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Mental health and routine

Things have been good lately. I’ve been busy, and I’ve been here for a while so I’m slowly getting to that point where life at site is *semi* comfortable. I’m not constantly on edge like I was in my first month here, and Fanaye is really starting to feel like home. However, I’d be lying if I said I’ve been perfectly happy and content. Along with that feeling of comfort, also comes the loss of that “honeymoon – everything’s new and exciting” period. It’s starting to settle in that I’m here for the next year and a half… which most of the time is a relief (because how else would I make any sort of difference), but sometimes feels like a pit in my stomach. I think at the core of the tiny desire I have to leave is loneliness. No matter how many new friends I make, or how great my Pulaar gets, Fanaye will always feel lonely. I love my “Gogo Kane” (my Senegalese name) personality here. But it’s not the same as me back home. There are certain aspects of my life that I can’t share with people...
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Thoughts on integration

I recently read a book about Molly Melching, who is an American woman who came to Senegal in 1974 on a student exchange program. She ended up never leaving, and eventually founded an NGO that would go on to educate virtually all of Senegal about female genital cutting, which helped end the tradition in most Senegalese villages. One of the biggest keys to her success was how deeply she integrated herself into Senegalese culture. Like the Peace Corps, her NGO (which other than herself, is entirely Senegalese run) greatly values understanding the culture of a community, and what it’s people value most. It was an incredible, inspiring story, but I often think of one small part of it. Molly described her experience assimilating into Senegalese culture as “coming home.” The hospitable, kind, sharing, joking culture of Senegal made Molly feel like she fit right in. For me (and most other foreigners visiting Senegal), this hasn’t been the case. I think that bothered me early on. I was putt...
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Memorable moments/stories/funny things/happy things

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-           The cockroach incident: Ohhh boy let me tell you. I. hate. cockroaches. There’s no living creature that scares me more. I’ve had a roach problem ever since I moved in, and I was proud of myself for kind of sort of getting used to it…. There would usually be one or two in my bathroom every time I went in. But I got good at scaring them away before going in, and for the most part they didn’t leave the bathroom. But last month (rainy season means bug season) it started getting out of control. There would be 3 or 4, and it would be hard to scare them all away.. plus I was starting to notice them in my regular room. So when my Senegalese friend told me he sold cockroach killer spray at his store, I was so excited.  -           The stuff was supposed to kill them instantly, so when I saw one in my bathroom that night I decided to just go for it. This was such a mistake, because wh...
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Recent work and thoughts on development:

                Good news! I’ve been so incredibly busy lately, which any Peace Corps volunteer will tell you, is a real gift. I’ll detail my projects in a bit, but for now, let me just say that creating sustainable change is really really hard in practice. We talked our ears off about how to make our projects sustainable during training. The last thing we want is to be that development organization that comes in, spends a lot of resources, pats themselves on the back, and then leaves the community in the same place (or worse off) than they found it. This concept seems obvious, and it’s hard to find a decent NGO that doesn’t have the word “sustainable” somewhere in its mission statement.                 But now that I’m in the meat of it, actually trying to get projects going on the ground.... there are so many roadblocks that get in t...
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Senegalese Food

Alright, so I’ve been thinking about how I would write about Senegalese food for a while. I’m just going to go right out and say that the food here has been one of my biggest challenges. This is not at all the case for most volunteers (many Americans love it and talk about ways they can make some of the dishes when they go back home), and being a vegetarian has certainly added another level of difficulty to integrating into Senegalese food culture…. But I simply do not like most Senegalese foods, vegetarian or not. A friend pointed out that perhaps this is because of the little spice packets (unfortunately containing MSG, but also many nice spices that most people like) that they put in every dish. It’s possible that I simply don’t like that mix of spices. There’s also these little dried fish that they’ll often mash up and put into sauces that they claim are vegetarian. They have a strong smoky/fishy taste that doesn’t agree with me.         ...
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Senegalese Customs

Time: The Senegalese concept of time was one of the first cultural differences that was hammered into our heads during training. Similar to many places around the world, punctuality is not a value here. You can set times for events, but don’t expect people to show up on the dot. Most volunteers eventually stop showing up at the exact time of the events they plan because otherwise they could be waiting an hour or two. Most events are also planned around the 5 prayer times each day. They’ll say after Tisbaar (around 2:00ish) or after Tokosan (5:00ish). I’ve really come to enjoy the way time slows down here. It’s of no importance how long things take. One of the most beloved traditions – making tea (attaya) – takes a crazy amount of time to make compared to typical tea in America. They’ll boil the tea until it’s very hot, add sugar, etc. and then toss it back and forth between the little shot glasses over and over again to cool it down. It’s all a part of the ritual. It they cared abo...
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Thoughts on Development

I’ve been thinking a lot about development practices – what works, what doesn’t, and how the Peace Corps fits in. At one point in particular, I remember feeling incredibly cynical. I was heading to our technical training after 3 months at site, not having done any real work. I’d been doing surveys/research and studying Pulaar, and I’d recently been told that you don’t learn all that much at technical training. Why was I here then? My language wasn’t coming along very quickly and it didn’t seem feasible that I’d be able to start any significant sustainable projects.  I kept wondering why they were paying a fresh college grad from the US, with no real knowledge, to teach the Senegalese how to sell things in their own villages. It seemed like a lot of wasted energy, when, to do the same thing, the Peace Corps could simply train Senegalese who already speak the language and know the culture. They’d be creating jobs, and they wouldn’t have to spend all that money on plane tickets, lan...
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