3 weeks into site

Hello everyone,

Tomorrow marks the third week since I moved into my site, and I feel like every day gets easier. A few days after my last posting, I went house to house to greet the residents of my village in order to introduce myself to them. The importance of greetings cannot be overemphasized in this culture- the Senegalese might be the most social people that I have ever come across, especially when in the village setting. Because I'm the American (they'll either call me a "Gan" or stranger, or they'll call me a "toubab" or white man, a term that really irritates me) they all know who I am, but I don't know all of them yet and doubt that I will be able to remember every single person's name.

I spent the past weekend in the town of Kaolack meeting all of the other volunteers in my region to discuss our regional strategy. In the past, strategy has been broken up based on sector. Earlier this year, the volunteers in the Kedougou region (near the southeastern corner of the country) created a regional strategy to implement in addition to their sector project plans, the rationale being that it would be good to have a regionally based plan. The volunteers in the Kaolack region wanted to follow suit. It was incredibly thrilling to be a part of the regional strategy meeting; my peers here are incredibly smart and conscientious. It will be an honor to work with them!

I returned from Kaolack to my site on Sunday evening, and soon after I got back to my compound, it began raining. It was the first time that I had felt rain since I had come to country, and it's possible that it was the first time that it had rained in my village since last September. The weather has been really hot, approaching 110-115 degrees F in the afternoons. The rain helps to cool things off.

Life has gotten much busier in the village of late because of the imminent rains. My village is comprised mainly of subsistence farmers and they spend time preparing their fields in advance of the rainy season. Just last week, my host father spent four days seeding millet in his fields. In contrast to the dry season, in which farmers have a lot of down time, the rainy season requires them to spend all day in the fields. Often times, the women and children go to help in the fields. My respect for my host family grows every day; my host father is gentle and kind, though he works long hours in the fields. My closest friend at the village is my host brother, who is about the same age as my real brother in the states, though he's a lot quieter.

My work here is beginning to take shape. I envision it as a combination of working with the local health infrastructure, and also holding workshops and causeries in my community on health-related topics such as nutrition and hygiene. This time of year is when the food stores from last year start to become the most scarce and people start to go hungry. The dramatic spike in global grain prices will really hurt here. I suppose, in this age of "complex interdependence," the world is connected as never before. We'll just have to wait to see how it turns out, and do our best to alleviate (and if necessary change) the situation.

On that somber note, I will sign off.

Ba benaan yoon.