Bryn's News

return of the blog?

2011-03-22T04:30:00.002Z

Hey team!

I assume no one will see this, but here's the thing: I'm currently writing my thesis in Australia on Chinese intellectual property legislation. I was here for a year, lots of things happened. Then I left for four months, spent some time in Austin and some time in Hong Kong working at the US Consulate. Now I am back and have ten weeks to hammer out my thesis before I take off traveling with Ben who has taken nine months off work to travel around the world. His blog will be more interesting because he is generally a more eloquent writer and is currently traveling while I am melting in the Queensland sun, but eventually I may have sometime to say and I want you all to be prepared in case I do.

For some reason blogger won't let me transfer my account to google, so I am stuck with Yahoo meaning I can't use a lot of Blogger's fancy applications. If, in an attempt to procrastinate the 12,000 words I have to write before May 29th, I feel moved to share thoughts and feelings with you, I may. Or, like last time, a year may pass with no further communication. We'll see.

Australia!

2010-02-11T02:50:00.002Z

I am living in the year 2000.

Not really, but it kinda feels like it. Since I've been here I've spent my time trying to catch up with my old friends and host families and getting my feet firmly planted on the ground. It's been awesome. Everyone seems basically the same, the streets I once played on still feel familiar and the humidity is just as I remember it.

Yesterday I went to the beach with Troy and didn't really take any pictures because, as I said to him, I already have them all. :)

But seeing everyone has been great. I don't feel too motivated to write, but I will try to write more often. I have a phone and a beautiful place to live right on the river, 3km from the city one way and 3km from the university the other way. My scholarship is absolutely amazing, I have my own office/desk/computer waiting for me at the uni and hope hope hope I can work hard enough to deserve everything everyone is doing/has done for me.

I miss Austin but think once I can go dancing here I will be OK. Tonight is that night! I'll be happy if I get one or two mediocre dances since I'm not sure how many dancers are coming out, but any dances are good! :)

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

2010-02-05T12:58:00.000Z

Well everyone, here I go again, out into the wide open air!

Today I return to my travel roots, retracing a path I created long ago that led me on a trajectory I could never have imagined. Almost ten years ago I got on a plane as a 15 year old and flew to Brisbane, Australia to be a Rotary Youth Exchange student for a year. I'd never been overseas before. This was before September 11th, when your friends and family could walk you right up to the gate. When sometimes, without your consent you'd be put on an earlier flight so you'd be sure to make your connections. Before text messaging was even a concept in the US (though it was already pretty big in Australia.) Before Facebook and Blogger and before every time you had a question you turned to a computer. Before my sister went to MIT, before I had my driver's license. Before everything.

Since then, I have lived on five continents, traveled to six. Had numerous wonderful loves and broken hearts. Made and left friends all over the world that I still think of every day. And kept friends that I've had long before all my travels. I discovered a passion for swing dancing. I found Allah, or God, or whatever you call it. My life has changed.

Now I return to Brisbane ten years older. With Rotary, again, this time as a Rotary Peace Scholar to get my masters at the University of Queensland in International Conflict Resolution. They are paying for everything: my flights, room and board, schooling, life. I am going to see friends Sunday night when I arrive that I haven't seen for nine years. Friends that I consider some of my closest. And I hope they still are. Friends that now have babies, and jobs and husbands and wives. Older friends.

I am nervous, but know everything will be fine. I will miss my life in Austin, but I will create a new life in Brisbane.

I have a tradition. Every time I start a new adventure, the night before I read myself "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" by Dr. Suess. It is by far my favorite book and just about anyone who knows me has heard me quote a line or two. No one else reads it to me, and if no one else is around, I still read it aloud. I read the same copy Matt Kime gave me before I moved to Australia. I read it with Kissie, the stuffed elephant Hillary Feinstein gave me before I moved to Australia and has now traveled with me everywhere. I read it in the bed, on the sheets, that I have had since my childhood.

You should read it aloud to yourself too. It will reinvigorate you to create something with your life. Here's a pretty good youtube version if you want it to be read to you.

The other side of South America...

2010-01-17T00:31:00.003Z

Well, here I am in La Paz. I had a pretty great day. I took mom to the airport at 5 am and hopefully she´s just about home now. I got to watch the sunrise over La Paz on my way back in to town. The sun illuminating the mountains and the clouds rolling off the ridiculously large city. La Paz is breathtaking. Its in a bowl and for as far as you can see there are houses and people and streets. In the background, the Andes loom over the city keeping this crazy energy inside the bowl.

I slept a couple more hours and got up to have a full hour long massage (my first ever!) complete with hot stones on the trouble spots followed by the best pedicure I´ve ever had. Two hours later I had spent $20 US and felt perfectly pampered. I had lunch with my sis before she left and then packed up and relocated to the Loki hostel on the seedier side of downtown. I wandered around a bit, ending up at the National Museum of Art. It was a wonderfully hilarious museum. The best way I can describe it is like this: An art class was given as assignment (say, the coronation of the Virgin Mary or the past rulers of Bolivia), everyone in the class painted their interpretation of the event, and then the hung all the different versions on the walls. I mean, seriously, there was an entire room of coronation of the Virgin paintings that varied only just. I kind of laughed my way through the whole thing, though there were some very interesting paintings that I stopped for a while to look at. They also had a poster exhibition, in english, about free speech in Iran. It was interesting, I admit, but the weird connections between Iran and Bolivia are kiiiind of awkward, especially in the national museum.

On a not-really-related tangent, yesterday we went to Tiwanaku, a pre-Incan site outside of La Paz. It left much to be desired. The site was basically destroyed by the Spanish, there´s a half finished museum with terrible lighting, no one has any idea why the site was there or what its significance was in the overall Tiwanakan empire, and the upkeep leaves much to be desired; there are shards of ancient pottery and bones scattered all over the site just waiting to be excavated- or taken by tourists. The best part of the half-day excursion was that next week, January 21st, Bolivia´s coca leaf chewing, agricultural, socialist leader, Evo Morales, is being sworn in Again- at Tiwanaku. So our trip coincided with the dress rehearsal for the main event which will be attended by various world leaders from as far afield as Iran (again!), Spain, Syria, Chile, etc. I didn´t hear anything about a US representative though the private security force prepping the site were all definitely american ¨mercenaries¨. The coordinators were walking past the ¨Don´t pass¨ signs and touching the thousand year old statues that have barely survived the last 700 years, and generally taking advantage of the space. There were maybe 3-400 people at this rehearsal. Next week there will be 40,000. I don´t think the archeological site stands a chance.

But back to now. I am at the Loki hostel and really experiencing the other side of south American tourism. I am so grateful my mom isn´t staying here (it reeks of smoke, there are LOUD backpackers everywhere) and I am pretty damn happy I´ll only be here tonight and when I come back to go to the airport. There is a bar and from what I can tell everyone here (mostly Australians) drink at the bar all night long, go out to clubs, snort a lot of cheap cocaine, come back and sleep all day long just to get up and do it all again. The few people I have talked to have all pretty much lost track of how many days they´ve been here, how much they´ve spent, and what day it is- or was- the last time they saw the sun. One girl said she was going to Tiwanaku tomorrow and a group of seven people all said, ¨Where? What´s that?¨even though Tiwanaku is basically the biggest tourist site around. Amazing.

So I am headed to the jungle tomorrow. Or, rather, an eco-tourism site not too far from La Paz, but in a tropical setting. I read about it on some travel blogs months ago when I was doing research and it seemed like a great place to go and relax before I go back to Austin and my life totally changes. I was looking forward to going with my mom, but I think it will be good by myself too. It´s called La Senda Verde if anyone wants to check it out: La Senda

Until then, it´s 9 pm on a Saturday night, and I´m going to shower and crash. As appealing as a night of cheap cocaine and beligerent Australians sounds, I think an early night of good sleep sounds much better. Sweet dreams, all!

Poor Fonts

2010-01-12T12:39:00.002Z

We´ve left the magical (and apparently wealthy) city of Cusco for the higher regions of lake Titicaca. On the lush drive through the rain soaked Andes, we drove through towns that remarkably resembled Senegal. The wealth descrepency between Lima and Cusco was strong, but not that bad. Now we have entered a much poorer and struggling region. The street food stands, flooded streets, rebar sticking out of every building, trash strew about, farm animals roaming the streets, and the tacky cheap fonts that I have come to associate with the developing world. I can´t upload pictures here but for any of you who have traveled from Developed to Developing world, you must know what I´m talking about. The bubbly water ads, hair dresser´s signs in bright pink, billboards for all sorts of cheap food seasonings (read- MSG) with back shadows and bright orange... You know what about it. I don´t care about fonts, generally, but marketing is something I think about. We´ve got to import some savvy, sexy fonts down here, tourists aint buying the tacky stuff anymore.

Anyway, we are on our way out for a cruise on Lake Titicaca today and we are staying with host families tonight. It sounds like a kitschy experience, but I´m sure I´ll enjoy parts of it. In other news my stomach seems to have made a full recovery and I am back to my chipper self, alhamdulilahi. Buenos Dias, all!

Written from the hospital yesterday....

2010-01-09T23:06:00.004Z

Friday, January 8, 2010 2:13pm

Well. Here I am writing another update. This time from the sun-shine-y room of a private clinic in Cusco where I have been since last night. Indeed, the belly button of the earth has swallowed much of me, though I am slowly regaining strength and hopefully will be ready to be a happy tourist again tomorrow. Sadly, tomorrow my mom and sister will go to Maccu Picchu without me as transport cannot be arranged for a sickly lady and my body isn't ready for another mountain climb. This trip that has been so many years in the making is, therefore, being reconstructed. I do so hope that my mom has the most incredible experience of her life and that my sister will share it with her the way I would have liked us all to share it together. Allah sometimes has interesting plans and I don't fight with him.

It was hard to admit that not only was I too sick to go paragliding in my UT shirt yesterday (sorry about the results, Texans!), but was also too sick to even get out of bed (well, the ten feet between bed and the bathroom...). After 24 hours of constant pain and two doctors coming to visit me in the hotel, it was decided I should come here to receive better treatment. I have been hooked up to an IV ever since and have been getting cipro administered as well as constant blood pressure checks, two blood tests and two stool samples. (sexy, I know)

But do not fret for me, good readers. My situation is not so terrible. I may have been the sickest I have ever been yesterday (and that's saying a lot considering my travels in China and Senegal) but things aren't so bad for a white girl with money in the developing world. I have a room all to myself with a comfy bed and warm alpaca blankets. The nurses are very kind to me despite the language barrier, we are trying our best to communicate. My sister left me her little computer and while I don't have internet access, I can type and play solitaire and look at the loving pictures sent to me by Ben (best boyfriend ever) and the crew at the Fed last night, thank you so much everyone. I found a copy of The Corrections (one of my favorite books) at our hostel and brought it with me to the clinic, I'm already 100 pages in. I don't really remember arriving here (I was in a wheel chair!) so have no idea what the rest of the clinic is like but my room is very nice. The bathroom is clean (thank god!). My window is huge and looks out (if I sit up) on to the Andes that make this town a perfect belly button shape. Our tour guide came to check on me this morning and said, “Look, you can see the cathedral out the window!” To which I replied, “Oh yea, I visited it the other day!” He was surprised. But this gives me a sense of calm. In the days I was well I saw as much of this town as my feet were able to show me and loved every bit of my explorations. The touring around the Sacred Valley left me with no need for more and greater, anything more just being icing on the cake. I can't describe the beauty of this place, and although I may not see Maccu Picchu tomorrow, I would never complain about returning to this magical mess of fault lines. And besides. I Will be better tomorrow and ready to continue my explorations to Puno, Lake Titicaca, and La Paz. Hopefully the updates will be filled with more exciting stories soon. Until then, dear friends, adios!

Something to say.

2010-01-06T20:55:00.003Z

Its been about ten months since I last wrote. In that time I've had just about the best year of my life, danced hundreds of hours, met an incredible man, reconnected with old friends and loved living in the US. The only time I left the US was for two days to go to Toronto with my sister in July. Why, with all these wonderful experiences did I not feel the need to write? Well, probably because you and you and you are all having exactly the same experiences in your american locales and don't really need to read about another fun night out off 6th street or how camping in Texas in November can still have warm days and beautiful crystal clear nights. You're doing it too. Maybe you're not, but as a summary:

My year in Austin was absolutely amazing. I got pretty into the swing dance scene and met some wonderful people and had some time-stopping dances. I traveled to San Antonio, Dallas (twice), New Orleans, Rochester and Toronto to dance. I met a great guy dancing that I decided to keep named Ben. I made all my friends come out dancing and a few of them have taken it up and started taking classes. I did not fail in the dancing department.

I had two jobs, for Emancipet and the University of Texas Board of Regents. I quit working at E+ in October and moved to almost full time at UT. It was great not having to work long hours on Fridays and Saturdays and wonderful to work downtown.

I spent all summer swimming at Barton Springs and I think I visited just about every art museum/concert venue/outdoor activity available in Austin. I went to a UT game, kayaked on lake Austin, hashed through the underground drainage tunnels of the city, got on stage to dance at the Mohawk on Halloween, climbed a mountain, spun under the Zilker park Christmas tree, saw Robert Earl Keen at Stubbs, ate numerous tacos out of numerous stands, took the bus almost everywhere, went toobing for my most wonderful birthday, spent Christmas at a super manly campsite in east Texas where I ate fresh smoked ribs and ten hour brisket, spent a night at the Driskill, and danced everywhere you can- and can't- imagine.

But now that wonderful adventure is coming to an end and I am now having seriously new adventures. I am writing this long overdue entry from Cusco, Peru (otherwise known as the bellybutton of the earth). Why am I writing a blog entry instead of playing outside? Well, the gods of travel have decided to cast a spell on my tummy and instead of sleeping through the sunlight, I decided to write a blog entry from a hammock in the beautiful garden of our hotel. Suck on that, gods of travel! [just kidding, please don't cause me anymore pain, gods!]

It is January 6th, Three Kings Day. There are very colorful and loud bands/groups traipsing around the city in crazy costumes to celebrate the holiday and it is pretty exciting to see all the different outfits. From what I can tell, each village/community organization has its own group that parades from its home base to the city center playing loud loud music on various instruments and encouraging the community to follow along. Last night, in Ollantaytambo (google, please), we got to see a small-town version of the same festivities. I kept thinking the guys in masks with whips would come after us tourists (a la Senegal) but they seemed very focused. One group kept pulling individuals out of the crowd, holding them in the air and tying and burning their shoelaces together. It was all in good fun and so easily enjoyed. Not like festivals in Senegal where if a crowd is asked to move back a riot erupts. With the Andes and ancient Inca ruins in the background it really felt like a unique experience that you just can't get every day on a tour.

I guess that brings me to why I'm writing today. I should tell you about seeing two Llamas grazing by a swing set, or the two people blowing bubbles in the market place today, or getting our passport pictures for our Bolivian visas and watching the picture taker photoshop our pictures so we wouldn't look so splotchy, or the breathtaking (literally, we're at 10,000 feet above sea level) views over the sacred valley (you can google it but it won't do it any justice because its the rainy season right now and everything is bright green), or the amount of gold in the many many churches I have already visited in Peru, but I have a question for you all. And yes, I know I have lost my entire reader base since last March. I will try to entice you all back.

Today I am wondering about where in the world one can have a unique tourist experience, if thats an oxymoron, if one would know it if it happened, and what tourism means to the local economy.

I have traveled a lot in the last few years, as you all know. This is my fourth tour around countries with my mom (Scotland/Ireland/Senegal/Peru and soon Bolivia) and we have very different ideas of how to define a unique tourist experience. When I saw the llamas grazing on the playground with no owner nearby, I felt like I was having a real experience. When we stopped at a ceramics factory with huge electric kilns and llamas in pens in the back, I wasn't buying into it. When I woke up early and went down to the just-opened market and had fresh squeezed orange and mango juice while watching the sellers set up, I knew I was the only tourist that day having that experience. When I went out for pizza with the rest of our tour group to a "real" Peruvian pizzeria and the Pan Flute band demanded tips from us, I felt like I was being jipped but everyone else was over the moon with excitement. A lot of the Incan ruins we've visited are 40% old and 60% new meaning the majority of what awes you is a reconstruction of past awesomeness. Is that OK? Legit? Does it matter if its unique if you get what you were expecting? My mom expects pan flute bands, so she loves them. Other people on the tour want to go salsa dancing, is salsa dancing native to Peru? I just don't know. Is it a real experience because I say it is? Because its what I expect as opposed to what others expect? What do I know about "real Peruvian culture"? How would I know when I was experiencing it without being immersed in this culture for two years as I was in Senegal? Are my unique experiences more real than others? I think probably not...

But it is interesting to see what tourism has done to all these cultures in developing countries. People from all over the world come to Peru to see llamas and Machu Picchu. Every small town we've been in we've heard the same things: the men are all porters on the Inca trail or taxi drivers in the city. The women make handicrafts to sell to tourists. The economy here is almost completely reliant on tourism, and as a result I feel like the "real experience" is lost behind pan flute bands and para gliding over the Andes (which, btw, I intend to do in the next couple days).As a result of all this economic muscle being invested into tourism, there is no incentive to invest in new development of cultural activities. So the tourism we experience now is a look at what once-upon-a-time-may-have-been-something-like-what-we-think-Peru-might-have-been-like as opposed to what it actually was, or IS. But now the IS is tourism. That is everything. If entire villages are buying taxis and making llama fur hats, that is Peru now, despite the fact that to me it may feel like a completely false representation of this culture I came to experience. So I am perplexed and wondering where in the world one can find this unique experience and if, in fact, what I think are real experiences are Real by nature of me thinking they are. Everyone has a right and an incentive to profit from tourism here, so I really shouldn't judge if an entire community of women dresses up in silly costumes to try to sell me ugly ponchos. Watching two llamas have sex behind their stalls made it totally worth it! But its hard to know what is real, what is fake, whether or not it matters, and how you feel about it. Anyway, this trip so far has been completely amazing and I expect it to continue. But please, let me know how you feel about this tourism catch 22, por favor.

SXSW!

2009-03-21T16:32:00.003Z

At 6 am on 6th street this morning I could barely tell that mere hours before the street, and all of Austin had been pulsing to the beat of over 1600 bands playing anywhere and everywhere throughout the city. The music portion of South by Southwest(SXSW) started Wednesday and life has been a little off kilter for everyone ever since. Thousands of drum sets and amps flood the city from every corner of the globe for one of the world's best known and most popular indie music events, converging on the city like the bats that live under Congress bridge, for five days of beats, breaks, and bass. Austin-ites charge anywhere from $100-500 night for out-of-towners to sleep on their FLOORS. Alcohol flows freely- and I mean for FREE. The glamorous put on their skinny jeans and line the bathrooms to do coke. Pillow fights break out randomly on the streets. Fans line up for hours to see their favorite indie bands and then drink with them later in crowded bars. Drum and bass plays across the street from gangsta rap with heavy metal and rock bands playing on either side. Tappers have showdowns in the middle of closed off streets. Everyone eats hotdogs. Credit cards are maxed out. A lot of credit cards are maxed out. Festival goers lucky enough to have badges or wristbands crowd in to all size of venues to see just about every up and coming act you can think of. Secret shows by Metallica and the Indigo Girls get whispered like top secret information. VIP is the word everywhere. People end up with 10+ wristbands and stamps on their arms from one day of walking around. And there are people. Everywhere. FROM Everywhere. And there is MUSIC. Everywhere. FROM Everywhere. It is incredible.

I have seen all different kinds of music and partied all night long and met amazing people and drank stupid amounts of free vodka and danced til I couldn't walk and been to house parties busted by the cops and I've barely done anything since I've had to work every day. Musical highlites for me so far- Kid Sister, The Egg (London), The Reagan Administration, The Heartless Bastards, and French Miami but I've found myself enjoying lots of other bands while wandering around whose names I will never know. Grizzly Bear, M Ward, The Black and White Years are all getting tons of hype.

But this morning at 6am, there were no signs of SX craziness to be found. The streets were empty save a few extra cabs. The pavement of 6th street shined having just been washed, the trash cans were all empty. I could have gone to work today never knowing that there was a festival at all. Except, of course, that I do know, and I am so very grateful to be taking part.

The Work Force

2009-03-06T17:04:00.004Z

Howdy folks.

I've started a new job this week with The University of Texas System (www.utsystem.edu for some reason my links aren't working). Its pretty great. Remember those nice men I was collecting signatures for a few weeks back? Well, one of them very kindly offered me a job and I'm so grateful because so far it seems like it will be a great opportunity to learn a lot of new stuff and experience a whole other side of Austin.

Anyway, now I have two jobs and bounce back and forth between EMANCIPE+ (www.emancipet.org the spay neuter clinic) and UT Systems Board of Regents office. Its gotten me thinking about all the various jobs I've had- mostly in an administrative capacity- and the very many differences between them all. In my head, my experience separates itself between Private companies, Non Profits and Government jobs. Each category seems to have defining characteristics and that's our topic today.

Non profits:
The first thing I always notice in non profits is the level of professionalism. You can get away with wearing converse to work and almost every desk will have little sticky notes that look about two years old with flowers drawn on them. This relaxed atmosphere works very well for a lot of people. It creates an environment where the office staff is normally pretty friendly and would probably invite each other out for drinks on the weekend. It also means that there is normally a lot of gossiping behind people's backs and when someone does something wrong, formal disciplinary action is normally replaced with a slight slap on the wrist. Non profits are also always tight on money which means the phone lines suck, the copier is always broken and the cleaner does a mediocre job at best. But the best and most redeeming thing about non-profits is how much people love to work for them. They are passionate about what they do and therefore get excited about coming in to work or working way long hours for very little pay. In that kind of environment it is exciting to be productive despite obstacles and rewarding when things go well.

Government jobs:
I have the least experience with these types but this is what I've gathered. Government jobs are cushy in that, although you may not be well paid, you get good benefits and as long as you do your job well enough that nobody complains you won't get in trouble and you won't get fired. There are a lot of birthday celebrations and cubicle toys in a government office. You have to wear slacks, but you can leave the tie at home. Chances are you're not going to see a window unless you walk to it. You can take long lunch breaks. You have five supervisors and are not sure what any of them do, some days you forget what you do. There are paper trails five miles long for every decision. Coffee is a very important part of a government job. You know the security guard at the door by name and may even know his kids names. Government jobs are great because they give you a lot of personal freedom although they may not challenge you much and if you blink you may realize its 20 years later and you're still at the same desk.

Private companies...
...are generally sterile. They are well decorated, very clean, and a lot of attention is paid to details in the office. But you probably have a cubicle anyway. Something about private companies always makes me feel a little uncomfortable. They're either too quiet or too fancy and I feel a little too "non-profit" for my environment. I don't like to wear heels, which are pretty much a requirement at least some days and I hate make up and that's never an option. People work very hard, but they get compensated well for it. They have huge budgets and use them to provide awesome services that are efficient and make money. At the same time, there are strict regulations for everything and all work and correspondence is well documented for auditing purposes. But! You probably get free drinks/food on a daily basis and as long as you get your work done you can even work out flex time. Also, you get cool perks like, "family appreciation days" at the local amusement park. (Not as cool if you're paying a mortgage, but I'll take it!) But its pretty easy to get away with forgetting your co-workers birthday, even though you've worked together for ten years.

The difference between EMANCIPE+, a low-cost spay/neuter non-profit where I have a cat living on my desk (her name is Bessie I'll put pictures up sometime) and any combination of gigantic dogs and chihuahuas slobbering on my stuff, and I go home covered with animal hair but still smiling after a ten hour day AND UT System where I wear make up and feel a real responsibility to work hard and the majority of the people we work for are millionaires, but I get to drink free tea all day and go home with red eyes from the fluorescent lighting is ASTRONOMIC. They could not be more conflicting environments, but I really do love them both and I appreciate that I get to do completely different, challenging work every day.

I don't know what the point of all that was, I just like to put my observations down and see if anyone has anything to say about them. My sister is coming to visit this weekend, and I'm throwing a Beers of the World party Sunday to welcome her to Austin. Hopefully it won't get too out of control (you'd think since I just moved here I wouldn't actually know anyone but somehow that's not the case) and we'll all have fun! Happy Weekend!

The coolest thing I've ever learned...

2009-02-25T17:11:00.006Z

I have told a few of you about the Tsetse fly. But I haven't written about it here so I thought now would be a good time.

Everybody knows that the Tsetse fly is the reason Islam stopped spreading south across Africa in the 10th century. Oh. You didn't know that? Well, lets begin.

Islam grew fiercely popular in the 8th and 9th centuries and the traders from the Middle East who traveled down to North and West Africa brought their religion with them. Most Africans at the time were animist (worshipped multiple gods, celtic style), and they were quickly brought into the Muslim fold. Today, all of these areas are heavily influenced by the Islamic culture brought to them 1000 years ago by these traders. That was all fine and good, until the Muslims got south of the Sahara and met a strange obstacle in the Tsetse fly. The Muslims, as did just about everybody in those days long ago, traveled by horse and camel across the desert and brought cattle with them to trade and eat along the way. At around the 10th parallel north, the Muslims left the Sahara and entered a more tropical climate. And then they stopped. For all their animals started to die.

The reason was the Tsetse fly, a carrier of Nagana, a disease that kills livestock but has no visible affects in game animals. At the time, no one understood the disease but it stopped the expansion of Islam in its tracks and even now Islam has barely penetrated south of the "Flybelt," as its called. OK, so there's not much Islam south of the flybelt, well who cares?

I do, and I'll tell you why.
At least two of the countries on the 10th parallel have been in bitter civil wars for most of their modern history. Sudan and Chad have both been decimated by genocide and internecine warfare. One of the main conflicts in both countries is the northern Muslims fighting with southern animists. Where are these lines of conflict drawn? Right on the flybelt. Now I don't mean to say that these conflicts are directly related to the Tsetse fly, but I think it is pretty amazing that 1000 years later the affects of a tiny little fly are still making themselves known in some of the most brutal conflicts on our planet.

I first read in depth about the conflicts in Chad and Sudan in Martin Meredith's book The Fate of Africa (called The State of Africa outside the US) and then was told about the Tsetse fly situation later. Meredith refers to the 10th parallel as the dividing line between Muslims and non-Muslims although he doesn't mention the Tsetse fly. The history of split government in that country is literally on the flybelt and I think that it just fascinating. Wars are being fought because of a fly. Not exactly because of a fly, but in my head, that fly is a pretty important part of International Relations. So, tell your friends about the bizarre case of the Tsetse fly and War in Sub Saharan Africa. I've looked all over the internet and haven't found anyone writing about the connection, so maybe I'll develop my theory through research and write my masters thesis about it.

I'm a Stranger Here Myself

2009-02-21T14:12:00.004Z

Any of you read this book by Bill Bryson? It's pretty funny, if not a trite anecdotal for my liking. However, it speaks for me and my kind in that it describes the bizarre discoveries one uncovers in America after living abroad for some time and then returning home. As I have done this readjustment a few times at this point, I often struggle to explain just What is so WEIRD about America. Bill has kindly done it for me. In his quips about this or that, he succinctly describes that which baffles all of us expats upon reentry. I will briefly summarize my experiences with some of his most poignant observations...
[I am alone at work today with nothing to do, so it will be long]

The aversion to walking:
This week I drove around a gym parking lot with a friend for ten minutes while he searched for the closest place to the door. In America, we pay to work out, so if we have to walk to the gym, its like free exercise, and we can't have that.

The aversion to public transport:
I often count, while walking, how many cars pass me with just one person inside, before I see a carpool. Sometimes it is as many as 30 cars. I'm sure some of these people are going the same direction, if not the same place. It may seem as if taking public transport is relinquishing personal freedoms but I think in fact it is just the opposite a lot of the time. I may be constrained by times and routes, but I am also free to read, sleep or talk on the phone while I get from place to place, saving myself from unwanted stress.

Options in grocery stores:
Bill talks about the number of incontinence diapers available. Well, I don't know much about that, but I think I mentioned counting stock at Whole Foods about a month ago? Wow does that place sell a lot of junk. They have about 600 options for hot teas(I'm not kidding). Who needs 600 types of tea? I'd like HOT tea, please, and no more decisions. Anyone who has been with me in a grocery store in the last four months definitely knows this is one of the most overwhelming parts of my re-acclimation to the US. Annie Bricker, her boyfriend Rick and I spent about 20 minutes picking out cupcakes the other night- it took that long because we had to decide between small or large, vanilla or chocolate, what kind of frosting, with sprinkles or without, carrot cake or mardi gras themed, etc. etc. It was a nice experience because I wasn't rushed, when too often I am.

Amounts of waste in America:
Back to Whole Foods. Every night they throw away everything in their bakery. I asked if I could have some pastries and they said they cover it all in rat poison so, no, it all gets wasted. About a mile away is a huge homeless shelter. Now, I'm not the biggest fan of giving away things for free but come on! This is like a literal TON of baked goods going to waste every night. And this is just in grocery stores- not to mention paper in offices, packaging material for marketing products, straws at restaurants, fruit that isn't perfectly shaped for our market, two year old cars, and everything else we carelessly dispose of after minimum use.

Donuts:
America has donuts. The rest of the world, except for maybe England, doesn't and has no idea what they're missing. This is an amazing thing about America. Obviously, there are other gastronomic examples of America's greatness- the brownie, Dr. Pepper, cheesecake, chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, bagels with lox, cheeseburgers, craw fish, 7-eleven "cappuccino" drinks, grilled cheese sandwiches, ice cream sandwiches, NY style pizza, broccoli cheese soup, and many more. Also. If you work where I do, people BRING DONUTS to work to SHARE with each other. Awesome.

Misnaming things:
It is not a roommate if you do not share a room. Granted, it is not a flatmate either, if you're not in a flat, but still. It is NOT a roommate. Arugula is called rocket. An eggplant is called Aubergine. Trash cans are rubbish bins. My brain can't get around these things. My word of choice in America is "thing" because if I point, and you know what I mean, it doesn't matter what my brain thinks its called.

Consumer Craziness:
I do not watch TV, nor do I know if BluRay or HD is better when purchasing DVDs. I have played with a Wii and have enjoyed the ocarina application on an IPhone but do not need these things to feel like a person. I do not need a gas grill and a charcoal grill. I have five pairs of shoes. One belt. I get my hair cut for free. I do not buy hypo-allergenic make up (nor do I where make up much). I don't have a car. I sort of understand why people want these things, but actually, I don't at all. I've lived so long out of a suitcase that buying frivolous things (other than the occasional bottle of bubbles) makes little sense to me. Shopping to buy these things is, to me, justification to never have them. I get so overwhelmed and stressed out by over-marketed fluorescent-lighted stores that I have to get some fresh air!

Open Spaces:
America is the best place in the world to play outside. There are parks, creeks and sidewalks in cities and rolling hills, mountains, lakes and fields to play in nearby. In England I used to play a game on the train where I'd try to find ONE view with NOTHING man-made in it- just total open nature. I never once found a view with no electric poles or distant country roads. In America, I LOVE to play this game on the train, because I get rewarded all the time. I chose to live in Austin so I can go outside and enjoy the sunshine, my sister lives in Rochester so she can play in the snow. America is a beautiful place to be outside.

Security concerns:
You can park your car on the east side. You can walk out to your car alone. You can ride the bus. You can leave your bag on a chair and go to the bathroom. It will still be there. You can leave your front door open when you're in the back yard. You will not be murdered. Just chill out. America is WAY safer than people seem to think. Maybe I have a false sense of security from all those CCTV cameras in England.

Drug laws:
Too many people are in jail in America because of petty drug offences. Put them in treatment programs and decriminalize marijuana. Go for the big coke dealers and collect taxes from the pot heads. It'd be so much easier.

Random acts of Kindness:
Easily the best part of American culture. People are NICE. People help each other. People still say "Hello" when they pass and "Excuse me" when they bump (at least here in Texas and definitely in Oklahoma). They offer you rides for no reason except they like you, they buy you an apple chai because they think you're pretty- no other reason, they bring you donuts at work and share their very expensive root beer float, they drive all the way to south Austin when they live in Pfluggerville just to drive you to a dance, they pick up your shoes because you're stuck at work, they tell you they like your pants, they ask you questions about stuff they don't care about because they think you want to talk about it, they invite you to parties because you don't know anyone and then pick you up and drive you home because they want you there.

Its so nice to know I'm not alone in thinking all these things! Read the book! Go OUTSIDE to read it! Have a wonderful day!

News....

2009-02-13T22:58:00.002Z

Hey Team!
Well, I got a job! I work for EMANCIPE+ somewhere between part and full time. It takes me a long time to get there but it seems worth it so far. There are about thirty women and three men who work there, we're surrounded by animals all day, and the conditions of my job aren't that strenuous- I basically book appointments and handle inquiries all day. I have to wake up at 5 to catch a couple buses to get there, but I can either sleep on the bus, read the news, or watch crack deals take place, so its pretty fulfilling.

Today I'm headed to San Antonio for Lindy in Old San Antone, LIOSA, where, you guessed it, I'll be dancing all weekend comme toujours.

I hope you are all well. Sorry no insights this week on life and love! Oh! I'm gonna write a book (not really) about how to apply the insh'allah principle to relationships and love so they don't take over your life. NEXT TIME....

Happy Birthday Papa!!!

2009-02-06T12:59:00.001Z

Everybody wish my dad, Bernest Cain, the happiest birthday ever! Its the big 6-0, but hes so fit and trendy that you wouldn't think he was a day over 40 (that birthday being one my earliest memories!). Happy Birthday Dad! You're the best EVER!

The First Amendment is alive at UT

2009-02-03T23:30:00.005Z

For the last week and a half I have been petitioning for three men who work for UT. They want to be on the Board of Directors for the University Federal Credit Union. Two of them have been on the Board before but were pushed out when it was time to get renominated in a semi-political debate about federal loans that left the UFCU without any Board members who represented the interests of UT. These men, who happen to be pretty big shots at UT, think that the credit union has made some decisions in the last couple of years that don't rightly reflect what the membership of the credit union would have done. As a result, they are determined to get back on the Board and represent the interests of UT. It is a difficult process. UFCU nominates three people to the board and for the last twenty years they have unanimously approved the candidates and no member elections have been called. This may be normal. I don't remember ever voting for my Oklahoma Employee's Credit Union board.

If you are not one of those nominees, you need 500 member signatures to get the credit union to call an election with your name on the ballot.

That is where I come in. Last week while passing out flyers for something I don't care about, I saw three men in suits standing on the drag in front of UT (if you've been to UT you know what I'm talking about). They looked very out of place and slightly uncomfortable stopping people on the street with clip boards. I went up and asked what they were doing and when they told me how much work they had to do to get the signatures I offered to help. Based on the fact that I'd been in the Peace Corps, they offered me more money than my temp job to collect signatures for them until the Feb 5 deadline. They have jobs and can't stand outside all day, and I don't have a job and don't feel awkward walking up to complete strangers so it was a mutually beneficial situation. I have collected over 200 signatures for them during the days and they continue to come by on their lunch breaks and help me out when they have time.

Obviously, the credit union doesn't want to go through all the trouble of holding elections so they have tried to make it pretty difficult for us to get signatures. When the other men aren't around, they tell me I can't stand in certain areas or that I have to get signatures in a certain way, though neither are real issues. Despite their meddling, we have collected over 500 signatures now and hope to have at least 600 (margin of error) to turn in on Thursday at 5:00p.m.

Its been a great exercise for me. Asking people to sign stuff isn't easy. Some people don't have time to stop, others are completely ambivalent to what they're signing while others have to know exactly why they're signing and why I am willing to help these men. Some don't want to put their personal information on a random sheet of paper, others flat out refuse to hear about it. I've even had a couple UT faculty members not sign based on personal problems with the candidates. However, what I have found more than anything in my three weeks of canvassing at UT is that the majority of people are just happy to help out and appreciate you telling them to have a nice day. When people are rude or mean it hurts but it doesn't feel like a personal insult. It hurts because it seems so unnecessary to ignore or be rude to random strangers. Its obvious that everyone benefits when one person is nice to another. Kindness is therefore a non-zero-sum situation, so please remember this, everyone, in your daily lives.

Along the same lines, there are a lot of other first amendment crusaders on the Drag. The most prominent are the Evangelicals who come to preach the gospel and the scripture every day at 12:15 on the UT mall in front of the Union. I know this because I am right across the street and get to listen to them. Every day it seems to be a different man (one day it was a woman) with a different sign. The first day, the sign said "You deserve Hell!", another was, "Jesus will forgive almost any sin if you're willing to repent!" [ALMOST any sin???] and, of course, they scream about good, evil and how we are all doomed. Well, yesterday, ANOTHER guy came to stand next to the proud preachers and he had a sign that said "I'M WITH STUPID" with a big arrow that pointed directly at our gospel givers. He stood there for an hour while the preachers kept on spreading the good Word and they did not fight. There were times when they exchanged words, and they were not exactly kind, but they both seemed to respect the other's right to stand there. That is how cool America is, and also why Austin has been such a great place to be the last three weeks.

When Obama repealed the abortion funding ban there was a pro life rally at the capitol with a pro choice rally right next to it. Not uncommon. While collecting signatures, a woman told me she was standing in line for the bathroom at Starbucks with a bunch of pro-lifers after the rally and she said to them "we can all stand in the same line, but I want you to know that I had an abortion when I was 19 and it was the best decision I ever made." She didn't tell me how the other women reacted, we'll have to guess.

I'm falling back in love with America in a silly little way, and these are the things that do it.

LOST...

2009-01-29T04:21:00.001Z

...is probably the most ridiculous show ever made. The acting is terrible, the plot makes no sense at all, and after five years I still don't think anyone has any idea whats actually going on. However, its appeal is still strong. I just went to someone's house specifically to watch the 2nd episode of the 5th season with eight students from the LBJ school of Public Affairs here. What is wrong with us?

Pictures from Austin

2009-01-28T02:29:00.007Z

Hey Team!

I failed miserably taking pictures at the LoneStar Championships this weekend but there was amazing dancing and I learned a ton. I competed in the Jack and Jill newcomers division. JnJ means you get paired randomly with three different partners to three songs and just have fun. I loved it. After FORTY HOURS of dancing from Thurs-Mon I woke up this morning feeling very ill. So I took the night off from dancing and am hanging out with my roommates, making brownies and generally having fun together. Here are a couple photos of my life 'round these parts...
This is Keith and Adrienne hangin out in our living room, a rare moment when we were all home.
The kitchen. Both Adrienne and Keith are into cooking and I often get to sample their yummy creations.
Our buddy.
The pictures you've all been waiting for- my adorable puppies that aren't puppies at all. Pearl, the Catahoula, is ten and Lula, the blue heeler is eight. They love to dance and play with Adrienne and me and they are sooo nice to come home to. Yay for pets!
This is Adam, who has very kindly taken me under his wing and become my friend. We spend a lot of time together checkin out restaurants and going dancing, hes awesome.

Israel pulls out

2009-01-22T14:25:00.002Z

Qaddafi wrote this relatively interesting Op-Ed piece for the NYT. His views on the state of Israel and the right of return are interesting. Its also pretty crazy that hes being published in the NYT. Is that one good thing Bush did? Bringing Qaddafi to the moderate fold?

All is well in Austin. Working temp jobs to pay the bills and still applying left and right for other ones. Big swing dance festival this weekend- I'm even competing on Saturday! Ha!

LINDY HOP IN AUSTIN

2009-01-18T05:48:00.011Z

Hey Team! Just wanted to put up some pictures a wonderful photographer, Tony Spielberg, took at the dance Thursday night. There are this many people dancing EVERY Thursday here! So cool! I've never really had my picture taken dancing so I am pretty excited about these photos.
This is Philippe, we met in November, he's a super fun partner.
The crowd.
Keegan and I basically just play around when we dance together.
The guy doing the dipping is a blues teacher, so graceful.
Yay group shots!
Philippe and I again, same dance.
This line dance is called the Shim Sham Shimmy and you sould watch it on You Tube. Its about as old as lindy hop and super fun to do.
Tony takes pictures of all sorts of cool stuff in Austin (the ballet etc.) so check out his website if you like photography!

Austin!

2009-01-15T14:30:00.002Z

My fingers are being licked by my adorable dog which makes it hard to type. I love Austin.

This is day THREE and I'm headed to my third interview. The first two interviews went well but I wouldn't be very happy doing either of the jobs. Everyone keeps remarking how terrible the job market is here now so I'm happy to go to the follow-up interviews. I've also passed out a few resumes to restaurants/bars etc. I need a job. :)

But other than that, this is such a great town. My neighbourhood (Travis Heights, 78704) is really off-the-wall. The houses are all funny colours and there are lots of "Peace Now" and "Obama" signs all over the place. My house is very cute and I like my room a lot. I have two housemates (Keith and Adrienne) who I have seen very little of but they both seem really nice. Not having a car hasn't proven to be too difficult and I like the buses just fine. Its been slightly chilly but so sunny that walking has been really pleasant. I've gone dancing twice so far (both times to LIVE BANDS!) and think I have dancing the next three nights as well. Pretty fun stuff! The people I know down here have been super welcoming and kind in terms of picking me up, showing me around, and telling me whats going on. But even strangers are really friendly. We'll see how long it all lasts!

Israel through the ages...

2009-01-12T05:09:00.003Z

There is another blog called D.A.R.E. Aware that exists to teach University of Dundee students in Scotland about international conflicts. Their explanation of the current problem is pretty interesting but I got stuck on "...after a period of genocide and mass extermination of the indigenous tribes they settled." Was that true I thought or a slight exaggeration? Well. I'm trying to get back to reading the bible (practice what you preach, etc.) and am around Joshua 15. Whoa. I guess there is sort of a ridiculous history of the Jews being bad ass over-the-top fighters when it comes to defending the homeland. It says a few chapters later that the violence was justified as a manifestation of God's covenant with Abraham. I'm going to have to think about that for a while.

Do you think there are many Israeli soldiers quoting Joshua on the battlefield now? Not even the battlefield, the suburban streets of Gaza City. My brain just can't comprehend that kind of violence. Incendiary bombs. Jesus.

On another biblical note, of the New-er variety, what was Tebow, the Florida quarterback, doing with John 3:16 on his face paint at the National Championship Game? What does having everlasting life have to do with touchdowns? I don't get it. Also. I couldn't figure out if that was a specially manufactured face tattoo (meaning someone had to program that setting into a computer that then printed the tattoo) or did someone sit in front of him meticulously etching the letters into the black face paint? Either way, it makes me laugh and scares me. Whoa. Just looked up John 3:16 on wikipedia- did any of you know that In-N-Out burger prints John 3:16 on the bottom rim of all its cups?

There is so much I just can't get my head around in this silly world. Someone please shed light on my darkest ignorance.

Austin tomorrow morning. I can't wait!

Post trip Pre move

2009-01-11T02:09:00.002Z

I'm back in Oklahoma City for about 36 hours. I know its been a long time and I should write about all the crazy things I did in New York/Israel/Rochester but I probably am not going to. I'm not even sure people still read the blog, but if you do,
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I had an incredible time traveling around and am very exhausted but very excited about moving to Austin on Monday. Today as I sat in the Detroit airport for five hours waiting to come home, I just started typing about how I feel after all the traveling. I haven't edited it or even read it since I typed it, so forgive any obvious errors or obscene judgements.

Stuff I’ve been thinking about:

Unitarians, in general, don’t really know much about their Judeo-Christian heritage.
They should read the old/new testament and the Koran as well as all that crazy Buddhist stuff they love so much. There are cool relevant stories and I think congregations could grow together spiritually through the shared learning. At Melissa’s new member meeting they asked “if you could have anything going on at your church that you would tell people is ‘really cool’ what would it be?” For me, it would be to create and encourage groups that read these texts and then every week to give one of the groups a couple minutes during the service to say, “there is this cool story we read in the Koran we wanted to share with you all…” or “we don’t necessarily agree with this passage of the Old Testament the way its commonly interpreted but we came up with this other explanation that we like a little better and here it is:…” There is so much “anti” rhetoric in UU churches, especially against Christians. Christianity, despite all the “miracle” stuff that science can’t prove, is filled with wonderful ethical stories and parables for how people should live life. You’ve heard that your whole life, but have you read them? At the same time, a lot of UUs whole-heartedly support Islam as a faith because Muslims are the “global religious underdogs” when in my opinion there is a lot that needs to be questioned about it. Every religion needs to be questioned. I thought that was the responsibility of UUs: to study every aspect of multiple faiths, question them, and determine our own individual truths from our search. I feel like a lot of UUs are cheating themselves by rejecting what they don’t know all that much about. We’re getting lazy about our spiritual quest because being Christian or Jewish or admitting to believing in God has become taboo in our congregations.

Also. I think more UU parents with Jewish backgrounds should encourage their children to go on Birthright trips to Israel. The trips are totally free, most of them are secular, and the kids will learn a ton about a part of their personal history that they probably best identify as Hanukah candles, dreidels and the Passover service. It would be another way for UUs to reaffirm their own faith and also learn about a big part of a lot of UU’s backgrounds.

Israel is really fucked up. The Jews were persecuted for centuries all over the world so it makes sense that they have their own homeland. But really, since WW2 people are a lot less openly anti-Semitic (not to say that anti-Semitism has been wiped out- that is certainly not the case). So why can’t Jews co-exist in Europe, America etc without feeling the need for a Zionist movement? Also. A lot of people don’t think Israel should exist. There are Jews, Christians, and of course, Muslims who completely deny the right for Jews to have a homeland- especially on land that once belonged to the Palestinians. But then there are a lot more vocal people who believe that Jews have a right to their God-given (literally?) land OR, from the protestant perspective, for the prophecies from the Book of Revelations to be fulfilled, the second temple in Jerusalem has to be rebuilt in the Jewish holy land. But MAN there is a LOT of hatred in Israel.

First, although there is a lot of diversity within the Jewish immigrants in Israel, they are all Jewish so the “diversity” starts to feel artificial quite quickly. They have all made Aaliyah for the same purpose- to establish and legitimize the Jewish state. So although they have major differences when it comes to politics and how to handle the conflict, for me, it felt like everyone was basically the same and that they didn’t know anything about any other cultures or religions.

BUT what about all them Arabs on the borders? The Palestinians in the refugee camps? The groups like Hamas and Hezbollah that exist solely to undermine and eventually destroy the state of Israel? Golly, I don’t know. Seriously, the conflict is insane complex and so very misunderstood outside of the region. The very sad part is that if you ask an Israeli honestly if they think a peaceful solution is a possibility every one will tell you No. That’s what they all told me. They don’t have Arabic friends or interact with Arabs, ever. Very little trade happens between Israel and Arabic countries even though both sides could benefit from increased trade. The conflict can’t be taught in Israeli schools because (just like in Northern Ireland) the topic is too heated and there is no way to teach it in an un-biased way. (I don’t know how the conflict is presented in secular schools in Arabic countries) The beliefs of parents and religious communities are passed on without question to the youth. Also, from what I gathered, attempts made by governments and NGOs to foster peace through youth programs and educational dialogue are almost always unsuccessful. Kids are happy to play together until the Israeli calls the Arab a terrorist or the Arab jokes, “my dad will kill yours”. Sort of ruins a good basketball game…

Ignorance creates hatred, we all know this. The two sides know literally nothing about each other, and its heart breaking. I lived with a Muslim family in a Muslim country for two years and although I have my qualms with parts of the religion, it’s a beautiful faith that, like Judaism and Christianity, teaches peace and equality at its base. The only thing any Israelis really “know” about Islam is that it preaches the destruction of Israel. I don’t have any answers. The Palestinians are poor. The Israelis have the water. The Arabs bomb Israel sometimes without reason. The Israelis retaliate with 100x the force. It doesn’t make sense to me or anyone really.

It was a weird place to be and at a weird time. When we first arrived and were traveling through southern Israel they kept mentioning that the two year cease-fire with Hamas would be ending during our trip. That was pretty much all they said and we didn’t think about it again. We traveled in our Birthright-created American-tourist bubble around the country and sang songs of peace in our air-conditioned bus while the “real” Israel always felt just right across that road we were told was off limits to cross. I had a great trip and had all my answers about the conflict honestly answered and I really appreciate having had that opportunity. But do I feel like I got to see and experience Israel? Not really. Well, that’s not fair. I walked where Jews fought the Maccabees and crawled through caves where Jews hid from the Romans. I saw a Kibbutz and had a Shabbat service in King David’s tomb. I prayed at the Cotol, swam in the red sea, climbed Masada and lit the Hannugiah for the third night of Hannukah. It was free and I met great people, did cool stuff and learned a ton. So no worries, but I definitely have a lot more questions now. Birthright would say that’s the whole point. Good. Then, it was the last couple days of our trip and we were on the Livnot U’Lehibanot campus in Tzfat in Northern Israel. Suddenly our lack of contact with the outside world caught up with us when we signed online and the front page of the New York Times website was “Israel attacks Gaza”. WHOA. We had no idea. Why didn’t they tell us? Why didn’t we have a debate about what was happening and how we felt about it? Because that’s just not the Birthright way, I guess. Keep ‘em happy, create an “amazing” community of American Jews and lots of happy memories and leave the hard questions for people to answer when the trip is over. Ok. Remember, it’s a free trip.

Merry Chanukah!

2008-12-26T20:54:00.002Z

Hey Team!

I've been in israel almost two weeks, leaving Sunday morning. We're celebrating shabbat so I shouldn't be on the computer but I forgot. SO Happy Shabbat and Merry late Christmas! I'll write lots when I get back.

Smiles
Me

Big Up the MEGAbus!

2008-12-10T17:55:00.004Z

Yo team!

I am writing to you from a double decker MEGAbus cruising down the snowy highways of upstate New York. America is amazing. For $1 I get to sit on a luxurious bus with WIfi for 7 hours. Stupidly, I didn't charge my computer battery but I'm still able to get a lot done. So cool. I'm thrilled I've got three more MEGAbus journeys to look forward to before 2009!

Also though: snow is cold.

On the road again....

2008-12-09T21:41:00.002Z

Well, I'm off tomorrow morning at 5:40a.m., insh'allah.

Today is Tabaski/Eid/Feast of Abraham, the biggest holiday on the Muslim calendar. Many sheep died today. I tried to call Yaye Fatou's family about ten times and couldn't get through so I hope they know I'm thinking of them.

I have a pretty ridiculous itinerary- flying into Buffalo, megabus-ing to NYC tomorrow, Thursday megabus-ing to DC to see Liz Hill and some PC Senegal people and do a little swing dancing before busing back to NYC Saturday night to fly off to Israel from Newark on Sunday. My itinerary in Israel may or may not be accessible to you all but its pretty full on. Its a 14 day Birthright trip whereas most are only ten days. It focuses on hiking, service and exploration of our jewish heritage. We'll be doing eight hour hikes, picking fruit at an orchard and having lots of discussions about Judaism and the current political climate in Israel. I'll try to wrie about it but it doesn't look like we'll have much access to internet. However, I think I'll get to go swing dancing in Tel Aviv, so that could be cool. Also, I'm excited about being in Israel for both Christmas and the start of Hannukah. Sweet!

When I get back from Israel I'll be in NYC for two days before going to stay with my sister in Rochester for two weeks. Arriving back in OKC on January 10th, I hope to head right off to Austin. I've got myself an awesome apartment in Travis Heights with two people that seem really cool.

I'm very much looking forward to all these new adventures! Happy Happy Holidays to you all!

BURR!

2008-12-05T17:27:00.004Z

All right team. This is ridiculous. I'm going on strike.

It is too cold for me in America right now. I haven't been in the states past November in years so I had this notion that Oklahoma was always warm and flip-flop friendly. Boy, was I wrong.

I have things to write about but I'm going to go make hot chocolate instead. Bon week end!

World AIDS Day! But where?

2008-12-02T01:59:00.002Z

Today is the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. Last year I got to sit behind the first lady of Senegal at a huge community wide event in Richard Toll raising awareness about HIV/AIDS.

This year I am in Oklahoma City and I barely knew it was happening. I drove out of my way to go to Starbucks this morning because a donation from every drink is going to Bono's (RED) Campaign. After ordering I asked the barista, "Are you guys involved in the World AIDS Day Campaign?" He replied, "Are you talking about me personally or the store?" He had no idea and hadn't been told about the campaign. Starbucks customers in Nichols Hills were not told that they were making a difference just by buying their soy decaf lattes.

Then I picked up today's NYT and not until page 24 did I even see a mention of World AIDS Day, and that was in an editorial! I was shocked. Around two million people died worldwide of AIDS last year and there are an estimated 33 million people living worldwide with HIV/AIDS. True, there are only about 500,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in the US but my goodness- back page of the NYT? This is a huge day in the developing world and one that people take very seriously. Peace Corps volunteers plan events and work with local NGOs to raise awareness in areas of high risk/exposure. But what about here? Is a low infection rate reason for apathy and complacency? The NYT triumphs the fact that it is one of very few news organizations with a permanent team in Iraq reporting the news that everyone else has stopped caring about.

To be fair, later in the day I saw a lot more reporting about the events unfolding world wide and Pres. Bush's speech at a World AIDS Day event. In his defence, Bush has done a LOT to encourage AIDS awareness in Africa and its one program that he should be applauded for though he just f'ed up everything else so much it gets lost in the complaining. But good for him for taking time out of his lame duck schedule to continue to fight for causes we can't afford to forget about. I hope you all take a minute to look up whats being done around the world today. Its an important day.

Another diatribe from Bryn...

Thanksgiving Smiles

2008-11-30T22:25:00.005Z

Hey Team! Isn't it funny how ridiculous big family holidays are? I don't know about you but my family is pretty bonkers when they all get together. My dad picks on his "little" brother like they're still kids and my Grandma fights for control of the kitchen with her various children while everyone argues over the best way to prepare cranberry sauce. I just ate. And how!

My Uncle David prepared the yummiest turkey ever! His culinary master chef son would have been so proud.
My best friend Vessy spent Thanksgiving with us and my dad affectionately called us three "The Junk Bunch"...
Before we all split for our various Thanksgiving meals my sister Melissa and I joined the Severance sisters and their boyfriends for some yummy Turkey Day mimosas and pumpkin muffins to start the holday off right. Definitely a tradition worth keeping.
The day after Thanksgiving we piled in Vessy's car and she patiently drove down to the Riverwalk so we could all watch the Christmas lights get turned on for the first time for all of us in Adulthood. It was so much fun and I was very giddy! After the lights turned on I started singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and a few other brave souls joined in. It was great. Only down side- almost freaking out while walking through River Center mall. I am NOT yet ready for that kind of craziness. Christmas shopping? Doing it online, thank you very much.

Do I look happy, or what???

2008-11-26T06:05:00.004Z

Hey Everybody!
Happy Thanksgiving!
I've made it to San Antonio with Vessy and a HUGE smile on my face! We even went to a rockabilly show in San An tonight. There were only six people there (including three of us...) but we still danced and had a great time. I ended my weekend in Austin Monday night with a rockin' blues night in East Austin, TC's- CHECK IT OUT.
I may have also decided that I'm going to move to Austin in January. As Vessy says, I am in the unique and privileged position of having a year to kill before my wonderful opportunity to study in Australia. I may as well do something fun that I enjoy and since I happen to love swing dancing so much, and Austin has such a great scene, and the people of Austin welcomed me with such open arms (literally) I think I'm going to do it.
The guy in this photo is Mark Kapner and he's KIND of a big deal. He played at Woodstock Oh SO VERY Many years ago and has been a ragtime piano player/blues musician his whole life. Sunday night he heard me singing to Nina Simone while we were dancing and invited me and two other people to a room with a grand piano. He played and we all sang, four part harmony style, to such favorites as The Tennessee Waltz, Oh Pharaoh Don't You Weep, The Lion Sleeps Tonight, and I sang Blue Moon all by myself- the first time I've sang in front of people since I lived in Australia eight years ago. It was so fun and wonderfully liberating- and a pretty good break for my aching feet. We ended, of course, with Goodnight Irene and headed back to the dance floor. Such a wonderful, perfect, happy weekend. I wish you all could have been there to experience it with me.

ALX

2008-11-23T18:16:00.004Z

I'm having one of the best weekends of my life here in Austin. I've been dancing all night for the last three nights and although my muscles are killing me I've got a HUGE smile on my face. You wanna know what sucks about Oklahoma?? There's NO swing dancing! It really is what makes me absolutely happiest in the world.

I took the Amtrak down Thursday and had dinner with Justin Kosoris, a good friend of mine from Senegal who's now at UT. He dropped me off at the first dance and I got straight on the floor and tried to meet as many people as possible. At midnight the first venue closed up and we all moved over to the Kick Butt Cafe for late night Blues dancing. I'd never seen blues dancing before and I think I may be becoming a fan. Its very sensuous and is all about the tension between you and your partner- so sexy. I'm staying with a nice guy named JP who also loves the late night dancing so we got home around 3:30...

Friday I slept most of the day and we started dancing again at 8pm and didn't stop til 4:00! The people here are really friendly so there's no trouble finding partners and people have come from all over the states to dance. BUT there are more Canadians here than Okies, if that says anything about the scene in OKC.....

Saturday afternoon we went to a showing of Back to the Future at a super cool theatre here. There were three comedians talking over it, MST3K style, and we all drank and danced throughout the movie. Then the dancing started again! Last night we were out til past 5 and I really shouldn't be awake now. My stupid camera is in the shop so I barely have any photos but I'll try to steal other peoples. Dance Dance Dance all night long!

Interesting thing- I met a girl from Colorado who has sort of become dedicated to dancing. She works as a server at Chilis and travels every other weekend to dance around the country. I've either got to move somewhere I can dance for the next year or start doing this crazy travelin' or I'll never be happy! :)

Bitter much???

2008-11-18T04:24:00.004Z

My post yesterday seems quite bitter re-reading it today. I don't mean to knock Oklahoma, its such an amazing place with so many kind people and cool things to do. Yesterday Nikki and I walked four miles at Lake Hefner which is one of my absolute favorite places anywhere and just gets nicer every time I'm home. You can rent bikes FOR FREE there- where else in the world can you do that? I'm also hitting the restaurant circuit and would once again like to reiterate how amazing the international cuisine is here in OKC.

The problem is I'm somewhere between a foreigner and a local here now and it gets very confusing and frustrating for me. I shouldn't take it out on OKC or my friends or family, all of whom are so very accommodating and patient with my wild mood swings. I'll try to be better. I'm so very looking forward to swing dancing in Austin though!

Oklahoma is a trip!

2008-11-17T03:47:00.006Z

Nikki, Scotty and I went to SKYY bar, a terrible excuse for a club in Bricktown. We arrived, unbeknownst to us, at the end of a "Singles Mingle" so everyone was drunk/fat/old/sleezy- it was a GREAT night!
I love this car.
The super-shnazzy Asain grocery store
Oklahomans against Proposition 8- semi-ironic because God knows it'll be at least a decade before ANYTHING remotely resembling Prop 8 could be on the ballot in OK.
I went to a COUNTRY concert! I know, I don't believe it either. It was Kevin Fowler, an apparently famous "Red Dirt" country singer from Austin. The men were in cowboy hats and the girls all looked like barbie dolls. I don't fit in here AT ALL. I learned how to two-step which is sort of a ridiculous dance. I'm already ready to get out of OKC again and its been less than a week. God help me!

WHOA, team!

2008-11-14T04:23:00.002Z

Hey everybody!

I'm back in Oklahoma with A LOT on my mind. Being unemployed does that to you, I reckon. I haven't started wishing I was back in Senegal yet. Sometimes, though, I type like I'm on a Senegalese keyboard and apparently I talk to animals in a combination of French and Wolof which I haven't noticed until its been pointed out to me. Basically I'm trying to relax, have fun, find a job and slowly re-integrate into this hyper-society.

I got pretty excited because Rotary initially told me they wanted me in Australia in February 2009. I thought that was a year early, but they assured me so I got excited about my quick trip home and stopped looking for jobs. Well, two weeks later they corrected themselves and I do have to wait til Feb 2010 so I'm now back on the job hunt. My parents and I are all scared that I may end up in Oklahoma City for the next year. I have no idea what that would mean workwise but I'm very nervous about the prospect. So I'm looking at jobs everywhere and again, appeal to you my loyal readers, if you have any ideas. I'm hoping some of the schmoozing opportunities I'll have in the next two months will bear job-style fruit. On verra...

Until then, I'm filling my time. I go to the YMCA every morning (they play the Christian radio station in the swimming area which encourages me to keep my head underwater) and then beg friends or family to drive me around the rest of the day. Without a cell phone or a car and living at home- I'm pretty much back in middle school, its SWEEET.

BUT, in very silly news- I've registered for a FOUR DAY swing dance conference in Austin, TX next weekend and since you all know that swing dancing is my absolute favorite thing you can imagine how excited I am about it! Anyone wanna come??? Austin Lindy Exchange

We're thinking about having an unemployment party this weekend because, apparently, there are a lot of us floating around. Si vous voulez, vous pouvez venir! :)

Fun Cali Photos!

2008-11-10T15:36:00.005Z

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELIS!!!

2008-11-07T18:47:00.003Z

I'm in Laguna Hills, California and its sort of a good/bad vacation. My mom and I planned to come here to see my grandma who turned 97 (!) Nov 5 and check on my aunt who was treating a brain tumor. Since we booked the tickets my aunt passed away so now our trip involves picking up her ashes, sorting through her apartment and organising her finances. My mom is doing everything and it just sucks that anyone has to do this but I guess it happens all the time. At the same time, its a nice chance for my mom and I to spend time together and hang out in the sunshine. Also, my bestest guy friend in the world, Noah, is coming all the way down from Berkley to see us. I haven't seen him since I went to Senegal so I am very very excited. So there are positives and negatives about this trip like everything in life. Its interesting being here in the wake of stupid Proposition 8 getting passed, its all over the news, and its nice to be in a sunny place where people don't look at you funny for supporting Obama. Happy weekend everyone. Hope all is well. x

"Senegal for Obama"

2008-11-06T04:13:00.001Z

OBAMA GOES INTERNATIONAL

Election Goodness

2008-11-04T20:10:00.002Z

I am back in Oklahoma. It is bizarre. I'll tell you the truth, I haven't showered yet. I think I'm afraid to wash off all these amazing experiences of the last two years...

Goings on at the polls:
Everyone in line when I arrived was white. By the time I left there were a couple other colors but mainly white.
The man in front of me had never voted before, he looked about 35.
Everyone appeared to have driven even though they live in the same neighbourhood (I guess they have jobs or something?).
No one was really talking in the lines at all.
Oklahoma still uses open cardboard dividers between voters and paper ballots.
Lots of people were commenting that this is the first time they've ever had to stand in line to vote. I waited about thirty minutes.
There were all these local city issues that I hadn't seen on the OK Election site so felt like an idiot leaving stuff blank my very first time actually voting in person.
I knew fewer people in line than I thought, though I probably knew five of them by name.
I wore a Senegalese wrist band so I could pretend I was representing all the Senegalese people who wish they could vote for Obama.
I really got no feel at all for whether most people were voting McCain or Obama, but one can only hope...
There were lots of babies and dogs voting. Or rather, hangin' out.

Other than voting I've been holed up in my mom's house all day. I'm going to the big democratic watch party tonight so I'll get all glam and hopefully have fun. So Weird to be Back! I called my host family in Senegal. My host dad is staying up all night to watch the election in the Obama shirt I sent him. It was so great to talk to them (my french hasn't disappeared yet!) and it made me really wish I could share this day with them. Sigh. Hope you all voted and are as excited as I am about a real change in this country.

The next step...

2008-11-02T23:20:00.002Z

Its my last night in London probably for the next couple years. Its sad to think I'm saying goodbye to a city that has been so good to me and brought me so much joy but I like to think it will still be here when I come back.

Tomorrow I fly to Oklahoma and I am, comme toujours, very nervous about how it will all go. London has been a fly-by vacation filled with late nights and solitary walks and lots of time for reflection about Senegal. I have been the happiest I've been for years the last couple weeks. Everything has been easy, I've gotten to see great friends and I got to do a lot of silly, fun things. I know Oklahoma will be great but I always get anxious about what will be waiting for me there. Its funny becasue I'll really only be there two days before leaving for California and the election is happening so it'll fly by. The thing is, London feels very normal to me. I spent four years here before Senegal and I just understand how everything works without any effort. But its been six years since I spent more than two weeks in OKC at any one time and I'm looking at being around at least til January this time and its a bit daunting. The thing is, silly things that are completely normal to everyone else, like cars with ipod hook-ups, what football team is number 1, or what Jon Stewart said on the Daily Show last night are all very foreign concepts to me. The other problem is, I don't really care. I may start to care after a few weeks, but its just been a long time and I feel pretty disassociated from the life I left when I was 17. But I always feel this way when I go home so I should be used to it by now.

Going home also really signifies the end of my crazy Peace Corps experience. Thankfully, I have an answer when people ask me what I'm going to do with the rest of my life. But I haven't figured out exactly what to say when people ask what I did with the last two years... The thing is, I just don't know what people want to hear. I've talked a lot in London about the pressures of living alone as a white woman in a black muslim country, and the amazing freedom of anonymity I've embraced so much in London. I've mentioned the business classes I taught and how I was able to help entrepreneurs secure loans to start or expand their businesses. I've mentioned the parties we had at the Peace Corps houses and the awesome libraries I ransacked. British people don't ask all that many questions, though, so most of the time I either avoided the subject or kept my answers short and anecdotal ("Yea, I sat on a sheep multiple times as it was being slaughtered...") But most of it doesn't sound all that interesting and unless I could accompany every conversation with a photo montage I just can't imagine it makes any real sense. But I'm going to try to just figure it out.

I also just need to recap some of the cool stuff I've done in the last couple weeks: eaten at Nandos four times, swing danced twice, saw UNDERWORLD at the Brixton Academy, visited a Lambic brewery in Brussels where the beer is made by spontaneous fermentation, visited the Tate Modern with Hunter Ryan, salsa danced for the first time with West Africans in Brussels, visited the coolest bookstore ever in Glasgow and had a home cooked meal, bowled with Victor and a crazy bunch of South Africans, walked through central London at night, went to the Blues bar four times, almost got married to a nice British guy, saw my professor, Deckers, at LSE, found out I was getting the Rotary scholarship and basically just smiled with the joy of someone who knows they've accomplished something she can be proud of. I've got to crash now before my flight early tomorrow but I thank you all again for supporting me and reading my uninteresting ramblings. x

AUSTRALIA!!!

2008-10-31T12:41:00.003Z

I was going to write about Belgium but instead I'll just say: I just got a phone call telling me I've been accepted as a Rotary Peace Scholar for next year in Brisbane Australia so I'll be getting my masters degree in conflict resolution paid for in full by Rotary International!!! ALHAMDULILAHI!!!

4:33a.m.

2008-10-28T04:18:00.006Z

I have to catch a train to Brussels at 7a.m. and for some ridiculous reason I'm still awake. It has, however, been a fabulous evening. I spent all day walking around London and I don't just mean mosey-ing around, I have walked this city to the ground. Its amazingly liberating to be able to walk without being harassed and London is my favorite city to walk in so I have LOVED anonymously wandering through old and new neighbourhoods. My first week here I walked from Kilburn to Oxford St, last night I walked from Waterloo station to Oxford St and today I walked from Holborn to Old st. Its amazing and no one ever even glances at me. I've had my Ipod in my ears most of the time (I previously was very against headphones) and the music has helped me bounce along to my own rhythm. So it makes it much easier to zone out which is exactly what I need in my bizarre readjustment stage. This evening, though, was fantastic. First, I ate at Nandos. Now, most of you have heard of my love for Nandos or been forced to eat at one. I had five hot hcicken wings and peri peri chips. Those of you who know, know. I tubed it to Oxford St just in time for the Swing Dance warm up at the 100 Club. Last week when I went dancing I had the wrong shoes and felt like a fool all night. Its hard after a year to swing like a pro on a dance floor and I was a bit upset with myself with last weeks performance. This week, however, I was armed with new, cute flats from Glasgow and a major desire to shake my tail feather. I danced every dance for three hours and it was amazing. If you've never been swing dancing, you must try it. I used to go every Monday and it was, and is, my absolute favorite thing about London. So I danced like crazy and was soaking with sweat by the time I decided to limp over to Ain't Nothin But... the best blues bar in London. When I arrive, who did I see but Hunter Ryan, a YRUU friend of mine from WAAAY back that I haven't seen for six years. It was amazing to see him as a man and to have a night out with him in London. When the blues bar closed we all headed off to the Cro Bar, the ultimate Heavy Metal Late Night bar in London and there we stayed until just recently when Tom and I caught a bus home. So now its time for me to catch my bus to Brussels and although I had intentions of a diatribe about readjustment, we'll all just have to wait. Bonne Nuit. xxx

Glasgow & Itinerary

2008-10-25T10:03:00.005Z

Well well, time flies! I've got lots to say but Elis's keyboard is less reliable than a Senegalese keyboard so you'll have to wait til I'm back in LDN tomorrow. I'll just say: I love swing dancing and don't love cold. I love seeing Elis and don't love overnight buses. etc.

Also. Since everyone keeps asking, this is my itinerary til January:
Tonight- megabus to London
28-31 Oct with Tiffany in Brussles
31 Oct-3 Nov London
Nov 3-6 OKC
Nov 6-12 Orange County, CA with mom
12-before Thanksgiving OKC
Thanksgiving- Texas
after Thanksgiving-Dec 10- OKC
Dec 10- NYC
Dec 11-13 Washington DC
Dec 13- NYC
December 14-28 Israel (Birthright trip)
28 Dec-10 Jan With Melissa in NYC/Rochester
AFTER- MUST FIND A JOB.

LDN

2008-10-19T21:23:00.006Z

Whoa. This other world is bizarre. White people everywhere, trendy shoes, beer, ice cream, reliable comfortable public transportation, anonymity, leaves, bacon, and all sorts of other ridiculousness. The last couple days have been great. I've seen bubbles and puppy dogs and eaten yummy food and taken a lovely walk in a beautiful park- kicking leaves as I went, been cold, taken hot showers, worn makeup, slept multiple hours in one night, and basically have been relaxing and enjoying all the weird emotions that are accompanying my transition back into the first world. I feel very out of place a lot and have no idea how to contribute to conversations, but british people really don't ask a lot of questions anyway, so it hasn't been much of a problem. I feel SO un-cool though all the time. Every time I mention Africa it sounds like the lamest comment that these nice people have ever heard. Also, girls are SO pretty in the first world but they are ridiculous. Its so cold outside but they wear barely anything and although they look very sexy (SO much makeup) I'm not really feeling the urge to go buy a huge trendy wardrobe. I do need a coat though, and thats tomorrow's goal. THEN I get to go swing dancing and for the very first time ever my friends are actually saying they may come along. I doubt it will actually happen but we'll see...

This is my lovely friend, Victor. We lived together in Australia in 2001 and he was like a brother to me then. I hadn't seen him since and yet here he is in London and it was fantastic to see him. He came out with his lovely girlfriend the other night and we reminisced and giggled with very big smiles.
The driver of this awesome vehicle serenaded ME with a love song right outside of Covent Garden. I was all smiles and the bubbles were a wonderful added bonus- Oh the First World!
Elis and Paul staring out the bus window at about thirty cops who seemed to be standing around just to look mean and stuff. Silly.

Bye Bye Senegal.....

2008-10-16T10:44:00.012Z

Yaye Fatou and I...My little Malick...
My boys:Mike, Nick, Casey, Josh
Very cute kids on KoriteSandy and I after bribing our way into the Gambian side of the stadium for the match, exciting stuff!.... and the only picture I felt safe to take of the riots after....Look at me rockin' the Senegalese clothes on Korite...
Last but certainly not least, here's a picture of Jet Richarson, my replacment in Richard Toll. He's great and I can't wait to hear how he settles in next month...

One last sleep...

2008-10-15T11:09:00.002Z

Well, this is it team. The last post from Senegal. I'm pretty excited and very exhausted. I haven't been doing a whole lot except bureacratic stuff at the office, but I haven't slept well in the last couple weeks (anxiety?) and its starting to catch up with me.

So how do I feel at the end of my two years? I'm not really sure. I've learned a lot about Senegal, Islam, west African development, fish and rice, but everything else is sort of difficult to qualify. As some of you may know, I've had a lot of trouble with Senegalese culture. It is harsh and unforgiving and people have a weird sense of entitlement that I will never understand. I have made amazing and wonderful friends here, and it breaks my heart to know that I don't really plan on returning to Senegal any time soon and theres a very good chance I'll never see most of the people again. At the same time, Senegal has showed me a lot of the evils lurking inside me. I've treated people in ways that I never thought I was capable of and its difficult to reconcile the happiness I've felt here and the sincere sadness I feel thinking of what this country has done to me. I will have to come to terms with it all at some point. Not today, though. The point is that a Peace Corps service pulls you in every direction in every way- emotional, physically, psychologically. It is awesome and scary and unpredictable. But I never thought I would make it this far. I truly didn't. I sat with Melissa at a bar in Rochester drinking margaritas telling her sincerely that I thought I'd be home after two weeks. But here I am emailing you from our air conditioned Peace Corps office on my way to London Friday. Crazy. It feels absolutely awesome.

I watched a DVD of the Flaming Lips concert at the OKC Zoo (which coincidentally was the day before I joined the PC) yesterday (why is this DVD in Senegal?) and I can't tell you how excited I got just thinking that so soon I'll be back in Oklahoma seeing my family and all the positive energy that Oklahomans are so well known for. The election is looking hopeful for us democrats, I'm going to Israel in December and have at least one job offer to teach english in China so I may just survive a little while longer and my smile may not fade away. Saying goodbye to my PC crew will be hard tomorrow but there is a bright and wonderful future waiting for me.

Thank you all for your incredible unflinching support. I'll keep writing on here and hope to see everyone on the other side. xx Smiles, me

How I spent my weekend....

2008-10-12T11:36:00.005Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/africa/7665619.stm
http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldFootballNews/idUKLB63067920081011
Whoa. Crazy stuff. I went to Thies Friday to say goodbye to my host family there and spent a little time with the new kids. Six of them decided to come in to Dakar with me Saturday for the Senegal-Gambie World Cup Qualifier. We came in and met probably twenty other volunteers and then everyone got separated trying to get into the stadium. The new kids got inside and immediately had a couple wallets stolen. The rest of us couldn't fight the mobs at every gate to get in so we sat outside for most of the match. There were eight other people with me when we eventually bribed our way into the Gambian section of the match, though we had to take off all our Senegal supporters gear. We only saw the last twenty minutes of the game but saw both goals and the crazy destruction that followed. Senegal didn't end up qualifying for the World Cup and there were some pretty angry fans.

We stayed in the stands as long as possible but a lot of the other volunteers, those who had made it in the stadium and also those who eventually gave up, got caught in massive riots as they tried to leave. We watched as fans ripped the opposite side of stands to shreds and lit anything they could on fire. At the same time, the new kids- who have been in country a whole month- went to their agreed meeting place to meet up with a car to go to the beach. They got in the car in the middle of a riot and the driver proceeded to run down two pedestrians at about 25 mph before jumping from the vehicle leaving the new kids to defend for themselves against the hordes. They basically got everything they had on them robbed (cameras, money, ID, phones) and one kid got hit in the head with a rock and bled. A lot. Another volunteer got attacked by a mob leaving the stadium and had upwards of five rocks hit him. I was with two other people and we ran into a nearby neaighborhood and found a bar and waited the situation out. It was more scary for the others than it was for us.

The problem is prices have gone up so much in Senegal lately for electricity and food that people are already worked up and angry. All week they've been having pretty big riots in Dakar about electricity blackouts and the stadium happens to be in the same neighborhood as the Senelec headquarters. When Senegal didn't qualify it was sort of another justification for violence. A really crazy way to end my service in Senegal. I'll try to post the very awesome photos from the game soon. Til then....

DAKAR DEBATES DEBAUCHERY

2008-10-08T10:35:00.002Z

Well, that just about sums up life at the moment.

Leaving site was sad and also not. I am ready to move on and I think I will keep in touch with the few very close friends that I made. Saying goodbye to Yaye Fatou's dad was realy difficult. I've spent more time with him than probably anyone and he's one of very few men here that I trust and feel completetly comfortable around. He has been my dad here, comforting me when I'm sad, always making sure that I'm getting my work done, and encouraging me to go on to do great things when I leave here. Also, he's the only person in Senegal I have serious discussions with- about every topic under the sun. We've learned so much from each other and our goodbye was very heartfelt as was my goodbye with his three wonderful daughters.

I was having trouble sleeping my last couple weeks at site, probably as a result of nerves/fasting/my broken bed frame... My first night in Dakar I was able to sleep ten hours and it felt amazing. Last night, however, we stayed up til 3am watching the debates and then I woke up at 6:30 to get ready for my medical appointments today. I thought Obama looked pretty uncomfortable and incoherent last night but I see his leads in the polls haven't dropped, so thats comforting.

So I have one more week in Senegal and lots more to do. We have to go through bureaucratic craziness before the PC will let us leave and it all takes time. I'm also going to Thies friday to say goodbye to my host family from training two years ago and to talk to my replacement, Jet Richardson. I think he'll be a great replacement and will try to put a picture of him on here for you all. I'm very excited about the next stage in my life, even though I have no idea what I'm going to do. Yay for the unknown! Also, thank you to whoever commented on my last post, it was so kind.

Last Day in Richard Toll

2008-10-05T11:09:00.002Z

It has come. I'm spending today with the two families who have meant the most to me and then leaving for Dakar early tomorrow morning. Last night four of my favorite peace corps friends came in and we had our last bacon cheeseburger barbecue on my roof. It was really fun and very sad to say goodbye to them this morning.

Saying goodbye to my Senegalese friends has been much as I expected, no crying, no hugs even, just a simple, ok, see you later. Today will be the big test though. As some of you know my relationship with the host family I live with is not that strong. But I spend all my time next door with Yaye Fatou's family and a lot of time with her aunt's family as well. Today I will be saying goodbye to them and i'm nervous. I'm sure it will be OK.

my room is empty. My bags are packed. Everything is done. Time to go.

KORITE!

2008-10-02T11:37:00.002Z

Ramadan is over, Alhamdulilahi!

Yesterday was Kortie (EID) and it was actually a pretty rocking time. I ate my weight in chicken and wore Senegalese clothes for the first time since I swore in as a Peace Corps volunteer (photos to come...). Last night my bed frame totally broke which is no good because I had to sleep at a 22° slant all night but its only for four more nights if I can't get it fixed. I can't believe I'm only here four more nights. Wow. I've lived in this room longer than I've lived anywhere since I was 15 so its become pretty home-y to me. I took all the pictures down off my wall last night and now the room is sort of depressing, but I won't have time to get used to it.

I'm sure you've all seen between here and facebook that I will not be moving to England in January to work for Diamedica. The UK work permit system is impenetrable for a lowly entry-level employee like me so I will have to be looking for employment stateside. Its a bit daunting with the economy in the shape its in but I'm pretty much prepared to do anything and live anywhere so if any of you hear of a good job let me know! I'll be posting my Oct-Dec itinerary on here in a couple days so any of you can track me down if you like. I hope all is well wherever you are! Smiles, me

Want to understand the current economic crisis?

2008-09-28T18:18:00.000Z

....
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09/26-5

Weekend....

2008-09-28T17:13:00.002Z

The countdown has seriously begun. I'll be leaving Richard Toll in less than ten days. I've been making my way around town saying goodbyes to my work partners and friends. I've startes taking stuff off the walls and am happily only taking home a handful of stuff, so I won't have to ship anything. I'm trying to decide whether to continue writing my blog after I leave Senegal or not and I reckon I will, for a while anyway. I'll be trapsing around England America and Israel til January and then who knows, so there could be some interesting updates.... Anyway, let me know what you think. I'm getting very VERY excited about leaving!

Two Years in Senegal!!

2008-09-24T09:43:00.004Z

Hey Everyone! I forgot to mention yesterday that last Sunday was my TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY in Senegal! Woo! Every month I've put a bracelet on my right wrist and so here is what it looks like after two years: I'm now going to give a bracelet to each of my friends here and just keep one or two for myself.
ALSO a big THANK YOU to everyone who sent me postcards from anywhere in the US. This is the basic finished product, it has over 80 postcards! Since this picture was taken a few more have been added but we're about to start dismantling it (sad, I know) so I thought I'd let you see it while its still up.This is a picture of Richard Toll looking beautiful...

FASTING

2008-09-23T11:20:00.002Z

Hey everyone.

Today I'm fasting in solidarity with all my muslim friends and family here. Strictly speaking that means nothing should pass my throat all day (strict muslims don't even swallow spit) but I am not muslim so I will continue to swallow and if things get really dire this afternoon I may drink some water. Its over 100 outside and the humidity is about 100%, I am dripping with sweat already. So today might be difficult but I have nothing planned except to go home and read my book til 7:15 tonight when I can drink water again.

In other news I went to Thies last week to meet the brand new volunteers. They seem wonderful and one of them will be replacing me in Toll so I feel pretty good about leaving. It was great to hear all their silly questions and anxieties and realize just how far I've come since I was in their shoes. Two years is a LONG time.

One Month Left

2008-09-17T13:22:00.002Z

I'll be flying out one month from today. I can barely believe it. I was looking through my journals last night and it is truly incredible how much can happen in two years even though it seems so fast. I was trying to think of all the different routines I've established and changed in this time, from breakfast decisions to when I have my dance parties, going to tutoring or teaching specific classes, using my office or working from home, individual consulting sessions, having no neighbours to becoming a hotel for volunteers- so much can happen in two years. I also feel I have changed as much as anyone does in this type of situation. I see age marks on my face and feel a little more cynical in certain situations. I feel a superiority in conversations about Africa with people who haven't been here and a much greater understanding of the global trading issues that so vexed me in my undergrad. I definitely don't have any answers about how to save the world, but I've done my little bit to increase business savoir-faire in Richard Toll and have even helped a few people make more money.

I'm a little nervous about the "goodbye process". Senegalese people get happy, sad, stressed, angry over completely different stimuli than we americans do so sometimes things that make us very emotional get lost in translation. I will be very sad and want to hug a lot of people here that have meant a lot to me. Senegalese people aren't so in to hugging and take a very "if god wills it we will see each other again" approach to goodbyes so they don't get emotional like I inevitably will. I've heard a lot of volunteers remark that when leaving their villages/towns they were disappointed by the lack of interest shown by the community. Instead of thanking them for their service they ask for presents or money. So I'm preparing myself for the worst, which means I will ultimately be happy with whatever I get. :)

I'm heading to Thies tomorrow to do some trainings on how to teach Marketing and Costing to the new group of volunteers that arrived last week. One of them will be replacing me in Toll so I'm pretty excited to meet them. I barely remember how I felt and how ignorant I was about all things Senegalese when I first got here so I'm sure it will be quite a shock for me.

I still have no concrete idea what I'll be doing in the long term when I finish here. Immediately, I'm planning on three weeks in England in October, home for the elections, off to California for a week, Texas for Thanksgiving, Israel for a Birthright trip in December and then who knows! There is a company in England trying vigorously to get me a work permit and if that works out it would be an amazing opportunity but the UK Home Office is pretty awful so we'll see. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Smiles, me

Ramadan, Obama, Photos

2008-09-09T10:46:00.011Z

Typical city transport in Dakar
My site mate, Casey, and I
My neighbour Megan right before she won the 4k 2008 Dakar-Goree swim
The Peace Corps Dakar-Goree swim team. They all completed the 4k open water swim. Yay for Peace Corps!

Ramadan is in full swing and seems to be much less annoying this year than it was the last two. I've seen a lot more people eating and drinking during the day and I am not encountering the constant pestering and "Why aren't you fasting?" of previous years. Also, I had an interesting conversation with the PC Admin Officer about the differences between Ramadan in Senegal and other West African cultures. She said the social pressures to fast here and much stronger than in Burnika Faso, Mali or Mauritania. The Koran states quite clearly that the young, old and sick do not have to fast but there are four year olds on my street not fasting. It is over a hundred degrees every day and these children are choosing not to drink water while the sun shines. Pregnant women fast. Old women fast. But women on their period do not. In our car the other day the four Senegalese Muslims were all fasting, the two Mauritanian Muslims were not. They said the Senegalese were not following God's will. It made me feel more comfortable in my decision not to fast (though I've promised I'll try next week) and also reflect on how silly, and potentially life threatening, Senegalese Islam can be.

In other news, the election is in full swing over here- the American election. Everyone is talking about it. My host dad asked me to get him an Obama shirt yesterday. He was gutted to hear that Colin Powell never ran because of his wife's fear of asassination. When Sandy and I were coming back from Dakar, the Mauritanian guy sitting next to me commented on a picture of Bill Clinton in my magazine. He sais (in english), "That's my president." He went on to say something about Obama and the two Senegalese people in the back seat only understanding the word "Obama" said, "Yes, good!" Even though they didn't know what we were saying, they wanted to affirm Obama. He is definitely the Senegalese choice.

You should know these guys by now, Sandy, Dan, Josh and I
Iain and I at the Mbour party, he's not a PCV, he's a Scotsman who was working for Tostan in Senegal and Somalia. (look up Tostan if you're interested in Female Genital Cutting, its a great organisation started by an ex Senegal RPCV)
Me and my boys...
The flooding problem in Dakar... It rained almost every day I was in Dakar and the streets were flooded all over town. It took us an hour and a half to get back to our Regional House from the PC office this particular evening. Normally it takes twenty minutes.

Books Read in Senegal

2008-09-04T14:24:00.001Z

There is a lot of down time in the PC, hot afternoons when you can’t go outside, ten hour car rides, Ramadan, holidays, evenings. I tried to read as much as possible and luckily the regional houses here are stocked with lots of great books. I tried to read a wide variety of old, new, novel, non fiction, historical and had a great time exploring literature in a new way. I’d love your comments on my taste in books; it’s a favorite pastime among volunteers to debate about authors and styles. They’re ordered here chronologically, so don’t look for reason. Most of the time I picked up a book just because it was there.

Rated by Stars * terrible, ***** incredible

*Darkness at Noon **
Shogun, James Clavell ****
Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris ***
Dress Yourself in Corduroy and Denim, David Sedaris ***
A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway ***
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens ****
*Charlie Wilson’s War ***
Moby Dick, Herman Melville ***
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay, Michael Chabon ****
*The Every Boy *
Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh *****
*All Quiet on the Western Front ****
*Freakanomics *
Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer ****
GAI-JIN, James Clavell ****
Le Petit Prince, Antoine de Saint Exupery (en Francais) ****
The Stranger, Albert Camus ***
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer *****
Setting Free the Bears, John Irving ***
The Fools Progress, Edward Abbey ****
Disgrace, JM Coetzee **
Catch 22, Joseph Heller *****
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe ****
Filth, Irvine Welsh *****
Dreams From My Father, Barack Obama **
In Our Time, Ernest Hemingway ***
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens ****
Dubliners, James Joyce ***
A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby **
Mao II, Don DeLillo *
Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow, Dee Brown ***
The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner *
*The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime **
Siddhartha, Herman Hesse **
Our Man in Havana, Graham Greene ***
Life of Pi, Yann Martel ****
Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri ****
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Mark Twain ***
Mountains Beyond Mountains, Tracy Kidder ****
Brokeback Mountain, Annie Proulx **
The State of Africa, Martin Meredith ****
Captains Courageous, Rudyard Kipling **
The Discomfort Zone, Jonathan Franzen **
King Leopold’s Ghost, Adam Hochschild ***
The Chosen, Chaim Potok ***
The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas ***
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini ***
*The Bookseller of Kabul ***
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck *****
Glue, Irvine Welsh *****
The Middle East, Bernard Lewis ***
The God Factor, Cathleen Falsani ***
Naked, David Sedaris ***
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera *****
Walking, Henry David Thoreau ***
Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer **
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte *
East of Eden, John Steinbeck *****
Undaunted Courage, Stephen Ambrose ***
A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole **
What is the What, Dave Eggers ***
Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Michael Chabon **
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury ***
Exodus, Leon Uris *****
The Last King of Scotland, Giles Foden **
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austin ****
Identity, Milan Kundera **
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S Thompson ****
Slowness, Milan Kundera **
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver **
Lenin’s Tomb, David Remnick ****
Jitterbug Perfume, Tom Robbins ***
Tai Pan, James Clavell ****
Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut ***
Sputnik Sweetheart, Haruji Murakami *
Altered Carbon, Richard Morgan *
The Rum Diaries, Hunter S Thompson ***
Don’t Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs…, Paul Cater ***
American Pastoral, Phillip Roth ***

COS

2008-08-28T11:29:00.010Z

The 2006-2008 Senegal Peace Corps Volunteers
Its been a long strange trip. I didn't think I'd make it through these two years before I got here but I never once seriously considered quitting and I am so happy I saw it through. I've had a great balance of work and play and have made incredible friends. As pcvs, you really have to rely on your peers for support and I don't think I could have survived without these guys. My friends here know more about my strengths weaknesses... and bowel movements... than anyone has ever known. That creates a pretty tight bond and I will be sad to say goodbye to these kids.
The NORTHERN girls. We were the only people sent up north and we rocked that desert.

My great friend, Adam Johnson. Along with Bridget, I spent just about all of training in Thies with this guy then the Peace Corps sent us to opposite sides of the country. He is one of the greatest people I've met here.

Reading superlatives at a farewell reception with our bosses.

Close of Service Conference

2008-08-27T08:03:00.002Z

Hello Everyone!

Sorry you haven't heard from me in a few days, I'm in Dakar for my COS conference. They've put us up in a semi-decent hotel (most rooms have CNN) and all day we're talking about resumes, cover letters and how to describe our service quantifiably. Not exactly what I expected but its been good. I've taken lots of photos and will write a longer update in a few days. The hotel has high speed wifi but we're just too busy for me to do a lot. Hope you're all enjoying the Democratic Convention, we've been watching the highlights in the morning (time zones are annoying...).

I've got six weeks left in country! No more time for packages but thanks to everyone who has sent me mail in the last two years, its made my time so much easier.

My roof

2008-08-17T10:42:00.003Z

I'm sure I've posted photos on here from my roof before, but it is my favorite place in Senegal and I'm going to miss it terribly when I leave.

It's easily the best part of my living situation and I think puts my place as one of the top five coolest sites in PC Senegal. It overlooks the Senegal river and Mauritania, which actually looks green and not too desert-y from my vantage point. We have sunset barbecues up there with bacon cheese burgers (a rarity in Senegal) and listen to early 90s music, Nick from Mauritania serenades us on the guitar and we dance around to the enjoyment of the kids watching us from the street, I stare at the stars and have seen a lunar and solar eclipse by accident, I tan up there (not often...) and read books, but mostly I just watch the river float on by. If you could see the view, you'd understand.

I have had such a lucky and wonderful service in so many ways. I thought I'd be living in a dusty hut with no electricity or running water in an uneducated village of 75 people. There are volunteers here with that life, but not me. I've lived in a nice 'dorm room' with running water and a western toilet and shower, have an overhead fan and a refridgerator. Most of the time I've got electricity. Richard Toll has an extremely educated and dynamic population of 70,000 highly motivated individuals. I've gotten away with speaking french almost exclusively in my work and not many volunteers can do that. I have awesome work partners and good friends here. I don't think I've changed the world or anything, but I've helped a few people make more money and that feels good. I just like to be thankful once in a while. :)

Assumption

2008-08-15T09:24:00.002Z

Today seems to be another fake Catholic holiday, its also Sandy's Birthday, Happy Birthday Sandy!

Last night the rainy season decided it was finally ready for its 2008 debut. Although we've had a couple short rains before now, this baby left Richard Toll very much under water. I had to take two alternate routes and wade a couple times just to get my breakfast this morning. But it cools everything down so much and justifies the ridiculous humidity that makes blinking a sweat-inducing affair. Alhamdulialahi!

In other news, I've been trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to watch the Olympics. The best I've been able to do so far is the US-Angola slaughter on the bball court and a daily highlight real. I hope you are all enjoying them for me!

Last night while watching TV with Yaye Fatou's family she asked if I thought Ariel Sharon was dead. I said I knew he wasn't. She brought out a print out of Sharon on a bed hooked up to multiple respiratory machines. In the corner was another small shot of a highly emaciated person curled up on a bed. The two pictures looked nothing alike but the one implied that the other was also Sharon. There were lines of Arabic writing under the two photos with exclamation points which I can only assume was some ridiculous anti-Israeli propaganda. When I asked the family what the arabic said, they had no idea. But every member of the family can read the Koran, which is also in arabic, but they read from memory, not from understanding. I was shocked and not shocked at the same time. We do the same type of ignorant things in America too.

Anyway, have a great weekend. This weekend is the two month mark til the end of my PC service. Crazy. Look forward in the next few weeks to lots of thoughts on development, my future, lists of the books I've read (up to 80!) and itinerary info for my travels in Oct-Dec. Jamm rekk.

je parle français!

2008-08-13T15:05:00.002Z

I took my language test in Thies Monday and was given an Advanced rating for my french. Shocking since when I first got here I was congratulating myself for remembering the word for sister. SO, if you need any translation help.... :)

Oklahoma City Rocks!

2008-08-09T10:08:00.001Z

For all you fools who say you won't come visit me in OKC (nevermind the fact that I'm never actually there...) check this out!
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/travel/escapes/08American.html

PICS!

2008-08-07T09:10:00.020Z

This is the view of the Presidential Palace from my friend Kris's flat in Dakar. He's a third year PCV, aren't we a lucky crew?

BIRTHDAY HAPPINESS

I make all the guys dance with me. This is Nick, a Mauritanian pcv who came to Toll one weekend and we all went out to the seedy bar here, super fun.

ENGLISH CAMP!
This is the kids trying to do the human knot... It was only semi successful. :)Wheelbarrow racing on field day- so funny! This was the biggest guy in our group and I think this girl did an awesome job lugging him around!Playing with our fake hula hoops One of our girls doing an activity. The coolest thing about the camp was that everyone was smiling the whole time. They loved every activity and were so excited to try new things. SO MUCH FUN!Adrien, Krista and Jaime explaining one of our many activities to the group...We taught them the limbo and they were awesome at it! I don't know if I've ever seen a woman win a limbo...This is a semi-group photo, though its missing a lot of the kidsOur awesome english camp team- Adrien from New Orleans, Jaime from New Jersey and Krista from Colorado. Krista came to Senegal with me and the other two came in six months after us.
Latest CNN article on the Mauritanian coup which most of you have probably heard about by now:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/08/06/mauritania.coup.ap/index.html
RANDOM
USAID craziness... This is basically the only picture I took during our training at Sara's site This is the giant monitor lizard I wrote about a couple weeks ago, pretty cool, eh? A typical rainy season house guest... A garbage truck in St Louis, obviously paid for by the Italians...
This is my baby girl, Ngooni. She was born April Fools Day of my first year here and I absolutely adore her. I got the best birthday present ever yesterday when for the first time she greeted me with "HI" (I say Hi to everyone here, even before I say salaam aleekum!) and then she said my name, Khady!!! She called me Tata too which means aunt and I almost started crying. I spend so much time with her and shes such a joy and she knows who I am and now I'm about to leave. Its the most heartbreaking part of this crazy adventure but also the best.
And a parting shot...

The best pre-Birthday EVER!

2008-08-05T09:12:00.002Z

I have the greatest friends in the world.

The English camp was amazing and one of the best experiences I've had in Senegal. I'll try to put pictures up in the next few days. The last day was field day and they loved rice sack and wheel barrow racing, he he.

After class friday we started celebrating my birthday... My actual birthday is tomorrow but my two bosses are coming on tournee today (my last official PC visit as a vol!) and visiting all my friends up north this week so no one can come play with me tomorrow. This happened last year too so I decided to have my birthday early. :) We went out dancing both Friday and Saturday til about 6 am and Dakar is great for it. We found a swanky restaurant/movie theatre and had drinks at a friend's flat overlooking the presidential palace before going out Friday and Saturday a big group of us met at Happy Hour and they had a gorgeous amazing cake made for me by the bar chef. SO YUMMY, especially if you know how much I like cake! Then we went to the best chinese food place ever- its just for chinese people living in Dakar so no one speaks french or wolof so I ordered for 15 people with the VERY limited chinese I still remember and we ate til we were stuffed. Then DANCING! The first saturday of every month there's a huge outdoor party for mostly expats at a scuba diving centre right on the water. Because of the mix of people, they play just about every type of music- in blocks of 20 minutes. Its super fun and some of my favorite dance partners were out so I even got to twirl around a bit. It was great great great. Sunday we sat around the pool all day and I got a free ride back to site yesterday with my bosses, so all is well in the world.

I can't believe I only have two months left at site, it seems like its all gone so fast! In other news, Bill Clinton spent the weekend in Senegal, here are a couple articles about it:

http://www.clintonfoundation.org/news/news-media/clinton-foundation-unitaid-france-and-who-support-governments-to-turn-policy-into-practice-to-save-more-infants-living-with-hiv

ENGLISH IS SO COOL!!!

2008-07-29T15:18:00.002Z

I have had the COOLEST last two days! The english camp we are running this week is paid for by the US State Department and is in conjunction with the ACCESS program, a multi-country initiative to teach english to underprivileged youth in predominately muslim countries. Basically, we have 45 upper level high school english students who are between 17-20 years old. Myself and three other volunteers were given a small budget for the week and told to do anything fun that would challenge the kids, teach them about American culture and values and encourage leadership skills- all in english. It has been SO fun!

The first day we played Simon Says, Never Have I Ever, a Taboo-type game and made name tags with their Senegalese names and an american name of their chosing. We have two Rhiannas, three Jacks, one Obama, a Cindy, a Bowwow, etc. It was a fun day of bonding and we realized these kids have great english and are super creative. Today we did a trust fall which blew their minds and then had blind debates where one kid from each team came up and drew a topic out of a hat and then the two debaters had four minutes to debate the issue. It was INCREDIBLE! They debated whether Senegalese clothes are better than western clothes, if illegal immigration is good or bad, whether attaya or cafe touba are preferred by Senegalese and lots of other serious and funny topics. The kids got way into it and used very advanced vocabulary. Its so motivating to see how smart these kids are. The last activity we did today was to have one person hold a mango under their chin and then have another person come up and put it under their chin without using their hands. It would be pretty provacative in america but was just fun here. We've also thrown in a lot of games I found in Deep Fun, the old YRUU resource which I always access whenever I do any leadership type things. We've got lots of other cool stuff planned for the rest of the week, Jeopardy, an american style field day with three legged races and rice sack races, improvisational theatre and lots more games and discussions! If you have any idea, let me know ASAP! I'll put pictures on here as soon as I can. Yay for English!

Birds, Kayaking, Pizza, Marketing

2008-07-24T15:06:00.002Z

Hey everyone!

I'm back in Richard Toll after a short trip to Gandiol to do a marketing training with my friend Sara. Although she had done awesome preparation for the class and the subject, marketing, isn't too taxing, the small group didn't seem at all committed to doing the training and after three days of trying we decided they weren't quite ready for it. It was quite a let down and Sara was pretty bummed but I think it was a good learning experience. Sara's site, however, is in a beautiful location at a bird park south of St Louis on this beachy peninsula so we took advantage of the area when we weren't teaching (or trying to teach). I rode a bike (big step for those of you who know me!), we went kayaking and swimming across the river to the ocean, and saw lots of cool wildlife, gazelles, monkeys, a million crabs. Every night Sara and I cooked dinner together which was super fun (Stroganoff, stir fry, chicken soup, spaghetti etc) and our last night we went out for pizza in St Louis. So although the training didn't come off, it still was pretty fun.

Another interesting thing happened: A tourist couple from Paris came in to where we were doing the training and struck up a conversation with us about development. Now, as you all can imagine, one has a lot of time to think about development over two years in Africa so I've got a few opinions on the subject which I'm sure I'll go in to at some point either in here or happily in person with any of you. But they were rushed off after about thirty minutes back to St Louis. Well the next day they just showed up at Sara's host family's house because they wanted to continue the discussion! So we talked for another hour or so (all in french, excitingly) all about all the obstacles to development in africa and the differences between Western and African thinking (like, did you know that most Senegalese children I've met do NOT have a DREAM job or life sitting in their imaginations!). I had a super interesting time talking to them and hope that if anything comes out of my PC experience it will be a lot of interesting conversations about development.

Before I go on, I'll just say this to wet your development conversation appetites:
Health, education and infrastructure are three absolutely necessary legs of the development table. The fourth is a strong financial system that the population trusts and knows how to use. If Senegalese people understood better how to take out and repay loans and trusted banks with their money they would be much less likely to look to outside NGOs and organisations for grants and free handouts. If people are spending their own money or investing in themselves the chances of the project succeeding are way higher than if the money comes from an unaccountable foreign source with SUVs. There are a ton of highly motivated educated people in Senegal who could start very successful businesses of their own but don't understand the banking system (and this includes microcredit institutions) enough to take out loans or even open accounts to safeguard their money. That is our job as small business volunteers. I'm working on it.

Enough about that, I've just been invited to help with a USAID sponsored summer camp in Dakar next week so thats where I'll be. I'll let you know more about it as it happens. Right now I am dirty and sweaty and in need of a shower. Hope all is well and if you went to SWUUSI that you had fun! Happy Early Birthday to my SISTER too, she's the best one in the whole world!

Saturday morning

2008-07-19T09:17:00.003Z

On my way to the cyber I passed the following things

A dead skinned cow being gutted on the "sidewalk" of the main market street in Toll

A man throwing up next to a semi

About twenty people pushing a giant van to pop it into second gear and get it started

A man tending a trash fire in the middle of the road

Goats having sex

Africa is weird.

I'm heading to one of the most beautiful sites in Senegal today, The Langue de Barbarie, to do a week long training with another volunteer, Sara. The site has two national parks, a bird park and a game park, and the training will be with the eco-guards who manage the parks. The site is right on the ocean and there are kayaks we can use for free! Its also a protected beach for turtle reproduction so since tonight is the full moon we'll hopefully get to see some giant turtles laying their eggs. Cool! I hope you all have a lovely weekend! Smiles, me

Random photos of LIFE

2008-07-16T09:05:00.006Z

I stole this picture of Kedougou from Casey. Its very pretty and green.

This is Penda Mbodj, one of my Michele Sylvester Scholarship candidates (and the girl I'd like to win....) She invited me to her house and asked if I could take photos of her family since its pretty uncommon to take family portraits here.

The training I did the last couple months just finished and we had a nice little diploma ceremony where we all talked about how great we are and drink orange soda. I'm hopefully going to do a computer class with this same group in a week. They are all the teachers from a local elementary school.

Its been a long time since I've posted photos of Yaye Fatou because I don't get to see her all that much anymore. She works A LOT for the UNHCR now. This was taken on the international day of refugees event in Richard Toll.

Three lovely girls from my stage and I. None of us can believe its been almost two years! Theres so much I still need/want to do and I still feel like I just got here!

Senegal Craft Catalog

2008-07-11T11:10:00.002Z

Hey everyone! A few volunteers have put together this catalog of Senegalese craft items to try to connect the producers with markets in the west. Please take a look at the very cool, beautiful crafts and if you're interested in buying any of them (UUSC, christmas presents, your booth at the arts festival, etc) let me know or contact the person listed and we can get you in touch with the artisans and get your orders filled. The shoes, baskets and wallets are super cool!

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p wK42IMFHh7XYdOv4wVGBOg

Thanks for supporting our work! Happy Friday!

The journey...

2008-07-09T16:27:00.007Z

We started looking all bright eyed and bushy tailed...

Ran into this guy on the street and Ryan and I both being from Oklahoma, thought we had to take a photo.... globalisation is so cool...

My fellow Okie, Ryan Thornton, from near Tulsa. Hes pretty much the coolest guy ever.

Moving quickly from Ourassougi to Tamba, we hired out the whole 7 place, hooked our ipods up to the car radio with my FM transmitter and jammed out all the way to monkey country...

Our last leg on the ride south was joined by Ashleigh Lovett who kindly cooked us all peanut butter cookies the night before, alhamdulilahi!

The third to last leg of the return trip (the last documented) was on the Tamba- Kaolack road, the most used road in West Africa and easily the worst. Its a distance of about 200 kilometres but took us 8 hours! Half the road is under constuction (hence all the red dust), the other half is giant pot holes. Its not too bad, if you only have to go it once, thank god I don't live in Tamba!

Creepy Story for Everyone!

2008-07-08T17:03:00.002Z

Hello everyone!
I will try to upload a couple silly photos from our trip down to Kedougou but today I just want to tell you a weird story.

Sunday night around 2am my friend Helen and I went to sleep on the roof of the Kaolack regional house. There were about 15 other people sleeping on the roof and we were in a pretty hard to get to area compared to everyone else. We were also sleeping very tucked in to our mosquito net. Our phones were lying next to our heads. About 30 minutes later I woke up getting bitten by mosquitos and our net was open at our feet. I didn't think much of it and closed the net again. When I lay back down though, I realized my phone was no longer by my head. I figured I'd kicked it off the mat somewhere and would look for it in the morning. But I couldn't get back to sleep and kept thinking about the oddity of my phone disappearing and the net being open. About two hours later Helen woke up and we both realized our phones were gone. They'd been stolen. As far as we can tell, someone jumped from the neighbour's house roof to ours, climbed into the alcove we were sleeping in, opened and entered our net and stole our phones without us waking up. I'm a pretty light sleeper so thats pretty scary.

I don't write my blog to make you all lose sleep at night, but this is pretty much the creepiest thing thats happened to me in Senegal. Helen and I are both VERY grateful that all the guy did was steal our phones, Alhamdulilahi! I'm using my old british phone with a new sim but was able to keep my old number and the stupid robber didn't even use all my credit! Dummy! Look out for photos in the next few days, hope you all had a Happy 4th of July!

July 4th Preview

2008-06-30T14:45:00.002Z

Hello Team!

The humidity has come to Senegal and I've got Giardia! Happy Monday!

I'm heading down to Kedougou tomorrow for July 4th. If you'd like to consult a map, it is on exactly the opposite side of the country from Richard Toll. Should be fun. Riding down with three friends for an all volunteer pig roast to celebrate our wonderful nation's birthday. Happy Happy! Hope you've all printed out your copies of the Declaration of Independence to read at your respective ceremonies. If you happen to be one of my lovely british friends reading this, HA HA HA HA!!!

Happy July everyone!!!

The Food Crisis in Senegal

2008-06-27T09:45:00.001Z

Hey Team, below is an email from the Senegal PC Director. It addresses our role in the current global food crisis so I thought it may interest you. Also, the Economist article is very insightful.

Dear Peace Corps Senegal Family:
Some of you have raised questions about the emerging food crisis in Africa:
-What is causing the problem?
-What is the situation in Senegal compared to other countries?
-What can Peace Corps and we as Volunteers do about it?
Peace Corps globally has been trying to react effectively to the situation. As you all know, for decades our Volunteers have seen first hand the horrible effects of hunger in many communities and this year the situation is particularly acute.
This is a link to the comprehensive view on the situation in The Economist’s article The Silent Tsunami
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11050146
Here is a link to the World Food Programme site on Senegal:
http://www.wfp.org/country_brief/indexcountry.asp?country=686#
What can we do about the situation?
Here are some practical steps:
With July coming and the "hungry season" here, as grain supplies are emptying, this is an update on the current food situation in Senegal. We also want to provide more recommendations on how all Volunteers -- regardless of sector -- can play a role in reducing food insecurity. You know your community best; we cannot give you a “one size fits all” solution. But here is some data, followed by some strategies:
· There are two distinct aspects to the current food crisis: skyrocketing prices, and limited availability of food.
· The World Food Program reports that Senegal grows about 35% of the grain the population needs to feed itself. About 50% of Senegalese families are considered “food insecure,” including most of the people we work with. 70% of Senegalese women and children under 5 are iron deficient.
· If the rainy season and subsequent harvest is anything less than above average, the country will need even more grain supplies.
· The government is working with grain importers to keep a lid on prices as much as possible and to increase rice imports. Although rice prices here have increased more than 1/3 in the last several months, on the world market, the price of rice has risen 300%.
· The cost of rice is now about $1,000/ton which is about three times the price in December 2007.
· Nearly half the population now lives in large towns and cities. With the elevated costs, urban wage earners must now spend more to buy rice for their families, or eat less.
· Many people fear that there are not sufficient seeds in the country to plant for a full harvest. People have been cutting into their seed stock for food, or selling it thinking that the price hikes are temporary. People should save their seeds a much as possible; they may not be available to buy when it’s time to plant this year or next.
So, what can you do? The reality is that every Volunteer, regardless of what sector you are in, has a role to play in mitigating the effects of food insecurity in Senegal. Your work is more important now than ever. Many roles require protracted, long-term development initiatives -- certainly the main reason you are here. And the faster you can take action, the more you can function in preventative rather than curative roles within the communities where you serve. The food crisis is unlikely to go away any time soon. Longer term solutions are just as critical at this point in time.
For Agriculture, Urban Ag and AgFo Volunteers:
· During this rainy season, multi-cropping becomes more important than ever. It will be critical for farmers to diversify crops in the event one or more of them fail. Encourage villagers to plant a greater variety of crops, and if they can grow more than they need to survive, to eat the ones that are not in demand on world markets.
· Stress bean cultivation with an emphasis on varieties with short cycles such as Melakh. Because of its short cycle (55 days from planting to harvest) it is the best thing for decreasing the hunger season and has tremendous nutritional qualities. The farmer can plant it twice during the rainy season in most areas.
· Land productivity remains the number one challenge to increasing yields in Senegal. Soil degradation and nutrient depletion are wreaking havoc on the farmers' ability to grow ample crops and on the land to sustain itself. With this in mind, farmland needs more nutrients and fertilizers, particularly nitrogen. The planting of nitrogen-fixing trees and crops (in addition to traditional farming practices) in and around fields can increase yields. Similarly, intercropping beans with corn or millet can improve yields for both.
· Encourage the saving of seeds and discourage the consumption of seed stocks, especially those that have been treated with pesticides.
· Starting now, but especially at harvest time, help farmers assess with families the household consumption over the course of the year, so they know how far their stored millet/corn will go. Many PCVs who live in rural areas make an agreement with their host families to contribute more to the family meals during the hungry season and less just after harvest.
· Encourage planting of quick to mature trees such as papayas and bananas within the compound. They can provide significant nutrition quickly.
· Planting Australian Acacias will (1) improve soil quality, (2) provide income generation through the sale of fuelwood, and (3) provide enhanced nutrition through the use of Acacia (collei) seed as part of day-to-day diets. Similarly, Moringa (nebadai) has been shown to not only have nutritional advantages for people, but to improve plant productivity as well.
· Domestic and home gardens become particularly more important. Filling the belly is one thing. Filling it with a balance of protein, vitamins and nutrients is another all together. In promoting gardening, encourage the planting of species that are already known in your area: okra, bissap, jakhatu, egg plants, tomato, sweet potato, beans, etc. Consider a Peace Corps Partnership or SPA proposal for fencing around a garden.
· Maximize the number of families that you work with, particularly when you are directly helping families bridge the nutrition gap, such as Urban Ag Volunteers getting beyond the demo gardens and doing more outreach to poor families in their communities.
For Health Volunteers:
· It's all about nutrition.
· Think Moringa. Encourage people to plant it and use it to improve diets. Moringa is a great source of protein, iron and other vitamins.
· Work with each other on local recipes to increase calories and protein in local diets. Malnutrition is directly related to food insecurity. Conversely, nutritional enhancement will help offset the amplitude of any food crisis. Share these recipes electronically through the gmail account and pcsenegal.org.
· The lowest-risk population might be babies under 6 months… if mothers will exclusively breast feed.
· Battle anemia, particularly found in lactating mothers. Encourage people to increase the greens (Moringa) and iron in their diets and lessen the starch intake.
· Population growth, of course, has a direct impact on food production. And Senegal has the one of the highest birth rates in the world. The last survey of poverty in Senegal showed that the largest families were the poorest. Promote birth spacing.
· Diarrhea intensifies levels of malnutrition. Good hygiene fights diarrhea. Use good hygiene practices to ward off higher malnutrition rates, particularly amongst young children and newborns. Consider a latrine project funded by Peace Corps Partnership or SPA. Some good examples are in the Sharepoint file and the gmail account.
For Environmental Education, EcoToursim and SED Volunteers:
· SED work to diversify incomes is more important than ever.
· Think school gardens. Most schools have ample land to grow crops. Organize a planting program, and one to keep it managed during vacation time. Consider a SPA or Peace Corps Partnership proposal for water availability or fencing needed to help a school garden succeed.
· Use an EcoTourism site to provide a model for food production integrated into another business. Improve tourist camp profits by helping them grow some of their own food.
· If you live in more urban areas, practice urban gardening. Set an example. Consult with your Urban Ag colleagues for advice.
· Consider developing and conducting youth camps or seminars that capitalize on youth interest and educate youth on environmental relationships and food security. The Kedougou region has had some good examples of youth camps with both environmental education and enterprise development focus.
· Plant Moringa.
Share these strategies among the Volunteer community, your counterparts and the Senegalese with whom you live and interact. Embrace the unique position each of you are in and capitalize on it; this will become one of your biggest "gifts" to Senegal. And please share what you are doing, seeing, experiencing with staff and your friends and family back home. Additions to the above are most welcome.
[Thanks to our friends at PC/The Gambia for much of the information and format above.]
Let me and your APCDs know what you are doing to help and make suggestions on how we can better support you. I’ve started a discussion on this issue at www.pcsenegal.org. Please participate.
-Chris

Regional House

2008-06-24T09:21:00.003Z

Peace Corps sanctions us to have houses spread around the country for use by volunteers to relax, watch movies, cook american food, drink etc. In recent months my house has become a sort of de-facto regional house. Since March when my mom left I have had visitors staying with me multiple nights a week. At the beginning of June I sort of freaked out and demanded everyone to get away from my house for a little while and give me some space. I got five nights alone, the first time in three months, and now Hotel Bryn is open again. I'll have three people with me tonight and multiple people every other night this week until I leave for Kedougou next Monday. I am a people person and I love the people who come to visit, but these visits seriously cut in to my time with my host family and my ability to have dance parties. Since those are the two things I do to stay calm here I end up getting a bit stressed out after a few days of visitors. I put my foot down, and it worked for five days. I will now have visitors or be out of site until late July. Pray for my sanity. :)

Also! If any of you are thinking about sending me a birthday package, its time to go to the post office! Ramadan is in September so any food stuff that may help me survive would be appreciated! xxx

International Herald Tribune Article on Senegal

2008-06-19T15:32:00.000Z

http://iht.com/articles/2008/06/18/africa/18senegal.php?page=1

Sabaar Article

2008-06-19T12:03:00.002Z

Hey team! I wrote this article for our Senegal wide PCV journal. Its a silly article but I hope it shows you a little about my crazy life over here. All you non-PCVs, don't judge! Life over here is a bit ridiculous! I've modified it just a little for non PCV eyes... Enjoy.

Girl, I’m gonna make you sweat!
The Awesome Power of Private Dance Parties
Bryn Cain

Dancing is a very good stress reliever. All of you like to get down in Dakar or your regional house. It makes you feel good to groove along with your friends to whatever Rhianna song is rockin’ the airwaves in a given month. But I’m here to preach the gospel of Private Dance Parties. The ones you do behind closed doors, in your hut or concrete batiment, that make you drip buckets of sweat and laugh at the ridiculous moves you think only you can do.

I’ve been a big believer in Private Dance Parties for a long time and knew that my survival in Senegal would depend on them. Other people run, ride bikes, do yoga, but those activities just don’t do it for me. If they work for you, bismillah, but if you ever feel like getting a workout without the eyes of your whole community following your every move, try a little dancing. It’s not hard and it’ll make you feel like five million dollars. I started dancing in Toll a couple of weeks after I got to site and I still do it every night I’m alone. It lets me get rid of all my stress from the day and feel like I’m actually doing some sort of exercise. No matter what kind of day I’ve had or how tired I am, I put on the ipod and just start moving. If you ever go to bed stressed about the day you’ve just had, get up and shake your booty, believe me it’ll make you feel better.

This is a basic ‘how to’ for all you would be Private Dancers out there.

First, essentials items:
Music
Sweat Band (trust me)
Tennis Shoes/Socks
Sports Bra (ladies…)
Water
Mirror

Now, I’ve often debated the mirror question with volunteers. I definitely think it’s necessary. Almost all dance classes have mirrors and the whole idea is to be able to see how you look doing any given move, and then improve it. Small mirrors cost nothing in the market, get one. I also encourage you to wear shoes because it protects the bones in your feet from unnecessary isolated strain.

The first step in a PDP is stretching. If you’re really gonna dance, you don’t want to hurt yourself. Start with your neck and move down to your feet. The neck stretches will make your Sept Place rides much less painful. Roll your shoulders. Then work on isolation for your chest, mid section and hips. (Think of Will Smith dancing to ‘Jump On It’ on Fresh Prince…) You should be able to move your chest without moving anything else, apply that all the way down. Touch your toes, stretch to both sides, and you should be about ready.

The music you dance to is key, but it doesn’t have to be preprogrammed. My best PDPs are when I throw on shuffle and just dance to whatever comes on. Depending on your mood, you might want to try a night of classic rock, blues, swing, r&b, oldies or classical. Dance however you want! Try all the moves you see at Sabaars that you’re too embrassed to do in public. Bolocas. Pretend you’re on stage. Or a ballerina. Shimmy. Imitate your friends. Kick. Punch. Do the twist. If a song comes on you don’t want to dance to, run in place or do jumping jacks. Move around as much as your space allows. Try to dance without stopping for at least an hour. You will sweat. A lot. But you’re used to that, so embrace the sweat.

When you’ve had enough, do some floor stretches, crunches or push ups to cool yourself down. Then take a shower and go to bed. You will feel good.

I know a lot of people in country have already been saved by the power of PDPs. Alhamdulilahi! It is my mission to convert you all!

Bryn’s Top 5 Private Dance Party Tracks
1. Sing Sing by Glen Miller. The Ultimate PDP challenge.
2. Feeling Good by Michael Buble. The Nina Simone version is also great but doesn’t have the same beat.
3. Mr Banker by Lynard Skynard.
4. Railing by Roni Size. Drum n Bass is awesome for dancing.
5. Work It by Missy Eliot. For some good booty shakin…

Girls, Deportation and CHEESE!

2008-06-16T09:35:00.016Z

Hello Everyone! Happy Monday! A lot has happened since I last posted, all of it silly like always.

Thursday I organised a showing of the new SENEGAD (http://www.senegad.org/ ) video about the importance of girls staying in school in Senegal. Senegad is the Senegal Gender and Development organisation that encourages Peace Corps volunteers to promote gender equality in our work. Two current PCVs have made a movie called "Elle Travaille, Elle Vit" in french and "Women in the Workplace" in english. Its an interview with four successful women in Senegal about the obstacles they faced and the difficulties they overcame in achieving their goals and staying in school. Its a great video and I hope to get a copy of it to show at church when I get back.

The girls watching the video. Notice Ashleigh and Casey's shiny shaved head...

These four girls are all in Quatrieme (about 8th grade) and wonderful students, extremely motivated.
We showed it to my 26 Michele Sylvester scholarship girls on their last day of school for the year and bought them lunch. Afterwards we had a discussion about the role of women in Senegal and what these particular girls can do to succeed. It was a wonderful event, the girls loved it and Ashleigh, Casey and I had an awesome time.
The girls eating lunch and then Casey eating up all the leftovers while the girls watched music viedeos.
Afterwards we were quite tired and came back to my place to chill. Very shortly after I got a phone call from a new PCV who was in Toll for the day who had just had his bag stolen from the internet cafe I'm in right now. While rushing to the gendermarie we realized that Richard Toll was covered in Baye Falls. Baye Falls are this bizarre sect of Islam here that most closely resemble pirates and to be fair they aren't much better as human beings. (see photos below) They are beggars who are traditionally supposed to be farmers (Baye means farmer in Wolof) but they are basically just a big nuisance. Within an hour about eight camions of Baye Falls, probably 1000 people, stopped and left Toll. In that time, Justin got his bag stolen (passport clothes camera), Ashleigh got harassed, Casey almost got in a fight and I had to be escorted all the way home because two Baye Falls wouldn't leave me alone. Then they vanished but we still stayed in my house all night long to avoid stragglers...
That night I had a phone interview with representatives from Oklahoma Rotary for a scholarship I'm hoping to get. Its the Rotary World Peace Fellowship and would pay for me to get my masters in conflict resolution in Brisbane, Australia at the University of Queensland. I won't find out if I get the scholarship til November but keep your fingers crossed for me!
Friday, as I said, Ashleigh and I planned to go to Mauritania for the weekend so we got up early and headed to the border crossing at Rosso, Senegal and jumped in a flat bottomed pirogue to cross. When we got to the other side our passports were taken and our friend Mike went off with the immigration official to try to bribe him/talk him in to letting us into the country without proper visas. We had our heads wrapped and were quite nervous as Mauritania is a lot more conservative than Senegal and women are definitely not treated with much respect. After about twenty minutes the immigration man came out and walked us straight back to the pirogues and said that if we wanted to come back we'd need proper visas and have a nice day. We were deported. We crossed back in to Senegal with our now-uncovered hair blowing in the wind laughing like crazy.The Mauritanian border...

We decided we'll try again in August with proper visas and bought a bunch of cheese and went home. Cheese is not normally available in Toll so it was pretty exciting. We got Gouda and Camembert- yummy! Those are my silly weekend adventures. Happy Late Fathers Day! I've got lots of good consulting work to do this week so hope all is well in your neck of the woods. Oh! It rained here too! Just a little sprinkle but it was the first time since last September so it was pretty exciting and a month earlier than last year! Yay!
This is a pic from the Youssou Ndour concert!

Some of my guy friends after Go Karting in Dakar...
http://www.senegad.org/ If you want to donate to SENEGAD to help promote gender equality and women's empowerment initiatives in Senegal, check out the website and get involved!

Wind

2008-06-11T10:00:00.002Z

Hey everyone,

The last post was a bit dramatic, sometimes this country does silly things to me. I'm back in Toll after a quic trip to Dakar for my last HPV shot. The PC offers them free to all female volunteers which I think is great.

I'm a little bummed because a friend of mine and I were going to go to Mauritania for the weekend to see it and hang out with the PCVs there. I stare at Mauritania all day long out my window and have never really been there so I thought it was about time I made the trip. Well, we were told that you could buy 72 hour visas at the border for 13 mille (~$30) but a friend of mine who works at the border just called me to say that the new chief of police in Rosso, Mauritania (the border town) has just changed the law and now all visas must be purchased in Dakar and they are considerably more expensive there. SO we've decided we're just going to go to the border and see what we can work out. Our ability to speak Wolof and french and our friends on both sides of the border will hopefully help us and we'll be able to get across but who knows what will happen! Hopefully I'll at least come out of it with a story for you all.

Tomorrow we've planned a big event for the girls participating in the Michele Sylvester scholarship. A couple of volunteers have spent the last year making a film about women in Senegal who are doing amazing things (dentists, entrepreneurs, etc) and generally breaking the status quo of women as menageres (whats that word in english, house cleaners?). We're going to do a film showing tomorrow and provide lunch for the girls as a sort of end of the school year party. It should be cool. I'll take photos. Until then, happy Wednesday!

Too many.

2008-06-07T15:04:00.002Z

On May 23, the wife of my tutor and best male friend in country, Oumar Ndiaye, had her first baby boy. A week later he was baptized Seydou Ndiaye. This morning Seydou passed away. My friend, Oumar, is a teacher in Richard Toll and his wife was living with her mother in Thies. He was waiting for the school year to finish to go down and get his wife and baby boy to bring them back to Richard Toll. He never saw his son alive. I just found out so don't have any more details.

Sometimes I think there are just too many emotions in this country. I often complain about the lack of motivation to do things here... anything. But then I remember that life is just hard. For me, getting up this morning and getting a car to Dakar was nothing more than setting an alarm on my phone, brushing my teeth, and paying the 7 mille pass. It becomes so easy to block out all the people who choose not to get in my car because its too expensive and opt instead for the relatively cheaper version which takes about twice as long- if you're lucky. I ignore the little boys without shoes covered in snot asking for money because they annoy me and I cynically, and correctly, think they're just going to give the money to a rich religious leader anyway. I buy an egg sandwich and have a bottle of ice water from my fridge to make the journey a little better, no one else in the car eats for the 7 hour journey. I have a book, I bet no one in my car has more than ten books in their house.

I complain so much in this country about the heat, food, education system, religion; but its only because I'm so used to this other world that no one here can even imagine. People don't plan things more than two days in advance because time is different here. School is seen as a necessity but since there are no jobs available even when you finish university, no one really understands why they're wasting their time. Bad things happen here, but so frequently that it is just attributed to the will of God. The death of a child can be announced in a text message, when the electricity goes out for three days, no one thinks to call the electricity company: it will come back on, insh'allah. I'm rambling. I'm going to go take a shower. Today, be grateful for modern medicine and the opportuntity to be educated and personal automobiles and child labour laws and all the other things we always complain about. We are so lucky.

Youssou Ndour

2008-06-05T12:46:00.003Z

Hey team!

I got to see Youssou Ndour in Richard Toll last night! Woo hoo!! It was SO cool to see such a huge and important Senegalese icon in person in my little town here. This picture isn't from here, but I think it does him good justice. There were probably about 15,000 people in and around the stadium, maybe more. It was pretty sweet.

Je suis pressée!!

2008-05-30T12:19:00.002Z

Hello everyone!

So sorry its been a few days. I went to Dakar for the Volunteer Advisory Council meeting and just got back a couple days ago. My stomach has been a wreck and I've had lots of work to do so between those two things this is my first time at a cyber in a while.

Lots of interesting stuff happening in life at the moment but the biggest is probably the end of the 2007-08 Sugar "Campaign" at le Compagnie Sucriere Senegalaise here in Richard Toll. Every year for about seven months the sugar factory hires about 5000 people to help with the sugar harvest and refinement process on top of the 4000 year round staff. These employees come from all over Africa and live wherever they find room and eat with whoever will feed them for a little money. Today is the last day the sugar factory is at full capacity. Tomorrow, those 5000 employees will be chomeur, unemployed.

To show gratitude to the employees, the factory is throwing big parties all weekend with Senegalese wrestling, theatre, games, concerts, etc. But the highlight is a free Youssou N'Dour concert on June 4th!! Being a VIP here I'm hoping it won't be too hard for Casey and I to get in but I'm a little nervous I'll have to fight through massive crowds. If you don't know who Youssou N'Dour is, you should find out. He's easily the most famous west african musician and sells out stadiums from Paris to California to Durban. Its a pretty big deal that hes playing our tiny little stadium here in Richard Toll. But as I've often said, the sugar factory has a lot of money and can arrange some pretty cool stuff.

On the other hand, when all the festivities are over there will be 5000 unemployed men wandering around Toll with their newly acquired STDs (I assume the prostitutes will be out in force this weekend). So it should be an interesting next few weeks. Makes me so happy I now have a male sitemate to walk around with. I'll keep you all up to date, insh'allah. Now its time for some chebb u jenn so speak to you all soon. Happy Weekend!

Friday again?

2008-05-23T09:32:00.002Z

Hello everyone! I know you're all waiting in suspense to hear about my wonderful adventures with the UN and I'm SORRY but you'll have to wait a couple more days. I had a wonderful busy week. Its been great showing Casey around, and we got to go on a tour of the Sugar Factory which was very interesting as well.

Sadly yesterday I woke up feeling very ill and stayed in bed all day long. I very rarely get sick in Senegal so its not that big of a deal, but watch out for bunk mangos out there! I dragged myself out of the house this morning and made myself eat a bean sandwich, but I don't really trust my body at the moment so will be heading home again very soon. Hope you are all well and smiling! Its VERY hot here so think cool thoughts for us! xx

My day with the UNHCR

2008-05-20T13:41:00.006Z

I don't feel like writing now, I'll edit this later and explain it all. Repatriating refugees is a grand ole time!

A couple more photos...

2008-05-18T09:28:00.009Z

Everyone, meet my new sitemate, Casey McConnell. He's from Ohio. Since graduating from Kenyon college he has played professional American football in France and worked with homeless people in DC with Americorps. He's come to Richard Toll to do Urban Agriculture and is the first volunteer of his kind here. He speaks way better Wolof that I do already and seems really keen to do good stuff around here so I'm excited to have him as a neighbour. Josh, Katie, Casey and I had a little barbq on my roof the other night as a welcome celebration and now we're working on showing him around and introducing him to the VIPs of Toll.

Not sure if I've put pictures of this on here before, but this is Slave House on Goree Island, where all slaves sent from Senegal to the US passed through. The upstairs was a grand colonial banquet hall with a balcony overlooking the sea but the ground floor was a series of dungeons and cells for the various types of slaves- women, small children, men, the aged or sick and the conditions were hideous. Its been restored in modern times but the tiny windows and thick concrete walls are still the same. The Senegalese study slavery extensively in school here. A girl came to my house recently to have me help her with her english homework. Her assignment was to write a letter to Abraham Lincoln explaining a slave's living conditions in America and to ask for its abolition. The use of the Goree Island slave house as a port for slaves is slightly exaggeratted in comparison to other ports in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana but it is a black mark for Senegalese, Europeans and Americans alike. Our guide said African Americans often get very defensive when told that the number one way the French acquired slaves was from other black africans. Slavery existed in Senegal long before colonialism as a result of tribal warfare and continued long after slavery was prohibited in the west.

At Goree Island they have some very interesting statues commemorating the slave trade but this small one is my favorite.

One of the volunteers had his wallet stolen at the Jazz Fest so while wandering around looking for the police station I noticed this fountain on. I've never seen it being used before so I was pretty excited. The bridge in the background is the Pont Faidherbe, built by Gustav Eiffel and transported to Senegal a long time ago when St Louis was the capital of French west africa. We eventually found the police station and there was a jail cell right inside the front doors so we got to see all the weekend's prisoners waiting to make bail, a somewhat chilling experience. Turned out we were at the wrong police station anyway but it gave Tiffany and Casey a good tour of the mainland where few tourists dare go. On our way to the police station on the island, we passed this guy. Can't tell if he got run over or if his head just exploded, but hes sort of cool...

Tiff and I went to this amazing concert at the French Cultural Centre in Dakar. The main act was an old drum line conductor (if you can imagine a man conducting 30 african drummers...) but the opening act was a group of women TamTamers who were amazing. I've never seen women drummers in Africa so it was pretty extraordinary and they were rockin out.

I didn't mean to upload this picture at all, but I'll leave it up here to entertain you guys. This is Daniel, he's a volunteer south of me in Tivaoune. He'd probably hate me if he knew this were up here. :)

Mariama Seck comes to Senegal!!!

2008-05-16T09:34:00.016Z

Tiffany's First Day in Senegal!

We went to the Ile de la Madeleine with Barry and Joey

Then Toubab Dialow outside Thies with Chris (he doesn't like to have his photo taken...)The slave house on Goree Island...

Our INCREDIBLE no-trash-visible view from the Meridian Hotel in Dakar. When Lawrence arrived our living status was raised considerably. I ate bacon three days in a row!!!Leaving Dakar we headed up to Kebemer and Lompoul Village for a night at the sand dunes of Lompoul. We waited two hours to get picked up and made lots of village friends in the process.

The dunes at Lompoul are so cool.

I think Cheikh Tidjiane and Mariama Seck were riding BabacarI was with Paco, we developed a strong friendship.

Then it was on to St Louis for JAZZ FEST 2008, a weekend of debaucherous behavious, lounging poolside and dancing all night long....Cheikh Amadou Bamba watched over us from the trees....Our two nights in Richard Toll were terribly romantic, the sunsets were beautiful over the Senegal river.Our last day we hit up the zoo in Dakar then stuffed ourselves with seafood at the Almadies before heading to the airport.... It was an AWESOME trip.I stole all these pics from Tiff, when I get to a fast enough computer I'll upload my own. Enjoy!

Peace Corps Articles

2008-04-27T12:51:00.003Z

Hello Team!

You all may remember a few months ago when Robert Strauss published a NYT editorial about the Peace Corps. I commented on it here and he sent me an email thanking me for my intelligent response to his criticisms. Today he sent me two articles, one about life as an agent for development and the other about the Peace Corps that I want to share with you because they are well written and give a very good picture of life over here and the PC as a bureaucracy.

https://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2000/mayjun/articles/strauss.html

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4295

I'm heading to Dakar to pick up Tiffany tomorrow so if you don't hear from me for a while thats why. I'll be thinking of you all though! Smiles, me

April Goodness

2008-04-24T09:28:00.010Z

Golly, how time flies over here!
It is officially the hot season. Tuesday it was 110'F in the shade (~45'c)! Lots of stuff going on but of course with the heat people start getting a little more lazy (if thats possible) about going out of the house. So now, basically, the hours of noon-6pm are completely off limits. Of course, we Toubabs refuse to learn the rules around here and I ended up waiting two hours yesterday afternoon for a car to fill to travel 18k. I had been in Dagana for a Baptism. I've never been to a baptism in the states so I don't know how they rock, but in Senegal they are a Big deal. The ceremony is held one week after the birth of the baby and includes a blessing from the muslim religious leaders and the naming ceremony. (For the first week its just 'Baby') After the religious part there is a huge all day party. The Baptism yesterday was crazy, probably 200 people, very loud music and more food than an army could consume. The first meal is called Lahx and is a kind of porridge made with millet and a sweet milk. After eating you sit around and the women take turns standing up and dancing which is hilarious to watch. By group people go in the room to greet the baby and give the parents money to help cover the costs of the party and also for the baby. Throughout all of this huge cauldrons outside are cooking rice and the numerous sacrificed lambs for the second meal, Chebb U Yapp (rice and meat). Below is the bowl prepared for the mother of the child. This is one of the more spectacular baptisms I've been to and the grandeur of the bowl is a testament to that. The 200 guests were all fed and even given a small sack of cold purified water and a can of guava juice. I can't imagine how much it all cost! After eating people lounge around wherever they can and slowly start dancing which continues LATE into the night. I left after lunch to come back to Toll to watch the Champions League game, but none of the people I went with came back last night so I assume they're still partying!

Now just some other photos to make you smile.
As part of the Michele Sylvester scholarship we choose the girls who write the best essays to visit in their homes. We do this to see their level of poverty, how far they walk each day, and what kind of support they get from their families. I have so far interviewed four girls from the first middle school. Two of them live right around the corner from the school. The other two live on opposite sides of Richard Toll, about 3k away, and make the journey four times a day. I make it a point to walk home with the girls to understand their strength of character and it is indeed impressive. The girl I want to win lives well past the sugar factory so I took this photo walking home. You can just see the irrigation canal and the trash littering the field. The silver spires are for the ethanol factory.

My french missionary friends, Sophie and Jean Georges, invited me to celebrate their son Vaillon's 1st birthday with them. It was wonderful and silly. We played games, sang songs, ate lots and all pretended we were kids while Vaillon just sort of hung out not knowing what was going on. They are returning to France in a week and I am quite sad about it. They've been great friends to me and have taken very good care of me. I spent Christmas and Easter with them and they have met my mom and all the other PCVs in the area. I've also been a part of Vaillon's life since he was born and its wonderful to watch a child grow.

The birthday crew
This is a picture of my grandma type person. Shes old and only speaks a little Wolof (pulaar is her first language) but we have a nice relationship and I like the photo.

The camel stampede:

Don't know if I've mentioned this insane phenomenon before, but its one of my favorite weekly activities and I finally got some pictures of it! There is no grass or trees in Mauritania so once a week the Maur hearders bring a huge group of camels across the Senegalese river and parade them all the way across Richard Toll- and directly past my house- to a small village where they can graze. I don't know what you guys know about camels but they are really rad. They have cute feet and are very docile and obedient. I LOVE the camel stampede as its a sort of "Only in Africa" moment that I get to experience as often as I am around to see it. I know, you're all jealous!

Well, hope you are all happy and smiling. I'm wildly anticipating Tiffany and Lawrence's visit as well as the upcoming jazz fest! Yay!

Mangos!!!

2008-04-17T09:31:00.002Z

Hey Everybody! I just want to brag that its mango season again and they TASTE SO GOOD! I ate five mangos in the last two days. (They weren't Huge mangos, but they were Good).

Also, if Russell gets back on the blog, let me know how I can write you back, I can't reply to your post but its great to hear from you and yes, the family still thinks of you often.

The next phase...

2008-04-14T15:02:00.005Z

Hi everybody!

Things are going wonderfully here in Richard Toll despite the heat. I'm doing everything possible before 11am and that helps a little. I've got the Michele Sylvester scholarship started at both middle schools, my Saturday morning class finished doing feasibility studies last week and will move on to marketing this week and my Costing class continues, small though it is. I found out my new neighbour will be a boy, Casey. He'll be doing urban agriculture in Toll starting next month and I hope he likes the place. Also Tiffany Fortney has booked her tickets to come see me and will be here in two weeks! Hopefully she will love it here so much she won't notice the heat... :)

I've got six months left in Senegal and am starting to think about what I want to do with the rest of my life. My immediate plan is to be in Oklahoma for the presidential elections then go on a winter birthright trip to Israel. After that, its all sort of up in the air. I'd love to move back to England (if I can get a work permit) and I should probably go back to school in 2009.

I thought since I have you loyal followers reading this nonsense every week I should ask for your advice. What should I do with my future? I'm interested in the following things: trade justice, religious tolerance, development, travel. If I went back to school it'd probably be for International Political Economy. I'd love to continue living abroad and do work that could potentially help people. So TEAM, if you think of anything that may sound interesting to me, let me know! I even made a list of cities in the US I thought I could potentially live in, which most of you could recognize is a big step for me. But I've had the greatest opportunity to spend two years over here getting to know myself better and figure out my strengths and weaknesses and now I feel I am really ready to go out and do good work. So, lets put our heads together and come up with some cool ideas. OK? Great! Let me know!

I've been looking for this pic for a while. Its the sand coming off the Sahara. The western point is Dakar, I live right in the middle of the big sand cloud. When I talk about dust, this should give you some idea of the overwhelming amounts I'm talking about.

Peace Corps Perception

2008-04-11T08:57:00.002Z

Hi everyone!

I spent the last few days in Thies at the PC training centre with the brand new Senegal volunteers that just arrived three weeks ago. I helped with the 'Emotional Health' medical session which I think is a pretty important one. I'm sure you've all gathered that my time in the PC has been the most difficult (and enjoyable) of my life and the coping strategies I've learned here will be used by me forever. The session is about the different stresses you experience that you may not anticipate before your service begins and how current PCVs have dealt with them. The stresses are many and difficult to explain to you all out there in non PCV land. But everything can be stressful in a completely foreign environment where you don't understand anything thats going on around you and theres no one to really explain it all to you. So the session focused on coping strategies. My biggest coping strategy, as I presume I've mentioned before, is my dance parties. Every night no matter how I'm feeling, I put on my running shoes and a sports bra and dance around my room for an hour. I use the warm up I used to do in jazz class when I was 12. Sometimes I have different themed dance parties: just swing music or ballet, dancing to Les Miserables (when I'm very stressed), hip hop night, balancing a book on my head while dancing, but generally its just dancing. I've talked about my dance parties at all three trainings I've been to and as a result I'll get texts on any particular night from other PCVs telling me they're dancing in their rooms too. Do you all dance alone? If you're stressed, I suggest giving it a try!

Anyways, near the end of the session we started talking about expectations for your service and I said, "Is there anyone here that came here thinking they could actually help people? Raise your hand." Not one person raised their hands immediately. This is one problem with the PC. From the second you arrive at your training everyone tells you, Lower your expectations, Don't try anything too ambitious, You're lucky if you get one project completed in two years... Although these are all relevant points, they need to be balanced with, You can actually help people, Your knowledge can benefit people's lives, The relationships you make here will help people- and yourselves. I told them, "You guys are new here, you don't know much about what you're getting yourselves into, but don't stop believing that you can help people with your time here. Its not cliché. Language barriers and cultural differences don't negate being productive and actually helping people in your very short two years here." I think its true. Coping with stress is one of the hardest things we do over here and staying positive about our impact here may be even harder, but if from the start you think theres no hope of being productive, whats the point of enduring all the stress? :)

APRIL FOOLS DAY!

2008-04-01T09:43:00.002Z

Howdy ho everyone! Its my favorite holiday (the love passed to me from my good wife Elis) and although I had numerous things I wanted to write on here to shock you (I hit a child and was asked to leave the Peace Corps, I'd decided to extend for two years, etc) I didn't know if your senses of humour would see the joy reading this, as you probably will, long after the day... Last year I said there had been a military coup in Senegal and you all took it in stride...

Wanted to write about a couple of success stories I've had recently:
1) Oumy, the little girl who lives with Yaye Fatou (she was given to the family to get an education because her father died and her mom works in north Mauritania), is trying to learn to read and write. She is six years old. For months the alphabet was almost impossible, it took her an hour to draw a proper 'A', it was very slow going and frustrating to everyone. Teaching here involves a lot of negative encouragement and Oumy's a very positive girl so this wasn't working on her at all. She is told she must study at night- in the same room that we're all watching TV in-and no one helps her. When errands are needed, she stops studying to do them. And this is a very Pro Education family by Senegalese standards. So a couple months ago I'd work with her at night instead of watching stupid soap operas and slowly her writing started to improve but the reading was still awful. She can recognize letters but can't put them together. Well, the other night something changed and she was able to read something she had written and then compare it to the book to figure out the word! I was stoked though we have a long way to go.
2) The class I taught over the summer was about doing Feasibility studies to find out if a business plan was profitable and manageable. Each student prepared a business plan and did a feasibility study for the plan. I went on vacation when the class ended and couldn't follow up. Recently, one of my students (hes a grown man) came up to me and said he had started the kindergarten he prepared the business plan for and was making a lot of money! I helped someone start a business! Yay! I hope to now help him with the management of the business...
3) Malick, the other little kid at Yaye Fatou's (also given to the family for education purposes) started coming to my house a couple weeks ago for guitar lessons. I've been playing for about a year now and am not great but can play a few tunes. We're working on the easy chords and hes a regular 60s rock star now, hes got G Em C and D down which is all you need for a lot of songs! I'm really proud of him.

Cuba

2008-03-31T16:28:00.002Z

PS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7322739.stm
When do you think congress will let us go buy cigars??

What to say?

2008-03-31T15:23:00.004Z

Well, its Monday and I had a great meeting with two guys I'm helping write a business plan this morning. Thats basically all I've done today, though I'm about to go teach my costing class.

Its very hot and I cancelled my Saturday morning class because of dust storms. They were so bad Friday I was confined to my room and although by noon Saturday it had cleared up considerably I didn't know that at 8 am.

I watched Schindler's List last night for the first time and cried.

As the hot season begins, people are getting edgy and stressed and a little bit mean. I can't say I am above any of that. :) The text message craziness of volunteer life is abuzz with homesickness, lack of money, desires to be finished, and uncooperative work partners. In a week everyone will be used to the heat and smiling again, or something. Hope you're all smiling wherever you are. If you really love me, go buy a pint of ben and jerrys and eat the whole thing in one sitting. Thats what I'd do right now if I could.

Time Is Money!

2008-03-28T09:23:00.009Z

The WALO Superheroes!!!

Wednesday afternoon all the Walo region volunteers got together to do our first radio show with Radio Dunya right next to my house. We all prepared introductions about ourselves, peace corps and our work in Wolof and French and everyone picked out a few songs to play. We'd been told we would pre-record the show but when we got to the station the very fickle station manager told us we'd have to do it live. Everyone was pretty nervous and the guy refused to tell us how to work the equipment or what we needed to do so we basically went into the recording studio, plugged in the ipod, started 'Born in the USA' and the "Time is Money" radio hour was underway! It was pretty ridiculous but we all had a blast. We had a couple of callers which was hilarious (especially since we had no idea we were getting calls voices just started coming over the headphones) and I think we did a pretty good job of explaining who we are and what we do. We plan to do the show every two weeks and cover topics ranging across the spectrum of PC work, health, business management, agriculture, women's empowerment, etc. So we're all really looking forward to it. We played all sorts of music too, "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy", "Funky Kingston", "Pata Pata" (Miriam Makeba), "Buffalo Soldier", "Hardknock Life", "Under my Umbrella", "ABC" and we finished the show by all singing The Star Spangled Banner! I feel sorry for the people of the Walo who had to hear us sing, but it was silly fun. Radio is still one of the main forms of communication here so a lot of volunteers have radio shows throughout the country. I didn't think many people would have heard our broadcast but since Wednesday tons of people around town have commented on how much they enjoyed it. Super cool.

Erin and Krista at the mic. Jenna getting ready to help Josh with "Djiby's English Minute"

I spent Easter with the French protestant missionaries which was an interesting experience. The service was done in Wolof though the missionaries (from Australia, Nicaragua, Canada, France, America) outnumbered the Senegalese and most of them don't understand Wolof. Sort of odd, but a fun day anyway.

Easter Dinner: Cheep u Yapp (Rice and Meat) There were a LOT of leftovers.
These are the bacon cheeseburgers we made for St Pats day, thought you'd all be pretty impressed!
This is a pretty classic 'Bryn in the Peace Corps' photo. Every night before I go to bed I read by headlamp. My ever present phone and ipod are also visible.A beautiful sunset in Richard Toll....

Plan d'Affair

2008-03-25T10:03:00.002Z

I didn't have too much business experience before Senegal, but how many business ideas are bad? In my experience here I have found that about 9 out of 10 business ideas are unprofitable after a simple feasibility study. That is the hard part of my job. I often get approached by would-be entrepreneurs who are very excited about a particular business idea. When they find its unprofitable they either abandon the project and all other ideas for projects or they ignore me and go ahead with the business. This morning I had a meeting with two guys, one of whom was in my business class last September. They are part of a 40 person strong community organisation that saves a little bit of money each month. Most of the people in the group are farmers but the women also sell fish in the market. The group decided they want to buy a refrigerated truck and transport fresh fish from St Louis to Richard Toll and then out to Matam (400k away). They want to take out a loan to buy the 15,000,000 cfa ($~30,000) truck. When we did a cost/sales analysis it turned out that they would barely make a profit not including the interest payments on the very large loan and any repairs on the vehicle. There were two men at the meeting. One said, "Oh, well thats not going to work, but hey, we've got all that land and lots of water, we could start a garden!". The other said, "I will rework the feasibility study, I know this idea is profitable." That is the difference between rational and idealistic entrepreneurship. It becomes so clear to me why so many businesses fail when I think of how easy it is to convince yourself that an idea is profitable even when all the facts tell you it isn't. These guys are farmers who have never run a business. It makes perfect sense that they should start a collective garden with a very small loan and then use their profits to move on to bigger projects. I have sent them back to the drawing board to rework the feasibility study for the fish truck and do at least two other project plans before our meeting next week. What irks me is that the guy who took my class all about the importance of feasibility studies is the idealist, at least he came to me for help...
Happy Tuesday!

Tibet

2008-03-21T10:07:00.003Z

I just posted the frog story but I thought it necessary to write something about whats happening in Tibet right now.

When I was in China three years ago people said that the time leading up to the Olympics was the greatest opportunity the Chinese people will ever have to speak out against an oppressive regime that denies basic human rights and democracy on a number of levels. The repression of the Tibetan protesters in the last two weeks is just one of many examples of these human rights violations. This kind of repression happens on a daily basis in China but their crackdown on foreign and internal media coverage means that we rarely, if ever, hear about these stories with much detail. The footage the Australian tourist took of the ransacking of the streets of Lhasa is all over the news here and its so depressing. Most people are aware that much of the sacred Tibetan culture has been basically erased since the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959. There have been massive media campaigns to 'Save Tibet' for years. The Dalai Lama is one of the most respected religious figures in the world. But the people I spoke to in China were right, governments are taking a stance against the Chinese government and demanding change, even if in a cremonial form. Nancy Pelosi has called for a denouncement of Chinese rule in Tibet and the leaders of the EU are considering boycotting the Olympic Opening Ceremony. This is a big step and it will be extremely interesting to see what happens in the few months left before the games. The world can't afford to ostracize or alienate China but it can use this spotlight to hold it to account and that could be a pretty amazing outcome of the Beijing Olympics.

Mbott!

2008-03-21T09:33:00.005Z

Senegal is funny. This morning across the street from my bean sandwich lady there was all this commotion, running, screaming, jumping and everyone's eyes were fixed on one point on the ground. A small child had the pointy end of a very large pole aimed at the same place. I looked down but didn't see anything and then something JUMPED and everyone gasped! It was a Frog! A giant frog, I'd say, and everyone was scared out of their minds! I started cracking up cause frogs are cool and the fear of them boggles my mind. They quickly chased it down the street screaming and cursing it the whole way. So I go into my bean lady's and everyone's talking about the Mbott, 'Man, dama ragal Mbott, kai!' (I'm afraid of frogs!) and I ask, 'Lutaax danga ragal mbott?' (Why are you afraid of frogs?) and my bean lady says, 'Cause they're the same as snakes!' Ha Ha!

It makes me giggle because during the rainy season there are so many frogs ribbit-ing all over the place you can barely hear yourself think! But I never heard anyone say they were afraid of them.

Yesterday was the celebration of Mohamed's birthday in Senegal (another day off school...) so not much has been going on the last couple days as everyone went to Tivaouane for the GAMUL or pilgrimage to celebrate his birth. The picture at the top is of all the Tijani religious leaders who represent the main sect of Islam in Tiv. Photos of religious leaders are absolutely everywhere here, people where them as necklaces, hang them on rear-view mirrors, tape them to walls, print them on t-shirts... Its pretty funny.

Spring Break 2008, Richard Toll

2008-03-18T13:07:00.012Z

This weekend was action packed and fun fun fun! So much happened I'll try to just write it chronologically and you can follow the pictures along...

Friday night Sandy and her brother Murph came in to town and we all went with Josh to the Director of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees house for a huge barbecue. The UNHCR is currently repatriating black Mauritanians who were displaced during a racial/border war in the late 80s. Its a voluntary repatriation but even though racial tensions are still quite high between arab and black maurs and the blacks have been here for twenty years, they are still on the whole choosing to go back. Its interesting and over 24,000 people will eventually return. My friend, Yaye Fatou got a job with them and has been ushering people to the border, getting them vaccinated and helping with the movement of over 650 people a week. Shes exhausted.

But the barbq was really interesting, a complete who's who of Richard Toll. Reporters, doctors, politicians, lovely ladies, the creme de le creme of Toll. The conversation was engaging and the food incredible.

Saturday morning I started a class with a bunch of elementary school teachers on basic business skills. It went really well and it was great to teach again. Can't wait to keep going with it!

Then the crazy Spring Break festivities began... Josh had planned a barbq in Toll for the kids who live in our region, The Walo. A few Mauritanian volunteers crossed the river and it soon became a big party weekend on my roof. We made bacon cheeseburgers, pasta salad, danced, and played all night and sat by the pool at the hotel next door all day Saturday and Sunday.

Sometime Sunday afternoon someone suggested we swim across the Senegal river to Mauritania. Even though the river is directly outside my house I'd never been it before. It has the highest rate of schistosomiasis (sp?) in the world so I've tended to avoid it. But it was Spring Break and so hot outside so five of us jumped in and took off. Megan (an ex-swimmer at Yale) finished WAY before any of the rest of us and said the swim was just short of a kilometer, not too shabby I thought!Ready, Go!

You can see it in the distance, it looks so much closer than it is!!

Yay!!! Completion!!!

Then another night of barbecueing and St Pats fun! Actually, Sunday was a little quieter, but both nights were highlighted by dance parties and guitar sing alongs. A highlight for me was singing 'Oklahoma' at the top of my lungs with Ryan, a Mauritanian vol from Tulsa.

Pasta salad....

Monday the Mauritanian boys set their hearts on getting t shirts made to commemorate our awesome weekend and most everybody else went home. That afternoon my class got cancelled for the second Monday in a row because of a huge religious pilgrimage this week (its Mohamed's birthday, bake a cake!) and as a result my evening was cleared! The Maurs had arranged to go out on the hotel owner's speed boat to go wake boarding and I ran to the dock to get in. I tried wake boarding and didn't get up, though got really close, and had an awesome time out on the boat.

He he he, it was so fun and I am so sore today!

Last night was a quiet one again and this morning after everyone left I slept til noon. Wonderful. Hope you all had an amazing Spring Break/St Patty's Day!!

Mom's post

2008-03-14T16:23:00.002Z

This was written by my mom in response to lots of requests to know how her trip went:

I miss the call to prayer. I noticed that when we were staying in downtown Dakar. Just part of my wonderful two weeks in Senegal. I had a blast but it wouldn't have been the same if I hadn't had Bryn, my terrific kid, to translate and be my voice, lead me through the hoards of people wanting me to buy stuff, give them money, respond to comments, get us rides to where we needed to go and all the other little things she did for me. Thank you, Bryn. I love you lots.

I saw and experienced so much in such a short time I'm still digesting my experiences. I met so many interesting volunteers who were so gracious and friendly, and great guides. We saw soooo many birds, rode in so many interesting? vehicles, had a great time in paradise (Zebrabar), went to a beautiful Catholic mass, ate delicious food including tseb? and yassa? and couscous, and so much more. I don't mean to slight any of the volunteers who enhanced the trip so much.

Bryn's Senegalese friends were very welcoming. I was very sad that I couldn't have conversations with them. I would have learned a lot more and probably really embarassed Bryn. [ It happens in the US, why not there.]

The problems in Senegal look somewhat insurmountable but the Peace Corps continues to make progress inch by inch, friends, and awakens an understanding in the volunteers they couldn't have gained any other way. Walking in their shoes (the volunteer's and the Senegalaise's) means a lot.

I love you all. Nancy

I love you too mom.

Organisation of the Islamic Conference

2008-03-14T10:38:00.009Z

The leaders of the Islamic world. Its not a very clear picture but I assure you it is an impressive cast.... This is not in fact a Mosque but rather the convention centre at the Meridian hotel where the OIC was held.Pictures from the OIC (none of which have photo credits, sorry...)

The heads of all Islamic states are in Dakar for the 11th Islamic Summit Conference. I'm looking all over for news about it but most of the stories are focusins on the agreements between Chad and Sudan not to throw bombs across each other's borders. Senegal invested huge amounts of money to beautify Dakar before the summit fixing roads, building new mosques and conference facilities, a new airport etc. Most of the construction wasn't finished when my mom left, but I guess they at least got the main routes cleaned up. President Wade cancelled school for the entire week because of the conference and declared yesterday a national holiday. Its been really interesting watching the conference of TV, the heads of states of America's enemies and their puppets all in one room... If I can find photos I'll post some but until then, check out the website...

http://www.oic-oci.org/oicnew/home.asp (the OIC website)

http://www.ocidakar2008.com/ (Senegal's website for the Conference)

This is a big fire outside my house at the sugar fields. I realized since its the end of the harvest this is probably the last field burning I'll see before I leave next year....

My boss listens to the Ramones

2008-03-12T09:22:00.002Z

I spent yesterday in Ndioum, our regional capital, for a Regional Small Entreprise Development Volunteer meeting. Its the first of its kind and was an information exchange between the head of our program, Mark, our training coordinator, Bamba, and all the SED volunteers in this region. I thought it was pretty cool. We all do really different work. We teach computer classes, start gardens with homeless kids to add nutrients to their diets, help women's groups start bank accounts, work with artisans to help sell their goods to tourists, help USAID promote their Malaria initiatives, do radio shows, teach marketing/costing/accounting classes, grow trees, help organisations manage microcredit loans, count birds, make bread, teach english, and lots of other diverse stuff. The four or five people in my close vicinity (Josh, Erin, Megan, Jenna and Krista) and I are going to start a radio show in Richard Toll in the next couple weeks. We'll talk about business and health stuff, play music, speak a little english/wolof/french and try to entertain the citizens of the Walo.

After the all day meeting Mark drove a few of us volunteers to a restaurant for dinner. I got in the front seat of the lush Peace Corps SUV and there was this rockin music playing. I said, 'Mark, is this what you listen to when Bamba isn't in the car?' He said, 'Yea, with Bamba its always African music.' he he. So we jammed out to the Ramones on the way to the restaurant and my whole impression of Mark changed. I have a meeting now, will write more later. Oh, my class Monday didn't start because of stupid bureaucratic stuff, but it should start soon.......

Back to Work! Alhamdulilahi!

2008-03-09T10:06:00.005Z

This is about how I felt after everything I've done in the last three weeks...

One of my good friends, Liz Smith, just finished her PC service and left Senegal this week. This is her last night out with all of us.

Mom and Me at Goree Island, a slave port of old. Sort of an odd place for a smiley photo but we're not very somber people.

SO all the travel has finally come to an end and I will happily be in Richard Toll for the next two months. I have loved loved having visitors and going to WAIST and meetings and all that fun jazz but I am tired and want to be a Peace Corps Volunteer again and am EXCITED that my life will be getting back to normal. Normal being an ironic word as life in Senegal is anything but.

I've asked my mom to write up a little something about her experiences in Senegal that I will post when I receive it. It was so much fun having her here (I tried my best to be nice) and we both got to do lots of stuff we'd never done before. The birds were amazing, I've never seen so many, but we also saw crocodiles, warthogs, pythons, camels, monkeys, vultures, monitor lizards, the whole Senegal set. We found a place in Dakar I could eat bacon and eggs (Read: BACON); I read one of the best books I've ever read, the Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, went kayaking for the first time; and bought more Senegalese touristy stuff than I ever knew existed. It was great. After a couple days in Dakar I got back to site yesterday and basically slept for 12 hours. It felt great.

I'm starting a new class tomorrow with a group of tailors. I don't know if I've ever explained that almost all clothes here are made to order. You go to the market and buy whatever kind of fabrid you want (except, of course, cotton) and take it to a tailor to have him make whatever you design. I say "him" because couture is a distinctively male profession here. There are female tailors, but they are harder to find and in my experience lack a certain quality in their work. But male tailors are abundant and can tackle a lot of very complicated western designs as well as traditional Senegalese complets. The problem is that Senegalese don't generally factor in manual labour in their costs/prices and end up significantly underpaid for the work they do. So our class will focus on three things, calculating costs, separating the business from the family and how to do short term financial planning. I then have to run to our regional house Tuesday in Ndioum to meet with the other Small Entreprise Volunteers in the northern region and our bosses to discuss work strategies. I'm not sure what that means but its a little inconvenient as it starts at 8.30 am and I teach Monday til 7pm and we can't travel in the dark! I'm also starting a different class Saturday with all the teachers at a local elementary school teaching them how to write a business plan. I'm not sure if they have a potential business idea but I'll let you know how it goes. Both classes will run for about eight weeks so I should happily be here until they finish.

The group of Volunteers that got here six months before me are all now starting to leave. That means I will start the leaving proces myself in about six months. Its amazing how fast the time is going now and how much I still want to accomplish before I go. Sadly our last month in country will be Ramadan and six months away or no, I'm already dreading it! Have a Happy Week everyone! Keep those letters coming! xx