Almost one week in

Hello all,

It's a hot Friday morning and I just got to CRESP. Birame, the Senegalese CRESP employee who I'll be working with, just got in. I figured that I'd write for a few minutes and wait for him to get settled.

I'll tell you a little about my routine. Each morning, I wake up at 8 and make my way to the bathroom outside and then the shower inside. The family has a shower as we know them, but sometimes it's best to fill a bucket with water ad use the scoop and pour method, as sometimes the water doesn't turn on. After that, my brother Max jumps in. I return to my room and find that he has already boiled water, and placed the pot on a nice towel on my floor, along with two large pieces of French bread and the chocolate spread I was told to keep hiden in my room cabinet. I get dressed and such and then Max returns and we eat. We then hurry out the door to make it to CRESP a few minutes after 9, only after formally wishing eah family member peace and a good day.

'Salam aleykoum!' to which they respond, 'Alekoum Salam!'
'ca va?' and they say, 'ca va'.

After that, any number of confusing verbal exchanges an occur in Wolof. They all relate to asking how one slept, how ones friends and family are, how the weather is hot, etc...I'm getting there, but not there yet.

Last night, I got home at about 6 after playing on the internet for a while. Feeling nostalgic for home, I dropped my things in my room and headed for the company of my siblings in the living room. Aisha and Mantou were watching French soap-operas, which I love. Mantou asked if I wanted 'des tresses' - or braids. I said sure, and we headed to the market to get some bands.

It's good to note here that there are very few material items in the house. We had to go buy bands because no one had them in the house, despite the fact that everyone uses them. Here, you buy what you need, right before you need it. Need to do laundry? You buy a single use detergent packet. You need tea? You ask papa for a small stash of lipton teas, which the kids guard with their life. This is just because it is such an open culture. Neighbors, brothers and sisters all come in your room and use or take what they see, only sometimes asking. It's not rude, just that most everything is common. So, if the family were to be a bit more 'American' and keep a pantry of food, friends and neighbors would soon catch on, and pass in and out and clean them out. So, before every meal, rice, fish, lettuce or mangos are bought.

Anyway, we went to get bands, and Mantou gave me braids! It was a nice evening; Mantou doing my hair, Maimona singing to her brother's music, Libas (the littlest boy!) using the crayons I brought (thanks Simon) to draw a picture, and other family coming in and out of my room. I felt really good then.

After, Max showed me how to get to the beach where the fishermen work. If you exit our door and turn left, walk for about 5 minutes straight, you get to the beach. So nice.

As far as my research goes; it looks like I'll be focusing on the economic, social and environmental impacts of the solar oven on two 'test' ecovillages: the villages of Mekhe and Mbom. It sounds great, and I think this is more up my alley than trying to help on the last technical/design elements of the oven itself. They have a bunch of mechanical engineers on that. So, to begin, tonight several of us will leave to attend a conference involving many of the ecovillages of Senegal. The goal is to share opinions and ideas on the solar oven use, the micro credit program (which so far has given a small loan to 20 women in ecovillages to start their own small businesses, with success! the key being that other women are on the wait list for loans, so there is pressure on those who receive loans to repay it ASAP and do well economially), reforestation, and other topics. I don't know much about where we are going.

Ok, I'll cut it off here for now!

Melissa