tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-340263372024-03-08T09:00:27.223-05:0027 Months in SenegalThis is the story of my Peace Corps service in Senegal from Sept2006 until Christmas of 2008. This site has nothing to do with the Peace Corps, they do not support it or anything else like that. I waive them of responsibilty of what I write. blah blah...Brad Cebulkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13748907256240434006noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34026337.post-79758601727457385862007-06-19T06:04:00.000-04:002007-06-19T06:14:21.211-04:00A couple weeks ago i had a conversation with some fellow volunteers about the work ethic of Senegalese as compared to Americans. We made some superficial observations and a few jokes poking fun at the stereotypes we designate to both sides of the Atlantic. Americans, as usual, were called work obsessive, high strung, innovative, reckless, experimental and lacked empathy for their countrymen who appear to all be competitors. We criticized the Senegalese for not being very creative with their business enterprises, conservative risk takers, foolish with business decisions, leeches when their family members start to make money. And that the heat plays a role in it all. Who wants to work when it is so damn hot all the time? The American south wasn't even close to being as developed as the north until air conditioning came around. As you can assume, there is not much air conditioning running in this part of the world. <br /> What we were touching on is something that has been giving me considerable food for thought recently. I mean hey, i have time for thinking. So often as i look at the people in my village, and as i get to know them better, i see many comparisons to people i know in the states and i theorize what job they would have had they been born in the states. My counterpart, Ken, is a clown and a politician. He is my counterpart in the village, not because he is the best farmer and the most interested in learning new ideas and methods, but because he is a leader of the village without the title. A politician walking around laughing and making jokes with all the people and children, voicing his opinion loudly at every important meeting, and has a tremendous influence in the village so can therefore organize what i have trouble doing. He would no doubt be the mayor of a small town. My father, a quiet, reserved, sweet man with a strong religious inclination, would be from Colorado or Idaho. He would hold libertarian values with a sever distrust of Washington, be socially conservative, a card carrying member of the NRA, on a 200 acre ranch off in the middle of nowhere. And also the neighbor down the street who will help put in the dry wall in your new bedroom addition or help you move boxes as you move in to the neighborhood without asking anything in return. Some villagers are middle management, others are accountants, teachers, used car salesman, liberals, intellectuals, psychopathic, drunks, manic depressive, and on and on. It is fascinating trying to place them into American culture because it is so easy. Yet here they are all farmers, they are all practicing Muslims (except the 20 something year old men) they are all poor, and they will all be like this with no real possibility of climbing the economic ladder for the foreseeable future. Which does not mean they are not also what i project onto them.<br /> I have started a theory that tries to explain cultural differences and takes into account personal quirks in the system. This is still an unfinished theory so will obviously be easy to pick apart. But anyways... It is as if there are cultural boundaries that the majority of the population, the masses, who have difficulty breaking from the crowd. They are the average people. They are me and nearly all your friends and family. They are the majority of this world. In America, because we have such a developed infrastructure and a cultural that nearly forces you to go to school, at least graduate high school, and get a job that pays enough for you to make ends meet. You might have some disposable income and go on a trip to florida every other summer. The truly remarkable people in our culture go on to create new products, build giant buildings, develop new mathematical theories, and start new trends and pioneer new ideas. these are not your average people. Across the Atlantic, the status quo is a couple years of schooling, a job at a boutique or taxi driver or tailor or a farmer. Only the truly remarkable (or rich or lucky) go on to college and get a high level job. they have the opportunity to emigrate to Europe or the States. These people exist in all cultures, but they brake the norm and are not defined as easily by their culture. In the states we encourage a do it yourself attitude, try new things, do what you want to do, pull yourself up by the boot heels and get going. In Senegal they are not as experimental. They are more conservative and do not embrace uniqueness. "To make money i will go to Dakar, by loads of sandals, and sell them at the weekly market right next to 5 other people who did the same thing." In america we are told to say "I'm going to contact the maker, by it in bulk and sell it at a lower cost, I will put up a fancy sign with a friendly smile, and i will ask the customer what he wants." That does not happen in Senegal. Blame it on them for this or on colonization or on the dependency the developed world has forced on to them by NGOs and foreign aid: i don't know. maybe it is all of the above. But i do know that it takes a truly remarkable person to go to college here, loosen his cultural ties, and try to seize the money dream. In America, our culture fosters those ideas and so even the more average of us are capable of doing big and great things. But it is true that the American dream has filtered throughout the world and has become the dream for everybody. It is rather unfortunate, though, because it literally is OUR dream. The boys in my village dream of emigrating to the US. It is heartbreaking to be in a country where the dream is to leave this place.Brad Cebulkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13748907256240434006noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34026337.post-25859701626256650722007-05-16T07:09:00.000-04:002007-05-16T07:12:03.403-04:00Sorry, it has been awhileWell so when i came to Senegal, and more particularly to my village, we were in the midst of watermelon season. I must admit, i was only a passive eater of watermelon in the states, but i found a new appreciation to this juicy fruit once i was in the village. more than ever before in my life i have strong cravings for food. not just protein although i often do think about meat, but for fruit and for vegetables. something that is wholesome and i know is contributing to the health of my body. I spend most of my day consuming vast quantities of sugars and carbohydrates. well so we have entered a new phase of life in the village, and in Senegal as a whole. Mangoes. Have you ever had a ripe mango the size of your two fists together? Its incredible. I can buy ten of them for roughly 2 dollars, and save the seeds for planting. Its a two for one deal. Eat the fruit and plant a tree. Such a basic concept for thousands of years and yet i had never done it until i came to this country. Have you? So now, every couple days i ride 5k or go to kaolack, buy a sack load of mangoes and distribute them to my family. Everyone wins. Which really does bring us to the more important topic of this entry... work.<br /> Hey, i have finally started. Thought the time would never come. Just over a week ago i began a tree garden of about 200 trees. I am planting mostly fruit bearing trees or trees that can be used for food. Cashew, mango, and papaya bear fruit while the never-die tree's leaves are used for cooking and pack a considerable amount of vitamins. Lastly i planted flamboyant trees because, well, they're pretty. And pretty is good. I know 200 really isn't too many trees and that inchallah (God willing) half of them will survive into next year but i must accept the fact most will die or not germinate. The UN would be flabbergasted at the seedling mortality rate amongst trees in my village. It's not so much that we don't have enough water, we do, it is that my region of Senegal is being plagued by giant grasshoppers that eat everything in sight. A farmer friend of mine planted 160 mango trees last year, and as of yesterday, maybe 5 were still alive. He has other issues that contribute to this problem but it is due mostly to the grasshopper infestation. But along with my trees I have also handed out another 150 tree sacks to three villagers who are planning on planting 50 mangoes a piece. Inchallah they will plant them and the trees will survive into next year. But it takes 5 years for mangoes to bear fruit, and getting to the three year mark, in which they have a good chance of survival if they reach sort of like a new restaurant, is always a challenge.<br /> As for my real work, the trees are but a side project, I will begin farming in the next couple weeks as the rains should start arriving in less than a month. Could not come soon enough. The heat is just building up, like a pressure cooker waiting to be released. I don't think it will necessarily cool down once the rains come but it will certainly feel good. Yup, so i am farmer Brad. Give me some flannel, a john deere trucking hat and a single piece of hay to stick between my teeth because i am from Indiana. But fortunately I have learned that i am not expected to do much farming, just a small demo plot showing the use of fertilizers, pesticides, and another variable against doing nothing for the crops. Not so sure how i feel about using pesticides on my crops, essentially promoting their use, but i will work that problem out. If the villagers insist... i do not know how i am to argue. it is difficult to explain run-off pollution and the destruction of the soil of long term usage. Not to mention the cost of buying pesticides for entire fields. Ehh... i shall see. it will work itself out. maybe i can convince them for me to do a demo plot about using organic fertilizers. But am i just pushing my values onto them? lastly and most importantly, they want my improved seeds from Peace Corps. Which is why i am in town today, to pick up the seeds (millet, corn, sorghum, beans) so we can have a village wide meeting on Sunday (my first meeting of such a large group) to discuss who gets what seeds. It is an exciting time, relatively speaking. Just if it wasn't so hot. Thank youBrad Cebulkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13748907256240434006noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34026337.post-2794998986147853172007-03-02T06:49:00.000-05:002007-03-02T06:55:29.970-05:00Post electionswell so <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">I'm</span> back in the village, sort of. After three weeks of training in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Thies</span>, a weekend of softball and socializing in Dakar, and an in-and-out schedule of being in the village; I am set to take up a long stint in the village. Hopefully. The presidential elections have come and gone with little excitement or violence. There was talk of fraud and of some violence leading up to the election but once the results came back with the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">incumbent</span> winning another 7 year term, life has carried on with no protests. I have my feelings towards the 82/83 year old president, who is named <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Abdulye</span> WADE, that i would like to share but will not due to the Peace Corps request that we remain silent about Senegalese politics in an open forum. But if you ask me in private discussion i will be more than happy to talk at length about what i know and think. Not surprisingly I have found myself very intrigued with the system of government and more so with the attitudes and power support amongst the people. Most fascinating is the difference of opinions from the village to the city, or more <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">specifically</span> from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Thies</span>, a city i am familiar with and the city considered the most hotly contested, and my specific village in the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Kaolack</span> region. My family in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Thies</span> had a strong distaste for president WADE because they believe WADE to be a corrupt and autocratic president who has illegally seized more and more power while over stretching resources trying to modernize Dakar. They are an educated, although not wealthy, family who campaigned for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">SECK</span>, a former Prime Minister in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">WADEs</span> government and now one of his chief rivals. My village friends disliked WADE because he has refused to buy all the peanuts that are grown in Senegal at a fixed rate like previous governments did for many years to support the rural agrarian lifestyle. Any economist could explain the ramifications and reasons of a country buying all of a single crop produced to sell on the international market and that really is not something i can speak intelligently on except for the basic principles of free market capitalism. But i did get a laugh from a teenage boy in my village who said something that everyone in the world can understand and relate to. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Abu</span> came to my hut on <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Monday</span> night to tell me the results of the presidential race. He explained that WADE received 58<span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">percent</span> of the vote which meant there would be no run off and that WADE won on the first ballot. He was clearly disappointed. When i asked why he disliked the president he said because WADE only cares about the rich people. He said all politicians only care about the rich. I told him Americans feel the same way.<br /> And so now i have just over 21 months to do work in the village. Crazy to believe i have been in Senegal for almost 6 months now. Already i am experiencing struggle and disappointment trying to get projects under way. As with life, once something goes wrong every little pain and mishap builds into something bigger than it really is. My chicken coop is going to be more expensive and difficult to start than i had previously anticipated. Who knew chickens would need frequent vaccinations? And on the first day of their life? My garden is still weeks away and it now looks like i might not have enough time to get it <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">stabilized</span> before i leave for my trip to <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">France</span> in 6 weeks. I had <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">a little</span> spat with my village father, and a more difficult than anticipated time adjusting to the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">loneliness</span> and isolation of village life again after nearly a month spending nearly every minute with my fellow volunteers training and going out. But really all is not <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">bleak</span>. I just bought 2 kilos of <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">hermaphrodite</span> papayas which i am going to consume and save the seeds to be planted in a couple months on the eve of the rainy season. I found a contact with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">USAID</span> who might be willing to spray the perimeter of my villages gardens and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">pepeniers</span> to keep out the gigantic/machine like grasshoppers who have been destroying every living plant in sight. I <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">don't</span> know how to explain these grasshoppers. It is as if they are a biblical plague that is only <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">occurring</span> in a small are of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Kaolack</span> region. Measuring almost 6 inches long, they swarm by the hundreds and fly into you when walking out into the bush. <br /> Lastly and most importantly, I am going to France in the middle of April to see my parents. What could not be exciting about that? oh right, trying to buy an airline ticket outside of Dakar. Whatever, it comes with the experience.<br />BradBrad Cebulkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13748907256240434006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34026337.post-1987062289933010142007-02-11T16:08:00.000-05:002007-01-29T10:47:20.550-05:00Back in TrainingWell so i have been in a city with internet for the past week and a half and i am sorry i have not written more. i know you are all heartbroken and have been waiting for this letter. But its ok now. First things first... Colts won the superbowl. for sure they did. how about that indy fans? i was able to watch the game which was entirely crucial for me to enjoy the rest of my 3 weeks in thies. A bunch of us went to a hotel which was broadcasting the game live on the french channel, channel two, starting at midnight and ending very, very early in the morning. I have to be honest, watching the game in french was a new experience, and one i hope to never have to go through again. they just don't do it justice. Anyways...<br /> So training. well i have to say it is good seeing my friends again and hearing about their villages and their crazy stories. Listening to other people and comparing my village has been one of the most profound learning experience i have had here. i am able to compare stories and situations, and gauge other peoples language skills against my own and see how i have progressed. And i think i am alright. as far as my technical skills, you know I'm doing farming work out here right?, well they are progressing slower. The classes have been minimally beneficial. they are good for the most part, but my real training is coming from talking with other volunteers and picking up tidbits of info. Learning this agricultre stuff will come as i get my feet wet when the rainy season begins and the farming is underway. One of my struggles in the village has been a lack of ideas for projects. the importance is on sustainable projects that wont fall apart once i leave but will be carried on by the villagers themselves. That's a tall order being as it is they often are dependent upon outside help to improve their situation. It appears to me that unfortunatly all the aid and ngos that operate have assisted in creating a dependency on people from the outside to stimulate activities. It is unfortunate and is an incredibly difficult situation to tackle. But anyways, I need to find projects in which i am a catalyst to get things going and that they see through. Talking with people, listening to the truly motivated and excited volunteers has given me a sort of burst of confidence to begin with some rather ambitious ideas. Such as working with the villagers who have tin roofs, there are only a few, to install gutters and dig concrete water storage tanks so that they can store water from the rainy season and extend their gardening into the late part of summer. I would also like to get chicken pen going as a way for the villagers to raise some extra cash. They can eat the eggs, eat the chickens, or sell them when they need money. That is an interesting aspect of rural life. They don't have bank accounts or safes in their huts. They might have a little cash lying around, but their real money is invested in donkeys, goats, horses, chickens, or like the pulaars, cows. They just sell an animal when they need money. anyways not enough people have chickens and those that do just don't have enough. bottom line, i am beginning to get more excited about my work. Which is kind of the point of me coming to senegal, right? hrm...<br /> Last thing i want to say. If you have access to pictures of my niece on the internet check them out. Natalie is the best looking, cutest baby that i have ever seen. Especially her in that colts hat. And if you can see her in person, well i guess I'm just jealous of you.Brad Cebulkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13748907256240434006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34026337.post-5749110852102624152007-01-29T10:45:00.000-05:002007-01-29T10:47:20.643-05:00Fried Chickenwell and so it has come. the first major milestone as a volunteer. i have achieved, survived, struggled, and/or stumbled through my first 9 weeks of life in the village. i think it has been 9 weeks. someone do the math for me... i got there on Nov.23 and i am heading to thies on wed. figured it out? no? good, neither did i. doesn't matter does it. in fact that's something my father, in America, and i were talking about last night. i often have no idea what day of the week it is and i rarely if ever know the actual day of the month. it just doesn't matter anymore. the only time markers i have, for all practical purposes, is sunrise, sundown, and Friday afternoon... the holy day of the week. Friday lunch is always the best meal of the entire week, the reason i love Friday above all other days. i guess i need to know when wed. is because i need to take my malaria medication on that day, religiously. you don't mess around with the malaria medication. it might give me intense vivid dreams, which i personally enjoy, and could possibly effect my mental state and moods... regardless, i don't play around with that. oh and back on subject....<br /> Well so I'm headed back to thies, to the training center, for the next three weeks. Going to do alittle studying, alittle catching up with friends, alittle bit of this and that. not being in my village being the most significant. you know oddly enough i felt alittle sad leaving my village the other day... but not enough to give it too much thought. as i told a friend in an email yesterday, my host family in my village has for all practical purposes become my family. they take care of my needs, they provide a roof over my head, they cook for me, they make me laugh, and they sure make me crazy. like all family, sometimes you just need to get away from them. the ones who make you laugh the hardest are also the ones who drive you the most insane. so yes, I'm sad not to see them for three weeks, but not enough to give it too much thought. besides i will be back living there for 2 years... we can do with three weeks apart. and I'm glad that i was leaving feeling slightly sad, better than dreading the idea of returning. but yea i don't really want to talk about thies.... I'm sure i will talk about it at other times. so... uh...<br />\nthat's it. \nI know that i often don't talk about important things. but i don't know what to write about. so if you have questions email them to me and i will try to answer them... or even ideas about what you would like to read about. i have all sorts of ideas in my head that I'm sure i pass over because i don't want to think about them... which probably are the most interesting to you. i know there is some disagreement as to what makes for interesting reading. honestly i would like nothing better than to write about how i just ate a chicken pizza, drank two beers, watched a bob Dylan movie last night, and engaged in a number of other americanesque activities in the last 24 hours. to me... that is exciting. come on... i just ate chicken. That is huge! chicken... ahhhh. \n\n here is alittle insight into how i, and many peace corps volunteers think. so we were watching sex in the city on dvd yesterday. yea don't laugh... we have limited choices. so here we are, maybe 5 or 6 volunteers, watching carrie eat Kentucky fried chicken with her boyfriend. they begin a food fight throwing chicken at each other and spraying water on each other with a hose. the point being carrie and her boyfriend were acting like teenagers. All we peace corps volunteers could think and talk about, and almost in unison, was our horror that such good fried chicken was being wasted by these reckless individuals.\n\n \n \n\n",0]<br />);<br />//--><br /><br />that's it. <br />I know that i often don't talk about important things. but i don't know what to write about. so if you have questions email them to me and i will try to answer them... or even ideas about what you would like to read about. i have all sorts of ideas in my head that I'm sure i pass over because i don't want to think about them... which probably are the most interesting to you. i know there is some disagreement as to what makes for interesting reading. honestly i would like nothing better than to write about how i just ate a chicken pizza, drank two beers, watched a bob Dylan movie last night, and engaged in a number of other americanesque activities in the last 24 hours. to me... that is exciting. come on... i just ate chicken. That is huge! chicken... ahhhh. <br /> here is alittle insight into how i, and many peace corps volunteers think. so we were watching sex in the city on dvd yesterday. yea don't laugh... we have limited choices. so here we are, maybe 5 or 6 volunteers, watching carrie eat Kentucky fried chicken with her boyfriend. they begin a food fight throwing chicken at each other and spraying water on each other with a hose. the point being carrie and her boyfriend were acting like teenagers. All we peace corps volunteers could think and talk about, and almost in unison, was our horror that such good fried chicken was being wasted by these reckless individuals.Brad Cebulkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13748907256240434006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34026337.post-10240825129386903172007-01-24T12:12:00.000-05:002007-01-24T12:15:33.291-05:00BBC storiesHere are a couple links to some stories I found today on the BBCs website. I wasnt even looking for stories about Senegalese immigration to Spain but this is what i found just reading about the world.<br /><br /><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6213495.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6213495.stm</a><br /><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6286285.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6286285.stm</a><br /><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6109736.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6109736.stm</a><br /><br />BradBrad Cebulkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13748907256240434006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34026337.post-16557104043527673262007-01-24T04:01:00.000-05:002007-01-24T04:32:40.258-05:00Random NotesWell so the Colts did it, didn't they. They went off and decided to play in the Superbowl the year that i have been only able to watch 3 games. That's right. I will watch the Superbowl, oh yes, that i can promise you. But come on... Come on... really? Make the Superbowl? See i bet few of you actually would have called them going to the Superbowl this year. That's right. I'm calling out you ney-sayers. I for one had a sneaking suspicion all along that they would do it. Don't doubt me here. Its true. Ask my father. Many a times during the last 3 or 4 months Ive mentioned to him that this year they would make a run for it all. Is it because they were not the favorite and the pressure was off a bit? Maybe. Was it because Peyton Manning rocks and the stars just needed to align themselves correctly? Probably that had something to do with it. But I know the real reason and it overrides all the previous statements and makes them insignificant details to the one obvious conclusion. I'm not in the States. They couldn't deal with my pressure i psychologically threw to them from half way across the country in Colorado. Nor could they overcome the football gods smiting them because of all the trash i talked to every fan of every other team in the NFL for the last 5 years. And i had a good time doing it too, and i still hate the Broncos. But... I leave the country and here is what happens. They just needed alittle distance from me. Well Colts fans, you're welcome. And if not... Ha! <br /> Well so life in the village is what it is. I had a visit from my boss, coordinator of agriculture volunteers in Senegal, and he seems to think I'm doing well. My family said good things about me, embellished alittle, and said that my Pulaar is coming along well. They also told Massaly, my boss, that they often say words to me that they know i don't understand just to see if i will ask what it is or if i pretend to understand. Yea, they have fun at my expense. Which i already knew they did but now it has been confirmed. Which is fine, because now i know that they know i will often just act like i understand to get out of an awkward conversation.<br /> But i guess life in the village is normal for the most part. Many of the men and boys have left the village to go back to school or to work in a city. In fact most of my friends, the boys around my age, have up and left for a few months to go work on the fishing boats along the Atlantic shore or to work construction in one of the many tourist cities that stretch along the western seaboard. The men and boys will return just before the rainy season with pockets full of cash for the families, new clothes, and the latest American hip-hop cassettes. Maybe the can get the new Game tape? Or possibly some good ol 50cent. They love 50cent. Work doesn't exactly pay American wages. For construction, it is roughly 5 American dollars per day. Hrm... nothing too exciting. I don't know how much they make on the fishing boats. But that is the way of the village. They basically our subsistence farmers with little cash coming from selling small amounts of vegetables or staple crops, the rest coming from family members working outside the village. Either in the cities or in Europe. Spain and France being the popular destinations of work. In fact most of the boys talk about trying to get to Spain. Work for 5-10 years and than come back to the village to live as wealthy patrons. Its the Senegalese dream. The only problem is that most of them will not be able to do it legally, so they will risk their lives in boats filled well past their capacity that set sail for the Canary Islands hoping to be granted asylum or whatever. Every month you hear about a boat full of people from Western Africa dying trying to reach Europe. Sometimes 300-400 people in a month will die. Its awful. But it pays well if it works out. There is no denying that the money they can make in Europe can more than pay for their families here. Sounds similar to a relationship that we have in North America, huh?Brad Cebulkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13748907256240434006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34026337.post-62190658715766130952007-01-20T11:12:00.000-05:002007-01-20T11:22:30.480-05:00Cruel fateNo the end is not here or near, i hope, but it seems to me that cruel a joke might be in the process of being played out on me. The Colts are in the AFC championship game against the Pats, and I am in Senegal. Yes, where i get no american tv, no electricity for that matter. Could they really make it to the SuperBowl with me half a world away? A friend just told me that if they Colts win the SuperBowl Im not ever allowed to return home so that Indy can thrive from all the championships their teams will win. Im sorry there is going to be nothing about Senegal today. Im busy reading in anticipation for that game i will never see. I tell you i willl be excited, if not alittle sad if they go to the SB. It would be like that BoSox fan falling into a coma only to awaken after they won the world series and missing the entire ride. But lets not get ahead of ourselves, they need to win tomorrow. Good Luck Colts. <br />Oh and what is this Im reading about the Pacers? Sounds good, except getting rid of Baby Al doesnt make me too excited. Someone send me an email explaining what is going on here. Im so completely lost. Word.Brad Cebulkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13748907256240434006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34026337.post-20919063313025308502007-01-13T07:49:00.000-05:002007-01-13T07:53:07.530-05:00Ushering in 2007Well i really didn't want to write this email. sometimes the thought of it is overbearing and i feel like i have nothing to talk about. well i haven't really done much of anything lately. which is true, but since i last wrote an email i have done many things... it is just that time has passed and I've moved on. so lets try something, a blitz of the many things i have done since Christmas.<br />I spent Christmas on the beach in a beautiful hotel located on some cliffs with about 15 or so other volunteers. We ate yassa poulet for Christmas eve dinner, a delicious traditional Senegalese treat, and sang Christmas caroles around a campfire on the beach with some curious Senegalese onlookers trying to join in on our fun not really understanding but following the tunes and chiming in when they felt it appropriate. i was much amused. they too enjoyed themselves.<br />a few days later was the biggest holiday of the year, tabaski, which commemorates when Abraham took Issac to the mountain and was going to sacrifice him at Gods command but than didn't, slaughtered a goat instead. remember that story from the bible? well it is huge in Senegal. but like all Senegalese holidays it was a bit anticlimactic. in the morning we put on our best new clothes, the men and i went out into a field, faced east, and began an hour long prayer session. i was asked, and i did, participate in the prayer session with the men which included the traditional prayer routine that they do 5 times a day. After that, the men all came to our compound where my father, the spiritual leader and chief of the village, slaughtered the first goat. each man than went back to his own house and slaughtered a goat. I spent the next 6 hours shuffling from compound to compound eating fried potatoes and ribs first, and than later the main course; a concoction of macaroni noodles, fried potatoes, goat, peas, and enough grease to stop the heart of a 2ton elephant, and bread for dipping. it was amazing. i stuffed myself until i nearly passed out. that day happened to be new years eve so my NYE festivities concluded with me taking two pebto bismol tablets and in bed and asleep by 10:30. and in came 2007.<br />The next three days were filled with me sitting around trying to talk with all the family that came to the village for the holidays who live primarily in the big cities of Senegal. we played soccer, drank tea, and slept. at night our village put on a huge wrestling tournament that brought in villagers from many miles away to watch big beautiful men wrestle in essentially what is tighty-whiteys, briefs. underwear. it was festive. there was a generator to supply lights and a sound system, a drum troupe came in to supply the beats of the night, and two women sang a repeated monotonous and very tiring chorus for three straight nights, 8 hours a night. the highlight is most definitely the wrestlers dancing around prepping themselves for the upcoming battle. generally they prep for 45minutes, dancing around strutting their bodies across the middle of the complex, going through premeditated pre-game rituals... all for a a match that takes anywhere from 20seconds to 10minutes. for the most part there were three to four matches going on simultaneously.<br />well i don't want to be too long winded. some other highlights of2007 as of now: i woke up in the night to a cockroach crawling around the inside of my mosquito net freaking me out. i also almost killed a chicken. so this is humorous. i was walking into my garden where i noticed a chicken chillin out underneath the shade of my fence. if i had been in a better mood it wouldn't have bothered me, but because the chickens have previously eaten many of my seeds, i decided to shoo him away. so i picked up a chunk of dirt and hurled it at the chicken hoping to frighten him and send him off on his way. miraculously... from 20yards away... i hit the chicken square on the side of the head, shattering the clump of dirt into millions of pieces. the chicken promptly made some noises and than closed his eyes and fell lifelessly to the ground. i thought i killed him. i walked over with a terrible feeling of regret and remorse wondering what i do now. my thoughts raced from who do i tell, who's chicken did i just kill, will they be mad at me, do we now get to eat the chicken (a rare, rare delicacy i would have enjoyed immensely). i decided i would walk away, not say anything, and come back in 5minutes pretending to find a dead chicken in my garden and offer to cook it. sounded brilliant. well i returned 5minutes later, poked him with a stake, and much to my surprise, and slight disappointment because now i had been savoring the thought of chicken, he awoke, stumbled around drunkenly, and wandered off out of my garden. the lost chicken. so close.<br />anyways that's all. I'm just going to end like that because well, i can.<br />bradBrad Cebulkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13748907256240434006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34026337.post-28639439542156157042006-12-26T06:32:00.000-05:002006-12-26T06:40:24.264-05:00Village WomenFrom the title of my email you might get the impression that im going to be filling you in on some juicy gossip from the mystical land of senegal or about some sort of love interest. and its true, I love women. And Senegalese women are some of the most beautiful I have seen. beautiful skin and well defined features, truely a blessing. but this isnt that sort of email... its about my uttmost respect for the women that carry me through my day and make my small village function on a daily basis. <br /> As you might know, women here dont exactly have it easy. They are often treated as second class citizens. they have to often share husbands, and by that i mean that men often have more than one wife, as according to muslim law they are allowed many, presumptiously no more than 4 but... there are some with more. But women do all the grunt work, all the domestic work. <br /> Anyways these women continue to astound me on a daily basis. My father abdulye, certainly a good man, spends a good majority of his day praying. And it is understandable, he is the religious leader and there is certainly nothing wrong with having a strong devotion to the creator. but he is only able to keep up his 5 daily prayers, and the many others hs engages in but is not required to, because his wives take care of the household. I have two mothers. And it appears they are on a cycle of being with him. For example, Ami So was in our household for the first 3 weeks I was in my village. Last week she left and Jeneoba Jope is now taking over duties. Each morning the women pull the daily water from the well that is easily 50 deep, maybe more. they pull and pull, again and again, working together to make the job a bit easier. Like many of you probably imagine, they than carry enormous amounts of water on top of their heads. They than go back to the house, make breakfast, clean up after breakfast, and than begin their daily chores. Oh and after she has made the breakfast she will than carry it to each group of people, the kids, the women, my father, and me, and than come collect it when we all finish. Meanwhile my father will become thirsty so she will need to stop whatever she is doing, walk to the water bucket, bring him a cup of water, retreat and continue whatever she is doing. <br /> After breakfast she will generally sweep up around the compound, picking up the accumulated trash that piles up through the day; watermelon rinds and plastic bags are the usual; and make the dirt in the compound look neat and acceptable. Later she will make lunch, building a fire for each meal, clean up, and than begin another chore. Maybe she needs to wash the clothes. Most likely she will need to pound the millet or sorghum so it can be cooked later. Oh and clear the millet of sand. Oh and crack peanuts for the sauce. Maybe she needs more water. Meanwhile while she is doing all this in the course of day she has a baby strapped to her back... the entire time. They carry babies in a towel so that the child is straddled behind her facing in the same direction. This is done with a beach towel.<br /> Now this is not to say men dont do any work... they work in the fields in the morning and occassionaly the evening if there is lots of work to be done, and they upkeep the maintence such as the fencing and replacing structural dalage to the huts. Difficult work except it may take a week. aA the fields are only being used 8 months of the year. Starting now there is nothing to plant, im interested in what the men will do.<br /> It appears that there is a silent consensus amongst the men that the women are truely the backbone of the operation, that they are incredibly strong women who do the majority of the work while the men relax and drink tea and talk about... well i dont understand what they talk about. Im interested to know. But they will never admitt that the women does more work, and they dont like it when i tell them that they are lazy. The women do.<br /> And there it is... me spelling out what life is like for women in my village. They are strong, not only physically but mentally, they bend over backwards for the men, they are magnificent human beings and put me to shame when i begin to feel tired or that ive done too much work and i need to rest. <br />alhumduliah.<br />bradBrad Cebulkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13748907256240434006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34026337.post-7671241508735682812006-12-26T06:21:00.000-05:002006-12-26T06:31:56.599-05:00PicturesThis is by no means a complete collection of pictures but all i had time to upload. I sort of noticed i didnt put that many pictures of my home and village life as i did my friends and parties and beach trips. Eh... Maybe im just a college kid at heart, or just whatever. Deal with it. There will be more soon. Cool.<br /><br /><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://community.webshots.com/user/bradcebulko" target="_blank">http://community.webshots.com/user/bradcebulko</a><br /><br />enjoy.Brad Cebulkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13748907256240434006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34026337.post-72297967682137650132006-12-09T12:02:00.000-05:002006-12-09T12:05:16.941-05:00Coming soon<p>Id like to do some pictures, some link, some cool stuff. believe me im working on it but it takes time... my parents have not even seen m pictures. itll happen, maybe by christmas... wouldnt that be nice. bonne chance.</p><p> </p><table id="HB_Mail_Container" height="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" border="0" unselectable="on"><tbody><tr height="100%" unselectable="on" width="100%"><td id="HB_Focus_Element" valign="top" width="100%" background="" height="250" unselectable="off"><br /></td></tr><tr unselectable="on" hb_tag="1"><td style="FONT-SIZE: 1pt" height="1" unselectable="on"><div id="hotbar_promo"></div></td></tr></tbody></table>Brad Cebulkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13748907256240434006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34026337.post-1165660994858672322006-12-09T05:36:00.000-05:002006-12-09T05:43:15.243-05:00Toenails<p>so im back in the regional capital after another short stint in the village. i was there for only a week and now i came back up here to do some emailing, buy some garden materails, and drink some beer. oh cold beer... really ive started enjoying the simple delights of cold drinks such as cokes or beer. in the village i drink water, room temperature water from my filter. occasionaly i get alittle wild and add some foster clarks which is a drink mix like koolaid but without the familiar nastalgia of koolaid. and it doesnt taste the same. none the less that is when im feeling a bit wild and need to spend money. yea so i literally dont spend money in the village. ok not true, i buy a bucket of water each day which costs me the equivelent of one american penny. other than that my needs are taken care of. there really isnt much to spend on. we have a small boutique with rice, suagr, candles, and matches for your daily hut needs but i dont really need much of that. so after a couple days i just feel the compulsion to spend money, for really no other reason than because im american and thats what we do. so i ride my bike , if it doesnt have flat tires which it currently does, numbers 3 and 4, 5k into a neighboring village to charge my phone, learn alittle woloof, and drink a cold coke. but hey im pumping money into the economy right?<br /> so i ate lizard the other night. no kidding. about 2pm the talibey, the young boys who live in my compound, work in the familys fields, and learn the koran from my host father, come waltzing in from the fields with this lizard, about 2 feet long, 8 inches in diameter, head chopped off just hanging lifelessly from omars hands. they couldnt wait to show me what they had. they throw the lizard onto my mat to show me what they had caught and the thing splatters down spraying blood onto my sandals. i didnt know what to say. i wasnt so worried about the blood as i was in disbelief that there was a lizard that big and it looked so fake. it looked like a rubber toy i would have played with. anyways that night, after dinner which was a delicious meal of neverdie tree leaves, peanuts, and sorghum (sarcasm) the boys decide it is their turn to do some cooking. so using the campfire we have most nights that they use for reading light to study the koran and pray, the chopped up the lizard, got a nice concotion of spices and onions from my mom, and boiled the sucker. i had a fellow PC friend in the village for the night and he was captivated. he lives in a city with woloofs and had always heard that pulaars love lizard but had never actually seen it. well so it boiled, and it smelled awful. just terrible. but these boys were having the time of their life and couldnt wait to dig in. naturally being the wonderful people that they truely are (no sarcasm, i really enjoy these kids) they offer me one of the finer peices of the lizard, a leg. of course im going to have to try it but a leg? scales still on... toenails still attached.... it felt like a rubber toy. and it was spicey, i dont know what they put on it but it tasted like chewy, spicey, chicken. i guess.... i dont know, but i liked it.<br /> last bit of news, my garden is beginning to take shape. i have a huge plot that is 20m by 10m with a nice sacket sorghum fence. think corn stalks attached together with three bark used as rope. it is what all the fences are made of in villages. there are some holes that need patching so i can keep out the baby goats, kids, and the chickens. those damn chickens and roosters keep me up at all hours of the day. anyways my hands are terribly torn up from spending two daysd ripping up weeds from my plot and starting sunday i am going to begin plowing and seeding, hopefully be done by monday. im going to have some beans, tomatoes, cabbage, salad, basil, and of course my new favorite food item in the world, watermelon. its going to be sad in a month when the wtermelon season is over. hopefully not too long until papaya, cashew, and mango season. we shall see. </p><p> enjoy america everyone. it truely is a wonderful place despite all of its obvious problems. enjoy cold beers and cheeseburgers, daily if you have the opportunity. everyone here wants to be there and im sure few of you want to be here so.... do the math. alright enough of that stuff... so yea, go colts. broncos fans are losers... i wish i was in vail skiing 25inches of pow. </p>Brad Cebulkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13748907256240434006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34026337.post-1163267759362207142006-11-11T12:51:00.000-05:002006-11-11T12:55:59.373-05:00postive been told that i need to post more often and that i need to shorten my posts. two good points that i will take into account. so here is today... The president of the country is in Thies today and the streets are chaotic. Looks like some fun. Something always clicks inside of me when i get around politics and it makes me excited. i love to see people being active within their country and showing concern. Other than that it is hot today. but i guess it was hto yesterday too; and the day before that. I keep hearing that it will eventually get cooler here but i dont buy it. i still sweat at night and the mosquito net doesnt make things any cooler. so.... thats it. i dont have much else to say.Brad Cebulkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13748907256240434006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34026337.post-1163108292625506282006-11-09T16:34:00.000-05:002006-11-09T16:38:12.643-05:00Counterpart WorkshopSo here it is... patience is something i need to work on. I can not handle waiting for these computers all the time... i spend half of my hour on the internet waiting for the computer to load and catch up with my typing. AHhhh. But enough of that. Today and tomorrow is the counterpart workshop. So what is this counterpart workshop? well 2 people; one male and one female; from my village made the trip up to Thies to stay for a couple days. they are who i will be working with for the next couple years. effectively my first contqcts in the village although i will be living with neither of them. I will live with the chief of the village. but they will introduce me to the village and will be the only two people trained about the Peace Corps mission. Which is important because most people in the village will assume that I am there to give them money or build something and than leave. I can understand the misunderstanding. That is what many NGOs do. The anticipation leading up to this day was incredible. i was so nervous because i was really worried about making a good first impression. Someone tried reminding me that they are as scared of you as you are of them but i found no solitude in that knowledge. It made things worse. I dont want them to be uncomfortable because than i will sense it and everything would get worse. Granted I was on my¨¨home turf¨ but that didnt really reassure me either. I had a conversation with a friend today about anticipation... that it is always worse than the actual event. And it is true. I spend far too much time worrying about what might happen instead of just dealing with it as it happens. The opposite is often true as well. The anticipation of something wonderful can be better than the actual event. And we could get into a discussion about why we anticipate and the necessity of it; which we did of course because what else would we talk about? Certainly not development; but that isnt relevant at this moment. the point is that my counterparts are wonderful people. Truely i had an excellent day trying to talk to them with what little pulaar i can actually speak. I can say that i just took a shower and now i dont smell... which i did and they got a good laugh out of it. They wore big happy smiles all day and said things that made me blush. The females name is fawoura and the males name is ken. Im not kidding. he isnt an american transplant but an actual senegalese. apparently in woloof ken means nobody and his whole first name means nobody wants. There is a superstition here that if you compliment a baby that bad spirits will take it away. so you never say that a baby is beautiful or smart or cute. people also wear waist bracelets to keep evil spirits away. So his name is what it is. I found this amusing. My pulaar teacher told me this... there is no way i could have understood that if my CP tried explaining it. <br />And so tomorrow we continue with the workshop. And i only have a week left in Thies. This is moving at such a rapid rate i can barely understand what is going on. didnt i just arrive in senegal? what am i doing going to this village? Wait... yea Im not suppose to be anticipating; just dealing with it. Things always work out right? or else i just rationalize it until i believe things worked out. Its all the same.<br />BradBrad Cebulkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13748907256240434006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34026337.post-1162746318318708292006-11-05T11:56:00.000-05:002006-11-05T12:05:18.330-05:00Welcome to hopefully the first of many blogs to com from Senegal. Now I know I said I would be posting frequently and I have meant to but doing so has not been easy. But enough of my excuses... im ready to roll. Alright so how to catch you up onto 6 weeks of living in Senegal. hrmm...<br />Like I said I live in the city of thies (pronounces like chess, sort of) which is a fairly large city. A couple hundred thousand people. It is roughly 1h30m from Dakar, the capital, and more importantly 45m from a quality beach. Well that is not more important but it is nice. I live with a wonderful family with many many people running around the compound. I guess that is important too, I don't live in a house per-say (is that a word?) but a compound. It is an area that has 4 buildings with a few rooms in each one. The buildings are situated on the perimeter leaving an open dirt area in the middle shaded by two large mango trees. Really it is quite wonderful. We spend all of our time sitting in the shade. At night my family rolls out the TV and we sit around, drink tea, watch TV. My mother also sells peanuts outside our house in the evenings. This rocks my world. Frequently I sit outside, people watch and munch on peanuts. I would love to show pictures but that is pushing it right now. Give me another month. hell, I have 26 more.<br />6 days a week I go to the peace corps training center to be educate about agriculture, senegalese culture, and to learn the language of pulaar. Oh pulaar. pulaar is something akin to the red neck language. It isn't so much elsewhere in Africa but it is in Senegal. Traditional pulaars are nomads. so they are throughout western Africa and can be found in 25 countries, no kidding. It is a funny language that often sounds like Japanese. I would love to be able to say a few phrases for you but writing them just doesn't carry the same affect. It isn't a written language, or wasn't until colonial times, so the fact that I can read pulaar is weird. Not that there are any books written in pulaar but... Whatever.<br />in two weeks I will be sent to my village to begin my service. This sounds funny but I am not actually allowed to write publicly what village I am in or my exact whereabouts except that I am in the Kaolack region. Pace Corps monitors our websites. It is for safety concerns that I am not allowed to say where. Anyways I am excited to be going and i shall be writing before than. Please keep emailing me,<br />BradBrad Cebulkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13748907256240434006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34026337.post-1157655363501659232006-09-07T14:50:00.000-04:002006-09-07T14:57:44.390-04:00Genesis<span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">So it begins, my journey to Africa, Senegal, somewhere far from here. I am beginning to welcome this adventure with greater enthusiasm than I have previously experienced. I leave in only 10 days which sounds like plenty of time to pack except that it isn't so easy to pack for two years. Do you know the clothes you want to wear for an indefinite amount of time? </span>Brad Cebulkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13748907256240434006noreply@blogger.com0