Dinner with the Ambassador!!

So after getting back from Dakar I took some time to just relax a bit. The following weekend was our regional retreat, that’s where the whole region goes off somewhere and it’s a time to discuss house issues and just bond. We ended up going to Mako, which is about 40km away from Kedougou. We stayed in a campment, which is just a series of huts. It was nice to be with everyone from the region. The last day of the retreat was my birthday so it was perfect timing to celebrate because everyone was in town!! We made a huge Mexican feast and partied all night. The only unfortunately thing is that when we went out later in the night, my bike ended up getting stolen. Luckily the country director was heading down to Kedougou the following week so brought me my replacement bike. To this day I still haven’t found my bike but I filed a report with the police and they’re looking for it. We’re all just hoping that whoever took if hasn’t crossed the border into Guinea and is trying to sell it there.

Our country director came down here with the US ambassador to Senegal. They came with a TV crew and were filming some of the volunteers here and what projects they are working on. Unfortunately, I was not part of the group because I don’t really have any projects going on, but I was able to sit down to dinner with the Ambassador three nights in a row. The first night she asked to have dinner with some of the volunteers here, so since I live here I was asked to join. The second night it was just a couple of volunteers that were asked to come to dinner. Only of few of us were asked to come because it was dinner with not only the ambassador but also with the mayor and a lot of other important Kedougou government people. It was a nice traditional dinner with a traditional dance troop performing at the end. Unfortunately I forgot my camera at home so I didn’t take any pictures or video. Now the third night’s dinner was really fun, the ambassador heard that David built his own hut and decided she wanted to see it for herself. As she was there she noticed the pizza ovens that he built and was told how we have pizza parties there occasionally. She decided that she had to stay one more night and participate in a Kedougou pizza party. We provided the food and she provided the beer. It was a nice evening because we really got to sit down with the ambassador and just talk. She’s a really nice, down to earth woman who rolled up her sleeves and helped make pizzas!! Making good contacts as I go!!

Tomorrow I have my first business training class. It’s quite a challenge because I have to explain what business is and business concepts that go with it, such as marketing, pricing, planning, etc. to people who don’t have never been to high school, some of them can’t even read! I’ll update my blog with how it all went. Wish me well!!!

Dinner with the US Ambassador to Senegal!

Apparently the ambassador was so impressed by my friend's pizza ovens that she felt she HAD to come and make pizza with us. So here I am supervising her work!

I am working the ingredient assembly line with the Ambassador.

Zack, a fellow volunteer, decides to serve the woman while the men cook the pizza. I think he was just showing off because the ambassador was there!

Our whole pizza making group with the Ambassador and her press secretary!

Random pictures and observations

So I have noticed that during my short time here I have become used to things that I would normally have found strange. I want to share some of these with you and as time goes by I hope to show you more such things. Also, because I know some of my readers like to see street scenes from Senegal, I have included those as well. Please let me know if I'm starting to get a little weird for thinking this is all just normal!!

My brothers and some of their friends hanging out in my compound playing a card game. Behind them you can see my well so when running water stops we have a back-up; however, when the well drys up, well guess we'll figure something out!

this is the front of my compound. The pink building is the one I live in, not only do I have my own room and bathroom, but I have a rooftop which is where I'll be sleeping come the hot, dry season!

This is one side of my street. It's a quiet day because it was taken on a Sunday. Usually there are people, bikes, goats, sheep, and cars along the road.

This is the other side of my street. If you look at the pile of white dirt on the right-hand side you can see some goats chilling in the dirty. I've just become so accustomed to seeing goats every where that when I walk into my compound and find 10 goats there, none of them ours, I don't think twice about it.

So I was sitting by the pool with one of my friend yesterday and we happened to notice a goat jumping around, neither of us thought anything about it till I realized, I would be quite surprised in American if I saw a goat jumping around a pool!

This is David chopping some wood for out pizza party. The hut that you see behind him is his hut that he built himself!

I am preparing my pizza with some garlic, tomatoes, cheese, and thanks to David's father, pepperoni!!!! YUM!!

And how do we cook our pizzas? In the clay pizza ovens that we built! Who says you have to eat poorly in Africa?

Here is picture of my old host mom, the reason that I have it here is because I want everyone to look at the amount of makeup that she put on (the picture doesn't do her justice) and Senegalese women wear this much makeup and think it looks good. Guess they don't understand what the natural look is.

And where do you get the best food in Senegal, the garage of course. The garage is where all the buses and sept-places leave for Guinea or Dakar, we grab a seat where you can and dig into a communal bowl. Trust me, it's good!!

Here is a typical family's "common room". It's outside and it has mattresses and mats thrown about so that there is always room for everyone to sit or nap.

This is a typical family meal, find a place to wedge yourself in and dig in!

Here is a typical street scene in St. Louis, I included these so that people can see what an average city here looks like. Not too bad, right?

Well not all the parts of a city are nice, here's what the other half of the street looks like. Unfortunately the Senegalese haven't figured out a good way to dispose of their waste so it usually ends up strewn all over the place.

Since fishing is a the major industry in St. Louis I thought that it was interesting to notice that they don't use any fancy gadgets to find the fish, they just take out a boat, like the one above, cast their nets, and hope that something bites.

Another picture of the low-tech, but very efficient boat.

Another typical street up north.

My first Christmas and New Year in Senegal!!

Happy New Year!! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. I just want to take a minute and share something that I realized while I’ve been here. I know most people look at the holiday season and think what a headache, all the things to do before Christmas and then there is the family to deal with. Being here has made me realize what a special time the holidays are, once all the hassle of pre-Christmas is over with and you’re sitting at Christmas dinner with your family it’s really a wonderful time and we need to take a minute and cherish that time because we never know where we will all be for the next holiday season.

So my first Christmas in Senegal was really nice and I got to spend it with some great people. After I left Dakar I headed up to St. Louis to visit my friend Julia. I arrived on the Wed before Christmas and she took the next two days to show me around the city. Everyone talks about how St. Louis has this great European influence, it was the former French capital of West Africa, but unfortunately any of that influence has fallen into disrepair. However, it’s still a nice city that sits right on the beach. We went walking around one of the islands of St. Louis, it’s referred to as The Island and it looks similar to the French quarter in New Orleans but a dirtier. After two days of walking around the city and The Island we were ready for Christmas. On Christmas Eve we spent all day shopping for ingredients for our Christmas day meals, so when dinner time rolled around we really didn’t feel like making anything. Instead we went out to a delicious Moroccan restaurant. We were hoping that they might do something special for Christmas Eve but alas they didn’t. After dinner we roamed around until midnight mass. The funny thing about that was that Senegalese are notorious for being late for everything, but their midnight mass starts at 11pm!! So we stroll in at midnight an hour late and they were half way through the mass!! Oops!! However, it was really nice and I really liked the choir singing carols with African drum beats to them. After midnight mass we decided we had had a long day and headed home for bed. On Christmas morning we got down to some cooking, I made potato pancakes, but I’ll admit, I had to call the expert, my Mom, to get some help (Thanks Mom!), another girl made a frittata, and we had a fruit salad. Everything turned out wonderful and I got quite a lot of praise for the pancakes. After that we just sat around and watched a movie. Around 7pm we started to prepare Christmas dinner. We had shrimp scampi pasta (fresh shrimp!!), pesto pasta, bruscetta, and a cucumber salad, might I point out that everything was made from scratch. We figured out that you don’t need a food processor to make fresh pesto, all you need is a hammer, a plastic bag, and some time to just pound away. Once again everything was great!! I spent another few days in St. Louis where Julia and I decided to treat ourselves with pedicures. My feet have not been completely clean since I got to this country so I figured they needed some well deserved scrubbing. The next day after the pedicures, Julia and I headed to Dakar to ring in the New Year.

In Dakar we met up with our friend Lyzz and her friend who came in from the States, it was nice because we got to do some tourist things. On New Year’s Eve day, we went to Goree Island, this is the island where the slaves from West Africa were housed until they were ready to be shipped to the Americas. Also, this island house different militaries throughout its history because it was the entry way into West Africa. It was controlled by the Dutch, English, Portuguese, and finally the French. Even though there is some terrible history behind the island it really was a beautiful place. We walked around a bit and lucky joined up with a tour group so we could find out a bit more of the history behind the island. They haven’t really figured out how to make tourists spots in Senegal; we had no idea what happened on the island or where anything was, there weren’t any descriptive signs saying “such and such happened here”. For example, our map said there was a castle on the island and we walked around the whole island looking for it but couldn’t find it, it wasn’t until we ran into the tour group that we found out that at the top of the island there was the “castle” but it was actually bunkers that were used by the soldiers that tried to control Senegal.

After visiting the island we all returned to our places and got ready for New Year’s. We joined Lyzz and her friend in their hotel room for a few drinks and then we headed to the main square in Dakar to ring in the New Year. I must say that New Year’s here is a bit lackluster, we got to the square a little before midnight and waited for the countdown. I realized that they don’t really do that here when I looked at my watch and realized that it was 12:03am. So we all said our Happy New Years, hugs all around and then we figured it was a good idea to head out of the square because even if the Senegalese don’t do a countdown for New Year, they do like to shoot off fireworks. Now I was in the Netherlands one New Year’s Eve and they too have the same tradition, however, in Senegal they haven’t really figured out that you’re supposed to shoot the fireworks into the sky and not into the crowds of people on the street. After that it was just going to some bars and clubs, it was fun but nothing out of the unusual. The next day we headed off to the beach for some much needed relaxation. For dinner we took Lyzz’s American friend for the food court in the mall and then we went bowling, OK maybe that was more for us then for him, but it was a lot of fun to feel for just a few hours like you’re back in the States. The next day Julia left to go back and I hung out at our regional house till Tuesday when I took the overnight bus back home.

Normally the bus is supposed to leave Dakar at 10pm and arrive in Kedougou at 10am, however, I didn’t get back to Kedougou till 5pm the next day!!! It took me 18 hours to get home! The bus kept breaking down and they kept trying to fix it and once the other passengers started to get angry they sent another bus to take us the rest of the way. However, the second bus didn’t have enough seats for everyone so the other Peace Corps volunteer and I got the company to take us to a garage (their bus/sept-place depot) and buy us 2 seats in the next sept-place leaving for Kedougou. When we finally made it home I came home to a layer of dust about an inch deep on everything, it’s the dry season so everything is always covered with dust, and a new roommate, a mouse!! I’m still trying to find the mouse to shoo it out of my room and trying to wash everything that’s covered in dust, it’s still a work in prgoress. All in all it was a good trip and a nice break, but it’s also nice to be back in my own bed.

Here is a view of one of the islands, in St. Louis, from the apartment I was staying in.

My friend Julia and I at a Moroccan restaurant on Christmas Eve.

Julia helping me prepare Christmas breakfast. She's grating the potatoes for potato pancakes.

Here are the potato pancakes, delicious!!

Julia and Sarah making Christmas cookies from scratch. Their butter cream frosting was awesome!

Every girl needs a day off, a relaxing pedicure :)

Here is the final product of the pedicure, nice, CLEAN feet (Finally!!)

Leaving the port to go to Goree Island (aka Slave Island). Note that the temperature is 35C that's 95F, HOT!!! Sorry about the pic for all of you on the East coast covered in snow!!

Julia, Lyzz and I on the boat to the island.

I'm pretty sure that this is the westernmost house in all of Africa. I liked that it was nice and secluded.

Just wanted to show how amazingly clean the water is!!

Here is the skyline of Dakar for Goree Island.


Sitting at the top of the island overlooking the few houses that inhabit it.

I thought this nativity scene was pretty interesting. Note that none of the characters have faces!!


The view while leaving Goree.

Julia and I heading out for New Year's Eve. Happy New Year!!!