| December 12, 1999 Back at
the training center in Theis after the trainees' week in their villages, there were lots
of jokes about Matam as the least desirable assignment in all of Senegal. It is
ugly, dry, hot, and there’s nothing to do, but the best people live there.
(John thought it sounded like Minnesota.) There is so little there and so little to
do it is called the fecal art capital. Remember that piece of art that Shannon sent me for
my birthday? [LINK] And I had thought it to be so
pretty! Oh, nevermind. I remember now that the artist is from Theis, not Matam. Phew.
The new volunteers were making bets on each other as to who would ET first. Another
acronym. That means Early Termination …go home early because they can’t take it
anymore. The odds makers determined that none of the four new volunteers to Shannon's area
would ET, particularly Shannon. In fact they voted her the most likely to extend her
service for a third year because she is so happy there. That was good news for her parents
to hear!
Shannon has no thoughts of doing an ET. Her thoughts of
the future are about what she will do with her visitors from home when they come.
It sounds like Shannon is going to have a good holiday season at the Regional Center
before she heads out to her assignment in Matam. John asked if she was ready to do
something, meaning get to work at her actual volunteer assignment. She answered that
she is ready to NOT do anything for a while because these past three months she has been
constantly stimulated by everything around her, always learning and studying, and she is
exhausted and drained by the sensory overload. She is ready for a break and looking
forward to not having to concentrate 11 hours a day. She compared it to Army boot
camp.
She is at the end of the training period, on the verge of swearing in as a Peace Corps
Volunteer -- a huge step in her life. Getting there was big, making it through
training is an accomplishment, but soon the real thing ...
December 19
32 trainees got sworn in on Friday, December 17th.
Shannon will spend the first six months she is in Matam learning
Pular, and familiarizing herself with current Senegalese health practices, and just
drinking tea. After those first six months she will go around to the villages and
evaluate what most needs to be done. Her main job is to teach them how to teach
others about health practices, things such as washing their hands before eating which is
especially important because they eat with their hands. The usual practice now is to
dip their hands in water before they eat, but they all use the same bowl and they don't
use soap.
Shannon asked us what blood type she was. PC records say she is
positive, but her Red Cross card says she is negative. Wondering which one it really
is, I emphatically said that she is negative and she'd better get the records straight,
because a transfusion of positive blood would be bad. I don't even want to think
about her having a need for a blood transfusion over there!
December 22
Shannon called from the Regional Center in
Ndjioum. She likes it there a lot. The last time she said it was a happy
place; this time she called it such a homey place. If only it weren't so far from
her village. She'll be there for 4-5 days, at least until after Christmas, and
probably for New Year's.
The weather at the Regional Center is lovely, around 75 degrees, 85 at the peak heat of
the day, and cool at night. They sleep on the roof of the center under mosquito netting in
sleeping bags.
There are two groups of people there, her group of Rural Health Care volunteers and the
SEDs. What are SEDs, you ask? So did I. Shannon tosses acronyms
around like crazy, seemingly forgetting that there is a world other than where she
is. SEDs are Small Enterprise Development volunteers. They have such
cushy assignments that all of them will have electricity and most of them will have running
water in their compounds. Those capitalists have it the best everywhere, it seems.
One of the health care workers, on the other hand, who is
assigned in a village down south has a 3 1/2 hour bike ride to the nearest paved road, and
she has to carry her bike through a river along the way. Not only that, she has
"language issues." What happens if she needs an appendectomy, I
asked. Actually, one PCV just recently needed to be medivac'd out, and horse carts
work quite well -- except during rainy season. Oh, good. I had thought there
might be cause for concern.
John asked Shannon to say something in Pulaar, and she replied with something that
sounded like "nom ba da." It sounded very African. That was "how are
you?" She only knows greetings so far. Some of the volunteers are already as fluent
in Pulaar as she is in French because they arrived fluent in French and started right in
on Pulaar at the beginning of training.
A pattern of adjustment has been observed over time with the
PCVs. The first six months will be the most difficult when she isn’t yet acclimated
to the lifestyle and can’t communicate well. There will be ups and downs, and then
after a big dip of discouragement at around month six when many of the PCVs quit,
everything falls in to place. They are forbidden to take any vacation days during the
first 3 months and highly recommended not to take any the first six months. I certainly
want Shannon to adjust as well and as soon as possible. That’s what she went there to
do. But that rules out a visit from her brother and sister in March.
It would be too stressful to have visitors during the adjustment phase
because she is working so hard to learn the new culture herself without having to take
care of visitors. She has had to learn the Senegalese way to talk, to eat, to pee, to
shop, to walk – everything, just to fit in there. There’s more to translating
than just words.
How do they walk differently? Slower and dragging the feet. If
you’ve ever walked with Shannon you know that that is quite an adjustment!
She is like the "unfrozen caveman lawyer" in the Saturday
Night Live skit experiencing "strange ways that frighten and confuse him,"
except Shannon sounds neither frightened nor confused.
Shannon is adjusting, though. She is getting used to a minimum of 5
children following her all the time, just for the novelty of her being white. In November
when she visited Seno Palel, the village where she will live, she was the first toubab
(white person) that most of the people had ever seen. At one point when she was walking
down the road a little girl of around 4 saw her and realized that they were walking in the
same direction and she ran away screaming and crying in fear as though Satan was chasing
her. Another girl of around 8 shook her hand and kept repeating "toubab – toubab
– toubab" in total amazement. Later Shannon thought about it and wondered if she
was perhaps a bit retarded because there is a lot of inbreeding. A common Pulaar phrase is
"cousins are made for cousins." Marrying cousins is considered a very good thing
because it keeps the family together.
I requested that Shannon send me a map of her area, even one she makes herself. She
said that she would have lots of time to do that in the next six months, and lots of time
to read and write letters. I just hope it doesn’t get to fecal art.
December 24
When Shannon called I asked what she was doing on
Christmas Eve there. Someone’s parents had sent lots of Christmas decorations, and
they were decorating the place. All of the volunteers in the region were there for
Christmas except the Buddhists and those that had gone home for Christmas. There will be
13 sleeping on the roof of the PC Regional Center on Christmas Eve.
Unlike the last conversation when Shannon was almost giddy, she was
quite introspective on Christmas Eve. The two conversations on December 24th
and 25th were the most normal conversations we’ve had since she left.
We just chatted casually and shared Annandale gossip in a leisurely manner.
She was missing the volunteers assigned to other regions with
whom she had just spent the 3 arduous months of training. They developed Franglais
(French/English) together. They shared a language.
We asked if she was glad to be there, and she said yes. It’s
very hard, but it feels right.
I finally remembered to ask what she wears. It is like the pictures we’ve seen: a
tank top and a piece of colorful fabric wrapped around her waist like a sarong. It sounds
quite comfortable. Although some of the women go topless, it is very immodest for knees to
show. Sara asked if she goes barefoot, and she said, "Never! There are too many
parasites!" At one time 8 of the 32 volunteers had "larval migrants" that
burrow into the feet, a parasite that you can even see under the skin. They eventually
die, and although there is a cream that helps accelerate the life cycle so they go away
faster, it causes even more pain. So Shannon always wears sandals. Jefferson said he would
wear boots. Oh, no – then you get fungus, and that’s not good either. Foot care
is very important. Just that day she had bought a pumice stone. The recommended procedure
is to soak the feet and use pumice and lotion daily. Lotion is provided by Peace Corps
because it is so important. I’m just glad that PC has been in Senegal for 37 years to
figure these things out before Shannon got there.
Cira, the second year PCV in Shannon's area, told Shannon that she is
very lucky that she will be part of the women’s group in her village. When
Shannon spent the week in Seno Palel in November Cira observed that she was eating with
the women. Cira eats with the men in her village, but they obviously don’t accept her
as a man, so they don’t know what to do with her socially, and she really has no
group to associate with. I was so happy to hear that Shannon will have Senegalese women
friends soon.
In Senegal there is strong and universal belief in magic. During a
conversation in Theis with 5 young men, Shannon’s host brother and 4 of his friends,
all university educated, explained to her that much of what happens is due to magic. For
instance, there are people who stop the rain. One day Shannon heard the name announced on
the radio of the person who had stopped the rain that day. Shannon allows for the
possibility that they might be right.
There are two causes of illness, physical and supernatural, and a Senegalese person
always goes to a traditional healer first to determine which kind of illness it is before
seeking the appropriate treatment. And even some physical illnesses are only treatable by
traditional medicine. They deal with AIDS in a way that has fewer side effects than
western medicine, and there’s a special leaf that diabetics put in their tea.
Their reality is just totally different than what she has
experienced in her first 23 years. Their culture has existed since the beginning of
humanity, and perhaps in Senegal, though not in the USA, things do happen because of
spells. Senegal is just different than the US in every way. Shannon is looking forward to
not being so aware of the differences all the time, just accepting them and living the
Senegalese way.
Shannon mentioned a Pulaar-English Dictionary that we could get for her from
Amazon.com, and while we were on the phone we ordered it. We didn’t think to have
them send it right to her. We should have!
December 25th -- Christmas Day
Shannon’s big announcement was that Cira's reported that
Fati Mata, her pregnant sister-in-law, had delivered a baby girl -- and named it after
Shannon! Her name is Hawa, Shannon's Pulaar name. Baby Hawa seems to be a
healthy baby, quite likely to live, and Cira gave Shannon permission to get attached to
her.
While we were on the telephone our houseguest, Sara’s friend Madeleine, a French
instructor at the U, walked in and spoke to Shannon in French, and Shannon replied in
French. When we asked if her French sounded Senegalese, Shannon broke in with the
declaration that she knows that her grammar is appalling in any continent. Madeleine said
that her accent is a combination of American and Senegalese.
It was afternoon in Senegal when we talked, and they had spent their
Christmas day shopping, making cookies, and exchanging gifts. There were 17 people in the
gift exchange.
Shannon opened her gifts from us while she was on the telephone,
thanking us with enthusiasm. She appreciated the book, the audio cassettes (including
Titanic), and the hair ties. Her family had wanted to braid her hair, but she didn’t
have enough ties at the time, and now she does. (So apparently she hasn’t shaved her
head – yet). She was excited about the pocket calendar (a freebie from Hallmark that
I always put in their stockings), the dried fruit, Corn Nuts, and the pencils. Oh, and
Kraft Macaroni and Cheese – always good! She was excited about the Xmas pen
because there isn’t much Xmas cheer in Muslim Senegal, even though the pen will dry
out in two days there. Not much transfers from the States, she said.
Sara was a little surprised about the things she was excited
about. Shannon replied that there isn’t much holiday cheer there, just Muslims who
are cranky from fasting for Ramadan. In London there is a support group for Muslims who
need help dealing with Christmas cheer.
She liked the thermometer with the compass on it. The compass
will be good (if you’ve ever gone anywhere with Shannon you know that it will
be a good thing!), but the thermometer only goes to 120 degrees – not high enough.
Sara suggested that we send her a food thermometer.
She loved the cassettes that John had made from some of
Sara’s CDs, and he asked for specific requests for others. Just NO Bob Marley,
please. She hears enough of him because he is worshiped over there. Sometimes things are
just so surreal she gets weirded out. Back home while the four stateside Bishops
were gathered around the speakerphone talking to Shannon in Senegal, John stepped back and
photographed us with our new digital camera from Santa.
All the new volunteers are preparing to get their huts ready. One day several of
them went out looking for a metal pot to boil water, and they got to watch it being made from
beginning to end from a dirt mold.
Shannon’s hut will have mud walls, grass roof, and a cement
floor. The people at the training center are starting a periodical called
"Better Huts and Gardens" to assist future volunteers. Seriously.
December 31, 1999 - New Year's Eve
Shannon called on New Year's Eve from the Regional Center in Ndjioum
after three days in her village. All the new volunteers were excited and full of
stories about their village experiences.
The trip from Seno Palel to the Regional Center took over 9 hours on
public transportation, the same trip that three days earlier took three hours when Craig
drove her to the village in his car. Craig is the PCVL, the Peace Corps Volunteer
Leader, who lives at the Regional Center. Shannon has pride in being "the end
of the line," that is, the person farthest from the Regional Center, because
"all roads lead to Shannon." That's actually true, but there's only one
road in northern Senegal, period.
I was pleased to hear the proximity of the other volunteers to
Shannon. Tanisha is just a 20-minute bike-ride away, Cira is a 1 ¼ hour bike ride,
Tammy a 1 ¾ hour bike ride, and Derek is a bit farther. Tanisha and Cira will share
a health post while Shannon is alone at hers, but in a year she will have an apprentice
PCV who will carry on the work when Shannon leaves.
Several weeks ago she was issued a very nice mountain bike, plus
a lock, helmet, tool kit, and water bottle. So far she has visited one of the other
PCVs each day she has been in the village.
To get to the Regional Center in Ndjioum on public transportation
Shannon biked to Tanisha's village where they took a bus to Ouro Sogui, the village that
has the Gar (transportation hub). There they waited for two hours for the bus to
fill before it headed for Ndjioum, and there were numerous stops along the way. They
stopped for 5:00 p.m. prayer and again at sunset to break the fast. And they stopped
when the driver wanted to make a call at the telecenter along the way. Each stop was
20-40 minutes, and the the bus is hot, dusty, uncomfortable, and crowded with cranky
Muslims who are fasting for Ramadan.
Shannon's hut isn't ready so she is living in a room in the compound.
She said her whole family is GREAT and she especially loves her sister-in-law, Fati
Mata, the mother of her namesake, Hawa. Fati Mata also has another child, an
18-month-old girl named Isita, and Isita too is an exceptional child, very cute and
ticklish. Unlike most of the other toddlers, Isita giggled when she first saw
Shannon's white face. Baby Hawa is so alert and large and healthy she looks like a
2-month-old child at only 4 weeks. I told Shannon she sounded like a grandmother.
The Daff compound (Shannon's family's name is Daff) now has three Hawa
Daffs: the baby, Shannon, and the sister who has been assigned to help Shannon with
her Pulaar. That Hawa doesn't speak French, but her 12-year-old daughter, Cira,
does. Yes, Cira is also the name of the PCV that Shannon has connected with.
Too few names in Senegal, it seems! Cira Daff does much of the translating for
Shannon, and when she gets stuck they go over to the third French-speaking person in the
village, a 20-year-old woman ...named Cira. That's three people in the whole village
of 3000 that Shannon can communicate with right now ...in the language she has learned in
the last three months. But another PCV, Stephanie, has not even one French-speaking
person in her village, and her Pulaar is no better than Shannon's. This first six
months is still going to be difficult for Shannon while she learns Pulaar, but with three
French-speaking people nearby it will be far better than I had feared.
Every day Shannon sees progress being made on her hut. The cement
floor is now in place, and the walls have the mud layer on them. The walls are made
with mud bricks and then "painted" with more mud. It sounds sort of like
mud stucco. The roof is made with bundles of long grass, and she'll be able to hang
things from the ceiling and put things on the mud walls with nails. Many of the
other PCVs put maps on the wall.
There are two wooden doors. One leads to the outside and is
covered by structure for shade, and the other door leads to the enclosed latrine area.
The "toilet" is a hole in the ground that connects to a pipe deeper in
the ground, and it is covered with a bag of sand to keep the flies out. It doesn't
smell at all. And the shower is a high bucket with holes in it. There
are no windows in the hut, but she hopes to get screen doors so she can leave the wood
doors open.
The bed will be a raised platform with a foam pad. Some
people just sleep on a pad on the floor, but it is important to be raised up in case the
roof leaks during the rainy season.
Cira's hut (that's the PCV Cira) is like Club Med, Shannon
said. She even has electricity! Seno Palel doesn't have electricity in the
whole village, but it does have a faucet, not just wells like some of the villages.
(Actually the faucet isn't working right now, but it should be fixed soon.) Shannon
was reminiscing one day about the four months she spend in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, when she
thought she was living in primitive conditions because her apartment had no telephone.
The compound has three cement buildings and 4 huts, plus
Shannon's hut which is special because of the latrine area. The 3000 inhabitants of
Seno Palel live in about a mile square, often sleeping 8 to a room. Shannon has
decided that she will not allow the Senegalese people in her hut because she will need
some privacy. Privacy and being alone are foreign to Senegalese, especially wanting
to sleep alone, but she has decided to hang on to that American habit.
Shannon doesn't know exactly how large her hut is, but it is
considerably smaller than Tanisha's which is 4m-x-4m (12'x12'). It is situated about
20-30' from the other huts in the compound.
The Senegalese women have extremely strong necks and arms. Their
necks are strong from carrying a baignoire full of water on their heads. A baignoire
is a tub shaped like a WOK with a flat bottom, and some of them are huge. Shannon
wants to learn the skill of pulling water from the well so that she can do it
herself. The Muslim villagers don't even drink water during Ramadan, but when
Shannon wants to bike to a fellow PCV's village she needs water for the trip, and she
doesn't want to have to ask the fasting villagers. The women's arms are strong from
pounding the millet, a skill that the PCVs are not allowed to do, though Shannon doesn't
know why, whether it is deemed too physically difficult, or beneath them, or what.
Shannon is getting used to being such a center of attention. One
day she walked to Fati Mata's house, a 5-10 minute walk, and by the time she got there
there were 30-40 children following her. She is the only white person in Seno Palel,
and although there was another PCV there 12 years ago, she is definitely the first white
face that the younger children have seen. Shannon has found that when she is away
from the Peace Corps centers that her own head jerks in surprise too when she sees a
toubab.
The Senegalese people are very touchy people, though not huggy.
When they sit next to you it is not uncommon to drape an arm or leg over yours.
They talk very close to your face, and do lots of side hugging but no frontal
hugging. One of the Senegalese instructors told of visiting America and wondering
what was the matter with him that no one wanted to touch him. When Shannon was in
Theis one tiny little girl always tried to lick Shannon -- once she got over being
frightened of her white skin. The little kids always want to touch her skin and
especially her hair.
Shannon has commented several times about what beautiful teeth
the Senegalese people have, very white and perfectly straight. They have a special
kind of stick that they rub on their teeth in place of a toothbrush, and some people just
walk around with one in their mouth like a toothpick.
I asked Shannon directly if she'd had any health problems that she just
hadn't told us about, and she said no. She hasn't had any parasites in either her
feet or her gut. One volunteer in the room with Shannon when we asked that said that
she has been there a year and hasn't been sick at all -- yet.
One of the PCVs had just returned from the States because she had been
medivac'd out for health reasons, and she shared with them the big news about the new
singing star named Ricky Martin. I was happy to hear Shannon will be getting a
subscription to Newsweek. That will help her keep up with significant happenings in
the developed world. Like new singing stars, I guess.
January 1, 2000 - New Year's Day
Shannon brought in the new year/decade/century/millennium on the roof of
the Peace Corps Regional Center with a number of other volunteers. They had fireworks (on
the ground, not the roof), but other than that there was no huge celebration. They
didn't know exactly when midnight was, because when they turned on the radio all they
could get was a Wolof comedian, so they just counted down themselves. The sky was
perfectly clear, no moon, and the stars looked like the scene in the movie Titanic.
Shannon was heading back to Seno Palel the next day, so the next time we
hear from her it will be from the telecenter in Sinthiou-Bamambe. Now she is
beginning the real Peace Corps experience, living in the remote rural village with
Senegalese people.
Tenth Report |