Mission: Nutrition

Mondays tech session was the most delicious one yet. We talked about nutrition causeries and ways to teach people about healthy eating. In Senegal instead of the food guide pyramid we use the phrase "Grow, Glow and Go."

Go foods are the carbohydrate rich foods that provide energy. In Senegal the main sources of "go" are rice, bread and millet.

Grow foods are proteins that enhance growth and development. There isn't much meat to be had here, but fish is a staple ingredient in almost every meal (seriously, people even put dried fish in peanut sauce). Other great sources of protein are peanuts which are a principle crop in my village and beans which are pretty widely available. Dairy products like milk and yogurt also fall into this category.

Glow foods are things like fruits and vegetables that provide essential nutrients and keep people healthy. These are the toughest things to get people to eat in this country...vegetables are considered a decoration for the food bowl and its not uncommon to split one carrot between 8 people. Still there is a decent variety of veges available here if you want them, everything from carrots and eggplant to green peppers and bitter tomato.


As a part of teaching nutrition we also learned a few tasty recipes. I know doughnuts don't sound like health food, but if you make them with Moringa leaves they can be! Moringa is a type of tree that grows in Senegal. In Seereer it is called Nebedaye, which is a butchered form of "never die." They are really easy to grow and the leaves are packed full of nutrients, vitamins and minerals.

Moringa Beignets (doughnuts)


Step 1:
Mix moringa leaf powder, sugar, eggs, baking soda, baking powder, millet flour and oil into a dough

Step 2:
Roll the dough into balls

Step 3:
Fry in vegetable oil

Step 4:
Enjoy!
We also talked about child specific nutrition and different type of porridge people can make to supplement a child's diet. Most of them are made with millet, which is considered another "super food" because of its high nutritional value. If you recognize that name its probably because you feed it to your parakeet. It does have a really "good for you" taste, but with a little peanut butter and bananas it makes a delicious, protein rich meal.

Kaolack Demystified

Last week I went on my official Volunteer Visit, more commonly known as "de-myst," where they send all of the trainees out to stay with a volunteer in or near their permanent site so we can see exactly what we have to look forward to at the end of training. Since I'm going to be the first volunteer in my village I stayed with my future neighbor, Jen, in the Pulaar village of Fasstoucouleur. It was great to actually get to see my region and visit my site, and I got a lot of good practical advice from Jen on what sort of things I will want to get when I install. I was also relieved to find out that my life as a volunteer won't be nearly as hectic as our training schedule has been.

Peace Corps dropped us off at the regional house in the city of Kaolack and we started the week off right with a beer and a hamburger, then took an Alhum down to my road town called Keur Sosse. My road town is just that...the town along the main road that is closest to my village. This is where I will go to buy food at the weekly luuma (market), and its the closest place with electricity so I could even get a cold coke or creme glasse. There are also tailors, carpenters and ladies that sell bean sandwiches every day of the week. After grabbing some frozen bissap we took a 6k charette ride to Fasstoucouleur, or rather our baggage did. The wheel of the cart was on the verge of collapse and the poor donkey looked exhausted so we opted to walk along side to avoid unnecessary disaster.I visited my village on our third day to meet my family, and ended up being taken on the grand tour by one of my sisters to greet all 497 people at high noon. It was hot and uncomfortable, but I think it made a really good first impression, especially since my sister took me into every room of every compound to make sure we didn't miss a single person. My new dad is the chief of the village, and his name is Mamadou Diouf. He seemed really enthusiastic about having me, and he is one of the most organized Senegalese people I've met so far. He even did his own census and had a breakdown of the demographics of our village, so I think he will be able to help me a lot with my initial needs assessment. Of the 497 people in Sambande only 152 of them are adults, so I'll be doing a lot of work with kids. I didn't spend a whole lot of time with my family, but they seemed really nice.

Jens little sister Leyna Ba

Overall I love my site and I love the Kaolack region. The only thing that worries me is the language barrier...my road town speaks Wolof, the neighboring villages speak Pulaar, and the people in Sambande do not speak the same Seereer that I've been learning in Ngoundiane. I would compare it to learning the Queens English then trying to communicate with people in the deep South. Technically you both speak the same language, but realistically communication is going to be very limited. I'm going to basically have to re-learn Seereer after I install, then I'll start on the other languages. Good thing I'll have a lot of free time during the hot season to sit around and drink tea and chat with my neighbors.

Photo Edition

Everyone knows the best part of a blog is the pictures, so by those standards this should be the best blog post ever! Here are a few scenes from my visit to my region this past week.

Composting with kids

Making friends

Prizes from the lizard hunt

Polly wanna live

Babies take care of babies and do a better
job than a lot of American parents

The Slightly Selfish Post...

A lot of you have been asking me about sending letters and packages. To make it easier for everyone I'm going to get really specific with instructions. I'm between addresses right now, so if you're going to send me an envelope in the next few weeks you can send it to my Thies address, but packages need to go to a temporary address that I'm borrowing from someone in Kaolack since they probably won't get to Thies before I leave. After May 5th send everything to the Kaolack address, or else it will sit in Thies for 3 months before I can go back up there to get it.

Letters (until May 5):
Jennie Wysong
Corps de la Paix
BP 299
Thies, Senegal
West Africa

Packages (and letters after May 5):
PCV Cora Siipola
For: Jennie Wysong
BP 2163

Ndorng

Kaolack, Senegal

West Africa

I have to pay a customs fee of at least $3 on any package I receive, so a cheaper alternative to packages (for both of us) is to send small things in envelopes. Regular envelopes or big manila envelopes both work fine, but be sure to tape the flap and the corners/seams really well.

Great things to put in envelopes are:
stickers

extra envelopes (so I can write you back!)
incense sticks
burned CDs
tea bags
drink mix packets

ziploc bags
earplugs
candies
pictures of you!
super glue
colored pencils/pens
spices
seeds (veggies!)
pens/mechanical pencils
Anything small that you think kids might like (think dollar store!)

The cheapest way to send a box is to use one of those USPS Flat Rate Boxes. A small box should cost between $13-15, medium is $35-50, and large (God bless you) is $55-65. Don't bother paying for express shipping because all that does is guarantee that it will get to Dakar really fast, but it could still take a while to get to me. Senegal is one of the most reliable places to send packages in Africa...they almost always make it in a decent amount of time and aren't typically messed with. If you send food (please send food!) be sure to wrap it in tin foil and put it in ziploc bags, even if its packaged, because mice to get into the boxes sometimes. I will absolutely love anything you send me, but if you need ideas...

Care Package Wish List
summer sausage

potato peeler

sharpie pens (http://www.sharpie.com/enUS/Product/Sharpie_Pen.html)
Oregon chai tea mix packets

moleskin (or similar) notebooks
cliff bars

spices (old bay seasoning!!!)
bullion cubes
AA batteries
mouse traps
metal water bottles
essential oils (citrus)
M&Ms, Reeses Pieces, skittles, etc
beef jerky (but not slim jim, yuck!)
orbit gum
guilty pleasure cereal (captain crunch, coco puffs etc)

And if you're really feeling generous or you want to get an early jump on Christmas or something...all but two pairs of my underwear were stolen off of the line at the training center (gross!) and I'm desperate for more. The ex officio underwear lasts the longest here and dries really fast, but I wouldn't say no to a plain old pack of hanes either. So if you want to get a pair or two of black, size medium and throw them in an envelops I would be eternally grateful.

Also I sent out a lot of letters last time I was in Thies so keep an eye on your mailboxes! If you want a letter from Africa leave a comment with your address, or better yet send me a card and I'll be sure to send you one back!

The Winged Scourge

Today's tech training was all about malaria...also known as the winged scourge!!! (insert dramatic music here). According to this 1940s instructional video they showed us at the start of the session, if you get malaria your family will starve, your crops will fail and you will ultimately die. The only solution is to spray carcinogenic insecticide in every crevice of your house and spread crude oil over the surface of all water sources.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y68F8YwLWdg

In all seriousness though malaria is real threat here, and Peace Corps volunteers are working on a universal coverage project to distribute bed nets. There are enough bed nets in Dakar to cover every single person in Senegal, its just a matter of getting them to the people and educating them on how the use and care for them. Today we went over the logistics of organizing a bed net distribution in our region and learned how to make a lotion from the leaves of the Neem tree that will repel mosquitoes. Neem lotion is really cheap and easy to make, and it would make a great project for a women's group or school club.

Neem Lotion Recipe
1. boil 1.5 liters of water
2. add two handfuls of leaves to the boiling water
2. cut up one bar of soap into small thin flakes
3. when the water has turned green pour it over the soap
4. stir until all the soap has melted
5. add 1/4 cup vegetable oil and mix with hands
6. enjoy!

A Lesson in Seereer

Last Wednesday we had our first language test, which was a recorded question and answer session with our LCF. I managed to score Novice Mid, which is right where I should be at the three week mark, but the over-achiever in me is a little disappointed that I didn’t manage Novice High. We are required to reach the Intermediate Mid level by the end of the 9 weeks of training before we can swear in as official Peace Corps volunteers.

Immersion is definitely the best way to learn a language, but with something as complicated as Seereer it would still be useful to have a textbook or at least some sort of dictionary. Unfortunately Seereer isn’t really a written language so no such resources exist. In fact, if you ask three different people to write down a word you will get three completely different spellings. The Peace Corps did it’s best to provide us with a language book but it is partially in French, missing half of the grammar structures and full of instructions like “it discribe two actions accomplied in successive times.” The other trainees and I have taken it upon ourselves to write a functional textbook for the next group of trainees to use, so I spent a lot of time these last two days in Ngoundiane trying to compile a grammar appendix.

It wasn’t until I had everything laid out in front of me that I realized just how complicated this language really is...if grammar isn’t your thing then just skip to the bottom of this post for a few fun phrases. For starters, Seereer has 16 different noun classes and there is no hard and fast rule as to what type of nouns belong in what class. There are 8 different ways to conjugate a verb in the present tense alone depending on the emphasis, aspect and whether it is positive or negative. For example if you want to talk about going to the store (ret is the verb for “to go”) you could say:

retaam boutique– I go to the store
retiim boutique- I don’t go to the store
Mexe retaa boutique- I am going to the store
Boutique retum- It is to the store that I go (object emphasis)
Kaam retaa boutique- I am going to the store (verbal emphasis habitual)
Nangaam retaa boutique- I am going to the store (verbal emphasis usual)
Nangiim retaa boutique- I never go to the store (verbal emphasis negative)

There are 9 ways to conjugate a verb in the past tense, but these depend on whether it is affirmative or negative, whether you want to emphasize the object or the action, whether it was one time, imperfect, progressive or habitual or if you performed two or more actions in succession. Future tense is only slightly less difficult with only 6 conjugation forms. As if that wasn’t complicated enough, the first letter of the verb also changes depending on whether you are using it in the singular (I, you, me) or plural (we, you all, they) form.

My solution for memorizing all of the conjugations was to write them all down on the same sheet of paper and tape it to my wall. During the middle of the day when it’s too hot to do anything else I just lay on my floor with my verb flashcards and practice conjugating each verb in every form. I’ve actually managed to get a pretty firm grasp on most of the structures...now it’s just a matter of increasing my vocabulary so I can start speaking in paragraphs instead of short sentences and sign language. There is a proverb in Senegal...”little by little one catches a monkey in the jungle.” Trying to learn a language this complicated might sound really frustrating, but bit by bit I’m starting to understand, and I’m actually really enjoying it.

If you’ve been scrolling down looking for something interesting stop here. If you come to visit me in my village here are a few survival basics. The three things you will hear most often are Gari! (come here!), Moofi! (sit down!) and Naam! (eat!). You will hear them in that exact order and it is typically impossible to refuse. You have to eat at least 5 hand fulls of whatever it is you were offered before you can say Ginaam (I’m full), and even then they will yell at you to Naam, Naam, Naam! There is no word for Please in Seereer, and even if there was no one would use it, but if you offend someone the polite thing to say is O Waasanaam (I’m sorry). When some crazy old man is trying to tell you something and doesn’t understand that yelling it at you faster and with progressively more volume wont help you understand him, just say Andiim (I don't know).

Counting in Seereer

1- leng
2- tik
3- tadik
4- nahik
5- petix
6- petufoleng
7- petufotik
8- petufotadik
9- petufonahik
10- xarbaxai

Lastly, some Seereer words and phrases are just really fun to say, my two favorites are:
ndigl ndigl? (really?) and kaam boguoogu feede faak (I showered the day before yesterday).

The Moment We've All Been Waiting For...

...Site placements!!!

Lets be honest, we've all enjoyed eating ice cream at Big Faim, taking cold showers, using the internet and sitting on a real toilet seat...but the real reason we were all so excited to come back to Thies this week was to find out what village we would be living in for the next two years. After two long days of waiting and wondering we were blindfolded, led to a giant map of Senegal, and placed on our new site. I'll be going to Sambande, a small village 19k from Kaolack. I'm opening a new site and there has never been a Peace Corps Volunteer in this village before, so I don't know a whole lot about it, but here are the facts I have:

Site Name: Sambande
Region: Kaolack
Arrondissment: Koumbal
Population: 498
Ethnic Groups: Seereer 65%, Wolof 30%, Touka 5%
Languages Spoken: Wolof 80%, Seereer 60%, Pulaar 40%
Main Source of Income: Peanut and millet farming, gardening, fruit foraging
Cement Lined Wells: 2
Housing Provided: Grass roof mud hut w/ private outdoor latrine

If you're observant you may have noticed that while I've been learning Seereer, 80% of my village also speaks Wolof...so it looks like I'll be learning that as well. For now I'm just going to stick to Seereer though, I don't think I can handle two new languages at one time. Fortunately I'll have plenty of time during the hot season (which is well underway when we install in May) to sit around, drink tea with my neighbors and pick up another language.

My site survey says that the villagers recognize environmental degradation as their biggest problem...there isn't enough land to raise crops and poor nutrition is a big problem because of a lack of income. Malaria is also a problem year round, but especially in the rainy season. There will be both a french school and a koranic school at my site, but I'm not sure if I'll be working in both or just one. There is also a mens group that worked to plant trees in a group garden, so hopefully that means they will be interested in working on other environmental projects as well.

Next week we go for volunteer visits and I'll be staying with another PCV in the Kaolack region. I don't know if I'll get a chance to travel to my village or not during that time, but I can't wait to at least see what the area is like.

Bonus points to anyone who can find my village on Google maps or Google Earth and send me a picture/link!



Video borrowed from Mike Toso's Blog

Everyone needs a vacation...even in Africa

Thanks to Easter and Independence day both falling on Sunday, this weekend we got our first days off since we arrived in Senegal a month ago. Yesterday I took full advantage of my down time and just laid around doing absolutely nothing. I did manage to do laundry though so I wasn't entirely unproductive. Today 4 other volunteers and I took a sept place, a 1980s station wagon, to the beach in Saly near Mbour. I wasn't sure at first that I wanted to go through the hassle of traveling the hour there and trying to negotiate the transportation garage with my limited french, but I'm so glad I decided to go. It was like traveling to an entirely different country...if I didn't know I was in Africa I would have guessed we were in the Caribbean. A few hours of sand, surf and sunburn later I'm totally rejuvenated and ready for training to start again tomorrow.

Facebook Pictures

Here's a link to my photo album on facebook...for those of you who haven't jumped on the bandwagon yet I think you can still view them even if you don't have an account, but why not join so you can be my friend?!?

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2078916&id=38103131&l=9e50764702

Ngoundiane: week 2

Note: I'm typing this entry on my laptop in my room on April 2nd. Its 11:58pm and I should be alseep, but there is a wedding going on next door and the constant yelling and drumming combined with the heat (still 88 degrees in here) is keeping me awake. I guess my loss of sleep is your gain.

 So much has happened in this last week...I don't even know where to start. Its hard to believe I was only in Ngoundiane for 10 days, it seems like a lot longer. My daily routine has remained pretty much constant. I've expanded the list of things I know how to buy from the boutique to include Foofi (water), o tengel (lolly pop), ananas (pineapple juice), o soo (yogurt), safe (soap), laalo (baobab fruit) and jus d'orange (orange juice). Ok, that last one is French but I can't for the life of me remember the Seereer word for orange juice. I look forward to my daily trip to the boutique like a kid looks forward to Christmas. To my surprise and delight things have actually begun to grow in our garden. The cowpeas, cucumber and eggplant have all sprouted, and I have a hunch the moringa and lucena trees aren't far behind. Children still shout "Toubab aaay!" at me every time I leave my house, and I have a feeling that is the one thing that will remain absolutely constant over the next two years. Oh, and its still hot. My thermometer topped out at 130 degrees so I don't know the exact temperature, but after a certian point I suppose it doesn't really matter.

My language is slowly but surely progressing. I understand a lot of what is being said to me and I can usually manage to express simple desires and needs to my family (although "I'm sick and I don't want to eat" in Seereer apparently translates to "please bring me a spaghetti and french fry sandwich"). I got a hold of a few pieces of paper last time I was in Thies so I was able to make flashcards, to the infinite amusement of my Aunt Badji, and those have helped me immensely in studying. When I get frustrated with my lack of fluency I have to stop and remind myself that three weeks ago I didn't even know this language existed. I do a lot of practicing with my younger brothers and sisters while they teach me their games. Children really are the best teachers...they speak slowly, are willing to repeat things a million times and are always excited to help you learn.

There was a big circumcision ceremony in our village at the end of last week and so for two days we were overrun with 8-17 year old boys. According to Assane there is a ceremony performed by the marabout and then the boys are sent out to live in the forest for a few weeks and taught "man secrets." Every day the boys go to a different village to eat and ask for money and then return to the forest to spend the night. Apparently every culture and village is different, but here in Ngoundiane they only do it once every 10 years, so if you miss your chance the first time around you have to wait another decade before you can become a man.

This week I discovered the magic of creme glace, the Senegalese equivalent to ice cream, and its just about the best thing ever. For 25cfa (about 10 cents) you get a small plastic bag filled with frozen bissap juice. Its made by boiling the heck out of bissap flowers or other fruits depending on the flavor you want and then mixing the water with powdered milk and freezing it. Ya Alima, one of the other mothers in my compound, sells them outside of the school every day and its a perfect reward for our hard work in the garden.

A few days ago I made another discovery that was decidedly less pleasant. After two weeks in Senegal without encountering anything worse than a few biting ants and some giat cockroaches I was starting to let my guard down. That is until I was introduced to a "pangalace" which is the Seereer word for big freaking spider. They are about the size of the palm of your hand, really flat, and move unnaturally fast even for something with that many legs. I don't know how I went so long without noticing them, but now that I know what they look like I've been seeing them everywhere.

Wednesday we painted a map of the regions of Senegal at our school, which was the first time a lot of those kids had even seen a map of their own country. I think I'll be painting a lot of murals during my first few months at site, because they're really fun and don't require a whole lot of language skills to accomplish. I'll leave things like organizing meetings and teaching people how to build things for when I can actually speak Seereer.

On Thursday the other trainees and I built a mudstove at our tutors house for his mom, and we got a bunch of the kids involved. It was nice to actually put the skills we had been taught into practice and I can't wait to go back in a few weeks when its dry and see her using it. My mom got really excited about the idea and wants me to build one here at my house, which I'll try to do before I go back to Thies, Insh'allah.

My biggest news from this week is that I survived my first bout with a major illness. Tuesday night I went to bed with a bit of an upset stomach and woke up around 1am on Wednesday with a full blown case of the pukes. I figured I had just eaten something bad or maybe my stomach was finally rebelling against all of the sugar and oil in the food here, but around noon that day I developed a fever and a cough. Miserable is the only way to describe the experience of having a 103 degree fever when the temperature in your room is already 107. Fortunately the major sickness really only lasted one day, although I was unusually tired for a few days after. I suppose what doesn't kill me makes me stronger, but I'm not in any hurry to repeat that experience.

If you're reading this blog entry it means I'm back in Thies and I'm going to have a few days off, so look forward to at least one more blog update this week.