Whats It Like!? Travel.

So, traveling in Senegal kinda sucks.  In America I am a huge supporter of public transportation.  I used to work on a train outside of Cleveland. I was also happy to take a grey hound from Cleveland up to beautiful New Hampshire, even though It took me 27 hours, and a layover in NYC's Port Authority, where I met some very colorful characters (one of whom told me that he stole a bullet proof vest, a shotgun, and a tazer from a police car a few years back).  I tend to enjoy the scenery on those long excursions, and I get to experience a different part of America.  However in America the planes, trains, and automobiles are all set to schedules.  very strict schedules which of course sometimes have delays.  Of course when delays happen, you know that it is happening, and you know when to expect the transportation vehicle to arrive.  You are also told your own estimated time of arrival for your designated destination.  So you know when you will depart and when you will arrive from any given destination.  this system is fantastic, although there is some organization issues with it, the system is still wonderful.  One more thing to add about the greatness** of Americas public transportation system is that the places that you have to wait for things like trains, and bus's are all inside.

So, Senegal is very different and it kinda sucks.  To begin, the roads are bad.  they are bad because stupid NGOs and Governmental organization dumped a bunch of money into the country and built roads without any sense of how Senegal is going to do maintenance.  So a road that is built up real nice one year, may fall apart after 3 and will never be repaired until another NGO or something comes in and dumps a bunch of money again.  the potholes are tremendous.  what is interesting though is that many of the dirt roads in the country are much better than the paved roads.  I sometimes don't understand the need for so many paved roads when they are many times more dangerous than the dirt roads.  Then there is the vehicles themselves.  There are two kinds; the 7-place, and the Al-ham.  A 7-place (french place so it is pronounced pl-ah-ss) is a broken down station wagon with tacky stickers that range from an american flag giving a thumbs up, and pictures of Barack Obama,  to stickers that show the image of Osama Bin Laden with a military jet in the background with the caption "Osama Bin Ladens" (Many times the Obama, and Osama stickers will be right next to each other.  Things can get confusing)  A 7-place is called a 7-place because that is how many people are supposed to fit inside.  Although it was made for 6 people, sometimes as many as 20 people will ride upon/inside one of these vehicles.  sometimes the windows work, the AC is just a button to make the car look fancy, and the upholstery is in pieces.  many times the car will not start right away, sometimes there is no key, sometimes the key falls out while the car is in motion, sometimes the key is actually a screwdriver that the driver uses with the engine.  For luggage, you must bargain with the driver for a good price.  The Al-hams are very similar but they range in size from the VW mini bus-like thing  20 person van, to a much larger 40 person van/bus thing.  you can put cows on top!  there are five people per row no matter what.  there is no aisle, instead they put in a seat with hinges so that people can sit right in the middle.  These vehicles will stop wherever you want them too, and they will.  and they will stop for anyone on the side of the road.  What should have been a two hour trip can quickly turn into a five hour trip in one of these.  One of the worst parts about this kind of transportation is that you could be squished between two very large people with no AC and limited wind for hours at a time.  You never know when a vehicle will be leaving.  There are no schedules.  The cars leave when they have been filled with people.  if there aren't enough people, the car does not leave.  you need to know the day of the week and where weekly markets are to help with your decision on when to go to the garage.  For instance I know that there is a huge weekly market every wednesday, so for me traveling that direction on wednesdays is really easy for me to do.  but on a saturday, it may take hours of waiting in a garage for me to get into a car, because no one has to travel.  I work in a village 40km away (25 miles) and it could take me anywhere between 1-5 hours for me to get there.  I could be waiting all morning in the garage, or there could be many stops along the way or both.  Also if you plan on traveling in Senegal, make sure to use the bathroom before going anywhere.  there are no rest stops on the side of the road, and the bathrooms at the garages are nasty.

-Mike

**it should be noted that Americas transportation system kinda sucks because it doesn't have high speed rail.  This is a huge flaw in the American transportation system that needs to be addressed.

Whats It Like!? Rain.

So, this is what happens when it rains.  you wake up and it is a very enjoyable morning.  there are a few clouds, but mostly sunny skies.  as the day goes on it gets hot.  it gets extremely hot and extremely humid, almost as if you were at a sauna, and you will not be able to dry off because of all the sweat.  you may try again and again with towels and fans but in the end it will not work.  eventually you will fall over and curl up and say to yourself "öh how can I go on in this heat and humidity!?" then suddenly when you think you are about to shrivel up and die a great huge gust of wind like Wizard of Oz Style comes out of nowhere with great huge ominous, impending doom, villain clouds, and throws dust and sand into your face.  things start flying everywhere.  The clouds will quickly consume the sky, and appear as if they were giant disco balls lighting up in every direction.  then with a loud crack of lightening and impressive burst of thunder out of the great grey blanket of clouds it will begin to rain, and it will rain hard.  the rain will come down in great drops that pound on your body like you are being struck with thousands of water balloons, and you will be standing in the middle of it thinking that perhaps you will see Noah and his ark floating by, and you will scream out "when will it ever stop!?".  Then it will stop just as suddenly as it started.  There is sometimes a beautiful full rainbow.  The rest of the night is cool but humid.

So, because of the rains everyone is getting sick.  lots of rashes, infected cuts, fungus on tongues (that didn't happen to me, but it looked gross) I have diarrhea again, and a nasty looking rash developing.  The worst part about rainy season though are the flies.  the flies are on every cut like white on rice.  if they aren't covered, the flies will land and try to eat you.  flies are really gross here because of the lack of sewage treatment.  there is fecal matter everywhere, animal, human, and other.  the flies go from the poop to the cuts, and you food, and it is just terrible.  there aren't many flies during the hot season, cause it is way too dry.   there are also no to little mosquitos in the dry season, its just too dry for them to reproduce.  I am not a big fan of this rainy season.  I will admit, living here has gotten more exciting lately because now I have to go on adventure every time I leave the house.  every street has a different amount of water filling it.  some are walkable, some are jumpable, and some I have to find a new way to get around the river-streets.

So, in other news I finally have money for my demo garden.  I am going to buy chain link fencing, and supplies for it and start working in it asap!

-Mike

The Day It Rained a lot, Then I Ate Some Goat.

So,  The rainy season is definitely here.  all morning it rained.  The rain has its pros and cons.  Its great because its cool, and smells good, and you don't have to water stuff.  You also don't have to go to work because its so wet, and sometimes you cant ford the street.  yes, I said ford the street because the streets turn into 10 foot wide rivers that are sometimes unpassable.  The rain kinda sucks cause it brings with it disease, and mosquitos and its gross and muddy, and you can't go anywhere.  I decided to stay in bed, cause i didn't have anything better to do.  I read the Cleveland Jewish News my mom sent me It came out the first week of february, but that is still current news to me.  Then I watched Star Wars A New Hope.
So, I gotta say that I really like living with teachers.  I have lived with a teacher almost my whole life (my mother) and it has been pretty wonderful.  why is it so wonderful? you may ask, well its mostly because of the ridiculous gifts people give their teachers.  I wait all year for winter break and summer vacation, not because I get out of school but because of all the gifts that people would give my mom.  sure sometimes the gift is a mug, or a sweater or something weird, but most of the time it is delicious chocolates and cheeses.  They were delicious, and I would like to take this time to thank all of her students the cheeses were really tasty.  In Africa it is very similar except there isn't any cheese or chocolate for miles around.  but there are many goats.  So my host father being a teacher, received a goat the other day from a student.  While I was watching Star Wars he knocks on my door asking for my sharp knife.  I hand him the Spanish Steel I bought during my trip to spain.  The knife worked very well to slaughter the goat (unfortunately it happened right outside my window) They then took out my machete to butcher the meat.  They gave me a bunch of ribs that I now have marinating.  Tonight Pam and I will have a delicious feast.

-Mike

The Day I Almost Caused Rebellion

So, this whole master farmer thing has been continuously complicated.  issues of distance from me, distance from a water source, and lack of funding have caused me trouble.

The other day I received an e-mail from my boss responding to an e-mail I sent him with my concerns about the master farm.  So me and a peace corps employee went out to assess the problems.  We learned that to dig a well and especially at this time of year would be very difficult to impossible because of the depth and the rains. to get water to the farm we would need to create a new water line to the farm about a km long, which would be fine.  but then we realized that the water line connector was across the main road.  this road is the only road that connects to the rest of the country.  every truck of food and supplies to the casamance region has to pass through that point.  In America this would not be a problem you cut up a road, and there are other roads for a detour.  the road can be repaired in a day or two and things can continue normally.  If I was to cut up the road for this one farmer it would halt all the traffic to the casamance region where over 200,000 people live.  this would create mass starvation, the rebels to the west would create riots, and more than likely the south of the country would go up in flames and secede from the country.  I decided not to let that happen, and instead we will build a well sometime in april when it is dry.

-Mike