January, 2001

All of the reports prior to this one have been descriptions of Shannon's life as she has told me about it in telephone conversations. This one, however, is very different because in November and December I spent seven weeks in Senegal with her. The beginning and end of that time was with other family members, staying in hotels, doing tourist things, and traveling the 400 miles between Dakar, Senegal’s capital, and Seno Palel, Shannon’s village. But for three full weeks I stayed with Shannon in her village getting first hand experience. I took lots of pictures, so in this 14^th Report I will tell of "Shannon in Senegal" by describing some of the pictures. [PHOTO INDEX]

Most of Shannon’s Peace Corps work during the period I was in Senegal was an AIDS Education Mural Project. I watched the project unfold through introductory meetings, training sessions, and seeing the murals appear on the outside walls of buildings. I particularly enjoyed spending time with the other volunteers working on the project and listening to them flip back and forth between English, Pulaar, and French as they joked about all the challenges in their lives -- they don’t even hear themselves do it. What a special group of people!  You can take a look at the website I created for Shannon's  AIDS Education Mural Project.