Belated Birthday Wishes

Ngar Gueye September 2013

 Last September the fields surrounding my village were looking lush - millet stalks were waist high, peanut plants covered the ground, and the baobab trees finally had leaves. Rainy Season 2013 sprinkled in June, rained sporadically in July, and was pouring regularly by August. After a few months of hot dry hot season in early 2014 I was ready once again to embrace the humidity and the insects of rainy season. But after one crazy rain in early June, I saw a whole lot of nothing coming from the sky. By the time August rolled around, everyone in my village was seriously worried.

Ngar Gueye August 2014

Every household relies on their crops to fill their lunch bowls and their harvest to fill their wallets for the entire year. No rain means no peanuts, no millet, no beans, no baobab fruit, no bissap flowers, no corn. I asked my mother Ndeye Kante if there had been previous years of drought and what happened. "Metti na, xiif na," was her response. "It was hard, we were hungry." Men in my village have been having emergency prayer sessions at the mosque and women have been organizing outlandish rain dances.


To do my part, I'm requesting help from my fellow Americans - to do whatever y'all feel is appropriate. Envision green fields, pray to an appropriate power, listen to Toto a few times, dance for rain, anything you want. I turned 25 years old last week and all I want for my birthday this year is a real rainy season. Thank you!

Also this: http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/pdf/west-africa-outbreak-infographic.pdf

So far, so good in Senegal.