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

A Mosquito Problem

Malaria. I’m guessing this is one of those diseases you’ve heard of. You know it impacts many people all over the world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, but you probably don’t have any personal experience with it.

I was in that same boat until I came to Senegal. My first rainy season in village was relatively mild, and as a result my community kept telling me that cases of malaria were way down from normal levels. I had no comparison, so I took their word for it. Then, this most recent rainy season (about July – October), I finally realized what they meant.

My health hut serves mainly my village of about 700 people. In the month of September we had 43 cases of malaria, October 55, and November 73. SEVENTY-THREE! To say that malaria is a problem here is a gross understatement, and Senegal has one of the lowest rates among sub-Saharan African countries thanks to many of the interventions present here.

Collection of malaria tests at the health hut

View of our health hut log

Thankfully, many of the people in my village have started to seek out a malaria test & receive treatment before the case gets severe, in part due to the work that my health workers and I have done to sensitize people in the village. Yet Malaria is still the #1 cause of death in Senegal. Around the world, malaria still kills more than 1 million people each year, and over 90% of these deaths occur in Africa. Jeffrey Sachs, one of the leading economists helping to fight against poverty, estimates that malaria costs Africa around $12Billion in lost productivity each year as a result of people missing work.

Sadio Ba in his typical window perch at our health hut, waiting for patients

All of these statistics are shocking, yet sometimes it still feels like the work we do is just a drop in the bucket of a much larger problem. And THEN, people in your family get malaria. When my sister-in-law Oumou got malaria for the 3^rd time this rainy season, or my younger brother Mahamadou had to miss school because he got malaria, it became personal. The statistics are shocking, and the personal impact on my host family is heart wrenching. For these reasons, malaria work is a major focus of my Peace Corps service and I try to approach it in a variety of activities!

Hosting informational talks and events in my village is a wonderful way to get people together to learn information from the health workers. At the beginning of rainy season, we hosted a net care & repair event so that people could pull out their dusty mosquito nets and get them ready for malaria season.

My host mom washing her mosquito net!

My health club continues to be one of my favorite activities in village and a great way to disseminate important health information to kids. We recently started up again now that school has reopened, and our first activity was to make dream banners. The kids drew 5 mini-banners: family, favorite activity, self-portrait, something they want to try, and future profession. They string these up and then hang them inside their mosquito nets to have sweet dreams about their futures while safely protected from mosquitoes!

Dream Banners! (Taking this photo was a ridiculous amount of work...)

Also, during my service, Peace Corps Senegal created a malaria committee called Stomp Senegal to inspire and motivate more PCVs in Senegal to participate in malaria work. I was fortunate to serve as the regional representative when the committee was first formed, and then 6 months later was voted in as President of this committee. One of the things that our committee recently did was organize a series of mini-boot camp trainings where volunteers brought counterparts in to the regional capital and received an updated and intensive malaria training. I was fortunate to come with Sadio Ba, my main work counterpart!

Sadio Ba & I creating a malaria action plan for our village!

A malaria mural painted at my health hut thanks to
PCVs Lianna, Brian, Dario, & Devin (I helped a little too!)

All of this work and the malaria work being done by volunteers all over Senegal are making a huge impact on the malaria burden here. We have a lofty goal to reach pre-elimination in Senegal by 2018, but with hard work, community integration, and the continued support of NGO’s and programs from around the world, this can be a reality.  

Thanks for reading!

Peace & love, Lindsay

Journey to a “Better” Life

This blog post has been on my mind for quite some time but I’ve been struggling to find the best way to talk about the issue. I’m still not sure I will be as eloquent as I would like, but I’m going to try.

Growing up in the USA, references to immigration, or “illegal immigration” as its typically called in the media, usually relate to people coming into the USA from either Mexico or countries in South/Central America. For me, whether due to naïveté or just lack of exposure, this was really my entire viewpoint of immigration. So when I arrived in Senegal and started to truly understand my surroundings, I was surprised to find that there is such a pervasive immigration movement in West Africa, mainly to Western Europe.

I would venture that every single person in my village of approx. 700 could name at least 1 person living in Spain, France, or Italy. They could probably also give you a list of people they know currently on their way.

I’ve struggled my entire Peace Corps service thus far trying to decide how I feel about this issue of immigration. I’ve circulated through different feelings of the people leaving Senegal as selfish or reckless or lazy. But the day illegal immigration became personal for me I realized that, at the base of it all, it’s usually about HOPE.

One day in mid-January 2015, my host cousin Iboudabou (E-boo-da-boo), left his village and family to begin the long journey to Italy. He left in the cover of darkness, telling only his mother that he was leaving for fear (and probably the reality) that his older brothers would force him to stay. Iboudabou is around 16 years old and was enrolled in school and performing really well when he quit to make the journey. 

Iboudabou (far right) with his older brother Hamay (left) & friend

It scared my entire family when we found out he had left, and our lengthy greetings have now been amended to regularly ask if anyone has news from him. In the beginning days of his trip, Iboudabou would often call my other host cousin Tidiane to give updates on his whereabouts. Tidiane would then come over & I would pull out the world map in the back of my planner and we would map out his route. Tambacounda, Senegal – Bamako, Mali – Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso – Agadez, Niger – Sabha, Libya – Tripoli, Libya

Iboudabou's brothers (Lamine & Tidiane) & his mom with my parents

Frequent radio reports of boats of migrants, mainly from West Africa, sinking on the trip to Italy and killing almost everyone aboard gave us reason for concern. Therefore, Iboudabou has paused his journey and is currently working in Tripoli, Libya, still hoping to make the journey across water soon.

He is just one of many people in my area of Senegal who are currently on the trail or leaving village to try and search for a better life. There is so much hope. Yet as someone who is blessed to live what I think all of the Senegalese would view as a “better life”, I tend to have a more cynical view.

My host brother's baby, Amadou

Most of the Senegalese migrants, if they do make it to Western Europe, will end up as low-paid laborers - washing dishes, driving cabs, selling wares on the streets - living together with other people from Senegal to drive down costs in the hopes of sending as much money back home as possible. And the pressure from family back home can be unbearable. That family likely does not understand the substantial increase in cost of living in places like Madrid or Paris, and thus don’t understand when you don’t send them millions of cfa (the Senegalese currency) every month or don’t have any money to send them when asked. They live without getting to see their families until they are fortunate enough to receive official residency documentation, and even then can only afford to come back for visits every 2-3 years. My oldest host brother lives in Spain and has 5 children with his wife. His wife and children all live in my compound, including his 9-month-old son who was conceived on his last visit back, & whom he won’t see for at least another year.

These are some of the challenges faced by those trying to provide better lives for their families. But these challenges only get to be faced if they stay in the country upon arrival. If you’ve been following any of the immigration-related news in the EU recently, the EU is experiencing unprecedented numbers of immigrants to places all over, to such a capacity that they will not be able to handle all of the people. Many possibilities are being discussed for how to handle this immigration issue, but what is fairly certain is that not all groups will be treated equally. Those considered “refugees”, fleeing persecution of some kind and seeking safety, will likely be considered differently from those considered “migrants”. The Senegalese fall into this latter category – they are not fleeing persecution of any kind, but rather are economic migrants in search of a better financial situation. If 2 immigrants are caught and only 1 can stay, I believe the migrant will get sent home every time. It’s in these thoughts that this issue feels personal to me now, thinking of my cousin Iboudabou and the risks he is taking with his life for the life of others, just to potentially get turned back at the entrance to the promised land.

Needless to say, I understand (as best as I possibly can) the desire these people have to make better lives for themselves. But as I said, I also struggle with the way those lives are being sought. Senegal is still very much lacking economically, and I often think what could happen to the development of this country if people stopped leaving to try and make money in other places, and instead focused their efforts on making Senegal itself more productive from the inside.

Take, for example, the solar panel my family has on the roof of our building thanks to my host brother in Spain/host uncle in France. It’s great that we have a solar panel, but the light bulbs available for purchase in this country are of such shoddy quality that often the light produced is still so meager is hardly seems useful. Money sent back to Senegal from those living abroad accounts for 12% of Senegal’s GDP (Wall Street Journal – see link below)!  That doesn’t even include the material goods sent back, but sometimes the infrastructure here is so weak that it can’t support those goods anyway. And how will that infrastructure improve if Senegal’s young & motivated are so disappointed with the opportunities in their own country that they flock to other places in search of a better life?

I, of course, don’t have answers to this question, but I think this is one of the biggest challenges facing Senegal as it strives to become a developed nation. It is certainly an issue that every Peace Corps volunteer is familiar with here whether personally or anecdotally. I am moved by the hope these migrants have and their unwavering belief that God will deliver for them, but wrestle with the thought that Senegal will never truly develop if it keeps hemorrhaging people. 

Back in early June, an article was published in the Wall Street Journal about this particular issue in Senegal. The article actually focuses on a town in the region where I live and provides many more anecdotes & pictures. The path they illustrate is almost identical to that traveled by my cousin. If this interests you, please check it out here – http://www.wsj.com/articles/young-men-in-senegal-join-migrant-wave-despite-growing-prosperity-at-home-1434127244

I’ve never had such a personal connection to immigration before, but I am fearful every time I hear my cousin Iboudabou’s name whispered in hushed tones, anticipating the worst news possible. For now, he is safe & on the trail for his better life. Pray for his safety and the safety of all the others like him.

Iboudabou & his younger brother Ousman

Thanks for reading.

Peace & love,

Lindsay