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Summary of My Last 2 Months of 2019

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        Happy New Year!  2020 has just begun and I feel like I am already behind. I have about 17 months to complete everything that I want, which seems like a lot of time, but I swear these past months have floooown by. With that being said, let me take a quick break to catch you up on the last two months of 2019 since I “forgot” to add to my blog.             November was fairly slow work-wise, sprinkled with a few meetings here and there. Trying to move projects along without a local work partner to spearhead them is mighty difficult, so not much traction on that front. Before I knew it, Thanksgiving was upon me. I decided to celebrate with a handful of other Peace Corps Volunteers in and around my region. Seeing as this would be my first Thanksgiving ever away from the family — not to mention out of the country — the food and company were a much needed salve to the soul. Here is proof of my enjoyment: My twist out was being very cooperative :)          
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Malaria Fortnights

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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 (
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Tamxarit

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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
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The Dawn of a New Era

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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
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