How much can one say about so little?

I haven't posted a photo of my dog in a while, so I took one just for this post. Not to mention he recently celeebrated his birthday (He and someone else..). My dog, Hendu, is now one year old. Everyone wish him a happy birthday.


I did some pondering in my village a few days ago and for some reason I suddenly felt a bit of a tragedy inside of my head, and it had to do with America.

Ok, it's not what you think. I didn't freak out. I wasn't angry or frustrated. I neither loved nor hated America or the fact that it was far away.

What I realized is how long I've been blogging, and how I probably haven't really managed to capture one “real” village moment to share with you all (whoever is reading this..). I'm supposed to be representing the Peace Corps Experience, right? Why then, am I blogging once every 2-4 weeks and just talking about a bunch of general stuff, or cutesy random stuff, or super duper accomplishments?

Thats not all the peace corps is! Here we have to live. Day by day, second by second. If I asked you now what it is that I “do,” when I'm in my village, would you be able to answer? Probably not! What actually happens is a lot of really adorable moments, a lot of fascinating cultural exchange, a bunch of nothing, and a lot of laying around when it's hot outside. But this is me being general. So here we have it.

A whole day. Wake up to sleep. No yesterday, no tomorrow. Keep in mind, every day is different. I've done a lot more than this, and a lot less. Enjoy the ride. Try not to fall asleep.

Oh, and I'll only post pictures that I took that day ;)
The day is Sunday Feb 21, 2010

I slept in a bit this day, maybe until 8:30 but I stayed in bed until 9:00 simply because the temperature was comfortable. I knew it would get hot soon, and I knew that if I moved around I would just get hotter sooner. When I got out of bed I realized that there was a mouse in the trap that my brother had mailed to me. Yes! That is the fourth mouse in 2 days! I grabbed that mouse out of the trap and chucked it out to somewhere behind my backyard. I did my morning douche duties and walked out my front door to get breakfast.

My sister, Dalanda was out of town. This is the first day in all my service that she wasn't in my village the same day that I was. Oh well, one day certainly can't hurt. I walked to the little “store,” about a 60 second walk from my house with Hendu, my dog following proudly behind. I caught Hudi, the store owner, sitting outside of the shop reading out-loud in Arabic. As I approached him he stopped reading, looked up, and greeted me warmly, as he always does. I asked for my usual Vitacafe and biscuits (powdered coffee flavored milk and small cookies), and he said he had biscuits but no vitacafe. I bought the biscuits from him for about .12 cents and left them there to buy my coffee, about .28 cents, at the next store down. I didn't want to walk into the store carrying what I had just bought from his competitor. So, I walked the 50ft to the neighboring boutique and bought my coffee drink. I went back to get my biscuits, then went home, Hendu following me the whole time.

When I got back I chucked the food on my bed and went to water my young mango trees with the water I had collected from showering the night before. Then I went inside to make my luke-warm coffee drink with biscuits dumped in. This is what I have for breakfast every day in the village... it's the closest thing I can get to having cereal and milk and it's sweet. Yay...

Just as I was about to start eating, a woman named Fatou called my name from outside. I waited again to be sure it was me she was calling, and when it was I moaned a bit, put my food down and went out of my hut. Fatou is a woman in the garden group who occasionaly sells deep-fried dough to me, when she makes it. Today she had come just to say hello I guess, so I just went with it. I shook her hand and sat down beside her. She said she was waiting for the meeting that was supposed to happen at the school and thought she may as well greet me. Ok then.. I asked her how the garden group was going and she said fine but the women fight all the time. She said the cabbage won't make apples because the women are watering them wrong. She said she tried to tell them how to water them but nobody listened. I told her I'd go have a look later. I realized that I didn't know Fatou very well so I asked if she had a husband. She said she used to, but is divorced because they fought all the time. We sat in silence for a couple minutes as I watched a few of our chickens fighting over the body of a dead mouse. Gee, I wonder where they found that (waste not...) Then, after a few more minutes of small talk, she just got up and walked away.

I went and ate breakfast. Then I did a bit of exercises to get those endorphins going. At about 10:00 I walked outside to go look at my three garden groups.

The first group visit was brief. I went, greeted the women, and took a few pics of the gardens. I had been over a month since I had taken pictures of it. Now the garden was huge.





I mentioned to the women that they should put stakes in their tomatoes and thin their carrots. Look at those carrots!


I was going to spend more time there but a woman named Woori grabbed me to take me to the second garden. She was wanting me to see it. This garden had also improved a lot in the past month.




When we got there we has a long chat.

I'm about to tell you an entire conversation. You might think I am writing too much detail. But I'm teaching you, really. This is a moment; A precious moment. A long conversation with a hard working, strong, African village woman, and a member of my group. Woori is the president of the women of this particular group. I talked to these people all the time. I mean ALL the time. This is quite a typical conversation. The favorite thing of the women members to do when they get me one on one is to complain about the other women, and state why their group it better than the others.

Woori started by showing me her onions.


Then started explaining to me the difference in organization between her group and the first group, and how her group's organization was better than the other's because it doesn't allow women to be lazy. In the other group, a group of women are responsible for watering the entire garden which allows for women to just ditch their water duties and not go. But in her group, they had given each woman the responsibility for one plot,and if they didn't water it, it would die and the other women would know. That is bad. And as for those selling the vegetables, she said, her group was also more organized. The first group had about 4 people who were designated to sell everything, not giving the other women a chance to have their hand in selling. But Woori's group, each woman sold what was in her plot.
Woori was proud of her group's organization. “And don't even get me started on that third group!” She exclaimed. “They have nothing! It's as if the women there are too tired to water and for that, everything is dead!

It was nice listening to Woori's opinions. In fact, it's nice listening to any woman's opinions even though they are often more critical than they are productive. She had her say, so I counteracted it with mine.
“As for the first group,” I replied, “You are right, they aren't very well organized. But just yesterday they did something to change that. In fact last night they woke me up at 10:30pm to take me to their group meeting. There they discussed selling the salad, why women aren't showing up to water, and they confronted who hadn't been paying their weekly sum. All of their issues were brought out on the table and this morning, I don't know if you saw, everyone was working very well together.
Of course Woori agreed.
“As for the second group,” I explained, The garden isn't dead because the people are tired of watering. The problem is that the people are tired of watering because the garden keeps dying. There it's not the people that is the problem, it is the soil.”
“They didn't put enough manure on it,” she snapped.
“They put lots of manure on it,” I said, “but that wasn't enough. The soil is ill. There are no vitamins left. I'm going to help them learn how to heal their soil.” I said.
“How?” she asked.
“Compost,” I replied. “Thats when you take food trash, dry leaves and green leaves, put it in a pile, and take care of it until it becomes like earth. If you do that, your soil will be happier.
“Oh yeah, we know what that is,” exclaimed Woori.
“If you guys know what it is, why don't you ever do it?” I asked
“People don't work together like that,” she replied
“Well maybe if I bring someone from Kedougou who can teach them and make them do it, then maybe they will work together, and maybe they can organize themselves a bit,” I said. “If someone comes from Kedougou, a professional, the people will listen.”
“Is it only for that group? I want to go to,” said Woori.
“It will be held in their garden because their dirt is the worst,” I said. “But I'll bring a couple of people from each group to attend so he can organize it in his own plot,” I replied.
Woori was happy.

After that we discussed my sister Dalanda and her place in the family. Woori is Dalanda's big sister.

I then said goodbye to Woori as I made my way to the third garden group.

I never actually made it to the garden, because it's practically all dead. I know what it looks like because I had just been yesterday. Today I just went to the “store” that the group leader owns. There I find the group leader and a few other members. I greet them.

Before I sit there I bypass the “store” to greet Numusara, my best farmer. I had an agenda with him this day as well; I wanted to ask him about his well diggers. Numusara was sitting under a mango tree with three other old men, including the old man, Yero, who is one of the most influential and feared men in my village. Old men in my village... you never know what to expect but the norm is that they want to marry you. I got the googly smile from the first two men I shook hands with, the kind smile from Numusara, and the devious smile from Yero.
“Aren't you married yet?” asked Yero.
I haven't talked to this guy in months. I don't trust his underlying intentions so I don't go out of my way to see him, and he has kind of given up on me because he has realized that I will not help him obtain any kind of power. We live in close quarters though, so we still get along.
Numusara is like my grandfather. He protects me and helps me any time he can. He replies before I even open my mouth.
“She isn't married and doesn't want to be. Leave her alone.”
“No way, she has a man, I know this,” exclaimed Yero, squinting his one eye and grimacing at me with his one tooth, trying to see if I'd lie or not.
I know this man and I know his game, so I respond accordingly, “I'm not going to tell you whether I have a boyfriend or not,” I replied. That is for me to know, not you.” And as for marriage, I won't even consider it until I'm done studying. I will not work for a man until I have what I want. In fact, maybe I will have a boyfriend while I study and we will visit each other and spend time together and if I like him maybe I'll marry him when I'm done studying. Thats what we do in America, actually. We marry our boyfriends, not strangers. That way, we can get to know him and know that we want to stay together for the rest of our lives.”

Note to reader- conversations with villagers are always bullshit. You don't tell them real stories about you, you just don't. Why? Do they ever offer details of their married lives? I don't think so. All they want is to marry you themselves. So my replies are kind of like a “fable” of something I kinda of want to passive aggressively say to them. And it's always put into a context that they can understand Can you see the hidden message in my words?

“Oh, really?” Said Yero. He pondered for a while and then nodded. “Then he translated it into better Pular for the other men sitting there.
“In America, they marry their boyfriends! Yero exclaimed!”
“Oh yeah, maybe thats a good idea,” said the older man. “That way you can know if you like them or not before you marry them. That way if you have problems you find out soon and don't have to marry them.”

Note to reader-In village life, there are boyfriend and husbands. Boyfriends are hidden. They are forbidden affairs that happen out of wedlock, or they are used as passionate and transactional affairs to some married people. The parents are never informed and the discreet couple only shows affection for one another at night under the protection of trusted friends. They can love each other much more than husbands or wives, who are often chosen by the parents and quite often are people who barely know each other, and maybe don't even like each other!
Whatever.

I changed the subject to wells. I looked right at Numusara and asked if he had talked to his well diggers. He explained to me that he changed his mind about who he wanted to dig, that there was someone in another village, Hamadi Heri, that he wanted to dig for him. I asked when the meeting would be. The men advised me that I probably shouldn't go to the meeting because if the well differ saw me, he would immediately think that I was the one financing this well and would raise the price. I agreed and we decided to send my brother to go to the meeting who would then explain the price to me. Numusara said that he would go see them tomorrow and then come to my house to give me the news. Then Yero said that I was a good volunteer, and had brought much to the village.

Then I went to talk to the third garden group. I've had lots of problems communicating with this group. Usually when I say something, nothing happens. Thats because when I talk the leader, Nikola, just stares at the ground and never even acklowledges what I say. I don't think he understands me. Thats a problem, right? Today my strategy was to just ask a question and then listen, and then maybe put it some suggestions that would spark conversation about what I wanted them to talk about and then they would think that they came up with some ideas for stuff. Haha. That worked, kinda.

Nicolas started by telling me that my first payment was ready. I told him great, that as soon as he gave that to me he could keep the materials at his place, not at mine. Then I asked him what was wrong with the garden. He told me that the garden wasn't too bad, but there were problems with the earth, and a bit with the watering. I asked him if his well was going to dry out, because it looked a little bit low. He said that if it did dry out he would dig again. I don't doubt that he will do that.
We talked about compost. With the help of Numusara who came over to translate (which is funny because Numusara doesn't speak any French, he just manages to understand my poor Pular and can translate it into good pular, while Nikolas often has no clue what I'm saying), we explained what compost could do and how there was someone very intelligent and professional who was willing to come and hold a formation right in his own garden group. Nikola was very excited about this. The idea of having a professional formation in his own land made him very happy.
Then I listened to the men again. They talked about all sorts of stuff. Farming, tractors, machines that shelled peanuts and corn. Then Nikola asked me if we could plant some mangoes this upcoming tree season. That was my signal to introduce my new project without too much imposing it.
“Yes, mangoes! Tree season is coming you know. I was thinking, if you had water, we could to a group in your tree nursery and maybe even sell mango and orange trees to the other villagers.”
Of course Nikola liked this because selling things means money. He agreed.
“Oh, and there is another tree project I was hoping to start.”
Everyone just looked at me, quietly.
“Do you guys know what Jatropha is? I asked them.
“I know what it is,” exclaimed one guy. “Its a tree that makes gas. People buy that stuff.”
Ok.
So I had a discussion with them about Jatropha. It was them talking just as much as me, and by the time I got up every single one there wanted to plant Jatropha around their houses and fields.
That was the first time I had talked about that with these people. Actually, this is the month of late February/early March. It's time to start introducing tree projects that I want to do. If you introduce ideas too early they forget. If you do it too late they don't learn enough. Its just about the time now to get their brains turning. So now, every few days I will come to this place, spend time with them, and make them tell me how much trees will benefit them. Haha.

I have my reasons for planting what I'm planting, but they aren't ready for those ideas yet. Not really. What I think the trees will do for them they might not want. So I'm seeking their ideas as well. The idea of fencing in houses, for example. Only about 30% of my village does it.
There ideas: Jatropha makes gas. Gas makes money. Fencing is the house is good because animals can't get in. Cows don't eat it. But why a live fence? They don't really know.

My ideas. Fencing the house is a great idea because cows and sheep and goats come in from all angles and sneak into the kitchen and try to steal any food they can get. You can't leave your water bucket on the table unsupervised for one second because a cow WILL drink it. It's a danger for kids as well. Last year 4 stampeding donkeys went galloping crazily through our compound, crossing right over the front porch 3 times. That front porch is where my 2 year old sister often sits. Had she been sitting there at that moment, she would have been trampled. Why a live fence instead of a fence made of cut down trees? Cut down trees rot and termites eat them. They need to be replaced every few years, and they fall over. A live fence plants trees rather than cutting them down, and any reduction in chopping trees is a good thing. You will have a LIVE fence post that last forever and ever. Also, they are green, they are pretty. They can sell the seeds for about .50 cents per kilo.
The end.

Before heading toward home Numusara took me to his house and gave me about 7 pounds of bananas. I asked him how his grafted trees were and asked if he would be interested in teaching a grafting formation in August in his field for our villagers. He said he would be willing, and that I work too much, that August was far away.

I went home.

It was only about noon. I went home to get my phone so I could go back out and look for a signal to send some text messages to work partners. On my way out I was caught by Matar, a young man I've known since my first day in the village. We have a like/hate relationship. We had a 30 minute debate on the right and wrong treatment of my brother at the job he had recently left. I won this debate and went on my way.

I found a signal in a dried up corn field, 8 feet to the left of a diagonal foot trail, standing in the middle of a pile of dry cow poop to get the strongest signal.

It was about 12:30. I was done with the day. Nothing else to do, not really. Thats fine, it was hot!!
I went into my backyard and wrote a bunch of stuff and read a lot. When they called me for lunch I was caked in sweat from doing nothing, and almost asleep.

Lunch was couscous.

After lunch I was feeling lethargic. The hottest time of the day is 12:00-4:00 and it was about 2:00. Omar, my brother and Fatou, my favorite 2 year old baby, and a goat herder were sitting under the mango tree. Omar invited me to join them. The goat herder left. Just me and Omar and Fatou. We struck up a conversation. We ended up talking for about two hours about Omars marriage issues. Boy was it interesting. But that info is for me :P

Fatou went poop on the ground and Omar went to go wipe her butt and clean up the poop because he was the only one at the house. Normally that is the mom, or any woman's job. Omar is a really good dad.

I decided to go find a signal again. I was corresponding with a couple of people about work stuff. Honest. So, I invited Fatou to come with me and she agreed. That little gal held my hand the entire time and cried when I tried to get her to go play with the kids at her grandma's house so she didn't have to stand in a pile of poop with me. She wanted nothing to do with those other kids and hit them when they approached her. She wouldn't let go of my hand. I knew that she missed her mom, who was in Kedougou for the day. So Fatou came with me and so did her bigger sister, Jenaba. We all three stood in a pile of poop while I sent a couple more text messages. Then we all three walked back home.

I went into my backyard and Fatou and Jenaba came with me. I sat in my hammock reading and they played on my cot. Then Hassana came in. Hassana is the cutest 2 and a half year old baby in the whole world! With the three of them I opted to give them some attention rather than read. I had gotten an “Edward Cullen Puzzle Ball,” in a Christmas package and I let them play with it They liked it as a ball but freaked out when I started to take it apart. Then the girls were called out of my yard so they could get their baths. Hassana left with them, but in a couple of minutes Hassana came back into my yard, carrying his shoes. He put them on the ground and hopped on to my cot. He had never been in my backyard alone before, so I embraced the moment and got my camera. I took a couple pics and a video of us goofing around. What kind of goofing around? I was teaching him to smile on command for the photo, which he got good at.


Then I took a video and got him to mimic other things :).



Hassana left and I read until it was too dark to read.

Then I took a bucket bath, then I watered my mango trees.

I did what I usually do between bathing and dinner. I laid in my bed in my pitch black hut and started to doze off. Yes, I nap every day in my village before dinner. But only in my village, nowhere else. While falling asleep I often ponder my many identities and possible lives, past, present and future. Perhaps that is why I doze off.

Instead of being waken by my dinner call, I was waken by a moto, and the voice of my sister. Dalanda had returned! Of course I jumped out of bed to greet her. We had a nice warm greeting and I sat with her in her room with her kids as she pulled out the presents she had gotten them. A new pair of shoes for Usuman, a pair of underwear for Jenaba, a small; cup for Fatou, and an orange for the three kids, and me. Yes, she got me an orange. What a nice sister. We talked about her experience in Kedougou and then her husband, who had been out, came in to greet her as well.

Dinner was plain rice with oil and spices. Yum.....

After dinner I chatted with my sister for about 30 minutes then went into my room and read until I fell asleep.

Well thats all that I have to share. Now I'm wondering why the heck I decided to do this. Who wants to know this many details of anyones day? Ha! Oh well, I just spent hours on this thing, so here ya go!

Hail Mr Blanders, who will soon be a daddy.



Until next time!