Once the excitement of Tabaski was over, things in Nioro settled down considerably and I went back to my usual routine. Otherwise known as Wolof lessons, meeting people, looking for projects and generally wandering around town greeting people to fill up time.
As exciting as daily life in Nioro is, when the opportunity came up in early December to do some work/visit another volunteer, I jumped at the chance. First up, participating in Peace Corps' radio broadcast in Kaolack. Every Monday from 5-6, PCVs in the Kaolack area host a radio show on one of the local stations. These shows are done in Wolof, and cover a variety of different topics from business practices to cultural issues to health. Every first Monday of the month its the SED kids turn to host the radio show, so I figured I'd come in and check it out.
Lindsay and Daniel, two SED volunteers who are a year into their service, usually take charge of the monthly SED broadcast. For the December show, they invited all the new SED-ers to introduce themselves and see how things work. So Kenny, Mollie and I, along with Lindsay and Daniel, headed over to the radio station and commenced with dispensing our wealth of business knowledge to the listening masses. And by dispensing my business knowledge I mean, I introduced myself and then sat back and listened. Lindsay and Daniel did most of the talking since their Wolof skills are infinitely more developed. Basically, the theme of that day's show was teaching people how to properly invest in order to grow a business. For example, just because you want to sell bread in a neighboring town, you shouldn't run right out and buy yourself a car. Find a more cost effective solution so that you don't put yourself deep into debt over an expansion that might not pan out. Its these and lots of other basic business concepts that seem like common sense to most Americans, but can take Senegalese people a while to grasp.
Anywho, it was interesting to see how the whole PC radio show thing usually works so I'd consider it a successful first attempt. Immediately after the show, Daniel and I packed up our things and headed to his site, Fatick. We arrived at the garage just in time to watch a sept place fill up and leave for Fatick. Sad. So we paid our passes and hunkered down in the car for an hour or so waiting for it to fill up. Unfortunately, by the time 5 other people also wanting to go to Fatick showed up, the sun was setting. Let me tell you...if transportation over here sounds scary during the day, DO NOT try it at night. One, we had possibly the most broken down sept place of all time. The sound coming from the gear box every time our driver tried to change gears was practically deafening. Add to that the fact that the road between Fatick and Kaolack is littered with potholes big enough to swallow a car whole. What does this mean? Well essentially imagine watching a game of Mario Kart...cars swerving all over the road regardless of which lane of traffic they were meant to be traveling in. Add to this the fact that it was dark, there were semis, and I was seriously concerned that the transmission of our sept place might drop out at any second. Yeah, it was a little scary. Thankfully though, we arrived in Fatick in one piece, did a little "HURRAH, we made it!" dance, and continued on to Daniel's house.
The following morning we were up bright and early and headed across town. Daniel had planned a 4-day long formation (training in French) with local teenagers on how to start your own business. Daniel and his Senegalese counterpart were teaching it, and I came along to check things out and "help." The first day, Daniel focused on teaching the kids what makes a good idea for a business and how to go about finding one. Unsurprisingly given that he was working with a group of 17-20 year olds, trying to get them to participate was like pulling teeth. But eventually they started to answer some questions and I think Daniel did a great job of getting his point across. So after a long day, we retired to Daniel’s house to indulge in some delicious Kraft Mac & Cheese (so good, especially since we spent the entire lunch break talking about American food we missed) and watch the first three episodes of GLEE!! (Being theater nerds, we were both instantly obsessed and took it upon ourselves to extend that obsession to the entire Kaolack region.)
The next day, we dragged ourselves out of bed and headed out early for another full day of imparting wisdom. This time, it was Daniel’s counterpart’s turn to give teaching a go. He was slightly more successful at getting the students to pay attention and participate, but that comes as no great shocker…he’s older and Senegalese after all. Overall the biggest take away from that day was how much I don’t miss high school. People who teach high school students must have the patience of a saint! So if you are one of them, kudos to you because I definitely don’t think I could do it.
The following morning, Daniel headed back off to the formation, but I felt it was time to get back to site. I stopped for the night in Kaolack to get in some Skype chatting with my Mom and download a little more GLEE (best. show. ever.). Then it was back to Nioro, the fam and all the excitement that is daily life in my little town.
Next time: Christmas!
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