Scorpions, african cave piders, and giant bird nests, OH MY!!

I know it's been a while since I've blogged but things have been feeling so much more normal to the extent that I have to remind myself that my stories may be new to all of you. Trying to piece together the last few weeks is going to be fun. As many of you know, early-mid April, I took a trip to a different region for Passover and then continued on to a different region for a summit for all the sustainable agriculture volunteers. The journey to the Kolda region was a beautiful but long and cramped setplace (seven seater car) ride. While the cars are meant for 7 passengers, they usually squeeze in an extra two. I had brought my cat with me so it felt even more crowded and hot with her cat carrier sitting on my lap. Overall, I loved meeting so many new volunteers and I was getting excited about Passover. There were only 5 or 6 Jewish volunteers but we opened it up to the rest of our volunteer family and we ended up with about 20 people. Before leaving Kedougou, I had planned ahead to get costumes made to act out the Passover Rap and to print out several scripts for people. We each brought our own elements to the seder and altered what ever necessary dietary elements we needed to to fit the food availability here. We all agreed that we would adopt the Sephardic tradition so that we could make rice dishes. I was in charge of making the three matzas (which I haven't done since kindergarden), and as per my own tradition back in the States, I made about 30 deviled eggs (which were a big hit). One of the other volunteers led the seder using a basic haggada. Since there were so many people who were not Jewish and who were quite unfamiliar with the holiday, we tried to stick with the basics. We passed the haggada around and in turn read the transliterated hebrew and their English meanings. I was so excited when we finally got to the Maggid (the retelling of the story of Exodous) because this was MY part. I had everyone follow me outside and seven volunteers chose from among the different characters from the Passover Rap; they were provided with costumes accordingly. Everyone was so enthusiastic and EVERYONE LOVED IT!! We acted out the story and the non-Jews gave particularly wonderful reviews saying that it really helped them to understand the meaning behind this holiday. Mission accomplished.

The following evening, I stayed for the Easter celebration whose theme was “Bollywood Easter”. We dressed up in shimmery Bollywood-esque costumes, cooked indian food, and we just watched a marathon of Bollywood films. I can't imagine this event being more fun! The following day I missed the Easter Egg hunt. The eggs were filled with silly instructions such as, “trade shirts with the first person you see”. I would have loved to have witnessed this event. Sadly, it was time to begin my journey up to Kaolak. I planned to stop in Tamba for two nights before the summit so that I could get my cat fixed on the way. I brought my cat to the vet and unfortunately, the vet gave her too much anesthetic and she never woke up. It was so so sad. I continued on to Kaolak for summit. Between watching my second cat die and a poorly organized (not to mention boring and uninvolved) it was mostly awful. We had 30 volunteers crowded into what is inarguably the worst regional house of Senegal in the grossest city of Senegal and to make matters worse, the water was out for 3 days. I, along with a dozen other volunteers had our tents set up on the roof to sleep at night but some people wanted to party until 'god-knows-what-hour-of-the-morning' so sleep was limited and respect was not there. The two silver linings were A) the hedgehog that I found running (or rather - rolling) around the roof of the Kaolak house and B) my deeper appreciation of how truly lucky I am to live in Kedougou (the most beautiful part of Senegal). Besides that I was grateful to have heard stories from the other volunteers about their successes and failures but I was more grateful to finally get back to Kedougou, even without my cat.

Meanwhile, those of you who have been on facebook have probably seen pictures of a very, very cute puppy. There's a story.

The story of the puppy:

Finally back at site, I had discovered a new development. My host half-brother's dog finally had her puppies and my garden was still mostly alive by the river!! I knew I was lucky with my garden being in tact... maybe a little too lucky. The other womens' gardens were demolished by cows and/or dried up. The cows were getting in my garden but it seemed that they didn't like what I had in my garden because they left it untouched. I added some more thorny branches in some of the weaker spots of the fence where they may have been getting in. The women were all tired of watering a garden a mile away twice a day and the river was almost completely dry. I had to use a tomato paste can to fill my watering can but I was determined to try to harvest at least something from it.

Back at the ranch, I got to play with the 6 beautiful 2 week old puppies and I learned that they were planning to abandon them all in the woods in the next few days. I texted all the kedougou volunteers to ask if they wanted puppies who my family would let nurse until 8 months and then I would bring them to the volunteers. I had one interested taker. I explained to my family that I would be giving the puppy to another volunteer as soon as it is weaned from its mom. They said that would be fine. They took all 6 of the puppies off to the woods. I was so mad! Luckily, the boy who brought them out there was just on his way back from taking them. I made him go back and get one little girl for the volunteer in Kedougou. I noted that she had a distinctly small amount of white compared to most of the other Senegalese dogs. I found it strikingly unique. Things were going well... so I thought. I went to Kedougou for a few days and the 3 week old puppy was too small to bring with me so I left her to nurse in village. When I got back, the puppy was gone. They told me that “the boy dog had killed the puppy.” The boy dog is the older brother of this puppy and while I felt that was strange, I had seen aggression in other dogs in the village and perhaps the older brother was having some kind of power trip with his little sister puppy. I tried to justify it

Please note that the dog she is cuddling with is the dog they had earlier claimed killed her... yeaa rrriigghhtt

I called the volunteer who was supposed to be taking her and explained what happened and she said that she would just ask the guards at the regional house to find her one (because apparently the guards know these things). The following morning, I went to my garden (which keep in mind is about a mile away in the woods) to water. I was just about to finish watering when I heard what I initially thought was a strange bird, but it also sounded very familiar. I soon recognized it as the distinct yelping of the 3 week old puppy. I followed the sound and I found the very puppy that they told me a dog had killed. Needless to say, I was very angry that my family lied to me and my trust had diminished greatly. I walked back to my house with this puppy and immediately brought her to the Mama dog. Mama dog took her back right away. After an angry exchange with my host brother and everyone laughing at me for being angry, I discovered that the strap for my bike rack not only was tied differently than I usually tie it but they had tied the strap through the wheel. So, my family steals the puppy which I hadn't been planning to keep even and then uses my bike without asking. My level of trust only diminished even more. I started locking my bike and I brought the puppy in my room.

After calling the volunteer, she told me that the guard had already brought her a puppy but there was another volunteer who was interested. PHEW!! I told her that I would try again to keep this puppy until she was old enough, assuming my family didn't steal her again. Soon, I discovered that Mama dog could get into my yard to nurse when she needed to so keeping the puppy in my room turned out to be no problem at all. A few days later, this other volunteer told me, that as much as she wants a puppy, her host family doesn't want her to have a dog... so... um... it seems that now I have a puppy. I did some research and it turns out that all I need to bring a dog to the U.S. is to get her her shots (which I plan to do anyway), a dog carrier, a micro chip, and a forgiving and understanding mom and stepmom and dad and stepmom who are willing to let me house it in their homes until I find my own place.

The day after I found the puppy, I went again to water my now megre garden with the now megre water availability in the river. All the other women had stopped but I was determined to harvest at least ONE thing from my garden. Unfortunately, again, it seemed the cows (and Allah) did not agree. I went a little earlier than usual that morning and it seems I caught the cow culprit red handed. The largest cow I had seen in Kedougou (for some reason the cows here are smaller than in the rest of the country) was standing in the middle of my garden. I was hoping to jump in and save at the very least my sunflower heads to give as a gift to my counterpart. As I started climbing into the garden, the cow glared at me and started stomping her foot angrily. I decided that I liked my life better than the sunflowers and grudgingly left and let the literally starving cow continue grazing on my beautiful sunflowers and cantaloupe. It was another sad morning, but I had a puppy to go home to and fields to think about preparing!

Zai holes

Since then, my puppy has been wonderful and is learning so fast! She was already potty trained before she was 5 weeks old and is learning commands like a champ and is just barely 2 months old. I am teaching her Pular commands and she has grown on my host family and the rest of my village (especially when I tell her to greet- shake hands -because greeting is such an important part of the culture). This is also the only trained dog that these people have ever seen in their lives. When I go on journeys, I simply bring her with me in my cushioned puppy carrier and she barely complains on the often bumpy bike rides. She also likes to come with me when I go to my new field where I've been repairing the destroyed chain link fence at the school and digging zai holes to plant corn and amend the soil. When we were working one day, we found a giant black scorpion in my compost pile and I made a teacher kill it for me. You should also look up African cave spiders because although they are harmless, they are the sole reason I am afraid to use my toilet hole at night. I seem to have one that lives literally inside my toilet hole and comes for visits at night.

It seems that Mama dog and big brother dog have both adopted me as their running buddies. These two seem to be my biggest fans which is a major turn around from when I first moved to village. Those dogs were terrified of me. Now I'm the only one who provides them with a safe haven from other aggressive dogs (and people who like to throw rocks at them and beat them). On one of our runs we found the biggest bird nest I have ever seen. I could fit inside of it. Another volunteer and I speculate that it is a hammerkop nest. Next to the nest is my favorite baobab tree I've seen in country so far. It is so beautiful and one of few baobabs where the bark hasn't been stripped off of the tree for rope.

I could probably fit inside this thing!

After watching this wonderful family of dogs playing with each other, I quickly learned that instead of being aggressive towards my puppy, they are all in fact best friends and play ALL THE TIME! It's a wonderful life.

I have been really busy lately, filling tree sacks to plant a live fence, planting a moringa garden, and starting a vegetable nursery at the school. I've been trying to get people to work with me and they express a lot of interest but then they don't show up. I found out that some of the kids are going to be planting peanuts in half of the field so I am going to work with the kids and teach them about planting beans with the peanuts and the kids in turn will help me with my corn and rice fields so they can learn about improved spacing and soil amendments. I feel like I've been racing the clock to get my fields ready because we had our first big storm and by big I mean MASSIVE!!

On facebook I posted a video I took of the lightning before the rain started. The wind was so crazy that I worried at one point that my mango tree would fall on my hut. Luckily, no trees fell.