this time around.

My time on the farm is running low, and I'm feeling pretty good about it. I'm finishing up projects and feel ready to move onto the next phase of my life. It's been an adventure these past few months, and I've learned all kinds of trivia to boot.

One of the best surprises this Thanksgiving was the birth of four adorable teeny tiny little guinea pigs! I took some video of them today so here it is for everyone to enjoy. They are so cute...and they squeak when they walk.They also will all pile under their mother so you can't see them.



Great, aren't they?

Tell me, folks, why can't a real person answer a customer service call just once? I hate talking to robots. And pressing buttons for them. I want to hear a real human voice. Is this too much to ask? If you want to give people jobs, fire the automated answering systems and set me up with a real person. Good customer service isn't "Press 1 for more options." Good customer service is a working relationship between customer and business person. It's a pat on the back, a genuine "how are you," and a laugh between the customer and salesperson.