Health Hut Construction Update 2.0

Wow, over a month…sorry I haven’t updated in awhile. But GREAT news! The health hut got completed just shortly after I made the last post. The walls, and the cement work are all finished, they finished the added on front porch and roof. It looks great. I’ve been waiting for my counterpart, Dabi, to get back from a training in Tambacounda, we should begin painting the walls within the next 2 weeks. In the next month we should be moving in some furniture and getting the medical supplies fully stocked, and then we’ll have a huge grand opening party to inform all the villagers of the services at the med hut. Thanks again to all who donated and supported this project, the community is very excited about it.

the regional health chief from Dindefelo Badji (in the Yellow), my counterpart's father (blue) and a worker inspect the work done so far

the cement wall is all done

mixing the cement for the floors

excellent work!

the mason finishing up the floor of the porch (you can see the old hut to the left)

Health Hut Construction Updates

Well I got back to Village last week from my little stay-cation in Dakar/Thies, where I was helping out with trainings and getting my mid-service checkup, and boy did they make a lot of progress on the health hut renovation. Here’s the photos; with the new room in the middle, they decided to add on a tiny front closet room and a front porch, we’ll see how that works into my budget…but I still think its great progress so far. They also dug the well deeper so now it has water in it, if the water table drops some more before the rains start, they’ll dig it deeper again to guarantee year-around access to water there.

the front of the health hut (notice the murals from the old health hut on the left)

the back of the health hut, solar panels, and the new metal roof

I had to head back into Kedougou for the weekend to help greet the new group of volunteers who just swore in on Friday. A big welcome to Marielle, LaRocha, Ben, Ian, Patrick, and Martin, they’re the new Health/Environmental Ed stage, which means I’m old now… Then Monday, Meera, Leah and I facilitated a training out in Bandifassi for an upcoming region-wide condom distribution program, this was to start out the 3-month test phase. But since I was at that training I unfortunately missed my workers back in Pelel, who, before the weekend, promised me they were going to finish covering the walls and floors with cement and finish the roof panels on the veranda. So that should have been done yesterday, I’ll get some more photos tomorrow when I get back to site.

and here's a photo of some of the stuff growing in the women's group garden, slow growing I know, the rains will come soon!

May Day Updates

Well I wasn’t exactly sleeping for all of April but you wouldn't know that considering the fact that I didn't even make one blog post during the whole month, sorry for that. I’ve finally had some time to sit down and knock a couple of posts out and even put up new photos on my picasa, you know what they say, when it rains it pours, enjoy the 4 new posts and new photos!

Health Hut Renovations!

As I mentioned in my last post, thanks to all of you who were able to donate to the grant to fund the renovation. Because of your amazing and generous help, we got the whole thing funded in 6 days! That’s pretty amazing, and my villagers were pretty excited to hear that we could get started so soon on the renovations. As soon as I knew the grant was full, I told my counterpart Dabi, and the next day we started removing the old thatched roofs from the two existing huts.

Dabi, up on the roof, removing the thatch

The next day our builder showed up and we started making the mud bricks to construct the walls. Every day the builder, Sadijo, can add a foot or two of the mud wall, allowing it to dry in time to support what goes above it. Afterwards the mason will add cement on either side of the walls. This is the basic way they construct huts in village. With a good roof for protection from the rain (which we’ll have with the new metal roofing sheets) my counterpart said these huts will last 15-20 years without major repair.

Sadijo, building the mud walls

Dabi making the mud bricks, I helped out with this half the day, and ate mangoes the rest

Sadijo and Dabi decided to add a small room on the front of the 3^rd hut to help support the roof , apparently they’re going to try to extend the roof a few feet out over the front of the structure to make a porch, we’ll see how it turns out. Either way I was extremely surprised and happy with how fast everyone started to work on the renovations, they’re definitely dedicated. I left village a few weeks ago to help with the training of the new volunteers and to say goodbye in Dakar to a few friends who have finished their service. I've heard that they finished most of the construction, and when I get back we’ll be able to install the wiring for the lights and plugs in the new hut, and paint all the walls. As soon as I get back next week, I’ll post more photos of the progress.

The new walls, gaining some height after the second day of construction

Again thanks to everyone who donated, with the rainy season approaching in a few weeks, having that grant funded so quickly meant that we could actually get this project completed before the rains come and all building stops. I heard that the grant got funded so quickly that some people weren’t even able to donate, if you still wanted to help out with a similar cause, or want to help out some more, two of my friends, volunteers in the Tambacounda Region of Senegal, have health hut projects as well, click here and here to visit their sites. Thanks!

Bo-bo Ari! A New Baby Arrives!

On March 27 my sister-in-law, the new wife of my tokora, or namesake (also my older brother) gave birth to a beautiful baby girl! Of course it was Lumo (market day) so I had just left for Dindefelo when I got the call from my dad that she gave birth 30mins after I left the house… Either way, one week later as is traditional here in Senegal, they had the Denabo (naming ceremony) and named her Adama Hawa Souare, and promptly shaved her head! Well at least they used a fresh brand new razor blade. Oh and since it’s my namesake’s baby and he is away living and working in Dakar, this is my baby! And it’s funny because everyone agrees and says, “yes, yes it is your baby, you’re Amadou, duh, Amadou is the father.”

Hali Camara and her new baby, Adama Hawa

getting a haircut just after she got her name, you got to stay fresh!

my dad with his first granddaughter, he's one of the happiest people I know and I've never seen him happier than the week this baby was born!

School Garden and CIEE Study-Aboard Students Visit

Last month I hosted a CIEE study abroad college student in Pelel. Peace Corps has a partnership where we host CIEE students every semester for a few days to give them a taste of village life, and Senegal outside of Dakar. We did a group trip to Segou Waterfall and then broke up to go to our individual sites for the remainder of the week.

the group of us relaxing in a pool near the waterfall

I set up a Morenga (or Nebadye (from the English for Never Die), an extremely useful tree, with nutritious leaves, think spinach) tree planting session during my student’s visit. With the students, we planted nearly 100 trees in tree sacks, so when they’re ready in a few months during rainy season the students can each take one home and transplant it there. In addition we did a morenga intensive bed, where the trees are planted 10cm from each other in a 1x5m bed. After a few months of growing we’ll be able to harvest the leaves from those trees almost weekly and the women will use them to prepare leaf sauce. The people of my town know what morenga is and love the leaves, they know that they’re extremely nutritious, and they truly make the leaf sauce very tasty, the problem is, there’s really none of these trees in village (it’s not a native species). Hopefully after the students take these trees home, more families will be able to benefit from this useful tree.

photos of me actually doing work!

and again

Jake, the CIEE student who came to Pelel, helping out with the demo

Aside from getting to visit all the waterfalls again, having the visiting student meant I finally got some photos of me doing some work (I can’t trust the villagers with my camera, I tried, it’s too exciting and confusing for them to operate) thanks Jake!

Well...the Women's Group Garden has a new Well!

The women have finished digging all of the beds, and have transplanted or planted vegetables in all the spaces. At the beginning of last month our mason came by to finish the well cap. I’ll forever be immortalized in the well because my villagers wrote my name in the cement…Amadou Toubape… it’s really Amadou Souare, but “toubape” means white person, so it’s Amadou White Person, classic.

the completed well cap

recognition for Amadou 'White Person' (that's me...)

my village mother models off the new well

action shot of watering the Morenga trees with water from the new well

and a photo of me and some of the women, I love these ladies!