Christmas In Kaolack!

Christmas this year was spent in Kaolack with just a handful of other lovely PCVs. Here's what went down:

1. Xmas Eve: Teresa made up a filling potato soup with garlic bread made by Emily. This was followed by mulled wine and prank phone calls in Wolof to other PCVs in country.

2. Xmas day Brunch: Scrambled eggs, chocolate chip pancakes, cinnamon rolls, and fruit salad.

3. Afternoon relaxation - that's really all it was...

4. Xmas Dinner: Salad with Ranch dressing and Bacon bits, Mac N Cheese, apple crisp with ice cream. Holy crap it was amazing!

*Special thanks to Teresa's loving family for sending special commodities like ranch and bacon bits, things not readily available here in Senegal.

I was also able to call most of my close friends and family thanks to the powers of internet and skype.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and God bless all!

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Inner Service Training (IST)

Not me this time, the tables have turned and for once I was on the teacher/advisor side of things. The last two weeks were IST for the newest set of PCVs in Senegal. I was invited to come for a couple days and share my knowledge and experiences with the trainees.

Its funny to think that after one measly, we're now the "experts." Well, the sharing of knowledge and experiences is what contributes to the success of all of us and our work. So best of luck to the newbies and to their next two years of service and hard work. You guys are gonna rock!

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Another Language story

The other day, I was visiting Cail and there is a French couple staying at the same campement. My interaction with them consisted of the following conversation:

Note - This was just after a cat had killed and was eating a lizard.

Me: Euh, qu'est-ce qu'il s'appelle en français?

Femme: Le chat

Me: Non, l'autre animale.

Femme: Le lizard.

Now, those who have taken French know that "le chat" is one of the first basic vocab words learned in class. So I felt a bit dumb/insulted after this event, but my friends got a good laugh out of it.

The real question is - "Qui est le plus stupide?"

Me, for coming across as not a good french speaker? (True).

Or the lady, for assuming I'm dumb, therefore fulfilling the stereotypical French attitude towards Americans? (Also true)

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

West African All Volunteer Conference - Dec 2010

Senegal, being the western most point Africa and being one of the coolest and most accessible countries, just hosted its 2nd All Volunteer conference.

It was a 2.5 day event including lectures, discussions, tech demos, and lots of socialization. For the first time in months, I dressed up - meaning wearing hole-less pants and a clean button up shirt.

Special thanks to our visitors from Togo, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, and Mali...Keep up the good work everyone!

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

bii mu classo Mandinka kano le ti

"Today is Mandinka language class."

Cassie, Cail, and I spent four days in an intensive Mandinka language seminar. It was a bit overwhelming as we covered all the grammar and lots of vocab in a very short amount of time. But this is important as over 1/2 of my town speaks mandinka, as well as a majority of the community co op I'm working with, as well as Cassie's nearby town.

So this makes my...3rd Senegalese language? I'm losing count, and can't figure out which language to count in.

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Let's go Swimming!

2 days after Tabaski and people are still on holiday...Cassie and I were going stir crazy and biked 9 km through a very sandy road to visit a nearby town which has access to some local mangrove and delta channels.

So we spent the day swimming, hanging out with some of our friends, and the family we visited killed a chicken in honor of our visit. That's Senegalese hospitality at its best and truest. The day was relaxing and wonderful, which made the 100 degree plus bike ride back, the mini mosquitoes, biting flies, and dehydration totally worth it.

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Tabaski 2010

"Baal ma aq. Yalla na Yalla boole baal" (Forgive all my sins. May Allah pardon us through the next year).

Tabaski: Just a lil reminder, the Islamic holiday when God provides a ram for Abraham to sacrifice, thus sparing his son's life.

The holiday was same as last year, the whole community praying out our mosque, fun shiny clothing, delicious and freshly slaughtered sheep, parties. This time, since being in country and service for about 1 year now, I've become more integrated and therefore enjoyed the cultural celebrations and festivities a lot more with my friends and family.

Negative Side Effects: After eating about 80% of my year's consumption of meat in about 48 hours, this is a bad time to have constipation issues. Although I'm not sure if this is worse to suffer or, as we say in Wolof, having a "stomach that runs"

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Sheep on the Loose!

I realize it’s not nearly as catchy as “caboose on the loose!” but this is what was shouted as I spent the morning full out sprinting after a runaway Tabaski sheep. This sheep, being washed and fattened for our upcoming Tabaski, accidently got untied and ran very fast about a quarter km from our house before being caught and dragged back home.

I’m guessing it understood its inevitable fate in 48 hours, hence the frantic sprint. Perhaps it also foresaw that I would be fat and lazy for the next couple days after eating its juicy meat and therefore needed some preemptive exercise. But that implies this animal has some intelligence, which is far from the truth…Either way, I will and should be thanking it….

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Shopping!

Dakar recently opened a brand new, fully equipped shopping mall! It's beautiful, shiny, classy, expensive, and complete with an international food market. In fact its so nice, you forget you're in a developing country...

However, one can't complain too much, as this provides a great opportunity for a break from work, which consisted of sipping ice coffees on a fake grass picnic terrace overlooking the ocean waves.

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Community Gardens

Karang just had a 2nd 3 day training for our community garden/farm project Cassie and I are working on.

Who all was involved:

- 40 group members,

- 2 Peace Corps staff members

- 4 Peace Corps Volunteers

- 1 NGO

Lots of trees, dirt, manure, and food (not all at the same time). The formation was both fun, successful, and a very effecting training event. Now all that's left is to spend the next few days recovering from the fatigue, dehydration, and bloody fingers...

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Welcome Party #2

PCVs always enjoy a chance to get together, relax, and share horror stories from site. We decided to throw another welcome party for the newbies, but this time in our sub-regional area of Sokone. How to describe the awesome-ness…

Beer, salad, pork, BBQ sauce (thanks Jessica), swimming in the delta. Yep, that sums up the wonderful party quite well. And it made the 45km bike ride there totally worth it!

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Senegal's Eco Footprint

Despite clear developmental and environmental issues, such as the lack of a waste management program, Senegal has a decent eco-footprint.

EcoFootprint: the amount of global hectares it takes to support your lifestyle/standard of living. Take the test here to see how you measure up.

http://myfootprint.org/en/

My current life: In Senegal, my life needs about 7.15 global hectares. If the world's population lived at this level, we would only need 0.45 earths to support us. I'm still living a step above the Senegal standard, which averages 5.5 hectares/person.

USA: The average American needs 99.77ha to live. That would mean we need 6.35 earths to support the world's population, which is clearly unsustainable.

Anyway, take the test, its quick and interesting. Plus, as Americans, we have the ability and options to reduce our footprint. Just my environmental hippie coming out...

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Installing New PCVs

Unbelievable, but I'm already a year into my service, which means that its time for me to start helping the "new guys"

Our region of Kaolack received 16 new PCVs and for the entire weekend, we were busy running around the market, buying lots of cool tools and goodies, cooking way too much food, and having way to much fun. It was exhausting, but thrilling, and this new group of volunteers is a really awesome group.

Best of luck in your new homes PCVs! It'll prove to be a rough and challenging, but rewarding start.

--Byron YeePeace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Concert sur le sensibilisation du SIDA

"Concert to increase awareness of AIDS"

Two of my friends helped a local group put on a very big and successful AIDS awareness concert this past weekend. It was complete with rappers, singers, a theatre group, and even condoms and AIDS testing.

Unfortunately, my cultural barriers, higher standards of technology, and pretentious values on a quality performance prevented me from enjoying the rappers, who were lip syncing and forgetting their own lyrics. However, the crowd seemed to be enjoying the show just fine. Thus, the show was successful and effective for the intended crowd.

Nice work Elida and Jessica. You guys organized a program that was awesome, culturally appropriate and effective, and enjoyable by all - a goal all PCVs strive to achieve.

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Pictures!

Alrighty folks, lots of pictures just updated. Everything from vacation, to Korite, to mangrove reforestation. Enjoy!

www.picasaweb.google.com/TheByronYee

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

It’s Raining…Men

Today’s rain storm came on so suddenly, swiftly, and powerfully, I was inspired to take a shower in it. So my brothers and I ran into what most sane people run away from to have the closest thing to a nice cold, running water shower after being ridiculously sweaty while sitting all day in the humidity, praying for the rain to cool things down.

It was honestly the cleanest I’ve felt at site ever.

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Let's Build a Mosque!

I doubt it had an exclamation point when my dad announced yet another community work day to build our local mosque....But, fun updates:

1. This will eventually become a Grand Mosque, the biggest one in all of Karang. Appropriately it will be located at the origins of our town. They also said it should be finished before I leave.

2. This work day was much more exciting as it involved cementing the rooftop. Realize that all building work in Senegal is DONE BY HAND. I'm a little more sympathetic of the guys that worked on Notre Dame now. Today was a lot of fun and I had a great time. I was also excited to get involved in some community service (because clearly my entire Peace Corps Service isn't quite enough).

Hey! Have you ever caught a flying bucket filled with cement and gravel with one hand while standing 15cm from the edge of a mosque wearing flip-flops?! The OSHA would certainly not approve - nor would my mom...

Sorry, no pictures. I was a little preoccupied ;)

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Mangrove Reforestation

The hippie in all of us wishes to plant trees. And this weekend, that wish was fulfilled.

2 back to back reforestation programs took place in Sokone and Toubacouta. The work was dirty, but lots of fun. It involved wading barefoot through swamps filled with crabs, including cool one-armed purple fiddlers. Diseases? Yes, but not for me. Others were unfortunate to get some nasty foot infections. Meanwhile I caught an unrelated case of fevers and diarrhea...

But the work included beautiful scenery, fun truck and boat rides, and great company, both Senegalese and other PCVs. It was a great and productive weekend.

Special thanks to Cail, Elida, and Oceanium for their organizational and hospitality efforts. Pictures to come soon...

--Byron YeePeace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

News of the Week

My baby brother (this cute little guy) is now potty trained.
What exactly does this mean? It means that he now pees outside the doorway to my room rather than inside my room. Progress is progress...good work kid!


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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Korite 2010

Korite: the end of Ramadan, the Islamic month long fast of no food and no water from sun up to sun down.

This was my second Korite celebration, but the first time seriously fasting (a total of 15 days), so this was the first time I personally felt justification and reason to celebrate. The morning started with the entire town gathering at the local mosque for prayer, then everyone dispersed to slaughter their meat in preparation for the feast.

Our preparation consisted of running around frantically after 3 frantic chickens for our lunch. I guess its the closest you get to primitive hunting in the 21st century...All our neighbors gathered for our large lunch feast of bread, fried meat, potatoes, and onions. We washed it all down with cold orange soda - my new favorite drink. Then after a quick prayer, we all dispersed for nap time.

Our festivities ended right in time as an intense rain storm came within 30 minutes of the final prayer. 24 hours later, its still raining...But at least we can eat a real breakfast and lunch at normal times again :)

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Vacation Part III - Back home and back to work

Like all vacations, they have a bittersweet ending.

What makes this especially difficult is saying goodbye to a very, very close friend. Nina proved to be a fantastic travel buddy and a wonderful companion. Thanks so much for linking up with me, I had a great time.

Well now, I'm back "home." Senegal welcomed me back with heat, humidity, a little harassment, and day old rain water floods. But I can now take all this in stride as I am full of good food, love, and peace. So, thanks to all for this wonderful opportunity and experience.

Paris, je t'aime.

Italia, grazie mille.

Senegal, bring it on. (Sorry, that doesn't really translate in Wolof...)

As always, pictures will eventually be up once I have time and working technology. Ciao!

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Vacation Part II - Italy

After Paris, off to Italy, another lovely country...

1. Pisa: You know, the leaning tower seemed shorter, fatter, and less leaning that I expected...

2. Cinque Terre: My new favorite place in Italy (sorry Florence, I still love you too)

This was a magical place where one could hike, sunbathe, swim in the ocean, and eat delicious walnut ravioli all in just one day. Cinque Terre consists of 5 small towns located on the cliff side, each of which has its own unique feel, community, and charm. We were also able to meet up with another awesome friend, Erin Jensen, who was wrapping up her Slow Food program before heading back to Bellingham. Thanks for meeting up Erin!

3. Florence: Yes Florence, I still love you. Especially since you have some of my favorite paintings and sculptures - The Birth of Venice, and David. We also ate the best tasting Gelato ever and lots of wine and cheese. No seriously, one night we literally ordered a plate of cheese with honey and really good wine. My stomach and I had a love/hate relationship...

4. Venice: Another magical land (or lack of) where one can walk for hours, cross hundreds of bridges, and still remain terribly lost. But that's all part of the experience.

We forked up the money to go on a sweet gondola ride (when in Rome...) and had a lovely time with our gondolier Augustus, whose idol is Casanova. He claims to have a lot of girlfriends.

Finally, we were very lucky to be in town for the Regata, the annual ceremony on the grand canal. We saw a huge procession of gondolas in various shapes, sizes, colors, and splendor. Then we watched the excited races of gondolas, both big and small. It was a super awesome trip and a great way to spend our last day in Venice.

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Vacation Part I - Paris

Just came back from a fantastic 15 day trip through France and Italy with my best friend, Nina. These blog posts attempt to give you all a quick recap of my linguistic, cultural, and gastronomic adventures.

First stop: Paris!

I flew from Dakar overnight to Paris and met up with miss Nina Jean Painter who had already been visiting her host family for a week. We spent about 5 days in Paris, visiting several museums, churches/cathedrals, and of course the Eiffel Tower.

Food: I officially satisfied my huge craving for crepes, wine, and other delicious things that are either unavailable or unaffordable in Senegal.

Birthday Celebrations: How cool would it be to spend your birthday in Paris on the Eiffel Tower? Well Nina was lucky and was able to do just that. We had a great dinner and a very chilly and windy time on the big tower.

Finally, I guess I didn't completely escape Senegal, as I ran into some vendors and chatted with them in Wolof. They were too surprised and confused to see an American tourist in Paris speaking their local tongue to have much of a conversation, but it was still fun...

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Another Literary Epic Completed

In just 7 days, I just completed re-reading The Chronicles of Narnia.

Lovely books, wonderful story lines, and great imagery.

Warning: Do NOT attempt to read these books while in the depths of a month long fast. C.S. Lewis' detail and descriptions of food are darker and more evil than the White Witch herself. Curse you witch Jadis for your tempting Turkish Delight when you know I'm struggling through my 14 hour water/food free day...

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Bed Bugs

No, I haven't gotten actual bed bugs, yet. They do exist and are unpleasant, though.

However, last night I had a little red friend inside my mosquito net. After turning on a flashlight, I realize it was a large cockroach. It wasn't startling, as they hang out in my room all night. Its just frustrating that a mosquito net is supposed to keep bugs OUT, but also effectively trap bugs IN if they are clever/stupid enough to get inside.

Oh Senegal...

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

1 Year in Country

As of today, August 13 2010,

I have officially been living in Senegal for one full year. Clarification: I still have yet to reach one year of my service, but its still a mark worth celebrating.

And how better to celebrate this landmark, than fasting...The beginning of Ramadan officially started yesterday, which means people are fasting from food and water from 5am-7:30pm. The not eating isn't bad, but in a very hot and humid country, the lack of water has proved very challenging for me and everyone. But the experience, like every single minute of my life, is worth trying for certain.

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Community Work Day

Today, our quartier all got together to work on building our local mosque. Every single piece of this structure is handmade, even the bricks and gravel to make them. Its an expensive and therefore very slow building process. Started building over 10 years ago, probably will NOT be done by the time I leave, but it was nice to put a little blood, sweat and tears into the community.

Also, we feasted on chicken, which totally made the work worth it!

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Senegal’s New Salt Industry

Today I spent my first official day as a Senegalese farmer. It was tough, but respectable work.

It was so hot and humid, I sweat a lot (nothing new there). However, after sitting in the shade and “drying off” for a few minutes, I had nice, white, solid salt crystals formed on my arms. They tasted like pure salt, which was fascinating. Then it quickly made me realize how intensely dehydrated I must’ve been.

Note to parents/family/friends: Please add Gatorade to care packages from now on J

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Toilets

Okay, here's the actual link I wanted to post:

http://appropriateprojects.com/node/184

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

School Toilets!

After a couple months of somewhat complicated grant writing, administrative hoops, and of course the challenge of working in my community, Ecole Karang Soce now has its first official toilets!

Check out this link to see my project as well as the opportunity to donate, if your heart so desires.

Also, a full album of construction and other pictures were just posted on my Piscasa website:

http://picasaweb.google.com/thebyronyee/SchoolToilets#

Thanks to all who donated and are supporting my work here!

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

My Life as an Agroforestry Volunteer

This month, my site mate Cassie and I spent an intense 2.5 weeks planting trees. Lots and lots of trees.

Collectively, we planted/seeded trees for 4 schools, 2 fields, and a garden for our local hospital. Total tree count: 11,300. More trees to be planted this weekend as well at our friend's site.

Yay trees!!

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Ants in My Pants!!

No, its not just a saying, I literally had ants in my pants.

I was working on our community farm and stood in the wrong place for a bit too long. And these ants bite with a stinging passion. And unfortunately, they bit me in my "stinging passion"

Bad news...

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Permagarden Training

Today, Cassie and I did an intensive garden training at our local hospital for 20 people, in 2 different languages. Within 6 hours, we trained people new garden digging techniques, seed spacing, tree outplanting, compost, and planting trees for a live fence. We were so surprisingly (and shockingly) efficient and effective with our training, we performed this program more quickly and efficiently than when Peace Corps was training us volunteers…

More importantly, we’ve now enabled all local health facilities to provide vegetables and vitamin rich trees for their communities and well as enabled them to be teachers themselves. Not bad for a day’s work, huh?

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Kedougou – The Most Beautiful Place in Senegal

For our 4^th of July celebration, all the PCVs met in Kedougou, the most SE point, yet the most beautiful spot in all of Senegal. I spent a couple days exploring the area and visiting some PCVs before our outrageously American holiday.

To summarize, I…Biked about 100km, climbed 2 mountains, forged 2 rivers with my bike, saw 1 waterfall, ate avocadoes, learned a little Pulaar language, ran 4km, drank an uncountable amount of beer, and ate an uncountable amount pork. All in just a few days.

Overall, the trip was wonderful, intense, exhausting, yet spiritually refreshing and fulfilling. Now I’m back at site, with every single day of this month planned out with lots of work activities.

As always, pics to come soon. Bonne fete de l’Independence des Etats-Unis!

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Community Gardens

This past weekend marked my largest project and training session of my service. For 3 days, 4 PCVs, one PC Supervisor, and another NGO representative worked in town to train 58 new and exciting garden and farming techniques. The work was exhausting and stressful, but the goal is to provide people with new techniques that can exponentially increase their garden and farm harvests, thereby increasing their income and standard of living.

This is a newly formed group of community members wishing to utilize the strength in numbers philosophy and work together to produce larger output than individual farmers can. This is the ideal group for PCVs work with. Also, this is an ideal project for Peace Corps as it involves the expertise and participation of all volunteers: Business, Agroforestry, sustainable agriculture, and much more.

Best of luck and thanks to everyone for your help! And once all 4 PCVs get to a central computer, we will have pictures eventually…

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Rain!!

For the first time in 8+ months, it rained!

The morning was warm and it sprinkled a bit. Not because of rain clouds necessarily, but because humidity was at a full 100%...

That night a somewhat frightening wind and rain storm struck my town. It continued to rain for about 4 hours into the morning. It was lovely and cool - for a bit. Then it was incredibly hot, humid, and full of flies and bugs.

Man, I really miss Seattle right now.

--Byron YeePeace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Time for more Theatre!

This time, I had a break – sort of. Another PCV wrote a grant to invite a local professional theatre group on tour through several towns and schools. They did a performance on the protection of the environment. The students were captivated, entertained, and most importantly, educated.

This also re-inspired my local group to continue working hard and producing another fun little show. Thanks guys for the great work!

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Business Training: A lesson on how to teach

I was fortunate enough to have my supervisor, Talla, come to conduct a training with one of my groups I’m working with. Subject Matter: Roles and Responsibilities of a group, Contracts, and By Laws. These are subjects of which I have limited technical, let alone language skills to conquer. Overall the sessions were very well accepted and successful.

After he left, I had enough energy (and newly found inspiration) to conduct a training of my own. Subject matter: How to calculate profit; a simple equation. The challenge: half the women’s group was illiterate, and their primary language was Mandinka.

Needless to say, I’m very, very tired right now…

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

An Epic Journey Completed

For the first time ever, I just completed reading the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. The story was wonderful, captivating, and fun. Reading about a small hobbit conquering an entire dark world of evil somehow made my challenges in Senegal seem much less difficult and frightening. Thanks Frodo Baggins for the inspiration. And thanks Tolkien for creating such a beautiful story.

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Eco T Conference

All the EcoT volunteers spent a week in Dakar for a much needed 3 day training followed by Senegal’s first ever International Tourism Conference. The training was helped answer a lot of our questions and gave us PCVs a solid direction of work and development.

The conference was exciting as all major tourism companies and agencies were represented. Senegal’s president, Abdoulaye Wade also made a special appearance, of whom I got about a 2 second glimpse. This conference also exercised my language skills once again, including newspaper and TV interviews in French and Wolof (Mom! I may have been on TV!).

After being away from site for an entire week, it’s time to get back to work. And now work on introducing Eco Tourism into my town as well.

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

New Pictures!!

Hundreds of pics just uploaded onto Picasa for your viewing pleasure.

http://picasaweb.google.com/thebyronyee

Also, a photo album "Tour of Karang" is a much needed snapshot of my town and part of my life here in Senegal. http://picasaweb.google.com/thebyronyee/TourOfKarang#

Enjoy!

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

A New Breakfast Dish

This morning I had cow’s feet in a sauce for breakfast. On the rare occasion that meat is slaughtered, we waste nothing. Intestines, stomach, feet, and all are eat (except the hide). As I rarely eat meat and severely lack protein, I eagerly eat whatever remnants of meat I’m served the few days following the main event.

Yum!

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Gamou: Round II

I yet again was able to experience Gamou (The birthday of the Prophet Muhammed), but locally this time. Similarly to Tivauouane, lots of people, lots of food (including delicious meat), and lots of praying. I actually did not experience much of this event other than a very late lunch (4:15pm) and an even later dinner (10pm). After eating dinner, I managed to sneak into my room for the rest of the night when the main events were actually starting.

Apparently our local marabou and other special guests came to pray and conduct Koranic lessons. I woke up occasionally to the sound of prayers, loud feedback, and honking horns. The next morning, most of the 200 people had left and that was that.

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Chicken for lunch (sort of)

Yesterday we had chicken for lunch – meaning a chicken flew into our lunch bowl, which was immediately scooped out by my brother’s spoon before continuing our meal.

Man, I really miss PB&J sometimes…

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Theatre Debut: Senegal

In just 15 days, I scrambled to create a 15 minute theatrical presentation with a small group of students.

Yeah, yeah, it’s been done before (oh college days…), but never have I done this in a foreign language and culture to which I am still an alien.

Story: I met with about 30 secondary school students and a teacher facilitator to see if there was an interest in creating a theatre group. The answer was an obvious yes. Also they unanimously agreed they wanted to create theatre that educated on sensitize the population and social and community issues. Cool! Until…

The facilitator informed me that in 15 days, there was going to be a school festival, in which they would like to perform a small play. Crap!!! After freaking out like crazy, I madly scrambled to come up with some theatre activities and exercise, which then needed to be translated into French and Wolof. But after only 3 meetings, and less than 8 hours of total practice, we somehow managed to put together a small and successful play.

Subject: Les Grosesses Processes (Translation: Early teen pregnancy).

The show was a bit bizarre, but entertaining and informative. Luckily, Senegalese people are naturally good and ad lib and improvisation. We’re gonna try this again, but this time with more time, practice, and actual preparation from my end.

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Thoughts of the day

You know you're dirty when:

You need to wash your hands BEFORE going to the bathroom. Taking care of half decomposed compost would do that...

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Trees!

After 2 full weeks of hard work, language translation, muddy and poopy hands, Cassie and I just finished planting trees at 4 different schools. We have set up tree nurseries in polysacs and will be outplanting these trees in a couple months when the rainy season begins. At each school, we taught a handful of teachers and hundreds of students how to plant and care for trees, which will be used for shade, wind break, and border fencing. Total trees planted = about 1,000

Today after recuperating from exhaustion and dehydration, we celebrated our hard work by drinking lemonade and Cheez-Its (Thanks Nina!). What’s next? Every couple weeks we have to monitor the health and growth in the nurseries, then come the even harder work of digging 1,000 holes for all 1,000 trees…wish us luck!

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Byron Yee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

6 Months of Service!

Nothing much to say, other than I just completed my 6th month of service. Unfortunately, I feel that I have little to show for 6 months of the most challenging job ever. Hopefully in another 6 months, that viewpoint will change...

--Byron YeePeace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

The Myth of a famous hip hop star

The other day, a boy came up to me and said (in wolof) "Gora, I have a very important question to ask you. Tupac, is he dead or alive?"

This question then sparked a lively discussion (again, in wolof) about how rap artist can die and then release several albums...So even in Senegal, Tupac's legend continues.

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Byron YeePeace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Belated Birthday Party

My sitemate, Cassie, forced me to take a break and NOT do any work related activities for a day. So a small group of friends met at our local regional house for a fun and relaxing night.

Event Highlights:

- Watched some movies/TV shows

- Drank a few beers at a local bar

- Beatboxing and Freestyle rapping with Cail (a result of the beer)

- Ate a lovely curry chicken dinner, cooked by Cassie.

- Ate an even more delicious chocolate-peanut butter cake, also thanks to Cassie

- Watched Up!

Special thanks to Cassie for always taking care of me and looking out for my best interests. And thanks to all my PCV friends here who helped me celebrate. It was a wonderful and relaxing day, and now I'm ready to get back to work.

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Seet Seetal Hopital bi

This past weekend, my counterpart and I launched a program to clean our local hospital at the beginning of every month using local sports club volunteers. Our group was small, but productive and the hospital space is slowly looking better.

More importantly, this small project opened a lot of doors. Now every month, more/different groups of people will try to get involved in the cleaning. Also, next weekend the town is holding a meeting to figure out how to clean up our entire town. AND, this opens another door into developing a waste management program as well.

All good things, which started from a small idea, which came from a Senegalese person, NOT me. Those are all vitally important steps in community development and improvement.

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

What’s on TV ?

What’s better and more fascinating than watching Senegalese music videos on TV? Watching 2 hosts from a Senegalese talk show dance and sing to these popular songs while the original music video is playing on a green screen behind them.

It must be culturally popular and cool as its broadcast nationwide...

Note to self: Master Wolof so I too can have a cool talk show and dance to music videos in between discussions.

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Independence Day !

Sunday, April 4th proved even busier as this was also the 50^th anniversary of Senegal’s independence.

There was a small parade in my town, which I unfortunately missed due to our church service. But after the service, we all watched the grand parade in Dakar on TV. I had no idea there were so many military forces in Senegal…Also, Senegalese drill teams are way cooler than US drill teams. Sorry America, but these girls certainly know how to drum and dance.

There have been a handful of parties, dances, and concerts throughout the weekend. I missed most of it, mainly due to exhaustion and the unwillingness to stay up ridiculously late. Also, a Chinese-American volunteer in Senegal is bizarre enough without making a scene on the dance floor. Which I tend to do, anywhere in the world…

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

La Pâque

La Pâque: Easter as we know it in English. Easter is always a big and exciting holiday for Christians, and at our Catholic church, there were a long string of traditions and services.

Thursday was “Le lavements des pieds,” the washing of the feet service.

Friday evening was the Good Friday service, which I missed.

Saturday proved to be a “test of faith” as Cassie and I unknowingly sat down through a 3 hour service that went until 1:30am. It was…spiritually exhausting.

Sunday: EASTER! He is risen! After a normal length service, we were invited to a friend’s house for lunch. We were immediately served alcohol (Catholics are allowed to drink, but its forbidden for Muslims) of various types, tastes, and strengths. Then lunch: Friend chicken, potatoes, beans, and onions. It was by far the best and most delicious meal I’ve ever eaten in country. Merci beaucoup, Madame Diouf!

Monday was another party, but I didn’t really receive information about it and was eager to get back to work anyway.

Happy Easter everyone!

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Bonne Anniversaire à Moi !

I spent my actual birthday vaccinating children, as I found this more important than a huge celebration. Nonetheless, I did take a bit of time with my family to celebrate. We sat around and drank orange soda and delicious Muddy-Buddies all the way from the USA (Thanks Mom!), and sealed the deal with a little dancing. Also, two of my friends struggled through the infamous “Happy Birthday” song in English, which was absolutely charming.

Thanks all for the cards, thoughts, and love! And I will be having an actual party with other PCVs in a couple weeks…

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Polio Vaccinations: Round 2

Same exact program as before, but with more confusion…Many people didn’t understand that we were re-vaccinated ALL the infants again. Then there were the normal language barriers as many households only spoke Seereer, Pulaar, Toukoulo, and anything other than Wolof. There were also several families who, for lack of a good reason, refused to vaccinate their children.

However after 3 exhausting days, another session of kids successfully vaccinated against Polio.

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Palm Sunday

This past Sunday at church, we all gathered at a nearby house where people had collected lots of palm leaves. We then processed into our church singing with the palm leaves. Once inside the sanctuary, we waved our palm leaves while saying “Hosanna doomu David!” (Hosanna, son of David!).

For the Christian religion, this was the day that Jesus paraded into Jerusalem on a donkey and the people greeted him with palm leaves.

After this procession, there was a long scripture reading – in Wolof. So my recollection and comprehension went downhill for the rest of the service…Anyway, it was nonetheless a special day and I went home and read about it in an English Bible afterwards.

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

A Cool day in Senegal

This past weekend, I was in Kaolack. It was a cool day…

Just so you know what that means, I spilled a significant amount of water on my pants and after a 5 minute taxi ride, it was completely dry. And I said that was a “cool day”. Not like it really matters because another 5 minutes later I had sweat through my pants…

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

The Return of an American Musical Ico

I never thought I would ever be sharing headphones with another dude, listening to KC and JoJo, and thoroughly enjoying the experience. But that’s exactly what happened yesterday and the moment made my day and possibly my entire week.

Just picture me in Africa, rocking out to middle school slow dance songs with a big Senegalese man. That should be a vivid enough image…

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Journées Nationales de Vaccination contre le Poliomyélite

For those who don’t know French: National Vaccination Days to counter Polio

February 6-8: For 3 days, 25 volunteers set out to vaccinate all infants ages 0-5 in Karang and all surrounding towns. There was a quick training and formation of teams, then we were off. We went door to door in each neighborhood during the hottest times of the day. It was a bit strenuous and tough, but very important work.

Now I can brag: The other day I vaccinated an entire town of infants against Polio, and tried to speak in Mandinka (which would be the 5th language I’m working on). Not too shabby for a day’s work…

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

In Service Training

Feb 17 – March 3: In Service Training (IST)
After struggling for our first 3 months at site with language, cultural, and integration issues, as well as having absolutely no work projects to do, IST arrived just in time to prevent complete insanity. Our entire stage of new volunteers were once again reunited for an intensive technical training. We learned techniques for teaching and working with Senegalese, project management, and various funding sources for our projects.

The business volunteers’ training also required us to give a 1 hour business lesson, taught completely in French. This proved somewhat challenging, but was an excellent warm up as there is little French spoken in my town and I therefore will be teaching business classes in Wolof only. Yikes!

After being out of site for an entire month, I’m ready to go back “home” and very eager to start working. Wish me luck and success!

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

The Miracle of Life

When your days are filled with absolutely nothing, the best thing to do is witness a pregnant kitty to 6 lovely kittens. We managed to find a box, some scraps of cloth, and some of us sat around for the entire 2 hour labor process. It was fascinating to watch this cat’s instinct kick in and I found the entire process incredibly interesting – even the eating of the afterbirth.

That’s how I spent my day. How was yours?

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

More Transportation Fun

So I'm getting used to having to push start cars in this country.

However, the other day our mini car (a mini bus) was being push-started into an oncoming large bus and 7-place. I was a little afraid. But the engine started in time to pull the vehicle around the other way and I made it to my destination accident-free. Alxumdulilay! (Praise be to God).

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

A Little Poetry

It's always nice to have an artistic outlet for all the things a PCV experiences in country.

Youtube now has the first of hopefully several poetry "performances" inspired by my time in Senegal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wZVj6m-mw0

Sorry about the wind and noise. It was also very hot, but that shouldn't affect your viewing...Enjoy!

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Gamou

Gamou: The official celebration of the Prophet Muhammed’s birthday (Islam religion).

Every year in Senegal, people flock from all over the country to a town called Tivaouane (my town where I learned Wolof for 2 months back in August 2009). I was invited to come celebrate this exciting event with my original host family. How to summarize this crazy party? Picture (in the US) a giant music festival and combine that with the energy and noise of a huge theme park…

Tivaouane has about 50,000 residents normally; Gamou hosted about 2,000,000. My compound alone had about 200 people sitting, eating, talking, and NOT sleeping in it. All the sidewalks were lined with makeshift tents full of intense vendors, each attempting to shout out each other with their own megaphone. The streets were also twice as narrow due to all the tents/booths. I walked to the end of town by pushing and being pushed.

We all feasted on freshly killed cows, onions, and fried potatoes. If you were still hungry you could find a plethora of coconuts, sodas, and other snacks. Unfortunately, all water sources had been cut off or exhausted due to the high influx of people. Above all the noise, excitement, and chaos, blared the hundreds of mosques, each stuffed full of devoted Muslims praying and giving thanks.

Luckily, I did not have to spend the night there, as there were people literally sleeping on top of each other and in the streets. This experience was not for the introverted or claustrophobic, but it was a fantastic insight into the Senegalese’s culture and religion. Happy birthday, Muhammed! I hope you had as much fun as I did…

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

New Pictures! Yay!!

Over 100 pictures from my past couple months in Senegal have just been added to my blog. Enjoy!!

http://http//picasaweb.google.com/thebyronyee

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

WAIST

Every year Senegal hosts the West African Intercollegiate Softball Tournament (WAIST). For three days, PCVs and other NGO employees from Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Gambia, Niger, and even Togo gathered to play softball, drink too much beer, and eat real American hotdogs. There were also costumes involved.

My team played well; I was not on the field due to my complete lack of athleticism. But after 3 days of softball, swimming, and partying, I’m ready to get back to work.

Pictures coming soon…

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Superbowl Party

As a reward for staying at site for the first 5 weeks of our service, our awesome director threw a Superbowl Party at his beautiful house in Dakar. There were some great hot dogs, Pringles, and real American cereals. The next morning, we were fed a delicious bacon and egg breakfast.

The game itself was broadcast live, so the kickoff was 11:30pm, which made it a late night. But it was great seeing some American (vs. Senegalese) football and eating some American foods.

Thanks for the party, Chris!

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Speaking of fun transportation…

The other day I was heading to a major city. The car seemed to run okay; we did have to stop a couple times to refill the radiator so the car didn’t overheat and explode. Also, there was a runaway horse-cart, whose driver was missing and whose horse was running wildly on the loose; wreaking havoc both on and off the road.

Finally, we did have to stop a final time to push start our car. I thought it was a rather pleasant ride overall. Every ride is an adventure, and an authentic one at that.

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

A new transportation vehicle

You remember the “sept place” (a station wagon with 7 seats)? Well the other day I rode a “neuf place” (9 seats). The car is the same exact vehicle, just you magically stuff an extra two bodies into the seats. Luckily the ride was not very long, but an extra 2 bodies makes things that much more crowded, heavy and slow, and less comfortable overall.

Apparently, my PCV friend from Mauritania informed me that the “neuf place” was a standard form of transportation. What’s my slogan? “It could be worse…”

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Another lovely GI issue

This time it’s not my GI Tract that’s in jeopardy; it’s our horse. I never knew it was possible for a horse to get diarrhea, but “when in Senegal…”

I feel bad for him as there’s not much we can do. It’s not like we can change his diet of hay and water. I’m just glad it’s not me right now. But don’t worry; my turn will come again soon. It’s inevitable.

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

A Very Special Ceremony

About 3 weeks ago, my little brother was circumcised – he’s about 6 years old…ouch. When visiting him later in the day of his tragic operation, I was relieved to hear the “cut” was made by an official doctor.

Just this past Monday, he had his “going out party” when he was officially released from being on bed-rest at my grandma’s house. I was able to attend this special occasion in the morning. A loud, but soothing murmur of Arabic prayers and reading of the Koran was produced from a group of about 25 men, including my father and the local Maribou. After about 30 minutes of prayer, lax (Senegalese porridge) was served and rapidly eating. My little brother is now back in our compound, causing his usual trouble, but in good and safe health.

And so little Zignior, congratulations and best of luck in this brave new world. May you thrive and flourish among us real men and the jungle of headless snakes…

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Byron’s First Work Project

Finally, after months of meet and greet, I was able to begin my first small work project: Accounting. My friend, Sedou Kounta, owns a small boutique and I have begun teaching him very simple accounting so we can keep track of his sales and therefore adjust his business strategies accordingly.

The Challenge: During our first lesson, I learned that he is literate in Arabic only, NOT French. So his accounting table reads from right to left vs. my table which is the opposite. Not a huge problem; I’ve been taught to be flexible and work in ways that are comfortable for people here. I’m sure the IRS wouldn’t agree to the non-GAAP methods (if you don’t know that acronym, you’re not a business nerd). But it’s a small start towards a very large concept.

Wish me luck as I’ve been praying for legitimate work for quite awhile.

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Seereer: Byron’s 4th language

Because 3 languages just isn’t enough, I went to a nearby volunteer’s site for a 3 day crash course in Seereer. It was an intense, overwhelming, but fun experience where I gleaned most of the grammatical structures and a little vocab of this language. In my town, I’m greeted everyday in about 5 different languages. I figured it was only polite to try to learn enough to greet them back properly.

Yes my head is swimming and a bit confused, but when you’re immersed in an environment where multiple languages are present, it’s easier to learn/practice. Every morning I study my notes and I have identified some neighbors who are patient enough to converse with me.

I also have a Seereer friend who wants to learn English. So we agreed that he’ll speak to me in Seereer and I’ll slowly teach him English. My goal is to make sure to speak in Wolof, French, and Seereer a little everyday to keep up with all of them…Wish me luck.

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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009

Happy New Year 2010!

Like everywhere in the world, New Years is a celebration here in Senegal. I and a handful of other volunteers went to a nearby bar for drinks and dinner. 2010 was excitedly brought in with drummers, dancers, and fire eaters. Other than my friend almost getting shot in the face with a firecracker, our evening was fun and free of danger. Our party was fun, the 2.5 hour hungover-bike ride home the next morning was less so…

Happy New Year everyone!
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Byron Yee
Peace Corps Volunteer - Senegal, 2009