AidWorker

This is what American taxpayer dollars paid for me to do this week

2010-10-08T17:01:00.000+01:00

This is what American taxpayer dollars paid for me to do this week:

Play with cute kids...

Look at elephants...

and hyenas...

and wildebeest...

and hippos...

and beautiful lakes...

and flamingos...

And watch a traditional Maasai dance.

Seriously, though, what I did this week was head south of Nairobi to the area around Kajiado to monitor some nutrition programs. The area is populated mainly by Maasai pastoralists, who lost a huge proportion of their cattle in last year's drought. Even though the drought is over now (at least for the moment), without the cattle they don't have enough to eat. The kids especially are suffering, since milk is usually a big part of their diet and now they're mostly just getting porridge. So over the past year OFDA has been funding NGOs to work with hospitals and clinics to improve the way they treat people with malnutrition, and during the height of the drought we provided supplemental feed for some of the animals and seeds to plant some crops for the next rainy season, so that people didn't lose their entire livelihoods. In some areas we also provided monthly payments to the poorest families (of about $15-25) so that they could buy food.

These are some of the women who received monthly payments for their families, which they said allowed them to feed their kids and keep them in school.

When I asked them if I could take their picture, they said Yes! But instead of just standing there like I thought they would, they insisted I wait until they were properly posed, and then they started singing a traditional Maasai song (in the video above), which I was told is about what a good day it is.

As part of our monitoring, we also watched some babies and mothers being weighed and measured to check for malnutrition, which reminded me a lot of my time in Peace Corps:

We also inspected the supplementary food that is given to the malnourished children and mothers:

So it was a really good, interesting trip, and hopefully I did actually earn my salary for the week. The lovely scenery was just a bonus that we got to see on our way from one village to the next. I feel so incredibly lucky to have this job.

You can see more pictures here.

Project monitoring trips

2010-10-02T17:51:00.000+01:00

The past two weeks I have gone on some more monitoring trips, this time to Coast Province, to check on some more of the projects we're funding. These projects are also for dealing with, or preparing for, drought - we classify them as Disaster Risk Reduction - but instead of boreholes these projects are focused on capturing and saving rainwater for the dry season.

The first set of projects we looked at were gutters installed on the roofs of schools, with the water from the gutters directed into big storage tanks. In many of the villages we went to, that rainwater is the cleanest water they can get - otherwise they're getting water from the river, which can have all kinds of bacteria and parasites in it.

Our NGO partner is also building latrines at the schools and piloting giving some plastic latrine slabs to villages, to try to improve sanitation and reduce disease. Without the latrines, people just go off into the bush to use the bathroom, and then when it rains the drinking water supply (mainly the river and sometimes some shallow wells) can get contaminated. So latrines may not be flashy and exciting, but they are important. And they seem to be a big hit in the villages - in some places where they only have latrines at the school, which are supposed to be just for the students, everyone in the village is coming over to use them. It's not exactly what we were hoping for - the ideal is to get people interested in latrines and then they go and build their own. But I guess it's a start.

This past week the main thing we went to see were rock catchments- basically big rock mountains popping out of the desert, and then our NGO partner build short terrace walls on them the water coming down them when it rains into a dam at the bottom, from where it can be piped into storage tanks and saved for the dry season. I was really impressed with these projects and the villagers were so excited about them - it almost made me want to become an engineer so that I could be the one out there running around on the mountains and designing the catchments.

But then again, one of the rock mountains was so steep that I don't want to be the person having to climb up and down that one (although I did do it once).

We got to participate in handing over ceremony for a rock catchment project that was just finished, where the NGO formally hands over the project to the village. It was a pretty cool ceremony, complete with traditional dancing and a hygiene skit that reminded me of Peace Corps.

And then my favorite part: my colleague who we all tease about becoming a politician someday got to practice his speechmaking skills. (Also, I was relieved that he didn't make me do the speech. Instead, I danced with an old lady - but no photos of that one, sorry!)

You can see more photos here and here. I've got some more trips coming up the next few weeks - maybe enough to satisfy even travel-hungry me!

Role model?

2010-09-23T17:06:00.000+01:00

I'll write a proper post later about my trip this week, but I just wanted to tell this little story first:

At one of the schools we were visiting, the kids were especially friendly (and very excited about having their photos taken, even though they didn't smile for the picture). They were hanging around and playing while we were trying to inspect the water tank our partner is building for the school, and one of my colleagues told me that the boys were teasing a couple of the girls (who chose not to be in the picture), telling them that they should study hard so that they could grow up to have a fancy job like me.

I never thought of myself as being a role model like that, especially not just by showing up, but it was really nice. So I told the girls that the boys were right, if they study hard they could get a job like mine too. I told them my (maternal) grandparents were from poor farming families (these kids are pastoralists, but close enough, they can relate), but they worked hard and my parents were able to go to school and become teachers (which, besides nurses, is the highest status profession the kids come into contact with on a regular basis), and they worked hard and helped me get a good education, and now I'm a diplomat/aidworker.

So that's my happy little story for the day. I'll write about the rest of my trip soon.

Elephants and giraffes

2010-09-19T05:36:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I went to the elephant orphanage and giraffe center on the outskirts of Nairobi. I got to see lots of cute baby elephants and feed a giraffe out of my hand. I really wish I could ride a giraffe, and I asked if that's possible anywhere, but the guide said giraffes are too sensitive and won't stand being touched, much less ridden. Too bad. But here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure!

I'm going on another monitoring trip this week to check on some more drought relief projects. Should be interesting!

This is what I do in my job

2010-09-10T08:49:00.000+01:00

Lately, I've been spending a lot of time reading quarterly reports from our partners. For example, last year OFDA (the office I work in) gave money to several NGOs (non-profits) to do projects in areas of Kenya that were affected by drought, to help people survive without hopefully having to migrate or sell off all their assets (mostly animals) to be able to buy food. And now, every three months the partners have to send us reports telling us how the projects are going and what they've accomplished. So I've been spending the last few weeks reading the reports, making sure that the partners are doing what we agreed they would do at the beginning, that the projects are more or less on track, and that overall US taxpayers' dollars are being well spent.

Also, I go to a lot of meetings. Lately, a lot of the meetings have been about the weather and forecasts - for example, what regions have had good rains and therefore have had a good growing season for crops and subsequently the people are better nourished, and what areas haven't had good rains (or have had too much rain which caused flooding), leading to poor crops and malnourishment. And then all this information helps us to figure out where people are in need and where we should be implementing projects.

So that's a snapshot of my life in the office. I'll be going out on another project monitoring trip in a few weeks, inshallah.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, a few pictures from my trip last weekend to Lamu, an ancient Swahili town on the Kenyan coast:

You can see more pictures here. Credit for all the best photos goes to Diana.

I work really hard

2010-08-30T04:53:00.000+01:00

Kenya's new Constitution came into effect on Friday (now known as Promulgation Day). There was a big ceremony in Uhuru Park, attended by Kenyan and many other leaders, including, unfortunately, Sudanese president and war criminal Omar Hassan Al-Bashir (who's been indicted by the International Criminal Court, which means as soon as he landed in Kenya the Kenyan authorities should have arrested him).

So Friday was declared a national holiday in Kenya, which meant U.S. government employees here got the day off. So my friends and I celebrated by going horseback riding out in tea plantation-land.

You can see more pictures here. It was so, so much fun, and I am hoping to make this a regular weekend activity. I was super sore afterwards, though!

Then yesterday I went on another embassy-organized trip to a place called Bomas of Kenya, which is kind of like the Kenyan version of colonial Williamsburg. The government set it up in the 1970s when they saw that the country was really starting to develop and change, so that Kenyans wouldn't forget their cultural heritage. Of course there are lots of tourists that visit, but it's mainly for Kenyan schoolchildren to see how their ancestors lived.

They have traditional huts from different areas of Kenya; for example, this is the style used by many ethnic groups along the coast of Kenya:

Besides the traditional houses, at Bomas you can also see performances of the traditional dances of the different ethnic groups:

You can see more pictures of Bomas here. Unfortunately the lighting in the auditorium wasn't great, and it was only towards the end that one of my friends pointed out that sometimes the pictures will actually turn out lighter if you turn off the flash.

Then yesterday I went hiking at Mt. Longonot, which is not just a mountain but a volcano! I've never been to one before, so it was very cool. In the morning it was very foggy, so we couldn't see much, but we finally got some good views at the very end of our hike.

You can see more photos of Mt. Longonot here.

It may not seem like it from this blog lately, but I do actually do some work in Kenya on occasion, when I have time in between all the fun stuff. I'll write about it soon.

Freedom!

2010-08-25T20:02:00.000+01:00

Finally my car is here! I'm so excited to be able to go places now, without having to spend a million dollars on taxis or beg for a ride from other people.

Tomorrow I have to get the oil changed and take care of a few other maintenance things, since it's been sitting on a boat for almost two months. But after that, I'm going horseback riding and hiking and all kinds of fun stuff! I feel like a teenager getting my first car (although in actuality I didn't get my first car til I was 21 and in grad school).

I just drove it from work to home today. I thought I'd gotten used to the whole driving on the left side of the road thing just from riding in cars around here, but it's definitely going to take a little getting used to as a driver.

World Humanitarian Day

2010-08-21T18:00:00.000+01:00

In case you are still wondering, this is what my job is about. (Although the video makes it look a lot more exciting than it is most of the time).

Tea Plantation

2010-08-18T15:13:00.000+01:00

This past weekend I went on an embassy-organized trip to visit a tea plantation just outside Nairobi. It was beautiful and made me think again that I understand why the British colonized Kenya.

I also found out that there's a place nearby where you can go horseback riding through the coffee and tea plantations. So as soon as I get my car (hopefully next week!), you know where I'll be spending my free time and money!

You can see more photos here.

Peace!

2010-08-05T15:44:00.000+01:00

An overwhelming majority of Kenyans voted to adopt the new constitution yesterday, and today William Ruto, one of the politicians leading the No camp, conceded that "the Kenyan people had spoken". So it's all over, no violence so far, and none expected in the next few days. We have been lucky.

Now if we can just be so lucky when the International Criminal Court indicts the leaders of the 2007 post-election violence (expected in the next few months I think) and during the next elections...

Article about Kenya's referendum

2010-08-04T12:10:00.001+01:00

I think this article gives a pretty good summary of what the main issues are in the Kenyan constitutional referendum.

Kenyan constitutional referendum

2010-08-04T09:30:00.000+01:00

Today Kenyans vote on whether to adopt a new constitution. I haven't studied the proposed constitution, or the current one, closely, but my understanding is that one of the most important differences is a decrease in the power of the presidency, which has long been called for in Kenya. However, (and unfortunately I think), politicians and the media have instead tended to focus on two sections in the proposed constitution: one which allows abortion if the life of the mother is endangered (compared to an absolute ban currently), and another provision which allows Muslims to go to Muslim "Kadhis courts" for marriage, divorce, and inheritance matters, which they are already able to do anyway under the current constitution.

In any case, after all the violence following the elections in 2007, there is a lot of nervousness that there could be violence again with this referendum. But this time the government, the Kenyan Red Cross ( which is the designated first responder for humanitarian crises), the UN agencies, NGOs, and the USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (where I work) are prepared.

So we are praying for peace, but ready to respond if things go the other way. I'll update later when we know more.

And for those of you who worry about me, don't worry, I'm very safe.

USAID and the "counterbureaucracy"

2010-08-03T06:30:00.001+01:00

I've been reading a perhaps overly-long but interesting article by Andrew Natsios, a former USAID Administrator, about how bureaucracy, in particular requirements to measure and report on activities, is preventing USAID from being effective at development. Natsios describes how initiatives to promote accountability and improve government performance have led to an emphasis on more-easily measurable activities, like vaccination campaigns where you can easily count the number of people vaccinated, over less easily-measured activities that would likely have a more sustainable, long-term impact, like building the capabilities of developing nations' ministries of health so that they can vaccinate their populations on their own instead of needing our assistance. He also shows how spending money quickly has also come to be considered good program management, (who hasn't heard criticisms of USAID or the Red Cross after big disasters like the tsunami, Katrina, or the Haiti earthquake for only having spent, say, 15% of their money allocated to the disaster within the first year?), even though, for a program to be really effective and sustainable, you need to consult with the local population and government, which can take a lot of time and means that you will spend money much more slowly.

Unfortunately, while Natsios points out the problems with the way USAID does things now, there don't seem to be any quick fixes. (While USAID is fighting for its life as an independent agency, how likely is it that we'll convince the President and Congress to let us spend less time reporting results and being accountable, so that we can spend more time actually working on development problems? Fat chance, I'm thinking). But Natsios does have some interesting recommendations, which I'm copying in below (and hoping that it's not violating copyright). I will admit upfront that I'm only copying the recommendations I like and find interesting, and not, say, his recommendation that USAID technical staff should have to work 30 rather than 20 years to qualify for retirement, which obviously is not in my self-interest!

Okay, here are his (selected) recommendations:

Measuring foreign policy results. Critics of U.S. foreign aid have long argued that it has failed on three counts: not connecting aid with U.S. foreign policy objectives, moving too slowly to implement programs, and not producing measurable results. It may not have occurred to these critics, but these objectives are mutually exclusive demands. Political aid programs frequently do not produce good development results because they ignore both good development practice and theory; they have other objectives, which make diplomatic and military sense, but not much else. Political aid programs are not going away any time soon because they are needed to carry out U.S. foreign policy, but they ought to be judged using very different standards than traditional development aid programs.

USAID should develop, with Congressional assent, politically based evaluation standards for aid programs in war zones or where U.S. foreign policy interests are of central importance. Examples of such situations include Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, the West Bank, Gaza, and Afghanistan, where the Defense and State Department micro-manage aid programs for purposes that are unrelated or counter-productive to good development theory or practice. These are political, not development, aid programs and should be judged by whether they win hearts and minds, attract the
support of particular warlords or political factions, prop up fragile allies, or send diplomatic messages. We should stop applying development performance standards to these programs, and dispense with the polite pretense that they are development programs at all. Development professionals have little control of how they are designed, implemented, or managed. We should judge them for what they are.

The End of Time-based Measurements. Using program spending or disbursement rates to judge the success of aid programs, whether by OMB, GAO, OIG or Congressional oversight committees, undermines the ownership and sustainability principles that have long been central to good aid practice. The regulator's assumption that appropriated aid money is not being spent quickly enough, and thus is being poorly managed, misses the point of good development practice. This kind of work cannot be done easily or quickly, if it is to be effective. Moreover, it requires a much longer time line to achieve results when the institutions of the recipient countries are weak or non-existent. Disbursement rates
should be used sparingly as a means for judging aid programs. The weaker or more fragile a state, the longer the time lag will be in showing program results, and allowances must be made for this lag in evaluations.

Aligning programs with organizational incentives. I suggest that only direct hire aid officers with advanced technical expertise should design projects and programs (now contractors design them), the length of which should be coterminous with the designing officer's assignment in the country where the project is being implemented. Moreover, that designing officer should manage the project to its conclusion. At the end of the project an impact evaluation would be done that should be included in the personnel evaluation of the responsible officer and be used to determine promotions and annual salary bonuses. These field evaluations would have to identify factors that were beyond the control of the aid officers. The officers would have to have much greater mobility to visit projects outside their imprisonment in USAID and U.S. Embassy compounds, caused by the draconian security measures required by the Embassy Security Act of 1998. This reform would align program design and management with the personnel system and incentive structure of the agency (and would require amendments to the Foreign Service Act). Other process heavy systems required by the counter-bureaucracy would have to be scaled down or eliminated wholesale.

A concluding thought, again courtesy of Andrew Natsios: T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia) wrote in his celebrated memoir Seven Pillars of Wisdom about his exploits organizing Arab desert tribes against their colonial masters—the Ottoman Turks—who had sided with Germany and the Austro-
Hungarian Empire in World War I: "Better to let them do it imperfectly than to do it perfectly yourself, for it is their country, their way and your time is short."

Hiking in Hell's Gate

2010-08-02T18:39:00.000+01:00

I went hiking yesterday in Hell's Gate National Park, just about an hour outside of Nairobi. Besides being very pretty, there are zebras and antelope and warthogs and baboons, and other animals which we didn't see. And it's a volcanic area, so there are hot springs and steam vents, which I've never seen before.

The zebras were just hanging out by the side of the road.

Steam vents. Our guide Hassan carried a stick for fighting off baboons, just in case. But we didn't see any until we got back to the car. We did see hyena tracks, though. Luckily we were following it instead of the other way around!

You can see more pictures here.

Kitengela glass factory

2010-07-25T17:06:00.000+01:00

This morning a very kind colleague took me along with her to the Kitengela glass factory, about an hour outside of Nairobi. She had told me you could see them blowing the glass there, and then you can buy glass stuff. And I have to admit, I thought, "big deal, we have glass blowing at the Appalachian Center for Crafts not far outside my hometown." So I was expecting shelves and shelves of vases and other glassware, which were indeed there:

But she didn't warn me at all that this place is like a fairytale hobbit-land with art!

Also it reminded me a bit of the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore.

And to top it all off there was beautiful scenery.

Excellent field trip! You can see more pictures here.

Ostrich riding!

2010-07-24T16:41:00.000+01:00

Today I went on an embassy-organized trip to an ostrich farm about two hours outside of Nairobi. Apparently ostriches are pretty curious animals, but I think they look mean.

Turns out they are fun to ride though!

The ostrich was making angry noises when I got off:

Also, we had ostrich stir-fry for lunch - tastes like beef, but the texture is a little different.

Overall, a fun day, but I think I will stick to horseback riding. You can see more pictures here.

Trip to northeast Kenya

2010-07-18T12:58:00.000+01:00

This past week I traveled up to northeast Kenya (around Garissa and Wajir if you want to look on a map) with several colleagues to monitor a project OFDA funded to rehabilitate boreholes (really deep wells that require pumps to pull the water up) and truck water to villages with insufficient water during the drought last year.

So for several days we drove over bumpy dirt roads (I started to feel like I was getting Shaken Baby Syndrome from all the bouncing around) from one settlement to the next, asking the people living there, who are mostly nomadic but some settled, ethnic Somalis about their boreholes, water quality, and the health of children and animals.

Used as I have gotten to the very formal, long-winded West African way of doing things, our quick interviews with the Somali-Kenyans felt strange, but we did get a lot of good information.
In one settlement after the next, we were told that they need another borehole, a new generator, and often that the water coming from the existing borehole was too saline. In one village the water was so saline that the animals are dying, because drinking the salty water just makes them thirstier, so unless the people force them away from the water, they keep on drinking until they swell up and die.

So things are tough. If we had had more than 30 minutes to spend at any one site, I would have wanted to have a more frank discussion about priorities and needs - if they did get another borehole, it would probably just deplete the groundwater even faster, leaving them in even more of a fix in ten years or so. And if there's any increase in water availability, then people will just get more animals, and more families will move into the area, and the people will end up right back where they are now, with the bare minimum of water required to survive. And the generators are always breaking down, and getting the equipment and expertise to repair them is expensive and takes a long time, and the fuel to run them is expensive, so overall it's just not very sustainable. The problem is, what's the alternative?

So I don't have any big answers after this trip, but I at least was able to get an idea of what life is like out there, which I think is important. And on the fun side for me, driving around out there was like being on a safari.

We saw giraffes (which I hadn't been expecting), antelope, dik diks (which are tiny antelope the size of small dogs, and for some reason every time I saw them, I thought "Ooh, I bet those taste good!"), warthogs, baboons, and one roadkill hyena. And to accompany the sights, our driver told us stories about his village boyhood adventures hunting giraffes with arrows (they have the tastiest meat!) and fighting pythons.

Overall, a very good trip. Now back to the office to pay the price for all my fun with a week of mind-numbing training.

You can see more photos from my trip here.

I am not suffering here

2010-07-08T17:22:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I went to the grocery store for my first real shopping trip. (My social sponsor took me just after I arrived, but I was jetlagged and didn't want to take up her time so I just grabbed a few quick things and we left). But yesterday I took my time, wandering around and checking out everything. And they have pretty much anything you could want, from Kellogg's cereal to Heinz ketchup to at least five different brands of milk to choose from.

I liked this one, just because its name strikes me as an oxymoron. And also, tigers live in Asia, not Africa (but maybe they are marketing to the Indian/Asian population here).

Flowers!

2010-07-08T17:16:00.000+01:00

Kenya is a big horticultural exporter, and there are lots of beautiful flowers all around, even now during "wintertime". This one is in my backyard:

These were in my house when I moved in, and a week later they still look great:

Someone told me you can buy a dozen roses for about 300 Kenyan shillings, which is a little less than $5. Nice deal for the husbands and boyfriends!

2010-07-06T17:19:00.000+01:00

...And now I have internet at home! Just need to get my wireless router and it will be perfect!

First day at work

2010-07-06T15:23:00.000+01:00

Had my first day at work today - starting at 7:15am! But at least I get to leave at 4:30, and 12:30 on Fridays.

The OFDA team I'm going to be working with had my cubicle all set up and ready for me, which was nice:

It was a good, busy day, mostly spent meeting people and doing paperwork. But I found out I'm going on a trip next week to northeastern Kenya to visit one of our partners' projects, which is very exciting! And it sounds like there will be lots more trips and interesting work to come, so I'm very happy.

Now if I can just get internet at my house, and maybe some food in the fridge... (please note that internet is the higher priority).

Hawkers' Market

2010-07-05T09:53:00.000+01:00

This morning a colleague (new friend?) took me to Hawkers' Market, which is a big outdoor/covered market with lots of individual vendors selling vegetables, fruits, etc, just like I was used to shopping at in Senegal. It made me so happy, especially as I'd been feeling weirded out by how patron/expat-y my life here is so far. The market wasn't crowded at all, and was a lot more laid-back than they ever were in Senegal, so that was nice, but my colleague said it was just because we went early on a Monday. So we'll see what it's like next time (and maybe I will take some pictures). But in any case, I'm much happier having found that place. Now I just need to find a special favorite vegetable lady like I had in Senegal.

2nd day in Nairobi

2010-07-03T16:10:00.000+01:00

This morning I went to brunch with some other DLIs (new USAID staff like me). Everybody was really nice, and I may be on my way to making some friends! Then my social sponsor took me around town a bit more - I am really liking Nairobi so far, except have I mentioned it's freezing cold? The last two days have been very gray like it's about to rain, and I'm wearing a shirt, a sweater, and a jacket. Weird to come from America to Africa and have to bundle up more.

Still working on unpacking and fixing up my house, but I'm not being very diligent about it - the internet is so much more interesting!

Nairobi!!

2010-07-02T13:49:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post because I'm jetlagged and I'm supposed to be unpacking:

I got in to Nairobi airport last night around 8pm. The airport is much bigger and nicer than Dakar airport, so that was nice. I got to go through the "fast lane" at passport control (finally my dip. passport was good for something!), but then I discovered that that was pointless because that just meant I had to wait longer at the baggage carousel for my bags to come.

The Embassy "Expediter" met me at the bag carousel (apparently she'd tried to meet me before passport control, but I didn't know to look for her there so I didn't notice her) and then helped me get through customs. There I was met by a woman from the OFDA office (where I'll be working) who bargained with the money changers to get me a good rate on Kenyan shillings, and then we hopped in the OFDA (right-hand side drive) car driven by an official driver, and they drove me to where I'll be living. They said that even late at night traffic can be bad and sometimes the trip will take several hours, but we got lucky and it only took 15-20 minutes.

Then we arrived at my house!

The OFDA people soon left, but my "social sponsor" who is another new-ish USAID employee like me came over and showed me around the house. It's very weird having a kitchen big enough to fit my entire DC apartment inside it; I started getting a little tired of it today while I was unpacking - in DC if I needed something, no matter where I was it was only about 3 feet away. Now I have to walk all the way upstairs/downstairs to the other side of the house. But I'm sure I will get used to it!

Today I am just hanging around, unpacking/being jetlagged while everyone else deals with official 4th of July celebration preparations. Hopefully soon people will start to get back here and maybe I can start making friends.

On the road again…

2010-07-02T13:15:00.000+01:00

The past month has been crazy. Somehow it ended up that my annual employee evaluation, the paperwork for the student loan repayment program, and all the paperwork and other errands for getting ready to move happened all at the same time. So I’ve spent a huge chunk of the past month just doing paperwork and stalking people in our HR department to make sure that everything was moving along as it should be. I got in a little “real” work as well, but not much.

But all the stress and running around and craziness finally paid off. Monday last week the movers came to my apartment and packed everything up to have it shipped to Nairobi for me. They were supposed to show up at 8:30am and finish within about three hours, but of course instead they didn’t show up until 11:30 and then didn’t finish for seven hours. But it got done, which is all that really matters, and I was able to turn in my apartment keys and stop worrying about whether I would really get moved out of my apartment by the end of the month before the management threw my stuff out in the street so the new resident could move in. Yay!

I stayed in a hotel for ten days, courtesy of the government (thanks, taxpayers!) to make moving out of my apartment easier. I had looked forward to it, thinking it would be like being on vacation except that I would still have to go to work, but as it turns out I prefer sleeping in my own bed and having my clothes on hangers in the closet rather than rumpled in my suitcase. Maid service was still nice, though.

Finally, Tuesday was the big day. I went to the airport early, lugged my three suitcases to the Delta counter to check in, and then was told I had to go check in with KLM, Delta’s “partner” for this flight. (Apparently this partner stuff is how they get around the Fly America Act which requires flights paid for with government money to be on US carriers). So I lugged my three suitcases across the airport to the KLM counter. The KLM check-in woman told me my suitcases were too heavy, so I would have to move some things out of the checked luggage, which gets weighed, to my carryon bag, which doesn’t get weighed. This doesn’t make much sense to me since the same amount of weight is going to end up on the plane, but fine. I rearranged things, got my boarding pass, got through security, and finally made it onto the plane. Yippee!

The flight to Amsterdam was fine, no incidents. The landing was super smooth, prompting some of the passengers to break out into applause, which I thought was funny but kind of sweet. I’d hoped that there would be a line at passport control for diplomatic passport holders, just for fun, but no such luck. But I made it out of the airport hassle-free, and then went to wait for the 5 euro airport shuttle. It was 8am in Amsterdam, which equaled 2am in D.C., and I was exhausted. After about 30 minutes I finally gave up waiting for the shuttle and went to get a taxi. I was staying at the Marriott airport hotel (thanks again, taxpayers!), so I figured it would be close by and the taxi ride wouldn’t be expensive. Big mistake – the 10 minute ride cost 30 euros, and my regret was compounded by the shuttle arriving just five minutes later. But you live, you learn, and my five minute head start put me at the head of the line for getting a room as soon as the maids finished cleaning one (an hour later).

I’d hoped I’d have the energy to go out and do some touristing around Amsterdam, but I ended up sleeping til 4pm, so I only went for a short walk in a residential area around Central Station. But it was a nice way to get an idea of what it would be like to live in Amsterdam – live on a houseboat, ride a bicycle everywhere, hang out at cafes – in short, European heaven, except that there isn’t enough sun for me, so I’m still be glad to be heading back to Africa.

This morning it was back to the airport for me for my flight to Nairobi. I tried to check in at the automatic kiosk, but it gave me an error message about my flight status requiring me to check in with a real person. So I waited in a long line to speak with a real person, and then she told me that my suitcases were too heavy, and she also weighed my carryon bag and said that was too heavy. Also, apparently the flight was overbooked and so I was going to be bumped to another flight – maybe in the evening, and maybe not til tomorrow. Not good news, especially when I am jetlagged and haven’t had any coffee. So I rearranged my luggage, this time taking everything heavy out of my carryon and putting it in a checked bag, and then I still had to pay a 100 euro fine. Boo. I guess the overnight stopover in Europe wasn’t such a good idea after all.

The check-in woman gave me a standby boarding pass so I could get through security, and then I was supposed to talk to the airline staff at the gate to see if I could get a seat or if I would have to get bumped. I got ready to use my very best African bargaining skills to try to get on the plane, and I even considered trying “I’m holding a diplomatic passport and I’m on government business” to see if that would get me anywhere. (Amsterdam is nice but I’m ready to get to Nairobi and get settled in).

But before I had to pull out my African bargaining skills, the woman at the gate gave me a real boarding pass with a seat assignment. Yay! And then as I boarded the plane, the flight attendant directed me to my seat “upstairs” (it’s one of those giant planes with a small upstairs cabin). So I hauled my suitcase up the little stairway, and discovered that they gave me a seat in business class – awesome! (Definitely worth the 100 euro luggage fine). I don’t think it’s because of my diplomatic passport since none of the check-in people looked at the cover that says it’s a diplomatic passport. They just went straight to the picture page with my information on it. So I guess I just got lucky, and I will have to see if the diplomatic passport has any power some other time.

I’m sorry to say that business class airplane food still tastes like airplane food, even though they put a little tablecloth on my tray table and serve the food on real dishes.

The reclining seat with the footrest and the nicer pillow and blanket are much appreciated, though, as are the better headphones (movie selection is the same as for the proletariat). All in all, I have to say I wouldn’t mind flying business class again someday! No more unnecessary overnight stopovers, though – getting real sleep is nice, but not really worth all the hassle of having to check in and go through airport security again.

Next blog post: from Nairobi!

A good article about U.S. food aid

2010-06-12T15:45:00.000+01:00

The Plumpy Crusader

A new resource offers hope for the hungry, but Congress still holds the keys to food aid.

As Navyn Salem starts up the machines for the first time at her factory in Providence, R.I., this month, she has all the anxieties of any new business owner: whether the equipment will work, who will buy her products, how to cover her employees' benefits, and how to raise the profile of Edesia, the food-manufacturing producer she's launching. To that list, add a few more unconventional ones: how to make Edesia the first successful nonprofit provider of ready-to-use therapeutic (RUTF) food aid in the United States, how to revolutionize treatment of childhood malnutrition, and how to transform decades of counterproductive U.S. humanitarian aid policies, which place fiercely protectionist requirements on the food products that can be sent abroad during emergencies.

Read more...

DC "celebrity" sighting

2010-06-12T02:22:00.000+01:00

On my way to dinner tonight, I saw House minority leader John Boehner having dinner at another restaurant across the street. The photo I took isn't very good since my camera phone doesn't have zoom, but he's the guy at the left side of the table on the right:

The guys at the table just to the left are his security guys, probably Secret Service. When I got out of the car, I was just looking over at John Boehner for a bit, which apparently made the security guy mad. So he started glaring at me, and then he took a picture of me with his camera phone, probably to run through the FBI database later. I thought it was pretty funny. I wonder if they'll figure out who I am? (If they're smart, they'll google "John Boehner" and probably find this blog entry).

USAID in the Wash Post!

2010-06-07T23:26:00.000+01:00

An article about Rajiv Shah, the USAID Administrator, in the Washington Post:

Rajiv Shah, USAID director, on tackling global hunger and why women lead the way

By Mary Beth Sheridan

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 7, 2010

The number of people suffering from hunger has now topped 1 billion globally -- the highest since 1970, according to the United Nations. U.S. foreign-aid director Rajiv Shah, 37, recently presented the Obama administration's strategy to tackle the food crisis.

"Feed the Future" will focus on improving the agricultural systems of at least 20 countries. It's part of an international effort that could benefit 40 million poor people over a decade, officials say.

Read more...

Bye bye, rent!

2010-05-27T02:18:00.002+01:00

Paid my last rent for possibly a very long time today. Feels good.

Kenya’s Constitution Becomes New Front in Culture Wars - NYTimes.com

2010-05-15T01:00:00.000+01:00

Kenya’s Constitution Becomes New Front in Culture Wars - NYTimes.com

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: May 13, 2010

NAIROBI, Kenya — The push to pass a new constitution in Kenya, a cornerstone of the effort to correct longstanding imbalances of power and prevent the kind of upheaval that followed deeply flawed elections here, has attracted some unexpected interference — from more than 7,000 miles away.

Before Kenyan lawmakers had even finished drafting the proposed constitution, American Christians organized petition drives in Kenya against it, objecting to a provision recognizing Islamic courts.

Now that the draft is done, three Republican members of Congress contend that it significantly expands abortion rights, and are accusing the United States Embassy in Kenya of openly supporting it in violation of federal rules.

Keep reading...

Sarah Palin comes to the RRB

2010-05-15T00:54:00.000+01:00

This morning when I walked into work, a man behind me asked the security guard, "Is this where the Sarah Palin breakfast is?"

!!?

I didn't hear the guard's answer, but when I got my computer turned on I googled "Sarah Palin" and "Ronald Reagan Building", and sure enough, she was in my building this morning for a "Celebration of Life" breakfast.

I mentioned it to my supervisor, just to say that this is a very weird life I have where Sarah Palin might randomly show up in the building where I work, and she said that if I wanted I could go and try to "accidentally" bump into her. I thought about it, but then I decided better not, because I would want to heckle her and that's probably not allowed during the work day.

So I didn't see Sarah Palin today, but I was for two hours in the same building with her. Thinking about it still makes me feel like I am having some sort of Twilight Zone experience.

Book review

2010-05-13T00:02:00.000+01:00

I was really excited when I started at USAID to discover that they have a library - full of technical books about development, as well as novels and movies set in other countries. Basically, my version of heaven, except with bad fluorescent lighting. And, to make it even better, we can request books if they don't have something we want.

So, a month or two ago, I requested a book about feminist movements within Islam, which they ordered for me. And then, the secret catch came: they wanted me to write a book review about it for the library newsletter, so other people will want to read it too.

So, since I did all that work, and it was a pretty good and interesting book, I thought I'd post my review here. (Many thanks to my editor who made it sound much more nice and literary than when I first wrote it).

Review of Paradise Beneath Her Feet by Isobel Coleman

Much of the discussion about Islam in the West today seems to assume an incompatibility between Western values and Islam: from a religious defense of violence, to the subjugation of women, to the near sacralization of domestic abuse, Islam is often portrayed as backward and repressive. But in Paradise Beneath Her Feet Isobel Coleman showcases an Islam which not only affirms women, but has a long and rich history of defending them.

Among the insightful jewels in Paradise Beneath Her Feet are: in 1898 a Muslim scholar from India published a treatise called The Rights of Women, which one year later was followed by The Liberation of Women being published in Egypt. Also, Grand Ayatollah Saanei, one of the ten highest-ranking clerics in Iranian Shiism, has said women should be able to hold any job, including president or supreme religious leader; women's testimony is to be of the same value as a man's; and women have the right to abortion on the grounds on "compassion". And these are only some of the examples.

That said, this book does have its limitations. As the author points out in her introduction, she began researching the book knowing nearly nothing about these topics. And, accordingly, much of her insight about women and Islam in the Middle East come across as a debutant fascinated and surprised by her findings, rather than a wizened master who is able to thoroughly or exhaustively parse her topic. The first chapter 'Why Women Matter' leaves one wondering, if a chapter on 'Why Women Matter' is required, and the following case is made solely in economic terms, has not the battle for the defense of women in Islam already been lost? Or is the self-evident value of women today just a dead Western dream, buried as a Paradise Beneath Her Feet?

Excited

2010-05-12T23:41:00.000+01:00

Today I had lunch with the woman who will be my supervisor in Nairobi (she's in DC for meetings this week), and it's gotten me all excited about the work I'll be doing in Nairobi! It sounds like they've really put a lot of thought into coming up with a good training plan and projects for me to work on, and there is a good chance that I'll get to travel a bit around the East Africa region.

Also, today my MOA (memorandum of agreement) - which is part of the paperwork I've been stressed about getting done so I can go to Nairobi on time - finally got sent to me to look over. So hopefully things will keep moving and I will be able to keep to my (made up) schedule for getting to Nairobi.

A good, good day!

A good article on the debate currently taking place between USAID and the State Department

2010-05-10T15:09:00.001+01:00

This is a good article about the power struggle currently taking place between USAID and the State Department over who gets to control development policy.

Opinion: USAID needs more autonomy

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/worldview/100509/USAID-hillary-rodham-clinton-center-for-global-development

Hillary Rodham Clinton in Hillary Clinton speech at Center for Global Development said she would prioritize development aid In order to raise international aid USAID needs more autonomy

One step closer

2010-05-05T23:17:00.000+01:00

I got my black diplomatic passport yesterday. It still feels cool to me, even though all it really gets me is to go through the shorter line at the airport, which has never really been a big issue to me anyway. But I guess it means I am one step closer to moving to Nairobi. I also have a tentative "packout" date scheduled, when the movers will come to my apartment and pack up all my stuff for me and ship it to Nairobi, but there is a good chance that that will get postponed if some of my other paperwork, which seems to have gotten stuck somehow, doesn't get done soon.

Otherwise, I am just toodling along in my rotation in the Food for Peace office, which I am enjoying way more than I ever expected to. Besides having what seems to me one of the friendliest staffs at USAID, their work is much more interesting than I had thought. Of course it doesn't hurt that I've gotten to go to a couple of meetings at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, the big palace-style building next to the White House (although it just looks like a regular old office building on the inside).

One more week, and then I'll be down to my last rotation before I leave, on the Somalia desk.

Michelle Obama at USAID!

2010-05-05T23:05:00.000+01:00

Today we had a "town hall" meeting, essentially a giant staff meeting led by Administrator Shah. He made a speech and answered a few questions from employees. I hadn't met, or even seen in person, the Administrator yet, so that was kind of cool.

But even cooler was the "special guest" who came by to give us a pep talk and tell us what a great, important job we're doing: First Lady Michelle Obama.

Update (finally)

2010-04-07T13:37:00.000+01:00

I haven't written much of anything in a while because I've just been busy studying French, so I could pass the language exam that is required for me to keep my job (even though I won't be using French in Kenya). So there hasn't been much going on with me, just French and procrastination. But on Monday I took my French exam (for the second time), and this time I passed! Woohoo! (I really hadn't expected that I would, because the test is as much about public speaking ability as about language ability, and public speaking is not my forte).

So now with my language requirement out of the way, it's back to a regular office job for me. I'm going to be working for about six weeks on the Somalia and Ethiopia programs in the Food for Peace office (FFP is the office that sends American-grown food to places around the world where there are famines, etc). Hopefully it will be interesting. I'm excited about it anyway!

After my FFP rotation, I'm hoping to do another month or so rotation on the Somalia desk, which basically means I'd be coordinating/information sharing what's going on in the part of the USAID Mission in Nairobi that's dedicated to Somalia with the people in DC who do the same thing.

And then, inshallah, I will be moving to Kenya! I'm planning for mid-June, but that's just a date I made up, so who knows if it will actually happen then. But anyway, after so many months of what felt like stagnation in French, it is nice to finally feel like things are moving again.

Court Authorizes Inquiry of Kenyans - NYTimes.com

2010-04-01T23:09:00.000+01:00

Court Authorizes Inquiry of Kenyans - NYTimes.com

PARIS — The International Criminal Court has given the green light to open formal criminal investigations of the political leaders who organized the violence that shook Kenya after its disputed election in 2007, the court announced Wednesday.

Two of three court judges said that the clashes, which left more than 1,100 people dead and drove hundreds of thousands from their homes, could amount to crimes against humanity. The judges’ decision will now allow the prosecution to bring a case.

Excellent article about Somalia

2010-03-11T15:42:00.000+01:00

I just ran across this interview/article from the Council on Foreign Relations about Somalia, and it's really excellent. A good explanation of the real situation in Somalia (unlike what you'll read in New York Times or Washington Post).

One thing that I didn't know and which rather shocked me from the article, is that apparently AMISOM troops (African Union Mission in Somalia) haven't been paid in nine months and some have died from malnutrition. I knew the situation of international troops keeping the Transitional Federal Government in power was unsustainable, but that's just so much worse than anything I'd imagined.

For Pennies, a Disposable Toilet That Could Help Grow Crops - NYTimes.com

2010-03-02T14:28:00.000+01:00

For Pennies, a Disposable Toilet That Could Help Grow Crops - NYTimes.com:

"A Swedish entrepreneur is trying to market and sell a biodegradable plastic bag that acts as a single-use toilet for urban slums in the developing world. Once used, the bag can be knotted and buried, and a layer of urea crystals breaks down the waste into fertilizer, killing off disease-producing pathogens found in feces.

The bag, called the Peepoo, is the brainchild of Anders Wilhelmson, an architect and professor in Stockholm. “Not only is it sanitary,” said Mr. Wilhelmson, who has patented the bag, “they can reuse this to grow crops.”

In his research, he found that urban slums in Kenya, despite being densely populated, had open spaces where waste could be buried.

He also found that slum dwellers there collected their excrement in a plastic bag and disposed of it by flinging it, calling it a “flyaway toilet” or a “helicopter toilet.”

This inspired Mr. Wilhelmson to design the Peepoo, an environmentally friendly alternative that he is confident will turn a profit."

Hong Kong photos

2010-02-21T03:14:00.000+01:00

A couple of photos from my trip to Hong Kong last summer (which I finally copied off my friend's memory chip).

Mosquito nets for Senegal and Gambia!

2010-02-16T16:24:00.000+01:00

I am just copying and forwarding this from the Friends of Senegal and the Gambia listserve:

Dear Friends,

Before the holidays we asked for your support to provide Senegalese and
Gambians with 60,000 mosquitoes nets, throughout the PCV communities. *PCVs
still need your support to raise $30,000, which will reach the target of
another 20,000 nets.
*

“We need as much help as possible from all interested be it $5 or $100. *
100%* of the donations buys nets – not a cent comes off the top. Funds
raised are matched dollar for dollar by the Against Malaria
Foundation.” Against
Malaria Foundation is a 501c3 organization providing nets all over the
world, www.againstmalaria.com

Please visit the links below to make your donation and see what others are
saying about theirs.

Senegal: http://www.AgainstMalaria.com/NetLifePCV2009<http://www.againstmalaria.com/NetLifePCV2009>

Gambia: http://www.AgainstMalaria.com/PCTheGambia<http://www.againstmalaria.com/PCTheGambia>

We can help protect our African communities from Malaria.
GIVE WHAT YOU CAN - TAKE ACTION NOW!

For further information about how to help fundraise please contact; Rob
Mather CEO of AMF, rmather@againstmalaria.com or Chris Hedrick, PC Country
Director, Senegal chedrick@sn.peacecorps.gov

Been shoveling a lot of snow...

2010-02-12T01:48:00.001+01:00

Cabin fever escape

2010-02-11T14:52:00.000+01:00

I finally made it out of the house yesterday and got some real food (made in a restaurant). Anyway, this is my contribution to DC's snowpocalypse photo collection.

Empty shelves

2010-02-05T14:01:00.000+01:00

Empty shelves, just like in Communist countries. Proof that a Bolshevik revolution is indeed happening in America?

No, but it might snow tomorrow.

Two weeks

2010-01-31T15:55:00.000+01:00

Only two weeks left of language training! And then, if I pass my exam (inshallah, knock on wood!) the countdown begins for moving to Nairobi. Although I'm not exactly sure how long the countdown will be, and if it will be left up to me or if a date will be imposed on me by the Powers That Be. Also I still have no idea what I will be doing in the month (or two?) between the end of language training and time to move. I need to spend it doing a "rotation" in one of the offices at USAID, but I haven't gotten anything organized yet. So knock on wood for figuring that out too.

In other news, it was getting really nice and warm last week, and I was starting to hope that spring would come early (it may be that I am not entirely opposed to this whole climate change thing), but then Friday it got super cold again and yesterday it snowed. Poo. I am really hoping I get to see the cherry blossoms before I leave DC again...

New accusations of murder at Guantanamo

2010-01-21T23:03:00.000+01:00

Why aren't we talking about the new accusations of murder at Gitmo? - By Dahlia Lithwick - Slate Magazine

The author thinks the mainstream media is ignoring new accusations of murder of Gitmo detainees by soldiers because we're tired of this whole "torture problem" and just want it to go away. And it's true - I'm tired of hearing about our troops torturing and doing other bad things, because I don't want to think that that's the kind of country I belong to. But if it is the kind of country I belong to, then I want to face it, deal with it, and make it stop. So here is my little bit of "doing something" - if the major media is ignoring it, then I'll post it on my blog.

MSNBC: Disaster do-gooders can actually hinder help - Haiti earthquake- msnbc.com

2010-01-21T15:48:00.000+01:00

From MSNBC.com, by JoNel Aleccia: "More than a week after a magnitude-7 earthquake devastated the country, disaster organizers say they’re seeing the first signs of a problem that can hinder even the most ambitious recovery efforts: good intentions gone wrong.

From volunteer medical teams who show up uninvited, to stateside donors who ship boxes of unusable household goods, misdirected compassion can actually tax scarce resources, costing time, money, energy — and lives, experts say."

Those best suited to help are probably already there, experts said. They’re trained crews who not only have experience working in disasters, but also in developing nations, Kirsch said. The best teams also have a command of Haitian Creole and French, if possible.

When teams arrive without those skills and without their own supplies, they drain resources that could better be used for actual victims, said Dr. Kristi L. Koenig, an emergency physician at the University of California, Irvine, who specializes in disaster response.

“Unless you’re part of a team before the disaster happens with a formal mission, you’re going to be part of the problem,” she said.

Even worse, certain volunteers have required emergency intervention themselves, Kirsch noted.

A different but equally pressing problem is the flood of ill-advised donations that aid agencies already are facing, organizers.

“I would strongly recommend that no donation drives be conducted unless there’s an existing organization on the ground, in Haiti, that has asked for the help,” Rothe-Smith, executive director of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, a coalition of agencies, said. “It does pile up very quickly.” Donations of old clothes, canned goods, water and outdated prescriptions are accumulating. While such items sound useful, they’re actually expensive to sort, to transport and to distribute, she said. Cast-off drugs can be dangerous.

Oftentimes, the household items donated are simply not useful to the disaster victims they’re intended to help.

“I guarantee you someone is going to send a winter coat or high-heeled shoes,” Brooks said.

In fact, after the tsunami in Indonesia in 2004, aid organizers in Sri Lanka were forced to deal with donations of stiletto shoes, expired cans of salmon, evening gowns and even thong panties, according to news reports. In Florida, a truckload of mink coats showed up during the 2004 hurricane season, Rothe-Smith said, a likely tax write-off for a retailer having trouble pushing furs.

The compassion behind some donations is understandable — and laudable, she added. People see dire images on television or in news reports and they want to help. “It seems to make logical sense to go through your own cupboard and gather those items,” Rothe-Smith said.

The reality, however, is that inappropriate donations actually do more harm than good. “If you buy a can of peas and it costs 59 cents, it’ll cost about $80 to get it where it needs to go,” Rothe-Smith said.

Many agencies try to motivate donors with the mathematics of the situation. Jeff Nene, a spokesman for Convoy of Hope, a Springfield, Mo., agency that feeds 11,000 children a day in Haiti, urges cash donations that allow his group to buy in bulk from large suppliers and retailers.

“When people give $1, it translates into $7 in the field,” he said. “If they spend $5 for bottled water, that’s nice and it makes them feel good, but probably it costs us more than $5 to send it. If they give us $5, we can get $35 worth of water.”

That’s a sentiment echoed by virtually every aid agency. “I would really say at this point, honestly, right now, money is the best thing to give,” Rothe-Smith said.

Donating to disaster relief? Cash is best!

2010-01-19T21:14:00.000+01:00

I should have written about this a long time ago, but it's a complicated subject, and I kept putting it off. Now I am taking the lazy way out, and copying from the Center for International Disaster Information website (http://cidi.org):

Why cash donations are best for responding to an emergency:

The professional relief agencies use monetary contributions to purchase exactly and specifically what the victims need. Staff for the organizations work directly with the victims at the disaster site and are in the best position to know not only what is immediately needed, but also when it is needed and where it is most needed. In addition the experience of the relief workers enables conversion of cash donations into items that withstand cultural and religious sensitivities, as well as environmental issues.

Money is easy to transport. Moving a container of commodities can incur costs in excess of the value of the items. Getting a donated commodity into containers and onto a ship, across the sea to the disaster site, through the port costs and the customs' tariffs, quality checked, quantity checked and sorted, and organized into warehouses, requires payment at each step. Invariably, there are basic needs materials close at hand to a disaster site and purchasing locally provides savings in many ways.

Money used to purchase available items local to the disaster has a double benefit. First, it provides an infusion of cash which supports the economy at a time when it may be reeling from the effects of the disaster. It assists in providing confidence and a sense of normalcy as shops and services recover. Secondly, a container load of commodities placed freely for the use of victims has the negative impact of competing with the recovering, local markets.

A couple of examples to try to make this absolutely clear:

People often like to donate used clothing and packaged foods, like, say, canned vegetables. They figure that they're not wearing the clothes anymore because they're out of style, or don't fit anymore, or whatever, but they're still perfectly good and some poor or disaster-struck person will be happy to have a decent outfit to wear. And who can go wrong with canned vegetables? They're nutritious and they stay good forever. Right?

There is nothing wrong with this logic, and I do not at all criticize those who attempt to help out in this way. The problem is in what happens next, which an average citizen generally doesn't realize (except now you're reading my blog, so now you know!).

So imagine you have a clothing drive, and you get lots of perfectly good clothes, for men, women, boys, girls, babies... and all in different styles and sizes. Now those clothes have to get to the people who need them - let's say, people in Haiti who have lost their homes and their possessions, including their wardrobes. So those clothes have to be put onto a boat or a plane and transported over there. The problem is that the cost of shipping those clothes is often more expensive than it would have been to buy the same amount of brand-new clothes in Haiti (or if they're not available in Haiti, in neighboring Dominican Republic). So it would have been a lot better use of the money that paid for the shipping to just buy brand-new clothes locally, and then maybe you would have been able to afford more clothes overall.

Okay, now let's imagine that the area is just so devastated that clothes just aren't available locally, or that shipping is super cheap, so the previous scenario doesn't apply. So it still seems to make sense to send a boat-load of clothes over. So you send your boat-load of clothes, but (just like in Haiti now) the port and airport are damaged, and so only a few boats can be in port at one time. So your boat gets in line, and eventually it gets its turn at the port to unload all these clothes. Meanwhile, the boat full of much higher-priority medicine and food is having to wait out in the ocean for your boat to get done unloading and get out of the way. If you had just sent money, it would be easier for the aidworkers to figure out what people's needs are and to prioritize those needs, to get the medicine and food and water, and then to get the clothes after that.

Okay, so now your boatload of clothes has arrived and been taken to a warehouse. Now how to get those clothes to the people who need them? Remember, it's a big assortment - all different sizes, men's and women's, shirts and pants all mixed together. So do you just let people into the warehouse for a free-for-all, where they have to spend lots of time sifting through the clothes to try to find something in the right size? Or maybe there are so many people coming in looking for clothes that everyone just starts grabbing whatever they can get their hands on, to make sure that they at least end up with something. And then people end up with clothes that aren't what they needed at all. Or people start fighting over the clothes and then you have a riot. Not ideal.

Now let's talk about the packaged foods. There are the same problems with the cost of shipping often being more than it would cost to buy food locally, and the same problems of distribution - if it's a big assortment from a canned food drive, people won't be happy if they don't each end up with the same food. There are also cultural appropriateness problems - packaged foods that require a microwave or an oven sent to an area where people are cooking over open fires are just going to be wasted. Same for spaghetti sent to a place where people are used to eating rice and don't know what spaghetti is or how to cook it. And canned food when people don't have can-openers? Not handy.

You might think that if someone is hungry enough, they'll be glad to get whatever they can, and that may be true. But making sure that disaster-affected people receive culturally appropriate food helps to show that we respect them and think that they should be treated just as we would want to be treated if we were in their situation. If I were in a disaster and pretty desperate, I might be willing to wear an ugly, frilly pink 1980s prom dress and maybe even to eat rat meat, but I would definitely feel more like a normal human being with dignity if you gave me a T-shirt and jeans to wear and a hamburger to eat. And I would like you better for making the effort to give me things that I would feel comfortable with rather than just whatever you happened to have lying around and didn't want anymore.

One last point: buying stuff locally, in disasters as in normal life, helps keep the economy going. If there are still local warehouses and stores full of food and clothing after a disaster, buying from them instead of shipping stuff from the U.S. or somewhere else helps them stay in business. Which means the businesses can continue to employ people and pay their salaries, they can continue to pay taxes which the government can use to rebuild the country, and as people recover from the disaster and are able to buy things again, they will still have local stores to buy from... All of which helps people and the country to rebuild and get back to normal after a disaster.

So hopefully I have convinced you: if you want to donate to disaster relief, cash is best! It is the most efficient way to get people what they need, with no money wasted on unnecessary shipping costs or unnecessary stuff that people can't use.

Click here for a list of InterAction member organizations responding to the earthquake in Haiti (in case you're feeling inclined to donate). And no, for all you cynics out there (I would normally be one of them), I don't make any money if you click on the link. However, I will give the disclaimer that I used to work at InterAction and may be a little biased in their favor. But if anything, that should make you feel better about them, because I know the inner workings and have no incentive, financial or otherwise, to recommend them if I didn't believe it. So hopefully I can say with a fair amount of credibility that I think InterAction's members are good organizations that do the best they can with the donations they receive from the American public. Also, to become a member of InterAction they have to meet all kinds of standards, including on how they spend their money. So if you feel like donating and don't already have a preference, I think they're a good option, although I'm sure there are lots of other organizations who would also be good choices.

Sweet Sallie's

2010-01-19T16:27:00.000+01:00

Another coffeeshop in my hometown. This one's new, so I haven't been here before. My dad recommended it, and I am exiled from our house this morning while it's being cleaned, so I thought it would be a good time to come and check it out. I'm supposed to be studying French while I'm here, but so far I've managed to avoid it by reading the news and sending emails.

Dolce Cafe

2010-01-19T01:23:00.000+01:00

One of the coffeeshops in my hometown. My dad calls the decoration style "Cookeville Chic".

Flying safe

2010-01-17T14:20:00.000+01:00

Friday night, just before I was supposed to fly home to TN for vacation with my family, I had a dream about my plane crashing. Not a good omen. Although what I was really more concerned about was that there would be a lot more airport security since the underwear bomber incident, and flying would be even more of a hassle than usual.

But, I am happy (?) to report, absolutely nothing was different security-wise (that I could tell), flying from Baltimore to Nashville. Also my plane did not crash. Guess I'll have to rule "Psychic" out of my possible career alternatives, in case I ever get tired of aid work.

Busy busy... or should I say, "tres, tres occupee"?

2010-01-12T01:07:00.000+01:00

So I guess it's been a really long time since I posted anything. But don't worry, that doesn't mean you've been missing out on hearing about all the fun and excitement and adventures in my life. It means that my fun and excitement and adventures have been very limited because I've been so busy studying French. Six hours a day, five days a week, it's just me and my French tutor (a woman from Cameroon who is a great teacher and who I'm very happy with). And then I go home and do homework for another two or three hours. (Except lately, because I'm feeling burned out - did I mention I only got Christmas day off for holiday vacation? - so I haven't been doing much studying after class, but paradoxically it seems to be paying off because after a whole weekend of not doing any French at all, I was absolutely on fire in class today.)

Anyway, so I think I've made my point. My life revolves around French.

Cholera Epidemic Follows Drought in Kenya

2009-12-05T00:27:00.000+01:00

Cholera Epidemic Follows Drought in Kenya

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

Published: December 5, 2009

With 119 deaths, Kenyan health officials are calling it “one of the worst outbreaks in a decade.”

At a loss for words

2009-12-04T22:36:00.000+01:00

Today after French class I decided to walk a few blocks up to the Whole Foods to buy some nice yuppie groceries which aren't available at the Safeway by my apartment, which caters mainly to lower-income families. So I bought my groceries and was headed back down to the metro to go home when I passed an old homeless man looking through a trashcan for food to eat.

I have to admit that I've gotten fairly used to seeing homeless people around, and I probably don't often think too much about them. But this man was old and looking through the trash. And I had a six-inch sandwich from Subway in my backpack - I'd gotten the footlong at lunchtime, planning to eat the second half for dinner. So, after hesitating for a moment, worrying that it might be condescending or insulting to give him leftovers, I went over and offered him my sandwich.

And he, holding a styrofoam container of mystery food that he'd just dug out of the trashcan, looked at me and peeked in the top of my paper bag full of yuppie groceries from Whole Foods, and said absolutely sincerely, "Are you sure? You have enough? I don't want to take your dinner."

I could have cried.

Instead I told him it was just my leftovers from lunch and he was very welcome to it. So he took it, and thanked me and tried to kiss my hand.

And then I walked away with my bag full of groceries, asking myself what kind of a world this is where an old man is grateful to be given someone's half-eaten sandwich.

Things are moving fast

2009-11-28T16:29:00.000+01:00

This past week I spent a fun two days in Communications and Field Equipment training, which basically meant learning how to use satellite phones and radios (also some computer stuff, digital cameras, etc, but I already knew how to do that stuff), and then we had to practice by going out in public and very suspiciously taking pictures of random things and talking cryptically on our radios. We definitely got some weird looks, but I figure we were being too obvious and ridiculous for anyone to really be suspicious of us.

And that was it for all my random fun trainings, at least for now. Next week I start studying French full-time. Six hours a day in class, I think one-on-one, just me and a tutor. It's going to be painful, but hopefully my French will get better really fast.

That's supposed to last for six weeks, or however long it takes until I can pass the French test. EXCEPT, yesterday at work (yes, I was at work the day after Thanksgiving - I haven't earned very many vacation days yet, and I'm trying to save them up) my supervisor told me that they want to put me on the Somalia Task Force out in Nairobi (which sounds super cool, except that I won't get to go on any field trips to Somalia because it's too dangerous), and they want to get me out there as soon as possible, so they're talking about waiving my language and whatever other requirements so I can leave really soon. So I might be leaving much sooner than I had expected, maybe in just a month or so.

I'm really excited about going to Nairobi eventually, but in a month? Wow. I was counting on being here til at least March (which would be one year since I came back from Peace Corps). And I've been so happy in DC these last eight months, with all my friends, and my cute little apartment, and my cool job (okay, the Somalia task force sounds more interesting than what I'm doing now, but even so)... So I'm a little stressed, not sure if I'm excited about this or not, but I'm sure it'll all work out fine however it works out, so I'm going to try to just keep on with what I'm doing until I find out for sure what's happening. (My supervisor said she'd let me know about the expedited moving thing within a week or two).

So we'll see.

Driving training, part 2

2009-11-11T15:02:00.000+01:00

The rest of the week of driving training was just as good and fun as the first day, if not better. Still can't tell you all about it, except that: I got to learn to drive stick shift!

I've only ever tried to learn to drive stick shift one time before, shortly after I got my license when I was sixteen. My grandma tried to teach me out in the pastures on their farm on this ancient, broken-down truck (the gas pedal didn't even have the flat pedal-part attached to it anymore, it was just this metal stick/wire thing coming out of the floorboard, hard to find with your foot and even harder to put the right amount of pressure on). Even experienced drivers had trouble driving that truck, so sixteen-year-old me couldn't even get it into first gear - it just stalled every time, and (did I mention the brakes were pretty much shot?) then we would start rolling backwards towards the pond, and my grandma would be yelling at me to get the truck started again and get it moving so we wouldn't fall into the pond...

So I came out of that experience thinking that driving stick shift was really, really hard. And then I just never had another chance to try to learn until now. It wasn't on the schedule for our driving training, but the instructors took pity on me when they found out I couldn't drive stick at all and gave me personalized instruction for an hour (along with one other student who also didn't know how to do it, which made me feel a little better). And it turns out driving stick is super easy if it's with a car that actually works right. (At least, it's super easy if you're on a closed course with no pressure from traffic and it doesn't really matter if you happen to crash into anything. But I think I'd be fine driving in a normal setting as well.)

Anyway, so yay for driving training! Now I am just wishing I got the opportunity to drive more often, but I guess I will get plenty of that in Nairobi - driving on the left side of the road, no less - that should be interesting.

Former Gates Foundation exec Raj Shah to head USAID

2009-11-11T14:46:00.000+01:00

Article in the Seattle Times about the probable new Administrator for USAID. Now if we could just get a director for OFDA too...

Driving training

2009-11-02T23:05:00.000+01:00

So I have survived my first day of driving training, and I would love to tell you all about it, but pretty much the first thing the instructor told us this morning was that what we're learning this week is sensitive information, and so we shouldn't go blabbing about it or leave our books lying around where someone might see them. Because we don't want the bad guys to know how we're trained to react if we're attacked, so that they can attack us better.

My first thought when he said that, though, was: if the bad guys are coming all the way to Virginia to get information on me or to attack me, I am in big trouble, and I don't think this course is going to be enough to keep me safe.

But instead of telling you what I've been up to, I will just say this: Bad Guys, I am learning all kinds of crazy stuff you do not want to have to deal with. So don't mess with me!

Catching up

2009-10-31T17:40:00.000+01:00

I just checked, and it looks like it's been a month since I last posted anything. Oops. I guess that means my life has gotten into a routine. Work is going well - I've had some interesting training, and my supervisor seems to be warming up to me. This week I'm going to Richmond, VA for the best training of all - Security Driving, which I think means we'll be learning stuff like how to get away from an ambush. And we get to learn how to ram other cars. So if I don't get myself killed, it should be a lot of fun.

Just about everyone else who started at USAID at the same time as me is starting language training next week, so I'm going to have a possibly lonely month working at the Ronald Reagan Building. But I chose to put off my language training because there's some interesting stuff going on in November (Annual Program Reviews - doesn't that sound exciting? No? Well I guess that proves I am a dorky bureaucrat.), so hopefully it will be worth it. And then in December I'll start learning to speak French properly, inshallah.

Working hard

2009-10-01T01:25:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, after spending eight hours straight staring at my computer, researching climate change, I came home, ate dinner, and promptly fell asleep on my couch... at 6 pm. I guess I must have been a little tired.

And then I woke up this morning and heard on NPR that there was an earthquake off Indonesia, which caused a tsunami on Samoa. Which motivated me to get back to work, so that someday, hopefully soon, I will get to be one of the people on the relief team responding to disasters like that.

And then I spent another eight hours staring at the computer, researching climate change.

Finished training

2009-09-27T13:40:00.000+01:00

I officially finished training on Thursday, which means now I get to do some actual work. First up: researching how climate change is likely to cause displacement and conflict. Should be interesting, but I have to say, reading climate change articles is awfully depressing. It goes so quickly from "Here's what is likely to happen with a 1 degree Celsius increase in average temperatures" to "We're all doomed!"

Also, I should clarify: my official mandated training is over (10 weeks of it, in case you haven't been counting), but that doesn't mean that I'm actually done with training. Now I just get to choose which trainings I want/think I need to take. So this next week I have a one-and-a-half day training (if they let me into the class, I'm keeping my fingers crossed on that one) on how to use field communications equipment like satellite phones. And next week I have a training to learn how to respond to disasters as part of a deployed team (DART - Disaster Assistance Response Team).

So I'm still going to be really busy; actually I'm not quite sure how I'm going to find time to get the climate change project done. Might have to do some super early mornings (because I hate late nights).

Death by powerpoint

2009-09-19T12:58:00.000+01:00

Okay, I've had it. I've tried really hard, but I just can't take it anymore. Hour after hour, day after day, of looking at powerpoints and having people talk at me... it's physically hurting me now. The CIA should look into powerpoint lecturing for their interrogation program. Or not, since I'm anti-torture.

Anyway, it's been nine weeks now since I started my job, which means nine weeks of training, mostly by powerpoint. One week to go. And then I'll get to do some actual work for a few weeks, inshallah. I hope I don't discover that my brain has been completely lobotomized by staring at all these powerpoints the last few weeks and that I'm now completely useless.

But on a positive note, I also had some really good meetings yesterday. One was about flooding in Senegal, so I was the local-knowledge "expert" (which of course I'm not really, but I did have a few thoughts to contribute, which made me feel good). The other was trying to figure out what I'm actually going to be doing in Kenya, which was just as unclear after the meeting as before, but at least I know now that I'm confused because everyone else is too, and not because I'm missing out on some important piece of information. And everyone was very nice and trying to be helpful, which reinforced my feeling that USAID is going to be a good place for me to work. Even if they are giving me a lobotomy by powerpoint.

More Hong Kong photos

2009-09-16T02:05:00.000+01:00

Hong Kong photo

2009-09-16T01:49:00.000+01:00

A picture from my July trip to Hong Kong, for your viewing pleasure.

Exciting/scary

2009-09-16T00:28:00.000+01:00

For the past two days I've been in a training course on conflict assessment and programming (in which we learn how to assess what's driving the conflict, the key actors, overall context, and mitigating factors, and then to design programs to mitigate the conflict). Throughout the training we used the current situation in Sri Lanka as a case study, determining what the conflict is really about, what opportunities may exist right now, and what sort of programs we would like to implement there. I really enjoy doing case studies, so this was a lot of fun for me, but the best part was I realized that soon, when I go overseas to work in the Mission, I could be doing work just like this. But it won't be a case study, it will be for real, and whatever programs I design could actually be implemented!

Very exciting, but also a lot of responsibility...

Swearing In

2009-09-13T14:47:00.004+01:00

My training class, along with Alonso Fulgham, USAID's Acting Administrator, and a couple of other important people, just after our swearing-in ceremony, on the very first day.

Training

2009-09-13T14:03:00.002+01:00

So far all my time at work has been taken up with training - the first five weeks were "orientation", which was a lot of information from Human Resources about how the Foreign Service works and there were lots of forms to fill out, and then there were lots of sessions to give us a general introduction to the agency, with information about what the different bureaus do, etc. At the end of the five weeks we had a graduation ceremony, which is where they told us what country we've each been assigned to.

Since then, for the past three weeks, I've been in training provided by my bureau (Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance) to learn how to do my job. We've learned how to assess the democracy and governance situation in a country, how to evaluate the impact of programs, and lots of other stuff. The classes have almost all been really interesting, but I have to admit that after eight weeks now of sitting and watching powerpoints all day, I'm having a hard time paying attention.

But for the next two days at least, there will be a change of pace: we're moving on from democracy and governance to conflict management & mitigation, which I think I'll find a bit more interesting (not that D&G wasn't, but it's just not my main interest), and it's also going to be at a different location, which I'm hoping will be cheerier than our cold, dreary basement room.

Also they've said they're going to feed us breakfast, lunch, and a snack for the next two days, which seems so fancy after the past eight weeks of not even being provided coffee or water cooler water. (I've been spending $1.80 a day in the cafeteria on coffee, but I figure it's not so bad since I bring my own lunch and I've been biking to work. Although I can definitely make myself feel guilty by thinking about what my host family could do with an extra $1.80 a day). Anyway, all you taxpayers out there worried about government wastefulness, I haven't seen it at USAID - I mean really, not even water coolers?

Anyway, back to my point about training: two more weeks of training to go, and then, theoretically at least, I will move on to doing some actual job-related work. Inshallah. But I really only have a few weeks in October where that might happen, and then I have a couple weeks of disaster assistance training, and then I'll start full-time language training.

Busy busy busy. But I'm loving it (okay, maybe not all the powerpoints, but in general). And I'm so impressed with how smart and knowledgeable about their jobs everyone at USAID is, it makes me feel like I've really picked a good place to work.

Conflict in Uganda

2009-09-12T23:58:00.003+01:00

Recently there's been conflict in Uganda between the Ugandan government and followers of a traditional ruler of the Baganda people.

Guess I won't be bored in my job...

Drought, famine in northern Kenya

2009-09-12T23:51:00.003+01:00

I've started trying to read up a bit about Kenya and the whole east and central Africa region in preparation for my assignment out there, and it sounds like things are getting pretty bad out there now. There's a drought, and people are dying.

Update

2009-08-23T22:01:00.002+01:00

I found out this past week that I'll be working in the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) - yay! And I just found out on Friday that my first assignment will be to Nairobi, Kenya, to work at the regional mission for East Africa. Also yay! So I am a very happy girl.

I think I'll be moving to Kenya sometime early next year (February/March/April) depending on if they want me to learn Swahili or just improve my French for future postings. Our five weeks of orientation training are finally over, so starting Monday and for the next several months, I'll be doing technical training (like how to do conflict assessments, design programs, and do monitoring and evaluation) and rotations in different offices, which is basically like short internships. Hopefully it will all be very interesting and I'll learn a lot.

What hasn't happened yet is meeting my supervisor. We've got a meeting scheduled for tomorrow, so fingers crossed that it goes well and we get along.

I'm back!

2009-08-09T00:39:00.004+01:00

...And, I'm back! Finally!

I think I mentioned before that I had gotten a job with USAID (the U.S. Agency for International Development - a cross between being a diplomat and a Peace Corps Volunteer). Well, I'm now three weeks into the job, and it's going well so far (more on that below). And, best of all - okay, not best of all, because having a job I think I'm going to love and having my first paycheck for it coming next week are in the best of all category - but anyway, in the good news section, is that I have been told officially that I may continue to write a public blog, although of course I have to be careful about what I say so I don't get myself in trouble and get fired. (Did you notice my disclaimer on the sidebar that says this is a personal website and doesn't represent the views of the U.S. government?) So I will not be telling you, for example, which governments are corrupt dictatorships. You probably already have a good idea, but if not, you can look up reports from Human Rights Watch and Transparency International. Hopefully I will still find lots of interesting things to write about, although with my impending elite diplomat lifestyle they will probably not have quite the same flavor as my village stories from Peace Corps.

So, on to what I've been up to in the last few weeks. Over the last few decades USAID has been shrinking, and now the government has decided to reverse this trend and hire lots of people. And I'm one of them. Right now I'm in a five-week orientation class for new foreign service employees. We have a great mix in the class of junior- and mid-level hires, and lots of different job titles - Health Officers, Education Officers, Agriculture Officers, Economists, Engineers... and Crisis, Stabilization, and Governance Officers, of which I am one. I think uniquely among all these job titles, my position is nebulous as I (and others with the same title) will be further specialized within this category into Democracy and Governance, Humanitarian Assistance, or Conflict Mitigation fields. I don't know yet what specialization I'm going to be assigned (I think I'll find out on Monday), but I'm really hoping for humanitarian assistance or conflict mitigation. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, the last few weeks has been pretty standard orientation stuff - lots of human resources forms and information (they keep talking about planning for retirement, which is a little freaky for those of us in the under-30 category), Powerpoint briefings on what the different USAID offices do, team-building exercises, etc. Two more weeks of this, and then on August 21st we'll have a graduation ceremony and find out what countries we're being assigned to first. As for me, I don't really care what country I go to, as long as there are interesting projects for me to work on. Although I did tell them I hate being cold, and so I'd prefer to go somewhere with a warm climate.

Okay, enough for now. Hopefully more regular posting to come.

The American Dream

2009-06-22T13:39:00.003+01:00

For the past two weeks I was working as a "Cultural Adviser" (i.e. glorified chaperone) for groups of high school exchange students visiting D.C. for a few days before heading back to their home countries. During that time, there were of course lots of conversations with the students about how their year in America had gone, how they felt about their experiences here, etc. Including a lot of talk about the "American Dream".

I learned back in elementary school that the American Dream was about opportunity and social mobility - you could come to America as a poor immigrant with nothing, and work hard, and become rich. Or you could grow up in poverty in rural America, have little formal schooling, and one day become President of the United States (like Abraham Lincoln).

But the American Dream that these kids talked about was something different, and I really enjoyed hearing their interpretations of it. Most humorously, a lot of the boys talked about American girls as the American Dream. As in, how they're going to miss the American Dream when they go back home! I'm not sure if girls are the American Dream because of being (to them) exotic-looking and therefore especially beautiful, or if it's more about the rules of boy-girl relationships in the U.S. being (in general) more relaxed than in their home countries. In any case, I enjoyed that interpretation of the American Dream.

More seriously, one of the activities we did with one group of the students was a reception with a couple of U.S. Senators who sponsored the bill to create the exchange program, and one of the students (a girl from Morocco) gave a beautiful speech about what coming to America had meant to her. I wish I had the text, because it was really a great speech, especially for a high school student (I couldn't have done as well). But in any case, in it she mentioned the American Dream - before coming here she had seen American tv and movies, and she thought the American Dream was about having a nice life, with a nice house and car and all the other luxuries we take for granted in this country. But she said after living here for a year she'd realized that the American Dream is something much deeper than that, that it is about freedom and respecting each other in spite of whatever differences we may have.

So I learned a lot from these kids in the past few weeks. And they also made me feel quite "proud to be an American" (I can't hear that phrase without having the song pop into my head).

Help the Dialacoto Health Workers Association

2009-04-06T21:12:00.001+01:00

It seems that I have left Senegal, but Senegal has not yet left me. A "Peace Corps Partnership Project" which I had been working on since last August with my volunteer neighbor Hawa Ba has finally been approved. Which means that the Powers That Be in Peace Corps have decided that it's a worthwhile project, posted it online, and we can now solicit funds for it from friends, family, and the public.

A little background: Peace Corps Partnerships is one of the primary ways for Volunteers to get funding for projects. It's supposed to be a little more formal and legit than Volunteers just asking their friends and family to send them money - the project has to be vetted by Peace Corps to ensure it's a good project, and all donations are tax-deductible, like giving to any charity. This particular project is to help a Health Workers Association in the Dialacoto area where my village is located, get some supplies to extend their health education, sanitation, and income generating projects. The funds will go toward getting each member of the association a bicycle to use to travel to villages in the area where they work (which especially benefits the women members, by the way, as they are the least likely to own or have access to a bicycle), and to buying supplies like shovels and rakes, which will be used to keep the villages clean and for gardening activities like the mango orchard they started last year. You can read more details about the project here.

I didn't start working on this project until I'd been in my village for over a year because I wanted to make sure that any big projects that I did would be things that would really be useful and would benefit the community. And I wanted the idea for a project to come from someone in the community, rather from me, in order to ensure that it was something people really wanted. So this project was finally proposed to me last August by the president of the Health Workers Association, and the Association is contributing 25% of the funds for the project, so I feel pretty confident that this is something that people really want and that will be useful.

So that is my spiel. Please consider contributing whatever you feel comfortable with.

Back to America!

2009-03-18T18:16:00.000+01:00

After a week of much paperwork, running around, and stress in Dakar, last Friday night it was finally time for me to go to the airport, hop on a plane, and come home to the U.S. I got lucky in that an American woman I'm friends with who works at the embassy in Dakar was flying to the U.S. the same night, so we went to the airport together. Everyone there knows her because she flies so often, so she gets VIP treatment, not having to stand in lines with the masses. And since I was with her, I got the VIP treatment too! Someone came over and told me to give him my passport and he would take care of everything, which he did. It made the whole experience so much more survivable, especially since it was 3 am and I was exhausted. The flight was fine, except that Delta's "dinner" meal (served at about 4 am Dakar time) was ham sandwiches. On a flight from a country that is 95% Muslim! A woman across the aisle from me complained, and the stewardess (or air hostess, or whatever you're supposed to call them) told her she should have ordered a special meal ahead of time. That made me kind of mad. On a flight from a Muslim country a non-pork meal should not be considered a special request! I didn't specially request not to be served monkey eyeball soup, (a la Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom), but I was still be pretty shocked if they had served it on a flight to America, especially as the only meal option.

Okay, enough ranting about Delta's cultural insensitivity. I'm back in America now, and everything seems pretty normal, not too much culture shock, except: all the electronic noise! Heating fans, TVs, kitchen timers, phones ringing... sitting inside my friend's apartment, all these background noises that I would never have noticed before are making me feel like I am inside a bomb that's about to go off. And it's very hard to concentrate. I used to be an excellent multi-tasker, but now everything is distracting me so I can't pay attention to anything for more than half a second, so I can't keep up with conversations, and I am feeling lost and confused... But I have confidence I will get used to all this again, and everything will be fine. Inshallah!

Goodbye, Tambacounda

2009-03-07T22:17:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I made the 10-hour Tamba-to-Dakar trip for the very last time (not counting possible trips back to visit someday). Everyone keeps asking me how it feels to have left my village, to know that I may never again see people who have been my family and friends for the past two years. The truth is, I don't know. I think I should be feeling really sad about saying goodbye to them all and to the incredible life I have been living for the last two years. Probably I will feel that eventually, maybe on the plane home, maybe later. But right now mostly I just feel relieved to have gotten the stressful goodbyes over and to finally be released from the never-ending village guilt.

And I wish I could say that my village goodbyes had gone well, that they were heartwarming and had left me with a warm fuzzy feeling. I wish that they had been. Instead, when I told my villagers it was my last week, all I got was people coming to my hut or pulling me aside to tell me, "When you leave, I want you to give me x. Okay? Don't forget! I've got dibs!" The closest I got to anything like an "I'll miss you" was my host mother saying "What am I going to do when you're gone? We're not getting another volunteer after you, so who's going to give me money for going to the doctor and buying spices?"

After a couple days of that, I just couldn't take it anymore. All I'd wanted was to have some quality time in my village, doing normal village things with my friends and family. But except for the kids, who were adorable as always, I couldn't enjoy anyone's company because all they wanted to talk about was what presents I would give them. So I decided it was time to leave, before the goodbyes could turn me bitter about my whole Peace Corps experience. So I told my village I had to change plans and leave in the morning, instead of two days later as I had originally planned. And then I finally got the nice goodbyes. I invited my sisters over to my hut after dinner, planning to tell them that they could divide up all the stuff in my hut among themselves. So they came over, but instead of immediately looking over my stuff and arguing over who got what as I had expected them to do, they just sat on my bed and wanted to talk. So I ended up having a really nice last evening with my sisters, which made up a lot for the last couple of days. And then in the morning I got up and biked out of the village before anyone was up (as I had told them I was planning to do) so there wouldn't be any chance for my nice goodbye to be ruined by more "gimme gimme".

So I guess the way my service ended was pretty typical of my whole experience in Senegal: lots of stress and frustration, with some really nice moments thrown in to make it all worth it.

Rescuing the devil cat baby

2009-03-03T11:54:00.001+01:00

When I arrived back in my village for the last time, after my very long trip to Thies and Dakar and America, I was greeted, as usual, with chants of “Khadija came! Khadija came!” and then the various kids I am friends with ran over and insisted on rolling my bike into my hut for me and sweeping out my hut and yard.

This time they decided to do a very thorough cleaning of my yard, so they tilted up my rotten, termite-infested outside bed to rake out underneath it as well. And there they discovered three adorable, tiny kittens, which looked exactly like the devil-cat that was once the bane of my existence, so I am sure they are her children. I should clarify, though: to me, the kittens looked adorable; to the kids helping clean up my hut, apparently they looked like evil monsters which must be immediately exterminated before they are able to carry out their dastardly plan to destroy the universe. I know this because immediately the kids started screaming, chasing after the cats, throwing things at them, and one child even tried to stomp on them. Which made me think of serial killers – don't they, as children, supposedly enjoy torturing and killing small animals? Probably this is a cultural thing that does not translate, though. At least I really hope so, or else a good proportion of my village kids are growing up to be serial killers.

Two of the kittens managed to run into the inside room of my hut, where the kids know they are not allowed to go. They asked me if I wanted to make an exception and let them in, just this once, so that they could de-monsterify my hut for me; I declined. The other kitten had escaped under my fence, out into the village somewhere. Or so I thought, until a while later when I was taking my bucket shower and heard a meowing somewhere around. At first I thought it was somewhere on the other side of the fence, crying because it couldn't find its brother and sister (still hiding behind a cardboard box in my hut). Eventually I realized, though, that the sound was coming from underneath me, from the pit of my latrine. The kitten must have fallen (or jumped) down the poop hole when the kids were chasing it.

This realization made me very sad. There was no way it would be able to climb out, which meant it would die down there, and probably I would have to listen to it cry and die slowly over the next few days. I considered the options: lower a bucket down the poop hole, somehow lure the cat into it, and haul it up? But the hole is too small for a bucket. Break the concrete floor of the latrine to make a bigger hole? Not very feasible, and anyway falling concrete would probably end up falling on the kitten and kill it. Throw some rat poison down the hole, so at least the cat would die quicker and hopefully less painfully? If I couldn't think of any other options, then yes.

But first I decided to go see if my friend Mamadou had any ideas. Given the kids' reactions to the kittens, I wasn't expecting a lot of sympathy from him for the cat's situation, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to try. Sure enough, he had an idea: we could lower a pole down the hole which the cat could then climb up. So we tried that, but none of the poles were long enough to reach the bottom of the pit. So then we attached two poles together with wire, and this time it was long enough. But I didn't hear the cat trying to climb it. Mamadou said the cat was probably just too scared and we should go away and leave it alone for a while, and then the cat would come out. So we went.

But when I came back later to check, the cat was still down there. I thought the pole was probably too narrow and hard for the cat to get its claws into, so I pulled the pole back out of the hole, found a big rope, and wrapped it around and around the pole, so that the cat would have something to stick its claws into. Then I put the pole back down the hole. This time the cat immediately jumped onto it and started climbing up. Soon it was out.

When I told this story later to other Volunteers, their first question was, “So then you adopted the kitten, right?” I will admit that I thought about it – after all, I'd saved its life. Seems like it must be meant to be my pet. But then I thought, what? Adopt a feral, poop-covered kitten, when I have only a few days left to live in the village? Get it all used to humans, so when I leave it will be an easier target for the possibly-future-serial-killer children? I don't think so.

So the cat ran off, and I never saw it again. But I like to imagine that it cleaned the poop off itself (although I don't like to imagine the actual process of it using its tongue to lick the poop off its body!), and found a nice, happy place to live. And hopefully will grow up to be something nicer than its mother the devil-cat.

Parade for Hu Jintao

2009-03-03T11:17:00.007+01:00

While I was in Dakar in February, my friends and I happened upon a parade to welcome Hu Jintao (and more Chinese money) to Senegal. Some photos from the event:

I had to fight off about five Senegalese women to get this shirt (they were throwing them into the crowd):

Amerik!

2009-02-17T14:06:00.002+01:00

A few quick observations from my first time back in America after almost two years:

1. America is freezing, freezing cold.
2. The food is amazing. I ate broccoli, cooked various ways, every day for a week. (Also I ate a lot of other stuff, none of which was rice or peanuts!)
3. Hot showers are very, very nice.
4. Technology has progressed so much in the last two years. And I want it all.
5. Malls are nice. There are lots of pretty things, and you can look at them, even try things on, without people getting in your face trying to sell them to you. But things are expensive. I missed being able to bargain on prices with the salespeople.
6. American refrigerators have so much food in them I almost went into shock.
7. Traveling in America is amazing. You get a whole seat to yourself, and there are seatbelts, and the vehicles have shocks, and there are a minimal number of potholes in the roads.
8. Where are the talibe begger children to eat my leftovers?
9. Why aren't strangers on the street or in the metro talking to me, asking me personal questions like whether I have a husband? I miss them.

So after two weeks in America I was ready to come back to Senegal, but now I miss all the nice things that are there. (And of course it was nice seeing my family and friends!)

I got a job!

2009-02-17T13:40:00.002+01:00

I'm afraid it's been approximately forever, or exactly one month, since I last managed to post. Apologies to all the millions anxiously awaiting my pearls of wisdom.

Anyway, I have had a good reason for not posting. Which is, that I've been incredibly busy and also didn't want to say too much about what was going on until I knew how it was going to turn out. But now it's done, so I will tell:

Way back last June-ish I applied for a dream job: Crisis, Stabilization, and Governance Officer in the USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development, which is like grown-up Peace Corps) foreign service. But months went by and I never heard anything, so I kinda gave up on it. Then just before Christmas I received an email saying that they wanted me to come to Washington, D.C. for an interview. Very exciting! There was lots of paperwork that had to be done beforehand, so I had to give up my planned Christmas vacation to Mali and instead go to Dakar. Not going to Mali was a big disappointment, but definitely worth it for the possibility of an amazing job. Plus, who knows, maybe I'll have another chance to go to Mali someday.

So I got all my paperwork done in Dakar over Christmas, then went back to my village for a short time to do the girls' leadership camp that Hawa Ba and I had been planning for a long time. Then it was back up to Thies and Dakar, and then flying to America for my interview. I had two days to get my hair cut, get some interview clothes, and in general to make myself civilized and presentable for the interview. Then there was the interview, which lasted two days, during which I struggled to remember how to speak proper English using words over two syllables long.

I didn't think the interview went that great, but at least it got me back to America for the first time in two years. Afterwards I flew to Tennessee to see my family, which was very nice, and then after a week of eating non-stop and complaining about the cold American weather it was time to come back to Senegal and anxiously wait to find out if I got the job.

Which I finally heard about on Friday: someone called me on my cell phone and said "Congratulations...crackle crackle...continuing...crackle crackle... pre-employment process." Took me a little while to decode, but I finally realized: I got the job!!! It's contingent on getting security and medical clearances, so not quite in the bag yet, but hopefully it won't take too long for all of that to get worked out.

In the meantime, I've got until March 15 to finish up Peace Corps...

Trying to break some future wives

2009-01-17T10:28:00.004+01:00

This past weekend Hawa Ba, Sira Sanokho, and I did some "girls' empowerment" (i.e. wife-breaking, to the Senegalese) activities at the middle school in our region. It was really stressful, especially when we showed up at the school on Thursday (two days before our events were supposed to happen) to reconfirm everything with the school principal, only to find out he had gone off to Dakar for vacation and had done none of the things he had promised to do to get things ready. (I have not yet forgiven him, probably never will). But luckily the teachers at the school were really nice and willing to help out, so we were able to make the activities happen anyway.

First, Saturday afternoon as the kids were getting out of class for the day, we had a ceremony to recognize the girls who had the top grades in each class. We gave a little speech about how the education of girls is important for the development of the country, and how these girls have worked really hard and should be congratulated on their achievements. The whole idea, of course, being to boost the girls' self-esteem and encourage other girls to stay in school and study hard too.

Then that evening we showed a film (made by Peace Corps volunteers!) in the middle of Dialacoto about the importance of girls staying in school and getting an education. There weren't that many girls who were able to come watch it (since we had to show it after dark and it's not really safe for them to be out by themselves at night), but there were tons of boys and men watching, which I think is also a good thing.

Then on Sunday the Peace Corps Cross-Cultural Trainer, who also does a lot of work with Senegalese girls, came from Thies to talk to our girls about staying in school and how to deal with common challenges Senegalese girls face. The girls were really quiet for her whole talk, so we worried a little bit that they weren't finding it very interesting, but at the end when they were asked for a second time what they wanted to be when they grew up, one of the girls changed her original answer, a teacher, to a trainer who will teach women to know who they are, which is what our speaker had told the girls her job was. So I think maybe it really made a difference to them after all.

That was my last big activity that I had planned before the end of my Peace Corps service (coming up frighteningly soon!), so it was really nice to finish on such a good note.

Happy holidays

2009-01-05T09:18:00.011+01:00

The last day I was in Thies for Operation Smile I got an email inviting me for an interview for a job I had applied for, way back over six months ago. So I came up to Dakar to do some paperwork, and I've been really busy trying to get ready for the interview (which I'm trying not to get my hopes up about - I'll say more if I get the job). But I did find some time over Christmas and New Year's to have some fun, so here are some pictures for you to enjoy!

Just before Christmas, the nice American expat whose house I've been staying at in Dakar took us to Keur Moussa monastery to see an interesting fusion of traditional Catholic mass with African music, and afterward we went to Bandia Nature Reserve, where we saw

giraffes!

ostriches!

warthogs!

monkeys!

horse antelope!

and rhinos!

Then for New Year's, Mariama and I went to St. Louis, where we

rode horses on the beach! (Which I've always wanted to do).

And then we went to this weird place called Lompoul, which is a mini-desert in the middle of Senegal, and we

rode camels!

Overall, an excellent, excellent last holiday in Senegal! Happy (very late) holidays, everyone!

Maybe the best thing I've done in my entire life

2008-12-24T22:34:00.009+01:00

This is Adama. He lives in a village about 40 km away from mine. I saw him once when I was in his village to do some health education activities, and then coincidentally just a short time after that I got an email about an NGO called Operation Smile coming to Senegal to do free operations on kids with cleft lips and cleft palates.

So once I had all the information about Operation Smile, I decided to go back to his village to talk to his family about taking him to Thies to get the operation. I knew they probably wouldn't have the money for the car ticket up there (about $20 one way, per person), so I decided if they couldn't afford it I would just pay for it myself.

So I went to his village and talked to his mom, Fili. She said they'd taken Adama to the hospital in Tamba when he was a baby, but they couldn't do anything for him there, and his father is deceased and he has seven brothers and sisters, and the family can't afford to do anything else. And his mom has never been farther away from her village than Tamba, which is about a four hour car ride away. But we talked it over, and finally agreed that if Fili's older brother, who lives in Tamba, agreed, then I would take Adama, his mom Fili, and baby sister Penda (who is still breastfeeding and so has to stay with her mom) up to Thies to see if he could get the operation.

So we went up to Thies, along with my friend Mariama Keita, who was going to help out as a translator at the hospital. It was a pretty stressful few days for me, being responsible for a family who've never been out of Tamba and who only speak Mandinka, which hardly anyone in Thies speaks. Poor little Adama was scared about the operation and kept asking his mom when they could go back to their village.

But in the end, it all worked out great: Adama got his operation, everyone was happy, and after a few days they got to go back home.

The day after the operation, when Adama was released from the hospital, I took the family to spend the day with my Thies host family, who also speak Mandinka, because I thought they'd be more comfortable there (plus my host mom is an amazing cook). At one point it occurred to me that Adama probably hadn't seen his new face in a mirror yet, so I offered him a little compact from my purse. He took it over to the doorway for better light, and then just stared at his face for about two minutes.

Then when we were at the garage in Thies waiting for our car to be ready to go to Tamba, Adama said that he wanted to spend the 1000 CFA ($2) that my Thies host mom gave him for the trip on buying sunglasses and a mirror. So Mariama and I helped him buy those things from the vendors wandering around the garage. So then Adama was all spiffed up and ready to go back to his village and impress his friends with his new look:

I can't think of anything better I've done in my entire life than taking Adama to get that operation. I just wish I was going to be in Senegal long enough to see him when his face is completely healed up.

My ancestors are Pulaars!

2008-12-02T12:03:00.001+01:00

Written Wednesday, 26 November 2008

On my way up to the Futa, the northern, really Sahel edge-of-the-desert part of Senegal, to visit a friend and celebrate Thanksgiving, we passed a village called Semme. Which is what my family's last name was, hundreds of years ago when my ancestors immigrated to America.

Which leads me to think that maybe my ancestors were Pulaar! Or, a little more seriously, maybe relatives of my ancestors colonized this part of Senegal!

Or, much more probably but also much less interestingly, maybe semme is a word in Pulaar that I don't know, and it has nothing to do with my family. But I like my first explanation the best.

Universal experience

2008-12-02T12:02:00.001+01:00

Written Saturday, 22 November 2008

I just finished reading a book about a (Canadian version of Peace Corps) volunteer in Bhutan. It's funny to read about someone in such a different place and discover that our experiences have been almost exactly the same – the strangeness of the place at arrival, being scared of weird diseases and parasites, thinking you'll never find anything in common to talk about with the locals… and then gradually, gradually getting so comfortable that it's America that begins to seem like the alien place, and how will I ever fit in there again?

So when I got to the middle of the book I found myself anxious to find out what happened as if it would tell me how things are going to turn out for me here. But at the end in the story the volunteer gets married to a local Bhutanese man and has a baby, and that is definitely not what I'm going to do.

So I guess I'm just going to have to figure out the next six months for myself.

Letter to President Obama from the villagers of Cour Bambey

2008-12-02T12:01:00.001+01:00

Written Friday, 14 November 2008

Here is the letter composed by the villagers of Cour Bambey (which I also emailed to Obama on his campaign website):

13 November 2008

Dear Mr. President Obama,

The day of the 13th of November is the world day of the celebration of Obama. We are behind you. You touch us in our hearts. All of the population of Cour Bambey is very happy and congratulates you on your victory. Before we did not know you, but you have touched our hearts and it is as if we are all in America.

The population is ready to invite you to Cour Bambey, which is found 47 kilometers from Tambacounda. We want development, including natural resources, education, health, potable water, water towers and faucets, and above all we want a strong relationship between our village and America. Cour Bambey is in the locality of Sinthian Coundara in the region of Kolda.

We wish you much success with your work, that you work hard and listen well to the people of America. We ask that you help the women with their gardening projects. And above all we hope that you bring peace in the world. The economic crisis hits us here too – the rice and gas are very expensive. You must help us. In the village here, there is no one in America. Help us to send two or three people to go to America to see the conditions there.

Now we understand American democracy thanks to Peace Corps. We really hope that in Cour Bambey it continues to have much success. Thank you very much for having sent us Mariama Keita (Holly Packard), who has given us a party. And also Khadija Tandian (Rebecca Semmes). They have done a lot to help us.

We were not able to vote on paper for Obama, but we have voted for you in our hearts. We all greet you. We are very tired with work, but we all greet you and we hope that you can help us to be less tired.

Sincerely,

The People of Cour Bambey

Obama victory party in Cour Bambey

2008-12-02T11:59:00.001+01:00

Written Friday, 14 November 2008

Yesterday my friend "Mariama Keita" and I held an Obama victory party in Mariama's village, and then we decided to write an article for Sabaar, Peace Corps Senegal's volunteer-run newsletter, about it. Here is the article:

Senegalese Villagers Sacrifice Goat for Obama

Cour Bambey, Senegal – In celebration of the election of America's first sorta-black president, the villagers of Cour Bambey sacrificed a scrawny goat, danced to Beach Boys music, and wrote a letter inviting their quasi-African brother to visit the village.

The fete was first conceived one sleepless, sweltering night sitting around the radio. PCV Holly Packard vowed that if Senator Obama won on election night, she would provide livestock and dance tunes to celebrate. Since this required no effort on their part and could result in meat in the bowl, the villagers were vraiment d'accord, quoi.

So when the election results were finally announced in the wee hours of the morning November 5, the Cour Bambeyans' joy in the renewed proof of democracy and equality in America was augmented by the knowledge that they would soon be getting some good eatin'.

True to her word, PCV Packard and her trusty accomplice PCV Rebecca Semmes rolled up on their metal horses a few days later with all the party fixins. (PCV Mary O'Brien was supposed to complete the celebratory trifecta, but she didn't come because she hates freedom). Strapped to the backs of overloaded velos were ten kilos of vegetables, six bottles of bubbles (generously donated by PCV Tracy MacDonald), various decorative Obama paraphernalia, and some tunes with a tiny, tiny speaker.

The smallish goat chosen to be sacrificed on the alter of American democracy sat tied to a post, anticipating the outcome of its glorious martyrdom. (70 virgin lady goats?) The villagers spent the day dancing to the sounds of the '60s and extolling the virtues of America and its first sorta-kinda-black president elect.

PCV Packard, unwilling to lose even one day in her mission to develop the shit out of Senegal, continued her work as a playground extension agent by teaching the children how to blow bubbles. Terrified at first, the kiddies soon acclimated to the wondrous new game, and then started a small riot in their quest to pop as many bubbles as possible.

PCV Semmes recorded the event for posterity and the Sabaar using her mad photography skills, and then aided the village elders in composing a congratulatory letter to President-Elect Obama with her incroyable orthographic abilities.

Through no fault of PCVs Packard and Semmes or of the Beach Boys, lunch wasn't ready until 7 p.m. (It is unclear at this time whether fault lies with freedom-hating PCV O'Brien). When lunch was finally served, it was met by enthusiastic chants of "O-BA-MA! O-BA-MA!" After the meal, the village men adjourned to the mosque to pray for the success and long life of the new American President.

Their mission of spreading democracy and freedom to the people of Cour Bambey accomplished, PCVs Packard and Semmes retired to Packard's hut for a celebratory meal of instant mashed potatoes and lukewarm Tang. At the late late hour of 8 p.m., they closed their eyes, full of starch, Jadida, and the sense of a job well done.

Election reactions

2008-11-07T11:31:00.001+01:00

I've been in Dakar this week for meetings, so Tuesday night I was able to go to an expat election party in town. I wanted to stay up all night and watch the election, but I just didn't make it. (Plus I had an important meeting the next day I didn't want to be too exhausted for).

So I went to bed around 2:30 am, by which time Obama was significantly ahead, but it still wasn't a sure thing. I happened to wake up sometime between 4:00 and 5:00, so I quickly checked the computer, saw that Obama won, thought "Yay!", and went back to sleep.

Wednesday morning I decided not to change out of my Obama t-shirt (given to me by a PCV who got a couple while on vacation in America) because I was just too happy. So walking around the neighborhood to get breakfast and do some errands I attracted a lot of "congratulations!" and "good job!" type comments from Senegalese, plus a lot of typical "give me your shirt!" comments, which I am choosing to interpret as "I like Obama too".

I only met one dissenter, a security guard at the Peace Corps office who I am friends with. He congratulated me, but said he supported McCain. When I asked him why, his answer was basically that he likes to root for the underdog.

Reactions from the village coming next week (or at least, as soon after next week as I can get back to the internet).

Financial crisis in Senegal

2008-11-07T11:18:00.001+01:00

NPR has a story about how the global financial crisis is affecting Senegal. I haven't managed to listen to it yet (technical issues), but it's NPR, so I'm sure it's good.

Article about sexual exploitation in African schools

2008-11-07T11:15:00.001+01:00

Here is a good article from the UN's news service about sexual exploitation in African schools - a big problem here in Senegal.

Video about girls' education in Senegal

2008-11-06T11:04:00.001+01:00

Now available on the web: a (really great) documentary created by Peace Corps Volunteers about girls' education in Senegal. It's called "Elle Travaille, Elle Vit" (She works, She lives); it's in French with English subtitles. Watch it here!

Woohoo!

2008-11-05T09:07:00.001+01:00

I am so excited about the election!!!

Potential disaster

2008-11-02T13:54:00.001+01:00

I'm in Dakar this week for some meetings, and as usual, I was super excited about coming to Dakar for two reasons: unlimited free internet at the Peace Corps office (although it's still slow and clunky), and great food options.

So yesterday in pursuit of food happiness, I went to a little Indian grocery store down the street from the office and stocked up on some food to eat over the next couple days. I got some ramen noodles, some microwavable Indian food meals, and some other odds and ends, including real milk to put in my tea (I always use powdered milk in Tamba and the village).

And then I discovered that whenever I consume the milk, which tastes AMAZING and has definitely not gone bad, it upsets my stomach. So now I am worried that in my year and a half of hardly ever having any real milk I might have become lactose intolerant. Which would be a disaster, because having hot tea with milk is very important to my sanity. All the other dairy stuff I could give up, but not milk in my tea.

So now I am really, really hoping that this is just a temporary thing (like maybe I've got parasites again and they don't like milk) or else that I just need to get used to dairy again. The alternative is just too sad to contemplate.

Bucket down

2008-11-02T13:42:00.003+01:00

Written Thursday, 30 October 2008

I just went to the well to get water, and as I always do, I set my empty bucket on the concrete ledge of the well. Maybe I'm psychic, because I noticed that the ledge in that spot wasn't quite flat, and I thought how easy it would be for the bucket to fall into the well. Psychic maybe, but not smart enough to move it to another spot. Sure enough, a second later the rope knocked into it and it fell in.

I'd been all alone at the well, but as soon as the bucket fell in, even though it hardly makes any noise, I was suddenly surrounded by women laughing at me, asking how I'm going to get my bucket back and offering to toss me down the well to go after it.

Luckily, I have a backup bucket, so I was still able to get water for my bath, although It's going to be a little complicated next time I have to do laundry. So the real outcome of this is that I am once again left feeling ridiculous, with what seems like half the village laughing at me for my inability to do simple village-woman tasks. Poo.

Bye bye, Rain

2008-11-02T13:42:00.001+01:00

Written Tuesday, 28 October 2008

Rainy season is finally over. The grass is turning brown and dying, which makes me sad, but my clothes no longer smell perpetually like mildew, which is definitely good. The plague of frogs should end soon (also good), but then there will be the harmattan wind that gets dust in my eyes and makes biking even short distances a miserable chore (bad). I'm looking forward to cold nights and drinking my coffee in the morning without sweat pouring down my face, but not to taking cold showers in cool weather.

All in all I think I like rainy season and cold season about equally, but rainy season has been going on for a while and I always like change, so hurray for cold season coming!

Traditional names

2008-11-02T13:41:00.003+01:00

Written Tuesday, 28 October 2008

Children here who aren't given Muslim (or Christian) names are given traditional names relating to the circumstances of their birth: Sunkaro, which means Ramadan, for those born during that month; Penda, third girl child; Sori, Came Early; Meeta, Took a Long Time. Today I heard a new one which I really liked: Nyaato, Future. Sometimes the names tell you something about how the parents felt about their new child, and this one seems very hopeful to me.

Into the Wild

2008-11-02T13:41:00.001+01:00

Written Friday, 24 October 2008

Yesterday at the house in Tamba I watched a movie called Into the Wild, about a guy who decides to give up civilization and go live in the wilderness in Alaska, because he thinks that if he surrounds himself with nature he will learn something about Truth.

I don't care much about the search for Truth, I'm too pragmatic for that, but the movie definitely made heading off into the wilderness look like fun. And today, biking back to my village from Tamba, I was thinking that these have been some of my favorite experiences in Africa – just biking along, looking at the beautiful scenery, dancing (the top half of me anyway) to the music on my ipod, and greeting villagers as I pass by.

I want to find a way to continue having this lifestyle, lots of freedom and time outdoors, after Peace Corps. (Has Peace Corps turned me into a dirty hippy, or "hip" as one of my guides in Morocco called it? Maybe. But I bet lots of freedom and outdoor time sound pretty good to just about everyone, and I'm still a big fan of showers.) I haven't had much success so far in thinking of a way to make it happen, though. You get nice long summer vacations with teaching, but I just don't enjoy that enough. You can write from anywhere, but I'm not talented enough to make a living at it (although if you could learn to write by reading books, I'd probably have won the Nobel Prize for Literature by now). Living off my trust fund would work great, except that I haven't got one.

So for now I'm stuck. But at least I've got another six months or so of my nice Peace Corps life left, before I have to go back to being a grown-up.

What I've been up to lately

2008-11-02T13:14:00.001+01:00

written Friday, 24 October 2008

I'm still feuding with my counterpart about me supposedly not having done anything for the village (i.e. given them piles of money), so I haven't taught any more health classes, which we always do together. I don't feel bad about it, though, because I think the women here know by now everything I have to teach them on that subject. (Whether they're actually implementing the lessons – washing their hands with soap, etc. – is another issue, of course).

So instead I've been spending my time working on a proposal to get funding to buy bikes and gardening supplies for a health workers' association I've been working with for the past year. Even though the proposal process is quite straightforward, it's requiring a lot of running around, meeting with people and visiting shops in Tamba to find out how much the equipment will cost.

I've also been going to schools to give Michelle Sylvester scholarships to this year's winners. Which is also turning out to require a ridiculous amount of running around (mainly because Senegalese schools don't stick to a fixed calendar regarding when the first day of school is going to be – it's just somewhere post-Korite and at the end of farming season, whenever the principal and teachers and kids decide to show up).

So I've been busy, but not so much in my village. I wish I were spending more time here with my host family and friends, but I decided it's more important to me to be doing work.

Khadija's ambulance service

2008-11-02T13:02:00.001+01:00

written Tuesday, 14 October 2008

This morning after breakfast the village imam came and told me that his 12-year-old daughter is sick with malaria. He had money to pay for the doctor, but no way to get her to the health post ten kilometers away. Of course I offered to take her on my bike, as he was clearly hoping, so about 9 am we set off, with my passenger sitting on the luggage rack behind my seat.

This is the first time I've carried almost a full-grown person on my bike for any real distance, and it is hard! Of course it didn't help that the "road" we were taking is just a dirt trail through the woods, or that it rained yesterday so the path is just a mud swamp in places. But eventually we made it to the health post, where I paid 100 CFA (about 25 cents) for a consultation, and after not too long a wait we saw the doctor who promptly confirmed she has malaria (although he didn't bother to do a blood test to check for sure).

So she got a shot in her leg and about four different kinds of pills and syrups to take (which cost 4500 CFA, about ten dollars – two dollars more than her dad gave me, but luckily I brought my own money too just in case). Then since it was midday and hot and she was clearly exhausted (besides making you feel awful, malaria causes anemia as the parasites break open your red blood cells) we went to her relatives' house in a village close by and rested for a while, and then I biked us home again.

I'm really glad that my villagers come to me when they're sick and need help getting to the doctor, but I wish we had a better way to get people out than by donkey cart, which takes forever, or on the back of a bike, which is just exhausting.

Sick

2008-11-02T12:55:00.001+01:00

written Saturday, 4 October 2008

I take it back about the Korite meat not making me sick. Apparently it was just taking a while for the bacteria to multiply enough in my body to make me miserable. Poo.