Hey everyone. So here's the deal. Kaolack is putting on a girls leadership camp this year and we need your help to fund it! I will be bringing two girls from my village, and Insha Allah will be doing Theatre of the Oppressed work with the girls at the camp. This is a really great opportunity to motivate them to see their full potential and stay in school rather than just marrying early and popping out kids for the rest of their lives. If you're interested in contributing here's the link. It has much more information put together in an immensely more eloquent way than I just did, so check it out.
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=685-163
Every little bit helps so pass it on to all who may be interested. Thanks!
Cheers,
Garrison
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
Christmas in Popenguine
December = Fail… for blog posting anyways, for everything else it’s been pretty good. I believe I left off last time telling y’alls about IST and trying to get in the holiday spirit. Well that was ok I suppose. On both accounts I didn’t quite get what I wanted. IST was a bit lacking in useful information and my holiday endeavors were a bit lacking in… well a country that gets excited with me about Christmas. Even so, Christmas was still pretty awesome thanks to the five wonderful people I got to spend it with, the three amazing meals we ate, and the single best beach house I have ever stayed in… for the sake of full disclosure I haven’t stayed in all that many beach houses, but regardless it was still awesome! Take a journey with me through images and poetry.
not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse (except for Daisy preparing a Mexican feast of epic proportions and deliciousness. I mean serious deliciousness).
The stockings were hung by the chimney (wooden giraffe) with care
in the hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there (We weren’t taking any chances, hence the biskrem, powdered milk, carrot and letter).
The children were nestled all snug in their beds (watching love actually), while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads (possibly induced by the fine locally produced liquors we picked up in Warrang earlier that day: Bissap liquor and chocolate, coffee, banana liquor.) And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap, Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap (…yeah I got nothin) When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter (the movie ended and we realized we had only 10min to get to midnight mass!). Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash (Go go go get to mass!). The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below (Actually there was a good amount of moonlight) When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a miniature sleigh, and eight tinny reindeer (or in our case a church with two firmly locked doors and a previously unnoticed calendar stating that midnight mass starts at 10…)
With a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St Nick (What the heck, we may have missed mass but its three minutes past 12 which means its CHRISTMAS!) "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"
Okay I may have stretched the limits of our Christmas’s relation to this poem, but I thought it might be fun :-). Christmas morning rolled around and we woke up to a truly magnificent sight. No not the beach, not the house, not the presents, or the stockings, something much more magical and amazing. The biskrem was gone, the glass of milk was empty and the carrot was considerably nibbled. I asked around and none of us did it, so take that you non-believers Santa visited Senegal! After thoroughly enjoying our nostalgic Santa excitement we got down to eating our second magnificent meal. This was a delicious strata courtesy of Kelsey.
We enjoyed this meal with a lovely woman from Saint Louis whose mother had actually been a Peace Corps Volunteer in Popenguine in the 80’s. It’s a small world and we really are one big interconnected family. Full and happy we next proceeded to mass, take two. This time the doors were not locked and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. There’s nothing quite like mass with a 40 or so person Senegalese choir with traditional drums. Pretty amazing. Some of our group got their religion fix that day; I got my choral music fix. Now what would be next on a PCV’s agenda after church? Well food of course! That seems to actually be the answer to what’s next whenever PCV’s are together. Cooking good food really is the main event for every gathering here and for our brunch Kelsey provided some amazing homemade cinnamon rolls. We enjoyed these while opening our secret Santa presents. My midday consisted of reading, sleeping, and Home Alone II. Oh yeah it was that good. I couldn’t rest forever though because I had to prepare our third amazing meal.
Two roasted chickens in a lemon butter cream sauce, with julienned carrots, and pesto pasta. I told you, we really like eating.
After dinner we made a nice bonfire on the beach and made smores and attempted to light off some fireworks. I say attempted because we ran into a little problem… the beach in Popenguine erodes away quite a bit every winter and makes the waves rather, big. I guess we didn’t realize that the tide was coming in so it was quite a surprise when in the midst of lighting two fireworks a wave washed up and put out our fire and knocked over the fireworks. Don’t worry the fuses had already been lit so they still went off… on the ground… pointed at us… It was a massively good time. The rest of the fireworks were ruined however, but we had a good time anyways trying to light them and occasionally getting one to launch a few feet. We finished out the night with a classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life”. We weren’t able to finish it because we were falling asleep, but it was still nice. Right before I went to bed I skyped with my family and Hannah. I must say this was really strange. It was Christmas as usual at Grandma and Grandpa’s and with everyone on the phone I could picture it so clearly. I felt pretty lonely hanging up the phone and being back in Senegal. Apart from that very reasonable moment of homesickness though, it was a wonderful weekend, and I can’t imagine having spent it with any other group of people. Thanks to Amy, April, Daisy, Kelsey, and Clint! Merry Christmas everyone!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Let it snow let it snow let it snow!
Oh the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we’ve no place to go
Let it snow let is snow let it snow
Translation: It’s really really hot outside and everyone is burning garbage but since I’m stuck in Senegal I may as well get into the Christmas spirit! It’s really more of an emotional translation than a literal one.
Yes the Christmas Season is upon us. The streets of Senegal are filled with cheer as everyone begins their shopping and starts putting up lights. The traditional Mango tree in the center of town is filled with ornaments and the Talibe are being extra nice so that Santa won’t give them coal. Also far from the usual fare of rice with fish, the training center is now bursting with the smells of fresh baked cookies, apple cider, and scrumptious honey baked ham… Hmmm now which part of this fantasy is the least likely to be true? Eating pork in a Muslim country, or the Talibe being nice so that they WONT get coal? I’ll let you be the judge.
Yes I’m a little Christmas crazy right now, but when you’re thousands of miles from home in a third world Muslim country it’s either let Christmas uneventfully pass you by, or grab your Santa Hat and paper snow flakes and make it happen yourself. I was very well educated in the lore of Santa Claus as a child and I don’t remember anyone saying that he skips over Africa so look out everyone I’m rollin out the red and green carpet pour le Pere Noel.
Luckily I am here at the training center where my Christmas activities won’t be so strange. I’m not sure how my family in the village would react to me putting ornaments on a Baobab tree. So here’s the plan. Firstly decorate the training center with an absurd amount of everything Christmas: lights, trees, snowflakes, etc. Step two watch every Christmas movie known to man. Step three, sing carols, buy presents, and generally prepare for Christmas. Step four celebrate Christmas with my best friends in country and eat copious amounts of baked goods.
Surely I am somewhat in denial that Christmas isn’t quite going to be like it is back home in the states, but I’m going to try god damn it! In all honesty this is pretty strange. I’ve never spent Christmas away from home, but hopefully it will turn out all right. To everyone back home, enjoy the holidays and cherish your chance to be with family and friends. I would trade every present just to be there with mine. Speaking of presents… Don’t send me any! It’s really expensive and consumerism is so America’s thing. I am like soooo much better than that now (can you hear the sarcasm?). But seriously it’s expensive and there are more important things than stuff. If you feel so inclined to get me a present, do this instead: go to www.kiva.org and make a $25 loan to someone in the developing world (preferably in Senegal). Don’t send me a kiva gift certificate, loan for yourself. After Peace Corps I will most likely be a poor starving actor and I’ll just end up withdrawing the money as I need it. If you make the loan, having fancy non-arts jobs and what not, you will probably be able to keep reloaning that $25 dollars and it will thus do much more good. Who knows you may even come to like helping third world development and loan even more. I’m just trying to save the world here. Actually this is an entirely selfish venture to make Santa think I’m super good so I’ll get more presents. I hope he doesn’t read blogs. Fingers crossed ;-).
Happy Holidays Everyone! And Happy Hanukkah to all of my Jewish friends celebrating right now.
Garrison
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