More Questions!

1. What are some of the laws and their penalties(if rules are broken)?
Senegal has identity cards, licensing laws, and checkpoints on the road where they can make sure citizens and visitors are following the rules.  The police are called "gendarmes," which is just French for police.  There are a lot of laws that are not easily implemented, especially out in the rural regions.  For example, people are not supposed to get married until 18, but many young women get married before that.  Stealing, and murdering and all of the normal crimes are punishable by jail time, but how much these laws are enforced is another issue entirely.

2. What type of government does Senegal have?
Senegal is a republic.  The president is elected every 5 years, with the current president, Macky Sall, being elected in 2012.  There is a bicameral parliament with a National Assembly (similar to the House of Representatives) and a Senate.  These representatives are responsible directly to the president. Local marabous, religious leaders in Islam, also  exert some control via brotherhoods.  It can be very easy for brotherhood leaders to tell their followers to vote a certain way, and political officials in the past have had trouble pandering to these religious leaders.

3. Do you always dress in clothes from Senegal? 
Day to day my wardrobe varies. I usually wear a Western style top with a Senegalese wrap skirt (pagne) or pants I've had made here, but I also have several Western skirts and dresses I can wear.  This is how Senegalese dress as well.  Most women wear a pagne and shirt everyday around the house, but some of the teenagers are starting to wear pants.  Older men wear Senegalese style clothing most of the time, but the younger men tend to wear Western style clothing (pants with a t-shirt, jeans if they're visiting people).  If there is a meeting, or you're going to work or going to greet the community people will wear their nicest clothing, which is considered to be a Senegalese style outfit.  These are called complaits.  Looking fresh and clean is a great way to gain respect.  If you never shower and don't take care of yourself or your clothes people will most likely look down on you.

4. Do you have any jobs there?
My job is being a Peace Corps Volunteer.  My sector is health, so I work on educating my community on the importance of living healthy lives.  I have worked with mothers to reduce child malnutrition, doctors to decrease malaria, and schools to increase knowledge on water and sanitation.  This means that I don't go to a 9-5 job Monday through Friday, but I am constantly having conversations to promote the three Peace Corps goals (see first post).  

5. What is Animism? 
Animism is a minority religion in Senegal, although it is also present throughout the world, that believes spirituality is located in nature.  

6. Do you ever travel outside of Senegal?
I have yet to travel outside of Senegal.  The surrounding West African countries (Mali, Mauritania  Guinea and Guinea-Bissau) are more on the unstable side and Peace Corps does not allow us to travel there.

7. How many family members do most people have in Senegal?
It obviously varies family to family, but families tend to be on the large side.  There are not really any nuclear families- all generations live and work together.  My family is on the small side with two brothers living together with their two wives and combined 5 children (their parents both died last winter).  Other families in the village have five brothers living with all of the wives and children as well as the parents and a sister.  Women will move out of the compound when they get married, but they can come back for visits or if their husband passes away. 

8. Where do they get their food, or how do they farm, what tools do they use?
9.What do you do for fun?  
I read a lot! When I'm tired of reading I just sit around and chat with people.  People also love listening to the radio here.  Sometimes it's the news, or a comedy routine, or just music.  In the cities people have TVs and have those on most of the time.  People love soap operas, especially the ones from India.  American movies are on TV, dubbed in French, as well.

9. How long do you stay there?
I arrived in March of this year (2013) and my service will be over in May of 2015.

10. Where do you get internet?
I come to my regional capital for internet.  Peace Corps has a house and I can go to restaurants as well.  

Questions!

Hello all! Thank you so much for your e-mails! Let me try and answer them all right here:

What is The weather like there? 
Right now it is very hot and humid.  We have seasons here too, they're just not the same as New England.  Around November it will get "cold"- around 60 degrees at night, but that's pretty cold when you don't have a comforter or a warm sheet.  Then we'll go into hot season, where it can be over one hundred degrees! Thankfully people don't have a lot of work then (most people are farmers), and we just rest for a couple months.  Then we come to rainy season.  Down south this means rain almost every day and up north in the desert it means maybe once or twice a week.  This is the planting and harvesting season and peope have lot's of work!

The Rice Field

What kind of animals Have you seen? 
Senegal is not known for it's wildlife.  Up north there are camels and down south there are monkeys and baboons.  Everywhere has lizards and salamanders and chameleons.   Mostly I just see chickens, donkeys, cows, goats, and sheep, none of which are penned up.

What part of Senegal do you live in?
I live in Kolda!  Down south where it's nice and humid and more green than anywhere else!



Do you have pets? 

My cat, Asamau

I personally have a cat, but Senegalese people don't have pets the way Americans have pets.  My compound has two dogs but they are encouraged to stay in the field and scare away any animals that come their way.  Animals are mostly used for livelihood- i.e. farming, eating, chickens laying eggs.  

Does everyone there speak French? 
More people here speak French than English.  School is taught in French, but not everyone goes to school or goes far enough to have a high level of comprehension.  Cities have a higher literacy rate than rural areas, and generally have better schools and more motivated teachers.  Often kids have to go into the city for high school, and if it's too far or their parents need them to help out at home they will have to drop out.  Generally, more boys than girls go to school and go to school longer.  A lot of people know a little French, but a lot of people here know a little of many languages. Everyone here constantly amazes me with their language skills!

What is the main method of transportation in Senegal. Do they mostly walk? Do they have trains? Buses?

There are all different kinds and it depends on where you live and how much money you have!  My preferred mode of transportation is my bicycle, but not everyone has a bike.  The women in my village mostly walk places to save money.  The men can usually borrow a bicycle from a friend or have someone give a ride on their motorcycle.  Charettes, donkey pulled wagons, are also an option for short distances.  In the city you can take a taxi or a moto taxi.  You can also take these into the bush but they can get expensive and dangerous depending on the quality of the road.  When traveling far distances we take a sept place (7 spots), which is like a station wagon, or you can take and "alham," which is like a hippie bus.  All of these cars are foreign models and rarely are they high quality.

We also want to know more about the culture of Senegal. Do they have festivals? Or holidays?

I could talk about this forever!  Senegal is a Muslim country, with approximately 95% of the population identifying with Islam and the remaining 5% divided between Christianity and Animism.  They follow the Muslim holiday calendar.  So far I have been here for Ramadan and Korite, and Tabaski is coming up soon.  Ramadan is a month of fasting.  Everyone wakes up before the sun comes up (around 5) to eat and drink water, and then they do not eat again until the sun sets (7:45 pm).  This does not include children or pregnant women.  Everyone still has to work.  It is a rotating calendar, so Ramadan moves up a couple weeks each year, and this year it was during one of the hottest and work-heavy times of the year.  At night we would break fast with bread and coffee, then eat mogni (a sort of soup), then around 9-9:30 we would eat dinner.  It was a lot of eating in a short amount of time.  Ramadan's end is celebrated with Korite, which is a big long party.  A holiday here means you wake up early and spend every moment around people.  You get a new outfit made at the tailor, the more extravagant the better, and sometimes give out small presents or change.  The village this year slaughtered a cow and we all ate meat, which is a real treat.  We also saw more vegetables than usual too.  People really go all out.  I'm expecting Tabaski to be similar, but since I'm not really sure I'll let you know in  couple of weeks!
"Denabos," or baptisms, are another huge event that happen fairly regularly.  When a baby is born the parents wait a week to give it a name.  They mark the name giving day with a huge party.  They shave the baby's head, slaughter an animal, and invite the whole village over to celebrate their new bundle of joy.  The mother will get a new outfit made and have her hair done, and people will bring her presents and chant her name and literally sing her praises.  All of her friends cook and there is food all day.  In the afternoon a DJ usually arrives and everyone dances until the sun goes down.

What do you eat there? Do you have a main kind of food? What do you drink?

We eats lot's of rice.  Most meals are rice based and sometimes it's cous cous based.  We eat communally.  The Pulaars (the ethnic group I live with) seperate the men from the women while eating; little children eat with their mothers but when the boys are around 4 they move over to their fathers' bowl.  Chebugen is the national dish.  This is fish, with an assortment of vegetables over rice.  We also eat a lot of "mafe" which is sauce; this can be made of peanuts or hibiscus or okra.  On special occasions we eat an animal, usually cow, goat, or sheep, and once in a while my family will kill a chicken.  Onions are in most dishes, but everything else is seasonal.  Our "treats" are also seasonal.  Right now were are in corn and cucumber season, so we have been snacking on roasted corn and a cucumber dish with oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and mustard.  We've also had a cashew season, mango season (my favorite), cashew apple season, and peanut season.
The healthiest thing to drink here is (obviously!) water.  Culturally, however, people LOVE to drink tea.  It's a hot tea they boil over a small stove.  They add sugar and pour it back and forth to make a foam.  They can cook the leaves three times and then it doesn't really have a taste anymore- the third one tastes like sugar water to me.  When people are resting or just hanging out or they have a guest  they'll cook tea.

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I eat with my family when I'm in village, and all meals are cooked by my host mothers.  I pull water from a well almost daily, and I use this for drinking (although I use a filter), doing laundry (by hand), dishes, and bathing.

What does the Peace Corps do and what is your job?  What do you want to do when you get back?
I am a preventative health volunteer, which means I teach people about how they can live healthier lives.  Peace Corps Senegal's main focuses are nutrition, malaria prevention, and healthier lifestyles, which includes promoting latrine use and handwashing.  My service is 27 months long, and I will be coming home for good in April of 2015.  I would like to go to law school or work for the foreign service when I return.

What is a normal day for you in Senegal?
Right now a normal day in Senegal begins around 7 when I wake up.  The family eats around 8 and then the men and women begin their work: men go to the fields, women clean, or do laundry or go work in the rice paddy.  I use this time to go to different houses and get to know my community.  We eat lunch around 1, and then the family and any guests will usually sit around and drink tea.  This is the hottest time of the day so it is also acceptable to lay down or take a nap.  Once it cools down a bit is the perfect time for an activity.  This is when people are most likely to have the time and energy, so we do our causeries in the late afternoon.  If there's no work to be done I continue to visit with my family or neighbors, tend my garden, or read a book.  Then I'll pull my water for bathing and drinking the next day (I put it through the filter at night), and right around when I'm done dinner is ready.  After dinner people usually like to made tea again, but I don't drink it at night because of the caffeine.  


What are the houses like? 
In village we live in huts. My hut is square and made of cement, but the others in my compound are circular and made of mud.  In cities people live in houses made of cement and also often have running water.

My compound

Senegal's Geography 101

  Senegal is technically considered a Sub-Saharan African country, but in reality the Saharan desert is creeping further and further in.  One of the greatest differences two volunteers can have is region: the north is desert, like neighboring countries Mali and Mauritania, whereas the south is vegetative, especially during the rainy season, like Guinea and Guinea-Bissau.

   Despite the disparity, Senegal is considered a tropical climate.  It varies between hot and humid in the dry season and hot and damp in the rainy season.  It is generally flat, although the south-east region of Kedougou has more mountains and rolling hills than the rest of the country.

Kedougou during the dry season.

    A fun fact about Senegal's geography is that there is another country completely submerged within our borders.  Whereas Senegal was claimed by the French during colonization, the British claimed the Gambian river and surrounding land.  The Gambia is now the smallest country on the African continent and it's total land mass is about the same as Jamaica.  Although Senegal and the Gambia are two separate countries, the main differences between them tie into their colonial roots (i.e. French is a major language is Senegal, whereas English is taught in the Gambia); aside from this the culture and topography of the Gambia are very similar to southern Senegal.

There are several different climates within Senegal, and therefore different issues in each area.  Agriculture volunteers  in the north are battling deforestation and desertification.  This means there are less trees, making it easier for the encroaching Sahara Desert to extend it's limbs.  You might be asking, How do you just lose trees and vegetation?  People fell the trees in order to build, overgrazing animals is a problem, and slash and burn farming is also prevalent.  The soil is also very poor in the north (topsoil is non-existent), making farming extremely difficult.

Senegal has a large delta region as well.  This area is plagued by water salinity issues.  To help alleviate this PCVs have been planting mangroves, which not only helps absorb some of the salt in the water but attracts mussels that can be used for nutrition and commerce.  The downside, however, is that mangroves take about 15 years to reach full maturity.

mangrove seeds at a reforestation project.

Mangroves in Toubacouta.

Southern Senegal is extremely luscious in the rainy season, and it does not take much for plants to grow from July to October.  During the dry season, however, the rivers dry up and it takes a lot of watering to keep plants alive.


A big question I get from friends and family at home with The Lion King on the brain is, What is the wildlife like?  Sorry to disappoint, but Senegal's wildlife is pretty sparse.  We have an abundance of lizards and salamanders throughout the country, with a spattering of monkeys and baboons in the south and seemingly unlimited camels in the north.  I've been told there are hippos in Kedougou, but no one I know has ever seen one.  They do live in the Gambian River.  Senegal is actually known as "a bird country," which means we have lot's of beautiful birds. At one point Senegal had just as an abundant of a wildlife population, but since then poaching and desertification have taken their toll.  There are several animal reserves throughout the country, including a safari in the north-west, and a lion reserve near the delta, but they are used more as tourist attractions than natural habitats.

I hope that's a good introduction to Senegal! Feel free to ask any questions at all.  You can ask through Mrs. Boeri Boyce or email me directly at kimberly.a.boland@gmail.com.

JAM TAN! (Peace Only),
Kim

Bismillah! (Welcome!)

Hello to all of you!  I am very excited to start the school year off talking about Senegal and some of the Peace Corps work in country!  My name is Kim and I'm currently a Preventative Health Volunteer in the Kolda region of Senegal.  I just had my six month anniversary a couple days ago and I will be here until April 2015.  I am originally from Troy, NY, and I joined the Peace Corps my first year out of college.

For those of you who are just hearing about the Peace Corps, let me explain our goals and work.  We were founded in 1961 by John F. Kennedy with three goals:

1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

Peace Corps Senegal has volunteers working in several different sectors: health, agroforestry, sustainable agriculture, urban agriculture, and community economic development.

Now let me give you some super fun facts about Senegal:
It is located in West Africa.
It is a former French colony that gained independence in 1960.
French, along with Wolof, is the national language.  Pulaar, Mendinka, Jola, and Serere are also minority languages spoken.  I speak Pulaar, which is concentrated in the south-east and north of the country.  Mendinka has small holdings in the south east and a large area in the south-west, and Wolof, which is the national language, is spoken everywhere else.  The rest of the minority languages are found in pockets around the country.
Many people are subsistence farmers, with the main crops being rice, peanuts, corn, and millet.
Remittances are also very popular and most families have at least a distant member sending some sort of cash home.