The month of May has come and gone in a blur! I can’t
believe we fit so much into 4.5 weeks. It all began with a trek to Dakar,
preceding our “family moon” (we decided we really couldn’t call it a honeymoon
after all; I guess we’ll have to plan another one!), and it ends back in Guinguinéo,
in front of our electric fan.
On May 2, at 6 a.m., we departed for Johannesburg, where we
were to rendezvous with my parents (we had to stay overnight there, because of
the flight schedules) before heading on to Botswana. They graciously greeted us
with cheese and beer at the guesthouse. I can’t think of a better start to the
family moon! We talked and talked, ordered takeout burgers for a late dinner,
and retired to a 5 star sleep before heading back to the airport, to fly back
north.
The vacation really started in Victoria Falls, where we
enjoyed 2 days of “touristy” excursions, and got a taste of the wildlife that
would come to shape our days in the more remote bush camps. From there, we
traveled from camp to camp on 5-seater propeller planes. What an adventure!
Wildlife highlights from the Botswana bush camps include
being charged by an aroused bull elephant in musth (Hold
on! our guide shouted, before gunning it out of harms’ way), seeing a
leopard get treed by a pack of rowdy wild dogs, watching a hyena walk within 15
meters of Peter and me as we were out of the car and in the middle of a
bathroom break… at night (yikes!), catching a glimpse of a long reed frog while
floating through expansive wetlands in a dugout canoe, spotting a rare serval
cat on a night game drive, boating in the beautiful Okavango Delta’s channels, finally
seeing the cheetahs we tracked for 2 days, and making eye contact with a
leopard. Another special moment included one of our guides, Joe, sharing some
of his San culture and language with us (check out the video). Every day we saw different
things- different ecosystems, different species, different tracks in the sand.
It was endless excitement for all of us. We took turns with the camera, and
Peter dutifully kept the species checklist (yes, we really did that) except for
birds, which he finds less exciting than mammals, reptiles, trees and
amphibians (in that order).
On our last night in Botswana, the camp staff surprised my
Dad with a homemade cake, in honor of his 60th birthday. They
insisted he cut it, to his dismay, as it was frozen through and hard as a rock.
After several minutes of attempting to cut into the cake, as all of he camp’s
guests and staff (about 30 people) looked on, the camp manager asked him to
kindly check the cake under the icing to make sure there wasn’t a problem with
the mixture. After scraping back some of the icing, he fell back into his seat,
howling with laughter. The cake was made out of elephant poop! Our guide demonstrated
he’d been paying attention to our party’s largely poo-based humor, and
recruited the kitchen staff to help him show he too thought poop was funny. It was
a hit! All of the guests and staff, myself included, were in tears from
laughing so hard and so long. It could not have been a more perfect, or
appropriate, end to our stay in Botswana.
Although it was hard to leave my family after such a special
time together, it felt great to come home to Senegal. As soon as we landed in
Dakar (at 1 a.m.), we felt relieved. We knew where we were going, how to
communicate it, and what to expect. It’s not that traveling in Botswana was challenging
or full of the unexpected; it wasn’t. It’s just that it wasn’t home, and now
Senegal is. After recovering in Dakar for a day, we headed south to Guinguinéo.
As soon as we left the breezy Dakar peninsula, we felt the air change, and it
got hotter and hotter as we got closer to home. Still, it was great to be back.
We found Happy Cat significantly fatter (Yaay said he was getting a fish a day
all to himself!) and Lady O taller than ever. We missed Happy Cat so much that he
was allowed to sleep in our bed for the first time. Yeah, we’re suckers.
My American parents were gracious enough to bring gifts for
our Senegalese family over from America, so Peter and I returned to Guinguinéo
with some tokens of appreciation for the kids and our parents, along with some
exciting new kitchen supplies for ourselves!
Below, our siblings thank Sue and Phil, their American family, for the loot!
New coloring books and crayons were probably the biggest hit with our siblings. Each day, the kiddos look forward to spending some time coloring in our apartment. They are so creative!
We
jumped right back into work upon our return to Guinguinéo. Baay is the
President of the Federation Departementale des Associations
des Personnes en Situation de Handicap Guinguinéo (and has been since 2009),
and we returned just in time for their big consultation meeting. Dakar-based Senegalese staff of Rollis fur Afrika (a German
NGO), along with the Guinguinéo Handicap Association executive committee, spoke
with over 70 people about their needs for mobility assistance (mostly
wheelchairs and crutches). Peter and I helped Yaay cook and serve lunch, and
take photos of the event, which was held at Guinguinéo’s community center.
Rollis will return in a few
weeks with as much assistance as possible. As Baay says, “It’s big stuff!”
Because the need for mobility assistance greatly outweighs the available
supplies, Baay has asked Peter and me to look into organizations in America who
might be able to donate a container of wheelchairs, crutches, and any other
mobility materials, as the Handicap Association is exempt from customs taxes on
these supplies. If any of you have ideas or connections, please do let us know!
As I hinted (strongly) in my last post, it’s quite h.o.t.
here. We’re really trying to be patient as we await the rains, some days with
more success than others. Two days after we got home, we heard that it had
rained south and east of us, and that it had already rained several times in
Kedougou, in the far southeast. I find myself thinking way too often, far too
many times a day, maybe today is the day
that the rains will begin! With it, the rains will bring a drop in the
temperature, and the growth of summer. So much anticipation! Plus, nature is
teasing us. Most days, there is at least some cloud cover, small windstorms
pass through, and it just feels like
it’s going to rain. Especially in the afternoon. In Botswana, a woman we met
said they call the month preceding the rains suicide month, because of
the tropospheric taunting that I have just described. Now I get it.
With the anticipation of rain all around us, our agriculture
work is now in full force. Grasshoppers still abound, much to everyone’s
dismay, but tree pepineers can’t wait any longer to be seeded, or they won’t be
ready for transplanting into the ground before the rains subside in August or
September. Anyone with land is
busy clearing it, preparing to seed it with peanuts or millet as soon as the
rains begin.
We have high hopes for a small, but diverse garden in our
backyard to take advantage of all of the free water. Last week, we seeded egg
crates and old plastic containers from the unofficial dump on the edge of town
with a variety of herbs, veggies, and flowers for our garden: chives, bunching
onion, red wing onion, cabbage, lemongrass, 2 varieties kale, Echinacea,
broccoli, 2 varieties of basil, cauliflower, lavender, sage, spilantes, sweet
pepper, ashwaganda, 3 varieties of tomato, sage, hot pepper, anise, rosemary,
rue, lemon balm, and borage. I am beyond excited about having our own garden,
in our own yard, but I am trying to resist the urge to count our seeds before
they sprout. Some of the seeds are old (from previous volunteers), some are not
quite matched to this climate, and some will likely fall prey to marauding
insects, viruses, and fungus. As such, I’m holding off on too much planning
until we see which seedlings make it.
So far, 8 of the seeded rows are sprouting, so I’m hopeful!
In May:
1)
The biggest challenge we have faced: The
motivation levels of work partners seem to be waning, which is not surprising
given the heat, and the stress of preparing for the field crop season (which is
the main or sole source of income for many families).
2)
The most exciting/best experience: Seeing my
family, and sharing such a special trip with them. We’re hoping the Hammersleys
will make it to Senegal in the upcoming year, like the Fritsches, who have
booked a visit in December!
3)
What we are most grateful for: We feel
incredibly blessed to have been able to enjoy the trip of a lifetime with my
family. We also recognize that for many volunteers, it’s hard to go back to
site after such a comfortable experience. Although we are both seriously
missing cheese (and you, Mom and Dad!), it was not hard to come back to Guinguinéo.
We are grateful for how happy and fulfilled we feel here.
4)
Language Factoid: Am nga goom means “You have a wound.” In Wolof culture, it’s not
rude to point something like that out, even if it’s on your face. Peter had a
staph infection on his chin last week, which resulted in quite a bit of
swelling, and I think it’s the phrase he heard most frequently. (As well as ana sa sikkim? Which means, “how’s your
chin?”) It was his 3rd staph infection in 2 months, but thankfully
it shrank right down after a few days of hot compresses and antibiotics!
Looking forward, June will bring:
- Rain, inshallah!
- Working hard to complete Michelle Sylvester Scholarship applications for 10
girls in Ndiago, a village outside Guinguinéo. More on this opportunity later!
- Planning and implementing our home-scale demonstration
garden.
- Continuing our tree pepineer work at the Eaux et Forets
office and with the farmers in the village of Nguick.
- Our final Kaolack Girls Camp planning meeting. Thanks again
to everyone who contributed!
Jamm Rekk,
Kaitlin
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