Neighbors: Mine, Not the Soap Opera.

Today is a new kind of day in Velingara. Ok, well it’s pretty much the same as most days I come in: I leave my house in the morning, always a little later than I wanted to. I talk to the women before I go to see if there are specific things they want from the market. Ride my bike into town, a pleasant 15k road ride (especially today now that it’s the “cold” season because even though I forgot to bring my brow-mopper, I was not overwhelmed by the amount of sweat produced during the ride). I get to the room, drop off my bike, take my shopping list and cruise through the market, pick up the mail, and come back to the room to type up my blog, do whatever other work errands I have, and then I’ll go to the internet and post, check email, etc.

But today, there are 2 exciting additions to my routine. I will stop by Mike’s family to greet them and check on the status of his room (unfinished as of Wednesday, but should be done today… the mason was apparently sick). Did I mention how glad I am to have a volunteer in Velingara. It is very cool to have a new neighbor. I also plan to have lunch today with Jessie, the Velingara Tostan volunteer, who I met at Halloween in Tamba. It is very very cool to have 2 new people in Velingara to hang out with. And I’m not sure if they’ve met each other yet, so that could be a fun part of today as well. Yay for friends nearby.

There is no school today in my village because there is a strike. Sad, I know. I understand it though, as much as I don’t like it. Despite all of the salary negotiation, etc. at the end of the school year last year, which was all meant to have been sorted out, the Velingara departement (departements are the administrative sub-regions) teachers haven’t been paid yet. LAMESVILLE! I think it actually only affects the “volunteer” teachers. There are 2 types of teacher: those who went to university to teach, and those who did shorter training to get a job as a teacher. Bad description, but I hope you get it. The second type are “volunteers” and they get paid less, have lower rank, and apparently in Velingara get shafted. Unfortunately, ALL of the teachers at my school are volunteers, so we don’t have school today because they are also all in town to try and get the government to do their job and pay them already. So, no school.

Tomorrow I have a meeting at the Health Hut to talk about setting up my first causery/causerie? I’m trying to get my friend Laura to come do a presentation on good nutrition and what foods are better to eat. I’d like to try to do it next week or so, right before the women plant their gardens, but I have to see what works for her and she’s still not back in town from her vacation in America. Also coming up this week: Friday is the health committee meeting, and I believe, though am not sure, that next week (I hope before Wednesday because I want to go to Kedougou for Thanksgiving) there is a vitamin tourney. That’s where the health post people go around to all the villages and give vitamin A and I think some vaccines to the children, specifically those under 5.

Other than that, things are going well. I helped harvest peanuts Saturday with my family and that was a lot of fun. This weekend there’s a kile (a work-party) to help one of our women pick her cotton field, so I’m assuming I’ll be part of that as well, unless I come back in town for a Tostan demonstration. Unsure about what’s going on there. My town won their soccer match yesterday, which I think qualifies them for some kind of finals or something. I’m not really clear on all the details, but it was a huge thing in the village yesterday. So that’s good. Anyway, that’s about it for now. Time to head out to lunch!