Baby Crazy

Little Sister #4 is Here!

Well, the biggest news in my life is that I'm a big sister yet again! The Diaw family has welcomed their fourth beautiful baby girl into the world on July 9, 2012. Let's rewind...

I had gotten back to my site on the eighth, after having been away for a bit for Senegal's huge Fourth of July celebration down south. The morning of the ninth, I was waking up and getting going with my morning. I told my mom that I was going to use the gas burner in the pantry to heat up some water... (I eat lunch and dinner with my family, but I eat breakfast on my own. I usually eat America food like granola bars or oatmeal for breakfast. This was an oatmeal morning). So I told my mom that I was using the gas and she said okay.

A few minutes later I went to get my hot water and realized that someone had locked the pantry. Kind of a problem because there was a burning fire on the gas burner in there... uh oh... So I ran out and saw my mom walking away from the house. I ran after her to grab her key and unlock the pantry. No big deal, but kind of funny since my mom knew I had the gas on. Anyway...

That afternoon, one of my aunts pops her head in my room and says, "Mariama, your mom had a baby," to which I responded, "What?! When? Where is she? What? BOY OR GIRL?!" I was clearly much more excited than anyone else. So I asked my aunt if she would walk with me to the health post to go see the baby. My aunt then told me that she couldn't go because it would be bad luck. This confused me because apparently it wasn't bad luck for me to go see the baby. My aunt then pointed to her own protruding belly and I learned that it must be bad luck for a pregnant woman to go see a woman who had just given birth at the health post. Ya learn something new everyday.

So I enlisted my little sister Seyni (age- around 5) to walk with me to go see our mom. We went in and saw her and met our new little sister! At that point, she didn't yet have a name, because names aren't given out until a week after a baby is born at their baptism. Mom looked good and seemed very calm, which is pretty much how it goes here. She said to me, "Mariama, this morning when you needed to get the key from me... I was having the baby then". And she hadn't mentioned anything nor did she seem even slightly flustered. Very cool and collected, Mom.

 A few hours old

My new little baby

A week later, the Diaw house held an ngenti (Muslim baptism) for the little one. I had three friends come visit to help represent the Toubab presence in new little sister's life. Shout out to Jenn, Mac and Bonnie for coming over for the ngenti and helping peel the thousands of onions! Sidebar- we were made to put onions on our heads to stop from crying. Interesting.

Jenn with an onion on her head

Crying onion-heads

Thanks for the sweat and tears, guys!

In the morning, the Imam (village religious leader) and a large group of old men came over very early and blessed the baby. Then her name was revealed: Maam Rama (pronounced like Mom). Then there was lot of cooking, as usual. Then eating. At one point, a group of women handed out pieces of fabric and money to the important people in Maam Rama's life. I was shocked to be presented a few meters of fabric! Of course, all of the women made me dance before I was able to take my present, but it was still really special. 

Just got my special fabric!

Then my mom made her grand entrance. At baptisms, the mom is usually MIA until the afternoon, when she appears fully decked out in a beautiful outfit and makeup (well, not really our idea of beautiful makeup, but still). My mom looked great. Also worth noting, is that the baby's outfit isn't at all significant, but they do get their head shaved and eyebrows drawn on for the event. Go figure.

Then that was really it. Overall, a pretty chill occasion for Senegal standards. 

Beautiful mama

Pretty hair

Mom and Maam Rama

Look at that shaved head!

Sisters!

Don't cry, little one!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Before I leave, I just want to send out a HUGEEEEE thank you to everyone who has donated to my projects lately!! I am so grateful for such thoughtful, generous friends and family! Thank you so much to Clare Hayner, Aunt Kit, Dug and Peggy Levin, my Nan, Aunt Susan and Uncle Charlie, Uncle Bobby, Aunt Anne Marie and my parents!

I am so grateful to all of you! And thank you to my love Kristin for the wonderful package that I received! 

As always, I love and miss all of you! 

Desperate Plea from a Poor PCV

Hey Friends and Family!

No time for a long post today, but just a small request... Check out this website for an amazing Girls' Camp that a bunch of us PCVs will be conducting in September. It's a camp for middle-school aged girls called Camp Gem Sa Bopp, which means "Believe in Yourself". I didn't get a chance to participate last year because I was just getting going with my work, but I'm thrilled to participate this year.

I'm planning on bringing a few of the girls from my village. It's going to be an unbelievable opportunity for these girls and for the PCVs involved as well.

So check out the website and (if you're feeling super philanthropic) make a donation. Even the smallest amount will help me reach my goal!

Thanks, Everyone! The link is below:

http://campgemsabopp.wordpress.com/about/

Every little bit helps!!

Trees, Birthday, and Continuing Girls' Education!

Greetings, Friends and Family!

It hasn't been too long since my last entry (Crazy, I know. Me up to date on blogging? Whattt?), so I don't have a ton to report on...

I'm Becoming a Tree-Hugger...

I've spent the past two and a half-ish weeks in-village, so I was able to get a lot of work done; which is awesome, considering I'd just been away on vacation. The big news to report from Mbeuleukhe is that... MY TREES ARE GROWING!!!!! My parents and my fellow volunteer friends in Senegal can attest to the fact that I have been FREAKING OUT over my 1,000 tree sacks that I seeded in April. I've been so worried that they weren't going to be watered while I was away, but luckily the guardian at the school totally hooked me up and watered like a pro. I can't even describe my happiness and relief! Now let's just hope that they keep growing once they're all actually in the ground. That will be the real challenge.

My wonderful, wonderful trees!

The front group died a bit here

Look at this beautiful moringa!

Let's Send Some Girls to School, Yo!

The other main thing going on in my world at the moment is that I began conducting a yearly scholarship we have here in PC Senegal, the Michele Sylvester Scholarship. Created for a former volunteer who was particularly devoted to girls' education, the scholarship supports nine middle school-aged girls per village, and is definitely the largest-scale project in PC Senegal. We focus on girls in the middle school age group, because that is the age that many girls start to drop out of school.

The scholarship pays all nine girls' school entrance fee for the next school year; and three of the girls win the "grand prize," around $30, to buy school supplies for the next school year. To send nine girls to school for a whole school year and to give three of them the "grand prize," only comes to $180; which seems like such a small amount by American standards, but is a huge amount in a Senegalese village.

These past two weeks, I've worked with the school in my village to choose the girls (3 per grade in the 3 "middle school" grades, totaling 9), interviewed the girls, gotten teacher recommendation letters, visited the girls' homes to access their need, etc. In July, I'll submit all of the forms to a committee to help chose the three grand prize winners. It's a really rewarding project, especially since I get to know and see the girls when I'm at the school; and in September, we hold a girls' camp for all of the winners.

Ndimo, one of the scholarship girls

My Mbeuleukhe girlfriends

She lives right next to my compound

Aloucky, who was participated next year

I'm doing well with all of my work for the scholarship at this point. The only thing I need to work on as of right now is fundraising; which is where all of you lovely people come in...

 If you would like to help support the lovely ladies of Mbeuleukhe in staying in school, please click on the link below to make a donation and MAKE SURE TO WRITE "PCV Fae Patton- Michele Sylvester Scholarship" IN THE COMMENT BOX! This ensures that the donations will go to the girls in my village, and if there is any excess money, then it will go in the general scholarship fund for girls in other villages. Thanks in advance to anyone who donates!!!

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=685-CFD

 **Make sure to write "PCV Fae Patton- Michele Sylvester Scholarship" in the comment box. THIS IS VERY, VERY IMPORTANT!!**

My First (and last) Birthday In-Village...

So I entered Senegal at age 22, and I just celebrated my 24th birthday in my village. That means that next year for the big 2-5, I'll be back in Americaaaa! Woo!

My birthday was verrrrry low-key because people in Senegal don't celebrate birthdays, so I didn't tell anyone it was my b-day. Jenn came to hang out in my village and we did some work on the scholarship program. I need to say a big thank you to everyone who called or texted all the way for the USA! Thanks, people!! It made my day!

And obviously I was missing my birthday buddies, Kyle and Dani. Can't wait until next year when we'll all be togetherrr! Last year, I had my host family kids film a video saying "Happy Birthday from Senegal," and they still to this day will randomly say it aloud. Recently my sister Bassine made a drawing and asked me to write "Happy Birthday from Senegal" on the bottom. So though she did not know that it actually was my b-day time, she was right on schedule.

"Happy Birthday from Senegal"

And I'll throw in one of Seyni on my ipod

That's All for Now...

So I'm heading back to village tomorrow. My host mom is verrrry pregnant so there could possibly be a new baby brother or sister when I get back! I'm really excited! Everything has been really good in-village. Now that I'm in my second year of service, I feel like everything is slowly starting to fall together and work is actually happening.

As always, I miss all of you and appreciate all of the love I've received here. And a very Happy Fathers' Day to all the dads out there, including my amazing Dad, Pop, and all of my uncles! Love you all!

A Lovely Little Italian Getaway

So last time I blogged, I had just reached my year-mark in Senegal and celebrated it by planting 1,000 trees in my village. Needless to say, my friends and I decided that it was time to get out of Senegal for a bit and relax. So what's the best kind of vacation for a couple of poor, smelly PCVs? Why, a Mediterranean cruise followed by a couple weeks traveling around Italy, of course!

Part One: I'm on a BOAT!

My friend Jenn and I had been planning on going on a cruise for a while, and then two of our other friends (Nicky and Hailey) decided to join in! Obviously, we were looking forward to leisurely cruising along, seeing the sights and to all of the amenities of the ship: the plush beds, hot showers, pools, hot tubs, and the buffet. But, as per usual, Senegal decided to make the start of our vacation a little rocky.

First, Jenn and my flight to Rome (where we were leaving from) was cancelled. Then we had to wait about three and half hours to get our bags back at the airport. The next day, Jenn and I were able to get out and actually made it to Rome. But Nicky and Hailey's flight out (only supposed to leave about 45 minutes after ours did) was late, so they missed their connection flight and we have no way of contacting them to know what was happening. THEN, my bag didn't arrive in Rome but decided it would rather hang around in Lisbon. Normally, I wouldn't mind too much if a bag didn't arrive on time, but when you're leaving for a cruise the next morning and you are a dirty, nasty PCV who has been looking forward to wearing real clothes for months... you get a little sad about it. Luckily, the bag made it to Rome the next morning just in time for us to grab it and hightail it to the port.

So our trip to the cruise was pretty crazy, but the actual cruise was perfect. We went to Sicily, Kusadashi (Turkey), Athens, Crete and then back to Rome. I won't go through an entire blow-by-blow of the trip, but I'll some it up in a few sentences...

There is a lot of pollen in Sicily; not the best place for someone with allergies. Turkish men are certainly charming, and Ephesus is definitely worth seeing. The Parthenon is currently undergoing renovations, so it was kind of disappointing right now; but I bet at other time it's spectacular. Crete is one of the most beautiful places in the world and I would happily live there forever.

My girls Nicky, Hailey and Jenn in Athens

What the Parthenon looks like a the moment

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful CRETE!

Crete was definitely our favorite

We could have lived there forever

So lovely

Yay!

We also managed to get a bridge-tour of the ship, where you can see where the captain works. Pretty cool!

View from the bridge. Not too shabby.

Me playing captain

Part Two: Viva Italia!

After our lovely cruise, we had one night in Rome with Nicky and Hailey and then they headed back to Senegal. Jenn and I decided to travel throughout Italy. We didn't get everywhere, but we saw some fabulous sights. Rome was first...

Jenn and I at the Colosseum

Trevi Fountain

After Rome, we made our way up to Florence. While we were there, we went on some amazing day-trips to Pisa and Chianti to do some wine-tasting! We were among lots of lovey-dovey couples and honeymooners, but Jenn and I didn't mind... we were too busy with all of the wine, olive oil and delicious cheese.

Florence

Whitest legs ever!

Gotta have a Leaning Tower photo

Pizza in Pisa!

Beautiful Chianti

With my vacation-wife, Jenn

We then traveled to Cinque Terre, one of the most gorgeous places in the world. Cinque Terre means "five villages," and the villages are situated around cliffs on the coast of Italy. Sadly, they experienced floods and mudslides this past October, so a lot of the area was damaged.

Normally, you're able to hike between all five of the villages, but most of the trails aren't operational at the moment. We were able to do one long hike between Monterosso and Vernazza, and then a little one from Manarola to Riomaggiore. That little hike is called Via dell'Amore, the Path of Love. People write or engrave their names on padlocks and then lock them throughout the path. It's a very cool sight, and the view of the water and houses from the path is beautifullll!

Riomaggiore, the first village. Lovely.

So pretty

Entrance to the Path of Love. Heart-locks.

The end of the Path of Love. So many padlocks.

Goofing during our longer hike.

Our last stop before heading back to Rome was Venice. Unfortunately we had pretty bad weather there, but it was still awesome seeing the gondolas!

Very cool to see this in real life

Just as awesome as you'd think it would be

Then we went back to Rome, checked out the Vatican and the Colosseum, ate our last amazing Italian meal and said goodbye to beautiful Italy (I think I've written the word 'beautiful' about 20 times already in this entry, but it's true). 

Now we're back in Senegal. One great thing that happened since we went away was that we reached the glorious half-way mark in our service, so we're on the downward slope now! I can't believe that I'm over halfway done my service. Definitely looking forward to what this next year will bring.

I need to send huge shout outs to my Aunt Anne Marie and my parents for their vacation gifts, and a thank you to the Edwards clan for the awesome package that I received when I got back from vacation. Loving it! Also, thanks for my dear friends Amanda and Derek for the b-day card and Kyle for the letter! It's always nice getting mail, so thanks!

And thank you to everyone who actually reads this and keeps up to date on my craziness over here. It's nice to know that people care what's going on :)

Love you all and happy belated Mother's Day to the mamas out there!

Manure, Scorpions, Saying Goodbye, and Dancing Ladies

So it seems like once again it's been forever since I've written a blog post and I have SO MUCH to write about... so here goes!

The Month My Life Revolved Around Cow Poop!

My month of March was crazyyyyy! Working in gardening and tree planting in an area like my site is very time sensitive, and if you want to do any tree plantings, then March is the time to fill the tree sacks. This involves making a mixture of half cow manure/half sand and filling sacks, then placing them in beds to get watered and chill for a few weeks before you seed them.

Sounds really easy, right? Well for the most part it is. Unless you're a crazy person like myself and my friends, Jenn and Erin. The three of us travelled around from each of our three villages to the next, filling countless sacks. In my village, we filled 1,000 sacks.

The most difficult part of this process was actually finding good manure. Now, I live in a place with plenntyyyy of cow poop; but it's mainly the big, hard, dried-out cow pies. I needed soft, decomposing cow manure without any goat poop or horse poop mixed in. (Too much talk about animal poop? Sorry, but welcome to my life) So that was the hardest part, but luckily one of my host dad's friends had some nice manure that I could use. Success!

Jenn and Erin helping collect poop

Erin and I digging some beds for sacks

And Justin came by to help, too!

My biggest worry was that the staff/students wouldn't water the tree sacks after we filled them. I had to leave for about a week after they were filled and I was panicking! But I was so happy and relieved once I returned to see that they had been watered. Then this past week, about 2 weeks after they were filled, I seeded the tree sacks. Now I just have to pray that things actually grow! Yikes!

The Infamous Scorpion Sting...

I must say of all of the crazy things that could happen to a person here in Senegal, I neverrr would have thought that I would be the one to get stung by a scorpion. It just seems like too crazy a thing to happen to you; but of course I was wrong.

Here, scorpions only come out at night and are attracted to light (I have no idea about scorpions anywhere else, so this might be true of others as well, but I have no clue). At this point in time, we were in Erin's village working on her tree sacks. It was after dinner and we were hanging out on a mat on the ground waiting for tea. The three of us toubabs were laying on our backs on the mat just chatting.

All of a sudden, all of her host family on the other end of the mat started scrambling around shouting "Scorpion!" So, obviously, we started scrambling too. I had been laying on my back with my knees bent. To stand up, I sat up and put my left hand on the ground to push myself up. Well, in the midst of standing I suddenly felt a searing pain on the outer side of my left hand and realized that I'd put my hand down either right on or right in front of the scorpion as it was running across the mat.

I never even actually saw my attacker, because Erin's host brother killed it with his shoe and then a cat promptly carried it away to eat it. Womp womp. But damn, did that hurt! I kept trying to shake my hand around because when I kept it still it stung so badly. Erin's host sister tied a piece of fabric on my forearm (to keep the pain from spreading? not sure), and that did kind of make it feel better. They kept telling me to go to the health post to get a shot (of what? again, not sure) but I declined. It kept hurting all night and then the next day I had pins and needles for the whole day. It definitely stunk and I feel really bad for anyone who ever has to go through that, but at least now I have a story!

Goodbye Party

As I've mentioned, we're in the midst of saying goodbye to four of our dear Djolof volunteers:  Kim, Ann Marie, Emily and Justin. So while all of us were still in the same place, we had a nice night where we were able to say goodbye and have one final party all together.

We slaved in the kitchen all day and came up with some pretty impressive stuff, considering the limited options.

The party wasn't too sad yet, but it's getting sadder every day. Emily and Kim are now in Dakar getting ready to fly out, and Ann Marie and Justin are getting ready to leave too. It's going to be so weird!!

Village Ladies Workin' It

My village, Mbeuleukhe, recently had a grand opening for our lycee (high school). Events included a soccer match, a sabaar (basically a big dance party), a wrestling match and soiree for the students. I took advantage of the sabaar and tried to take a bunch of  photos to give people a good idea of what dancing looks like here. And I have one awesome video, but it's taking my Senegal internet about a million years to upload it, so I'll just have to put that up when I have faster internet. 

The ladies of Mbeuleukhe making their grand entrance

It looks like a mid-air lunge, but it's dancing!

Flashing some knee!

I love the blue hat

In the zone

The New Freshman Have Arrivedddd!

As our dear four friends are getting ready to leave, we were happy to get to meet our new Djolof volunteers who will be installing in-site in May! We are expanding a little bit with six newbies: Sophia, Leeya, Jack, Erandy, Katie and Margaret. I was lucky enough to be present when they took their blindfolds off on the big map and received their site announcements. They just spent a few days visiting the beautiful Djolof region and hopefully they all loved it!

We were all very excited to meet the new Djolof volunteers and can't wait till they're done training and are here full-time!

Switching from Bonjour to Buongiorno!

One of the reasons why I've been so crazily busy lately has been because I have a vacation coming up at the end of the month! Jenn and I are getting the heck out of the desert and heading to Italy! We're starting off going on a cruise with two of our other friends and then bumming around Italy for a while. So, so, so excitedd!!! So if you don't hear anything from me for quite a while, don't be alarmed. I'll probably be eating so much pasta and pizza that I won't be able to write another post for a while :)

If anyone has any good Italy tips or info, then please send it my way!

Lots of Thank Yous!

I've been a very lucky PCV and have been receiving some awesome goodies lately! I need to send out some huge thank yous...

• Jen Bower Wisniewski- Thank you so much! I loved all of the treats, and have been using the spices every time I cook!
• Ruth and Bobby Gerris- You're the best! Those soup mixes/pasta sides are amazing! And all of my friends were very excited to see skittles :)
• Anne Marie- Thanks once again for some lovely treats. I can't wait to use the pudding cake mix!
• My Caiter Tater Tots- way to send a postcard all the way from the Philippines. I can't believe it actually made it!
• And to my dear parents who managed to pack all of my cute America clothes into a package for my vacation- thank you, thank you, thank youuu!!

And before I leave let me send out a huge HAPPY ANNIVERSARY shoutout to my mom and dad. And I'm also wishing a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mama!

That's all for now! There's a good chance that I'll be out of touch for a while, but I'll try to get online if I can at all. Miss all of you! This time next year I'll probably be in Dakar waiting to fly back home. So weird!!