A Big Fat Senegalese-American Wedding

On February 2^nd, 2012 one of my best friends here in the Peace Corps, Jessica, got ‘married’ to her American boyfriend who was visiting on vacation. About 30 of us Peace Corps Volunteers traveled across the country to her village of Keur Madiabel in the region of Kaolack. Of course the wedding had to be done right, so we all donned our finest of Senegalese apparel and with typical Senegalese wedding gifts in hand: 2 chickens, a duck, and a set of nesting bowls filled with rice, onions and bouillon cubes (the bowls were my gift, she swore she’d kill me if I ever bought her nesting bowls, so of course I did), we took an Alhum from the regional capital out to Jessica’s village to share in the celebration. We danced and drank attayah (Senegalese tea) for hours. The lunch was ridiculously delicious thanks to Jessica who sprang for the high-end 50,000 fCFA (or about $100) sheep, and the women in her family who helped cook and prepare all the food. Keeping with the 2^nd Peace Corps Goal of sharing American traditions with our host country nationals and in keeping with the Jewish tradition of Jessica’s family (she’s half-Jewish) we had her boyfriend Armand perform the “Breaking of the Glass,” followed by a terrible rendition “Hava Nagila” while hosting Jessica up and down in the air in the chair she was sitting in. It was pretty amazing and hilarious, and it confused the hell out of all the Senegalese guests (check out a video of it here).

the ladies of Jessica's family preparing the food

there's the blushing bride in the background

Jessica had her make-up done up in true Senegalese-Wolof Wedding fashion (think Drag Queen...) oh and she got a weave too

the Bride and Groom, Jessica and Armand

the dance party that ensued for hours

Armand, Me and Jessica

Me and Ari & Jennie, two of the Bridesmaids, just look at their amazing Chiquita Banana inspired dresses!

The Gang and Rat Trap Sandwiches

For New Year’s Eve I traveled up to Kaolack to hang out with my best friend Jessica. Over the next week we traveled out to her Wolof village called Keur Madiabel and spent some time there. We also took a boat ride through the mangroves near the Sine Saloum Delta area and camped out near the beach. 

Eric and Jessica on the pirogue boat

'The Gang' on the beach trip, Jessica, Kourtney, and Eric

Afterwards we visited our friend Jennie’s Seerer village for a Sabaar, or a drum party. There’s always lots of dancing at a Senegalese drum party such as these, but the ethnic group of Jennie’s village Keur Soce, are Seerers, and they are known for being particularly risqué dancers. Jennie tells me that at wedding ceremonies the women tie a wooden penis to the inside of their skirt and flash it while dancing, unfortunately this was not a wedding party so the photos below (and on my picasa link) are mostly tame.

Jennie dancing at her Sabaar

some of the Keur Soce girls

me and Jessica in our Senegalese clothes and classic Senegalese photo taking fashion

In the middle of January, we had our annual All-Volunteers Conference in Thies, which is held for all of Senegal and other volunteers from all over West Africa where we share ideas about work; it was uneventful for me since I’m leaving so soon. Immediately afterwards we were bussed off to Dakar for WAIST (the West African Invitational Softball Tournament) was held, our team’s theme was ‘baseball’ which I thought was a little boring and didn’t lend easily to an awesome costume such as mine the previous year (refer to that earlier blog post to see the Hamburglar in action), so I went as a hotdog, that was baseball enough I suppose. Afterwards they bussed us back to Thies for my stage’s (or training group) COS (Close of Service) Conference. That was a very sad affair since it was the last time our entire group would be together at once here in Senegal, only a few months left…

Sad things aside, during all that bussing around to-and-from Dakar and Thies, we were able to photo-document the making of something we call “Rat Trap Sandwiches.” My friends Eric, Kourtney, Jessica and I (who we dubbed ourselves ‘the Gang’ because we’ve been watching too much ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’, lately) made this sandwich during most of our beach camping trip which I mentioned earlier. Either way it’s called a Rat Trap Sandwich because you make it with pretty much everything you’d put in a trap to catch a rat. Oh, and they’re delicious too!

Start by cutting your bread and spreading cheap "La Vache Qui Rit" cheese,  open the can of Chicken Spam (disclaimer, real Spam is like caviar compared to this stuff)

add the slices to the sandwich, with optional mustard if you're feeling fancy

and enjoy! Rat Trap Sandwiches! (also this is the bus that we were on back and forth  like 90 times from Thies to Dakar)

and this photo is here just because I like it and wanted to end with something interesting, it's a field where all the grass has seemed to pull pull together like a field of buried trolls. it's actually being prepared to be cut for roofing thatch

2011 Wrap-Up

Well I know this is a few weeks late but I guess that’s been the running theme of the blog the past couple of months.  I finally got back to site after my short (but wonderful) vacation to the States in early December. This is a photo of how much stuff I packed on the back of my bike for my first trip back to site.

all my baggage, thank god for Senegalese used inner tube bike straps

I had probably about 30 or so articles of baby clothes and assorted t-shirts for the children and the adults of my family that I brought back as gifts, along with a bunch of American candy and toys for the kids as well.  The family definitely appreciated them.  Snapped this photo along the side of the Dindefelo road on my bike ride back, cotton season is back!

they make these HUGE baskets out of stripped bamboo and then fill them with their cotton until the local cotton company comes to pick it up, it's one of the biggest industries in this area

But seriously the weather here is certainly unique this time of year. It’s really hot during the days, chilly to the point of needing to use a sleeping bag at night, and everything is extremely dry. Thanks to the 0% humidity or as it seems, there’s a ton of dust, and that leads to the ever famous Jersey-Shore-esque/John-Bohner-Spray-on-Laterite-Road-Tan (see my friend LaRocha’s well documented on-going battle with that tan here, here or here). But yeah, this was what my ankle tan line looked like afterwards.

ignore how ugly Senegal has made my feet and direct your attention to that beautiful tan line at my ankles

In other news my counterpart, Neene Galle, gave birth to a baby girl the last week in December, her name is Salematou.

Neene Galle and her new-born baby Salematu

And I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite photos from the end of 2011 here in Senegal.

this is a chicken on a goat...unlikely perhaps...amazing yes! my neighbors got a kick out of this one 

a version of a Senegalese scarecrow, that silo-like basket is where they keep their corn, similar construction to the cotton basket

well 2011, that's a WRAP (sorry for the pun, I just had to) (also this is me wearing my Mauritanian  head wrap to keep the dust out of my face, super effective)

A Slideshow Update

Hey everyone, don’t worry I didn’t slip into an abyss at the bottom of one the waterfalls somewhere in Senegal to never be found again, I was just doing a billion things, including my vacation to Italy, some assorted trips around Senegal, a few weeks back at site, a quick trip home to the US (during which I got into Medical School!), and now finally I’m back in Kedougou. But before I go on typing forever and lose your attention, I’m going to try a new format: Just a bunch of photos with detailed but short captions to guide you through my last 3 months that I’ve been gone from the blog. ENJOY!

Teaching First Aid in French at the Dindefelo Summer Camp during September to one of the small groups. 

The Almafi Coast during my and my Family's trip to Italy! Went from Rome to Pompeii, Almafi Coast, Sorrento, Capri, Agropoli, Paestrum, Matera, back up through Rome to Siena, Florence, Pisa and then ended with several days in Rome....amazing trip!

Me & Jennie on camels in the Lampoul Desert after I got back from my Italy trip in October. My camel had mange it was disgusting, Jennies looked like it was chewing poop...

Our tents at the bottom of the huge dunes, it was a fun night, definitely worth it to try once.

Kayaking trip in Palmarin through the mangroves, an area on the coast of Senegal south of Dakar in the Sine-Saloum Delta. Me, Paul, Dave, and Phillipe our guide.

During the kayak trip we stopped to climb inside of a baobab tree where we had cups of coffee that Phillipe bought along for us, he said people used to hide inside of that baobab during wars behind ethnic groups a long time ago. Here's Paul climbing inside...it was kind of tricky.

After Palmarin we stopped at Liquors de Warang, this amazing local place run by a Belgian that makes  these delicious liquors from local fruits, this was their pond and garden next to the tasting area, delicious and equally beautiful!

My Halloween costume at the party in Tambacounda, or Hallocounda or Tambaween as they call it. I dressed up as the only cheese that we have access to, 'La Vache qui Rit' or Laughing Cow Cheese. I once again was pretty much the best costume there.

Tabaski 2011 in November, a typical Senegalese Tabaski consists of serious looking Senegalese men...

and lots of dead sheep... (sorry readers...at least you didn't have to watch it die like me)

but to make up for that last one...KITTENS!!!!!!! My cat Mawni  had 3 little black kittens! I didn't even know she was pregnant, huge surprise when I got back from Italy.

Took a last trip back to Ingeli because it's going to dry up soon...so sad that it was my last time there but it was as beautiful as ever (except that time I went there with Meera and there was no water...look in my archives). Photo of me at the top! 

And the main falls from downstream, so beautiful...I'm gonna miss it so much!

Oh and then there were babies! Lot's of babies, here's my sister Fatou Binta with her newborn baby boy.

Babies! Here's me and Aissitou (one of my favorite people in village because we're constantly laughing together) and her newborn baby boy Boubacar Sidy.

Thanksgiving in the North! We traveled all the way up from Kedougou, my friend LaRocha and I were in a car for  well over 35 hours, but we made it from Kedougou to Ndioum in less than 48! (that's extremely impressive by the way) and then Jessica and I carried on our tradition and deep fried the turkey, along with 2 guinea fowl and 3 chickens. We ate and drank so much, so good, and then I celebrated my birthday the day after with a market trip (no photos of that...sorry)

And then after the North I traveled down to Dakar where I flew home for just two short weeks...I got to see a bunch of my friends and family, it was amazing. I also had my medical school interview (the main reason of the trip) and I got in! Here's a photo from our holiday get-together, Kyle, Johnny, Christina, Me, Hinal, Erin, Danielle, Alex, Olivia and Kareem (Marc the photog ~ not pictured for obvious reasons) Thanks guys for making my short trip to AMERIK amazing! Now back to work...

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...