They have places like this???

OK – first off, thanks to everyone who donated to my village’s fire fund! We raised $2,000 and have been able to replenish some much-needed supplies such as mattresses, trunks, and cement that were burned in the fire!

Now I realize it’s been many months since I gave a real update on what’s happening here, so I’m going to start back in April, maybe skip over a few things, and get up to present time.

April – It had been 2 long months of traveling back and forth between my village in Tambacounda and our training center in Thies, about a 7-hour trip each time. I think in those 2 months I went back and forth a total of 4 times. I was helping coordinate training for our new volunteers as part of the responsibilities of my new job as Lead Health Volunteer. I was thrilled to be there, but also wanted to spend as much time as possible in village since my time was limited. So each time the new volunteers went off to their training villages to focus on language, I trekked back to Tamba to see my family.

My last week and a half consisted mainly of hanging out with my family, wandering around the village taking pictures, and drinking lots and lots of tea! I had wrapped up most of my projects (except that well that seemed to linger on just a bit too long…), so by the last day, I felt a good sense of closure. It was a weird ending for my whole village because everyone knew I wasn’t leaving Senegal, so there was certainty that I would see them again. I thought for sure this would make my goodbye easier too.

The perfect way to spend a lazy afternoon

My amazing health workers - they even threw my a little party on my last week in village! This photo is from that event

The morning I was to depart, my brother, who was taking me into town on our horse cart loaded with all of my luggage, told me we’d wait and eat breakfast and then go. At around 7:30am he changed his mind and decided it would be better for everyone if we just left before too many people saw me. So I went into my room to take one last look around. I went out into my backyard space to check too, and when I came back in my room, my host mom was awkwardly standing there. I thought “Oh great, which of my possessions does she want to ask for now??” I quickly realized how petty that was when my host mom grabbed a cup, reached into my clay water pot that I was leaving behind, and drew out a full glass. She told me to toss the water out my front door, and that when people leave their homes for big life moments, the water that you toss is meant to provide you safe passage on your journey.

I then walked over to where my host dad was sitting to say goodbye. Many of the other members of my house were there too. I had done so well up until this point, but all of a sudden, I burst into tears. I thought, “What are you doing? You know you’ll see these people again in a few months!” But the realization hit me that, even if I come back for a visit, life will never be the same as it is right now. My host dad didn’t know what to do…he exclaimed “Oh we have a crier”, shook my hand, and quickly walked away (My brother later told me that this is because my dad would have started to cry as well and didn’t want to be around everyone just in case – we’ve had some tense moments throughout my time but my heart melted when I heard this).

Sitting with my host dad on my last day

I went to see my sister-in-law and say goodbye to her and my namesake, baby Weli. As I gave them a last hug, my namesake held out her arms for me to pick her up – cue waterfall all over again. I quickly jumped on the back of the horse cart and we took off for town. My brother was amazing – he spent the morning helping me unload my luggage. We ate breakfast together, drank some tea, and he presented me with a gris-gris, a charm that you usually wear around your arm to protect you on your journey. The whole experience was quite emotional, but I didn’t have much time to dwell on the emotions, because the next day I went back to Thies and jumped right back into training.

My host brother Alfa before he returned to village

The three of us started in Tamba together!

My original language group before the
others headed back to the USA

I got back to training but was still coordinating the completion of my well project back in village. As most things go here, I was pretty generous with the timeline I laid out, but it just wasn’t enough. However, our mason finished everything just a few days after I moved out of my village, and my host dad was great at completing the last of the project! I even had one of my friends with a smart phone take a few pictures and Facebook them to me so I could see the finished result! So behold, the newest well to grace Sare Aladji! From what I hear, it’s getting used by so many households and is a much easier distance than the previous wells they used!

The finished product!

At the beginning of May, we swore in the newest group of Peace Corps volunteers to Senegal, including 40 health volunteers that I helped train. I then moved into my new Thies apartment with my roommate Natalie.

My new roommate and me at the swearing-in ceremony

It’s a beautiful little apartment that gets a lot of natural light. We have hot water, electricity, a refrigerator, stove, and beds with real mattresses.  After living in a village hut for 2 years, who knew places like this even existed here! It’s a simple place, but compared to my hut I feel like I live in a pent house suite!

Since then it’s been two rapid months of traveling, both throughout Senegal and the USA! I went on a week of site visits in Senegal where I traveled with a member of our health programming staff to visit volunteers, check on their progress, meet with community members, and council the volunteers about future projects. Then I came to the USA for a month of home leave where I got to spend lots of wonderful time with my family, my new niece Aila, and many many friends.

Me and the bestie :) 

Because you can't take the Africa out of the girl...

Me and Aila, my new niece

I had such a great trip home that I was worried about my emotional state returning back to Senegal, but my schedule was so busy I didn’t have time to realize what happened. I spent one week at the Pink Lake with our class of 2^nd year volunteers for their mid-service conference, and then spent another week at a hotel in Somone (on the coast!) for a gender integration conference that I had helped coordinate for a select group of volunteers and the programming staff.

Participants of our gender workshop

Now in two days, our newest group of health volunteers comes back for their 2^nd round of training. While only 2 weeks in length, it is jam-packed with training sessions and guest volunteers coming in to share their experiences. I’ve been helping with much of the logistical support and will also facilitate a few of the sessions.

Deciding to extend for a 3^rd year in Senegal was a tough decision for me at the time, but I still love my job and am getting a whole different set of experiences out of this new position.

More updates to come!

Thanks for reading. Peace & love,

Lindsay

Sare Aladji Village Fire

Ok, I’ve totally slacked on my blog since I decided to stay on for a 3^rd year. My life got extremely busy with the start of training for our new group of health volunteers, and for 2.5 months I was back and forth between our training center in Thies and my village (about an 8 hour public transit ride). So I’ve got much to update everyone on, including the completion of my well, my move out of village, and my new role.

However, those will have to come in a subsequent blog post, because today I’ve got much more somber information to share. Last Friday, there was a fire in my village. Unfortunately, during dry season, village fires are not uncommon. People cook with wood in small enclosed cooking huts or out in the open, and if every single ember doesn’t get extinguished, the wind can come along out of nowhere and ignite the fire again.

This is precisely what happened in my village. Somewhere, a fire didn’t get put out completely, and Friday night there was a big windstorm in my village that reignited a flame. Out of the 35 compounds (a household, but made up of a series of huts in a circle with communal space in the middle), two completely burned and 4 other compounds lost about half of their huts. One of those 4 households belongs to my counterpart, Sadio Ba, the man I worked with for the past 2 years at our health hut.

I happened to be traveling for work this week when I got the call. We were due to spend Sunday night in Tamba before continuing on our trip, so early Monday morning I got up and went to my village. I only had 1.5 hours to spend there, but I got the chance to see everyone and make sure no one was hurt.

And in true Senegalese fashion, I was talking to one of the men from the households that burned completely, and he said, “Thanks to God that only our stuff burned and that no one was hurt. Things can be replaced but people can’t.”

So that’s exactly what I’d like to do – help people replace what was lost. My dad created a GoFundMe page to collect money for my village and any donation, no matter how small, is appreciated.

https://www.gofundme.com/27jqhhnz

Since I am not based there any longer, I’ve solicited the help of my two best friends in village that I trust. I will be sending them the money and asking them to take a survey among the impacted households of what they need, and then these guys will go to the market and buy the beds, mattresses, clothes, etc to help replace what is gone.

Help is coming from wherever it can. The day immediately following the fire, men in the village were cutting down sticks and gathering dried grass to start remaking the hut roofs. An NGO that works in our village came and took a census of all the people impacted so that they could try to provide support. The school is providing new notebooks and backpacks to all of the children who lost theirs in the fire. People from the village who live abroad are sending donations.

I never imagined how close I could get to the people in my village after only two years, but they are my family now. And when your family is hurting, you do whatever you can to help. Thanks to all of you for your support, and even if you can’t donate, please keep my village in your thoughts & prayers as they rebuild what was lost.

*More personal updates to come soon!*

Thanks for reading. Peace & love,

Lindsay

My counterpart's house 

My counterpart's room. Everything inside, including all his clothes, was burned

A cooking pot

One of the households that burned completely. This is all they managed to save for the house of about 15 people

People are sleeping on their cement platforms while the rooms get rebuilt

All that's left of their harvest. Other people in the village are donating crops so that people have food until the next harvest

One of my village elders. His house lost everything.

1 + 1 = 3

Well I’ll just come out with the big news – after two years in Senegal I’ve decided to extend and stay on as a Peace Corps volunteer for a third year!  The seed was planted in my head a few months back by my program manager, but I was very torn on what to do. I had a lot of conversations with my family, and ultimately just had to follow my heart.

My life will be much different this 3^rd year than what I experienced the last 2 years. I will move to the capital city of Dakar and live in an apartment there – electricity, running water, the ability to cook my own meals, etc. I’m pretty excited about all of that! I also have a new job – I will now be the Peace Corps Volunteer Leader for the Health program, meaning I am the lead Health volunteer. I will assist in the training for all new health volunteers and then continue to provide them with programmatic support throughout the year. There are some great opportunities for personal & professional growth for me over this year. Staying was a scary decision to make, but if it turns out half as good as the scary decision to quit my job & come to Senegal, I have nothing to worry about.

For the next 2 months I will be living between our training center and my village in Tamba (about 8 hours apart) to help facilitate the training for our new health volunteers that come on Monday! Once that’s over I will officially move out of my village and into Dakar.

I will be HOME in June for a month of home leave and hope to see as many people as possible, so more details to come on this once I have specific dates.

Thanks as always for the continued support and words of encouragement that you all send me! And a special thanks to my parents – I know choosing to stay was a selfish decision, but you’ve always supported me even when you’re not super excited about my choice. You’re the best.

One housekeeping note – NEW ADDRESS!

PCVL Lindsay Swisher

Peace Corps Senegal

B.P. 2534

Dakar, Senegal

West Africa

Thanks for reading. Peace & love,

Lindsay

Project Updates - Making Work Happen

It’s a strange time in my life right now. Many volunteers experience a variety of emotions when they get near the end of their time in village, and I can’t say that I am any different.

I am dreading leaving my host family and the other people in my village with whom I’ve become so close. I’m excited to transition back to a more connected world where I can have electricity, access to news, some basic amenities, etc. on a regular basis. And honestly, I’m scared because transitioning out of this life is going to be a major shock to the system.

A lot of volunteers also start to experience a lack of motivation as they get close to the end. You just want to spend all of your time hanging out with your friends in village drinking tea and relaxing. I’m certainly in the period where I am trying to transition my involvement 100% over to the people of my community so that they can continue on. My women’s group just planted new vegetables with very little help from me, my health workers are taking over control of our health hut, and we just finished a great renovation project of said hut.

Outside view of entrance

Front view from inside the garden

The health hut renovation project was a major accomplishment of my service! This project was something my counterpart, Sadio Ba, had discussed with the volunteer in my site previously, but they didn’t have the chance to get it off the ground. With grant money from an organization called World Connect and funds that had been set aside from the health hut itself, we embarked on a project to make our health hut more structurally suitable.

Some of the aspects of the project were super simple – ex. We changed the locks on all of the doors so that they could actually be locked with keys and not chains/padlocks. But we also gave the entire health hut a new paint job, patched a leaky roof, fixed the wall where it had caved in and raised it a few brick levels, installed a new door to the entrance, painted health murals, and modified the maternity room so that it’s actually suitable for births.

New door

Getting cement on the roof to patch the leaks

Taping off the paint borders - like I
would trust anyone else with that job...

Getting fancy!

My counterparts taking an active role

Our painter

Fatou, our village birthing attendant and one of my favorite
people in village! The door says "Maternity Room" in Pulaar

Our modified birthing table

Malaria mural courtesy of PCVs!

The health hut in Sare Aladji was built in 2003, and since that time had never been renovated. This was a big step in making the health hut a better facility for the community! I personally learned a lot about project management, especially in a culture where things don’t work the same as what I know. My community counterparts were great and took a lot of ownership in the project as well!

And of course, those of you that know me well know that slowing down is not one of my strong attributes… So though I just wrapped up this large project and have only a few months left at site, I’ve just begun another project to dig a well in my village!

Access to water is a constant struggle here. In my village of ~700 people, we only have 3 wells. We have a series of faucets that have been installed and are connected to a water tower in a village about 6 kilometers away. However, the faucets have been dysfunctional since July, and even when working turn off sporadically. So wells are crucial to our water security, and thus I decided to write a grant and bring another well to my site! Thanks to Water Charity, a USA-based NGO that funds water projects, my well is already underway.

Drawing the well circumference

Digging!

One shameless plug – Water Charity. in order to speed up the grant process, funds projects in full once they approve your application. They then ask you as the PCV to help fundraise to replenish the funds they provided for your project. Thus see below for the link to donate to my project on their website!

http://watercharity.com/sare-aladji-well-project-senegal

I can only imagine that my blog posts will get sappier and more emotional in the coming months, so bear with me. From the girl who cries at holiday Folgers commercials, I expect leaving my village to become a very emotional experience haha.

Thanks for reading! Peace & love,

Lindsay