A day in the life

Ramadan, man.  Wow.  So, they get up before sunrise to eat breakfast, then don’t eat anything or even drink water until the mosque sounds that the sun has gone behind the horizon. We break-fast with a date, then a cup of some kind of coffee and a beignet. I think most people eat bread, but my awesome cousin next door makes and sells beignets. Then, we eat Ceeb u Jeen (normally lunch stuff) for dinner at the normal time of about 9. My version is: wake up like normal and eat breakfast. Drink water often (must replace the copious amounts I sweat out). So far, I must admit, I’ve had a handful of cheez-its or trail mix and a couple Dove chocolates both days. But that’s it from about 9 ‘til about 7:30.  And it’s a trip!

Yesterday was really hard, because I got word that my beloved baby Huxley passed away. He lived a long happy life and was an amazing friend to me, my parents, and his buddy the wonderful Nando. But just when I found out a storm was rolling in, so I went for a long walk, got soaked, tried to pick a fight with the clouds, but you know, they just aren’t very fighty. Not much more to say about that. It was hard, and it still hurts, but loss… yeah all that.

What I really want to talk about is life here. I want to explain today’s experience of Ramadan, which was kind of awesome. After that storm we had two more good rains before morning, so today was relatively cool (compared to yesterday’s hellish sauna). I did laundry from about 11-1, not super wise, seeing as it’s the hottest, sunniest part of the day. I sunblocked like crazy, but still got a little burned. I find doing laundry here totally enjoyable though. It’s just… kind of zen. Then I set out for my counterparts house, where my 9 year old cousin lives. Before I left for Thies, I promised her we’d paint our nails when I got back, so I brought my nail polish. I also brought a bag of candies I bought in Thies to give out to kids here. That was a great outing. I hit all the kids of Niangeen (my neighborhood), then went to sit with my small friend Ndeye-Baby (she’s really lovely) for a little pink toe-nail action. When we finished, the sleepiness hit. Getting hungry in the heat of Senegal leads to serious sleepiness.  So, just like yesterday, I found a spot on a mat under a tree with some friends and layed down. I wanted to ascend, and I did, but was asleep by the middle of the third sphere. Lovely nap. That’s one thing I seriously dig about Ramadan here. Everybody gets their work done early in the day, when breakfast hasn’t completely faded yet, then parks it under a tree or in their rooms for most of the day. I prefer the under a tree option. And at two o’clock when the mosque sounds it “yalllaaaaaah hu ak bar” (sure I spelled that all kinds of wrong), everyone does they’re prayers, and then lies down and passes out.  It’s kind of beautiful to see all these people laying together sleeping under trees… After doing a little clean-up in my room, I headed out to try to get ice. Ndeye-baby wanted to get the ice for me, but I wanted to go too so we went together. They were out of ice, but there were kids there I hadn’t hit yet.  So I left to get my candy. Ndeye came with. We were stopped three times and I was asked to sit and talk, but I was on a mission, and it was getting close to break-fast time. I got my candy, and played santa (or something) for awhile. I can’t possibly express how enjoyable this was. I mean, a bunch of not so young people asked me for candy, and I gave it to them, and somehow this was hilariously adorable to me. Why? Again, I can’t explain. Let me just say that the tiredness and hunger of Ramadan can lead to a state of slap-happy euphoria. That’s really the point of this story. Maybe that’s just as many people as say that Ramadan is hard say that it’s a good time. Mind altering hunger. Yay! HAH!  Well, so that’s that.

Here’s something I wish I could just show you a picture of, because explaining just won’t suffice. But my camera seems not to be sensitive enough to photo the stars here. My first night back, I was absolutely blown away by the sky. I mean, I’ve seen the milky way here before. And it’s beautiful. But this was different. This was CRAZY. There was a patchy stripe all the way across the sky, and everywhere was static, no blackness, just blue-sparkly (J). The milky, creamy strip of GLORIOUS also contained an even darker part than the most sparsely starred part of the rest of the sky.  Was this a hole it the disk of stars I was looking through? Or was is dark matter? I don’t know!! It was AMAZING though. Again, I’m sorry, words fail, but GOD I wish I could share this experience with everyone.  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything so AWE-some. And to top it off, there was a storm moving in, so intermittently there was lightning flashing across the edge of the sky, and the energy of it was palpable. OH man.  SO grateful to have been just there to stand and stare in awed wonder. There’s an inexplicable intimacy I felt with the BIG from being so small in it. Just wonderful…..  mmmmm…..

Tomorrow is the first day of Ramadan.  So, that means everyone in my village will be up before sunrise to eat a small breakfast, then will not eat or drink anything until the sun sets. For a month.  Except women who are menstruating, and theoretically nursing or pregnant mothers. Though sometimes women in these categories still fast. Several women in my village were fasting when I left for IST to make up for the days they would be menstruating (and therefore eating) during Ramadan. I certainly will NOT be giving up my water. That sounds like death, given how much I sweat lately.  But I am going to try fasting.  At least, getting up, eating breakfast (probably not before sunrise) and then not eating anything until break-fast.  I have no religious motivation for this plan, but since I’m all about ethnographic participant observation and cultural immersion and all that, I’ll give it a go.  Maybe I’ll even do a couple days full out (except the water part. Sorry. Can’t do it.)

Fortunately, my Wonderful parents are coming in just over two weeks!! So for the week they’re here, I will definitely be eating. And for a couple nights at least, sleeping in air conditioning!! Hooooray!! Also, oh my gosh, I get to spend some time with my parents! And ascend with them, and laugh with them, and talk about stuff like ascending and god and science and life and probably some mundane stuff too.  SOOO excited!!!

Meanwhile, its back to village for two weeks. Which I’m really glad about. Two weeks away is a long time and I miss pretty much everything about my life in village. Also, now that IST has happened, I have a much better idea of some of the work I can actually be doing. I’m thinking well improvements (adding covers to keep feces from blowing in when the wells aren’t in use), possibly starting a CARE group (getting a core group of women in the village to get together to practice better health or environmental practices and then teaching their neighborhoods what they’ve learned), tree planting, rocket stoves (hugely more fuel efficient with less smoke to damage womens lungs as the cook, made of locally available materials), some kind of school club for life skills and self empowerment, and next year building a school wall. It’s a start. Since it’s Ramadan, I’ll spent this month doing my baseline survey—which is so much more possible now that I know what work is possible here, and have spent two months getting an idea of what my community considers valuable and how they work together.  So, this first week I’ll get all my stuff together from IST and review the ideas I had there and what questions I need to ask specific friends in village. Then I’ll have a week to start the survey, then a week with my parents, then the rest of Ramadan to finish the survey. Sometime in September, my bosses will be coming to my village to see my two-year action plan. For this meeting, I need a committee of village members who have to sign off the plan. Unfortunately, it was explicitly put forth as the responsibility of my community counterpart to create this committee, and that has not happened. In fact… [censored]. Not sure how I’m gonna deal with that one, but I trust that it will work out perfectly. Whatever that means J

Also in September, we have our first ever Walo girls camp (the Walo is the eastern Saint-Louis region and the Louga region just beneath us). I didn’t get here in time to go through the process of getting girls from my village in on the fun, but next year I will, and I’m excited to help with the camp anyway. I mean, it’s a camp. And I love the chance to do something to encourage girls to stay in school and choose their own life-path, to emphasize that they don’t have to get married and have babies and do house work for the rest of their lives if that isn’t what they want. If it is, that’s okay with me to. I just think its important that they know they have the right to self determine.

On that note, here’s an interesting fact about the Peace Corps: a large number of projects here are funded by YOU GUYS! That is to say, we don’t get funds from the Peace Corps, we write up a grant, and through official Peace Corps channels, post it on the internet and ask for donations from anyone and everyone we know. There’s a chance that somewhere down the line I will ask for funding for a personal project, and I’m slightly hesitant to play that card so early in my service. Still, a little money goes a long way here. So, I’m going to ask.  This girls camp will cost us $5,000. That includes the space we’re renting from the University of Saint-Louis, food for everyone and cooks to make it, all materials for the sessions, and a small per-diem for our Senegalese counterparts who will be working as presenters and counselors. If you support the work we’re doing with these girls, please consider donating. Even a $5 contribution will help. You can donate at pcsenegal.org by clicking on the Camp Gem Sa Bopp link (the name of the camp means “believe in yourself!” There’s a picture of me on there too! Yay! Also, there’s a lot of other cool information about the work we do here on the site. Check it out!

That’s all I’ve got for now. I have spent way too much money these last two weeks, but had a great time with my friends from PST and am now completely ready to get back to normal village life. I miss pulling water from the well! What is that? So, onward!