Girls' Education in Senegal

So I've been in Senegal for 6 months already, and I'm sure many of you are wondering when I'm going to start some "real work." Projects tend to be rather long-winded in the development realm, primarily because we have to deal with the bureaucracy of the grant process, after you've finally come up with a feasible and sustainable project. However, one project that I'm lucky enough to already be a part of (because it is a collaborative effort of all volunteers in our region) is the Matam's 2nd Annual Girls' Leadership Camp. I recently finished up the Michelle Sylvester Scholarship at the middle school near my village, which involved working with the top 9 girls from 3 different grades at this school to pick 3 winners of a grand prize scholarship to go towards school supplies and tuition. Most PCV's participate in this scholarship program, and to continue working with these distinguished young girls from each of our schools, we've organized a leadership camp for them and to reinforce the benefits of education. It's an excellent program, especially in our region where you see girls married off as early as age 11 and many times cooking and cleaning their family's house before this age if they're not married. Education is not a priority in many girls' lives, and I hope that by positively influencing even a handful of girls to continue with their education we make strides in the right direction. School is an opportunity to gain critical thinking skills, socialize with people of their own age, and overall gain a type of independence. The leadership camp reinforces positive mind-sets among girls and encourages them to stay in school.

In general, the schools in my area are pretty well funded and taught. There just needs to be further encouragement to ensure every child has the motivation to stay in school, despite the social pressures to marry early.

We cannot complete this project without your help. We're fundraising to have this camp through a Peace Corps Partnership Grant and anything you can spare will make sure these girls have an opportunity for creativity, leadership, and a general outlet that they may not get in their daily lives.
Go here to donate:
https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=685-221

More updates how this camp goes early next year, but thanks for your support!

I'll leave you now with a video of some of these girls performing a traditional Pulaar dance at the end of the school year celebration:

IST and Ourossogui Eye Clinic

I've just finished a whirlwind month of work, all of which took place out of site, so it's been quite a change of pace from my slow month of Ramadan. I caught a Peace Corps ride down to Dakar about a month ago, an air conditioned land rover was a nice alternative to a cramped and stuffy public transport car. [Side bar on public transport here: it is miserable even in the most "luxurious" of forms. A 7 seater (sept-place in French) car (a station wagon with a third row) is the nicest/fastest way to get anywhere, but 12 hours in a cramped car is still less than pleasant. And there is no schedule. Cars leave when they are full so you can spend anywhere from no time to 5 hours waiting for a car to leave once you've gotten there and bought your ticket.. (Though to be fair it's mostly the 14 seater vans or big (50ish people) buses that you're waiting 2+ hours for.)]

After a few days relaxing and exploring Dakar I went to the Thies Training Center again, this time for our In-Service Training (IST) where I reconnected with my fellow stagiers and got inspired for potential projects I could do in my site. It was crazy to be back at the training center, but very cool to check in with everyone and see how different our various experiences already were. We had 10 days of sessions on gardening, maternal and child health, sanitation, and various other types of projects volunteers in sector have done.

After that I came straight back to Ourossogui to participate in an Eye Clinic another volunteer in the area organized. The trip back ended up taking 2 days, due to some misplaced trust in the buses. We caught an early morning bus outside of Thies which was supposed to take us all the way to Ourossogui (a 12 hour direct ride, though we knew it'd be longer with the inevitable stops). After a few too many stops and transfers, we decided to get out in Ndioum where the northern regional house is, as it was already 6:30 and a midnight arrival in Ourossogui (especially on the horrible roads for the last 200km) was less than desirable.

At the eye clinic we worked for 2 weeks at the hospital with a team of American doctors from an NGO and performed 140 cataract surgeries during this time. My role varied throughout the 2 weeks as we had 2 different groups of people for the 2 weeks. The first week I stayed primarily in the pre-op room, conducting vision exams in Pulaar, and prepping the patients by giving anything from eyedrops to information. The second week I worked with the post-ops, as well as giving out reading glasses (as the NGO brought boxes of those as well). It was overall an incredibly interesting experience. There were definitely parts that made me anxious (taking patients without knowing their medical history, sometimes not being sure if the patient really knew 100% of what the surgery entailed--I definitely had a few older women turn to me after I put in their dilating eye drops if they were done and could go home...) but overall, seeing some people come out with markedly improved vision was incredibly rewarding. I've also realized I am not cut out for the medical profession, just seeing the anesthesia injection into the eye area made me incredibly queasy. I can't even begin to imagine how scared some of the patients were (it was many's first time receiving this type of medical care) and I can only hope my limited Pulaar was able to ease some of their minds.

Busy OR

One of the cataracts

Group of happy post-ops

I will soon head back to village after a month away and I'm excited to get back to that part of my Peace Corps life.. I've missed my host family, friends, and even the village food!