Blessing

The other day on the way back from my run, a woman on the road gave me a blessing I really like: May (God help) you find what you're looking for. I think it's applicable to pretty much any person or situation (especially for well-wishing directed at complete strangers, as in this case). But also, whether she intended it this way or not, applicable to me. As in, you're really out of place here, but whatever made you come all the way here, I hope you find it. Which also works for me. Anyway, I've been appreciating this random blessing for the past few days.

 

The cold season has started for sure. It was 62°F the other morning when I got up, and hasn't been getting ridiculously hot during the day, and it should continue to cool off. This bodes well for the people visiting soonJ

 

I finally started computer classes last week for 4 girls, and it went OK. Two of them definitely have sufficient French ability to do it, but I'm not so sure about the other two. I'll see how it goes. And it turns out there's at least one person here that's better at computers than I am (ans also more educated—he's got a doctorate in Environmental Science)! Not that I'm particularly good at IT, but I'm better than 99% of people here, since they have little to no experience with computers. But this guy knows how to do the tinkering bits involved in the gray startup screen that I don't mess with for fear of royally screwing something up. But anyway, he helped me out with one of the computers, which we've diagnosed as having a ton of relatively harmless viruses, but that nonetheless blocks the antivirus. Which means we need to reinstall the system software. Luckily, he also has the disks, so that'll happen sometime this week, inshallah.

 

Otherwise, everyone's getting ready for Tabaski, which is in about 10 days. Which means that there are more sheep wandering around than usual (for Tabaski, every household slaughters a ram/sheep/goat to commemorate Abraham's sacrifice), especially in Diaobe. However, fewer sheep than last year. Also fewer people at Diaobe, either due to lack of money (not sure if it's because of the global economic crisis, or because the harvest isn't quite finished yet), or political problems in the Guineas. Either way, far fewer people at the market this year than right before Tabaski last year.

Village News

Turns out me having internet at site does decrease email response time, but doesn't increase blogging activity… at least not the past few weeks.  Sorry about that.

Life's been going well recently. Work's picking up, so I'm busy, and that's good. School's back in session, and so far fairly strike-free, although I'm expecting that to change in the next week or so as Tabaski approaches. The teachers all want to be able to go home for the big holiday, after all. And strikes are fun for students and teachers, since everyone gets the day off.

Meanwhile, I'm spending my "free time" teaching the alphabet to the 3 younger kids in my compound (ages 7-9, I believe), which is becoming a most frustrating task. But somebody's gotta do it, and no one else seems to be stepping up. Definitely a depressing reflection of the Senegalese education system, since these kids have been in school for 1-3 years already, and still can't recognize the letters of the alphabet (although they can sing the ABCs quite well). Granted, French isn't their first language, and there probably are about 50 of them in each class, but still, it stuns me that they're in the equivalent of 1^st grade and can't identify the alphabet (not to mention writing it). So I've made them alphabet flashcards and have been devoting an hour + every night to getting them to learn the ABCs. God-willing, they'll have mastered them by Tabaski, which is the 27^th or 28^th. Or at least by when Mom visits, so they can show off.

This has also started a debate on child motivation/discipline. The Senegalese swear by corporal punishment (the teacher smacking palms with a ruler rings true here) both for focus and motivation. I personally disagree, and have so far refrained from hitting any children, despite being encouraged to do so (the kids actually brought me a switch last night and told me to use it). And while Americans tend toward positive reinforcement (good job, try again, you can do it), Senegalese tend toward the negative (you're stupid, how could you possible think that N is M?!). So we have our pedagogical differences.

Hopefully, internet classes will start soon. And by soon I mean in January, which is depressing since the other day I found a sign-up sheet I'd written in April. That's about how fast stuff gets done here. Alas. But this time we've set prices, done a little publicity, and I should have access to the computer room this week, so all I need now are students. But no one's going to sign up before the holidays, then I'll be on vacation, so really January would be fantastic.

I also have (or at least think I have) an advocate for literacy classes for the girls, namely a visitor from WorldVision Canada who came last week. She think it would make a lot of sense, so hopefully she's convinced the WV people here to fund them. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I went to Diaobe the other day, and while there were a lot of people, there were far less than there were right before Tabaski last year (though still a lot of sheep). Word on the street is it's because there aren't nearly as many Guineans coming to the market, due to the political situation there. I'm not sure how exactly that affects their coming or not—whether it's harder for them to move around in Guinea, or whether the Senegalese border is more strict—but apparently it's deterring trade, which is unfortunate.

And the latest village drama is that the local microfinance institution has been going through it's books and getting people to pay back their loans, and arresting those who haven't paid. Which means everyone's short on cash, and the gossip mill is in full swing. I personally don't have much pity for those who don't pay, since they knew very well they were going to have to pay up eventually.

 

Internet at site!

I'm posting this from my little village of 5000. This is very exciting-- 256k internet via a mobile device! available from Sonatel for a mere 10.150 CFA. Now that's an exceptional Chinese import. Nice work, Huawei technologies, you're changing my life.
Still no progress on running water or indoor plumbing though...

Last Day in Dakar

Tomorrow I will be returning to Kolda, after a week in Dakar. (I had orginally planned on going back today, but since there's a Peace Corps car going tomorrow I decided it was worth staying the extra day.) I finished my Mid-Service Medical Exam, and am all healthy (pending getting results back from the lab). Luckily I don't have TB--otherwise I'd have to be on TB meds for 9 months. I also got to talk to Nicole and Chris a little bit, since I was up here. So it wasn't a total waste of a week (and I'm not complaining about a few trips to N'ice cream, good food, and unlimited AC). I also got to go to Swear-In for the newest group of PCVs, so that was good too. Unfortunately they'll beat Amanda, Maggie and I back to Kolda, so we won't really get to help with shopping and stuff, but there'll be plenty of time to hang out over the next year. Hopefully I'll be back at site Tuesday night or Wednesday morning (inshallah).

No Cavities!

As long as I'm in Dakar, I figured I might as well knock off my Mid-Service Medical Exam. Step 1: Dentist. I went to the dentist this afternoon for a checkup and cleaning, and I'm proud to say I have no cavities. The dentist is a French guy who is slightly less tender in his dental practices than my previous American dentists... The scraping thing made a really loud high pitched noise, and he got a couple sensitive spots around my gums that really hurt. But in the end, no cavities! I've got the rest of my Mid-Service Thursday morning, so hopefully they don't find anything drastically wrong with me then.

I also got my second rabies booster shot (this one a much better execution than the previous one), and the PC doctor took a look at the bite area itself. She said it looked fairly normal, and switched me to the more powerful antibiotic Augmentin. So hopefully I should be ok.

Meanwhile, I'm in Dakar through Saturday, hanging out and getting some work done. And enjoying the AC