Drama, drama, drama

Sometimes when i sit down to write these things, i dont know where to begin. I think i will start this blog by saying Senegalese people have so much drama. We were told long ago back in September to watch out for Senegalese men. I knew from the day I stepped off the plane that there are many creepers in this country just waiting for a girl like me to walk past so they can hastle me about this, that, or the other. Well, just so happens that i have a first class creeper as a counterpart. Peace Corps assigns all agriculture volunteers to a male counterpart and a female counterpart. These people are supposed to be there to support us if we have questions or need help with work, etc. My counterparts have been nothing but great until about a month ago. Let me just add that my female counterpart is the bomb and i love her! On the other hand, my male counterpart has started coming on to me so much that i often avoid going to work in my garden. (i planted a garden on his property). He started sending me crazy text messages professing his love... i dont dont mean just one or two, Im talking daily! He has been staring at me and making bizarre comments to others about me. Finally last week i had to sit him down and have a talk with him. I told him if he continues this behavior, i will no longer work with him and we will not have ANY sort of relationship, not even friends. I am surprised by the way he i acting 1. because he has a wife 2. he knows i have a fiance and 3. Before my arrival, Peace Corps had a big session with all counterparts warning them about trying to pursue relationships with us. Ibou knows better! I shouldnt be shocked though, the PC volunteer living in the village before me warned me that he did the same thing to her. I guess he didnt learn the first time. This week, he has settled down some... hopefully things continue in that direction.
Also, there is drama within my household between me and the host father. He is soooo bizarre. I mentioned it before, but he recently got married to two new wives (now with a total of 4!) and is always on the go to visit them. The two new wives have not moved into our compound yet but i heard one of them should be coming next week. Anyway, After Ibou and I had a long talk about him being a wierdo, he told me we needed to have a talk about Diokel (host dad). Ibou told me that Diokel has been spreading rumors around the village about me to his friends. He has been telling people that I am Ibou's toubab (toubab is the word Senegalese people use for white person or westerner). He has also been telling people that I am lazy and I dont work and i havent done anything since i came here. Ibou told me that Diokel often harrasses him about working with me and about helping me with projects. He also said that sometimes if he does something for me, it has to be a secret because Diokel will be mad that i didnt ask him for help. In Senegal, the father of the house is the boss. What he says goes. Ibou is not Diokel's son but is basically part of our family and is younger than Diokel, therefore, Diokel has more authority than Ibou. This concept drives me INSANE. Diokel is not my counterpart and has never done one thing to help me and in fact he is doing the opposite by spreading rumors about me thoughout the village. So two days ago, i did the dreaded and had to call him out as well. I didnt want to do this because it is hard to call someone of authority out in English, let alone a language one has only been studying for 8 months. I worked up the nerve and went into his room and asked him if he had time to have a talk. I explained all of the things that i have heard and asked him if he heard anyone say any such things. He started rambling off on some random subject which was his way of not answering my question. We talked for over an hour and basically he told me he doesnt like talking to me because i cant speak french. This should be irrelevant because our whole family speaks Sereer. He tried to take me to my friend Cisse's house because Cisse speaks English and he wanted to use him as a translator. I refused because i have noticed that everytime something tense comes up, Diokel wants to go talk about it with a 3rd party. There is enough talk about me going around the village, i dont need to drag my friends into the drama too. Anyway, after about an hour and a half, i think he finally realized i am not afraid of him like he wishes i would be. He told me he wants me to have more relationsips in the village. I told him i have many relationships in the village, i just dont have one with him because he is never home and never makes an effort to talk to me. We came to an agreement that i would come to his room atleast once a month to tell him about my work so he knows whats going on in my life here. I think it is pretty pathetic that i need to do this seeing as our rooms are right next to each other's and i should be seeing more of him than anyone else. After the conversation, he came to my room and gave me a big bucket of mangoes. I guess thats his way of saying he is sorry...who knows, but the magoes were good :) I think Diokel just doesnt know what to do because women here never talk back to men.
On another note, I spent the entire week last week in Dakar on Med hold. At this point, i almost want to laugh about all of the things that have gone wrong with my health in the last few months.
Two weeks ago, i was in my room rearranging things with my sisters. We were moving a large mirror to the other side of my hut when the handle broke off the mirror and the whole thing came crashing down on the back of my ankle. The mirror broke into a million pieces cutting my foot up. The mirror weighed probably around 15 lbs so the weight of it really hurt my tendon. I had to go to Dakar the following morning. The damage was not too bad but the doctor wanted me to stay because she was afraid i would end up with an infection if i went home. So i stayed in Dakar for a week and got a lot of sleep and just relaxed. It was nice! I also had an opportunity to go to the zoo in Dakar and see a few touristy things i havent had achance to see yet. The week turned out to be a good one.
Currently, I am in Kaolack. I came to pick up mosquito nets for distribtion in the village this weekend. We finally raised enough money to buy all of the nets we needed. This came at the perfect time because the rains should be coming in about two weeks and mosquitos will be out in full force. I also have a recipe for neem lotion and am working on it today. Neem lotion is a homemade lotion made from leaves from a Neem tree. It is used as an insect repellent. I am planning to make several batches of the lotion and my sisters are going to seel it throughout the village and in the local market. I am also meeting Mossally tomorrow (my boss). He s coming to Kaolack to drop off seeds for distribtion. Every year before the rainy season, ag extension volunteers extend seeds to certain people in their villages. These seeds are improved vareties of crops often grown in Senegal. B extending these seeds, the farming have an opportunity to grown crops that will produce higher yelds. They are also expected to save seeds for the following year. If this is done corretly, they can seel their improved variety seeds to friends in the village thus increasing the number of people with improved variety crops. I dont know exactly who i am going to extend the seeds to this year but am in the process of making a list of interested people. Its hard t know here who will actually work and who just wants something free. Its always trial and error i suppose.
I took some photos and will put them up online on my online photo album at snapfish.com. The username is candicewhittaker@gmail.com and the password is peace corps. I hope you are all having a great Memorial Day. Eat something yummy for me. It s currently 112 degrees in Kaolack... i might go roast some hot dogs on the sidewalk!

I woke up in the middle of the night to a mouse crawling up the inside of my pant leg...

When: 4:30 AM- May 10, 2009
Where: Kaolack, Senegal
Why: The regional house is a dump!

againstmalaria.com/kaolack

Things in the village have been CRAZY.. i have been working my butt off but have successfully planted over 1500 trees in tree sacks. I originally planned to plant 2000 in sacks and try to reach a total of 6000 by planting 400 more directly in the ground after the rains come. After spending my entire week sitting in a pile of dirt, i decided 150 will have to do. I went to the Eaux et Foret last week to get more bags with no success at all. The man working there was nothing short of rude to me and i left empty handed. Eaux et Foret provides farmers with trees sacks and other materials needed for farming. Everything is provide at no cost. It is sponsored by the Senegalese government. Unfortunately, they looked at me and laughed and i went home mad. Its so frustrating when I try to work and people let their ignorance get the best of them. Nevertheless, i found sacks and spent my week filling them. I also got my beekeeping project of the ground. I spent the day today building beehives out of concrete. It was actually a success... as far as i know. I am now waiting for the concrete to dry so we can bait the hives and wait for the bees. Things are going surprisingly well. I originally wanted to weave hives out of grass but found this incredibly time consuming. The westerner in me came out in full force and i headed to the local quincallerie to buy cement to make the hives the easy way. I am in need of buying some beekeeping suits and tools but am looking for someone to sponsor my project. If anyone would like to donate money to sponsor this, please let me know via email.

On another note, i stepped on a scorpion this week in the garden while watering with no shoes on. I got stung and thought i was going to die. I started to panic and then realized i was alone... so i collected myself and sat down and cried. Scorpions can be deadly but i remebered the doctors saying the scorpions here are not. After i cried like a baby i went back to watering and pulling weeds. For the next three days, my whole foot was swollen and itched so bad i thought i was going to scratch it off. At the moment, it is doing much better and only my toe is swollen.

I have found a new group of friends.... Im sad to admit it, but really my best friends are a group of 10 year old kids. These kids have helped me tremendously with my pepinering. They all worked really hard last week helping me prepare the soil and fill sacks. I gave them some school supplies at the end of the week and now i am basically a celebrity. They were so happy to receive so little. School supplies are hard to find here and when they are available, they are expensive. If anyone is interested in sending school supplies please let me know... THE KIDS NEED ALL THEY CAN GET. While I am at it, i will give a shout out about our malaria prevention project. We are in desperate need of $700 more dollars. We are raising money to buy mosquito nets. The rains will be here in about a month and the malaria counts will start to flourish. Sleeping with a mosquito net dramatically reduces the chance of contracting malaria. If you want to know more or donate money, please go to againstmalaria.com/kaolack... Any help for any of these projects would be more than appreciated!!! I hate asking people back in the states for money for our projects but really, a little goes a long way over here.
I hope everyone back at home is happy and healthy... i just realized i have been here for a whole school year... CRAZY!