the gift that carries on.

The gift that carries on.
I’m sitting in Medina Ndiatbe, the home to my nearest fluent English speaking physical human being, the home to my nearest electricity source, the home to the nearest soda selling boutiques, the home to the nearest crème glace, the home to the nearest market with variety, the home to the nearest fan, the home to full cell phone reseau. The home to where Hadiel has been working on various work related projects all day. I come here, hang out with Amber, get work done, drink cold water, eat tons of crème glace, eat more crème glace, charge my electronics so I can “last” at site until my next trip to Ndioum (don’t judge me. It’s hard sleeping at night with no music. It’s hard remembering your p90x work outs with no mp3 player, it’s hard going for runs hearing nothing but the water slush around your camel pack, it’s hard getting work done when your computer is dead, it’s hard knowing when you’re supposed to be in Thies for trainings in a week because people contact you via email, it’s hard knowing you have a report due in a week which was also sent to you via email, it’s hard not being able to take pictures of your awesome climb up the water tower, it’s hard not having 2 full cell phone batteries when you’re provided with free volunteer-to-volunteer calling, I need my daily Steve updates.)
The updates on my site: Mamadou (my boss) recently came to my site, after I sent him a heartfelt email/cry for help. I don’t have any counterparts at my site, and I thought I could do things on my own, but there was a lack of sustainability to everything I was attempting. The meeting went really well, and I’m really appreciative Mamadou came out to hold this meeting. The people who attended the meeting all made the comment that I had told them about my concern already, and that they realized they never took it serious or did anything about it, it was reassuring hearing that these people listen to me, and that they realize I’ve already attempted to handle things myself and that I had to call for back up. It’s horrible that back up was needed, but it’s great that Peace Corps provided it for me. I got new counterparts, and people in the village are taking on a new sense of responsibility for my work. I can tell people are more serious about the projects I want to do and that they’re more excited about it. It doesn’t hurt that a recent documentary about Peace Corps role in Senegal has been on the local Senegalese channels lately, for those people who have televisions or have been able to hear about the documentary they seem to have a greater knowledge about Peace Corps work. The disc jockey of a nearby radio station Cas Cas was at the meeting (he had a meeting a few hours before us about the new community rural representatives from Aram), it was a good thing he was a part of my meeting as well because he supported me in my concern, he made the comment of the village having a volunteer and their lack of utilizing the volunteer for what they’re worth, suggesting I go to his village instead. The disc jockey recorded Mamadou after the meeting about Peace Corps work, and about the meeting, etc. He also assigned me to work with the new community rural representatives, the new group is for the development of Aram; I met the newly assigned position holders and we scheduled a meeting for the following Friday. The greatest thing about these new position holders is they’re young, a mean older than me but they’re not old men, which was a huge complaint on my part. My village father is a great man, and can get anything done for me that I need, but he’s old and that makes it hard to work with him. I need someone young who can get up and walk with me to the school whenever the teachers need a talking to, or help building a fence, or help distributing trees. Instead I tend to use young children for some tasks, which isn’t any better because things get out of control. It’s nice that my language skills are getting better and I’m learning from my lessons. I’m making notes about what I need to do in order to make my work go better, it would have been better if this had happened in the beginning but it’s never too late.
Podor Department volunteers and myself are working on a Girls Leadership Camp come July 10th, the camp will continue until July 16th. We will be holding the camp at the Ndioum Tostan house. The obviously for female students only, grade levels 5th and 6th, but the greatest part; ever year volunteers can hold a scholarship contest with middle school girls who are going on to high school, well thankfully Jonno conducted the scholarship contest (not really a contest, everyone wins) and we’ll be using his scholarship girls from last year to be junior camp counselors. They’ll have various responsibilities, hold sessions, be role models, and get hands on experience of what it’s like actually being in a leadership position. This is going to be incredibly exciting, and all the volunteers are really dedicated for this to be as much fun as possible! We’ll have various sessions including arts and crafts, cross culture, environmental lessons, sexual health, leadership roles, assertive communication, short term and long term goals, career panel, and lastly a graduation ceremony; a household representative (hopefully a father) will attend this ceremony and a gender and development instructor will hold a meeting with the fathers about the challenges the girls face in their lives to continue their education, and why it’s important for the fathers to support their daughters education. The girls will then present their career goals to their fathers and how the girls will obtain these goals. Then diplomas will be handed out, pictures will be taken, drinks will be drunk (not alcoholic! Bissap rekk), hands will be shaken. And all the volunteers will walk away realizing that was the greatest part of our service. (Yes, I’m already making that claim and it hasn’t even happened yet) YAY Girls’ Education!!
Speaking of education, why don’t you guys want the people in Aram to read books? Literacy is an incredibly important issue, give me your money. Go to the peace corps partnership website and donate money. I’ll post the link once I get to Ndioum. I don’t have much time on the internet, I’m using this awesome thumbdrive where you buy phone credit and put it on the SIM Card inside the thumbdrive and you can get internet anywhere – but probably not my site, I’ve never tried I’m just assuming.
Right now the students are all on vacation, until next Monday. While students are on vacation they return to their home villages, so a lot of students have returned to Aram seeing as we only have a Primary school, all the other students have to live in other villages to go to middle-high school. So a lot of fun people are back in my site, and it’s been exciting. One student has been “tutoring” me as I’ve been tutoring him in English. These tutor sessions have only happened 3 times, and what happens is, he yells at me that I don’t understand anything. He’s actually really mean, at first I thought this would be really encouraging and push me to want to learn, NOPE! I’m a baby and need to be pampered with my learning. He even told me I didn’t know English, say what?! He’s a cool dude, I’m just a learner who needs to be constantly reminded that I’m amazing. Hahaha at least I can admit it.
So site is amazing like always, I got to climb the water tower which was really scary because I’m terrified of heights but it was sooo fun! I got to take some pictures but then my camera died. I made the man whose in charge of the water tower, who also climbed up with me (there’s a ladder you guys, this wasn’t any hard core climbing) I made me scream with me off the top of the water tower. If you climb that high, you’ve got to scream with all your might. It was amazing! So much fun, he just laughed and once again like everyone always says “I swear Penda” (Penda is my local name). I don’t know exactly what they’re all swearing about me, but I hope it’s my witty comments, and my secret charm; it’s probably the fact that all I do is laugh. I think they’re hilarious, and I think I’m hilarious (duh). P.S. Every time I try to say “I’m funny” in Pulaar, people don’t understand me because I can’t pronounce the word that well- which ultimately makes me laugh even harder; making me want to be able to tell people how stinkin’ funny I am!
Well that’s my update for now.

Huda I hope you got my package… that I sent you…. From Africa!
Check out the International Art Exchange pictures on my Picasa album.
Check out my Ag Seminar pictures.
Donate money to get my students some books!