Making Mud Pies

well folks, I have lots of exciting news on this end...

but first I should start with a little disclaimer, it all should be obvious but I want to stress that everything on this blog is a highly personalized and thus biased opinion. What I am most concerned about is that some of my posts may seem negative towards Senegal or the Peace Corps, etc. Please take my views with a grain of salt. Moving here and settling in is naturally full of highs and lows and unfortunately sometimes I let the "lows" take over. I feel that it is good to write about the frustrations because the struggles are a fundamental part of the experience and without them there would be no room for growth-- so when you read about these frustrations remember that they are just frustrations and they would be interpreted by others to be perfectly normal-- and also have faith that I will bounce back :)

Also on that note I want to thank everyone that sent messages after my last post and also for a certain Michael Flatley starring in Celtic Tiger t-shirt-- you guys are amazing, I don't know what I would do without you

That said I'd like to get to the fun stuff. Someone was asking me about health conditions here in Senegal which I think are really improving- there is a lot of energy given to AIDS awareness, lots of free vaccinations for kids, Red Cross health posts as well as Peace Corps health volunteers. My family even wash their hands before and after meals (which really impressed me). But then there are a few things that lead me to believe otherwise... one example. We have a visiting relative in my house at the moment, essentially an older aunt for me. She is playing with one of the babies the other day when she realizes he has a cold and his nose is running. She promptly covers the baby's mouth and nose with her mouth, sucks the snot out of his nose and spits it into the sand at her feet. And repeats. So you see.....

A couple days over the past week I rode out to a nearby village where a fellow volunteer is building an enormous mud bread oven. I finally fulfilled my dream of playing with poop for hours on end. My two co-volunteers mixed animal manure and clay while I was a "slinger and spreader" meaning I threw huge mud-poop-pies at the oven and sculpted it into a beautiful round dome. There are photos to come I promise, but for the moment you'll have to use your imagination. I also carried water on my head, which (I don't care how easy they make it look) is really really hard. Fifty pounds of water sloshing around on my head while traversing mushy sand dunes does not feel good. And I got to wear a muscle tee. And the kids we paid to help us asked me if I was a boy a or a girl... for those of you who remember a certain Tom Petty comment from a certain Maria's boyfriend from a certain party on Washington street last year should particularly appreciate this.

Then; I got sick; again. OKay; essentially I have some kind of parasite/amoeba/hypochondriac tendancy that has been knocking me out every once in a while for the last month. It's usually kind of funny because my family doesn't really get what is going on and I can't communicate very well, so they think I am just tired but the other day I was really sick and was in bed all day. My family started freaking out and wanted to rush me to the hospital or to Dakar. It can be kind of scary because people don't fully understand illness and how to treat it, yet they are surrounded by some very serious and very preventable diseases like malaria and tuberculosis, even polio. There are all kinds of "Wolof remedies" which are based on soaking certain bits of wood in water and drinking the water or mixng certain powders together-- some of which work for some minor maladies, but clearly in the case of malaria, etc. they don't work at all.

Anyway, my family took really great care of me, to the point of leaving 3 different meals in my room; including an entire fish; none of which I could eat... but then randomly in the middle they also brought in 12 random to wake me up and then sit on the opposite side of the room to look at photos of a random wedding. I may never understand.

I'm out of time for now, but I hope you enjoy and have a wonderful Christmas and New Years!!! I wish I could be home to spend my time with all of my loved ones, but I take heart knowing that the time already passes quickly! All my best wishes for the new year!