As you have probably noticed, I took a month off from blogging at the start of the new year. I had a busy January which included hosting my dad and cousin Kristi in Senegal, my Mid-Service Conference, and a one-year dental check up (no cavities despite all the attaya). I have had a nice long break away from my village and am feeling ready to face the next hot season when it arrives in March. Starting now I will again be posting on the blog weekly, inchallah.
Below are a few pictures from December 2019. Lots more pictures from January will be coming soon.
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| Making soap with a woman in my village. The three ingredients are oil, water, and lye (caustic soda). |
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| Stirring the soap. As of mid-January, most of the 20 bars of soap made from this batch had sold. Hopefully there will be some interest among other women in the village to also learn to make soap |
I left my site on Christmas Eve to come into Kedougou and spend the Christmas holiday with other volunteers from the region. We had a great time, but the mood was more somber than last Christmas; most everyone who had already been in Senegal for a year wanted to be spending these second round of holidays with family rather than in Senegal. But alas, we had a good time anyway; a delicious group meal, an awesome movie (The Grinch with Jim Carrey) and candy from Santa.
After Christmas, I spent a few days hanging out in Kedougou before making my way up to Tamba to visit a couple of volunteers from the new Ag/Agfo stage that installed at the start of December. Jay and Eric's village is about an hour outside of the city of Tamba. They speak Pulaar, so I was only able to greet most of the people in their village.
On my second day with Jay and Eric, we went for a walk in the bush. After about 20 minutes, their young host brothers and the family's dogs overtook us on the path carrying axes and machetes. We figured they were going to chop firewood or just goof off in the woods, but they had something else in mind. We decided to follow them, which turned out to be a wonderful decision. The kids were not taking their weapons to chop down trees, but to hunt small animals. After we finally realized what the kids were up to, the three of us collectively decided it was nearly impossible to catch a squirrel, baby monkey, or other small animal.We had underestimated their skill.
Their strategy was to corner an animal in a tree, throwing rocks and sticks at it until it was forced to descend via the trunk. The problem is that squirrels can jump from tree to tree; it is difficult to force them down. After tromping through the bush for quite a while, we found a baby monkey and chased it from tree to tree. Then, somehow the baby monkey escaped and we immediately started trying to corner a squirrel that had been in a nearby tree. After some minutes of pursuing the squirrel, it made a dash for it down the trunk of a large tree. The kids just missed it as it skittered away, but the dogs were hot on its tail. The dog who finally caught the squirrel was not too happy about giving it up to the kids, but he acquiesced. He was probably in it for the thrill of the hunt, too.
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| The great squirrel hunt of 2019. Me and Jay with their host siblings after our successful squirrel hunt (Eric is taking the picture) |
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| A cool chameleon the kids spotted just outside Jay and Eric's village |
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| Jay bringing over some peanuts to snack on as I make attaya for the family in the late afternoon (Eric is taking the picture again) |
After visiting Jay and Eric in Tamba, I made a long journey up to the Thies region to visit my friend Mary on New Year's Eve. My journey began at 7:45am and ended at around 7:00pm. It involved taking five different modes of transportation (large van, sept place, clando van, taxi, and small van) and was one of the less fun transportation experiences I have had in recent memory. The worst leg was the sept place journey because I was in the middle of the back row, the undisputed worst place in the car to sit. I did make it to Mary's site in one piece, though I was a bit worn out. Her family welcomed me with a wonderful fete (holiday) meal of chicken, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, fries, and onion sauce. At midnight Mary brought out some small fireworks and sparkling grape juice to celebrate the start of the new decade. These visits to two new volunteer sites were just what I needed to end the year and mentally prepare for my dad and Kristi's visit to Senegal (see January 2020 picture posts, coming soon).
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| Mary's host siblings setting off Roman candles in the yard |
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| Confetti and sparkling grape juice for New Year's Eve! |
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| Mary's host mom pokes her head out from behind the fridge to see the confetti |
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