Greeeeedy volunteer

"Danga ngay" is what i hear as I haggle the price of a cute leather purse down to 3 mill, or 6 bucks. Yes, I am being called greedy in wolof, because I am white and I should therefore have oodles and oodles of money. But if I spent anymore than 6 bucks on that purse, I might have had a problem at the end of my three month payment period, which was coming soon. How to explain that? They will never believe (:

Money money money money. It is a true obsession in this culture. I know a little bit now what it's like to not have enough money to do the things you want, to eat what you want, wear what you want, go where you want. But I still don't really know what it is like to not have enough money for lunch for the family next week. Or not enough to buy prescribed medicines. Or notebooks for school.

So I am making more of an effort now to not be greedy. While before, my 40 $ per month contribution to the family seemed like a lot of money, now I realize that it is only 10 percent of my salary for those three months and that they are 16 people while I am 1 person. It is too hard to watch people have so little and keep money locked in a cupboard. And thank goodness for their integrity, because what they show you of their problems is only what they have no power to conceal--- if people knew the serious extent of their neighbours problems Senegal wouldn't be the light and gay place it is.

We're going to have major problems facing waste in America when we return.

So maybe there is no work?

Things are ok here. I am respected in my village, I am liked by my family and peers. People tell me about their hopes and worries. I get visited all the time! I understand more and more the weird traditions they do.

So from a cultural exchange standpoint, I am doing a great job and learning a lot about how to interact with people who receive information in very different way. I am learning about not being greedy, that's probably been my lesson of the month, but more on that in another blog.

Soon I will start the music class and maybe have hopes of finding funding so that the school can build a cafeteria and have the funds to make free lunches for the kids, that way ensuring a higher attendance and more likelihood of attracting state funding and another sorely needed teacher and batiment. I also want to see if I can get old French books from students at UNC sent over here, you know how the re-selling of French novels is worthless on that campus. I have also told the middle school that I'd love to do an English club of some sort for afterschool.

With my village girls club, we will soon be having a tie-dye formation. Tie dyed material is really expensive here, so hopefully in the future it will be a money making adventure…..I think I'll have a friend do a feasibility study with them.

I am starting a cabbage pépinière and will be working in a much more visible location then the big garden where no one goes. I'll be gardening on my mom's land, and several ladies pass by that area every day, sooo…..I might set up drip irrigation too.

Of course, I am also tired and frustrated on the work front, though. Very tired of little things. Trying to work with people who don't respect appointments, not even missing the hour but missing the day, really grates on me, something I have trouble getting over. Not only does it mean in some cases that my only real work for the day has been negated and I have nothing else to call that day productive, but it means also that later so and so will want to schedule a make up appointment during a time when I've scheduled rest or a fun excursion. . I'm just sort of sick of having to dig up my work ideas, like scratching for gold under hard packed land every new day. I rarely dig up any ideas that are workable and valuable. I'm having to face the fact that I have little practical knowledge to offer these people, little outside of mudstoves and compost that can practically help them and that they couldn't do before….and these two things I have stumbled and stumbled and failed over and over again trying to communicate why they are good and how to make them, with person after person. I should not be here as an ag extension agent ):

I don't know. I don't hate it here at all, sometimes I really love it, and I could see myself successfully completing another year, learning and dealing with things little by little as the months slip by. But should life be like that? A constant hope that things will get better, that some work project will be culturally appropriate? I dunno. I am tired and I feel unkempt and disappointed seventy percent of the time.

Is it just normal to feel, once you are used to a place, that you want to move on? That you want to develop another part of yourself? That you want clean feet and pretty clothes?

Are there other development agencies that work better than peace corps? I wanted to work in development, and I feel pretty strongly that this is the best I can do in this field right now. Things won't change for the better until powerful people in the Senegalese government and international governments start spending money responsibly.
I don't have the kind of power to make any measurable change in my village. But I do have friends that sometimes listen to my ideas. i dunno.

a special visitor

African American visitor

August 13th post

So a lot of times in the news youll hear people talking about Africa's problem being a lack of transparency in their financial affairs. If this is true on the ministerial level, it sure as heck is true on the village level. For example, the vet came buy to give de-worming shots two my two little kitties, and we had a really nice conversation in Seereer, and he was so pleased with me, that he refused to take any sort of payment. But of course, he didn't refuse to sort of make eyes at me and hold my hand very long in a departure handshake. So I rushed to give him candy and stickers for his kids so that he didn't feel like he could come back later and claim another "payment". This is all very subtle, and I could be totally wrong, but you know how feelings go. Example number two, less disturbing. My host sister does my laundry for me, but would be embarrassed if I paid her in money. And the fact that I pay a higher monthly contribution than most other volunteers has made me not want to give other money. So I give her clothes and lotion and treats. And regular gifts are an expectation of every Senegalese family. I am often on the receiving ends of these gifts, beignets, cookies, and soapdishes (:, so that is nice too.


More fun cultural stuff… do y'all know what djinns are? They are explained in the Koran, and are apparently spirits, not really good or bad, but definitely clever. And people are afraid of them, because they can make you sick or steal your baby. And apparently they like to roam around at 7 pm, the most beautiful time of the day, which unfortunately coincides with my roaming time. But there is this one sneaky djinn, who if she comes up to you in the form of a normal person and asks to have her hair braided, you will be blinded afterwards for the rest of your life. But all hairdressers know that rubbing charchoal on your fingers protects you from the djinns' blinding powers.

And it's really taboo to joke about seeing djinns. But I can't help doing it. Like the other day when we went to gather firewood my sister said she was scared because she didn't know this part of the countryside. I jokingly told her that maybe there are djinns around and she turned deadpanned and told me not to say that. They are so scared to walk around in the fields and the countryside here, they always think that some giant lion is going to pounce on them or something, and they think I'm crazy for going out alone.

Although I did have that encounter with the cobra....which was pretty dang scary, and I was alone. I stepped on it's tail cuz I didn't see it, it rustled the grass and rose up and I heard it before I saw it and bolted. Luckily, its back was facing me when I stepped on it or I don't know what would have happened. It was this beautiful black and marron colored thing. I sat there on a mound about 20 feet away as it turned it's head slowly from side to side like a submarine telescope on the lookout and then slid back down to the ground.


So in general life is good and very interesting here. I feel so much better about everything now that i've gotten more into the rhythm of how people talk and adapted their easy-going attitude to an extent. I was told the other night that my conversation was "afela", which broadly means "pleasing". I was all a'smiles afterwards.