Work and Play

sama muus - ki moo ma sonnal

The first month of 2014 brought me successes and failures in my working life, an all-night party in my village, and a lovable hellion of a kitten. I had no intention of adopting a pet, but after this guy showed up right my door and mewled for a solid 12 hours I broke down. The Wolof word for milk is "meew," so my host mother ordered me to buy some powdered milk to appease the kitten's cry of "meow, meow, meow." He is a joy and a terror. In terms of work, I started a series of hygiene and nutrition lessons at my elementary school. The highlight so far was covering kids hands in glitter and oil to teach them about handwashing. Now when I see kids around town they always say, "Arame, my hands have microbes on them. I need soap to clean them!" Success.

Idrissa seeding lettuce and tomatoes

I also had the brilliant idea to start a home garden to demonstrate how easy and affordable it can be to grow your own nutritious lunch ingredients. Hah! Failure. I invited my three favorite agricultural volunteers over to create garden beds with amended soil and seed lettuce, tomatoes, moringa, sunflowers, and marigolds. Currently the moringa is (cautiously) growing while all the others fell victim to heat, bad seeds, chickens, birds, crickets, squirrels, and/or cat attacks. I complained to my host mom that I watered and watered until I wanted to die (transporting 200 liters/day is no joke) and all I cultivated was a sore back. All in all, I learned a lot about gardening, patience, and humility and am excited to try again in late February.

breastfeed exclusively for six months: no food, no water

At my health hut, I decided to paint a series of murals inside the maternity ward to educate new mothers. Women in my village are incredibly responsive to visual aides and since most of them are illiterate, murals are a great teaching tool. New mothers usually hang around the health hut with their mothers, sisters, aunts, etc. for four or five hours after giving birth and basically they all just sit around and stare at each other and the walls and the new baby. Now they will be forced to stare at my murals! My first mural encourages exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of the child's life and has been very well received. Success. Next mural: young children's nutritional needs.

my host sister and myself: matchy matchy

But enough work, let's play! In January we had Gamou, the celebration of Prophet Muhammed's birthday. There was a celebration mid-month that was pretty low-key in my village, then we re-celebrated at the end of the month in a big way. The event was referred to as a "jangi," like a study session, and I think even now that I might have hallucinated parts of it. Here's how it all went down. During the day a car rolled in and unpacked and installed a gigantic tent, speaker system, christmas lights, a laptop, and a bunch of plastic chairs. We ate a particularly delicious dinner (spaghetti and chicken) around ten pm, donned our matching outfits, and convened in the tent around midnight. For the next seven hours (!) we sat in our chairs and listened to a group of men in the middle scream and sing and chant prayers and make speeches. The sitting was punctuated by demure dancing around the men and throwing money in a collective pile in the middle. It was strangely thrilling to be wearing the same outfit as two hundred other women and up all night in an environment that usually sees me in bed at nine pm.

prayers in the front, matching outfits in the back

Of course the night had its ups and downs. My mood peaked from about three am to six am, dancing and taking pictures. Then I was consumed by feeling annoyed at the hearing loss I was no doubt sustaining and angry at the men who came around to hassle me when I fell asleep in my chair. Luckily around seven they passed out coffee and we had one final dance circle and prayer recitation before everyone scattered to go home for breakfast and all day naps. Most people slept until five pm and I felt like I was participating in an 800 person hangover. And it was great.

he strikes this pose pretty frequently

 Overall, I've been enjoying the so-called cool season - high temperatures only in the low nineties! - and living happily with my family and friends in village. How could I not be enjoying life when my little brother shows up like this at my door in the mornings? He's been cranky lately, so I taught his mom the phrase "terrible twos" and she uses it daily. It's been almost a year since I touched down in Senegal and somehow I'm still filled with excitement about future work and play here. Right now I'm on my way to a country-wide conference followed by a country-wide party. We're hosting the West African International Softball Tournament (WAIST), which is sure to be an unparalleled experience. I'm excited for some big city life after a month in Ngar and to bring new ideas back with me.