Eye Clinic…
Once again I got the chance to work with a group of American eye surgeons who came to Senegal specifically to repair cataract affected eyes. This year all of the happenings were in a town called Bakel. This place has character! It is a picturesque river town on the border of Mauritania with a French fort, hills galore, all the green gardens you could ask for, music playing out of every shop and several bars.
My job was the same as last year; translating and hands on patient care. The masses came out and the two weeks were booked with vision tests, consultations, operations, and pre-operational and post-operational patient care. Bakel’s needs seemed far greater than Tamba, resulting in mobs of people, many of whom had to be turned away. Several volunteers worked simply as crowd control and twice the Senegalese military was called in to keep things calm.
As last year, I was re-inspired by the gravity of the instant results these patients received. People couldn’t see one day and the very next pronounced their sight, Alhamdulilah. I also loved my jobs as patient advocate and translator. For quite awhile I have been thinking about living in Latin America for a short time to experience the culture and gain Spanish language fluency. I know that when I come back to America, Aissatou Ba and her Pulaar self will cease to exist. If my passion or Pulaat could be translated to Spanish, my latin identity could actually be expressed in America. I could see myself being happier in America if I were able to live a bi-lingual life through either my work or personal life.
All in all, the eye clinic was successful in giving sight to almost 400 people and renewing my interests in nursing and translating. I feel so lucky to be exposed to all of this. Even though my life after Peace Corps is just a bunch of ???????? I feel as though the world is my oyster shell.
Here is a picture of our award winning team:
…Christmas at the beach…
Yep, I am that far behind. What a special Noel away from home. I was really worried about my first Christmas not spent with family. I mean, I am that nut who starts playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving (okay, Halloween) and never stops. I love the smells, the foods, the comfort and closeness of family, the pure coziness of the season. It is simply the most wonderful time of the year.
This year was no different. Sure it was a bit warmer than winter in the mid-west and it was spent with friends, but lucky for me, these friends are the kind that have turned into family. Also, we went to the beach. Win.
Kim, Anna and I, along with Kim’s American visitors Jen and Jenny, spent Christmas Eve gathered around a single gas burner concocting a delicious Mexican meal. We told stories of traditions and Christmases past. As simple as it was, it was perfect.
In the morning, Christmas day, we woke up to stockings embroidered with our names that Kim had made for us and had our breakfast in a nook filled with the fake snow that Lisa had sent.
We spent the day on the beach in bathing suits and Santa hats singing Christmas carols. Cards, cocktails and calls from back home=happiness.
We shared a delicious Christmas dinner, seafood spread with a random group of other Americans celebrating.
Christmas this year was simplicity at its finest. I didn’t buy or get a gift over $5 (except from back home. Thanks Mom, Dad, Lisa and Lindsey for all the decorations, sweet treats and LOVE). Although I look forward to Christmas at home this year, I feel lucky to have spent a Christmas in Senegal with friends turned family.
Our amazingly talented chef and friend Max and I. Merry Christmas!
...Biking the Gambia…
The Gambia is literally inside of Senegal so I found it mandatory to visit before leaving this place. You may be asking, “What better way to see a country than by bike?” Our crazy bike gang felt the same. Tamba’s finest; Josh, Marie, Anna, Julie and myself, set out on the Eastern border of Senegambia on December 27th in hopes of making it the Western capitol of Banjul come New Years Eve.
We biked the length of an entire country and boy did we make some memories along the way.
Gambia = fried chicken, Pulaar and English=Pulish, Julbrew (locally brewed draft beer), scary political advertisements suggesting dictatorship, really rich Peace Corps houses, development in terms of health facilities and schools but definitely not roads (ouch) and so much more. I’ll let the pictures tell the story.
During one of our numerous rest and refuel stops.
We were diiiirty!
One night we camped in a bar. Literally set up tents inside a bar...
By day 3 we were starting with the sunrise. Much smarter than our 2pm start day 1.
Our first ferry crossing to get off of an island in the middle of the Gambia.
Nearly every night we ended our day close to the Gambia River.
We started our trip avoiding the border police and camping out at bars and ended it much classier. Our last day of biking was by far the best. We had had one of those nights before hand where we were so happy we spent most of the night in giggle fits, laughing until snorting. That definitely carried over into our last morning of biking. We started by sharing the we had left between the 5 of us for breakfast; 3 power bars, a pouch of raisins, 2 cookies and 2 cups of coffee. In Peace Corps sharing becomes an automatic assumption that is not even thought about, just done.
The Alabama song, “Dixieland Delight,” sums it up best with the phrase, “free feeling as the wind.” Most of the ride I couldn’t see a soul ahead of me. With fields on either side, giant trees and an ocean breeze, I felt so at one with nature, so at peace.
We made it to the ferry crossing by noon and had beers waiting for our ferry to the capitol and celebrating our vitory. 366 kilometers/228 miles/5 people/5 days/one country. The capitol was all celebration. Good food, draft beer, amazing people and a decent hotel= an epic way to ring in 2012.
Sadly that only catches you all up to the 1st of Janruary. My thoughts and hands are tired but I promise to write another entry ‘joonie, joonie,’ soon, soon. Get excited because the topics include Kristen and Lisa’s visit to Senegal, my brothers marriage, the Tambacounda Race for Education and perhaps a sappy bit about how I feel with my service coming to an end in just over a month.
Until next time…
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