6 months in site- a reflection

Six months as a sworn in PCV, nearly six months since install in my village. I've read about 25 books (and taken about as many mefloquine (anti-malaria) tablets). I've grown markedly more confident and comfortable in the language, with the people, and my role here. Listening to the newly arriving volunteers makes me smile- all those worries I had in the beginning have faded away. Sometimes I even have to remind myself that I'm living in Sengal, that I've made it to Africa- the massive continent romanticized as a single location. I also keep staring at world maps, both pondering ways to see more here, give my time 'in Africa' more legitimacy, and also staring at new, unknown corners of the world, with newfound confidence to venture there. At times my life here feels stagnant, each day passing quickly but seemingly unproductive. Yet each day provides amusing moments-- from having to run to a stranger's latrine, to finally having the vocab to tell someone off when they insist you should be married for the 100th time, to taking horse or donkey charrettes to most nearby destinations-- things that now seem normal yet still ring of foreign-ness when compared to my previous life. The life where I'm not eating lunch at Teesbar and getting home before Futuro, the calls to prayer that structure my schedule. The life where laundry doesn't leave your knuckles raw. The life where my knees are tan. Do I miss that other life? Sometimes, definitely. I've been day-dreaming about a cold, fresh nectarine for weeks now. But then I realize I've got the best job ever- hanging out with people, learning a culture, and becoming part of a community that I can eventually contribute to. So despite the difficulties I'm going to sit back and enjoy it. There'll be plenty of nectarines whenever I get home.

Rice harvest- Take me to the river

As many of you more geographically oriented (or those who have google mapped my location) know, my village is relatively close to the river which borders Mauritania. Many families have land up on the river to grow rice, and right about know is harvesting time, meaning that about half of my village now lives on the river to gather their stores for the next year. A friend of mine took me out to the fields the other day, and I spent the day observing and helping out with the gathering (kind of, mostly just sitting in the shade with the babies).

The process boils down to this:

The men use their hook-looking tools to cut down the rice stalks. 

Rihanna's playing on one of their phones in the background

After the entire paddy has been cleared they bundle up the stalks and the women carry these on their head to the cleared location. 

This is a bundle I was rescued from (I made it 50 ft or so)

The skyline is always filled with walking bundles

There they lay out a large tarp, and grab handfuls of the rice stalks and bang them against the ground to free the rice grains. 

The grains are poured against the wind to sift out the debris.

The grains are pounded.

Rice is ready to be cooked! Add a little fresh fish, and you've got yourself a Senegalese staple.

Lots of fish available by the river!

It's a lot of work, but these few months of harvest provide most families with enough rice to last them the year. It was a great experience to go see my fellow villagers at work, and much more appreciative of the bowl of rice I eat for lunch daily. 

Tabaski- How much sheep can you eat?

I have recently experienced my first Tabaski, or Eid al-Adha as it's known throughout the Muslim world. It is essentially the Muslim equivalent of Christmas, and by far the largest holiday I will celebrate in Senegal with my host family. Most holidays and celebrations here boil down to 2 things: wearing fancy Senegalese clothes and eating lots of meat (sheep or goat). Because this is a larger celebration, we did these 2 things for 3 days. The premise of Tabaski is the sacrifice of a sheep, symbolic of the story of Abraham, who was willing to kill his first-born in God's name, but was provided by God a ram to sacrifice instead. Our family has had the marked sheep picked out for months; it's been tied up to various shade structures in my compound, getting fattened up for the big day. I was also in Dakar the days leading up to Tabaski, and the images of hundreds of sheep by random intersections was quite a sight, but everybody who can afford it is in the market for their own sheep that time of year!
On the big day I threw on my (thus far only) Senegalese complet and sat with the women of my house. I witnessed 3 sheep getting killed and skinned and prepped for cooking. We had meat for 3 meals that day... and for the next 3 days. Needless to say, I'm a little sheeped-out. Quite frankly, I think I could never eat sheep again and be perfectly happy.
It was great to see everyone in my village in their finest complets coming around, greeting and forgiving/asking for forgiveness. Most people spend a lot of time with their "fedde" or age group, essentially hanging out with their groups of friends, drinking tea or juice, and hanging out. The younger fedde's have some music and dancing, the older fedde's mostly sit around. In village my real age rarely corresponds to my companions, so I spent a lot of time hanging out with the older women.
Other than dressing up, greeting, hanging out and eating meat, there wasn't too much more to the holiday, and as I'm still a bit of an outsider to cultural things, I found myself with a bit of down time throughout the holiday. It was definitely an experience and interesting to see, though honestly I don't know if I'll be sticking around village for meat-a-thon 2013.

In other news, school is starting up again so I'm looking forward to working more at the primary and middle schools, where I think I'll base the bulk of my projects. When I first arrived, I was intimidated by the fact that I'll be spearheading projects on my own, but after being here for 8 months, assisting in other volunteers' projects, and really getting used to life here, I'm naturally finding avenues for work and am excited to start some good projects in my village!