2005-09-24 - 1:12 p.m.

September 24, 2005

So long since I last uploaded this journal! So much has happened!

I officially celebrated my first year of service since I swore in as a volunteer. All the volunteers from my group and I got together in Nktt for our Mid Term Reconnect (MTR) conference and a much needed party :-) It was interesting to see what everyone else had been up to in different parts of the country and in their various sectors (i.e. health and water sanitation, agroforestry, environmental education, English education, small enterprise development) We got to read our “letter to ourselves” which we had written, sealed and turned in just a few days before swearing in during a session called “Leap of Faith” and had an opportunity to reflect on significant moments and events of our first year of service, as well as formally plan our second year’s actions. It was nice to be in everyone’s company again, eat good food, dance till exhaustion, and… much more! :-p

*****

Before MTR, I had a few visitors come through my home in Magta Lahjar. The longest record of permanence so far has to be given to Jae Chung, English education volunteer from Mbout (south between Kaedi and Selibaby), who had been traveling around the country the entire summer taking advantage of the school break. He had just come from a small village with no electricity (read “no cold beverages”) and little supply of food… so famished as he was, decided to stay with me a whole week and enjoy elaborate and lavish lunches and dinners “chez moi” to recuperate! :-) He was a very good guest, entertaining me with great conversations, more than willing to come out with me and explore the town (usually volunteers coming to visit prefer to barricade themselves in my house watching DVDs on my laptop, reading, eating, resting… with minimum contact with the outside world!), enduring the “healthy abuses” of Limnaye and her family (they like to torture other volunteers with really difficult-to-understand Hassiniya and silly arguments… Matt and Luke, when visiting, were also good sports with this part of the ML experience!) I documented Jae’s domestic efforts (you can see the photos online) helping me wash dishes, getting the water in the morning, killing nasty insects, fanning both of us as we were laying in the heat of the day trying to keep our minds busy reading books and minimizing our movements as to defeat the temperatures (but suffering from “crawling flies” invasion in return) and defrosting an overly-ice-filled freezer… It was a pleasure having you over Jae!

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The trainees have officially sworn in and moved into their various locations! Welcome to Liz, Beth and Grace to our Brakna North region!! And just around the same time, our group lost yet another volunteer… Sarah we’ll miss you, good luck with everything!!

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The abundant rains have impeded us to go back to the feeding center villages this month to weigh the children… every time it rained we had to wait for the route to dry up but then inevitably it would rain again! All the locals are really thrilled with the generous rainy season this year because their animals have something to pasture on and fatten up with. As a result, the women who go “en brousse” during this season have more milk to drink and therefore are also able to fatten up… just in time before going back to their towns for the school year, before being “seen and chosen” for post-Ramadan weddings and being able to store up with body fat before having to fast for the entire month of Ramadan!

*****

Excerpt from a letter to a friend:

“Lella, Limnaye’s sister gave birth to her fifth child. It’s a boy and the “baptism” will be this coming Wednesday (a week after birth)… until then he won’t have a name. We were all waiting anxiously for her to give birth. I was spending a lot of nights over at their house because they wanted me to be present in case she gave birth at night. The last few days Limnaye and I didn’t go out “en brousse” to weigh the children just in case she were to give birth during the day… and then I decided I really had to go into Aleg to meet with some people at the regional offices… finding a comfortable free ride also gave me the extra boost to take off. Well… needless to say, sure enough, Limnaye called me that same night at 11ish and held the phone up for me to hear the delivery… first Lella’s moaning, then the baby’s first crying, then the women making an odd celebratory sound which they usually make during weddings, and then Limnaye telling me it was a boy! I was so excited to hear it all over the phone!! I woke up the next morning and hitchhiked back to Magta Lahjar without meeting the people I had to meet or doing any of the planned work… They appreciated the fact that I had come right away, and I was glad to be there to observe their customs in this situation. Partaking in the festivities and being a part of the family… until my Giardia attack came and had to spend a sleepless night running away from a severe sand storm while dealing with bouts of explosive “unpleasant matter coming out of my body” ! :-p

We officially took over a small space at the mayor’s office yesterday. We will be using it for the Girls Mentoring Center. Arbi, Limnaye’s nephew, helped us recruit a welder to install a new lock (as the other one was broken) and we removed a bunch of dusty sand from the soiled floor… I still need to get some bars installed on the window before being able to move some of the equipment we got from Unicef and Peace Corps… but as we were doing all this we realized there was no electricity: it had been cut off and according to the guardian it has been in such condition for a few months now… isn’t that typical!! The computers should be delivered early next week. Hopefully I will be able to get the mayor to pay the electricity bill by then… Inshallah!”

*****

“Stand under an apple tree in springtime. You won’t see a single apple, and neither will you obtain one by shaking or climbing that tree. Now stand under the same tree in autumn. Ripe apples drop into your hand. There is such a thing as trying too hard or trying at the wrong time to obtain your heart’s desire. Strive for less desire and better timing. […] Stop seeking and you will find. And if you don’t find, you won’t mind because you are not seeking.”

By Lou Marinoff referring to a Taoist thought.

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