the choices you make...

it's been a little over ten months since starting peace corps and i've learned many a life lesson in that time. but there is one that i've really taken to heart.

blog warning: it's gonna be a semi-sappy post. that's right, i'm about to get all hallmark on ya.

so life here is in a fragile balance. literally any little thing can make or break your day. i've had really really awesome days; language- no problem, work productivity- doing well, help making a difference- check, and then some random dude comes over to your family's compound and wants to marry you and your money. good day has just left you high and dry. on the opposite side i've also had super rotten days where nothing has gone right; stuck waiting for a car, no one understands you, no one came to your causerie, people keep asking for stuff...and then like a light beam a little kid who has been so afriad of you for the past ten months (so afraid they actually pee when they see you) runs up to you because they are so happy to see you. makes your heart melt.

so what i'm saying is that you have good days, bad days, great days, i want to go home days...and they can change at the drop of a hat. what's the lesson here? i'm getting to it.

the other day, a while ago...it was a long day. i had spent the morning in podor running a few errands. the market was especially crowded so i got hasseled by vendors more than usual, the post was full of people getting money wired so i had to wait for over an hour to send my letters, my cyber guy was out of town so i couldn't check my e-mail, then i had to wait for another hour and a half for a car to fill up so that i could leave to go home. it was a long day. i was tired, cranky, hungry and frustrated at life. finally after stopping maybe five thousand times (okay a slight exaggeration) i got dropped off at the herder village which i have to walk through to get to my village. i wanted to be home for lunch but it was now late afternoon. as i'm walking i can hear the herder kids yelling my name and then i can see then running toward me. they always come and greet me whenever i go home and usually i can deal with it. but today i was tired and having ten little kids hang on me was just not in the cards. they were getting closer and i was getting tenser. i could literally feel myself cringe with anticipation. and then....

clarity. it was my big ah-ha moment. i had a simple choice. i could either let myself get mad and get into a worse mood. or i could just let myself go and see what happened. i chose to let go. as the lids swarmed around me, one hugged my legs. i took her face in my hands and screamed, 'i missed you so much! i'm so happy to see you!' this was not the reaction i think she was prepared for. a look of terror crossed her face (the toubak finally cracked) then confusion then complete happiness. she started to laugh and then all the other kids started shouting, 'i missed you banel, i missed you more!' that got me going and for five minutes i faced off with the kids about who missed who the most. then we all walked hand in hand to my hut.

the weight of the world was gone. i was elated. for no reason at all besides the fact that i just went crazy on these kids. only ten minutes earlier i felt as if i was walking with lead in my shoes and a boulder on my back. i had simply acknowledged i was in a bad mood and chose to let it go and start fresh. everything changed. the rest of my night was aweseome. my tocara noticed i was tired so she gave me the first glass of the boisson i had brought from podor. my younger brothers and little husbands cuddled with me as everyone watched tv. we had haako for dinner. going to bad that night i thought to myself what a great day it had been. and despite the frustrations, it had been a good day.

so the lesson learned; life sometimes has bad days. but you can let the bad days just keep getting worse and worse and when a hoarde of village kids come running at you, you can either tense up and cringe or welcome them with open arms. you chose how you feel. dwell on the bad or let the good in. your choice.

warned you it was sappy. but i've seriously taken this to heart and have applied it everyday since and believe it or not, it's worked. i've chosen to be in a good mood and this past month has been the most rewarding in senegal. pulaar (though not even close to fluent) has gotten easier, i've gotten so much more work done, i've found new friends in the village (who aren't under the age of five) and the sun is shining. (it's also the beginning of the hot season where i will have no choice but to look on the bright side of life). it's been great and i feel great.

as for the herder kids...i'm in the process of teaching them the victory tunnel for me to run through when i come home. they love it and i love. it's not handwashing or malaria prevention but everyone is happy.

cheers and see y'all in three weeks!! (yea wisco vacation!!)

i cannot wait for the day i get to eat cheese and crackers and wash it down with a spotted cow. i haven't been counting the days or anything....

peace,
jaime

ladies and gentlemen...my goat!

a round of applause please, for the long and tedious journey of livestock purchasing in senegal has come to an end. that's right...the goat is bought, paid for, home safe and sound. i went to the weekly market this past sunday with my host father who decided that it was his tabaski good deed to help me out. so off we went, and once we got to the market he told me to go do my thing that he would come find me. so i bought my peanuts, beans, and bananas for the fam and myself some fatayas for breakfast (fried bread with onion sauce. sooo tasty. the lady also gives me a little one for free.) once i finished eating, there he was waiting for me. "okay, so there is a good goat. sixteen mille (about 35 bucks). let's go look and if you want, you buy it". done and done. so we go over to where all the herders are with their goats and sheep for sale, he points out a pretty little number and i hand a herder named ba sixteen mille. goat. check.

so my host father brings my goat home (apparently i own the goat but i don't have to do anything to actually care for the goat...that's what family is for...) once home my host father and uncle explain that their herd of goats is on the island including a nice big billy goat to you know...so they assure me that the next day they will take her to the island to go hang out with the other goats and in no time at all i'll have two goats. but first, i had to 'mark' my goat. thinking i could just whip-up a nifty necklace for it, but nope. mark means brand. so i got to come up with my own brand and take a hot iron to my goat. not exactly what i wanted to do my first day with my goat but hey...when in africa.

i'm pretty stoked about the goat. to be quite honest i didn't think i would actually get my goat at all...after attempt after attempt and attempt...discouragement was settling in. but things work out. i even found out that the little sheep i tried to take care of way back when is still alive and growing. during my second month in the village one of our family's sheep had a baby and then died. being the animal lover that i am i took the little lamb under my wing and fed it some milk as an attempt to keep it alive. however, one weekend i went away from the village and came back...the sheep was gone. my family told me that it went over to the island. i took that for the standard "it's gone to the sheep farm in the sky" routine. a little hurt, but nonetheless it happens all the time here. well, apparently i need to take things a little more literally. they actually meant they took it to the island (to go live with the other sheep. literally).

sometimes i think all i'm good for in the village is to humor everyone with how dumb and naive i can be.

but at least i got my goat.

cheers!
jaime

brrrr it's cold out here!

so the cold season has finally hit the fouta. it actually happened rather quickly, pretty much overnight (literally one night i was simly wearing a tshirt and skirt and the next i was huddled with all of my younger brothers in a sweatshirt and pants. i put a thermometer outside just out of curiosity to see how cold it really has been. it's gotten just over 90 degrees here at about one oclock and when i wake up in the morning it is about 65. the sad part, the part that makes me hang my wisconsin winter head in shame is that it IS cold. i go to bed in long sleeves and pants and burrow under my quilt...thank god i brought it with me! in the morning i heat up my water before taking a bucket bath. my littlest brother and nephews all cuddle with me at night for warmth...i never thought i would say it but that africa is so cold right now. even during the day it's comfortable...90 and breezy is the perfect day here. i could quite possibly die of hypothermia when i come back to wisco in february.

no snow shoveling is nice though especially from last winter...

we just celebrated tabaski here which is the most important holiday here. it celebrates abraham's willingness to sacrific issac for his love of god. (y'all know the story)...anyways each family kills a male sheep as a sign of rememberence and then the meat is cooked and shared among everyone. i was excited for tabaski for a number of reasons; after experiencing korite i was better prepared for what was going on in the village, i got a new outfit that was SO beautiful (i was even told so by my teenage sisters and they are pretty critical about my appearance), i bought all the kids candy to eat, and the village becomes so lively and happy. we ate meat all day long with potatoes and macaroni, drank tea, and visited each other. a fun day or i should say days since it goes on for awhile. i hennaed myself which impressed all the women, "banel you are so baleejo (senegalese)" and lauren,a volunteer who lives in podor. all the men got dressed up in their nicest boubous and it was really beautiful to watch all the men line up behind my cousin who is the imam to pray. all their clothes were these vibrant hues of purple; green, blue, and red they looked like a rainbow. and the women got dressed to the nines as well. that was my favorite part for me- watching the women get to dress up. they work so hard day after day after day that they take full advantage of the oppurtunity to pamper themselves. i loved the different styles of clothes they wore and the different braids they did, they were all so happy they even would break out dancing just to do it.

now i'm sure each village is a little bit different in how they celebrate tabaski but i loved the way my village came together. everyone in my village is related some way or another and so when it was time to eat everyone brought their bowls of food together and then split off into different groups which were; kids under 10, boys 10 to 15, girls 10 to 15, teenagers, married couples (20 to 40), older married women, really old women, and older men. where exactly did i fit in? i was too old to eat with the teenagers, not married to sit with the married couples...old women it was. until i got yelled at by my older sister to come sit with the married couples because i was one of them. (i forgot about my little "husband") so i spent most of the time there. it was fun going from group to group though to see everyone's outfits, gossip, chatter, games. i went to bed exhausted but full and happy.

with any luck the next few months will go by quickly. i have a number of things planned starting with a mosquito net dipping in my village next week. i'm a little nervous about it because the chemical is pretty nasty and i'm not the most coordinated of people (broken nose anyone?) but i've done a dipping before and i think that if i can keep people away from the dip area it will go well. it's malaria season right now and i feel like this is the bast time to do it. plus, the mosquitoes here are relentless and tricky little punks...they find there way everywhere and bite through everything. it's time to fight back and i will show no mercy.

on that peaceful note...merry christmas and happy holidays everyone!!

peace,
jaime

what's in a bucket?

i'd like to dedicate this post to the most useful object in country... my bucket.

seriously. living with as few of commodities as possible you start to get creative with what you can use something for. for example...

a bucket by all appearances just seems to be a plastic container with a lid into which you can put things. however... fill it with tasty treats from back home and my bucket becomes my own pantry. if i fill it with water and put a cup in it it becomes my very own bathtub/shower complete with shower head (the cup). if i go back to the well and fill it up with water again...presto! a washing machine powered by human (my) hands! if you sit on a bucket you got a chair. if you stack two buckets on top of each other and then sit on my bed you have a table. if you stand on your bucket you have a ladder. *note, it is better to turn the bucket upside down before standing on it as the lid tends to collapse. my bucket is my cutting board, my sink, my dresser top, my defense against rowdy kids, my place to hide from big scorpions. to me, my bucket is everything. who needs all those extra things when you got a bucket? i guess what i'm saying is that you learn to appreciate the things you have a whole lot more when you use a piece of plastic for every little thing you do.

thanksgiving went amazingly awesome. we (our regional house hosted) had approximately 47 people from all over senegal including one volunteer from mauritania, and a couple from england who wanted to celebrate with us. everyone arrived wednesday and had stew for supper. thursday the men of the region killed the turkeys (yep, we found turkeys in this country) and grilled them as well as five chickens. they even successfully deep fried a few. meanwhile me and a few other volunteers cranked out dinner consisting of mashed potatoes, stuffing, casseroles galore, fruit salad, deviled eggs, cornbread, and ten different pies. enough to literally feed an army. plus we were able to watch the dark knight and part of the new bond movie before the power went out on a "big screen" outside (a sheet with a projector). fun was had all around and it was indeed a great thanksgiving. plus i got to drink out of a boot. need i say more? (thanks joeber!)

the goat update: i want to keep as much money as i can in the village so i have been dead set on buying my goat in the village. so the other week i went around to a few herders i know and discussed my desire to purchase a goat. lucky me, i got a hit with one of my close friend's family. i told them i would come back on sunday to buy the goat. they said, "great, see you sunday, inshallah..." (note to blog followers on a previous entry about that word. i should have gotten the hint...) so i go back home tell my dad and uncles all about the goat i am going to buy. they look at me and shake their heads and say, "go buy a goat at the market sunday". i explain that i want to buy it in the village so that a family i know will get the money. they smile, look at me and drop the subject. sunday rolls around and i head over to go buy the goat (after coming from the market with my weekly purchases). i greet the family and my friend realizes that i've come for the goat. she looks at me and says, "i forgot you were coming...we took the goat to the market to get sold." inshallah... so i do the walk of shame back home and there is my dad and uncle with a knowing smile on their faces. "next time you go to the market and buy it" they tell me. no duh, i want to tell them but i don't think it translates. besides, how am i going to get a goat back to my village on my bike?

inshallah...

where does the time go?

so i realize that a lot of time has passed since the last post. although it hardly seems like any at all...time moves surprisingly fast despite the fact that you only have about five hours a day to actually do any work within the community. what i mean is, by the time i get up in the morning and clean, pull water, etc it is nearly 9 in the morning...and there is only about two/three hours before it is super hot outside and then there is lunch. then after lunch there is the "foftere" or rest which lasts until 4 or 5 giving me another two or three hours before dark. these are the only times people are willing to go to meetings/causeries/or do any work. so that said there is a lot of time where i don't have much to do and that has been a much bigger challenge for me- filling time.

there are a few health posts within the area i live in; one in taredji (6k south), one in mbantou (3k southeast), one in diambo soubalou (1k south and where emily lives), one in ndiawara (2k north), and one in podor (16k north). emily and i are starting to paint at each post-specifically growth charts and health murals and colleen, another volunteer who lives near us (and puts my art skills to shame) has started a huge project in podor which she has graciously allowed me to help out with. the health center there just has some major expansion and is more like a mini-hospital than clinic. so when there isn't much to do in the village we've been painting at these places.

i've also successfully grew a few (fifteen out of forty seven seeds) been trees for the village and next week i will be handing them out to a few guys who will plant them so they can grow (inshallah-note previous post)...these trees are like the super tree here. they can grow anywhere and grow fast, their beans and leaves are edible (the leaves used in my favorite dish here), the roots are natural water filters...they are great. i really really really want to be able to do a few gardens of them and spread the bean tree love throughout the village.

there's also vaccinations days at the clinics, causeries that we are sometimes able to do, routine house calls, and in between at all that we got the potato study i'm helping out with which is very interesting and i'm glad to be a part of it. it will be exciting to see how each distribution and weighing goes. i could even blog about in the project in detail...

for another day perhaps.

so yea, it's been a busy time. i've even turned a year older in the midst of it. i even got birthday haako and it was goooood. best i've had in country yet. so october just flew on by and i can't believe that november is nearly half over too...with thanksgiving right around the corner-yikes!

well, that's all for the quick update. now that we got internet at the regional house i hope to be able to post more frequently and share a few of the more exciting stories.

cheers!
jaime