W.A.I.S.T. 2011

I'm writing to you all from my hut in Kounkane. It's great to be back, except for everytime I'm away from my hut for more than a few days I come back to a dusty mess full of rat poop, bugs, spider webs, and ant hills.  Things are always trying to burrow into my home.  Not on my watch though, I spent this afternoon cleaning, sweeping, and dousing the room with bug spray. The first day back is usually the worst; even though I cleaned the bugs still sometimes enter my room. A cockroach crawled up my leg tonight as I was sitting on the floor using my computer...so gross.  He is dead now. Alhamdulillah!
So, I just got back to site today after being away for about a week and a half.  I've been spending my time away from site at the Kolda house for a few days to finish up the stories I translated into Pulaar for my friend and fellow volunteer's project.  I think the translations came out fairly decent, and we should have a pretty awesome pulaar storybook in the Velingara department :)  After a few days I headed up to Dakar with the other volunteers in my region so that we could participate in the West Africa Invitational Softball Tournament (WAIST).  All the Peace Corps volunteers participate with the members in their region, and we usually have themes so that we can dress up in fun costumes.  This year team Kolda did Space Corps! We had a pretty good representation of space stuff on our team from Star Wars characters (Princess Leia, Luke, Yoda, Darth Vader, Chewbacca, etc) starship troopers,  Avatars, and we even had Lady Gaga! There were other random space costumes too, just to mix it up! I went in with a few girls in my region and we had "space rompers"....I guess the look we were going for was sexy space girls? Maybe? We even dressed up the costumes with sparkly accessories. :)

So it was a two day event.  Kolda did awesome!!! We won two games out of four, and I even played in one of the games...surprising because I don't like baseball/softball or really anything that involves a bat and a ball.  But i hit the ball and made it to first base before getting out. Yea!  It was so much fun just to hang out and support my team too!  My region is definetly the best in Senegal! Go Space Corps!

It was a great weekend in Dakar. I saw some friends in other regions, ate some great food that wasn't just rice and oil, and I danced all night two days out of the four I was there! Oh Dakar, you're like a miniature Europe :)  It is nice to be home and back at site! I have so much to get started here in Kounkane! Enjoy the post!

May the Force be with you!

Cashew Apples!

Hello All! Happy Valentine's Day! I know I'm a few days off, but I hope the day was amazing for everyone :)
So in honor of Valentine's Day, I would like to introduce you all to a new and exotic fruit. It's slightly heart shaped, so I think it's an appropriate posting for the holiday :)  This fruit has been around for a very long time, but it is so new to me that I thought I would share it.  It's called the cashew apple.  It's beautiful and delicious! It's the fruit of the cashew tree that has just started coming into season around the south of Senegal. I'm finding this fruit all over the Kolda and Velingara markets.

Heart-shaped Cashew Apple

Cashew trees are prevalent down here in the southern regions of Kolda.  The fruit is either a reddish or yellowish color when ripe. and at the bottom of the fruit is the cashew nut (technically seed) which is surrounded by a double shell that is insanely difficult to open. I never knew that cashew trees produced fruit? I just thought they grew nuts....goes to show you how much I know about trees. :) 

The gray things on top are the cashew nut

The flavor of the fruit is hard to explain because it's so distinct and new to me.  The best way to describe it is juicy, slightly tart, tangy, and mouth drying.....yes, your mouth feels slightly dry after eating one of these.  It's unlike anything I've ever had before, but they are delicious. I'm so happy they are coming into season so I can eat them more often. You can buy a small pile (about 4 or 5 fruits) for 50CFA...not bad...and if you can somehow crack the nutshell you can eat a raw cashew nut too. If you ever see one of these traveling around I would definelty recommend trying it out. They are great! :)

Yum!! :)

Street Food: Bissap Deliciousness

Greetings and Salutations! So for the first post of February I would like to talk a little about one of my favorite things to snack on here: Bissap walla follere (in pulaar).  It's basically the juice of the hibiscus flower slightly chilled (and sometimes frozen---which is also amazing! Kinda like a delicious slushy...) with lots of sugar.  I drink one literally every day if not multiple :) They are soooo delicious! Oftentimes, the juice comes in a small plastic bag or tiny soda bottle that has been washed (hopefully) and reused.  One time in Dabo I bought some bissap and it came in an old bottle that was originally used for motor oil....yes, i still drank it.  Usually the juice comes in two different sizes: Bujwoy e Sappo (25CFA or 50CFA).  The 25cfa size is smaller; usually about half the size of the 50CFA (that makes sense).  The one pictured below is the 50CFA size.

Bissap!



You can find bissap all over Senegal.  At my site there are currently two women who sell it at the morning marche.  I stop by their stand every morning, and sometimes in the afternoon to buy their delicious juice :) It's a little treat for me in Kolda. :) Bissap is very nutricious too! High in vitamin C and apparently really good for kidneys and lowering blood pressure.  Here in Senegal, people don't just use the flower, they also use the leaves!  Almost every Sengalese women knows how to make follere.  Basically they use steam from the boiling water to soften the leaves, then they put them in a big wooden pounding tool and beat them into a sticky, green paste.  Follere is usually added to Thieb (traditional Senegales dish...I'll post more about that later) and it's one of my favorite things to choose from in the lunch bowl.  For more info check out the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roselle_(plant)

 Last wednesday I bought a kilo of the dried hibiscus flowers so I can start making the juice myself at site.  I got an entire kilo (and an additional half kilo that the nice man selling it gave me for free because I was a white girl speaking pulaar) for 300cfa, or less than 1USD.  The only problem is that I don't have a refridgerator and neither does my family, so we will have to make a huge batch then drink it all :) Yum!   


Dried Hibiscus flowers



I love me some Bissap! :)