AWOL and Happy Birthday Brook (March 6th)

Due to some poor guy from the US working on a project's midterm evaluation here in Senegal who had a stroke over the weekend, this project is hiring me to take over the evaluation. The guy had a stroke on Saturday a week into his assignment and supposedly he has a brain tumor too (???) Sounds horrible. So now the rest of the team is out in the field without a teamleader so the project is trying to keep up the momentum with the evaluation and hire someone in-country. So here I go!!!

So this means I will go to Dakar Thursday and go out to the field and try and catch up on this evaluation. I should be out of pocket for a couple of weeks, so I wouldn't count on any new posts 'entre temps' . It is not that I have abandoned you, I'm just going to be in the middle of nowhere, Senegal probably running around like a chicken.

Brook is off to Ziguinchor tomorrow until Sunday.

Cinnamon, raisin nut bread

Okay, here you go: Be sure and put some butter on it first.

Sourdough-baby

I promise you, you'd be posting pictures of your sourdough too if you knew how long it took to fully activate my San Francisco sourdough culture before I could make bread. He's been in the fridge for over 6 months so he was in deep sleep when I took him out. I had to force feed him every 12 hours and even then he wouldn't come back to life. It was at the end of the 2nd week of continually feeding him and I was about at the end my sourdough rope, when he perked up and ate all his flour. He puffed up like a good culture. Finally. So then I went through the bread process and came out with this loaf of bread pictured. It is a badge of honor for me... I really had to work for it. I guess that's what I get when I abandon my cultures in the fridge for months at a time. I was traveling so much between June and September that I just didn't have a lot of extra time to make sourdough bread. So my culture suffered silently in the fridge determined to torture me before he became fully active again.

Did you know? In the beginning, all risen breads were sourdough, or naturally leavened, breads. As my sourdough mentor Dr. Ed Wood (Sourdough International http://www.sourdo.com/) sums it up: "For over 5,000 years, from man's first bread in Egypt to about 100 years ago, all bread was leavened with wild yeast. In addition to the many wild yeast strains in sourdough cultures, lactic acid bacteria generate 45 flavor producing ingredients. Breads baked with commercial yeast can never equal the flavor and texture of sourdoughs. 10,000 years later, and there's no better way to raise bread!"

I have the SanFrancisco culture and the Bahrain culture. "Bahrain is thought by many to be the ancient Garden of Eden. The Bahrain sourdough is from the oldest of the old. It rises well and is one of the most sour." Since I have a very sour-addicted husband (knicknamed SourBaby) this is the culture for him. This bread gives new meaning to the word sour. When I was on a kick last year of making the Bahrain bread (and leaving SanFran in the fridge to sulk), after I ate regular bread again I kept thinking that the bread had no flavor. You know, something to come up and bite you on the butt like a sourdough does. I gave Sourdough bread some to my Senegalese friends (who love bread) and they were very polite about it but I think it's clear that they weren't quite into the sourdough experience. I didn't know how to explain it but made a mental note not to do that again!

Today I'm making Brook's favorite: a cinnamon and nut raisin sourdough bread. He's doing his final rise in his pan (not Brook, the dough) before I bake him. Can you believe I used over 1/4 cup of cinnamon? That's a lot of cinnamon. But it seems to work. Actually I think I still have some crusty dough bits on the back of my hand so I had better go and get that off.... but I'll call you when the bread is out of the oven... you can have some with us.

Spelllling difficulties

I just got a letter yesterday, and transport company completely massacred my name. Get how they spelled it: Duarte. That's my new name. What nationality do you think that sounds like? Brook says maybe Spanish. They got 4 letters right but just got creative with two new letters that I never, repeat never, have ever seen in my name before. An 'a' and an 'r'. Everyone always gets messed up on the second 'd' it's true. I think people just can't accept that there are two 'd's in Dudte. It's the place everyone always asks me to repeat the letter--the second 'd'. Now I just don't even spell it, I use the military form of 'D' for delta. Still people keep stumbling over it. Did you say "d"? they ask incredulously (as if two d's in one last name is far too many). I thought life would be simpler with Johnson but I still get a lot of people who say... "Now is that with a J...?" ....huh?! How else would Johnson be? Outside of Smith and Lee it's about the easiest and most common name out there. I have no patience for people who are confused with Johnson. I thought taking Johnson would relieve the spelling difficulties of Dudte.. that I would be living in the easy life of name spelling. But no! Johnson confuses more people than you think. At least with Dudte, you expect people to be confused. So if you have an awkward name, be thankful for it--make people work for it.

Speaking of spelling, I passed by the new Hamburger and Chawarma place in town (we're downright cosmopolitan here in Tamba now) yesterday and since I had my camera out for Pig Lady yesterday (see entry below), and look what I stumbled upon. It's the new HUMBURGER place. That's so funny! It's even more funny because everywhere else in the country it's spelled correctly as Hamburger. Not in Tamba. It's humburger. That's one big hum-dinger-burger. I wonder if they have humburger with cheese.... next time I'm ordered a humburger I'll ask.

Happy Chinese New Year (belated) and the Pig Lady

Gung Hay Fat Choy! I love Chinese New Year.
I love it more this year because this is my year. I am the pig! It's very exciting to have a whole year in my honor. Chinese New Year has been going on since 2600BC.

"Pig personality traits: Intellectually curious, honest and tolerant, those born in the Year of the Pig can be relied upon for their loyalty and often make true friends for life. Stubbornly optimistic, the Pig will not tolerate those with well-meaning advice on how to be a Pig, but since they dislike quarreling and discord their anger usually cools quickly. Sometimes looked upon as a snob, the Pig just finds it right and natural to exhibit good manners whenever possible. Their main goal in life is in serving others, and no matter how difficult circumstances become the Pig will never waiver or retreat, forging ahead in the sure knowledge that all will be well."

Check out the website
http://www.chiff.com/home_life/holiday/chinese-new-year.htm
for your Chinese Zodiac and more on Chinese New Year

Speaking of pigs, even though predominantly muslim, there are a lot of pigs in Tamba. More than you would think. There are a fair amount of Christians here but I daresay the amount of pigs is high too. They just wander around like all the other animals--I guess the market is pretty good for selling pigs in Tamba to be transported down to Guinea and Guinea Bissau.

Anyway there is this crazy woman who lives by the side of the road on the way to Brook's office who lives with pigs. We call her, appropriately enough, Pig Lady. She has clotheslines up around her area of trees with clothes and all types of fabric hanging on them, and several pigs who live with her. I have only seen Pig Lady once actually in the whole time we've been here. I guess during the day when I'm out she's doing other stuff. The pigs are there hanging around 'her home' so I mostly see the pigs. Brook said the other morning he was riding his bicycle up the hill and Pig Lady was still sleeping. He said she was sleeping next to the pig and PigLady and the pig were actually 'spooning'. Brilliant! that just cracks me up. I would love to see Pig Lady spooning with a pig... Maybe Pig Lady is a pig zodiac too. I'll go out and see if i can get a picture of her area today to share with you.

****

I just went out and took 3 pictures just for you. Guess who I found?? PIG LADY. You can catch her in the shot in the middle. She walked near my moped to check me out as I was surreptitiously handling my camera inside my backpack, looking like I could care less about Pig Lady. So I got this secret shot! Also, there are some goats hanging out with the pigs. I haven't seen them before. They're probably catching some free grub with their pig friends. Either that or pig lady is moving up in the world with some new goats.

The Case of the 15 Missing Cows: SOLVED

Well apparently, the new news is this. Ba put out a radio announcement on the local radio station about his missing cows yesterday. So that had several airings about his cows, I guess special markings on his cows and to keep a look out for them (and anyone trying to dump 15 cows).

So today, Ba's friend was out in the bush and found the cows. Apparently, the thieves got scared and ran away without liquidating the cows. Also it appears it 'knocked' some seriousness into the fact of possible theivery so Ba may hire someone to look after his cows in the bush afterall. This was his free warning. We heard that he didn't eat or sleep for the whole day yesterday he was so upset about his cows. I don't blame him, but we're very happy the cows are back. As of course, I sure you are too (!)

The Case of the 15 Missing Cows

We just found out the day before yesterday our milk man, Ba, had 15 of his cows stolen in the bush. Yesterday he spent the whole day looking for them. Needless to say we did not get our daily liter of fresh milk last night. Because presidental elections are coming up, the police aren't too motivated to go out in the middle of the bush to go looking for his cows or cow thieves.

How did 15 cows get stolen you ask? I mean it's not like you can put a cow in your pocket and continue walking on down the street as if nothing is different. You notice these sorts of these things, right? Even if they were grazing in the bush, it's not like you can make 15 cows disappear... or can you?

In the dry season where there is limited follage and water, cow and sheep herders will leave their animals to go deep into the bush to graze. Every evening they come home...I still haven't figured out how the cow doesnt get lost but they always seem to know how to get home (hence the phrase, "When the cows come home") and so every evening animal will come back their compounds for the night. It's nice to watch this at dusk. Many times the herder will have one of their sons go out with the cows as protection for the herds, but equally,there are often herds of animals just out in the middle of nowhere grazing and minding their own business because a herder won't have the resources to send someone out in the bush all day.

So they have these thieves or bandits who steal people's animals. You think about it. Here, an animal is like a debit card for an ATM withdrawal. Animals are all over the place and they represent quick cash. What a thief can do is either 1) sell all the cows to a passing truck of animals going to a larger market (or other country)and voila, instant cash and no evidence tracing anything back to you, 2) sell the cows in the local market and voila, instant cash with no evidence pointing back to you, 3) sell the cows to butchers who sell meat in the market and voila instant cash with no evidence leading back to you, and 4) any combination of the above. So that's how you can get rid of cows quickly and just walk away with the cash in your pocket. It's actually Easier to steal animals here then equipment. And cows are worth a LOT of money. You're looking at $400 per grown cow. So we're talking someone (or a group of people) stealing $6000 in assets. That's a lot of money in anyone's terms, but if your average annual income here is $500 Per Year, you bet your butt I would be forking out extra money for their protection if those were my cows.

So why don't people with huge herds protect their herds by making sure someone always goes out with them to the bush? I don't know. I think it's because robbery of animals still isn't overly prevalent where it has become a dire need to do so. 95% of the time, all your animals will come back. So for that 5% of the time, is it worth forking out money paying for someone to watch your animals if you can't do it yourself? I think the answer for people here is no. I think here if you can't see clearly and immediately the outcomes of your investment, then it doesn't make sense to most here.

So although we both feel bad for Ba, I'm also of the opinion of "Well what did you think would happen sooner or later?" and we think if something is worth so much, it's worth protecting your investment. I don't mean to be cynical, but you have all these cows walking around in the middle of nowhere, by themselves, practically with huge dollar signs (or CFA signs) all over them saying "Take me! Take me!" No witnesses and like I said, they're actually easy to get liquidate and walk away.

So I don't know what's going to happen with Ba. It is possible that a few might turn up because they got seperated from the herd but I think that is doubtful. But it could happen. Let's hope for his sake it does because otherwise this is a huge blow to his livlihood.

Goodbye strawberries, thanks for all the memories....

STRAWBERRIES

Yes the big news is that I was able to find strawberries in the Dakar market the day before yesterday. I won't even tell you how much it was, because you would give that shocked sound (quick intake of breath).

So these strawberries of the first of the season so that is why they are extra expensive. The usual price is $6 a kilo. but as its valentines day today, I really had planned on having strawberries, making some shortcake and topping it with cream and maybe having ice-cream on the side. I got some champagne for my birthday from Brook's boss and his wife so we are going to get that out. Brook's boss is in town so we'll share this day with him. We'll see if Mike (the PCV who he and his wife came over for pizza the other night) will come too. His wife Liz is about to embark on a West African vacation with some of her girlfriends. It's good to see different countries around. It makes you realize how different each one is.

The strawberries actually had a pretty nice ride of yesterday. It was the best shape they've ever been in coming up before. Usually I hand carry them and have their strawberry heads pointed at the air conditioner vent in the car and they still come out 8 hours later in Tamba like they have been left in the sun for 3 days. They are always on their last legs when they get here. Luckily there were only a few yesterday that were pretty soft and tired. This is a good thing considering how much I paid for them. I cut them up immediately so they could soak in their juices. And I whipped up a batch of shortcake too so we could have some strawberries last night. It was great.

This picture is of Brook last week at the cashew conference in M'bour. Here he's talking about his work in cashews in Senegal with a powerpoint here. He wouldn't turn around so I could get a good picture, so I bribed this french guy standing in front of him to get a picture of him straight on. Ha HA.

Sunday, Sunday....

This is where we were yesterday. In N'gor, a suburb of Dakar. Brook had a meeting with Tate, a cool guy who works with Enterprise Works in DC but who is out here for some cashew stuff. Tate was staying out at this hotel which looks better than it is. It's got the view and the waves from the ocean, which goes far in my books, however the customer service and the rooms leave much to be desired. When I stayed here in early 2004, one of the maids accused me of stealing their towels (ugly, dinky ones too!) when I informed the front desk that I was never given a towel in my room. Ah, the beauties of customer service in Africa.

Brook had a cashew conference in M'bour (a tourist destination outside of Dakar). That is where we had to eat the mystery salads and other unmentionable cafeteria tourist food. Eww. I might talk about the mystery salads in another post. I definitely think it deserves an "Honorable Mention" in scary food. I'm just kicking myself that I didn't take a picture of them.

The Magic Potion and Dry Season upon us

It's so dry here that even writing pens dry out quickly. I've started to notice yesterday when my pens started to get those air pockets in the ink as they do during dry season. You know when you are writing and then suddenly ink doesn't come out. Then it will come out again after you scribble on a piece of paper next to you? Totally annoying. I went through 3 pens last night just trying to write a list of things. I came really close to just picking up a marker. Ah, the beauty of the dry season.

And we've actually had water for the past 3 days. This is equivalent to the Christmas miracle. Of course our electricity has cut out every day for the past 3 days so I guess it goes to show you can't have your cake and eat it too. So anyway, with the running water I couldn't get all the way into the shower yesterday for over 10 minutes, the water was so hot. Burning hot. And I like hot showers. This was like when you fill the bathtub up with hot water for a bath and then you realize you were over zealous and got the water too hot. You put your foot in and it burns so you take it out quickly and have to put cold water in the bath until you can get the temperature down a bit. I stood 'beside' the shower yesterday and dipped my hand in until it started to cool down. And of course you know we don't a water heater. It's the sun, baby!

That's the only downside of "cold" season here. The water doesn't get as warm. You have to let it run 15 minutes so you can get a luke-warm shower. But in hot season, it's hot shower Deluxe! That is a great bonus. You get nice warm showers. Which actually are more refreshing than cold showers. You feel nice and cool and freshy after a hot, hot season shower.

***

In other news, I got a couple of magic potions given to me on Sunday by a friend. I have started to tell friends in town about the inevitability of our move from Tambacounda before the end of the year (if we can get a job elsewhere--nervous laugh). Just to get people's thoughts around the idea, so there are no shocks about the subject later on down the road. My approach, as it was with Peace Corps, is telling local friends that the project is ending and finding a new job in Senegal is very difficult (which it is), so we'll probably have to go back home. This is a true statement, but the fact of the matter is, even if it were sure we could get an extension we're ready to move on, as it were. Of course you can't say this exactly to local friends so you just have to leave out the part that you don't really want to stay anyway. That's awkward and for someone having lived their whole life in sleepy Tambacounda, telling them that their town has reached the pinnacle of boredom isn't really the 'nice' thing to say to someone. So I prefer the "we'd-like-to-stay-but-can't-find-a-job" route.

Well that bit me back. A friend came the other day with 2 magic potions. One liquid where I'm supposed to splash myself with the liquid after a shower (put some perfume in it and what-not); and another gri-gri to wear around my waist. These potions are for us to find new work in Senegal. Isn't that sweet? Well, outside of the fact we're not really interested to find new work in Senegal....so Brook is like, "so is this just for a new job?" and I'm like, "no, it just works for Senegal", so he says I probably shouldn't follow the magic potion directions. Which is sad since our friend put effort into having someone make these potions for him (for us). It's such a nice gesture. ah. Well if anyone wants work in Senegal, let me know so I can send you these potions. Otherwise I'm going to keep them around. No need to tempt fate by using them, eh?

Soldier's Angels

Isn't this a cool picture? It's practically footage out of "Behind Enemy Lines". I might have mentioned to some of you about my volunteer position at a non-profit organization called Soldier's Angels. http://www.soldiersangels.org/

This organization about adopting and writing to deployed soldier's in war zones to provide additional support while they are away from friends and family. My father was career military and my brother was in the AF for over 10 years, so although the military is not my personal calling, I have a lot of respect for the people overseas implementing certain aspects of our foreign policy. For surely just because you are doing your job does not mean that they condone or even caused the current situation. No need to punish them for being there.

I was motivated to volunteer to write letters to soldiers (and sailors) after our good friend at the US Embassy in Senegal volunteered for a post in Iraq. I figured I could do my part too, albeit in a very indirect way. So once a month I receive 10 new names of men and women serving overseas, primarily in a difficult or dangerous location, and I send each one a postcard and a letter from Senegal. Many people have said that the difficult thing for them, which deters them from volunteering is having to write complete strangers one letter (or any letter at all). Of course, since I love to write and Senegal is full of literary fodder, it never really is a problem for me. Of course the big question becomes if anyone really wants to hear about our water cuts or a random plumber story or about local markets--you know the things I usually natter on about... but I figure anything written personally is a distraction for them and could provide some entertainment and stress relief. Which supposedly is the whole reason for these letters anyway.

Every once in awhile (oh, I received about 4 total last year from over 100 letters written), I will get a letter back from someone I wrote saying that my letter made their day when they were having a bad day, or how they enjoyed hearing about my pet goose. Oh yes. You know I have to talk about the goose. So that's a real treat to know that sometimes my letters can have an effect.

In addition, you are able to 'adopt' soliders and sailors. This means you write to one person every week and are supposed to send a care package once a month. My care packages are pretty lame since I don't have Wal-Mart and there isn't anything that these soldier's want that I don't want either! So I try and pump up the letters since I'm lame-O with gifts. Not unless one of these soliders wants to receive a local gourd spoon or a piece of cloth.... probably not.

So now I have two adoptees. One sailor who sent me this boat picture and a soldier from whom I haven't received anything yet. The first person I had adopted and written to for 10 months never wrote back. Finally my letters have started to be returned to me so I know that he was sent back home (got confirmation from SA since I was also scared he may have bit the bullet if you know what I mean). And that's cool. It would have been nice to have heard from him but hopefully the letters meant something, even if I never heard back.

I definitely plan on volunteering in some domain when we go back to the states. The structures we have which enable people to contribute some time to good causes really is great. I have tried to volunteer here in Tamba with the nuns, etc. but frankly no one knows what to do with you... They don't know what to do with the offer of volunteering some time to help around and they don't have anything set up for that. That's the good thing about the States. There are so many things that are set up and even if you only have 1 hour a week to spare, you can do whatever you want. When Brook's mom was sick, there was the Cancer Society and the Meals on Wheels that had volunteers helping her. That is an amazing thing and I definitely want to do something too.

Quote of the Week

"It’s not healthy, but it’s Italian"

--Giuliano Ferrara, an editor and informal aide to Mr. Berlusconi, in response to the Italian population's interest about politician Silvio Berlusconi's wife's letter to a newspaper demanding a public apology from her husband for his continual flirting with other women.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/world/europe/01italy.html?em&ex=1170565200&en=cccecdc6198f1a29&ei=5087