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| A selfie in a field. Yeah, we're getting kinda weird out here. |
I
had over 200 photos from Tabaski, and they all seemed important, as did the
order in which I took them. So, instead of making a bunch of semi-chronological
collages, I made them into a fast slideshow, which shows the progression of the
day. Think of it as "a day in the life" sort of thing; it shows the good photos and the bad, and what I felt warranted 10 different shots from slightly different angles. [WARNING: there are a lot of photos of the sheep slaughter in the slideshow
(yes, in hindsight it’s startling how many graphic photos I took….oops). Watch
at your own risk!] The photos tell the story of the day, which began
(photographically) with Fallou and Peter getting ready to go to the mosque to
pray (Baay was up all night making sure nobody stole our sheep, so he wasn’t
feeling up to it) and ended (again, photographically) with the kids dressed up
in their nice clothes, getting ready to walk around and ask for coins (candy
money!). In between, the turkey was slaughtered, prepared, and cooked, the ram
was slaughtered, skinned, processed and grilled, we ate grilled ram for
breakfast and turkey for lunch, the kids danced, and the adults rested. It was
a wonderful day of uninterrupted family time.
A
few days after Tabaski, the kids went back to school. This means the mornings
are a lot quieter around here, which is a welcome change!
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| First day of school. What a good lookin' bunch! |
We’re in the transition
between the rainy season (or hunger season) and the cool season (the season of
abundance), which means the farmers are harvesting their field crops (peanuts, millet,
corn, sorghum, and beans), and transitioning to the gardening season (lettuce,
tomatoes, hot pepper, eggplant, and okra).
This means Peter and I are
busy with wrap-up work on our tree planting and field crop extension projects,
and starting to prep and plan a series of gardening trainings for the upcoming
months.
The garden continues to
produce delicious things. This month we’ve enjoyed cucumbers and melons in
addition to the okra, bissap, moringa greens, malabar spinach, aloe vera, and
endless basil. We’re still waiting patiently on the tomatoes though! The rains
have stopped, and we are seeing this reflected in droopy leaves in the garden,
despite our watering efforts. The tap water just isn’t the same as the rain!
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| Who knew cucumbers were so exciting?! |
Last month I mentioned our
garden marketing scheme: free basil if you come see the space! Well, it’s
working. People are talking about our garden! We’re hoping that this talk leads
to others taking the leap to creating small gardening spaces in their
compounds, perhaps with the help of our upcoming gardening classes.
In addition to maintaining
our own garden, we’ve led a series of trainings this month: a seed selection
and saving training in Guinguinéo, and micro-gardening with recycled containers
and tree care and maintenance trainings with a women’s group in a neighboring
village, where our friend and fellow Peace Corps volunteer Tesia Eisenberg
lives. We’re also starting to plan an Open Field Day for the Sakagne Master
Farm, tentatively scheduled for December.
In the midst of it all, we managed
to sneak away to the mangroves for a couple of days for Peter’s birthday. We
indulged in luxuries like hummus, burgers, beer, and whiskey, and took
advantage of the quiet to get a bunch of computer work done as well. Bam!
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| Enjoying some peace and quiet in the mangroves. Happy 27th Peter! |
I finished the month with a
much-anticipated field trip. I brought my counterpart, Mackiny Tall; my 3 work
partners, Mbaye Ndiaye, Modou Ndiaye, and Samba Ndoye; Tesia’s host Dad
Ibrahima Diouf; and a student from Tesia’s village, Cheikh Faye, to Beer-Sheba, a Christian
agroforestry demonstration and education center. We visited Beer Sheba back in February
during PST2 in Thies, and I knew immediately I wanted people from my community
to see it. Lucky for us, the third-year Peace Corps volunteer working with
Beer-Sheba graciously offered to host us for the day to tour the facilities and
discuss how the farmers might implement similar systems in their fields and
villages.
This field trip was also an
important event because it really solidified for me what a special and
committed group of people I am working with here. As you must have gathered by
now, the Senegalese perception of time is very different from the American
schedule. I asked the driver to be at our house by 5:20 am, the Nguick guys to
be ready at 5:30 am, and Tesia’s Dad and the student from her village to be
ready at 6:00 am. Not only was everybody ready on time, in the dark, we made it
to Beer-Sheba TWO HOURS early! This
never happens. Granted, I called everybody at least 3 times in the days leading
up to the field trip to remind them and make sure everything was clear. But
still, this never happens. I assumed we’d have a series of delays, as we
generally do in a day. But everything (the car, the road, the breakfast lady)
and everyone (my responsible driver and friend Dame Niang, my exceptional
counterpart, and my 6 wonderful work partners) was reliable. I was glowing with
pride when we arrived so early!
At Beer-Sheba, the staff
fenced in 100 hectares of land, and let it grow back the way it wanted to, with
little to no human intervention. The trees regenerated on their own, once they
were protected from people and animals. One of the first things we did upon
arriving there was climb the 2-story water tower to get a view of the 100
hectares. My counterpart, Mackiny, commented that the Beer-Sheba forest is what
Senegal looked like when Modu Ndiaye (an Nguick elder who accompanied us on the
trip) was a child. In addition to the naturally regenerated forest, Beer-Sheba
staff have cultivated a diversified garden under a canopy of native acacia
trees. The trees stabilize the soil, provide dappled shade, and aid in water
retention. The garden is likely much more productive because of their presence.
Everyone left motivated and
excited about all of the possibilities they witnessed. I asked the men to take
a few days to digest what they’d seen, and think about what principles or
technologies they’d like to implement themselves, and what they need from me to
make it happen. I’m hoping that this trip spurs some of them to make changes,
even if it is something relatively small, like mulching a corner of their
garden to see if there is a difference in how the mulched and non-mulched
plants perform. We’ll see what happens!
Nana, I want to thank you
for your encouragement of this field trip! I couldn’t have made it happen
without your support.
Finally, of course an update
on the pets is warranted. Happy Cat remains at the nexus of the furries. He and
Lady are the best of friends (until Lady gets too excited), and he tongue
bathes her several times a day. Greta and Happy Cat are constant playmates, and
they have started to snuggle more frequently when napping. Adorable! Greta and
Lady are cordial, for the most part, but Greta wouldn’t hear of snuggling or
playing with Lady. Coexisting is enough for her, thank you very much! Those
three remain an important source of entertainment and snuggles, and we feel
grateful that the Diops put up with our bizarre animal antics.
In October:
1.
The biggest
challenge we faced: Rainy season ending. Our beautiful garden is starting to
wilt and thirst now that the rains have gone. We’re watering with the robinet
(faucet) water, but it’s just not the same. We’ll get some relief from the heat
soon, as we transition into the cool season, but it will likely be another 8
months or so until we get rain again.
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| Just before the last rain. She was a beauty! |
2. The most
exciting/best experience: For me, it was the trip to Beer-Sheba. For Peter, it
was turning 27! He sure felt the love this month. Thanks to Lisa and Kevin,
sister Sally, Sue and Phil, Uncle Dave and Aunt Caren, the Santos crew, Grandma
and Grandpa Gardner, Kathie and Greg Bergman, and Betty Cramer! It was a ton of
fun to get so much mail, so thank you all for your kind birthday wishes, and
for spending so much on postage!
3.
What we are most
grateful for: My parents booked their tickets! They are coming to Senegal in
February- Alhamdoulilah! While we are happy and fulfilled here in Senegal, we
deeply miss our American families. We feel so grateful that we will get to
spend quality time with them over the next few months, and that our American
families will get to meet our Senegalese family.
4.
Language factoid
(by Peter): Fecc, pronounced “fetch,”
simply means “to dance.” Unlike
many words in Wolof, there is no second meaning, (Picc, pronounced
“peach,” means both “bird” and “zit,” depending on context. Weñ, means both “housefly” and “metal,”
not to be confused with wen, which
means “breast,” and wañ, which means “to
wring,” and waañ which means “kitchen.”)
Sorry for the lengthy sidetrack, but the point is that fecc, as Wolof words go, is unambiguous. However, for such a straightforward word, over here, fecc means a lot of different things to
a lot of different people.
To Kait it
means a way to relate to those around her. She uses dancing as an incredibly fast way to put people at
ease while simultaneously demonstrating her cultural competence. Preceding one
of our trainings at the nearby Seereer village, she spent about 10 minutes with
all the women present, discussing the differences between standard Wolof dances
and standard Seereer ones... through
dance. (Wolofs dance like this… But Seereers dance
like this!...) Kait showed herself to be a master
Wolof dancer. In the end, she was
pretty good at the Seereer moves, but more importantly everyone around was
trying to wipe the tears of laughter out of their eyes. Perhaps even more
importantly, we knew, that they knew, that we know and respect Senegal and its
culture.
To me, a
person who would rather die than attempt dancing in front of a pack of
laughing, clapping Senegalese women, it means yet another reason I am grateful
for Kait. Not only because when dancing comes up, she quickly volunteers (and
saves me from the spotlight so thoroughly that people are left thinking,
“Idrissa? Idrissa who?”) but also
because being married saves me from being put on the spot. Here (at least in our community)
dancing is for women and young people.
In America, despite my marital status, I’m probably still considered a
“young person.” Not so here. Having a wife is akin to having a
silvery beard, not in that it means you’re old, but that it means you’re simply
on a different level, community-respect wise. It means I’m not a member of the group who should, and do
dance. Rather I’m a member of the
group that, at a wedding or naming ceremony, sits in plastic deck chairs, hands
folded, and comments on the frivolity of women, watching some of them dance,
and the rest cook dinner and take care of the children. Women, am I right? Not a care in the
world. (I participate in a
condescending and sexist conversation only as far as it gets me out of
dancing.)
To Ouli and
Soda, our eight and nine-year-old sisters, it means a way to express themselves
with moves that would get them kicked out of every single middle school dance,
and probably even a very loosely chaperoned senior prom.
Things we’re looking forward
to in November:
- Tamxarite: The celebration
of the Muslim new year. In Senegal
it takes on a decidedly unreligious bent, making it much more akin to Halloween
than anything else. Kids
cross-dress, powder their faces white, and go from house to house singing and
dancing for money and candy. Fun night.
- A celebration for our
Girls Camp and Michelle Sylvester Scholarship Program participants in Ndiago
(pushed back a few weeks, from October to November).
- A series of gardening
trainings, teaching Guinguinéo residents how to work with the challenging water and soil conditions we have here. We’re
hoping that several small kitchen gardens will be established around town this
“cold” season (November-February).
- We’re not looking forward
to this, in fact I’m dreading it, but it’s notable. The “Old Ag Stage,” who are
a year ahead of us in their service, are finishing up their service and heading
home in November. The new group of Ag Trainees that Peter and I welcomed last
month will be the Old Ag Stage’s replacements. While we’re excited for the new
Trainees to transition into their roles as PCVs in December, we are sad to see
so many of our friends and mentors move on.
- Going home to America for
Thanksgiving!!!! We’ll be in Sarasota for about 2 weeks, for some serious
R&R and Hammersley family time (including Tybee!!!). We hoped to get to the West/Midwest and New
England to see family and friends there, but flights were outrageously
expensive and other PCVs have advised that it’s important to keep it simple and
stay in one place if you’re only going home for a short period of time. So, a
Florida vacation it will be! We’ll be back in Senegal a short 3 weeks before
the Fritsches arrive in December. It will be a family-filled Holiday season!
Jamm Rekk,
Kait
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