W.A.I.S.T. Deuxième

Another year, another round of well-played softball. Teams from around Senegal, as well as other countries (Gambia, Mali, and Cape Verde) made a showing to the annual Dakar event. Most teams (the PC ones), really stepped up their costumes.

TambaGou (Tamba & Kedougou): Baseball Corps, The North: Snorkel Corps, Kolda: South of the Border, Kaolack: Girl/Boy Scouts, Dakar: French, Linguere: Suits, Cape Verde: Weird Medical Gear

The magic wasn’t only found on the field. An incredibly competitive talent show was scheduled for the first night, followed by a prom themed masquerade ball the second night. The third night culminated in an all night, festive soirée.

A good time had by all.

Characters tested. Lives changed. Morals bent. That’s about the gist of it. Sooooo….here are some choice photos to sum up the event.

December 19, 2011 (Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog)

“Are you going to tell us a real update, or just show us more pictures?” -Anonymous

This was in my inbox this morning. Fantastic. Maybe my laziness has finally caught up to me…hmm…nope. Some people (me), don’t like reading things longer than it takes me to shit. Sooooooo, with that said. Here’s a real update!

We just got back from Bakel, the far north east of Senegal. The gateway to the ever pleasant country of Mauritania. Generally, Bakel is said to be the asscrack of nowheres-ville Senegal (because it is), but what’s not generally known is that it’s surprisingly beautiful. Seriously. Hills creep upwards and give great views of the rolling hills of Mauritania, the Senegal river somehow snakes its way through, and best of all, Dairy Queens scattered on every corner!…Okay, no Dairy Queen, but it was still pretty spectacular. We were there because the eye clinic came back. Right to Sight and Health posted up there for 2 weeks, removing cataracts, screening for glaucoma, and fitting people with eyeglasses. Volunteers were there again as translators and helped run other general busywork.

As it was last year, people crawled out the woodwork to get there eyes fixed up here. But unlike last year, people didn’t stop coming. Waves of people would show up at the gates, slipping through side doors, packing the hallways, hoping they’d be the next to see a doctor for some kind of surgery. Unfortunately the doctors couldn’t get to everybody, which made things absolute chaos interesting. Volunteers were tasked to get people to leave the hospital that weren’t getting surgery, which, usually turned into a screaming match interesting. At one point, the hallway looked like a scene ripped from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. A pack of volunteers, shoulder to shoulder, on one side, casting spells at the Dementors who were trying to overtake the hospital. Good lord. It’s a good laugh now, but at the time, I wanted to unlovingly steamroll the lot.

Overall, I think the doctors completed a bit more than 130 cataract removal surgeries. Mostly to people who were completely blind. So maybe I didn’t save the world single handed (today), but it feels pretty damn good to be a volunteer right now.

The Super Stage: We Do Work

Spence (Tamba Nation), Hadiel (The North), Evan (The North)

Maddy (The North), Emily (Linguere), Paul (The North)

Jenae (Kolda), Andrew (Kaolack), Kim (Linguere), Wilma (Kolda)

Ann Marie (Linguere), Jessica (Kaolack), Amanda (Tamba Nation), Me (Tamba Nation), Anna (Tamba Nation)

Love these guys.

For more awesome photos, check out Maddy’s Flickr.

June 04, 2011 (Slam Slam Oh Hot Damn)

When I get the chance, I scroll down my facebook wall and see what people are doing. Weddings, pregnancies, new jobs, new homes, people traveling, people taking pictures of themselves jumping in the air on a beach with their hands splayed like a frenzied mime. It’s all good. And I notice, life goes on while I’m here. We’re all doing different things. We’re all becoming productive members of society…ha ha ha ha ha…alright, that last one was a stretch. But seriously, the states look good right now. There’s only one request I make, one tiny request. Please, please, please, stop posting photos of food. Or rather, don’t tag me in any photos of your delicious meats, festive bbqs, assorted platters of whatever, sushi in general, or sweeties of any kind. It’s cruel. Well, it’s not really cruel. It makes me hungry. And I’m not in an area where I can simply go to a mall food court and stuff my body with the gastronomic delights of the world. Ugh. (Stomach grumble)

Okay. I take it back. Do what you want. Anyhow, what I’m doing here. We just got back from a malaria tournée of Tamba. There were 6 of us volunteers, 3 Pulaar speakers, and 3 Mandinka/Jaxanke speakers. We performed a little skit about the importance of bed-net use, taking malaria symptoms seriously, and all that other jazz that goes along with that. Afterwords, a Q & A session was held to go over myths of malaria, the cost of medicine, and any other questions they had for us. It was awesome. Spence brought a drum. (Side note: If you ever find yourself in a small Senegalese village, and you need to gather a crowd as fast as humanly possible; bring a little drum, dance around a bit, and wait 5 minutes, then BAM, you’ll be swarmed with more people, mostly children, than you can handle.)

8 villages. More biking than expected. Sweat like whoa. And it was completely worth it. Yes, I was cursing the wind while biking at some points. Yes, feeling dehydrated most of the day was painful. Yes, I might have caught a stomach bug in Anna’s village. Yes, at one point I threw up from taking in too much water. Yes, a baby goat walked on my body while I was sleeping. But with everything settled, I’m still alive, and I’ve got stories. Plenty ‘o stories. When else am I going to do this? (Or get away with doing some of this?) I’m in the fucking Peace Corps, and that’s awesome.

Lastly, my Community Health Hut Project is still online, so if any of you can spare a couple bucks and support it, it would really be appreciated. Seriously. Thanks guys.

PEACE CORPS CONTRIBUTION PAGE

June 13, 2010 (Ça Marche)

Giant black clouds rolled in last night. I poured the last of my water into my filter. Set the buckets outside to collect the rain. The plan was to have a natural shower. A cold shower.

I told my family, “I hope the rain comes soon.”

“If God wills it,” my brother Diariso said.

God did not will it. Just a tease. Lighting? Yes. Rain? No. It was too dark to go to the well. I bathed with a washcloth and my drinking water.

I shaved all my hair off. My family likes it. It’s going to take a while to get used to. My forehead is huge. My sisters keep touching it. I told them I’m going to buzz their hair while they sleep. Now they run away from me.

My brother re-thatched my hut earlier this week. (Add this sentence to the many sentences I would never say in America). It’s much better now. The holes are gone. But I think there may be pigeons nesting in it now.

Amanda and I finished a mural at the health hut near her village a couple days ago. It’s of a woman sleeping under a mosquito net, while monstrous mosquitoes hover outside of it. We finger painted half of it. Out of necessity (the brushes here fall apart) and because it’s fun (finger painting is fun, right?).

I came to Tamba today. It’s Flag Day tomorrow. We’re having a Flag Day party. We’re dressing up as different flags. I will be the Philippines. It’s also another volunteers birthday. Jessica Scates, Nebraska, speaks the most beautiful Mandinka ever. She’s making her own cake.

Everybody seems to be descending upon Tamba now. Spence came back from Kedougou. Amanda from Medina Dar Salaam. Jillian from Koumpentoum yesterday. Anna tomorrow. It’s going to be a good break.