Hello! The past two months have flown by with record speeds that I can only account for by saying my brain must be slowing down. I swear, this old age is catching up to me. Anyway, Nic and I, after finding a suitable apartment, spent three weeks in the states enjoying friends, family, and of course fine foods! We ate so much that Nic gained a chunk of his weight back, and I haven't had any totally off the wall cravings since returning. Before our vacation to America: Nothing sounded better than beef jerky dipped in canned nacho cheese. After our vacation to America: Sure, peas sound awesome. Thank goodness for good nutrition!
After returning from America, Nic and I spent a few days putting together things for our house. As it turns out, even though we had been waiting for three weeks, the electricity still had not been turned on. This wasn't too big of a deal, but we live in a second story apartment, and whenever there was no power, even the moon couldn't light those dark walls. Our volunteer support guy told us that Senelec was out of power boxes, but within a few days and many phone calls later we were able to get the electricity turned on. Quickly, however, we discovered a major sanitation issue existing under our own feet.
The apartment reeked to high hell, and we couldn't figure out why, so I took to exploring the water routes in this apartment. It appears that all of the waste water drains to one main drain in our bathroom under the showering space, and this water includes our very own raw sewage, which has been building up right in our shower drain. Talk about disgusting. Nic called our landlord who sent us a plumber, who said that apparently a release pipe failed to be installed. Huh. We have the seeming convenience of more-modern-than-not plumbing, without the complete infrastructure to support it, which means a gross smelling apartment. It isn't too big of a deal, because if we pour enough water down the drain everything flushes out of the apartment, but I was pretty surprised to discover the cesspool growing under my own shower shoes.
After settling into our house, I left for Eye Clinic in Bakel, a two-week eye clinic ran by two eye doctors imported from America, two sons, a sterile nurse, a Senegalese doctor/tech, and hordes of Peace Corps volunteers. In short, this was a medical mission to provide people with glasses, information about the condition of their eyes, cataract surgery, and a handful of other eye related plastic surgeries. The experience was fantastic. I arrived for week two and asked to be in the operating room, which meant I got to give people shots of steroids in the eye socket. In addition, I have seen more eyes operated on than I ever thought I would ever see. The clinic was pretty chaotic at times, and we had to call in back up to prevent a riot from happening, as the doctors were unable to see everyone that wanted to be seen. Imagine: Doing your thing in the operating room, cleaning eyes and passing supplies, and then leaving the room and almost walking into a giant man in uniform with a huge rifle in your face. Oops! Keeping the peace is terrifying.
The desperation of some of the patients combined with the knowledge holes in the hospital demonstrated to me how great the need for better medical training is. The doctors were attempting to train the Senegalese tech in a technique of cataract surgery, but it was clear that the tech will need much more training and follow up than what could be provided in two weeks. Unfortunately, our capacity to provide such intense, highly specific, and technical training is severely limited. We need more professionals on our side that are capable of doing this training. Eye doctors, come to Senegal please, and teach our doctors!
Also, we need some dentists to come out too. Dental mission anyone? My heart breaks at the number of rotten teeth I see even in the youngest of kids. And sugar consumption is through the roof! I used to think I had a sweet tooth until I came to Senegal. The amount of sugar that goes into everything is unbelievable! A single tiny teapot will have 15 sugar cubes! We need someone to fill teeth, do cleanings, pull rotten ones, and give out lots and lots of tooth brushes- AND teach people why they are important. I'll tell you what- you come down and pull the bad teeth, and I'll teach folks why brushing your teeth is important. Deal?
So now I am back in Tamba, home sweet home, and have started to follow up with my work leads. Or I guess they are following up on me. I was literally chased down the road by an English teacher yesterday, who turned out to be a cool guy that wants me to work with his English clubs once school starts for the spring semester in early January. Senegalese poetry slam, anyone? I also went to la Lumier, an NGO that works with disadvantaged populations, but much to my dismay the people I was supposed to meet with were not there. One of them should be returning today or tomorrow, so I will be checking back. I have also been working on registration forms for the Marathon for Girls' Education in Tamba, and once our final route and dates are set, I will be going to schools in the area and advertising. We want runners and we want as many students as possible running to support the education of girls in their area! In addition, there is a nurse that works with Talibe that is interested in working with a Peace Corps volunteer. I plan on following up with her this week. I was given her contact information by a fellow PCV, and I am incredibly grateful. This nurse seems to do exactly the type of health outreach that I am interested in. Things are coming together slowly slowly. Nic and I really are back at the integration phase of our service. Today's big victory was being recognized and called on by name by one of my neighbors.
Oh yeah! And we adopted a kitten from the trash! It's not uncommon for unwanted animals to be dropped in trash areas and dumps, unfortunately, This means that PCVs can often find friends among the garbage. This is the 3rd trash kitten I've heard of adopted by PCVs just in the past few months. They make great pets, once they figure out that you aren't going to hit them with rocks. Her name is Poullundu, a mixture between poubelle (trash can in French) and ullundu (cat in Pulaar). She is tiny, cute, and black and white. When we found her she was filthy, oily, dirty, and exhausted. After shampooing, feeding, toweling off, and several days of TLC, she is a happy energetic kitten. She has also taken to Nic very well. This morning I woke up to find the kitten literally asleep on his head. Aww.
That's all for now. Hope everyone is well!
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