Travels with Tavish

For the last two days of IST, our technical counterparts were invited to Thies to take part in a workshop. Each volunteer is paired with a technical counterpart in their village who helps facilitate projects and (in theory) takes the lead on continuing to do agroforestry and/or agricultural work in the village once Peace Corps leaves the village. Most villages get three volunteers, so barring any exceptions, which I am learning are numerous in all aspects of Peace Corps, a village will have a constant volunteer presence for about six years, at which point Peace Corps will likely find a new village in the area in which to place a volunteer. My counterpart is named Amadou. I have spent a lot of time with him so far in the village. I have heard from my anciens and I have observed that he is a motivated, hard worker. I feel lucky that he was chosen to be my technical counterpart. It was very fun to have Amadou and the other volunteers' counterparts at the training center in Thies fo...

I spent the first two weeks of February in Thies at the Peace Corps Training Center for my two-week technical In-Service Training (IST). It was the first time I had seen most of my fellow stage-mates (other than those in Kedougou) in about two months. During the course of the two weeks, we took a few field trips to surrounding areas, one of which is called the Beer Sheba Project. The Beer Sheba Project is a 100 hectare area in the Thies region of Senegal that has been reforested using farmer managed natural regeneration (FMNR) techniques and now serves as a training ground for students from all over West Africa to learn improved farming and natural resource management techniques. It was started 17 years ago by a Christian organization. The surrounding area is practically a desert; nothing more than a few baobob trees and small hills prevent you from seeing far off into the horizon. The area that is now Beer Sheba began as this same desolate landscape. The first thing Beer Sheba did ...

With my CBT host brother and sister in Mbour when I visited during IST Chameleon spotted on a tree during one of my IST field trips! Neighbor building a new hut in my village. Huts (and roofs) need to be completely done before the rains come Some Senegalese people, instead of keeping their money in banks or as cash, will invest in a physical commodity such as cows or bricks Tree with cool bark My host mom's garden; her lettuce and okra are growing well Host mom's garden Siibo (also called ban), a palm-like plant whose leaves are used to tie fences, bundles of grass, and anything else that needs to be secured Diseased cashew tree. I am working on figuring out what is wrong with the tree Another diseased tree

I spent the first two weeks of February in Thies at the Peace Corps Training Center for my two-week technical In-Service Training (IST). It was the first time I had seen most of my fellow stage-mates (other than those in Kedougou) in about two months. During our one free day of IST, I took the opportunity to go to Mbour and visit my CBT family with whom I stayed during Pre-Service Training. I called my host mom the night before and told her I would be coming for lunch the next day. She definitely seemed excited on the phone, but not overjoyed. I had forgotten that people pop in for visits all the time in Senegal; visitors are always welcomed and fed, but families here do not plan their day around visitors as some do in the US. I told her I would arrive "before lunch," which is about as specific as times ever get here. I got out of my car at the garage, feeling like I was taking a trip back in time, and walked toward my fellow volunteers' houses. I stopped in unannoun...