Sizzlin' Senegal

Malaria is an extremely serious endemic that affects much of the African continent. In Senegal, 100% of the population is at risk of the disease. Children under 5 years of age and pregnant women account for the most vulnerable groups to retract the malaria virus. For some technical terms: Plasmodium falciparum is the major malaria parasite species, accounting for more than 90% of all infections. The main vector species are Anopheles gambiae sensu strictu, An. arabiensis, An. funestus, and An. melas. The species distribution depends on rainfall and the presence of permanent sources of water. A puddle or even a toilet can be a breeding ground for malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Luckily, Senegal recognizes the problem and has taken steps to help prevent malaria. For example, during the high malaria transmission period, a community health worker performs weekly sweeps and visits every household in the village, actively looking for suspected cases and providing rapid diagnostic tests (...

Tamxarit--or Tamkharit--is an Islamic holiday signifying the start of the new year on the Islamic lunar calendar. As with most holidays in Senegal, it is a time of great celebration and goodwill, and my host family is extremely excited. This year, we celebrated on September 9th. For a bit more background info, click this link  https://www.au-senegal.com/la-tamxarit,102.html?lang=fr . It's in French, so use Google Translate if you too are not fluent. My host family's first words to me once we were all gathered for lunch were: "It's Tamxarit! That means there will be lots of good food: large fish, perfect rice, CHICKEN" (yes, this was said with all caps), "and lots of dancing all throughout the town." Other stuff was said, but my language is still crap, so...yeah. The only thing I really knew about Tamxarit before installing at my site was that it's the closest thing to Halloween I'll get in Senegal. So of course I asked if there'll be can...

This is the very first post to my very first blog, so woo-hoo! And thanks for reading :) As you can tell from the title, I'm just a smidge dramatic, so let's jump right on in. Peace Corps has 4 sectors in Senegal: Health, Agroforestry, Agriculture (with sub-groups of Sustainable and Urban Ag), and Community Economic Development. You can learn more about each on the PC website ( https://www.peacecorps.gov/senegal/ ). I will be spending the next 2 years in the Community Economic Development sector--CED for short. At this exact moment in my life, it is two days after Tabaski--a joyous Muslim holiday that I will go into more detail about in the Culture page--and I am finally trying to get this blog up and running. I returned from my In-Service Training about a week ago, so now I can officially start my CED work: entrepreneurship training. Each region is different, but in my town in the region of Fatick, this is what I will be mainly focusing on since that is what the community ...