Reconnecting with Senegal

Back to the village means back to work. After heading back last week, i realized the next few months are going to be crazy. The community garden project is moving slowly but surely. I spent pretty much every single day last week buying materials and getting them transported back to Diagle. It was fun spending money that didnt belong to me but not as fun as it could have been because it was all in an old shop that sells nothing but cement, iron, and misc. things. I bought all of the materials for the garden and am now just waiting for the villagers to get a move on it and actually start building. I had a talk with the president of the school today and told him i will not be buying anything for the well until i see some serious motivation coming from people in the village. Hopefully in the next few days they will have a meeting and organize who will be doing what. I think i have busted my butt in the last few days getting things ready for them. I hope they are ready to bust some butt for me! People here have no idea how simple little tasks for them can be huge hurtles for me to jump over. One great example: CHARETTES. Those are the carts pulled by a donkey or horse used for transporting materials or people. I spent some serious time this week waiting around for people to come pick things up and transport them for me. EVERYONE here pretty much has a charette in their family but no one wants to help me when i need one. I obviously dont know how to drive one of those things. Its strange but they have specific noises that they make for the donkey/horse to turn, slow, or stop. I ended up paying about 5 times what it should cost to get materials transported from Sokone to Diagle because the villagers were being lazy and wouldnt help. There are always excuses: In the morning it is "Wait until later, the charette needs to go out in the fields" in the afternoon, it is "Wait until later, its really hot right now." In the evenings it is, "Wait until tomorrow, the donkey is really tired!" Things like this make me want to scream! I think i hear the word "wait" more than anything else here. But i explained to them that everytime i have to pay someone for a charette that just takes more money away from their project that could be used to buy nicer materials. I heard a few people making fun of me after i walked away but whatever... its not my money. Its just makes me die a little inside when i try so hard to help people here and get turned down. I am asking for people to HELP ME HELP THEM!!! Its not that complicated!

A few days ago a young girl stopped by my room asking for nail polish. I took one look at her face and almost vomited. This girl has huge bumps all over her face and body. I immediately asked her what it was and she said it was rice. I asked her to explain and she said when she pops the bumps that rice comes out. I took her home and talked with her parents and they said that she has had it for about two months now. I asked to see her pop one and when she did... a WORM came out!! This is a tough issue for me here because of course i wanted to help her because obviously her family is not planning to, but its definately not my responsibility to buy medicine for people in the village. I have done it a few times in the past but only on rare, serious occasions. Obviously i am not going to let someone die because they dont have medicine but i know that if i start buying medicine for sick people, then others in the future will expect it too. It sucks. What would you do?

Other news: David and I finally got the Book Mobile up and running and have spent the last two days out in the bush delivering books to elementary schools. We will be going out with it again tomorrow. The kids really seem to love it! The book mobile has been a fun project thus far but it has a long way to go. The truck has problems and we are still in need of more books. We do have an awesome driver that has been more than wonderful in helping us with passing out books and dealing with rambunctious villagers. Shout out to Babacar! He is also a mechanic so when our truck broke down three times on our first trip out of Kaolack, he saved our lives! We are still in need of a better selection of books. All of our books are donated and unfortunately people often donate junky books that could not be used elsewhere.... sometimes not ideal books for elementary students and villagers. Today i found an "Idiots Guide to College Survival." haha It definately made me laugh. Aftet that David and I spent several hours going through the books and taking things off the truck that seemed unuseful. We have gone to four villages in the past two days and all is going well. I got some good photos of the truck and the kids today. Ill post those up soon. After we finish our run tomorrow, we will be spending time trying to coordinate the book mobile with village "reading rooms." We are creating reading rooms around the country that are pretty much libraries but cant be called libraries due to issues with the government. Hopefully we will get some cool projects that bring the rooms and the book mobile together. Our next run for the book mobile will be in February!

Things here are going well for me and i have been a busy little bee. I hope all is well with everyone at home. I miss you all already!! :) I hope my dad and sister Crystal both had happy birthdays this month!