One Final Thought

It’s been about one month since I returned to the USA, and almost two since I left Senegal. I miss my village, friends and host family dearly, but it is also wonderful to be reunited with so many loved ones stateside. I am honestly handling the transition better than I anticipated. Life in the USA is so much an engrained part of my entire life experience that it just feels normal. At the same time, my outlook on everything has changed due to the experiences I’ve had over the last three years.

I want to extend the biggest THANK YOU I possibly can to all of you who supported me throughout this journey with your letters, packages, skype calls, texts, prayers, and positive thoughts. There were many tough moments, and what kept me going was the love for my village and the knowledge that I had all of you in my corner.

As is often said in the Peace Corps community, volunteers end up taking away more from their host communities than they give, and I am certain that is no different in my case. The people of Senegal taught me many things throughout my Peace Corps service. Perhaps the biggest takeaway is best summed up in the children’s book “Old Turtle and the Broken Truth” when “…as the people met other people different from themselves, they began to see…themselves.”

Senegal is an amazing country filled with loving and caring people, and I have no doubt that it is just one example of many like it around the world. So in this tumultuous time filled with so much fear, hate, and doubt, please remember that we are all one, brothers and sisters united on this earth to bring peace and prosperity to all those who seek it.

I leave this thought with you in this final blog post and thank you all again for your everlasting support.

WOAH! We're done!

Thanks for reading. Peace and love,

Lindsay

Pieces of Peace

It’s official – I’ve entered into the last month of my time in Senegal. I have just under three weeks left before I fly out. As a result, I’ve also moved into what seems to be the most emotional part of my service.

There are so many things I’m looking forward to about being back home in the USA – my family, my friends, a washing machine, a smartphone, craft beer, etc. And there are things I won’t miss about being in Senegal. Washing my clothes by hand, for one (something I’ve done for the last 3 years), is something I can live without!

Despite all of this, I’m devastated to be leaving. Don’t get me wrong, I love the USA, and I am really excited to be home and start the next chapter in my journey. But at the same time, I’ve built a life here and integrated into a culture that I adore, sometimes more than my own. I keep trying to figure out why leaving here seems so much harder than how I felt leaving the USA back in 2014. What I’ve realized is that, in 2014, when I quit my job and moved out of Chicago, I knew that I would see my friends and family again. This time, things seem more final. Of course I plan to stay in touch with my host family and friends here and eventually come back to visit, but there is always a real chance that we will never see each other again. This thought terrifies me, and in my final weeks, it is the thought that leads to spontaneous bouts of tears.

On Saturday, I am gong back to Tamba to visit my village one last time and say goodbye. My host family has had a major influence on my life. We’ve been through the death of a child, domestic violence, weddings, funerals, and plentiful harvests, all in three years. They made my Peace Corps service feel like home. They welcomed every member of my immediate family into their home, and as with Senegalese culture, instantly and honestly believed that, through me, our families are now merged as one.

It is this spirit of openness and hospitality that I am hoping to carry with me to the USA. No matter where I am in Senegal, village or city, home or sidewalk, I’ve found people inviting me to sit with them for tea, share a meal, or just chat like old friends even as strangers. This makes it really easy to find friends, know your neighbors, and build relationships with your local grocery store clerk/tailor/roadside food stand seller/etc. I’ve been gone for 3 years during what seems to be some of the most polarizing times the USA has ever experienced, and I often wonder how different it could be if we imported this “teranga” or hospitality into our own culture. So even though leaving this place will be hard, my mission is to spread Senegalese peace wherever I go. For as Brian Andreas so beautifully painted, “She left pieces of her life behind her everywhere she went. It's easier to feel the sunlight without them, she said."

Thanks for reading. Peace and love,

Lindsay

Touring the Country

The newest group of Peace Corps Senegal trainees arrived last week – 53 of them, 33 health and 20 for our community economic development program. For the next two months, I’ll coordinate the training of the 33 health trainees, giving them the technical skills and cultural knowledge to integrate well into life in Senegal. Experiencing Peace Corps life through the eyes of a new trainee is one of my favorite aspects of the job of the 3^rd year volunteer for the health program.

On Tuesday, after just less than a week in Senegal, the new trainees left for community based training for the first time. This is where trainees go to live with host families for various lengths of time during their 2 month training, focusing on language and cultural integration. I’ve had extremely nostalgic feelings this past week, thinking back to my first experience at CBT, walking into my compound with only enough language skills to say “Hi” and “I need to go to the bathroom”. My first memory is of my host mom running at me screaming my Senegalese name (Rama at the time), so excited that I’d arrived. I distinctly remember this feeling of “what the hell have I signed up for” running through my mind those first few days. Now looking back on 3 years here, it’s almost funny how nervous I was. 

Top of a mountain!

The other aspect of my job that I love the most is assisting with site visits. Throughout this past year, I’ve gone out into the field on numerous occasions, each for about 1 week at a time, accompanying a staff member from the health program, visiting current volunteers in their sites. I’ve visited villages and towns around the entire country, sometimes driving two hours in one direction just to reach a volunteer’s village, do his/her visit, and turn around. It’s an exhausting experience, but one of the most thrilling!

Garden project

Discussing projects

When we arrive in a site, we typically sit with a volunteer and ask her about her projects, challenges she has at site, new work ideas, etc. We also meet with representatives of the volunteer’s host family and work partners. We ask them the same questions about how the volunteer is doing culturally, how work is going, any challenges they are experiencing, etc. Even as a 3^rd year volunteer, I find site visits incredibly rewarding and motivating. It is awe-inspiring to travel the country learning about all the projects different volunteers have taken on. Site visits serve a strong work purpose because they make me a better mentor to the volunteers when I can connect people with similar work interests together. They also continue to renew in me the importance of Peace Corps - I’ve seen incredible projects and heard testimonies from many people about the value of Peace Corps and how rewarding it has been working with one or many volunteers. 

An awesome nutritious porridge project for malnutrition

This 3^rd year of service has really brought my entire experience full circle. I travel around consulting with first and second year health volunteers on their successes and challenges at site, and I develop new trainees into the next group of amazing volunteers. This past year was a long extra year away from my friends and family, but the rewards certainly outnumber the challenges.

And now the countdown is on! My official last day is May 19^th! I’ll be flying into Zurich to meet my parents and Aunt Sandy for a visit with one of our family friends and a tour around Italy. Then I’ll be back in the USA, preparing to start graduate school in the fall (more on that soon). I have SO many ambitious travel plans for the summer, but I’m also realizing that I might need some quiet time at home just reintegrating into life in the USA. It’s weird to be worried about reintegrating into my own country, but that too will be a part of this entire experience. I’m looking forward to sharing that with all of you!

Thanks for reading. Peace & love,

Lindsay 

Sunshine When He Smiles

Well here we are in 2017 and I haven’t written a blog post in months…my intention was not to stop blogging during my third year of service. I just got distracted by so many things (new job, grad school applications, politics), and this is what fell to the wayside.

As anyone who knows me well can image, the end of 2016 was a VERY rough time for me (as I know it was for many of you). I think living abroad during the presidential election added a whole other element to my experience. There happened to be a big volunteer event going on at our training center (where I work now) during the election, so my friend Morgan and I planned a big election party. We traced a map of the electoral college that turned out amazing, managed to stream live USA news stations, had a senate race update station in the back of the room, and provided snacks. I didn’t sleep a wink. I look back on the beginning of that party with such fond memories and can’t believe the turn of events we are now experiencing.

We all hoped 2017 would start off better, but its not looking to be the case. THANK YOU to all of you who have marched, rallied, spoken out, called, etc. I feel somewhat helpless from here, but am trying to find ways to do my part. That’s where blogging comes in. There is sooo much (too much) negativity out there right now, so I am going to blog about positive things happening here. Today’s topic – my little brother Haruna.

Haruna and me on a horse cart

Haruna with the cows

Maybe some of you remember Haruna from previous photos or stories. His dad died when he was younger, and then his mom married my host dad as his 3^rd wife. He has the sunniest disposition of anyone I’ve met in Senegal. He is 11 years old and has spent most of his life as our family’s cow herder, leading the cows around the open bush near our village everyday to find water and grass patches.  

I realized how smart Haruna was very early on in my service. Though never having stepped foot in a classroom, he has somehow taught himself to read (a feat I literally can’t explain considering how many factors are stacked against him). He can write, do basic math, sound out words, memorize English, and understand basic concepts faster than any other child I have met. I wanted him in school SO bad.

I broached the topic a couple of times with my host dad, but as someone still trying to find her place in the family, I didn’t want to appear forceful. Each time, my dad would say that he knew Haruna was very smart, but he was our family’s herder and that was a necessity.

While I was home in the USA last June, I vented to my parents about this same topic, and we came up with additional strategies for me to try. The saga is much longer than what I will tell here, but thanks to perseverance, love for this child, amazing financial support from my parents, and a compromise from my host family, HARUNA ENTERED SCHOOL THIS YEAR! He is starting the equivalent of 1^st grade at the age of 11, but he has the best attitude about his situation. He is attending a private school in the regional capital of Tamba, about 10 kilometers from my village. He lives with the family of one of my friends, and then visits our family in village on the weekends.

He quickly mastered the art of selfies on my iPod

I have never felt more like a mom in my life. On his first day of school, I wanted nothing more than to walk him to class, but was sadly already back in Thies for work! He and I talk frequently, and I bother him with questions about school, the family he lives with, if he’s eating enough, if his clothes fit, etc. Essentially I’m a nagging mother who just sent her kid off to college. 

I went back recently for a visit to my village, and many people congratulated me on getting Haruna into school. I told them, “I haven’t done anything yet. You can congratulate me when Haruna graduates.”

Selfie!

I’m leaving soon – I only have about 3.5 months left here. Though I will miss it dearly, I am also ready to come home. But my mission is to keep in close contact with my host family, not just because I love them, but because I want Haruna to have the opportunity to finish school. This kid represents everything that is good in the world. He has worked hard in tough conditions, and he deserves the chance to learn.

Getting Haruna enrolled in school was a major personal victory, but it is also OUR victory. Every one of you who supports me has helped make this a reality. So if you’ve got a dark cloud around you these days, join the club, but then look at this face and remember all the good that exists in the world!

I forced him to model his school uniform :)

Thanks for reading! Peace and love,

Lindsay

They have places like this???

OK – first off, thanks to everyone who donated to my village’s fire fund! We raised $2,000 and have been able to replenish some much-needed supplies such as mattresses, trunks, and cement that were burned in the fire!

Now I realize it’s been many months since I gave a real update on what’s happening here, so I’m going to start back in April, maybe skip over a few things, and get up to present time.

April – It had been 2 long months of traveling back and forth between my village in Tambacounda and our training center in Thies, about a 7-hour trip each time. I think in those 2 months I went back and forth a total of 4 times. I was helping coordinate training for our new volunteers as part of the responsibilities of my new job as Lead Health Volunteer. I was thrilled to be there, but also wanted to spend as much time as possible in village since my time was limited. So each time the new volunteers went off to their training villages to focus on language, I trekked back to Tamba to see my family.

My last week and a half consisted mainly of hanging out with my family, wandering around the village taking pictures, and drinking lots and lots of tea! I had wrapped up most of my projects (except that well that seemed to linger on just a bit too long…), so by the last day, I felt a good sense of closure. It was a weird ending for my whole village because everyone knew I wasn’t leaving Senegal, so there was certainty that I would see them again. I thought for sure this would make my goodbye easier too.

The perfect way to spend a lazy afternoon

My amazing health workers - they even threw my a little party on my last week in village! This photo is from that event

The morning I was to depart, my brother, who was taking me into town on our horse cart loaded with all of my luggage, told me we’d wait and eat breakfast and then go. At around 7:30am he changed his mind and decided it would be better for everyone if we just left before too many people saw me. So I went into my room to take one last look around. I went out into my backyard space to check too, and when I came back in my room, my host mom was awkwardly standing there. I thought “Oh great, which of my possessions does she want to ask for now??” I quickly realized how petty that was when my host mom grabbed a cup, reached into my clay water pot that I was leaving behind, and drew out a full glass. She told me to toss the water out my front door, and that when people leave their homes for big life moments, the water that you toss is meant to provide you safe passage on your journey.

I then walked over to where my host dad was sitting to say goodbye. Many of the other members of my house were there too. I had done so well up until this point, but all of a sudden, I burst into tears. I thought, “What are you doing? You know you’ll see these people again in a few months!” But the realization hit me that, even if I come back for a visit, life will never be the same as it is right now. My host dad didn’t know what to do…he exclaimed “Oh we have a crier”, shook my hand, and quickly walked away (My brother later told me that this is because my dad would have started to cry as well and didn’t want to be around everyone just in case – we’ve had some tense moments throughout my time but my heart melted when I heard this).

Sitting with my host dad on my last day

I went to see my sister-in-law and say goodbye to her and my namesake, baby Weli. As I gave them a last hug, my namesake held out her arms for me to pick her up – cue waterfall all over again. I quickly jumped on the back of the horse cart and we took off for town. My brother was amazing – he spent the morning helping me unload my luggage. We ate breakfast together, drank some tea, and he presented me with a gris-gris, a charm that you usually wear around your arm to protect you on your journey. The whole experience was quite emotional, but I didn’t have much time to dwell on the emotions, because the next day I went back to Thies and jumped right back into training.

My host brother Alfa before he returned to village

The three of us started in Tamba together!

My original language group before the
others headed back to the USA

I got back to training but was still coordinating the completion of my well project back in village. As most things go here, I was pretty generous with the timeline I laid out, but it just wasn’t enough. However, our mason finished everything just a few days after I moved out of my village, and my host dad was great at completing the last of the project! I even had one of my friends with a smart phone take a few pictures and Facebook them to me so I could see the finished result! So behold, the newest well to grace Sare Aladji! From what I hear, it’s getting used by so many households and is a much easier distance than the previous wells they used!

The finished product!

At the beginning of May, we swore in the newest group of Peace Corps volunteers to Senegal, including 40 health volunteers that I helped train. I then moved into my new Thies apartment with my roommate Natalie.

My new roommate and me at the swearing-in ceremony

It’s a beautiful little apartment that gets a lot of natural light. We have hot water, electricity, a refrigerator, stove, and beds with real mattresses.  After living in a village hut for 2 years, who knew places like this even existed here! It’s a simple place, but compared to my hut I feel like I live in a pent house suite!

Since then it’s been two rapid months of traveling, both throughout Senegal and the USA! I went on a week of site visits in Senegal where I traveled with a member of our health programming staff to visit volunteers, check on their progress, meet with community members, and council the volunteers about future projects. Then I came to the USA for a month of home leave where I got to spend lots of wonderful time with my family, my new niece Aila, and many many friends.

Me and the bestie :) 

Because you can't take the Africa out of the girl...

Me and Aila, my new niece

I had such a great trip home that I was worried about my emotional state returning back to Senegal, but my schedule was so busy I didn’t have time to realize what happened. I spent one week at the Pink Lake with our class of 2^nd year volunteers for their mid-service conference, and then spent another week at a hotel in Somone (on the coast!) for a gender integration conference that I had helped coordinate for a select group of volunteers and the programming staff.

Participants of our gender workshop

Now in two days, our newest group of health volunteers comes back for their 2^nd round of training. While only 2 weeks in length, it is jam-packed with training sessions and guest volunteers coming in to share their experiences. I’ve been helping with much of the logistical support and will also facilitate a few of the sessions.

Deciding to extend for a 3^rd year in Senegal was a tough decision for me at the time, but I still love my job and am getting a whole different set of experiences out of this new position.

More updates to come!

Thanks for reading. Peace & love,

Lindsay

Sare Aladji Village Fire

Ok, I’ve totally slacked on my blog since I decided to stay on for a 3^rd year. My life got extremely busy with the start of training for our new group of health volunteers, and for 2.5 months I was back and forth between our training center in Thies and my village (about an 8 hour public transit ride). So I’ve got much to update everyone on, including the completion of my well, my move out of village, and my new role.

However, those will have to come in a subsequent blog post, because today I’ve got much more somber information to share. Last Friday, there was a fire in my village. Unfortunately, during dry season, village fires are not uncommon. People cook with wood in small enclosed cooking huts or out in the open, and if every single ember doesn’t get extinguished, the wind can come along out of nowhere and ignite the fire again.

This is precisely what happened in my village. Somewhere, a fire didn’t get put out completely, and Friday night there was a big windstorm in my village that reignited a flame. Out of the 35 compounds (a household, but made up of a series of huts in a circle with communal space in the middle), two completely burned and 4 other compounds lost about half of their huts. One of those 4 households belongs to my counterpart, Sadio Ba, the man I worked with for the past 2 years at our health hut.

I happened to be traveling for work this week when I got the call. We were due to spend Sunday night in Tamba before continuing on our trip, so early Monday morning I got up and went to my village. I only had 1.5 hours to spend there, but I got the chance to see everyone and make sure no one was hurt.

And in true Senegalese fashion, I was talking to one of the men from the households that burned completely, and he said, “Thanks to God that only our stuff burned and that no one was hurt. Things can be replaced but people can’t.”

So that’s exactly what I’d like to do – help people replace what was lost. My dad created a GoFundMe page to collect money for my village and any donation, no matter how small, is appreciated.

https://www.gofundme.com/27jqhhnz

Since I am not based there any longer, I’ve solicited the help of my two best friends in village that I trust. I will be sending them the money and asking them to take a survey among the impacted households of what they need, and then these guys will go to the market and buy the beds, mattresses, clothes, etc to help replace what is gone.

Help is coming from wherever it can. The day immediately following the fire, men in the village were cutting down sticks and gathering dried grass to start remaking the hut roofs. An NGO that works in our village came and took a census of all the people impacted so that they could try to provide support. The school is providing new notebooks and backpacks to all of the children who lost theirs in the fire. People from the village who live abroad are sending donations.

I never imagined how close I could get to the people in my village after only two years, but they are my family now. And when your family is hurting, you do whatever you can to help. Thanks to all of you for your support, and even if you can’t donate, please keep my village in your thoughts & prayers as they rebuild what was lost.

*More personal updates to come soon!*

Thanks for reading. Peace & love,

Lindsay

My counterpart's house 

My counterpart's room. Everything inside, including all his clothes, was burned

A cooking pot

One of the households that burned completely. This is all they managed to save for the house of about 15 people

People are sleeping on their cement platforms while the rooms get rebuilt

All that's left of their harvest. Other people in the village are donating crops so that people have food until the next harvest

One of my village elders. His house lost everything.

1 + 1 = 3

Well I’ll just come out with the big news – after two years in Senegal I’ve decided to extend and stay on as a Peace Corps volunteer for a third year!  The seed was planted in my head a few months back by my program manager, but I was very torn on what to do. I had a lot of conversations with my family, and ultimately just had to follow my heart.

My life will be much different this 3^rd year than what I experienced the last 2 years. I will move to the capital city of Dakar and live in an apartment there – electricity, running water, the ability to cook my own meals, etc. I’m pretty excited about all of that! I also have a new job – I will now be the Peace Corps Volunteer Leader for the Health program, meaning I am the lead Health volunteer. I will assist in the training for all new health volunteers and then continue to provide them with programmatic support throughout the year. There are some great opportunities for personal & professional growth for me over this year. Staying was a scary decision to make, but if it turns out half as good as the scary decision to quit my job & come to Senegal, I have nothing to worry about.

For the next 2 months I will be living between our training center and my village in Tamba (about 8 hours apart) to help facilitate the training for our new health volunteers that come on Monday! Once that’s over I will officially move out of my village and into Dakar.

I will be HOME in June for a month of home leave and hope to see as many people as possible, so more details to come on this once I have specific dates.

Thanks as always for the continued support and words of encouragement that you all send me! And a special thanks to my parents – I know choosing to stay was a selfish decision, but you’ve always supported me even when you’re not super excited about my choice. You’re the best.

One housekeeping note – NEW ADDRESS!

PCVL Lindsay Swisher

Peace Corps Senegal

B.P. 2534

Dakar, Senegal

West Africa

Thanks for reading. Peace & love,

Lindsay