The EPA has set GHG regulations

Dear Members of Congress,

This is how the government works: You create the laws and the executive branch enacts them. If you fail to create better laws because you refuse to work together, guess what, the executive branch will still enact the other laws you created. This is not news, you had plenty of warning, and you have no reason to cry foul. You fake injury worse than a European soccer player.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/31/science/earth/31epa.html?_r=1&hp

Good work EPA!

Fully Funded!

I woke up this morning and was surprised to see that we'd received all of the funding we needed for the Segou Ecolodge!

I can't say how happy I am to be finished fundraising and how appreciative my counterparts are to have this support. When I told them we had the funding they launched into a series of praises that would inflate the head of even the humblest person. I don't yet have the list of everyone who donated, but when I do I am planning on getting a plaque made with your names on it to be permanently installed at the ecolodge. Thank you again to everyone who made this possible through donations or through spreading the word! Your charity to the people of Ségou and support of my efforts is appreciated beyond measure.

And now that we have the funding, it's time for me to fulfill my end of the bargain and to get to work...

14 more guests!

A few weeks ago 14 Spanish primatologists stayed at the ecolodge for a few nights. While they were not the first guests, they were the first “real tourists.” The other people who have stayed thus far have all been PCVs or study abroad students. So it was exciting to see what foreigners would think of the ecolodge. They were generally appreciative of our efforts and were pleasantly surprised by a few details; having enough towels for everyone and that we did not block the view with a building. These are two considerations that are often not taken into account by other lodges in the area.

However the really great moment came after the tourists left and we were calculating the profit for the first time. We’ve settled on keeping 35% of the profits for reinvesting in the ecolodge, 15% going to the village, and the rest being divided up between the owners and staff. It’s exciting to know that after our first guests we already have $120.00 set aside to reinvest in the ecolodge. That was a big problem with their previous attempts to run a tourist lodge, they didn’t save enough money for upkeep. When I told the village chief about the money the village was getting he said, “Great! We can use that to restart the village fund for medicine and hospital visits.” The money will be kept in reserve to loan to people who are sick but to not have available cash to pay for medicine or doctor’s visits. It was always the intent that something like this would happen, but actually seeing a profitable business that I helped to start provide social security and development funds to the village made me into one big warm fuzzy. The last exciting thing to happen was when we were talking about how much the staff would get of the profits. Months ago they “hired” their staff by having them submit written applications on scraps of paper. The understanding was that the staff would lend a hand in the construction and then share in the profits afterwards. However, they only occasionally showed up when they were called upon. For that reason, when we were discussing how much they would make for the two days the tourists were here my counterparts said, “Well, we’ll give them a little this time but we’ll also tell them that if they don’t shape up and start helping out we will just hire new staff.” This probably seems completely logical and not a big deal, but you have to understand that the last attempts at a tourist lodge were all communally owned which meant that if someone was not doing their job it was very difficult to replace them. For that and other reasons we decided to make the ecolodge privately owned. I never expected to see the benefits of that decision so clearly. We might just be getting this thing right this time!

Merry Christmas!

Samalé, Amadou, and Boubacar at the ecolodge.

The new restaurant is in the background.

Dear Family and Friends,

It’s December 19th and a warm sunny day in Senegal, or as my friend Groff who recently visited said, “Yet another warm sunny day in Africa.” Which is to say that nine months of the year here are nothing but warm (hot) and sunny (blistering). Anyway, it’s nearly Christmas and we’re into the cool season with temperatures reaching below 70 degrees F! This will be my third consecutive Christmas in West Africa and my last. I have enjoyed, and do enjoy, my time over here, but I’m already overdue to come home. Normally I would have been home, or at least left West Africa, in August, but as you know I have decided to extend to see the construction of the Segou Ecolodge through to the end. When I signed up for the Peace Corps I did so with the intent of having an accomplishment that I could point to for the rest of my life where I could say that I did that for those people and it benefited them in this way; the that is building an ecolodge, the those are the three villagers that will own it, the people who will work there, and the entire village, the this is creating the first registered business in a village that can not employ it’s own highschool graduates, a business that aims to achieve the triple bottom line of sustainability, a business that will give 15% of it profits back to the community to use as it chooses. As much as I would like to be home already, I think you can understand why it’s hard to leave a project like that unfinished just because an arbitrary period of time has passed. (The full discloser is that I could have easily been replaced by another volunteer in August, but I selfishly wanted the satisfaction of completing the project myself.) So I am still here. Here, but over the experience of being here.

They say that you can’t know your own culture until you experience another one. I have found that to be true in so many ways I can’t begin to list them. While most of the exoticness of West Africa has faded away, I still acknowledge and appreciate it. All the same, it no longer compares to what it would be like to be back home in my own culture. I have a feeling this experience will make me want to continue doing extended international stints throughout my life, although not this long and not for a while. I am ready to come home and just live my own life. Maybe not every volunteer feels this way, but doing the work I do I often find myself trying to live other people’s lives in order to learn and to teach; fasting during Ramadan to show solidarity and appreciate why no work will be done that month or trying to understand why many of the effective ways of gardening that are practiced in America are not used here. Fasting is interesting, but not that fun and I can’t wait to have my own garden again in an area where there are no goats and chickens. I call on all of you to eat as many chickens as you can out of vengeance for all of the gardens they have scratched up this past year in Senegal. When I was home in May for three weeks I counted that at least 34 chickens died for my consumption, even with the most efficient distribution of parts. As a new year’s resolution, I challenge you to declare war on all things fowl.

“Rizzo this is Louise.” “Yeah, I know, we’ve met.” (The Muppets Christmas Carol) As much as I prefer dead chickens to live ones, I guess any chicken that The Great Gonzo vouches for is ok. Which brings me back to Christmas and it’s true meaning, as expounded upon by Muppets, Peanuts, claymations, and other cartoon characters. (I pity anybody who claims that their favorite Christmas movie is one that has a human cast for they must have had sad, boring, and unimaginative formative years.) For me, Christmas is about coming together and sharing your love and joy for each other. Sure a bit of that cozy Christmas feeling comes from snuggling up on a snowy day, drinking hot chocolate by a fire, and a bit of rum in your eggnog. However, for me those feelings are all tied to the spirit of giving, loving, and showing that you care. In fact, the whole Christmas atmosphere, all the decorations, and all the parties serve to build and accentuate that Christmas spirit. Not the other way around. More than any holiday, it’s about celebrating how wonderful life is and how joyous it is to share our time with each other. Since I cannot be there in person to celebrate with you, you will have to accept these words in my stead.

This past year has been a productive and enjoyable one for me. A year ago this month I started working with my counterparts on planning to build the ecolodge and at the beginning of this month we had our first real tourist guests. It was an exhilarating moment for me to see all of the plans we had made a year ago being put into action. My counterparts were paid, the staff was paid, the village received their share, and just walking around I could literally see people being indirectly employed. (You can read more about this on my blog: zachinrim.blogspot.com) Seeing the project begin to come to fruition was exactly what I needed. While I have excellent counterparts and have faith in their ability to make the project a success, it has been progressing on their timetable not mine. This is as it should be, it is their ecolodge after all. I told them from the beginning that it was not my job to babysit them, I am only half their age. However, besides camping out in their yards, I can’t move the project along any faster than it is currently going. These past few months they’ve been busy farming and I recognize that growing the food the need takes priority, but it has been hard to see so much time pass with so little progress happening at the ecolodge, especially for someone who is itching to go home. The pace is picking up again though. All of the corn was harvested two months ago, the peanuts a month ago, and the cotton just last week. With the three major crops stored away I look forward to the new year and the increased productivity that will come with it. If all goes as quickly as possible I could still be done in May, inshallah (if God wills it). Right now it all depends on raising the rest of the money needed for the final phase of construction. As of this moment you’ve helped me raise $5,772 which is amazing! However, that still leaves $1,969 to go. Unfortunately we can’t start using the money until all of it is raised and we’d love to get started as soon as we can in January. If you are interested in learning more or helping out with this project, please visit: sites.google.com/site/segouecolodge

As the classic Christmas carol says, even just forwarding the link on to others would be a huge help…

Christmas is coming,

The geese are getting fat,

Please put a tenny

In the new lodge's hut.

If you haven't got a tenny,

A forward will do,

If you can't send a forward,

Then God bless you.

With your help and a little luck, I’ll be seeing you all soon. I hope you all are well.

Yo Allah rokku aduna e jam!

(May God grant peace on earth.)

z.

P.S. Did you know you can send texts directly to my cell phone for FREE from Gchat in Gmail? It costs nothing for you and it’s cheap for me. We can chat in real time, any time. Please abuse it!

To set it up: Click on "Settings" in the upper right of the Gmail window

Click on "Labs"

Activate "Send text messages from Gchat"

Save your changes at the bottom of the page

Go back to the Gchat window

Click on "Actions" in the upper right of the Gchat window

Click "Send a text"

My number is +221 77 729 9164

Cancun

It's December, that means another UN Climate Change Conference has come and gone. I know it's not something I am actively involved in at the moment, but I feel like I have to give a shout out to the most important international meeting of the year. This year the conference was held in Cancun and I'm guessing that's the extent of what most people know about it, that and the fact that it did not fail spectacularly like the conference in Copenhagen did last year. So what did happen? What was decided about the biggest environmental, economic, and social problem we face? Here are three links that do a decent job of explaining one of the most complex political negotiations humanity has ever attempted:

"Cancun was a Triumph for Global Cooperation"

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/michael-mccarthy-cancun-was-a-triumph-for-global-cooperation-2162495.html

From the youth perspective:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z09Ex_kwPl0

"Five Reasons to be Hopeful"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kelly-rigg/5-reasons-to-be-hopeful-a_b_796169.html

60,000 Pedal Strokes later

It was actually more like 65,000 pedal strokes later...

Check it my friends post about our bike trip through Senegal's national park: http://stayinggroundedontherun.blogspot.com/2010/11/60000-pedal-strokes-later.html

The Great Trail Building Party

Ever since I the first time I walked out to the Ségou waterfalls a year ago I have dreamed rebuilding the trail that leads to it. For me, the idea of throwing rocks around in the woods with purpose is about as good as it gets. Last week I finally got that chance.

When the villagers first decided to try to make Ségou a tourist attraction several years ago they built a “road” half way out the falls up to the point where the trail joins the streambed. That part of the trail is still in good shape, although it is currently overgrown with tall grass that blinds you as you try bike through. It also drops seed into the back of your mouth which is impossible to get out. Aside from that, it is fairly level and even, so we decided to concentrate on the part of the trail that follows the stream. For four days eight other volunteers and I camped out at the start of the stream-trail and worked our way up to the waterfalls. During the day we were joined by three to five locals from my village. (The idea that it would be fun to camp out in the woods seems scary, stupid, and weird to them.) Each morning we would get up, have breakfast, and then set out to work on the trail. Around one we would break for lunch and tea. Like always, making tea took several hours, something I did not mind one bit since I had strung up my hammock between two stands of bamboo. After tea was finally done, we would rush out to get in one more hour’s worth of work before the light faded. Returning to camp those of us spending the night made a few drinks and settled down around the fire for an entertaining evening of conversation and swapping stories. Adding to the conversation, we were joined by two Belgian tourists who were passing through, Nick and Katherine. They bought a van in Belgium, outfitted it as a camper, and saved up enough money to travel around West Africa for a year. If there was a best way to travel in Africa, I would say that they found it. A number of us took photos of their van with dreams of replicating it some day. Meeting interesting folks like Nick and Katherine has been one of the more interesting and unexpected parts of my experience over here.

Working on the trail itself was a heck of a lot of fun. We all had big smiles on our faces the whole time as we were chopping with machetes, throwing big rocks down hills, and jumping into pools in the stream whenever we had the chance. Each of us lost about 15 years of maturity while we were out there. The best part about it was that even though we were acting like children just playing around, we were actually accomplishing something meaningful. Now it only takes half an hour to cover the distance we cleared whereas before it took over an hour and was dangerous to the ankles of those who are not accustomed to rock hopping. Now that the trail is done the ecolodge is one big step closer to being fully operational. We just need to get the doors on the bathrooms and clear the paths in the lodge and we can start publicizing the ecolodge to guides and local tourism operators. WOOHOO!

Introducing phase two of the Segou Ecolodge Project

The ecolodge is now approaching being operational, but there is still much to be done. The three huts need to be finished, the restaurant needs a floor and a roof, the trails need to be fixed up, and much more. The first phase of funding, provided through USAID's Small Projects Assistance and the contributions of the village, is almost used up. It is now time to introduce the second phase of the Segou Ecolodge Project.

Where the goal of phase one was to construct enough of the ecolodge that it could house tourists, the goal of phase two is to turn the ecolodge into the best tourist lodge in the area. In order to do that we need to finish the bathrooms in the huts, build the storeroom for the restaurant, build the kitchen, and do all of the finishing touches necessary. Of course, all of this will require additional funding. The village has committed to contributing 26% of the costs but that still leaves a $7,741 USD need. To explain the what is needed, how it will be accomplished, and how you can help out by donating I created the Segou Ecolodge Project website (sites.google.com/site/segouecolodge). Please take a look at it and consider donating. Every little bit helps and a donation of only $77 dollars will cover 1% of the total. Also please forward the link to anyone you think might be interested in learning about the project.

First guests!

The ecolodge had its first guests!!! I can't describe what a great moment it was. After a year of working on the project we finally saw some results!

It is still not finished, at the time they stayed there the windows and doors were not up, but the four American students were able to accommodate that in exchange for having the honor of being the first guests. While I had been involved with the project for a year, it was a much more exciting moment for my counterparts who have been trying to realize this dream for many years. I told them, "Jooni, menen acii fudugol golle keso e jooni ha yesso golle amen ko gaynugol ko menen fudike hari." "Now we are done starting new work and now the rest of our work is just finishing off what we have started."

The other really exciting aspect of having our first guests was I could see how the benefits of the ecolodge are going to spread throughout the community. Even though they were the first guests and we were unprepared to host them, as I was walking around town I counted over a dozen different people who were involved in preparing food, finding things to sell, or trying to find their old ceremonial dance equipment. The whole time I have been working on this project I have been dreaming of all of the auxiliary projects that will be possible for the community: selling shea butter or baobab power, selling rope made from local trees, teaching Pula Futa lessons, telling traditional stories, creating a community development fund, and much more. These are the side projects that will extend the benefits of the ecolodge out into the village and will be much more fun to execute than supervising construction. They will also be much more mentally challenging. I can't wait to start taking them on.

It's rare that PCVs get to see the fruits of their work so clearly. Now I see not only the physical buildings we have created but a vision into the future of how the ecolodge, and my work, will function to the benefit of the entire community. This is the moment that I joined the Peace Corps for.

Photos

Not my photos, but they are very good. I don't have any photos like this because most Senegalese do not like their photo being taken by a stranger (tourist/white person). Looking at the photos I can't help but imagine the photographer being yelled at by the people in the photo immediately afterwards. Anyway, really good stuff:

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/senegals-changing-urban-landscape/?ref=africa

More about the rain...

Visual Music

Visual music,
bathes the earth
as a mother lovingly bathes her child

Stilling solice,
dampens the burning ball
of intense inner fire

Cleansing clarity,
clears the air
of immediate concern

Descending droplets,
return grounded
in growing pools of reflection

Running rivlets,
springing up in the sand
inspire new directions

Nourishing nectar,
fuels growth
towards a higher purpose

Rain in West Africa, a rare regularity,
is welcomed by parched soils
and parched souls.

Lightning Tree

I LOVE the rain here. I loved it in America, but rain is so refreshing here it makes me pause everytime. I have been trying to capture exactly it mood it puts me in. Here is one attempt:

Lightning Tree

The current of something greater

flashes through your mind

as a desire to be more thoroughly alive

burns its roots into your psyche

yes, there is something growing now

with ions for leaves

breathing ozone not oxygen

it is this feeling that you want to catch

as it momentarily illuminates new synapses

this power of potential

the beauty of inspiration

but its gone in an instant

too electric to hold on to

leaving behind only smoking tendrels

of growth

in the smoldering hole of what could be

but isn't.

z.swank

8/2/2010

Ingli Trip

Fording a river

This photo was taken in a village 30 km from any sort of road. They have internet.

The Ingli waterfalls, come to Senegal and I'll take you out to see them.

There are some beautiful villages out here.

and another post!

Things have gotten GREEN! It has been raining twice/thrice a week for a couple of months now. This part of Senegal gets as much precipitation in the five month rainy season as Western New York gets in a year. It shows. The grass is up to four feet and the corn is up to ten. It does my eyes good to see green, my body good to feel a cool breeze, and my soul good to feel rain. Back home in NY I loved each season equally for the different aspects of the world it brought out. Here, I just love the rainy season. So much so that I have thoughts of looking for year round green in my next surroundings of residence.

People are leaving. The volunteer community is sort of a bizarre social atmosphere. We are thrown together as a group of strangers that shares a common tongue, background, and set of challenges. We generate great camaraderie while still not really knowing each other. Then volunteers start finishing their time and leaving before you know it, only to be replaced immediately by new faces. In Senegal, a group leaves and is replaced every six months. Sometimes groups of outgoing volunteers can slip away without affecting your social network. Other times you can loose all of your good friends and be forced to start building new friendships as if you just arrived in country. I probably feel this more acutely than most volunteers since I lost nearly all of my friends twice, when I transferred from Mauritania and then now that I am extending. I do not mean to lament too heavily, it’s always exciting when a new group comes in, but the group leaving now is taking the two people I have been closest with since Mauritania.

Fun. The volunteers in the Kedougou region put together a show for the community radio station every week. It is a great activity that I support wholeheartedly, in principle. Really though, I have no real interest in taking part even though nearly everyone else pitches in. Recently I was asked by another volunteer why I would not help out with the upcoming show and without thinking I deadpanned, “It doesn’t sound like fun at all.” To which another volunteer within earshot responded “I like your work attitude!” I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but it stuck in my mind in that fateful way that hidden truths do. Time passed and when it popped up again I realized what else it meant: all of the work I do, is fun to me. While I am sure that my interests and attitudes have adapted to the job I am currently doing, being in the completely unstructured work environment of a PCV has given me the freedom to choose only the work that I find fun, and on a day to day basis. It is often hard for me to tell if I am what I am excited about is my work, or is my life. I realize I might not always have this, and I am therefore appreciating it all the more, but knowing that this type of feeling about one’s work is achievable, it is going to be something I am willing to sacrifice for in the future, if need be.

The campement. Little progress has been made on the campement lately. From the beginning of the year up until my trip to America we were out working on the campement more often than not. Since coming back from America, things have been moving much more slowly due to a variety of reasons. First, we have nearly used up the funding we have received thus far. Second, the rains started which means everyone is very busy out in their fields everyday and don’t do a lick of work anywhere when it rains. This is a tradition I like very much and think we should adopt in the States. Haven’t we reached a point of development where we can just kick back whenever there is any sort of weather? Of course not, it would be contradictory to the Puritan (can’t we just call it American at this point?) work ethic that built our nation. Any slackening in our efforts and we’d fall from the grace of the bleeding, beautiful, destructive edge of progress. So, I take advantage of the rains here just as much as everyone else. The third reason is it is Ramadan. Not to be insulting to your cultural knowledge, but I don’t think I could have explained Ramadan to someone before coming to West Africa, so I’ll attempt do so now.

Ramadan. Is the holy (lunar) month for the Muslim world. If you want to know the theological significance of it, I’m not the person to ask. I just know what happens here. For the whole month of Ramadan all practicing Muslims (except those who are sick, infirm, pregnant, or nursing) fast from sun up to sun down. That means no food or water from dawn to dusk. In my village, they wake up at 5am to eat breakfast and suck down as much water as they can. Most people still work out in their fields or prepare food for at least half the day, because, well, they have to. Towards midday people start lying down, a trend that continues throughout the afternoon. Then around dusk everyone gathers around a bowl of Mboydi, little balls of corn flower in a tangy sweet sauce. They all sort of stare at this until the evening prayer is called and they can break their fast. Then they can drink water again. Dinner happens around 10pm, then everyone goes to sleep in order to get up at 5am the next day. This is now the third Ramadan I’ve been through. I’m only convenience fasting this time (skipping lunch but still drinking water), but I’ve fasted enough to have appreciation for the men and women who are out there working in the fields with no water. Ramadan starts 11 days earlier every year because it follows the lunar calendar and right now it is slowly marching its way backwards through the most busy time of a West African farmer’s year. Which brings up the other aspect of Ramadan one notices; everyone is a little on edge for obvious reasons. I’ve spent most of the month hiding away at the PC house taking care of my new PCVL duties. Only eleven more days left now though and this should happily be my last Ramadan.

PCVL. Each region in Senegal has a third year volunteer, or group of them, that extends to take on the responsibilities of Peace Corps Volunteer Leader (PCVL), essentially a regional coordinator. In the past we had a wonderfully active PCVL that did a lot to support the other volunteers in the region, but he has decided that after four years of service in Senegal, without even going back to visit the US, it was time to go home. Including myself there are three volunteers who are extending and due to the nature what we each wish to accomplish in our extension, we have decided to divide up the duties. This allows me to semi-officially take on the responsibility of taking care of the regional Peace Corps house, something I was leaning towards doing anyway. Robert Pirsig, and probably some other famous people, said that if you want to improve the world, you need to improve yourself first. Liking this quote, I’ve always applied it to my physical surroundings as well. I find that having my room in order, makes it easier to keep my life in order. Using that metric, and looking at the state the regional house is often in, it’s a wonder the volunteers are able to accomplish anything at all. So I find myself building new shelves, fixing plumbing, picking up trash, repairing doors, and replacing electronics when lighting strikes (three times so far). It is not development work per say, but it needs to be done, I enjoy doing it/having it done, and like I said the physical attitude of a place affects the mental attitude of the people in it. It also works out quite neatly that this responsibility keeps me in Kedougou where there is, among other amenities, a blender that I use on a daily basis to pump out smoothies. J

Finally, a post!

I have to apologize for not writing in so long. As tends to happen every now and then, time just slips by. Since I don’t remember where I left off in the story of my life over here, I’ll start with a resume of what’s happened before starting the fall season.

- Bigger waterfalls

- Fourth of July party in Kedougou

- Roofs on the huts in the campement

- Lots of carpentry

- The RAINY season

- World maps

- Feelin good and lookin forward

What am I doing now (in brief)?

- Starting a business

- Prepping to raise $$$

- English camps

- Close of service conference

Now for details:

Bigger Waterfalls:

The tourist attraction for my village is a waterfall. The attraction for Dindefello is another bigger waterfall. However, both of these pale in comparison to the waterfall at Ingli and no one goes there except for PCVs. This is because it is only accessible by foot or bike and we are pretty much the only foreigners who know about it and are willing to take a 120km trip to get out there and back. Boy was I glad I did. I’ll let pictures speak of it’s grandeur.

Fourth of July party:

Every year the Kedougou region hosts a fourth of July party for all of the PC volunteers in Senegal. This year, over half showed up, around 80 people. It was honestly one of the best if not, the best Fourth of July I have had. Events included, corn hole, horse shoes, can jam, water balloons (my doing), and super soakers (my doing). Food included the staple sides of the 4th and PIG! Quite a delicious rarity in Senegal. I won’t be here for next year’s 4th, but if you are looking for a good way to celebrate America’s independence next year, you should come to Senegal to get it.

Roofs on the Campement:

As you all know, my main project is building an ecotourism lodge. We received about $5,000 USD in January and have now converted most of that into three huts and a bathroom for tourists. At the time that I left to go to America, the walls were up, the rains were coming, but there were still no roofs. I am happy to say that they are all on now. Having roofs on the huts marks a real the achievement of being close to being done with this phase of the project, eight months and much sweat after starting. It is a great feeling to be able to look at them and think “I made that happen” (with funding from the US government and the physical contributions of many people from the village) and know that it will soon be providing a source of formal income for 10 individuals and financially support the village’s own development efforts to the tune of 15% of it’s profits. It’s hard to imagine accomplishing things that are much more rewarding than that in my life.

Lots of carpentry:

Without me knowing my counterparts commissioned the doors and windows of the campement to be made out of African Mahogany. Dough! But very beautiful. Except, the carpenters used nails that were twice as long as they should have been so they all have ugly nails bent over on the back sides. I had a revelation recently that this campement was never going to be as nice as I had envisioned it because I was not MY campement, a realization that was precipitated by seeing the patterns on the sheets that my counterparts bought, but the massacre of the beauty of African Mahogany was one thing that I could not let stand. So I have many days over the course of the last few weeks pulling out all of the nails and then replacing them with screws. Seems like a pretty simple operation, but the wood is incredibly dense and the screws are incredibly weak. In order to get them in I had to take out the existing nails, pound in slight larger nails just to enlarge the holes, then pull those out, and put the screws in. Towards the end of the work I got my hands on a cordless drill (God Bless America) and it all went much faster. Anyway they are done now and they look much better. The other carpentry I have been doing was ripping 24 meters of wooden planks down to size for the window frames. When I was in America I picked up a saw sharpening file knowing that I was going to be doing this but neglected to buy saw set pliers (which push the teeth of the saw out alternating directions so the area that it cuts is wider than the blade of the saw, keeping it from binding up). So every time the saw bound up in the wood, I cursed myself for not having the foresight to get the set pliers (now in the mail) here sooner. Once it is here, I am going to sharpen and set every single saw I see because nearly every hand saw in Senegal is dull.

Ok, I’m taking a break and posting this now, but I will finish the details soon.

Journal of a PCV Parent Cont.

Essentials for hut living
Warthogs
Rehabilitated Panther
Obsidian Roller National Bird
Baboon
Mongoose
Park map
On the banks of the Gambia
Me and my guys!
Tambaconda was a resting place for us while Zach got organized and provisioned for his installation in his village. (See provisions picture: Bucket with lid to store food, a mat for the dirt floor, a latrine wash kettle, and a wash bucket with cup for bucket bath or clothes washing.) We then went on an adventure, at my request, to Nicola Koba National Park. We stayed at the Wassado, a French run tourist Campement that was flat out luxury compared to the last week and a half. We were in the park forest so it was cool and our room had fans. We showered and I put on makeup and a dress and felt like I was on a date with my two favorite guys! We ate on a porch on the edge of the Gambia River on white linens with wine and French cooking, a chilled mango mousse for dessert, the cool breeze and night sounds of baboons playing in the trees nearby. A bit of heaven! We went on a private safari the next day. The pictures will tell the story. We had a fabulous lunch midday of rice (without dirt), turkey, grapes, tomatoes and hardboiled eggs as a cold salad with vinaigrette dressing. It was the best meal in a long time and thoughtfully tooted in cooler full of ice with cold drinks as well. We fell asleep on a mat provided for us and slept off the midday heat. (Why don’t we do this here on hot days? It certainly is survival in sub Saharan Africa.) That evening after another fabulous French meal complete with the first lettuce salad we dared eat, we sat in chairs on the bank of the river and watched the silhouettes of baboon families playing in the trees across the river. This was a magical moment! Thanks again Zach for knowing when we needed a break!
Sue

Week 4 of 5 Journal of a PVC Parent

Day II Travel from Mali to Senegal (or 23 hours on an OLD bus with a crazy driver)
This trip had intrigue, bribery, violence, humor, humanity and comradary! Most of all it did not have goats tied to the top of the bus! Of the 23 hours we traveled, we had 3 2hour stops. The first stop was to wait for a second bus to make a connection, so we were stuck in a crowded parking lot with pretty disgusting latrines, which by now I could handle because it was better than the alternative! It was just HOT and dusty. We had a lunch of bananas and baguettes (by now we are getting pretty lean). It was an anxious wait because you had to be sure the bus you came on did not leave with your luggage and no one seemed to know why we were waiting. Back on board. Many hours before a lunch stop and dash to a latrine. Then the first of many passport checks started. It was a long aft of stop and go and it was getting towards evening and still no bathroom stop. Finally a stop and I saw a latrine in the distant field and some women from the bus heading towards it so I start off, telling the boys that in no way can they let the bus leave without me! The bus driver started honking his horn and wanted us back for a passport check. I looked at the woman next to me and raised my hands in a question. She grabbed my arm and we ran towards the latrine while the driver honked furiously. She handed me the bucket and she peed out back and gave me the latrine. I started to run back and again she took my arm and shook her head to say “No, don’t run” as we got back to the bus the driver honked his horn in our ears, we just got on the bus with our noses in the air as if to say “ We are women and we have the right to pee, you will just have to wait.” When we got to our seats I turned to look at her and thank her and we shared a giggle. Those kinds of moments of connection were astounding and made me feel more than OK. It is a foreign land, language and culture but we can still connect and share compassion for one another! Later another two hour stop at customs. The Nigerian Nationals were forced to pay a bribe. They were hassled the whole trip, we were not. Our Embassy is too strong in Senegal. We had started the trip at 6AM; our third stop was at 2 AM at immigration. This was a small building in a small court yard with, by far, the worst latrines of the trip (just take my word, I do not want to describe) There were three gendarmes one of whom was more official and his job was to take our passports and hand write our information on a tablet (in pencil! How official is that?) We were the third bus there and there seemed to be no hurry. It could take up to 5- 10 min per person. We were too discouraged to do the math. Finally a non Senegalese African National got tired of being treated this way and got angry with the gendarme. Suddenly we heard loud voices, a very loud slap and the crowd began to get very agitated. We moved to the back of the crowd. All I could think about were the semiautomatics the three officials had, but some people surrounded the disgruntled man and escorted him out of the courtyard until he had calmed, Whew! We finally arrived in Tambacounda at 5AM and slept until 8:30. We had much to do that day!

Campement

Back in January I posted about the main project I have been working on, building an ecotourism lodge with and for some folks from my village. In the previous post I described the motivation for the ecolodge and how it would function. I also asked for some help funding a well for the ecolodge, thanks again to everyone who donated to that. The last few months my counterparts, a team of masons, and I have been working like gangbusters trying to get as much done as possible before the rains came. Well, the rains are here and now I finally have time to post about all the work we've been doing. The photos were all taken before I left for America and the huts should have roofs by now. The picture below is a link to a web album, which I think is going to make it easier to post photos. Enjoy!

Journal of a PCV Parent Cont. Mali to Senegal I

It has been a long time since Dave and I have posted. We need to finish our travelogue.
Mali to Senegal Part I
How do I describe the return trip? It would make a great B type short film. There was drama, pathos, pain, humor, terror, and feats of endurance! I did not even document it in my journal as I was hoping I would forget it, but the experience is indelibly marked into my brain and psyche. I can say in hindsight that I am glad I experienced it as I now have a measure to which I will always compare bad experiences. As in, “You think this is bad? You should have been on the return trip to Senegal from Mali!” Words do not do this justice, but there are no pictures as I was too busy ”making it through”! I will say that, again, while so many experiences were out of our control, what really got me through was Zach’s concern and support as well as Dave’s. When I finally lost it towards the end of the ordeal, everyone treated it as normal, including the Senegalese! OK here goes…
Phase 1 Bandiagara cliffs to Bomako (By the way, if any of you are into Jimmy Buffett, His latest CD is titled Hotel Buffett, The hotel is in Bomako and so was he 6 months before us. I doubt very much that he had our travel experiences! This was an over night ride. Zach had gotten tickets ahead of time, but when we got there the bus was full! (Duped again!) Our choice was wait for a day or ride in a bus that had 70-100 goats tied on top with their feet tied in rice bags. We thought , “Well OK they are not in the bus so this should be alright.” Overnight ride. Slept for the first two hours then woke up cold (Yes cold in Mali, Huh!) Slowly it dawned on us, there were small vent windows along the top of the bus windows and they were open. A fact we were thankful for when we got on the bus and it was 101 degrees. Now however, we were covered with goat pee spray and uncomfortably cold, while the bus driver played the Nom Song (A Griot storytelling song) over and over. Now it is morning, then midmorning and the temp is soaring and we are covered in goat pee and smelling, hungry and desperately needing to pee ourselves. Finally out side of Bomako with the city in sight the driver stops to let the goats off and I stand up on the bus and cry in front of everyone (Not a very Muslim thing to do!) When we got to our hotel, I just stood in the shower with my clothes on and watched the cockroaches in the corner! While this sounds rather desperate, all it took was a new hotel room, three showers and a cold Fanta at the Campenaird (A nice Lebanese restaurant) to make me feel better. Then there was day two……
Sue (Zach's Mom)

How much longer?

"How much longer will you be over there?" was a question I heard a lot while I was home. The answer is, as long as it takes to finish building (constructing, management training, and marketing) the tourist ecolodge I am helping the people in my village to create. On paper I have just signed a six month extension with an end date of February 17th 2011. In reality, I am not bound to that date, but I needed to set it so I could continue to defer my loans. Will I be home sooner? I hope so, but not likely. The work I am doing now is not my life's work, but it is something I have started and I can't leave the work unfinished just because my arbitrary two years of service are up. I made a commitment to my counterparts to see the job through. Additionally, PC Senegal is now working on developing an ecotourism label and certification scheme which is an idea I had proposed months ago. Developing that is something I am passionate about and would be really good experience. "So, how much longer?" longer than tomorrow, less than a year, ask me later.

AND COME VISIT!

America

I couldn't sleep the whole week before I left Senegal to go to America. I was so excited that my father cautioned me that "America is not magic, it's just the same as it always was." To which I replied, "Exactly, it is always magic." My belief was reinforced when I stepped off the plane and found that everyone around me was speaking English. It was weird, and magical. In fact, the whole three weeks I was home were filled with shocking experiences of seeing my native country with fresh eyes. Here are a few observations from my witnessing.
- We are generally ignorant of other cultures. This observation happened even before I arrived in America. Once my Delta flight was off the ground the first thing the stewards (esses) did was serve us ham sandwiches. (Muslims, who made up probably 80% of the DL216 population, do not eat pork products, whoops.) I had a good laugh and delicious sandwich at this. God Bless America.
- America is green. I had this observation while sitting on my back deck. In much of America, if we don't cut down the trees, shrubs, and grass they will over grow our homes. The environment in Senegal is better, but in Mauritania, if they do nothing (or even if they do something) their homes will covered with sand. God Bless America.
- Large grocery stores. I walked through Wegmans (a chain grocery store somewhere in between Whole Foods and Quality Markets (R.I.P.)) and bought five of everything, literally shoveling goods off the shelves. The only luggage I returned to Senegal with was full of food. God Bless America.
- Americans are wonderfully and excessively inventive. Keystone Light now gives away plastic bottle necks that you can pop onto the top of a can to beer to make it look like a bottle of beer. Who ever said Keystone Light wasn't classy? Too bad they have to give them away because no one in their right mind would buy them (I have two). God Bless America.
- We Americans are living the good life. I avoided saying this while I was home and I am hesitant to say it now because it sounds cliche, makes me sound holier-than-thou, and no one having a bad day likes to hear it, but the fact is, it's true. There is so much that we take for granted in America (for example, that drinking water comes out of the ground cool, not piping hot (and even though it is already cool we have the means to cool it further, just cause)) that at times it was difficult for me to hear anyone complain about anything. At the same time, as I have said when describing people's attitudes over here, life is relative. If your basic requirements for survival are met, when you get up in the morning in a place you are used to you tend to think "Ok, what's for breakfast?, what am I going to do this morning?, I wonder if Joe/Mamadou is feeling better." not "Wow! I own my own car! My house is made of beautiful wood! Grass is growing on my lawn!" or "Wow! I own my own donkey! My house has an excellent thatched roof! There is enough manure in my sandy yard to grow corn when the rains come!" If you have enough to eat, a decent shelter, clothes, and some sort of work to do, your day to day emotions are probably not so different from a billionaire. A few decades from now the newest generation of Americans will look back at the America my generation grew up with and wonder how we could have survived such a backwards existence, where we did not even have the internet, just as my generation looked back at a time not so long ago where household electricity did not exist. Prosperity's affect on an individual's enjoyment of life is not a direct correlation, other wise we would be just be high all the time. We ought to turn down the dial of need since it's not getting us anywhere and in its place we ought to appreciate the grass covering the topsoil covering the rest of the earth that we stand on. God Bless America.
- Transportation. At no time while I was in America did I have to ride in a make shift seat in the trunk of a station wagon that was 20 years old. God Bless America.
- Being in your own culture. Zero is the number of times I was called Toubab (white person) by little kids while I was in America. I heard it 10 times just on the taxi ride out of the airport when I returned to Senegal. Similar to that, I was describing the Senegalese habit of hissing at people to get their attention to some American friends and they responded that they thought it seemed pretty offensive, I agree. God Bless America.
- America is magic. As if all this was not enough, I spent the last night at home, standing on my back deck watching fireflies light up the woods. America is magic. God Bless America.

HOME

It's the 12 of May, I am sitting in Thies on my way to Dakar because I fly home at 2:40 tomorrow morning!!! I have not been this excited in at least 5 years. I'll be home till June 3rd. If you are in Chautauqua County, near Potsdam, or anywhere in between, shoot me a message, I'd love to see you. WOO America!!!

My Hut

PVCs here have to constantly fight the misconception of our friends and family back home that everyone in Africa lives in huts. The reality is that not everyone lives in huts, but some do and the huts are much more photogenic than a concrete house, so they are probably disproportionately represented in photos. Anyway, I do live in a hut, and so does nearly everyone in my village. In actuality I might have lived in a hut in Mauritania too if enough grass grew there for thatching, but it doesn't.


This is my hut right after the rainy season. Most of the greenery is gone now. It still needs to be rethatched, that should be happening in the next couple of weeks.

Robert Pirsig, the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, once said "I think that if we are going to reform the world, and make it a better place to live in, the way to do it is not with talk about relationships of a political nature... or with programmes full of things for other people to do... The social values are right only if the individual values are right. The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there..." I am a firm believer in this philosophy and extend it not just to making mental and political changes, but also to making physical changes. In that spirit, I have been "developing" my hut. (Although this idealism might just be a cover for my love of building and tinkering.) Anyway, I have been having fun and here are the results of some of my improvements.


When I got there, this door was just a beat up old piece of tin with a bunch of holes in it. I decked it out with the bamboo facade.


This shelving has been my biggest project. It was tricky to figure out how to get it to hold the curved shape while still support it horizontally, but after a few midday naps I came up with a solution. I made the shelving part out of a kind of wood that is almost exclusively used for making stools. So all the days I was out there cutting it up, everyone who walked by said, "Oh, you are making a stool." (Cultural side note: not knowing something makes one look bad so when they see someone doing an activity but they are not sure exactly what they are doing, they will guess and make a statement out of it rather than simply ask what they are doing. This gets a little old.) So I would correct them and tell them to go inside my hut and look. One particular time the village chief, who's compound I am in, happened to be there when someone came by and said, "Making a stool huh?" for the umpteenth time. I sighed and told him to go inside my hut and look. When he came back out he said, "Wow, that's impressive, I thought you were just making a stool." To which the village chief incredulously responded, "You thought he was just making a stool? Have you seen what he did to his door???" I got a kick out of that.


Door and shelving. (Mom, see, now I am as organized as Tim!)


Close up on the shelving.


My compost pit. Water from washing my hands after going to the bathroom automatically waters the pit.


The door to my garden.


A small veggie garden behind my hut.

Kedougou Regional House

Since I have been really bad about writing blogs lately, I thought I would post some pictures instead. Briefly work is going well, but I am waiting to post on my activities until they are a little more complete. Anyway, now to the interesting pictures.

One of my first posts in Mauritania was about how there really was no feeling of being "inside the home" and almost all of the days activities took place outside. I stand by that observation and perhaps these photos will help you to understand. What is pictured below is the Peace Corps regional house for the volunteers in Kedougou. This is where we stay when we need to use the internet, get to a bank, buy supplies, or unwind. While some of the regional houses in Senegal resemble and American dwelling, the one in Kedougou really follows the Senegalese lifestyle, although it is Americanized quite a bit.


This is what we call the porch and where we spend most of our time.


The building that says Welcome to Kedougou is for storage and the building with the thatched roof is where we sleep.


As you can see, almost all of the buildings are open on the sides. Actually the only buildings with doors that close are the storage rooms and the bathrooms.








Our kitchen.







And that's what we call home when we are not in our villages.

Coming home

That's right. I'll be home from May 14th to June 3rd for a couple of weddings and my first visit back to the US in two years. Woohoo! I'll be at home for the first two weeks for my sister's wedding and then up to Clarkson for Ryan and Maggie Mae's wedding. If you are in either of those places, or in between the two, let me know and I'll try to swing by.

I think coming home to visit is just as surreal for me at this point as leaving home to do the Peace Corps was when I started. It's definitely as exciting. Words can not express how good I imagine it will feel to be HOME, even for a little while. I have definitely found it to be true that the more you travel the more you appreciate where you grew up.

Having been gone for two years and living with such a different cultural perspective on life, it will be interesting to see what about America is difficult for me now. I have some guesses. It's probably best not to complain to me about the minor inconveniences you experience. I probably won't tolerate hearing about cold temperatures being a bad thing either. Also I have heard that the waist size of our fellow Americans can be alarming and take some getting used to again.

Anyway, I AM PUMPED to be coming home!

Friendship

Being out of my culture, away from all of the people I previously knew, learning to adapt to a new culture, add making all new friends has given me some interesting insights into the role and importance of friends in our lives. I recently wrote a long email to a good friend of mine on that topic and I thought it might be interesting to share here:



It’s funny that you have been thinking about what constitutes friendship and relationships with others, I have been thinking a lot about that too.

When I was in Mauritania I went a little crazy. It’s my own fault and I eventually recovered but for a little while there I lost the ability to relate to other people in a meaningful/friendful way; I was more or less emotionally dead. That experience shook me up quite a bit and ever since I have been appreciating the value of having close friends in a new way. Also, being that I have said goodbye to everyone I knew and made all new friends twice in the last two years now I have been thinking a lot about how our generation is the first to be able to maintain “close” friendships with many people we rarely, if ever, see. We have all these friends from all over the place and with internet we can stay in contact with them incredibly easily though they are scattered. One can develop close relationships with those around you through shared experiences, like your friends from grade school, but it is nice to have people that you have a close connection to even though you have shared very few experiences, I get more emails from someone I spent two days with than I do from anyone I grew up with. Many, maybe most, of my closest friends do not know each other. The question is, to fulfill our mutual obligations as friends, is it enough that I stay in contact with them or are they too dispersed and I should focus more on those around me?

Being in the Peace Corps you are part of this unusual but awesome network of friends. Any time I meet a PCV now I am immediately at ease with them. I can show up to a party of volunteers that I have never met before and it’s not awkward at all because I have this shared experience with them. Sort of like the bonds we had in the IED class, but magnified and with a much larger number of people. Also in the Peace Corps, the people who are around you is changing constantly, even if you don’t get kicked out of the country you were serving in. When I was in training I was with one group of people, when I went out to my site there was a different group of people in my region, then the old volunteers left, the new ones did not come, but we were kicked out and I started the cycle anew in a different place; every six months or so some or most of the people around me change. I am constantly saying goodbye and meeting new people. Also since we spend so much time out at our sites throughout our service we don’t even really get the chance to know each other through the normal interactions you would expect. I am close friends with many people of whom I know almost nothing about. It is almost disturbing how easily friends come and go here. Yet at the same time it is fascinating that friendships can be so fluid, coming and going like the tide. From what I understand, being in DC is a lot like that too; high turn over of people, everyone looking to meet new friends, and general feeling of ease when encountering strangers in the same situation.

In your email you also brought up another element that I struggle with: work. The work that I am doing now is like play to me. Very little of it is onerous and all most all of it is terribly exciting and fun to do. When you are overworked and it feels like it, its easy to cut back and just hang out with friends. However, when your work feels like play but still accomplishes goals that are very meaningful to you, it is harder to slow down and make time for the people close to you. I struggle with this dilemma a lot. Often other volunteers will be hanging out just shooting the shit or watching a movie and I’ll be around but still moving around some what like a work ghost; I am there but I have this sort of tunnel vision just for what I am doing and it is hard to slow down enough to participate in what everyone else is doing. Even when I force myself to stop, work/play is on the back of my mind. On one hand, what is so wrong with that? I am enjoying what I am doing and I find it tremendously rewarding. Is it a problem that it consumes my life if it does so in an agreeable way? If I have close friends all over the world that I value more that many of the people who are close in proximity to me whom I almost never see and I am finding it hard to find time to hang out even with those who ARE in close proximity, many of whom I count as my good friends but actually have spent little time with, what sort of situation is that? Is that proper friendship on any level?

That question aside, I do love that I have close friends who are spread out across the globe and I never wish to change that. However, I think that you must be careful that you always maintain or cultivate relationships with people that actually are close enough to you to physically interact. I love that you are my friend and love every time I hear from you, but if I can’t shoot you with a squirt gun from time to time then I need to make sure that I have other friends around that I can. Also I think that no matter how rewarding your work is, it cannot replace the value of enjoying your relationships with people close to you. Although both add meaning and richness to your life two are not comparable, each is important in its own way. Hanging out with friends and just watching a movie or taking life slow does not save the world, but it will save you. We need to unwind and hanging out with your good friends is the best way to do that. It keeps you centered, reminds you that you are human, and keeps you from driving yourself into becoming a feelingless work-bot. Also, it’s a heck of a lot of fun.

As it turns out, every animal has different predilections for interactions in social groups; what’s more these social groups have a pre-established size. Just as we can’t easily remember more than seven to ten numbers in our head at one time (its not a coincidence phone numbers have that many digits) we also can’t keep more that 150 people in our social “group.” I don’t know this but I would argue that when those 150 people are scattered all over the place and times in your life, when many of them don’t know each other, it becomes difficult to juggle even that many. Sure Facebook will inform you what they are up to, but that becomes just a blip of information to note with all of the other blips. I think the time period we are currently inhabiting provides us with some unique opportunities to cultivate deep and lasting friendships with people faster than has ever been possible. It also allows us to keep those friendships alive over great distance. We can stay close friends with someone we met once even though we almost never see them. At the same time, we can also rely on the same attitudes and tools to put a façade of friendship on our lives that keeps us up to date with the people in our lives but does not go deeper than that because we are only allowing time for superficial encounters. I think the ease of communication gives us a false sense of connection. I am more informed of my friend’s birthdays now than I have ever been, I have a calendar of them that pops up every time I open my email, but I bet I haven’t been to one more birthday party than I would have otherwise because of it. Its easy to forget that knowing what is going on in someone’s life is not at all the same as being there for it. You get lulled into a false sense of participation. Wall posts and genuine interaction are not the same thing. They help you to maintain that link with other people but they are not what friendship is.

The technology and lifestyles we have do not doom us, they just provide the temptation to become complacent with the ease and pace of communication we can use to keep our social networks alive; alive but not living. It is essential that we recognize this fact and find the time to have real interactions. Going from work to the bar or club till exhaustion to sleep and then work again does not always count. Drugging ourselves is an easy way to unwind but when it becomes a pattern, and I am not even talking about alcoholism here, it feeds the cycle of superficial relationships. Your mind can be just as absent from your interactions with your friends when you are partying as when you are at work even though the location and activities are different.

So what can we do? If our connectivity today allows us to find and keep close friends in special ways, then do it. Just realize that if you want to keep the friendships really meaningful, you are going to have to go out of your way to see them from time to time. I stopped going to fast food restaurants a while ago and discovered that I much preferred to find old friends to eat with even if that meant driving six hours out of my way just to have lunch. Here in West Africa it is culturally very important to greet everyone you know when you pass by and if you haven’t seen someone in a while to go out of your way just to greet them. At first I was frustrated with the fact that whenever I was in a hurry I would have to slow down to extensively greet everyone that I knew along the way. Then one day I thought about it more. Where was it exactly that I was headed to that was so important that I did not have time to stop and say hello to all of the friends I passed by? When I thought about it that way, only life and death situations seemed more important. Ever since realizing this I have enjoyed the custom here. In the morning I make the rounds around my village just to say hello to my friends and family, even though I know I will likely see them later in the day and greet them again. In America the phrase time is money is a cliché, but generally reflects our feeling. That phrase is well known here as a way to understand American culture. However, what is missing is the companion phrase to African culture: time is relationships. Having experienced both I think that both cultures could benefit from a little of the other.

This is approaching the length of an epic novel so I will leave you with one final thought. They say that it is important to stop and smell the roses from time to time. I think this is true, roses are worth a sniff. However, lets not forget that its equally important to stop and smell our friends from time to time. Although they might not have showered, the company they provide can be just as sweet.

Obama Mania!

They love this guy! The playing cards were spotted in the most remote village we visited!