Naj bi dafa tang! (The sun is hot)

Last year, the hot season was late to arrive, which was a pleasant surprise as a first year volunteer. Into mid April, I was wearing long sleeves shirts at night and enjoying relatively cool days. Unfortunately, this hot season seems to be making up for last years. In short, it's hot, very hot. Last week, Christine (the newest volunteer in Tivaouane and also my nearest neighbor) and I spent all of Thursday visiting villages and doing quality control for the current basket order. After stopping by 5 villages, we took a 30 minute charette ride to the 6th village. Desperate to get out of the sun, we ducked into the first household we could find. It was right then and there that we realized how intense the sun was. From 10 a.m to 4 p.m we spent about 90% of our time under the sun, and by the time we got to the last village, we were exhausted and dehydrated. Sunburned and feeling faint, we examined one last set of baskets and got out of there as fast as possible. I had planned to go for a run after the trip to the villages, but at the days end, all I could do was sit in my chair and dream of cold weather.


All in all, things are going well here. My projects are really in full swing these days, and I find myself busier than I ever imagined I would be. Before coming to Peace Corps, I always heard that volunteers felt as though they accomplished nothing their first year, and got all of their work done the second year. While I definitely wouldn't say my first year was a wash by any means, I do have to agree with the second year philosophy. Maybe it's because I've been given more responsibility in my projects, or maybe because I have a better understanding of the culture, but things are moving much faster nowadays than they were last year around this time. It seems as though my Peace Corps Partnership has been fully funded, which is great news. When I submitted the project proposal to the Peace Corps, I was unsure if the project would get funded before I left Senegal. Yet less than a month after it got posted on the internet, $2,100 have been raised to build our storage facility! I am very excited about this, and my work partner and I hope that construction can be finished before the rainy season begins.


That's about it for now. I'm going fishing this weekend in Popenguine, which should be awesome, and then I will be working in Dakar for about a week (as well as saying goodbye to some volunteers leaving the country). Hope everyone is doing well back home. Mangiy deem gej ba!

P.S I finally took some pictures of Ngaye. Bottom two pictures are of the town and of the old abandoned train station. The first picture...well...it's hot here.

Work work work

Well, with WAIST being over, things must once again return to normal.  I spent all of last week helping out our U.S buyer navigate through Senegal and develop new products.  It was a very productive visit and between my leather workers, the baskets, and some other small projects, I am being kept quite busy for the time being.  Other than that, some close friends of mine are all in the process of COSing (COS = Close of Service), so I’ll be saying goodbye to them over the next few weeks, which is never fun.  Later this month, I’ll be going to Popenguine (where my friend Ankith works) and going on a fishing trip, which I’m really excited about.  That’s about it for now, I’m exhausted from having spent 10 hours in the village.

For the first time in a year and a half (has it really been that long?!?), I am going to give advice on here.  I won’t go into specifics since this website is increasingly visible to the public, but my advice to current and future PCVs is: DO NOT LET NGOs TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR FREE LABOR.  That is all. 

Ba ci kanaam.