Even the Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

Well as of 11:00am Friday October 15^th I am now officially a 100% bona fide Peace Corps Volunteer!  But hold on there are a few stories to tell before we get to that point.  I titled this post “Even the Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men” because things have been a little interesting lately.  After beach weekend we all went back to village for one final week.  This was relatively uneventful, we had language class, went to the boutique to chat, went to the fields etc.  The big event for the week was the party Lauren and I were planning for our final night.  I was planning to buy three chickens and Lauren was going to buy potatoes and veggies and we were going to have a feast.  I say were because it didn’t happen.  Firstly the village of Ngoudiane mysteriously ran out of chickens… like completely… that one threw me for a bit of a loop.  Then my LCF came to my house and told me that one of the elders in his host family had died so a big party wasn’t appropriate anyways.  That next day instead of preparing a feast I went to my first Muslim funeral, which consisted of a lot of sitting as they prepared the body, and then some praying at the mosque, which I was graciously allowed to participate in, and finally taking the body to the cemetery.  In many ways it was very similar to funerals in the states with the one exception of there being absolutely no women present.  I’m not going to go into that too much this early in my service.  I’m still at the stage where I need to observe rather than judge; I’m not ready to open up that can of worms.  So yes I’ll leave it at that for now.  After the funeral the general consensus in village was that I did a very good thing by coming.  People knew that I didn’t know the person but they appreciated the gesture.  Instead of a feast I ended up buying my family some soda and we shared that while listening to American music and dancing.  It was a pretty good time after all. 

After we got back to Thies we only had a few days until swear in and they flew by.  Firstly I found out the results of my technical and language proficiency exams.  For tech I got nearly 100% and for language I got Advanced Low!  To put that in perspective Peace Corps only expects us to be Intermediate Mid by the end of PST.  Needless to say I was pretty pleased.  My big task for this time was writing a speech in Seereer for swear in.  That was nerve racking since it was going to be broadcast on Senegalese national television, but everything worked out in the end.  Well everything except my outfit.  Thing that went wrong number 2: so everyone for swearing in is encouraged to wear traditional Senegalese clothing.  I had thus gone to a tailor to have some clothes made the week before.  When I went to pick them up however… well lets just say I don’t think I have ever seen such a large V-Neck in my life.  I had shown the tailor a picture of a collar with a slight dip in it and he took that to mean lets give this toubab a booboo that really lets him rock the chest hair.  No worries I just wore a white t-shirt under it.  It wasn’t the most stylish thing to do, but at least I was presentable for the US Ambassador and Senegalese Government Officials.

Now the main event: swearing in.  The ceremony took place at the US Ambassador’s house, which is both ginormous and beautiful, and was really quite nice.  Its amazing how normal multilingualness has become to me.  All told there were 6 languages spoken during the ceremony.   The intro was in French, occasionally someone would address us in English, occasionally someone would talk in Wolof , and there were speeches by new PCV’s in Pular, Wolof, Mandinka, and yours truly in Seereer.  Everyone said my speech went really well which was nice.  One of the coolest parts of the ceremony was having the Ambassador issue us the oath of service.  It was very official and even included us swearing to “protect the constitution of the United States against all enemies both foreign and domestic”.  So watch out all you constitution haters I got my eye on you!  All jokes aside it was actually a very proud and surprisingly patriotic moment.  It certainly makes me take this commitment a little more seriously.  I’ve been thinking a lot about politics lately with the election coming up.  I am proud to say that I did my civic duty and voted abroad.  Even so it feels strange to not be up to date on the issues.  My brother is going to John Stewart’s rally in DC and I am more than a little bit jealous, which is weird because I’m sure that I’m doing more good serving in the Peace Corps than participating in the craziness of American Politics, but still it feels like I’m out of the loop.  But I digress, I still have more to tell you about the ceremony… well not the ceremony per se, but something equally important: THE RECEPTION!  We walked out into the back yard to the beautiful site of bowls full of sliders and chicken, and caviar, and shrimp, and pizza, and brownies, and apple tarts, and lemon tarts, and…                 sorry I had to take a break to wipe the drool off my face.  All in all it kind of felt like being fed our final meal before execution.  It was really pretty amazing.  It was also really cool to talk to the Ambassador and get a few pictures with her. 

Thing that went wrong number 3: So everyone in Africa loves Obama.  No really they absolutely love him.  You’re confused, its ok, let’s clarify.  So how much does Senegal love Obama?  So much that they sell Obama underwear and boxers!  This is immensely amusing to me and I will be buying a pair very very soon.  Now this in and of itself is not TTWWN3 (Thing that went wrong number 3, its PC of course I used an acronym).  TTWWN3 was bringing this up in the course of a conversation about Obama with the US Ambassador… Yeah that probably wasn’t the best idea.  It wasn’t that big of a deal, but who really wants to make a faux pas with the US Ambassador to Senegal.  Lesson learned.  Check.

There were definitely some things that went right these past few days, like going to Massa Massa for our last meal in Thies.  Massa Massa is a real restaurant, and while that may not sound so amazing, it is quite rare here.  The cuisine is a mix between French, Italian, and Belgium and is absolutely delicious.  I had a wonderful lasagna with a few glasses of wine for 7mil, which is only about $14.  Oh yeah you know you want to visit.  Very soon though that is going to feel expensive once I’m subsisting on a village living allowance.  In the mean time though it’s delicious, and I definitely want to go back to try the Lapin du Mon Grande Mere (Rabbit of my Grand Mother). 

This is Senegal so things can’t go right for too long.  TTWWN4: Everyone going to the Kaolack region was told to be ready to depart at 2:30 on Saturday the 16^th.  We all scrambled to get packed in time and then proceeded to wait for another 2 hours for the driver to get to the center.  It turns out they thought that we were leaving on the 17^th.  We were also supposed to have 2 busses for all of our luggage and only one driver showed up.  As any good group of PCV’s should we went with the flow and crammed the last two seats of the bus from floor to ceiling and made it work.  It was actually all pretty funny and illustrated the need to be flexible in the Peace Corps.  I actually started writing this blog post on that bus ride which brings me to a side point: TED Talks! I listened to two great ones.  The first provided a very optimistic look at third world development and our prospects for a world without poverty.  Here’s the info TEDTalks : New insights on poverty and life around the world - Hans Rosling  (2007) (video) 

http://www.ted.com/talks/podtv/id/140

The second looked at what actually motivates people and produces innovative solutions in the workplace.  The answer may surprise you.  It didn’t surprise me; this has been my dad’s business philosophy for as long as I can remember.  Its great to see it affirmed in such a cool way though. TEDTalks : Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation - Dan Pink  (2009) (video)                                               

http://www.ted.com/talks/podtv/id/618

Both these talks couldn’t have been more perfect for me to hear right at the beginning of my service.  They show firstly that what I’m doing is valuable and has the potential to help at a critical time in third world development, and secondly that I’m part of an organization with a management philosophy that can actually produce results.  Side note done, back to Senegal.

Once in Kaolack all the current PCV’s greeted us at the door and cheered.  Kaolack is the biggest region of volunteers in Senegal and it seems like a pretty cool family of people.  We ordered some food and started to get to know everyone and it was a really great time.  I also met one of my Toubacouta area neighbors, Byron, and found out that he was a theatre major too, and knows about Augusto Boal and wants to collaborate on some theatre projects.  My situation just keeps getting better and better.  Probably my favorite thing that happened in Kaolack though was the cooking dance party.  I decided to cook up a big pot of spaghetti bolognaise for whoever wanted to chip in for the ingredients and this turned into a grand old group cooking event complete with America music and dance moves a plenty.  Not only was it fun, but my bolognaise was delicious!  Alas the vacation had to end though and the next day we said goodbye to all our friends and our new regional oasis. 

Onwards and upwards!  Amy Emily and I left Kaolack at 8am to head to the regional government offices in Foundgioune and here we have TTWWN4.  You thought I was done with that motif didn’t you well… well actually I am done.  There are far too many things that go wrong to list or count them, and if I do I will probably go insane.  It simply isn’t healthy, and no one wants to read a bunch of bitching.  Hence forth things that go wrong shall be referred to as funny stories.  So funny story, we were on our way back from Foundgioune when one of our drivers (there were two Peace Corps cars) decided to take a shortcut through bush roads.  This short cut took twice as much time as the regular road and involved quite a bit more mud and hairy situations.  We eventually made it to Toubacouta though and had a wonderful evening beginning with a Tequila Sunrise at sunset and followed by half a chicken with French fries for me.  It was delicious.  The next day I installed in my village, Dassilame Seereer!  Since then it has been a whirlwind of greeting people, sitting with the elders, drinking tea, setting up my room, doing laundry (by hand, for 2 hours with water I pulled from the well), drinking tea, visiting every compound in the village, pretending I know Seereer,  hiding under my mosquito net as I thought my roof was going to blow off in a storm, drinking tea (they really like to drink tea) and battling a mouse.

Oh yes the title of this post isn’t just metaphorical, its literal.  It was my first night in the village and all through the house not a creature was stirring EXCEPT for a mouse: one little mouse chewing a hole in my wall, right next to my head all night long.  This also happened to be my Mephloquine (Malaria Prophylaxis with somewhat hallucinogenic side effects) day and the night of the aforementioned storm.  I kinda felt like I was going insane.  It got to the point where I was so frustrated that I got out of bed, got my machete and waited in front of the wall for him to break through for about half an hour.  A different Garrison might have said to himself “so this is what I’ve come to, sitting alone in the middle of the night waiting for a mouse to break through my wall”.  PCV Garrison however said “come on break through my wall, make my night, I’ll chop your freakin head off.”  Like I said I was feeling a little insane.  The mouse never did break through, but needless to say this meant war.  The next night I was trying to fall asleep when I heard scurrying around my room.  I got out my headlamp and machete and waited again.  Suddenly there he was just sitting out in the open.  He was actually pretty cute which makes me feel kinda bad about what happened next.  Animal lovers be forewarned this gets a little graphic.  Initially I just watched him.  It was like my own little nature program.  I considered just trying to go to sleep and dealing with him later, but then he crawled behind my metal trunk right by my head.  I was not about to let a mouse crawl on me in my sleep so I did what had to be done.  I pushed the metal trunk up against the wall and trapped him and then stabbed my machete behind the trunk.  It was quick and relatively humane if you ask me.  Lots of things can go wrong for both mice and men, although I don’t think that my mouse friend would euphemistically refer to this as a “funny story”.  I texted my human friend about it and he said and I quote “dude you are legit”.  I’m nothing special, that’s just how we do it here in Africa (snaps suspenders and rocks back and forth in my rocking chair). 

Apart from this epic battle life here has been pretty mundane.  My biggest problem right now is figuring out how to deal with my village’s insane generosity towards me.  Its really throwing me for a loop right now.  I tried to discuss what I should contribute towards food cost for my family and they tried to tell me that they didn’t want me to pay anything.  When I was doing my laundry a woman said she would do it for me from now on but wouldn’t let me pay her.  Twice my host dad has brought home extra food from Toubacouta just for me: no one else would eat it no matter how much I insisted.  I feel like I’m not doing enough.  Not just now, even once my projects get off the ground I feel like its not enough.  These people have so little and they give so much.  I have so much and I give so little.  I give my time and my energy but I don’t give this laptop, or my solar panel, or my real American resources.  Its tough.  I feel selfish and guilty whenever I’m not out in the village getting to know people, or studying, or just sitting with my family.  I need time to myself and time to rest, but right now I feel like I need to be working harder in order to deserve all that I am being given.  They say in Peace Corps most of the time you don’t even see the true results of your work.  I suppose I just need to have faith that I’m helping and do the best I can to keep myself happy as well while I do it. 

Cheers,

Garrison