'Til the Cows Come Home

Here in Pulaar land, households are made up of workers devoted to farming, herding and household/child raising duties. In my family, my brothers farm millet, corn, cotton, and beans, while the women farm rice and peanuts. I have brothers that take turns herding our cows and of course every woman takes on the responsibility of child raising, cleaning, cooking, etc.

Insight into herding: This little excerpt is about an event that takes place six times during the transition from rainy season to harvest time. I like to call it, "The Cow Party." Let me take you through the days events.

6 a.m. I wake up to the women pounding raw salt, leaves and bark with their mortar and pestles. People are excited because TODAY is COW PARTY DAY

7 a.m. One of my brothers knocks heavily on my corrugated tin door. "Aissatou! It's cow party day!" Although really its something like, "give the cows a medicinal drink day."

8 a.m. Whoever is herding that day goes to collect the cows and take them to the special spot in the woods where we will all meet.

9 a.m. The rest of my brothers, younger siblings and I start power walking to said special place to prepare for the cows arrival.

9:30 a.m. Those of us preparing for the cows arrive at the special spot and start digging a perfectly round 'bowl' for the cows. We take out rocks and try to make the bowl a perfect circle and as clean as possible (I mean it is a hole in the ground.)



10 a.m. We start filling buckets from a nearby seasonal pond and fill said cow bowl.





10:15 a.m. We break open a certain kind of branch to extract the insides that are good for the cows health.



10:30 a.m. We start washing these chunks of branches in the bowl. It produces a slimy substance that makes the water the right consistency. I am told that the slimy stuff prompts the cows to eat more. Anyways we scrub these pieces of branch for quite awhile to get all the good stuff out.


11 a.m. The consistency of the slimey water is checked over and over again.



11:15 a.m. The little girls and I get hot and decide to cool off in a little seasonal pond.


11: 30 a.m We all the pounded leaves to the mixture, next the pounded bark, then the pounded salt. Everyone tastes the mixture and determines if it is fit for the cows yet.

Noon. We heard the cows in the distance and my herding brothers and the cow drink preparation brothers start calling out to one another in random noises.

A little later, the cows come running in, excited, knowing wait is awaiting them. Here is a video of my brother Mamadian bringing in the cows. Pay attention to the calling noises of my brothers. I think they are pretty cool. (I didn't know I was still taping half way through. Whoops.)



My brother explain that they do this to keep the cows healthy. Each element has medicinal qualities. No one can quite explain it, as it is a tradition that has been passed down since the Pulaars started herding. It seems to me it's simply an oral rehydration drink for cows. Either way it is a fun past time and I thought it was interesting enough to share with ya'll. Hope you enjoy!

"Who run the world? GIRLS. Who run the world? GIRLS!"

One of my secondary projects in Senegal is Gender and Development (GAD) work. Peace Corps Senegal has put emphasis on exploring gender issues and working particularly with youth to improve understanding of gender and problems surrounding the concept of gender. These problems definitely affect both sexes but I have approached it from mostly the teen girl point of view with such problems being forced marriage, female genital cutting, early marriage, lack of schooling for girls, etc.

The reason I bring this up is because it is the beginning of the school year here in Senegal. The time of the year when parents decide if they will be sending their kids to school. In a country with an extremely high birth rate, and low employment, parents often can't afford to send all of there kids to school. This many times means that girls are not sent to school or are forced to drop out very early.

Something Peace Corps Senegal does to help combat the drop out rate is provide scholarships to promising young women. The program is called the Michelle Sylvester Scholarship and it is in memory of a Peace Corps Volunteer who was dedicated to girls' education. The scholarship provides funds for school entrance fees for nominated girls and additional school supplies for winners. Girls are chosen through a process of essays, interviews, teacher recommendations and grade reviewal. Other important factors are strong motivation and demonstrated ability by the girl and lack of financial and familial support.

This year I got the chance to administer the scholarship at my local middle school. It was a lot of jumping though loop hoops, tracking kids down throughout several villages, dealing with unmotivated teaching staff and other annoyances BUT in the end I couldn't be happier to have participated in the scholarship program. The nine nominated girls were inspirational in their courage and motivation even without financial means or familial support. Reading their essays and giving interviews I learned about each of their personal obstacles and aspirations. It reminded me how privileged I am to come from a society that values women's education and made me so grateful towards the American women who fought to make that the standard. It also taught me more about what it means to be a woman. To strive through the seemingly impossible with a smile on your face and determination in your heart. These young girls were simply amazing.

Here is a picture of the three scholarship winners at my middle school after we went school supply shopping. What a fun thing to do with such grateful rays of light! There names from left to right are Makhamba, Fatou and Iline Tama. Tomorrows leaders of Senegal. Inchallah,



Another way GAD work has impacted me is through my Girls Club. I started the group primarily to focus on life-skills, the importance of education and obstacles that Senegalese girls face. The girls and I have very close and now our meetings are mostly just hanging out and having fun. We dance, play games, swim and act oh so silly. Fortunately, depending on how you look at it, these issues tend to come up in conversation anyway. It has been rewarding to be a part of a group that started as acquaintances awkwardly talking about uncomfortable issues to a family where the issues are thrown on the table and worked through together.

This year two of the girls in our group are having problems continuing school because of birth certificate problems. I have checked out a private middle school in our regional capital and am hopeful that they will attend school there with some financial help from some pretty cool parentals back in the U.S.of A. Anyways keep all the girls, especially these two, in your thoughts and prayers.

Here is a picture of us making bracelets with the cool beading kits that my grandparents sent. Thanks Rava and Papa, the girls loved it and now we all have matching jewelry.



The Michelle Sylvester Scholarship is still underfunded for the current school year. If you would like to make a donation (and you would) please do so at: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=685-181

Who run the world? GIRLS.

It's Raining Babies or Three Babies in Three Months or This is the Most Effective Birth Control

On October 5th my family and I celebrated the healthy delivery of a yet another baby girl into the world. That makes three baby girls in three months in my immediate family.

This time the mommy was my tokora (name-sake) Aissatou, the woman I am closest to in my family here in Senegal. With two healthy babies and mommies already in my family I started to worry statistically what that meant for Aissa in a village where it is very common to have childbirth complications. We also started getting anxious that Aissa might be carrying twins, increasing the risks dramatically.

Needless to say I was instantly full of emotion when my mom Penda knocked on my door at 7 am on the 5th, shouting "Tokora maa jibbini!" "Your name-sake has given birth!" I booked out of the room frantically, needing to know NOW if Aissa and baby were both healthy. I ran into her hut and found her laying on the floor, next to her, baby was laying on a sheet, still connected to the placenta maybe a few minutes old. I surveyed everyone, tearing up and laughing, seeing that both mom and baby seemed to be doing well.

Although I hoped to be there for the birth it was such an honor to help them afterwards. My moms tied the cord and cut it and I helped Aissa get the baby to breast-feed. It was such a raw few moments when everyone was simply human and we were just souls working together in love.

Here is a picture of baby Adama Hawa Becky, at a week old on the day of her baptism and naming ceremony. Her Koranic name is Adama Hawa after her aunt and you might have guessed the Becky is after my very own american mother.



Binta, my sister Hawa's baby, is now two months old. Here is a picture of her and Ruby bonding.



And then there is my dad and second mom's child Aminata who was named after me. Aminata/Amanda...you know. She is about two and a half months now and quite the chunkaroo.



Life has been all about these little girls and their mommies for the past few months. I've taken on the household responsibilities of a Senegalese woman; pounding corn for meals, bathing kids, cooking, sweeping, washing dishes...you name it. It's been nice to take some of the weight of Penda, Hawa and Aissa's shoulders and pamper them as much as you can pamper someone in Senegal.

You join Peace Corps thinking, idealistically, you are going to change the world and that your service is going to center around projects attempting to do so. Then, you realize, that while you hope you are making a difference, just important are the human connections and love that grow out of nothing. I am happier than I've been at most points in my service, just being a part of a family, taking care of babies and watching them grow. How rewarding to know that I am truly part of the family. These women are my sisters, these babies are my nieces. Thanks be to God!