September Hodgepodge

Well it seems like the constant theme of this blog is me beginning with a slight apology for not having updated in so long. That’s going to hold true in this post as well. Sorry…but I’ve been busy working and having some fun here in Senegal the last few months. Before I get into all the updates, let me direct you to my Picasa link (check the sidebar for the link), there’s plenty of new photos up on there finally too! (or at least I hope let's see how reliable the internet is...)

Neem Lotion Tourne

Well after the start of the Neem Lotion Tourne (tour…I forgot what we call this in English) in Ninefescha, which you read about in the last post. Meera, Leah and I did another training in Segou (around the same time we had a going away party for Zach out there, that’s right I’m the only volunteer in the Dindefelo sub-region now). Ian, another PCV actually recorded me teaching that group and we’ve played it on the radio a couple times. Speaking of which, I did a radio show all by myself a few weeks ago, all in Pulaar, and on the subject of Health (Mosquitoes, Malaria, Bed Nets, Skin Infections, and Cervical Cancer Screenings). Now, back to the Neem stuff. We continued the next day with a training in Dindefelo and a mural painting there, and then rode to Pelel and did a late afternoon neem lotion training there at the new health hut.Well after the start of the Neem Lotion Tourne (tour…I forgot what we call this in English) in Ninefescha, which you read about in the last post. Meera, Leah and I did another training in Segou (around the same time we had a going away party for Zach out there, that’s right I’m the only volunteer in the Dindefelo sub-region now). Ian, another PCV actually recorded me teaching that group and we’ve played it on the radio a couple times. Speaking of which, I did a radio show all by myself a few weeks ago, all in Pulaar, and on the subject of Health (Mosquitoes, Malaria, Bed Nets, Skin Infections, and Cervical Cancer Screenings). Now, back to the Neem stuff. We continued the next day with a training in Dindefelo and a mural painting there, and then rode to Pelel and did a late afternoon neem lotion training there at the new health hut.

Dabi (the Pelel ASC), Meera, Me, and Leah with the Mural on the newly renovated health hut

Me facilitating...working and whatnot

Meera and Leah with the Dindefelo Mural

Meera, Me and Patrick with the Bandafassi Mural

Then we headed back into Kedougou to get ready for our huge 4^th of July party that our region throws every year. That pretty much took up a whole week of my life, it was fun.

After the 4^th and other stuff, I went out in the direction of Fongolimbi where PCV Ben lives. I took an early morning Lumo (market) car out since the bike ride was long. It was actually a huge truck and they piled us in the back on top of all the rice sacks, boxes of new sandals and other assorted typical Senegalese Lumo items. They had a huge tarp covering the whole bed of the truck since there was a lot of rain that morning. About 10 minutes into the trip I looked up and noticed that a bunch of exhaust was pouring into the area where we were sitting. It just kept getting worse, and everyone started coughing and yelling, I actually freaked out a little bit it was kind of scary. I reached behind me to a small hole in the tarp and stuck my hand through it to try to open it up and get some air to breathe. Finally the drivers up front heard the commotion in the back and stopped the truck. Turns out they strapped the tarp over the exhaust pipe…geniuses. On his way back up to the front cab the driver noticed my hand sticking out of the tarp and said “why is there a toubab (white person hand) back there?!” because there’s a toubab back there of course. He immediately demanded I get out of the back and come sit up front. Normally I hate special attention here in Senegal whether it’s positive or negative, but this was the one time I truly appreciated the attention. I guess they figured if they killed the toubab there’d be more questions to answer than they’d want to. So I slept the rest of the ride up in the front cab. Ben and I did the Neem Lotion training in Fongo and then the next day in Dimibili, both very nice towns.

Over the next month or so I did three more trainings, one in Kukuji, a neighboring town where I hope my replacement volunteer will live. The health worker there is very motivated and despite me arriving in the morning with the proposal of a same-day/later that afternoon neem lotion training, he got together over 20 women by the time I returned from an afternoon swim in the Ingeli Waterfall (this time there was plenty of water!). My sister-wife (third wife) Dari and I went to her home town called Bousura and did a training there. On the walk over I taught her all about how malaria spreads from person to person through mosquitoes, and how not every mosquito has malaria, she was amazed…not many people understand these things here, which is why we emphasize the connection between the lotion, mosquitoes, and malaria during every training. She taught that training in Bousura, I was very proud. We ended with one final training in Kedougou, with a women’s group who was planning on marketing and selling it in the local market, very encouraging.

Dari on the left leading the training

Health Hut Update 3.0 (where are we now?)

So since you last heard and saw, the walls got fully plastered with cement and we finished painting all of the inside of the rooms and about half of the outside. I wanted to get the front wall painted in time for our Neem Lotion mural (see the photo above). Since then Dabi and I worked to find some money (mostly his own, and a little left over from the renovation grant) to buy new medications for the health hut. Along with a very generous donation of items like gauze, medical tape, antibiotic ointment, etc. from Lili, we finally have enough stuff to treat most injuries/illnesses that should be treated at the health hut level. The next step is ensuring that Dabi and Nene Galle, keep good recorded of all the materials used and payments for each visit, so the hut can buy replacement medications in the future.

the outside back wall before the collapse

and after...

view from the inside, before

and after...

But on top of that mountain of good news, there’s some bad news… After about 27 hours of straight, non-stop, driving rain, the back corner of the health hut collapsed. The water coming off the roof and hitting the ground weakened the base of the wall enough that the two walls fell in. Ok analysis, the good part was, it was part of the old hut, and wasn’t part of the new stuff that just got built. The bad part, it was the wall that held up the solar panels and according to the mason we’ll have to wait until January for it to be hot and dry enough to rebuild the walls. Oh also another bit of good news, the solar panels weren’t damaged at all, and the two other rooms, and the roof were unaffected so it won’t really have an impact on them using the hut to treat patients…we just have to wait until January to make it pretty again.

And the last thing, of bunch of us down here, the Gou Crew, decided to do a huge Ingeli trip. We got a car out to Dindefelo and then took the back road through Pelel, and Kukuji to get there. Some snafus on the way in and a ruined bike tube on the way out caused some big delays but we had fun. And this is what it looks like to have 10 bikes on top of a sept-place!

10 toubabs, 10 bikes, luckily only the bikes rode on top of our dix-place (10-place, its a joke...)

the deluge of water after the storm

And thanks to Aunt Rita, Uncle Mike, Dave, Jess, and Nick for the package! The funfetti cake mix was perfect for our Dinosaur themed birthday party we threw a few nights ago for Kate.

See you all in a while, the end of this month I’m off to Italy with my family! I finally get to leave West Africa and I get to see my family! Oh and I’ll be able to eat endless pizza, cheese, meat and wine… it’ll be amazing, I can’t wait, it’s been a long year and a half!See you all in a while, the end of this month I’m off to Italy with my family! I finally get to leave West Africa and I get to see my family! Oh and I’ll be able to eat endless pizza, cheese, meat and wine… it’ll be amazing, I can’t wait, it’s been a long year and a half!

and just a fun photo for everyone, this is my neighbor, I asked her to leave her hair out like this but she insisted on having it braided...